Lincoln writes letter to Usher F. Linder, candidate for Illinois General Assembly: "You should simply go for Genl. Taylor; because by this, you can take some democrats, and lose no whigs; but if you go also for Mr. Polk on the origin and mode of prossecuting the war, you will still take some democrats, but you will lose more whigs, so that in the sum of the opperation you will be loser."Abraham Lincoln to Usher F. Linder, 20 February 1848, CW, 1:453.