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Springfield, Ills.,
March 16, 1860

          Dear Delahay: I have just returned from the East. Before leaving I received your letter of Feb. 6; and on my return I find those of the 17th and 19th with Gen’l Lane’s note inclosed in one of them. I sincerely wish you could be elected one of the first Senators from Kansas; but how to help you I do not know. If it were permissible for me to interfere, I am not personally acquainted with a single member of your Legislature. If my known friendship for you could be of any advantage, that friendship was abundantly manifested by me last December while in Kansas. If any member had written me, as you say some have Trumbull, I would very readily answer him. I shall write Trumbull at this sitting.
          I understood, while in Kansas, that the State Legislature will not meet until the State is admitted. Was that the right understanding?
          As to your kind wishes for myself, allow me to say I can not enter the ring on the money basis—first, because, in the main, it is wrong; and secondly, I have not, and can not get, the money. I say, in the main, the use of money is wrong; but for certain objects, in a political contest, the use of some, is both right and indispensable. With me as with yourself, this long struggle has been one of great pecuniary loss. I now distinctly say this: If you shall be appointed a delegate to Chicago, I will furnish one hundred dollars to bear the expenses of the trip.
          Present my respects to Gen’l Lane; and say to him, I shall be pleased to hear from him at any time
                              Your friend, as ever,

A. Lincoln

          P.S. I have not yet taken the newspaper slip to the Journal. I shall do that tomorrow, and then send you the paper as requested.

A. L.