Abraham Lincoln in Chicago

A city which gave him the White House

Abraham Lincoln came to Chicago around twenty-five times in his life, all within a period of 13 years. From his first visit in 1847 to his last in 1860, he saw a swampy city of some 20,000 turn into the grand home to a hundred thousand. He saw it get its first railroads and the change which the Illinois-Michigan Canal brought to the city. He saw as the city invested enormous resources to raise entire blocks of buildings six feet off the ground in order to install a sewer system and stop flooding.  Lover of theater, Lincoln caught quite a few shows in Chicago. When visiting, he often stayed at the Tremont House hotel, but when he wanted to avoid distractions he stayed at homes of friends.

His visits may be split into two categories, work and politics. A lawyer by trade, Abraham made most of his money working for the Eighth Circuit Court which traveled in the counties around his home in Springfield. These trips took up six months a year, the rest he spent working cases at home or in Chicago. Two of his most famous cases are known as the Effie Afton and the Sandbar cases. In the first, the steamboat Effie Afton collided with the first railway bridge over the Mississippi, claiming that the bridge created dangerous currents. The case was subtly pivotal to American infrastructure, if the steamboat could prove that the bridge had caused the crash, then they could stop bridges being built over the Mississippi and ensure that goods from one half of the country could only cross to the other through steamboat. Lincoln’s argument was that the bridge was stationary and therefore the captain had to prove that he had piloted the boat exceptionally well before blame could be placed on the bridge. The case ended in a hung jury, but railroad bridges could continue to cross the river and so the victory was Lincoln’s. The Sandbar case had to do with the silt which the US Army Corps of Engineers had dug while dredging the harbor, this had been added to the shoreline and property battles began. The case had been tried many times and nineteen lawyers worked on it. Lincoln represented the defendants and won the case, though it would be appealed. Abraham worked often for railroad companies and came to Chicago to confer with them. After defending the Illinois Central Railroad, he submitted a bill for $5,000 (roughly $139,000 today). The bill was so large that the company wanted arbitration and after talks with him in Chicago, agreed to pay if other lawyers found the bill fair. They did.

Apart from a place of business, Chicago was a national political center where Abraham could meet with the movers and shakers of Congress. While Springfield was the home to state politicians, Chicago’s place at the center of railroads meant that it was a meeting place for national leaders. The reason Lincoln often stayed at the Tremont House was that it was the first choice for politicians visiting the city; familiar faces included Stephen Douglas, Lyman Trumbull, and Judge David Davis. In the Tremont’s decorative halls, Lincoln attended feasts for four hundred and closed door meetings which outlined future campaigns. One of his closest political advisors was Norman B. Judd, a former Democrat who became chairman of the Illinois State Republican Committee. It was in Chicago with Judd that Abraham outlined his campaign against Stephen Douglas, and at the suggestion of Chicago newspaper mogul Joseph Medill that a series of debates were planned. Lincoln was staying at the Tremont when Senator Douglas gave a speech from its balcony, the crowd reportedly numbered some 30,000. The next day, Abraham gave a speech from the same place to crowd smaller but more enthusiastic. This was the first of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates and when Lincoln left Chicago he issued a challenge via the Chicago Tribune, which formally began the debates. Though he would lose that race by a vote in the state capital, he had won Chicago and Cook County.

In the run up to the Republican Convention of 1860, Joseph Medill claims to have convinced Lincoln to run for president. According to him, Abraham was in Medill’s office at the Chicago Tribune uncertain of his political future and thought it would be best if he ran for Vice-President. Medill convinced him otherwise, saying that it was easy to step down a rung but impossible to move up. Lincoln won the nomination handily with help from his crafty Chicago friends. During the election of 1860, they worked hard to make sure that Chicago voted Republican, without which they would lose the state. When Lincoln was elected, he returned to Chicago one final time, again on political business. He was meeting with his running mate Hannibal Hamlin for the first time. They spent their first days touring the city and meeting with crowds of excited Chicagoans, Abraham bought the suit he would wear for his inauguration from a Chicago tailor. While Mary spent the rest of the trip shopping, Abraham and Hamlin began to plan the cabinet, first at the Tremont House and later in the home of Lincoln supporter Ebenezer Peck on the corner of Fullerton and Clark. Although he had so frequently relied on his Chicago friends for political advice, they were kept out of these proceedings. This was the beginning of a rupture between them as they wanted to wield influence in his administration.

Chicago played a significant role in the story of Abraham Lincoln. He had watched Chicago develop from a dingy frontier city to a fully fledged metropolis. Generally, he enjoyed the city with its many attractions, particularly its theaters. While the work he did there helped his financial situation, it was his political ties to Chicago which placed him in the White House.