I think, then,
it would be proper for your meeting to appoint three delegates, and to
instruct them to go for some one as a first choice, some one else as a
second, and perhaps some one as a third; and if in those instructions I
were named as the first choice it would gratify me very much. If you
wish to hold the balance of power, it is important for you to attend to
and secure the vote of Mason also."
A few weeks again changed the situation, of which he informed Speed in a
letter dated May 18:
"In relation to our Congress matter here, you were right in supposing I
would support the nominee. Neither Baker nor I, however, is the man--but
Hardin, so far as I can judge from present appearances. We shall have no
split or trouble about the matter; all will be harmony."
In the following year (1844) Lincoln was once more compelled to exercise
his patience. The Campbellite friends of Baker must have again been very
active in behalf of their church favorite; for their influence, added to
his dashing politics and eloquent oratory, appears to have secured him
the nomination without serious contention, while Lincoln found a partial
recompense in being nominated a candidate for presidential elector,
which furnished him opportunity for all his party energy and zeal during
the spirited but unsuccessful presidential campaign for Henry Clay.
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