n American or Know-Nothing lodges;
but, in point of fact, I never was in one, at Quincy or elsewhere....
And now a word of caution. Our adversaries think they can gain a point
if they could force me to openly deny the charge, by which some degree
of offense would be given to the Americans. For this reason it must
not publicly appear that I am paying any attention to the charge."

[Sidenote] Lincoln to Dr. Theodore Canisius, May 17, 1859.

His position on the main question involved was already sufficiently
understood; for in his elsewhere quoted letter of May 17, 1859, he had
declared himself against the adoption by Illinois, or any other place
where he had a right to oppose it, of the recent Massachusetts
constitutional provision restricting foreign-born citizens in the
right of suffrage. It is well to repeat the broad philosophical
principle which guided him to this conclusion: "Understanding the
spirit of our institutions to aim at the elevation of men, I am
opposed to whatever tends to degrade them."

[Illustration: JOHN BELL.]

As the campaign progressed the chances of the result underwent an
important fluctuation, involving some degree of uncertainty. The
Democratic disruption, and the presence of four tickets in the field,
rendered it possible that some very narrow plurality in one or more of
the States might turn the scale of victory. Calculating politicians,
especially those belonging to the party hitherto in power, and who had
enjoyed the benefits of its extensive Federal patronage, seized
eagerly upon this possibility as a means of prolonging their official
tenure, and showed themselves not unwilling to sacrifice the
principles of the general contest to the mere material and local
advantage which success would bring them.

[Sidenote] Greeley, "American Conflict," Vol. I., p. 324.

Accordingly, in several States, and more notably in the great State of
New York, there was begun a quiet but unremitting effort to bring
about a coalition or "fusion," as it was termed, of the warring
Democratic factions, on the basis of a division of the spoils which
such a combination might hope to secure. Nor did the efforts stop
there. If the union of the two factions created the probability, the
union of three seemed to insure certainty, and the negotiations for a
coalition, therefore, extended to the adherents of Bell and Everett.
Amid the sharp contest of ideas and principles which divided the
country, such an arran