Michael C. McLain to Leander Munsell, 8 September 18581
Charleston Ill Sept 8th 1858Mr L. Munsell
| Paris | } |
| Ill |
On my return home last evening, I learned that S. A. Douglass some days since telegraphed for ^to^ J. I. Brown to send up U F Linder to aid him in his presant contest– That Linder refused to comply, unless well paid for his services &c[etc.] That on yesterday or the day before Douglass again telegraphed to Brown to send Linder forward, that his demand for money should
be complied with and that on this morning Linder started on his
<Page 2>
mission &c2We wish you to apprise Mr Lincoln of these movements3 (if still in your town),4 that he may make such arrangements to meet the ^new^ featurese in the contest as he may deem best
RespectfullyM. C. McLain5<Page 3>
[Envelope]
CH[ARLESTO]N Ill.[Illinois]
SEP[SEPTEMBR] 8Mr Leander MunsellParisEdgar CountyIll
SEP[SEPTEMBR] 8Mr Leander MunsellParisEdgar CountyIll
2At this time Abraham Lincoln was running against incumbent senator Stephen A. Douglas
to represent Illinois in the U.S. Senate. In addition to their extensive campaigning throughout the state in the summer and
autumn of 1858, the two men were also facing off in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. See 1858 Illinois Republican Convention; 1858 Federal Election.
The first Lincoln-Douglas Debate was held in Ottawa on August 21, 1858. On the following day, Douglas purportedly wrote Usher F. Linder
requesting his help in campaigning, in light of prominent Republicans having been enlisted to speak at the second debate in Freeport on August 27. Linder’s neighbor, Jacob I. Brown, also wrote to Douglas on August
26 to suggest that Linder help Douglas campaign. Douglas responded to Brown on August
29, agreeing that it was “important that Gen. Linder should take the stump immediately.”
On September 7, the Chicago Tribune published what it claimed was an extract of a recent letter from Douglas to Linder.
This supposed letter, which may have been Douglas’ unlocated letter of August 22,
reportedly included the plea “For God‘s sake, Linder, come up into the Northern part
of the State and help me. Every dog in the State is let loose after me--from the bull-dog
Trumbull to the smallest canine quadruped that has a kennel in Illinois.” By September 11,
1858, Linder was with Douglas in St. Louis, where the pair made speeches together.
Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of
1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 391-417; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:457-58, 476-77, 486-557;
U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Charleston, Coles
County, IL, 20; Robert W. Johannsen, ed., The Letters of Stephen A. Douglas (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1961), 427-28; Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 7 September 1858, 1:1; Daily Missouri Democrat (St. Louis, MO), 13 September 1858, 2:2.
3Lincoln’s docketing on the envelope of this letter implies that it was given to him.
Albert Compton had also written to Lincoln on September 7, 1858 to inform him that Douglas had requested Linder’s
aid.
4Lincoln had been in Paris on September 7, 1858 when he gave a speech there, but on
the following day when this letter was addressed by McLain to Munsell in Paris, Lincoln
departed for Hillsboro.
The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 7 September 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-09-07; 8 September 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-09-08; Report of Speech at Paris, Illinois.
Autograph Letter Signed, 3 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC).