My dear Sir June 10. 1861
My friends, Hon. T. A. Marshall, and Hon. A. W. Mack, the bearers of this, I presume are not wholly unknown to you. They are two of our Illinois State Senators, residing respectively at Coles & Kankakee counties. They came here as the representatives of a Company, including themselves, seeking a contract, or contracts, for furnishing provisions for the Army. Fnding that officers of the proper Departments are with you for supplying the West, they now propose to call on you, and them, for the same object. I can do no more than to give assurance that any contract made with them would be faithfully complied with on their part; and that I hope they may obtain some such, on fair and just terms to the government and themselves. They are my friends whom I would be pleased to see obliged. Yours very truly A. LINCOLN