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John F. Farnsworth to Abraham Lincoln, 20 September 18581
Chicago Sept 20th/58Hon A LincolnDear Sir–
Yours is recd[received] It is not true that I am “every where pledging myself unconditionally against the admission of more slave states” ^&c[etc.]^2 though it is true that I declared last winter, in the house, that no more slave states should ever be admitted with the assistance of my vote &c.3 and when interrogated I say so still, but at the same time I say that is not the position of the Republican party, but my individual sentiment &c–4 but if
Truly Yours &cJ F Farnsworth5
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[Envelope]
FREE
J F Farnsworth
M[Member]CCHICAGO Ill.[Illinois]
SEP[SEPTEMBER] 22 1858Hon A. LincolnSpringfieldIll
[ docketing ]
Ans Not to be6
1John F. Farnsworth wrote and signed this letter, including the address and signed frank on the envelope.
2No letter from Abraham Lincoln to Farnsworth to which this is a response has been located. Based on this reply, Lincoln may have written Farnsworth a letter similar to that which he wrote to Elihu B. Washburne on September 16, 1858, in which he informed Washburne that at the third Lincoln-Douglas Debate in Jonesboro on September 15, Stephen A. Douglas had stated that Washburne was “every where” claiming to be “unconditionally against the admission of any more Slave States”. Lincoln asked Washburne to either burn his letter or write a response which Lincoln could use to rebut Douglas’ claim. At the Jonesboro debate, Douglas asserted that although Lincoln distanced himself from a position opposing additional slave states, Farnsworth, Washburne, and Owen Lovejoy, the Republican candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives in the northern Congressional districts of Illinois, were actively advocating that no more slave states be admitted to the union.
Third Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Jonesboro, Illinois; Third Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Jonesboro, Illinois; Third Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Jonesboro, Illinois.
3In describing Farnsworth in the Lincoln-Douglas Debate at Jonesboro as an opponent to the admission of slave states, Douglas asserted that in the preceding U.S. Congress Farnsworth had made a speech in which he called on God to palsy his right arm if he ever voted to admit a slave state. This was apparently a reference to a March 20, 1858 speech by Farnsworth in the U.S. House of Representatives in the debate over Kansas. In that speech, Farnsworth expressed a hope that the last slave state had been admitted to the union, adding “So help me God, none shall ever be admitted with the assistance of my vote; and whether here or anywhere else, wherever and whenever it is in my power to strike a shackle from a human limb, or from human progress, that power shall be exercised.”
Third Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Jonesboro, Illinois; Third Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Jonesboro, Illinois; Third Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Jonesboro, Illinois; Cong. Globe, 35th Cong., 1st Sess., 1207 (1858).
4A speech that Farnsworth made at Elgin during the 1858 election campaign was one where he declared that in disagreement with Lincoln and with the Republican Party platform, he was opposed to the creation of any more slave states under any circumstances.
Daily Islander and Argus (Rock Island, IL), 7 October 1858, 2:2.
5No response to this letter has been located, nor further correspondence between Lincoln and Farnsworth on the subject. Douglas repeated his statements regarding the opposition of Farnsworth, Washburne, and Lovejoy to additional slave states during the Lincoln-Douglas Debate in Charleston on September 18, 1858, and that in Galesburg on October 7.
Lincoln and Douglas debated as candidates for the U.S. Senate. Lincoln, the candidate of the Republican Party, was challenging Douglas, the Democratic incumbent. Douglas would go on to defeat Lincoln and retain his seat. See 1858 Federal Election; 1858 Illinois Republican Convention.
Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois; Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois; Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois; Fifth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Galesburg, Illinois; Fifth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas, at Galesburg, Illinois; Fifth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas, at Galesburg, Illinois; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 414-16.
6Lincoln wrote this docketing.

Autograph Letter Signed, 2 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC).