Joseph Medill

 

Role in the Republican National Convention of 1860

 

Medill was a key strategist as the convention progressed in his hometown of Chicago. From tactically seating delegates at the Wigwam, passing out “last minute” tickets to Lincoln supporters, or meeting with delegates to amass support for Lincoln, Medill was an important figure during the three days in the “Windy City.” Before the convention had convened, Medill had also instituted a campaign among other newspapers to produce positive press for Lincoln as the convention approached.

 

Quotes and Excerpts from Primary/Secondary Sources:

 

- Kenan Heise of the Chicago Tribune wrote: “To make sure a friendly crowd was on hand to out-shout the competition, batches of admission tickets were printed at the last moment and handed out to Lincoln supporters, who were told to show up early at the Wigwam, a rickety hall that held 10,000 people. And, for good measure, Illinois delegation chairman Norman Judd and Joseph Medill of the Chicago Daily Press and Tribune placed the New York delegates off to one side, far from key swing states such as Pennsylvania.”

 

- From the House Divided Project: "At the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Medill was one key figure in convincing uncommitted delegates to support Lincoln, ensuring the nomination for the Illinois lawyer." [i]

 

- Though he helped with the scheming and “back-door deals” that got Lincoln the Republican nomination at the convention, Medill became afraid of the repercussions: "We feared that Lincoln was too much indebted to certain factions and now it is proved. Lincoln is a failure. Perhaps it is best to let disunionists take Washington and let Lincoln stay in Springfield."[ii]

 

- Medill did not originally hope to see Lincoln elected; he preferred Salmon Chase of Ohio (He would later convince Chase supporters to back Lincoln at the convention). He wrote: "Personally I prefer Gov. Chase to any man - believing that he possesses the best executive ability but if he is not considered available is not Old man the man to win with…the friends of the gallant old Abe will never consent to put the tallest end of the ticket behind."[iii]

 

 - From the Lincoln Institute's Mr. Lincoln & Friends: “The Tribune editors operated in their own self-interest to promote Chicago as the site of the Republican National Convention. Medill himself personally went to New York in December 1859 for a meeting of the Republican National Committee to lobby for Chicago. Since Mr. Lincoln had not yet emerged as a prominent candidate, the selection of Chicago did not seem to favor one candidate over another.”

- As the Republican National Convention neared, the support for Lincoln from Medill’s Chicago Press and Tribune was at a “fever pitch”. On May 15, the day before the convention, its headline read: "The Winning Man, Abraham Lincoln."[iv]

- Medill, himself, claimed to have had an essential role at the convention. He intentionally sat with the Ohio delegation in order to encourage votes for Lincoln, most of which were initially promised to Chase: "'After the second ballot, I whispered to [Chairman David] Cartter of Ohio, 'If you can throw the Ohio delegation for Lincoln, Chase can have anything he wants.' 'H-how-d-d'ye know?' stuttered Cartter. 'I know, and you know I wouldn't promise if I didn't know,"Medill declared.' Cartter switched the votes and Mr. Lincoln was nominated."[v]

 

- New World Encyclopedia: “Medill engineered a unique campaign. Assembling a group of editors from all over the Midwest, Medill created a progressive plan. His concept was that newspapers from the Southern region of the Whig belt would start supporting Lincoln. In a wave of positive press, each paper would then support Lincoln in a successive wave, one paper after another, with the trend slowly heading northward. Each paper would spread its news up north, and another paper would pick up the news and continually promote it, pushing the Lincoln campaign until it reached the Tribune. This organized spreading of the news would correspond with, and foster the growth of, the Midwestern population’s increasing attention to Lincoln‘s campaign.”

 

- From the Lincoln Institue: “Shrewdly, Joseph Medill was positioned in Ohio delegation next to the delegation chairman, Robert Cartter, who was quickly convinced to make his mark by shifting four of his state’s votes to Mr. Lincoln.”

 

 

Relationship to Lincoln

 

Unlike the other three Lincoln “warriors,” Medill’s personal relationship with Abraham Lincoln is less clear. David Davis, Norman Judd, and Leonard Swett were definitely friends with Lincoln, but it is uncertain if Lincoln would have called Medill a “friend,” or vice versa. Though Medill worked hard to get Lincoln elected, he could also be very critical of Lincoln’s actions (or inaction) as President. Medill was an important political ally, however. Medill’s Chicago Tribune, acted as a mouthpiece of the White House at times, and Medill would often publish articles that supported Lincoln. Both Lincoln and Medill corresponded throughout Lincoln’s time in the White House; Medill often unabashedly gave his advice to the Commander-in-Chief.

 

Quotes and Excerpts from Primary/Secondary Sources:

 

- Medill admired and supported many of Lincoln’s controversial decisions, such as the selection of his cabinet at the White House. Medill noted how Lincoln fearlessly “included the strongest men of the party” because he “had no right to deprive the country of their service.”[vi]

 

- Medill at times grew impatient with Lincoln: “Lincoln is only half awake, and never will do much better than he has done. He will do the right thing always too late and just when it does no good.”[vii]

 

- Medill would openly complain about Lincoln’s decision-making: “[Of] all the acts of omission and commission charged against the President during the last six months none has given the loyal masses of the Northwest more pain than the appointment of Gen. Schofield over the great and important Department of the West. No Republican, no antislavery man, no friend of the President approves the appointment.”[viii]

 

- After the attack on Fort Sumter, Medill wasted no time in advising the President, recommending a swift and punishing response: “…crush the head of the rattle snake…do your duty, the people are with you.”[ix]

 

- There is some reason to believe Lincoln considered Joseph Medill to be a friend. Though it was a common way to end for Lincoln to finish letters to others, he often ended his correspondence with Medill with this line, sugesting friendship between the two: "Yours very truly, A. Lincoln.”[x]

 

- From the House Divided Project: "Medill was a Lincoln supporter during the Civil War, although at times he was impatient with the president’s policies on emancipation, confiscation, and the use of African Americans for the war effort." [xi]

 

- Historian David Donald: "Joseph Medill of the Chicago Tribune regarded the President as a kind of personal property, and when his faction seemed not to be securing its share of the patronage he raged: 'We made Abe and by God we can unmake him...’”[xii]

 

- Medill advised Lincoln during the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858: "Don't act on the defensive at all…Don't refer to your past speeches or positions...but hold Dug up as a traitor and conspirator a proslavery bamboozling demogogue."[xiii]

 

- Tim Jones of the Chicago Tribune: “Medill worked tirelessly for the election of Abraham Lincoln as president and grimly set himself and his newspaper to support the savage war that followed Lincoln's election. His fervor for the Union cause was put to the test: Two of his brothers were killed in the Civil War.”

 

Lincoln-Related Primary Sources

- Joseph Medill to Abraham Lincoln, June 23, 1858

- Joseph Medill to Abraham Lincoln, August 27, 1858

- Joseph Medill to Abraham Lincoln, September 10, 1859

- Joseph Medill to Abraham Lincoln, April 15, 1861

- Abraham Lincoln to Joseph Medill, June 25, 1858

- Recollection by Joseph Medill, Freeport Debate, August 27, 1858

- John L. Scripps to Abraham Lincoln, June 18, 1860

- Charles H. Ray to Abraham Lincoln, July 1, 1858

- John L. Scripps to Abraham Lincoln, July 11, 1860

- John L. Scripps to Abraham Lincoln, July 17, 1860

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

         

 

                              "Do your duty; the people are with you. J. Medill"

 

Related Links

- Medill, Joseph Mehary (House Divided)

- Joseph Medill buys the Chicago Tribune

- Joseph Medill (Britannica)

- Joseph Medill (New World Encyclopedia)

- Mr. Lincoln & Friends

- History of Chicago Politics

 

Citations

[i] Wendt, Lloyd, Chicago Tribune: The Rise of a Great Newspaper. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1979. http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/24004

 

[ii] Monaghan, Jay, The Man Who Elected Lincoln, p. 202-203.

http://mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=53&subjectID=4

 

[iii] Luthin, Reinhard H., The First Lincoln Campaign, p. 73-74 (Letter from Joseph Medill to Archibald W. Campbell, October 30, 1859).

http://mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=53&subjectID=4

 

[iv] Donald, David Herbert, Lincoln, p. 248.

http://mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=53&subjectID=4

 

[v] Hayes, Melvin L., Mr. Lincoln Runs for President, p. 61 (Saturday Evening Post, 199).

http://mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=53&subjectID=4

 

[vi] Holzer, Harold, Lincoln President-Elect: Abraham Lincoln and the Great Secession Winter 1860-1861 (2008), pg. 434

 

[vii] Burlingame, Michael, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (2008), pg. 476.

 

[viii] Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, pg. 540.

 

[ix] Joseph Medill to Abraham Lincoln, April 15, 1861, Chicago, IL, Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/malhome.html.

 

[x] Abraham Lincoln to Joseph Medill, June 25, 1858, Springfield, IL, in Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (8 vols., New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953), 2: 473-474, http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/.

 

[xi] Wendt, Lloyd, Chicago Tribune: The Rise...

http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/24004

 

[xii] Donald, David Herbert, Lincoln’s Herndon: A Biography, p. 153-154.

http://mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=53&subjectID=4

 

[xiii] Donald, David Herbert, Lincoln, p. 217.

http://mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=53&subjectID=4