Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln to Norman B. Judd, 16 November, 20251
Springfield, Nov. 16. 1858Hon: N. B. JuddMy dear Sir
Yours of the 15^th is just received– I wrote you the same day– As to the pecuniary matter, I am willing to pay according to my ability; but I am the poorest hand living to get others to pay–2 I have been on expences so long without earning any thing that I am absolutely without money now for even household purposes–3 Still, if you can put in two hundred and fifty dollars for me towards discharging the debt of the Committee, I will allow it when you and I settle the private matter between us– This, with what I have already paid, and with an outstanding note of mine, will exceed my subscription of five hundred dollars– This too, is exclusive of the my ordinary expences during the campaign, all which being added to my loss of time and business, bears pretty heavily upon one no better off in world's goods than I; but as I had the post of honor, it is not for me to be over-nice–

You are feeling badly– "4And this too shall pass away"–5 Never fear–
Yours as everA. Lincoln

1Abraham Lincoln wrote and signed this letter. A copy of it in another hand has been located.

2Norman B. Judd was the head of the Illinois Republican State Central Committee. The Illinois Republican Party had run a full slate of candidates in the state and federal elections of 1858 and was deep in debt in the aftermath of the election campaign. Judd asked Lincoln for help in raising money to alleviate that debt in a letter to Lincoln on the 15th of November, stating “I am in a worse situation than any one else– I ran the State committee upon the least economical plan, and it has unpaid bill to the amount of about $2500.” Lincoln was among the Republican candidates for election, having run against Stephen A. Douglas, the Democratic incumbent, for the U.S. Senate. This bill was for races for candidates at both the state and federal level, only a portion of it would have been used to aid Lincoln’s campaign. See 1858 Federal Election; 1858 Illinois Republican Convention.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:458, 552; Harry E. Pratt, The Personal Finances of Abraham Lincoln (Springfield, IL: Abraham Lincoln Association, 1943), 105-6.

3Abraham Lincoln left on the campaign trail for the Senate election of 1858 on the evening of August 11, 1858 when he departed Springfield en route to Beardstown, where he would make his first campaign stop the next day. He had closed out his last case before the campaign earlier that day when the Sangamon County Circuit Court dismissed the divorce case of Caldwell v. Caldwell. He would not finish his campaign until his final speech of the election season at Decatur on November 1, 1858, the day before election day. With the exception of writing the defendant’s answer in Mershon v. Oliver and Milner, Lincoln put his legal work, and his income, on pause during the campaign, missing the fall sessions of the courts of the Eighth Judicial Circuit and Illinois Supreme Court. Lincoln took a short break after the election campaign before resuming his legal work on November 6.
Harry E. Pratt, The Personal Finances of Abraham Lincoln, 105-6; Caldwell v. Caldwell, Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), https://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=138489; Affidavit, , Document ID: 3556, Mershon v. Oliver and Milner, Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, https://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=136045; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 11 August, 1858, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-11; 12 August 1858, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-12; 27 September, 1858, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-09-27; 1 November, 1858, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-11-01; 2 November 1858, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-11-02; 6 November, 1858, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-11-06

4Judd was feeling badly because of the outcome of the state elections held on November 2, 1858. Republicans had won the popular vote in the state elections but pro-Douglas Democrats retained control of the Illinois General Assembly, which elected U.S. senators in those days, allowing Douglas to retain his seat. Douglas victory was confirm in the election held on January 5, 1859.
Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 3 November 1858, 2:1; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,” The Journal of American History, 94 (September 2007), 392-94, 415-16; Illinois Senate Journal. 1859. 21st G. A., 30; Illinois House Journal. 1859. 21st G. A., 32.

5This adage, often attributed to the Bible, was actually of Persian origin. According to stories that began circulating in the American press as early as 1839, the phrase rose out of an Eastern monarch asking wise men to compose a saying that would apply to all situations. Lincoln would popularize the adage in his 1859 speech to the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society.
Ralph Keyes, The Quote Verifier: Who Said What, Where, and When (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2006), 159-60; Report of Speech to the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society; Report of Speech to the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society.