TO Gen. J. J. HARDIN, SPRINGFIELD, Jany. 19, 1845.
DEAR GENERAL:

I do not wish to join in your proposal of a new plan for the selection of
a Whig candidate for Congress because:

1st. I am entirely satisfied with the old system under which you and
Baker were successively nominated and elected to Congress; and because
the Whigs of the district are well acquainted with the system, and, so
far as I know or believe, are well satisfied with it. If the old system
be thought to be vague, as to all the delegates of the county voting the
same way, or as to instructions to them as to whom they are to vote for,
or as to filling vacancies, I am willing to join in a provision to make
these matters certain.

2d. As to your proposals that a poll shall be opened in every precinct,
and that the whole shall take place on the same day, I do not personally
object. They seem to me to be not unfair; and I forbear to join in
proposing them only because I choose to leave the decision in each county
to the Whigs of the county, to be made as their own judgment and
convenience may dictate.

3d. As to your proposed stipulation that all the candidates shall remain
in their own counties, and restrain their friends in the same it seems to
me that on reflection you will see the fact of your having been in
Congress has, in various ways, so spread your name in the district as to
give you a decided advantage in such a stipulation. I appreciate your
desire to keep down excitement; and I promise you to "keep cool" under
all circumstances.