Ephraim H. E. Jameson to Abraham Lincoln, 26 May 18581
Galesburg May 26th/58Hon Abram Lincoln=Dear Sir:I have been requested by Hon S. W. Brown— mayor of this city and other gentlemen connected with Lombard University; to invite you to come up here on the 10th of June and deliver an after-dinner speech—on the occasion of the annual commencement. 2 The reasons they give 3 for wishing you to come particularly, are 1st a speech from you will make the commencement dinner digest well— 2dly You have many warm friends in this city who wish to see you and have you help them
stir up the Republicans in the county.4 The college speech should not be strictly political but made up of anything you
please; but we intend to have the county called together sometime during your visit
and then you can fire as loud a political gun as you please. Your coming to this
city will do a great deal of good and I hope you will not decline unless you are needed
more elsewhere. I am now, as you may already know, editing the only Republican paper in this city & shall be glad to do what I can in the coming elections.5
Very RespectfullyYours–E. H. E JamesonP.S. If you should come— be here on the 9th— if you cannot please inform either myself or Mr Brown and oblige.6 –J–
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[GALESBURG Ill[Illinois]]MAY [26?]
[Envelope]
Hon Abram[Abraham] LincolnSpringfieldIll
2A response from Abraham Lincoln to Jameson, if one was penned, has not been located.
Lincoln was in Springfield on June 10, 1858, and could not have given the speech
for which he was requested.
The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 10 June 1858, http://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-06-10.
4 Lincoln was the Republican candidate from Illinois for the U.S. Senate. In the summer and fall of 1858, he crisscrossed Illinois delivering speeches and
campaigning on behalf of Republican candidates for the Illinois General Assembly. 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. He ran against, and lost to, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, the incumbent. See 1858 Illinois Republican Convention; 1858 Federal Election.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:457-85, 547, 557; Allen
C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,”
The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 392.
5Lincoln finally made it to Galesburg on August 24, 1858, for a short stay, and although
he did not have enough time to make a speech, he made a few remarks to about 1,000
people at the Bancroft House. Galesburg would also be the site of fifth debate between Lincoln and Douglas during the senatorial election campaign.
The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 24 August 1858, http://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-24; 7 October 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-10-07; Fifth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas, at Galesburg, Illinois; Fifth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas, at Galesburg, Illinois; Fifth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas, at Galesburg, Illinois.
Autograph Letter Signed, 2 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC).