Henry C. Carey to Abraham Lincoln, January 2, 1861
Dear Sir
Will you excuse me for asking
to occupy a few minutes of your time
in reference to a matter of great impor-
tance? They shall be made as fast
as possible.
Of all the planks in the Chicago
platform, the only one that elicited
any thing like enthusiasm in the Con-
vention was the protection one, and
that did elicit it to an extent never
exceeded on any occasion.
Of all the measures now before
the Senate, that, however, is the one
that seems to have the greatest ardent
friends -- the Pacific Railroad bill &
the Homestead bill, the tendencies of
which, as regards increase of wealth
or strength, are directly the opposites
of protection, being likely to become
laws, while the Tariff bill goes over
Original documents at the Abraham Lincoln Papers Collection, Library of Congress
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/malhome.html