Report of Speech of Henry P. H. Bromwell to Abraham Lincoln, 18 September 18581
Hon. Abraham Lincoln:—Though oft welcomed before by the citizens of Coles, yet now a thousand times more welcome to the friends of free thought, free speech,
free labor and free Constitutions through this portion of our State, when they hail you as the champion of these principles in this unparalleled contest, which brings such profit to our cause and honor to yourself. These friends have
honored me with the commission which I now so gladly but so imperfectly fulfill of
presenting you, through my voice, the accumulated welcome of assembled thousands.2
There are those among us who have witnessed your course from dawning manhood till
this hour. If they have marked with satisfaction your course in the walks of integrity
and independence, they feel the more pride now in hailing you as the fit standard
bearer of the great Republican phalanx which supports those principles only which are born to the eternal years
of God. You, as well I, and thousands among our numbers, deem it no dishonor that
we owe to honest labor all the position, whatever it may be, which we occupy among
our fellows. Hence we strive for the elevation of labor to no second position in
honor in our Republic. We have seen you shedding lustre on this principle, and bringing free labor to the level of the occupations of the
forum. We seek now to commission you as one who may assist in maintaining it side
by side with the dignity of the Senate!
These laudable aims are being thwarted by the introduction of principles repugnant
to the enlightened sentiments of freemen. A double-headed opposition, warring in
its own members as to the mode, unites to crush the right—but we recognize in this
only the continuation of that war against true freedom which has always existed, and
in which there is no discharge, yet still we anticipate triumph when the bright standards
of truth shall sweep the dark shadows of error from the portals of her broad pavillion, when the congregated majorities of our land shall join with that of Illinois in treading the winepress of public indignation, in which alike all factions of enemies
to the people shall mingle their blood.3 I again welcome you to our hospitalities. Gentlemen and citizens, allow me to introduce
to you the Hon. Abraham Lincoln—the next Senator of the United States from the State
of Illinois.
1This report appeared in the September 21, 1858 edition of the Chicago Daily Press and Tribune.
Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 21 September 1858, 1:1.
2Abraham Lincoln traveled from Mattoon to Charleston for the fourth Lincoln-Douglas Debate on September 18, 1858, escorted by a large procession. When he arrived at the Capitol
House, Henry P. H. Bromwell welcomed him with this speech. At 2:45 that afternoon, Lincoln opened the debate.
In June 1858, the Illinois Republican Convention nominated Abraham Lincoln to challenge Stephen A. Douglas for the U.S. Senate. Lincoln invited Douglas to a series of debates on July 24, setting
the stage for what would become one of the most famous local political contests in
U.S. history and a precursor to the 1860 presidential election. Prior to the seven debates between Lincoln and Douglas, Lincoln had already made sixty-three speeches in 1858,
and Douglas claimed to have made 130. Douglas, the incumbent, was more widely known
than Lincoln and had the numeric advantage of the Democrats in the Illinois General Assembly, which selected U.S. senators in those days. He also represented a divided party
and faced a growing population in northern Illinois that was hostile to slavery. Lincoln, on the other hand, had the advantage of a united
Republican Party, a growing antipathy toward slavery in the state, and a reputation
for integrity. Nevertheless, his views on racial issues were unpopular, as was his
stand on the Mexican War. The debates would highlight the fundamental differences in the men’s characters
and focus on the main issues of the day, the expansion of slavery and racial equality.
While the immediate effect of the debates was the reelection of Douglas, the long-term
results were the opposite. Lincoln was catapulted to national prominence, allowing
him to run for president in 1860, and Douglas’s campaign against Lincoln diminished
his chances of future success. See 1858 Federal Election; 1860 Republican National Convention.
The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 18 September 1858, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-09-18; Abraham Lincoln to Stephen A. Douglas; Abraham Lincoln to Stephen A. Douglas; David M. Potter and Don E. Fehrenbacher, The Impending Crisis, 1848-1861 (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), 332-33; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:458, 486-87, 556-57; Allen
C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,”
The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 392; George Fort Milton, "Lincoln-Douglas Debates," Dictionary of American History, rev. ed. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1976), 4:155-56.
3Bromwell is likely referring to the Republican belief that Douglas and the Democrats
were attempting to nationalize slavery. Lincoln believed that the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, establishing popular sovereignty as a means of deciding slave status for
southwestern territories, was part of a larger conspiracy to make slavery perpetual
and national. During his nomination at the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention, Lincoln
delivered an address—widely known as his “House Divided” speech—in which he charged
that Douglas was part of a plot or conspiracy to nationalize slavery. Lincoln argued
that the plot began with Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska bill, which President Franklin Pierce supported, then was advanced by both the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Dred Scott case—handed down by Roger B. Taney—and by President James Buchanan’s call to support the court’s decision. Lincoln warned his audience that, if Douglas
were not defeated and the slave power not overthrown, another Supreme Court ruling
could build upon the Dred Scott decision and proclaim that the U.S. Constitution prohibited
states from excluding slavery within their own borders.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:458-61; Report of Speech at Springfield, Illinois; Report of Speech at Springfield, Illinois; Fragment of A House Divided Speech at Springfield, Illinois; Report of Speech at Springfield, Illinois; David Herbert Donald, Lincoln (New York: Touchstone, 1995), 206-9.
Printed Document, 1 page(s), Chicago Daily Press and Tribune , (Chicago, IL) , 21 September 1858, 1:1.