ionist.

After the election of Mr. Lincoln I wrote him a letter, which will
speak for itself, as follows:

"Mansfield, Ohio, November 26, 1860.
"My Dear Brother:--Since I received your last letter, I have been
so constantly engaged, first with the election and afterwards in
arranging my business for the winter, that I could not write you.

"The election resulted as I all along supposed. Indeed, the division
of the Democratic party on precisely the same question that separated
the Republican party from the Democratic party made its defeat
certain. The success of the Republicans has saved the country from
a discreditable scramble in the House. The disorders of the last
winter, and the fear of their renewal, have, without doubt, induced
a good many citizens to vote for the Republican ticket. With a
pretty good knowledge of the material of our House, I would far
prefer that any one of the candidates be elected by the people
rather than allow the contest to be determined by Congress. Well,
Lincoln is elected. No doubt, a large portion of the citizens of
Louisiana think this is a calamity. If they believe their own
newspapers, or, what is far worse, the lying organs of the Democratic
party in the free states, they have just cause to think so. But
you were long enough in Ohio, and heard enough of the ideas of the
Republican leaders, to know that the Republican party is not likely
to interfere, directly or indirectly, with slavery in the states
or with the laws relating to slavery; that, so far as the slavery
question is concerned, the contest was for the possession of Kansas
and perhaps New Mexico, and that the chief virtue of the Republican
success was in its condemnation of the narrow sectionalism of
Buchanan's administration and the corruption by which his policy
was attempted to be sustained. Who doubts but that, if Buchanan
had been true to his promises in submitting the controversy in
Kansas to its own people, and had closed it by admitting Kansas as
a free state, that the Democratic party would have retained its
power? It was his infernal policy in that state (I can hardly
think of the mean and bad things he allowed there without swearing)
that drove off Douglas, led to the division of the Democratic party
and the consequent election of Lincoln.

"As a matter of course, I rejoice in the result, for in my judgment
the administration of Lincoln will do much to dissipate the feeling
in the south against t