Benjamin C. Lundy to Abraham Lincoln, 3 July 18581
Magnolia Putnam Co Ills July 3d 1858Hon A LincolnDear Sir–I am requested by many Republicans to invite you to meet the citizens of Putnam & adjoining counties in mass convention at Magnolia on Thursday the 5th of August or such other day near that time as may best suit your engagements. Our
Senatorial & Representative Districts will require much judicious cultivation, the
old Fillmore party hold largely the ballance of power, and we know no one more than yourself can confirm their inclination to
unite with the Republicans.2 Please drop a line soon & if the day mentioned dose not meet your conveniance, name some other as near that as you can.3 We are in the midst of a densely settled neighbourhood, and there is every probability of a large attendanc[e] from Putnam, La Salle & Marshall Counties. You would come on the central Road to Wenona, where some one from here would meet you & bring you down, ten miles.
Respectfully, Yours &c[etc.]B C Lundy<Page 2>
[Envelope]
Hon. A LincolnSpringfieldIllinoisMAGNOLIA, Ill.[Illinois]
JUL[JULY] 3
JUL[JULY] 3
2Abraham Lincoln had recently been nominated at the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention to run against incumbent Stephen A. Douglas to represent Illinois in 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. Lincoln and Douglas both focused their
campaign efforts on the former Whig stronghold of central Illinois, where the state legislative races were the closest.
Among the former Whigs whose votes were courted were those who had moved into the
American Party following the dissolution of the Whig Party.
Despite Lundy’s concerns, the Illinois counties of Putnam, Marshall, and La Salle
were among the northern Illinois counties assumed to be strongly Republican in 1858,
and that proved to be the case in the election of that year. Putnam and Marshall counties were in the Eighth Illinois Senate District, where
Republican George C. Bestor defeated Democrat William S. Moss. The two counties were in the Forty-Second Illinois House District,
which elected Republican John A. McCall over Democrat Washington E. Cook. La Salle County was located in the Seventh Illinois
Senate District, where Republican Burton C. Cook held over in the election of 1858, and was in the Forty-Third Illinois House District,
in which Republicans Alexander Campbell and Richardson S. Hick defeated Democratic candidates Samuel C. Collins and William Cogswell.
Allen C. Guelzo, “House Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of
1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 392-99, 400-401; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:457-58, 476-77; The Ottawa Free Trader (IL), 30 October 1858, 2:1; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 4 November 1858, 3:2; Chicago Daily Press and Tribune, 5 November 1858, 1:3; The Weekly Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL), 10 November 1858, 2:1; 24 November 1858, 2:3; John Clayton, comp.,
The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968
(Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 219-22.
3Lincoln's response, if he penned one, has not been located, nor has other correspondence
from him to Lundy around this time. In a subsequent letter to Lincoln of July 20, 1858, Lundy referred to Lincoln having indicated that he
would attend a mass meeting of Republicans of Putnam, Marshall, and La Salle Counties
if called on or after August 20, 1858 and informed Lincoln that such a meeting had
been scheduled for Friday, August 20. Lincoln received a further letter dated August 10, 1858 from Lundy on the subject, in which Lundy reiterated that August
20 had been set as the date for the mass meeting; Lincoln docketed that letter with
a note that his appearance at such a meeting was “Not to be.” In the midst of Lundy’s
correspondence with Lincoln regarding the date of the proposed mass meeting, the schedule
had been set for a series of debates between Lincoln and Douglas. The first of these debates was scheduled for Saturday,
August 21, 1858 in Ottawa, and rather than appearing in Magnolia on August 20 as Lundy proposed, Lincoln delivered
a speech in Peoria on August 19, then spent the night of the 20th in Morris in order to reach Ottawa the following day.
The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 28 July 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-07-28; 19 August 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-19; 20 August 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-20; 21 August 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-21; Stephen A. Douglas to Abraham Lincoln; Abraham Lincoln to Stephen A. Douglas; Abraham Lincoln to Stephen A. Douglas.
Autograph Letter Signed, 2 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC).