How Lincoln Became President--In Ohio

By Harold Holzer

Presentation to CCWRT on 21 April 2011, Summarized by Mike Rhein

Photography by Shane Gamble

©Cincinnati CWRT, 2011

Ohio embraced Abraham Lincoln. In essence, this seemed to be the key theme of Mr. Harold Holzer’s April presentation during which he emphasized, “I don’t think he could’ve won the Presidency without Ohio or stay in power without Ohio.” Alluding to this year’s 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s inaugural journey to Washington City, he cited Ohio’s giving 23 electoral votes to the Republican candidate from Springfield, Illinois to help clinch victory in the 1860 Presidential election.

Lincoln had stamped himself politically on a national basis from his strong performance in a series of seven statewide debates in Illinois, though eventually losing to Democrat Stephen A. Douglas in the 1858 Illinois campaign for the U.S. Senate, and a well-received anti-slavery speech at the Cooper Union Institute in New York City in February, 1860. Mr. Holzer noted that in 1859, “there were gubernatorial races all over the country.” In support of the Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate that year, Lincoln ventured to the Buckeye state to give speeches. His Ohio appearance “was built on the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates” and that the “papers were enthusiastic about Lincoln’s visit,” calling him the “slayer of the Little Giant (Douglas), commented Holzer, who has written/edited 33 books and 425 articles, the majority of them on Lincoln, including Lincoln President-Elect: Abraham Lincoln and the Great Secession Winter 1860-61 (2008).

Mr. Holzer noted Lincoln’s thinking about Kentucky and the slavery issue in his 1859 Cincinnati appearance when he emphasized, “We mean to leave you alone,” but also stressing his anti-slavery view, said, “I think slavery to be wrong, not to be extended.” Mr. Holzer, Senior Vice-President for External Affairs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, said Lincoln “was credited with beating Douglas on the Ohio turf” in helping the Republican candidate to win the Buckeye governor’s race. Because of his 1859 Ohio performance, Mr. Holzer stated that Lincoln “felt fit for the Presidency.”

On Feb. 12, 1861 (Lincoln’s 52nd birthday) at 3 p.m., the President-elect’s inaugural train stopped in Cincinnati on his journey to Washington (from Springfield, Illinois to Washington City, he would make 101 speeches, according to Mr. Holzer). The enthusiastic Queen City audience, a “spontaneous turnout,” numbered about 100,000 “of all classes” in a joyous reception, he said, adding that “every window was thronged.” Lincoln, welcomed by Mayor Richard Bishop, was driven through downtown Cincinnati in an open carriage pulled by six white horses. He spoke to a large group of German immigrants who had supported him in the 1860 Presidential race. Mr. Holzer observed that Lincoln was viewed by the Germans as a “model self-made man.” Lincoln that evening delivered another speech at the Burnet House Hotel (located on Third and Vine Streets) where he had stayed in 1859. “He was mobbed,” the speaker said, adding that there “was much affection and embracing.”

Then the inaugural train embarked Feb. 13 to Columbus, the state capital, with Lincoln continuing “to work on his inaugural address, toning it down little by little.” He was greeted with a 34-gun salute at the new capitol building by Governor William Dennison and 60,000 people, according to Mr. Holzer. There, on Feb. 14, Lincoln was informed that he was officially elected President; holding the telegram (which confirmed the ratified results, making him the 16th president) before 5,000 at the capitol plaza, he said with joy, “You really do have a beautiful state capitol.”

Mr. Holzer related the subsequent Buckeye journey for Lincoln, arriving at such small towns in eastern Ohio as Newark, Dresden, Coshocton and New Cumberstown, proclaiming that his election victory was the “voice of the people…”

One more Ohio political victory awaited Lincoln in 1863 when Ohioans rejected former Congressman Clement Vallandigham, an anti-war Democrat banished to Canada, in his bid for the gubernatorial office. Mr. Holzer said that, when Lincoln heard of electoral result, he exclaimed, “Glory to God in the Highest, Ohio has saved the nation.”

As Mr. Holzer’s presentation so aptly illustrated, Abraham Lincoln’s relationship with Ohio was not only forged politically but also personally. Ohioans, particularly Cincinnatians, embraced Lincoln for the humble, self-made man that he was, along with his resolve to face the slavery issue head-on and keep the Union intact. He, in turn, embraced Ohio for its fervent support of his efforts.

For more information, Harold has published a web site at www.haroldholzer.com.

For Harold's interesting New York Times blog about the Cincinnati sculptor for whom Lincoln sat in Springfield in January before he left for Washington DC, see "The Critter Himself." (And thanks to Alan Berenson for the citation.)

Harold Holzer and special guest John Diehl, CCWRT President in 1967-1968 and long-time director of the Cincinnati Historical Society.