“You perhaps know of the great scramble going on here about our Post-office,” he wrote Hardin in December 1844. Lincoln was not above asking Congressman Hardin for a political favor. Lincoln campaigned for Hardin for Congress in 1843, he did not vote for him. “Although Lincoln and Hardin worked together on many issues and projects, the relationship between the two was never warm,” maintained biographer Paul Simon. Lincoln successfully introduced the principle that the Whig nomination should be rotated every two years – thus limiting Hardin’s victory.
Hardin won the nomination and the election, but Mr. Lincoln withdrew his name at the Whig convention – which he himself attended as a delegate pledged to Baker. Lincoln for the Republican nomination for Congress. Lincoln later wrote Hardin: “I wish you would measure one of the largest of those swords we took to Alton, and write me the length of it, from tip of the point to tip of the hilt, in feet and inches. They arrived in time to calm Shields, and to aid the seconds in adjusting matters ‘with honor to all concerned.'” 3 Mr. Hardin and one or two others immediately started for Alton. Hardin and several other friends of Lincoln were attending court, and warned them of the trouble. Lott was not long in finding out what was on foot, and as soon as the duellists had departed, he drove to Carrollton, where he knew that Colonel John J. Elijah Lott, an acquaintance of Merryman. Across the street from the hotel lived Mr. Lincoln and Merryman, on their way to Alton, had stopped at White Hall for dinner. He interposed, saying, ‘This is all nonsense,’ and succeeded in putting a stop to the whole proceeding.” 2īiographer Ida Tarbell wrote: “The arrangements for the affair were about completed when the duellists were joined by some unexpected friends. According to Francis Browne, news of the duel “reached the ears of General Hardin, who immediately started after the party, reaching the scene just as the preliminaries were being arranged. Lincoln to avoid the duel at the last minute. English used their good offices as friends of both Shields and Mr. Lincoln’s friends rallied around him when he was challenged to a duel by James Shields. Lincoln’s relationship with attorney John Hardin lasted less than a decade – but it made up in drama what it lacked in length. As assignee of the State Bank, Hardin retained Davis to collect many debts due it, and Davis acted as Hardin’s agent to look after his lands in McLean County.” 1 Born in Kentucky, the son of a United States Senator, Hardin had graduated from Transylvania University and had practiced law for ten years in Jacksonville, Illinois. “A tall man with a bold face, he made an adequate leader though he lacked Lincoln’s skill as a manager of men. Hardin took over as leader of the Whigs in the legislature,” wrote Willard King, biographer of David Davis. “When Lincoln collapsed with melancholia in January 1841, John J.
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