Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln to Benjamin C. Lundy, 20 July 18571
Springfield, July 20– 1857–B. C. Lundy, Esq.[Esquire]Dear Sir
Owing to my absence, yours of the 10^th was not received till a day or so ago–2 Senator Trumbull’s speech and my own have both been published in pamphlet form, but the [~~cop~~?] at the Illinois Journal office, but the copies printed off have been exhausted– They will have a new supply printed, by the time this reaches you, and you can write them– Their price is a dollar per hundred– Mine is in much larger and better print than it was in the Journal paper– Send directly to the Journal for the number of each you want, directing them how, and where to send them–3

What you say about our party doing something this year is perfectly right– On that subject, open a correspondence with N. B. Judd, of Chicago, telling him I suggested it to you–

I believe you are in the Peoria Senatorial District—4 a district that has to be very carefully cultivated– Outside of it, up your way, does not need much– I have another matter in contemplation, which I will not mention now, but concerning which, I may write you in a month or so–5
Yours trulyA. Lincoln.

1Abraham Lincoln wrote and signed this letter.

2Benjamin C. Lundy’s letter to Lincoln of July 10, 1857, has not been located.
Lincoln had been absent in Chicago from at least July 7 through July 18, 1857 to attend the U.S. Circuit Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 7 July 1857, http://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1857-07-07; 18 July 1857, http://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1857-07-18.

3On June 26, 1857 Lincoln had delivered a speech in the hall of the Illinois House of Representatives in Springfield in response to one given by Stephen A. Douglas on June 12, 1857. Lincoln summarized Douglas’ speech as having been “on the several subjects of Kansas, the Dred Scott decision, and Utah” and responded on these topics. Lyman Trumball also spoke in the hall of the Illinois House of Representatives three days after Lincoln “on the political questions which now divide and distinguish the two great parties of the day.” Lincoln’s and Trumbull’s speeches were published in the Illinois State Journal and reprinted in pamphlet form.
The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 12 June 1857, http://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1857-06-12; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 29 June 1857, 2:2-4; 1 July 1857, 1:1, 2:2-5; 2 July 1857, 2:2-5; Speech of the Hon. Abram Lincoln, in Reply to Judge Douglas. Delivered in Representatives’ Hall, Springfield, Illinois, June 26th, 1857 (n.p.: n.p., [1857?]); Speech of Hon. Lyman Trumbull, on the Politics of the Day, Delivered in Representatives’ Hall, Springfield, Ill., June 29th, 1857 (n.p.: n.p., [1857?]).

4As of 1854, Magnolia in Putnam County, where Lundy resided, was part of the Eighth District of the Illinois Senate, which also included Marshall, Peoria, and Woodford counties.
John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 219; William Clinton Armstrong, The Lundy Family and their Descendants of Whatsoever Surname (New Brunswick, NJ: J. Heidingsfeld, 1902), 256; Henry A. Ford, The History of Putnam and Marshall Counties (Lacon, IL: Gazette, 1860), 90.

5Lincoln wrote to Lundy the following month on the subject of Republican Party strategy for securing the Illinois General Assembly in the Illinois state election of 1858. No response to this letter nor further correspondence from Lundy on the 1858 election has been located.
Abraham Lincoln to [Benjamin C. Lundy]; Abraham Lincoln to [Benjamin C. Lundy].