I write for the purpose of ascertaining whether we may reasonably expect to hear from you at this place during the present campaign2

We are peculiarly situated. Seemingly a strong Republican county, there are yet elements at work which may defeat the Lincoln candidate for the Legislature, and secure the election of a Douglas Republican.3

There was a Republican paper here two years ago, which the Democrats bought up and which is now edited by Judge Mayo, who ran on the Anti-Nebraska Democratic ticket for Congress against Woodworth in 1854.4 Last year the Republicans st established the paper which I am editing, and we barely succeeded, last fall, in carrying our regular Republican county

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ticket against the "People's Ticket", headed by Judge Mayo.5 The Judge is a professedly anti-slavery man, and in his last issue came out in favor of ^unqualified^ "negro equality," in so many words.6

This does take among a class of the anti-slavery men—there is no dodging that. It matters not how ridiculous it may seem to those out of the county, and in more conservative sections— there are some very radical men here who say that the Judge takes the stand that they have all along been desiring the Republicans to take. And the question now is, if the Judge runs for the Legislature, how many of these anti-slavery men can he get to vote for him, unmindful of the issue between Douglas and Lincoln.7 One trouble in talking Lincoln to the people is that h the people haven't seen him—don't know him. A great many of the anti-slavery men think he is a little tinctured with pro-slaveryism,

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because he was born in a slave state. His speeches have been extensively circulated, but if the people could see him, ^and hear him speak,^ all would be well.

If the Judge wasn't a man who has lived in the county twenty years and knows every man in it, wh and if I had had a longer residence here than ten months, I should feel more like coping risking the issue. As it is, I must say that should he run ^for the Legislature^, or some one ^else^ that he can mould to his opinions, I must say I fear that he can succeed in burying covering the issue. He I plainly says he doesn't endorse Douglas "any farther than he is right," so that I can't fix the upon him the odium of Doug's inconsistencies.

Perhaps I have wearied you. I simply wanted to make it appear to you that we needed Lincoln here in order to fix the people's attention upon Lincoln.

Hoping Sycamore is four

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miles north of the Galena Air Line (Dixon) Railroad. It is the county seat of D^eKalb. If you could come, and will set the time, we will have a crowd to hear you that you will not be ashamed of.