.

"Read the suggestions from the article in _The N. Y. Times_ for
Republicans.

"Yours truly,
"(Signed) J. Medill."

I was elected to the Senate, the fourth time, in January, 1901.
This time I had a very serious contest. More opposition had
developed, and there were more strong men against me, than at any
previous election. This was largely the outgrowth of the opposition
of the late Governor Tanner, who had just completed his term as
Governor of Illinois, and who had announced he would not be a
candidate for renomination, but would be a candidate to succeed
me. I believe it was mainly through the efforts of Governor Tanner
and his friends that the Hon. Robert R. Hitt, the Hon. Joseph G.
Cannon, and the Hon. George W. Prince were induced to become
candidates, in the hope of weakening me in their respective districts.
I do not believe that either Mr. Hitt or Mr. Cannon was a party to
any particular scheme to defeat me. They were candidates in good
faith, and aspired to the office of United States Senator, but
neither of them had any desire to defeat me unless he could get
the office himself.

The campaign continued for a year or more. My friends were active,
as were the friends of Governor Tanner. He had a horde of office-
holders whom he had given places while Governor, who had been more
or less actively working for him as my successor almost from the
very time that the Governor entered that office. The bitter personal
attacks made on me by the Governor and his friends did not help
him, but tended rather to help me.

The preliminary contest was in the State Convention held at Peoria
in 1900. There were a number of candidates for Governor before
that convention. The Hon. Walter Reeves, the Hon. O. H. Carter,
and Judge Elbridge Hanecy were the leading aspirants. My friends
had insisted that I should be endorsed for re-election by the State
Convention, and my friends controlled the organization of the
convention and elected the Hon. Charles G. Dawes temporary chairman
and the Hon. Joseph W. Fifer permanent chairman.

Governor Fifer has always been my friend, as I have always been
his. He was a brave, gallant soldier in the Civil War, in which
he served as a private until he was so badly wounded that his life
was despaired of. He has been forced to go through life under
exceptionally difficult circumstances, never fully recovering from
his wound. He is entitled to far more than ordinary credit fo