"In your paper of last Saturday I see a communication over the signature of 'Many Voters' in which the candidates who are announced in the Journal are called upon to 'show their hands.'
"Agreed. Here's mine:
"I go in for all sharing the privileges of the government who assist in bearing its burdens. Consequently, I go for admitting all whites to the right of suffrage who pay taxes or bear arms (by no means excluding females).
"If elected, I shall consider the whole people of Sangamon my constituents, as well those that oppose as those that support me.
"While acting as their Representative, I shall be governed by their will on all subjects upon which I have the means of knowing what their will is; and upon all others I shall do what my own judgment teaches me will best advance their interests. Whether elected or not, I go for distributing the proceeds of public lands to the several States to enable our State, in common with others, to dig canals and construct railroads without borrowing and paying interest on it.
"If alive on the first Monday in November, I shall vote for Hugh L. White for President.
"Very respectfully,
"A. Lincoln."
The earliest railroads in the United States had been built during the five years just preceding this announcement, the first one of all, only thirteen miles long, near Baltimore, in 1831. It is interesting to observe the enthusiasm with which the young frontier politician caught the progressive idea, and how quickly the minds of the people turned from impossible river "improvements" to the grand possibilities of railway transportation.
Many are the stories of the remarkable Sangamon campaign in 1836. Rowan Herndon, Abe's fellow pilot and storekeeper, told the following:
WINNING VOTES, WIELDING THE "CRADLE" IN A WHEAT FIELD