Timothy D. Lincoln to Abraham Lincoln, 17 July 18581
Cincinnati. July 17, 1858Hon Abraham LincolnSpringfieldIllinoisDear SirI have read your letter speech at Chicago in answer to Judge Douglass with very great pleasure.2 When the speech at Springfield was made I was so excessively engrossed with business
that I did not read it in the papers. A quotation from it in your Chicago speech
contains the pith or as we lawyers say, the gist. of the whole matter. & I am anxious
to see the Springfield speech. You would greatly oblige me by sending me one or more
of them, if you conveniently can.3
The canvas going on in your great state, is by no means a local one. It is assuming national importance in the eyes of
the people of all sections of the Country– Your state is sure to be the acknowledge [gre?] Empire State of the North West. and its political sentiment seems to be improving
as rapidly as its physical. You have a most adroit sagacious, bold and able opponent.
yet one lacking many of the essential elements of either a statesman or a great man
and he is therefore not invulnerable Straightforwardness and bol^d^ness will quite soon (if not now) carry even against such a man and I feel confident
that you may even here succeed against him. This is my belief. and my desire– But
excuse this. I thought only of writing for the Springfield speech.4
Yours respectfullyT. D. Lincoln5<Page 2>
[Envelope]
CINCINNATI O.[OHIO]
JUL[JULY] 19Hon. Abraham Lincoln,Springfield,Illinois.
JUL[JULY] 19Hon. Abraham Lincoln,Springfield,Illinois.
1Timothy D. Lincoln 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, Stephen A. Douglas was running for reelection to the U.S. Senate and Abraham Lincoln was running against him as the Illinois Republican Party’s senatorial candidate. Douglas delivered his opening campaign address from the balcony
of the Tremont House in Chicago, Illinois on July 9. Abraham Lincoln was present, and delivered his own
campaign address the next day. See the 1858 Federal Election.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:458, 467-69; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 9 July 1858, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-07-09; 10 July 1858, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-07-10; Report of Speech at Chicago, Illinois; Report of Speech at Chicago, Illinois; Report of Speech at Chicago, Illinois.
3Following his nomination for the U.S. Senate by the Illinois Republican Party at the
1858 Illinois Republican Convention in Springfield, Illinois, Abraham Lincoln delivered an acceptance speech—which became
known as the “House Divided” speech. During his Chicago address on July 10, Lincoln
addressed Douglas’ criticism of his main arguments in the House Divided speech, quoting
from the latter for a time.
Report of Speech at Springfield, Illinois; Report of Speech at Springfield, Illinois; Fragment of A House Divided Speech at Springfield, Illinois; Report of Speech at Springfield, Illinois; Report of Speech at Chicago, Illinois; Report of Speech at Chicago, Illinois; Report of Speech at Chicago, Illinois.
4Abraham Lincoln’s reply to this letter, if he wrote one, has not been located.
Timothy Lincoln was correct in his assertion that the 1858 contest between Douglas
and Abraham Lincoln was not merely a local one. The campaign was covered extensively
in the Illinois press, and—beginning with Abraham Lincoln’s July 10 Chicago speech—the
national press followed the story as well. National attention to the contest increased
with the Lincoln-Douglas Debates.
Ultimately, in the local elections of 1858, Republicans won a majority of all votes
cast in Illinois, but pro-Douglas Democrats retained control of the Illinois General Assembly. At the time, members of the General Assembly voted for and elected the state’s
representatives in the U.S. Senate, and, in the 1858 Federal Election, Douglas won reelection. Through the campaign, however, and in particular through
his participation in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, Lincoln gained recognition as well
as standing within the national Republican Party.
Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life. 1:466-556; Allen C. Guelzo, “House Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political
Landscape of 1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 394, 414-16.
Autograph Letter Signed, 2 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC).