William C. Hobbs to Abraham Lincoln, 27 July 18581
Hon. A. LincolnMy dear Sir
The Republicans of McLean County are exceeding anxious to hear an address from you, on the great political topics of the day—2 and to have an opportunity, to offer to you, individually, assurances of their energetic devotion to your interests, and, of their undissenting approval of your honest, frank and manly course as a politician— of your bold and triumphant advocacy of the immortal principles of Republicanism, without fear or favor, and without subtlety or pettifogging evasion
The Lincoln Republican Club of McLean County Ill[Illinois]” have deputed me, as their President to invite you to address the people at Bloomington, as soon as your convenience will permit– Will you be good enough to name the day.3
I would take the liberty to suggest that Saturday is usually considered the most convenient day in the week for an address, and about 2 o clock in the afternoon the most convenient time
Very Respectfully W. C Hobbs, President
Lincoln Rep.[Republican] Club. for McLean Co[County]

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Private
It will be well to give us 10 or 12 days notice– We want to send out messengers to each township in the county & have a large gathering & this is demanded of us by the people.–4 I will confer with you further on matters & arrangement after you designate the day.
Yrs[Yours]Hobbs

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[Envelope]
BLOOMINGTON Ill.
JUL[JULY] 28 1858
Hon. A. LincolnSpringfieldIllinois
[ docketing ]
W C Hobbs5
[ docketing ]
Ansd[Answered]6
1William C. Hobbs wrote and signed this letter, including the address on the envelope.
2Abraham Lincoln had been nominated at the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention to run against incumbent Democrat Stephen A. Douglas to represent Illinois in the U.S. Senate. At this time the Illinois General Assembly elected the state’s representatives in the U.S. Senate, thus the outcome of races for the Illinois House of Representatives and Illinois Senate were of importance to Lincoln’s campaign. Lincoln and Douglas both focused their efforts during the campaign of 1858 on the former Whig Party stronghold of central Illinois, where the state legislative races were the closest.
The result of the 1858 race for the Thirty-Eighth Illinois House of Representatives District, which consisted solely of McLean County, was that Republican Leonard Swett defeated Democrat John Gregory by a margin of around 600 votes. McLean County was in the Sixteenth Illinois Senate District, where Democrat Joel S. Post held over in the 1858 election.
Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 392-94, 400-401; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:457-58, 476-77; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 219-20, 222; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 4 November 1858, 2:3, 3:2; Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 5 November 1858, 1:3; The Weekly Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL), 10 November 1858, 1:2.
3No response to this letter by Lincoln has been located, although based on a further letter from Hobbs on the subject, Lincoln responded on July 30, 1858. Lincoln ultimately spoke in Bloomington on September 4, 1858.
Report of Speech at Bloomington, Illinois; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 4 September 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-09-04.
4In advance of Lincoln’s September 4 speech in Bloomington, the Lincoln Republican Club of McLean County printed a circular letter from Hobbs dated August 6, through which they notified county residents of the speech. The circular letters were addressed to residents of different jurisdictions in the county whom the Lincoln Republican Club appointed as committees to publicize the meeting.
Martin A. Wyckoff and Greg Koos, eds., The Illustrated History of McLean County (Bloomington, IL: McLean County Historical Society, 1982), 82.
5Lincoln wrote this docketing in pencil.
6Lincoln wrote this docketing in pen, presumably at a different sitting than the preceding docketing.

Autograph Letter Signed, 3 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC).