Sunday,
April 11, 1858.Springfield,
IL. | Lincoln writes to fellow Republican and
attorney Jackson Grimshaw, of Quincy, Illinois. Lincoln encloses a document
from a court case in which the two men are involved. Grimshaw had written to
Lincoln about the case and also about the status of Kansas's Lecompton
constitution. Grimshaw wrote, "We have a rumour here per telegraph that
Lecompton is defeated in the [U.S.] house. He explained that the "Republicans
of [Illinois's] 5 District" recently met and composed "resolutions." Grimshaw
added, "We are not content merely with the defeat of Lecompton, we are opposed
to the extension of slavery & believe [Stephen A.] Douglass & the
leaders of the Illinois Democracy are responsible for offering the south the
opportunity of carrying slavery into Kansas." Lincoln replies, "I have not seen
the political resolutions you refer to; but, I doubt not, our friends every
where, act in the right spirit, and with the best judgment. We probably shall
have a State convention early in summer, when, by mutual consultation, we can
secure uniformity of action, if, indeed, any such uniformity be lacking
before." Jackson Grimshaw to Abraham Lincoln, 3 April 1858, SC 606,
Manuscripts, IHi, Springfield, IL; Abraham Lincoln to Jackson Grimshaw, 11
April 1858, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, DE. |