re in Lincoln, who had reached equal party
prominence, and rendered even more conspicuous party service. Lincoln
had profited greatly by the companionship and friendly emulation of the
many talented young politicians of Springfield, but this same condition
also increased competition and stimulated rivalry. Not only himself, but
both Hardin and Baker desired the nomination, which, as the district
then stood, was equivalent to an election.

When the leading Whigs of Sangamon County met, Lincoln was under the
impression that it was Baker and not Hardin who was his most dangerous
rival, as appears in a letter to Speed of March 24, 1843:

"We had a meeting of the Whigs of the county here on last Monday to
appoint delegates to a district convention, and Baker beat me and got
the delegation instructed to go for him. The meeting, in spite of my
attempt to decline it, appointed me one of the delegates, so that in
getting Baker the nomination I shall be fixed a good deal like a fellow
who is made groomsman to a man that has cut him out and is marrying his
own dear 'gal.'"

The causes that led to his disappointment are set forth more in detail
in a letter, two days later, to a friend in the new county of Menard,
which now included his old home, New Salem, whose powerful assistance
was therefore lost from the party councils of Sangamon. The letter also
dwells more particularly on the complicated influences which the
practical politician has to reckon with, and shows that even his
marriage had been used to turn popular opinion against him.

"It is truly gratifying to me to learn that while the people of Sangamon
have cast me off, my old friends of Menard, who have known me longest
and best, stick to me. It would astonish, if not amuse, the older
citizens to learn that I (a stranger, friendless, uneducated, penniless
boy, working on a flatboat at ten dollars per month) have been put down
here as the candidate of pride, wealth, and aristocratic family
distinction. Yet so, chiefly, it was. There was, too, the strangest
combination of church influence against me. Baker is a Campbellite, and
therefore, as I suppose, with few exceptions got all that church. My
wife has some relations in the Presbyterian churches and some with the
Episcopal churches; and therefore, wherever it would tell, I was set
down as either the one or the other, while it was everywhere contended
that no Christian ought to go for me, because I belonged to no church