Abraham Lincoln to Joel B. McFarland, 7 September 18561
Springfield, Sept 7. 1856J. B. McFarlandLa Fayette, Ia. Dear SirYour invitation to me to be with you on the 1– 2– &3rd of Oct–[October] at the Tippecanoe Battle Ground, is received–2 I fear I can not attend; but I will if I can–3
Yours &C[etc]A. Lincoln<Page 2>
2No letter from Joel B. McFarland inviting Lincoln to speak in at the Tippecanoe Battle
Ground has been located.
3During the 1856 Federal Election campaign, Lincoln delivered more than fifty speeches throughout Illinois as he canvassed on behalf of the Republican Party. He did not, however, conduct any stumping in Indiana. The only political speech he gave outside Illinois was in Kalamazoo, Michigan on August 27. On October 1, Lincoln traveled to Alton, Illinois, spoke at a Republican rally on October 2, returned home to Springfield, Illinois,
and attended to legal work in Springfield on October 3.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:425; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 1 October 1856, http://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1856-10-01; 2 October 1856, http://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1856-10-02; 3 October 1856, http://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1856-10-03.
Autograph Letter Signed, 2 page(s), Box 5, Lincoln Collection, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (Springfield, IL).