Lincoln Letters

Page 9

...But Sir, let our citizens hold office under Mr. Lincoln; let those officers continue to invest the offices with honorable distinction as the reward of merit. Those out of office will then seek to obtain office. They will seek the favor and patronage of the executive; one will vie with another to win the generous approval of the usurper; men will cease to consider and condemn the revolutionary principles on which he came in to power, and the same wild hunt for offices which prevailed under all Democratic Administrations, which has brought our unhappy country to its present danger and humiliation will be rewarded. [3]

Footnotes

[3] The old Whig Party, of which Call was a member, often accused the Democrats of rewarding their patrons with state and federal offices.