document or two from you.

"The Locos here are in considerable trouble about Van Buren's
letter on Texas, and the Virginia electors. They are growing
sick of the tariff question, and consequently are much
confounded at Van Buren's cutting them off from the new Texas
question. Nearly half the leaders swear they won't stand it. Of
those are Ford, T. Campbell, Ewing, Calhoun, and others. They
don't exactly say they won't go for Van Buren, but they say he
will not be the candidate, and that _they_ are for Texas
anyhow.

"As ever yours,

"A. LINCOLN."

[Illustration: ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN 1860.--HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED.

From an ambrotype taken in Springfield, Illinois, in 1860, and given by
Lincoln to J. Henry Brown, a miniature artist who had gone to
Springfield to paint a portrait of the President for Judge Read of
Pennsylvania. The ambrotype is now in a collection in Boston. A
companion picture, made at the same time, is owned by Mr. William H.
Lambert of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was reproduced as the
frontispiece to MCCLURE'S MAGAZINE for March, 1896 (see note to this
frontispiece).]

[Illustration: GENERAL JOHN J. HARDIN.

After a portrait owned by Mrs. Julia Duncan Kirby, Jacksonville,
Illinois. John J. Hardin was born at Frankfort, Kentucky, January 6,
1810; was educated at Transylvania University; removed to Jacksonville,
Illinois, in 1830, and there began practising law. He at once became
active in politics, and in 1834 was a candidate for Prosecuting
Attorney, an officer at that time chosen by the legislature. He was
defeated by Stephen A. Douglas, then a recent arrival from Vermont. In
1836 he was elected to the lower branch of the General Assembly, and
served three terms. In the session of 1836-37, he was one of the few
members who opposed the internal improvements scheme. He was elected to
Congress from the Sangamon district in 1843, and served until 1845. For
some time he was a general in the State militia. In the Mexican War, he
was colonel of the First Illinois Regiment, and was killed at the battle
of Buena Vista, February 23, 1847. General Hardin was a man of brilliant
parts. He was an able lawyer, and at the time of his death had risen to
the leadership of the Whig party in his State. It was through his
intercession, aided by Dr. R.W. English, that the unpleasantness between
Lincoln and Shields in 1842 was amicably settled and a duel
prevented.--_J