"I am going to try for a seat in the Legislature," said Abe. "I reckon it's rather bold. Old Samuel Legg was a good deal of a nuisance down in Hardin County. He was always talking about going to Lexington, but never went.
"'You'll never get thar without startin',' said his neighbor.
"'But I'm powerful skeered fer fear I'd never git back,' said Samuel. `There's a big passel o' folks that gits killed in the city.'
"'You always was a selfish cuss. You ought to think o' yer neighbors,' said the other man.
"So I've concluded that if I don't start I'll never get there, and if I die on the way it will be a good thing for my neighbors," Abe added.
The toast was drunk, and by some in water, after which Abe said:
"If you have the patience to listen to it, I'd like to read my declaration to the voters of Sangamon County."
Samson's diary briefly describes this appeal as follows:
"He said that he wanted to win the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens. This he hoped to accomplish by doing something which would make him worthy of it. He had been thinking of the county. A railroad would do more for it than anything else, but a railroad would be too costly. The improvement of the Sangamon River was the next best thing. Its channel could be straightened and cleared of driftwood and made navigable for small vessels under thirty tons' burden. He favored a usury law and said, in view of the talk he had just heard, he was going to favor the improvement and building of schools, so that every one could learn how to read, at least, and learn for himself what is in the Bible and other great books. It was a modest statement and we all liked it."
"Whatever happens to the Sangamon, one statement in that platform couldn't be improved," said Kelso.