Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Luman Sherwood to Abraham Lincoln, 30 June 18561
156 Broadway N.Y. June 30. 1856Hon Ab^m Lincoln–Dr[Dear] Sir–
I take the liberty of writing You to ascertain Your views as to the respective strength of the different Presidential Candidates in Ill. in the ensuing canvas 2–

From Your central position & being at the seat of Government I suppose You will be able to give information more reliable perhaps than those with whom I happen to be personally acquainted in the northern part of Your State–

I desire to obtain the result of Your best Judgment as to the probable vote for the respective candidates–

Please also give me the name of the chairman of Your

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State central Republican Committee if You have such a committee 3
Yours RespectfullyLuman Sherwood
chairman of the corresponding committee of the Rep. central committee for the city of N. York–

1Luman Sherwood wrote and signed this letter.

2The candidates for the 1856 Federal Election included Democrat James Buchanan, Republican John C. Fremont, and American Party candidate Millard Filmore. Buchanan defeated Fremont to become fifteenth president of the United States. He captured Illinois with 44.1 percent of the vote to 40.2 percent for Fremont and 15.7 for Fillmore. Voters in the four northern congressional districts sent Republicans to the U.S. House of Representatives. In southern Illinois, voters in the five congressional districts in that part of the state sent Democrats to the U.S. House. Illinoisans from southern Illinois also went overwhelmingly for Buchanan. Voters in the eighteen counties in the Ninth Illinois Congressional District, which encompassed most of southern Illinois, gave Buchanan 71 percent of the votes to 25 percent for Fillmore and only 4 percent for Fremont. See the 1856 Federal Election.
Howard W. Allen and Vincent A. Lacey, eds., Illinois Elections, 1818-1990 (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1992), 10, 134-37.

3No response from Abraham Lincoln to Sherwood has been found. Norman P. Judd served as the first chairman of the Illinois State Central Republican Committee.
Michael Vorenberg, "Judd, Norman Buel," American National Biography (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 12:301; Norman B. Judd to Abraham Lincoln.