find they are not half gone. Make a little test. Run down one of the
poll-books of the Edwardsville precinct, and take the first hundred known
American names. Then quietly ascertain how many of them are actually
going for Douglas. I think you will find less than fifty. But even if you
find fifty, make sure of the other fifty, that is, make sure of all you
can, at all events. We will set other agencies to work which shall
compensate for the loss of a good many Americans. Don't fail to check the
stampede at once. Trumbull, I think, will be with you before long.

There is much he cannot do, and some he can. I have reason to hope there
will be other help of an appropriate kind. Write me again.

Yours as ever,

A. LINCOLN.




TO B. C. COOK.

SPRINGFIELD, Aug. 2, 1858.

Hon. B. C. COOK.

MY DEAR SIR:--I have a letter from a very true and intelligent man
insisting that there is a plan on foot in La Salle and Bureau to run
Douglas Republicans for Congress and for the Legislature in those
counties, if they can only get the encouragement of our folks nominating
pretty extreme abolitionists.