William Gooding to Abraham Lincoln, 31 August 18581
Lockport, Aug. 31– 1858Hon. Abraham Lincoln,My dear Sir,Many of our Citizens would be exceedingly gratified to have you speak here some time
between this and November if you can find time to do so and your health will permit.2 Although our village contains only about 3,000 inhabitants, the country in the vicinity is thickly settled,
and by having proper notice of the time of speaking we think that we could give you
a respectable audience. Joliet is intensely Douglass, (it was always bitterly loco foco,) but we can give a Republican majority in this place and in our County.3 Still, there are a few who have called themselves Republicans that are now for
Truly & respectfully YoursWm Gooding<Page 2>
Douglass, incomprehensible as it may seem, and others of both parties are in such a position that we think that your appearance here would do us much good.
We are asking, as we are fully aware, a great favor, but hope that you will grant
^it,^ if you possibly can.
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[Envelope]
LOCKPORT Ill.[Illinois]
SEP[SEPTEMBER]
1Hon. Abraham LincolnSpringfieldIlls
SEP[SEPTEMBER]
1Hon. Abraham LincolnSpringfieldIlls
2There is no record of Abraham Lincoln visiting Lockport in 1858.
Lincoln was the Republican candidate from Illinois for the U.S. Senate. In the summer and fall of 1858, he crisscrossed Illinois delivering speeches and
campaigning on behalf of Republican candidates for the Illinois General Assembly. 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. He ran against, and lost to, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, the incumbent. See 1858 Illinois Republican Convention; 1858 Federal Election.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:457-85, 557; Allen C. Guelzo,
“Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 392.
3Gavion D. A. Parks, a Republican, held over in the Illinois Senate for the Sixth District, which included
DuPage, Kendall, Iroquois, and Kankakee counties in addition to Will County. In Illinois House District Forty-Five, which included Will, DuPage, Iroquois, and
Kankakee counties, three Republicans took their seats after the election: Hiram Norton from Will County, Alonzo W. Mack from Kankakee County, and J. M. Hood from Iroquois County.
John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 219, 220, 222; The Weekly Chicago Times (IL), 18 November 1858, 2:7; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 5 November 1858, 3:2.
Autograph Letter Signed, 3 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC).