Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln to James W. Grimes, 12 July 18561
Springfield, Ills. July 12, 1856Hon. J. W. Grimes.My dear Sir:
Yours of the 29^th of June was duly received– I did not answer it, because it plagued me– This morning I received another, from Judd and Peck, written by consultation with you–2

Now, let me tell you why I am plagued– First I can scarcely spare the time– Secondly, I am superstitious– I have scarcely known a party, preceding an election, to call in help from the neighboring states, but they lost the state– Last fall our friends had Wade of Ohio, & others in Maine; and they lost the state– Last Spring, our adversaries had New-Hampshire full of South Carolinians, and they lost the State–3 And so generally– It seems to stir up more enemies than friends–

Have the enemy called in any for-

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eign help– If they have a foreign champion there, I should have no objection to drive a nail in his [~~...~~?] track–4

I shall reach Chicago on the night of the 15^th to attend a little business in court–5 Consider the things I have suggested, and write me at Chicago– Especially write me whether Browning consents to visit you–6
Your Ob^t Serv^t [Obedient Servant]A. Lincoln–

1Abraham Lincoln wrote and signed this letter.

2James W. Grimes’ letter of June 29, 1856 to which this is a response has not been located. It apparently contained a request for Lincoln to give speeches in Iowa in support of Republican candidates, similar to the entreaties made by Norman B. Judd and Ebenezer Peck in the letter from Judd which Lincoln had just received.
From July 1856 onwards Lincoln gave over fifty speeches across Illinois in support of Republican presidential candidate John C. Fremont and to rally the disparate elements of the emerging Republican Party. See the 1856 Federal Election.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:425-33.

3Benjamin F. Wade of Ohio was invited to canvass on behalf of the Republican ticket in Maine in 1855, and spoke in several cities in August of that year. The Republican campaign in Maine was also supported by speakers from New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts, as the newly-formed party there attempted to make an impression. Despite the strenuous efforts of the nascent Maine Republican Party, they lost control of the state legislature in the election. They also failed to secure the governorship. None of the gubernatorial candidates won an outright majority of the vote, so the selection of governor devolved to the state legislature, which selected Democrat Samuel Wells as the winner.
In the New Hampshire election in the spring of 1856, Democratic president Franklin Pierce prevailed upon prominent Democrats from South Carolina and Georgia to campaign for the party in his home state. The effort backfired as the states’ rights message of the southern Democrats failed to appeal to New Hampshire Democrats. After no candidate in the gubernatorial race won a majority of the votes, the New Hampshire General Court selected American Party candidate Ralph Metcalf as the winner.
H. L. Trefousse, Benjamin Franklin Wade: Radical Republican from Ohio (New York: Twayne, 1963), 94–95; Francis Fessenden, Life and Public Services of William Pitt Fessenden (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1907), 1:50-51, 62; Michael J. Dubin, United States Gubernatorial Elections, 1776-1860: The Official Results by State and County (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2003), 94, 157; New Hampshire Patriot & State Gazette (Concord), 27 February 1856, 1:4; Roy Franklin Nichols, Franklin Pierce: Young Hickory of the Granite Hills (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1931), 450-51; Lex Renda, Running on the Record: Civil War-Era Politics in New Hampshire (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1997), 61.

4Lincoln is using the description “foreign” to denote someone from outside of Iowa, and suggests that he would only be willing to appear at Republican political rallies in Iowa during the 1856 campaign if the Democrats were also utilizing out-of-state speakers. No evidence has been found of Lincoln campaigning in Iowa.

5Lincoln was away from home for nearly two weeks, arriving in Chicago about July 15, 1856, and returning to Springfield on July 26. In addition to his legal business in Chicago, during this period he gave a political speech in the city and also traveled out from Chicago to the cities of Dixon, Sterling, Galena, and Oregon to speak at Republican meetings.
Report of Speech at Galena, Illinois; Report of Speech at Galena, Illinois; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 15 July 1856, http://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1856-07-15; 17 July 1856, http://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1856-07-17; 18 July 1856, http://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1856-07-18; 19 July 1856, http://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1856-07-19; 23 July 1856, http://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1856-07-23; 25 July 1856, http://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1856-07-25; 26 July 1856, http://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1856-07-26.

6No response from Grimes to this letter has been located.
Judd and Peck had informed Lincoln in their letter that they intended to also write to Orville H. Browning in regards to the Iowa campaign. Browning gave speeches at a Republican meeting in Keokuk, in Lee County, on July 31 and August 1, 1856, and appeared in Burlington, in Des Moines County, on August 2, 1856 but was so hoarse from the previous two days of speaking that John Wentworth gave a speech in his place. Iowa held elections for state legislature and for U.S. Congress on August 4. Browning recorded that although the Democratic Party had expected to carry Des Moines County, the Republican ticket come out ahead by 50 to 100 votes in the county. Ultimately, both men elected to the U.S. Congress in Iowa in 1856 were Republicans and the party gained control of the state legislature and all departments of the state government.

The Republicans did not, however, fare so well in the presidential election in Lee and Des Moines counties in November 1856. Despite Browning’s efforts, Democratic presidential candidate James Buchanan earned the most votes in Lee and Des Moines counties. In Lee County, Buchanan garnered 47.0 percent of the vote, with Fremont winning 38.8 percent and American Party candidate Millard Fillmore earning 14.2 percent. The race was closer in Des Moines County, with Buchanan receiving 43.2 percent of the vote, Fremont earning 40.9 percent, and Fillmore garnering 15.9 percent. Overall in Iowa, Fremont received the most votes, but Buchanan ultimately won the presidency.
Theodore Calvin Pease and James G. Randall, eds., The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning: Volume I, 1850-1864, vol. 20 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library, Lincoln Series II (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1925), 248-49; The Daily Gate City (Keokuk, IA), 31 July 1856, 2:1; Weekly Hawk-Eye and Telegraph (Burlignton, IA), 6 August 1856, 2:3; Michael J. Dubin, United States Congressional Elections, 1788-1997: The Official Results of the Elections of the 1^st through 105^th Congresses (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1998), 176; Benjamin F. Gue, History of Iowa from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century (New York: Century History, 1903), 1:284; Michael J. Dubin, United States Presidential Elections, 1788-1860: The Official Results by County and State (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2002), 135, 142-43.