I was very anxious to have seen you at St Louis on your way Eastward, and watched for your arrival at that place—but did not get notice of your being there until you had left–2 In the first place I must congratulate you upon the glorious success of our party, and I expect an original Taylor man would not now be so scarce a comodity, in the Washington market–3 Your old friend Truman Smith managed his part of the canvass admirably well, and deserves the gratitude of the whig party–4 What a pity that you were not renominated in your District,– it is a shame that a District containing the Whig majority which it has should be so misrepresented–5 The moderate Loco focos here express themselves as well satisfied with the result, though Koerner, Bissell, Kinney and others are sadly dejected– Bissle particularly who took very violent and unwarrantable grounds against Gen^l[General] Taylor– I hope that his course may be understood at the "White house". Taylors letter upon "nativism", (the genuineness of which I have my doubts) has been used amongst our German population with some effect, and if it had been published here before the Election would have given us 100 more votes in this county.6

Above all things now we must be cautious in making removals and appointments in our State,– a greedy swarm of applicants for office will congregate at Washington, men generally the least deserving in our party, whose impertunities it will require resolution to resist,– and as you will be unaided by any colleague you will have to shoulder the responsibility of their appointments– My doctrine you Know in political management, is to "Secure Success and if we use the patronage we will have at disposal judiciously, never has our State been in so fair a condition for political regeneration—all patronage having been taken from the Gov. & Legislature, nothing is to be looked for from that quarter, which greatly weakens

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the influence of the cliques who have so long controlled the state—Nearly all the little postmasters in this region have rendered themselves obnoxious to the charge of interfering in the elections, which according to our creed (when our opponents are in) is good cause of removal– I hope the Knife will be pretty freely used, the same may be said of our Land Officers generally—but in making new appointments we should Keep our eyes steadily upon advancing the interests of the whig party—there are two or three German Post masters in our county for instance, who ought to be turned out, but Germans should be appointed in their places, and then we do not render ourselves obnoxius to the charge of "nativism"– I Know that many of the Germans of this county can be brought to vote the whig ticket,– my own experience satisfies me that, if whiggery is disrobed of "Nativism", with which the interested politicians here have sought to invest it, that many Germans will join us & when you reflect that we have 4000 German votes here in a half dozen counties all against us, it is worth the effort to conciliate them–7 You know how tenacious they are upon that subject, and to show you that with a little manouvering we may make the charge stick against loco focoism– I will relate what occured in a strong German precinct in this county during the August canvass– I was feircely assailed by Reynolds and Bissell as belonging to a party which was native american in its tendencies &.^c[etc] opposed to Foreigners &^c I had to mas[s] every edge cut to overcome 1300 majority, and was badly beaten if I could ^nt break into the Germans– I retaliated and making our new constitution the basis of my charge against the loco^s in the precinct to which I allude, conducted a fierce assault upon nativeism the saturday before the election (where I had the precinct to myself) by holding up the "Constitution with the signatures of the members to the convention attached "George Bunson" a German from this county was a member, he refused to sign the constitution without

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attaching "witness" to his name– this looked suspicious, and ^all^ were ready to charge a convention with being "natives" which would not allow a German to sign the constitution in any other way than as a witness– I recd[received] 150 majority in the precinct—which might otherwise have given 200 against me–8 In reference to my business at Washington, in which I will require your assistance this winter; I wanted to have spoken to you—in order to have some one on the spot to represent the interests I have charge of, I spoke to Washburn on his way East who has it in charge– I send him by to days mail for the inspection of the committee the only original Patent issued by Govr.[Governor] Harrison for these claims which I can lay my hands upon it– the land coved by this patent as well as all the others for which I am petitioning has been patented by the U. S. the second time, and are now very valuable– do Lincoln examine this case and support the bill a more righteous claim was never presented to Congress and I know it must pass if examined.

We will instruct Breese & Douglass in favour of the Wilmot Proviso.–9 I think there is no doubt of that– If you have time write me at Springfield– I would go on to the inauguration, but for the suspicion at home that I would be seeking office, and I think as "Old Zack" has done so well by letting office seek him, that his example had better be followed– [If] Mrs L. accompanied you this winter, give my respects to her– and tell her to laugh as much as She pleases, at the fantastic apes who will swell this winter at Washington & if it should so happen that Mrs L is at home, I'll promise to give your respects to her this winter & dance with her at the first party