me and assurance of loyal support for the government.
Farm organizations and business men, publishers, educators, and many others–all had to be consulted.
It has been my policy to seek information and advice wherever I could find it. I have never relied on any particular person to be my unofficial adviser. I have let the merits of each case and the soundness of all advice speak for themselves. My counselors have been those provided by the Constitution and the law.
Due largely to this careful preparation, my Message was well received. No other public utterance of mine had been given greater approbation.
Most of the praise was sincere. But there were some quarters in the opposing party where it was thought it would be good strategy to encourage my party to nominate me, thinking that it would be easy to accomplish my defeat. I do not know whether their judgment was wrong or whether they overdid the operation, so that, when they stopped speaking in my praise they found they could not change the opinion of the people which they had helped to create.
