'The Taste Is In My Mouth A Little'

14th of 45 excerpts from Lincoln by David Herbert Donald:

The warm reception that Lincoln's speeches received . . . during the last half of 1859 gave plausibility to suggestions that he ought to be nominated for high office. The idea had emerged right after the 1858 election, when some of his followers, bitter over his defeat and convinced "he is one of the best men God ever made," began to ask: "Can't we make him President or vice." . . .

Neither Lincoln or anybody else took these suggestions very seriously. He did not think himself presidential timber [and] to all such suggestions he gave essentially the same answer. "I must, in candor, say I do not think myself fit for the Presidency," he wrote the admiring editor of the Rock Island Register, who wanted to promote the simultaneous announcement of Lincoln's candidacy in Republican newspaper across the state.

In issuing these disclaimers Lincoln was not being coy, but realistic. To all outward appearances he was less prepared to be President than any other man who had run for that high office. Without family tradition or wealth, he had received only the briefest of former schooling. Now fifty years old, he had no administrative experience of any sort; he had never been governor of a state or even mayor of Springfield. A profound student of the Constitution and of the writings of the Founding Fathers, he had limited acquaintance with the government they had established.

. . . [But] when Lincoln allowed himself to consider the possibility of running for President, his chances for securing the Republican nomination seemed better than average. The party had several strong candidates, but all had flaws.

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The success of Lincoln's Eastern trip [in February 1860] edged him a step closer to becoming an avowed candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. As recently as January he had been hesitant about making a race. Conferring with [Norman] Judd, [Ozias] Hatch, Jackson Grimshaw, and a few other prominent Illinois Republicans who pressed him to run, he expressed doubt whether he could get the nomination if he wished it. Only after a night of reflection -- and doubtless conferences with Mary Lincoln, who was even more ambitious than he was -- did he authorize the little group to work quietly for his nomination. . . .

By April he wrote to [Lyman] Trumbull, who inquired about his intentions: "I will be entirely frank. The taste is in my mouth a little."