TO J. GILLESPIE.

Springfield, ill., May 19, 1849. 
Dear Gillespie: 

Butterfield will be commissioner of the Gen’l Land Office, unless prevented by strong and speedy efforts.  Ewing is for him, and he is only not appointed yet because Old Zach. hangs fire.

I have reliable information of this.  Now, if you agree with me that this appointment would dissatisfy rather than gratify the Whigs of this State, that it would slacken their energies in future contests, that his appointment in ’41 is an old sore with them which they will not patiently have reopened,—­in a word that his appointment now would be a fatal blunder to the administration and our political men here in Illinois, write Crittenden to that effect.  He can control the matter.  Were you to write Ewing I fear the President would never hear of your letter.  This may be mere suspicion.  You might write directly to Old Zach.  You will be the best judge of the propriety of that.  Not a moment’s time is to be lost.

Let this be confidential except with Mr. Edwards and a few others whom you know I would trust just as I do you.

Yours as ever,

A. Lincoln.

REQUEST FOR GENERAL LAND-OFFICE APPPOINTMENT

To E. Embree.

[Confidential]

Springfield, Illinois, May 25, 1849. 
Hon.  E. Embree

Dear sir:—­I am about to ask a favor of you, one which I hope will not cost you much.  I understand the General Land-Office is about to be given to Illinois, and that Mr. Ewing desires Justin Butterfield, of Chicago, to be the man.  I give you my word, the appointment of Mr. Butterfield will be an egregious political blunder.  It will give offence to the whole Whig party here, and be worse than a dead loss to the administration of so much of its patronage.  Now, if you can conscientiously do so, I wish you to write General Taylor at once, saying that either I or the man I recommend should in your opinion be appointed to that office, if any one from Illinois shall be.  I restrict my request to Illinois because you may have a man from your own State, and I do not ask to interfere with that.

Your friend as ever,
A. Lincoln.

REQUEST FOR A PATENT

Improved method of lifting vessels over Shoals.

Application for Patent: 

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by letters patent, is the combination of expansible buoyant chambers placed at the sides of a vessel with the main shaft or shafts by means of the sliding spars, which pass down through the buoyant chambers and are made fast to their bottoms and the series of ropes and pulleys or their equivalents in such a manner that by turning the main shaft or shafts in one direction the buoyant chambers will be forced downward into the water, and at the same time expanded and filled with air for buoying up the vessel by the displacement of water, and by turning the shafts in an opposite direction the buoyant chambers will be contracted into a small space and secured against injury.