Abraham Lincoln ALS Written During the Lincoln-Douglas Debates 

1p, 5.25 x 7.75 in., Springfield [IL], 2 Aug. 1858. Note entirely in Lincoln's hand: Dear Whitney, yours of the 31st is just received. I shall write to B. C. Cook at Ottawa and to Lovejoy himself as to the subject you suggested. Pardon me for not writing a longer letter as I have a great many letters to write. Your friend as ever, A. Lincoln.

While not a supporter of slavery, neither was Lincoln an abolitionist. He had some sympathy for the capital investment slaves represented, and knew its abolition would jeopardize the Union. Early in his political career he supported plans that would phase out the practice gradually, attempting to preserve the Republican moral high ground and the Union simultaneously.

Opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which gave voters the right to choose whether slavery would be allowed in a new territory, resulted in 1854 in the formation of the Republican party. However, then, as now, the party encompassed more conservative and more radical factions. Owen Lovejoy was part of the more radical abolition faction. His brother, Elijah, also an abolitionist, was killed in Alton, Illinois, trying to protect a new press brought in to replace one (of many) that had been destroyed by pro-slavery residents. Elijah is often cited as being the first martyr to freedom of the press.

Being something of a "natural" politician, Lincoln tried to avoid the extremes, but, like all politicians, he occasionally offended one faction or another. His "House Divided" speech, delivered earlier in the summer of 1858 when Lincoln was selected to oppose Stephen Douglas for his Illinois senate seat, was thought too radical by many in the party. In spite of their different viewpoints, Lincoln certainly respected and trusted Lovejoy as a person, and the two become friends along the way.

The letter to which Lincoln was responding was from Henry Whitney, a fellow Republican. In his letter, Whitney warned Lincoln about the political dangers of getting close to radicals such as Lovejoy. Elements in the Republican party were threatening to support Douglas's Democrats in many local and congressional races. As alluded to in this note, Lincoln passed the information along to Burton C. Cook, another Republican and lawyer in one of the most prestigious law firms in Ottawa, IL, which just a few weeks later would be the site of the first of seven debates with Douglas. In his note written the 2nd of August, he tells Cook: ...[T]here is a plan on foot ... to run Douglas Republicans for Congress and for the Legislature,...if they can only get the encouragement of our folks nominating pretty extreme abolitionists.... Please have your eye upon this.

In this response to Whitney, Lincoln implies he will keep Lovejoy at arm's length, but his exact response to Lovejoy has been lost. Lovejoy's response to Lincoln, however, survives, and in his letter of 4 August, he ends with: Yours for the ultimate extinction of slavery.

Over the months of August through November 1858 Lincoln and Douglas engaged in a series of debates. Most centered around slavery, with Lincoln emphasizing the immorality of the practice and Douglas supporting "popular sovereignty" - the basis of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Although Lincoln lost the election, the debates thrust him into the national spotlight, and ultimately gained him the party nomination for president two years later. In this sesquicentennial year of these historic debates, (and, of course, an election year) we might remember that occasionally losses lead to greater victories.

Found inside a book purchased at a Florida flea market, this letter was featured on a segment of the PBS series History Detectives, Episode 10, 2007.

Toned, foxed and laid down on cardboard. This note was overwritten (where it "needed" to be darker) in dark ink for the purpose of creating a facsimile for Whitney's published correspondence with Lincoln.