Abraham Lincoln to Norman B. Judd, 24 October 18581
Blandonville, Oct 24. 1858Hon: N. B. Judd:My dear SirJust out of Hancock– Spoke three times in that county–2 Tight, with chances slightly in our favor– Think Henderson will ballance Schuyler, so that if we carry Hancock, we elect Bagby–3 Heard nothing new about fraudulent voters since I wrote by Mr Scripps–4
I shall reach Springfield on Thursday, 28th where & when I wish to find a letter from you telling how the whole field looks from
your point of view–5
Yours as everA. Lincoln<Page 2>
2Lincoln spoke in Carthage, Illinois, in Hancock County on October 22, then spoke in Dallas City, Illinois, and La Harpe, Illinois, both also in Hancock County, on October 23. He was running against Democratic incumbent Stephen A. Douglas for a seat in the U.S. Senate at the time, and both he and Douglas were traveling the state delivering speeches in support of candidates for the Illinois General Assembly in their respective parties, as well as participating in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. The local elections of 1858 were important to the Lincoln-Douglas senatorial race because members of the General Assembly voted for and elected the state’s representatives
in the U.S. Senate.
Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 2 September 1858, 3:1; Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 26 October 1858, 2:3; Report of Speech at Carthage, Illinois; Oquawka Spectator (IL), 28 October 1858, 2:1; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, October 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarMonth&year=1858&month=10; 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, 394.
3John C. Bagby was a Republican Party candidate for the Illinois Senate. He ran on behalf of Illinois’s Eleventh Senatorial District, which at the time was
composed of Hancock, Henderson, and Schuyler counties.
Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 3 November 1858, 2:2; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 219.
4No letter from John L. Scripps to Lincoln discussing fraudulent voters has been located
for all of 1858. However, Lincoln discussed concerns about potential voting fraud
related to the local elections of 1858 in correspondence with at least two individuals—including
Judd—throughout the 1858 campaign season. Lincoln wrote letters to Judd on the topic
on September 23 and October 20.
5Lincoln did not return home to Springfield, Illinois, until Saturday, October 30.
He was in Kewanee, Illinois, and Chicago, Illinois, on October 28, then Petersburg, Illinois, on October 29.
The next letter Judd wrote Lincoln that has been located after this October 24 letter
from Lincoln is dated November 15—after the local elections of 1858 had taken place.
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 ultimately won reelection to the U.S. Senate. Voters in Illinois’s Eleventh
Senate District elected Democrat John P. Richmond to the Illinois Senate. Bagby won in Henderson County, receiving 1,005 votes to Richmond’s
758 votes, but he lost in Hancock County, 2,031 votes to Richmond’s 2,340 votes,
and in Schuyler County, 1,076 votes to Richmond’s 1,480 votes. The final election
tally showed Bagby lost the state senate seat to Richmond by 4,112 to 4,578 votes.
Richmond voted for Douglas in the U.S. Senate election. Although there were widespread
reports of Democratic voting fraud in the state elections, no solid evidence emerged
in the months following the elections that widespread voting fraud actually occurred.
Despite his loss, Lincoln’s participation in the senate race—and in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates in particular—propelled him to national prominence and helped him win the presidential contest of 1860.
The Lincoln Log, October 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarMonth&year=1858&month=10; Norman B. Judd to Abraham Lincoln; The Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 17 November 1858, 2:4; The Weekly Chicago Times (IL), 11 November 1858, 2:6, 18 November 1858, 3:3; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac 1673-1968, 222; Illinois Senate Journal. 1859. 21st G. A., 30; Warren Independent (IL), 29 October 1858, 2:3, 5; Daily Islander and Argus (Rock Island, IL), 2 November 1858, 2:5; Alton Daily Courier (IL), 15 November 1858, 2:2; Allen C. Guelzo, Lincoln and Douglas: The Debates that Defined America (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008), 289; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:546, 556-57; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political
Landscape of 1858,” 414.
Autograph Letter Signed, 2 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (Springfield, IL). .