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delegates. The contest for the nomination was spirited and exciting.

A few weeks before the meeting of the convention the fact was found by the leaders that the advantage lay with Lincoln, and that unless they pulled some very fine wires nothing could save Baker.

They attempted to play the game that has so often won, by "convincing" delegates under instructions for Lincoln to violate them and vote for Baker. They had apparently succeeded.

"The plans of mice and men aft gang aglee;" so it was in this case. Two days before the convention Lincoln received an intimation of this, and late at night indited the following letter.

The letter was addressed to Martin Morris, who resides at Petersburg, an intimate friend of his, and by him circulated among those who were instructed for him at the county convention.

It had the desired effect. The convention met, the scheme of the conspiritors miscarried, Lincoln was nominated, made a vigorous canvass, and was triumphantly elected, thus paving the way for his more extended and brilliant conquests.

He

This letter, Lincoln has often told his friends, gave him ultimately the Chief Magistracy of the nation. has also said that had he been beaten before the convention he would have been forever obscured. The following is a verbatim copy of the epistle:

Friend Morris:

"APRIL 14, 1843.

I have heard it intimated that Baker is trying to get you or Miles, or both of you, to violate the instructions of the meeting that appointed you, and

to go for him. I have insisted, and still 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 I not fly from the decision against me in Sangamon and get up instructions to their delegates to go for me. There are at least 1,200 Whigs in the county that took no part, and yet I would as soon stick 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.

true.

I repeat, such an attempt on Baker's part cannot be Write me at Springfield how the matter is. Don't show or speak of this letter.

A. LINCOLN."

Mr. Morris did show the letter, and Mr. Lincoln always thanked his stars that he did.

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Old Relics.

The following is a copy of an autograph letter of Abraham Lincoln which was received by Capt. A. H. Parker, President of the Englewood Soldiers' Memorial Association, from W. H. Herndon, former law partner of President Lincoln.

SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Oct. 10, 1860.

Dear William: I cannot give you details, but it is entirely certain that Pennsylvania and Indiana have gone Republican very largely. Penn. 25,000, & Ia. 5 to 10,Ohio of course is safe.

000.

Yours as ever,

A. LINCOLN,

Accampanying the above is a leaf from Mr. Lincoln's boy copy-book. The two relics are explained in full by a letter from Mr. Herndon to Capt. Parker, of which the following is a copy:

SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Nov. 9, 1881.

Mr. Parker-My Dear Sir: Enclosed is a genuine let

[graphic]

[The original Fort Dearborn, as built in 1804.]

ter from Lincoln, addressed to myself, dated the 10th day of October, 1860, a few days before Mr. Lincoln's elec tion to the Presidency.

The history of the letter is as follows:

I was in Petersburg on the day the letter is dated, and in the evening, say at 7 o'clock, I was speaking to a large

audience in the court-house urging Lincoln's election. I had spoken about thirty minutes when a runner handed me a letter, and I opened it in dead silence, thinking possibly that bad news had come to me, possibly Lincoln's defeat.

However, the dead silence was soon broken by the reading of the letter, first to myself and then aloud, as loud as I could, and then there went up such yells, huzzas, such noise, such banging and thumping as were never heard in that house of justice before. The joy of the crowd, the noise of the yells, etc., were more eloquent than I was, and I got off the stand and quit my jabber in the presence of the general joy.

When Lincoln wrote the letter he knew that he was elected to the Presidential chair. He must have been grateful to the people and happy.

I can see his feelings

in his handwriting; he trembled a little, was full of emotion, joy and happiness.

I hate to part with this letter. It is the last one I have, and no money could get it. I willingly give it to you for the purposes it is given-namely: to the Soldiers' Memorial Association of Englewood, Ill., and its uses, etc., etc. To me there is a long history in the letter and its glorious recollections.

Again, I send you a leaf of Mr. Lincoln's boy copybook-a book in which Mr. Lincoln put down his arithmetical sums worked out.

I was collecting the facts of Mr. Lincoln's life in 18656 and went into Coles County, Illinois, to see his stepmother; found the motherly, good old lady, and took down the testimony, etc., as material of his life, etc

During her examination she let drop in her conversation the fact that Mr. Lincoln when a boy had two copybooks in which he set down the sums worked out, and wrote out in his literary one what seemed strong, beautiful or good. We, the Lincoln family and myself, commenced the search and found the arithmetical book, but not the other; it is gone, and gone forever.

I willingly send you a leaf of said copybook for the uses and purposes above, and for no other. I say this of the letter and the leaf. I would not spare them under any other consideration. God bless the soldier and his

friends.

To keep the pieces, get two glasses and put the letter between them; have it framed, and the letter thus framed will last for ages hung on the wall.

To keep the leaf and letter, get two glasses, say 6x7 inches for the latter, and 10x12 for the leaf-clean and clear glass like perfect window glass-put the paper and the leaf between the two glasses, hang up in the hall, and it will last for ages; keep a watch out that too much light does not exhaust the ink; dry it out or up, etc.

Hurriedly your friend,

W. H. HERNDON.

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How Lincoln Won a Case from his Partner

Laughable Toilet Ignorance.

While Judge Logan, of Springfield, Ill., was Lincoln's partner, two farmers, who had a misunderstanding respecting a horse trade, went to law. By mutual consent the partners in law became antagonists in this case On the day of the trial Mr. Logan, having bought a new

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