Abraham Lincoln achieved
national prominence as a result of the series of debates with Senator Stephen
Douglas in the fall of 1858. Lincoln was unsuccessful in defeating the Senator
so why did he travel to four states and the Kansas Territory on speaking
engagements in 1859? Again, it was to counter Douglas as he stumped for
Democratic candidates. Lincoln arrived in Ellwood, Kansas Territory, on
December 1st, just five days before the territorial elections. While
in Ellwood, Lincoln gave a speech and purchased “12 pounds sugar and five
pounds [of] coffee” according to Lincoln
Day by Day (p. 266). The next day he gave speeches in Troy and in Atchison;
he also purchased a peck of apples. On December 3rd, and again on
the 5th, he presented speeches in Leavenworth and then left
Leavenworth after the territorial elections for his return to Illinois. The
December 1st date is notable as it was just one day before the
execution of John Brown in the State of Virginia. According to biographer
Ronald C. White, Jr., Lincoln “offered his first public comment on the former
Kansan” in the Ellwood speech. Lincoln denounced the John Brown Raid as illegal
and “ ‘futile’ in terms of its effect ‘on the extinction of a great evil’ ”
(White, 304).
We are left with a bit of
a mystery though…why did Lincoln purchase so many apples and so much sugar and coffee?
He also purchased “hats, shoes, [and] comforters” on his Kansas trip…
Sources:
Miers, Earl Schenck, ed. Lincoln Day by Day: A Chronology, 1809-1865.
Dayton, OH: Morningside, 1991.
White, Ronald C., Jr. A. Lincoln: A Biography. New York:
Random House, 2009.
Well, my goodness, he was riding a train through Kansas, stopping at little podunk (and big podunk) and often hostile towns at odd hours, and having to stand up and speak and be coherent and likeable time after time after time - you can't do that without sugar and caffeine! And lots of it.
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