To John Bennett1Jump to section
Mr. Edwards2Jump to section tells me you wish to know, whether the act to which your town incorporation provision was attached, passed into a law. It did. You can organize under the general incorporation law as soon as you choose.
I also tacked a provision on to a fellow's bill to authorize the relocation of the road from Salem down to your town; but I am not certain whether or not the bill passed; neither do I suppose I can ascertain before the laws will be published. If it is a law, Bowling Green, Bennett Abell, and yourself are appointed to make the change.3Jump to section
No news. No excitement except a little about the election of monday next. I suppose, of course, our friend Dr. Henry, stands no chance in your ``diggings''4Jump to section Your friend and humble servant John Bennett Esq. A. LINCOLN
Annotation
[1] ALS-F, ISLA. John Bennett was proprietor of a hotel in the new town of Petersburg, Illinois, a few miles from New Salem, which Lincoln had surveyed and planned in 1835-1836. Petersburg's success in drawing residents away from New Salem marked the decline of that village, which became within a few years a ghost town.
[2] Possibly Thomas Edwards, a farmer from near New Salem, or Ninian W.