Record Data
Source citation
Albert G. Hodges to Abraham Lincoln, Friday, April 22, 1864 (Affairs in Kentucky), Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/malhome.html.
Type
Letter
Date Certainty
Exact
Transcriber
Transcribed by the Lincoln Studies Center, Knox College, Galesburg, IL
Adapted by John Osborne, Dickinson College
Transcription date
Transcription
The following transcript has been adapted from the Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress.
Frankfort, Kentucky,
April 22, 1864.
My dear Sir:
Yours of the 4th instant was received by due course of mail, and will be given to the people of Kentucky at the proper time. I have shown it to some of the prominent Union men here and from other parts of the State who visit here on business or pleasure, and I have met but one as yet who dissents from your reasoning upon the subject of slavery.
It is with feelings of profound satisfaction I inform you, that every day since my arrival at home, I have been receiving information of your steady gain upon the gratitude and confidence of the People of Kentucky. Extraordinary efforts, however, will be made by Mr. Guthrie and the Louisville Journal to carry off a majority of the Union men to the support of the nominee of the Chicago Convention. My deliberate belief is, that with your name before the people of our State, -- to use a homely phrase, -- we shall " flax them out handsomely."
We have the advantage of them, greatly, in one respect, and that is, the working and laboring men are with us, from every part of the State from which I have been able, thus far, to obtain information. The county meetings which are now being held to appoint Delegates to the Louisville Convention, of unconditional Union men, with but few exceptions, are for sending Delegates to Baltimore. I believe that that Convention, will, with great unanimity, not only send Delegates to Baltimore but send them instructed to vote for you for re-election to the Presidency.
I have just received a letter from an old friend in Lewis County, with a goodly list of subscribers, sending me the proceedings of his County meeting to appoint Delegates to the Union Convention at Louisville, in which he used the following language -- "Our meeting was large -- every District being represented, and unanimous for Abraham. I tell you that the mountains are all right."
I have received one also from the County of Whitley today of similar import. One yesterday from Pulaski (one of the largest counties in our State) which states that nearly every Union man in that County is for you. I might go and multiply others received heretofore, but it is unnecessary. I only mention these because they were received yesterday and to-day.
If you have the time, occasionally, to glance over the columns of the Commonwealth, you will see from the published proceedings of the meetings in the various counties, how nobly our people are coming up to your support.
I shall leave home in a day or two, and be absent about two weeks, has induced me to write you a few lines to let you know how we are progressing in Kentucky.
I think I may safely say now, that all will be safe in this State. Yours truly,
A. G. Hodges
