Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln to Daniel A. Cheever, 11 August 18581
Springfield, Aug. 11, 1858.D. A. Cheever, Esq.[Esquire],Dear Sir:
I have had my last Springfield speech printed in pamphlet form, and now send you 250 of them.2 If you find them useful, more of them can be had by writing here. Address J. O. Johnson, of this place, as I shall be absent after today.3
Yours as ever,A. LINCOLN.4

1This letter is attributed to Abraham Lincoln but no manuscript version in Lincoln’s hand has been located. The Concord Daily Monitor and New Hampshire Patriot published this transcription on February 12, 1925, along with the information that the framed manuscript original had been given on that date to the current New Hampshire governor, John G. Winant, by John Calvin Thorne, who had obtained it from Daniel A. Cheever’s daughter.
Concord Daily Monitor and New Hampshire Patriot (NH), 12 February 1925, 7:4.

2Lincoln’s July 17, 1858, speech in Springfield was printed in the Illinois State Journal as well as in pamphlet form at Lincoln’s behest.
No request by Cheever for copies of Lincoln’s speech has been located, but the two men had recently corresponded on the subject of arranging a speech by Lincoln in Tremont during the 1858 election campaign and on the importance of Tazewell County to the election. Lincoln 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 outcome of races for the Illinois House of Representatives and Illinois Senate were of importance to Lincoln’s campaign. Lincoln and Douglas both focused their campaign efforts on the former Whig stronghold of central Illinois, where the state legislative races were the closest.

The result of the 1858 race for Illinois House of Representatives in Tazewell County was that Democrat Robert B. M. Wilson garnered 1,955 votes, defeating Republican Richard N. Cullom, who received 1,783 votes. Tazewell County was in the Seventeenth Illinois Senate District, where Democrat Samuel W. Fuller held over in the 1858 election.
Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 20 July 1858, 2:1-6; 4 November 1858, 3:2; The Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 21 July 1858, 2:4-7, 3:1; Abraham Lincoln to Gustave P. Koerner; Speech of Hon. Abraham Lincoln, Delivered in Springfield, Saturday Evening, July 17, 1858 ([Springfield?]: n.p., [1858?]); Speech at Springfield, Illinois; Report of Speech at Springfield, Illinois; Report of Speech at Springfield, Illinois; Daniel A. Cheever to Abraham Lincoln; Abraham Lincoln to Daniel A. Cheever; Abraham Lincoln to Daniel A. Cheever; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 394, 400-401; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:457-58, 476-77; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 222; The Weekly Chicago Times (IL), 11 November 1858, 2:5; The Biographical Encyclopedia of Illinois of the Nineteenth Century (Philadelphia: Galaxy, 1875), 481-82; Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 5 November 1858, 1:3.

3Lincoln left Springfield this same evening and was largely absent on the campaign trail until election day, November 2, 1858. As previously discussed with Cheever, Lincoln made a campaign stop in Tremont, where he delivered a speech on August 30, 1858.
The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, August 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarMonth&year=1858&month=8; September 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarMonth&year=1858&month=9; October 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarMonth&year=1858&month=10; 2 November 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-11-02; Summary of Speech at Tremont, Illinois; Summary of Speech at Tremont, Illinois.

4No response to this letter has been located.