Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

George W. Rives to Abraham Lincoln, 4 June 18581
Paris Illinois
June 4^th 1858A. LincolnSpringfieldIllinois
Yours of recent date at hand–2 the question of senator—3 I think is now settled without the call of a Convention–Marshall is the man4 he has seen Newman5 and fixed the County question Satisfactorily to all parties– This I am glad to hear–

We had our meeting on last Saturday– it was a large one the Courthouse was full–6 Messrs.[Messieurs] Blackburn York & Munsell made speeches. the best feeling prevailed— & the finest prospect seems to await our cause.

the Delegates are Mess.[Messieurs] L Munsell, R. Mosely, W. B. Baily7 D^r P. Yeargin, M. D. Noble— W. K. Payne (was a Fillmore) 1856) Virgil Collins– Some of those cannot come up. Steele, Blackburn & myself will be Substitutes– Our County will be fully rept–[represented] Munsell will be there– & by the way, let me say— he is strongly spoken of as our Candidate for Congress.8
More when I see youG. W Rives

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[Envelope]

PARIS Ill.[Illinois]
JUN[June] 5Hon^l[Honorable] A. LincolnSpringfield Illinois

[ docketing ]
Lincoln, Abraham (President)

G. W. Rives9

1George W. Rives wrote and signed this letter, including the name and address on the envelope.

2Abraham Lincoln’s letter to Rives has not been located.

3 Rives references the election for the Illinois Senate in the Eighteenth District, which was comprised of Edgar, Vermilion, Coles, and Cumberland counties. Lincoln was vying to become the Republican candidate from Illinois for 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. He ran against, and lost to, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, the incumbent. See the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention; 1858 Federal Election.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:458, 557; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 392, 394; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 219.

4Thomas A. Marshall became the candidate and won the Illinois Senate seat.
Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 4 November 1858, 2:3; 13 November 1858, 2:3.

5Rives may be referring to B. Newman, a delegate to the 1858 Illinois State Republican Convention from Coles County.
Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 17 June 1858, 2:3.

6The Edgar County Republican convention took place on Saturday, May 29, 1858 in Paris, Illinois.

7W. B. Baily could not be positively identified. In the June 10 edition of the Illinois State Journal, his name is spelled “Bailey.”

8Edgar County was part of the Seventh Illinois Congressional District. Richard J. Oglesby, a Republican, lost to Democrat James C. Robinson in the race for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives representing the Illinois Seventh Congressional District. Robinson garnered 53.5 percent of the vote to 46.2 percent for Oglesby.
Rives wrote Lincoln four additional letters related to the election campaign of 1858.
George W. Rives to Abraham Lincoln; George W. Rives to Abraham Lincoln; George W. Rives and Others to Abraham Lincoln; George W. Rives to Abraham Lincoln; Howard W. Allen and Vincent A. Lacey, eds., Illinois Elections, 1818-1990 (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1992), 11, 142-43.

9Lincoln wrote this docketing.