Jesse O. Norton to Abraham Lincoln, 2 September 18581
Joliet Sept 2nd 1858.My dear Sir,As you are doubtless aware, Douglas has been here, and the Democracy have had their day— a Douglas demonstration2
Our friends have determined to have a "Lincoln demonstration"– And our County Convention so resolved yesterday. It is desired that Trumbull should be with you. No day will be fixed until we hear from you. Fix upon a day which will suit you & him, and write me as
soon as you can. The Boys will want some
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little time to put things in order, & to make the necessary arrangements.
The intention is to make it as the Irishmen say, " a buster.3
Judge Parks will write to Trumbull.
With much regard,Ever truly yours,J O Norton
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[Envelope]
JOLIET Ill[Illinois].
SEP[SEPTEMBER] 3Hon A. LincolnSpringfieldIlls
SEP[SEPTEMBER] 3Hon A. LincolnSpringfieldIlls
2Stephen A. Douglas visited Joliet, Illinois, on August 31, 1858. The crowd gathered to hear him was
estimated to be between 1,000 and 1,800 attendees.
Abraham 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 Douglas, the
Democrat incumbent. See 1858 Illinois Republican Convention; 1858 Federal Election.
Daily Islander and Argus (Rock Island, IL), 7 August 1858, 2:1; Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 2 September 1858, 1:1; 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.
3Norton may have meant to mean that the potential Lincoln visit would be, “the best
of its kind.”
Frederic G. Cassidy, ed., Dictionary of American Regional English (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1985), 1:480.
4The Illinois State Fair, located in Centralia in 1858, commenced on September 14 and ran until September 17.
There is no record of Lincoln visiting Joliet or the surrounding vicinity during the
campaign. However, Lyman Trumbull addressed an audience at a mass meeting in Joliet on October 12.
Despite Lincoln not visiting Joliet and Will County, its home county, Republicans from the area scored victories in the state and congressional
elections. Gavion D. A. Parks held over in the Illinois Senate from 1856 in 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, Hiram Norton from Will County, Alonzo W. Mack from Kankakee County, and J. M. Hood from Iroquois County won seats. Voters in the Illinois Third Congressional District,
which included Will and surrounding counties, returned Owen Lovejoy to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of
1858,” 405, 406, 407, 408; The History of Will County, Illinois
(Chicago: Wm. Le Baron, Jr., 1878), 379-80; Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 3 September 1858, 2:2; 8 October 1858, 1:1;Simeon Francis to Abraham Lincoln; 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; Howard W. Allen and Vincent A. Lacey, eds.,
Illinois Elections, 1818-1990 (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1992), 10, 11,
142.
Autograph Letter Signed, 3 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC).