Dear Williams:—­On my return from Philadelphia, where I had been attending the nomination of “Old Rough,” (Zachary Taylor) I found your letter in a mass of others which had accumulated in my absence.  By many, and often, it had been said they would not abide the nomination of Taylor; but since the deed has been done, they are fast falling in, and in my opinion we shall have a most overwhelming, glorious triumph.  One unmistakable sign is that all the odds and ends are with us—­Barnburners, Native Americans, Tyler men, disappointed office-seeking Locofocos, and the Lord knows what.  This is important, if in nothing else, in showing which way the wind blows.  Some of the sanguine men have set down all the States as certain for Taylor but Illinois, and it as doubtful.  Cannot something be done even in Illinois?  Taylor’s nomination takes the Locos on the blind side.  It turns the war thunder against them.  The war is now to them the gallows of Haman, which they built for us, and on which they are doomed to be hanged themselves.

Excuse this short letter.  I have so many to write that I cannot devote much time to any one.

Yours as ever,
A. Lincoln.

SPEECH IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

June 20, 1848.

In Committee of the Whole on the State of the Union, on the Civil and
Diplomatic Appropriation Bill: 

Mr. Chairman:—­I wish at all times in no way to practise any fraud upon the House or the committee, and I also desire to do nothing which may be very disagreeable to any of the members.  I therefore state in advance that my object in taking the floor is to make a speech on the general subject of internal improvements; and if I am out of order in doing so, I give the chair an opportunity of so deciding, and I will take my seat.

The Chair:  I will not undertake to anticipate what the gentleman may say on the subject of internal improvements.  He will, therefore, proceed in his remarks, and if any question of order shall be made, the chair will then decide it.

Mr. Lincoln:  At an early day of this session the President sent us what may properly be called an internal improvement veto message.  The late Democratic convention, which sat at Baltimore, and which nominated General Cass for the Presidency, adopted a set of resolutions, now called the Democratic platform, among which is one in these words: 

“That the Constitution does not confer upon the General Government the power to commence and carry on a general system of internal improvements.”

General Cass, in his letter accepting the nomination, holds this language: 

“I have carefully read the resolutions of the Democratic national convention, laying down the platform of our political faith, and I adhere to them as firmly as I approve them cordially.”