Lincoln writes three acknowledgments of congratulations, including one to his old friend Speed: "I shall be at Chicago Thursday the 22nd. Inst. and one or two succeeding days. Could you not meet me there? Mary thinks of going with me; and therefore I suggest that Mrs. S. accompany you." Abraham Lincoln to Joshua F. Speed, 19 November 1860, CW, 4:141; Abraham Lincoln to Henry Asbury, 19 November 1860, CW, 4:140; Abraham Lincoln to Park Benjamin, 19 November 1860, CW, 4:140-41.

Donn Piatt and R. C. Schenck of Ohio arrive in Springfield, take tea with Lincoln at home, and sit far into night discussing situation. Illinois State Journal, 20 November 1860; Donn Piatt, Memories of Men Who Saved the Union (New York: Bedford, Clarke, 1887), 29-34.