On invitation of Lincoln, Bates of Missouri is in Springfield. He spends most of day with Lincoln, and it is rumored he has been offered cabinet post. N.Y. Tribune, 17 December 1860.

Lincoln writes to North Carolina Congressman John A. Gilmer, who cited the "alarming" national situation, and expressed concerns about Lincoln's policies regarding the South and slavery. Lincoln advises Gilmer to read the "Republican platform, or my speeches." Lincoln resists issuing "additional" policy statements because doing so "would make me appear as if I repented for the crime of having been elected...To so represent me, would be the principal use made of any letter I might now thrust upon the public. My old record cannot be so used." John A. Gilmer to Abraham Lincoln, 10 December 1860, Robert Todd Lincoln Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, DC; Abraham Lincoln to John A. Gilmer, 15 December 1860, CW, 4:151-53.