As ever yours,
A. LINCOLN. [ [!-- H2 anchor --] ]
1845
SELECTION OF CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES
TO Gen. J. J. HARDIN, SPRINGFIELD, Jany. 19, 1845.
DEAR GENERAL:
I do not wish to join in your proposal of a new plan for the selection of a Whig candidate for Congress because:
1st. I am entirely satisfied with the old system under which you and Baker were successively nominated and elected to Congress; and because the Whigs of the district are well acquainted with the system, and, so far as I know or believe, are well satisfied with it. If the old system be thought to be vague, as to all the delegates of the county voting the same way, or as to instructions to them as to whom they are to vote for, or as to filling vacancies, I am willing to join in a provision to make these matters certain.
2d. As to your proposals that a poll shall be opened in every precinct, and that the whole shall take place on the same day, I do not personally object. They seem to me to be not unfair; and I forbear to join in proposing them only because I choose to leave the decision in each county to the Whigs of the county, to be made as their own judgment and convenience may dictate.