Abraham Lincoln to George W. Woods, 25 July 18581
Springfield, July 25. 1858Geo. W. Woods, Pres.[President] &c[etc],Dear Sir:Owing to my absence yours of the 19th was not sooner received and answered– A proposal of mine is before Judge Douglas to divide time, and both address the same audiences–2 Till I know the result, I can not say when I can visit Carlinville, being inclined to do so at the earli earliest day possible– I will write again, when I shall be informed on the point–
Please show this to Hon. J. M. Palmer, for whom I partly intend it–3
Yours trulyA. Lincoln–2At the time of this letter, Lincoln was running as the Illinois Republican Party’s candidate to replace Democratic incumbent Stephen A. Douglas in the U.S. Senate. Lincoln had just returned from Chicago, Illinois. While there he wrote Douglas, asking him to agree to work together to arrange a
series of debates. For the first part of the election campaign of 1858, Lincoln had often followed Douglas on the trail, delivering speeches either later
in the evening after Douglas finished, or the next day. See the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention; Lincoln-Douglas Debates.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:458, 482-85; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 21 July 1858, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-07-21; 24 July 1858, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-07-24; Abraham Lincoln to Stephen A. Douglas; Abraham Lincoln to Stephen A. Douglas.
3John M. Palmer had endorsed Woods' letter of July 19 and seconded Wood's request that Lincoln visit Carlinville and deliver
a political speech.
If Lincoln penned another reply to Woods, that reply has not been located. Lincoln
wrote Palmer on August 5, announcing his intention to speak in Carlinville on August 31.
Lincoln did so, and Palmer spoke after him.
Douglas eventually agreed to a series of debates with Lincoln, which became the famous
Lincoln-Douglas Debates.
Ultimately, in the local elections of 1858, Republicans won a majority of all votes
cast in Illinois, but pro-Douglas Democrats retained control of the Illinois General Assembly. At the time, members of the General Assembly voted for and elected the state’s
representatives in the U.S. Senate, and, in the federal election of 1858, Douglas won reelection. Through the campaign, however, and in particular through
his participation in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, Lincoln gained recognition as well
as standing within the national Republican Party.
Stephen A. Douglas to Abraham Lincoln; Stephen A. Douglas to Abraham Lincoln; Norman B. Judd to Abraham Lincoln; Abraham Lincoln to Stephen A. Douglas; Abraham Lincoln to Stephen A. Douglas; Abraham Lincoln to Stephen A. Douglas; Stephen A. Douglas to Abraham Lincoln; Stephen A. Douglas to Abraham Lincoln; Abraham Lincoln to Stephen A. Douglas; Abraham Lincoln to Stephen A. Douglas; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 31 August 1858, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-31; Report of Speech at Carlinville, Illinois; Allen C. Guelzo, “House Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of
1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 394, 414-16; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:556-57.
Autograph Letter Signed, 1 page(s), Lincoln Collection, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (Springfield, IL)