My opinion--if my opinion is of any consequence in this case, in
which it is no business of mine to interfere--remains unchanged, that
running an independent candidate against Lovejoy will not do; that it
will result in nothing but disaster all round. In the first place,
whosoever so runs will be beaten and will be spotted for life; in the
second place, while the race is in progress, he will be under the
strongest temptation to trade with the Democrats, and to favor the
election of certain of their friends to the Legislature; thirdly, I shall
be held responsible for it, and Republican members of the Legislature who
are partial to Lovejoy will for that purpose oppose us; and lastly, it
will in the end lose us the district altogether. There is no safe way but
a convention; and if in that convention, upon a common platform which all
are willing to stand upon, one who has been known as an abolitionist, but
who is now occupying none but common ground, can get the majority of the
votes to which all look for an election, there is no safe way but to
submit.
As to the inclination of some Republicans to favor Douglas, that is one
of the chances I have to run, and which I intend to run with patience.
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