Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Benjamin S. Hood to Abraham Lincoln, 2 August 18581
Litchfield, Aug 2^nd, 1858.Dr.[Dear] Sir
On behalf of the Litchfield Republican Club I write to ascertain where you can address the people of this vicinity.2

At what time?—the day and the hour?—And would it be agreeable to you to have Messrs[Messieurs] Matheny and Gillespie speak at the same time? &c[etc.]3

If convenient we wish an answer in time to make all suitable preparations for the meeting4
Yours Truly B. S. Hood
Secy. [Secretary]Litchfield. Rep.[Republican] Club

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[Envelope]

LITCHFIELD ILL[ILLINOIS].
AUG[August] 2Hon Ab. LincolnSpringfieldIll

[ docketing ]
Lincoln, Abraham (President)

B. S Hood5

1Benjamin S. Hood wrote and signed this letter, including the address on the envelope.

2There is no record of Abraham Lincoln visiting Litchfield or the surrounding vicinity in 1858.
Lincoln was the Republican candidate from Illinois for the U.S. Senate. In the summer and fall of 1858, he crisscrossed Illinois delivering speeches and campaigning on behalf of Republican candidates for the Illinois General Assembly. 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 ran against, and lost to, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, the incumbent. See 1858 Illinois Republican Convention; 1858 Federal Election.

Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:457-85, 547, 557; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 392.

3James Matheny lost to Democrat Thomas L. Harris for Illinois Sixth District’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Litchfield was in Montgomery County, which was in the Twentieth Illinois House of Representatives District and in the Twenty-First Illinois Senate District. In the Twentieth House District, Democrat James M. Davis won the seat. Voters in the Twenty-First Illinois Senate District, which also included Madison and Bond counties, elected Democrat Samuel A. Buckmaster over Joseph Gillespie. Both Buckmaster and Davis voted for Douglas for U.S. Senate.
Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 3 November 1858, 2:2; 13 November 2:3; The Weekly Chicago Times (IL), 11 November 1858, 1:1; 18 November 1858, 3:2; Louis L. Emmerson, ed., Blue Book of the State of Illinois, 1923-1924 (Springfield: Illinois State Journal, 1923), 682; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 619; Illinois House Journal. 1859. 21st G. A., 32; Illinois Senate Journal. 1859. 21st G. A., 30.

4There is no evidence that Lincoln responded to this letter.

5Lincoln wrote this docketing.