David L. Phillips to Abraham Lincoln, 24 July 18581
July 24. 1858.Dear Sir:–The Campaign is opening here fircely. On yesterday I addressed a court house full of people at Pinckneyville on yesterday in reply to Dougherty & Logan especially to Logan. My friends think I did it with perfect success, as Logan was
greatly stirred and replies to me to-day. I think he cannot do it to any purpose, as I managed to avoid any personalities,
and told no filthy yarns. I have determined to answer Logan on every Stump in Egypt wherever he speaks.– Dougherty is over doing the thing. He is chiefly engaged in making a kind of Savior of Buchanan. Logan Hoists2 him as Dougherty gets mad, and says extravagant things.–3 Perry County will go republican I think; and if two democrats will run in Perry & Washington we can carry the district. The prospect now is that Major J. D. Wood and Col.[Colonel] Jno. Crain will both be in the field. If this should turn out to be the case we will carry
the district.4 Strong hopes are entertained that we can carry Randolph.5 I shall
<Page 2>
visit that county soon and try to make arrangements to carry the county. We feel pretty surre that we shall succeed with our man in Wabash & White.6 Martin I hear is furious, and swears that he will do anything to defeat Douglas.7I wish to say to you that it is of great importance for you to be with Douglas at
each one of his meetings in this pat^r^t of the state this fall.8 Now is your time, as public sympathy is in your favor in a greater degree than ever
before. The Buchanan folks will give you a cordial welcome, on the score of undying
hostility to Douglas.
Dougherty and Logan are quarrelling like dogs.– We say “go it”.9 We all in good spirt^i^ts here and are pleased to see you so successfully annoying and stirring up the bile
of Judge Douglas.– Dresser says “go it Lincoln”
Yours TrulyD. L. Phillips10<Page 3>
[Envelope]
2Phillips may intend the definition of “hoist” that means to lift someone onto the
back of another person in order to flog the one who is lifted.
James A. H. Murray, ed., A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1901), 5:329.
3Phillips is discussing the 1858 election campaign. Southern Illinois, where Phillips resided, was largely a Democratic stronghold where Republican candidates
would face an uphill battle in 1858. The Democratic Party in Illinois was split at
this time, however, between supporters of Stephen A. Douglas and backers of President
James Buchanan. The rift was caused when Douglas criticized the Lecompton Constitution and Buchanan’s support of it in December 1857. Among Illinois Republicans there was
hope that the division in the Democratic Party, which resulted in competing Democratic
candidates in some races, would improve the chances of Republican candidates. Republican
Phillips and Douglas Democrat John A. Logan were ultimately the candidates for the
U.S. House of Representatives in the Ninth Congressional District of Illinois in 1858. Logan won election by a
large margin, earning 84.2 percent of the vote, while Phillips received 14.8 percent.
Although early rumors suggested that John Dougherty would be the candidate of the
Buchanan Democrats in the Ninth Congressional District of Illinois in 1858, Dougherty
was instead nominated to run for Illinois state treasurer at an Illinois Buchanan
Democratic convention on June 9, 1858. He came in third behind successfully reelected
Republican incumbent James Miller and Douglas Democrat William B. Fondey.
Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of
1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 392-401; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:445-48; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 22 April 1858, 2:1; Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 24 September 1858, 2:2; The Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 16 June 1858, 1:5; 13 October 1858, 1:5; Howard W. Allen and Vincent
A. Lacey, eds., Illinois Elections, 1818-1990 (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1992), 11, 143;
The Alton Weekly Courier (IL), 29 April 1858, 1:2; The Weekly Chicago Times (IL), 25 November 1858, 1:1, 2.
4Abraham Lincoln had recently been nominated at the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention to run against incumbent 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 such as Phillips discusses here were of importance to Lincoln’s campaign.
Perry and Washington counties constituted the Seventh Illinois House District, in
which Douglas Democrat John D. Wood did indeed run for office in 1858. Democrat John
Crain, presumably a Buchanan Democrat in contrast to Wood, does not seem to have run.
One published election return lists an otherwise unidentified candidate in the race
with the surname Guyman in a column of Buchanan Democrats, but differentiates him
with the designation of “Ind.” or Independent. Wood ultimately won the election with
1,832 votes, defeating Republican or Opposition candidate Samuel Y. Henry, who earned
959 votes, and Guyman, who received 19 votes in Perry County and none in Washington
County. Although Henry had a stronger showing in Perry County than in Washington County,
he did not win the county as Phillips hoped. The Illinois House of Representatives
seat was the only General Assembly position up for election in 1858 in these counties,
as Perry and Washington, along with Clinton, Jackson, and Randolph counties comprised the Twenty-Fourth Illinois Senate District, where Democrat Elzey
C. Coffey held over in 1858. See 1858 Illinois Republican Convention; 1858 Federal Election.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:457-58; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political
Landscape of 1858,” 394; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 17 June 1858, 2:5; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 219, 222; Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 14 October 1858, 2:4; 1 November 1858, 2:4; 5 November 1858, 1:3; The Weekly Chicago Times (IL), 11 November 1858, 2:7; 18 November 1858, 3:3; The Belvidere Standard (IL), 18 November 1856, 2:5.
5The voters of Randolph County did not return a Republican to the Illinois House of
Representatives in the election of 1858. In the Sixth Illinois House District, which
consisted solely of Randolph County, Democrat John E. Detrich received 1,063 votes, defeating Republican candidate Gabriel Jones, who garnered 958.
John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac 1673-1968, 219, 221, 222; Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 1 November 1858, 2:4; The Weekly Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL), 17 November 1858, 1:4.
6Wabash and White counties constituted the Ninth Illinois House District. Douglas Democrat
John G. Powell defeated Republican Morris (Maurice) B. Brown in the district in 1858 by a vote of 1,231 to 657.
John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac 1673-1968, 219, 222; History of White County Illinois (Chicago: Inter-State, 1883), 340; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 3 November 1858, 2:2.
7In the Twenty-Third Illinois Senate District, which consisted of Franklin, Hamilton, Saline, White, and Williamson counties, Democrat Samuel H. Martin was holding over in the election of 1858. Martin,
a supporter of James Buchanan, was vocal in his dislike of Douglas, but was ultimately won over by Douglas Democrats
and voted for Douglas and against Lincoln in the U.S. Senate election.
John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac 1673-1968, 219, 222; Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 5 November 1858, 1:3; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 4 June 1858, 2:3; Sydney Spring to Abraham Lincoln; Illinois House Journal. 1859. 21st G. A., 32.
8Early in the 1858 campaign for U.S. Senate in Illinois, Lincoln followed Douglas on
the stump, delivering speeches either later in the evening after Douglas finished,
or the next day. Both Republicans and Democrats criticized this strategy, and it was
of particular irritation to Douglas. On the date of this letter from Phillips, Lincoln
wrote to invite Douglas to a series of debates. In negotiating terms for what would
become the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, Lincoln promised to no longer be at any more of Douglas’ “exclusive meetings” and
in early August Lincoln declined requests from several Republicans in different parts
of the state to speak in conjunction with Douglas events.
Abraham Lincoln to Stephen A. Douglas; Abraham Lincoln to Stephen A. Douglas; Stephen A. Douglas to Abraham Lincoln; Stephen A. Douglas to Abraham Lincoln; Abraham Lincoln to Stephen A. Douglas; Abraham Lincoln to Stephen A. Douglas; Abraham Lincoln to Stephen A. Douglas; Abraham Lincoln to Jediah F. Alexander; Abraham Lincoln to Joseph T. Eccles; Abraham Lincoln to Joseph Gillespie; Abraham Lincoln to Charles W. Michael and William Proctor; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:483-85; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political
Landscape of 1858,” 404-8; Robert W. Johannsen, Stephen A. Douglas (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973), 662.
9The exclamation “go it” here is an apparent reference to a popular nineteenth century
anecdote in which a wife watching her husband and a bear fight cheers both on, alternately
calling out “go it husband” and “go it bear”, not caring which combatant wins. The
phrase was invoked in the press as early as 1841 to urge one’s opponents, political
or otherwise, to fight each other. Lincoln invoked the phrase in the seventh Lincoln-Douglas
Debate in Alton, Illinois on October 15, 1858 in reference to Douglas’ ongoing feud with the Buchanan administration.
The Chambersburg Times and Franklin Telegraph (PA), 20 December 1841, 2:4; Alton Telegraph & Democratic Review (IL), 16 December 1843, 2:5; Illinois Daily Journal (Springfield), 20 May 1850, 2:1; 5 October 1854, 3:1; Waukegan Gazette (IL), 26 February 1853, 2:2; Daily Illinois State Register (Springfield), 29 July 1857, 2:1; Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 6 December 1858, 2:1; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 3 December 1859, 2:2; Seventh Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Alton, Illinois; Seventh Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Alton, Illinois; Seventh Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Alton, Illinois.
10No response to this letter has been located. Phillips had previously written to Lincoln regarding the election of 1858 on June 9, 1858.
Autograph Letter Signed, 3 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC).