The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1860-07-19
Cur Candidate Opinion CF his
Raii-SpEiifinS Com paMiGN.

JUhn llankS, Mr.. Lincoln partner IN
splitting rails, fiat boating, &C., has an
nounced his intention to vote tor his old
friend, though he has always heretofore
voted the Democratic ticket. In the
course of long letter to The Decatur
Chronicle, Mr.. Hanks says:
Whea we have for years been oppos-
ed, in politics, TO man who has again
and again seen his party defeated, and
has himself sometimes failed, and still
seen that man true to his colors, re-arm-
ing and rcGntering the field to try to up
hold and successfully plant his coIors up
on the side of victory, when all the time
he knew he had but to change olce to
win, and yet has never changed, [ think
| may say never faltered, how are we to
respect him? Such man have known
Mr.. Lincoln for thirty years to be. In
boyhood days VIC toiled together; many
are the days we have lugged the heavy
oar on the Ohio, the Illinois, and the
Mississippi Rivers together many are the
long, cold days we have journeycd over
the wild prairies and through the forest
with gun and ak, and though it is not
pleasant to refer back to it, well do | re-
member when we set out together in the
cold Winter to cut and maui rails on the
Sangamon River, in Macon Co, thirty
years ago, to inclose his fathers little
home, and from day to day kept at work
until the whole was finished and the
homestead fenced in we often swappcd
work in this way, and yet during the
many years we were connected together
as laborers, sometimes fat boating, some
times hog driving, sometimes rail-maklng,
and, too, when it was nearly impossible
to get books, lie was constant reader
| was listener; he settled all disputes
of all the young men in the neighborhood,
and his decisions were always abided by
[ never knew man so honest under ali
circumstances for Ills whole life Thus
associated with Mr. Lincoln, | learned to
love him; and when in 1858 he was a
candidate for the first time within my
reach, against my feelings, and l may say
against my convictions. my old party ties
induced me to vote for Mr. Douglas Ny
Democratic friends all declared LINCOLN.
was an Abolitionist; | heard him make
speech in Decatur just before the eec-
ton, and [ could see nothing bad in it
bat | was told by the party he was wrong;
could not see how he could be, but they
said so, and | was a Democrat and went
in. My wife used to say to me that some
day Abe would come out and be some
thing thought so too, but could not ex-
actly see how a man in the lower walks
of life, day laborer, and hopelossly poor,
would ever stand much chance to get up
very high in the world at last one day at
home, we heard that the Republican
State Convention was to be held at De-
catur, and that they wero going for Abe
for President.
Gas soon as found this out, went
into town and told friend of Abe's that
as great and honest merit was at last to
be rewarded in the person of my friend
Mr. Lincoln, By the Republican party, |
thought of the hard and trying struggles
of his early days, and recollecting the
rails we had made together thirty years
ago, made up my mind to present some
of them to that Convention as a testimo-
nial Of the beginning Of one of the great
est living men of the age, believing they
would speak more in his praise than any
orator could, and honor true labor more
than the praise of men or the resolutions
of Conventions. On our way TO get the
rails, | told this friend of Old Abe that
if Abe should be nominated for President
| would vote for him; everybody knows
what he has been, and | rejoice that /
live to give this testimony to his goodness
aud honesty, and | hope | shall live to
vote for him for President Of the United
States next November Is there anything
wrong in this Who ought TO refuse to
vote for as good and as great a man as he
:? | know that in voting for him vote
with the Republican party; aud will be
considered as adopting its principles as
[ now understand them | see no guod
reason why may not Go so; our own pal
ty is divided, and we have no Solomon to
tell who shall take the child
JoHN TYLER has issued pronuncia
mento in favor of Breckenridge, and
against Bell, Douglas, and Lincoln, all
aud singular. Hear him:
Live or die, survive or perish, | will
stand over the graves of my ancestry, by
the hearthstones of my relatives, and by
the side of my friends-aH, all here an
James City, Charles city and Ne,o- -hent
aud defend the one and the other against
all enomies whatever, whether they APP
pear as compromisers Of my rights under
the Constitution and in the Union, or as