Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Lyman Trumbull to Abraham Lincoln, 14 September 18581
St. Louis, Sept. 14. 1858.
I have just been reading an article in the Richmond Enquirer, which will be republished in the Democrat of to-morrow, & which will be sent you–2

It strikes me it would be well for you to put another question to Douglas after reading this article– You will see that the Enquirer chooses to understand Douglas Freeport speech as favoring the passage of a slave code by Congress for the protection of slavery in the territories– D. of course meant no such thing, & not having seen the dodge

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of the Enquirer would probably answer promptly that Congress possessed no such power, or that he was opposed to its exercise if it did–

This would effectively use him up with the South & set the whole pro-slavery Democracy against him.3

I spoke to a very enthusiastic meeting at Waterloo yesterday, though it was not large. Our friends in that county are enthusiastic & determined to make the best fight in their power–4

The right spirit is up everywhere–
Yours trulyLyman TrumbullShould you think advisable to put another question

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to D. founded in the Enquirer's article, some one ought to take down & report his answer so as to have it published–5

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[Envelope]
L. Trumbull
U.S.S.SAINT LOUIS MO.[MISSOURI]
SEP[SEPTEMBER] 15 1858Hon. A. Lincolncare T. A. Marshall, Eq.[Esquire]CharlestonIll.

1Lyman Trumbull wrote and signed this letter, including the names, address, and frank on the envelope.

2Trumbull was referring to an article on Senator Stephen A. Douglas in the September 10, 1858 issue of the Richmond Enquirer. The Daily Missouri Democrat republished the article in its September 15, 1858 edition. A copy of the article, if one was sent, is not extant. Abraham Lincoln referenced the Richmond Enquirer in fragment of a speech on slavery in 1858, but there is no evidence that he was referencing this article.
See Richmond Enquirer (VA), 10 September 1858, 2:1; Daily Missouri Democrat (St. Louis), 15 September 1858, 2:3.

3In 1858, Douglas was running for reelection to the U.S. Senate; Lincoln was running as the Illinois Republican Party’s candidate to replace him. In the summer and fall of that year, the two candidates engaged in a series of political debates throughout the state. On August 27, during the second debate at Freeport, Illinois, Lincoln posed four questions concerning the admission of Kansas to the Union and the expansion of slavery in U.S. territories. In his second question, Lincoln asked Douglas whether the people of a territory could, in light of the Dred Scott decision, “exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a state constitution?” Douglas responded by establishing what became called his “Freeport Doctrine.” Douglas answered yes, citizens could exclude slavery by local legislation. “Slavery cannot exist a day or an hour anywhere,” Douglas famously retorted, “ unless it is supported by local police regulations, furnishing remedies and means of enforcing the right to hold slaves.” Douglas’s Freeport Doctrine resolved the inconsistency between popular sovereignty and the Dred Scott decision, satisfying his Illinois supporters and assuring his reelection to the Senate. See 1858 Federal Election.
Douglas’s position, however, hurt his national standing in the Democratic Party. In late 1857, Douglas’s criticism of President James Buchanan’s support for Kansas’s Lecompton Constitution had already caused a rift among party faithful. Trumbull recognized the Richmond Enquirer’s misinterpretation of Douglas’s reply at Freeport as another opportunity to exploit this rift--hence his suggestion that Lincoln ask another question to prompt Douglas to explicitly denounce Congress’s power to enact a slave code in the territories.

The Freeport Doctrine and Douglas’s continued defense of popular sovereignty during the Lincoln-Douglas Debates further alienated Southern pro-slavery Democrats, denting his position in the Democratic Party and chances in the American South in the presidential election of 1860.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:445, 457-58, 501-4, 513-14, 553-57; Frank L. Dennis, The Lincoln-Douglas Debates (New York: Mason & Lipscomb, 1974), 84-85; Paul M. Angle, “Freeport Doctrine,” Dictionary of American History, rev. ed. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1976), 3:109; Carl Brent Swisher, "Dred Scott Case," Dictionary of American History (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1940), 2:167-68; Second Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Freeport, Illinois; Second Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Freeport, Illinois; Second Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Freeport, Illinois.

4Trumbull also delivered public speeches in support of Lincoln’s campaign, including one at Waterloo, Illinois, on September 13, 1858.
Monroe County, home to Waterloo, was in the Twenty-Second Illinois Senate District and the Eleventh Illinois House District. At this time the Illinois General Assembly elected the state’s representatives in the U.S. Senate, thus the outcome of races in Monroe and other counties for the Illinois House of Representatives and Illinois Senate would determine the outcome of the race for U.S. Senate. In the local elections of 1858, Republicans won a majority of all votes cast in Illinois, but pro-Douglas Democrats retained control of the General Assembly, allowing Douglas to win reelection. In Monroe County, Democrat William H. Underwood, elected in 1856 to the Illinois Senate, held over in 1858. In the race for the seat representing the Eleventh House District, Democrat William R. Morrison won easily over Republican Matthias G. Horine.
Mark M. Krug, “Lyman Trumbull and the Real Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 57 (Winter 1964), 384-88; Alton Daily Courier (Alton, IL), 21 September 1858, 1:3; Edward Callary, Place Names of Illinois (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009), 367; Daily State Illinois Journal (Springfield), 17 September 1858, 2:3; 3 November 1858, 2:2; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 219, 220, 222, Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 5 November 1858, 1:3; The Weekly Chicago Times (IL), 11 November 1858, 4:2.

5Lincoln’s response, if he penned one, has not been located.