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Springfield, Missouri–November 28, 2011— Lincoln, Illinois,
boasts of its namesake history, hosts an annual festival to
celebrate the Lincoln railsplitter legend, and thrills to its giant,
fiberglass Abe statue on "the world's largest covered wagon." But
Abraham Lincoln's nemesis, Stephen A. Douglas, has three historical
markers there for a single namesake-town speech, while Mr. Lincoln
has two markers for just one of three known speeches at his first
namesake town. And now a fourth Lincoln-at-Lincoln speech has been
verified.
As a Lincoln buff
and native son of Lincoln, I am pleased to announce the discovery of
information that confirms a previously unverified local legend of a
speech Lincoln gave there during the Senate race of 1858 just before
the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Early reference to this speech is found
in Judge Lawrence Stringer's 1911 History of Logan County:
"During that campaign, Douglas held a meeting at Lincoln and it is
likely that very early in the campaign, Lincoln made a speech at
Lincoln. A number of old settlers are positive that Lincoln spoke
here quite early that year, but no newspaper notice of same can be
found."
In 1971 the late
Lloyd Ostendorf, a renowned Lincoln photo expert and artist, created
a drawing (attached) of Lincoln speaking at Lincoln in front of the
Lincoln House hotel, located across from the train station at
Broadway and Chicago Streets. Ostendorf dated that speech July 13,
1858, without citing a source. Early last year Professor Ron Keller,
director-curator of the Lincoln Heritage Museum at Lincoln College,
kindly gave me a copy of this drawing.
Recently I looked
at The Lincoln Log, the official day-by-day record of
Lincoln's activities, and it had no entry for July 13, 1858. The
entry for July 12 placed Lincoln in Chicago, and the entry for July
14 said he had returned to Springfield that evening. Travel was by
train, and the route ran through the first Lincoln namesake town.
Thus, he was through his special town on July 13 or July 14 and
could have spent time there. Yet Ostendorf's undocumented date still
puzzled, so I kept looking.
The Lincoln Log
says Lincoln traveled from Springfield to Bloomington to hear
Douglas speak on the evening of July 16, but Lincoln declined to
speak. The next day Lincoln was on the train with Douglas as it
headed south toward Springfield. After Douglas spoke in Atlanta,
locals urged Lincoln to speak, but again he declined. The Lincoln
Log made no mention of the train stopping at Lincoln on July 17,
but I have located four sources that refer to that stop. Reports in
the Daily Pantagraph, Illinois State Journal, and
Illinois State Register mention that Lincoln was on the train
with Douglas and that it stopped midday at Lincoln. Douglas spoke,
and a large dinner was served. Those reports neither confirm nor
deny Lincoln spoke—curious but not entirely surprising because the
trip was all about Douglas, not Lincoln. Yet a fourth source says
Lincoln did speak briefly on this occasion.
That source is an
article by sculptor Leonard Wells Volk (1828–1895) published in an
1881 issue of the Century Magazine and reprinted in a 1915
issue of the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society.
Volk (photo attached) wrote he was on the train that took Douglas
from Chicago to Springfield with a stop in Bloomington, where
Douglas was scheduled to speak on the evening of July 16. Volk wrote
that Abraham Lincoln was in Bloomington to witness Douglas's speech.
Volk then wrote: "The next day we all stopped at the town of
Lincoln, where short speeches were made by the contestants, and
dinner was served at the hotel, after which and as Mr. Lincoln came
out on the plank walk in front, I was formally presented to him."
Volk wrote that he asked Lincoln to sit for a bust sometime in
Chicago, and Lincoln agreed. The first sitting took place at Chicago
in April 1860. The Lincoln Heritage Museum at Lincoln College and
the State Bank of Lincoln's Annex (at Broadway and Sangamon Streets)
have reproductions of Volk's famous Lincoln life mask and hands.
Volk's reminiscent
account seems reliable: he had even accurately recalled the name of
the hotel in Bloomington as the Landon House. Volk's article thus
has credibility in validating the oral tradition first reported in
Stringer's 1911 history book that Lincoln had delivered a political
speech in his first namesake town in 1858 before the Lincoln-Douglas
debates. Thanks to Volk we now know the date was July 17, 1858, not
July 13 as Ostendorf had indicated and not July 16, the incorrect
date on the current historical marker at the Lincoln House site on
Broadway Street, erected in 1964, that describes Volk's meeting with
Lincoln. The marker does not mention any public speaking.
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Ostendorf's drawing
portrays Volk and Douglas in the audience with the Lincoln House in
the background, but the depiction of Lincoln speaking in front of
the Lincoln House hotel remains speculative. That speech might have
been given at the train station, in the open area between the
station and the hotel, or in front of the courthouse just a block
from the hotel, as was the custom of the day.
I have shared all
of this information with Dr. Daniel Stowell, director and editor of
The Papers of Abraham Lincoln, so that he may consider adding
a reference to Lincoln at Lincoln to The Lincoln Log entry
for July 17, 1858, which also says Lincoln delivered a major address
at Springfield that evening. I have added a more detailed account of
the information I found, including images, to my community history
Web site of Lincoln:
http://findinglincolnillinois.com/alincoln-lincolnil.html#2ndspeech.
Besides the speech
of July 17, 1858, three other speeches by Lincoln at Lincoln have
been documented: September 2, 1856, during Frémont's presidential
campaign; October 16, 1858, during Lincoln's Senate campaign; and
November 21, 1860, during Lincoln's trip as President-elect to
Chicago to meet Vice President-elect Hannibal Hamlin. The latter
speech was a brief greeting given from the back of a train. The
October 16, 1858, speech of more than two hours was the most
significant of the namesake town speeches because it was delivered
during a large Republican rally the day after the last
Lincoln-Douglas debate and therefore must have demonstrated Lincoln
at the height of his rhetorical powers at that time. I researched
and wrote the script for a re-enactment of that speech on October
16, 2008, during the Lincoln Bicentennial Celebration (http://www.historycooperative.org/
journals/jishs/101.3-4/henson.html).
Early in 2008 the
Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission of Lincoln, Illinois, had
accepted my proposal to erect a historical marker for the speech of
October 16, 1858. I had pledged $500 toward a large, prestigious
marker cosponsored by the Illinois State Historical Society (similar
to several other markers in Lincoln). This kind of marker has a
reasonable cost of $3,000 plus crating and shipping (http://www.historyillinois.org/),
but Mayor Beth Davis-Kavelman disbanded the Commission in April
2009, so the project stalled. Early in 2010 I communicated with the
new mayor, Keith Snyder, and other civic leaders (not the
historians) about finishing the historical marker project. I renewed
my pledge, but they said either the project lacked priority or they
did not have the funds. Details of my efforts are included in my
book titled The Town Abraham Lincoln Warned, described at
http://findinglincolnillinois.com/
townabewarned.html.
Douglas had spoken
in Lincoln on September 4, 1858, under a circus tent, and there are
three historical markers in Lincoln relating to that speech: two at
the site of the speech at Union and Decatur Streets and a third in
front of the State Bank of Lincoln's Annex. Yet the only
Lincoln-at-Lincoln speech marked there is his brief 1860 greeting
from the back of a train. Two markers refer to that speech: a 1965
marker facing Broadway Street at the former train station and a 2010
marker in front of the State Bank of Lincoln's Annex. The 2010
marker is the good work of Paul Beaver, professor emeritus of
history at Lincoln College.
Historical markers
educate, promote civic pride, and encourage visitors to park,
investigate, walk around, visit eateries, and shop. The three
historical markers citing a single Douglas speech and the absence of
markers for Lincoln's two previously documented speeches--right in
the center of the Logan County Courthouse Square Historic
District--add up to a strangely ironic predicament for a town that
otherwise revels in its namesake history and heritage. All of this
begs the question: will the verification of Lincoln's fourth-known
speech at Lincoln now spur the town to get right with its famous
namesake and mark all of his speeches there?
D. Leigh Henson,
Ph.D. (Illinois State University)
Professor emeritus of English
Missouri State University, Springfield
DLHenson@missouristate.edu
http://www.illinoisauthors.org/
authors/Darold_Leigh_Henson
http://findinglincolnillinois.com/
DLHensoncv5-11.pdf
[Text copied from file received] |
