William C. Hobbs to Abraham Lincoln, 27 July 18581
Bloomington July 27, 1858.Hon. A. LincolnMy dear SirThe Republicans of McLean County are exceeding anxious to hear an address from you, on the great political topics
of the day—2 and to have an opportunity, to offer to you, individually, assurances of their energetic
devotion to your interests, and, of their undissenting approval of your honest, frank
and manly course as a politician— of your bold and triumphant advocacy of the immortal
principles of Republicanism, without fear or favor, and without subtlety or pettifogging
evasion
“The Lincoln Republican Club of McLean County Ill[Illinois]” have deputed me, as their President to invite you to address the people at Bloomington,
as soon as your convenience will permit– Will you be good enough to name the day.3
I would take the liberty to suggest that Saturday is usually considered the most convenient
day in the week for an address, and about 2 o clock in the afternoon the most convenient time
Very Respectfully W. C Hobbs, PresidentLincoln Rep.[Republican] Club. for McLean Co[County]
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Private
It will be well to give us 10 or 12 days notice– We want to send out messengers to
each township in the county & have a large gathering & this is demanded of us by the
people.–4 I will confer with you further on matters & arrangement after you designate the
day.
Yrs[Yours]Hobbs<Page 3>
[Envelope]
BLOOMINGTON Ill.
JUL[JULY] 28 1858Hon. A. LincolnSpringfieldIllinois
JUL[JULY] 28 1858Hon. A. LincolnSpringfieldIllinois
2Abraham Lincoln had been nominated at the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention to run against incumbent Democrat Stephen A. 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 were of importance to Lincoln’s campaign. Lincoln and Douglas both focused their
efforts during the campaign of 1858 on the former Whig Party stronghold of central Illinois, where the state legislative races were the closest.
The result of the 1858 race for the Thirty-Eighth Illinois House of Representatives
District, which consisted solely of McLean County, was that Republican Leonard Swett defeated Democrat John Gregory by a margin of around 600 votes. McLean County was
in the Sixteenth Illinois Senate District, where Democrat Joel S. Post held over in
the 1858 election.
Allen C. Guelzo, “House Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of
1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 392-94, 400-401; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:457-58, 476-77; John Clayton,
comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968
(Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 219-20, 222; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 4 November 1858, 2:3, 3:2; Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 5 November 1858, 1:3; The Weekly Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL), 10 November 1858, 1:2.
3No response to this letter by Lincoln has been located, although based on a further
letter from Hobbs on the subject, Lincoln responded on July 30, 1858. Lincoln ultimately
spoke in Bloomington on September 4, 1858.
Report of Speech at Bloomington, Illinois; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 4 September 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-09-04.
4In advance of Lincoln’s September 4 speech in Bloomington, the Lincoln Republican
Club of McLean County printed a circular letter from Hobbs dated August 6, through
which they notified county residents of the speech. The circular letters were addressed
to residents of different jurisdictions in the county whom the Lincoln Republican
Club appointed as committees to publicize the meeting.
Martin A. Wyckoff and Greg Koos, eds., The Illustrated History of McLean County
(Bloomington, IL: McLean County Historical Society, 1982), 82.
Autograph Letter Signed, 3 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC).