Norman B. Judd to Abraham Lincoln, 15 November, 18581
Chicago 15 Nov 1858Hon. A. LincolnDear Sir-I have been hoping and expecting to have a word from you but nothing comes–2 If you feel as blue as I have since election I do not blame you3– The future looks gloomy to me– I assume that having the power they will so district
the State that we will be sold permanently—4 and we are particularly vulnerable in this City and County– Their plans are already already [venturing??] by legislature to take the control the city goverment– and they can do it and all we can do is Micawber like to wait for Something to turn up.5 You have at once
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made a national reputation that cannot be taken away from you6I am in a worse situation than any one else– I ran the State committee upon the least economical plan, and it has unpaid bill to the amount of about $2500.–
I have written to Hatch & Dubois about their subscriptions, but I get no answer, and I am in the boat– Our friends
ought to help this matter out, or the party will be disgraced– A personal request from yourself to some of our leading friends
throughout the State would help it out– Will consult with the friends and see if any thing can be done7
Yr[Your] friendN B Judd<Page 3>
[Envelope]
CHICAGO Ill.[Illinois]
NOV[NOVEMBER] 15 1858Hon. A. LincolnSpringfieldIlls
NOV[NOVEMBER] 15 1858Hon. A. LincolnSpringfieldIlls
1Norman B. Judd wrote and signed this letter. He also wrote Abraham Lincoln’s name
and address on the envelope.
2Abraham Lincoln wrote Judd on the same day that this letter was written. It had not yet arrived in Chicago
by the time Judd sent this letter.
3Judd references the state elections in Illinois, which occurred on November 2, 1858. Lincoln, the candidate of the Republican Party, was challenging Stephen A. Douglas, the Democratic incumbent, for seat in the U.S. Senate. Both men canvassed the state throughout the summer and fall of 1858, delivering
speeches in support of candidates for the Illinois General Assembly in their respective parties. Members of the General Assembly voted for and elected
the state’s representatives in the U.S. Senate at the time; therefore the outcome
of the races for the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate were critical to the race for the Senate seat. Lincoln and Douglas also debated at seven Illinois towns during the campaign. See 1858 Federal Election; 1858 Illinois Republican Convention.
In the state’s local elections as a whole, Republicans won a majority of all votes
cast in the state, tallying 190,468 votes to 166,374 for Democrats. Pro-Douglas Democrats
retained control of the General Assembly, however, winning forty seats to thirty-five
for the Republicans in the Illinois House and fourteen seats to eleven for the Republicans
in the Illinois Senate, allowing Douglas to win reelection to the U.S. Senate. Through
the campaign, however, and in particular through his participation in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, Lincoln gained recognition as well as standing within the national Republican Party.
Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 3 November 1858, 2:1, 9 November 1858, 2:1; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:458-60, 492-540, 556-57;
Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of
1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 392-94, 414-16; George Fort Milton, "Lincoln-Douglas Debates,"
Dictionary of American History, rev. ed. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1976), 4:155-56. Allen C. Guelzo,
Lincoln and Douglass: The Debates that Defined America, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2008), 282.
4Many Republican leaders in Illinois were fearful Democrats would gerrymander the House
and Senate districts to keep control of the General Assembly. As Lincoln noted his letter to Judd of November 15, this threatened the reelection of Lyman Trumbull to the U.S. Senate in 1860. In the state elections of 1860, Republicans won control
of both the Illinois House and Senate, gaining a one seat majority in the Senate and
five seat majority in the House, allowing Trumbull to win reelection.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:546-47; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 9 November, 1858, 2:1; 6 January, 1859, 2:2; Illinois Daily State Journal (Springfield), 11 December 1860, 2:3; Ottawa Free Trade (IL), 15 December 1860, 1:6; Illinois Senate Journal. 1855. 19th G. A., 255; Illinois Senate Journal. 1861. 22th G. A., 32;
Illinois House Journal. 1861. 22th G. A., 31.
5Micawber is a reference to Wilkins Micawber, a character in Charles Dickens’s novel
David Copperfield.
Thomas Alexander Fyfe, Who’s Who in Dickens, 2nd ed. (London, New York, and Toronto: Hodder and Stoughton, 1913), 206.
6Lincoln’s campaign against Douglas, in particular his participation in the Lincoln-Douglas
Debates, gained Lincoln recognition nationally. The Chicago Daily Press and Tribune wrote that he had gave himself “a splendid national reputation. Identified all his
life long with the old Whig party, always in a minority in Illinois, his fine abilities and attainments have necessarily
been confined to a very limited sphere. He entered upon the canvass with a reputation
confined to his own State— he closed it with his name a household word wherever the
principles he holds are honored, and with the respect of his opponents in all sections
of the country.” Some began to think of Lincoln as a presidential candidate in 1860. Jesse Fell confided to Lincoln that “Judge Douglas being so widely known, you are getting a
national reputation.... Your discussion with Judge Douglas had demonstrated your ability and your devotion to freedom; you
have no embarrassing record; you have sprung from the humble walks of life, sharing
in its toils and trials; and if only we can get these facts sufficiently before the
people, depend on it, there is some chance for you.” Horace White of the Chicago Tribune wrote that “Lincoln’s “popular majority in the state will give us the privilege of naming our man on the national ticket in 1860.” As of November of
1858, Lincoln had yet to make any decisions about his political future following his
loss to Douglas.
Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 29 October, 1858, 1:1; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:556-57; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political
Landscape of 1858,” 414-16; Allen C. Guelzo, Lincoln and Douglass: The Debates that Defined America, 303 .
7Norman B. Judd was the head of the Illinois Republican Party’s State Central Committee. Most political campaigns in the 1850s were funded by individuals within the party
and individual supporters of candidates. It is estimated that the campaign personally
cost $1,000 to Lincoln, compared to $50,000 to Douglas. Judd estimated that the debt
of the Republican Committee was about $2,500-$3,000, split between all Republican
races in the state.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:552, 559.
8Lincoln wrote this docketing. In Lincoln’s response to this letter, he agreed to pay $250 towards the debts of the Republican Party’s
State Central Committee on top of what he had already agreed to pay during the campaign.
Autograph Letter Signed, 3 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC).