r Mr. Sutton and not as writing merely to relieve myself of importunity.
Please show this to Col. William Ross and let him consider it as much
intended for him as for yourself.

Your friend as ever,

A. LINCOLN.

POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

TO W. H. LAMON, ESQ.

SPRINGFIELD, JUNE 11, 1858

DEAR SIR:--Yours of the 9th written at Joliet is just received. Two or
three days ago I learned that McLean had appointed delegates in favor
of Lovejoy, and thenceforward I have considered his renomination a fixed
fact. My opinion--if my opinion is of any consequence in this case, in
which it is no business of mine to interfere--remains unchanged, that
running an independent candidate against Lovejoy will not do; that it will
result in nothing but disaster all round. In the first place, whosoever
so runs will be beaten and will be spotted for life; in the second place,
while the race is in progress, he will be under the strongest temptation
to trade with the Democrats, and to favor the election of certain of their
friends to the Legislature; thirdly, I shall be held responsible for it,
and Republican members of the Legislature who are partial to Lovejoy will
for that purpose oppose us; and lastly, it will in the end lose us the
district altogether. There is no safe way but a convention; and if in that
convention, upon a common platform which all are willing to stand upon,
one who has been known as an abolitionist, but who is now occupying none
but common ground, can get the majority of the votes to which all look for
an election, there is no safe way but to submit.

As to the inclination of some Republicans to favor Douglas, that is one of
the chances I have to run, and which I intend to run with patience.

I write in the court room. Court has opened, and I must close.

Yours as ever,

A. LINCOLN.

BRIEF AUTOBIOGRAPHY,

JUNE 15, 1858.

The compiler of the Dictionary of Congress states that while preparing
that work for publication, in 1858, he sent to Mr. Lincoln the usual
request for a sketch of his life, and received the following reply:

Born February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky.
Education, defective.
Profession, a lawyer.
Have been a captain of volunteers in Black Hawk war.
Postmaster at a very small office.
Four times a member of the Illinois Legislature and was
a member of the lower house of Congress.

Yours, etc.,

A. LINCOLN.

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