Scope and Content Note
The correspondence of Lyman Trumbull (1813-1896) consists of letters received, with a few drafts or copies of replies. Organized chronologically, the collection is dated 1843-1894, but only two documents fall outside the period of his service in the United States Senate. The years 1868-1871 are scantily represented.
A few documents are related to Trumbull’s law practice and business ventures, but the papers are essentially political in nature. There is much material concerning the elections of 1856, 1860, 1866, and 1872. Although Illinois state politics is a dominant theme and the majority of correspondents are from that state, many of the papers are related to national issues. Among the subjects with which the correspondence is concerned are appointments and patronage, the Kansas-Nebraska bill, secession, the Civil War, Reconstruction and the Civil Rights bill, and the Liberal Republican movement of 1872. There is little material relating to the impeachment of Andrew Johnson.
Among the correspondents are William H. Bissell, Montgomery Blair, Orville Hickman Browning, John Dean Caton, Zachariah Chandler, Salmon P. Chase, Shelby M. Cullom, David Davis, Mark W. Delahay, Jesse Kilgore Dubois, Jesse W. Fell, David Dudley Field, James W. Grimes, Hannibal Hamlin, James Harlan, O. M. Hatch, William Henry Herndon, Stephen Augustus Hurlbut, Norman B. Judd, Gustave Philipp Körner, John A. McClernand, Joseph Medill, Richard J. Oglesby, John M. Palmer, Charles Henry Ray, Horace White, and Richard Yates.