Tuesday,
May 22, 1860.Springfield, IL. | Lincoln writes to his longtime friend Joshua Speed, of
Louisville, Kentucky, in response to Speed's letter congratulating Lincoln on
winning the Republican Party's nomination for president. Speed referred to
himself as Lincoln's "warm personal friend, though as you are perhaps aware a
political opponent." Speed invited Lincoln to Kentucky and intimated, "My wife
is warmly for you." Lincoln replies, "I would like to see Kentucky generally,
and you in particular; and yet I suppose it will scarcely be prudent for me to
leave home much, if any." Lincoln is not surprised that "Mrs. Speed is for
me—with her nature and views, she could not well be otherwise." Lincoln
invites the Speeds to "visit us here." Joshua F. Speed to Abraham
Lincoln, 19 May 1860, Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress, Washington,
D. C.; Abraham Lincoln to Joshua Speed, 22 May 1860, CW,
10:53-54. |