Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Daniel H. Gilmer to Abraham Lincoln, 23 August 18581
Pittsfield Pike Co Illinois
August 23. 1858Hon A. LincolnDear sir
I am sorry that my business is such that I can ^not^ meet you and other Republican friends at Augusta but ^it^ is entirely out of my Power to come up.2

I have conversed with many of our friends in this county and I only speak the universal wish of of the Republicans when I invite you to attend a mass meeting of the Republicans of this county at such time as may not conflict with your other engagements. We would prefer that it should be between the 1^st & 3^rd Monday in October, but suit yourself as to time & we will take steps to get out the sovereigns, & make one grand rally.3

I want you to notice a paragraph in Douglass' Bloomington speech on 4^th page 16 line from Bottom, "The only hope that Mr Lincoln has of defeating me for the Senate

<Page 2>
rests in the fact that I was faithful to my principles &c[etc.]" Is this not a boast that those that are now following him would have followed him if he had been unfaithful4

We have some Buchannan Democrats & for a few weeks I have hoped that we can carry this representative ticket The Douglas meeting was largely interspersed with Republicans, & there was much more zeal on our side than on theirs

Write me when you can come & if you will I should be pleased to have you make my house your house while here5
Respectfully yoursD. H. Gilmer

<Page 3>

[Envelope]

Hon A Lincoln Augusta Hancock CoIlls

[ docketing ]
Lincoln, Abraham (President)

D. H. Gilmer6

1Daniel H. Gilmer wrote and signed this letter, including the address on the envelope.

2Abraham Lincoln spoke in Augusta at two o’clock in the afternoon on August 25. He had been nominated at the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention to run against incumbent Democrat 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 focused their efforts during the campaign of 1858 on the former Whig Party stronghold of central Illinois, where the state legislative races were the closest.
The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 25 August 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-25; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 392-94, 400-401; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:457-58, 476-77.

3Although the first Monday in October was the fourth day of the month, Lincoln arrived in Pittsfield on September 30. The next day, Friday, October 1, Lincoln spoke in the town square for two hours.
The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln,, 30 September 1858, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-09-30; 1 October 1858, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-10-01.

4Douglas spoke to a crowd of about two thousand in Bloomington on July 16, 1858. Lincoln attended, and following Douglas’s remarks, the crowd called for Lincoln to speak. He declined, however, because the meeting had initially been called by Douglas’s friends, and Lincoln felt it improper for him to speak. Gilmer quoted from Douglas’s speech, which Douglas had printed in pamphlet form and distributed throughout the campaign.
Report of Remarks at Bloomington, Illinois; Report of Remarks at Bloomington, Illinois; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 16 July 1858, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-07-16; Robert W. Johannsen, Stephen A. Douglas (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973), 656; The Issues of 1858 : Speech of Senator Douglas Delivered at Bloomington, Ill., July 16th, 1858 ([Bloomington, IL]: n. p. , [1858]), 4.

5No response from Lincoln has been located. While at Pittsfield, Lincoln stayed at the house of William Ross.
Gilmer references the split in the Democratic Party into factions supporting President James Buchanan and Douglas. The split occurred after Douglas, in December 1857, spoke out against the Lecompton Constitution and criticized President Buchanan for supporting it.

Pike County was part of the Illinois Fifth Congressional District. In the congressional election of 1858, Democrat incumbent Isaac N. Morris won reelection. Voters in Pike County also sent Democrats to the Illinois House and Senate, all of whom voted for Douglas in the U.S. Senate contest, helping Douglas secure reelection over Lincoln.
The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 30 September 1858, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-09-30; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:445; Howard W. Allen and Vincent A. Lacey, eds., Illinois Elections, 1818-1990 (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1992), 10, 11, 142; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 13 November 1858, 2:3; Illinois Senate Journal. 1859. 21st G. A., 30.

6Lincoln wrote this docketing.