Abraham Lincoln to [Benjamin C. Lundy], 5 August 18571
(Copy)
Springfield, Aug 5. 1857Dear Sir:Some time ago you wrote me expressing the opinion that something should be done now, to secure the next Legislature–2 You were perfectly right and I now suggest that,
from the poll-books in the county clerk’s office, you have made alphabetical lists
of all the votes3 in
each precinct, or Township (I believe you have Township organization)4 the lists to be in separate little
books, and to be counted,5 by striking off such as may have died or removed, and adding such as will be
entitled to vote at the next election– This will not be a heavy job, and you see how
like a map it lays
the whole field before you– You know at once
yours trulyA. Lincoln8<Page 2>
how and with
whom to work– You will have no trouble to carry your county of Putnam; but you are (as I remember) part
of the Peoria Senatorial District, and that is close and questionable, so that you need every vote you
can get ^in^ Putnam6 Let all be so quiet that the enemy7
shall not be notified–
1This letter is attributed to Abraham Lincoln but is in the hand of Lincolniana collector
Charles W. McClellan. McClellan enclosed this version in his own hand to fellow collector
Judd Stewart in a letter of June 10, 1912. He presumably prepared this text for Stewart
based on the version of this document in Lincoln’s hand which is now in the collection of Brown University,
to which McClellan’s collection was donated in 1923. Portions of Stewart’s collection,
including this text in McClellan’s hand, were acquired by the Huntington Library in
1921 and 1922. This twentieth-century transcription of the manuscript original in
Lincoln’s hand changes several words from the original, as noted below.
The recipient of this letter is conjectured based on the contents of Lincoln’s letter to Benjamin C. Lundy of July 20, 1857.
R. Gerald McMurtry, ed., Lincoln Lore 1581 (November 1969); Charles Woodberry McLellan Collection of Lincolniana, Catalog
Description, Brown University; Abraham Lincoln Collection Finding Aid, Huntington
Library.
2The referenced letter from Lundy to Lincoln has not been located. Lincoln wrote an initial response to Lundy’s letter on July 20, 1857.
4Under the 1848 Illinois Constitution, the Illinois General Assembly was to pass a law authorizing township organization in any county where it was adopted
by a majority of voters at a general election. Lundy was from Magnolia in Putnam County; Putnam County established township government on November 8, 1855.
Michael D. Sublett, Township: Diffusion and Persistence of Grassroots Government in Illinois, 1850-2000 (New York: Peter Lang, 2004), 19-22, 24; Ill. Const. of 1848, art. VII, § 6; “An
Act to Provide for Township and County Organisation, Under Which Any County May Organise
Whenever a Majority of Voters of Such County, at Any General Election, Shall So Determine,”
12 February 1849, Laws of Illinois (1849), 190-224; Name Index to Illinois Local Governments, Township, Putnam County, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; 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.
6As of 1854, Putnam County was part of the Eighth District of the Illinois Senate, which also included Marshall, Peoria, and Woodford counties. In the state election in 1858, voters in the Eighth District elected Republican George C. Bestor to the Illinois Senate. Bestor won his seat by 120 votes overall, and Putnam and
Peoria counties were celebrated after the election as being areas where Republicans
had made a strong showing due to their hard work on the campaign. In Putnam County,
Bestor came in first with 607 votes compared to 297 votes received by his closest
competitor, Douglas Democrat William S. Moss.
Putnam County, along with Marshall and Woodford counties, comprised the Forty-Second
District of the Illinois House of Representatives, where voters also elected a Republican in the election of 1858. Republican John A. McCall won the seat for the district, with a majority of 303 votes in Putnam County.
The overall outcome of the 1858 election in Illinois was that the Republican Party state ticket was successful, but the Democratic Party
held a majority in the Illinois General Assembly.
John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 219, 220, 222; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 5 November 1858, 3:2; 16 November 1858, 1:1; The Weekly Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL), 10 November 1858, 2:1; 24 November 1858, 2:3; Green B. Raum, History of Illinois Republicanism (Chicago: Rollins, 1900), 38.
Handwritten Transcription, 2 page(s), Huntington Library (San Marino, CA).