Agreement regarding the Missouri Democrat, 3 July 18571
We, the undersigned, each agree to be one of ten persons to furnish five hundred dollars,
to be used in giving circulation, in Southern and Middle Illinois, to the newspaper published at St Louis, Missouri, and called “The Missouri Democrat”.— said sum of five hundred dollars to be paid over to John G. Nicolay,2 so soon as he shall furnish evidence that he has made arrangements with the proprietors
of that paper, giving promise of a reasonable degree of success in the enterprize–
July 3. 1857.A. LincolnO. M. HatchJesse K DuboisJohn WilliamsL. TrumbullJohn WoodWilliam Ross pr O. M. H.<Page 2>
[ endorsement
]
12/03/1857
12/03/1857
Dec[December] 3d 1857 Received twenty-five dollars on the within of Jesse K. Dubois
Jno G. Nicolay.52Lincoln, knowing that the Republican Party’s support was weak in southern Illinois, took this opportunity to support John G.
Nicolay’s plan to promote the circulation of the staunchly Republican newspaper, the
Missouri Democrat, in that part of the state with the hope of helping Republican candidates for the
Illinois General Assembly. Lincoln hoped that Republican control of the General Assembly would assist him
in the 1858 senatorial race between Lincoln and the incumbent Democrat, Stephen A. Douglas. Nicolay lived in Springfield and served as the Illinois correspondent of the Democrat at the time. Lincoln’s Republicans did not gain control of the General Assembly,
and Douglas retained his seat in the U.S. Senate. See the 1858 Federal Election.
David Herbert Donald, Lincoln (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995), 211, 228; Walter B. Stevens, St. Louis: The Fourth City, 1764-1911 (St. Louis: S.J. Clarke, 1911), 1:162, 164.
Autograph Document Signed, 2 page(s), Box 5, Lincoln Collection, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (Springfield, IL).