Jesse Lynch to Abraham Lincoln, 14 August 18581
Peru Ills Augst 14 1858Mr LincolnDear SirI understand you have been written to in relation to being in Magnolia on the 20th of this month2 If Possible we wish you to be there as we live off all the thoroughfares and in a
section of cou[n?]ty where it is inconvenient of access to Speakers Where we think you could do some
considerable good
yours in HasteJesse LynchWrite me at Magnolia3<Page 2>
[Envelope]
PERU Ills[Illinois].
AUG[August] 14Hon A LincolnSpringfieldIlls
AUG[August] 14Hon A LincolnSpringfieldIlls
1Jesse Lynch wrote and signed this letter. He also wrote Abraham Lincoln’s name and
address on the envelope shown in the second image.
2Benjamin C. Lundy wrote Lincoln several letters in July and early August 1858 concerning the possibility
of Lincoln traveling to Magnolia, Illinois, on August 20 to deliver a political address
before a mass gathering of members of the Republican Party. At the time, Lincoln was the Illinois Republican Party’s candidate for the U.S. Senate. He was running against Democratic incumbent Stephen A. Douglas. Because members of the Illinois General Assembly voted for and elected the state’s representatives in the U.S. Senate, both Lincoln
and Douglas canvassed the state throughout the summer and fall of 1858, delivering speeches in support of candidates
for the General Assembly in their respective parties. See 1858 Illinois Republican Convention; 1858 Federal Election.
Benjamin C. Lundy to Abraham Lincoln; Benjamin C. Lundy to Abraham Lincoln; Benjamin C. Lundy to Abraham Lincoln; 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.
3If Lincoln replied to this letter, his response has not been located.
Lincoln did not speak in Magnolia on August 20, 1858. In the midst of both Lundy’s
and Lynch’s correspondence with him, Lincoln and Douglas set the schedule for a series
of political debates. They scheduled the first of these debates for Saturday, August 21 in Ottawa, Illinois, and rather than appearing in Magnolia as Lynch and Lundy proposed, Lincoln delivered
a speech in Peoria, Illinois, on August 19, then spent the night of the 20th in Morris, Illinois, in order to reach Ottawa the following day.
Ultimately, in Illinois’ local elections of 1858, Republicans won a majority of all
votes cast in the state, but 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.
Stephen A. Douglas to Abraham Lincoln; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 28 July 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-07-28; 19 August 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-19; 20 August 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-20; 21 August 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-21; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:556-57.
Autograph Letter Signed, 2 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC). .