Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln to William H. Carlin, 24 December 18581
Springfield, Dec. 24. 1858W.Carlin,Dear Sir
I am making up a Scrap-book of the late political campaign,2 and if any of your speeches were printed, I would be glad to have a copy of the one you consider the best–3 Will you please send me a Copy?

The Scrap-book may or may not be reprinted.4
Yours trulyA. Lincoln.

1Abraham Lincoln wrote and signed this letter.

2 Lincoln had been the Republican candidate from Illinois for U.S. Senate in 1858. In the summer and fall of that year, Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, his Democratic opponent and the incumbent , canvassed the state delivering speeches in support of candidates for the Illinois General Assembly in their respective parties. Members of the General Assembly voted for and elected the state’s representatives in the U.S. Senate at this time, so the races for the Illinois House of Representatives and Illinois Senate were highly relevant to the outcome of the U.S. Senate race. Lincoln and Douglas also debated one another in seven locations throughout the state. Douglas, however, did not carry the full backing of every Illinois Democrat. His criticism of President James Buchanan’s support for the Lecompton Constitution caused a rift in the party. Consequently, some Buchanan supporters opposed Douglas’s reelection to the U.S. Senate. Carlin, a Democrat member of the Illinois Senate from Adams County, initially favored Douglas, but by September 1858 had changed sides and ran for reelection as a Buchanan Democrat. Though both Lincoln and Carlin lost their respective races, the Lincoln-Douglas Debates received national coverage and boosted Lincoln’s standing in the national Republican Party. Following the campaign, Lincoln wrote Carlin, Sidney Breese, Charles H. Ray, and Henry C. Whitney to collect copies of the debates and other political speeches. See 1858 Illinois Republican Convention; 1858 Federal Election.
Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 22 April 1858, 2:4; 9 September 1858, 2:2; 7 October 1858, 2:3; 3 November 1858, 2:2; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 221, 222; The Daily Quincy Herald (IL), 4 November 1858, 3:1;The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 24 December 1858, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-12-24; Lincoln-Douglas Debates Scrapbook; Sidney Breese to Abraham Lincoln; Abraham Lincoln to Charles H. Ray; Abraham Lincoln to Henry C. Whitney; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:455, 457-85, 556-57; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 392, 394-96, 414-17.

3As Carlin later noted in his December 29 reply, he delivered only one speech during his reelection campaign. Carlin spoke about the history of the Democratic Party in Illinois at the Quincy courthouse on October 20, 1858. While the full speech did not appear in print anywhere, the October 22nd edition of the Quincy Whig & Republican published a partial summary. According to that account, Carlin spoke ill of Douglas’s influence on the party’s policies--especially his support for the Illinois Internal Improvement System.
William H. Carlin to Abraham Lincoln; Quincy Daily Whig and Republican (IL), 22 October 1858, 2:2, 3.

4The scrapbook Lincoln compiled of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates later served as the source for the first publication of the debates in 1860.
Political Debates Between Hon. Abraham Lincoln and Hon. Stephen A. Douglas (Columbus: Follett, Foster, 1860), iii-iv.