January 12 Tuesday – The Peoria National Democrat gave Sam a good review. Sam wrote from El Paso, Illinois to Livy.
“I talked in Peoria, last night, to a large audience, & one whose intellectual faces surprised me as well as pleased me, for I certainly had expected no such experience in Peoria.”
Sam wrote that he had to stay in Peoria half a day and was on his way to Decatur.
“The time will drag, drag, drag, until I see you again—but I am thankful that your letters come so often. I wish they came every day. They so fill me with pleasure that I have not the heart to harbor an unkind sentiment toward any creature after I have read one of them” [MTL 3: 24-7].

Sam also included a note to Charles Langdon, and wrote to Mary Mason Fairbanks. Later that evening Sam gave his “Vandals” lecture in Power’s Hall, Decatur, Illinois, and, despite bad weather, reached Ottawa, Illinois late in the evening.