Lincoln Speaks in Augusta

Lincoln Speaks in Augusta. Looking for Lincoln. "One of your sledge hammer speeches will effect wonders," declared the man who invited Lincoln to attend the district convention held in Augusta on August 25, 1858. Putting aside concerns that it might be overcrowding his agenda for the senate race against Stephen Douglas - their second debate was scheduled for two days later in Freeport - Lincoln came anyway. He arrived by train and spent the morning at the convention where local Republicans nominated his friend Jackson Grimshaw for Congress. , In the afternoon he gave a campaign speech in John Catlin's Grove. Local organizers had promised Lincoln "the tallest kind of a crowd" - and he wasn't disappointed. Over 1,200 people stood listening in the rain. Reporters quipped that the crowd "didn't come to hear a dry speaker, and he wasn't addressing a dry audience." Republicans anticipated winning in Augusta by a large majority. So, when their majority turned out to be just three votes, they suspected fraud. "This damned town came very near fleeing to the camps of [the Democrats]," complained one disgruntled Republican. , During his visit, Lincoln had a midday meal at the home of James Stark, consisting of "Irish and sweet potatoes, honey, green beans, and peach cobbler." Always the savvy politician, Lincoln reportedly declared he "could eat a gallon [of the beans] if they were cooked as good as Mrs. Stark cooked them." Two years later, Stark became an Illinois Presidential Elector. In Springfield on December 5, 1860, he joined fellow electors in officially casting Illinois' electoral votes for Lincoln, afterward eating dinner with the president-elect., Lincoln nearly fell from the buggy that carried him through crowded Augusta during his 1858 campaign visit. The driver, John Catlin, reported that, whenever Lincoln stood to acknowledge cheers, he startled the horses that were unaccustomed to such a tall passenger, causing them to jerk the buggy, forcing Lincoln to grab Catlin's shoulder for support to avoid tumbling out. Local tradition holds that during his visit Lincoln asked Augusta's black barber, Mr. Morrison, to shave him. Morrison's barbershop was in the basement of the old Pitney building that in Lincoln's day stood at this very location (Pitney Park). Morrison's greatest pride in life was that he had shave the face of the man who later became known as the Great Emancipator.