Abraham Lincoln to Joseph O. Glover, 9 August 18581
Springfield, Aug. 9, 1858.“J. O. Glover, Esq.[Esquire]My Dear Sir:
Things look reasonably well down this way. Friends write me from all the places where
Douglas is speaking, and they all say he gains nothing. This shows at least that he does
not scare and cowe our friends where he goes.
I shall be glad of a line from you at any time.4
Yours truly,A. LINCOLN.”1This letter is attributed to Abraham Lincoln but no manuscript version with his signature
has been located. According to the Ottawa Republican-Times which published this text, the transcription was prepared by Joseph O. Glover’s son,
Henry T. Glover, who was in possession of the manuscript original at the time of its
publication in 1908. The younger Glover was then preparing to bring the manuscript
to Ottawa for display at a celebration of the anniversary of the Lincoln-Douglas Debate that had been held there. Beneath the publication of the letter was an account of
the Ottawa Lincoln-Douglas Debate written in verse by former town resident C. K. Howard,
which was followed by excerpts from a letter by Henry T. Glover which included his
reminiscences of the debate and of Lincoln’s visit to the Glover family home following
the event.
Ottawa Republican-Times (IL), 23 July 1908, 8:1-2; The Daily Inter Ocean
(Chicago, IL), 11 December 1891, 2:4.
2Lincoln’s letter to Burton C. Cook of August 2, 1858, had relayed the rumor of a movement to challenge
Republican candidates in Bureau and La Salle counties in upcoming elections by running independent candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives and Illinois General Assembly. Lincoln himself had been nominated at the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention to run against incumbent Stephen A. Douglas to represent Illinois in the U.S. Senate. At this time the Illinois General Assembly elected the state’s representatives in
the U.S. Senate, thus the races for the Illinois House of Representatives and Illinois Senate were of particular importance to Lincoln’s campaign. See 1858 Federal Election.
Glover responded on behalf of an absent Cook on August 4, 1858, and expressed his confidence that
Bureau and La Salle counties would elect Republicans to the Illinois General Assembly
who supported Lincoln. Glover was correct in his prediction. Bureau County comprised
the Forty-Seventh Illinois House District, where Republican John H. Bryant was elected in 1858, and La Salle County was in the Forty-Third Illinois House District,
in which Republicans Alexander Campbell and Richardson S. Hick won their races as well. Incumbent Republican Owen Lovejoy was also successful in
his reelection bid for the U.S. House of Representatives in the Third Congressional
District of Illinois, which included both counties.
Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of
1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 392-99, 400-401; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:457-58; John Clayton, comp.,
The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 219-20, 222; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 4 November 1858, 3:2; Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 5 November 1858, 1:3; Howard W. Allen and Vincent A. Lacey, eds., Illinois Elections, 1818-1990 (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1992), 11, 142.
Printed Transcription, 1 page(s), Ottawa Republican-Times, (Ottawa, IL), 23 July 1908, 8:1.