Monday,
September 15, 1856.Springfield,
IL. | Lincoln writes to Jesse A. Pickrell of
Sangamon County, and asks for "a list of fifteen or twenty names of good,
steady Fillmore men, round about you." Lincoln is referring to Millard
Fillmore, the American (Know-Nothing) Party candidate for president. Lincoln
seeks the names of Fillmore supporters to whom he can send letters in an
attempt to garner votes for John C. Fremont, the Republican presidential
candidate. In addition to Fremont and Fillmore, James Buchanan is the
Democratic party's nominee in the three-way presidential election of 1856.
Abraham Lincoln to Jesse A. Pickrell, 15 September 1856, University of
Illinois Library, Lincoln Room, Urbana, IL; Thomas F. Schwartz, "Lincoln, Form
Letters, and Fillmore Men," Illinois Historical Journal 78
(Spring 1985): 65-70. |