Lawrence Weldon to Abraham Lincoln, 8 July 18581
Clinton Ills= July= 8=1858–Hon. A. LincolnDr[Dear] Sir=We are intending to have a convention in this County to appoint delegates to the representative Convention to be held at Monticello to nominate a Candidate for the legislature in this district2 and as we expect the Fillmore men to attend we thought it advisable for you to come up if you can– If you should come
& mak & even not make a speech I think it would have a good effect on the discordant elements
of the part— upon which our success to some extent depends= In the Central portion
of the state is to be fought the battle and in our district perhaps will be the hottest= If you
are so situated as that you can come— & think it policy ^expedient^ we should be glad to have you= I think our policy is to nominate a Fillmore3 if he will go for you—4 if not we shall have to fight on our own hook let me hear from you & oblige &-5
L. WeldonConvention meets on the 17th July=6<Page 2>
[Envelope]
JUL[July] 9Hon. A. LincolnSpringfieldIll=
LAWRENCE WELDON,
ATTORNEY AT LAW,
And Land Agent,
CLINTON, ILLINOIS.
CLINTON Ills.[Illinois] ATTORNEY AT LAW,
And Land Agent,
CLINTON, ILLINOIS.
JUL[July] 9Hon. A. LincolnSpringfieldIll=
1Lawrence Weldon wrote and signed this letter. He also wrote Abraham Lincoln’s name
and address on the envelope shown in the second image.
2At the time, DeWitt County, Illinois was located in the Sixteenth Illinois Senate District and the Thirty-Sixth Illinois House of Representatives District.
The Republicans of DeWitt County held a convention in Clinton, Illinois on July 18 to select delegates
to attend the legislative district convention in Monticello, Illinois, which took
place on July 23.
John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968
(Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 220, 221, 222; The Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 17 November 1858, 2:4; The Central Transcript (Clinton, IL), 23 July 1858, 2:4.
3Reference to former adherents of the American Party. Often referred to colloquially as "Fillmores" or "Fillmore Men" because the national
party backed Millard Fillmore in the presidential election of 1856, members of the American Party were an important source of votes for both Democrats and Republicans in the state and federal elections of 1858, and both sides worked
to garner their support.
Tyler Anbinder, Nativism & Slavery: The Northern Know Nothings & the Politics of the 1850s (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), 246-78; Stephen Hansen and Paul Nygard,
“Stephen A. Douglas, the Know-Nothings, and the Democratic Party in Illinois, 1854-1858,”
Illinois Historical Journal 87 (Summer 1994), 123-29.
4Lincoln was running as the Illinois Republican Party’s candidate to supplant incumbent Stephen A. Douglas in the U.S. Senate. Republican state committee members selected Lincoln as the party’s candidate because
they believed that a Republican with solid connections to the Whig Party and moderate views on slavery would have the broadest appeal and allow them to capture
the votes of both those who had voted for John C. Fremont and those who voted for Fillmore in the presidential election of 1856.
At the time, members of the Illinois General Assembly voted for and elected the state’s
representatives in the U.S. Senate, so the outcome of the races for the Illinois House
and the Illinois Senate were highly relevant to the outcome of the state’s U.S. Senate race.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:458; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses
Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 394, 402.
5If Lincoln replied to this letter, his response has not been located. Weldon wrote Lincoln once more in 1858, asking him to deliver a campaign address in Clinton.
6The Republicans of DeWitt County actually held their convention in Clinton on July
18, not July 17.
There is no evidence that Lincoln attended the DeWitt County Republican Convention
in Clinton on July 18. He delivered speeches in both Atlanta, Illinois and Springfield, Illinois on July 17, and was likely in Macon County, Illinois on July 19.
Weldon was correct that central Illinois was highly competitive ground in 1858. This
fact drove both Lincoln and Douglas to focus the bulk of their campaigns on counties
in the center of the state. This included DeWitt County and Clinton, where Lincoln
delivered an address on September 2—at the invitation of Weldon and other Republicans in Clinton.
In the local elections of 1858, voters in the Sixteenth Illinois Senate District reelected
incumbent pro-Douglas Democrat Joel S. Post and voters in the Thirty-Sixth Illinois
House District elected Republican Daniel E. Stickel. Ultimately, Republicans won a majority of all votes cast in Illinois, but pro-Douglas
Democrats retained control of the Illinois General Assembly and Douglas won reelection in the
1858 Federal Election. Through the campaign, however, and in particular through his participation in the
Lincoln-Douglas Debates, Lincoln gained national recognition as well as standing within the Republican Party.
The Central Transcript (Clinton, IL), 23 July 1858, 2:4. The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, July 1858, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarMonth&year=1858&month=7; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape
of 1858,” 404, 414-16; Clifton H. Moore, B. Campbell and Lawrence Weldon to Abraham Lincoln; Summary of Remarks to Lawrence Weldon at Clinton, Illinois; Report of Speech of Lawrence Weldon to Abraham Lincoln; Report of Speech at Clinton, Illinois; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968, 222; The Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 17 November 1858, 2:4; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 22 April 1858, 2:4; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:476, 556-57.
Autograph Letter Signed, 2 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC).