ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A HISTORYBY JOHN G. NICOLAY AND JOHN HAY

VOLUME ONE

TO THE HONORABLE ROBERT TODD LINCOLN

 THIS WORK IS DEDICATED IN TOKEN OF A LIFE-LONG FRIENDSHIP AND ESTEEM

AUTHORS' PREFACE

A generation born since Abraham Lincoln died has already reachedmanhood and womanhood. Yet there are millions still living whosympathized with him in his noble aspirations, who labored with him inhis toilsome life, and whose hearts were saddened by his tragic death. It is the almost unbroken testimony of his contemporaries that byvirtue of certain high traits of character, in certain momentous linesof purpose and achievement, he was incomparably the greatest man ofhis time. The deliberate judgment of those who knew him has hardenedinto tradition; for although but twenty-five years have passed sincehe fell by the bullet of the assassin, the tradition is alreadycomplete. The voice of hostile faction is silent, or unheeded; evencriticism is gentle and timid. If history had said its last word, ifno more were to be known of him than is already written, his fame, however lacking in definite outline, however distorted by fable, wouldsurvive undiminished to the latest generations. The blessings of anenfranchised race would forever hail him as their liberator; thenation would acknowledge him as the mighty counselor whose patientcourage and wisdom saved the life of the republic in its darkest hour;and illuminating his proud eminence as orator, statesman, and ruler, there would forever shine around his memory the halo of that tenderhumanity 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 materially to hisalready accomplished renown that we have written the work which we nowoffer to our fellow-citizens. But each age owes to its successors thetruth in regard to its own annals. The young men who have been bornsince Sumter was fired on have a right to all their elders know of theimportant events they came too late to share in. The life and fame ofLincoln will not have their legitimate effect of instruction andexample unless the circumstances among which he lived and found hisopportunities are placed in their true light before the men who neversaw him. 

To write the life of this great American in such a way as to show hisrelations to the times in which he moved, the stupendous issues hecontrolled, the remarkable men by whom he was surrounded, has been thepurpose which the authors have diligently pursued for many years. Wecan say nothing of the result of our labor; only those who have beensimilarly employed can appreciate the sense of inadequate performancewith which we regard what we have accomplished. We claim for our workthat we have devoted to it twenty years of almost unremittingassiduity; that we have neglected no means in our power to ascertainthe truth; that we have rejected no authentic facts essential to acandid story; that we have had no theory to establish, no personalgrudge to gratify, no unavowed objects to subserve. We have aimed towrite a sufficiently full and absolutely honest history of a great manand a great time; and although we take it for granted that we havemade mistakes, that we have fallen into such errors and inaccuraciesas are unavoidable in so large a work, we claim there is not a line inall these volumes dictated by malice or unfairness. 

Our desire to have this work placed under the eyes of the greatestpossible number of readers induced us to accept the generous offer of"The Century Magazine" to print it first in that periodical. In thisway it received, as we expected, the intelligent criticism of a verylarge number of readers, thoroughly informed in regard to the eventsnarrated, and we have derived the greatest advantage from thesuggestions and corrections which have been elicited during the serialpublication, which began in November, 1886, and closed early in 1890. We beg, here, to make our sincere acknowledgments to the hundreds offriendly critics who have furnished us with valuable information. 

As "The Century" had already given, during several years, aconsiderable portion of its pages to the elucidation and discussion ofthe battles and campaigns of the civil war, it was the opinion of itseditor, in which we coincided, that it was not advisable to print inthe magazine the full narrative sketch of the war which we hadprepared. We omitted also a large number of chapters which, althoughessential to a history of the time, and directly connected with thelife of Mr. Lincoln, were still episodical in their nature, and wereperhaps not indispensable to a comprehension of the principal eventsof his administration. These are all included in the present volumes;they comprise additional chapters almost equal in extent and fullyequal in interest to those which have already been printed in "TheCentury. " Interspersed throughout the work in their proper connectionand sequence, and containing some of the most important of Mr. Lincoln's letters, they lend breadth and unity to the historicaldrama. 

We trust it will not be regarded as presumptuous if we say a word inrelation to the facilities we have enjoyed and the methods we haveused in the preparation of this work. We knew Mr. Lincoln intimatelybefore his election to the Presidency. We came from Illinois toWashington with him, and remained at his side and in his service--separately or together--until the day of his death. We were the dailyand nightly witnesses of the incidents, the anxieties, the fears, andthe hopes which pervaded the Executive Mansion and the NationalCapital. The President's correspondence, both official and private, passed through our hands; he gave us his full confidence. We hadpersonal acquaintance and daily official intercourse with CabinetOfficers, Members of Congress, Governors, and Military and NavalOfficers of all grades, whose affairs brought them to the White House. It was during these years of the war that we formed the design ofwriting this history and began to prepare for it. President Lincolngave it his sanction and promised his cordial cooperation. Afterseveral years' residence in Europe, we returned to this country andbegan the execution of our long-cherished plan. Mr. Robert T. Lincolngave into our keeping all the official and private papers andmanuscripts in his possession, to which we have added all the materialwe could acquire by industry or by purchase. It is with the advantage, therefore, of a wide personal acquaintance with all the leadingparticipants of the war, and of perfect familiarity with themanuscript material, and also with the assistance of the vast bulk ofprinted records and treatises which have accumulated since 1865, thatwe have prosecuted this work to its close. 

If we gained nothing else by our long association with Mr. Lincoln wehope at least that we acquired from him the habit of judging men andevents with candor and impartiality. The material placed in our handswas unexampled in value and fullness; we have felt the obligation ofusing it with perfect fairness. We have striven to be equally just tofriends and to adversaries; where the facts favor our enemies we haverecorded them ungrudgingly; where they bear severely upon statesmenand generals whom we have loved and honored we have not scrupled toset them forth, at the risk of being accused of coldness andingratitude to those with whom we have lived on terms of intimatefriendship. The recollection of these friendships will always be to usa source of pride and joy; but in this book we have known noallegiance but to the truth. We have in no case relied upon our ownmemory of the events narrated, though they may have passed under ourown eyes; we have seen too often the danger of such a reliance in thereminiscences of others. We have trusted only our diaries andmemoranda of the moment; and in the documents and reports we havecited we have used incessant care to secure authenticity. So far aspossible, every story has been traced to its source, and everydocument read in the official record or the original manuscript. 

We are aware of the prejudice which exists against a book written bytwo persons, but we feel that in our case the disadvantages ofcollaboration are reduced to the minimum. Our experiences, ourobservations, our material, have been for twenty years not merelyhomogeneous--they have been identical. Our plans were made withthorough concert; our studies of the subject were carried on together;we were able to work simultaneously without danger of repetition orconflict. The apportionment of our separate tasks has been dictatedpurely by convenience; the division of topics between us has beensometimes for long periods, sometimes almost for alternate chapters. Each has written an equal portion of the work; while consultation andjoint revision have been continuous, the text of each remainssubstantially unaltered. It is in the fullest sense, and in everypart, a joint work. We each assume responsibility, not only for thewhole, but for all the details, and whatever credit or blame thepublic may award our labors is equally due to both. 

We commend the result of so many years of research and diligence toall our countrymen, North and South, in the hope that it may dosomething to secure a truthful history of the great struggle whichdisplayed on both sides the highest qualities of American manhood, andmay contribute in some measure to the growth and maintenancethroughout all our borders of that spirit of freedom and nationalityfor which Abraham Lincoln lived and died. 

John G. NicolayJohn Hay[signatures]

ILLUSTRATIONS

VOL. I

ABRAHAM LINCOLN From a photograph taken about 1860 by Hesler, ofChicago; from the original negative owned by George B. Ayres, Philadelphia. 

LAND WARRANT, ISSUED TO ABRAHAM LINKHORN (LINCOLN)

FAC-SIMILE FROM THE FIELD-BOOK OF DANIEL BOONE

SURVEYOR'S CERTIFICATE FOR ABRAHAM LINKHORN (LINCOLN)

HOUSE IN WHICH THOMAS LINCOLN AND NANCY HANKS WERE MARRIED

FAC-SIMILE OF THE MARRIAGE BOND OF THOMAS LINCOLN

CERTIFICATE, OR MARRIAGE LIST, CONTAINING THE NAMES OF THOMAS LINCOLNAND NANCY HANKS

SARAH BUSH LINCOLN AT THE AGE OF 76 From a photograph in possession ofWilliam H. Herndon. 

CABIN ON GOOSE-NEST PRAIRIE, ILL. , IN WHICH THOMAS LINCOLN LIVED ANDDIED

MODEL OF LINCOLN'S INVENTION FOR BUOYING VESSELS

FAC-SIMILE OF DRAWINGS IN THE PATENT OFFICE

LEAF FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S EXERCISE BOOK

SOLDIER'S DISCHARGE FROM THE BLACK HAWK WAR, SIGNED BY A. LINCOLN, CAPTAIN

BLACK HAWK. From a portrait by Charles B. King, from McKenny & Hall's"Indian Tribes of North America. "

STEPHEN T. LOGAN From the portrait in possession of his daughter, Mrs. L. H. Coleman. 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S SURVEYING INSTRUMENTS, SADDLE BAG, ETC

PLAN OF ROADS SURVEYED BY A. LINCOLN AND OTHERS

FAC-SIMILE OF LINCOLN'S REPORT OF THE ROAD SURVEY

O. H. BROWNING From a photograph by Waide. 

MARTIN VAN BUREN From a photograph by Brady. 

COL. E. D. BAKER From a photograph by Brady, about 1861. 

LINCOLN AND STUART'S LAW-OFFICE, SPRINGFIELD

LINCOLN'S BOOKCASE AND INKSTAND From the Keyes Lincoln MemorialCollection, Chicago. 

GLOBE TAVERN, SPRINGFIELD Where Lincoln lived after his marriage. 

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON From a painting, in 1841, by Henry Inman, ownedby Benjamin Harrison. 

FAC-SIMILE OF MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

JOSHUA SPEED AND WIFE From a painting by Healy, about 1864. 

HOUSE IN WHICH ABRAHAM LINCOLN WAS MARRIED

GEN. JAMES SHIELDS From a photograph owned by David Delany. 

HENRY CLAY After a photograph by Rockwood, from the daguerreotypeowned by Alfred Hassack. 

ZACHARY TAYLOR From the painting by Vanderlyn in the Corcoran Gallery. 

JOSHUA R. GIDDINGS From a photograph by Brady. 

DAVID DAVIS From a photograph by Brady. 

JAMES K. POLK From a photograph by Brady. 

FRANKLIN PIERCE From a photograph by Brady. 

LYMAN TRUMBULL Prom a photograph by Brady. 

OWEN LOVEJOY From a photograph. 

DAVID E. ATCHISON From a daguerreotype. 

ANDREW H. REEDER From a photograph by R. Knecht. 

JAMES H. LANE By permission of the Strowbridge Lithographing Co. MAPS

MAP SHOWING LOCALITIES CONNECTED WITH EARLY EVENTS IN THE LINCOLNFAMILY

MAP OF NEW SALEM, ILL. , AND VICINITY

MAP OF THE BOUNDARIES OF TEXAS

HISTORICAL MAP OF THE UNITED STATES IN 1854

TABLE OF CONTENTS

VOL. I

CHAPTER I. LINEAGE The Lincolns in America. Intimacy with the Boones. Kentucky in 1780. Death of Abraham Lincoln the Pioneer. Marriage ofThomas Lincoln. Birth and Childhood of Abraham

CHAPTER II. INDIANA Thomas Lincoln leaves Kentucky. Settles atGentryville. Death of Nancy Hanks Lincoln. Sarah Bush Johnston. Pioneer Life in Indiana. Sports and Superstitions of the EarlySettlers. The Youth of Abraham. His Great Physical Strength. HisVoyage to New Orleans. Removal to Illinois

CHAPTER III. ILLINOIS IN 1830 The Winter of the Deep Snow. The SuddenChange. Pioneer Life. Religion and Society. French and Indians. Formation of the Political System. The Courts. Lawyers andPoliticians. Early Superannuation

CHAPTER IV. NEW SALEM Denton Offutt. Lincoln's Second Trip to NewOrleans. His Care of His Family. Death of Thomas Lincoln. Offutt'sStore in New Salem. Lincoln's Initiation by the "Clary's Grove Boys. "The Voyage of the _Talisman_

CHAPTER V. LINCOLN IN THE BLACK HAWK WAR Black Hawk. The Call forVolunteers. Lincoln Elected Captain. Stillman's Run. LincolnReenlists. The Spy Battalion. Black Hawk's Defeat. Disbandment of theVolunteers

CHAPTER VI. SURVEYOR AND REPRESENTATIVE Lincoln's Candidacy for theLegislature. Runs as a Whig. Defeated. Berry and Lincoln Merchants. Lincoln Begins the Study of Law. Postmaster. Surveyor. His Popularity. Elected to the Legislature, 1834

CHAPTER VII. LEGISLATIVE EXPERIENCE Lincoln's First Session in theLegislature. Douglas and Peek. Lincoln Reelected. Bedlam Legislation. Schemes of Railroad Building. Removal of the Capital to Springfield

CHAPTER VIII. THE LINCOLN-STONE PROTEST The Pro-Slavery Sentiment inIllinois. Attempt to Open the State to Slavery. Victory of the Free-State Party. Reaction. Death of Lovejoy. Pro-Slavery Resolutions. TheProtest

CHAPTER IX. COLLAPSE OF "THE SYSTEM" Lincoln in Springfield. TheFailure of the Railroad System. Fall of the Banks. First Collisionwith Douglas. Tampering with the Judiciary

CHAPTER X. EARLY LAW PRACTICE Early Legal Customs. Lincoln'sPopularity in Law and Politics. A Speech in 1840. The HarrisonCampaign. Correspondence with Stuart. Harrison Elected. Melancholia

CHAPTER XI. MARRIAGE Courtship and Engagement, The PioneerTemperament. Lincoln's Love Affairs. Joshua F. Speed. Lincoln's Visitto Kentucky. Correspondence with Speed. Marriage

CHAPTER XII. THE SHIELDS DUEL A Political Satire. James Shields. Lincoln Challenged. A Fight Arranged and Prevented. SubsequentWranglings. The Whole Matter Forgotten. An Admonition

CHAPTER XIII. THE CAMPAIGN OF 1844 Partnership with Stephen T. Logan. Lincoln Becomes a Lawyer. Temperance Movement. Baker and LincolnCandidates for the Whig Nomination to Congress. Baker Successful. ClayNominated for President. The Texas Question. Clay Defeated

CHAPTER XIV. LINCOLN'S CAMPAIGN FOR CONGRESS Schemes of Annexation. Opposition at the North. Outbreak of War. Lincoln Nominated forCongress. His Opponent Peter Cartwright. Lincoln Elected. The Whigs inthe War. E. D. Baker in Washington and Mexico

CHAPTER XV. THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS Robert C. Winthrop Chosen Speaker. Debates on the War. Advantage of the Whigs. Acquisition of Territory. The Wilmot Proviso. Lincoln's Resolutions. Nomination of Taylor forPresident. Cass the Democratic Candidate. Lincoln's Speech, July 27, 1848. Taylor Elected

CHAPTER XVI. A FORTUNATE ESCAPE Independent Action of NorthernDemocrats. Lincoln's Plan for Emancipation in the District ofColumbia. His Bill Fails to Receive Consideration. A Similar BillSigned by Him Fifteen Years Later. Logan Nominated for Congress andDefeated. Lincoln an Applicant for Office. The Fascination ofWashington

CHAPTER XVII. THE CIRCUIT LAWYER The Growth and Change of LegalHabits. Lincoln on the Circuit. His Power and Value as a Lawyer. Opinion of David Davis. Of Judge Drummond. Incidents of the Courts. Lincoln's Wit and Eloquence. His Life at Home

CHAPTER XVIII. THE BALANCE OF POWER Origin of the Slavery Struggle. The Ordinance of 1787. The Compromises of the Constitution. TheMissouri Compromise. Cotton and the Cotton-Gin. The Race between Freeand Slave States. The Admission of Texas. The Wilmot Proviso. NewMexico and California. The Compromise Measures of 1850. Finality

CHAPTER XIX. REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE Stephen A. Douglas. OldFogies and Young America. The Nomination of Pierce. The CaliforniaGold Discovery. The National Platforms on the Slavery Issue. Organization of Western Territories. The Three Nebraska Bills. TheCaucus Agreement of the Senate Committee. Dixon's Repealing Amendment. Douglas Adopts Dixon's Proposition. Passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act

CHAPTER XX. THE DRIFT OF POLITICS The Storm of Agitation. The FreeSoil Party. The American Party. The Anti-Nebraska Party. Dissolutionof the Whig Party. The Congressional Elections. Democratic Defeat. Banks Elected Speaker

CHAPTER XXI. LINCOLN AND TRUMBULL The Nebraska Question in Illinois. Douglas's Chicago Speech. Lincoln Reappears in Politics. PoliticalSpeeches 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. TrumbullElected Senator. Lincoln's Letter to Robertson

CHAPTER XXII. THE BORDER RUFFIANS The Opening of Kansas Territory. Andrew H, Reeder Appointed Governor. Atchison's Propaganda. TheMissouri Blue Lodges. The Emigrant Aid Company. The Town of LawrenceFounded. Governor Reeder's Independent Action. The First BorderRuffian Invasion. The Election of Whitfield

CHAPTER XXIII. THE BOGUS LAWS Governor Reeder's Census. The SecondBorder Ruffian Invasion. Missouri Voters Elect the Kansas Legislature. Westport and Shawnee Mission. The Governor Convenes the Legislature atPawnee. The Legislature Returns to Shawnee Mission. Governor Reeder'sVetoes. The Governor's Removal. Enactment of the Bogus Laws. DespoticStatutes. Lecompton Founded

CHAPTER XXIV. THE TOPEKA CONSTITUTION The Bogus Legislature DefinesKansas Politics. The Big Springs Convention. Ex-Governor Reeder'sResolutions. Formation of the Free-State Party. A ConstitutionalConvention at Topeka. The Topeka Constitution. President PierceProclaims the Topeka Movement Revolutionary. Refusal to Recognize theBogus Laws. Chief-Justice Lecompte's Doctrine of Constructive Treason, Arrests and Indictment of the Free-State Leaders. Colonel SumnerDisperses the Topeka Legislature

CHAPTER XXV. CIVIL WAR IN KANSAS Wilson Shannon Appointed Governor. The Law and Order Party Formed at Leavenworth. Sheriff Jones. TheBranson Rescue. The Wakarusa War. Sharps Rifles. Governor Shannon'sTreaty. Guerrilla Leaders and Civil War. The Investigating Committeeof Congress. The Flight of Ex-Governor Reeder. The Border RuffiansMarch on Lawrence. Burning of the Free-State Hotel

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

CHAPTER I

LINEAGE

[Sidenote: 1780. ]

In the year 1780, Abraham Lincoln, a member of a respectable and well-to-do family in Rockingham County, Virginia, started westward toestablish himself in the newly-explored country of Kentucky. Heentered several large tracts of fertile land, and returning toVirginia disposed of his property there, and with his wife and fivechildren went back to Kentucky and settled in Jefferson County. Littleis known of this pioneer Lincoln or of his father. Most of the recordsbelonging to that branch of the family were destroyed in the civilwar. Their early orphanage, the wild and illiterate life they led onthe frontier, severed their connection with their kindred in the East. This, often happened; there are hundreds of families in the Westbearing historic names and probably descended from well-known housesin the older States or in England, which, by passing through one ortwo generations of ancestors who could not read or write, have losttheir continuity with the past as effectually as if a deluge hadintervened between the last century and this. Even the patronymic hasbeen frequently distorted beyond recognition by slovenly pronunciationduring the years when letters were a lost art, and by the phoneticspelling of the first boy in the family who learned the use of thepen. There are Lincolns in Kentucky and Tennessee belonging to thesame stock with the President, whose names are spelled "Linkhorn" and"Linkhern. " All that was known of the emigrant, Abraham Lincoln, byhis immediate descendants was that his progenitors, who were Quakers, came from Berks County, Pennsylvania, into Virginia, and there throveand prospered. [Footnote: We desire to express our obligations toEdwin Salter, Samuel L. Smedley, Samuel Shackford, Samuel W. Pennypacker, Howard M. Jenkins, and John T. Harris, Jr. , forinformation and suggestions which have been of use to us in thischapter. ] But we now know, with sufficient clearness, through thewide-spread and searching luster which surrounds the name, the historyof the migrations of the family since its arrival on this continent, and the circumstances under which the Virginia pioneer started forKentucky. 

The first ancestor of the line of whom we have knowledge was SamuelLincoln, of Norwich, England, who came to Hingham, Massachusetts, in1638, and died there. He left a son, Mordecai, whose son, of the samename, --and it is a name which persists in every branch of the family, [Footnote: The Lincolns, in naming their children, followed so stricta tradition that great confusion has arisen in the attempt to tracetheir genealogy. For instance, Abraham Lincoln, of Chester County, sonof one Mordecai and brother of another, the President's ancestors, left a fair estate, by will, to his children, whose names were John, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Mordecai, Rebecca, and Sarah--precisely thesame names we find in three collateral families. ]--removed toMonmouth, New Jersey, and thence to Amity township, now a part of nowa part of Berks County, Pennsylvania, where he died in 1735, fiftyyears old. From a copy of his will, recorded in the office of theRegister in Philadelphia, we gather that he was a man of considerableproperty. In the inventory of his effects, made after his death, he isstyled by the appraisers, "Mordecai Lincoln, Gentleman. " His son Johnreceived by his father's will "a certain piece of land lying in theJerseys, containing three hundred acres, " the other sons and daughtershaving been liberally provided for from the Pennsylvania property. This John Lincoln left New Jersey some years later, and about 1750established himself in Rockingham County, Virginia. He had five sons, to whom he gave the names which were traditional in the family:--Abraham, the pioneer first mentioned, --Isaac, Jacob, Thomas, and John. Jacob and John remained in Virginia; the former was a soldier in theWar of the Revolution, and took part as lieutenant in a Virginiaregiment at the siege of Yorktown. Isaac went to a place on theHolston River in Tennessee; Thomas followed his brother to Kentucky, lived and died there, and his children then emigrated to Tennessee[Footnote: It is an interesting coincidence for the knowledge of whichwe are indebted to Colonel John B. Brownlow, that a minister namedMordecai Lincoln a relative of the President, performed, on the 17thof May, 1837, the marriage ceremony of Andrew Johnson, Mr. Lincoln'ssuccesor, in the Presidency. ] With the one memorable exception thefamily seem to have been modest, thrifty, unambitious people. Even thegreat fame and conspicuousness of the President did not tempt them outof their retirement. Robert Lincoln, of Hancock County, Illinois, acousin--German, became a captain and commissary of volunteers; none ofthe others, so far as we know, ever made their existence known totheir powerful kinsman during the years of his glory. [Transcriber'sNote: Lengthy footnote relocated to chapter end. ]

It was many years after the death of the President that his sonlearned the probable circumstances under which the pioneer Lincolnremoved to the West, and the intimate relations which subsistedbetween his family and the most celebrated man in early Westernannals. There is little doubt that it was on account of hisassociation with the, famous Daniel Boone that Abraham Lincoln went toKentucky. The families had for a century been closely allied. Therewere frequent intermarriages [Footnote: A letter from David J. Lincoln, of Birdsboro, Berks County, Pennsylvania, to the writers, says, "My grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, was married to Anna Boone, afirst cousin of Daniel Boone, July 10, 1760. " He was half-brother ofJohn Lincoln, and afterwards became a man of some prominence inPennsylvania, serving in the Constitutional Convention in 1789-90. ]among them--both being of Quaker lineage. By the will of MordecaiLincoln, to which reference has been made, his "loving friend andneighbor" George Boone was made a trustee to assist his widow in thecare of the property. Squire Boone, the father of Daniel, was one ofthe appraisers who made the inventory of Mordecai Lincoln's estate. The intercourse between the families was kept up after the Boones hadremoved to North Carolina and John Lincoln had gone to Virginia. Abraham Lincoln, son of John, and grandfather of the President, wasmarried to Miss Mary Shipley [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnoterelocated to chapter end. ] in North Carolina. The inducement which ledhim to leave Virginia, where his standing and his fortune wereassured, was, in all probability, his intimate family relations withthe great explorer, the hero of the new country of Kentucky, the landof fabulous richness and unlimited adventure. At a time when theEastern States were ringing with the fame of the mighty hunter who wasthen in the prime of his manhood, and in the midst of thoseachievements which will forever render him one of the most picturesqueheroes in all our annals, it is not to be wondered at that his owncircle of friends should have caught the general enthusiasm and feltthe desire to emulate his career. 

Boone's exploration of Kentucky had begun some ten years beforeLincoln set out to follow his trail. In 1769 he made his memorablejourney to that virgin wilderness of whose beauty he always loved tospeak even to his latest breath. During all that year he hunted, finding everywhere abundance of game. "The buffalo, " Boone says, "weremore frequent than I have seen cattle in the settlements, browsing onthe leaves of the cane, or cropping the herbage on these extensiveplains, fearless because ignorant of the violence of man. Sometimes wesaw hundreds in a drove, and the numbers about the salt springs wereamazing. " In the course of the winter, however, he was captured by theIndians while hunting with a comrade, and when they had contrived toescape 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 withthe hunter's caution, "Hullo, strangers; who are you?" They replied, "White men and friends. " They proved to be Squire Boone and anotheradventurer from North Carolina. The younger Boone had made that longpilgrimage through the trackless woods, led by an instinct of doglikeaffection, to find his elder brother and share his sylvan pleasuresand dangers. Their two companions were soon waylaid and killed, andthe Boones spent their long winter in that mighty solitudeundisturbed. In the spring their ammunition, which was to them theonly necessary of life, ran low, and one of them must return to thesettlements to replenish the stock. It need not be said which assumedthis duty; the cadet went uncomplaining on his way, and Daniel spentthree months in absolute loneliness, as he himself expressed it, "bymyself, without bread, salt, or sugar, without company of my fellow-creatures, or even a horse or dog. " He was not insensible to thedangers of his situation. He never approached his camp without theutmost precaution, and always slept in the cane-brakes if the signswere unfavorable. But he makes in his memoirs this curious reflection, which would seem like affectation in one less perfectly and simplyheroic: "How unhappy such a situation for a man tormented with fear, which is vain if no danger comes, and if it does, only augments thepain. It was my happiness to be destitute of this afflicting passion, with which I had the greatest reason to be afflicted. " After hisbrother's return, for a year longer they hunted in those lovely wilds, and then returned to the Yadkin to bring their families to the newdomain. They made the long journey back, five hundred miles, in peaceand safety. 

For some time after this Boone took no conspicuous part in thesettlement of Kentucky. The expedition with which he left the Yadkinin 1773 met with a terrible disaster near Cumberland Gap, in which hiseldest son and five more young men were killed by Indians, and thewhole party, discouraged by the blow, retired to the safer region ofClinch River. In the mean time the dauntless speculator RichardHenderson had begun his occupation with all the pomp of viceroyalty. Harrodsburg had been founded, and corn planted, and a flourishingcolony established at the Falls of the Ohio. In 1774 Boone was calledupon by the Governor of Virginia to escort a party of surveyorsthrough Kentucky, and on his return was given the command of threegarrisons; and for several years thereafter the history of the Stateis the record of his feats of arms. No one ever equaled him in hisknowledge of Indian character, and his influence with the savages wasa mystery to him and to themselves. Three times he fell into theirhands and they did not harm him. Twice they adopted him into theirtribes while they were still on the war-path. Once they took him toDetroit, [Footnote: Silas Farmer, historiographer of Detroit, informsus that Daniel Boone was brought there on the 10th of March, 1778, andthat he remained there a month. ] to show the Long-Knife chieftains ofKing Greorge that they also could exhibit trophies of memorableprowess, 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 dogor a deer; he could thread the woods without food day and night; hecould find his way as easily as the panther could. Although a greatathlete and a tireless warrior, he hated fighting and only fought forpeace. In council and in war he was equally valuable. His advice wasnever rejected without disaster, nor followed but with advantage; andwhen the fighting once began there was not a rifle in Kentucky whichcould rival his. At the nine days' siege of Boonesboro' he tookdeliberate aim and killed a negro renegade who was harassing thegarrison from a tree five hundred and twenty-five feet away, and whosehead only was visible from the fort. The mildest and the quietest ofmen, he had killed dozens of enemies with his own hand, and all thiswithout malice and, strangest of all, without incurring the hatred ofhis adversaries. He had self-respect enough, but not a spark ofvanity. After the fatal battle of the Blue Licks, --where the onlypoint of light in the day's terrible work was the wisdom and valorwith which he had partly retrieved a disaster he foresaw but waspowerless to prevent, --when it became his duty, as senior survivingofficer of the forces, to report the affair to Governor Harrison, hisdry and naked narrative gives not a single hint of what he had donehimself, nor mentions the gallant son lying dead on the field, nor thewounded brother whose gallantry might justly have claimed some notice. He was thinking solely of the public good, saying, "I have encouragedthe people in this country all that I could, but I can no longerjustify them or myself to risk our lives here under such extraordinaryhazards. " He therefore begged his Excellency to take immediatemeasures for relief. During the short existence of Henderson'slegislature he was a member of it, and not the least useful one. Amonghis measures was one for the protection of game. 

[Illustration: LAND WARRANT ISSUED TO ABRAHAM LINKHORN (LINCOLN). Theoriginal, of which this is a reduced fac-simile, is in the possessionof Colonel R. T, Durrett, Louisville, Ky. ]

[Sidenote: Jefferson County Records. ]

Everything we know of the emigrant Abraham Lincoln goes to show thatit was under the auspices of this most famous of our pioneers that heset out from Rockingham County to make a home for himself and hisyoung family in that wild region which Boone was wresting from itssavage holders. He was not without means of his own. He took with himfunds enough to enter an amount of land which would have made hisfamily rich if they had retained it. The county records show him tohave been the possessor of a domain of some seventeen hundred acres. There is still in existence [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnoterelocated to chapter end. ] the original warrant, dated March 4, 1780, for four hundred acres of land, for which the pioneer had paid "intothe publick Treasury one hundred and sixty pounds current money, " anda copy of the surveyor's certificate, giving the metes and bounds ofthe property on Floyd's Fork, which remained for many years in thehands of Mordecai Lincoln, the pioneer's eldest son and heir. The namewas misspelled "Linkhorn" by a blunder of the clerk in theland-office, and the error was perpetuated in the subsequent record. 

Kentucky had been for many years the country of romance and fable forVirginians. Twenty years before Governor Spotswood had crossed theAlleghanies and returned to establish in a Williamsburg tavern thatfantastic order of nobility which he called the Knights of The GoldenHorseshoe, [Footnote: Their motto was _Sic jurat transcenderemontes_. ] and, with a worldly wisdom which was scarcely consistentwith these medieval affectations, to press upon the attention of theBritish Government the building of a line of frontier forts to guardthe Ohio River from the French. Many years after him the greatest ofall Virginians crossed the mountains again, and became heavilyinterested in those schemes of emigration which filled the minds ofmany of the leading men in America until they were driven out bygraver cares and more imperative duties. Washington had acquiredclaims and patents to the amount of thirty or forty thousand acres ofland in the West; Benjamin Franklin and the Lees were also largeowners of these speculative titles. They formed, it is true, rather anairy and unsubstantial sort of possession, the same ground being oftenclaimed by a dozen different persons or companies under various grantsfrom the crown or from legislatures, or through purchase byadventurers from Indian councils. But about the time of which we arespeaking the spirit of emigration had reached the lower strata ofcolonial society, and a steady stream of pioneers began pouring overthe passes of the mountains into the green and fertile valleys ofKentucky and Tennessee. They selected their homes in the most eligiblespots to which chance or the report of earlier explorers directedthem, with little knowledge or care as to the rightful ownership ofthe land, and too often cleared their corner of the wilderness for thebenefit of others. Even Boone, to whose courage, forest lore, andsingular intuitions of savage character the State of Kentucky owedmore than to any other man, was deprived in his old age of his hard-earned homestead through his ignorance of legal forms, and removed toMissouri to repeat in that new territory his labors and hismisfortunes. 

[Illustration: FAC-SIMILE FROM THE FIELD BOOK OF DANIEL BOONE. Thisrecord of the Lincoln Claim on Licking River is from the original inposession of Lyman C. Draper, Madison, Wis. ]

[Sidenote: 1780. ]

The period at which Lincoln came West was one of note in the historyof Kentucky. The labors of Henderson and the Transylvania Company hadbegun to bear fruit in extensive plantations and a connected system offorts. The land laws of Kentucky had reduced to something like orderthe chaos of conflicting claims arising from the various grants andthe different preemption customs under which settlers occupied theirproperty. The victory of Boone at Boonesboro' against the Shawnees, and the capture of Kaskaskia and Vincennes by the brilliant audacityof George Rogers Clark, had brought the region prominently to theattention of the Atlantic States, and had turned in that direction therestless and roving spirits which are always found in communities atperiods when great emigrations are a need of civilization. Up to thistime 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 ofspeculation. But in 1780 and 1781 a large number of families took uptheir line of march, and in the latter year a considerable contingentof women joined the little army of pioneers, impelled by an instinctwhich they themselves probably but half comprehended. The country wasto be peopled, and there was no other way of peopling it but by thesacrifice of many lives and fortunes; and the history of every countryshows that these are never lacking when they are wanted. The number ofthose who came at about the same time with the pioneer Lincoln wassufficient to lay the basis of a sort of social order. Early in theyear 1780 three hundred "large family boats" arrived at the Falls ofthe Ohio, where the land had been surveyed by Captain Bullitt sevenyears before, and in May the Legislature of Virginia passed a law forthe incorporation of the town of Louisville, then containing some sixhundred inhabitants. At the same session a law was passed confiscatingthe property of certain British subjects for the endowment of aninstitution of learning in Kentucky, "it being the interest of thiscommonwealth, " to quote the language of the philosophic Legislature, "always to encourage and promote every design which may tend to theimprovement of the mind and the diffusion of useful knowledge evenamong its remote citizens, whose situation in a barbarous neighborhoodand a savage intercourse might otherwise render them unfriendly toscience. " This was the origin of the Transylvania University ofLexington, which rose and flourished for many years on the utmostverge of civilization. 

[Illustration: SURVEYOR'S CERTIFICATE (SLIGHTLY REDUCED), TAKEN FROMRECORD BOOK "B, " PAGE 60, IN THE OFFICE OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, KENTUCKY. ]

The "barbarous neighborhood" and the "savage intercourse" undoubtedlyhad their effect upon the manners and morals of the settlers; but weshould fall into error if we took it for granted that the pioneerswere all of one piece. The ruling motive which led most of them to thewilds was that Anglo-Saxon lust of land which seems inseparable fromthe race. The prospect of possessing a four-hundred-acre farm bymerely occupying it, and the privilege of exchanging a basketful ofalmost worthless continental currency for an unlimited estate at thenominal value of forty cents per acre, were irresistible to thousandsof land-loving Virginians and Carolinians whose ambition ofproprietorship was larger than their means. Accompanying this flood ofemigrants of good faith was the usual froth and scum of shiftlessidlers and adventurers, who were either drifting with a current theywere too worthless to withstand, or in pursuit of dishonest gains infresher and simpler regions. The vices and virtues of the pioneerswere such as proceeded from their environment. They were careless ofhuman life because life was worth comparatively little in that hardstruggle for existence; but they had a remarkably clear idea of thevalue of property, and visited theft not only with condign punishment, but also with the severest social proscription. Stealing a horse waspunished more swiftly and with more feeling than homicide. A man mightbe replaced more easily than the other animal. Sloth was the worst ofweaknesses. An habitual drunkard was more welcome at "raisings" and"logrollings" than a known faineant. The man who did not do a man'sshare where work was to be done was christened "Lazy Lawrence, " andthat was the end of him socially. Cowardice was punished by inexorabledisgrace. The point of honor was as strictly observed as it ever hasbeen in the idlest and most artificial society. If a man accusedanother of falsehood, the ordeal by fisticuffs was instantly resortedto. Weapons were rarely employed in these chivalrous encounters, beingkept for more serious use with Indians and wild beasts; neverthelessfists, teeth, and the gouging thumb were often employed with fataleffect. Yet among this rude and uncouth people there was a genuine andremarkable respect for law. They seemed to recognize it as an absolutenecessity of their existence. In the territory of Kentucky, andafterwards in that of Illinois, it occurred at several periods in thetransition from counties to territories and states, that the countrywas without any organized authority. But the people were a law untothemselves. Their improvised courts and councils administered law andequity; contracts were enforced, debts were collected, and a sort oforder was maintained. It may be said, generally, that the character ofthis people was far above their circumstances. In all the accessoriesof life, by which we are accustomed to rate communities and races inthe scale of civilization, they were little removed from primitivebarbarism. They dressed in the skins of wild beasts killed bythemselves, and in linen stuffs woven by themselves. They hardly knewthe use of iron except in their firearms and knives. Their foodconsisted almost exclusively of game, fish, and roughly ground corn-meal. Their exchanges were made by barter; many a child grew upwithout ever seeing a piece of money. Their habitations were hardlysuperior to those of the savages with whom they waged constant war. Large families lived in log huts, put together without iron, and farmore open to the inclemencies of the skies than the pig-styes of thecareful farmer of to-day. An early schoolmaster says that the firstplace where he went to board was the house of one Lucas, consisting ofa single room, sixteen feet square, and tenanted by Mr. And Mrs. Lucas, ten children, three dogs, two cats, and himself. There weremany who lived in hovels so cold that they had to sleep on their shoesto keep them from freezing too stiff to be put on. The children grewinured to misery like this, and played barefoot in the snow. It is anerror to suppose that all this could be undergone with impunity. Theysuffered terribly from malarial and rheumatic complaints, and theinstances of vigorous and painless age were rare among them. The lackof moral and mental sustenance was still more marked. They wereinclined to be a religious people, but a sermon was an unusual luxury, only to be enjoyed at long intervals and by great expense of time. There were few books or none, and there was little opportunity for theexchange of opinion. Any variation in the dreary course of events waswelcome. A murder was not without its advantages as a stimulus toconversation; a criminal trial was a kind of holiday to a county. Itwas this poverty of life, this famine of social gratification, fromwhich sprang their fondness for the grosser forms of excitement, andtheir tendency to rough and brutal practical joking. In a life liketheirs a laugh seemed worth having at any expense. 

[Illustration: HOUSE NEAR BEECHLAND, KENTUCKY, IN WHICH THOMAS LINCOLNAND NANCY HANKS WERE MARRIED. ]

But near as they were to barbarism in all the circumstances of theirdaily existence, they were far from it politically. They were thechildren of a race which had been trained in government for centuriesin the best school the world has ever seen, and wherever they wentthey formed the town, the county, the court, and the legislative powerwith the ease and certainty of nature evolving its results. And thisthey accomplished in the face of a savage foe surrounding their feeblesettlements, always alert and hostile, invisible and dreadful as thevisionary powers of the air. Until the treaty of Greenville, in 1795, closed the long and sanguinary history of the old Indian wars, therewas no day in which the pioneer could leave his cabin with thecertainty of not finding it in ashes when he returned, and his littleflock murdered on his threshold, or carried into a captivity worsethan death. Whenever nightfall came with the man of the house awayfrom home, the anxiety and care of the women and children were nonethe less bitter because so common. 

[Illustration: MAP SHOWING VARIOUS LOCALITIES CONNECTED WITH EARLYEVENTS IN THE LINCOLN FAMILY. ]

The life of the pioneer Abraham Lincoln soon came to a disastrousclose. He had settled in Jefferson County, on the land he had boughtfrom the Government, and cleared a small farm in the forest. [Footnote: Lyman C. Draper, of the Wisconsin Historical Society, haskindly furnished us with a MS account of a Kentucky traditionaccording to which the pioneer Abraham Lincoln was captured by theIndians, near Crow's Station, in August, 1782, carried into captivity, and forced to run the gauntlet. The story rests on the statement of asingle person, Mrs. Sarah Graham. ] One morning in the year 1784, hestarted with his three sons, Mordecai, Josiah, and Thomas, to the edgeof the clearing, and began the day's work. A shot from the brushkilled the father; Mordecai, the eldest son, ran instinctively to thehouse, Josiah to the neighboring fort, for assistance, and Thomas, theyoungest, a child of six, was left with the corpse of his father. Mordecai, reaching the cabin, seized the rifle, and saw through theloophole an Indian in his war-paint stooping to raise the child fromthe ground. He took deliberate aim at a white ornament on the breastof the savage and brought him down. The little boy, thus released, ranto the cabin, and Mordecai, from the loft, renewed his fire upon thesavages, who began to show themselves from the thicket, until Josiahreturned 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 sportsmanlikepleasure in his successful shot, made him a determined Indian-stalker, and he rarely stopped to inquire whether the red man who came withinrange of his rifle was friendly or hostile. [Footnote: Late in lifeMordecai Lincoln removed to Hancock County, Illinois, where hisdescendants still live. ]

[Illustration: FAC-SIMILE OF THE MARRIAGE BOND OF THOMAS LINCOLN. ]

The head of the family being gone, the widow Lincoln soon removed to amore thickly settled neighborhood in Washington County. There herchildren grew up. Mordecai and Josiah became reputable citizens; thetwo daughters married two men named Crume and Brumfield. Thomas, towhom were reserved the honors of an illustrious paternity, learned thetrade of a carpenter. He was an easy-going man, entirely withoutambition, but not without self-respect. Though the friendliest andmost jovial of gossips, he was not insensible to affronts; and whenhis slow anger was roused he was a formidable adversary. Severalborder bullies, at different times, crowded him indiscreetly, and werepromptly and thoroughly whipped. He was strong, well-knit, and sinewy;but little over the medium height, though in other respects he seemsto have resembled his son in appearance. 

On the 12th of June, 1806, [Footnote: All previous accounts give thedate of this marriage as September 23d. This error arose from aclerical blunder in the county record of marriages. The minister, theRev. Jesse Head, in making his report, wrote the date before thenames; the clerk, copying it, lost the proper sequence of the entries, and gave to the Lincolns the date belonging to the next couple on thelist. ] 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. [Transcriber's Note: Lengthyfootnote (1) relocated to chapter end. ] She was one of a large familywho had emigrated from Virginia with the Lincolns and with anotherfamily called Sparrow. They had endured together the trials of pioneerlife; their close relations continued for many years after, and werecemented 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 LeviHall. The childhood of Nancy was passed with the Sparrows, and she wasoftener called by their name than by her own. The whole familyconnection was composed of people so little given to letters that itis hard to determine the proper names and relationships of the youngermembers amid the tangle of traditional cousinships. [Footnote: TheHanks family seem to have gone from Pennsylvania and thence toKentucky about the same time with the Lincolns. They also belonged tothe Communion of Friends. --"Historical Collections of Gwynnedd, " by H. M. Jenkins. ] Those who went to Indiana with Thomas Lincoln, and grewup with his children, are the only ones that need demand ourattention. 

There was no hint of future glory in the wedding or the bringing homeof Nancy Lincoln. All accounts represent her as a handsome young womanof twenty-three, of appearance and intellect superior to her lowlyfortunes. She could read and write, --a remarkable accomplishment inher circle, --and even taught her husband to form the letters of hisname. He had no such valuable wedding gift to bestow upon her; hebrought her to a little house in Elizabethtown, where he and she andwant dwelt together in fourteen feet square. The next year a daughterwas born to them; and the next the young carpenter, not finding hiswork remunerative enough for his growing needs, removed to a littlefarm 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 Hardinand is now La Rue County, three miles from Hodgensville. The groundhad nothing attractive about it but its cheapness. It was hardly moregrateful than the rocky hill slopes of New England. It required fullas earnest and intelligent industry to persuade a living out of thosebarren hillocks and weedy hollows, covered with stunted and scrubbyunderbrush, as it would amid the rocks and sands of the northerncoast. 

Thomas Lincoln settled down in this dismal solitude to a deeperpoverty than any of his name had ever known; and there, in the midstof the most unpromising circumstances that ever witnessed the adventof a hero into this world, Abraham Lincoln was born on the 12th day ofFebruary, 1809. 

Four years later, Thomas Lincoln purchased a fine farm of 238 acres onKnob Creek, near where it flows into the Rolling Fork, and succeededin getting a portion of it into cultivation. The title, however, remained in him only a little while, and after his property had passedout of his control he looked about for another place to establishhimself. 

[Illustration: This Certificate, or Marriage List (here shown inreduced fac-simile), written by the Rev. Jesse Head, was lost sight offor many years, and about 1886 was discovered through the efforts ofW. F. Booker, Clerk of Washington County, Kentucky. ]

Of all these years of Abraham Lincoln's early childhood we know almostnothing. He lived a solitary life in the woods, returning from hislonesome little games to his cheerless home. He never talked of thesedays to his most intimate friends. [Transcriber's Note: Lengthyfootnote (2) relocated to chapter end. ] Once, when asked what heremembered about the war with Great Britain, he replied: "Nothing butthis. I had been fishing one day and caught a little fish which I wastaking home. I met a soldier in the road, and, having been always toldat 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 ratherpleasant--the generous child and the patriotic household. But there isno question that these first years of his life had their lastingeffect upon the temperament of this great mirthful and melancholy man. He had little schooling. He accompanied his sister Sarah [Footnote:This daughter of Thomas Lincoln is sometimes called Nancy andsometimes Sarah. She seems to have borne the former name during hermother's life-time, and to have taken her stepmother's name after Mr. Lincoln's second marriage. ] to the only schools that existed in theirneighborhood, one kept by Zachariah Riney, another by Caleb Hazel, where he learned his alphabet and a little more. But of all thoseadvantages for the cultivation of a young mind and spirit which everyhome now offers to its children, the books, toys, ingenious games, anddaily devotion of parental love, he knew absolutely nothing. 

[Relocated Footnote: Soon after Mr. Lincoln arrived in Washington in1861, he received the following letter from one of his Virginiakinsmen, the last communication which ever came from them. It waswritten on paper adorned with a portrait of Jefferson Davis, and wasinclosed in an envelope emblazoned with the Confederate flag:

"To ABRAHAM LINCOLN, Esq. , _President of the Northern Confederacy_. 

"SIR: Having just returned from a trip through Virginia, NorthCarolina, and Tennessee, permit me to inform you that you will getwhipped out of your boots. To-day I met a gentleman from Anna, Illinois, and although he voted for you he says that the moment yourtroops leave Cairo they will get the spots knocked out of them. Mydear sir, these are facts which time will prove to be correct. 

"I am, sir, with every consideration, yours respectfully, "MINOR LINCOLN, "Of the Staunton stock of Lincolns. "

There was a young Abraham Lincoln on the Confederate side in theShenandoah distinguished for his courage and ferocity. He lay in waitand shot a Drunkard preacher, whom he suspected of furnishinginformation to the Union army. (Letter from Samuel W. Pennypacker. )]

[Relocated Footnote: In giving to the wife of the pioneer Lincoln thename of Mary Shipley we follow the tradition in his family. The Hon. J. L. Nall, of Missouri, grandson of Nancy (Lincoln) Brumfield, Abraham Lincoln's youngest child, has given us so clear a statement ofthe case that we cannot hesitate to accept it, although it conflictswith equally positive statements from other sources. The late GideonWelles, Secretary of the Navy, who gave much intelligent effort togenealogical researches, was convinced that the Abraham Lincoln whomarried Miss Hannah Winters, a daughter of Ann Boone, sister of thefamous Daniel, was the President's grandfather. Waddell's "Annals ofAugusta County" says he married Elizabeth Winter, a cousin of DanielBoone. The Boone and Lincoln families were large and there werefrequent intermarriages among them, and the patriarchal name ofAbraham was a favorite one. There was still another Lincoln, Hannaniahby name, who was also intimately associated with the Boones. Hissignature appears on the surveyor's certificate for Abraham Lincoln'sland in Jefferson County, and he joined Daniel Boone in 1798 in thepurchase of the tract of land on the Missouri River where Boone died. (Letter from Richard V. B. Lincoln, printed in the "Williamsport[Pa. ] Banner, " Feb. 25, 1881. )]

[Relocated Footnote: In the possession of Colonel Reuben T. Durrett, of Louisville, a gentleman who has made the early history of his Statea subject of careful study, and to whom we are greatly indebted forinformation in regard to the settlement of the Lincolns in Kentucky. He gives the following list of lands in that State owned by AbrahamLincoln:

1. Four hundred acres on Long Run, a branch of Floyd's Fork, inJefferson County, entered May 29, 1780, and surveyed May 7, 1785. Wehave in our possession the original patent issued by Governor Garrard, of Kentucky, to Abraham Lincoln for this property. It was found byCol. A. C. Matthews, of the 99th Illinois, in 1863, at an abandonedresidence near Indianola, Texas. 

2. Eight hundred acres on Green River, near Green River Lick, enteredJune 7, 1780, and surveyed October 12, 1784. 

3. Five hundred acres in Campbell County, date of entry not known, butsurveyed September 27, 1798, and patented June 30, 1799--the surveyand patent evidently following his entry after his death. It ispossible that this was the five-hundred-acre tract found in Boone'sfield-book, in the possession of Lyman C. Draper, Esq. , Secretary ofthe Wisconsin Historical Society, and erroneously supposed by some tohave been in Mercer County. Boone was a deputy of Colonel ThomasMarshall, Surveyor of Fayette County. ]

[Relocated Footnote (1): The following is a copy of the marriage bond:

"Know all men by these presents, that we, Thomas Lincoln and RichardBerry, are held and firmly bound unto his Excellency, the Governor ofKentucky, in the just and full sum of fifty pounds current money to thepayment of which well and truly to be made to the said Governor and hissuccessors, we bind ourselves, our heirs, etc. , jointly and severally, firmly by these presents, sealed with our seals and dated this 10th dayof June, 1806. The condition of the above obligation is such thatwhereas there is a marriage shortly intended between the above boundThomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, for which a license has issued, now ifthere be no lawful cause to obstruct the said marriage, then thisobligation to be void, else to remain in full force and virtue in law. 

 "THOMAS LINCOLN [Seal]. "RICHARD BERRY [Seal]. "_Witness_, JOHN H. PARROTT, Guardian. "

Richard Berry was a connection of Lincoln; his wife was a Shipley. ]

[Relocated Footnote (2): There is still living (1886) near Knob Creekin Kentucky, at the age of eighty, a man who claims to have knownAbraham Lincoln in his childhood--Austin Gollaher. He says he used toplay with Abe Lincoln in the shavings of his father's carpenter shop. He tells a story which, if accurate, entitles him to the civic crownwhich the Romans used to give to one who saved the life of a citizen. When Gollaher was eleven and Lincoln eight the two boys were in thewoods in pursuit of partridges; in trying to "coon" across Knob Creekon a log, Lincoln fell in and Gollaher fished him out with a sycamorebranch--a service to the Republic, the value of which it would bedifficult to compute. ]

CHAPTER II

INDIANA

[Sidenote: 1818. ]

By the time the boy Abraham had attained his seventh year, the socialcondition of Kentucky had changed considerably from the early pioneerdays. Life had assumed a more settled and orderly course. The oldbarbarous equality of the earlier time was gone; a difference ofclasses began to be seen. Those who held slaves assumed a distinctsocial superiority over those who did not. Thomas Lincoln, concludingthat Kentucky was no country for a poor man, determined to seek hisfortune in Indiana. He had heard of rich and unoccupied lands in PerryCounty in that State, and thither he determined to go. He built a ruderaft, loaded it with his kit of tools and four hundred gallons ofwhisky, and trusted his fortunes to the winding water-courses. He metwith only one accident on his way: his raft capsized in the OhioRiver, but he fished up his kit of tools and most of the ardentspirits, and arrived safely at the place of a settler named Posey, with whom he left his odd invoice of household goods for thewilderness, while he started on foot to look for a home in the denseforest. He selected a spot which pleased him in his first day'sjourney. He then walked back to Knob Creek and brought his family onto their new home. No humbler cavalcade ever invaded the Indianatimber. Besides his wife and two children, his earthly possessionswere of the slightest, for the backs of two borrowed horses sufficedfor the load. Insufficient bedding and clothing, a few pans andkettles, were their sole movable wealth. They relied on Lincoln's kitof tools for their furniture, and on his rifle for their food. AtPosey's they hired a wagon and literally hewed a path through thewilderness to their new habitation near Little Pigeon Creek, a mileand a half east of Gentryville, in a rich and fertile forest country. 

Thomas Lincoln, with the assistance of his wife and children, built atemporary shelter of the sort called in the frontier language "a half-faced camp"; merely a shed of poles, which defended the inmates onthree sides from foul weather, but left them open to its inclemency infront. For a whole year his family lived in this wretched fold, whilehe was clearing a little patch of ground for planting corn, andbuilding a rough cabin for a permanent residence. They moved into thelatter before it was half completed; for by this time the Sparrows hadfollowed the Lincolns from Kentucky, and the half-faced camp was givenup to them. But the rude cabin seemed so spacious and comfortableafter the squalor of "the camp, " that Thomas Lincoln did no furtherwork on it for a long time. He left it for a year or two withoutdoors, or windows, or floor. The battle for existence allowed him notime for such superfluities. He raised enough corn to support life;the dense forest around him abounded in every form of feathered game;a little way from his cabin an open glade was full of deer-licks, andan hour or two of idle waiting was generally rewarded by a shot at afine deer, which would furnish meat for a week, and material forbreeches and shoes. His cabin was like that of other pioneers. A fewthree-legged stools; a bedstead made of poles stuck between the logsin the angle of the cabin, the outside corner supported by a crotchedstick driven into the ground; the table, a huge hewed log standing onfour legs; a pot, kettle, and skillet, and a few tin and pewter disheswere all the furniture. The boy Abraham climbed at night to his bed ofleaves in the loft, by a ladder of wooden pins driven into the logs. 

This life has been vaunted by poets and romancers as a happy andhealthful one. Even Dennis Hanks, speaking of his youthful days whenhis only home was the half-faced camp, says, "I tell you, Billy, Ienjoyed myself better then than I ever have since. " But we maydistrust the reminiscences of old settlers, who see their youth in theflattering light of distance. The life was neither enjoyable norwholesome. The rank woods were full of malaria, and singular epidemicsfrom time to time ravaged the settlements. In the autumn of 1818 thelittle community of Pigeon Creek was almost exterminated by afrightful pestilence called the milk-sickness, or, in the dialect ofthe country, "the milk-sick. " It is a mysterious disease which hasbeen the theme of endless wrangling among Western physicians, and thedifficulty of ascertaining anything about it has been greatlyincreased by the local sensitiveness which forbids any one to admitthat any well-defined case has ever been seen in his neighborhood, "although just over the creek (or in the next county) they have had itbad. " It seems to have been a malignant form of fever--attributedvariously to malaria and to the eating of poisonous herbs by thecattle--attacking cattle as well as human beings, attended withviolent retching and a burning sensation in the stomach, oftenterminating fatally on the third day. In many cases those whoapparently recovered lingered for years with health seriouslyimpaired. Among the Pioneers of Pigeon Creek, so ill-fed, ill-housed, and uncared for, there was little prospect of recovery from such agrave disorder. The Sparrows, husband 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 cutwith a whipsaw, " and they were all buried, with scant ceremony, in alittle clearing of the forest. It is related of young Abraham, that hesorrowed most of all that his mother should have been laid away withsuch maimed rites, and that he contrived several months later to havea wandering preacher named David Elkin brought to the settlement, todeliver a funeral sermon over her grave, already white with the earlywinter snows. [Footnote: A stone has been placed over the site of thegrave "by P. E. Studebaker, of South Bend, Indiana. " The stone bearsthe following inscription: "Nancy Hanks Lincoln, mother of PresidentLincoln, died October 5th, A. D. 1818, aged 35 years. Erected by afriend of her martyred son, 1879. "]

This was the dreariest winter of his life, for before the nextDecember came his father had brought from Kentucky a new wife, who wasto change the lot of all the desolate little family very much for thebetter. Sarah Bush had been an acquaintance of Thomas Lincoln beforehis first marriage; she had, it is said, rejected him to marry oneJohnston, the jailer at Elizabethtown, who had died, leaving her withthree children, a boy and two girls. When Lincoln's widowhood hadlasted a year, he went down to Elizabethtown to begin again the wooingbroken off so many years before. He wasted no time in preliminaries, but promptly made his wishes known, and the next morning they weremarried. It was growing late in the autumn, and the pioneer probablydreaded another lonely winter on Pigeon Creek. Mrs. Johnston was notaltogether portionless. She had a store of household goods whichfilled a four-horse wagon borrowed of Ralph Grume, Thomas Lincoln'sbrother-in-law, to transport the bride to Indiana. It took little timefor this energetic and honest Christian woman to make her influencefelt, even in those discouraging surroundings, and Thomas Lincoln andthe children were the better for her coming all the rest of theirlives. The lack of doors and floors was at once corrected. Her honestpride inspired her husband to greater thrift and industry. The goodsshe brought with her compelled some effort at harmony in the otherfittings of the house. She dressed the children in warmer clothing andput them to sleep in comfortable beds. With this slight addition totheir resources the family were much improved in appearance, behavior, and self-respect. 

[Illustration: SARAH BUSH LINCOLN AT THE AGE OF SEVENTY-SIX. ]

Thomas Lincoln joined the Baptist church at Little Pigeon in 1823; hisoldest child, Sarah, followed his example three years later. They wereknown as active and consistent members of that communion. Lincoln washimself a good carpenter when he chose to work at his trade; a walnuttable made by him is still preserved as part of the furniture of thechurch to which he belonged. 

[Sidenote: MS. Letter from the Rev. T. V. Robertson, pastor of theLittle Pigeon Baptist church. ]

Such a woman as Sarah Bush could not be careless of so important amatter as the education of her children, and they made the best use ofthe scanty opportunities the neighborhood afforded. "It was a wildregion, " writes Mr. Lincoln, in one of those rare bits ofautobiography which he left behind him, "with many bears and otherwild animals 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 supposedto understand Latin happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he waslooked upon as a wizard. There was absolutely nothing to exciteambition for education. " But in the case of this ungainly boy therewas no necessity of any external incentive. A thirst for knowledge asa means of rising in the world was innate in him. It had nothing to dowith that love of science for its own sake which has been so oftenseen in lowly savants, who have sacrificed their lives to the puredesire of knowing the works of God. All the little learning he everacquired he seized as a tool to better his condition. He learned hisletters that he might read books and see how men in the great worldoutside of his woods had borne themselves in the fight for which helonged. He learned to write, first, that he might have anaccomplishment his playmates had not; then that he might help hiselders by writing their letters, and enjoy the feeling of usefulnesswhich this gave him; and finally that he might copy what struck him inhis reading and thus make it his own for future use. He learned tocipher certainly from no love of mathematics, but because it mightcome in play in some more congenial business than the farm-work whichbounded the horizon of his contemporaries. Had it not been for thatinterior spur which kept his clear spirit at its task, his schoolscould have done little for him; for, counting his attendance underRiney and Hazel in Kentucky, and under Dorsey, Crawford, and Swaney inIndiana, it amounted to less than a year in all. The schools were muchalike. They were held in deserted cabins of round logs, with earthenfloors, and small holes for windows, sometimes illuminated by as muchlight as could penetrate through panes of paper greased with lard. Theteachers were usually in keeping with their primitive surroundings. The profession offered no rewards sufficient to attract men ofeducation or capacity. After a few months of desultory instructionyoung Abraham knew all that these vagrant literati could teach him. His last school-days were passed with one Swaney in 1826, who taughtat a distance of four and a half miles from the Lincoln cabin. Thenine miles of walking doubtless seemed to Thomas Lincoln a waste oftime, 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 ofthe ministrations of the backwoods dominies. When his tasks ended, hisstudies became the chief pleasure of his life. In all the intervals ofhis work--in which he never took delight, knowing well enough that hewas born for something better than that--he read, wrote, and cipheredincessantly. 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 wascertainly fortunate in the few books of which he became the possessor. It would hardly be possible to select a better handful of classics fora youth in his circumstances than the few volumes he turned with anightly and daily hand--the Bible, "Aesop's Fables, " "Robinson 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 andover till he knew them almost by heart. But his voracity for anythingprinted was insatiable. He would sit in the twilight and read adictionary as long as he could see. He used to go to David Turnham's, the town constable, and devour the "Revised Statutes of Indiana, " asboys in our day do the "Three Guardsmen. " Of the books he did not ownhe took voluminous notes, filling his copy-book with choice extracts, and poring over them until they were fixed in his memory. He could notafford to waste paper upon his original compositions. He would sit bythe fire at night and cover the wooden shovel with essays andarithmetical exercises, which he would shave off and then begin again. It is touching to think of this great-spirited child, battling yearafter year against his evil star, wasting his ingenuity upon devicesand makeshifts, his high intelligence starving for want of the simpleappliances of education that are now offered gratis to the poorest andmost indifferent. He did a man's work from the time he left school;his strength and stature were already far beyond those of ordinarymen. He wrought his appointed tasks ungrudgingly, though withoutenthusiasm; but when his employer's day was over, his own began. JohnHanks says: "When Abe and I returned to the house from work he wouldgo to the cupboard, snatch a piece of corn-bread, take down a book, sit down, cock his legs up as high as his head, and read. " The picturemay be lacking in grace, but its truthfulness is beyond question. Thehabit remained with him always. Some of his greatest work in lateryears was done in this grotesque Western fashion, --"sitting on hisshoulder-blades. "

[Sidenote: W. H. Lamou "Life of Lincoln, " p. 37. ]

[Sidenote: Damon, p. 80. ]

Otherwise his life at this time differed little from that of ordinaryfarm-hands. His great strength and intelligence made him a valuablelaborer, and his unfailing good temper and flow of rude rustic witrendered him the most agreeable of comrades. He was always ready withsome kindly act or word for others. Once he saved the life of the towndrunkard, whom he found freezing by the roadside, by carrying him inhis strong arms to the tavern, and working over him until he revived. It is a curious fact that this act of common humanity was regarded assomething remarkable in the neighborhood; the grateful sot himselfalways said "it was mighty clever of Abe to tote me so far that coldnight. " It was also considered an eccentricity that he hated andpreached against cruelty to animals. Some of his comrades rememberstill his bursts of righteous wrath, when a boy, against the wantonmurder of turtles and other creatures. He was evidently of better andfiner clay than his fellows, even in those wild and ignorant days. Athome he was the life of the singularly assorted household, whichconsisted, besides his parents and himself, of his own sister, Mrs. Lincoln's two girls and boy, Dennis Hanks, the legacy of the dyingSparrow family, and John Hanks (son of the carpenter Joseph with whomThomas Lincoln learned his trade), who came from Kentucky severalyears after the others. It was probably as much the inexhaustible goodnature and kindly helpfulness of young Abraham which kept the peaceamong all these heterogeneous elements, effervescing with youth andconfined in a one-roomed cabin, as it was the Christian sweetness andfirmness of the woman of the house. It was a happy and unitedhousehold: brothers and sisters and cousins living peacefully underthe gentle rule of the good stepmother, but all acknowledging from avery early period the supremacy in goodness and cleverness of theirbig brother Abraham. Mrs. Lincoln, not long before her death, gavestriking 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 orappearance to do anything I asked him. His mind and mine--what littleI had--seemed to run together. .. . I had a son John, who was raisedwith Abe. Both were good boys, but I must say, both now being dead, that Abe was the best boy I ever saw or expect to see. " Such were thebeginnings of this remarkable career, sacred as we see from childhood, to duty and to human kindliness. 

"We are making no claim of early saintship for him. He was merely agood boy, with sufficient wickedness to prove his humanity. One of hisemployers, undazzled by recent history, faithfully remembers thatyoung Abe liked his dinner and his pay better than his work: there issurely nothing alien to ordinary mortality in this. It is alsoreported that he sometimes impeded the celerity of harvest operationsby making burlesque speeches, or worse than that, comic sermons, fromthe top of some tempting stump, to the delight of the hired hands andthe exasperation of the farmer. His budding talents as a writer werenot always used discreetly. He was too much given to scribbling coarsesatires and chronicles, in prose, and in something which had to himand his friends the air of verse. From this arose occasional heart-burnings and feuds, in which Abraham bore his part according to thecustom of the country. Despite his Quaker ancestry and his naturallove of peace, he was no non-resistant, and when he once entered upona quarrel the opponent usually had the worst of it. But he wasgenerous and placable, and some of his best friends were those withwhom he had had differences, and had settled them in the way thenprevalent, --in a ring of serious spectators, calmly and judiciallyruminant, under the shade of some spreading oak, at the edge of thetimber. Before we close our sketch of this period of Lincoln's life, it may not be amiss to glance for a moment at the state of societyamong the people with whom his lot was cast in these important years. 

In most respects there had been little moral or material improvementsince the early settlement of the country. Their houses were usuallyof one room, built of round logs with the bark on. We have known a manto gain the sobriquet of "Split-log Mitchell" by indulging in theluxury of building a cabin of square-hewn timbers. Their dress wasstill mostly of tanned deer-hide, a material to the last degreeuncomfortable when the wearer was caught in a shower. Their shoes wereof the same, and a good Western authority calls a wet moccasin "adecent way of going barefoot. " About the time, however, when Lincolngrew to manhood, garments of wool and of tow began to be worn, dyedwith the juice of the butternut or white walnut, and the hides ofneat-cattle began to be tanned. But for a good while it was only thewomen who indulged in these novelties. There was little publicworship. Occasionally an itinerant preacher visited a county, and thesettlers for miles around would go nearly in mass to the meeting. If aman was possessed of a wagon, the family rode luxuriously; but as arule the men walked and the women went on horseback with the littlechildren in their arms. It was considered no violation of thesanctities of the occasion to carry a rifle and take advantage of anygame which might be stirring during the long walk. Arriving at theplace of meeting, which was some log cabin if the weather was foul, orthe shade of a tree if it was fair, the assembled worshipers threwtheir provisions into a common store and picnicked in neighborlycompanionship. The preacher would then take off his coat, and go athis 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 wastefullyburned; for wolf-hunts, where a tall pole was erected in the midst ofa prairie or clearing, and a great circle of hunters formed around it, sometimes of miles in diameter, which, gradually contracting withshouts and yells, drove all the game in the woods together at the polefor slaughter; and for horse-races, which bore little resemblance tothose magnificent exhibitions which are the boast of Kentucky at thistime. In these affairs the women naturally took no part; but weddings, which were entertainments scarcely less rude and boisterous, weretheir own peculiar province. These festivities lasted rarely less thantwenty-four hours. The guests assembled in the morning. There was arace for the whisky bottle; a midday dinner; an afternoon of roughgames and outrageous practical jokes; a supper and dance at night, interrupted by the successive withdrawals of the bride and of thegroom, attended with ceremonies and jests of more than Rabelaisiancrudeness; and a noisy dispersal next day. 

[Sidenote: O. H. Smith, "Early Indiana Trials, " p. 285. ]

The one point at which they instinctively clung to civilization wastheir regard for law and reverence for courts of justice. Yet thesewere of the simplest character and totally devoid of any adventitiousaccessories. An early jurist of the country writes: "I was CircuitProsecuting Attorney at the time of the trials at the falls of FallCreek, where Pendleton now stands. Four of the prisoners wereconvicted of murder, and three of them hung, for killing Indians. Thecourt was held in a double log cabin, the grand jury sat upon a log inthe woods, and the foreman signed the bills of indictment, which I hadprepared, upon his knee; there was not a petit juror that had shoeson; all wore moccasins, and were belted around the waist, and carriedside-knives used by the hunters. " Yet amidst all this apparentsavagery we see justice was done, and the law vindicated even againstthe bitterest prejudices of these pioneer jurymen. 

[Sidenote: Lamon, p. 44. ]

They were full of strange superstitions. The belief in witchcraft hadlong ago passed away with the smoke of the fagots from old and NewEngland, but it survived far into this century in Kentucky and thelower halves of Indiana and Illinois--touched with a peculiar tinge ofAfrican magic. The pioneers believed in it for good and evil. Theirveterinary practice was mostly by charms and incantations; and when aperson believed himself bewitched, a shot at the image of the witchwith a bullet melted out of a half-dollar was the favorite curativeagency. Luck was an active divinity in their apprehension, powerfulfor blessing or bane, announced by homely signs, to be placated byquaint ceremonies. A dog crossing the hunter's path spoiled his day, unless he instantly hooked his little fingers together, and pulledtill the animal disappeared. They were familiar with the ever-recurring mystification of the witch-hazel, or divining-rod; and the"cure by faith" was as well known to them as it has since become in amore sophisticated state of society. The commonest occurrences wereheralds of death and doom. A bird lighting in a window, a dog bayingat certain hours, the cough of a horse in the direction of a child, the sight, or worse still, the touch of a dead snake, heraldeddomestic woe. A wagon driving past the house with a load of basketswas a warning of atmospheric disturbance. A vague and ignorantastronomy governed their plantings and sowings, the breeding of theircattle, and all farm-work. They must fell trees for fence-rails beforenoon, and in the waxing of the moon. Fences built when there was nomoon would give way; but that was the proper season for plantingpotatoes and other vegetables whose fruit grows underground; thosewhich bore their product in the air must be planted when the moonshone. The magical power of the moon was wide in its influence; itextended to the most minute details of life. 

[Sidenote: Lamon, p. 52. ]

Among these people, and in all essential respects one of them, AbrahamLincoln passed his childhood and youth. He was not remarkablyprecocious. His mind was slow in acquisition, and his powers ofreasoning and rhetoric improved constantly to the end of his life, ata rate of progress marvelously regular and sustained. But there wasthat about him, even at the age of nineteen years, which might welljustify his admiring friends in presaging for him an unusual career. He had read every book he could find, and could "spell down" the wholecounty at their orthographical contests. By dint of constant practicehe had acquired an admirably clear and serviceable handwriting. Heoccasionally astounded his companions by such glimpses of occultscience as that the world is round and that the sun is relativelystationary. He wrote, for his own amusement and edification, essays onpolitics, of which gentlemen of standing who had been favored with aperusal said with authority, at the cross-roads grocery, "The worldcan't beat it. " One or two of these compositions got into print andvastly increased the author's local fame. He was also a magnanimousboy, with a larger and kindlier spirit than common. His generosity, courage, and capability of discerning two sides to a dispute, wereremarkable even then, and won him the admiration of those to whom suchqualities were unknown. But perhaps, after all, the thing which gainedand fixed his mastery over his fellows was to a great degree hisgigantic stature and strength. He attained his full growth, six feetand four inches, two years before he came of age. He rarely met with aman he could not easily handle. His strength is still a tradition inSpencer County. One aged man says that he has seen him pick up andcarry away a chicken-house weighing six hundred pounds. At anothertime, seeing some men preparing a contrivance for lifting some largeposts, Abe quickly shouldered the posts and took them where they wereneeded. One of his employers says, "He could sink an axe deeper intowood than any man I ever saw. " With strength like this and a brain todirect it, a man was a born leader in that country and at that time. There are, of course, foolish stories extant that Abraham used toboast, and that others used to predict, that he would be Presidentsome day. The same thing is daily said of thousands of boys who willnever be constables. But there is evidence that he felt too large forthe life of a farmhand on Pigeon Creek, and his thoughts naturallyturned, 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 onceasked an old friend to give him a recommendation to some steamboat onthe Ohio, but desisted from his purpose on being reminded that hisfather had the right to dispose of his time for a year or so more. Butin 1828 an opportunity offered for a little glimpse of the worldoutside, and the boy gladly embraced it. He was hired by Mr. Gentry, the proprietor of the neighboring village of Gentryville, to accompanyhis son with a flat-boat of produce to New Orleans and intermediatelandings. The voyage was made successfully, and Abraham gained greatcredit for his management and sale of the cargo. The only importantincident of the trip occurred at the plantation of Madame Duchesne, afew miles below Baton Rouge. The young merchants had tied up for thenight and were asleep in the cabin, when they were aroused byshuffling 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 withbattle, he and Allen Gentry carried the war into the enemy's country, and pursued the retreating Africans some distance in the darkness. They then returned to the boat, bleeding but victorious, and hastilyswung into the stream and floated down the river till daylight. Lincoln's exertion in later years for the welfare of the African raceshowed that this nocturnal battle had not led him to any hasty andhostile generalizations. 

The next autumn, John Hanks, the steadiest and most trustworthy of hisfamily, went to Illinois. Though an illiterate and rather dull man, hehad a good deal of solidity of character and consequently someinfluence and consideration in the household. He settled in MaconCounty, and was so well pleased with the country, and especially withits admirable distribution into prairie and timber, that he sentrepeated messages to his friends in Indiana to come out and join him. Thomas Lincoln was always ready to move. He had probably by this timedespaired of ever owning any unencumbered real estate in Indiana, andthe younger members of the family had little to bind them to the placewhere they saw nothing in the future but hard work and poor living. Thomas Lincoln handed over his farm to Mr. Gentry, sold his crop ofcorn and hogs, packed his household goods and those of his childrenand sons-in-law into a single wagon, drawn by two yoke of oxen, thecombined wealth of himself and Dennis Hanks, and started for the newState. 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 theirhusbands. 

Two weeks of weary tramping over forest roads and muddy prairie, andthe dangerous fording of streams swollen by the February thaws, brought the party to John Hanks's place near Decatur. He met them witha frank and energetic welcome. He had already selected a piece ofground for them a few miles from his own, and had the logs ready fortheir house. They numbered men enough to build without calling intheir neighbors, and immediately put up a cabin on the north fork ofthe Sangamon River. The family thus housed and sheltered, one more bitof filial work remained for Abraham before assuming his virileindependence. With the assistance of John Hanks he plowed fifteenacres, 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 theappearance of John Hanks in a public meeting, with two of these railson his shoulder, would electrify a State convention, and kindlethroughout the country a contagious and passionate enthusiasm, whoseresults would reach to endless generations. 

CHAPTER III

ILLINOIS IN 1830

[Sidenote: Roy. J. M. Sturtevant, "Address to Old Settlers of MorganCounty. "]

[Sidenote: Thomas Buckles, of McLean County. ]

[Sidenote: J. C. Power, "Early Settlers of Sangamon County, " p. 62. ]

[Sidenote: "Old Times in McLean County, " p. 414. ]

[Illustration: GOOSE-NEST PRAIRIE, NEAR FARMINGTON ILLINOIS, WHERETHOMAS LINCOLN LIVED AND DIED. ]

The Lincolns arrived in Illinois just in time to entitle themselves tobe called pioneers. When, in after years, associations of "OldSettlers" began to be formed in Central Illinois, the qualificationfor membership agreed upon by common consent was a residence in thecountry before "the winter of the deep snow. " This was in 1830-31, aseason of such extraordinary severity that it has formed for half acentury a recognized date in the middle counties of Illinois, amongthose to whom in those days diaries and journals were unknown. Thesnowfall began in the Christmas holidays and continued until the snowwas three feet deep on level ground. Then came a cold rain, freezingas it fell, until a thick crust of ice gathered over the snow. Theweather became intensely cold, the mercury sinking to twelve degreesbelow zero, Fahrenheit, and remaining there for two weeks. The stormcame on with such suddenness that all who were abroad had greattrouble in reaching their homes, and many perished. One man relatesthat 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 wayhome when the storm struck them. After they had gone four miles theywere compelled to abandon their wagon; the snow fell in heavy masses"as if thrown from a scoop-shovel"; arriving within two miles of theirhabitation, they were forced to trust to the instinct of theiranimals, and reached home hanging to the tails of their steers. Notall were so fortunate. Some were found weeks afterwards in the snow-drifts, their flesh gnawed by famished wolves; and the fate of otherswas unknown until the late spring sunshine revealed their resting-places. To those who escaped, the winter was tedious and terrible. Itis hard for us to understand the isolation to which such weathercondemned the pioneer. For weeks they remained in their cabins hopingfor some mitigation of the frost. When at last they were driven out bythe fear of famine, the labor of establishing communications wasenormous. They finally made roads by "wallowing through the snow, " asan Illinois historian expresses it, and going patiently over the sametrack until the snow was trampled hard and rounded like a turnpike. These roads lasted far into the spring, when the snow had melted fromthe plains, and wound for miles like threads of silver over the richblack loam of the prairies. After that winter game was never again soplentiful in the State. Much still remained, of course, but it neverrecovered entirely from the rigors of that season and the stupidenterprise of the pioneer hunters, who, when they came out of theirsnow-beleaguered cabins, began chasing and killing the starved deer byherds. It was easy work; the crust of the snow was strong enough tobear the weight of men and dogs, but the slender hoofs of the deerwould after a few bounds pierce the treacherous surface. Thisdestructive slaughter went on until the game grew too lean to be worththe killing. All sorts of wild animals grew scarce from that winter. Old settlers say that the slow cowardly breed of prairie wolves, whichused to be caught and killed as readily as sheep, disappeared aboutthat time and none but the fleeter and stronger survived. 

Only once since then has nature shown such extravagant severity inIllinois, and that was on a day in the winter of 1836, known toIllinoisans as "the sudden change. " At noon on the 20th of December, after a warm and rainy morning, the ground being covered with mud andslush, the temperature fell instantly forty degrees. A man riding intoSpringfield for a marriage license says a roaring and crackling windcame upon him and the rain-drops dripping from his bridle-reins andbeard changed in a second into jingling icicles. He rode hastily intothe town and arrived in a few minutes at his destination; but hisclothes were frozen like sheet iron, and man and saddle had to betaken into the house together to be thawed apart. Geese and chickenswere caught by the feet and wings and frozen to the wet ground. Adrove of a thousand hogs, which were being driven to St. Louis, rushedtogether for warmth, and became piled in a great heap. Those insidesmothered and those outside froze, and the ghastly pyramid remainedthere on the prairie for weeks: the drovers barely escaped with theirlives. Men killed their horses, disemboweled them, and crept into thecavity of their bodies to escape the murderous wind. [Footnote:Although the old settlers of Sangamon County are acquainted with thesefacts, and we have often heard them and many others like them from thelips of eye-witnesses, we have preferred to cite only these incidentsof the sudden change which are given in the careful and conscientiouscompilation entitled "The Early Settlers of Sangamon County, " by JohnCarroll Power. ]

The pioneer period of Illinois was ending as Thomas Lincoln and histall boy drove their ox-team over the Indiana line. The population ofthe State had grown to 157, 447. It still clung to the wooded bordersof the water-courses; scattered settlements were to be found all alongthe Mississippi and its affluents, from where Cairo struggled for lifein the swamps of the Ohio to the bustling and busy mining camps whichthe recent discovery of lead had brought to Galena. A line of villagesfrom Alton to Peoria dotted the woodland which the Illinois River hadstretched, like a green baldric, diagonally across the bosom of theState. Then there were long reaches of wilderness before you came toFort Dearborn, where there was nothing as yet to give promise of thatmiraculous growth which was soon to make Chicago a proverb to theworld. There were a few settlements in the fertile region called theMilitary Tract; the southern part of the State was getting itselfsettled here and there. People were coming in freely to the Sangamoncountry. But a grassy solitude stretched from Galena to Chicago, andthe upper half of the State was generally a wilderness. The earlieremigrants, principally of the poorer class of Southern farmers, shunned the prairies with something of a superstitious dread. Theypreferred to pass the first years of their occupation in the wastefuland laborious work of clearing a patch of timber for corn, rather thanenter upon those rich savannas which were ready to break intofertility at the slightest provocation of culture. Even so late as1835, writes J. F. Speed, "no one dreamed the prairies would ever beoccupied. " 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 wealthsuggested by the rank luxuriance of vegetable growth around them, thecarpet of brilliant flowers spread over the verdant knolls, thestrong, succulent grass that waved in the breeze, full of warm andvital odor, as high as the waist of a man. In after years, when theemigration from the Northern and Eastern States began to pour in, theprairies were rapidly taken up, and the relative growth and importanceof the two sections of the State were immediately reversed. GovernorFord, writing about 1847, attributes this result to the fact that thebest class of Southern people were slow to emigrate to a State wherethey could not take their slaves; while the settlers from the North, not being debarred by the State Constitution from bringing theirproperty with them, were of a different class. "The northern part ofthe 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, andconstructed roads and bridges as if by magic; so that although thesettlements in the southern part of the State are from twenty to fiftyyears in advance on the score of age, yet are they ten years behind inpoint of wealth and all the appliances of a higher civilization. "

[Sidenote: Thomas Ford, "History of Illinois, " p. 280. ]

At the time which we are specially considering, however, the fewinhabitants of the south and the center were principally from whatcame afterwards to be called the border slave States. They were mostlya simple, neighborly, unambitious people, contented with theircondition, living upon plain fare, and knowing not much of anythingbetter. Luxury was, of course, unknown; even wealth, if it existed, could procure few of the comforts of refined life. There was little orno money in circulation. Exchanges were effected by the most primitiveforms of barter, and each family had to rely chiefly upon itself forthe means of living. The neighbors would lend a hand in building acabin for a new-comer; after that he must in most cases shift forhimself. Many a man arriving from an old community, and imperfectlyappreciating the necessities of pioneer life, has found suddenly, onthe approach of winter, that he must learn to make shoes or gobarefoot. The furniture of their houses was made with an axe from thetrees of the forest. Their clothing was all made at home. The buckskindays were over to a great extent, though an occasional hunting-shirtand pair of moccasins were still seen. But flax and hemp had begun tobe cultivated, and as the wolves were killed off the sheep-foldsincreased, and garments resembling those of civilization were spun andwoven, and cut and sewed, by the women of the family. When a man had asuit of jeans colored with butternut-dye, and his wife a dress oflinsey, they could appear with the best at a wedding or a quiltingfrolic. The superfluous could not have been said to exist in acommunity where men made their own buttons, where women dug roots inthe woods to make their tea with, where many children never saw astick of candy until after they were grown. The only sweetmeats knownwere those a skillful cook could compose from the honey plundered fromthe hollow oaks where the wild bees had stored it. Yet there waswithal a kind of rude plenty; the woods swarmed with game, and afterswine began to be raised, there was the bacon and hoe-cake which anysouth-western farmer will say is good enough for a king. The greatestprivation was the lack of steel implements. His axe was as precious tothe pioneer as his sword to the knight errant. Governor John Reynoldsspeaks of the panic felt in his father's family when the axe wasdropped into a stream. A battered piece of tin was carefully saved andsmoothed, and made into a grater for green corn. 

[Sidenote: William H. Herndon's speech at Old Settlers' Meeting, Menard County. ]

[Sidenote: "Old Times in McLean County, " p. 194. ]

They had their own amusements, of course; no form of society iswithout them, from the anthropoid apes to the Jockey Club. As to thegrosser and ruder shapes taken by the diversions of the pioneers, wewill let Mr. Herndon speak--their contemporary annalist and ardentpanegyrist: "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 ahogshead a drunken man, they themselves being drunk, put in and nailfast the head, and roll the man down hill a hundred feet or more. Theycould run down a lean and hungry wild pig, catch it, heat a ten-platestove furnace hot, and putting in the pig, could cook it, they dancingthe while a merry jig. " Wild oats of this kind seem hardly compatiblewith a harvest of civilization, but it is contended that such of theseroysterers as survived their stormy beginnings became decent andserious citizens. Indeed, Mr. Herndon insists than even in their hotyouth they showed the promise of goodness and piety. "They attendedchurch, heard the sermon, wept and prayed, shouted, got up and foughtan hour, and then went back to prayer, just as the spirit moved them. "The camp-meeting may be said, with no irreverent intention, to havebeen their principal means of intellectual excitement. The circuitpreachers were for a long time the only circulating medium of thoughtand emotion that kept the isolated settlements from utter spiritualstagnation. They were men of great physical and moral endurance, absolutely devoted to their work, which they pursued in the face ofevery hardship and discouragement. Their circuits were frequently sogreat in extent that they were forced to be constantly on the route;what reading they did was done in the saddle. They received perhapsfifty dollars from the missionary fund and half as much more fromtheir congregations, paid for the most part in necessaries of life. Their oratory was suited to their longitude, and was principallyaddressed to the emotions of their hearers. It was often veryeffective, producing shouts and groans and genuflections among theaudience at large, and terrible convulsions among the more nervous andexcitable. We hear sometimes of a whole congregation prostrated as bya hurricane, flinging their limbs about in furious contortions, withwild outcries. To this day some of the survivors of that period insistthat it was the spirit of the Almighty, and nothing less, that thusmanifested itself. The minister, however, did not always share in thedelirium of his hearers. Governor Reynolds tells us of a preacher inSangamon County, who, before his sermon, had set a wolf-trap in viewfrom his pulpit. In the midst of his exhortations his keen eyes sawthe distant trap collapse, and he continued in the same intonationwith which he had been preaching, "Mind the text, brethren, till I gokill that wolf!" With all the failings and eccentricities of thissingular class of men, they did a great deal of good, and are entitledto especial credit among those who conquered the wilderness. Theemotions they excited did not all die away in the shouts andcontortions of the meeting. Not a few of the cabins in the clearingswere the abode of a fervent religion and an austere morality. Many atraveler, approaching a rude hut in the woods in the gatheringtwilight, distrusting the gaunt and silent family who gave him anunsmiling welcome, the bare interior, the rifles and knivesconspicuously displayed, has felt his fears vanish when he sat down tosupper, and the master of the house, in a few fervent words, invokedthe blessing of heaven on the meal. 

There was very little social intercourse; a visit was a seriousmatter, involving the expenditure of days of travel. It was the customamong families, when the longing for the sight of kindred faces wastoo strong to withstand, to move in a body to the distant settlementwhere their relatives lived and remain with them for months at a time. The claims of consanguinity were more regarded than now. Almost theonly festivities were those that accompanied weddings, and these were, of course, of a primitive kind. The perils and adventures throughwhich the young pioneers went to obtain their brides furnish forththousands of tales by Western firesides. Instead of taking the rosydaughter of a neighbor, the enterprising bachelor would often go backto Kentucky, and pass through as many adventures in bringing his wifehome as a returning crusader would meet between Beirut and Vienna. Ifshe was a young woman who respected herself, the household gear shewould insist on bringing would entail an Iliad of embarrassments. Anold farmer of Sangamon County still talks of a featherbed weighingfifty-four pounds with which his wife made him swim six rivers underpenalty of desertion. 

It was not always easy to find a competent authority to perform theceremony. A justice in McLean County lived by the bank of a river, andhis services were sometimes required by impatient lovers on the otherbank when the waters were too torrential to cross. In such cases, being a conscientious man, he always insisted that they should rideinto the stream far enough for him to discern their features, holdingtorches to their faces by night and by storm. The wooing of those dayswas prompt and practical. There was no time for the gradual approachesof an idler and more conventional age. It is related of one Stout, oneof the legendary Nimrods of Illinois, who was well and frequentlymarried, that he had one unfailing formula of courtship. He alwayspromised the ladies whose hearts he was besieging that "they shouldlive in the timber where they could pick up their own firewood. "

Theft was almost unknown; property, being so hard to get, wasjealously guarded, as we have already noticed in speaking of thesettlement of Kentucky. The pioneers of Illinois brought with them thesame rigid notions of honesty which their environment maintained. Aman in Macoupin County left his wagon, loaded with corn, stuck in theprairie mud for two weeks near a frequented road. When he returned hefound some of his corn gone, but there was money enough tied in thesacks to pay for what was taken. Men carrying bags of silver from thetowns of Illinois to St. Louis rather made a display of it, as itenhanced their own importance, and there was no fear of robbery. Therewere of course no locks on the cabin doors, and the early merchantssometimes left their stores unprotected for days together when theywent to the nearest city to replenish their stock. Of course therewere rare exceptions to this rule, but a single theft alarmed andexcited a whole neighborhood. When a crime was traced home, the familyof the criminal were generally obliged to remove. 

[Sidenote: N. W. Edwards, "Life and Times of Ninian Edwards, " p. 163. ]

There were still, even so late as the time to which we are referring, two alien elements in the population of the State--the French and theIndians. The French settlements about Kaskaskia retained much of theirnational character, and the pioneers from the South who visited themor settled among them never ceased to wonder at their gayety, theirpeaceable industry and enterprise, and their domestic affection, whichthey did not care to dissemble and conceal like their shy and reticentneighbors. It was a daily spectacle, which never lost its strangenessfor the Tennesseeans and Kentuckians, to see the Frenchman returningfrom his work greeted by his wife and children with embraces ofwelcome "at the gate of his door-yard, and in view of all thevillagers. " The natural and kindly fraternization of the Frenchmenwith the Indians was also a cause of wonder to the Americans. Thefriendly intercourse between them, and their occasionalintermarriages, seemed little short of monstrous to the ferociousexclusiveness of the Anglo-Saxon. [Footnote: Michelet notices thisexclusiveness of the English, and inveighs against it in his mostlyric style. "Crime contre la nature! Crime contre l'humanite! Il seraexpie par la sterilite de l'esprit. "] The Indians in the central partof Illinois cut very little figure in the reminiscences of thepioneers; they occupied much the same relation to them as the tramp tothe housewife of to-day. The Winnebago war in 1827 and the Black Hawkwar in 1831 disturbed only the northern portion of the State. A fewscattered and vagrant lodges of Pottawatomies and Kickapoos were allthe pioneers of Sangamon and the neighboring counties ever met. Theywere spared the heroic struggle of the advance-guard of civilizationin other States. A woman was sometimes alarmed by a visit from adrunken savage; poultry and pigs occasionally disappeared when theywere in the neighborhood; but life was not darkened by the constantmenace of massacre. A few years earlier, indeed, the relations of thetwo races had been more strained, as may be inferred from an actpassed by the territorial Legislature in 1814, offering a reward offifty dollars to any citizen or ranger who should kill or take anydepredating Indian. As only two dollars was paid for killing a wolf, it is easy to see how the pioneers regarded the forest folk in pointof relative noxiousness. But ten years later a handful only of theKickapoos remained in Sangamon County, the specter of the vanishedpeople. A chief named Machina came one day to a family who wereclearing a piece of timber, and issued an order of eviction in thesewords: "Too much come white man. T'other side Sangamon. " He threw ahandful of dried leaves in the air to show how he would scatter thepale faces, but he never fulfilled his threats further than to come inoccasionally and ask for a drink of whisky. That such trivial detailsare still related, only shows how barren of incident was the life ofthese obscure founders of a great empire. Any subject of conversation, any cause of sensation, was a godsend. When Vannoy murdered his wifein Springfield, whole families put on their best clothes and drovefifty miles through bottomless mud and swollen rivers to see himhanged. 

[Sidenote: Power, "Early Settlers of Sangamon County, " p. 88. ]

It is curious to see how naturally in such a state of things thefabric of political society developed itself from its germ. The countyof Sangamon was called by an act of the Legislature in 1821 out of averdant solitude of more than a million acres, inhabited by a fewfamilies. An election for county commissioners was ordered; three menwere chosen; they came together at the cabin of John Kelly, at SpringCreek. He was a roving bachelor from North Carolina, devoted to thechase, who had built this hut three years before on the margin of agreen-bordered rivulet, where the deer passed by in hundreds, going inthe morning from the shady banks of the Sangamon to feed on the richgreen grass of the prairie, and returning in the twilight. He was sodelighted with this hunters' paradise that he sent for his brothers tojoin him. They came and brought their friends, so it happened that inthis immense county, several thousand square miles in extent, thesettlement of John Kelly at Spring Creek was the only place wherethere was shelter for the commissioners; thus it became the temporarycounty-seat, duly described in the official report of thecommissioners as "a certain point in the prairie near John Kelly'sfield, on the waters of Spring Creek, at a stake marked Z and D (theinitials of the commissioners), to be the temporary seat of justicefor said county; and we do further agree that the said county-seat becalled and known by the name of Springfield. " In this manner thefuture capital received that hackneyed title, when the distinctive andmusical name of Sangamon was ready to their hands. The same day theyagreed with John Kelly to build them a court-house, for which theypaid him forty-two dollars and fifty cents. In twenty-four days thehouse was built--one room of rough logs, the jury retiring to anysequestered glade they fancied for their deliberation. They nextordered the building of a jail, which cost just twice as much money asthe court-house. Constables and overseers of the poor were appointed, and all the machinery of government prepared for the population whichwas hourly expected. It was taken for granted that malefactors wouldcome and the constables have employment; and the poor they would havealways with them, when once they began to arrive. This was only atemporary arrangement, but when, a year or two later, the time came tofix upon a permanent seat of justice for the county, the resources ofthe Spring Creek men were equal to the emergency. When thecommissioners came to decide on the relative merits of Springfield andanother site a few miles away, they led them through brake, throughbrier, by mud knee-deep and by water-courses so exasperating that thewearied and baffled officials declared they would seek no further, andSpringfield became the county-seat for all time; and greater destinieswere in store for it through means not wholly dissimilar. Nature hadmade it merely a pleasant hunting-ground; the craft and the industryof its first settlers made it a capital. 

[Sidenote: "History Of Sangamon County, " p. 83. ]

[Sidenote: "Old Times in McLean County, " p. 235. ]

[Sidenote: Ford, "History of Illinois, " p. 53. ]

The courts which were held in these log huts were as rude as might beexpected; yet there is evidence that although there was no superfluityof law or of learning, justice was substantially administered. Thelawyers came mostly from Kentucky, though an occasional New Englanderconfronted and lived down the general prejudice against his region andobtained preferment. The profits of the profession were inconceivablysmall. One early State's Attorney describes his first circuit as atour of shifts and privations not unlike the wanderings of a mendicantfriar. In his first county he received a fee of five dollars forprosecuting the parties to a sanguinary affray. In the next he wasequally successful, but barely escaped drowning in Spoon River. In thethird there were but two families at the county-seat, and no cases onthe docket. Thence he journeyed across a trackless prairie sixtymiles, and at Quincy had one case and gained five dollars. In PikeCounty our much-enduring jurist took no cash, but found a generoussheriff who entertained him without charge. "He was one of nature'snoblemen, from Massachusetts, " writes the grateful prosecutor. Thelawyers in what was called good practice earned less than a street-sweeper to-day. It is related that the famous Stephen A. Douglas oncetraveled from Springfield to Bloomington and made an extravagantspeech, and having gained his case received a fee of five dollars. Insuch a state of things it was not to be wondered at that thetechnicalities of law were held in somewhat less veneration than whatthe pioneer regarded as the essential claims of justice. Theinfirmities of the jury system gave them less annoyance than they giveus. Governor Ford mentions a case where a gang of horse-thievessucceeded in placing one of their confederates upon a jury which wasto try them; but he was soon brought to reason by his elevencolleagues making preparations to hang him to the rafters of the juryroom. The judges were less hampered by the limitations of their legallore than by their fears of a loss of popularity as a result of toodefinite charges in civil suits, or too great severity in criminalcases. They grew very dexterous in avoiding any commitment as to thelegal or moral bearings of the questions brought before them. Theygenerally refused to sum up, or to comment upon evidence; when askedby the counsel to give instructions they would say, "Why, gentlemen, the jury understand this case as well as you or I. They will dojustice between the parties. " One famous judge, who was afterwardsgovernor, when sentencing a murderer, impressed it upon his mind, andwished him to inform his friends, that it was the jury and not thejudge who had found him guilty, and then asked him on what day hewould like to be hanged. It is needless to say that the bench and barwere 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, andwhose names are still honored in the profession. Cook, McLean, Edwards, Kane, Thomas, Reynolds, and others, the earliest lawyers ofthe State, have hardly been since surpassed for learning and ability. 

[Sidenote: Ford, "History of Illinois, " p. 31. ]

[Sidenote: Ford, p. 81. ]

In a community where the principal men were lawyers, where there wasas yet little commerce, and industrial enterprise was unknown, it wasnatural that one of the chief interests of life should be the pursuitof politics. The young State swarmed with politicians; they could befound chewing and whittling at every cross-roads inn; they were busyat every horse-race, arranging their plans and extending theiracquaintance; around the burgoo-pot of the hunting party theydiscussed measures and candidates; they even invaded the camp-meetingand did not disdain the pulpit as a tribune. Of course there was nosuch thing as organization in the pioneer days. Men were voted for toa great extent independently of partisan questions affecting thenation at large, and in this way the higher offices of the State werefilled for many years by men whose personal character compelled therespect and esteem of the citizens. The year 1826 is generally takenas the date which witnessed the change from personal to partisanpolitics, though several years more elapsed before the rule ofconventions came in, which put an end to individual candidacy. In thatyear, Daniel Pope Cook, who had long represented the State in Congresswith singular ability and purity, was defeated by Governor JosephDuncan, the candidate of the Jackson men, on account of the vote givenby Cook which elected John Quincy Adams to the Presidency. The bitterintolerance of the Jackson party naturally caused their opponents toorganize against them, and there were two parties in the State fromthat time forward. The change in political methods was inevitable, andit is idle to deplore it; but the former system gave the better men inthe new State a power and prominence which they have never sinceenjoyed. Such men as Governor Ninian Edwards, who came with theprestige of a distinguished family connection, a large fortune, a goodeducation, and a distinction of manners and of dress--ruffles, goldbuttons, and fair-topped boots--which would hardly have been pardoneda few years later; and Governor Edward Coles, who had been privatesecretary to Madison, and was familiar with the courts of Europe, aman as notable for his gentleness of manners as for his nobility ofnature, could never have come so readily and easily to the head of thegovernment after the machine of the caucus had been perfected. Realability then imposed itself with more authority upon the ignorant andunpretending politicians from the back timber; so that it is remarkedby those who study the early statutes of Illinois that they are farbetter drawn up, and better edited, than those of a later period, whenilliterate tricksters, conscious of the party strength behind them, insisted on shaping legislation according to their own fancy. The menof cultivation wielded an influence in the Legislature entirely out ofproportion to their numbers, as the ruder sort of pioneers werenaturally in a large majority. The type of a not uncommon class inIllinois tradition was a member from the South who could neither readnor write, and whose apparently ironical patronymic was Grammar. Whenfirst elected he had never worn anything except leather; but regardinghis tattered buckskin as unfit for the garb of a lawgiver, he and hissons gathered hazelnuts enough to barter at the nearest store for afew yards of blue strouding such as the Indians used for breech-clouts. When he came home with his purchase and had called togetherthe women of the settlement to make his clothes, it was found thatthere was only material enough for a very short coat and a long pairof leggins, and thus attired he went to Kaskaskia, the territorialcapital. Uncouth as was his appearance, he had in him the raw materialof a politician. He invented a system--which was afterwards adopted bymany whose breeches were more fashionably cut--of voting against everymeasure which was proposed. If it failed, the responsibility wasbroadly shared; if it passed and was popular, no one would care whovoted against it; if it passed and did not meet the favor of thepeople, John Grammar could vaunt his foresight. Between the men likeColes and the men like Grammar there was a wide interval, and theaverage was about what the people of the State deserved and couldappreciate. A legislator was as likely to suffer for doing right asfor doing wrong. Governor Ford, in his admirable sketch of the earlyhistory of the State, mentions two acts of the Legislature, both ofthem proper and beneficial, as unequaled in their destructiveinfluence upon the great folks of the State. One was a bill for a loanto meet the honest obligations of the commonwealth, commonly called"the Wiggins loan"; and the other was a law to prevent bulls ofinferior size and breed from running at large. This latter set looseall the winds of popular fury: it was cruel, it was aristocratic; itwas in the interest of rich men and pampered foreign bulls; and itended the career of many an aspiring politician in a blast ofdemocratic indignation and scorn. The politician who relied uponimmediate and constant contact with the people certainly earned allthe emoluments of office he received. His successes were hardlypurchased by laborious affability. "A friend of mine, " says Ford, "once informed me that he intended to be a candidate for theLegislature, but would not declare himself until just before theelection, and assigned as a reason that it was so very hard to beclever for a long time at once. " Before the caucus had eliminated theindividual initiative, there was much more of personal feeling inelections. A vote against a man had something of offense in it, andsometimes stirred up a defeated candidate to heroic vengeance. In 1827the Legislature elected a State treasurer after an exciting contest, and before the members had left the house the unsuccessful aspirantcame in and soundly thrashed, one after the other, four of therepresentatives who had voted against him. Such energy was sure tomeet its reward, and he was soon after made clerk of the CircuitCourt. It is related by old citizens of Menard County, as acircumstance greatly to the credit of Abraham Lincoln, that when hewas a candidate for the Legislature a man who wanted his vote foranother place walked to the polls with him and ostentatiously votedfor him, hoping to receive his vote in return. Lincoln voted againsthim, and the act was much admired by those who saw it. 

One noticeable fact is observed in relation to the politicians of theday--their careers were generally brief. Superannuation came early. Inthe latter part of the last century and the first half of this, menwere called old whom we should regard as in the prime of life. Whenthe friends of Washington were first pressing the Presidency upon himin 1788, he urged his "advanced age" as an imperative reason fordeclining it: he was fifty-six years old. When Ninian Edwards was acandidate for Governor of Illinois in 1826, he was only fifty-one, andyet he considered it necessary in his published addresses to refer tothe charge that he was too old for the place, and, while admitting thefact that he was no longer young, to urge in extenuation that thereare some old things, --like old whisky, old bacon, and old friends, --which are not without their merits. Even so late as 1848, we find aremarkable letter from Mr. Lincoln, who was then in Congress, bearingupon the same point. His partner, William H. Herndon, had written hima letter, complaining that the old men in Sangamon County wereunwilling to let the young ones have any opportunity to distinguishthemselves. To this Lincoln answered in his usual tone of gravekindness: "The subject of your letter is exceedingly painful to me;and I cannot but think there is some mistake in your impression of themotives of the old men. I suppose I am now one of the old men, and Ideclare on my veracity, which I think is good with you, that nothingcould afford me more satisfaction than to learn that you and others ofmy young friends at home were doing battle in the contest andendearing themselves to the people and taking a stand far above any Ihave ever been able to reach in their admiration. I cannot conceivethat other old men feel differently. Of course, I cannot demonstratewhat I say; but I was young once, and I am sure I was neverungenerously thrust back. " The man who thus counseled petulant youthwith the experienced calmness of age was thirty-nine years old. Astate of society where one could at that age call himself or be calledby others an old man, is proved by that fact alone to be one ofwearing hardships and early decay of the vital powers. The survivorsof the pioneers stoutly insist upon the contrary view. "It was aglorious life, " says one old patriarch; "men would fight for the loveof it, and then shake hands and be friends; there is nothing like itnow. " Another says, "I never enjoy my breakfast now as I used to, whenI got up and ran down a deer before I could have anything to eat. " Butthey see the past through a rosy mist of memory, transfigured by theeternal magic of youth. The sober fact is that the life was a hardone, with few rational pleasures, few wholesome appliances. The strongones lived, and some even attained great length of years; but to themany age came early and was full of infirmity and pain. If we could goback to what our fore-fathers endured in clearing the Westernwilderness, we could then better appreciate our obligations to them. It is detracting from the honor which is their due to say that theirlives had much of happiness or comfort, or were in any respectpreferable to our own. 

CHAPTER IV

NEW SALEM

During the latter part of "the winter of the deep snow, " Lincolnbecame acquainted with one Denton Offutt, an adventurous anddiscursive sort of merchant, with more irons in the fire than he couldwell manage. He wanted to take a flat-boat and cargo to New Orleans, and having heard that Hanks and Lincoln had some experience of theriver, he insisted on their joining him. John Johnston was afterwardsadded to the party, probably at the request of his foster-brother, toshare in the golden profits of the enterprise; for fifty cents a day, and a contingent dividend of twenty dollars apiece, seemed like apromise of immediate opulence to the boys. In the spring, when therivers broke up and the melting snows began to pour in torrents downevery ravine and gully, the three young men paddled down the Sangamonin a canoe to the point where Jamestown now stands; whence they walkedfive miles to Springfield, where Offutt had given them rendezvous. They met him at Elliott's tavern and far from happy. Amid themultiplicity 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 cutthe timber, with frontier innocence, from "Congress land, " and soonhad a serviceable craft afloat, with which they descended the currentof the Sangamon to New Salem, a little village which seems to havebeen born for the occasion, as it came into existence just before thearrival of Lincoln, nourished for seven years while he remained one ofits citizens, and died soon after he went away. His introduction tohis fellow-citizens was effected in a peculiar and somewhat strikingmanner. Offutt's boat had come to serious embarrassment on Rutledge'smill-dam, and the unwonted incident brought the entire population tothe water's edge. They spent a good part of the day watching thehapless flat-boat, resting midships on the dam, the forward end in theair and the stern taking in the turbid Sangamon water. Nobody knewwhat to do with the disaster except "the bow-oar, " who is described asa gigantic youth "with his trousers rolled up some five feet, " who waswading about the boat and rigging up some undescribed contrivance bywhich the cargo was unloaded, the boat tilted and the water let out byboring a hole through the bottom, and everything brought safely tomoorings below the dam. This exploit gained for young Lincoln theenthusiastic admiration of his employer, and turned his own mind inthe direction of an invention which he afterwards patented "forlifting vessels over shoals. " The model on which he obtained thispatent--a little boat whittled by his own hand in 1849, after he hadbecome prominent as a lawyer and politician--is still shown tovisitors at the Department of the Interior. We have never learned thatit has served any other purpose. 

[Illustration: MODEL OF LINCOLN'S INVENTION, IN THE PATENT OFFICE, WASHINGTON. ]

[Illustration: REDUCED FAC-SIMILE OF DRAWINGS IN THE PATENT OFFICE. ]

[Sidenote: Lamon, p. 83. ]

They made a quick trip down the Sangamon, the Illinois, and theMississippi rivers. Although it was but a repetition in great part ofthe trip young Lincoln had made with Gentry, it evidently created afar deeper impression on his mind than the former one. The simple andhonest words of John Hanks leave no doubt of this. At New Orleans, hesaid, they saw for the first time "negroes chained, maltreated, whipped, and scourged. Lincoln saw it; his heart bled; said nothingmuch, was silent, looked bad. I can say, knowing it, that it was onthis trip that he formed his opinion of slavery. It run its iron inhim then and there, May, 1831. I have heard him say so often. " Thesight of men in chains was intolerable to him. Ten years after this hemade another journey by water with his friend Joshua Speed, ofKentucky. Writing to Speed about it after the lapse of fourteen years, he says: "In 1841 you and I had together a tedious low-water trip on asteamboat from Louisville to St. Louis. You may remember, as I welldo, that from Louisville to the mouth of the Ohio there were on boardten or a dozen slaves shackled together with irons. That sight was acontinual torment to me, and I see something like it every time Itouch the Ohio or any other slave border. It is not fair for you toassume that I have no interest in a thing which has, and continuallyexercises, the power of making me miserable. "

There have been several ingenious attempts to show the origin andoccasion of Mr. Lincoln's antislavery convictions. They seem to us anidle waste of labor. These sentiments came with the first awakening ofhis mind and conscience, and were roused into active life and energyby 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 toColes County, and spent a few weeks there with his father, who hadmade another migration the year before. His final move was to GooseNest Prairie, where he died in 1851, [Footnote: His grave, a mile anda half west of the town of Farmington, Illinois, is surmounted by anappropriate monument erected by his grandson, the Hon. Robert T. Lincoln. ] at the age of seventy-three years, after a life which, though not successful in any material or worldly point of view, wasprobably far happier than that of his illustrious son, being unvexedby enterprise or ambition. Abraham never lost sight of his parents. Hecontinued to aid and befriend them in every way, even when he couldill afford it, and when his benefactions were imprudently used. He notonly comforted their declining years with every aid his affectioncould suggest, but he did everything in his power to assist hisstepbrother Johnston--a hopeless task enough. The following rigidlytruthful and yet kindly letters will show how mentor-like andmasterful, as well as generous, were the relations that Mr. Lincolnheld to these friends and companions of his childhood:

DEAR JOHNSTON: Your request for eighty dollars I do not think it bestto comply with now. At the various times when I have helped you alittle, you have said to me, "We can get along very well now, " but ina very short time I find you in the same difficulty again. Now thiscan only happen by some defect in your conduct. 

What that defect is I think I know. You are not _lazy_, and stillyou are an _idler_. I doubt whether, since I saw you, you havedone a good whole day's work in any one day. You do not very muchdislike to work, and still you do not work much, merely because itdoes not seem to you that you could get much for it. This habit ofuselessly wasting time is the whole difficulty, and it is vastlyimportant to you, and still more so to your children, that you shouldbreak the habit. It is more important to them because they have longerto live, and can keep out of an idle habit before they are in iteasier than they can get out after they are in. 

You are now in need of some money; and what I propose is that youshall go to work "tooth and nail" for somebody who will give you moneyfor 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 bestmoney 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 thatfor every dollar you will, between this and the first of next May, getfor your own labor, either in money or as discharging your ownindebtedness, I will then give you one other dollar. By this, if youhire 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 youshould go off to St. Louis, or the lead mines, or the gold mines inCalifornia; but I mean for you to go at it for the best wages you canget close to home, in Coles County. Now, if you will do this you willsoon be out of debt, and, what is better, you will have a habit thatwill keep you from getting in debt again. But if I should now clearyou out of debt, next year you would be just as deep in as ever. Yousay you would almost give your place in heaven for seventy or eightydollars. Then you value your place in heaven very cheap, for I am sureyou can with the offer I make get the seventy or eighty dollars forfour or five months' work. You say if I will furnish you the money youwill deed me the land, and if you don't pay the money back you willdeliver possession. Nonsense. If you can't now live with the land, howwill you then live without it? You have always been kind to me, and Ido not mean to be unkind to you. On the contrary, if you will butfollow my advice, you will find it worth more than eighty times eightydollars 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 tothe life:

 SHELBYVILLE, Nov. 4, 1851. 

DEAR BROTHER: When I came into Charleston, day before yesterday, Ilearned that you were anxious to sell the land where you live and moveto Missouri. I have been thinking of this ever since, and cannot butthink such a notion is utterly foolish. What can you do in Missouribetter than here? Is the land any richer? Can you there, any more thanhere, 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 notintend to go to work, you cannot get along anywhere. Squirming andcrawling about from place to place can do no good. You have raised nocrop this year, and what you really want is to sell the land, get themoney, and spend it. Part with the land you have, and, my life uponit, you will never after own a spot big enough to bury you in. Halfyou will get for the land you will spend in moving to Missouri, andthe other half you will eat and drink and wear out, and no foot ofland will be bought. Now, I feel it is my duty to have no hand in sucha piece of foolery. I feel that it is so even on your own account, andparticularly on mother's account. The eastern forty acres I intend tokeep for mother while she lives; if you will not cultivate it, it willrent 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 thanksto me. Now do not misunderstand this letter. I do not write it in anyunkindness. I write it in order, if possible, to get you to face thetruth, which truth is, you are destitute because you have idled awayall your time. Your thousand pretenses deceive nobody but yourself. Goto work is the only cure for your case. 

A volume of disquisition could not put more clearly before the readerthe difference between Abraham Lincoln and the common run of Southernand Western rural laborers. He had the same disadvantages that theyhad. He grew up in the midst of poverty and ignorance; he was poisonedwith the enervating malaria of the Western woods, as all his fellowswere, and the consequences of it were seen in his character andconduct to the close of his life. But he had, what very few of thempossessed any glimmering notion of, a fixed and inflexible will tosucceed. He did not love work, probably, any better than JohnJohnston; but he had an innate self-respect, and a consciousness thathis self was worthy of respect, that kept him from idleness as it kepthim from all other vices, and made him a better man every year that helived. 

We have anticipated a score of years in speaking of Mr. Lincoln'srelations to his family. It was in August of the year 1831 that hefinally left his father's roof, and swung out for himself into thecurrent of the world to make his fortune in his own way. He went downto New Salem again to assist Offutt in the business that livelyspeculator thought of establishing there. He was more punctual thaneither his employer or the merchandise, and met with the usual rewardof punctuality in being forced to waste his time in waiting for thetardy ones. He seemed to the New Salem people to be "loafing"; severalof them have given that description of him. He did one day's workacting as clerk of a local election, a lettered loafer being prettysure of employment on such an occasion. [Footnote: Mrs. Lizzie H. Bellwrites of this incident: "My father, Menton Graham, was on that day, as usual, appointed to be a clerk, and Mr. McNamee, who was to be theother, was sick and failed to come. They were looking around for a manto fill his place when my father noticed Mr. Lincoln and asked if hecould write. He answered that 'he could make a few rabbit tracks. '"]He also piloted a boat down the Sangamon for one Dr. Nelson, who hadhad enough of New Salem and wanted to go to Texas. This was probably atask not requiring much pilot-craft, as the river was much swollen, and navigators had in most places two or three miles of channel tocount upon. But Offutt and his goods arrived at last, and Lincoln andhe got them immediately into position, and opened their doors to whatcommerce could be found in New Salem. There was clearly not enough tosatisfy the volatile mind of Mr. Offutt, for he soon bought Cameron'smill at the historic dam, and made Abraham superintendent also of thatbranch of the business. 

It is to be surmised that Offutt never inspired his neighbors andcustomers with any deep regard for his solidity of character. One ofthem says of him with injurious pleonasm, that he "talked too muchwith his mouth. " A natural consequence of his excessive fluency wassoon to be made disagreeably evident to his clerk. He admired Abrahambeyond measure, and praised him beyond prudence. He said that Abe knewmore than any man in the United States; and he was certainly notwarranted in making such an assertion, as his own knowledge of theactual state of science in America could not have been exhaustive. Healso said that Abe could beat any man in the county running, jumping, or "wrastling. " This proposition, being less abstract in its nature, was more readily grasped by the local mind, and was not likely to passunchallenged. 

[Illustration: MAP OF NEW SALEM AND VICINITY]

Public opinion at New Salem was formed by a crowd of ruffianly youngfellows who were called the "Clary's Grove Boys. " Once or twice a weekthey 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 NewSalem at the hands of these jovial savages. Sometimes he was nailed upin a hogshead and rolled down hill; sometimes he was insulted into afight and then mauled black and blue; for despite their pretensions tochivalry they had no scruples about fair play or any suchsuperstitions of civilization. At first they did not seem inclined tomolest young Lincoln. His appearance did not invite insolence; hisreputation for strength and activity was a greater protection to himthan his inoffensive good-nature. But the loud admiration of Offuttgave them umbrage. It led to dispute, contradictions, and finally to aformal banter to a wrestling-match. Lincoln was greatly averse to allthis "wooling and pulling, " as he called it. But Offutt's indiscretionhad made it necessary for him to show his mettle. Jack Armstrong, theleading bully of the gang, was selected to throw him, and expected aneasy victory. But he soon found himself in different hands from any hehad heretofore engaged with. Seeing he could not manage the tallstranger, his friends swarmed in, and by kicking and tripping nearlysucceeded in getting Lincoln down. At this, as has been said ofanother hero, "the spirit of Odin entered into him, " and putting forthhis whole strength, he held the pride of Clary's Grove in his armslike a child, and almost choked the exuberant life out of him. For amoment a general fight seemed inevitable; but Lincoln, standingundismayed with his back to the wall, looked so formidable in hisdefiance that an, honest admiration took the place of momentary fury, and his initiation was over. As to Armstrong, he was Lincoln's friendand sworn brother as soon as he recovered the use of his larynx, andthe bond thus strangely created lasted through life. Lincoln had nofurther occasion to fight his own battles while Armstrong was there toact as his champion. The two friends, although so widely different, were helpful to each other afterwards in many ways, and Lincoln madeample 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 greatimportance in Lincoln's life. His behavior in this ignoble scuffle didthe work of years for him, in giving him the position he required inthe community where his lot was cast. He became from that moment, in acertain sense, a personage, with a name and standing of his own. Theverdict of Clary's Grove was unanimous that he was "the cleverestfellow that had ever broke into the settlement. " He did not have to beconstantly scuffling to guard his self-respect, and at the same timehe gained the good-will of the better sort by his evidentpeaceableness and integrity. 

[Illustration: LEAF FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S EXERCISE BOOK. The pagehere shown in reduced fac-simile is from the Exercise Book presentedby William H. Herndon to the Keyes-Lincoln Memorial Collection. Whenthe book was written Lincoln was about seventeen. ]

He made on the whole a satisfactory clerk for Mr. Offutt, though hisdownright honesty must have seemed occasionally as eccentric in thatposition as afterwards it did to his associates at the bar. Dr. Holland has preserved one or two incidents of this kind, which havetheir value. Once, after he had sold a woman a little bill of goodsand received the money, he found on looking over the account againthat she had given him six and a quarter cents too much. The moneyburned in his hands until he locked the shop and started on a walk ofseveral miles in the night to make restitution before he slept. Onanother occasion, after weighing and delivering a pound of tea, hefound a small weight on the scales. He immediately weighed out thequantity of tea of which he had innocently defrauded his customer andwent in search of her, his sensitive conscience not permitting anydelay. To show that the young merchant was not too good for thisworld, the same writer gives an incident of his shop-keepingexperience of a different character. A rural bully having made himselfespecially offensive one day, when women were present, by loudprofanity, Lincoln requested him to be silent. This was of course acause of war, and the young clerk was forced to follow the incensedruffian into the street, where the combat was of short duration. Lincoln threw him at once to the ground, and gathering a handful ofthe dog fennel with which the roadside was plentifully bordered, herubbed 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 disciplinewas finished, brought water to bathe the culprit's smarting face, anddoubtless improved the occasion with quaint admonition. 

A few passages at arms of this sort gave Abraham a redoubtablereputation in the neighborhood. But the principal use he made of hisstrength and his prestige was in the capacity of peacemaker, an officewhich soon devolved upon him by general consent. Whenever old feudsblossomed into fights by Offutt's door, or the chivalry of Clary'sGrove attempted in its energetic way to take the conceit out of somestranger, or a canine duel spread contagion of battle among themasters of the beasts, Lincoln usually appeared upon the scene, andwith a judicious mixture of force and reason and invincible good-nature restored peace. 

While working with Offutt his mind was turned in the direction ofEnglish grammar. From what he had heard of it he thought it a matterwithin his grasp, if he could once fall in with the requisitemachinery. Consulting with Menton [Footnote: This name has always beenwritten in Illinois "Minter, " but a letter from Mr. Graham's daughter, Mrs. Bell, says that her father's name is as given in the text. ]Graham, the schoolmaster, in regard to it, and learning thewhereabouts of a vagrant "Kirkham's Grammar, " he set off at once andsoon returned from a walk of a dozen miles with the coveted prize. Hedevoted himself to the new study with that peculiar intensity ofapplication which always remained his most valuable faculty, and soonknew all that can be known about it from rules. He seemed surprised, as others have been, at the meager dimensions of the science he hadacquired and the ease with which it yielded all there was of it to thestudent. But it seemed no slight achievement to the New Salemites, andcontributed not a little to the prevalent impression of his learning. 

His name is prominently connected with an event which just at thistime caused an excitement and interest in Salem and the neighboringtowns entirely out of proportion to its importance. It was one of thearticles of faith of most of the settlers on the banks of the SangamonRiver that it was a navigable stream, and the local politicians foundthat they could in no way more easily hit the fancy of their hearersthan by discussing this assumed fact, and the logical corollaryderived from it, that it was the duty of the State or the nation toclear out the snags and give free course to the commerce which waswaiting for an opportunity to pour along this natural highway. At lastone Captain Vincent Bogue, of Springfield, determined to show that thething could be done by doing it. The first promise of the greatenterprise appears in the "Sangsmo Journal" of January 26, 1832, in aletter from the Captain, at Cincinnati, saying he would ascend theSangamon by steam on the breaking up of the ice. He asked that hemight be met at the mouth of the river by ten or twelve men, havingaxes with long handles, to cut away the overhanging branches of thetrees on the banks. From this moment there was great excitement, --public meetings, appointment of committees, appeals for subscriptions, and a scattering fire of advertisements of goods and freight to bebargained for, --which sustained the prevailing interest. It was a dayof hope and promise when the advertisement reached Springfield fromCincinnati that "the splendid upper-cabin steamer Talisman" wouldpositively start for the Sangamon on a given day. As the papercontaining this joyous intelligence also complained that no mail hadreached Springfield from the east for three weeks, it is easy tounderstand the desire for more rapid and regular communications. Fromweek to week the progress of the _Talisman_, impeded by bad weatherand floating ice, was faithfully recorded, until at last the partywith long-handled axes went down to Beardstown to welcome her. It isneedless to state that Lincoln was one of the party. His standing as ascientific citizen of New Salem would have been enough to insure hisselection even if he had not been known as a bold navigator. Hepiloted the _Talisman_ safely through the windings of the Sangamon, and Springfield gave itself up to extravagant gayety on the event thatproved she "could no longer be considered an inland town. " CaptainBogue announced "fresh and seasonable goods just received persteamboat _Talisman_, " and the local poets illuminated the columns ofthe "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 everremoved the snags from the Sangamon, and no subsequent navigator ofits waters has been found to eclipse the fame of the earliest one. 

CHAPTER V

LINCOLN IN THE BLACK HAWK WAR

[Sidenote: 1832. ]

A new period in the life of Lincoln begins with the summer of 1832. Hethen obtained his first public recognition, and entered upon thecourse of life which was to lead him to a position of prominence andgreat usefulness. 

The business of Offutt had gone to pieces, and his clerk was out ofemployment, when Governor Reynolds issued his call for volunteers tomove the tribe of Black Hawk across the Mississippi. For several yearsthe raids of the old Sac chieftain upon that portion of his patrimonywhich he had ceded to the United States had kept the settlers in theneighborhood of Rock Island in terror, and menaced the peace of thefrontier. In the spring of 1831 he came over to the east side of theriver with a considerable band of warriors, having been encouraged bysecret promises of cooperation from several other tribes. These failedhim, however, when the time of trial arrived, and an improvised forceof State volunteers, assisted by General E. P. Gaines and hisdetachment, had little difficulty in compelling the Indians to re-cross the Mississippi, and to enter into a solemn treaty on the 30thof June by which the former treaties were ratified and Black Hawkand his leading warriors bound themselves never again to set foot onthe east side of the river, without express permission from thePresident or the Governor of Illinois. 

[Sidenote: Reynolds, "Life and Times, " p. 325. ]

[Sidenote: Ford, "History of Illinois, " p. 110. ]

But Black Hawk was too old a savage to learn respect for treaties orresignation under fancied wrongs. He was already approaching theallotted term of life. He had been a chief of his nation for more thanforty years. He had scalped his first enemy when scarcely more than achild, having painted on his blanket the blood-red hand which markedhis nobility at fifteen years of age. Peace under any circumstanceswould doubtless have been irksome to him, but a peace which forbadehim free access to his own hunting-grounds and to the graves of hisfathers was more than he could now school himself to endure. He hadcome to believe that he had been foully wronged by the treaty whichwas his own act; he had even convinced himself that "land cannot besold, " a proposition in political economy which our modern socialistswould be puzzled to accept or confute. Besides this, the tenderestfeelings of his heart were outraged by this exclusion from his formerdomain. He had never passed a year since the death of his daughterwithout making a pilgrimage to her grave at Oquawka and spending hoursin mystic ceremonies and contemplation. He was himself prophet as wellas warrior, and had doubtless his share of mania, which is thestrength of prophets. The promptings of his own broken heart readilyseemed to him the whisperings of attendant spirits; and day by daythese unseen incitements increased around him, until they could not beresisted even if death stood in the way. 

He made his combinations during the winter, and had it not been forthe loyal attitude of Keokuk, he could have brought the entire nationof the Sacs and Foxes to the war-path. As it was, the flower of theyoung men came with him when, with the opening spring, he crossed theriver once more. He came this time, he said, "to plant corn, " but as apreliminary to this peaceful occupation of the land he marched up theRock River, expecting to be joined by the Winnebagoes andPottawatomies. But the time was passed for honorable alliances amongthe 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 HenryAtkinson, commanding the United States troops, sent a formal summonsto Black Hawk to return; but the old chief was already well on his wayto the lodge of his friend, the prophet Wabokishick, at Prophetstown, and treated the summons with contemptuous defiance. The Governorimmediately called for volunteers, and was himself astonished at thealacrity with which the call was answered. Among those who enlisted atthe first tap of the drum was Abraham Lincoln, and equally to hissurprise and delight he was elected captain of his company. Thevolunteer organizations of those days were conducted on purelydemocratic principles. The company assembled on the green, an electionwas suggested, and three-fourths of the men walked over to whereLincoln was standing; most of the small remainder joined themselves toone Kirkpatrick, a man of some substance and standing from SpringCreek. We have the word of Mr. Lincoln for it, that no subsequentsuccess ever gave him such unmixed pleasure as this earliestdistinction. It was a sincere, unsought tribute of his equals to thosephysical and moral qualities which made him the best man of hishundred, and as such was accepted and prized. 

[Sidenote: Reynolds, "Life and Times, " p. 363. ]

At the Beardstown rendezvous, Captain Lincoln's company was attachedto Colonel Samuel Thompson's regiment, the Fourth Illinois, which wasorganized at Richland, Sangamon County, on the 21st of April, andmoved on the 27th, with the rest of the command under General SamuelWhitesides, for Yellow Banks, where the boats with provisions had beenordered to meet them. It was arduous marching. There were no roads andno bridges, and the day's task included a great deal of labor. Thethird day out they came to the Henderson River, a stream some fiftyyards wide, swift and swollen with the spring thaws, with high andsteep banks. To most armies this would have seemed a serious obstacle, but these backwoodsmen swarmed to the work like beavers, and in lessthan three hours the river was crossed with the loss of only one ortwo horses and wagons. When they came to Yellow Banks, on theMississippi, the provision-boats had not arrived, and for three daysthey waited there literally without food; very uncomfortable days forGovernor Reynolds, who accompanied the expedition, and was forced tohear the outspoken comments of two thousand hungry men on his supposedinefficiency. But on the 6th of May the _William Wallace_ arrived, and"this sight, " says the Governor with characteristic sincerity, "was, Ipresume, the most interesting I ever beheld. " From there they marchedto the mouth of Rock River, and thence General Whitesides proceededwith his volunteers up the river some ninety miles to Dixon, wherethey halted to await the arrival of General Atkinson with the regulartroops and provisions. There they found two battalions of freshhorsemen under Majors Stillman and Bailey, who had as yet seen noservice and were eager for the fray. Whitesides's men were tired withtheir forced march, and besides, in their ardor to get forward, theyhad thrown away a good part of their provisions and left their baggagebehind. It pleased the Governor, therefore, to listen to the prayersof Stillman's braves, and he gave them orders to proceed to the headof Old Man's Creek, where it was supposed there were some hostileIndians, and coerce them into submission. "I thought, " says theGovernor in his memoirs, "they might discover the enemy. "

[Illustration: A SOLDIER'S DISCHARGE FROM THE BLACK HAWK WAR, SIGNEDBY A. LINCOLN, CAPTAIN. IN THE POSSESSION OF O. H. OLDROTD, SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS. ]

The supposition was certainly well founded. They rode merrily away, came to Old Man's Creek, thereafter to be called Stillman's Run, andencamped for the night. By the failing light a small party of Indianswas discovered on the summit of a hill a mile away, and a fewcourageous gentlemen hurriedly saddled their horses, and, withoutorders, rode after them. The Indians retreated, but were soonovertaken, and two or three of them killed. The volunteers were nowstrung along a half mile of hill and valley, with no more order orcare than if they had been chasing rabbits. Black Hawk, who had beenat supper when the running fight began, hastily gathered a handful ofwarriors and attacked the scattered whites. The onset of the savagesacted like an icy bath on the red-hot valor of the volunteers; theyturned and ran for their lives, stampeding the camp as they fled. There was very little resistance--so little that Black Hawk, fearing aruse, tried to recall his warriors from the pursuit, but in thedarkness and confusion could not enforce his orders. The Indianskilled all they caught up with; but the volunteers had the fleeterhorses, and only eleven were overtaken. The rest reached Dixon by twosand threes, rested all night, and took courage. General Whitesidesmarched out to the scene of the disaster the next morning, but theIndians were gone. They had broken up into small parties, and forseveral days they reaped the bloody fruit of their victory in themassacre of peaceful settlements in the adjacent districts. 

The time of enlistment of the volunteers had now come to an end, andthe men, seeing no prospect of glory or profit, and weary of the workand the hunger which were the only certain incidents of the campaign, refused in great part to continue in service. But it is hardlynecessary to say that Captain Lincoln was not one of these homesicksoldiers. Not even the trammels of rank, which are usually so strongamong the trailers of the saber, could restrain him from what heconsidered his simple duty. As soon as he was mustered out of hiscaptaincy, he re-enlisted on the same day, May 27, as a privatesoldier. Several other officers did the same, among them GeneralWhitesides and Major John T. Stuart. Lincoln became a member ofCaptain Elijah Iles's company of mounted volunteers, sometimes calledthe "Independent Spy Battalion, " an organization unique of its kind, if we may judge from the account given by one of its troopers. It wasnot, says Mr. George M. Harrison, "under the control of any regimentor brigade, but received orders directly from the Commander-in-Chief, and always, when with the army, camped within the lines, and had manyother privileges, such as having no camp duties to perform and drawingrations as much and as often as we pleased, " which would seem to likenthis battalion as nearly as possible to the fabled "regiment ofbrigadiers. " With this _elite_ corps Lincoln served through hissecond enlistment, though it was not his fortune to take part ineither of the two engagements in which General James D. Henry, at theWisconsin Bluffs and the Bad Axe, broke and destroyed forever thepower of Black Hawk and the British band of Sacs and Foxes. 

After Lincoln was relieved of the weight of dignity involved in hiscaptaincy, the war became a sort of holiday, and the tall private fromNew Salem enjoyed it as much as any one. He entered with great zestinto the athletic sports with which soldiers love to beguile thetedium of camp. He was admitted to be the strongest man in the army, and, with one exception, the best wrestler. Indeed, his friends neveradmitted the exception, and severely blamed Lincoln for confessinghimself defeated on the occasion when he met the redoubtable Thompson, and the two fell together on the turf. His popularity increased fromthe beginning to the end of the campaign, and those of his comradeswho still survive always speak with hearty and affectionate praise ofhis character and conduct in those rough yet pleasantly remembereddays. 

[Sidenote: MS. Letters from Thomas, Gregg and others. ]

The Spy Battalion formed no part of General Henry's forces when, by adisobedience of orders as prudent as it was audacious, he started withhis slender force on the fresh trail which he was sure would lead himto Black Hawk's camp. He found and struck the enemy at bay on thebluffs of the Wisconsin River on the 21st of July, and inflicted uponthem a signal defeat. The broken remnant of Black Hawk's power thenfled for the Mississippi River, the whole army following in closepursuit--General Atkinson in front and General Henry bringing up therear. Fortune favored the latter once more, for while Black Hawk witha handful of men was engaging and drawing away the force underAtkinson, General Henry struck the main trail, and brought on thebattle of the Bad Axe, if that could be called a battle which was aneasy slaughter of the weary and discouraged savages, fighting withoutheart or hope, an army in front and the great river behind. Black Hawkescaped the fate of his followers, to be captured a few days laterthrough the treachery of his allies. He was carried in triumph toWashington and presented to President Jackson, to whom he made thisstern and defiant speech, showing how little age or disaster could doto tame his indomitable spirit: "I am a man and you are another. I didnot expect to conquer the white people. I took up the hatchet toavenge injuries which could no longer be borne. [Footnote: It is anoteworthy coincidence that President Lincoln's proclamation at theopening of the war calls for troops "to redress wrongs already longenough endured. "] Had I borne them longer my 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 isknown 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 galadress, with cocked hat and sword, and the medals presented him by twogovernments. He was not allowed to rest even in his grave. His boneswere exhumed by some greedy wretch and sold from hand to hand tillthey came at last to the Burlington Museum, where they were destroyedby fire. 

[Illustration: BLACK HAWK]

It was on the 16th of June, a month before the slaughter of the BadAxe, that the battalion to which Lincoln belonged was at last musteredout, at Whitewater, Wisconsin. His final release from the service wassigned by a young lieutenant of artillery, Robert Anderson, who, twenty-nine years later, in one of the most awful crises in ourannals, was to sustain to Lincoln relations of prodigious importance, on a scene illuminated by the flash of the opening guns of the civilwar. [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote relocated to chapter end. ]The men started home the next day in high spirits, school-boys fortheir holidays. Lincoln had need, like Horatio, of his good spirits, for they were his only outfit for the long journey to New Salem, heand his mess-mate Harrison [Footnote: George M. Harrison, who gives anaccount of his personal experiences in Lamon, p. 116. ] having hadtheir horses stolen the day before by some patriot over-anxious toreach home. But, as Harrison says, "I laughed at our fate, and hejoked at it, and we all started off merrily. The generous men of ourcompany walked and rode by turns with us, and we fared about equalwith the rest. But for this generosity our legs would have had to dothe better work; for in that day this dreary route furnished no horsesto buy or to steal; and, whether on horse or afoot, we always hadcompany, for many of the horses' backs were too sore for riding. " Itis not hard to imagine with what quips and quirks of native fancyLincoln and his friends beguiled the way through forest and prairie. With youth, good health, and a clear conscience, and even then thedawn of a young and undefiled ambition in his heart, nothing waswanting to give zest and spice to this long, sociable walk of ahundred leagues. One joke is preserved, and this one is at the expenseof Lincoln. One chilly morning he complained of being cold. "Nowonder, " said some facetious cavalier, "there is so much of you on theground. " [Footnote: Dr. Holland gives this homely joke (Life ofLincoln, p. 71), but transfers it to a time four years later, whenLincoln had permanently assumed shoes and had a horse of his own. ] Wehope Lincoln's contributions to the fun were better than this, but ofcourse the prosperity of these jests lay rather in the liberal earsthat heard them than in the good-natured tongues that uttered them. 

Lincoln and Harrison could not have been altogether penniless, for atPeoria they bought a canoe and paddled down to Pekin. Here theingenious Lincoln employed his hereditary talent for carpentry bymaking an oar for the frail vessel while Harrison was providing thecommissary stores. The latter goes on to say: "The river, being verylow, was without current, so that we had to pull hard to make half thespeed of legs on land; in fact, we let her float all night, and on thenext morning always found the objects still visible that were besideus the previous evening. The water was remarkably clear for this riverof plants, and the fish appeared to be sporting with us as we movedover or near them. On the next day after we left Pekin we overhauled araft of saw-logs, with two men afloat on it to urge it on with polesand to guide it in the channel. We immediately pulled up to them andwent on the raft, where we were made welcome by variousdemonstrations, especially by an invitation to a feast on fish, corn-bread, eggs, butter, and coffee, just prepared for our benefit. Ofthese good things we ate almost immoderately, for it was the only warmmeal we had made for several days. While preparing it, and afterdinner, Lincoln entertained them, and they entertained us for a coupleof hours very amusingly. " Kindly human companionship was a luxury inthat green wilderness, and was readily appreciated and paid for. 

The returning warriors dropped down the river to the village ofHavana--from Pekin to Havana in a canoe! The country is full of thesegeographical nightmares, the necessary result of freedom ofnomenclature bestowed by circumstances upon minds equally destitute oftaste or education. There they sold their boat, --no difficult 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 nearhome, the impulse became stronger and urged us on amazingly. The longstrides of Lincoln, often slipping back in the loose sand six inchesevery step, were just right for me; and he was greatly diverted whenhe noticed me behind him stepping along in his tracks to keep fromslipping. " Thus the two comrades came back from their soldierings totheir humble homes, from which Lincoln was soon to start on the waymarked out for him by Providence, with strides which no comrade, withwhatever goodwill, might hope to follow. 

He never took his campaigning seriously. The politician's habit ofglorifying the petty incidents of a candidate's life always seemedabsurd to him, and in his speech, made in 1848, ridiculing the efforton the part of General Cass's friends to draw some political advantagefrom that gentleman's respectable but obscure services on the frontierin the war with Great Britain, he stopped any future eulogist frompainting his own military achievements in too lively colors. "Did youknow, Mr. Speaker, " he said, "I am a military hero! In the days of theBlack Hawk war I fought, bled, and came away. I was not at Stillman'sdefeat, but I was about as near it as General Cass was to Hull'ssurrender; and, like him, I saw the place very soon afterwards. It isquite certain I did not break my sword, for I had none to break, but Ibent my musket pretty badly on one occasion. If General Cass went inadvance of me picking whortleberries, I guess I surpassed him incharges on the wild onions. If he saw any live fighting Indians, itwas more than I did, but I had a good many bloody struggles with themosquitoes; and although I never fainted from loss of blood, I cantruly say I was often very hungry. If ever I should conclude to doffwhatever our Democratic friends may suppose there is of black-cockadeFederalism about me, and thereupon they shall take me up as theircandidate for the Presidency, I protest that they shall not make funof me, as they have of General Cass, by attempting to write me into amilitary hero. "

[Relocated Footnote: A story to the effect that Lincoln was musteredinto service by Jefferson Davis has for a long time been current, butthe strictest search in the records fails to confirm it. We areindebted to General R. C. Drum, Adjutant-General of the Army, for aninteresting letter giving all the known facts in relation to thisstory. General Drum says: "The company of the Fourth Regiment IllinoisMounted Volunteers, commanded by Mr. Lincoln, was, with others, calledout by Governor Reynolds, and was organized at Richland, SangamonCounty, Illinois, April 21, 1832. The muster-in roll is not on file, but the records show that the company was mustered out at the mouth ofFox River, May 27, 1832, by Nathaniel Buckmaster, Brigade-Major toGeneral Samuel Whitesides's Illinois Volunteers. On the muster-roll ofCaptain Elijah Iles's company, Illinois Mounted Volunteers, A. Lincoln(Sangamon County) appears as a private from May 27, 1832, to June 16, 1832, when the company was mustered out of service by LieutenantRobert Anderson, Third United States Artillery and Colonel (AssistantInspector-General) Illinois Volunteers. Brigadier-General HenryAtkinson, in his report of May 30, 1832, stated that the IllinoisVolunteers were called out by the Governor of that State, but in hasteand for no definite period of service. On their arrival at Ottawa theybecame clamorous for their discharge, which the Governor granted, retaining--of those who were discharged and volunteered for a furtherperiod of twenty days--a sufficient number of men to form sixcompanies, which General Atkinson found at Ottawa on his arrival therefrom Rock River. General Atkinson further reports that these companiesand some three hundred regular troops, remaining in position at RockRiver, were all the force left him to keep the enemy in check untilthe assemblage of the three thousand additional Illinois militiacalled out by the Governor upon his (General A. 's) requisition, torendezvous at Ottawa, June 12-15, 1832, "There can be no doubt that Captain Iles's company, mentioned above, was one of the six which served until June 16, 1832, while the fact isfully established that the company of which Mr. Lincoln was a memberwas mustered out by Lieutenant Robert Anderson, who, in April, 1861, was in command of Fort Sumter. There is no evidence to show that itwas 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 February, 1832, and he isborne on the rolls as 'absent on detached service at the Dubuque minesby order of Colonel Morgan. ' From March 26 to August 18, 1832, themuster-rolls of his company report him as absent on furlough. "]

CHAPTER VI

SURVEYOR AND REPRESENTATIVE

[Sidenote: 1832. ]

The discharged volunteer arrived in New Salem only ten days before theAugust election, in which he had a deep personal interest. Beforestarting for the wars he had announced himself, according to thecustom of the time, by a handbill circular, as a candidate for theLegislature from Sangamon County. [Footnote: We are aware that allformer biographers have stated that Lincoln's candidacy for theLegislature was subsequent to his return from the war, and aconsequence of his service. But his circular is dated March 9, 1832, and the "Sangamo Journal" mentions his name among the July, andapologizes candidates in for having accidentally omitted it in May. ]He had done this in accordance with his own natural bent for publiclife and desire for usefulness and distinction, and not without strongencouragement from friends whose opinion he valued. He had even thenconsiderable experience in speaking and thinking on his feet. He hadbegun his practice in that direction before leaving Indiana, andcontinued it everywhere he had gone. Mr. William Butler tells us thaton one occasion, when Lincoln was a farmhand at Island Grove, thefamous circuit-rider, Peter Cartwright, came by, electioneering forthe Legislature, and Lincoln at once engaged in a discussion with himin the cornfield, in which the great Methodist was equally astonishedat the close reasoning and the uncouth figure of Mr. Brown'sextraordinary hired man. At another time, after one Posey, apolitician in search of office, had made a speech in Macon, JohnHanks, whose admiration of his cousin's oratory was unbounded, saidthat "Abe could beat it. " He turned a keg on end, and the tall boymounted it and made his speech. "The subject was the navigation of theSangamon, and Abe beat him to death, " says the loyal Hanks. So it wasnot with the tremor of a complete novice that the young man took thestump during the few days left him between his return and theelection. 

[Sidenote: Reynolds, "My Own Times, " p. 291. ]

He ran as a Whig. As this has been denied on authority which isgenerally trustworthy, it is well enough to insist upon the fact. Wehave a memorandum in Mr. Lincoln's own handwriting in which he says heran 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 amin favor of a national bank; I am in favor of the internal improvementsystem, and of a high protective tariff. These are my sentiments andpolitical principles. " Nothing could be more unqualified or outspokenthan this announcement of his adhesion to what was then and for yearsafterwards called "the American System" of Henry Clay. Other testimonyis not wanting to the same effect. Both Major Stuart and Judge Logan[Footnote: The Democrats of New Salem worked for Lincoln out of theirpersonal regard for him. That was the general understanding of thematter here at the time. In this he made no concession of principlewhatever. He was as stiff as a man could be in his Whig doctrines. They did this for him simply because he was popular--because he wasLincoln. STEPHEN T. LOGAN. July 6, 1875. ] say that Lincoln ran in 1832as a Whig, and that his speeches were unevasively in defense of theprinciples of that party. Without discussing the merits of the partyor its purposes, we may insist that his adopting them thus openly atthe outset of his career was an extremely characteristic act, andmarks thus early the scrupulous conscientiousness which shaped everyaction of his life. The State of Illinois was by a large majorityDemocratic, hopelessly attached to the person and policy of Jackson. Nowhere had that despotic leader more violent and unscrupulouspartisans than there. They were proud of their very servility, andpreferred 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 asS. T. Logan, Stuart, Browning, Dubois, Hardin, Breese, and manyothers. But they were utterly unable to do anything except by dividingthe Jackson men, whose very numbers made their party unwieldy, and bythrowing their votes with the more decent and conservative portion ofthem. In this way, in the late election, they had secured the successof Governor Reynolds--the Old Ranger--against Governor Kinney, whorepresented the vehement and proscriptive spirit which Jackson hadjust breathed into the party. He had visited the General inWashington, and had come back giving out threatenings and slaughteragainst the Whigs in the true Tennessee style, declaring that "allWhigs should be whipped out of office like dogs out of a meat-house";the force of south-western simile could no further go. But the greatpopularity of Reynolds and the adroit management of the Whigs carriedhim through successfully. A single fact will show on which side thepeople who could read were enlisted. The "whole-hog" party had onenewspaper, the opposition five. Of course it would have beenimpossible for Reynolds to poll a respectable vote if his loyalty toJackson had been seriously doubted. As it was, he lost many votesthrough a report that he had been guilty of saying that "he was asstrong for Jackson as any reasonable man should be. " The Governorhimself, in his naive account of the canvass, acknowledges thedamaging nature of this accusation, and comforts himself with quotingan indiscretion of Kinney's, who opposed a projected canal on theground that "it would flood the country with Yankees. "

It showed some moral courage, and certainly an absence of theshuffling politician's fair-weather policy, that Lincoln, in hisobscure and penniless youth, at the very beginning of his career, whenhe was not embarrassed by antecedents or family connections, and when, in fact, what little social influence he knew would have led him theother way, chose to oppose a furiously intolerant majority, and totake his stand with the party which was doomed to long-continueddefeat in Illinois. The motives which led him to take this decisivecourse are not difficult to imagine. The better sort of people inSangamon County were Whigs, though the majority were Democrats, and hepreferred through life the better sort to the majority. The papers heread were the Louisville "Journal" and the "Sangamo Journal, " bothWhig. Reading the speeches and debates of the day, he sided withWebster against Calhoun, and with Clay against anybody. Though hisnotions of politics, like those of any ill-educated young man oftwenty-two, must have been rather crude, and not at all sufficient tolive and to die by, he had adopted them honestly and sincerely, withno selfish regard to his own interests; and though he ardently desiredsuccess, he never abated one jot or tittle of his convictions for anypossible personal gain, then or thereafter. 

In the circular in which he announced his candidacy he made noreference to national politics, but confined himself mainly to adiscussion of the practicability of improving the navigation of theSangamon, the favorite hobby of the place and time. He had no monopolyof this "issue. " It formed the burden of nearly every candidate'sappeal to the people in that year. The excitement occasioned by thetrip of the _Talisman_ had not yet died away, although the littlesteamer was now dust and ashes, and her bold commander had left theState to avoid an awkward meeting with the sheriff. The hope of seeingSpringfield an emporium of commerce was still lively among thecitizens of Sangamon County, and in no one of the handbills of thepolitical aspirants of the season was that hope more judiciouslyencouraged than in the one signed by Abraham Lincoln. It was a well-written circular, remarkable for its soberness and, reserve when weconsider the age and the limited advantages of the writer. Itconcluded in these words: "Upon the subjects of which I have treated, I have spoken as I have thought. I may be wrong in regard to any orall of them; but holding it a sound maxim that it is better onlysometimes to be right than at all times wrong, so soon as I discovermy opinions to be erroneous I shall be ready to renounce them. .. . Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true ornot, I can say for one, that I have no other so great as that of beingtruly esteemed of my fellow-men, by rendering myself worthy of theiresteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition is yet tobe developed. I am young, and unknown to many of you. I was born andhave ever remained in the most humble walks of life. I have no wealthyor powerful relations or friends to recommend me. My case is thrownexclusively upon the independent voters of the county; and, ifelected, they will have conferred a favor upon me, for which I shallbe unremitting in my labors to compensate. But if the good people intheir wisdom shall see fit to keep me in the background, I have beentoo familiar with disappointments to be very much chagrined. "

This is almost precisely the style of his later years. The errors ofgrammar and construction which spring invariably from an effort toavoid redundancy of expression remained with him through life. Heseemed to grudge the space required for necessary parts of speech. Buthis language was at twenty-two, as it was thirty years later, thesimple and manly attire of his thought, with little attempt atornament and none at disguise. There was an intermediate time when hesinned in the direction of fine writing; but this ebullition soonpassed away, and left that marvelously strong and transparent style inwhich his two inaugurals were written. 

Of course, in the ten days left him after his return from the field, acanvass of the county, which was then--before its division--severalthousand square miles in extent, was out of the question. He made afew speeches in the neighborhood of New Salem, and at least one inSpringfield. He was wholly unknown there except by his few comrades inarms. We find him mentioned in the county paper only once during thesummer, in an editorial note adding the name of Captain Lincoln tothose candidates for the Legislature who were periling their lives onthe frontier and had left their reputations in charge of theirgenerous fellow-citizens at home. On the occasion of his speaking atSpringfield, most of the candidates had come together to address ameeting there to give their electors some idea of their quality. Thesewere severe ordeals for the rash aspirants for popular favor. Besidesthose citizens who came to listen and judge, there were many whoseonly object was the free whisky provided for the occasion, and who, after potations pottle-deep, became not only highly unparliamentarybut even dangerous to life and limb. This wild chivalry of Lick Creekwas, however, less redoubtable to Lincoln than it might be to an urbanstatesman unacquainted with the frolic brutality of Clary's Grove. Their gambols never caused him to lose his self-possession. It isrelated that once, while he was speaking, he saw a ruffian attack afriend of his in the crowd, and the rencontre not resulting accordingto the orator's sympathies, he descended from the stand, seized theobjectionable fighting man by the neck, "threw him some ten feet, "then calmly mounted to his place and finished his speech, the courseof his logic undisturbed by this athletic parenthesis. Judge Logan sawLincoln for the first time on the day when he came up to Springfieldon his canvass this summer. He thus speaks of his future partner: "Hewas a very tall, gawky, and rough-looking fellow then; his pantaloonsdidn't meet his shoes by six inches. But after he began speaking Ibecame very much interested in him. He made a very sensible speech. His manner was very much the same as in after life; that is, the samepeculiar characteristics were apparent then, though of course in afteryears he evinced more knowledge and experience. But he had then thesame novelty and the same peculiarity in presenting his ideas. He hadthe same individuality that he kept through all his life. "

There were two or three men at the meeting whose good opinion wasworth more than all the votes of Lick Creek to one beginning life:Stephen T. Logan, a young lawyer who had recently come from Kentuckywith the best equipment for a _nisi prius_ practitioner everbrought into the State; Major Stuart, whom we have met in the BlackHawk war, once commanding a battalion and then marching as a private;and William Butler, afterwards prominent in State politics, at thattime a young man of the purest Western breed in body and character, clear-headed and courageous, and ready for any emergency where afriend was to be defended or an enemy punished. We do not know whetherLincoln gained any votes that day, but he gained what was far morevaluable, the active friendship of these able and honorable men, allWhigs and all Kentuckians like himself. 

The acquaintances he made in his canvass, the practice he gained inspeaking, and the added confidence which this experience of measuringhis abilities with those of others gave, were all the advantages whichLincoln derived from this attempt. He was defeated, for the only timein his life, in a contest before the people. The fortunate candidateswere E. D. Taylor, J. T. Stuart, Achilles Morris, and PeterCartwright, the first of whom received 1127 votes and the last 815. Lincoln's position among the eight defeated candidates was a veryrespectable one. He had 657 votes, and there were five who faredworse, among them his old adversary Kirkpatrick. What must have beenespecially gratifying to him was the fact that he received the almostunanimous vote of his own neighborhood, the precinct of New Salem, 277votes against 3, a result which showed more strongly than any wordscould do the extent of the attachment and the confidence which hisgenial and upright character had inspired among those who knew himbest. 

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 ofsubsistence, he was forced to look about for some suitable occupation. We know he thought seriously at this time of learning the trade of ablacksmith, and using in that honest way the sinew and brawn whichnature had given him. But an opening for another kind of businessoccurred, which prevented his entering upon any merely mechanicaloccupation. Two of his most intimate friends were the brothersHerndon, called, according to the fashion of the time, which held itunfriendly to give a man his proper name, and arrogant for him toclaim it, "Row" and "Jim. " They kept one of those grocery stores inwhich everything salable on the frontier was sold, and which seem tohave changed their occupants as rapidly as sentry-boxes. "Jim" soldhis share to an idle and dissolute man named Berry, and "Row" soontransferred his interest to Lincoln. It was easy enough to buy, asnothing was ever given in payment but a promissory note. A short timeafterwards, one Reuben Radford, who kept another shop of the samekind, happened one evening to attract the dangerous attention of theClary's Grove boys, who, with their usual prompt and practicalfacetiousness, without a touch of malice in it, broke his windows andwrecked his store. The next morning, while Radford was ruefullycontemplating the ruin, and doubtless concluding that he had hadenough of a country where the local idea of neighborly humor foundsuch eccentric expression, he hailed a passer-by named Greene, andchallenged him to buy his establishment for four hundred dollars. Thissort of trade was always irresistible to these Western speculators, and Greene at once gave his note for the amount. It next occurred tohim to try to find out what the property was worth, and doubting hisown skill, he engaged Lincoln to make an invoice of it. The youngmerchant, whose appetite for speculation had just been whetted by hisown investment, undertook the task, and, finding the stock of goodsrather tempting, offered Greene $250 for his bargain, which was atonce accepted. Not a cent of money changed hands in all thesetransactions. By virtue of half a dozen signatures, Berry and Lincolnbecame proprietors of the only mercantile establishment in thevillage, and the apparent wealth of the community was increased by aliberal distribution of their notes among the Herndons, Radford, Greene, and a Mr. Rutledge, whose business they had also bought. 

Fortunately for Lincoln and for the world, the enterprise was notsuccessful. It was entered into without sufficient reflection, andfrom the very nature of things was destined to fail. To Berry thebusiness was merely the refuge of idleness. He spent his time ingossip and drank up his share of the profits, and it is probable thatLincoln was far more interested in politics and general reading thanin 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 Berrytook out a license for that purpose on the 6th of March, 1833. [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote (1) relocated to chapter end. ]But it was even then too late for any expedients to save the moribundpartnership. The tavern was never opened, for about this time Lincolnand Berry were challenged to sell out to a pair of vagrant brothersnamed Trent, who, as they had no idea of paying, were willing to givetheir notes to any amount. They soon ran away, and Berry expired, extinguished in rum. Lincoln was thus left loaded with debts, and withno assets except worthless notes of Berry and the Trents. It isgreatly to his credit that he never thought of doing by others asothers had done by him. The morality of the frontier was deplorablyloose in such matters, and most of these people would have concludedthat the failure of the business expunged its liabilities. But Lincolnmade no effort even to compromise the claims against him. He promisedto pay when he could, and it took the labor of years to do it; but hepaid at last every farthing of the debt, which seemed to him and hisfriends so large that it was called among them "the national debt. "

[Illustration: JUDGE STEPHEN T. LOGAN. ]

He had already begun to read elementary books of law, borrowed fromMajor Stuart and other kindly acquaintances. Indeed, it is quitepossible that Berry and Lincoln might have succeeded better inbusiness if the junior member of the firm had not spent so much of histime reading Blackstone and Chitty in the shade of a great oak justoutside the door, while the senior quietly fuddled himself within. Eye-witnesses still speak of the grotesque youth, habited in homespuntow, lying on his back with his feet on the trunk of the tree, andporing over his book by the hour, "grinding around with the shade, " asit shifted from north to east. After his store, to use his ownexpression, had "winked out, " he applied himself with more continuousenergy to his reading, doing merely what odd jobs came to his hand topay his current expenses, which were of course very slight. Hesometimes helped his friend Ellis in his store; sometimes went intothe field and renewed his exploits as a farm-hand, which had gainedhim a traditional fame in Indiana; sometimes employed his clerkly handin straightening up a neglected ledger. It is probable that he workedfor his board oftener than for any other compensation, and his heartyfriendliness and vivacity, as well as his industry in the field, madehim a welcome guest in any farmhouse in the county. His strong arm wasalways at the disposal of the poor and needy; it is said of him, witha graphic variation of a well-known text, "that he visited thefatherless and the widow and chopped their wood. "

In the spring of this year, 1833, he was appointed Postmaster of NewSalem, and held the office for three years. Its emoluments wereslender and its duties light, but there was in all probability nocitizen of the village who could have made so much of it as he. Themails were so scanty that he was said to carry them in his hat, and heis also reported to have read every newspaper that arrived; it isaltogether likely that this formed the leading inducement to histaking the office. His incumbency lasted until New Salem ceased to bepopulous enough for a post-station and the mail went by to Petersburg. Dr. J. G. Holland relates a sequel to this official experience whichillustrates the quaint honesty of the man. Several years later, whenhe was a practicing lawyer, an agent of the Post-office Departmentcalled upon him, and asked for a balance due from the New Salemoffice, some seventeen dollars. Lincoln rose, and opening a littletrunk which lay in a corner of the room, took from it a cotton rag inwhich was tied up the exact sum required. "I never use any man's moneybut my own, " he quietly remarked. When we consider the pinchingpoverty in which these years had been passed, we may appreciate theself-denial denial which had kept him from making even a temporary useof this little sum of government money. 

[Illustration: A. LINCOLN'S SURVEYING INSTRUMENTS AND SADDLE-BAG. INTHE POSSESSION OF THE LINCOLN MONUMENT COLLECTION. ]

John Calhoun, the Surveyor of Sangamon County, was at this timeoverburdened with work. The principal local industry was speculationin land. Every settler of course wanted his farm surveyed and markedout for him, and every community had its syndicate of leading citizenswho cherished a scheme of laying out a city somewhere. In many casesthe city was plotted, the sites of the principal buildings, includinga courthouse and a university, were determined, and a sonorous namewas selected out of Plutarch, before its location was even considered. For this latter office the intervention of an official surveyor wasnecessary, and therefore Mr. Calhoun had more business than he couldattend to without assistance. Looking about for a young man of goodcharacter, intelligent enough to learn surveying at short notice, hisattention was soon attracted to Lincoln. He offered young Abraham abook containing the elements of the art, and told him when he hadmastered it he should have employment. The offer was a flattering one, and Lincoln, with that steady self-reliance of his, accepted it, andarmed with his book went out to the schoolmaster's (Menton Graham's), and in six weeks' close application made himself a surveyor. [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote (2) relocated to chapter end. ]

[Illustration: AUTOGRAPH PLAN OF ROAD SURVEYED BY A. LINCOLN ANDOTHERS. The lower half is the right-hand side of the plan which, inthe original, is in one piece. ]

[Illustration: Fac-simile of Lincoln's Report of the road survey. ]

It will be remembered that Washington in his youth adopted the sameprofession, but there were few points of similarity in the lives ofthe two great Presidents, in youth or later manhood. The Virginian hadevery social advantage in his favor, and was by nature a man of morethrift and greater sagacity in money matters. He used the knowledgegained in the practice of his profession so wisely that he becamerather early in life a large land-holder, and continually increasedhis possessions until his death. Lincoln, with almost unboundedopportunities for the selection and purchase of valuable tracts, madeno use whatever of them. He employed his skill and knowledge merely asa bread-winner, and made so little provision for the future that whenMr. Van Bergen, who had purchased the Radford note, sued and gotjudgment on it, his horse and his surveying instruments were taken topay the debt, and only by the generous intervention of a friend was heable to redeem these invaluable means of living. He was, nevertheless, an excellent surveyor. His portion of the public work executed underthe directions of Mr. Calhoun and his successor, T. M. Neale, was wellperformed, and he soon found his time pretty well employed withprivate business which came to him from Sangamon and the adjoiningcounties. Early in the year 1834 we find him appointed one of three"viewers" to locate a road from Salt Creek to the county line in thedirection of Jacksonville. The board seems to have consisted mainly ofits chairman, as Lincoln made the deposit of money required by law, surveyed the route, plotted the road, and wrote the report. [Transcriber's Note: (3) Lengthy footnote relocated to chapter end. ]

Though it is evident that the post-office and the surveyor's compasswere not making a rich man of him, they were sufficient to enable himto live decently, and during the year he greatly increased hisacquaintance and his influence in the county. The one followed theother naturally; every acquaintance he made became his friend, andeven before the end of his unsuccessful canvass in 1832 it had becomeevident to the observant politicians of the district that he was a manwhom it would not do to leave out of their calculations. There seemedto be no limit to his popularity nor to his aptitudes, in the opinionof his admirers. He was continually called on to serve in the mostincongruous capacities. Old residents say he was the best judge at ahorse-race the county afforded; he was occasionally second in a duelof fisticuffs, though he usually contrived to reconcile theadversaries on the turf before any damage was done; he was the arbiteron all controverted points of literature, science, or woodcraft amongthe disputatious denizens of Clary's Grove, and his decisions werenever appealed from. His native tact and humor were invaluable in hiswork as a peacemaker, and his enormous physical strength, which healways used with a magnanimity rare among giants, placed his off-handdecrees beyond the reach of contemptuous question. He composeddifferences among friends and equals with good-natured raillery, buthe was as rough as need be when his wrath was roused by meanness andcruelty. We hardly know whether to credit some of the stories, apparently well-attested by living witnesses, of his prodigiousmuscular powers. He is said to have lifted, at Rutledge's mill, a boxof stones weighing over half a ton! It is also related that he couldraise a barrel of whisky from the ground and drink from the bung--butthe narrator adds that he never swallowed the whisky. Whether thesetraditions are strictly true or not, they are evidently founded on thecurrent reputation he enjoyed among his fellows for extraordinarystrength, and this was an important element in his influence. He wasknown to be capable of handling almost any man he met, yet he neversought a quarrel. He was everybody's friend and yet used no liquor ortobacco. He was poor and had scarcely ever been at school, yet he wasthe best-informed young man in the village. He had grown up on thefrontier, the utmost fringe of civilization, yet he was gentle andclean of speech, innocent of blasphemy or scandal. His good qualitiesmight have excited resentment if displayed by a well-dressed strangerfrom an Eastern State, but the most uncouth ruffians of New Salem tooka sort of proprietary interest and pride in the decency and thecleverness and the learning of their friend and comrade, Abe Lincoln. 

It was regarded, therefore, almost as a matter of course that Lincolnshould be a candidate for the Legislature at the next election, whichtook place in August, 1834. He was sure of the united support of theWhigs, and so many of the Democrats also wanted to vote for him thatsome of the leading members of that party came to him and proposedthey should give him an organized support. He was too loyal a partisanto accept their overtures without taking counsel from the Whigcandidates. He laid the matter before Major Stuart, who at onceadvised him to make the canvass. It was a generous and chivalrousaction, for by thus encouraging the candidacy of Lincoln he wasendangering his own election. But his success two years before, in theface of a vindictive opposition led by the strongest Jackson men inthe district, had made him somewhat confident, and he perhaps thoughthe was risking little by giving a helping hand to his comrade in theSpy Battalion. Before the election Lincoln's popularity developeditself in rather a portentous manner, and it required some exertion tosave the seat of his generous friend. At the close of the poll, thefour successful candidates held the following relative positions:Lincoln, 1376; Dawson, 1370; Carpenter, 1170; and Stuart, at that timeprobably the most prominent young man in the district, and the onemarked out by the public voice for an early election to Congress, 1164. 

[Relocated Footnote (1): The following is an extract from the courtrecord: "March 6, 1833. Ordered that William F. Berry, in the name ofBerry and Lincoln, have license to keep a tavern in New Salem, tocontinue twelve months from this date, and that they pay one dollar inaddition to six dollars heretofore prepaid as per Treasurer's receipt, and that they be allowed the following rates, viz. : French brandy, perpint, 25; Peach, 183/4; Apple, 12; Holland Gin, 183/4; Domestic, 121/2; Wine, 25; Rum, 183/4; Whisky, 121/2; Breakfast, dinner, orsupper, 25; Lodging for night, 121/2; Horse for night, 25; Singlefeed, 121/2; Breakfast, dinner, or supper, for stage passengers, 371/2. Who gave bond as required by law. "]

[Relocated Footnote (2): There has been some discussion as to whetherLincoln served as deputy under Calhoun or Neale. The truth is that heserved under both of them. Calhoun was surveyor in 1833, when Lincolnfirst learned the business. Neale was elected in 1835, and immediatelyappointed Lincoln and Calhoun as his deputies. 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 Calhoun deputy surveyors for Sangamon County. In my absencefrom town, any persons wishing their land surveyed will do well tocall at the Recorder's office and enter his or their names in a bookleft for that purpose, stating township and range in which theyrespectively live, and their business shall be promptly attended to. 

"T. M. NEALE. "

An article by Colonel G. A. Pierce, printed April 21, 1881, in theChicago "Inter-Ocean, " describes an interview held in that month withW. G. Green, of Menard County, in which this matter is referred to. ButMr. Green relies more on the document in his possession than on hisrecollection of what took place in 1833. "'Where did Lincoln learnhis surveying?' I asked. 'Took it up himself, ' replied Mr. Green, 'ashe did a hundred things, and mastered it too. When he acted assurveyor here he was deputy of T. M. Neale, and not of Calhoun, as hasoften been said. There was a dispute about this, and many sketches ofhis life gave Calhoun (Candle-box Calhoun, as he was afterwards knownduring the Kansas troubles and election frauds) as the surveyor, butit was Neale. ' Mr. Green turned to his desk and drew out an oldcertificate, in the handwriting of Lincoln, giving the boundaries ofcertain lands, and signed, 'T. M. Neale, Surveyor, by A. Lincoln, Deputy, ' thus settling the question. Mr. Green was a Democrat, and hasleaned towards that party all his life, but what he thought and thinksof Lincoln can be seen by an endorsement on the back of thecertificate named, which is as follows:"

(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. )]

[Relocated Footnote (3): As this is probably the earliest public documentextant written and signed by Lincoln, we give it in full:

"March 3, 1834. Reuben Harrison presented the following petition: We, the undersigned, respectfully request your honorable body to appointviewers 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 beappointed to view said road, and said Lincoln to act as surveyor. 

"To the County Commissioners' Court for the county of Sangamon, at itsJune term, 1834. We, the undersigned, being appointed to view andlocate a "Whole length of road, 26 road, beginning at Musick's ferryon Salt Creek, via New Salem, to the county line in the direction toJacksonville, respectfully report that we have performed the duties ofsaid view and location, as required by law, and that we have made thelocation on good ground, and believe the establishment of the same tobe necessary 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, for5 days at 75 cents, $3. 75. Robert Lloyd, at 75 cents, $3. 75. HughArmstrong, 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, 2inches to the mile. "]

CHAPTER VII

LEGISLATIVE EXPERIENCE

The election of Mr. Lincoln to the Legislature may be said to haveclosed the pioneer portion of his life. He was done with the wildcarelessness of the woods, with the jolly ruffianism of Clary's Grove, with the petty chaffering of grocery stores, with odd jobs for dailybread, with all the uncouth squalor of the frontier poverty. It wasnot that his pecuniary circumstances were materially improved. He wasstill, and for years continued to be, a very poor man, harassed bydebts which he was always working to pay, and sometimes in distressfor the means of decent subsistence. But from this time forward hisassociations were with a better class of men than he had ever knownbefore, and a new feeling of self-respect must naturally have grown upin his mind from his constant intercourse with them--a feeling whichextended to the minor morals of civilized life. A sophisticated readermay smile at the mention of anything like social ethics in Vandalia in1834; but, compared with Gentryville and New Salem, the society whichassembled in the winter at that little capital was polished andelegant. The State then contained nearly 250, 000 inhabitants, and themembers of the Legislature, elected purely on personal grounds, nominated by themselves or their neighbors without the intervention ofparty machinery, were necessarily the leading men, in one way oranother, in their several districts. Among the colleagues of Lincolnat Vandalia were young men with destinies only less brilliant than hisown. They were to become governors, senators, and judges; they were toorganize the Whig party of Illinois, and afterwards the Republican;they were to lead brigades and divisions in two great wars. Among thefirst persons he met there--not in the Legislature proper, but in thelobby, where he was trying to appropriate an office then filled byColonel John J. Hardin--was his future antagonist, Stephen A. Douglas. Neither seemed to have any presentiment of the future greatness of theother. Douglas thought little of the raw youth from the Sangamontimber, and Lincoln said the dwarfish Vermonter was "the least man hehad ever seen. " To all appearance, Vandalia was full of better menthan either of them--clever lawyers, men of wit and standing, some ofthem the sons of provident early settlers, but more who had come fromolder States to seek their fortunes in these fresh fields. 

During his first session Lincoln occupied no especially conspicuousposition. He held his own respectably among the best. One of hiscolleagues tells us he was not distinguished by any externaleccentricity; that he wore, according to the custom of the time, adecent suit of blue jeans; that he was known simply as a rather quietyoung man, good-natured and sensible. Before the session ended he hadmade the acquaintance of most of the members, and had evidently cometo be looked upon as possessing more than ordinary capacity. Hisunusual common-sense began to be recognized. His name does not oftenappear in the records of the year. He introduced a resolution in favorof securing to the State a part of the proceeds of the sales of publiclands within its limits; he took part in the organization of theephemeral "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 forsenator, and with the majority that passed the Bank and Canal bills, which were received with great enthusiasm throughout Illinois, andwhich were only the precursors of those gigantic and ill-advisedschemes that came to maturity two years later, and inflictedincalculable injury upon the State. 

Lincoln returned to New Salem, after this winter's experience of menand things at the little capital, much firmer on his feet than everbefore. He had had the opportunity of measuring himself with theleading men of the community, and had found no difficulty whatever inkeeping pace with them. He continued his studies of the law andsurveying together, and became quite indispensable in the lattercapacity--so much so that General Neale, announcing in September, 1835, the names of the deputy surveyors of Sangarnon County, placedthe name of Lincoln before that of his old master in the science, JohnCalhoun. He returned to the Legislature in the winter of 1835-6, andone of the first important incidents of the session was the electionof a senator to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Elias KentKane. There was no lack of candidates. A journal of the time says:"This intelligence reached Vandalia on the evening of the 26th ofDecember, 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 bypreemption. " [Footnote: "Sangamo Journal, " January 2. ] It is notknown who was the roaring celebrity here referred to, but thesuccessful candidate was General William L. D. Ewing, who was electedby 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, thecandidate for the regular Democratic caucus, was beaten simply onaccount of his political orthodoxy. 

A minority is always strongly in favor of independent action andbitterly opposed to caucuses, and therefore we need not be surprisedat finding Mr. Lincoln, a few days later in the session, joining inhearty denunciation of the convention system, which had already becomepopular in the East, and which General Jackson was then urging uponhis faithful followers. The missionaries of this new system inIllinois were Stephen A. Douglas, recently from Vermont, the shiftyyoung lawyer from Morgan County, who had just succeeded in havinghimself made circuit attorney in place of Colonel Hardin, and a manwho was then regarded in Vandalia as a far more important anddangerous person than Douglas, Ebenezer Peck, of Chicago. Peck waslooked upon with distrust and suspicion for several reasons, all ofwhich seemed valid to the rural legislators assembled there. He camefrom Canada, where he had been a member of the provincial parliament;it was therefore imagined that he was permeated with secret hostilityto republican institutions; his garb, his furs, were of the fashion ofQuebec; and he passed his time indoctrinating the Jackson men with thetheory and practice of party organization, teachings which theyeagerly absorbed, and which seemed sinister and ominous to the Whigs. He was showing them, in fact, the way in which elections were to bewon; and though the Whigs denounced his system as subversive ofindividual freedom and private judgment, it was not long before theywere also forced to adopt it, or be left alone with their virtue. Theorganization of political parties in Illinois really takes its risefrom this time, and in great measure from the work of Mr. Peck withthe Vandalia Legislature. There was no man more dreaded and dislikedthan he was by the stalwart young Whigs against whom he was organizingthat solid and disciplined opposition. But a quarter of a centurybrings wonderful changes. Twenty-five years later Mr. Peck stoodshoulder to shoulder with these very men who then reviled him as aCanadian emissary of tyranny and corruption, --with S. T. Logan, 0. H. Browning, and J. K. Dubois, --organizing a new party for victory underthe name of Abraham Lincoln. 

[Illustration: O. H. Browning. ]

The Legislature adjourned on the 18th of January, having made abeginning, it is true, in the work of improving the State by statute, though its modest work, incorporating canal and bridge companies andproviding for public roads, bore no relation to the ambitious essaysof its successor. Among the bills passed at this session was anApportionment act, by which Sangamon County became entitled to sevenrepresentatives 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 ofa later day that just eight prominent men, on a side, should haveoffered themselves for these places, without the intervention of anyprimary meetings. Such a thing, if we mistake not, was never knownagain in Illinois. The convention system was afterwards seen to be anabsolute necessity to prevent the disorganization of parties throughthe restless vanity of obscure and insubordinate aspirants. But theeight who "took the stump" in Sangamon in the summer of 1836 weresupported as loyally and as energetically as if they had beennominated with all the solemnity of modern days. They became famous inthe history of the State, partly for their stature and partly fortheir influence in legislation. They were called, with Herndon, the"Long Nine;" their average height was over six feet, and theiraggregate altitude was said to be fifty-five feet. Their names wereAbraham Lincoln, John Dawson, Dan Stone, Ninian W. Edwards, William F. Elkin, R. L. Wilson, and Andrew McCormick, candidates for the House ofRepresentatives, and Job Fletcher for the Senate, of Illinois. 

Mr. Lincoln began his canvass with the following circular:

 NEW SALEM/June 13, 1836. To the Editor of the "Journal. "

In your paper of last Saturday I see a communication over thesignature "Many Voters" in which the candidates who are announced inthe "Journal" are called upon to "show their hands. " Agreed. Here'smine. 

I go for all sharing the privileges of the Government who assist inbearing its burdens. Consequently I go for admitting all whites to theright of suffrage who pay taxes or bear arms (by no means excludingfemales). 

If elected, I shall consider the whole people of Sangamon myconstituents, as well those that oppose as those that support me. 

While acting as their representative I shall be governed by their willon all subjects upon which I have the means of knowing what their willis, and upon all others I shall do what my own judgment teaches mewill best advance their interests. Whether elected or not, I go fordistributing the proceeds of the sales of the public lands to theseveral States, to enable our State, in common with others, to digcanals and construct railroads without borrowing money and payinginterest on it. 

If alive on the first Monday in November, I shall vote for Hugh L. White for President. [Footnote: This phrase seems to have been adoptedas a formula by the anti-Jackson party. The "cards" of severalcandidates contain it. ]

 Very respectfully, A. LINCOLN. 

It would be hard to imagine a more audacious and unqualifieddeclaration of principles and intentions. But it was the fashion ofthe hour to promise exact obedience to the will of the people, and thetwo practical questions touched by this circular were the only onesthen much talked about. The question of suffrage for aliens was aliving problem in the State, and Mr. Lincoln naturally took liberalground on it; and he was also in favor of getting from the sale ofpublic lands a portion of the money he was ready to vote for internalimprovements. This was good Whig doctrine at that time, and the youngpolitician did not fancy he could go wrong in following in such amatter the lead of his idol, Henry Clay. 

He made an active canvass, and spoke frequently during the summer. Hemust have made some part of the campaign on foot, for we find in thecounty paper an advertisement of a horse which had strayed or beenstolen from him while on a visit to Springfield. It was not animposing animal, to judge from the description; it was "plainly markedwith harness, " and was "believed to have lost some of his shoes"; butit was a large horse, as suited a cavalier of such stature, and"trotted and paced" in a serviceable manner. In July a ratherremarkable discussion took place at the county-seat, in which many ofthe leading men on both sides took part. Ninian Edwards, son of thelate Governor, is said to have opened the debate with much effect. Mr. Early, who followed him, was so roused by his energetic attack that hefelt his only resource was a flat contradiction, which in those daysmeant mischief. In the midst of great and increasing excitement DanStone and John Calhoun made speeches which did not tend to pour oil onthe waters of contention, and then came Mr. Lincoln's turn. An articlein the "Journal" states that he seemed embarrassed in his opening, forthis 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, andhe finally made what was universally regarded as the strongest speechof the day. One of his colleagues says that on this occasion he usedin his excitement for the first time that singularly effective cleartenor tone of voice which afterwards became so widely known in thepolitical battles of the West. The canvass was an energetic onethroughout, and excited more interest, in the district than even thepresidential election, which occurred some months later. Mr. Lincolnwas elected at the head of the poll by a majority greatly in excess ofthe average majority of his friends, which shows conclusively how hisinfluence and popularity had increased. The Whigs in this electioneffected a revolution in the politics of the county. By force of theirability and standing they had before managed to divide the suffragesof the people, even while they were unquestionably in the minority;but this year they completely defeated their opponents and gained thatcontrol of the county which they never lost as long as the partyendured. 

If Mr. Lincoln had no other claims to be remembered than his servicesin the Legislature of 1836-7, there would be little to say in hisfavor. Its history is one of disaster to the State. Its legislationwas almost wholly unwise and hurtful. The most we can say for Mr. Lincoln is that he obeyed the will of his constituents, as he promisedto do, and labored with singular skill and ability to accomplish theobjects desired by the people who gave him their votes. The especialwork intrusted to him was the subdivision of the county, and theproject for the removal of the capital of the State to Springfield. [Footnote: "Lincoln was at the head of the project to remove the seatof government to Springfield; it was entirely intrusted to him tomanage. The members were all elected on one ticket, but they alllooked to Lincoln as the head" STEPHEN T, LOGAN. ] In both of these hewas successful. In the account of errors and follies committed by theLegislature to the lasting injury of the State, he is entitled to nopraise or blame beyond the rest. He shared in that sanguine epidemicof financial and industrial quackery which devastated the entirecommunity, and voted with the best men of the country in favor ofschemes which appeared then like a promise of an immediate millennium, and seem now like midsummer madness. 

[Sidenote: Ford, p. 102. ]

[Footnote: Reynolds, "Life and Times. "]

He entered political life in one of those eras of delusive prosperitywhich so often precede great financial convulsions. The population ofthe State was increasing at the enormous rate of two hundred percentin ten years. It had extended northward along the lines of the woodedvalleys of creeks and rivers in the center to Peoria; on the west bythe banks of the Mississippi to Galena; on the east with wideintervals of wilderness to Chicago. The edge of the timber waseverywhere pretty well occupied, though the immigrants from the forestStates of Kentucky and Tennessee had as yet avoided the prairies. Therich soil and equable climate were now attracting an excellent classof settlers from the older States, and the long-neglected northerncounties were receiving the attention they deserved. The war of BlackHawk had brought the country into notice; the utter defeat of hisnation had given the guarantee of a permanent peace; the last lodgesof the Pottawatomies had disappeared from the country in 1833. Themoney spent by the general Government during the war, and paid to thevolunteers at its close, added to the common prosperity. There was abrisk trade in real estate, and there was even a beginning in Chicagoof that passion for speculation in town lots which afterwards became afrenzy. 

It was too much to expect of the Illinois Legislature that it shouldunderstand that the best thing it could do to forward this prosperoustendency of things was to do nothing; for this is a lesson which hasnot yet been learned by any legislature in the world. For severalyears they had been tinkering, at first modestly and tentatively, at ascheme of internal improvements which should not cost too much money. In 1835 they began to grant charters for railroads, which remained inembryo, as the stock was never taken. Surveys for other railroads werealso proposed, to cross the State in different directions; and theproject of uniting Lake Michigan with the Illinois River by a canalwas of too evident utility to be overlooked. In fact, the route hadbeen surveyed, and estimates of cost made, companies incorporated, andall preliminaries completed many years before, though nothing furtherhad been done, as no funds had been offered from any source. But atthe special session of 1835 a law was passed authorizing a loan ofhalf a million dollars for this purpose; the loan was effected byGovernor Duncan the following year, and in June, aboard of canalcommissioners having been appointed, a beginning was actually madewith pick and shovel. 

[Sidenote: Ford, p. 181. ]

A restless feeling of hazardous speculation seemed to be takingpossession of the State. "It commenced, " says Governor Ford, in hisadmirable chronicle, "at Chicago, and was the means of building upthat place in a year or two from a village of a few houses to be acity of several thousand inhabitants. The story of the sudden fortunesmade there excited at first wonder and amazement; next, a gamblingspirit of adventure; and lastly, an all-absorbing desire for suddenand splendid wealth. Chicago had been for some time only one greattown-market. The plots of towns for a hundred miles around werecarried there to be disposed of at auction. The Eastern people hadcaught the mania. Every vessel coming west was loaded with them, theirmoney and means, bound for Chicago, the great fairy-land of fortunes. But as enough did not come to satisfy the insatiable greediness of theChicago sharpers and speculators, they frequently consigned theirwares to Eastern markets. In fact, lands and town lots were the stapleof the country, and were the only article of export. " The contagionspread so rapidly, towns and cities were laid out so profusely, thatit was a standing joke that before long there would be no land left inthe State for farming purposes. 

The future of the State for many years to come was thus discounted bythe fervid imaginations of its inhabitants. "We have every requisiteof a great empire, " they said, "except enterprise and inhabitants, "and they thought that a little enterprise would bring the inhabitants. Through the spring and summer of 1836 the talk of internalimprovements grew more general and more clamorous. The candidates foroffice spoke about little else, and the only point of emulation amongthe parties was which should be the more reckless and grandiose in itspromises. When the time arrived for the assembling of the Legislature, the members were not left to their own zeal and the recollection oftheir campaign pledges, but meetings and conventions were everywhereheld to spur them up to the fulfillment of their mandate. Theresolutions passed by the principal body of delegates who cametogether in December directed the Legislature to vote a system ofinternal improvements "commensurate with the wants of the people, " aphrase which is never lacking in the mouth of the charlatan or thedemagogue. 

[Sidenote: "Ford's History, " p. 184. ]

These demands were pressed upon a not reluctant Legislature. Theyaddressed themselves at once to the work required of them, and soondevised, with reckless and unreasoning haste, a scheme of railroadscovering the vast uninhabited prairies as with a gridiron. There wasto be a rail-road from Galena to the mouth of the Ohio River; fromAlton to Shawneetown; from Alton to Mount Carmel; from Alton to theeastern State boundary--by virtue of which lines Alton was to take thelife of St. Louis without further notice; from Quincy to the WabashRiver; from Bloomington to Pekin; from Peoria to Warsaw;--in all, 1350miles of railway. Some of these terminal cities were not in existenceexcept upon neatly designed surveyor's maps. The scheme provided alsofor the improvement of every stream in the State on which a child'sshingle-boat could sail; and to the end that all objections should bestifled on the part of those neighborhoods which had neither railroadsnor 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 thegeneral joy. To accomplish this stupendous scheme, the Legislaturevoted eight million dollars, to be raised by loan. Four millions werealso voted to complete the canal. These sums, monstrous as they were, were still ridiculously inadequate to the purpose in view. But whilethe frenzy lasted there was no consideration of cost or ofpossibilities. These vast works were voted without estimates, withoutsurveys, without any rational consideration of their necessity. Thevoice of reason seemed to be silent in the Assembly; only theutterances of fervid prophecy found listeners. Governor Ford speaks ofone orator who insisted, amid enthusiastic plaudits, that the Statecould well afford to borrow one hundred millions for internalimprovements. The process of reasoning, or rather predicting, was easyand natural. The roads would raise the price of land; the State couldenter large tracts and sell them at a profit; foreign capital would beinvested in land, and could be heavily taxed to pay bonded interest;and the roads, as fast as they were built, could be operated at agreat profit to pay for their own construction. The climax of thewhole folly was reached by the provision of law directing that workshould be begun at once at the termini of all the roads and thecrossings of all rivers. 

It is futile and disingenuous to attempt, as some have done, to fastenupon one or the other of the political parties of the State theresponsibility of this bedlam legislation. The Governor and a majorityof the Legislature were elected as Jackson Democrats, but the Whigswere as earnest in passing these measures as their opponents; andafter they were adopted, the superior wealth, education, and businesscapacity of the Whigs had their legitimate influence, and they filledthe principal positions upon the boards and commissions which cameinto existence under the acts. The bills were passed, --not withoutopposition, it is true, but by sufficient majorities, --and the newswas received by the people of the State with the most extravagantdemonstrations of delight. The villages were illuminated; bells wererung in the rare steeples of the churches; "fire-balls, "--bundles ofcandle-wick soaked in turpentine, --were thrown by night all over thecountry. The day of payment was far away, and those who trusted theassurances of the sanguine politicians thought that in some mysteriousway the scheme would pay for itself. 

Mr. Lincoln is continually found voting with his friends in favor ofthis legislation, and there is nothing to show that he saw any dangerin it. He was a Whig, and as such in favor of internal improvements ingeneral and a liberal construction of constitutional law in suchmatters. As a boy, he had interested himself in the details of localimprovements of rivers and roads, and he doubtless went with thecurrent in Vandalia in favor of this enormous system. He took, however, no prominent part in the work by which these railroad billswere passed. He considered himself as specially commissioned toprocure 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 waseverywhere agreed, except at Vandalia, that the capital ought to bemoved, every city in the State, and several which existed only onpaper, demanded to be made the seat of government. The question hadbeen submitted to a popular vote in 1834, and the result showed aboutas many cities desirous of opening their gates to the Legislature asclaimed the honor of being the birthplace of Homer. Of theseSpringfield was only third in popular estimation, and it was evidentthat Mr. Lincoln had need of all his wits if he were to fulfill thetrust confided to him. It is said by Governor Ford that the "LongNine" were not averse to using the hopes and fears of other members inrelation to their special railroads to gain their adherence to theSpringfield programme, but this is by no means clear. We are ratherinclined to trust the direct testimony of Jesse K. Dubois, that thesuccess of the Sangamon County delegation in obtaining the capital wasdue to the adroit management of Mr. Lincoln--first in inducing all therival claimants to unite in a vote to move the capital from Vandalia, and then in carrying a direct vote for Springfield through the jointconvention by the assistance of the southern counties. His personalauthority accomplished this in great part. Mr. Dubois says: "He madeWebb and me vote for the removal, though we belonged to the southernend of the State. We defended our vote before our constituents bysaying that necessity would ultimately force the seat of government toa central position. But in reality we gave the vote to Lincoln becausewe liked him, because we wanted to oblige our friend, and because werecognized him as our leader. " To do this, they were obliged toquarrel with their most intimate associates, who had bought a piece ofwaste land at the exact geographical center of the State and werestriving to have the capital established there in the interest oftheir own pockets and territorial symmetry. 

The bill was passed only a short time before the Legislatureadjourned, and the "Long Nine" came back to their constituents wearingtheir well-won laurels. They were complimented in the newspapers, atpublic meetings, and even at subscription dinners. We read of one atSpringfield, at the "Rural Hotel, " to which sixty guests sat down, where there were speeches by Browning, Lincoln, Douglas (who hadresigned his seat in the Legislature to become Register of the LandOffice at the new capital), S. T. Logan, Baker, and others, whose witand wisdom were lost to history through the absence of reporters. Another dinner was given them at Athens a few weeks later. Among thetoasts on these occasions were two which we may transcribe: "AbrahamLincoln: He has fulfilled the expectations of his friends, anddisappointed the hopes of his enemies"; and "A. Lincoln: One ofNature's noblemen. "

CHAPTER VIII

THE LINCOLN-STONE PROTEST

[Sidenote: 1837. ]

On the 3rd of March, the day before the Legislature adjourned, Mr. Lincoln caused to be entered upon its records a paper which excitedbut little interest at the time, but which will probably be rememberedlong after the good and evil actions of the Vandalia Assembly havefaded away from the minds of men. It was the authentic record of thebeginning of a great and momentous career. The following protest waspresented to the House, which was read and ordered to be spread on thejournals, to wit:

 Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having 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 promulgation 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 to be exercised, unless at the request of the people of the District. 

 The difference between these opinions and those contained in the above resolutions is their reason for entering 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 protestso mild and cautious as this should ever have been considered eithernecessary or remarkable. We have gone so far away from the habits ofthought and feeling prevalent at that time that it is difficult toappreciate such acts at their true value. But if we look a littlecarefully into the state of politics and public opinion in Illinois inthe first half of this century, we shall see how much of inflexibleconscience and reason there was in this simple protest. 

[Sidenote: Edwards, "History of Illinois, " p. 179. ]

[Sidenote: Edwards, p. 180. ]

The whole of the North-west territory had, it is true, been dedicatedto freedom by the ordinance of 1787, but in spite of that famousprohibition, slavery existed in a modified form throughout that vastterritory wherever there was any considerable population. An actlegalizing a sort of slavery by indenture was passed by the Indianaterritorial Legislature in 1807, and this remained in force in theIllinois country after its separation. Another act providing for thehiring of slaves from Southern States was passed in 1814, for theostensible reason that "mills could not be successfully operated inthe territory for want of laborers, and that the manufacture of saltcould not be successfully carried on by white laborers. " Yet, as anunconscious satire upon such pretenses, from time to time the mostsavage acts were passed to prohibit the immigration of free negroesinto the territory which was represented as pining for black labor. Those who held slaves under the French domination, and their heirs, continued to hold them and their descendants in servitude, afterIllinois had become nominally a free territory and a free State, onthe ground that their vested rights of property could not have beenabrogated 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 theadvocates of slavery. Soon after the adoption of the StateConstitution, which prohibited slavery "hereafter, " it was evidentthat there was a strong under-current of desire for its introductioninto the State. Some of the leading politicians, exaggerating theextent of this desire, imagined they saw in it a means of personaladvancement, and began to agitate the question of a convention toamend the Constitution. At that time there was a considerableemigration setting through the State from Kentucky and Tennessee toMissouri. Day by day the teams of the movers passed through theIllinois settlements, and wherever they halted for rest andrefreshment they would affect to deplore the short-sighted policywhich, by prohibiting slavery, had prevented their settling in thatbeautiful country. When young bachelors came from Kentucky on trips ofbusiness or pleasure, they dazzled the eyes of the women and excitedthe envy of their male rivals with their black retainers. The earlyIllinoisans were perplexed with a secret and singular sense ofinferiority to even so new and raw a community as Missouri, because ofits possession of slavery. Governor Edwards, complaining so late as1829 of the superior mail facilities afforded to Missouri, says: "Ican conceive of no reason for this preference, unless it be supposedthat because the people of Missouri have negroes to work for them theyare to be considered as gentlefolks entitled to higher considerationthan us plain 'free-State' folks who have to work for ourselves. "

The attempt was at last seriously made to open the State to slavery bythe Legislature of 1822-3. The Governor, Edward Coles, of Virginia, astrong antislavery man, had been elected by a division of the pro-slavery party, but came in with a Legislature largely against him. TheSenate had the requisite pro-slavery majority of two-thirds for aconvention. In the House of Representatives there was a contest for aseat upon the result of which the two-thirds majority depended. Theseat was claimed by John Shaw and Nicholas Hansen, of Pike County. Theway in which the contest was decided affords a curious illustration ofthe moral sense of the advocates of slavery. They wanted at thissession to elect a senator and provide for the convention. Hansenwould vote for their senator and not for the convention. Shaw wouldvote for the convention, but not for Thomas, their candidate forsenator. In such a dilemma they determined not to choose, butimpartially to use both. They gave the seat to Hansen, and with hisvote elected Thomas; they then turned him out, gave the place to Shaw, and with his vote carried the act for submitting the conventionquestion to a popular vote. They were not more magnanimous in theirvictory than scrupulous in the means by which they had gained it. Thenight after the vote was taken they formed in a wild and drunkenprocession, and visited the residences of the Governor and the otherfree-State leaders, with loud and indecent demonstrations of triumph. 

They considered their success already assured; but they left out ofview the value of the moral forces called into being by their insolentchallenge. The better class of people in the State, those heretoforeunknown in politics, the schoolmasters, the ministers, immediatelyprepared for the contest, which became one of the severest the Statehas ever known. They established three newspapers, and sustained themwith money and contributions. The Governor gave his entire salary forfour years to the expenses of this contest, in which he had nopersonal interest whatever. The antislavery members of the Legislaturemade up a purse of a thousand dollars. They spent their money mostlyin printer's ink and in the payment of active and zealous colporteurs. The result was a decisive defeat for the slave party. The conventionwas beaten by 1800 majority, in a total vote of 11612, and the Statesaved forever from slavery. 

[Illustration: MARTIN VAN BUREN. ]

But these supreme efforts of the advocates of public morals, uninfluenced by considerations of personal advantage, are of rareoccurrence, and necessarily do not survive the exigencies that callthem forth. The apologists of slavery, beaten in the canvass, weremore successful in the field of social opinion. In the reaction whichsucceeded the triumph of the antislavery party, it seemed as if therehad never been any antislavery sentiment in the State. They had voted, it is true, against the importation of slaves from the South, but theywere content to live under a code of Draconian ferocity, inspired bythe very spirit of slavery, visiting the immigration of free negroeswith penalties of the most savage description. Even Governor Coles, the public-spirited and popular politician, was indicted and severelyfined for having brought his own freedmen into the State and havingassisted them in establishing themselves around him upon farms oftheir own. The Legislature remitted the fine, but the Circuit Courtdeclared it had no constitutional power to do so, though the SupremeCourt afterwards overruled this decision. Any mention of the subjectof slavery was thought in the worst possible taste, and no one couldavow himself opposed to it without the risk of social ostracism. Everytown had its one or two abolitionists, who were regarded as harmlessor dangerous lunatics, according to the energy with which they madetheir views known. 

From this arose a singular prejudice against New England people. Itwas attributable partly to the natural feeling of distrust ofstrangers which is common to ignorance and provincialism, but stillmore to a general suspicion that all Eastern men were abolitionists. Mr. Cook, who so long represented the State in Congress, used torelate with much amusement how he once spent the night in a farmer'scabin, and listened to the honest man's denunciations of "that----Yankee Cook. " Cook was a Kentuckian, but his enemies could think of nomore dreadful stigma to apply to him than that of calling him aYankee. Senator James A. McDougall once told us that although he madeno pretense of concealing his Eastern nativity, he never could keephis ardent friends in Pike County from denying the fact and fightingany one who asserted it. The great preacher, Peter Cartwright, used todenounce Eastern men roundly in his sermons, calling them "imps wholived on oysters" instead of honest corn-bread and bacon. The taint ofslavery, the contagion of a plague they had not quite escaped, was onthe people of Illinois. They were strong enough to rise once in theirmight and say they would not have slavery among them. But in the pettydetails of every day, in their ordinary talk, and in their routinelegislation, their sympathies were still with the slave-holders. Theywould not enlist with them, but they would fight their battles intheir own way. 

Their readiness to do what came to be called later, in a famousspeech, the "dirty work" of the South was seen in the tragic death ofRev. Elijah P. Lovejoy, in this very year of 1837. He had for someyears been publishing a religious newspaper in St. Louis, but findingthe atmosphere of that city becoming dangerous to him on account ofthe freedom of his comments upon Southern institutions, he moved toAlton, in Illinois, twenty-five miles further up the river. Hisarrival excited an immediate tumult in that place; a mob gatheredthere on the day he came--it was Sunday, and the good people were atleisure--and threw his press into the Mississippi. Having thusexpressed their determination to vindicate the law, they held ameeting, and cited him before it to declare his intentions. He saidthey were altogether peaceful and legal; that he intended to publish areligious newspaper and not to meddle with politics. This seemedsatisfactory 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 predestinedmartyr. He felt there was a "woe" upon him if he held his peaceagainst the wickedness across the river. He wrote and published whatwas in his heart to say, and Alton was again vehemently moved. Acommittee appointed itself to wait upon him; for this sort of outrageis usually accomplished with a curious formality which makes it seemto the participants legal and orderly. The preacher met them with anundaunted front and told them he must do his duty as it appeared tohim; that he was amenable to law, but nothing else; he even spoke incondemnation 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 thepress and types and threw them into the river. " We venture to say thatthe word "quietly" never before found itself in such company. It isnot worth while to give the details of the bloody drama that nowrapidly 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 bandthat surrounded the abolitionist. A new press was ordered, andarrived, and was stored in a warehouse, where Lovejoy and his friendsshut themselves up, determined to defend it with their lives. Theywere there besieged by the infuriated crowd, and after a shortinterchange of shots Lovejoy was killed, his friends dispersed, andthe press once more--and this time finally--thrown into the turbidflood. 

These events took place in the autumn of 1837, but they indicatesufficiently the temper of the people of the State in the earlier partof the year. 

[Sidenote: Law approved Dec. 26, 1831. ]

The vehemence with which the early antislavery apostles wereconducting their agitation in the East naturally roused acorresponding violence of expression in every other part of thecountry. William Lloyd Garrison, the boldest and most aggressive non-resistant that ever lived, had, since 1831, been pouring forth once aweek in the "Liberator" his earnest and eloquent denunciations ofslavery, taking no account of the expedient or the possible, butdemanding with all the fervor of an ancient prophet the immediateremoval of the cause of offense. Oliver Johnson attacked the nationalsin and wrong, in the "Standard, " with zeal and energy equally hot anduntiring. Their words stung the slave-holding States to something likefrenzy. The Georgia Legislature offered a reward of five thousanddollars to any one who should kidnap Garrison, or who should bring toconviction any one circulating the "Liberator" in the State. Yet solittle known in their own neighborhoods were these early workers inthis great reform that when the Mayor of Boston received remonstrancesfrom certain Southern States against such an incendiary publication asthe "Liberator, " he was able to say that no member of the citygovernment and no person of his acquaintance had ever heard of thepaper or its editor; that on search being made it was found that "hisoffice was an obscure hole, his only visible auxiliary a negro boy, and his supporters a very few insignificant persons of all colors. "But the leaven worked continually, and by the time of which we arewriting the antislavery societies of the North-east had attained aconsiderable vitality, and the echoes of their work came back from theSouth in furious resolutions of legislatures and other bodies, which, in their exasperation, could not refrain from this injudiciousadvertising of their enemies. Petitions to Congress, which were met bygag-laws, constantly increasing in severity, brought the dreadeddiscussion more and more before the public. But there was as yetlittle or no antislavery agitation in Illinois. 

[Sidenote: Jan 25, 1837. ]

There was no sympathy with nor even toleration for any publicexpression of hostility to slavery. The zeal of the followers ofJackson, although he had ceased to be President, had been whetted byhis public denunciations of the antislavery propaganda; little morethan a year before he had called upon Congress to take measures to"prohibit under severe penalties" the further progress of suchincendiary proceedings as were "calculated to stimulate the slaves toinsurrection and to produce all the horrors of civil war. " But inspite of all this, people with uneasy consciences continued to writeand talk and petition Congress against slavery, and most of the Statelegislatures began to pass resolutions denouncing them. In the lastdays of 1836 Governor Duncan sent to the Illinois Legislature thereports and resolutions of several States in relation to this subject. They were referred to a committee, who in due time reported a set ofresolves "highly disapproving abolition societies"; holding that "theright of property in slaves is secured to the slave-holding States bythe Federal Constitution"; that the general Government cannot abolishslavery in the District of Columbia against the consent of thecitizens of said District, without a manifest breach of good faith;and requesting the Governor to transmit to the States which had senttheir resolutions to him a copy of those tranquilizing expressions. Along and dragging debate ensued of which no record has been preserved;the resolutions, after numberless amendments had been voted upon, werefinally passed, in the Senate, unanimously, in the House with none butLincoln and five others in the negative. [Footnote: We are underobligations to John M. Adair for transcripts of the State recordsbearing on this matter. ] No report remains of the many speeches whichprolonged the debate; they have gone the way of all buncombe; thesound and fury of them have passed away into silence; but they woke anecho in one sincere heart which history will be glad to perpetuate. 

There was no reason that Abraham Lincoln should take especial noticeof these resolutions, more than another. He had done his work at thissession in effecting the removal of the capital. He had only to shrughis shoulders at the violence and untruthfulness of the majority, voteagainst them, and go back to his admiring constituents, to his dinnersand his toasts. But his conscience and his reason forbade him to besilent; he felt a word must be said on the other side to redress thedistorted balance. He wrote his protest, saying not one word he wasnot ready to stand by then and thereafter, wasting not a syllable inrhetoric or feeling, keeping close to law and truth and justice. Whenhe had finished it he showed it to some of his colleagues for theiradhesion; but one and all refused, except Dan Stone, who was not acandidate for reelection, having retired from politics to a seat onthe bench. The risk was too great for the rest to run. Lincoln wastwenty-eight years old; after a youth, of singular privations andstruggles he had arrived at an enviable position in the politics andthe society of the State. His intimate friends, those whom he lovedand honored, were Browning, Butler, Logan, and Stuart--Kentuckiansall, and strongly averse to any discussion of the question of slavery. The public opinion of his county, which was then little less than thebreath of his life, was all the same way. But all these considerationscould not withhold him from performing a simple duty--a duty which noone could have blamed him for leaving undone. The crowning grace ofthe whole act is in the closing sentence: "The difference betweenthese opinions and those contained in the said resolutions is theirreason for entering this protest. " Reason enough for the Lincolns andLuthers. 

He had many years of growth and development before him. There was along distance to be traversed between the guarded utterances of thisprotest and the heroic audacity which launched the proclamation ofemancipation. But the young man who dared declare, in the prosperousbeginning of his political life, in the midst of a community imbuedwith slave-State superstitions, that "he believed the institution ofslavery was founded both on injustice and bad policy, "--attacking thusits moral and material supports, while at the same time recognizingall the constitutional guarantees which protected it, --had in him themaking of a statesman and, if need be, a martyr. His whole career wasto run in the lines marked out by these words, written in the hurry ofa closing session, and he was to accomplish few acts, in that greathistory which God reserved for him, wiser and nobler than this. 

CHAPTER IX

COLLAPSE OF THE SYSTEM

Mr. Lincoln had made thus far very little money--nothing more, infact, than a subsistence of the most modest character. But he had madesome warm friends, and this meant much among the early Illinoisans. Hehad become intimately acquainted, at Vandalia, with William Butler, who was greatly interested in the removal of the capital toSpringfield, and who urged the young legislator to take up hisresidence at the new seat of government. Lincoln readily fell in withthis suggestion, and accompanied his friend home when the Legislatureadjourned, sharing the lodging of Joshua F. Speed, a young Kentuckymerchant, and taking his meals at the house of Mr. Butler for severalyears. 

[Sidenote: "Sangamon Journal, " November 7, 1835. ]

[Sidenote: Reynolds, "Life and Times" p. 237. ]

In this way began Mr. Lincoln's residence in Springfield, where he wasto remain until called to one of the highest of destinies intrusted tomen, and where his ashes were to rest forever in monumental marble. Itwould have seemed a dreary village to any one accustomed to the world, but in a letter written about this time, Lincoln speaks of it as aplace 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 freenegroes, 20 registered indentured servants, and six slaves. Scarcely aperceptible trace of color, one would say, yet we find in theSpringfield paper a leading article beginning with the startlingannouncement, "Our State is threatened to be overrun with freenegroes. " The county was one of the richest in Illinois, possessed ofa soil of inexhaustible fertility, and divided to the best advantagebetween prairie and forest. It was settled early in the history of theState, and the country was held in high esteem by the aborigines. Thename of Sangamon is said to mean in the Pottawatomie language "land ofplenty. " Its citizens were of an excellent class of people, a largemajority of them from Kentucky, though representatives were notwanting from the Eastern States, men of education and character. 

There had been very little of what might be called pioneer life inSpringfield. Civilization came in with a reasonably full equipment atthe beginning. The Edwardses, in fair-top boots and ruffled shirts;the Ridgelys brought their banking business from Maryland; the Logansand Conklings were good lawyers before they arrived; another familycame from Kentucky, with a cotton manufactory which proved itsaristocratic character by never doing any work. With a population likethis, the town had, from the beginning, a more settled and orderlytype than was usual in the South and West. A glance at the advertisingcolumns of the newspaper will show how much attention to dress waspaid in the new capital. "Cloths, cassinetts, cassimeres, velvet, silk, satin, and Marseilles vestings, fine calf boots, seal andmorocco pumps, for gentlemen, " and for the sex which in barbarismdresses less and in civilization dresses more than the male, "silks, bareges, crepe lisse, lace veils, thread lace, Thibet shawls, lacehandkerchiefs, fine prunella shoes, etc. " It is evident that the youngpolitician was confronting a social world more formidably correct thananything he had as yet seen. 

[Sidenote: Ford's "History, " p. 94. ]

Governor Ford began some years before this to remark with pleasure thechange in the dress of the people of Illinois: the gradualdisappearance of leather and, linsey-woolsey, the hunting-knife andtomahawk, from the garb of men; the deerskin moccasin supplanted bythe leather boot and shoe; the leather breeches tied around the anklereplaced by the modern pantaloons; and the still greater improvementin the adornment of women, the former bare feet decently shod, andhomespun frocks giving way to gowns of calico and silk, and the headstied up in red cotton turbans disappearing in favor of thosesurmounted by pretty bonnets of silk or straw. We admit that thesechanges were not unattended with the grumbling ill-will of the pioneerpatriarchs; they predicted nothing but ruin to a country that thusforsook the old ways "which were good enough for their fathers. " Butwith the change in dress came other alterations which were all for thebetter--a growing self-respect among the young; an industry and thriftby which they could buy good clothes; a habit of attending religiousservice, where they could show them; a progress in sociability, civility, trade, and morals. 

The taste for civilization had sometimes a whimsical manifestation. Mr. Stuart said the members of the Legislature bitterly complained ofthe amount of game--venison and grouse of the most delicious quality--which was served them at the taverns in Vandalia; they clamored forbacon--they were starving, they said, "for something civilized. " Therewas plenty of civilized nourishment in Springfield. Wheat was fiftycents a bushel, rye thirty-three; corn and oats were twenty-five, potatoes twenty-five; butter was eight cents a pound, and eggs wereeight 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 touchingthe timber, the south encroaching on the prairie. The richness of thesoil was seen in the mud of the streets, black as ink, and of anunfathomable depth in time of thaw. There were, of course, nopavements or sidewalks; an attempt at crossings was made by layingdown large chunks of wood. The houses were almost all wooden, and weredisposed in rectangular blocks. A large square had been left in themiddle of the town, in anticipation of future greatness, and there, when Lincoln began his residence, the work of clearing the ground forthe new State-house was already going forward. In one of the largesthouses looking on the square, at the north-west corner, the countycourt had its offices, and other rooms in the building were let tolawyers. One of these was occupied by Stuart and Lincoln, for thefriendship formed in the Black Hawk war and strengthened at Vandaliainduced "Major" Stuart to offer a partnership to "Captain" Lincoln. [Footnote: It is not unworthy of notice that in a country wheremilitary titles were conferred with ludicrous profusion, and bornewith absurd complacency, Abraham Lincoln, who had actually beencommissioned, and had served as captain, never used the designationafter he laid down his command. ]

Lincoln did not gain any immediate eminence at the bar. Hispreliminary studies had been cursory and slight, and Stuart was thentoo much engrossed in politics to pay the unremitting attention to thelaw which that jealous mistress requires. He had been a candidate forCongress the year before, and had been defeated by W. L. May. He was acandidate again in 1838, and was elected over so agile an adversary asStephen Arnold Douglas. His paramount interest in these canvassesnecessarily prevented him from setting to his junior partner theexample which Lincoln so greatly needed, of close and steady devotionto their profession. It was several years later that Lincoln foundwith Judge Logan the companionship and inspiration which he required, and began to be really a lawyer. During the first year or two he isprincipally remembered in Springfield as an excellent talker, the lifeand soul of the little gatherings about the county offices, a story-teller of the first rank, a good-natured, friendly fellow whomeverybody liked and trusted. He relied more upon his influence with ajury than upon his knowledge of law in the few cases he conducted incourt, his acquaintance with human nature being far more extensivethan his legal lore. 

Lincoln was not yet done with Vandalia, its dinners of game, and itspolitical intrigue. The archives of the State were not removed toSpringfield until 1839, and Lincoln remained a member of theLegislature by successive reelections from 1834 to 1842. His campaignswere carried on almost entirely without expense. Joshua Speed told thewriters that on one occasion some of the Whigs contributed a purse oftwo hundred dollars which Speed handed to Lincoln to pay his personalexpenses in the canvass. After the election was over, the successfulcandidate handed Speed $199. 25, with the request that he return it tothe subscribers. "I did not need the money, " he said. "I made thecanvass on my own horse; my entertainment, being at the houses offriends, cost me nothing; and my only outlay was seventy-five centsfor a barrel of cider, which some farm-hands insisted I should treatthem to. " He was called down to Vandalia in the summer of 1837, by aspecial session of the Legislature. The magnificent schemes of theforegoing winter required some repairing. The banks throughout theUnited States had suspended specie payments in the spring, and as theState banks in Illinois were the fiscal agents of the railroads andcanals, the Governor called upon the law-makers to revise their ownwork, to legalize the suspension, and bring their improvement systemwithin possible bounds. They acted as might have been expected:complied with the former suggestion, but flatly refused to touch theirmasterpiece. They had been glorifying their work too energetically todestroy it in its infancy. It was said you could recognize alegislator that year in any crowd by his automatic repetition of thephrase, "Thirteen hundred--fellow-citiztens!--and fifty miles ofrailroad!" There was nothing to be done but to go on with thestupendous folly. Loans were effected with surprising and fatalfacility, and, "before the end of the year, work had begun at manypoints on the railroads. The whole State was excited to the highestpitch of frenzy and expectation. Money was as plenty as dirt. Industry, instead of being stimulated, actually languished. Weexported nothing, " says Governor Ford, "and everything from abroad waspaid for by the borrowed money expended among us. " Not only upon therailroads, but on the canal as well, the work was begun on amagnificent scale. Nine millions of dollars were thought to be a meretrifle in view of the colossal sum expected to be realized from thesale of canal lands, three hundred thousand acres of which had beengiven by the general Government. There were rumors of coming trouble, and of an unhealthy condition of the banks; but it was considereddisloyal to look too curiously into such matters. One frank patriot, who had been sent as one of a committee to examine the bank atShawneetown, when asked what he found there, replied with winningcandor, "Plenty of good whisky and sugar to sweeten it. "

[Sidenote: Ford, "History, " p. 197. ]

But a year of baleful experience destroyed a great many illusions, andin the election of 1838 the subject of internal improvements wastreated with much more reserve by candidates. The debt of the State, issued at a continually increasing discount, had already attainedenormous proportions; the delirium of the last few years was ending, and sensible people began to be greatly disquieted. Nevertheless, Mr. Cyrus Edwards boldly made his canvass for Governor as a supporter ofthe system of internal improvements, and his opponent, Thomas Carlin, was careful not to commit himself strongly on the other side. Carlinwas elected, and finding that a majority of the Legislature was stillopposed to any steps backward, he made no demonstration against thesystem at the first session. Lincoln was a member of this body, and, being by that time the unquestioned leader of the Whig minority, wasnominated for Speaker, and came within one vote of an election. TheLegislature was still stiff-necked and perverse in regard to thesystem. It refused to modify it in the least, and voted, as if inbravado, another eight hundred thousand dollars to extend it. 

But this was the last paroxysm of a fever that was burnt out. Themarket was glutted with Illinois bonds; one banker and one brokerafter another, to whose hands they had been recklessly confided in NewYork and London, failed, or made away with the proceeds of sales. Thesystem had utterly failed; there was nothing to do but repeal it, stopwork upon the visionary roads, and endeavor to invent some means ofpaying the enormous debt. This work taxed the energies of theLegislature in 1839, and for some years after. It was a dismal anddisheartening task. Blue Monday had come after these years ofintoxication, and a crushing debt rested upon a people who had beendeceiving themselves with the fallacy that it would somehow pay itselfby acts of the Legislature. 

[Illustration: "COLONEL E. D. BAKER. "]

Many were the schemes devised for meeting these oppressive obligationswithout unduly taxing the voters; one of them, not especially wiserthan the rest, was contributed by Mr. Lincoln. It provided for theissue of bonds for the payment of the interest due by the State, andfor the appropriation of a special portion of State taxes to meet theobligations thus incurred. He supported his bill in a perfectlycharacteristic speech, making no effort to evade his share of theresponsibility for the crisis, and submitting his views withdiffidence to the approval of the Assembly. His plan was not adopted;it was too simple and straightforward, even if it had any othermerits, to meet the approval of an assembly intent only upon gettingout of immediate embarrassment by means which might save them futuretrouble on the stump. There was even an undercurrent of sentiment infavor of repudiation. But the payment of the interest for that yearwas provided for by an ingenious expedient which shifted upon the FundCommissioners the responsibility of deciding what portion of the debtwas legal, and how much interest was therefore to be paid. Bonds weresold for this purpose at a heavy loss. 

This session of the Legislature was enlivened by a singular contestbetween the Whigs and Democrats in relation to the State banks. Theirsuspension of specie payments had been legalized up to "theadjournment of the next session of the Legislature. " They were not nowable to resume, and it was held by the Democrats that if the specialsession adjourned _sine die_ the charter of the banks would beforfeited, a purpose the party was eager to accomplish. The Whigs, whowere defending the banks, wished to prevent the adjournment of thespecial session until the regular session should begin, during thecourse of which they expected to renew the lease of life now heldunder sufferance by the banks--in which, it may be here said, theywere finally successful. But on one occasion, being in the minority, and having exhausted every other parliamentary means of opposition anddelay, and seeing the vote they dreaded imminent, they tried to defeatit by leaving the house in a body, and, the doors being locked, anumber of them, among whom Mr. Lincoln's tall figure was prominent, jumped from the windows of the church where the Legislature was thenholding its sessions. "I think, " says Mr. Joseph Gillespie, who wasone of those who performed this feat of acrobatic politics, "Mr. Lincoln always regretted it, as he deprecated everything that savoredof the revolutionary. "

Two years later the persecuted banks, harried by the demagogues andswindled by the State, fell with a great ruin, and the financialmisery of the State was complete. Nothing was left of the brilliantschemes of the historic Legislature of 1836 but a load of debt whichcrippled for many years the energies of the people, a few miles ofembankments which the grass hastened to cover, and a few abutmentswhich stood for years by the sides of leafy rivers, waiting for theirlong delaying bridges and trains. 

During the winter of 1840-1 occurred the first clash of opinion andprinciple between Mr. Lincoln and his life-long adversary, Mr. Douglas. There are those who can see only envy and jealousy in thatstrong dislike and disapproval with which Mr. Lincoln always regardedhis famous rival. But we think that few men have ever lived who weremore free from those degrading passions than Abraham Lincoln, and thepersonal reprobation with which he always visited the public acts ofDouglas arose from his sincere conviction that, able as Douglas was, and in many respects admirable in character, he was essentiallywithout fixed political morals. They had met for the first time in1834 at Vandalia, where Douglas was busy in getting the circuitattorneyship away from John J. Hardin. He held it only long enough tosecure a nomination to the Legislature in 1836. He went there toendeavor to have the capital moved to Jacksonville, where he lived, but he gave up the fight for the purpose of having himself appointedRegister of the Land Office at Springfield. He held this place as ameans of being nominated for Congress the next year; he was nominatedand defeated. In 1840 he was engaged in another scheme to which wewill give a moment's attention, as it resulted in giving him a seat onthe Supreme Bench of the State, which he used merely as a perch fromwhich to get into Congress. 

There had been a difference of opinion in Illinois for some years asto whether the Constitution, which made voters of all white maleinhabitants of six months' residence, meant to include aliens in thatcategory. As the aliens were nearly all Democrats, that party insistedon their voting, and the Whigs objected. The best lawyers in the Statewere Whigs, and so it happened that most of the judges were of thatcomplexion. A case was made up for decision and decided adversely tothe aliens, who appealed it to the Supreme Court. This case was tocome on at the June term in 1840, and the Democratic counsel, chiefamong whom was Mr. Douglas, were in some anxiety, as an unfavorabledecision would lose them about ten thousand alien votes in thePresidential election in November. In this conjuncture one JudgeSmith, of the Supreme Court, an ardent Democrat, willing to enhancehis value in his party, communicated to Mr. Douglas two importantfacts: first, that a majority of the court would certainly decideagainst the aliens; and, secondly that there was a slight imperfectionin the record by which counsel might throw the case over to theDecember term, and save the alien vote for Van Buren and theDemocratic ticket. This was done, and when the Legislature cametogether with its large Democratic majority, Mr. Douglas handed in abill "reforming" the Judiciary--for they had learned that serviceableword already. The circuit judges were turned out of office, and fivenew judges were added to the Supreme Court, who were to performcircuit duty also. It is needless to say that Judge Douglas was one ofthese, and he had contrived also in the course of the discussion todisgrace his friend Smith so thoroughly by quoting his treacherouscommunication of matters which took place within the court, that Smithwas no longer a possible rival for political honors. 

It was useless for the Whigs to try to prevent this degradation of thebench. There was no resource but a protest, and here again Lincolnuttered the voice of the conscience of the party. He was joined onthis occasion by Edward D. Baker [Footnote: Afterwards senator fromOregon, and as colonel of the 71st Pennsylvania (called the 1stCalifornia) killed at Ball's Bluff. ] and some others, who protestedagainst the act because

1st. It violates the principles of free government by subjecting theJudiciary to the Legislature. 

2d. It is a fatal blow at the independence of the judges and theconstitutional 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 elsegreatly 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 practicalgood to the people can possibly arise, but which may be the source ofimmeasurable evils. 

The undersigned are well aware that this protest will be altogetherunavailing with the majority of this body. The blow has already fallen;and we are compelled to stand by, the mournful spectators of theruin it will cause. 

[Sidenote: Ford's "History, " p. 221. ]

It will be easy to ridicule this indignant protest as the angry outcryof beaten partisans; but fortunately we have evidence which cannot begainsaid of the justice of its sentiments and the wisdom of itspredictions. Governor Ford, himself a Democratic leader as able as hewas honest, writing seven years after these proceedings, condemns themas wrong and impolitic, and adds, "Ever since this reforming measurethe Judiciary has been unpopular with the Democratic majorities. Manyand most of the judges have had great personal popularity--so much soas to create complaint of so many of them being elected or appointedto other offices. But the Bench itself has been the subject of bitterattacks by every Legislature since. " It had been soiled by uncleancontact and could not be respected as before. 

CHAPTER X

EARLY LAW PRACTICE

During all the years of his service in the Legislature, Lincoln waspracticing law in Springfield in the dingy little office at the cornerof the square. A youth named Milton Hay, who afterwards became one ofthe foremost lawyers of the State, had made the acquaintance ofLincoln at the County Clerk's office and proposed to study law withhim. He was at once accepted as a pupil, and his days being otherwiseemployed he gave his nights to reading, and as his vigils were apt tobe prolonged he furnished a bedroom adjoining the office, whereLincoln often passed the night with him. Mr. Hay gives this account ofthe 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 simpleas compared with that of modern times. Population was sparse andsociety scarcely organized, land was plentiful and employmentabundant. There was an utter absence of the abstruse questions andcomplications which now beset the law. There was no need of that closeand searching study into principles and precedents which keeps themodern law-student buried in his office. On the contrary, the verycharacter of this simple litigation drew the lawyer into the streetand neighborhood, and into close and active intercourse with allclasses of his fellow-men. The suits consisted of actions of tort andassumpsit. If a man had a debt not collectible, the current phrasewas, 'I'll take it out of his hide. '

[Illustration: LINCOLN AND STUART'S LAW-OFFICE, SPRINGFIELD. ]

"This would bring on an action for assault and battery. The freecomments of the neighbors on the fracas or the character of theparties would be productive of slander suits. A man would for hisconvenience lay down an irascible neighbor's fence, and indolentlyforget to put it up again, and an action of trespass would grow out ofit. The suit would lead to a free fight, and sometimes furnish thebloody incidents for a murder trial. Occupied with this class ofbusiness, the half-legal, half-political lawyers were never foundplodding in their offices. In that case they would have waited longfor the recognition of their talents or a demand for their services. Out of this characteristic of the times also grew the streetdiscussions I have adverted to. There was scarcely a day or hour whena knot of men might not have been seen near the door of some prominentstore, or about the steps of the court-house eagerly discussing acurrent political topic--not as a question of news, for news was notthen received quickly or frequently, as it is now, but rather for thesake of debate; and the men from the country, the pioneers andfarmers, always gathered eagerly about these groups and listened withopen-mouthed interest, and frequently manifested their approval ordissent in strong words, and carried away to their neighborhoods areport of the debaters' wit and skill. It was in these street talksthat the rising and aspiring young lawyer found his daily and hourlyforum. Often by good luck or prudence he had the field entirely tohimself, and so escaped the dangers and discouragements of a decisiveconflict with a trained antagonist. "

[Illustration: LINCOLN'S BOOKCASE AND INKSTAND. ]

Mr. Stuart was either in Congress or actively engaged in canvassinghis district a great part of the time that his partnership withLincoln continued, so that the young lawyer was thrown a good deal onhis own resources for occupation. There was not enough business tofill up all his hours, and he was not at that time a close student, sothat he soon became as famous for his racy talk and good-fellowship atall the usual lounging-places in Springfield as he had ever been inNew Salem. Mr. Hay says, speaking of the youths who made the CountyClerk's office their place of rendezvous, "It was always a great treatwhen Lincoln got amongst us. We were sure to have some of thosestories for which he already had a reputation, and there was thispeculiarity about them, that they were not only entertaining inthemselves, but always singularly illustrative of some point he wantedto make. " After Mr. Hay entered his office, and was busily engagedwith his briefs and declarations, the course of their labors was oftenbroken by the older man's wise and witty digressions. Once aninterruption occurred which affords an odd illustration of thecharacter of discussion then prevalent. We will give it in Mr. Hay'swords: "The custom of public political debate, while it was sharp andacrimonious, also engendered a spirit of equality and fairness. Everypolitical meeting was a free fight open to every one who had talentand spirit, no matter to which party the speaker belonged. Thesediscussions used often to be held in the court-room, just under ouroffice, and through a trap-door, made there when the building was usedfor a store-house, we could hear everything that was said in the hallbelow. One night there was a discussion in which E. D. Baker tookpart. He was a fiery fellow, and when his impulsiveness was let looseamong the rough element that composed his audience there was a fairprospect of trouble at any moment. Lincoln was lying on the bed, apparently paying no attention to what was going on. Lamborn wastalking, and we suddenly heard Baker interrupting him with a sharpremark, then a rustling and uproar. Lincoln jumped from the bed anddown the trap, lighting on the platform between Baker and theaudience, and quieted the tumult as much by the surprise of his suddenapparition as by his good-natured and reasonable words. "

[Lamon p. 396. ]

He was often unfaithful to his Quaker traditions in those days of hisyouth. Those who witnessed his wonderful forbearance and self-restraint in later manhood would find it difficult to believe howpromptly and with what pleasure he used to resort to measures ofrepression against a bully or brawler. On the day of election in 1840, word came to him that one Radford, a Democratic contractor, had takenpossession of one of the polling-places with his workmen, and waspreventing the Whigs from voting. Lincoln started off at a gait whichshowed his interest in the matter in hand. He went up to Radford andpersuaded him to leave the polls without a moment's delay. One of hiscandid remarks is remembered and recorded: "Radford! you'll spoil andblow, if you live much longer. " Radford's prudence prevented an actualcollision, which, it must be confessed, Lincoln regretted. He told hisfriend Speed he wanted Radford to show fight so that he might "knockhim down and leave him kicking. "

Early in the year 1840 it seemed possible that the Whigs might electGeneral Harrison to the Presidency, and this hope lent added energy tothe party even in the States where the majority was so stronglyagainst them as in Illinois. Lincoln was nominated for PresidentialElector and threw himself with ardor into the canvass, traversing agreat part of the State and speaking with remarkable effect. Only oneof the speeches he made during the year has been preserved entire:this was an address delivered in Springfield as one of a series--asort of oratorical tournament participated 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 beganwith great enthusiasm and with crowded houses, but by the time it cameto Lincoln's duty to close the debate the fickle public had tired ofthe intellectual jousts, and he spoke to a comparatively thin house. But his speech was considered the best of the series, and there wassuch a demand for it that he wrote it out, and it was printed andcirculated in the spring as a campaign document. 

[Illustration: GLOBE TAVERN, SPRINGFIELD, WHERE LINCOLN LIVED AFTERHIS MARRIAGE. ]

It was a remarkable speech in many respects--and in none more than inthis, that it represented the highest expression of what might becalled his "first manner. " It was the most important and the lastspeech of its class which he ever delivered--not destitute of soundand close reasoning, yet filled with boisterous fun and floridrhetoric. It was, in short, a rattling stump speech of the kind thenuniversally popular in the West, and which is still considered a veryhigh grade of eloquence in the South. But it is of no kindred with hisinaugural addresses, and resembles the Gettysburg speech no more than"The Comedy of Errors" resembles "Hamlet. " One or two extracts willgive some idea of its humorous satire and its lurid fervor. Attackingthe corruptions and defalcations of the Administration party he said:"Mr. Lamborn insists that the difference between the Van Buren partyand the Whigs is that, although the former sometimes err in practicethey are always correct in principle, whereas the latter are wrong inprinciple; and the better to impress this proposition he uses afigurative expression in these words, 'The Democrats are vulnerable inthe heel, but they are sound in the heart and head. ' The first branchof the figure--that is, the Democrats are vulnerable in the heel--Iadmit is not merely figuratively but literally true. Who that looksbut for a moment at their Swartwouts, their Prices, their Harringtons, and their hundreds of others scampering away with the public money toTexas, to Europe, and to every spot of the earth where a villain mayhope to find refuge from justice, can at all doubt that they are mostdistressingly affected in their heels with a species of running itch?It seems that this malady of their heels operates on the sound-headedand honest-hearted creatures, very much as the cork leg in the comicsong did on its owner, which, when he once got started on it, the morehe tried to stop it the more it would run away. At the hazard ofwearing this point threadbare, I will relate an anecdote which seemsto be too strikingly in point to be omitted. A witty Irish soldier whowas always boasting of his bravery when no danger was near, but whoinvariably retreated without orders at the first charge of theengagement, being asked by his captain why he did so, replied, 'Captain, I have as brave a heart as Julius Caesar ever had, butsomehow or other whenever danger approaches, my cowardly legs will runaway with it. ' So with Mr. Lamborn's party--they take the public moneyinto their hands for the most laudable purpose that wise heads andhonest hearts can dictate; but before they can possibly get it outagain, their rascally vulnerable heels will run away with them. "

[Illustration: WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. ]

The speech concludes with these swelling words: "Mr. Lamborn refers tothe late elections in the States, and from their results confidentlypredicts every State in the Union will vote for Mr. Van Buren at thenext Presidential election. Address that argument to cowards andslaves: with the free and the brave it will affect nothing. It may betrue; 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, notthat I was the last to desert, but that I never deserted her. I knowthat the great volcano at Washington, aroused and directed by the evilspirit that reigns there, is belching forth the lava of politicalcorruption in a current broad and deep, which is sweeping withfrightful velocity over the whole length and breadth of the land, bidding fair to leave unscathed no green spot or living thing; whileon its bosom are riding, like demons on the wave of Hell, the imps ofthe Evil Spirit, and fiendishly taunting all those who dare to resistits destroying course with the hopelessness of their efforts; andknowing this, I cannot deny that all may be swept away. Broken by itI, too, may be; bow to it, I never will. The probability that we mayfall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a causewe believe to be just. It shall not deter me. If ever I feel the soulwithin me elevate and expand to those dimensions not wholly unworthyof its almighty architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of mycountry, deserted by all the world beside, and I standing up boldlyalone, hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors. Here, withoutcontemplating consequences, before Heaven, and in face of the world, Iswear eternal fealty to the just cause, as I deem it, of the land ofmy life, my liberty, and my love. And who that thinks with me will notfearlessly adopt that oath that I take? Let none falter who thinks heis right, and we may succeed. But if after all we should fail, be itso. We still shall have the proud consolation of saying to ourconsciences, and to the departed shade of our country's freedom, thatthe cause approved of our judgment, and adored of our hearts, indisaster, in chains, in torture, in death, we never faltered indefending. "

These perfervid and musical metaphors of devotion and defiance haveoften been quoted as Mr. Lincoln's heroic challenge to the slavepower, and Bishop Simpson gave them that lofty significance in hisfuneral oration. But they were simply the utterances of a young andardent Whig, earnestly advocating the election of "old Tippecanoe" andnot unwilling, while doing this, to show the people of the capital aspecimen of his eloquence. The whole campaign was carried on in a tonesomewhat shrill. The Whigs were recovering from the numbness intowhich they had fallen during the time of Jackson's imperiouspredominance, and in the new prospect of success they felt all theexcitement of prosperous rebels. The taunts of the party in power, when Harrison's nomination was first mentioned, their sneers at "hardcider" and "log-cabins, " had been dexterously adopted as the slogan ofthe opposition, and gave rise to the distinguishing features of thatextraordinary campaign. Log-cabins were built in every Western county, tuns of hard cider were filled and emptied at all the Whig massmeetings; and as the canvass gained momentum and vehemence a curiouskind of music added its inspiration to the cause; and after the Maineelection was over, with its augury of triumph, every Whig who was ableto sing, or even to make a joyful noise, was roaring the inquiry, "Oh, have you heard how old Maine went?" and the profane but powerfullyaccented response, "She went, hell-bent, for Governor Kent, andTippecanoe, and Tyler too. "

It was one of the busiest and most enjoyable seasons of Lincoln'slife. He had grown by this time thoroughly at home in politicalcontroversy, and he had the pleasure of frequently meeting Mr. Douglasin rough-and-tumble debate in various towns of the State as theyfollowed Judge Treat on his circuit. If we may trust the willingtestimony of his old associates, Lincoln had no difficulty in holdinghis own against his adroit antagonist, and it was even thought thatthe recollection of his ill success in these encounters was notwithout its influence in inducing Douglas and his followers, defeatedin the nation, though victorious in the State, to wreak theirvengeance on the Illinois Supreme Court. 

[Sidenote: Copied from the MS. In Major Stuart's possession. ]

[Sidenote: Noah W. Matheny, County Clerk. ]

In Lincoln's letters to Major Stuart, then in Washington, we see howstrongly the subject of politics overshadows all others in his mind. Under date of November 14, 1839, he wrote: "I have been to theSecretary's office within the last hour, and find things precisely asyou left them; no new arrivals of returns on either side. Douglas hasnot been here since you left. A report is in circulation here now thathe has abandoned, the idea of going to Washington; but the report doesnot come in very authentic form so far as I can learn. Though, speaking of authenticity, you know that if we had heard Douglas saythat he had abandoned the contest, it would not be very authentic. There is no news here. Noah, I still think, will be elected veryeasily. I am afraid of our race for representative. Dr. Knapp hasbecome a candidate; and I fear the few votes he will get will be takenfrom us. Also some one has been tampering with old squire Wyckoff, andinduced him to send in his name to be announced as a candidate. Francis refused to announce him without seeing him, and now I supposethere is to be a fuss about it. I have been so busy that I have notseen Mrs. Stuart since you left, though I understand she wrote you byto-day's mail, which will inform you more about her than I could. Thevery moment a speaker is elected, write me who he is. Your friend, asever. "

Again he wrote, on New Year's Day, 1840, a letter curiously destituteof any festal suggestions: "There is a considerable disposition on thepart of both parties in the Legislature to reinstate the law bringingon the Congressional elections next summer. What motive for this theLocos have, I cannot tell. The Whigs say that the canal and otherpublic works will stop, and consequently we shall then be clear of theforeign votes, whereas by another year they may be brought in again. The Whigs of our district say that everything is in favor of holdingthe election next summer, except the fact of your absence; and severalof them have requested me to ask your opinion on the matter. Write meimmediately what you think of it. 

"On the other side of this sheet I send you a copy of my LandResolutions, which passed both branches of our Legislature lastwinter. Will you show them to Mr. Calhoun, informing him of the factof their passage through our Legislature! Mr. Calhoun suggested asimilar proposition last winter; and perhaps if he finds himselfbacked 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 myguess as to what will be done. The Internal Improvement System will beput down in a lump without benefit of clergy. The Bank will beresuscitated with some trifling modifications. "

State affairs have evidently lost their interest, however, and hissoul is in arms for the wider fray. "Be sure to send me as many copiesof the Life of Harrison as you can spare. Be very sure to send me theSenate Journal of New York for September, 1814, "--he had seen in anewspaper a charge of disloyalty made against Mr. Van Buren during thewar with Great Britain, but, as usual, wanted to be sure of hisfacts, --"and in general, " he adds, "send me everything you think willbe a good war-club, The nomination of Harrison takes first-rate. Youknow I am never sanguine; but I believe we will carry the State. Thechance for doing so appears to me twenty-five per cent, better than itdid for you to beat Douglas. A great many of the grocery sort of VanBuren men are out for Harrison. Our Irish blacksmith Gregory is forHarrison. .. . You have heard that the Whigs and Locos had a politicaldiscussion shortly after the meeting of the Legislature. Well, I madea big speech which is in progress of printing in pamphlet form. Toenlighten you and the rest of the world, I shall send you a copy whenit is finished. " The "big speech" was the one from which we have justquoted. 

The sanguine mood continued in his next letter, March 1: "I have neverseen the prospects of our party so bright in these parts as they arenow. We shall carry this county by a larger majority than we did in1836 when you ran against May. I do not think my prospectsindividually are very flattering, for I think it probable I shall notbe permitted to be a candidate; but the party ticket will succeedtriumphantly. Subscriptions to the 'Old Soldier' pour in withoutabatement. This morning I took from the post-office a letter fromDubois, inclosing the names of sixty subscribers, and on carrying itto Francis [Simeon Francis, editor of the 'Sangamo Journal'] I foundhe had received one hundred and forty more from other quarters by thesame day's mail. .. . Yesterday Douglas, having chosen to considerhimself insulted by something in the 'Journal, ' undertook to caneFrancis in the street. Francis caught him by the hair and jammed himback against a market-cart, where the matter ended by Francis beingpulled away from him. The whole affair was so ludicrous that Francisand everybody else, Douglas excepted, have been laughing about it eversince. "

Douglas seems to have had a great propensity to such rencontres, ofwhich the issue was ordinarily his complete discomfiture, as he hadthe untoward habit of attacking much bigger and stronger men thanhimself. He weighed at that time little, if anything, over a hundredpounds, yet his heart was so valiant that he made nothing ofassaulting men of ponderous flesh like Francis, or of great height andstrength like Stuart. He sought a quarrel with the latter, duringtheir canvass in 1838, in a grocery, with the usual result. Abystander who remembers the incident says that Stuart "jest mopped thefloor with him. " In the same letter Mr. Lincoln gives a long list ofnames to which he wants documents to be sent. It shows a remarkablepersonal acquaintance with the minutest needs of the canvass: this oneis a doubtful Whig; that one is an inquiring Democrat; that other azealous young fellow who would be pleased by the attention; threebrothers are mentioned who "fell out with us about Early and aredoubtful now"; and finally he tells Stuart that Joe Smith is anadmirer of his, and that a few documents had better be mailed to theMormons; and he must be sure, the next time he writes, to send EvanButler his compliments. 

It would be strange, indeed, if such a politician as this wereslighted by his constituents, and in his next letter we find howgroundless were his forebodings in that direction. The convention hadbeen held; the rural delegates took all the nominations away fromSpringfield except two, Baker for the Senate, and Lincoln for theHouse of Representatives. "Ninian, " he says, meaning Ninian W. Edwards, "was very much hurt at not being nominated, but he has becometolerably well reconciled. I was much, very much, wounded myself, athis being left out. The fact is, the country delegates made thenominations as they pleased, and they _pleased_ to make them allfrom the country, except Baker and me, whom they supposed necessary tomake stump speeches. Old Colonel Elkin is nominated for Sheriff--that's right. "

Harrison was elected in November, and the great preoccupation of mostof the Whigs was, of course, the distribution of the offices whichthey felt belonged to them as the spoils of battle. This demoralizingdoctrine had been promulgated by Jackson, and acted upon for so manyyears that it was too much to expect of human nature that the Whigsshould not adopt it, partially at least, when their turn came, But weare left in no doubt as to the way in which Lincoln regarded theunseemly scramble. It is probable that he was asked to express hispreference among applicants, and he wrote under date of December 17:"This affair of appointments to office is very annoying--more so toyou than to me doubtless. I am, as you know, opposed to removals tomake places for our friends. Bearing this in mind, I express mypreference in a few cases, as follows: for Marshal, first, JohnDawson, second, B. F. Edwards; for postmaster here, Dr. Henry; atCarlinville, 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 ofthe propriety of removing the postmaster at Carlinville, I have beentold by so many different persons as to preclude all doubt of itstruth, that he boldly refused to deliver from his office during thecanvass 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 glimpseof that strange condition of melancholia into whose dark shadow he wasthen entering, and which lasted, with only occasional intervals ofhealthy cheerfulness, to the time of his marriage. We give thisremarkable letter entire, from the manuscript submitted to us by thelate John T. Stuart:

DEAR STUART: Yours of the 3d instant is received, and I proceed toanswer it as well as I can, though from the deplorable state of mymind at this time I fear I shall give you but little satisfaction. About the matter of the Congressional election, I can only tell youthat there is a bill now before the Senate adopting the general ticketsystem; but whether the party have fully determined on its adoption isyet uncertain. There is no sign of opposition to you among ourfriends, and none that I can learn among our enemies; though of coursethere will be if the general ticket be adopted. The Chicago"American, " Peoria "Register, " and Sangamo "Journal" have alreadyhoisted your flag upon their own responsibility; and the other Whigpapers of the district are expected to follow immediately. On lastevening there was a meeting of our friends at Butler's, and Isubmitted the question to them and found them unanimously in favor ofhaving you announced as a candidate. A few of us this morning, however, concluded that as you were already being announced in thepapers we would delay announcing you, as by your authority, for a weekor two. We thought that to appear too keen about it might spur ouropponents on about their general ticket project. Upon the whole Ithink I may say with certainty that your reelection is sure, if it bein the power of the Whigs to make it so. 

For not giving you a general summary of news, you _must_ pardonme; it is not in my power to do so. I am now the most miserable manliving. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole humanfamily, there would not be one cheerful face on earth. Whether I shallever be better I cannot tell; I awfully forebode I shall not. Toremain as I am is impossible; I must die or be better, it appears tome. The matter you speak of on my account you may attend to as yousay, unless you shall hear of my condition forbidding it. I say thisbecause I fear I shall be unable to attend to any business here, and achange of scene might help me. If I could be myself, I would ratherremain at home with Judge Logan. I can write no more. Your friend asever. 

A. LINCOLN. 

CHAPTER XI

MARRIAGE

The foregoing letter brings us to the consideration of a remarkablepassage in Lincoln's life. It has been the cause of much profane andidle discussion among those who were constitutionally incapacitatedfrom appreciating ideal sufferings, and we would be tempted to refrainfrom adding a word to what has already been said if it were possibleto omit all reference to an experience so important in the developmentof his character. 

In the year 1840 he became engaged to be married to Miss Mary Todd, ofLexington, Kentucky, a young lady of good education and excellentconnections, who was visiting her sister, Mrs. Ninian W. Edwards, atSpringfield. [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote relocated tochapter end. ] The engagement was not in all respects a happy one, asboth parties doubted their compatibility, and a heart so affectionateand a conscience so sensitive as Lincoln's found material forexquisite self-torment in these conditions. His affection for hisbetrothed, which he thought was not strong enough to make happinesswith her secure; his doubts, which yet were not convincing enough toinduce 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 condemned him in one course and did not sustain him in theopposite one--all combined to make him profoundly and passionatelymiserable. To his friends and acquaintances, who were unused to suchfinely wrought and even fantastic sorrows, his trouble seemed soexaggerated that they could only account for it on the ground ofinsanity. But there is no necessity of accepting this crudehypothesis; the coolest and most judicious of his friends deny thathis depression ever went to such an extremity. Orville H. Browning, who was constantly in his company, says that his worst attack lastedonly about a week; that during this time he was incoherent anddistraught; but that in the course of a few days it all passed off, leaving no trace whatever. "I think, " says Mr. Browning, "it was onlyan intensification of his constitutional melancholy; his trials andembarrassments pressed him down to a lower point than usual. "

[Illustration: FAC-SIMILE OF THE MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE OF ABRAHAMLINCOLN. From the original in the Keyes Lincoln Memorial Collection, Chicago. ]

[Sidenote: "Western Characters, " p. 134. ]

This taint of constitutional sadness was not peculiar to Lincoln; itmay be said to have been endemic among the early settlers of the West. It had its origin partly in the circumstances of their lives, thesevere and dismal loneliness in which their struggle for existence forthe most part went on. Their summers were passed in the solitude ofthe woods; in the winter they were often snowed up for months in themore desolate isolation of their own poor cabins. Their subjects ofconversation were limited, their range of thoughts and ideas narrowand barren. There was as little cheerfulness in their manners as therewas incentive to it in their lives. They occasionally burst out intowild frolic, which easily assumed the form of comic outrage, but ofthe sustained cheerfulness of social civilized life they knew verylittle. One of the few pioneers who have written their observations oftheir own people, John L. McConnell, says, "They are at the best not acheerful race; though they sometimes join in festivities, it is butseldom, and the wildness of their dissipation is too often inproportion to its infrequency. There is none of that serenecontentment which distinguishes the tillers of the ground in otherlands. .. . Acquainted with the character [of the pioneer], you do notexpect him to smile much, but now and then he laughs. "

Besides this generic tendency to melancholy, very many of the pioneerswere subject in early life to malarial influences, the effect of whichremained with them all their days. Hewing out their plantations in theprimeval woods amid the undisturbed shadow of centuries, breaking asoil thick with ages of vegetable decomposition, sleeping in half-faced camps, where the heavy air of the rank woods was in their lungsall night, or in the fouler atmosphere of overcrowded cabins, theywere especially subject to miasmatic fevers. Many died, and of thosewho survived, a great number, after they had outgrown the moreimmediate manifestations of disease, retained in nervous disorders ofall kinds the distressing traces of the maladies which afflicted theirchildhood. In the early life of Lincoln these unwholesome physicalconditions were especially prevalent. The country about Pigeon Creekwas literally devastated by the terrible malady called "milk-sickness, " which carried away his mother and half her family. Hisfather left his home in Macon County, also, on account of thefrequency and severity of the attacks of fever and ague which weresuffered there; and, in general, Abraham was exposed through all theearlier part of his life to those malarial influences which made, during the first half of this century, the various preparations ofPeruvian bark a part of the daily food of the people of Indiana andIllinois. In many instances this miasmatic poison did not destroy thestrength or materially shorten the lives of those who absorbed it intheir youth; but the effects remained in periodical attacks of gloomand depression of spirits which would seem incomprehensible tothoroughly healthy organizations, and which gradually lessened inmiddle life, often to disappear entirely in old age. 

[Sidenote: "Western Characters" p. 126. ]

Upon a temperament thus predisposed to look at things in their darkeraspect, it might naturally be expected that a love-affair which wasnot perfectly happy would be productive of great misery. But Lincolnseemed especially chosen to the keenest suffering in such aconjuncture. The pioneer, as a rule, was comparatively free from anytroubles of the imagination. To quote Mr. McConnell again: "There wasno romance in his [the pioneer's] composition. He had no dreaminess;meditation was no part of his mental habit; a poetical fancy would, inhim, have been an indication of insanity. If he reclined at the footof a tree, on a still summer day, it was to sleep; if he gazed outover the waving prairie, it was to search for the column of smokewhich told of his enemies' approach; if he turned his eyes towards theblue heaven, it was to prognosticate tomorrow's rain or sunshine. Ifhe bent his gaze towards the green earth, it was to look for 'Indiansign' or buffalo trail. His wife was only a helpmate; he never thoughtof making a divinity of her. " But Lincoln could never have claimedthis happy immunity from ideal trials. His published speeches show howmuch the poet in him was constantly kept in check; and at this time ofhis life his imagination was sufficiently alert to inflict upon himthe sharpest anguish. His reverence for women was so deep and tenderthat he thought an injury to one of them was a sin too heinous to beexpiated. No Hamlet, dreaming amid the turrets of Elsinore, no Sidneycreating a chivalrous Arcadia, was fuller of mystic and shadowyfancies of the worth and dignity of woman than this backwoodspolitician. Few men ever lived more sensitively and delicately tendertowards the sex. 

Besides his step-mother, who was a plain, God-fearing woman, he hadnot known many others until he came to live in New Salem. There he hadmade the acquaintance of the best people the settlement contained, andamong them had become much attached to a young girl named AnnRutledge, the daughter of one of the proprietors of the place. Shedied in her girlhood, and though there does not seem to have been anyengagement between them, he was profoundly affected by her death. Butthe next year a young woman from Kentucky appeared in the village, towhom he paid such attentions as in his opinion fully committed him asa suitor for her hand. He admired her, and she seems to have meritedthe admiration of all the manhood there was in New Salem. She washandsome and intelligent and of an admirable temper and disposition. While they were together he was constant in his attentions, and whenhe was at Vandalia or at Springfield he continued his assiduities insome of the most singular love-letters ever written. They are filledmostly with remarks about current politics, and with arguments goingto show that she had better not marry him! At the same time he clearlyintimates that he is at her disposition if she is so inclined. Atlast, feeling that his honor and duty were involved, he made a directproposal to her, and received an equally direct, kind, and courteousrefusal. Not knowing but that this indicated merely a magnanimousdesire to give him a chance for escape, he persisted in his offer, andshe in her refusal. When the matter had ended in this perfectlysatisfactory manner to both of them, he sat down and wrote, by way ofepilogue to the play, a grotesquely comic account of the whole affairto Mrs. O. H. Browning, one of his intimate Vandalia acquaintances. 

[Illustration: JOSHUA SPEED AND WIFE. ]

This letter has been published and severely criticised as showing alack of gentlemanlike feeling. But those who take this view forgetthat he was writing to an intimate friend of a matter which hadgreatly occupied his own mind for a year; that he mentioned no names, and that he threw such an air of humorous unreality about the wholestory that the person who received it never dreamed that it recordedan actual occurrence until twenty-five years afterwards, when, havingbeen asked to furnish it to a biographer, she was warned against doingso by the President himself, who said there was too much truth in itfor print. The only significance the episode possesses is in showingthis almost abnormal development of conscience in the young man whowas perfectly ready to enter into a marriage which he dreaded simplybecause he thought he had given a young woman reason to think that hehad such intentions. While we admit that this would have been anirremediable error, we cannot but wonder at the nobleness of thecharacter to which it was possible. 

In this vastly more serious matter, which was, we may say at once, thecrucial ordeal of his life, the same invincible truthfulness, the sameinnate goodness, the same horror of doing a wrong, are combined withan exquisite sensibility and a capacity for suffering which mark himas a man "picked out among ten thousand. " His habit of relentlessself-searching reveals to him a state of feeling which strikes himwith dismay; his simple and inflexible veracity communicates histrouble and his misery to the woman whom he loves; his freedom, whenhe has gained it, yields him nothing but an agony of remorse andhumiliation. He could not shake off his pain, like men of cooler headsand shallower hearts. It took fast hold of him and dragged him intoawful depths of darkness and torture. The letter to Stuart, which wehave given, shows him emerging from the blackest period of that timeof gloom. Immediately after this, he accompanied his close friend andconfidant, Joshua F. Speed, to Kentucky, where, in a way so singularthat no writer of fiction would dare to employ the incident, he becamealmost cured of his melancholy, and came back to Illinois and his workagain. 

Mr. Speed was a Kentuckian, carrying on a general mercantile businessin Springfield--a brother of the distinguished lawyer, James Speed, ofLouisville, who afterwards became Attorney-General of the UnitedStates. He was one of those men who seem to have to a greater extentthan others the genius of friendship, the Pythias, the Pylades, theHoratios of the world. It is hardly too much to say that he was theonly--as he was certainly the last--intimate friend that Lincoln everhad. He was his closest companion in Springfield, and in the evil dayswhen the letter to Stuart was written he took him with brotherly loveand authority under his special care. He closed up his affairs inSpringfield, and went with Lincoln to Kentucky, and, introducing himto his own cordial and hospitable family circle, strove to soothe hisperturbed spirit by every means which unaffected friendliness couldsuggest. That Lincoln found much comfort and edification in thatgenial companionship is shown by the fact that after he becamePresident he sent to Mr. Speed's mother a photograph of himself, inscribed, "For Mrs. Lucy G. Speed, from whose pious hand I acceptedthe present of an Oxford Bible twenty years ago. "

But the principal means by which the current of his thoughts waschanged was never dreamed of by himself or by his friend when theyleft Illinois. During this visit Speed himself fell in love, andbecame engaged to be married; and either by a singular chance orbecause the maladies of the soul may be propagated by constantassociation, the feeling of despairing melancholy, which he had foundso morbid and so distressing an affliction in another, took possessionof himself, and threw him into the same slough of despondency fromwhich he had been laboring to rescue Lincoln. Between friends sointimate there were no concealments, and from the moment Lincoln foundhis services as nurse and consoler needed, the violence of his owntrouble seemed to diminish. The two young men were in Springfieldtogether in the autumn, and Lincoln seems by that time to have laidaside his own peculiar besetments, in order to minister to his friend. They knew the inmost thoughts of each other's hearts and each reliedupon the honesty and loyalty of the other to an extent rare among men. When Speed returned to Kentucky, to a happiness which awaited himthere, so bright that it dazzled and blinded his moral vision, Lincolncontinued his counsels and encouragements in letters which areremarkable for their tenderness and delicacy of thought andexpression. Like another poet, he looked into his own heart and wrote. His own deeper nature had suffered from these same fantastic sorrowsand terrors; of his own grief he made a medicine for his comrade. 

While Speed was still with him, he wrote a long letter, which he putinto 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 aperiod of nervous depression--first, because he will be "exposed tobad weather on his journey, and, secondly, because of the absence ofall business and conversation of friends which might divert his mindand give it occasional rest from the intensity of thought which willsometimes wear the sweetest idea threadbare, and turn it to thebitterness of death. " The third cause, he says, "is the rapid and nearapproach of that crisis on which all your thoughts and feelingsconcentrate. " If in spite of all these circumstances he should escapewithout a "twinge of the soul, " his friend will be most happilydeceived; but, he continues, "if you shall, as I expect you will atsome time, be agonized and distressed, let me, who have some reason tospeak with judgment on the subject, beseech you to ascribe it to thecauses I have mentioned, and not to some false and ruinous suggestionof the devil. " This forms the prelude to an ingenious and affectionateargument in which he labors to convince Speed of the loveliness of hisbetrothed and of the integrity of his own heart; a strange task, onewould say, to undertake in behalf of a young and ardent lover. But thetwo men understood each other, and the service thus rendered wasgratefully received and remembered by Speed all his life. 

Lincoln wrote again on the 3d of February, 1842, congratulating Speedupon a recent severe illness of his destined bride, for the reasonthat "your present distress and anxiety about her health must foreverbanish those horrid doubts which you feel as to the truth of youraffection for her. " As the period of Speed's marriage drew near, Lincoln's letters betray the most intense anxiety. He cannot wait tohear the news from his friend, but writes to him about the time of thewedding, admitting that he is writing in the dark, that words from abachelor may be worthless to a Benedick, but still unable to keepsilence. He hopes he is happy with his wife, "but should I be mistakenin this, should excessive pleasure still be accompanied with a painfulcounterpart at times, still let me urge you, as I have ever done, toremember in the depth and even agony of despondency, that very shortlyyou are to feel well again. " Further on he says: "If you went throughthe ceremony calmly, or even with sufficient composure not to excitealarm in any present, you are safe beyond question, " seeking by everydevice of subtle affection to lift up the heart of his friend. 

With a solicitude apparently greater than that of the nervousbridegroom, he awaited the announcement of the marriage, and when itcame he wrote (February 25): "I opened the letter with intense anxietyand trepidation; so much that, although it turned out better than Iexpected, 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 receivedyour 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, bothfrom its tone and handwriting, that . .. You had obviously improved atthe very time I had so much fancied you would have grown worse. You saythat something indescribably horrible and alarming still haunts you. You will not say that three months from now, I will venture. " Theletter goes on in the same train of sympathetic cheer, but there is onephrase which strikes the keynote of all lives whose ideals are too highfor fulfillment: "It is the peculiar misfortune of both you and me todream dreams of Elysium far exceeding all that anything earthly canrealize. "

But before long a letter came from Speed, who had settled with hisblack-eyed Kentucky wife upon a well-stocked plantation, disclaimingany further fellowship of misery and announcing the beginnings of thatlife of uneventful happiness which he led ever after. His peace ofmind has become a matter of course; he dismisses the subject in aline, but dilates, with a new planter's rapture, upon the beauties andattractions of his farm. Lincoln frankly answers that he cares nothingabout his farm. "I can only say that I am glad _you_ are satisfiedand pleased with it. But on that other subject, to me of the mostintense interest whether in joy or sorrow, I never had the power towithhold my sympathy from you. It cannot be told how it now thrills mewith joy to hear you say you are 'far happier than you ever expected tobe. '. . I am not going beyond the truth when I tell you that the shortspace it took me to read your last letter gave me more pleasure thanthe 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, butfor the never-absent idea that there is _one_ still unhappy whom Ihave contributed to make so. That still kills my soul. I cannot butreproach myself for even wishing myself to be happy while she isotherwise. "

During the summer of 1842 the letters of the friends still discuss, with waning intensity, however, their respective affairs of the heart. Speed, in the ease and happiness of his home, thanks Lincoln for hisimportant part in his welfare, and gives him sage counsel for himself. Lincoln replies (July 4, 1842): "I could not have done less than Idid. I always was superstitious; I believe God made me one of theinstruments of bringing your Fanny and you together, which union Ihave no doubt he foreordained. Whatever he designs, he will do for meyet. " A better name than "superstition" might properly be applied tothis 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 myconfidence 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 chiefgem 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 inany matter of much importance. I believe now, that had you understoodmy case at the time as well as I understood yours afterwards, by theaid you would have given me I should have sailed through clear; butthat 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-torturingsophistry. A last glimpse of his imperious curiosity, kept alive bysaucy hopes and fears, is seen in his letter to Speed of the 5th ofOctober. He ventures, with a genuine timidity, to ask a question whichwe may believe has not often been asked by one civilized man ofanother, with the hope of a candid answer, since marriages werecelebrated with ring and book. "I want to ask you a close question--Are you now, in _feeling_ as well as _judgment, _ glad you aremarried as you are? From anybody but me this would be an impudentquestion, 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 probablethat Mr. Speed replied promptly in the way in which such questionsmust almost of necessity be answered. On the 4th of November, 1842, amarriage license was issued to Lincoln, and on the same day he wasmarried to Miss Mary Todd, the ceremony being performed by the Rev. Charles Dresser. Four sons were the issue of this marriage: RobertTodd, born August 1, 1843; Edward Baker, March 10, 1846; WilliamWallace, December 21, 1850; Thomas, April 4, 1853. Of these only theeldest lived to maturity. 

In this way Abraham Lincoln met and passed through one of the mostimportant crises of his life. There was so much of idiosyncrasy in itthat it has been, and will continue to be for years to come, theoccasion of endless gossip in Sangamon County and elsewhere. Becauseit was not precisely like the experience of other people, who aremarried and given in marriage every day without any ado, a dozenconflicting stories have grown up, more or less false and injurious toboth contracting parties. But it may not be fanciful to suppose thatcharacters like that of Lincoln, elected for great conflicts andtrials, are fashioned by different processes from those of ordinarymen, and pass their stated ordeals in a different way. Bycircumstances which seem commonplace enough to commonplace people, hewas thrown for more than a year into a sea of perplexities andsufferings beyond the reach of the common run of souls. 

It is as useless as it would be indelicate to seek to penetrate indetail the incidents and special causes which produced in his mindthis darkness as of the valley of the shadow of death. There wasprobably nothing worth recording in them; we are only concerned withtheir effect upon a character which was to be hereafter for all timeone of the possessions of the nation. It is enough for us to know thata great trouble came upon him, and that he bore it nobly after hiskind. That the manner in which he confronted this crisis was strangelydifferent from that of most men in similar circumstances need surelyoccasion no surprise. Neither in this nor in other matters was heshaped in the average mold of his contemporaries. In many respects hewas doomed to a certain loneliness of excellence. There are few menthat have had his stern and tyrannous sense of duty, his womanlytenderness of heart, his wakeful and inflexible conscience, which wasso easy towards others and so merciless towards himself. Thereforewhen the time came for all of these qualities at once to be put to themost strenuous proof, the whole course of his development and thetendency of his nature made it inevitable that his suffering should beof the keenest and his final triumph over himself should be of themost complete and signal character. In that struggle his youth ofreveries and day-dreams passed away. Such furnace-blasts of proof, such pangs of transformation, seem necessary for exceptional natures. The bread eaten in tears, of which Goethe speaks, the sleepless nightsof sorrow, are required for a clear vision of the celestial powers. Fortunately the same qualities that occasion the conflict insure thevictory also. From days of gloom and depression, such as we have beenconsidering, no doubt came precious results in the way of sympathy, self-restraint, and that sober reliance on the final triumph of goodover evil peculiar to those who have been greatly tried but notdestroyed. The late but splendid maturity of Lincoln's mind andcharacter dates from this time, and, although he grew in strength andknowledge to the end, from this year we observe a steadiness andsobriety of thought and purpose, as discernible in his life as in hisstyle. He was like a blade forged in fire and tempered in the ice-brook, ready for battle whenever the battle might come. 

[Relocated Footnote: Mrs. Lincoln was the daughter of the Hon. RobertS. Todd of Kentucky. Her great-uncle John Todd, and her grandfatherLevi Todd, accompanied General George Rogers Clark to Illinois, andwere present at the capture of Kaskaskia and Vincennes. In December, 1778, John Todd was appointed by Patrick Henry, Governor of Virginia, to be lieutenant of the county of Illinois, then a part of Virginia. He was killed at the battle of the Blue Licks, in 1782. His brotherLevi was also at that battle and was one of the few survivors of it. 

Colonel John Todd was one of the original proprietors of the town ofLexington, Ky. While encamped on the site of the present city, heheard of the opening battle of the Revolution and named his infantsettlement in its honor. --Arnold's "Life of Lincoln, " p. 68. ]

CHAPTER XII

THE SHIELDS DUEL

An incident which occurred during the summer preceding Mr. Lincoln'smarriage, and which in the opinion of many had its influence inhastening that event, deserves some attention, if only from itsincongruity with the rest of his history. This was the farce--whichaspired at one time to be a tragedy--of his first and last duel. Amongthe officers of the State Government was a young Irishman named JamesShields, who owed his post as Auditor, in great measure, to that alienvote to gain which the Democrats had overturned the Supreme Court. Thefinances of the State were in a deplorable condition: the treasury wasempty; auditor's warrants were selling at half their nominal value; nomore money was to be borrowed, and taxation was dreaded by bothpolitical parties more than disgrace. The currency of the State bankswas well-nigh worthless, but it constituted nearly the onlycirculating medium in the State. 

In the middle of August the Governor, Auditor, and Treasurer issued acircular forbidding the payment of State taxes in this depreciatedpaper. This order was naturally taken by the Whigs as indicating onthe part of these officers a keener interest in the integrity of theirsalaries than in the public welfare, and it was therefore severelyattacked in all the opposition newspapers of the State. 

The sharpest assault it had to endure, however, was in acommunication, dated August 27, and printed in the "Sangamo Journal"of September 2, not only dissecting the administration circular withthe most savage satire, but covering the Auditor with mercilesspersonal ridicule. It was written in the dialect of the country, datedfrom the "Lost Townships, " and signed "Rebecca, " and purported to comefrom a farmer widow of the county, who expressed in this fashion herdiscontent with the evil course of affairs. 

Shields was a man of inordinate vanity and a correspondingirascibility. He was for that reason an irresistible mark for satire. Through a long life of somewhat conspicuous public service, he neverlost a certain tone of absurdity which can only be accounted for bythe qualities we have mentioned. Even his honorable wounds in battle, while they were productive of great public applause and politicalsuccess, gained him scarcely less ridicule than praise. He never couldrefrain from talking of them himself, having none of Coriolanus'srepugnance in that respect, and for that reason was a constant targetfor newspaper wits. 

After Shields returned from the Mexican war, with his laurels stillgreen, and at the close of the canvass which had made him Senator, hewrote an incredible letter to Judge Breese, his principal competitor, in which he committed the gratuitous folly of informing him that "hehad sworn in his heart [if Breese had been elected] that he shouldnever have profited by his success; and depend upon it, " he added, inthe amazing impudence of triumph, "I would have kept that vow, regardless of consequences. That, however, is now past, and the vow iscanceled by your defeat. " He then went on, with threats equallyindecent, to make certain demands which were altogether inadmissible, and which Judge Breese only noticed by sending this preposterousletter to the press. 

[Sidenote: "National Intelligencer, " Feb. 28, 1849. ]

It may easily be imagined that a man who, after being elected aSenator of the United States, was capable of the insane insolence ofsigning his name to a letter informing his defeated competitor that hewould have killed him if the result had been different, would not havebeen likely, when seven years younger, to bear newspaper ridicule withequanimity. His fury against the unknown author of the satire was thesubject of much merriment in Springfield, and the next week anotherletter appeared, from a different hand, but adopting the machinery ofthe first, in which the widow offered to make up the quarrel bymarrying the Auditor, and this, in time, was followed by anepithalamium, in which this happy compromise was celebrated in verybad verses. In the change of hands all the humor of the thing hadevaporated, and nothing was left but feminine mischief on one side andthe exasperation of wounded vanity on the other. 

Shields, however, had talked so much about the matter that he now feltimperatively called upon to act, and he therefore sent GeneralWhitesides to demand from the "Journal" the name of its contributor. Mr. Francis, the editor, was in a quandary. Lincoln had written thefirst letter, and the antic fury of Shields had induced two youngladies who took a lively interest in Illinois politics--and with goodreason, for one was to be the wife of a Senator and the other of aPresident--to follow up the game with attacks in prose and versewhich, however deficient in wit and meter, were not wanting inpungency. In his dilemma he applied to Lincoln, who, as he wasstarting to attend court at Tremont, told him to give his name andwithhold the names of the ladies. As soon as Whitesides received thisinformation, he and his fiery principal set out for Tremont, and asShields did nothing in silence, the news came to Lincoln's friends, two of whom, William Butler and Dr. Merryman, one of those combativemedical men who have almost disappeared from American society, wentoff in a buggy in pursuit. They soon came in sight of the others, butloitered in the rear until evening, and then drove rapidly to Tremont, arriving there some time in advance of Shields; so that in the ensuingnegotiations Abraham Lincoln had the assistance of friends whosefidelity and whose nerve were equally beyond question. 

It would be useless to recount all the tedious preliminaries of theaffair. Shields opened the correspondence, as might have beenexpected, with blustering and with threats; his nature had no otherway of expressing itself. His first letter was taken as a bar to anyexplanation or understanding, and he afterwards wrote a second, alittle less offensive in tone, but without withdrawing the first. Atevery interview of the seconds General Whitesides deplored thebloodthirsty disposition of his principal, and urged that Mr. Lincolnshould make the concessions which alone would prevent lamentableresults. These representations seemed to avail nothing, however, andthe parties, after endless talk, went to Alton and crossed the riverto the Missouri shore. It seemed for a moment that the fight must takeplace. The terms had been left by the code, as then understood in theWest, to Lincoln, and he certainly made no grudging use of hisprivilege. The weapons chosen were "cavalry broadswords of the largestsize"; and the combatants were to stand on either side of a boardplaced on the ground, each to fight in a limit of six feet on his ownside of the board. It was evident that Lincoln did not desire thedeath of his adversary, and did not intend to be materially injuredhimself. The advantage morally was altogether against him. He feltintensely the stupidity of the whole affair, but thought he could notavoid the fight without degradation; while to Shields such a fracaswas a delight. The duel came to its natural end by the intervention ofthe usual "gods out of a machine, " the gods being John J. Hardin andone Dr. English, and the machine a canoe in which they had hastilypaddled across the Mississippi. Shields suffered himself to bepersuaded to withdraw his offensive challenge. Lincoln then made theexplanation he had been ready to make from the beginning; avowing theone letter he had written, and saying that it had been printed solelyfor political effect, and without any intention of injuring Shieldspersonally. 

One would think that, after a week passed in such unprofitabletrifling, the parties, principal and secondary, would have beenwilling to drop the matter forever. We are sure that Lincoln wouldhave been glad to banish it, even from his memory; but to men likeShields and Whitesides, the peculiar relish and enjoyment of such anaffair is its publicity. On the 3d of October, therefore, eleven daysafter the meeting, as public attention seemed to be flagging, Whitesides wrote an account of it to the "Sangamo Journal, " for whichhe did not forget to say, "I hold myself responsible!" Of course heseized the occasion to paint a heroic portrait of himself and hisprincipal. It was an excellent story until the next week, when Dr. Merryman, who seems to have wielded a pen like a scalpel, gave a muchfuller history of the matter, which he substantiated by printing allthe documents, and, not content with that, gave little details of thenegotiations which show, either that Whitesides was one of the mostgrotesque braggarts of the time, or that Merryman was an admirablewriter of comic fiction. Among the most amusing facts he broughtforward was that Whitesides, being a Fund Commissioner of the State, ran the risk of losing his office by engaging in a duel; and hisanxiety to appear reckless and dangerous, and yet keep within thestatute and save his salary, was depicted by Merryman with a drollfidelity. He concluded by charging Whitesides plainly with"inefficiency and want of knowledge of those laws which governgentlemen in matters of this kind, " and with "trying to wipe out hisfault by doing an act of injustice to Mr. Lincoln. "

[Illustration: HOUSE IN WHICH ABRAHAM LINCOLN WAS MARRIED, THEN OWNEDBY NINIAN W. EDWARDS, NOW OCCUPIED AS ST. AGATHA'S SCHOOL. ]

The town was greatly diverted by these pungent echoes of the bloodlessfight, and Shields and Whitesides felt that their honor was still outof repair. A rapid series of challenges succeeded among the parties, principals and seconds changing places as deftly as dancers in aquadrille. The Auditor challenged Mr. Butler, who had been veryoutspoken in his contemptuous comments on the affair. Butler at onceaccepted, and with a grim sincerity announced his conditions--"tofight next morning at sunrising in Bob Allen's meadow, one hundredyards' distance, with rifles. " This was instantly declined, with asort of horror, by Shields and Whitesides, as such a proceeding wouldhave proved fatal to their official positions and their means oflivelihood. They probably cared less for the chances of harm fromButler's Kentucky rifle than for the certainty of the Illinois lawwhich cut off all duelists from holding office in the State. 

But, on the other hand, --so unreasonable is human nature as displayedamong politicians, --General Whitesides felt that if he bore patientlythe winged words of Merryman, his availability as a candidate wasgreatly damaged; and he therefore sent to the witty doctor what Mr. Lincoln called "a quasi-challenge, " hurling at him a modifieddefiance, which should be enough to lure him to the field of honor, and yet not sufficiently explicit to lose Whitesides the dignity andperquisites of Fund Commissioner. Merryman, not being an office-holderand having no salary to risk, responded with brutal directness, whichwas highly unsatisfactory to Whitesides, who was determined not tofight unless he could do so lawfully; and Lincoln, who now acted assecond to the doctor in his turn, records the cessation of thecorrespondence amid the agonized explanations of Whitesides and thescornful hootings of Merryman, "while the town was in a ferment and astreet fight somewhat anticipated. " In respect to the last diversionthe town was disappointed. 

Shields lost nothing by the hilarity which this burlesque incidentcreated. He was reserved for a career of singular luck and glorymingled with signal misfortunes. On account of his politicalavailability he continued throughout a long lifetime to be selected atintervals for high positions. After he ceased to be Auditor he waselected a judge of the Supreme Court of Illinois; while still holdingthat position he applied for the place of Commissioner of the GeneralLand Office, and his application was successful. When the Mexican warbroke out he asked for a commission as brigadier-general, although hestill held his civil appointment, and, to the amazement of the wholearmy, he was given that important command before he had ever seen aday's service. At the battle of Cerro Glordo he was shot through thelungs, and this wound made him a United States Senator as soon as hereturned from the war. After he had served one term in the Senate, heremoved from Illinois, and was soon sent back to the same body fromMinnesota. In the war of the rebellion he was again appointed abrigadier-general by his old adversary, and was again wounded in abattle in which his troops defeated the redoubtable Stonewall Jackson;and many years after Lincoln was laid to sleep beneath a mountain ofmarble at Springfield, Shields was made the shuttlecock of contendingdemagogues in Congress, each striving to make a point by voting himmoney--until in the impulse of that transient controversy, the Stateof Missouri, finding the gray-headed soldier in her borders, for thethird time sent him to the Senate of the United States for a fewweeks--a history unparalleled even in America. 

We have reason to think that the affair of the duel was excessivelydistasteful to Lincoln. He did not even enjoy the ludicrousness of it, as might have been expected. He never--so far as we can learn--alludedto it afterwards, and the recollection of it died away so completelyfrom the minds of people in the State, that during the heated canvassof 1860 there was no mention of this disagreeable episode in theopposition papers of Illinois. It had been absolutely forgotten. 

This was Mr. Lincoln's last personal quarrel. [Transcriber's Note:Lengthy footnote relocated to chapter end. ] Although the rest of hislife was passed in hot and earnest debate, he never again descended tothe level of his adversaries, who would gladly enough have resorted tounseemly wrangling. In later years it became his duty to give anofficial reprimand to a young officer who had been court-martialed fora quarrel with one of his associates. The reprimand is probably thegentlest recorded in the annals of penal discourses, and it shows infew words the principles which ruled the conduct of this great andpeaceable man. It has never before been published, and it deserves tobe written in letters of gold on the walls of every gymnasium andcollege:

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 mostof himself can spare time for personal contention. Still less can heafford to take all the consequences, including the vitiating of histemper and the loss of self-control. Yield larger things to which youcan show no more than equal right; and yield lesser ones thoughclearly your own. Better give your path to a dog than be bitten by himin contesting for the right. Even killing the dog would not cure thebite. 

[Relocated Footnote: Lincoln's life was unusually free from personaldisputes. We know of only one other hostile letter addressed to him. This was from W. G. Anderson, who being worsted in a verbal encounterwith Lincoln at Lawrenceville, the county-seat of Lawrence County, Ill. , wrote him a note demanding an explanation of his words and ofhis "present feelings. " Lincoln's reply shows that his habitualpeaceableness involved no lack of dignity; he said. "Your note ofyesterday is received. In the difficulty between us of which youspeak, you say you think I was the aggressor. I do not think I was. You say my words 'imported insult. ' I meant them as a fair set-off toyour own statements, and not otherwise; and in that light alone I nowwish you to understand them. You ask for my 'present feelings on thesubject. ' I entertain no unkind feeling to you, and none of any sortupon the subject, except a sincere regret that I permitted myself toget into any such altercation. " This seems to have ended thematter--although the apology was made rather to himself than to Mr. Anderson. (See the letter of William C. Wilkinson in "The CenturyMagazine" for January, 1889. )]

CHAPTER XIII

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1844

In the letter to Stuart which we have quoted, Lincoln announced hisintention to form a partnership with Judge Logan, which was sooncarried out. His connection with Stuart was formally dissolved inApril, 1841, and one with Logan formed which continued for four years. It may almost be said that Lincoln's practice as a lawyer begins fromthis time. Stuart, though even then giving promise of the distinctionat which he arrived in his profession later in life, was at thatperiod so entirely devoted to politics that the business of the officewas altogether a secondary matter to him; and Lincoln, although nolonger in his first youth, being then thirty-two years of age, had notyet formed those habits of close application which are indispensableto permanent success at the bar. He was not behind the greater part ofhis contemporaries in this respect. Among all the lawyers of thecircuit who were then, or who afterwards became, eminentpractitioners, [Footnote: They were Dan Stone, Jesse B. Thomas, CyrusWalker, Schuyler Strong, Albert T. Bledsoe, George Forquer, Samuel H. Treat, Ninian W. Edwards, Josiah Lamborn, John J. Hardin, Edward D. Baker, and others. ] there were few indeed who in those days appliedthemselves with any degree of persistency to the close study of legalprinciples. One of these few was Stephen T. Logan. He was more or lessa politician, as were all his compeers at the bar, but he was alwaysmore a lawyer than anything else. He had that love for his professionwhich it jealously exacts as a condition of succeeding. He possessedfew books, and it used to be said of him long afterwards that hecarried his library in his hat. But the books which he had he neverceased to read and ponder, and we heard him say when he was sixtyyears 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 orslovenliness of mind or character. His former partner had been EdwardD. Baker, but this brilliant and mercurial spirit was not congenial toLogan; Baker's carelessness in money matters was Intolerable to him, and he was glad to escape from an associate so gifted and soexasperating. [Footnote: Logan's office was, in fact, a nursery ofstatesmen. Three of his partners, William L. May, Baker, and Lincoln, left him in rapid succession to go to Congress, and finally thecontagion gained the head of the firm, and the judge was himself thecandidate of his party, when it was no longer able to elect one. Afterhe had retired from practice, the office, under his son-in-law andsuccessor, Milton Hay, retained its prestige for cradling public men. John M. Palmer and Shelby M. Cullom left it to be Governors of theState, and the latter to be a Congressman and Senator. ]

Needing some one, however, to assist him in his practice, which wasthen considerable, he invited Lincoln into partnership. He had, as wehave seen, formed a favorable opinion of the young Kentuckian thefirst time they had met. In his subsequent acquaintance with him hehad come to recognize and respect his abilities, his unpretendingcommon sense, and his innate integrity. The partnership continuedabout four years, but the benefit Lincoln derived from it lasted allhis life. The example of Judge Logan's thrift, order, and severity ofmorals; his straightforward devotion to his profession; his close andcareful study of his cases, together with the larger and moreimportant range of practice to which Lincoln was introduced by thisnew association, confirmed all those salutary tendencies by which hehad been led into the profession, and corrected those less desirableones which he shared with most of the lawyers about him. He began forthe first time to study his cases with energy and patience; to resistthe tendency, almost universal at that day, to supply with floridrhetoric 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 expected thatLincoln's chief value to him would be as a talking advocate beforejuries, was surprised and pleased to find his new partner rapidlybecoming a lawyer. "He would study out his case and make about as muchof it as anybody, " said Logan, many years afterwards. "His ambition asa lawyer increased; he grew constantly. By close study of each case, as it came up, he got to be quite a formidable lawyer. " The characterof the man is in these words. He had vast concerns intrusted to him inthe course of his life, and disposed of them one at a time as theywere presented. At the end of four years the partnership wasdissolved. Judge Logan took his son David--afterwards a well-knownpolitician and lawyer of Oregon--into his office, and Lincoln openedone of his own, into which he soon invited a young, bright, andenthusiastic man named William Henry Herndon, who remained his partneras long as Lincoln lived. 

The old partners continued close and intimate friends. They practicedat the same bar for twenty years, often as associates, and often asadversaries, but always with relations of mutual confidence andregard. They had the unusual honor, while they were stillcomparatively young men, of seeing their names indissolubly associatedin the map of their State as a memorial to future ages of theirfriendship and their fame, in the county of Logan, of which the cityof Lincoln is the county-seat. 

They both prospered, each in his way. Logan rapidly gained a greatreputation and accumulated an ample fortune. Lincoln, while he did notbecome rich, always earned a respectable livelihood, and never knewthe care of poverty or debt from that time forward, His wife and hesuited their style of living to their means, and were equally removedfrom luxury and privation. They went to live, immediately after theirmarriage, at a boarding-house [Footnote: This house is still standing, opposite St, Paul's church. ] called "The Globe, " which was "very wellkept by a widow lady of the name of Beck, " and there their first childwas born, who was one day to be Secretary of War and Minister toEngland, and for whom was reserved the strange experience of standingby the death-bed of two assassinated Presidents. Lincoln afterwardsbuilt a comfortable house of wood on the corner of Eighth and Jacksonstreets, where he lived until he removed to the White House. 

Neither his marriage nor his new professional interests, however, putan end to his participation in politics. Even that period of gloom anddepression of which we have spoken, and which has been so muchexaggerated by the chroniclers and the gossip of Springfield, couldnot have interrupted for any length of time his activity as a memberof the Legislature. Only for a few days was he absent from his placein the House. On the 19th of January, 1841, John J. Hardin apologizedfor the delay in some committee business, alleging Mr. Lincoln'sindisposition as an excuse. On the 23d the letter to Stuart waswritten; but on the 26th Lincoln had so far recovered his self-possession as to resume his place in the House and the leadership ofhis party. The journals of the next month show his constant activityand prominence in the routine business of the Legislature until itadjourned. In August, Stuart was reflected to Congress. Lincoln madehis visit to Kentucky with speed, and returned to find himselfgenerally talked of for Governor of the State. This idea did notcommend itself to the judgment of himself or his friends, andaccordingly we find in the "Sangamo Journal" one of those semi-official announcements 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 tothe Whig party; but we do not believe he desires the nomination. Hehas already made great sacrifices in maintaining his party principles, and before his political friends ask him to make additionalsacrifices, the subject should be well considered. The office ofGovernor, which would of necessity interfere with the practice of hisprofession, would poorly compensate him for the loss of four of thebest years of his life. "

He served this year as a member of the Whig Central Committee, andbore a prominent part in the movement set on foot at that time tocheck intemperance in the use of spirits. It was a movement in thename and memory of "Washington, " and the orators of the cause madeeffective rhetorical use of its august associations. A passage fromthe close of a speech made by Lincoln on February 22, 1842, shows thefervor and feeling of the hour: "Washington is the mightiest name ofearth--long since mightiest in the cause of civil liberty; stillmightiest in moral reformation. On that name no eulogy is expected. Itcannot be. To add brightness to the sun or glory to the name ofWashington is alike impossible. Let none attempt it. In solemn awepronounce the name, and in its naked, deathless splendor leave itshining on. "

A mass meeting of the Whigs of the district was held at Springfield onthe 1st of March, 1843, for the purpose of organizing the party forthe elections of the year. On this occasion Lincoln was the mostprominent figure. He called the meeting to order, stated its object, and drew up the platform of principles, which embraced the orthodoxWhig tenets of a protective tariff, national bank, the distribution ofthe proceeds of the public lands, and, finally, the tardy conversionof the party to the convention system, which had been forced upon themby the example of the Democrats, who had shown them that victory couldnot be organized without it. Lincoln was also chairman of thecommittee which was charged with the address to the people, and aparagraph from this document is worth quoting, as showing the usewhich he made at that early day of a pregnant text which was hereafterto figure in a far more momentous connection, and exercise a powerfulinfluence 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. Thatgreat fabulist and philosopher, Aesop, illustrated it by his fable ofthe bundle of sticks; and He whose wisdom surpasses that of allphilosophers has declared that 'a house divided against itself cannotstand. '" He calls to mind the victory of 1840, the overwhelmingmajority gained by the Whigs that year, their ill success since, andthe necessity of unity and concord that the party may make its entirestrength felt. 

Lincoln was at this time a candidate for the Whig nomination toCongress; but he was confronted by formidable competition. Theadjoining county of Morgan was warmly devoted to one of its owncitizens, John J. Hardin, a man of an unusually gallant and chivalrousstrain of character; and several other counties, for reasons not worthconsidering, were pledged to support any one whom Morgan Countypresented. If Lincoln had carried Sangamon County, his strength was sogreat in Menard and Mason, where he was personally known, that hecould have been easily nominated. But Edward D. Baker had long coveteda seat in Congress, and went into the contest against Lincoln withmany points in his favor. He was of about the same age, but hadresided longer in the district, had a larger personal acquaintance, and was a much readier and more pleasing speaker. In fact, there arefew men who have ever lived in this country with more of the peculiartemperament of the orator than Edward Dickinson Baker, It is relatedof him that on one occasion when the circumstances called for a policyof reserve, he was urged by his friends to go out upon a balcony andaddress an impromptu audience, which was calling for him. "No, " hereplied, mistrusting his own fluency; "if I go out there, I will makea better speech than I want to. " He was hardly capable of the severestudy and care by which great parliamentary speakers are trained; butbefore a popular audience, and on all occasions where brilliant andeffective improvisation was called for, he was almost unequaled. Hisfuneral oration over the dead body of Senator Broderick in California, his thrilling and inspiriting appeal in Union Square, New York, at thegreat meeting of April, 1861, and his reply to Breckinridge in theSenate delivered upon the impulse of the moment, conceived as helistened to the Kentuckian's peroration, leaning against the doorwayof the Chamber in full uniform, booted and spurred, as he had riddeninto Washington from the camp, are among the most remarkable specimensof absolutely unstudied and thrilling eloquence which our annalscontain. He was also a man of extremely prepossessing appearance. Bornin England of poor yet educated parents, and brought as a child tothis country, his good looks and brightness had early attracted theattention of prominent gentlemen in Illinois, especially of GovernorEdwards, who had made much of him and assisted him to a goodeducation. He had met with considerable success as a lawyer, though healways relied rather upon his eloquence than his law, and there werefew juries which could resist the force and fury of his speech, andnot many lawyers could keep their equanimity in the face of his wittypersiflage and savage sarcasm. When to all this is added a genuinelove of every species of combat, physical and moral, we may understandthe name Charles Sumner--paraphrasing a well-known epigram--applied tohim in the Senate, after his heroic death at Ball's Bluff, "the PrinceRupert of battle and debate. "

If Baker had relied upon his own unquestionable merits he would havebeen reasonably sure of succeeding in a community so well acquaintedwith him as Sangamon County. But to make assurance doubly sure hisfriends resorted to tactics which Lincoln, the most magnanimous andplacable of men, thought rather unfair. Baker and his wife belonged tothat numerous and powerful sect which has several times played animportant part in Western politics--the Disciples. They all supportedhim energetically, and used as arguments against Lincoln that his wifewas a Presbyterian, that most of her family were Episcopalians, thatLincoln himself belonged to no church, and that he had been suspectedof deism, and, finally, that he was the candidate of the aristocracy. This last charge so amazed Lincoln that he was unable to frame anysatisfactory answer to it. The memory of his flat-boating days, of hisilliterate youth, even of his deer-skin breeches shrunken by rain andexposure, appeared to have no power against this unexpected andbaleful charge. When the county convention met, the delegates to thedistrict convention were instructed to cast the vote of Sangamon forBaker. It showed the confidence of the convention in the imperturbablegood-nature of the defeated candidate that they elected him a delegateto the Congressional convention charged with the cause of hissuccessful rival. In a letter to Speed, he humorously refers to hissituation as that of a rejected suitor who is asked to act asgroomsman at the wedding of his sweetheart. 

It soon became evident that Baker could not get strength enoughoutside of the county to nominate him. Lincoln in a letter to Speed, written in May, said: "In relation to our Congress matter here, youwere right in supposing I would support the nominee. Neither Baker norI, however, is the man, but Hardin, so far as I can judge from presentappearances. We shall have no split or trouble about the matter; allwill be harmony. " A few days later this prediction was realized. Theconvention met at Pekin, and nominated Hardin with all the customarysymptoms of spontaneous enthusiasm. He was elected in August, [Footnote: The opposing candidate was James A. McDougall, who wasafterwards, as Senator from California, one of the most remarkable andeccentric figures in Washington life. ] after a short but activecanvass, in which Lincoln bore his part as usual. Hardin took his seatin December. The next year the time of holding elections was changed, and always afterwards the candidates were elected the year beforevacancies were to occur. In May, 1844, therefore, Baker attained thedesire of his heart by being nominated, and in August he was elected, defeating John Calhoun, while Lincoln had the laborious and honorablepost of Presidential Elector. 

[Illustration: BRIG. -GEN. JAMES SHIELDS. ]

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 andconvincing oratory was thought so useful to his party that every fouryears he was sent, in the character of electoral canvasser, to theremotest regions of the State to talk to the people in their owndialect, with their own habits of thought and feeling, in favor of theWhig candidate. The office had its especial charm for him; if beaten, as generally happened, the defeat had no personal significance; ifelected, the functions of the place were discharged in one day, andthe office passed from existence. But there was something more thanthe orator and the partisan concerned in this campaign of 1844. Thewhole heart of the man was enlisted in it--for the candidate was thebeloved and idolized leader of the Whigs, Henry Clay. It is probablethat we shall never see again in this country another such instance ofthe personal devotion of a party to its chieftain as that which wasshown by the long and wonderful career of Mr. Clay. He becameprominent in the politics of Kentucky near the close of the lastcentury at twenty-three years of age. He was elected first to theSenate at twenty-nine. He died a Senator at seventy-five, and for thegreater part of that long interval he was the most considerablepersonal influence in American politics. As Senator, Representative, Speaker of the House, and diplomatist, he filled the public eye forhalf a century, and although he twice peremptorily retired fromoffice, and although he was the mark of the most furious partisanhatred all his days, neither his own weariness nor the malice of hisenemies could ever keep him for any length of time from thatcommanding position for which his temperament and his nature designedhim. He was beloved, respected, and served by his adherents with asingle-hearted allegiance which seems impossible to the more complexlife of a later generation. In 1844, it is true, he was no longeryoung, and his power may be said to have been on the decline. Butthere were circumstances connected with this his last candidacy whichexcited his faithful followers to a peculiar intensity of devotion. Hehad been, as many thought, unjustly passed over in 1840, and GeneralHarrison, a man of greatly inferior capacity, had been preferred tohim on the grounds of prudence and expediency, after three days ofballoting had shown that the eloquent Kentuckian had more friends andmore enemies than any other man in the republic. He had seemed toregain all his popularity by the prompt and frank support which hegave to the candidacy of Harrison; and after the President's death andthe treachery of Tyler had turned the victory of the Whigs into dustand ashes, the entire party came back to Clay with passionateaffection and confidence, to lead them in the desperate battle whichperhaps no man could have won. The Whigs, however, were far fromappreciating this. There is evident in all their utterances of thespring and early summer of 1844, an ardent and almost furiousconviction, not only of the necessity but the certainty of success. Mr. Clay was nominated long before the convention met in Baltimore. The convention of the 1st of May only ratified the popular will; noother name was mentioned. Mr. Watkins Leigh had the honor ofpresenting his name, "a word, " he said "that expressed moreenthusiasm, that had in it more eloquence, than the names of Chatham, Burke, Patrick Henry, and, " he continued, rising to the requirementsof the occasion, "to us more than any other and all other namestogether. " Nothing was left to be said, and Clay was nominated withouta ballot; Mr. Lumpkin, of Georgia, then nominated TheodoreFrelinghuysen for Vice-President, not hesitating to avow, in thewarmth and expansion of the hour, that he believed that the baptismalname of the New Jersey gentleman had a mystical appropriateness to theoccasion. 

In the Democratic convention Mr. Van Buren had a majority of delegatespledged to support him; but it had already been resolved in the innercouncils of the party that he should be defeated. The Southern leadershad determined upon the immediate and unconditional annexation ofTexas, and Mr. Van Buren's views upon this vital question were toomoderate and conservative to suit the adventurous spirits who mostclosely surrounded President Tyler. During the whole of the precedingyear a steady and earnest propaganda of annexation had been on foot, starting from the immediate _entourage_ of the President and embracinga large number of Southern Congressmen. A letter had been elicitedfrom General Jackson, declaring with his usual vehemence in favor ofthe project, and urging it upon the ground that Texas was absolutelynecessary to us, as the most easily defensible frontier against GreatBritain. Using the favorite argument of the Southerners of his school, he said: "Great Britain has already made treaties with Texas; and weknow that far-seeing nation never omits a circumstance in herextensive intercourse with the world which can be turned to account inincreasing her military resources. May she not enter into an alliancewith Texas? And, reserving, as she doubtless will, the North-westernboundary question as the cause of war with us whenever she chooses todeclare it--let us suppose that, as an ally with Texas, we are tofight her. Preparatory to such a movement she sends her 20, 000 or30, 000 men to Texas; organizes them on the Sabine, where supplies andarms can be concentrated before we have even notice of her intentions;makes a lodgment on the Mississippi; excites the negroes toinsurrection; the lower country falls, with it New Orleans; and aservile war rages through the whole South and West. " [Footnote: Thisletter was dated at the Hermitage, near Nashville, Tennessee, Feb. 13, 1843, and was printed a year later in the "National Intelligencer, "with the date altered to 1844. ]

[Sidenote: T. H. Benton, "Thirty Years View. "]

These fanciful prophecies of evil were privately circulated for a yearamong those whom they would be most likely to influence, and theentire letter was printed in 1844, with a result never intended by thewriter. It contributed greatly, in the opinion of many, to defeat VanBuren, whom Jackson held in great esteem and regard, and served thepurposes of the Tyler faction, whom he detested. The argument based onimaginary British intrigues was the one most relied upon by Mr. Tyler's successive secretaries of state. John C. Calhoun, in hisdispatch of the 12th of August, 1844, instructed our minister in Paristo impress upon the Government of France the nefarious character ofthe English diplomacy, which was seeking, by defeating the annexationof Texas, to accomplish the abolition of slavery first in that region, and afterwards throughout the United States, "a blow calamitous tothis continent beyond description. " No denials on the part of theBritish Government had any effect; it was a fixed idea of Calhoun andhis followers that the designs of Great Britain against Americanslavery could only be baffled by the annexation of Texas. Van Burenwas not in principle opposed to the admission of Texas into the Unionat the proper time and with the proper conditions, but the more ardentDemocrats of the South were unwilling to listen to any conditions orany suggestion of delay. They succeeded in inducing the convention toadopt the two-thirds rule, after a whole day of stormy debate, and thedefeat of Van Buren was secured. The nomination of Mr. Polk wasreceived without enthusiasm, and the exultant hopes of the Whigs werecorrespondingly increased. 

Contemporary observers differ as to the causes which gradually, as thesummer advanced, changed the course of public opinion to such anextent as to bring defeat in November upon a party which was so sureof victory in June. It has been the habit of the antislavery Whigs whohave written upon the subject to ascribe the disaster to anindiscretion of the candidate himself. At the outset of the campaignMr. Clay's avowed opinion as to the annexation of Texas was that ofthe vast majority of his party, especially in the North. While notopposing an increase of territory under all circumstances, he said, --in a letter written from Raleigh, N. C. , two weeks before hisnomination, --"I consider the annexation of Texas, at this time, without the consent of Mexico, as a measure compromising the nationalcharacter, involving us certainly in war with Mexico, probably withother foreign powers, dangerous to the integrity of the Union, inexpedient in the present financial condition of the country, and notcalled for by any expression of public opinion. " He supported theseviews with temperate and judicious reasons which were received withmuch gratification throughout the country. 

Of course they were not satisfactory to every one, and Mr. Clay becameso disquieted by letters of inquiry and of criticism from the South, that he was at last moved, in an unfortunate hour, to write anotherletter to a friend in Alabama, which was regarded as seriouslymodifying the views he had expressed in the letter from Raleigh. Henow said: "I have no hesitation in saying that, far from having anypersonal objections to the annexation of Texas, I should be glad tosee it--without dishonor, without war, with the common consent of theUnion, and upon just and fair terms . .. I do not think the subject ofslavery ought to affect the question one way or the other, whetherTexas be independent or incorporated in the United States. I do notbelieve it will prolong or shorten the duration of that institution. It is destined to become extinct, at some distant day, in my opinion, by the operation of the inevitable laws of population. It would beunwise to refuse a permanent acquisition, which will exist as long asthe globe remains, on account of a temporary institution. " Mr. Claydoes not in this letter disclaim or disavow any sentiments previouslyexpressed. He says, as any one might say, that provided certainimpossible conditions were complied with, he would be glad to seeTexas in the Union, and that he was so sure of the ultimate extinctionof slavery that he would not let any consideration of that transitorysystem interfere with a great national advantage. It might naturallyhave been expected that such an expression would have given lessoffense to the opponents than to the friends of slavery. But thecontrary effect resulted, and it soon became evident that a graveerror of judgment had been committed in writing the letter. 

[Sidenote: "American Conflict, " p. 167. ]

The principal opposition to annexation in the North had been madeexpressly upon the ground that it would increase the area of slavery, and the comparative indifferences with which Mr. Clay treated thatview of the subject cost him heavily in the canvass. Horace Greeley, who should be regarded as an impartial witness in such a case, says, "The 'Liberty Party, ' so-called, pushed this view of the matter beyondall justice and reason, insisting that Mr. Clay's antagonism toannexation, not being founded in antislavery conviction, was of noaccount whatever, and that his election should, on that ground, beopposed. " It availed nothing that Mr. Clay, alarmed at the defectionin the North, wrote a third and final letter, reiterating hisunaltered objections to any such annexation as was at that timepossible. The damage was irretrievable. It is not probable that hisletters gained or saved him a vote in the South among the advocates ofannexation. They cared for nothing short of their own unconditionalscheme of immediate action. They forgot the services rendered by Mr. Clay in bringing about the recognition of Texan independence a fewyears before. 

They saw that Mr. Polk was ready to risk everything--war, international complications, even the dishonor of broken obligations--to accomplish their purpose, and nothing the Whig candidate could saywould weigh anything in the balance against this blind and recklessreadiness. On the other hand, Mr. Clay's cautious and moderateposition did him irreparable harm among the ardent opponents ofslavery. They were not willing to listen to counsels of caution andmoderation. More than a year before, thirteen of the Whig antislaveryCongressmen, headed by the illustrious John Quincy Adams, had issued afervid address to the people of the free States, declaiming inlanguage of passionate force against the scheme of annexation as fatalto the country, calling it, in fact, "identical with dissolution, " andsaying that "it would be a violation of our national compact, itsobjects, designs, and the great elementary principles which enteredinto its formation of a character so deep and fundamental, and wouldbe an attempt to eternize an institution and a power of nature sounjust in themselves, so injurious to the interests and abhorrent tothe feelings of the people of the free States, as in our opinion, notonly inevitably to result in a dissolution of the Union, but fully tojustify it; and we not only assert that the people of the free Statesought not to submit to it, but we say with confidence they would notsubmit to it. " To men in a temper like that indicated by these words, no arguments drawn from consideration of political expediency could beexpected to have any weight, and it was of no use to say to them thatin voting for a third candidate they were voting to elect Mr. Polk, the avowed and eager advocate of annexation. If all the votes cast forJames G. Birney, the "Liberty" candidate, had been cast for Clay, hewould have been elected, and even as it was the contest was close anddoubtful to the last. Birney received 62, 263 votes, and the popularmajority of Polk over Clay was only 38, 792. 

There are certain temptations that no government yet instituted hasbeen able to resist. When an object is ardently desired by themajority, when it is practicable, when it is expedient for thematerial welfare of the country, and when the cost of it will fallupon other people, it may be taken for granted that--in the presentcondition of international ethics--the partisans of the project willnever lack means of defending its morality. The annexation of Texaswas one of these cases. Moralists called it an inexcusable nationalcrime, conceived by Southern statesmen for the benefit of slavery, [Footnote: This purpose was avowed by John C. Calhoun in the Senate, May 23, 1836; see also his speech of February 24, 1847. ] carried onduring a term of years with unexampled energy, truculence andtreachery; in both houses of Congress, in the cabinets of twoPresidents, in diplomatic dealings with foreign powers, every step ofits progress marked by false professions, by broken pledges, by asteady degradation of moral fiber among all those engaged in thescheme. The opposition to it--as usually happens--consisted partly inthe natural effort of partisans to baffle their opponents, and partlyin an honorable protest of heart and conscience against a great wrongcommitted in the interest of a national sin. But looking back upon thewhole transaction--even over so short a distance as now separates usfrom it--one cannot but perceive that the attitude of the two partieswas in some sort inevitable and that the result was also sure, whatever the subordinate events or incidents which may have led to it. It was impossible to defeat or greatly to delay the annexation ofTexas, and although those who opposed it but obeyed the dictates ofcommon morality, they were fighting a battle beyond ordinary humanpowers. 

Here was a great empire offering itself to us--a State which hadgained its independence, and built itself into a certain measure oforder and thrift through American valor and enterprise. She offered usa magnificent estate of 376, 000 square miles of territory, all of itvaluable, and much of it of unsurpassed richness and fertility. Eventhose portions of it once condemned as desert now contribute to themarkets of the world vast stores of wool and cotton, herds of cattleand flocks of sheep. Not only were these material advantages of greatattractiveness to the public mind, but many powerful sentimentalconsiderations reinforced the claim of Texas. The Texans were not analien people. The few inhabitants of that vast realm were mostlyAmericans, who had occupied and subdued a vacant wilderness. Theheroic defense of the Alamo had been made by Travis, Bowie, and DavidCrockett, whose exploits and death form one of the most brilliantpages of our border history. Fannin and his men, four hundred strong, when they laid down their lives at Goliad [Transcriber's Note: Lengthyfootnote relocated to chapter end. ] had carried mourning into everySouth-western State; and when, a few days later, Samuel Houston andhis eight hundred raw levies defeated and destroyed the Mexican armyat San Jacinto, captured Santa Anna, the Mexican president, and withAmerican thrift, instead of giving him the death he merited for hiscruel murder of unarmed prisoners, saved him to make a treaty with, the whole people recognized something of kinship in the unaffectedvalor with which these borderers died and the humorous shrewdness withwhich they bargained, and felt as if the victory over the Mexicanswere their own. 

The schemes of the Southern statesmen who were working for theextension of slavery were not defensible, and we have no dispositionto defend them; but it may be doubted whether there is a government onthe face of the earth which, under similar circumstances, would nothave yielded to the same temptation. 

Under these conditions, the annexation, sooner or later, wasinevitable. No man and no party could oppose it except at seriouscost. It is not true that schemes of annexation are always popular. Several administrations have lost heavily by proposing them. Grantfailed with Santo Domingo; Seward with St. Thomas; and it required allhis skill and influence to accomplish the ratification of the Alaskapurchase. There is no general desire among Americans for acquiringoutlying territory, however intrinsically valuable it may be; theirland-hunger is confined within the limits of that of a Western farmeronce quoted by Mr. Lincoln, who used to say, "I am not greedy aboutland; I only want what jines mine. " Whenever a region contiguous tothe United States becomes filled with Americans, it is absolutelycertain to come under the American flag. Texas was as sure to beincorporated into the Union as are two drops of water touching eachother to become one; and this consummation would not have beenprevented for any length of time if Clay or Van Buren had been electedin 1844. The honorable scruples of the Whigs, the sensitiveconsciences of the "Liberty" men, could never have prevailedpermanently against a tendency so natural and so irresistible. Everything that year seemed to work against the Whigs. At a mostunfortunate time for them, there was an outbreak of that "native"fanaticism which reappears from time to time in our politics with theperiodicity of malarial fevers, and always to the profit of the partyagainst which its efforts are aimed. It led to great disturbances inseveral cities, and to riot and bloodshed in Philadelphia. The Clayparty were, of course, free from any complicity with these outrages, but the foreigners, in their alarm, huddled together almost as one manon the side where the majority of them always voted, and thisoccasioned a heavy loss to the Whigs in several States. The firstappearance of Lincoln in the canvass was in a judicious attempt tocheck this unreasonable panic. At a meeting held in Springfield, June12, he introduced and supported resolutions, declaring that "theguarantee of the rights of conscience as found in our Constitution ismost sacred and inviolable, and one that belongs no less to theCatholic than the Protestant, and that all attempts to abridge orinterfere with these rights either of Catholic or Protestant, directlyor indirectly, have our decided disapprobation, and shall have ourmost effective opposition. " Several times afterwards in his lifeLincoln was forced to confront this same proscriptive spirit among themen with whom he was more or less affiliated politically, and he neverfailed to denounce it as it deserved, whatever might be the risk ofloss involved. 

Beginning with this manly protest against intolerance and disorder, hewent into the work of the campaign and continued in it with unabatedardor to the end. The defeat of Clay affected him, as it did thousandsof others, as a great public calamity and a keen personal sorrow. Itis impossible to mistake the accent of sincere mourning which we findin the journals of the time. The addresses which were sent to Mr. Clayfrom every part of the country indicate a depth of affectionatedevotion which rarely falls to the lot of a political chieftain. Anextract from the one sent by the Clay Clubs of New York will show theearnest attachment and pride with which the young men of that daystill declared their loyalty to their beloved leader, even in themidst of irreparable disaster. "We will remember you, Henry Clay, while the memory of the glorious or the sense of the good remains inus, with a grateful and admiring affection which shall strengthen withour strength and shall not decay with our decline. We will rememberyou in all our future trials and reverses as him whose name honoreddefeat and gave it a glory which victory could not have brought. Wewill remember you when patriotic hope rallies again to successfulcontest with the agencies of corruption and ruin; for we will neverknow a triumph which you do not share in life, whose glory does notaccrue to you in death. "

[Relocated Footnote: This massacre inspired one of the most remarkablepoems of Walt Whitman, "Now I tell you what I knew of Texas in myearly 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. "]

CHAPTER XIV

CAMPAIGN FOR CONGRESS

In the months that remained of his term, after the election of hissuccessor, President Tyler pursued with much vigor his purpose ofaccomplishing the annexation of Texas, regarding it as the measurewhich was specially to illustrate his administration and to preserveit from oblivion. The state of affairs, when Congress came together inDecember, 1844, was propitious to the project. Dr. Anson Jones hadbeen elected as President of Texas; the republic was in a morethriving condition than ever before. Its population was rapidlyincreasing under the stimulus of its probable change of flag; itsbudget presented a less unwholesome balance; its relations withMexico, while they were no more friendly, had ceased to excite alarm. The Tyler government, having been baffled in the spring by therejection of the treaty for annexation which they had submitted to theSenate, chose to proceed this winter in a different way. Early in thesession a joint resolution providing for annexation was introduced inthe House of Representatives, which, after considerable discussion andattempted amendment by the anti-slavery members, passed the House by amajority of twenty-two votes. 

In the Senate it encountered more opposition, as might have beenexpected in a chamber which had overwhelmingly rejected the samescheme only a few months before. It was at last amended by inserting asection called the Walker amendment, providing that the President, ifit were in his judgment advisable, should proceed by way ofnegotiation, instead of submitting the resolutions as an overture onthe part of the United States to Texas. This amendment eased theconscience of a few shy supporters of the Administration who hadcommitted themselves very strongly against the scheme, and saved themfrom the shame of open tergiversation. The President, however, treatedthis subterfuge with the contempt which it deserved, by utterlydisregarding the Walker amendment, and by dispatching a messenger toTexas to bring about annexation on the basis of the resolutions, themoment he had signed them, when only a few hours of his officialexistence remained. The measures initiated by Tyler were, of course, carried out by Polk. The work was pushed forward with equal zeal atWashington and at Austin. A convention of Texans was called for the4th of July to consider the American propositions; they were promptlyaccepted and ratified, and in the last days of 1845 Texas was formallyadmitted into the Union as a State. 

Besides the general objections which the anti-slavery men of the Northhad to the project itself, there was something especially offensive tothem in the pretense of fairness and compromise held out by theresolutions committing the Government to annexation. The third sectionprovided that four new States might hereafter be formed out of theTerritory of Texas; that such States as were formed out of the portionlying south of 36 degrees 30', the Missouri Compromise line, might beadmitted with or without slavery, as the people might desire; and thatslavery should be prohibited in such States as might be formed out ofthe portion lying north of that line. The opponents of slaveryregarded this provision, with good reason, as derisive. Slaveryalready existed in the entire territory by the act of the earlysettlers from the South who had brought their slaves with them, andthe State of Texas had no valid claim to an inch of ground north ofthe line of 36 degrees 30' nor anywhere near it; so that this clause, if ithad any force whatever, would have authorized the establishment ofslavery in a portion of New Mexico, where it did not exist, and whereit had been expressly prohibited by the Mexican law. Another seriousobjection was that the resolutions were taken as committing the UnitedStates to the adoption and maintenance of the Rio Grande del Norte asthe western boundary of Texas. All mention of this was avoided in theinstrument, and it was expressly stated that the State was to beformed "subject to the adjustment by this Government of all questionsof boundary that may arise with other governments, " but the moment theresolutions were passed the Government assumed, as a matter beyonddispute, that all of the territory east of the Rio Grande was therightful property of Texas, to be defended by the military power ofthe United States. 

Even if Mexico had been inclined to submit to the annexation of Texas, it was nevertheless certain that the occupation of the left bank ofthe Rio Grande, without an attempt at an understanding, would bringabout a collision. The country lying between the Nueces and the RioGrande was then entirely uninhabited, and was thought uninhabitable, though subsequent years have shown the fallacy of that belief. Theoccupation of the country extended no farther than the Nueces, and theMexican farmers cultivated their corn and cotton in peace in thefertile fields opposite Matamoras. 

It is true that Texas claimed the eastern bank of the Rio Grande fromits source to its mouth; and while the Texans held Santa Annaprisoner, under duress of arms and the stronger pressure of his ownconscience, which assured him that he deserved death as a murderer, "he solemnly sanctioned, acknowledged, and ratified" theirindependence with whatever boundaries they chose to claim; but theBustamente administration lost no time in repudiating this treaty, andat once renewed the war, which had been carried on in a fitful wayever since. 

[Illustration: HENRY CLAY. ]

[Sidenote: August 23, 1843. ]

But leaving out of view this special subject of admitted dispute, theMexican Government had warned our own in sufficiently formal termsthat annexation could not be peacefully effected. When A. P. Upshurfirst began his negotiations with Texas, the Mexican Minister ofForeign Affairs, at his earliest rumors of what was afoot, addressed anote to Waddy Thompson, our Minister in Mexico, referring to thereported intention of Texas to seek admission, to the Union, andformally protesting against it as "an aggression unprecedented in theannals of the world, " and adding "if it be indispensable for theMexican nation to seek security for its rights at the expense of thedisasters of war, it will call upon God, and rely on its own effortsfor the defense of its just cause. " A little while later GeneralAlmonte renewed this notification at Washington, saying in so manywords that the annexation of Texas would terminate his mission, andthat Mexico would declare war as soon as it received intimation ofsuch an act. In June, 1845, Mr. Donelson, in charge of the AmericanLegation in Mexico, assured the Secretary of State that war wasinevitable, though he adopted the fiction of Mr. Calhoun, that it wasthe result of the abolitionist intrigues of Great Britain, which hecredited with the intention "of depriving both Texas and the UnitedStates of all claim to the country between the Nueces and the RioGrande. "

No one, therefore, doubted that war would follow, and it soon came. General Zachary Taylor had been sent during the summer to CorpusChristi, where a considerable portion of the small army of the UnitedStates was placed under his command. It was generally understood to bethe desire of the Administration that hostilities should begin withoutorders, by a species of spontaneous combustion; but the coolness andprudence of General Taylor made futile any such hopes, if they wereentertained, and it required a positive order to induce him, in March, 1846, to advance towards the Rio Grande and to cross the disputedterritory. He arrived at a point opposite Matamoras on the 28th ofMarch, and immediately fortified himself, disregarding the summons ofthe Mexican commander, who warned him that such action would beconsidered as a declaration of war. In May, General Arista crossed theriver and attacked General Taylor on the field of Palo Alto, whereTaylor won the first of that remarkable series of victories, embracingResaca de la Palma, Monterey, and Buena Vista, all gained oversuperior forces of the enemy, which made the American commander forthe brief day that was left him the idol alike of soldiers and voters. 

After Baker's election in 1844, it was generally taken as a matter ofcourse in the district that Lincoln was to be the next candidate ofthe Whig party for Congress. It was charged at the time, and somerecent writers have repeated the charge, that there was a bargain madein 1840 between Hardin, Baker, Lincoln, and Logan to succeed eachother in the order named. This sort of fiction is the commonest knownto American politics. Something like it is told, and more or lessbelieved, in half the districts in the country at every election. Itarises naturally from the fact that there are always more candidatesthan places, that any one who is a candidate twice is felt to bedefrauding his neighbors, and that all candidates are too ready toassure their constituents that they only want one term, and too readyto forget these assurances when their terms are ending. There is notonly 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 themwere candidates for the nomination at every election from the timewhen Stuart retired until the Whigs lost the district. 

At the same time it is not to be denied that there was a tacitunderstanding among the Whigs of the district that whoever should, ateach election, gain the honor of representing the one Whigconstituency of the State, should hold himself satisfied with theprivilege, and not be a candidate for reelection. The retiring memberwas not always convinced of the propriety of this arrangement. In theearly part of January, 1846, Hardin was the only one whose name wasmentioned in opposition to Lincoln. He was reasonably sure of his owncounty, and he tried to induce Lincoln to consent to an arrangementthat all candidates should confine themselves to their own counties inthe canvass; but Lincoln, who was very strong in the outlying countiesof the district, declined the proposition, alleging, as a reason forrefusing, that Hardin was so much better known than he, by reason ofhis service in Congress, that such a stipulation would give him agreat advantage. There was fully as much courtesy as candor in thisplea, and Lincoln's entire letter was extremely politic and civil. "Ihave always been in the habit, " he says, "of acceding to almost anyproposal that a friend would make, and I am truly sorry that I cannotto this. " A month later Hardin saw that his candidacy was useless, andhe published a card withdrawing from the contest, which was printedand commended in the kindest terms by papers friendly to Lincoln, andthe two men remained on terms of cordial friendship. 

[Sidenote: Lincoln to James, Nov. 24, 1845. Unpublished MS. ]

[Sidenote: Lincoln to James, Jan. 14, 1846. Unpublished MS. ]

[Sidenote: Ibid. ]

It is not to be said that Lincoln relied entirely upon his own meritsand the sentiment of the constituents to procure him this nomination. Like other politicians of the time, he used all proper means to attainhis object. A package of letters, written during the preliminarycanvass, which have recently come into our hands, show how intelligentand how straightforward he was in the ways of politics. He had no fearof Baker; all his efforts were directed to making so strong a show offorce as to warn Hardin off the field. He countenanced no attack uponhis competitor; he approved a movement--not entirely disinterested--looking to his nomination for Grovernor. He kept up an extensivecorrespondence with the captains of tens throughout the district; hesuggested and revised the utterances of country editors; he kept hisfriends aware of his wishes as to conventions and delegates. He wasnever overconfident; so late as the middle of January, he did notshare the belief of his supporters that he was to be nominated withouta contest. "Hardin, " he wrote, "is a man of desperate energy andperseverance, and one that never backs out; and, I fear, to thinkotherwise is to be deceived. .. . I would rejoice to be spared the laborof a contest, 'but being in' I shall go it thoroughly. .. . " Hisknowledge of the district was curiously minute, though heunderestimated his own popularity. He wrote: "As to my being able tomake a break in the lower counties, . .. I can possibly get Cass, but Ido not think I will. Morgan and Scott are beyond my reach, Menard issafe to me; Mason, neck and neck; Logan is mine. To make the mattersure your entire senatorial district must be secured. Of this Isuppose Tazewell is safe, and I have much done in both the othercounties. In Woodford I have Davenport, Simms, Willard, Braken, Perry, Travis, Dr. Hazzard, and the Clarks, and some others, all speciallycommitted. At Lacon, in Marshall, the very most active friend I havein the district (if I except yourself) is at work. Through him I haveprocured the names and written to three or four of the most activeWhigs in each precinct of the county. Still, I wish you all inTazewell to keep your eyes continually on Woodford and Marshall. Letno opportunity of making a mark escape. When they shall be safe, allwill be safe--I think. " His constitutional caution suggests thosefinal words. He did not relax his vigilance for a moment until afterHardin withdrew. He warned his correspondents day by day of every moveon the board; advised his supporters at every point, and kept everywire in perfect working order. 

The convention was held at Petersburg on the 1st of May. Judge Loganplaced the name of Lincoln before it, and he was nominatedunanimously. The Springfield "Journal, " giving the news the weekafter, said: "This nomination was of course anticipated, there beingno other candidate in the field. Mr. Lincoln, we all know, is a goodWhig, 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 famousMethodist preacher, Peter Cartwright. It was not the first time theyhad met in the field of politics. When Lincoln ran for the Legislatureon his return from the. Black Hawk war, in 1832, one of the successfulcandidates of that year was this indefatigable circuit-rider. He wasnow over sixty years of age, in the height of his popularity, and inall respects an adversary not to be despised. His career as a preacherbegan 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 therudest regions of the border land between Tennessee and Kentucky. Herepresents himself, with the usual inverted pride of a class-leader, as having been a wild, vicious youth; but the catalogue of his crimesembraces nothing less venial than card-playing, horse-racing, anddancing, and it is hard to see what different amusements could havebeen found in southern Kentucky in 1801. 

This course of dissipation did not continue long, as he was "convertedand united with the Ebenezer Methodist Episcopal Church" in June ofthat year, when only sixteen years old, and immediately developed suchzeal and power in exhortation that less than a year later he waslicensed to "exercise his gifts as an exhorter so long as his practiceis agreeable to the gospel. " He became a deacon at twenty-one, anelder at twenty-three, a presiding elder at twenty-seven, and fromthat time his life is the history of his church in the West for sixtyyears. He died in 1872, eighty-seven years of age, having baptizedtwelve thousand persons and preached fifteen thousand sermons. He was, and will always remain, the type of the backwoods preacher. Even inhis lifetime the simple story of his life became so overgrown with anet-work of fable that there is little resemblance between the simple, courageous, prejudiced itinerant of his "Autobiography" and thefighting, brawling, half-civilized, Protestant Friar Tuck of bar-roomnewspaper legend. 

It is true that he did not always discard the weapons of the flesh inhis combats with the ungodly, and he felt more than once compelled toleave the pulpit to do carnal execution upon the disturbers of thepeace of the sanctuary; but two or three incidents of this sort inthree-quarters of a century do not turn a parson into a pugilist. Hewas a fluent, self-confident speaker, who, after the habit of histime, addressed his discourses more to the emotions than to the reasonof his hearers. His system of future rewards and punishments was ofthe most simple and concrete character, and formed the staple of hissermons. He had no patience with the refinements and reticences ofmodern theology, and in his later years observed with scorn and sorrowthe progress of education and scholarly training in his own communion. After listening one day to a prayer from a young minister which shonemore by its correctness than its unction, he could not refrain fromsaying, "Brother--, three prayers like that would freeze hell over!"--a consummation which did not commend itself to him as desirable. Heoften visited the cities of the Atlantic coast, but saw little in themto admire. His chief pleasure on his return was to sit in a circle ofhis friends and pour out the phials of his sarcasm upon all therefinements of life that he had witnessed in New York or Philadelphia, which he believed, or affected to believe, were tenanted by a speciesof beings altogether inferior to the manhood that filled the cabins ofKentucky and Illinois. An apocryphal story of one of these visits wasoften told of him, which pleased him so that he never contradicted it:that becoming bewildered in the vastness of a New York hotel, heprocured a hatchet, and in pioneer fashion "blazed" his way along themahogany staircases and painted corridors from the office to his room. With all his eccentricities, he was a devout man, conscientious andbrave. He lived in domestic peace and honor all his days, and dying, he and his wife, whom he had married almost in childhood, left aposterity of 129 direct descendants to mourn them. [Transcriber'sNote: Lengthy footnote (1) relocated to chapter end. ]

With all his devotion to the cause of his church, Peter Cartwright wasan ardent Jackson politician, with probably a larger acquaintancethroughout the district than any other man in it, and with a personalfollowing which, beginning with his own children and grandchildren andextending through every precinct, made it no holiday task to defeathim in a popular contest. But Lincoln and his friends wentenergetically into the canvass, and before it closed he was able toforesee a certain victory. 

An incident is related to show how accurately Lincoln could calculatepolitical results in advance--a faculty which remained with him allhis life. A friend, who was a Democrat, had come to him early in thecanvass and had told him he wanted to see him elected, but did notlike to vote against his party; still he would vote for him, if thecontest was to be so close that every vote was needed. A short timebefore the election Lincoln said to him: "I have got the preacher, andI don't want your vote. "

The election was held in August, and the Whig candidate's majority wasvery large--1511 in the district, where Clay's majority had been only914, and where Taylor's, two years later, with all the glamour ofvictory about him, was ten less. Lincoln's majority in Sangamon Countywas 690, which, in view of the standing of his competitor, was themost remarkable proof which could be given of his personal popularity;[Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote (2) relocated to chapter end. ]it was the highest majority ever given to any candidate in the countyduring the entire period of Whig ascendancy until Yates's triumphantcampaign of 1852. 

This large vote was all the more noteworthy because the Whigs werethis year upon the unpopular side. The annexation of Texas wasgenerally approved throughout the West, and those who opposed it wereregarded as rather lacking in patriotism, even before actualhostilities began. But when General Taylor and General Ampudiaconfronted each other with hostile guns across the Rio Grande, andstill more after the brilliant feat of arms by which the Americansopened the war on the plain of Palo Alto, it required a good deal ofmoral courage on the part of the candidates and voters alike tocontinue their attitude of disapproval of the policy of theGovernment, at the same time that they were shouting paeans over theexploits of our soldiers. They were assisted, it is true, by the factthat the leading Whigs of the State volunteered with the utmostalacrity and promptitude in the military service. On the 11th of May, Congress authorized the raising of fifty thousand volunteers, and assoon as the intelligence reached Illinois the daring and restlessspirit of Hardin leaped forward to the fate which was awaiting him, and he instantly issued a call to his brigade of militia, in which hesaid: "The general has already enrolled himself as the first volunteerfrom Illinois under the requisition. He is going whenever ordered. Whowill go with him? He confidently expects to be accompanied by many ofhis brigade. " The quota assigned to Illinois was three regiments;these were quickly raised, [Footnote: The colonels were Hardin, Bissell, and Forman. ] and an additional regiment offered by Baker wasthen accepted. The sons of the prominent Whigs enlisted as privatesoldiers; David Logan was a sergeant in Baker's regiment. A publicmeeting was held in Springfield on the 29th of May, at which Mr. Lincoln delivered what was considered a thrilling and effective speechon the condition of affairs, and the duty of citizens to stand by theflag of the nation until an honorable peace was secured. 

It was thought probable, and would Have been altogether fitting, thateither Colonel Hardin, Colonel Baker, or Colonel Bissell, all of themmen of intelligence and distinction, should be appointed general ofthe Illinois Brigade, but the Polk Administration was not inclined towaste so important a place upon men who might thereafter have views oftheir own in public affairs. The coveted appointment was given to aman already loaded to a grotesque degree with political employment--Mr. Lincoln's old adversary, James Shields, He had left the positionof Auditor of State to assume a seat on the Bench; retiring from this, he had just been appointed Commissioner of the General Land Office. Hehad no military experience, and so far as then known no capacity forthe service; but his fervid partisanship commended him to Mr. Polk asa safe servant, and he received the commission, to the surprise andderision of the State. His bravery in action and his honorable woundsat Cerro Gordo and Chapultepec saved him from contempt and made hispolitical fortune. He had received the recommendation of the IllinoisDemocrats in Congress, and it is altogether probable that he owed hisappointment in great measure to the influence of Douglas, who desiredto have as few Democratic statesmen as possible in Springfield thatwinter. A Senator was to be elected, and Shields had acquired such ahabit of taking all the offices that fell vacant that it was onlyprudent to remove him as far as convenient from such a temptation. Theelection was held in December, and Douglas was promoted from the Houseof Representatives to that seat in the Senate which he held with suchability and distinction the rest of his life. 

[Sidenote: December 28, 1841. ]

The session of 1846-7 opened with the Sangamon district of Illinoisunrepresented in Congress. Baker had gone with his regiment to Mexico, It did not have the good fortune to participate in any of the earlieractions of the campaign, and his fiery spirit chafed in the enforcedidleness of camp and garrison. He seized an occasion which was offeredhim to go to Washington as bearer of dispatches, and while there hemade one of those sudden and dramatic appearances in the Capitol whichwere so much in harmony with his tastes and his character. He went tohis place on the floor, and there delivered a bright, interestingspeech in his most attractive vein, calling attention to the needs ofthe army, disavowing on the part of the Whigs any responsibility forthe war or its conduct, and adroitly claiming for them a full share ofthe credit for its prosecution. 

He began by thanking the House for its kindness in allowing him thefloor, protesting at the same time that he had done nothing to deservesuch courtesy. "I could wish, " he said, "that it had been the fortuneof the gallant Davis [Footnote: Jefferson Davis, who was with the armyin Mexico. ] to now stand where I do and to receive from gentlemen onall sides the congratulations so justly due to him, and to listen tothe 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 aword in behalf of those who have endured the severest hardships of thestruggle, whether in the blood-stained streets of Monterey, or in ayet sterner form on the banks of the Rio Grande, I beg you to believethat while I feel this a most pleasant duty, it is in other respects aduty full of pain; for I stand here, after six months' service as avolunteer, having seen no actual warfare in the field;"

Yet even this disadvantage he turned with great dexterity to hisservice. He reproached Congress for its apathy and inaction in notproviding for the wants of the army by reinforcements and supplies; heflattered the troops in the field, and paid a touching tribute tothose who had died of disease and exposure, without ever enjoying thesight of a battle-field, and, rising to lyric enthusiasm, he repeateda poem of his own, which he had written in camp to the memory of thedead of the Fourth Illinois. [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote (3)relocated to chapter end. ] He could not refrain from giving his ownparty all the credit which could be claimed for it, and it is notdifficult to imagine how exasperating it must have been to themajority to hear so calm an assumption of superior patriotism on thepart of the opposition as the following: "As a Whig I still occupy aplace on this floor; nor do I think it worth while to reply to such acharge as that the Whigs are not friends of their country because manyof them doubt the justice or expediency of the present war. Surelythere was all the more evidence of the patriotism of the man who, doubting the expediency and even the entire justice of the war, nevertheless supported it, because it was the war of his country. Inthe one it might be mere enthusiasm and an impetuous temperament; inthe other it was true patriotism, a sense of duty. Homer representsHector as strongly doubting the expediency of the war against Greece. He gave his advice against it; he had no sympathy with Paris, whom hebitterly reproached, much less with Helen; yet, when the war came, andthe Grecian forces were marshaled on the plain, and their crookedkeels were seen cutting the sands of the Trojan coast, Hector was aflaming fire, his beaming helmet was seen in the thickest of thefight. 

 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 Rio Grande!

There are in the American army many who have the spirit of Hector; whostrongly doubt the propriety of the war, and especially the manner ofits commencement; who yet are ready to pour out their hearts' bestblood like water, and their lives with it, on a foreign shore, indefense of the American flag and American glory. "

Immediately after making this speech, Baker increased the favorableimpression created by it by resigning his seat in Congress andhurrying as fast as steam could carry him to New Orleans, to embarkthere for Mexico. He had heard of the advance of Santa Anna uponSaltillo, and did not wish to lose any opportunity of fighting whichmight fall in the way of his regiment. He arrived to find his troopstransferred to the department of General Scott; and although he missedBuena Vista, he took part in the capture of Vera Cruz, and greatlydistinguished himself at Cerro Gordo. When Shields was wounded, Bakertook command of his brigade, and by a gallant charge on the Mexicanguns gained possession of the Jalapa road, an act by which a greatportion 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 hisusual overstrained delicacy, he declined to run, thinking it fair togive other aspirants a chance for the term of two months. The Whigsnominated a respectable man named Brown, but a short while before theelection John Henry, a member of the State Senate, announced himselfas a candidate, and appealed for votes on the sole ground that he wasa poor man and wanted the place for the mileage. Brown, eitherrecognizing the force of this plea, or smitten with a sudden disgustfor a service in which such pleas were possible, withdrew from thecanvass, and Henry got his election and his mileage. 

[Illustration: THE BOUNDARIES OF TEXAS. This map gives the boundarybetween Mexico and the United States as defined by the treaty of 1828;the westerly bank of the Sabine River from its mouth to the 32d degreeof longitude west from Greenwich; thence due north to the ArkansasRiver, and running along its south bank to its source in the RockyMountains, near the place where Leadville now stands; thence due northto the 42d parallel of latitude, which it follows to the PacificOcean. On the west will be seen the boundaries claimed by Mexico andthe United States after the annexation of Texas. The Mexicanauthorities considered the western boundary of Texas to be the NuecesRiver, from mouth to source; thence by an indefinite line to the RioPecos, and through the elevated and barren Llano Estacado to thesource of the main branch of the Red River, and along that river tothe 100th meridian. The United States adopted the Texan claim of theRio Grande del Norte as their western limit. By the treaty of peace of1848, the Mexicans relinquished to the United States the territorybetween the Nueces and the Rio Grande del Norte; also the territorylying between the last-named river and the Pacific Ocean, and north ofthe Gila River and the southern boundary of New Mexico, which was ashort distance above the town of El Paso. ]

[Illustration: ZACHARY TAYLOR. ]

[Relocated Footnote (1): The impressive manner of Mrs. Cartwright'sdeath, who survived her husband a few years, is remembered in thechurches of Sangamon County. She was attending a religious meeting atBethel Chapel, a mile from her house. She was called upon "to give hertestimony, " which she did with much feeling, concluding with thewords, "the past three weeks have been the happiest of all my life; Iam waiting for the chariot. "

When the meeting broke up, she did not rise with the rest. Theminister solemnly said, "The chariot has arrived. "--"Early Settlers ofSangamon County, " by John Carroll Power. ]

[Relocated Footnote (2):

 Stuart's maj. Over May in 1836 in Sangamon Co. Was 543 " " " Douglas " 1838 " " " " 295 " " " Ralston " 1840 " " " " 575 Hardin's " " McDougall " 1843 " " " " 504 Baker's " " Calhoun " 1844 " " " " 373 Lincoln's " " Cartwright " 1846 " " " " 690 Logan's " " Harris " 1848 " " " " 263 Yates's " " Harris " 1850 " " " " 336 ]

[Relocated Footnote (3): We give a copy of these lines, not on accountof their intrinsic merit, but as illustrating the versatility of thelawyer, 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!]

CHAPTER XV

THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS

The Thirtieth Congress organized on the 6th of December, 1847. Itsroll contained the names of many eminent men, few of whom were lessknown than his which was destined to a fame more wide and enduringthan all the rest together. It was Mr. Lincoln's sole distinction thathe was the only Whig member from Illinois. He entered upon the largerfield of work which now lay before him without any special diffidence, but equally without elation. Writing to his friend Speed soon afterhis election he said: "Being elected to Congress, though I am verygrateful to our friends for having done it, has not pleased me as muchas I expected, "--an experience not unknown to most public men, butprobably intensified in Lincoln's case by his constitutionalmelancholy. He went about his work with little gladness, but with adogged sincerity and an inflexible conscience. 

It soon became apparent that the Whigs were to derive at least atemporary advantage from the war which the Democrats had brought uponthe country, although it was destined in its later consequences tosweep the former party out of existence and exile the other from powerfor many years. The House was so closely divided that Lincoln, writingon the 5th, expressed some doubt whether the Whigs could elect alltheir caucus nominees, and Mr. Robert C. Winthrop was chosen Speakerthe next day by a majority of one vote. The President showed in hismessage that he was doubtful of the verdict of Congress and thecountry upon the year's operations, and he argued with more solicitudethan force in defense of the proceedings of the Administration inregard to the war with Mexico. His anxiety was at once shown to bewell founded. The first attempt made by his friends to indorse theconduct of the Government was met by a stern rebuke from the House ofRepresentatives, which passed an amendment proposed by George Ashmunthat "the war had been unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commencedby the President. " This severe declaration was provoked and justifiedby the persistent and disingenuous assertions of the President thatthe preceding Congress had "with virtual unanimity" declared that "warexisted by the act of Mexico"--the truth being that a strong minorityhad voted to strike out those words from the preamble of the supplybill, but being outvoted in this, they were compelled either to votefor preamble and bill together, or else refuse supplies to the army. 

It was not surprising that the Whigs and other opponents of the warshould take the first opportunity to give the President their opinionof such a misrepresentation. The standing of the opposition had beengreatly strengthened by the very victories upon which Mr. Polk hadconfidently relied for his vindication. Both our armies in Mexico wereunder the command of Whig generals, and among the subordinate officerswho had distinguished themselves in the field, a full share wereWhigs, who, to an extent unusual in wars of political significance, retained their attitude of hostility to the Administration under whoseorders they were serving. Some of them had returned to their places onthe floor of Congress brandishing their laurels with great effect inthe faces of their opponents who had talked while they fought. [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote (1) relocated to chapter end. ]When we number the names which leaped into sudden fame in that shortbut sanguinary war, it is surprising to find how few of themsympathized with the party who brought it on, or with the purposes forwhich it was waged. The earnest opposition of Taylor to the scheme ofthe annexationists did not hamper his movements or paralyze his arm, when with his little band of regulars he beat the army of Arista onthe plain of Palo Alto, and again in the precipitous Resaca de laPalma; took by storm the fortified city of Monterey, defended by agreatly superior force; and finally, with a few regiments of rawlevies, posted among the rocky spurs and gorges about the farm ofBuena Vista, met and defeated the best-led and the best-fought armythe Mexicans ever brought into the field, outnumbering him more thanfour to one. It was only natural that the Whigs should profit by theglory gained by Whig valor, no matter in what cause. The attitude ofthe opposition--sure of their advantage and exulting in it--was neverperhaps more clearly and strongly set forth than in a speech made byMr. Lincoln near the close of this session. He said:

As General Taylor is _par excellence_ the hero of the Mexican war, andas you Democrats say we Whigs have always opposed the war, you thinkit must be very awkward and embarrassing for us to go for GeneralTaylor. The declaration that we have always opposed the war is true orfalse accordingly as one may understand the term "opposing the war. "If to say "the war was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commencedby the President" be opposing the war, then the Whigs have verygenerally opposed it. Whenever they have spoken at all they have saidthis; and they have said it on what has appeared good reason to them;the marching of an army into the midst of a peaceful Mexicansettlement, frightening the inhabitants away, leaving their growingcrops and other property to destruction, to _you_ may appear aperfectly amiable, peaceful, unprovoking procedure; but it does notappear so to _us_. So to call such an act, to us appears no other thana naked, impudent absurdity, and we speak of it accordingly. But ifwhen the war had begun, and had become the cause of the country, thegiving of our money and our blood, in common with yours, was supportof the war, then it is not true that we have always opposed the war. With few individual exceptions, you have constantly had our votes herefor all the necessary supplies. And, more than this, you have had theservices, the blood, and the lives of our political brethren in everytrial, and on every field. The beardless boy and the mature man, thehumble and the distinguished, --you have had them. Through sufferingand death, by disease and in battle, they have endured and fought andfallen with you. Clay and Webster each gave a son, never to bereturned. From the State of my own residence, besides other worthy butless-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 ourbest Whig man. Nor were the Whigs few in number or laggard in the dayof danger. In that fearful, bloody, breathless struggle at BuenaVista, where each man's hard task was to beat back five foes or diehimself, of the five high officers who perished, four were Whigs. 

There was no refuge for the Democrats after the Whigs had adoptedTaylor as their especial hero, since Scott was also a Whig and anoriginal opponent of the war. His victories, on account of theapparent ease with which they were gained, have never received thecredit justly due them. The student of military history will rarelymeet with narratives of battles in any age where the actual operationscoincide so exactly with the orders issued upon the eve of conflict, as in the official reports of the wonderfully energetic and successfulcampaign in which General Scott with a handful of men renewed thememory of the conquest of Cortes, in his triumphant march from VeraCruz to the capital. The plan of the battle of Cerro Gordo was sofully carried out in action that the official report is hardly morethan the general orders translated 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 apparent impossibilities in theclosest detail, and the next day reported that they had beenaccomplished. These successes were not cheaply attained. The Mexicans, though deficient in science and in military intelligence, fought withbravery and sometimes with desperation. The enormous percentage ofloss in his army proves that Scott was engaged in no light work. Hemarched from Pueblo with about 10, 000 men, and his losses in the basinof Mexico were 2703, of whom 383 were officers. But neither he norTaylor was a favorite of the Administration, and their brilliantsuccess brought no gain of popularity to Mr. Polk and his Cabinet. 

During the early part of the session little was talked about exceptthe Mexican war, its causes, its prosecution, and its probableresults. In these wordy engagements the Whigs, partly for the reasonswe have mentioned, partly through their unquestionable superiority indebate, and partly by virtue of their stronger cause, usually had theadvantage. There was no distinct line of demarcation, however, betweenthe two parties. There was hardly a vote, after the election of Mr. Winthrop as Speaker, where the two sides divided according to theirpartisan nomenclature. The question of slavery, even where itspresence was not avowed, had its secret influence upon every trial ofstrength in Congress, and Southern Whigs were continually foundsustaining the President, and New England Democrats voting against hismost cherished plans. Not even all the Democrats of the South could berelied on by the Administration. The most powerful leader of them alldenounced with bitter earnestness the conduct of the war, for which hewas greatly responsible. Mr. Calhoun, in an attack upon thePresident's policy, January 4, 1848, said: "I opposed the war, notonly because it might have been easily avoided; not only because thePresident had no authority to order a part of the disputed territoryin possession of the Mexicans to be occupied by our troops; not onlybecause I believed the allegations upon which Congress sanctioned thewar untrue, but from high considerations of policy; because I believedit would lead to many and serious evils to the country and greatlyendanger its free institutions. "

[Sidenote: January 13, 1848. ]

It was probably not so much the free institutions of the country thatthe South Carolina Senator was disturbed about as some others. Heperhaps felt that the friends of slavery had set in motion a train ofevents whose result was beyond their ken. Mr. Palfrey, ofMassachusetts, a few days later said with as much sagacity as wit that"Mr. Calhoun thought that he could set fire to a barrel of gunpowderand extinguish it when half consumed. " In his anxiety that the warshould be brought to an end, Calhoun proposed that the United Statesarmy should evacuate the Mexican capital, establish a defensive line, and hold it as the only indemnity possible to us. He had no confidencein treaties, and believed that no Mexican government was capable ofcarrying one into effect. A few days later, in a running debate, Mr. Calhoun made an important statement, which still further strengthenedthe contention of the Whigs. He said that in making the treaty ofannexation he did not assume that the Rio del Norte was the westernboundary of Texas; on the contrary, he assumed that the boundary wasan unsettled one between Mexico and Texas; and that he had intimatedto our _charge d'affaires_ that we were prepared to settle theboundary on the most liberal terms! This was perfectly in accordancewith the position held by most Democrats before the Rio Grandeboundary was made an article of faith by the President. C. J. Ingersoll, one of the leading men upon that side in Congress, in aspeech three years before had said: "The stupendous deserts betweenthe Nueces and the Bravo rivers are the natural boundaries between theAnglo-Saxon and the Mauritanian races"; a statement which, howeverfaulty 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 theinfluence of the slavery question. It was singular to see Mr. McLane, of Baltimore, rebuking Mr. Clingman, of North Carolina, for mentioningthat forbidden subject on the floor of the House; Reverdy Johnson, aWhig from Maryland, administering correction to John P. Hale, aninsubordinate Democrat from New Hampshire, for the same offense, andat the time screaming that the "blood of our glorious battle-fields inMexico rested on the hands of the President"; Mr. Clingman challengingthe House with the broad statement that "it is a misnomer to speak ofour institution at the South as peculiar; ours is the general systemof the world, and the _free_ system is the peculiar one, " and Mr. Palfrey dryly responding that slavery was natural just as barbarismwas, just as fig-leaves and bare skins were a natural dress. When thetime arrived, however, for leaving off grimacing and posturing, andthe House went to voting, the advocates of slavery usually carried theday, as the South, Whigs and Democrats together, voted solidly, andthe North was divided. Especially was this the case after the arrivalof the treaty of peace between the United States and Mexico, which wassigned at Guadalupe Hidalgo on the 2d of February and was in the handsof the Senate only twenty days later. It was ratified by that body onthe 10th of March, with a series of amendments which were at onceaccepted by Mexico, and the treaty of peace was officially promulgatedon the national festival of the Fourth of July. 

From the hour when the treaty was received in Washington, however, thediscussion as to the conduct of the war naturally languished; theablest speeches of the day before became obsolete in the presence ofaccomplished facts; and the interest of Congress promptly turned tothe more important subject of the disposition to be made of the vastdomain which our arms had conquered and the treaty confirmed to us. Noone in America then realized the magnitude of this acquisition; itsstupendous physical features were as little appreciated as the vastmoral and political results which were to flow from its absorptioninto our commonwealth. It was only known, in general terms, that ournew possessions covered ten degrees of latitude and fifteen oflongitude; that we had acquired, in short, six hundred and thirtythousand square miles of desert, mountain, and wilderness. There wasno dream, then, of that portentous discovery which, even while theSenate was wrangling over the treaty, had converted Captain Sutter'smill at Coloma into a mining camp, for his ruin and the sudden up-building of many colossal fortunes. The name of California, whichconveys to-day such opulent suggestions, then meant nothing butbarrenness, and Nevada was a name as yet unknown; some futureCongressman, innocent of taste and of Spanish, was to hit upon theabsurdity of calling that land of silver and cactus, of the orange andthe sage-hen, the land of snow. But imperfect as was the appreciation, at that day, of the possibilities which lay hidden in those sunsetregions, there was still enough of instinctive greed in the minds ofpoliticians to make the new realm a subject of lively interest andintrigue. [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote (2) relocated tochapter end. ] At the first showing of hands, the South was successful. In the Twenty-ninth Congress this contest had begun over the spoils ofa victory not yet achieved. President Polk, foreseeing the probabilityof an acquisition of territory by treaty, had asked Congress to makean appropriation for that purpose. A bill was at once reported in thatsense, appropriating $30, 000 for the expenses of the negotiation and$2, 000, 000 to be used in the President's discretion. But before itpassed, a number of Northern Democrats [Footnote: Some of the moreconspicuous York; Wilmot, of Pennsylvania; among them were Hamlin, ofBrinckerhoff, of Ohio, and McClel-Maine; Preston King, of New land, ofMichigan. ] had become alarmed as to the disposition that might be madeof the territory thus acquired, which was now free soil by Mexicanlaw. After a hasty consultation they agreed upon a proviso to thebill, which was presented by David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania. He was aman of respectable abilities, who then, and long afterwards, held asomewhat prominent position among the public men of his State; but hischief claim to a place in history rests upon these few lines which hemoved to add to the first section of the bill under discussion:

Provided, That as an express and fundamental condition to theacquisition of any territory from the Republic of Mexico by the UnitedStates, 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 ofsaid territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall first beduly convicted. 

This condition seemed so fair, when first presented to the Northernconscience, that only three members from the free States voted "no" incommittee. The amendment was adopted--eighty to sixty-four--and thebill reported to the House. A desperate effort was then made by thepro-slavery members to kill the bill for the purpose of destroying theamendment with it. This failed, [Footnote: In this important andsignificant vote all the Whigs but one and almost all the Democrats, from the free States, together with Wm. P. Thomasson and Henry Grider, Whigs from Kentucky, voted against killing the amended bill, in allninety-three. On the other side were all the members from slave-holding States, except Thomasson and Grider, and the following fromfree States, Douglas and John A. McClernand from Illinois, Petit fromIndiana, and Schenek, a Whig, from Ohio, in all seventy-nine. --Greeley's "American Conflict, " I. P. 189. ] and the bill, as amended, passed the House; but going to the Senate a few hours before the closeof the session, it lapsed without a vote. 

As soon as the war was ended and the treaty of peace was sent to theSenate, this subject assumed a new interest and importance, and aresolution embodying the principle of the Wilmot proviso was broughtbefore the House by Mr. Harvey Putnam, of New York, but no longer withthe same success. The South was now solid against it, and such adisintegration of conscience among Northern Democrats had set in, thatwhereas only three of them in the last Congress had seen fit toapprove the introduction of slavery into free territory, twenty-fivenow voted with the South against maintaining the existing conditionsthere. The fight was kept up during the session in various places; ifnow and then a temporary advantage seemed gained in the House, it waslost in the Senate, and no permanent progress was made. 

What we have said in regard to the general discussion provoked by theMexican war, appeared necessary to explain the part taken by Mr. Lincoln on the floor. He came to his place unheralded and without anyspecial personal pretensions. His first participation in debate canbest be described in his own quaint and simple words: "As to speech-making, by way of getting the hang of the House, I made a littlespeech two or three days ago on a post-office question of no generalinterest. I find speaking here and elsewhere about the same thing. Iwas about as badly scared, and no worse, as I am when I speak incourt. I expect to make one within a week or two in which I hope tosucceed well enough to wish you to see it. " He evidently had theorator's temperament--the mixture of dread and eagerness which allgood speakers feel before facing an audience, which made Cicerotremble and turn pale when rising in the Forum. The speech he waspondering was made only four days later, on the 12th of January, andfew better maiden speeches--for it was his first formal discourse inCongress--have ever been made in that House. He preceded it, andprepared for it, by the introduction, on the 22d of December, of aseries of resolutions referring to the President's persistentassertions that the war had been begun by Mexico, "by invading ourterritory and shedding the blood of our citizens on our own soil, " andcalling upon him to give the House more specific information uponthese points. As these resolutions became somewhat famous afterwards, and were relied upon to sustain the charge of a lack of patriotismmade by Mr. Douglas against their author, it may be as well to givethem here, especially as they are the first production of Mr. Lincoln's pen after his entry upon the field of national politics. Weomit the preamble, which consists of quotations from the President'smessage. 

_Resolved by the House of Representatives, _ That the President ofthe United States be respectfully requested to inform this House:

_First. _ Whether the spot on which the blood of our citizens wasshed, as in his messages declared, was or was not within the territoryof Spain, at least after the treaty of 1819, until the Mexicanrevolution. 

_Second. _ Whether that spot is or is not within the territorywhich was wrested from Spain by the revolutionary government ofMexico. 

_Third. _ Whether that spot is or is not within a settlement ofpeople, which settlement has existed ever since long before the Texasrevolution and until its inhabitants fled before the approach of theUnited States army. 

_Fourth. _ Whether that settlement is or is not isolated from anyand all other settlements by the Gulf and the Rio Grande on the southand west, and by wide uninhabited regions in the north and east. 

_Fifth. _ Whether the people of that settlement, or a majority ofthem, or any of them, have ever submitted themselves to the governmentor laws of Texas or of the United States, by consent or by compulsion, either by accepting office, or voting at elections, or paying tax, orserving on juries, or having process served upon them, or in any otherway. 

_Sixth. _ Whether the people of that settlement did or did notflee from the approach of the United States army, leaving unprotectedtheir homes and their growing crops, _before_ the blood was shed, as in the messages stated; and whether the first blood so shed was orwas not shed within the inclosure of one of the people who had thusfled from it. 

_Seventh. _ Whether our citizens whose blood was shed, as in hismessages declared, were or were not at that time armed officers andsoldiers, sent into that settlement by the military order of thePresident, through the Secretary of War. 

_Eighth. _ Whether the military force of the United States was orwas not so sent into that settlement after General Taylor had morethan once intimated to the War Department that in his opinion no suchmovement was necessary to the defense or protection of Texas. 

It would have been impossible for the President to answer thesequestions, one by one, according to the evidence in his possession, without surrendering every position he had taken in his messages forthe last two years. An answer was probably not expected; theresolutions were never acted upon by the House, the vote on the Ashmunproposition having sufficiently indicated the view which the majorityheld of the President's precipitate and unconstitutional proceeding. But they served as a text for the speech which Lincoln made inCommittee of the Whole, which deserves the attentive reading of anyone who imagines that there was anything accidental in the ascendencywhich he held for twenty years among the public men of Illinois. Thewinter was mostly devoted to speeches upon the same subject from menof eminence and experience, but it is within bounds to say there wasnot a speech made in the House, that year, superior to this inclearness of statement, severity of criticism combined with sobernessof style, or, what is most surprising, finish and correctness. In itsclose, clear argument, its felicity of illustration, its restrainedyet burning earnestness, it belongs to precisely the same class ofaddresses as those which he made a dozen years later. The ordinaryCongressman can never conclude inside the limits assigned him; he mustbeg for unanimous consent for an extension of time to complete hissprawling peroration. But this masterly speech covered the wholeground of the controversy, and so intent was Lincoln on not exceedinghis hour that he finished his task, to his own surprise, in forty-fiveminutes. It is an admirable discourse, and the oblivion which overtookit, along with the volumes of other speeches made at the same time, can be accounted for only by remembering that the Guadalupe Treatycame suddenly in upon the debate, with its immense consequencessweeping forever out of view all consideration of the causes and theprocesses which led to the momentous result. 

Lincoln's speech and his resolutions were alike inspired with onepurpose: to correct what he considered an error and a wrong; torectify a misrepresentation which he could not, in his very nature, permit to go uncontradicted. It gratified his offended moral sense toprotest against the false pretenses which he saw so clearly, and itpleased his fancy as a lawyer to bring a truth to light whichsomebody, as he thought, was trying to conceal. He certainly got noother reward for his trouble. His speech was not particularly wellreceived in Illinois. His own partner, Mr. Herndon, a young and ardentman, with more heart than learning, more feeling for the flag than forinternational justice, could not, or would not, understand Mr. Lincoln's position, and gave him great pain by his letters. Again andagain Lincoln explained to him the difference between approving thewar and voting supplies to the soldiers, but Herndon was obstinatelyobtuse, and there were many of his mind. 

Lincoln's convictions were so positive in regard to the matter thatany laxity of opinion among his friends caused him real suffering. Ina letter to the Rev. J. M. Peck, who had written a defense of theAdministration in reference to the origin of the war, he writes: this"disappoints me, because it is the first effort of the kind I haveknown, made by one appearing to me to be intelligent, 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 hadmarched under orders across the desert of the Nueces into a peacefulMexican settlement, frightening away the inhabitants; that Fort Brownwas built in a Mexican cotton-field, where a young crop was growing;that Captain Thornton and his men were captured in another cultivatedfield. He then asks, how under any law, human or divine, this can beconsidered "no aggression, " and closes by asking his clericalcorrespondent if the precept, "Whatsoever ye would that men should doto you, do you even so to them, " is obsolete, of no force, of noapplication? This is not the anxiety of a politician troubled abouthis record. He is not a candidate for reelection, and the discussionhas passed by; but he must stop and vindicate the truth wheneverassailed. He perhaps does not see, certainly does not care, that thisstubborn devotion to mere justice will do him no good at an hour whenthe air is full of the fumes of gunpowder; when the returnedvolunteers are running for constable in every county; when so good aWhig as Mr. Winthrop gives, as a sentiment, at a public meeting inBoston, "Our country, however bounded, " and the majority of his partyare preparing--unmindful of Mr. Polk and all his works--to reap thefruits of the Mexican war by making its popular hero President. 

It was fortunate for Mr. Lincoln and for Whigs like him, withconsciences, that General Taylor had occupied so unequivocal anattitude in regard to the war. He had not been in favor of the marchto the Rio Grande, and had resisted every suggestion to that effectuntil his peremptory orders came. In regard to other politicalquestions, his position was so undefined, and his silence generally sodiscreet, that few of the Whigs, however exacting, could find anydifficulty in supporting him. Mr. Lincoln did more than tolerate hiscandidacy. He supported it with energy and cordiality. He was at lastconvinced that the election of Mr. Clay was impossible, and he thoughthe could see that the one opportunity of the Whigs was in thenomination 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 getNew York, and that would have elected in 1844, but it will not nowbecause he must now, at the least, lose Tennessee, which he had then, and in addition the fifteen new votes of Florida, Texas, Iowa, andWisconsin. " Later he wrote to the same friend that the nomination tookthe Democrats "on the blind side. It turns the war thunder againstthem. The war is now to them the gallows of Haman, which they builtfor us, and on which they are doomed to be hanged themselves. "

[Sidenote: J. G. Holland, "Life of Lincoln, " p. 118. ]

At the same time he bated no jot of his opposition to the war, andurged the same course upon his friends. To Linder, of Illinois, hewrote: "In law, it is good policy to never plead what you need not, lest you oblige yourself to prove what you cannot. " He then counseledhim to go for Taylor, but to avoid approving Polk and the war, as inthe former case he would gain Democratic votes and in the latter hewould lose with the Whigs. Linder answered him, wanting to know if itwould not be as easy to elect Taylor without opposing the war, whichdrew from Lincoln the angry response that silence was impossible; theWhigs must speak, "and their only option is whether they will, whenthey speak, tell the truth or tell a foul and villainous falsehood. "

[Sidenote: June 7, 1848. ]

When the Whig Convention came together in Philadelphia, thedifferences of opinion on points of principle and policy were almostas numerous as the delegates. The unconditional Clay men rallied oncemore and gave their aged leader 97 votes to 111 which Taylor receivedon the first ballot. Scott and Webster had each a few votes; but onthe fourth ballot the soldier of Buena Vista was nominated, andMillard Fillmore placed in the line of succession to him. It wasimpossible for a body so heterogeneous to put forward a distinctiveplatform of principles. An attempt was made to force an expression inregard to the Wilmot proviso, but it was never permitted to come to avote. The convention was determined that "Old Rough and Ready, " as hewas now universally nicknamed, should run upon his battle-flags andhis name of Whig--although he cautiously called himself "not an ultraWhig. " The nomination was received with great and noisy demonstrationsof adhesion from every quarter. Lincoln, writing a day or two afterhis return from the convention, said: "Many had said they would notabide the nomination of Taylor; but since the deed has been done theyare fast falling in, and in my opinion we shall have a mostoverwhelming, glorious triumph. One unmistakable sign is that all theodds and ends are with us, --Barnburners, native Americans, Tyler men, disappointed office-seeking Loco-focos, and the Lord knows what. Thisis important, if in nothing else, in showing which way the windblows. "

General Taylor's chances for election had been greatly increased bywhat had taken place at the Democratic Convention, a fortnight before. General Cass had been nominated for the Presidency, but his militiatitle had no glamour of carnage about it, and the secession of the NewYork Anti-slavery "Barnburners" from the convention was a presage ofdisaster which was fulfilled in the following August by the assemblingof the recusant delegates at Buffalo, where they were joined by alarge number of discontented Democrats and "Liberty" men, and theFree-soil party was organized for its short but effective mission. Martin Van Buren was nominated for President, and Charles FrancisAdams was associated with him on the ticket. The great superiority ofcaliber shown in the nominations of the mutineers over the regularDemocrats was also apparent in the roll of those who made andsustained the revolt. When Salmon P. Chase, Preston King, the VanBurens, John P. Hale, William Cullen Bryant, David Wilmot, and theirlike went out of their party, they left a vacancy which was never tobe filled. 

It was perhaps an instinct rather than any clear spirit of prophecywhich drove the antislavery Democrats away from their affiliations andkept the Whigs, for the moment, substantially together. So far as theauthorized utterances of their conventions were concerned, there waslittle to choose between them. They had both evaded any profession offaith in regard to slavery. The Democrats had rejected the resolutionoffered by Yancey committing them to the doctrine of "non-interferencewith the rights of property in the territories, " and the Whigs hadnever allowed the Wilmot proviso to be voted upon. But neverthelessthose Democrats who felt that the time had come to put a stop to theaggression of slavery, generally threw off their partisan allegiance, and the most ardent of the antislavery Whigs, --with some exceptions itis true, especially in Ohio and in Massachusetts, where the strengthof the "Conscience Whigs, " led by Sumner, the Adamses, and HenryWilson, was important, --thought best to remain with their party. General Taylor was a Southerner and a slaveholder. In regard to allquestions bearing upon slavery, he observed a discretion in thecanvass which was almost ludicrous. [Transcriber's Note: Lengthyfootnote (3) relocated to chapter end. ] Yet there was a well-nighuniversal impression among the antislavery Whigs that hisadministration would be under influences favorable to the restrictionof slavery. Clay, Webster, and Seward, all of whom were agreed at thattime against any extension of the area of that institution, supportedhim with more or less cordiality. Webster insisted upon it that theWhigs were themselves the best "Free-soilers, " and for them to jointhe party called by that distinctive name would be merely putting Mr. Van Buren at the head of the Whig party. Mr. Seward, speaking forTaylor at Cleveland, took still stronger ground, declaring thatslavery "must be abolished;" that "freedom and slavery are twoantagonistic elements of society in America;" that "the party offreedom seeks complete and universal emancipation. " No one then seemsto have foreseen that the Whig party--then on the eve of a greatvictory--was so near its dissolution, and that the bolting Democratsand the faithful Whigs were alike engaged in laying the foundations ofa party which was to glorify the latter half of the century withachievements of such colossal and enduring importance. 

There was certainly no doubt or misgiving in the mind of Lincoln as tothat future, which, if he could have foreseen it, would have presentedso much of terrible fascination. He went into the campaign withexultant alacrity. He could not even wait for the adjournment ofCongress to begin his stump-speaking. Following the bad example of therest of his colleagues, he obtained the floor on the 27th of July, andmade a long, brilliant, and humorous speech upon the merits of the twocandidates before the people. As it is the only one of Lincoln'spopular speeches of that period which has been preserved entire, itshould be read by those who desire to understand the manner and spiritof the politics of 1848. Whatever faults of taste or of method may befound in it, considering it as a speech delivered in the House ofRepresentatives, with no more propriety or pertinence than hundreds ofothers which have been made under like circumstances, it is anextremely able speech, and it is by itself enough to show howremarkably effective he must have been as a canvasser in the remoterdistricts of his State where means of intellectual excitement wererare and a political meeting was the best-known form of publicentertainment. 

He begins by making a clear, brief, and dignified defense of theposition of Taylor upon the question of the proper use of the veto; hethen avows with characteristic candor that he does not know whatGeneral Taylor will do as to slavery; he is himself "a Northern man, or rather a Western free-State man, with a constituency I believe tobe, and with personal feelings I know to be, against the extension ofslavery" (a definition in which his caution and his honesty areequally displayed), and he hopes General Taylor would not, if elected, do anything against its restriction; but he would vote for him in anycase, as offering better guarantees than Mr. Cass. He then enters uponan analysis of the position of Cass and his party which is full ofkeen observation and political intelligence, and his speech goes on toits rollicking close with a constant succession of bright, witty, andstriking passages in which the orator's own conviction and enjoymentof an assured success is not the least remarkable feature. A few weekslater Congress adjourned, and Lincoln, without returning home, enteredupon the canvass in New England, [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote(4) relocated to chapter end. ] and then going to Illinois, spoke nightand day until the election. When the votes were counted, the extent ofthe defection among the Northern Whigs and Democrats who voted for VanBuren and among the Southern Democrats who had been beguiled by theepaulets of Taylor, was plainly seen. The bolting "Barnburners" hadgiven New York to Taylor; the Free-Soil vote in Ohio, on the otherhand, had thrown that State to Cass. Van Buren carried no electors, but his popular vote was larger in New York and Massachusetts thanthat of Cass. The entire popular 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 had163 and Cass 137. 

[Relocated Footnote (1): The following extract from a letter ofLincoln to his partner, Mr. Herndon, who had criticized his anti-warvotes, gives the names of some of the Whig soldiers who persisted intheir faith throughout the war: "As to the Whig men who haveparticipated in the war, so far as they have spoken to my hearing, they do is not hesitate to denounce as unjust the President's conductthe beginning of the war. They do not suppose that such denunciationis directed by undying hatred to them, as 'the Register' would have itbelieved, There are two such Whigs on this floor (Colonel Haskell andMajor James). The former fought as a colonel by the side of ColonelBaker, at Cerro Gordo, and stands side by side with me in the votethat you seem dissatisfied with. The latter, the history of whosecapture with Cassius Clay you well know, had not arrived here whenthat vote was given; but, as I understand, he stands ready to givejust such a vote whenever an occasion shall present. Baker, too, whois now here, says the truth is undoubtedly that way; and whenever heshall speak out, he will say so. Colonel Doniphan, too, the favoriteWhig of Missouri and who overran all northern Mexico, on his returnhome, in a public speech at St. Louis, condemned the Administration inrelation to the war, if I remember. G. T. M. Davis, who has beenthrough almost the whole war, declares in favor of Mr. Clay;" etc. ]

[Relocated Footnote (2): To show how crude and vague were the ideas ofeven the most intelligent men in relation to this great empire, wegive a few lines from the closing page of Edward D, Mansfield's"History of the Mexican War, " published in 1849: "But will the greaterpart of this vast space ever be inhabited by any but the restlesshunter and the wandering trapper? Two hundred thousand square miles ofthis territory, in New California, has been trod by the foot of nocivilized being. No spy or pioneer or vagrant trapper has everreturned to report the character and scenery of that waste and lonelywilderness. Two hundred thousand square miles more are occupied withbroken mountains and dreary wilds. But little remains then forcivilization. "]

[Relocated Footnote (3): It is a tradition that a planter once wroteto him: "I have worked hard and been frugal all my life, and theresults of my industry have mainly taken the form of slaves, of whom Iown about a hundred. Before I vote for President I want to be surethat the candidate I support will not so act as to divest me of myproperty. " To which the general, with a dexterity that would have donecredit to a diplomatist, and would have proved exceedingly useful toMr. Clay, responded, "Sir: I have the honor to inform you that I toohave been all my life industrious and frugal, and that the fruitsthereof are mainly invested in slaves, of whom I own _three_hundred. Yours, etc. "--Horace Greeley, "American Conflict, " Volume I. , p. 193. ]

[Relocated Footnote (4): Thurlow Weed says in his Autobiography, Vol. I. , p. 603: "I had supposed, until we now met, that I had never seenMr. Lincoln, having forgotten that in the fall of 1848, when he tookthe stump in New England, he called upon me at Albany, and that wewent to see Mr. Fillmore, who was then the Whig candidate forVice-President. " The New York "Tribune, " September 14, 1848, mentionsMr. Lincoln as addressing a great Whig meeting in Boston, September12. The Boston "Atlas" refers to speeches made by him at Dorchester, September 16; at Chelsea September 17; by Lincoln and Seward atBoston, September 22, on which occasion the report says: "Mr. Lincoln, of Illinois, next came forward, and was received with great applause. He spoke about an hour and made a powerful and convincing speech whichwas cheered to the echo. "

Mr. Robert C. Winthrop, Jr. , in his recent memoir of the Hon. DavidSears, says, the most brilliant of Mr. Lincoln's speeches in thiscampaign "was delivered at Worcester, September 13, 1848, when, aftertaking for his text Mr. Webster's remark that the nomination of MartinVan Buren for the Presidency by a professed antislavery party couldfitly be regarded only as a trick or a joke, Mr. Lincoln proceeded todeclare that of the three parties then asking the confidence of thecountry, the new one had less of principle than any other, adding, amid shouts of laughter, that the recently constructed elasticFree-Soil platform reminded him of nothing so much as the pair oftrousers offered for sale by a Yankee peddler which were 'large enoughfor 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 Democraticnominee. ]

CHAPTER XVI

A FORTUNATE ESCAPE

When Congress came together again in December, there was such a changein the temper of its members that no one would have imagined, onseeing the House divided, that it was the same body which hadassembled there a year before. The election was over; the Whigs wereto control the Executive Department of the Government for four yearsto come; the members themselves were either reflected or defeated; andthere was nothing to prevent the gratification of such privatefeelings as they might have been suppressing during the canvass in theinterest of their party. It was not long before some of the NorthernDemocrats began to avail themselves of this new liberty. They hadreturned burdened with a sense of wrong. They had seen their party putin deadly peril by reason of its fidelity to the South, and they hadseen how little their Southern brethren cared for their labors andsacrifices, in the enormous gains which Taylor had made in the South, carrying eight out of fifteen slave States. They were in the humor toavenge themselves by a display of independence on their own account, at the first opportunity. The occasion was not long in presentingitself. A few days after Congress opened, Mr. Root, of Ohio, introduced a resolution instructing the Committee on Territories tobring in a bill "with as little delay as practicable" to provideterritorial governments for California and New Mexico, which should"exclude slavery there-from. " This resolution would have thrown thesame House into a panic twelve months before, but now it passed by avote of 108 to 80--in the former number were all the "Whigs from theNorth and all the Democrats but eight, " and in the latter the entireSouth 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, nevergot farther than the desk of the Senate Chamber. The pro-slaverymajority in that body held firmly together till near the close of thesession, when they attempted to bring in the new territories withoutany 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 unhorsed. Acommittee of conference failed to agree. Mr. McClernand, a Democratfrom Illinois, then moved that the House recede from its disagreement, which was carried by a few Whig votes, to the dismay of those who werenot in the secret, when Richard W. Thompson (who was thirty yearsafterwards Secretary of the Navy) instantly moved that the House doconcur with the Senate, with this amendment, that the existing laws ofthose territories be for the present and until Congress should amendthem, retained. This would secure them to freedom, as slavery had longago been abolished by Mexico. This amendment passed, and the Senatehad to face the many-pronged dilemma, either to defeat theAppropriation Bill, or to consent that the territories should beorganized as free communities, or to swallow their protestations thatthe territories were in sore need of government and adjourn, leavingthem in the anarchy they had so feelingly depicted. They chose thelast as the least dangerous course, and passed the Appropriation Billin its original form. 

Mr. Lincoln took little part in the discussions incident to theseproceedings; he was constantly in his seat, however, and votedgenerally with his party, and always with those opposed to theextension of slavery. He used to say that he had voted for the Wilmotproviso, in its various phases, forty-two times. He left to others, however, the active work on the floor. His chief preoccupation duringthis second session was a scheme which links itself characteristicallywith his first protest against the proscriptive spirit of slavery tenyears before in the Illinois Legislature and his immortal act fifteenyears afterwards in consequence of which American slavery ceased toexist. He had long felt in common with many others that the traffic inhuman beings under the very shadow of the Capitol was a nationalscandal and reproach. He thought that Congress had the power under theConstitution to regulate or prohibit slavery in all regions under itsexclusive jurisdiction, and he thought it proper to exercise thatpower with due regard to vested rights and the general welfare. Hetherefore resolved to test the question whether it were possible toremove from the seat of government this stain and offense. 

[Sidenote: Gidding's diary, January 8, 9, and 11, 1849: published inthe "Cleveland Post, " March 31, 1878. ]

He proceeded carefully and cautiously about it, after his habit. Whenhe had drawn up his plan, he took counsel with some of the leadingcitizens of Washington and some of the more prominent members ofCongress before bringing it forward. His bill obtained the cordialapproval of Colonel Seaton, the Mayor of Washington, whom Mr. Lincolnhad consulted as the representative of the intelligent slave-holdingcitizens of the District, and of Joshua R. Giddings, whom he regardedas the leading abolitionist in Congress, a fact which sufficientlyproves the practical wisdom with which he had reconciled the demandsof right and expediency. In the meantime, however, Mr. Gott, a memberfrom New York, had introduced a resolution with a rhetorical preambledirecting the proper committee to bring in a bill prohibiting theslave-trade in the District. This occasioned great excitement, muchcaucusing and threatening on the part of the Southern members, butnothing else. In the opinion of the leading antislavery men, Mr. Lincoln's bill, being at the same time more radical and morereasonable, was far better calculated to effect its purpose. Giddingssays in his diary: "This evening (January 11), our whole mess remainedin the dining-room after tea, and conversed upon the subject of Mr. Lincoln's bill to abolish slavery. It was approved by all; I believeit as good a bill as we could get at this time, and am willing to payfor slaves in order to save them from the Southern market, as Isuppose every man in the District would sell his slaves if he saw thatslavery was to be abolished. " Mr. Lincoln therefore moved, on the 16thof January, as an amendment to Gott's proposition, that the committeereport a bill for the total abolition of slavery in the District ofColumbia, the terms of which he gave in full. They were in substancethe following:

The first two sections prohibit the bringing of slaves into thedistrict or selling them out of it, provided, however, that officersof the Government, being citizens of slave-holding States, may bringtheir household servants with them for a reasonable time and take themaway again. The third provides a temporary system of apprenticeshipand eventual emancipation for children born of slavemothers afterJanuary 1, 1850. The fourth provides for the manumission of slaves bythe Government on application of the owners, the latter to receivetheir full cash value. The fifth provides for the return of fugitiveslaves from Washington and Georgetown. The sixth submits this billitself to a popular vote in the District as a condition of itspromulgation 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 ismore remarkable than that he should have induced the WashingtonConservatives to approve it. But the usual result followed as soon asit was formally introduced to the notice of Congress, It was met bythat violent and excited opposition which greeted any measure, howeverintrinsically moderate and reasonable, which was founded on theassumption that slavery was not in itself a good and desirable thing. The social influences of Washington were brought to bear against aproposition which the Southerners contended would vulgarize society, and the genial and liberal mayor was forced to withdraw his approvalas gracefully or as awkwardly as he might. The prospects of the billwere seen to be hopeless, as the session was to end on the 4th ofMarch, and no further effort was made to carry it through. Fifteenyears afterwards, in the stress and tempest of a terrible war, it wasMr. Lincoln's strange fortune to sign a bill sent him by Congress forthe abolition of slavery in Washington; and perhaps the mostremarkable thing about the whole transaction, was that while we werelooking politically upon a new heaven and a new earth, --for the vastchange in our moral and economic condition might justify so audaciousa phrase, --when there was scarcely a man on the continent who had notgreatly shifted his point of view in a dozen years, there was solittle change in Mr. Lincoln. The same hatred of slavery, the samesympathy with the slave, the same consideration for the slaveholder asthe victim of a system he had inherited, the same sense of dividedresponsibility between the South and the North, the same desire toeffect great reforms with as little individual damage and injury, aslittle disturbance of social conditions as possible, were equallyevident when the raw pioneer signed the protest with Dan Stone atVandalia, when the mature man moved the resolution of 1849 in theCapitol, and when the President gave the sanction of his boldsignature to the act which swept away the slave-shambles from the cityof Washington. 

[Illustration: JOSHUA R. GIDDINGS. ]

His term in Congress ended on the 4th of March, 1849, and he was not acandidate for reflection. A year before he had contemplated thepossibility of entering the field again. He then wrote to his friendand partner Herndon: "It is very pleasant for me to learn from yonthat there are some who desire that I should be reelected. I mostheartily thank them for their kind partiality; and I can say, as Mr. Clay said of the annexation of Texas, that 'personally I would notobject' to a reelection, although I thought at the time [of hisnomination], and still think, it would be quite as well for me toreturn to the law at the end of a single term. I made the declarationthat I would not be a candidate again, more from a wish to deal fairlywith others, to keep peace among our friends, and keep the districtfrom going to the enemy, than for any cause personal to myself, sothat, if it should so happen that nobody else wishes to be elected, Icould not refuse the people the right of sending me again. But toenter myself as a competitor of others, or to authorize any one so toenter 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 succeedhim. The Sangamon district was the one which the Whigs of Illinois hadapparently the best prospect of carrying, and it was full of able andambitious men, who were nominated successively for the only placewhich gave them the opportunity of playing a part in the nationaltheater at Washington. They all served with more or less distinction, but for eight years no one was ever twice a candidate. A sort oftradition had grown up, through which a perverted notion of honor andpropriety held it discreditable in a member to ask for reelection. This state of things was not peculiar to that district, and itsurvives with more or less vigor throughout the country to this day, to the serious detriment of Congress. This consideration, coupled withwhat is called the claim of locality, must in time still furtherdeteriorate the representatives of the States at Washington. To ask ina nominating convention who is best qualified for service in Congressis always regarded as an impertinence; but the question "what countyin the district has had the Congressman oftenest" is always consideredin order. For such reasons as these Mr. Lincoln refused to allow hisname to go before the voters again, and the next year he againrefused, writing an emphatic letter for publication, in which he saidthat there were many Whigs who could do as much as he "to bring thedistrict right side up. "

Colonel Baker had come back from the wars with all the glitter ofCerro Gordo about him, but did not find the prospect of politicalpreferment flattering in Sangamon County, and therefore, with thatversatility and sagacity which was more than once to render him signalservice, he removed to the Galena district, in the extreme north-western corner of the State, and almost immediately on his arrivalthere received a nomination to Congress. He was doubly fortunate inthis move, as the nomination he was unable to take away from Loganproved useless to the latter, who was defeated after a hot contest. Baker therefore took the place of Lincoln as the only Whig member fromIllinois, and their names occur frequently together in thearrangements for the distribution of "Federal patronage" at the closeof the Administration of Polk and the beginning of that of Taylor. 

[Sidenote: MS letter from Lincoln to Schooler. Feb. 2, 1869. ]

During the period while the President-elect was considering theappointment of his Cabinet, Lincoln used all the influence he couldbring to bear, which was probably not very much, in favor of Baker fora place in the Government. The Whig members of the Legislatures ofIllinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin joined in this effort, which came tonothing. The recommendations to office which Lincoln made after theinauguration of General Taylor are probably unique of their kind. Hereis a specimen which is short enough to give entire. It is addressed tothe Secretary of the Interior: "I recommend that William Butler beappointed Pension Agent for the Illinois agency when the place shallbe vacant. Mr. Hurst, the present incumbent, I believe has performedthe duties very well. He is a decided partisan, and I believe expectsto be removed. Whether he shall be, I submit to the Department. Thisoffice is not confined to my district, but pertains to the wholeState; so that Colonel Baker has an equal right with myself to beheard concerning it. However, the office is located here (atSpringfield); and I think it is not probable any one would desire toremove from a distance to take it. "

We have examined a large number of his recommendations--for with acomplete change of administration there would naturally be greatactivity among the office-seekers--and they are all in precisely thesame vein. He nowhere asks for the removal of an incumbent; he neverclaims a place as subject to his disposition; in fact, he makes nopersonal claim whatever; he simply advises the Government, in case avacancy occurs, who, in his opinion, is the best man to fill it. Whenthere are two applicants, he indicates which is on the whole thebetter man, and sometimes adds that the weight of recommendations isin favor of the other! In one instance he sends forward therecommendations of the man whom he does not prefer, with anindorsement emphasizing the importance of them, and adding: "Frompersonal knowledge I consider Mr. Bond every way worthy of the officeand qualified to fill it. Holding the individual opinion that theappointment of a different gentleman would be better, I ask especialattention and consideration for his claims, and for the opinionsexpressed in his favor by those over whom I can claim no superiority. "The candor, the fairness and moderation, together with the respect forthe public service which these recommendations display, are all themore remarkable when we reflect that there was as yet no sign of apublic conscience upon the subject. The patronage of the Governmentwas scrambled for, as a matter of course, in the mire into whichJackson had flung it. 

For a few weeks in the spring of 1849 Mr. Lincoln appears in acharacter which is entirely out of keeping with all his former andsubsequent career. He became, for the first and only time in his life, an applicant for an appointment at the hands of the President. Hisbearing in this attitude was marked by his usual individuality. In theopinion of many Illinoisans it was important that the place ofCommissioner of the General Land Office should be given to a citizenof their State, one thoroughly acquainted with the land law in theWest and the special needs of that region. A letter to Lincoln wasdrawn up and signed by some half-dozen of the leading Whigs of theState asking him to become an applicant for that position. 

He promptly answered, saying that if the position could be secured fora citizen of Illinois only by his accepting it, he would consent; buthe went on to say that he had promised his best efforts to CyrusEdwards for that place, and had afterwards stipulated with ColonelBaker that if J. L. D. Morrison, another Mexican hero, and Edwardscould come to an understanding with each other as to which shouldwithdraw, he would join in recommending the other; that he could nottake the place, therefore, unless it became clearly impossible foreither of the others to get it. Some weeks later, the impossibilityreferred to having become apparent, Mr. Lincoln applied for the place;but a suitor for office so laggard and so scrupulous as he, stood verylittle chance of success in contests like those which periodicallyraged at Washington during the first weeks of every newadministration. The place came, indeed, to Illinois, but to neither ofthe three we have mentioned. The fortunate applicant was JustinButterfield, of Chicago, a man well and favorably known among theearly members of the Illinois bar, [Transcriber's Note: Lengthyfootnote relocated to chapter end. ] who, however, devoted lessassiduous 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 thegreatest dangers of his life. In after days he recognized the error hehad committed, and congratulated himself upon the happy deliverance hehad obtained through no merit of his own. The loss of at least fouryears of the active pursuit of his profession would have beenirreparable, leaving out of view the strong probability that thesingular charm of Washington life to men who have a passion forpolitics might have kept him there forever. It has been said that aresidence in Washington leaves no man precisely as it found him. Thisis 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 communities in the South andthe West, the bustle and stir, the intellectual movement, such as itis, the ordinary subjects of conversation, of such vastly greaterimportance than anything they have previously known, the daily, evenhourly combats on the floor of both houses, the intrigue and thestruggle of office-hunting, which engage vast numbers besides theoffice-seekers, the superior piquancy and interest of the scandalwhich is talked at a Congressional boarding-house over that whichseasons the dull days at village-taverns--all this gives a savor tolife in Washington the memory of which doubles the tedium of thesequestered vale to which the beaten legislator returns when his briefhour of glory is over. It is this which brings to the StateDepartment, after every general election, that crowd of specters, withtheir bales of recommendations from pitying colleagues who have beenreelected, whose diminishing prayers run down the whole gamut ofsupplication from St. James to St. Paul of Loando, and of whom at thelast it must be said, as Mr. Evarts once said after an unusually heavyday, "Many called, but few chosen. " Of those who do not achieve theruinous success of going abroad to consulates that will not pay theirboard, or missions where they avoid daily shame only by hiding theirpenury and their ignorance away from observation, a great portionyield to their fate and join that fleet of wrecks which floats foreveron the pavements of Washington. 

It is needless to say that Mr. Lincoln received no damage from histerm of service in Washington, but we know of nothing which shows sostrongly the perilous fascination of the place as the fact that a manof his extraordinary moral and mental qualities could ever havethought for a moment of accepting a position so insignificant andincongruous as that which he was more than willing to assume when heleft Congress. He would have filled the place with honor and credit--but at a monstrous expense. We do not so much refer to his exceptionalcareer and his great figure in history; these momentous contingenciescould not have suggested themselves to him. But the place he wasreasonably sure of filling in the battle of life should have made asubordinate office in Washington a thing out of the question. He wasalready a lawyer of skill and reputation; an orator upon whom hisparty relied to speak for them to the people. An innate love of combatwas in his heart; he loved discussion like a medieval schoolman. Theair was already tremulous with faint bugle-notes that heralded aconflict of giants on a field of moral significance to which he wasfully alive and awake, where he was certain to lead at least hishundreds and his thousands. Yet if Justin Butterfield had not been amore supple, more adroit, and less scrupulous suitor for office thanhimself, Abraham Lincoln would have sat for four inestimable years ata bureau-desk in the Interior Department, and when the hour of actionsounded in Illinois, who would have filled the place which he took asif he had been born for it? Who could have done the duty which he boreas lightly as if he had been fashioned for it from the beginning oftime?

His temptation did not end even with Butterfield's success. TheAdministration of General Taylor, apparently feeling that somecompensation was due to one so earnestly recommended by the leadingWhigs of the State, offered Mr. Lincoln the governorship of Oregon. This was a place more suited to him than the other, and his acceptanceof it was urged by some of his most judicious friends [Footnote: Amongothers John T. Stuart, who is our authority for this statement. ] onthe ground that the new Territory would soon be a State, and that hecould come back as a senator. This view of the matter commended itselffavorably to Lincoln himself, who, however, gave it up on account ofthe natural unwillingness of his wife to remove to a country so wildand so remote. 

This was all as it should be. The best place for him was Illinois, andhe went about his work there until his time should come. 

[Relocated Footnote: Butterfield had a great reputation for ready witand was suspected of deep learning. Some of his jests are stillrepeated by old lawyers in Illinois, and show at least a well-markedhumorous intention. On one occasion he appeared before Judge Pope toask the discharge of the famous Mormon Prophet, Joe Smith, who was incustody surrounded by his church dignitaries. Bowing profoundly to thecourt and the ladies who thronged the hall, he said: "I appear beforeyou under solemn and peculiar circumstances. I am to address the Pope, surrounded by angels, in the presence of the holy apostles, in behalfof the Prophet of the Lord. " We once heard Lincoln say of Butterfieldthat he was one of the few Whigs in Illinois who approved the Mexicanwar. His reason, frankly given, was that he had lost an office in NewYork by opposing the war of 1812. "Henceforth, " he said with cynicalvehemence, "I am for war, pestilence, and famine. " He was oncedefending the Shawneetown Bank and advocating the extension of itscharter; an opposing lawyer contended that this would be creating anew bank. Butterfield brought a smile from the court and a laugh fromthe bar by asking "whether when the Lord lengthened the life ofHezekiah he made a new man, or whether it was the same old Hezekiah?"]

CHAPTER XVII

THE CIRCUIT LAWYER

In that briefest of all autobiographies, which Mr. Lincoln wrote forJesse Fell upon three pages of note-paper, he sketched in these wordsthe period at which we have arrived: "From 1849 to 1854, bothinclusive, I practiced law more assiduously than ever before . .. I waslosing interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromisearoused me again. " His service in Congress had made him more generallyknown than formerly, and had increased his practical value as a memberof any law firm. He was offered a partnership on favorable terms by alawyer in good practice in Chicago; but he declined it on the groundthat his health would not endure the close confinement necessary in acity office. He went back to Springfield, and resumed at once hispractice there and in the Eighth Judicial Circuit, where hisoccupations and his associates were the most congenial that he couldanywhere find. For five years he devoted himself to his work with moreenergy and more success than ever before. 

It was at this time that he gave a notable proof of his unusual powersof mental discipline. His wider knowledge of men and things, acquiredby contact with the great world, had shown him a certain lack inhimself of the power of close and sustained reasoning. To remedy thisdefect, he applied himself, after his return from Congress, to suchworks upon logic and mathematics as he fancied would be serviceable. Devoting himself with dogged energy to the task in hand, he soonlearned by heart six books of the propositions of Euclid, and heretained through life a thorough knowledge of the principles theycontain. 

[Sidenote: I. N. Arnold in the "History of Sangamon County. "]

The outward form and fashion of every institution change rapidly ingrowing communities like our Western States, and the practice of thelaw had already assumed a very different degree of dignity andformality from that which it presented only twenty years before. Thelawyers in hunting-shirts and mocassins had long since passed away; sohad the judges who apologized to the criminals that they sentenced, and charged them "to let their friends on Bear Creek understand it wasthe law and the jury who were responsible. " Even the easy familiarityof a later date would no longer be tolerated. No successor of JudgeDouglas had been known to follow his example by coming down from thebench, taking a seat in the lap of a friend, throwing an arm aroundhis neck, and in that intimate attitude discussing, _coram publico_, whatever interested him, David Davis--afterwards of the Supreme Courtand of the Senate--was for many years the presiding judge of thiscircuit, and neither under him nor his predecessor, S. H. Treat, wasany lapse of dignity or of propriety possible. Still there was muchless of form and ceremony insisted upon than is considered proper andnecessary in older communities. 

The bar in great measure was composed of the same men who used tofollow the circuit on horseback, over roads impassable to wheels, withtheir scanty wardrobes, their law-books, and their documents crowdingeach other in their saddle-bags. The improvement of roads which madecarriages a possibility had effected a great change, and the coming ofthe railway had completed the sudden development of the manners andcustoms of the modernized community. But they could not all at oncetake from the bar of the Eighth Circuit its raciness and itsindividuality. The men who had lived in log-cabins, who had huntedtheir way through untrodden woods and prairies, who had thought asmuch about the chances of swimming over swollen fords as of theircases, who had passed their nights--a half-dozen together--on thefloors of wayside hostelries, could never be precisely the same sortof practitioners as the smug barristers of a more conventional age andplace. But they were not deficient in ability, in learning, or in thatmost valuable faculty which enables really intelligent men to gettheir bearings and sustain themselves in every sphere of life to whichthey may be called. Some of these very colleagues of Lincoln at theSpringfield bar have sat in Cabinets, have held their own on the floorof the Senate, have led armies in the field, have governed States, andall with a quiet self-reliance which was as far as possible removedfrom either undue arrogance or undue modesty. [Footnote: A few of thelawyers who practiced with Lincoln, and have held the highest officialpositions, are Douglas, Shields, Logan, Stuart, Baker, Samuel H. Treat, Bledsoe, O. H. Browning, Hardin, Lyman Trumbull, and Stephen T. McClernand. ]

Among these able and energetic men Lincoln assumed and held the firstrank. This is a statement which ought not to be made without authority, and rather than give the common repute of the circuit, we prefer tocite the opinion of those lawyers of Illinois who are entitled to speakas to this matter, both by the weight of their personal andprofessional character and by their eminent official standing among thejurists of our time. We shall quote rather fully from addressesdelivered by Justice David Davis, of the Supreme Court of the UnitedStates, and by Judge Drummond, the United States District Judge forIllinois. 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 traveledfor many years what is known in Illinois as the Eighth Judicial Court. In 1848, when I first went on the bench, the circuit embraced fourteencounties, and Mr. Lincoln went with the Court to every county. Railroads were not then in use, and our mode of travel was either onhorseback or in buggies. 

This simple life he loved, preferring it to the practice of the law ina city, where, although the remuneration would be greater, theopportunity would be less for mixing with the great body of thepeople, who loved him, and whom he loved. Mr. Lincoln was transferredfrom the bar of that circuit to the office of the President of theUnited States, having been without official position since he leftCongress in 1849. In all the elements that constitute the great lawyerhe had few equals. He was great both at _nisi prius_ and before anappellate tribunal. He seized the strong points of a cause, andpresented them with clearness and great compactness. His mind waslogical and direct, and he did not indulge in extraneous discussion. Generalities and platitudes had no charms for him. An unfailing veinof humor never deserted him; and he was able to claim the attention ofcourt and jury, when the cause was the most uninteresting, by theappropriateness of his anecdotes. [Footnote: C. P. Linder once said toan Eastern lawyer who expressed the opinion that Lincoln was wastinghis time in telling stories to the jury, "Don't lay that flatteringunction to your soul. Lincoln is like Tansey's horse, he 'breaks towin. '"--T. W. S. Kidd, in the Lincoln Memorial Album. ]

His power of comparison was large, and he rarely failed in a legaldiscussion to use that mode of reasoning. The framework of his mentaland moral being was honesty, and a wrong cause was poorly defended byhim. The ability which some eminent lawyers possess, of explainingaway the bad points of a cause by ingenious sophistry, was denied him. In order to bring into full activity his great powers, it wasnecessary that he should be convinced of the right and justice of thematter which he advocated. When so convinced, whether the cause wasgreat or small, he was usually successful. He read law-books butlittle, except when the cause in hand made it necessary; yet he wasusually self-reliant, depending on his own resources, and rarelyconsulting his brother lawyers, either on the management of his caseor 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 whosefraudulent conduct was undergoing review in a court of justice haswrithed under his terrific indignation and rebukes. He was the mostsimple and unostentatious of men in his habits, having few wants, andthose easily supplied. To his honor be it said that he never took froma client, even when his cause was gained, more than he thought theservices were worth and the client could reasonably afford to pay. Thepeople where he practiced law were not rich, and his charges werealways small. When he was elected President, I question whether therewas 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 purposesof his life to accumulate a fortune. In fact, outside of hisprofession, he had no knowledge of the way to make money, and he nevereven attempted it. 

Mr. Lincoln was loved by his brethren of the bar, and no body of menwill grieve more at his death, or pay more sincere tributes to hismemory. His presence on the circuit was watched for with interest andnever failed to produce joy or hilarity. When casually absent, thespirits of both bar and people were depressed. He was not fond oflitigation, and would compromise a lawsuit whenever practicable. 

No clearer or more authoritative statement of Lincoln's rank as alawyer can ever be made than is found in these brief sentences, inwhich the warmth of personal affection is not permitted to disturb themeasured appreciation, the habitual reserve of the eminent jurist. But, as it may be objected that the friendship which united Davis andLincoln rendered the one incapable of a just judgment upon the meritsof the other, we will also give an extract from the address deliveredin Chicago by one of the ablest and most impartial lawyers who haveever honored the bar and the bench in the West. Judge Drummond says:

With a probity of character known to all, with an intuitive insightinto the human heart, with a clearness of statement which was initself an argument, with uncommon power and felicity of illustration, --often, it is true, of a plain and homely kind, --and with thatsincerity and earnestness of manner which carried conviction, he wasperhaps one of the most successful jury lawyers we ever had in theState. He always tried a case fairly and honestly. He neverintentionally misrepresented the evidence of a witness nor theargument of an opponent. He met both squarely, and if he could notexplain the one or answer the other, substantially admitted it. Henever misstated the law, according to his own intelligent view of it. Such was the transparent candor and integrity of his nature, that hecould not well or strongly argue a side or a cause that he thoughtwrong. Of course he felt it his duty to say what could be said, and toleave the decision to others; but there could be seen in such casesthe inward struggle of his own mind. In trying a case he mightoccasionally dwell too long upon, or give too much importance to, aninconsiderable point; but this was the exception, and generally hewent straight to the citadel of the cause or question, and struck homethere, knowing if that were won the outworks would necessarily fall. He could hardly be called very learned in his profession, and yet herarely tried a cause without fully understanding the law applicable toit; and I have no hesitation in saying he was one of the ablestlawyers I have ever known. If he was forcible before a jury, he wasequally so with the Court. He detected with unerring sagacity the weakpoints of an opponent's argument, and pressed his own views withoverwhelming strength. His efforts were quite unequal, and it mighthappen that he would not, on some occasions, strike one as at allremarkable. But let him be thoroughly roused, let him feel that he wasright, and some principle was involved in his cause, and he would comeout with an earnestness of conviction, a power of argument, a wealthof illustration, that I have never seen surpassed. 

[Illustration: DAVID DAVIS. ]

[Sidenote: Lamon, p. 317. ]

This is nothing less than the portrait of a great lawyer, drawn bycompetent hands, with the lifelong habit of conscientious accuracy. Ifwe chose to continue we could fill this volume with the tributes ofhis professional associates, ranging all the way from the commonplacesof condolence to the most extravagant eulogy. But enough has beenquoted to justify the tradition which Lincoln left behind him at thebar of Illinois. His weak as well as his strong qualities have beenindicated. He never learned the technicalities, what some would callthe tricks, of the profession. The sleight of plea and demurrer, thelegerdemain by which justice is balked and a weak case is made to gainan unfair advantage, was too subtle and shifty for his strong andstraightforward intelligence. He met these manoeuvres sufficientlywell, when practiced by others, but he never could get in the way ofhandling them for himself. On the wrong side he was always weak. Heknew this himself, and avoided such cases when he could consistentlywith the rules of his profession. He would often persuade a fair-minded litigant of the injustice of his case and induce him to give itup. His partner, Mr. Herndon, relates a speech in point which Lincolnonce made to a man who offered him an objectionable case: "Yes, thereis no reasonable doubt but that I can gain your case for you. I canset a whole neighborhood at loggerheads; I can distress a widowedmother and her six fatherless children, and thereby get for you sixhundred dollars, which rightfully belongs, it appears to me, as muchto them as it does to you. I shall not take your case, but I will givea little advice for nothing. You seem a sprightly, energetic man. Iwould advise you to try your hand at making six hundred dollars insome other way. " Sometimes, after he had entered upon a criminal case, the conviction that his client was guilty would affect him with a sortof panic. On one occasion he turned suddenly to his associate andsaid: "Swett, the man is guilty; you defend him, I can't, " and so gaveup his share of a large fee. The same thing happened at another timewhen he was engaged with Judge S. C. Parks in defending a man accusedof larceny. He said: "If you can say anything for the man, do it, Ican't; if I attempt it, the jury will see I think he is guilty, andconvict him. " Once he was prosecuting a civil suit, in the course ofwhich evidence was introduced showing that his client was attempting afraud. Lincoln rose and went to his hotel in deep disgust. The judgesent for him; he refused to come. "Tell the judge, " he said, "my handsare dirty; I came over to wash them. " We are aware that these storiesdetract something from the character of the lawyer; but thisinflexible, inconvenient, and fastidious morality was to be of vastservice afterwards to his country and the world. 

The Nemesis which waits upon men of extraordinary wit or humor has notneglected Mr. Lincoln, and the young lawyers of Illinois, who neverknew him, have an endless store of jokes and pleasantries in his name;some of them as old as Howleglass or Rabelais. [Footnote: As aspecimen of these stories we give the following, well vouched for, asapocrypha generally are: Lincoln met one day on the courthouse steps ayoung lawyer who had lost a case--his only one--and looked verydisconsolate. "What has become of your case?" Lincoln asked. "Gone toh---, " was the gloomy response. "Well, don't give it up, " Lincolnrejoined cheerfully; "you can try it again there"--a quip which hasbeen attributed to many wits in many ages, and will doubtless make thereputation of jesters yet to be. ] But the fact is that with all hisstories and jests, his frank companionable humor, his gift of easyaccessibility and welcome, he was, even while he traveled the EighthCircuit, a man of grave and serious temper and of an unusual innatedignity and reserve. He had few or no special intimates, and there wasa line beyond which no one ever thought of passing. Besides, he wastoo strong a man in the court-room to be regarded with anything butrespect in a community in which legal ability was the only especialmark of distinction. 

Few of his forensic speeches have been preserved, but hiscontemporaries all agree as to their singular ability and power. Heseemed absolutely at home in a court-room; his great stature did notencumber him there; it seemed like a natural symbol of superiority. His bearing and gesticulation had no awkwardness about them; they weresimply striking and original. He assumed at the start a frank andfriendly relation with the jury which was extremely effective. Heusually began, as the phrase ran, by "giving away his case"; byallowing to the opposite side every possible advantage that they couldhonestly and justly claim. Then he would present his own side of thecase, with a clearness, a candor, an adroitness of statement which atonce flattered and convinced the jury, and made even the bystandershis partisans. Sometimes he disturbed the court with laughter by hishumorous or apt illustrations; sometimes he excited the audience bythat florid and exuberant rhetoric which he knew well enough how andwhen to indulge in; but his more usual and more successful manner wasto rely upon a clear, strong, lucid statement, keeping details inproper subordination and bringing forward, in a way which fastened theattention of court and jury alike, the essential point on which heclaimed a decision. "Indeed, " says one of his colleagues, "hisstatement often rendered argument unnecessary, and often the courtwould stop him and say, 'If that is the case, we will hear the otherside. '"

[Sidenote: Raymond "Life of Lincoln. " p. 32. ]

[Sidenote: I. N. Arnold, speech before the State Bar Association, Jan. 7, 1881. ]

Whatever doubts might be entertained as to whether he was the ablestlawyer on the circuit, there was never any dissent from the opinionthat he was the one most cordially and universally liked. If he didnot himself enjoy his full share of the happiness of life, hecertainly diffused more of it among his fellows than is in the powerof most men. His arrival was a little festival in the county-seatswhere his pursuits led him to pass so much of his time. Several eye-witnesses have described these scenes in terms which would seemexaggerated if they were not so fully confirmed. The bench and barwould gather at the tavern where he was expected, to give him acordial welcome; says one writer, "He brought light with him. " This isnot hard to understand. Whatever his cares, he never inflicted themupon others. He talked singularly well, but never about himself. Hewas full of wit which never wounded, of humor which mellowed theharshness of that new and raw life of the prairies. He never asked forhelp, but was always ready to give it. He received everybody'sconfidence, and rarely gave his own in return. He took no meanadvantages in court or in conversation, and, satisfied with therespect and kindliness which he everywhere met, he sought no quarrelsand seldom had to decline them. He did not accumulate wealth; as JudgeDavis said, "He seemed never to care for it. " He had a good incomefrom his profession, though the fees he received would bring a smileto the well-paid lips of the great attorneys of to-day. The largestfee he ever got was one of five thousand dollars from the IllinoisCentral Railway, and he had to bring suit to compel them to pay it. Hespent what he received in the education of his children, in the careof his family, and in a plain and generous way of living. One whooften visited him writes, referring to "the old-fashioned hospitalityof Springfield, " "Among others I recall with a sad pleasure, thedinners and evening parties given by Mrs. Lincoln. In her modest andsimple home, where everything was so orderly and refined, there wasalways on the part of both host and hostess a cordial and heartyWestern welcome which put every guest perfectly at ease. Their tablewas famed for the excellence of many rare Kentucky dishes, and for thevenison, wild turkeys, and other game, then so abundant. Yet it washer genial manner and ever-kind welcome, and Mr. Lincoln's wit andhumor, anecdote and unrivaled conversation, which formed the chiefattraction. "

Here we leave him for a while, in this peaceful and laborious periodof his life; engaged in useful and congenial toil; surrounded by thelove and respect of the entire community; in the fullness of his yearsand strength; the struggles of his youth, which were so easy to hisactive brain and his mighty muscles, all behind him, and the titaniclabors of his manhood yet to come. We shall now try to sketch thebeginnings of that tremendous controversy which he was in a few yearsto take up, to guide and direct to its wonderful and tragical close. 

CHAPTER XVIII

THE BALANCE OF POWER

We shall see in the course of the present work how the life of AbrahamLincoln divides itself into three principal periods, withcorresponding stages of intellectual development: the first, of aboutforty years, ending with his term in Congress; the second, of aboutten years, concluding with his final campaign of political speech-making in New York and in New England, shortly before the Presidentialnominations of 1860; and the last, of about five years, terminating athis death. We have thus far traced his career through the first periodof forty years. In the several stages of frontier experience throughwhich he had passed, and which in the main but repeated the trials andvicissitudes of thousands of other boys and youths in the West, onlyso much individuality had been developed in him as brought him intothe leading class of his contemporaries. He had risen from laborer tostudent, from clerk to lawyer, from politician to legislator. That hehad lifted himself by healthy ambition and unaided industry out of thestation of a farm-hand, whose routine life begins and ends in abackwoods log-cabin, to that representative character and authoritywhich seated him in the national Capitol to aid in framing laws forhis country, was already an achievement that may well be held to crownhonorably a career of forty years. 

Such achievement and such distinction, however, were not so uncommonas to appear phenomenal. Hundreds of other boys born in log-cabins hadwon similar elevation in the manly, practical school of Western publiclife. Even in ordinary times there still remained within the reach ofaverage intellects several higher grades of public service. It isquite probable that the talents of Lincoln would have made himGovernor of Illinois or given him a place in the United States Senate. But the story of his life would not have commanded, as it now does, the unflagging attention of the world, had there not fallen upon hisgeneration the unusual conditions and opportunities brought about by aseries of remarkable convulsions in national politics. If we wouldcorrectly understand how Lincoln became, first a conspicuous actor, and then a chosen leader, in a great strife of national parties forsupremacy and power, we must briefly study the origin and developmentof the great slavery controversy in American legislation which foundits highest activity and decisive culmination in the single decadefrom 1850 to 1860. But we should greatly err if we attributed the newevents in Lincoln's career to the caprice of fortune. The conditionsand opportunities of which we speak were broadly national, and open toall without restriction of rank or locality. Many of hiscontemporaries had seemingly overshadowing advantages, by prominenceand training, to seize and appropriate them to their own advancement. It is precisely this careful study of the times which shows us by whatinevitable process of selection honors and labors of which he did notdream fell upon him; how, indeed, it was not the individual who gainedthe prize, but the paramount duty which claimed the man. 

It is now universally understood, if not conceded, that the Rebellionof 1861 was begun for the sole purpose of defending and preserving tothe seceding States the institution of African slavery and making themthe nucleus of a great slave empire, which in their ambitious dreamsthey hoped would include Mexico, Central America, and the West IndiaIslands, and perhaps even the tropical States of South America. Both areal and a pretended fear that slavery was in danger lay at the bottomof this design. The real fear arose from the palpable fact, impossibleto conceal, that the slave system was a reactionary obstacle in thepathway of modern civilization, and its political, material, philosophical, and religious development. The pretended danger was thepermanent loss of political power by the slave States of the Union, asshown in the election of Lincoln to the presidency, which they averredwould necessarily throw all the forces of the national life againstthe "peculiar institution, " and crush it under forms of law. It was bymagnifying this danger from remote into immediate consequence thatthey excited the population of the cotton States to resistance andrebellion. Seizing this opportunity, it was their present purpose toestablish a slave Confederacy, consisting of the cotton States, whichshould in due time draw to itself, by an irresistible gravitation ofsympathy and interest, first, the border slave States, and, in thefurther progress of events, the tropical countries towards theequator. 

The popular agitation, or war of words between the North and the Southon the subject of slavery, which led to the armed insurrection wasthreefold: First, the economic efforts to prevent the destruction ofthe 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, wasvariously computed at $400, 000, 000 to $1, 600, 000, 000; [Footnote: TheConvention of Mississippi, which passed the secession ordinance, inits Declaration of Causes placed the total value of their property inslaves at "four billions of money, " This was at the rate of a thousanddollars for each slave, an average absurdly excessive, and showingtheir exaggerated estimate of the monetary value of the institution ofslavery. ] second, a moral debate as to the abstract righteousness oriniquity of the system; and, third, a political struggle for thebalance of power in government and public policy, by which thesecurity and perpetuity of the institution might be guaranteed. 

This sectional controversy over the institution of slavery in itsthreefold aspect had begun with the very birth of the nation, hadcontinued with its growth, and become intensified with its strength. The year before the _Mayflower_ brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth Bock, a Dutch ship landed a cargo of African slaves at Jamestown, inVirginia. During the long colonial period the English Governmentfostered and forced the importation of slaves to America equally withEnglish goods. In the original draft of the Declaration ofIndependence, Thomas Jefferson invoked the reprobation of mankind uponthe British King for his share in this inhuman traffic. On reflection, however, this was discovered to be but another case of Satan rebukingsin. The blood money which reddened the hands of English royaltystained equally those of many an American rebel. The public opinion ofthe colonies was already too much debauched to sit in unanimous moraljudgment on this crime against humanity. The objections of SouthCarolina and Georgia sufficed to cause the erasure and suppression ofthe obnoxious paragraph. Nor were the Northern States guiltless:Newport was yet a great slave-mart, and the commerce of New Englanddrew more advantage from the traffic than did the agriculture of theSouth. 

[Sidenote: J. C. Hurd, "Law of Freedom and Bondage, " Vol. I. Pp. 228-311. ]

All the elements of the later controversy already existed. Slave codesand fugitive-slave laws, abolition societies and emancipation bills, are older than our Constitution; and negro troops fought in theRevolutionary war for American independence. Liberal men could befound in South Carolina who hated slavery, and narrow men inMassachusetts who defended it. But these individual instances ofprejudice or liberality were submerged and lost in the current ofpopular opinion springing from prevailing interests in the respectivelocalities, and institutions molded principles, until in turnprinciples should become strong enough to reform institutions. Inshort, slavery was one of the many "relics of barbarism"--like thedivine right of kings, religious persecution, torture of the accused, imprisonment and enslavement for debt, witch-burning, and kindred"institutions"--which were transmitted to that generation from formerages as so many burdens of humanity, for help in the removal of whichthe new nation was in the providence of God perhaps called intoexistence. The whole matter in its broader aspects is part of thatpersistent struggle of the centuries between despotism and individualfreedom; between arbitrary wrong, consecrated by tradition and law, and the unfolding recognition of private rights; between the thraldomof public opinion and liberty of conscience; between the greed of gainand the Golden Rule of Christ. Whoever, therefore, chooses to tracethe remote origin of the American Rebellion will find the germ of theUnion armies of 1861-5 in the cabin of the _Mayflower_, and theinception of the Secession forces between the decks of that Dutchslaver which planted the fruits of her avarice and piracy in the JamesRiver colonies in 1619. 

So elaborate and searching a study, however, is not necessary to thepurposes of this work. A very brief mention of the principal landmarksof the long contest will serve to show the historical relation, andexplain the phraseology, of its final issues. 

The first of these great landmarks was the Ordinance of 1787. All theStates tolerated slavery and permitted the slave-trade during theRevolution. But in most of them the morality of the system wasstrongly 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 tothe practical work of providing a government for the "Western lands, "which the financial pressure and the absolute need of union compelledNew York and Virginia to cede to the general Government, ThomasJefferson proposed, among other features in his plan and draft of1784, to add a clause prohibiting slavery in all the North-westterritory after the year 1800. A North Carolina member moved to strikeout this clause. The form of the question put by the chairman was, "Shall the clause stand?" Sixteen members voted aye and seven membersvoted no; but under the clumsy legislative machinery of theConfederation these seven noes carried the question, since a majorityof States had failed to vote in the affirmative. 

Three years later, July 13, 1787, this first ordinance was repealed bya second, establishing our more modern form of territorial government. It is justly famed for many of its provisions; but its chief value isconceded to have been its sixth article, ordaining the immediate andperpetual prohibition of slavery. Upon this all the States present inCongress--three Northern and five Southern--voted in the affirmative;five States were absent, four Northern and one Southern. This piece oflegislation is remarkable in that it was an entirely new bill, substituted for a former and altogether different scheme containing noprohibition whatever, and that it was passed through all the forms andstages of enactment in the short space of four days. History shedslittle light on the official transaction, but contemporary evidencepoints to the influence of a powerful lobby. 

Several plausible reasons are assigned why the three slave States ofMaryland, Virginia, and North Carolina voted for this prohibition. First, the West was competing with the Territory of Maine forsettlers; second, the whole scheme was in the interest of the "OhioCompany, " a newly formed Massachusetts emigrant aid society whichimmediately made a large purchase of lands; third, the unsettledregions south of the Ohio River had not yet been ceded to the generalGovernment, and were therefore open to slavery from the contiguousSouthern States; fourth, little was known of the extent or characterof the great West; and, therefore, fifth, the Ohio River was doubtlessthought to be a fair and equitable dividing line. The ordinance itselfprovided for the formation of not less than three nor more than fiveStates, and under its shielding provisions Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin were added to the Union with freeconstitutions. 

[Sidenote: "Ellior's Debates, " Vol. V. , p. 395. ]

[Sidenote: Ibid. , p. 392. ]

It does not appear that sectional motives operated for or against theforegoing enactment; they were probably held in abeyance by otherconsiderations. But it must not be inferred therefrom that the slaveryquestion was absent or dormant in the country. There was already aNorth and a South. At that very time the constitutional convention wasin session in Philadelphia. George Washington and his fellow delegateswere grappling with the novel problems of government which the happyissue of the Revolution and the lamentable failure of theConfederation forced upon the country. One of these problems was thepresence of over half a million of slaves, nearly all in five SouthernStates. Should they be taxed? Should they be represented? Should thepower to regulate commerce be allowed to control or terminate theirimportation? Vital questions these, which went not merely to theincidents but the fundamental powers of government. The slaveryquestion seemed for months an element of irreconcilable discord in theconvention. The slave-trade not only, but the domestic institutionitself, was characterized in language which Southern politicians oflater times would have denounced as "fanatical" and "incendiary. "Pinckney wished the slaves to be represented equally with the whites, since they were the Southern peasantry. Gouverneur Morris declaredthat as they were only property they ought not to be represented atall. Both the present and the future balance of power in nationallegislation, as resulting from slaves already in, and hereafter to beimported into, old and new States, were debated under variouspossibilities and probabilities. 

Out of these divergent views grew the compromises of the Constitution. 1. The slaves were to be included in the enumeration forrepresentation, _five_ blacks to be counted as _three_ whites. 2. Congress should have the right to prohibit the slave-trade, but nottill the lapse of twenty years. 3. Fugitive slaves should be deliveredto their owners. Each State, large or small, was allowed two senators;and the apportionment of representatives gave to the North thirty-fivemembers and fourteen senators, to the South thirty members and twelvesenators. But since the North was not yet free from slavery, but onlyin process of becoming so, and as Virginia was the leading State of theUnion, the real balance of power remained in the hands of the South. 

The newly formed Constitution went into successful operation. Underlegal provisions already made and the strong current of abolitionsentiment then existing, all the Eastern and Middle States down toDelaware became free. This gain, however, was perhaps more thannumerically counterbalanced by the active importation of capturedAfricans, especially into South Carolina and Georgia, up to the timethe traffic ceased by law in 1808. Jefferson had meanwhile purchasedof France the immense country west of the Mississippi known as theLouisiana Territory. The free navigation of that great river wasassured, and the importance of the West immeasurably increased. Theold French colonies at New Orleans and Kaskaskia were already strongoutposts of civilization and the nuclei of spreading settlements. Attracted by the superior fertility of the soil, by the limitlessopportunities for speculation, by the enticing spirit of adventure, and pushed by the restless energy inherent in the Anglo-Saxoncharacter, the older States now began to pour a rising stream ofemigration into the West and the South-west. 

In this race the free States, by reason of their greater population, wealth, and commercial enterprise, would have outstripped the Southbut for the introduction of a new and powerful influence whichoperated exclusively in favor of the latter. This was the discovery ofthe peculiar adaptation of the soil and climate of portions of theSouthern States, combined with cheap slave-labor, to the cultivationof cotton. Half a century of experiment and invention in England hadbrought about the concurrent improvement of machinery for spinning andweaving, and of the high-pressure engine to furnish motive power. TheRevolutionary war was scarcely ended when there came from the mother-country a demand for the raw fiber, which promised to be almostwithout limit. A few trials sufficed to show Southern planters thatwith their soil and their slaves they could supply this demand with aquality of cotton which would defy competition, and at a profit tothemselves far exceeding that of any other product of agriculture. Butan insurmountable obstacle yet seemed to interpose itself between themand their golden harvest. The tedious work of cleaning the fiber fromthe seed apparently made impossible its cheap preparation for exportin large quantities. A negro woman working the whole day could cleanonly a single pound. 

[Illustration: JAMES K. POLK. ]

[Sidenote: Memoir of Eli Whitney, "American Journal of Science, "1832. ]

It so happened that at this juncture, November, 1792, an ingeniousYankee student from Massachusetts was boarding in the house of friendsin Savannah, Georgia, occupying his leisure in reading law. A party ofGeorgia 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 intelligent and quick-witted woman, at oncesuggested an expedient. "Gentlemen, " said Mrs. Greene, "apply to myyoung friend, Mr. Eli Whitney; he can make anything. " The Yankeestudent was sought, introduced, and had the mechanical problem laidbefore him. He modestly disclaimed his hostess'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 earnestnessand success, that in a few months Mrs. Greene had the satisfaction ofbeing able to invite a gathering of gentlemen from different parts ofthe State to behold with their own eyes the working of the newlyinvented cotton-gin, with which a negro man turning a crank couldclean fifty pounds of cotton per day. 

[Sidenote: 1808. ]

[Sidenote: Compendium, Eighth Census, p. 13. ]

This solution of the last problem in cheap cotton-culture made it atonce the leading crop of the South. That favored region quickly droveall competitors out of the market; and the rise of English imports ofraw cotton, from thirty million pounds, in 1790 to over one thousandmillion pounds in 1860, shows the development and increase of thisspecial industry, with all its related interests. [Footnote: TheVirginia price of a male "field hand" in 1790 was $250; in 1860 hisvalue in the domestic market had risen to $1600. --SHERRARD CLEMENS, speech in H. E. Appendix "Congressional Globe, " 1860-1, pp. 104-5. ] Itwas not till fifteen years after the invention of the cotton-gin thatthe African slave-trade ceased by limitation of law. "Within thatperiod many thousands of negro captives had been added to thepopulation of the South by direct importation, and nearly thirtythousand slave inhabitants added by the acquisition of Louisiana, hastening the formation of new slave States south of the Ohio River indue proportion. " [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote (1) relocated tochapter end. ]

It is a curious historical fact, that under the very remarkablematerial growth of the United States which now took place, thepolitical influence remained so evenly balanced between the North andthe South for more than a generation. Other grave issues indeedabsorbed the public attention, but the abeyance of the slaveryquestion is due rather to the fact that no considerable advantage asyet fell to either side. Eight new States were organized, four northand four south of the Ohio River, and admitted in nearly alternateorder: Vermont in 1791, _free_; Kentucky in 1792, _slave_; Tennesseein 1796, _slave_; Ohio in 1802, _free_; Louisiana in 1812, _slave_;Indiana in 1816, _free_; Mississippi in 1817, _slave_; Illinois in1818, _free_. Alabama was already authorized to be admitted withslavery, 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 French colonies at andnear St. Louis, had attained a population of 60, 000, and was eager tobe admitted as a State. She had made application in 1817, and now in1819 it was proposed to authorize her to form a constitution. Arkansaswas also being nursed as an applicant, and the prospective loss by theNorth and gain by the South of the balance of power caused the slaveryquestion suddenly to flare up as a national issue. There were hotdebates in Congress, emphatic resolutions by State legislatures, deepagitation among the whole people, and open threats by the South todissolve the Union. Extreme Northern men insisted upon a restrictionof slavery to be applied to both Missouri and Arkansas; radicalSouthern members contended that Congress had no power to impose anyconditions on new States. The North had control of the House, theSouth of the Senate. A middle party thereupon sprang up, proposing todivide the Louisiana purchase between freedom and slavery by the lineof 36 degrees 30', and authorizing the admission of Missouri withslavery out of the northern half. Fastening this proposition upon thebill 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 Missouri wereboth admitted. Each section thereby not only gained two votes in theSenate, but also asserted its right to spread its peculiar politywithout question or hindrance within the prescribed limits; and themotto, "No extension of slavery, " was postponed forty years, to theRepublican campaign of 1860. 

From this time forward, the maintenance of this balance of power, --thenumerical equality of the slave States with the free, --though notannounced in platforms as a party doctrine, was nevertheless steadilyfollowed as a policy by the representatives of the South. In pursuanceof this system, Michigan and Arkansas, the former a _free_ andthe latter a _slave_ State, were, on the same day, June 15, 1836, authorized to be admitted. These tactics were again repeated in theyear 1845, when, on the 3d of March, Iowa, a _free_ State, andFlorida, a _slave_ State, were authorized to be admitted by oneact of Congress, its approval being the last official act of PresidentTyler. This tacit compromise, however, was accompanied by another veryimportant victory of the same policy. The Southern politicians sawclearly enough that with the admission of Florida the slave territorywas exhausted, while an immense untouched portion of the Louisianapurchase still stretched away to the north-west towards the Pacificabove the Missouri Compromise line, which consecrated it to freedom. The North, therefore, still had an imperial area from which toorganize future free States, while the South had not a foot moreterritory from which to create slave States. 

Sagaciously anticipating this contingency, the Southern States hadbeen largely instrumental in setting up the independent State ofTexas, and were now urgent in their demand for her annexation to theUnion. Two days before the signing of the Iowa and Florida bill, Congress passed, and President Tyler signed, a joint resolution, authorizing the acquisition, annexation, and admission of Texas. Buteven this was not all. The joint resolution contained a guarantee that"new States, of convenient size, not exceeding four in number, inaddition to the said State of Texas, " and to be formed out of herterritory, should hereafter be entitled to admission--the MissouriCompromise line to govern the slavery question in them. The State ofTexas was, by a later resolution, formally admitted to the Union, December 29, 1845. At this date, therefore, the slave States gained anactual majority of one, there being fourteen free States and fifteenslave States, with at least equal territorial prospects through futureannexation. 

If the North was alarmed at being thus placed in a minority, there wasample reason for still further disquietude. The annexation of Texashad provoked the Mexican war, and President Polk, in anticipation offurther important acquisition of territory to the South and West, asked of Congress an appropriation of two millions to be used innegotiations to that end. An attempt to impose a condition to thesenegotiations that slavery should never exist in any territory to bethus acquired was the famous Wilmot Proviso. This particular measurefailed, but the war ended, and New Mexico and California were added tothe Union as unorganized Territories. Meanwhile the admission ofWisconsin in 1848 had once more restored the equilibrium between thefree and the slave States, there being now fifteen of each. 

It must not be supposed that the important political measures andresults thus far summarized were accomplished by quiet and harmoniouslegislation. Rising steadily after 1820, the controversy over slaverybecame deep and bitter, both in Congress and the country. Involvingnot 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 assailedand defended in behalf of the welfare of the state, and in the name ofreligion. In Congress especially it had now been a subject of angrycontention for a whole generation. It obtruded itself into all mannerof questions, and clung obstinately to numberless resolutions andbills. Time and again it had brought members into excited discussion, and to the very verge of personal conflict in the legislative halls. It had occasioned numerous threats to dissolve the Union, and in oneor more instances caused members actually to retire from the House ofRepresentatives. It had given rise to resolutions of censure, toresignations, and had been the occasion of some of the greatestlegislative debates of the nation. It had virtually created andannexed the largest State in the Union. In several States it hadinstigated abuse, intolerance, persecutions, trials, mobs, murders, destruction of property, imprisonment of freemen, retaliatorylegislation, and one well-defined and formidable attempt atrevolution. It originated party factions, political schools, andconstitutional doctrines, and made and marred the fame of greatstatesmen. 

New Mexico, when acquired, contained one of the oldest towns on thecontinent, and a considerable population of Spanish origin. California, almost simultaneously with her acquisition, was peopled inthe course of a few months by the world-renowned gold discoveries. Very unexpectedly, therefore, to politicians of all grades andopinions, the slavery question was once more before the nation in theyear 1850, over the proposition to admit both to the Union as States. As the result of the long conflict of opinion hitherto maintained, thebeliefs and desires of the contending sections had by this time becomeformulated in distinct political doctrines. The North contended thatCongress might and should prohibit slavery in all the territories ofthe Union, as had been done in the Northern half by the Ordinance of1787 and by the Missouri Compromise. The South declared that any suchexclusion would not only be unjust and impolitic, but absolutelyunconstitutional, because property in slaves might enter and must beprotected in the territories in common with all other property. To thetheoretical dispute was added a practical contest. By the existingMexican laws slavery was already prohibited in New Mexico, andCalifornia promptly formed a free State constitution. Under thesecircumstances the North sought to organize the former as a Territory, and admit the latter as a State, while the South resisted andendeavored to extend the Missouri Compromise line, which would placeNew Mexico and the southern half of California under the tutelage andinfluence of slavery. 

These were the principal points of difference which caused the greatslavery agitation of 1850. The whole country was convulsed indiscussion; and again more open threats and more ominous movementstowards disunion came from the South. The most popular statesman ofthat day, Henry Clay, of Kentucky, a slaveholder opposed to theextension of slavery, now, however, assumed the leadership of a partyof compromise, and the quarrel was adjusted and quieted by a combinedseries of Congressional acts. 1. California was admitted as a freeState. 2. The Territories of New Mexico and Utah were organized, leaving the Mexican prohibition of slavery in force. 3. The domesticslave-trade in the District of Columbia was abolished. 4. A morestringent fugitive-slave law was passed. 5. For the adjustment of herState boundaries Texas received ten millions of dollars. 

[Sidenote: Greeley, "American Conflict, " Vol. I. , p. 208. ]

These were the famous compromise measures of 1850. It has been gravelyasserted that this indemnity of ten millions, suddenly trebling thevalue of the Texas debt, and thereby affording an unprecedentedopportunity for speculation in the bonds of that State, was "thepropelling force whereby these acts were pushed through Congress indefiance of the original convictions of a majority 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 influenceupon Congress as then. This compromise was not at first heartilyaccepted by the people; Southern opinion being offended by theabandonment of the "property" doctrine, and Northern sentimentirritated by certain harsh features of the fugitive-slave law. But therising Union feeling quickly swept away all ebullitions of discontent, and during two or three years people and politicians fondly dreamedthey had, in current phraseology, reached a "finality" [Transcriber'sNote: Lengthy footnote (2) relocated to chapter end. ] on this vexedquarrel. The nation settled itself for a period of quiet to repair thewaste and utilize the conquests of the Mexican war. It became absorbedin the expansion of its commerce, the development of its manufactures, and the growth of its emigration, all quickened by the riches of itsmarvelous gold-fields; until unexpectedly and suddenly it found itselfplunged once again into political controversies more distracting andmore ominous than the worst it had yet experienced. 

[Relocated Footnote (1): No word of the authors could add to the forceand eloquence of the following from a recent letter of the son of theinventor of the cotton-gin (to the Art Superintendent of "TheCentury"), stating the claims of his father's memory to the gratitudeof the South, hitherto apparently unfelt, and certainly unrecognized:

"NEW HAVEN, CONN. , " Dec. 4, 1886. ". .. I send you a photograph takenfrom a portrait of my father, painted about the year 1821, by King, ofWashington, when my father, the inventor of the cotton-gin, was fifty-five years old. He died January 25, 1825. The cotton-gin was inventedin 1793; and though it has been in use for nearly one hundred years, it is virtually unimproved. .. . Hence the great merit of the South, financially and commercially. It has made England rich, and changedthe commerce of the world. Lord Macaulay said of Eli Whitney: 'WhatPeter the Great did to make Russia dominant, Eli Whitney's inventionof the cotton-gin has more than equaled in its relation to the powerand progress of the United States. ' He has been the greatestbenefactor of the South, but it never has, to my knowledge, acknowledged his benefaction in a public manner to the extent itdeserves--no monument has been erected to his memory, no town or citynamed after him, though the force of his genius has originalinvention. It has made caused many towns and cities to rise andflourish in the South. .. . 

"Yours very truly, E. W. WHITNEY. "]

[Relocated Footnote (2): Grave doubts, however, found occasionalexpression, and none perhaps more forcibly than in the followingnewspaper 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!]

CHAPTER XIX

THE REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE

The long contest in Congress over the compromise measures of 1850, andthe reluctance of a minority, alike in the North and the South, toaccept them, had in reality seriously demoralized both the greatpolitical parties of the country. The Democrats especially, defeatedby the fresh military laurels of General Taylor in 1848, were muchexercised to discover their most available candidate as thepresidential election of 1852 approached. The leading names, Cass, Buchanan, and Marcy, having been long before the public, were becominga little stale. In this contingency, a considerable following groupeditself about an entirely new man, Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois. Emigrating from Vermont to the West, Douglas had run a careerremarkable for political success. Only in his thirty-ninth year, hehad served as member of the legislature, as State's Attorney, asSecretary of State, and as judge of the Supreme Court in Illinois, andhad since been three times elected to Congress and once to the Senateof the United States. Nor did he owe his political fortunes entirelyto accident. Among his many qualities of leadership were strongphysical endurance, untiring industry, a persistent boldness, a readyfacility in public speaking, unfailing political shrewdness, anunusual power in running debate, with liberal instincts andprogressive purposes. It was therefore not surprising that he shouldattract the admiration and support of the young, the ardent, andespecially the restless and ambitious members of his party. His careerin Congress was sufficiently conspicuous. As Chairman of the Committeeon Territories in the Senate, he had borne a prominent part in theenactment of the compromise measures of 1850, and had just met andovercome a threatened party schism in his own State, which thatlegislation had there produced. 

In their eagerness to push his claims to the presidency, the partisansof Douglas committed a great error. Rightly appreciating the growingpower of the press, they obtained control of the "Democratic Review, "a monthly magazine then prominent as a party organ, and published init a series of articles attacking the rival Democratic candidates invery flashy rhetoric. These were stigmatized as "old fogies, " who mustgive ground to a nominee of "Young America. " They were reminded thatthe party expects a "new man. " "Age is to be honored, but senility ispitiable"; "statesmen of a previous generation must get out of theway"; the Democratic party was owned by a set of "old clothes-horses";"they couldn't pay their political promises in four Democraticadministrations"; and the names of Cass and Marcy, Buchanan andButler, were freely mixed in with such epithets as "pretenders, ""hucksters, " "intruders, " and "vile charlatans. "

Such characterization of such men soon created a flagrant scandal inthe Democratic party, which was duly aired both in the newspapers andin Congress. It definitely fixed the phrases "old fogy" and "YoungAmerica" in our slang literature. The personal friends of Douglashastened to explain and assert his innocence of any complicity withthis political raid, but they were not more than half believed; andthe war of factions, begun in January, raged with increasingbitterness till the Democratic National Convention met at Baltimore inJune, and undoubtedly exerted a decisive influence over thedeliberations 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 wasso divided among these four that a nomination could only be reachedthrough long and tedious ballotings. Beginning with some 20 votes, Douglas steadily gained adherents till on the 30th ballot he received92. From this point, however, his strength fell away. Unable himselfto succeed, he was nevertheless sufficiently powerful to defeat hisadversaries. The exasperation had been too great to permit aconcentration or compromise on any of the "seniors. " Cass reached only131 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 insurmountabledead-lock of factional hatred. Young America gained a nominal triumph, old fogydom a real revenge, and the South a serviceable Northern ally. Douglas and his friends were discomfited but not dismayed. Theirmanagement had been exceedingly maladroit, as a more modestchampionship would without doubt have secured him the covetednomination. Yet sagacious politicians foresaw that on the whole he wasstrengthened by his defeat. From that time forward he was a recognizedpresidential aspirant and competitor, young enough patiently to bidehis time, and of sufficient prestige to make his flag the rallyingpoint of all the free-lances in the Democratic party. 

It is to this presidential aspiration of Mr. Douglas that we must lookas the explanation of his agency in bringing about the repeal of theMissouri Compromise. As already said, after some factious oppositionthe measures of 1850 had been accepted by the people as a finality ofthe slavery question. Around this alleged settlement, distasteful asit was to many, public opinion gradually crystallized. Both theNational Conventions of 1852 solemnly resolved that they woulddiscountenance and resist, in Congress or out of it, whenever, wherever, or however, or under whatever color or shape, any furtherrenewal of the slavery agitation. This determination was echoed andreechoed, affirmed and reaffirmed, by the recognized organs of thepublic voice--from the village newspaper to the presidential message, from the country debating school to the measured utterances ofsenatorial discussion. 

[Sidenote: Appendix "Congressional Globe" 1851-2, p. 63. ]

[Sidenote: Douglas, Senate speech 1850. Appendix, 1849-50 pp. 369 to372. ]

[Sidenote: Douglas, Springfield speech, Oct. 28, 1849. Illinois"Register. "]

In support of this alleged "finality" no one had taken a more decidedstand than Senator Douglas himself. Said he: "In taking leave of thissubject I wish, to state that I have determined never to make anotherspeech upon the slavery question; and I will now add the hope that thenecessity for it will never exist. .. . So long as our opponents do notagitate for repeal or modification, why should we agitate for anypurpose! We claim that the compromise [of 1850] is a final settlement. Is a final settlement open to discussion and agitation and controversyby its friends? What manner of settlement is that which does notsettle the difficulty and quiet the dispute? Are not the friends ofthe compromise becoming the agitators, and will not the country holdus responsible for that which we condemn and denounce in theabolitionists and Free-soldiers? These are matters worthy of ourconsideration. Those who preach peace should not be the first tocommence and reopen an old quarrel. " In his Senate speeches, duringthe compromise debates of 1850, while generally advocating his theoryof "non-intervention, " he had sounded the whole gamut of the slaverydiscussion, defending the various measures of adjustment against theattacks of the Southern extremists, and specifically defending theMissouri Compromise. More than this; he had declared in distinct wordsthat the principle of territorial prohibition was no violation ofSouthern rights; and denounced the proposition of Calhoun to put a"balance of power" clause into the Constitution as "a retrogrademovement in an age of progress that would astonish the world. " Theserepeated affirmations, taken in connection with his famous descriptionof the Missouri Compromise in 1849, in which he declared it to havehad "an origin akin to the Constitution, " and to have become"canonized in the hearts of the American people as a sacred thingwhich no ruthless hand would ever be reckless enough to disturb, " allseemed, in the public mind, to fix his position definitely; no oneimagined that Douglas would so soon become the subject of his ownanathemas. 

The full personal details of this event are lost to history. We haveonly a faint and shadowy outline of isolated movements of a few chiefactors, a few vague suggestions and fragmentary steps in the formationand unfolding of the ill-omened plot. 

As the avowed representative of the restless and ambitious elements ofthe country, as the champion of "Young America, " Douglas had so far aspossible in his Congressional career made himself the apostle ofmodern "progress. " He was a believer in "manifest destiny" and azealous advocate of the Monroe doctrine. He desired--so the newspapersaverred--that the Caribbean Sea should be declared an American lake, and nothing so delighted him as to pull the beard of the British lion. These topics, while they furnished themes for campaign speeches, forthe present led to no practical legislation. In his position aschairman of the Senate Committee on Territories, however, he hadcontrol of kindred measures of present and vital interest to thepeople of the West; namely, the opening of new routes of travel andemigration, and of new territories for settlement. An era of wonderhad just dawned, connecting itself directly with these subjects. Theacquisition of California and the discovery of gold had turned theeyes of the whole civilized world to the Pacific coast. Plains andmountains were swarming with adventurers and emigrants. Oregon, Utah, New Mexico, and Minnesota had just been organized, and were in afeeble way contesting the sudden fame of the Golden State. The Westernborder was astir, and wild visions of lands and cities and mines andwealth and power were disturbing the dreams of the pioneer in hisfrontier cabin, and hurrying him off on the long, romantic questacross the continent. 

Hitherto, stringent Federal laws had kept settlers and unlicensedtraders out of the Indian territory, which lay beyond the westernboundaries of Arkansas, Missouri, and Iowa, and which the policy ofour early Presidents fixed upon as the final asylum of the red menretreating before the advance of white settlements. But now theuncontrollable stream of emigration had broken into and through thisreservation, creating in a few years well-defined routes of travel toNew Mexico, Utah, California, and Oregon. Though from the long marchthere came constant cries of danger and distress, of starvation andIndian massacre, there was neither halting nor delay. The courageouspioneers pressed forward all the more earnestly, and to such purposethat in less than twenty-five years the Pacific Railroad followedFremont's first exploration through the South Pass. 

[Illustration: FRANKLIN PIERCE. ]

Douglas, himself a migratory child of fortune, was in thoroughsympathy with this somewhat premature Western longing of the people;and as chairman of the Committee on Territories was the recipient ofall the letters, petitions, and personal solicitations from thevarious interests which were seeking their advantage in this exodustoward the setting sun. He was the natural center for all the embryomail contractors, office-holders, Indian traders, land-sharks, andrailroad visionaries whose coveted opportunities lay in the Westernterritories. It is but just to his fame, however, to say that hecomprehended equally well the true philosophical and politicalnecessities which now demanded the opening of Kansas and Nebraska as asecure highway and protecting bridge to the Rocky Mountains and ournew-found El Dorado, no less than as a bond of union between the olderStates and the improvised "Young America" on the Pacific coast. Thesubject was not yet ripe for action during the stormy politics of1850-1, and had again to be postponed for the presidential campaign of1852. But after Pierce was triumphantly elected, with a DemocraticCongress to sustain him, the legislative calm which both parties hadadjured in their platforms seemed favorable for pushing measures oflocal interest. The control of legislation for the territories was forthe moment completely in the hands of Douglas. He was himself chairmanof the Committee of the Senate; and his special personal friend andpolitical lieutenant in his own State, William A. Richardson, ofIllinois, was chairman of the Territorial Committee of the House, Hecould therefore choose his own time and mode of introducing measuresof this character in either house of Congress, under the majoritycontrol of his party--a fact to be constantly borne in mind when weconsider the origin and progress of "the three Nebraska bills. "

[Sidenote: "Globe, " Feb. 2, 1853, p. 474. ]

[Sidenote: Ibid. , Feb. 8, p. 542-544. ]

[Sidenote: Ibid. , Feb. 10, p. 566. ]

[Sidenote: Ibid. , Feb. 10, p. 559. ]

The journal discloses that Richardson, of Illinois, chairman of theCommittee on Territories of the House of Representatives, on February2, 1853, introduced into the House "A bill to organize the Territoryof Nebraska. " After due reference, and some desultory debate on the8th, it was taken up and passed by the House on the 10th. From thediscussion we learn that the boundaries were the Missouri River on theeast, the Rocky Mountains on the west, the line of 36 degrees 30' orsouthern line of Missouri on the south, and the line of 43 degrees, ornear the northern line of Iowa, on the north. Several members opposedit, because the Indian title to the lands was not yet extinguished, and because it embraced reservations pledged to Indian occupancy inperpetuity; also on the general ground that it contained but few whiteinhabitants, and its organization was therefore a useless expense. Howard, of Texas, made the most strenuous opposition, urging thatsince it contained but about six hundred souls, its southern boundaryshould be fixed at 39 degrees 30', not to trench upon the Indianreservations. Hall, of Missouri, replied in support of the bill: "Wewant the organization of the Territory of Nebraska not merely for theprotection of the few people who reside there, but also for theprotection of Oregon and California in time of war, and the protectionof our commerce and the fifty or sixty thousand emigrants who annuallycross the plains. " He added that its limits were purposely made largeto embrace the great lines of travel to Oregon, New Mexico, andCalifornia; since the South Pass was in 42 degrees 30', the Territoryhad to extend to 43 degrees north. 

[Sidenote: "Globe, " Feb. 8, 1858, p. 543. ]

[Sidenote: Ibid. , Feb. 10, 1853, p. 565. ]

The incident, however, of special historical significance had occurredin the debate of the 8th, when a member rose and said: "I wish toinquire of the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Giddings], who, I believe, isa member of the Committee on Territories, why the Ordinance of 1787 isnot incorporated in this bill? I should like to know whether he or thecommittee were intimidated on account of the platforms of 1852?" Towhich Mr. Giddings replied that the south line of the territory was 36degrees 30', and was already covered by the Missouri Compromiseprohibition. "This law stands perpetually, and I do not think thatthis act would receive any increased validity by a reenactment. ThereI leave the matter. It is very clear that the territory included inthis treaty [ceding Louisiana] must be forever free unless the law berepealed. " With this explicit understanding from a member of thecommittee, apparently accepted as conclusive by the whole House, andcertainly not objected to by the chairman, Mr. Richardson, who wascarefully watching the current of debate, the bill passed on the 10th, ninety-eight yeas to forty-three nays. Led by a few members from thatregion, in the main the West voted for it and the South against it;while the greater number, absorbed in other schemes, were whollyindifferent, and probably cast their votes upon personal solicitation. 

On the following day the bill was hurried over to the Senate, referredto Mr. Douglas's committee, and by him reported back withoutamendment, on February 17th; but the session was almost ended beforehe was able to gain the attention of the Senate for its discussion. Finally, on the night before the inauguration of President Pierce, inthe midst of a fierce and protracted struggle over the appropriationbills, while the Senate was without a quorum and impatiently awaitingthe reports of a number of conference committees, Douglas seized theopportunity of the lull to call up his Nebraska bill. Here again, asin the House, Texas stubbornly opposed it. Houston undertook to talkit to death in a long speech; Bell protested against robbing theIndians of their guaranteed rights. The bill seemed to have no friendbut its author when, perhaps to his surprise, Senator D. R. Atchison, of Missouri, threw himself into the breach. 

[Sidenote: "Globe, " March 3, 1853, p. 1113. ]

Prefacing his remarks with the statement that he had formerly beenopposed to the measure, he continued: "I had two objections to it. Onewas that the Indian title in that territory had not been extinguished, or at least a very small portion of it had been. Another was theMissouri Compromise, or, as it is commonly called, the SlaveryRestriction. It was my opinion at that time--and I am not now veryclear on that subject--that the law of Congress, when the State ofMissouri was admitted into the Union, excluding slavery from theterritory of Louisiana north of 36 degrees 30', would be enforced inthat territory unless it was specially rescinded; and whether that lawwas in accordance with the Constitution of the United States or not, it would do its work, and that work would be to preclude slaveholdersfrom going into that territory. But when I came to look into thatquestion, I found that there was no prospect, no hope, of a repeal ofthe Missouri Compromise excluding slavery from that territory. .. . Ihave always been of opinion that the first great error committed inthe political history of this country was the Ordinance of 1787, rendering the North-west Territory free territory. The next greaterror was the Missouri Compromise. But they are both irremediable. .. . We must submit to them. I am prepared to do it. It is evident that theMissouri Compromise cannot be repealed. So far as that question isconcerned, we might as well agree to the admission of this territorynow as next year, or five or ten years hence. "

[Sidenote: "Globe, " March 3, 1853, p. 1117. ]

Mr. Douglas closed the debate, advocating the passage of the bill forgeneral reasons, and by his silence accepting Atchison's conclusions;but as the morning of the 4th of March was breaking, an unwillingSenate laid the bill on the table by a vote of twenty-three toseventeen, here, as in the House, the West being for and the Southagainst the measure. It is not probable, however, that in this coursethe South acted with any mental reservation or sinister motive. Thegreat breach of faith was not yet even meditated. Only a few hoursafterwards, in a dignified and stately national ceremonial, in themidst of foreign ministers, judges, senators, and representatives, thenew President of the United States delivered to the people hisinaugural address. High and low were alike intent to discern theopening political currents of the new Administration, but none touchedor approached this particular subject. The aspirations of "YoungAmerica" were not towards a conquest of the North, but the enlargementof the South. A freshening breeze filled the sails of "annexation" and"manifest destiny. " In bold words the President said: "The policy ofmy Administration will not be controlled by any timid forebodings ofevil from expansion. Indeed, it is not to be disguised that ourattitude as a nation and our position on the globe render theacquisition of certain possessions not within our jurisdictioneminently important for our protection, if not in the future essentialfor the preservation of the rights of commerce and the peace of theworld. " Reaching the slavery question, he expressed unbounded devotionto the Union, and declared slavery recognized by the Constitution, andhis purpose to enforce the compromise measures of 1850, adding, "Ifervently trust that the question is at rest, and that no sectional orambitious or fanatical excitement may again threaten the durability ofour institutions, or obscure the light of our prosperity. "

[Sidebar: Senate Report, No. 15, 1st Session, 33d Congress. ]

When Congress met again in the following December (1853), the annualmessage of President Pierce was, upon this subject, but an echo of hisinaugural, as his inaugural had been but an echo of the two partyplatforms of 1852. Affirming that the compromise measures of 1850 hadgiven repose to the country, he declared, "That this repose is tosuffer no shock during my official term, if I have the power to avertit, those who placed me here may be assured. " In this spirit, undoubtedly, the Democratic party and the South began the session of1853-4; but unfortunately it was very soon abandoned. The people ofthe Missouri and Iowa border were becoming every day more impatient toenter upon an authorized occupancy of the new lands which lay a day'sjourney to the west. Handfuls of squatters here and there had electedtwo territorial delegates, who hastened to Washington with embryocredentials. The subject of organizing the West was again broached; anIowa Senator introduced a territorial bill. Under the ordinary routineit was referred to the Committee on Territories, and on the 4thday of January Douglas reported back his second Nebraska bill, still without any repeal of the Missouri Compromise. His elaboratereport accompanying this second bill, shows that the subject hadbeen most carefully examined in committee. The discussion wasevidently exhaustive, going over the whole history, policy, andconstitutionality of prohibitory legislation. Two or three sentencesare quite sufficient to present the substance of the long and wordyreport. First, that there were differences and doubts; second, thatthese had been finally settled by the compromise measures of 1850;and, therefore, third, the committee had adhered not only to thespirit but to the very phraseology of that adjustment, and refusedeither to affirm or repeal the Missouri Compromise. 

[Sidenote: Senator Benjamin Senate Debate, May 8, 1860. "Globe, " p. 1966. ]

[Sidenote: Ibid. ]

[Sidenote: Douglas, pamphlet in reply to Judge Black, October, 1859, p. 6. ]

This was the public and legislative agreement announced to thecountry. Subsequent revelations show the secret and factional bargainwhich that agreement covered. Not only was this territorial billsearchingly considered in committee, but repeated caucuses were heldby the Democratic leaders to discuss the party results likely to growout of it. The Southern Democrats maintained that the Constitution ofthe United States recognized their right and guaranteed themprotection to their slave property, if they chose to carry it intoFederal Territories. Douglas and other Northern Democrats contendedthat slavery was subject to local law, and that the people of aTerritory, like those of a State, could establish or prohibit it. Thisradical difference, if carried into party action, would lose them thepolitical ascendency they had so long maintained, and were thenenjoying. To avert a public rupture of the party, it was agreed "thatthe Territories should be organized with a delegation by Congress ofall the power of Congress in the Territories, and that the extent ofthe power of Congress should be determined by the courts. " If thecourts should decide against the South, the Southern Democrats wouldaccept the Northern theory; if the courts should decide in favor ofthe South, the Northern Democrats would defend the Southern view. Thusharmony would be preserved, and party power prolonged. Here we havethe shadow of the coming Dred Scott decision already projected intopolitical history, though the speaker protests that "none of us knewof the existence of a controversy then pending in the Federal courtsthat would lead almost immediately to the decision of that question. "This was probably true; for a "peculiar provision" was expresslyinserted in the committee's bill, allowing appeals to the SupremeCourt of the United States in all questions involving title to slaves, without reference to the usual limitations in respect to the value ofthe property, thereby paving the way to an early adjudication by theSupreme Court. 

[Sidenote: "Globe, " Jan. 15, 1854, p. 175. ]

Thus the matter rested till the 16th of January, when Senator Dixon, of Kentucky, apparently acting for himself alone, offered an amendmentin effect repealing the Missouri Compromise. Upon this provocation, Senator Sumner, of Massachusetts, the next day offered anotheramendment affirming that it was not repealed by the bill. Commentingon these propositions two days later, the Administration organ, the"Washington Union, " declared they were both "false lights, " to beavoided 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 correspondents wereon the _qui vive_ to obtain the latest developments concerningthe intrigue. The secrets of the Territorial Committee leaked out, andconsultations multiplied. Could a repeal be carried? Who would offerit and lead it? What divisions or schisms would it carry into theranks of the Democratic party, especially in the pending contestbetween the "Hards" and "Softs" in New York? What effect would it haveupon the presidential election of 1856? Already the "Union" suggestedthat it was whispered that Cass was willing to propose and favor sucha "repeal. " It was given out in the "Baltimore Sun" that Cass intendedto "separate the sheep from the goats. " Both statements were untrue;but they perhaps had their intended effect, to arouse the jealousy andeagerness of Douglas. The political air of Washington was heavy withclouds and mutterings, and clans were gathering for and against theominous proposition. 

So far as history has been allowed a glimpse into these secretcommunings, three principal personages were at this time planning amovement of vast portent. These were Stephen A. Douglas, chairman ofthe Senate Committee on Territories; Archibald Dixon, Whig Senatorfrom Kentucky; and David R. Atchison, of Missouri, then president_pro tempore_ of the Senate, and acting Vice-President of theUnited States. "'For myself, ' said the latter in explaining thetransaction, 'I am entirely devoted to the interest of the South, andI would sacrifice everything but my hope of heaven to advance herwelfare. ' He thought the Missouri Compromise ought to be repealed; hehad pledged himself in his public addresses to vote for no territorialorganization that would not virtually annul it; and with this feelingin his heart he desired to be the chairman of the Senate Committee onTerritories when a bill was introduced. With this object in view, hehad a private interview with Mr. Douglas, and informed him of what hedesired--the introduction of a bill for Nebraska like what[_sic_] he had promised to vote for, and that he would like to bethe chairman of the Committee on Territories in order to introducesuch a measure; and, if he could get that position, he wouldimmediately resign as president of the Senate. Judge Douglas requestedtwenty-four hours to consider the matter, and if at the expiration ofthat time he could not introduce such a bill as he (Mr. Atchison)proposed, he would resign as chairman of the Territorial Committee inDemocratic caucus, and exert his influence to get him (Atchison)appointed. At the expiration of the given time, Senator Douglassignified his intention to introduce such a bill as had been spokenof. " [Footnote: Speech at Atchison City, September, 1854, reported inthe "Parkville Luminary. "]

Senator Dixon is no less explicit in his description of thesepolitical negotiations. "My amendment seemed to take the Senate bysurprise, and no one appeared more startled than Judge Douglashimself. He immediately came to my seat and courteously remonstratedagainst my amendment, suggesting that the bill which he had introducedwas almost in the words of the territorial acts for the organizationof Utah and. New Mexico; that they being a part of the compromisemeasures of 1850 he had hoped that I, a known and zealous friend ofthe wise and patriotic adjustment which had then taken place, wouldnot be inclined to do anything to call that adjustment in question orweaken it before the country. 

"I replied that it was precisely because I had been and was a firm andzealous friend of the Compromise of 1850 that I felt bound to persistin the movement which I had originated; that I was well satisfied thatthe Missouri Restriction, if not expressly repealed, would continue tooperate in the territory to which it had been applied, thus negativingthe great and salutary principle of _non-intervention_ whichconstituted the most prominent and essential feature of the plan ofsettlement of 1850. We talked for some time amicably, and separated. Some days afterwards Judge Douglas came to my lodgings, whilst I wasconfined by physical indisposition, and urged me to get up and take aride with him in his carriage. I accepted his invitation, and rode outwith him. During our short excursion we talked on the subject of myproposed amendment, and Judge Douglas, to my high gratification, proposed to me that I should allow him to take charge of the amendmentand ingraft it on his territorial bill. I acceded to the propositionat once, whereupon a most interesting interchange occurred between us. 

"On this occasion Judge Douglas spoke to me in substance thus: 'I havebecome perfectly satisfied that it is my duty, as a fair-mindednational statesman, to cooperate with you as proposed, in securing therepeal of the Missouri Compromise restriction. It is due to the South;it is due to the Constitution, heretofore palpably infracted; it isdue to that character for consistency which I have heretofore laboredto maintain. The repeal, if we can effect it, will produce much stirand commotion in the free States of the Union for a season. I shall beassailed by demagogues and fanatics there without stint or moderation. Every opprobrious epithet will be applied to me. I shall be probablyhung in effigy in many places. It is more than probable that I maybecome permanently odious among those whose friendship and esteem Ihave heretofore possessed. This proceeding may end my politicalcareer. But, acting under the sense of the duty which animates me, Iam prepared to make the sacrifice. I will do it. '

"He spoke in the most earnest and touching manner, and I confess thatI was deeply affected. I said to him in reply: 'Sir, I once recognizedyou as a demagogue, a mere party manager, selfish and intriguing. Inow find you a warm-hearted and sterling patriot. Go forward in thepathway of duty as you propose, and though all the world desert you, Inever will. '" [Footnote: Archibald Dixon to H. S. Foote, October 1, 1858. "Louisville Democrat" of October 3, 1858. ]

[Sidenote: "Globe, " Feb. 15, 1864, p. 421. ]

Such is the circumstantial record of this remarkable politicaltransaction left by two prominent and principal instigators, and neverdenied nor repudiated by the third. Gradually, as the plot wasdeveloped, the agreement embraced the leading elements of theDemocratic party in Congress, reenforced by a majority of the Whigleaders from the slave States. A day or two before the finalintroduction of the repeal, Douglas and others held an interview withPresident Pierce, [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote (1) relocatedto chapter end. ] and obtained from him in writing an agreement to adoptthe movement as an Administration measure. Fortified with thisimportant adhesion, Douglas took the fatal plunge, and on January 23introduced his third Nebraska bill, organizing two territories insteadof one, and declaring the Missouri Compromise "inoperative. " But theamendment--monstrous Caliban of legislation as it was--needed to bestill further licked into shape to satisfy the designs of the South andappease the alarmed conscience of the North. Two weeks later, after thefirst outburst of debate, the following phraseology was substituted:"Which being inconsistent with the principle of non-intervention byCongress with slavery in the States and Territories, as recognized bythe legislation of 1850 (commonly called the Compromise measures), ishereby declared inoperative and void; it being the true intent andmeaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory orState, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereofperfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions intheir own way, subject only to the Constitution"--a change which Bentontruthfully characterized as "a stump speech injected into the belly ofthe Nebraska bill. " [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote (2) relocatedto chapter end. ]

The storm of agitation which this measure aroused dwarfed all formerones in depth and intensity. The South was nearly united in itsbehalf, the North sadly divided in opposition. Against protest andappeal, under legislative whip and spur, with the tempting smiles andpatronage of the Administration, after nearly a four months'parliamentary struggle, the plighted faith of a generation wasviolated, and the repealing act passed--mainly by the great influenceand example of Douglas, who had only five years before so fittinglydescribed the Missouri Compromise as being "akin to the Constitution, "and "canonized in the hearts of the American people as a sacred thingwhich no ruthless hand would ever be reckless enough to disturb. "

[Relocated Footnote (1): Jefferson Davis, who was a member ofPresident Pierce's Cabinet (Secretary of War), thus relates theincident: "On Sunday morning, the 22d of January, 1854, gentlemen ofeach committee {House and Senate Committees on Territories} called atmy house, and Mr. Douglas, chairman of the Senate Committee, fullyexplained the proposed bill, and stated their purpose to them throughmy aid, to obtain an interview on that day with the President, toascertain whether the bill would meet his approbation. The Presidentwas known to be rigidly opposed to the reception of visits on Sundayfor the discussion of any political subject; but in this case it wasurged as necessary, in order to enable the committee to make theirreport the next day. I went with them to the Executive Mansion, and, leaving them in the reception-room, sought the President in hisprivate apartments, and explained to him the occasion of the visit. Hethereupon met the gentlemen, patiently listened to the reading of thebill and their explanations of it, decided that it rested upon soundconstitutional principles, and recognized in it only a return to thatrule which had been infringed by the Compromise of 1820, and therestoration of which had been foreshadowed by the legislation of 1850. This bill was not, therefore, as has been improperly asserted, ameasure inspired by Mr. Pierce or any of his Cabinet. "--Davis, "Riseand Fall of the Confederate Government, " Vol. I. , p. 28. ]

[Relocated Footnote (2): We have the authority of ex-Vice-PresidentHannibal Hamlin for stating that Mr. Douglas (who was on speciallyintimate terms with him) told him that the language of the finalamendment to the Kansas-Nebraska bill repealing the MissouriCompromise was written by President Franklin Pierce. Douglas wasapprehensive that the President would withdraw or withhold from him afull and undivided Administration support, and told Mr. Hamlin that heintended to get from him something in black and white which would holdhim. A day or two afterwards Douglas, in a confidential conversation, showed Mr. Hamlin the draft of the amendment in Mr. Pierce's ownhandwriting. ]

CHAPTER XX

THE DRIFT OF POLITICS

The repeal of the Missouri Compromise made the slavery questionparamount in every State of the Union. The boasted finality was abroken reed; the life-boat of compromise a hopeless wreck. If theagreement of a generation could be thus annulled in a breath, wasthere any safety even in the Constitution itself? This feelingcommunicated itself to the Northern States at the very first note ofwarning, and every man's party fealty was at once decided by histoleration of or opposition to slavery. While the fate of the Nebraskabill hung in a doubtful balance in the House, the feeling foundexpression in letters, speeches, meetings, petitions, andremonstrances. Men were for or against the bill--every other politicalsubject was left in abeyance. The measure once passed, and theCompromise repealed, the first natural impulse 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 beenovercome and dissipated, had it not at this juncture been inspiritedand led by the faction known as the Free-soil party of the country, composed mainly of men of independent anti-slavery views, who hadduring four presidential campaigns been organized as a distinctpolitical body, with no near hope of success, but animated mainly bythe desire to give expression to their deep personal convictions. Ifthere were demagogues here and there among them, seeking merely tocreate a balance of power for bargain and sale, they were unimportantin number, and only of local influence, and soon became deserters. There was no mistaking the earnestness of the body of this faction. Afew fanatical men, who had made it the vehicle of violent expressions, had kept it under the ban of popular prejudice. It had long been heldup to public odium as a revolutionary band of "abolitionists. " Most ofthe abolitionists were doubtless in this party, but the party was notall composed of abolitionists. Despite objurgation and contempt, ithad become since 1840 a constant and growing factor in politics. Ithad operated as a negative balance of power in the last threepresidential elections, causing by its diversion of votes, and moreespecially by its relaxing influence upon parties, the success of theDemocratic candidate, James K. Polk, in 1844, the Whig candidate, General Taylor, in 1848, and the Democratic nominee, Franklin Pierce, in 1852. 

This small party of antislavery veterans, over 158, 000 voters in theaggregate, and distributed in detachments of from 3000 to 30, 000 intwelve of the free States, now came to the front, and with itsnewspapers and speakers trained in the discussion of the subject, andits committees and affiliations already in action and correspondence, bore the brunt of the fight against the repeal. Hitherto its aims hadappeared Utopian, and its resolves had been denunciatory andexasperating. Now, combining wisdom with opportunity, it becameconciliatory, and, abating something of its abstractions, made itselfthe exponent of a demand for a present and practical reform--a simplereturn to the ancient faith and landmarks. It labored specially tobring about the dissolution of the old party organizations and theformation of a new one, based upon the general policy of resisting theextension of slavery. Since, however, the repeal had shaken but notobliterated old party lines, this effort succeeded only in favorablelocalities. 

[Illustration: HISTORICAL MAP OF THE UNITED STATES IN 1854 SHOWING THEVARIOUS ACCESSIONS OF TERRITORY ETC. 

NOTE. _The number under the name of a State indicates the date ofits admission into the Union_ _The Boundary between the UnitedStates and Mexico previous to 1845 & 1848 is indicated thus_ + + +]

For the present, party disintegration was slow; men were reluctant toabandon their old-time principles and associations. The united effortsof Douglas and the Administration held the body of the NorthernDemocrats to his fatal policy, though protests and defections becamealarmingly frequent. On the other hand, the great mass of NorthernWhigs promptly opposed the repeal, and formed the bulk of theopposition, nevertheless losing perhaps as many pro-slavery Whigs asthey gained antislavery Democrats. The real and effective gain, therefore, was the more or less thorough alliance of the Whig partyand the Free-soil party of the Northern States: wherever that wassuccessful it gave immediate and available majorities to theopposition, which made their influence felt even in the very openingof the popular contest following the Congressional repeal. 

It happened that this was a year for electing Congressmen. TheNebraska bill did not pass till the end of May, and the politicalexcitement was at once transferred from Washington to every districtof the whole country. It may be said with truth that the year 1854formed one continuous and solid political campaign from January toNovember, rising in interest and earnestness from first to last, andengaging in the discussion more fully than had ever occurred inprevious American history all the constituent elements of ourpopulation. 

In the Southern States the great majority of people welcomed, supported, and defended the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, itbeing consonant with their pro-slavery feelings, and apparentlyfavorable to their pro-slavery interests. The Democratic party in theSouth, controlling a majority of slave States, was of course a unit inits favor. The Whig party, however, having carried two slave Statesfor Scott in 1852, and holding a strong minority in the remainder, wasnot so unanimous. Seven Southern Representatives and two SouthernSenators had voted against the Nebraska bill, and many individualvoters condemned it as an act of bad faith--as the abandonment of theaccepted "finality, " and as the provocation of a dangerous antislaveryreaction. But public opinion in that part of the Union was fearfullytyrannical and intolerant; and opposition dared only to manifestitself to Democratic party organization--not to these Democratic partymeasures. The Whigs of the South were therefore driven precipitatelyto division. Those of extreme pro-slavery views, like Dixon, ofKentucky, --who, when he introduced his amendment, declared, "Upon thequestion of slavery I know no Whiggery and no Democracy, "--went boldlyand at once over into the Democratic camp, while those who retainedtheir traditional party name and flag were sundered from their ancientallies in the Northern States by the impossibility of taking up thelatter's antislavery war-cry. 

At this juncture the political situation was further complicated bythe sudden rise of an additional factor in politics, the Americanparty, popularly called the "Know-Nothings. " Essentially, it was arevival of the extinct "Native-American" faction, based upon ajealousy of and discrimination against foreign-born voters, desiringan extension of their period of naturalization, and their exclusionfrom office; also based upon a certain hostility to the Roman Catholicreligion. It had been reorganized as a secret order in the year 1853;and seizing upon the political disappointments following GeneralScott's overwhelming defeat for the presidency in 1852, and profitingby the disintegration caused by the Nebraska bill, it rapidly gainedrecruits both North and South. Operating in entire secrecy, thecountry was startled by the sudden appearance in one locality afteranother, on election day, of a potent and unsuspected political power, which in many instances pushed both the old organizations not only todisastrous but even to ridiculous defeat. Both North and South itsforces were recruited mainly from the Whig party, though malcontentsfrom all quarters rushed to group themselves upon its narrow platform, and to participate in the exciting but delusive triumphs of itstemporary and local ascendency. 

When, in the opening of the anti-Nebraska contest, the Free-soilleaders undertook the formation of a new party to supersede the old, they had, because of their generally democratic antecedents, withgreat unanimity proposed that it be called the "Republican" party, thus reviving the distinctive appellation by which the followers ofJefferson were known in the early days of the republic. Consideringthe fact that Jefferson had originated the policy of slaveryrestriction in his draft of the ordinance of 1784, the name becamesingularly appropriate, and wherever the Free-soilers succeeded informing a coalition it was adopted without question. But the refusalof the Whigs in many States to surrender their name and organization, and more especially the abrupt appearance of the Know-Nothings on thefield of parties, retarded the general coalition between the Whigs andthe Free-soilers which so many influences favored. As it turned out, agreat variety of party names were retained or adopted in theCongressional and State campaigns of 1854, the designation of "anti-Nebraska" being perhaps the most common, and certainly for the momentthe most serviceable, since denunciation of the Nebraska bill was theone all-pervading bond of sympathy and agreement among men whodiffered very widely on almost all other political topics. Thisaffiliation, however, was confined exclusively to the free States. Inthe slave States, the opposition to the Administration dared not raisethe anti-Nebraska banner, nor could it have found followers; and itwas not only inclined but forced to make its battle either under theold name of Whigs, or, as became more popular, under the newappellation of "Americans, " which grew into a more dignified synonymfor Know-Nothings. 

Thus confronted, the Nebraska and anti-Nebraska factions, or, morephilosophically speaking, the pro-slavery and antislavery sentiment ofthe several American States, battled for political supremacy with azeal and determination only manifested on occasions of deep and vitalconcern to the welfare of the republic. However languidly certainelements of American society may perform what they deem the drudgeryof politics, they do not shrink from it when they hear warning of realdanger. The alarm of the nation on the repeal of the MissouriCompromise was serious and startling. All ranks and occupationstherefore joined with a new energy in the contest it provoked. Particularly was the religious sentiment of the North profoundly movedby the moral question involved. Perhaps for the first time in ourmodern politics, the pulpit vied with the press, and the Church withthe campaign club, in the work of debate and propagandism. 

The very inception of the struggle had provoked bitter words. Beforethe third Nebraska bill had yet been introduced into the Senate, thethen little band of "Free-Soilers" in Congress--Chase, Sumner, Giddings, and three others--had issued a newspaper address calling therepeal "a gross violation of a sacred pledge"; "a criminal betrayal ofprecious rights"; "an atrocious plot, " "designed to cover up frompublic reprehension meditated bad faith, " etc. Douglas, seizing onlytoo gladly the pretext to use denunciation instead of argument, replied in his opening speech, in turn stigmatizing them as "abolitionconfederates" "assembled in secret conclave" "on the holy Sabbathwhile other Senators were engaged in divine worship"--"plotting, " "inthe name of the holy religion"; "perverting, " and "calumniating thecommittee"; "appealing with a smiling face to his courtesy to get timeto circulate their document before its infamy could be exposed, " etc. 

[Sidenote: "Globe" March 14, 1854, p. 617. ]

[Sidenote: Ibid. , p. 618. ]

The key-notes of the discussion thus given were well sustained on bothsides, and crimination and recrimination increased with the heat andintensity of the campaign. The gradual disruption of parties, and thenew and radical attitudes assumed by men of independent thought, gaveample occasion to indulge in such epithets as "apostates, ""renegades, " and "traitors. " Unusual acrimony grew out of the zeal ofthe Church and its ministers. The clergymen of the Northern States notonly spoke against the repeal from their pulpits, but forwardedenergetic petitions against it to Congress, 3050 clergymen of NewEngland of different denominations joining their signatures in oneprotest. "We protest against it, " they said, "as a great moral wrong, as a breach of faith eminently unjust to the moral principles of thecommunity, and subversive of all confidence in national engagements;as a measure full of danger to the peace and even the existence of ourbeloved Union, and exposing us to the righteous judgment of theAlmighty. " In return, Douglas made a most virulent onslaught on theirpolitical action. "Here we find, " he retorted, "that a large body ofpreachers, perhaps three thousand, following the lead of a circularwhich was issued by the abolition confederates in this body, calculated to deceive and mislead the public, have here come forwardwith an atrocious falsehood, and an atrocious calumny against thisSenate, desecrated the pulpit, and prostituted the sacred desk to themiserable and corrupting influence of party politics. " All hisnewspapers and partisans throughout the country caught the style andspirit of his warfare, and boldly denied the moral right of the clergyto take part in politics otherwise than by a silent vote. But they, onthe other hand, persisted all the more earnestly in justifying theirinterference in moral questions wherever they appeared, and wereclearly 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 bothbranches, it met from the first a decided and unmistakable popularcondemnation in the free States. While the measure was yet underdiscussion in the House in March, New Hampshire led off by an electioncompletely obliterating the eighty-nine Democratic majority in herLegislature. Connecticut followed in her footsteps early in April. Long before November it was evident that the political revolutionamong the people of the North was thorough, and that election day wasanxiously awaited merely to record the popular verdict alreadydecided. 

The influence of this result upon parties, old and new, is perhapsbest illustrated in the organization of the Thirty-fourth Congress, chosen at these elections during the year 1854, which witnessed therepeal of the Missouri Compromise. Each Congress, in ordinary course, meets for the first time about one year after its members are electedby the people, and the influence of politics during the interim needsalways to be taken into account. In this particular instance thiseffect had, if anything, been slightly reactionary, and the greatcontest for the Speakership during the winter of 1855-6 may thereforebe taken as a fair manifestation of the spirit of politics in 1854. 

The strength of the preceding House of Representatives, which met inDecember, 1853, had been: Whigs, 71; Free-soilers, 4; Democrats, 159--a clear Democratic majority of 84. In the new Congress there were inthe House, as nearly as the classification could be made, about 108anti-Nebraska members, nearly 40 Know-Nothings, and about 75Democrats; the remaining members were undecided. The proud Democraticmajority of the Pierce election was annihilated. 

But as yet the new party was merely inchoate, its elementsdistrustful, jealous, and discordant; the feuds and battles of aquarter of a century were not easily forgotten or buried. TheDemocratic members, boldly nominating Mr. Richardson, the House leaderon the Nebraska bill, as their candidate for Speaker, made a long anddetermined push for success. But his highest range of votes was about74 to 76; while through 121 ballotings, continuing from December 3 toJanuary 23, the opposition remained divided, Mr. Banks, the anti-Nebraska favorite, running at one time up to 106--within seven votesof an election. At this point, Richardson, finding it a hopelessstruggle, withdrew his name as a candidate, and the Democraticstrength was transferred to another, but with no better prospects. Finally, seeing no chance of otherwise terminating the contest, theHouse yielded to the inevitable domination of the slavery question, and resolved, on February 2, by a vote of 113 to 104, to elect underthe plurality rule after the next three ballotings. Under this rule, notwithstanding the most strenuous efforts to rescind it, Nathaniel P. Banks, of Massachusetts, was chosen Speaker by 103 votes, against 100votes for William Aiken, of South Carolina, with thirty scattering. The "ruthless" repeal of the Missouri Compromise had effectuallybroken the legislative power of the Democratic party. 

CHAPTER XXI

LINCOLN AND TRUMBULL

[Sidenote: 1854. ]

To follow closely the chain of events, growing out of the repeal ofthe Missouri Compromise at Douglas's instigation, we must now examineits effect upon the political fortunes of that powerful leader in hisown State. 

The extreme length of Illinois from north to south is 385 miles; ingeographical situation it extends from the latitude of Massachusettsand New York to that of Virginia and Kentucky. The great westwardstream of emigration in the United States had generally followed theparallels of latitude. The pioneers planted their new homes as nearlyas might be in a climate like the one they had left. In process oftime, therefore, northern Illinois became peopled with settlers fromNorthern or free States, bringing their antislavery traditions andfeelings; southern Illinois, with those from Southern or slave States, who were as naturally pro-slavery. The Virginians and Kentuckiansreadily became converts to the thrift and order of free society; butas a class they never gave up or conquered their intense hatred ofantislavery convictions based on merely moral grounds, which theyindiscriminately stigmatized as "abolitionism. " Impelled by thishatred the lawless element of the community was often guilty ofpersecution and violence in minor forms, and in 1837, as alreadyrelated, it prompted the murder of Lovejoy in the city of Alton by amob, for persisting in his right to publish his antislavery opinions. This was its gravest crime. But a narrow spirit of intoleranceextending even down to the rebellion kept on the statute books aseries of acts prohibiting the settlement of free blacks in the State. 

It was upon this field of radically diverse sentiment that in the year1854 Douglas's sudden project of repeal fell like a thunderbolt out ofa clear sky. A Democratic Governor had been chosen two years before; aDemocratic Legislature, called together to consider merely local andeconomic questions, was sitting in extra session at Springfield. Therewas doubt and consternation over the new issue. The Governor and otherprudent partisans avoided a public committal. But the silence couldnot be long maintained. Douglas was a despotic party leader, andPresident Pierce had made the Nebraska bill an Administrationquestion. Above all, in Illinois, as elsewhere, the people at oncetook up the discussion, and reluctant politicians were compelled toavow themselves. The Nebraska bill with its repealing clause had beenbefore the country some three weeks and was yet pending in Congresswhen a member of the Illinois Legislature introduced resolutionsindorsing it. Three Democratic State Senators, two from northern andone from central Illinois, had the courage to rise and oppose theresolutions in vigorous and startling speeches. They were N. B. Judd, of Chicago, B. C. Cook, of La Salle, and John M. Palmer, of Macoupin. This was an unusual party phenomenon and had its share in hasteningthe general agitation throughout the State. Only two or three othermembers took part in the discussion; the Democrats avoided the issue;the Whigs hoped to profit by the dissension. There was the usual rushof amendments and of parliamentary strategy, and the indorsingresolutions, which finally passed in both Houses in ambiguous languageand by a diminished vote were shorn of much of their politicalsignificance. 

Party organization was strong in Illinois, and for the greater part, as the popular discussion proceeded, the Democrats sustained and theWhigs opposed the new measure. In the northern counties, where theantislavery sentiment was general, there were a few successful effortsto disband the old parties and create a combined opposition under thenew name of Republicans. This, it was soon apparent, would makeserious inroads on the existing Democratic majority. But an alarmingcounter-movement in the central counties, which formed the Whigstronghold, soon began to show itself. Douglas's violent denunciationof "abolitionists" and "abolitionismn" appealed with singular power toWhigs from slave States. The party was without a national leader; Clayhad died two years before, and Douglas made skillful quotations fromthe great statesman's speeches to bolster up his new propagandism. InCongress only a little handful of Southern Whigs opposed the repeal, and even these did not dare place their opposition on antislaverygrounds. And especially the familiar voice and example of theneighboring Missouri Whigs were given unhesitatingly to the support ofthe Douglas scheme. Under these combined influences one or two erraticbut rather prominent Whigs in central Illinois declared theiradherence to Nebraskaism, and raised the hope that the Democrats wouldregain in the center and south all they might lose in the northernhalf of the State. 

[Illustration: LYMAN TRUMBULL]

One additional circumstance had its effect on public opinion. As hasbeen stated, in the opposition to Douglas's repeal the few avowedabolitionists and the many pronounced Free-soilers, displayingunwonted activity, came suddenly into the foreground to rouse andorganize public opinion, making it seem for the moment that they hadreally assumed leadership and control in politics. This class of menhad long been held up to public odium. Some of them had, indeed, onprevious occasions used intemperate and offensive language; but moregenerally they were denounced upon a gross misrepresentation of theirutterance and purpose. It so happened that they were mostly ofDemocratic antecedents, which gave them great influence amongantislavery Democrats, but made their advice and arguments exceedinglydistasteful in strong Whig counties and communities. The fact thatthey now became more prudent, conciliatory, and practical in theirspeeches and platforms did not immediately remove existing prejudicesagainst them. A few of these appeared in Illinois. Cassius M. Claypublished a letter in which he advocated the fusion of anti-Nebraskavoters upon "Benton, Seward, Hale, or any other good citizen, " andafterwards made a series of speeches in Illinois. When he came toSpringfield, the Democratic officers in charge refused him the use ofthe rotunda of the House, a circumstance, however, which only servedto draw him a larger audience in a neighboring grove. Later in thesummer Joshua B. Giddings and Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, made apolitical tour through the State, and at Springfield the futureSecretary and Chief-Justice addressed an unsympathetic audience of afew hundreds in the dingy little court-house, almost unheralded, saveby the epithets of the Democratic newspapers. A few local speakers ofthis class, of superior address and force, now also began to signalizethemselves by a new-born zeal and an attractive eloquence. Conspicuousamong these was Owen Lovejoy, of northern Illinois, brother of the manwho, for opinion's sake, had been murdered at Alton. 

While thus in the northern half of Illinois the public condemnation ofDouglas's repeal was immediate and sweeping, the formation ofopposition to it was tentative and slow in the central and southerncounties, where, among Whigs of Southern birth, it proceeded ratherupon party feeling than upon moral conviction. The new question struckthrough party lines in such a manner as to confuse and perplex themasses. But the issue would not be postponed. The Congressionalelections were to be held in the autumn, and the succession of eventsrather than the leadership of politicians gradually shaped thecampaign. 

After a most exciting parliamentary struggle the repeal was carriedthrough Congress in May. Encouraged by this successful domination overRepresentatives and Senators, Douglas prepared to force its acceptanceby the people. "I hear men now say, " said he, "that they are willingto acquiesce in it. .. . It is not sufficient that they shall not seek todisturb Nebraska and Kansas, but they must acquiesce also in theprinciple. " [Footnote: Douglas's speech before the Union DemocraticClub of New York, June 3, 1854. New York "Herald, " June 5, 1854. ] Inthe slave States this was an easy task. The most prominent Democratwho had voted against the Nebraska bill was Thomas H. Benton. Theelection in Missouri was held in August, and Benton was easily beatenby a Whig who was as fierce for repeal as Douglas himself. In the freeStates the case was altogether different. In Illinois the Democratsgradually, but at last with a degree of boldness, shouldered thedangerous dogma. The main body of the party rallied under Douglas, excepting a serious defection in the north; on the other hand, theWhigs in a body declared against him, but were weakened by ascattering desertion in the center and south. Meanwhile both retainedtheir distinctive party names and organizations. 

Congress adjourned early in August, but Douglas delayed his return toIllinois. The 1st of September had come, when it was announced hewould return to his home in Chicago. This was an anti-slavery city, and the current of popular condemnation and exasperation was runningstrongly against him. Public meetings of his own former party friendshad denounced him. Street rowdies had burned him in effigy. Theopposition papers charged him with skulking and being afraid to meethis constituents. On the afternoon of his coming many flags in thecity and on the shipping in the river and harbor were hung at half-mast. At sunset sundry city bells were tolled for an hour to signifythe public mourning at his downfall. When he mounted the platform atnight to address a crowd of some five thousand listeners he wassurrounded by a little knot of personal friends, but the audiencebefore him was evidently cold if not actively hostile. 

He began his speech, defending his course as well as he could. Heclaimed that the slavery question was forever settled by his greatprinciple of "popular sovereignty, " which took it out of Congress andgave 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 withquestions. He endured their fire of interrogatory for a little whiletill 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 assemblage, but the passions of thecrowd would brook no control. Douglas, of short, sturdy build andimperious and controversial nature, stood his ground courageously, with flushed and lowering countenance hurling defiance at hisinterrupters, calling them a mob, and shaking his fist in their faces;in reply the crowd groaned, hooted, yelled, and made the din ofPandemonium. The tumultuous proceeding continued until half-past teno'clock at night, when the baffled orator was finally but veryreluctantly persuaded by his friends to give up the contest and leavethe stand. It was trumpeted abroad by the Democratic newspapers that"in the order-loving, law-abiding, abolition-ridden city of Chicago, Illinois's great statesman and representative in the United StatesSenate was cried down and refused the privilege of speaking"; and asusual the intolerance produced its natural reaction. 

Since Abraham Lincoln's return to Springfield from his single term ofservice in Congress, 1847 to 1849, though by no means entirelywithdrawn from politics, his campaigning had been greatly diminished. The period following had for him been years of work, study, andreflection. His profession of law had become a deeper science and ahigher responsibility. His practice, receiving his undividedattention, brought him more important and more remunerative cases. Losing nothing of his genial humor, his character took on the dignityof a graver manhood. He was still the center of interest of everysocial group he encountered, whether on the street or in the parlor. Serene and buoyant of temper, cordial and winning of language, charitable and tolerant of opinion, his very presence diffused a glowof confidence and kindness. Wherever he went he left an ever-wideningripple of smiles, jests, and laughter. His radiant good-fellowship wasbeloved and sought alike by political opponents and partisan friends. His sturdy and delicate integrity, recognized far and wide, had longsince won him the blunt but hearty sobriquet of "Honest Old Abe. " Butit became noticeable that he was less among the crowd and more in thesolitude of his office or his study, and that he seemed ever in hasteto leave the eager circle he was entertaining. 

It is in the midsummer of 1854 that we find him reappearing upon thestump in central Illinois. The rural population always welcomed hisoratory, and he never lacked invitations to address the public. Hisfirst speeches on the new and all-absorbing topic were made in theneighboring towns, and in the counties adjoining his own. Towards theend of August the candidates for Congress in that district were, inWestern phrase, "on the track. " Richard Yates, afterwards one of thefamous "war governors, " sought a reelection as a Whig. Thomas L. Harris as a Douglas-Democrat strove to supplant him. Local politicsbecame active, and Lincoln was sent for from all directions to addressthe people. When he went, however, he distinctly announced that he didnot purpose to take up his time with this personal and congressionalcontroversy. His intention was to discuss the principles of theNebraska Bill. 

Once launched upon this theme, men were surprised to find him imbuedwith an unwonted seriousness. They heard from his lips fewer anecdotesand more history. Careless listeners who came to laugh at his jokeswere held by the strong current of his reasoning and the flashes ofhis earnest eloquence, and were lifted up by the range and tenor ofhis argument into a fresher and purer political atmosphere. The newdiscussion was fraught with deeper questions than the improvement ofthe Sangamon, protective tariffs, or the origin of the Mexican war. Down through incidents of, legislation, through history of government, even underlying cardinal maxims of political philosophy, it touchedthe very bedrock of primary human rights. Such a subject furnishedmaterial for the inborn gifts of the speaker, his intuitive logic, hisimpulsive patriotism, his pure and poetical conception of legal andmoral 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 southwardthrough the State. At these meetings he had at least a respectfulhearing, and as he neared central Illinois the reception accorded himbecame more enthusiastic. The chief interest of the campaign finallycentered in a sort of political tournament which took place at thecapital, Springfield, during the first week of October; the StateAgricultural Fair having called together great crowds, and among themthe principal politicians of Illinois. This was Lincoln's home, in astrong Whig county, and in a section of the State where that party hadhitherto found its most compact and trustworthy forces. As yet Lincolnhad made but a single speech there on the Nebraska question. Of theFederal appointments under the Nebraska bill, Douglas secured two forIllinois, one of which, the office of surveyor-general of Kansas, wasgiven to John Calhoun, the same man who, in the pioneer days twentyyears before, was county surveyor in Sangamon and had employed AbrahamLincoln as his deputy. He was also the same who three years laterreceived the sobriquet of "John Candlebox Calhoun, " having acquiredunenviable notoriety from his reputed connection with the "CincinnatiDirectory" and "Candlebox" election frauds in Kansas, and with thefamous Lecompton Constitution. Calhoun was still in Illinois doingcampaign work in propagating the Nebraska faith. He was recognized asa man of considerable professional and political talent, and had madea speech in Springfield to which Lincoln had replied. It was, however, merely a casual and local affair and was not described or reported bythe newspapers. 

The meetings at the State Fair were of a different character. Theaudiences were composed of leading men from nearly all the counties ofthe State. Though the discussion of party questions had been going onall summer with more or less briskness, yet such was the generalconfusion in politics that many honest and intelligent voters and evenleaders were still undecided in their opinions. The fair continuednearly 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 andnight a running fire of debate ensued, in which John Calhoun, JudgeTrumbull, Judge Sidney Breese, Colonel E. D. Taylor, and perhapsothers, took part. 

Douglas's speech was doubtless intended by him and expected by hisfriends to be the principal and the conclusive argument of theoccasion. But by this time the Whig party of the central counties, though shaken by the disturbing features of the Nebraska question, hadnevertheless reformed its lines, and assumed the offensive to whichits preponderant numbers entitled it, and resolved not to surrendereither its name or organization. In Sangamon County, its strongestmen, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen T. Logan, were made candidates forthe Legislature. The term of Douglas's colleague in the United StatesSenate, General James Shields, was about to expire, and the newLegislature would choose his successor. To the war of party principleswas therefore added the incentive of a brilliant official prize. TheWhigs were keenly alive to this chance and its influence upon theirpossible ascendency in the State. 

Lincoln's Whig friends had therefore seen his reappearance in activediscussion with unfeigned pleasure. Of old they knew his peculiar holdand influence upon the people and his party. His few speeches in theadjoining counties had shown them his maturing intellect, hisexpanding power in debate. Acting upon himself, this renewed practiceon the stump crystallized his thought and brought method to hisargument. The opposition newspapers had accused him of "mousing aboutthe libraries in the State House. " The charge was true. Where otherswere content to take statements at second hand, he preferred to verifycitations as well as to find new ones. His treatment of his theme wastherefore not only bold but original. 

By a sort of common consent his party looked to him to answerDouglas's speech. This was no light task, and no one knew it betterthan Lincoln. Douglas's real ability was, and remains, unquestioned. In many qualities of intellect he was truly the "Little Giant" whichpopular fancy nicknamed him. It was no mere chance that raised theVermont cabinet-maker's apprentice from a penniless stranger inIllinois in 1833 to a formidable competitor for supreme leadership inthe great Democratic party of the nation in 1852. When after the lapseof a quarter of a century we measure him with the veteran chiefs whomhe aspired to supplant, we see the substantial basis of his confidenceand ambition. His great error of statesmanship aside, he stands forthmore than the peer of associates who underrated his power and lookedaskance at his pretensions. In the six years of perilous partyconflict which followed, every conspicuous party rival disappeared inobscurity, disgrace, or rebellion. Battling while others feasted, sowing where others reaped, abandoned by his allies and persecuted byhis friends, Douglas alone emerged from the fight with loyal faith andunshaken courage, bringing with him through treachery, defeat, anddisaster the unflinching allegiance and enthusiastic admiration ofnearly three-fifths of the rank and file of the once victorious armyof Democratic voters at the north. He had not only proved himselftheir most gallant chief, but as a final crown of merit he led hisstill powerful contingent of followers to a patriotic defense of theConstitution and government which some of his compeers put into suchmortal jeopardy. 

We find him here at the beginning of this severe conflict in the fullflush of hope and ambition. He was winning in personal manner, brilliant in debate, aggressive in party strategy. To this he added anadroitness in evasion and false logic perhaps never equaled, and inhis defense of the Nebraska measure this questionable but convenientgift was ever his main reliance. Besides, his long official careergave to his utterances the stamp and glitter of oracularstatesmanship. But while Lincoln knew all Douglas's strong points hewas no less familiar with his weak ones. They had come to centralIllinois about the same time, and had in a measure grown up together. Socially they were on friendly terms; politically they had beenopponents for twenty years. At the bar, in the Legislature, and on thestump they had often met and measured strength. Each therefore knewthe 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 allprimitive communities--that the people retained a certain fragment ofthe chivalric sentiment, a remnant of the instinct of hero-worship. Asthe ruder athletic sports faded out, as shooting-matches, wrestling-matches, horse-races, and kindred games fell into disuse, politicaldebate became, in a certain degree, their substitute. But theprinciple of championship, while it yielded high honor andconsideration to the victor, imposed upon him the correspondingobligation to recognize every opponent and accept every challenge. Torefuse any contest, to plead any privilege, would be instant loss ofprestige. This supreme moment in Lincoln's career, this fatefulturning of the political tide, found him fully prepared for the newbattle, equipped by reflection and research to permit himself to bepitted against the champion of Democracy--against the very author ofthe raging storm of parties; and it displays his rare self-confidenceand consciousness of high ability, to venture to attack such anantagonist. 

[Sidenote: Correspondence of the "Missouri Republican, " October 6, 1854. ]

Douglas made his speech, according to notice, on the first day of thefair, Tuesday, October 3. "I will mention, " said he, in his openingremarks, "that it is understood by some gentlemen that Mr. Lincoln, ofthis city, is expected to answer me. If this is the understanding, Iwish that Mr. Lincoln would step forward and let us arrange some planupon which to carry out this discussion. " Mr. Lincoln was not there atthe moment, and the arrangement could not then be made. Unpropitiousweather had brought the meeting to the Representatives' Hall in theState House, which was densely packed. The next day found the samehall filled as before to hear Mr. Lincoln. Douglas occupied a seatjust in front of him, and in his rejoinder he explained that "myfriend 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 bestI could. I here thank him for his courteous offer. " The occasiongreatly equalized the relative standing of the champions. The familiarsurroundings, the presence and hearty encouragement of his friends, put Lincoln in his best vein. His bubbling humor, his perfect temper, and above all the overwhelming current of his historical arraignmentextorted the admiration of even his political enemies. "His speech wasfour hours in length" wrote one of these, "and was conceived andexpressed in a most happy and pleasant style, and was received withabundant applause. At times he made statements which brought SenatorDouglas to his feet, and then good-humored passages of wit createdmuch interest and enthusiasm. " All reports plainly indicate thatDouglas was astonished and disconcerted at this unexpected strength ofargument, and that he struggled vainly through a two hours' rejoinderto break the force of Lincoln's victory in the debate. Lincoln hadhitherto been the foremost man in his district. That single effortmade him the leader on the new question in his State. 

The fame of this success brought Lincoln urgent calls from all theplaces where Douglas was expected to speak. Accordingly, twelve daysafterwards, 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 tosecure a hearing from the Democratic portion of his listeners. Theaudience was a large one, but not so representative in its characteras that at Springfield. The occasion was made memorable, however, bythe fact that when Lincoln returned home he wrote out and publishedhis speech. We have therefore the revised text of his argument, andare able to estimate its character and value. Marking as it does withunmistakable precision a step in the second period of his intellectualdevelopment, it deserves the careful attention of the student of hislife. 

After the lapse of more than a quarter of a century the criticalreader still finds it a model of brevity, directness, terse diction, exact and lucid historical statement, and full of logical propositionsso short and so strong as to resemble mathematical axioms. Above allit is pervaded by an elevation of thought and aim that lifts it out ofthe commonplace of mere party controversy. Comparing it with his laterspeeches, we find it to contain not only the argument of the hour, butthe premonition of the broader issues into which the new struggle wasdestined soon to expand. 

The main, broad current of his reasoning was to vindicate and restorethe policy of the fathers of the country in the restriction ofslavery; but running through this like a thread of gold was thedemonstration of the essential injustice and immorality of the system. He said:

This declared indifference but, as I must think, covert zeal for thespread of slavery, I cannot but hate. I hate it because of themonstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprivesour republican example of its just influence in the world; enables theenemies of free institutions with plausibility to taunt us ashypocrites; causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity;and especially because it forces so many really good men amongourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles ofcivil liberty, criticizing the Declaration of Independence andinsisting that there is no right principle of action but self-interest. 

 * * * * *

The doctrine of self-government is right, --absolutely and eternallyright, --but it has no just application as here attempted. Or perhaps Ishould rather say that whether it has such just application, dependsupon whether a negro is not, or is, a man. If he is not a man, in thatcase he who is a man may as a matter of self-government do just whathe pleases with him. But if the negro is a man, is it not to thatextent a total destruction of self-government to say that he too shallnot 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 manwithout that other's consent. 

 * * * * *

The master not only governs the slave without his consent, but hegoverns him by a set of rules altogether different from those which heprescribes for himself. Allow all the governed an equal voice in thegovernment; that, and that only, is self-government. 

 * * * * *

Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature--opposition toit, in his love of justice. These principles are an eternalantagonism; and when brought into collision so fiercely as slaveryextension brings them, shocks and throes and convulsions mustceaselessly follow. Repeal the Missouri Compromise--repeal allcompromise--repeal the Declaration of Independence--repeal all pasthistory--still you cannot repeal human nature. 

 * * * * *

I particularly object to the new position which the avowed principleof this Nebraska law gives to slavery in the body politic. I object toit because it assumes that there can be moral right in the enslavingof one man by another. I object to it as a dangerous dalliance for afree people, --a sad evidence that feeling prosperity, we forgetright, --that liberty as a principle we have ceased to revere. 

 * * * * *

Little by little, but steadily as man's march to the grave, we havebeen giving up the old for the new faith. Near eighty years ago webegan by declaring that all men are created equal; but now from thatbeginning we have run down to the other declaration that for some mento enslave others is a "sacred right of self-government. " Theseprinciples cannot stand together. They are as opposite as God andmammon. 

 * * * * *

Our Republican robe is soiled and trailed in the dust. Let us repurifyit. Let us turn and wash it white, in the spirit if not the blood ofthe 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 itrest in peace. Let us readopt the Declaration of Independence, and thepractices and policy which harmonize with it. Let North and South--letall Americans--let all lovers of liberty everywhere--join in the greatand good work. If we do this, we shall not only have saved the Union, but we shall have so saved it, as to make and to keep it foreverworthy of the saving. We shall have so saved it that the succeedingmillions of free, happy people, the world over, shall rise up and callus blessed to the latest generations. 

[Sidenote: 1864. ]

The election which, occurred on November 7 resulted disastrously forDouglas. It was soon found that the Legislature on joint ballot wouldprobably give a majority for Senator against Shields, the incumbent, or any other Democrat who had supported the Nebraska bill. Who mightbecome his successor was more problematical. The opposition majoritywas made up of anti-Nebraska Democrats, of what were then called"abolitionists" (Lovejoy had been elected among these), and finally ofWhigs, who numbered by far the largest portion. But these elements, except on one single issue, were somewhat irreconcilable. In thiscondition of uncertainty a host of candidates sprung up. There wasscarcely a member of Congress from Illinois--indeed, scarcely aprominent man in the State of any party--who did not conceive theflattering dream that he himself might become the lucky medium ofcompromise and harmony. 

Among the Whigs, though there were other aspirants, Lincoln, whosespeeches had contributed so much to win the election, was the naturaland most prominent candidate. According to Western custom, headdressed a short note to most of the Whig members elect and to otherinfluential members of the party asking their support. Generally thereplies were not only affirmative but cordial and even enthusiastic. But a dilemma now arose. Lincoln had been chosen one of the membersfrom Sangamon County by some 650 majority. The Constitution ofIllinois contained a clause disqualifying members of the Legislatureand certain other designated officials from being elected to theSenate. Good lawyers generally believed this provision repugnant tothe Constitution of the United States, and that the qualifications ofSenators and Representatives therein prescribed could be neitherincreased nor diminished by a State. But the opposition had only amajority of one or two. If Lincoln resigned his membership in theLegislature this might destroy the majority. If he refused to resign, such refusal might carry some member to the Democrats. 

[Illustration: OWEN LOVEJOY. ]

At last, upon full deliberation, Lincoln resigned his seat, relyingupon the six or seven hundred majority in Sangamon County to electanother Whig. It was a delusive trust. A reaction in the Whig ranksagainst "abolitionism" suddenly set in. A listless apathy succeededthe intense excitement and strain of the summer's canvass. Localrivalries forced the selection of an unpopular candidate. Shrewdlynoting all these signs the Democrats of Sangamon organized what isknown in Western politics as a "still-hunt. " They made a feint ofallowing the special election to go by default. They made nonomination. They permitted an independent Democrat, known under thesobriquet of "Steamboat Smith, " to parade his own name. Up to the veryday of election they gave no public sign, although they had in theutmost secrecy instructed and drilled their precinct squads. On themorning of election the working Democrats appeared at every poll, distributing tickets bearing the name of a single candidate not beforementioned by any one. They were busy all day long spurring up thelagging and indifferent, and bringing the aged, the infirm, and thedistant voters in vehicles. Their ruse succeeded. The Whigs were takencompletely by surprise, and in a remarkably small total vote, McDaniels, Democrat, was chosen by about sixty majority. The Whigs inother parts of the State were furious at the unlooked-for result, andthe incident served greatly to complicate the senatorial canvass. 

Nevertheless it turned out that even after this loss the opposition toDouglas would have a majority on joint ballot. But how unite thisopposition made up of Whigs, of Democrats, and of so-calledabolitionists? It was just at that moment in the impending revolutionof parties when everything was doubt, distrust, uncertainty. Only theabolitionists, ever aggressive on all slavery issues, were ready tolead off in new combinations, but nobody was willing to encounter theodium of acting with them. They, too, were present at the State Fair, and heard Lincoln reply to Douglas. At the close of that reply, andjust before Douglas's rejoinder, Lovejoy had announced to the audiencethat a Republican State Convention would be immediately held in theSenate Chamber, extending an invitation to delegates to join in it. But the appeal fell upon unwilling ears. Scarcely a corporal's guardleft the discussion. The Senate Chamber presented a discouraging arrayof empty benches. Only some twenty-six delegates were there torepresent the whole State of Illinois. Nothing daunted, they madetheir speeches and read their platform to each other. [Transcriber'sNote: Lengthy footnote (1) relocated to chapter end. ] Particularly intheir addresses they praised Lincoln's great speech which they hadjust heard, notwithstanding his declarations differed so essentiallyfrom their new-made creed. "Ichabod raved, " said the Democratic organin derision, "and Lovejoy swelled, and all indorsed the sentiments ofthat speech. " Not content with this, without consent or consultation, they placed Lincoln's name in the list of their State CentralCommittee. 

[Sidenote: Lincoln to Codding, Nov. 27, 1854. MS. ]

Matters remained in this attitude until their chairman called ameeting and notified Lincoln to attend. In reply he sent the followingletter of inquiry: "While I have pen in hand allow me to say that Ihave been perplexed to understand why my name was placed on thatcommittee. I was not consulted on the subject, nor was I apprised ofthe appointment until I discovered it by accident two or three weeksafterwards. I suppose my opposition to the principle of slavery is asstrong as that of any member of the Republican party; but I had alsosupposed that the extent to which I feel authorized to carry thatopposition practically was not at all satisfactory to that party. Theleading men who organized, that party were present on the 4th ofOctober at the discussion between Douglas and myself at Springfieldand had full opportunity to not misunderstand my position. Do Imisunderstand them?"

Whether this letter was ever replied to is uncertain, thoughimprobable. No doubt it led to conferences during the meeting of theLegislature, early in the year 1855, when the senatorial question cameon for decision. It has been suggested that Lincoln made dishonorableconcessions of principle to get the votes of Lovejoy and his friends. The statement is too absurd to merit serious contradiction. The realfact is that Mr. Giddings, then in Congress, wrote to Lovejoy andothers to support Lincoln. Various causes delayed the event, butfinally, on February 8, 1855, the Legislature went into joint ballot. A number of candidates were put in nomination, but the contestnarrowed itself down to three. Abraham Lincoln was supported by theWhigs and Free-soilers; James Shields by the Douglas-Democrats. Asbetween these two, Lincoln would easily have succeeded, had not fiveanti-Nebraska Democrats refused under any circumstances to vote forhim or any other Whig, [Footnote: "All that remained of the anti-Nebraska force, excepting Judd, Cook, Palmer, Baker, and Allen, ofMadison, and two or three of the secret Matteson men, would go intocaucus, and I could get the nomination of that caucus. But the threeSenators and one of the two Representatives above named 'could nevervote for a Whig, ' and this incensed some twenty Whigs to 'think' theywould never vote for the man of the five. "--Lincoln to the Hon. E. B. Washburne, February 9, 1855. MS. ] and steadily voted during sixballots for Lyman Trumbull. The first vote stood: Lincoln, 45;Shields, 41; Trumbull, 5; scattering, 8. Two or three Whigs had thrownaway their votes on this first ballot, and though they now returnedand adhered to him, the demoralizing example was imitated by variousmembers of the coalition. On the sixth ballot the vote stood: Lincoln, 36; Shields, 41; Trumbull, 8; scattering, 13. 

At this stage of the proceedings the Douglas-Democrats executed achange of front, and, dropping Shields, threw nearly their fullstrength, 44 votes, for Governor Joel A. Matteson. The maneuver wasnot unexpected, for though the Governor and the party newspapers hadhitherto vehemently asserted he was not a candidate, the politicalsigns plainly contradicted such statement. Matteson had assumed aquasi-independent position; kept himself non-commital on Nebraska, andopposed Douglas's scheme of tonnage duties to improve Western riversand harbors. Like the majority of Western men he had risen from humblebeginnings, and from being an emigrant, farmer, merchant, andmanufacturer, had become Governor. In office he had devoted himselfspecially to the economical and material questions affecting Illinois, and in this role had a wide popularity with all classes and parties. 

The substitution of his name was a promising device. The ninth ballotgave him 47 votes. The opposition under the excitement of non-partisanappeals began to break up. Of the remaining votes Lincoln received 15, Trumbull 35, scattering, 1. In this critical moment Lincoln exhibiteda generosity and a sagacity above the range of the mere politician'svision. He urged upon his Whig friends and supporters to drop his ownname and join without hesitation or conditions in the election ofTrumbull. [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote (2) relocated tochapter end. ] This was putting their fidelity to a bitter trial. Uponevery issue but the Nebraska bill Trumbull still avowed himself anuncompromising Democrat. The faction of five had been stubborn todefiance and disaster. They would compel the mountain to go toMahomet. It seemed an unconditional surrender of the Whig party. Butsuch was Lincoln's influence upon his adherents that at his requestthey made the sweeping sacrifice, though with lingering sorrow. Theproceedings had wasted away a long afternoon of most tedious suspense. Evening had come; the gas was lighted in the hall, the galleries werefilled with eager women, the lobbies were packed with restless andanxious men. All had forgotten the lapse of hours, their fatigue andtheir hunger, in the absorption of the fluctuating contest. Theroll-call of the tenth ballot still showed 15 votes for Lincoln, 36for Trumbull, 47 for Matteson. Amid an excitement which was becomingpainful, and in a silence where spectators scarcely breathed, JudgeStephen T. Logan, Lincoln's nearest and warmest friend, arose andannounced the purpose of the remaining Whigs to decide the contest, whereupon the entire fifteen changed their votes to Trumbull. Thisgave him the necessary number of fifty-one, and elected him a Senatorof the United States. 

At that early day an election to the United States Senate must haveseemed to Lincoln a most brilliant political prize, the highest, perhaps, to which he then had any hopes of ever attaining. To schoolhimself to its loss with becoming resignation, to wait hopefullyduring four years for another opportunity, to engage in the dangerousand difficult task of persuading his friends to leave their old andjoin a new political party only yet dimly foreshadowed, to watch thechances of maintaining his party leadership, furnished sufficientoccupation for the leisure afforded by the necessities of his lawpractice. It is interesting to know that he did more; that amid theconsideration of mere personal interests he was vigilantly pursuingthe study of the higher phases of the great moral and politicalstruggle on which the nation was just entering, little dreaming, however, of the part he was destined to act in it. A letter of hiswritten to a friend in Kentucky in the following year shows us that hehad nearly reached a maturity of conviction on the nature of theslavery conflict--his belief that the nation could not permanentlyendure half slave and half free--which he did not publicly expressuntil the beginning of his famous senatorial campaign of 1858:

[Sidenote: MS. ]

 SPRINGFIELD, ILLS. , August 15, 1855 Hon. GEO. ROBERTSON, Lexington, Ky. 

MY DEAR SIR: The volume you left for me has been received. I am reallygrateful for the honor of your kind remembrance, as well as for thebook. The partial reading I have already given it has afforded me muchof both pleasure and instruction. It was new to me that the exactquestion which led to the Missouri Compromise had arisen before itarose in regard to Missouri, and that you had taken so prominent apart in it. Your short but able and patriotic speech on that occasionhas 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 asvery reasonable. 

You are not a friend of slavery in the abstract. In that speech youspoke of "the peaceful extinction of slavery" and used otherexpressions indicating your belief 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 nopeaceful extinction of slavery in prospect for us. The signal failureof Henry Clay and other good and great men, in 1849, to effectanything in favor of gradual emancipation in Kentucky, together with athousand other signs, extinguishes that hope utterly. On the questionof liberty, as a principle, we are not what we have been. When we werethe political slaves of King George, and wanted to be free, we calledthe maxim that "all men are created equal" a self-evident truth; butnow when we have grown fat, and have lost all dread of being slavesourselves, we have become so greedy to be _masters_ that we callthe same maxim "a self-evident lie. " The Fourth of July has not quitedwindled away; it is still a great day for burning fire-crackers!

That spirit which desired the peaceful extinction of slavery hasitself become extinct with the occasion and the _men_ of theRevolution. Under the impulse of that occasion, nearly half the Statesadopted systems of emancipation at once; and it is a significant factthat not a single State has done the like since. So far as peaceful, voluntary emancipation is concerned, the condition of the negro slavein America, scarcely less terrible to the contemplation of a freemind, is now as fixed and hopeless of change for the better as that ofthe lost souls of the finally impenitent. The Autocrat of all theRussias will resign his crown and proclaim his subjects freerepublicans, sooner than will our American masters voluntarily give uptheir slaves. 

Our political problem now is, "Can we as a nation continue together_permanently_--_forever_--half slave, and half free?" Theproblem is too mighty for me. May God in his mercy superintend thesolution. Your much obliged friend, and humble servant, A. LINCOLN. 

The reader has doubtless already noted in his mind the curioushistorical coincidence which so soon followed the foregoingspeculative affirmation. On the day before Lincoln's firstinauguration as President of the United States, the "Autocrat of allthe Russias, " Alexander II. , by imperial decree emancipated his serfs;while six weeks after the inauguration, the "American masters, " headedby Jefferson Davis, began the greatest war of modern times, toperpetuate and spread the institution of slavery. 

[Relocated Footnote (1): Their resolutions were radical for that day, but not so extreme as was generally feared. On the slavery questionthey declared their purpose:

To restore Kansas and Nebraska to the position of free territories;that as the Constitution of the United States vests in the States andnot in Congress the power to legislate for the rendition of fugitivesfrom labor, to repeal and entirely abrogate the fugitive slave law; torestrict slavery to those States in which it exists; to prohibit theadmission of any more slave States; to abolish slavery in the Districtof Columbia; to exclude slavery from all territories over which thegeneral Government has exclusive jurisdiction, and finally to resistthe acquirement of any more territories unless slavery shall have beentherein forever prohibited. ]

[Relocated Footnote (2): "In the meantime our friends, with a view ofdetaining our expected bolters, had been turning from me to Trumbulltill he had risen to 35 and I had been reduced to 15. These wouldnever desert me except by my direction; but I became satisfied that ifwe could prevent Matteson's election one or two ballots more, we couldnot possibly do so a single ballot after my friends should begin toreturn to me from Trumbull. So I determined to strike at once; andaccordingly advised my remaining friends to go for him, which theydid, and elected him on that, the tenth ballot. Such is the way thething was done. I think you would have done the same under thecircumstances, though Judge Davis, who came down this morning, declares he never would have consented to the 47 [opposition] menbeing controlled by the five. I regret my defeat moderately, but amnot nervous about it. "--Lincoln to Washburne, February 9, 1855. MS. ]

CHAPTER XXII

THE BORDER RUFFIANS

[Sidenote: May 30, 1854. ]

The passage of the Nebraska bill and the hurried extinction of theIndian title opened nearly fifteen million acres of public lands tosettlement and purchase. The whole of this vast area was yetpractically tenantless. In all of Kansas there were only threemilitary posts, eight or ten missions or schools attached to Indianreservations, and some scores of roving hunters and traders orsquatters in the vicinity of a few well-known camping stations on thetwo principal emigrant and trading routes, one leading southward toNew Mexico, the other northward towards Oregon. But such had been theinterest created by the political excitement, and so favorable werethe newspaper reports of the location, soil, and climate of the newcountry, that a few months sufficed to change Kansas from a closed andprohibited Indian reserve to the emigrant's land of promise. 

Douglas's oracular "stump speech" in the Nebraska bill transferred thestruggle for slavery extension from Congress to the newly organizedterritories. "Come on, then, gentlemen of the slave States, " saidSeward in a Senate discussion; "since there is no escaping yourchallenge, I accept it in behalf of Freedom. We will engage incompetition for the virgin soil of Kansas, and God give the victory tothe side that is stronger in numbers as it is in right. " With fifteenmillions in the North against ten millions in the South, the resultcould not be in doubt. 

[Sidenote: 1854. ]

Feeling secure in this evident advantage, the North, in general, trusted to the ordinary and natural movement of emigration. To therule, however, there were a few exceptions. Some members of Congress, incensed at the tactics of the Nebraska leaders, formed a Kansas AidSociety in Washington City and contributed money to assist emigrants. [Footnote: Testimony of the Hon. Daniel Mace, page 829, House ReportNo. 200, 1st Session, 34th Congress. "Howard Report. "] Beyond thisinitiatory step they do not seem to have had any personalparticipation in it, and its office and working operations were soontransferred to New York. Sundry similar organizations were also formedby private individuals. The most notable of these was a Boston companychartered in April, named "The Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company. "The charter was soon abandoned, and the company reorganized June 13th, under private articles of association; [Footnote: E. E. Hale, "Kansasand Nebraska, " p. 229. It was once more incorporated February 21, 1855, under the name of "The New England Emigrant Aid Company. "] and in thiscondition it became virtually the working agency of philanthropiccitizens of New England, headed by Eli Thayer. There were severalauxiliary societies and a few independent associations. But from whatthen and afterwards came to light, it appears that Mr. Thayer'ssociety was the only one whose operations reached any degree ofsuccess deserving historical notice. 

This company gave publicity, through newspaper advertisements andpamphlets, of its willingness to organize emigrants into companies, tosend them to Kansas in charge of trustworthy agents, and to obtaintransportation for them at reduced rates. It also sent machinery for afew saw-mills, the types and presses for two or three newspapers, anderected a hotel or boarding-house to accommodate newcomers. Itpurchased and held only the land necessary to locate these businessenterprises. It engaged in no speculation, paid no fare of anyemigrants, and expressly disavowed the requirement of any oath orpledge of political sentiment or conduct. All these transactions wereopen, honest, and lawful, carefully avoiding even the implication ofmoral or political wrong. 

Under the auspices of this society a pioneer company of about thirtypersons arrived in Kansas in July, 1854, and founded the town ofLawrence. Other parties followed from time to time, sending out off-shoots, but mainly increasing the parent settlement, until next toFort Leavenworth, the principal military post, Lawrence became theleading town of the Territory. The erection of the society hotel, thesociety saw-mills, and the establishment of a newspaper also gave itleadership in business and politics as well as population. This humaneand praiseworthy enterprise has been gravely charged with the originand responsibility of the political disorders which folio wed inKansas. Nothing could be further from the truth. Before it hadassisted five hundred persons to their new homes, the Territory had byregular and individual immigration, mainly from the Western States, acquired a population of 8601 souls, as disclosed by the officialcensus taken after the first summer's arrivals, and before those ofthe second had begun. It needs only this statement to refute thepolitical slander so industriously repeated in high places against theLawrence immigrants. 

Deeper causes than the philanthropy or zeal of a few Bostonenthusiasts were actively at work. The balance of power between thefree and slave States had been destroyed by the admission ofCalifornia. To restore that balance the South had consummated therepeal of the Missouri Compromise as a first and indispensable step. The second equally indispensable step was to seize the politicalcontrol of the new Territory. 

Kansas lay directly west of the State of Missouri. For a frontierState, the pro-slavery sentiment of Missouri was very pronounced, especially along the Kansas border. The establishment of slavery inthis new region had formed the subject of public and local discussionbefore the Nebraska bill, and Senator Atchison had promised hiswestern Missouri constituents to labor for such a result. From thetime the unlooked-for course of Senator Douglas made it a practicalpossibility, Atchison was all zeal and devotion to this object, whichhe declared was almost as dear to him as his hope of heaven. When itfinally became a question to be decided perhaps by a single frontierelection, his zeal and work in that behalf were many times multiplied. 

Current reports and subsequent developments leave no doubt that thisSenator, being then acting Vice-President of the United States, [Footnote: By virtue of his office as President _pro tempore_ ofthe United States Senate. The Vice-Presidency was vacant; William R. King, chosen with President Pierce, had died. ] immediately after theAugust adjournment of Congress hurried away to his home in PlatteCounty, Missouri, and from that favorable situation personallyorganized a vast conspiracy, running through nearly all the countiesof his State adjoining the Kansas border, to decide the slaveryquestion for Kansas by Missouri votes. Secret societies under variousnames, such as "Blue Lodges, " "Friends' Society, " "Social Band, " "Sonsof the South, " were organized and affiliated, with all the necessarymachinery of oaths, grips, signs, passwords, and badges. The plan andobject of the movement were in general kept well concealed. Suchpublicity 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 arrived, the idea that Kansas must bea slave State had grown into a fixed and determined public sentiment. 

The fact is not singular if we remember the peculiar situation of thatlocality. It was before the great expansion of railroads, and westernMissouri could only be conveniently approached by the singlecommercial link of steamboat travel on the turbid and dangerousMissouri River. Covering the rich, alluvial lands along the majesticbut erratic stream lay the heavy slave counties of the State, wealthyfrom the valuable slave products of hemp and tobacco. Slave tenure andslavery traditions in Missouri dated back a full century, to theremote days when the American Bottom opposite St. Louis was one of thechief bread and meat producing settlements of New France, sendingsupplies northward to Mackinaw, southward to New Orleans, and eastwardto Fort Duquesne. When in 1763 "the Illinois" country passed by treatyunder the British flag, the old French colonists, with their slaves, almost in a body crossed the Mississippi into then Spanish territory, and with fresh additions from New Orleans founded St. Louis and itsoutlying settlements; and these, growing with a steady thrift, extended themselves up the Missouri River. 

Slavery was thus identified with the whole history and also with theapparent prosperity of the State; and it had in recent times made manyof these Western counties rich. The free State of Iowa lay a hundredmiles to the north, and the free State of Illinois two hundred to theeast; a wall of Indian tribes guarded the west. Should all thissecurity be swept away, and their runaways find a free route to Canadaby simply crossing the county line? Should the price of their personal"chattels" fall one-half for want of a new market? With nearly fifteenmillion acres of fresh land to choose from for the present outlay of atrifling preemption fee, should not the poor white compel his single"black boy" to follow him a few miles west, and hoe his tobacco forhim on the new fat bottom-lands of the Kaw River?

[Speech in Platte County. Wm. Phillips, "Conquest of Kansas, " p. 48]

Even such off-hand reasoning was probably confined to the moreintelligent. For the greater part these ignorant but stubborn andstrong-willed frontiersmen were moved by a bitter hatred of"abolitionism, " because the word had now been used for half a centuryby partisans high and low--Governors, Senators, Presidents--as a termof opprobrium and a synonym of crime. With these as fathers of thefaith and the Vice-President of the United States as an apostle topreach a new crusade, is it astonishing that there was no lack oflisteners, converts, and volunteers? Senator Atchison spoke in noambiguous words. "When you reside in one day's journey of theTerritory, " said he, "and when your peace, your quiet, and yourproperty depend upon your action, you can without an exertion sendfive hundred of your young men who will vote in favor of yourinstitutions. Should each county in the State of Missouri only do itsduty, the question will be decided quietly and peaceably at theballot-box. If we are defeated, then Missouri and the other SouthernStates will have shown themselves recreant to their interests and willdeserve their fate. "

Western water transportation found its natural terminus where the Kawor Kansas River empties into the Missouri. From this circumstance thatlocality had for years been the starting-point for the overlandcaravans or wagon-trains. Fort Leavenworth was the point of rendezvousfor those going to California and Oregon; Independence the place ofoutfit for those destined to Santa Fe. Grouped about these two pointswere half a dozen heavy slaveholding counties of Missouri, --Platte, Clay, Bay, Jackson, Lafayette, Saline, and others. Platte County, thehome of Senator Atchison, was their Western outpost, and lay like anoutspread fan in the great bend of the Missouri, commanding fromthirty to fifty miles of river front. Nearly all of Kansas attainableby the usual water transportation and travel lay immediately opposite. A glance at the map will show how easily local sentiment couldinfluence or dominate commerce and travel on the Missouri River. Inthis connection the character of the population must be taken intoaccount. The spirit of intolerance which once pervaded allslaveholding communities, in whatever State of the Union, was hererampant to an unusual degree. The rural inhabitants were marked by thestrong characteristics of the frontier, --fondness of adventure, recklessness of exposure or danger to life, a boastful assertion ofpersonal right, privilege, or prowess, a daily and hourly familiaritywith the use of fire-arms. These again were heightened by two specialinfluences--the presence of Indian tribes whose reservations lay justacross the border, and the advent and preparation of each summer'semigration across the great plains. The "Argonauts of '49" were notall gamblers and cut-throats of border song and story. Generally, however, they were men of decision and will, all mere drift-wood inthe great current of gold-seekers being soon washed ashore and leftbehind. Until they finished their last dinner at the Planter's Housein St. Louis, the fledgelings of cities, the lawyers, doctors, merchants, and speculators, were in or of civilization. Perhaps theyeven resisted the contamination of cards and drink, profanity andrevolver salutations, while the gilded and tinseled Missouri Riversteamboat bore them for three days against its muddy current andboiling eddies to meet their company and their outfit. 

[Illustration: DAVID R. ATCHISON. ]

But once landed at Independence or Leavenworth, they were of thefrontier, of the wilderness, of the desert. Here they donned theirgarments of red flannel and coarse cloth or buckskin, thrust the legsof their trousers inside the tops of their heavy boots, and wore theirbowie-knife or revolver in their outside belt. From this departure allwere 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 distribution of duty and the assignmentof responsibility. Toil and exposure, hunger and thirst, wind andstorm, danger in camp quarrel or Indian ambush, were the familiar andordinary vicissitudes of a three months' journey in a caravan of theplains. 

All this movement created business for these Missouri River towns. Their few inhabitants drove a brisk trade in shirts and blankets, gunsand powder, hard bread and bacon, wagons and live stock. Pettycommerce busies itself with the art of gain rather than with the laborof reform. Indian and emigrant traders did not too closely scan theirsources of profit. The precepts of the divine and the penalties of thehuman law sat lightly upon them. As yet many of these frontier townswere small hamlets, without even a pretext of police regulations. Passion, therefore, ran comparatively a free course, and the personalredress of private wrongs was only held in check by the broad andacknowledged right of self-defense. Since 1849 and 1850, when the goldfever was at its height, emigration across the plains had slackened, and the eagerness for a revival of this local traffic undoubtedlyexerted its influence in procuring the opening of the territories in1854. 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 suchcircumstances these opportunities to the shrewd, to the bold, andespecially to the unscrupulous, are many. Cheap lands, unlimited townlots, eligible trading sites, the multitude of franchises andprivileges within the control of a territorial legislature, theoffices to be distributed under party favoritism, offer an abundantlure to enterprise and far more to craft. 

It was to such a population and under such a condition of things thatSenator Atchison went to his home in Platte County in the summer of1854 to preach his pro-slavery crusade against Kansas. His personalconvictions, his party faith, his senatorial reflection, and hisfinancial fortunes, were all involved in the scheme. With the help ofthe Stringfellows and other zealous co-workers, the town of Atchisonwas founded and named in his honor, and the "Squatter Sovereign"newspaper established, which displayed his name as a candidate for thepresidency. The good-will of the Administration was manifested bymaking one of the editors postmaster at the new town. 

President Pierce appointed as Governor of Kansas Territory Andrew H. Keeder, a member of his own party, from the free State ofPennsylvania. He had neither prominent reputation nor conspicuousability, though under trying circumstances he afterwards showeddiligence, judgment, integrity, and more than ordinary firmness andindependence. It is to be presumed that his fitness in a partisanlight had been thoroughly scrutinized by both President and Senate. Upon the vital point the investigation was deemed conclusive. "He wasappointed, " the "Washington Union" naively stated when the matter wasfirst called in question, "under the strongest assurance that he wasstrictly and honestly a national man. We are able to state further, onvery reliable authority, that whilst Governor Reeder was inWashington, at the time of his appointment, he conversed with Southerngentlemen on the subject of slavery, and assured them that he had nomore scruples in buying a slave than a horse, and regretted that hehad not money to purchase a number to carry with him to Kansas. " Withhim were appointed three Federal judges, a secretary, a marshal, andan attorney for the Territory, all doubtless considered equallytrustworthy on the slavery question. The organic act invested thegovernor with very comprehensive powers to initiate the organizationof the new Territory. Until the first legislature should be dulyconstituted, he had authority to fix election days, define electiondistricts, direct the mode of returns, take a census, locate thetemporary seat of government, declare vacancies, order new electionsto fill them, besides the usual and permanent powers of an executive. 

[Sidenote: Ex-Governor Reeder's Testimony, "Howard Report, " pp. 933-985. ]

Arriving at Leavenworth in October, 1854, Governor Reeder was not longin discovering the designs of the Missourians. He was urged to orderthe immediate election of a territorial legislature. The conspiratorshad already spent some months in organizing their "Blue Lodges, " andnow desired at once to control the political power of the Territory. But the Governor had too much manliness to become the mere pliant toolthey wished to make him. He resented their dictation; he made a tourof inspection through the new settlements; and, acting on his ownjudgment, on his return issued a proclamation for a simple election ofa delegate to Congress. At the appearance of this proclamation PlatteCounty 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 ofMissourians, and that he should resist outside interference fromfriend, foe, or faction. [Footnote: Governor Reeder to Gwiner andothers, Nov. 21, 1854; copied into "National Era, " Jan. 4, 1855. ]Pocketing this rebuff as best they might, Senator Atchison and his"Blue Lodges" nevertheless held fast to their purpose. Paperproclamations and lectures on abstract rights counted little againstthe practical measures they had matured. November 29th, the day ofelection for delegate, finally arrived, and with it a formidableinvasion of Missouri voters at more than half the polling placesappointed in the Governor's proclamation. 

In frontier life it was an every-day experience to make excursions forbusiness or pleasure, singly or in parties, requiring two or threeconsecutive days, perhaps a night or two of camping out, for whichsaddle-horses and farm-wagons furnished ready transportation; andnothing was more common than concerted neighborhood efforts forimprovement, protection, or amusement. On such occasions neighborlysentiment and comity required every man to drop his axe, or unhitchfrom the plow in the furrow, to further the real or imaginary weal ofthe community. In urgent instances non-compliance was fatal to thepeace and comfort 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 unwillingparticipants were doubtless swept into it by an excited public opinionthey dared not resist. 

A day or two before the election the whole Missouri border was astir. Horses were saddled, teams harnessed, wagons loaded with tents, forage, and provisions, bowie-knives buckled on, revolvers and riflesloaded, and flags and inscriptions flung to the breeze by the moredemonstrative and daring. Crossing the river-ferries from the uppercounties, and passing unobstructed over the State line by the prairie-roads and trails from the lower, many of them camped that night at thenearest polls, while others pushed on fifty or a hundred miles to thesparsely settled election districts of the interior. As they passedalong, the more scrupulous went through the empty form of an imaginarysettlement, by nailing a card to a tree, driving a stake into theground, or inscribing their names in a claim register, prepared inhaste by the invading party. The indifferent satisfied themselves withmere mental resolves to become settlers. The utterly reckless silencedall scruples in profanity and drunkenness. 

[Sidenote: Nov. 29, 1854. ]

On election morning the few real squatters of Kansas, endowed withDouglas's delusive boon of "popular sovereignty, " witnessed with mixedindignation and terror acts of summary usurpation. Judges of electionwere dispossessed and set aside by intimidation or stratagem, and pro-slavery judges substituted without the slightest regard to regularityor law; judges' and voters' oaths were declared unnecessary, orexplained away upon newly-invented phrases and absurd subtleties. "Where there's a will, there's a way, " in wrong and crime, as well asin honest purpose and deed; and by more dishonest devices than we canstop fully to record the ballot-boxes were filled, through invasion, false swearing, riot, and usurpation, with ballots for Whitfield, thepro-slavery candidate for delegate to Congress, at nine out of theseventeen polling places--showing, upon a careful scrutiny afterwardsmade by a committee of Congress, an aggregate of 1729 illegal votes, and only 1114 legal ones. 

This mockery of an election completed, the valiant Knights of the BlueLodge, the fraternal members of the Social Band, the philanthropicgroups of the Friends' Society, and the chivalric Sons of the Southreturned to their axe and plow, society lodge and bar-room haunt, toexult in a victory for Missouri and slavery over the "Abolition hordesand nigger thieves of the Emigrant Aid Society. " The "Border Ruffians"of Missouri had written their preliminary chapter in the annals ofKansas. The published statements of the Emigrant Aid Society show thatup to the date of election it had sent only a few hundred men, women, and children to the Territory. Why such a prodigious effort was deemednecessary to overcome the votes and influence of this paltry handfulof "paupers who had sold themselves to Eli Thayer and Co. " was neverexplained. 

CHAPTER XXIII

THE BOGUS LAWS

As the event proved, the invasion of border ruffians to decide thefirst election in Kansas had been entirely unnecessary. Even withoutcounting the illegal votes, the pro-slavery candidate for delegate waschosen by a plurality. He had held the office of Indian Agent, and hisacquaintance, experience, and the principal fact that he was thefavorite of the conspirators gave him an easy victory. Governor Reederissued his certificate of election without delay, and Whitfieldhurried away to Washington to enjoy his new honors, taking his seat inthe House of Representatives within three weeks after his election. Atchison, however, did not follow his example. Congress met on thefirst Monday of December, and the services of the Acting Vice-President were needed in the Senate Chamber. But of such importancedid 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 theSenate, giving notice of his probable absence and advising theappointment of a new presiding officer. 

[Sidenote: Reeder Testimony, Howard Report, p. 934. ]

[Sidenote: Howard Report, p. 9. ]

As a necessary preliminary to organizing the government of theTerritory, Governor Reeder, under the authority of the organic act, proceeded to take a census of its inhabitants. This work, carried onand completed in the months of January and February, 1855, disclosed atotal population of 8601 souls, of whom 2905 were voters. With thisenumeration as a definite guide, the Governor made an apportionment, established election districts, and, appointing the necessary officersto conduct it, fixed upon the 30th of March, 1855, as the day forelecting the territorial legislature. Governor Reeder had come toKansas an ardent Democrat, a firm friend of the Pierce Administration, and an enthusiastic disciple of the new Democratic dogma of "PopularSovereignty. " But his short experience with Atchison's Border Ruffianshad already rudely shaken his partisanship. The events of the Novemberelection exposed the designs of the pro-slavery conspiracy, and nocourse was left him but to become either its ally or its enemy. 

[Sidenote: Reeder instructions, Howard Report, pp. 107, 935. ]

In behalf of justice, as well as to preserve what he still fondlycherished as a vital party principle, he determined by every means inhis power to secure a fair election. In his appointment of electionofficers, census-takers, justices of the peace, and constables, he wascareful to make his selections from both factions as fairly aspossible, excepting that, as a greater and necessary safeguard againstanother invasion, he designated in the several election districtsalong the Missouri border two "free-State" men and one pro-slavery manto act as judges at each poll. He prescribed distinct and rigid rulesfor the conduct of the election; ordering among other things that thejudges should be sworn, that constables should attend and preserveorder, and that voters must be actual residents to the exclusion ofany other home. 

All his precautions came to nought. This election of a territoriallegislature, which, as then popularly believed, might determine by theenactment of laws whether Kansas should become a free or a slaveState, was precisely the coveted opportunity for which the BorderRuffian conspiracy had been organized. Its interference in theNovember election served as a practical experiment to demonstrate itsefficiency and to perfect its plans. The alleged doings of theEmigrant Aid Societies furnished a convenient and plausible pretext;extravagant rumors were now circulated as to the plans and numbers ofthe Eastern emigrants; it was industriously reported that they werecoming twenty thousand strong to control the election; and by thesemisrepresentations the whole border was wrought up into the fervor ofa pro-slavery crusade. 

[Sidenote: 1855. ]

[Sidenote: Howard Report, pp. 9 to 44. ]

[Sidenote: Howard Report, p. 30. ]

[Sidenote: Ibid. , p. 34. ]

When the 30th of March, election day, finally arrived, the conspiracyhad once more mustered its organized army of invasion, and fivethousand Missouri Border Ruffians, in different camps, bands, andsquads, held practical possession of nearly every election district inthe Territory. Riot, violence, intimidation, destruction ofballot-boxes, expulsion and substitution of judges, neglect or refusalto administer the prescribed oaths, _viva voce_ voting, repeatedvoting on one side, and obstruction and dispersion of voters on theother, were common incidents; no one dared to resist the acts of theinvaders, since they were armed and commanded in frontier if not inmilitary fashion, in many cases by men whose names then or after-wardswere prominent or notorious. Of the votes cast, 1410 were upon asubsequent examination found to have been legal, while 4908 wereillegal. Of the total number, 5427 votes were given to the pro-slaveryand only 791 to the free-State candidates. Upon a careful collation ofevidence the investigating committee of Congress was of the opinionthat the vote would have returned a free-State legislature if theelection had been confined to the actual settlers; as conducted, however, it showed a nominal majority for every pro-slavery candidatebut one. 

Governor Reeder had feared a repetition of the November frauds; but itis evident that he had no conception of so extensive an invasion. Itis probable, too, that information of its full enormity did notimmediately reach him. Meanwhile the five days prescribed in hisproclamation for receiving notices of contest elapsed. The Governorhad removed his executive office to Shawnee Mission. At this place, and at the neighboring town of Westport, Missouri, only four milesdistant, a majority of the persons claiming to have been elected nowassembled and became clamorous for their certificates. [Footnote:Testimony of Ex-Governor Reeder, Howard Report, pp. 935-9; alsoStringfellow's testimony, p. 855. ] A committee of their numberpresented a formal written demand for the same; they strenuouslydenied his right to question the legality of the election, and threatsagainst the Governor's life in case of his refusal to issue thembecame alarmingly frequent. Their regular consultations, their opendenunciations, and their hints at violence, while they did notentirely overawe the Governor, so far produced their intended effectupon him that he assembled a band of his personal friends for his ownprotection. On the 6th of April, one week after election, the Governorannounced his decision upon the returns. On one side of the room werehimself and his armed adherents; on the other side the would-bemembers in superior numbers, with their pistols and bowie-knives. Under this virtual duress the Governor issued certificates of electionto all but about one-third of the claimants; and the returns in thesecases he rejected, not because of alleged force or fraud, but onaccount of palpable defects in the papers. [Transcriber's Note:Lengthy footnote relocated to chapter end. ]

The issue of certificates was a fatal error in Governor Reeder'saction. It endowed the notoriously illegal Legislature with atechnical authority, and a few weeks later, when he went to Washingtoncity to invoke the help of the Pierce Administration against theusurpation, it enabled Attorney-General Cushing (if current report wastrue) to taunt him with the reply: "You state that this Legislature isthe creature of force and fraud; which shall we believe--your officialcertificate under seal, or your subsequent declarations to us inprivate conversation?"

[Sidenote: April 16, 1855. ]

The question of the certificates disposed of, the next point ofinterest was to determine at what place the Legislature shouldassemble. Under the organic act the Governor had authority to appointthe first meeting, and it soon became known that his mind was fixedupon the embryo town of Pawnee, adjoining the military post of FortRiley, situated on the Kansas River, 110 miles from the Missouri line. Against this exile, however, Stringfellow and his Border Ruffianlawmakers protested in an energetic memorial, asking to be calledtogether at the Shawnee Mission, supplemented by the private threatthat even if they convened at Pawnee, they would adjourn and come backthe day after. If the Governor harbored any remaining doubt that thisbogus Legislature intended to assume and maintain the mastery, itspeedily vanished. Their hostility grew open and defiant; they classedhim as a free-State man, an "abolitionist, " and it became only tooevident that he would gradually be shorn of power and degraded fromthe position of Territorial Executive to that of a mere puppet. Havingnothing to gain by further concession, he adhered to his originalplan, issued his proclamation convening the Legislature at Pawnee onthe first Monday in July, and immediately started for Washington tomake a direct appeal to President Pierce. 

[Sidenote: "Squatter Sovereign, " June 5, 1855. ]

How Governor Reeder failed in this last hope of redress and support, how he found the Kansas conspiracy as strong at Washington as on theMissouri border, will appear further along. On the 2d of July theGovernor and the Legislature met at the town of Pawnee, where he hadconvoked them--a magnificent prairie site, but containing as yet onlythree buildings, one to hold sessions in, and two to furnish food andlodging. The Governor's friends declared the accommodations ample; theMissourians on the contrary made affidavit that they were compelled tocamp out and cook their own rations. The actual facts had little to dowith the predetermination of the members. Stringfellow had written inhis paper, the "Squatter Sovereign, " three weeks before: "We hope noone will be silly enough to suppose the Governor has power to compelus to stay at Pawnee during the entire session. We will, of course, have to 'trot' out at the bidding of his Excellency, --but we will trothim back next day at our bidding. "

[Sidenote: "House Journal Kansas Territory, " 1855, p. 12. ]

[Sidenote: "Journal of Council, Kansas Territory, " p. 12. ]

[Sidenote: "House Journal Kansas Territory, " 1855, p. 29. ]

The prediction was literally fulfilled. Both branches organizedwithout delay, the House choosing John H. Stringfellow for Speaker. Before the Governor's message was delivered on the following day, theHouse had already passed, under suspended rules, "An act to remove theseat of government temporarily to the Shawnee Manual Labor School, "which act the Council as promptly concurred in. The Governor vetoedthe bill, but it was at once passed over his veto. By the end of theweek the Legislature had departed from the budding capital to returnno more. 

[Sidenote: Ibid. , p. 30. ]

The Governor was perforce obliged to follow his migratory Solons, whoadhered to their purpose despite his public or private protests, andwho reassembled at Shawnee Mission, or more correctly the ShawneeManual Labor School, on the 16th of July. Shawnee Mission was one ofour many national experiments in civilizing Indian tribes. Thisphilanthropic institution, nourished by the Federal treasury, waspresided over by the Rev. Thomas Johnson. The town of Westport, whichcould boast of a post office, lay only four miles to the eastward, onthe Missouri side of the State line, and was a noted pro-slaverystronghold. There were several large brick buildings at the Missioncapable of accommodating the Legislature with halls and lodging-rooms;its nearness to an established post office, and its contiguity toMissouri pro-slavery sentiment were elements probably not lost sightof. Mr. Johnson, who had formerly been a Missouri slaveholder, was atthe March election chosen a member of the Territorial Council, whichin due time made him its presiding officer; and the bogus Legislatureat Shawnee Mission was therefore in a certain sense under its own"vine and fig-tree. "

[Illustration: ANDREW H. REEDER. ]

[Sidenote: "Squatter Sovereign, " July 17, 1855. ]

[Sidenote: Ibid. , June 19, 1855. ]

[Sidenote: "House Journal Kansas Territory, " 1856, p. 12. ]

The two branches of the Legislature, the Council with the Rev. ThomasJohnson as President, and the House with Stringfellow of the "SquatterSovereign" as Speaker, now turned their attention seriously to thepro-slavery work before them. The conspirators were shrewd enough torealize their victory. "To have intimated one year ago, " said theSpeaker in his address of thanks, "that such a result would be wroughtout, one would have been thought a visionary; to have predicted thatto-day a legislature would assemble, almost unanimously pro-slavery, and with myself for Speaker, I would have been thought mad. " Theprogramme had already been announced in the "Squatter Sovereign" someweeks before. "The South must and will prevail. If the Southern peoplebut half do their duty, in less than nine months from this day Kansaswill have formed a constitution and be knocking at the door foradmission. .. . In the session of the United States Senate in 1856, twoSenators from the slave-holding State of Kansas will take their seats, and abolitionism will be forever driven from our halls oflegislation. " Against this triumphant attitude Governor Reeder wasdespondent and powerless. The language of his message plainly betrayedthe political dilemma in which he found himself. He strove as best hemight to couple together the prevailing cant of office-holders against"the destructive spirit of abolitionism" and a comparatively mildrebuke of the Missouri usurpation. [Footnote: Its phraseology wasadroit enough to call forth a sneering compliment from SpeakerStringfellow, who wrote to the "Squatter Sovereign": "On Tuesday theGovernor sent in his message, which you will find is very wellcalculated to have its effect with the Pennsylvania Democracy. If hewas trustworthy I would" be disposed to compliment the most of it, "but knowing how corrupt the author is, and that it is only designedfor political effect in Pennsylvania, he not expecting to remain longwith us, I will pass it by. "--"Squatter Sovereign, " July 17, 1855. ]

[Sidenote: "House Journal Kansas Territory, " 1855. Appendix, p. 10. ]

Nevertheless, the Governor stood reasonably firm. He persisted indeclaring that the Legislature could pass no valid laws at any otherplace than Pawnee, and returned the first bill sent him with a vetomessage to that effect. To this the Legislature replied by passing thebill over his veto, and in addition formally raising a joint committee"to draw up a memorial to the President of the United Statesrespectfully demanding the removal of A. H. Reeder from the office ofgovernor"; and, as if this indignity were not enough, holding a jointsession for publicly signing it. The memorial was promptly dispatchedto Washington by special messenger; but on the way this envoy read thenews of the Governor's dismissal by the President. 

This event appeared definitely to sweep away the last obstacle in thepath of the conspirators. The office of acting governor now devolvedupon the secretary of the Territory, Daniel Woodson, a man who sharedtheir views and was allied to their schemes. With him to approve theirenactments, the parliamentary machinery of the "bogus" Legislature wascomplete and effective. They had at the very beginning summarilyousted the free-State members chosen at the supplementary election onMay 22, and seated the pro-slavery claimants of March 30; and the onlytwo remaining free-State members resigned in utter disgust to avoidgiving countenance to the flagrant usurpation by their presence. Noone was left even to enter a protest. 

[Sidenote: Report Judiciary Com. , "House Journal Kansas Territory, "1855. Appendix, p. 14. ]

This, then, was the perfect flower of Douglas's vaunted experiment of"popular sovereignty"--a result they professed fully to appreciate. "Hitherto, " said the Judiciary Committee of the House in a long andgrandiloquent report, "Congress have retained to themselves the powerto mold and shape all the territorial governments according to theirown peculiar notions, and to restrict within very limited andcontracted bounds both the natural as well as the political rights ofthe bold and daring pioneer and the noble, hard-fisted squatter. " Butby this course, the argument of the committee continued, "the pillarswhich uphold this glorious union of States were shaken until the wholeworld was threatened with a political earthquake, " and, "the principlethat the people are capable of self-government would have been foreverswallowed up by anarchy and confusion, " had not the Kansas-Nebraskabill "delegated to the people of these territories the right to frameand establish their own form of government. "

[Sidenote: Report Judiciary Com. , "House Journal Kansas Territory, "1855. Appendix, p. 18. ]

[Sidenote: Ibid. , p. 18. ]

What might not be expected of lawmakers who begin with so ambitious anexordium, and who lay the cornerstone of their edifice upon the solidrock of political principle? The anti-climax of performance whichfollowed would be laughably absurd, were it not marked by the cunningof a well-matured political plot. Their first step was to recommendthe repeal of "all laws whatsoever, which may have been considered tohave 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 inthis Territory"; secondly, to substitute a code about which thereshould be no question, by the equally ingenious expedient of copyingand adopting the Revised Statutes of Missouri. 

[Sidenote: Ibid. , p. 14. ]

These enactments were made in due form; but the bogus Legislature didnot seem content to let its fame rest on this single monument of self-government. Casting their eyes once more upon the broad expanse ofAmerican politics, the Judiciary Committee reported: "The question ofslavery is one that convulses the whole country, from the boisterousAtlantic to the shores of the mild Pacific. This state of things hasbeen brought about by the fanaticism of the North and East, while upto this time the people of the South, and those of the North whodesire the perpetuation of this Union and are devoted to the laws, have been entirely conservative. But the time is coming--yea, it hasalready arrived--for the latter to take a bold and decided stand thatthe Union and law may not be trampled in the dust, " etc. , etc. 

[Sidenote: "Statutes Territory of Kansas, " 1855, p. 715. ]

The "Revised Statutes of Missouri, " recommended in bulk, and adoptedwith hasty clerical modifications, [Footnote: To guard moreeffectually against clerical errors, the Legislature enacted: "Sec. 1. Wherever the word 'State' occurs in any act of the presentlegislative assembly, or any law of this Territory, in suchconstruction as to indicate the locality of the operation of such actor laws, the same shall in every instance be taken and understood tomean 'Territory, ' and shall apply to the Territory of Kansas. "--"Statutes of Kansas, " 1855, p. 718. ] already contained the usualslave-code peculiar to Southern States. But in the plans and hopes ofthe conspirators, this of itself was insufficient. In order to "take abold stand that the Union and law might not be trampled in the dust, "they with great painstaking devised and passed "an act to punishoffenses against slave property. "

It prescribed the penalty of death, not merely for the grave crime ofinciting or aiding an insurrection of slaves, free negroes, ormulattoes, or circulating printed matter for such an object, but alsothe same extreme punishment for the comparatively mild offense ofenticing or decoying away a slave or assisting him to escape; forharboring or concealing a fugitive slave, ten years' imprisonment; forresisting an officer arresting a fugitive slave, two years'imprisonment. 

If such inflictions as the foregoing might perhaps be tolerated uponthe plea that a barbarous institution required barbarous safeguards, what ought to be said of the last three sections of the act which, incontempt of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution ofthe United States, annulled the freedom of speech and the freedom ofthe press, and invaded even the right of individual conscience?

[Sidenote: "Statutes Territory of Kansas, " 1855, p. 516. ]

To write, print, or circulate "any statements, arguments, opinions, sentiment, doctrine, advice, or innuendo, calculated to produce adisorderly, dangerous, or rebellious disaffection among the slaves ofthe Territory, or to induce such slaves to escape from the service oftheir masters, or to resist their authority, " was pronounced a felonypunishable by five years' imprisonment. To deny the right of holdingslaves in the Territory, by speaking, writing, printing, orcirculating books, or papers, was likewise made a felony, punishableby two years' imprisonment. Finally it was enacted that "no person whois conscientiously opposed to holding slaves, or who does not admitthe right to hold slaves in this Territory, shall sit as a juror onthe trial of any prosecution for any violation of any of the sectionsof this act. " Also, all officers were, in addition to their usualoath, required to swear to support and sustain the Kansas-Nebraska Actand the Fugitive-Slave Law. 

[Sidenote: "Journal of Council Kansas Territory, " 1855 p. 248. ]

The spirit which produced these despotic laws also governed themethods devised to enforce them. The Legislature proceeded to electthe principal officers of each county, who in turn were empowered bythe laws to appoint the subordinate officials. All administration, therefore, emanated from that body, reflected its will, and followedits behest. Finally, the usual skeleton organization of a territorialmilitia was devised, whose general officers were in due time appointedby the acting Governor from prominent and serviceable pro-slaverymembers of the Legislature. 

[Sidenote: "Statutes Territory of Kansas, " 1855, p. 332. ]

Having secured their present domination, they sought to perpetuatetheir political ascendency in the Territory. They ingeniouslyprolonged the tenure of their various appointees, and to render theirsuccess at future elections easy and certain they provided thatcandidates to be eligible, and judges of election, and voters whenchallenged, must swear to support the Fugitive-Slave Law. This theyknew would virtually disfranchise many conscientious antislavery men;while, on the other hand, they enacted that each inhabitant who hadpaid his territorial tax should be a qualified voter for all electiveofficers. Under so lax a provision Missouri invaders could in thefuture, as they had in the past, easily give an apparent majority atthe ballot-box for all their necessary agents and ulterior schemes. 

In a technical sense the establishment of slavery in Kansas wascomplete. There were by the census of the previous February alreadysome two hundred slaves in the Territory. Under the sanction of theselaws, and before they could by any possibility be repealed, somethousands might be expected, especially by such an organized andunited effort as the South could make to maintain the vantage groundalready gained. Once there, the aggressiveness of the institutionmight be relied on to protect itself, since all experience had shownthat under similar conditions it was almost ineradicable. 

[Sidenote: Colfax, Speech in H. R. , June 21, 1856. ]

After so much patriotic endeavor on the part of these Border Ruffianlegislators "that the Union and law may not be trampled in the dust, "it cannot perhaps be wondered at that they began to look around fortheir personal rewards. These they easily found in the rich harvest oflocal monopolies and franchises which lay scattered in profusion onthis virgin field of legislation, ready to be seized and appropriatedwithout dispute by the first occupants. There were charters forrailroads, insurance companies, toll-bridges, ferries, coal-mines, plank roads, and numberless privileges and honors of present orprospective value out of which, together with the county, district, and military offices, the ambitious members might give and take withgenerous liberality. One-sixth of the printed laws of the firstsession attest their modest attention to this incidental squatters'dowry. One of the many favorable opportunities in this category wasthe establishment of the permanent territorial capital, authorized bythe organic act, where the liberal Federal appropriation for publicbuildings should be expended. For this purpose, competition from theolder towns yielding gracefully after the first ballot, an entirelynew site on the open prairie overlooking the Kansas River some twelvemiles west of Lawrence was agreed upon. The proceedings do not showany unseemly scramble over the selection, and no tangible recordremains of the whispered distribution of corner lots and contracts. Itis only the name which rises into historical notice. 

[Sidenote: "House Journal Kansas Territory, " 1855. Appendix, p. 3. ]

One of the actors in the political drama of Kansas was Samuel DexterLecompte, Chief-Justice of the Territory. He had been appointed fromthe border State of Maryland, and is represented to have been adiligent student, a respectable lawyer, a prominent Democraticpolitician, and possessed of the personal instincts and demeanor of agentleman. Moved by a pro-slavery sympathy that was sincere, JudgeLecompte lent his high authority to the interests of the conspiracyagainst Kansas. He had already rendered the bogus Legislature theimportant service of publishing an extra-judicial opinion, sustainingtheir adjournment from Pawnee to Shawnee Mission. Probably becausethey valued his official championship and recognized in him a powerfulally in politics, they made him a member of several of their privatecorporations, and gave him the honor of naming their newly foundedcapital Lecompton. But the intended distinction was transitory. Beforethe lapse of a single decade, the town for which he stood sponsor wasno longer the capital of Kansas. 

[Relocated Footnote: Namely, because of a _viva voce_ vote certifiedinstead of a ballot, and because the prescribed oath and the words"lawful resident voters" had been openly erased from the printedforms. In six districts the Governor ordered a supplementary election, which was duly held on the 22d of May following. When that dayarrived, the Border Ruffians, proclaiming the election to be illegal, by their default allowed free-State men to be chosen in all thedistricts except that of Leavenworth, where the invasion and tacticsof the March election were repeated now for the third time and thesame candidates voted for. --Howard Report, pp. 35-36. Indeed, theBorder Ruffian habit of voting in Kansas had become chronic, and didnot cease for some years, and sometimes developed the grimmest humors. In the autumn of that same year an election for county-seat took placein Leavenworth County by the accidental failure of the Legislature todesignate one. Leavenworth city aspired to this honor and polled sixhundred votes; but it had an enterprising rival in Kickapoo city, tenmiles up the river, and another, Delaware city, eight miles downstream. Both were paper towns--"cottonwood towns, " in border slang--ofgreat expectations; and both having more unscrupulous enterprise thanvoters, appealed to Platte County to "come over. " This was an appealPlatte County could never resist, and accordingly a charteredferry-boat brought voters all election day from the Missouri side, until the Kickapoo tally-lists scored 850. Delaware city, however, wasnot to be thus easily crushed. She, too, not only had her charteredferry-boat, but kept her polls open for three days in succession, andnot until her boxes contained nine hundred ballots (of which probablyonly fifty were legal) did the steam whistle scream victory! When the"returning board" had sufficiently weighed this complicated electoralcontest, it gravely decided that keeping the polls open for three dayswas "an unheard of irregularity. " (J. N. Holloway, "History ofKansas, " pp. 192-4. ) This was exquisite irony; but a local court onappeal seriously giving a final verdict for Delaware, the transactionbecame a perennial burlesque on "Squatter Sovereignty. "]

CHAPTER XXIV

THE TOPEKA CONSTITUTION

[Sidenote: "House Journal Kansas Territory, " 1855. P. 30; "CouncilJournal, " 1855, p. 253. ]

The bogus Legislature adjourned late on the night of the 30th ofAugust, 1855. They had elaborately built up their legal despotism, commissioned trusty adherents to administer it, and provided theirprincipal and undoubted partisans with military authority to see thatit was duly executed. Going still a step further, they proposed so tomold and control public opinion as to prevent the organization of anyparty or faction to oppose their plans. In view of the comingpresidential campaign, it was the fashion in the States for Democratsto style themselves "National Democrats"; and a few newspapers andspeakers in Kansas had adopted the prevailing political name. Tostifle any such movement, both houses of the Legislature on the lastnight of their session adopted a concurrent resolution declaring thatthe proposition to organize a National Democratic party, havingalready misled some of their friends, would divide pro-slavery Whigsfrom Democrats and weaken their party one-half; that it was the dutyof 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 isand should be held as an ally of abolitionism and disunion. "

Had the conspiracy been content to prosecute its designs throughmoderate measures, it would inevitably have fastened slavery uponKansas. The organization of the invasion in western Missouri, carriedon under pre-acknowledged leadership, in populous counties, amongestablished homes, amid well-matured confidence growing out of longpersonal and political relationship, would have been easy even withoutthe powerful bond of secret association. On the other hand, the unionof the actual inhabitants of Kansas, scattered in sparse settlements, personal strangers to each other, coming from widely separated States, and comprising radically different manners, sentiments, andtraditions, and burdened with the prime and unyielding necessity ofprotecting themselves and their families against cold and hunger, wasin the very nature of the case slow and difficult. But the course ofthe Border Ruffians created, in less than six weeks, a powerful anddetermined opposition, which became united in support of what is knownas the Topeka Constitution. 

It is noteworthy that this free-State movement originated inDemocratic circles, under Democratic auspices. The Republican partydid not yet exist. The opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act weredistributed among Whigs, Know-Nothings, and Free-soilers in theStates, and had no national affiliation, although they had wonoverwhelming triumphs in a majority of the Congressional districts inthe fall elections of 1854. Nearly if not quite all the free-Stateleaders originally went to Kansas as friends of President Pierce, andas believers in the dogma of "Popular Sovereignty. "

Now that this usurping Legislature had met, contemptuously expelledthe free-State members, defied the Governor's veto, set up itsingeniously contrived legal despotism, and commissioned its partisanfollowers to execute and administer it, the situation becamesufficiently grave to demand defensive action. The real settlers wereDemocrats, it was true; they had voted for Pierce, shouted for theplatform of '52, applauded the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and emigrated tothe Territory to enjoy the new political gospel of popularsovereignty. But the practical Democratic beatitudes of Kansas werenot calculated to strengthen the saints or confirm them in the faith. A Democratic invasion had elected a Democratic Legislature, whichenacted laws, under whose arbitrary "non-intervention" a Democraticcourt might fasten a ball and chain to their ankles if they shouldhappen to read the Declaration of Independence to a negro, or carryJefferson's "Notes on Virginia" in their carpet-bags. 

The official resolution which the bogus Legislature proclaimed as afinal political test left no middle ground between those who were forslavery and those who were against slavery--those who were for thebogus laws in all their enormity, and those who were against them--andall who were not willing to become active co-workers with theconspiracy were forced to combine in self-defense. 

It was in the town of Lawrence that the free-State movement naturallyfound its beginning. The settlers of the Emigrant Aid Society werecomparatively few in number; but, supported by money, saw-mills, printing-presses, boarding-houses, they became from the very first acompact, 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 convention held at BigSprings, a few miles west of Lawrence, on the 5th of September, 1855. More important than all, perhaps, was the presence and activeparticipation of ex-Governor Reeder himself, who wrote theresolutions, addressed the convention in a stirring and defiantspeech, and received by acclamation their nomination for territorialdelegate. 

The platform adopted repudiated in strong terms the bogus Legislatureand its tyrannical enactments, and declared "that we will endure andsubmit to these laws no longer than the best interests of theTerritory require, as the least of two evils, and will resist them toa bloody issue as soon as we ascertain that peaceable remedies shallfail. " It also recommended the formation of volunteer companies andthe procurement of arms. The progressive and radical spirit of theconvention is illustrated in its endorsement of the free-Statemovement, against the report of its own committee. 

[Sidenote: Howard Report, pp. 48-58. ]

The strongest point, however, made by the convention was adetermination, strictly adhered to for more than two years, to take nopart in any election under the bogus territorial laws. As a resultWhitfield received, without competition, the combined pro-slavery andBorder Ruffian vote for delegate on the first of October, a total of2721 ballots. Measures had meanwhile been perfected by the free-Statemen to elect delegates to a constitutional convention. On the 9th ofOctober, at a separate election, held by the free-State party alone, under self-prescribed formalities and regulations, these were dulychosen by an aggregate vote of 2710, ex-Governor Reeder receiving atthe same polls 2849 votes for delegate. 

[Sidenote: "Globe, " March 24, 1856, p. 698. ]

By this series of political movements, carried out in quiet andorderly proceedings, the free-State party was not only fullyconstituted and organized, but was demonstrated to possess a decidedmajority in the Territory. Still following out the policy agreed upon, the delegates chosen met at Topeka on the 23d of October, and withproper deliberation and decorum framed a State constitution, which wasin turn submitted to a vote of the people. Although this election washeld near midwinter (Dec. 15, 1855), and in the midst of seriousdisturbances of the peace arising from other causes, it received anaffirmative vote of 1731, showing a hearty popular endorsement of it. Of the document itself no extended criticism is necessary. Itprohibited slavery, but made reasonable provision for existingproperty-rights in slaves actually in the Territory. In no sense aradical, subversive, or "abolition" production, the TopekaConstitution was remarkable only as being the indignant protest of thepeople of the Territory against the Missouri usurpation. [Footnote:Still another election was January 15, 1856, to choose held by thefree-State party on State officers to act under the new organization, at which Charles Robinson received 1296 votes for governor, out of atotal of 1706, and Mark W. Delahay for Representative in Congress, 1828. A legislature elected at the same time, met, according to theterms of the newly framed constitution, on the 4th of March, organized, and elected Andrew H. Reeder and James H. Lane UnitedStates Senators. ] The new constitution was transmitted to Congress andwas formally presented as a petition to the Senate by General Cass, onMarch 24, 1856, [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote (1) relocated tochapter end. ] and to the House some days later. 

[Sidenote: February 22, 1856. ]

The Republican Senators in Congress (the Republican party had beendefinitely organized a few weeks before at Pittsburg) now urged theimmediate reception of the Topeka Constitution and the admission ofKansas as a free State, citing the cases of Michigan, Arkansas, Florida, and California as justifying precedents. [Footnote: Theybased their appeal more especially upon the opinion of the Attorney-General in the case of Arkansas, that citizens of Territories possessthe constitutional right to assemble and petition Congress for theredress of grievances; that the form of the petition is immaterial;and that, "as the power of Congress over the whole subject is plenary, they may accept any constitution, however framed, which in theirjudgment meets the sense of the people to be affected by it. "] For thepresent, however, there was no hope of admission to the Union with theTopeka Constitution. The Pierce Administration, under the dominationof the Southern States, had deposed Governor Reeder. Both in hisannual message and again in a special message, the President denouncedthe Topeka movement as insurrectionary. 

[Sidenote: Senate Report No. 34, 1st Session, 34th Congress, p. 32. ]

In the Senate, too, the application was already prejudged; theCommittee on Territories through Douglas himself as chairman, in along partisan report, dismissed it with the assertion "that it was themovement of a political party instead of the whole body of the peopleof Kansas, conducted without the sanction of law, and in defiance ofthe constituted authorities, for the avowed purpose of overthrowingthe territorial government established by Congress. " In the mouth of aconsistent advocate of "Popular Sovereignty, " this argument might havehad some force; but it came with a bad grace from Douglas, who in thesame report indorsed the bogus Legislature and sustained the boguslaws upon purely technical assumptions. Congress was irreconcilablydivided in politics. The Democrats had an overwhelming majority in theSenate; the opposition, through the election of Speaker Banks, possessed a working control of the House. Some months later, afterprolonged debate, the House passed a bill for the admission of Kansasunder the Topeka Constitution; but as the Senate had already rejectedit, the movement remained without practical result. [Transcriber'sNote: Lengthy footnote (2) relocated to chapter end. ]

The staple argument against the Topeka free-State movement, that itwas a rebellion against constitutional authority, though perhapscorrect as a mere theory was utterly refuted by the practical facts ofthe case. The Big Springs resolutions, indeed, counseled resistance toa "bloody issue"; but this was only to be made after "peaceableremedies shall fail. " The free-State leaders deserve credit forpursuing their peaceable remedies and forbearing to exercise theirasserted right to resistance with a patience unexampled in Americanannals. The bogus territorial laws were defied by the newspapers andtreated as a dead letter by the mass of the free-State men; as much aspossible they stood aloof from the civil officers appointed by andthrough the bogus Legislature, recorded no title papers, began nolawsuits, abstained from elections, and denied themselves privilegeswhich required any open recognition of the alien Missouri statutes. Lane and others refused the test oath, and were excluded from practiceas attorneys in the courts; free-State newspapers were thrown out ofthe mails as incendiary publications; sundry petty persecutions wereevaded or submitted to as special circumstances dictated. Butthroughout their long and persistent non-conformity, for more than twoyears, they constantly and cheerfully acknowledged the authority ofthe organic act, and of the laws of Congress, and even counseled andendured every forced submission to the bogus laws. Though they haddefiant and turbulent spirits in their own ranks, who often accusedthem of imbecility and cowardice, they maintained a steady policy ofnon-resistance, and, under every show of Federal authority in supportof the bogus laws, they submitted to obnoxious searches and seizures, to capricious arrest and painful imprisonment, rather than byresistance to place themselves in the attitude of deliberate outlaws. [Footnote: See Governor Robinson's message to the free-StateLegislature, March 4, 1856. Mrs. S. T. L. Robinson, "Kansas, " pp. 352, 364. ]

[Illustration: James H. Lane. ]

[Sidenote: February 11, 1856. "Statutes at Large, " Vol. XI. , p. 791. ]

They were destined to have no lack of provocation. Since the removalof Reeder, all the Federal officials of the Territory were affiliatedwith the pro-slavery Missouri cabal. Both to secure the permanentestablishment of slavery in Kansas, and to gratify the personal prideof their triumph, they were determined to make these recusant free-State voters "bow down to the cap of Gessler. " Despotism is never morearrogant than in resenting all slights to its personal vanity. As afirst and necessary step, the cabal had procured, through its powerfulinfluence at Washington, a proclamation from the President commanding"all persons engaged in unlawful combinations against the constitutedauthority of the Territory of Kansas or of the United States todisperse, " etc. The language of the proclamation was sufficientlycomprehensive to include Border Ruffians and emigrant aid societies, as well as the Topeka movement, and thus presented a show ofimpartiality; but under dominant political influences the latter wasits evident and certain object. 

With this proclamation as a sort of official fulcrum, Chief-JusticeLecompte delivered at the May term of his court a most extraordinarycharge to the grand jury. He instructed them that the bogusLegislature, being an instrument of Congress, and having passed laws, "these laws are of United States authority and making. " Personsresisting these laws must be indicted for high treason. If noresistance has been made, but combinations formed for the purpose ofresisting them, "then must you still find bills for constructivetreason, as the courts have decided that the blow need not be struck, but only the intention be made evident. " [Footnote: J. H. Gihon, "Governor Geary's Administration, " p. 77; also compare two copies ofthe indictments, printed at full length in Phillips, "Conquest ofKansas, " pp. 351-4. ] Indictments, writs, and the arrest of manyprominent free-State leaders followed as a matter of course. All theseproceedings, too, seemed to have been a part of the conspiracy. Beforethe indictments were found, and in anticipation of the writs, Robinson, the free-State Governor-elect, then on his way to the East, was arrested while traveling on a Missouri River steamboat, atLexington in that State, detained, and finally sent back to Kansasunder the Governor's requisition. Upon this frivolous charge ofconstructive treason he and others were held in military custodynearly four months, and finally, at the end of that period, dischargedupon bail, the farce of longer imprisonment having become uselessthrough other events. 

Apprehending fully that the Topeka movement was the only reallyserious obstacle to their success, the pro-slavery cabal, watching itsopportunity, matured a still more formidable demonstration to suppressand destroy it. The provisional free-State Legislature had, afterorganizing on the 4th of March, adjourned, to reassemble on the 4th ofJuly, 1856, in order to await in the meantime the result of theirapplication to Congress. As the national holiday approached, it wasdetermined 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 goneagainst the free-State men. Their leaders were imprisoned orscattered, their presses destroyed, their adherents dispirited withdefeat. Nevertheless, as the day of meeting approached, the remnant ofthe provisional Legislature and some six to eight hundred citizensgathered at Topeka, though without any definite purpose or pre-arranged plan. 

Governor Shannon, the second of the Kansas executives, had by thistime resigned his office, and Secretary Woodson was again actingGovernor. Here was a chance to put the free-State movement pointedlyunder the ban of Federal authority which the cabal determined not toneglect. Reciting the President's proclamation of February, SecretaryWoodson now issued his own proclamation forbidding all personsclaiming legislative power and authority as aforesaid from assembling, organizing, or acting in any legislative capacity whatever. At thehour of noon on the 4th of July several companies of United Statesdragoons, which were brought into camp near town in anticipation ofthe event, entered Topeka in military array, under command of ColonelE. V. Sumner. A line of battle was formed in the street, cannon wereplanted, and the machinery of war prepared for instant action. ColonelSumner, a most careful and conscientious officer and a free-State manat heart, with due formality, with decision and firmness, but at thesame time openly expressing the painful nature of his duty, commandedthe provisional Legislature, then about to assemble, to disperse. Themembers, not yet organized, immediately obeyed the order, havingneither the will nor the means to resist it. There was no tumult, noviolence, but little protest even in words; but the despotic purpose, clothed in forms of law, made a none the less profound impression uponthe assembled citizens, and later, when the newspapers spread thereport of the act, upon the indignant public of the Northern States. From this time onward, other events of paramount historical importancesupervene to crowd the Topeka Constitution out of view. In a feebleway the organization still held together for a considerable length oftime. About a year later the provisional Legislature again wentthrough the forms of assembling, and although Governor Walker waspresent in Topeka, there were no proclamations, no dragoons, nocannon, because the cabal was for the moment defeated and disconcertedand bent upon other and still more desperate schemes. The TopekaConstitution was never received nor legalized; its officers neverbecame clothed with official authority; its scrip was never redeemed;yet in the fate of Kansas and in the annals of the Union at large itwas a vital and pivotal transaction, without which the great conflictbetween freedom and slavery, though perhaps neither avoided nordelayed, might have assumed altogether different phases ofdevelopment. 

[Relocated Footnote (1): Later, on April 7, General Cass presented tothe Senate another petition, purporting to be the Topeka Constitution, which had been handed him by J. H. Lane, president of the conventionwhich framed it and Senator-elect under it ("Cong. Globe, " 1856; April7, p. 826). This paper proved to be a clerk's copy, with erasures andinterlineations and signatures in one handwriting, which beingquestioned as probably spurious, Lane afterwards supplied the originaldraft prepared by the committee and adopted by the convention, thoughwithout signatures; also adding his explanatory affidavit ("Cong. Globe, " App. 1856, pp. 378-9), to the effect that, the committee haddevolved upon him the preparation of the formal copy, but that theoriginal signatures had been mislaid. The official action of theSenate appears to have concerned itself exclusively with the copypresented by General Cass on March 24. Lane's copies served only astext for angry debate. As the Topeka Constitution had no legal originor quality, technical defeats were of little consequence, especiallyin view of the action by the free-State voters of Kansas at theirvoluntary elections for delegates on October 9, and to ratify it onDecember 15, 1856. ]

[Relocated Footnote (2): Nevertheless, the efforts of the free-Stateparty tinder this combination were not wholly barren. The contestbetween Whitfield and Reeder for a seat in the House as territorialdelegate not only provoked searching discussion, but furnished theoccasion for sending an investigating committee to Kansas, attended bythe contestants in person. This committee with a fearless diligencecollected in the Territory, as well as from the border counties ofMissouri, a mass of sworn testimony amounting to some 1200 printedpages, and which exposed the Border Ruffian invasions and the Missouriusurpation in all their monstrous iniquity, and officially revealed tothe astounded North, for the first time and nearly two years after itsbeginning, the full proportions of the conspiracy which held sway inKansas. ]

CHAPTER XXV

CIVIL WAR IN KANSAS

Out of the antagonistic and contending factions mentioned in the lasttwo chapters, the bogus Legislature and its Border-Ruffian adherentson the one hand, and the framers and supporters of the TopekaConstitution on the other, grew the civil war in Kansas. The bogusLegislature numbered thirty-six members. These had only received, alltold, 619 legal bond fide Kansas votes; but, what answered theirpurposes just as well, 4408 Missourians had cast their ballots forthem, making their total constituency (if by discarding the idea of aState line we use the word in a somewhat strained sense) 5427. Thiswas at the March election, 1855. Of the remaining 2286 actual Kansasvoters disclosed by Seeder's census, only 791 cast their ballots. Thatsummer's emigration, however, being mainly from the free States, greatly changed the relative strength of the two parties. At theelection of October 1, 1855, in which the free-State men took no part, Whitfield, for delegate, received 2721 votes, Border Ruffiansincluded. At the election for members of the Topeka ConstitutionalConvention, a week later, from which the pro-slavery men abstained, the free-State men cast 2710 votes, while Reeder, their nominee fordelegate, received 2849. For general service, therefore, requiring nospecial effort, the numerical strength of the factions was aboutequal; while on extraordinary occasions the two thousand Border-Ruffian reserve lying a little farther back from the State line couldat any time easily turn the scale. The free-State men had only theirconvictions, their intelligence, their courage, and the moral supportof the North; the conspiracy had its secret combination, theterritorial officials, the Legislature, the bogus laws, the courts, the militia officers, the President, and the army. This was aformidable array of advantages; slavery was playing with loaded dice. 

With such a radical opposition of sentiment, both factions were on thealert to seize every available vantage ground. The bogus laws havingbeen enacted, and the free-State men having, at the Big SpringsConvention, resolved on the failure of peaceable remedies to resistthem to a "bloody issue, " the conspiracy was not slow to cover itselfand its projects with the sacred mantle of authority. Opportunely forthem, 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; andperhaps having his inclinations already molded by his Washingtoninstructions, his early impressions were decidedly adverse to thefree-State cause. His reception speech at Westport, in which hemaintained the legality of the Legislature, and his determination toenforce their laws, delighted his pro-slavery auditors. To furtherenlist his zeal in their behalf, a few weeks later they formallyorganized a "law-and-order party" by a large public meeting held atLeavenworth. All the territorial dignitaries were present; GovernorShannon presided; John Calhoun, the Surveyor-General, made theprincipal speech, a denunciation of the "abolitionists" supporting theTopeka movement; Chief-Justice Lecompte dignified the occasion withapproving remarks. With public opinion propitiated in advance, and theGovernor of the Territory thus publicly committed to their party, theconspirators felt themselves ready to enter upon the active campaignto crush out opposition, for which they had made such elaboratepreparations. 

Faithful to their legislative declaration they knew but one issue, slavery. All dissent, all non-compliance, all hesitation, all meresilence even, were in their stronghold towns, like Leavenworth, branded as "abolitionism, " declared to be hostility to the publicwelfare, and punished with proscription, personal violence, expulsion, and frequently death. Of the lynchings, the mobs, and the murders, itwould be impossible, except in a very extended work, to note thefrequent and atrocious details. The present chapters can only touchupon the more salient movements of the civil war in Kansas, whichhappily were not sanguinary; if, however, the individual and moreisolated cases of bloodshed could be described, they would show astartling aggregate of barbarity and loss of life for opinion's sake. Some of these revolting crimes, though comparatively few in number, were committed, generally in a spirit of lawless retaliation, by free-State men. 

Among other instrumentalities for executing the bogus laws, the bogusLegislature had appointed one Samuel J. Jones sheriff of DouglasCounty, Kansas Territory, although that individual was at the time ofhis appointment, and long afterwards, United States postmaster of thetown of Westport, Missouri. Why this Missouri citizen and Federalofficial should in addition be clothed with a foreign territorialshrievalty of a county lying forty or fifty miles from his home is amystery which was never explained outside a Missouri Blue Lodge. 

[Sidenote: Wm. Phillips, "Conquest of Kansas, " p. 152, _et seq. _]

A few days after the "law-and-order" meeting in Leavenworth, thereoccurred a murder in a small settlement thirteen miles west of thetown of Lawrence. The murderer, a pro-slavery man, first fled, toMissouri, but returned to Shawnee Mission and sought the officialprotection of Sheriff Jones; no warrant, no examination, no commitmentfollowed, and the criminal remained at large. Out of this incident, the officious sheriff managed most ingeniously to create anembroilment with the town of Lawrence, Buckley, who was alleged tohave been accessory to the crime, obtained a peace-warrant againstBranson, a neighbor of the victim. With this peace-warrant in hispocket, but without showing or reading it to his prisoner, SheriffJones and a posse of twenty-five Border Ruffians proceeded toBranson'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-protection and rescued Bransonfrom the sheriff and his posse that same night, though without otherviolence than harsh words. 

[Sidenote: Shannon, proclamation, November 29, 1855. Senate Ex. Doc. , 3d Sess. 34th Cong. , Vol. II. , p. 56. ]

[Sidenote: Phillips, p. 168. ]

Burning with the thirst of personal revenge, Sheriff Jones now accusedthe town of Lawrence of the violation of law involved in this rescue, though the people of Lawrence immediately and earnestly disavowed theact. But for Sheriff Jones and his superiors the pretext was all-sufficient. A Border-Ruffian foray against the town was hastilyorganized. The murder occurred November 21; the rescue November 26. November 27, upon the brief report of Sheriff Jones, demanding a forceof three thousand men "to carry out the laws, " Governor Shannon issuedhis order to the two major-generals of the skeleton militia, "tocollect together as large a force as you can in your division, andrepair without delay to Lecompton, and report yourself to S. J. Jones, sheriff of Douglas County. " [Footnote: Governor Shannon, order toRichardson, November 27, 1855. Same order to Strickler, same date. Senate Executive Documents, 3d Sess. 34th Cong. , Vol. II. , p. 53. ] TheKansas militia was a myth; but the Border Ruffians, with theirbackwoods rifles and shotguns, were a ready resource. To these anurgent appeal for help was made; and the leaders of the conspiracy inprompt obedience placarded the frontier with inflammatory handbills, and collected and equipped companies, and hurried them forward to therendezvous without a moment's delay. The United States Arsenal atLiberty, Missouri, was broken into and stripped of its contents tosupply cannon, small arms, and ammunition. In two days after notice acompany of fifty Missourians made the first camp on Wakarusa Creek, near Franklin, four miles from Lawrence. In three or four days more anirregular army of fifteen hundred men, claiming to be the sheriff'sposse, was within striking distance of the town. Three or four hundredof these were nominal residents of the Territory; [Footnote: Shannon, dispatch, December 11, 1855, to President Pierce. Senate Ex. Doc. , 3dSess. 34th Cong. , Vol. II. , p. 63. ] all the remainder were citizens ofMissouri. They were not only well armed and supplied, but wrought upto the highest pitch of partisan excitement. While the Governor'sproclamation spoke of serving writs, the notices of the conspiratorssounded 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 theirpurpose. Ex-Vice-President Atchison came in person, leading abattalion of two hundred Platte County riflemen. 

News of this proceeding reached the people of Lawrence little bylittle, and finally, becoming alarmed, they began to improvise meansof defense. Two abortive imitations of the Missouri Blue Lodges, seton foot during the summer by the free-State men, provoked by theelection invasion in March, furnished them a starting-point formilitary organization. A committee of safety, hurriedly instituted, sent a call for help from Lawrence to other points in the Territory, "for the purpose of defending it from threatened invasion by armed mennow quartered in its vicinity. " Several hundred free-State menpromptly responded to the summons. The Free-State Hotel served asbarracks. Governor Robinson and Colonel Lane were appointed tocommand. Four or five small redoubts, connected by rifle-pits, werehastily thrown up; and by a clever artifice they succeeded in bringinga twelve-pound brass howitzer from its storage at Kansas City. Meantime the committee of safety, earnestly denying any wrongful actor purpose, sent an urgent appeal for protection to the commander ofthe United States forces at Fort Leavenworth, another to Congress, anda third to President Pierce. 

Amid all this warlike preparation to keep the peace, no very strictmilitary discipline could be immediately enforced. The people ofLawrence, without any great difficulty, obtained daily informationconcerning the hostile camps. They, on the other hand, professing nopurpose but that of defense and self-protection, were obliged topermit free and constant ingress to their beleaguered town. SheriffJones made several visits unmolested on their part, and without anydisplay of writs or demand for the surrender of alleged offenders onhis own. One of the rescuers even accosted him, conversed with him, and invited him to dinner. These free visits had the good effect torestrain imprudence and impulsiveness on both sides. They could seethat a conflict meant serious results. With the advantage of itsdefensive position, Lawrence was as strong as the sheriff's mob. Onone point especially the Border Ruffians had a wholesome dread. Yankeeingenuity had invented a new kind of breech-loading gun called "Sharpsrifle. " It was, in fact, the best weapon of its day. The free-Statevolunteers had some months before obtained a partial supply of themfrom the East, and their range, rapidity, and effectiveness had beennot only duly set forth but highly exaggerated by many marvelousstories throughout the Territory and along the border. The Missouribackwoods-men manifested an almost incredible interest in thiswonderful gun. They might be deaf to the "equalities" proclaimed inthe Declaration of Independence or blind to the moral sin of slavery, but they comprehended a rifle which could be fired ten times a minuteand kill a man at a thousand yards. 

The arrivals from Missouri finally slackened and ceased. The irregularBorder-Ruffian squads were hastily incorporated into the skeleton"Kansas militia. " The "posse" became some two thousand strong, and thedefenders of Lawrence perhaps one thousand. 

[Sidenote: Richardson to Shannon, December 3, 1855; Phillips, p. 186. ]

[Sidenote: Anderson to Richardson; Phillips, p. 210. ]

Meanwhile a sober second thought had come to Governor Shannon. Toretrieve somewhat the precipitancy of his militia orders andproclamations, he wrote to Sheriff Jones, December 2, to make noarrests or movements unless by his direction. The firm defensiveattitude of the people of Lawrence had produced its effect. Theleaders of the conspiracy became distrustful of their power to crushthe town. One of his militia generals suggested that the Governorshould require the "outlaws at Lawrence and elsewhere" to surrenderthe Sharps rifles; another wrote asking him to call out the Governmenttroops at Fort Leavenworth. The Governor, on his part, becomingdoubtful of the legality of employing Missouri militia to enforceKansas laws, was also eager to secure the help of Federal troops. Sheriff Jones began to grow importunate. In the Missouri camp whilethe leaders became alarmed the men grew insubordinate. "I have reasonto believe, " wrote one of their prominent men, "that before to-morrowmorning the black flag will be hoisted, when nine out of ten willrally round it, and march without orders upon Lawrence. The forces ofthe Lecompton camp fully understand the plot and will fight under thesame banner. "

[Sidenote: Sumner to Shannon. December 1, 1855; Phillips, p. 184. ]

After careful deliberation Colonel Sumner, commanding the UnitedStates troops at Fort Leavenworth, declined to interfere withoutexplicit orders from the War Department. These failing to arrive intime, the Governor was obliged to face his own dilemma. He hastened toLawrence, which now invoked his protection. He directed his militiagenerals to repress disorder and check any attack on the town. Interviews were held with the free-State commanders, and the situationwas fully discussed. A compromise was agreed upon, and a formal treatywritten out and signed. The affair was pronounced to be a"misunderstanding"; the Lawrence party disavowed the Branson rescue, denied any previous, present, or prospective organization forresistance, and under sundry provisos agreed to aid in the executionof "the laws" when called upon by "proper authority. " Like allcompromises, the agreement was half necessity, half trick. Neitherparty was willing to yield honestly nor ready to fight manfully. Thefree-State men shrank from forcible resistance to even bogus laws. TheMissouri cabal, on the other hand, having three of their best menconstantly at the Governor's side, were compelled to recognize theirlack of justification. They did not dare to ignore upon what aridiculously shadowy pretext the Branson peace-warrant had grown intoan army of two thousand men, and how, under the manipulation ofSheriff Jones, a questionable affidavit of a pro-slavery criminal hadbeen expanded into the _casus belli_ of a free-State town. Theyconsented to a compromise "to cover a retreat. "

[Sidenote: Shannon to President Pierce, December 11, 1855, Senate Ex. Doc. , 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. II. , pp. 63-5. ]

When Governor Shannon announced that the difficulties were settled, the people of Lawrence were suspicious of their leaders, and JohnBrown manifested his readiness to head a revolt. But his attemptedspeech was hushed down, and the assurance of Robinson and Lane thatthey had made no dishonorable concession finally quieted theirfollowers. There were similar murmurs in the pro-slavery camps. TheGovernor 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 thecircumstances would ruin the Democratic cause. "But, " he added with asignificant oath, "boys, we will fight some time!" Thirteen of thecaptains in the Wakarusa camp were called together, and the situationwas duly explained. The treaty was accepted, though the Governorconfessed "there was a silent dissatisfaction" at the result. Heordered the forces to disband; prisoners were liberated, and with theopportune aid of a furious rain-storm the Border-Ruffian armygradually melted away. Nevertheless the "Wakarusa war" left one bittersting to 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 was of comparativelyshort duration. The excitement which had reigned in Kansas during thewhole summer of 1855, first about the enactments of the bogusLegislature, and then in regard to the formation of the TopekaConstitution, was now extended to the American Congress, where itraged for two long months over the election of Speaker Banks. InKansas during the same period the vote of the free-State men upon theTopeka Constitution and the election for free-State officers under it, kept the Territory in a ferment. During and after the contest over thespeakership at Washington, each State Legislature became a forum ofKansas debate. The general public interest in the controversy wasshown by discussions carried on by press, pulpit, and in the dailyconversation and comment of the people of the Union in every town, hamlet, and neighborhood. No sooner did the spring weather of 1856permit, than men, money, arms, and supplies were poured into theTerritory of Kansas from the North. 

[Sidenote: J. N. Holloway, "History of Kansas, " pp. 275, 276. ]

In the Southern States also this propagandism was active, and a numberof guerrilla leaders with followers recruited in the South, and armedand sustained by Southern contributions and appropriations, foundtheir way to Kansas in response to urgent appeals of the Borderchiefs. Buford, of Alabama; Titus, of Florida; Wilkes, of Virginia;Hampton, of Kentucky; Treadwell, of South Carolina, 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 disbanded, in reality continued theirmilitary organizations, --the free-State men through apprehension ofdanger, the Border Ruffians because of their purpose to crush outopposition. Strengthened on both sides with men, money, arms, andsupplies, the contest was gradually resumed with the opening spring. 

The vague and double-meaning phrases of the Lawrence agreementfurnished the earliest causes of a renewal of the quarrel. "Did younot pledge yourselves to assist me as sheriff in the arrest of anyperson against whom I might have a writ?" asked Sheriff Jones ofRobinson and Lane in a curt note. "We may have said that we wouldassist any proper officer in the service of any legal process, " theyreplied, standing upon their interpretation. This was, of course, theoriginal controversy--slavery burning to enforce her usurpation, freedom determined to defend her birthright. Sheriff Jones had hispockets always full of writs issued in the spirit of persecution, butwas often baffled by the sharp wits and ready resources of the free-State people, and sometimes defied outright. Little by little, however, the latter became hemmed and bound in the meshes of thevarious devices and proceedings which the territorial officialsevolved from the bogus laws. President Pierce, in his special messageof January 24, declared what had been done by the Topeka movement tobe "of a revolutionary character" which would "become treasonableinsurrection if it reach the length of organized resistance. "

Following this came his proclamation of February 11, leveled against"combinations formed to resist the execution of the territorial laws. "Early in May, Chief-Justice Lecompte held a term of his court, duringwhich he delivered to the grand jury his famous instructions onconstructive treason. Indictments were found, writs issued, and theprincipal free-State leaders arrested or forced to flee from theTerritory. Governor Robinson was arrested without warrant on theMissouri River, and brought back to be held in military custody tillSeptember. [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote relocated to chapterend. ] Lane went East and recruited additional help for the contest. Meanwhile Sheriff Jones, sitting in his tent at night, in the town ofLawrence, had been wounded by a rifle or pistol in the attempt of someunknown person to assassinate him. The people of Lawrence denouncedthe deed; but the sheriff hoarded up the score for future revenge. Oneadditional incident served to precipitate the crisis. The House ofRepresentatives at Washington, presided over by Speaker Banks, andunder control of the opposition, sent an investigating committee toKansas, consisting of Wm. A. Howard, of Michigan, John Sherman, [Footnote: Owing to the illness of Mr. Howard, chairman of thecommittee, the long and elaborate majority report of this committeewas written by John Sherman. Its methodical analysis and powerfulpresentation of evidence made it one of the most popular andconvincing documents ever issued. ] of Ohio, and Mordecai Oliver, ofMissouri, which, by the examination of numerous witnesses, was probingthe Border-Ruffian invasions, the illegality of the bogus Legislature, and the enormity of the bogus laws to the bottom. 

[Sidenote: Howard Report, p. 66. ]

Ex-Governor Reeder was in attendance on this committee, supplyingdata, pointing out from personal knowledge sources of information, cross-examining witnesses to elicit the hidden truth. To embarrassthis damaging exposure, Judge Lecompte issued a writ against the ex-Governor on a frivolous charge of contempt. Claiming but not receivingexemption from the committee, Beeder on his personal responsibilityrefused to permit the deputy marshal to arrest him. The incident wasnot violent, nor even dramatic. No posse was summoned, no furthereffort made, and Reeder, fearing personal violence, soon fled indisguise. But the affair was magnified as a crowning proof that thefree-State men were insurrectionists and outlaws. 

It must be noted in passing that by this time the Territory had byinsensible degrees drifted into the condition of civil war. Bothparties were zealous, vigilant, and denunciatory. In nearly everysettlement suspicion led to combination for defense, combination tosome form of oppression or insult, and so on by easy transition toarrest and concealment, attack and reprisal, expulsion, theft, house-burning, capture, and murder. From these, again, sprang barricaded andfortified dwellings, camps and scouting parties, finally culminatingin roving guerrilla bands, half partisan, half predatory. Theirdistinctive characters, however, display one broad and unfailingdifference. The free-State men clung to their prairie towns andprairie ravines with all the obstinacy and courage of true defendersof their homes and firesides. The pro-slavery parties, unmistakablealiens and invaders, always came from, or retired across, the Missouriline. Organized and sustained in the beginning by voluntarycontributions from that and distant States, they ended by levyingforced contributions, by "pressing" horses, food, or arms from anyneighborhood they chanced to visit. Their assumed character changedwith their changing opportunities or necessities. They were squads ofKansas militia, companies of "peaceful emigrants, " or gangs ofirresponsible outlaws, to suit the chance, the whim, or the need ofthe moment. 

[Sidenote: Memorial, Senate Ex. Doc. , 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. II. , p. 74. ]

[Sidenote: Phillips, pp. 289-90. ]

[Sidenote: Memorial, Senate Ex. Doc. , 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. II. , p. 75. ]

Since the unsatisfactory termination of the "Wakarusa war, " certainleaders of the conspiracy had never given up their project ofpunishing the town of Lawrence. A propitious moment for carrying itout seemed now to have arrived. The free-State officers and leaderswere, thanks to Judge Lecompte's doctrine of constructive treason, under indictment, arrest, or in flight; the settlers were busy withtheir spring crops; while the pro-slavery guerrillas, freshly arrivedand full of zeal, were eager for service and distinction. The formercampaign against the town had failed for want of justification; theynow sought a pretext which would not shame their assumed character asdefenders of law and order. In the shooting of Sheriff Jones inLawrence, and in the refusal of ex-Governor Beeder to allow thedeputy-marshal to arrest him, they discovered grave offenses againstthe territorial and United States laws. Determined also no longer totrust Governor Shannon, lest he might again make peace, United StatesMarshal Donaldson issued a proclamation on his own responsibility, onMay 11, 1856, commanding "law-abiding citizens of the Territory" "tobe and appear at Lecompton, as soon as practicable and in numberssufficient for the proper execution of the law. " Moving with thepromptness and celerity of preconcerted plans, ex-Vice-PresidentAtchison, with his Platte County Rifles and two brass cannon, theKickapoo Rangers from Leavenworth and Weston, Wilkes, Titus, Buford, and all the rest of the free lances in the Territory, began toconcentrate against Lawrence, giving the marshal in a very few days a"posse" of from 500 to 800 men, armed for the greater part with UnitedStates muskets, some stolen from the Liberty arsenal on their formerraid, others distributed to them as Kansas militia by the territorialofficers. The Governor refused to interfere to protect the threatenedtown, though an urgent appeal to do so was made to him by itscitizens, who after stormy and divided councils resolved on a policyof non-resistance. 

[Sidenote: Memorial, Senate Ex. Doc. , 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. II. , p. 77. ]

They next made application to the marshal, who tauntingly replied thathe could not rely on their pledges, and must take the liberty toexecute his process in his own time and manner. The help of ColonelSumner, commanding the United States troops, was finally invoked, buthis instructions only permitted him to act at the call of the Governoror marshal. [Footnote: Sumner to Shannon, May 12, 1856. Senate Ex. Doc. , No. 10, 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. V. , p. 7. ] Private persons whohad leased the Free-State Hotel vainly besought the variousauthorities to prevent the destruction of their property. Ten dayswere consumed in these negotiations; but the spirit of vengeancerefused to yield. When the citizens of Lawrence rose on the 21st ofMay they beheld their town invested by a formidable military force. 

During the forenoon the deputy-marshal rode leisurely into the townattended 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, togive color to his errand, made two arrests. The Free-State Hotel, astone building in dimensions fifty by seventy feet, three stories highand handsomely furnished, previously occupied only for lodging-rooms, on that day for the first time opened its table accommodations to thepublic, and provided a free dinner in honor of the occasion. Themarshal and his posse, including Sheriff Jones, went among otherinvited guests and enjoyed the proffered hospitality. As he hadpromised to protect the hotel, the reassured citizens began to laughat their own fears. To their sorrow they were soon undeceived. Themilitary force, partly rabble, partly organized, had meanwhile movedinto the town. 

To save his official skirts from stain, the deputy-marshal now wentthrough the farce of dismissing his entire posse of citizens andBorder Ruffians, at which juncture Sheriff Jones made his appearance, claiming the "posse" as his own. He planted a company before thehotel, and demanded a surrender of the arms belonging to the free-State military companies. Refusal or resistance being out of thequestion, half a dozen small cannon were solemnly dug up from theirconcealment and, together with a few Sharps rifles, formallydelivered. Half an hour later, turning a deaf ear to all remonstrance, he gave the proprietors until 5 o'clock to remove their families andpersonal property from the Free-State Hotel. Atchison, who had beenharanguing the mob, planted his two guns before the building andtrained them upon it. The inmates being removed, at the appointed houra few cannon balls were fired through the stone walls. This mode ofdestruction being slow and undramatic, and an attempt to blow it upwith gunpowder having proved equally unsatisfactory, the torch wasapplied, and the structure given to the flames. [Footnote: Memorial, Senate Executive Document, 3d Session 34th Congress. Volume II, pp. 73-85. ] Other squads had during the same time been sent to the severalprinting-offices, where they broke the presses, scattered the type, and demolished the furniture. The house of Governor Robinson was alsorobbed and burned. Very soon the mob was beyond all control, andspreading itself over the town engaged in pillage till the darkness ofnight arrested it. Meanwhile the chiefs sat on their horses and viewedthe work of destruction. 

[Sidenote: House Reports, 2d Sess. , 36th Cong. , Vol. III, part 1, p. 39. ]

[Sidenote: Holloway, p. 351. ]

[Sidenote: Memorial to the President. ]

If we would believe the chief actors, this was the "law and orderparty, " executing the mandates of justice. Part and parcel of theaffair was the pretense that this exploit of prairie buccaneering hadbeen authorized by Judge Leeompte's court, the officials citing intheir defense a presentment of his grand jury, declaring thefree-State newspapers seditious publications, and the Free-State Hotela rebellious fortification, and recommending their _abatement_ asnuisances. The travesty of American government involved in thetransaction is too serious for ridicule. In this incident, contrastingthe creative and the destructive spirit of the factions, the EmigrantAid Society of Massachusetts finds its most honorable and triumphantvindication. The whole proceeding was so childish, the miserable plotso transparent, the outrage so gross, as to bring disgust to thebetter class of Border Ruffians who were witnesses and accessories. The free-State men have recorded the honorable conduct of ColonelZadock Jackson, of Georgia, and Colonel Jefferson Buford, of Alabama, as well as of the prosecuting attorney of the county, each of whomdenounced the proceedings on the spot. 

[Relocated Footnote: Governor Robinson being on his way East, thesteamboat on which he was traveling stopped at Lexington, Missouri. Anunauthorized mob induced the Governor, with that persuasiveness inwhich the Border Ruffians had become adepts, to leave the boat, detaining him at Lexington on the accusation that he was fleeing froman indictment. In a few days an officer came with a requisition fromGovernor Shannon, and took the prisoner by land to Westport, andafterwards from there to Kansas City and Leavenworth. Here he wasplaced in the custody of Captain Martin, of the Kickapoo Rangers, whoproved a kind jailer, and materially assisted in protecting him fromthe dangerous intentions of the mob which at that time heldLeavenworth under a reign of terror. 

Mrs. Robinson, who has kindly sent us a sketch of the incident, writes: "On the night of the 28th [of May] for greater securityGeneral Richardson of the militia slept in the same bed with theprisoner, while Judge Lecompte and Marshal Donaldson slept justoutside of the door of the prisoner's room. Captain Martin said: 'Ishall give you a pistol to help protect yourself if worse comes toworst!' In the early morning of the next day, May 29, a company ofdragoons with one empty saddle came down from the fort, and while thepro-slavery men still slept, the prisoner and his escort were on theirway across the prairies to Lecompton in the charge of officers of theUnited States Army. The Governor and other prisoners were kept on theprairie near Lecompton until the 10th of September, 1856, when allwere released. "]

END OF VOL. I.