Wigwam Warriors:
The Men Who Won Chicago
Leonard Swett
Role in the Republican National Convention of 1860
As a close friend and law partner of Abraham Lincoln, Leonard Swett was tasked to promote his friend and colleague at the convention, and was crucial to Lincoln’s eventual nomination in Chicago. He worked closely alongside David Davis (among others) to influence the outcome of the convention and steal a Lincoln victory from front-runner, William Henry Seward. Dismissing Lincoln’s directive to "make no [binding] contracts," Swett and other Lincoln followers succumbed to making deals to acquire support for Lincoln; without the support Swett obtained (such as the backing of Simon Cameron and his delegates), Lincoln would not have been the Republican candidate for President.
Quotes and Excerpts from Primary/Secondary Sources:
- In 1859, "[Swett] worked quietly for Mr. Lincoln’s nomination as a Presidential candidate before the coming Republican National Convention of 1860."[i]
- Michael Burlingame: "Davis and Swett negotiated with the leading Cameron operatives, John P. Sanderson and Joseph Casey, 'in the wee small hours of Friday morning.'”[ii]
- Burlingame: "Swett described to a convention delegate 'his labors with Cameron,' the 'promises he made Pennsylvania on behalf of Mr. Lincoln,' and 'the subsequent difficulty he encountered in persuading Mr. Lincoln to carry out the contracts, or ‘bargains,’ as Mr. Lincoln called them.' Swett acknowledged that he had promised to have Cameron appointed to the cabinet if Pennsylvania supported Lincoln on the second ballot." [iii]
- Swett recalled the plan to gain momentum for Lincoln support: “Our programme was to give Lincoln 100 votes on the first ballot, with a certain increase afterward, so that in the convention our fortunes might seem to be rising and thus catch the doubtful.”[iv]
- In 1875, [Simon] Cameron confided to an interviewer: “Lincoln told me that he was more indebted to Judd than any other one man for his nomination, but I told him I thought Davis and Swett did more for him. They bought all my men – Casey and Sanderson and the rest of them. I was for Seward[.] I knew I couldn’t be nominated but I wanted a complimentary vote from my own State. But Davis and the rest of them stole all my men. Seward accused me of having cheated him.”[v]
- From the House Divided Project: “Unselfish and generous to a fault, he instead became an invaluable strategist and advisor to Lincoln, especially during the crucial period between 1856 and 1860 in Illinois and again in Washington during the crisis days before the 1864 election.”
Relationship to Lincoln
Leonard Swett was one of Lincoln’s closest friends. Due to their law partnership, they spent a considerable amount of time together, both inside and outside of the courtroom. Swett accompanied Lincoln to the White House and remained in Washington during the majority of the Lincoln Administration, he advised the President consistently, and became one of his biographers after his death. Lincoln trusted him completely.
Quotes and Excerpts from Primary/Secondary Sources:
- Because of their close personal relationship, Swett spent a majority of his time during the Lincoln Administration in Washington, D.C.: “[Swett] was a close personal [friend] and political adviser of the President, which required his presence in Washington most of the time during the years 1861-65.”[vi]
- Though mostly working alongside one another in the 8th judicial circuit in Illinois, they also often faced each other in court. Altogether, Swett and Lincoln appeared together in court in more than ninety cases.[vii]
- Lincoln spent an immense amount of time together, as both friends and professionals. For five years, 1855-60, Lincoln and Swett were the only ones to pass habitually over the circuit, and the two men were companions at all times.[viii]
- Largely due to his close relationship with the Lincoln family, Swett helped to organize the hearing that confined Mary Todd Lincoln to an insane asylum.[ix]
- Historian Michael Burlingame wrote: “Swett, one of the foremost criminal lawyers of his era, enjoyed immense popularity, for he was charming, magnetic, eloquent, generous, unselfish, entertaining, and a devoted friend. When trying a jury case, Lincoln preferred him as his partner to all others."[x]
- Henry Clay Whitney referenced Swett's relationship with Lincoln in his Life with Lincoln on the Circuit : “The great Triumvirate consisted of [David] Davis, Lincoln, and Swett…" Building on that quote, in Robert S. Eckley's Lincoln's Forgotton Friend, Leonard Swett, Eckley wrote (in a chapter titled The Great Triumvirate of the Eighth Judicial Circuit) that the three men had established close ties as both friends and colleagues before the convention convened in 1860 because of their experiences together practicing law in Illinois.[xi]
- Lincoln affectionately ended his letters to Swett in this way: “Yours as ever, A. Lincoln.”[xii]
- William Herndon and Swett were "[Lincoln’s] intimate personal and political friends."[xiii]
- Alexander Kelly McClure, a contemporary of both Lincoln and Swett, noted: “…of all living men, Leonard Swett was trusted most by Abraham Lincoln.”[xiv]
Lincoln-Related Primary Sources
- Recollection by Henry C. Whitney, Republican National Convention, May 16-18, 1860
- Leonard Swett to Abraham Lincoln, January 24, 1861
- Abraham Lincoln to Leonard Swett, May 30, 1860
- James O. Putnam to Leonard Swett, copied in Swett to Abraham Lincoln, July 1860
"Yours Truly, L Swett"
Related Links
- Swett, Leonard (House Divided)
- Abraham Lincoln Was His Friend (Blog Post)
- Lincoln's Forgotten Friend, Leonard Swett (Book)
Citations
[i] "SWETT, Leonard." Lamb's Biographical Dictionary Of The United States 7.(1903): 268. Biography Reference Center. Web. 9 July 2014.
[ii] Burlingame, Michael. “Make No Contracts,” Journal Divided (September 2010),
http://housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites/journal/2010/09/27/no-contracts/.
[iii] Burlingame, “Make No Contracts.”
[iv] Wilson, Rufus Rockwell, editor, Intimate Memories of Lincoln, p. 295. (Letter from Leonard Swett to Josiah H. Drummond, May 27, 1860).
[v] Burlingame, “Make No Contracts.”
[vi] "SWETT, Leonard." Lamb's Biographical Dictionary Of The United States 7.(1903): 268. Biography Reference Center. Web. 9 July 2014.
[vii] Eckley, Robert S., Lincoln’s Forgotten Friend: Leonard Swett (2012), pg. 42
[viii] "SWETT, Leonard." Lamb's Biographical Dictionary Of The United States 7.(1903): 268. Biography Reference Center. Web. 9 July 2014.
[ix] Eckley, Robert S., Lincoln’s Forgotten Friend: Leonard Swett (2012), pg. 176.
http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/inside.asp?ID=53&subjectID=2
[x] Burlingame, Michael, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, Volume I, p. 331.
[xi] Eckley, Robert S., Lincoln’s Forgotten Friend: Leonard Swett (2012), pg. 32
[xii] Abraham Lincoln to Leonard Swett, May 30, 1860, Springfield, IL, in Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (8 vols., New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953), 4: 57, http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/.
[xiii] Eckley, Robert S., Lincoln’s Forgotten Friend: Leonard Swett (2012), pg. 155
[xiv] McClure, Alexander Kelly, Abraham Lincoln and Men of War-Times: Some Personal Recollections of War and Politics during the Lincoln Administration (1892), pg. 431.
The Los Angeles Times, (Los Angeles, CA) Sunday, October 23, 1887; Issue 143; col E
