Oscar F. Harmon to Abraham Lincoln, 1 September 18581
Danville IllinoisSept 1 1858Hon. Abram LincolnDr[Dear] Sir.
I wrote you a few days since at Springfield, enquiring if you could speak in Danville during the canvass?2
We are very anxious to have a mass meeting in this county.
Can you not visit us near the time that Judge Douglas speaks here?
You will confer a great favor by writing us a line, so that we may know, whether we
can expect you here, at all, or not.3
Very RespectfullyYour FriendO. F. Harmon
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[Envelope]
2Abraham Lincoln was running against incumbent senator 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 campaigned extensively in Illinois
in the summer and fall of 1858, delivering speeches and campaigning on behalf of Republican candidates for the General Assembly. He and Douglas both focused their campaign efforts
on the former Whig stronghold of central Illinois, where the state legislative races were the closest.
See 1858 Federal Election.
Between the date of Harmon’s August 23, 1858 letter addressed to Lincoln in Springfield and this letter, Lincoln had only been home
in Springfield briefly on September 1, having been on the campaign trail.
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; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, August 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarMonth&year=1858&month=8; September 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarMonth&year=1858&month=9.
3No response to this letter by Lincoln has been located, but having also received invitations
to speak in Danville from Hiram W. Beckwith and William Fithian, Lincoln responded to Fithian with the request that Fithian share that response with Beckwith and Harmon.
Lincoln informed the men in his letter to Fithian that having found it beneficial
to make campaign appearances in locations the day after Douglas had spoken there,
he had scheduled a speech in Danville on September 22, to follow Douglas’ speech scheduled
there on September 21.
Hiram W. Beckwith to Abraham Lincoln; Daily Illinois State Register (Springfield), 1 September 1858, 2:1; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 2 September 1858, 3:1; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 22 September 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-09-22; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:528; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape
of 1858,” 405-6.
4Harmon addressed this letter to Lincoln in Clinton as the latter was scheduled to
give a speech there on September 2, 1858. Lincoln had left Springfield on the evening
of September 1 and did not return home until September 5.
Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 1 September 1858, 3:1; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, September 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarMonth&year=1858&month=9; Report of Speech at Clinton, Illinois.
Autograph Letter Signed, 2 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC).