Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Frank W. Tracy to Abraham Lincoln, 27 July 18581
Beardstown Cass Co Ills July 27/58Mr A. LincolnSpringfield IllsDr[Dear] Sir
In accordance with the instructions of the Beardstown Republican Club, I send you the following resolution, which was, at its last meeting, unanimously adopted, trusting that at some future day you can respond to it.

Resolved— That the Beardstown Republican Club extend an invitation to Hon A. Lincoln to address the members of this club and the citizens of Cass County on the 11th of August next— and if not compatible with his arrangements at that time— at such time as may suit his convenience–2

Hoping to recieve a favorable answer we remain3
Yours truly Frank W Tracy
Secty[Secretary] B. R. C.[Club]P.S. Have your Springfield and Chicago Speeches been published in pamphlet form for circulation, and of whom can they be obtained? As we desire to thoroughly canvass our county previous to the election we wish to obtain quite a number of them.4 Yours &c[etc.]F. W T
Secty B.R.C.[Beardstown Republican Club]

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[Envelope]

BEARDSTOWN ILLS.[ILLINOIS]
30 JUL[JULY]Hon A. LincolnSpringfield Ills

[ docketing ]
Lincoln, Abraham (President)

F. W. Tracy
Beardstown5

1Frank W. Tracy wrote and signed this letter, including the address on the envelope.

2Lincoln had been nominated in June at the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention to run against incumbent 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. He and Douglas both focused their campaign efforts on the former Whig stronghold of central Illinois, where the state legislative races were the closest. Douglas spoke in Beardstown on August 11 and Lincoln accepted this invitation to appear in the town, ultimately speaking in Beardstown on August 12. See the 1858 Federal Election.
Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses 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, 481; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 12 August 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-12; Speech of Francis A. Arenz Welcoming Abraham Lincoln to Beardstown; Report of Speech at Beardstown, Illinois; Summary of Speech at Beardstown, Illinois.

3No response to this letter from Lincoln has been located, but in a further letter on the subject, Tracy acknowledged having received a letter from Lincoln dated July 30, 1858, in which Lincoln apparently proposed to speak in Beardstown on August 12. Around the time that Lincoln penned that response to Tracy, he also wrote letters to several other correspondents declining to speak in the same location as Douglas on the same date, using as his excuse that Douglas found such a practice to be an intrusion. As Douglas’ intention to speak in Beardstown on August 11 was published in the newspaper by the date of Lincoln’s missing letter of July 30, Lincoln may have used the same reasoning in that letter to Tracy to suggest that he speak on August 12 instead.
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; Daily Illinois State Register (Springfield), 30 July 1858, 2:1.

4The speech that Lincoln delivered in Springfield on July 17, 1858 was published in pamphlet form in August 1858 through his own efforts. In publishing Lincoln’s Chicago speech of July 10, 1858, the Chicago Press and Tribune announced that additional copies of the speech were available at the newpaper’s office.
Despite the efforts of the Republicans of Cass County, the Thirty-Fourth Illinois House District, which was comprised of Cass and Menard counties, elected Democrat William Engle in 1858. He defeated independent James W. Judy, who ran with the support of Whigs and Republicans. Cass County was at this time in the Seventeenth District of the Illinois Senate, where Democrat Samuel W. Fuller held over in the election of 1858.
Speech at Springfield, Illinois; Report of Speech at Springfield, Illinois; Report of Speech at Springfield, Illinois; Abraham Lincoln to Gustavus P. Koerner; Abraham Lincoln to Daniel A. Cheever; Speech of Hon. Abraham Lincoln, Delivered in Springfield, Saturday Evening, July 17, 1858 ([Springfield?]: n.p., [1858?]); Report of Speech at Chicago, Illinois; Report of Speech at Chicago, Illinois; Report of Speech at Chicago, Illinois; Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 12 July 1858, 1:1, 2-6; 7 October 1858, 2:3; 5 November 1858, 1:3; 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), 9 September 1858, 2:3; The Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 22 September 1858, 1:4; The Biographical Encyclopedia of Illinois of the Nineteenth Century (Philadelphia: Galaxy, 1875), 481-82.

5Lincoln wrote this docketing.