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Robert Hosea to Abraham Lincoln, February 7, 1861

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Hon. Abram Lincoln

Springfield, Illinois

Honored sir,

Weary as you certainly must be of

an immense correspondence, you may at first

glance regard this as one of the many troublesome

and useless letters of which you are no doubt in the

daily receipt; but I assure you that the information

conveyed is authentic, and the questions discussed

will in less than sixty days be sprung upon your ad-

ministration, adding fuel to the fires of hate and

passion now overwhelming our country.

I am in possession of information

which convinces me that the "slavery agitation" by

the leaders of the southern secession movement, is but

a mask to cover and hide from view for a time an

ulterior purpose; nay more I have been solicited

when the time comes to use my humble efforts in

the agitation of the question for which the seceders

are now preparing the way.

My position as a merchant and manufacturer

and as a favorite in local political quarters, joined

to my well known free state proclivities, probably induced

the parties to apply to me, as one whose efforts in any

cause, might have the semblance of sincerity for the

general welfare of mercantile interests.

For I have publicly and privately declared

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