Augustus H. Chapman to Abraham Lincoln, 24 July 18581
Charleston Coles Co Ills July 24th 1858Hon A LincolnSpringfield IllsDear SirMr Craddock the Republican Candidate for representative in Coles & Moultrie Counties wishes me to write to you for him and ask you to send him at your earliest
convenience the most bitter speech that Doughlass ever made in his best days against the Know Nothing or American parties. You know that in our District2 there is between 3 & 4 hundred more American voters than there is Republican voters
and Craddock thinks if he had one of Douglasses Bitterest Speeches against the American or Know nothings parties that he could use
it to great advantage as John Monroe his Douglass opponent is striving verry hard to make the Americans believe that Doughlass & His parties have never been hostile to them at least not near as much so as we
Republicans represent them to have been. if you can possibly send Craddock such
a Coppy of one of Doughlasses speeches do so by all means Ill Guarantee he will make a judicious use of it.3 It affords me great pleasure to be able to say to you at this time that our prospects
for success in the fall Election for Representative & Senator are a
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brightening evry day & verry fast at that and we now feel certain of success almost beyond a doubt, at the meetings
of our secret vigilance committee last night the reports were of the most encouraging
character & we parted in glorious spirits. Several of the most bitter American leaders
of our County came out this week for Doughlass & openly avowed themselves Democrats from this time on. You can hardly form an Idea at the storm it raised among the
honest voters of the partys, they cursed these fellows loud & long, denounced them as Traitors & damd Rascals in fact for evry thing that was mean & degrading & they was theys the Honest ones, the masses of the
party flocked over to our side was truly astonishing, they come en masse & will do battle for us manfully from this time on. nothing has hapened for years that has done us as much good. these scamps would be leaders of the K N are now thank god where they cannot do us any further harm, right where we wanted
them. Col[Colonel] John Coffee4 the American presidential Elector for this district during the last Election Has come out on our Side & is doing all he can to advance our interest & let me tell
you he is a host, all in peace among us, no Rivalry or quarellings but all united determined to win or die a trying while the Democracy are in confusion
on all hands, quarrells, strife, Bickerings Stare them in the face of all points. It Has been the intention
of the Democracy to run Jim Robinson for congress
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in this District but thy have become so much alarmed at the enthusiasm for Oglesby among these oponents that they are now trying to arainge it to run Aron Shaw. whether they can get it so arainged I know not but hope the cannot for if Robinson is there candidate we think we stand a slight chance of beating him but if they Run Shaw they
will in all probability have the Dead wood on us5 but let them run who they may we will give them the verry best shot we have in the Locker.6 We think Tom Marshalls Election is sure by from 3 to 5 Hundred majority at least & we also intend to Elect
craddock by at least as big a majority over John Monroe.7 Craddock is the best stump speaker in our ranks in the wabash valley and the Locos fear him more than any other 3 men we have in our ranks. We Have our party better organized than we Have ever had before a long ways & you may expect to hear
a favorable resporte from Old Coles the Day of the Election. Dr Wm Chambers a verry prominent American leader in this county has not yet taken grounds on either side we are verry anxious to secure him he will write you soon if he has not already Done so & Tom Marshall will write you
& post you in regard to what he wants, if you can consistently say any thing to Him that will have a Tendency to Bring ^Him^ over to our side Do so by all means8 we are a making the fight on slave & Free white labor & not saying much about equality
or any thing of that kind the first pay much the best in this equality espeacolly among the wavering & Doubtfull among us
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Your friends & relatives in this county are all well & prospering about as usual.
Grand Mother Lincoln still is a member of our family & will continue to Do so ^be^ all probability untill she Dies.9 I often take my Republican papers & read Extracts from them ^that^ Eulogise you & you can Hardly form an idea how proud it makes her. She often says Abram was always her best child & that he always treated he like a son. I told ^her^ I was a going to write you to Day & she says tell you she sent a heap of love to you & wants to see you once more
very much. Harriet also sends love to you ^all^. she has been quite unwell ^lately^ but is getting well slowly, she was confined about 2 weeks since & has not done very
well since. We Had a very fine son the last time, but ^we^ lost our boy that was a baby when you were here but a Little over a year ago. no
other news of interest. Hope if Douglass comes out & makes us a speech this season, ^that^ you will do the same.10
Respectfully YoursA. H. Chapman.2William W. Craddock was running for a seat in the Illinois House of Representatives representing the Twenty-Fifth Illinois House District, which included Cole and Moultrie
counties.
Lincoln kept abreast of the races for the Illinois House and Illinois Senate in 1858 because he was running as the Illinois Republican Party’s candidate to replace Democratic incumbent Stephen A. Douglas in the U.S. Senate. At the time, members of the Illinois General Assembly voted for and elected the state’s representatives in the U.S. Senate; therefore,
both Lincoln and Douglas paid close attention to the outcome of the state’s local
elections. See 1858 Illinois Republican Convention.
Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 20 August 1858, 1:1; 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.
3Both the Illinois Republican and Democratic parties courted the votes of former Whigs in the local elections of 1858—particularly those who had moved into the American
Party following the dissolution of the Whig Party. As Chapman implies in this letter,
Douglas’ strategies related to the American Party changed over time. During the election of 1854, he and other Illinois Democrats criticized the American Party’s nativism as part
of a deliberate strategy to reinforce Democratic support among Catholics and foreign-born voters. In the election of 1856, concerned that members of the American Party would ally with the Republicans, Douglas
promoted the idea that the Republicans were a party of radical abolitionists. This strategy worked particularly well in the presidential contest in central and
southern Illinois, where many American Party voters cast their ballots for third-party
candidate Millard Fillmore, leading to a Democratic victory. Douglas carried this strategy into the election of 1858. In his July 9, 1858 speech opening his senatorial reelection campaign, he was complementary
to the American Party and, throughout 1858, he continued characterizing the Republicans
as a party of radical Northern abolitionists and portrayed the Democrats as a party
devoted to the preservation of the Union. Because both former Whigs and American Party
members were numerous in central and southern Illinois, Douglas repeatedly invoked
the name of Whig leader Henry Clay in his arguments regarding sectionalism, slavery, and his purported desire for national
unity in an effort to sway American Party voters.
Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of
1858,” 400-401; Illinois Daily Journal (Springfield), 2 October 1854, 2:2; 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), 114, 117-19, 122-23, 125.
5“Have the dead wood on us” was a phrase in circulation at the time that meant one
party had a significant advantage over the other party.
James C. Robinson and Richard J. Oglesby were vying for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives representing the Illinois Senventh Congressional District, which included Coles and
Moultrie counties.
John Ayto and John Simpson, The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 66; Howard W. Allen and Vincent
A. Lacey, eds., Illinois Elections, 1818-1990 (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1992), 11, 142-43;
For examples of usage of “Have the dead wood on us,” see Weekly Missouri Statesman (Columbus), 27 October 1854, 2:4; Daily Missouri Republican (St. Louis), 15 February 1859, 3:2; Mrs. Schuyler Corwninshield, “Mysterious Miss
Dacres,” Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine 67 (April 1901), 405.
6“Shot in the locker” was a common saying for having money or some other valuable resource
at one’s disposal. The expression originated with seamen, in reference to the locker—or
compartment—on a warship that held the ammunition, or “shot.”
Eliezer Edwards, Words, Facts, and Phrases: A Dictionary of Curious, Quaint, and Out-of-the-Way Matters (London: Chatto & Windus, 1882), 512; The Encyclopaedic Dictionary (London: Cassell, 1887), 6:392; W. Clark Russell, Sailors’ Language (London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 1883), 127.
7Thomas A. Marshall was the Republican candidate seeking election to the Illinois Senate
representing the Eighteenth Senate District, which included Coles, Vermilion, Cumberland, and Edgar counties.
Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 3 November 1858, 2:2.
8Thomas A. Marshall wrote Lincoln on July 22, noting that he had seen a letter William M. Chambers wrote Lincoln the same day. Marshall offered advice for how Lincoln might best respond
to Chambers. Marshall had also written Lincoln on June 2, alerting Lincoln to the fact that Chambers would be in Springfield,
Illinois later that week. No reply from Lincoln to either Chambers or Marshall has
been located.
9In a letter dated November 4, 1851, Lincoln had urged his stepmother, Sarah Lincoln, who lived with John D. Johnston at the time, to try living with Chapman and his wife, Harriet.
10If Lincoln replied to this letter, his response has not been located.
Lincoln and Douglas both spoke in Charleston, Illinois on September 18 for the fourth
debate of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates.
In the local elections of 1858, voters in Illinois’ Seventh Congressional District
elected Democrat James C. Robinson over his Republican rival, Richard J. Oglesby.
Aaron Shaw, a Democrat serving in the U.S. House of Representatives at the time, never became a candidate for this seat. Voters in the Eighteenth Illinois
Senate District elected Republican Marshall. Despite Republican efforts to demonstrate
to voters that Douglas’ treatment of the American Party changed over time in line
with his political goals, Douglas and the Democrats ultimately proved more adept than
the Republicans in attracting the votes of former members of the American Party. Of
the fourteen counties where the American vote had an impact on the election for state
representatives, Democrats carried eleven of the fourteen counties. One exception
was Illinois House District Twenty-Five. In 1856, the Democrats won this seat, but
in 1858, voters elected Republican Craddock to represent them.
Republicans won a majority of all votes cast in Illinois, but pro-Douglas Democrats
retained control of the Illinois General Assembly. Lincoln ultimately received forty-six
votes in the General Assembly. Craddock and Marshall both cast their ballots for Lincoln.
Douglas received fifty-one votes and retained the Senate seat. 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.
Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 6 October 1858, 2:3; 13 November 1858, 2:3; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 18 September 1858, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-09-18; Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois; Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois; Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois; Stephen Hansen and Paul Nygard, “Stephen A. Douglas, the Know-Nothings, and the
Democratic Party in Illinois, 1854-1858,” 129-30; Howard W. Allen and Vincent A. Lacey,
eds., Illinois Elections, 1818-1990, 11, 142-43; The Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 17 November 1858, 2:4; Biographical Directory of the American Congress 1774-1996
(Alexandria, VA: CQ Staff Directories, 1997), 155, 1809; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968
(Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 219, 222; Illinois House Journal. 1859. 21st G. A., 32; Illinois Senate Journal. 1859. 21st G. A., 30; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the
Political Landscape of 1858,” 394, 414-16; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:556-57.
Autograph Letter Signed, 4 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC).