Hiram M. Tremble to Abraham Lincoln, 4 August 18581
Mattoon Aug 4 58Abraham LincolnDear SirOur Republican friends request me to say to you that they want you to pay them a visit and make
them a speach in the Town of Mattoon I am sure that a speach from you in this place would do much for the party that you lead S A Douglas was heare last week and spoak for ^over^ 1¼ hours to quite a respectable audience and at the coclusion[conclusion] of his speach the audience gav 3 Cheers for Abe Lincoln2 now Abe set your tim[time] that you will make us a speach and wee will get you an audienc that will do honer to any speaker I want you to be fuley[fully] prepared to giv them your views on the Dread Scot case and on the Niger[Nigger] Equality which your enamys Charge upon you3 there are nombers here that are wavering in theire paliticks[politics] to night wee organise a repubican club in this place4
yours in hastHiram M Tremblewrite soon<Page 2>
[Envelope]
MATTOON ILL[ILLINOIS]
AUG[AUGUST] 5Hon Abe LincolnSpringfieldIllinois5
AUG[AUGUST] 5Hon Abe LincolnSpringfieldIllinois5
2Abraham Lincoln was running against Democratic incumbent Stephen A. Douglas as the Illinois Republican Party’s candidate for the U.S. Senate in the 1858 Federal Election. He and Douglas also canvassed the state throughout the summer and fall of 1858, delivering speeches in support of candidates
for the Illinois General Assembly in their respective parties. At the time, members of the General Assembly voted for
and elected the state’s representatives in the U.S. Senate; therefore, the races for
the Illinois House of Representatives and Illinois Senate were highly relevant to the outcome of the state’s race for the U.S. Senate seat.
See the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention.
Douglas spoke in Mattoon on July 30. Like Tremble, the Daily Illinois State Journal reported that the Mattoon audience gave three cheers for Lincoln at the conclusion
of Douglas’ speech.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:458; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses
Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 392, 394; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 9 August 1858, 2:2.
3Throughout the campaign of 1858, Douglas attacked Lincoln and other Republicans’ criticism of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Scott v. Sandford, arguing that any criticism of the court’s decision was tantamount to resistance
of the U.S. government as a whole and was also evidence of a desire for the “amalgamation”
of the races. Lincoln countered these attacks repeatedly throughout the campaign,
asserting that although he believed that the Declaration of Independence applied to
all men—not just white men—he did not favor full social and political equality between
the races. He also pointed to Douglas’ hypocrisy in arguing that Lincoln and his fellow
Republicans’ criticism of the Dred Scott decision was disloyal, pointing to Douglas’
previous praise of President Andrew Jackson for defying the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the 1819 case McCulloch v. Maryland, when the court declared that the U.S. Congress had the power to create a national bank. See the Lincoln-Douglas Debates.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:439-41, 464-70, 501, 503, 510.
4If Lincoln replied to this letter, his response has not been located.
Lincoln delivered a speech in Mattoon on September 7. He also passed through Mattoon
again on September 17, before proceeding to Charleston on September 18 for one of his seven debates with Douglas.
Ultimately, in the local elections of 1858, Republicans won a majority of all votes
cast in Illinois, yet pro-Douglas Democrats retained control of the Illinois General
Assembly, and Douglas won reelection to the U.S. Senate. Through the campaign, however,
and in particular through his participation in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, Lincoln
gained recognition as well as standing within the national Republican Party.
Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 8 September 1858, 1:2; 21 September 1858, 1:1; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:556-57.
Autograph Letter Signed, 2 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC).