Joseph O. Glover to Abraham Lincoln, 4 August 18581
Ottawa Aug 4th/58Dear SirYour letter of Aug[August] 2d addressed to Mr Cook is rec’d[received] & opened by me this afternoon–
Mr Cook is in Canada & will not be home before the 1st of September– It is true as suggested by your friend that attempts have been made & are being made to get out a Republican candidate for
Congress & Douglass men for Representatives2 This plan has been twice frustrated–3 I am tolerably well posted & think I may safely say to you
Respectfully YoursJ. O. Glover5ToHon A LincolnSpringfield<Page 2>
that no combination can be started that will defeat the election of Republican members
of the Legislature who are known & avowed friends of yours–4 I will mail your letter to Mr Cook
<Page 3>
[Envelope]
OTTAWA Ill.[Illinois]
AUG 5Hon A. LincolnSpringfieldIll
AUG 5Hon A. LincolnSpringfieldIll
2Abraham Lincoln was prompted to write Burton C. Cook on August 2, 1858, by a letter dated July 31, 1858 that was written to him and William H. Herndon by Henry C. Whitney. Whitney’s letter reported a rumor of a movement to challenge Republican candidates in Bureau and La Salle counties in the state and federal election of 1858. The two counties were in the Third Congressional District of Illinois, where Churchill Coffing was being recruited to run as an independent candidate to draw votes away from incumbent
Republican Owen Lovejoy in the race for the U.S. House of Representatives.
Lincoln himself had been nominated at the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention to run against incumbent Democrat 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.
Howard W. Allen and Vincent A. Lacey, eds., Illinois Elections, 1818-1990 (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1992), 10, 142;
The Ottawa Free Trader (IL), 11 September 1858, 1:8, 2:1; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas,
and the Political Landscape of 1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 392-99, 400-401; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:457-58.
3Lincoln had warned Owen Lovejoy as early as March of 1858 to be wary of the possibility of Democrats
recruiting a Republican to oppose him in his bid for reelection to the U.S. House
of Representatives. Attempts from conservative Republicans and Democrats to either
replace Lovejoy as the Republican candidate or challenge him with an independent opponent
continued to be a concern throughout the campaign of 1858.
Abraham Smith to Abraham Lincoln; Stephen G. Paddock and John H. Bryant to Abraham Lincoln; Abraham Smith to Abraham Lincoln; Abraham Lincoln to Charles H. Ray; Abraham Lincoln to the Editors, Chicago Tribune; Ward H. Lamon to Abraham Lincoln; Abraham Lincoln to Ward H. Lamon; David Davis to Abraham Lincoln; James W. Somers to Abraham Lincoln.
4Despite Whitney’s and Lincoln’s concerns, the Republican candidates for U.S. House
of Representatives and Illinois General Assembly in Bureau and La Salle counties were
ultimately successful in the election of 1858. In the race for the U.S. House of Representatives
in the Third Congressional District of Illinois, Coffing was indeed put forward to
challenge Lovejoy. Coffing, however, withdrew from the race in October, 1858 and Lovejoy
won his reelection bid, defeating Douglas Democrat George W. Armstrong and Buchanan Democrat David Le Roy.
Republican candidates also won the three seats in the Illinois General Assembly that
were up for election in these counties in 1858. Bureau and La Salle counties were
both in the Seventh Illinois Senate District, where Republican Burton C. Cook held
over in the election of 1858. Bureau County comprised the Forty-Seventh Illinois House
District, where Republican John H. Bryant won the election with 2,570 votes, while his opponents, Buchanan Democrat Thomas
Tustin (Tusten) and Douglas Democrat Benjamin L. Smith received 786 and 611 votes
respectively. No evidence has been found of an independent candidate running in the
Forty-Seventh House District. La Salle County was in the Forty-Third Illinois House
District, in which Republicans Alexander Campbell and Richardson S. Hick earned 4,139 and 4,089 votes respectively, defeating Democratic candidates Samuel
C. Collins and William Cogswell, who earned 3,383 and 3,412 votes respectively. Two
other unidentified candidates named McBurney and Hoffman appeared in the election
returns for the Forty-Third House District in this race. Their party affiliations
are not indicated, and they received only 29 and 22 votes respectively.
Like Glover, Owen Lovejoy responded to Lincoln that he was unconcerned when informed of the rumored threat to Republican
candidates in the region.
The Ottawa Free Trader (IL), 30 October 1858, 2:1; 6 November 1858, 3:2; The Daily Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL), 13 September 1858, 2:1-2; 9 October 1858, 2:2; The Belvidere Standard (IL), 21 September 1858, 3:1; The Weekly Chicago Times (IL), 21 October 1858, 2:5; 11 November 1858, 2:5; Howard W. Allen and Vincent A.
Lacey, eds., Illinois Elections, 1818-1990, 11, 142; Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 5 November 1858, 1:3; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 219-20, 222; The Weekly Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL), 3 November 1858, 2:4; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 4 November 1858, 3:2; History of La Salle County, Illinois (Chicago: Inter-State, 1886), 1:281.
Autograph Letter Signed, 3 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC).