“Do you suppose that I should ever have got into notice if I had waited to be hunted up and pushed forward by older men?” he wrote his friend Herndon once, when the latter was complaining that the older men did not help him on.  “The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself every way he can, never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him.  Allow me to assure you that suspicion and jealousy never did help any man in any situation.  There may sometimes be ungenerous attempts to keep a young man down; and they will succeed, too, if he allows his mind to be diverted from its true channel to brood over the attempted injury.  Cast about, and see if this feeling has not injured every person you have ever known to fall into it.”

Lincoln had something more to do, however, in 1842, than simply to announce himself in the innocent manner of earlier politics.  The convention system introduced into Illinois in 1835 by the Democrats had been zealously opposed by all good Whigs, Lincoln included, until constant defeat taught them that to resist organization by an every-man-for-himself policy was hopeless and wasteful, and that if they would succeed they must meet organization with organization.  In 1841 a Whig State convention had been called to nominate candidates for the offices of governor and lieutenant-governor; and now, in March, 1843, a Whig meeting was held again at Springfield, at which the party’s platform was laid, and a committee, of which Lincoln was a member, was appointed to prepare an “Address to the People of Illinois.”  In this address the convention system was earnestly defended.  Against this rapid adoption of the abominated system many of the Whigs protested, and Lincoln found himself supporting before his constituents the tactics he had once warmly opposed.  In a letter to his friend John Bennett of Petersburg, written in March, 1843, and now for the first time published[1], he said: 

[Footnote 1:  The term “unpublished” is employed in this series of articles to cover documents that have never been published in any authoritative or permanent way.  Most of the documents so designated have never, so far as we know, been published at all; but a few have been printed in local newspapers, though so long ago, and under such circumstances, as to be practically unpublished now.]

“Your letter of this day was handed me by Mr. Miles.  It is too late now to effect the object you desire.  On yesterday morning the most of the Whig members from this district got together and agreed to hold the convention at Tremont, in Tazewell County.  I am sorry to hear that any of the Whigs of your county, or of any county, should longer be against conventions.