.OTE4.MjI2OQ

and public speaking is all the rage but with very few exceptions no collision has been made. Our meeting will be held next Saturday and I shall probably be elected the Captain or 1st Lieut. I have no desire to have either but will be [underline]compelled [underline end] to act with the [underline]union party [underline end]. Free state born and living here all tend to make me a rather suspicious character but as yet I have not been molested nor insulted but once and I then knocked the offender down. A northern man who voted for Lincoln had better keep his politics to himself but either of the other parties can say what they please almost always in Mo. Half the stories you read about Union men