I write this for your eye only; hoping, however, if you see danger as I think I do, you will do what you can to avert it.

Could not suggestions be made to leading men in the State and Congressional conventions, and so avoid, to some extent at least, these apples of discord."[1] [Sidenote] Colfax to Lincoln, July 14, 1859.

MS.
By this time Colfax was cured of his late coquetting with Douglas, and he replied: "The suggestions you make have occurred to me....

Nothing is more evident than that there is an ample number of voters in the Northern States, opposed to the extension and aggressions of slavery and to Democratic misrule, to triumphantly elect a President of the United States.

But it is equally evident that making up this majority are men of all shades and gradations of opinion, from the conservative who will scarcely defend his principles for fear of imperiling peace, to the bold radical who strikes stalwart blows regardless of policy or popularity.