a condition of the purchase.

And, by that law, I think the true rule for dividing into quarters any
interior section or sections, which is not fractional, is to run straight
lines through the section from the opposite quarter section corners,
fixing the point where such straight lines cross, or intersect each other,
as the middle or centre of the section.

Nearly, perhaps quite, all the original surveys are to some extent
erroneous, and in some of the sections, greatly so. In each of the latter,
it is obvious that a more equitable mode of division than the above might
be adopted; but as error is infinitely various perhaps no better single
rules can be prescribed.

At all events I think the above has been prescribed by the competent
authority.

SPRINGFIELD, Jany. 6, 1859.

A. LINCOLN.

TO M. W. DELAHAY.

SPRINGFIELD, March 4, 1859.

M. W. DELAHAY, Esq.

MY DEAR SIR: Your second letter in relation to my being with you at your
Republican convention was duly received. It is not at hand just now, but I
have the impression from it that the convention was to be at Leavenworth;
but day before yesterday a friend handed me a letter from Judge M. F.
Caraway, in which he also expresses a wish for me to come, and he fixes
the place at Ossawatomie. This I believe is off of the river, and will
require more time and labor to get to it. It will push me hard to get
there without injury to my own business; but I shall try to do it, though
I am not yet quite certain I shall succeed.

I should like to know before coming, that while some of you wish me to
come, there may not be others who would quite as lief I would stay away.
Write me again.

Yours as ever,

A. LINCOLN.

TO W. M. MORRIS.

SPRINGFIELD, March 28, 1859.

W. M. MORRIS, Esq.

DEAR SIR:--Your kind note inviting me to deliver a lecture at Galesburg is
received. I regret to say I cannot do so now; I must stick to the courts
awhile. I read a sort of lecture to three different audiences during the
last month and this; but I did so under circumstances which made it a
waste of no time whatever.

Yours very truly,

TO H. L. PIERCE AND OTHERS.

SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, April 6, 1859.

GENTLEMEN:--Your kind note inviting me to attend a festival in Boston, on
the 28th instant, in honor of the birthday of Thomas Jefferson, was duly
received. My engagements are such that I cannot attend.

Bearing in mind that about seventy years ago two gre