should not have thought this necessary, if, at the time, I had known that the nomination had been made in your paper. And let me assure you, that if there is any thing in my letter indicating an opinion that the nomination for Governor, which I supposed to have been made in the Pekin paper, was opperating, or could opperate against me, such was not my meaning. Now, that I know that nomination was made by you, I say that it may do me good while I do not see that it can do me harm. But, while the subject is in agitation, should any of the papers in the District nominate the same man for Congress that would do me harm; and it was that which I wished to guard against. Let me assure that I do not, for a moment, suppose, that what you have done is ill-judged; or that any thing you shall do, will be. It was not to object to the course of the Pekin paper (as I then thought it) but to guard against any falling into the wake of the Alton paper, that I wrote.
You, perhaps, have noticed the Journal's article of last week, upon the same subject. It was written without any consultation with me, but I was told by Francis of it's purport before it was published. I chose to let it go as it was, lest it should be suspected that I was attempting to juggle Hardin out of a nomination for congress by juggleing him into one for Governor. If you, and the other papers, a little more distant from me, choose, to take the same course you have, of course I have no objection. After you shall have received this, I think we shall fully understand each other, and that our views as to the effects of these things are not dissimilar. Confidential of course Yours as ever
A. LINCOLN