LINCOLN ROOM UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY MEMORIAL the class of 1901 founded by HARLAN HOYT HORNER and HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://archive.org/details/lifeofabrahamlin01illtarb THE LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN VOLUME I THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON ■ CHICAGO • DALLAS ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO The LIFE of ABRAHAM LINCOLN DRAWN from original SOURCES and containing many SPEECHES, LETTERS and TELEGRAMS hitherto unpublished, and illustrated with many reproductions from original Paintings, Photographs, et cetera New Edition with New Matter BY IDA M. TARBELL Volume One New York The Macmillan Company MCMXXIV All rights reserved Copyright, 1895, 1896, 1898, 1899 By The S. S. McClure Co. Copyright, 1900 By Doubleday & McClure Co. Copyright, 1900 By McClure, Phillips & Co. NEW EDITION WITH NEW MATTER Copyright, 19 1 7 By The Macmillan Company mi v. I O/i/, To my Father PREFACE The work here offered the public was begun in 1894 at the suggestion of Mr. S. S. McClure and Mr. J. S. Phillips, editors of " McClure's Magazine." Their desire was to add to our knowledge of Abraham Lincoln by collecting and pre- serving the reminiscences of such of his contemporaries as were then living. In undertaking the work it was deter- mined to spare neither labor nor money and in this deter- mination Mr. McClure and his associates have never wa- vered. Without the sympathy, confidence, suggestion and criticism which they have given the work it would have been impossible. They established in their editorial rooms what might be called a Lincoln Bureau and from there an or- ganized search was made for reminiscences, pictures and documents. To facilitate the work all persons possessing or knowing of Lincoln material were asked through the Magazine to communicate with the editor. The response was immediate and amazing. Hundreds of persons from all parts of the country replied. In every case the clews thus obtained were investigated and if the matter was found to be new and useful was secured. The author wrote thou- sands of letters and travelled thousands of miles in collecting the material which came to the editor simply as a result of this request in the magazine. The work thus became one in which the whole country co-operated. At the outset it was the intention of the editors to use the results of the research simply as a series of unpublished rem- vii vill PREFACE iniscences, but after a few months the new material gath- ered, while valuable seemed to them too fragmentary to be published as it stood, and the author was asked to prepare a series of articles on Lincoln covering his life up to 1858 and embodying as far as possible the unpublished material col- lected. These articles, which appeared in " McClure's Magazine " for 1895 and 1896, were received favorably, and it was decided to follow them by a series on the later life of Lincoln. This latter series was concluded in September, 1899, and both series, with considerable supplementary mat- ter, are published in the present volumes. It is impossible in this brief preface to mention all who have aided in the work, but there are a few whose names must not be omitted, so essential has their assistance been to the enterprise. From the beginning Mr. J. McCan Davis of Springfield, Illinois, has been of great service, particularly in examining the files of Illinois newspapers and in interviewing. It is to Mr. Davis's intelligent and patient research that we owe the report of Lincoln's first published speech, the curious letters on the Adams law case, most of the documents of Lincoln's early life in New Salem and Springfield, such as his first vote, his reports and maps of surveys, his marriage certifi- cate and many of the letters printed in the appendix. Mr. William H. Lambert of Philadelphia has also assisted us constantly by his sympathy and suggestions, and his large and valuable Lincoln collection has been freely at our dis- posal. Other collections that have been generously opened are those of O. H. Oldroyd of Washington, R. T. Durrett, Louisville, Ky., C. F. Gunther, Chicago, 111., and Louis Vanuxem, Philadelphia, Pa. The War Department of the United States Government has extended many cour- tesies, the War Records being freely opened and the mem- bers of the War Records Commission aiding us in every way PREFACE ix in their power. The librarians of the War Department, of the Congressional Library, of the Boston Public Library and of the Astor Library of New York, have also been most helpful. The chief obligation which any student of Abraham Lin- coln owes is to the great work of Messrs. Nicolay and Hay. In it are collected nearly all the documents essential to a study of Lincoln's life. Their History has been freely con- sulted in preparing this work and whenever letters and speeches of Lincoln appearing in their collection of his writings have been quoted, their version has been followed. Other lives of Lincoln that have been found useful are those of W. H. Herndon, W. O. Stoddard, John T. Morse, Isaac Arnold, Ward H. Lamon, H. C. Whitney, and J. G. Holland. The new material collected will, we believe, add con- siderably to our knowledge of Lincoln's life. Docu- ments are presented establishing clearly that his mother was not the nameless girl that she has been so generally believed. His father, Thomas Lincoln, is shown to have been something more than a shiftless " poor white," and Lincoln's early life, if hard and crude, to have been full of honest, cheerful effort at betterment. His struggles for a livelihood and his intellectual development from the time he started out for himself until he was admitted to the bar are traced with more detail than in any other biography, and considerable new light is thrown on this period of his life. The sensational account of his running away from his own wedding, accepted generally by historians, is shown to be false. To the period of Lincoln's life from 1849, when he gave up politics, until 1858, the period of the Lincoln and Douglas Debates, the most important contribution made is the report of what is known as the " Lost Speech." The second volume of the Life contains as an appendix X PREFACE 196 pages of letters, telegrams and speeches which do not appear in Lincoln's " Complete Works," published by his private secretaries Messrs. Nicolay and Hay. The great majority of these documents have never been published at all. The source from which they have been obtained is given in each case. No attempt has been made to cover the history of Lin- coln's times save as necessary in tracing the development of his mind and in illustrating his moral qualities. It is Lincoln the man, as seen by his fellows and revealed by his own acts and words, that the author has tried to picture. This has been the particular aim of the second series of articles. I. M. T. PREFACE TO NEW EDITION In the 17 years since the first edition of this book appeared, a continuous stream of new material relating more or less directly to Abraham Lincoln has been flowing to the public. In the years 1908 and 1909 this stream swelled to river pro- portions, fed by the interest in the centenary of his birth. One splendid fact outranks all others in this wealth of fresh contributions — Our new knowledge leaves us the Lincoln we had at the beginning ; the man revealed not only to this country but to the world by the tragedy of April, 1865, has not been materially changed by fifty years' study. His pre- eminence holds in spite of an increasing knowledge of points at which he failed. We know him better, but we reverence and love him no less. He is to-day our national touch-stone as well as the source to which liberal statesmen of all lands look for the most perfect understanding and expression of the spirit and aims of Democ- racy. The new materials which have left us our old Lincoln in- clude some of the most notable contributions to our knowl- edge of him. First should be placed the diary of Gideon Welles, probably the greatest personal historical narrative yet produced in this country. After Welles come the Reminis- cences of Carl Schurz, supplemented by eight volumes of his Public Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers. The Gettysburg edition of Lincoln's Complete Works, a revision of the original edition edited by Nicolay & Hay, belongs in the list, so do Thayer's " Life of John Hay " and Newton's study of Lincoln and Herndon, two recent contributions of im- xi xii PREFACE portance, for the fresh material they contain. The stream continues. At this writing there is soon to be published a collection of over 300 letters of Lincoln, not to be found in the Gettysburg edition. This collection, which we owe to the devotion of Mr. Gilbert Tracy, of Putnam, Conn., contains at least two score pieces of first rank. The collections of Lincolniana have increased not merely in size but in intelligent arrangement and selection. When this book was prepared, the chief collection was that of Major W. H. Lambert, who died on June 1, 191 2. It was a mis- fortune that it was scattered. Happily, a number of pieces have gone to swell the gatherings of one of Mr. Lambert's chief competitors, Mr. Judd Stewart of Plainfield, N. J. Mr. Stewart now has a collection that includes 97 per cent of all known publications. Lincoln lovers should see to it that it does not meet the fate of Major Lambert's. The collection of original Lincoln letters and documents owned by Mr. Robert Lincoln, including practically all of the manuscripts, letters, and papers published by Nicolay & Hay in the first edition of the "Complete Works," is of supreme importance. It is to be hoped that Mr. Lincoln will one day place this collection in the Congressional Library beside the originals of the papers of Washington, Madison, Jefferson, Monroe, Jackson, Van Buren, Polk, Pierce, Johnson, Harrison, and Cleveland. 1 Those who own Lincoln manu- scripts could not do better than to arrange as speedily as possible to give them whenever Mr. Lincoln shall decide to place those in his possession. A steady stream of interpretation has run parallel to the stream of new materials, much of it commonplace, but not a little of real understanding. The most interesting, in the writer's judgment, has just come to the public, — Mr. George Barnard's statue of Lincoln. This work has already started 1 The papers of Harrison and Cleveland are still held as confidential. PREFACE xiii a very fundamental discussion. To my own mind it does something that nobody else has done so well in any medium : it gives a sense of the profundity of the man — a sense of what one discerning observer on first seeing it called, "his spiritual resolution." The test of the value of these recent contributions is what they add to our understanding of Abraham Lincoln and of the situation in which he found himself. That is much. They unquestionably enlarge Lincoln, clear up our view of him. They put down the strength and the weakness of him over and over again. The result is that we know him better and can judge him more fairly both as man and leader. What this new material has done for Lincoln it has done for the scheme of things under which he was obliged to act. There has been so far no experience in our national life which has so demonstrated where this scheme holds up and where it falls down as the Civil War. That episode shows quite clearly where we can expect more from our form of government than from others, and also where we are in danger of getting less. Possibly the best thing we can say of the scheme is that it gave us Lincoln. It is very unlikely that any other form of government that the world has yet tried could by peaceful means have developed his particular genius ; that is, it would not have been at once fully available for a crisis under any other form of government. His talent would not have had the peculiar kind of training which made him so fit for the tasks thrust upGn him. In this new material his failures are emphasized, particularly in Welles's narrative. The exhibit there is the more impressive because it is more or less unconscious on Welles's part, and because from the start he believed that Lincoln was, as he says, "a gentle, good and great man." The impression that one who had not studied the history of the Civil War with Lincoln's own letters and speeches in hand would get from xiv PREFACE Welles's narrative is that of a man stumbling through a quagmire, pretending to lead, but really clinging to the coat tails of his Secretary of State. Welles's portrait of Seward is true, if one-sided. He is naturally over insistent of the worst side of Seward, since it constantly thwarted and hindered him. Seward's meddle- someness, his opportunism, his overwhelming desire to have Washington, particularly the Army and Navy and diplomatic Washington, believe that he was running the government, constantly irritated Welles. He was a busy-body and in- triguer, who muddled things for everybody. The Lincoln of Welles's narrative does not see this, nor understand that he is being handled by a mind really inferior to his own. Yet we know from Lincoln's letters that he discovered Seward's pro- pensity before any of his colleagues, and that he had in writing in less than a month after the Inauguration put him in his place. Mr. Seward knew Lincoln as his master, but he took good care that nobody but Lincoln should know that he so recog- nized him. His colleagues, Congress, the country, grew in the conviction that Lincoln was being bullied and deceived. Lincoln's own influence was lessened in many quarters as this conviction grew. Behind this apparent weakness was in reality strength. It was one of his ways of working out his chief value to the country, and that value was his clear sense from the start that it was our democratic scheme that was at stake, and that if it was to be saved, every man who could aid must be helped to give all that was in him. Nothing will ever be discovered which will add to the perfect form into which he crystallized this deepest thing in his soul in the Gettysburg speech, but a multitude of recent details show how the idea guided him in handling men and led him to put aside in cases like Seward's his natural resentment and hurt pride. PREFACE xv He seems to have put it something like this to himself: " Everybody in the country has had a part in bringing this thing about ; everybody feels he has a right to say how things shall be handled ; everybody that is worth his salt is going to exercise that right, and he is going to do it according to the kind of man he is — according to his temperament, his train- ing, his self-control, his meanness, and his goodness. If we are going to put this thing through and prove that men can govern themselves, we must get from them what they can give, and we must let them give it in their own way." What this meant for him in practice was a shrewd calculation of how much he must put up with, how far he could safely go in allowing himself to be misjudged as in Seward's case, insulted as by McClellan, abused as by Greeley, sneered at as by the military authorities. Men close to Lincoln at the time, and men reading history since, have wondered why he refused to publish the whole of his correspondence with Greeley over the peace fiasco at Niagara Falls in July, 1864. Greeley characteristically blamed Lincoln for the failure. The correspondence would have cleared him, but it would have shown that Greeley had lied. Moreover, it would have shown that Greeley was willing to sacrifice everything for Peace. In Lincoln's judg- ment that would have been "a disaster equal to the loss of a great battle." It would have been pulling a prop out from the Union Cause. It was better that he himself should be misunderstood and abused than that confidence in the Editor of the Tribune should be lost. It was quite as much calculation as large-mindedness that made him keep so carefully from his colleagues the preposter- ous suggestions of Mr. Seward in April, 1 861, to invite a Euro- pean War and to take over the government. To have allowed this to leak out even to members of his cabinet would have weakened the Secretary. What he wanted was to minimize xvi PREFACE as much as possible the harmful effect of Seward's effort to give to everybody the notion that it was he and not Mr. Lincoln who was at the head of affairs. The more one knows of his handling of similar, if less con- spicuous cases, the greater the respect for his native talent for understanding men, and for the exercise he had given it through his life. He read men of all kinds ; he had always had the habit of reading them. His sympathy for human nature made him understand numbers of things that the un- sympathetic, self-centred, however highly trained, never see. He seems to have had as nearly a universal human sympathy as any one in history. A man could not be so high or so low that Lincoln could not meet him. He could not be so much of a fool, or so many kinds of a fool. He could listen unruffled to cant, to violence, to criticism, just and unjust. Amazingly he absorbed from each the real thing he had to offer, annexed him by showing him that he understood, and yet gave him somehow a sense of the impossibility of considering him alone, and leaving out the multitudes of other men, as convinced and as loyal. Mr. Lincoln shows this admirably in the way he held that buoyant young radical idealist, Carl Schurz, to him. Schurz was the most romantic figure in the country. His service in making clear just what all the trouble was about, his passion for the Union as well as his hatred of slavery, Lincoln valued highly; but Schurz had the overconfidence of the young revolutionist. It was he who knew most and best. In his zeal for freedom he was prone to suspect the motives of others, particularly if they did not agree with him. Recently pub- lished letters of Schurz make a beautiful picture of wisdom, reflection, and experience handling and saving to the cause the ardent, self-confident assertive spirit of idealistic youth. Just as Lincoln won and held this fiery young Teuton revo- lutionist, he held Sumner, the most highly trained and cul- PREFACE xvii tivated radical of the time, the one in the country who came nearest to a high type of English cultivation. He seems to have been able to attach the superior of each kind to him. A more delicate task than Schurz or Sumner or Seward was getting something from the large group who wanted to save the Union, but were unwilling that Lincoln should have a hand in the saving. It was willing to go to any lengths to throw contempt on his policies. In spite of the danger that beset the Union, in spite of the fact that Lincoln was for the time being leader, they were determined to demonstrate his unfitness by making it impossible for him to solve any prob- lem. This revolting and discouraging feature of party govern- ment never showed itself in a more hateful form than during the Civil War. All of the new material makes clear what a sad exhibit a free press can make of itself in times of great public calamity. Editors and writers are expected to report and interpret public events. In 1861 they immediately and without preparation set themselves up also as military experts and authorities on international law. They made up in intolerance and noisy insistence what they lacked in knowl- edge. What was true of the press was true of all of the organized agencies for influencing the public. They were all for saving the Union, but saving it each in his own way, and when that way differed from that of Mr. Lincoln and his colleagues, they were not for helping him to clearer and better ways, but for hindering to the utmost of their ajbility. Lincoln's greatness of mind, as well as the profundity of his understanding of the democratic scheme, come out finally in his attitude towards these efforts to hinder his policies. He of course had had political experience which made him expect the average man in the opposition to feel free to ridicule, thwart, and ruin his efforts. He was not their man. But I doubt if Lincoln could have realized how the silliness, xviii PREFACE obstinacy, selfishness, and vindictiveness which the party system arouses and justifies even in first-rate minds, would show themselves in men who were committed to him in the effort to save the Union. One loud and insistent criticism was that he was filling places of importance with Democrats. Schurz voiced this criticism as eloquently as anybody and had the manliness to put it directly to the President. His first letter was in the fall of 1862, just after the election. The administration had fared badly. Schurz wrote Lincoln, "The defeat of the ad- ministration is the administration's own fault. "It admitted its professed opponents to its counsels. It placed the Army, now a great power in this Republic, into the hands of its enemies. In all personal questions to be hostile to the party of the Government seemed to be a title to con- sideration. It forgot the great rule, that, if you are true to your friends, your friends will be true to you, and that you make your enemies stronger by placing them upon an equality with your friends. Is it surprising that the opponents of the administration should have got into their hands the govern- ment of the principal States after they have had for so long a time the principal management of the war, the great business of the National Government? ,, Lincoln's reply to this letter was first published in 1913 in Schurz's papers. In the course of it he says: "The plain facts, as they appear to me, are these. The administration came into power, very largely in a minority of the popular vote. Notwithstanding this, it distributed to its party friends as nearly all the civil patronage as any administration ever did. The war came. The administration could not even start in this, without assistance outside of its party. It was mere nonsense to suppose a minority could put down a majority in rebellion. Mr. Schurz (now Gen. Schurz) was about here then, and I do not recollect that he then considered PREFACE xix all who were not republicans, were enemies of the government, and that none of them must be appointed to military positions. He will correct me if I am mistaken. It so happened that very few of our friends had a military education or were of the profession of arms. It would have been a question whether the war should be conducted on military knowledge, or on political affinity, only that our own friends (I think Mr. Schurz included) seemed to think that such a question was inadmissable. Accordingly I have scarcely appointed a demo- crat to a command, who was not urged by many republicans and opposed by none. It was so as to McClellan. He was first brought forward by the Republican Governor of Ohio & claimed, and contended for at the same time by the Repub- lican Governor of Pennsylvania. I received recommenda- tions from the republican delegations in Congress, and I believe every one of them recommended a majority of demo- crats. But, after all, many Republicans were appointed ; and I mean no disparagement to them when I say I do not see that their superiority of success has been so marked as to throw great suspicion on the good faith of those who are not Republicans.'' This did not entirely settle the matter with Schurz. His ardor led him to write a long, defensive reply. It drew from Lincoln an admirable answer, published many years ago. Schurz probably had in mind this correspondence when in his thoughtful essay on Lincoln he wrote, " There are men now living who would to-day read with amazement if not regret what they then ventured to say or write to him." The climax of this episode, so revealing of the man, is given by Schurz in his Reminiscences. Two or three days after Mr. Lincoln's second letter, a special messenger came to the Gen- eral, asking him to come to Washington as soon as his duties would permit. Schurz went at once. He describes what happened. "Mr. Lincoln was seated in an arm-chair before xx PREFACE the open-grate fire, his feet in gigantic morocco slippers. He greeted me cordially as of old and bade me pull up a chair and sit by his side. Then he brought his large hand with a slap down on my knee and said with a smile : ' Now tell me, young man, whether you really think that I am as poor a fellow as you hav.e made me out in your letter.' I must confess, this reception disconcerted me. I looked into his face and felt something like a big lump in my throat. After a while I gathered up my wits and after a word of sorrow, if I had written anything that could have pained him, I explained to him my impressions of the situation and my reasons for writing to him as I had done. He listened with silent atten- tion and when I had stopped, said very seriously: 'Well, I know that you are a warm anti-slavery man and a good friend to me. Now let me tell you all about it.' Then he unfolded in his peculiar way his view of the then existing state of affairs, his hopes and his apprehensions, his troubles and embarrass- ments, making many quaint remarks about men and things. I regret I cannot remember all. Then he described how the criticisms coming down upon him from all sides chafed him, and how my letter, although containing many points that were well founded and useful, had touched him as a terse summing- up of all the principal criticisms and offered him a good chance at me for a reply. Then, slapping my knee again, he broke out in a loud laugh and exclaimed : ' Didn't I give it to you hard in my letter ? Didn't I ? But it didn't hurt, did it ? I did not mean to, and therefore I wanted you to come so quickly.' He had to meet the incessant charge that he was playing the dictator. Equally he had to meet the cry that what we needed was a dictator. Lincoln's attitude toward both is particularly worth considering at this moment, and it is in admirable keeping with his large, tolerant, humorous sense of men and things. PREFACE xxi It is quite clear that he was not afraid of the people mis- understanding him when he exercised powers, however un- usual, that he thought essential to the sing ] e aim he had in view — the saving of the Union. He stated his policy in regard to the measures to be taken to suppress the revolution in his first annual message to Congress : "The Union must be preserved ; and hence all indispensable means must be em- ployed. We should not be in haste to determine that radical and extreme measures, which may reach the loyal as well as the disloyal, are indispensable." If these "extreme measures" were in his judgment indis- pensable, he used them serenely. "It is said, the devil takes care of his own," he wrote in one case ; "much more should a good spirit — the spirit of the Constitution and the Union — take care of its own. I think it cannot do less and live." This thesis he held until the end — re-expressing it again and again, but never more forcibly or pungently than in defending the arrest of Vallandigham. "If I be wrong on this question of constitutional power, my error lies in believing that certain proceedings are con- stitutional when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety requires them, which would not be constitutional when, in absence of rebellion or invasion, the public safety does not require them : in other words, that the Constitu- tion is not in its application in all respects the same in cases of rebellion or invasion involving the public safety, as it is in times of profound peace and public security. The Constitution itself makes the distinction, and I can no more be persuaded that the government can constitutionally take no strong measures in time of rebellion because it can be shown that the same could not be lawfully taken in time of peace, than I can be persuaded that a particular drug is not good medicine for a sick man because it can be shown not to be good food for a well one. Nor am I able xxii PREFACE to appreciate the danger apprehended by the meeting, that the American people will by means of military arrests during the rebellion lose the right of public discussion, the liberty of speech and the press, the law of evidence, trial by jury, and habeas corpus throughout the indefinite peaceful future which I trust lies before them, any more than I am able to believe that a man could contract so strong an appetite for emetics during temporary illness as to persist in feeding upon them during the remainder of his healthful life.'' It was in the army that the demand for a dictator cropped up most frequently, and Lincoln expressed his attitude toward it best in a letter to Hooker written at the time he appointed him to supersede Burnside. It is not a new letter, but at this particular time it has a new ring. The President had told Hooker frankly what he considered the General's good points, and equally frankly he followed this list with what he con- sidered the General's weaknesses, and added : "I have heard, in such a way as to believe it, of your recently saying that both the army and the government needed a dictator. Of course it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command. Only those generals who gain successes can set up dictators. What I now ask of you is military success and I will risk the dictatorship." It would be difficult to find anywhere a better putting of the attitude of the people in a democracy towards powerful men whom they have put into positions of responsibility. One can almost hear the people of the United States saying to-day as Lincoln heard them say it : " Go ahead and give us victory and we will risk the dictatorship." It is possible that Lincoln was less prepared for the vindictive intrigues within his own household than for the embarrass- ments which meddlesomeness like Seward's or criticism like Schurz's caused him. He was never a vindictive man. All his life he had studiously avoided quarrels. Some very PREFACE xxiii interesting expressions in regard to this have come out in this material of the last ten years. There is a new letter in the Tracy collection written in 1845 when the nomination to Congress in his district was in dispute. Because of past promises, Lincoln thought it should go to him. His friend Harden was inclined to break the compact. Lincoln was willing to fight, but not to the point of quarrel, and he cau- tioned his friends, "It will be just all we can do to keep out of a quarrel. " That was always a first consideration — not to quarrel. He had ample reason in the war to see that this trait was unusual. He thought it singular, Hay heard him say the night they were receiving the election returns of 1864, that he who was not a vindictive man should have always been before the people for election in canvasses marked for their bitterness. He evidently had the same idea in mind when that same night he said to Assistant Secretary of the Navy Fox, who was rejoicing over the defeat of two especially bitter enemies of the administration, " You have more of that feeling of personal resentment than I. Perhaps I may have too little of it, but I never thought it paid. A man has not time to spend half his life in quarrels. If any man ceases to attack me, I never remember the past against him." I doubt very much if Lincoln was prepared for the explosive and vindictive quality which several of his colleagues showed. Stanton was one of these. There is no question that Stanton attempted to minimize failures in the Army by exaggerating the failures of the Navy, underestimating its success, and over-estimating its failure. Lincoln took his measure early, and was able to get from him the best he had to give. Welles's story of the panic Stanton aroused in the President over the Merrimac shows well how his mind worked in his dealings with such men. Stanton had a horrible scare over the Confederate boat. He was sure that it was going to xxiv PREFACE destroy the entire navy of the North and lay every coast city under contributions, but before it did this, it would destroy Washington and disperse Congress. In his fright, going over Mr. Welles's head, Stanton actually advised that the Boston and New York ports, as well as the Potomac, should be plugged up by sinking stone boats. The boats were under preparation for closing the Potomac when Mr. Welles, learning it, came to the White House. He found there that Stanton had ordered fifty or sixty canal boats loaded with stone to be sunk in the channel. Lincoln had sanctioned this order. Welles explained to Mr. Lincoln that there was no reason to suppose that the Merrimac could get over the shoals ; moreover that as the chief concern so far in the war had been to keep the river open for the sake of the Army of the Potomac, to close it permanently might be much more serious than a visit from the Merrimac. Lincoln's common-sense reasserted itself, and his scare seems to have calmed. He real- ized at once both the folly and impropriety of what Stanton had led him into. Later he settled Stanton's interference with the navy by one of his incomparable remarks. The President and a party of the cabinet were going down the river a few days after the episode, when they passed the sixty or so stone-loaded boats which Mr. Stanton had ordered out, and which Lincoln's lucky return to common-sense had side-tracked. "That is Stanton's navy," Lincoln said ; "it is useless as the paps of a man to a sucking child. There may be some show to amuse the child, but they are good for nothing for service." He lived in a world of intrigue. That a man who himself was so incapable of intrigue should have been able so to sense what the men whom he gathered into his cabinet, and before whom he was really humble, were about is an unending marvel. But he did understand them, and the legitimate cunning with which he could handle a serious intrigue when it came to the last phase is a pure intellectual joy. PREFACE xxv A vivid picture of this is given in the entries in Welles's Diary, tracing the resentment against Seward, which crystal- lized at the end of 1862 by an almost unanimous vote in the Republican caucus that the President should be asked to re- move him. When Seward's friends informed him, he was overwhelmed with surprise. With the fatuity of the over- ambitious man he had not suspected how obvious his manoeu- vres were both to his colleagues in the administration and to Washington in general. A goodly body of members of Con- gress had come to the point where they felt that it was their duty to protest against what they believed was his too great influence over the President. This, says Welles, "was the point and pith of their complaint. " Surprised, chagrined, but quite big enough to understand that it was a matter for the President, he sent in his resignation. Mr. Lincoln was perplexed. He felt that the action of the senators who were conducting this matter was an interference with executive authority which must not be countenanced. He told Welles that if it succeeded, the whole government "could not stand, could not hold water ; the bottom would be out." But since he felt it his supreme duty to hold everybody to the cause, he was unwilling to antagonize any more than possible the group demanding that Seward should go. He heard them ; he talked with all concerned ; he soon discovered that there had been considerable influence exerted against Seward by members of his own cabinet; somebody there had complained of Seward's practice of discouraging regular cabinet meetings and of holding back information from the members when it did meet, of his pose of settling things independently of the President and his associates. Lincoln, in the general airing of things which he conducted, came to see that certainly Mr. Chase and possibly Mr. Stan- ton had had something to do with stirring up the trouble. In the excitement some one suggested that the whole cabinet xxvi PREFACE resign. Welles refused. This was no time, in his judgment, to make things worse by such an exodus, but it was entirely in keeping that Stanton and Chase should bring their resigna- tions. Welles pictures in his diary the extraordinary mo- ment when Lincoln saw with lightning rapidity his way out. Chase had informed the President that he had prepared his resignation. " ' Where is it ? ' said the President quickly, his eye lighting up in a moment. 1 1 brought it with me,' said Chase, taking the paper from his pocket ; 1 1 wrote it this morning.' ' Let me have it,' said the President, reaching his long arm and fingers towards Chase, who held on, seemingly reluctant to part with the letter, which was sealed, and which he apparently hesitated to surrender. Something further he wished to say, but the President was eager and did not perceive it, but took and hastily opened the letter. " ' This,' said he, looking towards me with a triumphal laugh, ' cuts the Gordian knot.' An air of satisfaction spread over his countenance such as I had not seen for some time. ' I can dispose of this subject now without diffi- culty/ he added, as he turned on his chair ; * I see my way clear.' "Chase sat by Stanton, fronting the fire; the President beside the fire, his face towards them, Stanton nearest him. I was on the sofa near the east window. While the President was reading the note, which was brief, Chase turned round and looked towards me, a little perplexed. He would, I think, have been better satisfied could this interview with the President have been without the presence of others, or at least if I was away. The President was so delighted, that he saw not how others were affected. "'Mr. President,' said Stanton, with solemnity, 'I in- formed you day before yesterday that I was ready to tender my resignation. I wish you, sir, to consider my resignation at this time in your possession.' PREFACE xxvii " ' You may go to your department,' said the President ; ' I don't want yours. This,' holding Chase's letter, l is all I want; this relieves me; my way is clear; the trouble is ended. I will detain you no longer.' " Nobody understood what it meant. They all went off reluctantly and perplexedly, Chase obviously feeling that the President was going to turn both him and Seward out. He had assisted in preparing a boomerang for himself. This was clear enough two days later when the President an- nounced that Mr. Seward and Mr. Chase had resigned their portfolios, but that he had asked them to continue at their posts. Everybody was taken by surprise. It was not part of the intrigue that Chase should resign, and his friends, who had been insisting on Seward's going, were particularly disgusted. It was this quality of divining the elements of an intrigue and of almost instantaneously putting his finger on the spring which would loosen it that is most astonishing in a man of Lincoln's temperament and training. The part that humor played in handling these situations cannot, I think, be overestimated. It was a part of the man, as natural as his melancholy, or his necessity of seeing things clearly and stating them so that everybody could understand. It bubbled up through things like one of those warm springs that one sometimes comes upon in a rugged, rocky field. The way it explained, cleared up, settled, is almost unbelievable. It puts humor higher among human powers than any other exhibit, so far as I know. This is partly because it was so kind ; not that it was without satire. There was much, but usually it was a clear, friendly light. It found its expression in common things, the expression of the man to whom all human exhibits, all physical things are clean, to whom nothing is coarse or wrong that is natural. His zest in things, in everything, one might say, counted for xxviii PREFACE much in all these difficulties. It is to mistake Lincoln to over-emphasize his melancholy and his travail of spirit. That they were his constant companions is true, but they were not alone, or did they dominate his soul. His enormous interest in life and men held them under. This unflagging curiosity and sympathy made him the most likable of men. Thayer, by his excellent use of Hay's letters and diary, has succeeded in giving a fresh and delightful impression of his lovable- ness. The very titles by which Hay and Nicolay spoke of the President — the "Ancient," the " Tycoon" — hint at their affection. The little descriptions Hay drops of Lincoln taking a hearty part in everyday happenings are particularly reveal- ing. Those of us who have learned our Lincoln from the books have hardly pictured him as Hay does, dishing out oys- ters at a late informal supper, or as sitting in a private box at a concert with his gay young secretary carrying on a " hefty flirtation with the M girls in the flies" ! ! Hay's appreciation of the goodness and bigness of him grew constantly. He realized, if many others did not, the firmness of the hand on the wheel. "The Tycoon is in fine whack. I have rarely seen him more serene and busy. He is managing this war, the draft, foreign relations, and planning a recon- struction of the Union, all at once. I never knew with what a tyrannous authority he rules the Cabinet till now. The most important things he decides, and there is no cavil," and then : "What a man it is ! Occupied all day with matters of vast moment, deeply anxious about the fate of the greatest army of the world, with his own plans and future hanging on the events of the passing hour, he yet has such a wealth of simple bonhomie and good fellowship that he gets out of bed and perambulates the house in his shirt to find us, that we may share with him the fun of poor Hood's queer little conceits." It has always been difficult for those unfortunate people who regard education as possible only through schools and PREFACE xxix social contacts to understand how Lincoln was able without college training or travel to understand so thoroughly the thought and opinion of all sections of the country. As a truth, there was nobody who understood so well how all the people were thinking or why they thought as they did. These people will find a clew to their puzzle not only in Newton's detailed study of the intellectual activities of Lincoln and his law partner Herndon in the years preceding the war, but in a still more recent volume of personal reminiscences of unusual character by Henry B. Rankin of Springfield, Illinois. Mr. Rankin was in the office of the firm from 1850 to 1861. He says that as he looks back on this experience the circumstance which most impresses him is the way in which Lincoln and Herndon steadfastly kept the political affairs of the whole nation under attention ; using all sources, and in their private conferences and discussions with each other, reviewing and sifting all conflicting opinions on national questions that came to their office table from North and South, East and West. " Had they foreseen the political and executive battles before Mr. Lincoln, his preparation could not have been more thorough, exact, and comprehensive to fit him for his Presi- dency in 1861-65. It was his wish that led to their subscrib- ing for Southern papers and periodicals, and he was a more diligent reader of these than his partner. The latter had first supplied the office table with the leading Abolitionist papers of the North. It was their first discussions on the extreme opinions which Northern papers presented, that brought the Southern views represented in the Southern papers to the office table. This was Mr. Lincoln's suggestion and choice, for, as he then expressed it, 'Let us have both sides on our table. Each is entitled to its day in court.' "Besides the full use of all the Illinois State Journal's exchanges, they took regularly at the office, up to the closing xxx PREFACE of southern mails by the Confederate States in 1861, the Charleston Mercury, the Richmond Enquirer, and the Louis- ville Journal, also the Southern Literary Messenger, an able monthly political and literary magazine, formerly edited by Edgar A. Poe, and later by Hon. J. R. Thompson. This was a periodical of unusual ability, published at Richmond, Virginia, and he gave no periodical that came to the office the attention he did to this. He had preserved an accumulation of these Southern Literary Messengers on top of one of the office presses, and he directed my attention to them a few weeks before setting out for Washington, while sorting up odds and ends about the office, saying he wished me to take charge of and have them bound and kept for him until his return to the office life again, which he often spoke of as being his intention. This I did, and they are now in my library." The soundness of Lincoln's education becomes more and more clear, the more we know of the man. It is true he had no training in handling men or affairs in an orderly fashion. He did not know what system meant. So far as delegating tasks, or seeing that things were kept ship-shape, he was still in the White House the New Salem postmaster, who carried the mail in his hat, the Springfield lawyer whose idea of filing was tersely revealed in the legend attached to a bundle of his papers, "When you can't find it, anywhere else, look into this." Lincoln never had any desire to impose his way of doing things upon other men. He never saw them as parts of a machine which he was to run. He liked to talk with them as the spirit moved, and he felt that way about his cabinet. It was very difficult throughout his administration to hold regular meetings. This probably was less his than Seward's fault, but it was his fault that he did not overrule Seward. There was always around the White House a great deal of back-stair gossip, of intrigue, confusion, and contradictory PREFACE xxxi orders, a great deal of encroaching by Seward and Stanton on other departments, all of which might have been avoided by a more vigorous administrating hand. The kind of thing Mr. Lincoln was doing was vastly more important than the kind of thing which he did not do, but what he did not do caused confusion and gave opportunity for the intriguers. It often bewildered the country. The average man thinks, if the machine is running smoothly, that there is a power and pur- pose and wisdom behind. The power and purpose and wisdom were behind, but the confusion sometimes obscured them. With a little more training this might have been avoided. The indictments brought against Lincoln for inefficient administration, for interfering with the army, for going beyond strict executive powers, have backing. It is curious, however, how little these things affect our judgment of him. They leave him where he has long been in the popular mind. Possibly they leave him greater, since we see how he did in the end dominate without the aid of the conventional training which would have prevented many mistakes. These things have no more effect on our judgment of him as a states- man than the insistent effort that has been made to prove that he or his mother was born out of wedlock, or that he ran away from his own wedding, have on our opinion of him as a man. One must want to believe both of these charges very badly in order to set aside the mass of evidence against them. That is, they both seem to have been built up so far mainly on a desire to believe, rather than on trustworthy evidence. But supposing they are true, it makes no difference in our reverence for the man. It no more changes our opinion of him than it changes our feeling for Washington to be told that he could fly into a passionate rage and curse like a pirate. Though failing at many points as an administrator, Lincoln still remains the great leader. Though there are possible slips in his life, he is still the great man and the great gentleman. xxxii PREFACE Through him more than through any other man yet devel- oped in this country we are coming to realize what it means to be a useful leader in a democracy. The more one knows of him the better one understands how fully the scheme must be accepted if a man is to succeed with the people. Lincoln actually believed that popular government was practical. He actually listened to the people. He knew them so well that he understood what they said when he listened. He knew that he could not fool them in the long run, and he never tried to do so. Democracy to him was a series of practical truths, things to do as well as to say. His faith stood the test of his terrible experiences in the Civil War. Perhaps no man ever had more reason for disillusionment with men and their institutions, but to the end he kept his faith in both, and he left behind an achievement and an expression which is so far the world's best guide in government by the people. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. The Origin of the Lincoln Family — The Lincolns in Kentucky — Birth of Abraham Lincoln i II. The Lincolns leave Kentucky for Southern Indiana — Conditions of life in their new home - - 18 III. Abraham Lincoln's early opportunities— The books he read — Trips to New Orleans — Impression he made on his friends - - - 39 IV. The Lincolns leave Indiana — The journey to Illinois- Abraham Lincoln starts out for himself - - 45 V. Lincoln secures a position — He studies grammar — First appearance in politics ----- 59 VI. The Black Hawk war—Lincoln chosen captain of a company — Re-enlists as an independent ranger — End of the war ------ 73 VII. Lincoln runs for State assembly and is defeated— Store- keeper— Student — Postmaster— Surveyor - 89 VIII. Electioneering in Illinois in 1834— Lincoln reads law- First term as assemblyman— Lincoln's first great sorrow ------- I0 g IX. Lincoln is re-elected to the Illinois assembly — His first published address— Protests against pro-slavery reso- lutions of the assembly ----- 124 X. Lincoln begins to study law — Mary Owens — A news- paper contest— Growth of political influence - - 147 xxxiii XXXIV CONTENTS CHAPTER XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX. XXI. Lincoln's engagement to Mary Todd— -Breaking of the engagement — Lincoln-Shields duel - Lincoln becomes a candidate for Congress and is de- feated—On the stump in 1844 — Nominated and elected to the 30th Congress - Lincoln in Washington in 1847 — He opposes the Mexi- can war — Campaigning in New England Lincoln at Niagara — Secures a patent for an inven- tion — Abandons politics and decides to devote him- self to the law ------ Lincoln on the circuit — His humor and persuasiveness — His manner of preparing cases, examining wit- nesses, and addressing juries - - - - Lincoln's important law cases — Defence of a slave girl —The McCormick case — The Armstrong murder case — The Rock Island bridge case Lincoln re-enters politics - The Lincoln-Douglas debates Lincoln's nomination in i860 The campaign of i860 • Mr. Lincoln as President-elect - • paob 170 192 207 225 241 357 279 301 334 359 387 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Abraham Lincoln Frontispiece The Home of Abraham Lincoln, Grandfather of the President. facing 4 Facsimile of Will of Joseph Hanks facing 6 Map of New Salem, Illinois 9 Facsimile of the Marriage Bond of Thomas Lincoln 11 Return of Marriage of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks 12 Facsimile of the Appointment of Thomas Lincoln as Road Sur- veyor 13 Two Views of Rock Spring Farm facing 16 House in which Abraham Lincoln was Born facing 20 Facsimile of the Record of the Lincoln Family Made by Abraham Lincoln in the Family Bible 23 Thomas Lincoln's Bible facing 28 Fragment from a Leaf of Lincoln's Exercise-book 31 Facsimile of Lines from Lincoln's Copy-book 42 The Grave of Nancy Hanks facing 46 The Kirkham's Grammar Used by Lincoln at New Salem, .facing 64 Map Showing Lincoln's Supposed Line of March in Black Hawk War 85 Facsimile of a Letter Written by Lincoln 97 Facsimile of a Report of a Road Survey by Lincoln 102 Facsimile of a Map made by Lincoln of Road in Menard County, Illinois 103 Grave of Ann Rutledge in Oakland Cemetery facing 1 16 Facsimile of a Map of Albany, Illinois, Made by Lincoln 131 XXXV xxxvi ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Map of Illinois, Illustrating a System of Internal Improvements, 1834 135 Facsimile of Page from Stuart & Lincoln's Fee Book 154 Facsimile of Invitation to a Springfield Cotillion Party 171 Facsimile of Marriage License and Certificate of Abraham Lin- coln , 191 The Earliest Portrait of Abraham Lincoln facing 208 Thomas Lincoln's Home in Illinois facing 222 Lincoln's Device for Lifting Vessels over Shoals facing 226 Facsimile of Map of Circuit which Lincoln Travelled in Practising Law , , 243 Facsimile of a Lincoln Memorandum 250 Lincoln's Office Book-case, Chairs, and Ink-stand facing 258 The Lincoln and Douglas Meeting at Galesburg, Illinois, October 7, 1858 facing 304 Lincoln in 1858 facing 316 Lincoln in February, i860, at the Time of the Cooper Institute Speech facing 326 Lincoln in the Summer of i860 facing 340 Chair Occupied by the Chairman of the Republican National Con- vention of i860 348 The Wigwam facing 352 Lincoln in 1 860 facing 374 Lincoln Home, Springfield, Illinois facing 380 Sarah Bush Lincoln facing 408 THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN LIFE OF LINCOLN CHAPTER I THE ORIGIN OF THE LINCOLN FAMILY — THE LINCOLNS IN KENTUCKY — BIRTH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN Between the years 1635 and 1645 there came to the town of Hingham, Massachusetts, from the west of England, eight men named Lincoln. Three of these, Samuel, Daniel, and Thomas, were brothers. Their relationship, if any, to the other Lincolns who came over from the same part of Eng- land at about the same time, is not clear. Two of these men, Daniel and Thomas, died without heirs; but Samuel left a large family, including four sons. Among the descendants of Samuel Lincoln's sons were many good citizens and prominent public officers. One was a member of the Boston Tea Party, and served as a captain of artillery in the War of the Revolution. Three served on the brig Hazard during the Revolution. Levi Lincoln, a great-great-grandson of Samuel, born in Hingham in 1749, and graduated from Har- vard, was one of the minute-men at Cambridge immediately after the battle of Lexington, a delegate to the convention in Cambridge for framing a state constitution, and in 1781 was elected to the continental congress, but declined to serve. He was a member of the house of representatives and of the senate of Massachusetts, and was appointed attorney-general of the United States by Jefferson ; for a few months preced- ing the arrival of Madison he was secretary of state, and in 1807 he was elected lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts. (1) * LIFE OF LINCOLN In 1811 he was appointed associate justice of the United States Supreme Court by President Madison, an office which he declined. From the close of the Revolutionary war he was considered the head of the Massachusetts bar. His eldest son, Levi Lincoln, born in 1782, had also an honorable career. He was a Harvard graduate, became governor of the state of Massachusetts, and held other im- portant public offices. He received the degree of LL. D. from both Williams College, and Harvard College. Another son of Levi Lincoln, Enoch Lincoln, served in congress from 18 18 to 1826. He became governor of Maine in 1827, holding the position until his death in 1829. Enoch Lincoln was a writer of more than ordinary ability. The fourth son of Samuel Lincoln was called Mordecai. Mordecai was a rich " blacksmith," as an iron-worker was called in those days, and the proprietor of numerous iron- works, saw-mills, and grist-mills, which with a goodly amount of money he distributed at his death among his child- ren and grandchildren. Two of his children, Mordecai and Abraham, did not remain in Massachusetts, but removed to New Jersey, and thence to Pennsylvania, where both became rich, and dying, left fine estates to their children. Their de- scendants in Pennsylvania have continued to this day to be well-to-do people, some of them having taken prominent positions in public affairs. Abraham Lincoln, of Berks county, who was born in 1736 and died in 1806, filled many public offices, being a member of the general assembly of Pennsylvania, of the state convention of 1787, and of the state constitutional convention in 1 790. One of the sons of this second Mordecai, John, received from his father " three hundred acres of land, lying in the Jerseys." But evidently he did not care to cultivate his in- heritance, for about 1758 he removed to Virginia. "Vir- ginia John," as this member of the family was called, had ORIGIN OF THE LINCOLN FAMILY 3 five sons one of whom, Jacob, entered the Revolutionary army and served as a lieutenant at Yorktown. The third son was named Abraham and to him his father conveyed, in 1773, a tract of 210 acres of land in what is now Rocking- ham county, Virginia. But though Abraham Lincoln pros- pered and added to these acres he was not satisfied to remain many years in Virginia. It was not strange. The farm on which he lived lay close to the track of one of the earliest of those wonderful western migrations which from time to time have taken place in this country. Soon after John Lincoln came into Virginia vague rumors began to be cir- culated there of a rich western land called Kentucky. These rumors rapidly developed into facts, as journeys were made into the new land by John Finley, Daniel Boone and other adventure-loving men, and settlers began to move thither from Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina. There were but two roads by which Kentucky could be reached then, the national highway from Philadelphia to Pittsburg and thence by the Ohio, and the highway which ran from Philadelphia south-westward through the Virginia valley to Cumberland Gap and thence by a trail called the Wilderness Road, northwest to the Ohio at Louisville. The latter road was considered less dangerous and more practical than the former and by it the greater part of the emigrants journeyed. Now this road lay through Rockingham county. Abraham Lincoln was thus directly under the influence of a moving procession of restless seekers after new lands and unknown goods. The spell came upon him and, selling two hundred and forty acres of land in Rockingham County for five thou- sand pounds of the current money of Virginia — a sum worth at that time not more than one hundred and twenty-five pounds sterling — he joined a party of travelers to the Wil- derness. Returning a few months later he moved his whole family, consisting of a wife and five children, into Kentucky. 4 LIFE OF LINCOLN Abraham Lincoln was ambitious to become a landed pro- prietor in the new country, and he entered a generous amount of land — four hundred acres on Long run, in Jefferson county ; eight hundred acres on Green river, near the Green river lick ; five hundred acres in Campbell county. He settled near the first tract, where he undertook to clear a farm. It was a dangerous task, for the Indians were still troublesome, and the settlers, for protection, were forced to live in or near forts or stations. In 1784, when John Filson published his " History of Kentucky," though there was a population of thirty thousand in the territory, there were but eighteen houses outside of the stations. Of these stations, or stock- ades, there were but fifty-two. According to the tradition in the Lincoln family, Abraham Lincoln lived at Hughes Sta- tion on Floyd creek in Jefferson county. All went well with him and his family until 1788. Then, one day, while he and his three sons were at work in their clearing, an unexpected Indian shot killed the father. His death was a terrible blow to the family. The large tracts of land which he had entered were still uncleared, and his per- sonal property was necessarily small. The difficulty of reach- ing the country at that date, as well as its wild condition made it impracticable for even a wealthy pioneer to own more stock or household furniture than was absolutely es- sential. Abraham Lincoln was probably as well provided with personal property as most of his neighbors. The in- ventory of his estate, now owned by R. T. Durrett, LL. D., of Louisville, Kentucky, was returned by the appraisers on March 10, 1789. It gives a clearer idea of the condition in which he left his wife and children, than any description could do: £ 8. d 1 Sorrel horse 8 1 Black horse 9 10 I Red cow and calf ..., 4 10 p 1 GQ "on ORIGIN OF THE LINCOLN FAMILY 5 d. I Brindle cow and calf 1 Red cow and calf I Brindle bull yearling I Brindle heifer yearling Bar spear-plough and tackling 3 Weeding hoes Flax wheel »...., Pair smoothing irons 1 Dozen pewter plates 2 Pewter dishes .* Dutch oven and cule, weighing 15 lbs. . . Small iron kettle and cule, weighing 12 lbs. Tool adds .... Hand saw One-inch auger Three-quarter auger Half-inch auger Drawing-knife Currying-knife Currier's knife and barking-iron Old smooth-bar gun Rifle gun Rifle gun 2 Pott trammels 1 Feather bed and furniture Ditto 1 Bed and turkey feathers and furniture... Steeking-iron I 6 Candle-stick I 6 1 Axe • ^68 1 6s 6d ■SSBBBH »l l . » l S3 Soon after the death of Abraham Lincoln, his widow moved from Jefferson county to Washington county. Here the eldest son, Mordecai, who inherited nearly all of the large estate, became a well-to-do and popular citizen. The deed- book of Washington county contains a number of records of lands bought and sold by him. At one time he was sheriff of his county and according to a tradition of his descend- ants a member of the Kentucky legislature. His name is not £ 4 s. 10 5 1 1 2 7 5 6 6 IS 1 10 17 IS 12 10 5 6 4 3 3 10 6 10 3 55 10 H 5 8 1 10 5 10 1 1 9 6 LIFE OP LINCOLN to be found however in the fullest collection of journals of the Kentucky legislature which exists, that of Dr. R. T. Durett of Louisville, Kentucky. Mordecai Lincoln is re- membered especially for his sporting tastes, his bitter hatred of the Indians and his ability as a story-teller. He remained in Kentucky until late in life, when he removed to Hancock County, Illinois. Of Josiah, the second son, we know very little more than that the records show that he owned and sold land. He left Kentucky when a young man, to settle on the Blue river, in Harrison County, Indiana, and there he died. The two daughters married into well-known Kentucky families; the elder, Mary, marrying Ralph Crume; the younger, Nancy, William Brumfield. The death of Abraham Lincoln was saddest for the young- est of the children, a lad of ten years at the time, named Thomas, for it turned him adrift to become a " wandering laboring-boy " before he had learned even to read. Thomas seems not to have inherited any of the father's estate, and from the first to have been obliged to shift for himself. For several years he supported himself by rough farm work of all kinds, learning, in the meantime, the trade of carpenter and cabinet-maker. According to one of his acquaintances, " Tom had the best set of tools in what was then and now Washington County," and was " a good carpenter for those days, when a cabin was built mainly with the axe, and not a nail or bolt-hinge in it; only leathers and pins to the door, and no glass/' Although a skilled craftsman for his day, he never became a thrifty or ambitious man. " He would work energetically enough when a job was brought to him, but he would never seek a job." But if Thomas Lincoln plied his trade spasmodically, he shared the pioneer's love for land, for when but twenty-five years old, and still without the responsibility of a family, he bought a farm in Hardin ORIGIN OF THE LINCOLN FAMILY J County, Kentucky. This fact is of importance, proving as it does that Thomas Lincoln was not the altogether shiftless man he has been pictured. Certainly he must have been above the grade of the ordinary country boy, to have had the energy and ambition to learn a trade and secure a farm through his own efforts by the time he was twenty-five. He was illiterate, never doing more " in the way of writing than to bunglingly write his own name." Nevertheless, he had the reputation in the country of being good-natured and obliging, and possessing what his neighbors called " good strong horse-sense/' Although he was a " very quiet sort of a man," he was known to be determined in his opinions, and quite competent to defend his rights by force if they were too flagrantly violated. He was a moral man, and, in the crude way of the pioneer, religious. In 1806 Thomas Lincoln married. The early history of his wife, Nancy Hanks, has been until recently obscured by contradictory traditions. The compilation of the genealogy of the Hanks family in America, which has been completed by Mrs. Caroline Hanks Hitchcock, though not yet printed, has fortunately cleared up the mystery of her birth. Ac- cording to the records which Mrs. Hitchcock has gathered and a brief summary of which she has published in a valuable little volume called " Nancy Hanks," the family to which Thomas Lincoln's wife belonged first came to this country in 1699 and settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts. This early settler, Benjamin Hanks, had eleven children, one of whom, William, went to Virginia, settling near the mouth of the Rappahannock river. William Hanks had five sons, four of whom, about the middle of the eighteenth cen- tury, moved to Amelia County, Virginia, where, according to old deeds unearthed by Mrs. Hitchcock, they owned nearly a thousand acres of land. Joseph Hanks, the youngest of these sons, married Nancy Shiplev. This Miss Shipley was 8 LIFE OF LINCOLN a daughter of Robert and Rachel Shipley of Lurenburg County, Virginia, and a sister of Mary Shipley, who married Abraham Lincoln of Rockingham County, and who was the mother of Thomas Lincoln. About 1789 Joseph Hanks and a large number of his rela- tives in Amelia County moved into Kentucky, where he set- tled near what is now Elizabethtown. He remained here until his death in 1793. Joseph Hanks's will may still be seen in the county records of Bardstown. He leaves to each of his sons a horse, to each of his daughters a " heifer yearling/' though these bequests, as well as the " whole estate " of one hundred and fifty acres of land was to be the property of his wife during her life, when it was to be divided equally among all the children. Soon after Joseph Hanks's death his wife died and the family was scattered. The youngest of the eight children left fatherless and motherless by the death of Joseph Hanks and his wife was a little girl called Nancy. She was but nine years old at the time and a home was found for her with her aunt, Lucy Shipley, wife of Richard Berry, who had a farm in Washington county, near Springfield. Nancy had a large number of relatives near there, all of whom had come from Virginia with her father. The little girl grew up into a sweet-tempered and beautiful woman whom tradition paints not only as the center of all the country merry-making but as a famous spinner and housewife. It was probably at the house of Richard Berry that Thomas Lincoln met Nancy Hanks, for he doubtless spent more or less time nearby with his oldest brother, Mordecai Lincoln, who was a resident of Washington County and a friend and neighbor of the Berry's. He may have seen her, too, at the home of her brother, Joseph Hanks, in Elizabeth- town. This Joseph Hanks was a carpenter and had in- herited the old home of the family and it was with him that ^Itf/j.^O.f/, AW , )/t sKVI , "•^1///,. MAP OP NEW SALEM, ILLINOIS. Drawn for this biography by J. McCann Davis, aided by surviving inhabitants of New Salem. Dr. John Allen, who lived across the road from Berry & Lincoln's store, attended Ann Rutledge in her last illness. None of the buildings are in existence to-day. IO LIFE OF LINCOLN Thomas Lincoln learned his trade. At all events, the two cousins became engaged and on June 10, 1806, their mar- riage bond was issued according to the law of the time. Two days later according to the marriage returns of the Rev- erend Jesse Head, they were married, — a fact duly attested also by the marriage certificate made out by the officiating minister. The marriage took place at the home of Richard Berry, near Beechland in Washington County, Kentucky. It was celebrated in the boisterous style of one hundred years ago, and was followed by an infare, given by the bride's guardian. To this celebration came all the neighbors, and, according to an entertaining Kentucky centenarian, Dr. Christopher Columbus Graham, even those who happened in the neigh- borhood were made welcome. He tells how he heard of the wedding while " out hunting for roots," and went " just to get a good supper. I saw Nancy Hanks Lincoln at her wed- ding," continues Mr. Graham, " a fresh looking girl, I should say over twenty. I was at the infare, too, given by John H. Parrott, her guardian — and only girls with money had guardians appointed by the court. We had bearmeat ; . . . venison; wild turkey and ducks; eggs, wild and tame, so common that you could buy them at two bits a bushel ; maple sugar, swung on a string, to bite off for coffee or whiskey; syrup in big gourds ; peach-and-honey ; a sheep that the two families barbecued whole over coals of wood burned in a pit, and covered with green boughs to keep the juice in ; and a race for the whiskey bottle." After his marriage Thomas Lincoln? settled in Elizabeth- town. His home was a log cabin, but at that date few peo- ple in the state had anything else. Kentucky had been in the union only fourteen years. When admitted, the few brick structures within its boundaries were easily counted, and there were only log school-houses and churches. Fourteen ^.1 .J N 1 \ N2> 1 H|i ^ fUt'/Hzr-j RETURN OF MARRIAGE OF THOMAS LINCOLN AND NANCY HANKS. From a tracing of the original, made by Henry Whitney Cleveland. This certificate was discovered aboui 1885 by W. F. Booker, Esq., Clerk of Washington County, Kentucky. ORIGIN OP THE LINCOLN FAMILY IJ years had brought great improvements, but the majority of the population still lived in log cabins, so that the home of Thomas Lincoln was as good as most of his neighbors. Lit- tle is known of his position in Elizabethtown, though we have proof that he had credit in the community, for the descend- ants of two of the early store-keepers still remember seeing on their grandfathers' account books sundry items charged to T. Lincoln. Tools and groceries were the chief purchases he made, though on one of the ledgers a pair of " silk sus- penders," worth one dollar and fifty cents, was entered. He not only enjoyed a certain credit with the people of Eliza- bethtown ; he was sufficiently respected by the public authori- ties to be appointed in 1816 a road surveyor, or, as the office If, U t&^/**&^fasfo ***- "**^2>^f jfc*^ feet******- <&^ e/^J^L FACSIMILE OF THE APPOINTMENT OF THOMAS LINCOLN AS ROAD SURVEYOR is known in some localities, supervisor. It was not, to be sure, a position of great importance, but it proved that he was considered fit to oversee a body of men at a task of consider- able value to the community. Indeed, all of the documents mentioning Thomas Lincoln which have been discovered show him to have had a much better position in Hardin county than he has been credited with. It was at Elizabethtown that the first child of the Lincolns, a daughter, was born. Soon after this event Thomas Lit. coin decided to combine farming with his trade, and moved 14 LIFE OF LINCOLN to the farm he had bought in 1803 on the Big South fork of Nolin creek, in Hardin County, now La Rue County, three miles from Hodgensville, and about fourteen miles from Elizabethtown. Here he was living when, on February 12, 1809, his second child, a boy, was born. The little new- comer was called Abraham, after his grandfather— a name which had persisted through many preceding generations in both the Lincoln and Hanks families. The home into which the child came was the ordinary one of the poorer western pioneer — a one-roomed cabin with a huge outside chimney, a single window, and a rude door. The description of its squalor and wretchedness, which are so familiar, have been overdrawn. Dr. Graham, than whom there is no better authority on the life of that day, and who knew Thomas Lincoln well, declares energetically that "It is all stuff about Tom Lincoln keeping his wife in an open shed in a winter. The Lincolns had a cow and calf, milk and butter, a good feather bed — for I have slept on it. They had home- woven 'kiverlids,' big and little pots, a loom and wheel. Tom Lincoln was a man and took care of his wife." The Lincoln home was undoubtedly rude, and in many ways uncomfortable, but it sheltered a happy family, and its poverty affected the new child but little. He grew to be robust and active and soon learned how endless are the de- lights and interests the country offers to a child. He had several companions. There was his sister Nancy, or Sarah — both names are given her — two years his senior ; there was a cousin of his mother's, ten years older, Dennis Friend (commonly called Dennis Hanks), an active and ingenious leader in sports and mischief ; and there were the neighbors' boys. One of the latter, Austin Gollaher, lived to be over ninety years of age and to his death related with pride how he played with young Lincoln in the shavings of his ORIGIN OF THE LINCOLN FAMILY I| father's carpenter shop, hunted coons and ran the woods with him, and once even saved his life. " Yes," Mr. Gollaher was accustomed to say, " the story that I once saved Abraham Lincoln's life is true. He and I had been going to school together for a year or more, and had become greatly attached to each other. Then school dis- banded on account of there being so few scholars, and we did not see each other much for a long while. One Sunday my mother visited the Lincolns, and I was taken along. Abe and I played around all day. Finally, we concluded to cross the creek to hunt for some partridges young Lincoln had seen the day before. The creek was swollen by a recent rain, and, in crossing on the narrow footlog, Abe fell in. Neither of us could swim. I got a long pole and held it out to Abe, who grabbed it. Then I pulled him ashore. He was almost dead, and I was badly scared. I rolled and pounded him in good earnest. Then I got him by the arms and shook him, the water meanwhile pouring out of his mouth. By this means I succeeded in bringing him to, and he was soon all right. " Then a new difficulty confronted us. If our mothers discovered our wet clothes they would whip us. This we dreaded from experience, and determined to avoid. It was June, the sun was very warm, and we soon dried our clothing by spreading it on the rocks about us. We promised never to tell the story, and I never did until after Lincoln's tragic end." When the little boy was about four years old the first real excitement of his life occurred. His father moved from the farm on Nolin creek to another some fifteen miles northeast on Knob creek, and here the child began to go to school. At that day the schools in the west were usually accidental, de- pending upon the coming of some poor and ambitious young man who was willing to teach a few terms while he looked for an opening to something better. The terms were ir- regular, their length being decided by the time the settlers l6 LIFE OP LINCOLN felt able to board the master and pay his small salary, Thts chief qualifications for a school-master seem to have been enough strength to keep the " big boys " in order, though one high authority affirms that pluck went " for a heap sight more'n sinnoo with boys." Many of the itinerant masters were Catholics, strolling Irishmen from the colony in Tennessee, or French priests from Kaskaskia. Lincoln's first teacher, Zachariah Riney, was a Catholic. Of his second teacher, Caleb Hazel, we know even less than of Riney. Mr. Gollaher says that Abraham Lincoln, in those days when he was his schoolmate, was " an unusually bright boy at school, and made splendid progress in his studies. Indeed, he learned faster than any of his schoolmates. Though so young, he studied very hard. He would get spicewood bushes, hack them up on a log, and burn them two or three together, for the purpose of giving light by which he might pursue his studies." Probably the boy's mother had something to do with the spice-wood illuminations. Tradition has it that Mrs. Lincoln took great pains to teach her children what she knew, and that at her knee they heard all the Bible lore, fairy tales, and country legends that she had been able to gather in her poor life. Besides the "A B C schools," as Lincoln called them, the only other medium of education in the country districts of Kentucky in those days was "preaching." Itinerants like the school-masters, the preachers, of whatever denomination, were generally uncouth and illiterate ; the code of morals they taught was mainly a healthy one, and they, no doubt, did much to keep the consciences of the pioneers awake. It is diffi- cult to believe that they ever did much for the moral training of young Lincoln, though he certainly got his first notion of public speaking from them ; and for years in his boyhood one of his chief delights was to gather his playmates about him, VIEW OF ROCK SPRING FARM, WHERE PRESIDENT LINCOLN WAS BORN From a photograph taken in September, 1895, for this biography. The house in which Lincoln was born is seen to the right, in the background See page 14 ROCK SPRING, ON THE FARM WHERE LINCOLN WAS BORN From a photograph taken in September, 1895, for this biography See page 14 ORIGIN OF THE LINCOLN FAMILY 17 and preach and thump until he had his auditors frightened or in tears. As soon as the child was strong enough to follow his father in the fields, he was put to work at simple tasks ; — bringing tools, carrying water, picking berries, dropping seeds. He learned to know his father's farm from line to line and years after, when President of the United States, he recalled in a conversation at the White House, in the presence of Dr. J. J. Wright of Emporia, Kansas, the arrangement of the fields and an incident of his own childish experience as a farmer's son. " Mr. President," one of the visitors had asked, " how would you like when the war is over to visit your old home in Kentucky?" "I would like it very much," Mr. Lin- coln replied. " I remember that old home very well. Our farm was composed of three fields. It lay in the valley sur- rounded by high hills and deep gorges. Sometimes when there came a big rain in the hills the water would come down through the gorges and spread all over the farm. The last thing that I remember of doing there was one Saturday afternoon ; the other boys planted the corn in what we called the big field; it contained seven acres — and I dropped the pumpkin seed. I dropped two seeds every other hill and every other row. The next Sunday morning there came a big rain in the hills, it did not rain a drop in the valley, but the water coming down through the gorges washed ground, corn, pumpkin seeds and all clear off the field." CHAPTER II THE LINCOLNS LEAVE KENTUCKY FOR SOUTHERN INDIANA — CONDITIONS OF LIFE IN THEIR NEW HOME In 1816 a great event happened to the little boy. His father emigrated from Knob creek to Indiana. " This re- moval was partly on account of slavery, but chiefly on ac- count of the difficulty in land titles in Kentucky,' ' says his son. It was due, as well, no doubt, to the fascination which an unknown country has always for the adventurous, and to that restless pioneer spirit which drives even men of sober judg- ment continually towards the frontier, in search of a place where the conflict with nature is less severe — some spot farther on, to which a friend or a neighbor has preceded, and from which he sends back glowing reports. It may be that Thomas Lincoln was tempted into Indiana by the reports of his brother Joseph, who had settled on the Big Blue river in that State. At all events, in the fall of 1816 he started with wife and children and household stores to journey by horse- back and by wagon from Knob creek to a farm selected on a previous trip he had made. This farm, located near Little Pigeon creek, about fifteen miles north of the Ohio river, and a mile and a half east of Gentryville, Spencer County, was in a forest so dense that the road for the travellers had to be hewed out as they went. To a boy of seven years, free from all responsibility, and too vigorous to feel its hardships, such a journey must have been a long delight and wonder. Life suddenly ceased its routine, and every day brought forth new scenes and adven- tures. Little Abraham saw forests greater than he had ever 18 LEAVE KENTUCKY FOR INDIANA 19 dreamed of, peopled by strange birds and beasts, and he crossed a river so wide that it must have seemed to him like the sea. To Thomas and Nancy Lincoln the journey was probably a hard and sad one ; but to the children beside them it was a wonderful journey into the unknown. On arriving at the new farm an axe was put into the boy's hands, and he was set to work to aid in clearing a field for :orn, and to help build the " half-face camp " which for a year was the home of the Lincolns. There were few more primitive homes in the wilderness of Indiana in 18 16 than this of young Lincoln, and there were few families, even in that day, who were forced to practice more make-shifts to get a living. The cabin which took the place of the " half- face camp " had but one room, with a loft above. For a long time there was no window, door, or floor ; not even the traditional deer-skin hung before the exit; there was no oiled paper over the opening for light; there was no pun- cheon covering on the ground. The furniture was of their own manufacture. The table and chairs were of the rudest sort — rough slabs of wood in which holes were bored and legs fitted in. Their bedstead, or, rather bed- frame, was made of poles held up by two outer posts, and the ends made firm by inserting the poles in auger- holes that had been bored in a log which was a part of the wall of the cabin ; skins were its chief covering. Little Abra- ham's bed was even more primitive. He slept on a heap of dry leaves in the corner of the loft, to which he mounted by means of pegs driven into the wall. Their food, if coarse, was usually abundant ; the chief diffi- culty in supplying the larder was to- secure any variety. Of game there was plenty — deer, bear, pheasants, wild turkeys, ducks, birds of all kinds. There were fish in the streams, and wild fruits of many kinds in the woods in the summer, and these were dried for winter use ; but the difficulty of raising 20 LIFE OF LINCOLN and milling corn and wheat was very great. Indeed, in many places in the west the first flour cake was an historical event. Corn-dodger was the every-day bread of the Lincoln house- hold, the wheat cake being a dainty reserved for Sunday mornings. Potatoes were the only vegetable raised in any quantity, and there were times in the Lincoln family when they were the only food on the table ; a fact proved to posterity by the oft-quoted remark of Abraham to his father after the latter had asked a blessing over a dish of roasted potatoes — " that they were mighty poor blessings. " Not only were they all the Lincolns had for dinner sometimes; one of their neigh- bors tells of calling there when raw potatoes, pared and washed, were passed around instead of apples or other fruit. They even served as a kind of pioneer chauffrette — being baked and given to the children to carry in their hands as they started to school or on distant errands in winter time. The food was prepared in the rudest way, for the supply of both groceries and cooking utensils was limited. The for- mer were frequently wanting entirely, and as for the latter, the most important item was the Dutch oven. An indis- pensable article in the primitive kitchen outfit was the " grit- ter." It was made by flattening out an old piece of tin punching it full of holes, and nailing it on a board. Upon this all sorts of things were grated, even ears of corn, in which slow way, enough meal was sometimes secured for bread. Old tin was used for many other contrivances be- sides the " gritter," and every scrap was carefully saved. Most of the dishes were of pewter; the spoons, iron; the knives and forks horn-handled. The Lincolns of course made their own soap and candles, and if they 'had cotton or wool to wear they had literally to grow it. It is probable that young Abraham Lincoln wore little cotton or linsey-woolsey. His trousers were of roughly tanned deer-skin, his foot-covering- a home-made moccasin. LEAVE KENTUCKY FOR INDIANA 2 l his cap a coon-skin; it was only the material for his blouse or shirt that was woven at home. If this costume had some ob- vious disadvantages, it was not to be despised. So good an authority as Governor Reynolds says of one of its articles — the linsey-woolsey shirt — " It was an excellent garment. I have never felt so happy and healthy since I put it off." These "pretty pinching times," as Abraham Lincoln once described the early days in Indiana, lasted until 1819. The year before Nancy Lincoln had died, and for many months no more forlorn place could be conceived than this pioneer home bereft of its guiding spirit; but finally Thomas Lincoln went back to Kentucky and returned with a new wife — Sally Bush Johnston, a widow with three children, John, Sarah, and Matilda. The new mother came well provided with household furniture, bringing many things unfamiliar to lit- tle Abraham — "one fine bureau, one table, one set of chairs, one large clothes-chest, cooking utensils, knives, forks, bed- ding, jnd other articles." She was a woman of energy, thrift, and gentleness, and at once made the cabin home-like and taught the children habits of cleanliness and comfort. Abraham was ten years old when his new mother came from Kentucky, and he was already an important member of the family. He was remarkably strong for his years, and the work he could do in a day was a decided advantage to Thomas Lincoln. The axe which had been put into his hand to help in making the first clearing, he had never been al- lowed to drop; indeed, as he says himself, " from that till within his twenty-third year he was almost constantly hand- ling that most useful instrument." Besides, he drove the team, cut the elm and linn brush with which the stock was often fed, learned to handle the old shovel-plough, to wield the sickle, to thresh the wheat with a flail, to fan and clean it with a sheet, to go to mill and turn the hard-earned grist into flour. In short, he learned all the trades the settler's 22 LIFE OF LINCOLN boy must know, and so well that when his father did not need him he could hire him to the neighbors. Thomas Lincoln also taught him the rudiments of carpentry and cabinet-making, and kept him busy much of the time as his assistant in his trade. There are houses still standing, in and near Gentryville, on which it is said he worked. As he grew older he became one of the strongest and most popular " hands " in the vicinity, and much of his time was spent as a " hired boy " on some neighbor's farm. For twenty-five cents a day — paid to his father — he was hostler, ploughman, wood-chopper, and carpenter, besides helping the women with the " chores." For them he was ready to carry water, make the fire, even tend the baby. No wonder that a laborer who never refused to do anything asked of him, who could " strike with a maul heavier blows " and " sink an axe deeper into the wood " than anybody else in the community, and who at the same time was general help for the women, never lacked a job in Gentryville. Of all the tasks his rude life brought him, none seems to have suited him better than going to the mill. It was, per- haps, as much the leisure enforced by this trip as anything else that attracted him. The machinery was primitive, and each man waited his turn, which sometimes was long in com- ing. A story is told by one of the pioneers of Illinois of go- ing many miles with a grist, and waiting so long for his turn, that when it came, he and his horse had eaten all the corn and he had none to grind. This waiting with other men and boys on like errands gave an opportunity for talk, story-telling, and games, which were Lincoln's delight. If Abraham Lincoln's life was rough and hard it was not without amusements. At home the rude household was overflowing with life. There were Abraham and his sister, a stepbrother and two stepsisters, and a cousin of Nancy By permission, from Herndon and Weik s " Life of Abraham Lincoln." Copyright 1892. by D. ADpletoaAOc LEAVE KENTUCKY FOR INDIANA 25 Hanks Lincoln, Dennis (Friend) Hanks, whom misfortune had made an inmate of the Lincoln home— quite enough to plan sports and mischief and keep time from growing dull. Thomas Lincoln and Dennis Hanks were both famous story- tellers, and the Lincolns spent many a cozy evening about their cabin fire, repeating the stories they knew. Of course the boys hunted. Not that Abraham ever became a true sportsman ; indeed, he seems to have lacked the genu- ine sporting instinct. In a curious autobiography, written entirely in the third person, which Lincoln prepared at the request of a friend in i860, he says of his exploits as a hunter: "A few days before the completion of his eighth year, in the absence of his father, a flock of wild turkeys ap- proached the new log cabin ; and Abraham with a rifle gun, standing inside, shot through a crack and killed one of them. He has never since pulled the trigger on any larger game." This exploit is confirmed by Dennis Hanks, who says: "No doubt about A. Lincoln's killing the turkey. He done it with his father's rifle, made by William Lutes of Bullitt county, Kentucky. I have killed a hundred deer with her myself ; tur- keys too numerous to mention.'* But there were many other country sports which he en- joyed to the full. He went swimming in the evenings ; fished with the other boys in Pigeon creek, wrestled, jumped, and ran races at the noon rests. He was present at every country horse-race and fox-chase. The sports he preferred were those which brought men together; the spelling-school, the husking-bee ; the "raising ;" and of all these he was the life by his wit, his stories, his good nature, his doggerel verses, his practical jokes, and by a rough kind of politeness — for even in Indiana in those times there was a notion of politeness, and one of Lincoln's school-masters had given "lessons in manners." Lincoln seems to have profited in a degree by them; for Mrs. Crawford, at whose home he worked for 26 LIFE OF LINCOLN some time, declares that he always "lifted his hat and bowed" when he made his appearance. There was, of course, a rough gallantry among the young people; and Lincoln's old comrades and friends in Indiana have left many tales of how he "went to see the girls," of how he brought in the biggest back-log and made the brightest fire; of how the young people, sitting around it, watch- ing the way the sparks flew, told their fortunes. He helped pare apples, shell corn and crack nuts. He took the girls to meeting and to spelling-school, though he was not often al-» lowed to take part in the spelling-match, for the one who "chose first" always chose "Abe Lincoln/' and that was equivalent to winning, as the others knew that "he would stand up the longest." The nearest approach to sentiment at this time, of which we know, is recorded in a story Lincoln once told to an ac« quaintance in Springfield. It was a rainy day, and he was sit- ting with his feet on the window-sill, his eyes on the street, watching the rain. Suddenly he looked up and said : "Did you ever write out a story in your mind ? I did when I was a little codger. One day a wagon with a lady and two girls and a man broke down near us, and while they were fixing up, they cooked in our kitchen. The woman had books and read us stories, and they were the first I had ever heard. I took a great fancy to one of the girls ; and when they were gone I thought of her a great deal, and one day when I was sitting out in the sun by the house I wrote out a story in my mind. I thought I took my father's horse and followed the wagon, and finally I found it, and they were surprised to see me. I talked with the girl and persuaded her to elope with me ; and that night I put her on my horse, and we started off across the prairie. After several hours we came to a camp; and when we rode up we found it was the one we had left a few hours before, and we went in. The next night we tried again, and the same thing happened — the horse came back to the same place; and then we concluded that we ought not to LEAVE KENTUCKY FOR INDIANA 2^ elope. I stayed until I had persuaded her father to give her to me. I always meant to write that story out and publish it, and I began once ; but I concluded that it was not much of a story. But I think that was the beginning of love with me." His life had its tragedies as well as its touch of romance — tragedies so real and profound that they gave dignity to all the crudeness and poverty which surrounded him, and quick- ened and intensified the melancholy temperament which he inherited from his mother. Away back in 1816, when Thomas Lincoln had started to find a farm in Indiana, bid- ding his wife be ready to go into the wilderness on his re- turn, Nancy Lincoln had taken her boy and girl to a tiny grave, that of her youngest child; and the three had there said good-by to a little one whom the children had scarcely known, but for whom the mother's grief was so keen that the boy never forgot the scene. Two years later he saw his father make a green pine box and put his dead mother into it, and he saw her buried not far from their cabin, almost without prayer. Young as he was, it was his efforts, it is said, which brought a parson from Kentucky, three months later, to preach the sermon and conduct the service which seemed to the child a necessary honor to the dead. As sad as the death of his mother was that of his only sister, Sarah. Married to Aaron Grigsby in 1826, she had died a year and a half later in child-birth, a death which to her brother must have seemed a horror and a mystery. Apart from these family sorrows there was all the crime and misery of the community — all of which came to his ears and awakened his nature. He even saw in those days one of his companions go suddenly mad. The young man never re- covered his reason but sank into idiocy. All night he would croon plaintive songs, and Lincoln himself tells how, fasci nated by this mysterious malady, he used to rise before day 28 LIFE OF LINCOLN light to cross the fields to listen to this funeral dirge of the reason. In spite of the poverty and rudeness of his life the depths of his nature were unclouded. He could feel intensely, and his imagination was quick to respond to the touch of mystery (. \ '• f Is t , t , -^K. 0- "; *; • \ Tx* ^ N 1 s* "S- * « wmMmmm CHAPTER HI Abraham Lincoln's early opportunities- — the books he read— trips to new orleans impression he made on his friends With all his hard living and hard work, Lincoln was get- ting, in this period, a desultory kind of education. Not that he received much schooling. He went to school " by littles," he says; "in all it did not amount to more than a year." And, if we accept his own description of the teachers, it was, per- haps, just as well that it was only " by littles." No qualifica- tion was required of a teacher beyond " reading writin/ and cipherin' to the rule of three." If a straggler supposed to know Latin happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a "wizard." But more or less of a school-room is a matter of small importance if a boy has learned to read, and to think of what he reads. And that, this boy had learned. His stock of books was small, but he knew them thoroughly, and they were good books to know; the Bible, "^Esop's Fa- bles," "Robinson Crusoe," Bunyan's "Pilgrim Progress," a "History of the United States," Weems's "Life of Washing- ton," and the "Statutes of Indiana."* These are the chief *The first authorized sketch of Lincoln's life was written by the late John L. Scripps of the Chicago " Tribune," who went to Springfield at Mr. Lincoln's request, and by him was furnished the data for a campaign biography. In a letter written to Mr. Herndon after the death of Lin- coln, which Herndon turned over to me, Scripps relates that in writing his^ book he stated that Lincoln as a youth read Plutarch's " Lives." This he did simply because, as a rule, every boy in the West in the early days did read Plutarch. When the advance sheets of the book reached Mr. Lincoln, he sent for the author and said, gravely : " That paragraph wherein you state that I read Plutarch's * Lives ' was not true when you wrote it, for up to that moment in my life I had never seen that early contribution to human history; but I want your book, even if it k 29 30 LIFE OF LINCOLN ones we know about. Some of these books he borrowed from the neighbors ; a practice which resulted in at least one casu- alty, for Weems's "Life of Washington" he allowed to get wet, and to make good the loss he had to pull fodder three days. No matter. The book became his then, and he could read it as he would. Fortunately he took this curious work in profound seriousness, which a wide-awake boy would hardly be expected to do to-day. Washington became an exalted figure in his imagination; and he always contended later, when the question of the real character of the first President was brought up, that it was wiser to regard him as a god- like being, heroic in nature and deeds, as Weems does, than to contend that he was only a man who, if wise and good, still made mistakes and was guilty of follies, like other men. Besides these books he borrowed many others. He once told a friend that he "read through every book he had ever heard of in that country, for a circuit of fifty miles." From everything he read he made long extracts, with his turkey- buzzard pen and brier-root ink. When he had no paper he would write on a board, and thus preserve his selections un- til he secured a copybook. The wooden fire-shovel was his usual slate, and on its back he ciphered with a charred stick shaving it off when it had become too grimy for use. The logs and boards in his vicinity he covered with his figures and quotations. By night he read and worked as long as there was light, and he kept a book in the crack of the logs in his loft, to have it at hand at peep of day. When acting as ferryman on the Ohio, in his nineteenth year, anxious, no doubt, to get through the books of the house where he boarded, before he left the place, he read every night until midnight. nothing more than a campaign sketch, to be faithful to the facts; and in order that the statement might be literally true, I secured the book a few weeks ago, and have sent for you to tell you that I have just read it through." — Jesse W. Weik. FRAGMENT FROM A LEAF IN LINCOLN'S EXERCISE-POOK. 32 LIFE OF LINCOLN Every lull in his daily labor he used for reading, rarely going to his work without a book. When ploughing or culti- vating the rough fields of Spencer county, he found fre- quently a half hour for reading, for at the end of every long row the horse was allowed to rest, and Lincoln had his book out and was perched on stump or fence, almost as soon as the plough had come to a standstill. One of the few people still left in Gentryville who remembers Lincoln, Captain John Lamar, tells to this day of riding to mill with his father, and seeing, as they drove along, a boy sitting on the top rail of an old-fashioned stake-and-rider worm fence, reading so in- tently that he did not notice their approach. His father turn- ing to him, said : "John, look at that boy yonder, and mark my words, he will make a smart man out of himself. I may not see it, but you'll see if my words don't come true." "That boy was Abraham Lincoln," adds Mr. Lamar impressively. In his habits of reading and study the boy had little en- couragement from his father, but his stepmother did all she could for him. Indeed, between the two there soon grew up a relation of touching gentleness and confidence. In one of the interviews a biographer of Mr. Lincoln sought with her be- fore her death, Mrs. Lincoln said : "I induced my husband to permit Abe to read and study at home, as well as at school. At first he was not easily recon- ciled to it, but finally he too seemed willing to encourage him to a certain extent. Abe was a dutiful son to me always, and we took particular care when he was reading not to disturb him — would let him read on and on till he quit of his own accord." This consideration of his stepmother won the boy's confidence, and he rarely copied anything that he did not take it to her to read, asking her opinion of it ; and often, when she did not understand it, explaining the meaning in his plain and simple language. Among the books which fell into young Lincoln's hand EARLY OPPORTUNITIES $3 when he was about eighteen years old was a copy of the "Revised Statutes of Indiana."* We know from Den- nis Hanks and from Mr. Turnham of Gentryville, to whom the book belonged, and from other associates of Lincoln at the time, that he read the book intently and discussed its contents intelligently. It was a remarkable volume for a thoughtful lad whose mind had already been fired by the history of Washington. It opened with that wonderful document, the Declaration of Independ- ence, following the Declaration of Independence was the Constitution of the United States, the Act of Virginia passed in 1783 by which the "Territory North Westward of the river Ohio" was conveyed to the United States, and the ordi- nance of 1787 for governing this territory, containing that clause on which Lincoln in the future based many an argu- ment on the slavery question. This article, No. 6 of the Ordi- nance, reads: "There shall be neither slavery nor involun- tary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted : provided always, that any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed, and conveyed to the person claiming his or her la- bor or service, as aforesaid." *The book was owned by Mr. David Turnham of Gentryville, and was given by him in 1865 to Mr. Herndon, who placed it in the Lincoln Memorial collection of Chicago. In December, 1894, this collection was sold in Philadelphia, and the "Statutes of Indiana" was bought by Mr. William Hoffman Winters, Librarian of the New York Law Institute, where it now may be seen. The book is worn, the title page is gone, and a few leaves from the end are missing. The title page of a duplicate volume reads: "The Revised Laws of Indiana, adopted and enacted by the General Assembly at their eighth session. To which are prefixed the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Indiana, and sundry other documents con- nected with the Political History of the Territory and State of Indiana, Arranged and published by authority of the General Assembly. Cory don : Printed by Carpenter and Dov^glass, 1824." f3) 34 UFE OF LINCOLN Following this was the Constitution and the Revised Laws of Indiana, three hundred and seventy-five pages, of five hun- dred words each, of statutes. When Lincoln finished this book, as he had, probably, before he was eighteen, we have reason to believe that he understood the principles on which the nation was founded, how the State of Indiana came into being, and how it was governed. His understand- ing of the subject was clear and practical, and he applied it in his reading, thinking, and discussion. After he had read the Statutes of Indiana, Lincoln had free access to the library of an admirer, Judge John Pitcher of Rockport, Indiana, where he examined many books. Although so far away from the center of the world's activ- ity, he was learning something of current history. One man in Gentryville, Mr. Jones, the storekeeper, took a Louisville paper, and here Lincoln went regularly to read and discuss its contents. All the men and boys of the neighborhood gathered there, and everything which the paper printed was subjected to their keen, shrewd common sense. It was not long before young Lincoln became the favorite member of the group, the one listened to most respectfully. Politics were warmly discussed by these Gentryville citizens, and it may be that sitting on the counter of Jones's grocery, Lincoln even argued on slavery. It certainly was one of the live questions in Indiana at that date. For several years after the organization of the Territory, and in spite of the Ordinance of 1787, a system of thinly dis- guised slavery had existed; and it took a sharp struggle to bring the State in without some form of the institution. So uncertain was the result that, when decided, the word passed from mouth to mouth all over Hoosierdom, "She has come in free, she has come in free!" Even in 1820, four years after the admission to Statehood, the census showed one hundred and ninety slaves, nearly all of them in the southwest corner, EARLY OPPORTUNITIES 35 where the Lincolns lived, and it was not, in reality, until 1821 that the State Supreme Court put an end to the question. In Illinois in 1822- 1824 there was carried on one of the most violent contests between the friends and opponents of slavery Which occurred before the repeal of the Missouri Compro- mise. The effort to secure slave labor was nearly successful. In the campaign, pamphlets pro and con literally inundated the State; the pulpits took it up; and "almost every stump in every county had its bellowing, indignant orator." So violent a commotion so near at hand could hardly have failed to reach Gentryville. There had been other anti-slavery agitation going on within hearing for several years. In 1804 a number of Baptist ministers of Kentucky started a crusade against the institu- tion, which resulted in a hot contest in the denomination, and the organization of the "Baptist Licking-Locust Association Friends of Humanity." The Rev. Jesse Head, the minister who married Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, talked freely and boldly against slavery; and one of their old friends, Christopher Columbus Graham, the man who was present at their wedding, says : "Tom and Nancy Lincoln and Sally Bush were just steeped full of Jesse Head's notions about the wrong of slavery and the rights of man as ex- plained by Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine." In 1806 Charles Osborne began to preach "immediate emancipation" in Tennessee. Ten years later he started a paper in Ohio, devoted to the same idea, and in 18 1.9 he transferred his cru- sade to Indiana. In 1821 Benjamin Lundy started, in Ten- nessee, the famous "Genius," devoted to the same doctrine; and in 1822, at Shelby ville, only about one hundred miles from Gentryville, was started a paper similar in its views, the "Abolition Intelligencer." At that time there were in Kentucky five or six abolition societies, and in Illinois was an organization called the 3$ LIFE OF LINCOLN "Friends of Humanity." Probably young Lincoln heard but vaguely of these movements; but of some of them he must have heard, and he must have connected them with the "Speech of Mr. Pitt on the Slave Trade;" with Merry's elegy, "The Slaves," and with the discussion given in his "Kentucky Preceptor," "Which has the Most to Complain of, the Indian or the Negro ?" all of which tradition declares he was fond of repeating. It is not impossible that, as Freder- ick Douglas first realized his own condition in reading a school-speaker, the "Columbian Orator," so Abraham Lin- coln first felt the wrong of slavery in reading his " Ken- tucky " or "American Preceptor." Lincoln was not only winning in these days in the Jones grocery store a reputation as a talker and a story-teller; he was becoming known as a kind of backwoods orator. He could repeat with effect all the poems and speeches in his vari- ous school readers, he could imitate to perfection the wander- ing preachers who came to Gentryville, and he could make a political speech so stirring that he drew a crowd about him every time he mounted a stump. The applause he won was sweet; and frequently he indulged his gifts when he ought to have been working — so thought his employers and Thomas, his father. It was trying, no doubt, to the hard- pushed farmers, to see the men who ought to have been cut- ting grass or chopping wood throw down their scythes or axes and group around a boy, whenever he mounted a stump to develop a pet theory or repeat with variations yesterday's sermon. In his fondness for speech-making young Lincoln attended all the trials of the neighborhood, and frequently walked fifteen miles to Boonville to attend court. He wrote as well as spoke, and some of his productions were printed, through the influence of his admiring neigh- bors. Thus a local Baptist preacher was so struck with one of Abraham's essays on temperance that he sent it to Ohio, EARLY OPPORTUNITIES 37 where it is said to have appeared in a newspaper. Another article on "National Politics," so pleased a lawyer of the vicinity that he declared the "world couldn't beat it." In considering the different opportunities for development which the boy had at this time it should not be forgotten that he spent many months at one time or another on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. In fact, all that Abraham Lincoln saw of men and the world outside of Gentryville and its neighborhood, until after he was twenty-one years of age he saw on these rivers. For many years the Ohio and the Mis- sissippi were the Appian Way, the one route to the world for the western settlers. To preserve it they had been willing in early times to go to war with Spain or with France, to se- cede from the Union, even to join Spain or France against the United States if either country would insure their right to the highway. In the long years in which the ownership of the great river was unsettled, every man of them had come to feel with Benjamin Franklin, "a neighbor might as well ask me to sell my street door." In fact, this water-way was their "street door," and all that many of them ever saw of the world passed here. Up and down the rivers was a con- tinual movement. Odd craft of every kind possible on a river went by: "arks" and "sleds," with tidy cabins where families lived, and where one could see the washing stretched, the children playing, the mother on pleasant days rocking and sewing; keel-boats, which dodged in and out and turned inquisitive noses up all the creeks and bayous; great fleets from the Alleghanies, made up of a score or more of timber rafts, and manned by forty or fifty rough boatmen ; "Orleans boats," loaded with flour, hogs, produce of all kinds; pirogues, made from great trees; "broad-horns;" curious nondescripts worked by a wheel; and, after 1812, steamboats. All this traffic was leisurely. Men had time to tie up and 3§ LIFE OF LINCOLN tell the news and show their wares. Even the steamboats loitered as it pleased them. They knew no schedule. They stopped anywhere to let passengers off. They tied up Wherever it was convenient, to wait for fresh wood to be cut and loaded, or for repairs to be made. Waiting for repairs, seems, in fact, to have absorbed a great deal of the time of these early steamers. They were continually running onto "sawyers," or "planters," or "wooden islands," and they blew up with a regularity which was monotonous. Even as late as 1842, when Charles Dickens made the trip down the Mississippi, he was often gravely recommended to keep as far aft as possible, "because the steamboats generally blew up forward." With this varied river life Abraham Lincoln first came into contact as a ferryman and boatman, when in 1826 he spent several months as a ferryman at the mouth of Ander- son creek, where it joins the Ohio. This experience sug- gested new possibilities to him. It was a custom among the farmers of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois at this date to collect a quantity of produce, and float down to New Orleans on a raft, to sell it. Young Lincoln saw this, and wanted to try his fortune as a produce merchant. An incident of his pro- jected trip he related once to Mr. Seward : "Seward," he said, "did you ever hear how I earned my first dollar?" "No," said Mr. Seward. "Well," replied he, "I was about eighteen years of age, and belonged, as you know, to what they call down south the 'scrubs ;' people who do not own land and slaves are no- body there ; but we had succeeded in raising, chiefly by my labor, sufficient produce, as I thought, to justify me in taking it down the river to sell. After much persuasion I had got the consent of my mother to go, and had constructed a flat- boat large enough to take the few barrels of things we had gathered to New Orleans. A steamer was going down the EARLY OPPORTUNITIES 39 river. We have, you know, no wharves on the western streams, and the custom was, if passengers were at any of the landings they were to go out in a boat, the steamer stop- ping, and taking them on board. I was contemplating my new boat, and wondering whether I could make it stronger or improve it in any part, when two men with trunks came down to the shore in carriages, and looking at the different boats, singled out mine, and asked, 'Who owns this ? ' I answered modestly, 'I do/ 'Will you/ said one of them, 'take us and our trunks out to the steamer?' 'Certainly,' said I. I was very glad to have the chance of earning some- thing, and supposed that each of them would give me a couple of bits. The trunks were put in my boat, the pas- sengers seated themselves on them, and I sculled them out to the steamer. They got Gn board, and I lifted the trunks and put them on the deck. The steamer was about to put on steam again, when I called out, 'You have forgotten to pay me.' Each of them took from his pocket a silver half- dollar and threw it on the bottom of my boat. I could scarcely believe my eyes as I picked up the money. You may think it was a very little thing, and in these days it seems to me like a trifle, but it was a most important incident in my life. I could scarcely credit that I, the poor boy, had earned a dollar in less than a day; that by honest work I had earned a dollar. I was ? m more hopeful and thoughtful boy from that time." Soon after this, while he was working for Mr. Gentry, the leading citizen of Gentryville, his employer decided to send a load oi' produce to New Orleans, and chose young Lincoln to go as "bow-hand," "to work the front oars." For this trip he received eight dollars a month and his pas- sage back. Who can believe that he could see and be part of this river life without learning much of the ways and thoughts of the world beyond him ? Every time a steamboat or a raft tied up near Anderson creek and he with his com- panions boarded it and saw its mysteries and talked with its crew, every time he rowed out with passengers to a passing 40 LIFE OF. LINCOLN steamer, who can doubt that he came back with new ideas and fresh energy? The trips to New Orleans were, to a thoughtful boy, an education of no mean value. It was the most cosmopolitan and brilliant city of the United States at that date, and there young Lincoln saw life at its intensest. Such was Abraham Lincoln's life in Indiana; such were the avenues open to him for study and for seeing the world. In spite of the crudeness of it all; in spite of the fact that he had no wise direction, that he was brought up by a father with no settled purpose, and that he lived in a pioneer com- munity, where a young man's life at best is but a series of makeshifts, Lincoln soon developed a determination to make something out of himself, and a desire to know, which led him to neglect no opportunity to learn. The only unbroken outside influence which directed and stimulated him in these ambitions was that coming first from his mother, then from his stepmother. These two women, both of them of unusual earnestness and sweetness of spirit, were one or the other of them at his side throughout his youth and young manhood. The ideal they held before him was the simple ideal of the early American, that if a boy is upright and industrious he may aspire to any place within the gift of the country. The boy's instinct told him they were right. Everything he read confirmed their teachings, and he cultivated, in every way open to him, his passion to know and to be something. His zeal in study, his ambition to excel made their impression on his acquaintances. Even then they pointed him out as a boy who would "make some- thing" of himself. In 1865, thirty-five years after he left Gentryville, Wm. H. Herndon, for many years a law part- ner of Lincoln, anxious to save all that was known of Lin- coln in Indiana, went among his old associates, and with a sincerity and thoroughness worthy of grateful respect, inter- viewed them. At that time there were still living numbers EARLY OPPORTUNITIES 41 of the people with whom Lincoln had been brought up. They all remembered something of him. It is curious to note that all of these people tell of his doing something dif- ferent from what other boys did, something sufficiently su- perior to have made a keen impression upon them. In almost every case each person had his own special reason for ad- miring Lincoln. A facility in making rhymes and writing essays was the admiration of many, who considered it the more remarkable because "essays and poetry were not taught in school," and "Abe took it up on his own account." Many others were struck by the clever application he made of this gift for expression. At one period he was employed as a "hand" by a farmer who treated him unfairly. Lincoln took a revenge unheard of in Gentry ville. He wrote dog- gerel rhymes about his employer's nose — a long and crooked feature about which the owner was very sensitive. The wit he showed in taking revenge for a social slight by a satire on the Grigsbys, who had failed to invite him to a wedding, made a lasting impression in Gentryville. That he should write so well as to be able to humiliate his enemies more deeply than if he had resorted to the method of taking re- venge current in the country, and thrashed them, seemed to his friends a mark of surprising superiority. His schoolmates all remembered his spelling. He stood at the head of his class invariably and at the spelling-matches in which the young people of the neighborhood passed many an evening the one who first began "choosing sides" always chose "Abe Lincoln." So often did he spell the school down that finally, tradition says, he was no longer allowed to take part in the matches. Very many of his old neighbors recalled his reading habits and how well stored his mind was with information. His explanations of natural phenomena were so unfamiliar to his companions that he sometimes was jeered at for them, 4* LIFE OF LINCOLN though as a rule his listeners were sympathetic, taking" a certain pride in the fact that one of their number knew as much as Lincoln did. "He was better read than the world knows or is likely to know exactly," said one old acquaint- ance. "He often and often commented or talked to me about what he had read — seemed to read it out of the book as he went along — did so with others. He was the learned boy among us unlearned folks. He took great pains to explain ; could do it so simply. He was diffident, then, too." One man was impressed by the character of the sentences Lincoln had given him for a copybook. "It was considered at Aul 4j&&tC'i&& ^0v soma?* FACSIMILE OF LINES FROM LINCOLN'S COPY BOOK. that time," said he, "that Abe was the best penman in the neighborhood. One day, While he was on a visit ait my mother's, I asked him to write some copies for me. He very willingly consented. He wrote several of them, but one of them I have never forgotten, although a boy at that time. It was this : " ' Good boys who to their books apply Will all be great men by and by.' " His wonderful memory was recalled by many. To save that which he found to his liking in the books he borrowed Lincoln committed much to memory. He knew many long poems, and most of the selections in the "Kentucky Precep- EARLY OPPORTUNITIES 43 tor." By the time he was twenty-one, in fact, his mind was well stored with verse and prose. All of his comrades remembered his stories and his clear- ness in argument. " When he appeared in company," says Nat Grigsby, "the boys would gather and cluster around him to hear him talk. Mr. Lincoln was figurative in his speech, talks, and conversation. He argued much from analogy, and explained things hard for us to understand by stories, maxims, tales, and figures. He would almost always point his lesson or idea by some story that was plain and near us, that we might instantly see the force and bearing of what he said." This ability to explain clearly and to illustrate by simple figures of speech must be counted as the great mental acquirement of Lincoln's boyhood. It was a power which he gained by hard labor. Years later he related his experience to an acquaintance who had been surprised by the lucidity and simplicity of his speeches and who had asked where he was educated. "I never went to school more than six months in my life," he said, "but I can say this : that among my earliest recollections I remember how, when a mere child, I used to get irritated when anybody talked to me in a way I could not understand. I do not think I ever got angry at anything else in my life; but that always disturbed my tem- per, and has ever since. I can remember going to my little bedroom, after hearing the neighbors talk of an evening with my father, and spending no small part of the night walking up and down and trying to make out what was the exact meaning of some of their, to me, dark sayings. "I could not sleep, although I tried to, when I got on such a hunt for an idea until I had caught it ; and when I thought I had got it, I was not satisfied until I had repeated it over and over; until I had put it in language plain enough, as I thought, for any boy I knew to comprehend. This was a kind of passion with me, and it has stuck by me; for I am never easy now, when I am handling a thought, till I have 44 LIFE OF LINCOLN bounded it north and bounded it south, and bounded it east and bounded it west." Mr. Herndon in his interviewing in Indiana found that everywhere Lincoln was remembered as kind and helpful. The man or woman in trouble never failed to receive all the aid he could give him. Even a worthless drunkard of the village called him friend, as well he might, Lincoln having gathered him up one night from the roadside where he lay freezing and carried him on his back a long distance to a shelter and a fire. The thoughtless cruelty to animals so common among country children revolted the boy. He wrote essays on "cruelty to animals," harangued his play- mates, protested whenever he saw any wanton abuse of a dumb creature. This gentleness made a lasting impression on his mates, coupled as it was with the physical strength and courage to enforce his doctrines. Stories of his good heart and helpful life might be multiplied but they are summed up in what his stepmother said of the boy: "Abe was a good boy, and I can say what scarcely one woman — a mother — can say in a thousand : Abe never gave me a cross word or look, and never refused, in fact or ap- pearance, to do anything I requested him. I never gave him a cross word in all my life. . . . His mind and mine — what little I had — seemed to run together. He was here after he was elected president. He was a dutiful son to me always. I think he loved me truly. I had a son, John, who was raised with Abe. Both were good boys ; but I must say, both now being dead, that Abe was the best boy I ever saw, or expect to see." CHAPTER IV THE LINCOLNS LEAVE INDIANA THE JOURNEY TO ILLINOIS ABRAHAM LINCOLN STARTS OUT FOR HIMSELF In the spring of 1830 when Abraham Lincoln was twenty-one years old, his father, Thomas Lincoln, decided to leave Indiana. The reason Dennis Hanks gives for this re- moval was a disease called the "milk-sick." Abraham Lin- coln's mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, and several of their relatives who had followed them from Kentucky had died of it. The cattle had been carried off by it. Neither brute nor human life seemed to be safe. As Dennis Hanks says : "This was reason enough (ain't it) for leaving?" Any one who has traveled through the portions of Spencer County in which the Lincolns settled will respect Thomas Lincoln for his energy in moving. When covered with timber, as the land was when he chose his farm, it no doubt promised well ; but fourteen years of hard labor showed him that the soil was niggardly and the future of the country unpromising. To-day, sixty-five years since the Lincolns left Spencer County, the country remains as it was then, dull, common- place, unfruitful. The towns show no signs of energy or prosperity. There are no leading streets or buildings; no man's house is better than his neighbor's, and every man's house is ordinary. For a long distance on each side of Gen- tryville as one passes by rail, no superior farm is to be seen, no prosperous farm or manufactory. It is a dead monotonous country, where no possibilities of quick wealth have been dis- covered, and which only centuries of tilling and fertilizing can make prosperous. 45 46 LIFE OF LINCOLN The place chosen for their new home was the Sangamon country in central Illinois. It was at that day a country of great renown in the West, the name meaning "The land where there is plenty to eat." One of the family — John Hanks, a cousin of Abraham's mother — was already there, and the inviting* reports he had sent to Indiana were no doubt what led the Lincolns to decide on Illinois as their future home. Gentryville saw young Lincoln depart with genuine regret, and his friends gave him a score of rude proofs that he would not be forgotten. After he was gone, one of these friends planted a cedar tree in his memory. It still marks the site of the Lincoln home — the first monument erected to the memory of a man to whom the world will never cease to raise monuments. The spot on the hill overlooking Buckthorne valley, where the Lincolns said good-by to their old home and to the home of Sarah Lincoln Grigsby, to the grave of the mother and wife, to all their neighbors and friends, is still pointed out. Buckthorne valley held many recollections dear to them all, but to no one of the company was the place dearer than to Abraham. It is certain that he felt the parting keenly, and that he never forgot his years in the Hoosier State. One of the most touching experiences he relates in all his published letters is his emotion at visiting his old Indiana home four- teen years after he had left it. So strongly was he moved by the scenes of his first conscious sorrows, efforts, joys, am- bitions, that he put into verse the feelings they awakened. While he never attempted to conceal the poverty and hard- ship of these days, and would speak humorously of the "pretty pinching times" he experienced, he never regarded his life at this time as mean or pitiable. Frequently he talked to his friends in later days of his boyhood, and always with apparent pleasure. "Mr. Lincoln told this story (of his youth)," says Leonard Swett, "as the story of a happy child- STARTS OUT FOR HIMSELF 47 hood. There was nothing sad or pinched, and nothing of want, and no allusion to want in any part of it. His own de- scription of his youth was that of a happy, joyous boyhood. It was told with mirth and glee, and illustrated by pointed anecdotes, often interrupted by his jocund laugh." And he was right. There was nothing ignoble or mean in this Indiana pioneer life. It was rude, but only with the rudeness which the ambitious are willing to endure in order to push on to a better condition than they otherwise could know. These people did not accept their hardships apatheti- cally. They did not regard them as permanent. They were only the temporary deprivations necessary in order to accom- plish what they had come into the country to do. For this reason they endured hopefully all that was hard. It is worth notice, too, that there was nothing belittling in their life ; there was no pauperism, no shirking. Each family provided for its own simple wants, and had the conscious dignity which comes from being equal to a situation. If their lives lacked culture and refinement, they were rich in independence and self-reliance. The company which emigrated to Illinois included the family of Thomas Lincoln and those of Dennis Hanks and Levi Hall, married to Lincoln's stepsisters — thirteen per- sons in all. They sold land, cattle and grain, and much of their household goods, and were ready in March of 1830 for their journey. All the possessions which the three families had to take with them were packed into big wagons — to which oxen were attached, and the caravan was ready. The weather was still cold, the streams were swollen, and the roads were muddy; but the party started out bravely. In- ured to hardships, alive to all the new sights on their route, every day brought them amusement and adventures, and es- pecially to young Lincoln the journey must have been of keen interest 48 LIFE OF LINCOLN He drove one of the teams, he tells us, and, accord- ing to a story current in Gentryville, he succeeded in doing a fair peddler's business on the route. Captain William Jones, in whose father's store Lincoln had spent so many hours in discussion and in story-telling, and for whom he had worked the last winter he was in Indiana, says that before leaving the State Abraham invested all his money, some thirty-odd dollars, in notions. Though all the country through which they expected to pass was but sparsely settled, he believed he could dispose of them. "A set of knives and forks was the largest item entered on the bill," says Captain Jones; "the other items were needles, pins, thread, buttons, and other little domestic necessities. When the Lincolns reached their new home near Decatur, Illinois, Abraham wrote back to my father, stating that he had doubled his money on his purchases by selling them along the road. Unfortunately we did not keep that letter, not thinking how highly we would have prized it in years afterwards." The pioneers were a fortnight or their journey. All we know of the route they took is from a few chance remarks of Lincoln's to his friends to the effect that they passed through Vincennes, where he saw a printing-press for the first time, and through Palestine, where he saw a juggler performing sleight-of-hand tricks. They reached Macon County, their new home, from the south. Mr. H. C. Whitney says that once in Decatur, when he and Lincoln were passing the court- house together, "Lincoln walked out a few feet in front, and, after shifting his position two or three times, said, as he looked up at the building, partly to himself and partly to me : 'Here is the exact spot where I stood by our wagon when we moved from Indiana, twenty-six years ago ; this isn't six feet from the exact spot.' . . . He then told me he had frequently thereafter tried to locate the route by which they STARTS OUT FOR HIMSELF 49 had come, and that he had decided that it was near the main line of the Illinois Central railroad." The party settled some ten miles west of Decatur, in Ma- con County. Here John Hanks had the logs already cut for their new home, and Lincoln, Dennis Hanks, and Hall soon had a cabin erected. Mr. Lincoln says in his short autobi- ography of i860: "Here they built a log cabin, into which they removed, and made sufficient of rails to fence ten acres of ground, fenced and broke the ground, and raised a crop of sown corn upon it the same year. These are, or are supposed to be, the rails about which so much is being said just now, though these are far from being the first or only rails ever made by Abraham." If they were far from being his "first and only rails," they certainly were the most famous ones he or anybody else ever split. This was the last work Lincoln did for his father, for in the summer of that year (1830) he exercised the right of majority and started out to shift for himself. When he left his home, he went empty-handed. He was already some months over twenty-one years of age, but he had nothing in the world, not even a suit of respectable clothes ; and one of the first pieces of work he did was "to split four hundred rails for every yard of brown jeans dyed with white- walnut bark that would be necessary to make him a pair of trousers." He had no trade, no profession, no spot of land, no patron, no influence. Two things recommended him to his neighbors — he was strong, and he was a good fellow. His strength made him a valuable laborer. Not that he was fond of hard labor. One of his Indiana employers says : "Abe was no hand to pitch into work like killing snakes ;" but when he did work, it was with an ease and effectiveness which compensated his employer for the time he spent in practical jokes and extemporaneous speeches. He could lift as much as three ordinary men, and "My, how he would chop," says (4) SO LIFE OF LINCOLN Dennis Hanks. "His axe would flash and bite into a sugar- tree or sycamore and down it would come. If you heard him fellin' trees in a clearin', you would say there was three men at work by the way the trees fell." Standing six feet four, he could out-lift, out-work and out-wrestle any man he came in contact with. Friends and employers were proud of his prowess, and boasted of it, never failing to pit him against any hero whose strength they heard vaunted. He himself was proud of it, and throughout his life was fond of comparing himself with tall and strong men. When the committee called on him in Springfield in i860, to notify him of his nomination as President, Governor Mor- gan, of New York, was of the number, a man of great height and brawn. 'Tray, Governor, how tall may you be?" was Mr. Lincoln's first question. There is a story told of a poor man seeking a favor from him once at the White House. He was overpowered by the idea that he was in the presence of the President, and, his errand done, was edging shyly away, when Mr. Lincoln stopped him, insisting that he measure with him. The man was the taller, as Mr. Lincoln had thought ; and he went away evidently as much abashed that he dared be taller than the President of the United States as that he had dared to venture into his presence. Governor Hoyt tells an excellent story illustrating this in- terest of Lincoln's in manly strength, and his involuntary comparison of himself with whomsoever showed it. It was in 1859, after Lincoln had delivered a speech at the Wisconsin State Agricultural Fair in Milwaukee. Governor Hoyt had asked him to make the rounds of the exhibits, and they went into a tent to see a "strong man" perform. He went through the ordinary exercises with huge iron balls, tossing them in the air, and catching them and rolling them on his arms and back ; and Mr. Lincoln, who evidently had never before seen such a combination of agility and strength, watched him with STARTS OUT FOR HIMSELF 5 1 intense interest, ejaculating under his breath now and then: "By George ! By George 1" When the performance was over, Governor Hoyt, seeing Mr. Lincoln's interest, asked him to go up and be introduced to the athlete. He did so ; and, as he stood looking down musingly on the man, who was very short, and evidently wondering that one so much smaller than he could be so much stronger, he suddenly broke out with one of his quaint speeches. "Why," he said, "why, I could lick salt off the top of your hat." His strength won him popularity, but his good-nature, his wit, his skill in debate, his stories, were still more efficient in gaining him good-will. People liked to have him around, and voted him a good fellow to work with. Yet such were the conditions of his life at this time that, in spite of his popu- larity, nothing was open to him but hard manual labor. To take the first job which he happened upon — rail-splitting, ploughing, lumbering, boating, store-keeping — and make the most of it, thankful if thereby he earned his bed and board and yearly suit of jeans, was apparently all there was before Abraham Lincoln in 1830, when he started out for himself. Through the summer and fall of 1830 and the early winter of 1 83 1, Mr. Lincoln worked in the vicinity of his father's new home, usually as a farm-hand and rail-splitter. Most of his work was done in company with John Hanks. Before the end of the winter he secured employment of which he has given an account himself, though in the third person : "During that winter, Abraham, together with his step- mother's son, John D. Johnston, and John Hanks, yet resid- ing in Macon County, hired themselves to Denton Offutt to take a flatboat from Beardstown, Illinois, to New Orleans, and for that purpose were to join him — Offutt — at Spring- field, Illinois, as soon as the snow should go off. When it did go off, which was about the first of March, 1831, the country was so flooded as to make traveling by land impracticable ; to obviate which difficulty they purchased a large canoe and 52 LIFE OF LINCOLN came down the Sangamon river in it. This is the time and manner of Abraham's first entrance into Sangamon County. They found Offutt at Springfield, but learned from him that he had failed in getting a boat at Beardstown. This led to their hiring themselves to him for twelve dollars per month each, and getting the timber out of the trees, and building a boat at old Sangamon town, on the Sangamon river, seven miles northwest of Springfield, which boat they took to New Orleans, substantially on the old contract." Sangamon town, where Lincoln built the flatboat, has, since his day, completely disappeared from the earth; but then it was one of the flourishing settlements on the river of that name. Lincoln's advent in the town did not go unno- ticed. In a small community, cut off from the world, as old Sangamon was, every new-comer is scrutinized and discussed before he is regarded with confidence. Lincoln did not es- cape this scrutiny. His appearance was so striking in fact that he attracted everybody's attention. "He was a tall, gaunt young man," says Mr. John Roll, of Springfield, then a resident of Sangamon, "dressed in a suit of blue homespun jeans, consisting of a round-about jacket, waistcoat, and breeches which came to within about four inches of his feet. The latter were encased in rawhide boots, into the tops of which, most of the time, his pantaloons were stuffed. He wore a soft felt hat which had at one time been black, but now, as its owner dryly remarked, 'was sun-burned until it was a combine of colors.' " It took some four weeks to build the raft, and in that pe- riod Lincoln succeeded in captivating the entire village by his story-telling. It was the custom in Sangamon for the "men- folks" to gather at noon and in the evening, when resting, in a convenient lane near the mill. They had rolled out a long peeled log, on which they lounged while they whittled and talked. Lincoln had not been long in Sangamon before he joined this circle. At once he became a favorite by his jokes STARTS OUT FOR HIMSELF 53 and good-humor. As soon as he appeared at the assembly ground the men would start him to story-telling. So irresist- ibly droll were his "yarns" that, says Mr. Roll, "whenever he'd end up in his unexpected way the boys on the log would whoop and roll off." The result of the rolling off was to pol- ish the log like a mirror. The men, recognizing Lincoln's part in this polishing, christened their seat "Abe's log." Long after Lincoln had disappeared from Sangamon, "Abe's log" remained, and until it had rotted away people pointed it out, and repeated the droll stories of the stranger. When the flatboat was finished Lincoln and his friends pre- pared to leave Sangamon. Before he started, however, he was the hero of an adventure so thrilling that he won new laurels in the community. Mr. Roll, who was a witness of the whole exciting scene, tells the story : "It, was the spring following the winter of the deep snow.* 5 Walter Carman, John Seamon and myself, and at times oth- ers of the Carman boys had helped Abe in building the boat, and when we had finished we went to work to make a dug- out, or canoe, to be used as a small boat with the flat. We found a suitable log about an eighth of a mile up the river, and with our axes went to work under Lincoln's direction. The river was very high, fairly 'booming.' After the dug- out was ready to launch we took it to the edge of the water, and made ready to 'let her go,' when Walter Carman and John Seamon jumped in as the boat struck the water, each one anxious to be the first to get a ride. As they shot out from the shore they found they were unable to make any headway against the strong current. Carman had the paddle, and Sea- mon was in the stern of the boat. Lincoln shouted to them to 'head up stream,' and 'work back to shore,' but they found themselves powerless against the stream. At last they began to pull for the wreck of an old flatboat, the first ever built on *i830 — 1831. "The winter of the deep snow" is the date which is the starting point in all calculations of time for the early settlers of Illinois, and the circumstance from which the old settlers of Sangamon Cour*y receive the name by which they are generally known, "Snow-birds/ 54 LIFE OF LINCOLN the Sangamon, which had sunk and gone to pieces, leaving one of the stanchions sticking above the water. Just as they reached it Searnon made a grab, and caught hold of the stanchion, when the canoe capsized, leaving Seamon clinging to the old timber, and throwing Carman into the stream. It carried him down with the speed of a mill-race. Lincoln raised his voice above the roar of the flood, and yelled to Car- man to swim for an old tree which stood almost in the chan- nel, which the action of the high water had changed. " Carman, being a good swimmer, succeeded in catching a branch, and pulled himself up out of the water, which was very cold, and had almost chilled him to death ; and there he sat shivering and chattering in the tree. Lincoln, seeing Car- man safe, called out to Seamon to let go the stanchion and swim for the tree. With some hesitation he obeyed, and struck out, while Lincoln cheered and directed him from the bank. As Seamon neared the tree he made one grab for a branch, and, missing it, went under the water. Another des- perate lunge was successful, and he climbed up beside Car- man. Things were pretty exciting now, for there were two men in the tree, and the boat was gone. "It was a cold, raw April day, and there was great danger of the men becoming benumbed, and falling back into the water. Lincoln called out to them to keep their spirits up and he would save them. The village had been alarmed by this time, and many people had come down to the bank. Lincoln procured a rope, and tied it to a log. He called all hands to come and help roll the log into the water, and after this had been done, he, with the assistance of several others, towed it some distance up the stream. A daring young fellow by the name of 'Jim' Dorrell then took his seat on the end of the log, and it was pushed out into the current, with the expectation that it would be carried down stream against the tree where Seamon and Carman were. "The log was well directed, and went straight to the tree; but Jim, in his impatience to help his friends, fell a victim to his good intentions. Making a frantic grab at a branch, he raised himself off the log, which was swept from under him by the raging water, and he soon joined the other two victims upon their forlorn perch. The excitement on shore STARTS OUT FOR HIMSELF 55 increased, and almost the whole population of the village gathered on the river bank. Lincoln had the log pulled up the stream, and, securing another piece of rope, called to the men in the tree to catch it if they could when he should reach the tree. He then straddled the log himself, and gave the word to push out into the stream. When he dashed into the tree, he threw the rope over the stump of a broken limb, and let it play until it broke the speed of the log, and gradually drew it back to the tree, holding it there until the three now nearly frozen men had climbed down and seated themselves astride. He then gave orders to the people on the shore to hold fast to the end of the rope which was tied to the log, and, leaving his rope in the tree he turned the log adrift. The force of the current, acting against the taut rope, swung the log around against the bank, and all 'on board' were saved. The excited people, who had watched the dangerous experiment with al- ternate hope and fear, now broke into cheers for Abe Lincoln and praises for his brave act. This adventure made quite a hero of him along the Sangamon, and the people never tired telling of the exploit. ,, The flatboat built and loaded, the party started for New Orleans about the middle of April. They had gone but a few miles when they met with another adventure. At the village of New Salem there was a mill-dam. On it the boat stuck, and here for nearly twenty- four hours it hung, the bow in the air and the stern in the water, the cargo slowly setting back- wards — shipwreck almost certain. The village of New Salem turned out in a body to see what the strangers would do in their predicament. They shouted, suggested, and advised for a time, but finally discovered that one big fellow in the crew was ignoring them and working out a plan of relief. Having unloaded the cargo into a neighboring boat, Lincoln had suc- ceeded in tilting his craft. Then, by boring a hole in the end extending over the dam, the water was let out. This done, the boat was easily shoved over and reloaded. The ingenuity which he had exercised in saving his boat made a deep im< 56 LIFE OF LINCOLN pression on the crowd on the bank, and it was talked over fo* many a day. The proprietor of boat and cargo was even more enthusiastic than the spectators, and vowed he would build a steamboat for the Sangamon and make Lincoln the captain. Lincoln himself was interested in what he had done, and nearly twenty years later he embodied his reflections on this adventure in a curious invention for getting boats over shoals. The raft over the New Salem dam, the party went on to New Orleans, reaching there in May, 1831, and remaining a month. It must have been a month of intense intellectual activity for Lincoln. Since his first visit, made with young Gentry, New Orleans had entered upon her "flush times." Commerce was increasing at a rate which dazzled specula- tors and drew them from all over the United States. From 1830 to 1840 no other American city increased in such a ratio; exports and imports, which in 1831 amounted to $26,000,000, in 1835 had more than doubled. The Creole population had held the sway so far in the city; but now it came into competition, and often into conflict, with a push- ing, ambitious, and frequently unscrupulous native Ameri- can party. To these two predominating elements were added Germans, French, Spanish, negroes, and Indians. Cosmo- politan in its make-up, the city was even more cosmopolitan in its life. Everything was to be seen in New Orleans in those days, from the idle luxury of the wealthy Creole to the or- ganization of filibustering juntas. The pirates still plied their trade in the Gulf, and the Mississippi river brought down hundreds of river boatmen — one of the wildest, wickedest set of men that ever existed in any city. Lincoln and his companions ran their boat up beside thou- sands of others. It was the custom to tie such craft along the river front where St. Mary's Market now stands, and one could walk a mile, it is said, over the tops of these boats STARTS OUT FOR HIMSELF 57 without going ashore. No doubt Lincoln went too, to live in the boatmen's rendezvous, called the "swamp," a wild, rough quarter, where roulette, whiskey, and the flint-lock pistol ruled. All of the picturesque life, the violent contrasts of the city, he would see as he wandered about ; and he would carry away the sharp impressions which are produced when mind and heart are alert, sincere, and healthy. In this month spent in New Orleans, Lincoln must have seen much of slavery. At that time the city was full of slaves, and the number was constantly increasing ; indeed, one-third of the New Orleans increase in population between 1830 and 1840 was in negroes. One of the saddest features of the in- stitution was to be seen there in its aggravated form — the slave market. The better class of slave-holders of the South, who looked on the institution as patriarchal, and who guarded their slaves with conscientious care, knew little, it should be said, of this terrible traffic. Their transfer of slaves was humane, but in the open markets of the city it was attended by shocking cruelty and degradation. Lincoln wit- nessed in New Orleans for the first time the revolting sight of men and women sold like animals. Mr. Herndon says that he often heard Mr. Lincoln refer to this experience: "In New Orleans for the first time," he writes, "Lincoln beheld the true horrors of human slavery. He saw 'negroes in chains — whipped and scourged/ Against this inhumanity his sense of right and justice rebelled, and his mind and con- science were awakened to a realization of what he had often heard and read. No doubt, as one of his companions has said, 'slavery ran the iron into him then and there.' One morning in their rambles over the city the trio passed a slave auction. A vigorous and comely mulatto girl was being sold. She un- derwent a thorough examination at the hands of the bidders ; they pinched her flesh, and made her trot up and down the room like a horse, to show how she moved, and in order, as the auctioneer said, that 'bidders might satisfy themselves 58 LIFE OF LINCOLN whether the article they were offering to buy was sound or not.' The whole thing was so revolting that Lincoln moved away from the scene with a deep feeling of 'unconquerable hate/ Bidding his companions follow him, he said : 'Boys, let's get away from this. If ever I get a chance to hit that thing' (meaning slavery), 'I'll hit it hard.' " Mr. Herndon gives John Hanks as his authority for this statement, but, according to Mr. Lincoln's autobiography, Hanks did not go on to New Orleans, but, having a family, and finding that he was likely to be detained from home longer than he had expected, he turned back at St. Louis. Though the story as told above probably grew to its present proportions by much telling, there is reason to believe that Lincoln was deeply impressed on this trip by something he saw in a New Orleans slave market, and that he often re- ferred to it. CHAPTER V LINCOLN SECURES A POSITION — HE STUDIES GRAMMAR- FIRST APPEARANCE IN POLITICS The month in New Orleans passed swiftly, and in June, 1 83 1, Lincoln and his companions took passage up the river. He did not return, however, in the usual condition of the river boatman "out of a job." According to his own way of putting it, "during this boat-enterprise acquaintance with Offutt, who was previously an entire stranger, he conceived a liking for Abraham, and believing he could turn him to ac- count he contracted with him to act as a clerk for him on his return from New Orleans, in charge of a store and mill at New Salem." The store and mill were, however, so far only in Offutt's imagination, and Lincoln had to drift about until his employer was ready for him. He made a short visit to his father and mother, now in Coles County, near Charleston (fever and ague had driven the Lincolns from their first home in Macon County), and then, in July, 1831, he went to New Salem, where, as he says, he "stopped indefinitely, and for the first time, as it were, by himself." The village of New Salem, the scene of Lincoln's mercan- tile career, was one of the many little towns which, in the pio- neer days, sprang up along the Sangamon river, a stream then looked upon as navigable and as destined to be counted among the highways of commerce. Twenty miles northwest of Springfield, strung along the left bank of the Sangamon, parted by hollows and ravines, is a row of high hills. On one of these — a long, narrow ridge, beginning with a sharp and sloping point near the river, running south, and parallel 59 60 LIFE OF LINCOLN with the stream a little way, and then, reaching its highest point, making a sudden turn to the west, and gradually- widening until lost in the prairie — stood this frontier village. The crooked river for a short distance comes from the east, and, seemingly surprised at meeting the bluff, abruptly changes its course, and flows to the north. Across the river the bottom stretches out half a mile back to the highlands. New Salem, founded in 1829 by James Rutledge and John Cameron, and a dozen years later a deserted village, is res- cued only from oblivion by the fact that Lincoln was once one of its inhabitants. The town never contained more than fifteen houses, all of them built of logs, but it had an ener- getic population of perhaps one hundred persons, among whom were a blacksmith, a tinner, a hatter, a schoolmaster and a preacher. New Salem boasted a grist-mill, a saw-mill, two stores and a tavern, but its day of hope was short. In 1837 ^ began to decline and by 1840, Petersburg, two miles down the river, had absorbed its business and population. Sa- lem Hill is now only a green cow pasture. - ^ Lincoln's first sight of the town had been in April, 1831, when he and his crew had been detained in getting their flat- boat over the Rutledge and Cameron mill-dam. When he walked into New Salem, three months later, he was not alto- gether a stranger, for the people remembered him as the in- genious flat-boatman who had freed his boat from water by resorting to the miraculous expedient of boring a hole in the bottom. Offutt's goods had not arrived when Mr. Lincoln reached New Salem ; and he "loafed" about, so those who remember his arrival say, good-naturedly taking a hand in whatever he could find to do, and in his droll way making friends of ev- erybody. By chance, a bit of work fell to him almost at once, which introduced him generally and gave him an opportunity FIRST APPEARANCE IN POLITICS 6l to make a name in the neighborhood. It was election day. In those days elections in Illinois were conducted by the viva voce method. The people did try voting by ballot, but the ex- periment was unpopular. It required too much form and in 1829 the former method of voting was restored. The judges and clerks sat at a table with the poll-book before them. The voter walked up, and announced the candidate of his choice, and it was recorded in his presence. There was no ticket peddling, and ballot-box stuffing was impossible. The village school-master, Mentor Graham by name, was clerk at this particular election, but his assistant was ill. Looking about for some one to help him, Mr. Graham saw a tall stranger loitering around the polling-place, and called to him : " Can you write ? " " Yes," said the stranger, " I can make a few rabbit tracks." Mr. Graham evidently was satis- fied with the answer, for he promptly initiated him ; and he filled his place not only to the satisfaction of his employer, but also to the delectation of the loiterers about the polls, for whenever things dragged he immediately began " to spin out a stock of Indian yarns." So droll were they that men who listened to Lincoln that day repeated them long after to their friends. He had made a hit in New Salem, to start with, and here, as in Sangamon town, it was by means of his story-tell- ing. A few days later he accepted an offer to pilot down the Sangamon and Illinois rivers, as far as Beardstown, a flat- boat bearing the family and goods of a pioneer bound for Texas. At Beardstown he found Offutt's goods, waiting to be taken to New Salem. As he footed his way home he found two men with a wagon and ox-team going for the goods. Offutt had expected Lincoln to wait at Beardstown until the ox-team arrived, and the teamsters, not having any creden- tials, asked Lincoln to give them an order for the goods. 62 LIFE OF LINCOLN This, sitting down by the roadside, he wrote out ; one of the men used to relate that it contained a misspelled word, which he corrected. When the oxen and their drivers returned with the goods, the store was opened in a little log house on the brink of the hill, almost over the river. The precise date of the opening of Denton Offutt's store is not known. We only know that on July 8, 1831, the County Commissioners' Court of Sanga- mon County granted Offutt a license to retail merchandise at New Salern, for which he paid five dollars, a fee which supposed him to have one thousand dollars' worth of goods in stock. The frontier store filled a unique place. Usually it was a " general store," and on its shelves were found most of the articles needed in a community of pioneers. But supplying goods and groceries was not its only function ; it was the pio- neer's intellectual and social center. It was the common meet- ing-place of the farmers, the happy refuge of the village loungers. No subject was unknown there. The habitues of the place were equally at home in discussing politics, reli- gion, or sports. Stories were told, jokes were cracked, and the news contained in the latest newspaper finding its way into the wilderness was repeated again and again. Lincoln could hardly have chosen surroundings more favorable to the highest development of the art of story-telling, and he had not been there long before his reputation for drollery was established. But he gained popularity and respect in other ways. There was near the village a settlement called Clary's Grove, the most conspicuous part of whose population was an organiza- tion known as the " Clary's Grove Boys." They exercised a veritable terror over the neighborhood, and yet they were not a bad set of fellows. Mr. Herndon, who knew personally many of the " boys," says : FIRST APPEARANCE IN POLITICS 63 "They were friendly and good-natured ; they could trench a pond, dig a bog, build a house ; they could pray and fight, make a village or create a state. They would do almost any- thing for sport or fun, love or necessity. Though rude and rough, though life's forces ran over the edge of the bowl, foaming and sparkling in pure deviltry for deviltry's sake, yet place before them a poor man who needed their aid, a lame or sick man, a defenceless woman, a widow, or an or- phaned child, they melted into sympathy and charity at once. They gave all they had, and willingly toiled or played cards for more. Though there never was under the sun a more generous parcel of rowdies, a stranger's introduction was likely to be the most unpleasant part of his acquaintance with them. ,, Denton Offutt, Lincoln's employer, was just the man to love to boast before such a crowd. He seemed to feel that Lincoln's physical prowess shed glory on himself, and he de- clared the country over that his clerk could lift more, throw farther, run faster, jump higher, and wrestle better than any man in Sangamon county. The Clary's Grove Boys, of course, felt in honor bound to prove this false, and they ap- pointed their best man, one Jack Armstrong, to "throw Abe." Jack Armstrong was, according to the testimony of all who remember him, a "powerful twister," "square built and strong as an ox," "the best-made man that ever lived;" and everybody knew that a contest between him and Lincoln would be close. Lincoln did not like to "tussle and scuffle," he objected to "woolling and pulling;" but Offutt had gone so far that it became necessary to yield. The match was held on the ground near the grocery. Clary's Grove and New Sa- lem turned out generally to witness the bout, and betting on the result ran high, the community as a whole staking their jack-knives, tobacco plugs, and "treats" on Armstrong. The two men had scarcely taken hold of each other before it was evident that the Clary's Grove champion had met a match. 04 LIFE OF LINCOLN The two men wrestled long and hard, but both kept their feet. Neither could throw the other, and Armstrong, convinced of this, tried a "foul." Lincoln no sooner realized the game of his antagonist than, furious with indignation, he caught him by the throat, and holding him out at arm's length, he "shook him like a child." Armstrong's friends rushed to his aid, and for a moment it looked as if Lincoln would be routed by sheer force of numbers; but he held his own so bravely that the "boys," in spite of their sympathies, were filled with admira- tion. What bid fair to be a general fight ended in a general hand-shake, even Jack Armstrong declaring that Lincoln was the "best fellow who ever broke into the camp." From that day, at the cock-fights and horse-races, which were their common sports, he became the chosen umpire ; and when the entertainment broke up in a row — a not uncommon occur- rence — he acted the peacemaker without suffering the peace- maker's usual fate. Such was his reputation with the "Clary's Grove Boys," after three months in New Salem, that when the fall muster came off he was elected captain. Lincoln showed soon that if he was unwilling to indulge in "woolling and pulling" for amusement, he did not object to it in the interests of decency and order. In such a community as New Salem there are always braggarts who can only be made endurable by fear. To them Lincoln soon became an au- thority more to be respected than sheriff or constable. If they transgressed in his presence he thrashed them promptly with an imperturbable air, half indolent, but wholly resolute which was more baffling and impressive than even his iron grip and well-directed blows. A man came into the store one day and began swearing. Now, profanity in the presence of women, Lincoln never would allow. He asked the man to stop; but he persisted, loudly boasting that nobody should prevent his saying what he wanted to. The women gone, the man began to abuse Lincoln so hotly that the latter said : "Well, if you if i £ Ha ] ENGLISH GftAMit ^ fp#i,4r FAMILIAR TtECTWUEX. JLCcaxe axibo a*" 4jfi4.*t-*+*. A COMPENDIUM; I A NEW SYSTEM ATK.K ORD£R 0#"l»A*Ufr.\G f ffc* StSlBM OFPfcxCTUATtOS, EXER(jpEs'jM rAjaH'-STm^ a Kssr toVbcb EXEaa&BSv THE USB OF...SCa'^L$ASO PRIVATE %4 i^ <%. BY SAJHiQ&jaHliAJML' THE KIRKHAM'S GRAMMAR USED BY LINCOLN AT NEW SALEM. It is said that Lincoln learned this grammar practically hy heart. He presented the book to Ann Rutledge. After the death of Ann, it was studied by her brother, Robert, and is now owned bv his widow, at Casselton, North Dakota. The words, "Ann M. Rutledge is now learning erammar " were written by Lincoln. The order on James Rutledge to pay Daniel P. Nelson thirty dollars and signed "A. Lincoln for D. Offutt," was pasted upon the front cover of the book by Robert Rutledge. See vaQt 66,. FIRST APPEARANCE IN POLITICS 65 must be whipped, I suppose I might as well whip you as any other man;" and going outdoors with the fellow, he threw him on the ground, and rubbed smart- weed into his eyes until he bellowed for mercy. New Salem's sense of chivalry was touched, and Denton Offutt's clerk became more of a hero than ever. His honesty excited no less admiration. Two incidents seem to have particularly impressed the community. Having discovered on one occasion that he had taken six and one- quarter cents too much from a customer, he walked three miles that evening, after his store was closed, to return the money. Again, he weighed out a half-pound of tea, as He supposed. It was night, and this was the last thing he did be- fore closing up. On entering in the morning he discovered a four-ounce weight in the scales. He saw his mistake, and closing up shop, hurried off to deliver the remainder of the tea. This unusual regard for the rights of others soon won him the title of "Honest Abe." As soon as the store was fairly under way, Lincoln began to look about for books. Since leaving Indiana in March, 1830, he had had in his drifting life, little leisure or op- portunity for study, though a great deal for observation of men and of life. His experience had made him realize more and more clearly that power over men depends upon knowledge. He had found that he was himself supe- rior to many of those who were called the "great" men of the country. Soon after entering Macon county, in March, 1830, when he was only twenty-one years old, he had found he could make a better speech than at least one man who was before the public. A candidate had came along where he and John Hanks were at work, and, as John Hanks tells the story, the man made a speech. "It was a bad one, and I said Abe could heat it. I turned down a box, and Abe made his speech. The other man was a candidate, Abe wasn't. Abe beat him (s) 66 LIFE OF LINCOLN to death, his subject being the navigation of the Sangamon river. The man, after Abe's speech was through, took him aside and asked him where he had learned so much, and how he could do so well. Abe replied, stating his manner and method of reading, what he had read. The man encouraged him to persevere." He studied men carefully, comparing himself with them. Could he do what they did ? He seems never up to this time to have met one who was incomprehensible to him. "I have talked with great men," he told his fellow-clerk and friend Greene, "and I do not see how they differ from others." Then he found, too, that people listened to him, that they quoted his opinions, and that his friends were already say- ing that he was able to fill any position. Offutt even de- clared the country over that "Abe" knew more than any man in the United States, and that some day he would be President. When he began to realize that he himself possessed the qualities which made men great in Illinois, that success de- pended upon knowledge and that already his friends cred- ited him with possessing more than most members of the community, his ambition was encouraged and his desire to learn increased. Why should he not try for a public posi- tion ? He began to talk to his friends of his ambition and to devise plans for self-improvement. In order to keep in prac- tice in speaking he walked seven or eight miles to debating clubs. "Practicing polemics," was what he called the exer- cise. He seems now for the first time to have begun to study subjects. Grammar was what he chose. He sought Mentor Graham, the schoolmaster, and asked his advice. "If you are going before the public," Mr. Graham told him, "you ought to do it." But where could he get a grammar ? There was but one, said Mr. Graham, in the neighborhood, and that was six miles away. Without waiting for further information, the FIRST APPEARANCE IN POLITICS 67 young man rose from the breakfast-table, walked immedi- ately to the place and borrowed this rare copy of Kirkham's Grammar. From that time on for weeks he gave every mo- ment of his leisure to mastering the contents of the book. Frequently he asked his friend Greene to "hold the book" while he recited, and, when puzzled by a point, he would consult Mr. Graham. Lincoln's eagerness to learn was such that the whole neighborhood became interested. The Greenes lent him books, the schoolmaster kept him in mind and helped him as he could, and the village cooper let him come into his shop and keep up a fire of shavings sufficiently bright to read by at night. It was not long before the grammar was mastered. "Well," Lincoln said to his fellow-clerk, Greene, "if that's what they call a science, I think I'll go at another. ,, Before the winter was ended he had become the most popu- lar man in New Salem. Although he was but twenty-two years of age, in February, 1832, had never been at school an entire year in his life, had never made a speech except in de- bating clubs and by the roadside, had read only the books he could pick up, and known only the men who made up the poor, out-of-the-way towns in which he had lived, "encour- aged by his great popularity among his immediate neigh- bors," as he says himself, he decided to announce himself, in March, 1832, as a candidate for the General Assembly of the State. The only preliminary expected of a candidate for the leg- islature of Illinois at that date was an announcement stating his "sentiments with regard to local affairs." The circular in which Lincoln complied with this custom was a document of about two thousand words, in which he plunged at once into the subject he believed most interesting to his constituents — "the public utility of internal improvements." At that time the State of Illinois — as, indeed, the whole W LIFE OF LINCOLN United States — was convinced that the future of the country depended on the opening of canals and railroads, and the clearing out of the rivers. In the Sangamon country the population felt that a quick way of getting to Beardstown on the Illinois river, to which point the steamer came from the Mississippi, was, as Lincoln puts it in his circular, "indis- pensably necessary." Of course a railroad was the dream of the settlers ; but when it was considered seriously there was always, as Lincoln says, "a heart-appalling shock accom- panying the amount of its cost, which forces us to shrink from our pleasing anticipations. The probable cost of this contemplated railroad is estimated at two hundred and ninety thousand dollars ; the bare statement of which, in my opinion, is sufficient to justify the belief that the improve- ment of the Sangamon river is an object much better suited to our infant resources. "Respecting this view, I think I may say, without the fear of being contradicted, that its navigation may be rendered completely practicable as high as the mouth of the South Fork, or probably higher, to vessels of from twenty-five to thirty tons burden, for at least one-half of all common years, and to vessels of much greater burden a part of the time. From my peculiar circumstances, it is probable that for the last twelve months I have given as particular attention to the stage of the water in this river as any other person in the country. In the month of March, 1831, in company with others, I commenced the building of a flatboat on the Sanga- mon, and finished and took her out in the course of the spring. Since that time I have been concerned in the mill at New Salem. These circumstances are sufficient evidence that I have not been very inattentive to the stages of the water. The time at which we crossed the mill-dam being in the last days of April, the water was lower than it had been since the breaking of winter in February, or than it was for several weeks after. The principal difficulties we encountered in de- scending the river were from the drifted timber, which ob- structions all know are not difficult to be removed. Knowing FIRST APPEARANCE IN POLITICS 69 almost precisely the height of water at that time, I believe I am safe in saying that it has as often been higher as lower since. "From this view of the subject it appears that my calcula- tions with regard to the navigation of the Sangamon cannot but be founded in reason; but, whatever may be its natural advantages, certain it is that it never can be practically useful to any great extent without being greatly improved by art. The drifted timber, as I have before mentioned, is the most formidable barrier to this object. Of all parts of this river, none will require so much labor in proportion to make it navigable as the last thirty or thirty-five miles; and going with the meanderings of the channel, when we are this dis- tance above its mouth we are only between twelve and eighteen miles above Beardstown in something near a straight direction ; and this route is upon such low ground as to retain water in many places during the season, and in all parts such as to draw two-thirds or three-fourths of the river water at all high stages. "This route is on prairie land the whole distance, so that it appears to me, by removing the turf a sufficient width, and damming up the old channel, the whole river in a short time would wash its way through, thereby curtailing the distance and increasing the velocity of the current very considerably, while there would be no timber on the banks to obstruct its navigation in future; and being nearly straight, the tim- ber which might float in at the head would be apt to go clear through. There are also manr places above this where the river, in its zigzag course, forms such complete peninsulas as to be easier to cut at the necks than to remove the obstruc- tions from the bends, which, if done, would also lessen the distance. "What the cost of this work would be, I am unable to say. It is probable, however, that it would not be greater than is common to streams of the same length. Finally, I believe the improvement of the Sangamon river to be vastly impor- tant and highly desirable to the people of the county ; and, if elected, any measure in the legislature having this for its ob- ject, which may appear judicious, will meet my approbation and receive my support." 70 LIFE OP LINCOLN Lincoln could not have adopted a measure more popular. At that moment the whole population of Sangamon was in a state of wild expectation. Some six weeks before Lin- coln's circular appeared, a citizen of Springfield had adver- tised that as soon as the ice went off the river he would bring up a steamer, the "Talisman," from Cincinnati, and prove the Sangamon navigable. The announcement had aroused the entire country, speeches were made, and subscriptions taken. The merchants announced goods direct per steamship "Talis- man," the country over, and every village from Beardstown to Springfield was laid off in town lots. When the circular appeared the excitement was at its height. Lincoln's comments in his circular on two other subjects, on which all candidates of the day expressed themselves, are amusing in their simplicity. The practice of loaning money at exorbitant rates was then a great evil in the West. Lin- coln proposed that the limits of usury be fixed, and he closed his paragraph on the subject with these words, which sound strange enough from a man who in later life showed so pro- found a reverence for law : "In cases of extreme necessity, there could always be means found to cheat the law; while in all other cases it would have its intended effect. I would favor the passage of a law on this subject which might not be very easily evaded. Let it be such that the labor and difficulty of evading it could only be justified in cases of greatest necessity." A general revision of the laws of the State was the second topic which he felt required a word. "Considering the great probability," he said, "that the framers of those laws were wiser than myself, I should prefer not meddling with them, unless they were first attacked by others; in which case I should feel it both a privilege and a duty to take that stand which, in my view, might tend most to the advancement of justice." Of course he said a word for educationj FIRST APPEARANCE IN POLITICS 71 "Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in. That every man may receive at least a moderate education, and thereby be enabled to read the histories of his own and other countries, by which he may duly appreciate the value of our free institutions, appears to be an object of vital importance, even on this account alone, to say nothing of the advantages and satisfaction to be derived from all being able to read the Scriptures, and other works both of a religious and moral nature, for themselves. "For my part, I desire to see the time when education — and by its means, morality, sobriety, enterprise, and industry — shall become much more general than at present, and should be gratified to have it in my power to contribute some- thing to the advancement of any measure which might have a tendency to accelerate that happy period." The audacity of a young man in his position presenting himself as a candidate for the legislature is fully equaled by the humility of the closing paragraphs of his announcement : "But, fellow-citizens, I shall conclude. Considering the great degree of modesty which should always attend youth, it is probable I have already been more presuming than becomes me. However, upon the subjects of which I have treated, I have spoken as I have thought. I may be wrong in regard to any or all of them ; but, holding it a sound maxim that it is better only sometimes to be right than at all times to be wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be errone- ous, I shall be ready to renounce them. "Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition is yet to be developed. I am young, and unknown to many of you. I was born, and have ever remained, in the most humble walks of life. I have no wealthy or popular relations or friends to recommend me. My case is thrown exclusively upon the independent voters of the county; and, if elected* they will have conferred a favor 72 LIFE OF LINCOLN upon me for which I shall be unremitting in my labors to compensate. But, if the good people in their wisdom shall see fit to keep me in the background, I have been too familiar with disappointments to be very much chagrined." Very soon after Lincoln had distributed his hand-bills, en- thusiasm on the subject of the opening of the Sangamon rose to a fever. The "Talisman" actually came up the river; scores of men went to Beardstown to meet her, among them Lincoln, of course, and to him was given the honor of pilot- ing her — an honor which made him remembered by many a man who saw him that day for the first time. The trip was made with all the wild demonstrations which always attended the first steamboat. On either bank a long procession of men and boys on foot or horse accompanied the boat. Cannons and volleys of musketry were fired from every settlement passed. At every stop speeches were made, congratulations offered, toasts drunk, flowers presented. It was one long hur- rah from Beardstown to Springfield, and foremost in the ju- bilation was Lincoln, the pilot. The "Talisman" went to the point on the river nearest to Springfield, and there tied up for a week. When she went back Lincoln again had the conspicu- ous position of pilot. The notoriety this gave him was prob- ably quite as valuable politically, as the forty dollars he received for his service was financially. While the country had been dreaming of wealth through the opening of the Sangamon, and Lincoln had been doing his best to prove that the dream would be realized, the store in which he clerked was "petering out" — to use his expres- sion. The owner, Denton Offutt, had proved more ambitious than wise, and Lincoln saw that an early closing by the sheriff was probable. But before the store was fairly closed, and while the "Talisman" was yet exciting the country, an event occurred which interrupted all of Lincoln's plans. CHAPTER VI THE BLACK HAWK WAR LINCOLN CHOSEN CAPTAIN OF A COMPANY REENLISTS AS AN INDEPENDENT RANGER — END OF THE WAR One morning in April a messenger from the governor of the State rode into New Salem, scattering circulars. The circular was addressed to the militia of the northwest sec- tion of the State, and announced that the British band of Sacs and other hostile Indians, headed by Black Hawk, had invaded the Rock River country, to the great terror of the frontier inhabitants ; and it called upon the citizens who were willing to aid in repelling them, to rendezvous at Beardstown within a week. The name of Black Hawk was familiar to the people of Illinois. He was an old enemy of the settlers, and had been a tried friend of the British. The land his people had once owned in the northwest of the present State of Illinois had been sold in 1804 to the government of the United States, but with the provision that the Indians could hunt and raise corn there until it was surveyed and sold to settlers. Long before the land was surveyed, however, squatters had invaded the country, and tried to force the Indians west of the Miss- issippi. Particularly envious were these whites of the lands at the mouth of the Rock river, where the ancient village and burial place of the Sacs stood, and where they came each year to raise corn. Black Hawk had resisted their encroachments, and many violent acts had been committed on both sides. Finally, however, the squatters, in spite of the fact that the line of settlement was still fifty miles away, succeeded in 73 74 LIFE OF LINCOLN evading the real meaning of the treaty and in securing a sur- vey of the desired land at the mouth of the river. Black Hawk, exasperated and broken-hearted at seeing his village violated, persuaded himself that the village had never been sold — indeed, that land could not be sold. "My reason teaches me/' he wrote, "that land cannot be sold. The Great Spirit gave it to his children to live upon, and cultivate, as far as is necessary, for their subsistence; and so long as they occupy and cultivate it they have the right to the soil, but if they voluntarily leave it, then any other peo- ple have a right to settle upon it. Nothing can be sold but such things as can be carried away." Supported by this theory, conscious that in some way he did not understand he had been wronged, and urged on by White Cloud, the prophet, who ruled a Winnebago village on the Rock river, Black Hawk crossed the Mississippi in 1831, determined to evict the settlers. A military demonstration drove him back, and he was persuaded to sign a treaty never to return east of the Mississippi. "I touched the goose-quill to the treaty and was determined to live in peace," he wrote afterwards ; but hardly had he "touched the goose-quill' ' be- fore his heart smote him. Longing for his home, resentment at the whites, obstinacy, brooding over the bad counsels of White Cloud and his disciple, Neapope — an agitating Indian who had recently been east to visit the British and their In dian allies, and who assured Black Hawk that the Winneba- goes, Ottawas, Chippewas, and Pottawottomies would join him in a struggle for his land, and that the British would send him guns, ammunition, provisions, and clothing earl} in the spring- — all persuaded the Hawk that he would be suc- cessful if he made an effort to drive, out the whites. In spite of the advice of many of his friends and of the Indian agent in the country, he crossed the river on April 6, 1832, and with THE BLACK HAWK WAR 75 some five hundred braves, his squaws and children, marched to the Prophet's town, thirty-five miles up the Rock river. As soon as they heard of Black Hawk's invasion, the set- tlers of the northwestern part of the State fled in a panic to the forts ; and from there rained petitions for protection on Governor Reynolds. General Atkinson, who was at Fort Armstrong, wrote to the governor for reinforcements ; and, accordingly on the 16th of April Governor Reynolds sent out "influential messengers" with a sonorous summons. It was one of these messengers riding into New Salem who put an end to Lincoln's canvassing for the legislature, freed him from Oflutt's expiring grocery, and led him to enlist. There was no time to waste. The volunteers were ordered to be at Beardstown, nearly forty miles from New Salem, on April 22d. Horses, rifles, saddles, blankets were to be se- cured, a company formed. It was work of which the settlers were not ignorant. Under the laws of the State every able- bodied male inhabitant between eighteen and forty-five was obliged to drill twice a year or pay a fine of one dollar. "As a dollar was hard to raise," says one of the old settlers, "every- body drilled." Preparations were quickly made, and by April 2 2d the men were at Beardstown. The day before, at Richland, Sanga- mon County, Lincoln was elected captain of the company from Sangamon. According to his friend Greene it was something beside ambition which led him to seek the captaincy. One of the "odd jobs" which Lincoln had taken since coming into Illinois was working in a saw-mill for a man named Kirkpatrick. In hiring Lincoln, Kirkpatrick had promised to buy him a cant-hook with which to move heavy logs. Lincoln had proposed, if Kirk- patrick would give him the two dollars which the cant- hook would cost, to move the logs with a common hand- 76 LIFE OF LINCOLN spike. This the proprietor had agreed to, but when pay-day came he refused to keep his word. When the Sangamon com- pany of volunteers was formed Kirkpatrick aspired to the captaincy, and Lincoln knowing it, said to Greene : "Bill, I believe I can make Kirkpatrick pay me that two dollars he owes me on the cant-hook. I'll run against him for captain.'* And he became a candidate. The vote was taken in a field, by directing the men at the command "march" to assemble around the one they wanted for captain. When the order was given, three-fourths of the men gathered around Lincoln. In Lincoln's third-person autobiography he says he was elected "to his own surprise;" and adds, "He says he has not since had any success in life which gave him so much satisfaction." The company was a motley crowd of men. Each had se- cured for his outfit what he could get, and no two were equipped alike. Buckskin breeches prevailed, and there was a sprinkling of coon-skin caps. Each man had a blanket of the coarsest texture. Flint-lock rifles were the usual arm, though here and there a man had a Cramer. Over the shoulder of each was slung a powder-horn. The men had, as a rule, as little regard for discipline as for appearances, and when the new captain gave an order were as likely to jeer at it as to obey it. To drive the Indians out was their mission, and any order which did not bear directly on that point was little respected. Lincoln himself was not familiar with mili- tary tactics, and made many blunders of which he used to tell afterwards with relish. One of these was an early experience in giving orders. He was marching with a front of over twenty men across a field, when he desired to pass through a gateway into the next inclosure. "I could not for the life of me," said he, "remember the proper word of command for getting my company endwise, so that it could get through the gate ; so, as we came near I THE BLACK HAWK WAR 77 shouted : This company is dismissed for two minutes, when it will fall in again on the other side of the gate !" Nor was it only his ignorance of the manual which caused him trouble. He was so unfamiliar with camp discipline that he once had his sword taken from him for shooting within limits. Another disgrace he suffered was on account of his disorderly company. The men, unknown to him, stole a quan- tity of liquor one night, and the next morning were too drunk to fall in when the order was given to march. For their law- lessness Lincoln wore a wooden sword two days. But none of these small difficulties injured his standing with the company. They soon grew so proud of his quick wit and great strength that they obeyed him because they admired him. No amount of military tactics could have se- cured from the volunteers the cheerful following he won by his personal qualities. The men soon learned, too, that he meant what he said, and would permit no dishonorable performances. A helpless Indian took refuge in the camp one day; and the men, who were inspired by that wanton mixture of selfishness, un- reason, and cruelty which seems to seize a frontiersman as soon as he scents a red man — were determined to kill the refugee. He had a safe conduct from General Cass ; but the men, having come out to kill Indians and not having suc- ceeded, threatened to take revenge on the helpless savage. Lincoln boldly took the man's part, and though he risked his life in doing it, he cowed the company and saved the Indian. It was on the 27th of April that the force of sixteen hun- dred men organized at Beardstown started out. The day was cold, the roads heavy, the streams turbulent. The army marched first to Yellow Banks on the Mississippi, then to Dixon on the Rock river, which they reached on May 12. At Dixon they camped, and near here occurred the first bloodshed of the wan 78 LIFE OF LINCOLN A body of about three hundred and forty rangers, undei Major Stillman, but not of the regular army, asked to go ahead as scouts, to look for a body of Indians under Black Hawk, rumored to be about twelve miles away. The permission was given, and on the night of the 14th of May, Stillman and his men went into camp. Black Hawk heard of their presence. By this time the poor old chief had discovered that the promises of aid from the Indian tribes and the British were false, and dismayed, he had resolved to recross the Mississippi. When he heard the whites were near he sent three braves with a white flag to ask for a parley and permission to de- scend the river. Behind them he sent five men to watch proceedings. Stillman's rangers were in camp when the bearers of the flag of truce appeared. The men were many of them half drunk, and when they saw the Indian truce- bearers, they rushed out in a wild mob, and ran them into camp. Then catching sight of the five spies, they started after them, killing two. The three who reached Black Hawk reported that the truce-bearers had been killed as well as their two companions. Furious at this violation of faith, Black Hawk "raised a yell," and sallied forth with forty braves to meet Stillman's band, who by this time were out in search of the Indians. Black Hawk, too maddened to think of the dif- ference of numbers, attacked the whites. To his surprise the enemy turned, and fled in a wild riot. Nor did they stop at the camp, which from its position was almost impreg- nable ; they fled in complete panic, sauve qui pent, through their camp, across prairie and rivers and swamps, to Dixon, twelve miles away. The first arrival reported that two thou- sand savages had swept down on Stillman's camp and slaughtered all but himself. Before the next night all but eleven of the band had arrived. THE BLACK HAWK WAR 79 Stillman's Defeat, as this disgraceful affair is called, put all notion of peace out of Black Hawk's mind, and he started out in earnest on the warpath. Governor Reynolds, excited by the reports of the first arrivals from the Stillman stam- pede, made out that night, "by candle light," a call for more volunteers, and by the morning of the 15th had messengers out and his army in pursuit of Black Hawk. But it was like pursuing a shadow. The Indians purposely confused their trail. Sometimes it was a broad path, then it suddenly radi- ated to all points. The whites broke their bands, and pur- sued the savages here and there, never overtaking them, though now and then coming suddenly on some terrible evi- dences of their presence — a frontier home deserted and burned, slaughtered cattle, scalps suspended where the army could not fail to see them. This fruitless warfare exasperated the volunteers; they threatened to leave, and their officers had great difficulty in making them obey orders. On reaching a point in the Rock river, beyond which lay the Indian country, a company under Colonel Zachary Taylor refused to cross, and held a public indignation meeting, urging that they had volunteered to defend the State, and had the right, as independent Ameri- can citizens, to refuse to go out of its borders. Taylor heard them to the end, and then spoke : "I feel that all gentlemen here are my equals ; in reality, I am persuaded that many of them will, in a few years, be my superiors, and perhaps, in the capacity of members of Congress, arbiters of the fortunes and reputation of humble servants of the republic, like myself. I expect then to obey them as interpreters of the will of the people; and the best proof that I will obey them is now to observe the orders of those whom the people have already put in the place of authority to which many gentlemen around me justly aspire. In plain English, gentlemen and fellow-citizens, the word has been passed on 80 LIFE OF LINCOLN to me from Washington to follow Black Hawk and to take you with me as soldiers. I mean to do both. There are the flatboats drawn up on the shore, and here are Uncle Sam's men drawn up behind you on the prairie. " The volun- teers knew true grit when they met it. They dissolved their meeting and crossed the river without Uncle Sam's men being called into action. The march in pursuit of the Indians led the army to Ottawa, where the volunteers became so dissatisfied that on May 2J and 28 Governor Reynolds mustered them out. But a force in the field was essential until a new levy was raised ; and a few of the men were patriotic enough to offer their services, among them Lincoln, who on May 29 was mustered in at the mouth of the Fox river by a man in whom, thirty years later, he was to have a keen interest — General Robert Anderson, commander at Fort Sumter in 1861. Lin- coln became a private in Captain Elijah Iles's company of Independent Rangers, not brigaded— a company made up, says Captain lies in his "Footsteps and Wanderings," of "generals, colonels, captains, and distinguished men from the disbanded army." General Anderson says that at this muster Lincoln's arms were valued at forty dollars, his horse and equipment at one hundred and twenty dollars. The In- dependent Rangers were a favored body, used to carry mes- sages and to spy on the enemy. They had no camp duties, and "drew rations as often as they pleased." So that as a private Lincoln was really better off than as a captain.* The achievements and tribulations of this body of rangers *William Cullen Bryant, who was in Illinois in 1832 at the time of the Black Hawk War, used to tell of meeting in his travels in the State a company of Illinois volunteers, commanded by a "raw youth" of "quaint and pleasant" speech, and of learning afterwards that this captain was Abraham Lincoln. As Lincoln's captaincy ended on May 27th, and Mr. Bryant did not reach Illinois until June 12th, and as he never came nearer than fifty miles to the Rapids of the Illinois, where the body of rangers to which Lincoln belonged was encamped it is evident that the THE BLACK HAWK WAR 8 1 to which he belonged are told with interesting detail by its commanding officer, Captain lies, in his '"Footsteps and Wanderings." While the other companies were ordered to scout the country, he writes, mine was held by General Atkin- son in camp as a reserve. One company was ordered to go to Rock River (now Dixon) and report to Colonel Taylor (afterwards President) who had been left there with a few United States soldiers to guard the army supplies. The place was also made a point of rendezvous. Just as the com- pany got to Dixon, a man came in, and reported that he and six others were on the road to Galena, and, in passing through a point of timber about twenty miles north of Dixon, they were fired on and six killed, he being the only one to make his escape. . . . Colonel Taylor ordered the com- pany to proceed to the place, bury the dead, go on to Galena, and get all the information they could about, the Indians. But the company took fright, and came back to the Illinois river, helter-skelter. General Atkinson then called on me, and wanted to know how I felt about taking the trip; that he was exceedingly anxious to open communication with Galena, and to find out, if possible, the whereabouts of the Indians before the new troops arrived. I answered the general that myself and men were getting rusty, and were anxious to have something to do, and that nothing would please us better than to be or- dered out on an expedition ; that I would find out how many of my men had good horses and were otherwise well equip- ped, and what time we wanted to prepare for the trip. I called on him again at sunset, and reported that I had about fifty men well equipped and eager, and that we wanted one day to make preparations. He said go ahead, and he would prepare our orders. The next day was a busy one, running bullets and get- ting our flint-locks in order — we had no percussion locks then. General Henry, one of my privates, who had been promoted to the position of major of one of the companies, "raw youth" could not have been Lincoln, much as one would like to believe that it was. (6) 82 LIFE OF LINCOLN volunteered to go with us. I considered him a host, as he had served as lieutenant in the War of 1812, under General Scott, and was in the battle of Lundy's Lane, and several other battles. He was a good drill officer, and could aid me much. . . . After General Atkinson handed me my or- ders, and my men were mounted and ready for the trip, I felt proud of them, and was confident of our success, al- though numbering only forty-eight. Several good men failed to go, as they had gone down to the foot of the Illinois rapids, to aid in bringing up the boats of army supplies. We wanted to be as little encumbered as possible, and took noth- ing that could be dispensed with, other than blankets, tin cups, coffee-pots, canteens, a wallet of bread, and some fat side meat, which we ate raw or broiled. When we arrived at Rock River, we found Colonel Tay- lor on the opposite side, in a little fort built of prairie sod. He sent an officer in a canoe to bring me over. I said to the officer that I would come over as soon as I got my men in camp. I knew of a good spring half a mile above, and I de- termined to camp at it. After the men were in camp I called on General Henry, and he accompanied me. On meeting Colonel Taylor (he looked like a man born to command) he seemed a little piqued that I did not come over and camp with him. I told him we felt just as safe as if quartered in his one- horse fort, besides, I knew what his orders would be, and wanted to try the mettle of my men before starting on the perilous trip I knew he would order. He said the trip was perilous, and that since the murder of the six men all com- munications with Galena had been cut off, and it might be besieged ; that he wanted me to proceed to Galena, and that he would have my orders for me in the morning, and asked what outfit I wanted. I answered "Nothing but coffee, side meat and bread." In the morning my orders were to collect and bury the re- mains of the six men murdered, proceed to Galena, make a careful search for the signs of Indians, and find out whether they were aiming to escape by crossing the river below Gal- ena, and get all information at Galena of their possible whereabouts before the new troops were ready to follow them. THE BLACK HAWK WAR 83 John Dixon, who kept a house of entertainment here, and had sent his family to Galena for safety, joined us, and hauled our wallets of corn and grub in his wagon, which was a great help. Lieutenant Harris, U. S. A., also joined us. I now had fifty men to go with me on the march. I detailed two to march on the right, two on the left, and two in ad- vance, to act as look-outs to prevent a surprise. They were to keep in full view of us, and to remain out until we camped for the night. Just at sundown of the first day, while we were at lunch, our advance scouts came in under whip and reported Indians. We bounced to our feet, and, having a full view of the road for a long distance, could see a large body coming toward us. All eyes were turned to John Dixon, who, as the last one dropped out of sight coming over a ridge, pronounced them Indians. I stationed my men in a ravine crossing the road, where anyone approaching could not see us until within thirty yards ; the horses I had driven back out of sight in a valley. I asked General Henry to take command. He said, "No; stand at your post," and walked along the line, talking to the men in a low, calm voice. Lieu- tenant Harris, U. S. A., seemed much agitated; he ran up and down the line, and exclaimed, "Captain, we will catch hell!" He had horse-pistols, belt-pistols, and a double-bar- reled gun. He would pick the flints, reprime, and lay the horse-pistols at his feet. When he got all ready he passed 'along the line slowly, and seeing the nerves of the men all quiet — after General Henry's talk to them — said, "Captain, we are safe; we can whip five hundred Indians." Instead of Indians, they proved to be the command of General Dodge, from Galena, of one hundred and fifty men, en route, to find out what had become of General Atkinson's army, as, since the murder of the six men, communication had been stopped for more than ten days. My look-out at the top of the hill did not notify us, and we were not undeceived until they got within thirty steps of us. My men then raised a yell and ran to finish their lunch. . . . When we got within fifteen miles of Galena, on Apple Creek, we found a stockade filled with women and children and a few men, all terribly frightened. The Indians had shot at and chased two men that afternoon, who made their S4 LIFE OF LINCOLN escape to the stockade. They insisted on our quartering- in the fort, but instead we camped one hundred yards outside, and slept — what little sleep we did get — with our guns on our arms. General Henry did not sleep, but drilled my men all night ; so the moment they were called they would bounce to their feet and stand in two lines, the front ready to fire, and fall back to reload, while the others stepped forward to take their places. They were called up a number of times, and we got but little sleep. We arrived at Galena the next day, and found the citizens prepared to defend the place. They were glad to see us, as it had been so long since they had heard from General Atkinson and his army. The few Indians prowling about Galena and murdering were simply there as a ruse. On our return from Galena, near the forks of the Apple River and Gratiot roads, we could see General Dodge on the Gratiot road, on his return from Rock River. His six scouts had discovered my two men that I had allowed to drop in the rear — two men who had been in Stillman's defeat, and, hav- ing weak horses, were allowed to fall behind. Having weak horses they had fallen in the rear about two miles, and each took the other to be Indians, and such an exciting race I never saw, until they got sight of my company; then they came to a sudden halt, and after looking at lis a few mo- ments, wheeled their horses and gave up the chase. My two men did not know but that they were Indians until they came up with us and shouted "Indians !" They had thrown away their wallets and guns, and used their ramrods as whips. The few houses on the road that usually accommodated the travel were all standing, but vacant, as we went. On our return we found them burned by the Indians. On my return to the Illinois River I reported to General Atkinson, saying that, from all we could learn, the Indians were aim- ing to escape by going north, with the intention of crossing the Mississippi river above Galena. The new troops had just arrived and were being mustered into service. My company had only been organized for twenty days, and as the time had now expired, the men were mustered out. All but myself again volunteered for the third time. Data does not exist for determining positively the route Lincoln followed in the Black Hawk War. Only the general direction of the marches of his company are indicated here. In goinL from Ottawa to Galena and bac Captain lies may have very well marched his company through Dixon's Ferry. In returning from Whitewater to New Salem, Lincoln may have followed the river to Dixon There were undoubtedly several side marches such as that on June 25, from Dixon to Kellogg's Grove and back, which are not shown in this map. .POATES, ENSR., N. Longitude 86 LIFE OP LINCOLN It was the middle of June when Captain lies and his com- pany returned to Dixon's Ferry from their Indian hunt and were mustered out. On June 20 Lincoln was mustered in again, by Major Anderson, as a member of an independent company under Captain Jacob M. Early. His arms were valued this time at only fifteen dollars, his horse and equip- ments at eighty-five dollars. A week after re-enlistment Lincoln's company moved northward with the army. It was time they moved, for Black Hawk was overrunning the country, and scattering death wherever he went. The settlers were wild with fear, and most of the settlements were abandoned. At a sudden sound, at the merest rumor, men, women, and children fled. "I well remember these troublesome times," writes one Illinois woman. "We often left our bread dough unbaked to rush to the Indian fort near by." When Mr. John Bry- ant, a brother of William Cullen Bryant, visited the colony in Princeton in 1832, he found it nearly broken up on account of the war. Everywhere crops were neglected, for the able- bodied men were volunteering. William Cullen Bryant, who, in June, 1834, traveled on horseback from Peters- burg to near Pekin and back, wrote home : " Every few miles on our way we fell in with bodies of Illinois militia pro- ceeding to the American camp, or saw where they had en- camped for the night. They generally stationed themselves near a stream or a spring in the edge of a wood, and turned their horses to graze on the prairie. Their way was barked or girdled, and the roads through the uninhabited country were as much beaten and as dusty as the highways on New York island. Some of the settlers complained that they made war upon the pigs and chickens. They were a hard- looking set of men, unkempt and unshaved, wearing shirts of dark calico and sometimes calico capotes." Soon after the army moved up the Rock river, the inde- THE BLACK HAWK WAR 87 pendent spy company, of which Lincoln was a member, was sent with a brigade to the northwest, near Galena, in pursuit of the Hawk. The nearest Lincoln came to an actual engagement in the war was here. The skirmish of Kellogg' s Grove took place on June 25 ; Lincoln's company came up soon after it was over, and helped bury the five men killed. It was probably to this experience that he referred when he told a friend once of coming on a camp of white scouts one morning just as the sun was rising. The Indians had sur- prised the camp, and had killed and scalped every man. "I remember just how those men looked," said Lincoln, "as we rode up the little hill where their camp was. The red light of the morning sun was streaming upon them as they lay heads towards us on the ground. And every man had a round red spot on the top of his head about as big as a dollar, where the redskins had taken his scalp. It was frightful, but it was grotesque ; and the red sunlight seemed to paint everything all over." Lincoln paused, as if recalling the vivid picture, and added, somewhat irrelevantly, "I remem- ber that one man had buckskin breeches on." Early's company, on returning from their expedition, joined the main army on its northward march. By the end of the month the troops crossed into Michigan Territory — as Wisconsin was then called — and July was passed floun- dering in swamps and stumbling through forests, in pursuit of the now nearly exhausted Black Hawk. No doubt Early's company saw the hardest service on the march for to it was allotted the scouting. The farther the army advanced the more difficult was the situation. Finally the provisions gave out and July 10, three weeks before the last battle of the war, that of Bad Axe, in which the whites finally massacred most of the Indian band, Lincoln's company was disbanded at Whitewater, Wisconsin, and he and his friends started for home. The volunteers in returning: suffered much from 88 LIFE OF LINCOLN hunger. More than one of them had nothing to eat on the journey except meal and water baked in rolls of bark laid by the fire. Lincoln not only went hungry on this return; he had to tramp most of the way. The night before his company started from Whitewater he and one of his mess- mates had their horses stolen; and, excepting when their more fortunate companions gave them a lift, they walked as far as Peoria, Illinois, where they bought a canoe, and pad- dled down the Illinois river to Havana. Here they sold the canoe, and walked across the country to New Salem. CHAPTER VII LINCOLN RUNS FOR STATE ASSEMBLY AND IS DEFEATED— STOREKEEPER STUDENT POSTMASTER SURVEYOR On returning to New Salem Lincoln at once plunged into "electioneering. " He ran as "an avowed Clay man/' and the country was stiffly Democratic. However, in those days political contests were almost purely personal. If the candidate was liked he was voted for irrespective of prin- ciple. "The Democrats of New Salem worked for Lincoln out of their personal regard for him," said Stephen T. Lo- gan, a young lawyer of Springfield, who made Lincoln's ac- quaintance in the campaign. "He was as stiff as a man could be in his Whig doctrines. They did this for him sim- ply because he was popular— because he was Lincoln." It was the custom for the candidates to appear at every gathering which brought the people out, and, if they had a chance, to make speeches. Then, as now, the farmers gath- ered at the county-seat or at the largest town within their reach on Saturday afternoons, to dispose of produce, buy supplies, see their neighbors, and get the news. During "election times" candidates were always present, and a reg- ular feature of the day was listening to their speeches. They never missed public sales, it being expected that after the "vandoo" the candidates would take the auctioneer's place. Lincoln let none of these chances to be heard slip. Ac- companied by his friends, generally including a few Clary's Grove Boys, he always was present. The first speech he made was after a sale at Pappsville. What he said there is not remembered ; but an illustration of the kind of man he was, 89 90 LIFE OP LINCOLN interpolated into his discourse, made a lasting impression. A fight broke out in his audience while he was on the stand, and observing that one of his friends was being worsted, he bounded into the group of contestants, seized the fellow who had his supporter down, threw him, according to tradition, "ten or twelve feet" mounted the platform, and finished the speech. Sangamon County could appreciate such a perform- ance ; and the crowd at Pappsville that day never forgot Lin- coln. His visits to Springfield were of great importance to him. Springfield was not at that time a very attractive place. Bryant, visiting it in June, 1832, said that the houses were not as good as at Jacksonville, "a considerable proportion of them being log cabins, and the whole town having an appear- ance of dirt and discomfort." Nevertheless it was the largest town in the county, and among its inhabitants were many young men of breeding, education, and energy. One of these men Lincoln had become well acquainted with in the Black Hawk War *-— Major John T. Stuart, at that time a lawyer, and, like Lincoln, a candidate for the General Assembly. He met others at this time who were to be associated with him *There were many prominent Americans in the Black Hawk War, with some of whom Lincoln became acquainted. Among the best known were General Robert Anderson ; Colonel Zachary Taylor ; General Scott, afterwards candidate for President, and Lieutenant-General ; Henry Dodge, Governor of the Territory of Wisconsin, and United States Senator; Hon. William D. Ewing and Hon. Sidney Breese, both United States Senators from Illinois ; William S. Hamilton, a son of Alexander Hamilton ; Colonel Nathan Boone, son of Daniel Boone ; Lieutenant Albert Sidney Johnston, afterwards a Confederate Genera] ; also Jeffer- son Davis, President of the Southern Confederacy. Davis was at this time a lieutenant stationed at Fort Crawford. According to the muster rolls of his company he was absent on furlough from March 26 to August 18, 1832, but, according to Davis's own statement, corroborated by many of the early settlers of Illinois who served in the Black Hawk War, Davis returned to duty as soon as he found there was to be a war. When Black Hawk was finally captured in August, after the battle of Bad Axe, he was sent down the river to Jefferson Barracks, under the charge of Lieutenant Jefferson Davis. Black Hawk, in his "Life," speaks of Davis as a "good and brave young chief, with whose conduct I was much pleased." RUNS FOR STATE ASSEMBLY 91 more or less closely in the future in both law and politics, among them Judge Logan and William Butler. With these men the manners which had won him the day at Pappsville were of little value; what impressed them was his "very sen- sible speech," and his decided individuality and originality. The election came off on August 6th. Lincoln was de- feated. 'This was the only time Abraham was ever de- feated on a direct vote of the people," says his autobiographi- cal notes. He had a consolation in his defeat, however, for in spite of the pronounced Democratic sentiments of his pre- cinct, he received, according to the official poll-book in the county clerk's office at Springfield, two hundred and twenty- seven votes out of three hundred cast. This defeat did not take him out of politics. Six weeks later he filled his first civil office, that of clerk of the Septem- ber election. The report in his hand still exists, his first offi- cial document. In the following years few elections were held in New Salem at which Lincoln did not act as clerk. The election over, Lincoln began to look for work. One of his friends, an admirer of his physical strength, advised him to become a blacksmith, but it was a trade which afforded little leisure for study, and for meeting and talking with men; and he had already resolved, it is evident, that books and men were essential to him. The only employ- ment in New Salem which offered both employment and the opportunities he sought, was clerking in a store. Now the stores in New Salem were in more need of customers than of clerks, business having been greatly overdone. In the fall of 1832 four stores offered wares to the one hundred in- habitants of New Salem. The most pretentious was that of Hill and McNeill, which carried a large line of dry goods. The three others, owned respectively by the Herndon broth- ers, Reuben Radford, and James Rutledge, were groceries. Failing to secure employment at any of these establish- 92 LIFE OF LINCOLN ments, Lincoln resolved to buy a store. He was not long in finding an opportunity to purchase. James Herndon had already sold out his half interest in Herndon Brothers' store to William F. Berry; and Rowan Herndon, not getting along well with Berry, was only too glad to find a purchaser of his half in the person of "Abe" Lincoln. Berry was as poor as Lincoln; but that was not a serious obstacle, for their notes were accepted for the Herndon stock of goods. They had barely hung out their sign when something hap- pened which threw another store into their hands. Reuben Radford had made himself obnoxious to the Clary's Grove Boys, and one night they broke in his doors and windows, and overturned his counters and sugar barrels. It was too much for Radford, and he sold out next day to William G. Greene, for a four-hundred-dollar note signed by Greene. At the latter's request, Lincoln made an inventory of the stock, and offered him six hundred and fifty dollars for it — a proposition which was cheerfully accepted. Berry and Lincoln, being unable to pay cash, assumed the four-hun- dred-dollar note payable to Radford, and gave Greene their joint note for two hundred and fifty dollars. The little grocery owned by James Rutledge was the next to suc- cumb. Berry and Lincoln bought it at a bargain, their joint note taking the place of cash. The three stocks were consolidated. Their aggregate cost must have been not less than fifteen hundred dollars. Berry and Lincoln had secured a monopoly of the grocery business in New Salem. Within a few weeks two penniless men had become the pro- prietors of three stores, and had stopped buying only be- cause there were no more to purchase. But the partnership, it was soon evident, was unfortunate. Berry, though the son of a Presbyterian minister, was according to tradition "a very wicked young man," drinking, gambling:, and taking an active part in all the disturbances RUNS FOR STATE ASSEMBLY 93 of the neighborhood. In spite of the bad habits of his part- ner, Lincoln left the management of the business largely to him. It was his love of books which was responsible for this poor business management. He had soon discovered that store-keeping in New Salem, after all duties were done, left a large amount of leisure on a man's hands. It was his chance to read, and he scoured the town for books. On pleasant days he spent hour after hour stretched under a tree, which stood just outside the door of the store, reading the works he had picked up. If it rained he simply made himself comfortable on the counter within. It was in this period that Lincoln discovered Shakespeare and Burns. In New Salem there was one of those curious individuals, some- times found in frontier settlements, half poet, half loafer, in- capable of earning a living in any steady employment, yet familiar with good literature and capable of enjoying it — Jack Kelso. He repeated passages from Shakespeare and Burns incessantly, over the odd jobs he undertook, or as he idled by the streams — for he was a famous fisherman — and Lincoln soon became one of his constant companions. The tastes he formed in company with Kelso he retained through life. It was not only Burns and Shakespeare that interfered with the grocery keeping; Lincoln had begun seriously to read law. His first acquaintance with the subject, we have already seen, had been made when, a mere lad, a copy of the "Revised Statutes of Indiana" had fallen into his hands. But from the time he left Indiana in 1830 he had no legal reading until one day soon after the grocery was started, there happened one of those trivial incidents which so often turn the current of a life. It is best told in Mr. Lin- coln's own words.* "One day a man who was migrating to *This incident was told by Lincoln to Mr. A. J. Conant, the artist, who in i860 painted his portrait in Springfield. Mr. Conant, in order 94 LIFE OP LINCOLN the West drove up in front of my store with a wagon which contained his family and household plunder. He asked me if I would buy an old barrel for which he had no room in his wagon, and which he said contained nothing of special value. I did not want it, but to oblige him I bought it, and paid him, I think, half a dollar for it. Without further examination I put it away in the store, and forgot all about it. Some time after, in overhauling things, I came upon the barrel, and emptying it upon the floor to see what it contained, I found at the bottom of the rubbish a complete edition of Blackstone's Commentaries. I began to read those famous works, and I had plenty of time ; for during the long summer days, when the farmers were busy with their crops, my customers were few and far between. The more I read" — this he said with unusual emphasis — "the more intensely interested I became. Never in my whole life was my mind so thoroughly absorbed. I read until I devoured them." But all this was fatal to business, and by spring it was evi- dent that something must be done to stimulate the grocery sales. Liquor selling was the expedient adopted, for, on the 6th of March, 1833, the County Commissioners' Court of Sangamon County granted the firm of Berry and Lincoln a license to keep a tavern at New Salem. It is probable that the license was procured not to enable the firm to keep a tavern but to retail the liquors which they had in stock. Each of the three groceries which Berry and Lincoln ac- quired had the usual supply of liquors and it was only natural that they should seek a way to dispose of the surplus quickly and profitably — an end Which could be best accomplished by selling it over the counter by the glass. To do this lawfully to catch Mr. Lincoln's pleasant expression, had engaged him in conver- sation, and had questioned him about his early life ; and it was in the course of their conversation that this incident came out. It is to be found in a delightful and suggestive article entitled, "My Acquaintance with Abraham Lincoln," contributed by Mr. Conant to the "Liber Scrip* torum." RUNS FOR STATE ASSEMBLY 95 required a tavern license ; and it is a warrantable conclusion that such was the chief aim of Berry and Lincoln in procur- ing a franchise of this character. We are fortified in this conclusion by the coincidence that three other grocers of New Salem were among those who took out tavern licenses. In a community in which liquor drinking was practically universal, at a time when whiskey was as legitimate an arti- cle of merchandise as coffee or calico, when no family was without a jug, when the minister of the gospel could take his "dram" without any breach of propriety, it is not surprising that a reputable young man should have been found selling whiskey. Liquor was sold at all groceries, but it could not be lawfully sold in a smaller quantity than one quart. The law, however, was not always rigidly observed, and it was the custom of storekeepers to treat their patrons. The license issued to Berry and Lincoln read as follows : Ordered that William F. Berry, in the name of Berry and Lincoln, have a license to keep a tavern in New Salem to con- tinue 12 months from this date, and that they pay one dollar in addition to the six dollars heretofore paid as per Treas- urer's receipt, and that they be allowed the following rates (viz.): French Brandy per -J pt 25 Peach " " " i8| Apple " " " 12 Holland Gin " " 18J Domestic " " 12^ Wine " " 2s" Rum " " i8f Whiskey " " 12^ Breakfast, dinner or supper 25 Lodging per night 12J Horse per night , , . 25 Single feed . „ 12^ Breakfast, dinner or supper for Stage Passengers . . . . yj\ who gave bond as required by law. 96 LIFE OF LINCOLN At the granting of a tavern license, the applicants there- for were required by law to file a bond. The bond given in the case of Berry and Lincoln was as follows : Know all men by these presents, we, William F. Berry, Abraham Lincoln and John Bowling Green, are held and firmly bound unto the County Commissioners of Sangamon county in the full sum of three hundred dollars to which payment well and truly to be made we bind ourselves, our heirs, executors and administrators firmly by these presents, sealed with our seal and dated this 6th day of March A. D. 1833. Now the condition of this obligation is such that Whereas the said Berry & Lincoln has obtained a license from the County Commissioners' Court to keep a tavern in the town of New Salem to continue one year. Now if the said Berry & Lincoln shall be of good behavior and observe all the laws of this State relative to tavern keepers — then this obligation to be void or otherwise remain in full force. Abraham Lincoln [Seal] Wm. F. Berry [Seal] Bowling Green [Seal] This bond appears to have been written by the clerk of the Commissioners' Court; and Lincoln's name was signed by some other than himself, very likely by his partner Berry. Business was not so brisk in Berry and Lincoln's gro- cery, even after the license was granted, that the junior part- ner did not welcome an appointment as postmaster which he received in May, 1833. The appointment of a Whig by a Democratic administration seems to have been made without comment. "The office was too insignificant to make his poli« tics an objection," say his autobiographical notes. The du- ties of the new office were not arduous, for letters were few, and their comings far between. At that date the mails were carried by four-horse post-coaches from city to city, and on horseback from central points into the country towns. The RUNS FOR STATE ASSEMBLY 97 rates of postage were high. A single-sheet letter carried thirty miles or under cost six cents ; thirty to eighty miles, ten cents ; eighty to one hundred and fifty miles, twelve and one-half cents ; one hundred and fifty to four hundred miles, eighteen and one-half cents; over four hundred miles, fc QL*, FACSIMILE OF A LETTER WRITTEN BY POSTMASTER LINCOLN Reproduced by permission from " Menard-Salem-Lincoln Souvenir Album.** Petersburg, 1893. twenty-five cents. A copy of one of the popular magazines sent from New York to New Salem would have cost fully twenty-five cents. The mail was irregular in coming as well as light in its contents. Though supposed to arrive twice a week, it sometimes happened that a fortnight or more passed (7) 9» LIFE OF LINCOLN without any mail. Under these conditions the New Salem post-office was not a serious care. A large number of the patrons of the office lived in the country — many of them miles away — and generally Lincoln delivered their letters at their doors. These letters he would carefully place in the crown of his hat, and distribute them from house to house. Thus it was in a measure true that he kept the New Salem post-office in his hat. The habit of car- rying papers in his hat clung to Lincoln; for, many years later, when he was a practising lawyer in Springfield, he apologized for failing to answer a letter promptly, by ex- plaining: "When I received your letter I put it in my old hat, and buying a new one the next day, the old one was set aside, and so the letter was lost sight of for a time." But whether the mail was delivered by the postmaster him- self, or was received at the store it was the habit "to stop and visit awhile." He who received a letter read it and repeated the contents; if he had a newspaper, usually the postmaster could tell him in advance what it contained, for one of the perquisites of the early post-office was the privilege of reading all printed matter before delivering it. Every day, then, Lincoln's acquaintance in New Salem, through his position as postmaster, became more intimate. As the summer of 1833 went on, the condition of the store became more and more unsatisfactory. As the position of postmaster brought in only a small revenue, Lincoln was forced to take any odd work he could get. He helped in other stores in the town, split rails, and looked after the mill ; but all this yielded only a scant and uncertain support, and when in the fall he had an opportunity to learn surveying, he accepted it eagerly. The condition of affairs in Illinois in the early thirties made a demand for the service of surveyors. The immigra- tion had been phenomenal. There were thousands of farms RUNS FOR STATE ASSEMBLY 99 to be surveyed and thousands of corners to be located. Speculators bought up large tracts and mapped out cities on paper. It was years before the first railroad was built in Illinois, and, as all inland traveling was on horseback or in the stage-coach, eath year hundreds of miles of wagon roads were opened through woods and swamps and prairies. As the county of Sangamon was large, and eagerly sought by immigrants, the county surveyor in 1833, one John Calhoun, needed deputies ; but in a country so new it was no easy mat- ter to find men with the requisite capacity. With Lincoln, Calhoun had little, if any, personal ac- quaintance, for they lived twenty miles apart. Lincoln, however, had made himself known by his meteoric race for the legislature in 1832, and Calhoun had heard of him as an honest, intelligent, and trustworthy young man. One day he sent word to Lincoln by Pollard Simmons, who lived in the New Salem neighborhood, that he had decided to appoint him a deputy surveyor if he would accept the position. Going into the woods, Simmons found Lincoln engaged in his old occupation of making rails. The two sat down together on a log, and Simmons told Lincoln what Calhoun had said. Now Calhoun was a "Jackson man;" he was for Clay. What did he know about surveying, and why should a Democratic official offer him a position of any kind ? He immediately went to Springfield, and had a talk with Cal- houn. He would not accept the appointment, he said, unless he had the assurance that it involved no political obligation, and that he might continue to express his political opinions as freely and frequently as he chose. This assurance was given. The only difficulty then in the way was the fact that he knew absolutely nothing of surveying. But Calhoun, of course, understood this, and agreed that he should have time to learn. With the promptness of action with which he always un^ IOO LIFE OF LINCOLN dertook anything he had to do, Lincoln procured Flint and Gibson's treatise on surveying, and sought Mentor Graham for help. At a sacrifice of some time, the schoolmaster aided him to a partial mastery of the intricate subject. Lincoln worked literally day and night, sitting up night after night until the crowing of the cock warned him of the approaching dawn. So hard did he study that his friends were greatly concerned at his haggard face. But in six weeks he had mas- tered all the books within reach relating to the subject — a task which, under ordinary circumstances, would hardly have been achieved in as many months. Reporting to Cal- houn for duty (greatly to the amazement of that gentle- man), he was at once assigned to the territory in the north- west part of the county, and the first work he did of which there is any authentic record was in January, 1834. In that month he surveyed a piece of land for Russell Godby, dating the certificate January 14, 1834, and signing it "J- Calhoun, S. S. C, by A. Lincoln." Lincoln was frequently employed in laying out public roads, being selected for that purpose by the County Com- missioners' Court. So far as can be learned from the official records, the first road he surveyed was "from Musick's Ferry on Salt creek, via New Salem, to the county line in the di- rection of Jacksonville." For this he was allowed fifteen dol- lars for five days' service, and two dollars and fifty cents for a plat of the new road. The next road he surveyed, accord- ing to the records, was that leading from Athens to Sanga- mon town. This was reported to the County Commissioners' Court November 4, 1834. But road surveying was only a small portion of his work. He was more frequently em- ployed by private individuals. According to tradition, when he first took up the business he was too poor to buy a chain, and, instead, used a long, straight grape-vine. Probably this is a myth, though sur- RUNS FOR STATE ASSEMBLY IOI veyors who had experience in the early days say it may be true. The chains commonly used at that time were made of iron. Constant use wore away and weakened the links, and it was no unusual thing for a chain to lengthen six inches after a year's use. "And a good grape-vine," to use the words of a veteran surveyor, "would give quite as satisfactory re- sults as one of those old-fashioned chains." Lincoln's surveys had the extraordinary merit of being correct. Much of the government work had been rather in- differently done, or the government corners had been im- perfectly preserved, and there were frequent disputes be- tween adjacent land-owners about boundary lines. Fre- quently Lincoln was called upon in such cases to find the cor- ner in controversy. His verdict was invariably the end of the dispute, so general was the confidence in his honesty and skill. Some of these old corners located by him are still in ex- istence. The people of Petersburg proudly remember that they live in a town which was laid out by Lincoln. This he did in 1836, and it was the work of several weeks. Lincoln's pay as a surveyor was three dollars a day, more than he had ever before earned. Compared with the compen- sation for like services nowadays it seems small enough ; but at that time it was really princely. The Governor of the State received a salary of only one thousand dollars a year, the Secretary of State six hundred dollars, and good board and lodging could be obtained for one dollar a week. But even three dollars a day did not enable him to meet all his financial obligations. The heavy debts of the store hung over him. He was obliged to help his father's family. The long dis- tances he had to travel in his new employment had made it necessary to buy a horse, and for it he had gone into debt. "My father," says Thomas Watkins, of Petersburg, who remembers the circumstances well, "sold Lincoln the horse, and my recollection is that Lincoln agreed to pay him fifty lift. Wl£ tv^K&U^tj/njLcto ^ oJfarisuCCZZL to /utjiMr Qajji- suu^€>C '£&£%> /US&. cCauv^, /P%*e*oi»» ££tC s&ojCzJj h: -is s4s GKUc, $ GidZn.^?. »t $£ 7 run*./ f Is 1= it Jr Sfky* /3 W&fc' V*OM*d!> tAGSWUB OF A MAP MADE Bv LINCOLN OF ROAD IN MENARD COUNTS", ILL 104 LIFE OF LINCOLN dollars for it. Lincoln was a little slow in making the pay- ments, and after he had paid all but ten dollars, my father, who was a high-strung man, became impatient, and sued him for the balance. Lincoln, of course, did not deny the debt, but raised the money and paid it. I do not often tell this," Mr. Watkins adds, "because I have always thought there never was such a man as Lincoln, and I have always been sorry father sued him." Between his duties as deputy surveyor and postmaster, Lincoln had little leisure for the store, and its management passed into the hands of Berry. The stock of groceries was on the wane. The numerous obligations of the firm were ma- turing, with no money to meet them. Both members of the firm, in the face of such obstacles, lost courage; and when, early in 1834, Alexander and William Trent asked if the store was for sale, an affirmative answer was eagerly given. A price was agreed upon, and the sale was made. Now, neither Alexander Trent nor his brother had any money ; but as Berry and Lincoln had bought without money, it seemed only fair that they should be willing to sell on the same terms. Accordingly the notes of the Trent brothers were accepted for the purchase price, and the store was turned over to the new owners. But about the time their notes fell due the Trent brothers disappeared. The few groceries in the store were seized by creditors, and the doors were closed, never to be opened again. Misfortunes now crowded upon Lincoln. His late partner, Berry, soon reached the end of his wild ca- reer, and one morning a farmer from the Rock Creek neigh- borhood drove into New Salem with the news that he was dead. The appalling debt which had accumulated was thrown upon Lincoln's shoulders. It was then too common a fashion among men who became deluged in debt to "clear out," in the expressive language of the pioneer, as the Trents had RUNS FOR STATE ASSEMBLY 105 done; but this was not Lincoln's way. He quietly settled down among the men he owed, and promised to pay them For fifteen years he carried this burden— a load which he cheerfully and manfully bore, but one so heavy that he habit- ually spoke of it as the "national debt." Talking once of it to a friend, Lincoln said: "That debt was the greatest obstacle I have ever met in life; I had no way of speculating, and could not earn money except by labor, and to earn by labor eleven hundred dollars, besides my living, seemed the work of a lifetime. There was, however, but one way. I went to the creditors, and told them that if they would let me alone I would give them all I could earn over my living, as fast as I could earn it." As late as 1848, so we are informed by Mr Herndon, Mr. Lincoln, then a member of Congress, sent home money saved from his salary, to be applied on these ob- ligations. All the notes, with interest at the high rates then prevailing, were at last paid. With a single exception Lincoln's creditors seemed to be lenient. One of the notes given by him came into the hands of a Mr. Van Bergen, who, when it fell due, brought suit The amount of the judgment was more than Lincoln could pay, and his personal effects were levied upon. These con- sisted of his horse, saddle and bridle, and surveying instru- ments. James Short, a well-to-do farmer living on Sand Ridge, a few miles north of New Salem, heard of the trouble which had befallen his young friend. Without advising Lin- coln of his plans, he attended the sale, bought in the horse and surveying instruments for one hundred and twenty dol- lars, and turned them over to their former owner. Lincoln never forgot a benefactor. He not only repaid the money with interest, but nearly thirty years later remem- bered the kindness in a most substantial way. After Lincoln left New Salem financial reverses came to James Short, and he removed to the far West to seek his fortune anew. Early 106 LIFE OF LINCOLN in Lincoln's presidential term he heard that "Uncle Jimmy" was living in California. One day Mr. Short received a let- ter from Washington, D. C. Tearing it open, he read the gratifying announcement that he had been commissioned an Indian agent. The kindness of Mr. Short was not exceptional in Lin- coln's New Salem career. When the store had "winked out," as he put it, and the post-office had been left without head- quarters, one of his neighbors, Samuel Hill, invited the homeless postmaster into his store. There was hardly a man or woman in the community who would not have been glad to have done as much. It was a simple recognition on their part of Lincoln's friendliness to them. He was what they called "obliging" — a man who instinctively did the thing which he saw would help another, no matter how trivial or homely it was. In the home of Rowan Herndon, where he had boarded when he first came to the town, he had made himself loved by his care of the children. "He nearly always had one of them around with him," says Mr. Herndon. In the Rutledge tavern, where he afterwards lived, the landlord told with appreciation how, when his house was full, Lincoln gave up his bed, went to the store, and slept on the counter, his pillow a web of calico. If a traveler "stuck in the mud" in New Salem's one street, Lincoln was always the first to help pull out the wheel. The widows praised him because he "chopped their wood;" the overworked, because he was al- ways ready to give them a lift. It was the spontaneous, un- obtrusive helpfulness of the man's nature which endeared him to everybody and which inspired a general desire to do all possible in return. There are many tales told of homely service rendered him, even by the hard-working farmers' wives around New Salem. There was not one of them who did not gladly "put on a plate" for Abe Lincoln when he ap- peared, or would not darn or mend for him when she knew RUNS FOR STATE ASSEMBLY 107 he needed it. Hannah Armstrong, the wife of the hero of Clary's Grove, made him one of her family. "Abe would come out to our house," she said, "drink milk, eat mush, cornbread and butter, bring the children candy, and rock the cradle while I got him something to eat. . . . Has stayed at our house two or three weeks at a time." Lincoln's pay for his first piece of surveying came in the shape of two buck- skins, and it was Hannah who "foxed" them on his trousers. His relations were equally friendly in the better homes of the community; even at the minister's, the Rev. John Cam- eron's, he was perfectly at home, and Mrs. Cameron was by him affectionately called "Aunt Polly." It was not only his kindly service which made Lincoln loved; it was his sym- pathetic comprehension of the lives and joys and sorrows and interests of the people. Whether it was Jack Armstrong and his wrestling, Hannah and her babies, Kelso and his fishing and poetry, the school-master and his books — with one and all he was at home. He possessed in an extraordinary degree the power of entering into the interests of others, a power found only in reflective, unselfish natures endowed with a humorous sense of human foibles, coupled with great tender- ness of heart. Men and women amused Lincoln, but so long as they were sincere he loved them and sympathized with them. He was human in the best sense of that fine word. CHAPTER VIII ELECTIONEERING IN ILLINOIS IN 1 834 LINCOLN READS LAW FIRST TERM AS ASSEMBLYMAN LINCOLN^ FIRST GREAT SORROW Now that the store was closed and his surveying increased, Lincoln had an excellent opportunity to extend his acquaint- ance by traveling about the country. Everywhere he won friends. The surveyor naturally was respected for his call- ing's sake, but the new deputy surveyor was admired for his friendly ways, his willingness to lend a hand indoors as well as out, his learning, his ambition, his independence. Throughout the county he began to be regarded as a "right smart young man." Some of his associates appear even to have comprehended his peculiarly great character and dimly to have foreseen a splendid future. "Often," says Daniel Green Burner, at one time clerk in Berry and Lincoln's gro- cery, "I have heard my brother-in-law, Dr. Duncan, say he would not be surprised if some day Abe Lincoln got to be governor of Illinois. Lincoln," Mr. Burner adds, "was thought to know a little more than anybody else among the young people. He was a good debater, and liked it. He read much, and seemed never to forget anything." Lincoln was fully conscious of his popularity, and it seemed to him in 1834 that he could safely venture to try again for the legislature. Accordingly he announced himself as a candidate, spending much of the summer of 1834 in elec- tioneering. It was a repetition of what he had done in 1832, though on the larger scale made possible by wider acquaint- ance. In company with the other candidates he rode up and ELECTIONEERING IN ILLINOIS 109 down the county, making speeches in the public squares, in shady groves, now and then in a log school-house. In his speeches he soon distinguished himself by the amazing can- dor with which he dealt with all questions, and by his curious blending of audacity and humility. Wherever he saw a crowd of men he joined them, and he never failed to adapt himself to their point of view in asking for votes. If the de- gree of physical strength was their test for a candidate, he was ready to lift a weight, or wrestle with the countryside champion ; if the amount of grain a man could cut would rec- ommend him, he seized the cradle and showed the swath he could cut. The campaign was well conducted, for in August he was elected one of the four assemblymen from Sanga- mon. The best thing which Lincoln did in the canvass of 1834 was not winning votes ; it was coming to a determination to read law, not for pleasure, but as a business. In his autobi- ographical notes he says : "During the canvass, in a private conversation, Major John T. Stuart (one of his fellow-candi- dates) encouraged Abraham to study law. After the election he borrowed books of Stuart, took them home with him and went at it in good earnest. He never studied with anybody." He seems to have thrown himself into the work with almost impatient ardor. As he tramped back and forth from Spring- field, twenty miles away, to get his law books, he read some- times forty pages or more on the way. Often he was seen wandering at random across the fields, repeating aloud the points in his last reading. The subject seemed never to be out of his mind. It was the great absorbing interest of his life. The rule he gave twenty years later to a young man who wanted to know how to become a lawyer, was the one he practiced : "Get books and read and study them carefully. Begin with Blackstone's 'Commentaries/ and after reading carefully IIO LIFE OF LINCOLN through, say twice, take Chitty's 'Pleadings,' Greenleaf's 'Evidence/ and Story's 'Equity/ in succession. Work, work, work is the main thing." Having secured a book of legal forms, he was soon able to write deeds, contracts, and all sorts of legal instruments ; and he was frequently called upon by his neighbors to perform services of this kind. "In 1834," says Daniel Green Burner, "my father, Isaac Burner, sold out to Henry Onstott, and he wanted a deed written. I knew how handy Lincoln was that way and suggested that we get him. We found him sitting on a stump. 'All right/ said he, when informed what we wanted. 'If you will bring me a pen and ink and a piece of paper I will write it here/ I brought him these articles, and, picking up a shingle and putting it on his knee for a desk, he wrote out the deed." As there was no practising lawyer nearer than Springfield, Lincoln was often employed to act the part of advocate be- fore the village squire, at that time Bowling Green. He real- ized that this experience was valuable, and never, so far as known, demanded or accepted a fee for his services in these petty cases. Justice was sometimes administered in a summary way in Squire Green's court. Precedents and the venerable rules of law had little weight. The "Squire" took judicial notice of a great many facts, often going so far as to fill, simultane- ously, the two functions of witness and court But his deci- sions were generally just. James McGrady Rutledge tells a story in which several of Lincoln's old friends figure and which illustrates the legal practices of New Salem. "Jack Kelso," says Mr. Rutledge, "owned, or claimed to own, a white hog. It was also claimed by John Ferguson. The hog had wandered around Bowling Green's place, until he felt somewhat acquainted with it. Ferguson sued Kelso, and the case was tried before 'Squire' ELECTIONEERING IN ILLINOIS III Green. The plaintiff produced two witnesses who testified positively that the hog belonged to him. Kelso had nothing to offer, save his own unsupported claim. " 'Are there any more witnesses ?' inquired the court. "He was informed that there were no more. " 'Well/ said 'Squire' Green, 'the two witnesses we have heard have sworn to a lie. I know this shoat, and I know it belongs to Jack Kelso. I therefore decide this case in his favor/ " An extract from the record of the County Commissioners , Court illustrates the nature of the cases that came before the justice of the peace in Lincoln's day. It also shows the price put upon the privilege of working on Sunday, in 1832 : "January 29, 1832. — Alexander Gibson found guilty of Sabbath-breaking and fined \2\ cents. Fine paid into court. "(Signed) Edward Robinson, J. P." The session of the Ninth Assembly began December 1, 1834, and Lincoln went to the capital, then Vandalia, sev- enty-five miles southeast of New Salem, on the Kaskaskia river, in time for the opening. Vandalia was a town which had been called into existence in 1820 especially to give the State government an abiding place. Its very name had been chosen, it is said, because it "sounded well" for a State capi- tal. As the tradition goes, while the commissioners were de- bating what they should call the town they were making, a wag suggested that it be named Vandalia, in honor of the Vandals, a tribe of Indians which, he said, had once lived on the borders of the Kaskaskia; this, he argued, would con- serve a local tradition while giving a euphonious title. The commissioners, pleased with so good a suggestion, adopted the name. When Lincoln first went to Vandalia it was a town of about eight hundred inhabitants; its noteworthy 112 LIFE OF LINCOLN features, according to Peck's "Gazetteer" of Illinois for 1834, being a brick court-house, a two-story brick edifice "used by State officers," "a neat framed house of worship for the Presbyterian Society, with a cupola and bell," "a framed meeting-house for the Methodist Society," three taverns, several stores, five lawyers, four physicians, a land office, and two newspapers. It was a much larger town than Lincoln had ever lived in before, though he was familiar with Spring* field, then twice as large as Vandalia, and he had seen the cities of the Mississippi. The Assembly which he entered was composed of eighty- one members — twenty-six senators and fifty-five repre- sentatives. As a rule, these men were of Kentucky, Tennes- see, or Virginia origin, with here and there a Frenchman. There were but few eastern men, for there was still a strong prejudice in the State against Yankees. The close bargains and superior airs of the emigrants from New England con- trasted so unpleasantly with the open-handed hospitality and the easy ways of the Southerners and French, that a pio- neer's prospects were blasted at the start if he acted like a Yankee. A history of Illinois in 1837, published evidently to "boom" the State, cautioned the emigrant that if he began his life in Illinois by "affecting superior intelligence and virtue, and catechizing the people for their habits of plain- ness and simplicity and their apparent want of those things which he imagines indispensable to comfort," he must expect to be forever marked as "a Yankee," and to have his pros- pects correspondingly defeated. A "hard-shell" Baptist preacher of about this date showed the feeling of the people when he said, in preaching of the richness of the grace of the Lord : "It tuks in the isles of the sea and the uttermust part of the yeth. It embraces the Esquimaux and the Hottentots, and some, my dear brethering, go so far as to suppose that it tuks in the poor benighted Yankees, but / don't go that fur/' ELECTIONEERING IN ILLINOIS 113 When it came to an election of legislators, many of the peo- ple " didn't go that fur " either. There was a preponderance of jean suits like Lincoln's in the Assembly, and there were occasional coonskin caps and buckskin trousers. Nevertheless, more than one member showed a studied garb and a courtly manner. Some of th^ best blood of the South went into the making of Illinois, and it showed itself from the first in the Assembly. The sur- roundings of the legislators were quite as simple as the attire of the plainest of them. The court-house, in good old Colonial style, with square pillars and belfry, was finished with wooden desks and benches. The State furnished her law-makers few perquisites beyond their three dollars a day. A cork inkstand, a certain number of quills, and a limited amount of stationery were all the extras an Illinois legislator in 1834 got from his position. Scarcely more could be ex- pected from a State whose revenues from December 1, 1834, to December 1, 1836, were only about one hundred and twen- ty-five thousand dollars, with expenditures during the same period amounting to less than one hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars. Lincoln thought little of these things, no doubt. To him the absorbing interest was the men he met. To get ac- quainted with them, measure them, compare himself with them, and discover wherein they were his superiors and what he could do to make good his deficiency — this was his chief occupation. The men he met were good subjects for such study. Among them were William L. D. Ewing, Jesse K. Dubois, Stephen T. Logan, Theodore Ford, and Governor Duncan — men destined to play large parts in the history of the State. One whom he met that winter in Vandalia was destined to play a great part in the history of the nation — the Democratic candidate for the office of State attorney for the first judicial district of Illinois; a man four years younger (8) 114 LIFE OF LINCOLN than Lincoln — he was only twenty-one at the time; a new- comer, too, in the State, having arrived about a year before, under no very promising auspices either, for he had only thirty-seven cents in his pockets, and no position in view ; but a man of mettle, it was easy to see, for already he had risen so high in the district where he had settled, that he dared con- test the office of State attorney with John J. Hardin, one of the most successful lawyers of the State. This young man was Stephen A. Douglas. He had come to Vandalia from Morgan county to conduct his campaign, and Lincoln met him first in the halls of the old court-house, where he and his friends carried on with success their contest against Hardin. The ninth Assembly gathered in a more hopeful and am- bitious mood than any of its predecessors. Illinois was feel- ing well. The State was free from debt. The Black Hawk war had stimulated the people greatly, for it had brought a large amount of money into circulation. In fact, the greater portion of the eight to ten million dollars the war had cost, had been circulated among the Illinois volunteers. Immigra- tion, too, was increasing at a bewildering rate. In 1835 the census showed a population of 269,974. Between 1830 and 1835 two-fifths of this number had come in. In the northeast Chicago had begun to rise. "Even for a western town," its growth had been unusually rapid, declared Peck's "Gazet- teer," of 1834; the harbor building there, the proposed Michi- gan and Illinois canal, the rise in town lots — all promised to the State a great metropolis. To meet the rising tide of prosperity, the legislators of 1834 felt that they must devise some worthy scheme, so they chartered a new State bank, with a capital of one million five hundred thousand dollars, and revived a bank which had broken twelve years before, granting it a charter of three hundred thousand dollars. There was no surplus money in the State to supply the capi- ELECTIONEERING IN ILLINOIS 1 15 tal; there were no trained bankers to guide the concern; there was no clear notion of how it was all to be done ; but a banking capital of one million eight hundred thousand dol- lars would be a good thing in the State, they were sure ; and if the East could be made to believe in Illinois as much as her legislators believed in her, the stocks would go; and so the banks were chartered. But even more important to the State than banks was a highway. For thirteen years plans for the Illinois and Michi- gan canal had been constantly before the Assembly. Sur- veys had been ordered, estimates reported, the advantages extolled, but nothing had been done. Now, however, the Assembly, flushed by the first thrill of the coming boom, decided to authorize a loan of a half-million on the credit of the State. Lincoln favored both these measures. He did not, however, do anything especially noteworthy for either of the bills, nor was the record he made in other directions at all remarkable. He was placed on the committee of pub- lic accounts and expenditures, and attended meetings with fidelity. His first act as a member was to give notice that he would ask leave to introduce a bill limiting the jurisdiction of justices of the peace — a measure which he succeeded in carrying through. He followed this by a motion to change the rules, so that it should not be in order to offer amend- ments to any bill after the third reading, which was not agreed to ; though the same rule, in effect, was adopted some years later, and is to this day in force in both branches of the Illinois Assembly. He next made a motion to take from the table a report which had been submitted by his committee, which met a like fate. His first resolution, relating to a State revenue to be derived from the sales of the public lands, was denied a reference, and laid upon the table. Neither as a speaker nor an organizer did he make any especial im- pression on the body. 116 LIFE OP LINCOLN In the spring of 1835 the young representative from San- gamon returned to New Salem to take up his duties as post- master and deputy surveyor, and to resume his law studies. He exchanged his rather exalted position for the humbler one with a light heart. New Salem held all that was dear- est in the world to him at that moment, and he went back to the poor little town with a hope, which he had once sup- posed honor forbade his acknowledging even to himself, glowing warmly in his heart. He loved a young girl of that town, and now for the first time, though he had known her since he first came to New Salem, was he free to tell his love. One of the most prominent families of the settlement in 1 83 1, when Lincoln first appeared there, was that of James Rutledge. The head of the house was one of the founders of New Salem, and at that time the keeper of the village tavern. He was a high-minded man, of a warm and gener- ous nature, and had the universal respect of the community. He was a South Carolinian by birth, but had lived many years in Kentucky before coming to Illinois. Rutledge came of a distinguished family : one of his ancestors signed the Declaration of Independence ; another was chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States by appointment of Washington, and another was a conspicuous leader in the American Congress. The third of the nine children in the Rutledge household was a daughter, Ann Mayes, born in Kentucky, January 7, 18 1 3. When Lincoln first met her she was nineteen years old, and as fresh as a flower. Many of those who knew her at that time have left tributes to her beauty and gentleness, and even to-day there are those living who talk of her with moistened eyes and softened tones. "She was a beautiful girl," says her cousin, James McGrady Rutledge, "and as bright as she was beautiful. She was well educated for that early day, a good conversationalist, and always gentle and Xj'd 09 oil ELECTIONEERING IN ILLINOIS U7 cheerful. A girl whose company people liked." So fair a maid was not, of course, without suitors. The most deter- mined of those who sought her hand was one John McNeill, a young man who had arrived in New Salem from New York soon after the founding of the town. Nothing was known of his antecedents, and no questions were asked. He was understood to be merely one of the thousands who had come west in search of fortune. That he was intelligent, industrious, and frugal, with a good head for business, was at once apparent ; for in four years from his first appearance in the settlement, besides earning a half-interest in a general store, McNeill had acquired a large farm a few miles north of New Salem. His neighbors believed him to be worth about twelve thousand dollars. John McNeill was an unmarried man — at least so he repre- sented himself to be — and very soon after becorrmg a resi- dent of New Salem he formed the acquaintance of Ann Rut- ledge, then a girl of seventeen. It was a case of love at first sight, and the two soon became engaged, in spite of the riv- alry of Samuel Hill, McNeill's partner. But Ann was as yet only a young girl ; and it was thought very sensible in her and considerate in her lover that both acquiesced in the wishes of Ann's parents that, for some time at least, the marriage be postponed. Such was the situation when Lincoln appeared in New Salem. He naturally soon became acquainted with the girl. She was a pupil in Mentor Graham's school, where he fre- quently visited, and rumor says that he first met her there. However that may be, it is certain that in the latter part of 1832 he went to board at the Rutledge tavern and there was thrown daily into her company. During the next year, 1833, John McNeill, in spite of his fair prospects, became restless and discontented. He wanted to see his people, he said, and before the end of the year he 1X8 LIFE OF LINCOLN decided to go East for a visit. To secure perfect free- dom from his business while gone, he sold out his interest in his store. To Ann he said that he hoped to bring back his father and mother, and to place them on his farm. "This duty done," was his farewell word, "you and I will be mar- ried." In the spring of 1834 McNeill started East. The journey overland by foot and horse was in those days a try- ing one, and on the way McNeill fell ill with chills and fever. It was late in the summer before he reached his home, and wrote back to Ann, explaining his silence. The long wait had been a severe strain on the girl, and Lincoln had watched her anxiety with softened heart. It was to him, the New Salem postmaster, that she came to inquire for letters. It was to him she entrusted those she sent. In a way the post- master must have become the girl's confidant ; and his tender heart must have been deeply touched. After the long silence was broken, and McNeill's first letter of explanation came, the cause of anxiety seemed removed ; but, strangely enough, other letters followed only at long intervals, and finally they ceased altogether. Then it was that the young girl told her friends a secret which McNeill had confided to her before leaving New Salem. He had told her what she had never even suspected before, that John McNeill was not his real name, but that it was John McNamar. Shortly before he came to New Salem, he explained, his father had suffered a disastrous failure in business. He was the oldest son; and in the hope of re- trieving the lost fortune, he resolved to go West, expecting to return in a few years and share his riches with the rest of the family. Anticipating parental opposition, he ran away from home ; and, being sure that he could never accumulate anything with so numerous a family to support, he endeav- ored to lose himself by a change of name. All this Ann had ELECTIONEERING IN ILLINOIS 1 19 believed and not repeated ; but now, worn out by waiting, she took the story to her friends. With few exceptions they pronounced the story a fabrica- tion and McNamar an impostor. His excuse seemed flimsy. Why had he worn this mask ? At best, they declared, he was a mere adventurer; and was it not more probable that he was a fugitive from justice — a thief, a swindler, or a mur- derer? And who knew how many wives he might have? With all New Salem declaring John McNamar false, Ann Rutledge could hardly be blamed for imagining that he was dead or had forgotten her. It was not until McNeill, or McNamar, had been gone many months, and gossip had become offensive, that Lincoln ventured to show his love for Ann, and then it was a long time before the girl would listen to his suit. Convinced at last, however, that her former lover had deserted her, she yielded to Lincoln's wishes and promised, in the spring of 1835, soon after Lincoln's return from Vandalia, to become his wife. But Lincoln had nothing on which to support a family — indeed, he found it no trifling task to support him- self. As for Ann, she was anxious to go to school another year. It was decided that in the autumn she should go with her brother to Jacksonville and spend the winter there in an academy. Lincoln was to devote himself to his law studies; and the next spring, when she returned from school and he had been admitted to the bar, they were to be married. A happy spring and summer followed. New Salem took a cordial interest in the two lovers and presaged a happy life for them, and all would undoubtedly have gone well if the young girl could have dismissed the haunting memory of her old lover. The possibility that she had wronged him, that he might reappear, that he loved her still,though she now loved another, that perhaps she had done wrong — a tortur- ing conflict of memory, love, conscience, doubt, and mor- 120 LIFE OF LINCOLN bidness lay like a shadow across her happiness, and wore upon her until she fell ill. Gradually her condition became hopeless ; and Lincoln, who had been shut from her, was sent for. The lovers passed an hour alone in an anguished part- ing, and soon after, on August 25, 1835, Ann died. The death of Ann Rutledge plunged Lincoln into the deep- est gloom. That abiding melancholy, that painful sense of the incompleteness of life which had been his mother's dowry asserted itself. It filled and darkened his mind and his imagination tortured him with its black pictures. One stormy night Lincoln was sitting beside William Greene, his head bowed on his hand, while tears trickled through his fingers ; his friend begged him to control his sorrow, to try to forget. "I cannot," moaned Lincoln; "the thought of the snow and rain on her grave fills me with indescribable grief." He was seen walking alone by the river and through the woods, muttering strange things to himself. He seemed to his friends to be in the shadow of madness. They kept a close watch over him ; and at last Bowling Green, one of the most devoted friends Lincoln then had, took him home to his little log cabin, half a mile north of New Salem, under the brow of a big bluff. Here, under the loving care of Green, and his good wife Nancy, Lincoln remained until he was once more master of himself. But though he had regained self-control, his grief was deep and bitter. Ann Rutledge was buried in Concord cem- etery, a country burying-ground seven miles northwest of New Salem. To this lonely spot Lincoln frequently jour- neyed to weep over her grave. "My heart is buried there," he said to one of his friends. When McNamar returned (for McNamar's story was true, and two months after Ann Rutledge died he drove into New Salem with his widowed mother and his brothers and ELECTIONEERING IN ILLINOIS 121 sisters in the "prairie schooner" beside him) and learned of Ann's death, he "saw Lincoln at the post-office," as he after- ward said, and "he seemed desolate and sorely distressed." On himself apparently, her death produced no deep impres- sion. Within a year he married another woman; and his conduct toward Ann Rutledge is to this day a mystery. In later life, when Lincoln's sorrow had become a memory, he told a friend who questioned him : "I really and truly loved the girl and think often of her now." There was a pause, and then the President added : "And I have loved the name of Rutledge to this day." When the death of Ann Rutledge came upon Lincoln, for a time threatening to destroy his ambition and blast his life, he was in a most encouraging position. Master of a profes- sion in which he had an abundance of work and earned fair fees, hopeful of being admitted in a few months to the bar, a member of the State Assembly with every reason to believe that, if he desired it, his constituency would return him — few men are as far advanced at twenty-six as was Abraham Lin- coln. Intellectually he was far better equipped than he believed himself to be, better than he has ordinarily been credited with being. True, he had had no conventional college training, but he had by his own efforts attained the chief result of all preparatory study, the ability to take hold of a subject and assimilate it. The fact that in six weeks he had acquired enough of the science of surveying to enable him to serve as deputy surveyor shows how well-trained his mind was. The power to grasp a large subject quickly and fully is never an accident. The nights Lincoln spent in Gentryville lying on the floor in front of the fire figuring on the fire-shovel, the hours he passed in poring over the Statutes of Indiana, the days he wrestled with Kirkham's Grammar, alone made the mastery of Flint and Gibson possible. His struggle with 122 LIFE OF LINCOLN Flint and Gibson made easier the volumes he borrowed from Major Stuart's law library. Lincoln had a mental trait which explains his rapid growth in mastering subjects — seeing clearly was essential to him. He was unable to put a question aside until he un- derstood it. It pursued him, irritated him until solved. Even in his Gentryville days his comrades noted that he was constantly searching for reasons and that he "explained so clearly." This characteristic became stronger with years. He was unwilling to pronounce himself on any subject until he understood it, and he could not let it alone until he had reached a conclusion which satisfied him. This seeing clearly became a splendid force in Lincoln; for when he once had reached a conclusion he had the hon- esty of soul to suit his actions to it. No consideration could induce him to abandon the line of conduct which his reason told him was logical. Joined to these strong mental and moral qualities was that power of immediate action which so often explains why one man succeeds in life while another of equal intelligence and uprightness fails. As soon as Lin- coln saw a thing to do he did it. He wants to know ; here is a book — it may be a biography, a volume of dry statutes, a collection of verse ; no matter, he reads and ponders it until he has absorbed all it has for him. He is eager to see the world; a man offers him a position as a " hand " on a Mis- sissippi flatboat; he takes it without a moment's hesitation over the toil and exposure it demands. John Calhoun is will- ing to make him a deputy surveyor; he knows nothing of the science ; in six weeks he has learned enough to begin his la- bors. Sangamon county must have representatives, why not he? and his circular goes out. Ambition alone will not ex- plain this power of instantaneous action. It comes largely from that active imagination which, when a new relation 01 position opens, seizes on all its possibilities and from them ELECTIONEERING IN ILLINOIS 123 creates a situation so real that one enters with confidence upon what seems to the unimaginative the rashest undertak- ing. Lincoln saw the possibilities in things and immediately appreciated them. But the position he filled in Sangamon county in 1835 was not all due to these qualities ; much was due to his personal, charm. By all accounts he was big, awkward, ill-clad, shy — yet his sterling honor, his unselfish nature, his heart of the true gentleman, inspired respect and confidence. Men might; laugh at his first appearance, but they were not long in recog-j nizing the real superiority of his nature. Such was Abraham Lincoln at twenty-six, when the tragic death of Ann Rutledge made all that he had attained, all that he had planned, seem fruitless and empty. He was too sin- cere and just, too brave a man, to allow a great sorrow per- manently to interfere with his activities. He rallied his forces, and returned to his law, his surveying, his politics. He brought to his work a new power, that insight and patience which only a great sorrow can give. CHAPTER IX LINCOLN IS RE-ELECTED TO THE ILLINOIS ASSEMBLY HIS FIRST PUBLISHED ADDRESS PROTESTS AGAINST PRO- SLAVERY RESOLUTIONS OF THE ASSEMBLY The Ninth General Assembly of Illinois held its opening session in the winter of 1834-35. It was Lincoln's first ex- perience as a legislator and it was rather a tame one, but in December, 1835, the members were called to an extra ses- sion which proved to be in every way more exciting and more eventful than its predecesso/s. The chief reason for its be- ing called was in itself calculated to exhilarate the hopeful young law-givers. A census had been taken since their last session and so large an increase in population had been re- ported that it was considered necessary to summon the as- sembly to re-apportion the legislative districts. When the re- apportionment was made it was found that the General As- sembly was increased by fifty members, the number of sen- ators being raised from twenty-six to forty, of representa- tives from fifty-five to ninety-one. A growth of fifty mem- bers in four years excited the imagination of the State. The dignity and importance of Illinois suddenly assumed new im- portance. It was imagined that the story of New York's growth in wealth and influence was to be repeated in this new country and every ambitious man in the assembly de- termined to lead in the rise of the State. The work on internal improvements begun in the previous session took a new form. The governor, in calling the members together, had said : "While I would urge the most liberal support of all such measures as tending with per- fect certainty to increase the wealth and prosperity of the 124 FIRST PUBLISHED ADDRESS 125 State, I would at the same time most respectfully suggest the propriety of intrusting the construction of all such works where it can be done consistently with the general interest, to individual enterprise." The legislators acquiesced and in this session began to grant a series of private charters for inter- nal improvements which had they been carried out, would have given the State means of communication in 1840 al- most if not quite equal to those of to-day. The map on page 135 shows the incorporations of railroad and canal com- panies made in the extra session of the Ninth Assembly, 1835-36, and in the regular session of the Tenth, 1836-37; sixteen of the railroads were chartered in the former session. Lincoln and his colleagues did not devote their attention entirely to chartering railroads. Ten schools were chartered in this same session, some of which exist to-day. In the next session twelve academies and eighteen colleges received char- ters. The absorbing topic of the winter, however, and the one in which Lincoln was chiefly concerned was the threatened naturalization of tl™ convention system in Illinois. Up to this time candidates for office in the United States had gen- erally nominated themselves as we have seen Lincoln doing. The only formality they imposed upon themselves was to consult a little unauthorized caucus of personal friends. Un- less they were exceptionally cautious persons the disapproval of this caucus did not stand in their way at all. So long as party lines were indistinct and the personal qualities of a candidate were considered rather than his platform this method of nomination was possible, but with party organiza- tion it began to change. In the case of presidential can- didates the convention with its delegates and platform had just appeared, the first full-fledged one being held but three years before, in 1832. Along with the presidential conven- tion came the "machine," an organization of all those wKo T26 LIFE OF LINCOLN belonged to a party, intended to secure unity of effort. By means of primaries and conventions one candidate was put forward by a party instead of a dozen being allowed to offer themselves. The strength which the convention gave the Democratic party, which first adopted and developed it, was enormous. The Whigs opposed the new institution ; they declared it "was intended to abridge the liberties of the peo- ple by depriving individuals, on their own mere motion, of the privilege of becoming candidates and depriving each man of the right to vote for a candidate of his own selection and choice." The efficacy of the new method was so apparent, however, that, let the Whigs preach as they would, it was rapidly adopted. In 1835 the whole machinery was well developed in New England and New York and had appeared in the West. In the north of Illinois the Democrats had begun to organize under the leadership of two men of eastern origin and training, Ebenezer Peck of Chicago, and Stephen A. Douglas of Jacksonville, and this session of the Illinois legis- lature the convention system became a subject of discussion. The Whigs, Lincoln among them, violently opposed the new scheme. It was a Yankee contrivance they said, favored only by New Englanders like Douglas, or worse still by monarchists like Peck. They recalled with pious indigna- tion that Peck was a Canadian, brought up under an aristo- cratic form of government, that he had even deserted the liberal party of this government to go over to the ultra- monarchists. They declared it a remarkable fact that no man born and raised west of the mountains or south of the Po- tomac had yet returned to vindicate "the wholesale system of convention. " In spite of Whig warnings, however, the con- vention system was approved by a vote of twenty-six to twenty-five. The Ninth Assembly expired at the close of this extra ses- FIRST PUBLISHED ADDRESS 1 27 sion and in June Lincoln announced himself as a candidate for the Tenth Assembly. A few days later the "Sangamon Journal" published his simple platform : "New Salem, June 13, 1836. "To the Editor of the 'Journal' : " In your paper of last Saturday I see a communication, over the signature of 'Many Voters,' in which the candidates who are announced in the 'Journal' are called upon to 'show their hands.' Agreed. Here's mine. "I go for all sharing the privileges of the government who assist in bearing its burdens. Consequently, I go for ad- mitting all whites to the right of suffrage who pay taxes o? bear arms (by no means excluding females). "If elected, I shall consider the whole people of Sangamon my constituents, as well those that oppose as those that sup- port me. "While acting as their representative, I shall be governed by their will on all subjects upon which I have the means of knowing what their will is; and upon all others I shall do what my own judgment teaches me will best advance their interests. Whether elected or not, I go for distributing the" proceeds of the sales of the public lands to the several States, to enable our State, in common with others, to dig canals and construct railroads without borrowing money and paying the interest on it. "If alive on the first Monday in November, I shall vote for Hugh L. White for President. "Very respectfully, "A. Lincoln." The campaign which Lincoln began with this letter was in every way more exciting for him than those of 1832 and 1834. In the reapportionment of the legislative districts which had taken place the winter before Sangamon County's delegation had been enlarged to seven representatives and two senators. This gave large new opportunities to political ambition, and doubled the enthusiasm of political meetings. 128 LIFE OF LINCOLN But the increase of the representation was not all that made the campaign exciting. Party lines had never before been so clearly drawn in Sangamon county, nor personal abuse quite so frank. One of Lincoln's first acts was to an- swer a personal attack. During his absence from New Salem a rival candidate passed through the place and stated pub- licly that he was in possession of facts which, if known to the public, would entirely destroy Lincoln's prospects at the coming election ; but he declared that he thought so much of Lincoln that he would not tell what he knew. Lincoln met this mysterious insinuation with shrewd candor. "No one has needed favors more than I," he wrote his rival, "and gen- erally few have been less unwilling to accept them; but in this case favor to me would be injustice to the public, and therefore I must beg your pardon for declining it. That I once had the confidence of the people of Sangamon County is sufficiently evident; and if I have done anything, either by design or misadventure, which if known would subject me to a forfeiture of that confidence, he that knows of that thing and conceals it is a traitor to his country's interest. "I find myself wholly unable to form any conjecture of what fact or facts, real or supposed, you spoke ; but my opin- ion of your veracity will not permit me for a moment to doubt that you at least believed what you said. I am flat- tered with the personal regard you manifested for me ; but I do hope that on mature reflection you will view the public interest as a paramount consideration and therefore let the worst come." Usually during the campaign Lincoln was obliged to meet personal attacks, not by letter, but on the platform. Joshua Speed, who later became the most intimate friend that Lin- coln probably ever had, tells of one occasion when he was obliged to meet such an attack on the very spur of the mo- ment. A great mass-meeting was in progress at Spring- FIRST PUBLISHED ADDRESS 129 field, and Lincoln had made a speech which had produced a deep impression. " I was then fresh from Kentucky," says Mr. Speed, " and had heard many of her great orators. It seemed to me then, as it seems to me now, that I never heard a more effective speaker. He carried the crowd with him, and swayed them as he pleased. So deep an impression did he make that George Forquer, a man of much celebrity as a sarcastic speaker and with a great reputation throughout the State as an orator, rose and asked the people to hear him. He began his speech by saying that this young man would have to be taken down, and he was sorry that the task devolved upon him. He made what was called one of his 'slasher-gaff' speeches, dealing much in ridicule and sarcasm. Lincoln stood near him, with his arms folded, never interrupting him. When Forquer was done, Lincoln walked to the stand, and replied so fully and completely that his friends bore him from the court-house on their shoulders. "So deep an impression did this first speech make upon me that I remember its conclusion now, after a lapse of thirty- eight years. " 'The gentleman commenced his speech/ he said, 'by say- ing that this young man would have to be taken down, and he was sorry the task devolved upon him. I am not so young in years as I am in the tricks and trade of a politician ; but live long or die young, I would rather die now than, like the gentleman, change my politics and simultaneous with the change receive an office worth three thousand dollars a year, and then have to erect a lightning-rod over my house to pro- tect a guilty conscience from an offended God/ "To understand the point of this it must be explained that Forquer had been a Whig, but had changed his politics, and had been appointed Register of the Land Office ; and over his house was the only lightning-rod in the town or county. Lincoln had seen the lightning-rod for the first time on the day before." This speech has never been forgotten in Springfield, and on my visits there I have repeatedly had the site of the house (9) 13© LIFE OF LINCOLN on which this particular lightning-rod was placed pointed out, and one or another of the many versions which the story has taken, related to me. It was the practice at that date in Illinois for two rival can- didates to travel over the district together. The custom led to much good-natured raillery between them; and in such contests Lincoln was rarely, if ever, worsted. He could even turn the generosity of a rival to account by his whimsical treatment. On one occasion, says Mr. Weir, a former resi- dent of Sangamon county, he had driven out from Spring- field in company with a political opponent to engage in joint debate. The carriage, it seems, belonged to his opponent. In addressing the gathering of farmers that met them, Lincoln was lavish in praise of the generosity of his friend. "I am too poor to own a carriage," he said, "but my friend has gen- erously invited me to ride with him. I want you to vote for me if you will ; but if not then vote for my opponent, for he is a fine man.' , His extravagant and persistent praise of his opponent appealed to the sense of humor in his rural au- dience, to whom his inability to own a carriage was by no means a disqualification. The election came off in August, and resulted in the choice of a delegation from Sangamon County famous in the annals of Illinois. The nine successful candidates were Abraham Lincoln, John Dawson, Daniel Stone, Ninian W. Edwards, William F. Elkins, R. L. Wilson, Andrew McCormick, Job Fletcher, and Arthur Herndon. Each one of these men was over six feet in height, their combined stature being, it is said, fifty-five feet. "The Long Nine" was the name Sanga- mon County gave them. As soon as the election was over Lincoln occupied himself in settling another matter, of much greater moment. He went to Springfield to seek admission to the bar. The "roll of at- torneys and counsellors at law," on file in the office of the tiLLA.fi* $i^4fca ' fet~2/&/SJf&jH&cifik $&e*-cL, &*&« y^L/ua^jj fe/esG>cm.GO s /' ? i 6 ^ jr > ^Udf r / 7 i / z r * } I 8 / / | * 4 1 J« i" * tflf&t e • /^ 3 ^. /• £^£527 »-• h 3 J* 9 &/Jhr&3 % I ; , 2, / ' * r ' Vi w*° t& 'rt — if it is a law." 138 LIFE OF LINCOLN There is nothing in his correspondence, however, to show that he ever sacrificed his principles in these trades. Every- thing we know of his transactions are indeed to the contrary. General T. H. Henderson, of Illinois, says in his reminis- cences of Lincoln : " Before I had ever seen Abraham Lincoln I heard my father, who served with him in the legislature of 1838-39 and of 1840-41, relate an incident in Mr. Lincoln's life which illustrates his character for integrity and his firmness in maintaining what he regarded as right in his public acts, in a marked manner. " I do not remember whether this incident occurred during the session of the legislature in 1836-37 or 1838-39. But I think it was in that of 1836-37, when it was said that there was a great deal of log-rolling going on among the members. But, however that may be, according to the story related by my father, an effort was made to unite the friends of capital removal with the friends of some measure which Mr. Lin- coln, for some reason, did not approve. What that measure was to which he objected, I am not now able to recall. But those who desired the removal of the capital to Springfield were very anxious to effect the proposed combination, and a meeting was held to see if it could be accomplished. The meeting continued in session nearly all night, when it ad- journed without accomplishing anything, Mr. Lincoln re- fusing to yield his objections and to support the obnoxious measure. Another meeting was called, and at this second meeting a number of citizens, not members of the legislature, from the central and northern parts of the State, among them my father, were present by invitation. The meeting was long protracted, and earnest in its deliberations. Every argument that could be thought of was used to induce Mr. Lincoln to yield his objections and unite with his friends, and thus se- cure the removal of the capital to his own city; but without effect. Finally, after midnight, when everybody seemed ex- hausted with the discussion, and when the candles were burn- ing low in the room, Mr. Lincoln rose amid the silence and FIRST PUBLISHED ADDRESS 139 solemnity which prevailed, and, my father said, made one of the most eloquent and powerful speeches to which he had ever listened. He concluded his remarks by saying: 'You may burn my body to ashes, and scatter them to the winds of heaven ; you may drag my soul down to the regions of darkness and despair to be tormented forever; but you will never get me to support a measure which I believe to be wrong, although by doing so I may accomplish that which I believe to be right/ And the meeting adjourned." As was to be expected, the Democrats charged that the Whigs of Sangamon had won their victory by "bargain and corruption." These charges became so serious that, in an extra session called in the summer of 1837, a few months after the bill passed, Lincoln had a bitter fight over them with General L. D. Ewing, who wanted to keep the capital at Vandalia. "The arrogance of Springfield," said General Ewing, "its presumption in claiming the seat of government, is not to be endured ; the law has been passed by chicanery and trickery ; the Springfield delegation has sold out to the internal improvement men, and has promised its support to every measure that would gain a vote to the law removing the seat of government." Lincoln answered in a speech of such severity and keen- ness that the House believed he was "digging his own grave," for Ewing was a high-spirited man who would not hesitate to answer by a challenge. It was, in fact, only the interference of their friends which prevented a duel at this time between Ewing and Lincoln. This speech, to many of Lincoln's colleagues, was a revelation of his ability and char- acter. "This was the first time," said General Linder, "that I began to conceive a very high opinion of the talents and personal courage of Abraham Lincoln." A few months later the "Long Nine" were again attacked, Lincoln specially being abused. The assailant this time was I40 LIFE OF LINCOLN a prominent Democrat, Mr. J. B. Thomas. When he had ended, Lincoln replied in a speech which was long known in local political circles as the "skinning of Thomas." No one doubted after this that Lincoln could defend him- self. He became doubly respected as an opponent, for his reputation for good-humored raillery had already been estab- lished in his campaigns. In a speech made in January he gave another evidence of his skill in the use of ridicule. A resolution had been offered by Mr. Linder to institute an in- quiry into the management of the affairs of the State bank. Lincoln's remarks on the resolution form his first reported speech. He began his remarks by good-humored but net- tling chaffing of his opponent. "Mr. Chairman," he said. "Lest I should fall into the too common error of being mistaken in regard to which side I de- sign to be upon, I shall make it my first care to remove all doubt on that point, by declaring that I am opposed to the resolution under consideration, in toto. Before I proceed to the body of the subject, I will further remark, that it is not without a considerable degree of apprehension that I venture to cross the track of the gentleman from Coles (Mr. Linder). Indeed, I do not believe I could muster a sufficiency of cour- age to come in contact with that gentleman, were it not for the fact that he, some days since, most graciously conde- scended to assure us that he would never be found wasting ^ammunition on small game. On the same fortunate occa- sion he further gave us to understand that he regarded him- self as being decidedly the superior of our common friend from Randolph (Mr. Shields) ; and feeling, as I really do, that I, to say the most of myself, am nothing more than the peer of our friend from Randolph, I shall regard the gentle- man from Coles as decidedly my superior also; and conse- quently, in the course of what I shall have to say, whenever I shall have occasion to allude to that gentleman I shall en- deavor to adopt that kind of court language which I under- stand to be due to decided superiority. In one faculty, at least, there can be no dispute of the gentleman's superiority FIRST PUBLISHED ADDRESS 141 over me, and most other men ; and that is, the faculty of en- tangling a subject so that neither himself, or any other man, can find head or tail to it." Taking up the resolution on the bank, he declared its meaning : "Some gentlemen have their stock in their hands, while others, who have more money than they know what to do with, want it ; and this, and this alone, is the question, to set- tle which we are called on to squander thousands of the peo- ple's money. What interest, let me ask, have the people in the settlement of this question? What difference is it to them whether the stock is owned by Judge Smith or Sam Wiggins ? If any gentleman be entitled to stock in the bank, which he is kept out of possession of by others, let him as- sert his right in the Supreme Court, and let him or his an- tagonist, whichever may be found in the wrong, pay the costs of suit. It is an old maxim, and a very sound one, that he that dances should always pay the fiddler. Now, sir, in the present case, if any gentlemen whose money is a burden to them, choose to lead off a dance, I am decidedly opposed to the people's money being used to pay the fiddler. No one can doubt that the examination proposed by this resolution must cost the State some ten or twelve thousand dollars ; and all this to settle a question in which the people have no in- terest, and about which they care nothing. These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert to fleece the peo- ple; and now that they have got into a quarrel with them- selves, we are called upon to appropriate the people's money to settle the quarrel." The resolution had declared that the bank practised various methods which were "to the great injury of the peo- ple." Lincoln took the occasion to announce his ideas of the people and the politicians. "If the bank really be a grievance, why is it that no one of the real people is found to ask redress of it ? The truth is, no such oppression exists. If it did, our people would groan with memorials and petitions, and we would not be permitted 142 LIFE OF LINCOLN to rest day or night till we had put it down. The people know their rights, and they are never slow to assert and maintain them when they are invaded. Let them call for an investigation, and I shall ever stand ready to respond to the call. But they have made no such call. I make the assertion boldly, and without fear of contradiction, that no man who does not hold an office, or does not aspire to one, has ever found any fault of the bank. It has doubled the prices of the products of their farms, and filled their pockets with a sound circulating medium; and they are all well pleased with its operations. No, sir, it is the politician who is the first to sound the alarm (which, by the way, is a false one). It is he who, by these unholy means, is endeavoring to blow up a storm that he may ride upon and direct. It is he, and he alone, that here proposes to spend thousands of the peopled public treasure, for no other advantage to them than to make valueless in their pockets the reward of their industry. Mr. Chairman, this work is exclusively the work of politicians — a set of men who have interests aside from the interests of the people, and who, to say the most of them, are, taken as a mass, at least one step removed from honest men. I say this with the greater freedom, because, being a politician myself, none can regard it as personal." The speech was published in full in the "Sangamon Jour- nal" for Jan. 28, 1837, and the editor commented : " Mr. Lincoln's remarks on Mr. Linder's bank resolution in the paper are quite to the point. Our friend carries the true Kentucky rifle, and when he fires he seldom fails of sending the shot home." One other act of his in this session cannot be ignored. It is a sinister note in the hopeful chorus of the Tenth Assem- bly. For months there had come from the southern States violent protests against the growth of abolition agitation in the North. Garrison's paper, the " infernal Liberator," as it was called in the pro-slavery part of the country, had been gradually extending its circulation and its influence; and it already had imitators even on the banks of the Mississippi. FIRST PUBLISHED ADDRESS I43 The American Anti-slavery Society was now over three years old. A deep, unconquerable conviction of the iniquity of slavery was spreading through the North. The South felt it and protested, and the statesmen of the North joined them in their protest. Slavery could not be crushed, said the con- servatives. It was sanctioned by the Constitution. The South must be supported in its claims, and agitation stopped, But the agitation went on, and riots, violence, and hatred pursued the agitators. In Illinois, in this very year, 1837, we have a printing-office raided and an anti-slavery editor, Elijah Lovejoy, killed by the citizens of Alton, who were de- termined that it should not be said among them that slavery was an iniquity. To silence the storm, mass-meetings of citizens, the United States Congress, the State legislatures, took up the question and again and again voted resolutions assuring the South that the Abolitionists were not supported ; that the country recognized their right to their " peculiar institution," and that in no case should they be interfered with. At Spring- field, this same year ( 1837) the citizens convened and passed a resolution declaring that "the efforts of Abolitionists in this community are neither necessary nor useful." When the riot occured in Alton, the Springfield papers uttered no word of condemnation, giving the affair only a laconic mention. The Illinois Assembly joined in the general disapproval, and on March 3d passed the following resolutions : " Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Illinois : " That we highly disapprove of the formation of Abolitior societies, and of the doctrines promulgated by them. " That the right of property in slaves is sacred to the slave-holding States by the Federal Constitution, and tha\ they cannot be deprived of that right without their consent, " That the General Government cannot abolish slavery in 144 LIFE OF LINCOLN the District of Columbia against the consent of the citizens ol said District, without a manifest breach of good faith. " That the governor be requested to transmit to the States of Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, New York and Connecti- cut a copy of the foregoing report and resolutions " Lincoln refused to vote for these resolutions. In his judg- ment no expression on the slavery question should go unac- companied by the statement that it was an evil, and he had the boldness to protest immediately against the action of the House. He found only one man in the assembly willing to join him in his protest. These two names are joined to the document they presented : " 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 institu- tion 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 ex- ercised, unless at the request of the people of the District. " The difference between these opinions and those con- tained in the resolutions is their reason for entering this pro- test. " Dan Stone, " A. Lincoln, " Representatives from the County of Sangamon." The Tenth Assembly gave Lincoln an opportunity to show his ability as a political manceuvrer, his power as a speaker, and his courage in opposing what seemed to him wrong. FIRST PUBLISHED ADDRESS 145 There had never been a session of the assembly when the members had the chance to make so wide an impression. The character of the legislation on foot had called to Vandalia numbers of persons of influence from almost every part of the State. They were invariably there to secure something for their town or county, and naturally made a point of learn^ ing all they could of the members and of getting as well ac- quainted with them as circumstances allowed. Game suppers seem to have been the means usually employed by visitors for bringing people together, and Lincoln became a favorite guest not only because he was necessary to the success of al- most any measure, but because he was so jovial a companion. It was then that he laid the foundation of his extensive ac- quaintance throughout the State which in after years stood him in excellent stead. The lobbyists were not the only ones in Vandalia who gave suppers, however. Not a bill was passed nor an election decided that a banquet did not follow. Mr. John Bryant, the brother of William Cullen, was in Vandalia that winter in the interest of his county, and he attended one of these ban- quets, given by the successful candidate for the United States Senate. Lincoln was present, of course, and so were all the prominent politicians of the State. "After the company had gotten pretty noisy and mellow from their imbibitions of Yellow Seal and 'corn juice,' " says Mr. Bryant, "Mr. Douglas and General Shields, to the con- sternation of the host and intense merriment of the guests, climbed up on the table, at one end, encircled each other's waists, and to the tune of a rollicking song, pirouetted down the whole length of the table, shouting, singing, and kick- ing dishes, glasses, and everything right and left, helter skel- ter. For this night of entertainment to his constituents, the successful candidate was presented with a bill, in the morn- ing, for supper, wines, liquors, and damages, which amounted to six hundred dollars." 146 LIFE OF LINCOLN But boisterous suppers were not by any means the only feature of Lincoln's social life that winter in Vandalia. There was another and quieter side in which he showed his rare companionableness and endeared himself to many people. In the midst of the log-rolling and jubilations of the session he would often slip away to some acquaintance's room and spend hours in talk and stories. Mr. John Bryant tells of his coming frequently to his room at the hotel, and sitting "with his knees up to his chin, telling his inimitable stories and his triumphs in the House in circumventing the Democrats." Major Newton Walker, of Lewiston, who was in Vandalia at the time, says : "I used to play the fiddle a great deal and have played for Lincoln a number of times. He used to come over to where I was boarding and ask me to play, and I would take the fiddle with me when I went over to visit him, and when he grew weary of telling stories he would ask me to give him a tune, which I never refused to do." CHAPTER X LINCOLN BEGINS TO STUDY LAW MARY OWENS A NEWS- PAPER CONTEST GROWTH OF POLITICAL INFLUENCE As soon as the assembly closed, Lincoln returned to New Salem ; but not to stay. He had determined to go to Spring- field. Major John Stuart, the friend who had advised him to study law and who had lent him books and with whom he had been associated closely in politics, had offered to take him as a partner. It was a good opening, for Stuart was one of the leading lawyers and politicians of the State, and his in- fluence would place Lincoln at once in command of more or less business. From every point of view the change seems to have been wise ; yet Lincoln made it with foreboding. To practise law he must abandon his business as surveyor, which was bringing him a fair income; he must for a time, at least, go without a certain income. If he failed, what then ? The uncertainty weighed on him heavily, the more so because he was burdened by the debts left from his store and because he was constantly called upon to aid his father's fam- ily. Thomas Lincoln had remained in Coles County, but he had not, in these six years in which his son had risen so rap- idly, been able to get anything more than a poor livelihood from his farm. The sense of responsibility Lincoln had towards his father's family made it the more difficult for him to undertake a new profession. His decision was made, how- ever, and as soon as the session of the Tenth Assembly was over he started for Springfield. His first appearance there is as pathetic as amusing. "He had ridden into town," says Joshua Speed, "on a borrowed horse, with no earthly property save a pair of sad- i47 148 LIFE OP LINCO— die-bags containing* a few clothes. I was a merchant at Springfield, and kept a large country store, embracing dry- goods, groceries, hardware, books, medicines, bed-clothes, mattresses — in fact, everything that the country needed. Lin- coln came into the store with his saddle-bags on his arm. He said he wanted to buy the furniture for a single bed. The mattress, blankets, sheets, coverlid, and pillow, according to the figures made by me, would cost seventeen dollars. He said that perhaps was cheap enough ; but small as the price was, he was unable to pay it. But if I would credit him till Christmas, and his experiment as a lawyer was a success, he would pay then; saying in the saddest tone, Tf I fail in this I do not know that I can ever pay you.' As I looked up at him I thought then, and I think now, that I never saw a sad- der face. "I said to him : 'You seem to be so much pained at con- tracting so small a debt, I think I can suggest a plan by which you can avoid the debt, and at the same time attain your end. I have a large room with a double bed upstairs, which you are very welcome to share with me/ " 'Where is your room ?' said he. " 'Upstairs/ said I, pointing to a pair of winding stairs which led from the store to my room. "He took his saddle-bags on his arm, went upstairs, set them on the floor, and came down with the most changed ex- pression of countenance. Beaming with pleasure, he ex- claimed : " 'Well, Speed, I am moved/ " Another friend, William Butler, with whom Lincoln had become intimate at Vandalia, took him to board; life at Springfield thus began under as favorable auspices as he could hope for. After Chicago, Springfield was at that day the most prom- ising city in Illinois. It had some fifteen hundred inhabitants, and the removal of the capital was certain to bring many more. Already, in fact, the town felt the effect. "The owner of real estate sees his property rapidly enhancing in value," declared the "Sangamon Journal ;" "the merchant anticipates BEGINS TO STUDY LAW 149 a large accession to our population and a corresponding addi- tional sale for his goods ; the mechanic already has more con- tracts offered him for building and improvements than he can execute ; the farmer anticipates the growth of a large and important town, a market for the varied products of his farm ; — indeed, every class of our citizens look to the future with confidence, that, we trust, will not be disappointed." The effect was apparent too, in society. "We used to eat all together," said an old man who in the early thirties came to Springfield as a hostler; "but about this time some one came along and told the people they oughtn't to do so, and then the hired folks ate in the kitchen." This differentiation was apparent to Lincoln and a little discouraging. He was thinking at the time of this removal of marrying, but he soon saw that it was quite out of the question for him to support a wife in Springfield. "I am afraid you would not be satisfied,'' he wrote the young woman, " there is a great deal of flourishing about in carriages here, which it would be your doom to see without sharing it. You would have to be poor, without the means of hiding your poverty. Do you believe you could bear that pa- tiently?" Lincoln's idea of marrying Mary Owens, of whom he asked this question, was the result of a Quixotic sense of honor which had curiously blinded him to the girl's real feel- ing for him. The affair had begun in the fall of 1836, when a woman of his acquaintance who was going to Kentucky on a visit, proposed laughingly to bring back a sister of hers on condition that Lincoln marry her. " I of course accepted the proposal," Lincoln wrote afterwards in a letter to Mrs. O. H. Browning, "for yot* know I could not have done otherwise had I really been averse to it; but privatelv, between you and me, I was 150 LIFE OF LINCOLN most confoundedly well pleased with the project. I had seen the said sister some three years before, thought her intelligent and agreeable, and saw no good objec- tion to plodding life through hand in hand with her. Time passed on, the lady took her journey and in due time re- turned, sister in company, sure enough. This astonished me a little, for it appeared to me that her coming so readily showed that she was a trifle too willing, but on reflection it occurred to me that she might have been prevailed on by her married sister to come, without anything concerning me ever having been mentioned to her, and so I concluded that if no other objection presented itself, I would consent to waive this." Another objection did present itself as soon as he saw the lady. He was anything but pleased with her appearance. "But what could I do ?" he continues in his letter to Mrs. Browning. "I had told her sister that I would take her for better or for worse, and I made a point of honor and con- science in all things to stick to my word, especially if others had been induced to act on it, which in this case I had no doubt they had, for I was now fairly convinced that no other man on earth would have her, and hence the conclusion that they were bent on holding me to my bargain. 'Well, thought I, I have said it, and, be the consequences what they may, it shall not be my fault if I fail to do it/ At once I determined to consider her my wife, and this done, all my powers of dis- covery were put to work in search of perfections in her which might be fairly set off against her defects. I tried to imagine her handsome, which, but for her unfortunate corpulency, was actually true. Exclusive of this, no woman that I have ever seen has a finer face. I also tried to convince myself that the mind was much more to be valued than the person, and in this she was not inferior, as I could discover, to any with whom I had been acquainted. "Shortly after this, without attempting to come to any positive understanding with her, I set out for Vandalia, when and where you first saw me. During my stay there I had let- BEGINS TO STUDY LAW 151 ters from her which did not change my opinion of either her intellect or intention, but, on the contrary, confirmed it in both. "All this while, although I was fixed 'firm as the surge-re- pelling rock' in my resolution, I found I was continually re- penting the rashness which had led me to make it. Through life I have been in no bondage, either real or imaginary, from the thraldom of which I so much desired to be free. After my return home I saw nothing to change my opinion of her in any particular. She was the same, and so was I. I now spent my time in planning how I might get along in life after vny contemplated change of circumstances should have taken place, and how I might procrastinate the evil day for a time, which I really dreaded as much, perhaps more, than an Irishman does the halter." Lincoln was in this state of mind when he went to Spring- field and discovered how unfit his resources were to support a wife there. Although he put the question of poverty so plainly he assured Miss Owens that if she married him he would do all in his power to make her happy. "Whatever woman may cast her lot with mine," he wrote her, "should any ever do so, it is my intention to do all in my power to make her happy and contented ; and there is noth- ing I can imagine that would make me more unhappy than to fail in the effort. I know I should be much happier with you than the way I am, provided I saw no signs of discontent in you. What you have said to me may have been in the way of jest, or I may have misunderstood it. If so, then let it be forgotten ; if otherwise, I much wish you would think seri- ously before you decide. What I have said I will most posi- tively abide by, provided you wish it. My opinion is that you had better not do it. You have not been accustomed to hardship, and it may be more serious than you now imagine. I know you are capable of thinking correctly on any subject, and if you deliberate maturely upon this before you decide, then I am willing to abide your decision." * 5» UFE OP LINCOLN This decidedly dispassionate view of their relation seems not to have brought any decision from Miss Owens; for three months later Mr. Lincoln wrote her an equally judicial letter, telling her that he could not think of her " with en- tire indifference," that he in all cases wanted to do right and "most particularly so in all cases with women," and summing up his position as follows : "I now say that you can now drop the subject, dismiss your thoughts (if you ever had any) from me forever, and leave this letter unanswered, without calling forth one ac- cusing murmur from me. And I will even go further, and say that if it will add anything to your comfort or peace of mind to do so, it is my sincere wish that you should. Do not understand by this that I wish to cut your acquaintance. I mean no such thing. "What I do wish is that our further acquaintance shall de j pend upon yourself. If such further acquaintance would contribute nothing to your happiness, I am sure it would not to mine. If you feel yourself in any degree bound to me, I am now willing to release you, provided you wish it ; while, on the other hand, I am willing and even anxious to bind you faster, if I can be convinced that it will, in any considerable degree, add to your happiness. This, indeed, is the whole question with me. Nothing would make me more miserable than to believe you miserable — nothing more happy than to know you were so." Miss Owens had enough discernment to recognize the dis- interestedness of this love-making, and she refused Mr. Lin- coln's offer. She found him "deficient in those little links which make up the chain of a woman's happiness," she said. When finally refused Lincoln wrote the letter to Mrs. Brown- ing from which the above citations have been taken. He con- cluded it with an account of the effect on himself of Miss Owens' refusal: " I was mortified, it seemed to me, in a hundred different ways. My vanity was deeply wounded by the reflection that BEGINS TO STUDY LAW 153 I had so long been too stupid to discover her intentions, and at the same time never doubting that I understood them per- fectly; and also that she, whom I had taught myself to be- lieve nobody else would have, had actually rejected me with all my fancied greatness. And, to cap the whole, I then for the first time began to suspect that I was really a little in love with her. But let it all go ! I'll try and outlive it. Others have been made fools of by the girls, but this can never with truth be said of me. I most emphatically, in this instance, made a fool of myself. I have now come to the conclusion never again to think of marrying, and for this reason — I can never be satisfied with any one who would be blockhead enough to have me." The skill, the courage, and the good-will Lincoln had shown in his management of the bill for the removal of the capital gave him at once a position in Springfield. The entire "Long Nine," indeed, were regarded by the county as its benefactors, and throughout the summer there were barbe- cues and fireworks, dinners and speeches in their honor. "The service rendered Old Sangamon by the present delegation" was a continually recurring toast at every gathering. At one "sumptuous dinner" the internal improvement scheme in all its phases was toasted again and again by the banqueters. " The Long Nine' of Old Sangamon — well done, good and faithful servants," drew forth long applause. Among those who offered volunteer toasts at this dinner were "A. Lincoln, Esq.," and "S. A. Douglas, Esq." At a dinner at Athens, given to the delegation, eight for- mal toasts and twenty-five volunteers are quoted in the re- port of the affair in the "Sangamon Journal." Among them were the following : A. Lincoln. He has fulfilled the expectations of his triends and disappointed the hopes of his enemies. A. Lincoln. One of nature's noblemen. By A. Lincoln. Sangamon County will ever be true to her BEGINS TO STUDY LAW 155 best interests, and never more so than in reciprocating the good feelings of the citizens of Athens and neighborhood. Lincoln had not been long in Springfield before he was able to support himself from his law practice, a result due, no doubt, very largely to his personal qualities and to his repu- tation as a shrewd politician. Not that he made money. The fee-book of Lincoln and Stuart shows that the returns were modest enough, and that sometimes they even "traded out" their account. Nevertheless it was a satisfaction to earn a livelihood so soon. Of his peculiar methods as a lawyer at this date we know very little. Most of his cases are utterly uninteresting. The very first year he was in Springfield, however, he had one case which created a sensation, and which is an admirable example of the way he could combine business and politics as well as of his merciless persistency in pursuing a man whom he believed unjust. It seems that among the offices to be filled at the August election of 1837 was that of probate justice of the peace. One of the candidates was General James Adams, a man who had come on from the East in the early twenties, and who had at first claimed to be a lawyer. He had been an aspirant for various offices, among them that of governor of the State, but with little success. A few days before the August elec- tion of 1837 an anonymous hand-bill was scattered about the streets. It was an attack on General Adams, charging him with having acquired the title to a ten-acre lot of ground near the town by the deliberate forgery of the name of Joseph An- derson, of Fulton County, Illinois, to an assignment of a judgment. Anderson had died, and his widow, going to Springfield to dispose of the land, had been surprised to find that it was claimed by General Adams. She had employed Stuart and Lincoln to look into the matter. The hand-bill, which went into all of the details at great length, concluded as follows: "I have only made these statements because I 156 LIFE OF LINCOLN am known by many to be one of the individuals against whom the charge of forging the assignment and slipping it into the general's papers has been made; and because our si- lence might be construed into a confession of the truth. I shall not subscribe my name ; but hereby authorize the editor of the 'Journal' to give it up to any one who may call for it." After the election, at which General Adams was successful, the hand-bill was reproduced in the "Sangamon Journal," with a card signed by the editor, in which he said : "To save any further remarks on this subject, I now state that A. Lin- coln, Esq., is the author of the hand-bill in question." The same issue of the paper contained a lengthy communication from General Adams, denying the charge of fraud. The controversy was continued for several weeks in the newspapers, General Adams often filling six columns of a single issue of the "Springfield Republican." He charged that the assault upon him was the result of a conspiracy between "a knot of lawyers, doctors, and others," who wished to ruin his reputation. Lincoln's answers to Adams are most emphatic. In one case, quoting several of his assertions, he pronounced them "all as false as hell, as all this community must know." Adams's replies were al- ways voluminous. "Such is the turn which things have lately taken," wrote Lincoln, "that when General Adams writes a book I am expected to write a commentary on it." Replying to Adams's denunciation of the lawyers, he said: "He at- tempted to impose himself upon the community as a lawyer, and he actually carried the attempt so far as to induce a man who was under the charge of murder to entrust the defence of his life to his hands, and finally took his money and got him hanged. Is this the man that is to raise a breeze in his favor by abusing lawyers ? . . . If he is not a lawyer, he is a liar; for he proclaimed himself a lawyer, and got a man hanged by depending on him." Lincoln concluded: BEGINS TO STUDY LAW 157 "Farewell, General. I will see you again at court, if not be- fore — when and where we will settle the question whether you or the widow shall have the land." The widow did get the land, but this was not the worst thing that happened to Adams. The climax was reached when the " Sangamon Jour- nal" published a long editorial (written by Lincoln, no doubt) on the controversy, and followed it with a copy of an indictment found against Adams in Oswego County, New York, in 1818. The offence charged in this indictment was the forgery of a deed by Adams — "a person of evil name and fame and of a wicked disposition." Lincoln's victory in this controversy undoubtedly did much to impress the community, not necessarily that he was a good lawyer, but rather that he was a clever strategist and a fearless enemy. It was not, in fact, as a lawyer that he was prominent in the first years after he came to Springfield. It was as a politician. The place he had taken among the lead- ers of the Whig party in the winter of 1836 and 1837 he easily kept. The qualities which he had shown from the out- start of his public life were only strengthened as he gained experience and self-confidence. He was the terror of the pre- tentious and insincere, and had a way of exposing their shams by clever tricks which were unanswerable arguments. Thus, it was considered necessary, at that day, by a candi- date to prove to the farmers that he was poor and, like them- selves, horny-handed. Those politicians who wore good clothes and dined sumptuously were careful to conceal their regard for the elegancies of life from their constituents. One of the Democrats who in this period took particu- lar pains to decry the Whigs for their wealth and aristocratic principles was Colonel Dick Taylor, gen- erally known in Illinois as "rufrled-shirt Taylor." He was a vain and handsome man, who habitually ar- rayed himself as gorgeously as the fashion allowed 158 LIFE OP LINCOLN One day when he and Lincoln had met in debate at a coun- tryside gathering, Colonel Dick became particularly bitter in his condemnation of Whig elegance. Lincoln listened for a time, and then, slipping near the speaker, suddenly caught his coat, which was buttoned up close, and tore it open. A mass of ruffled shirt, a gorgeous velvet vest, and a great gold chain from which dangled numerous rings and seals, were uncovered to the crowd. Lincoln needed to make no further reply tnat day to the charge of being a "rag baron." Lincoln loved fair play as he hated shams ; and through- out these early years in Springfield boldly insisted that friend and enemy have the chance due them. A dram- atic case of this kind occurred at a political meeting held one evening in the Springfield court-room, which at that date was temporarily in a hall under Stuart and Lin- coln's law office. Directly over the platform was a trap-door. Lincoln frequently would lie by this opening during a meet- ing, listening to the speeches. One evening one of his friends, E. D. Baker, in speaking angered the crowd, and an attempt was made to "pull him down." Before the assailants could reach the platform, however, a pair of long legs dangled from the trap-door, and in an instant Lincoln dropped down beside Baker, crying out, "Hold on, gentle- men, this is a land of free speech." His appearance was so unexpected, and his attitude so determined, that the crowd soon was quiet, and Baker went on with his speech. • Lincoln did not take a prominent place in his party because the Whigs lacked material. He had powerful rivals. Edward Dickinson Baker, Colonel John J. Har- din, John T. Stuart, Ninian W. Edwards, Jesse K. Dubois, O. H. Browning, were but a few of the brilliant men who were throwing all their ability and ambition into the contest for political honors in the State. Nor were the Whigs a whit superior to the Democrats. William L. D. Ew- BEGINS TO STUDY LAW 1 59 ing, Ebenezer Peck, William Thomas, James Shields, John Calhoun, were in every respect as able as the best men of the Whig party. Indeed, one of the prominent Democrats with whom Lincoln came often in contact, was popularly regarded as the most brilliant and promising politician of the State — Stephen A. Douglas. His record had been phenomenal. He had amazed both parties, in 1834, by securing the appoint- ment by the legislature to the office of State Attorney for the first judicial circuit, over John J. Hardin. In 1836 he had been elected to the legislature, and although he was at that time but twenty-three years of age, he had shown himself one of the most vigorous, capable, and intelligent members. In- deed, Douglas's work in the Tenth Assembly gave him about the same position in the Democratic party of the State at large that Lincoln's work in the same body gave him in the Whig party of his own district. In 1837 he had had no diffi- culty in being appointed register of the land office, a position which compelled him to make his home in Springfield. It was only a few months after Lincoln rode into town, all his earthly possessions in a pair of saddle-bags, that Douglas ap- peared. Handsome, polished, and always with an air of pros- perity, the advent of the young Democratic official was in striking contrast to that of the sad-eyed, ill-clad, poverty- stricken young lawyer from New Salem. From the first, Lincoln and Douglas were thrown con- stantly together in the social life of the town, and often pitted against each other in what were the real forums of the State at that day — the space around the huge "Franklin" stove of some obliging store-keeper, the steps of somebody's law office, a pile of lumber, or a long timber, lying in the pub- lic square, where the new State-house was going up. In the fall of 1837 Douglas was nominated for Congress on the Democratic ticket. His Whig opponent was Lincoln's law partner, John T. Stuart. The campaign which the two IOO LIFE OF LINCOLN conducted was one of the most remarkable in the history of the State. For five months of the spring and summer of 1838 they rode together from town to town all over the northern part of Illinois (Illinois at that time was divided into but three congressional districts ; the third, in which Sangamon county was included, being made up of the twenty-two north- ernmost counties) , speaking six days out of seven. When the election came off in August, 1838, out of thirty-six thousand votes cast, Stuart received a majority of only fourteen ; but even that majority the Democrats always contended was won unfairly. The campaign was watched with intense interest by the young politicians of Springfield; no one of them felt a deeper interest in it than Lincoln, who was himself a candi- date for the State legislature, and who was spending a great deal of his time in electioneering. As the campaign of 1840 approached Lincoln was more and more frequently pitted against Douglas. He had by this time no doubt learned something of the power of the ' 'Little Giant," as Douglas was already called. Certainly no man in public life between 1837 and i860 had a greater hold on his followers. The reasons for this grasp are not hard to find. Douglas was by nature buoyant, enthusiastic, impetuous. He had that sunny boyishness which is so irresistible to young and old. With it he had great natural eloquence. When his deep, rich voice rolled out fervid periods in support of the sub-treasury and the convention system, or in opposition to internal improvements by the federal government, the people applauded out of sheer joy at the pleasure of hearing him. He was one of the few men in Illinois whom the epithet of "Yankee" never hurt. He might be a Yankee, but when he sat down on the knee of some surly lawyer, and confidentially told him his plans ; or, at a political meeting, took off his coat, BEGINS TO STUDY LAW 161 and rolled up his sleeves, and "pitched into" his opponent, the sons of Illinois forgot his origin in love for the man. Lincoln undoubtedly understood the charm of Douglas, and realized his power. But he already had an insight into one of his political characteristics that few people recognized at that day. In writing to Stuart in 1839, while the latter was attending Congress, Lincoln said: "Douglas has not been here since you left. A report is in circulation here now thai he has abandoned the idea of going to Washington, though the report does not come in a very authentic form, so far as I can learn. Though, by the way, speaking of authen- ticity, you know that if we had heard Douglas say that he had abandoned the contest, it would not be very authentic." At that time the local issues, which had formerly engaged Illinois candidates almost entirely, were lost sight of in na- tional questions. In Springfield, where the leaders of both parties were living, many hot debates were held in private. Out of these grew, in December, 1839, a series of public discussions, extending over eight evenings, and in which several of the first orators of the State took part. Lincoln was the last man on the list. The people were nearly worn out before his turn came, and his audience was small. He began his speech with some melancholy, self-deprecatory reflections, complaining that the small audience cast a damp upon his spirits which he was sure he would be unable to overcome during the evening. He did better than he ex- pected, overcoming the damp on his spirits so effectually that he made what was regarded as the best speech of the series. By a general request, it was printed for distribution. The speech is peculiarly interesting from the fact that while there is a little of the perfervid eloquence of 1840 in it, as well as a good deal of the rather boisterous humor of the time, a part of '.1 is devoted to a careful examination of the statements of (») 1 62 LIFE OF LINCOLN his opponents, and a refutation of them by means of public documents. As a good Democrat was expected to do, Douglas had ex- plained with plausibility why the Van Buren administration had in 1838 spent $40,000,000. Lincoln takes up his state- ments one by one, and proves, as he says, that "the majority of them are wholly untrue." Douglas had attributed a part of the expenditures to the purchase of public lands from the Indians. "Now it happens," said Lincoln, "that no such purchase was made during that year. It is true that some money was paid that year in pursuance of Indian treaties; but no more, or rather not as much as had been paid on the same account in each of several preceding years Again, Mr. Douglas says that the removal of the Indians to the country west of the Mississippi created much of the expendi- ture of 1838. I have examined the public documents in rela- tion to this matter, and find that less was paid for the re- moval of Indians in that than in some former years. The whole sum expended on that account in that year did not much exceed one quarter of a million. For this small sum, although we do not think the administration entitled to credit, because large sums have been expended in the same way in former years, we consent it may take one and make the most of it. "Next, Mr. Douglas says that five millions of the expendi- tures of 1838 consisted of the payment of the French in- demnity money to its individual claimants. I have carefully examined the public documents, and thereby find this state- ment to be wholly untrue. Of the forty millions of dollars expended in 1838, I am enabled to say positively that not one dollar consisted of payments on the French indemnities. So much for that excuse. "Next comes the Post-office. He says that five millions were expended during that year to sustain that department. By a like examination of public documents, I find this also wholly untrue. Of the so often mentioned forty millions, not one dollar went to the Post-office. . . . BEGINS TO STUDY LAW 1 63 "I return to another of Mr. Douglas's excuses for the ex- penditures of 1838, at the same time announcing the pleas- ing intelligence that this is the last one. He says that ten mil- lions of that year's expenditure was a contingent appropria- tion, to prosecute an anticipated war with Great Britain on the Maine boundary question. Few words will settle this. First, that the ten millions appropriated was not made till 1839, and consequently could not have been expended in 1838; second, although it was appropriated, it has never been expended at all. Those who heard Mr. Douglas recollect that he indulged himself in a contemptuous expression of pity for me. 'Now he's got me/ thought I. But when he went on to say that five millions of the expenditure of 1838 were payments of the French indemnities, which I knew to be untrue; that five millions had been for the Post-office, which I knew to be untrue ; that ten millions had been for the Maine boundary war, which I not only knew to be untrue, but supremely ridiculous also ; and when I saw that he was stupid enough to hope that I would permit such groundless and audacious assertions to go unexposed, — I readily con- sented that, on the score both of veracity and sagacity, the audience should judge whether he or I were the more de- serving of the world's contempt." These citations show that Lincoln had already learned to handle public documents, and to depend for at least a part of his success with an audience upon a careful statement of facts. The methods used in at least a portion of this speech are exactly those which made the irresistible strength of his speeches in 1858, 1859, and i860. But there was little of as good work done in the campaign of 1840, by Lincoln or anybody else, as is found in this speech. It was a campaign of fun and noise, and nowhere more so than in Illinois. Lincoln was one of the five Whig Presidential electors, and he flung himself into the campaign with confidence. "The nomination of Harrison takes first rate," he wrote to his partner Stuart, then in Washington. "You know I am never sanguine, but I believe we will carry 1 64 LIFE OF LINCOLN the State. The chance of doing so appears to me twenty-five per cent, better than it did for you to beat Douglas." The Whigs, in spite of their dislike of the convention system, or- ganized as they never had before, and even sent out a "confi- dential" circular of which Lincoln was the author. This circular provided for a remarkably complete organi- zation of the State, as the following extracts will show : After due deliberation, the following is the plan of or- ganization, and the duties required of each county commit- tee: ( 1 ) To divide their county into small districts, and to ap- point in each a subcommittee, whose duty it shall be to make a perfect list of all the voters in their respective districts, and to ascertain with certainty for whom they will vote. If they meet with men who are doubtful as to the man they will sup- port, such voters should be designated in separate lines, with the name of the man they will probably support. (2) It will be the duty of said subcommittee to keep a constant watch on the doubtful voters, and from time to time have them talked to by those in whom they have the most confidence, and also to place in their hands such documents as will enlighten and influence them. (5) On the first of each month hereafter we shall expect to hear from you. After the first report of your subcommit- tees, unless there should be found a great many doubtful voters, you can tell pretty accurately the manner in which your county will vote. In each of your letters to us, you will state the number of certain votes both for and against us, as well as the number of doubtful votes, with your opinion of the manner in which they will be cast. (6) When we have heard from all the counties, we shall be able to tell with similar accuracy the political complexion of the State. This information will be forwarded to you as soon as received. Every weapon Lincoln thought of possible use in the con- test he secured. "Be sure to send me as many copies of the BEGINS TO STUDY LAW 165 'Life of Harrison' as you can spare from other uses," he wrote Stuart. "Be very sure to procure and send me the 'Senate Journal' of New York, of September, 1814. I have a newspaper article which says that that document proves that Van Buren voted against raising troops in the last war. And, in general, send me everything you think will be a good 'war-club.' " Every sign of success he quoted to Stuart ; the number of subscribers to the "Old Soldier," a campaign newspaper which the Whig committee had informed the Whigs of the State that they "must take/' the names of Van Buren men who were weakening, and to whom he wanted Stuart to send documents; the name of every theretofore doubtful person who had declared himself for Harrison. "Japh Bell has come out for Harrison," he put in a postscript to one letter; "ain't that a caution ?" The monster political meetings held throughout the State did much to widen Lincoln's reputation, particularly one held in June in Springfield. Twenty thousand people attended this meeting, delegations coming from every direction. It took fourteen teams to haul the delegation from Chicago, and they were three weeks on their journey. Each party carried some huge symbolic piece — the log cabin being the favorite. One of the cabins taken to Springfield was drawn by thirty yokes of oxen. In a hickory tree which was planted beside this cabin, coons were seen playing, and a barrel of hard cider stood by the door, continually on tap. Instead of a log cabin, the Chicago delegation dragged across country a govern- ment yawl rigged up as a two-masted ship, with a band of music and a six-pounder cannon on board. There are many reminiscences of this great celebration, and Lincoln's part in it, still afloat in Illinois. General T. J. Henderson writes, in his entertaining reminiscences of Lin- coln: 1 66 LIFE OF LINCOLN "The first time I remember to have seen Abraham Lincoln was during the memorable campaign of 1840, when I was a boy fifteen years of age. It was at an immense Whig mass- meeting held at Springfield, Illinois, in the month of June of that year. The Whigs attended this meeting from all parts of the State in large numbers, and it was estimated that from forty to fifty thousand people were present. They came in carriages and wagons, on horseback and on foot. They came with log cabins drawn on wheels by oxen, and with coons, coon-skins, and hard cider. They came with music and ban- ners; and thousands of them came from long distances. It was the first political meeting I had ever attended, and it made a very strong impression upon my youthful mind. "My father, William H. Henderson, then a resident of Stark county, Illinois, was an ardent Whig; and having served under General William Henry Harrison, the then Whig candidate for President, in the war of 181 2-1 81 5, he felt a deep interest in his election. And although he lived about a hundred miles from Springfield, he went with a dele- gation from Stark county to this political meeting, and took me along with him. I remember that at this great meeting of the supporters of Harrison and Tyler there were a number of able and distinguished speakers of the Whig party of the State of Illinois present. Among them were Colonel E. D. Baker, who was killed at Ball's Bluff, on the Potomac, in the late war, and who was one of the most eloquent speakers in the State ; Colonel John J. Hardin, who was killed at the bat- tle of Buena Vista, in the Mexican war; Fletcher Webster, a son of Daniel Webster, who was killed in the late war; S. Leslie Smith, a brilliant orator of Chicago ; Rev. John Ho- gan, Ben Bond, and Abraham Lincoln. I heard all of these men speak on that occasion. And while I was too young to be a judge of their speeches, yet I thought them all to be great men, and none of them greater than Abraham Lin- coln." The late Judge Scott of Illinois says of Lincoln's speech at that gathering, in an unpublished paper "Lincoln on the Stump and at the Bar" : "Mr. Lincoln stood in a wagon, from which he addressed BEGINS TO STUDY LAW 1 67 the mass of people that surrounded it. The meeting was one of unusual interest because of him who was to make the prin- cipal address. It was at the time of his greatest physical strength. He was tall, and perhaps a little more slender than in later life, and more homely than after he became stouter in person. He was then only thirty-one years of age, and yet he was regarded as one of the ablest of the Whig speakers in that campaign. There was that in him that attracted and held public attention. Even then he was the subject of popu- lar regard because of his candid and simple mode of discuss- ing and illustrating political questions. At times he was in- tensely logical, and was always most convincing in his argu- ments. The questions involved in that canvass had relation to the tariff, internal public improvements by the federal gov- ernment, the distribution of the proceeds of the sales of pub- lic lands among the several States, and other questions that divided the political parties of that day. They were not such questions as enlisted and engaged his best thoughts ; they did not take hold of his great nature, and had no tendency to de- velop it. At times he discussed the questions of the time in a logical way, but much time was devoted to telling stories to illustrate some phase of his argument, though more often the telling of these stories was resorted to for the purpose of rendering his opponents ridiculous. That was a style of speaking much appreciated at that early day. In that kind of oratory he excelled most of his contemporaries — indeed, he had no equal in the State. One story he told on that occa- sion was full of salient points, and well illustrated the argu- ment he was making. It was not an impure story, yet it was not one it would be seemly to publish; but rendered, as it was, in his inimitable way, it contained nothing that was of- fensive to a refined taste. The same story might have been told by another in such a way that it would probably have been regarded as transcending the proprieties of popular ad- dress. One characterizing feature of all the stories told by Mr. Lincoln, on the stump and elsewhere, was that although the subject matter of some of them might not have been en- tirely unobjectionable, yet the manner of telling them was so peculiarly his own that they gave no offence even to refined and cultured people. On the contrary* they were much en- 168 LIFE OP LINCOLN joyed. The story he told on this occasion was much liked by the vast assembly that surrounded the temporary platform from which he spoke, and was received with loud bursts of laughter and applause. It served to place the opposing party and its speakers in a most ludicrous position in respect to the question being considered, and gave him a most favorable hearing for the arguments he later made in support of the measures he was sustaining." Although so active as a Whig politician Lincoln was not prominent at this period as a legislator. Few bills originated with him. Among these few one of interest is the Illinois law requiring the examination of school teachers as to their qualifications, and providing for the granting of offi- cial certificates of authority to teach. In the pioneer days, any person whom circumstances forced into the business was permitted to teach. On December 2, 1840, Lincoln offered the following resolution in the Illinois House of Representa- tives : "Resolved, That the committee on education be instructed to inquire into the expediency of providing by law for the examination as to the qualification of persons offering them- selves as school teachers, that no teacher shall receive any part of the public school fund who shall not have success- fully passed such examination, and that they report by bill or otherwise." A motion to table this resolution was defeated. Within the ensuing three months the legislature passed "an act mak- ing provision for organizing and maintaining common schools" — the act which was the foundation of the common school system of Illinois. Section 81 of this act, providing for the qualification of teachers embodied Lincoln's idea. This section made it the duty of the school trustees in every township "to examine any person proposing to teach school in their vicinity in relation to the qualifications of such per- son as a teacher*" or they might appoint a board of commis- BEGINS TO STUDY LAW 169 sioners to conduct the examination ; and a certificate of quali- fication was to be issued by a majority of the trustees or com- missioners. Since then, of course, all the States have passed laws providing for the examination of teachers. In Illinois, no material change has been made in Lincoln's plan (for this section of the law was very likely drawn by Lincoln), ex- cept that the power of examination has been transferred from the trustees or commissioners to the county superin- tendent of schools an office then unknown. S. T. LOGAN & E. D. BAKER, Attorneys and Counsellors at Lawt* WILL practice, in conjunction, in tbeCir- Courtsof this Judicial District, an* n the Circuit Courts of the Counties of Pike, Schuyler and Peoria* Springfield, march, 1837. 8)-t J. T. STUART AND A. LINCOLN. ATTORNE VS and Counsellors at Law, will practice-, conjointly, in the Courts of this Judicial Circuit*— Office No. 4 Hoffman's Rew,'up stairs. Sprin gfield, aprill2, 1837. ' 4 , THE partnership heretofore existing between the un J dersigned, has been dissolved by mutual consent.—? TheTjusiixess will be found in the hands of John T. Siuatt. JOHN T. STUART, AprU12,1837. 84 HENRY E. DUMMER. STUART AND LINCOLN S PROFESSIONAL CARD. CHAPTER XI Lincoln's engagement to mary todd — breaking of the engagement lincoln-shields duel Busy as Lincoln was with law and politics the first three years after he reached Springfield, he did not by any means fail to identify himself with the interests of the town and of its people. In all the intellectual life of the place he took his part. In the fall of 1837 with a few of the leading young men he formed a young men's lyceum. One of the very few of his early speeches which has been preserved was de- livered before this body, its subject being the Perpetuation of our Political Institutions. At the request of the mem- bers of the Lyceum this address was published in the "San- gamon Journal" for February 3, 1838. The most pleasing feature of his early life in the town was the way in which he attracted all classes of people to him. He naturally, from his political importance and from his relation to Mr. Stuart, was admitted to the best society. But Lincoln was not received there from tolerance of his position only. The few members left of that interesting circle of Springfield in the thirties are emphatic in their statements that he was recognized as a valuable social factor. If indifferent to forms and little accustomed to conventional usages, he had a native dignity and self-respect which stamped him at once as a su- perior man. He had a good will, an easy adaptability to peo- ple, which made him take a hand in everything that went on. His name appears in every list of banqueters and merry- makers reported in the Springfield papers. He even served as committeeman for cotillion parties- " We liked Lincoln 170 HIS MARRIAGE ENGAGEMENT <7! though he was not gay," said one charming and cultivated old lady to me in Springfield. "He rarely danced, he was never very attentive to ladies, but he was always a welcome guest everywhere, and the centre of a circle of animated rfj**»*4«^ S^aa fi>&a of uem ^oTtiAa.- ivu id le^uU^u^u. jfikcUed at a ffolMuon, &aAtu t to ve, aouett, at t&A a |^merteftn fs^ou**,' on to=motoow cvetUn* at 7 c'c&cd, &. <4(. December 1 6th, f839 N. N. RlOCELV, ». r. speed. 4. A. M'tLCHMANO. J. SHIELDS, R. ALLEN. E. D. TAYLOR* M. H. WASH, C. M. KCRRYNAM, r. W. T01D. N. C. WHITESIDE, e. A. SOU CLASS. M. CASTHAM. W. S. T RENT ICE, J. R. DlLLCK. H. m. COWAR05, A. LINCOLN, Managers. fACSIMILE OP INVITATION TO A SPRINGFIELD COTHiUON PARTY- From the collection of Mr. C. F. Gunther, Chicago. talkers. Indeed, I think the only thing we girls had against Lincoln was that he always attracted all the men around him." Lincoln's kindly interest and perfectly democratic feeling attached to him many people whom he never met save on the 172 LIFE OF LINCOLN streets. Indeed his life in the streets of Springfield is a most touching and delightful study. He concerned himself in the progress of every building which was put up, of every new street which was opened; he passed nobody without recog- nition ; he seemed always to have time to stop and talk. He became, in fact, part of Springfield street life, just as he did of the town's politics and society. In 1840 Lincoln became engaged to be married to one of the favorite young women of Springfield, Miss Mary Todd, the sister-in-law of one of his political friends, a member of the "Long Nine" and a prominent citizen, Ninian W. Ed- wards. Miss Todd came from a well-known family of Lexington, Kentucky; her father, Robert S. Todd, being one of the leading citizens of his State. She had come to Springfield in 1839 to live with her sister, Mrs. Edwards. She was a brilliant, witty, highly-educated girl, ambitious and spirited, with a touch of audacity which only made her more attrac- tive, and she at once took a leading position in Springfield society. There were many young unmarried men in the town, drawn there by politics, and Mr. Edwards's handsome home was opened to them in the. hospitable Southern way. After Mary Todd became an inmate of the Edwards house, the place was gayer than ever. She received much attention from Douglas, Shields, Lincoln, and several others. It was soon apparent, however, that Miss Todd preferred Lincoln. As the intimacy between them increased, Mr. and Mrs. Ed- wards protested. However honorable and able a man Lin- coln might be, he was still a "plebeian.' 5 His family were humble and poor; he was self-educated, without address or polish, careless of forms, indifferent to society. How could Mary Todd, brought up in a cultured home, accustomed to the refinements of life, ambitious for social position, accom- modate herself to so grave a nature, so dull an exterior? HIS MARRIAGE ENGAGEMENT 1 73 Miss Todd knew her own mind, however. She loved Lin- coln, and seems to have believed from the first in his future. Some time in 1840 they became engaged. But it was not long before there came the clashing in- evitable between two persons whose tastes and ambitions were so different. Miss Todd was jealous and exacting; Lincoln thoughtless and inattentive. He frequently failed to accompany her to the merry-makings which she wanted to attend and she, naturally enough, resented his neglect interpreting it as a purposed slight. Sometimes in revenge she went with Mr. Douglas or some other escort who of- fered. Reproaches and tears and misunderstandings fol- lowed. If the lovers made up, it was only to fall out again. At last Lincoln became convinced that they were incompati- ble, and resolved that he must break the engagement. But the knowledge that the girl loved him took away his cour- age. He felt that he must not draw back, and he became pro- foundly miserable. "Whatever woman may cast her lot with mine, should any ever dc so, it is my intention to do all in my power to make her happy and contented ; and there is nothing I can imagine that would make me more unhappy than to fail in the ef- fort," Lincoln had written Miss Owens three years before. How could he make this brilliant, passionate creature to whom he was betrothed happy? A mortal dread of the result of the marriage, a harrow- ing doubt of his own feelings, possessed him. The experience is not so rare in the history of lovers that it should be re- garded, as it often has been, as something exceptional and abnormal in Lincoln's case. A reflective nature founded in melancholy, like Lincoln's, rarely undertakes even the sim- pler affairs of life without misgivings. He certainly experi- enced dread and doubt before entering on any new relation. When it came to forming the most delicate and intimate of 174 LIFE OF LINCOLN all human relations, he staggered under a burden of uncer- tainty and suffering and finally broke the engagement. So horrible a breach of honor did this seem to him that he called the day when it occurred the "fatal first of January, 1 841," and months afterward he wrote to his intimate friend Speed: "I must regain my confidence in my own ability to keep my resolves when they are made. In that ability I once prided myself as the only or chief gem of my character ; that gem I lost — how and where you know too well. I have not yet regained it, and, until I do, I cannot trust myself in any matter of much importance." The breaking of the engagement between Miss Todd and Mr. Lincoln was known at the time to all their friends. Lin- coln's melancholy was evident to them all, nor did he, in- deed, attempt to disguise it. He wrote and spoke freely to his intimates of the despair which possessed him, and of his sense of dishonor. The episode caused a great amount of gossip, as was to be expected. After Mr. Lincoln's assassi- nation and Mrs. Lincoln's sad death, various accounts of the courtship and marriage were circulated. It remained, however, for one of Lincoln's law partners, Mr. W. H. Herndon, to develop and circulate the most sensational of all the versions of the rupture. According to Mr. Herndon, the engagement between the two was broken in the most violent and public way possible, by Mr. Lincoln's failing to appear at the wedding. Mr. Herndon even describes the scene in detail : "The time fixed for the marriage was the first day of Janu- ary, 1 84 1. Careful preparations for the happy occasion were made at the Edwards mansion. The house underwent the customary renovation ; the furniture was properly arranged, the rooms neatly decorated, the supper prepared, and the guests invited. The latter assembled on the evening in ques- tion, and awaited in expectant pleasure the interesting cere- mony of marriage. The bride, bedecked in veil and silken HIS MARRIAGE ENGAGEMENT 1 75 gown, and nervously toying with the flowers in her hair, sat in the adjoining room. Nothing was lacking but the groom. For some strange reason he had been delayed. An hour passed, and the guests, as well as the bride, were becoming restless. But they were all doomed to disappointment. An- other hour passed ; messengers were sent out over town, and each returning with the same report, it became apparent that Lincoln, the principal in this little drama, had purposely failed to appear. The bride, in grief, disappeared to her room; the wedding supper was left untouched; the guests quietly and wonderingly withdrew; the lights in the Ed- wards mansion were blown out, and darkness settled over all for the night. What the feelings of a lady as sensitive, pas- sionate, and proud as Miss Todd were, we can only imagine ; no one can ever describe them. By daybreak, after persistent search, Lincoln's friends found him. Restless, gloomy, miserable, desperate, he seemed an object of pity. His friends, Speed among the number, fearing a tragic termina- tion, watched him closely in their rooms day and night. 'Knives and razors, and every instrument that could be used for self-destruction, were removed from his reach/ Mrs. Edwards did not hesitate to regard him as insane, and of course her sister Mary shared in that view." No one can read this description in connection with the rest of Mr. Herndon's text, and escape the impression that, if it is true, there must have been a vein of cowardice in Lincoln. The context shows that he was not insane enough to excuse such a public insult to a woman. To break his en- gagement was, all things considered, not an unusual or ab- normal thing; to brood over the rupture, to blame himself, to feel that he had been dishonorable, was to be expected, after such an act, from one of his temperament. Nothing, however, but temporary insanity or constitutional cowardice could explain such conduct as here described. Mr. Herndon does not pretend to found his story on any personal knowl- edge of the affair. He was in Springfield at the time, a clerk in Speed's store, but did not have then, nor, indeed, did he 1 7* LIFE OF LINCOLN ever have, any social relations with the families in which Mr. Lincoln was always a welcome guest. His authority for the story is a remark which he says Mrs. Ninian Ed- wards made to him in an interview: "Lincoln and Mary were engaged; everything was ready and prepared for the marriage, even to the supper. Mr. Lincoln failed to meet his engagement; cause, insanity." This remark, it should be noted, is not from a manuscript written by Mrs. Edwards, but in a report of an interview with her, written by Mr. Herndon. Supposing, however, that the statement was made exactly as Mr. Herndon reports it, it certainly does not justify any such sensational description as Mr. Herndon gives. If such a thing had ever occurred, it could not have failed to be known, of course, even to its smallest details, by all the relatives and friends of both Miss Todd and Mr. Lincoln. Nobody, however, ever heard of this wedding party until Mr. Herndon gave his material to the public. One of the closest friends of the Lincolns throughout their lives was a cousin of Mrs. Lincoln's, Mrs. Grimsley, after- wards Mrs. Dr. Brown. Mrs. Grimsley lived in Springfield, on the most intimate and friendly relations with Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln, and the first six months of their life in the White House she spent with them. She was a woman of un- usual culture, and of the rarest sweetness and graciousness of character. Some months before Mrs. Brown's death, in August, 1895, a copy of Mr. Herndon's story was sent her, with a request that she write for publication her knowledge of the affair. In her reply she said : "Did Mr. Lincoln fail to appear when the invitations were out, the guests invited, and the supper ready for the wed- ding? I will say emphatically, 'No.' "There may have been a little shadow of foundation for Mr. Herndon's lively imagination to play upon, in that, the year previous to the marriage, and when Mr. Lincoln and HIS MARRIAGE ENGAGEMENT 1 77 my cousin Mary expected soon to be married, Mr. Lincoln was taken with one of those fearful, overwhelming periods of depression, which induced his friends to persuade him to leave Springfield. This he did for a time ; but I am satisfied he was loyal and true to Mary, even though at times he may have doubted whether he was responding as fully as a manly, generous nature should to such affection as he knew my cousin was ready to bestow on him. And this because it had not the overmastering depth of an early love. This every- body here knows ; therefore I do not feel as if I were betray* ing dear friends." Mrs. John Stuart, the wife of Lincoln's law partner at that time, is still living in Springfield, a refined, cultivated, intelligent woman, who remembers perfectly the life and events of that day. When Mr. Herndon's story first came to her attention, her indignation was intense. She protested that she never before had heard of such a thing. Mrs. Stuart was not, however, in 'Springfield at that particular date, but in Washington, her husband being a member of Congress. She wrote the following statement for this biography : "I cannot deny this, as I was not in Springfield for some months before and after this occurrence was said to have taken place ; but I was in close correspondence with relatives and friends during all this time, and never heard a word of it. The late Judge Broadwell told me that he had asked Mr. Ninian Edwards about it, and Mr. Edwards told him that no such thing had ever taken place. "All I can say is that I unhesitatingly do not believe such an event ever occurred. I thought I had never heard of this till I saw it in Herndon's book. I have since been told that Lamon mentions the same thing. I read Lamon at the time he published, and felt very much disgusted, but did not remember this particular assertion. The first chapters of Lamon' s book were purchased from Herndon; so Herndon is responsible for the whole. "Mrs. Lincoln told me herself all the circumstances of her engagement to Mr. Lincoln, of his illness, and the breaking (12) I ?8 LIFE OF LINCOLN off of her engagement, of the renewal, and her marriage. So I say I do not believe one word of this dishonorable story about Mr. Lincoln." Another prominent member in the same circle with Mr. Lincoln and Miss Todd is Mrs. B. T. Edwards, the widow of Judge Benjamin T. Edwards, the sister-in-law of Mr. Ninian Edwards, who had married Miss Todd's sister. She came to Springfield in 1839, an d was intimately acquainted with Mr. Lincoln and Miss Todd, and knew, as well as an- other could know, their affairs. Mrs. Edwards is still living in Springfield, a woman of the most perfect refinement and trustworthiness. In answer to the question, "Is Mr. Hern- don's description true?" she writes: "I am impatient to tell you that all that he says about this wedding — the time for which was 'fixed for the first day of January' — is a fabrication. He has drawn largely upon his imagination in describing something which never took place. "I know the engagement between Mr. Lincoln and Miss Todd was interrupted for a time, and it was rumored among her young friends that Mr. Edwards had rather opposed it. But I am sure there had been no 'time fixed' for any wed- ding; that is, no preparations had ever been made until the day that Mr. Lincoln met Mr. Edwards on the street and told him that he and Mary were going to be married that even- ing. Upon inquiry, Mr. Lincoln said they would be married in the Episcopal church, to which Mr. Edwards replied : 'No; Mary is my ward, and she must be married at my house.' "If I remember rightly, the wedding guests were few, not more than thirty; and it seems to me all are gone now but Mrs. Wallace, Mrs. Levering, and myself, for it was not much more than a family gathering; only two or three of Mary Todd's young friends were present. The 'entertain- ment' was simple, but in beautiful taste; but the bride had neither veil nor flowers in her hair, with which to 'toy nervously.' There had been no elaborate trousseau for the bride of the future President of the United States, nor even a handsome wedding gown ; nor was it a gay wedding." HIS MARRIAGE ENGAGEMENT 179 Two sisters of Mrs. Lincoln who are still living, Mrs. Wallace of Springfield, and Mrs. Helm of Elizabethstown, Kentucky, deny emphatically that any wedding was ever ar- ranged between Mr. Lincoln and Miss Todd but the one which did take place. That the engagement was broken after a wedding had been talked of, they think possible ; but Mr. Herndon's story, they deny emphatically. "There is not a word of truth in it I" Mrs. Wallace broke out, impulsively, before the question about the non-appear- ance of Mr. Lincoln had been finished. "I never was so amazed in my life as when I read that story. Mr. Lincoln never did such a thing. Why, Mary Lincoln never had a silk dress in her life until she went to Washington." As Mr. Joshua Speed was, all through this period, Mr. Lincoln's closest friend, no thought or feeling of the one ever being concealed from the other, Mrs. Joshua Speed, who is still living in Louisville, Kentucky, was asked if she knew of the story. Mrs. Speed listened in surprise to Mr. Hern- don's tale. "I never heard of it before," she declared. "I never heard of it. If it is true, I never heard of it." While the above investigation was going on quite unex- pectedly, a volunteer witness to the falsity of the story ap- peared. The Hon. H. W. Thornton of Millersburg, Illinois, was a member of the Twelfth General Assembly, which met in Springfield in 1840. During that winter he was boarding near Lincoln, saw him almost every day, was a constant visi- tor at Mr. Edwards's house, and he knew Miss Todd well. He wrote to the author declaring that Mr. Herndon's state- ment about the wedding must be false, as he was closely asso- ciated with Miss Todd and Mr. Lincoln all winter, and never knew anything of it. Mr. Thornton went on to say that he knew beyond a doubt that the sensational account of Lin- coln's insanity was untrue, and he quoted from the House journal to show how it was impossible that, as Lamon says, 180 LIFE OF LINCOLN using Herndon's notes, "Lincoln went crazy as a loon, and did not attend the legislature in 1 841- 1842, for this rea- son;" or, as Herndon says, that he had to be watched con- stantly. According to the record taken from the journals of the House by Mr. Thornton, and which have been verified in Springfield, Mr. Lincoln was in his seat in the House on that "fatal first of January" when he is asserted to have been groping in the shadow of madness, and he was also there on the following day. The third of January was Sunday. On Monday, the fourth, he appears not to have been present — at least he did not vote; but even this is by no means con- clusive evidence that he was not there. On the fifth, and on every succeeding day until the thirteenth, he was in his seat. From the thirteenth to the eighteenth, inclusive, he is not recorded on any of the roll-calls, and probably was not pres- ent. But on the nineteenth, when "John J. Hardin announced his illness to the House," as Mr. Herndon says (which an- nouncement seems not to have gotten into the journal), Lin- coln was again in his place, and voted. On the twentieth he is not recorded ; but on every subsequent day, until the close of the session on the first of March, Lincoln was in the House. Thus, during the whole of the two months of Janu- ary and February, he was absent not more than seven days — as good a record of attendance, perhaps, as that made by the average member. Mr. Thornton says further: "Mr. Lincoln boarded at William Butler's, near to Dr. Henry's, where I boarded. The missing days, from January 13th to 19th, Mr. Lincoln spent several hours each day at Dr. Henry's ; a part of these days I remained with Mr. Lincoln. His most intimate friends had no fears of his injuring himself. He was very sad and melancholy, but being subject to these spells, nothing seriou9 was apprehended. His being watched, as stated in Hern* don's book, was news to me until I saw it there." HIS MARRIAGE ENGAGEMENT l8l But while Lincoln went about his daily duties, even on the "fatal first of January," — the day when he broke his word to Miss Todd, his whole being was shrouded in gloom. He did not pretend to conceal this from his friends. Writing to Mr. Stuart on January 23d, he said : "I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth. Whether I shall ever be better, I cannot tell; I awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible. I must die or be better, it appears to me. The matter you speak of on my account you may attend to as you say, unless you shall hear of my condition forbidding it. I say this because I fear I shall be unable to attend to any business here, and a change of scene might help me." In the summer he visited his friend Speed, who had sold his store in Springfield, and returned to Louisville, Ken- tucky. The visit did much to brighten his spirits, for, writ- ing back in September, after his return, to his friend's sister, he was even gay. A curious situation arose the next year ( 1842), which did much to restore Lincoln to a more normal view of his relation to Miss Todd. In the summer of 1841, his friend Speed had become engaged. As the time for his marriage ap- proached, he in turn was attacked by a melancholy not un- like that from which Lincoln had suffered. He feared he did not love well enough to marry, and he confided his fear to Lincoln. Full of sympathy for the trouble of his friend, Lin- coln tried in every way to persuade him that his "twinges of the soul" were all explained by nervous debility. When Speed returned to Kentucky, Lincoln wrote him several let- ters, in which he consoled, counselled, or laughed at him. These letters abound in suggestive passages. From what did Speed suffer ? From three special causes and a general one, which Lincoln proceeds to enumerate : f82 LIFE OF LINCOLN "The general cause is, that you are naturally of a ncrvou3 temperament; and this I say from what I have seen of you personally, and what you have told me concerning your mother at various times, and concerning your brother Will- iam at the time his wife died. The first special cause is your exposure to bad weather on your journey, which my ex- perience clearly proves to be very severe on defective nerves. The second is the absence of all business and conversation of friends, which might divert your mind, give it occasional rest from the intensity of thought which will sometimes wear the sweetest idea threadbare and turn it to the bitterness of death. The third is the rapid and near approach of that crisis on which all your thoughts and feelings concentrate.' ' Speed writes that his fiancee is ill, and his letter is full of gloomy forebodings of an early death. Lincoln hails these fears as an omen of happiness. "I hope and believe that your present anxiety and distress ibout her health and her life must and will forever banish those horrid doubts which I know you sometimes felt as to the truth of your affection for her. If they can once and for- ever be removed (and I almost feel a presentiment that the Almighty has sent your present affliction expressly for that object), surely nothing can come in their stead to fill their immeasurable measure of misery. It really appears to me that you yourself ought to rejoice, and not sorrow, at this in- dubitable evidence of your undying affection for her. Why, Speed, if you did not love her, although you might not wish her death, you would most certainly be resigned to it. Per- haps this point is no longer a question with you, and my pertinacious dwelling upon it is a rude intrusion upon your feelings. If so, you must pardon me. You know the hell I have suffered on that point, and how tender I am upon it. ... I am now fully convinced that you love her as ardently as you are capable of loving. Your ever being happy in her presence, and your intense anxiety about her health, if there were nothing else, would place this beyond all dispute in my mind. I incline to think it probable that your nerves will fail you occasionally for a while; but once you get them firmly HIS MARRIAGE ENGAGEMENT 1 83 guarded now, that trouble is over forever. I think, if I were you, in case my mind were not exactly right, I would avoid being idle. I would immediately engage in some business or go to making preparations for it, which would be the same thing." Mr. Speed's marriage occurred in February, and to the letter announcing it Lincoln replied : "I opened the letter with intense anxiety and trepidation ; so much so, that, although it turned out better than I ex- pected, I have hardly yet, at a distance of ten hours, become calm. "I tell you, Speed, our forebodings (for which you and I are peculiar) are all the worst sort of nonsense. I fancied, from the time I received your letter of Saturday, that the one of Wednesday was never to come, and yet it did come, and what is more, it is perfectly clear, both from its tone and handwriting, that you were much happier, or, if you think the term preferable, less miserable, when you wrote it than when you wrote the last one before. You had so ob- viously improved at the very time I so much fancied you would have grown worse. You say that something indes- cribably horrible and alarming still haunts you. You will not say that three months from now, I will venture. When your nerves once get steady now, the whole trouble will be over forever. Nor should you become impatient at their being even very slow in becoming steady. Again you say, you much fear that that Elysium of which you have dreamed so much is never to be realized. Well, if it shall not, I dare swear it will not be the fault of her who is now your wife. I now have no doubt that it is the peculiar misfortune of both you and me to dream dreams of Elysium far exceeding all that anything earthly can realize." His prophecy was true. In March Speed wrote him that he was "far happier than he had ever expected to be." Lin- coln caught at the letter with pathetic eagerness. "It cannot be told how it now thrills me with joy to hear you say you are 'far happier than vou ever expected to be/ 184 LIFE OF LINCOLN That much I know is enough. I know you too well to sup- pose your expectations were not, at least, sometimes ex- travagant, and if the reality exceeds them all, I say, Enough, dear Lord. I am not going beyond the truth when I tell you that the short space it took me to read your last letter gave me more pleasure than the total sum of all I have enjoyed since the fatal ist of January, 1841. Since then it seems to me I should have been entirely happy, but for the never-absent idea that there is one still unhappy whom I have contributed to make so. That still kills my soul. I cannot but reproach myself for even wishing to be happy while she is otherwise. She accompanied a large party on the railroad cars to Jacksonville last Monday, and on her re- turn spoke, so that I heard of it, of having enjoyed the trip exceedingly. God be praised for that." Evidently Lincoln was still unreconciled to his separation from Miss Todd. In the summer of 1842, only three or four months after the above letter was written, a clever ruse on the part of certain of their friends threw the two unexpect- edly together ; and an understanding of some kind evidently was reached, for during the season they met secretly at the house of one of Lincoln's friends, Mr. Simeon Francis. It was while these meetings were going on that a burlesque en- counter occurred between Lincoln and James Shields, for which Miss Todd was partly responsible, and which no doubt gave just the touch of comedy necessary to relieve their tragedy and restore them to a healthier view of their rela- tions. Among the Democratic officials then living in Springfield was the auditor of the State, James Shields. He was a hot- headed, blustering Irishman, not without ability, and cer- tainly courageous; a good politician, and, on the whole, a very well-liked man. However, the swagger and noise with which he accompanied the execution of his duties, and his habit of being continually on the defensive, made him the butt of Whig ridicule. Nothing could have given greater HIS MARRIAGE ENGAGEMENT 165 satisfaction to Lincoln and his friends than having an op- ponent who, whenever they joked him, flew into a rage and challenged them to fight. At the time Lincoln was visiting Miss Todd at Mr. Fran- cis's house, the Whigs were much excited over the fact that the Democrats had issued an order forbidding the payment of State taxes in State bank-notes. The bank-notes were in fact practically worthless, for the State finances were suffer- ing a violent reaction from the extravagant legislation of 1836 and 1837. One of the popular ways of attacking an obnoxious political doctrine in that day was writing letters from some imaginary backwoods settlement, setting forth in homely vernacular the writer's views of the question, and showing how its application affected his part of the world. These letters were really a rude form of the " Biglow Pa- pers " or " Nasby Letters." Soon after the order was issued by the Illinois officials demanding silver instead of bank- notes in payment of taxes, Lincoln wrote a letter to a Spring- field paper from the "Lost Townships," signing it "Aunt Rebecca." In it he described the plight to which the new or- der had brought the neighborhood, and he intimated that the only reason for issuing such an order was that the State of- ficers might have their salaries paid in silver. Shields was ridiculed unmercifully in the letter for his vanity and his gallantry. It happened that there were several young women in Springfield who had received rather too pronounced atten- tion from Mr. Shields, and who were glad to see him tor- mented. Among them were Miss Todd and her friend Miss Julia Jayne. Lincoln's letter from the "Lost Townships" was such a success that they followed it up with one in which "Aunt Rebecca" proposed to the gallant auditor, and a few days later they published some very bad verses, signed "Cathleen," celebrating the wedding. 186 LIFE OF LINCOLN Springfield was highly entertained, less by the verses than by the fury of Shields. He would have satisfaction, he said, and he sent a friend, one General Whitesides, to the paper, to ask for the name of the writer of the communications. The editor, in a quandary, went to Lincoln, who, unwilling that Miss Todd and Miss Jayne should figure in the affair, ordered that his own name be given as the author of letters and poem. This was only about ten days after the first let- ter had appeared, on September 2d, and Lincoln left Spring- field in a day or two for a long trip on the circuit. He was at Tremont when, on the morning of the seventeenth, two of his friends, E. H. Merryman and William Butler, drove up hastily. Shields and his friend Whitesides were behind, they said, the irate Irishman vowing that he would challenge Lincoln. They, knowing that Lincoln was "unpractised both as to diplomacy and weapons," had started as soon as they had learned that Shields had left Springfield, had passed him in the night, and were there to see Lincoln through. It was not long before Shields and Whitesides arrived, and soon Lincoln received a note in which the indignant writer said : "I will take the liberty of requiring a full, positive, and absolute retraction of all offensive allusions used by you in these communications in relation to my private character and standing as a man, as an apology for the insults con- veyed in them. This may prevent consequences which no one will regret more than myself." Lincoln immediately replied that, since Shields had not stopped to inquire whether he really was the author of the articles, had not pointed out what was offensive in them, had assumed facts and hinted at consequences, he could not sub- mit to answer the note. Shields wrote again, but Lincoln simply replied that he could receive nothing but a withdrawal of the first note or a challenge. To this he steadily held, even refusing to answer the Question as tc the authorship of the HIS MARRIAGE ENGAGEMENT 18; letters, which Shields finally put. It was inconsistent with his honor to negotiate for peace with Mr. Shields, he said, unless Mr. Shields withdrew his former offensive letter. Seconds were immediately named: Whitesides by Shields, Merryman by Lincoln; and though they talked of peace, Whitesides declared he could not mention it to his principal. "He would challenge me next, and as soon cut my throat as not." This was on the nineteenth, and that night the party re- turned to Springfield. But in some way the affair had leaked out, and fearing arrest, Lincoln and Merryman left town the next morning. The instructions were left with Butler. If Shields would withdraw his first note, and write another asking if Lincoln was the author of the offensive articles, and, if so, asking for gentlemanly satisfaction, then Lincoln had prepared a letter explaining the whole affair. If Shields would not do this, there was nothing to do but fight. Lin- coln left the following preliminaries for the duel : "First. Weapons: Cavalry broadswords of the largest size, precisely equal in all respects, and such as now used by the cavalry company at Jacksonville. "Second. Position : A plank ten feet long, and from nine to twelve inches broad, to be firmly fixed on edge, on the ground, as the line between us, which neither is to pass his foot over on forfeit of his life. Next a line drawn on the ground on either side of said plank and parallel with it, each at the distance of the whole length of the sword and three feet additional from the plank; and the passing of his own such line by either party during the fight shall be deemed a surrender of the contest. "Third. Time: On Thursday evening at five o'clock, if you can get it so ; but in no case to be at a greater distance of time than Friday evening at five o'clock. "Fourth. Place: Within three miles of Alton, on the op- posite side of the river, the particular spot to be agreed on by yoHL- ,> 1 88 LIFE OF LINCOLN As Mr. Shields refused to withdraw his first note, the exh tire party started for the rendezvous across the Mississippi. Lincoln and Merryman drove together in a dilapidated old buggy, in the bottom of which rattled a number of broad- swords. It was the morning of the 226. of September when the duellists arrived in the town. There are people still liv- ing in Alton who remember their coming. "The party ar- rived about the middle of the morning," says Mr. Edward Levis, "and soon crossed the river to a sand-bar which at the time was, by reason of the low water, a part of the Missouri mainland. The means of conveyance was an old horse-ferry that was operated by a man named Chapman. The weapons were in the keeping of the friends of the principals, and no care was taken to conceal them ; in fact, they were openly dis- played. Naturally, there was a great desire among the male population to attend the duel, but the managers of the affair would not permit any but their own party to board the ferry- boat. Skiffs were very scarce, and but a few could avail themselves of the opportunity in this way. I had to content myself with standing on the levee and watching proceedings at long range. " As soon as the parties reached the island the seconds be- gan preparations for the duel, the principals meanwhile seat- ing themselves on logs on opposite sides of the field — a half- cleared spot in the timber. One of the spectators says : "I watched Lincoln closely while he sat on his log awaiting the signal to fight. His face was grave and serious. I could discern nothing suggestive of 'Old Abe/ as we knew him. I never knew him to go so long before without making a joke, and I began to believe he was getting frightened. But pres- ently he reached over and picked up one of the swords, which he drew from its scabbard. Then he felt along the edge of the weapon with his thumb, like a barber feels of the edge of his razor, raised himself to his full height, stretched out his long arms and clipped off a twig from above his head with HIS MARRIAGE ENGAGEMENT 189 the sword. There wasn't another man pi us who could have reached anywhere near that twig, and the absurdity of that long-reaching fellow righting with cavalry sabers with Shields, who could walk under his arm, came pretty near making me howl with laughter. After Lincoln had cut off the twig he returned the sword to the scabbard with a sigh and sat down, but I detected the gleam in his eye, which was always the forerunner of one of his inimitable yarns, and fully expected him to tell a side-splitter there in the shadow of the grave — Shields's grave." The arrangements for the affair were about completed when the duellists were joined by some unexpected friends. Lincoln and Merryman, on their way to Alton, had stopped at White Hall for dinner. Across the street from the hotel lived Mr. Elijah Lott, an acquaintance of Merryman. Mr. Lott was not long in finding out what was on foot, and as soon as the duellists had departed, he drove to Carrollton, where he knew that Colonel John J. Hardin and several other friends of Lincoln were attending court, and warned them of the trouble. Hardin and one or two others imme- diately started for Alton. They arrived in time to calm Shields, and to aid the seconds in adjusting matters "with honor to all concerned. ,, That the duellists returned in good spirits is evident from Mr. Levis' s reminiscences : "It was not very long/' says he, "until the boat was seen returning to Alton. As it drew near I saw what was presumably a mortally wounded man lying in the bow of the boat. His shirt appeared to be bathed in blood. I distinguished Jacob Smith, a constable, fanning the supposed victim vigorously. The people on the bank held their breath in suspense, and guesses were freely made as to which of the two men had been so terribly wounded. But suspense was soon turned to chagrin and relief when it tran- spired that the supposed candidate for another world was nothing more nor less than a log covered with a red shirt. I9<> LIFE OF LINCOLN This ruse had been resorted to in order to fool the people on the levee ; and it worked to perfection. Lincoln and Shields came off the boat together, chatting in a nonchalant and pleasant manner." The Lincoln-Shields duel had so many farcical features, and Miss Todd had unwittingly been so much to blame for it, that one can easily see that it might have had considerable influence on the relations of the two young people. However that may be, something had made Mr. Lincoln feel that he could renew his engagement. Early in October, not a fort- night after the duel, he wrote Speed : "You have now been the husband of a lovely woman nearly eight months. That you are happier now than the day you married her I well know, for without you would not be living. But I have your word for it, too, and the returning elasticity of spirits which is manifested in your letters. But I want to ask a close ques- tion : Are you now in feelings as well as judgment glad that you are married as you are ? "From anybody but me this would be an impudent ques- tion, not to be tolerated ; but I know that you will pardon it in me. Please answer it quickly, as I am impatient to know." We do not know Speed's answer, nor the final struggle of the man's heart. We only know that on November 4, 1842, Lincoln was married, the wedding being almost im- promptu. Mrs. Dr. Brown, Miss Todd's cousin, in the same letter quoted from above, describes the wedding : "One morning, bright and early, my cousin came down in her excited, impetuous way, and said to my father : 'Uncle, you must go up and tell my sister that Mr. Lincoln and I are to be married this evening,' and to me : 'Get on your bon- net and go with me to get my gloves, shoes, etc., and then to Mr. Edwards's/ When we reached there we found some ex- citement over a wedding being sprung upon them so sud- denly. However, my father, in his lovely, pacific way, 'poured oil upon the waters/ and we thought everything was HIS MARRIAGE ENGAGEMENT 1 9 1 'ship-shape/ when Mrs. Edwards laughingly said : 'How for- tunately you selected this evening, for the Episcopal Sewing Society is to meet here, and my supper is all ordered.' "But that comfortable little arrangement would not hold, as Mary declared she would not make a spectacle for gossip- ing ladies to gaze upon and talk about; there had already yA'^T/^/w/*//*//*//*/S*'/*/yjw'W'"A 3FEHS ESflMfJ&is m? SUES ©S'A'SS OIF 22)Effl(2)E^o To any Minister of the Gospel, or other authorised Person-GREETING. &232I>©2}§ ate to y^lcertie, (Mtdp&imtb w>w to loin, w, tfte &>L ixwbi of <0 mMX2a®zaz3E®%z >W*'/yS/y*/>'S/y 1 *"jr ■ */' . ^^^^ _ M^:J*~~*- t-z *&y J.~. /Mu FACSIMILE OF MARBIAOE LICENSE AND CEBTIFIOATE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. From the original on file in the County Clerk's office of Springfield, 111. been too much talk about her. Then my father was des- patched to tell Mr. Lincoln that the wedding would be de- ferred until the next evening. Clergyman, attendants and intimate friends were notified, and on Friday evening, in the midst of a small circle of friends, with the elements doing their worst in the way of rain, this singular courtship culminated in marriage. This I know to be literally true, as I was one of her bridesmaids, Miss Jayne (afterwards Mrs. Lyman Trumbull) and Miss Rodney being the others." CHAPTER XII LINCOLN BECOMES A CANDIDATE FOR CONGRESS AND If DEFEATED ON THE STUMP IN 1844 NOMINATED AND ELECTED TO THE 3OTH CONGRESS For eight successive years Lincoln had been a member of the General Assembly of Illinois. It was quite long enough, in his judgment, and his friends seem to have wanted to give him something better, for in 1841 they offered to support him as a candidate for governor of the State. This, how- ever, he refused. His ambition was to go to Washington. In 1842 he declined renomination for the assembly and be- came a candidate for Congress. He did not wait to be asked, nor did he leave his case in the hands of his friends. He frankly announced his desire, and managed his own canvass. There was no reason, in Lincoln's opinion, for concealing political ambition. He recognized, at the same time, the legitimacy of the ambition of his friends, and entertained no suspicion or rancor if they contested places with him. "Do you suppose that I should ever have got into notice if I had waited to be hunted up and pushed forward by older men?" he wrote his friend Herndon once, when the latter was complaining that the older men did not help him on. "The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself every way he can, never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him. Allow me to assure you that suspicion and jeal- ousy never did help any man in any situation. There may sometimes be ungenerous attempts to keep a young man down ; and they will succeed, too, if he allows his mind to be diverted from its true channel to brood over the attempted 192 BECOMES A CANDIDATE FOR CONGRESS 193 injury. Cast about, and see if this feeling has not injured every person you have ever known to fall into it." Lincoln had something more to do, however, in 1842, than simply to announce himself in the innocent manner of early politics. The convention system introduced into Illinois in 1835 by the Democrats had been zealously opposed by all good Whigs, Lincoln included, until constant defeat taught them that to resist organization by an every-man-for-himself policy was hopeless and wasteful, and that if they would succeed they must meet organization with organization. In 1 84 1 a Whig State convention had been called to nominate candidates for the offices of governor and lieutenant-gover- nor; and now, in March, 1843, a Whig meeting was held again at Springfield, at which the party's platform was laid, and a committee, of which Lincoln was a member, was ap- pointed to prepare an "Address to the People of Illinois/' In this address the convention system was earnestly de- fended. Against this rapid adoption of the abominated sys- tem many of the Whigs protested, and Lincoln found him- self supporting before his constituents the tactics he had once warmly opposed. In a letter to his friend John Bennett, of Petersburg, written in March, 1843, he said: "I am sorry to hear that any of the Whigs of your county, or of any county, should longer be against conventions. On last Wednesday evening a meeting of all the Whigs then here from all parts of the State was held, and the question of the propriety of conventions was brought up and fully discussed, and at the end of the discussion a resolution recommending the system of conventions to all the Whigs of the State was unanimously adopted. Other resolutions were also passed, all of which will appear in the next 'Journal/ The meeting also appointed a committee to draft an address to the people 2 2 LIFE OF LINCOLN condition they were being separated forever from the scenes of their childhood, their friends, their fathers and mothers, and brothers and sisters, and many of them from their wives and children, and going into perpetual slavery, where the lash of the master is proverbially more ruthless and unre- lenting than any other where ; and yet amid all these distress- ing circumstances, as we would think them, they were the most cheerful and apparently happy creatures on board. One whose offense for which he had been sold was an over-fond- ness for his wife, played the fiddle almost continually, and the others danced, sang, cracked jokes, and played various games with cards from day to day. How true it is that 'God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb/ or in other words, that he renders the worst of human conditions tolerable, while he permits the best to be nothing better than tolerable. ,, Runaway slaves, underground railway stations, masters and men tracking negroes, the occasional capture of a man or woman to be taken back to the South, trials of fugitives — all the features common in those years particularly in the States bordering on bond territory Lincoln saw. In 1847 ne was even engaged to defend a slave-owner's claim, a case he lost, the negro being allowed to go free. It was not until 1844-45, however, that the matter became an important element in his political life. Hereto- fore it had been a moral question only, now, however, the annexation of Texas made it a political one. It became necessary that every politician and voter decide whether the new territory should be bond or free. The abolitionists or Liberty party grew rapidly in Illinois. Lincoln found himself obliged not only to meet Democratic arguments, but the abo- lition theories and convictions. When in 1847 ne went to Congress it was already evident that the Mexican war would be settled by the acquisition of large new territory. What was to be done with it ? The North had tried to forestall the South by bringing in a provision that whatever territory was acquired should be free forever. This Wilmot proviso as it IN WASHINGTON IN 1847 223 was called from the name of the originator, went through as many forms as Proteus, though its intent was always the same. From first to last Lincoln voted for it. "I may ven- ture to say that I voted for it at least forty times during the short time I was there," he said in after years. Although he voted so persistently he did little or no debating on the question in the House and in the hot debates from which he could not escape, he acted as a peace-maker. At Mrs. Spriggs's mess, where he boarded in Washington, the Wilmot proviso was the topic of frequent conversation and the occasion of very many angry controversies. Dr. Bu- sey, who was a fellow boarder, says of Lincoln's part in these discussions, that though he may have been as radical as any in the household, he was so discreet in giving expression to his convictions on the slavery question as to avoid giving of- fence to anybody, and was so conciliatory as to create the im- pression, even among the pro-slavery advocates, that he did not wish to introduce or discuss subjects that would provoke a controversy. "When such conversation would threaten angry or even unpleasant contention he would interrupt it by interposing some anecdote, thus diverting it into a hearty and general laugh, and so completely disarrange the tenor of the discus- sion that the parties engaged would either separate in good humor or continue conversation free from discord. This amicable disposition made him very popular with the house- hold." But when in 1848 Lincoln went to New England he expe- rienced for the first time the full meaning of the "free soil" sentiment as the new abolition sentiment was called. Massa- chusetts was quivering at that moment under the impas- sioned protests of the great abolitionists. Sumner was just deciding to abandon literature to devote his life to the cause of freedom and was speaking wherever he had the chance 224 LIFE OP LINCOLN and often in scenes which were riots. "Ah me such an as- sembly," wrote Longfellow in his Journal after one of these speeches of Sumner. "It was like one of Beethoven's sym- phonies played in a saw-mill." Whittier was laboring at Amesbury by letters of counsel and encouragement to friends, by his pure, high-souled poems of protest and prom- ise and by his editorials to the "National Era," which he and his friends had just started in Washington. Lowell was pub- lishing the last of the Biglow Papers and preparing the whole for the book form. He was writing, too, some of his noblest prose. Emerson, Palfrey, Hoar, Adams, Phillips, Garrison, were all at work. Giddings had been there from Ohio. Only a few days before Lincoln arrived a great convention of free soilers and bolting Whigs had been held in Tremont Temple and its earnestness and passion had produced a deep impression. Sensitive as Lincoln was to every shade of popu- lar feeling and conviction the sentiment in New England stirred him as he had never been stirred before, on the ques- tion of slavery. Listening to Seward's speech in Tremont Temple, he seems to have had a sudden insight into the truth, a quick illumination ; and that night, as the two men sat talk- ing, he said gravely to the great anti-slavery advocate : "Governor Seward, I have been thinking about what you said in your speech. I reckon you are right. We have got to deal with this slavery question, and got to give much more attention to it hereafter than we have been doing." CHAPTER XIV LINCOLN AT NIAGARA SECURES A PATENT FOR AN INVEN- TION ABANDONS POLITICS AND DECIDES TO DEVOTE HIM- SELF TO THE LAW It was late in September when Lincoln started westward from his campaigning in New England. He stopped in Al- bany, N. Y., and in company with Thurlow Weed called on Fillmore then candidate for Vice-President. From Albany he went to Niagara. Mr. Herndon once asked him what made the deepest impression on him when he stood before the Falls. "The thing that struck me most forcibly when I saw the Falls," he responded, "was, where in the world did all that water come from?" The memory of Niagara remained with him and aroused many speculations. Among various notes for lectures which Nicolay and Hay found among Mr. Lincoln's papers after his death and published in his " Com- plete Works," is a fragment on Niagara which shows how deeply his mind was stirred by the majesty of that mighty wonder. "Niagara Falls ! By what mysterious power is it that mil- lions and millions are drawn from all parts of the world to gaze upon Niagara Falls? There is no mystery about the thing itself. Every effect is just as any intelligent man, knowing the causes, would anticipate without seeing it. If the water moving onward in a great river reaches a point where there is a perpendicular jog of a hundred feet in de- scent in the bottom of the river, it is plain the water will have a violent and continuous olunge at that point. It is also plain, 225 226 LIFE OP LINCOLN the water, thus plunging, will foam and roar, and send up a mist continuously, in which last, during sunshine, there will be perpetual rainbows. The mere physical of Niagara Falls is only this. Yet this is really a very small part of that world's womder. Its power to excite reflection and emotion is its great charm. The geologist will demonstrate that the plunge, or fall, was once at Lake Ontario, and has worn its way back to its present position ; he will ascertain how fast it is wearing now, and so get a basis for determining how long it has been wearing back from Lake Ontario, and finally demonstrate by it that this world is at least fourteen thou- sand years old. A philosopher of a slightly different turn will say, 'Niagara Falls is only the lip of the basin out of which pours all the surplus water which rains down on two or three hundred thousand square miles of the earth's surface.' He will estimate with approximate accuracy that five hundred thousand tons of water fall with their full weight a distance of a hundred feet each minute — thus exerting a force equal to the lifting of the same weight, through the same space, in the same time. . . . "But still there is more. It calls up the indefinite past. When Columbus first sought this continent — when Christ suffered on the cross — when Moses led Israel through the Red Sea — nay, even when Adam first came from the hand of his Maker; then, as now, Niagara was roaring here. The eyes of that species of extinct giants whose bones fill the mounds of America have gazed on Niagara, as ours do now. Contemporary with the first race of men, and older than the first man, Niagara is strong and fresh to-day as ten thousand years ago. The Mammoth and Mastodon, so long dead that fragments of their monstrous bones alone testify that they ever lived, have gazed on Niagara — in that long, long time never still for a single moment, never dried, never froze, never slept, never rested." In his trip westward to Springfield from Niagara there oc- curred an incident which started Lincoln's mind on a new line of thought one which all that fall divided it with poli- tics. It happened that the boat by which he made part of the •J(N' VISITS NIAGARA FALLS 227 trip stranded in shallow water. The devices employed to float her, interested Lincoln much. He no doubt recalled the days when on the Ohio, the Mississippi, and the Sangamon he had seen his own or his neighbors boats stuck on a sand-bar for hours, even days. Was there no way that these vexatious delays could be prevented in shallow streams? He set him- self resolutely at the task of inventing a practical device for getting boats over shoals. When he reached Springfield he began to build a model representing his idea. He showed the deepest interest in the work and Mr. Herndon says he would sometimes bring the model into his office and while whittling on it would talk of its merits and the revolution it was going to work on the western rivers. When Lincoln returned to Washington he took the model with him, and through Mr. Z. C. Robbins, a lawyer of Wash- ington, secured a patent. "He walked into my office one morning with a model of a western steamboat under his arm," says Mr. Robbins. "After a friendly greeting he placed his model on my office-table and proceeded to explain the principles embodied therein that he believed to be his own invention, and which, if new, he desired to secure by letters- patent. During my former residence in St. Louis, I had made myself thoroughly familiar with everything appertaining to the construction and equipment of the flat-bottomed steam- boats that were adapted to the shallow rivers of our western and southern States, and therefore, I was able speedily to come to the conclusion that Mr. Lincoln's proposed improve- ment of that class of vessels was new and patentable, and I so informed him. Thereupon he instructed me to prepare the necessary drawings and papers and prosecute an application for a patent for his invention at the United States patent office. I complied with his instructions and in due course of proceedings procured for him a patent that fully covered all the distinguishing features of his improved steamboat. The 228 LIFE OF LINCOLN identical model that Mr. Lincoln brought to my office can now be seen in the United States patent office." But it was only his leisure which Lincoln spent in the fall of 1848 on his invention. All through October and the first days of November he was speaking up and down the State for Taylor. His zeal was rewarded in November by the elec- tion of the Whig ticket and a few weeks later he went back to Washington for the final session of the Thirtieth Con- gress. He went back resolved to do something regarding slavery. He seems to have seen but two things at that mo- ment which could constitutionally be done. The first was to allow the slave-holder no more ground than he had; to ac- complish this he continued to vote for the Wilmot proviso. The second was to abolish slavery in the District of Colum- bia. Over ten years before, in 1837, Lincoln had declared, in the assembly of Illinois, that the Congress of the United States had 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. When he went to Washington in 1847 ne found a condition of things which made him feel that Congress ought to exercise the power it had. There had existed for years in the city a slave market : "a sort of negro livery stable, where droves of negroes were collected, temporarily kept, and finally taken to southern markets, precisely like droves of horses,' , Lincoln said in describing it in later years ; and this frightful place was in view from the windows of the Capitol. Morally and intellectually shocked and irritated by this spec- tacle, Lincoln brooded over it until now, in the second ses- sion of his term, he decided to ask that Congress exercise the power he had affirmed ten years before belonged to it, and on January 16, 1849, ne drew up and presented a bill to abol- ish slavery in the District of Columbia, "with the consent of the voters of the District and with compensation to owners VISITS NIAGARA FALLS 229 The bill caused a noise in the House, but came to naught, as indeed at that date any similar bill was bound to do. It showed, however, more plainly than anything Lincoln had done so far in Congress his fearlessness when his convictions were aroused. The inauguration of Taylor on March 4, 1849, ended Lin- coln's congressional career. The principle, "turn about is fair play," which he had insisted on in 1846 when working for the nomination for himself, he regarded as quite as ap- plicable now. It was not because he did not desire to return to Congress. " I made the declaration that I would not be a candidate again," he wrote Herndon in January, 1848, "more from a wish to deal fairly with others, to keep peace among our friends, and to keep the district from going to the enemy, than from any cause personal to myself; so that, if it should so happen that nobody else wishes to be elected, I could not refuse the people the right of sending me again. But to enter myself as a competitor of others, or to authorize any one so to enter me, is what my word and honor forbid." And yet he was not willing to leave public life. The term in Congress had only increased his fondness for politics. It had given him a touch of that fever for public office from which so few men who have served in Congress ever entirely recover. The Whigs owed much to him, and there was a general disposition to gratify any reasonable ambition he might have. "I believe that, so far as the Whigs in Congress are concerned, I could have the General Land Office almost by common consent," he wrote Speed; "but then Sweet and Don Morrison and Browning and Cyrus Edwards all want it, and what is worse, while I think I could easily take it myself, I fear I shall have trouble to get it for any other man in Illi- nois. ,, Although he feared his efforts would be useless, he pledged his support to his friend, Cyrus Edwards. While Lincoln 2 3 o LIFE OF LINCOLN was looking after Edwards's interests, a candidate appeared who was most objectionable to the Whigs, General Justin Butterfield. Lincoln did all he could to defeat Butterfield save the one thing necessary — ask the position for himself. This he would not do until he learned that Edwards had no chance. Then he applied; but it was too late. Butterfield had secured the office while Lincoln had been holding back. When Edwards found that Lincoln had finally applied for the place, he accused him of treachery. Lincoln was deeply hurt by the suspicion. " The better part of one's life consists of his friend- ships," he wrote to Judge Gillespie, " and, of them, mine with Mr. Edwards was one of the most cherished. I have not been false to it. At a word I could have had the office any time before the Department was committed to Mr. Butterfield — at least Mr. Ewing and the President say as much. That word I forbore to speak, partly for other reasons, but chiefly for Mr. Edwards's sake — losing the office that he might gain it. I was always for (him) ; but to lose his friendship, by the effort for him, would oppress me very much, were I not sustained by the utmost consciousness of rectitude. I first determined to be an applicant, uncondi- tionally, on the 2d of June ; and I did so then upon being in- formed by a telegraphic despatch that the question was nar- rowed down to Mr. B. and myself, and that the Cabinet had postponed the appointment three weeks for my benefit. Not doubting that Mr. Edwards was wholly out of the question, I, nevertheless, would not then have become an applicant had I supposed he would thereby be brought to suspect me of treachery to him. Two or three days afterwards a conversa- tion with Levi Davis convinced me Mr. Edwards was dis- satisfied ; but I was then too far in to get out. His own let- ter, written on the 25th of April, after I had fully informed him of all that had passed, up to within a few days of that time, gave assurance I had that entire confidence from him which I felt my uniform and strong friendship for him en- titled me to. Among other things it says : 'Whatever course VISITS NIAGARA FALLS 231 your judgment may dictate as proper to be pursued shall never be excepted to by me." I also had had a letter from Washington saying Chambers, of the " Republic," had brought a rumor there, that Mr. E. had declined in my favor, which rumor I judged came from Mr. E. himself, as I had not then breathed of his letter to any living creature. In saying I had never, before the 2d of June, determined to be an applicant, unconditionally, I mean to admit that, before then, I had said, substantially, I would take the office rather than it should be lost to the State, or given to one in the State whom the Whigs did not want ; but I aver that in every instance in which I spoke of myself I intended to keep, and now believe I did keep, Mr. E. above myself. Mr. Edwards's first suspicion was that I had al- lowed Baker to overreach me, as his friend, in behalf of Don Morrison. I know this was a mistake; and the result has proved it. I understand his view now is, that if I had gone to open war with Baker I could have ridden him down, and had the thing all my own way. I believe no such thing. With Baker and some strong man from the Military tract and else- where for Morrison, and we and some strong men from the Wabash and elsewhere for Mr. E., it was not possible for either to succeed. I believed this in March, and I know it now. The only thing which gave either any chance was the very thing Baker and I proposed — an adjustment with them- selves. "You may wish to know how Butterfield finally beat me. I cannot tell you particulars now, but will when I see you. In the meantime let it be understood I am not greatly dissatis- fied — I wish the office had been so bestowed as to encourage our friends in future contests, and I regret exceedingly Mr. Edwards's feelings towards me. These two things away, I should have no regrets — at least I think I would not." It was not until eleven years later that Edwards forgave Lincoln. Then at Judge Gillespie's request he promised to " bury the hatchet with Lincoln " and to enter the campaign for him. Lincoln declared that he had no regrets about the way the General Land Office went, but, if he had not, his Whig 232 LIFE OF LINCOLN friends in Washington had. They determined to do some- thing for him, and in the summer of 1849 summoned him to the capital to urge him to accept the governorship of Oregon. The Territory would soon be a State, it was believed, and Lincoln would then undoubtedly be chosen to represent it in the United States Senate. Unquestionably, a splendid politi- cal prospect was thus opened. Many of Lincoln's friends ad- vised him to accept; his wife, however, disliked the idea of life in the far West, and on her account he refused the place. The events of the summer of 1849 seemed to Lincoln to end his political career. He had no time to brood over his situation, however. The necessity of earning a livelihood was too imperative. His financial obligations were, in fact considerable. The old debt for the New Salem store still hung over him ; he had a growing family ; and his father and mother, who were still living in Coles county, whither they had moved in 1831, were dependent upon him for many of the necessaries, as well as all the comforts, of their lives. At intervals ever since he had left home he had helped them; now by saving their land from the foreclosing of a mortgage, now by paying their doctor's bills, now by adding to the cheerfulness of their home. He was equally kind to his other relatives, visiting them and aiding them in various ways. Among these relatives were two cousins, Abraham and Mordecai, the sons of his uncle Mordecai Lincoln, who lived in Hancock County, in his congressional district. At Quincy, also in his district, lived with his family a brother of his mother — Joseph Hanks. Lin- coln never went to Quincy without going to see his uncle Jo- seph and "uncle Joe's Jake," as he called one of his cousins. "On these occasions," writes one of the latter's family, Mr. J. M. Hanks of Florence, Colorado, "mirth and jollity abounded, for Mr. Lincoln indulged his bent of story-tell- ing to the utmost, until a late hour." His half-brother, John VISITS NIAGARA FALLS 233 Johnston, he aided for many years. His help did not always take the form of money. Johnston was shiftless and always in debt, and consequently restless and discontented. In 185 1 he was determined to borrow money or sell his farm, and move to Missouri. He proposed to Mr. Lincoln that he lend him eighty dollars. Mr. Lincoln answered : " What I propose is, that you shall go to work, ' tooth and nail/ for somebody who will give you money for it. . . . I now promise you, that for every dollar you will, between this and the first of May, get for your own labor, either in money or as your own indebtedness, I will then give you one other dollar. ... In this I do not mean you shall go off to St. Louis, or the lead mines, or the gold mines in Cali- fornia, but I mean for you to go at it for the best wages you can get close to home in Coles county. Now, if you will do this, you will be soon out of debt, and, what is better, you will have a habit that will keep you from getting in debt again. But, if I should now clear you out of debt, next year you would be just as deep in as ever. You say you would almost give your place in Heaven for seventy or eighty dol- lars. Then you value your place in Heaven very cheap, for I am sure you can, with the offer I make, get the seventy or eighty dollars for four or five months' work." A few months later Lincoln wrote Johnston in regard to his contemplated move to Missouri : "What can you do in Missouri better than here? Is the land any richer? Can you there, any more than here, raise corn and wheat and oats without work ? Will anybody there, any more than here, do your work for you? If you intend to go to work, there is no better place than right where you are ; if you do not intend to go to work, you cannot get along anywhere. Squirming and crawling about from place to place can do no good. You have raised no crop this year ; and what you really want is to sell the land, get the money, and spend it. Part with the land you have, and, my life upon it, you will never after own a spot big 234 LIFE OP LINCOLN enough to bury you in. Half you will get for the land you will spend in moving to Missouri, and the other half you will eat, drink, and wear out, and no foot of land will be bought. Now, I feel it my duty to have no hand in such a piece of foolery. " All this plain advice did not prevent Johnston trying to sell a small piece of land on which Mr. Lincoln had paid the mortgage in order to secure it to his step-mother during her life. When Mr. Lincoln received this proposition he replied : "Your proposal about selling the east forty acres of land is £ll that I want or could claim for myself; but I am not satis- fied with it on mother's account. I want her to have her liv- ing, and I feel that it is my duty, to some extent, to see that she is not wronged. She had a right of dower (that is, the use of one-third for life) in the other two forties; but, it seems, she has already let you take that, hook and line. She now has the use of the whole of the east forty as long as she lives, and if it be sold, of course she is entitled to the interest on all the money it brings as long as she lives ; but you pro- pose to sell it for three hundred dollars, take one hundred away with you, and leave her two hundred at eight per cent., making her the enormous sum of sixteen dollars a year. Now, if you are satisfied with treating her in that way, I am not. It is true that you are to have that forty for two hundred dollars at mother's death ; but you are not to have it before. I am confident that land can be made to produce for mother at least thirty dollars a year, and I cannot, to oblige any living person, consent that she shall be put on an allowance of six- teen dollars a year." It was these obligations which made Lincoln resume at once the practice of the law. He decided to remain in Springfield, although he had an opportunity to go in with a well-established Chicago lawyer. For many reasons life in Springfield was satisfactory to him. He had bought a home there in 1844, and was deeply attached to it. There, too, he was surrounded by scores of friends who had known him VISITS NIAGARA FALLS 235 since his first appearance in the town, and to many of whom he was related by marriage ; and he had the good will of the community. In short, he was a part of Springfield. The very children knew him, for there was not one of them for whom he had not done some kind deed. "My first strong impres- sion of Mr. Lincoln/' says a lady of Springfield, "was made by one of his kind deeds. I was going with a little friend for my first trip alone on the railroad cars. It was an epoch of my life. I had planned for it and dreamed of it for weeks. The day I was to go came, but as the hour of the train ap- proached, the hackman, through some neglect, failed to call for my trunk. As the minutes went on, I realized, in a panic of grief, that I should miss the train. I was standing by the gate, my hat and gloves on, sobbing as if my heart would break, when Mr. Lincoln came by. " 'Why, what's the matter ?' he asked, and I poured out all my story. " 'How big's the trunk? There's still time, if it isn't too big.' And he pushed through the gate and up to the door. My mother and I took him up to my room, where my little old- fashioned trunk stood, locked and tied. 'Oh, ho,' he cried; 'wipe your eyes and come on quick.' And before I knew what he was going to do, he had shouldered the trunk, was down stairs, and striding out of the yard. Down the street he went, fast as his long legs could carry him. I trotting behind, dry- ing my tears as I went. We reached the station in time. Mr. Lincoln put me on the train, kissed me good-bye, and told me to have a good time. It was just like him." This sensitiveness to a child's wants made Mr. Lincoln a most indulgent father. He continually carried his boys about with him, and their pranks, even when they approached re- bellion, seemed to be an endless delight to him. Like most boys, they loved to run away, and neighbors of the Lincolns tell many tales of Mr. Lincoln's captures of the culprits. One 2 36 LIFE OF LINCOLN of the prettiest of all these is a story told of an escape Willie once made, when three or four years old, from the hands of his mother, who was giving him a tubbing. He scampered out of the door without the vestige of a garment on him, flew up the street, clipped under a fence into a great green field, and took across it. Mr. Lincoln was sitting on the porch, and discovered the pink and white runaway as he was cut- ting across the greensward. He stood up, laughing aloud, while the mother entreated him to go in pursuit; then he started in chase. Half-way across the field he caught the child, and gathering him up in his long arms, he covered his rosy form with kisses. Then mounting him on his back, the chubby legs around his neck, he rode him back to his mother and his tub. It was a frequent custom with Lincoln, this of carrying his children on his shoulders. He rarely went down street that he did not have one of his younger boys mounted on his shoulder, while another hung to the tail of his long coat, The antics of the boys with their father, and the species of tyranny they exercised over him, are still subjects of talk in Springfield. Mr. Roland Diller, who was a neighbor of Mr. Lincoln, tells one of the best of the stories. He was called to the door one day by hearing a great noise of children cry- ing, and there was Mr. Lincoln striding by with the boys, both of whom were wailing aloud. "Why, Mr. Lincoln, what's the matter with the boys ?" he asked. "Just what's the matter with the whole world," Lincoln replied; "I've got three walnuts and each wants two." Another of Lincoln's Springfield acquaintances, the Rev. Mr. Alcott of Elgin, 111., tells of seeing him coming away from church, unusually early one Sunday morning. "The sermon could not have been more than half way through," says Mr. Alcott. " Tad' was slung across his left arm like a pair of saddle-bags, and Mr. Lincoln was striding along with VISITS NIAGARA FALLS 237 long, and deliberate steps toward his home. On one of the street corners he encountered a group of his fellow-towns- men. Mr. Lincoln anticipated the question which was about to be put by the group, and, taking his figure of speech from practices with which they were only too familiar, said: ' Gentlemen, I entered this colt, but he kicked around so I had to withdraw him/ " There was no institution in Springfield in which Lincoln had not taken an active interest in the first years of his resi- dence ; and now that he had decided to remain in the town, he resumed all his old relations, from the daily visits to the drug-stores on the public square, which were the recognized rendezvous of Springfield politicians and lawyers, to his weekly attendance at the First Presbyterian church. That he was as regular in his attendance on the latter as on the former, all his old neighbors testify. In fact, Lincoln, all his life, went regularly to church. The serious attention which he gave the sermons he heard is shown in a well-authenti- cated story of a visit he made in 1837, with a company of friends, to a camp-meeting held six miles west of Springfield at the "Salem Church." The sermon on this occasion was preached by one of the most vigorous and original individ- uals in the pulpit of that day — the Rev. Dr. Peter Akers. In this discourse was a remarkable and prophetic passage, long remembered by those who heard it. The speaker prophesied the downfall of castes, the end of tyrannies, and the crushing out of slavery. As Lincoln and his friends returned home there was a long discussion of the sermon. "It was the most instructive sermon, and he is the most impressive preacher, I have ever heard," Lincoln said. "It is wonderful that God has given such power to men. I firmly believe his interpretation of prophecy, so far as I understand it, and especially about the breaking down of civil and re- ligious tyrannies; and, odd as it may seem, when he des- 2-8 LIFE OF LINCOLN j cribed those changes and revolutions, I was deeply impressed that I should be somehow strangely mixed up with them." If Lincoln was not at this period a man of strictly ortho- dox beliefs, he certainly was, if we accept his own words, profoundly religious. In the letters which passed between Lincoln and Speed in 1841 and 1842, when the two men were doubting their own hearts and wrestling with their dis- illusions and forebodings, Lincoln frequently expressed the idea to Speed that the Almighty had sent their suffering for a special purpose. When Speed finally acknowledged himself happily married, Lincoln wrote to him : "I always was super- stitious; I believe God made me one of the instruments of bringing your Fanny and you together, which union I have no doubt he had foreordained." Then, referring to his own troubled heart, he added : "Whatever He designs He will do for me yet. 'Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord/ is my text just now." Only a few months after Lincoln decided to settle perma- nently in Springfield his father, Thomas Lincoln, fell danger- ously ill. Lincoln in writing to John Johnston, his half- brother, said: "I sincerely hope father may recover his health, but, at all events, tell him to remember to call upon and confide in our great and good and merciful Maker, who will not turn away from him in any extremity. He notes the fall of a sparrow, and numbers the hairs of our heads, and He will not forget the dying man who puts his trust in Him." Lincoln's return to the law was characterized by a marked change in his habits. He gave much more attention to study than he ever had before. His colleagues in Springfield and on the circuit noticed this change. After court closed in the town on the circuit, and the lawyers were gathered in the bar- room or on the veranda of the tavern, telling stories and chaffing one another, Lincoln would join them, though often VISITS NIAGARA FALLS 239 but for a few minutes. He would tell a story as he passed, and while they were laughing at its climax, would slip away to his room to study. Frequently this work was carried on far into the night. "Placing a candle on a chair at the head of the bed," says Mr. Herndon, "he would study for hours. I have known him to study in this position until two o'clock in the morning. Meanwhile, I and others who chanced to occupy the same room would be safely and soundly asleep." Although he worked so late, "he was in the habit of rising earlier than his brothers of the bar," says Judge Weldon. "On such occasions he was wont to sit by the fire, having un- covered the coals, and muse, ponder, and soliloquize." But it was not only the law that occupied him. He began a serious course of general education, studying mathematics, astronomy, poetry, as regularly as a school-boy who had les- sons to recite. In the winter of 1849-50 he even joined a club of a dozen gentlemen of Springfield who had begun the study of German, the meetings of the class being held in his office. Much of Lincoln's devotion to study at this period was due to his desire to bring himself in general culture up to the men whom he had been meeting in the East. No man ever realized his own deficiencies in knowledge and experience more deeply than Abraham Lincoln, nor made a braver struggle to correct them. He often acknowledged to his friends the consciousness he had of his own limitations in the simplest matters of life. Mr. H. C. Whitney, one of his old friends, gives a pathetic example of this. Once on the circuit his friends missed him after supper. When he returned, some one asked where he had been. " Well, I have been to a little show up at the Academy," he said. "He sat before the fire," says Mr. Whitney, "and narrated all the sights of that most primitive of county shows, given 240 LIFE OF LINCOLN chiefly to school children. Next night he was missing again *, the show was still in town, and he stole in as before, and en- tertained us with a description of new sights — a magic lan- tern, electrical machine, etc. I told him I had seen all these sights at school. ' Yes,' said he sadly, ' I now have an ad- vantage over you, for the first time in my life seeing these things which are, of course, common to those who had, what I did not, a chance at an education when they were young.' " It was to make up for the "chance at an education" which he did not have in youth that Abraham Lincoln at forty years of age, after having earned the reputation of being one of the ablest politicians in Illinois, spent his leisure in study. CHAPTER XV LINCOLN ON THE CIRCUIT — HIS HUMOR AND PERSUASTVEr NESS HIS MANNER OF PREPARING CASES, EXAMINING WITNESSES, AND ADDRESSING JURIES When in 1849 Lincoln decided to abandon politics finally and to devote himself to the law, he had been practising for thirteen years. In spite of the many interruptions elec- tioneering and office-holding had caused he was well-estab- lished. Rejoining his partner Herndon — the firm of Lin- coln and Herndon had been only a name during Lincoln's term in Washington — he took up the law with a singleness of purpose which had never before characterized his practice. Lincoln's headquarters were in Springfield, but his prac- tice was itinerant. The arrangements for the administration of justice in Illinois in the early days were suited to the con- ditions of the country, the State being divided into judicial circuits including more or less territory according to the population. To each circuit a judge was appointed, who each spring and fall travelled from county-seat to county- seat to hold court. With the judge travelled a certain num- ber of the best-known lawyers of the district. Each lawyer had, of course, a permanent office in one of the county-seats, and often at several of the others he had partners, usually young men of little experience, for whom he acted as coun- sel in special cases. This peripatetic court prevailed in Illinois until the beginning of the fifties ; but for many years after, when the towns had grown so large that a clever lawyer might have enough to do in his own county, a few lawyers, 241 242 LIFE OF LINCOLN Lincoln among them, who from long association felt that the circuit was their natural habitat refused to leave it. The circuit which Lincoln travelled was known as the "Eighth Judicial Circuit." It included fifteen counties in 1845, though the territory has since been divided into more. It was about one hundred and fifty miles long by as many broad. There were no railroads in the Eighth Circuit until about 1854, and the court travelled on horseback or in car- riages. Lincoln had no horse in the early days of his prac- tice. It was his habit then to borrow one, or to join a com- pany of a half dozen or more in hiring a "three-seated spring wagon." Later he owned a turn-out of his own, which figures in nearly all the traditions of the Eighth Circuit ; the horse being described as "poky" and the buggy as "rattling." There was much that was irritating and uncomfortable in the circuit-riding of the Illinois court, but there was more which was amusing to a temperament like Lincoln's. The freedom, the long days in the open air, the unexpected if trivial adventures, the meeting with wayfarers and settlers — all was an entertainment to him. He found humor and human interest on the route where his companions saw noth- ing but commonplaces. "He saw the ludicrous in an assem- blage of fowls," says H. C. Whitney, one of his fellow- itinerants, "in a man spading his garden, in a clothes-line full of clothes, in a group of boys, in a lot of pigs rooting at a mill door, in a mother duck teaching her brood to swim — in everything and anything." The sympathetic observations of these long rides furnished humorous settings for some of his best stories. If frequently on these trips he fell into sombre reveries and rode with head bent, ignoring his com- panions, generally he took part in all the frolicking which went on, joining in practical jokes, singing noisily with the rest, sometimes even playing a Jew's-harp. When the county-seat was reached, the bench and ba* TRAVELLING ON THE CIRCUIT 243 quickly settled themselves in the town tavern. It was usually a large two-story house with big rooms and long verandas. There was little exclusiveness possible in these hostelries. FACSIMILE OF MAP OP CIRCUIT WHICH LINCOLN TRAVELLED IN PRACTISING LAW, Ordinarily judge and lawyer slept two in a bed, and threi or four beds in a room. They ate at the common table witb jurors, witnesses, prisoners out on bail, travelling peddlers, *44 LIFE OP LINCOLN teamsters, and laborers. The only attempt at classification on the landlord's part was seating the lawyers in a group at the head of the table. Most of them accepted this distinction complacently. Lincoln, however, seemed to be indifferent to it. One day, when he had come in and seated himself at the foot with the "fourth estate," the landlord called to him, "You're in the wrong place, Mr. Lincoln ; come up here." "Have you anything better to eat up there, Joe?" he in- quired quizzically; "if not, I'll stay here." The accommodations of the taverns were often unsatis- factory — the food poorly cooked, the beds hard. Lincoln ac- cepted everything with uncomplaining good nature, though his companions habitually growled at the hardships of the life. It was not only repugnance to criticism which might hurt others, it was the indifference of one whose thoughts were always busy with problems apart from physical com- fort, who had little notion of the so-called " refinements of life," and almost no sense of luxury and ease. The judge naturally was the leading character in these nomadic groups. He received all the special consideration the democratic spirit of the inhabitants bestowed on any one, and controlled his privacy and his time to a degree. Judge David Davis, who from 1848 presided over the Eighth Cir- cuit as long as Mr. Lincoln travelled it, was a man of unusual force of character, of large learning, quick impulses, and strong prejudices. Lincoln was from the beginning of their association a favorite with Judge Davis. Unless he joined the circle which the judge formed in his room after supper, his honor was impatient and distraught, interrupting the con- versation constantly by demanding: "Where's Lincoln?" "Why don't Lincoln come?" And when Lincoln did come, the judge would draw out story after story, quieting every- body who interrupted with an impatient, "Mr. Lincoln's talk- ing." If anyone came to the door to see the host in the midst TRAVELLING ON THE CIRCUIT 245 af one of Lincoln's stories he would send a lawyer into the hall to see what was wanted, and, as soon as the door closed, order Lincoln to "go ahead." The appearance of the court in a town was invariably a stimulus to its social life. In all of the county-seats there were a few fine homes of which the dignity, spaciousness, and elegance still impress the traveller through Illinois. The hospitality of these houses was generous. Dinners, recep- tions, and suppers followed one another as soon as the court began. Lincoln was a favorite figure at all these gatherings. His favorite field, however, was the court. The court- houses of Illinois in which he practised were not log houses, as has been frequently taken for granted. "It is not proba- ble," says a leading member of the Illinois bar, "Mr. Lincoln ever saw a log court-house in central Illinois, where he prac- tised law, unless he saw one at Decatur, in Macon County. In a conversation between three members of the Supreme Court of Illinois, all of whom had been born in this State and had lived in it all their lives, and who were certainly familiar with the central portions of the State, all declared they had never seen a log court-house in the State." The court-houses in which Lincoln practised were stiff, old-fashioned wood or brick structures, usually capped by cupola or tower, and fronted by verandas with huge Doric or Ionic pillars. They were finished inside in the most uncompromising style — hard white walls, unpainted wood- work, pine floors, wooden benches. Usually they were heated by huge Franklin stoves, with yards of stove-pipe running wildly through the air, searching for an exit, and threaten- ing momentarily to un joint and tumble in sections. Few of the lawyers had offices in the town ; and a corner of the court- room, the shade of a tree in the court-yard, a sunny side of a building, were where they met their clients and transacted business. 246 LIFE OP LINCOLN In the courts themselves there was a certain indifference to formality engendered by the primitive surroundings, which, however, the judges never allowed to interfere with the seriousness of the work. Lincoln habitually, when not busy, whispered stories to his neighbors, frequently to the annoyance of Judge Davis. If Lincoln persisted too long, the judge would rap on the chair and exclaim : "Come, come, Mr. Lincoln, I can't stand this ! There is no use trying to carry on two courts; I must adjourn mine or you yours, and I think you will have to be the one." As soon as the group had scattered, the judge would call one of the men to him and ask: "What was that Lincoln was telling?" "I was never fined but once for contempt of court," says one of the clerks of the court in Lincoln's day. "Davis fined me five dollars, Mr. Lincoln had just come in, and leaning over my desk had told me a story so irresistibly funny that I broke out into a loud laugh. The judge called me to order in haste, saying, 'This must be stopped. Mr. Lincoln, you are constantly disturbing this court with your stories/ Then to me, 'You may fine yourself five dollars for your disturb- ance/ I apologized, but told the judge that the story was worth the money. In a few minutes the judge called me to him. ' What was the story Lincoln told you ? ' he asked. I told him, and he laughed aloud in spite of himself. ' Remit your fine/ he ordered." The partiality of Judge Davis for Lincoln was shared by the members of the court generally. The unaffected friendli- ness and helpfulness of his nature had more to do with this than his wit and cleverness. If there was a new clerk in court, a stranger unused to the ways of the place, Lincoln was the first — sometimes the only one — to shake hands with him and congratulate him on his election. "No lawyer on the circuit was more unassuming than was TRAVELLING ON THE CIRCUIT 247 Mr. Lincoln," says one who practised with him. "He arro- gated to himself no superiority over anyone — not even the most obscure member of the bar. He treated everyone with that simplicity and kindness that friendly neighbors manifest in their relations with one another. He was remarkably gen- tle with young lawyers becoming permanent residents at the several county-seats in the circuit where he had practised for so many years. . . . The result was, he became the much-beloved senior member of the bar. No young lawyer ever practised in the courts with Mr. Lincoln who did not in all his after life have a regard for him akin to personal af- fection." "I remember with what confidence I always went to him," says Judge Lawrence Welden, who first knew Lincoln at the bar in 1854, "because I was certain he knew all about the matter and would most cheerfully help me. I can see him now, through the decaying memories of thirty years, stand- ing in the corner of the old court-room ; and as I approached him with a paper I did not understand, he said, 'Wait until I fix this plug of my "gallis" and I will pitch into that like a dog at a root/ While speaking he was busily engaged in trying to connect his suspenders with his pants by making a plug perform the function of a button." If for any reason Lincoln was absent from court, he was missed perhaps as no other man on the Eighth Circuit would have been, and his return greeted joyously. He was not less happy himself to rejoin his friends. "Ain't you glad I've come?" he would call out, as he came up to shake hands. The cases which fell to Lincoln on the Eighth Circuit were of the sort common to a new country. Litigation over bor- dering lines and deeds, over damages by wandering cattle, over broils at country festivities. Few of the cases were of large importance. When a client came to Lincoln his first 248 LIFE OP LINCOLN effort was to arrange matters, if possible, and to avoid a suit In a few notes for a law lecture prepared about 1850, he says: "Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to com- promise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser — in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be busi- ness enough. "Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this. Who can be more nearly a fiend than he who habitually overhauls the register of deeds in search of defects in titles, whereon to stir up strife, and put money in his pocket ? A moral tone ought to be infused into the profession which should drive such men out of it." He carried out this in his practice. "Who was your guardian?" he asked a young man who came to him to com- plain that a part of the property left him had been withheld. "Enoch Kingsbury," replied the young man. "I know Mr. Kingsbury," said Lincoln, "and he is not the man to have cheated you out of a cent, and I can't take the case, and advise you to drop the subject." And it was dropped. "We shall not take your case," he said to a man who had shown that by a legal technicality he could win property worth six hundred dollars. "You must remember that some things legally right are not morally right. We shall not take your case, but will give you a little advice for which we will charge you nothing. You seem to be a sprightly, energetic man ; we would advise you to try your hand at making six hundred dollars in some other way." Where he saw injustice he was quick to offer his services to the wronged party. A pleasant example of this is related by Joseph Jefferson in his "Autobiography." In 1839, Jef- ferson, then a lad of ten years, travelled through Illinois TRAVELLING ON THE CIRCUIT 249 with his father's theatrical company. After playing at Chi- cago, Quincy, Peoria and Pekin, the company went in the fall to Springfield, where the sight of the legislature tempted the elder Jefferson and his partner to remain throughout the season. But there was no theatre. Not to be daunted they built one. But hardly had they completed it before a re- ligious revival broke out in the town, and the church people turned all their influence against the theatre. So effectually did they work that a law was passed by the municipality im- posing a license which was practically prohibitory. "In the midst of our trouble," says Jefferson, "a young lawyer called on the managers. He had heard of the injustice, and offered, if they would place the matter in his hands, to have the license taken off, declaring that he only desired to see fair play, and he would accept no fee whether he failed or succeeded. The young lawyer began his harangue. He handled the subject with tact, skill, and humor, tracing the history of the drama from the time when Thespis acted in a cart to the stage of to-day. He illustrated his speech with a number of anecdotes, and kept the council in a roar of laughter. His good humor prevailed, and the exorbitant tax was taken off." The "young lawyer" was Lincoln. Having accepted a case, Lincoln's first object seemed to be to reduce it to its simplest elements. "If I can clean this case of technicalities, and get it properly swung to the jury, I'll win it," he told his partner Herndon one day. He began by getting at what seemed to him the pivot on which it rested. Sure of that, he cared little for anything else. He trusted very little to books; a great deal to common sense and his ideas of right and wrong. "In the make of his character Mr. Lincoln had many ele- ments essential to the successful circuit lawyer," says one of his fellow-practitioners. "He knew much of the law as writ- ten in the books, and had that knowledge ready for use at all 250 LIFE OF LINCOLN times. That was a valuable possession in the absence of law books, where none were obtainable on the circuit. But he had more than a knowledge of the law. He knew right and justice, and knew how to make their application to the af- fairs of every-day life. That was an element in his charac- ter that gave him power to prevail with the jury when argu- ing a case before them. Few lawyers ever had the influence with a jury that Mr. Lincoln had." When a case was clear to him and he was satisfied of its justice, he trusted to taking advantage of the developments of the trial to win. For this reason he made few notes be- forehand, rarely writing out his plan of argument. Those he left are amusingly brief ; for instance, the notes made for FACSIMILE OF A LINCOLN MEMORANDUM. From the Lincoln collection in the law offices of Messrs. Vanuxem & Potter, of Philadel- phia. This characteristic memorandum was found by Messrs. Herndon & Weik in looking over the papers in Lincoln's law office. It was the label to a package of letters, pamphlets, and newspapers which he had tied together and marked. a suit he had brought against a pension agent who had with- held as fee half of the pension he had obtained for the aged widow of a Revolutionary soldier. Lincoln was deeply in- dignant at the agent, and had resolved to win his suit. He read up the Revolutionary war afresh, and when he came to address the jury drew a harrowing picture of the private soldier's sufferings and of the trials of his separation from his wife. The notes for this argument ran as follows : "No contract — Not professional services. Unreasonable charge, — Money retained by Deft not given by Prff. — Revolutionary War. — Soldier's bleeding feet. — Pl'ff's hus- band. — Soldier leaving home for army. — Skin deft.—* Close." TRAVELLING ON THE CIRCUIT 251 Lincoln's reason for not taking notes, as he told it to H. W. Beckwith, when a student in the Danville office of Lin- coln and Lamon, was : " Notes are a bother, taking time to make, and more to hunt them up afterwards; lawyers who do so soon get the habit of referring to them so much that it confuses and tires the jury." " He relied on his well- trained memory," says Mr. Beckwith, " that recorded and indexed every passing detail. And by his skilful questions, a joke, or pat retort as the trial progressed, he steered his jury from the bayous and eddies of side issues and kept them clear of the snags and sandbars, if any were put in the real channel of his case." Much of his strength lay in his skill in examining wit- nesses. "He had a most remarkable talent for examining witnesses," says an intimate associate; "with him it was a rare gift. It was a power to compel a witness to disclose the whole truth. Even a witness at first unfriendly, under his kindly treatment would finally become friendlv. and would wish to tell nothing he could honestly avoid against him, if he could state nothing for him." He could not endure an unfair use of testimony or the misrepresentation of his own position. "In the Harrison murder case," says Mr. T. W. S. Kidd of Springfield, a crier of the court in Lincoln's day, "the prosecuting attorney stated that such a witness made a certain statement, when Mr. Lincoln rose and made such a plaintive appeal to the at- torney to correct the statement, that the attorney actually made the amende honorable, and afterwards remarked to a brother lawyer that he could deny his own child's appeal as quickly as he could Mr. Lincoln's." Sometimes under provocation he became violently angry. In the murder case referred to above, the judge ruled con- trary to his expectations, and, as Mr. Lincoln said, contrary to the decision of the Supreme Court in a similar case. "Both 252 LIFE OF LINCOLN Mr. Lincoln and Judge Logan, who was with him in the case," says Mr. Kidd, "rose to their feet quick as thought. I do think he was the most unearthly looking man I had ever seen. He roared like a lion suddenly aroused from his lair, and said and did more in ten minutes than I ever heard him say or saw him do before in an hour." He depended a great deal upon his stories in pleading, using them as illustrations which demonstrated the case more conclusively than argument could have done. Judge H. W. Beckwith of Danville, Illinois, in his "Personal Recollections of Lincoln," tells a story which is a good example of Lin- coln's way of condensing the law and the facts of an issue in a story. "A man, by vile words, first provoked and then made a bodily attack upon another. The latter in defending him- self gave the other much the worst of the encounter. The aggressor, to get even, had the one who thrashed him tried in our circuit court upon a charge of an assault and battery. Mr. Lincoln defended, and told the jury that his client was in the fix of a man who, in going along the highway with a pitchfork on his shoulder, was attacked by a fierce dog that ran out at him from a farmer's door-yard. In parrying off the brute with the fork its prongs stuck into the brute and killed him. " 'What made you kill my dog?' said the farmer. " 'What made him try to bite me ?' " 'But why did you not go at him with the other end of the pitchfork?' " 'Why did he not come after me with his other end ?' At this Mr. Lincoln whirled about in his long arms an imagin- ary dog and pushed its tail end toward the jury. This was the defensive plea of 'son assault demesne' — loosely, that 'the other fellow brought on the fight,' — quickly told, and in a way the dullest mind would grasp and retain." TRAVELLING ON THE CIRCUIT 253 Mr. T. W. S. Kidd says that he once heard a lawyer op- posed to Lincoln trying to convince a jury that precedent was superior to law, and that custom made things legal in all cases. When Lincoln arose to answer him he told the jury he would argue his case in the same way. Said he: "Old 'Squire Bagly, from Menard, came into my office and said, 'Lincoln, I want your advice as a lawyer. Has a man what's been elected justice of the peace a right to issue a marriage license ?' I told him he had not ; when the old 'squire threw himself back in his chair very indignantly, and said : 'Lin- coln, I thought you was a lawyer. Now Bob Thomas and me had a bet on this thing, and we agreed to let you decide ; but if this is your opinion I don't want it, for I know a thunderin' sight better, for I have been 'squire now eight years and have done it all the time.' " His manner of telling stories was most effective. "When he chose to do so," writes Judge Scott, " he could place the opposite party, and his counsel too, for that matter, in a most ridiculous attitude by relating in his inimitable way a perti- nent story. That often gave him a great advantage with the jury. A young lawyer had brought an action in trespass to recover damages done to his client's growing crops by de- fendant's hogs. The right of action under the law of Illinois, as it was then, depended on the fact whether plaintiff's fence was sufficient to turn ordinary stock. There was some little conflict in the evidence on that question; but the weight of the testimony was decidedly in favor of plaintiff, and sus- tained beyond all doubt his cause of action. Mr. Lincoln ap- peared for defendant. There was no controversy as to the damage done by defendant's stock. The only thing in the case that could possibly admit of any discussion was the con- dition of plaintiff's fence; and as the testimony on that ques- tion seemed to be in favor of plaintiff, and as the sum in- volved was little in amount, Mr. Lincoln did not deem it nee- 254 LIFE OP LINCOLN essary to argue the case seriously, but by way of saying something in behalf of his client he told a little story about a fence that was so crooked that when a hog went through an opening in it, invariably it came out on the same side from whence it started. His description of the confused look of the hog after several times going through the fence and still finding itself on the side from which it had started, was a humorous specimen of the best story-telling. The effect was to make plaintiff's case appear ridiculous; and while Mr. Lincoln did not attempt to apply the story to the case, the jury seemed to think it had some kind of application to the fence in controversy — otherwise he would not have told it — and shortly returned a verdict for the defendant." Those unfamiliar with his methods frequently took his stories as an effort to wring a laugh from the jury. A law- yer, a stranger to Mr. Lincoln, once expressed to General Linder the opinion that this practice of Lincoln was a waste of time. "Don't lay that flattering unction to your soul," Linder answered; "Lincoln is like Tansey's horse, he 'breaks to win/ " But it was not his stories, it was his clearness which was his strongest point. He meant that the jury should see that he was right. For this reason he never used a word which the dullest juryman could not understand. Rarely, if ever, did a Latin term creep into his arguments. A lawyer quot- ing a legal maxim one day in court, turned to Lincoln, and said : "That is so, is it not, Mr. Lincoln ?" "If that's Latin," Lincoln replied, "you had better call an- other witness." His illustrations were almost always of the homeliest kind. He did not care to "go among the ancients for figures," he said. " Much of the force of his argument," writes Judge Scott, " lay in his logical statement of the facts of a case. When TRAVELLING ON THE CIRCUIT 255 he had in that way secured a clear understanding of the facts, the jury and the court would seem naturally to follow him in his conclusions as to the law of the case. His simple and natural presentation of the facts seemed to give the impres- sion that the jury were themselves making the statement. He had the happy and unusual faculty of making the jury believe they — and not he — were trying the case. Mr. Lin- coln kept himself in the background, and apparently assumed nothing more than to be an assistant counsel to the court or the jury, on whom the primary responsibility for the final decision of the case in fact rested. " He rarely consulted books during a trial, lest he lose the at- tention of the jury, and if obliged to, translated their state- ments into the simplest terms. In his desire to keep his case clear he rarely argued points which seemed to him unessen- tial. "In law it is good policy never to plead what you need not, lest you oblige yourself to prove what you can not," he wrote. He would thus give away point after point with an indifferent "I reckon that's so/' until the point which he con- sidered pivotal was reached, and there he hung. "In making a speech," says Mr. John Hill, "Mr. Lincoln was the plainest man I ever heard. He was not a speaker but a talker. He talked to jurors and to political gatherings plain, sensible, candid talk, almost as in conversation, no ef- fort whatever in oratory. But his talking had wonderful ef- fect. Honesty, candor, fairness, everything that was con- vincing, were in his manner and expressions." This candor of which Mr. Hill speaks characterized his entire conduct of a trial. "It is well understood by the pro- fession," says General Mason Brayman, "that lawyers do not read authorities favoring the opposing side. I once heard Mr. Lincoln, in the supreme court of Illinois, reading from a reported case some strong points in favor of his argument Reading a little too far, and before becoming aware of it, he 256 LIFE OF LINCOLN plunged into an authority against himself. Pausing a mo ment, he drew up his shoulders in a comical way, and half laughing, went on, 'There, there, may it please the court, I reckon I've scratched up a snake. But, as I'm in for it, I guess I'll read it through.' Then, in his most ingenious and matchless manner, he went on with his argument, and won his case, convincing the court that it was not much of a snake after all." CHAPTER XVI Lincoln's important law cases — defence of a slave girl the mccormick case the armstrong mur- der case the rock island bridge case Abraham Lincoln's place in the legal circle of Illinois has never been clearly defined. The ordinary impression is that, though he was a faithful and trusted lawyer, he never rose to the first rank of his profession. This idea has come from imperfect information concerning his legal career. An examination of the reports of the Illinois Supreme Court from 1840, when he tried his first case before that body, to 1 86 1, when he gave up his profession to become President of the United States, shows that in this period of twenty years, broken as it was, from 1847 to x 849, by a term in Congress, and interrupted constantly, from 1854 to i860, by his labors in opposition to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, Lin- coln was engaged in nearly one hundred cases before that court, some of them of great importance. This fact shows him to have been one of the leading lawyers of his State. Between ninety and one hundred cases before the Supreme Court of a State in twenty years is a record surpassed by but few lawyers. It was exceeded by none of Lincoln's Illinois contemporaries. Among the cases in which he was prominent and of which we have reports, there are several of dramatic import, viewing them, as we can now, in connection with his later life. One of the first in which he appeared before the Illinois Supreme Court involved the freedom of a negro girl called Nance. In spite of the fact that Illinois had been free 257 258 LIFE OP LINCOLN since "its admission as a State, many traces of slavery still remained, particularly in the southern and central parts of the State. Among the scattered slaveholders was one Nathan Cromwell of Tazewell County, who for some years had in his service a negro girl, Nance. He claimed that Nance was bound to him by indenture, and that he had the right to sell her as any other property, a right he succeeded finally in exercising. One of his neighbors, Baily by name, bought the girl ; but the purchase was conditional : Baily was to pay for his property only when he received from Cromwell title papers showing that Nance was bound to serve under the laws of the State. These papers Cromwell failed to pro- duce before his death. Later his heirs sued Baily for the purchase price. Baily employed Lincoln to defend him. The case was tried in September, 1839, an( ^ decided against Baily. Then in July, 1841, it was tried again, before the Supreme Court of the State. Lincoln proved that Nance had lived for several years in the State, that she was over twenty-one years of age, that she had declared herself to be free, and that she had even purchased goods on her own account. The list of authorities he used in the trial to prove that Nance could not be held in bondage shows that he was already familiar with both Federal and State legislation on the slavery ques- tion up to that date. He went back to the Ordinance of 1787, to show that slavery was forbidden in the Northwest Territory; he recalled the Constitution that had made the State free in 1818; he showed that by the law of nations no person can be sold in a free State. His argument convinced the court; the judgment of the lower court was overruled, and Nance was free. After Lincoln's return from Congress in 1849, ne was en ~ gaged in some of the most important cases of the day. One of these was a contest between the Illinois Central Railroad, at that time building, and McLean County, Illinois. This LINCOLN S OFFICE BOOK-CASE, CHAIR, AND INK-STAND (In the Lincoln collection of Mr. William H. Lambert of Philadelphia, Pa.) They formerly belonged to the Lincoln Memorial Collection of Chicago. Accompanying the ink- stand is a letter saying that Mr. Lincoln wrote from it the famous " house-divided-against-itself " speech. IMPORTANT LAW CASES 259 road had been exempted by the legislature from all State taxation on condition that it pay perpetually into the State treasury seven per cent, of its annual gross earnings. When the line was laid in McLean County the county authorities declared that the State legislature could not excuse the rail- road company from paying county taxes; accordingly the company's property was assessed and a tax levied. If this claim of the county could be sustained, it was certain to kill the railroad; and great preparations were made for the de- fence. The solicitor of the Illinois Central at that time was General Mason Brayman, who retained Lincoln. The case was tried at Bloomington, before the supreme court, and, largely through the efforts of Lincoln, was won for the road. According to Herndon, Lincoln charged for his services a fee of two thousand dollars. Going to Chicago he presented his bill. "Why," said the officer to whom he applied, "this is as much as a first-class lawyer would have charged." Stung by the ungrateful speech, Lincoln withdrew the bill, left the office, and at the first opportunity submitted the mat- ter to his friends. Five thousand dollars, they all agreed, was a moderate fee, considering what he had done for the road, and six leading lawyers of the State signed a paper in which they declared that such a charge would not be "un- reasonable." Lincoln then sued the road for that amount, and won his case. "He gave me my half," says Herndon; "and as much as we deprecated the avarice of great corpora- tions, we both thanked the Lord for letting the Illinois Cen- tral Railroad fall into our hands." The current version of this story names General George B. McClellan as the testy official who snubbed Lincoln when he presented the bill. This could not have been. The incident occurred in 1855; that year Captain McClellan spent in the Crimea, as one of a commission of three sent abroad to study the European military service as disolayed in the Crimean 260 LIFE OF LINCOLN war. It was not until January, 1857, that McClellan re- signed his commission in the United States army to become the chief engineer, and afterwards vice-president, of the Illi- nois Central Railroad. It was when an officer of the Illinois Central, however, that McClellan first met Lincoln. "Long before the war," he says, in "McClellan's Own Story," "when vice-president of the Illinois Central Railroad, I knew Mr. Lincoln, for he was one of the counsel of the company. More than once I have been with him in out-of-the-way county-seats where some important case was being tried, and, in the lack of sleeping accommodations, have spent the night in front of a stove, listening to the unceasing flow of anec- dotes from his lips. He was never at a loss, and I could never quite make up my mind how many of them he had really heard before, and how many he invented on the spur of the moment. His stories were seldom refined, but were always to the point." It was through his legal practice that Lincoln first met still another man who was to sustain a relation of the great- est importance to him in the war. This man was Edwin M. Stanton. The meeting occurred in Cincinnati in 1855, in connection with a patent case which is famous in the legal history of the country, and in which both Lincoln and Stan- ton had been retained as counsel. So much that is false has been written of this meeting, that a full and exact statement of the circumstances has been obtained for this work from Mr. George Harding of Philadelphia, the only one of either judges or counsel in the case living at this writing. "Cyrus H. McCormick owned reaping-machine patents granted in 1845 an d 1847," sa y s Mr. Harding, "upon which he sued John M. Manny and Co. of Rockford, Illinois. Mr. Manny had obtained patents also. Manny and Co. were large manufacturers of reaping-machines under Manny's patents. McCormick contended that his patents were valid and secured to him a virtual monopoly of all practical reap- IMPORTANT LAW CASES 261 ing machines as constructed at that date. If McCormick had been successful in his contention, Manny would have been enjoined, his factory stopped, and a claim of four hundred thousand dollars damages demanded from his firm. McCor- mick' s income from that monopoly would have been vastly increased. Hence the suit was very important to all parties and to the farming public. The plaintiff McCormick had re- tained Mr. E. N. Dickerson and Reverdy Johnson. The former was entrusted with the preparation of the plaintiff's case and the argument before the court on the mechanics of the case. Mr. P. H. Watson, who had procured Manny's patents, was given by Manny the entire control of the de- fendant's case, He employed Mr. George Harding to pre- pare the defence for Manny, and to argue the mechanics of the case before the court. In those times it was deemed im- portant in patent cases to employ associate counsel not spe- cially familiar with mechanical questions, but of high stand- ing in the general practice of the law, and of recognized forensic ability. If such counsel represented the defendant he urged upon the court the importance of treating the patentee as a quasi-monopolist, whose claims should be limited to the precise mechanical contributions which he had made to the art; while, on the other hand, the plaintiff's forensic counsel was expected to dwell upon the privations and labor of the patentee, and insist on a very liberal view of his claims, and to hold that defendants who had appro- priated any of his ideas should be treated as pirates. The necessity of the forensic contribution in the argument of patent cases is not now recognized. "McCormick had selected Mr. Reverdy Johnson for the forensic part of his case. Mr. Watson was in doubt as to whom to select to perform this duty for the defendants. At the suggestion of Mr. Manny, Mr. Watson wrote to Mr. Lin- coln, sending to him a retainer of five hundred dollars, and requesting him to read the testimony, which was sent to him from time to time as taken, so that if Mr. Watson afterward concluded to have him argue the case he would be prepared, Mr. Harding had urged the employment of Mr. Stanton, who was personally known to him, and who then resided at Pittsburg. 262 LIFE OF LINCOLN "With a view to determining finally who should argue ths forensic part of Manny's case, Mr. Watson personally visited Springfield and conferred with Mr. Lincoln. On his way back from Springfield he called upon Mr. Stanton at Pitts- burg, and, after a conference, retained Mr. Stanton, and in- formed him distinctly that he was to make the closing argu- ment in the case. Nevertheless Mr. Lincoln was sent copies of the testimony ; he studied the testimony, and was paid for so doing, the same as Mr. Stanton. Mr. Watson considered that it would be prudent for Mr. Lincoln to be prepared, in case of Mr. Stanton's inability, for any cause, to argue the case ; so that, at the outset, Mr. Stanton was selected by Mr. Manny's direct representative to perform this duty. "When all the parties and counsel met at Cincinnati, Mr. Lincoln was first definitely informed by Mr. Watson of his determination that Mr. Stanton was to close the case for de- fendants. Mr. Lincoln was evidently disappointed at Mr. Watson's decision. Mr. Lincoln had written out his argu- ment in full. He was anxious to meet Mr. Reverdy Johnson in forensic contest. The case was important as to the amount in dispute, and of widespread interest to farmers. Mr. Lin- coln's feelings were embittered, moreover, because the plain- tiff's counsel subsequently, in open court, of their own mo- tion, stated that they perceived that there were three counsel present for defendant, and that plaintiff had only two coun- sel present; but they were willing to allow all three of de- fendant's counsel to speak, provided Mr. Dickerson, who had charge of the mechanical part of McCormick's case, were permitted to make two arguments, besides Mr. Johnson's argument. Mr. Watson, who had charge of defendant's case, declined this offer, because the case ultimately de- pended upon mechanical questions; and he thought that if Mr. Dickerson were allowed to open the mechanical part of the case, and then make a subsequent argument on the me- chanics, the temptation would be great to make an insuf- ficient or misleading mechanical opening of the case at first, and, after Mr. Harding had replied thereto, to make a fuller or different mechanical presentation, which could not be re- plied to by Mr. Harding. It was conceded that neither Mr. Lincoln nor Mr. Stanton was prepared to handle the me- IMPORTANT LAW CASES 261 j chanics of the case either in opening or reply. In view of these facts, Mr. Watson decided that only two arguments would be made for Manny, and that Mr. Harding would open the case for defendant on the mechanical part, and Mr. Stanton would close on the general propositions of law ap- plicable to the case. Mr. Stanton said in court that per- sonally he had no desire to speak, but he agreed with Mr. Watson that only two arguments should be made for de- fendants whether he spoke or not. Mr. Lincoln, knowing Mr. Watson's wishes, insisted that Mr. Stanton should make the closing argument, and that he would not himself speak. Mr. Stanton accepted the position, and did speak, because he knew that such was the expressed wish and direction of Mr. Watson, who controlled the conduct of defendant's case. "Mr. Lincoln kindly and gracefully, but regretfully, ac- cepted the situation. He attended, and exhibited much in- terest in the case as it proceeded. He sent to Mr. Harding the written argument which he had prepared, that he might have the benefit of it before he made his opening argument ; but requested Mr. Harding not to show it to Mr. Stanton. The chagrin of Mr. Lincoln at not speaking continued, how- ever, and he felt that Mr. Stanton should have insisted on his, Mr. Lincoln's, speaking also ; while Mr. Stanton merely carried out the positive direction of his client that there should be only two arguments for defendant, and that he, Mr. Stanton, should close the case, and Mr. Harding should open the case. Mr. Lincoln expressed to Mr. Harding satis- faction at the manner in which the mechanical part of the case had been presented by him, and after Mr. Lincoln had been elected President, he showed his recollection of it by tendering Mr. Harding, of his own motion, a high position. "In regard to the personal treatment of Mr. Lincoln while in attendance at Cincinnati, it is to be borne in mind that Mr. Lincoln was known to hardly any one in Cincinnati at that date, and that Mr. Stanton was probably not impressed with the appearance of Mr. Lincoln. It is true there was no per- sonal intimacy formed between them while at Cincinnati. Mr. Lincoln was disappointed and unhappy while in Cin- cinnati, and undoubtedly did not receive the attention which he should have received. Mr. Lincoln felt all this, and par- 264 LIFE OF LINCOLN ticularly, but unjustly, reflected upon Mr. Stanton as the main cause. When Mr. Lincoln was nominated for Presi- dent, Mr. Stanton, like many others in the country, sincerely doubted whether Mr. Lincoln was equal to the tremendous responsibility which he was to be called upon to assume as President. This is to be borne in mind, in view of events subsequent to the case at Cincinnati. Mr. Stanton never called upon Mr. Lincoln after he came to Washington as President. Mr. Lincoln in alluding to Mr. Stanton (both before and after his election as President) did not attempt to conceal his unkind feeling towards him, which had its origin at Cincinnati. This feeling did not undergo a change until after he met Mr. Stanton as Secretary of War. "The occurrences narrated show how one great man may underrate his fellow man. Mr. Stanton saw at Cincinnati in Mr. Lincoln only his gaunt, rugged features, his awkward dress and carriage, and heard only his rural jokes; but Stan- ton lived to perceive in those rugged lineaments only expres- sions of nobility and loveliness of character, and to hear from his lips only wisdom, prudence, and courage, couched in lan- guage unsurpassed in literature. But above all they show the nobility of Mr. Lincoln's character in forgetting all un- kind personal feeling engendered at Cincinnati towards Mr. Stanton, and subsequently appointing him his Secretary of War. " The above was narrated by Mr. Harding for the main purpose of correcting the popular impression that Mr. Stan- ton, of his own motion, rode over and displaced Mr. Lincoln in the case at Cincinnati ; for the truth is that Mr. Stanton, in the course he pursued, was directed by his clients' repre- sentative, Mr. Watson, who believed that he was serving the best interests of his clients." Lincoln was first suggested to Mr. Manny as counsel in this case by a younger member of the firm, Mr. Ralph Emer- son, of Rockford, Illinois. Mr. Emerson, as a student of law, had been thrown much into company with Mr. Lincoln, and had learned to respect his judgment and ability. Indeed, it was Lincoln wb^ was instrumental in deciding him to IMPORTANT LAW CASES 265 abandon the law. The young man had seen much in the practice of his chosen profession which seemed to him un- just, and he had begun to feel that the law was incompati- ble with his ideals. One evening, after a particularly trying day in court, he walked out with Lincoln. Suddenly turn- ing to his companion, he said : "Mr. Lincoln, I want to ask you a question. Is it possible for a man to practice law and always do by others as he would be done by?" Lincoln's head dropped on his breast, and he walked in silence for a long way; then he heaved a heavy sigh. When he finally spoke, it was of a foreign matter. "I had my answer," said Mr. Emerson, "and that walk turned the course of my life." During the trial at Cincinnati, Lincoln and Mr. Emerson were thrown much together, and Mr. Emerson's recollec- tions are particularly interesting. " As I was the sole intimate friend of Mr. Lincoln in the case, when it was decided that he should not take part in the argument, he invited me to his room to express his bitter dis- appointment ; and it was with difficulty that I persuaded him to remain as counsel during the hearing. We generally spent the afternoons together. The hearing had hardly pro- gressed two days before Mr. Lincoln expressed to me his satisfaction that he was not to take part in the argument. So many and so deep were the questions involved that he realized he had not given the subject sufficient study to have done himself justice. "The court-room, which during the first day or two was well filled, greatly thinned out as the argument proceeded day after day. But as the crowd diminished, Mr. Lincoln's interest in the case increased. He appeared entirely to forget himself, and at times, rising from his chair, walked back and forth in the open space of the court-room, as though he were in his own office, pausing to listen intently as one point after another was clearly made out in our favor. He manifested such delight in countenance and unconscious action that its effect on the judges, one of whom at least already highly re- spected him, was evidently stronger than any set speech of 266 LIFE OF LINCOLN his could possibly have been. The impression produced on the judges was evidently that Mr. Lincoln was thoroughly convinced of the justice of our side, and anxious that we should prevail, not merely on account of his interest in his clients, but because he thought our case was just and should triumph. "The final summing up on our side was by Mr. Stanton; and though he took but about three hours in its delivery, he had devoted as many, if not more, weeks to its prepara- tion. It was very able, and Mr. Lincoln was throughout the whole of it a rapt listener. Mr. Stanton closed his speech in a flight of impassioned eloquence. Then the court adjourned for the day, and Mr. Lincoln invited me to take a long walk with him. For block after block he walked rapidly forward, not saying a word, evidently deeply dejected. "At last he turned suddenly to me, exclaiming, 'Emerson, I am going home/ A pause. T am going home to study law/ " 'Why/ I exclaimed, 'Mr. Lincoln, you stand at the head of the bar in Illinois now ! What are you talking about ?' " 'Ah, yes/ he said, T do occupy a good position there, and I think that I can get along with the way things are done there now. But these college-trained men, who have devoted their whole lives to study, are coming West, don't you see ? And they study their cases as we never do. They have got as far as Cincinnati now. They will soon be in Illinois/ Another long pause; then stopping and turning toward me, his countenance suddenly assuming that look of strong determination which those who knew him best some- times saw upon his face, he exclaimed, T am going home to study law ! I am as good as any of them, and when they get out to Illinois I will be ready for them/ " The fee which Lincoln received in the McCormick case, in- cluding the retainer, which was five hundred dollars — the largest retainer ever received by Lincoln — amounted to nearly two thousand dollars. Except the sum paid him by the Illinois Central Railroad it was probably the largest fee he ever received. The two sums came to him about the same IMPORTANT LAW CASES 267 time, and undoubtedly helped to tide over the rather un- fruitful period, from a financial standpoint which followed - — the period of his contest with Douglas for the Senate. Lincoln never made money. From 1850 to i860 his income averaged from two thousand to three thousand dollars a year. In the forties it was considerably less. The fee-book of Lincoln and Herndon for 1847 shows total earnings of only fifteen hundred dollars. The largest fee entered was one of one hundred dollars. There are several of fifty dol- lars, a number of twenty, more of ten, still more of five, and a few of three dollars. But Lincoln's fees were as a rule smaller than his clients expected or his fellow lawyers approved of. Mr. Abraham Brokaw of Bloomington, Illinois, tells the following story illustrating Lincoln's idea of a proper fee. One of Mr. Bro- kaw's neighbors had borrowed about $500.00 from him and given his note. When it became due the man refused to pay. Action was brought, and the sheriff levied on the property of the debtor and finally collected the entire debt; but at about that time the sheriff was in need of funds and used the money collected. When Brokaw demanded it from him he was unable to pay it and was found to be insolvent. Thereupon Brokaw employed Stephen A. Douglas to sue the sureties on the official bond of the sheriff. Douglas brought the suit and soon collected the claim. But Douglas was at that time in the midst of a campaign for Congress and the funds were used by him with the expectation of being able to pay Brokaw later. However, he neglected the matter and went to Washington without making any settlement. Brokaw, although a life-long and ardent Democrat and a great admirer of Douglas, was a thrifty German and did not propose to lose sight of his money. After fruit- lessly demanding the money from Douglas, Brokaw went to David Davis, then in general practice at Blooming- 268 LIFE OF LINCOLN ton, told him the circumstances and asked him to under* take the collection of the money from Douglas. Davis pro- tested that he could not do it, that Douglas was a personal friend and a brother lawyer and Democrat and it would be very disagreeable for him to have anything to do with the matter. He finally said to Brokaw, "You wait until the next term of court and Lincoln will be here. He would like noth- ing better than to have this claim for collection. I will intro- duce you to him and I have no doubt he will undertake it." Shortly after, Brokaw was presented to Lincoln, stated his case and engaged his services. Lincoln promptly wrote Douglas, still at Washington, that he had the claim for col- lection and that he must insist upon prompt payment. Doug- las, very indignant, wrote directly to Brokaw that he thought the placing of the claim in Lincoln's hands a gross outrage, that he and Brokaw were old friends and Democrats and that Brokaw ought not to place any such weapon in the hands of such an Abolitionist opponent as Lincoln and if he could not wait until Douglas returned he should at least have placed the claim for collection in the hands of a Democrat. Brokaw's thrift again controlled and he sent Douglas' letter to Lincoln. Thereupon Lincoln placed the claim in the hands of "Long" John Wentworth, then a Democratic member of Congress from Chicago Wentworth called upon Douglas and insisted upon payment, which shortly after was made, and Brokaw at last received his money. "And what do you suppose Lincoln charged me?" Brokaw says in telling the story. After hearing a few guesses he answers, "He charged me exactly $3.50 for collecting nearly $600.00." Such charges were felt by the lawyers of the Eighth Cir- cuit, with some reason, to be purely Quixotic. They pro- tested and argued; but Lincoln went on serenely charging what he thought his services worth, Ward Lamon who was one of Lincoln's numerous circuit partners says that he and IMPORTANT LAW CASES 269 Lincoln frequently fell out on the matter of fees. On one oc- casion Lamon was particularly incensed. He had charged and received a good sized fee for a case which the two had tried together and won. When Lamon offered Lincoln his share he refused it. The fee was too large, he said, part of it must be refunded and he would not accept a cent until part of it had been refunded. Judge Davis heard of this transac- tion. He was himself a shrewd money-maker, never hesi- tating to take all he could legally get and he felt strong dis- gust at this disinterested attitude about money. Calling Lincoln to him the judge scolded roundly. ''You are pau- perizing this court, Mr. Lincoln, you are ruining your fel- lows. Unless you quit this ridiculous policy, we shall all have to go to farming." But not even the ire of the bench moved Lincoln. If a fee was not paid, Lincoln did not believe in suing for it. Mr. Herndon says that he would consent to be swindled before he would contest a fee. The case of the Illinois Cen- tral railroad, however, was an exception to this rule. He was careless in accounts, never entering anything on the book. When a fee was paid to him, he simply divided the money into two parts, one of which he put into his pocket, and the other into an envelope which he labelled "Herndon's half." Lincoln's whole theory of the conduct of a lawyer in regard to money is summed up in the "notes" for a law lecture which he left among his papers : " The matter of fees is important, far beyond the mere question of bread and butter involved. Properly attended to, fuller justice is done to both lawyer and client. An ex- orbitant fee should never be claimed. As a general rule never take your whole fee in advance, nor any more than a small retainer. When fully paid beforehand, you are more than a common mortal if you can feel the same interest in the case, as if something was still in prospect for you, as well as for your client. And when you lack interest in the case the 270 LIFE OF LINCOLN job will very likely lack skill and diligence in the perform- ance. Settle the amount of fee and take a note in advance. Then you will feel that you are working for something, and you are sure to do your work faithfully and well. Never sell a fee note — at least not before the consideration service is performed. It leads to negligence and dishonesty — negli- gence by losing interest in the case, and dishonesty in re- fusing to refund when you have allowed the consideration to fail." If a client was poor, and Lincoln's sympathies were aroused, he not infrequently refused pay. There are a few well authenticated cases of his offering his services to those whom he believed he could help, stipulating when he did it that he would make no charge. The best known example of this is the Armstrong murder case. William, or "Duff" Armstrong, as he was generally called, was the son of Lincoln's New Salem friends, Jack and Hannah Armstrong. In August, 1857, Duff and a num- ber of his mates had joined a crowd of ruffians who had gathered on the outskirts of a camp-meeting held near Ha- vana, in Macon county. He had drunk heavily for some days, and, finally, in a broil on the night of August 29, had beaten a comrade, one Metzker, who had provoked him to a fight. That same night Metzker was hit with an ox-yoke by another drunken reveller, Norris by name. Three days later he died. Both Armstrong and Norris were arrested. Marks of two blows were on the victim, either of which might have killed him. That Norris had dealt one was proved. Did Armstrong deal the other? He claimed he had used nothing but his fists in the broil ; but both the marks on Metzker were such as must have been made by some in- strument. The theory was developed that one blow was £rom a slung-shot used by Armstrong, and that he and Nor- ris had acted in concert, deliberately planning to murder Metzker. Outraged by the cruelty of the deed, the whole IMPORTANT LAW CASES 271 countryside demanded the punishment of the prisoners. Just at the time that Armstrong was thrown into prison his father died, his last charge to his wife Hannah being, "Sell every- thing you have and clear Duff." True to her trust, Hannah engaged two lawyers of Havana, both of whom are still liv- ing, to defend her boy. Anxious lest the violence of public feeling should injure Duff's chances, the lawyers secured a change of venue to Cass county, their client remaining in prison until spring. Norris, in the meantime, was convicted, and sentenced to eight years in the penitentiary. When the lawyers and witnesses assembled in Beards- town, May, 1858, for Armstrong's trial, it happened that Lincoln was attending court in the town. At that moment he was, after Stephen A. Douglas, the most conspicuous man in Illinois. His future course in politics was a source of interest in the East as well as the West. The coming con- test with Douglas for the senatorship — for it was already probable that he would be the candidate in the convention which was only a month away — was causing him intense anxiety. Yet occupied as he was with his profession, and harassed by the critical political situation, he did not hesitate an instant when Hannah Armstrong came to him for advice. Going to her lawyers, he said he should like to assist them. They, of course, were glad of his aid, and he at once took the case in hand. His first care was the selection of a jury. Not knowing the neighborhood well, he could not discriminate closely as to individuals ; but he took pains, as far as he could control the choice, to have only young men chosen, believing that they would be more favorable to the prisoner. A sur- viving witness in the case estimates that the average age of the jury was not over twenty-three years. The jury empanelled, the examination of witnesses seems to have been conducted, on behalf of the defence chiefly by Lincoln. Many of the witnesses bore familiar names. Some 272 LIFE OF LINCOLN were sons of "Clary's Grove Boys," and Lincoln had known their fathers. "The witnesses were kept out of the court- room until called to testify," says William A. Douglas. "I happened to be the first witness called, and so heard the whole trial. When William Killian was called to the stand, Lincoln asked him his name. " 'William Killian/ was the reply. " 'Bill Killian/ Lincoln repeated in a familiar way; 'tell me, are you a son of old Jake Killian ?' " 'Yes, sir/ answered the witness. " 'Well/ said Lincoln, somewhat aside, 'you are a smart boy if you take after your dad/ " As the trial developed it became evident that there could have been no collusion between Armstrong and Norris, but there was strong evidence that Armstrong had used a slung- shot. The most damaging evidence was that of one Allen, who swore that he had seen Armstrong strike Metzker about ten or eleven o'clock in the evening. When asked how he could see, he answered that the moon shone brightly. Under Lincoln's questioning he repeated the statement until it was impossible that the jury should forget it. With Allen's testi- mony unimpeached, conviction seemed certain. Lincoln's address to the jury was full of genuine pathos. It was not as a hired attorney that he was there, he said, but to discharge a debt of friendship. "Uncle Abe," says Duff Armstrong himself, "did his best talking when he told the jury what true friends my father and mother had been to him in the early days. . . . He told how he used to go out to 'Jack' Armstrong's and stay for days; how kind mother was to him ; and how, many a time, he had rocked me to sleep in the old cradle." But Lincoln was not relying on sympathy alone to win his case. In closing he reviewed the evidence, showing that all depended on Allen's testimony, and this he said be could IMPORTANT LAW CASES 273 prove to be false. Allen never saw Armstrong strike Metz- ker by the light of the moon, for at the hour when he said he saw the fight, between ten and eleven o'clock, the moon was not in the heavens. Then producing an almanac, he passed it to the judge and jury. The moon, which was on that night only in its first quarter, had set before midnight. This unexpected overthrow of the testimony by which Lin- coln had taken care that the jury should be most deeply im- pressed, threw them into confusion. There was a complete change of feeling. Lincoln saw it ; and as he finished his ad- dress, and the jury left the room, turning to the boy's mother, he said, "Aunt Hannah, your son will be free before sundown." Lincoln had not misread his jury. Duff Armstrong was discharged as not guilty. There has long been a story current that the dramatic in- troduction of the almanac, by which certainly the audience and jury were won, was a pure piece of trickery on Lincoln's part; that the almanac was not one of 1857, but of 1853, in which the figure three had been changed throughout to seven. The best reply to this charge of forgery is the very evident one that it was utterly unnecessary. The almanac for August, 1857, shows that the moon was exactly in the position where it served Lincoln's client's interests best. He did not need to forge an almanac, the one of the period being all that he could want. Another murder case in which Lincoln defended the ac- cused occurred in August, 1859. The victim was a student in his own law office, Greek Crafton. The murderet Peachy Harrison, was the grandson of Lincoln's old political antago- nist, Peter Cartwright. Both young men were connected with the best families of the county ; the brother of one was married to the sister of the other; they had been life-long friends. In an altercation upon some Political question hot 274 ^IFE OF LINCOLN words were exchanged, and Harrison, beside himseli, stabbed Crafton, who three days later died from the wound. The best known lawyers of the State were engaged for the case. Senator John M. Palmer and General A. McClernand were on the side of the prosecution. Among those who rep- resented the defendant were Lincoln, Herndon, Logan, and Senator Shelby M. Cullom. The tragic pathos of a case which involved, as this did, the deepest affections of almost an entire community, reached its climax in the appearance in court of the venerable Peter Cartwright. No face in Illi- nois was better known than his, no life had been spent in a more relentless war on evil. Eccentric and aggressive as he was, he was honored far and wide ; and when he arose in the witness stand, his white hair crowned with this cruel sor- row, the most indifferent spectator felt that his examination would be unbearable. It fell to Lincoln to question Cart- wright. With the rarest gentleness he began to put his ques- tions. "How long have you known the prisoner?" Cartwright's head dropped on his breast for a moment; then straightening himself, he passed his hand across his eyes and answered in a deep, quavering voice : "I have known him since a babe, he laughed and cried on my knee." The examination ended by Lincoln drawing from the wit- ness the story of how Crafton had said to him, just before his death : "I am dying ; I will soon part with all I love on earth, and I want you to say to my slayer that I forgive him. I want to leave this earth with a forgiveness of all who have in any way injured me." This examination made a profound impression on the jury. Lincoln closed his argument by picturing the scene anew, appealing to the jury to practice the same forgiving spirit that the murdered man had shown on his death-bed. IMPORTANT LAW CASES 275 It was undoubtedly to his handling of the grandfather's evi- dence that Harrison's acquittal was due. A class of legal work which Lincoln enjoyed particularly was that in which mathematical or mechanical problems were involved. He never lost interest in his youthful pot-boiling profession of surveying, and would go out himself to make sure of boundaries if a client's case required particular in- vestigation. Indeed, he was generally recognized by his fel- low lawyers as an authority in surveying, and as late as 1859 his opinion on a disputed question was sought by a conven- tion of surveyors who had met in Springfield. One of the most interesting cases involving mechanical problems which Lincoln ever argued was that of the Rock Island Bridge. It was not, however, the calculations he used which made it striking. The case was a dramatic episode in the war long waged by the Mississippi against the plains beyond. For decades the river had been the willing burden-bearer of the West. Now, however, the railroad had come. The Rock Island road had even dared to bridge the stream to carry away the traffic which the river claimed. In May, 1856, a steamboat struck one of the piers of the bridge, and was wrecked and burned. One pier of the bridge was also destroyed. The boat owners sued the railroad com- pany. The suit was the beginning of the long and violent struggle for commercial supremacy between St. Louis and Chicago. In Chicago it was commonly believed that the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce had bribed the captain of the boat to run upon the pier ; and it was said that later, when the bridge itself was burned, the steamers gathered near and whistled for joy. The case was felt to involve the future course of western commerce ; and when it was called in Sep- tember, 1857, at Chicago, people crowded there from all over the West. Norman B. Judd, afterwards so prominent in the politics of the State, was the attornev of the road, and he en- 276 LIFE OF LINCOLN gaged Lincoln, among others, as counsel. Lincoln made an address to the jury which those who remember it declare to have been one of his strongest legal arguments. " The two points relied upon by the opponents of the bridge," says Judge Blodgett of Chicago, " were: "First. That the river was the great waterway for the commerce of the valley, and could not legally be obstructed by a bridge. "Second. That this particular bridge was so located with reference to the channel of the river at that point as to make it a peril to all water craft navigating the river and an un- necessary obstruction to navigation. "The first proposition had not at that time been directly passed upon by the Supreme Court of the United States, al- though the Wheeling Bridge case involved the question; but the court had evaded a decision upon it, by holding that the Wheeling Bridge was so low as to be an unnecessary obstruc- tion to the use of the river by steamboats. The discussion of the first proposition on the part of the bridge company de- volved mainly upon Mr. Abraham Lincoln. "I listened with much interest to his argument on this point, and while I was not impressed by it as a specially elo- quent effort (as the word eloquent is generally understood), I have always considered it as one of the ablest efforts I ever heard from Mr. Lincoln at the bar. His illustrations were apt and forcible, his statements clear and logical, and his rea- sons in favor of the policy (and necessarily the right) to bridge the river, and thereby encourage the settlement and building up of the vast area of fertile country to the west of it, were broad and statesmanlike. "The pith of his argument was in his statement that one man had as good a right to cross a river as another had to sail up or down it; that these were equal and mutual rights which must be exercised so as not to interfere with each other, like the right to cross a street or highway and the right to pass along it. From this undeniable right to cross the river he then proceeded to discuss the means for crossing. Must it always be by canoe or ferryboat ? Must the products of all the boundless fertile country lying west of the river for IMPORTANT LAW CASES 277 all time be compelled to stop on its western bank, be unloaded from the cars and loaded upon a boat, and after the transit across the river, be reloaded into cars on the other side, to continue their journey east? In this connection he drew a vivid picture of the future of the great West lying beyond the river, and argued that the necessities of commerce de- manded that the bridges across the river be a conceded right, which the steamboat interests ought not to be allowed to successfully resist, and thereby stay the progress of develop- ment and civilization in the region to the west. " While I cannot recall a word or sentence of the argu- ment, I well remember its effect on all who listened to it, and the decision of the court fully sustained the right to bridge so long as it did not unnecessarily obstruct navigation." All the papers in regard to the trial are supposed to have been burned in the Chicago fire of 1871, but the speech, which was reported by Congressman Hitt of Illinois, at that time court stenographer, was published on September 24, 1857, in the Chicago " Daily Press," afterwards united with the " Tribune." According to this report the first part of the speech was devoted to the points Judge Blodgett outlines; the second part was given to a careful explanation of the currents of the Mississippi at the point where the bridge crossed. Lincoln succeeded in showing that had the pilot of the boat been as familiar as he ought to have been with the river, he could easily have prevented the accident. His argument was full of nice mathematical calculations clearly put, and was marked by perfect candor. Indeed, the honesty with which he ad- mitted the points made by the opposite counsel caused consid- erable alarm to some of his associates. Mrs. Norman B. Judd (Mr. Judd was the attorney of the road) says that Mr. Jo- seph B. Knox, who was also engaged with Mr. Lincoln in the defence, dined at her house the day that Lincoln made his speech. " He sat down at the dinner table in great excite- 278 LIFE OF LINCOLN ment," writes Mrs. Judd, "saying, 'Lincoln has lost the case for us. The admissions he made in regard to the currents in the Mississippi at Rock Island and Moline will convince the court that a bridge at that point will always be a serious and constant detriment to navigation on the river/ 'Wait until you hear the conclusion of his speech/ replied Mr. Judd; 'you will find his admission is a strong point instead of a weak one, and on it he will found a strong argument that will satisfy you/ " And as it proved, Mr. Judd was right. The few cases briefly outlined here show something of the range of Lincoln's legal work. They show that not only his friends like Hannah Armstrong believed in his power with a jury, but that great corporations like the Illinois Central Railroad were willing to trust their affairs in his hands ; that he was not only a "jury lawyer," as has been often stated, but trusted when it came to questions of law pure and sim- ple. If this study of his cases were continued, it would only be to accumulate evidence to prove that Lincoln was consid- ered by his contemporaries one of the best lawyers of Illinois. It is worth notice, too, that he made his reputation as a lawyer and tried his greatest cases before his debate with Douglas gave him a national reputation. It was in 1855 that the Illinois Central engaged him first as counsel ; in 1855 that he went to Cincinnati on the McCormick case; in 1857 that he tried the Rock Island Bridge case. Thus his place was won purely on his legal ability unaided by political prestige. His success came, too, in middle life. Lincoln was forty years old in 1849, when he abandoned politics definitely, as he thought, for the law. He tried his greatest cases when he was frfMai forty-five to forty-eight. CHAPTER XVII LINCOLN RE-ENTERS POLITICS From 1849 t0 ^54 Abraham Lincoln gave almost his en- tire time to his profession. Politics received from him only the attention which any public spirited citizen without per- sonal ambition should give. He kept close watch upon Fed- eral, State and local affairs. He was active in the efforts made in Illinois in 1851 to secure a more thorough party organization. In 1852 he was on the Scott electoral ticket and did some canvassing. But this was all. He was yearly becoming more absorbed in his legal work, losing more and more of his old inclination for politics, when in May, 1854, the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused him as he had never been before in all his life. The Missouri Compromise was the second in that series of noble provis- ions for making new territory free territory, which liberty- loving men have wrested from the United States Congress, whenever the thirst for expansion has seized this country. The first of these was the " Ordinance of 1787," prohibiting slavery in all the great Northwest Territory. The second the Missouri Compromise, passed in 1820, was the result of a struggle to keep the Louisiana Purchase free. It pro- vided that Missouri might come in as a slave State if slavery- was never allowed north of 36 30' north latitude. The next great expansion of the United States after the Louisiana Purchase resulted from the annexation of Texas, and of the territory acquired by the Mexican War. The North was determined that this new territory should be 279 280 LIFE OF LINCOLN free. The South wanted it for slaves. The struggle be- tween them threatened the Union for a time, but it was adjusted by the compromise of 1850, in which, according to Mr. Lincoln's summing up, " the South got their new fugitive-slave law, and the North got California (by far the best part of our acquisition from Mexico) as a free State. The South got a provision that New Mexico and Utah, when admitted as States, may come in with or without slavery, as they may then choose; and the North got the slave-trade abolished in the District of Columbia. The North got the western boundary of Texas thrown farther back eastward than the South desired; but, in turn, they gave Texas ten millions of dollars with which to pay her old debts." For three years matters were quiet. Then Nebraska sought territorial organization. Now by the Missouri Compromise slavery was forbidden in that section of the Union, but in spite of this fact Stephen A. Douglas, then a member of the Senate of the United States, introduced a bill to give Nebraska and Kansas the de- sired government, to which later he added an amend- ment repealing the Missouri Compromise and permitting the people who should settle in the new territories to reject or establish slavery as they should see fit. It was the passage of this bill which brought Abraham Lincoln from the court room to the stump. His friend Richard Yates was run- ning for re-election to Congress. Lincoln began to speak for him, but in accepting invitations he stipulated -that it should be against the Kansas-Nebraska bill that he talk. His earnestness surprised his friends. Lincoln was coming back into politics, they said, and when Douglas, the author of the repeal, was announced to speak in Springfield in Oc- tober of 1854, they called on Lincoln to meet him. Douglas was having* a serious struggle to reconcile his RE-ENTERS POLITICS 281 Illinois constituency. All the free sentiment of the State had been bitterly aroused by his part in the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and when he first returned to Illinois it looked as if he would not be given even a hearing. Indeed, when he first attempted to speak in Chicago, September 1, he was hooted from the platform. With every day in the State, however, he won back his friends, so great was his power over men, and he was beginning to arouse something of his old enthusiasm when he went %rence in his sim- THE CAMPAIGN OF i860 373 pie life. He was the same genial, accessible, modest man as ever, his habits as unpretentious, his friendliness as great. The chief outward change in his daily round was merely one of quarters. It seemed to his friends that neither his home nor his dingy law office was an appropriate place in which to receive his visitors and they arranged that a room in the State House which stood on. the village green in the centre of the town, be put at his disposal. He came down to this office every morning about eight o'clock, always stopping on his way in his old cordial fashion to ask the news or ex- change a story when he met an acquaintance. Frequently he went to the post-office himself before going to his office and came out his arms loaded with letters and papers. He had no regular hours for visitors; there was no cere- mony for admittance to his presence. People came when they would. Usually they found the door open ; if it was not, it was Mr. Lincoln's own voice which answered, " come in," to their knock. These visitors were a strange medley of the curious, the interested and the friendly. Many came simply to see him, to say they had shaken hands with him; numbers to try to find out what his policy would be if elected; others to wish him success. All day long they filed in and out leaving him some days no time for his correspondence, which every day grew larger. He seemed never to be in a hurry, never to lose patience, however high his table was piled with mail, however closely his room was crowded with visitors. He even found time to give frequent sittings to the artists sent from various parts of the country to paint his portrait. Among those who came in the summer after the nomination were Berry, of Boston ; Hicks, of New York; Conant, of St. Louis; Wright, of Mobile; Brown, and At- wood, of Philadelphia; Jones, of Cincinnati. Mr. Lincoln took the kindliest interest in these men, and later when Presi- dent did more than one of them a friendly turn; thus in 374 LIFE OF LINCOLN March, 1865 he wrote to Seward in regard to Jones and Piatt, that he had " some wish " that they might have " some of those moderate sized consulates which facilitate artists a little in their profession." They in their turn never forgot him. Sitting over their easels by the hour in the corner of his office assigned them they got many glimpses into the man's great heart, and nowhere do we get pleasanter pic- tures of Mr. Lincoln in this period than from their journals. To those who observed Mr. Lincoln closely as he received his visitors one thing was apparent: he always remained master of the interview. While his visitors told him a great deal, they learned nothing from him which he did not wish to give. The following observations, published in the Illinois " State Journal " in November, i860, illustrate very well what happened almost every day in his office : " While talking to two or three gentlemen and standing up, a very hard looking customer rolled in and tumbled into the only vacant chair and the one lately occupied by Mr. Lin- coln. Mr. Lincoln's keen eye took in the fact, but gave no evidence of the notice. Turning around at last he spoke to the odd specimen, holding out his hand at such a distance that our friend had to vacate the chair if he accepted the proffered shake. Mr. Lincoln quietly resumed his chair. It was a small matter, yet one giving proof more positively than a larger event of that peculiar way the man has of mingling with a mixed crowd. " He converses fluently on all subjects, illustrates every- thing by a merry anecdote, of which article he has an abun- dant supply. I said on all subjects. He does not talk poli- tics. He passes from that gracefully the moment it is intro- duced. Hundreds seek him every week to get his opinion on this or that subject. Lie has a jolly way of disposing of that matter by saying, ' Ah ! you haven't read my speeches. Let me make you a present of my speeches.' And the earnest inquirer finds himself the happy possessor of some old docu- ments." LINCOLN IN i860 From an ambrotype taken in Springfield, Illinois, on August 13, 1860, and bought by Mr. William H. Lambert from Mr. W. P. Brown of Philadelphia. Mr. Brown writes of the portrait : "This picture, along with another one of the same kind, was presented by President Lincoln to my father, J. Henry Brown, deceased (miniature artist) , after he had finished painting Lincoln's picture on ivory, at Springfield, Illinois. The commission was given my father by Judge Read (John M. Read of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania), immediately after Lincoln's nomination for the presidency. One of the ambrotypes I sold to the Historical Society of Boston, Massachusetts, and it is now in their pos- session." The miniature referred to is now owned by Mr. Robert T. Lincoln. It was engraved by Samuel Sartain, and circulated widely before the inaugura- tion. After Mr. Lincoln grew a beard, Sartain put a beard on his plate, and the engraving continued to sell extensively. THE CAMPAIGN OF i86& 375 Among his daily visitors there were usually men of emi- nence from North and South. He received them all with per* feet simplicity and always even on his busiest days, found a moment to turn away from them to greet old friends who had known him when he kept grocery in New Salem or acted as deputy-surveyor of Sangamon County. One day as he talked to a company of distinguished strangers an old lady in a big sun-bonnet, heavy boots and short skirts walked into the office. She carried a package wrapped in brown paper and tied with a white string. As soon as Mr. Lincoln saw her he left the group, went to meet her and, shaking her hand cordially, inquired for her " folks." After a moment the old lady opened her package and taking out a pair of coarse wool socks she handed them to him. " I wanted to give you something Mr. Linkin," she said, " to take to Washington, and that's all I hed. I spun that yarn and knit them socks myself." Thanking her warmly, irfr. Lincoln took the socks and holding them up by the toes, one in each hand, he turned to the astonished celebrities and said in a voice full of kindly amusement, " The lady got my latitude and longitude about right, didn't she, gentlemen ? " The old lady was not the only one, however, who gave Mr. Lincoln " something to carry to Washington." From the time of his nomination gifts poured in on him. Many of these came in the form of wearing apparel. Mr. George Lin- coln, of Brooklyn, who in January carried a handsome silk hat to the President-elect, the gift of a New York hatter, says that in receiving the hat, Mr. Lincoln laughed heartily over the gifts of clothing and remarked to Mrs. Lincoln : " Well, wife, if nothing else comes out of this scrape, we are going to have some new clothes, are we not ? " To those who observed Mr. Lincoln superficially in this period, it might have seemed that he was doing nothing of any value to himself or to his party. Certainly he was taking 376 LIFE OF LINCOLN no active part In the campaign- He was making no speeches — writing no letters — giving no interviews. This policy of silence he had adopted at the outset. The very night of his nomination his townspeople in serenading him had called for a speech. Standing in the doorway of his house he said to them that he did not suppose the honor of such a visit was intended particularly for himself as a private citizen, but rather as the representative of a great party; that as to his position on the political questions of the day he could only refer them to his previous speeches, and he added : — " Fel- low citizens and friends : The time comes upon every pub- lic man, when it is best for him to keep his lips closed. That time has come upon me." When in August the monster mass meeting was held in Springfield every effort was made to persuade Mr. Lincoln to speak. All he would consent to do was to appear and in a few words excuse himself. Up to the time he left for Washington to be inaugurated, he kept his resolve. Nor would he write letters explaining his position, or de- fending himself. So many letters were received asking his political opinion that he found it necessary soon after his nomination to prepare the following form of reply to be sent out by his secretary : " Dear Sir : Your letter to Mr. Lincoln of , and by which you seek to obtain his opinions on certain political points, has been received by him. He has received others of a similar character, but he also has a greater number of the exactly opposite character. The latter class beseech him to write nothing whatever upon any point of political doc- trine. They say his positions were well known when he was nominated, and that he must not now embarrass the canvass by undertaking to shift or modify them. He regrets that he cannot oblige all, but you perceive it is impossible for him to do so. Yours, etc., "JNO. G. NlCOLAY." THE CAMPAIGN OF i860 377 To one gentleman who askea him to write something dis- claiming all intention to interfere with slaves or slavery in the States, he replied, " I have already done this many many times; and it is in print and open to all who will read. Those who will not read or heed what I have already pub- licly said would not read or heed a repetition of it. If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be per- suaded though one rose from the dead." And to another correspondent who suggested that he set forth his conservative views, he wrote: — ***" I will not forbear from doing so merely on punctilio and pluck. If I do finally abstain, it will be because of ap- prehension that it would do harm. For the good men of the South — and I regard the majority of them as such — I have no objection to repeat seventy and seven times. But I have bad men to deal with, both North and South ; men who are eager for something new upon which to base new misrepre- sentations; men who would like to frighten me, or at least to fix upon me the character of timidity and cowardice. They would seize upon almost any letter I could write as being an * awful coming down.' I intend keeping my eye upon these gentlemen, and to not unnecessarily put any weapons in thei* hands." Nor would he defend himself against the " campaign sto- ries " which appeared in numbers. One of which his enemies made much was that he had received two hundred dollars for the Cooper Union speech in February, i860. They claimed that as it was a political speech it was contrary to political etiquette to accept pay. Lincoln explained the affair in a let- ter to a gentleman who had been disturbed by it and added : — " I have made this explanation to you as a friend, but I wish no explanation made to our enemies. What they want is a squabble and a fuss, and that they can have if we ex- plain ; and they cannot have it if we don't/' 378 LIFE OF LINCOLN Another foolish tale which caused Lincoln's partisans un- rest was that when he was a member of Congress he had charged several pairs of boots to his stationery account and that they had been paid for out of public funds. One of Lin- coln's friends took the trouble to examine the stationery account for the Thirtieth Congress and to publish a certified denial of the story. Lincoln's silence and inactivity were merely external. As a matter of fact no one was busier than he. No one was fol- lowing more intently and thoughtfully the gradual develop- ment of the situation and the daily fluctuation of opinion. By correspondence, from the press, through his visitors many of whom came to Springfield at his request, he kept himself informed of how the campaign was going from Maine to California. Whenever he feared a break in the ranks he put in a word of warning or of advice. He warned Thurlow Weed that Douglas was " managing the Bell element with great adroitness." He cautioned Hannibal Hamlin against a break the latter feared in Maine, " Such a result as you seem to predict in Maine " — he wrote, " would, I fear, put us on the down-hill track, lose us the State elections in Pennsylvania and Indiana, and probably ruin us on the main turn in November.' ' While he gave the strictest attention to the progress of the elections all over the country, he man- aged to keep above local issues and to hold himself aloof from the personal contests and rivalries within the party. In fact Lincoln kept in perfect touch with the progress of his party from May to November and was able to say at any time with accuracy just what his chances were in each State. He seems at no time to have had any serious fear that he would be defeated. There was a tragic side to this very certainty of election which Lincoln felt deeply. In the Convention which had nominated him, nine States of the Union had not been rep- THE CAMPAIGN OF i860 379 resented. If he should be elected these States would have had no voice in his choice. He knew that he was pledged to a platform whose principles these States stigmatized as " deception and fraud/' and that if elected he must deny what they claimed as rights. He knew that in at least one State, Alabama, the legislature two months before his nomi- nation had pledged itself by an almost unanimous vote in case of his election to call a convention to consider what should be done for " the protection of their rights, interests and honor." He knew that numbers of influential Southern men were repeating daily with Wm. L. Yancey, " I want the cotton states precipitated in a revolution," or declaring with Mr. Crawford of Georgia, " We will never submit to the in- auguration of a Black Republican President." From May to November he watched anxiously for every sign that the South was preparing to make good the threats with which its orators were inflaming their audiences, which a hostile press reiterated day by day, which teemed in his mail, and which brought scores of timorous men to Spring- field to advise and warn him. How serious was it all ? He did his utmost to discover; even writing in October to Major David Hunter to find out how much truth there was in the report of disaffection in a Western fort : " I have a letter from a writer unknown to me," he said, " saying the offi- cers of the army at Fort Kearney have determined, in case of Republican success, at the approaching presidential election, to take themselves, and the arms at that point, South, for the purpose of resistance to the government. While I think there are many chances to one that this is a humbug, it oc- curs to me that any real movement of this sort in the army would leak out and become known to you. In such case, if it would not be unprofessional, or dishonorable (of which you are to be judge), I shall be much obliged if you will ap- prise me of it." 380 LIFE OF LINCOLN In spite of all that Lincoln knew of the temper of the South, in spite of his close study of events there through the summer of i860, he did not believe secession probable. " The people of the South have too much good sense and good tem- per to attempt the ruin of the government rather than see it administered as it was administered by the men who made it. At least so I hope and believe," he wrote a correspondent in August. And in September he said to a visitor, " There are no real disunionists in the country." There were reasons for this confidence. In every State of the South there was a Union party working to meet the crisis which Lincoln's election was sure to produce; many of the members sent him cheering letters. In acknowledging such a letter in August, Lincoln wrote : "It contains one of the many assurances I receive from the South, that in no probable event will there be any very formidable effort to break up the Union." Then, too, Lincoln had heard this threat of secession for so long that he had grown slightly indifferent to it. He re- membered that in the Fremont campaign it had been em- ployed with even more violence than now. Again in 1858 the clamor of disunion had risen. He believed that now much of the noise about disunion was merely political, raised by the friends of Breckenridge, Douglas, or Bell, to drive vot- ers from him. The leading men of the party sustained Lin- coln in this belief. Seward and Schurz both confidently as- sured Republicans in their speeches that they might vote for Lincoln without fear, and Bryant, in the " Evening Post," laughed at the " conservative distresses " of those who sup- posed that Lincoln's election would cause secession and war ; reminding them that when Jefferson was a candidate it was said his election would " let loose the flood-gates of French Jacobinism " and that Henry Clay had declared that " noth- ing short of universal commercial ruin " would follow Jack- LINCOLN HOME, SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS. From photograph by A. J. Whipple of Boston, Massachusetts. Mr. Lincoln and one of his sons stand inside the fence. The Lincoln residence in Springfield was purchased by Mr. Lincoln from the Rev. Charles Dresser in 1844. It was built by Mr. Dresser in 1839. Origin- ally it was a story and a half in height ; it was painted white, with green window blinds and white chimneys. Though now near the centre, it stood at the time of its purchase by Lin- coln, on the very outskirts of the place. For many years after Mr. Lincoln moved away in 1861, it was occupied by numerous and often indifferent tenants. It was vacant much of the time. In 1883 Captain O. H. Oldroyd, now of Washington, D. C, rented the house and threw open its doors to the public. He maintained it at his own expense until 1887, when the State of Illinois, by the gift of Robert Lincoln, became owner of the place, and appointed Captaia Oldroyd its first custodian. It has since been open to the public. THE CAMPAIGN OF i860 381 son's election. Lincoln was sustained not only by the as- surances of the Union party of the South and by the buoyant hopefulness of the Republicans of the North, he had a power- ful moral support in his own conviction that no matter what effort the South made to secede the North could and would prevent it. He was and had been for years perfectly clear on this subject. In the Fremont campaign he had said in reply to the threat of disunion, " No matter what our griev- ance^ — even though Kansas shall come in as a slave State; and no matter what theirs — even if we shall restore the com- promise — we will say to the Southern disunionists we won't go out of the Union and you shan't." It was then with the belief that he was going to be elected and that while his election would produce a serious uproar in the South, that no successful resistance would follow, that Lincoln approached election day. He had grown materially in the estimation of the country in the interval between May and November. Many of the leading men of his party who had deplored his nomination had come to believe him a wise, strong man. Those who sought personal interviews with him, and they were many, went home feeling like Thurlow Weed who, heart-sick over Seward's defeat and full of distrust, not to say contempt, of Lincoln's ability, visited him soon after the nomination at the earnest request of David Davis and Leonard Swett. " I found Mr. Lincoln," wrote Weed afterward, " sagacious and practical. He displayed throughout the conversation so much good sense, such intu- itive knowledge of human nature, and such familiarity with the virtues and infirmities of politicians, that I became im- pressed very favorably with his fitness for the duties which he was not unlikely to be called upon to discharge. This conversation lasted some five hours, and when the train ar- rived in which we were to depart, I rose all the better pre- pared to ' go to work with a will ' in favor of Mr. Lincoln's. 382 LIFE OF LINCOLN election, as the interview had inspired me with confidence in his capacity and integrity. , ' . . . In the very South where a fury of prejudice had burst and where, as was to be expected, Lincoln was popularly regarded as an odious and tyrannical monster, much as later the North regarded Jefferson Davis, there were signs that he was at least considered honest in his views. " It may seem strange to you," wrote a Kentuckian, who was quoted by the New York " Evening Post," August 17, i860, " but it is nevertheless true that the South looks for the election of Lincoln by the people and would prefer him to Douglas. Our most ultra Southern men seem to respect him and to have confidence in his honesty, fairness and con- servatism. They concede that he stands on a moderate plat- form, that his antecedents are excellent, and that he is not likely to invade the rights of any one ; but they can't go for him because he holds opinions relative to the rights of slavery in the Territories directly opposite to the Southern view, still he is an open and candid opponent, and therefore commands Southern respect." " Some of the most interesting interviews which Mr. Lin- coln has had," wrote some one to the Baltimore " Patriot," "have been with extreme Southern gentlemen, who came full of prejudice against him, and who left satisfied with his loyalty to all the constitutional rights of the South. I could tell you of some most interesting cases, but it is enough to know that the general sentiment of all Southern men who have conversed with him is the same as that publicly ex- pressed by Mr. Goggin, of Virginia; Mr. Perry, of South Carolina ; Mr. McRae, of North Carolina, and many others, who have not hesitated to avow their intention of accepting Mr. Lincoln's election and holding him to the constitutional discharge of the presidential office. . . ." The most significant element in the estimate of Lincoln which the country formed between May and November was the respect and affection which was awakened among the THE CAMPAIGN OF i860 383 common people. There sprang up all ovef the country among plain people a feeling for him not unlike that which had long existed in Illinois. The general distribution made of his speeches had something to do with this. There was published in i860 in Columbus, Ohio, an edition of the Lin- coln and Douglas debates of 1858, which was used freely as a campaign document. Lincoln himself gave away scores of these books to his friends and to persons who came to him begging for an expression of his views. To-day copies bear- ing his autograph are to be seen, treasured volumes in the libraries of many public men. The Cooper Union speech was published by the Young Men's Republican Club of New York and circulated widely. To the hard-working farmer, mechanic, store-keeper, who thought slowly but surely, and whose sole political ambition was to cast an honest vote, these speeches were like a personal face-to-face talk. The argument was so clear, the illustration so persuasive, the statement so colloquial and natural, that they could not get away from them. " Lincoln's right," was the general verdict among masses of people who, hesitating between Republican- ism and Popular Sovereignty, read the speeches as a help to a decision. While Lincoln's speeches awakened respect for and con- fidence in his ability, the story of his life stirred something deeper in men. Here was a man who had become a leader of the nation by the labor of his hands, the honesty of his intellect, the uprightness of his heart. Plain people were touched by the hardships of this life so like their own, in- spired by the thought that a man who had struggled as they had done, who had remained poor, who had lived simply, could be eligible to the highest place in the nation. They had believed that it could be done. Here was a proof of it. They told the story to their boys. This, they said, is what American institutions make possible; not glitter or wealth, 384 ^ IPE OF LINCOLN trickery or demagogy is necessary, only honesty, hard thinking, a fixed purpose. Affection and sympathy for Lin- coln grew with respect. It was the beginning of that pecu- liar sympathetic relation between him and the common peo- ple which was to become one of the controlling influences in the great drama of the Civil War. Election day in i860 fell on the 6th. Springfield, although a town of strong Democratic sympathy, realized the import- ance of the occasion, and by daylight was booming away with cannon; before noon numbers of bands which came, the citi- zens hardly knew from where, were playing on the corners of every street. Mr. Lincoln, as was his custom, came down to his room at the State House by eight o'clock, where he went over his big mail as coolly as if it were not election day and he a candidate for the presidency of the United States. He had not been there long before his friends began to flock in in such numbers that it was proposed that the doors be closed and he be allowed to remain by himself, but he said he had never done such a thing in his life as to close the door on his friends and that he did not intend to begin now, and so the day wore away in the entertainment of visitors. It had not been Mr. Lincoln's intention to vote, the ob- stacle which he found in the way being that his own name headed the Republican ticket and that he did not want to vote for himself. One of his friends suggested that his name might be cut off and he vote for the rest of the ticket He fell in with this suggestion, and late in the afternoon, when the crowd around the polls, which were just across the street from his office, had subsided somewhat, he went over to cast his ballot. He was recognized immediately and his friends were soon about him, cheering wildly and con- tending good-naturedly for an opportunity to shake his hand. Even the Democrats, with their hands full of documents which they were distributing, joined in this enthusiastic THE CAMPAIGN OF i860 385 demonstration and cheered at the top of their voices for their beloved townsman. No returns were expected before seven o'clock, and it was a little later than that when Mr. Lincoln returned from his supper to the State House. The first despatches that came were from different parts of Illinois, the very first being from Decatur, where a Republican gain was announced. Soon after, Alton, which was expected to go for Douglas, sent in a majority of twelve for Lincoln. There was a tremendous sensation in the company, and Mr. Lincoln asked that the despatch be sent out to the "boys," meaning the crowd which had gathered in and about the State House. After an hour or more news began to come from Missouri. " Now," said Mr. Lincoln, " they should get a few licks back at us." But to everybody's surprise, there was more good news from Mis- souri than had been expected. Towards midnight news be- gan to come from Pennsylvania : " Allegheny County, 10,- 000 majority for Lincoln;" " Philadelphia, 15,000 plurality, 5,000 majority over all ;" then a telegram from Simon Cam- eron, " Pennsylvania 70,000 for you. New York safe. Glory enough." This was the first news from New York, and since ten o'clock the company had been waiting impa- tiently for it. A fusion ticket, it was feared, might go through there, and if it did the disaster to the Republicans would be serious. While waiting anxiously for something definite from New York, a delegation of Springfield ladies came in to invite Mr. Lincoln and his friends to a hall near by, where they had prepared refreshments for all the Republican politicians of the town. The party had not been there long before there came a telegram announcing that New York city had gone Republican. Such a cheering was probably never heard in Springfield before. The hall full of people, beside them- selves with joy, began a romping promenade around the (25) 386 LIFE OF LINCOLN tables, singing at the top of their voices the popular cam- paign song, " Oh ain't you glad you joined the Republi- cans ?" Here at intervals further telegrams came from New York, all announcing large majorities. The scene became one of the wildest excitement, and Mr. Lincoln and his friends soon withdrew to a little telegraph office on the square, where they could receive reports more quietly. Up to this time the only anxiety Mr. Lincoln had shown about the election was in the returns from his State and town. He didn't " feel quite easy," as he said, " about Spring- field." Towards morning, however, the announcement came that he had a majority in his own precinct. Then it was that he showed the first emotion, a jubilant chuckle, and soon after he remarked cheerfully to his friends, that he " guess'd he'd go home now," which he did. But Spring- field was not content to go home. Cannon banged until day- light, and on every street corner and in every alley could be heard groups of men shouting at the top of their voices, " Oh, ain't you glad you joined the Republicans? " Twenty-four hours later and the full result of that Tues- day's work was known. Out of 303 electoral votes, Lincoln had received 180. Of the popular vote he had received 1,866,452 — nearly a half million over Douglas, a million over Breckenridge, a million and a quarter over Bell. It was a victory, but there were facts about the victory which startled the thoughtful. If Lincoln had more votes than any one opposing candidate, they together had nearly 1,000,000 over him. Fifteen States of the Union gave him no electoral votes, and in ten States he had not received a single popular vote. CHAPTER XXI MR. LINCOLN AS PRESIDENT-ELECT Although the election of November 6 made Lincoln the President-elect of the United States, for four months, he could exercise no direct influence on the affairs of the coun- try. If the South tried to make good her threat to secede in case he was elected, he could do nothing to restrain her. The South did try, and at once. With the very election re- turns the telegraph brought Lincoln news of disruption. Day by day this news continued, and always more alarming. On November 10, the United States senators from South Carolina resigned. Six weeks later, that State passed an or- dinance of secession and began to organize an independent government. By the end of December, the only remnant of United States authority in South Carolina was the small garrison commanded by Major Anderson which occupied Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor. The remaining forts and batteries of that harbor, the lighthouse tender, the arsenal, the post-office, the custom-house, in short, everything in the State over which the Stars and Stripes had floated, was un- der the Palmetto Flag. In his quiet office in Springfield, Mr. Lincoln read, in January, reports of the proceedings of conventions in Mis- sissippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana, by all of which States, in that month, ordinances of secession were adopted. In February, he saw representatives of these same States unite in a general convention at Montgomery, Ala- bama, and the newspapers told him how promptly and in* 387 3 88 LIFE OP LINCOLN telligently they went to work to found a new nation, the Southern Confederacy, to provide it with a constitution, and to give it officers. Mr. Lincoln observed that each State, as she went out of the Union, prepared to defend her course if necessary. On November 18, Georgia appropriated $1,000,000 to arm the State, and in January she seized Forts Pulaski and Jack- son and the United States arsenal. Louisiana appropriated all the federal property in her borders, even to the mint and custom-house and the money they contained. Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi were not behind in their seizures, and when the new government was formed at Mont- gomery, it promptly took up the question of defending its life. Mr. Lincoln was not only obliged to sit inactive and watch this steady dissolution of the Union, but he was obliged to see what was still harder — that the administration which he was to succeed was doing nothing to check the destruction- ists. Indeed, all through this period proof accumulated that members of Mr. Buchanan's cabinet had been systematically working for many months to disarm the North and equip the South. The quantity of arms sent quietly from North- ern arsenals was so great that the citizens of the towns from which they went became alarmed. Thus the Springfield " Republican " of January 2, 1861, noted that the citizens of that town were growing excited over " the procession of government licenses which, during the last spring and sum- mer, and also quite recently, have been engaged in transport- ing from the United States Armory to the United States freight station, an immense quantity of boxes of muskets marked for Southern distribution." " We find," the paper continues, " that in i860 there were removed for safe-keep- ing in other arsenals 135,430 government arms. This has nothing to do with the distribution occasionally made for MR. LINCOLN AS PRESIDENT-ELECT 389 State militia.' ' And when, in December, the citizens of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, found that 123 cannon had been ordered South from the arsenal there, they made such ener- getic protests that President Buchanan was obliged to coun- termand the order of his Secretary of War. The rapid disintegration which followed the election of Mr. Lincoln rilled the North with dismay. There was a gen- eral demand for some compromise which would reassure the South and stop secession. It was the place of the Re- publicans, the conservatives argued, to make this compro- mise. A furious clamor broke over Mr. Lincoln's head. His election had caused the trouble; now what would he do to quell it? How much of the Republican platform would he give up? Among the newspapers which pleaded with the President-elect to do something to reassure the South the most able was the New York " Herald." Lincoln was a " sectional President," declared the " Herald," who, out of 4,700,000 votes cast, had received but 1,850,000, and whom the South had had no part in electing. If Mr. Lincoln intends to carry on the government ac- cording to the principles laid down in the Chicago platform and the documents issued under the authority of the Re- publican " national " committee, the inevitable tendency of his administration will be to encourage servile insurrections and to make the Southern States still more uncomfortable within the Union than they could by any possibility be with- out it. . . . If the new President recognizes the fact that he is not bound by the Chicago platform — the people having repudiated it ; . . . if he comes out and tells the people that he will govern the country according to the views of the majority, and not to serve the purposes of the mi- nority, all may yet be well. . . . Mr. Lincoln must throw his pledges to the winds, let his party go to perdition in its own way, and devote himself to the service of the whole country. It is Mr. Lincoln's bounden duty to come out now and declare his views. 390 LIFE OF LINCOLN It was not only the opposition press which urged Lincoln to offer some kind of compromise; many frightened Repub- lican newspapers added their influence. The appeals of thou- sands of letters and of scores of visitors were added to the arguments of the press. Lincoln, however, refused to ex- press his views anew. " I know the justness of my inten- tions/' he told an interviewer in November, " and the utter groundlessness of the pretended fears of the men who are filling the country with their clamor. If I go into the presi- dency, they will find me as I am on record, nothing less, nothing more. My declarations have been made to the world without reservation. They have been often repeated, and now self-respect demands of me and of the party which has elected me that, when threatened, I should be silent. ,, Business was brought almost to a standstill throughout the North by the prospect of disunion. " It is an awful time for merchants," wrote a correspondent to Charles Sumner, " worse than in 1857. And if there is not some speedy relief, more than half of the best concerns in the country will be ruined." Numbers of prominent men urged the President- elect to say something conciliatory for the sake of trade. His replies published in Nicolay and Hay's " Abraham Lincoln " are marked by spirit and decision. To one man of wealth he wrote on November 10 : I am not insensible to any commercial or financial depres- sion that may exist, but nothing is to be gained by fawning around the " respectable scoundrels " who got it up. Let them go to work and repair the mischief of their own mak- ing, and then perhaps they will be less greedy to do the like again. And to Henry J. Raymond, the editor of the New York " Times/' he gave, on November 28, in answer to a request for his views, what he called a " demonstration " of the cor- MR. LINCOLN AS PRESIDENT-ELECT 39* rectness of his judgment that he should say nothing for the public : On the 20th instant, Senator Trumbull made a short speech, which I suppose you have both seen and approved. Has a single newspaper, heretofore against us, urged that speech upon its readers with a purpose to quiet public anxiety ? Not one, so far as I know. On the contrary, the Boston " Courier " and its class hold me responsible for that speech, and endeavor to inflame the North with the belief that it foreshadows an abandonment of Republican ground by the incoming administration while the Washington " Con- stitution " and its class hold the same speech up to the South as an open declaration of war against them. This is just as I expected, and just what would happen with any declaration I could make. These political fiends are not half sick enough yet. Party malice, and not public good, possesses them en- tirely. " They seek a sign, and no sign shall be given them." At least such is my present feeling and purpose. While refusing positively to express himself for the gen- eral public at this time, Lincoln wrote and talked freely to the Republican leaders, almost all of whom were busy with one or another scheme for quieting the distracted nation. On the opening of Congress, a committee of thirty-three had been appointed by the House to consider " the present peril- ous condition of the country," and the Republican members wished to know what Mr. Lincoln would yield. The Hon. William Kellogg, the Illinois member of the committee, wrote to him. His reply, dated December n, is unmis- takable : Entertain no proposition for a compromise in regard to the extension of slavery. The instant you do, they have us under again : all our labor is lost, and sooner or later must be done over. Douglas is sure to be again trying to bring in his " popular sovereignty." Have none of it. The tug has to come, and better now than later. You know I think 392 LIFE OF LINCOLN the fugitive slave clause of the Constitution ought to be en- forced — to put it in its mildest form, ought not to be re- sisted. While the committee of thirty-three was seeking grounds for a settlement in the House, a committee of thirteen was busy in the Senate in the same search. On the latter com- mittee was William H. Seward, and he too sent to Mr. Lin- coln for a suggestion. In reply, the President-elect sent Mr. Seward, by Thurlow Weed, a memorandum which was sup- posed to have been lost until a few months ago when it was discovered by Mr. Frederick Bancroft in course of his re- searches for a Life of Seward. Two points are covered in this memorandum. The first that the fugitive slave law should be enforced, the second that the Federal Union must be preserved. In a letter to the Hon. E. B. Washburne, writ- ten on December 13th, Lincoln again stated his views on slavery extension : Prevent, as far as possible, any of our friends from demor- alizing themselves and our cause by entertaining propositions for compromise of any sort on " slavery extension/' There is no possible compromise upon it but which puts us under again and leaves all our work to do over again. Whether it be a Missouri line or Eli Thayer's popular sovereignty, it is all the same. Let either be done, and immediately filibus- tering and extending slavery recommences. On that point hold firm, as with a chain of steel. These counsels were given while secession was still in its infancy. The alarming developments which followed did not cause Lincoln to waver. On January 11, he wrote to the Hon. J. T. Hale a letter published by Nicolay and Hay, in which he said : What is our present condition ? We have just carried an election on principles fairly stated to the people. Now we are told in advance the government shall be broken up unless MR. LINCOLN AS PRESIDENT-ELECT 393 we surrender to those we have beaten, before we take the offices. In this they are either attempting to phy upon us or they are in dead earnest. Either way, if we surrender, it is the end of us and of the government. They will repeat the experiment upon us ad libitum. A year will not pass till we shall have to take Cuba as a condition upon which they will stay in the Union. They now have the Constitution under which we have lived over seventy years, and acts of Congress of their own framing, with no prospect of their being changed ; and they can never have a more shallow pre- text for breaking up the government, or extorting a compro- mise, than now. There is, in my judgment, but one compro- mise which would really settle the slavery question, and that would be a prohibition against acquiring any more territory. It was not the North and the Republicans alone that ap- pealed to Mr. Lincoln ; the Unionists of the South urged him for an explanation which they might present to the people as proof that there was nothing to fear from his election. Lincoln had no faith that any expression of his would be heeded ; yet he did, confidentially, express himself frankly to many Southerners who came to him in Springfield, and there are two letters of his published by Nicolay and Hay which show how completely he grasped the essential differ- ence between the North and the South, and with what jus- tice and kindness he put the case to those who disagreed with him. The first of these letters was written to John A. Gil- mer, a member of Congress from North Carolina, who de- sired earnestly to preserve the Union, but not unless the opinions of the South were considered. Mr. Gilmer had written to Mr. Lincoln, asking his position on certain ques- tions. Lincoln replied: Carefully read pages 18, 19, 74, 75, 88, 89, and 267 of the volume of joint debates between Senator Douglas and myself, with the Republican platform adopted at Chicago, and all your questions will be substantially answered. I have 394 LIFE OF LINCOLN ao thought of recommending the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, nor the slave-trade among the slave States, even on the conditions indicated; anc if I were to make such recommendation, it is quite clear Congress would not follow it. As to employing slaves in arsenals and dock-yards, it is a thing I never thought of in my life, to my recollection, till I saw your letter ; and I may say of it precisely as I have said of the two points above. As to the use of patronage in the slave States, where there are few or no Republicans, I do not expect to inquire for the politics of the appointee, or whether he does or not own slaves. I intend, in that matter, to accommodate the people in the several localities, if they themselves will allow me to accommodate them. In one word, I never have been, am not now, and probably never shall be in a mood of harassing the people either North or South. On the territorial question I am inflexible, as you see my position in the book. On that there is a difference between you and us; and it is the only substantial difference. You think slavery is right and ought to be extended; we think :t is wrong and ought to be restricted. For this neither has any just occasion to be angry with the other. As to the State laws mentioned in your sixth question, I really know very little of them. I never have read one. If any of them are in conflict with the fugitive-slave clause, or any other part of the Constitution, I certainly shall be glad of their repeal ; but I could hardly be justified, as a citizen of Illinois, or as President of the United States, to recommend the repeal of a statute of Vermont or South Carolina. A week later, Mr. Lincoln wrote to A. H. Stephens, of Georgia, in reply to a note in which Stephens had said : " The country is certainly in great peril, and no man ever had heavier or greater responsibilities resting upon him than you have in the present momentous crisis." I fully appreciate the present peril the country is in, and the weight of responsibility on me. Do the people of the MR. LINCOLN AS PRESIDENT-ELECT 395 South really entertain fears that a Republican administration would, directly or indirectly, interfere with the slaves, or with them about the slaves? If they do, I wish to assure you, as once a friend, and still, I hope, not an enemy, that there is no cause for such fears. The South would be in no more danger in this respect than it was in the days of Wash- ington. I suppose, however, this does not meet the case. You think slavery is right and ought to be extended, while we think it is wrong and ought to be restricted. That, I suppose, is the rub. It certainly is the only substantial differ- ence between us. The uproar which raged about Mr. Lincoln soon became quite as loud over " coercion " as over " compromise." Each passing week made conciliation more difficult, saw new ele- ments of disunion realized. What was to be done with the seceding States ? What was to be done about the forts and arsenals, custom-houses and post-offices, they were seizing? If Mr. Lincoln would not compromise, was he going to let the States and the federal property go, or was he going to compel them to return with it ? Did he propose to coerce the South? Though the President-elect refused to give any expression of opinion on the subject to the country, it was not because he was not perfectly clear in his own mind. Se- cession he considered impossible. " My opinion is," he wrote Thurlow Weed on December 17, "that no State can in any way lawfully get out of the Union without the consent of the others; and that it is the duty of the President and other government functionaries to run the machine as it is." When Horace Greeley began a series of editorials in the " Tribune " contending that if seven or eight States sent agents to Washington saying, " We want to get out of the Union," he should feel constrained by his devotion to Human Liberty to say " Let them go," Lincoln said nothing publicly, though in Springfield it was believed that he considered the policy " dangerous and illogical," He certainly was only 396 LIFE OF LINCOLN amused at Fernando Wood's scheme to take New York City out of the Union and make it a free city — another Hamburg. " I reckon," he said to a New Yorker in February, in dis- cussing the subject, " that it will be some time before the front door sets up house-keeping on its own account." As to the forts and other federal property seized by the outgoing States, he seems to have felt from the first that they were to be retaken. In this matter he sought guidance from Andrew Jackson. Less than a week after his election, a cor- respondent of the " Evening Post " found him engaged in reading the history of the milliners of 1832 and 1833 an d of the summary way in which " Old Hickory " dealt with them. In December, he wrote to his friend E. B. Washburne, who had just reported to him an interview with General Scott, the general in command of the army, on the dangers of the situation : Please present my respects to the General, and tell him, confidentially, that I shall be obliged to him to be as well prepared as he can to either hold or retake the forts, as the case may require, at and after the inauguration. And the very next day, he wrote to Major David Hunter : The most we can do now is to watch events, and be as well prepared as possible for any turn things may take. If the forts fall, my judgment is that they are to be retaken. From the foregoing letters it will be seen that Mr. Lincoln had stripped his opinions on the questions of the day of all verbiage and non-essentials and reduced them to the follow- ing simple propositions. (1) Slavery is wrong, and must not be extended. (2) Entertain no proposition for a compromise in regard to the extension of slavery. (3) No State can in any way lawfully get out of the Union, without the consent of the others. It is the duty of MR. LINCOLN AS PRESIDENT-ELECT 397 the President and other government functionaries to run the machine as it is. (4) If the forts fall, my judgment is that they are to be retaken. To these simple statements he stuck throughout this pe- riod of confusion and distress, refusing to allow them to be obscured by words and passion, and making them his guide in the work of preparation for his inauguration. Three things especially occupied him in this preparation : ( 1 ) Making the acquaintance of the men with whom he was to be associated in the administration. (2) His cabinet. (3) His inaugural address. The first letter Lincoln wrote after his election was to Hannibal Hamlin, the Vice-President-elect, asking for an interview. The two gentlemen met at the Tremont House, Chicago, on November 23. Mr. Hamlin once gave to a friend, Mr. C. J. Prescott, of New York, an account of this meeting, which Mr. Prescott has written out for this work : Mr. Hamlin was for many years a member of the Board of Trustees of Waterville College now Colby University, Waterville, Maine. On one of the annual Commencement occasions, I found him one afternoon seated on the piazza of the Elmwood, for the moment alone and unoccupied. Taking a chair by his side, I said : " Mr. Hamlin, when did you first meet Mr. Lincoln ? " " Well," said he, " I very plainly recall the circumstances of our first meeting. It was in Chicago. Some time before the inauguration, I received a letter from Mr. Lincoln, asking me to see him before I went to Washington. So I went to Chicago, where I was to meet Mr. Lincoln. Sending my card to Mr. Lincoln's room, I received word to ' come right up.' I found the door open, and Mr. Lincoln approaching with extended hand. With a hearty welcome, he said, * I think I have never met you be- fore, Mr. Hamlin, but this is not the first time I have seen you. I have just been recalling the time when, in '48, I went to the Senate to hear you speak. Your subject was not new, 398 LIFE OP LINCOLN but the ideas were sound. You were talking about slavery, and I now take occasion to thank you for so well expressing what were my own sentiments at that time/ " ' Well, Mr. President/ said I, ' this is certainly quite a remarkable coincidence. I myself have just been recalling the first time I ever saw you. It must have been about the same time to which you allude. I was passing through the House, and was attracted by some remarks on the subject of slavery from one of the new members. They told me it was Lincoln, of Illinois. I heard you through, and I very well remember how heartily I endorsed every point you made. And, Mr. President, I have no doubt we are still in perfect accord on the main question.' " The result of the Chicago interview was a cordial under- standing between the two men which lasted throughout their administration. This was to be expected, for they were not unlike in character and experience. The same kind of demo- cratic feeling inspired their relations with others. Both " marched with the boys." Both were eminently compan- ionable. Hamlin liked a good story as well as Lincoln, and told almost as many. He had, too, the same quaint way of putting things. Like Lincoln, Hamlin had been born poor, and had had a hand-to-hand struggle to get up in the world. He had worked on a farm, chopped logs, taught school, studied law at night; in short, turned his hand cheerfully and eagerly to anything that would help him to realize his ambitions. Like Lincoln, he had gone early into politics, and, like Lincoln again, he had revolted from his party in 1856 to join the Republicans. A great many men were summoned to Springfield by Lin- coln, in order that he might learn their views more perfectly. Among those who came, either by his direct or indi- rect invitation, were Edward Bates, Thurlow Weed, David Wilmot, A. K. McClure, George W. Julian, E. D. Baker, William Sweeney, Horace Greeley, and Carl MR. LINCOLN AS PRESIDENT-ELECT 399 Schurz. With many of them Lincoln did not hesitate to talk over his cabinet. Thurlow Weed says that when he visited the President-elect in December, the latter introduced the subject of the cabinet, saying that " he supposed I had had some experience in cabinet-making, that he had a job on hand, and as he had never learned that trade, he was dis- posed to avail himself of the suggestions of friends." " The making of a cabinet," he continued, " now that he had it to do, was by no means as easy as he had supposed ; that he had, even before the result of the election was known, assuming the probability of success, fixed upon the two leading mem- bers of his cabinet; but that, in looking about for suitable men to fill the other departments, he had been much embar- rassed, partly from his want of acquaintance with the promi- nent men of the day, and partly, he believed, because that, while the population had greatly increased, really great men were scarcer than they used to be." The two members of his cabinet on whom Lincoln fixed so early were Seward and Chase. He wrote Seward on De- cember 8, asking permission to nominate him as Secretary of State, and saying : It has been my purpose, from the day of the nomination at Chicago, to assign you, by your leave, this place in the administration. I have delayed so long to communicate that purpose in deference to what appeared to me a proper cau- tion in the case. Nothing has been developed to change my view in the premises ; and I now offer you the place, in the hope that you will accept it, and with the belief that your po- sition in the public eye, your integrity, ability, learning, and great experience, all combine to render it an appointment pre-eminently fit to be made. Seward took three weeks to consider, and finally, on December 28, wrote that, " after due reflection and much self-distrust," he had concluded it was his duty to accept. 400 LIFE OF LINCOLN Lincoln did not approach Chase on the subject of the cabi- net until some three weeks after he had written Seward. Then, on December 31, he wrote him this brief note : In these troublous times I would much like a conference with you. Please visit me here at once. Chase reached Springfield on the evening of January 3, and Lincoln, in his informal way, went to the hotel to see him. Chase afterward described the interview in a letter to a friend : He said he had felt bound to offer the position of Secretary of State to Mr. Seward as the generally recognized leader of the Republican party, intending, if he declined it, to offer it to me. He did not wish that Mr. Seward should decline it, and was glad that he had accepted, and now desired to have me take the place of Secretary of the Treasury. Chase did not promise to accept, only to think it over, and so the situation stood until the appointment was actually made in March. It was Pennsylvania and the South that gave Lincoln the greatest trouble. " Pennsylvania,"he told Weed, " any more than New York or Ohio, cannot be overlooked. Her strong Republican vote, not less than her numerical importance, en- titles her to a representative in the cabinet." After a careful " balancing of matters," as he called it, he concluded to ap- point Simon Cameron as the Pennsylvania cabinet member, and on December 31 he gave Cameron, who had been for three days in Springfield discussing the situation, the fol- lowing letter : Hon. Simon Cameron. My dear Sir: I think fit to notify you now that, by your permission, I shall at the proper time nominate you to the United States Senate for confirmation as Secretary of the MR. LINCOLN AS PRESIDENT-ELECT 401 Treasury, or as Secretary of War — which of the two I have not yet definitely decided. Please answer at your earliest convenience. Your obedient servant, A. Lincoln. Cameron had scarcely reached home with his letter before those opposed to him in Pennsylvania had frightened Lin- coln into believing that the lack of trust in Cameron's politi- cal honesty which existed throughout the country would destroy faith in the new cabinet. Lincoln immediately wrote Cameron that things had developed which made it impossible to take him into the cabinet. Later he assured Cameron that the withdrawal did not spring from any change of view as to the ability or faithfulness with which he would discharge the duties of the place, and he promised not to make a cabinet appointment for Pennsylvania without consulting him and giving all the weight he consistently could to his views and wishes. There the matter remained until March. Among conciliatory Republicans there was a strong de- sire that Lincoln find a member of his cabinet in the South. It was believed that such an act would be taken as proof that the new President intended to consider the claims of the South. Lincoln did not believe the idea practical, and he showed the difficulties in the way very shrewdly by causing to be inserted, on December 12, in the " Illinois Journal," a paper popularly called his " organ," the following short edi- torial : We hear such frequent allusions to a supposed purpose on the part of Mr. Lincoln to call into his cabinet two or three Southern gentlemen from the parties opposed to him politi- cally, that we are prompted to ask a few questions. First. Is it known that any such gentlemen of character would accept a place in the cabinet? Second. If yea, on what terms does he surrender to Mr. Lincoln or Mr Lincoln to him, on the political differences 402 LIFE OF LINCOLN between them; or do they enter upon the administration in open opposition to each other ? The demand continued, however. Weed told Lincoln in December that, in his opinion, at least two of the members of the cabinet should be from the South. Lincoln was doubt- ful if they could be trusted. " There are men in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, ,, replied Weed, " for whose loyalty under any circumstances, and in any event, I would vouch." " Well," said Lincoln, " let me have the names of your white blackbirds." Weed gave him four names. Mr. Seward, a little later, suggested several, and Mr. Greeley likewise sent him a list of five Southerners whom he declared it would be safe to take into the official family. Of all those named, Lincoln preferred John A. Gilmer, of North Caro- lina, and he invited him to come to Springfield for an inter- view. As late as January 12, he wrote to Seward : I still hope Mr. Gilmer will, on a fair understanding with us, consent to take a place in the cabinet. ... I fear, if we could get, we could not safely take more than one such man — that is, not more than one who opposed us in the election, the danger being to lose the confidence of our own friends. Mr. Gilmer did not accept Mr. Lincoln's invitation to Springfield, however, and nothing ever came of the overture made him. The nearest approach Lincoln made to selecting a cabinet member from the South was in the appointment of Edward Bates, of Missouri. He was one of the men whom Lincoln had decided upon as soon as he knew of his election, and he was the first after Seward to be notified. A repre- sentative from Indiana was desirable, and Caleb Smith was put on the slate provisionally. It was necessary, too, that New England have a place in the cabinet. Mr. Lincoln had three candidates, of all of whom he thought well — Tuck, of MR. LINCOLN AS PRESIDENT-ELECT 403 New Hampshire ; Banks, of Massachusetts ; Gideon Welles, of Connecticut; but he made no decision until after he reached Washington. About the middle of January, 1861, Lincoln began to prepare his inaugural address. A more desperate situation than existed at that moment it would be hard to imagine. Thus far every peace measure had failed, and the endless discussions of press and senate chamber were daily increasing the anger and the bewilderment of the people. Four States had left the Union, and the South was rapidly accepting the idea of separate nationality. The North was desperate and helpless. All the bitterness and confusion centred about Lincoln. A hundred things told him how serious was the situation; the averted faces of his townsmen of Southern sympathies, the warnings of good men who sought him from North, and South, letters threatening him with death, sketches of gibbets and stilettos in every mail. But in spite of all these distracting circumstances, when he thought it time to write the inaugural address, he calmly locked himself up in an upper room over a store, across the street from the State House, where he had his office, and there, with no books but a copy of the " Constitution," Henry Clay's " Speech of 1850," Jackson's " Proclamation against Nullification," and Webster's " Reply to Hayne," he pre- pared the document. Wishing to have several copies of it, he went to the general manager of the Illinois " State Journal," Major Wm. H. Bailhache, now of San Diego, California, to arrange for them. Major Bailhache has prepared for this work a statement of the incident : " In relation to the printing of the draft of his first inaugu- ral address, my recollection is very clear that his manner was as free from formality and affectation as it would have been had he been ordering the printing of a legal document. He merely asked me, one day early in January, 1861, if I could 404 LIFE OF LINCOLN print his address in a certain style without its contents beconv ing known, and upon being assured that I could do so, he remarked that he would give me the manuscript in a few days. Not long after this, he placed the momentous paper in my hands. I had the work done at once, under my personal supervision, in a private room in the " Journal " building, by a trusted employe, sworn to secrecy. When it was finished, I returned the manuscript to Mr. Lincoln, together with the twenty printed copies ordered, one of which he himself gave to me, and it has been retained in my possession ever since. I may remark in passing, that the manuscript was all in his own handwriting and was almost entirely free from alterations or interlineations. He did not ask to see a proof, reposing entire confidence in my careful supervision. Neither the original draft nor the printed sheets were ever out of my immediate custody for an instant during the time occupied in the printing, and I doubt whether any of the score or more of " typos " employed in the " Journal " office had even the slightest suspicion that this important state paper was then being put in type under the same roof with them. Be this as it may, the secret was well kept, although the newspapers employed every conceivable means to obtain a hint of its tenor, and the whole country was in a state of feverish anxiety to learn what the policy of the new Presi- dent was to be." Although Lincoln met the appalling events which preceded his inauguration with an outward calm, which led many people to say that he did not realize the seriousness of the situation, he was keenly alive to the dangers of the country and to the difficulty of his own position. So full of threats and alarms had his life become by the time of his election that the mysticism of his nature was awakened, and he was the victim of an hallucination which he afterwards described to different friends, among them Noah Brooks, who tells the story in Lincoln's own words : It was just after my election in i860, when the news had been coming: in thick and fast all day and there had been a MR. LINCOLN AS PRESIDENT-ELECT 405 great " hurrah boys," so that I was well tired out and went home to rest, throwing myself down on a lounge in my chamber. Opposite where I lay was a bureau with a swing- ing glass upon it (and here he got up and placed furniture to illustrate the position), and looking in that glass, I saw myself reflected nearly at full length ; but my face, I noticed, had two separate and distinct images, the tip of the nose of one being about three inches from the tip of the other. I was a little bothered, perhaps startled, and got up and looked in the glass, but the illusion vanished. On lying down again, I saw it a second time, plainer, if possible, than before; and then I noticed that one of the faces was a little paler — say, five shades — than the other. I got up, and the thing melted away, and I went off, and in the excitement of the hour forgot all about it — nearly, but not quite, for the thing would once in a while come up, and give me a little pang, as if something uncomfortable had happened. When I went home again that night, I told my wife about it, and a few days afterward I made the experiment again, when (with a laugh), sure enough! the thing came again; but I never succeeded in bringing the ghost back after that, though I once tried very industriously to show it to my wife, who was somewhat worried about it. She thought it was a " sign " that I was to be elected to a second term of office, and that the paleness of one of the faces was an omen that I should not see life through the last term. Of far deeper significance than this touch of superstition is a look into the man's heart which Judge Gillespie, a life- long friend of Lincoln, left, and which his daughter, Mrs. Josephine Gillespie Prickett, of Edwardsville, Illinois, has kindly put at my service. Early in January, Judge Gillespie was in Springfield, and spent the night at Mr. Lincoln's home. It was late before the President-elect was free, and then the two men seated themselves by the fire for a talk. " I attempted," says Judge Gillespie, " to draw him into conversation relating to the past, hoping to divert him from the thoughts which were evidently distracting him. ' Yes, 406 LIFE OF LINCOLN yes, I remember/ he would say to my references to old scenes and associations ; but the old-time zest was not only lacking, but in its place was a gloom and despondency entirely foreign to Lincoln's character as I had learned to know it. I attributed much of this to his changed surroundings. He sat with his head lying upon his arms, which were folded over the back of his chair, as I had often seen him sit on our travels after an exciting day in court. Suddenly he roused himself. * Gillespie/ said he, ' I would willingly take out of my life a period in years equal to the two months which intervene between now and my inauguration to take the oath of office now.' ' Why ? ' I asked. ' Because every hour adds to the difficulties I am called upon to meet, and the present administration does nothing to check the tendency toward dissolution. I, who have been called to meet this awful responsibility, am compelled to remain here, doing nothing to avert it or lessen its force when it comes to me/ " I said that the condition of which he spoke was such as had never risen before, and that it might lead to the amend- ment of such an obvious defect in the federal Constitution. 6 It is not of myself I complain,' he said, with more bitterness than I ever heard him speak, before or after. ' But every day adds to the difficulty of the situation, and makes the outlook more gloomy. Secession is being fostered rather than repressed, and if the doctrine meets with a general acceptance in the border States, it will be a great blow to the government/ " Our talk then turned upon the possibility of avoiding a war. * It is only possible/ said Mr. Lincoln, ' upon the consent of this government to the erection of a foreign slave government out of the present slave States. I see the duty devolving upon me. I have read, upon my knees, the story of Gethsemane, where the Son of God prayed in vain that the cup of bitterness might pass from him. I am in the garden of Gethsemane now, and my cup of bitterness is full and overflowing.' " I then told him that as Christ s prayer was not answered and his crucifixion had redeemed the great part of the world from paganism to Christianity, so the sacrifice demanded of him might be a great beneficence. Little did I then think MR LINCOLN AS PRESIDENT-ELECT 407 how prophetic were my words to be, or what a great sacrifice he was called to make. " I trust and believe that that night, before I let him go, I shed some rays of sunlight into that troubled heart. Ere long he came to talk of scenes and incidents in which he had taken part, and to laugh over my reminders of some of our professional experiences. When I retired, it was the master of the house and chosen ruler of the country who saw me to my room. ' Joe/ he said, as he was about to leave me, ' I suppose you will never forget that trial down in Montgomery County, where the lawyer associated with you gave away the whole case in his opening speech. I saw you signaling to him, but you couldn't stop him. Now, that's just the way with me and Buchanan. He is giving away the case, and I have nothing to say, and can't stop him. Good-night/ " But the time for going to Washington was drawing near. There had been considerable discussion about when he had better go. So many threats had been made and so many rumors were in the air, that the party leaders had begun to feel, as early as December, that the President-elect might never get to Washington alive. Even Seward, optimist as he was, felt that precautions had better be taken, and he wrote Lincoln, from Washington, on December 28: There is a feverish excitement here which awakens all kinds of apprehensions of popular disturbance and disorders, connected with your assumption of the government. I do not entertain these apprehensions myself. But it is worth consideration, in our peculiar circumstances, that accidents themselves may aggravate opinion here. Habit has accustomed the public to anticipate the arrival of the President-elect in this city about the middle of February ; and evil-minded persons would expect to organize the demon- strations for that time. I beg leave to suggest whether it would not be well for you, keeping your own counsel, to be prepared to drop into the city a week or ten days earlier. The effect would be, probably, reassuring and soothing. 4o8 LIFE OF LINCOLN Mr. Lincoln replied : I have been considering your suggestions as to my reach- ing Washington somewhat earlier than is usual. It seems to me the inauguration is not the most dangerous point for us. Our adversaries have us now clearly at disadvantage. On the second Wednesday of February, when the votes should be officially counted, if the two Houses refuse to meet at all, or meet without a quorum of each, where shall we be ? I do not think that this counting is constitutionally essential to the election ; but how are we to proceed in absence of it ? In view of this, I think it best for me not to attempt appearing in Washington till the result of that ceremony is known. The peace of the capital was, however, in good hands. General Scott, the general in command of the army, had, even before the election, seen the trouble coming, and had pleaded with the administration to dispose of the United States forces in such a way as to protect threatened property. Early in January, he succeeded in securing a guard for Washington. The fear that the electoral vote would never be counted partially subsided then, and Lincoln announced that he would leave Springfield on February u. The fortnight before his departure he gave to settling up his private business and saying good-by to his old friends. His stepmother was still living near Charleston, in Coles County, and thither he went to spend a day with her and to visit his father's grave. The comfort and happiness of his stepmother had been one of his cares from the time he began to be self-supporting, and in this farewell visit he assured himself that her future was provided for. Mrs. Lincoln, who was now a very old woman and might naturally doubt whether she would live to see her son again, was not con- cerned about herself at this time. The threats which pursued Lincoln had reached her, and in bidding him good-by, she sobbed out her belief that she would never see him again; SARAH BUSH LINCOLN From a photograph in possession of her granddaughter, Mrs. Harriet Chapman, of Charleston, 111. Sarah Bush was born in Kentucky, December 13, 1788. She was a friend of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, and it is said that Thomas Lincoln had been her suitor before she married Daniel Johnston. Her husband died in October, 1818. In November, 1819, Thomas Lincoln sought her a second time in mar- riage. She was in debt, and the fact caused her to hesitate ; but her suitor redeemed all her paper, and presented it to her with renewed protestations of affection. He was convinced that a woman with her honor about debts would make him a good wife. There is no question that as Thomas Lincoln's wife she exerted a remarkable influence upon his household, and with her dignity and kindliness played a large part in the development of her step-son, Abraham. She died on the 10th of December, 1869, at the old homestead in Coles County, Illinois. MR. LINCOLN AS PRESIDENT-ELECT 409 that his life would be taken. This same fear was expressed by many of Lincoln's early friends who came to Springfield to say good-by to him. In the multitude of partings which took place in these last days none was more characteristic than that with his law partner, Herndon. The day before his departure, Mr. Lin- coln went to the ofhce to settle some unfinished business. "After those things were all disposed of," writes Mr. Herndon, " he crossed to the opposite side of the room and threw himself down on the old office sofa, which, after many years of service, had been moved against the wall for support. He lay for some moments, his face towards the ceiling, with- out either of us speaking. Presently he inquired, ' Billy ' — he always called me by that name — * how long have we been together ? ' ' Over sixteen years/ I answered. ' We've never had a cross word during all that time, have we?' . . . He gathered a bundle of papers and books he wished to take with him, and started to go ; but before leaving he made the strange request that the sign-board which swung on its rusty hinges at the foot of the stairway should remain. ' Let it hang there undisturbed,' he said, with a significant lowering of the voice. ' Give our clients to understand that the elec- tion of a president makes no change in the firm of Lincoln & Herndon. If I live, I am coming back some time, and then we'll go right on practising law as if nothing had happened.' He lingered for a moment, as if to take a last look at the old quarters, and then passed through the door into the narrow hallway." Herndon says that he never saw Lincoln more cheerful than on that day, and Judge Gillespie, who visited him a few days earlier, found him in excellent spirits. " I told him that I believed it would do him good to get down to Washing- ton." " I know it will," he replied. " I only wish I could have got there to lock the door before the horse was stolen. But when I get to the spot, I can find the tracks." 410 LIFE OP LINCOLN Mr. Lincoln and his party were to leave Springfield by a special train at eight o'clock on Monday morning, February ii. And at precisely five minutes before eight o'clock, he was summoned from the dingy waiting-room of the station, Slowly working his way through the crowd of friends and townspeople that had gathered to bid him good-by, he mounted the platform of the car, and turning, stood looking down into the multitude of sad, friendly upturned faces. For a moment a strong emotion shook him ; then, removing his hat and lifting his hand to command silence, he spoke : My friends, no one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when or whether ever I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of that Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance, I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will com- mend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell. * A sob went through the listening crowd as Mr. Lincoln's broken voice asked their prayers, and a choked exclamation, " We will do it ! We will do it ! " rose as he ceased to speak. Upon all who listened to him that morning his words pro- duced a deep impression. " I was only a lad of fourteen," says Mr. Lincoln Dubois, of Springfield, " but to this day I can recall almost the exact language of that speech." " We have known Mr. Lincoln for many years," wrote the editor of the " State Journal." " We have heard him speak upon a * The version of the farewell speech here used is that given by Nico« lay and Hay in their " Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln/' MR. LINCOLN AS PRESIDENT-ELECT 411 hundred different occasions ; but we never saw him so pro- foundly affected, nor did he ever utter an address which seemed to us so full of simple and touching eloquence, so exactly adapted to the occasion, so worthy of the man and the hour. Although it was raining fast when he began to speak, every hat was lifted and every head bent forward to catch the last words of the departing chief. When he said, with the earnestness of a sudden inspiration of feeling, that with God's help he should not fail, there was an uncontrollable burst of applause." The speech was of course telegraphed over the country, and though politicians sneered at it, the people were touched. He had appealed to one of their deepest convictions, the belief in a Providence whose help was given to those who sought it in prayer. The new President, they said to one another, Tvas not only a man who had struggled with life like common people ; he was a man who believed, as they did, in God, and Vvas not ashamed to ask the prayers of good men. The journey eastward through Illinois, which now began, Was full of incident. No better description of it was ever given than that of Thomas Ross, a brakeman on the presi- dential train. " The enthusiasm all along the line was intense. As we whirled through the country villages, we caught a cheer from the people and a glimpse of waving handkerchiefs and of hats tossed high into the air. Wherever we stopped there was a great rush to shake hands with Mr. Lincoln, though of course only a few could reach him. The crowds looked as if they included the whole population. There were women and children, there were young men, and there were old men with gray beards. It was soul-stirring to see these white- whiskered old fellows, many of whom had known Lincoln in his humbler days, join in the cheering, and hear them shout after him, ' Good-by, Abe. Stick to the Constitution, and we will stick to you.' It was my good fortune to stand 412 LIFE OF LINCOLN beside Lincoln at each place at which he spoke — at Decatur, Tolono, and Danville. At the State line the train stopped for dinner. There was such a crowd that Lincoln could scarcely reach the dining-room. ' Gentlemen/ said he, as he surveyed the crowd, * if you will make me a little path, so that I can get through and get something to eat, I will make you a speech when I get back.' " I never knew where all the people came from. They were not only in the towns and villages, but many were along the track in the country, just to get a glimpse of the Presi- dent's train. I remember that, after passing Bement, we crossed a trestle, and I was greatly interested to see a man standing there with a shot-gun. As the train passed he pre- sented arms. I have often thought he was there, a volun- teer, to watch the trestle and to see that the President's train got over it in safety. As I have said, the people everywhere were wild. Everybody wanted to shake hands with Lincoln, and he would have to say : ' My friends, I would like to shake hands with all of you, but I can't do it/ At Danville I well remember seeing him thrust his long arm over several heads to shake hands with George Lawrence. Walter Whit- ney, the conductor, who went on to Indianapolis, told me when he got back that, after Lincoln got into a carriage, men got hold of the hubs and carried the vehicle for a whole block. At the State line, I left the train, and returned to Springfield, having passed the biggest day in my whole life." It was nearly five o'clock in the afternoon before the party reached Indianapolis, where they were to spend the night. An elaborate reception had been prepared, and here Mr. Lin- coln made his first speech. It was not long, but it contained a paragraph of vital importance. The discussion over the right of the government to coerce the South was at its height. Lincoln had never publicly expresssed himself on this point. In the Indianapolis speech he said : The words " coercion " and " invasion " are much used in these days, and often with some temper and hot blood. Let us make sure, if we can. that we do not misunderstand the MR. LINCOLN AS PRESIDENT-ELECT 413 meaning of those who use them. Let us get exact definitions of these words, not from dictionaries, but from the men themselves, who certainly deprecate the things they would represent by the use of words. What, then, is " coer- cion " ? What is " invasion " ? Would the marching of an army into South Carolina without the consent of her people, and with hostile intent toward them, be " inva- sion " ? I certainly think it would ; and it would be " coer- cion " also if the South Carolinians were forced to submit. But if the United States should merely hold and retake its own forts and other property, and collect the duties on foreign importations, or even withhold the mails from places where they were habitually violated, would any or all of these things be " invasion " or " coercion " ? Do our pro- fessed lovers of the Union, but who spitefully resolve that they will resist coercion and invasion, understand that such things as these on the part of the United States would be coercion or invasion of a State ? If so, their idea of means to preserve the object of their great affection would seem to be exceedingly thin and airy. If sick, the little pills of the homeopathist would be much too large for them to swallow. In their view, the Union as a family relation would seem to be no regular marriage, but rather a sort of " free-love " ar- rangement, to be maintained only on " passional attraction." The speech was warmly applauded by the Republican press. It was the sign they had been seeking from Mr. Lin- coln. But to the advocates of compromise it was a bitter message. " The bells of St. Germain l'Auxerrois have at length tolled forth the signal for massacre and bloodshed by the incoming administration," said the New York "Herald." A long public reception in the evening, a breakfast the next morning with the Governor of the State, another reception at the hotel, and then, at ten o'clock on the morning of the 12th, Mr. Lincoln's party left Indianapolis for Cincinnati. Several of the friends who had come from Springfield left Mr. Lin- coln at Indianapolis, but others joined him, and the train was 4H ^IFE OP LINCOLN as full of life and interest as it had been the day before. There was, too, the same succession of decorated, cheering towns; the same eager desire to see and hear the President at every station. At Cincinnati, where the second night was spent and where a magnificent reception was given him, Lin- coln made two brief addresses. In that to the Mayor and citizens he was particularly happy : " I have spoken but once before this in Cincinnati," he said. " That was a year previous to the late presidential election. On that occasion, in a playful manner, but with sincere words, I addressed much of what I said to the Ken- tuckians. I gave my opinion that we as Republicans would ultimately beat them as Democrats, but that they could post- pone that result longer by nominating Senator Douglas for the presidency than they could in any other way. They did not, in any true sense of the word, nominate Mr. Douglas, and the result has come certainly as soon as ever I expected. I also told them how I expected they would be treated after they should have been beaten ; and I now wish to recall their attention to what I then said upon that subject. I then said, ' When we do as we say— beat you — you perhaps want to know what we will do with you. I will tell you, so far as I am authorized to speak for the opposition, what we mean to do with you. We mean to treat you, as near as we possibly can, as Washington, Jefferson, and Madison treated you. We mean to leave you alone, and in no way interfere with your institutions ; to abide by all and every compromise of the Constitution ; and, in a word, coming back to the original proposition, to treat you, so far as degenerate men — if we have degenerated — may, according to the examples of those noble fathers, Washington, Jefferson, and Madison. We mean to remember that you are as good as we ; that there is no difference between us other than the difference of circum- stances. We mean to recognize and bear in mind always that you have as good hearts in your bosoms as other people, or as we claim to have, and treat you accordingly.' " Fellow-citizens of Kentucky ! — friends ! — brethren ! may I call you in my new position ? I see no occasion, and feel no MR. LINCOLN AS PRESIDENT-ELECT 415 inclination, to retract a word of this. If it shall not be made good, be assured the fault shall not be mine." These conciliatory remarks were received with great en- thusiasm, the crowd rushing at him as soon as he had fin- ished, patting him on the back, and almost wrenching his arms off in their efforts at showing their approval. On Wednesday morning, Mr. Lincoln left Cincinnati for Columbus. Although few stops were made, he was kept busy receiving the committees and politician? who boarded the train here and there, and who were indefatigable in their efforts to draw from him some expression of his views. Mr. Lincoln felt that to answer their questions would be the gravest indiscretion, and he resorted to stories and jests in his efforts not to commit himself or offend his visitors. The reports of his " levity," as more than one felt this practice to be, were telegraphed over the country and bitterly com- mented upon by a large part of the press. So far, however, as the stories Mr. Lincoln told on his journey have come to us, they contain quite as much political wisdom as a sober dissertation could have contained. Thus there was a great deal of discussion en route about the possibility of reconciling the Northern and Southern Democrats. Mr. Lincoln was appealed to. " Well," he said, " I once knew a good sound churchman called Brown, who was on a committee to erect a bridge over a very dangerous and rapid river. Several engineers had failed, and at last Brown said he had a friend Jones, who, he believed, could build the bridge. Jones was accordingly summoned. ' Can you build this bridge ? asked the committee. ' Yes/ replied Jones ; ' I could build a bridge to the infernal regions if necessary/ The committee was horrified; but after Jones had retired, Brown said thoughtfully, ' I know Jones so well, and he is so honest a man and so good a builder, that if he says he can build a 4 i6 LIFE OF LINCOLN bridge to Hades, why, I believe it; but I have my doubts about the abutments on the infernal side.' So," said Lin- coln, " when politicians say they can harmonize the Northern and Southern wings of the Democracy, v. T hy, I believe them, but I have my doubts about the abutments on the Southern side/' At Columbus, the brilliant receptions of Indianapolis and Cincinnati were repeated, and here Mr. Lincoln addressed briefly the State Legislature. One clause of his remarks proved to be most unfortunate : Allusion has been made to the interest felt in relation to the policy of the new administration. In this I have received from some a degree of credit for having kept silence, and from others some depreciation. I still think that I was right. . . . In the varying and repeatedly shifting scenes of the pres- ent, and without a precedent which could enable me to judge by the past, it has seemed fitting that, before speaking upon the difficulties of the country, I should have gained a view of the whole field, being at liberty to modify and change the course of policy as future events may make a change neces- sary. I have not maintained silence from any want of real anx- iety. It is a good thing that there is no more than anxiety, for there is nothing going wrong. It is a consoling circum- stance that when we look out there is nothing that really hurts anybody. We entertain different views upon political questions, but nobody is suffering anything. This is a most consoling circumstance, and from it we may conclude that all we want is time, patience, and a reliance on that God who has never forsaken this people. A hostile press took the phrases " there is nothing going wrong " — " there is nothing that really hurts anybody " — " nobody is suffering anything," and used them apart from the context, to prove that the President-elect did not grasp MR LINCOLN AS PRESIDENT-ELECT 417 the situation. At Newark, New Jersey, a week later, just be- fore the presidential party passed through, a poster appeared in the town quoting these sentences and calling on the unem- ployed to meet at the station when Mr. Lincoln's train ar- rived and show the President that " they emphatically dif- fered from these sentiments." Nothing came of this attempt to create a disturbance. On Thursday morning, February 14, the presidential party was again en route, this time bound for Pittsburg. Lincoln must have made this journey with a lighter heart than that of the day before, for the danger that the count- ing of the electoral vote would be interfered with, was now over. The night before at Columbus, he had received a tele- gram which read : " The votes have been peaceably counted. You are elected." The ceremony had passed off without in- cident. At Pittsburg, where the night of the 14th was spent, the President spoke to an immense crowd, and as the issue in Pennsylvania had been so largely protection, it was to that doctrine that he gave his chief attention. Nothing could have pleased the Iron City better. The people were so wild with enthusiasm that it took the combined efforts of the po- lice and militia to get the presidential party on the train and out of town. From the hour that Lincoln's coercion remarks at Indian- apolis reached the country, he had received telegraphic con- gratulations and remonstrances at almost every stop of the train. The remarks at Columbus produced a similar result, and he seems to have concluded at this point to make his fu- ture speeches more general. At Cleveland, Buffalo, Albany, and New York there was nothing in what he said that his enemies could fasten on. His journey from Pittsburg east- ward was in no way different from what it had been pre- viously. There were the same crowds of people at every 41 8 LIFE OF LINCOLN station, the same booming of cannon, gifts of flowers, recep tions at hotels, breakfasts, dinners, and luncheons with local magnates. All along the route in the East, as in the West, the people were out; everywhere there were flags and ban- ners and mottoes. The party in the train continued to change as it had done, committees and " leading citizens " replacing each other in rapid succession. None of these accessions aroused more interest among the other members of the party than Horace Greeley, who appeared unexpect- edly at Girard, Ohio, bag and blankets in hand, and after a ride of twenty miles with Mr. Lincoln, departed. At Buffalo, where Mr. Lincoln spoke on Saturday, the 1 6th, a bit of variety was infused into the celebration by the fulfilment of an election wager. The loser was to saw a cord of wood in front of the American House and present it to the poorest negro to be found. He accordingly appeared with a wagon-load of cord- wood just before Mr. Lincoln began his speech from the hotel balcony, and during the ad- dress sawed vigorously. The journey through New York State, with the elaborate ceremonies at Albany and New York City, occupied three days, and it was not until the evening of February 21 that Lincoln reached Philadelphia. The day had been a hard one. He had left New York early, had replied to greetings at Jer- sey City and again at Newark, had addressed both branches of the New Jersey Legislature at Trenton and gone through a formal dinner there, and now, though it was dark and cold, he was obliged to ride in state through the streets of Phila- delphia to his hotel, where hundreds of visitors soon were surging in to shake his hand. The hotel was still crowded with guests when he was summoned to the room of one of his party, Mr. Norman Judd. There he was introduced to Mr. Allan Pinkerton, who, as Mr. Judd explained, was a Chicago detective and had a story to lay before him. MR. LINCOLN AS PRESIDENT-ELECT 419 "Pinkerton informed me," said Mr. Lincoln afterwards, in relating the affair to Benson J. Lossing, " that a plan had been laid for my assassination, the exact time when I expected to go through Baltimore being publicly known. He was well informed as to the plan, but did not know that the conspirators would have pluck enough to execute it. He urged me to go right through with him to Washington that night. I did not like that. I had made engagements to visit Harrisburg, and go from there to Baltimore, and I resolved to do so. I could not believe that there was a plot to murder me. I made arrangements, however, with Mr. Judd for my return to Philadelphia the next night, if I should be con- vinced that there was danger in going through Baltimore. I told him that if I should meet at Harrisburg, as I had at other places, a delegation to go with me to the next place (then Baltimore), I should feel safe, and go on." Mr. Lincoln left Mr. Pinkerton, and started to his room, On the way he met Ward Lamon, also a member of his party, who introduced Frederick Seward, the son of the Senator. Mr. Seward, who relates this story in his life of his father, told Mr. Lincoln that he had a letter for him from his father. The letter informed Mr. Lincoln that Gen- eral Scott and Colonel Stone, the latter the officer command- ing the District of Columbia militia, had just received infor- mation which seemed to them convincing, that a plot existed in Baltimore to murder him on his way through that city. Mr. Seward besought the President to change his plan and go forward secretly. Mr. Lincoln read the note through twice slowly and thoughtfully ; then looked up, and said to Mr. Seward, " Do you know anything about the way this information was ob- tained?" No, Mr. Seward knew nothing. " Did you hear any names mentioned ? Did you, for in* stance, ever hear anything said about such a name as Pin* kerton?" 420 LIFE OF LINCOLN No, Mr. Seward had heard no names mentioned save those of General Scott and Colonel Stone. " I may as well tell why I ask," said Mr. Lincoln. " There were stories and rumors some time ago, before I left home, about people who were intending to do me a mischief. I never attached much importance to them — never wanted to believe any such thing. So I never would do anything about them in the way of taking precautions and the like. Some of my friends, though, thought differently — Judd and others — and, without my knowledge, they employed a detective to look into the matter. It seems he has occasionally reported what he found; and only to-day, since we arrived at this house, he brought this story, or something similar to it, about an attempt on my life in the confusion and hurly-burly of the reception at Baltimore." " Surely, Mr. Lincoln," said Mr. Seward, " that is a strong corroboration of the news I bring you." He smiled, and shook his head. " That is exactly why I was asking you about names. If different persons, not know- ing of each other's work, have been pursuing separate clews that led to the same result, why, then, it shows there must be something in it. But if this is only the same story, fil- tered through two channels, and reaching me in two ways, then that don't make it any stronger. Don't you see ? " After a little further discussion of the subject, Mr. Lin- coln rose and said : " Well, we haven't got to decide it to- night, anyway, and I see it is getting late. You need not think I will not consider it well. I shall think it over care- fully, and try to decide it right; and I will let you know in the morning." The next day was Washington's birthday. The hauling down of the Stars and Stripes in the South and the substi- tuting of State flags had stirred the North deeply. The day the first Palmetto Flag was raised in South Carolina, a new MR. LINCOLN AS PRESIDENT-ELECT 421 reverence for the national emblem was born in the North. The flag began to appear at every window, in every but- tonhole. On January 29 Kansas was admitted into the Union, without slavery, thus adding a new star to the thirty- three then in the field; and for raising the new flag thus made necessary, Washington's birthday became almost a universal choice. In Philadelphia, it was arranged that the new flag for Independence Hall be raised by Mr. Lincoln. The ceremony took place at seven o'clock in the morning. Mr. Lincoln's brief speech was one of the best received of all he made on the journey : I am filled with deep emotion at finding myself standing in this place, where were collected together the wisdom, the patriotism, the devotion to principle from which sprang the institutions under which we live. You have kindly sug- gested to me that in my hands is the task of restoring peace to our distracted country. I can say in return, sir, that all the political sentiments I entertain have been drawn, so far as I have been able to draw them, from the sentiments which originated in and were given to the world from this hall. I have never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence. I have often pondered over the dangers which were incurred by the men who assembled here and framed and adopted that Declaration. I have pondered over the toils that were endured by the officers and soldiers of the army who achieved that independence. I have often inquired of myself what great principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long together. It was not the mere matter of separation of the colonies from the motherland, but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty not alone to the people of this country, but hope to all the world, for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights would be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence. Now, my friends, can this country be saved on that basis? 422 LIFE OF LINCOLN If it can, I will consider myself one of the happiest men in the world if I can help to save it. If it cannot be saved upon that principle, it will be truly awful But if this country cannot be saved without giving up that principle, I was about to say I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it. Now, in my view of the present aspect of affairs, there is no need of bloodshed and war. There is no necessity for it. I am not in favor of such a course, and I may say in advance that there will be no bloodshed unless it is forced upon the government. The government will not use force, unless force is used against it. My friends, this is wholly an unprepared speech. I did not expect to be called on to say a word when I came here. I supposed I was merely to do something toward raising a flag. I may, therefore, have said something indiscreet. [Cries of " No, no/'] But I have said nothing but what I am willing to live by, and, if it be the pleasure of Almighty God, to die by. It was after returning from the flag-raising at Philadel- phia that Lincoln told his friends that he had decided to go on to Washington at whatever time they thought best after his only remaining engagement was filled; viz., to meet and address the Pennsylvania Legislature at Harrisburg that afternoon. The engagement was carried out, and late in the afternoon he was free. It had been arranged that he leave Harrisburg secretly at six o'clock in the evening with Colonel Lamon, the rest of his party to know nothing of his departure. But Mr. Lincoln did not like to go without at least informing his companions, and asked that they be called. " I reckon they'll laugh at us, Judd," he said, " but you had better get them together." Several of the party, when told of the project, opposed it violently, arguing that it would expose Mr. Lincoln to ridicule and to the charge of cowardice. He, however, answered that unless there was something besides ridicule to fear, he was disposed to carry out Mr. Tudd's plan. MR. LINCOLN AS PRESIDENT-ELECT 423 At six o'clock he left his hotel by a back door, bareheaded, a soft hat in his pocket, and entering a carriage, was driven to the station, where a car and engine, unlighted save for a headlight, awaited him. A few minutes after eleven o'clock, he was in Philadelphia, where the night train for Washing- ton was being held by order of the president of the road for an " important package." This package was delivered to the conductor as soon as it was known that Mr. Lincoln was on the train. At six o'clock the next morning, after an un- disturbed night, he was in Washington, where Mr. Wash- burne and Mr. Seward met him, and, with devout thanks- giving, conducted him to Willard's Hotel, there to remain until after the inauguration. There were still nine days before the inauguration, and nine busier days Mr. Lincoln had not spent since his elec- tion. He was obliged to make visits to President Buchanan, Congress and the Supreme Court, and under Mr. Seward's guidance, this was done at once. He received, too, great numbers of visitors, including many delegations and com- mittees. The Hon. James Harlan, of Iowa, at that time United States Senator, called on Mr. Lincoln on February 23, the day of his arrival. " He was overwhelmed with callers," says Mr. Harlan. " The room in which he stood, the corridors and halls and stairs leading to it, were crowded full of people, each one, apparently, intent on ob- taining an opportunity to say a few words to him privately" It was in these few days before his inauguration that the great fight over the future Cabinet was made. As we have seen, Lincoln had made his selections, subject to events, be- fore he left Springfield. When he reached Washington he sought counsel on his proposed appointments from great numbers of the leading men of the country. If they did not come to him, he went to them. Thus ex-Senator Harlan, in an unpublished manuscrin* " Recollections of Abraham Lin- 424 LIFE OF LINCOLN coin," tells how the President-elect sounded him on the Cabi- net. " A page came to me at my desk in the Senate Cham- ber," writes Mr. Harlan, " and said, ' The President-elect is in the President's room and wishes to see you.' I confess that I felt a little flurried by this announcement I had not been accustomed to being called in by Presidents of the United States ; hence, to gain a little time for self-composure, I said to the little page, ' How do you know that the Presi- dent-elect wishes to see me?' ' Oh,' said he, ' his messen- ger came to the door of the Senate Chamber, and sent me to tell you.' ' All right/ said I. * You may tell the President's messenger that I will call immediately,' which, of course, I did without the least delay. " I was received by the President in person, who, after the ordinary greetings, offered me a seat, and seated himself near me. No one else was in the room. He commenced the conversation, saying in a half-playful, half-serious tone and manner, ' I sent for you to tell me whom to appoint as mem- bers of my Cabinet.' I responded, saying, ' Mr. President, as that duty, under the Constitution, devolves, in the first instance, on the President, I have not given to the subject a serious thought ; I have no names to suggest, and expect to be satisfied with your selections.' He then said he had about concluded to nominate William H. Seward, of New York, as Secretary of State; Edward Bates, of Missouri, for Attor- ney-General; Caleb B. Smith, of Indiana, for Secretary of the Interior ; Gideon Welles, of Connecticut, for Secretary of the Navy ; Montgomery Blair, of Maryland, for Postmaster- General; and that he thought he ought to appoint Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania, and Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, for the remaining two places, but was in doubt which one to offer Mr. Cameron and would like to have me express my opinion frankly on the point. u ' Well/ said I. ' Mr. President, if that is the only ques- MR. LINCOLN AS PRESIDENT-ELECT 425 tion involved, I have not the slightest doubt that Mr. Chase ought to be made Secretary of the Treasury,' and then I pro- ceeded to mention, without hesitation or reserve, my reasons for this opinion. He thanked me cordially for my frankness. I took my leave. This interview lasted probably about ten or fifteen minutes." Not all of those with whom Mr. Lincoln talked about his Cabinet professed, like Senator Harlan, to be satisfied with his selections. Radical Republicans, mistrusting Seward's spirit of compromise, besought him to take Chase and drop Seward altogether. Conservatives, on the contrary, fear- ing Chase's implacable " no compromise " spirit, urged Lin- coln to omit him from the Cabinet Seward finally, on March 2, probably thinking to force Lincoln's hand, withdrew his consent to take an appointment. He said later that he feared a " compound Cabinet " and did not wish to " hazard " him- self in the experiment. This action brought no immediate reply from Mr. Lincoln. He simply left Seward's name where he had placed it at the head of the slate. The struggle over Cameron's appointment, which had been going on for more than two months, now culminated in a desperate en- counter. The appointment of Blair was hotly contested. Caleb Smith's seat was disputed by Schuyler Colfax. In short, it was a day-and-night battle of the factions of the Republican party, which raged around Lincoln from the hour he appeared in Washington until the hour of his inaugura- tion. In spite of all the arguments and threats from excited and earnest men, to which he listened candidly and patiently; Lincolh found himself, on the eve of his inauguration, with the Cabinet which he had selected four months before un- changed. This fact, had it been known, might have modified somewhat the opinion expressed generally at the time, that the new President would never be anything but the tool of 426 LIFE OF LINCOLN Chase or Seward, or of whoever proved to be the strong man of his Cabinet — that is, if he was ever inaugurated. Of this last many had doubts, and even, at the last hour, were betting in the hotel corridors and streets of Washington that Abraham Lincoln would never be President of the United States. jo J.