Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln to Joseph O. Cunningham, 22 August 18581
Ottawa, Aug. 22. 1858J. O. Cunningham, Esq[Esquire]My dear Sir
Yours of the 18^th signed as Secretary of the Rep. Club, is received–2 In the matter of making speeches I am a good pressed by invitations from almost all quarters; and while I hope to be at Urbana sometime during the canvass I cannot yet say when–3 Can you not see me at Monticello on the 6^th of Sep^t?4

Douglas and I, for the first time this canvass, crossed swords here yesterday; the fire flew some, and I am glad to know I am yet alive– There was ^was^ a vast concourse of people—more than could ^get^5 near enough to hear–6
Yours as everA. Lincoln

1Abraham Lincoln wrote and signed this letter.

2Joseph O. Cunningham’s August 18 letter to Lincoln has not been located, nor has any additional correspondence between the two men. Since Cunningham lived in Urbana, Illinois, at the time, it is likely he was secretary of a Republican Party Club there. Members of the Republican Party had organized clubs to socialize, organize, and provide support for candidates since the party’s inception. Sometimes the clubs were new, and sometimes they emerged from existing clubs that were originally organized for the Whig Party or the American Party. Some of these Republican clubs called themselves Lincoln clubs; others were simply local Republican Party clubs.
J. R. Stewart, ed., A Standard History of Champaign County Illinois (Chicago: Lewis, 1918), 2:527; Robert F. Engs and Randall M. Miller, eds., The Birth of the Grand Old Party: The Republicans’ First Generation (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002), 55-56; Bruce Chadwick, Lincoln for President: An Unlikely Candidate, An Audacious Strategy, and the Victory No One Saw Coming (Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 2009), 147-49; Lewis L. Gould, Grand Old Party: A History of the Republicans (New York: Random House, 2003), 2, 28.

3Lincoln received many requests to deliver political speeches in support of the Republican cause during the campaign of 1858, including from officers and members of Illinois Republican Party clubs. At the time of this letter, Lincoln was running as the Illinois Republican Party’s candidate to replace incumbent Stephen A. Douglas 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 the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:458; William C. Hobbs to Abraham Lincoln; Frank W. Tracy to Abraham Lincoln; Benjamin S. Hood to Abraham Lincoln; Frank W. Tracy to Abraham Lincoln; Hiram M. Tremble to Abraham Lincoln; Samuel C. Parks to Abraham Lincoln; John Blattner and others to Abraham Lincoln and Lyman Trumbull; Robert Harvey to Abraham Lincoln; Philo E. Reed to Abraham Lincoln; George H. Woodruff to Abraham Lincoln; James M. Hosford to Abraham Lincoln; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 392-94.

4Lincoln delivered a public address in Monticello, Illinois, on September 6. Later, on September 24, he also delivered a speech in Urbana.
The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 6 September 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-09-06; 24 September 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-09-24.

5It is unclear whether Lincoln wrote this addition in the left margin of the letter.

6Lincoln is referring to the first of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, which was held in Ottawa, Illinois, on August 21. Local newspapers reported that roughly 12,000 people attended.
Ultimately, in Illinois’s local elections of 1858, 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 as well as standing within the national Republican Party.
Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 24 August 1858, 2:3; Daily Illinois State Register (Springfield), 24 August 1858, 2:2; Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 23 August 1858, 1:2; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:556-57.