Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Benjamin C. Lundy to Abraham Lincoln, 20 July 18581
Magnolia Putnam Co Illinois
July 20^t 1858.Hon A Lincoln.Dear Sir
The mass meeting of the Republicans of Putnam, Marshall, and La Salle Counties to which we invited you some days ago, and which you signified your intention of attending if called, on, or after the 20^th of August, has been called for Friday August 20^t.2 We shall confidently expect you. Hon. O Lovejoy, Hon B C Cook, Hon. Robert Boal, and G W Stipp Esqr[Esquire], have also expressed an intention of being with us. Without doubt we shall have a

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large and enthusiastic assemblage. Our hand bills are struck, and measures taken to secure an outpouring of the people. Our nearest point by rail way is Wenona, on the Illinois Central. We will make arrangements to meet you at the Depot & bring you down,— ten miles.
With respect,
Yours truly,B. C. Lundy.3

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[Envelope]

Hon A LincolnSpringfieldSangamonIllinoisMAGNOLIA Ill.[Illinois]
JUL[JULY] 22

[ docketing ]
Lincoln, Abraham (President)

B. C. Lundy.4

1Benjamin C. Lundy wrote and signed this letter, including the address on the envelope.

2No response by Abraham Lincoln to Lundy’s invitation of July 3, 1858, to attend a mass meeting in Magnolia, Illinois, of Republicans from Putnam, Marshall, and La Salle counties has been located. The invitation stemmed from Lincoln’s recent nomination at the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention to run against incumbent Stephen A. Douglas to represent Illinois in the U.S. Senate. At this time the Illinois General Assembly elected the state’s representatives in the U.S. Senate, thus the outcome of races for the Illinois House of Representatives and Illinois Senate were of importance to Lincoln’s campaign. Lincoln and Douglas both focused their campaign efforts on the former Whig stronghold of central Illinois, where the state legislative races were the closest.
Putnam, Marshall, and La Salle counties, however, were among the northern Illinois counties assumed to be strongly Republican in 1858, and that proved to be the case in the election of that year. Putnam and Marshall counties were in the Eight Illinois Senate District, where Republican George C. Bestor defeated Democrat William S. Moss. The two counties were in the Forty-Second Illinois House District, which elected Republican John A. McCall over Democrat Washington E. Cook. La Salle County was located in the Seventh Illinois Senate District, where Republican Burton C. Cook held over in the election of 1858, and was in the Forty-Third Illinois House District, in which Republicans Alexander Campbell and Richardson S. Hick defeated Democratic candidates Samuel C. Collins and William Cogswell.
Allen C. Guelzo, “House Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 392-99, 400-401; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:457-58, 476-77; The Ottawa Free Trader (IL), 30 October 1858, 2:1; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 4 November 1858, 3:2; Chicago Daily Press and Tribune, 5 November 1858, 1:3; The Weekly Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL), 10 November 1858, 2:1; 24 November 1858, 2:3; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 219-22.

3No response to this letter by Lincoln has been located. He received a further letter from Lundy on the subject dated August 10, 1858, which he docketed with a note that his appearance at a proposed Republican mass meeting in Magnolia on August 20 was “Not to be.” In the midst of Lundy’s correspondence with Lincoln regarding the date of the proposed mass meeting, the schedule had been set for a series of debates between Lincoln and Douglas. The first of these debates was scheduled for Saturday, August 21 in Ottawa, and rather than appearing in Magnolia on August 20 as Lundy proposed, Lincoln delivered a speech in Peoria on August 19, then spent the night of the 20th in Morris in order to reach Ottawa the following day.
The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 28 July 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-07-28; 19 August 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-19; 20 August 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-20; 21 August 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-21.

4Lincoln wrote this docketing.