To William E. Frazer1Jump to section
Dear Sir: Nov. 1. 1859
Yours of the 24th. ult. was forwarded to me from Chicago. It certainly is important to secure Pennsylvania for the Republicans, in the next Presidential contest; and not unimportant to, also, secure Illinois. As to the ticket you name, I shall be heartily for it, after it shall have been fairly nominated by a Republican national convention; and I can not be committed to it before. For my single self, I have enlisted for the permanent success of the Republican cause; and, for this object, I shall labor faithfully in the ranks, unless, as I think not probable, the judgment of the party shall assign me a different position. If the Republicans of the great State of Pennsylvania, shall present Mr. Cameron as their candidate for the Presidency, such an indorsement of his fitness for the place, could scarcely be deemed insufficient. Still, as I would not like the public to know, so I would not like myself to know I had entered a combination with any man, to the prejudice of all others whose friends respectively may consider them preferable Yours truly
A. LINCOLN
Annotation
[1] ALS copy, DLC-RTL. Frazer was a resident of Cookstown, Pennsylvania, and a supporter of Senator Simon Cameron. His letter of October 24 is not in the Lincoln Papers, but his acknowledgment of November 9 is.