Alexander Campbell to Abraham Lincoln, 2 August 18581
La Salle July Augt 2 1858Dear Siryours of the ulto has been received in relation to material aid2 I would have answered it sooner but for the reason that I had hoped to have made
some collections before this time but so far I have found it imposseble to do so, and therefore I am unable to contribute any at this time I can assure you that I feel no less interest in the cause than I did two years
ago but on the contrary I look upon the contest in our State of much greater importance than at that time; and if possible feel a deeper interest
in the result; and would cheerfully manifest my feelings by my acts if it were in
my power, I will say that by some means or other I will try to raise up 50$ for the cause some time during the campaign probably by the time you are in Ottawa.3 So far as the senatorship is concerned all looks well here: although there will be
some strife about our members to the Legislature
I remain yours trulyA Campbell5To Hon A Lincoln<Page 2>
my friends have persuaded me to allow my name to be used as a candidate for the Legislature.
Some of our more ultra friends are opposed to this move for the reason as they say
that I am not a republincan (But I have reasons for believing that their real grounds of objection is that they
want the place themselves)4 I have here tofore told you that I did not believe in the plan of Electioneering by wrangling with opponents
on the Street. This seems to be the test that some of fealty to the party that some of them wish to establish; now you may be written on the subject, and
if so I have one request to make of you and that is that you will not mention any thing in a public way in relation to any contributions I made to you. hoping Wishing you and the cause generally success
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2Campbell left the day of Abraham Lincoln’s letter blank, but based on his reference
to a financial request by Lincoln, the letter he is referencing is that from Lincoln of June 25, 1858. Lincoln sought to take advantage
of an offer Campbell had first made during the election of 1856 to defray the expense of Lincoln’s political campaigning. Lincoln had been named
the Republican Party’s candidate for U.S. Senate at the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention on June 16, 1858, and was anticipating the need for funds to campaign against Stephen A. Douglas. See the 1858 Federal Election.
Harry E. Pratt, The Personal Finances of Abraham Lincoln (Springfield, IL: Abraham Lincoln Association, 1943), 103-6; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 17 June 1858, 2:5-6.
3The first of the debates between Lincoln and Douglas in the 1858 Illinois U.S. Senate race took place in Ottawa
on August 21. Following the debate, Lincoln remained in the town through the early
hours of August 23.
The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 21 August 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-21; 22 August 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-22; 23 August 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-23.
4At 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
campaign efforts on the former Whig stronghold of central Illinois, where the state legislative races were the closest.
The more northern counties of Illinois were assumed to be safely Republican in the
election of 1858, and that proved to be the case in Campbell’s home county of La Salle. Campbell himself had earlier been a Whig, and following the dissolution of that
party eventually became a Republican and supporter of Lincoln. The Forty-Third Illinois
House of Representatives District, which was composed of Grundy, La Salle, and Livingston counties, had two open seats in the election of 1858. Campbell and Richardson S. Hick were nominated as the Republican candidates for the district on August 26, 1858,
and they defeated Democratic candidates Samuel C. Collins and William Cogswell in all three counties to win the
seats. La Salle County was in the Seventh Illinois Senate district, where Republican
Burton C. Cook 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, 400-1; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:476-77; The Chicago Daily Tribune (IL), 10 August 1898, 12:4; The Weekly Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL), 8 September 1858, 1:1; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968
(Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 220, 221-22; The Ottawa Free Trader (IL), 30 October 1858, 2:1; Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 5 November 1858, 1:3; The Weekly Chicago Times (IL), 11 November 1858, 2:6, 4:2.
Autograph Letter Signed, 4 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC).