To Josiah M. Lucas1Jump to section
My Dear Sir: Your long and kind letter was received to-day. It came upon me as an agreeable old acquaintance. Politically speaking, there is a curious state of things here. The impulse of almost every Democrat is to stick to Douglas; but it horrifies them to have to follow him out of the Democratic party. A good many are annoyed that he did not go for the English contrivance,2Jump to section and thus heal the breach. They begin to think there is a ``negro in the fence,''---that Douglas really wants to have a fuss with the President;---that sticks in their throats. Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
Annotation
[1] NH, II, 358. Josiah M. Lucas had written from Washington where he held a federal job dating from Lincoln's term in congress. See earlier letters to Lucas.
[2] William H. English, representative from Indiana, who had offered the ``English Bill'' providing for the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution after acceptance by plebiscite of the citizens of the territory. The bill became law, but the Kansas voters rejected the proposal in August, 1858.