Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Nathan C. Geer to Abraham Lincoln, 26 July 18581

DAILY TRANSCRIPT
STEAM PRINTING ESTABLISHMENT,
NO. 4, FULTON St.[Street], Near Corner of Water—Transcript Buildings.

NATHAN C. GEER, } Editors. NATHAN C. GEER, Publisher.

LYSANDER R. WEBB.

Peoria, Ill.July 26 1858Friend LDear Sir
I see Douglass has issued his appointment & is to be here the 18^th and we wish you to be here the 19^th and to help draw a crowd have called the Congressional Convention to meet the same day at 11 oclock and as Kellogg will probably be nominated by acclimation it will not take long to do up our business2

Also I wish Gov Bissell would come over for there are troops of persons in our opponents ranks that would come out to see him, and we would try to make it pleasant for him, and it would probably do him good to get out

Let me hear as soon as possible as we are to get out lots of bills & flood the country 3
Yours &c[etc]N C Geer

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TRANSCRIPT
PRINTING PEORIA DAILY TRANSCRIPT
Is PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING (EXCEPT SUNDAYS) AND IS AFFORDED AT six dollars PER YEAR, IN ADVANCE, AND HAS DOUBLE THE CIRCULATION OF ANY OTHER DAY IN THIS CITY.

ESTABLISHMENT,
PEORIA, ILLINOIS. The Weekly Transcript
Is A LARGE EIGHT COLUMN PAPER, Published EVERY Thursday Morning
TERMS.--Single Copies $2; Clubs of fifteen $1.50; of fifty $1.

N. C. GEER,
Book, Card and Ornamental
JOB PRINTER,
No. 4 Fulton St.,
CORNER OF WATER.
LETTER PRESS PRINTING
OF EVERY DESCRIPTION
Executed at a Moment's Warning,
And on Reasonable Terms.
CALL AND SEE THE SPECIMENS.

PEORIA Ills.[Illinois]
JUL[JULY] 27 1858Hon A LincolnSpringfieldIll

[ docketing ]
Lincoln, Abraham (President)

N. C. Geer4

1Nathan C. Geer wrote and signed this letter. He also wrote Abraham Lincoln’s name and address on the envelope shown in the second image.

2The Republicans of the Fourth Illinois Congressional District held a congressional convention on August 19. During the convention, delegates unanimously nominated William Kellogg as their candidate for the district’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
At the time of this letter, Lincoln was running for a seat in the U.S. Senate as the Illinois Republican Party’s candidate to supplant incumbent Democrat Stephen A. Douglas. See 1858 Illinois Republican Convention; 1858 Federal Election.
Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 21 August 1858, 2:3; Biographical Directory of the American Congress 1774-1996 (Alexandria, VA: CQ Staff Directories, 1997), 155; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:458.

3Geer wrote Lincoln again on August 2, noting that he had received a letter from Lincoln dated July 30. Lincoln’s July 30 letter to Geer has not been located. On September 13, Geer wrote Lincoln another letter related to the election campaign of 1858.
Douglas delivered a campaign address in Peoria, Illinois on August 18. Lincoln delivered a speech the next day, after the adjournment of the aforementioned congressional convention. Kellogg addressed the crowd after Lincoln, but there is no evidence that Illinois Governor William H. Bissell either attended the event or delivered a speech.

In the congressional election for the Fourth District, Kellogg won election to the U.S. House of Representatives with 52.8 percent of the vote compared to 45.7 percent for his pro-Douglas Democratic rival, James W. Davidson, and 1.5 percent for his pro-BuchananDemocratic opponent, Jacob Gale. At the time, members of the Illinois General Assembly voted for and elected the state’s representatives in the U.S. Senate; hence, the outcome of races for the Illinois House of Representatives and Illinois Senate would decide the senatorial contest. Republicans won a majority of all votes cast in Illinois, but pro-Douglas Democrats retained control of the General Assembly, and Douglas ultimately 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.
Daily Illinois State Register (Springfield), 21 July 1858, 2:1; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 19 August 1858, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-19; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 21 August 1858, 2:3; 27 September 1858, 2:2; Howard W. Allen and Vincent A. Lacey, eds., Illinois Elections, 1818-1990 (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1992), 11; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:556-57; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 394, 414-16.

4Lincoln wrote this docketing in pencil vertically on the left side of the envelope shown in the second image.

NATHAN C. GEER,	}	Editors.	NATHAN C. GEER, Publisher.
LYSANDER R. WEBB.

TRANSCRIPT PRINTING	PEORIA DAILY TRANSCRIPT Is PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING (EXCEPT SUNDAYS) AND IS AFFORDED AT six dollars PER YEAR, IN ADVANCE, AND HAS DOUBLE THE CIRCULATION OF ANY OTHER DAY IN THIS CITY.
ESTABLISHMENT, PEORIA, ILLINOIS.	The Weekly Transcript Is A LARGE EIGHT COLUMN PAPER, Published EVERY Thursday Morning TERMS.--Single Copies $2; Clubs of fifteen $1.50; of fifty $1.
N. C. GEER, Book, Card and Ornamental JOB PRINTER, No. 4 Fulton St., CORNER OF WATER. LETTER PRESS PRINTING OF EVERY DESCRIPTION Executed at a Moment's Warning, And on Reasonable Terms. CALL AND SEE THE SPECIMENS.