Lincoln writes to Alexander Sympson, of Carthage, Illinois, about the recent U.S. Senate election that Lincoln lost to incumbent Stephen Douglas. Lincoln writes, "I expect the result of the election went hard with you. So it did with me...perhaps not quite so hard as you may have supposed. I have an abiding faith that we shall beat them in the long run...the objects of the leaders will become too plain for the people to stand them. I write merely to let you know that I am neither dead nor dying." Abraham Lincoln to Alexander Sympson, 12 December 1858, CW, 3:346.