o consult
with you in regard to the matter of the proposed Illinois and Michigan
Canal.

Sincerely your friend,
NINIAN EDWARDS.

XII. HON. ADAM W. SNYDER TO REV. JAMES LEMEN.

(From _Belleville Advocate_, April 17, 1908. Clipping,
I.B.H.C.,--K11)

City of Washington, Jan. 5, 1838.

Rev. James Lemen,
[Collinsville, Illinois]

My Dear Friend:--To the letter which I wrote you a few days since I
wish to add that the members of the Illinois delegation in Congress
have read the letter you recently wrote me, and they are all willing
and ready to assist in pressing the cause of the class of claimants
whom you mentioned upon the attention of the government for a more
liberal and generous allowance of lands. I have no further news to
communicate, except that I believe Mexico's treachery and insolence
will sooner or later call down upon her a severe chastisement from
this country; and that our Southern friends in Congress are growing
exasperatingly and needlessly sensitive on the slavery question,
claiming that Jefferson's {p.50} views would sustain their positions,
not knowing the splendid secret of your father's (Rev. James Lemen,
Sr.) anti-slavery mission under Jefferson's orders and advice, which
saved Illinois and we might say the Northwest Territory, to freedom.
In fact, the demands of slavery, if not controlled by its friends,
will eventually put the country into a mood that will no longer brook
its insolence and greed.

Yours in esteem and confidence,
A. W. SNYDER.

XIII. ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S LETTER

_Belleville Weekly Advocate_, April 24, 1908

The following letter and remarks from Abraham Lincoln, hitherto
unpublished, comprise the fifth letter of the series of old "Pioneer
Letters" which Mr. J. B. Lemen of O'Fallon is sending to the
Advocate.--Ed.

Springfield, Illinois. March 2, 1857.

Rev. James Lemen,
[O'Fallon, Illinois,]

Friend Lemen: Thanking you for your warm appreciation of my views in a
former letter as to the importance in many features of your collection
of old family notes and papers, I will add a few words more as to
Elijah P. Lovejoy's case. His letters among your old family notes were
of more interest to me than even those of Thomas Jefferson, written to
your fat