Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

William Proctor to Abraham Lincoln, 6 August 18581
Lewistown 6th August '58Hon A LincolnSir
yours in reply to C W Michael was duly recd[received].2 Having just now spoken with M^r M & learning he had not replied to yours & as the mail is about closing, I would just say I have conversed with many of our Citizens & no one doubts we can turn out a large crowd of wide awake Republicans & we think a right smart sprinkle of Democrats; Douglasites here are on the old hoby of Pop[Popular] Sovreignty, I wonder if it is that kind of Pop sov[sovereignty] that prevailed for three years in the early settlement of Kansas, against which he never raised a murmer.3

Judge Kellogg writes that you will Speak here the 17th inst & that a Package of Hand Bills will be here this eve[evening] announcing the fact. You will not disappoint4
Yours in hasteW^m ProctorPS Circuit Court commences Monday 16^th inst & Citizens will be in from all pts[parts] of the County No effort will be spared to give you Notice.5

<Page 2>

[Envelope]

LEWISTOWN ILL[ILLINOIS].
AUG[AUGUST] 7Hon A Lincoln.SpringfieldIll

[ docketing ]
Lincoln, Abraham (President)

W^m Proctor.6

1William Proctor wrote and signed this letter. He also wrote Abraham Lincoln’s name and address on the envelope shown in the second image.

2This is almost certainly a reference to an August 2 letter Lincoln wrote to both Charles W. Michael and William Proctor. Michael and Proctor had written Lincoln on July 29, requesting that he speak at Lewistown.

3Stephen A. Douglas was one of the Democratic Party’s primary proponents of popular sovereignty—the concept that each states’ voters had the right to determine whether or not that state would allow slavery. Under the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the status of slavery within the Nebraska and Kansas territories was to be determined through popular sovereignty. In 1857, however, the Democratic Party split into pro-Douglas and pro-James Buchanan factions over the Lecompton Constitution and popular sovereignty after President Buchanan supported passage of the Lecompton Constitution and Douglas criticized Buchanan, asserting that the Lecompton Constitution undermined popular sovereignty. See the Kansas-Nebraska Act and Bleeding Kansas.
At the time of this letter, Douglas was running for reelection to the U.S. Senate and Lincoln was running as the Illinois Republican Party’s candidate to replace him. Douglas and Lincoln debated the concept of popular sovereignty repeatedly throughout the campaign of 1858, including during the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. See the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:445, 458; David Herbert Donald, Lincoln (New York: Touchstone, 1995), 201-4.

4In his August 2 reply to Michael and Proctor, Lincoln mentioned also having written Judge William Kellogg to confirm that he would speak in Lewistown, Illinois on August 17. Lincoln’s letter to Judge Kellogg has not been located.
On August 19, 1858 attendees of the Fourth Illinois Congressional District Republican Convention nominated Judge Kellogg to run for reelection to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 21 August 1858, 2:5; Howard W. Allen and Vincent A. Lacey, eds., Illinois Elections, 1818-1990 (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1992), 10.

5According to an 1857 law, the Fulton County Circuit Court met on the fourth Mondays of February, the fourth Mondays of May, and the second Mondays of November. No additional laws changing the meeting times of the court could be located between this 1857 law and the date of this letter. However, the Chicago Daily Press and Tribune stated in an article that the court met during the third week in August, which matches what Proctor states above.
Douglas delivered his campaign speech in Lewistown on August 16, and Lincoln delivered an address in Lewistown the next day. Judge Kellogg introduced Lincoln to the assembled crowd. Douglas’ audience on August 16 was estimated at 3,000; Lincoln’s was estimated at 2,000.

In the end, in the local elections of 1858, Republicans won a majority of all votes cast in Illinois, but pro-Douglas Democrats retained control of the Illinois General Assembly. At the time, members of the General Assembly voted for and elected the state’s representatives in the U.S. Senate, and Douglas ultimately won reelection. 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.

In the 1858 Federal Election, Judge Kellogg won reelection to the U.S. House of Representatives, garnering 52.8 percent of the vote to his Democratic opponent, James W. Davidson’s, 45.7 percent.
"An Act to Change the Fifth and Tenth Judicial Circuits, and Fix the Time of Holding Courts Therein," 29 January 1857, Laws of Illinois (1857), 5; Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (Illinois), 20 August 1858, 2:4; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:482-83, 556-57; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 394, 414-16; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 17 August 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-17; Report of Speech at Lewistown, Illinois; Howard W. Allen and Vincent A. Lacey, eds., Illinois Elections, 1818-1990, 11, 142.

6Lincoln wrote this docketing vertically on the left side of the envelope shown in the second image.