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Letter to T. J. Pickett

SPRINGFIELD, April 16, 1859.

My dear Sir: Yours of the 13th is just received. My engagements are such that I cannot at any very early day visit Rock Island to deliver a lecture, or for any other object. As to the other matter you kindly mention, I must in candor say I do not think myself fit for the presidency. I certainly am flattered and gratified that some partial friends think of me in that connection; but I really think it best for our

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cause that no concerted effort, such as you suggest, should be made. Let this be considered confidential.

Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.

nts

Notes

1. Pickett was a newspaper editor and a warm personal friend of Lincoln, and among the first that were eager to launch a "presidential boom" for him. Pickett wrote: " I would like to have a talk with you on political matters, as to the policy of announcing your name for the Presidency, while you are in our city. My partner and myself are about addressing the Republican editors of the State on the subject of a simultaneous announcement of your name for the Presidency."