of you for Governor; and the imputation is, to the utmost hair-breadth of it, unjust. I never knew, or believed, or had any suspicion, that it was done, or was to be done, until it was out, had gone to Alton, and been commented upon in the Alton paper, and came back to Springfield, and my attention was called to it by Stuart, in our circuit court room, a few days, as I remember it, after you had been here attending to the case of Thayer vs Farrell, and had left. I went immediately to the Journal office, and told them it was my wish that they should not fall in with the nomination for Governor. They showed me a little paragraph, which they had already prepared, and which was published, and seen by you, as I suppose.
The reason I had not seen the nomination in the Tazewell paper was, as I suppose, because I did not then, as I do not now, take that paper. That I was wholly innocent and ignorant of that movement, I believe, if need be, I can prove more conclusively than is often in the power of man to prove any such thing.
In the paragraph last quoted you say that the design was to keep your name out of view &c. In the general disavowal I have made, this last is, of course included; and I now go farther, and declare, that to my recollection, I have not, in a single instance, presented my name as a candidate for congress, without, at the same time presenting yours for the same place. I have some times met a man who would express the opinion that you would yield the track to me; and some times one who believed you would be a candidate for Governor; and I invariably assured such, that you would, in my opinion, be a candidate for congress. And while I have thus kept your name in view for congress, I have not reproached you for being a candidate, or for any thing else; on the contrary I have constantly spoken of you in the most kind and commendatory terms, as to your talents, your past services, and your goodness of heart. If I falsify in this, you can convict me. The witnesses live, and can tell.
And now tell me: If you think so harshly of me because a paper under the control of one of my friends nominated you for Governor, what, or how, ought I to think of you because of your paper at Jacksonville doing the same thing for me twice? Why, you will say you had nothing [to] do with it; and I shall believe you; but why am I to be judged less charatably?
In another part of your letter you attempt to convict me of giving a double account as to my motive in introducing the resolution to the convention at Pekin. You say ``You then told me the object was to soothe Baker's mortified feelings, and that it did not amount