Frank W. Tracy to Abraham Lincoln, 3 August 18581
Beardstown Aug 3d 1858Hon A. LincolnSpringfield IllsDr[Dear] SirYours of 30th, ult. at hand.– In reply would say that Aug.[August] 12th– meets our views and we are making efforts to secure “some” of an audience on
that day–2 Please give publicity by ^of^ the appointment through the Journal–3
Yours trulyFrank W TracySecty[Secretary] B. R. C.[Club]
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[Envelope]
BE[A?]RDSTOWN ILL[ILLINOIS]
[?]Hon A. LincolnSpringfieldIlls
[?]Hon A. LincolnSpringfieldIlls
2Abraham Lincoln’s letter to Tracy of July 30, 1858 has not been located. It responded
to an earlier letter from Tracy on behalf of the Beardstown Republican Club, inviting Lincoln to speak
in Beardstown.
Lincoln was running 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 Tracy’s invitation to
appear in the town, ultimately speaking in Beardstown on August 12. See the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention; 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.
3In addition to publishing the schedule for the upcoming Lincoln-Douglas Debates, on August 6 the Illinois State Journal added a list of the campaign speeches that Lincoln had scheduled in August and September,
1858, beginning with that in Beardstown on August 12.
Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 5 August 1858, 3:1; 6 August 1858, 2:1.
4No response to this letter by Lincoln has been located. On August 11, 1858, Lincoln
traveled from Springfield to Naples, and he arrived in Beardstown via steamer on the morning of August 12.
The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 11 August 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-11; 12 August 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-12.
Autograph Letter Signed, 2 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC).