H. Doolittle to Abraham Lincoln, 11 December 18581
Chicago Dec 11. 58Hon A. LincolnDr[Dear] SirI have Hunted the City since I saw you for the times having the joint discussion of yourself & Mr Douglas
I have found where they are & as soon as the person returns who has them & now out
of Town I think I shall be able to get them for you2
yours RespectfullyH Doolittle3I shall know about them in three or four Days<Page 2>
[Envelope]
CHICAGO Ill.[Illinois]
DEC[DECEMBER] 13Hon. A. Lincoln Esq[Esquire]SpringfieldIllinois
DEC[DECEMBER] 13Hon. A. Lincoln Esq[Esquire]SpringfieldIllinois
1H. Doolittle wrote and signed this letter. He also wrote Abraham Lincoln’s name and
address on the envelope in the second image.
2Lincoln’s response, if he wrote one, has not been located. Lincoln and Doolittle
had no further correspondence in 1858.
Lincoln had been the Republican candidate from Illinois for U.S. Senate in 1858. In the summer and fall of that year, Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, his Democratic opponent and the incumbent , canvassed the state 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 this time , so the races for the
Illinois House of Representatives and Illinois Senate held on November 2, 1858 were highly relevant to the outcome of the U.S. Senate race.
Lincoln and Douglas also debated one another in seven locations throughout the state.
Republicans won a majority of all votes cast in the state elections, but pro-Douglas
Democrats retained control of the Illinois General Assembly and Douglas ultimately
won reelection to the U.S. Senate. Douglas's victory was confirmed in the election
held on January 5, 1859. 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.
See 1858 Federal Election; 1858 Illinois Republican Convention.
Following the campaign, Lincoln wrote Doolittle, Henry C. Whitney, Charles H. Ray, William H. Carlin, and Sidney Breese asking for copies of the debates and other political speeches to put into a scrapbook of the campaign. The scrapbook Lincoln compiled of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates later
served as the source for the first publication of the debates in 1860.
Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 3 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; Illinois Senate Journal. 1859. 21st G. A., 30; Illinois House Journal. 1859. 21st G. A., 32; Lincoln-Douglas Debates Scrapbook; Abraham Lincoln to Henry C. Whitney; Henry C. Whitney to Abraham Lincoln; Abraham Lincoln to Charles H. Ray; William H. Carlin to Abraham Lincoln; Sidney Breese to Abraham Lincoln; Political Debates Between Hon. Abraham Lincoln and Hon. Stephen A. Douglas (Columbus: Follett, Foster, 1860), iii-iv.
Autograph Letter Signed, 2 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC).