AT LOS ANGELES
 
 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 6
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 A HISTORY 
 
 BY JOHN G. NICOLAY 
 AND JOHN HAY 
 
 VOLUME ONE 
 
 33039 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THE CENTURY CO. 
 1917
 
 Copyright, 1886 and 1890, 
 
 by JOHN G. NICOLAY 
 
 and JOHN HAT. 
 
 Copyright renewed; 1914, 
 by HELEN G. NICOLAY.
 
 E 
 451 
 
 NT 
 
 v,\ 
 
 TO THE HONOBABLE 
 
 EGBERT TODD LINCOLN 
 
 THIS WOKK IS DEDICATED 
 
 EN TOKEN OF 
 A LIFE-LONG FBIENDSHJP 
 
 AND ESTEEM
 
 
 AUTHORS' PREFACE 
 
 A GENERATION born since Abraham Lincoln died 
 -/T\. has already reached manhood and womanhood. 
 Yet there are millions still living who sympathized with 
 him in his noble aspirations, who labored with him in his 
 toilsome life, and whose hearts were saddened by his 
 tragic death. It is the almost unbroken testimony of 
 his contemporaries that by virtue of certain high traits 
 of character, in certain momentous lines of purpose and 
 achievement, he was incomparably the greatest man of 
 his time. The deliberate judgment of those who knew him 
 has hardened into tradition ; for although but twenty-five 
 years have passed since he fell by the bullet of the 
 assassin, the tradition is already complete. The voice of 
 hostile faction is silent, or unheeded; even criticism is 
 gentle and timid. If history had said its last word, if no 
 more were to be known of him than is already written, 
 his fame, however lacking in definite outline, however dis 
 torted by fable, would survive undiminished to the latest 
 generations. The blessings of an enfranchised race would 
 forever hail him as their liberator ; the nation would ac 
 knowledge him as the mighty counselor whose patient 
 courage and wisdom saved the life of the republic in its 
 darkest hour; and illuminating his proud eminence as 
 
 ix
 
 x AUTHORS' PREFACE 
 
 orator, statesman, and ruler, there would forever shine 
 around his memory the halo of that tender humanity and 
 Christian charity in which he walked among his fellow- 
 countrymen as their familiar companion and friend. 
 
 It is not, therefore, with any thought of adding mate 
 rially to his already accomplished renown that we have 
 written the work which we now offer to our fellow-citizens. 
 But each age owes to its successors the truth in regard 
 to its own annals. The young men who have been born 
 since Sumter was fired on have a right to all their elders 
 know of the important events they came too late to share 
 in. The life and fame of Lincoln will not have their 
 legitimate effect of instruction and example unless the 
 circumstances among which he lived and found his 
 opportunities are placed in their true light before the 
 men who never saw him. 
 
 To write the lif e of this great American in such a way as 
 to show his relations to the times in which he moved, the 
 stupendous issues he controlled, the remarkable men by 
 whom he was surrounded, has been the purpose which 
 the authors have diligently pursued for many years. We 
 can say nothing of the result of our labor; only those 
 who have been similarly employed can appreciate the 
 sense of inadequate performance with which we regard 
 what we have accomplished. "We claim for our work that 
 we have devoted to it twenty years of almost unremitting 
 assiduity; that we have neglected no means in our power 
 to ascertain the truth ; that we have rejected no authentic 
 facts essential to a candid story ; that we have had no 
 theory to establish, no personal grudge to gratify, no 
 unavowed objects to subserve. We have aimed to write 
 a sufficiently full and absolutely honest history of a great 
 man and a great timej and although we take it for
 
 AUTHORS' PREFACE XI 
 
 granted that we have made mistakes, that we have fallen 
 into such errors and inaccuracies as are unavoidable in 
 so large a work, we claim there is not a line in all these 
 volumes dictated by malice or unfairness. 
 
 Our desire to have this work placed under the eyes of 
 the greatest possible number of readers induced us to 
 accept the generous offer of "The Century Magazine" 
 to print it first in that periodical. In this way it re 
 ceived, as we expected, the intelligent criticism of a very 
 large number of readers, thoroughly informed in regard 
 to the events narrated, and we have derived the greatest 
 advantage from the suggestions and corrections which 
 have been elicited during the serial publication, which 
 began in November, 1886, and closed early in 1890. "We 
 beg, here, to make our sincere acknowledgments to the 
 hundreds of friendly critics who have furnished us with 
 valuable information. 
 
 As " The Century " had already given, during several 
 years, a considerable portion of its pages to the elucida 
 tion and discussion of the battles and campaigns of the 
 civil war, it was the opinion of its editor, in which we 
 coincided, that it was not advisable to print in the maga 
 zine the full narrative sketch of the war which we had 
 prepared. We omitted also a large number of chapters 
 which, although essential to a history of the time, and 
 directly connected with the life of Mr. Lincoln, were still 
 episodical in their nature, and were perhaps not indis 
 pensable to a comprehension of the principal events of 
 his administration. These are all included in the present 
 volumes; they comprise additional chapters almost equal 
 in extent and fully equal in interest to those which have 
 already been printed in "The Century." Interspersed 
 throughout the work in their proper connection
 
 xii AUTHORS' PEEFACE 
 
 sequence, and containing some of the most important of 
 Mr. Lincoln's letters, they lend breadth and unity to the 
 historical drama. 
 
 "We trust it will not be regarded as presumptuous if we 
 say a word in relation to the facilities we have enjoyed 
 and the methods we have used in the preparation of this 
 work. We knew Mr. Lincoln intimately before his elec 
 tion to the Presidency. "We came from Illinois to Wash 
 ington with him, and remained at his side and in his 
 service separately or together until the day of his 
 death. We were the daily and nightly witnesses of the 
 incidents, the anxieties, the fears, and the hopes which 
 pervaded the Executive Mansion and the National 
 Capital. The President's correspondence, both official 
 and private, passed through our hands ; he gave us his 
 full confidence. We had personal acquaintance and 
 daily official intercourse with Cabinet Officers, Members 
 of Congress, Governors, and Military and Naval Officers 
 of all grades, whose affairs brought them to the White 
 House. It was during these years of the war that we 
 formed the design of writing this history and began to 
 prepare for it. President Lincoln gave it his sanction 
 and promised his cordial cooperation. After several 
 years' residence in Europe, we returned to this country 
 and began the execution of our long-cherished plan. Mr. 
 Robert T. Lincoln gave into our keeping all the official 
 and private papers and manuscripts in his possession, to 
 which we have added all the material we could acquire 
 by industry or by purchase. It is with the advantage, 
 therefore, of a wide personal acquaintance with all the 
 leading participants of the war, and of perfect familiarity 
 with the manuscript material, and also with the assist 
 ance of the vast bulk of printed records and treatises
 
 AUTHOKS' PEEPACE Xlll 
 
 which have accumulated since 1865, that we have prose 
 cuted this work to its close. 
 
 If we gained nothing else by our long association with 
 Mr. Lincoln we hope at least that we acquired from him 
 the habit of judging men and events with candor and 
 impartiality. The material placed in our hands was un 
 exampled in value and fullness ; we have felt the obliga 
 tion of using it with perfect fairness. We have striven 
 to be equally just to friends and to adversaries ; where the 
 facts favor our enemies we have recorded them ungrudg 
 ingly ; where they bear severely upon statesmen and gen 
 erals whom we have loved and honored we have not 
 scrupled to set them forth, at the risk of being accused 
 of coldness and ingratitude to those with whom we have 
 lived on terms of intimate friendship. The recollection 
 of these friendships will always be to us a source of pride 
 and joy ; but in this book we have known no allegiance 
 but to the truth. We have in no case relied upon our 
 own memory of the events narrated, though they may 
 have passed under our own eyes ; we have seen too often 
 the danger of such a reliance in the reminiscences of 
 others. We have trusted only our diaries and memoranda 
 of the moment; and in the documents and reports we 
 have cited we have used incessant care to secure authen 
 ticity. So far as possible, every story has been traced to 
 its source, and every document read in the official record 
 or the original manuscript. 
 
 We are aware of the prejudice which exists against a 
 book written by two persons, but we feel that in our 
 case the disadvantages of collaboration are reduced to the 
 minimum. Our experiences, our observations, our ma 
 terial, have been for twenty years not merely homoge 
 neous they have been identical. Our plans were made
 
 xiv AUTHORS' PREFACE 
 
 with thorough concert ; our studies of the subject were 
 carried on together ; we were able to work simultaneously 
 without danger of repetition or conflict. The apportion 
 ment of our separate tasks has been dictated purely by 
 convenience ; the division of topics between us has been 
 sometimes for long periods, sometimes almost for alter 
 nate chapters. Each has written an equal portion of the 
 work ; while consultation and joint re vision have been con 
 tinuous, the text of each remains substantially unaltered. 
 It is in the fullest sense, and in every part, a joint work. 
 We each assume responsibility, not only for the whole, 
 but for all the details, and whatever credit or blame the 
 public may award our labors is equally due to both. 
 
 "We commend the result of so many years of research 
 and diligence to all our countrymen, North and South, in 
 the hope that it may do something to secure a truthful 
 history of the great struggle which displayed on both 
 sides the highest qualities of American manhood, and 
 may contribute in some measure to the growth and 
 maintenance throughout all our borders of that spirit 
 of freedom and nationality for which Abraham Lincoln 
 lived and died.
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 VOL. I 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Frontispiece. 
 
 From a photograph taken about 1860 by Hesler, of Chicago ; 
 from the original negative owned by George B. Ayres, Phila 
 delphia. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 LAND WARRANT, ISSUED TO ABRAHAM LINKHORN (LINCOLN). . . 10 
 
 FAC-SIMILB FROM THE FIELD-BOOK OF DANIEL BOONE 12 
 
 SURVEYOR'S CERTIFICATE FOR ABRAHAM LINKHORN (LINCOLN). 14 
 
 HOUSE IN WHICH THOMAS LINCOLN AND NANCY HANKS WERE 
 
 MARRIED . 16 
 
 FAC-SIMILE OF THE MARRIAGE BOND OF THOMAS LINCOLN 22 
 
 CERTIFICATE, OR MARRIAGE LIST, CONTAINING THE NAMES OF 
 
 THOMAS LINCOLN AND NANCY HANKS 26 
 
 SARAH BUSH LINCOLN AT THE AGE OF 76 32 
 
 From a photograph in possession of William H. Herndon. 
 
 CABIN ON GOOSE-NEST PRAIRIE, ILL., IN WHICH THOMAS 
 
 LINCOLN LIVED AND DIED 48 
 
 MODEL OF LINCOLN'S INVENTION FOR BUOYING VESSELS 72 
 
 FAC-SIMILE OF DRAWINGS IN THE PATENT OFFICE , 73 
 
 LEAF FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S EXERCISE BOOK 82 
 
 SOLDIER'S DISCHARGE FROM THE BLACK HAWK WAR, SIGNED 
 
 BY A. LINCOLN, CAPTAIN 92 
 
 BLACK HAWK 96 
 
 From a portrait by Charles B. King, from McKenny & Hall's 
 " Indian Tribes of North America." 
 
 xv
 
 xvi ILLUSTBATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 STEPHEN T. LOGAN 112 
 
 From the portrait in possession of his daughter. Mrs. L. H. 
 Coleman. 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S SURVEYING INSTRUMENTS, SADDLE BAG, 
 
 ETC 114 
 
 PLAN OP ROADS SURVEYED BY A. LINCOLN AND OTHERS 116 
 
 FAC-SIMILE OP LINCOLN'S EEPORT OP THE ROAD SURVEY 118 
 
 O. H. BROWNING 128 
 
 From a photograph by Waide. 
 
 MARTIN VAN BUREN 144 
 
 From a photograph by Brady. 
 
 COL. E. D. BAKER 160 
 
 From a photograph by Brady, about 1861. 
 
 LINCOLN AND STUART'S LAW-OFFICE, SPRINGFIELD 168 
 
 LINCOLN'S BOOKCASE AND INKSTAND 170 
 
 From the Keyes Lincoln Memorial Collection, Chicago. 
 
 GLOBE TAVERN, SPRINGFIELD 174 
 
 Where Lincoln lived after his marriage. 
 
 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON 176 
 
 From a painting, in 1841, by Henry Inman, owned by Benja 
 min Harrison. 
 
 FAC-SIMILE OF MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 188 
 By courtesy of the S. S. McClure Co. 
 
 JOSHUA SPEED AND WIFE 192 
 
 From a painting by Healy, about 1864. 
 
 HOUSE IN WHICH ABRAHAM LINCOLN WAS MARRIED 208 
 
 GEN. JAMES SHIELDS 224 
 
 From a photograph owned by David Delany. 
 
 HENRY CLAY 240 
 
 After a photograph by Rockwood, from the daguerreotype 
 owned by Alfred Hassack. 
 
 ZACHARY TAYLOR 256 
 
 From the painting by Vanderlyn in the Corcoran Gallery. 
 
 JOSHUA R. GIDDINGS 288 
 
 From a photograph by Brady. 
 
 DAVID DAVIS. 304 
 
 From a photograph by Brady. 
 
 JAMES K. POLK 320 
 
 From a photograph by Brady. 
 
 FRANKLIN PIERCE 336 
 
 From a photograph by Brady.
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS xvii 
 
 PAGES 
 
 LYMAN TRTTMBULL 368 
 
 From a photograph by Brady. 
 
 OWEN LOVEJOY 384 
 
 From a photograph. 
 
 DAVID E. ATCHISON 400 
 
 From a daguerreotype. 
 
 ANDREW H. EEEDER 416 
 
 From a photograph by B. Knecht. 
 
 JAMES H. LANE 432 
 
 By permission of the Strowbridge Lithographing Co. 
 
 MAPS 
 VOL. I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 MAP SHOWING LOCALITIES CONNECTED WITH EARLY EVENTS IN 
 
 THE LINCOLN FAMILY 20 
 
 MAP OF NEW SALEM, ILL., AND VICINITY 80 
 
 MAP OP THE BOUNDARIES OF TEXAS 256 
 
 HISTORICAL MAP OF THE UNITED STATES IN 1854. . . 354
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 VOL. I 
 
 CHAPTEK I. LINEAGE 
 
 The Lincolns in America. Intimacy with the Boones. 
 Kentucky in 1780. Death of Abraham Lincoln the 
 Pioneer. Marriage of Thomas Lincoln. Birth and 
 Childhood of Abraham 1 
 
 CHAPTEK II. INDIANA 
 
 Thomas Lincoln leaves Kentucky. Settles at Gentry- 
 ville. Death of Nancy Hanks Lincoln. Sarah Bush 
 Johnston. Pioneer Life in Indiana. Sports and 
 Superstitions of the Early Settlers. The Youth of 
 Abraham. His Great Physical Strength. His Voyage 
 to New Orleans. Removal to Illinois 28 
 
 CHAPTEK III. ILLINOIS IN 1830 
 
 The Winter of the Deep Snow. The Sudden Change. 
 Pioneer Life. Religion and Society. French and 
 Indians. Formation of the Political System. The 
 Courts. Lawyers and Politicians. Early Super 
 annuation 47 
 
 CHAPTER IV. NEW SALEM 
 
 Denton Offutt. Lincoln's Second Trip to New Orleans. 
 His Care of His Family. Death of Thomas Lincoln. 
 Offutt's Store in New Salem. Lincoln's Initiation by 
 the " Clary's Grove Boys." The Voyage of the 
 
 Talisman " 70 
 
 xlx
 
 XX TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTEE V. LINCOLN IN THE BLACK HAWK WAE 
 
 Black Hawk. The CaU for Volunteers. Lincoln 
 Elected Captain. Stillman's Run. Lincoln Reenlists. 
 The Spy Battalion. Black Hawk's Defeat. Disband- 
 ment of the Volunteers 87 
 
 CHAPTEB VI. SUEVEYOE AND EEPEESENTATIVE 
 
 Lincoln's Candidacy for the Legislature. Runs as a 
 Whig. Defeated. Berry and Lincoln Merchants. 
 Lincoln Begins __the Study of Law. Postmaster. 
 Surveyor. His~ Popularity, Elected to the Legis 
 lature, 1834 101 
 
 CHAPTER VIL LEGISLATIVE EXPEEIENCE 
 
 Lincoln's First Session in the Legislature. Douglas 
 and Peck. Lincoln Reflected. Bedlam Legislation. 
 Schemes of Railroad Building. Removal of the Capi 
 tal to Springfield 123 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. THE LINCOLN-STONE PEOTEST 
 
 The Pro-Slavery Sentiment in Illinois. Attempt to 
 Open the State to Slavery. Victory of the Free- 
 State Party. Reaction. Death of Lovejoy. Pro- 
 Slavery Resolutions. The Protest 140 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. COLLAPSE OF "THE SYSTEM" 
 
 Lincoln in Springfield. The Failure of the Railroad 
 System. Fall of the Banks. First Collision with 
 Douglas. Tampering with the Judiciary 153 
 
 CHAPTEE X. EAELY LAW PEACTICE 
 
 Early Legal Customs. Lincoln's Popularity in Law 
 and Politics:" A Speech in 1840. The Harrison 
 Campaign. Correspondence with Stuart. Harrison 
 Elected. Melancholia 167 
 
 CHAPTEE XI. MAEEIAGE 
 
 Courtship and Engagement. The Pioneer Tempera 
 ment. Lincoln's Love Affairs. Joshua F. Speed. 
 Lincoln's Visit to Kentucky. Correspondence with 
 Speed. Marriage 186
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS xxi 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. THE SHIELDS DUEL f^ 
 
 A Political Satire. James Shields. Lincoln (Jhal- 
 lenged. A Fight Arranged and Prevented. Subse 
 quent Wranglings. The Whole Matter Forgotten. 
 An Admonition 203 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. THE CAMPAIGN OF 1844 
 
 Partnership with Stephen T. Logan. Lincoln Becomes 
 a Lawyer. Temperance Movement. Baker and Lin 
 coln Candidates for the Whig Nomination to Congress. 
 Baker Successful. Clay Nominated for President. 
 The Texas Question. Clay Defeated 213 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. LINCOLN'S CAMPAIGN FOE CONGEESS 
 
 Schemes of Annexation. Opposition at the North. 
 Outbreak of War. Lincoln Nominated for Congress. 
 His Opponent Peter Cartwright. Lincoln Elected. 
 The Whigs in the War. E. D. Baker in Washington 
 and Mexico 237 
 
 CHAPTEE XV. THE THIRTIETH CONGEESS 
 
 Robert C. Winthrop Chosen Speaker. Debates on the 
 War. Advantage of the Whigs. Acquisition of Terri 
 tory. The Wilmot Proviso. Lincoln's Resolutions. 
 Nominal on of Taylor for President. Cass the Demo 
 cratic Candidate. Lincoln's Speech, July 27, 1848. 
 Taylor Elected 258 
 
 CHAPTEE XVI. A FOETUNATE ESCAPE 
 
 Independent Action of Northern Democrats. Lin 
 coln's Plan for Emancipation in the District of Co 
 lumbia. His Bill Fails to Receive Consideration. A 
 Similar Bill Signed by Him Fifteen Years Later. 
 Logan Nominated for Congress and Defeated. Lin 
 coln an Applicant for Office. The Fascination of 
 Washington 283 
 
 CHAPTEE XVII. THE.J]IECUIT LAWYEE 
 
 The Growth and Change of Legal Habits. Lincoln on 
 the Circuit. His Power and Value as a Lawyer.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 Opinion of David Davis. Of Judge Drunrmond. In 
 cidents of the Courts. Lincoln's Wit and Eloquence. 
 His Life at Home 298 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. THE BALANCE OF POWER 
 
 Origin of the Slavery Struggle. The Ordinance of 
 1787. The Compromises of the Constitution. The 
 Missouri Compromise. Cotton and the Cotton-Gin. 
 The Race between Free and Slave States. The Admis 
 sion of Texas. The Wilmot Proviso. New Mexico 
 and California. The Compromise Measures of 1850. 
 Finality 310 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. EEPEAL OF THE MISSOURI 
 COMPROMISE 
 
 Stephen A. Douglas. Old Fogies and Young America. 
 The Nomination of Pierce. The California Gold Dis 
 covery. The National Platforms on the Slavery Issue. 
 Organization of Western Territories. The Three Ne 
 braska Bills. The Caucus Agreement of the Senate 
 Committee. Dixon's Repealing Amendment. Douglas 
 Adopts Dixon's Proposition. Passage of the Kansas- 
 Nebraska Act 330 
 
 CHAPTER XX. THE DRIFT OF POLITICS 
 
 The Storm of Agitation. The Free Soil Party. The 
 American Party. The Anti-Nebraska Party. Dissolu 
 tion of the Whig Party. The Congressional Elections. 
 Democratic Defeat. Banks Elected Speaker .... 352 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. LINCOLN AND TRUMBULL 
 
 The Nebraska Question in Elinois. Douglas's Chicago 
 Speech. Lincoln Reappears in Politics. Political 
 Speeches at the State Fair. A Debate between Lincoln 
 and Douglas. Lincoln's Peoria Speech. An Anti- 
 Nebraska Legislature Elected. Lincoln's Candidacy 
 for the Senate. Shields and Matteson. Trumbull 
 Elected Senator. Lincoln's Letter to Robertson. . . 365 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. THE BORDER EUFFIANS 
 
 The Opening of Kansas Territory. Andrew H. Reeder 
 Appointed Governor. Atchison's Propaganda. The
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS xxiii 
 
 Missouri Blue Lodges. The Emigrant Aid Company. 
 The Town of Lawrence Founded. Governor Reeder's 
 Independent Action. The First Border Ruffian In 
 vasion. The Election of Whitfield 393 
 
 CHAPTEE XXIII. THE BOGUS LAWS 
 
 Governor Reeder's Census. The Second Border Ruffian 
 Invasion. Missouri Voters Elect the Kansas Legis 
 lature. Westport and Shawnee Mission. The Governor 
 Convenes the Legislature at Pawnee. The Legislature 
 Returns to Shawnee Mission. Governor Reeder's 
 Vetoes. The Governor's Removal. Enactment of the 
 Bogus Laws. Despotic Statutes. Lecompton Founded 408 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. THE TOPEKA CONSTITUTION 
 
 The Bogus Legislature Defines Kansas Politics. The 
 Big Springs Convention. Ex-Governor Reeder's Res 
 olutions. Formation of the Free- State Party. A 
 Constitutional Convention at Topeka. The Topeka 
 Constitution. President Pierce Proclaims the Topeka 
 Movement Revolutionary. Refusal to Recognize the 
 Bogus Laws. Chief -Justice Lecompte's Doctrine of 
 Constructive Treason. Arrests and Indictment of the 
 Free- State Leaders. Colonel Sumner Disperses the 
 Topeka Legislature 425 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. CIVIL WAR IN KANSAS 
 
 Wilson Shannon Appointed Governor. The Law and 
 Order Party Formed at Leaven worth. Sheriff Jones. 
 The Branson Rescue. The Wakarusa War. Sharps 
 Rifles. Governor Shannon's Treaty. Guerrilla Leaders 
 and Civil War. The Investigating Committee of Con 
 gress. The Flight of Ex-Governor Reeder. The 
 Border Ruffians March on Lawrence. Burning of the 
 Free-State Hotel . . 438
 
 ABBAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 LINEAGE 
 
 IN the year 1780, Abraham Lincoln, a member of CHAP. i. 
 a respectable and well-to-do family in Rocking- nso. 
 ham County, Virginia, started westward to establish 
 himself in the newly-explored country of Kentucky. 
 He entered several large tracts of fertile land, and 
 returning to Virginia disposed of his property 
 there, and with his wife and five children went 
 back to Kentucky and settled in Jefferson County. 
 Little is known of this pioneer Lincoln or of his 
 father. Most of the records belonging to that 
 branch of the family were destroyed in the civil 
 war. Their early orphanage, the wild and illiterate 
 life they led on the frontier, severed their con 
 nection with their kindred in the East. This 
 often happened; there are hundreds of families 
 in the West bearing historic names and probably 
 descended from well-known houses in the older 
 States or in England, which, by passing through 
 one or two generations of ancestors who could not 
 read or write, have lost their continuity with the 
 past as effectually as if a deluge had intervened 
 VOL. L 1
 
 i ABKAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. i. between the last century and this. Even the patro 
 nymic has been frequently distorted beyond recog 
 nition by slovenly pronunciation during the years 
 when letters were a lost art, and by the phonetic 
 spelling of the first boy in the family who learned 
 the use of the pen. There are Lincolns in Ken 
 tucky and Tennessee belonging to the same stock 
 with the President, whose names are spelled " Link- 
 horn" and "Linkhern." All that was known of 
 the emigrant, Abraham Lincoln, by his immediate 
 descendants was that his progenitors, who were 
 Quakers, came from Berks County, Pennsylvania, 
 into Virginia, and there throve and prospered. 1 But 
 we now know, with sufficient clearness, through the 
 wide-spread and searching luster which surrounds 
 the name, the history of the migrations of the 
 family since its arrival on this continent, and the 
 circumstances under which the Virginia pioneer 
 started for Kentucky. 
 
 leas. The first ancestor of the line of whom we have 
 
 knowledge was Samuel Lincoln, of Norwich, Eng 
 land, who came to Hingham, Massachusetts, in 1638, 
 and died there. He left a son, Mordecai, whose son, 
 of the same name, and it is a name which persists 
 in every branch of the family, 2 removed to Mon- 
 mouth, New Jersey, and thence to Amity township, 
 
 1 We desire to express our obli- arisen in the attempt to trace 
 gations to Edwin Salter, Samuel their genealogy. For instance, 
 L. Smedley, Samuel Shackford, Abraham Lincoln, of Chester 
 Samuel W. Pennypacker, How- County, son of one Mordecai and 
 ard M. Jenkins, and John T. brother of another, the President's 
 Harris, Jr., for information and ancestors, left a fair estate, by 
 suggestions which have been of will, to his children, whose names 
 use to us in this chapter. were John, Abraham, Isaac, 
 
 2 The Lincolns, in naming their Jacob, Mordecai, Rebecca, and 
 children, followed so strict a tra- Sarah precisely the same names 
 ditioii that great confusion has we find in three collateral families.
 
 LINEAGE ; 
 
 now a part of Berks County, Pennsylvania, where CHAP. i. 
 he died in 1735, fifty years old. From a copy of his 
 will, recorded in the office of the Register in Phila 
 delphia, we gather that he was a man of considerable 
 property. In the inventory of his effects, made after 
 his death, he is styled by the appraisers, " Mordecai 
 Lincoln, Gentleman." His son John received by his 
 father's will " a certain piece of land lying in the 
 Jerseys, containing three hundred acres," the other 
 sons and daughters having been liberally provided 
 for from the Pennsylvania property. This John 
 Lincoln left New Jersey some years later, and about 
 1750 established himself in Eockingham County, nro. 
 Virginia. He had five sons, to whom he gave the 
 names which were traditional in the family: Abra 
 ham, the pioneer first mentioned, Isaac, Jacob, 
 Thomas, and John. Jacob and John remained in Vir 
 ginia ; the former was a soldier in the War of the 
 Revolution, and took part as lieutenant in a Virginia 
 regiment at the siege of Yorktown. Isaac went to a 
 place on the Holston River in Tennessee ; Thomas 
 followed his brother to Kentucky, lived and died 
 there, and his children then emigrated to Ten 
 nessee. 1 With the one memorable exception the 
 family seem to have been modest, thrifty, unambi 
 tious people. Even the great fame and conspicu- 
 ousness of the President did not tempt them out 
 of their retirement. Robert Lincoln, of Hancock 
 County, Illinois, a cousin-german, became a captain 
 and commissary of volunteers ; none of the others, 
 
 1 It is an interesting coinci- tive of the President, performed, 
 
 dence, for the knowledge of which on the 17th of May, 1837, the 
 
 we are indebted to Colonel John marriage ceremony of Andrew 
 
 B. Brownlow, that a minister Johnson, Mr. Lincoln's succes- 
 
 named Mordecai Lincoln, a rela- sor in the Presidency,
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. i. so far as we know, ever made their existence known 
 to their powerful kinsman during the years of his 
 glory. 1 
 
 It was many years after the death of the Presi 
 dent that his son learned the probable circum 
 stances under which the pioneer Lincoln removed 
 to the West, and the intimate relations which sub 
 sisted between his family and the most celebrated 
 man in early Western annals. There is little doubt 
 that it was on account of his association with the 
 famous Daniel Boone that Abraham Lincoln went 
 to Kentucky. The families had for a century been 
 closely allied. There were frequent intermarriages 2 
 among them both being of Quaker lineage. By 
 the will of Mordecai Lincoln, to which reference 
 has been made, his " loving friend and neighbor " 
 
 1 Soon after Mr. Lincoln arrived 
 in Washington in 1861, he re 
 ceived the following letter from 
 one of his Virginia kinsmen, the 
 last communication which ever 
 came from them. It was written 
 on paper adorned with a portrait 
 of Jefferson Davis, and was in 
 closed in an envelope emblazoned 
 with the Confederate flag : 
 "To ABRAHAM LINCOLN, Esq., 
 President of the Northern Con 
 federacy. 
 
 " SIR : Having just returned 
 from a trip through Virginia, 
 North Carolina, and Tennessee, 
 permit me to inform you that you 
 will get whipped out of your boots. 
 To-day I met a gentleman from 
 Anna, Illinois, and although he 
 voted for you he says that the 
 moment your troops leave Cairo 
 they will get the spots knocked 
 out of them. My dear sir, these 
 are facts which time will prove to 
 be correct. 
 
 "I am, sir, with every consid 
 eration, yours respectfully, 
 
 " MINOR LINCOLN, 
 "Of the Staunton stock of Lin- 
 coins." 
 
 There was a young Abraham 
 Lincoln on the Confederate side 
 in the Shenandoah distinguished 
 for his courage and ferocity. He 
 lay in wait and shot a Dunkard 
 preacher, whom he suspected of 
 furnishing information to the 
 Union army. (Letter from Samuel 
 W. Pennypacker.) 
 
 2 A letter from David J. Lincoln, 
 of Birdsboro, Berks County, Penn 
 sylvania, to the writers, says, " My 
 grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, 
 was married to Anna Boone, a 
 first cousin of Daniel Boone, July 
 10, 1760." He was half-brother 
 of John Lincoln, and afterwards 
 became a man of some prominence 
 in Pennsylvania, serving in the 
 Constitutional Convention in 
 1789-90.
 
 LINEAGE 
 
 G-eorge Boone was made a trustee to assist his CHAP. i. 
 widow in the care of the property. Squire Boone, 
 the father of Daniel, was one of the appraisers who 
 made the inventory of Mordecai Lincoln's estate. 
 The intercourse between the families was kept up 
 after the Boones had removed to North Carolina 
 and John Lincoln had gone to Virginia. Abraham 
 Lincoln, son of John, and grandfather of the Presi 
 dent, was married to Miss Mary Shipley 1 in North 
 Carolina. The inducement which led him to leave 
 Virginia, where his standing and his fortune were 
 assured, was, in all probability, his intimate family 
 relations with the great explorer, the hero of the 
 new country of Kentucky, the land of fabulous 
 richness and unlimited adventure. At a time when 
 the Eastern States were ringing with the fame of 
 the mighty hunter who was then in the prime of 
 his manhood, and in the midst of those achieve 
 ments which will forever render him one of the 
 
 1 In giving to the wife of the Augusta County" says he married 
 pioneer Lincoln the name of Mary Elizabeth Winter, a cousin of 
 Shipley we follow the tradition Daniel Boone. The Boone and 
 in his family. The Hon. J. L. Lincoln families were large and 
 Nail, of Missouri, grandson of there were frequent intermar- 
 Nancy (Lincoln) Brumfield, Abra- riages among them, and the patri- 
 ham Lincoln's youngest child, has archal name of Abraham was a 
 given us so clear a statement of favorite one. There was still 
 the case that we cannot hesitate another Lincoln, Hannaniah by 
 to accept it, although it conflicts name, who was also intimately as- 
 with equally positive statements sociated with the Boones. Hissig- 
 from other sources. The late nature appears on the surveyor's 
 Gideon Welles, Secretary of the certificate for Abraham Lincoln's 
 Navy, who gave much intelligent land in Jefferson County, and he 
 effort to genealogical researches, joined Daniel Boone in 1798 in 
 was convinced that the Abraham the purchase of the tract of land 
 Lincoln who married Miss Han- on the Missouri Eiver where 
 nah Winters, a daughter of Boone died. (Letter from Rich- 
 Ann Boone, sister of the famous ard V. B. Lincoln, printed in the 
 Daniel, was the President's grand- " Williamsport [Pa.] Banner," 
 father. Waddell's " Annals of Feb. 25, 1881.)
 
 3 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. i. most picturesque heroes in all our annals, it is not 
 to be wondered at that his own circle of friends 
 should have caught the general enthusiasm and 
 felt the desire to emulate his career. 
 
 Boone's exploration of Kentucky had begun some 
 ten years before Lincoln set out to follow his trail. 
 In 1769 he made his memorable journey to that 
 virgin wilderness of whose beauty he always loved 
 to speak even to his latest breath. During all that 
 year he hunted, finding everywhere abundance of 
 game. " The buffalo," Boone says, "were more fre 
 quent than I have seen cattle in the settlements, 
 browsing on the leaves of the cane, or cropping the 
 herbage on these extensive plains, fearless because 
 ignorant of the violence of man,, Sometimes we 
 saw hundreds in a drove, and the numbers about 
 the salt springs were amazing." In the course of 
 the winter, however, he was captured by the Indians 
 while hunting with a comrade, and when they had 
 contrived to escape they never found again any 
 trace of the rest of their party. But a few days 
 later they saw two men approaching and hailed 
 them with the hunter's caution, " Hullo, strangers ; 
 who are you f " They replied, " White men and 
 friends." They proved to be Squire Boone and 
 another adventurer from North Carolina. The 
 younger Boone had made that long pilgrimage 
 through the trackless woods, led by an instinct of 
 doglike affection, to find his elder brother and share 
 his sylvan pleasures and dangers. Their two com 
 panions were soon waylaid and killed, and the 
 Boones spent their long winter in that mighty 
 solitude undisturbed. In the spring their ammuni 
 tion, which was to them the only necessary of life,
 
 LINEAGE i 
 
 ran low, and one of them must return to the settle- CHAP. i. 
 ments to replenish the stock. It need not be said 
 which assumed this duty ; the cadet went uncom 
 plaining on his way, and Daniel spent three months 
 in absolute loneliness, as he himself expressed it, 
 " by myself, without bread, salt, or sugar, without 
 company of my fellow-creatures, or even a horse or 
 dog." He was not insensible to the dangers of his 
 situation. He never approached his camp without 
 the utmost precaution, and always slept in the cane- 
 brakes if the signs were unfavorable. But he makes 
 in his memoirs this curious reflection, which would 
 seem like affectation in one less perfectly and simply 
 heroic : " How unhappy such a situation for a man 
 tormented with fear, which is vain if no danger 
 comes, and if it does, only augments the pain. It 
 was my happiness to be destitute of this afflicting 
 passion, with which I had the greatest reason to be 
 afflicted." After his brother's return, for a year 
 longer they hunted in those lovely wilds, and then 
 returned to the Yadkin to bring their families to 
 the new domain. They made the long journey 
 back, five hundred miles, in peace and safety. 
 
 For some time after this Boone took no con 
 spicuous part in the settlement of Kentucky. The 
 expedition with which he left the Yadkin in 1773 
 met with a terrible disaster near Cumberland Gap, 
 in which his eldest son and five more young men 
 were killed by Indians, and the whole party, dis 
 couraged by the blow, retired to the safer region of 
 Clinch River. In the mean time the dauntless spec 
 ulator Eichard Henderson had begun his occupation 
 with all the pomp of viceroyalty. Harrodsburg had 
 been founded, and corn planted, and a flourishing
 
 3 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. i. colony established at the Falls of the Ohio. In 1774 
 Boone was called upon by the Governor of Virginia 
 to escort a party of surveyors through Kentucky, 
 and on his return was given the command of three 
 garrisons; and for several years thereafter the 
 history of the State is the record of his feats of 
 arms. No one ever equaled him in his knowledge 
 of Indian character, and his influence with the 
 savages was a mystery to him and to themselves. 
 Three times he fell into their hands and they did 
 not harm him. Twice they adopted him into their 
 tribes while they were still on the war-path. Once 
 they took him to Detroit, 1 to show the Long-Knife 
 chieftains of King George that they also could ex 
 hibit trophies of memorable prowess, but they 
 refused to give him up even to their British allies. 
 In no quality of wise woodcraft was he wanting. 
 He could outrun a dog or a deer ; he could thread 
 the woods without food day and night; he could 
 find his way as easily as the panther could. Al 
 though a great athlete and a tireless warrior, he 
 hated fighting and only fought for peace. In coun 
 cil and in war he was equally valuable. His advice 
 was never rejected without disaster, nor followed but 
 with advantage ; and when the fighting once began 
 there was not a rifle in Kentucky which could rival 
 his. At the nine days' siege of Boonesboro' he 
 took deliberate aim and killed a negro renegade who 
 was harassing the garrison from a tree five hundred 
 and twenty-five feet away, and whose head only 
 was visible from the fort. The mildest and the 
 quietest of men, he had killed dozens of enemies 
 
 1 Silas Farmer, historiographer on the 10th of March, 1778, 
 of Detroit, informs us that Dan- and that he remained there a 
 iel Boone was brought there month.
 
 LINEAGE I 
 
 with his own hand, and all this without malice and, CHAP. i. 
 strangest of all, without incurring the hatred of his 
 adversaries. He had self-respect enough, but not 
 a spark of vanity. After the fatal battle of the Blue 
 Licks, where the only point of light in the day's 
 terrible work was the wisdom and valor with which 
 he had partly retrieved a disaster he foresaw but 
 was powerless to prevent, when it became his 
 duty, as senior surviving officer of the forces, to 
 report the affair to Governor Harrison, his dry and 
 naked narrative gives not a single hint of what he 
 had done himself, nor mentions the gallant son 
 lying dead on the field, nor the wounded brother 
 whose gallantry might justly have claimed some 
 notice. He was thinking solely of the public good, 
 saying, "I have encouraged the people in this 
 country all that I could, but I can no longer justify 
 them or myself to risk our lives here under such 
 extraordinary hazards." He therefore begged his 
 Excellency to take immediate measures for relief. 
 During the short existence of Henderson's legis 
 lature he was a member of it, and not the least 
 useful one. Among his measures was one for the 
 protection of game. 
 
 Everything we know of the emigrant Abraham 
 Lincoln goes to show that it was under the auspices 
 of this most famous of our pioneers that he set out 
 from Eockingham County to make a home for him 
 self and his young family in that wild region which 
 Boone was wresting from its savage holders. He 
 was not without means of his own. He took with 
 him funds enough to enter an amount of land 
 which would have made his family rich if they had 
 retained it. The county records show him to have
 
 I3?1<8 
 
 LAND WARRANT ISSUED TO ABRAHAM LINKHOKN (LINCOLN). 
 
 The original, of which this is a reduced f ac-eimile, is in the possession of Colonel 
 K. T. Durrett, Louisville, Ky. 
 
 10
 
 LINEAGE 
 
 11 
 
 been the possessor of a domain of some seventeen 
 hundred acres. There is still in existence 1 the 
 original warrant, dated March 4, 1780, for four 
 hundred acres of land, for which the pioneer had 
 paid u into the publick Treasury one hundred and 
 sixty pounds current money," and a copy of the 
 surveyor's certificate, giving the metes and bounds 
 of the property on Floyd's Fork, which remained 
 for many years in the hands of Mordecai Lincoln, 
 the pioneer's eldest son and heir. The name was 
 misspelled " Linkhorn " by a blunder of the clerk in 
 the land-office, ftnd the error was perpetuated in 
 the subsequent record. 
 
 Kentucky had been for many years the country 
 of romance and fable for Virginians. Twenty years 
 before Governor Spotswood had crossed the Alle- 
 ghanies and returned to establish in a Williams- 
 burg tavern that fantastic order of nobility 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 i In the possession of Colonel 
 Eeuben T. Durrett, of Louisville, 
 a gentleman who has made the 
 early history of his State a sub 
 ject of careful study, and to 
 whom we are greatly indebted 
 for information in regard to the 
 settlement of the Lincolns in 
 Kentucky. He gives the follow 
 ing list of lands in that State 
 owned by Abraham Lincoln : 
 
 1. Four hundred acres on Long 
 Run, a branch of Floyd's Fork, in 
 Jefferson County, entered May 
 29, 1780, and surveyed May 7, 
 1785. We have in our posses 
 sion the original patent issued by 
 Governor Garrard, of Kentucky, 
 to Abraham Lincoln for this prop 
 erty. It was found by Col. A. C. 
 Matthews, of the 99th Illinois, 
 in 1863, at an abandoned resi 
 dence near Indianola, Texas. 
 
 2. Eight hundred acres on 
 Green Eiver, near Green River 
 Lick, entered June 7, 1780, 
 and surveyed October 12, 
 1784. 
 
 3. Five hundred acres in Camp 
 bell County, date of entry not 
 known, but surveyed September 
 27, 1798, and patented June 
 30, 1799 the survey and 
 patent evidently following his 
 entry after his death. It is pos 
 sible that this was the five-hun- 
 dred-acre tract found in Boone's 
 field-book, in the possession of 
 Lyman C. Draper, Esq., Secre 
 tary of the Wisconsin Historical 
 Society, and erroneously sup 
 posed by some to have been in 
 Mercer County. Boone was a 
 deputy of Colonel Thomas Mar 
 shall, Surveyor of Fayette 
 County. 
 
 Jefferson 
 County 
 Records.
 
 12 
 
 ABKAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. i. which he called the 
 Knights of The Gold 
 en Horseshoe, 1 and, 
 with a worldly wisdom 
 which was scarcely 
 consistent with these 
 medieval affecta 
 tions, to press upon 
 the attention of the 
 British Government 
 the building of a line 
 of frontier forts to 
 guard the Ohio River 
 from the French. 
 Many years after him 
 the greatest of all Vir 
 ginians crossed the 
 mountains again, and 
 became heavily inter 
 ested in those schemes 
 of emigration which 
 filled the minds of 
 many of the leading 
 men in America un 
 til they were driven 
 out by graver cares 
 and more imperative 
 duties. Washington 
 had acquired claims 
 and patents to the 
 amount of thirty or 
 forty thousand acres 
 of land in the West ; 
 
 i Their motto was 
 
 Sic jurat transcendere monies.
 
 LINEAGE 13 
 
 Benjamin Franklin and the Lees were also large CHAP. i. 
 owners of these speculative titles. They formed, it 
 is true, rather an airy and unsubstantial sort of 
 possession, the same ground being often claimed 
 by a dozen different persons or companies under 
 various grants from the crown or from legislatures, 
 or through purchase by adventurers from Indian 
 councils. But about the time of which we are speak 
 ing the spirit of emigration had reached the lower 
 strata of colonial society, and a steady stream of 
 pioneers began pouring over the passes of the moun 
 tains into the green and fertile valleys of Kentucky 
 and Tennessee. They selected their homes in the 
 most eligible spots to which chance or the report of 
 earlier explorers directed them, with little knowl 
 edge or care as to the rightful ownership of the 
 land, and too often cleared their corner of the wil 
 derness for the benefit of others. Even Boone, to 
 whose courage, forest lore, and singular intuitions 
 of savage character the State of Kentucky owed 
 more than to any other man, was deprived in his 
 old age of his hard-earned homestead through his 
 ignorance of legal forms, and removed to Missouri 
 to repeat in that new territory his labors and his 
 misfortunes. 
 
 The period at which Lincoln came West was one rrso 
 of note in the history of Kentucky. The labors of 
 Henderson and the Transylvania Company had 
 begun to bear fruit in extensive plantations and a 
 connected system of forts. The land laws of Ken 
 tucky had reduced to something like order the 
 chaos of conflicting claims arising from the various 
 grants and the different preemption customs under 
 which settlers occupied their property. The victory
 
 ^ 
 
 M^ 
 
 H O 
 
 a v 
 
 ll 
 
 w ^ 
 
 g 
 
 Is 
 
 ^<
 
 LINEAGE 15 
 
 of Boone at Boonesboro' against the Shawnees, and CHAP. i. 
 the capture of Kaskaskia and Vincennes by the brill 
 iant audacity of George Rogers Clark, had brought 
 the region prominently to the attention of the At 
 lantic States, and had turned in that direction the 
 restless and roving spirits which are always found 
 in communities at periods when great emigrations 
 are a need of civilization. Up to this time few 
 persons had crossed the mountains except hunters, 
 trappers, and explorers men who came merely to 
 kill game, and possibly Indians, or to spy out the 
 fertility of the land for the purpose of speculation. 
 But in 1780 and 1781 a large number of families 
 took up their line of march, and in the latter year 
 a considerable contingent of women joined the little 
 army of pioneers, impelled by an instinct which 
 they themselves probably but half comprehended. 
 The country was to be peopled, and there was no 
 other way of peopling it but by the sacrifice of 
 many lives and fortunes ; and the history of every 
 country shows that these are never lacking when 
 they are wanted. The number of those who came 
 at about the same time with the pioneer Lincoln . 
 was sufficient to lay the basis of a sort of social 
 order. Early in the year 1780 three hundred "large 
 family boats" arrived at the Falls of the Ohio, 
 where the land had been surveyed by Captain Bul- 
 litt seven years before, and in May the Legislature 
 of Virginia passed a law for the incorporation of 
 the town of Louisville, then containing some six 
 hundred inhabitants. At the same session a law 
 was passed confiscating the property of certain 
 British subjects for the endowment of an institu 
 tion of learning in Kentucky, " it being the interest
 
 16 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. i. of this commonwealth," to quote the language of 
 the philosophic Legislature, " always to encourage 
 and promote every design which may tend to the 
 improvement of the mind and the diffusion of use 
 ful knowledge even among its remote citizens, 
 whose situation in a barbarous neighborhood and a 
 savage intercourse might otherwise render them 
 unfriendly to science." This was the origin of the 
 Transylvania University of Lexington, which rose 
 and nourished for many years on the utmost verge 
 of civilization. 
 
 The " barbarous neighborhood" and the " savage 
 intercourse " undoubtedly had their effect upon the 
 manners and morals of the settlers ; but we should 
 fall into error if we took it for granted that the 
 pioneers were all of one piece. The ruling motive 
 which led most of them to the wilds was that Anglo- 
 Saxon lust of land which seems inseparable from 
 the race. The prospect of possessing a four- 
 hundred-acre farm by merely occupying it, and the 
 privilege of exchanging a basketful of almost worth 
 less continental currency for an unlimited estate at 
 the nominal value of forty cents per acre, were 
 irresistible to thousands of land-loving Virginians 
 and Carolinians whose ambition of proprietorship 
 was larger than their means. Accompanying this 
 flood of emigrants of good faith was the usual froth 
 and scum of shiftless idlers and adventurers, who 
 were either drifting with a current they were too 
 worthless to withstand, or in pursuit of dishonest 
 gains in fresher and simpler regions. The vices 
 and virtues of the pioneers were such as proceeded 
 from their environment. They were careless of 
 human life because life was worth comparatively
 
 LINEAGE 17 
 
 little in that hard struggle for existence ; but they CHAP. i. 
 had a remarkably clear idea of the value of property, 
 and visited theft not only with condign punish 
 ment, but also with the severest social proscrip 
 tion. Stealing a horse was punished more swiftly 
 and with more feeling than homicide. A man 
 might be replaced more easily than the other animal. 
 Sloth was the worst of weaknesses. An habitual 
 drunkard was more welcome at "raisings " and "log 
 rollings" than a known faineant. The man who did 
 not do a man's share where work was to be done was 
 christened " Lazy Lawrence," and that was the end 
 of him socially. Cowardice was punished by inex 
 orable disgrace. The point of honor was as strictly 
 observed as it ever has been in the idlest and most 
 artificial society. If a man accused another of 
 falsehood, the ordeal by fisticuffs was instantly 
 resorted to. Weapons were rarely employed in 
 these chivalrous encounters, being kept for more 
 serious use with Indians and wild beasts ; neverthe 
 less fists, teeth, and the gouging thumb were often 
 employed with fatal effect. Yet among this rude 
 and uncouth people there was a genuine and re 
 markable respect for law. They seemed to recog 
 nize it as an absolute necessity of their existence. 
 In the territory of Kentucky, and afterwards in 
 that of Illinois, it occurred at several periods in the 
 transition from counties to territories and states, 
 that the country was without any organized author 
 ity. But the people were a law unto themselves. 
 Their improvised courts and councils administered 
 law and equity; contracts were enforced, debts 
 were collected, and a sort of order was maintained. 
 It may be said, generally, that the character of 
 VOL. I. 2
 
 18 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. i. this people was far above their circumstances. In 
 all the accessories of life, by which we are accus 
 tomed to rate communities and races in the scale 
 of civilization, they were little removed from prim 
 itive barbarism. They dressed in the skins of wild 
 beasts killed by themselves, and in linen stuffs 
 woven by themselves. They hardly knew the use 
 of iron except in their firearms and knives. Their 
 food consisted almost exclusively of game, fish, and 
 roughly ground corn-meal. Their exchanges were 
 made by barter; many a child grew up without 
 ever seeing a piece of money. Their habitations 
 were hardly superior to those of the savages with 
 whom they waged constant war. Large families 
 lived in log huts, put together without iron, and 
 far more open to the inclemencies of the skies 
 than the pig-styes of the careful farmer of to-day. 
 An early schoolmaster says that the first place 
 where he went to board was the house of one 
 Lucas, consisting of a single room, sixteen feet 
 square, and tenanted by Mr. and Mrs. Lucas, ten 
 children, three dogs, two cats, and himself. There 
 were many who lived in hovels so cold that they 
 had to sleep on their shoes to keep them from 
 freezing too stiff to be put on. The children grew 
 inured to misery like this, and played barefoot in 
 the snow. It is an error to suppose that all this 
 could be undergone with impunity. They suffered 
 terribly from malarial and rheumatic complaints, 
 and the instances of vigorous and painless age 
 were rare among them. The lack of moral and 
 mental sustenance was still more marked. They 
 were inclined to be a religious people, but a sermon 
 was an unusual luxury, only to be enjoyed at long
 
 LINEAGE 19 
 
 intervals and by great expense of time. There CHAP. i. 
 were few books or none, and there was little oppor 
 tunity for the exchange of opinion. Any variation 
 in the dreary course of events was welcome. A 
 murder was not without its advantages as a stim 
 ulus to conversation ; a criminal trial was a kind of 
 holiday to a county. It was this poverty of life, 
 this famine of social gratification, from which 
 sprang their fondness for the grosser forms of 
 excitement, and their tendency to rough and brutal 
 practical joking. In a life like theirs a laugh 
 seemed worth having at any expense. 
 
 But near as they were to barbarism in all the 
 circumstances of their daily existence, they were 
 far from it politically. They were the children of 
 a race which had been trained in government for 
 centuries in the best school the world has ever seen, 
 and wherever they went they formed the town, the 
 county, the court, and the legislative power with 
 the ease and certainty of nature evolving its results. 
 And this they accomplished in the face of a savage 
 foe surrounding their feeble settlements, always 
 alert and hostile, invisible and dreadful as the 
 visionary powers of the air. Until the treaty of 
 Greenville, in 1795, closed the long and sanguinary 
 history of the old Indian wars, there was no day in 
 which the pioneer could leave his cabin with the 
 certainty of not finding it in ashes when he re 
 turned, and his little flock murdered on his thresh 
 old, or carried into a captivity worse than death. 
 Whenever nightfall came with the man of the 
 house away from home, the anxiety and care of 
 the women and children were none the less bitter 
 because so common.
 
 20
 
 LINEAGE 21 
 
 The life of the pioneer Abraham Lincoln soon CHAP. L 
 came to a disastrous close. He had settled in 
 Jefferson County, on the land he had bought from 
 the Government, and cleared a small farm in the 
 forest. 1 One morning in the year 1784, he started ITS*. 
 with his three sons, Mordecai, Josiah, and Thomas, 
 to the edge of the clearing, and began the day's work. 
 A shot from the brush killed the father ; Mordecai, 
 the eldest son, ran instinctively to the house, 
 Josiah to the neighboring fort, for assistance, and 
 Thomas, the youngest, a child of six, was left with ' 
 the corpse of his father. Mordecai, reaching the 
 cabin, seized the rifle, and saw through the loop 
 hole an Indian in his war-paint stooping to raise 
 the child from the ground. He took deliberate aim 
 at a white ornament on the breast of the savage 
 and brought him down. The little boy, thus re 
 leased, ran to the cabin, and Mordecai, from the 
 loft, renewed his fire upon the savages, who began 
 to show themselves from the thicket, until Josiah 
 returned with assistance from the stockade, and 
 the assailants fled. This tragedy made an indelible 
 impression on the mind of Mordecai. Either a 
 spirit of revenge for his murdered father, or a 
 sportsmanlike pleasure in his successful shot, made 
 him a determined Indian-stalker, and he rarely 
 stopped to inquire whether the red man who came 
 within range of his rifle was friendly or hostile. 2 
 
 i Lyman C. Draper, of the Wis- into captivity, and forced to run 
 
 consin Historical Society, has the gauntlet. The story rests on 
 
 kindly furnished us with a MS. the statement of a single person, 
 
 account of a Kentucky tradition Mrs. Sarah Graham, 
 
 according to which the pioneer 2 Late in life Mordecai Lincoln 
 
 Abraham Lincoln was captured removed to Hancock County, Uli- 
 
 by the Indians, near Crow's Sta- nois, where his descendants still 
 
 tion, in August, 1782, carried live.
 
 LINEAGE 23 
 
 The head of the family being gone, the widow CHAP. L 
 Lincoln soon removed to a more thickly settled 
 neighborhood in Washington County. There her 
 children grew up. Mordecai and Josiah became 
 reputable citizens ; the two daughters married two 
 men named Crume and Brumfield. Thomas, to 
 whom were reserved the honors of an illustrious 
 paternity, learned the trade of a carpenter. He 
 was an easy-going man, entirely without ambition, 
 but not without self-respect. Though the friend 
 liest and most jovial of gossips, he was not insen 
 sible to affronts; and when his slow anger was 
 roused he was a formidable adversary. Several 
 border bullies, at different times, crowded him 
 indiscreetly, and were promptly and thoroughly 
 whipped. He was strong, well-knit, and sinewy ; 
 but little over the medium height, though in other 
 respects he seems to have resembled his son in ap 
 pearance. 
 
 On the 12th of June, 1806, * while learning his 
 trade in the carpenter shop of Joseph Hanks, in 
 Elizabethtown, he married Nancy Hanks, a niece 
 of his employer, near Beechland, in Washington 
 County. 2 She was one of a large family who had 
 
 1 All previous accounts give "Know all men by these pres- 
 the date of this marriage as Sep- ents, that we, Thomas Lincoln 
 tember 23d. This error arose and Richard Berry, are held and 
 from a clerical blunder in the firmly bound unto his Excellency, 
 county record of marriages. The the Governor of Kentucky, in the 
 minister, the Rev. Jesse Head, in just and full sum of fifty pounds 
 making his report, wrote the date current money, to the payment of 
 before the names; the clerk, in which well and truly to be made to 
 copying it, lost the proper se- the said Governor and his succes- 
 quence of the entries, and gave to sors, we bind ourselves, our heirs, 
 the Lincolns the date belonging etc., jointly and severally, firmly 
 to the next couple on the list. by these presents, sealed with our 
 
 2 The following is a copy of the seals and dated this 10th day of 
 marriage bond : June, 1806. The condition of
 
 24 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. i. emigrated from Virginia with the Lincolns and 
 with another family called Sparrow. They had 
 endured together the trials of pioneer life; their 
 close relations continued for many years after, 
 and were cemented by frequent intermarriage. 
 
 Mrs. Lincoln's mother was named Lucy Hanks ; 
 her sisters were Betty, Polly, and Nancy who 
 married Thomas Sparrow, Jesse Friend, and Levi 
 Hall. The childhood of Nancy was passed with 
 the Sparrows, and she was oftener called by their 
 name than by her own. The whole family connec 
 tion was composed of people so little given to let 
 ters that it is hard to determine the proper names 
 and relationships of the younger members amid 
 the tangle of traditional cousinships. 1 Those who 
 went to Indiana with Thomas Lincoln, and grew 
 up with his children, are the only ones that need 
 demand our attention. 
 
 There was no hint of future glory in the wedding 
 or the bringing home of Nancy Lincoln. All 
 accounts represent her as a handsome young 
 woman of twenty-three, of appearance and intel 
 lect superior to her lowly fortunes. She could 
 read and write, a remarkable accomplishment in 
 her circle, and even taught her husband to form 
 the letters of his name. He had no such valuable 
 
 the above obligation is such that " Witness, JOHN H. PARROTT, 
 
 whereas there is a marriage Guardian." 
 
 shortly intended between the Richard Berry was a connection 
 above bound Thomas Lincoln and of Lincoln ; his wife was a Shipley. 
 Nancy Hanks, for which a license l The Hanks family seem to 
 has issued, now if there be no have gone from Pennsylvania 
 lawful cause to obstruct the said and thence to Kentucky about 
 marriage, then this obligation to the same time with the Lincolns. 
 be void, else to remain in full They also belonged to the Corn- 
 force and virtue in law. munion of Friends. "Historical 
 
 THOMAS LINCOLN [Seal]. Collections of Gwynnedd," by H. 
 
 RICHARD BERRY [Seal]. M. Jenkins.
 
 LINEAGE 25 
 
 wedding gift to bestow upon her ; he brought her to CHAP. i. 
 a little house in Elizabethtown, where he and she 
 and want dwelt together in fourteen feet square. 
 The next year a daughter was born to them ; and 
 the next the young carpenter, not finding his work 
 remunerative enough for his growing needs, re 
 moved to a little farm which he had bought on the 
 easy terms then prevalent in Kentucky. It was on 
 the Big South Fork of Nolin Creek, in what was 
 then Hardin and is now La Eue County, three 
 miles from Hodgensville. The ground had nothing 
 attractive about it but its cheapness. It was hardly 
 more grateful than the rocky hill slopes of New 
 England. It required full as earnest and intelli 
 gent industry to persuade a living out of those 
 barren hillocks and weedy hollows, covered with 
 stunted and scrubby underbrush, as it would amid 
 the rocks and sands of the northern coast. 
 
 Thomas Lincoln settled down in this dismal soli 
 tude to a deeper poverty than any of his name had 
 ever known ; and tjiere, in the midst of the most 
 unpromising circumstances that ever witnessed the 
 advent of a hero into this world, Abraham Lincoln 
 was born on the 12th day of February, 1809. isog. 
 
 Four years later, Thomas Lincoln purchased a 
 fine farm of 238 acres on Knob Creek, near where 
 it flows into the Rolling Fork, and succeeded in 
 getting a portion of it into cultivation. The title, 
 however, remained in him only a little while, and 
 after his property had passed out of his control he 
 looked about for another place to establish himself. 
 
 Of all these years of Abraham Lincoln's early 
 childhood we know almost nothing. He lived a 
 solitary life in the woods, returning from his lone-
 
 WPT-asKxr 18 *****^^ 
 
 ^CT7^/tL y^MZti- 
 
 ju. ,<Ffi& ^f^li^ K 
 
 A .ir^^fisiL, 
 
 btw^ 
 
 1X^ 
 
 ^^JMt> 
 
 T&^*** ^^\Xl^^^^^^ 
 
 ^^^t^^i^^^^^ 
 
 ^^- ^ 4^ ^rr ^P 9,s^-z^4?{" 
 
 This Certificate, or Marriage List (here ehown in reduced fac-simile), written by the 
 
 Rev. Jesse Head, was lost sight of for many years, and about 1886 was discovered 
 
 through the efforts of W. ~P. Booker, Clerk of Washington County, Kentucky. 
 
 26
 
 LINEAGE 27 
 
 some little games to Ms cheerless home. He never CHAP. i. 
 talked of these days to his most intimate friends. 1 
 Once, when asked what he remembered about the 
 war with Great Britain, he replied : " Nothing but 
 this. I had been fishing one day and caught a little 
 fish which I was taking home. I met a soldier 
 in the road, and, having been always told at home 
 that we must be good to the soldiers, I gave him 
 my fish." This is only a faint glimpse, but what it- 
 shows is rather pleasant the generous child and 
 the patriotic household. But there is no question 
 that these first years of his life had their lasting 
 effect upon the temperament of this great mirthful 
 and melancholy man. He had little schooling. 
 He accompanied his sister Sarah 2 to the only schools 
 that existed in their neighborhood, one kept by 
 Zachariah Einey, another by Caleb Hazel, where 
 he learned his alphabet and a little more. But of 
 all those advantages for the cultivation of a young 
 mind and spirit which every home now offers to its 
 children, the books, toys, ingenious games, and 
 daily devotion of parental love, he knew absolutely 
 nothing. 
 
 iThereisstillliving(1886)near of partridges ; in tryingto "coon" 
 Knob Creek in Kentucky, at the across Knob Creek on a log, Lin 
 age of eighty, a man who claims coin fell in and Gollaher fished 
 to have known Abraham Lincoln him out with a sycamore branch 
 in his childhood Austin Golla- a service to the Republic, the 
 her. He says he used to play value of which it would be diffi- 
 with Abe Lincoln in the shavings cult to compute, 
 of his father's carpenter shop. 2 This daughter pf Thomas Lin- 
 He tells a story which, if accurate, coin is sometimes called Nancy 
 entitles him to the civic crown and sometimes Sarah. She seems 
 which the Romans used to give to have borne the former name 
 to one who saved the life of a during her mother's life-time, and 
 citizen. When Gollaher was to have taken her stepmother's 
 eleven and Lincoln eight the two name after Mr. Lincoln's second 
 boys were in the woods in pursuit marriage.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 INDIANA 
 
 CHAP. ii. T)Y the time the boy Abraham had attained his 
 i^~e. J3 seventh year, the social condition of Ken 
 tucky had changed considerably from the early 
 pioneer days. Life had assumed a more settled 
 and orderly course. The old barbarous equality 
 of the earlier time was gone; a difference of classes 
 began to be seen. Those who held slaves assumed 
 a distinct social superiority over those who did not. 
 Thomas Lincoln, concluding that Kentucky was no 
 country for a poor man, determined to seek his 
 fortune in Indiana. He had heard of rich and un 
 occupied lands in Perry County in that State, and 
 thither he determined to go. He built a rude raft, 
 loaded it with his kit of tools and four hundred 
 gallons of whisky, and trusted his fortunes to the 
 winding water-courses. He met with only one 
 accident on his way : his raft capsized in the Ohio 
 Eiver, but he fished up his kit of tools and most of 
 the ardent spirits, and arrived safely at the place 
 of a settler named Posey, with whom he left his 
 odd invoice of household goods for the wilderness, 
 while he started on foot to look for a home in the 
 dense forest. He selected a spot which pleased 
 him in his first day's journey. He then walked 
 
 28
 
 INDIANA 29 
 
 back to Knob Creek and brought his family on to CHAP. n. 
 their new home. No humbler cavalcade ever in 
 vaded the Indiana timber. Besides his wife and 
 two children, his earthly possessions were of the 
 slightest, for the backs of two borrowed horses 
 sufficed for the load. Insufficient bedding and 
 clothing, a few pans and kettles, were their sole 
 movable wealth. They relied on Lincoln's kit of 
 tools for their furniture, and on his rifle for their 
 food. At Posey's they hired a wagon and literally 
 hewed a path through the wilderness to their new 
 habitation near Little Pigeon Creek, a mile and a 
 half east of Gentryville, in a rich and fertile forest 
 country. 
 
 Thomas Lincoln, with the assistance of his wife 
 and children, built a temporary shelter of the sort 
 called in the frontier language "a half -faced camp" ; 
 merely a shed of poles, which defended the inmates 
 on three sides from foul weather, but left them open 
 to its inclemency in front. For a whole year his 
 family lived in this wretched fold, while he was 
 clearing a little patch of ground for planting corn, 
 and building a rough cabin for a permanent resi 
 dence. They moved into the latter before it was 
 half completed ; for by this time the Sparrows had 
 followed the Lincolns from Kentucky, and the 
 half -faced camp was given up to them. But the 
 rude cabin seemed so spacious and comfortable 
 after the squalor of " the camp," that Thomas Lin 
 coln did no further work on it for a long time. He 
 left it for a year or two without doors, or windows, 
 or floor. The battle for existence allowed him no 
 time for such superfluities. He raised enough 
 corn to support life ; the dense forest around him
 
 30 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. ii. abounded in every form of feathered game ; a little 
 way from his cabin an open glade was full of deer- 
 licks, and an hour or two of idle waiting was 
 generally rewarded by a shot at a fine deer, which 
 would furnish meat for a week, and material for 
 breeches and shoes. His cabin was like that of other 
 pioneers. A few three-legged stools; a bedstead 
 made of poles stuck between the logs in the angle 
 of the cabin, the outside corner supported by a 
 crotched stick driven into the ground ; the table, a 
 huge hewed log standing on four legs ; a pot, kettle, 
 and skillet, and a few tin and pewter dishes were 
 all the furniture. The boy Abraham climbed at 
 night to his bed of leaves in the loft, by a ladder of 
 wooden pins driven into the logs. 
 
 This life has been vaunted by poets and roman 
 cers as a happy and healthful one. Even Dennis 
 Hanks, speaking of his youthful days when his 
 only home was the half -faced camp, says, "I tell 
 you, Billy, I enjoyed myself better then than I ever 
 have since." But we may distrust the reminiscences 
 of old settlers, who see their youth in the flattering 
 light of distance. The life was neither enjoyable 
 nor wholesome. The rank woods were full of ma 
 laria, and singular epidemics from time to time 
 ravaged the settlements. In the autumn of 1818 
 the little community of Pigeon Creek was almost 
 exterminated by a frightful pestilence called the 
 milk-sickness, or, in the dialect of the country, "the 
 milk-sick." It is a mysterious disease which has 
 been the theme of endless wrangling among West 
 ern physicians, and the difficulty of ascertaining 
 anything about it has been greatly increased by the 
 local sensitiveness which forbids any one to admit
 
 INDIANA 31 
 
 that any well-defined case has ever been seen in his CHAP. n. 
 neighborhood, " although just over the creek (or in 
 the next county) they have had it bad." It seems 
 to have been a malignant form of fever attributed 
 variously to malaria and to the eating of poisonous 
 herbs by the cattle attacking cattle as well as 
 human beings, attended with violent retching and 
 a burning sensation in the stomach, often ter 
 minating fatally on the third day. In many cases 
 those who apparently recovered lingered for years 
 with health seriously impaired. Among the 
 Pioneers of Pigeon Creek, so ill-fed, ill-housed, and 
 uncared for, there was little prospect of recovery 
 from such a grave disorder. The Sparrows, hus 
 band and wife, died early in October, and Nancy 
 Hanks Lincoln followed them after an interval of 
 a few days. Thomas Lincoln made the coffins for 
 his dead " out of green lumber cut with a whip- 
 saw," and they were all buried, with scant ceremony, 
 in a little clearing of the forest. It is related of 
 young Abraham, that he sorrowed most of all that 
 his mother should have been laid away with such 
 maimed rites, and that he contrived several months 
 later to have a wandering preacher named David 
 Elkin brought to the settlement, to deliver a funeral 
 sermon over her grave, already white with the early 
 winter snows. 1 
 
 This was the dreariest winter of his life, for 
 before the next December came his father had 
 brought from Kentucky a new wife, who was to 
 
 1 A stone has been placed over Hanks Lincoln, mother of Presi- 
 the site of the grave by P. E. dent Lincoln, died October 5th, 
 Studebaker, of South Bend, In- A. D. 1818, aged 35 years, 
 diana. The stone bears the Erected by a friend of her mar- 
 following inscription: "Nancy tyred son, 1879."
 
 32 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. ii. change the lot of all the desolate little family very 
 much for the better. Sarah Bush had been an 
 acquaintance of Thomas Lincoln before his first 
 marriage; she had, it is said, rejected him to marry 
 one Johnston, the jailer at Elizabethtown, who had 
 died, leaving her with three children, a boy and two 
 girls. When Lincoln's widowhood had lasted a 
 year, he went down to Elizabethtown to begin 
 again the wooing broken off so many years before. 
 He wasted no time in preliminaries, but promptly 
 made his wishes known, and the next morning 
 they were married. It was growing late in the 
 autumn, and the pioneer probably dreaded another 
 lonely winter on Pigeon Creek. Mrs. Johnston was 
 not altogether portionless. She had a store of 
 household goods which filled a four-horse wagon 
 borrowed of Ealph Grume, Thomas Lincoln's 
 brother-in-law, to transport the bride to Indiana. 
 It took little time for this energetic and honest 
 Christian woman to make her influence felt, even 
 in those discouraging surroundings, and Thomas 
 Lincoln and the children were the better for her 
 coming all the rest of their lives. The lack of 
 doors and floors was at once corrected. Her honest 
 pride inspired her husband to greater thrift and 
 industry. The goods she brought with her com 
 pelled some effort at harmony in the other fittings 
 of the house. She dressed the children in warmer 
 clothing and put them to sleep in comfortable beds. 
 With this slight addition to their resources the fam 
 ily were much improved in appearance, behavior, 
 and self-respect. 
 
 Thomas Lincoln joined the Baptist church at 
 leas. Little Pigeon in 1823 ; his oldest child, Sarah, fol-
 
 SARAH BUSH LINCOLN AT THE AGE OF SEVENTY-SIX.
 
 INDIANA 33 
 
 lowed his example three years later. They were CHAP. n. 
 known as active and consistent members of that 
 communion. Lincoln was himself a good carpenter M %J** er 
 when he chose to work at his trade ; a walnut table i?v. Rob- 
 made by him is still preserved as part of the furni- e torof & a e 8 
 ture of the church to which he belonged. pigeon 
 
 Such a woman as Sarah Bush could not be care- church, 
 less of so important a matter as the education of 
 her children, and they made the best use of the 
 scanty opportunities the neighborhood afforded. 
 " It was a wild region," writes Mr. Lincoln, in one 
 of those rare bits of autobiography which he left 
 behind him, " with many bears and other wild ani 
 mals still in the woods. There were some schools 
 so-called, but no qualification was ever required of 
 a teacher beyond ' readin', writin', and cipherin' to 
 the Rule of Three.' If a straggler supposed to 
 understand Latin happened to sojourn in the 
 neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizard. 
 There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition 
 for education." But in the case of this ungainly 
 boy there was no necessity of any external incen 
 tive. A thirst for knowledge as a means of rising 
 in the world was innate in him. It had nothing 
 to do with that love of science for its own sake 
 which has been so often seen in lowly savants, who 
 have sacrificed their lives to the pure desire of 
 knowing the works of G-od. All the little learning 
 he ever acquired he seized as a tool to better his 
 condition. He learned his letters that he might 
 read books and see how men in the great world 
 outside of his woods had borne themselves in the 
 fight for which he longed. He learned to write, 
 first, that he might have an accomplishment his 
 VOL. I. 3
 
 34 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. ii. playmates had not ; then that he might help his 
 elders by writing their letters, and enjoy the feel 
 ing of usefulness which this gave him ; and finally 
 that he might copy what struck him in his reading 
 and thus make it his own for future use. He 
 learned to cipher certainly from no love of mathe 
 matics, but because it might come in play in some 
 more congenial business than the farm-work which 
 bounded the horizon of his contemporaries. Had 
 it not been for that interior spur which kept his 
 clear spirit at its task, his schools could have done 
 little for him ; for, counting his attendance under 
 Kiney and Hazel in Kentucky, and under Dorsey, 
 Crawford, and Swaney in Indiana, it amounted to 
 less than a year in all. The schools were much 
 alike. They were held in deserted cabins of round 
 logs, with earthen floors, and small holes for win 
 dows, sometimes illuminated by as much light as 
 could penetrate through panes of paper greased 
 with lard. The teachers were usually in keeping 
 with their primitive surroundings. The profession 
 offered no rewards sufficient to attract men of edu 
 cation or capacity. After a few months of desultory 
 instruction young Abraham knew all that these 
 vagrant literati could teach him. His last school 
 days were passed with one Swaney in 1826, who 
 taught at a distance of four and a half miles from 
 the Lincoln cabin. The nine miles of walking 
 doubtless seemed to Thomas Lincoln a waste of 
 time, and the lad was put at steady work and saw 
 no more of school. 
 
 But it is questionable whether he lost anything 
 by being deprived of the ministrations of the back 
 woods dominies. When his tasks ended, his studies
 
 INDIANA 35 
 
 became the chief pleasure of his life. In all the CHAP. IT. 
 intervals of his work in which he never took 
 delight, knowing well enough that he was born for 
 something better than that he read, wrote, and 
 ciphered incessantly. ^His reading was naturally 
 limited by his opportunities, for books were among 
 the rarest of luxuries in that region and time. But 
 he read everything he could lay his hands upon, 
 and he was certainly fortunate in the few books of 
 which he became the possessor.* It would hardly 
 be possible to select a better handful of classics for 
 a youth in his circumstances than the few volumes 
 he turned with a nightly and daily hand the 
 Bible, "^Esop's Fables," " Eobinson Crusoe," "The 
 Pilgrim's Progress," a history of the United 
 States, and Weem's " Life of Washington." These 
 were the best, and these he read over and over till 
 he knew them almost by heart. But his voracity 
 for anything printed was insatiable. He would sit 
 in the twilight and read a dictionary as long as he 
 could see. He used to go to David Turnham's, the 
 town constable, and devour the " Eevised Statutes 
 of Indiana," as boys in our day do the "Three 
 Guardsmen." Of the books he did not own he took 
 voluminous notes, filling his copy-book with choice 
 extracts, and poring over them until they were 
 fixed in his memory. He could not afford to waste 
 paper upon his original compositions. He would 
 sit by the fire at night and cover the wooden shovel 
 with essays and arithmetical exercises, which he 
 would shave off and then begin again. It is touch 
 ing to think of this great-spirited child, battling year 
 after year against his evil star, wasting his ingenu 
 ity upon devices and makeshifts, his high intelli-
 
 36 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. ii. gence starving for want of the simple appliances of 
 education that are now offered gratis to the poorest 
 and most indifferent. He did a man's work from 
 the time he left school ; his strength and stature 
 were already far beyond those of ordinary men. 
 He wrought his appointed tasks ungrudgingly, 
 though without enthusiasm; but when his em 
 ployer's day was over, his own began. 
 
 John Hanks says : " When Abe and I returned 
 to the house from work he would go to the cup- 
 w H . board, snatch a piece of corn-bread, take down a 
 book, sit down, cock his legs up as high as his 
 head, and read." The picture may be lacking in 
 grace, but its truthfulness is beyond question. The 
 habit remained with him always. Some of his 
 greatest work in later years was done in this gro 
 tesque Western fashion, " sitting on his shoulder- 
 blades." 
 
 Otherwise his life at this time differed little 
 from that of ordinary farm-hands. His great 
 strength and intelligence made him a valuable 
 laborer, and his unfailing good temper and flow of 
 rude rustic wit rendered him the most agreeable of 
 comrades. He was always ready with some kindly 
 act or word for others. Once he saved the life of 
 the town drunkard, whom he found freezing by the 
 roadside, by carrying him in his strong arms to 
 the tavern, and working over him until he revived. 
 It is a curious fact that this act of common human 
 ity was regarded as something remarkable in the 
 neighborhood ; the grateful sot himself always 
 said " it was mighty clever of Abe to tote me so 
 far that cold night." It was also considered an 
 eccentricity that he hated and preached against
 
 INDIANA 37 
 
 cruelty to animals. Some of his comrades remem- CHAP. n. 
 ber still his bursts of righteous wrath, when a boy, 
 against the wanton murder of turtles and other 
 creatures. He was evidently of better and finer 
 clay than his fellows, even in those wild and igno 
 rant days. At home he was the life of the singularly 
 assorted household, which consisted, besides his par 
 ents and himself, of his own sister, Mrs. Lincoln's 
 two girls and boy, Dennis Hanks, the legacy of the 
 dying Sparrow family, and John Hanks (son of the 
 carpenter Joseph with whom Thomas Lincoln 
 learned his trade), who 'came from Kentucky 
 several years after the others. It was probably as 
 much the inexhaustible good nature and kindly 
 helpfulness of young Abraham which kept the 
 peace among all these heterogeneous elements, 
 effervescing with youth and confined in a one- 
 roomed cabin, as it was the Christian sweetness and 
 firmness of the woman of the house. It was a 
 happy and united household : brothers and sisters 
 and cousins living peacefully under the gentle rule 
 of the good stepmother, but all acknowledging from 
 a very early period the supremacy in goodness and 
 cleverness of their big brother Abraham. Mrs. 
 Lincoln, not long before her death, gave striking 
 testimony of his winning and loyal character. She 
 said to Mr. Herndon : " I can say, what scarcely 
 one mother in a thousand can say, Abe never gave 
 me a cross word or look, and never refused in fact 
 or appearance to do anything I asked him. His 
 mind and mine what little I had seemed to run 
 together. ... I had a son John, who was raised 
 with Abe. Both were good boys, but I must say, 
 both now being dead, that Abe was the best boy I
 
 38 ABBAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. ii. ever saw or expect to see." Such were the begin 
 nings of this remarkable career, sacred as we 
 see from childhood, to duty and to human kind 
 liness. 
 
 We are making no claim of early saintship for 
 him. He was merely a good boy, with sufficient 
 wickedness to prove his humanity. One of his 
 employers, undazzled by recent history, faithfully 
 remembers that young Abe liked his dinner and 
 his pay better than his work : there is surely noth 
 ing alien to ordinary mortality in this. It is also 
 reported that he sometimes impeded the celerity of 
 harvest operations by making burlesque speeches, 
 or worse than that, comic sermons, from the top of 
 some tempting stump, to the delight of the hired 
 hands and the exasperation of the farmer. His 
 budding talents as a writer were not always used 
 discreetly. He was too much given to scribbling 
 coarse satires and chronicles, in prose, and in some 
 thing which had to him and his friends the air of 
 verse. From this arose occasional heart-burnings 
 and feuds, in which Abraham bore his part accord 
 ing to the custom of the country. Despite his 
 Quaker ancestry and his natural love of peace, he 
 was no non-resistant, and when he once entered 
 upon a quarrel the opponent usually had the worst 
 of it. But he was generous and placable, and some 
 of his best friends were those with whom he had 
 had differences, and had settled them in the way 
 then prevalent, in a ring of serious spectators, 
 calmly and judicially ruminant, under the shade of 
 some spreading oak, at the edge of the timber. 
 
 Before we close our sketch of this period of 
 Lincoln's life, it may not be amiss to glance for a
 
 INDIANA 39 
 
 moment at the state of society among the people CHAP. n. 
 with whom his lot was cast in these important 
 years. 
 
 In most respects there had been little moral or 
 material improvement since the early settlement 
 of the country. Their houses were usually of one 
 room, built of round logs with the bark on. We 
 have known a man to gain the sobriquet of " Split- 
 log Mitchell " by indulging in the luxury of build 
 ing a cabin of square-hewn timbers. Their dress 
 was still mostly of tanned deer-hide, a material to 
 the last degree uncomfortable when the wearer was 
 caught in a shower. Their shoes were of the same, 
 and a good Western authority calls a wet moccasin 
 " a decent way of going barefoot." About the time, 
 however, when Lincoln grew to manhood, garments 
 of wool and of tow began to be worn, dyed with 
 the juice of the butternut or white walnut, and the 
 hides of neat-cattle began to be tanned. But for a 
 good while it was only the women who indulged in 
 these novelties. There was little public worship. 
 Occasionally an itinerant preacher visited a county, 
 and the settlers for miles around would go nearly 
 in mass to the meeting. If a man was possessed 
 of a wagon, the family rode luxuriously ; but as a 
 rule the men walked and the women went on horse 
 back with the little children in their arms. It was 
 considered no violation of the sanctities of the oc 
 casion to carry a rifle and take advantage of any 
 game which might be stirring during the long walk. 
 Arriving at the place of meeting, which was some 
 log cabin if the weather was foul, or the shade of 
 a tree if it was fair, the assembled worshipers threw 
 their provisions into a common store and picnicked
 
 40 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP, ii. in neighborly companionship. The preacher would 
 then take off his coat, and go at his work with an 
 energy unknown to our days. 
 
 There were few other social meetings. Men came 
 together for " raisings," where a house was built in 
 a day; for " log-rollings," where tons of excellent 
 timber were piled together and wastefully burned; 
 for wolf -hunts, where a tall pole was erected in the 
 midst of a prairie or clearing, and a great circle of 
 hunters formed around it, sometimes of miles in 
 diameter, which, gradually contracting with shouts 
 and yells, drove all the game in the woods together 
 at the pole for slaughter; and for horse-races, 
 which bore little resemblance to those magnificent 
 exhibitions which are the boast of Kentucky at 
 this time. In these affairs the women naturally 
 took no part ; but weddings, which were entertain 
 ments scarcely less rude and boisterous, were their 
 own peculiar province. These festivities lasted 
 rarely less than twenty-four hours. The guests as 
 sembled in the morning. There was a race for the 
 whisky bottle ; a midday dinner ; an afternoon of 
 rough games and outrageous practical jokes ; a sup 
 per and dance at night, interrupted by the successive 
 withdrawals of the bride and of the groom, attended 
 with ceremonies and jests of more than Rabelaisian 
 cradeness ; and a noisy dispersal next day. 
 
 The one point at which they instinctively clung 
 to civilization was their regard for law and rever 
 ence for courts of justice. Yet these were of the 
 simplest character and totally devoid of any ad- 
 smith, ventitious accessories. An early jurist of the 
 inffaia country writes: "I was Circuit Prosecuting At- 
 p.m'. torney at the time of the trials at the falls of Fall
 
 INDIANA 41 
 
 Creek, where Pendleton now stands. Four of the CHAP. n. 
 prisoners were convicted of murder, and three of 
 them hung, for killing Indians. The court was held 
 in a double log cabin, the grand jury sat upon a 
 log in the woods, and the foreman signed the bills 
 of indictment, which I had prepared, upon his knee; 
 there was not a petit juror that had shoes on ; all 
 wore moccasins, and were belted around the waist, 
 and carried side-knives used by the hunters." Yet 
 amidst all this apparent savagery we see justice was 
 done, and the law vindicated even against the 
 bitterest prejudices of these pioneer jurymen. 
 
 They were full of strange superstitions. The 
 belief in witchcraft had long ago passed away with 
 the smoke of the fagots from old and New England, 
 but it survived far into this century in Kentucky 
 and the lower halves of Indiana and Illinois 
 touched with a peculiar tinge of African magic. 
 The pioneers believed in it for good and evil. Their 
 veterinary practice was mostly by charms and in 
 cantations; and when a person believed himself 
 bewitched, a shot at the image of the witch with a 
 bullet melted out of a half-dollar was the favorite 
 curative agency. Luck was an active divinity in 
 their apprehension, powerful for blessing or bane, 
 announced by homely signs, to be placated by 
 quaint ceremonies. A dog crossing the hunter's 
 path spoiled his day, unless he instantly hooked 
 his little fingers together, and pulled till the animal 
 disappeared. They were familiar with the ever- 
 recurring mystification of the witch-hazel, or divin 
 ing-rod ; and the "cure by faith" was as well known 
 to them as it has since become in a more sophisti 
 cated state of society. The commonest occurrences
 
 42 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. ii. were heralds of death and doom. A bird lighting 
 in a window, a dog baying at certain hours, the 
 cough of a horse in the direction of a child, the 
 sight, or worse still, the touch of a dead snake, 
 heralded domestic woe. A wagon driving past the 
 house with a load of baskets was a warning of at 
 mospheric disturbance. A vague and ignorant 
 astronomy governed their plantings and sowings, 
 the breeding of their cattle, and all farm-work. 
 They must fell trees for fence-rails before noon, 
 and in the waxing of the moon. Fences built 
 P. 4* n ' when there was no moon would give way ; 
 but that was the proper season for planting 
 potatoes and other vegetables whose fruit grows 
 underground; those which bore their product in 
 the air must be planted when the moon shone. 
 The magical power of the moon was wide in its 
 influence; it extended to the most minute details 
 of life. 
 
 Among these people, and in all essential respects 
 one of them, Abraham Lincoln passed his childhood 
 and youth. He was not remarkably precocious. 
 His mind was slow in acquisition, and his powers 
 of reasoning and rhetoric improved constantly to 
 the end of his life, at a rate of progress marvelously 
 regular and sustained. But there was that about 
 him, even at the age of nineteen years, which 
 might well justify his admiring friends in presaging 
 for him an unusual career. He had read every 
 book he could find, and could " spell down " the 
 whole county at their orthographical contests. By 
 dint of constant practice he had acquired an admi 
 rably clear and serviceable handwriting. He occa 
 sionally astounded his companions by such glimpses
 
 INDIANA 43 
 
 of occult science as that the world is round and that CHAP. n. 
 the sun is relatively stationary. He wrote, for his 
 own amusement and edification, essays on politics, 
 of which gentlemen of standing who had been 
 favored with a perusal said with authority, at the 
 cross-roads grocery, " The world can't beat it." 
 One or two of these compositions got into print 
 and vastly increased the author's local fame. He 
 was also a magnanimous boy, with a larger and 
 kindlier spirit than common. His generosity, 
 courage, and capability of discerning two sides to a 
 dispute, were remarkable even then, and won him 
 the admiration of those to whom such qualities 
 were unknown. But perhaps, after all, the thing 
 which gained and fixed his mastery over his fellows 
 was to a great degree his gigantic stature and 
 strength. He attained his full growth, six feet 
 and four inches, two years before he came of age. 
 He rarely met with a man he could not easily 
 handle. His strength is still a tradition in Spencer 
 County. One aged man says that he has seen him 
 pick up and carry away a chicken-house weigh 
 ing six hundred pounds. At another time, seeing 
 some men preparing a contrivance for lifting some 
 large posts, Abe quickly shouldered the posts and 
 took them where they were needed. One of his 
 employers says, " He could sink an axe deeper into 
 wood than any man I ever saw." With strength 
 like this and a brain to direct it, a man was a 
 born leader in that country and at that time. 
 
 There are, of course, foolish stories extant that 
 Abraham used to boast, and that others used to 
 predict, that he would be President some day. 
 The same thing is daily said of thousands of boys
 
 44 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. ii. who will never be constables. But there is evi 
 dence that he felt too large for the life of a farm 
 hand on Pigeon Creek, and his thoughts naturally 
 turned, after the manner of restless boys in the 
 West, to the river, as the avenue of escape from the 
 narrow life of the woods. He once asked an old 
 friend to give him a recommendation to some 
 steamboat on the Ohio, but desisted from his pur 
 pose on being reminded that his father had the 
 right to dispose of his time for a year or so more, 
 isas. But in 1828 an opportunity offered for a little 
 glimpse of the world outside, and the boy gladly 
 embraced it. He was hired by Mr. Gentry, the 
 proprietor of the neighboring village of Gentry- 
 ville, to accompany his son with a flat-boat of 
 produce to New Orleans and intermediate land 
 ings. The voyage was made successfully, and 
 Abraham gained great credit for his management 
 and sale of the cargo. The only important incident 
 of the trip occurred at the plantation of Madame 
 Duchesne, a few miles below Baton Eouge. The 
 young merchants had tied up for the night and 
 were asleep in the cabin, when they were aroused 
 by shuffling footsteps, which proved to be a gang 
 of marauding negroes, coming to rob the boat. 
 Abraham instantly attacked them with a club, 
 knocked several overboard and put the rest to 
 flight; flushed with battle, he and Allen Gentry 
 carried the war into the enemy's country, and pur 
 sued the retreating Africans some distance in the 
 darkness. They then returned to the boat, bleed 
 ing but victorious, and hastily swung into the 
 stream and floated down the river till daylight. 
 Lincoln's exertion in later years for the welfare of
 
 INDIANA 45 
 
 the African race showed that this nocturnal battle CHAP. n. 
 had not led him to any hasty and hostile general 
 izations. 
 
 The next autumn, John Hanks, the steadiest 
 and most trustworthy of his family, went to Illi 
 nois. Though an illiterate and rather dull man, he 
 had a good deal of solidity of character and conse 
 quently some influence and consideration in the 
 household. He settled in Macon County, and was 
 so well pleased with the country, and especially 
 with its admirable distribution into prairie and 
 timber, that he sent repeated messages to his 
 friends in Indiana to come out and join him. 
 Thomas Lincoln was always ready to move. He 
 had probably by this time despaired of ever own 
 ing any unencumbered real estate in Indiana, and 
 the younger members of the family had little to 
 bind them to the place where they saw nothing in 
 the future but hard work and poor living. Thomas 
 Lincoln handed over his farm to Mr. Gentry, sold im 
 his crop of corn and hogs, packed his household 
 goods and those of his children and sons-in-law 
 into a single wagon, drawn by two yoke of oxen, 
 the combined wealth of himself and Dennis Hanks, 
 and started for the new State. His daughter 
 Sarah or Nancy, for she was called by both names, 
 who married Aaron Grigsby a few years before, 
 had died in childbirth. The emigrating family 
 consisted of the Lincolns, John Johnston, Mrs. 
 Lincoln's son, and her daughters, Mrs. Hall and 
 Mrs. Hanks, with their husbands. 
 
 Two weeks of weary tramping over forest roads 
 and muddy prairie, and the dangerous ford 
 ing of streams swollen by the February thaws,
 
 46 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. ii. brought the party to John Hanks's place near De- 
 catur. He met them with a frank and energetic 
 welcome. He had already selected a piece of 
 ground for them a few miles from his own, and 
 had the logs ready for their house. They num 
 bered men enough to build without calling in their 
 neighbors, and immediately put up a cabin on the 
 north fork of the Sangamon River. The family 
 thus housed and sheltered, one more bit of filial 
 work remained for Abraham before assuming his 
 virile independence. With the assistance of John 
 Hanks he plowed fifteen acres, and split, from the 
 tall walnut-trees of the primeval forest, enough 
 rails to surround them with a fence. Little did 
 either dream, while engaged in this work, that the 
 day would come when the appearance of John 
 Hanks in a public meeting, with two of these rails 
 on his shoulder, would electrify a State convention, 
 and kindle throughout the country a contagious 
 and passionate enthusiasm, whose results would 
 reach to endless generations.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 ILLINOIS IN 1830 
 
 THE Lincolns arrived in Illinois just in time CHAP. in. 
 to entitle themselves to be called pioneers. 
 When, in after years, associations of " Old Settlers " 
 began to be formed in Central Illinois, the qualifi 
 cation for membership agreed upon by common 
 consent was a residence in the country before " the 
 winter of the deep snow." This was in 1830-31, a 
 season of such extraordinary severity that it has 
 formed for half a century a recognized date in the 
 middle counties of Illinois, among those to whom 
 in those days diaries and journals were unknown. 
 The snowfall began in the Christmas holidays and Rev j M 
 continued until the snow was three feet deep on ^SS' 
 level ground. Then came a cold rain, freezing as S ettier?of 
 it fell, until a thick crust of ice gathered over the 
 snow. The weather became intensely cold, the 
 mercury sinking to twelve degrees below zero, 
 Fahrenheit, and remaining there for two weeks. 
 The storm came on with such suddenness that all 
 who were abroad had great trouble in reaching 
 their homes, and many perished. One man relates 
 that he and a friend or two were out in a hunting 
 party with an ox-team. They had collected a 
 wagon-load of game and were on their way home 
 
 47
 
 48 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. in. when the storm struck them. After they had gone 
 four miles they were compelled to abandon their 
 wagon; the snow fell in heavy masses "as if 
 thrown from a scoop-shovel " ; arriving within two 
 miles of their habitation, they were forced to trust 
 to the instinct of their animals, and reached home 
 hanging to the tails of their steers. Not all were 
 so fortunate. Some were found weeks afterwards 
 in the snow-drifts, their flesh gnawed by famished 
 wolves ; and the fate of others was unknown until 
 the late spring sunshine revealed their resting- 
 places. To those who escaped, the winter was 
 tedious and terrible. It is hard for us to under 
 stand the isolation to which such weather con 
 demned the pioneer. For weeks they remained in 
 their cabins hoping for some mitigation of the 
 frost. When at last they were driven out by the 
 fear of famine, the labor of establishing communi- 
 cations was enormous. They finally made roads 
 by " wallowing through the snow," as an Illinois 
 historian expresses it, and going patiently over the 
 same track until the snow was trampled hard and 
 rounded like a turnpike. These roads lasted far 
 into the spring, when the snow had melted from 
 the plains, and wound for miles like threads of 
 silver over the rich black loam of the prairies. 
 After that winter game was never again so plenti 
 ful in the State. Much still remained, of course, 
 but it never recovered entirely from the rigors of 
 that season and the stupid enterprise of the pio 
 neer hunters, who, when they came out of their 
 snow-beleaguered cabins, began chasing and killing 
 the starved deer by herds. It was easy work ; the 
 crust of the snow was strong enough to bear the
 
 ILLINOIS IN 1830 49 
 
 weight of men and dogs, but the slender hoofs of CHAP. m. 
 the deer would after a few bounds pierce the 
 treacherous surface. This destructive slaughter 
 went on until the game grew too lean to be worth 
 the killing. All sorts of wild animals grew scarce 
 from that winter. Old settlers say that the slow 
 cowardly breed of prairie wolves, which used to be '- 
 caught and killed as readily as sheep, disappeared 
 about that time and none but the fleeter and 
 stronger survived. 
 
 Only once since then has nature shown such ex 
 travagant severity in Illinois, and that was on a 
 day in the winter of 1836, known to Blinoisans as 
 " the sudden change." At noon on the 20th of 
 December, after a warm and rainy morning, the 
 ground being covered with mud and slush, the 
 temperature fell instantly forty degrees. A man 
 riding into Springfield for a marriage license says 
 a roaring and crackling wind came upon him and 
 the rain-drops dripping from his bridle-reins and 
 beard changed in a second into jingling icicles. 
 He rode hastily into the town and arrived in a few 
 minutes at his destination ; but his clothes were 
 frozen like sheet iron, and man and saddle had to 
 be taken into the house together to be thawed 
 apart. Geese and chickens were caught by the feet 
 and wings and frozen to the wet ground. A drove 
 of a thousand hogs, which were being driven to 
 St. Louis, rushed together for warmth, and became 
 piled in a great heap. Those inside smothered 
 and those outside froze, and the ghastly pyramid 
 remained there on the prairie for weeks: the 
 drovers barely escaped with their lives. Men killed 
 their horses, disemboweled them, and crept into 
 VOL. I. 4
 
 50 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. in. the cavity of their bodies to escape the murderous 
 wind. 1 
 
 The pioneer period of Illinois was ending as 
 Thomas Lincoln and his tall boy drove their ox-team 
 over the Indiana line. The population of the State 
 had grown to 157,447. It still clung to the wooded 
 borders of the water-courses ; scattered settlements 
 were to be found all along the Mississippi and its 
 affluents, from where Cairo struggled for life in the 
 swamps of the Ohio to the bustling and busy min 
 ing camps which the recent discovery of lead had 
 brought to Galena. A line of villages from Alton 
 to Peoria dotted the woodland which the Illinois 
 River had stretched, like a green baldric, diagonally 
 across the bosom of the State. Then there were 
 long reaches of wilderness before you came to Fort 
 Dearborn, where there was nothing as yet to give 
 promise of that miraculous growth which was soon 
 to make Chicago a proverb to the world. There 
 were a few settlements in the fertile region called 
 the Military Tract ; the southern part of the State 
 was getting itself settled here and there. People 
 were coming in freely to the Sangamon country. 
 But a grassy solitude stretched from Galena to Chi 
 cago, and the upper half of the State was generally 
 a wilderness. The earlier emigrants, principally 
 of the poorer class of Southern farmers, shunned 
 the prairies with something of a superstitious 
 dread. They preferred to pass the first years of 
 their occupation in the wasteful and laborious work 
 
 1 Although the old settlers of to cite only those incidents of the 
 
 Sangamon County are acquainted sudden change which are given 
 
 with these facts, and we have in the careful and conscientious 
 
 often heard them and many compilation entitled "The Early 
 
 others like them from the lips of Settlers of Sangamon County," 
 
 eye-witnesses, we have preferred by John Carroll Power.
 
 ILLINOIS IN 1830 51 
 
 of clearing a patch of timber for corn, rather than CHAP. m. 
 enter upon those rich savannas which were ready 
 to break into fertility at the slightest provocation 
 of culture. Even so late as 1835, writes J. F. 
 Speed, u no one dreamed the prairies would ever 
 be occupied." It was thought they would be used 
 perpetually as grazing-fields for stock. For years 
 the long processions of " movers " wound over 
 those fertile and neglected plains, taking no hint 
 of the wealth suggested by the rank luxuriance of 
 vegetable growth around them, the carpet of 
 brilliant flowers spread over the verdant knolls, 
 the strong, succulent grass that waved in the 
 breeze, full of warm and vital odor, as high as the 
 waist of a man. In after years, when the emigra 
 tion from the Northern and Eastern States began 
 to pour in, the prairies were rapidly taken up, and 
 the relative growth and importance of the two 
 sections of the State were immediately reversed. 
 Governor Ford, writing about 1847, attributes this 
 result to the fact that the best class of Southern 
 people were slow to emigrate to a State where they 
 could not take their slaves ; while the settlers from 
 the North, not being debarred by the State Consti 
 tution from bringing their property with them, 
 were of a different class. "The northern part of 
 the State was settled in the first instance by 
 wealthy farmers, enterprising merchants, millers, 
 and manufacturers. They made farms, built mills, 
 churches, school-houses, towns, and cities, and 
 constructed roads and bridges as if by magic ; so 
 that although the settlements in the southern part 
 of the State are from twenty to fifty years in ad 
 vance on the score of age, yet are they ten years
 
 52 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. in. behind in point of wealth and all the appliances 
 
 Thomas of a higher civilization." 
 
 "History of At the time which we are specially considering, 
 P. 280.' however, the few inhabitants of the south and the 
 center were principally from what came afterwards 
 to be called the border slave States. They were 
 mostly a simple, neighborly, unambitious people, 
 contented with their condition, living upon plain 
 fare, and knowing not much of anything better. 
 Luxury was, of course, unknown ; even wealth, 
 if it existed, could procure few of the comforts 
 of refined life. There was little or no money in 
 circulation. Exchanges were effected by the most 
 primitive forms of barter, and each family had to 
 rely chiefly upon itself for the means of living. 
 The neighbors would lend a hand in building a 
 cabin for a new-comer ; after that he must in most 
 cases shift for himself. Many a man arriving from 
 an old community, and imperfectly appreciating 
 the necessities of pioneer life, has found suddenly, 
 on the approach of winter, that he must learn to 
 make shoes or go barefoot. The furniture of their 
 houses was made with an axe from the trees of the 
 forest. Their clothing was all made at home. The 
 buckskin days were over to a great extent, though 
 an occasional hunting-shirt and pair of moccasins 
 were still seen. But flax and hemp had begun to 
 be cultivated, and as the wolves were killed off the 
 sheep-folds increased, and garments resembling 
 those of civilization were spun and woven, and cut 
 and sewed, by the women of the family. When a 
 man had a suit of jeans colored with butternut- 
 dye, and his wife a dress of linsey, they could 
 appear with the best at a wedding or a quilting
 
 ILLINOIS IN 1830 53 
 
 frolic. The superfluous could not have been said to CHAP. in. 
 exist in a community where men made their own 
 buttons, where women dug roots in the woods to 
 make their tea with, where many children never 
 saw a stick of candy until after they were grown. 
 The only sweetmeats known were those a skillful 
 cook could compose from the honey plundered from 
 the hollow oaks where the wild bees had stored it. 
 Yet there was withal a kind of rude plenty ; the 
 woods swarmed with game, and after swine began 
 to be raised, there was the bacon and hoe-cake 
 which any south-western farmer will say is good 
 enough for a king. The greatest privation was the 
 lack of steel implements. His axe was as precious 
 to the pioneer as his sword to the knight errant. 
 Governor John Eeynolds speaks of the panic felt 
 in his father's family when the axe was dropped 
 into a stream. A battered piece of tin was care 
 fully saved and smoothed, and made into a grater 
 for green corn. 
 
 They had their own amusements, of course ; no 
 form of society is without them, from the anthro 
 poid apes to the Jockey Club. As to the grosser 
 and ruder shapes taken by the diversions of the 
 pioneers, we will let Mr. Herndon speak their 
 contemporary annalist and ardent panegyrist: 
 " These men could shave a horse's mane and tail, 
 paint, disfigure, and offer it for sale to the owner. 
 They could hoop up in a hogshead a drunken man, 
 they themselves being drunk, put in and nail fast 
 the head, and roll the man down hill a hundred 
 feet or more. They could run down a lean and 
 hungry wild pig, catch it, heat a ten-plate stove 
 furnace hot, and putting in the pig, could cook it,
 
 54 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. in. they dancing the while a merry jig." Wild oats 
 of this kind seein hardly compatible with a harvest 
 of civilization, but it is contended that such of 
 these roysterers as survived their stormy begin 
 nings became decent and serious citizens. Indeed, 
 Mr. Herndon insists that even in their hot youth 
 they showed the promise of goodness and piety. 
 William H. "They attended church, heard the sermon, wept 
 fpeecu at 8 and prayed, shouted, got up and fought an hour, 
 tiers- Meet- and then went back to prayer, iust as the spirit 
 
 ing.Menard '* * 
 
 County, moved them." The camp-meeting may be said, 
 with no irreverent intention, to have been their 
 principal means of intellectual excitement. The 
 circuit preachers were for a long time the only cir 
 culating medium of thought and emotion that kept 
 the isolated settlements from utter spiritual stag 
 nation. They were men of great physical and 
 moral endurance, absolutely devoted to their work, 
 which they pursued in the face of every hardship 
 and discouragement. Their circuits were frequently 
 so great in extent that they were forced to be con 
 stantly on the route; what reading they did was 
 done in the saddle. They received perhaps fifty 
 dollars from the missionary fund and half as much 
 in McLean 8 more from their congregations, paid for the most 
 P. 194.' part in necessaries of life. Their oratory was suited 
 to their longitude, and was principally addressed 
 to the emotions of their hearers. It was often very 
 effective, producing shouts and groans and genu 
 flections among the audience at large, and terrible 
 convulsions among the more nervous and excit 
 able. We hear sometimes of a whole congregation 
 prostrated as by a hurricane, flinging their limbs 
 about in furious contortions, with wild outcries.
 
 ILLINOIS IN 1830 55 
 
 To this day some of the survivors of that period CHAP. in. 
 insist that it was the spirit of the Almighty, and 
 nothing less, that thus manifested itself. The 
 minister, however, did not always share in the de 
 lirium of his hearers. Governor Reynolds tells us 
 of a preacher in Sangamon County, who, before 
 his sermon, had set a wolf -trap in view from his 
 pulpit. In the midst of his exhortations his keen 
 eyes saw the distant trap collapse, and he continued 
 in the same intonation with which he had been 
 preaching, " Mind the text, brethren, till I go kill 
 that wolf ! " With all the failings and eccentricities 
 of this singular class of men, they did a great deal 
 of good, and are entitled to especial credit among 
 those who conquered the wilderness. The emotions 
 they excited did not all die away in the shouts and 
 contortions of the meeting. Not a few of the 
 cabins in the clearings were the abode of a fervent 
 religion and an austere morality. Many a traveler, 
 approaching a rude hut in the woods in the gather 
 ing twilight, distrusting the gaunt and silent 
 family who gave him an unsmiling welcome, the 
 bare interior, the rifles and knives conspicuously 
 displayed, has felt his fears vanish when he sat 
 down to supper, and the master of the house, in a 
 few fervent words, invoked the blessing of heaven 
 on the meal. 
 
 There was very little social intercourse ; a visit 
 was a serious matter, involving the expenditure of 
 days of travel. It was the custom among families, 
 when the longing for the sight of kindred faces 
 was too strong to withstand, to move in a body to 
 the distant settlement where their relatives lived 
 and remain with them for months at a time. The
 
 56 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. in. claims of consanguinity were more regarded than 
 now. Almost the only festivities were those that 
 accompanied weddings, and these were, of course, 
 of a primitive kind. The perils and adventures 
 through which the young pioneers went to obtain 
 their brides furnish forth thousands of tales by 
 Western firesides. Instead of taking the rosy 
 daughter of a neighbor, the enterprising bachelor 
 would often go back to Kentucky, and pass 
 through as many adventures in bringing his wife 
 home as a returning crusader would meet between 
 Beirut and Vienna. If she was a young woman 
 who respected herself, the household gear she 
 would insist on bringing would entail an Iliad of 
 embarrassments. An old farmer of Sangamon 
 County still talks of a feather-bed weighing fifty- 
 four pounds with which his wife made him swim 
 six rivers under penalty of desertion. 
 
 It was not always easy to find a competent au 
 thority to perform the ceremony. A justice in 
 McLean County lived by the bank of a river, and 
 his services were sometimes required by impatient 
 lovers on the other bank when the waters were too 
 torrential to cross. In such cases, being a consci 
 entious man, he always insisted that they should 
 ride into the stream far enough for him to discern 
 their features, holding torches to their faces by 
 night and by storm. The wooing of those days was 
 prompt and practical. There was no time for the 
 gradual approaches of an idler and more conven 
 tional age. It is related of one Stout, one of the 
 legendary Nimrods of Illinois, who was well and 
 frequently married, that he had one unfailing for 
 mula of courtship. He always promised the ladies
 
 ILLINOIS IN 1830 57 
 
 whose hearts he was besieging that " they should CHAP. in. 
 live in the timber where they could pick up their 
 own firewood." 
 
 Theft was almost unknown ; property, being so 
 hard to get, was jealously guarded, as we have 
 already noticed in speaking of the settlement of 
 Kentucky. The pioneers of Illinois brought with 
 them the same rigid notions of honesty which their 
 environment maintained. A man in Macoupin 
 County left his wagon, loaded with corn, stuck in 
 the prairie mud for two weeks near a frequented 
 road. When he returned he found some of his corn 
 gone, but there was money enough tied in the 
 sacks to pay for what was taken. Men carrying 
 bags of silver from the towns of Illinois to St. 
 Louis rather made a display of it, as it enhanced 
 their own importance, and there was no fear of 
 robbery. There were of course no locks on the 
 cabin doors, and the early merchants sometimes 
 left their stores unprotected for days together when 
 they went to the nearest city to replenish their 
 stock. Of course there were rare exceptions to 
 this rule, but a single theft alarmed and excited a 
 whole neighborhood. When a crime was traced 
 home, the family of the criminal were generally 
 obliged to remove. 
 
 There were still, even so late as the time to which 
 we are referring, two alien elements in the popula 
 tion of the State the French and the Indians. 
 The French settlements about Kaskaskia retained 
 much of their national character, and the pioneers 
 from the South who visited them or settled among 
 them never ceased to wonder at their gayety, their 
 peaceable industry and enterprise, and their domes-
 
 58 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. in. tic affection, which they did not care to dissemble 
 and conceal like their shy and reticent neighbors. 
 It was a daily spectacle, which never lost its 
 strangeness for the Tennesseeans and Kentuckians, 
 to see the Frenchman returning from his work 
 greeted by his wife and children with embraces of 
 welcome "at the gate of his door-yard, and in 
 view of all the villagers." The natural and kindly 
 fraternization of the Frenchmen with the Indians 
 was also a cause of wonder to the Americans. The 
 friendly intercourse between them, and their 
 occasional intermarriages, seemed little short of 
 monstrous to the ferocious exclusiveness of the 
 Anglo-Saxon. 1 The Indians in the central part of 
 Illinois cut very little figure in the reminiscences 
 of the pioneers ; they occupied much the same 
 relation to them as the tramp to the housewife of 
 to-day. The Winnebago war in 1827 and the Black 
 Hawk war in 1831 disturbed only the northern 
 portion of the State. A few scattered and vagrant 
 lodges of Pottawatomies and Kickapoos were all the 
 pioneers of Sangamon and the neighboring counties 
 ever met. They were spared the heroic struggle of 
 the advance-guard of civilization in other States. 
 A woman was sometimes alarmed by a visit from a 
 drunken savage ; poultry and pigs occasionally 
 disappeared when they were in the neighborhood ; 
 but life was not darkened by the constant menace 
 of massacre. A few years earlier, indeed, the re 
 lations of the two races had been more strained, as 
 may be inferred from an act passed by the territo 
 rial Legislature in 1814, offering a reward of fifty 
 
 1 Michelet notices this exclu- style. " Crime centre la nature ! 
 siveness of the English, and in- Crime centre 1'humanite' ! II sera 
 veighs against it in his most lyric expi6 par la st6rilit6 de Fesprit."
 
 ILLINOIS IN 1830 59 
 
 dollars to any citizen or ranger who should kill CHAP. m. 
 or take any depredating Indian. As only two N.W. 
 
 J Edwards, 
 
 dollars was paid for killing a wolf, it is easy to see "?*$ 
 how the pioneers regarded the forest folk in point Ed ^aSiV 
 of relative noxiousness. But ten years later a p> 163 * 
 handful only of the Kickapoos remained in San 
 gamon County, the specter of the vanished people. 
 A chief named Machina came one day to a family 
 who were clearing a piece of timber, and issued an 
 order of eviction in these words : " Too much come 
 white man. T'other side Sangamon." He threw a 
 handful of dried leaves in the air to show how he 
 would scatter the pale faces, but he never fulfilled 
 his threats further than to come in occasionally 
 and ask for a drink of whisky. That such trivial 
 details are still related, only shows how barren of 
 incident was the life of these obscure founders of a 
 great empire. Any subject of conversation, any 
 cause of sensation, was a godsend. When Vannoy 
 murdered his wife in Springfield, whole families 
 put on their best clothes and drove fifty miles 
 through bottomless mud and swollen rivers to see 
 him hanged. 
 
 It is curious to see how naturally in such a state 
 of things the fabric of political society developed 
 itself from its germ. The county of Sangamon 
 was called by an act of the Legislature in 1821 out 
 of a verdant solitude of more than a million acres, 
 inhabited by a few families. An election for 
 county commissioners was ordered ; three men were 
 chosen; they came together at the cabin of John 
 Kelly, at Spring Creek. He was a roving bachelor 
 from North Carolina, devoted to the chase, who 
 had built this hut three years before on the margin
 
 60 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. in. of a green-bordered rivulet, where the deer 
 passed by in hundreds, going in the morning from 
 the shady banks of the Sangamon to feed on the 
 rich green grass of the prairie, and returning in 
 the twilight. He was so delighted with this 
 power, hunters' paradise that he sent for his brothers to 
 
 "Early Set- . , 
 
 san er amon J* n n ^ m - They came and brought their friends, 
 0( p! 1 33 y '" an( ^ so ^ happened that in this immense county, 
 several thousand square miles in extent, the settle 
 ment of John Kelly at Spring Creek was the only 
 place where there was shelter for the commis 
 sioners; thus it became the temporary county- 
 seat, duly described in the official report of the 
 commissioners as "a certain point in the prairie 
 near John Kelly's field, on the waters of Spring 
 Creek, at a stake marked Z and D (the initials of 
 the commissioners), to be the temporary seat of 
 justice for said county ; and we do further agree 
 that the said county-seat be called and known by 
 the name of Springfield." In this manner the 
 future capital received that hackneyed title, when 
 the distinctive and musical name of Sangamon was 
 ready to their hands. The same day they agreed 
 with John Kelly to build them a court-house, for 
 which they paid him forty-two dollars and fifty 
 cents. In twenty-four days the house was built 
 one room of rough logs, the jury retiring to any 
 sequestered glade they fancied for their deliberation. 
 They next ordered the building of a jail, which 
 cost just twice as much money as the court-house. 
 Constables and overseers of the poor were ap 
 pointed, and all the machinery of government 
 prepared for the population which was hourly 
 expected. It was taken for granted that malefactors
 
 ILLINOIS IN 1830 
 
 61 
 
 would come and the constables have employment ; 
 and the poor they would have always with them, 
 when once they began to arrive. This was only a 
 temporary arrangement, but when, a year or two 
 later, the time came to fix upon a permanent seat 
 of justice for the county, the resources of the 
 Spring Creek men were equal to the emergency. 
 When the commissioners came to decide on the rel 
 ative merits of Springfield and another site a few 
 miles away, they led them through brake, through 
 brier, by mud knee-deep and by water-courses so 
 exasperating that the wearied and baffled officials 
 declared they would seek no further, and Spring 
 field became the county-seat for all time; and 
 greater destinies were in store for it through 
 means not wholly dissimilar. Nature had made it 
 merely a pleasant hunting-ground; the craft and 
 the industry of its first settlers made it a capital. 
 
 The courts which were held in these log huts were 
 as rude as might be expected ; yet there is evidence 
 that although there was no superfluity of law or of 
 learning, justice was substantially administered. 
 The lawyers came mostly from Kentucky, though 
 an occasional New Englander confronted and lived 
 down the general prejudice against his region and 
 obtained preferment. The profits of the profession 
 were inconceivably small. One early State's At 
 torney describes his first circuit as a tour of shifts 
 and privations not unlike the wanderings of a 
 mendicant friar. In his first county he received a 
 fee of five dollars for prosecuting the parties to a 
 sanguinary affray. In the next he was equally 
 successful, but barely escaped drowning in Spoon 
 River. In the third there were but two families at 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 "History of 
 
 Sangaraon 
 
 County," 
 
 p. 83.
 
 62 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. in. the county-seat, and no cases on the docket. 
 Thence he journeyed across a trackless prairie sixty 
 miles, and at Quincy had one case and gained five 
 dollars. In Pike County our much-enduring jurist 
 took no cash, but found a generous sheriff who 
 entertained him without charge. " He was one of 
 nature's noblemen, from Massachusetts," writes the 
 grateful prosecutor. The lawyers in what was called 
 good practice earned less than a street-sweeper 
 to-day. It is related that the famous Stephen A. 
 Douglas once traveled from Springfield to Bloom- 
 ington and made an extravagant speech, and hav- 
 - oid Times ing gained his case received a fee of five dollars. 
 
 county!" 1 In such a state of things it was not to be wondered 
 at that the technicalities of law were held in some 
 what less veneration than what the pioneer 
 regarded as the essential claims of justice. The 
 infirmities of the jury system gave them less annoy 
 ance than they give us. Governor Ford mentions 
 a case where a gang of horse-thieves succeeded in 
 placing one of their confederates upon a jury which 
 was to try them ; but he was soon brought to 
 reason by his eleven colleagues making prepara 
 tions to hang him to the rafters of the jury room. 
 The judges were less hampered by the limitations of 
 their legal lore than by their fears of a loss of 
 popularity as a result of too definite charges in 
 civil suits, or too great severity in criminal cases. 
 They grew very dexterous in avoiding any com 
 mitment as to the legal or moral bearings of the 
 questions brought before them. They generally 
 refused to sum up, or to comment upon evidence ; 
 when asked by the counsel to give instructions 
 they would say, " Why, gentlemen, the jury under-
 
 ILLINOIS IN 1830 
 
 63 
 
 stand this case as well as you or I. They will do 
 justice between the parties." One famous judge, 
 who was afterwards governor, when sentencing a 
 murderer, impressed it upon his mind, and wished 
 him to inform his friends, that it was the jury and 
 not the judge who had found him guilty, and then 
 asked him on what day he would like to be hanged. 
 It is needless to say that the bench and bar were 
 not all of this class. There were even at that early 
 day lawyers, and not a few, who had already won 
 reputation in the older States, and whose names 
 are still honored in the profession. Cook, McLean, 
 Edwards, Kane, Thomas, Reynolds, and others, the 
 earliest lawyers of the State, have hardly been 
 since surpassed for learning and ability. 
 
 In a community where the principal men were 
 lawyers, where there was as yet little commerce, 
 and industrial enterprise was unknown, it was 
 natural that one of the chief interests of life should 
 be the pursuit of politics. The young State 
 swarmed with politicians; they could be found 
 chewing and whittling at every cross-roads inn; 
 they were busy at every horse-race, arranging their 
 plans and extending their acquaintance; around 
 the burgoo-pot of the hunting party they discussed 
 measures and candidates; they even invaded the 
 camp-meeting and did not disdain the pulpit as a 
 tribune. Of course there was no such thing as 
 organization in the pioneer days. Men were voted 
 for to a great extent independently of partisan 
 questions affecting the nation at large, and in this 
 way the higher offices of the State were filled for 
 many years by men whose personal character com 
 pelled the respect and esteem of the citizens. The 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Ford, 
 
 " History of 
 
 Illinois," 
 
 p. 83.
 
 64 ABKAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. in. year 1826 is generally taken as the date which 
 witnessed the change from personal to partisan 
 politics, though several years more elapsed before 
 the rule of conventions came in, which put an end 
 to individual candidacy. In that year, Daniel 
 Pope Cook, who had long represented the State in 
 Congress with singular ability and purity, was de 
 feated by Governor Joseph Duncan, the candidate 
 of the Jackson men, on account of the vote given 
 by Cook which elected John Quincy Adams to the 
 Presidency. The bitter intolerance of the Jackson 
 party naturally caused their opponents to organize 
 against them, and there were two parties in the 
 State from that time forward. The change in polit 
 ical methods was inevitable, and it is idle to 
 deplore it ; but the former system gave the better 
 men in the new State a power and prominence 
 which they have never since enjoyed. Such men 
 as Governor Ninian Edwards, who came with the 
 prestige of a distinguished family connection, a 
 large fortune, a good education, and a distinction 
 of manners and of dress ruffles, gold buttons, 
 and fair-topped boots which would hardly have 
 been pardoned a few years later ; and Governor 
 Edward Coles, who had been private secretary 
 to Madison, and was familiar with the courts of 
 Europe, a man as notable for his gentleness of 
 manners as for his nobility of nature, could never 
 have come so readily and easily to the head of 
 the government after the machine of the caucus 
 \ had been perfected. Real ability then imposed 
 itself with more authority upon the ignorant and 
 unpretending politicians from the back timber ; so 
 that it is remarked by those who study the early
 
 ILLINOIS IN 1830 65 
 
 statutes of Illinois that they are far better drawn CHAP. m. 
 up, and better edited, than those of a later period, 
 when illiterate tricksters, conscious of the party 
 strength behind them, insisted on shaping legisla 
 tion according to their own fancy. The men of 
 cultivation wielded an influence in the Legislature 
 entirely out of proportion to their numbers, as the 
 ruder sort of pioneers were naturally in a large 
 majority. The type of a not uncommon class in 
 Illinois tradition was a member from the South 
 who could neither read nor write, and whose appar 
 ently ironical patronymic was Grammar. When 
 first elected he had never worn anything except 
 leather; but regarding his tattered buckskin as 
 unfit for the garb of a lawgiver, he and his sons 
 gathered hazel-nuts enough to barter at the nearest 
 store for a few yards of blue strouding such as the 
 Indians used for breech-clouts. When he came 
 home with his purchase and had called together 
 the women of the settlement to make his clothes, 
 it was found that there was only material enough 
 for a very short coat and a long pair of leggins, and 
 thus attired he went to Kaskaskia, the territorial 
 capital. Uncouth as was his appearance, he had in 
 him the raw material of a politician. He invented 
 a system which was afterwards adopted by many 
 whose breeches were more fashionably cut of 
 voting against every measure which was proposed. 
 If it failed, the responsibility was broadly shared ; 
 if it passed and was popular, no one would care 
 who voted against it ; if it passed and did not meet 
 the favor of the people, John Grammar could vaunt 
 his foresight. Between the men like Coles and the 
 men like Grammar there was a wide interval, and 
 VOL. I. 5
 
 66 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. in. the average was about what the people of the State 
 deserved and could appreciate. A legislator was 
 as likely to suffer for doing right as for doing 
 wrong. Governor Ford, in his admirable sketch of 
 the early history of the State, mentions two acts 
 of the Legislature, both of them proper and bene 
 ficial, as unequaled in their destructive influence 
 upon the great folks of the State. One was a bill 
 for a loan to meet the honest obligations of the 
 commonwealth, commonly called " the Wiggins 
 loan " ; and the other was a law to prevent bulls of 
 inferior size and breed from running at large. This 
 latter set loose all the winds of popular fury : it was 
 cruel, it was aristocratic ; it was in the interest of 
 rich men and pampered foreign bulls ; and it ended 
 the career of many an aspiring politician in a blast 
 of democratic * indignation and scorn. The poli 
 tician who relied upon immediate and constant 
 contact with the people certainly earned all the 
 emoluments of office he received. His successes 
 were hardly purchased by laborious affability. "A 
 friend of mine," says Ford, " once informed me 
 that he intended to be a candidate for the Legisla 
 ture, but would not declare himself until just before 
 the election, and assigned as a reason that it was 
 so very hard to be clever for a long time at once." 
 Before the caucus had eliminated the individual 
 initiative, there was much more of personal feeling 
 in elections. A vote against a man had something 
 of offense in it, and sometimes stirred up a defeated 
 candidate to heroic vengeance. In 1827 the Legis 
 lature elected a State treasurer after an exciting 
 contest, and before the members had left the house 
 the unsuccessful aspirant came in and soundly
 
 ILLINOIS IN 1830 67 
 
 thrashed, one after the other, four of the represent- CHAP. m. 
 atives who had voted against him. Such energy Ford, p. si. 
 was sure to meet its reward, and he was soon after 
 made clerk of the Circuit Court. - It is related by 
 old citizens of Menard County, as a circumstance 
 greatly to the credit of Abraham Lincoln, that 
 when he was a candidate for the Legislature a man 
 who wanted his vote for another place walked to 
 the polls with him and ostentatiously voted for 
 him, hoping to receive his vote in return. Lincoln 
 voted against him, and the act was much admired 
 by those who saw it. 
 
 One noticeable fact is observed in relation to the 
 politicians of the day their careers were generally 
 brief. Superannuation came early. In the latter 
 part of the last century and the first half of this, 
 men were called old whom we should regard as in 
 the prime of life. When the friends of Washington 
 were first pressing the Presidency upon him in 
 1788, he urged his " advanced age" as an imperative 
 reason for declining it : he was fifty-six years old. 
 When Ninian Edwards was a candidate for Gov 
 ernor of Illinois in 1826, he was only fifty-one, and 
 yet he considered it necessary in his published ad 
 dresses to refer to the charge that he was too old 
 for the place, and, while admitting the fact that he 
 was no longer young, to urge in extenuation that 
 there are some old things, like old whisky, old 
 bacon, and old friends, which are not without 
 their merits. Even so late as 1848, we find a 
 remarkable letter from Mr. Lincoln, who was then 
 in Congress, bearing upon the same point. His 
 partner, William H. Herndon, had written him a 
 letter, complaining that the old men in Sangamon
 
 68 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. in. County were unwilling to let the young ones have 
 any opportunity to distinguish themselves. To 
 this Lincoln answered in his usual tone of grave 
 kindness : " The subject of your letter is exceed 
 ingly painful to me ; and I cannot but think there 
 is some mistake in your impression of the motives 
 of the old men. I suppose I am now one of the 
 old men, and I declare on my veracity, which I 
 think is good with you, that nothing could afford 
 me more satisfaction than to learn that you and 
 others of my young friends at home were doing 
 battle in the contest and endearing themselves to 
 the people and taking a stand far above any I have 
 ever been able to reach in their admiration. I 
 cannot conceive that other old men feel differently. 
 Of course, I cannot demonstrate what I say ; but I 
 was young once, and I am sure I was never un 
 generously thrust back." 
 
 The man who thus counseled petulant youth with 
 the experienced calmness of age was thirty-nine 
 years old. A state of society where one could at 
 that age call himself or be called by others an old 
 man, is proved by that fact alone to be one of 
 wearing hardships and early decay of the vital 
 powers. The survivors of the pioneers stoutly in 
 sist upon the contrary view. " It was a glorious 
 life," says one old patriarch ; " men would fight for 
 the love of it, and then shake hands and be friends ; 
 there is nothing like it now." Another says, "I 
 never enjoy my breakfast now as I used to, when I 
 got up and ran down a deer before I could have 
 anything to eat." But they see the past through 
 a rosy mist of memory, transfigured by the eternal 
 magic of youth. The sober fact is that the life
 
 ILLINOIS IN 1830 69 
 
 was a hard one, with few rational pleasures, few CHAP. in. 
 wholesome appliances. The strong ones lived, and 
 some even attained great length of years ; but to 
 the many age came early and was full of infirmity 
 and pain. If we could go back to what our fore 
 fathers endured in clearing the Western wilderness, 
 we could then better appreciate our obligations to 
 them. It is detracting from the honor which is 
 their due to say that their lives had much of happi 
 ness or comfort, or were in any respect preferable 
 to our own.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 NEW SALEM 
 
 CHAP. iv. IPvURING the latter part of " the winter of the 
 JLs deep snow," Lincoln became acquainted 
 with one Denton Offutt, an adventurous and dis 
 cursive sort of merchant, with more irons in the 
 fire than he could well manage. He wanted to take 
 a flat-boat and cargo to New Orleans, and having 
 heard that Hanks and Lincoln had some experience 
 of the river, he insisted on their joining him. John 
 Johnston was afterwards added to the party, prob 
 ably at the request of his foster-brother, to share 
 in the golden profits of the enterprise; for fifty 
 cents a day, and a contingent dividend of twenty 
 dollars apiece, seemed like a promise of immediate 
 opulence to the boys. In the spring, when the 
 rivers broke up and the melting snows began to 
 pour in torrents down every ravine and gully, the 
 three young men paddled down the Sangamon in 
 a canoe to the point where Jamestown now stands ; 
 whence they walked five miles to Springfield, 
 where Offutt had given them rendezvous. They 
 met him at Elliott's tavern and far from happy. 
 Amid the multiplicity of his engagements he had 
 failed to procure a flat-boat, and the first work his 
 new hands must do was to build one. They cut 
 
 70
 
 NEW SALEM 71 
 
 the timber, with frontier innocence, from "Con- 
 gress land," and soon had a serviceable craft 
 afloat, with which they descended the current of 
 the Sangamon to New Salem, a little village 
 which seems to have been born for the occasion, 
 as it came into existence just before the arrival 
 of Lincoln, flourished for seven years while he 
 remained one of its citizens, and died soon after 
 he went away. His introduction to his fellow- 
 citizens was effected in a peculiar and somewhat 
 striking manner. Offutt's boat had come to serious 
 embarrassment on Rutledge's mill-dam, and the un 
 wonted incident brought the entire population to 
 the water's edge. They spent a good part of the day 
 watching the hapless flat-boat, resting midships on 
 the dam, the forward end in the air and the stem 
 taking in the turbid Sangamon water. Nobody knew 
 what to do with the disaster except " the bow-oar," 
 who is described as a gigantic youth "with his 
 trousers rolled up some five feet," who was wading 
 about the boat and rigging up some un described 
 contrivance by which the cargo was unloaded, the 
 boat tilted and the water let out by boring a hole 
 through the bottom, and everything brought safely 
 to moorings below the dam. This exploit gained for 
 young Lincoln the enthusiastic admiration of his 
 employer, and turned his own mind in the direction 
 of an invention which he afterwards patented " for 
 lifting vessels over shoals." The model on which 
 he obtained this patent a little boat whittled by 
 his own hand in 1849, after he had become promi 
 nent as a lawyer and politician is still shown to 
 visitors at the Department of the Interior. We have 
 never learned that it has served any other purpose.
 
 72 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 I /a ii mn, 
 p. 83. 
 
 They made a quick trip 
 down the Sangamon, the 
 Illinois, and the Missis 
 sippi rivers. Although 
 it was but a repetition 
 in great part of the trip 
 young Lincoln had made 
 with Gentry, it evidently 
 created a far deeper im 
 pression on his mind than 
 the former one. The sim 
 ple and honest words of 
 John Hanks leave no 
 doubt of this. At New 
 Orleans, he said, they 
 saw for the first time 
 "negroes chained, mal 
 treated, whipped, and 
 scourged. Lincoln saw 
 it; his heart bled; said 
 nothing much, was silent, 
 looked bad. I can say, 
 knowing it, that it was on 
 this trip that he formed 
 his opinion of slavery. 
 It run its iron in him 
 then and there, May, 
 
 1831. I have heard him say so often." The sight 
 of men in chains was intolerable to him. Ten 
 years after this he made another journey by 
 water with his friend Joshua Speed, of Kentucky. 
 Writing to Speed about it after the lapse of four 
 teen years, he says : " In 1841 you and I had to 
 gether a tedious low- water trip on a steamboat from
 
 ... r 
 
 73
 
 74 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. rv. Louisville to St. Louis. You may remember, as I 
 well do, that from Louisville to the mouth of the 
 Ohio there were on board ten or a dozen slaves 
 shackled together with irons. That sight was 
 a continual torment to me, and I see something 
 like it every time I touch the Ohio or any other 
 slave border. It is not fair for you to assume 
 that I have no interest in a thing which has, and 
 continually exercises, the power of making me 
 miserable." 
 
 There have been several ingenious attempts to 
 show the origin and occasion of Mr. Lincoln's 
 antislavery convictions. They seem to us an 
 idle waste of labor. These sentiments came with 
 the first awakening of his mind and conscience, 
 and were roused into active life and energy by 
 the sight of fellow-creatures in chains on an 
 Ohio River steamboat, and on the wharf at New 
 Orleans. 
 
 The party went up the river in the early summer 
 and separated in St. Louis. Abraham walked in 
 company with John Johnston from St. Louis to 
 Coles County, and spent a few weeks there with 
 his father, who had made another migration the 
 year before. His final move was to G-oose Nest 
 Prairie, where he died in 1851, 1 at the age of seventy- 
 three years, after a life which, though not success 
 ful in any material or worldly point of view, was 
 probably far happier than that of his illustrious 
 son, being unvexed by enterprise or ambition. 
 Abraham never lost sight of his parents. He con 
 tinued to aid and befriend them in every way, even 
 
 1 His grave, a mile and a half propriate monument erected by 
 west of the town of Farmington, his grandson, the Hon. Robert T. 
 Illinois, is surmounted by an ap- Lincoln.
 
 NEW SALEM 75 
 
 when he could ill afford it, and when his benefac- CHAP. iv. 
 tions were imprudently used. He not only com 
 forted their declining years with every aid his 
 affection could suggest, but he did everything in 
 his power to assist his stepbrother Johnston a 
 hopeless task enough. The following rigidly truth 
 ful and yet kindly letters will show how mentor- 
 like and masterful, as well as generous, were the 
 relations that Mr. Lincoln held to these friends and 
 companions of his childhood : 
 
 DEAR JOHNSTON : Your request for eighty dollars I do 
 not think it best to comply with now. At the various 
 times when I have helped you a little, you have said to 
 me, " We can get along very well now," but in a very 
 short time I find you in the same difficulty again. Now 
 this can only happen by some defect in your conduct. 
 What that defect is I think I know. You are not lazy, 
 and still you are an idler. I doubt whether, since I saw 
 you, you have done a good whole day's work in any one 
 day. You do not very much dislike to work, and still 
 you do not work much, merely because it does not seem 
 to you that you could get much for it. This habit of 
 uselessly wasting time is the whole difficulty, and it is 
 vastly important to you, and still more so to your chil 
 dren, that you should break the habit. It is more impor 
 tant to them because they have longer to live, and can 
 keep out of an idle habit before they are in it easier than 
 they can get out after they are in. 
 
 You are now in need of some money ; and what I pro 
 pose is that you shall go to work "tooth and nail" for 
 somebody who will give you money for it. Let father 
 and your boys take charge of things at home, prepare for 
 a crop, and make the crop ; and you go to work for the 
 best money wages, or in discharge of any debt you owe, 
 that you can get ; and to secure you a fair reward for your 
 labor, I now promise you that for every dollar you will, 
 between this and the first of next May, get for your own 
 labor, either in money or as discharging your own indebted 
 ness, I will then give you one other dollar. By this, if you
 
 76 ABBAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. iv. hire yourself at ten dollars a month, from me you will 
 get ten more, making twenty dollars a month for your 
 work. In this I do not mean you should go off to 
 St. Louis, or the lead mines, or the gold mines in Cali 
 fornia ; but I mean for you to go at it for the best wages 
 you can get close to home, in Coles County. Now, if 
 you will do this you will soon be out of debt, and, what 
 is better, you will have a habit that will keep you from 
 getting in debt again. But if I should now clear you out 
 of debt, next year you would be just as deep in as ever. 
 You say you would almost give your place in heaven for 
 seventy or eighty dollars. Then you value your place 
 in heaven very cheap, for I am sure you can with the 
 offer I make get the seventy or eighty dollars for four 
 or five months' work. You say if I will furnish you 
 the money you will deed me the land, and if you don't 
 pay the money back you will deliver possession. Nonsense. 
 If you can't now live with the land, how will you then 
 live without it ? You have always been kind to me, and 
 I do not mean to be unkind to you. On the contrary, if 
 you will but follow my advice, you will find it worth 
 more than eighty times eighty dollars to you. 
 
 Here is a later epistle, still more graphic and 
 terse in statement, which has the unusual merit of 
 painting both confessor and penitent to the life : 
 
 SHELBYVILLE, Nov. 4, 1851. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER: When I came into Charleston, day 
 before yesterday, I learned that you were anxious to sell 
 the land where you live and move to Missouri. I have 
 been thinking of this ever since, and cannot but think 
 such a notion is utterly foolish. What can you do in 
 Missouri better than here ? Is the land any richer ? Can 
 you there, any more than here, raise corn and wheat and 
 oats without work ? Will anybody there, any more than 
 here, do your work for you ? If you intend to go to 
 work, there is no better place than right where you 
 are; if you do not intend to go to work, you cannot get 
 along anywhere. Squirming and crawling about from 
 place to place can do no good. You have raised no crop 
 this year, and what you really want is to sell the land,
 
 NEW SALEM 77 
 
 get the money, and spend it. Part with the land you CHAP. iv. 
 have, and, my life upon it, you will never after own a 
 spot big enough to bury you in. Half you will get for 
 the land you will spend in moving to Missouri, and the 
 other half you will eat and drink and wear out, and no 
 foot of land will be bought. Now, I feel it is my duty 
 to have no hand in such a piece of foolery. I feel that 
 it is so even on your own account, and particularly on 
 mother's account. The eastern forty acres I intend to 
 keep for mother while she lives ; if you will not cultivate 
 it, it will rent for enough to support her; at least, 
 it will rent for something. Her dower in the other 
 two forties she can let you have, and no thanks to me. 
 Now do not misunderstand this letter. I do not write it 
 in any unkindness. I write it in order, if possible, to 
 get you to face the truth, which truth is, you are destitute 
 because you have idled away all your time. Your thou 
 sand pretenses deceive nobody but yourself. Go to work 
 is the only cure for your case. 
 
 A volume of disquisition could not put more 
 clearly before the reader the difference between 
 Abraham Lincoln and the common run of Southern 
 and Western rural laborers. He had the same dis 
 advantages that they had. He grew up in the 
 midst of poverty and ignorance ; he was poisoned 
 with the enervating malaria of the Western woods, 
 as all Ms fellows were, and the consequences of it 
 were seen in his character and conduct to the close 
 of his life. But he had, what very few of them 
 possessed any glimmering notion of, a fixed and 
 inflexible will to succeed. He did not love work, 
 probably, any better than John Johnston ; but he 
 had an innate self-respect, and a consciousness that 
 his self was worthy of respect, that kept him from 
 idleness as it kept him from all other vices, and 
 made Mm a better man every year that he lived. 
 
 We have anticipated a score of years in speaking
 
 78 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. iv. of Mr. Lincoln's relations to his family. It was in 
 August of the year 1831 that he finally left his 
 father's roof, and swung out for himself into the 
 current of the world to make his fortune in his 
 own way. He went down to New Salem again to 
 assist Offutt in the business that lively specula 
 tor thought of establishing there. He was more 
 punctual than either his employer or the merchan 
 dise, and met with the usual reward of punctuality 
 in being forced to waste his time in waiting for 
 the tardy ones. He seemed to the New Salem 
 people to be " loafing " ; several of them have given 
 that description of him. He did one day's work 
 acting as clerk of a local election, a lettered loafer 
 being pretty sure of employment on such an 
 occasion. 1 He also piloted a boat down the San- 
 gamon for one Dr. Nelson, who had had enough of 
 New Salem and wanted to go to Texas. This was 
 probably a task not requiring much pilot-craft, as the 
 river was much swollen, and navigators had in 
 most places two or three miles of channel to count 
 upon. But Offutt and his goods arrived at last, 
 and Lincoln and he got them immediately into 
 position, and opened their doors to what commerce 
 could be found in New Salem. There was clearly 
 not enough to satisfy the volatile mind of Mr. 
 Offutt, for he soon bought Cameron's mill at the 
 historic dam, and made Abraham superintendent 
 also of that branch of the business. 
 
 i Mrs. Lizzie H. Bell writes of come. They were looking around 
 
 this incident : " My father, Men- for a man to fill his place when 
 
 ton Graham, was on that day, as my father noticed Mr. Lincoln 
 
 usual, appointed to be a clerk, and asked if he could write. He 
 
 and Mr. McNamee, who was to be answered that ' he could make a 
 
 the other, was sick and failed to few rabbit tracks.' "
 
 NEW SALEM 79 
 
 It is to be surmised that Offutt never inspired 
 his neighbors and customers with any deep regard 
 for his solidity of character. One of them says of 
 him with injurious pleonasm, that he " talked too 
 much with his mouth." A natural consequence of 
 his excessive fluency was soon to be made dis 
 agreeably evident to his clerk. He admired Abra 
 ham beyond measure, and praised him beyond 
 prudence. He said that Abe knew more than any 
 man in the United States; and he was certainly 
 not warranted in making such an assertion, as his 
 own knowledge of the actual state of science in 
 America could not have been exhaustive. He also 
 said that Abe could beat any man in the county 
 running, jumping, or " wrastling." This proposi 
 tion, being less abstract in its nature, was more 
 readily grasped by the local mind, and was not 
 likely to pass unchallenged. 
 
 Public opinion at New Salem was formed by a 
 crowd of ruffianly young fellows who were called 
 the " Clary's Grove Boys." Once or twice a week 
 they descended upon the village and passed the 
 day in drinking, fighting, and brutal horse-play. 
 If a stranger appeared in the place, he was likely 
 to suffer a rude initiation into the social life of 
 New Salem at the hands of these jovial savages. 
 Sometimes he was nailed up in a hogshead and 
 rolled down hill ; sometimes he was insulted into a 
 fight and then mauled black and blue ; for despite 
 their pretentious to chivalry they had no scruples 
 about fair play or any such superstitions of civil 
 ization. At first they did not seem inclined to 
 molest young Lincoln. His appearance did not 
 invite insolence; his reputation for strength and
 
 80 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 5& 
 
 * 
 
 o> 
 
 ^'Isfe o 1 
 
 <L: nJ, L iNlV ^-S. 
 
 S^-.; 
 
 tva 
 
 > 
 
 activity was a greater pro 
 tection to him than his in 
 offensive good-nature. But 
 the loud admiration of 
 Offutt gave them umbrage. 
 It led to dispute, contradic 
 tions, and finally to a formal 
 banter to a wrestling-match. 
 Lincoln was greatly averse 
 to all this "wool- 
 ing and pulling," 
 as he called it. 
 But Offutt's indis 
 cretion had made 
 it necessary for 
 him to show his 
 mettle. Jack Arm 
 strong, the leading 
 bully of the gang, 
 was selected to 
 throw him, and 
 expected an easy 
 victory. But he 
 soon found him 
 self in different 
 hands from any 
 he had heretofore 
 engaged with. See 
 ing he could not 
 manage the tall stranger, his friends swarmed in, 
 and by kicking and tripping nearly succeeded in 
 getting Lincoln down. At this, as has been said of 
 another hero, " the spirit of Odin entered into him," 
 and putting forth his whole strength, he held the
 
 NEW SALEM 81 
 
 pride of Clary's Grove in his arms like a child, and CHAP. iv. 
 almost choked the exuberant life out of him. For 
 a moment a general fight seemed inevitable ; but 
 Lincoln, standing undismayed with his back to the 
 wall, looked so formidable in his defiance that an 
 honest admiration took the place of momentary fury, 
 and his initiation was over. As to Armstrong, he 
 was Lincoln's friend and sworn brother as soon as 
 he recovered the use of his larynx, and the bond 
 thus strangely created lasted through life. Lincoln 
 had no further occasion to fight his own battles 
 while Armstrong was there to act as his champion. 
 The two friends, although so widely different, were 
 helpful to each other afterwards in many ways, 
 and Lincoln made ample amends for the liberty his 
 hands had taken with Jack's throat, by saving, in 
 a memorable trial, his son's neck from the halter. 
 
 This incident, trivial and vulgar as it may seem, 
 was of great importance in Lincoln's life. His 
 behavior in this ignoble scuffle did the work of 
 years for him, in giving him the position he 
 required in the community where his lot was cast. 
 He became from that moment, in a certain sense, a 
 personage, with a name and standing of his own. 
 The verdict of Clary's Grove was unanimous that 
 he was " the cleverest fellow that had ever broke 
 into the settlement." He did not have to be con 
 stantly scuffling to guard his self-respect, and at 
 the same time he gained the good- will of the better 
 sort by his evident peaceableness and integrity. 
 
 He made on the whole a satisfactory clerk for 
 Mr. Offutt, though his downright honesty must 
 have seemed occasionally as eccentric in that posi 
 tion as afterwards it did to his associates at the 
 
 VOL. L 6
 
 LEAF FROM ABRAHAM MNCOLN'S EXERCISE BOOK. 
 
 The page here shown in reduced fac-simile is from 
 the Exercise Book presented by William H. Herndon 
 to the Keyes-Lincoln Memorial Collection. When the 
 book was written Lincoln was about seventeen. 
 
 82
 
 NEW SALEM 83 
 
 bar. Dr. Holland has preserved one or two inci- CHAP.IV. 
 dents of this kind, which have their value. Once, 
 after he had sold a woman a little bill of goods and 
 received the money, he found on looking over the 
 account again that she had given him six and a 
 quarter cents too much. The money burned in his 
 hands until he locked the shop and started on a 
 walk of several miles in the night to make restitu 
 tion before he slept. On another occasion, after 
 weighing and delivering a pound of tea, he found 
 a small weight on the scales. He immediately 
 weighed out the quantity of tea of which he had 
 innocently defrauded his customer and went in 
 search of her, his sensitive conscience not permit 
 ting any delay. To show that the young merchant 
 was not too good for this world, the same writer 
 gives an incident of his shop-keeping experience of 
 a different character. A rural bully having made 
 himself especially offensive one day, when women 
 were present, by loud profanity, Lincoln requested 
 him to be silent. This was of course a cause of 
 war, and the young clerk was forced to follow the 
 incensed ruffian into the street, where the combat 
 was of short duration. Lincoln threw him at once 
 to the ground, and gathering a handful of the dog- 
 fennel with which the roadside was plentifully bor 
 dered, he rubbed the ruffian's face and eyes with it 
 until he howled for mercy. He did not howl in 
 vain, for the placable giant, when his discipline 
 was finished, brought water to bathe the culprit's 
 smarting face, and doubtless improved the occasion 
 with quaint admonition. 
 
 A few passages at arms of this sort gave Abra 
 ham a redoubtable reputation in the neighborhood.
 
 84 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. iv. But the principal use he made of his strength and 
 his prestige was in the capacity of peacemaker, an 
 office which soon devolved upon him by general 
 consent. Whenever old feuds blossomed into fights 
 by Offutt's door, or the chivalry of Clary's Grove 
 attempted in its energetic way to take the conceit 
 out of some stranger, or a canine duel spread con 
 tagion of battle among the masters of the beasts, 
 Lincoln usually appeared upon the scene, and with 
 a judicious mixture of force and reason and invinci 
 ble good-nature restored peace. 
 
 While working with Offutt his mind was turned 
 in the direction of English grammar. From what 
 he had heard of it he thought it a matter within 
 his grasp, if he could once fall in with the requisite 
 machinery. Consulting with Menton 1 Graham, the 
 schoolmaster, in regard to it, and learning the 
 whereabouts of a vagrant " Kirkham's Grammar," 
 he set off at once and soon returned from a walk 
 of a dozen miles with the coveted prize. He 
 devoted himself to the new study with that pecu 
 liar intensity of application which always remained 
 his most valuable faculty, and soon knew all that 
 can be known about it from rules. He seemed sur 
 prised, as others have been, at the meager dimen 
 sions of the science he had acquired and the ease 
 with which it yielded all there was of it to the 
 student. But it seemed no slight achievement to 
 the New Salemites, and contributed not a little to 
 the prevalent impression of his learning. 
 
 His name is prominently connected with an 
 event which just at this time caused an excitement 
 
 1 This name has always been daughter, Mrs. Bell, says that 
 written in Illinois " Minter," but her father's name is as given in 
 a letter from Mr. Graham's the text.
 
 NEW SALEM 85 
 
 and interest in Salem and the neighboring towns CHAP.IV. 
 entirely out of proportion to its importance. It 
 was one of the articles of faith of most of the 
 settlers on the banks of the Sangamon River that 
 it was a navigable stream, and the local politicians 
 found that they could in no way more easily hit 
 the fancy of their hearers than by discussing this 
 assumed fact, and the logical corollary derived from 
 it, that it was the duty of the State or the nation 
 to clear out the snags and give free course to the 
 commerce which was waiting for an opportunity 
 to pour along this natural highway. At last one 
 Captain Vincent Bogue, of Springfield, determined 
 to show that the thing could be done by doing it. 
 The first promise of the great enterprise appears in 
 the " Sangamo Journal " of January 26, 1832, in a 
 letter from the Captain, at Cincinnati, saying he 
 would ascend the Sangamon by steam on the 
 breaking up of the ice. He asked that he might 
 be met at the mouth of the river by ten or twelve 
 men, having axes with long handles, to cut away 
 the overhanging branches of the trees on the 
 banks. From this moment there was great excite 
 ment, public meetings, appointment of commit 
 tees, appeals for subscriptions, and a scattering 
 fire of advertisements of goods and freight to be 
 bargained for, which sustained the prevailing 
 interest. It was a day of hope and promise when 
 the advertisement reached Springfield from Cin 
 cinnati that "the splendid upper-cabin steamer 
 Talisman" would positively start for the Sangamon 
 on a given day. As the paper containing this joy 
 ous intelligence also complained that no mail had 
 reached Springfield from the east for three weeks,
 
 86 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. rv. it is easy to understand the desire for more rapid 
 and regular communications. From week to week 
 the progress of the Talisman, impeded by bad 
 weather and floating ice, was faithfully recorded, 
 until at last the party with long-handled axes 
 went down to Beardstown to welcome her. It is 
 needless to state that Lincoln was one of the party. 
 His standing as a scientific citizen of New Salem 
 would have been enough to insure his selection 
 even if he had not been known as a bold navigator. 
 He piloted the Talisman safely through the wind 
 ings of the Sangamon, and Springfield gave itself 
 up to extravagant gayety on the event that proved 
 she " could no longer be considered an inland 
 town." Captain Bogue announced " fresh and 
 seasonable goods just received per steamboat 
 Talisman," and the local poets illuminated the 
 columns of the " Journal " with odes on her advent. 
 The joy was short-lived. The Talisman met the 
 natural fate of steamboats a few months later, 
 being burned at the St. Louis wharf. Neither 
 State nor nation has ever removed the snags from 
 the Sangamon, and no subsequent navigator of its 
 waters has been found to eclipse the fame of the 
 earliest one.
 
 CHAPTEE V 
 
 LINCOLN IN THE BLACK HAWK WAR 
 
 J 
 
 ANEW period in the life of Lincoln begins CHAP.V. 
 with the summer of 1832. He then obtained 1832 - 
 his first public recognition, and entered upon the 
 course of life which was to lead him to a position 
 of prominence and great usefulness. 
 
 The business of Offutt had gone to pieces, and 
 his clerk was out of employment, when Governor 
 Reynolds issued his call for volunteers to move the 
 tribe of Black Hawk across the Mississippi. For 
 several years the raids of the old Sac chieftain upon 
 that portion of his patrimony which he had ceded to 
 the United States had kept the settlers in the neigh 
 borhood of Rock Island in terror, and menaced the 
 peace of the frontier. In the spring of 1831 he 
 came over to the east side of the river with a con 
 siderable band of warriors, having been encouraged 
 by secret promises of cooperation from several other 
 tribes. These failed him, however, when the time 
 of trial arrived, and an improvised force of State 
 volunteers, assisted by General E. P. Gaines and 
 his detachment, had little difficulty in compelling 
 the Indians to recross the Mississippi, and to enter 
 into a solemn treaty on the 30th of June by which 
 the former treaties were ratified and Black Hawk 
 
 87
 
 88 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. v. and his leading warriors bound themselves never 
 again to set foot on the east side of the river, with 
 out express permission from the President or the 
 Governor of Illinois. 
 
 But Black Hawk was too old a savage to learn 
 respect for treaties or resignation under fancied 
 wrongs. He was already approaching the allotted 
 term of life. He had been a chief of his nation for 
 more than forty years. He had scalped his first 
 enemy when scarcely more than a child, having 
 painted on his blanket the blood-red hand which 
 marked his nobility at fifteen years of age. Peace 
 under any circumstances would doubtless have been 
 irksome to him, but a peace which forbade him free 
 access to his own hunting-grounds and to the 
 graves of his fathers was more than he could now 
 school himself to endure. He had come to believe 
 that he had been foully wronged by the treaty 
 which was his own act ; he had even convinced him 
 self that "land cannot be sold," a proposition in polit- 
 ical economy which our modern socialists would be 
 P. 325'. puzzled to accept or confute. Besides this, the ten- 
 derest feelings of his heart were outraged by this 
 exclusion from his former domain. He had never 
 passed a year since the death of his daughter with 
 out making a pilgrimage to her grave at Oquawka 
 and spending hours in mystic ceremonies and con- 
 Ford templation. He was himself prophet as well as war- 
 uSi%" f rior, and had doubtless his share of mania, which is 
 the strength of prophets. The promptings of his 
 own broken heart readily seemed to him the whisper 
 ings of attendant spirits ; and day by day these un 
 seen incitements increased around him, until they 
 could not be resisted even if death stood in the way.
 
 LINCOLN IN THE BLACK HAWK WAR 89 
 
 He made his combinations during the winter, and CHAP. v. 
 had it not been for the loyal attitude of Keokuk, he 
 could have brought the entire nation of the Sacs 
 and Foxes to the war-path. As it was, the flower 
 of the young men came with him when, with the 
 opening spring, he crossed the river once more. He 
 came this time, he said, " to plant corn," but as a 
 preliminary to this peaceful occupation of the land 
 he marched up the Rock River, expecting to be 
 joined by the Winnebagoes and Pottawatomies. 
 But the time was passed for honorable alliances 
 among the Indians. His oath-bound confederates 
 gave him little assistance, and soon cast in their 
 lot with the stronger party. 
 
 This movement excited general alarm in the State. 
 General Henry Atkinson, commanding the United 
 States troops, sent a formal summons to Black 
 Hawk to return; but the old chief was already well 
 on his way to the lodge of his friend, the prophet 
 Wabokishick, at Prophetstown, and treated the sum 
 mons with contemptuous defiance. The Governor 
 immediately called for volunteers, and was him 
 self astonished at the alacrity with which the call 
 was answered. Among those who enlisted at the 
 first tap of the drum was Abraham Lincoln, and 
 equally to his surprise and delight he was elected 
 captain of his company. The volunteer organiza 
 tions of those days were conducted on purely 
 democratic principles. The company assembled 
 on the green, an election was suggested, and three- 
 fourths of the men walked over to where Lincoln 
 was standing ; most of the small remainder joined 
 themselves to one Kirkpatrick, a man of some sub 
 stance and standing from Spring Creek. We have
 
 90 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. v. the word of Mr. Lincoln for it, that no subsequent 
 success ever gave him such unmixed pleasure as 
 this earliest distinction. It was a sincere, unsought 
 tribute of his equals to those physical and moral 
 qualities which made him the best man of his hun 
 dred, and as such was accepted and prized. 
 
 At the Beardstown rendezvous, Captain Lincoln's 
 company was attached to Colonel Samuel Thomp 
 son's regiment, the Fourth Illinois, which was organ 
 ized at Eichland, Sangamon County, on the 21st of 
 April, and moved on the 27th, with the rest of the 
 command under General Samuel Whitesides, for 
 Yellow Banks, where the boats with provisions had 
 been ordered to meet them. It was arduous march 
 ing. There were no roads and no bridges, and the 
 day's task included a great deal of labor. The 
 third day out they came to the Henderson Eiver, 
 a stream some fifty yards wide, swift and swollen 
 with the spring thaws, with high and steep banks. 
 To most armies this would have seemed a serious 
 obstacle, but these backwoodsmen swarmed to the 
 Reynolds, work like beavers, and in less than three hours the 
 
 Times," river was crossed with the loss of only one or two 
 
 p. 356. 
 
 horses and wagons. When they came to Yellow 
 Banks, on the Mississippi, the provision-boats had 
 not arrived, and for three days they waited there 
 literally without food ; very uncomfortable days 
 for Governor Reynolds, who accompanied the ex 
 pedition, and was forced to hear the outspoken 
 comments of two thousand hungry men on his 
 supposed inefficiency. But on the 6th of May 
 the William Wallace arrived, and " this sight," says 
 the Governor with characteristic sincerity, " was, 
 I presume, the most interesting I ever beheld."
 
 LINCOLN IN THE BLACK HAWK WAB, 91 
 
 From there they marched to the mouth of Eock CHAP.V. 
 River, and thence General Whitesides proceeded 
 with his volunteers up the river some ninety miles 
 to Dixon, where they halted to await the arrival of 
 General Atkinson with the regular troops and pro 
 visions. There they found two battalions of fresh 
 horsemen under Majors Stillman and Bailey, who 
 had as yet seen no service and were eager for the 
 fray. Whitesides's men were tired with their forced 
 march, and besides, in their ardor to get forward, 
 they had thrown away a good part of their pro 
 visions and left their baggage behind. It pleased 
 the Governor, therefore, to listen to the prayers of 
 Stillman's braves, and he gave them orders to 
 proceed to the head of Old Man's Creek, where it 
 was supposed there were some hostile Indians, and 
 coerce them into submission. "I thought," says 
 the Governor in his memoirs, " they might discover 
 the enemy." 
 
 The supposition was certainly well founded. 
 They rode merrily away, came to Old Man's Creek, 
 thereafter to be called Stillman's Eun, and en 
 camped for the night. By the failing light a small 
 party of Indians was discovered on the summit of 
 a hill a mile away, and a few courageous gentle 
 men hurriedly saddled their horses, and, without 
 orders, rode after them. The Indians retreated, 
 but were soon overtaken, and two or three of them 
 killed. The volunteers were now strung along a 
 half mile of hill and valley, with no more order or 
 care than if they had been chasing rabbits. Black 
 Hawk, who had been at supper when the running 
 fight began, hastily gathered a handful of warriors 
 and attacked the scattered whites. The onset of
 
 LINCOLN IN THE BLACK HAWK WAR 93 
 
 the savages acted like an icy bath on the red-hot CHAP. v. 
 valor of the volunteers ; they turned and ran for 
 their lives, stampeding the camp as they fled. 
 There was very little resistance so little that 
 Black Hawk, fearing a ruse, tried to recall his 
 warriors from the pursuit, but in the darkness and 
 confusion could not enforce his orders. The 
 Indians killed all they caught up with; but the 
 volunteers had the fleeter horses, and only eleven 
 were overtaken. The rest reached Dixon by twos 
 and threes, rested all night, and took courage. 
 General Whitesides marched out to the scene of 
 the disaster the next morning, but the Indians 
 were gone. They had broken up into small parties, 
 and for several days they reaped the bloody fruit 
 of their victory in the massacre of peaceful settle 
 ments in the adjacent districts. 
 
 The time of enlistment of the volunteers had 
 now come to an end, and the men, seeing no pros 
 pect of glory or profit, and weary of the work and 
 the hunger which were the only certain incidents 
 of the campaign, refused in great part to continue in 
 service. But it is hardly necessary to say that 
 Captain Lincoln was not one of these homesick 
 soldiers. Not even the trammels of rank, which 
 are usually so strong among the trailers of the 
 saber, could restrain him from what he considered 
 his simple duty. As soon as he was mustered out 
 of his captaincy, he reenlisted on the same day, 
 May 27, as a private soldier. Several other officers 
 did the same, among them General Whitesides and 
 Major John T. Stuart. Lincoln became a member of 
 Captain Elijah Iles's company of mounted volun 
 teers, sometimes called the " Independent Spy Bat-
 
 94 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP.V. talion," an organization unique of its kind, if we 
 may judge from the account given by one of its 
 troopers. It was not, says Mr. George M. Harrison, 
 " under the control of any regiment or brigade, but 
 received orders directly from the Commander-in- 
 Chief, and always, when with the army, camped 
 within the lines, and had many other privileges, 
 such as having no camp duties to perform and 
 drawing rations as much and as often as we 
 pleased," which would seem to liken this battalion 
 as nearly as possible to the fabled " regiment of 
 brigadiers." With this elite corps Lincoln served 
 through his second enlistment, though it was not 
 his fortune to take part in either of the two 
 engagements in which General James D. Henry, 
 at the Wisconsin Bluffs and the Bad Axe, broke 
 and destroyed forever the power of Black Hawk 
 and the British band of Sacs and Foxes. 
 
 After Lincoln was relieved of the weight 
 of dignity involved in his captaincy, the war 
 became a sort of holiday, and the tall private 
 from New Salem enjoyed it as much as any one. 
 He entered with great zest into the athletic sports 
 with which soldiers love to beguile the tedium of 
 camp. He was admitted to be the strongest man 
 in the army, and, with one exception, the best 
 wrestler. Indeed, his friends never admitted the 
 exception, and severely blamed Lincoln for confess 
 ing himself defeated on the occasion when he met 
 the redoubtable Thompson, and the two fell 
 together on the turf. His popularity increased 
 from the beginning to the end of the campaign, 
 and those of his comrades who still survive always 
 speak with hearty and affectionate praise of his
 
 LINCOLN IN THE BLACK HAWK WAR 95 
 
 character and conduct in those rough yet pleasantly CHAP. v. 
 remembered days. 
 
 The Spy Battalion formed no part of General 
 Henry's forces when, by a disobedience of orders 
 as prudent as it was audacious, he started with his 
 slender force on the fresh trail which he was sure 
 would lead him to Black Hawk's camp. He found 
 and struck the enemy at bay on the bluffs of the 
 Wisconsin Eiver on the 21st of July, and inflicted 
 upon them a signal defeat. The broken remnant 
 of Black Hawk's power then fled for the Missis 
 sippi River, the whole army following in close pur 
 suit General Atkinson in front and General 
 Henry bringing up the rear. Fortune favored the 
 latter once more, for while Black Hawk with a 
 handful of men was engaging and drawing away 
 the force under Atkinson, General Henry struck 
 the main trail, and brought on the battle of the 
 Bad Axe, if that could be called a battle which was 
 an easy slaughter of the weary and discouraged 
 savages, fighting without heart or hope, an army in 
 front and the great river behind. Black Hawk 
 escaped the fate of his followers, to be captured a 
 few days later through the treachery of his allies. 
 He was carried in triumph to Washington and pre 
 sented to President Jackson, to whom he made 
 this stern and defiant speech, showing how little 
 age or disaster could do to tame his indomitable 
 spirit : " I am a man and you are another. I did 
 not expect to conquer the white people. I took 
 up the hatchet to avenge injuries which could no 
 longer be borne. 1 Had I borne them longer my 
 
 1 It is a noteworthy coincidence calls for troops "to redress 
 that President Lincoln's procla- wrongs already long enough en- 
 mation at the opening of the war dured."
 
 96 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. v. people would have said : ' Black Hawk is a squaw ; 
 he is too old to be a chief ; he is no Sac.' This 
 caused me to raise the war-whoop. I say no more 
 of it ; all is known to you." He returned to Iowa, 
 and died on the 3d of October, 1838, at his camp 
 on the river Des Moines. He was buried in gala 
 dress, with cocked hat and sword, and the medals 
 presented him by two governments. He was not 
 allowed to rest even in his grave. His bones were 
 
 MS. letters exhumed by some greedy wretch and sold from 
 hand to hand till they came at last to the Burling- 
 
 others. ton Museum, where they were destroyed by fire. 
 
 It was on the 16th of June, a month before the 
 slaughter of the Bad Axe, that the battalion to 
 which Lincoln belonged was at last mustered out, 
 at Whitewater, Wisconsin. His final release from 
 the service was signed by a young lieutenant of 
 artillery, Eobert Anderson, who, twenty-nine years 
 later, in one of the most awful crises in our annals, 
 was to sustain to Lincoln relations of prodigious 
 importance, on a scene illuminated by the flash 
 of the opening guns of the civil war. 1 The men 
 
 !A story to the effect that gamon County, IlHnois, April 21, 
 
 Lincoln was mustered into serv- 1832. The muster-in roll is not 
 
 ice by Jefferson Davis has for a on file, but the records show that 
 
 long time been current, but the the company was mustered out 
 
 strictest search in the records at the mouth of Fox Eiver, May 
 
 fails to confirm it. We are 27, 1832, by Nathaniel Buck- 
 
 indebted to General R. C. Drum, master, Brigade-Major to General 
 
 Adjutant-General of the Army, Samuel Whitesides's Illinois Vol- 
 
 for an interesting letter giving unteers. On the muster-roll of 
 
 all the known facts in relation to Captain Elijah Hes's company, 
 
 this story. General Drum says : Illinois Mounted Volunteers, A. 
 
 "The company of the Fourth Lincoln (Sangamon County) 
 
 Regiment Illinois Mounted Vol- appears as a private from May 
 
 unteers, commanded by Mr. 27, 1832, to June 16, 1832, 
 
 Lincoln, was, with others, called when the company was mustered 
 
 out by Governor Reynolds, and out of service by Lieutenant 
 
 was organized at Riehland, San- Robert Anderson, Third United
 
 BLACK HAWK.
 
 LINCOLN IN THE BLACK HAWK WAR 
 
 97 
 
 started home the next day in high spirits, like CHAP.V. 
 school-boys for their holidays. Lincoln had need, 
 like Horatio, of his good spirits, for they were his 
 only outfit for the long journey to New Salem, he 
 and his mess-mate Harrison 1 having had their 
 horses stolen the day before by some patriot over 
 anxious to reach home. But, as Harrison says, " I 
 laughed at our fate, and he joked at it, and we all 
 started off merrily. The generous men of our com 
 pany walked and rode by turns with us, and we 
 fared about equal with the rest. But for this gen 
 erosity our legs would have had to do the better 
 work ; for in that day this dreary route furnished 
 no horses to buy or to steal ; and, whether on horse 
 
 States Artillery and Colonel 
 (Assistant Inspector - General) 
 Illinois Volunteers. Brigadier- 
 General Henry Atkinson, in Ms 
 report of May 30, 1832, stated 
 that the Illinois Volunteers were 
 called out by the Governor of 
 that State, but in haste and for 
 no definite period of service. On 
 their arrival at Ottawa they 
 became clamorous for their dis 
 charge, which the Governor 
 granted, retaining of those who 
 were discharged and volunteered 
 for a further period of twenty 
 days a sufficient number of men 
 to form six companies, which 
 General Atkinson found at Ottawa 
 on his arrival there from Rock 
 River. General Atkinson further 
 reports that these companies and 
 some three hundred regular 
 troops, remaining in position at 
 Rock River, were all the force 
 left him to keep the enemy in 
 check until the assemblage of the 
 three thousand additional Illinois 
 militia called out by the Governor 
 upon his (General A.'s) requisi- 
 
 VOL. I. 7 
 
 tion, to rendezvous at Ottawa, 
 June 12-15, 1832. 
 
 "There can be no doubt that 
 Captain Hes's company, men 
 tioned above, was one of the six 
 which served until June 16, 
 1832, while the fact is fully 
 established that the company of 
 'which Mr. Lincoln was a member 
 was mustered out by Lieutenant 
 Robert Anderson, who, in April, 
 1861, was in command of Fort 
 Sumter. There is no evidence to 
 show that it was mustered in by 
 Lieutenant Jefferson Davis. Mr. 
 Davis's company (B, First United 
 States Infantry) was stationed at 
 Fort Crawford, Wisconsin, during 
 the months of January and Feb 
 ruary, 1832, and he is borne on 
 the rolls as ' absent on detached 
 service at the Dubuque mines by 
 order of Colonel Morgan.' From 
 March 26 to August 18, 1832, 
 the muster-rolls of ihis company re 
 port him as absent on furlough." 
 
 1 George M. Harrison, who 
 gives an account of his personal 
 experiences in Lamon, p. 116.
 
 98 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. v. or afoot, we always had company, for many of the 
 horses' backs were too sore for riding." It is not 
 hard to imagine with what quips and quirks of 
 native fancy Lincoln and his friends beguiled the 
 way through forest and prairie. With youth, good 
 health, and a clear conscience, and even then the 
 dawn of a young and undefiled ambition in his 
 heart, nothing was wanting to give zest and spice 
 to this long, sociable walk of a hundred leagues. 
 One joke is preserved, and this one is at the 
 expense of Lincoln. One chilly morning he com 
 plained of being cold. "No wonder," said some 
 facetious cavalier, " there is so much of you on the 
 ground." l We hope Lincoln's contributions to the 
 fun were better than this, but of course the pros 
 perity of these jests lay rather in the liberal ears 
 that heard them than in the good-natured tongues 
 that uttered them. 
 
 Lincoln and Harrison could not have been alto 
 gether penniless, for at Peoria they bought a canoe 
 and paddled down to Pekin. Here the ingenious 
 Lincoln employed his hereditary talent for car 
 pentry by making an oar for the frail vessel while 
 Harrison was providing the commissary stores. 
 The latter goes on to say: "The river, being very 
 low, was without current, so that we had to pull 
 hard to make half the speed of legs on land; in 
 fact, we let her float all night, and on the next 
 morning always found the objects still visible that 
 were beside us the previous evening. The water 
 was remarkably clear for this river of plants, and 
 the fish appeared to be sporting with us as we 
 
 1 Dr. Holland gives this homely later, when Lincoln had perma- 
 joke (Life of Lincoln, p. 71), but nently assumed shoes and had a 
 transfers it to a time four years horse of his own.
 
 LINCOLN IN THE BLACK HAWK WAR 99 
 
 moved over or near them. On the next day after CHAP. v. 
 we left Pekin we overhauled a raft of saw-logs, 
 with two men afloat on it to urge it on with poles 
 and to guide it in the channel. We immediately 
 pulled up to them and went on the raft, where we 
 were made welcome by various demonstrations, 
 especially by an invitation to a feast on fish, corn- 
 bread, eggs, butter, and coffee, just prepared for 
 our benefit. Of these good things we ate almost 
 immoderately, for it was the only warm meal we 
 had made for several days. While preparing it, 
 and after dinner, Lincoln entertained them, and 
 they entertained us for a couple of hours very 
 amusingly." Kindly human companionship was a 
 luxury in that green wilderness, and was readily 
 appreciated and paid for. 
 
 The returning warriors dropped down the river 
 to the village of Havana from Pekin to Havana 
 in a canoe ! The country is full of these geograph 
 ical nightmares, the necessary result of freedom of 
 nomenclature bestowed by circumstances upon 
 minds equally destitute of taste or education. 
 There they sold their boat, no difiicult task, for a 
 canoe was a staple article in any river-town, and 
 again set out " the old way, over the sand-ridges, 
 for Petersburg. As we drew near home, the im 
 pulse became stronger and urged us on amazingly. 
 The long strides of Lincoln, often slipping back in 
 the loose sand six inches every step, were just 
 right for me ; and he was greatly diverted when he 
 noticed me behind him stepping along in his tracks 
 to keep from slipping." Thus the two comrades 
 came back from their soldierings to their humble 
 homes, from which Lincoln was soon to start on 

 
 100 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. v. the way marked out for him by Providence, with 
 strides which no comrade, with whatever good 
 will, might hope to follow. 
 
 He never took his campaigning seriously. The 
 politician's habit of glorifying the petty incidents 
 of a candidate's life always seemed absurd to him, 
 and in his speech, made in 1848, ridiculing the 
 effort on the part of General Cass's friends to draw 
 some political advantage from that gentleman's 
 respectable but obscure services on the frontier in 
 the war with Great Britain, he estopped any 
 future eulogist from painting his own military 
 achievements in too lively colors. " Did you 
 know, Mr. Speaker," he said, " I am a military 
 hero ? In the days of the Black Hawk war I 
 fought, bled, and came away. I was not at Still- 
 man's defeat, but I was about as near it as General 
 Cass was to Hull's surrender ; and, like him, I saw 
 the place very soon afterwards. It is quite certain 
 I did not break my sword, for I had none to break, 
 but I bent my musket pretty badly on one occasion. 
 If General Cass went in advance of me picking 
 whortleberries, I guess I surpassed him in charges 
 on the wild onions. If he saw any live fighting In 
 dians, it was more than I did, but I had a good many 
 bloody struggles with the mosquitoes ; and although 
 I nev"er fainted from loss of blood, I can truly say I 
 was often very hungry. If ever I should conclude 
 to doff whatever our Democratic friends may sup 
 pose there is of black-cockade Federalism about me, 
 and thereupon they shall take me up as their can 
 didate for the Presidency, I protest that they shall 
 not make fun of me, as they have of General Cass, 
 by attempting to write me into a military hero,"
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 SURVEYOR AND REPRESENTATIVE 
 
 THE discharged volunteer arrived in New 
 Salem only ten days before the August elec- 
 tion, in which he had a deep personal interest. 
 Before starting for the wars he had announced 
 himself, according' to the custom of the time, by a 
 handbill circular, as a candidate for the Legislature 
 from Sangamon County. 1 He had done this in 
 accordance with his own natural bent for public 
 life and desire for usefulness and distinction, and 
 not without strong encouragement from friends 
 whose opinion he valued. He had even then con 
 siderable experience in speaking and thinking on 
 his feet. He had begun his practice in that 
 direction before leaving Indiana, and continued it 
 everywhere he had gone. Mr. William Butler tells 
 us that on one occasion, when Lincoln was a farm 
 hand at Island Grove, the famous circuit-rider, 
 Peter Cartwright, came by, electioneering for the 
 Legislature, and Lincoln at once engaged in a 
 discussion with him in the cornfield, in which the 
 
 We are aware that all former circular is dated March 9, 1832, 
 
 biographers have stated that and the "Sangamo Journal" 
 
 Lincoln's candidacy for the Leg- mentions his name among the 
 
 islature was subsequent to his candidates in July, and apologizes 
 
 return from the war, and a con- for having accidentally omitted 
 
 sequence of his service. But his it in May. 
 
 101
 
 102 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. vi. great Methodist was equally astonished at the close 
 reasoning and the uncouth figure of Mr. Brown's 
 extraordinary hired man. At another time, after 
 one Posey, a politician in search of office, had 
 made a speech in Macon, John Hanks, whose 
 admiration of his cousin's oratory was unbounded, 
 said that " Abe could beat it." He turned a keg 
 on end, and the tall boy mounted it and made his 
 speech. "The subject was the navigation of the 
 Sangamon, and Abe beat him to death," says the 
 loyal Hanks. So it was not with the tremor of 
 a complete novice that the young man took the 
 stump during the few days left him between his 
 return and the election. 
 
 He ran as a Whig. As this has been denied on 
 authority which is generally trustworthy, it is 
 well enough to insist upon the fact. We have a 
 memorandum in Mr. Lincoln's own handwriting in 
 which he says he ran as " an avowed Clay man." 
 In one of the few speeches of his, which, made at 
 this time, have been remembered and reported, he 
 said : " I am in favor of a national bank ; I am in 
 favor of the internal improvement system, and of 
 a high protective tariff. These are my sentiments 
 and political principles." Nothing could be more 
 unqualified or outspoken than this announcement 
 of his adhesion to what was then and for years 
 afterwards called "the American System" of 
 Henry Clay. Other testimony is not wanting to 
 the same effect. Both Major Stuart and Judge 
 Logan l say that Lincoln ran in 1832 as a Whig, 
 and that his speeches were unevasively in defense of 
 
 1 The Democrats of New Salem was the general understanding 
 worked for Lincoln out of their of the matter here at the time, 
 personal regard for him, That In this he made no concession of
 
 SURVEYOR AND REPRESENTATIVE 103 
 
 the principles of that party. Without discussing CHAT.VI. 
 the merits of the party or its purposes, we may 
 insist that his adopting them thus openly at the 
 outset of his career was an extremely characteristic 
 act, and marks thus early the scrupulous con 
 scientiousness which shaped every action of his 
 life. The State of Illinois was by a large majority 
 Democratic, hopelessly attached to the person and 
 policy of Jackson. Nowhere had that despotic 
 leader more violent and unscrupulous partisans 
 than there. They were proud of their very 
 servility, and preferred the name of "whole-hog 
 Jackson men " to that of Democrats. The Whigs 
 embraced in their scanty ranks the leading men 
 of the State, those who have since been most 
 distinguished in its history, such as S. T. Logan, 
 Stuart, Browning, Dubois, Hardin, Breese, and 
 many others. But they were utterly unable to do 
 anything except by dividing the Jackson men, 
 whose very numbers made their party unwieldy, 
 and by throwing their votes with the more decent 
 and conservative portion of them. In this way, in 
 the late election, they had secured the success of 
 Governor Eeynolds the Old Ranger against 
 Governor Kinney, who represented the vehement 
 and prescriptive spirit which Jackson had just 
 breathed into the party. He had visited the 
 General in Washington, and had come back giving 
 out threatenings and slaughter against the Whigs 
 in the true Tennessee style, declaring that " all 
 Whigs should be whipped out of office like dogs 
 
 principle whatever. He was as popular because he was Lin- 
 stiff as a man could be in his coin. 
 
 Whig doctrines. They did this STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 
 
 for him simply because he was July 6, 1875.
 
 104 ABKAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. vi. out of a meat-house"; the force of south-western 
 simile could no further go. But the great 
 popularity of Reynolds and the adroit manage 
 ment of the Whigs carried him through success 
 fully. A single fact will show on which side the 
 people who could read were enlisted. The " whole- 
 hog" party had one newspaper, the opposition 
 five. Of course it would have been impossible for 
 Reynolds to poll a respectable vote if his loyalty 
 Reynolds, to Jackson had been seriously doubted. As it was, 
 'SST' 11 ne I 08 * many votes through a report that he had 
 P. 29i. "been guilty of saying that "he was as strong for 
 Jackson as any reasonable man should be." The 
 Governor himself, in his naive account of the 
 canvass, acknowledges the damaging nature of this 
 accusation, and comforts himself with quoting an 
 indiscretion of Kinney's, who opposed a projected 
 canal on the ground that "it would flood the 
 country with Yankees." 
 
 It showed some moral courage, and certainly an 
 absence of the shuffling politician's fair-weather 
 policy, that Lincoln, in his obscure and penniless 
 youth, at the very beginning of his career, when 
 he was not embarrassed by antecedents or family 
 connections, and when, in fact, what little social 
 influence he knew would have led him the other 
 way, chose to oppose a furiously intolerant 
 majority, and to take his stand with the party 
 which was doomed to long-continued defeat in 
 Illinois. The motives which led him to take this 
 decisive course are not difficult to imagine. The 
 better sort of people in Sangamon County were 
 Whigs, though the majority were Democrats, and 
 he preferred through life the better sort to the
 
 SUKVEYOB AND EEPBESENTATIVE 105 
 
 majority. The papers tie read were the Louisville CHAP.VI. 
 " Journal " and the " Sangamo Journal," both 
 Whig. Eeading the speeches and debates of the 
 day, he sided with Webster against Calhoun, and 
 with Clay against anybody. Though his notions 
 of politics, like those of any ill-educated young 
 man of twenty-two, must have been rather crude, 
 and not at all sufficient to live and to die by, he 
 had adopted them honestly and sincerely, with no 
 selfish regard to his own interests ; and though he 
 ardently desired success, he never abated one jot 
 or tittle of his convictions for any possible personal 
 gain, then or thereafter. 
 
 In the circular in which he announced his candi 
 dacy he made no reference to national politics, but 
 confined himself mainly to a discussion of the 
 practicability of improving the navigation of the 
 Sangamon, the favorite hobby of the place and 
 time. He had no monopoly of this "issue." It 
 formed the burden of nearly every candidate's 
 appeal to the people in that year. The excitement 
 occasioned by the trip of the Talisman had not yet 
 died away, although the little steamer was now 
 dust and ashes, and her bold commander had left 
 the State to avoid an awkward meeting with the 
 sheriff. The hope of seeing Springfield an emporium 
 of commerce was still lively among the citizens of 
 Sangamon County, and in no one of the handbills 
 of the political aspirants of the season was that 
 hope more judiciously encouraged than in the 
 one signed by Abraham Lincoln. It was a well- 
 written circular, remarkable for its soberness and 
 reserve when we consider the age and the limited 
 advantages of the writer. It concluded in these
 
 106 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. vi. words : "Upon the subjects of which I have treated, 
 I have spoken as I have thought. I may be wrong 
 in regard to any or all of them ; but holding it a 
 sound maxim that it is better only sometimes to be 
 right than at all times wrong, so soon as I discover 
 my opinions to be erroneous I shall be ready to 
 renounce them. . . . Every man is said to have 
 his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, 
 I can say for one, that I have no other so great as 
 that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by 
 rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How 
 far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition is 
 yet to be developed. I am young, and unknown to 
 many of you. I was born and have ever remained 
 in the most humble walks of life. I have no 
 wealthy or powerful relations or friends to recom 
 mend me. My case is thrown exclusively upon 
 the independent voters of the county; and, if 
 elected, they will have conferred a favor upon me, 
 for which I shall be unremitting in my labors to 
 compensate. But if the good people in their wis 
 dom shall see fit to keep me in the background, I 
 have been too familiar with disappointments to be 
 very much chagrined." 
 
 This is almost precisely the style of his later 
 years. The errors of grammar and construction 
 which spring invariably from an effort to avoid 
 redundancy of expression remained with him 
 through life. He seemed to grudge the space 
 required for necessary parts of speech. But his 
 language was at twenty-two, as it was thirty years 
 later, the simple and manly attire of his thought, 
 with little attempt at ornament and none at dis 
 guise. There was an intermediate time when he
 
 SURVEYOR AND REPRESENTATIVE 107 
 
 sinned in the direction of fine writing; but this CHAP.VI. 
 ebullition soon passed away, and left that marvel- 
 ously strong and transparent style in which his 
 two inaugurals were written. 
 
 Of course, in the ten days left him after his 
 return from the field, a canvass of the county, 
 which was then before its division several 
 thousand square miles in extent, was out of the 
 question. He made a few speeches in the neigh 
 borhood of New Salem, and at least one in Spring 
 field. He was wholly unknown there except by 
 his few comrades in arms. We find him mentioned 
 in the county paper only once during the summer, 
 in an editorial note adding the name of Captain 
 Lincoln to those candidates for the Legislature 
 who were periling their lives on the frontier and 
 had left their reputations in charge of their gener 
 ous fellow-citizens at home. On the occasion of 
 his speaking at Springfield, most of the candidates 
 had come together to address a meeting there to 
 give their electors some idea of their quality. 
 These were severe ordeals for the rash aspirants 
 for popular favor. Besides those citizens who 
 came to listen and judge, there were many whose 
 only object was the free whisky provided for the 
 occasion, and who, after potations pottle-deep, 
 became not only highly unparliamentary but even 
 dangerous to life and limb. This wild chivalry of 
 Lick Creek was, however, less redoubtable to Lin 
 coln than it might be to an urban statesman unac 
 quainted with the frolic brutality of Clary's Grove. 
 Their gambols never caused him to lose his self- 
 possession. It is related that once, while he was 
 speaking, he saw a ruffian attack a friend of his in
 
 108 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. vi. the crowd, and the rencontre not resulting according 
 to the orator's sympathies, he descended from the 
 stand, seized the objectionable fighting man by the 
 neck, "threw him some ten feet," then calmly 
 mounted to his place and finished his speech, the 
 course of his logic undisturbed by this athletic 
 parenthesis. Judge Logan saw Lincoln for the 
 first time on the day when he came up to 
 Springfield on his canvass this summer. He thus 
 speaks of his future partner : " He was a very tall, 
 gawky, and rough-looking fellow then ; his panta 
 loons did n't meet his shoes by six inches. But 
 after he began speaking I became very much inter 
 ested in him. He made a very sensible speech. 
 His manner was very much the same as in after life; 
 that is, the same peculiar characteristics were 
 apparent then, though of course in after years he 
 evinced more knowledge and experience. But he 
 had then the same novelty and the same peculiarity 
 in presenting his ideas. He had the same indi 
 viduality that he kept through all his life." 
 
 There were two or three men at the meeting 
 whose good opinion was worth more than all the 
 votes of Lick Creek to one beginning life : Stephen 
 T. Logan, a young lawyer who had recently come 
 from Kentucky with the best equipment for a nisi 
 prius practitioner ever brought into the State; 
 Major Stuart, whom we have met in the Black 
 Hawk war, once commanding a battalion and then 
 marching as a private ; and William Butler, after 
 wards prominent in State politics, at that time a 
 young man of the purest Western breed in body 
 and character, clear-headed and courageous, and 
 ready for any emergency where a friend was to be
 
 SUBVEYOE AND REPRESENTATIVE 109 
 
 defended or an enemy punished. We do not know CHAP.VI. 
 whether Lincoln gained any votes that day, but 
 he gained what was far more valuable, the active 
 friendship of these able and honorable men, all 
 Whigs and all Kentuckians like himself. 
 
 The acquaintances he made in his canvass, the 
 practice he gained in speaking, and the added 
 confidence which this experience of measuring his 
 abilities with those of others gave, were all the 
 advantages which Lincoln derived from this 
 attempt. He was defeated, for the only time in 
 his life, in a contest before the people. The for 
 tunate candidates were E. D. Taylor, J. T. Stuart, 
 Achilles Morris, and Peter Cartwright, the first of 
 whom received 1127 votes and the last 815. Lin 
 coln's position among the eight defeated candidates 
 was a very respectable one. He had 657 votes, and 
 there were five who fared worse, among them his 
 old adversary Kirkpatrick. What must have been 
 especially gratifying to him was the fact that he 
 received the almost unanimous vote of his own 
 neighborhood, the precinct of New Salem, 277 
 votes against 3, a result which showed more 
 strongly than any words could do the extent of 
 
 the attachment and the confidence which his genial August 11, 
 and upright character had inspired among those 
 who knew him best. 
 
 Having been, even in so slight a degree, a soldier 
 and a politician, he was unfitted for a day laborer; 
 but being entirely without means of subsistence, he 
 was forced to look about for some suitable occupa 
 tion. We know he thought seriously at this time 
 of learning the trade of a blacksmith, and using in 
 that honest way the sinew and brawn which nature
 
 110 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. vi. had given him. But an opening for another kind 
 of business occurred, which prevented his entering 
 upon any merely mechanical occupation. Two of 
 his most intimate friends were the brothers Hern- 
 don, called, according to the fashion of the time, 
 which held it unfriendly to give a man his proper 
 name, and arrogant for him to claim it, "Row "and 
 "Jim." They kept one of those grocery stores in 
 which everything salable on the frontier was sold, 
 and which seem to have changed their occupants 
 as rapidly as sentry-boxes. " Jim " sold his share 
 to an idle and dissolute man named Berry, and 
 " Row " soon transferred his interest to Lincoln. 
 It was easy enough to buy, as nothing was ever 
 given in payment but a promissory note. A short 
 time afterwards, one Reuben Radford, who kept 
 another shop of the same kind, happened one even 
 ing to attract the dangerous attention of the Clary's 
 Grove boys, who, with their usual prompt and 
 practical facetiousness, without a touch of malice 
 in it, broke his windows and wrecked his store. 
 The next morning, while Radford was ruefully 
 contemplating the ruin, and doubtless concluding 
 that he had had enough of a country where the 
 local idea of neighborly humor found such eccen 
 tric expression, he hailed a passer-by named 
 Greene, and challenged him to buy his establish 
 ment for four hundred dollars. This sort of trade 
 was always irresistible to these Western specu 
 lators, and Greene at once gave his note for the 
 amount. It next occurred to him to try to find out 
 what the property was worth, and doubting his 
 own skill, he engaged Lincoln to make an invoice 
 of it, The young merchant, whose appetite for
 
 SURVEYOR AND REPRESENTATIVE 111 
 
 speculation had just been whetted by his own CHAP.VI. 
 investment, undertook the task, and, finding the 
 stock of goods rather tempting, offered Greene 
 $250 for his bargain, which was at once accepted. 
 Not a cent of money changed hands in all these 
 transactions. By virtue of half a dozen signatures, 
 Berry and Lincoln became proprietors of the only 
 mercantile establishment in the village, and the 
 apparent wealth of the community was increased 
 by a liberal distribution of their notes among the 
 Herndons, Eadford, Greene, and a Mr. Eutledge, 
 whose business they had also bought. 
 
 Fortunately for Lincoln and for the world, the 
 enterprise was not successful. It was entered into 
 without sufficient reflection, and from the very 
 nature of things was destined to fail. To Berry 
 the business was merely the refuge of idleness. 
 He spent his time in gossip and drank up his share 
 of the profits, and it is probable that Lincoln was far 
 more interested in politics and general reading 
 than in the petty traffic of his shop. In the spring 
 of the next year, finding that their merchandise 
 was gaining them little or nothing, they concluded 
 to keep a tavern in addition to their other business, 
 and the records of the County Court of Sangamon 
 County show that Berry took out a license for that 
 purpose on the 6th of March, 1833. 1 But it was 
 even then too late for any expedients to save the 
 moribund partnership. The tavern was never 
 opened, for about this time Lincoln and Berry 
 
 1 The following is an extract tinue twelve months from this 
 
 from the court record: "March date, and that they pay one 
 
 ft 1833. Ordered that William dollar in addition to six dollars 
 
 *'. Berry, in the name of Berry heretofore prepaid as per Treas- 
 
 and Lincoln, have license to keep urer's receipt, and that they be 
 
 a tavern in New Salem, to con- allowed the following rates, viz. :
 
 112 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. vi. were challenged to sell out to a pair of vagrant 
 brothers named Trent, who, as they had no idea of 
 paying, were willing to give their notes to any 
 amount. They soon ran away, and Berry expired, 
 extinguished in rum. Lincoln was thus left loaded 
 with debts, and with no assets except worthless 
 notes of Berry and the Trents. It is greatly to his 
 credit that he never thought of doing by others 
 as others had done by him. The morality of the 
 frontier was deplorably loose in such matters, and 
 most of these people would have concluded that 
 the failure of the business expunged its liabilities. 
 But Lincoln made no effort even to compromise the 
 claims against him. He promised to pay when he 
 could, and it took the labor of years to do it ; but 
 he paid at last every farthing of the debt, which 
 seemed to him and his friends so large that it was 
 called among them " the national debt." 
 
 He had already begun to read elementary books 
 of law, borrowed from Major Stuart and other 
 kindly acquaintances. Indeed, it is quite possible 
 that Berry and Lincoln might have succeeded 
 better in business if the junior member of the firm 
 had not spent so much of his time reading Black- 
 stone and Chitty in the shade of a great oak just 
 outside the door, while the senior quietly fuddled 
 himself within. Eye-witnesses still speak of the 
 grotesque youth, habited in homespun tow, lying 
 on his back with his feet on the trunk of the tree, 
 and poring over his book by the hour, " grinding 
 
 French brandy, per pint, 25 ; 12^ ; Horse [for night, 25 ; 
 
 Peach, 18%; Apple, 12; Hoi- Single feed, 12}; Breakfast, 
 
 land gin, 18%; Domestic, 12^; dinner, or supper, for stage 
 
 Wine, 25 ; Rum, 18% ; Whisky, passengers, 37%. 
 
 12}; Breakfast, dinner, or "Who gave bond as required 
 
 supper, 25 ; Lodging for night, by law."
 
 JUDGE STEPHEN T. LOGAN.
 
 SUEVEYOB AND KEPRESENTATIVE 113 
 
 around with the shade," as it shifted from north to CHAP.VI. 
 east. After his store, to use his own expression, 
 had " winked out," he applied himself with more 
 continuous energy to his reading, doing merely 
 what odd jobs came to his hand to pay his current 
 expenses, which were of course very slight. He 
 sometimes helped his friend Ellis in his store; 
 sometimes went into the field and renewed his 
 exploits as a farm-hand, which had gained him a 
 traditional fame in Indiana; sometimes employed 
 his clerkly |_hand in straightening up a neglected 
 ledger. It is probable that he worked for his board 
 oftener than for any other compensation, and his 
 hearty friendliness and vivacity, as well as his 
 industry in the field, made him a welcome guest 
 in any farm-house in the county. His strong arm 
 was always at the disposal of the poor and needy ; 
 it is said of him, with a graphic variation of a well- 
 known text, "that he visited the fatherless and 
 the widow and chopped their wood." 
 
 In the spring of this year, 1833, he was appointed isas. 
 Postmaster of New Salem, and held the office for 
 three years. Its emoluments were slender and its 
 duties light, but there was in all probability no 
 citizen of the village who could have made so 
 much of it as he. The mails were so scanty that 
 he was said to carry them in his hat, and he is 
 also reported to have read every newspaper that 
 arrived ; it is altogether likely that this formed the 
 leading inducement to his taking the office. His 
 incumbency lasted until New Salem ceased to be 
 populous enough for a post-station and the mail 
 went by to Petersburg. Dr. J. G. Holland relates a 
 sequel to this official experience which illustrates 
 
 VOL. L 8
 
 114 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. vi. the quaint honesty of the man. Several years 
 later, when he was a practicing lawyer, an agent of 
 the Post-office Department called upon him, and 
 asked for a balance due from the New Salem office, 
 some seventeen dollars. Lincoln rose, and open 
 ing a little trunk which lay in a corner of the room, 
 took from it a cotton rag in which was tied up 
 the exact sum required. " I never use any man's 
 money but my own," he quietly remarked. When 
 we consider the pinching poverty in which' these 
 years had been passed, we may appreciate the self- 
 
 A. LINCOLN'S SURVEYING INSTRUMENTS AND SADDLE-BAG. 
 IN THE POSSESSION OF THE LINCOLN MONUMENT COLLECTION. 
 
 denial which had kept him from making even a 
 temporary use of this little sum of government 
 money. 
 
 John Calhoun, the Surveyor of Sangamon 
 County, was at this time overburdened with work. 
 The principal local industry was speculation in 
 land. Every settler of course wanted his farm 
 surveyed and marked out for him, and every 
 community had its syndicate of leading citizens 
 who cherished a scheme of laying out a city some 
 where. In many cases the city was plotted, the 
 sites of the principal buildings, including a court 
 house and a university, were determined, and a 
 sonorous name was selected out of Plutarch, before
 
 SURVEYOR AND REPRESENTATIVE 
 
 115 
 
 its location was even considered. For this latter CHAP.VI. 
 office the intervention of an official surveyor was 
 necessary, and therefore Mr. Calhoun had more 
 business than he could attend to without assist 
 ance. Looking about for a young man of good 
 character, intelligent enough to learn surveying 
 at short notice, his attention was soon attracted 
 to Lincoln. He offered young Abraham a book 
 containing the elements of the art, and told him 
 when he had mastered it he should have employ 
 ment. The offer was a nattering one, and Lincoln, 
 with that steady self-reliance of his, accepted it, 
 and armed with his book went out to the school 
 master's (Menton Graham's), and in six weeks' close 
 application made himself a surveyor. 1 
 
 It will be remembered that Washington in his 
 youth adopted the same profession, but there 
 were few points of similarity in the lives of the 
 two great Presidents, in youth or later man 
 hood. The Virginian had every social advantage 
 in his favor, and was by nature a man of more 
 
 1 There has been some discus 
 sion as to whether Lincoln served 
 as deputy under Calhoun or 
 Neale. The truth is that he 
 served under both of them. Cal 
 houn was surveyor in 1833, 
 when Lincoln first learned the 
 business. Neale was elected in 
 1835, and immediately appointed 
 Lincoln and Calhoun as his dep 
 uties. The " Sangamo Journal " 
 of Sept. 12, 1835, contains the 
 following official advertisement : 
 
 "SURVEYOR'S NOTICE. I have 
 appointed John B. Watson, 
 Abram Lincoln, and John Cal 
 houn deputy surveyors for San- 
 gamon County. In my absence 
 
 from town, any persons wishing 
 their land surveyed will do well 
 to call at the Recorder's office 
 and enter his or their names in a 
 book left for that purpose, stat 
 ing township and range in which 
 they respectively live, and their 
 business shall be promptly at 
 tended to. 
 
 T. M. NEALE." 
 
 An article by Colonel G. A. 
 Pierce, printed April 21, 1881, 
 in the Chicago "Inter-Ocean, "de 
 scribes an interview held in that 
 month with W. G.Green, of Menard 
 County, in which this matter is 
 referred to. But Mr. Green relies 
 more on the document in his
 
 116
 
 SUKVEYOK AND KEPKESENTATIVE 
 
 117 
 
 thrift and greater sagacity in money matters. He 
 used the knowledge gained in the practice of his 
 profession so wisely that he became rather early in 
 life a large land-holder, and continually increased 
 his possessions until his death. Lincoln, with 
 almost unbounded opportunities for the selection 
 and purchase of valuable tracts, made no use 
 whatever of them. He employed his skill and 
 knowledge merely as a bread-winner, and made so 
 little provision for the future that when Mr. Van 
 Bergen, who had purchased the Radf ord note, sued 
 and got judgment on it, his horse and his survey 
 ing instruments were taken to pay the debt, and 
 only by the generous intervention of a friend was 
 he able to redeem these invaluable means of living. 
 He was, nevertheless, an excellent surveyor. His 
 portion of the public work executed under the 
 directions of Mr. Calhoun and his successor, T. M. 
 Neale, was well performed, and he soon found his 
 time pretty well employed with private business 
 which came to him from Sangamon and the adjoin- 
 
 writing of Lincoln, giving the 
 boundaries of certain lands, and 
 signed, ' T. M. Neale, Surveyor, 
 by A. Lincoln, Deputy,' thus 
 settling the question. Mr. Green 
 was a Democrat, and has leaned 
 towards that party all his life, 
 but what he thought and thinks 
 of Lincoln can be seen by an in 
 dorsement on the back of the 
 certificate named, which is as 
 follows : " 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 possession than on his recollec 
 tion of what took place in 1833. 
 "'Where did Lincoln learn his 
 surveying ? ' I asked. ' Took it up 
 himself,' replied Mr. Green, ' as 
 he did a hundred things, and 
 mastered it too. When he acted 
 as surveyor here he was deputy of 
 T. M. Neale, and not of Calhoun, 
 as has often been said. There 
 was a dispute about this, and 
 many sketches of his life gave 
 Calhoun (Candle-box Calhoun, 
 as he was afterwards known dur 
 ing the Kansas troubles and 
 election frauds) as the surveyor, 
 but it was Neale.' Mr. Green 
 turned to his desk and drew out 
 an old certificate, in the hand- 
 
 Preserve this, as it is the 
 noblest of God's creation A. 
 Lincoln, the 2d preserver of 
 his country. May 3, 1865. 
 Penned by W. G. Green, who 
 taught Lincoln the English 
 grammar In 1831.
 
 SURVEYOR AND REPRESENTATIVE 
 
 119 
 
 ing counties. Early in the year 1834 we find him 
 appointed one of three " viewers w to locate a road 
 from Salt Creek to the county line in the direction 
 of Jacksonville. The board seems to have con 
 sisted mainly of its chairman, as Lincoln made the 
 deposit of money required by law, surveyed the 
 route, plotted the road, and wrote the report. 1 
 
 Though it is evident that the post-office and the 
 surveyor's compass were not making a rich man of 
 him, they were sufficient to enable him to live 
 decently, and during the year he greatly increased 
 his acquaintance and his influence in the county. 
 The one followed the other naturally ; every ac 
 quaintance he made became his friend, and even 
 before the end of his unsuccessful canvass in 1832 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 1834. 
 
 1 As this is probably the earli 
 est public document extant writ 
 ten and signed by Lincoln, we 
 give it in full : 
 
 " March 3, 1834. Keuben 
 Harrison presented the following 
 petition : We, the undersigned, 
 respectfully request your honor 
 able body to appoint viewers to 
 view and locate a road from 
 Musick's ferry on Salt Creek, via 
 New Salem, to the county line in 
 the direction of Jacksonville. 
 
 ' ' And Abram Lincoln deposited 
 with the clerk $10, as the law 
 directs. Ordered, that Michael 
 Killion, Hugh Armstrong, and 
 Abram Lincoln be appointed to 
 view said road, and said Lincoln 
 to act as surveyor. 
 
 "To the County Commission 
 ers' Court for the county of San- 
 gamon, at its June term, 1834. 
 We, the undersigned, being ap 
 pointed to view and locate a 
 road, beginning at Musick's ferry 
 on Salt Creek, via New Salem, to 
 
 the county line in the direction 
 to Jacksonville, respectfully re 
 port that we have performed the 
 duties of said view and location, 
 as required by law, and that we 
 have made the location on good 
 ground, and believe the estab 
 lishment of the same to be neces 
 sary and proper. 
 
 "The inclosed map gives the 
 courses and distances as required 
 by law. Michael Killion, Hugh 
 Armstrong, A. Lincoln." 
 
 (Indorsement in pencil, also in 
 Lincoln's handwriting :) 
 
 "A. Lincoln, 5 days at $3.00, 
 $15.00. John A. Kelsoe, chain- 
 bearer, for 5 days at 75 cents, 
 $3.75. Eobert Lloyd, at 75 
 cents, $3.75. Hugh Armstrong, 
 for services as axeman, 5 days 
 at 75 cents, $3.75. A. Lincoln, 
 for making plot and report, 
 $2.50." 
 
 (On Map.) 
 
 "Whole length of road, 26 
 miles and 70 chains. Scale, 2 
 inches to the mile."
 
 120 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. vi. it had become evident to the observant politicians 
 of the district that he was a man whom it would 
 not do to leave out of their calculations. There 
 seemed to be no limit to his popularity nor to his 
 aptitudes, in the opinion of his admirers. He was 
 continually called on to serve in the most incon 
 gruous capacities. Old residents say he was the 
 best judge at a horse-race the county afforded ; he 
 was occasionally second in a duel of fisticuffs, 
 though he usually contrived to reconcile the adver 
 saries on the turf before any damage was done ; he 
 was the arbiter on all controverted points of litera 
 ture, science, or woodcraft among the disputatious 
 denizens of Clary's Grove, and his decisions were 
 never appealed from. His native tact and humor 
 were invaluable in his work as a peacemaker, and 
 his enormous physical strength, which he always 
 used with a magnanimity rare among giants, placed 
 his off-hand decrees beyond the reach of contempt 
 uous question. He composed differences among 
 friends and equals with good-natured raillery, but 
 he was as rough as need be when his wrath was 
 roused by meanness and cruelty. We hardly know 
 whether to credit some of the stories, apparently 
 well-attested by living witnesses, of his prodigious 
 muscular powers. He is said to have lifted, at 
 Eutledge's mill, a box of stones weighing over half 
 a ton ! It is also related that he could raise a bar 
 rel of whisky from the ground and drink from the 
 bung but the narrator adds that he never swal 
 lowed the whisky. Whether these traditions are 
 strictly true or not, they are evidently founded on 
 the current reputation he enjoyed among his fel 
 lows for extraordinary strength, and this was an
 
 SUEVEYOE AND EEPEESENTATIVE 121 
 
 important element in his influence. He was known CHAP.VI. 
 to be capable of handling almost any man he mot, 
 yet he never sought a quarrel. He was every 
 body's friend and yet used no liquor or tobacco. 
 He was poor and had scarcely ever been at school, 
 yet he was the best-informed young man in the 
 village. He had grown up on the frontier, the 
 utmost fringe of civilization, yet he was gentle and 
 clean of speech, innocent of blasphemy or scandal. 
 His good qualities might have excited resentment 
 if displayed by a well-dressed stranger from an 
 Eastern State, but the most uncouth ruffians of 
 New Salem took a sort of proprietary interest and 
 pride in the decency and the cleverness and the 
 learning of their friend and comrade, Abe Lincoln. 
 ' It was regarded, therefore, almost as a matter of 
 course that Lincoln should be a candidate for the 
 Legislature at the next election, which took place 
 in August, 1834. He was sure of the united sup 
 port of the Whigs, and so many of the Democrats 
 also wanted to vote for him that some of the lead 
 ing members of that party came to him and pro 
 posed they should give him an organized support. 
 He was too loyal a partisan to accept their over 
 tures without taking counsel from the Whig 
 candidates. He laid the matter before Major 
 Stuart, who at once advised him to make the can 
 vass. It was a generous and chivalrous action, for 
 by thus encouraging the candidacy of Lincoln he 
 was endangering his own election. But his success 
 two years before, in the face of a vindictive oppo 
 sition led by the strongest Jackson men in the 
 district, had made him somewhat confident, and 
 he perhaps thought he was risking little by giving
 
 122 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. vi. a helping hand to his comrade in the Spy Battalion. 
 Before the election Lincoln's popularity developed 
 itself in rather a portentous manner, and it required 
 some exertion to save the seat of his generous 
 friend. At the close of the poll, the four success 
 ful candidates held the following relative positions: 
 Lincoln, 1376; Dawson, 1370; Carpenter, 1170; and 
 Stuart, \at that time probably the most prominent 
 young man in the district, and the one marked out 
 by the public voice for an early election to Con 
 gress, 1164.
 
 CHAPTEE VII 
 
 LEGISLATIVE EXPERIENCE 
 
 election of Mr. Lincoln to the Legislature CHAP.VII. 
 J- may be said to have closed the pioneer portion 
 of his life. He was done with the wild carelessness 
 of the woods, with the jolly ruffianism of Clary's 
 Grove, with the petty chaffering of grocery stores, 
 with odd jobs for daily bread, with all the uncouth 
 squalor of the frontier poverty. It was not that his 
 pecuniary circumstances were materially improved. 
 He was still, and for years continued to be, a very 
 poor man, harassed by debts which he was always 
 working to pay, and sometimes in distress for the 
 means of decent subsistence. But from this time 
 forward his associations were with a better class of 
 men than he had ever known before, and a new 
 feeling of self-respect must naturally have grown 
 up in his mind from his constant intercourse with 
 them a feeling which extended to the minor 
 morals of civilized life. A sophisticated reader 
 may smile at the mention of anything like social 
 ethics in Vandalia in 1834; but, compared with 
 Grentryville and New Salem, the society which 
 assembled in the winter at that little capital was 
 polished and elegant. The State then contained 
 nearly 250,000 inhabitants, and the members of the 
 
 123
 
 124 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. vii. Legislature, elected purely on personal grounds, 
 nominated by themselves or their neighbors with 
 out the intervention of party machinery, were 
 necessarily the leading men, in one way or another, 
 in their several districts. Among the colleagues of 
 Lincoln at Vandalia were young men with destinies 
 only less brilliant than his own. They were to 
 become governors, senators, and judges ; they were 
 to organize the Whig party of Illinois, and after 
 wards the Republican ; they were to lead brigades 
 and divisions in two great wars. Among the first 
 persons he met there not in the Legislature proper, 
 but in the lobby, where he was trying to appropriate 
 an office then filled by Colonel John J. Hardin 
 was his future antagonist, Stephen A. Douglas. 
 Neither seemed to have any presentiment of the 
 future greatness 'of the other. Douglas thought 
 little of the raw youth from the Sangamon timber, 
 and Lincoln said the dwarfish Vermonter was " the 
 least man he had ever seen." To all appearance, 
 Vandalia was full of better men than either of 
 them clever lawyers, men of wit and standing, 
 some of them the sons of provident early settlers, 
 but more who had come from older States to seek 
 their fortunes in these fresh fields. 
 
 During his first session Lincoln occupied no 
 especially conspicuous position. He held his own 
 respectably among the best. One of his colleagues 
 tells us he was not distinguished by any external 
 eccentricity; that he wore, according to the custom 
 of the time, a decent suit of blue jeans ; that he 
 was known simply as a rather quiet young man, 
 good-natured and sensible. Before the session 
 ended he had made the acquaintance of most of
 
 LEGISLATIVE EXPEEIENCE 125 
 
 the members, and had evidently come to be looked CHAP.VII. 
 upon as possessing more than ordinary capacity. 
 His unusual common-sense began to be recognized. 
 His name does not often appear in the records of 
 the year. He introduced a resolution in favor of 
 securing to the State a part of the proceeds of the 
 sales of public lands within its limits ; he took part 
 in the organization of the ephemeral "White" 
 party, which was designed to unite all the anti- 
 Jackson elements under the leadership of Hugh L. 
 White, of Tennessee; he voted with the minority 
 in favor of Young against Robinson for senator, 
 and with the majority that passed the Bank and 
 Canal bills, which were received with great enthu 
 siasm throughout Illinois, and which were only the 
 precursors of those gigantic and ill-advised schemes 
 that came to maturity two years later, and inflicted 
 incalculable injury upon the State. 
 
 Lincoln returned to New Salem, after this win 
 ter's experience of men and things at the little 
 capital, much firmer on his feet than ever before. 
 He had had the opportunity of measuring himself 
 with the leading men of the community, and had 
 found no difficulty whatever in keeping pace with 
 them. He continued his studies of the law and 
 surveying together, and became quite indispen 
 sable in the latter capacity so much so that Gen 
 eral Neale, announcing in September, 1835, the 
 names of the deputy surveyors of Sangamon 
 County, placed the name of Lincoln before that 
 of his old master in the science, John Calhoun. 
 He returned to the Legislature in the winter of 
 1835-6, and one of the first important incidents of 
 the session was the election of a senator to fill the
 
 126 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. vii. vacancy occasioned by the death of Elias Kent 
 Kane. There was no lack of candidates. A journal 
 of the time says : " This intelligence reached Van- 
 dalia on the evening of the 26th of December, and 
 in the morning nine candidates appeared in that 
 place, and it was anticipated that a number more 
 would soon be in, among them 'the lion of the 
 North,' who, it is thought, will claim the office by 
 
 ' preemption." It is not known who was the roaring 
 celebrity here referred to, but the successful candi 
 date was General William L. D. Ewing, who was 
 elected by a majority of one vote. Lincoln and the 
 other Whigs voted for him, not because he was a 
 " White " man, as they frankly stated, but because 
 " he had been proscribed by the Van Buren party." 
 Mr. Semple, the candidate for the regular Demo 
 cratic caucus, was beaten simply on account of his 
 political orthodoxy. 
 
 A minority is always strongly in favor of inde 
 pendent action and bitterly opposed to caucuses, 
 and therefore we need not be surprised at finding 
 Mr. Lincoln, a few days later in the session, joining 
 in hearty denunciation of the convention system, 
 which had already become popular in the East, and 
 which General Jackson was then urging upon his 
 faithful followers. The missionaries of this new 
 system in Illinois were Stephen A. Douglas, re 
 cently from Vermont, the shifty young lawyer from 
 Morgan County, who had just succeeded in having 
 himself made circuit attorney in place of Colonel 
 Hardin, and a man who was then regarded in 
 Vandalia as a far more important and dangerous 
 person than Douglas, Ebenezer Peck, of Chicago. 
 Peck was looked upon with distrust and suspicion
 
 LEGISLATIVE EXPEEIENCE 127 
 
 for several reasons, all of which seemed valid to CHAP.VH. 
 the rural legislators assembled there. He came from 
 Canada, where he had been a member of the pro 
 vincial parliament ; it was therefore imagined that 
 he was permeated with secret hostility to republican 
 institutions ; his garb, his furs, were of the fashion 
 of Quebec; and he passed his time indoctrinating 
 the Jackson men with the theory and practice of 
 party organization, teachings which they eagerly 
 absorbed, and which seemed sinister and ominous 
 to the Whigs. He was showing them, in fact, the 
 way in which elections were to be won ; and though 
 the Whigs denounced his system as subversive of 
 individual freedom and private judgment, it was 
 not long before they were also forced to adopt it, 
 or be left alone with their virtue. The organiza 
 tion of political parties in Illinois really takes its 
 rise from this time, and in great measure from the 
 work of Mr. Peck with the Vandalia Legislature. 
 There was no man more dreaded and disliked 
 than he was by the stalwart young Whigs against 
 whom he was organizing that solid and disci 
 plined opposition. But a quarter of a century 
 brings wonderful changes. Twenty-five years 
 later Mr. Peck stood shoulder to shoulder with 
 these very men who then reviled him as a Cana 
 dian emissary of tyranny and corruption, with 
 S. T. Logan, 0. H. Browning, and J. K. Dubois, 
 organizing a new party for victory under the name 
 of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 The Legislature adjourned on the 18th of Janu 
 ary, having made a beginning, it is true, in the 
 work of improving the State by statute, though its 
 modest work, incorporating canal and bridge com-
 
 128 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. vu. panies and providing for public roads, bore no 
 relation to the ambitious essays of its successor. 
 Among the bills passed at this session was an 
 Apportionment act, by which Sangamon County 
 became entitled to seven representatives and two 
 senators, and early in the spring eight " White " 
 statesmen of the county were ready for the field 
 the ninth, Mr. Herndon, holding over as State 
 Senator. It seems singular to us of a later day 
 that just eight prominent men, on a side, should 
 have offered themselves for these places, without 
 the intervention of any primary meetings. Such a 
 thing, if we mistake not, was never known again 
 in Illinois. The convention system was afterwards 
 seen to be an absolute necessity to prevent the dis 
 organization of parties through the restless vanity 
 of obscure and insubordinate aspirants. But the 
 eight who " took the stump " in Sangamon in the 
 summer of 1836 were supported as loyally and as 
 energetically as if they had been nominated with 
 all the solemnity of modern days. They became 
 famous in the history of the State, partly for their 
 stature and partly for their influence in legisla 
 tion. They were called, with Herndon, the "Long 
 Nine"; their average height was over six feet, 
 and their aggregate altitude was said to be fifty- 
 five feet. Their names were Abraham Lincoln, 
 John Dawson, Dan Stone, Ninian "W. Edwards, 
 William F. Elkin, E. L. Wilson, and Andrew 
 McCormick, candidates for the House of Repre 
 sentatives, and Job Fletcher for the Senate, of 
 Illinois. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln began his canvass with the following 
 circular :
 
 O. H. BROWNING.
 
 LEGISLATIVE EXPEBIENCE 129 
 
 NEW SALEM, June 13, 1836. CHAP.VII. 
 To the Editor of the " Journal." 
 
 In your paper of last Saturday I see a communication 
 over the signature " Many Voters " in which the candi 
 dates who are announced in the " Journal " are called 
 upon to " show their hands." Agreed. Here 's mine. 
 
 I go for all sharing the privileges of the Government 
 who assist in bearing its burdens. Consequently I go for 
 admitting all whites to the right of suffrage who pay 
 taxes or bear arms (by no means excluding females). 
 
 If elected, I shall consider the whole people of San- 
 gamon my constituents, as well those that oppose as 
 those that support me. 
 
 While acting as their representative I shall be gov 
 erned by their will on all subjects upon which I have the 
 means of knowing what their will is, and upon all others 
 I shall do what my own judgment teaches me will best 
 advance their interests. Whether elected or not, I go for 
 distributing the proceeds of the sales of the public lands 
 to the several States, to enable our State, in common with 
 others, to dig canals and construct railroads without bor 
 rowing money and paying interest on it. 
 
 If alive on the first Monday in November, I shall vote 
 for Hugh L. White for President. 1 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 A. LINCOLN. 
 
 It would be hard to imagine a more audacious 
 and unqualified declaration of principles and inten 
 tions. But it was the fashion of the hour to prom 
 ise exact obedience to the will of the people, and 
 the two practical questions touched by this circu 
 lar were the only ones then much talked about. 
 The question of suffrage for aliens was a living 
 problem in the State, and Mr. Lincoln naturally 
 took liberal ground on it ; and he was also in favor 
 of getting from the sale of public lands a portion 
 of the money he was ready to vote for internal 
 
 1 This phrase seems to have anti-Jackson party. The "cards" 
 been adopted as a formula by the of several candidates contain it. 
 
 VOL. L 9
 
 130 ABKAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. vii. improvements. This was good Whig doctrine at 
 that time, and the young politician did not fancy 
 he could go wrong in following in such a matter 
 the lead of his idol, Henry Clay. 
 
 He made an active canvass, and spoke frequently 
 during the summer. He must have made some 
 part of the campaign on foot, for we find in the 
 county paper an advertisement of a horse which 
 had strayed or been stolen from him while on a 
 visit to Springfield. It was not an imposing 
 animal, to judge from the description; it was 
 " plainly marked with harness," and was " believed 
 to have lost some of his shoes " ; but it was a large 
 horse, as suited a cavalier of such stature, and 
 " trotted and paced " in a serviceable manner. In 
 July a rather remarkable discussion took place 
 at the county-seat, in which many of the leading 
 men on both sides took part. Ninian Edwards, 
 son of the late Governor, is said to have opened the 
 debate with much effect. Mr. Early, who followed 
 him, was so roused by his energetic attack that he 
 felt his only resource was a flat contradiction, which 
 in those days meant mischief. In the midst of 
 great and increasing excitement Dan Stone and 
 John Calhoun made speeches which did not tend 
 to pour oil on the waters of contention, and then 
 came Mr. Lincoln's turn. An article in the " Jour 
 nal" states that he seemed embarrassed in his 
 opening, for this was the most important contest in 
 which he had ever been engaged. But he soon felt 
 the easy mastery of his powers come back to him, 
 and he finally made what was universally regarded 
 as the strongest speech of the day. One of his col 
 leagues says that on this occasion he used in his
 
 LEGISLATIVE EXPEEIENCE 131 
 
 excitement for the first time that singularly effective CHAP. vn. 
 clear tenor tone of voice which afterwards became 
 so widely known in the political battles of the West. 
 
 The canvass was an energetic one throughout, 
 and excited more interest in the district than even 
 the presidential election, which occurred some 
 months later. Mr. Lincoln was elected at the head 
 of the poll by a majority greatly in excess of the 
 average majority of his friends, which shows con 
 clusively how his influence and popularity had 
 increased. The Whigs in this election effected a 
 revolution in the politics of the county. By force 
 of their ability and standing they had before man 
 aged to divide the suffrages of the people, even 
 while they were unquestionably in the minority ; 
 but this year they completely defeated their oppo 
 nents and gained that control of the county which 
 they never lost as long as the party endured. 
 
 If Mr. Lincoln had no other claims to be re 
 membered than his services in the Legislature of 
 1836-7, there would be little to say in his favor. Its 
 history is one of disaster to the State. Its legislation 
 was almost wholly unwise and hurtful. The most 
 we can say for Mr. Lincoln is that he obeyed the 
 will of his constituents, as he promised to do, and 
 labored with singular skill and ability to accom 
 plish the objects desired by the people who gave 
 him their votes. The especial work intrusted to 
 him was the subdivision of the county, and the 
 project for the removal of the capital of the State 
 to Springfield. 1 In both of these he was successful. 
 
 1 "Lincoln was at the head of manage. The members were all 
 
 the project to remove the seat of elected on one ticket, but they all 
 
 government to Springfield ; it looked to Lincoln as the head," 
 
 was entirely intrusted to him to STEPHEN T. LOGAN,
 
 132 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. vii. In the account of errors and follies committed by 
 the Legislature to the lasting injury of the State, 
 he is entitled to no praise or blame beyond the rest. 
 He shared in that sanguine epidemic of financial 
 and industrial quackery which devastated the 
 entire community, and voted with the best men of 
 the country in favor of schemes which appeared 
 then like a promise of an immediate millennium, 
 and seem now like midsummer madness. 
 
 He entered political life in one of those eras of 
 delusive prosperity which so often precede great' 
 financial convulsions. The population of the State 
 was increasing at the enormous rate of two 
 hundred per centum in ten years. It had extended 
 northward along the lines of the wooded valleys of 
 creeks and rivers in the center to Peoria ; on the 
 west by the banks of the Mississippi to Galena ; 
 on the east with wide intervals of wilderness to 
 
 Ford, p. 102. Chicago. The edge of the timber was everywhere 
 pretty well occupied, though the immigrants from 
 the forest States of Kentucky and Tennessee had 
 as yet avoided the prairies. The rich soil and 
 equable climate were now attracting an excellent 
 class of settlers from the older States, and the 
 long-neglected northern counties were receiving 
 the attention they deserved. The war of Black 
 Hawk had brought the country into notice; the 
 utter defeat of his nation had given the guarantee 
 of a permanent peace ; the last lodges of the 
 
 Reynolds, Pottawatomies had disappeared from the country 
 
 Times." in 1833. The money spent by the general Grovern- 
 
 ment during the war, and paid to the volunteers 
 
 at its close, added to the common prosperity. 
 
 There was a brisk trade in real estate, and there
 
 LEGISLATIVE EXPERIENCE 133 
 
 was even a beginning in Chicago of that passion CHAP.VII. 
 for speculation in town lots which afterwards be 
 came a frenzy. 
 
 It was too much to expect of the Illinois Leg 
 islature that it should understand that the best 
 thing it could do to forward this prosperous 
 tendency of things was to do nothing ; for this is a 
 lesson which has not yet been learned by any leg 
 islature in the world. For several years they had 
 been tinkering, at first modestly and tentatively, 
 at a scheme of internal improvements which should 
 not cost too much money. In 1835 they began to 
 grant charters for railroads, which remained in 
 embryo, as the stock was never taken. Surveys 
 for other railroads were also proposed, to cross the 
 State in different directions; and the project of 
 uniting Lake Michigan with the Illinois Eiver by 
 a canal was of too evident utility to be overlooked. 
 In fact, the route had been surveyed, and estimates 
 of cost made, companies incorporated, and all 
 preliminaries completed many years before, though 
 nothing further had been done, as no funds had 
 been offered from any source. But at the special 
 session of 1835 a law was passed authorizing a loan 
 of half a million dollars for this purpose ; the loan 
 was effected by Governor Duncan the following 
 year, and in June, a board of canal commissioners 
 having been appointed, a beginning was actually 
 made with pick and shovel. 
 
 A restless feeling of hazardous speculation 
 seemed to be taking possession of the State. " It 
 commenced," says Governor Ford, in his admirable 
 chronicle, "at Chicago, and was the means of Ford, p.m. 
 building up that place in a year or two from a
 
 134 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. vii. village of a few houses to be a city of several 
 thousand inhabitants. The story of the sudden 
 fortunes made there excited at first wonder and 
 amazement ; next, a gambling spirit of adventure ; 
 and lastly, an all-absorbing desire for sudden and 
 splendid wealth. Chicago had been for some time 
 only one great town-market. The plots of towns 
 for a hundred miles around were carried there to 
 be disposed of at auction. The Eastern people had 
 caught the mania. Every vessel coming west was 
 loaded with them, their money and means, bound 
 for Chicago, the great fairy-land of fortunes. But 
 as enough did not come to satisfy the insatiable 
 greediness of the Chicago sharpers and speculators, 
 they frequently consigned their wares to Eastern 
 markets. In fact, lands and town lots were the 
 staple of the country, and were the only article of 
 export." The contagion spread so rapidly, towns 
 and cities were laid out so profusely, that it was a 
 standing joke that before long there would be no 
 land left in the State for farming purposes. 
 
 The future of the State for many years to come 
 was thus discounted by the fervid imaginations of 
 its inhabitants. "We have every requisite of a 
 great empire," they said, " except enterprise and 
 inhabitants," and they thought that a little enter 
 prise would bring the inhabitants. Through the 
 spring and summer of 1836 the talk of internal im 
 provements grew more general and more clamor 
 ous. The candidates for office spoke about little 
 else, and the only point of emulation among the 
 parties was which should be the more reckless and 
 grandiose in its promises. When the time arrived 
 for the assembling of the Legislature, the members
 
 LEGISLATIVE EXPEKIENCE 135 
 
 were not left to their own zeal and the recollection CHAP.;VIL 
 of their campaign pledges, but meetings and con 
 ventions were everywhere held to spur them up to 
 the fulfillment of their mandate. The resolutions 
 passed by the principal body of delegates who came 
 together in December directed the Legislature to 
 vote a system of internal improvements "com 
 mensurate with the wants of the people," a phrase 
 which is never lacking in the mouth of the char 
 latan or the demagogue. 
 
 These demands were pressed upon a not re 
 luctant Legislature. They addressed themselves 
 at once to the work required of them, and soon 
 devised, with reckless and unreasoning haste, a 
 scheme of railroads covering the vast uninhabited 
 prairies as with a gridiron. There was to be a rail 
 road from Galena to the mouth of the Ohio Eiver ; 
 from Alton to Shawneetown ; from Alton to Mount 
 Carmel ; from Alton to the eastern State boundary 
 by virtue of which lines Alton was to take the 
 life of St. Louis without further notice ; from 
 Quincy to the Wabash Eiver ; from Bloomington to 
 Pekin ; from Peoria to Warsaw ; in all, 1350 miles 
 of railway. Some of these terminal cities were not 
 in existence except upon neatly designed surveyor's 
 maps. The scheme provided also for the improve 
 ment of every stream in the State on which a 
 child's shingle-boat could sail ; and to the end that 
 all objections should be stifled on the part of those 
 neighborhoods which had neither railroads nor 
 rivers, a gift of two hundred thousand dollars was 
 voted to them, and with this sop they were fain to 
 be content and not trouble the general joy. To 
 accomplish this stupendous scheme, the Legislature
 
 136 ABKAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. vii. voted eight million dollars, to be raised by loan. 
 
 ^ Ford's Four millions were also voted to complete the 
 P. 184. ' canal. These sums, monstrous as they were, 
 were still ridiculously inadequate to the purpose in 
 view. But while the frenzy lasted there was no 
 consideration of cost or of possibilities. These vast 
 works were voted without estimates, without sur 
 veys, without any rational consideration of their 
 necessity. The voice of reason seemed to be silent 
 in the Assembly; only the utterances of fervid 
 prophecy found listeners. Governor Ford speaks 
 of one orator who insisted, amid enthusiastic 
 plaudits, that the State could well afford to borrow 
 one hundred millions for internal improvements. 
 The process of reasoning, or rather predicting, was 
 easy and natural. The roads would raise the price 
 of land ; the State could enter large tracts and sell 
 them at a profit ; foreign capital would be invested 
 in land, and could be heavily taxed to pay bonded 
 interest ; and the roads, as fast as they were built, 
 could be operated at a great profit to pay for their 
 own construction. The climax of the whole folly 
 was reached by the provision of law directing that 
 work should be begun at once at the termini of all 
 the roads and the crossings of all rivers. 
 
 It is futile and disingenuous to attempt, as some 
 have done, to fasten upon one or the other of the 
 political parties of the State the responsibility of this 
 bedlam legislation. The Governor and a majority 
 of the Legislature were elected as Jackson Dem 
 ocrats, but the Whigs were as earnest in passing 
 these measures as their opponents ; and after they 
 were adopted, the superior wealth, education, and 
 business capacity of the Whigs had their legitimate
 
 LEGISLATIVE EXPEBIENCE 137 
 
 influence, and they filled the principal positions CHAP. VTL 
 upon the boards and commissions which came into 
 existence under the acts. The bills were passed, 
 not without opposition, it is true, but by sufficient 
 majorities, and the news was received by the peo 
 ple of the State with the most extravagant demon 
 strations of delight. The villages were illuminated ; 
 bells were rung in the rare steeples of the churches ; 
 "fire-balls," bundles of candle-wick soaked in 
 turpentine, were thrown by night all over the 
 country. The day of payment was far away, and 
 those who trusted the assurances of the sanguine 
 politicians thought that in some mysterious way 
 the scheme would pay for itself. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln is continually found voting with his 
 friends in favor of this legislation, and there is 
 nothing to show that he saw any danger in it. 
 He was a Whig, and as such in favol* of internal 
 improvements in general and a liberal construction 
 of constitutional law in such matters. As a boy, 
 he had interested himself in the details of local 
 improvements of rivers and roads, and he doubt 
 less went with the current in Vandalia in favor 
 of this enormous system. He took, however, no 
 prominent part in the work by which these rail 
 road bills were passed. He considered himself as 
 specially commissioned to procure the removal of 
 the State capital from Vandalia to Springfield, and 
 he applied all his energies to the accomplishment 
 of this work. The enterprise was hedged round 
 with difficulties; for although it was everywhere 
 agreed, except at Vandalia, that the capital ought 
 to be moved, every city in the State, and several 
 which existed only on paper, demanded to be made
 
 138 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. vii. the seat of government. The question had been 
 submitted to a popular vote in 1834, and the result 
 showed about as many cities desirous of opening 
 their gates to the Legislature as claimed the honor 
 of being the birthplace of Homer. Of these 
 Springfield was only third in popular estimation, 
 and it was evident that Mr. Lincoln had need of 
 all his wits if he were to fulfill the trust confided to 
 him. It is said by Governor Ford that the " Long 
 Nine " were not averse to using the hopes and fears 
 of other members in relation to their special rail 
 roads to gain their adherence to the Springfield 
 programme, but this is by no means clear. We are 
 rather inclined to trust the direct testimony of 
 Jesse K. Dubois, that the success of the Sangamon 
 County delegation in obtaining the capital was due 
 to the adroit management of Mr. Lincoln first in 
 inducing all the rival claimants to unite in a vote 
 to move the capital from Vandalia, and then in 
 carrying a direct vote for Springfield through the 
 joint convention by the assistance of the southern 
 counties. His personal authority accomplished 
 this in great part. Mr. Dubois says : " He made 
 Webb and me vote for the removal, though we 
 belonged to the southern end of the State. We 
 defended our vote before our constituents by say 
 ing that necessity would ultimately force the seat 
 of government to a central position. But in reality 
 we gave the vote to Lincoln because we liked him, 
 because we wanted to oblige our friend, and because 
 we recognized him as our leader." To do this, they 
 were obliged to quarrel with their most intimate 
 associates, who had bought a piece of waste land 
 at the exact geographical center of the State and
 
 LEGISLATIVE EXPERIENCE 139 
 
 were striving to have the capital established there CHAP.VH. 
 in the interest of their own pockets and territorial 
 symmetry. 
 
 The bill was passed only a short time before the 
 Legislature adjourned, and the " Long Nine " came 
 back to their constituents wearing their well-won 
 laurels. They were complimented in the news 
 papers, at public meetings, and even at subscrip 
 tion dinners. We read of one at Springfield, at 
 the " Kural Hotel," to which sixty guests sat down, 
 where there were speeches by Browning, Lin 
 coln, Douglas (who had resigned his seat in the 
 Legislature to become Eegister of the Land Office 
 at the new capital), S. T. Logan, Baker, and others, 
 whose wit and wisdom were lost to history 
 through the absence of reporters. Another dinner 
 was given them at Athens a few weeks later. 
 Among the toasts on these occasions were two 
 which we may transcribe : " Abraham Lincoln : 
 He has fulfilled the expectations of his friends, and 
 disappointed the hopes of his enemies " ; and " A. 
 Lincoln : One of Nature's noblemen."
 
 CHAPTEE VIII 
 
 THE LINCOLN-STONE PROTEST 
 
 the 3d of March, the day before the Legis- 
 1837. V> lature adjourned, Mr. Lincoln caused to be 
 entered upon its records a paper which excited but 
 little interest at the time, but which will probably 
 be remembered long after the good and evil actions 
 of the Vandalia Assembly have faded away from 
 the minds of men. It was the authentic record of 
 the beginning of a great and momentous career. 
 
 The following protest was presented to the 
 House, which was read and ordered to be spread 
 on the journals, to wit : 
 
 Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery hav 
 ing passed both branches of the General Assembly at its 
 present session, the undersigned hereby protest against the 
 passage of the same. 
 
 They believe that the institution of slavery is founded 
 on both injustice and bad policy, but that the promulga 
 tion of abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than 
 abate its evils. 
 
 They believe that the Congress of the United States 
 has no power under the Constitution to interfere with the 
 institution of slavery in the different States. 
 
 They believe that the Congress of the United States 
 has the power, under the Constitution, to abolish slavery 
 in the District of Columbia, but that the power ought not 
 
 140
 
 THE LINCOLN-STONE PROTEST 
 
 141 
 
 to be exercised, unless at the request of the people of the CHAP. vm. 
 District. 
 
 The difference between these opinions and those con 
 tained in the above resolutions is their reason for enter 
 ing this protest. 
 
 (Signed) DAN STONE, 
 A. LINCOLN, 
 Representatives from the county of Sangamon. 
 
 It may seem strange to those who shall read 
 these pages that a protest so mild and cautious as 
 this should ever have been considered either neces 
 sary or remarkable. We have gone so far away 
 from the habits of thought and feeling prevalent 
 at that time that it is difficult to appreciate such 
 acts at their true value. But if we look a little care 
 fully into the state of politics and public opinion in 
 Illinois in the first half of this century, we shall 
 see how much of inflexible conscience and reason 
 there was in this simple protest. 
 
 The whole of the North-west territory had, it 
 is true, been dedicated to freedom by the ordi 
 nance of 1787, but in spite of that famous prohibi 
 tion, slavery existed in a modified form throughout 
 that vast territory wherever there was any con 
 siderable population. An act legalizing a sort of 
 slavery by indenture was passed by the Indiana 
 territorial Legislature in 1807, and this remained 
 in force in the Illinois country after its separation. 
 Another act providing for the hiring of slaves from 
 Southern States was passed in 1814, for the osten 
 sible reason that " mills could not be successfully 
 operated in the territory for want of laborers, and 
 that the manufacture of salt could not be success 
 fully carried on by white laborers." Yet, as an un 
 conscious satire upon such pretenses, from time to 
 
 Edwards, 
 
 "History of 
 
 Illinois," 
 
 p. 179. 
 
 Edwards, 
 p. 180.
 
 142 ABBAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP.VIII. time the most savage acts were passed to prohibit 
 the immigration of free negroes into the territory 
 which was represented as pining for black labor. 
 Those who held slaves under the French domina 
 tion, and their heirs, continued to hold them and 
 their descendants in servitude, after Illinois had 
 become nominally a free territory and a free State, 
 on the ground that their vested rights of property 
 could not have been abrogated by the ordinance, 
 and that under the rule of the civil law partus 
 sequitur ventrem. 
 
 But this quasi-toleration of the institution was 
 not enough for the advocates of slavery. Soon 
 after the adoption of the State Constitution, which 
 prohibited slavery " hereafter," it was evident that 
 there was a strong under-current of desire for its 
 introduction into the State. Some of the leading 
 politicians, exaggerating the extent of this desire, 
 imagined they saw in it a means of personal 
 advancement, and began to agitate the question of 
 a convention to amend the Constitution. At that 
 time there was a considerable emigration setting 
 through the State from Kentucky and Tennessee 
 to Missouri. Day by day the teams of the movers 
 passed through the Illinois settlements, and wher 
 ever they halted for rest and refreshment they would 
 affect to deplore the short-sighted policy which, by 
 prohibiting slavery, had prevented their settling in 
 that beautiful country. When young bachelors 
 came from Kentucky on trips of business or pleas 
 ure, they dazzled the eyes of the women and 
 excited the envy of their male rivals with their 
 black retainers. The early Ulinoisans were per 
 plexed with a secret and singular sense of inferi-
 
 THE LINCOLN-STONE PEOTEST 143 
 
 ority to even so new and raw a community as CHAP.VHL 
 Missouri, because of its possession of slavery. 
 Governor Edwards, complaining so late as 1829 
 of the superior mail facilities afforded to Missouri, 
 says : " I can conceive of no reason for this prefer 
 ence, unless it be supposed that because the people 
 of Missouri have negroes to work for them they 
 are to be considered as gentlefolks entitled to 
 higher consideration than us plain 'free-State' 
 folks who have to work for ourselves." 
 
 The attempt was at last seriously made to open 
 the State to slavery by the Legislature of 1822-3. 
 The G-overnor, Edward Coles, of Virginia, a strong 
 antislavery man, had been elected by a division of 
 the pro-slavery party, but came in with a Legisla 
 ture largely against him. The Senate had the 
 requisite pro-slavery majority of two-thirds for a 
 convention. In the House of Eepresentatives 
 there was a contest for a seat upon the result of 
 which the two-thirds majority depended. The seat 
 was claimed by John Shaw and Nicholas Hansen, 
 of Pike County. The way in which the contest 
 was decided affords a curious illustration of the 
 moral sense of the advocates of slavery. They 
 wanted at this session to elect a senator and pro 
 vide for the convention. Hansen would vote for 
 their senator and not for the convention. Shaw 
 would vote for the convention, but not for Thomas, 
 their candidate for senator. In such a dilemma 
 they determined not to choose, but impartially to 
 use both. They gave the seat to Hansen, and with 
 his vote elected Thomas; they then turned him 
 out, gave the place to Shaw, and with his vote 
 carried the act for submitting the convention ques-
 
 144 ABKAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. viii. tion to a popular vote. They were not more mag 
 nanimous in their victory than scrupulous in the 
 means by which they had gained it. The night 
 after the vote was taken they formed in a wild and 
 drunken procession, and visited the residences of 
 the Governor and the other free- State leaders, with 
 loud and indecent demonstrations of triumph. 
 
 They considered their success already assured ; 
 but they left out of view the value of the moral 
 forces called into being by their insolent challenge. 
 The better class of people in the State, those here 
 tofore unknown in politics, the schoolmasters, the 
 ministers, immediately prepared for the contest, 
 which became one of the severest the State has ever 
 known. They established three newspapers, and 
 sustained them with money and contributions. 
 The Governor gave his entire salary for four years 
 to the expenses of this contest, in which he had 
 no personal interest whatever. The antislavery 
 members of the Legislature made up a purse of a 
 thousand dollars. They spent their money mostly 
 in printer's ink and in the payment of active and 
 zealous colporteurs. The result was a decisive 
 defeat for the slave party. The convention was 
 beaten by 1800 majority, in a total vote of 11,612, 
 and the State saved forever from slavery. 
 
 But these supreme efforts of the advocates of 
 public morals, uninfluenced by considerations of 
 personal advantage, are of rare occurrence, and 
 necessarily do not survive the exigencies that call 
 them forth. The apologists of slavery, beaten in 
 the canvass, were more successful in the field of 
 social opinion. In the reaction which succeeded 
 the triumph of the antislavery party, it seemed as
 
 MARTIN VAN BUREN.
 
 THE LINCOLN-STONE PEOTEST 145 
 
 if there had never been any antislavery sentiment CHAP.VIII. 
 in the State. They had voted, it is true, against 
 the importation of slaves from the South, but they 
 were content to live under a code of Draconian 
 ferocity, inspired by the very spirit of slavery, 
 visiting the immigration of free negroes with 
 penalties of the most savage description. Even 
 Governor Coles, the public-spirited and popular 
 politician, was indicted and severely fined for having 
 brought his own freedmen into the State and 
 having assisted them in establishing themselves 
 around him upon farms of their own. The Leg 
 islature remitted the fine, but the Circuit Court 
 declared it had no constitutional power to do so, 
 though the Supreme Court afterwards overruled 
 this decision. Any mention of the subject of 
 slavery was thought in the worst possible taste, 
 and no one could avow himself opposed to it with 
 out the risk of social ostracism. Every town had 
 its one or two abolitionists, who were regarded as 
 harmless or dangerous lunatics, according to the 
 energy with which they made their views known. 
 
 From this arose a singular prejudice against New 
 England people.- It was attributable partly to the 
 natural feeling of distrust of strangers which is 
 common to ignorance and provincialism, but still 
 more to a general suspicion that all Eastern men 
 were abolitionists. Mr. Cook, who so long rep 
 resented the State in Congress, used to relate with 
 much amusement how he once spent the night in a 
 farmer's cabin, and listened to the honest man's 
 
 denunciations of " that Yankee Cook." Cook 
 
 was a Kentuckian, but his enemies could think of no 
 more dreadful stigma to apply to him than that of 
 
 VOL. I. 10
 
 146 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. viii. calling him a Yankee. Senator James A. McDougall 
 once told us that although he made no preteDse of 
 concealing his Eastern nativity, he never could 
 keep his ardent friends in Pike County from denying 
 the fact and fighting any one who asserted it. The 
 great preacher, Peter Cartwright, used to denounce 
 Eastern men roundly in his sermons, calling them 
 "imps who lived on oysters" instead of honest 
 corn-bread and bacon. The taint of slavery, the 
 contagion of a plague they had not quite escaped, 
 was on the people of Illinois. They were strong 
 enough to rise once in their might and say they 
 would not have slavery among them. But in the 
 petty details of every day, in their ordinary talk, 
 and in their routine legislation, their sympathies 
 were still with the slave-holders. They would not 
 enlist with them, but they would fight their battles 
 in their own way. 
 
 Their readiness to do what came to be called 
 later, in a famous speech, the " dirty work " of the 
 South was seen in the tragic death of Eev. Elijah 
 P. Lovejoy, in this very year of 1837. He had 
 for some years been publishing a religious news 
 paper in St. Louis, but finding the atmosphere of 
 that city becoming dangerous to him on account of 
 the freedom of his comments upon Southern insti 
 tutions, he moved to Alton, in Illinois, twenty-five 
 miles further up the river. His arrival excited an 
 immediate tumult in that place; a mob gathered 
 there on the day he came it was Sunday, and the 
 good people were at leisure and threw his press 
 into the Mississippi. Having thus expressed their 
 determination to vindicate the law, they held a 
 meeting, and cited him before it to declare his
 
 THE LINCOLN-STONE PEOTEST 147 
 
 intentions. He said they were altogether peaceful CHAP.VIII. 
 and legal ; that he intended to publish a religious 
 newspaper and not to meddle with politics. This 
 seemed satisfactory to the people, and he was 
 allowed to fish out his press, buy new types, and 
 set up his paper. But Mr. Lovejoy was a predes 
 tined martyr. He felt there was a " woe " upon him 
 if he held his peace against the wickedness across 
 the river. He wrote and published what was in 
 his heart to say, and Alton was again vehemently 
 moved. A committee appointed itself to wait upon 
 him; for this sort of outrage is usually accom 
 plished with a curious formality which makes it 
 seem to the participants legal and orderly. The 
 preacher met them with an undaunted front and 
 told them he must do his duty as it appeared to 
 him; that he was amenable to law, but nothing 
 else; he even spoke in condemnation of mobs. 
 Such language "from a minister of the gospel" 
 shocked and infuriated the committee and those 
 whom they represented. " The people assembled," 
 says Governor Ford, " and quietly took the press 
 and types and threw them into the river." We 
 venture to say that the word " quietly " never 
 before found itself in such company. It is not 
 worth while to give the details of the bloody drama 
 that now rapidly ran to its close. There was a 
 fruitless effort at compromise, which to Lovejoy 
 meant merely surrender, and which he firmly 
 rejected. The threats of the mob were answered 
 by defiance from the little band that surrounded 
 the abolitionist. A new press was ordered, and 
 arrived, and was stored in a warehouse, where 
 Lovejoy and his friends shut themselves up, de-
 
 148 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. viii. termined to defend it with their lives. They were 
 there besieged by the infuriated crowd, and after a 
 short interchange of shots Lovejoy was killed, his 
 friends dispersed, and the press once more and 
 this time finally thrown into the turbid flood. 
 
 These events took place in the autumn of 1837, 
 but they indicate sufficiently the temper of the 
 people of the State in the earlier part of the year. 
 The vehemence with which the early antislavery 
 apostles were conducting their agitation in the 
 East naturally roused a corresponding violence of 
 expression in every other part of the country. 
 William Lloyd Garrison, the boldest and most 
 aggressive non-resistant that ever lived, had, since 
 1831, been pouring forth once a week in the 
 " Liberator " his earnest and eloquent denuncia 
 tions of slavery, taking no account of the expedient 
 or the possible, but demanding with all the fervor 
 of an ancient prophet the immediate removal of 
 the cause of offense. Oliver Johnson attacked the 
 national sin and wrong, in the " Standard," with 
 zeal and energy equally hot and untiring. Their 
 words stung the slave-holding States to something 
 like frenzy. The Georgia Legislature offered a 
 
 approved reward of five thousand dollars to any one who 
 i83i. ' should kidnap Garrison, or who should bring to 
 conviction any one circulating the " Liberator " in 
 the State. Yet so little known in their own 
 neighborhoods were these early workers in this great 
 reform that when the Mayor of Boston received 
 remonstrances from certain Southern States against 
 such an incendiary publication as the " Liberator," 
 he was able to say that no member of the city 
 government and no person of his acquaintance had
 
 THE LINCOLN-STONE PROTEST 149 
 
 ever heard of the paper or its editor; that on CHAP.VIII. 
 search being made it was found that "his office 
 was an obscure hole, his only visible auxiliary a 
 negro boy, and his supporters a very few insignifi 
 cant persons of all colors." But the leaven worked 
 continually, and by the time of which we are writ 
 ing the antislavery societies of the North-east had 
 attained a considerable vitality, and the echoes of 
 their work came back from the South in furious 
 resolutions of legislatures and other bodies, which, 
 in their exasperation, could not refrain from this 
 injudicious advertising of their enemies. Petitions 
 to Congress, which were met by gag-laws, constantly 
 increasing in severity, brought the dreaded dis 
 cussion more and more before the public. But 
 there was as yet little or no antislavery agitation 
 in Illinois. 
 
 There was no sympathy with nor even toleration 
 for any public expression of hostility to slavery. 
 The zeal of the followers of Jackson, although he 
 had ceased to be President, had been whetted by 
 his public denunciations of the antislavery propa 
 ganda ; little more than a year before he had called 
 upon Congress to take measures to "prohibit under 
 severe penalties " the further progress of such 
 incendiary proceedings as were " calculated to 
 stimulate the slaves to insurrection and to produce 
 all the horrors of civil war." But in spite of all 
 this, people with uneasy consciences continued 
 to write and talk and petition Congress against 
 slavery, and most of the State legislatures began 
 to pass resolutions denouncing them. In the last 
 days of 1836 Governor Duncan sent to the Illinois 
 Legislature the reports and resolutions of several
 
 150 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. viii. States in relation to this subject. They were 
 referred to a committee, who in due time reported 
 a set of resolves " highly disapproving abolition 
 societies"; holding that "the right of property in 
 slaves is secured to the slave-holding States by the 
 Federal Constitution"; that the general Govern 
 ment cannot abolish slavery in the District of 
 Columbia against the consent of the citizens of 
 said District, without a manifest breach of good 
 faith ; and requesting the Governor to transmit to 
 the States which had sent their resolutions to him 
 a copy of those tranquilizing expressions. A long 
 and dragging debate ensued of which no record 
 has been preserved; the resolutions, after num 
 berless amendments had been voted upon, were 
 lea?. ' finally passed, in the Senate, unanimously, in the 
 House with none but Lincoln and five others in the 
 negative. 1 No report remains of the many speeches 
 which prolonged the debate; they have gone the 
 way of all buncombe ; the sound and fury of them 
 have passed away into silence ; but they woke an 
 echo in one sincere heart which history will be glad 
 to perpetuate. 
 
 There was no reason that Abraham Lincoln 
 should take especial notice of these resolutions, 
 more than another. He had done his work at this 
 session in effecting the removal of the capital. He 
 had only to shrug his shoulders at the violence and 
 untruthfulness of the majority, vote against them, 
 and go back to his admiring constituents, to his 
 dinners and his toasts. But his conscience and 
 his reason forbade him to be silent ; he felt a word 
 
 1 We are under obligations to the State records bearing on this 
 John M. Adair for transcripts of matter.
 
 THE LINCOLN-STONE PKOTEST 151 
 
 must be said on the other side to redress the dis- CHAP.VIIL 
 torted balance. He wrote his protest, saying not 
 one word he was not ready to stand by then and 
 thereafter, wasting not a syllable in rhetoric or 
 feeling, keeping close to law and truth and justice. 
 When he had finished it he showed it to some of 
 his colleagues for their adhesion ; but one and all 
 refused, except Dan Stone, who was not a candi 
 date for reelection, having retired from politics to 
 a seat on the bench. The risk was too great for 
 the rest to run. Lincoln was twenty-eight years 
 old ; after a youth of singular privations and 
 struggles he had arrived at an enviable position in 
 the politics and the society of the State. His inti 
 mate friends, those whom he loved and honored, 
 were Browning, Butler, Logan, and Stuart Ken- 
 tuckians all, and strongly averse to any discussion 
 of the question of slavery. The public opinion of 
 his county, which was then little less than the 
 breath of his life, was all the same way. But all 
 these considerations could not withhold him from 
 performing a simple duty a duty which no one 
 could have blamed him for leaving undone. The 
 crowning grace of the whole act is in the closing 
 sentence: "The difference between these opinions 
 and those contained in the said resolutions is their 
 reason for entering this protest." Reason enough 
 for the Lincolns and Luthers. 
 
 He had many years of growth and development 
 before him. There was a long distance to be trav- *- 
 ersed between the guarded utterances of this pro 
 test and the heroic audacity which launched the 
 proclamation of emancipation. But the young 
 man who dared declare, in the prosperous begin-
 
 152 ABBAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. viii. ning of his political life, in the midst of a com 
 munity imbued with slave-State superstitions, that 
 "he believed the institution of slavery was founded 
 both on injustice and bad policy," attacking thus 
 its moral and material supports, while at the same 
 time recognizing all the constitutional guarantees 
 which protected it, had in him the making of a 
 statesman and, if need be, a martyr. His whole 
 career was to run in the lines marked out by these 
 words, written in the hurry of a closing session, 
 and he was to accomplish few acts, in that great 
 history which God reserved for him, wiser and 
 nobler than this.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 COLLAPSE OF THE SYSTEM 
 
 MR. LINCOLN had made thus far very little CHAP. ix. 
 money nothing more, in fact, than a sub 
 sistence of the most modest character. But he 
 had made some warm friends, and this meant 
 much among the early Illinoisans. He had be 
 come intimately acquainted, at Vandalia, with 
 William Butler, who was greatly interested in the 
 removal of the capital to Springfield, and who 
 urged the young legislator to take up his residence 
 at the new seat of government. Lincoln readily 
 fell in with this suggestion, and accompanied his 
 friend home when the Legislature adjourned, shar 
 ing the lodging of Joshua F. Speed, a young Ken 
 tucky merchant, and taking his meals at the house 
 of Mr. Butler for several years. 
 
 In this way began Mr. Lincoln's residence in 
 Springfield, where he was to remain until called to 
 one of the highest of destinies intrusted to men, 
 and where his ashes were to rest forever in monu 
 mental marble. It would have seemed a dreary 
 village to any one accustomed to the world, but in 
 a letter written about this time, Lincoln speaks of 
 
 153
 
 154 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. ix. it as a place where there was a "good deal of 
 flourishing about in carriages " a town of some 
 pretentious to elegance. It had a population of 
 1500. The county contained nearly 18,000 souls, 
 of whom 78 were free negroes, 20 registered inden 
 tured servants, and six slaves. Scarcely a percep- 
 tible trace of color, one would say, yet we find in 
 the Springfield paper a leading article beginning 
 with the startling announcement, "Our State is 
 threatened to be overrun with free negroes." The 
 county was one of the richest in Illinois, possessed 
 of a soil of inexhaustible fertility, and divided to 
 the best advantage between prairie and forest. It 
 was settled early in the history of the State, and 
 coun t r y was held in high esteem by the 
 
 Re oids 
 
 "Life and aborigines. The name of Sangamon is said to mean 
 
 P. as?, in the Pottawatomie language "land of plenty." 
 Its citizens were of an excellent class of people, a 
 large majority of them from Kentucky, though 
 representatives were not wanting from the Eastern 
 States, men of education and character. 
 
 There had been very little of what might be 
 called pioneer life in Springfield. Civilization 
 came in with a reasonably full equipment at the 
 beginning. The Edwardses, in fair-top boots and 
 ruffled shirts ; the Eidgelys brought their banking 
 business from Maryland; the Logans and Conk- 
 lings were good lawyers before they arrived; 
 another family came from Kentucky, with a cot 
 ton manufactory which proved its aristocratic 
 character by never doing any work. With a popu 
 lation like this, the town had, from the beginning, 
 a more settled and orderly type than was usual in 
 the South and West. A glance at the advertising
 
 COLLAPSE OF THE SYSTEM 155 
 
 columns of the newspaper will show how much at- CHAP.IX. 
 tention to dress was paid in the new capital. " Cloths, 
 cassinetts, cassimeres, velvet, silk, satin, and Mar 
 seilles vestings, fine calf boots, seal and morocco 
 pumps, for gentlemen," and for the sex which in 
 barbarism dresses less and in civilization dresses 
 more than the male, " silks, bareges, crepe lisse, lace 
 veils, thread lace, Thibet shawls, lace handker 
 chiefs, fine prunella shoes, etc." It is evident that 
 the young politician was confronting a social 
 world more formidably correct than anything he 
 had as yet seen. 
 
 Governor Ford began some years before this to 
 remark with pleasure the change in the dress of 
 the people of Illinois: the gradual disappearance 
 of leather and linsey-woolsey, the hunting-knife 
 and tomahawk, from the garb of men ; the deer 
 skin moccasin supplanted by the leather boot and 
 shoe ; the leather breeches tied around the ankle 
 replaced by the modern pantaloons ; and the still 
 greater improvement in the adornment of women, 
 the former bare feet decently shod, and homespun 
 frocks giving way to gowns of calico and silk, and 
 the heads tied up in red cotton turbans disappear 
 ing in favor of those surmounted by pretty bonnets 
 of silk or straw. We admit that these changes were 
 not unattended with the grumbling ill-will of the 
 pioneer patriarchs ; they predicted nothing but ruin 
 to a country that thus forsook the old ways " which 
 were good enough for their fathers." But with the 
 change in dress came other alterations which were 
 all for the better a growing self-respect among 
 the young ; an industry and thrift by which they 
 could buy good clothes; a habit of attending
 
 156 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. ix. religious service, where they could show them ; a 
 Ford's progress in sociability, civility, trade, and morals, 
 mstory, rpk e taste for civilization had sometimes a whim 
 sical manifestation. Mr. Stuart said the members 
 of the Legislature bitterly complained of the 
 amount of game venison and grouse of the most 
 delicious quality which was served them at the 
 taverns in Vandalia ; they clamored for bacon 
 they were starving, they said, "for something 
 civilized." There was plenty of civilized nourish 
 ment in Springfield. Wheat was fifty cents a 
 bushel, rye thirty-three ; corn and oats were 
 twenty-five, potatoes twenty-five ; butter was eight 
 cents a pound, and eggs were eight cents a dozen ; 
 pork was two and a half cents a pound. 
 
 The town was built on the edge of the woods, 
 the north side touching the timber, the south en 
 croaching on the prairie. The richness of the soil 
 was seen in the mud of the streets, black as ink, 
 and of an unfathomable depth in time of thaw. 
 There were, of course, no pavements or sidewalks ; 
 an attempt at crossings was made by laying down 
 large chunks of wood. The houses were almost all 
 wooden, and were disposed in rectangular blocks. 
 A large square had been left in the middle of the 
 town, in anticipation of future greatness, and there, 
 when Lincoln began his residence, the work of 
 clearing the ground for the new State-house was 
 already going forward. In one of the largest 
 houses looking on the square, at the north-west 
 corner, the county court had its offices, and other 
 rooms in the building were let to lawyers. One of 
 these was occupied by Stuart and Lincoln, for the 
 friendship formed in the Black Hawk war and
 
 COLLAPSE OF THE SYSTEM 157 
 
 strengthened at Vandalia induced " Major" Stuart CHAP.IX. 
 to offer a partnership to " Captain " Lincoln. 1 
 
 Lincoln did not gain any immediate eminence at 
 the bar. His preliminary studies had been cursory 
 and slight, and Stuart was then too much en 
 grossed in politics to pay the unremitting attention 
 to the law which that jealous mistress requires. He 
 had been a candidate for Congress the year before, 
 and had been defeated by W. L. May. He was a 
 candidate again in 1838, and was elected over so 
 agile an adversary as Stephen Arnold Douglas. 
 His paramount interest in these canvasses neces 
 sarily prevented him from setting to his junior 
 partner the example which Lincoln so greatly 
 needed, of close and steady devotion to their pro 
 fession. It was several years later that Lincoln 
 found with Judge Logan the companionship and 
 inspiration which he required, and began to be 
 really a lawyer. During the first year or two he is 
 principally remembered in Springfield as an excel 
 lent talker, the life and soul of the little gatherings 
 about the county offices, a story-teller of the first 
 rank, a good-natured, friendly fellow whom every 
 body liked and trusted. He relied more upon his 
 influence with a jury than upon his knowledge of 
 law in the few cases he conducted in court, his 
 acquaintance with human nature being far more 
 extensive than his legal lore. 
 
 Lincoln was not yet done with Vandalia, its 
 dinners of game, and its political intrigue. The 
 
 i It is not unworthy of notice Lincoln, who had actually been 
 
 that in a country where military commissioned, and had served 
 
 titles were conferred with ludi- as captain, never used the des- 
 
 crous profusion, and borne with ignation after he laid down his 
 
 absurd complacency, Abraham command.
 
 158 ABKAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. ix. archives of the State) xtare not removed to Spring 
 field until 1839, and ^Lincoln remained a member 
 of the Legislature by successive reflections from 
 1834 to 1842. His campaigns were carried on 
 almost entirely without expense. Joshua Speed 
 told the writers that on one occasion some of the 
 Whigs contributed a purse of two hundred dollars 
 which Speed handed to Lincoln to pay his personal 
 expenses in the canvass. After the election was 
 over, the successful candidate handed Speed 
 $199.25, with the request that he return it to the 
 subscribers. " I did not need the money," he said. 
 " I made the canvass on my own horse ; my enter 
 tainment, being at the houses of friends, cost me 
 nothing; and my only outlay was seventy-five 
 cents for a barrel of cider, which some farm-hands 
 insisted I should treat them to." He was called 
 down to Vandalia in the summer of 1837, by a 
 special session of the Legislature. The magnificent 
 schemes of the foregoing winter required some 
 repairing. The banks throughout the United 
 States had suspended specie payments in the 
 spring, and as the State banks in Illinois were the 
 fiscal agents of the railroads and canals, the Gov 
 ernor called upon the law-makers to revise their 
 own work, to legalize the suspension, and bring 
 their improvement system within possible bounds. 
 They acted as might have been expected : complied 
 with the former suggestion, but flatly refused to 
 touch their masterpiece. They had been glorifying 
 their work too energetically to destroy it in its 
 infancy. It was said you could recognize a leg 
 islator that year in any crowd by his automatic 
 repetition of the phrase, " Thirteen hundred
 
 COLLAPSE OF THE SYSTEM 159 
 
 fellow-citizens! and fifty miles of railroad!" CHAP.IX. 
 There was nothing to be done but to go on with 
 the stupendous folly. Loans were effected with 
 surprising and fatal facility, and, " before the end 
 of the year, work had begun at man/points on the 
 railroads. The whole State was excited to the 
 highest pitch of frenzy and expectation. Money 
 was as plenty as dirt. Industry, instead of being 
 stimulated, actually languished. We exported 
 nothing," says Governor Ford, " and everything 
 from abroad was paid for by the borrowed money 
 expended among us." Not only upon the railroads, 
 but on the canal as well, the work was begun on a 
 magnificent scale. Nine millions of dollars were 
 thought to be a mere trifle in view of the colossal 
 sum expected to be realized from the sale of canal 
 lands, three hundred thousand acres of which had 
 been given by the general Government. There 
 were rumors of coming trouble, and of an unhealthy 
 condition of the banks; but it was considered 
 disloyal to look too curiously into such matters. 
 One frank patriot, who had been sent as one of a 
 committee to examine the bank at Shawneetown, 
 when asked what he found there, replied with win 
 ning candor, " Plenty of good whisky and sugar to For d's, 
 sweeten it." 
 
 But a year of baleful experience destroyed a 
 great many illusions, and in the election of 1838 the 
 subject of internal improvements was treated with 
 much more reserve by candidates. The debt of the 
 State, issued at a continually increasing discount, 
 had already attained enormous proportions ; the 
 delirium of the last few years was ending, and 
 sensible people began to be greatly disquieted.
 
 160 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. ix. Nevertheless, Mr. Cyrus Edwards boldly made Ms 
 canvass for Governor as a supporter of the sys 
 tem of internal improvements, and his opponent, 
 Thomas Carlin, was careful not to commit himself 
 strongly on the other side. Carlin was elected, 
 and finding that a majority of the Legislature was 
 still opposed to any steps backward, he made no 
 demonstration against the system at the first 
 session. Lincoln was a member of this body, and, 
 being by that time the unquestioned leader of the 
 Whig minority, was nominated for Speaker, and 
 came within one vote of an election. The Leg 
 islature was still stiff-necked and perverse in regard 
 to the system. It refused to modify it in the least, 
 and voted, as if in bravado, another eight hundred 
 thousand dollars to extend it. 
 
 But this was the last paroxysm of a fever that 
 was burnt out. The market was glutted with Illi 
 nois bonds ; one banker and one broker after 
 another, to whose hands they had been recklessly 
 confided in New York and London, failed, or made 
 away with the proceeds of sales. The system had 
 utterly failed ; there was nothing to do but repeal 
 it, stop work upon the visionary roads, and en 
 deavor to invent some means of paying the 
 enormous debt. This work taxed the energies of 
 the Legislature in 1839, and for some years after. 
 It was a dismal and disheartening task. Blue 
 Monday had come after these years of intoxication, 
 and a crushing debt rested upon a people who 
 had been deceiving themselves with the fallacy 
 that it would somehow pay itself by acts of the 
 Legislature. 
 Many were the schemes devised for meeting
 
 COLONEL E. D. BAKKR.
 
 COLLAPSE OF THE SYSTEM 161 
 
 these oppressive obligations without unduly taxing CHAP. ix. 
 the voters ; one of them, not especially wiser than 
 the rest, was contributed by Mr. Lincoln. It pro 
 vided for the issue of bonds for the payment of the 
 interest due by the State, and for the appropriation 
 of a special portion of State taxes to meet the 
 obligations thus incurred. He supported his bill 
 in a perfectly characteristic speech, making no 
 effort to evade his share of the responsibility for 
 the crisis, and submitting his views with diffidence 
 to the approval of the Assembly. His plan was 
 not adopted; it was too simple and straightfor 
 ward, even if it had any other merits, to meet the 
 approval of an assembly intent only upon getting 
 out of immediate embarrassment by means which 
 might save them future trouble on the stump. 
 There was even an undercurrent of sentiment in 
 favor of repudiation. But the payment of the 
 interest for that year was provided for by an 
 ingenious expedient which shifted upon the Fund 
 Commissioners the responsibility of deciding what 
 portion of the debt was legal, and how much 
 interest was therefore to be paid. Bonds were sold 
 for this purpose at a heavy loss. 
 
 This session of the Legislature was enlivened by 
 a singular contest between the Whigs and Demo 
 crats in relation to the State banks. Their suspen 
 sion of specie payments had been legalized up to 
 " the adjournment of the next session of the Legis 
 lature." They were not now able to resume, and it 
 was held by the Democrats that if the special ses 
 sion adjourned sine die the charter of the banks 
 would be forfeited, a purpose the party was eager 
 to accomplish. The Whigs, who were defending 
 
 VOL. I 11
 
 162 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. ix. the banks, wished to prevent the adjournment of 
 the special session until the regular session should 
 begin, during the course of which they expected to 
 renew the lease of life now held under sufferance 
 by the banks in which, it may be here said, they 
 were finally successful. But on one occasion, being 
 in the minority, and having exhausted every other 
 parliamentary means of opposition and delay, and 
 seeing the vote they dreaded imminent, they tried 
 to defeat it by leaving the house in a body, and, 
 the doors being locked, a number of them, among 
 whom Mr. Lincoln's tall figure was prominent, 
 jumped from the windows of the church where 
 the Legislature was then holding its sessions. " I 
 think," says Mr. Joseph Gillespie, who was one of 
 those who performed this feat of acrobatic politics, 
 " Mr. Lincoln always regretted it, as he deprecated 
 everything that savored of the revolutionary." 
 
 Two years later the persecuted banks, harried by 
 the demagogues and swindled by the State, fell 
 with a great ruin, and the financial misery of the 
 State was complete. Nothing was left of the brill 
 iant schemes of the historic Legislature of 1836 
 but a load of debt which crippled for many years 
 the energies of the people, a few miles of embank 
 ments which the grass hastened to cover, and a 
 few abutments which stood for years by the sides 
 of leafy rivers, waiting for their long delaying 
 /bridges and trains. 
 
 V During the winter of 1840-1 occurred the first 
 clash of opinion and principle between Mr. Lincoln 
 and his life-long adversary, Mr. Douglas. There 
 are those who can see only envy and jealousy in 
 that strong dislike and disapproval with which Mr.
 
 COLLAPSE OF THE SYSTEM 163 
 
 Lincoln always regarded his famous rival. But CHAP.IX. 
 we think that few men have ever lived who were 
 more free from those degrading passions than 
 Abraham Lincoln, and the personal reprobation 
 with which he always visited the public acts of 
 Douglas arose from his sincere conviction that, 
 able as Douglas was, and in many respects admi 
 rable in character, he was essentially without fixed 
 political morals. They had met for the first time 
 in 1834 at Vandalia, where Douglas was busy in 
 getting the circuit attorneyship away from John 
 J. Hardin. He held it only long enough to secure 
 a nomination to the Legislature in 1836. He went 
 there to endeavor to have the capital moved to 
 Jacksonville, where he lived, but he gave up the 
 fight for the purpose of having himself appointed 
 Register of the Land Office at Springfield. He held 
 this place as a means of being nominated for Con 
 gress the next year; he was nominated and defeated. 
 In 1840 he was engaged in another scheme to 
 which we will give a moment's attention, as it 
 resulted in giving him a seat on the Supreme 
 Bench of the State, which he used merely as a 
 perch from which to get into Congress. 
 
 There had been a difference of opinion in Illinois 
 for some years as to whether the Constitution, 
 which made voters of all white male inhabitants 
 of six months' residence, meant to include aliens 
 in that category. As the aliens were nearly all 
 Democrats, that party insisted on their voting, 
 and the Whigs objected. The best lawyers in the 
 State were Whigs, and so it happened that most of 
 the judges were of that complexion. A case was 
 made up for decision and decided adversely to the
 
 164 ABKAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. ix. aliens, who appealed it to the Supreme Court. 
 This case was to come on at the June term in 1840, 
 and the Democratic counsel, chief among whom 
 was Mr. Douglas, were in some anxiety, as an un 
 favorable decision would lose them about ten thou 
 sand alien votes in the Presidential election in 
 November. In this conjuncture one Judge Smith, 
 of the Supreme Court, an ardent Democrat, willing 
 to enhance his value in his party, communicated 
 to Mr. Douglas two important facts : first, that a 
 majority of the court would certainly decide against 
 the aliens; and, secondly, that there was a slight 
 imperfection in the record by which counsel might 
 throw the case over to the December term, and 
 save the alien vote for Van Buren and the Demo 
 cratic ticket. This was done, and when the Legisla 
 ture came together with its large Democratic major 
 ity, Mr. Douglas handed in a bill " reforming " the 
 Judiciary for they had learned that serviceable 
 word already. The circuit judges were turned out 
 of office, and five new judges were added to the 
 Supreme Court, who were to perform circuit duty 
 also. It is needless to say that Judge Douglas was 
 one of these, and he had contrived also in the 
 course of the discussion to disgrace his friend 
 Smith so thoroughly by quoting his treacherous 
 communication of matters which took place within 
 the court, that Smith was no longer a possible 
 rival for political honors. 
 
 It was useless for the Whigs to try to prevent 
 this degradation of the bench. There was no 
 resource but a protest, and here again Lincoln 
 uttered the voice of the conscience of the party. 
 He was joined on this occasion by Edward D.
 
 COLLAPSE OF THE SYSTEM 165 
 
 Baker 1 and some others, who protested against the CHAP.IX. 
 act because 
 
 1st. It violates the principles of free government by 
 subjecting the Judiciary to the Legislature. 
 
 2d. It is a fatal blow at the independence of the 
 judges and the constitutional term of their offices. 
 
 3d. It is a measure not asked for or wished for by the 
 people. 
 
 4th. It will greatly increase the expense of our courts 
 or else greatly diminish their utility. 
 
 5th. It will give our courts a political and partisan 
 character, thereby impairing public confidence in their 
 decisions. 
 
 6th. It will impair our standing with other States and 
 the world. 
 
 7th. It is a party measure for party purposes from 
 which no practical good to the people can possibly arise, 
 but which may be the source of immeasurable evils. 
 
 The undersigned are well aware that this protest will 
 be altogether unavailing with the majority of this body. 
 The blow has already fallen; and we are compelled to 
 stand by, the mournful spectators of the ruin it will cause. 
 
 It will be easy to ridicule this indignant protest 
 as the angry outcry of beaten partisans ; but for 
 tunately we have evidence which cannot be gain 
 said of the justice of its sentiments and the wisdom 
 of its predictions. Governor Ford, himself a Dem- Ford's 
 ocratic leader as able as he was honest, writing P.ML ' 
 seven years after these proceedings, condemns 
 them as wrong and impolitic, and adds, "Ever 
 since this reforming measure the Judiciary has 
 been unpopular with the Democratic majorities. 
 Many and most of the judges have had great 
 
 i Afterwards senator from Ore- Pennsylvania (called the 1st Cali- 
 gon, and as colonel of the 71st fornia) killed at Ball's Bluff .
 
 166 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. ix. personal popularity so much so as to create 
 complaint of so many of them being elected or 
 appointed to other offices. But the Bench itself 
 has been the subject of bitter attacks by every 
 Legislature since." It had been soiled by unclean 
 contact and could not be respected as before.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 EARLY LAW PRACTICE 
 
 DURING all the years of his service in the CHAP. x. 
 Legislature, Lincoln was practicing law in 
 Springfield in the dingy little office at the corner of 
 the square. A youth named Milton Hay, who 
 afterwards became one of the foremost lawyers of 
 the State, had made the acquaintance of Lincoln at 
 the County Clerk's office and proposed to study law 
 with him. He was at once accepted as a pupil, 
 and his days being otherwise employed he gave his 
 nights to reading, and as his vigils were apt to be 
 prolonged he furnished a bedroom adjoining the 
 office, where Lincoln often passed the night with 
 him. Mr. Hay gives this account of the practice 
 of the law in those days : 
 
 " In forming our ideas of Lincoln's growth and 
 development as a lawyer, we must remember that 
 in those early days litigation was very simple as 
 compared with that of modern times. Population 
 was sparse and society scarcely organized, land 
 was plentiful and employment abundant. There 
 was an utter absence of the abstruse questions and 
 complications which now beset the law. There 
 was no need of that close and searching study into 
 principles and precedents which keeps the modern 
 
 167
 
 168 
 
 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. x. law-student buried 
 in his office. On 
 the contrary, the 
 very character of 
 this simple litiga 
 tion drew the law 
 yer into the street 
 and neighborhood, 
 and into close and 
 active intercourse 
 with all classes of 
 his fellow-men. 
 The suits consisted 
 of actions of tort 
 and assumpsit. If 
 a man had a debt 
 not collectible, the 
 current phrase 
 was, 'I'll take it 
 
 LINCOLN AND STUART'S LAW-OFFICE, 
 SPRINGFIELD. 
 
 out of his hide.' 
 
 " This would bring on an action for assault and 
 battery. The free comments of the neighbors 
 on the fracas or the character of the parties 
 would be productive of slander suits. A man 
 would for his convenience lay down an iras 
 cible neighbor's fence, and indolently forget to 
 put it up again, and an action of trespass would 
 grow out of it. The suit would lead to a free 
 fight, and sometimes furnish the bloody incidents 
 for a murder trial. Occupied with this class of 
 business, the half -legal, half -political lawyers were 
 never found plodding in their offices. In that 
 case they would have waited long for the recog 
 nition of their talents or a demand for their
 
 EAKLY LAW PRACTICE 169 
 
 services. Out of this characteristic of the times CHAP. x. 
 also grew the street discussions I have adverted to. 
 There was scarcely a day or hour when a knot of 
 men might not have been seen near the door of 
 some prominent store, or about the steps of the 
 court-house eagerly discussing a current political 
 topic not as a question of news, for news was not 
 then received quickly or frequently, as it is now, 
 but rather for the sake of debate ; and the men from 
 the country, the pioneers and farmers, always 
 gathered eagerly about these groups and listened 
 with open-mouthed interest, and frequently mani 
 fested their approval or dissent in strong words, 
 and carried away to their neighborhoods a report 
 of the debaters' wit and skill. It was in these 
 street talks that the rising and aspiring young 
 lawyer found his daily and hourly forum. Often 
 by good luck or prudence he had the field entirely 
 to himself, and so escaped the dangers and dis 
 couragements of a decisive conflict with a trained 
 antagonist." 
 
 Mr. Stuart was either in Congress or actively 
 engaged in canvassing his district a great part 
 of the time that his partnership with Lincoln 
 continued, so that the young lawyer was thrown 
 a good deal on his own resources for occupation. 
 There was not enough business to fill up all his 
 hours, and he was not at that time a close student, 
 so that he soon became as famous for his racy talk 
 and good-fellowship at all the usual lounging- 
 places in Springfield as he had ever been in New 
 Salem. Mr. Hay says, speaking of the youths who 
 made the County Clerk's office their place of rendez 
 vous, " It was always a great treat when Lincoln got
 
 LINCOLN'S BOOKCASE AND INKSTAND. 
 
 170
 
 EARLY LAW PRACTICE 171 
 
 amongst us. We were sure to have some of those CHAP. x. 
 stories for which he already had a reputation, and 
 there was this peculiarity about them, that they 
 were not only entertaining in themselves, but 
 always singularly illustrative of some point he 
 wanted to make." After Mr. Hay entered his office, 
 and was busily engaged with his briefs and decla 
 rations, the course of their labors was often broken 
 by the older man's wise and witty digressions. 
 Once an interruption occurred which affords an odd 
 illustration of the character of discussion then 
 prevalent. We will give it in Mr. Hay's words : 
 " The custom of public political debate, while it 
 was sharp and acrimonious, also engendered a 
 spirit of equality and fairness. Every political 
 meeting was a free fight open to every one who had 
 talent and spirit, no matter to which party the 
 speaker belonged. These discussions used often to 
 be held in the court-room, just under our office, and 
 through a trap-door, made there when the building 
 was used for a store-house, we could hear every 
 thing that was said in the hall below. One night 
 there was a discussion in which E. D. Baker took 
 part. He was a fiery fellow, and when his impul 
 siveness was let loose among the rough element that 
 composed his audience there was a fair prospect of 
 trouble at any moment. Lincoln was lying on the 
 bed, apparently paying no attention to what was 
 going on. Lamborn was talking, and we suddenly 
 heard Baker interrupting him with a sharp remark, 
 then a rustling and uproar. Lincoln jumped from 
 the bed and down the trap, lighting on the platform 
 between Baker and the audience, and quieted the 
 tumult as much by the surprise of his sudden
 
 172 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. x. apparition as by his good-natured and reasonable 
 words." 
 
 He was often unfaithful to his Quaker traditions 
 in those days of his youth. Those who witnessed 
 his wonderful forbearance and self-restraint in 
 later manhood would find it difficult to believe 
 how promptly and with what pleasure he used to 
 resort to measures of repression against a bully or 
 brawler. On the day of election in 1840, word 
 came to him that one Radford, a Democratic con 
 tractor, had taken possession of one of the polling- 
 places with his workmen, and was preventing the 
 Whigs from voting. Lincoln started off at a gait 
 which showed his interest in the matter in hand. 
 He went up to Radford and persuaded him to 
 leave the polls without a moment's delay. One of 
 his candid remarks is remembered and recorded: 
 "Radford! you'll spoil and blow, if you live much 
 longer." Radford's prudence prevented an actual 
 collision, which, it must be confessed, Lincoln 
 regretted. He told his friend Speed he wanted 
 Radford to show fight so that he might " knock 
 him down and leave him kicking." 
 
 Early in the year 1840 it seemed possible that 
 the Whigs might elect General Harrison to the 
 Presidency, and this hope lent added energy to the 
 party even in the States where the majority was 
 so strongly against them as in Illinois. Lincoln 
 was nominated for Presidential Elector and threw 
 himself with ardor into the canvass, traversing a 
 great part of the State and speaking with remark 
 able effect. Only one of the speeches he made 
 during the year has been preserved entire: this 
 was an address delivered in Springfield as one of a
 
 EAKLY LAW PKACTICE 173 
 
 series a sort of oratorical tournament partici- CHAP. x. 
 pated in by Douglas, Calhoun, Lamborn, and 
 Thomas on the part of the Democrats, and Logan, 
 Baker, Browning, and Lincoln on the part of the 
 Whigs. The discussion began with great enthu 
 siasm and with crowded houses, but by the time 
 it came to Lincoln's duty to close the debate the 
 fickle public had tired of the intellectual jousts, 
 and he spoke to a comparatively thin house. But 
 his speech was considered the best of the series, 
 and there was such a demand for it that he wrote 
 it out, and it was printed and circulated in the 
 spring as a campaign document. 
 
 It was a remarkable speech in many respects 
 and in none more than in this, that it represented 
 the highest expression of what might be called his 
 " first manner." It was the most important and the 
 last speech of its class which he ever delivered 
 not destitute of sound and close reasoning, yet 
 filled with boisterous fun and florid rhetoric. It 
 was, in short, a rattling stump speech of the kind 
 then universally popular in the West, and which is 
 still considered a very high grade of eloquence 
 in the South. But it is of no kindred with his 
 inaugural addresses, and resembles the Gettysburg 
 speech no more than " The Comedy of Errors n 
 resembles "Hamlet." One or two extracts will 
 give some idea of its humorous satire and its lurid 
 fervor. Attacking the corruptions and defalca 
 tions of the Administration party he said : " Mr. 
 Lamborn insists that the difference between the Van 
 Buren party and the Whigs is that, although the 
 former sometimes err in practice they are always 
 correct in principle, whereas the latter are wrong
 
 GLOBK TAVERN, SPRINGFIELD, WHERE LINCOLN LIVED AFTER HIS 
 MARRIAGE. 
 
 174
 
 EAELY LAW PKACTICE 175 
 
 in principle ; and the better to impress this propo- CHAP. x. 
 sition he uses a figurative expression in these 
 words, ' The Democrats are vulnerable in the heel, 
 but they are sound in the heart and head.' The 
 first branch of the figure that is, the Democrats 
 are vulnerable in the heel I admit is not merely 
 figuratively but literally true. Who that looks 
 but for a moment at their Swartwouts, their 
 Prices, their Harringtons, and their hundreds of 
 others scampering away with the public money to 
 Texas, to Europe, and to every spot of the earth 
 where a villain may hope to find refuge from jus 
 tice, can at all doubt that they are most distress 
 ingly affected in their heels with a species of 
 running itch ? It seems that this malady of their 
 heels operates on the sound-headed and honest- 
 hearted creatures, very much as the cork leg in the 
 comic song did on its owner, which, when he once 
 got started on it, the more he tried to stop it the 
 more it would run away. At the hazard of wear 
 ing this point threadbare, I will relate an anec 
 dote which seems to be too strikingly in point 
 to be omitted. A witty Irish soldier who was 
 always boasting of his bravery when no danger 
 was near, but who invariably retreated without 
 orders at the first charge of the engagement, being 
 asked by his captain why he did so, replied, ' Cap 
 tain, I have as brave a heart as Julius Csesar ever 
 had, but somehow or other whenever danger 
 approaches, my cowardly legs will run away with 
 it.' So with Mr. Lamborn's party they take the 
 public money into their hands for the most laud 
 able purpose that wise heads and honest hearts 
 can dictate ; but before they can possibly get it
 
 176 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. x. out again, their rascally vulnerable heels will run 
 away with them." 
 
 The speech concludes with these swelling words : 
 " Mr. Lamborn refers to the late elections in the 
 States, and from their results confidently predicts 
 every State in the Union will vote for Mr. Van 
 Buren at the next Presidential election. Address 
 that argument to cowards and slaves : with the 
 free and the brave it will affect nothing. It may 
 be true; if it must, let it. Many free countries 
 have lost their liberty, and ours may lose hers ; but 
 if she shall, be it my proudest plume, not that I 
 was the last to desert, but that I never deserted 
 her. I know that the great volcano at Washington, 
 aroused and directed by the evil spirit that reigns 
 there, is belching forth the lava of political corrup 
 tion in a current broad and deep, which is sweep 
 ing with frightful velocity over the whole length 
 and breadth of the land, bidding fair to leave un 
 scathed no green spot or living thing ; while on its 
 bosom are riding, like demons on the wave of Hell, 
 the imps of the Evil Spirit, and fiendishly taunting 
 all those who dare to resist its destroying course 
 with the hopelessness of their efforts ; and know 
 ing this, I cannot deny that all may be swept 
 away. Broken by it I, too, may be ; bow to it, I 
 never will. The probability that we may fall in the 
 struggle ought not to deter us from the support of 
 a cause we believe to be just. It shall not deter 
 me. If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and 
 expand to those dimensions not wholly unworthy 
 of its almighty architect, it is when I contemplate 
 the cause of my country, deserted by all the world 
 beside, and I standing up boldly alone, hurling
 
 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON.
 
 EAELY LAW PEACTICE 177 
 
 defiance at her victorious oppressors. Here, with- CHAP. x. 
 out contemplating consequences, before Heaven, 
 and in face of the world, I swear eternal fealty to 
 the just cause, as I deem it, of the land of my life, 
 my liberty, and my love. And who that thinks 
 with me will not fearlessly adopt that oath that I 
 take ? Let none falter who thinks he is right, and 
 we may succeed. But if after all we should fail, 
 be it so. We still shall have the proud consolation 
 of saying to our consciences, and to the departed 
 shade of our country's freedom, that the cause 
 approved of our judgment, and adored of our 
 hearts, in disaster, in chains, in torture, in death, 
 we never faltered in defending." 
 
 These perfervid and musical metaphors of devo 
 tion and defiance have often been quoted as Mr. Lin 
 coln's heroic challenge to the slave power, and 
 Bishop Simpson gave them that lofty significance 
 in his funeral oration. But they were simply the 
 utterances of a young and ardent Whig, earnestly 
 advocating the election of "old Tippecanoe" and 
 not unwilling, while doing this, to show the people 
 of the capital a specimen of his eloquence. The 
 whole campaign was carried on in a tone some 
 what shrill. The Whigs were recovering from the 
 numbness into which they had fallen during the 
 time of Jackson's imperious predominance, and in 
 the new prospect of success they felt all the excite 
 ment of prosperous rebels. The taunts of the 
 party in power, when Harrison's nomination was 
 first mentioned, their sneers at " hard cider " and 
 " log-cabins," had been dexterously adopted as the 
 slogan of the opposition, and gave rise to the dis 
 tinguishing features of that extraordinary cam- 
 VOL. L 12
 
 178 ABBAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. x. paign. Log-cabins were built in every Western 
 county, tuns of hard cider were filled and emptied 
 at all the Whig mass meetings ; and as the canvass 
 gained momentum and vehemence a curious kind 
 of music added its inspiration to the cause; and 
 after the Maine election was over, with its augury 
 of triumph, every Whig who was able to sing, or 
 even to make a joyful noise, was roaring the 
 inquiry, " Oh, have you heard how old Maine 
 went?" and the profane but powerfully accented 
 response, " She went, hell-bent, for Governor Kent, 
 and Tippecanoe, and Tyler too." 
 
 It was one of the busiest and most enjoyable 
 seasons of Lincoln's life. He had grown by this 
 time thoroughly at home in political controversy, 
 and he had the pleasure of frequently meeting Mr. 
 Douglas in rough-and-tumble debate in various 
 towns of the State as they followed Judge Treat 
 on his circuit. If we may trust the willing testi 
 mony of his old associates, Lincoln had no diffi 
 culty in holding his own against his adroit 
 antagonist, and it was even thought that the 
 recollection of his ill success in these encounters 
 was not without its influence in inducing Douglas 
 and his followers, defeated in the nation, though 
 victorious in the State, to wreak their vengeance on 
 the Illinois Supreme Court. 
 
 In Lincoln's letters to Major Stuart, then in 
 Washington, we see how strongly the subject of 
 politics overshadows all others in his mind. Under 
 
 MS. iu 
 
 date of November 14, 1839, he wrote: "I have 
 possession, been to the Secretary's office within the last hour, 
 and find things precisely as you left them ; no new 
 arrivals of returns on either side. Douglas has not
 
 EARLY LAW PEACTICE 
 
 179 
 
 been here since you left. A report is in circulation 
 here now that he has abandoned the idea of going 
 to Washington; but the report does not come in 
 very authentic form so far as I can learn. Though, 
 speaking of authenticity, you know that if we had 
 heard Douglas say that he had abandoned the con 
 test, it would not be very authentic. There is no 
 news here. Noah, I still think, will be elected very 
 easily. I am afraid of our race for representative. 
 Dr. Knapp has become a candidate ; and I fear 
 the few votes he will get will be taken from us. 
 Also some one has been tampering with old squire 
 Wyckoff, and induced him to send in his name to 
 be announced as a candidate. Francis refused to 
 announce him without seeing him, and now I sup 
 pose there is to be a fuss about it. I have been so 
 busy that I have not seen Mrs. Stuart since you 
 left, though I understand she wrote you by 
 to-day's mail, which will inform you more about 
 her than I could. The very moment a speaker is 
 elected, write me who he is. Your friend, as 
 ever." 
 
 Again he wrote, on New Year's Day, 1840, a let 
 ter curiously destitute of any festal suggestions : 
 " There is a considerable disposition on the part of 
 both parties in the Legislature to reinstate the law 
 bringing on the Congressional elections next sum 
 mer. What motive for this the Locos have, I can 
 not tell. The Whigs say that the canal and other 
 public works will stop, and consequently we shall 
 then be clear of the foreign votes, whereas by 
 another year they may be brought in again. The 
 Whigs of our district say that everything is in 
 favor of holding the election next summer, except 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 Noah W. 
 
 Matheny, 
 
 County 
 
 Clerk.
 
 180 ABKAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. x. the fact of your absence ; and several of them have 
 requested me to ask your opinion on the matter. 
 Write me immediately what you think of it. 
 
 "On the other side of this sheet I send you a 
 copy of my Land Resolutions, which passed both 
 branches of our Legislature last winter. Will you 
 show them to Mr. Calhouu, informing him of the 
 fact of their passage through our Legislature? Mr. 
 Calhoun suggested a similar proposition last win 
 ter; and perhaps if he finds himself backed by one 
 of the States he may be induced to take it up 
 again." 
 
 After the session opened, January 20, he wrote 
 to Mr. Stuart, accurately outlining the work of the 
 winter: "The following is my guess as to what 
 will be done. The Internal Improvement System 
 will be put down in a lump without benefit of 
 clergy. The Bank will be resuscitated with some 
 trifling modifications." 
 
 State affairs have evidently lost their interest, 
 however, and his soul is in arms for the wider fray. 
 " Be sure to send me as many copies of the Life of 
 Harrison as you can spare. Be very sure to send 
 me the Senate Journal of New York for September, 
 1814," he had seen in a newspaper a charge of dis 
 loyalty made against Mr. Van Buren during the war 
 with Great Britain, but, as usual, wanted to be sure 
 of his facts, " and in general," he adds, " send me 
 everything you think will be a good war-club. 
 The nomination of Harrison takes first-rate. You 
 know I am never sanguine ; but I believe we will 
 carry the State. The chance for doing so appears 
 to me twenty-five per cent, better than it did 
 for you to beat Douglas. A great many of the
 
 EAELY LAW PKACTICE 181 
 
 grocery sort of Van Buren men are out for Harrison. CHAP. x. 
 Our Irish blacksmith Gregory is for Harrison. . . . 
 You have heard that the Whigs and Locos had a 
 political discussion shortly after the meeting of the 
 Legislature. Well, I made a big speech which is 
 in progress of printing in pamphlet form. To en 
 lighten you and the rest of the world, I shall send 
 you a copy when it is finished." The " big speech " 
 was the one from which we have just quoted. 
 
 The sanguine mood continued in his next letter, 
 March 1 : "I have never seen the prospects of 
 our party so bright in these parts as they are now. 
 We shall carry this county by a larger majority 
 than we did in 1836 when you ran against May. 
 I do not think my prospects individually are very 
 flattering, for I think it probable I shall not be 
 permitted to be a candidate; but the party ticket 
 will succeed triumphantly. Subscriptions to the 
 ' Old Soldier ' pour in without abatement. This 
 morning I took from the post-office a letter from 
 Dubois, inclosing the names of sixty subscribers, 
 and on carrying it to Francis [Simeon Francis, 
 editor of the t Sangamo Journal '] I found he had 
 received one hundred and forty more from other 
 quarters by the same day's mail. . . . Yesterday 
 Douglas, having chosen to consider himself insulted 
 by something in the ' Journal,' undertook to cane 
 Francis in the street. Francis caught him by the 
 hair and jammed him back against a market-cart, 
 where the matter ended by Francis being pulled 
 away from him. The whole affair was so ludicrous 
 that Francis and everybody else, Douglas excepted, 
 have been laughing about it ever since." 
 
 Douglas seems to have had a great propensity to
 
 182 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. x. such, rencontres, of which the issue was ordinarily 
 his complete discomfiture, as he had the untoward 
 habit of attacking much bigger and stronger men 
 than himself. He weighed at that time little, if 
 anything, over a hundred pounds, yet his heart was 
 so valiant that he made nothing of assaulting men of 
 ponderous flesh like Francis, or of great height and 
 strength like Stuart. He sought a quarrel with the 
 latter, during their canvass in 1838, in a grocery, 
 with the usual result. A bystander who re 
 members the incident says that Stuart "jest 
 mopped the floor with him." In the same letter 
 Mr. Lincoln gives a long list of names to which he 
 wants documents to be sent. It shows a remark 
 able personal acquaintance with the minutest needs 
 of the canvass : this one is a doubtful Whig ; that 
 one is an inquiring Democrat ; that other a zealous 
 young fellow who would be pleased by the atten 
 tion ; three brothers are mentioned who " fell out 
 with us about Early and are doubtful now"; and 
 finally he tells Stuart that Joe Smith is an admirer 
 of his, and that a few documents had better be 
 mailed to the Mormons ; and he must be sure, the 
 next time he writes, to send Evan Butler his com 
 pliments. 
 
 It would be strange, indeed, if such a politician 
 as this were slighted by his constituents, and in 
 his next letter we find how groundless were his 
 forebodings in that direction. The convention 
 had been held; the rural delegates took all the 
 nominations away from Springfield except two, 
 Baker for the Senate, and Lincoln for the House 
 of Representatives. "Ninian," he says, meaning 
 Ninian W. Edwards, " was very much hurt at not
 
 EAELY LAW PRACTICE 183 
 
 being nominated, but he has become tolerably well CHAP. x. 
 reconciled. I was much, very much, wounded my 
 self, at his being left out. The fact is, the country 
 delegates made the nominations as they pleased, and 
 they pleased to make them all from the country, 
 except Baker and me, whom they supposed neces 
 sary to make stump speeches. Old Colonel Elkin 
 is nominated for Sheriff that 's right." 
 
 Harrison was elected in November, and the great 
 preoccupation of most of the Whigs was, of course, 
 the distribution of the offices which they felt 
 belonged to them as the spoils of battle. This 
 demoralizing doctrine had been promulgated by 
 Jackson, and acted upon for so many years that it 
 was too much to expect of human nature that the 
 Whigs should not adopt it, partially at least, when 
 their turn came. But we are left in no doubt as to 
 the way in which Lincoln regarded the unseemly 
 scramble. It is probable that he was asked to 
 express his preference among applicants, and' he 
 wrote under date of December 17 : " This affair of 
 appointments to office is very annoying more so 
 to you than to me doubtless. I am, as you know, 
 opposed to removals to make places for our friends. 
 Bearing this in mind, I express my preference in 
 a few cases, as follows: for Marshal, first, John 
 Dawson, second, B. F. Edwards; for postmaster 
 here, Dr. Henry ; at Carlinville, Joseph C. Howell." 
 
 The mention of this last post-office rouses his 
 righteous indignation, and he calls for justice upon 
 a wrong-doer. " There is no question of the pro 
 priety of removing the postmaster at Carlinville. 
 I have been told by so many different persons as 
 to preclude all doubt of its truth, that he boldly
 
 184 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. x. refused to deliver from his office during the can 
 vass all documents franked by Whig members 
 of Congress." 
 
 Once more, on the 23d of January, 1841, he 
 addresses a letter to Mr. Stuart, which closes the 
 correspondence, and which affords a glimpse of 
 that strange condition of melancholia into whose 
 dark shadow he was then entering, and which 
 lasted, with only occasional intervals of healthy 
 cheerfulness, to the time of his marriage. We give 
 this remarkable letter entire, from the manuscript 
 submitted to us by the late John T. Stuart: 
 
 DEAR STUART: Yours of the 3d instant is received, 
 and I proceed to answer it as well as I can, though from 
 the deplorable state of my mind at this time I fear I 
 shall give you but little satisfaction. About the matter 
 of the Congressional election, I can only tell you that 
 there is a bill now before the Senate adopting the general 
 ticket system ; but whether the party have fully deter 
 mined on its adoption is yet uncertain. There is no sign 
 of opposition to you among our friends, and none that I 
 can learn among our enemies; though of course there 
 will be if the general ticket be adopted. The Chicago 
 " American," Peoria " Register," and Sangamo " Journal " 
 have already hoisted your flag upon their own responsi 
 bility ; and the other Whig papers of the district are ex 
 pected to follow immediately. On last evening there was 
 a meeting of our friends at Butler's, and I submitted the 
 question to them and found them unanimously in favor 
 of having you announced as a candidate. A few of us 
 this morning, however, concluded that as you were already 
 being announced in the papers we would delay announc 
 ing you, as by your authority, for a week or two. We 
 thought that to appear too keen about it might spur our 
 opponents on about their general ticket project. Upon 
 the whole I think I may say with certainty that your 
 reelection is sure, if it be in the power of the Whigs to 
 make it so.
 
 EAELY LAW PEACTICE 185 
 
 For not giving you a general summary of news, you CHAP. x. 
 must pardon me ; it is not in my power to do so. I am 
 now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were 
 equally distributed to the whole human family, there 
 would not be one cheerful face on earth. Whether I 
 shall ever be better I cannot tell ; I awfully forebode I 
 shall not. To remain as I am is impossible ; I must die 
 or be better, it appears to me. The matter you speak of 
 on my account you may attend to as you say, unless you 
 shall hear of my condition forbidding it. I say this 
 because I fear I shall be unable to attend to any business 
 here, and a change of scene might help me. If I could 
 be myself, I would rather remain at home with Judge 
 Logan. I can write no more. Your friend as ever. 
 
 A. LINCOLN.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 MARRIAGE 
 
 CHAP. xi. rriHE foregoing letter brings us to the eonsidera- 
 i84a -L tion of a remarkable passage in Lincoln's life. 
 It has been the cause of much profane and idle 
 discussion among those who were constitutionally 
 incapacitated from appreciating ideal sufferings, 
 and we would be tempted to refrain from adding a 
 word to what has already been said if it were pos 
 sible to omit all reference to an experience so im 
 portant in the development of his character. 
 
 In the year 1840 he became engaged to be 
 married to Miss Mary Todd, of Lexington, Ken 
 tucky, a young lady of good education and excel 
 lent connections, who was visiting her sister, Mrs. 
 Ninian W. Edwards, at Springfield. 1 The engage 
 ment was not in all respects a happy one, as both 
 
 i Mrs. Lincoln was the daugh- killed at the battle of the Blue 
 
 ter of the Hon. Eobert S. Todd, Licks, in 1782. His brother Levi 
 
 of Kentucky. Her great-uncle, was also at that battle, and was 
 
 John Todd, and her grandfather, one of the few survivors of it. 
 
 Levi Todd, accompanied General Colonel John Todd was one of 
 
 George Eogers Clark to Illinois, the original proprietors of the 
 
 and were present at the capture town of Lexington, Ky. While 
 
 of Kaskaskia and Vincennes. In encamped on the site of the 
 
 December, 1778, John Todd present city, he heard of the 
 
 was appointed by Patrick Henry, opening battle of the Revolution, 
 
 Governor of Virginia, to be lieu- and named his infant settlement 
 
 tenant of the county of Illinois, in its honor. Arnold's "Life of 
 
 then a part of Virginia. He was Lincoln," p. 68. 
 
 186
 
 MARRIAGE 187 
 
 parties doubted their compatibility, and a heart CHAP. xi. 
 so affectionate and a conscience so sensitive as 
 Lincoln's found material for exquisite self-tor 
 ment in these conditions. His affection for his 
 betrothed, which he thought was not strong 
 enough to make happiness with her secure ; his 
 doubts, which yet were not convincing enough to 
 induce him to break off all relations with her ; his 
 sense of honor, which was wounded in his own 
 eyes by his own act ; his sense of duty, which con 
 demned him in one course and did not sustain 
 him in the opposite one all combined to make 
 him profoundly and passionately miserable. To 
 his friends and acquaintances, who were unused 
 to such finely wrought and even fantastic sor 
 rows, his trouble seemed so exaggerated that 
 they could only account for it on the ground of 
 insanity. But there is no necessity of accepting 
 this crude hypothesis ; the coolest and most ju 
 dicious of his friends deny that his depression ever 
 went to such an extremity. Orville H. Browning, 
 who was constantly in his company, says that his 
 worst attack lasted only about a week ; that during 
 this time he was incoherent and distraught; but that 
 in the course of a few days it all passed off, leaving 
 no trace whatever. " I think," says Mr. Browning, 
 "it was only an intensification of his constitutional 
 melancholy; his trials and embarrassments pressed 
 him down to a lower point than usual." 
 
 This taint of constitutional sadness was not 
 peculiar to Lincoln ; it may be said to have been 
 endemic among the early settlers of the West. It 
 had its origin partly in the circumstances of their 
 lives, the severe and dismal loneliness in which
 
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 188
 
 MAEKIAGE 189 
 
 their struggle for existence for the most part went CHAP. XT. 
 on. Their summers were passed in the solitude of 
 the woods ; in the winter they were often snowed 
 up for months in the more desolate isolation of 
 their own poor cabins. Their subjects of conver 
 sation were limited, their range of thoughts and 
 ideas narrow and barren. There was as little 
 cheerfulness in their manners as there was incen 
 tive to it in their lives. They occasionally burst 
 out into wild frolic, which easily assumed the form 
 of comic outrage, but of the sustained cheerfulness 
 of social civilized life they knew very little. One of 
 the few pioneers who have written their observa 
 tions of their own people, John L. McConnell, 
 says, " They are at the best not a cheerful race ; 
 though they sometimes join in festivities, it is but 
 seldom, and the wildness of their dissipation is too 
 often in proportion to its infrequency. There is 
 none of that serene contentment which distin 
 guishes the tillers of the ground in other lands. 
 . . . Acquainted with the character [of the pio 
 neer], you do not expect him to smile much, but 
 now and then he laughs." 
 
 Besides this generic tendency to melancholy, 
 very many of the pioneers were subject in early 
 life to malarial influences, the effect of which 
 remained with them all their days. Hewing out 
 their plantations in the primeval woods amid the 
 undisturbed shadow of centuries, breaking a soil 
 thick with ages of vegetable decomposition, sleep 
 ing in half-faced camps, where the heavy air of 
 the rank woods was in their lungs all night, or in 
 the fouler atmosphere of overcrowded cabins, they 
 were especially subject to miasmatic fevers. Many
 
 190 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xi. died, and of those who survived, a great number, 
 after they had outgrown the more immediate 
 manifestations of disease, retained in nervous dis 
 orders of all kinds the distressing traces of the 
 maladies which afflicted their childhood. In the 
 early life of Lincoln these unwholesome physical 
 conditions were especially prevalent. The country 
 about Pigeon Creek was literally devastated by the 
 terrible malady called " milk-sickness," which car- 
 , ried away his mother and half her family. His 
 father left his home in Macon County, also, on 
 account of the frequency and severity of the attacks 
 of fever and ague which were suffered there ; and, 
 in general, Abraham was exposed through all the 
 earlier part of his life to those malarial influences 
 which made, during the first half of this century, 
 the various preparations of Peruvian bark a part 
 of the daily food of the people of Indiana and Illi 
 nois. In many instances this miasmatic poison did 
 not destroy the strength or materially shorten the 
 lives of those who absorbed it in their youth ; but 
 the effects remained in periodical attacks of gloom 
 and depression of spirits which would seem incom 
 prehensible to thoroughly healthy organizations, 
 and which gradually lessened in middle life, often 
 to disappear entirely in old age. 
 
 Upon a temperament thus predisposed to look 
 at things in their darker aspect, it might naturally 
 be expected that a love-affair which was not per 
 fectly happy would be productive of great misery. 
 But Lincoln seemed especially chosen to the keen 
 est suffering in such a conjuncture. The pioneer, 
 as a rule, was comparatively free from any troubles 
 of the imagination. To quote Mr. McConnell again:
 
 MAEKIAGE 191 
 
 "There was no romance in his [the pioneer's] com- CHAP. XL 
 position. He had no dreaminess ; meditation was 
 no part of his mental habit; a poetical fancy would, 
 in him, have been an indication of insanity. If he 
 reclined at the foot of a tree, on a still summer day, 
 it was to sleep ; if he gazed out over the waving 
 prairie, it was to search for the column of smoke 
 which told of his enemies' approach ; if he turned 
 his eyes towards the blue heaven, it was to prog 
 nosticate to-morrow's rain or sunshine. If he bent 
 his gaze towards the green earth, it was to look for 
 ' Indian sign' or buffalo trail. His wife was only a 
 helpmate ; he never thought of making a divinity 
 of her." But Lincoln could never have claimed this 
 happy immunity from ideal trials. His published 
 speeches show how much the poet in him was 
 constantly kept in check ; and at this time of his 
 life his imagination was sufficiently alert to inflict 
 upon him the sharpest anguish. His reverence for 
 women was so deep and tender that he thought an 
 injury to one of them was a sin too heinous to be 
 expiated. No Hamlet, dreaming amid the turrets 
 of Elsinore, no Sidney creating a chivalrous Arca 
 dia, was fuller of mystic and shadowy fancies of 
 the worth and dignity of woman than this back 
 woods politician. Few men ever lived more sensi 
 tively and delicately tender towards the sex. 
 
 Besides his step-mother, who was a plain, God 
 fearing woman, he had not known many others 
 until he came to live in New Salem. There he had 
 made the acquaintance of the best people the set 
 tlement contained, and among them had become 
 much attached to a young girl named Ann Rut- 
 ledge, the daughter of one of the proprietors of the
 
 192 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xi. place. She died in her girlhood, and though there 
 does not seem to have been any engagement 
 between them, he was profoundly affected by her 
 death. But the next year a young woman from 
 Kentucky appeared in the village, to whom he paid 
 such attentions as in his opinion fully committed 
 him as a suitor for her hand. He admired her, and 
 she seems to have merited the admiration of all the 
 manhood there was in New Salem. She was hand 
 some and intelligent and of an admirable temper 
 and disposition. While they were together he was 
 constant in his attentions, and when he was at 
 Vandalia or at Springfield he continued his assid 
 uities in some of the most singular love-letters 
 ever written. They are filled mostly with remarks 
 about current politics, and with arguments going 
 to show that she had better not marry him ! At 
 the same time he clearly intimates that he is at her 
 disposition if she is so inclined. At last, feeling 
 that his honor and duty were involved, he made a 
 direct proposal to her, and received an equally 
 direct, kind, and courteous refusal. Not knowing 
 but that this indicated merely a magnanimous 
 desire to give him a chance for escape, he persisted 
 in his offer, and she in her refusal. When the 
 matter had ended in this perfectly satisfactory 
 manner to both of them, he sat down and wrote, 
 by way of epilogue to the play, a grotesquely 
 comic account of the whole affair to Mrs. O. 
 H. Browning, one of his intimate Vandalia ac 
 quaintances. 
 
 This letter has been published and severely 
 criticised as showing a lack of gentlemanlike 
 feeling. But those who take this view forget
 
 MAEEIAGE 193 
 
 that he was writing to an intimate friend of a CHAP. xi. 
 matter which had greatly occupied his own mind 
 for a year ; that he mentioned no names, and that 
 he threw such an air of humorous unreality about 
 the whole story that the person who received it 
 never dreamed that it recorded an actual occurrence 
 until twenty-five years afterwards, when, having 
 been asked to furnish it to a biographer, she was 
 warned against doing so by the President himself, 
 who said there was too much truth in it for print. 
 The only significance the episode possesses is in 
 showing this almost abnormal development of 
 conscience in the young man who was perfectly 
 ready to enter into a marriage which he dreaded 
 simply because he thought he had given a young 
 woman reason to think that he had such intentions. 
 While we admit that this would have been an 
 irremediable error, we cannot but wonder at the 
 nobleness of the character to which it was pos 
 sible. 
 
 In this vastly more serious matter, which was, 
 we may say at once, the crucial ordeal of his life, 
 the same invincible truthfulness, the same innate 
 goodness, the same horror of doing a wrong, are 
 combined with an exquisite sensibility and a 
 capacity for suffering which mark him as a man 
 "picked out among ten thousand." His habit of 
 relentless self -searching reveals to him a state of 
 feeling which strikes him with dismay ; his simple 
 and inflexible veracity communicates his trouble 
 and his misery to the woman whom he loves ; his 
 freedom, when he has gained it, yields him nothing 
 but an agony of remorse and humiliation. He 
 could not shake off his pain, like men of cooler 
 VOL. L 13 

 
 194 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xi. heads and shallower hearts. It took fast hold of 
 him and dragged him into awful depths of darkness 
 and torture. The letter to Stuart, which we have 
 given, shows him emerging from the blackest 
 period of that time of gloom. Immediately after 
 this, he accompanied his close friend and con 
 fidant, Joshua F. Speed, to Kentucky, where, in a 
 way so singular that no writer of fiction would 
 dare to employ the incident, he became almost 
 cured of his melancholy, and came back to Illinois 
 and his work again. 
 
 Mr. Speed was a Kentuckian, carrying on a 
 general mercantile business in Springfield a 
 brother of the distinguished lawyer, James Speed, 
 of Louisville, who afterwards became Attorney- 
 General of the United States. He was one of those 
 men who seem to have to a greater extent than 
 others the genius of friendship, the Pythias, the 
 Pylades, the Horatios of the world. It is hardly 
 too much to say that he was the only as he was 
 certainly the last intimate friend that Lincoln 
 ever had. He was his closest companion in Spring 
 field, and in the evil days when the letter to Stuart 
 was written he took him with brotherly love and 
 authority under his special care. He closed up his 
 affairs in Springfield, and went with Lincoln to 
 Kentucky, and, introducing him to his own cordial 
 and hospitable family circle, strove to soothe his 
 perturbed spirit by every means which unaffected 
 friendliness could suggest. That Lincoln found 
 much comfort and edification in that genial com 
 panionship is shown by the fact that after he 
 became President he sent to Mr. Speed's mother a 
 photograph of himself, inscribed, " For Mrs. Lucy
 
 MARRIAGE 195 
 
 GL Speed, from whose pious hand I accepted the CHAP. xi. 
 present of an Oxford Bible twenty years ago." 
 
 But the principal means by which the current of 
 his thoughts was changed was never dreamed of 
 by himself or by his friend when they left Illinois. 
 During this visit Speed himself fell in love, and 
 became engaged to be married; and either by a 
 singular chance or because the maladies of the 
 soul may be propagated by constant association, 
 the feeling of despairing melancholy, which he had 
 found so morbid and so distressing an affliction in 
 another, took possession of himself, and threw 
 him into the same slough of despondency from 
 which he had been laboring to rescue Lincoln. 
 Between friends so intimate there were no con 
 cealments, and from the moment Lincoln found 
 his services as nurse and consoler needed, the vio 
 lence of his own trouble seemed to diminish. The 
 two young men were in Springfield together in the 
 autumn, and Lincoln seems by that time to have 
 laid aside his own peculiar besetments, in order to 
 minister to his friend. They knew the inmost 
 thoughts of each other's hearts and each relied 
 upon the honesty and loyalty of the other to an 
 extent rare among men. When Speed returned to 
 Kentucky, to a happiness which awaited him there, 
 so bright that it dazzled and blinded his moral vision, 
 Lincoln continued his counsels and encouragements 
 in letters which are remarkable for their tenderness 
 and delicacy of thought and expression. Like 
 another poet, he looked into his own heart and 
 wrote. His own deeper nature had suffered from 
 these same fantastic sorrows and terrors; of his 
 own grief he made a medicine for his comrade.
 
 196 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xi. While Speed was still with him, he wrote a long 
 letter, which he put into his hands at parting, full 
 of wise and affectionate reasonings, to be read 
 when he should feel the need of it. He predicts 
 for him a period of nervous depression first, 
 because he will be " exposed to bad weather on his 
 journey, and, secondly, because of the absence of 
 all business and conversation of friends which 
 might divert his mind and give it occasional rest 
 from the intensity of thought which will sometimes 
 wear the sweetest idea threadbare, and turn it to 
 the bitterness of death." The third cause, he says, 
 "is the rapid and near approach of that crisis on 
 which all your thoughts and feelings concentrate." 
 If in spite of all these circumstances he should 
 escape without a " twinge of the soul," his friend 
 will be most happily deceived ; but, he continues, 
 " if you shall, as I expect you will at some time, be 
 agonized and distressed, let me, who have some 
 reason to speak with judgment on the subject, 
 beseech you to ascribe it to the causes I have men 
 tioned, and not to some false and ruinous sugges 
 tion of the devil." This forms the prelude to an 
 ingenious and affectionate argument in which he 
 labors to convince Speed of the loveliness of his 
 betrothed and of the integrity of his own heart ; a 
 strange task, one would -say, to undertake in behalf 
 of a young and ardent lover. But the two men 
 understood each other, and the service thus 
 rendered was gratefully received and remembered 
 by Speed all his life. 
 
 Lincoln wrote again on the 3d of February, 1842, 
 congratulating Speed upon a recent severe illness 
 of his destined bride, for the reason that "your
 
 MAKBIAGE 197 
 
 present distress and anxiety about her health must CHAP. XL 
 forever banish those horrid doubts which you feel 
 as to the truth of your affection for her." As the 
 period of Speed's marriage drew near, Lincoln's 
 letters betray the most intense anxiety. He can 
 not wait to hear the news from his friend, but 
 writes to him about the time of the wedding, 
 admitting that he is writing in the dark, that 
 words from a bachelor may be worthless to a 
 Benedick, but still unable to keep silence. He 
 hopes he is happy with his wife, " but should I be 
 mistaken in this, should excessive pleasure still be 
 accompanied with a painful counterpart at times, 
 still let me urge you, as I have ever done, to 
 remember in the depth and even agony of despond 
 ency, that very shortly you are to feel well again." 
 Further on he says: "If you went through the 
 ceremony calmly, or even with sufficient compos 
 ure not to excite alarm in any present, you are 
 safe beyond question," seeking by every device of 
 subtle affection to lift up the heart of his friend. 
 
 With a solicitude apparently greater than that of 
 the nervous bridegroom, he awaited the announce 
 ment of the marriage, and when it came he wrote 
 (February 25) : " I opened the letter with intense 
 anxiety and trepidation ; so much that, although it 
 turned out better than I expected, I have hardly 
 yet, at the distance of ten hours, become calm. I 
 tell you, Speed, our forebodings, for which you and 
 I are peculiar, are all the worst sort of nonsense. 
 I fancied from the time I received your letter of 
 Saturday that the one of "Wednesday was never to 
 come, and yet it did come, and, what is more, it is 
 perfectly clear, both from its tone and handwriting,
 
 198 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xi. that . . . you had obviously improved at the very 
 time I had so much fancied you would have grown 
 worse. You say that something indescribably hor 
 rible and alarming still haunts you. You will not 
 say that three months from now, I will venture." 
 The letter goes on in the same train of sympathetic 
 cheer, but there is one phrase which strikes the 
 keynote of all lives whose ideals are too high for 
 fulfillment : " It is the peculiar misfortune of both 
 you and me to dream dreams of Elysium far 
 exceeding all that anything earthly can realize." 
 But before long a letter came from Speed, who 
 had settled with his black-eyed Kentucky wife 
 upon a well-stocked plantation, disclaiming any 
 further fellowship of misery and announcing the 
 beginnings of that life of uneventful happiness 
 which he led ever after. His peace of mind has 
 become a matter of course ; he dismisses the sub 
 ject in a line, but dilates, with a new planter's 
 rapture, upon the beauties and attractions of his 
 farm. Lincoln frankly answers that he cares 
 nothing about his farm. " I can only say that I 
 am glad you are satisfied and pleased with it. But 
 on that other subject, to me of the most intense 
 interest whether in joy or sorrow, I never had the 
 power to withhold my sympathy from you. It 
 cannot be told how it now thrills me with joy to 
 hear you say you are i far happier than you ever 
 expected to be.' . . I am not going beyond the 
 truth when I tell you that the short space it took 
 me to read your last letter gave me more pleasure 
 than the total sum of all I have enjoyed since the 
 fatal 1st of January, 1841. Since then it seems to 
 me I should have been entirely happy, but for the
 
 MAEEIAGE 199 
 
 never-absent idea that there is one still unhappy CHAP. XL 
 whom I have contributed to make so. That still 
 kills my soul. I cannot but reproach myself for 
 even wishing myself to be happy while she is 
 otherwise." 
 
 During the summer of 1842 the letters of the 
 friends still discuss, with waning, intensity, how 
 ever, their respective affairs of the heart. Speed, 
 in the ease and happiness of his home, thanks Lin 
 coln for his important part in his welfare, and 
 gives him sage counsel for himself. Lincoln replies 
 (July 4, 1842) : " I could not have done less than 
 I did. I always was superstitious ; I believe God 
 made me one of the instruments of bringing your 
 Fanny and you together, which union I have no 
 doubt he foreordained. Whatever he designs, he 
 will do for me yet." A better name than " super 
 stition " might properly be applied to this frame of 
 mind. He acknowledges Speed's kindly advice, 
 but says : " Before I resolve to do the one thing or 
 the other, I must gain my confidence in my own 
 ability to keep my resolves when they are made. 
 In that ability you know I once prided myself, as 
 the only or chief gem of my character ; that gem I 
 lost, how and where you know too well. I have 
 not yet regained it ; and until I do I cannot trust 
 myself in any matter of much importance. I 
 believe now, that had you understood my case at 
 the time as well as I understood yours afterwards, 
 by the aid you would have given me I should have 
 sailed through clear ; but that does not afford me 
 confidence to begin that, or the like of that, again." 
 Still, he was nearing the end of his doubts and 
 self -torturing sophistry. A last glimpse of his im-
 
 200 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xi. perious curiosity, kept alive by saucy hopes and 
 fears, is seen in his letter to Speed of the 5th of 
 October. He ventures, with a genuine timidity, to 
 ask a question which we may believe has not often 
 been asked by one civilized man of another, with 
 the hope of a candid answer., since marriages were 
 celebrated with ring and book. "I want to ask 
 you a close question Are you now, in feeling as 
 well as judgment, glad you are married as you are I 
 From anybody but me this would be an impudent 
 question, not to be tolerated ; but I know you will 
 pardon it in me. Please answer it quickly, as I am 
 impatient to know." It is probable that Mr. Speed 
 replied promptly in the way in which such 
 questions must almost of necessity be answered. 
 On the 4th of November, 1842, a marriage license 
 was issued to Lincoln, and on the same day he was 
 married to Miss Mary Todd, the ceremony being 
 performed by the Rev. Charles Dresser. Four sons 
 were the issue of this marriage : Robert Todd, born 
 August 1, 1843; Edward Baker, March 10, 1846; 
 William Wallace, December 21, 1850 ; Thomas, 
 April 4, 1853. Of these only the eldest lived to 
 maturity. 
 
 In this way Abraham Lincoln met and passed 
 through one of the most important crises of his life. 
 There was so much of idiosyncrasy in it that it 
 has been, and will continue to be for years to come, 
 the occasion of endless gossip in Sangamon 
 County and elsewhere. Because it was not pre 
 cisely like the experience of other people, who are 
 married and given in marriage every day without 
 any ado, a dozen conflicting stories have grown up, 
 more or less false and injurious to both contracting
 
 MAEEIAGE 201 
 
 parties. But it may not be fanciful to suppose CHAP. xi. 
 that characters like that of Lincoln, elected for 
 great conflicts and trials, are fashioned by different 
 processes from those of ordinary men, and pass 
 their stated ordeals in a different way. By cir 
 cumstances which seem commonplace enough to 
 commonplace people, he was thrown for more than 
 a year into a sea of perplexities and sufferings 
 beyond the reach of the common run of souls. 
 
 It is as useless as it would be indelicate to seek to 
 penetrate in detail the incidents and special causes 
 which produced in his mind this darkness as of the 
 valley of the shadow of death. There was probably 
 nothing worth recording in them ; we are only 
 concerned with their effect upon a character which 
 was to be hereafter for all time one of the posses 
 sions of the nation. It is enough for us to know 
 that a great trouble came upon him, and that he 
 bore it nobly after his kind. That the manner 
 in which he confronted this crisis was strangely 
 different from that of most men in similar circum 
 stances need surely occasion no surprise. Neither 
 in this nor in other matters was he shaped in the 
 average mold of his contemporaries. In many 
 respects he was doomed to a certain loneliness of 
 excellence. There are few men that have had his 
 stern and tyrannous sense of duty, his womanly 
 tenderness of heart, his wakeful and inflexible 
 conscience, which was so easy towards others and 
 so merciless towards himself. Therefore when the 
 time came for all of these qualities at once to be 
 put to the most strenuous proof, the whole course 
 of his development and the tendency of his nature 
 made it inevitable that his suffering should be of the
 
 202 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xi. keenest and his final triumph over himself should 
 be of the most complete and signal character. In 
 that struggle his youth of reveries and day-dreams 
 passed away. Such furnace-blasts of proof, such 
 pangs of transformation, seem necessary for excep 
 tional natures. The bread eaten in tears, of which 
 Goethe speaks, the sleepless nights of sorrow, 
 are required for a clear vision of the celestial 
 powers. Fortunately the same qualities that 
 occasion the conflict insure the victory also. From 
 days of gloom and depression, such as we have 
 been considering, no doubt came precious results in 
 the way of sympathy, self-restraint, and that sober 
 reliance on the final triumph of good over evil 
 peculiar to those who have been greatly tried but 
 not destroyed. The late but splendid maturity of 
 Lincoln's mind and character dates from this time, 
 and, although he grew in strength and knowledge 
 to the end, from this year we observe a steadiness 
 and sobriety of thought and purpose, as discernible 
 in his life as in his style. He was like a blade 
 forged in fire and tempered in the ice-brook, ready 
 for battle whenever the battle might come.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE SHIELDS DUEL 
 
 AN incident which occurred during the summer CHAP. xn. 
 -X~jL preceding Mr. Lincoln's marriage, and which 
 in the opinion of many had its influence in has 
 tening that event, deserves some attention, if only 
 from its incongruity with the rest of his history. 
 This was the farce which aspired at one time to 
 be a tragedy of his first and last duel. Among 
 the officers of the State Government was a young 
 Irishman named James Shields, who owed his post 
 as Auditor, in great measure, to that alien vote 
 to gain which the Democrats had overturned the 
 Supreme Court. The finances of the State were in 
 a deplorable condition: the treasury was empty; 
 auditor's warrants were selling at half their 
 nominal value; no more money was to be bor 
 rowed, and taxation was dreaded by both political 
 parties more than disgrace. The currency of the 
 State banks was well-nigh worthless, but it consti 
 tuted nearly the only circulating medium in the 
 State. 
 
 I In the middle of August the Governor, Auditor, 
 and Treasurer issued a circular forbidding the pay 
 ment of State taxes in this depreciated paper, j 
 This order was naturally taken by the Whigs as 
 
 203
 
 204 ABKAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xii. indicating on the part of these officers a keener 
 interest in the integrity of their salaries than in 
 the public welfare, and it was therefore severely 
 attacked in all the opposition newspapers of the 
 State. 
 
 1 \ The sharpest assault it had to endure, how 
 ever, was in a communication, dated August 27, 
 and printed in the " Sangamo Journal " of Sep 
 tember 2, not only dissecting the administra 
 tion circular with the most savage satire, but 
 covering the Auditor with merciless personal 
 ridicule. It was written in the dialect of the 
 country, dated from the " Lost Townships," and 
 signed "Rebecca," and purported to co'Hiy "Hl'uin a 
 farmer widow of the county, who expressed in 
 this fashion her discontent with the evil course 
 of affairs. 
 <J ) ? \Shields was a man of inordinate vanity and a 
 
 \jorresponding irascibility. He was for that reason 
 an irresistible mark for satire. Through a long 
 life of somewhat conspicuous public service, he 
 
 - never lost a certain tone of absurdity which can 
 only be accounted for by the qualities we have 
 mentioned.^-Q3>ven his honorable wounds in battle, 
 while they were productive of great public applause 
 
 ; and political success, gained him scarcely less 
 ridicule than praise. \J-He never could refrain 
 from talking of them himself, having none of 
 Coriolanus's repugnance in that respect, and for 
 that reason was a constant target for newspaper 
 wits. 
 
 After Shields returned from the Mexican war, 
 with his laurels still green, and at the close of 
 the canvass which had made him Senator, he
 
 igen- 
 cer," Feb. 
 
 THE SHIELDS DUEL 205 
 
 wrote an incredible letter to Judge Breese, his CHAP. xn. 
 principal competitor, in which he committed the 
 gratuitous folly of informing him that "he had 
 sworn in his heart [if Breese had been elected] 
 that he should never have profited by his success ; 
 and depend upon it," he added, in the amazing 
 impudence of triumph, "I would have kept that 
 vow, regardless of consequences. That, however, 
 is now past, and the vow is canceled by your 
 defeat." He then went on, with threats equally 
 indecent, to make certain demands which were 
 altogether inadmissible, and which Judge Breese 
 only noticed by sending this preposterous letter to 
 
 flio Yivfica er," re 
 
 bb - 28, 1849 
 
 It may easily be imagined that a man who, after V/\ 
 being elected a Senator of the United States, was 
 capable of the insane insolence of signing his name 
 to a letter informing his defeated competitor that 
 he would have killed him if the result had been 
 different, would not have been likely, when seven S 
 years younger, to bear newspaper ridicule with 
 equanimity. His fury against the unknown author 
 of the satire was the subject of much merriment in 
 Springfield, and the next week another letter 
 appeared, from a different hand, but adopting the 
 machinery of the first, in which the widow offered 
 to make up the quarrel by marrying the Auditor, 
 and this, in time, was followed by an epithalamium, 
 in which this happy compromise was celebrated in 
 very bad verses. In the change of hands all the 
 humor of the thing had evaporated, and nothing 
 was left but feminine mischief on one side and the 
 exasperation of wounded vanity on the other. 
 
 Shields, however, had talked so much about the
 
 206 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xii. matter that lie now felt imperatively called upon 
 to act, and he therefore sent General Whitesides to 
 demand from the " Journal " the name of its con 
 tributor. Mr. Francis, the editor, was in a quan 
 dary. Lincoln had written the first letter, and the 
 antic fury of Shields had induced two young ladies 
 who took a lively interest in Illinois politics and 
 with good reason, for one was to be the wife of a 
 Senator and the other of a President to follow 
 up the game with attacks in prose and verse which, 
 however deficient in wit and meter, were not wanting 
 in pungency. In his dilemma he applied to Lincoln, 
 who, as he was starting to attend court at Tre- 
 mont, told him to give his name and withhold the 
 names of the ladies. As soon as Whitesides received 
 this information, he and his fiery principal set out for 
 Tremont, and as Shields did nothing in silence, the 
 news came to Lincoln's friends, two of whom, Will 
 iam Butler and Dr. Merryman, one of those combat 
 ive medical men who havealmost disappeared from 
 American society, went off in a buggy in pursuit. 
 They soon came in sight of the others, but loitered 
 in the rear until evening, and then drove rapidly 
 to Tremont, arriving there some time in advance 
 of Shields; so that in the ensuing negotiations 
 Abraham Lincoln had the assistance of friends 
 whose fidelity and whose nerve were equally be 
 yond question. 
 
 It would be useless to recount all the tedious 
 preliminaries of the affair. Shields opened the 
 correspondence, as might have been expected, with 
 blustering and with threats; his nature had no 
 other way of expressing itself. His first letter was 
 taken as a bar to any explanation or understand-
 
 THE SHIELDS DUEL 207 
 
 ing, and he afterwards wrote a second, a little less CHAP, in 
 offensive in tone, but without withdrawing the 
 first. At every interview of the seconds General 
 Whitesides deplored the bloodthirsty disposition of 
 his principal, and urged that Mr. Lincoln should 
 make the concessions which alone would prevent 
 lamentable results. These representations seemed 
 to avail nothing, however, and the parties, after 
 endless talk, went to Alton and crossed the river 
 to the Missouri shore. It seemed for a moment 
 that the fight must take place. The terms had 
 been left by the code, as then understood in the 
 West, to Lincoln, and he certainly made no grudg 
 ing use of his privilege. The weapons chosen were 
 " cavalry broadswords of the largest size"; and the 
 combatants were to stand on either side of a board 
 placed on the ground, each to fight in a limit of six 
 feet on his own side of the board. It was evident 
 that Lincoln did not desire the death of his adver 
 sary, and did not intend to be materially injured 
 himself. The advantage morally was altogether 
 against him. He felt intensely the stupidity of the 
 whole affair, but thought he could not avoid the 
 fight without degradation ; while to Shields such a 
 fracas was a delight. The duel came to its natural 
 end by the intervention of the usual " gods out of a 
 machine," the gods being John J. Hardin and one 
 Dr. English, and the machine a canoe in which 
 they had hastily paddled across the Mississippi. 
 Shields suffered himself to be persuaded to with 
 draw his offensive challenge. Lincoln then made 
 the explanation he had been ready to make from 
 the beginning; avowing the one letter he had 
 written, and saying that it had been printed solely 

 
 208 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xii. for political effect, and without any intention of 
 injuring Shields personally. 
 
 One would think that, after a week passed in 
 such unprofitable trifling, the parties, principal 
 and secondary, would have been willing to drop 
 the matter forever. We are sure that Lincoln 
 would have been glad to banish it, even from his 
 memory ; but to men like Shields and Whitesides, 
 the peculiar relish and enjoyment of such an affair 
 is its publicity. I On the 3d of October, therefore, 
 eleven days after the meeting, as public attention 
 seemed to be flagging, Whitesides wrote an account 
 of it to the u Sangamo Journal," for which he did 
 not forget to say, "I hold myself responsible! " Of 
 course he seized the occasion to paint a heroic por 
 trait of himself and his principal. It was an excel 
 lent story until the next week, when Dr. Merryman, 
 who seems to have wielded a pen like a scalpel, 
 gave a much fuller history of the matter, which he 
 substantiated by printing all the documents, and, 
 not content with that, gave little details of the 
 negotiations which show, either that Whitesides 
 was one of the most grotesque braggarts of the 
 time, or that Merryman was an admirable writer 
 of comic fiction. Among the most amusing facts 
 he brought forward was that Whitesides, being a 
 Fund Commissioner of the State, ran the risk of 
 losing his office by engaging in a duel ; and his 
 anxiety to appear reckless and dangerous, and yet 
 keep within the statute and save his salary, was 
 depicted by Merryman with a droll fidelity. He 
 concluded by charging Whitesides plainly with 
 " inefficiency and want of knowledge of those laws 
 which govern gentlemen in matters of this kind,"
 
 THE SHIELDS DUEL 209 
 
 and with " trying to wipe out his fault by doing an CHAP, xn 
 act of injustice to Mr. Lincoln." 
 
 The town was greatly diverted by these pungent 
 echoes of the bloodless fight, and Shields and 
 Whitesides felt that their honor was still out of 
 repair. A rapid series of challenges succeeded 
 among the parties, principals and seconds chang 
 ing places as deftly as dancers in a quadrille. The 
 Auditor challenged Mr. Butler, who had been very 
 outspoken in his contemptuous comments on the 
 affair. Butler at once accepted, and with a grim 
 sincerity announced his conditions "to fight next 
 morning at sunrising in Bob Allen's meadow, one 
 hundred yards' distance, with rifles." This was 
 instantly declined, with a sort of horror, by Shields 
 and Whitesides, as such a proceeding would have 
 proved fatal to their official positions and their 
 means of livelihood. They probably cared less for 
 the chances of harm from Butler's Kentucky rifle 
 than for the certainty of the Illinois law which cut 
 off all duelists from holding office in the State. 
 
 But, on the other hand, so unreasonable is 
 human nature as displayed among politicians, 
 General Whitesides felt that if he bore patiently the 
 winged words of Merryman, his availability as a 
 candidate was greatly damaged ; and he therefore 
 sent to the witty doctor what Mr. Lincoln called 
 "a quasi-challenge," hurling at him a modified 
 defiance, which should be enough to lure him to 
 the field of honor, and yet not sufficiently explicit 
 to lose Whitesides the dignity and perquisites 
 of Fund Commissioner. Merryman, not being an 
 office-holder and having no salary to risk, re 
 sponded with brutal directness, which was highly 
 
 VOL. L 14
 
 210 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xii. unsatisfactory to Whitesides, who was determined 
 not to fight unless he could do so lawfully; and 
 Lincoln, who now acted as second to the doctor in 
 his turn, records the cessation of the correspond 
 ence amid the agonized explanations of Whitesides 
 and the scornful hootings of Merryman, " while 
 the town was in a ferment and a street fight some 
 what anticipated." In respect to the last diversion 
 the town was disappointed. 
 
 Shields lost nothing by the hilarity which this 
 burlesque incident created. He was reserved for a 
 career of singular luck and glory mingled with 
 signal misfortunes. On account of his political 
 availability he continued throughout a long life 
 time to be selected at intervals for high positions. 
 After he ceased to be Auditor he was elected a 
 judge of the Supreme Court of Illinois ; while still 
 holding that position he applied for the place of 
 Commissioner of the General Land Office, and his 
 application was successful. When the Mexican war 
 broke out he asked for a commission as brigadier- 
 general, although he still held his civil appointment, 
 and, to the amazement of the whole army, he was 
 given that important command before he had ever 
 seen a day's service. At the battle of Cerro Gordo 
 he was shot through the lungs, and this wound 
 made him a United States Senator as soon as 
 he returned from the war. After he had served 
 one term in the Senate, he removed from Illinois, 
 and was soon sent back to the same body from 
 Minnesota. In the war of the rebellion he was 
 again appointed a brigadier-general by his old 
 adversary, and was again wounded in a battle 
 in which his troops defeated the redoubtable
 
 THE SHIELDS DUEL 211 
 
 Stonewall Jackson ; and many years after Lincoln CHAP. xn. 
 was laid to sleep beneath a mountain of marble at 
 Springfield, Shields was made the shuttlecock of 
 contending demagogues in Congress, each striving 
 to make a point by voting him money until in 
 the impulse of that transient controversy, the State 
 of Missouri, finding the gray-headed soldier in her 
 borders, for the third time sent him to the Senate 
 of the United States for a few weeks a history, 
 unparalleled even in America. 
 
 We have reason to think that the affair of the 
 duel was excessively distasteful to Lincoln. He 
 did not even enjoy the ludicrousness of it, as might 
 have been expected. He never so far as we can 
 learn alluded to it afterwards, and the recollec 
 tion of it died away so completely from the minds of 
 people in the State, that during the heated canvass 
 of 1860 there was no mention of this disagreeable 
 episode in the opposition papers of Illinois. It had 
 been absolutely forgotten. 
 
 This was Mr. Lincoln's last personal quarrel. 1 
 
 i Lincoln's life was unusually my words ' imported insult.' I 
 
 free from personal disputes. We meant them as a fair set-off to 
 
 know of only one other hostile your own statements, and not 
 
 letter addressed to him. This was otherwise ; and in that light alone 
 
 from W. G-. Anderson, who being I now wish you to understand 
 
 worsted in a verbal encounter them. You ask for my 'present 
 
 with Lincoln at Lawrenceville, feelings on the subject.' I enter- 
 
 the county-seat of Lawrence tain no unkind feeling to you, 
 
 County, HI., wrote him a note and none of any sort upon the 
 
 demanding an explanation of his subject, except a sincere regret 
 
 words and of his "present feel- that I permitted myself to get 
 
 ings." Lincoln's reply shows that into any such altercation." This 
 
 his habitual peaceableness in- seems to have ended the matter 
 
 volved no lack of dignity ; he said, although the apology was made 
 
 "Your note of yesterday is re- rather to himself than to Mr. 
 
 ceived. In the difficulty between Anderson. (See the letter of 
 
 us of which you speak, you say William C. Wilkinson in " The 
 
 you think I was the aggressor. Century Magazine " for January, 
 
 I do not think I was. You say 1889.)
 
 212 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xu. Although, the rest of his life was passed in hot and 
 earnest debate, he never again descended to the level 
 of his adversaries, who would gladly enough have 
 resorted to unseemly wrangling. In later years it 
 became his duty to give an official reprimand to a 
 young officer who had been court-martialed for a 
 quarrel with one of his associates. The reprimand 
 is probably the gentlest recorded in the annals of 
 penal discourses, and it shows in few words the 
 principles which ruled the conduct of this great 
 and peaceable man. It has never before been pub 
 lished, and it deserves to be written in letters of 
 gold on the walls of every gymnasium and college : 
 
 The advice of a father to his son, " Beware of entrance 
 to a quarrel, but being in, bear it that the opposed may 
 beware of thee ! " is good, but not the best. Quarrel not 
 at all. No man resolved to make the most of himself 
 can spare time for personal contention. Still less can he 
 afford to take all the consequences, including the vitiating 
 of his temper and the loss of self-control. Yield larger 
 things to which you can show no more than equal right ; 
 and yield lesser ones though clearly your own. Better 
 give your path to a dog than be bitten by him in contest 
 ing for the right. Even killing the dog would not cure 
 the bite. 
 
 /
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OP 1844 
 
 IN the letter to Stuart which we have quoted, CHAP.XIII. 
 Lincoln announced his intention to form a 
 partnership with Judge Logan, which was soon 
 carried out. His connection with Stuart was form 
 ally dissolved in April, 1841, and one with Logan 
 formed which continued for four years. It may 
 almost be said that Lincoln's practice as a law 
 yer begins from this time. Stuart, though even 
 then giving promise of the distinction at which 
 he arrived in his profession later in life, was at 
 that period so entirely devoted to politics that the 
 business of the office was altogether a secondary 
 matter to him ; and Lincoln, although no longer in 
 his first youth, being then thirty-two years of age, 
 had not yet formed those habits of close application 
 which are indispensable to permanent success at 
 the bar. He was not behind the greater part of 
 his contemporaries in this respect. Among all the 
 lawyers of the circuit who were then, or who after 
 wards became, eminent practitioners, 1 there were 
 few indeed who in those days applied themselves 
 
 1 They were Dan Stone, Jesse uel H. Treat, Ninian W. Ed- 
 
 B. Thomas, Cyrus Walker, wards, Josiah Lamborn, John 
 
 Sehuyler Strong, Albert T. J. Hardin, Edward D. Baker, 
 
 Bledsoe, George Forquer, Sam- and others. 
 
 213
 
 214 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xiii. with any degree of persistency to the close study 
 of legal principles. One of these few was Stephen 
 T. Logan. He was more or less a politician, as 
 were all his compeers at the bar, but he was always 
 more a lawyer than anything else. He had that 
 love for his profession which it jealously exacts 
 as a condition of succeeding. He possessed few 
 books, and it used to be said of him long after 
 wards that he carried his library in his hat. But 
 the books which he had he never ceased to read 
 and ponder, and we heard him say when he was 
 sixty years old, that once every year since he came 
 of age he had read " Blackstone's Commentaries " 
 through. He had that old-fashioned, lawyer-like 
 morality which was keenly intolerant of any laxity 
 or slovenliness of mind or character. His former 
 partner had been Edward D. Baker, but this 
 brilliant and mercurial spirit was not congenial to 
 Logan ; Baker's carelessness in money matters was 
 intolerable to him, and he was glad to escape from 
 an associate so gifted and so exasperating. 1 
 
 Needing some one, however, to assist him in his 
 practice, which was then considerable, he invited 
 Lincoln into partnership. He had, as we have 
 seen, formed a favorable opinion of the young 
 Kentuckian the first time they had met. In his 
 subsequent acquaintance with him he had come to 
 recognize and respect his abilities, his unpretending 
 
 1 Logan's office was, in fact, a able to elect one. After he had 
 
 nursery of statesmen. Three of retired from practice, the office, 
 
 his partners, William L. May, under his son-in-law and suc- 
 
 Baker, and Lincoln, left him in cessor, Milton Hay, retained its 
 
 rapid succession to go to Congress, prestige for cradling public men. 
 
 and finally the contagion gained John M. Palmer and Shelby M. 
 
 the head of the firm, and the judge Cullom left it to be Governors of 
 
 was himself the candidate of his the State, and the latter to be a 
 
 party, when it was no longer Congressman and Senator.
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF 1844 215 
 
 common sense, and his innate integrity. The CHAP.XIU. 
 partnership continued about four years, but the 
 benefit Lincoln derived from it lasted all his life. 
 The example of Judge Logan's thrift, order, and 
 severity of morals ; his straightforward devotion to 
 his profession ; his close and careful study of his 
 cases, together with the larger and more important 
 range of practice to which Lincoln was introduced 
 by this new association, confirmed all those 
 salutary tendencies by which he had been led into 
 the profession, and corrected those less desirable 
 ones which he shared with most of the lawyers 
 about him. He began for the first time to study 
 his cases with energy and patience ; to resist the 
 tendency, almost universal at that day, to supply 
 with florid rhetoric the attorney's deficiency in 
 law ; in short, to educate, discipline, and train the 
 enormous faculty, hitherto latent in him, for close 
 and severe intellectual labor. Logan, who had ex 
 pected that Lincoln's chief value to him would be 
 as a talking advocate before juries, was surprised 
 and pleased to find his new partner rapidly becom 
 ing a lawyer. " He would study out his case and 
 make about as much of it as anybody," said Logan, 
 many years afterwards. "His ambition as a 
 lawyer increased; he grew constantly. By close 
 study of each case, as it came up, he got to be 
 quite a formidable lawyer." The character of the 
 man is in these words. He had vast concerns in 
 trusted to him in the course of his life, and dis 
 posed of them one at a time as they were presented. 
 At the end of four years the partnership was 
 dissolved. Judge Logan took his son David after 
 wards a well-known politician and lawyer of Ore-
 
 216 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xm. gon into his office, and Lincoln opened one of his 
 own, into which he soon invited a young, bright, and 
 enthusiastic man named William Henry Herndon, 
 who remained his partner as long as Lincoln lived. 
 
 The old partners continued close and intimate 
 friends. They practiced at the same bar for twenty 
 years, often as associates, and often as adversaries, 
 but always with relations of mutual confidence and 
 regard. They had the unusual honor, while they 
 were still comparatively young men, of seeing their 
 names indissolubly associated in the map of their 
 State as a memorial to future ages of their friend 
 ship and their fame, in the county of Logan, of 
 which the city of Lincoln is the county-seat. 
 
 They both prospered, each in his way. Logan 
 rapidly gained a great reputation and accumulated 
 an ample fortune. Lincoln, while he did not 
 become rich, always earned a respectable liveli 
 hood, and never knew the care of poverty or debt 
 from that time forward. His wife and he suited 
 their style of living to their means, and were 
 equally removed from luxury and privation. They 
 went to live, immediately after their marriage, at 
 a boarding-house 1 called "The Globe," which was 
 " very well kept by a widow lady of the name of 
 Beck," and there their first child was born, who 
 was one day to be Secretary of War and Minister 
 to England, and for whom was reserved the strange 
 experience of standing by the death-bed of two 
 assassinated Presidents. Lincoln afterwards built 
 a comfortable house of wood on the corner of 
 Eighth and Jackson streets, where he lived until 
 he removed to the White House. 
 
 1 This house is still standing, opposite St. Paul's church.
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF 1844 217 
 
 Neither his marriage nor his new professional CHAP.XIII. 
 interests, however, put an end to his participation 
 in politics. Even that period of gloom and depres 
 sion of which we have spoken, and which has been 
 so much exaggerated by the chroniclers and the 
 gossip of Springfield, could not have interrupted 
 for any length of time his activity as a member of 
 the Legislature. Only for a few days was he 
 absent from his place in the House. On the 19th 
 of January, 1841, John J. Hardin apologized for 
 the delay in some committee business, alleging 
 Mr. Lincoln's indisposition as an excuse. On the 
 23d the letter to Stuart was written; but on the 
 26th Lincoln had so far recovered his self-posses 
 sion as to resume his place in the House and the 
 leadership of his party. The journals of the next 
 month show his constant activity and prominence 
 in the routine business of the Legislature until it 
 adjourned. In August, Stuart was reflected to 
 Congress. Lincoln made his visit to Kentucky 
 with Speed, and returned to find himself generally 
 talked of for Governor of the State. This idea did 
 not commend itself to the judgment of himself or 
 his friends, and accordingly we find in the " San- 
 gamo Journal " one of those semi-official announce 
 ments so much in vogue in early Western politics, 
 which, while disclaiming any direct inspiration 
 from Mr. Lincoln, expressed the gratitude of his 
 friends for the movement in his favor, but declined 
 the nomination. " His talents and services endear 
 him to the Whig party ; but we do not believe he 
 desires the nomination. He has already made 
 great sacrifices in maintaining his party principles, 
 and before his political friends ask him to make
 
 218 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xiii. additional sacrifices, the subject should be well 
 considered. The office of Governor, which would 
 of necessity interfere with the practice of his pro 
 fession, would poorly compensate him for the loss 
 of four of the best years of his life." 
 
 He served this year as a member of the Whig 
 Central Committee, and bore a prominent part in 
 the movement set on foot at that time to check 
 intemperance in the use of spirits. It was a move 
 ment in the name and memory of Washington, and 
 the orators of the cause made effective rhetorical 
 use of its august associations. A passage from the 
 close of a speech made by Lincoln on February 22, 
 1842, shows the fervor and feeling of the hour: 
 " Washington is the mightiest name of earth 
 long since mightiest in the cause of civil liberty ; 
 still mightiest in moral reformation. On that 
 name no eulogy is expected. It cannot be. To 
 add brightness to the sun or glory to the name of 
 Washington is alike impossible. Let none attempt 
 it. In solemn awe pronounce the name, and in its 
 naked, deathless splendor leave it shining on." 
 
 A mass meeting of the Whigs of the district was 
 held at Springfield on the 1st of March, 1843, for 
 the purpose of organizing the party for the elec 
 tions of the year. On this occasion Lincoln was 
 the most prominent figure. He called the meeting 
 to order, stated its object, and drew up the plat 
 form of principles, which embraced the orthodox 
 Whig tenets of a protective tariff, national bank, 
 the distribution of the proceeds of the public lands, 
 and, finally, the tardy conversion of the party to 
 the convention system, which had been forced 
 upon them by the example of the Democrats, who
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF 1844 219 
 
 had shown them that victory could not be organ- CHAP.XIII. 
 ized without it. Lincoln was also chairman of the 
 committee which was charged with the address to 
 the people, and a paragraph from this document is 
 worth quoting, as showing the use which he made 
 at that early day of a pregnant text which was 
 hereafter to figure in a far more momentous con 
 nection, and exercise a powerful influence upon his 
 career. Exhorting the Whigs to harmony, he says : 
 " That union is strength is a truth that has been 
 known, illustrated, and declared in various ways 
 and forms in all ages of the world. That great 
 fabulist and philosopher, ^Bsop, illustrated it by 
 his fable of the bundle of sticks; and He whose 
 wisdom surpasses that of all philosophers has 
 declared that 'a house divided against itself can 
 not stand.' " He calls to mind the victory of 1840, 
 the overwhelming majority gained by the Whigs 
 that year, their ill success since, and the necessity 
 of unity and concord that the party may make its 
 entire strength felt. 
 
 Lincoln was at this time a candidate for the 
 Whig nomination to Congress; but he was con 
 fronted by formidable competition. The adjoining 
 county of Morgan was warmly devoted to one of 
 its own citizens, John J. Hardin, a man of an 
 unusually gallant and chivalrous strain of character; 
 and several other counties, for reasons not worth 
 considering, were pledged to support any one 
 whom Morgan County presented. If Lincoln had 
 carried Sangamon County, his strength was so 
 great in Menard and Mason, where he was person 
 ally known, that he could have been easily nomi 
 nated. But Edward D. Baker had long coveted a
 
 220 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xni. seat in Congress, and went into the contest against 
 Lincoln with many points in his favor. He was of 
 about the same age, but had resided longer in the 
 district, had a larger personal acquaintance, and 
 was a much readier and more pleasing speaker. 
 In fact, there are few men who have ever lived in 
 this country with more of the peculiar tempera 
 ment of the orator than Edward Dickinson Baker. 
 It is related of him that on one occasion when the 
 circumstances called for a policy of reserve, he was 
 urged by his friends to go out upon a balcony 
 and address an impromptu audience, which was 
 calling for him. " No," he replied, mistrusting his 
 own fluency ; " if I go out there, I will make a better 
 speech than I want to." He was hardly capable 
 of the severe study and care by which great 
 parliamentary speakers are trained ; but before 
 a popular audience, and on all occasions where 
 brilliant and effective improvisation was called for, 
 he was almost unequaled. His funeral oration over 
 the dead body of Senator Broderick in California, 
 his thrilling and inspiriting appeal in Union Square, 
 New York, at the great meeting of April, 1861, 
 and his reply to Breckinridge in the Senate de 
 livered upon the impulse of the moment, conceived 
 as he listened to the Kentuckian's peroration, 
 leaning against the doorway of the Chamber in full 
 uniform, booted and spurred, as he had ridden into 
 Washington from the camp, are among the most 
 remarkable specimens of absolutely unstudied and 
 thrilling eloquence which our annals contain. He 
 was also a man of extremely prepossessing ap 
 pearance. Born in England of poor yet educated 
 parents, and brought as a child to this country, his
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF 1844 221 
 
 good looks and brightness had early attracted CHAP.XIH. 
 the attention of prominent gentlemen in Illinois, 
 especially of Governor Edwards, who had made 
 much of him and assisted him to a good education. 
 He had met with considerable success as a lawyer, 
 though he always relied rather upon his eloquence 
 than his law, and there were few juries which 
 could resist the force and fury of his speech, and 
 not many lawyers could keep their equanimity 
 in the face of his witty persiflage and savage sar 
 casm. When to all this is added a genuine love of 
 every species of combat, physical and moral, we 
 may understand the name Charles Sumner para 
 phrasing a well-known epigram applied to him in 
 the Senate, after his heroic death at Ball's Bluff, 
 " the Prince Eupert of battle and debate." 
 
 If Baker had relied upon his own unquestionable 
 merits he would have been reasonably sure of 
 succeeding in a community so well acquainted with 
 him as Sangamon County. But to make assurance 
 doubly sure his friends resorted to tactics which 
 Lincoln, the most magnanimous and placable of 
 men, thought rather unfair. Baker and his wife 
 belonged to that numerous and powerful sect 
 which has several times played an important part 
 in Western politics the Disciples. They all sup 
 ported him energetically, and used as arguments 
 against Lincoln that his wife was a Presbyterian, 
 that most of her family were Episcopalians, that 
 Lincoln himself belonged to no church, and that he 
 had been suspected of deism, and, finally, that he 
 was the candidate of the aristocracy. This last 
 charge so amazed Lincoln that he was unable to 
 frame any satisfactory answer to it. The memory
 
 222 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xin. of his flat-boating days, of his illiterate youth, even 
 of his deer-skin breeches shrunken by rain and 
 exposure, appeared to have no power against this 
 unexpected and baleful charge. When the county 
 convention met, the delegates to the district con 
 vention were instructed to cast the vote of San- 
 gamon for Baker. It showed the confidence of the 
 convention in the imperturbable good-nature of the 
 defeated candidate that they elected him a delegate 
 to the Congressional convention charged with the 
 cause of his successful rival. In a letter to Speed, 
 he humorously refers to his situation as that of a 
 rejected suitor who is asked to act as groomsman 
 at the wedding of his sweetheart. 
 
 It soon became evident that Baker could not get 
 strength enough outside of the county to nominate 
 him. Lincoln in a letter to Speed, written in May, 
 said: "In relation to our Congress matter here, 
 you were right in supposing I would support the 
 nominee. Neither Baker nor I, however, is the 
 man, but Hardin, so far as I can judge from 
 present appearances. We shall have no split or 
 trouble about the matter ; all will be harmony." A 
 few days later this prediction was realized. The 
 convention met at Pekin, and nominated Hardin 
 with all the customary symptoms of spontaneous 
 enthusiasm. He was elected in August, 1 after a 
 short but active canvass, in which Lincoln bore his 
 part as usual. Hardin took his seat in December. 
 The next year the time of holding elections was 
 changed, and always afterwards the candidates 
 were elected the year before vacancies were to 
 
 i The opposing candidate was forma, one of the most remark- 
 James A. McDougall, who was able and eccentric figures in 
 afterwards, as Senator from Cali- Washington life.
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF 1844 223 
 
 occur. In May, 1844, therefore, Baker attained CHAP.XIII. 
 the desire of his heart by being nominated, and in 
 August he was elected, defeating John Calhoun, 
 while Lincoln had the laborious and honorable 
 post of Presidential Elector. 
 
 It was not the first nor the last time that he 
 acted in this capacity. The place had become his 
 by a sort of prescription. His persuasive and con 
 vincing oratory was thought so useful to his party 
 that every four years he was sent, in the character 
 of electoral canvasser, to the remotest regions of 
 the State to talk to the people in their own dialect, 
 with their own habits of thought and feeling, in 
 favor of the Whig candidate. The office had its 
 especial charm for him; if beaten, as generally 
 happened, the defeat had no personal significance ; 
 if elected, the functions of the place were dis 
 charged in one day, and the office passed from 
 existence. But there was something more than the 
 orator and the partisan concerned in this campaign 
 of 1844. The whole heart of the man was enlisted 
 in it for the candidate was the beloved and 
 idolized leader of the Whigs, Henry Clay. It is 
 probable that we shall never see again in this 
 country another such instance of the personal 
 devotion of a party to its chieftain as that which 
 was shown by the long and wonderful career of 
 Mr. Clay. He became prominent in the politics of 
 Kentucky near the close of the last century at 
 twenty-three years of age. He was elected first to 
 the Senate at twenty-nine. He died a Senator at 
 seventy-five, and for the greater part of that long 
 interval he was the most considerable personal 
 influence in American politics. As Senator, Eepre-
 
 224 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xiii. sentative, Speaker of the House, and diplomatist, 
 he filled the public eye for half a century, and 
 although he twice peremptorily retired from office, 
 and although he was the mark of the most furious 
 partisan hatred all his days, neither his own weari 
 ness nor the malice of his enemies could ever keep 
 him for any length of time from that commanding 
 position for which his temperament and his nature 
 designed him. He was beloved, respected, and 
 served by his adherents with a single-hearted 
 allegiance which seems impossible to the more 
 complex life of a later generation. In 1844, it is 
 true, he was no longer young, and his power may 
 be said to have been on the decline. But there 
 were circumstances connected with this his last 
 candidacy which excited his faithful followers to a 
 peculiar intensity of devotion. He had been, as 
 many thought, unjustly passed over in 1840, and 
 General Harrison, a man of greatly inferior capacity, 
 had been preferred to him on the grounds of pru 
 dence and expediency, after three days of balloting 
 had shown that the eloquent Kentuckian had more 
 friends and more enemies than any other man in 
 the republic. He had seemed to regain all his popu 
 larity by the prompt and frank support which he 
 gave to the candidacy of Harrison; and after the 
 President's death and the treachery of Tyler had 
 turned the victory of the Whigs into dust and ashes, 
 the entire party came back to Clay with passionate 
 affection and confidence, to lead them in the des 
 perate battle which perhaps no man could have 
 won. The Whigs, however, were far from appreciat 
 ing this. There is evident in all their utterances of 
 the spring and early summer of 1844, an ardent and
 
 BKIG.-GEN. JAMES SHIELDS.
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF 1844 225 
 
 almost furious conviction, not only of the necessity CHAP.XIII. 
 but the certainty of success. Mr. Clay was nomi 
 nated long before the convention met in Baltimore. 
 The convention of the 1st of May only ratified the 
 popular will ; no other name was mentioned. Mr. 
 Watkins Leigh had the honor of presenting his 
 name, "a word," he said "that expressed more 
 enthusiasm, that had in it more eloquence, than 
 the names of Chatham, Burke, Patrick Henry, 
 and," he continued, rising to the requirements of 
 the occasion, " to us more than any other and all 
 other names together." Nothing was left to be 
 said, and Clay was nominated without a ballot; 
 Mr. Lumpkin, of Georgia, then nominated Theo 
 dore Frelinghuysen for Vice-President, not hes 
 itating to avow, in the warmth and expansion 
 of the hour, that he believed that the baptismal 
 name of the New Jersey gentleman had a mystical 
 appropriateness to the occasion. 
 
 In the Democratic convention Mr. Van Buren 
 had a majority of delegates pledged to support 
 him ; but it had already been resolved in the inner 
 councils of the party that he should be defeated. 
 The Southern leaders had determined upon the 
 immediate and unconditional annexation of Texas, 
 and Mr. Van Buren's views upon this vital ques 
 tion were too moderate and conservative to suit 
 the adventurous spirits who most closely sur 
 rounded President Tyler. During the whole of 
 the preceding year a steady and earnest propa 
 ganda of annexation had been on foot, starting 
 from the immediate entourage of the President* and 
 embracing a large number of Southern Congress 
 men. A letter had been elicited from General Jack- 
 
 VOL. I. 15
 
 226 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xiii. son, declaring with his usual vehemence in favor 
 of the project, and urging it upon the ground that 
 Texas was absolutely necessary to us, as the most 
 easily defensible frontier against Great Britain. 
 Using the favorite argument of the Southern 
 ers of his school, he said : " Great Britain has 
 already made treaties with Texas; and we know 
 that far-seeing nation never omits a circumstance 
 in her extensive intercourse with the world which 
 can be turned to account in increasing her military 
 resources. May she not enter into an alliance with 
 Texas f And, reserving, as she doubtless will, the 
 North-western boundary question as the cause of 
 war with us whenever she chooses to declare it 
 let us suppose that, as an ally with Texas, we are 
 to fight her. Preparatory to such a movement she 
 sends her 20,000 or 30,000 men to Texas ; organizes 
 them on the Sabine, where supplies and arms can 
 be concentrated before we have even notice of her 
 intentions ; makes a lodgment on the Mississippi ; 
 excites the negroes to insurrection; the lower 
 country falls, with it New Orleans ; and a servile 
 war rages through the whole South and West." l 
 
 These fanciful prophecies of evil were privately 
 circulated for a year among those whom they 
 would be most likely to influence, and the entire 
 letter was printed in 1844, with a result never 
 intended by the writer. It contributed greatly, in 
 the opinion of many, to defeat Van Buren, whom 
 
 Jackson held in great esteem and regard, and 
 served the purposes of the Tyler faction, whom he 
 detested. The argument based on imaginary 
 
 1 This letter was dated at the printed a year later in the "Na- 
 Hermitage, near Nashville, Ten- tional Intelligencer," with the 
 nessee, Feb. 13, 1843, and was date altered to 1844,
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF 1844 227 
 
 British intrigues was the one most relied upon by CHAP.XIII. 
 Mr. Tyler's successive secretaries of state. John C. 
 Calhoun, in his dispatch of the 12th of August, 
 1844, instructed our minister in Paris to impress 
 upon the Government of France the nefarious 
 character of the English diplomacy, which was 
 seeking, by defeating the annexation of Texas, to 
 accomplish the abolition of slavery first in that 
 region, and afterwards throughout the United 
 States, "a blow calamitous to this continent 
 beyond description." No denials on the part of the 
 British Government had any effect ; it was a fixed 
 idea of Calhoun and his followers that the designs 
 of Great Britain against American slavery could 
 only be baffled by the annexation of Texas. Van 
 Buren was not in principle opposed to the admis 
 sion of Texas into the Union at the proper time 
 and with the proper conditions, but the more 
 ardent Democrats of the South were unwilling to 
 listen to any conditions or any suggestion of delay. 
 They succeeded in inducing the convention to 
 adopt the two-thirds rule, after a whole day of 
 stormy debate, and the defeat of Van Buren was 
 secured. The nomination of Mr. Polk was received 
 without enthusiasm, and the exultant hopes of the 
 Whigs were correspondingly increased. 
 
 Contemporary observers differ as to the causes 
 which gradually, as the summer advanced, changed 
 the course of public opinion to such an extent as 
 to bring defeat in November upon a party which 
 was so sure of victory in June. It has been the 
 habit of the antislavery Whigs who have written 
 upon the subject to ascribe the disaster to an indis 
 cretion of the candidate himself. At the outset of
 
 228 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xiii. the campaign Mr. Clay's avowed opinion as to the 
 annexation of Texas was that of the vast majority 
 of his party, especially in the North. While not 
 opposing an increase of territory under all circum 
 stances, he said, in a letter written from Raleigh, 
 N. C., two weeks before his nomination, " I con 
 sider the annexation of Texas, at this time, without 
 the consent of Mexico, as a measure compromising 
 the national character, involving us certainly in 
 war with Mexico, probably with other foreign 
 powers, dangerous to the integrity of the Union, 
 inexpedient in the present financial condition of 
 the country, and not called for by any expression 
 of public opinion." He supported these views with 
 temperate and judicious reasons which were re 
 ceived with much gratification throughout the 
 country. 
 
 Of course they were not satisfactory to every 
 one, and Mr. Clay became so disquieted by letters 
 of inquiry and of criticism from the South, that he 
 was at last moved, in an unfortunate hour, to write 
 another letter to a friend in Alabama, which was 
 regarded as seriously modifying the views he had 
 expressed in the letter from Raleigh. He now said : 
 "I have no hesitation in saying that, far from 
 having any personal objections to the annexation 
 of Texas, I should be glad to see it without dis 
 honor, without war, with the common consent of 
 the Union, and upon just and fair terms. . . I 
 do not think the subject of slavery ought to affect 
 the question one way or the other, whether Texas 
 be independent or incorporated in the United 
 States. I do not believe it will prolong or shorten 
 the duration of that institution. It is destined to
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF 1844 229 
 
 become extinct, at some distant day, in my opinion, CHAP.XIII. 
 by the operation of the inevitable laws of popu 
 lation. It would be unwise to refuse a permanent 
 acquisition, which will exist as long as the globe 
 remains, on account of a temporary institution." 
 Mr. Clay does not in this letter disclaim or disavow 
 any sentiments previously expressed. He says, as 
 any one might say, that provided certain impossible 
 conditions were complied with, he would be glad 
 to see Texas in the Union, and that he was so sure 
 of the ultimate extinction of slavery that he would 
 not let any consideration of that transitory system 
 interfere with a great national advantage. It 
 might naturally have been expected that such an 
 expression would have given less offense to the 
 opponents than to the friends of slavery. But the 
 contrary effect resulted, and it soon became evident 
 that a grave error of judgment had been committed 
 in writing the letter. 
 
 The principal opposition to annexation in the 
 North had been made expressly upon the ground 
 that it would increase the area of slavery, and 
 the comparative indifference with which Mr. Clay 
 treated that view of the subject cost him heavily 
 in the canvass. Horace Greeley, who should be "American 
 regarded as an impartial witness in such a case, 
 says, "The 'Liberty Party,' so-called, pushed this 
 view of the matter beyond all justice and reason, 
 insisting that Mr. Clay's antagonism to annexation, 
 not being founded in antislavery conviction, was 
 of no account whatever, and that his election 
 should, on that ground, be opposed." It availed 
 nothing that Mr. Clay, alarmed at the defection in 
 the North, wrote a third and final letter, reiterating
 
 230 ABKAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xiii. his unaltered objections to any such annexation as 
 was at that time possible. The damage was irre 
 trievable. It is not probable that his letters gained 
 or saved him a vote in the South among the 
 advocates of annexation. They cared for nothing 
 short of their own unconditional scheme of immedi 
 ate action. They forgot the services rendered by 
 Mr. Clay in bringing about the recognition of Texan 
 independence a few years before. 
 
 They saw that Mr. Polk was ready to risk every 
 thing war, international complications, even the 
 dishonor of broken obligations to accomplish 
 their purpose, and nothing the Whig candidate 
 could say would weigh anything in the balance 
 against this blind and reckless readiness. On the 
 other hand, Mr. Clay's cautious and moderate 
 position did him irreparable harm among the ar 
 dent opponents of slavery. They were not willing 
 to listen to counsels of caution and moderation. 
 More than a year before, thirteen of the Whig 
 antislavery Congressmen, headed by the illustrious 
 John Quincy Adams, had issued a fervid address 
 to the people of the free States, declaiming in 
 language of passionate force against the scheme of 
 annexation as fatal to the country, calling it, in 
 fact, " identical with dissolution," and saying that 
 " it would be a violation of our national compact, 
 its objects, designs, and the great elementary 
 principles which entered into its formation of a 
 character so deep and fundamental, and would be 
 an attempt to eternize an institution and a power 
 of nature so unjust in themselves, so injurious to 
 the interests and abhorrent to the feelings of the 
 people of the free States, as in our opinion, not
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OP 1844 231 
 
 only inevitably to result in a dissolution of the CHAP.XIII. 
 
 Union, but fully to justify it ; and we not only 
 
 assert that the people of the free States ought not 
 
 to submit to it, but we say with confidence they 
 
 would not submit to it." To men in a temper like 
 
 that indicated by these words, no arguments drawn 
 
 from consideration of political expediency could be 
 
 expected to have any weight, and it was of no use 
 
 to say to them that in voting for a third candidate 
 
 they were voting to elect Mr. Polk, the avowed 
 
 and eager advocate of annexation. If all the votes 
 
 cast for James Gr. Birney, the " Liberty " candidate, 
 
 had been cast for Clay, he would have been elected, 
 
 and even as it was the contest was close and 
 
 doubtful to the last. Birney received 62,263 votes, 
 
 and the popular majority of Polk over Clay was 
 
 only 38,792. 
 
 There are certain temptations that no govern 
 ment yet instituted has been able to resist. When 
 an object is ardently desired by the majority, when 
 it is practicable, when it is expedient for the 
 material welfare of the country, and when the cost 
 .of it will fall upon other people, it may be taken for 
 granted that in the present condition of interna 
 tional ethics the partisans of the project will never 
 lack means of defending its morality. The annex 
 ation of Texas was one of these cases. Moralists 
 called it an inexcusable national crime, conceived 
 by Southern statesmen for the benefit of slavery, 1 
 carried on during a term of years with unexampled 
 energy, truculence and treachery ; in both houses 
 of Congress, in the cabinets of two Presidents, in 
 
 i This purpose was avowed by May 23, 1836; see also his 
 John C. Calhoun in the Senate, speech of February 24, 1847.
 
 232 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 diplomatic dealings with foreign powers, every 
 step of its progress marked by false professions, by 
 broken pledges, by a steady degradation of moral 
 fiber among all those engaged in the scheme. The 
 opposition to it as usually happens consisted 
 partly in the natural effort of partisans to baffle 
 their opponents, and partly in an honorable protest 
 of heart and conscience against a great wrong 
 committed in the interest of a national sin. But 
 looking back upon the whole transaction even 
 over so short a distance as now separates us from 
 it one cannot but perceive that the attitude of 
 the two parties was in some sort inevitable and 
 that the result was also sure, whatever the subor 
 dinate events or incidents which may have led to 
 it. It was impossible to defeat or greatly to delay 
 the annexation of Texas, and although those who 
 opposed it but obeyed the dictates of common 
 morality, they were fighting a battle beyond ordi 
 nary human powers. 
 
 Here was a great empire offering itself to us 
 a State which had gained its independence, and 
 built itself into a certain measure of order and 
 thrift through American valor and enterprise. She 
 offered us a magnificent estate of 376,000 square 
 miles of territory, all of it valuable, and much 
 of it of unsurpassed richness and fertility. Even 
 those portions of it once condemned as desert now 
 contribute to the markets of the world vast stores 
 of wool and cotton, herds of cattle and flocks of 
 sheep. Not only were these material advantages 
 of great attractiveness to the public mind, but 
 many powerful sentimental considerations ree'n- 
 forced the claim of Texas. The Texans were not
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF 1844 233 
 
 an alien people. The few inhabitants of that vast CHAP. xm. 
 realm were mostly Americans, who had occupied 
 and subdued a vacant wilderness. The heroic de 
 fense of the Alamo had been made by Travis, Bowie, 
 and David Crockett, whose exploits and death form 
 one of the most brilliant pages of our border his 
 tory. Fannin and his men, four hundred strong, 
 when they laid down their lives at Goliad 1 had 
 carried mourning into every South-western State ; 
 and when, a few days later, Samuel Houston and 
 his eight hundred raw levies defeated and destroyed 
 the Mexican army at San Jacinto, captured Santa 
 Anna, the Mexican president, and with American 
 thrift, instead of giving him the death he merited 
 for his cruel murder of unarmed prisoners, saved 
 him to make a treaty with, the whole people 
 recognized something of kinship in the unaffected 
 valor with which these borderers died and the 
 humorous shrewdness with which they bargained, 
 and felt as if the victory over the Mexicans were 
 their own. 
 
 The schemes of the Southern statesmen who 
 were working for the extension of slavery were not 
 defensible, and we have no disposition to defend 
 them ; but it may be doubted whether there is a 
 government on the face of the earth which, under 
 similar circumstances, would not have yielded to 
 the same temptation. 
 
 1 This massacre inspired one of the most remarkable poems of 
 Walt Whitman, " Now I tell you what I knew of Texas in my early 
 youth," in which occurs his description of the rangers : 
 
 " They were the glory of the race of rangers, 
 
 Matchless with horse, rifle, song, supper, courtship, 
 
 Large, turbulent, generous, handsome, proud, and affectionate, 
 
 Bearded, sunburnt, drest in the free costume of hunters, 
 
 Not a single one over thirty years of age."
 
 234 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 Under these conditions, the annexation, sooner 
 or later, was inevitable. No man and no party 
 could oppose it except at serious cost. It is not 
 true that schemes of annexation are always popular. 
 Several administrations have lost heavily by pro 
 posing them. Grant failed with Santo Domingo ; 
 Seward with St. Thomas ; and it required all his 
 skill and influence to accomplish the ratification 
 of the Alaska purchase. There is no general desire 
 among Americans for acquiring outlying territory, 
 however intrinsically valuable it may be; their 
 land-hunger is confined within the limits of that 
 of a Western farmer once quoted by Mr. Lincoln, 
 who used to say, " I am not greedy about land ; 
 I only want what jines mine." Whenever a region 
 contiguous to the United States becomes filled 
 with Americans, it is absolutely certain to come 
 under the American flag. Texas was as sure to be 
 incorporated into the Union as are two drops of 
 water touching each other to become one ; and this 
 consummation would not have been prevented for 
 any length of time if Clay or Van Buren had been 
 elected in 1844. The honorable scruples of the 
 Whigs, the sensitive consciences of the " Liberty " 
 men, could never have prevailed permanently 
 against a tendency so natural and so irresistible. 
 
 Everything that year seemed to work against 
 the Whigs. At a most unfortunate time for them, 
 there was an outbreak of that "native" fanaticism 
 which reappears from time to time in our politics 
 with the periodicity of malarial fevers, and always 
 to the profit of the party against which its efforts 
 are aimed. It led to great disturbances in several 
 cities, and to riot and bloodshed in Philadelphia.
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF 1844 235 
 
 The Clay party were, of course, free from any CHAP.XIII. 
 complicity with these outrages, but the foreigners, 
 in their alarm, huddled together almost as one man 
 on the side where the majority of them always 
 voted, and this occasioned a heavy loss to the 
 Whigs in several States. The first appearance of 
 Lincoln in the canvass was in a judicious attempt 
 to check this unreasonable panic. At a meeting 
 held in Springfield, June 12, he introduced and 
 supported resolutions, declaring that " the guaran 
 tee of the rights of conscience as found in our 
 Constitution is most sacred and inviolable, and one 
 that belongs no less to the Catholic than the 
 Protestant, and that all attempts to abridge or 
 interfere with these rights either of Catholic or 
 Protestant, directly or indirectly, have our decided 
 disapprobation, and shall have our most effective 
 opposition." Several times afterwards in his life 
 Lincoln was forced to confront this same prescrip 
 tive spirit among the men with whom he was more 
 or less affiliated politically, and he never failed to 
 denounce it as it deserved, whatever might be the 
 risk of loss involved. 
 
 Beginning with this manly protest against in 
 tolerance and disorder, he went into the work of 
 the campaign and continued in it with unabated 
 ardor to the end. The defeat of Clay affected him, 
 as it did thousands of others, as a great public 
 calamity and a keen personal sorrow. It is impos 
 sible to mistake the accent of sincere mourning 
 which we find in the journals of the time. The 
 addresses which were sent to Mr. Clay from every 
 part of the country indicate a depth of affectionate 
 devotion which rarely falls to the lot of a political
 
 236 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xiii. chieftain. An extract from the one sent by the 
 Clay Clubs of New York will show the earnest 
 attachment and pride with which the young men of 
 that day still declared their loyalty to their beloved 
 leader, even in the midst of irreparable disaster. 
 "We will remember you, Henry Clay, while the 
 memory of the glorious or the sense of the good 
 remains in us, with a grateful and admiring affec 
 tion which shall strengthen with our strength and 
 shall not decay with our decline. We will remem 
 ber you in all our future trials and reverses as him 
 whose name honored defeat and gave it a glory 
 which victory could not have brought. We will 
 remember you when patriotic hope rallies again to 
 successful contest with the agencies of corruption 
 and ruin ; for we will never know a triumph which 
 you do not share in life, whose glory does not 
 accrue to you in death."
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 CAMPAIGN FOR CONGEESS 
 
 IN the months that remained of his term, after CHAP. xiv. 
 the election of his successor, President Tyler 
 pursued with much vigor his purpose of accom 
 plishing the annexation of Texas, regarding it as 
 the measure which was specially to illustrate his 
 administration and to preserve it from oblivion. 
 The state of affairs, when Congress came together 
 in December, 1844, was propitious to the project. 
 Dr. Anson Jones had been elected as President of 
 Texas ; the republic was in a more thriving condi 
 tion than ever before. Its population was rapidly 
 increasing under the stimulus of its probable 
 change of flag ; its budget presented a less un 
 wholesome balance ; its relations with Mexico, 
 while they were no more friendly, had ceased to 
 excite alarm. The Tyler government, having been 
 baffled in the spring by the rejection of the treaty 
 for annexation which they had submitted to the 
 Senate, chose to proceed this winter in a different 
 way. Early in the session a joint resolution pro 
 viding for annexation was introduced in the House 
 of Representatives, which, after considerable dis 
 cussion and attempted amendment by the anti- 
 slavery members, passed the House by a majority 
 of twenty-two votes. 
 
 237
 
 238 ABKAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xiv. In the Senate it encountered more opposition, as 
 might have been expected in a chamber which had 
 overwhelmingly rejected the same scheme only a 
 few months before. It was at last amended by in 
 serting a section called the Walker amendment, 
 providing that the President, if it were in his 
 judgment advisable, should proceed by way of 
 negotiation, instead of submitting the resolutions 
 as an overture on the part of the United States 
 to Texas. This amendment eased the conscience 
 of a few shy supporters of the Administration who 
 had committed themselves very strongly against 
 the scheme, and saved them from the shame of 
 open tergiversation. The President, however, 
 treated this subterfuge with the contempt which 
 it deserved, by utterly disregarding the Walker 
 amendment, and by dispatching a messenger to 
 Texas to bring about annexation on the basis of 
 the resolutions, the moment he had signed them, 
 when only a few hours of his official existence 
 remained. The measures initiated by Tyler were, 
 of course, carried out by Polk. The work was 
 pushed forward with equal zeal at Washington and 
 at Austin. A convention of Texans was called for 
 the 4th of July to consider the American proposi 
 tions; they were promptly accepted and ratified, 
 and in the last days of 1845 Texas was formally 
 admitted into the Union as a State. 
 
 Besides the general objections which the anti- 
 slavery men of the North had to the project itself, 
 there was something especially offensive to them 
 in the pretense of fairness and compromise held 
 out by the resolutions committing the Government 
 to annexation. The third section provided that
 
 CAMPAIGN FOE CONGEESS 239 
 
 four new States might hereafter be formed out of CHAP. xiv. 
 the Territory of Texas; that such States as were 
 formed out of the portion lying south of 36 30', 
 the Missouri Compromise line, might be admitted 
 with or without slavery, as the people might 
 desire ; and that slavery should be prohibited in 
 such States as might be formed out of the portion 
 lying north of that line. The opponents of slavery 
 regarded this provision, with good reason, as deri 
 sive. Slavery already existed in the entire terri 
 tory by the act of the early settlers from the South 
 who had brought their slaves with them, and the 
 State of Texas had no valid claim to an inch of 
 ground north of the line of 36 30' nor anywhere 
 near it ; so that this clause, if it had any force 
 whatever, would have authorized the establish 
 ment of slavery in a portion of New Mexico, where 
 it did not exist, and where it had been expressly 
 prohibited by the Mexican law. Another serious 
 objection was that the resolutions were taken as 
 committing the United States to the adoption and 
 maintenance of the Rio Grande del Norte as the 
 western boundary of Texas. All mention of this 
 was avoided in the instrument, and it was ex 
 pressly stated that the State was to be formed 
 " subject to the adjustment by this Government of 
 all questions of boundary that may arise with other 
 governments," but the moment the resolutions 
 were passed the Government assumed, as a matter 
 beyond dispute, that all of the territory east of the 
 Rio Grande was the rightful property of Texas, to 
 be defended by the military power of the United 
 States. 
 Even if Mexico had been inclined to submit to
 
 240 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xiv. the annexation of Texas, it was nevertheless certain 
 that the occupation of the left bank of the Eio 
 Grande, without an attempt at an understanding, 
 would bring about a collision. The country lying 
 between the Nueces and the Eio Grande was then 
 entirely uninhabited, and was thought uninhabit 
 able, though subsequent years have shown the fal 
 lacy of that belief. The occupation of the country 
 extended no farther than the Nueces, and the Mex 
 ican farmers cultivated their corn and cotton in 
 peace in the fertile fields opposite Matamoras. 
 
 It is true that Texas claimed the eastern bank of 
 the Eio Grande from its source to its mouth ; and 
 while the Texans held Santa Anna prisoner, under 
 duress of arms and the stronger pressure of his 
 own conscience, which assured him that he 
 deserved death as a murderer, " he solemnly sanc 
 tioned, acknowledged, and ratified " their independ 
 ence with whatever boundaries they chose to 
 claim; but the Bustamente administration lost 
 no time in repudiating this treaty, and at once 
 renewed the war, which had been carried on in a 
 fitful way ever since. 
 
 But leaving out of view this special subject of 
 admitted dispute, the Mexican Government had 
 warned our own in sufficiently formal terms that 
 annexation could not be peacefully effected. When 
 A. P. Upshur first began his negotiations with 
 Texas, the Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs, at 
 "fa*!. ' his earliest rumors of what was afoot, addressed a 
 note to Waddy Thompson, our Minister in Mexico, 
 referring to the reported intention of Texas to seek 
 admission to the Union, and formally protesting 
 against it as " an aggression unprecedented in the
 
 HENRY CLAY.
 
 CAMPAIGN FOK CONGRESS 241 
 
 annals of the world," and adding " if it be indispen- CHAP. xiv. 
 sable for the Mexican nation to seek security for 
 its rights at the expense of the disasters of war, 
 it will call upon God, and rely on its own efforts 
 for the defense of its just cause." A little while 
 later General Almonte renewed this notification at 
 Washington, saying in so many words that the 
 annexation of Texas would terminate his mission, 
 and that Mexico would declare war as soon as it 
 received intimation of such an act. In June, 1845, 
 Mr. Donelson, in charge of the American Legation 
 in Mexico, assured the Secretary of State that war 
 was inevitable, though he adopted the fiction of 
 Mr. Calhoun, that it was the result of the aboli 
 tionist intrigues of Great Britain, which he credited 
 with the intention " of depriving both Texas and 
 the United States of all claim to the country 
 between the Nueces and the Rio Grande." 
 
 No one, therefore, doubted that war would fol 
 low, and it soon came. General Zachary Taylor 
 had been sent during the summer to Corpus Christi, 
 where a considerable portion of the small army of 
 the United States was placed under his command. 
 It was generally understood to be the desire of the 
 Administration that hostilities should begin with 
 out orders, by a species of spontaneous combustion ; 
 but the coolness and prudence of General Taylor 
 made futile any such hopes, if they were enter 
 tained, and it required a positive order to induce 
 him, in March, 1846, to advance towards the Rio 
 Grande and to cross the disputed territory. He 
 arrived at a point opposite Matamoras on the 28th 
 of March, and immediately fortified himself, dis 
 regarding the summons of the Mexican com- 
 VOL. I 16
 
 242 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xiv. mander, who warned him that such action would 
 be considered as a declaration of war. In May, 
 General Arista crossed the river and attacked 
 General Taylor on the field of Palo Alto, where 
 Taylor won the first of that remarkable series of 
 victories, embracing Eesaca de la Palma, Mon 
 terey, and Buena Vista, all gained over superior 
 forces of the enemy, which made the American 
 commander for the brief day that was left him the 
 idol alike of soldiers and voters. 
 
 After Baker's election in 1844, it was generally 
 V taken as a matter of course in the district that 
 Lincoln was to be the next candidate of the Whig 
 party for Congress. It was charged at the time, 
 and some recent writers have repeated the charge, 
 that there was a bargain made in 1840 between 
 Hardin, Baker, Lincoln, and Logan to succeed 
 each other in the order named. This sort of fiction 
 is the commonest known to American politics. 
 Something like it is told, and more or less believed, 
 in half the districts in the country at every 
 election. It arises naturally from the fact that 
 there are always more candidates than places, that 
 any one who is a candidate twice is felt to be 
 defrauding his neighbors, and that all candidates 
 are too ready to assure their constituents that they 
 only want one term, and too ready to forget these 
 assurances when their terms are ending. There is 
 not only no evidence of any such bargain among 
 the men we have mentioned, but there is the 
 clearest proof of the contrary. Two or more of 
 them were candidates for the nomination at every 
 election from the time when Stuart retired until 
 the Whigs lost the district.
 
 CAMPAIGN FOE CONGBESS 243 
 
 At the same time it is not to be denied that CHAP.XIV. 
 there was a tacit understanding among the Whigs 
 of the district that whoever should, at each election, 
 gain the honor of representing the one Whig 
 constituency of the State, should hold himself 
 satisfied with the privilege, and not be a candidate 
 for reelection. The retiring member was not 
 always convinced of the propriety of this arrange 
 ment. In the early part of January, 1846, Hardin 
 was the only one whose name was mentioned in 
 opposition to Lincoln. He was reasonably sure of 
 his own county, and he tried to induce Lincoln to 
 consent to an arrangement that all candidates 
 should confine themselves to their own counties in 
 the canvass ; but Lincoln, who was very strong in 
 the outlying counties of the district, declined the 
 proposition, alleging, as a reason for refusing, that 
 Hardin was so much better known than he, by rea 
 son of his service in Congress, that such a stipulation 
 would give him a great advantage. There was fully 
 as much courtesy as candor in this plea, and Lin 
 coln's entire letter was extremely politic and civil. 
 " I have always been in the habit," he says, " of 
 acceding to almost any proposal that a friend would 
 make, and I am truly sorry that I cannot to this." 
 A month later Hardin saw that his candidacy was 
 useless, and he published a card withdrawing from 
 the contest, which was printed and commended in 
 the kindest terms by papers friendly to Lincoln, 
 and the two men remained on terms of cordial 
 friendship. 
 
 It is not to be said that Lincoln relied entirely 
 upon his own merits and the sentiment of the 
 constituents to procure him this nomination. Like
 
 244 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 Lincoln to 
 James, 
 Nov. 24, 
 1845. Un 
 published 
 ' MS. 
 
 CHAP. xiv. other politicians of the time, he used all proper 
 means to attain his object. A package of letters, 
 written during the preliminary canvass, which have 
 recently come into our hands, show how intelligent 
 and how straightforward he was in the ways of 
 politics. He had no fear of Baker ; all his efforts 
 were directed to making so strong a show of force 
 as to warn Hardin off the field. He countenanced 
 no attack upon his competitor; he approved a 
 movement not entirely disinterested looking 
 to his nomination for Governor. He kept up an 
 extensive correspondence with the captains of tens 
 throughout the district ; he suggested and revised 
 the utterances of country editors; he kept his 
 friends aware of his wishes as to conventions and 
 delegates. He was never overconfident ; so late as 
 the middle of January, he did not share the belief 
 of his supporters that he was to be nominated 
 without a contest. " Hardin," he wrote, " is a man 
 of desperate energy and perseverance, and one 
 that never backs out; and, I fear, to think other 
 wise is to be deceived. . . I would rejoice to be 
 spared the labor of a contest, 'but being in' I 
 shall go it thoroughly. . ." His knowledge of the 
 district was curiously minute, though he under 
 bid, estimated his own popularity. He wrote : " As to 
 my being able to make a break in the lower 
 counties, ... I can possibly get Cass, but I do 
 not think I will. Morgan and Scott are beyond 
 my reach. Menard is safe to me ; Mason, neck and 
 neck; Logan is mine. To make the matter sure 
 your entire senatorial district must be secured. Of 
 this I suppose Tazewell is safe, and I have much 
 done in both the other counties. In Woodford I 
 
 Lincoln to 
 James, 
 Jan. 14, 
 1846. Un 
 published 
 MS.
 
 CAMPAIGN FOE CONGEESS 245 
 
 have Davenport, Simms, Willard, Braken, Perry, CHAP.XIV. 
 Travis, Dr. Hazzard, and the Clarks, and some 
 others, all specially committed. At Lacon, in Mar 
 shall, the very most active friend I have in the dis 
 trict (if I except yourself) is at work. Through him 
 I have procured the names and written to three or 
 four of the most active Whigs in each precinct of 
 the county. Still, I wish you all in Tazewell to keep 
 your eyes continually on Woodford and Marshall. 
 Let no opportunity of making a mark escape. 
 When they shall be safe, all will be safe I think." 
 His constitutional caution suggests those final 
 words. He did not relax his vigilance for a 
 moment until after Hardin withdrew. He warned 
 his correspondents day by day of every move on 
 the board ; advised his supporters at every point, 
 and kept every wire in perfect working order. 
 
 The convention was held at Petersburg on the 
 1st of May. Judge Logan placed the name of Lin 
 coln before it, and he was nominated unanimously. 
 The Springfield "Journal," giving the news the 
 week after, said : " This nomination was of course 
 anticipated, there being no other candidate in the 
 field. Mr. Lincoln, we all know, is a good Whig, a 
 good man, an able speaker, and richly deserves, as 
 he enjoys, the confidence of the Whigs of this 
 district and of the State." 
 
 The Democrats gave Mr. Lincoln a singular 
 competitor the famous Methodist preacher, Peter 
 Cartwright. It was not the first time they had 
 met in the field of politics. When Lincoln ran for 
 the Legislature on his return from the Black Hawk 
 war, in 1832, one of the successful candidates of 
 that year was this indefatigable circuit-rider. He
 
 246 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xiv. was now over sixty years of age, in the height of 
 his popularity, and in all respects an adversary not 
 to be despised. His career as a preacher began at 
 the beginning of the century and continued for 
 seventy years. He was the son of one of the 
 pioneers of the West, and grew up in the rudest 
 regions of the border land between Tennessee and 
 Kentucky. He represents himself, with the usual 
 inverted pride of a class-leader, as having been a 
 wild, vicious youth; but the catalogue of his 
 crimes embraces nothing less venial than card- 
 playing, horse-racing, and dancing, and it is hard 
 to see what different amusements could have been 
 found in southern Kentucky in 1801. 
 
 This course of dissipation did not continue long, 
 as he was " converted and united with the Ebenezer 
 Methodist Episcopal Church " in June of that year, 
 when only sixteen years old, and immediately 
 developed such zeal and power in exhortation that 
 less than a year later he was licensed to " exercise 
 his gifts as an exhorter so long as his practice 
 is agreeable to the gospel." He became a deacon 
 at twenty-one, an elder at twenty-three, a pre 
 siding elder at twenty-seven, and from that time 
 his life is the history of his church in the West for 
 sixty years. He died in 1872, eighty-seven years 
 of age, having baptized twelve thousand persons 
 and preached fifteen thousand sermons. He was, 
 and will always remain, the type of the backwoods 
 preacher. Even in his lifetime the simple story of 
 his life became so overgrown with a net-work of 
 fable that there is little resemblance between the 
 simple, courageous, prejudiced itinerant of his 
 " Autobiography " and the fighting, brawling, half-
 
 CAMPAIGN FOR CONGEESS 247 
 
 civilized, Protestant Friar Tuck of bar-room and CHAP.XIV. 
 newspaper legend. 
 
 It is true that he did not always discard the 
 weapons of the flesh in his combats with the 
 ungodly, and he felt more than once compelled to 
 leave the pulpit to do carnal execution upon the 
 disturbers of the peace of the sanctuary ; but two 
 or three incidents of this sort in three-quarters of a 
 century do not turn a parson into a pugilist. He 
 was a fluent, self-confident speaker, who, after the 
 habit of his time, addressed his discourses more to 
 the emotions than to the reason of his hearers. 
 His system of future rewards and punishments 
 was of the most simple and concrete character, and 
 formed the staple of his sermons. He had no 
 patience with the refinements and reticences of 
 modern theology, and in his later years observed 
 with scorn and sorrow the progress of education 
 and scholarly training in his own communion. 
 After listening one day to a prayer from a young 
 minister which shone more by its correctness than 
 its unction, he could not refrain from saying, 
 
 " Brother , three prayers like that would freeze 
 
 hell over ! " a consummation which did not com 
 mend itself to him as desirable. He often visited 
 the cities of the Atlantic coast, but saw little in 
 them to admire. His chief pleasure on his return 
 was to sit in a circle of his friends and pour out 
 the phials of his sarcasm upon all the refinements 
 of life that he had witnessed in New York or 
 Philadelphia, which he believed, or affected to 
 believe, were tenanted by a species of beings al 
 together inferior to the manhood that filled the 
 cabins of Kentucky and Illinois. An apocryphal
 
 248 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xiv. story of one of these visits was often told of him, 
 which pleased him so that he never contradicted it : 
 that becoming bewildered in the vastness of a 
 New York hotel, he procured a hatchet, and in 
 pioneer fashion " blazed " his way along the ma 
 hogany staircases and painted corridors from the 
 office to his room. With all his eccentricities, he 
 was a devout man, conscientious and brave. He 
 lived in domestic peace and honor all his days, and 
 dying, he and his wife, whom he had married al 
 most in childhood, left a posterity of 129 direct 
 descendants to mourn them. 1 
 
 With all his devotion to the cause of his church, 
 Peter Cartwright was an ardent Jackson politician, 
 with probably a larger acquaintance throughout 
 the district than any other man in it, and with a 
 personal following which, beginning with his own 
 children and grandchildren and extending through 
 every precinct, made it no holiday task to defeat 
 him in a popular contest. But Lincoln and his 
 friends went energetically into the canvass, and 
 before it closed he was able to foresee a certain 
 victory. 
 
 An incident is related to show how accurately Lin 
 coln could calculate political results in advance 
 a faculty which remained with him all his life. A 
 friend, who was a Democrat, had come to him 
 
 i The impressive manner of with the words, " the past three 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright's death, who sur- weeks have been the happiest of 
 
 vived her husband a few years, all my life ; I am waiting for the 
 
 is remembered in the churches chariot." 
 
 of Sangamon County. She was When the meeting broke up, 
 
 attending a religious meeting at she did not rise with the rest. 
 
 Bethel Chapel, a mile from her The minister solemnly said, " The 
 
 house. She was called upon " to chariot has arrived." "Early 
 
 give her testimony," which she Settlers of Sangamon County," 
 
 did with much f eeling, concluding by John Carroll Power.
 
 CAMPAIGN FOB CONGEESS 
 
 249 
 
 early in the canvass and had told him he wanted CHAP.XIV. 
 to see him elected, but did not like to vote against 
 his party ; still he would vote for him, if the con 
 test was to be so close that every vote was needed. 
 A short time before the election Lincoln said to 
 him : " I have got the preacher, and I don't want 
 your vote." 
 
 The election was held in August, and the Whig 
 candidate's majority was very large 1511 in the 
 district, where Clay's majority had been only 914, 
 and where Taylor's, two years later, with all the 
 glamour of victory about him, was ten less. Lin 
 coln's majority in Sangamon County was 690, 
 which, in view of the standing of his competitor, 
 was the most remarkable proof which could be 
 given of his personal popularity; 1 it was the 
 highest majority ever given to any candidate in 
 the county during the entire period of Whig as 
 cendancy until Yates's triumphant campaign of 
 1852. 
 
 This large vote was all the more noteworthy 
 because the Whigs were this year upon the un 
 popular side. The annexation of Texas was gen 
 erally approved throughout the West, and those 
 who opposed it were regarded as rather lacking 
 in patriotism, even before actual hostilities began. 
 But when General Taylor and General Ampudia 
 confronted each other with hostile guns across the 
 
 i Stuart's maj. over May in 1836 in Sangamon Co. was 543 
 
 295 
 575 
 504 
 373 
 690 
 263 
 336 
 
 
 
 
 
 Douglas 
 Ralston 
 
 1838 
 1840 
 
 Hardin's 
 Baker's 
 
 
 McDougall 
 Calhoun 
 
 1843 
 1844 
 
 Lincoln's 
 Logan's 
 Yates's 
 
 
 Cartwright 
 Harris 
 Harris 
 
 1846 
 1848 
 1850 "
 
 250 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xiv. Eio Grande, and still more after the brilliant feat 
 of arms by which the Americans opened the war 
 on the plain of Palo Alto, it required a good deal 
 of moral courage on the part of the candidates and 
 voters alike to continue their attitude of disap 
 proval of the policy of the Government, at the 
 same time that they were shouting paeans over the 
 exploits of our soldiers. They were assisted, it is 
 true, by the fact that the leading Whigs of the 
 State volunteered with the utmost alacrity and 
 promptitude in the military service. On the llth 
 of May, Congress authorized the raising of fifty 
 thousand volunteers, and as soon as the intel 
 ligence reached Illinois the daring and restless 
 spirit of Hardin leaped forward to the fate which 
 was awaiting him, and he instantly issued a call 
 to his brigade of militia, in which he said : " The 
 general has already enrolled himself as the first 
 volunteer from Illinois under the requisition. He 
 is going whenever ordered. Who will go with 
 him? He confidently expects to be accompanied 
 by many of his brigade." The quota assigned to 
 Illinois was three regiments; these were quickly 
 raised, 1 and an additional regiment offered by 
 Baker was then accepted. The sons of the promi 
 nent Whigs enlisted as private soldiers; David 
 Logan was a sergeant in Baker's regiment. A 
 public meeting was held in Springfield on the 29th 
 of May, at which Mr. Lincoln delivered what was 
 considered a thrilling and effective speech on the 
 condition of affairs, and the duty of citizens to 
 stand by the flag of the nation until an honorable 
 peace was secured. 
 
 i The colonels were Hardin, Bissell, and Forman.
 
 CAMPAIGN FOE CONGKESS 251 
 
 It was thought probable, and would have been CHAP.XIV. 
 altogether fitting, that either Colonel Hardin, 
 Colonel Baker, or Colonel Bissell, all of them men 
 of intelligence and distinction, should be appointed 
 general of the Illinois Brigade, but the Polk 
 Administration was not inclined to waste so im 
 portant a place upon men who might thereafter 
 have views of their own in public affairs. The 
 coveted appointment was given to a man already 
 loaded to a grotesque degree with political employ 
 ment Mr. Lincoln's old adversary, James Shields. 
 He had left the position of Auditor of State to 
 assume a seat on the Bench ; retiring from this, 
 he had just been appointed Commissioner of the 
 General Land Office. He had no military experi 
 ence, and so far as then known no capacity for the 
 service; but his fervid partisanship commended 
 him to Mr. Polk as a safe servant, and he received 
 the commission, to the surprise and derision of the 
 State. His bravery in action and his honorable 
 wounds at Cerro Grordo and Chapultepec saved 
 him from contempt and made his political fortune. 
 
 He had received the recommendation of the Illi 
 nois Democrats in Congress, and it is altogether 
 probable that he owed his appointment in great 
 measure to the influence of Douglas, who desired 
 to have as few Democratic statesmen as possible 
 in Springfield that winter. A Senator was to be 
 elected, and Shields had acquired such a habit of 
 taking all the offices that fell vacant that it was 
 only prudent to remove him as far as convenient 
 from such a temptation. The election was held in 
 December, and Douglas was promoted from the 
 House of Eepresentatives to that seat in the Senate
 
 252 ABKAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xiv. which he held with such ability and distinction the 
 rest of his life. 
 
 The session of 1846-7 opened with the San- 
 gamon district of Illinois unrepresented in Con 
 gress. Baker had gone with his regiment to Mexico. 
 It did not have the good fortune to participate in 
 any of the earlier actions of the campaign, and 
 his fiery spirit chafed in the enforced idleness of 
 camp and garrison. He seized an occasion which 
 was offered him to go to Washington as bearer of 
 dispatches, and while there he made one of those 
 sudden and dramatic appearances in the Capitol 
 which were so much in harmony with his tastes 
 and his character. He went to his place on the 
 floor, and there delivered a bright, interesting 
 speech in his most attractive vein, calling atten 
 tion to the needs of the army, disavowing on the 
 part of the Whigs any responsibility for the war 
 or its conduct, and adroitly claiming for them a 
 full share of the credit for its prosecution. 
 
 He began by thanking the House for its kind 
 ness in allowing him the floor, protesting at the 
 same time that he had done nothing to deserve 
 such courtesy. " I could wish," he said, " that it 
 had been the fortune of the gallant Davis 1 to now 
 stand where I do and to receive from gentlemen on 
 all sides the congratulations so justly due to him, 
 and to listen to the praises of his brave compeers. 
 For myself, I have, unfortunately, been left far in 
 the rear of the war, and if now I venture to say a 
 word in behalf of those who have endured the 
 severest hardships of the struggle, whether in the 
 blood-stained streets of Monterey, or in a yet 
 
 i Jefferson Davis, who was with the army in Mexico.
 
 CAMPAIGN FOB CONGKESS 253 
 
 sterner form on the banks of the Eio Grande, I CHAP.XIV. 
 beg you to believe that while I feel this a most 
 pleasant duty, it is in other respects a duty full of 
 pain ; for I stand here, after six months' service as 
 a volunteer, having seen no actual warfare in the 
 field." 
 
 Yet even this disadvantage he turned with great 
 dexterity to his service. He reproached Congress 
 for its apathy and inaction in not providing for 
 the wants of the army by reinforcements and sup 
 plies ; he nattered the troops in the field, and paid 
 a touching tribute to those who had died of disease 
 and exposure, without ever enjoying the sight of 
 a battle-field, and, rising to lyric enthusiasm, he 
 repeated a poem of his own, which he had written 
 in camp to the memory of the dead of the Fourth 
 Illinois. 1 He could not refrain from giving his own 
 party all the credit which could be claimed for it, 
 and it is not difficult to imagine how exasperating 
 it must have been to the majority to hear so calm 
 
 1 We give a copy of these lines, not on account of their intrinsic 
 merit, but as illustrating the versatility of the lawyer, orator, and 
 soldier who wrote them. 
 
 Where rolls the rushing Rio Grande, 
 
 How peacefully they sleep ! 
 Far from their native Northern land, 
 
 Far from the friends who weep. 
 No rolling drums disturb their rest 
 
 Beneath the sandy sod ; 
 The mold lies heavy on each breast, 
 
 The spirit is with God. 
 
 They heard their country's call, and came 
 
 To battle for the right ; 
 Each bosom filled with martial flame, 
 
 And kindling for the fight. 
 Light was their measured footsteps when 
 
 They moved to seek the foe ; 
 Alas that hearts so fiery then 
 
 Should soon be cold and low !
 
 254 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP.XIV. an assumption of superior patriotism on the part 
 of the opposition as the following: "As a Whig I 
 still occupy a place on this floor ; nor do I think it 
 worth while to reply to such a charge as that the 
 Whigs are not friends of their country because 
 many of them doubt the justice or expediency of 
 the present war. Surely there was all the more 
 evidence of the patriotism of the man who, doubt 
 ing the expediency and even the entire justice of 
 the war, nevertheless supported it, because it was 
 the war of his country. In the one it might be 
 mere enthusiasm and an impetuous temperament ; 
 in the other it was true patriotism, a sense of duty. 
 Homer represents Hector as strongly doubting the 
 expediency of the war against Greece. He gave his 
 advice against it ; he had no sympathy with Paris, 
 whom he bitterly reproached, much less with 
 Helen ; yet, when the war came, and the Grecian 
 forces were marshaled on the plain, and their 
 crooked keels were seen cutting the sands of the 
 Trojan coast, Hector was a flaming fire, his beam 
 ing helmet was seen in the thickest of the fight. 
 
 They did not die in eager strife 
 
 Upon a well-fought field ; 
 Nor from the red wound poured their life 
 
 Where cowering foemen yield. 
 Death's ghastly shade was slowly cast 
 
 Upon each manly brow, 
 But calm and fearless to the last, 
 
 They sleep securely now. 
 
 Yet shall a grateful country give 
 
 Her honors to their name ; 
 In kindred hearts their memory live, 
 
 And history guard their fame. 
 Not unremembered do they sleep 
 
 Upon a foreign strand, 
 Though near their graves thy wild waves sweep, 
 
 O rushing Eio Grande !
 
 CAMPAIGN FOB CONGEESS 255 
 
 There are in the American army many who have CHAP.XIV. 
 the spirit of Hector ; who strongly doubt the pro 
 priety of the war, and especially the manner of its 
 commencement; who yet are ready to pour out 
 their hearts' best blood like water, and their lives 
 with it, on a foreign shore, in defense of the 
 American flag and American glory." 
 
 Immediately after making this speech, Baker 
 increased the favorable impression created by it by 
 resigning his seat in Congress and hurrying as fast 
 as steam could carry him to New Orleans, to embark 
 there for Mexico. He had heard of the advance of 
 Santa Anna upon Saltillo, and did not wish to lose 
 any opportunity of fighting which might fall in the 
 way of his regiment. He arrived to find his troops 
 transferred to the department of General Scott; 
 and although he missed Buena Vista, he took 
 part in the capture of Vera Cruz, and greatly dis 
 tinguished himself at Cerro Grordo. When Shields 
 was wounded, Baker took command of his brigade, 
 and by a gallant charge on the Mexican guns 
 gained possession of the Jalapa road, an act by 
 which a great portion of the fruits of that victory 
 were harvested. 
 
 His resignation left a vacancy in Congress, and 
 a contest, characteristic of the politics of the time, 
 at once sprang up over it. The rational course 
 would have been to elect Lincoln, but, with his 
 usual overstrained delicacy, he declined to run, 
 thinking it fair to give other aspirants a chance for 
 the term of two months. The Whigs nominated a 
 respectable man named Brown, but a short while 
 before the election John Henry, a member of the 
 State Senate, announced himself as a candidate,
 
 i-^WW 
 
 THE BOUNDARIES OF TEXAS. 
 
 This map gives the boundary be 
 tween Mexico and the United States 
 as defined by the treaty of 1828; the 
 westerly bank of the Sabine Elver 
 from Its mouth to the 32d degree of 
 latitude; thence due north to the 
 Bed River, following the course of 
 that stream to the 100th degree of 
 longitude west from Greenwich; 
 thence due north to the Arkansas 
 River, and running along its south 
 bank to its source in the Rocky Moun 
 tains, near the place where Leadville 
 now stands ; thence due north to the 
 42d parallel of latitude, which it fol 
 lows to the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 On the west will be seen the bound 
 aries claimed by Mexico and the 
 United States after the annexation 
 of Texas. The Mexican authorities 
 considered the western boundary of 
 
 Texas to be the Nueces River, from 
 mouth to source; thence by an in 
 definite line to the Rio Pecos, and 
 through the elevated and barren 
 Llano Estacado to the source of the 
 main branch of the Red River, and 
 along that river to the 100th meridian. 
 The United States adopted the Texan 
 claim of the Rio Grande del Norte 
 as their western limit. By the treaty 
 of peace of 1848, the Mexicans relin 
 quished to the United States the 
 territory between the Nueces and 
 the Rio Grande del Norte; also 
 the territory lying between the 
 last-named river and the Pacific 
 Ocean, and north of the Gila 
 River and the southern boundary 
 of New Mexico, which was a short 
 distance above the town of El 
 Paso. 
 
 256
 
 ZACIIARY TAYLOR.
 
 CAMPAIGN FOR CONGEES8 257 
 
 and appealed for votes on the sole ground that he CHAP. xiv. 
 was a poor man and wanted the place for the mile 
 age. Brown, either recognizing the force of this 
 plea, or smitten with a sudden disgust for a service 
 in which such pleas were possible, withdrew from 
 the canvass, and Henry got his election and his 
 mileage. 
 
 VOL. I. 17
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS 
 
 CHAP. xv. rriHE Thirtieth. Congress organized on the 6th of 
 JL December, 1847. Its roll contained the names 
 of many eminent men, few of whom were less 
 known than his which was destined to a fame more 
 wide and enduring than all the rest together. It 
 was Mr. Lincoln's sole distinction that he was the 
 only Whig member from Illinois. He entered upon 
 the larger field of work which now lay before him 
 without any special diffidence, but equally without 
 elation. Writing to his friend Speed soon after 
 his election he said : " Being elected to Congress, 
 though I am very grateful to our friends for having 
 done it, has not pleased me as much as I ex 
 pected," an experience not unknown to most 
 public men, but probably intensified in Lincoln's 
 case by his constitutional melancholy. He went 
 about his work with little gladness, but with a 
 dogged sincerity and an inflexible conscience. 
 
 It soon became apparent that the Whigs were to 
 derive at least a temporary advantage from the 
 war which the Democrats had brought upon the 
 country, although it was destined in its later con 
 sequences to sweep the former party out of exist 
 ence and exile the other from power for many 
 
 268
 
 THE THIRTIETH CONGKESS 259 
 
 years. The House was so closely divided that 
 Lincoln, writing on the 5th, expressed some doubt 
 whether the Whigs could elect all their caucus 
 nominees, and Mr. Robert C. Winthrop was chosen 
 Speaker the next day by a majority of one vote. 
 The President showed in his message that he was 
 doubtful of the verdict of Congress and the 
 country upon the year's operations, and he argued 
 with more solicitude than force in defense of the 
 proceedings of the Administration in regard to the 
 war with Mexico. His anxiety was at once shown 
 to be well founded. The first attempt made by 
 his friends to indorse the conduct of the Govern 
 ment was met by a stern rebuke from the House 
 of Representatives, which passed an amendment 
 proposed by George Ashmun that "the war had 
 been unnecessarily and unconstitutionally com 
 menced by the President." This severe declara 
 tion was provoked and justified by the persistent 
 and disingenuous assertions of the President that 
 the preceding Congress had "with virtual una 
 nimity " declared that " war existed by the act of 
 Mexico" the truth being that a strong minority 
 had voted to strike out those words from the pre 
 amble of the supply bill, but being outvoted in 
 this, they were compelled either to vote for pre 
 amble and bill together, or else refuse supplies to 
 the army. 
 
 It was not surprising that the Whigs and other 
 opponents of the war should take the first oppor 
 tunity to give the President their opinion of such 
 a misrepresentation. The standing of the opposi 
 tion had been greatly strengthened by the very 
 victories upon which Mr. Polk had confidently
 
 260 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xv. relied for his vindication. Both our armies in 
 Mexico were under the command of Whig generals, 
 and among the subordinate officers who had dis 
 tinguished themselves in the field, a full share 
 were Whigs, who, to an extent unusual in wars of 
 political significance, retained their attitude of hos 
 tility to the Administration under whose orders 
 they were serving. Some of them had returned to 
 their places on the floor of Congress brandishing 
 their laurels with great effect in the faces of their 
 opponents who had talked while they fought. 1 
 When we number the names which leaped into 
 sudden fame in that short but sanguinary war, it 
 is surprising to find how few of them sympathized 
 with the party who brought it on, or with the 
 purposes for which it was waged. The earnest 
 opposition of Taylor to the scheme of the annexa- 
 tionists did not hamper his movements or paralyze 
 
 1 The following extract from a 
 letter of Lincoln to his partner, 
 Mr. Herndon, who had criticized 
 his anti-war votes, gives the 
 names of some of the Whig sol 
 diers who persisted in their faith 
 throughout the war: "As to the 
 Whig men who have participated 
 in the war, so far as they have 
 spoken to my hearing, they do 
 not hesitate to denounce as un 
 just the President's conduct in 
 the beginning of the war. They 
 do not suppose that such denun 
 ciation is directed by undying 
 hatred to them, as 'the Regis 
 ter' would have it believed. 
 There are two such Whigs 
 on this floor (Colonel Haskell 
 and Major James). The former 
 fought as a colonel by the side of 
 Colonel Baker, at Cerro Gordo, 
 and stands side by side with me 
 
 in the vote that you seem dis 
 satisfied with. The latter, the 
 history of whose capture with 
 Cassius Clay you well know, had 
 not arrived here when that vote 
 was given; but, as I understand, 
 he stands ready to give just such 
 a vote whenever an occasion 
 shall present. Baker, too, who 
 is now here, says the truth is 
 undoubtedly that way ; and when 
 ever he shall speak out, he will 
 say so. Colonel Doniphan, too, 
 the favorite Whig of Missouri, 
 and who overran all northern 
 Mexico, on his return home, in a 
 public speech at St. Louis, con 
 demned the Administration in 
 relation to the war, if I remem 
 ber. G. T. M. Davis, who has 
 been through almost the whole 
 war, declares in favor of Mr. 
 Clay ; " etc.
 
 THE THIRTIETH CONGEESS 261 
 
 Ms arm, when with his little band of regulars he CHAP. xv. 
 beat the army of Arista on the plain of Palo Alto, 
 and again in the precipitous Eesaca de la Palma ; 
 took by storm the fortified city of Monterey, 
 defended by a greatly superior force ; and finally, 
 with a few regiments of raw levies, posted among 
 the rocky spurs and gorges about the farm of 
 Buena Vista, met and defeated the best-led and 
 the best-fought army the Mexicans ever brought 
 into the field, outnumbering him more than four 
 to one. It was only natural that the Whigs should 
 profit by the glory gained by Whig valor, no 
 matter in what cause. The attitude of the opposi 
 tion sure of their advantage and exulting in it 
 was never perhaps more clearly and strongly set 
 forth than in a speech made by Mr. Lincoln near 
 the close of this session. He said : 
 
 *v 
 
 As General Taylor is par excellence the hero of the 
 Mexican war, and as you Democrats say we Whigs have 
 always opposed the war, you think it must be very awk 
 ward and embarrassing for us to go for General Taylor. 
 The declaration that we have always opposed the war is 
 true or false accordingly as one may understand the 
 term " opposing the war." If to say " the war was un 
 necessarily and unconstitutionally commenced by the 
 President" be opposing the war, then the Whigs have 
 very generally opposed it. Whenever they have spoken 
 at all they have said this ; and they have said it on what 
 has appeared good reason to them ; the marching of an 
 army into the midst of a peaceful Mexican settlement, 
 frightening the inhabitants away, leaving their growing 
 crops and other property to destruction, to you may 
 appear a perfectly amiable, peaceful, unprovoking pro 
 cedure ; but it does not appear so to us. So to call such 
 an act, to us appears no other than a naked, impudent 
 absurdity, and we speak of it accordingly. But if when 
 the war had begun, and had become the cause of the
 
 262 ABKAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xv. country, the giving of our money and our blood, in com 
 mon with yours, was support of the war, then it is not 
 true that we have always opposed the war. "With few 
 individual exceptions, you have constantly had our votes 
 here for all the necessary supplies. And, more than this, 
 you have had the services, the blood, and the lives of our 
 political brethren in every trial, and on every field. The 
 beardless boy and the mature man, the humble and the 
 distinguished, you have had them. Through suffering 
 and death, by disease and in battle, they have endured 
 and fought and fallen with you. Clay and Webster each 
 gave a son, never to be returned. From the State of my 
 own residence, besides other worthy but less-known 
 "Whig names, we sent Marshall, Morrison, Baker, and 
 Hardin ; they all fought, and one fell, and in the fall of 
 that one we lost our best Whig man. Nor were the 
 Whigs few in number or laggard in the day of danger. 
 In that fearful, bloody, breathless struggle at Buena 
 Vista, where each man's hard task was to beat back five 
 foes or die himself, of the five high officers who perished, 
 four were Whigs. 
 
 There was no refuge for the Democrats after the 
 Whigs had adopted Taylor as their especial hero, 
 since Scott was also a Whig and an original op 
 ponent of the war. His victories, on account of 
 the apparent ease with which they were gained, 
 have never received the credit justly due them. 
 The student of military history will rarely meet 
 with narratives of battles in any age where the 
 actual operations coincide so exactly with the orders 
 issued upon the eve of conflict, as in the official 
 reports of the wonderfully energetic and successful 
 campaign in which General Scott with, a handful of 
 men renewed the memory of the conquest of Cortes, 
 in his triumphant march from Vera Cruz to the 
 capital. The plan of the battle of Cerro Gordo was 
 so fully carried out in action that the official report
 
 THE THIETIETH CONGRESS 263 
 
 is hardly more than the general orders translated CHAP.XV. 
 from the future tense to the past. The story of 
 Chapultepec has the same element of the marvelous 
 in it. On one day the general commanded appar 
 ent impossibilities in the closest detail, and the 
 next day reported that they had been accom 
 plished. These successes were not cheaply attained. 
 The Mexicans, though deficient in science and in 
 military intelligence, fought with bravery and 
 sometimes with desperation. The enormous per 
 centage of loss in his army proves that Scott was 
 engaged in no light work. He marched from 
 Pueblo with about 10,000 men, and his losses in 
 the basin of Mexico were 2703, of whom 383 were 
 officers. But neither he nor Taylor was a favorite 
 of the Administration, and their brilliant success 
 brought no gain of popularity to Mr. Polk and his 
 Cabinet. 
 
 V During the early part of the session little was 
 talked about except the Mexican war, its causes, 
 its prosecution, and its probable results. In these 
 wordy engagements the Whigs, partly for the 
 reasons we have mentioned, partly through their 
 unquestionable superiority in debate, and partly 
 by virtue of their stronger cause, usually had 
 the advantage. There was no distinct line of 
 demarcation, however, between the two parties. 
 There was hardly a vote, after the election of 
 Mr. Winthrop as Speaker, where the two sides 
 divided according to their partisan nomencla 
 ture. The question of slavery, even where its 
 presence was not avowed, had its secret influence 
 upon every trial of strength in Congress, and 
 Southern Whigs were continually found sustaining
 
 264 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xv. the President, and New England Democrats voting 
 against his most cherished plans. Not even all the 
 Democrats of the South could be relied on by the 
 Administration. The most powerful leader of them 
 all denounced with bitter earnestness the conduct 
 of the war, for which he was greatly responsible. 
 Mr. Calhoun, in an attack upon the President's 
 policy, January 4, 1848, said : "I opposed the war, 
 not only because it might have been easily avoided; 
 not only because the President had no authority to 
 order a part of the disputed territory in possession 
 of the Mexicans to be occupied by our troops ; not 
 only because I believed the allegations upon which 
 Congress sanctioned the war untrue, but from high 
 considerations of policy; because I believed it 
 would lead to many and serious evils to the 
 country and greatly endanger its free institutions." 
 It was probably not so much the free institutions 
 of the country that the South Carolina Senator was 
 disturbed about as some others. He perhaps felt 
 that the friends of slavery had set in motion a 
 train of events whose result was beyond their ken. 
 Mr. Palfrey, of Massachusetts, a few days later said 
 with as much sagacity as wit that " Mr. Calhoun 
 thought that he could set fire to a barrel of gun 
 powder and extinguish it when half consumed." 
 In his anxiety that the war should be brought to an 
 end, Calhoun proposed that the United States 
 army should evacuate the Mexican capital, establish 
 a defensive line, and hold it as the only indemnity 
 possible to us. He had no confidence in treaties, 
 and believed that no Mexican government was 
 capable of carrying one into effect. A few days 
 3> later, in a running debate, Mr. Calhoun made an
 
 THE THIRTIETH CONGKESS 265 
 
 important statement, which still further strength- CHAP.XV. 
 ened the contention of the Whigs. He said that 
 in making the treaty of annexation he did not 
 assume that the Rio del Norte was the western 
 boundary of Texas ; on the contrary, he assumed 
 that the boundary was an unsettled one between 
 Mexico and Texas; and that he had intimated 
 to our charge d'affaires that we were prepared to 
 settle the boundary on the most liberal terms! 
 This was perfectly in accordance with the position 
 held by most Democrats before the Rio Grande 
 boundary was made an article of faith by the Pres 
 ident. C. J. Ingersoll, one of the leading men 
 upon that side in Congress, in a speech three years 
 before had said : " The stupendous deserts between 
 the Nueces and the Bravo rivers are the natural 
 boundaries between the Anglo-Saxon and the 
 Mauritanian races"; a statement which, however 
 faulty from the point of view of ethnology and 
 physical geography, shows clearly enough the view 
 then held of the boundary question. 
 
 The discipline of both parties was more or less 
 relaxed under the influence of the slavery question. 
 It was singular to see Mr. McLane, of Baltimore, 
 rebuking Mr. Clingman, of North Carolina, for 
 mentioning that forbidden subject on the floor of 
 the House ; Reverdy Johnson, a Whig from Mary 
 land, administering correction to John P. Hale, an 
 insubordinate Democrat from New Hampshire, for 
 the same offense, and at the time screaming that 
 the "blood of our glorious battle-fields in Mexico 
 rested on the hands of the President " ; Mr. Cling 
 man challenging the House with the broad state 
 ment that "it is a misnomer to speak of our
 
 266 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xv. institution at the South as peculiar ; ours is the 
 general system of the world, and the free system is 
 the peculiar one," and Mr. Palfrey dryly responding 
 that slavery was natural just as barbarism was, 
 just as fig-leaves and bare skins were a natural 
 dress. When the time arrived, however, for leav 
 ing off grimacing and posturing, and the House 
 went to voting, the advocates of slavery usually 
 carried the day, as the South, Whigs and Demo-x 
 crats together, voted solidly, and the North was v 
 divided. Especially was this the case after the 
 arrival of the treaty of peace between the United 
 States and Mexico, which was signed at Guadalupe 
 Hidalgo on the 2d of February and was in the 
 hands of the Senate only twenty days later. It 
 was ratified by that body on the 10th of March, 
 with a series of amendments which were at once 
 accepted by Mexico, and the treaty of peace was 
 officially promulgated on the national festival of 
 the Fourth of July. 
 
 From the hour when the treaty was received in 
 Washington, however, the discussion as to the 
 conduct of the war naturally languished ; the ablest 
 speeches of the day before became obsolete in the 
 presence of accomplished facts ; and the interest of 
 Congress promptly turned to the more important 
 subject of the disposition to be made of the vast 
 domain which our arms had conquered and the 
 treaty confirmed to us. No one in America then 
 realized the magnitude of this acquisition ; its 
 stupendous physical features were as little appre 
 ciated as the vast moral and political results which 
 were to flow from its absorption into our common 
 wealth. It was only known, in general terms, that
 
 THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS 267 
 
 our new possessions covered ten degrees of latitude CHAP. xv. 
 and fifteen of longitude ; that we had acquired, in 
 short, six hundred and thirty thousand square 
 miles of desert, mountain, and wilderness. There 
 was no dream, then, of that portentous discovery 
 which, even while the Senate was wrangling 
 over the treaty, had converted Captain Sutter's 
 mill at Coloma into a mining camp, for his ruin 
 and the sudden up-building of many colossal 
 fortunes. The name of California, which conveys 
 to-day such opulent suggestions, then meant noth 
 ing but barrenness, and Nevada was a name as 
 yet unknown : some future Congressman, inno 
 cent of taste and of Spanish, was to hit upon the 
 absurdity of calling that land of silver and cactus, 
 of the orange and the sage-hen, the land of snow. 
 But imperfect as was the appreciation, at that day, 
 of the possibilities which lay hidden in those sunset 
 regions, there was still enough of instinctive greed 
 in the minds of politicians to make the new realm 
 a subject of lively interest and intrigue. 1 At the 
 first showing of hands, the South was successful. 
 
 In the Twenty-ninth Congress this contest had 
 begun over the spoils of a victory not yet achieved. 
 President Polk, foreseeing the probability of an 
 
 i To show how crude and vague thousand square miles of this 
 were the ideas of even the most territory, in New California, has 
 intelligent men in relation to this been trod by the foot of no civil- 
 great empire, we give a few lines ized being. No spy or pioneer or 
 from the closing page of Ed-, vagrant trapper has ever returned 
 ward D. Mansfield's " History to report the character and 
 of the Mexican War," published scenery of that waste and lonely 
 in 1849: "But will the greater wilderness. Two hundred thou- 
 part of this vast space ever be sand square miles more are oc- 
 inhabited by any but the rest- cupied with broken mountains 
 less hunter and the wander- and dreary wilds. But little 
 ing trapper? Two hundred remains then for civilization."
 
 268 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xv. acquisition of territory by treaty, had asked Con 
 gress to make an appropriation for that purpose. 
 A bill was at once reported in that sense, appro 
 priating $30,000 for the expenses of the negotiation 
 and $2,000,000 to be used in the President's discre 
 tion. But before it passed, a number of Northern 
 Democrats l had become alarmed as to the disposi 
 tion that might be made of the territory thus 
 acquired, which was now free soil by Mexican law. 
 After a hasty consultation they agreed upon a 
 proviso to the bill, which was presented by David 
 Wilmot, of Pennsylvania. He was a man of 
 respectable abilities, who then, and long after 
 wards, held a somewhat prominent position among 
 the public men of his State ; but his chief claim to 
 a place in history rests upon these few lines which 
 he moved to add to the first section of the bill 
 under discussion : 
 
 Provided, That as an express and fundamental condi 
 tion to the acquisition of any territory from the Republic 
 of Mexico by the United States, by virtue of any treaty 
 that may be negotiated between them, and to the use by 
 the Executive of the moneys herein appropriated, neither 
 slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist in any part 
 of said territory, except for crime, whereof the party 
 shall first be duly convicted. 
 
 This condition seemed so fair, when first pre 
 sented to the Northern conscience, that only three 
 members from the free States voted " no " in com 
 mittee. The amendment was adopted eighty to 
 sixty-four and the bill reported to the House. A 
 desperate effort was then made by the pro-slavery 
 
 1 Some of the more conspicuous York ; Wilmot, of Pennsylvania ; 
 among them were Hamlin, of Brinckerhoff , of Ohio, and McClel- 
 Maine ; Preston King, of New land, of Michigan.
 
 THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS 269 
 
 members to kill the bill for the purpose of destroy- CHAP. xv. 
 ing the amendment with it. This failed, 1 and the 
 bill, as amended, passed the House; but going to 
 the Senate a few hours before the close of the ses 
 sion, it lapsed without a vote. 
 
 As soon as the war was ended and the treaty of 
 peace was sent to the Senate, this subject assumed 
 a new interest and importance, and a resolution 
 embodying the principle of the Wilmot proviso 
 was brought before the House by Mr. Harvey Put 
 nam, of New York, but no longer with the same 
 success. The South was now solid against it, and 
 such a disintegration of conscience among North 
 ern Democrats had set in, that whereas only three 
 of them in the last Congress had seen fit to 
 approve the introduction of slavery into free terri 
 tory, twenty-five now voted with the South against 
 maintaining the existing conditions there. The 
 fight was kept up during the session in various 
 places; if now and then a temporary advantage 
 seemed gained in the House, it was lost in the 
 Senate, and no permanent progress was made. 
 
 What we have said in regard to the general dis 
 cussion provoked by the Mexican war, appeared 
 necessary to explain the part taken by Mr. Lincoln 
 on the floor. He came to his place unheralded and 
 without any special personal pretensions. His first 
 
 1 In this important and signifi- members from slave-holding 
 cant vote all the Whigs but one States, except Thomasson and 
 and almost all the Democrats, Grider, and the following from 
 from the free States, together free States, Douglas and John A. 
 with Wm. P. Thomasson and McClernand from Illinois, Petit 
 Henry Grider, Whigs from Ken- from Indiana, and Schenck, a 
 tucky, voted against killing the Whig, from Ohio, in all seventy- 
 amended bill, in all ninety-three, nine. Greeley's "American Con- 
 On the other side were all the flict," I. p. 189.
 
 270 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xv. participation in debate can best be described in his 
 own quaint and simple words: "As to speech-mak 
 ing, by way of getting the hang of the House, I 
 made a little speech two or three days ago on a 
 post-office question of no general interest. I find 
 speaking here and elsewhere about the same thing. 
 I was about as badly scared, and no worse, as I 
 Letter to am when I speak in court. I expect to make 
 Herndon, one within a week or two ,in which I hope to 
 Jan i848. y8 ' succeed well enough to wish you to see it." He 
 evidently had the orator's temperament the 
 mixture of dread and eagerness which all good 
 speakers feel before facing an audience, which 
 made Cicero tremble and turn pale when rising in 
 the Forum. The speech he was pondering was 
 made only four days later, on the 12th of January, 
 and few better maiden speeches for it was his 
 first formal discourse in Congress have ever been 
 made in that House. He preceded it, and prepared 
 for it, by the introduction, on the 22d of December, 
 of a series of resolutions referring to the President's 
 persistent assertions that the war had been begun 
 by Mexico, " by invading our territory and shed 
 ding the blood of our citizens on our own soil," 
 and calling upon him to give the House more 
 specific information upon these points. As these 
 resolutions became somewhat famous afterwards, 
 and were relied upon to sustain the charge of a 
 lack of patriotism made by Mr. Douglas against 
 their author, it may be as well to give them here, 
 especially as they are the first production of Mr. 
 Lincoln's pen after his entry upon the field of national 
 politics. We omit the preamble, which consists of 
 quotations from the President's message.
 
 THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS 271 
 
 Resolved by the House of Representatives, That the Presi- CHAP xv. 
 dent of the United States be respectfully requested to 
 inform this House : 
 
 First. Whether the spot on which the blood of our 
 citizens was shed, as in his messages declared, was or was 
 not within the territory of Spain, at least after the treaty 
 of 1819, until the Mexican revolution. 
 
 Second. Whether that spot is or is not within the terri 
 tory which was wrested from Spain by the revolutionary 
 government of Mexico. 
 
 Third. Whether that spot is or is not within a settle 
 ment of people, which settlement has existed ever since 
 long before the Texas revolution and until its inhabitants 
 fled before the approach of the United States army. 
 
 Fourth. Whether that settlement is or is not isolated 
 from any and all other settlements by the Gulf and the 
 Rio Grande on the south and west, and by wide unin 
 habited regions in the north and east. 
 
 Fifth. Whether the people of that settlement, or a 
 majority of them, or any of them, have ever submitted 
 themselves to the government or laws of Texas or of the 
 United States, by consent or by compulsion, either by ac 
 cepting office, or voting at elections, or paying tax, or 
 serving on juries, or having process served upon them, or 
 in any other way. 
 
 Sixth. Whether the people of that settlement did or did 
 not flee from the approach of the United States army, 
 leaving unprotected their homes and their growing crops, 
 before the blood was shed, as in the messages stated ; 
 and whether the first blood so shed was or was not shed 
 within the inclosure of one of the people who had thus 
 fled from it. 
 
 Seventh. Whether our citizens whose blood was shed, as 
 in his messages declared, were or were not at that time armed 
 officers and soldiers, sent into that settlement by the mil 
 itary order of the President, through the Secretary of War. 
 
 Eighth. Whether the military force of the United States 
 was or was not so sent into that settlement after General 
 Taylor had more than once intimated to the War Depart-
 
 272 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xv. ment that in his opinion no such movement was neces 
 sary to the defense or protection of Texas. 
 
 It would have been impossible for the President 
 to answer these questions, one by one, according 
 to the evidence in his possession, without sur 
 rendering every position he had taken in his 
 messages for the last two years. An answer was 
 probably not expected ; the resolutions were never 
 - acted upon by the House, the vote on the Ashmun 
 proposition having sufficiently indicated the view 
 which the majority held of the President's 
 precipitate and unconstitutional proceeding. But 
 they served as a text for the speech which Lincoln 
 made in Committee of the Whole, which deserves 
 the attentive reading of any one who imagines 
 that there was anything accidental in the ascend 
 ency which he held for twenty years among the 
 public men of Illinois. The winter was mostly de 
 voted to speeches upon the same subject from 
 men of eminence and experience, but it is within 
 bounds to say there was not a speech made in the 
 House, that year, superior to this in clearness of 
 statement, severity of criticism combined with 
 soberness of style, or, what is most surprising, 
 finish and correctness. In its close, clear argu 
 ment, its felicity of illustration, its restrained yet 
 burning earnestness, it belongs to precisely the 
 same class of addresses as those which he made a 
 dozen years later. The ordinary Congressman can 
 never conclude inside the limits assigned him ; he 
 must beg for unanimous consent for an extension 
 of time to complete his sprawling peroration. But 
 this masterly speech covered the whole ground of 
 the controversy, and so intent was Lincoln on not
 
 THE THIRTIETH CONGEESS 273 
 
 exceeding his hour that he finished his task, to his CHAP. xv. 
 own surprise, in forty-five minutes. It is an ad 
 mirable discourse, and the oblivion which overtook 
 it, along with the volumes of other speeches made 
 at the same time, can be accounted for only by re 
 membering that the Gruadalupe Treaty came sud 
 denly in upon the debate, with its immense 
 consequences sweeping forever out of view all 
 consideration of the causes and the processes which 
 led to the momentous result. 
 
 Lincoln's speech and his resolutions were alike 
 inspired with one purpose: to correct what he 
 considered an error and a wrong; to rectify a 
 misrepresentation which he could not, in his very 
 nature, permit to go uncontradicted. It gratified 
 his offended moral sense to protest against the 
 false pretenses which he saw so clearly, and it 
 pleased his fancy as a lawyer to bring a truth to 
 light which somebody, as he thought, was trying 
 to conceal. . He certainly got no other reward for 
 his trouble. ^/His speech was not particularly well 
 received in Illinois. His own partner, Mr. Herndon, 
 a young and ardent man, with more heart than 
 learning, more feeling for the flag than for inter 
 national justice, could not, or would not, understand 
 Mr. Lincoln's position, and gave him great pain by 
 his letters. Again and again Lincoln explained to 
 him the difference between approving the war and 
 voting supplies to the soldiers, but Herndon was ob 
 stinately obtuse, and there were many of his mind. 
 
 Lincoln's convictions were so positive in regard 
 to the matter that any laxity of opinion among his 
 friends caused him real suffering. In a letter to 
 the Eev. J. M. Peck, who had written a defense 
 
 VOL. L 18
 
 274 ABKAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xv. of the Administration in reference to the origin 
 of the war, he writes : this " disappoints me, 
 because it is the first effort of the kind I have 
 known, made by one appearing to me to be intelli 
 gent, right-minded, and impartial." He then reviews 
 some of the statements of Mr. Peck, proving their 
 incorrectness, and goes on to show that our army 
 had marched under orders across the desert of the 
 Nueces into a peaceful Mexican settlement, fright 
 ening away the inhabitants ; that Fort Brown was 
 built in a Mexican cotton-field, where a young crop 
 was growing ; that Captain Thornton and his men 
 were captured in another cultivated field. He then 
 asks, how under any law, human or divine, this can 
 be considered " no aggression," and closes by ask 
 ing his clerical correspondent if the precept, 
 "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to 
 you, do you even so to them," is obsolete, of no 
 force, of no application f This is not the anxiety 
 of a politician troubled about his record. He is not 
 a candidate for reelection, and the discussion has 
 passed by; but he must stop and vindicate the 
 truth whenever assailed. He perhaps does not see, 
 certainly does not care, that this stubborn devotion 
 to mere justice will do him no good at an hour 
 when the air is full of the fumes of gunpowder ; 
 when the returned volunteers are running for con 
 stable in every county ; when so good a Whig as 
 Mr. Winthrop gives, as a sentiment, at a public 
 meeting in Boston, " Our country, however 
 bounded," and the majority of his party are pre 
 paring unmindful of Mr. Polk and all his works 
 to reap the fruits of the Mexican war by making 
 its popular hero President.
 
 THE THIRTIETH CONGEESS 275 
 
 It was fortunate for Mr. Lincoln and for Whigs CHAP.XV. 
 like him, with consciences, that General Taylor had 
 occupied so unequivocal an attitude in regard to 
 the war. He had not been in favor of the march to 
 the Rio Grande, and had resisted every suggestion 
 to that effect until his peremptory orders came. In 
 regard to other political questions, his position was 
 so undefined, and his silence generally so discreet, 
 that few of the Whigs, however exacting, could 
 find any difficulty in supporting him. Mr. Lincoln 
 did more than tolerate his candidacy. He sup 
 ported it with energy and cordiality. He was at 
 last convinced that the election of Mr. Clay was 
 impossible, and he thought he could see that the 
 one opportunity of the Whigs was in the nomina 
 tion of Taylor. So early as April he wrote to a 
 friend : " Mr. Clay's chance for an election is just 
 no chance at all. He might get New York, and 
 that would have elected in 1844, but it will not 
 now because he must now, at the least, lose Ten 
 nessee, which he had then, and in addition the 
 fifteen new votes of Florida, Texas, Iowa, and 
 Wisconsin." Later he wrote to the same friend 
 that the nomination took the Democrats " on the 
 blind side. It turns the war thunder against them. 
 The war is now to them the gallows of Haman, 
 which they built for us, and on which they are 
 doomed to be hanged themselves." 
 
 At the same time he bated no jot of his opposi 
 tion to the war, and urged the same course upon 
 his friends. To Linder, of Illinois, he wrote : " In j G 
 law, it is good policy to never plead what you need 
 not, lest you oblige yourself to prove what you can 
 not." He then counseled him to go for Taylor, but
 
 276 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xv. to avoid approving Polk and the war, as in the 
 former case he would gain Democratic votes and in 
 the latter he would lose with the Whigs. Linder 
 answered him, wanting to know if it would not be 
 as easy to elect Taylor without opposing the war, 
 which drew from Lincoln the angry response that 
 silence was impossible ; the Whigs must speak, 
 " and their only option is whether they will, when 
 they speak, tell the truth or tell a foul and villain 
 ous falsehood." 
 
 When the Whig Convention came together in 
 is*!. ' Philadelphia, the differences of opinion on points 
 of principle and policy were almost as numerous 
 as the delegates. The unconditional Clay men 
 rallied once more and gave their aged leader 
 97 votes to 111 which Taylor received on the 
 first ballot. Scott and Webster had each a 
 few votes; but on the fourth ballot the soldier 
 of Buena Vista was nominated, and Millard Fill- 
 more placed in the line of succession to him. 
 It was impossible for a body so heterogeneous to 
 put forward a distinctive platform of principles. 
 An attempt was made to force an expression in 
 regard to the Wilmot proviso, but it was never 
 permitted to come to a vote. The convention was 
 determined that " Old Rough and Ready," as he 
 was now universally nicknamed, should run upon 
 his battle-flags and his name of Whig although 
 he cautiously called himself " not an ultra Whig." 
 The nomination was received with great and noisy 
 demonstrations of adhesion from every quarter. 
 Lincoln, writing a day or two after his return from 
 the convention, said : " Many had said they would 
 not abide the nomination of Taylor ; but since the
 
 THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS 277 
 
 deed has been done they are fast falling in, and in cap. xv. 
 my opinion we shall have a most overwhelming, 
 glorious triumph. One unmistakable sign is that 
 all the odds and ends are with us, Barnburners, 
 native Americans, Tyler men, disappointed office- 
 seeking Loco-focos, and the Lord knows what. 
 This is important, if in nothing else, in showing 
 which way the wind blows." 
 
 General Taylor's chances for election had been 
 greatly increased by what had taken place at the 
 Democratic Convention, a fortnight before. Gen 
 eral Cass had been nominated for the Presidency, 
 but his militia title had no glamour of carnage 
 about it, and the secession of the New York Anti- 
 slavery " Barnburners " from the convention was a 
 presage of disaster which was fulfilled in the fol 
 lowing August by the assembling of the recusant 
 delegates at Buffalo, where they were joined by 
 a large number of discontented Democrats and 
 "Liberty" men, and the Free-soil party was organ 
 ized for its short but effective mission. Martin 
 Van Buren was nominated for President, and 
 Charles Francis Adams was associated with him 
 on the ticket. The great superiority of caliber 
 shown in the nominations of the mutineers over 
 the regular Democrats was also apparent in the 
 roll of those who made and sustained the revolt. 
 When Salmon P. Chase, Preston King, the Van 
 Burens, John P. Hale, William Cullen Bryant, 
 David Wilmot, and their like went out of their 
 party, they left a vacancy which was never to be 
 filled. 
 
 It was perhaps an instinct rather than any clear 
 spirit of prophecy which drove the antislavery
 
 278 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xv. Democrats away from their affiliations and kept the 
 Whigs, for the moment, substantially together. So 
 far as the authorized utterances of their conventions 
 were concerned, there was little to choose between 
 them. They had both evaded any profession of faith 
 in regard to slavery. The Democrats had rejected 
 the resolution offered by Yancey committing them 
 to the doctrine of " non-interference with the 
 rights of property in the territories," and the 
 Whigs had never allowed the Wilmot proviso to 
 be voted upon. But nevertheless those Democrats 
 who felt that the time had come to put a stop to 
 the aggression of slavery, generally threw off their 
 partisan allegiance, and the most ardent of the 
 antislavery Whigs, with some exceptions it is 
 true, especially in Ohio and in Massachusetts, 
 where the strength of the " Conscience Whigs," 
 led by Sumner, the Adamses, and Henry Wilson, 
 was important, thought best to remain with their 
 party. General Taylor was a Southerner and a 
 slaveholder. In regard to all questions bearing 
 upon slavery, he observed a discretion in the 
 canvass which was almost ludicrous. 1 Yet there 
 was a well-nigh universal impression among the 
 antislavery Whigs that his administration would 
 be under influences favorable to the restriction of 
 
 1 It is a tradition that a planter done credit to a diplomatist, and 
 
 once wrote to him: "I have would have proved exceedingly 
 
 worked hard and been frugal all useful to Mr. Clay, responded, 
 
 my life, and the results of my "Sir: I have the honor to in- 
 
 industry have mainly taken the form you that I too have been all 
 
 form of slaves, of whom I own my life industrious and frugal, 
 
 about a hundred. Before I vote and that the fruits thereof 
 
 for President I want to be sure are mainly invested in slaves, of 
 
 that the candidate I support will whom I own three hundred, 
 
 not so act as to divest me of my Yours, etc." Horace Greeley, 
 
 property." To which the general, " American Conflict," Volume I., 
 
 with a dexterity that would have p. 193.
 
 THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS 279 
 
 slavery. Clay, Webster, and Seward, all of whom CHAP.XV. 
 were agreed at that time against any extension of 
 the area of that institution, supported him with 
 more or less cordiality. Webster insisted upon it 
 that the Whigs were themselves the best " Free- 
 soilers," and for them to join the party called by 
 that distinctive name would be merely putting Mr. //' 
 Van Buren at the head of the Whig party. Mr. 
 Seward, speaking for Taylor at Cleveland, took C i84. 
 still stronger ground, declaring that slavery "must 
 be abolished"; that "freedom and slavery are two 
 antagonistic elements of society in America " ; that 
 "the party of freedom seeks complete and uni 
 versal emancipation." No one then seems to have 
 foreseen that the Whig party then on the eve of 
 a great victory was so near its dissolution, and 
 that the bolting Democrats and the faithful Whigs 
 were alike engaged in laying the foundations of a 
 party which was to glorify the latter half of the 
 century with achievements of such colossal and 
 enduring importance. 
 
 There was certainly no doubt or misgiving in 
 the mind of Lincoln as to that future, which, if he 
 could have foreseen it, would have presented so 
 much of terrible fascination. He went into the 
 campaign with exultant alacrity. He could not 
 even wait for the adjournment of Congress to 
 begin his stump-speaking. Following the bad 
 example of the rest of his colleagues, he obtained 
 the floor on the 27th of July, and made a long, 
 brilliant, and humorous speech upon the merits of 
 the two candidates before the people. As it is the 
 only one of Lincoln's popular speeches of that 
 period which has been preserved entire, it should
 
 280 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xv. be read by those who desire to understand the 
 manner and spirit of the politics of 1848. What 
 ever faults of taste or of method may be found 
 in it, considering it as a speech delivered in the 
 House of Representatives, with no more propriety 
 or pertinence than hundreds of others which have 
 been made under like circumstances, it is an 
 extremely able speech, and it is by itself enough 
 to show how remarkably effective he must have 
 been as a canvasser in the remoter districts of his 
 State where means of intellectual excitement were 
 rare and a political meeting was the best-known 
 form of public entertainment. 
 
 He begins by making a clear, brief, and dignified 
 defense of the position of Taylor upon the question 
 of the proper use of the veto ; he then avows with 
 characteristic candor that he does not know what 
 General Taylor will do as to slavery ; he is himself 
 " a Northern man, or rather a Western free-State 
 man, with a constituency I believe to be, and with 
 personal feelings I know to be, against the ex 
 tension of slavery" (a definition in which his 
 caution and his honesty are equally displayed), and 
 he hopes General Taylor would not, if elected, 
 do anything against its restriction ; but he would 
 vote for him in any case, as offering better 
 guarantees than Mr. Cass. He then enters upon an 
 analysis of the position of Cass and his party 
 which is full of keen observation and political in 
 telligence, and his speech goes on to its rollicking 
 close with a constant succession of bright, witty, 
 and striking passages in which the orator's own 
 conviction and enjoyment of an assured success is 
 not the least remarkable feature. A few weeks
 
 THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS 
 
 281 
 
 later Congress adjourned, and Lincoln, without ca&p.xv. 
 returning home, entered upon the canvass in New 
 England, 1 and then going to Illinois, spoke night 
 and day until the election. When the votes were 
 counted, the extent of the defection among the 
 Northern Whigs and Democrats who voted for 
 Van Buren and among the Southern Democrats 
 who had been beguiled by the epaulets of Taylor, 
 was plainly seen. The bolting " Barnburners " had 
 given New York to Taylor ; the Free-Soil vote in 
 Ohio, on the other hand, had thrown that State to 
 Cass. Van Buren carried no electors, but his 
 popular vote was larger in New York and Mas 
 sachusetts than that of Cass. The entire popular 
 
 1 Thurlow Weed says in his 
 Autobiography, Vol. I., p. 603 : 
 "I had supposed, until we now 
 met, that I had never seen Mr. 
 Lincoln, having forgotten that in 
 the fall of 1848, when he took 
 the stump in New England, he 
 called upon me at Albany, and 
 that we went to see Mr. Fillmore, 
 who was then the Whig candidate 
 for Vice-President." The New 
 York " Tribune," September 14, 
 1848, mentions Mr. Lincoln as 
 addressing a great Whig meet 
 ing in Boston, September 12. 
 The Boston "Atlas" refers to 
 speeches made by him at Dor 
 chester, September 16 ; at Chel 
 sea, September 17; by Lincoln 
 and Seward at Boston, September 
 22, on which occasion the report 
 says: "Mr. Lincoln, of Illinois, 
 next came forward, and was re 
 ceived with great applause. He 
 spoke about an hour and made a 
 powerful and convincing speech 
 which was cheered to the echo." 
 
 Mr. Robert C. Winthrop, Jr., in 
 his recent memoir of the Hon. 
 
 David Sears, says, the most 
 brilliant of Mr. Lincoln's speeches 
 in this campaign " was delivered 
 at Worcester, September 13, 
 1848, when, after taking for his 
 text Mr. Webster's remark that 
 the nomination of Martin Van 
 Buren for the Presidency by a 
 professed antislavery party could 
 fitly be regarded only as a trick 
 or a joke, Mr. Lincoln proceeded 
 to declare that of the three 
 parties then asking the confidence 
 of the country, the new one had 
 less of principle than any other, 
 adding, amid shouts of laughter, 
 that the recently constructed 
 elastic Free-Soil platform re 
 minded him of nothing so much 
 as the pair of trousers offered for 
 sale by a Yankee peddler which 
 were "large enough for any 
 man and small enough for any 
 boy.' " 
 
 It is evident that he considered 
 Van Buren, in Massachusetts at 
 least, a candidate more to be 
 feared than Cass, the regular 
 Democratic nominee.
 
 282 ABBAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xv. vote (exclusive of South Carolina, which chose its 
 electors by the Legislature) was for Taylor 
 1,360,752; for Cass 1,219,962; for Van Buren 
 291,342. Of the electors, Taylor had 163 and 
 Cass 137.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 A FORTUNATE ESCAPE 
 
 WHEN Congress came together again in CHAP.XVI. 
 December, there was such a change in the i8. 
 temper of its members that no one would have 
 imagined, on seeing the House divided, that it was 
 the same body which had assembled there a year 
 before. The election was over ; the Whigs were to 
 control the Executive Department of the Govern 
 ment for four years to come ; the members them 
 selves were either reflected or defeated ; and there 
 was nothing to prevent the gratification of such 
 private feelings as they might have been suppress 
 ing during the canvass in the interest of their 
 party. It was not long before some of the North 
 ern Democrats began to avail themselves of this 
 new liberty. They had returned burdened with a 
 sense of wrong. They had seen their party put in 
 deadly peril by reason of its fidelity to the South, 
 and they had seen how little their Southern 
 brethren cared for their labors and sacrifices, in 
 the enormous gains which Taylor had made in the 
 South, carrying eight out of fifteen slave States. 
 They were in the humor to avenge themselves by a 
 display of independence on their own account, at 
 the first opportunity. The occasion was not long
 
 284 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xvi. in presenting itself. A few days after Congress 
 opened, Mr. Root, of Ohio, introduced a resolution 
 instructing the Committee on Territories to bring 
 in a bill " with as little delay as practicable " to 
 provide territorial governments for California and 
 New Mexico, which should " exclude slavery there 
 from." This resolution would have thrown the 
 same House into a panic twelve months before, but 
 now it passed by a vote of 108 to 80 in the 
 former number were all the Whigs from the North 
 and all the Democrats but eight, and in the latter 
 the entire South and the eight referred to. 
 
 The Senate, however, was not so susceptible to 
 popular impressions, and the bill, prepared in 
 obedience to the mandate of the House, never got 
 farther than the desk of the Senate Chamber. 
 The pro-slavery majority in that body held firmly 
 together till near the close of the session, when 
 they attempted to bring in the new territories with 
 out any restriction as to slavery, by attaching 
 what is called " a rider " to that effect to the Civil 
 Appropriation Bill. The House resisted, and 
 returned the bill to the Senate with the rider un 
 horsed. A committee of conference failed to agree. 
 Mr. McClernand, a Democrat from Illinois, then 
 moved that the House recede from its disagreement, 
 which was carried by a few Whig votes, to the 
 dismay of those who were not in the secret, when 
 Eichard W. Thompson (who was thirty years after 
 wards Secretary of the Navy) instantly moved 
 that the House do concur with the Senate, with 
 this amendment, that the existing laws of those 
 territories be for the present and until Congress 
 should amend them, retained. This would secure
 
 A FORTUNATE ESCAPE 285 
 
 them to freedom, as slavery had long ago been CHAP.XVI. 
 abolished by Mexico. This amendment passed, 
 and the Senate had to face the many-pronged 
 dilemma, either to defeat the Appropriation Bill, or 
 to consent that the territories should be organized 
 as free communities, or to swallow their protesta 
 tions that the territories were in sore need of 
 government and adjourn, leaving them in the 
 anarchy they had so feelingly depicted. They 
 chose the last as the least dangerous course, and 
 passed the Appropriation Bill in its original form. 
 Mr. Lincoln took little part in the discussions 
 incident to these proceedings; he was constantly 
 in his seat, however, and voted generally with his 
 party, and always with those opposed to the exten 
 sion of slavery. He used to say that he had voted 
 for the Wilmot proviso, in its various phases, 
 forty-two times. He left to others, however, the 
 active work on the floor. His chief preoccupation 
 during this second session was a scheme which 
 links itself characteristically with his first protest 
 against the proscriptive spirit of slavery ten years 
 before in the Illinois Legislature and his immortal 
 act fifteen years afterwards in consequence of 
 which American slavery ceased to exist. He had 
 long felt in common with many others that the 
 traffic in human beings under the very shadow of 
 the Capitol was a national scandal and reproach. 
 He thought that Congress had the power under the 
 Constitution to regulate or prohibit slavery in all 
 regions under its exclusive jurisdiction, and he 
 thought it proper to exercise that power with due 
 regard to vested rights and the general welfare. 
 He therefore resolved to test the question whether
 
 286 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xvi. it were possible to remove from the seat of govern 
 ment this stain and offense. 
 
 He proceeded carefully and cautiously about it, 
 after his habit. When he had drawn up his plan, 
 he took counsel with some of the leading citizens 
 of Washington and some of the more prominent 
 members of Congress before bringing it forward. 
 ^is kill obtained the cordial approval of Colonel 
 Seaton, the Mayor of Washington, whom Mr. Lin- 
 
 a JubYi' 8 h 8 e 4 d : coin had consulted as the representative of the 
 intelligent slave-holding citizens of the District, 
 
 Marcii 31, and of Joshua R. Giddings, whom he regarded as 
 the leading abolitionist in Congress, a fact which 
 sufficiently proves the practical wisdom with which 
 he had reconciled the demands of right and ex 
 pediency. In the meantime, however, Mr. Grott, a 
 member from New York, had introduced a resolu 
 tion with a rhetorical preamble directing the proper 
 committee to bring in a bill prohibiting the slave- 
 trade in the District. This occasioned great excite 
 ment, much caucusing and threatening on the part 
 of the Southern members, but nothing else. In the 
 opinion of the leading antislavery men, Mr. Lin 
 coln's bill, being at the same time more radical and 
 more reasonable, was far better calculated to effect 
 its purpose. Giddings says in his diary : " This 
 evening (January 11), our whole mess remained in 
 the dining-room after tea, and conversed upon the 
 subject of Mr. Lincoln's bill to abolish slavery. It 
 was approved by all ; I believe it as good a bill as 
 we could get at this time, and am willing to pay 
 for slaves in order to save them from the Southern 
 market, as I suppose every man in the District 
 would sell his slaves if he saw that slavery was
 
 A FORTUNATE ESCAPE 287 
 
 to be abolished." Mr. Lincoln therefore moved, on CHAP.XVI. 
 the 16th of January, as an amendment to G-ott's I/ 
 proposition, that the committee report a bill for 
 the total abolition of slavery in the District of Co 
 lumbia, the terms of which he gave in full. They 
 were in substance the following : 
 
 The first two sections prohibit the bringing of 
 slaves into the district or selling them out of it, 
 provided, however, that officers of the G-overnment, 
 being citizens of slave-holding States, may bring 
 their household servants with them for a reason 
 able time and take them away again. The third 
 provides a temporary system of apprenticeship and 
 eventual emancipation for children born of slave- 
 mothers after January 1, 1850. The fourth pro 
 vides for the manumission of slaves by the 
 Government on application of the owners, the 
 latter to receive their full cash value. The fifth 
 provides for the return of fugitive slaves from 
 Washington and Georgetown. The sixth submits 
 this bill itself to a popular vote in the District as a 
 condition of its promulgation as law. 
 
 These are the essential points of the measure and 
 the success of Mr. Lincoln in gaining the adhesion 
 of the abolitionists in the House is more remark 
 able than that he should have induced the Wash 
 ington Conservatives to approve it. But the usual 
 result followed as soon as it was formally intro 
 duced to the notice of Congress. It was met by 
 that violent and excited opposition which greeted 
 any measure, however intrinsically moderate and 
 reasonable, which was founded on the assumption 
 that slavery was not in itself a good and desirable 
 thing. The social influences of Washington were
 
 288 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xvi. brought to bear against a proposition which the 
 Southerners contended would vulgarize society, 
 and the genial and liberal mayor was forced to 
 withdraw his approval as gracefully or as awk 
 wardly as he might. The prospects of the bill 
 were seen to be hopeless, as the session was to end 
 on the 4th of March, and no further effort was 
 made to carry it through. Fifteen years after 
 wards, in the stress and tempest of a terrible war, 
 it was Mr. Lincoln's strange fortune to sign a bill 
 sent him by Congress for the abolition of slavery 
 in Washington ; and perhaps the most remarkable 
 thing about the whole transaction was that while 
 we were looking politically upon a new heaven and 
 a new earth, for the vast change in our moral 
 and economic condition might justify so audacious 
 a phrase, when there was scarcely a man on the 
 continent who had not greatly shifted his point of 
 view in a dozen years, there was so little change 
 in Mr. Lincoln. The same hatred of slavery, the 
 same sympathy with the slave, the same considera 
 tion for the slaveholder as the victim of a system 
 he had inherited, the same sense of divided respon 
 sibility between the South and the North, the same 
 desire to effect great reforms with as little in 
 dividual damage and injury, as little disturbance 
 of social conditions as possible, were equally 
 evident when the raw pioneer signed the protest 
 with Dan Stone at Vandalia, when the mature man 
 moved the resolution of 1849 in the Capitol, and 
 when the President gave the sanction of his bold 
 signature to the act which swept away the slave- 
 shambles from the city of Washington. 
 His term in Congress ended on the 4th of March,
 
 JOSHUA R. GIDDINGS.
 
 A FORTUNATE ESCAPE 289 
 
 1849, and he was not a candidate for reelection. A CHAP. xvi. 
 year before he had contemplated the possibility of 
 entering the field again. He then wrote to his 
 friend and partner Herndon : " It is very pleasant 
 for me to learn from you that there are some who 
 desire that I should be reflected. I most heartily 
 thank them for their kind partiality ; and I can say, 
 as Mr. Clay said of the annexation of Texas, that 
 'personally I would not object' to a reelection, 
 although I thought at the time [of his nomina 
 tion], and still think, it would be quite as well for 
 me to return to the law at the end of a single term. 
 I made the declaration that I would not be a can 
 didate again, more from a wish to deal fairly with 
 others, to keep peace among our friends, and keep 
 the district from going to the enemy, than for any 
 cause personal to myself, so that, if it should so 
 happen that nobody else wishes to be elected, I 
 could not refuse the people the right of sending 
 me again. But to enter myself as a competitor of 
 others, or to authorize any one so to enter me, is 
 what my word and honor forbid." 
 
 But before his first session ended he gave up all 
 idea of going back, and heartily concurred in the 
 nomination of Judge Logan to succeed him. The 
 Sangamon district was the one which the Whigs of 
 Illinois had apparently the best prospect of carry 
 ing, and it was full of able and ambitious men, 
 who were nominated successively for the only 
 place which gave them the opportunity of play 
 ing a part in the national theater at Washington. 
 They all served with more or less distinction, but 
 for eight years no one was ever twice a candidate. 
 A sort of tradition had grown up, through which 
 VOL. L 19
 
 290 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xvi. a perverted notion of honor and propriety held it 
 discreditable in a member to ask for reelection. 
 This state of things was not peculiar to that dis 
 trict, and it survives with more or less vigor 
 throughout the country to this day, to the serious 
 detriment of Congress. This consideration, coupled 
 with what is called the claim of locality, must in 
 time still further deteriorate the representatives of 
 the States at Washington. To ask in a nominating 
 convention who is best qualified for service in 
 Congress is always regarded as an impertinence ; 
 but the question "what county in the district 
 has had the Congressman oftenest " is always con 
 sidered in order. For such reasons as these Mr. 
 Lincoln refused to allow his name to go before the 
 voters again, and the next year he again refused, 
 writing an emphatic letter for publication, in 
 which he said that there were many Whigs who 
 could do as much as he "to bring the district right 
 side up." 
 
 Colonel Baker had come back from the wars 
 with all the glitter of Cerro Grordo about him, but 
 did not find the prospect of political preferment 
 flattering in Sangamon County, and therefore, with 
 that versatility and sagacity which was more than 
 once to render him signal service, he removed to 
 the Galena district, in the extreme north-western 
 corner of the State, and almost immediately on his 
 arrival there received a nomination to Congress. 
 He was doubly fortunate in this move, as the 
 nomination he was unable to take away from 
 Logan proved useless to the latter, who was 
 defeated after a hot contest. Baker therefore 
 took the place of Lincoln as the only Whig mem-
 
 A FORTUNATE ESCAPE 291 
 
 ber from Illinois, and their names occur frequently CHAP. xvi. 
 together in the arrangements for the distribution 
 of "Federal patronage" at the close of the Ad 
 ministration of Polk and the beginning of that 
 of Taylor. 
 
 During the period while the President-elect was 
 considering the appointment of his Cabinet, Lin 
 coln used all the influence he could bring to bear, 
 which was probably not very much, in favor of 
 Baker for a place in the Government. The Whig 
 members of the Legislatures of Illinois, Iowa, and Ms . letter 
 Wisconsin joined in this effort, which came to 
 nothing. The recommendations to office which 
 Lincoln made after the inauguration of General 
 Taylor are probably unique of their kind. Here is 
 a specimen which is short enough to give entire. 
 It is addressed to the Secretary of the Interior: 
 " I recommend that William Butler be appointed 
 Pension Agent for the Illinois agency when the 
 place shall be vacant. Mr. Hurst, the present 
 incumbent, I believe has performed the duties 
 very well. He is a decided partisan, and I believe 
 expects to be removed. Whether he shall be, I 
 submit to the Department. This office is not con 
 fined to my district, but pertains to the whole 
 State ; so that Colonel Baker has an equal right 
 with myself to be heard concerning it. However, 
 the office is located here (at Springfield); and I 
 think it is not probable any one would desire to 
 remove from a distance to take it." 
 
 We have examined a large number of his rec 
 ommendations for with a complete change of 
 administration there would naturally be great 
 activity among the office-seekers and they are all
 
 292 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xvi. in precisely the same vein. He nowhere asks for the 
 removal of an incumbent ; he never claims a place 
 as subject to his disposition ; in fact, he makes no 
 personal claim whatever; he simply advises the 
 Government, in case a vacancy occurs, who, in his 
 opinion, is the best man to fill it. When there are 
 two applicants, he indicates which is on the whole 
 the better man, and sometimes adds that the weight 
 of recommendations is in favor of the other ! In 
 one instance he sends forward the recommendations 
 of the man whom he does not prefer, with an 
 indorsement emphasizing the importance of them, 
 and adding : " From personal knowledge I consider 
 Mr. Bond every way worthy of the office and 
 qualified to fill it. Holding the individual opinion 
 that the appointment of a different gentleman 
 would be better, I ask especial attention and con 
 sideration for his claims, and for the opinions ex 
 pressed in his favor by those over whom I can 
 claim no superiority." The candor, the fairness 
 and moderation, together with the respect for the 
 public service which these recommendations dis 
 play, are all the more remarkable when we reflect 
 that there was as yet no sign of a public conscience 
 upon the subject. The patronage of the Govern 
 ment was scrambled for, as a matter of course, in 
 the mire into which Jackson had flung it. 
 
 For a few weeks in the spring of 1849 Mr. Lin 
 coln appears in a character which is entirely out of 
 keeping with all his former and subsequent career. 
 He became, for the first and only time in his life, 
 an applicant for an appointment at the hands of 
 the President. His bearing in this attitude was 
 marked by his usual individuality. In the opinion
 
 A FORTUNATE ESCAPE 293 
 
 of many Illinoisans it was important that the place CHAP. xvi. 
 of Commissioner of the General Land Office should 
 be given to a citizen of their State, one thoroughly 
 acquainted with the land law in the West and the 
 special needs of that region. A letter to Lincoln 
 was drawn up and signed by some half-dozen of 
 the leading Whigs of the State asking him to be 
 come an applicant for that position. 
 
 He promptly answered, saying that if the posi 
 tion could be secured for a citizen of Illinois only 
 by his accepting it, he would consent ; but he went 
 on to say that he had promised his best efforts 
 to Cyrus Edwards for that place, and had after 
 wards stipulated with Colonel Baker that if J. L. 
 D. Morrison, another Mexican hero, and Edwards 
 could come to an understanding with each other as 
 to which should withdraw, he would join in recom 
 mending the other; that he could not take the 
 place, therefore, unless it became clearly impossi 
 ble for either of the others to get it. Some weeks 
 later, the impossibility referred to having become 
 apparent, Mr. Lincoln applied for the place; but 
 a suitor for office so laggard and so scrupulous as 
 he, stood very little chance of success in contests 
 like those which periodically raged at Washington 
 during the first weeks of every new administration. 
 The place came, indeed, to Illinois, but to neither 
 of the three we have mentioned. The fortunate 
 applicant was Justin Butterfield, of Chicago, a 
 man well and favorably known among the early 
 members of the Illinois bar, 1 who, however, devoted 
 
 1 Butterfield had a great repu- old lawyers in Illinois, and show 
 
 tation for ready wit and was sus- at least a well-marked humorous 
 
 peeted of deep learning. Some intention. On one occasion he 
 
 of his jests are still repeated by appeared before Judge Pope to
 
 294 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xvi. less assiduous attention to the law than to the 
 business of office-seeking, which he practiced with 
 fair success all his days. 
 
 It was in this way that Abraham Lincoln met 
 and escaped one of the greatest dangers of his life. 
 In after days he recognized the error he had 
 committed, and congratulated himself upon the 
 happy deliverance he had obtained through no 
 merit of his own. The loss of at least four years 
 of the active pursuit of his profession would have 
 been irreparable, leaving out of view the strong 
 probability that the singular charm of Washington 
 life to men who have a passion for politics might 
 have kept him there forever. It has been said that 
 a residence in Washington leaves no man precisely 
 as it found him. This is an axiom which may be 
 applied to most cities in a certain sense, but it 
 is true in a peculiar degree of our capital. 
 
 To the men who go there from small rural com 
 munities in the South and the West, the bustle 
 and stir, the intellectual movement, such as it is, 
 the ordinary subjects of conversation, of such 
 
 ask the discharge of the famous that he had lost an office in New 
 
 Mormon Prophet, Joe Smith, York by opposing the war of 
 
 who was in custody surrounded 1812. "Henceforth," he said 
 
 by his church dignitaries. Bow- with cynical vehemence, " I am 
 
 ing profoundly to the court and for war, pestilence, and famine." 
 
 the ladies who thronged the hall, He was once defending the 
 
 he said: "I appear before you Shawneetown Bank and advocat- 
 
 under solemn and peculiar cir- ing the extension of its charter; 
 
 cumstances. I am to address the an opposing lawyer contended 
 
 Pope, surrounded by angels, in that this would be creating a new 
 
 the presence of the holy apostles, bank. Butterfield brought a 
 
 in behalf of the Prophet of the smile from the court and a laugh 
 
 Lord." We once heard Lincoln from the bar by asking " whether 
 
 say of Butterfield that he was when the Lord lengthened the 
 
 one of the few Whigs in Illinois life of Hezekiah he made a new 
 
 who approved the Mexican war. man, or whether it was the same 
 
 His reason, frankly given, was old Hezekiah ? "
 
 A FORTUNATE ESCAPE 295 
 
 vastly greater importance than anything they have CHAP.XVI. 
 previously known, the daily, even hourly combats 
 on the floor of both houses, the intrigue and 
 the struggle of office-hunting, which engage vast 
 numbers besides the office-seekers, the superior 
 piquancy and interest of the scandal which is 
 talked at a Congressional boarding-house over 
 that which seasons the dull days at village-tav 
 erns all this gives a savor to life in Washington 
 the memory of which doubles the tedium of the 
 sequestered vale to which the beaten legislator re 
 turns when his brief hour of glory is over. It is 
 this which brings to the State Department, after 
 every general election, that crowd of specters, 
 with their bales of recommendations from pitying 
 colleagues who have been reflected, whose dimin 
 ishing prayers run down the whole gamut of sup 
 plication from St. James to St. Paul of Loando, 
 and of whom at the last it must be said, as Mr. 
 Evarts once said after an unusually heavy day, 
 " Many called, but few chosen." Of those who do 
 not achieve the ruinous success of going abroad to 
 consulates that will not pay their board, or mis 
 sions where they avoid daily shame only by hid 
 ing their penury and their ignorance away from 
 observation, a great portion yield to their fate and 
 join that fleet of wrecks which floats forever on 
 the pavements of Washington. 
 
 It is needless to say that Mr. Lincoln received 
 no damage from his term of service in Washing 
 ton, but we know of nothing which shows so 
 strongly the perilous fascination of the place as 
 the fact that a man of his extraordinary moral and 
 mental qualities could ever have thought for a
 
 296 ABKAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xvi. moment of accepting a position so insignificant 
 and incongruous as that which he was more than 
 willing to assume when he left Congress. He 
 would have filled the place with honor and credit 
 but at a monstrous expense. We do not so much 
 refer to his exceptional career and his great figure 
 in history; these momentous contingencies could 
 not have suggested themselves to him. But the 
 place he was reasonably sure of filling in the 
 battle of life should have made a subordinate office 
 in Washington a thing out of the question. He 
 was already a lawyer of skill and reputation ; an 
 orator upon whom his party relied to speak for 
 them to the people. An innate love of combat 
 was in his heart ; he loved discussion like a medi 
 eval schoolman. The air was already tremulous 
 with faint bugle-notes that heralded a conflict of 
 giants on a field of moral significance to which he 
 was fully alive and awake, where he was certain to 
 lead at least his hundreds and his thousands. Yet 
 if Justin Butterfield had not been a more supple, 
 more adroit, and less scrupulous suitor for office 
 than himself, Abraham Lincoln would have sat for 
 four inestimable years at a bureau-desk in the 
 Interior Department, and when the hour of action 
 sounded in Illinois, who would have filled the place 
 which he took as if he had been born for it ? Who 
 could have done the duty which he bore as lightly 
 as if he had been fashioned for it from the begin 
 ning of time ? 
 
 His temptation did not end even with Butter- 
 field's success. The Administration of General 
 Taylor, apparently feeling that some compensa 
 tion was due to one so earnestly recommended by
 
 A FOBTUNATE ESCAPE 297 
 
 the leading Whigs of the State, offered Mr. Lincoln 
 the governorship of Oregon. This was a place 
 more suited to him than the other, and his accept 
 ance of it was urged by some of his most judicious 
 friends 1 on the ground that the new Territory 
 would soon be a State, and that he could come 
 back as a senator. This view of the matter com 
 mended itself favorably to Lincoln himself, who, 
 however, gave it up on account of the natural 
 unwillingness of his wife to remove to a country 
 so wild and so remote. 
 
 This was all as it should be. The best place for 
 him was Illinois, and he we^it about his work there 
 
 until his time should come, j 
 
 / 
 
 1 Among others John T. Stuart, who is our authority for this 
 statement.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE CIRCUIT LAWYER 
 
 CH.XVIL TN that briefest of all autobiographies, which 
 JL Mr. Lincoln wrote for Jesse Fell upon three 
 pages of note-paper, he sketched in these words 
 the period at which we have arrived : " From 1849 
 to 1854, both inclusive, I practiced law more assid 
 uously than ever before. . . I was losing interest 
 in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Com 
 promise aroused me again." His service in Con 
 gress had made him more generally known than 
 formerly, and had increased his practical value as 
 a member of any law firm. He was offered a 
 partnership on favorable terms by a lawyer in 
 good practice in Chicago ; but he declined it on 
 the ground that his health would not endure the 
 close confinement necessary in a city office. He 
 went back to Springfield, and resumed at once his 
 practice there and in the Eighth Judicial Circuit, 
 where his occupations and his associates were the 
 most congenial that he could anywhere find. For 
 five years he devoted himself to his work with 
 more energy and more success than ever before. 
 
 It was at this time that he gave a notable proof 
 of his unusual powers of mental discipline. His 
 wider knowledge of men and things, acquired by 
 contact with the great world, had shown him a cer- 
 
 298
 
 THE CIRCUIT LAWYER 299 
 
 tain lack in himself of the power of close and CH.XVH. 
 sustained reasoning. To remedy this defect, he 
 applied himself, after his return from Congress, 
 to such works upon logic and mathematics as he 
 fancied would be serviceable. Devoting himself 
 with dogged energy to the task in hand, he soon 
 learned by heart six books of the propositions of 
 Euclid, and he retained through life a thorough 
 knowledge of the principles they contain. 
 
 The outward form and fashion of every institu 
 tion change rapidly in growing communities like 
 our Western States, and the practice of the law 
 had already assumed a very different degree of 
 dignity and formality from that which it presented 
 only twenty years before. The lawyers in hunting- 
 shirts and mocassins had long since passed away ; 
 so had the judges who apologized to the criminals 
 that they sentenced, and charged them " to let 
 their friends on Bear Creek understand it was the 
 law and the jury who were responsible." Even the 
 easy familiarity of a later date would no longer be 
 tolerated. No successor of Judge Douglas had 
 been known to follow his example by coming 
 down from the bench, taking a seat in the lap of a 
 friend, throwing an arm around his neck, and in L N. Arnold 
 that intimate attitude discussing, cor am publico, "History of 
 whatever interested him. David Davis after- 
 wards of the Supreme Court and of the Senate 
 was for many years the presiding judge of this 
 circuit, and neither under him nor his predecessor, 
 S. H. Treat, was any lapse of dignity or of pro 
 priety possible. Still there was much less of form 
 and ceremony insisted upon than is considered 
 proper and necessary in older communities.
 
 300 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xvn. The bar in great measure was composed of the 
 same men who used to follow the circuit on horse 
 back, over roads impassable to wheels, with their 
 scanty wardrobes, their law-books, and their docu 
 ments crowding each other in their saddle-bags. 
 The improvement of roads which made carnages 
 a possibility had effected a great change, and the 
 coming of the railway had completed the sudden 
 development of the manners and customs of the 
 modernized community. But they could not all at 
 once take from the bar of the Eighth Circuit its 
 raciness and its individuality. The men who had 
 lived in log-cabins, who had hunted their way 
 through untrodden woods and prairies, who had 
 thought as much about the chances of swimming 
 over swollen fords as of their cases, who had 
 passed their nights a half-dozen together on 
 the floors of wayside hostelries, could never be 
 precisely the same sort of practitioners as the smug 
 barristers of a more conventional age and place. 
 But they were not deficient in ability, in learning, 
 or in that most valuable faculty which enables 
 really intelligent men to get their bearings and 
 sustain themselves in every sphere of life to which 
 they may be called. Some of these very colleagues 
 of Lincoln at the Springfield bar have sat in 
 Cabinets, have held their own on the floor of the 
 Senate, have led armies in the field, have governed 
 States, and all with a quiet self-reliance which was 
 as far as possible removed from either undue 
 arrogance or undue modesty. 1 
 
 1 A few of the lawyers who Logan, Stuart, Baker, Samuel H. 
 
 practiced with Lincoln, and have Treat, Bledsoe, O. H. Browning, 
 
 held the highest official positions, Hardin, Lyman Trumbull, and 
 
 are Douglas, Shields, Stephen T. McClernand.
 
 THE CIRCUIT LAWYER 301 
 
 Among these able and energetic men Lincoln as- CH. xvii. 
 sumed and held the first rank. This is a statement 
 which ought not to be made without authority, 
 and rather than give the common repute of the 
 circuit, we prefer to cite the opinion of those 
 lawyers of Illinois who are entitled to speak as to 
 this matter, both by the weight of their personal 
 and professional character and by their eminent 
 official standing among the jurists of our time. 
 We shall quote rather fully from addresses delivered 
 by Justice David Davis, of the Supreme Court of 
 the United States, and by Judge Drummond, the 
 United States District Judge for Illinois. Judge 
 Davis says : 
 
 I enjoyed for over twenty years the personal friendship 
 of Mr. Lincoln. We were admitted to the bar about the 
 same time and traveled for many years what is known in 
 Illinois as the Eighth Judicial Court. In 1848, when I first 
 went on the bench, the circuit embraced fourteen counties, 
 and Mr. Lincoln went with the Court to every county. 
 Railroads were not then in use, and our mode of travel 
 was either on horseback or in buggies. 
 
 This simple life he loved, preferring it to the practice 
 of the law in a city, where, although the remuneration 
 would be greater, the opportunity would be less for 
 mixing with the great body of the people, who loved 
 him, and whom he loved. Mr. Lincoln was transferred 
 from the bar of that circuit to the office of the President 
 of the United States, having been without official position 
 since he left Congress in 1849. In all the elements that 
 constitute the great lawyer he had few equals. He was 
 great both at nisi prius and before an appellate tribunal. 
 He seized the strong points of a cause, and presented 
 them with clearness and great compactness. His mind 
 was logical and direct, and he did not indulge in extra 
 neous discussion. Generalities and platitudes had no 
 charms for him. An unfailing vein of humor never 
 deserted him ; and he was able to claim the attention of
 
 302 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xvii. court and jury, when the cause was the most uninterest 
 ing, by the appropriateness of his anecdotes. 1 
 
 His power of comparison was large, and he rarely 
 failed in a legal discussion to use that mode of reasoning. 
 The framework of his mental and moral being was 
 honesty, and a wrong cause was poorly defended by him. 
 The ability which some eminent lawyers possess, of 
 explaining away the bad points of a cause by ingenious 
 sophistry, was denied him. In order to bring into full 
 activity his great powers, it was necessary that he should 
 be convinced of the right and justice of the matter 
 which he advocated. When so convinced, whether the 
 cause was great or small, he was usually successful. He 
 read law-books but little, except when the cause in hand 
 made it necessary; yet he was usually self-reliant, 
 depending on his own resources, and rarely consulting 
 his brother lawyers, either on the management of his 
 case or on the legal questions involved. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln was the fairest and most accommodating of 
 practitioners, granting all favors which were consistent 
 with his duty to his client, and rarely availing himself of 
 an unwary oversight of his adversary. 
 
 He hated wrong and oppression everywhere, and many 
 a man whose fraudulent conduct was undergoing review 
 in a court of justice has writhed under his terrific indig 
 nation and rebukes. He was the most simple and un 
 ostentatious of men in his habits, having few wants, and 
 those easily supplied. To his honor be it said that he 
 never took from a client, even when his cause was 
 gained, more than he thought the services were worth 
 and the client could reasonably afford to pay. The people 
 where he practiced law were not rich, and his charges 
 were always small. "When he was elected President, I 
 question whether there was a lawyer in the circuit, who 
 had been at the bar so long a time, whose means were not 
 larger. It did not seem to be one of the purposes of his 
 life to accumulate a fortune. In fact, outside of his pro- 
 
 i U. F. Linder once said to an that flattering unction to your 
 
 Eastern lawyer who expressed soul. Lincoln is like Tansey's 
 
 the opinion that Lincoln was horse, he 'breaks to win.'" T. 
 
 wasting his time in telling W. S. Kidd, in the Lincoln Me- 
 
 stories to the jury, " Don't lay morial Album.
 
 THE CIRCUIT LAWYER 303 
 
 fession, lie had no knowledge of the way to make money, CH.XVTI. 
 and he never even attempted it. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln was loved by his brethren of the bar, and 
 no body of men will grieve more at his death, or pay 
 more sincere tributes to his memory. His presence on 
 the circuit was watched for with interest and never failed 
 to produce joy or hilarity. When casually absent, the 
 spirits of both bar and people were depressed. He was 
 not fond of litigation, and would compromise a lawsuit 
 whenever practicable. 
 
 No clearer or more authoritative statement of 
 Lincoln's rank as a lawyer can ever be made than 
 is found in these brief sentences, in which the 
 warmth of personal affection is not permitted to 
 disturb the measured appreciation, the habitual 
 reserve of the eminent jurist. But, as it may be 
 objected that the friendship which united Davis 
 and Lincoln rendered the one incapable of a just 
 judgment upon the merits of the other, we will 
 also give an extract from the address delivered in 
 Chicago by one of the ablest and most impartial 
 lawyers who have ever honored the bar and the 
 bench in the West. Judge Drummond says : 
 
 With a probity of character known to all, with an 
 intuitive insight into the human heart, with a clearness 
 of statement which was in itself an argument, with un 
 common power and f elicity of illustration, often, it is 
 true, of a plain and homely kind, and with that 
 sincerity and earnestness of manner which carried con 
 viction, he was perhaps one of the most successful jury 
 lawyers we ever had in the State. He always tried a 
 case fairly and honestly. He never intentionally mis 
 represented the evidence of a witness nor the argument 
 of an opponent. He met both squarely, and if he could 
 not explain the one or answer the other, substantially 
 admitted it. He never misstated the law, according to 
 his own intelligent view of it. Such was the transparent 
 candor and integrity of his nature, that he could not well
 
 304 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH.XVII. or strongly argue a side or a cause that lie thought 
 wrong. Of course he felt it his duty to say what could be 
 said, and to leave the decision to others ; but there could 
 be seen in such cases the inward struggle of his own 
 mind. In trying a case he might occasionally dwell too 
 long upon, or give too much importance to, an incon 
 siderable point 5 but this was the exception, and generally 
 he went straight to the citadel of the cause or question, 
 and struck home there, knowing if that were won the 
 outworks would necessarily fall. He could hardly be 
 called very learned in his profession, and yet he rarely 
 tried a cause without fully understanding the law appli 
 cable to it; and I have no hesitation in saying he was 
 one of the ablest lawyers I have ever known. If he was 
 forcible before a jury, he was equally so with the Court. 
 He detected with unerring sagacity the weak points of 
 an opponent's argument, and pressed his own views with 
 overwhelming strength. His efforts were quite unequal, 
 and it might happen that he would not, on some occa 
 sions, strike one as at all remarkable. But let him be 
 thoroughly roused, let him feel that he was right, and 
 some principle was involved in his cause, and he would 
 come out with an earnestness of conviction, a power of 
 argument, a wealth of illustration, that I have never seen 
 surpassed. 
 
 This is nothing less than the portrait of a great 
 lawyer, drawn by competent hands, with the life 
 long habit of conscientious accuracy. If we chose 
 to continue we could fill this volume with the 
 tributes of his professional associates, ranging all 
 the way from the commonplaces of condolence to 
 the most extravagant eulogy. But enough has 
 been quoted to justify the tradition which Lincoln 
 left behind him at the bar of Illinois. His weak as 
 well as his strong qualities have been indicated. 
 He never learned the technicalities, what some 
 would call the tricks, of the profession. The 
 sleight of plea and demurrer, the legerdemain by
 
 DAVID DAVIS.
 
 THE CIRCUIT LAWYEE 305 
 
 which justice is balked and a weak case is made to CH. xvii. 
 gain an unfair advantage, was too subtle and shifty 
 for his strong and straightforward intelligence. 
 He met these manoeuvres sufficiently well, when 
 practiced by others, but he never could get in the 
 way of handling them for himself. On the wrong 
 side he was always weak. He knew this himself, 
 and avoided such cases when he could consistently 
 with the rules of his profession. He would often 
 persuade a fair-minded litigant of the injustice of 
 his case and induce him to give it up. His partner, 
 Mr. Herndon, relates a speech in point which Lin- P. 317.' 
 coin once made to a man who offered him an 
 objectionable case: "Yes, there is no reasonable 
 doubt but that I can gain your case for you. I can 
 set a whole neighborhood at loggerheads ; I can dis 
 tress a widowed mother and her six fatherless chil 
 dren, and thereby get for you six hundred dollars, 
 which rightfully belongs, it appears to me, as much 
 to them as it does to you. I shah 1 not take your 
 case, but I will give a little advice for nothing. 
 You seem a sprightly, energetic man. I would 
 advise you to try your hand at making six hun 
 dred dollars in some other way." Sometimes, after 
 he had entered upon a criminal case, the conviction 
 that his client was guilty would affect him with a 
 sort of panic. On one occasion he turned suddenly 
 to his associate and said : " Swett, the man is 
 guilty ; you defend him, I can't," and so gave up 
 his share of a large fee. The same thing happened 
 at another time when he was engaged with Judge 
 S. C. Parks in defending a man accused of 
 larceny. He said : "If you can say anything for 
 the man, do it, I can't ; if I attempt it, the jury will 
 VOL. L 20
 
 306 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 OH. xvii. see I think he is guilty, and convict him." Once 
 he was prosecuting a civil suit, in the course of 
 which evidence was introduced showing that his 
 client was attempting a fraud. Lincoln rose and 
 went to his hotel in deep disgust. The judge sent 
 for him ; he refused to come. " Tell the judge," he 
 said, " my hands are dirty ; I came over to wash 
 them." We are aware that these stories detract 
 something from the character of the lawyer ; but 
 this inflexible, inconvenient, and fastidious moral 
 ity was to be of vast service afterwards to his 
 country and the world. 
 
 The Nemesis which waits upon men of extraor 
 dinary wit or humor has not neglected Mr. Lin 
 coln, and the young lawyers of Illinois, who never 
 knew him, have an endless store of jokes and 
 pleasantries in his name ; some of them as old as 
 Howleglass or Rabelais.* But the fact is that with 
 all his stories and jests, his frank companionable 
 humor, his gift of easy accessibility and welcome, 
 he was, even while he traveled the Eighth Circuit, 
 a man of grave and serious temper and of an 
 unusual innate dignity and reserve. He had few 
 or no special intimates, and there was a line beyond 
 which no one ever thought of passing. Besides, 
 he was too strong a man in the court-room to be 
 regarded with anything but respect in a community 
 
 i As a specimen of these sto- " Gone to h ," was the gloomy 
 
 ries we give the following, well response. "Well, don't give it 
 
 vouched for, as apocrypha gen- up," Lincoln rejoined cheer- 
 
 erally are : Lincoln met one day fully ; " you can try it again 
 
 on the court-house steps a young there " a quip which has been 
 
 lawyer who had lost a case his attributed to many wits in many 
 
 only one and looked very dis- ages, and will doubtless make 
 
 consolate. " What has become the reputation of jesters yet to 
 
 of your case?" Lincoln asked, be.
 
 THE CIECUIT LAWYER 
 
 307 
 
 in which legal ability was the only especial mark 
 of distinction. 
 
 Few of his forensic speeches have been preserved, 
 but his contemporaries all agree as to their singular 
 ability and power. He seemed absolutely at home 
 in a court-room ; his great stature did not encum 
 ber him there ; it seemed like a natural symbol of 
 superiority. His bearing and gesticulation had 
 no awkwardness about them ; they were simply 
 striking and original. He assumed at the start 
 a frank and friendly relation with the jury which 
 was extremely effective. He usually began, as the 
 phrase ran, by " giving away his case " ; by allow 
 ing to the opposite side every possible advantage 
 that they could honestly and justly claim. Then 
 he would present his own side of the case, with a 
 clearness, a candor, an adroitness of statement 
 which at once flattered and convinced the jury, 
 and made even the bystanders his partisans. 
 Sometimes he disturbed the court with laughter by 
 his humorous or apt illustrations ; sometimes he 
 excited the audience by that florid and exuberant 
 rhetoric which he knew well enough how and when 
 to indulge in ; but his more usual and more success 
 ful manner was to rely upon a clear, strong, lucid 
 statement, keeping details in proper subordination 
 and bringing forward, in a way which fastened the 
 attention of court and jury alike, the essential 
 point on which he claimed a decision. " Indeed," 
 says one of his colleagues, "his statement often 
 rendered argument unnecessary, and often the 
 court would stop him and say, ' If that is the case, 
 we will hear the other side.' " 
 
 Whatever doubts might be entertained as to 
 
 CH. XVII. 
 
 Raymond, 
 " Life of 
 Lincoln," 
 
 p. 32.
 
 308 ABBAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xvii. whether he was the ablest lawyer on the circuit, 
 there was never any dissent from the opinion that 
 he was the one most cordially and universally 
 liked. If he did not himself enjoy his full share 
 of the happiness of life, he certainly diffused more 
 of it among his fellows than is in the power of 
 most men. His arrival was a little festival in the 
 county-seats where his pursuits led him to pass 
 so much of his time. Several eye-witnesses have 
 described these scenes in terms which would seem 
 Aid, exaggerated if they were not so fully confirmed. 
 be^re c tne The bench and bar would gather at the tavern 
 8 AMooifr r where he was expected, to give him a cordial wel- 
 jan. 7, n i88i. come ; says one writer, " He brought light with 
 him." This is not hard to understand. Whatever 
 his cares, he never inflicted them upon others. He 
 talked singularly well, but never about himself. 
 He was full of wit which never wounded, of humor 
 which mellowed the harshness of that new and 
 raw life of the prairies. He never asked for help, 
 but was always ready to give it. He received 
 everybody's confidence, and rarely gave his own 
 in return. He took no mean advantages in court 
 or in conversation, and, satisfied with the respect 
 and kindliness which he everywhere met, he 
 sought no quarrels and seldom had to decline 
 them. He did not accumulate wealth; as Judge 
 Davis said, " He seemed never to care for it." He 
 had a good income from his profession, though 
 the fees he received would bring a smile to the 
 well-paid lips of the great attorneys of to-day. 
 The largest fee he ever got was one of five thou 
 sand dollars from the Illinois Central Eailway, and 
 he had to bring suit to compel them to pay it. He
 
 THE CIRCUIT LAWYEE 309 
 
 spent what he received in the education of his CH.XVII. 
 
 children, in the care of his family, and in a plain r N 
 and generous way of living. One who often visited 
 
 6 
 
 him writes, referring to " the old-fashioned hospi- state 6 Bar 
 tality of Springfield," "Among others I recall with . tion, 
 
 Jiiii. 7> 1881. 
 
 a sad pleasure, the dinners and evening parties 
 given by Mrs. Lincoln. In her modest and sim 
 ple home, where everything was so orderly and 
 refined, there was always on the part of both host 
 and hostess a cordial and hearty Western welcome 
 which put every guest perfectly at ease. Their 
 table was famed for the excellence of many rare 
 Kentucky dishes, and for the venison, wild tur 
 keys, and other game, then so abundant. Yet it 
 was her genial manner and ever-kind welcome, 
 and Mr. Lincoln's wit and humor, anecdote and 
 unrivaled conversation, which formed the chief 
 attraction." 
 
 Here we leave him for a while, in this peaceful 
 and laborious period of his life ; engaged in useful 
 and congenial toil; surrounded by the love and 
 respect of the entire community; in the fullness of 
 his years and strength ; the struggles of his youth, 
 which were so easy to his active brain and his 
 mighty muscles, all behind him, and the titanic 
 labors of his manhood yet to come. We shall 
 now try to sketch the beginnings of that tremen 
 dous controversy which he was in a few years to 
 take up, to guide and direct to its wonderful and 
 tragical close.
 
 CHAPTEE XVIII 
 
 THE BALANCE OF POWER 
 
 CH. xvin. TT7"E shall see in the course of the present work 
 T V how the life of Abraham Lincoln divides 
 itself into three principal periods, with correspond 
 ing stages of intellectual development: the first, 
 of about forty years, ending with his term in 
 Congress; the second, of about ten years, con 
 cluding with his final campaign of political speech- 
 making in New York and in New England, shortly 
 before the Presidential nominations of 1860; and 
 the last, of about five years, terminating at his 
 death. We have thus far traced his career through 
 the first period of forty years. In the several 
 stages of frontier experience through which he had 
 passed, and which in the main but repeated the 
 trials and vicissitudes of thousands of other boys 
 and youths in the West, only so much individuality 
 had been developed in him as brought him into the 
 leading class of his contemporaries. He had risen 
 from laborer to student, from clerk to lawyer, from 
 politician to legislator. \ That he had lifted himself 
 by healthy ambition and unaided industry out of 
 the station of a farm-hand, whose routine life 
 begins and ends in a backwoods log-cabin, to that 
 representative character and authority which seated 
 
 310
 
 THE BALANCE OF POWER 311 
 
 him in the national Capitol to aid in framing laws CH. xvm. 
 for his country, was already an achievement that 
 may well be held to crown honorably a career of 
 forty years. 
 
 Such achievement and such distinction, how 
 ever, were not so uncommon as to appear phe 
 nomenal. Hundreds of other boys born in log-cabins 
 had won similar elevation in the manly, practical 
 school of Western public life. Even in ordinary 
 times there still remained within the reach of 
 average intellects several higher grades of public 
 service. It is quite probable that the talents of 
 Lincoln would have made him Governor of Illinois 
 or given him a place in the United States Senate. 
 But the story of his life would not have com 
 manded, as it now does, the unflagging attention 
 of the world, had there not fallen upon his gen 
 eration the unusual conditions and opportunities 
 brought about by a series of remarkable convulsions 
 in national politics. If we would correctly under 
 stand how Lincoln became, first a conspicuous 
 actor, and then a chosen leader, in a great strife of 
 national parties for supremacy and power, we must 
 briefly study the origin and development of the 
 great slavery controversy in American legislation 
 which found its highest activity and decisive cul 
 mination in the single decade from 1850 to 1860. 
 But we should greatly err if we attributed the new 
 events in Lincoln's career to the caprice of fortune. 
 The conditions and opportunities of which we 
 speak were broadly national, and open to all with 
 out restriction of rank or locality. Many of his 
 contemporaries had seemingly overshadowing 
 advantages, by prominence and training, to seize
 
 312 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xvni. and appropriate them to their own advancement. 
 It is precisely this careful study of the times which 
 shows us by what inevitable process of selection 
 honors and labors of which he did not dream fell 
 upon him ; how, indeed, it was not the individual 
 who gained the prize, but the paramount duty 
 which claimed the man. 
 
 It is now universally understood, if not con 
 ceded, that the Rebellion of 1861 was begun for the 
 sole purpose of defending and preserving to the 
 seceding States the institution of African slavery 
 and making them the nucleus of a great slave em 
 pire, which in their ambitious dreams they hoped 
 would include Mexico, Central America, and the 
 West India Islands, and perhaps even the tropical 
 States of South America. Both a real and a pre 
 tended fear that slavery was in danger lay at the 
 bottom of this design. The real fear arose from 
 the palpable fact, impossible to conceal, that the 
 slave system was a reactionary obstacle in the 
 pathway of modern civilization, and its political, 
 material, philosophical, and religious development. 
 The pretended danger was the permanent loss of 
 political power by the slave States of the Union, as 
 shown in the election of Lincoln to the presidency, 
 which they averred would necessarily throw all the 
 forces of the national life against the "peculiar 
 institution," and crush it under forms of law. It 
 was by magnifying this danger from remote into 
 immediate consequence that they excited the 
 population of the cotton States to resistance and 
 rebellion. Seizing this opportunity, it was their 
 present purpose to establish a slave Confederacy, 
 consisting of the cotton States, which should in
 
 THE BALANCE OF POWER 313 
 
 due time draw to itself, by an irresistible gravi- CH. xvm. 
 tation of sympathy and interest, first, the border 
 slave States, and, in the further progress of events, 
 the tropical countries towards the equator. 
 
 The popular agitation, or war of words between 
 the North and the South on the subject of slavery, 
 which led to the armed insurrection was three 
 fold : First, the economic efforts to prevent the de 
 struction of the monetary value of four millions of 
 human beings held in bondage, who were bought 
 and sold as chattels, and whose aggregate valuation, 
 under circumstances existing at the outbreak of the 
 civil war, was variously computed at $400,000,000 
 to $1,600,000,000 j 1 second, a moral debate as to the 
 abstract righteousness or iniquity of the system; 
 and, third, a political struggle for the balance of 
 power in government and public policy, by which 
 the security and perpetuity of the institution might 
 be guaranteed. 
 
 This sectional controversy over the institution of 
 slavery in its threefold aspect had begun with the 
 very birth of the nation, had continued with its 
 growth, and become intensified with its strength. 
 The year before the Mayflower brought the Pilgrims 
 to Plymouth Rock, a Dutch ship landed a cargo 
 of African slaves at Jamestown, in Virginia. Dur 
 ing the long colonial period the English Government 
 fostered and forced the importation of slaves to 
 America equally with English goods. In the orig 
 inal draft of the Declaration of Independence, 
 
 1 The Convention of Missis- the rate of a thousand dollars for 
 sippi, which passed the secession each slave, an average absurdly 
 ordinance, in its Declaration of excessive, and showing their ex- 
 Causes placed the total value of aggerated estimate of the mone- 
 their property in slaves at "four tary value of the institution of 
 billions of money." This was af slavery. u
 
 314 ABKAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. XVIIL Thomas Jefferson invoked the reprobation of man 
 kind upon the British King for his share in this 
 inhuman traffic. On reflection, however, this was 
 discovered to be but another case of Satan rebuking 
 sin. The blood money which reddened the hands 
 of English royalty stained equally those of many 
 an American rebel. The public opinion of the 
 colonies was already too much debauched to sit in 
 unanimous moral judgment on this crime against 
 humanity. The objections of South Carolina and 
 Georgia sufficed to cause the erasure and suppres 
 sion of the obnoxious paragraph. Nor were the 
 Northern States guiltless : Newport was yet a great 
 slave-mart, and the commerce of New England 
 drew more advantage from the traffic than did the 
 agriculture of the South. 
 
 J '"La5 l S d ' -^ *ke e l emen ts of the later controversy already 
 and e B d ond- existed. Slave codes and fugitive- slave laws, abo- 
 lition societies and emancipation bills, are older 
 than our Constitution ; and negro troops fought in 
 the Revolutionary war for American independence. 
 Liberal men could be found in South Carolina who 
 hated slavery, and narrow men in Massachusetts 
 who defended it. But these individual instances 
 of prejudice or liberality were submerged and lost 
 in the current of popular opinion springing from 
 prevailing interests in the respective localities, 
 and institutions molded principles, until in turn 
 principles should become strong enough to re 
 form institutions. In short, slavery was one of 
 the many "relics of barbarism" like the divine 
 right of kings, religious persecution, torture of 
 the accused, imprisonment and enslavement for 
 debt, witch-burning, and kindred " institutions "
 
 THE BALANCE OF POWER 315 
 
 which were transmitted to that generation from CH. xvm. 
 former ages as so many burdens of humanity, for 
 help in the removal of which the new nation was 
 in the providence of God perhaps called into 
 existence. The whole matter in its broader 
 aspects is part of that persistent struggle of the 
 centuries between despotism and individual free 
 dom; between arbitrary wrong, consecrated by 
 tradition and law, and the unfolding recognition 
 of private rights ; between the thraldom of public 
 opinion and liberty of conscience; between the 
 greed of gain and the Grolden Rule of Christ. 
 Whoever, therefore, chooses to trace the remote 
 origin of the American Rebellion will find the germ 
 of the Union armies of 1861-5 in the cabin of the 
 Mayflower, and the inception of the Secession forces 
 between the decks of that Dutch slaver which 
 planted the fruits of her avarice and piracy in the 
 James River colonies in 1619. 
 
 So elaborate and searching a study, however, is 
 not necessary to the purposes of this work. A very 
 brief mention of the principal landmarks of the 
 long contest will serve to show the historical rela 
 tion, and explain the phraseology, of its final issues. 
 
 The first of these great landmarks was the Ordi 
 nance of 1787. All the States tolerated slavery and 
 permitted the slave-trade during the Revolution. 
 But in most of them the morality of the system 
 was strongly drawn in question, especially by the 
 abolition societies, which embraced many of the 
 most prominent patriots. -A public opinion, not 
 indeed unanimous, but largely in the majority, 
 demanded that the " necessary evil " should cease. 
 When the Continental Congress came to the practi-
 
 316 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xvin. cal work of providing a government for the " West 
 ern lands," which the financial pressure and the 
 absolute need of union compelled New York and 
 Virginia to cede to the general Government, 
 Thomas Jefferson proposed, among other features 
 in his plan and draft of 1784, to add a clause pro 
 hibiting slavery in all the North-west territory after 
 the year 1800. A North Carolina member moved 
 to strike out this clause. The form of the question 
 put by the chairman was, " Shall the clause stand ? " 
 Sixteen members voted aye and seven members 
 voted no; but under the clumsy legislative ma 
 chinery of the Confederation these seven noes car 
 ried the question, since a majority of States had 
 failed to vote in the affirmative. 
 
 Three years later, July 13, 1787, this first ordi 
 nance was repealed by a second, establishing our 
 more modern form of territorial government. It 
 is justly famed for many of its provisions ; but its 
 chief value is conceded to have been its sixth 
 article, ordaining the immediate and perpetual 
 prohibition of slavery. Upon this all the States 
 present in Congress three Northern and five 
 Southern voted in the affirmative; five States 
 were absent, four Northern and one Southern. 
 This piece of legislation is remarkable in that it 
 was an entirely new bill, substituted for a former 
 and altogether different scheme containing no 
 prohibition whatever, and that it was passed 
 through all the forms and stages of enactment 
 in the short space of four days. History sheds 
 little light on the official transaction, but con 
 temporary evidence points to the influence of a 
 powerful lobby.
 
 THE BALANCE OF POWER 317 
 
 Several plausible reasons are assigned why the CH. xvm. 
 three slave States of Maryland, Virginia, and 
 North Carolina voted for this prohibition. First, 
 the West was competing with the Territory of 
 Maine for settlers ; second, the whole scheme was 
 in the interest of the "Ohio Company," a newly 
 formed Massachusetts emigrant aid society which 
 immediately made a large purchase of lands; third, 
 the unsettled regions south of the Ohio Eiver had 
 not yet been ceded to the general Government, 
 and were therefore open to slavery from the con 
 tiguous Southern States ; fourth, little was known 
 of the extent or character of the great West ; and, 
 therefore, fifth, the Ohio River was doubtless 
 thought to be a fair and equitable dividing line. 
 The ordinance itself provided for the formation 
 of not less than three nor more than five States, 
 and under its shielding provisions Ohio, Indiana, 
 Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin were added to 
 the Union with free constitutions. 
 
 It does not appear that sectional motives oper 
 ated for or against the foregoing enactment ; they 
 were probably held in abeyance by other consid 
 erations. But it must not be inferred therefrom 
 that the slavery question was absent or dormant 
 in the country. There was already a North and 
 a South. At that very time the constitutional 
 convention was in session in Philadelphia. George 
 Washington and his fellow-delegates were grap 
 pling with the novel problems of government 
 which the happy issue of the Revolution and 
 the lamentable failure of the Confederation forced 
 upon the country. One of these problems was the 
 presence of over half a million of slaves, nearly all
 
 318 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xviii. in five Southern States. Should they be taxed? 
 Should they be represented? Should the power to 
 regulate commerce be allowed to control or termi 
 nate their importation ? Vital questions these, 
 which went not merely to the incidents but 
 the fundamental powers of government. The 
 slavery question seemed for months an element 
 of irreconcilable discord in the convention. The 
 slave-trade not only, but the domestic institution 
 itself, was characterized in language which South 
 ern politicians of later times would have denounced 
 
 rStesT," as "fanatical" and "incendiary." Pinckney wished 
 
 rol 305." p> the slaves to be represented equally with the 
 
 whites, since they were the Southern peasantry. 
 
 ibid., p. 392. Gouverneur Morris declared that as they were 
 only property they ought not to be represented 
 at all. Both the present and the future balance 
 of power in national legislation, as resulting from 
 slaves already in, and hereafter to be imported 
 into, old and new States, were debated under vari 
 ous possibilities and probabilities. 
 
 Out of these divergent views grew the compro 
 mises of the Constitution. 1. The slaves were to 
 be included in the enumeration for representation, 
 five blacks to be counted as three whites. 2. Con 
 gress should have the right to prohibit the slave- 
 trade, but not till the lapse of twenty years. 
 3. Fugitive slaves should be delivered to their 
 owners. Each State, large or small, was allowed 
 two senators; and the apportionment of repre 
 sentatives gave to the North thirty-five members 
 and fourteen senators, to the South thirty mem 
 bers and twelve senators. But since the North 
 was not yet free from slavery, but only in process
 
 THE BALANCE OF POWER 319 
 
 of becoming so, and as Virginia was the leading CH. xvm. 
 State of the Union, the real balance of power 
 remained in the hands of the South. 
 
 The newly formed Constitution went into suc 
 cessful operation. Under legal provisions already 
 made and the strong current of abolition senti 
 ment then existing, all the Eastern and Middle 
 States down to Delaware became free. This gain, 
 however, was perhaps more than numerically 
 counterbalanced by the active importation of cap 
 tured Africans, especially into South Carolina and 
 Georgia, up to the time the traffic ceased by law 
 in 1808. Jefferson had meanwhile purchased of 
 France the immense country west of the Missis 
 sippi known as the Louisiana Territory. The free 
 navigation of that great river was assured, and the 
 importance of the West immeasurably increased. 
 The old French colonies at New Orleans and Kas- 
 kaskia were already strong outposts of civilization 
 and the nuclei of spreading settlements. Attracted 
 by the superior fertility of the soil, by the limitless 
 opportunities for speculation, by the enticing spirit 
 of adventure, and pushed by the restless energy 
 inherent in the Anglo-Saxon character, the older 
 States now began to pour a rising stream of emi 
 gration into the West and the South-west. 
 
 In this race the free States, by reason of their 
 greater population, wealth, and commercial enter 
 prise, would have outstripped the South but for 
 the introduction of a new and powerful influence 
 which operated exclusively in favor of the latter. 
 This was the discovery of the peculiar adaptation 
 of the soil and climate of portions of the Southern 
 States, combined with cheap slave-labor, to the
 
 320 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xviii. cultivation of cotton. Half a century of experiment 
 and invention in England had brought about the 
 concurrent improvement of machinery for spinning 
 and weaving, and of the high-pressure engine to 
 furnish motive power. The Revolutionary war was 
 scarcely ended when there came from the mother- 
 country a demand for the raw fiber, which 
 promised to be almost without limit. A few trials 
 sufficed to show Southern planters that with their 
 soil and their slaves they could supply this de 
 mand with a quality of cotton which would defy 
 competition, and at a profit to themselves far ex 
 ceeding that of any other product of agriculture. 
 But an insurmountable obstacle yet seemed to in 
 terpose itself between them and their golden har 
 vest. The tedious work of cleaning the fiber from 
 the seed apparently made impossible its cheap 
 preparation for export in large quantities. A 
 negro woman working the whole day could clean 
 only a single pound. 
 
 It so happened that at this juncture, November, 
 1792, an ingenious Yankee student from Massa 
 chusetts was boarding in the house of friends in 
 Savannah, Georgia, occupying his leisure in read 
 ing law. A party of Georgia gentlemen from the 
 interior, making a visit to this family, fell into 
 conversation on the prospects and difficulties of 
 cotton-culture and the imperative need of a rapidly 
 working cleaning-machine. Their hostess, an intel- 
 
 Memoir . . 
 
 ligent an( i quick-witted woman, at once suggested 
 an expedient. "Gentlemen," said Mrs. Greene, 
 " apply to my young friend, Mr. Eli Whitney ; he 
 can make anything." The Yankee student was 
 sought, introduced, and had the mechanical problem
 
 JAMES K. POLK.
 
 THE BALANCE OF POWEB 321 
 
 laid before him. He modestly disclaimed his host- CH. xvm. 
 
 ess's extravagant praises, and told his visitors that 
 
 he had never seen either cotton or cotton-seed 
 
 in his life. Nevertheless, he went to work with 
 
 such earnestness and success, that in a few months 
 
 Mrs. Greene had the satisfaction of being able to 
 
 invite a gathering of gentlemen from different 
 
 parts of the State to behold with their own eyes 
 
 the working of the newly invented cotton-gin, with 
 
 which a negro man turning a crank could clean 
 
 fifty pounds of cotton per day. 
 
 This solution of the last problem in cheap cotton- 
 culture made it at once the leading crop of the 
 South. That favored region quickly drove all com 
 petitors out of the market ; and the rise of English 
 imports of raw cotton, from thirty million pounds 
 in 1790 to over one thousand million pounds in 1860, 
 shows the development and increase of this special 
 industry, with all its related interests. 1 It was 
 not till fifteen years after the invention of the 
 cotton-gin that the African slave-trade ceased by isos. 
 limitation of law. Within that period many thou 
 sands of negro captives had been added to the 
 population of the South by direct importation, and 
 nearly thirty thousand slave inhabitants added by 
 the acquisition of Louisiana, hastening the forma- 
 tion of new slave States south of the Ohio Eiver in 
 due proportion. 2 
 
 1 The Virginia price of a male add to the force and eloquence 
 "field hand "in 1790 was $250 ; of the following from a recent 
 in 1860 his value in the domestic letter of the son^of the inventor 
 market had risen to $1600. of the cotton-gin (to the Art 
 SHEBRARD CLEMENS, speech in Superintendent of " The Gen 
 ii. R. Appendix "Congressional tury"), stating the claims of 
 Globe, "1860-1, pp. 104-5. his father's memory to the grati- 
 
 2 No word of the authors could tude of the South, hitherto ap- 
 
 VOL. L 21
 
 322 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xviii. It is a curious historical fact, that under the very 
 remarkable material growth of the United States 
 which now took place, the political influence re 
 mained so evenly balanced between the North 
 and the South for more than a generation. Other 
 grave issues indeed absorbed the public attention, 
 but the abeyance of the slavery question is due 
 rather to the fact that no considerable advantage as 
 yet fell to either side. Eight new States were organ 
 ized, four north and four south of the Ohio Eiver, 
 and admitted in nearly alternate order : Vermont 
 in 1791, free; Kentucky in 1792, slave; Tennessee in 
 1796, slave? Ohio in 1802, free; Louisiana in 1812, 
 slave ; Indiana in 1816, free ; Mississippi in 1817, 
 slave ; Illinois in 1818, free. Alabama was already 
 authorized to be admitted with slavery, and this 
 would make the number of free and slave States 
 equal, giving eleven States to the North and eleven 
 to the South. 
 
 The Territory of Missouri, containing the old 
 
 patently unf elt, and certainly un- of the world. Lord Macaulay 
 
 recognized: said of Eli Whitney : 'What 
 
 " NEW HAVEN, CONN., Peter the Great did to make 
 
 "Dec. 4, 1886. Russia dominant, Eli Whitney's 
 
 "... I send you a photograph invention of the cotton-gin has 
 
 taken from a portrait of my more than equaled in its relation 
 
 father, painted about the year to the power and progress of the 
 
 1821, by King, of Washington, United States.' He has been the 
 
 when my father, the inventor of greatest benefactor of the South, 
 
 the cotton-gin, was fifty-five years but it never has, to my knowl- 
 
 old. He died January 25, 1825. edge, acknowledged his bene- 
 
 The cotton-gin was invented in faction in a public manner to the 
 
 1793 ; and though it has been in extent it deserves no monument 
 
 use for nearly one hundred years, has been erected to his memory, 
 
 it is virtually unimproved. . . no town or city named after him, 
 
 Hence the great merit of the though the force of his genius has 
 
 original invention. It has made caused many towns and cities to 
 
 the South, financially and com- rise and flourish in the South. . . 
 mercially. It has made England " Yours very truly, 
 
 rich, and changed the commerce " E. W. WHITNEY."
 
 THE BALANCE OF POWER 323 
 
 French colonies at and near St. Louis, had attained CH. xvm. 
 a population of 60,000, and was eager to be ad 
 mitted as a State. She had made application in 
 1817, and now in 1819 it was proposed to authorize 
 her to form a constitution. Arkansas was also 
 being nursed as an applicant, and the prospective 
 loss by the North and gain by the South of the 
 balance of power caused the slavery question sud 
 denly to flare up as a national issue, j There were 
 hot debates in Congress, emphatic resolutions by 
 State legislatures, deep agitation among the whole 
 people, and open threats by the South to dissolve 
 the Union. Extreme Northern men insisted upon 
 a restriction of slavery to be applied to both Mis 
 souri and Arkansas; radical Southern members 
 contended that Congress had no power to impose 
 any conditions on new States. The North had 
 control of the House, the South of the Senate. A 
 middle party thereupon sprang up, proposing to 
 divide the Louisiana purchase between freedom 
 and slavery by the line of 36 30', and authorizing 
 the admission of Missouri with slavery out of the 
 northern half. Fastening this proposition upon the 
 bill to admit Maine as a free State, the measure 
 was, after a struggle, carried through Congress (in 
 a separate act approved March 6, 1820), and became 
 the famous Missouri Compromise. Maine and Mis 
 souri were both admitted. Each section thereby 
 not only gained two votes in the Senate, but also 
 asserted its right to spread its peculiar polity with 
 out question or hindrance within the prescribed 
 limits ; and the motto, " No extension of slavery," 
 was postponed forty years, to the Eepublican cam 
 paign of 1860/,
 
 324 \ I ABBAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 A 
 
 CH. xvm. From this . time forward, the maintenance of 
 this balance of power, the numerical equality 
 of the slave States with the free, though not 
 announced in platforms as a party doctrine, was 
 nevertheless steadily followed as a policy by the 
 representatives of the South. In pursuance of this 
 system, Michigan and Arkansas, the former a free, 
 and the latter a slave State, were, on the same day, 
 June 15, 1836, authorized to be admitted. These 
 tactics were again repeated in the year 1845, when, 
 on the 3d of March, Iowa, a free State, and Florida, 
 a slave State, were authorized to be admitted by 
 one act of Congress, its approval being the last 
 official act of President Tyler. This tacit compro 
 mise, however, was accompanied by another very 
 important victory of the same policy. The South 
 ern politicians saw clearly enough that with the 
 admission of Florida the slave territory was ex 
 hausted, while an immense untouched portion of 
 the Louisiana purchase still stretched away to the 
 north-west towards the Pacific above the Missouri 
 Compromise line, which consecrated it to freedom. 
 The North, therefore, still had an imperial area 
 from which to organize future free States, while 
 the South had not a foot more territory from which 
 to create slave States. 
 
 Sagaciously anticipating this contingency, the 
 Southern States had been largely instrumental in 
 setting up the independent State of Texas, and 
 were now urgent in their demand for her annexa 
 tion to the Union. Two days before the signing 
 of the Iowa and Florida bill, Congress passed, and 
 President Tyler signed, a joint resolution, author 
 izing the acquisition, annexation, and admission of
 
 THE BALANCE OP POWER 325 
 
 Texas. But even this was not all. The joint reso- CH. XVIIL 
 lution contained a guarantee that " new States, of 
 convenient size, not exceeding four in number, in 
 addition to the said State of Texas," and to be 
 formed out of her territory, should hereafter be 
 entitled to admission the Missouri Compromise 
 line to govern the slavery question in them. The 
 State of Texas was, by a later resolution, formally 
 admitted to the Union, December 29, 1845. At 
 this date, therefore, the slave States gained an 
 actual majority of one, there being fourteen free 
 States and fifteen slave States, with at least equal 
 territorial prospects through future annexation. 
 
 If the North was alarmed at being thus placed 
 in a minority, there was ample reason for still 
 further disquietude. The annexation of Texas had 
 provoked the Mexican war, and President Polk, in 
 anticipation of further important acquisition of 
 territory to the South and West, asked of Congress 
 an appropriation of two millions to be used in 
 negotiations to that end. An attempt to impose a 
 condition to these^ Negotiations that slavery should 
 never exist/in any territory to be thus acquired 
 was the famous Wilmot Proviso. This particular 
 measure failed, but the war ended, and New Mexico 
 and California were added to the Union as un 
 organized TPemlcmes. Meanwhile the admission of 
 Wisconsin in 1848 ha^^once more restored the 
 equilibrium between 'the free and the slave States, 
 there being now fifteen of each. 
 
 It must not be supposed that the important 
 political measures and results thus far summa 
 rized were accomplished by quiet and harmonious 
 legislation. Bising steadily after 1820, the contro-
 
 326 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xvin. versy over slavery became deep and bitter, both in 
 Congress and the country. Involving not merely 
 a policy of government, but a question of abstract 
 morals, statesmen, philanthropists, divines, the 
 press, societies, churches, and legislative bodies 
 joined in the discussion. Slavery was assailed 
 and defended in behalf of the welfare of the state, 
 and in the name of religion. In Congress espe 
 cially it had now been a subject of angry conten 
 tion for a whole generation. It obtruded itself 
 into all manner of questions, and clung obstinately 
 to numberless resolutions and bills. Time and 
 again it had brought members into excited discus 
 sion, and to the very verge of personal conflict in 
 the legislative halls. It had occasioned numerous 
 threats to dissolve the Union, and in one or more 
 instances caused members actually to retire from 
 the House of Eepresentatives. It had given rise 
 to resolutions of censure, to resignations, and had 
 been the occasion of some of the greatest legisla 
 tive debates of the nation. It had virtually created 
 and annexed the largest State in the Union. In 
 several States it had instigated abuse, intolerance, 
 persecutions, trials, mobs, murders, destruction of 
 property, imprisonment of freemen, retaliatory 
 legislation, and one well-defined and formidable 
 attempt at revolution. It originated party fac 
 tions, political schools, and constitutional doc 
 trines, and made and marred the fame of great 
 statesmen. 
 
 New Mexico, when acquired, contained one of 
 the oldest towns on the continent, and a consid 
 erable population of Spanish origin. California, 
 almost simultaneously with her acquisition, was
 
 THE BALANCE OF POWER 327 
 
 peopled in the .course of a few months by the CH. 
 world-renowned gold discoveries. Very unexpect 
 edly, therefore, to politicians of all grades and 
 opinions, the slavery question was once more 
 before the nation in the year 1850, over the propo 
 sition to admit both to the Union as States. As 
 the result of the long conflict of opinion hitherto 
 maintained, the beliefs and desires of the contend 
 ing sections had by this time become formulated 
 in distinct political doctrines. The North con 
 tended that Congress might and should prohibit 
 slavery in all the territories of the Union, as had 
 been done in the Northern half by the Ordinance 
 of 1787 and by the Missouri Compromise. The 
 South declared that any such exclusion would not 
 only be unjust and impolitic, but absolutely uncon 
 stitutional, because property in slaves might enter 
 and must be protected in the territories in com 
 mon with all other property. To the theoretical 
 dispute was added a practical contest. By the 
 existing Mexican laws slavery was already pro 
 hibited in New Mexico, and California promptly 
 formed a free State constitution. Under these 
 circumstances the North sought to organize the 
 former as a Territory, and admit the latter as a 
 State, while the South resisted and endeavored to 
 extend the Missouri Compromise line, which would 
 place New Mexico and the southern half of Cali 
 fornia under the tutelage and influence of slavery. 
 These were the principal points of difference 
 which caused the great slavery agitation of 1850. 
 The whole country was convulsed in discussion; 
 and again more open threats and more ominous 
 movements towards disunion came from the South.
 
 328 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xvin. The most popular statesman of that day, Henry 
 Clay, of Kentucky, a slaveholder opposed to the 
 extension of slavery, now, however, assumed the 
 leadership of a party of compromise, and the 
 quarrel was adjusted and quieted by a combined 
 series of Congressional acts. 1. California was 
 admitted as a free State. 2. The Territories of 
 New Mexico and Utah were organized, leaving the 
 Mexican prohibition of slavery in force. 3. The 
 domestic slave-trade in the District of Columbia 
 was abolished. 4. A more stringent fugitive-slave 
 law was passed. 5. For the adjustment of her 
 State boundaries Texas received ten millions of 
 dollars.^ 
 
 These were the famous compromise measures of 
 1850. It has been gravely asserted that this 
 indemnity of ten millions, suddenly trebling the 
 value of the Texas debt, and thereby affording an 
 unprecedented opportunity for speculation in the 
 bonds of that State, was "the propelling force 
 
 208;' p whereby these acts were pushed through Congress 
 in defiance of the original convictions of a major 
 ity of its members." But it must also be admitted 
 that the popular desire for tranquillity, concord, 
 and union in all sections never exerted so much 
 influence upon Congress as then. This compro 
 mise was not at first heartily accepted by the 
 people ; Southern opinion being offended by the 
 abandonment of the "property" doctrine, and 
 Northern sentiment irritated by certain harsh 
 features of the fugitive-slave law. But the rising 
 Union feeling quickly swept away all ebullitions 
 of discontent, and during two or three years peo 
 ple and politicians fondly dreamed they had, in
 
 THE BALANCE OF POWEB 329 
 
 current phraseology, reached a " finality " 1 on this CH. xvin. 
 vexed quarrel. The nation settled itself for a 
 period of quiet to repair the waste and utilize the 
 conquests of the Mexican war. It became ab 
 sorbed in the expansion of its commerce, the 
 development of its manufactures, and the growth 
 of its emigration, all quickened by the riches of 
 its marvelous gold-fields; until unexpectedly and 
 suddenly it found itself plunged once again into 
 political controversies more distracting and more ^^ 
 ominous than the worst it had yet experienced. 
 
 i Grave doubts, however, found occasional expression, and none 
 perhaps more forcibly than in the following newspaper epigram 
 describing "Finality": 
 
 To kill twice dead a rattlesnake, 
 And off his scaly skin to take, 
 And through his head to drive a stake, 
 And every bone within him break, 
 And of his flesh mincemeat to make, 
 To burn, to sear, to boil, and bake, 
 Then in a heap the whole to rake, 
 And over it the besom shake, 
 And sink it fathoms in the lake 
 Whence after all, quite wide awake, 
 Comes back that very same old snake I
 
 CHAPTEE XIX 
 
 THE REPEAL OP THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 
 
 CHAP. XEX. rriHE long contest in Congress over the com- 
 -L promise measures of 1850, and the reluctance 
 of a minority, alike in the North and the South, to 
 accept them, had in reality seriously demoralized 
 both the great political parties of the country. 
 The Democrats especially, defeated by the fresh 
 military laurels of General Taylor in 1848, were 
 much exercised to discover their most available 
 candidate as the presidential election of 1852 ap 
 proached. The leading names, Cass, Buchanan, 
 and Marcy, having been long before the public, 
 were becoming a little stale. In this contingency, 
 a considerable following grouped itself about an 
 entirely new man, Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois. 
 Emigrating from Vermont to the West, Douglas 
 had run a career remarkable for political success. 
 Only in his thirty-ninth year, he had served as 
 member of the legislature, as State's- Attorney, as 
 Secretary of State, and as judge of the Supreme 
 Court in Illinois, and had since been three times 
 elected to Congress and once to the Senate of the 
 United States. Nor did he owe his political for 
 tunes entirely to accident. Among his many 
 qualities of leadership were strong physical endur- 
 
 330
 
 THE BEPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 331 
 
 ance, untiring industry, a persistent boldness, a CHAP.XIX. 
 ready facility in public speaking, unfailing political 
 shrewdness, an unusual power in running debate, 
 with liberal instincts and progressive purposes. It 
 was therefore not surprising that he should attract 
 the admiration and support of the young, the ardent, 
 and especially the restless and ambitious members 
 of his party. His career in Congress was suffi 
 ciently conspicuous. As Chairman of the Commit 
 tee on Territories in the Senate, he had borne a 
 prominent part in the enactment of the compro 
 mise measures of 1850, and had just met and over 
 come a threatened party schism in his own State, 
 which that legislation had there produced. 
 
 In their eagerness to push his claims to the 
 presidency, the partisans of Douglas committed 
 a great error. Rightly appreciating the growing 
 power of the press, they obtained control of the 
 "Democratic Review," a monthly magazine then 
 prominent as a party organ, and published in it a 
 series of articles attacking the rival Democratic 
 candidates in very flashy rhetoric. These were 
 stigmatized as " old fogies," who must give ground 
 to a nominee of "Young America." They were 
 reminded that the party expects a "new man." 
 " Age is to be honored, but senility is pitiable " ; 
 " statesmen of a previous generation must get out 
 of the way " ; the Democratic party was owned by 
 a set of " old clothes-horses " ; " they couldn't pay 
 their political promises in four Democratic ad 
 ministrations " ; and the names of Cass and Marcy, 
 Buchanan and Butler, were freely mixed, in with 
 such epithets as "pretenders," "hucksters," "in 
 truders," and " vile charlatans."
 
 332 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xix. Such characterization of such, men soon created 
 a flagrant scandal in the Democratic party, which 
 was duly aired both in the newspapers and in Con 
 gress. It definitely fixed the phrases " old fogy " 
 and "Young America" in our slang literature. 
 The personal friends of Douglas hastened to ex 
 plain and assert his innocence of any complicity 
 with this political raid, but they were not more 
 than half believed ; and the war of factions, begun 
 in January, raged with increasing bitterness till the 
 Democratic National Convention met at Baltimore 
 in June, and undoubtedly exerted a decisive influ 
 ence over the deliberations of that body. 
 
 The only serious competitors for the nomination 
 were the " old fogies " Cass, Marcy, and Buchanan 
 on the one hand, and Douglas, the pet of " Young 
 America," on the other. It soon became evident 
 that opinion was so divided among these four that 
 a nomination could only be reached through long 
 and tedious ballotings. Beginning with some 20 
 votes, Douglas steadily gained adherents till on 
 the 30th ballot he received 92. From this point, 
 however, his strength fell away. Unable himself 
 to succeed, he was nevertheless sufficiently power 
 ful to defeat his adversaries. The exasperation 
 had been too great to permit a concentration 
 or compromise on any of the "seniors." Cass 
 reached only 131 votes; Marcy, 98; Buchanan, 
 104 ; and finally, on the 49th ballot, occurred the 
 memorable nearly unanimous selection of Franklin 
 Pierce not because of any merit of his own, but 
 to break the insurmountable dead-lock of factional 
 hatred. Young America gained a nominal tri 
 umph, old fogydom a real revenge, and the South
 
 THE EEPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 333 
 
 a serviceable Northern ally. Douglas and his CHAP.XIX. 
 friends were discomfited but not dismayed. Their 
 management had been exceedingly maladroit, as 
 a more modest championship would without doubt 
 have secured him the coveted nomination. Yet 
 sagacious politicians foresaw that on the whole he 
 was strengthened by his defeat. From that time 
 forward he was a recognized presidential aspirant 
 and competitor, young enough patiently to bide 
 his time, and of sufficient prestige to make his flag 
 the rallying point of all the free-lances in the 
 Democratic party. 
 
 It is to this presidential aspiration of Mr. Douglas 
 that we must look as the explanation of his agency 
 in bringing about the repeal of the Missouri Com 
 promise. As already said, after some factious op 
 position the measures of 1850 had been accepted 
 by the people as a finality of the slavery question. 
 Around this alleged settlement, distasteful as it 
 was to many, public opinion gradually crystallized. 
 Both the National Conventions of 1852 solemnly 
 resolved that they would discountenance and resist, 
 in Congress or out of it, whenever, wherever, or 
 however, or under whatever color or shape, any 
 further renewal of the slavery agitation. This 
 determination was echoed and reechoed, affirmed 
 and reaffirmed, by the recognized organs of the 
 public voice from the village newspaper to the 
 presidential message, from the country debating 
 school to the measured utterances of senatorial 
 discussion. 
 
 In support of this alleged " finality " no one had 
 taken a more decided stand than Senator Douglas 
 himself. Said he: "In taking leave of this subject
 
 334 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. XIX. 
 
 Appendix, 
 " Congres 
 sional 
 Globe," 
 1851-2, p. 68. 
 
 Douglas, 
 Senate 
 speech, 
 
 March 13, 
 
 1850. Ap 
 pendix, 
 
 " Congres 
 sional 
 Globe," 
 1849-50, pp. 
 
 369 to 372. 
 
 I wish to state that I have determined never to 
 make another speech upon the slavery question ; 
 and I will now add the hope that the necessity for 
 it will never exist. . . So long as our opponents 
 do not agitate for repeal or modification, why 
 should we agitate for any purpose? We claim 
 that the compromise [of 1850] is a final settlement. 
 Is a final settlement open to discussion and agita 
 tion and controversy by its friends ? What manner 
 of settlement is that which does not settle the 
 difficulty and quiet the dispute? Are not the 
 friends of the compromise becoming the agitators, 
 and will not the country hold us responsible for 
 that which we condemn and denounce in the aboli 
 tionists and Free-soilers ? These are matters wor 
 thy of our consideration. Those who preach peace 
 should not be the first to commence and reopen an 
 old quarrel." In his Senate speeches, during the 
 compromise debates of 1850, while generally advo 
 cating his theory of "non-intervention," he had 
 sounded the whole gamut of the slavery discussion, 
 defending the various measures of adjustment 
 against the attacks of the Southern extremists, and 
 specifically defending the Missouri Compromise. 
 More than this ; he had declared in distinct words 
 that the principle of territorial prohibition was no 
 violation of Southern rights ; and denounced the 
 proposition of Calhoun to put a "balance of 
 power " clause into the Constitution as " a retro 
 grade movement in an age of progress that would 
 astonish the world." These repeated affirmations, 
 taken in connection with his famous description 
 of the Missouri Compromise in 1849, in which he 
 declared it to have had " an origin akin to the
 
 THE EEPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 
 
 335 
 
 Dou las 
 
 Ke 8 ister -" 
 
 Constitution," and to have become "canonized in CHAP.XIX. 
 the hearts of the American people as a sacred thing 
 which no ruthless hand would ever be reckless 
 enough to disturb," all seemed, in the public 
 mind, to fix his position definitely; no one im- 
 agined that Douglas would so soon become the 
 subject of his own anathemas. 
 
 The full personal details of this event are lost 
 to history. We have only a faint and shadowy 
 outline of isolated movements of a few chief actors, 
 a few vague suggestions and fragmentary steps in 
 the formation and unfolding of the ill-omened plot. 
 
 As the avowed representative of the restless and 
 ambitious elements of the country, as the champion 
 of " Young America," Douglas had so far as pos 
 sible in his Congressional career made himself the 
 apostle of modern "progress." He was a believer 
 in " manifest destiny " and a zealous advocate of 
 the Monroe doctrine. He desired so the news 
 papers averred that the Caribbean Sea should be 
 declared an American lake, and nothing so de 
 lighted him as to pull the beard of the British lion. 
 These topics, while they furnished themes for cam 
 paign speeches, for the present led to no practical 
 legislation. In his position as chairman of the 
 Senate Committee on Territories, however, he had 
 control of kindred measures of present and vital 
 interest to the people of the West ; namely, the 
 opening of new routes of travel and emigration, 
 and of new territories for settlement. An era of 
 wonder had just dawned, connecting itself directly 
 with these subjects. The acquisition of California 
 and the discovery of gold had turned the eyes of the 
 whole civilized world to the Pacific coast. Plains
 
 336 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xix. and mountains were swarming with adventurers 
 and emigrants. Oregon, Utah, New Mexico, and 
 Minnesota had just been organized, and were in 
 a feeble way contesting the sudden fame of the 
 Golden State. The Western border was astir, and 
 wild visions of lands and cities and mines and 
 wealth and power were disturbing the dreams of 
 the pioneer in his frontier cabin, and hurrying him 
 off on the long, romantic quest across the continent. 
 
 Hitherto, stringent Federal laws had kept set 
 tlers and unlicensed traders out of the Indian 
 territory, which lay beyond the western boundaries 
 of Arkansas, Missouri, and Iowa, and which the 
 policy of our early Presidents fixed upon as the 
 final asylum of the red men retreating before the 
 advance of white settlements. But now the un 
 controllable stream of emigration had broken into 
 and through this reservation, creating in a few 
 years well-defined routes of travel to New Mexico, 
 Utah, California, and Oregon. Though from the 
 long march there came constant cries of danger and 
 distress, of starvation and Indian massacre, there 
 was neither halting nor delay. The courageous 
 pioneers pressed forward all the more earnestly, and 
 to such purpose that in less than twenty-five years 
 the Pacific Railroad followed Fremont's first ex 
 ploration through the South Pass. 
 
 Douglas, himself a migratory child of fortune, was 
 in thorough sympathy with this somewhat prema 
 ture Western longing of the people ; and as chair 
 man of the Committee on Territories was the 
 recipient of all the letters, petitions, and personal 
 solicitations from the various interests which were 
 seeking their advantage in this exodus toward the
 
 FRANKLIN PIERCK.
 
 THE REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 337 
 
 setting sun. He was the natural center for all the CHAP.XIX. 
 embryo mail contractors, office-holders, Indian 
 traders, land-sharks, and railroad visionaries whose 
 coveted opportunities lay in the Western territories. 
 It is but just to his fame, however, to say that he 
 comprehended equally well the true philosophical 
 and political necessities which now demanded the 
 opening of Kansas and Nebraska as a secure high 
 way and protecting bridge to the Eocky Moun 
 tains and our new-found El Dorado, no less than 
 as a bond of union between the older States and 
 the improvised "Young America" on the Pacific 
 coast. The subject was not yet ripe for action 
 during the stormy politics of 1850-1, and had 
 again to be postponed for the presidential cam 
 paign of 1852. But after Pierce was triumphantly 
 elected, with a Democratic Congress to sustain him, 
 the legislative calm which both parties had adjured 
 in their platforms seemed favorable for pushing 
 measures of local interest. The control of legisla 
 tion for the territories was for the moment com 
 pletely in the hands of Douglas. He was himself 
 chairman of the Committee of the Senate ; and his 
 special personal friend and political lieutenant in 
 his own State, William A. Eichardson, of Illinois, 
 was chairman of the Territorial Committee of the 
 House. He could therefore choose his own time 
 and mode of introducing measures of this character 
 in either house of Congress, under the majority 
 control of his party a fact to be constantly borne 
 in mind when we consider the origin and progress 
 of " the three Nebraska bills." 
 
 The journal discloses that Eichardson, of Illinois, 
 chairman of the Committee on Territories of the 
 
 VOL. I. 22
 
 338 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xix. House of Representatives, on February 2, 1853, 
 Feb^fs'ra introduced into the House "A bill to organize the 
 P. 474. Territory of Nebraska." After due reference, and 
 ^p.'&taHi 8 ' some desultory debate on the 8th, it was taken up 
 ?o ld p' 565 b< an( ^ P asse( l by the House on the 10th. From the 
 discussion we learn that the boundaries were the 
 Missouri River on the east, the Rocky Mountains 
 on the west, the line of 36 30' or southern line of 
 Missouri on the south, and the line of 43, or near 
 the northern line of Iowa, on the north. Several 
 members opposed it, because the Indian title to the 
 lands was not yet extinguished, and because it em 
 braced reservations pledged to Indian occupancy 
 in perpetuity ; also on the general ground that it 
 contained but few white inhabitants, and its or 
 ganization was therefore a useless expense. Howard, 
 of Texas, made the most strenuous opposition, urg 
 ing that since it contained but about six hundred 
 souls, its southern boundary should be fixed at 39 
 30', not to trench upon the Indian reservations. 
 Hall, of Missouri, replied in support of the bill: 
 "We want the organization of the Territory of 
 Nebraska not merely for the protection of the few 
 people who reside there, but also for the protection 
 of Oregon and California in time of war, and the 
 . 559?' protection of our commerce and the fifty or sixty 
 thousand emigrants who annually cross the plains." 
 He added that its limits were purposely made large 
 to embrace the great lines of travel to Oregon, New 
 Mexico, and California ; since the South Pass was 
 in 42 30', the Territory had to extend to 43 north. 
 The incident, however, of special historical sig 
 nificance had occurred in the debate of the 8th, 
 when a member rose and said : "I wish to inquire
 
 THE REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 339 
 
 of the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Giddings], who, CHAP.XIX. 
 I believe, is a member of the Committee on Terri 
 tories, why the Ordinance of 1787 is not incorpo 
 rated in this bill ? I should like to know whether 
 he or the committee were intimidated on account "Globe," 
 of the platforms of 1852 ? " To which Mr. Giddings P^MB. 
 replied that the south line of the territory was 
 36 30', and was already covered by the Missouri 
 Compromise prohibition. " This law stands per 
 petually, and I do not think that this act would 
 receive any increased validity by a reenactment. 
 There I leave the matter. It is very clear that the 
 territory included in this treaty [ceding Louisiana] 
 must be forever free unless the law be repealed." 
 With this explicit understanding from a member of 
 the committee, apparently accepted as conclusive 
 by the whole House, and certainly not objected to 
 by the chairman, Mr. Richardson, who was carefully 
 watching the current of debate, the bill passed ibid., Feb. 
 
 -, -, i . . 10. 1853, 
 
 on the 10th, ninety-eight yeas to forty-three nays. P- 565 - 
 Led by a few members from that region, in the 
 main the West voted for it and the South against 
 it; while the greater number, absorbed in other 
 schemes, were wholly indifferent, and probably 
 cast their votes upon personal solicitation. 
 
 On the following day the bill was hurried over to 
 the Senate, referred to Mr. Douglas's committee, 
 and by him reported back without amendment, on 
 February 17th ; but the session was almost ended 
 before he was able to gain the attention of the 
 Senate for its discussion. Finally, on the night 
 before the inauguration of President Pierce, in the 
 midst of a fierce and protracted struggle over the 
 appropriation bills, while the Senate was without
 
 340 ABKAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xix. a quorum and impatiently awaiting the reports of 
 a number of conference committees, Douglas seized 
 the opportunity of the lull to call up his Nebraska 
 bill. Here again, as in the House, Texas stub 
 bornly opposed it. Houston undertook to talk it 
 to death in a long speech ; Bell protested against 
 robbing the Indians of their guaranteed rights. 
 The bill seemed to have no friend but its author 
 when, perhaps to his surprise, Senator D. R. 
 Atchison, of Missouri, threw himself into the 
 breach. 
 
 Prefacing his- remarks with the statement that 
 he had formerly been opposed to the measure, he 
 continued : " I had two objections to it. One was 
 Globe," that the Indian title in that territory had not been 
 extinguished, or at least a very small portion of it 
 had been. Another was the Missouri Compromise, 
 or, as it is commonly called, the Slavery Restric 
 tion. It was my opinion at that time and I am 
 not now very clear on that subject that the law 
 of Congress, when the State of Missouri was ad 
 mitted into the Union, excluding slavery from the 
 territory of Louisiana north of 36 30', would be 
 enforced in that territory unless it was specially 
 rescinded ; and whether that law was in accordance 
 with the Constitution of the United States or not, 
 it would do its work, and that work would be to 
 preclude slaveholders from going into that terri 
 tory. But when I came to look into that question, 
 I found that there was no prospect, no hope, of 
 a repeal of the Missouri Compromise excluding 
 slavery from that territory. . . I have always 
 been of opinion that the first great error committed 
 in the political history of this country was the
 
 THE REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 341 
 
 Ordinance of 1787, rendering the North-west Terri- CHAP. xix. 
 tory free territory. The next great error was the 
 Missouri Compromise. But they are both irre 
 mediable. . . We must submit to them. I am pre 
 pared to do it. It is evident that the Missouri 
 Compromise cannot be repealed. So far as that 
 question is concerned, we might as well agree to 
 the admission of this territory now as next year, 
 or five or ten years hence." 
 
 Mr. Douglas closed the debate, advocating the 
 passage of the bill for general reasons, and by his 
 silence accepting Atchison's conclusions ; but as -Globe," 
 the morning of the 4th of March was breaking, an 1053, p. im. 
 unwilling Senate laid the bill on the table by a vote 
 of twenty-three to seventeen, here, as in the House, 
 the West being for and the South against the 
 measure. It is not probable, however, that in this 
 course the South acted with any mental reservation 
 or sinister motive. The great breach of faith was 
 not yet even meditated. Only a few hours after 
 wards, in a dignified and stately national ceremonial, 
 in the midst of foreign ministers, judges, sena 
 tors, and representatives, the new President of the 
 United States delivered to the people his inaugural 
 address. High and low were alike intent to discern 
 the opening political currents of the new Adminis 
 tration, but none touched or approached this partic 
 ular subject. The aspirations of " Young America" 
 were not towards a conquest of the North, but the 
 enlargement of the South. A freshening breeze 
 filled the sails of " annexation " and " manifest 
 destiny." In bold words the President said : " The 
 policy of my Administration will not be controlled 
 by any timid forebodings of evil from expansion.
 
 342 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xix. Indeed, it is not to be disguised that our attitude 
 as a nation and our position on the globe render 
 the acquisition of certain possessions not within 
 our jurisdiction eminently important for our 
 protection, if not in the future essential for the 
 preservation of the rights of commerce and the 
 peace of the world." Reaching the slavery ques 
 tion, he expressed unbounded devotion to the 
 Union, and declared slavery recognized by the 
 Constitution, and his purpose to enforce the com 
 promise measures of 1850, adding, "I fervently trust 
 that the question is at rest, and that no sectional 
 or ambitious or fanatical excitement may again 
 threaten the durability of our institutions, or ob 
 scure the light of our prosperity." 
 
 When Congress met again in the following 
 December (1853), the annual message of President 
 Pierce was, upon this subject, but an echo of his 
 inaugural, as his inaugural had been but an echo 
 of the two party platforms of 1852. Affirming 
 that the compromise measures of 1850 had given 
 repose to the country, he declared, " That this 
 repose is to suffer no shock during my official 
 term, if I have the power to avert it, those who 
 placed me here may be assured." In this spirit, 
 undoubtedly, the Democratic party and the South 
 began the session of 1853-4; but unfortunately 
 it was very soon abandoned. The people of the 
 Missouri and Iowa border were becoming every 
 day more impatient to enter upon an authorized 
 occupancy of the new lands which lay a day's 
 journey to the west. Handfuls of squatters here 
 and there had elected two territorial delegates, 
 who hastened to Washington with embryo creden-
 
 THE REPEAL OP THE MISSOURI COMPEOMISE 343 
 
 tials. The subject of organizing the West was CHAP.XIX. 
 
 again broached ; an Iowa Senator introduced a 
 
 territorial bill. Under the ordinary routine it was 
 
 referred to the Committee on Territories, and on 
 
 the 4th day of January Douglas reported back his 
 
 second Nebraska bill, still without any repeal of 
 
 the Missouri Compromise. His elaborate report, senate Re- 
 
 * * ' port, No. 15, 
 
 accompanying this second bill, shows that the sub- I8 3 t 3 | e co i n- n ' 
 ject had been most carefully examined in com- gre88- 
 mittee. The discussion was evidently exhaustive, 
 going over the whole history, policy, and constitu 
 tionality of prohibitory legislation. Two or three 
 sentences are quite sufficient to present the sub 
 stance of the long and wordy report. First, that 
 there were differences and doubts; second, that 
 these had been finally settled by the compromise 
 measures of 1850 ; and, therefore, third, the com 
 mittee had adhered not only to the spirit but to 
 the very phraseology of that adjustment, and 
 refused either to affirm or repeal the Missouri 
 Compromise. 
 
 This was the public and legislative agreement 
 announced to the country. Subsequent revela 
 tions show the secret and factional bargain which 
 that agreement covered. Not only was this terri 
 torial bill searchingly considered in committee, but 
 repeated caucuses were held by the Democratic 
 leaders to discuss the party results likely to grow 
 out of it. The Southern Democrats maintained 
 that the Constitution of the United States recog 
 nized their right and guaranteed them protection 
 to their slave property, if they chose to carry it 
 into Federal Territories. Douglas and other North 
 ern Democrats contended that slavery was subject
 
 344 
 
 ABKAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. XIX. 
 
 Senator 
 Benjamin, 
 Senate De 
 bate, May 
 
 8, 1860. 
 " Globe," 
 
 p. 1966. 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 Douglas, 
 pamphlet 
 li reply to 
 
 Judge 
 Black, Oc 
 tober, 1859, 
 p. 6. 
 
 "Globe," 
 
 Jan. 16, 1854, 
 
 p. 176. 
 
 to local law, and that the people of a Territory, like 
 those of a State, could establish or prohibit it. 
 This radical difference, if carried into party action, 
 would lose them the political ascendency they had 
 so long maintained, and were then enjoying. To 
 avert a public rupture of the party, it was agreed 
 " that the Territories should be organized with a 
 delegation by Congress of all the power of Con 
 gress in the Territories, and that the extent of the 
 power of Congress should be determined by the 
 courts." If the courts should decide against the 
 South, the Southern Democrats would accept the 
 Northern theory; if the courts should decide in 
 favor of the South, the Northern Democrats would 
 defend the Southern view. Thus harmony would 
 be preserved, and party power prolonged. Here 
 we have the shadow of the coming Dred Scott 
 decision already projected into political history, 
 though the speaker protests that "none of us knew 
 of the existence of a controversy then pending in 
 the Federal courts that would lead almost immedi 
 ately to the decision of that question." This was 
 probably true; for a "peculiar provision" was 
 expressly inserted in the committee's bill, allowing 
 appeals to the Supreme Court of the United States 
 in all questions involving title to slaves, without 
 reference to the usual limitations in respect to the 
 value of the property, thereby paving the way to 
 an early adjudication by the Supreme Court. 
 
 Thus the matter rested till the 16th of January, 
 when Senator Dixon, of Kentucky, apparently 
 acting for himself alone, offered an amendment in 
 effect repealing the Missouri Compromise. Upon 
 this provocation, Senator Sumner, of Massachusetts,
 
 THE EEPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPEOMISE 345 
 
 the next day offered another amendment affirm- CHAP.XIX. 
 ing that it was not repealed by the bill. Comment 
 ing on these propositions two days later, the 
 Administration organ, the " Washington Union," 
 declared they were both "false lights," to be avoided 
 by all good Democrats. By this time, however, 
 the subject of " repeal" had become bruited about 
 the Capitol corridors, the hotels, and the caucus 
 rooms of Washington, and newspaper correspond 
 ents were on the qui vive to obtain the latest devel 
 opments concerning the intrigue. The secrets of 
 the Territorial Committee leaked out, and consul 
 tations multiplied. Could a repeal be carried? 
 Who would offer it and lead it? What divisions 
 or schisms would it carry into the ranks of the 
 Democratic party, especially in the pending contest 
 between the " Hards " and " Softs " in New York ? 
 What effect would it have upon the presidential 
 election of 1856 1 Already the " Union " suggested 
 that it was whispered that Cass was willing to 
 propose and favor such a " repeal." It was given 
 out in the " Baltimore Sun " that Cass intended to 
 " separate the sheep from the goats." Both state 
 ments were untrue ; but they perhaps had their in 
 tended effect, to arouse the jealousy and eagerness 
 of Douglas. The political air of Washington was 
 heavy with clouds and mutterings, and clans were 
 gathering for and against the ominous proposition. 
 So far as history has been allowed a glimpse into 
 these secret communings, three principal person 
 ages were at this time planning a movement of 
 vast portent. These were Stephen A. Douglas, 
 chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories ; 
 Archibald Dixon, Whig Senator from Kentucky;
 
 346 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xix. and David R. Atchison, of Missouri, then president 
 pro tempore of the Senate, and acting Vice-President 
 of the United States. " ' For myself,' said the latter 
 in explaining the transaction, 'I am entirely de 
 voted to the interest of the South, and I would 
 sacrifice everything but my hope of heaven to 
 advance her welfare.' He thought the Missouri 
 Compromise ought to be repealed ; he had pledged 
 himself in his public addresses to vote for no terri 
 torial organization that would not virtually annul 
 it ; and with this feeling in his heart he desired to 
 be the chairman of the Senate Committee on Ter 
 ritories when a bill was introduced. With this 
 object in view, he had a private interview with Mr. 
 Douglas, and informed him of what he desired 
 the introduction of a bill for Nebraska like what 
 [sic] he had promised to vote for, and that he 
 would like to be the chairman of the Committee on 
 Territories in order to introduce such a measure ; 
 and, if he could get that position, he would imme 
 diately resign as president of the Senate. Judge 
 Douglas requested twenty-four hours to consider 
 the matter, and if at the expiration of that time he 
 could not introduce such a bill as he (Mr. Atchison) 
 proposed, he would resign as chairman of the Terri 
 torial Committee in Democratic caucus, and exert 
 his influence to get him (Atchison) appointed. 
 At the expiration of the given time, Senator Doug 
 las signified his intention to introduce such a bill 
 as had been spoken of." x 
 
 Senator Dixon is no less explicit in his descrip 
 tion of these political negotiations. " My amend- 
 
 i Speech at Atchison City, September, 1854, reported in the 
 "Parkville Luminary."
 
 THE EEPEAL OF THE MISSOUEI COMPBOMISE 347 
 
 merit seemed to take the Senate by surprise, and CHAP.XIX. 
 no one appeared more startled than Judge Douglas 
 himself. He immediately came to my seat and 
 courteously remonstrated against my amendment, 
 suggesting that the bill which he had introduced 
 was almost in the words of the territorial acts for 
 the organization of Utah and New Mexico ; that they 
 being a part of the compromise measures of 1850 
 he had hoped that I, a known and zealous friend of 
 the wise and patriotic adjustment which had then 
 taken place, would not be inclined to do any 
 thing to call that adjustment in question or weaken 
 it before the country. 
 
 "I replied that it was precisely because I had 
 been and was a firm and zealous friend of the Com 
 promise of 1850 that I felt bound to persist in the 
 movement which I had originated ; that I was well 
 satisfied that the Missouri Restriction, if not 
 expressly repealed, would continue to operate in 
 the territory to which it had been applied, thus 
 negativing the great and salutary principle of non 
 intervention which constituted the most prominent 
 and essential feature of the plan of settlement of 
 1850. We talked for some time amicably, and 
 separated. Some days afterwards Judge Douglas 
 came to my lodgings, whilst I was confined by 
 physical indisposition, and urged me to get up and 
 take a ride with him in his carriage. I accepted 
 his invitation, and rode out with him. During our 
 short excursion we talked on the subject of my 
 proposed amendment, and Judge Douglas, to my 
 high gratification, proposed to me that I should 
 allow him to take charge of the amendment and 
 ingraft it on his territorial bill. I acceded to the
 
 348 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xix. proposition at once, whereupon a most interesting 
 interchange occurred between us. 
 
 " On this occasion Judge Douglas spoke to me 
 in substance thus : ' I have become perfectly 
 satisfied that it is my duty, as a fair-minded 
 national statesman, to cooperate with you as pro 
 posed, in securing the repeal of the Missouri Com 
 promise restriction. It is due to the South ; it is 
 due to the Constitution, heretofore palpably in 
 fracted ; it is due to that character for consistency 
 which I have heretofore labored to maintain. The 
 repeal, if we can eifect it, will produce much stir 
 and commotion in the free States of the Union for 
 a season. I shall be assailed by demagogues and 
 fanatics there without stint or moderation. Every 
 opprobrious epithet will be applied to me. I shall 
 be probably hung in effigy in many places. It is 
 more than probable that I may become perma 
 nently odious among those whose friendship and 
 esteem I have heretofore possessed. This proceed 
 ing may end my political career. But, acting 
 under the sense of the duty which animates me, I 
 am prepared to make the sacrifice. I will do it.' 
 
 " He spoke in the most earnest and touching 
 manner, and I confess that I was deeply affected. 
 I said to him in reply : ' Sir, I once recognized you 
 as a demagogue, a mere party manager, selfish and 
 intriguing. I now find you a warm-hearted and 
 sterling patriot. Go forward in the pathway of 
 duty as you propose, and though all the world 
 desert you, I never will.' " x 
 
 Such is the circumstantial record of this remark- 
 
 1 Archibald Dixon to H. S. Foote, October 1, 1858. "Louisville 
 Democrat" of October 3, 1858.
 
 THE KEPEAL OF THE MISSOUEI COMPROMISE 
 
 349 
 
 able political transaction left by two prominent CHAP.XIX. 
 and principal instigators, and never denied nor 
 repudiated by the third. Gradually, as the plot 
 was developed, the agreement embraced the lead 
 ing elements of the Democratic party in Congress, 
 reenforced by a majority of the Whig leaders from 
 the slave States. A day or two before the final 
 introduction of the repeal, Douglas and others held 
 an interview with President Pierce, 1 and obtained 
 from him in writing an agreement to adopt the 
 movement as an Administration measure. Fortified 
 with this important adhesion, Douglas took the fatal 
 plunge, and on January 23 introduced his third 
 Nebraska bill, organizing two territories instead 
 of one, and declaring the Missouri Compromise 
 " inoperative." But the amendment monstrous 
 Caliban of legislation as it was needed to be still 
 
 1 Jefferson Davis, who was a 
 member of President Pierce's 
 Cabinet (Secretary of War), thus 
 relates the incident: "On Sun 
 day morning, the 22dof January, 
 1854, gentlemen of each com 
 mittee [House and Senate Com 
 mittees on Territories] called at 
 my house, and Mr. Douglas, 
 chairman of the Senate Commit 
 tee, fully explained the proposed 
 bill, and stated their purpose to 
 be, through my aid, to obtain an 
 interview on that day with the 
 President, to ascertain whether 
 the bill would meet his approba 
 tion. The President was known 
 to be rigidly opposed to the re 
 ception of visits on Sunday for 
 the discussion of any political 
 subject ; but in this case it was 
 urged as necessary, in order to 
 enable the committee to make 
 their report the next day. I went 
 
 with them to the Executive Man 
 sion, and, leaving them in the 
 reception-room, sought the Presi 
 dent in his private apartments, 
 and explained to him the occa 
 sion of the visit. He thereupon 
 met the gentlemen, patiently 
 listened to the reading of the bill 
 and their explanations of it, de 
 cided that it rested upon sound 
 constitutional principles, and rec 
 ognized in it only a return to 
 that rule which had been in 
 fringed by the Compromise of 
 1820, and the restoration of 
 which had been foreshadowed by 
 the legislation of 1850. This 
 bill was not, therefore, as has 
 been improperly asserted, a 
 measure inspired by Mr. Pierce 
 or any of his Cabinet." Davis, 
 "Rise and Fall of the Confed 
 erate Government," Vol. L, p. 
 28.
 
 350 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xix. further licked into shape to satisfy the designs of 
 the South and appease the alarmed conscience of 
 the North. Two weeks later, after the first out 
 burst of debate, the following phraseology was 
 "Globe," substituted: "Which being inconsistent with the 
 
 1854, p. 42i. principle of non-intervention by Congress with 
 slavery in the. States and Territories, as recog 
 nized by the legislation of 1850 (commonly called 
 the Compromise measures), is hereby declared in 
 operative and void; it being the true intent and 
 meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any 
 Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but 
 to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form 
 and regulate their domestic institutions in their 
 own way, subject only to the Constitution" a 
 change which Benton truthfully characterized as 
 " a stump speech injected into the belly of the 
 Nebraska bill." l 
 
 The storm of agitation which this measure 
 aroused dwarfed all former ones in depth and in 
 tensity. The South was nearly united in its behalf, 
 the North sadly divided in opposition. Against 
 protest and appeal, under legislative whip and 
 spur, with the tempting smiles and patronage of 
 the Administration, after nearly a four months' 
 parliamentary struggle, the plighted faith of a 
 
 i We have the authority of ex- withdraw or withhold from him 
 Vice -President Hannibal Hamlin a full and undivided Administra 
 tor stating that Mr. Douglas (who tion support, and told Mr. Ham- 
 was on specially intimate terms lin that he intended to get from 
 with him) told him that the Ian- him something in black and white 
 guage of the final amendment to which would hold him. A day or 
 the Kansas-Nebraska bill repeal- two afterwards Douglas, in a con 
 ing the Missouri Compromise was fidential conversation, showed 
 written by President Franklin Mr. Hamlin the draft of the 
 Pierce. Douglas was apprehen- amendment in Mr. Pierce's own 
 sive that the President would handwriting.
 
 THE REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPEOMISE 351 
 
 generation was violated, and the repealing act CHAP.XTX. 
 passed mainly by the great influence and ex 
 ample of Douglas, who had only five years before 
 so fittingly described the Missouri Compromise as 
 being " akin to the Constitution," and " canonized 
 in the hearts of the American people as a sacred 
 thing which no ruthless hand would ever be reck 
 less enough to disturb."
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 THE DEIPT OF POLITICS 
 
 CHAP. xx. rriHE repeal of the Missouri Compromise made 
 J- the slavery question paramount in every State 
 of the Union. The boasted finality was a broken 
 reed ; the life-boat of compromise a hopeless 
 wreck. If the agreement of a generation could be 
 thus annulled in a breath, was there any safety 
 even in the Constitution itself ? This feeling com 
 municated itself to the Northern States at the very 
 first note of warning, and every man's party fealty 
 was at once decided by his toleration of or opposi 
 tion to slavery. While the fate of the Nebraska 
 bill hung in a doubtful balance in the House, the 
 feeling found expression in letters, speeches, meet 
 ings, petitions, and remonstrances. Men were for 
 or against the bill every other political subject 
 was left in abeyance. The measure once passed, 
 and the Compromise repealed, the first natural im 
 pulse was to combine, organize, and agitate for its 
 restoration. This was the ready-made, common 
 ground of cooperation. 
 
 It is probable that this merely defensive energy 
 would have been overcome and dissipated, had it 
 not at this juncture been inspirited and led by the 
 faction known as the Free-soil party of the country, 
 
 352
 
 THE DRIFT OF POLITICS 353 
 
 composed mainly of men of independent anti- CHAP.XX. 
 slavery views, who had during four presidential 
 campaigns been organized as a distinct political 
 body, with no near hope of success, but animated 
 mainly by the desire to give expression to their 
 deep personal convictions. If there were dema 
 gogues here and there among them, seeking merely 
 to create a balance of power for bargain and sale, 
 they were unimportant in number, and only of local 
 influence, and soon became deserters. There was 
 no mistaking the earnestness of the body of this 
 faction. A few fanatical men, who had made it the 
 vehicle of violent expressions, had kept it under 
 the ban of popular prejudice. It had long been 
 held up to public odium as a revolutionary band 
 of " abolitionists." Most of the abolitionists were 
 doubtless in this party, but the party was not all 
 composed of abolitionists. Despite objurgation and 
 contempt, it had become since 1840 a constant and 
 growing factor in politics. It had operated as a 
 negative balance of power in the last three presi 
 dential elections, causing by its diversion of votes, 
 and more especially by its relaxing influence upon 
 parties, the success of the Democratic candidate, 
 James K. Polk, in 1844, the Whig candidate, Gen 
 eral Taylor, in 1848, and the Democratic nominee, 
 Franklin Pierce, in 1852. 
 
 This small party of antislavery veterans, over 
 158,000 voters in the aggregate, and distributed in 
 detachments of from 3000 to 30,000 in twelve of 
 the free States, now came to the front, and with its 
 newspapers and speakers trained in the discussion 
 of the subject, and its committees and affiliations 
 already in action and correspondence, bore the 
 
 VOL. L 23
 
 HISTORICAL MAP 
 OFTHE 
 
 UNITED STATES 
 IN 1854 
 
 SHOWING THE VARIOUS ACCESSIONS OFTERRITORt 
 SCALE Or MtL3 
 
 NOTE. The number under rhe nam< o/"a Stale 
 
 > the Union 3 j"~~"
 
 366
 
 356 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xx. brunt of the fight against the repeal. Hitherto its 
 aims had appeared Utopian, and its resolves had 
 been denunciatory and exasperating. Now, com 
 bining wisdom with opportunity, it became con 
 ciliatory, and, abating something of its abstractions, 
 made itself the exponent of a demand for a present 
 and practical reform a simple return to the an 
 cient faith and landmarks. It labored specially to 
 bring about the dissolution of the old party organi 
 zations and the formation of a new one, based upon 
 the general policy of resisting the extension of 
 slavery. Since, however, the repeal had shaken 
 but not obliterated old party lines, this effort suc 
 ceeded only in favorable localities. 
 
 For the present, party disintegration was slow ; 
 men were reluctant to abandon their old-time 
 principles and associations. The united efforts of 
 Douglas and the Administration held the body of 
 the Northern Democrats to his fatal policy, though 
 protests and defections became alarmingly frequent. 
 On the other hand, the great mass of Northern 
 Whigs promptly opposed the repeal, and formed 
 the bulk of the opposition, nevertheless losing per 
 haps as many pro-slavery Whigs as they gained 
 antislavery Democrats. The real and effective 
 gain, therefore, was the more or less thorough alli 
 ance of the Whig party and the Free-soil party of 
 the Northern States : wherever that was successful 
 it gave immediate and available majorities to the 
 opposition, which made their influence felt even in 
 the very opening of the popular contest following 
 the Congressional repeal. 
 
 It happened that this was a year for electing 
 Congressmen. The Nebraska bill did not pass till
 
 THE DKIFT OF POLITICS 357 
 
 the end of May, and the political excitement was CHAP. xx. 
 at once transferred from Washington to every dis 
 trict of the whole country. It may be said with 
 truth that the year 1854 formed one continuous 
 and solid political campaign from January to 
 November, rising in interest and earnestness from 
 first to last, and engaging in the discussion more 
 fully than had ever occurred in previous Ameri 
 can history all the constituent elements of our 
 population. 
 
 In the Southern States the great majority of * 
 people welcomed, supported, and defended the 
 repeal of the Missouri Compromise, it being con 
 sonant with their pro-slavery feelings, and appar 
 ently favorable to their pro-slavery interests. The 
 Democratic party in the South, controlling a 
 majority of slave States, was of course a unit in 
 its favor. The Whig party, however, having car 
 ried two slave States for Scott in 1852, and holding 
 a strong minority in the remainder, was not so 
 unanimous. Seven Southern Representatives and 
 two Southern Senators had voted against the 
 Nebraska bill, and many individual voters con 
 demned it as an act of bad faith as the aban 
 donment of the accepted "finality," and as the 
 provocation of a dangerous antislavery reaction. 
 But public opinion in that part of the Union was 
 fearfully tyrannical and intolerant ; and opposition 
 dared only to manifest itself to Democratic party 
 organization not to these Democratic party 
 measures. The Whigs of the South were there 
 fore driven precipitately to division. Those of 
 extreme pro-slavery views, like Dixon, of Ken 
 tucky, who, when he introduced his amendment,
 
 358 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xx. declared, "Upon the question of slavery I know no 
 Whiggery and no Democracy," went boldly and 
 at once over into the Democratic camp, while 
 those who retained their traditional party name 
 and flag were sundered from their ancient allies in 
 the Northern States by the impossibility of taking 
 up the latter's antislavery war-cry. 
 
 At this juncture the political situation was 
 further complicated by the sudden rise of an 
 additional factor in politics, the American party, 
 popularly called the " Know-Nothings." Essen 
 tially, it was a revival of the extinct "Native- 
 American" faction, based upon a jealousy of and 
 discrimination against foreign-born voters, desir 
 ing an extension of their period of naturalization, 
 and their exclusion from office ; also based upon a 
 certain hostility to the Eoman Catholic religion. It 
 had been reorganized as a secret order in the year 
 1853; and seizing upon the political disappoint 
 ments following General Scott's overwhelming de 
 feat for the presidency in 1852, and profiting by 
 the disintegration caused by the Nebraska bill, 
 it rapidly gained recruits both North and South. 
 Operating in entire secrecy, the country was star 
 tled by the sudden appearance in one locality after 
 another, on election day, of a potent and unsus 
 pected political power, which in many instances 
 pushed both the old organizations not only to dis 
 astrous but even to ridiculous defeat. Both North 
 and South its forces were recruited mainly from the 
 Whig party, though malcontents from all quarters 
 rushed to group themselves upon its narrow plat 
 form, and to participate in the exciting but delusive 
 triumphs of its temporary and local ascendency.
 
 THE DKIFT OP POLITICS 359 
 
 - 
 
 When, in the opening of the anti-Nebraska con- CHAP. xx. 
 test, the Free-soil leaders undertook the formation 
 of a new party to supersede the old, they had, 
 because of their generally democratic antecedents, 
 with great unanimity proposed that it be called the 
 " Republican " party, thus reviving the distinctive 
 appellation by which the followers of Jefferson 
 were known in the early days of the republic. 
 Considering the fact that Jefferson had originated 
 the policy of slavery restriction in his draft of the 
 ordinance of 1784, the name became singularly 
 appropriate, and wherever the Free-soilers suc 
 ceeded in forming a coalition it was adopted with 
 out question. But the refusal of the Whigs in 
 many States to surrender their name and organiza 
 tion, and more especially the abrupt appearance of 
 the Know-Nothings on the field of parties, retarded 
 the general coalition between the Whigs and the 
 Free-soilers which so many influences favored. 
 As it turned out, a great variety of party names 
 were retained or adopted in the Congressional and 
 State campaigns of 1854, the designation of " anti- 
 Nebraska" being perhaps the most common, and 
 certainly for the moment the most serviceable, 
 since denunciation of the Nebraska bill was the 
 one all-pervading bond of sympathy and agreement 
 among men who differed very widely on almost all 
 other political topics. This affiliation, however, 
 was confined exclusively to the free States. In the 
 slave States, the opposition to the Administration 
 dared not raise the anti-Nebraska banner, nor 
 could it have found followers ; and it was not only 
 inclined but forced to make its battle either under 
 the old name of Whigs, or, as became more pop-
 
 360 ABBAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xx. ular, under the new appellation of " Americans," 
 which grew into a more dignified synonym for 
 Know-Nothings. 
 
 Thus confronted, the Nebraska and anti-Ne 
 braska factions, or, more philosophically speaking, 
 the pro-slavery and antislavery sentiment of the 
 several American States, battled for political su 
 premacy with a zeal and determination only mani 
 fested on occasions of deep and vital concern to the 
 welfare of the republic. However languidly certain 
 elements of American society may perform what 
 they deem the drudgery of politics, they do not 
 shrink from it when they hear warning of real 
 danger. The alarm of the nation on the repeal of 
 the Missouri Compromise was serious and startling. 
 All ranks and occupations therefore joined with a 
 new energy in the contest it provoked. Particu 
 larly was the religious sentiment of the North 
 profoundly moved by the moral question involved. 
 Perhaps for the first time in our modern politics, 
 the pulpit vied with the press, and the Church with 
 the campaign club, in the work of debate and prop- 
 agandism. 
 
 The very inception of the struggle had provoked 
 bitter words. Before the third Nebraska bill had 
 yet been introduced into the Senate, the then lit 
 tle band of " Free-Soilers " in Congress Chase, 
 Sumner, Giddings, and three others had issued a 
 newspaper address calling the repeal " a gross vio 
 lation of a sacred pledge " ; " a criminal betrayal of 
 precious rights " ; "an atrocious plot," " designed 
 to cover up from public reprehension meditated 
 bad faith," etc. Douglas, seizing only too gladly 
 the pretext to use denunciation instead of argu-
 
 THE DEIFT OF POLITICS 361 
 
 ment, replied in his opening speech, in turn stig- CHAP. xx. 
 matizing them as "abolition confederates" "as 
 sembled in secret conclave " " on the holy Sabbath 
 while other Senators were engaged in divine wor 
 ship" "plotting," "in the name of the holy 
 religion " ; " perverting," and " calumniating the 
 committee " ; " appealing with a smiling face to his 
 courtesy to get time to circulate their document 
 before its infamy could be exposed," etc. 
 
 The key-notes of the discussion thus given were 
 well sustained on both sides, and crimination and 
 recrimination increased with the heat and intensity 
 of the campaign. The gradual disruption of par 
 ties, and the new and radical attitudes assumed by 
 men of independent thought, gave ample occasion 
 to indulge in such epithets as " apostates," " rene 
 gades," and " traitors." Unusual acrimony grew 
 out of the zeal of the Church and its ministers. 
 The clergymen of the Northern States not only 
 spoke against the repeal from their pulpits, but 
 forwarded energetic petitions against it to Con 
 gress, 3050 clergymen of New England of differ 
 ent denominations joining their signatures in oiobe," 
 one protest. " We protest against it," they said, iswfp. erf. 
 "as a great moral wrong, as a breach of faith 
 eminently unjust to the moral principles of the 
 community, and subversive of all confidence in 
 national engagements ; as a measure full of danger 
 to the peace and even the existence of our beloved 
 Union, and exposing us to the righteous judgment 
 of the Almighty." In return, Douglas made a 
 most virulent onslaught on their political action. 
 " Here we find," he retorted, " that a large body of n>id., p. eis. 
 preachers, perhaps three thousand, following the
 
 362 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xx. lead of a circular which was issued by the abolition 
 confederates in this body, calculated to deceive and 
 mislead the public, have here come forward with 
 an atrocious falsehood, and an atrocious calumny 
 against this Senate, desecrated the pulpit, and 
 prostituted the sacred desk to the miserable and 
 corrupting influence of party politics." All his 
 newspapers and partisans throughout the country 
 caught the style and spirit of his warfare, and 
 boldly denied the moral right of the clergy to take 
 part in politics otherwise than by a silent vote. 
 But they, on the other hand, persisted all the more 
 earnestly in justifying their interference in moral 
 questions wherever they appeared, and were clearly 
 sustained by the public opinion of the North. 
 
 Though the repeal was forced through Congress 
 under party pressure, and by the sheer weight 
 of a large Democratic majority in both branches, 
 it met from the first a decided and unmistakable 
 popular condemnation in the free States. While 
 the measure was yet under discussion in the House 
 in March, New Hampshire led off by an election 
 completely obliterating the eighty-nine Democratic 
 majority in her Legislature. Connecticut followed 
 in her footsteps early in April. Long before No 
 vember it was evident that the political revolution 
 among the people of the North was thorough, and 
 that election day was anxiously awaited merely to 
 record the popular verdict already decided. 
 
 The influence of this result upon parties, old and 
 new, is perhaps best illustrated in the organization 
 of the Thirty-fourth Congress, chosen at these 
 elections during the year 1854, which witnessed the 
 repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Each Con-
 
 THE DRIFT OF POLITICS 363 
 
 gress, in ordinary course, meets for the first time CHAP. xx. 
 about one year after its members are elected by the 
 people, and the influence of politics during the 
 interim needs always to be taken into account. 
 In this particular instance this effect had, if any 
 thing, been slightly reactionary, and the great con 
 test for the Speakership during the winter of 
 1855-6 may therefore be taken as a fair manifesta 
 tion of the spirit of politics in 1854. 
 
 The strength of the preceding House of Repre 
 sentatives, which met in December, 1853, had been : 
 Whigs, 71; Free-soilers, 4; Democrats, 159 a 
 clear Democratic majority of 84. In the new Con 
 gress there were in the House, as nearly as the 
 classification could be made, about 108 anti-Ne 
 braska members, nearly 40 Know-Nothings, and 
 about 75 Democrats ; the remaining members were 
 undecided. The proud Democratic majority of 
 the Pierce election was annihilated. 
 
 But as yet the new party was merely inchoate, 
 its elements distrustful, jealous, and discordant; 
 the feuds and battles of a quarter of a century 
 were not easily forgotten or buried. The Demo 
 cratic members, boldly nominating Mr. Richard 
 son, the House leader on the Nebraska bill, as their 
 candidate for Speaker, made a long and deter 
 mined push for success. But his highest range of 
 votes was about 74 to 76 ; while through 121 ballot- 
 ings, continuing from December 3 to January 23, 
 the opposition remained divided, Mr. Banks, the 
 anti-Nebraska favorite, running at one time up to 
 106 within seven votes of an election. At this 
 point, Richardson, finding it a hopeless struggle, 
 withdrew his name as a candidate, and the Demo-
 
 364 ABKAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xx. cratic strength was transferred to another, but 
 with no better prospects. Finally, seeing no chance 
 of otherwise terminating the contest, the House 
 yielded to the inevitable domination of the slavery 
 question, and resolved, on February 2, by a vote 
 of 113 to 104, to elect under the plurality rule after 
 the next three ballotings. Under this rule, not 
 withstanding the most strenuous efforts to rescind 
 it, Nathaniel P. Banks, of Massachusetts, was 
 chosen Speaker by 103 votes, against 100 votes for 
 William Aiken, of South Carolina, with thirty 
 scattering. The " ruthless " repeal of the Missouri 
 Compromise had effectually broken the legislative 
 power of the Democratic party.
 
 CHAPTEE XXI 
 
 LINCOLN AND TEUMBULL 
 
 TO follow closely the chain of events, growing CHAP.XXI. 
 out of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise ISM. 
 at Douglas's instigation, we must now examine 
 its effect upon the political fortunes of that power 
 ful leader in his own State. 
 
 The extreme length of Illinois from north to 
 south is 385 miles; in geographical situation it 
 extends from the latitude of Massachusetts and 
 New York to that of Virginia and Kentucky. The 
 great westward stream of emigration in the United 
 States had generally followed the parallels of lati 
 tude. The pioneers planted their new homes as 
 nearly as might be in a climate like the one they 
 had left. In process of time, therefore, northern 
 Illinois became peopled with settlers from Northern 
 or free States, bringing their antislavery traditions 
 and feelings; southern Illinois, with those from 
 Southern or slave States, who were as naturally 
 pro-slavery. The Virginians and Kentuckians 
 readily became converts to the thrift and order of 
 free society ; but as a class they never gave up or 
 conquered their intense hatred of antislavery con 
 victions based on merely moral grounds, which 
 they indiscriminately stigmatized as "abolition- 
 
 365
 
 366 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xxi. ism." Impelled by this hatred the lawless element 
 of the community was often guilty of persecution 
 and violence in minor forms, and in 1837, as al 
 ready related, it prompted the murder of Lovejoy 
 in the city of Alton by a mob, for persisting in his 
 right to publish his antislavery opinions. This was 
 its gravest crime. But a narrow spirit of intoler 
 ance extending even down to the rebellion kept on 
 the statute books a series of acts prohibiting the 
 settlement of free blacks in the State. 
 
 It was upon this field of radically diverse sen 
 timent that in the year 1854 Douglas's sudden 
 project of repeal fell like a thunderbolt out of a 
 clear sky. A Democratic Governor had been chosen 
 two years before ; a Democratic Legislature, called 
 together to consider merely local and economic 
 questions, was sitting in extra session at Spring 
 field. There was doubt and consternation over 
 the new issue. The Governor and other prudent 
 partisans avoided a public committal. But the 
 silence could not be long maintained. Douglas 
 was a despotic party leader, and President Pierce 
 had made the Nebraska bill an Administration 
 question. Above all, in Illinois, as elsewhere, the 
 people at once took up the discussion, and reluctant 
 politicians were compelled to avow themselves. 
 The Nebraska bill with its repealing clause had 
 been before the country some three weeks and was 
 yet pending in Congress when a member of the 
 Illinois Legislature introduced resolutions indors 
 ing it. Three Democratic State Senators, two from 
 northern and one from central Illinois, had the 
 courage to rise and oppose the resolutions in vigor 
 ous and startling speeches. They were N. B. Judd,
 
 LINCOLN AND TEUMBULL 367 
 
 of Chicago, B. C. Cook, of La Salle, and John M. CHAP.XXI. 
 Palmer, of Macoupin. This was an unusual party 
 phenomenon and had its share in hastening the 
 general agitation throughout the State. Only two 
 or three other members took part in the discussion ; 
 the Democrats avoided the issue ; the Whigs hoped 
 to profit by the dissension. There was the usual 
 rush of amendments and of parliamentary strat 
 egy, and the indorsing resolutions which finally 
 passed in both Houses in ambiguous language and 
 by a diminished vote were shorn of much of their 
 political significance. 
 
 Party organization was strong in Illinois, and for 
 the greater part, as the popular discussion pro 
 ceeded, the Democrats sustained and the Whigs 
 opposed the new measure. In the northern coun 
 ties, where the antislavery sentiment was general, 
 there were a few successful efforts to disband the 
 old parties and create a combined opposition under 
 the new name of Eepublicans. This, it was soon 
 apparent, would make serious inroads on the exist 
 ing Democratic majority. But an alarming counter- 
 movement in the central counties, which formed 
 the Whig stronghold, soon began to show itself. 
 Douglas's violent denunciation of " abolitionists " 
 and " abolitionism " appealed with singular power 
 to Whigs from slave States. The party was with 
 out a national leader; Clay had died two years 
 before, and Douglas made skillful quotations from 
 the great statesman's speeches to bolster up his 
 new propagandism. In Congress only a little 
 handful of Southern Whigs opposed the repeal, 
 and even these did not dare place their opposi 
 tion on antislavery grounds. And especially the
 
 368 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xxi. familiar voice and example of the neighboring 
 Missouri Whigs were given unhesitatingly to the 
 support of the Douglas scheme. Under these com 
 bined influences one or two erratic but rather 
 prominent Whigs in central Illinois declared their 
 adherence to Nebraskaism, and raised the hope 
 that the Democrats would regain in the center and 
 south all they might lose in the northern half of 
 the State. 
 
 One additional circumstance had its effect on 
 public opinion. As has been stated, in the opposi 
 tion to Douglas's repeal the few avowed abolitionists 
 and the many pronounced Free-soilers, displaying 
 unwonted activity, came suddenly into the fore 
 ground to rouse and organize public opinion, mak 
 ing it seem for the moment that they had really 
 assumed leadership and control in politics. This 
 class of men had long been held up to public odium. 
 Some of them had, indeed, on previous occasions 
 used intemperate and offensive language ; but more 
 generally they were denounced upon a gross mis 
 representation of their utterance and purpose. It 
 so happened that they were mostly of Democratic 
 antecedents, which gave them great influence among 
 antislavery Democrats, but made their advice and 
 arguments exceedingly distasteful in strong Whig 
 counties and communities. The fact that they now 
 became more prudent, conciliatory, and practical in 
 their speeches and platforms did not immediately 
 remove existing prejudices against them. A few 
 of these appeared in Illinois. Cassius M. Clay pub 
 lished a letter in which he advocated the fusion of 
 anti-Nebraska voters upon " Benton, Seward, Hale, 
 or any other good citizen," and afterwards made a
 
 LYMAN TRUMBUI.I..
 
 LINCOLN AND TKUMBULL 369 
 
 series of speeches in Illinois. When he came to CHAP.XXI. 
 Springfield, the Democratic officers in charge re 
 fused him the use of the rotunda of the State 
 House, a circumstance, however, which only served 
 to draw him a larger audience in a neighboring 
 grove. Later in the summer Joshua R. G-iddings 
 and Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, made a political 
 tour through the State, and at Springfield the 
 future Secretary and Chief-Justice addressed an 
 unsympathetic audience of a few hundreds in the 
 dingy little court-house, almost unheralded, save 
 by the epithets of the Democratic newspapers. A 
 few local speakers of this class, of superior address 
 and force, now also began to signalize themselves 
 by a new-born zeal and an attractive eloquence. 
 Conspicuous among these was Owen Lovejoy, of 
 northern Illinois, brother of the man who, for 
 opinion's sake, had been murdered at Alton. 
 
 While thus in the northern half of Illinois the 
 public condemnation of Douglas's repeal was im 
 mediate and sweeping, the formation of opposition 
 to it was tentative and slow in the central and 
 southern counties, where, among Whigs of South 
 ern birth, it proceeded rather upon party feeling 
 than upon moral conviction. The new question 
 struck through party lines in such a manner as to 
 confuse and perplex the masses. But the issue 
 would not be postponed. The Congressional elec 
 tions were to be held in the autumn, and the suc 
 cession of events rather than the leadership of 
 politicians gradually shaped the campaign. 
 
 After a most exciting parliamentary struggle 
 the repeal was carried through Congress in May. 
 Encouraged by this successful domination over 
 VOL. I. 24
 
 370 ABBAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xxi. Representatives and Senators, Douglas prepared 
 to force its acceptance by the people. "I hear 
 men now say," said he, " that they are willing to 
 acquiesce in it. . . It is not sufficient that they 
 shall not seek to disturb Nebraska and Kansas, 
 but they must acquiesce also in the principle." 1 
 In the slave States this was an easy task. The 
 most prominent Democrat who had voted against 
 the Nebraska bill was Thomas H. Benton. The 
 election in Missouri was held in August, and Ben- 
 ton was easily beaten by a Whig who was as fierce 
 for repeal as Douglas himself. In the free States 
 the case was altogether different. In Illinois the 
 Democrats gradually, but at last with a degree of 
 boldness, shouldered the dangerous dogma. The 
 main body of the party rallied under Douglas, ex 
 cepting a serious defection in the north; on the 
 other hand, the Whigs in a body declared against 
 him, but were weakened by a scattering desertion 
 in the center and south. Meanwhile both retained 
 their distinctive party names and organizations. 
 
 Congress adjourned early in August, but Doug 
 las delayed his return to Illinois. The 1st of Sep 
 tember had come, when it was announced he would 
 return to his home in Chicago. This was an anti- 
 slavery city, and the current of popular condemna 
 tion and exasperation was running strongly against 
 him. Public meetings of his own former party 
 friends had denounced him. Street rowdies had 
 i burned him in effigy. The opposition papers 
 charged him with skulking and being afraid to 
 meet his constituents. On the afternoon of his 
 
 i Douglas's speech before the Union Democratic Club of New 
 York, June 3, 1854. New York ''Herald," June 6, 1854.
 
 LINCOLN AND TEUMBULL 371 
 
 coming many flags in the city and on the shipping CHAP. XXL 
 in the river and harbor were hung at half-mast. 
 At sunset sundry city bells were tolled for an hour 
 to signify the public mourning at his downfall. 
 When he mounted the platform at night to address 
 a crowd of some five thousand listeners he was 
 surrounded by a little knot of personal friends, 
 but the audience before him was evidently cold if 
 not actively hostile. 
 
 He began his speech, defending his course as 
 well as he could. He claimed that the slavery 
 question was forever settled by his great principle 
 of " popular sovereignty," which took it out of Con 
 gress and gave it to the people of the territories to 
 decide as they pleased. The crowd heard him in 
 sullen silence for three-quarters of an hour, when 
 their patience gave out, and they began to ply him 
 with questions. He endured their fire of interrog 
 atory for a little while till he lost his own temper. 
 Excited outcry followed angry repartee. Thrust 
 and rejoinder were mingled with cheers and hisses. 
 The mayor, who presided, tried to calm the assem 
 blage, but the passions of the crowd would brook 
 no control. Douglas, of short, sturdy build and 
 imperious and controversial nature, stood his 
 ground courageously, with flushed and lowering 
 countenance hurling defiance at his interrupters, 
 calling them a mob, and shaking his fist in their 
 faces ; in reply the crowd groaned, hooted, yelled, 
 and made the din of Pandemonium. The tumultu 
 ous proceeding continued until half -past ten o'clock 
 at night, when the baffled orator was finally but 
 very reluctantly persuaded by his friends to give 
 up the contest and leave the stand. It was trum-
 
 372 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xxi. peted abroad by the Democratic newspapers that 
 " in the order-loving, law-abiding, abolition-ridden 
 city of Chicago, Illinois's great statesman and rep 
 resentative in the United States Senate was cried 
 down and refused the privilege of speaking " ; and as 
 usual the intolerance produced its natural reaction. 
 Since Abraham Lincoln's return to Springfield 
 from his single term of service in Congress, 1847 
 to 1849, though by no means entirely withdrawn 
 from politics, his campaigning had been greatly 
 diminished. The period following had for him 
 been years of work, study, and reflection. His pro 
 fession of law had become a deeper science and a 
 higher responsibility. His practice, receiving his 
 undivided attention, brought him more important 
 and more remunerative cases. Losing nothing of 
 his genial humor, his character took on the dignity 
 of a graver manhood. He was still the center of in 
 terest of every social group he encountered, whether 
 on the street or in the parlor. Serene and buoy 
 ant of temper, cordial and winning of language, 
 charitable and tolerant of opinion, his very pres 
 ence diffused a glow of confidence and kindness. 
 Wherever he went he left an ever- widening ripple 
 of smiles, jests, and laughter. His radiant good- 
 fellowship was beloved and sought alike by politi 
 cal opponents and partisan friends. His sturdy 
 and delicate integrity, recognized far and wide, 
 had long since won him the blunt but hearty 
 sobriquet of "Honest Old Abe." But it became 
 noticeable that he was less among the crowd and 
 more in the solitude of his office or his study, and 
 that he seemed ever in haste to leave the eager 
 circle he was entertaining.
 
 LINCOLN AND TKUMBULL 373 
 
 It is in the midsummer of 1854 that we find him CHAP.XXI. 
 reappearing upon the stump in central Illinois. The 
 rural population always welcomed his oratory, and 
 he never lacked invitations to address the public. 
 His first speeches on the new and all-absorbing 
 topic were made in the neighboring towns, and in 
 the counties adjoining his own. Towards the end 
 of August the candidates for Congress in that dis 
 trict were, in Western phrase, "on the track." 
 Richard Yates, afterwards one of the famous " war 
 governors," sought a reelection as a Whig. Thomas 
 L. Harris as a Douglas-Democrat strove to sup 
 plant him. Local politics became active, and Lin 
 coln was sent for from all directions to address the 
 people. When he went, however, he distinctly 
 announced that he did not purpose to take up his 
 time with this personal and congressional contro 
 versy. His intention was to discuss the principles 
 of the Nebraska bill. 
 
 Once launched upon this theme, men were 
 surprised to find him imbued with an unwonted 
 seriousness. They heard from his lips fewer anec 
 dotes and more history. Careless listeners who 
 came to laugh at his jokes were held by the strong 
 current of his reasoning and the flashes of his 
 earnest eloquence, and were lifted up by the range 
 and tenor of his argument into a fresher and purer 
 political atmosphere. The new discussion was 
 fraught with deeper questions than the improve 
 ment of the Sangamon, protective tariffs, or the ori 
 gin of the Mexican war. Down through incidents of 
 legislation, through history of government, even 
 underlying cardinal maxims of political philosophy, 
 it touched the very bed-rock of primary human
 
 374 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xxi. rights. Such, a subject furnished material for the 
 inborn gifts of the speaker, his intuitive logic, his 
 impulsive patriotism, his pure and poetical con 
 ception of legal and moral justice. 
 
 Douglas, since his public rebuff at Chicago on 
 September 1, had begun, after a few days of delay 
 and rest, a tour of speech-making south ward through 
 the State. At these meetings he had at least a re 
 spectful hearing, and as he neared central Illinois 
 the reception accorded him became more enthu 
 siastic. The chief interest of the campaign finally 
 centered in a sort of political tournament which 
 took place at the capital, Springfield, during the 
 first week of October ; the State Agricultural Fair 
 having called together great crowds, and among 
 them the principal politicians of Illinois. This was 
 Lincoln's home, in a strong Whig county, and in a 
 section of the State where that party had hitherto 
 found its most compact and trustworthy forces. 
 As yet Lincoln had made but a single speech there 
 on the Nebraska question. Of the Federal appoint 
 ments under the Nebraska bill, Douglas secured 
 two for Illinois, one of which, the office of surveyor- 
 general of Kansas, was given to John Calhoun, 
 the same man who, in the pioneer days twenty 
 years before, was county surveyor in Sangamon 
 and had employed Abraham Lincoln as his deputy. 
 He was also the same who three years later re 
 ceived the sobriquet of "John Candlebox Calhoun," 
 having acquired unenviable notoriety from his 
 reputed connection with the "Cincinnati Direct 
 ory " and " Candlebox " election frauds in Kansas, 
 and with the famous Lecompton Constitution. 
 Calhoun was still in Illinois doing campaign work
 
 LINCOLN AND TRUMBULL 375 
 
 in propagating the Nebraska faith. He was rec- CHAP.XXI 
 ognized as a man of considerable professional and 
 political talent, and had made a speech in Spring 
 field to which Lincoln had replied. It was, how 
 ever, merely a casual and local affair and was not 
 described or reported by the newspapers. 
 
 The meetings at the State Fair were of a differ 
 ent character. The audiences were composed of 
 leading men from nearly all the counties of the 
 State. Though the discussion of party questions 
 had been going on all summer with more or less 
 briskness, yet such was the general confusion in 
 politics that many honest and intelligent voters 
 and even leaders were still undecided in their opin 
 ions. The fair continued nearly a week. Douglas 
 made a speech on the first day, Tuesday, October 
 3. Lincoln replied to him on the following day, 
 October 4. Douglas made a rejoinder, and on that 
 night and the succeeding day and night a running 
 fire of debate ensued, in which John Calhoun, 
 Judge Trumbull, Judge Sidney Breese, Colonel E. 
 D. Taylor, and perhaps others, took part. 
 
 Douglas's speech was doubtless intended by him 
 and expected by his friends to be the principal and 
 the conclusive argument of the occasion. But by 
 this time the Whig party of the central counties, 
 though shaken by the disturbing features of the 
 Nebraska question, had nevertheless re-formed its 
 lines, and assumed the offensive to which its pre 
 ponderant numbers entitled it, and resolved not to 
 surrender either its name or organization. In 
 Sangamon County, its strongest men, Abraham 
 Lincoln and Stephen T. Logan, were made candi 
 dates for the Legislature. The term of Douglas's
 
 376 ABBAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xxi. colleague in the United States Senate, General 
 James Shields, was about to expire, and the new 
 Legislature would choose his successor. To the 
 war of party principles was therefore added the 
 incentive of a brilliant official prize. The Whigs 
 were keenly alive to this chance and its influence 
 upon their possible ascendency in the State. 
 
 Lincoln's Whig friends had therefore seen his 
 reappearance in active discussion with unfeigned 
 pleasure. Of old they knew his peculiar hold and 
 influence upon the people and his party. His few 
 speeches in the adjoining counties had shown them 
 his maturing intellect, his expanding power in de 
 bate. Acting upon himself, this renewed practice 
 on the stump crystallized his thought and brought 
 method to his argument. The opposition news 
 papers had accused him of " mousing about the 
 libraries in the State House." The charge was 
 true. Where others were content to take state 
 ments at second hand, he preferred to verify cita 
 tions as well as to find new ones. His treatment 
 of his theme was therefore not only bold but 
 original. 
 
 By a sort of common consent his party looked to 
 him to answer Douglas's speech. This was no light 
 task, and no one knew it better than Lincoln. 
 Douglas's real ability was, and remains, unques 
 tioned. In many qualities of intellect he was truly 
 the " Little feant " which popular fancy nicknamed 
 him. It was no mere chance that raised the Ver 
 mont cabinet-maker's apprentice from a penniless 
 stranger in Illinois in 1833 to a formidable com 
 petitor for supreme leadership in the great Demo 
 cratic party of the nation in 1852. When after the
 
 LINCOLN AND TEUMBULL 377 
 
 lapse of a quarter of a century we measure Mm CHAP.XXI. 
 with the veteran chiefs whom he aspired to sup 
 plant, we see the substantial basis of his confidence 
 and ambition. His great error of statesmanship 
 aside, he stands forth more than the peer of as 
 sociates who underrated his power and looked 
 askance at his pretensions. In the six years of per 
 ilous party conflict which followed, every conspicu 
 ous party rival disappeared in obscurity, disgrace, 
 or rebellion. Battling while others feasted, sowing 
 where others reaped, abandoned by his allies and 
 persecuted by his friends, Douglas alone emerged 
 from the fight with loyal faith and unshaken cour 
 age, bringing with him through treachery, defeat, 
 and disaster the unflinching allegiance and enthu 
 siastic admiration of nearly three-fifths of the rank 
 and file of the once victorious army of Democratic 
 voters at the north. He had not only proved him 
 self their most gallant chief, but as a final crown 
 of merit he led his still powerful contingent of fol 
 lowers to a patriotic defense of the Constitution 
 and government which some of his compeers put 
 into such mortal jeopardy. 
 
 We find him here at the beginning of this severe 
 conflict in the full flush of hope and ambition. He 
 was winning in personal manner, brilliant in debate, 
 aggressive in party strategy. To this he added an 
 adroitness in evasion and false logic perhaps never 
 equaled, and in his defense of the Nebraska meas 
 ure this questionable but convenient gift was ever 
 his main reliance. Besides, his long official career 
 gave to his utterances the stamp and glitter of orac 
 ular statesmanship. But while Lincoln knew all 
 Douglas's strong points he was no less familiar with
 
 378 ABKAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xxi. his weak ones. They had come to central Illinois 
 about the same time, and had in a measure grown 
 up together. Socially they were on friendly terms; 
 politically they had been opponents for twenty 
 years. At the bar, in the Legislature, and on the 
 stump they had often met and measured strength. 
 Each therefore knew the temper of the other's steel 
 no less than every joint in his armor. 
 
 It was a peculiarity of the early West perhaps 
 it pertains to all primitive communities that the 
 people retained a certain fragment of the chivalric 
 sentiment, a remnant of the instinct of hero-wor 
 ship. As the ruder athletic sports faded out, as 
 shooting-matches, wrestling-matches, horse-races, 
 and kindred games fell into disuse, political debate 
 became, in a certain degree, their substitute. But 
 the principle of championship, while it yielded high 
 honor and consideration to the victor, imposed upon 
 him the corresponding obligation to recognize every 
 opponent and accept every challenge. To refuse 
 any contest, to plead any privilege, would be in 
 stant loss of prestige. This supreme moment in 
 Lincoln's career, this fateful turning of the polit 
 ical tide, found him fully prepared for the new 
 battle, equipped by reflection and research to per 
 mit himself to be pitted against the champion of 
 Democracy against the very author of the raging 
 storm of parties; and it displays his rare self- 
 confidence and consciousness of high ability, to 
 venture to attack such an antagonist. 
 
 Douglas made his speech, according to notice, on 
 the first day of the fair, Tuesday, October 3. " I 
 will mention," said he, in his opening remarks, 
 " that it is understood by some gentlemen that Mr.
 
 LINCOLN AND TRUMBULL 379 
 
 Lincoln, of this city, is expected to answer me. If 
 this is the understanding, I wish that Mr. Lincoln 
 would step forward and let us arrange some plan 
 upon which to carry out this discussion." Mr. 
 Lincoln was not there at the moment, and the 
 arrangement could not then be made. Unpropi- 
 tious weather had brought the meeting to the Rep 
 resentatives' Hall in the State House, which was 
 densely packed. The next day found the same 
 hall filled as before to hear Mr. Lincoln. Douglas 
 occupied a seat just in front of him, and in his re 
 joinder he explained that " my friend Mr. Lincoln 
 expressly invited me to stay and hear him speak 
 to-day, as he heard me yesterday, and to answer 
 and defend myself as best I could. I here thank 
 him for his courteous offer." The occasion greatly 
 equalized the relative standing of the champions. 
 The familiar surroundings, the presence and hearty 
 encouragement of his friends, put Lincoln in his 
 best vein. His bubbling humor, his perfect tem 
 per, and above all the overwhelming current of 
 his historical arraignment extorted the admiration 
 of even his political enemies. "His speech was 
 four hours in length," wrote one of these, "and 
 
 spoudence 
 
 was conceived and expressed in a most happy and NjjySjLi 
 pleasant style, and was received with abundant c u oJto_ 
 applause. At times he made statements which ber 6t 1864> 
 brought Senator Douglas to his feet, and then 
 good-humored passages of wit created much inter 
 est and enthusiasm." All reports plainly indicate 
 that Douglas was astonished and disconcerted at 
 this unexpected strength of argument, and that he 
 struggled vainly through a two hours' rejoinder to 
 break the force of Lincoln's victory in the debate.
 
 380 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 / 
 
 CHAP. XXL Lincoln had hitherto been the foremost man in his 
 district. That single effort made him the leader 
 on the new question in his State. 
 
 The fame of this success brought Lincoln urgent 
 calls from all the places where Douglas was ex 
 pected to speak. Accordingly, twelve days after 
 wards, October 16, they once more met in debate, 
 at Peoria. Lincoln, as before, gave Douglas the 
 opening and closing speeches, explaining that he 
 was willing to yield this advantage in order to 
 secure a hearing from the Democratic portion of 
 his listeners. The audience was a large one, but 
 not so representative in its character as that at 
 Springfield. The occasion was made memorable, 
 however, l^y the fact that when Lincoln returned 
 home he wrote out and published his speech. We 
 have therefore the revised text of his argument, 
 and are able to estimate its character and value. 
 Marking as it does with unmistakable precision a 
 step in the second period of his intellectual devel 
 opment, it deserves the careful attention of the 
 student of his life. 
 
 After the lapse of more than a quarter of a 
 century the critical reader still finds it a model of 
 brevity, directness, terse diction, exact and lucid 
 historical statement, and full of logical propositions 
 so short and so strong as to resemble mathematical 
 axioms. Above all it is pervaded by an elevation 
 of thought and aim that lifts it out of the common 
 place of mere party controversy. Comparing it 
 with his later speeches, we find it to contain not 
 only the argument of the hour, but the premonition 
 of the broader issues into which the new struggle 
 was destined soon to expand.
 
 LINCOLN AND TKUMBULL 381 
 
 The main, broad current of his reasoning was to CHAP.XXI. 
 vindicate and restore the policy of the fathers of 
 the country in the restriction of slavery ; but run 
 ning through this like a thread of gold was the 
 demonstration of the essential injustice and im 
 morality of the system. He said: 
 
 This declared indifference but, as I must think, covert 
 zeal for the spread of slavery, I cannot but hate. I hate 
 it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. 
 I hate it because it deprives our republican example of 
 its just influence in the world; enables the enemies of free 
 institutions with plausibility to taunt us as hypocrites j 
 causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity; 
 and especially because it forces so many really good men 
 among ourselves into an open war with the very funda 
 mental principles of civil liberty, criticizing the Declara 
 tion of Independence and insisting that there is no right 
 principle of action but self-interest. 
 
 The doctrine of self-government is right, absolutely 
 and eternally right, but it has no just application as 
 here attempted. Or perhaps I should rather say that 
 whether it has such just application, depends upon 
 whether a negro is not, or is, a man. If he is not a man, 
 in that case he who is a man may as a matter of self- 
 government do just what he pleases with him. But if 
 the negro is a man, is it not to that extent a total destruc 
 tion of self-government to say that he too shall not 
 govern himself ? When the white man governs himself, 
 that is self-government; but when he governs himself 
 and also governs another man, that is more than self- 
 government that is despotism. 
 
 What I do say is, that no man is good enough to govern 
 another man without that other's consent. 
 
 The master not only governs the slave without his 
 consent, but he governs him by a set of rules altogether 
 different from those which he prescribes for himself.
 
 382 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xxi. Allow all the governed an equal voice in the government ; 
 that, and that only, is self-government. 
 
 Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature 
 
 opposition to it, in his love of justice. These principles 
 are an eternal antagonism 5 and when brought into colli 
 sion so fiercely as slavery extension brings them, shocks 
 and throes and convulsions must ceaselessly follow. Re 
 peal the Missouri Compromise repeal all compromise 
 repeal the Declaration of Independence repeal all past 
 history still you cannot repeal human nature. 
 
 I particularly object to the new position which the 
 avowed principle of this Nebraska law gives to slavery 
 in the body politic. I object to it because it assumes 
 that there can be moral right in the enslaving of one man 
 by another. I object to it as a dangerous dalliance for a 
 free people, a sad evidence that feeling prosperity, we 
 forget right, that liberty as a principle we have ceased 
 to revere. 
 
 Little by little, but steadily as man's march to the 
 grave, we have been giving up the old for the new faith. 
 Near eighty years ago we began by declaring that all 
 men are created equal ; but now from that beginning we 
 have run down to the other declaration that for some 
 men to enslave others is a " sacred right of self-govern 
 ment." These principles cannot stand together. They 
 are as opposite as God and mammon. 
 
 Our Republican robe is soiled and trailed in the dust. 
 Let us repurify it. Let us turn and wash it white, in the 
 spirit if not the blood of the Revolution. Let us turn 
 slavery from its claims of " moral right " back upon its 
 existing legal rights, and its arguments of " necessity." 
 Let us return it to the position our fathers gave it, and 
 there let it rest in peace. Let us readopt the Declaration 
 of Independence, and the practices and policy which har 
 monize with it. Let North and South let all Americans 
 
 let all lovers of liberty everywhere join in the great 
 and good work. If we do this, we shall not only have
 
 LINCOLN AND TRUMBULL 383 
 
 saved the Union, but we shall have so saved it, as to CHAP.XXI. 
 make and to keep it forever worthy of the saving. We 
 shall have so saved it that the succeeding millions of free, 
 happy people, the world over, shall rise up and call us 
 blessed to the latest generations. 
 
 The election which occurred on November 7 IK*. 
 resulted disastrously for Douglas. It was soon 
 found that the Legislature on joint ballot would 
 probably give a majority for Senator against 
 Shields, the incumbent, or any other Democrat 
 who had supported the Nebraska bill. Who 'might 
 become his successor was more problematical. 
 The opposition majority was made up of anti- 
 Nebraska Democrats, of what were then called 
 " abolitionists " (Lovejoy had been elected among 
 these), and finally of Whigs, who numbered by far 
 the largest portion. But these elements, except on 
 one single issue, were somewhat irreconcilable. In 
 this condition of uncertainty a host of candidates 
 sprung up. There was scarcely a member of Con 
 gress from Illinois indeed, scarcely a prominent 
 man in the State of any party who did not con 
 ceive the flattering dream that he himself might 
 become the lucky medium of compromise and 
 harmony. 
 
 Among the Whigs, though there were other 
 aspirants, Lincoln, whose speeches had contrib 
 uted so much to win the election, was the natural 
 and most prominent candidate. According to 
 Western custom, he addressed a short note to 
 most of the Whig members elect and to other 
 influential members of the party asking their sup 
 port. Generally the replies were not only affirma 
 tive but cordial and even enthusiastic. But a
 
 384 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xxi. dilemma now arose. Lincoln had been chosen one 
 of the members from Sangamon County by some 
 650 majority. The Constitution of Illinois con 
 tained a clause disqualifying members of the 
 Legislature and certain other designated officials 
 from being elected to the Senate. Good lawyers 
 generally believed this provision repugnant to the 
 Constitution of the United States, and that the 
 qualifications of Senators and Representatives 
 therein prescribed could be neither increased nor 
 diminished by a State. But the opposition had 
 only a majority of one or two. If Lincoln resigned 
 his membership in the Legislature this might 
 destroy the majority. If he refused to resign, 
 such refusal might carry some member to the 
 Democrats. 
 
 At last, upon full deliberation, Lincoln resigned 
 his seat, relying upon the six or seven hundred 
 majority in Sangamon County to elect another 
 Whig. It was a delusive trust. A reaction in the 
 Whig ranks against " abolitionism " suddenly set 
 in. A listless apathy succeeded the intense excite 
 ment and strain of the summer's canvass. Local 
 rivalries forced the selection of an unpopular candi 
 date. Shrewdly noting all these signs the Demo 
 crats of Sangamon organized what is known in 
 Western politics as a "still-hunt." They made a 
 feint of allowing the special election to go by 
 default. They made no nomination. They per 
 mitted an independent Democrat, known under 
 the sobriquet of " Steamboat Smith," to parade his 
 own name. Up to the very day of election they 
 gave no public sign, although they had in the 
 utmost secrecy instructed and drilled their pre-
 
 OWEN LOVKJOY.
 
 LINCOLN AND TKUMBULL 385 
 
 cinct squads. On the morning of election the CHAP.XXI. 
 working Democrats appeared at every poll, dis 
 tributing tickets bearing the name of a single can 
 didate not before mentioned by any one. They 
 were busy all day long spurring up the lagging 
 and indifferent, and bringing the aged, the infirm, 
 and the distant voters in vehicles. Their ruse suc 
 ceeded. The Whigs were taken completely by 
 surprise, and in a remarkably small total vote, 
 M6Daniels, Democrat, was chosen by about sixty 
 majority. The Whigs in other parts of the State 
 were furious at the unlooked-for result, and the 
 incident served greatly to complicate the senatorial 
 canvass. 
 
 Nevertheless it turned out that even after this 
 loss the opposition to Douglas would have a 
 majority on joint ballot. But how unite this 
 opposition made up of Whigs, of Democrats, and 
 of so-called abolitionists ? It was just at that 
 moment in the impending revolution of parties 
 when everything was doubt, distrust, uncertainty. 
 Only the abolitionists, ever aggressive on all 
 slavery issues, were ready to lead off in new com 
 binations, but nobody was willing to encounter the 
 odium of acting with them. They, too, were pres 
 ent at the State Fair, and heard Lincoln reply to 
 Douglas. At the close of that reply, and just 
 before Douglas's rejoinder, Lovejoy had announced 
 to the audience that a Republican State Conven 
 tion would be immediately held in the Senate 
 Chamber, extending an invitation to delegates to 
 join in it. But the appeal fell upon unwilling ears. 
 Scarcely a corporal's guard left the discussion. 
 The Senate Chamber presented a discouraging 
 VOL. L 25
 
 386 ABBAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xxi. array of empty benches. Only some twenty-six 
 delegates were there to represent the whole State 
 of Illinois. Nothing daunted, they made their 
 speeches and read their platform to each other. 1 
 Particularly in their addresses they praised Lin 
 coln's great speech which they had just heard, not 
 withstanding his declarations differed so essentially 
 from their new-made creed. " Ichabod raved," said 
 the Democratic organ in derision, "and Lovejoy 
 swelled, and all indorsed the sentiments of that 
 speech." Not content with this, without consent or 
 consultation, they placed Lincoln's name in the list 
 of their State Central Committee. 
 
 Matters remained in this attitude until their 
 chairman called a meeting and notified Lincoln to 
 attend. In reply he sent the following letter of 
 inquiry: "While I have pen in hand allow me 
 to say that I have been perplexed to understand 
 why my name was placed on that committee. 
 I was not consulted on the subject, nor was I 
 apprised of the appointment until I discovered it 
 by accident two or three weeks afterwards. I sup 
 pose my opposition to the principle of slavery is as 
 strong as that of any member of the Republican 
 party ; but I had also supposed that the extent to 
 
 i Their resolutions were radical the fugitive slave law ; to restrict 
 
 for that day, but not so extreme slavery to those States in which 
 
 as was generally feared. On the it exists ; to prohibit the admis- 
 
 slavery question they declared sion of any more slave States; 
 
 their purpose : to abolish slavery in the District 
 
 To restore Kansas and Ne- of Columbia ; to exclude slavery 
 
 braska to the position of free ter- from all territories over which 
 
 ritories ; that as the Constitution the general Government has ex- 
 
 of the United States vests in the elusive jurisdiction, and finally 
 
 States and not in Congress the to resist the acquirement of any 
 
 power to legislate for the ren- more territories unless slavery 
 
 dition of fugitives from labor, shall have been therein forever 
 
 to repeal and entirely abrogate prohibited.
 
 LINCOLN AND TBUMBULL 387 
 
 which I feel authorized to carry that opposition CHAP. XXL 
 practically was not at all satisfactory to that party. 
 The leading men who organized that party were 
 present on the 4th of October at the discussion be 
 tween Douglas and myself at Springfield and had 
 full opportunity to not misunderstand my position. 
 Do I misunderstand them 1 " 
 
 Whether this letter was ever replied to is uncer 
 tain, though improbable. No doubt it led to con 
 ferences during the meeting of the Legislature, 
 early in the year 1855, when the senatorial ques 
 tion came on for decision. It has been suggested 
 that Lincoln made dishonorable concessions of 
 principle to get the votes of Lovejoy and his 
 friends. The statement is too absurd to merit 
 serious contradiction. The real fact is that Mr. 
 Giddings, then in Congress, wrote to Lovejoy and 
 others to support Lincoln. Various causes delayed 
 the event, but finally, on February 8, 1855, the 
 Legislature went into joint ballot. A number of 
 candidates were put in nomination, but the contest 
 narrowed itself down to three. Abraham Lincoln 
 was supported by the Whigs and Free-soilers ; 
 James Shields by the Douglas-Democrats. As be 
 tween these two, Lincoln would easily have suc 
 ceeded, had not five anti-Nebraska Democrats 
 refused under any circumstances to vote for him 
 or any other Whig, 1 and steadily voted during six 
 
 i "All that remained of the one of the two Kepresentatives 
 
 anti-Nebraska force, excepting above named ' could never vote 
 
 Judd, Cook, Palmer, Baker, and for a Whig,' and this incensed 
 
 Allen, of Madison, and two or some twenty Whigs to 'think' 
 
 three of the secret Matteson men, they would never vote for the man 
 
 would go into caucus, and I could of the five." Lincoln to the Hon. 
 
 get the nomination of that cau- E. B. Washburne, February 9, 
 
 cus. But the three Senators and 1855. MS.
 
 388 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xxi. ballots f or Lyman Trumbtill. The first vote stood : 
 Lincoln, 45 ; Shields, 41 ; Trumbull, 5 ; scattering, 
 8. Two or three Whigs had thrown away their 
 votes on this first ballot, and though they now 
 returned and adhered to him, the demoralizing 
 example was imitated by various members of the 
 coalition. On the sixth ballot the vote stood : Lin 
 coln, 36 ; Shields, 41 ; Trumbull, 8 ; scattering, 13. 
 At this stage of the proceedings the Douglas- 
 Democrats executed a change of front, and, drop 
 ping Shields, threw nearly their full strength, 44 
 votes, for Governor Joel A. Matteson. The 
 maneuver was not unexpected, for though the 
 Governor and the party newspapers had hitherto 
 vehemently asserted he was not a candidate, the 
 political signs plainly contradicted such statement. 
 Matteson had assumed a quasi-independent posi 
 tion ; kept himself non-commital on Nebraska, and 
 opposed Douglas's scheme of tonnage duties to 
 improve Western rivers and harbors. Like the 
 majority of Western men he had risen from 
 humble beginnings, and from being an emigrant, 
 farmer, merchant, and manufacturer, had become 
 Governor. In office he had devoted himself spe 
 cially to the economical and material questions 
 affecting Illinois, and in this role had a wide pop 
 ularity with all classes and parties. 
 
 The substitution of his name was a promising 
 device. The ninth ballot gave him 47 votes. The 
 opposition under the excitement of non-partisan 
 appeals began to break up. Of the remaining 
 votes Lincoln received 15, Trumbull 35, scatter 
 ing, 1. In this critical moment Lincoln exhibited a 
 generosity and a sagacity above the range of the
 
 LINCOLN AND TRUMBULL 
 
 389 
 
 mere politician's vision. He urged upon his Whig CHAP.XXI. 
 friends and supporters to drop his own name and 
 join without hesitation or conditions in the elec 
 tion of Trumbull. 1 This was putting their fidelity 
 to a bitter trial. Upon every issue but the Nebraska 
 bill Trumbull still avowed himself an uncompro 
 mising Democrat. The faction of five had been 
 stubborn to defiance and disaster. They would 
 compel the mountain to go to Mahomet. It seemed 
 an unconditional surrender of the Whig party. 
 But such was Lincoln's influence upon his adher 
 ents that at his request they made the sweeping 
 sacrifice, though with lingering sorrow. The pro 
 ceedings had wasted away a long afternoon of 
 most tedious suspense. Evening had come; the 
 gas was lighted in the hall, the galleries were filled 
 with eager women, the lobbies were packed with 
 restless and anxious men. All had forgotten the 
 lapse of hours, their fatigue and their hunger, in 
 the absorption of the fluctuating contest. The roll- 
 call of the tenth ballot still showed 15 votes for 
 Lincoln, 36 for Trumbull, 47 for Matteson. Amid 
 an excitement which was becoming painful, and 
 
 i " In the mean time our friends, 
 with a view of detaining our 
 expected bolters, had been turn 
 ing from me to Trumbull till he 
 had risen to 35 and I had been 
 reduced to 15. These would 
 never desert me except by my 
 direction ; but I became satisfied 
 that if we could prevent Matte- 
 son's election one or two ballots 
 more, we could not possibly do 
 so a single ballot after my friends 
 should begin to return to me 
 from Trumbull. So I determined 
 to strike at once ; and accord 
 
 ingly advised my remaining 
 friends to go for him, which they 
 did, and elected him on that, the 
 tenth ballot. Such is the way 
 the thing was done. I think you 
 would have done the same under 
 the circumstances, though Judge 
 Davis, who came down this morn 
 ing, declares he never would 
 have consented to the 47 [oppo 
 sition] men being controlled by 
 the five. I regret my defeat 
 moderately, but am not nervous 
 about it." Lincoln to Wash- 
 burne, February 9, 1855. MS.
 
 390 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xxi. in a silence where spectators scarcely breathed, 
 Judge Stephen T. Logan, Lincoln's nearest and 
 warmest friend, arose and announced the purpose of 
 the remaining Whigs to decide the contest, where 
 upon the entire fifteen changed their votes to 
 Trumbull. This gave him the necessary number 
 of fifty-one, and elected him a Senator of the 
 United States. 
 
 At that early day an election to the United 
 States Senate must have seemed to Lincoln a most 
 brilliant political prize, the highest, perhaps, to 
 which he then had any hopes of ever attaining. 
 To school himself to its loss with becoming resig 
 nation, to wait hopefully during four years for an 
 other opportunity, to engage in the dangerous and 
 difficult task of persuading his friends to leave 
 their old and join a new political party only yet 
 dimly foreshadowed, to watch the chances of main 
 taining his party leadership, furnished sufficient 
 occupation for the leisure afforded by the neces 
 sities of his law practice. It is interesting to know 
 that he did more ; that amid the consideration of 
 mere personal interests he was vigilantly pursuing 
 the study of the higher phases of the great moral 
 and political struggle on which the nation was just 
 entering, little dreaming, however, of the part he 
 was destined to act in it. A letter of his written 
 to a friend in Kentucky in the following year 
 shows us that he had nearly reached a maturity of 
 conviction on the nature of the slavery conflict 
 his belief that the nation could not permanently 
 endure half slave and half free which he did not 
 publicly express until the beginning of his famous 
 senatorial campaign of 1858 :
 
 LINCOLN AND TKUMBULL 391 
 
 SPRINGFIELD, ILLS., August 15, 1855. CHAP.XXI. 
 Hon. GEO. ROBERTSON, Lexington, Ky. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR : The volume you left for me has been 
 received. I am really grateful for the honor of your kind 
 remembrance, as well as for the book. The partial read 
 ing I have already given it has afforded me much of 
 both pleasure and instruction. It' was new to me that MS. 
 the exact question which led to the Missouri Compromise 
 had arisen before it arose in regard to Missouri, and that 
 you had taken so prominent a part in it. Your short but 
 able and patriotic speech on that occasion has not been 
 improved upon since by those holding the same views ; 
 and, with all the lights you then had, the views you took 
 appear to me as very reasonable. 
 
 You are not a friend of slavery in the abstract. In 
 that speech you spoke of "the peaceful extinction of 
 slavery " and used other expressions indicating your be 
 lief that the thing was, at some time, to have an end. 
 Since then we have had thirty-six years of experience ; 
 and this experience has demonstrated, I think, that there 
 is no peaceful extinction of slavery in prospect for us. 
 The signal failure of Henry Clay and other good and 
 great men, in 1849, to effect anything in favor of gradual 
 emancipation in Kentucky, together with a thousand 
 other signs, extinguishes that hope utterly. On the 
 question of liberty, as a principle, we are not what we 
 have been. When we were the political slaves of King 
 George, and wanted to be free, we called the maxim that 
 "all men are created equal" a self-evident truth; but 
 now when we have grown fat, and have lost all dread of 
 being slaves ourselves, we have become so greedy to be 
 masters that we call the same maxim " a self-evident lie." 
 The Fourth of July has not quite dwindled away ; it is 
 still a great day for burning fire-crackers ! 
 
 That spirit which desired the peaceful extinction of 
 slavery has itself become extinct with the occasion and 
 the men of the Revolution. Under the impulse of that 
 occasion, nearly half the States adopted systems of 
 emancipation at once ; and it is a significant fact that not 
 a single State has done the like since. So far as peace 
 ful, voluntary emancipation is concerned, the condition
 
 392 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CHAP. xxi. of the negro slave in America, scarcely less terrible to the 
 contemplation of a free mind, is now as fixed and hope 
 less of change for the better as that of the lost souls of 
 the finally impenitent. The Autocrat of all the Russias 
 will resign his crown and proclaim his subjects free 
 republicans, sooner than will our American masters 
 voluntarily give up their slaves. 
 
 Our political problem now is, " Can we as a nation con 
 tinue together permanently forever half slave, and 
 half free?" The problem is too mighty for me. May 
 (rod in his mercy superintend the solution. Your much 
 obliged friend, and humble servant, 
 
 A. LINCOLN. 
 
 The reader has doubtless already noted in his 
 mind the curious historical coincidence which so 
 soon followed the foregoing speculative affirmation. 
 On the day before Lincoln's first inauguration as 
 President of the United States, the " Autocrat of 
 all the Russias," Alexander II., by imperial decree 
 emancipated his serfs; while six weeks after the 
 inauguration, the "American masters," headed 
 by Jefferson Davis, began the greatest war of 
 modern times, to perpetuate and spread the insti 
 tution of slavery.
 
 CHAPTER XXTT 
 
 THE BORDER RUFFIANS 
 
 THE passage of the Nebraska bill and the CH. xxn. 
 hurried extinction of the Indian title opened May so, 
 
 1854. 
 
 nearly fifteen million acres of public lands to 
 settlement and purchase. The whole of this 
 vast area was yet practically tenantless. In all of 
 Kansas there were only three military posts, eight 
 or ten missions or schools attached to Indian res 
 ervations, and some scores of roving hunters and 
 traders or squatters in the vicinity of a few well- 
 known camping stations on the two principal 
 emigrant and trading routes, one leading south 
 ward to New Mexico, the other northward towards 
 Oregon. But such had been the interest created 
 by the political excitement, and so favorable were 
 the newspaper reports of the location, soil, and 
 climate of the new country, that a few months 
 sufficed to change Kansas from a closed and 
 prohibited Indian reserve to the emigrant's land 
 of promise. 
 
 Douglas's oracular " stump speech " in the Ne 
 braska bill transferred the struggle for slavery 
 extension from Congress to the newly organized 
 territories. " Come on, then, gentlemen of the 
 slave States," said Seward in a Senate discussion;
 
 394 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xxii. " since there is no escaping your challenge, I accept 
 it in behalf of Freedom. We will engage in com 
 petition for the virgin soil of Kansas, and God give 
 the victory to the side that is stronger in numbers 
 as it is in right." With fifteen millions in the North 
 against ten millions in the South, the result could 
 not be in doubt. 
 
 Feeling secure in this evident advantage, the 
 North, in general, trusted to the ordinary and 
 natural movement of emigration. To the rule, 
 however, there were a few exceptions. Some 
 members of Congress, incensed at the tactics of 
 the Nebraska leaders, formed a Kansas Aid Society 
 in Washington City and contributed money to assist 
 emigrants. 1 Beyond this initiatory step they do not 
 seem to have had any personal participation in it, 
 and its office and working operations were soon 
 transferred to New York. Sundry similar organiza 
 tions were also formed by private individuals. The 
 most notable of these was a Boston company char- 
 1864. tered in April, named " The Massachusetts Emigrant 
 Aid Company." The charter was soon abandoned, 
 and the company reorganized June 13th, under pri 
 vate articles of association ; 2 and in this condition it 
 became virtually the working agency of philan 
 thropic citizens of New England, headed by Eli 
 Thayer. There were several auxiliary societies 
 and a few independent associations. But from 
 what then and afterwards came to light, it appears 
 that Mr. Thayer's society was the only one whose 
 
 1 Testimony of the Hon. Daniel braska," p. 229. It was once more 
 Mace, page 829, House Report incorporated February 21, 1855, 
 No. 200, 1st Session, 34th Con- under the name of " The New 
 gross. " Howard Report." England Emigrant Aid Com- 
 
 2 E. E. Hale, "Kansas and Ne- pany."
 
 THE BOEDER RUFFIANS 395 
 
 operations reached any degree of success deserving CH. xxn. 
 historical notice. 
 
 This company gave publicity, through newspaper 
 advertisements and pamphlets, of its willingness to 
 organize emigrants into companies, to send them 
 to Kansas in charge of trustworthy agents, and to 
 obtain transportation for them at reduced rates. It 
 also sent machinery for a few saw-mills, the types 
 and presses for two or three newspapers, and erected 
 a hotel or boarding-house to accommodate new 
 comers. It purchased and held only the land 
 necessary to locate these business enterprises. It 
 engaged in no speculation, paid no fare of any 
 emigrants, and expressly disavowed the require 
 ment of any oath or pledge of political sentiment 
 or conduct. All these transactions were open, 
 honest, and lawful, carefully avoiding even the 
 implication of moral or political wrong. 
 
 Under the auspices of this society a pioneer com 
 pany of about thirty persons arrived in Kansas in 
 July, 1854, and founded the town of Lawrence. 
 Other parties followed from time to time, sending 
 out off-shoots, but mainly increasing the parent 
 settlement, until next to Fort Leavenworth, the 
 principal military post, Lawrence became the lead 
 ing town of the Territory. The erection of the 
 society hotel, the society saw-mills, and the estab 
 lishment of a newspaper also gave it leadership in 
 business and politics as well as population. This 
 humane and praiseworthy enterprise has been 
 gravely charged with the origin and responsibility 
 of the political disorders which followed in Kansas. 
 Nothing could be further from the truth. Before 
 it had assisted five hundred persons to their new
 
 396 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xxii. homes, the Territory had by regular and individual 
 immigration, mainly from the Western States, ac 
 quired a population of 8601 souls, as disclosed by 
 the official census taken after the first summer's 
 arrivals, and before those of the second had begun. 
 It needs only this statement to refute the political 
 slander so industriously repeated in high places 
 against the Lawrence immigrants. 
 
 Deeper causes than the philanthropy or zeal of 
 a few Boston enthusiasts were actively at work. 
 The balance of power between the free and slave 
 States had been destroyed by the admission of Cali 
 fornia. To restore that balance the South had con 
 summated the repeal of the Missouri Compromise 
 as a first and indispensable step. The second 
 equally indispensable step was to seize the political 
 control of the new Territory. 
 
 Kansas lay directly west of the State of Missouri. 
 For a frontier State, the pro-slavery sentiment of 
 Missouri was very pronounced, especially along the 
 Kansas border. The establishment of slavery in 
 this new region had formed the subject of public 
 and local discussion before the Nebraska bill, and 
 Senator Atchison had promised his western Mis 
 souri constituents to labor for such a result. From 
 the time the unlooked-for course of Senator Doug 
 las made it a practical possibility, Atchison was 
 all zeal and devotion to this object, which he de 
 clared was almost as dear to him as his hope of 
 heaven. When it finally became a question to be 
 decided perhaps by a single frontier election, his 
 zeal and work in that behalf were many times 
 multiplied. 
 
 Current reports and subsequent developments
 
 THE BOEDER EUFFIANS 397 
 
 leave no doubt that this Senator, being then acting CH. xxn. 
 Vice-President of the United States, 1 immediately 
 after the August adjournment of Congress hurried 
 away to his home in Platte County, Missouri, and 
 from that favorable situation personally organized 
 a vast conspiracy, running through nearly all the 
 counties of his State adjoining the Kansas border, to 
 decide the slavery question for Kansas by Missouri 
 votes. Secret societies under various names, such as 
 " Blue Lodges," "Friends' Society," " Social Band," 
 " Sons of the South," were organized and affiliated, 
 with all the necessary machinery of oaths, grips, 
 signs, pass-words, and badges. The plan and ob 
 ject of the movement were in general kept well 
 concealed. Such publicity as could not be avoided 
 served rather to fan the excitement, strengthen 
 the hesitating, and frown down all dissent and 
 opposition. Long before the time for action ar 
 rived, the idea that Kansas must be a slave State 
 had grown into a fixed and determined public 
 sentiment. 
 
 The fact is not singular if we remember the pe 
 culiar situation of that locality. It was before the 
 great expansion of railroads, and western Missouri 
 could only be conveniently approached by the sin 
 gle commercial link of steamboat travel on the 
 turbid and dangerous Missouri River. Covering 
 the rich alluvial lands along the majestic but 
 erratic stream lay the heavy slave counties of the 
 State, wealthy from the valuable slave products of 
 hemp and tobacco. Slave tenure and slavery tra 
 ditions in Missouri dated back a full century, to the 
 
 i By virtue of his office as Pres- dency was vacant ; William K. 
 ident pro tempore of the United King, chosen with President 
 States Senate. The Vice-Presi- Pierce, had died.
 
 398 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xxii. remote days when the American Bottom opposite 
 St. Louis was one of the chief bread and meat pro 
 ducing settlements of New France, sending supplies 
 northward to Mackinaw, southward to New Orleans, 
 and eastward to Fort Duquesne. When in 1763 
 " the Illinois " country passed by treaty under the 
 British flag, the old French colonists, with their 
 slaves, almost in a body crossed the Mississippi 
 into then Spanish territory, and with fresh addi 
 tions from New Orleans founded St. Louis and its 
 outlying settlements ; and these, growing with a 
 steady thrift, extended themselves up the Missouri 
 Eiver. 
 
 Slavery was thus identified with the whole his 
 tory and also with the apparent prosperity of the 
 State; and it had in recent times made many of 
 these Western counties rich. The free State of 
 Iowa lay a hundred miles to the north, and the 
 free State of Illinois two hundred to the east; a 
 wall of Indian tribes guarded the west. Should all 
 this security be swept away, and their runaways 
 find a free route to Canada by simply crossing the 
 county line? Should the price of their personal 
 " chattels " fall one-half for want of a new market I 
 With nearly fifteen million acres of fresh land to 
 choose from for the present outlay of a trifling 
 preemption fee, should not the poor white compel 
 his single " black boy " to follow him a few miles 
 west, and hoe his tobacco for him on the new fat 
 bottom-lands of the Kaw Eiver ? 
 
 Even such off-hand reasoning was probably con 
 fined to the more intelligent. For the greater part 
 these ignorant but stubborn and strong-willed 
 frontiersmen were moved by a bitter hatred of
 
 THE BORDER RUFFIANS 399 
 
 " abolitionism," because the word had now been CH. xxn. 
 used for half a century by partisans high and 
 low Governors, Senators, Presidents as a term 
 of opprobrium and a synonym of crime. With 
 these as fathers of the faith and the Vice-Pres 
 ident of the United States as an apostle to preach 
 a new crusade, is it astonishing that there was 
 no lack of listeners, converts, and volunteers? 
 Senator Atchison spoke in no ambiguous words. 
 "When you reside in one day's journey of the 
 Territory," said he, " and when your peace, your 
 quiet, and your property depend upon your action, 
 you can without an exertion send five hundred 
 of your young men who will vote in favor of 
 your institutions. Should each county in the 
 State of Missouri only do its duty, the question 
 will be decided quietly and peaceably at the ballot- 
 box. If we are defeated, then Missouri and the speech tn 
 
 . Platte 
 
 other Southern States will have shown themselves 
 
 recreant to their interests and will deserve their 
 
 fate." Kansas," p. 
 
 Western water transportation found its natural 
 terminus where the Kaw or Kansas Eiver empties 
 into the Missouri. From this circumstance that 
 locality had for years been the starting-point 
 for the overland caravans or wagon-trains. Fort 
 Leaven worth was the point of rendezvous for those 
 going to California and Oregon; Independence 
 the place of outfit for those destined to Santa Fe. 
 Grouped about these two points were half a dozen 
 heavy slaveholding counties of Missouri, Platte, 
 Clay, Ray, Jackson, Lafayette, Saline, and others. 
 Platte County, the home of Senator Atchison, was 
 their Western outpost, and lay like an outspread
 
 400 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xxn. fan in the great bend of the Missouri, commanding 
 from thirty to fifty miles of river front. Nearly all 
 of Kansas attainable by the usual water trans 
 portation and travel lay immediately opposite. A 
 glance at the map will show how easily local 
 sentiment could influence or dominate commerce 
 and travel on the Missouri River. In this connec 
 tion the character of the population must be taken 
 into account. 
 
 The spirit of intolerance which once pervaded 
 all slaveholding communities, in whatever State of 
 the Union, was here rampant to an unusual degree. 
 The rural inhabitants were marked by the strong 
 characteristics of the frontier, fondness of adven 
 ture, recklessness of exposure or danger to life, a 
 boastful assertion of personal right, privilege, or 
 prowess, a daily and hourly familiarity with the 
 use of fire-arms. These again were heightened by 
 two special influences the presence of Indian 
 tribes whose reservations lay just across the 
 border, and the advent and preparation of each 
 summer's emigration across the great plains. 
 
 The " Argonauts of '49 " were not all gamblers 
 and cut-throats of border song and story. Gener 
 ally, however, they were men of decision and will, 
 all mere drift-wood in the great current of gold- 
 seekers being soon washed ashore and left behind. 
 Until they finished their last dinner at the Planter's 
 House in St. Louis, the fledgelings of cities, the 
 lawyers, doctors, merchants, and speculators, were 
 in or of civilization. Perhaps they even resisted 
 the contamination of cards and drink, profanity 
 and revolver salutations, while the gilded and 
 tinseled Missouri Eiver steamboat bore them for
 
 DAVID R. ATCHISOS.
 
 THE BORDER RUFFIANS 401 
 
 three days against its muddy current and boiling CH. xxn. 
 eddies to meet their company and their outfit. 
 
 But once landed at Independence or Leaven- 
 worth, they were of the frontier, of the wilderness, 
 of the desert. Here they donned their garments of 
 red flannel and coarse cloth or buckskin, thrust the 
 legs of their trousers inside the tops of their heavy 
 boots, and wore their bowie-knife or revolver in 
 their outside belt. From this departure all were 
 subject to the inexorable equality of the camp. 
 Eating, sleeping, standing guard, tugging at the 
 wheel or defending life and property, there was 
 no rank "between captain and cook, employer and 
 employed, savant and ignoramus, but the distribu 
 tion of duty and the assignment of responsibility. 
 Toil and exposure, hunger and thirst, wind and 
 storm, danger in camp quarrel or Indian ambush, 
 were the familiar and ordinary vicissitudes of a 
 three months' journey in a caravan of the plains. 
 
 All this movement created business for these 
 Missouri River towns. Their few inhabitants 
 drove a brisk trade in shirts and blankets, guns 
 and powder, hard bread and bacon, wagons and 
 live stock. Petty commerce busies itself with the 
 art of gain rather than with the labor of reform. 
 Indian and emigrant traders did not too closely 
 scan their sources of profit. The precepts of the 
 divine and the penalties of the human law sat 
 lightly upon them. As yet many of these frontier 
 towns were small hamlets, without even a pretext 
 of police regulations. Passion, therefore, ran com 
 paratively a free course, and the personal redress 
 of private wrongs was only held in check by the 
 broad and acknowledged right of self-defense. 
 
 VOL. L 26
 
 402 ABBAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xxii. Since 1849 and 1850, when the gold fever was 
 at its height, emigration across the plains had 
 slackened, and the eagerness for a revival of this 
 local traffic undoubtedly exerted its influence in 
 procuring the opening of the territories in 1854. 
 The noise and excitement created by the passage 
 of the Kansas-Nebraska Act awakened the hope of 
 frontier traders and speculators, who now greedily 
 watched all the budding chances of gain. Under 
 such circumstances these opportunities to the 
 shrewd, to the bold, and especially to the unscru 
 pulous, are many. Cheap lands, unlimited town 
 lots, eligible trading sites, the multitude of fran 
 chises and privileges within the control of a ter 
 ritorial legislature, the offices to be distributed 
 under party favoritism, offer an abundant lure to 
 enterprise and far more to craft. 
 
 It was to such a population and under such a 
 condition of things that Senator Atchison went to 
 his home in Platte County in the summer of 1854 
 to preach his pro-slavery crusade against Kansas. 
 His personal convictions, his party faith, his sena 
 torial reelection, and his financial fortunes, were 
 all involved in the scheme. With the help of 
 the Stringfellows and other zealous co-workers, 
 the town of Atchison was founded and named in 
 his honor, and the " Squatter Sovereign " news 
 paper established, which displayed his name as a 
 candidate for the presidency. The good- will of the 
 Administration was manifested by making one of 
 the editors postmaster at the new town. 
 
 President Pierce appointed as Governor of Kan 
 sas Territory Andrew H. Reeder, a member of his 
 own party, from the free State of Pennsylvania.
 
 THE BOEDER RUFFIANS 403 
 
 He had neither prominent reputation nor conspicu- CH. xxn. 
 ous ability, though under trying circumstances he 
 afterwards showed diligence, judgment, integrity, 
 and more than ordinary firmness and independ 
 ence. It is to be presumed that his fitness in a 
 partisan light had been thoroughly scrutinized by 
 both President and Senate. Upon the vital point 
 the investigation was deemed conclusive. "He 
 was appointed," the " Washington Union " naively 
 stated when the matter was first called in question, 
 " under the strongest assurance that he was strictly 
 and honestly a national man. We are able to state 
 further, on very reliable authority, that whilst 
 Governor Eeeder was in Washington, at the time 
 of his appointment, he conversed with Southern 
 gentlemen on the subject of slavery, and assured 
 them that he had no more scruples in buying a 
 slave than a horse, and regretted that he had not 
 money to purchase a number to carry with him to 
 Kansas." With him were appointed three Federal 
 judges, a secretary, a marshal, and an attorney 
 for the Territory, all doubtless considered equally 
 trustworthy on the slavery question. The organic 
 act invested the governor with very comprehen 
 sive powers to initiate the organization of the new 
 Territory. Until the first legislature should be 
 duly constituted, he had authority to fix election 
 days, define election districts, direct the mode of 
 returns, take a census, locate the temporary seat of 
 government, declare vacancies, order new elections 
 to fill them, besides the usual and permanent 
 powers of an executive. 
 
 Arriving at Leavenworth in October, 1854, Gov 
 ernor Reeder was not long in discovering the
 
 404 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 EX-GOV- 
 iiSr'8 
 
 pp. e &3-935. 
 
 CH. xxii. designs of the Missourians. He was urged to 
 order the immediate election of a territorial legis- 
 lature. The conspirators had already spent some 
 months in organizing their "Blue Lodges," and 
 now desired at once to control the political power 
 of the Territory. But the Governor had too much 
 manliness to become the mere pliant tool they 
 wished to make him. He resented their dictation ; 
 he made a tour of inspection through the new 
 settlements; and, acting on his own judgment, 
 on his return issued a proclamation for a simple 
 election of a delegate to Congress. At the appear 
 ance of this proclamation Platte County took 
 alarm, and held a meeting on the Kansas side of 
 the river, to intimidate him with violent speeches 
 and a significant memorial. The Governor retorted 
 in a letter that the meeting was composed of Mis 
 sourians, and that he should resist outside inter 
 ference from friend, foe, or faction. 1 Pocketing 
 this rebuff as best they might, Senator Atchison 
 and his " Blue Lodges " nevertheless held fast to 
 their purpose. Paper proclamations and lectures 
 on abstract rights counted little against the prac 
 tical measures they had matured. November 29th, 
 the day of election for delegate, finally arrived, and 
 with it a formidable invasion of Missouri voters 
 at more than half the polling places appointed in 
 the Governor's proclamation. 
 
 In frontier life it was an every-day experience to 
 make excursions for business or pleasure, singly or 
 in parties, requiring two or three consecutive days, 
 perhaps a night or two of camping out, for which 
 
 i Governor Beeder to Gwiner and others, Nov. 21, 1854; copied 
 into "National Era," Jan. 4, 1855.
 
 THE BOEDER RUFFIANS 405 
 
 saddle-horses and farm-wagons furnished ready CH.XXII. 
 transportation; and nothing was more common 
 than concerted neighborhood efforts for improve 
 ment, protection, or amusement. On such occa 
 sions neighborly sentiment and comity required 
 every man to drop his axe, or unhitch from the 
 plow in the furrow, to further the real or imagi 
 nary weal of the community. In urgent instances 
 non-compliance was fatal to the peace and com 
 fort and sometimes to the personal safety of the 
 settler. The movement described above had been 
 in active preparation for weeks, controlled by strong 
 and secret combinations, and many unwilling par 
 ticipants were doubtless swept into it by an excited 
 public opinion they dared not resist. 
 
 A day or two before the election the whole Mis 
 souri border was astir. Horses were saddled, teams 
 harnessed, wagons loaded with tents, forage, and 
 provisions, bowie-knives buckled on, revolvers and 
 rifles loaded, and flags and inscriptions flung to the 
 breeze by the more demonstrative and daring. 
 Crossing the river-ferries from the upper counties, 
 and passing unobstructed over the State line by 
 the prairie-roads and trails from the lower, many 
 of them camped that night at the nearest polls, 
 while others pushed on fifty or a hundred miles to 
 the sparsely settled election districts of the inte 
 rior. As they passed along, the more scrupulous 
 went through the empty form of an imaginary 
 settlement, by nailing a card to a tree, driving a 
 stake into the ground, or inscribing their names in 
 a claim register, prepared in haste by the invading 
 party. The indifferent satisfied themselves with 
 mere mental resolves to become settlers. The
 
 406 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH.XXIL utterly reckless silenced all scruples in profanity 
 and drunkenness. 
 
 NOV. as, On election morning the few real squatters of 
 Kansas, endowed with Douglas's delusive boon of 
 "popular sovereignty," witnessed with mixed indig 
 nation and terror acts of summary usurpation. 
 Judges of election were dispossessed and set aside 
 by intimidation or stratagem, and pro-slavery 
 judges substituted without the slightest regard to 
 regularity or law ; judges' and voters' oaths were 
 declared unnecessary, or explained away upon 
 newly-invented phrases and absurd subtleties. 
 " Where there 's a will, there 's a way," in wrong 
 and crime, as well as in honest purpose and deed ; 
 and by more dishonest devices than we can stop 
 fully to record the ballot-boxes were filled, through 
 invasion, false swearing, riot, and usurpation, with 
 ballots for Whitfield, the pro-slavery candidate for 
 delegate to Congress, at nine out of the seventeen 
 polling places showing, upon a careful scrutiny 
 afterwards made by a committee of Congress, an 
 aggregate of 1729 illegal votes, and only 1114 legal 
 ones. 
 
 This mockery of an election completed, the val 
 iant Knights of the Blue Lodge, the fraternal mem 
 bers of the Social Band, the philanthropic groups 
 of the Friends' Society, and the chivalric Sons of 
 the South returned to their axe and plow, society 
 lodge and bar-room haunt, to exult in a victory for 
 Missouri and slavery over the "Abolition hordes 
 and nigger thieves of the Emigrant Aid Society." 
 The " Border Ruffians " of Missouri had written 
 their preliminary chapter in the annals of Kansas. 
 The published statements of the Emigrant Aid
 
 THE BOBBER RUFFIANS 407 
 
 Society show that up to the date of election it had CH.XXII. 
 sent only a few hundred men, women, and chil 
 dren to the Territory. Why such a prodigious 
 effort was deemed necessary to overcome the votes 
 and influence of this paltry handful of "paupers 
 who had sold themselves to Eli Thayer and Co." 
 was never explained.
 
 CHAPTEE XXIII 
 
 THE BOGUS LAWS 
 
 CH. xxm. AS the event proved, the invasion of border 
 XJL. ruffians to decide the first election in Kan 
 sas had been entirely unnecessary. Even without 
 counting the illegal votes, the pro-slavery candi 
 date for delegate was chosen by a plurality. He 
 had held the office of Indian Agent, and his 
 acquaintance, experience, and the principal fact 
 that he was the favorite of the conspirators gave 
 him an easy victory. Governor Reeder issued his 
 certificate of election without delay, and Whitfield 
 hurried away to Washington to enjoy his new 
 honors, taking his seat in the House of Repre 
 sentatives within three weeks after his election. 
 Atchison, however, did not follow his example. 
 Congress met on the first Monday of December, 
 and the services of the Acting Vice-President were 
 needed in the Senate Chamber. But of such im 
 portance did he deem the success of the conspiracy 
 in which he was the leader, that a few weeks 
 before the session he wrote a short letter to the 
 Senate, giving notice of his probable absence and 
 advising the appointment of a new presiding 
 officer. 
 As a necessary preliminary to organizing the 
 
 408
 
 THE BOGUS LAWS 409 
 
 government of the Territory, Governor Reeder, CH.XXIII. 
 under the authority of the organic act, proceeded Reeder 
 to take a census of its inhabitants. This work, T Howard y> 
 carried on and completed in the months of Janu- 
 ary and February, 1855, disclosed a total popula 
 tion of 8601 souls, of whom 2905 were voters. 
 
 Report, p. 9. 
 
 With this enumeration as a definite guide, the 
 Governor made an apportionment, established elec 
 tion districts, and, appointing the necessary officers 
 to conduct it, fixed upon the 30th of March, 1855, 
 as the day for electing the territorial legislature. 
 Governor Eeeder had come to Kansas an ardent 
 Democrat, a firm friend of the Pierce Administra 
 tion, and an enthusiastic disciple of the new Demo 
 cratic dogma of " Popular Sovereignty." But his 
 short experience with Atchison's Border Ruffians 
 had already rudely shaken his partisanship. The 
 events of the November election exposed the de 
 signs of the pro-slavery conspiracy, and no course 
 was left him but to become either its ally or its 
 enemy. 
 
 In behalf of justice, as well as to preserve what 
 he still fondly cherished as a vital party principle, 
 he determined by every means in his power to 
 secure a fair election. In his appointment of elec 
 tion officers, census-takers, justices of the peace, and 
 constables, he was careful to make his selections 
 from both factions as fairly as possible, excepting 
 that, as a greater and necessary safeguard against 
 another invasion, he designated in the several elec 
 tion districts along the Missouri border two " free- Reeder in- 
 State" men and one pro-slavery man to act as 8t Howard' 
 judges at each poll. He prescribed distinct and PP. 107, 935. 
 rigid rules for the conduct of the election ; order-
 
 410 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xxni. ing among other things that the judges should be 
 sworn, that constables should attend and preserve 
 order, and that voters must be actual residents to 
 the exclusion of any other home. 
 
 All his precautions came to nought. This elec 
 tion of a territorial legislature, which, as then 
 popularly believed, might determine by the enact 
 ment of laws whether Kansas should become a free 
 or a slave State, was precisely the coveted oppor 
 tunity for which the Border Ruffian conspiracy 
 had been organized. Its interference in the No 
 vember election served as a practical experiment 
 to demonstrate its efficiency and to perfect its 
 plans. The alleged doings of the Emigrant Aid 
 Societies furnished a convenient and plausible pre 
 text; extravagant rumors were now circulated as 
 to the plans and numbers of the Eastern emigrants ; 
 it was industriously reported that they were coming 
 twenty thousand strong to control the election; 
 and by these misrepresentations the whole border 
 was wrought up into the fervor of a pro-slavery 
 crusade. 
 
 When the 30th of March, election day, finally 
 arrived, the conspiracy had once more mustered its 
 organized army of invasion, and five thousand 
 Missouri Border Ruffians, in different camps, bands, 
 an( l squads, held practical possession of nearly 
 every election district in the Territory. Riot, vio 
 lence, intimidation, destruction of ballot-boxes, 
 expulsion and substitution of judges, neglect or 
 refusal to administer the prescribed oaths, viva voce 
 voting, repeated voting on one side, and obstruc 
 tion and dispersion of voters on the other, were 
 common incidents; no one dared to resist the 
 
 ISM. 
 
 Howard
 
 THE BOGUS LAWS 411 
 
 acts of the invaders, since they were armed and CH.XXIII. 
 commanded in frontier if not in military fashion, 
 in many cases by men whose names then or after 
 wards were prominent or notorious. Of the votes 
 cast, 1410 were upon a subsequent examination 
 found to have been legal, while 4908 were illegal. Howard 
 Of the total number, 5427 votes were given to the 
 pro-slavery and only 791 to the free- State candi 
 dates. Upon a careful collation of evidence the 
 investigating committee of Congress was of the 
 opinion that the vote would have returned a free- 
 State legislature if the election had been confined 
 to the actual settlers ; as conducted, however, it 
 showed a nominal majority for every pro-slavery ibid., 
 candidate but one. 
 
 Governor Beeder had feared a repetition of the 
 November frauds ; but it is evident that he had no 
 conception of so extensive an invasion. It is prob 
 able, too, that information of its full enormity did 
 not immediately reach him. Meanwhile the five 
 days prescribed in his proclamation for receiving 
 notices of contest elapsed. The Governor had 
 removed his executive office to Shawnee Mission. 
 At this place, and at the neighboring town of 
 Westport, Missouri, only four miles distant, a 
 majority of the persons claiming to have been 
 elected now assembled and became clamorous for 
 their certificates. 1 A committee of their number 
 presented a formal written demand for the same ; 
 they strenuously denied his right to question the 
 legality of the election, and threats against the 
 Governor's life in case of his refusal to issue them 
 
 i Testimony of Ex-Governor Eeeder, Howard Report, pp. 935-9 ; 
 also Stringfellow's testimony, p. 355.
 
 412 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xxni. became alarmingly frequent. Their regular con 
 sultations, their open denunciations, and their 
 hints at violence, while they did not entirely over 
 awe the Governor, so far produced their intended 
 effect upon him that he assembled a band of his 
 personal friends for his own protection. On the 
 6th of April, one week after election, the Governor 
 announced his decision upon the returns. On one 
 side of the room were him self and his armed adher 
 ents ; on the other side the would-be members in 
 superior numbers, with their pistols and bowie- 
 knives. Under this virtual duress the Governor 
 issued certificates of election to all but about one- 
 third of the claimants ; and the returns in these 
 cases he rejected, not because of alleged force or 
 fraud, but on account of palpable defects in the 
 papers. 1 
 
 The issue of certificates was a fatal error in Gov 
 ernor Eeeder's action. It endowed the notoriously 
 illegal Legislature with a technical authority, and a 
 few weeks later, when he went to Washington city 
 
 1 Namely, because of a vivd and the same candidates voted 
 voce vote certified instead of a for. Howard Report, pp. 35- 
 ballot, and because the prescribed 36. Indeed, the Border Ruffian 
 oath and the words "lawful resi- habit of voting in Kansas had 
 dent voters " had been openly become chronic, and did not 
 erased from the printed forms, cease for some years, and some- 
 In six districts the Governor times developed the grimmest 
 ordered a supplementary election, humors. In the autumn of that 
 which was duly held on the 22d same year an election for county- 
 of May following. When that day seat took place in Leavenworth 
 arrived, the Border Ruffians, pro- County by the accidental failure 
 claiming the election to be illegal, of the Legislature to designate 
 by their default allowed free- one. Leavenworth city aspired 
 State men to be chosen in all the to this honor and polled six hun- 
 districts except that of Leaven- dred votes ; but it had an enter- 
 worth, where the invasion and prising rival in Kickapoo city, 
 tactics of the March election were ten miles up the river, and an- 
 repeated now for the third time other, Delaware city, eight miles
 
 THE BOGUS LAWS 
 
 413 
 
 to invoke the help of the Pierce Administration CH. xxm. 
 against the usurpation, it enabled Attorney-General 
 Gushing (if current report was true) to taunt him 
 with the reply : " You state that this Legislature is 
 the creature of force and fraud; which shah 1 we 
 believe your official certificate under seal, or your 
 subsequent declarations to us in private conversa 
 tion ! " 
 
 The question of the certificates disposed of, the 
 next point of interest was to determine at what 
 place the Legislature should assemble. Under 
 the organic act the Governor had authority to 
 appoint the first meeting, and it soon became 
 known that his mind was fixed upon the embryo 
 town of Pawnee, adjoining the military post of 
 Fort Biley, situated on the Kansas River, 110 miles 
 from the Missouri line. Against this exile, how 
 ever, Stringfellow and his Border Ruffian law 
 makers protested in an energetic memorial, asking 
 to be called together at the Shawnee Mission, sup 
 plemented by the private threat that even if they 
 
 down stream. Both were paper 
 towns " cottonwood towns," 
 in border slang of great expec 
 tations ; and both having more 
 unscrupulous enterprise than 
 voters, appealed to Platte County 
 to "come over." This was an 
 appeal Platte County could never 
 resist, and accordingly a char 
 tered ferry-boat brought voters 
 all election day from the Missouri 
 side, until the Kickapoo tally-lists 
 scored 850. Delaware city, how 
 ever, was not to be thus easily 
 crushed. She, too, not only had 
 her chartered ferry-boat, but kept 
 her polls open for three days in 
 succession, and not until her 
 
 boxes contained nine hundred 
 ballots (of which probably only 
 fifty were legal) did the steam 
 whistle scream victory! When 
 the ' ' returning board " had suffi 
 ciently weighed this complicated 
 electoral contest, it gravely 
 decided that keeping the polls 
 open for three days was "an 
 unheard of irregularity." (J. N. 
 Hollo way, " History of Kansas," 
 pp. 192-4.) This was exquisite 
 irony ; but a local court on 
 appeal seriously giving & final 
 verdict for Delaware, the trans 
 action became n perennial bur 
 lesque on " Squatter Sover 
 eignty."
 
 414 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xxiii. convened at Pawnee, they would adjourn and come 
 back the day after. If the Governor harbored any 
 remaining doubt that this bogus Legislature in 
 tended to assume and maintain the mastery, it 
 speedily vanished. Their hostility grew open and 
 defiant ; they classed him as a free-State man, an 
 " abolitionist," and it became only too evident that 
 he would gradually be shorn of power and degraded 
 from the position of Territorial Executive to that of 
 a mere puppet. Having nothing to gain by further 
 concession, he adhered to his original plan, issued 
 . 6> his proclamation convening the Legislature at Paw 
 nee on the first Monday in July, and immediately 
 started for Washington to make a direct appeal to 
 President Pierce. 
 
 How Governor Eeeder failed in this last hope 
 of redress and support, how he found the Kansas 
 conspiracy as strong at Washington as on the Mis 
 souri border, will appear further along. On the 
 2d of July the Governor and the Legislature 
 met at the town of Pawnee, where he had con 
 voked them a magnificent prairie site, but con 
 taining as yet only three buildings, one to hold 
 sessions in, and two to furnish food and lodging. 
 The Governor's friends declared the accommoda 
 tions ample; the Missourians on the contrary made 
 affidavit that they were compelled to camp out and 
 cook their own rations. The actual facts had little 
 to do with the predetermination of the members. 
 Stringfellow had written in his paper, the " Squat 
 ter Sovereign," three weeks before : " We hope no 
 one will be silly enough to suppose the Governor 
 has power to compel us to stay at Pawnee during 
 the entire session. We will, of course, have to
 
 THE BOGUS LAWS 
 
 415 
 
 ' trot ' out at the bidding of his Excellency, but 
 we will trot him back next day at our bidding." 
 
 The prediction was literally fulfilled. Both 
 branches organized without delay, the House 
 choosing John H. Stringf ellow for Speaker. Before 
 the Governor's message was delivered on the fol 
 lowing day, the House had already passed, under 
 suspended rules, "An act to remove the seat of 
 government temporarily to the Shawnee Manual 
 Labor School," which act the Council as promptly 
 concurred in. The Governor vetoed the bill, but it 
 was at once passed over his veto. By the end of 
 the week the Legislature had departed from the 
 budding capital to return no more. 
 
 The Governor was perforce obliged to follow his 
 migratory Solons, who adhered to their purpose 
 despite his public or private protests, and who re 
 assembled at Shawnee Mission, or more correctly 
 the Shawnee Manual Labor School, on the 16th of 
 July. Shawnee Mission was one of our many 
 national experiments in civilizing Indian tribes. 
 This philanthropic institution, nourished by the 
 Federal treasury, was presided over by the Rev. 
 Thomas Johnson. The town of Westport, which 
 could boast of a post-office, lay only four miles to 
 the eastward, on the Missouri side of the State line, 
 and was a noted pro-slavery stronghold. There 
 were several large brick buildings at the Mission 
 capable of accommodating the Legislature with halls 
 and lodging-rooms ; its nearness to an established 
 post-office, and its contiguity to Missouri pro- 
 slavery sentiment were elements probably not lost 
 sight of. Mr. Johnson, who had formerly been a 
 Missouri slaveholder, was at the March election 
 
 CH. XXIII. 
 
 " Squatter 
 Sovereign," 
 June 5, 1855. 
 
 " House 
 Journal 
 Kansas 
 
 Territory," 
 
 1865, p. 12. 
 
 "Journal of 
 Council, 
 Kansas 
 
 Territory," 
 p. 12. 
 
 " House 
 
 Journal 
 
 Kansas 
 
 Territory," 
 
 1855, p. 29. 
 
 Ibid, p. 30.
 
 416 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xxni. chosen a member of the Territorial Council, which 
 in due time made him its presiding officer; and the 
 bogus Legislature at Shawnee Mission was there 
 fore in a certain sense under its own " vine and 
 fig-tree." 
 
 The two branches of the Legislature, the Council 
 with the Rev. Thomas Johnson as President, and 
 the House with Stringfellow of the " Squatter 
 Sovereign " as Speaker, now turned their attention 
 seriously to the pro-slavery work before them. 
 The conspirators were shrewd enough to realize 
 their victory. " To have intimated one year ago," 
 said the Speaker in his address of thanks, " that 
 such a result would be wrought out, one would have 
 been thought a visionary ; to have predicted that 
 to-day a legislature would assemble, almost unani- 
 squatter mously pro-slavery, and with myself for Speaker, 
 I would have been thought mad." The programme 
 had already been announced in the " Squatter 
 Sovereign " some weeks before. " The South must 
 and will prevail. If the Southern people but half 
 do their duty, in less than nine months from this 
 day Kansas will have formed a constitution and 
 be knocking at the door for admission. . . In the 
 session of the United States Senate in 1856, two 
 Senators from the slave-holding State of Kansas 
 will take their seats, and abolitionism will be for- 
 ever driven from our halls of legislation." Against 
 this triumphant attitude Governor Eeeder was 
 House despondent and powerless. The language of his 
 message plainly betrayed the political dilemma 
 in which he found himself. He strove as best he 
 might to couple together the prevailing cant of 
 office-holders against "the destructive spirit of
 
 ANDREW H. REEDER.
 
 THE BOGUS LAWS 
 
 417 
 
 " House 
 Journal 
 Kansas 
 Territory," 
 1856. Ap 
 pendix, 
 p. 10. 
 
 abolitionism" and a comparatively mild rebuke of CH.XXIII. 
 the Missouri usurpation. 1 
 
 Nevertheless, the Q-overnor stood reasonably 
 firm. He persisted in declaring that the Legisla 
 ture could pass no valid laws at any other place 
 than Pawnee, and returned the first bill sent him 
 with a veto message to that effect. To this the 
 Legislature replied by passing the bill over his veto, 
 and in addition formally raising a joint committee 
 " to draw up a memorial to the President of the 
 United States respectfully demanding the removal 
 of A. H. Eeeder from the ofiice of governor " ; and, 
 as if this indignity were not enough, holding a 
 joint session for publicly signing it. The memorial 
 was promptly dispatched to Washington by special 
 messenger; but on the way this envoy read the 
 news of the Governor's dismissal by the President. 
 
 This event appeared definitely to sweep away the 
 last obstacle in the path of the conspirators. The 
 office of acting governor now devolved upon the 
 secretary of the Territory, Daniel Woodson, a man 
 who shared their views and was allied to their 
 schemes. With him to approve their enactments, 
 the parliamentary machinery of the " bogus " Legis 
 lature was complete and effective. They had at 
 the very beginning summarily ousted the free- 
 State members chosen at the supplementary 
 
 i Its phraseology was adroit 
 enough to call forth a sneering 
 compliment from Speaker String- 
 fellow, who wrote to the " Squat 
 ter Sovereign " : " On Tuesday 
 the Governor sent in his message, 
 which you will find is very well 
 calculated to have its effect with 
 the Pennsylvania Democracy. If 
 
 VOL. L 27 
 
 he was trustworthy I would be 
 disposed to compliment the most 
 of it, but knowing how corrupt 
 the author is, and that it is only 
 designed for political effect in 
 Pennsylvania, he not expecting 
 to remain long with us, I will 
 pass it by." "Squatter Sover 
 eign," July 17, 1855.
 
 418 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH.xxm. election on May 22, and seated the pro-slavery 
 claimants of March 30 ; and the only two remain 
 ing free-State members resigned in utter disgust 
 to avoid giving countenance to the flagrant usurpa 
 tion by their presence. No one was left even to 
 enter a protest. 
 
 This, then, was the perfect flower of Douglas's 
 
 vaunted experiment of " popular sovereignty " a 
 
 result they professed fully to appreciate. " Hither- 
 
 Report to," said the Judiciary Committee of the House in 
 
 Judiciary 
 
 a long and grandiloquent report, " Congress have 
 
 Kansas 1 retained to themselves the power to mold and 
 wS?* !^' shape all the territorial governments according to 
 P p!uf' their own peculiar notions, and to restrict within 
 very limited and contracted bounds both the 
 natural as well as the political rights of the bold and 
 daring pioneer and the noble, hard-fisted squatter." 
 But by this course, the argument of the committee 
 continued, " the pillars which uphold this glorious 
 union of States were shaken until the whole world 
 was threatened with a political earthquake," and, 
 " the principle that the people are capable of self- 
 government would have been forever swallowed up 
 by anarchy and confusion," had not the Kansas- 
 Nebraska bill " delegated to the people of these 
 territories the right to frame and establish their 
 own form of government." 
 
 What might not be expected of law-makers who 
 begin with so ambitious an exordium, and who lay 
 the corner-stone of their edifice upon the solid rock 
 of political principle? The anti-climax of perform 
 ance which followed would be laughably absurd, 
 were it not marked by the cunning of a well- 
 matured political plot. Their first step was to
 
 THE BOGUS LAWS 
 
 419 
 
 recommend the repeal of "all laws whatsoever, 
 which may have been considered to have been in 
 force " in the Territory on the 1st day of July, 1855, 
 thus forever quieting any doubt " as to what is and 
 what is not law in this Territory " ; secondly, to 
 substitute a code about which there should be no 
 question, by the equally ingenious expedient of 
 copying and adopting the Eevised Statutes of 
 Missouri. 
 
 These enactments were made in due form ; but 
 the bogus Legislature did not seem content to let 
 its fame rest on this single monument of self-gov 
 ernment. Casting their eyes once more upon the 
 broad expanse of American politics, the Judiciary 
 Committee reported : " The question of slavery is 
 one that convulses the whole country, from the 
 boisterous Atlantic to the shores of the mild 
 Pacific. This state of things has been brought 
 about by the fanaticism of the North and East, 
 while up to this time the people of the South, and 
 those of the North who desire the perpetuation of 
 this Union and are devoted to the laws, have been 
 entirely conservative. But the time is coming 
 yea, it has already arrived for the latter to take 
 a bold and decided stand that the Union and law 
 may not be trampled in the dust," etc., etc. 
 
 The "Revised Statutes of Missouri," recom 
 mended in bulk, and adopted with hasty clerical 
 modifications, 1 already contained the usual slave- 
 
 i To guard more effectually 
 against clerical errors, the Legis 
 lature enacted : " Sec. 1. 
 Wherever the word 'State' oc 
 curs in any act of the present 
 legislative assembly, or any law of 
 this Territory, in such construe- 
 
 tion as to indicate the locality of 
 the operation of such act or laws, 
 the same shall in every instance 
 be taken and understood to mean 
 'Territory,' and shall apply to 
 the Territory of Kansas." " Stat 
 utes of Kansas," 1855, p. 718. 
 
 CH. XXIIL 
 
 Report 
 Judiciary 
 Com., 
 " House 
 Journal 
 Kansas 
 Territory," 
 1855. Ap 
 pendix, 
 p. 18. 
 
 Ibid., p. 18. 
 
 Ibid., p. u.
 
 420 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 " Statutes 
 
 Territory 
 
 of Kansas," 
 
 1855, p. 715. 
 
 CH. xxiii. code peculiar to Southern States. But in the plans 
 and hopes of the conspirators, this of itself was in 
 sufficient. In order to " take a bold stand that the 
 Union and law might not be trampled in the dust," 
 they with great painstaking devised and passed 
 " an act to punish offenses against slave property." 
 
 It prescribed the penalty of death, not merely 
 for the grave crime of inciting or aiding an insur 
 rection of slaves, free negroes, or mulattoes, or 
 circulating printed matter for such an object, but 
 also the same extreme punishment for the com 
 paratively mild offense of enticing or decoying 
 away a slave or assisting him to escape ; for har 
 boring or concealing a fugitive slave, ten years' 
 imprisonment ; for resisting an officer arresting a 
 fugitive slave, two years' imprisonment. 
 
 If such inflictions as the foregoing might per 
 haps be tolerated upon the plea that a barbarous 
 institution required barbarous safeguards, what 
 ought to be said of the last three sections of the 
 act which, in contempt of the Declaration of Inde 
 pendence and the Constitution of the United States, 
 annulled the freedom of speech and the freedom of 
 the press, and invaded even the right of individual 
 conscience ? 
 
 To write, print, or circulate " any statements, 
 arguments, opinions, sentiment, doctrine, advice, 
 or innuendo, calculated to produce a disorderly, 
 dangerous, or rebellious disaffection among the 
 slaves of the Territory, or to induce such slaves to 
 escape from the service of their masters, or to 
 resist their authority," was pronounced a felony 
 punishable by five years' imprisonment. To deny 
 the right of holding slaves in the Territory, by
 
 THE BOGUS LAWS 
 
 421 
 
 speaking, writing, printing, or circulating books, 
 or papers, was likewise made a felony, punishable 
 by two years' imprisonment. Finally it was enacted 
 that " no person who is conscientiously opposed to 
 holding slaves, or who does not admit the right 
 to hold slaves in this Territory, shall sit as a juror 
 on the trial of any prosecution for any violation of 
 any of the sections of this act." Also, all officers 
 were, in addition to their usual oath, required to 
 swear to support and sustain the Kansas-Nebraska 
 Act and the Fugitive-Slave Law. 
 
 The spirit which produced these despotic laws 
 also governed the methods devised to enforce them. 
 The Legislature proceeded to elect the principal 
 officers of each county, who in turn were empow 
 ered by the laws to appoint the subordinate officials. 
 All administration, therefore, emanated from that 
 body, reflected its will, and followed its behest. 
 Finally, the usual skeleton organization of a terri 
 torial militia was devised, whose general officers 
 were in due time appointed by the acting Governor 
 from prominent and serviceable pro-slavery mem 
 bers of the Legislature. 
 
 Having secured their present domination, they 
 sought to perpetuate their political ascendency in 
 the Territory. They ingeniously prolonged the 
 tenure of their various appointees, and to render 
 their success at future elections easy and certain 
 they provided that candidates to be eligible, and 
 judges of election, and voters when challenged, 
 must swear to support the Fugitive-Slave Law. 
 This they knew would virtually disfranchise many 
 conscientious antislavery men ; while, on the other 
 hand, they enacted that each inhabitant who had 
 
 CH. xxin. 
 
 " Statutes 
 Territory 
 
 Of Kansas," 
 1855, p. 516. 
 
 " Journal 
 of Council 
 
 Kansas 
 Territory," 
 1855, p. 248. 
 
 " Statutes 
 
 Territory 
 
 of Kansas," 
 
 1855, p. 332.
 
 422 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xxin. paid his territorial tax should be a qualified voter 
 for all elective officers. Under so lax a provision 
 Missouri invaders could in the future, as they had 
 in the past, easily give an apparent majority at the 
 ballot-box for all their necessary agents and ulterior 
 schemes. 
 
 In a technical sense the establishment of slavery 
 in Kansas was complete. There were by the census 
 of the previous February already some two hun 
 dred slaves in the Territory. Under the sanction 
 of these laws, and before they could by any pos 
 sibility be repealed, some thousands might be ex 
 pected, especially by such an organized and united 
 effort as the South could make to maintain the 
 vantage ground already gained. Once there, the 
 aggressiveness of the institution might be relied 
 on to protect itself, since all experience had shown 
 that under similar conditions it was almost ine 
 radicable. 
 
 After so much patriotic endeavor on the part of 
 these Border Ruffian legislators "that the Union 
 and law may not be trampled in the dust," it can 
 not perhaps be wondered at that they began to 
 look around for their personal rewards. These 
 they easily found in the rich harvest of local 
 monopolies and franchises which lay scattered in 
 profusion on this virgin field of legislation, ready 
 to be seized and appropriated without dispute by 
 the first occupants. There were charters for rail 
 roads, insurance companies, toll-bridges, ferries, 
 coal-mines, plank roads, and numberless privileges 
 and honors of present or prospective value out of 
 which, together with the county, district, and mili 
 tary offices, the ambitious members might give and
 
 THE BOGUS LAWS 423 
 
 take with generous liberality. One-sixth of the CH. xxm. 
 printed laws of the first session attest their modest 
 
 attention to this incidental squatters' dowry. One H - 2 - 
 of the many favorable opportunities in this cate 
 gory was the establishment of the permanent ter 
 ritorial capital, authorized by the organic act, 
 where the liberal Federal appropriation for public 
 buildings should be expended. For this purpose, 
 competition from the older towns yielding gracefully 
 after the first ballot, an entirely new site on the 
 open prairie overlooking the Kansas River some 
 twelve miles west of Lawrence was agreed upon. 
 The proceedings do not show any unseemly scram 
 ble over the selection, and no tangible record 
 remains of the whispered distribution of corner 
 lots and contracts. It is only the name which rises 
 into historical notice. 
 
 One of the actors in the political drama of Kan 
 sas was Samuel Dexter Lecompte, Chief-Justice of 
 the Territory. He had been appointed from the 
 border State of Maryland, and is represented to 
 have been a diligent student, a respectable lawyer, 
 a prominent Democratic politician, and possessed 
 of the personal instincts and demeanor of a gen 
 tleman. Moved by a pro-slavery sympathy that 
 was sincere, Judge Lecompte lent his high author 
 ity to the interests of the conspiracy against Kansas. 
 He had already rendered the bogus Legislature the 
 important service of publishing an extra-judicial 
 opinion, sustaining their adjournment from Pawnee 
 to Shawnee Mission. Probably because they valued 
 his official championship and recognized in him a 
 powerful ally in politics, they made him a member 
 of several of their private corporations, and gave
 
 424 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xxin. him the honor of naming their newly founded 
 capital Lecompton. But the intended distinction 
 was transitory. Before the lapse of a single decade, 
 the town for which he stood sponsor was no longer 
 the capital of Kansas.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 THE TOPEKA CONSTITUTION 
 
 THE bogus Legislature adjourned late on the CH.XXIV. 
 night of the 30th of August, 1855. They had 
 elaborately built up their legal despotism, com 
 missioned trusty adherents to administer it, and 
 provided their principal and undoubted partisans 
 with military authority to see that it was duly exe 
 cuted. Going still a step further, they proposed so 
 to mold and control public opinion as to prevent 
 the organization of any party or faction to oppose 
 their plans. In view of the coming presidential 
 campaign, it was the fashion in the States for 
 Democrats to style themselves "National Demo 
 crats"; and a few newspapers and speakers in 
 Kansas had adopted the prevailing political name. 
 To stifle any such movement, both houses of the 
 Legislature on the last night of their session adopted 
 a concurrent resolution declaring that the proposi 
 tion to organize a National Democratic party, hav 
 ing already misled some of their friends, would 
 divide pro-slavery Whigs from Democrats and 
 weaken their party one-half ; that it was the duty 
 of the pro-slavery, Union-loving men of Kansas 
 "to know but one issue, slavery; and that any 
 party making or attempting to make any other 
 
 425
 
 426 ABBAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH.XXIV. is and should be held as an ally of abolitionism 
 
 "House and disunion." 
 
 Journal 
 
 Had the conspiracy been content to prosecute its 
 ' designs through moderate measures, it would in- 
 p?253. evitably have fastened slavery upon Kansas. The 
 organization of the invasion in western Missouri, 
 carried on under pre-acknowledged leadership, in 
 populous counties, among established homes, amid 
 well-matured confidence growing out of long per 
 sonal and political relationship, would have been 
 easy even without the powerful bond of secret 
 association. On the other hand, the union of the 
 actual inhabitants of Kansas, scattered in sparse 
 settlements, personal strangers to each other, com 
 ing from widely separated States, and comprising 
 radically different manners, sentiments, and tradi 
 tions, and burdened with the prime and unyielding 
 necessity of protecting themselves and their fam 
 ilies against cold and hunger, was in the very 
 nature of the case slow and difficult. But the 
 course of the Border Euffians created, in less than 
 six weeks, a powerful and determined opposition, 
 which became united in support of what is known 
 as the Topeka Constitution. 
 
 It is noteworthy that this free-State movement 
 originated in Democratic circles, under Democratic 
 auspices. The Republican party did not yet exist. 
 The opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act were 
 distributed among Whigs, Know-Nothings, and 
 Free-soilers in the States, and had no national 
 affiliation, although they had won overwhelming 
 triumphs in a majority of the Congressional dis 
 tricts in the fall elections of 1854. Nearly if not 
 quite all the free-State leaders originally went to
 
 THE TOPEKA CONSTITUTION 427 
 
 Kansas as friends of President Pierce, and as CH.XXIV. 
 believers in the dogma of " Popular Sovereignty." 
 
 Now that this usurping Legislature had met, 
 contemptuously expelled the free- State members, 
 defied the Governor's veto, set up its ingeniously 
 contrived legal despotism, and commissioned its 
 partisan followers to execute and administer it, 
 the situation became sufficiently grave to demand 
 defensive action. The real settlers were Demo 
 crats, it was true ; they had voted for Pierce, 
 shouted for the platform of '52, applauded the 
 Kansas-Nebraska Act, and emigrated to the Terri 
 tory to eDJoy the new political gospel of popular 
 sovereignty. But the practical Democratic beati 
 tudes of Kansas were not calculated to strengthen 
 the saints or confirm them in the faith. A Demo 
 cratic invasion had elected a Democratic Legisla 
 ture, which enacted laws, under whose arbitrary 
 "non-intervention" a Democratic court might 
 fasten a ball and chain to their ankles if they 
 should happen to read the Declaration of Inde 
 pendence to a negro, or carry Jefferson's "Notes 
 on Virginia" in their carpet-bags. 
 
 The official resolution which the bogus Legisla 
 ture proclaimed as a final political test left no mid 
 dle ground between those who were for slavery 
 and those who were against slavery those who 
 were for the bogus laws in all their enormity, and 
 those who were against them and all who were 
 not willing to become active co-workers with the 
 conspiracy were forced to combine in self-defense. 
 
 It was in the town of Lawrence that the free- 
 State movement naturally found its beginning. 
 The settlers of the Emigrant Aid Society were
 
 428 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xxiv. comparatively few in number ; but, supported 
 by money, saw-mills, printing-presses, boarding- 
 houses, they became from the very first a compact, 
 self-reliant governing force. A few preliminary 
 meetings, instigated by the disfranchised free-State 
 members of the Legislature, brought together a 
 large mass convention. The result of its two days' 
 deliberations was a regularly chosen delegate con 
 vention held at Big Springs, a few miles west of 
 Lawrence, on the 5th of September, 1855. More 
 important than all, perhaps, was the presence and 
 active participation of ex-Governor Reeder him 
 self, who wrote the resolutions, addressed the con 
 vention in a stirring and defiant speech, and 
 received by acclamation their nomination for 
 territorial delegate. 
 
 The platform adopted repudiated in strong terms 
 the bogus Legislature and its tyrannical enactments, 
 and declared "that we will endure and submit to 
 these laws no longer than the best interests of the 
 Territory require, as the least of two evils, and will 
 resist them to a bloody issue as soon as we 
 ascertain that peaceable remedies shall fail." It 
 also recommended the formation of volunteer 
 companies and the procurement of arms. The 
 progressive and radical spirit of the conven 
 tion is illustrated in its indorsement of the free- 
 State movement, against the report of its own 
 committee. 
 
 The strongest point, however, made by the con 
 vention was a determination, strictly adhered to 
 for more than two years, to take no part in any 
 election under the bogus territorial laws. As a 
 result Whitfield received, without competition, the
 
 THE TOPEKA CONSTITUTION 429 
 
 combined pro-slavery and Border Ruffian vote for CH. xxiv. 
 delegate on the first of October, a total of 2721 
 ballots. Measures had meanwhile been perfected 
 by the free-State men to elect delegates to a con 
 stitutional convention. On the 9th of October, at 
 a separate election, held by the free-State party 
 alone, under self-prescribed formalities and regula- Howard 
 tions, these were duly chosen by an aggregate vote P p 
 of 2710, ex-Governor Eeeder receiving at the same 
 polls 2849 votes for delegate. 
 
 By this series of political movements, carried 
 out in quiet and orderly proceedings, the free-State 
 party was not only fully constituted and organized, 
 but was demonstrated to possess a decided major 
 ity in the Territory. Still following out the policy 
 agreed upon, the delegates chosen met at Topeka 
 on the 23d of October, and with proper deliberation 
 and decorum framed a State constitution, which 
 was in turn submitted to a vote of the people. Al 
 though this election was held near midwinter 
 (Dec. 15, 1855), and in the midst of serious dis 
 turbances of the peace arising from other causes, 
 it received an affirmative vote of 1731, showing a 
 hearty popular indorsement of it. Of the docu 
 ment itself no extended criticism is necessary. It 
 prohibited slavery, but made reasonable provision 
 for existing property-rights in slaves actually in 
 the Territory. In no sense a radical, subversive, 
 or " abolition " production, the Topeka Constitution 
 was remarkable only as being the indignant protest 
 of the people of the Territory against the Missouri 
 usurpation. 1 The new constitution was transmit- 
 
 1 Still another election was January 15, 1856, to choose 
 held by the free-State party on State officers to act under the
 
 430 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xxiv. ted to Congress and was formally presented as a 
 petition to the Senate by General Cass, on March 
 24, 1856, 1 and to the House some days later. 
 
 The Republican Senators in Congress (the Re 
 publican party had been definitely organized a few 
 weeks before at Pittsburg) now urged the imme 
 diate reception of the Topeka Constitution and the 
 admission of Kansas as a free State, citing the 
 cases of Michigan, Arkansas, Florida, and Califor 
 nia as justifying precedents. 2 For the present, 
 
 " Globe," 
 March 24, 
 1856, p. 698. 
 
 February 
 22, 1856. 
 
 new organization, at which 
 Charles Robinson received 1296 
 votes for governor, out of a total 
 of 1706, and Mark W. Delahay 
 for Representative in Congress, 
 1628. A legislature elected at 
 the same time, met, according to 
 the terms of the newly framed 
 constitution, on the 4th of March, 
 organized, and elected Andrew 
 H. Reeder and James H. Lane 
 United States Senators. 
 
 i Later, on April 7, General 
 Cass presented to the Senate 
 another petition, purporting to be 
 the Topeka Constitution, which 
 had been handed him by J. H. 
 Lane, president of the convention 
 which framed it and Senator- 
 elect under it ("Cong. Globe," 
 1856, April 7, p. 826). This 
 paper proved to be a clerk's 
 copy, with erasures and inter 
 lineations and signatures in one 
 handwriting, which being ques 
 tioned as probably spurious, Lane 
 afterwards supplied the original 
 draft prepared by the committee 
 and adopted by the convention, 
 though without signatures ; also 
 adding his explanatory affidavit 
 ("Cong. Globe," App. 1856, pp. 
 378-9), to the effect that, the 
 committee had devolved upon 
 
 him the preparation of the form 
 al copy, but that the original 
 signatures had been mislaid. 
 The official action of the Senate 
 appears to have concerned itself 
 exclusively with the copy pre 
 sented by General Cass on March 
 24. Lane's copies served only 
 as text for angry debate. As the 
 Topeka Constitution had no legal 
 origin or quality, technical de 
 fects were of little consequence, 
 especially in view of the action 
 by the free-State voters of Kan 
 sas at their voluntary elections 
 for delegates on October 9, and 
 to ratify it on December 15, 
 1856. 
 
 2 They based their appeal more 
 especially upon the opinion of the 
 Attorney-General in the case of 
 Arkansas, that citizens of Terri 
 tories possess the constitutional 
 right to assemble and petition 
 Congress for the redress of 
 grievances ; that the form of 
 the petition is immaterial; and 
 that, "as the power of Con 
 gress over the whole subject is 
 plenary, they may accept any 
 constitution, however framed, 
 which in their judgment meets 
 the sense of the people to be 
 affected by it."
 
 THE TOPEKA CONSTITUTION 431 
 
 however, there was no hope of admission to the CH. xxiv. 
 Union with the Topeka Constitution. The Pierce 
 Administration, under the domination of the South 
 ern States, had deposed Governor Reeder. Both 
 in his annual message and again in a special 
 message, the President denounced the Topeka 
 movement as insurrectionary. 
 
 In the Senate, too, the application was already 
 prejudged; the Committee on Territories through 
 Douglas himself as chairman, in a long partisan 
 report, dismissed it with the assertion " that it was 
 the movement of a political party instead of the 
 whole body of the people of Kansas, conducted 
 without the sanction of law, and in defiance of the 
 constituted authorities, for the avowed purpose senate RC- 
 of overthrowing the territorial government estab- 
 
 lished by Congress." In the mouth of a consistent 3 
 
 advocate of " Popular Sovereignty," this argument 
 might have had some force ; but it came with a bad 
 grace from Douglas, who in the same report 
 indorsed the bogus Legislature and sustained the 
 bogus laws upon purely technical assumptions. 
 Congress was irreconcilably divided in politics. 
 The Democrats had an overwhelming majority in 
 the Senate ; the opposition, through the election of 
 Speaker Banks, possessed a working control of the 
 House. Some months later, after prolonged de 
 bate, the House passed a bill for the admission of 
 Kansas under the Topeka Constitution; but as 
 the Senate had already rejected it, the movement 
 remained without practical result. 1 
 
 1 Nevertheless, the efforts of ren. The contest between Whit- 
 the free-State party under this field and Eeeder for a seat in the 
 combination were not wholly bar- House as territorial delegate not
 
 432 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xxiv. The staple argument against the Topeka free- 
 State movement, that it was a rebellion against 
 constitutional authority, though perhaps correct as 
 a mere theory was utterly refuted by the practical 
 facts of the case. The Big Springs resolutions, 
 indeed, counseled resistance to a " bloody issue " ; 
 but this was only to be made after " peaceable 
 remedies shall fail." The free-State leaders deserve 
 credit for pursuing their peaceable remedies and 
 forbearing to exercise their asserted right to resist 
 ance with a patience unexampled in American 
 annals. The bogus territorial laws were defied by 
 the newspapers and treated as a dead letter by the 
 mass of the free-State men ; as much as possible 
 they stood aloof from the civil officers appointed by 
 and through the bogus Legislature, recorded no title 
 papers, began no lawsuits, abstained from elections, 
 and denied themselves privileges which required 
 any open recognition of the alien Missouri statutes. 
 Lane and others refused the test oath, and were 
 excluded from practice as attorneys in the courts ; 
 free-State newspapers were thrown out of the 
 mails as incendiary publications ; sundry petty 
 persecutions were evaded or submitted to as 
 special circumstances dictated. But throughout 
 their long and persistent non-conformity, for more 
 than two years, they constantly and cheerfully 
 
 only provoked searching discus- printed pages, and which exposed 
 
 sion, but furnished the occasion the Border Ruffian invasions and 
 
 for sending an investigating com- the Missouri usurpation in all 
 
 mittee to Kansas, attended by the their monstrous iniquity, and 
 
 contestants in person. This com- officially revealed to the as- 
 
 mittee with a fearless diligence tounded North, for the first time 
 
 collected in the Territory, as well and nearly two years after its 
 
 as from the border counties of beginning, the full proportions 
 
 Missouri, a mass of sworn testi- of the conspiracy which held 
 
 mony amounting to some 1200 sway in Kansas.
 
 JAMKS H. LANE.
 
 THE TOPEKA CONSTITUTION 433 
 
 acknowledged the authority of the organic act, and CH. xxiv. 
 of the laws of Congress, and even counseled and 
 endured every forced submission to the bogus 
 laws. Though they had defiant and turbulent 
 spirits in their own ranks, who often accused them 
 of imbecility and cowardice, they maintained a 
 steady policy of non-resistance, and, under every 
 show of Federal authority in support of the bogus 
 laws, they submitted to obnoxious searches and 
 seizures, to capricious arrest and painful imprison 
 ment, rather than by resistance to place them 
 selves in the attitude of deliberate outlaws. 1 
 
 They were destined to have no lack of provoca 
 tion. Since the removal of Reeder, all the Federal 
 officials of the Territory were affiliated with the pro- 
 slavery Missouri cabal. Both to secure the per 
 manent establishment of slavery in Kansas, and 
 to gratify the personal pride of their triumph, 
 they were determined to make these recusant free- 
 State voters "bow down to the cap of Gessler." 
 Despotism is never more arrogant than in resent 
 ing all slights to its personal vanity. As a first 
 and necessary step, the cabal had procured, through 
 its powerful influence at Washington, a proclama 
 tion from the President commanding " all persons 
 engaged in unlawful combinations against the con- February 
 stituted authority of the Territory of Kansas or of "statutes 
 
 at Large," 
 
 the United States to disperse," etc. The language ^v*. 1 " 
 of the proclamation was sufficiently comprehensive 
 to include Border Ruffians and emigrant aid 
 societies, as well as the Topeka movement, and 
 thus presented a show of impartiality ; but under 
 
 1 See Governor Robinson's message to the free-State Legislature, 
 March 4, 1856. Mrs. S. T. L. Robinson, " Kansas," pp. 352, 364. 
 
 VOL. L 28
 
 434 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xxiv. dominant political influences the latter was its 
 evident and certain object. 
 
 With this proclamation as a sort of official ful 
 crum, Chief -Justice Lecompte delivered at the May 
 term of his court a most extraordinary charge to 
 the grand jury. He instructed them that the bogus 
 Legislature, being an instrument of Congress, and 
 having passed laws, "these laws are of United 
 States authority and making." Persons resisting 
 these laws must be indicted for high treason. If no 
 resistance has been made, but combinations formed 
 for the purpose of resisting them, " then must you 
 still find bills for constructive treason, as the courts 
 have decided that the blow need not be struck, 
 but only the intention be made evident." l In 
 dictments, writs, and the arrest of many prominent 
 free-State leaders followed as a matter of course. 
 All these proceedings, too, seemed to have been a 
 part of the conspiracy. Before the indictments 
 were found, and in anticipation of the writs, Robin 
 son, the free-State Governor-elect, then on his way 
 to the East, was arrested while traveling on a Mis 
 souri River steamboat, at Lexington in that State, 
 detained, and finally sent back to Kansas under 
 the Governor's requisition. Upon this frivolous 
 charge of constructive treason he and others were 
 held in military custody nearly four months, and 
 finally, at the end of that period, discharged upon 
 bail, the farce of longer imprisonment having be 
 come useless through other events. 
 
 Apprehending fully that the Topeka movement 
 
 1 J. H. Gihon, "Governor dietments, printed at full length 
 Geary's Administration," p. 77; in Phillips, "Conquest of Kan- 
 also compare two copies of in- sas," pp. 351-4.
 
 THE TOPEKA CONSTITUTION 435 
 
 was the only really serious obstacle to their success, CH. xxiv. 
 the pro-slavery cabal, watching its opportunity, 
 matured a still more formidable demonstration to 
 suppress and destroy it. The provisional free- 
 State Legislature had, after organizing on the 4th 
 of March, adjourned, to reassemble on the 4th of 
 July, 1856, in order to await in the meantime 
 the result of their application to Congress. As 
 the national holiday approached, it was deter 
 mined to call together a mass meeting at the same 
 time and place, to give both moral support and 
 personal protection to the members. Civil war, of 
 which further mention will be made in the next 
 chapter, had now been raging for months, and had 
 in its general results gone against the free-State 
 men. Their leaders were imprisoned or scattered, 
 their presses destroyed, their adherents dispirited 
 with defeat. Nevertheless, as the day of meeting 
 approached, the remnant of the provisional Legis 
 lature and some six to eight hundred citizens 
 gathered at Topeka, though without any definite 
 purpose or pre-arranged plan. 
 
 Governor Shannon, the second of the Kansas 
 executives, had by this time resigned his office, and 
 Secretary Woodson was again acting Governor. 
 Here was a chance to put the free- State movement 
 pointedly under the ban of Federal authority 
 which the cabal determined not to neglect. Ee- 
 citing the President's proclamation of February, 
 Secretary Woodson now issued his own proclama 
 tion forbidding all persons claiming legislative 
 power and authority as aforesaid from assembling, 
 organizing, or acting in any legislative capacity 
 whatever. At the hour of noon on the 4th of
 
 436 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xxiv. July several companies of United States dragoons, 
 which were brought into camp near town in 
 anticipation of the event, entered Topeka in 
 military array, under command of Colonel E. V. 
 Sumner. A line of battle was formed in the street, 
 cannon were planted, and the machinery of war 
 prepared for instant action. Colonel Sumner, a 
 most careful and conscientious officer and a free- 
 State man at heart, with due formality, with de 
 cision and firmness, but at the same time openly 
 expressing the painful nature of his duty, com 
 manded the provisional Legislature, then about to 
 assemble, to disperse. The members, not yet 
 organized, immediately obeyed the order, having 
 neither the will nor the means to resist it. There 
 was no tumult, no violence, but little protest even 
 in words; but the despotic purpose, clothed in 
 forms of law, made a none the less profound im 
 pression upon the assembled citizens, and later, 
 when the newspapers spread the report of the act, 
 upon the indignant public of the Northern States. 
 From this time onward, other events of para 
 mount historical importance supervene to crowd 
 the Topeka Constitution out of view. In a feeble 
 way the organization still held together for a con 
 siderable length of time. About a year later the pro 
 visional Legislature again went through the forms 
 of assembling, and although Governor Walker was 
 present in Topeka, there were no proclamations, 
 no dragoons, no cannon, because the cabal was for 
 the moment defeated and disconcerted and bent 
 upon other and still more desperate schemes. The 
 Topeka Constitution was never received nor legal 
 ized ; its officers never became clothed with official
 
 THE TOPEKA CONSTITUTION 437 
 
 authority; its scrip was never redeemed; yet in CH.XXIV. 
 the fate of Kansas and in the annals of the Union 
 at large it was a vital and pivotal transaction, 
 without which the great conflict between freedom 
 and slavery, though perhaps neither avoided nor 
 delayed, might have assumed altogether different 
 phases of development.
 
 CHAPTEE XXV 
 
 CIVIL WAR IN KANSAS 
 
 CH. xxv. /^\UT of the antagonistic and contending factions 
 V_>J mentioned in the last two chapters, the bogus 
 Legislature and its Border-Ruffian adherents on the 
 one hand, and the framers and supporters of the 
 Topeka Constitution on the other, grew the civil 
 war in Kansas. The bogus Legislature numbered 
 thirty-six members. These had only received, all 
 told, 619 legal bond fide Kansas votes ; but, what 
 answered their purposes just as well, 4408 Missou- 
 rians had cast their ballots for them, making their 
 total constituency (if by discarding the idea of a 
 . State line we use the word in a somewhat strained 
 sense) 5427. This was at the March election, 1855. 
 Of the remaining 2286 actual Kansas voters dis 
 closed by Reeder's census, only 791 cast their 
 ballots. That summer's emigration, however, be 
 ing mainly from the free States, greatly changed 
 the relative strength of the two parties. At the 
 election of October 1, 1855, in which the free- State 
 men took no part, Whitfield, for delegate, received 
 2721 votes, Border Ruffians included. At the 
 election for members of the Topeka Constitutional 
 Convention, a week later, from which the pro- 
 slavery men abstained, the free-State men cast 
 
 438
 
 CIVIL WAK IN KANSAS 439 
 
 2710 votes, while Reeder, their nominee for dele- CH.XXV. 
 gate, received 2849. For general service, there 
 fore, requiring no special effort, the numerical 
 strength of the factions was about equal ; while on 
 extraordinary occasions the two thousand Border- 
 Ruffian reserve lying a little farther back from the 
 State line could at any time easily turn the scale. 
 The free-State men had only their convictions, 
 their intelligence, their courage, and the moral 
 support of the North ; the conspiracy had its secret 
 combination, the territorial officials, the Legisla 
 ture, the bogus laws, the courts, the militia officers, 
 the President, and the army. This was a formi 
 dable array of advantages; slavery was playing 
 with loaded dice. 
 
 With such a radical opposition of sentiment, 
 both factions were on the alert to seize every avail 
 able vantage ground. The bogus laws having 
 been enacted, and the free-State men having, at 
 the Big Springs Convention, resolved on the failure 
 of peaceable remedies to resist them to a " bloody 
 issue," the conspiracy was not slow to cover itself 
 and its projects with the sacred mantle of au 
 thority. Opportunely for them, about this time 
 Governor Shannon, appointed to succeed Reeder, 
 arrived in the Territory. Coming by way of the 
 Missouri River towns, he fell first among Border- 
 Ruffian companionship and influences ; and perhaps 
 having his inclinations already molded by his Wash 
 ington instructions, his early impressions were de 
 cidedly adverse to the free-State cause. His recep 
 tion speech at Westport, in which he maintained the 
 legality of the Legislature, and his determination 
 to enforce their laws, delighted his pro-slavery
 
 440 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH.XXV. auditors. To further enlist his zeal in their behalf, 
 a few weeks later they formally organized a " law- 
 and-order party " by a large public meeting held at 
 Leavenworth. All the territorial dignitaries were 
 present; Q-overnor Shannon presided; John Cal- 
 houn, the Surveyor-General, made the principal 
 speech, a denunciation of the " abolitionists " sup 
 porting the Topeka movement ; Chief -Justice 
 Lecompte dignified the occasion with approving 
 remarks. With public opinion propitiated in 
 advance, and the Governor of the Territory thus 
 publicly committed to their party, the conspirators 
 felt themselves ready to enter upon the active cam 
 paign to crush out opposition, for which they had 
 made such elaborate preparations. 
 
 Faithful to their legislative declaration they 
 knew but one issue, slavery. All dissent, all non- 
 compliance, all hesitation, all mere silence even, 
 were in their stronghold towns, like Leavenworth, 
 branded as " abolitionism," declared to be hostility 
 to the public welfare, and punished with proscrip 
 tion, personal violence, expulsion, and frequently 
 death. Of the lynchings, the mobs, and the mur 
 ders, it would be impossible, except in a very 
 extended work, to note the frequent and atrocious 
 details. The present chapters can only touch upon 
 the more salient movements of the civil war in 
 Kansas, which happily were not sanguinary; if, 
 however, the individual and more isolated cases of 
 bloodshed could be described, they would show a 
 startling aggregate of barbarity and loss of life for 
 opinion's sake. Some of these revolting crimes, 
 though comparatively few in number, were com 
 mitted, generally in a spirit of lawless retaliation, 
 by free-State men.
 
 CIVIL WAB IN KANSAS 441 
 
 Among other instrumentalities for executing the CH. xxv. 
 bogus laws, the bogus Legislature had appointed 
 one Samuel J. Jones sheriff of Douglas County, 
 Kansas Territory, although that individual was at 
 the time of his appointment, and long afterwards, 
 United States postmaster of the town of Westport, 
 Missouri. Why this Missouri citizen and Federal 
 official should in addition be clothed with a foreign 
 territorial shrievalty of a county lying forty or fifty 
 miles from his home is a mystery which was never 
 explained outside a Missouri Blue Lodge. 
 
 A few days after the " law-and-order " meeting 
 in Leavenworth, there occurred a murder in a 
 small settlement thirteen miles west of the town 
 of Lawrence. The murderer, a pro-slavery man, 
 first fled to Missouri, but returned to Shawnee 
 Mission and sought the official protection of Sheriff 
 Jones; no warrant, no examination, no commit 
 ment followed, and the criminal remained at large. 
 Out of this incident, the officious sheriff managed 
 most ingeniously to create an embroilment with 
 the town of Lawrence. Buckley, who was alleged 
 to have been accessory to the crime, obtained a 
 peace-warrant against Branson, a neighbor of the 
 victim. With this peace-warrant in his pocket, 
 but without showing or reading it to his prisoner, 
 Sheriff Jones and a posse of twenty-five Border 
 Euffians proceeded to Branson's house at midnight 
 and arrested him. Alarm being given, Branson's 
 free-State neighbors, already exasperated at the 
 murder, rose under the sudden instinct of self -pro 
 tection and rescued Branson from the sheriff and Wm Phll . 
 his posse that same night, though without other u ueTt C of n " 
 violence than harsh words.
 
 442 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xxv. Burning with the thirst of personal revenge, 
 Sheriff Jones now accused the town of Lawrence 
 of the violation of law involved in this rescue, 
 though the people of Lawrence immediately and 
 earnestly disavowed the act. But for Sheriff 
 Jones and his superiors the pretext was all- 
 sufficient. A Border-Ruffian foray against the 
 town was hastily organized. The murder occurred 
 November 21; the rescue November 26. November 
 27, upon the brief report of Sheriff Jones, demand 
 ing a force of three thousand men " to carry 
 out the laws," Governor Shannon issued his order 
 to the two major-generals of the skeleton militia, 
 " to collect together as large a force as you can in 
 your division, and repair without delay to Lecomp- 
 ton, and report yourself to S. J. Jones, sheriff of 
 Douglas County." 1 The Kansas militia was a 
 myth; but the Border Euffians, with their back 
 woods rifles and shot-guns, were a ready resource. 
 To these an urgent appeal for help was made ; and 
 the leaders of the conspiracy in prompt obedience 
 placarded the frontier with inflammatory hand 
 bills, and collected and equipped companies, and 
 hurried them forward to the rendezvous without 
 a moment's delay. The United States Arsenal at 
 Liberty, Missouri, was broken into and stripped 
 of its contents to supply cannon, small arms, and 
 ammunition. In two days after notice a company 
 of fifty Missourians made the first camp on Waka- 
 rusa Creek, near Franklin, four miles from Law 
 rence. In three or four days more an irregular 
 
 i Governor Shannon, order to date. Senate Executive Docu- 
 Richardson, November 27, 1855. ments, 3d Sess. 34th Cong., Vol. 
 Same order to Striekler, same II., p. 53.
 
 CIVIL WAR IN KANSAS 
 
 443 
 
 army of fifteen hundred men, claiming to be the 
 sheriff's posse, was within striking distance of the 
 town. Three or four hundred of these were nom 
 inal residents of the Territory; 1 all the remainder 
 were citizens of Missouri. They were not only 
 well armed and supplied, but wrought up to the 
 highest pitch of partisan excitement. While the 
 Governor's proclamation spoke of serving writs, 
 the notices of the conspirators sounded the note of 
 the real contest. " Now is the time to show game, 
 and if we are defeated this time, the Territory is 
 lost to the South," said the leaders. There was no 
 doubt of the earnestness of their purpose. Ex- 
 Vice-President Atchison came in person, leading a 
 battalion of two hundred Platte County riflemen. 
 
 News of this proceeding reached the people of 
 Lawrence little by little, and finally, becoming 
 alarmed, they began to improvise means of de 
 fense. Two abortive imitations of the Missouri 
 Blue Lodges, set on foot during the summer by 
 the free-State men, provoked by the election inva 
 sion in March, furnished them a starting-point for 
 military organization. A committee of safety, hur 
 riedly instituted, sent a call for help from Law 
 rence to other points in the Territory, "for the 
 purpose of defending it from threatened invasion 
 by armed men now quartered in its vicinity." Sev 
 eral hundred free-State men promptly responded to 
 the summons. The Free-State Hotel served as bar 
 racks. Governor Robinson and Colonel Lane were 
 appointed to command. Four or five small re 
 doubts, connected by rifle-pits, were hastily thrown 
 
 CH.XXV. 
 
 Shannon, 
 proclama 
 tion, No 
 vember 29, 
 1855. Sen 
 ate Ex. 
 Doc., 3d 
 Seas. 31th 
 Cong., Vol. 
 II., p. 66. 
 
 Phillips, 
 p.. 168. 
 
 1 Shannon, dispatch, December 11, 1855, to President Pierce. 
 Senate Ex. Doc., 3d Sess. 34th Cong., Vol. II., p. 63.
 
 444 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xxv. up; and by a clever artifice they succeeded in 
 bringing a twelve-pound brass howitzer from its 
 storage at Kansas City. Meantime the committee 
 of safety, earnestly denying any wrongful act or 
 purpose, sent an urgent appeal for protection to 
 the commander of the United States forces at Fort 
 Leavenworth, another to Congress, and a third to 
 President Pierce. 
 
 Amid all this warlike preparation to keep the 
 peace, no very strict military discipline could be 
 immediately enforced. The people of Lawrence, 
 without any great difficulty, obtained daily infor 
 mation concerning the hostile camps. They, on the 
 other hand, professing no purpose but that of de 
 fense and self-protection, were obliged to permit 
 free and constant ingress to their beleaguered town. 
 Sheriff Jones made several visits unmolested on 
 their part, and without any display of writs or 
 demand for the surrender of alleged offenders on 
 his own. One of the rescuers even accosted him, 
 conversed with him, and invited him to dinner. 
 These free visits had the good effect to restrain 
 imprudence and impulsiveness on both sides. They 
 could see that a conflict meant serious results. With 
 the advantage of its defensive position, Lawrence 
 was as strong as the sheriff's mob. On one point 
 especially the Border Euffians had a wholesome 
 dread. Yankee ingenuity had invented a new kind 
 of breech-loading gun called " Sharps rifle." It was, 
 in fact, the best weapon of its day. The free-State 
 volunteers had some months before obtained a 
 partial supply of them from the East, and their 
 range, rapidity, and effectiveness had been not 
 only duly set forth but highly exaggerated by
 
 CIVIL WAR IN KANSAS 445 
 
 many marvelous stories throughout the Territory CH.XXV. 
 and along the border. The Missouri backwoods 
 men manifested an almost incredible interest in 
 this wonderful gun. They might be deaf to the 
 " equalities " proclaimed in the Declaration of In 
 dependence or blind to the moral sin of slavery, 
 but they comprehended a rifle which could be fired 
 ten times a minute and kill a man at a thousand 
 yards. 
 
 The arrivals from Missouri finally slackened and 
 ceased. The irregular Border-Buffian squads were 
 hastily incorporated into the skeleton "Kansas 
 militia." The " posse " became some two thousand 
 strong, and the defenders of Lawrence perhaps one 
 thousand. 
 
 Meanwhile a sober second thought had come to 
 Governor Shannon. To retrieve somewhat the pre 
 cipitancy of his militia orders and proclamations, 
 he wrote to Sheriff Jones, December 2, to make no 
 arrests or movements unless by his direction. The 
 firm defensive attitude of the people of Lawrence 
 had produced its effect. The leaders of the con 
 spiracy became distrustful of their power to crush 
 the town. One of his militia generals suggested 
 that the Governor should require the " outlaws at 
 
 Lawrence and elsewhere " to surrender the Sharps D |f,j5 BP 
 rifles; another wrote asking him to call out the P p. i] i86. 8 ' 
 Government troops at Fort Leavenworth. The 
 Governor, on his part, becoming doubtful of the 
 legality of employing Missouri militia to enforce 
 Kansas laws, was also eager to secure the help of 
 Federal troops. Sheriff Jones began to grow im 
 portunate. In the Missouri camp while the leaders 
 became alarmed the men grew insubordinate. " I
 
 446 ABKAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xxv. have reason to believe," wrote one of their promi 
 nent men, " that before to-morrow morning the 
 black flag will be hoisted, when nine ont of ten 
 will rally round it, and march without orders 
 upon Lawrence. The forces of the Lecompton 
 
 - camp fully understand the plot and will fight under 
 
 son; Phil- , , 
 
 lips, p. 210. the same banner." 
 
 After careful deliberation Colonel Sumner, com- 
 manding the United States troops at Fort Leaven- 
 worth, declined to interfere without explicit orders 
 from the War Department. These failing to arrive 
 in time, the Governor was obliged to face his own 
 dilemma. He hastened to Lawrence, which now 
 invoked his protection. He directed his militia 
 generals to repress disorder and check any attack 
 on the town. Interviews were held with the free- 
 State commanders, and the situation was fully dis 
 cussed. A compromise was agreed upon, and a 
 formal treaty written out and signed. The affair 
 was pronounced to be a " misunderstanding" ; the 
 Lawrence party disavowed the Branson rescue, 
 denied any previous, present, or prospective organ 
 ization for resistance, and under sundry provisos 
 agreed to aid in the execution of " the laws " when 
 called upon by " proper authority." Like all com 
 promises, the agreement was half necessity, half 
 trick. Neither party was willing to yield honestly nor 
 ready to fight manfully. The free-State men shrank 
 from forcible resistance to even bogus laws. The 
 Missouri cabal, on the other hand, having three of 
 their best men constantly at the Governor's side, 
 were compelled to recognize their lack of justifica 
 tion. They did not dare to ignore upon what a 
 ridiculously shadowy pretext the Branson peace-
 
 CIVIL WAR IN KANSAS 447 
 
 warrant had grown into an army of two thousand CH.XXV. 
 men, and how, under the manipulation of Sheriff 
 Jones, a questionable affidavit of a pro-slavery 
 criminal had been expanded into the casus belli 
 of a free-State town. They consented to a com 
 promise " to cover a retreat." 
 
 When Governor Shannon announced that the 
 difficulties were settled, the people of Lawrence 
 were suspicious of their leaders, and John Brown 
 manifested his readiness to head a revolt. But his 
 attempted speech was hushed down, and the assur 
 ance of Eobinson and Lane that they had made no 
 dishonorable concession finally quieted their follow 
 ers. There were similar murmurs in the pro-slavery 
 camps. The Governor was denounced as a traitor, 
 and Sheriff Jones declared that " he would have 
 wiped out Lawrence." Atchison, on the contrary, 
 sustained the bargain, explaining that to attack 
 Lawrence under the circumstances would ruin the 
 Democratic cause. " But," he added with a sig 
 nificant oath, " boys, we will fight some time ! " 
 Thirteen of the captains in the Wakarusa camp 
 were called together, and the situation was duly 
 explained. The treaty was accepted, though the 
 Governor confessed "there was a silent dissatis 
 faction" at the result. He ordered the forces to shannon to 
 disband; prisoners were liberated, and with the pierce, in 
 opportune aid of a furious rain-storm the Border- isk senate 
 Ruffian army gradually melted away. Neverthe- sess. mh 
 less the "Wakarusa war "left one bitter sting to II ^jg p - 
 rankle in the hearts of the defenders of Lawrence, 
 a free-State man having been killed by a pro- 
 slavery scouting party. 
 
 The truce patched up by this Lawrence treaty
 
 448 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH.XXV. was of comparatively short duration. The excite 
 ment which had reigned in Kansas during the 
 whole summer of 1855, first about the enactments 
 of the bogus Legislature, and then in regard to the 
 formation of the Topeka Constitution, was now 
 extended to the American Congress, where it raged 
 for two long months over the election of Speaker 
 Banks. In Kansas during the same period the vote 
 of the free-State men upon the Topeka Constitution 
 and the election for free-State officers under it, kept 
 the Territory in a ferment. During and after the 
 contest over the speakership at Washington, each 
 State Legislature became a forum of Kansas debate. 
 The general public interest in the controversy was 
 shown by discussions carried on by press, pulpit, 
 and in the daily conversation and comment of the 
 people of the Union in every town, hamlet, and 
 neighborhood. No sooner did the spring weather 
 of 1856 permit, than men, money, arms, and sup 
 plies were poured into the Territory of Kansas from 
 the North. 
 
 In the Southern States also this propagandism 
 was active, and a number of guerrilla leaders with 
 followers recruited in the South, and armed and 
 sustained by Southern contributions and appro 
 priations, found their way to Kansas in response 
 to urgent appeals of the Border chiefs. Buf ord, of 
 Alabama ; Titus, of Florida ; Wilkes, of Virginia ; 
 Hampton, of Kentucky; Treadwell, of South Caro 
 lina, and others, brought not only enthusiastic 
 leadership, but substantial assistance. Both the 
 factions which had come so near to actual battle 
 in the "Wakarusa war," though nominally dis 
 banded, in reality continued their military organ-
 
 CIVIL, WAB IN KANSAS 449 
 
 izations, the free-State men through apprehension CH. xxv. 
 of danger, the Border Ruffians because of their 
 purpose to crush out opposition. Strengthened on 
 both sides with men, money, arms, and supplies, 
 the contest was gradually resumed with the open 
 ing spring. 
 
 The vague and double-meaning phrases of the 
 Lawrence agreement furnished the earliest causes 
 of a renewal of the quarrel. " Did you not pledge 
 yourselves to assist me as sheriff in the arrest of 
 any person against whom I might have a writ?" 
 asked Sheriff Jones of Robinson and Lane in a 
 curt note. "We may have said that we would j. N . H oiio- 
 assist any proper officer in the service of any legal to?v'of K^ 
 process," they replied, standing upon their inter- 
 pretation. This was, of course, the original con 
 troversy slavery burning to enforce her usurpa 
 tion, freedom determined to defend her birthright. 
 Sheriff Jones had his pockets always full of writs 
 issued in the spirit of persecution, but was often 
 baffled by the sharp wits and ready resources of 
 the free-State people, and sometimes defied out 
 right. Little by little, however, the latter became 
 hemmed and bound in the meshes of the various 
 devices and proceedings which the territorial offi 
 cials evolved from the bogus laws. President 
 Pierce, in his special message of January 24, 
 declared what had been done by the Topeka move 
 ment to be "of a revolutionary character" which 
 would " become treasonable insurrection if it reach 
 the length of organized resistance." 
 
 Following this came his proclamation of Febru 
 ary 11, leveled against "combinations formed to 
 resist the execution of the territorial laws." Early 
 
 VOL. L 29
 
 450 
 
 ABEAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 OH. xxv. in May, Chief -Justice Lecompte held a term of his 
 court, during which he delivered to the grand jury 
 his famous instructions on constructive treason. 
 Indictments were found, writs issued, and the prin 
 cipal free-State leaders arrested or forced to flee 
 from the Territory. Governor Robinson was ar 
 rested without warrant on the Missouri River, and 
 brought back to be held in military custody till 
 September. 1 Lane went East and recruited addi 
 tional help for the contest. Meanwhile Sheriff 
 Jones, sitting in his tent at night, in the town of 
 Lawrence, had been wounded by a rifle or pistol 
 in the attempt of some unknown person to assas 
 sinate him. The people of Lawrence denounced 
 the deed ; but the sheriff hoarded up the score for 
 future revenge. One additional incident served to 
 
 i Governor Robinson being on 
 his way East, the steamboat on 
 which he was traveling stopped 
 at Lexington, Missouri. An 
 unauthorized mob induced the 
 Governor, with that persuasive 
 ness in which the Border Kuf- 
 fians had become adepts, to leave 
 the boat, detaining him at Lex 
 ington on the accusation that 
 he was fleeing from an indict 
 ment. In a few days an officer 
 came with a requisition from 
 Governor Shannon, and took the 
 prisoner by land to Westport, and 
 afterwards from there to Kansas 
 City and Leavenworth. Here he 
 was placed in the custody of Cap 
 tain Martin, of the Kickapoo 
 Bangers, who proved a kind 
 jailer, and materially assisted in 
 protecting him from the danger 
 ous intentions of the mob which 
 at that time held Leavenworth 
 under a reign of terror. 
 
 Mrs. Robinson, who has kindly 
 
 sent us a sketch of the incident, 
 writes : ' ' On the night of the 2 8th 
 [of May] for greater security 
 General Richardson of the mili 
 tia slept in the same bed with the 
 prisoner, while Judge Lecompte 
 and Marshal Donaldson slept 
 just outside of the door of the 
 prisoner's room. Captain Martin 
 said : ' I shall give you a pistol 
 to help protect yourself with if 
 worse comes to worst!' In the 
 early morning of the next day, 
 May 29, a company of dragoons 
 with one empty saddle came down 
 from the fort, and while the pro- 
 slavery men still slept, the pris 
 oner and his escort were on their 
 way across the prairies to Le- 
 compton in the charge of officers 
 of the United States Army. The 
 Governor and other prisoners 
 were kept on the prairie near 
 Leeompton until the 10th of 
 September, 1856, when all were 
 released."
 
 CIVIL WAE IN KANSAS 451 
 
 precipitate the crisis. The House of Representa- CH.XXV. 
 tives at Washington, presided over by Speaker 
 Banks, and under control of the opposition, sent 
 an investigating committee to Kansas, consisting 
 of Wm. A. Howard, of Michigan, John Sherman, 1 
 of Ohio, and Mordecai Oliver, of Missouri, which, 
 by the examination of numerous witnesses, was 
 probing the Border-Ruffian invasions, the illegality 
 of the bogus Legislature, and the enormity of the 
 bogus laws to the bottom. 
 
 Ex-Grovernor Reeder was in attendance on this 
 committee, supplying data, pointing out from per 
 sonal knowledge sources of information, cross- 
 examining witnesses to elicit the hidden truth. Howard 
 To embarrass this damaging exposure, Judge 
 Lecompte issued a writ against the ex-Governor 
 on a frivolous charge of contempt. Claiming but 
 not receiving exemption from the committee, 
 Reeder on his personal responsibility refused to 
 permit the deputy marshal to arrest him. The 
 incident was not violent, nor even dramatic. No 
 posse was summoned, no further effort made, and 
 Reeder, fearing personal violence, soon fled in dis 
 guise. But the affair was magnified as a crowning 
 proof that the free-State men were insurrectionists 
 and outlaws. 
 
 It must be noted in passing that by this time 
 the Territory had by insensible degrees drifted into 
 the condition of civil war. Both parties were 
 zealous, vigilant, and denunciatory. In nearly 
 
 i Owing to the illness of Mr. Its methodical analysis and pow- 
 
 Howard, chairman of the com- erful presentation of evidence 
 
 mittee, the long and elaborate made it one of the most popular 
 
 majority report of this committee and convincing political docu- 
 
 was written by John Sherman, ments ever issued.
 
 452 ABKAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH.XXV. every settlement suspicion led to combination for 
 defense, combination to some form of oppression 
 or insult, and so on by easy transition to arrest 
 and concealment, attack and reprisal, expul 
 sion, theft, house-burning, capture, and murder. 
 From these, again, sprang barricaded and fortified 
 dwellings, camps and scouting parties, finally cul 
 minating in roving guerrilla bands, half partisan, 
 half predatory. Their distinctive characters, how 
 ever, display one broad and unfailing difference. 
 The free-State men clung to their prairie towns 
 and prairie ravines with all the obstinacy and 
 courage of true defenders of their homes and fire 
 sides. The pro-slavery parties, unmistakable aliens 
 and invaders, always came from, or retired across, 
 the Missouri line. Organized and sustained in the 
 beginning by voluntary contributions from that 
 and distant States, they ended by levying forced 
 contributions, by "pressing" horses, food, or arms 
 from any neighborhood they chanced to visit. 
 Their assumed character changed with their chang 
 ing opportunities or necessities. They were squads 
 of Kansas militia, companies of "peaceful emi 
 grants," or gangs of irresponsible outlaws, to suit 
 the chance, the whim, or the need of the moment. 
 
 Since the unsatisfactory termination of the 
 " Wakarusa war," certain leaders of the conspir 
 acy had never given up their project of punishing 
 the town of Lawrence. A propitious moment for 
 carrying it out seemed now to have arrived. The 
 free-State officers and leaders were, thanks to 
 Judge Lecompte's doctrine of constructive treason, 
 under indictment, arrest, or in flight; the settlers 
 were busy with their spring crops ; while the pro-
 
 CIVIL WAE IN KANSAS 
 
 453 
 
 slavery guerrillas, freshly arrived and full of zeal, 
 were eager for service and distinction. The former 
 campaign against the town had failed for want of 
 justification ; they now sought a pretext which 
 would not shame their assumed character as de 
 fenders of law and order. In the shooting of 
 Sheriff Jones in Lawrence, and in the refusal of 
 ex-Governor Reeder to allow the deputy-marshal 
 to arrest him, they discovered grave offenses 
 against the territorial and United States laws. 
 Determined also no longer to trust G-overnor 
 Shannon, lest he might again make peace, United 
 States Marshal Donaldson issued a proclamation on 
 his own responsibility, on May 11, 1856, command 
 ing " law-abiding citizens of the Territory w " to be 
 and appear at Lecompton, as soon as practicable 
 and in numbers sufficient for the proper execu 
 tion of the law." Moving with the promptness and 
 celerity of preconcerted plans, ex-Vice-President 
 Atchison, with his Platte County Eifles and two 
 brass cannon, the Kickapoo Eangers from Leaven- 
 worth and Weston, Wilkes, Titus, Buford, and all 
 the rest of the free lances in the Territory, began to 
 concentrate against Lawrence, giving the marshal 
 in a very few days a " posse " of from 500 to 800 
 men, armed for the greater part with United States 
 muskets, some stolen from the Liberty arsenal on 
 their former raid, others distributed to them as 
 Kansas militia by the territorial officers. The 
 Governor refused to interfere to protect the threat 
 ened town, though an urgent appeal to do so was 
 made to him by its citizens, who after stormy and 
 divided councils resolved on a policy of non-re 
 sistance. 
 
 CH. XXV. 
 
 Memorial, 
 Senate Ex. 
 Doc., 3d 
 Sess. 34th 
 Cong. Vol. 
 II., p. 74. 
 
 Phillips, 
 pp. 289-90. 
 
 Memorial, 
 Senate 
 
 Ex. Doc., 
 3d Seas. 
 
 34th Cong. 
 
 Vol. II., 
 
 p. 76.
 
 454 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. xxv. They next made application to the marshal, who 
 tauntingly replied that he could not rely on their 
 pledges, and must take the liberty to execute his 
 
 Doc., 3d -u- j.- j rm, r. i s 
 
 seas. 34tn process in his own time and manner. The help of 
 
 Cong. Vol. * * 
 
 IL, P. 77. Colonel Sumner, commanding the United States 
 troops, was finally invoked, but his instructions 
 only permitted him to act at the call of the Gov 
 ernor or marshal. 1 Private persons who had leased 
 the Free-State Hotel vainly besought the various 
 authorities to prevent the destruction of their 
 property. Ten days were consumed in these ne 
 gotiations ; but the spirit of vengeance refused to 
 yield. When the citizens of Lawrence rose on the 
 21st of May they beheld their town invested by a 
 formidable military force. 
 
 During the forenoon the deputy-marshal rode 
 leisurely into the town attended by less than a 
 dozen men, being neither molested nor opposed. 
 He summoned half a dozen citizens to join his 
 posse, who followed, obeyed, and assisted him. 
 He continued his pretended search and, to give 
 color to his errand, made two arrests. The Free- 
 State Hotel, a stone building in dimensions fifty 
 by seventy feet, three stories high and hand 
 somely furnished, previously occupied only for 
 lodging-rooms, on that day for the first time opened 
 its table accommodations to the public, and pro 
 vided a free dinner in honor of the occasion. 
 The marshal and his posse, including Sheriff 
 Jones, went among other invited guests and 
 enjoyed the proffered hospitality. As he had 
 promised to protect the hotel, the reassured citi- 
 
 1 Simmer to Shannon, May 12, 1856. Senate Ex. Doc., No. 10, 
 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. V., p. 7.
 
 CIVIL WAE IN KANSAS 455 
 
 zens began to laugh at their own fears. To their CH. xxv. 
 sorrow they were soon undeceived. The military 
 force, partly rabble, partly organized, had mean 
 while moved into the town. 
 
 To save his official skirts from stain, the deputy- 
 marshal now went through the farce of dismissing 
 his entire posse of citizens and Border Ruffians, at 
 which juncture Sheriff Jones made his appearance, 
 claiming the " posse " as his own. He planted a 
 company before the hotel, and demanded a sur 
 render of the arms belonging to the free-State 
 military companies. Refusal or resistance being 
 out of the question, half a dozen small cannon 
 were solemnly dug up from their concealment 
 and, together with a few Sharps rifles, form 
 ally delivered. Half an hour later, turning a 
 deaf ear to all remonstrance, he gave the pro 
 prietors until 5 o'clock to remove their families 
 and personal property from the Free-State Hotel. 
 Atchison, who had been haranguing the mob, 
 planted his two guns before the building and 
 trained them upon it. The inmates being removed, 
 at the appointed hour a few cannon balls were fired 
 through the stone walls. This mode of destruction 
 being slow and undramatic, and an attempt to blow 
 it up with gunpowder having proved equally un 
 satisfactory, the torch was applied, and the struc 
 ture given to the flames. 1 Other squads had during 
 the same time been sent to the several printing- 
 offices, where they broke the presses, scattered the 
 type, and demolished the furniture. The house of 
 Governor Robinson was also robbed and burned. 
 
 \ Memorial, Senate Executive Document, 3d Session 34th 
 Congress. Vol. II., pp. 73-85.
 
 456 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CH. XXV. 
 
 House Re 
 ports, 2d 
 Seas. 36th 
 Cong., Vol. 
 III., part I., 
 p. 39. 
 
 Holloway, 
 p. 334. 
 
 Memorial 
 
 to the 
 President. 
 
 Very soon the mob was beyond all control, and 
 spreading itself over the town engaged in pillage 
 till the darkness of night arrested it. Meanwhile 
 the chiefs sat on their horses and viewed the work 
 of destruction. 
 
 If we would believe the chief actors, this was 
 the " law and order party," executing the mandates 
 of justice. Part and parcel of the affair was the 
 pretense that this exploit of prairie buccaneering 
 had been authorized by Judge Lecompte's court, 
 the officials citing in their defense a presentment 
 of his grand jury, declaring the free-State news 
 papers seditious publications, and the Free-State 
 Hotel a rebellious fortification, and recommend 
 ing their abatement as nuisances. The travesty of 
 American government involved in the transaction 
 is too serious for ridicule. In this incident, con 
 trasting the creative and the destructive spirit of 
 the factions, the Emigrant Aid Society of Massa 
 chusetts finds its most honorable and triumphant 
 vindication. The whole proceeding was so child 
 ish, the miserable plot so transparent, the outrage 
 so gross, as to bring disgust to the better class of 
 Border Euffians who were witnesses and acces 
 sories. The free-State men have recorded the 
 honorable conduct of Colonel Zadock Jackson, of 
 Georgia, and Colonel Jefferson Buf ord, of Alabama, 
 as well as of the prosecuting attorney of the county, 
 each of whom denounced the proceedings on the 
 spot. 
 
 END OP VOL. i. 
 
 3786
 
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