James H. Reed to Abraham Lincoln, 25 June 18581
Record OfficeAledo, Mercer Co., June 25 1858Hon A. Lincoln–Dear Sir
we are to have a Republican Mass Meeting in this place on one of the first days of September, proximo, and would be very glad to have you address the citizens of this county at that time.2
We have some local questions which our opponents may adroitly weave into the approaching
contest in this representative District and so manage matters as to elect a Douglas man to the Senate, and as you have never been in this part of the State, I think it would be well, if you can possibly do so.3
In hasteYours Resp'y[Respectfully]J. H. Reed
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[Envelope]
Aledo Ill[Illinois]
June 26
Hon. A. LincolnSpringfield Ill'sJune 26
2Reed wrote to Abraham Lincoln again on July 9, 1858, specifying that the meeting would be held
on September 1. On that day, Lincoln left Springfield en route to Decatur, Illinois. By the next day he was in Clinton. There is no record of Lincoln having visited Aledo in 1858.
The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 1 September 1858, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-09-01; 2 September 1858, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-09-02.
3Lincoln 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 the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention; 1858 Federal Election.
Mercer County was part of the Fourth Illinois Congressional District in 1858. A Republican stronghold,
Mercer County helped William Kellogg win re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives representing the Fourth District. In state electoral politics, Mercer County belonged
to the Ninth Illinois Senate District and the Forty-Eighth Illinois House District
in 1858. Thomas J. Henderson, a Republican and hold over from the 1856 state election, continued to represent
Mercer County in the Illinois Senate in 1858. Republicans in the Forty-Eighth District
nominated Ephraim Gilmore, Jr., for the Illinois House of Representatives in the state elections of 1858. Gilmore
defeated his Democratic opponent for the seat. Both Henderson and Gilmore voted for
Lincoln in the contest for U.S. Senate.
Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of
1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 392-93; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:457-85, 557; John Clayton,
comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 219-20, 222; Howard W. Allen
and Vincent A. Lacey, eds., Illinois Elections, 1818-1990 (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1992), 11, 142;
Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 22 September 1858, 3:2; The Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 17 November 1858, 2:4; Illinois Senate Journal. 1859. 21st G. A., 30.
Autograph Letter Signed, 2 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC).