h 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 fr