Monday, February 12, 1849.Washington, DC.
| Lincoln votes to make bill relating to Department of Interior
special order of day for February 16, 1849. It fails. Questions recurs of
referring bill to Committee of Whole. This also fails, Lincoln voting nay. On
question of ordering bill engrossed for third reading, Lincoln votes aye, and
motion passes 111-76. Globe. Lincoln
receives draft for $105 on Corcoran & Riggs, Washington bankers, evidently
legal fee. CSmH—Original. Lincoln
writes to David Davis, of Bloomington, Illinois, regarding the numerous
individuals who seek patronage positions, specifically that of the Commissioner
of the General Land Office. Lincoln writes, "Out of more than . . . three
hundred letters received this session, yours is the second one manifesting the
least interest for me personally. I do not much doubt that I could take the
Land office if I would. It also would make me more money than I can otherwise
make. Still, when I remember that taking the office would be a final surrender
of the law, and that every man in the state, who wants it himself, would be
snarling at me about it, I shrink from it." Abraham Lincoln
to David Davis, 12 February 1849, CW, 10:14; Thomas F. Schwartz,
"'An Egregious Political Blunder' : Justin Butterfield, Lincoln, and Illinois
Whiggery," Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 8 (1986):
9-19. Lincoln's Springfield bank account is debited $27 for
payment to Bela C. Webster. Irwin Journal. |