George W. Searle to Abraham Lincoln, 5 November 18581
Boston 5 Nov. 1858Sir,If you have any copies of any of the speeches made by you during the late canvas, will you do me the favor to send me ^a copy of^ any that you have to spare? My inability to procure them from other sources is my
opology for troubling you.2
I have &c &c[etc. etc.]Geo. W. SearleToHon Abram. Lincoln<Page 2>
[Envelope]
BOSTON Ms[Massachusetts]
NOV[NOVEMBER] 6 1858CHICAGO Ill
NOV[NOVEMBER] 25 1858
NOV[NOVEMBER] 6 1858CHICAGO Ill
NOV[NOVEMBER] 25 1858
FORWARDED
To/ HisHon. Abram LincolnChicago^Springfield^Ill[ docketing
]
1668
2 Lincoln had been the Republican candidate from Illinois for the U.S. Senate. 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. Lincoln campaigned extensively in Illinois
in the summer and fall of 1858, delivering speeches and campaigning on behalf of Republican
candidates for the General Assembly. He and his opponent, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, the incumbent, both focused their campaign efforts on the former Whig stronghold of central Illinois, where the state legislative races were the closest.
In local elections, Republicans gained a majority of the votes, but Pro-Douglas Democrats
retained control of the General Assembly, and Douglas won re-election. See 1858 Illinois Republican Convention; 1858 Federal Election
Lincoln and Douglas engaged in seven debates during the campaign, and Lincoln’s speeches and accounts of the debates became sought
after by publishers. Reports of Lincoln’s speeches and the debates appeared in contemporary
newspapers, from which Lincoln compiled a scrapbook that served as the source for the first publication of all the debates in 1860.
Lincoln transmitted the scrapbook to the publisher on December 19, 1859.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:457-61, 476-77, 513-14,
546-47; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape
of 1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 392-99, 400-401, 414-16; Political Debates Between Hon. Abraham Lincoln and Hon. Stephen A. Douglas (Columbus: Follett, Foster, 1860), iii-iv; Abraham Lincoln to George M. Parsons and Others.
Autograph Letter Signed, 2 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC).