Charles W. Michael and William Proctor to Abraham Lincoln, 29 July 18581
Lewistown Fulton County Ills July 29th/58Honourable Siryou are apprized no doubt that Hon A Douglass is to be here on Monday on Monday 16th Augst.[August] our Court week.2 no doubt a large concourse will assemble here on that day by Court and this appointment.
There will be a great attempt made by Douglasss friends to claim the whole assemblage as the result of his popularity and visit here
and will so no doubt ^be^ so published so your appearance here would entirely twart and considerably interfere with any such assumption. your friends here and in this
County are numerous and would consider your appearance vitally important here at ^this^ time alledged. if we can be indulged by you to favour our views and this our invitation to you please let Mr Wm Proctor or Myron Phelps know by a reply so that we can give notice and publicity to the same
awaiting yours in reply we are most respectfully yours &c[etc]C W MichaelW Proctor3PS very many others unite in the above request4Honl[Honorable]. A Lincoln5<Page 2>
[Envelope]
LEWISTOWN ILL. [ILLINOIS]
JUL 30Honrl.[Honorable] A LincolnSpringfield P.O.Sangamon CountyIllinois.6
JUL 30Honrl.[Honorable] A LincolnSpringfield P.O.Sangamon CountyIllinois.6
2According to an 1857 law, the Fulton County Circuit Court met on the fourth Mondays
of February, the fourth Mondays of May, and the second Mondays of November. No additional
laws changing the meeting times of the court could be located between this 1857 law
and the date of this letter. However, the Chicago Daily Press and Tribune reported that the court met during the third week in August, as did William Proctor
in a subsequent letter to Lincoln.
"An Act to Change the Fifth and Tenth Judicial Circuits, and Fix the Time of Holding
Courts Therein," 29 January 1857, Laws of Illinois (1857), 5; Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 20 August 1858, 2:4..
4Proctor also wrote this postscript.
Lincoln replied to this letter on August 2. Judge William Kellogg had also written Lincoln, on July 26, requesting that he speak in Lewistown, Illinois. Lincoln’s reply
to Kellogg’s letter has not been located. Amos C. Babcock and William P. Kellogg wrote Lincoln on August 4 on behalf of Judge Kellogg, assuring Lincoln that they would
assemble a good crowd in Lewistown by advertising well. Proctor wrote Lincoln a similar letter on August 6, confident that the crowd would be large.
In June, delegates to the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention had unanimously nominated Abraham Lincoln as the party’s candidate to replace incumbent Stephen A. Douglas in the U.S. Senate. Since the Republican Party dominated the state’s northern counties and the Democratic Party dominated the southern counties, both Lincoln and Douglas focused their campaigns
on central Illinois. During the first part of the campaign, Lincoln had often followed
Douglas on the trail, delivering speeches either later in the evening after Douglas
finished, or the next day. Douglas delivered his campaign speech in Lewistown on August
16. Lincoln delivered an address in Lewistown on August 17. As he noted in his reply to Michael and Proctor, “Judge Douglas considers my presence at his
appointments as an intrusion; and so I have concluded to not be present at them.”
Lincoln and Douglas did, however, eventually appear together during the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, which won Lincoln considerable acclaim within the national Republican Party. Douglas’
audience in Lewistown on August 16 was estimated at 3,000, while Lincoln’s on August
17 was around 2,000.
In the end, in 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 ultimately won reelection. The campaign,
however, and in particular the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, catapulted Lincoln onto the
national political scene, setting the stage for the 1860 Federal Election. See the 1858 Federal Election.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:458, 476, 482-83, 556-57;
Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of
1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 394, 404-8, 414-16; Report of Speech at Lewistown, Illinois.
Autograph Letter Signed, 2 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC).