Lincoln in Congress: 1847 - 1849
The first session of the 30th Congress was to convene on December 6, 1847. In October the
Lincolns rented their house for $90 a year to Cornelius Ludlum, and they left for Washington via
Lexington, Ky., where they visited the Todds. After an arduous stagecoach and railroad trip, the
Lincolns arrived in the Nation's Capital.
Though Lincoln was active as a new member of Congress, his colleagues generally appraised
him as a droll Westerner of average talents. Lincoln's opposition to the Mexican War which had
broken out in May 1846 soon made him unpopular with his constituents. In Illinois the patriotic
fervor and hunger for new lands disspelled any doubts that the people may have had about the
American cause. Lincoln's "spot" resolutions asking President James Polk to admit that the
"spot" where American blood was first shed was Mexican territory and his anti-administration
speeches created surprised resentment at home and earned him the nickname "Spotty
Lincoln." Illinois Democrats called Lincoln a disgrace.
The war debates also raised the issue of slavery. Whether these newly won territories should be
open to slavery was perhaps the most serious question before the 30th Congress. The debates
over the Wilmot Proviso showed Lincoln the explosiveness and divisiveness of the slavery
question. In May 1849, the second session of the 30th Congress ended and Lincoln returned
home, happy to be reunited with his friends and family, who had stayed in Washington only a
short time. Feeling that he had no future in politics, Lincoln took to the dusty roads of the Eighth
Circuit to regain the friends and clients who had slipped away while he was in Congress.
Lincoln was offered the governorship of the new Oregon Territory, but he declined it.
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