Summary of Speeches in Virginia, Illinois, 22 February 18441
The Cass County Clay Club met at Virginia on the 22d. T. M. Kilpatrich, Esq[Esquire]. addressed the meeting. Subsequently John Pierson, Esq. appeared, and asked the privilege of setting forth the beauties of Locoism in a speech; which was acceded to.—Mr. Lincoln replied to him, and if any thing was left of Pierson’s statements or arguments unanswered
or unrefuted, our informant, after the most minute examination, was not able to make
the discovery.2
1The Whig Sangamo Journal published a much more detailed summary of these speeches in its March 28, 1844, edition. The Democratic Illinois State Register published two summaries on March 15, one coming from an unknown contributor, and one from “A Van Buren Sentinel.”
2During the winter of 1843 and 1844, Abraham Lincoln stumped Illinois on behalf of Henry Clay, the Whig party standard bearer in the presidential election of 1844.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:224-26.
Printed Document, 1 page(s), Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 29 February 1844, 2:4.