"Spotty" Lincoln

            In 1858, Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln participated in seven debates for one of the two United States Senate seats for the State of Illinois. During the course of the debates, slavery was one of the main topics discussed between the two candidates; however, Lincoln’s previous objections of the Mexican War known as the “spotty resolutions,” which led to his nickname, “Spotty Lincoln,” resurfaced in order to discredit his warlike attacks on the Democratic Party and their political agenda during the debates.[1] Douglas used Lincoln’s insistence of determining “the place where the thing was done” or spot as an attack against Lincoln’s attempts to avoid “the thing itself” being discussed.[2]

            The spot, of which Douglas teased Lincoln for, referred to the exact location in which the Mexican War had commenced from in 1846 under the term of President James K. Polk. Texas had been annexed from Mexico on December 29, 1845, and according to The Treaty of Annexation, Article III, “All titles and claims to real estate, which are valid under the laws of Texas, shall be held to be so by the United States; and measures shall be adopted for the speedy adjudication of all unsettled claims to land.”[3] However, there was a disputed boundary line between Texas and Mexico between the two rivers of the Nueces and the Rio Grande. The United States insisted that the border ran along the Rio Grande, while Mexico insisted on the former. As negotiations were being attempted to settle the disputed boundary, Polk sent in the military under the command of Zachary Taylor to defend their claimed territory as Mexico did the same.

            Tensions between the two armies were on the raise as they set up camps on either side of the Rio Grande near the city of Matamoras in March 1846. The Mexicans struck first when two of Taylors Dragoons moving ahead of the main force on March 28, “were pounced upon by a party of Mexicans and carried off prisoners to Matamoras,” though later returned.[4] After several exchanges of words between Taylor and the Mexican forces, the American forces implemented a naval blockade of the river.[5] American Colonel Cross was abducted by Mexican Rancheros during his daily morning ride and was later found murdered.[6] While Lieutenant Porter was out leading an American “fatigue party of ten men,” his men were fired upon by Mexican forces in which Porter and three of his men were killed.[7] After receiving intelligence that approximately 4,000 Mexican soldiers crossed the Rio Grande into Texas, Taylor sent some of his forces to investigate; as a result, more American forces were attacked and killed.[8] These clashes continued between the two forces until on May 3, “the Mexicans…opened a heavy cannonading upon the American fort [across from Matamoras], throwing balls and shells with little intermission, until midnight.”[9] Finally, all-out war broke out between the two armies at the Battle of Palo Alto on May 8, and Resaca de la Palma on May 9; which ushered in the Mexican War and controversial “spot” that Lincoln addressed in Congress on December 22, 1847.

            Lincoln questioned Polk’s various messages in 1846 concerning the events that led to the war with Mexico. He especially attacked Polk’s December 8, revelation that Mexico was “the aggressor” and had invaded “our soil in hostile array,” while “shedding the blood of our citizens.”[10] It was from this approach that Lincoln demanded to know the truth as to the “particular spot on which the blood of our citizens was so shed.”[11] Everything rested upon the spot of the attacks to determine, 1) was it on United States soil, 2) were those being assaulted American citizens or soldiers, and 3) whether or not the conflict was instigated by the “approach of the United States army.”[12] Later, Lincoln also illustrated his position on the war as being “unnecessarily and unconstitutionally begun by the President of the United States” when he voted on the amendment for the resolution presented to the House to thank General Taylor for his service during the war on January 3, 1848.[13]

            When Lincoln questioned the Mexican War, the nation was already two years into the conflict. His opposition to the war was not necessarily a concern over the legality of the conflict or some distress over the loss of life, but was a political move by the Whigs to attack the character of Polk and the Democratic Party. However, his resolutions calling for the “spot” backfired in its intended object and the Democrats successfully used Lincoln’s “spotty” talk against him from their various newspapers to the debates of 1858. “Democrats gleefully hung the nickname ‘Spotty’ around Lincoln’s neck, and in Lincoln’s home district, Democratic political rallies in Charleston, Peoria, and Jacksonville howled with delight over ‘Spotty’ Lincoln’s ‘case of spotted fever.’”[14]

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[1] Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Arnold Douglas, Political Debates Between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas in the Celebrated Campaign of 1858 in Illinois, Including the Preceding Speeches of Each at Chicago, Springfield, Etc, (Cleveland: The Burrows Brothers Company, 1894),  278.

[2] Ibid, 223-224.

[3] “The Treaty of Annexation – Texas; April 12, 1844,” The Avalon Project, accessed June 16, 2015, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/texan05.asp.

[4] Zachary Taylor, Life and Public Services of Gen. Z. Taylor: Including a Minute Account of His Defence of Fort Harrison, in 1812; The Battle of Okee-Chobee, in 1837; and the Battles of Palo Alto and Resaca De La Palma, in 1846, (New York: H. Long & Brother, Publishers, 1846), 20-21.

[5] Ibid, 22.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid, 23.

[9] Ibid, 24.

[10] Ida M. Tarbell, The Life of Abraham Lincoln: Drawn From Original Sources and Containing Many Speeches, Letters and Telegrams Hitherto Unpublished, Volume One, (New York: McClure, Phillips & Co., 1900), 213.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Ibid.

[13] The Bedford Gazette. (Bedford, Pa.), Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress, June 15, 1860. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82005159/1860-06-15/ed-1/seq-2/.

[14]Allen C. Guelzo, Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President, (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1999), 139.