Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, “Cook and His Enemies,” August 23, 1859

Cook and His Enemies

The persistent efforts of Cook’s enemies to [illegible] his removal, have caused the business men of the city to take the matter in hand. It having been reported to the President that the merchants of Chicago were dissatisfied with his management of the Post Office, a remonstrance against his removal received the signatures yesterday of almost every member of the Board of Trade, irrespective of party. The remonstrance was also being generally signed by the merchants on South Water and Lake streets, by the bankers and railroad officers, and the lumber dealers, and by hundreds of other citizens who transact business through the Post Office. The masses of the people are well satisfied with the management of the Post Office, and think that Cook has been sufficiently bewildered, persecuted and slandered by the Times clique, and that it is high time to have a stop put to it, and they have taken this method of testifying their disapproval of these persistent persecutions. The business men of the city do not care a fig whether Isaac Cook believes in Douglas or Buchanan, politically, so long as he attends to his official duties in a way that gives almost universal public satisfaction.