Political Allies

Abraham Lincoln and John Wood were political allies who shared Whig Party views and a strong opposition to slavery. They worked to establish the Republican Party and campaigned for each other during their political careers. Lincoln was a delegate at the 1856 Bloomington Convention, which launched the Republican Party in Illinois and led to Wood's nomination for lieutenant governor. In 1857, Lincoln and Wood helped finance publication of the Missouri Democrat, a Republican newspaper in St. Louis, promoting its circulation in downstate Illinois. Wood was among local Republican leaders who met Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, in Quincy in December 1858, when Lincoln's name was put forward as a possible presidential candidate. After Governor William H. Bissell died in March 1860, Lieutenant Governor John Wood became governor. On May 22, 1860, he invited Lincoln, then a presidential candidate, to use the governor's office at his pleasure, and Lincoln used it as his campaign headquarters. Wood's stone octagonal mansion, designed by Chicago architect John Van Osdel, was built on the north side of State Street between 11th and 12th while Wood served as governor and during the Civil War. Costing well over $100,000, it was regarded as one of the finest homes in Illinois. Wood sold it in 1875 and returned to his previous home, now preserved as the Governor John Wood Mansion. Wood, Quincy's founder, came west from Moravia, New York, in 1818 and settled in the Illinois Military Tract. In 1822 he built a log cabin near the Mississippi River and became Quincy's first settler. His years as a civic and political leader included service as mayor of Quincy, state senator, lieutenant governor, and governor after William Bissell's death. His friendship with Lincoln brought him an appointment as an Illinois delegate to the Peace Convention in Washington, D.C., in February 1861. Wood volunteered in the 1832 Black Hawk War and served as Quartermaster General of Illinois during the Civil War. Lincoln supported Wood by granting arms requests and providing a mustering office in Springfield. In June 1864, Wood left Quincy as head of the 137th Illinois Infantry, a one hundred day volunteers unit, and was soon given command of the Third Brigade.

Quincy, Illinois · United States