Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln to Ebenezer Peck, 23 August 18581
Henry, Aug: 23. 18582Hon: E. PeckMy dear Sir
I have just written Judd that I wish him and you to meet me at Freeport next Friday next to give me the benefit of a consultation with you–3 Douglas is propounding questions to me, which perhaps it is not quite safe to wholly disregard– I have my view of the mode to dispose of them; but I also want yours and Judds’–4 I have written more at length to Judd, and would to you, but for lack of time– See Judd, you and he keep the matter to yourselves, and meet me at Freeport without fail–5
Yours as everA. Lincoln–

1Abraham Lincoln wrote and signed this letter.

2Lincoln was in Henry on this date to give a campaign speech. He was running against incumbent senator Stephen A. Douglas to represent Illinois in the U.S. Senate. Both candidates campaigned extensively across Illinois in the autumn of 1858. During this stretch of campaign travels, Lincoln had been away from home since August 11, and would not be back in Springfield until a brief stop on September 1. See the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention; 1858 Federal Election.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:457-58, 476-77; Summary of Speech at Henry, Illinois; 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.

3No correspondence from Lincoln to Norman B. Judd regarding a meeting in Freeport on Friday, August 27, 1858 has been located. Two days prior to this letter, the first Lincoln-Douglas Debate was held in Ottawa. The second debate was scheduled to be held in Freeport on Friday, August 27, and Lincoln was requesting that Judd and Peck meet him there on the day of the debate to prepare.
The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 21 August 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-21; 27 August 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-27.

4In his opening speech at the Ottawa debate, Douglas charged Lincoln with having helped to draft an antislavery Republican Party platform at a meeting in Springfield in October of 1854. In making this allegation, Douglas mistakenly quoted a more radical platform passed at a Republican meeting in Aurora that same year rather than the actual Springfield platform. Douglas also posed a series of questions to Lincoln in Ottawa aimed at forcing Lincoln to endorse or repudiate the antislavery positions of the Aurora platform. In his response at that first debate, Lincoln denied having assisted in drafting the Springfield platform, not realizing that Douglas was quoting the incorrect platform.
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; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 21 August 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-21; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:490-92; Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 23 August 1858, 1:1, 2.

5No response from either Peck or Judd on this subject has been located, but Joseph Medill wrote and apparently hand delivered a letter to Lincoln the morning of the Freeport debate, in which he conveyed the conclusions of a meeting held by himself, Judd, Peck, Martin P. Sweet, Stephen A. Hurlbut, and Hermann Kreisman on the evening of August 26 to strategize Lincoln’s response to Douglas at that debate. Medill was uncertain in his letter whether Judd and Peck had been able to join Lincoln as requested after they left their group meeting to travel to Springfield for a meeting of the Illinois Republican State Central Committee. Many years later, however, Judd recollected that the two had found Lincoln in his hotel in the middle of the night before the Freeport debate and roused him to discuss debate strategy. As Judd remembered the conversation, he had urged Lincoln to tailor the language of his responses to appeal to the antislavery residents of the Freeport area, but Lincoln refused to do so. Lincoln ultimately began his opening speech at the Freeport debate by responding point by point to Douglas’ questions, then elaborated on his positions. At Freeport Lincoln also pointed out that the platform Douglas challenged him on was from the Republican meeting in Aurora in 1854 and not that held in Springfield the same year, and stated that he had failed to realize this because he had not been involved with either meeting. Following his response at Freeport to Douglas’ questions, Lincoln posed questions of his own to Douglas regarding the latter’s positions on slavery. Although accounts of preparation for the debate from later in the nineteenth century portray Lincoln as posing these questions contrary to the advice of Peck, Medill, and others, three of the four questions Lincoln asked Douglas at Freeport are similar to lines of questioning suggested in Medill’s letter.
Ozias M. Hatch to Abraham Lincoln; Don E. Fehrenbacher, Prelude to Greatness: Lincoln in the 1850’s (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1962), 122-26; Michael Burlingame, ed., An Oral History of Abraham Lincoln: John G. Nicolay’s Interviews and Essays (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1996), 44-45; Emanuel Hertz, The Hidden Lincoln (New York: Blue Ribbon Books, 1940), 255-56; The Chicago Sunday Tribune (IL), 10 May 1895, 43:1-2; Second Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Freeport, Illinois; Second Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Freeport, Illinois; Second Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Freeport, Illinois.