Funny you should ask, look at the letters asking Lincoln to resign...

Anonymous. “Alabama” to Abraham Lincoln, Saturday, December 22, 1860
Montgomery Alabama

Dr Sir

You have been Elected President of the United States, and accordance with the Laws and Constitution -- But by a minority of the people Had you not been Elected by a sectional party there would have been but little or no objections to your administering the affairs of the Government -- but as it is, there are many states that will not submit to your Inauguration -- rather than do so, they will withdraw from the Union In the result of the Election, You have attained all the honors that any one Ever attained, Being thus honored, are you willing now, to sacrifice the Union in order that you may retain your commission for four years? If you are you do not possess the patriotism, that a statesman should possess-- It is in your power to save the Union and perhaps a war and for Gods sake and the safty of the Country do it, Resign your the Office and save your Country and a war. If you will you will receive the thanks of millions of your fellow beings. The Government will vote you your salrey and a thousand thanks for the sacrifice

Respectfully

Alabama

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From J. H. Woods to Abraham Lincoln, January 14, 1861

Lebanon Tenn.

Jan. 14, 1861

Hon. Sir,

You have the honor of being the President elect, & you can now immortalize your name by resigning your claims to the Presidency, at least if the masses could but know that you had acted from a patriotic motive.

The Constitution abiding citizens of the U. S. would all be loth to acquiesce in such a sacrifice of constitutional right; yet if there is no other means for the malady of our country, & your resignation would prove effectual, then all the conservative element of the country would try to be reconciled, & even the Secessionists could never doubt your patriotism.-- I have been South in the Gulf-States & discussed these points & I believe, in connection with guaranty of the execution of the Fugitive Slave laws, even in a chain of the Free, along the border Slave States; it would bring reconciliation.

Excuse my impertinence & let my love of country plead for it. I write because I've not heard from the North on this point.

Your friend truely

J. H. Woods

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From R. O. Whitehead to Abraham Lincoln, January 6, 1861

Suffolk, Virginia

Jan 6th 1861.

Dear Sir:

I love my Country, as well, I believe, as I love my life; and I love every man who is willing to risk his life to save his country.

The Union is sick unto Death, if not dead already;-- You are the only man who lives, who can restore it to life--

Mr. Lincoln, do not regard this proposition as an idle one.

Will it be too great a humiliation to you, to go in your closet, & on your bended knees, read the proposition over once. Remember, it is to Him you humble yourself -- not to man -- if there is any good in it, He will show it to you; -- if there is no good, He will show it to you--.

The action proposed may cost you your life -- but what of that?-- It will save your Country from civil war, and it places you as a moral hero in the estimation of the whole world, next to Washington, if not by his side.

No moral spectacle, in the whole history of man, would be so grand as yours, and I humbly believe, that it would enshrine you with unparalleled love, as the chosen President, in the hearts of the whole American People-- But, if you were struck down, the next minute after you did it, by the fury of madmen, North or South, it would win for you an imortality of the purest fame, worth a hundred Presidencies. Will you go to Charleston.-- You must go in disguise -- not from fear, but no one must know what you intend to do -- and there, throwing off your disguise, upon the chasm of the Earthquake of terror, which trembles beneath the nation, Resign, Fully, to the will of the nation. God designs to humble this people, and you, its head, must bow first--

He will then still the raging of the People, as He stilled the raging of the sea, and closed the mouths of the lions for Daniel.

I am, Dear Sir, an humble young lawyer & citizen of Virginia, a pupil of Colonel Francis H Smith, of the Military School of Virginia, -- was an elector for Bell & Everett, -- am an admirer of patriotism unto death, whether called by the name of Republican, Whig, or Democratic. And if you will treat this appeal, made in humility & prayer, with that respectful consideration which is due to the spirit & purpose with which it is penned-- I am Dear Sir,

Your obedient, humble

Servant:

R. O. Whitehead.

Suffolk,

Virginia

No One, but God & yourself knows what I have written--

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From Anonymous to Abraham Lincoln, [1860]

I hope Sir, you will not consider this anonymous letter impertinent, but give its suggestions a serious consideration. I do not think that you have the ambition to have your name go down to posterity as the president of one half of this nation, & as being the chief cause of the rending of this once glorious confederacy of States. If you are hoping that the opposition to you will eventually subside, so far as I can see, I feel warranted in saying, you will be most fearfully disappointed. The Southern people are resolved never to endure as their President, any man, however great and good he may be otherwise, who can fraternize with such a man as Horace Greely, -- Greely the votary and disciple of every ism that is hatched, from Infidel marriage -- repudiating Socialism down to the end-- I think Sir, that nothing short of your resignation & Mr Hamlin's, accompanied with a warm, patriotic & fraternal appeal to the whole country to cease from strife and henceformost be brothers will suffice to save our beloved country at this time-- Allow me to say that mere pride, or if you choose so to style it, honor ought to be of very little weight in determining such a question. Neither do I think that the advice of such men as Horace Greely, or Hale, or Wade, or Seward ought to have any influence upon a true patriots mind at such an alarming crisis as the present-- Sir, I do verily believe that your name will be honored, in the pages of history if you pursue the course above suggested, while on the other hand, it will go down to generations that shall come after, stigmatized as ambitious, fanatical, and the destroyer of this glorious confederacy-- Allow me to say, that I am free from all prejudice and excitement, having never voted for any candidate for the Presidency but Mr Polk. I know no section, but love my whole country, and would not vote for my own father, if he were a sectional candidate, and I esteemed him the greatest and best man in the land-- Allow me to say that I am a Northern man, and desire to see our whole country united and living in peace and brotherly love-- I write with the most entire respect, desiring to bring the above suggestions before your mind believing it to be the only course that will produce harmony--

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David Upton