Leaping Lincoln

In November 1840, Illinois legislators met in the cramped Methodist Church in Springfield while the statehouse was being completed nearby, and the crowding and confusion complicated Abraham Lincoln’s role as leader of the minority Whig party. On December 5, as the Democratic majority prepared to pass a measure threatening the State Bank, Whigs tried to block a legal voting quorum by absenting themselves, leaving Lincoln and a few allies behind to watch. When Democrats managed to gather enough members for a quorum, Lincoln, blocked at the door and greatly excited, raised a window and jumped out, joined by fellow Whigs Joseph Gillespie and Asahel Gridley in a failed effort to stop the vote. The Democratic measure passed anyway, and Lincoln afterward resented references to what he called that “jumping scape.” The wood-frame church on this corner stood from 1831 to 1854 and was also used by the state legislature, circuit court, and private schools, but it eventually proved too small. In 1854 a new brick church seating 500 was dedicated, though its $700 spire later blew down in a violent storm, prompting the Rev. Peter Cartwright to call it a rebuke for Methodist extravagance and pride.

Springfield, Illinois · United States