To William H. Herndon1Jump to section
Dear William: I cannot give you details, but it is entirely certain that Pennsylvania and Indiana have gone Republican very largely, Penn 25,000 & Indiana 5 to 10. Ohio of course is safe. Yours as ever A. LINCOLN.
Annotation
[1] Copy, DLC-HW. Herndon sent the copy to Jesse W. Weik and added the following explanation, here somewhat abridged: ``The history of the letter is as follows. I was making a speech for Lincoln in Petersburg on the evening of Oct. 10th and had fairly got into the spirit of the hour when some one rushed into the court room and handed me the letter. I, at first, thought that it might contain sad news from my family. I opened the letter and read it over to myself before reading to the people and then I read it aloud to the crowd. I never finished that speech. The crowd yelled---screamed---threw up their hats---ran out of doors---made bonfires---&c. &c. . . . I gave the letter in '81 to a Mr. Parker, President of the Englewood soldiers memorial association near Chicago. . . . ''