The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, vol 5 | Page 4

said that he came off the lion
of the day--or rather of the night. Can you not elect him to the

Legislature? It seems to me he would be hard to beat. What objection
could be made to him? What is your Senator Martin saying and doing?
What is Webb about?
Please write me. Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.

TO H. C. WHITNEY.
SPRINGFIELD, June 24, 1858
H. C. WHITNEY, ESQ.
DEAR SIR:--Your letter enclosing the attack of the Times upon me
was received this morning. Give yourself no concern about my voting
against the supplies. Unless you are without faith that a lie can be
successfully contradicted, there is not a word of truth in the charge, and
I am just considering a little as to the best shape to put a contradiction
in. Show this to whomever you please, but do not publish it in the
paper.
Your friend as ever,
A. LINCOLN.

TO J. W. SOMERS.
SPRINGFIELD, June 25, 1858.
JAMES W. SOMERS, Esq.
MY DEAR SIR:--Yours of the 22nd, inclosing a draft of two hundred
dollars, was duly received. I have paid it on the judgment, and herewith
you have the receipt. I do not wish to say anything as to who shall be
the Republican candidate for the Legislature in your district, further
than that I have full confidence in Dr. Hull. Have you ever got in the
way of consulting with McKinley in political matters? He is true as
steel, and his judgment is very good. The last I heard from him, he
rather thought Weldon, of De Witt, was our best timber for
representative, all things considered. But you there must settle it among
yourselves. It may well puzzle older heads than yours to understand
how, as the Dred Scott decision holds, Congress can authorize a
Territorial Legislature to do everything else, and cannot authorize them
to prohibit slavery. That is one of the things the court can decide, but
can never give an intelligible reason for.

Yours very truly,
A. LINCOLN.

TO A. CAMPBELL.
SPRINGFIELD, June 28, 1858.
A. CAMPBELL, Esq.
MY DEAR SIR:--In 1856 you gave me authority to draw on you for
any sum not exceeding five hundred dollars. I see clearly that such a
privilege would be more available now than it was then. I am aware
that times are tighter now than they were then. Please write me at all
events, and whether you can now do anything or not I shall continue
grateful for the past.
Yours very truly,
A. LINCOLN.

TO J. GILLESPIE.
SPRINGFIELD, July 16, 1858.
HON. JOSEPH GILLESPIE.
MY DEAR SIR:--I write this to say that from the specimens of Douglas
Democracy we occasionally see here from Madison, we learn that they
are making very confident calculation of beating you and your friends
for the lower house, in that county. They offer to bet upon it. Billings
and Job, respectively, have been up here, and were each as I learn,
talking largely about it. If they do so, it can only be done by carrying
the Fillmore men of 1856 very differently from what they seem to [be]
going in the other party. Below is the vote of 1856, in your district:
Counties.
Counties. Buchanan. Fremont. Fillmore. Bond ............ 607 153 659
Madison ......... 1451 1111 1658 Montgomery ...... 992 162 686 ---- ----
---- 3050 1426 3003
By this you will see, if you go through the calculation, that if they get
one quarter of the Fillmore votes, and you three quarters, they will beat
you 125 votes. If they get one fifth, and you four fifths, you beat them
179. In Madison, alone, if our friends get 1000 of the Fillmore votes,
and their opponents the remainder, 658, we win by just two votes.
This shows the whole field, on the basis of the election of 1856.

Whether, since then, any Buchanan, or Fremonters, have shifted ground,
and how the majority of new votes will go, you can judge better than I.
Of course you, on the ground, can better determine your line of tactics
than any one off the ground; but it behooves you to be wide awake and
actively working.
Don't neglect it; and write me at your first leisure. Yours as ever,
A. LINCOLN.

TO JOHN MATHERS, JACKSONVILLE, ILL.
SPRINGFIELD, JULY 20, 1858.
JNO. MATHERS, Esq.
MY DEAR SIR:--Your kind and interesting letter of the 19th was duly
received. Your suggestions as to placing one's self on the offensive
rather than the defensive are certainly correct. That is a point which I
shall not disregard. I spoke here on Saturday night. The speech, not
very well reported, appears in the State journal of this morning. You
doubtless will see it; and I hope that you will perceive in