Page 346
To John Van Dyke1Jump to section
My Dear Sir: Allow me to thank you for your kind notice of me in the Philadelphia Convention.
When you meet Judge Dayton present my respects, and tell him I think him a far better man than I for the position he is in, and that I shall support both him and Colonel Fremont most cordially. Present my best respects to Mrs. Van Dyke, and believe me. Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
Annotation
[1] NH, II, 289-90. John Van Dyke of New Brunswick, New Jersey, was a Whig representative in the Thirtieth and Thirty-first Congresses. In his speech before the Republican National Convention on June 19, he paid tribute to Lincoln as follows: ``. . . I knew Abraham Lincoln in Congress well, and for months I sat by his side. I knew him all through, and knew him to be a first-rate man in every respect; and if it had not been the will and pleasure of the Convention to have selected William L. Dayton, I know with what perfect alacrity I would have gone for him. . . .'' Lincoln received 110 votes for the vice-presidential nomination on the first ballot. Senator Dayton of New Jersey received the nomination. Proceedings of the First Three Republican National Conventions, Minneapolis, 1893, p. 59 ff.