Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln to Henry Asbury, 31 July 18581
Springfield, July 31, 1858Henry Asbury, Esq[Esquire]My dear Sir
Yours of the 28^th is received– The points you propose to press upon Douglas, he will be very hard to get up to–2 But I think you labor under a mistake when you say no one cares how he answers– This implies that it is equal with him whether he ^is^ injured here or at the South– That is a mistake– He cares nothing for the South— he knows he is already dead there– He only leans Southward now to keep the Buchanan party from growing in Illinois–3 You shall have hard work to get him directly to the point whether a teritorial Legislature has or has not the power to exclude slavery– But if you succeed in bringing him to it, ^though^ he will be compelled to say it possesses no such power; lest he will instantly take ground that slavery can not as actually exist in the teritories, unless the ^people^ desire it, and so give it protective teritorial legislation–4 If this offends the South

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he will let it offend them; as at all events he means to hold on to his chances in Illinois– You will soon learn by the papers that the both the Judge and myself, are to be in Quincy on the 13^th of October, when & where I expect the pleasure of seeing you–5
Yours very trulyA. Lincoln

1Abraham Lincoln wrote and signed this letter.

2Asbury wrote Lincoln to offer his concerns regarding Lincoln’s strategy in the upcoming Lincoln-Douglas Debates. Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas debated in the context of the campaign for U.S. Senate. Lincoln was challenging Douglas, the incumbent, for the seat. See 1858 Illinois Republican Convention; 1858 Federal Election. The debates were held in Ottawa on August 21, Freeport on August 27, Jonesboro on September 15, Charleston on September 18, Galesburg on October 7, Quincy on October 13, and Alton on October 15.

Stephen A. Douglas to Abraham Lincoln.

3Lincoln is referencing the split of the Democratic Party into pro-James Buchanan and pro-Douglas factions. The split occurred after Douglas, in December 1857, spoke out against the Lecompton Constitution and criticized President Buchanan and his southern followers for supporting it. See Bleeding Kansas.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:445.

4 Lincoln predicted Douglas’s response exactly. In the Freeport debate on August 27, Lincoln asked Douglas, “Can the people of a United States Territory, in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a State Constitution?” Douglas responded by establishing what became called his “Freeport Doctrine.” The central belief he espoused stated that slavery could not exist without “friendly legislation” to protect it. Therefore, Douglas argued, the people of a territory, prior to establishing a state constitution, could determine their slave status by either passing legislation to protect it or by passing legislation “unfriendly” to slavery.

Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:513-14; Second Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Freeport, Illinois; Second Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Freeport, Illinois; Second Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Freeport, Illinois.

5Douglas’s July 30 letter proposing a debate schedule and Lincoln’s July 31 letter accepting it both appeared in the August 2 edition of the Republican Daily Illinois State Journal and the Democratic Daily Illinois State Register.
The Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 2 August 1858, 2:2; Daily Illinois State Register (Springfield), 2 August 1858, 2:1; Abraham Lincoln to Stephen A. Douglas.