John A. Arenz to Abraham Lincoln, 9 August 18581
Beardstown Aug. 9. 1858.Hon. A. Lincoln!It is announced by handbills, that you will speak here on the 12th inst. at 2 oClock P.M. in reply to Senator Douglas, and a large crowd is expected to hear you.
Preparations for the occasion are in progress and in order to complete arrangements,
we would desire to know, when you will arrive here and by what route?2
During your stay here you will be welcomed at my house, if you will accept its hospitality.
Yours truly J. A. Arenz, Chairman of committee of arrangements.
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[Envelope]
BEARDSTOWN ILLS[ILLINOIS]
AUG[AUGUST] 10Hon. A. LincolnSpringfieldIlls.
AUG[AUGUST] 10Hon. A. LincolnSpringfieldIlls.
2The Republican Party of Illinois had commenced their efforts in the election campaign of 1858 with their statewide convention on June 16, at which Abraham Lincoln was nominated to run 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. Lincoln and Douglas both campaigned extensively
and focused their campaign efforts on the former Whig stronghold of central Illinois, where the state legislative races were the closest.
Douglas had spoken in Beardstown on August 11.
Lincoln arrived in Beardstown on the morning of August 12 on a steamboat from Naples. Greeted by several hundred citizens, Lincoln traveled by carriage to the National Hotel. Francis A. Arenz, John’s brother, welcomed Lincoln to the town before Lincoln commenced his speech after 2 p.m. He spoke for
two hours to an audience of as many as 3,000, directly addressing a charge against
Douglas that the Kansas-Nebraska Act—passed in 1854 and establishing popular sovereignty as a means of deciding slave
status for southwestern territories—was part of a larger conspiracy to make slavery
perpetual and national.
The Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 17 June 1858, 2:1-6; 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, 404; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:457-58, 476-77, 513-14;
The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 12 August 1858, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-12; Report of Speech at Beardstown, Illinois; Summary of Speech at Beardstown, Illinois.
Autograph Letter Signed, 2 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC).