Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

John R. Herndon to Abraham Lincoln, 25 October 18581
Columbus Adams Coty o^ct 25 1858Friend Lincoln
I Send the few Lines to Let you know that old Row is yet alive and up and a going I am still fiting[fighting] in the old whig Ranks as I ever to fight I have found No Change in you as yet and I hope Nev[Never] unless for the Beter2 Now abe I Will tell you what we are Doing for you in this town we Will Give you a majority of 2 to 1 and that is hard to Beat I have control all the Legal voters and you get 2 to 1 sertain and some Dutfull the duglassites3 are Stedfast the Lincolnites is the same way But Seing the floting vote I herd a Democrat say that iff they sent dug to Congress that he had No Party to goe with that the Bucks4 would Not Joine him and the Rep would Not and that he would Be By him self and would Be of N use and he would vote for Lincon there is [many?] such in this county iff the fact was known Now Abe I want to see you and would have com to Macob But for My Business5 Old S [Renalds?]6 speaks in the higest terms of you But the Dugs7 dont Like him8
I thus closeJ R HerndonN B[Nota Bene] I am Practin Law

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M^r A LincolnMaCombMc Don[oh?] [Co?]

[ docketing ]
Lincoln, Abraham (President)

J. R. Herndon9

1John R. Herndon wrote and signed this letter. He also wrote Abraham Lincoln’s name and address on the last sheet, which was folded to create an envelope. See the second image.

2Herndon references both Illinois’s local elections of 1858 and the 1858 Federal Election. In the local elections, Illinois voters were selecting, among other things, their candidates for the Illinois General Assembly. At the time, members of the General Assembly elected Illinois’s representatives in the U.S. Senate. Lincoln was running in the 1858 federal election as the Republican Party’s candidate to replace incumbent Democrat Stephen A. Douglas in the U.S. Senate. Lincoln, Douglas, and their respective political allies paid close attention to the local elections, as the political affiliation of the candidates elected to the General Assembly was closely linked to who they would likely vote to represent the state in the U.S. Senate. Lincoln even occasionally received political intelligence from John R. Herndon’s cousin, William H. Herndon, about the operations of Democrats on the ground throughout Illinois. William H. Herndon’s brother and father were both active Democrats, and therefore in a position to know about local Democratic political strategy.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:456, 458; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 392, 394.

3This is a reference to supporters of Douglas.

4This is a reference to supporters of President James Buchanan. The Democratic Party split into pro-Buchanan and pro-Douglas factions after Douglas spoke out against the Lecompton Constitution in December 1857 and criticized President Buchanan for supporting it.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:445.

5Lincoln delivered a public address in Macomb, Illinois, on October 25, 1858. He and Douglas both traveled the state throughout the summer and fall of 1858 delivering public speeches in support of candidates for the General Assembly in their respective parties.
Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 28 September 1858, 2:1; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 25 October 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-10-25; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:457-85.

6This individual could not be positively identified.

7This is another reference to Douglas’s supporters.

8If Lincoln replied to this letter his response has not been located.
Adams County, Illinois, was in the state’s Twelfth Senate District and Twenty-Ninth House District. Voters in these districts elected Douglas Democrat Austin Brooks to the Illinois Senate and Moses M. Bane and Western Metcalf, both also pro-Douglas Democrats, to the Illinois House of Representatives. Brooks won by a majority of 380 votes; Bane and Metcalf each won with majorities of over 400 votes each over their Republican rivals. The Daily Quincy Herald reported that the Democratic Party increased its majority in Columbus, Illinois, by twenty-five votes; therefore, Herndon’s confidence that Columbus could give Lincoln “a majority of 2 to 1” was misplaced. In Illinois’s local elections of 1858 as a whole, although Republicans won a majority of all votes cast in the state, pro-Douglas Democrats retained control of the General Assembly and Douglas won reelection to the U.S. Senate. Brooks, Bane, and Metcalf each cast their ballots for Douglas.

Despite his loss, through the campaign and his participation in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, Lincoln gained recognition and respect within the national Republican Party, contributing greatly to his victory in the presidential context of 1860.
John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 219, 222; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 3 November 1858, 2:2; The Weekly Chicago Times (IL), 18 November 1858, 3:3; The Daily Quincy Herald (IL), 12 November 1858, 3:1; Illinois House Journal. 1859. 21st G. A., 32; Illinois Senate Journal. 1859. 21st G. A., 30; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,” 414; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:556-57.

9Lincoln wrote this docketing in pencil on the last sheet, which was folded to create an envelope and is shown in the second image.