till insist,
that this cannot be true. Surely Baker would not do the like. As well
might Hardin ask me to vote for him in the convention. Again, it is said
there will be an attempt to get up instructions in your county requiring
you to go for Baker. This is all wrong. Upon the same rule, Why
might not I fly from the decision against me in Sangamon, and get up
instructions to their delegates to go for me? There are at least twelve
hundred Whigs in the county that took no part, and yet I would as soon
put my head in the fire as to attempt it. Besides, if any one should get
the nomination by such extraordinary means, all harmony in the district
would inevitably be lost. Honest Whigs (and very nearly all of them
are honest) would not quietly abide such enormities. I repeat, such an
attempt on Baker's part cannot be true. Write me at Springfield how the
matter is. Don't show or speak of this letter.

A. LINCOLN

TO GEN. J. J. HARDIN.

SPRINGFIELD, May 11, 1843.

FRIEND HARDIN:

Butler informs me that he received a letter from you, in which you
expressed some doubt whether the Whigs of Sangamon will support you
cordially. You may, at once, dismiss all fears on that subject. We
have already resolved to make a particular effort to give you the very
largest majority possible in our county. From this, no Whig of the
county dissents. We have many objects for doing it. We make it a matter
of honor and pride to do it; we do it because we love the Whig cause; we
do it because we like you personally; and last, we wish to convince you
that we do not bear that hatred to Morgan County that you people have so
long seemed to imagine. You will see by the journals of this week that
we propose, upon pain of losing a barbecue, to give you twice as great
a majority in this county as you shall receive in your own. I got up the
proposal.

Who of the five appointed is to write the district address? I did the
labor of writing one address this year, and got thunder for my reward.
Nothing new here.

Yours as ever, A. LINCOLN.

P. S.--I wish you would measure one of the largest of those swords we
took to Alton and write me the length of it, from tip of the point to
tip of the hilt, in feet and inches. I have a dispute about the length.

A. L. A. L.

THE PAPERS AND WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

VOLUME TWO

CONSTITUTIONAL EDITION

By Abraham Lincoln

Edited by Arthur Brooks Lapsley

VOLUME II., 1843-1858