James Stelle to Abraham Lincoln, 28 July 18581
Lawrenceville, Ills., July 28, 1858Hon. Abraham LincolnSpringfield, Ill.,Dr[Dear]. Sir:—Do you know of a Republican paper in this State in which an experienced journalist might obtain a good situation as editor or assistant
editor? I mean a paper of with a respectable circulation; and so located that it might do good service to the
cause. At present I am engaged in writing for the various literary publications of
the east, but seeing how things are working around me, I cannot help feeling a desire
to be once more kicking around in the political world. Through the last political campaign I fought for the Fillmore party, but as that party is now no more,2 I can only go with the opposition to that sham Democracy whose workings and unworkings are creating a stain which, I fear, can never be entirely
washed from the name of our Republic. As a journalist I have had an experience of
ten years. Of course I have nothing to say in regard to my abilities as a writer.
My nom de plume for several years has been "Hazel Green, Esq[Esquire]." To learn of my character, &c.[etc.], &c., I would refer you to Hon. Jesse K. Dubois now in Springfield, or to Dr. I. A. Powell of this place; or Wm Harrow, Esq. of Vincennes, Ind., formerly a member of the Republican State Committee of Illinois.
If you know of such a situation
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and will be so good as to procure it for me (I would prefer having full controll of a paper) I will put my shoulder to the wheel and do all in my power to retard
the onward progress of our common enemy; and will be ever looking for an opportunity
to repay the your kindness. I am now making more, pecuniarily, at my literary engagements, than
I can hope to realize from politics, still I do not feel content to look on and not
have a hand in the work.
The enclosed slip is one of a series of "burlesques" that I am publishing in the
Daily Vincennes Gazette.
Hoping to receive your attention, I am3
Yours trulyJames Stelle. <Page 3>
SIM'S MEETING
Olney, Ills., July 26. 1858.Dear Gazette:I feel sorter stuck this morning over my meeting that I appointed to come off at Olney, last Saturday.
Judge Douglas never came down to hear me, nor nobody else came. I staid all day in the Court-House a waiting, with a speech right at the eend of my tongue, but nobody came to hear it. Brother Wilson did come over once, and I wanted to deliver it to him, but he said he hadn't got time
to listen to it. I can't tell why Judge Douglas didn't come down, but I suppose he
couldn't slip away from that Lincoln what's follerin him around, and a dabbing him on first one side of his noggin and then on tother, like a crow arter an owl.4 If I was a little giant like Judge Douglas is, I'd just turn around and lick him till
his wife wouldn't know him. But then I guess they're jest like the crow and the owl, sure enough. When Judge Douglas makes a grab at him, he
ain't there. Then Judge Douglas alights on a nuther tree and begins to wonder whether he's demolished him, or knocked him into a flock
of jay-birds, or what he has done, when the first thing he knows, there's Lincoln a spurring away at his tender
places, and a crow^a^5in' worse nor before. Then the little folks they all set up a orful hurrah for Lincoln, like the jay-birds and martins and swallows do for the crow;
and the poor owl has to sit and take it, with the laughing committee against him.
If, perchance, a few screech-owls, whippoorwills, and snipes are near by, they sympathize
with him from the bottom of their hearts, because they are his friends; but they generally
keep at a distance, for fear his cause is not a good one, or rather for fear that
a little gab from them might cause them to get a little of what he's a getting.
I wish Judge Douglas had a come down, cause I had a mighty fine speech cut and dried
for him to listen to. I was a going to begin it something like this:
"Who will our great Democratic party nominate for the next President?"
Then I was a going to run my hands away down into my britches pockets, and then lean back kinder consequential like, pause a while, look over and
wink my right eye at Judge Douglas, and then say—
"That's the rub!"
Then I was a going to say, jest like it was some other feller a ta[l]king—
"Where's Henry A. Wise?"
I wasn't a going to answer that question only by shaking my head.
"At home," I'd a said, "and I hope he'll stay there."
"At home!" a shaking of my head.
"In the same fix."
"Where's Gwin, of California?"
"Too far off to make a good President."
"Where's Hunter?'
"Broke down"
"Where's Buchanan, the present incumbent?"
Here I was a goin' to smack my fists together and tell the imaginary feller that if he wanted to palm off an insult on me, jest for him to mention that name
agin, and I'd cave in his calabash for him. Then I was a goin' to make him say,
with his voice a trembling like he was dreadfully scared:
"Well, for goodness sakes, ain't they nobody to nominate?"
"Yes!" in a loud holler, a bringing my fist down on something.
"Who? a trembling and scart worse nor ever.
"Judge Douglas!' loud enough to be hearn all over town. Then I was a going to wink at the Judge, while the folks got done a stompin' and slappin' their hands.
I was a going to say a heap more, but I haint got time to tell you about it now. I'm sorry the Judge couldn't come down to hear
me. I spose he couldn't help it though. If I thought he could, I'd git down on him and then I'd appoint a rousin big meeting, and have Mr. Buchanan and his friends at it if I had to pay their expenses
myself. If the Judge don't turn Bob out of the party soon and give me some appointment I ain't sure but I'll do it anyhow. If I do, you
must be sure to come out.
Tell Judge Niblack that it tickled me almost to death to hear he was nominated; and then ax him what he'd give me to come over and stump the District for him.6 I could do it a leetle cheaper than he could, cause I don't drink much. If he would like to have me, tell
him to come out and let me know when he's a coming, so I can have Aunt Judy to come
in from the country to make us a good hot stew. She can beat the world at a mixing
up a little whisky and sugar and ginger, and a very little water together.
About the next news you get will be that a certain Bob has been cowhided by a railroad
conductor.7
Your friend,Sim Anderson.<Page 4>
[Envelope]
LAWRENCEVILLE ILL[ILLINOIS]
JULY 28Hon. Abraham LincolnSpringfield Ills[Illinois].
JULY 28Hon. Abraham LincolnSpringfield Ills[Illinois].
1James Stelle wrote and signed this letter. He also wrote Abraham Lincoln’s name and
address on the envelope shown in the fourth image.
2The American Party was largely politically dead in Illinois by the local elections of 1858. Former members of the party, often referred to colloquially
as "Fillmore Men" because the national party backed Millard Fillmore in the presidential election of 1856 voted in a disorganized manner for either Democratic or Republican candidates.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:549; Howard W. Allen and
Vincent A. Lacey, eds., Illinois Elections, 1818-1990 (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1992), 11, 141-43.
3If Lincoln replied to this letter, his response has not been located. There is also
no indication that Stelle became editor of any Republican newspapers in Illinois after
the summer of 1858.
4At the time of Stelle’s letter to Lincoln, Lincoln was running as the Illinois Republican
Party’s candidate to supplant incumbent Stephen A. Douglas in the U.S. Senate. For the first part of the election campaign of 1858, Lincoln had often followed
Douglas on the trail, delivering speeches either later in the evening after Douglas
finished, or the next day. In an August 2 letter to Joseph T. Eccles, however, Lincoln noted that in correspondence Douglas had indicated that “my presence,
on the days or evenings of his meetings would be considered an intrusion.” Lincoln
and Douglas eventually agreed to a series of formal debates during which they would
address one another before the same audience. These became known as the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. See the 1858 Federal Election.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:458, 483-85.
6On July 22, 1858, the Democrats of Indiana’s First Congressional District nominated
William E. Niblack as their candidate for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Niblack ultimately won election to the Thirty-Sixth U.S. Congress.
The Weekly Vincennes Western Sun (IN), 24 July 1858, 2:2; Biographical Directory of the American Congress 1774-1996
(Alexandria, VA: CQ Staff Directories, 1997), 1586.
7In the local elections of 1858, Republicans won a majority of all votes cast in Illinois,
but pro-Douglas Democrats retained control of the Illinois General Assembly. At the time, members of the General Assembly voted for and elected the state’s
representatives in the U.S. Senate, and Douglas won reelection. The campaign, however,
and in particular the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, catapulted Lincoln onto the national
political scene and set the stage for the 1860 Federal Election—during which both Douglas and John C. Breckenridge ran as the Democratic Party’s candidates against Lincoln as the Republican Party’s
candidate and John Bell as the Union Party’s candidate. See the 1860 Federal Election.
Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of
1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 394; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:556-57; William Starr Myers, “Campaign of 1860,” Dictionary of American History
, rev. ed. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1976), 1:421.
Autograph Letter Signed, 4 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC).