In February, 1860, not long before his nomination for the Presidency,
Lincoln made several speeches in Eastern cities. To an Illinois
acquaintance, whom he met at the Astor House, in New York, he said: “I
have the cottage at Springfield, and about three thousand dollars in
money. If they make me Vice-President with Seward, as some say they
will, I hope I shall be able to increase it to twenty thousand, and that
is as much as any man ought to want.”