Samuel C. Parks to Abraham Lincoln, 9 August 18581
Lincoln, Aug. 9th 1858.Hon A LincolnDear SirYours of to day is just received I will go to Tremont if I can, whether I make a speech or not2 I want to see them about running a candide[candidate] for Senator in the place of Fuller By the way I suppose Trumbull will be in Springfield before you leave for Havanna Talk with him & Hatch & others if you have not already done so about the propriety of running a man to
fill Fullers place & let us know what to do about it3
Our boys want you to speak here before Douglas does & they say they are going to give you a big time— have a barbacue & beat all the demonstrations that have been in the State &c[etc.] &c Big words! but I think we can get up a big crowd for you On looking over the list of your appointments I dont see that you have any spare day till the 29th two days after you meet Douglas in Stephenson4 Drop me a line & let me know if you can come then We ought to have
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about two weeks notice of you coming
Tell Bill Herndon that our Rep. Club meets next saturday night & the boys want him to come up on the afternoon train
& make them a rousing speech We are getting pretty warm here & are very near right.
Very Respectfully YoursSaml C. Parks.Tell Bill to write me a line tomorrow5<Page 3>
[Envelope]
[SPRI]NG[FIELD Ill].
[A]UG[AUGUST] 58Hon. A. Lincoln.Springfield,Illinois.
[A]UG[AUGUST] 58Hon. A. Lincoln.Springfield,Illinois.
1Samuel C. Parks wrote and signed this letter. He also wrote Abraham Lincoln’s name
and address on the envelope shown in the third image.
2Lincoln’s August 9 letter to Parks has not been located. However, in an August 9 letter to Daniel A. Cheever, Lincoln noted that he would try to send Parks to speak in Tremont, Illinois in his
stead, as he already had a speaking appointment in Havanna, Illinois on August 14—the
date that Cheever wanted him to speak in Tremont.
At the time of this letter, Lincoln was running against Democratic incumbent Stephen A. Douglas as the Illinois Republican Party’s candidate for the U.S. Senate. During the summer and fall of 1858, he crisscrossed Illinois delivering speeches
and campaigning on behalf of Republican candidates. At the time, the Illinois General Assembly elected the state’s representatives in the U.S. Senate, thus the outcome of the races
for the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate was highly relevant to the 1858 Federal Election. See the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:458, 557; Allen C. Guelzo,
“Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 394.
3Tremont is in Tazewell County, Illinois, which, at the time, was part of Illinois’ Seventeenth Senate District, along with
Menard, Logan, Mason, and Cass counties. Logan and Cass counties both held their Republican conventions in June
1858, and delegates to those conventions did not nominate a Republican candidate
for the Illinois Senate to run against Democrat Samuel W. Fuller, the incumbent who
held over in the 1858 election.
Lincoln delivered a political speech in Havana on August 14. During the election campaign
of 1858, Lyman Trumbull campaigned throughout Illinois in support of Lincoln and the
Republican Party, but there is no direct evidence that Trumbull and Lincoln met between
the time of this letter and Lincoln’s address in Havana.
John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac 1673-1968
(Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 219, 221; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 14 June 1858, 2:3; 15 June 1858, 2:3; 3 November 1858, 2:2; The Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 17 November 1858, 2:4; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 14 August 1858, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-14; Report of Speech at Havana, Illinois; Ralph J. Roske, His Own Counsel: The Life and Times of Lyman Trumbull (Reno, NV: University of Nevada Press, 1979), 47-51.
4Lincoln was scheduled to debate Douglas in Freeport, Illinois in Stephenson County on August 27. See the Lincoln-Douglas Debates.
Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of
1858,” 405.
5If Lincoln replied to this letter his response has not been located. It is unclear
if William H. Herndon delivered a speech in Lincoln, Illinois. Since he and Lincoln
were law partners, Lincoln would most likely have passed on Parks’ request to Herndon
in person.
Although there is no evidence that Parks delivered an address in Tremont on August
14, Parks campaigned for Lincoln and the Republican cause in several different locations
during the 1858 election.
Lincoln did not speak in Lincoln, Illinois, on August 29, as Parks requested. He
was in Pekin, Illinois that day, en route to Tremont, where he delivered an address on August 30. Lincoln
eventually delivered an address in Lincoln on October 16. Parks introduced him to
the audience on that occasion.
Douglas had delivered a public address in Lincoln in July. He returned to Lincoln
and spoke again September 4. Lincoln was present for the latter address, but did not
offer a rejoinder.
Coverage of the Republican conventions for Tazewell, Menard, and Mason counties,
which were held in September 1858, does not mention any Republican nominee or nominees
for the Seventeenth Senate District’s seat in the Illinois Senate. Fuller remained
in the Illinois Senate and, when the time came, cast his ballot for Douglas for U.S.
senator.
Although Republicans won a majority of all votes cast in Illinois in the local elections
of 1858, 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.
The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 29 August 1858, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-29, 30 August 1858, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-30, 4 September 1858, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-09-04; David Davis to Abraham Lincoln; Summary of Speech at Tremont, Illinois; Summary of Speech at Tremont, Illinois; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 21 July 1858, 2:1; 4 September 1858, 2:1-3, 3:1; 7 September 1858,
2:2-3; 17 September 1858, 2:2, 3; 18 October 1858, 2:3; Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 20 October 1858, 2:6; The Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 17 November 1858, 2:4; Illinois Senate Journal. 1859. 21st G. A., 30; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:556-57.
Autograph Letter Signed, 3 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC).