would help you, make us a visit.

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, D. C., October 12, 1864.

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.:

Secretary of War not being in, I answer yours about election. Pennsylvania
very close, and still in doubt on home vote. Ohio largely for us, with
all the members of Congress but two or three. Indiana largely for
us,--Governor, it is said, by fifteen thousand, and eight of the eleven
members of Congress. Send us what you may know of your army vote.

A. LINCOLN.

RESPONSE TO A SERENADE,

OCTOBER 19, 1864.

FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:--I am notified that this is a compliment paid
me by the loyal Marylanders resident in this District. I infer that the
adoption of the new constitution for the State furnishes the occasion, and
that in your view the extirpation of slavery constitutes the chief
merit of the new constitution. Most heartily do I congratulate you, and
Maryland, and the nation, and the world, upon this event. I regret that
it did not occur two years sooner, which, I am sure, would have saved the
nation more money than would have met all the private loss incident to
the measure; but it has come at last, and I sincerely hope its friends
may fully realize all their anticipations of good from it, and that its
opponents may by its effects be agreeably and profitably disappointed.

A word upon another subject. Something said by the Secretary of State in
his recent speech at Auburn, has been construed by some into a threat,
that if I shall be beaten at the election, I will, between then and
the end of my constitutional term, do what I may be able to ruin the
Government.

Others regard the fact that the Chicago Convention adjourned, not sine
die, but to meet again, if called to do so by a particular individual, as
the intimation of a purpose that if their nominee shall be elected he
will at once seize control of the Government. I hope the good people will
permit themselves to suffer no uneasiness on either point. I am struggling
to maintain the Government, not to overthrow it. I am struggling
especially to prevent others from overthrowing it. I therefore say, that
if I live, I shall remain President until the 4th of next March, and that
whoever shall be constitutionally elected, in November, shall be duly
installed as President on the 4th of March, and in the interval I shall do
my utmost that whoever is to hold the helm for the next