Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Summary of Speech at Bath, Illinois, 16 August 18581

PROGRESS OF THE CAMPAIGN.
MASON COUNTY AROUSED.
Lincoln on his Old Stamping Ground.
(Correspondence of the Press and Tribune.)
Bath, Mason County, Ill., Aug. 16.
In commencing his speech to day, in a grove adjoining Bath, where a large and most respectable audience greeted him. Mr. Lincoln said he had many things since coming into Masen County to remind him that he had ceased to be a young man. Among the old men, he had met more than half a dozen who were in the same company with him 27 years ago in the Black Hawk war—a war which truly was not a very extensive one, or calculated to make great heroes of men engaged in it.2 But here are these old men now, some of them on the stand with him; and on this very spot, 22 years ago, he (Mr. L.) had with his own hands staked out the first plat of this town of Bath, then a wooded wildnerness.3 But what more reminded him of his advancing age, was the number of young men around him, now, and for years past, voters, who were the sons of his friends of early years, and who are now of the age he was when he first knew their fathers. Here at least he expected to be heard with candor, and respectful attention—and he was so heard, throughout an address of more than two hours’ duration.

The Republicans at their Springfield Convention of June 16th, said he, had chosen to put him forward as candidate for U.S. Senator—as their standard bearer in the campaign. He appreciated the honor, but felt the responsibility of the task. Recurring to the great disturbing question of the day, Slavery, he stated his belief that Douglas had never in his life once intimated that there was any wrong in slavery; ann that if that gentleman were here, he would not, even to secure every voter present, make this admission. And yet, he was trying to wrap himself up in the cloak of Henry Clay, a statesman in defence of whose principles Lincoln had battled all his life. Not a shred of that cloak would he allow to Lincoln.4 But this old son of Kentucky, a son of whom all the Western States may be proud, read extracts from Mr. Clay’s speech of 1847,5 and from another of 20 years before, 1827, delivered before the Colonization Society, in which that statesman spoke in favor of the ultimate emancipation of slavery, and pronouncing the institution the greatest of evils.6 Mr. L. contrasted these remarks of the old patriot, with the sentiments and political course of Douglas on this question, and showed clearly that nothing but the most brazen impudence would dare to take the name of Clay on his lips, by a man so destitute of his principles.7

1This summary of Abraham Lincoln’s speech appeared in the August 21, 1858 edition of the Chicago Daily Press and Tribune. It is the most complete summary of his speech in Bath, Illinois, known to be extant. Lincoln agreed to speak in Bath on August 16 after members of the audience at his August 14 speech in Havana, Illinois, invited him.
At the time, Lincoln was running as the Illinois Republican Party’s candidate to replace Stephen A. Douglas, the Democratic incumbent, in the U.S. Senate. He and Douglas both canvassed the state throughout the summer and fall of 1858, delivering speeches in support of candidates for the Illinois General Assembly in their respective parties. At the time, members of the General Assembly voted for and elected the state’s representatives in the U.S. Senate; therefore, the races for the Illinois House of Representatives and Illinois Senate were highly relevant to the outcome of the state’s race for the U.S. Senate seat. See 1858 Illinois Republican Convention; 1858 Federal Election.
Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 21 August 1858, 2:5; Report of Speech at Havana, Illinois; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:458; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 392-94.

2In April 1832, Lincoln volunteered for service in the Black Hawk War. The volunteers in his company, part of the Fourth Illinois Regiment of Mounted Volunteers, elected him company captain. He served three short tours during the war: from late-April 1832 to mid-July. The war was not extensive, and although Lincoln and his men encountered the horrors of war in the form of the mutilated corpses of both soldiers and civilians, they saw no combat.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:67-71; Kenneth J. Winkle, The Young Eagle: The Rise of Abraham Lincoln (Dallas: Taylor Trade, 2001), 90-92.

3During the 1830s, Lincoln worked as a surveyor for a time, locating and recording the boundaries for towns, homesteads, roads, and the like. Bath was one of the towns he surveyed personally.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:78-80; Kenneth J. Winkle, The Young Eagle: The Rise of Abraham Lincoln, 113-114.

4During each of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates Douglas invoked the name and memory of Henry Clay. The votes of former members of the Whig Party in central and southern Illinois were critical to the election, and Douglas hoped to link Clay to the doctrine of popular sovereignty as a way to convince former Whigs that he and Clay shared a common interest in keeping slavery out of national politics.
Lincoln greatly admired Clay, whom he referred to as “my beau ideal of a statesman.” He quoted Clay’s thoughts on slavery during the debates, emphasizing his agreement with Clay’s view of it as “a great evil” and an unfortunate inheritance from the nation’s forefathers that its citizens must contend with as best they could. When Douglas argued that anyone who desired slavery should have it, Lincoln said, Douglas was revealing himself as part of that class of men whom Clay said were “blowing out the moral lights around us.”
Stephen Hansen and Paul Nygard, “Stephen A. Douglas, the Know-Nothings, and the Democratic Party in Illinois, 1854-1858,” Illinois Historical Journal 87 (Summer 1994), 123; First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Ottawa, Illinois; First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Ottawa, Illinois; First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Ottawa, Illinois; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:493, 538.

5This is a reference to a well-known speech Clay delivered in Lexington, Kentucky, on November 13, 1847, denouncing the Mexican War as corrupt and slavery as a moral evil.
Speech of Henry Clay, at the Lexington Mass Meeting, 13th November, 1847 (New York: George F. Nesbitt, 1847).

6Clay gave a speech on these arguments before the American Colonization Society on January 20, 1827 in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Speech of the Hon. Henry Clay, Before the American Colonization Society, in the Hall of the House of Representatives, January 20, 1827 (Washington: American Colonization Society, 1827).

7Lincoln remained in Bath until the next morning, when he departed for his next stop on the campaign trail.
In Illinois’s local elections, Republicans won a majority of all votes cast in the state, but pro-Douglas Democrats retained control of the Illinois General Assembly and Douglas won reelection to the U.S. Senate. Through the campaign, however, and in particular through his participation in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, Lincoln gained recognition and respect within the national Republican Party.
The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 17 August 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-17; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life 1:556-57; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,” 414.