CHAPTER X

THE majority of Mr. Lincoln's biographers--and they are many and

credulous--tell us that he _walked_ from New Salem to Vandalia, a

distance of one hundred miles, to take his seat, for the first time, in

the Legislature of the State. But that is an innocent mistake; for he

was resolved to appear with as much of the dignity of the senator as

his circumstances would permit. It was for this very purpose that he

had borrowed the two hundred dollars from Coleman Smoot; and, when the

choice between riding and walking presented itself, he sensibly enough

got into the stage, with his new clothes on, and rode to the scene of

his labors.

When he arrived there, he found a singular state of affairs. Duncan had

been chosen Governor at the recent August election by "the whole-hog

Jackson men;" but he was absent in Congress during the whole of the

campaign; and, now that he came to the duties of his office, it was

discovered that he had been all the while an anti-Jackson man, and was

quite willing to aid the Whigs in furtherance of some of their worst

schemes. These schemes were then just beginning to be hatched in great

numbers; but in due time they were enacted into laws, and prepared

Illinois with the proper weights of public debt and "rag" currency, to

sink her deeper than her neighbors into the miseries of financial ruin

in 1837. The speculating fever was just reaching Illinois; the land and

town-lot business had barely taken shape at Chicago; and State banks and

multitudinous internal improvements were yet to be invented. But this

Legislature was a very wise one in its own conceit, and was not slow

to launch out with the first of a series of magnificent experiments. It

contented itself, however, with chartering a State bank, with a capital

of one million five hundred thousand dollars; rechartering, with a

capital of three hundred thousand dollars, the Shawneetown Bank, which

had broken twelve years before; and providing for a loan of five hundred

thousand dollars, on the credit of the State, wherewith to make a

beginning on the Illinois and Michigan Canal. The bill for the latter

project was drawn and introduced by Senator James M. Strode, the

gentleman who described with such moving eloquence the horrors of

Stillman's defeat. These measures Gov. Ford considers "the beginning of

all the bad legislation which followed in a few years, and which, as is

well known, resulted in general ruin." Mr. Lincoln favored them all, and

faithfully followed out the policy of which they were the inauguration

at subsequent sessions of the same body. For the present, nevertheless,

he was a silent member, although he was assigned a prominent place on

the Committee on Public Accounts and Expenditures. The bank-charters

were drawn by a Democrat who hoped to find his account in the issue; all

the bills were passed by a Legislature "nominally" Democratic; but the

Board of Canal Commissioners was composed exclusively of Whigs, and the

Whigs straightway assumed control of the banks.

It was at a special session of this Legislature that Lincoln first saw

Stephen A. Douglas, and, viewing his active little person with immense

amusement, pronounced him "the _least_ man he ever saw." Douglas had

come into the State (from Vermont) only the previous year, but, having

studied law for several months, considered himself eminently qualified

to be State's attorney for the district in which he lived, and was now

come to Vandalia for that purpose. The place was already filled by a

man of considerable distinction; but the incumbent remaining at home,

possibly in blissful ignorance of his neighbor's design, was easily

supplanted by the supple Vermonter.

It is the misfortune of legislatures in general, as it was in those days

the peculiar misfortune of the Legislature of Illinois, to be beset by

a multitude of gentlemen engaged in the exclusive business of

"log-rolling." Chief among the "rollers" were some of the most

"distinguished" members, each assisted by an influential delegation from

the district, bank, or "institution" to be benefited by the legislation

proposed. An expert "log-roller," an especially wily and persuasive

person, who could depict the merits of his scheme with roseate but

delusive eloquence, was said to carry "a gourd of possum fat," and the

unhappy victim of his art was said to be "_greased and swallowed_."

It is not to be supposed that anybody ever succeeded in anointing a

single square inch of Mr. Lincoln's person with the "fat" that deluded;

but historians aver that "the Long Nine," of whom he was the longest

and cleverest, possessed "gourds" of extraordinary dimensions, and

distributed "grease" of marvellous virtues. But of that at another

place.

In 1836 Mr. Lincoln was again a candidate for the Legislature; his

colleagues on the Whig ticket in Sangamon being, for Representatives,

John Dawson, William F. Elkin, N. W. Edwards, Andrew McCormick, Dan

Stone, and R. L. Wilson; and for Senators, A. G. Herndon and Job

Fletcher. They were all elected but one, and he was beaten by John

Calhoun.

Mr. Lincoln opened the campaign by the following manifesto:--

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 admitting all _whites_ to

the right of suffrage who pay taxes or bear arms (_by no means excluding

females_).

If elected, I shall consider the whole people of Sangamon my

constituents, as well those that oppose as those that support 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 elections were held on the first Monday in August, and the campaign

began about six weeks or two months before. Popular meetings were

advertised in "The Sangamon Journal" and "The State Register,"--organs

of the respective parties. Not unfrequently the meetings were joint,

--composed of both parties,--when, as Lincoln would say, the candidates

"put in their best licks," while the audience "rose to the height of

the great argument" with cheers, taunts, cat-calls, fights, and other

exercises appropriate to the free and untrammelled enjoyment of the

freeman's boon.

The candidates travelled from one grove to another on horseback; and,

when the "Long Nine" (all over six feet in height) took the road, it

must have been a goodly sight to see.

"I heard Lincoln make a speech," says James Gourly, "in Mechanicsburg,

Sangamon County, in 1836. John Neal had a fight at the time: the roughs

got on him, and Lincoln jumped in and saw fair play. We staid for dinner

at Green's, close to Mechanicsburg,--drank whiskey sweetened with

honey. There the questions discussed were internal improvements, Whig

principles." (Gourly was a great friend of Lincoln's, for Gourly had had

a foot-race "with H. B. Truett, now of California," and Lincoln had been

his "judge;" and it was a remarkable circumstance, that nearly everybody

for whom Lincoln "judged" came out ahead.)

"I heard Mr. Lincoln during the same canvass," continues Gourly. "It

was at the Court House, where the State House now stands. The Whigs and

Democrats had a general quarrel then and there. N. W. Edwards drew a

pistol on Achilles Morris." But Gourly's account of this last scene

is unsatisfactory, although the witness is willing; and we turn to

Lincoln's colleague, Mr. Wilson, for a better one. "The Saturday evening

preceding the election the candidates were addressing the people in

the Court House at Springfield. Dr. Early, one of the candidates on

the Democratic side, made some charge that N. W. Edwards, one of the

candidates on the Whig side, deemed untrue. Edwards climbed on a table,

so as to be seen by Early, and by every one in the house, and at the top

of his voice told Early that the charge was false. The excitement that

followed was intense,--so much so, that fighting men thought that a

duel must settle the difficulty. Mr. Lincoln, by the programme, followed

Early. He took up the subject in dispute, and handled it fairly, and

with such ability that every one was astonished and pleased. So that

difficulty ended there. Then, for the first time, developed by the

excitement of the occasion, he spoke in that tenor intonation of voice

that ultimately settled down into that clear, shrill monotone style of

speaking that enabled his audience, however large, to hear distinctly

the lowest sound of his voice."

It was during this campaign, possibly at the same meeting, that Mr.

Speed heard him reply to George Forquer. Forquer had been a leading

Whig, one of their foremost men in the Legislature of 1834, but had then

recently changed sides, and thereupon was appointed Register of the Land

Office at Springfield. Mr. Forquer was an astonishing man: he not

only astonished the people by "changing his coat in politics," but by

building the best frame-house in Springfield, and erecting over it the

only lightning-rod the entire region could boast of. At this meeting he

listened attentively to Mr. Lincoln's first speech, and was much annoyed

by the transcendent power with which the awkward young man defended the

principles he had himself so lately abandoned. "The speech" produced

a profound impression, "especially upon a large number of Lincoln's

friends and admirers, who had come in from the country" expressly to

hear and applaud him.

"At the conclusion of Lincoln's speech" (we quote from Mr. Speed),

"the crowd was dispersing, when Forquer rose and asked to be heard. He

commenced by saying that the young man would have to be taken down, and

was sorry that the task devolved upon him. He then proceeded to answer

Lincoln's speech in a style, which, while it was able and fair, yet, in

his whole manner, asserted and claimed superiority. Lincoln stood

near him, and watched him during the whole of his speech. When Forquer

concluded, he took the stand again. I have often heard him since, in

court and before the people, but never saw him appear so well as upon

that occasion. He replied to Mr. Forquer with great dignity and force;

but I shall never forget the conclusion of that speech. Turning to Mr.

Forquer, he said, that he had commenced his speech by announcing that

'this young man would have to be taken down.' Turning then to the crowd,

he said, 'It is for you, not for me, to say whether I am up or down. The

gentleman has alluded to my being a young man: I am older in years than

I am in the tricks and trades of politicians. I desire to live, and I

desire place and distinction as a politician; but I would rather die

now, than, like the gentleman, live to see the day that I would have to

erect a lightning-rod to protect a guilty conscience from an offended

God.'"

He afterwards told Speed that the sight of that same rod "had led him to

the study of the properties of electricity and the utility of the rod as

a conductor."

Among the Democratic orators stumping the county at this time was Dick

Taylor, a pompous gentleman, who went abroad in superb attire, ruffled

shirts, rich vest, and immense watch-chains, with shining and splendid

pendants. But Dick was a severe Democrat in theory, made much of

"the hard-handed yeomanry," and flung many biting sarcasms upon the

aristocratic pretensions of the Whigs,--the "rag barons" and the

manufacturing "lords." He was one day in the midst of a particularly

aggravating declamation of this sort, "when Abe began to feel devilish,

and thought he would take the wind out of Dick's sails by a little

sport." He therefore "edged" slyly up to the speaker, and suddenly

catching his vest by the lower corner, and giving it a sharp pull

upward, it opened wide, and out fell upon the platform, in full view of

the astonished audience, a mass of ruffled shirt, gold watch, chains,

seals, and glittering jewels. Jim Matheny was there, and nearly

broke his heart with mirth. "The crowd couldn't stand it, but shouted

uproariously." It must have been then that Abe delivered the following

speech, although Ninian W. Edwards places it in 1840:--

"While he [Col. Taylor] was making these charges against the Whigs

over the country, riding in fine carriages, wearing ruffled shirts,

kid gloves, massive gold watch-chains, with large gold seals, and

flourishing a heavy gold-headed cane, he [Lincoln] was a poor boy,

hired on a flatboat at eight dollars a month, and had only one pair of

breeches to his back, and they were buckskin,--'and,' said Lincoln, 'if

you know the nature of buckskin, when wet and dried by the sun, they

will shrink,--and mine kept shrinking, until they left several inches

of my legs bare between the tops of my socks and the lower part of my

breeches; and, whilst I was growing taller, they were becoming shorter,

and so much tighter, that they left a blue streak around my legs that

can be seen to this day. If you call this aristocracy, I plead guilty

to the charge.'" Hitherto Sangamon County had been uniformly Democratic;

but at this election the Whigs carried it by an average majority of

about four hundred, Mr. Lincoln receiving a larger vote than any other

candidate. The result was in part due to a transitory and abortive

attempt of the anti-Jackson and anti-Van-Buren men to build up a third

party, with Judge White of Tennessee as its leader. This party was not

supposed to be wedded to the "specie circular," was thought to be open

to conviction on the bank question, clamored loudly about the business

interests and general distress of the country, and was actually in favor

of the distribution of the proceeds of the sales of the public lands.

In the nomenclature of Illinois, its members might have been called

"nominal Jackson men;" that is to say, men who continued to act with the

Democratic party, while disavowing its cardinal principles,--traders,

trimmers, cautious schismatics who argued the cause of Democracy from a

brief furnished by the enemy. The diversion in favor of White was just

to the hand of the Whigs, and they aided it in every practicable way.

Always for an expedient when an expedient would answer, a compromise

when a compromise would do, the "hand" Mr. Lincoln "showed" at the

opening of the campaign contained the "White" card among the highest of

its trumps. "If alive on the first Monday in November, I shall vote for

Hugh L. White for President." A number of local Democratic politicians

assisting him to play it, it won the game in 1836, and Sangamon County

went over to the Whigs.

At this election Mr. Douglas was made a Representative from Morgan

County, along with Col. Hardin, from whom he had the year before taken

the State's attorneyship. The event is notable principally because Mr.

Douglas was nominated by a convention, and not by the old system of

self-announcement, which, under the influence of Eastern immigrants, like

himself, full of party zeal, and attached to the customs of the places

whence they came, was gradually but surely falling into disfavor. Mr.

Douglas served only one session, and then became Register of the Land

Office at Springfield. The next year he was nominated for Congress in

the Peoria District, under the convention system, and in the same year

Col. Stephenson was nominated for Governor in the same way. The Whigs

were soon compelled to adopt the device which they saw marshalling the

Democrats in a state of complete discipline; whilst they themselves were

disorganized by a host of volunteer candidates and the operations of

innumerable cliques and factions. At first "it was considered a Yankee

contrivance," intended to abridge the liberties of the people; but

the Whig "people" were as fond of victory, offices, and power as their

enemies were, and in due time they took very kindly to this effectual

means of gaining them. A speech of Ebenezer Peck of Chicago, "before

a great meeting of the lobby, during the special session of 1835-6

at Vandalia," being a production of special ingenuity and power,

is supposed to have contributed largely to the introduction of the

convention system into the middle and southern parts of the State. Mr.

Peck was then a fervent Democrat, whom the Whigs delighted to malign

as a Canadian monarchist; but in after times he was the fast and able

friend of their great leader, Abraham Lincoln.

One of the first and worst effects of the stricter organization

of parties in Illinois, as well as in other States, was the strong

diversion of public attention from State to Federal affairs. Individual

candidates were no longer required to "show their hands:" they accepted

"platforms" when they accepted nominations; and without a nomination

it was mere quixotism to stand at all. District, State, and national

conventions, acting and re-acting upon one another, produced a concert

of sentiment and conduct which overlaid local issues, and repressed

independent proceedings. This improved party machinery supplied the

readiest and most effective means of distributing the rapidly-increasing

patronage of the Federal Executive; and those who did not wish to be

cut off from its enjoyment could do no less than re-affirm with becoming

fervor, in their local assemblages, the latest deliverance of the faith

by the central authority. The promoters of heresies and schisms, the

blind leaders who misled a county or a State convention, and seduced it

into the declaration of principles of its own, had their seats contested

in the next general council of the party, were solemnly sat upon,

condemned, "delivered over to Satan to be buffeted," and cast out of the

household of faith, to wander in the wilderness and to live upon husks.

It was like a feeble African bishop imputing heresy to the Christian

world, with Rome at its head. A man like Mr. Lincoln, who earnestly

"desired place and distinction as a politician," labored without hope

while his party affinities remained the subject of a reasonable doubt.

He must be "a whole-hog man" or nothing, a Whig or a Democrat. Mr.

Lincoln chose his company with commendable decision, and wasted no

tender regrets upon his "nominal" Democratic friends. For White against

Harrison, in November, 1836, he led the Whigs into action when the

Legislature met in December; and when the hard-cider campaign of 1840

commenced, with its endless meetings and processions, its coon-skins

and log-cabins, its intrigue, trickery, and fun, his musical voice

rose loudest above the din for "Old Tippecanoe;" and no man did better

service, or enjoyed those memorable scenes more, than he who was to be

the beneficiary of a similar revival in 1860.

When this legislature met in the winter of 1836-7, the bank and

internal-improvement infatuation had taken full possession of a majority

of the people, as well as of the politicians. To be sure, "Old Hickory"

had given a temporary check to the wild speculations in Western land by

the specie circular, about the close of his administration, whereby gold

and silver were made "land-office money;" and the Government declined

to exchange any more of the public domain for the depreciated paper of

rotten and explosive banks. Millions of notes loaned by the banks on

insufficient security or no security at all were by this timely

measure turned back into the banks, or converted to the uses of a more

legitimate and less dangerous business. But, even if the specie circular

had not been repealed, it would probably have proved impotent against

the evils it was designed to prevent, after the passage of the Act

distributing among the States the surplus (or supposed surplus) revenues

of the Federal Government.

The last dollar of the old debt was paid in 1833. There were from time

to time large unexpended and unappropriated balances in the treasury.

What should be done with them? There was no sub-treasury as yet, and

questions concerning the mere safe-keeping of these moneys excited the

most tremendous political contests. The United States Bank had always

had the use of the cash in the treasury in the form of deposits; but the

bank abused its trust,--used its enormous power over the currency

and exchanges of the country to achieve political results in its own

interest, and, by its manifold sins and iniquities, compelled Gen.

Jackson to remove the deposits. Ultimately the bank took shelter in

Pennsylvania, where it began a new fraudulent life under a surreptitious

clause tacked to the end of a road law on its passage through the

General Assembly. In due time the "beast," as Col. Benton loved to call

it, died in its chosen lair a shameful and ignominious death, cheating

the public with a show of solvency to the end, and leaving a fine array

of bill-holders and depositors to mourn one of the most remarkable

delusions of modern times.

Withdrawn, or rather withheld (for they were never withdrawn), from the

Bank of the United States, the revenues of the Federal Government were

deposited as fast as they accrued in specie-paying State banks.

They were paid in the notes of the thousand banks, good, bad, and

indifferent, whose promises to pay constituted the paper currency of the

day. It was this money which the Whigs, aided by Democratic recusants,

proposed to give away to the States. They passed an Act requiring it

to be _deposited_ with the States,--ostensibly as a safe and convenient

method of keeping it; but nobody believed that it would ever be called

for, or paid if it was. It was simply an extraordinary largess; and

pending the very embarrassment caused by itself, when the government

had not a dollar wherewith to pay even a pension, and the temporary

expedient was an issue of treasury notes against the better judgment of

the party in power, the possibility of withdrawing these deposits was

never taken into the account. The Act went into effect on the 1st of

January, 1837, and was one of the immediate causes of the suspension

and disasters of that year. "The condition of our deposit banks was

desperate,--wholly inadequate to the slightest pressure on their vaults

in the ordinary course of business, much less that of meeting the daily

government drafts and the approaching deposit of near forty millions

with the States." Nevertheless, the deposits began at the rate of

ten millions to the quarter. The deposit banks "blew up;" and all the

others, including that of the United States, closed their doors to

customers and bill-holders, which gave them more time to hold public

meetings, imputing the distress of the country to the hard-money policy

of Jackson and Van Buren, and agitating for the re-charter of Mr.

Biddle's profligate concern as the only remedy human ingenuity could

devise.

It was in the month previous to the first deposit with the

States,--about the time when Gov. Ford says, "lands and town-lots were

the only articles of export" from Illinois; when the counters of Western

land-offices were piled high with illusory bank-notes in exchange for

public lands, and when it was believed that the West was now at last

about to bound forward in a career of unexampled prosperity, under the

forcing process of public improvements by the States, with the aid and

countenance of the Federal Government,--that Mr. Lincoln went up to

attend the first session of the new Legislature at Vandalia. He was big

with projects: his real public service was just now about to begin. In

the previous Legislature he had been silent, observant, studious. He had

improved the opportunity so well, that of all men in this new body, of

equal age in the service, he was the smartest parliamentarian and the

cunningest "log-roller." He was fully determined to identify himself

conspicuously with the "liberal" legislation in contemplation, and

dreamed of a fame very different from that which he actually obtained as

an antislavery leader. It was about this time that he told his friend,

Mr. Speed, that he aimed at the great distinction of being called "the

De Witt Clinton of Illinois."

Meetings with a view to this sort of legislation had been held in all,

or nearly all, the counties in the State during the preceding summer

and fall. Hard-money, strict-construction, no-monopoly, anti-progressive

Democrats were in a sad minority. In truth, there was little division

of parties about these matters which were deemed so essential to the

prosperity of a new State. There was Mr. Lincoln, and there was Mr.

Douglas, in perfect unison as to the grand object to be accomplished,

but mortally jealous as to which should take the lead in accomplishing

it. A few days before the Legislature assembled, "a mass convention" of

the people of Sangamon County "instructed" their members "to vote for a

_general system of internal improvements_." The House of Representatives

organized in the morning; and in the evening its hall was surrendered

to a convention of delegates from all parts of the State, which "devised

and recommended to the Legislature a system of internal improvements,

the chief feature of which was, that it should be commensurate with

the wants of the people." This result was arrived at after two days of

debate, with "Col. Thomas Mather, of the State Bank, as president."

Mr. Lincoln served on the Committee on Finance, and was a most laborious

member, instant in season and out of season, for the great measures of

the Whig party. It was to his individual exertion that the Whigs were

indebted in no small degree for the complete success of their favorite

schemes at this session. A railroad from Galena to the mouth of the Ohio

was provided for; another from Alton to Shawneetown; another from Alton

to Mount Carmel; another from Alton to the eastern boundary of the State

towards Terre Haute; another from Quincy by way of Springfield to

the Wabash; another from Bloomington to Pekin; another from Peoria to

Warsaw,--in all about thirteen hundred miles. But in this comprehensive

"system," "commensurate with the wants of the people," the rivers were

not to be overlooked; and accordingly the Kaskaskia, the Illinois, the

Great Wabash, the Little Wabash, and the Rock rivers were to be duly

improved. To set these little matters in motion, a loan of eight

millions of dollars was authorized; and, to complete the canal from

Chicago to Peru, another loan of four millions of dollars was voted

at the same session,--two hundred thousand dollars being given as a

gratuity to those counties which seemed to have no special interest in

any of the foregoing projects. Work on all these roads was to commence,

not only at the same time, but at both ends of each road, and at all

the river-crossings. There were as yet no surveys of any route, no

estimates, no reports of engineers, or even unprofessional viewers.

"Progress" was not to wait on trifles; capitalists were supposed to be

lying in wait to catch these precious bonds; the money would be raised

in a twinkling, and being applied with all the skill of "a hundred De

Witt Clintons,"--a class of gentlemen at that time extremely numerous

and obtrusive,--the loan would build the railroads, the railroads would

build cities, cities would create farms, foreign capital would rush

to so inviting a field, the lands would be taken up with marvellous

celerity, and the "land-tax" going into a sinking fund, _that_, with

some tolls and certain sly speculations to be made by the State, would

pay principal and interest of the debt without ever a cent of taxation

upon the people. In short, everybody was to be enriched, while the

munificence of the State in selling its credit and spending the proceeds

would make its empty coffers overflow with ready money. It was a dark

stroke of statesmanship, a mysterious device in finance, which, whether

from being misunderstood, or from being mismanaged, bore from the

beginning fruits the very reverse of those it had promised.

A Board of Canal Commissioners was already in existence; but now were

established, as necessary parts of the new "system," a Board of Fund

Commissioners and a Board of Commissioners of Public Works.

The capital stock of the Shawneetown Bank was increased to one million

seven hundred thousand dollars, and that of the State Bank to three

million one hundred thousand dollars. The State took the new stock, and

proposed to pay for it "with the surplus revenues of the United States,

and the residue by a sale of State bonds." The banks were likewise

made fiscal agencies, to place the loans, and generally to manage the

railroad and canal funds. The career of these banks is an extremely

interesting chapter in the history of Illinois,--little less so than the

rise and collapse of the great internal-improvement system. But, as it

has already a place in a chronicle of wider scope and greater merit than

this, it is enough to say that in due time they went the way of their

kind,--the State lost by them, and they lost by the State, in morals as

well as in money.

The means used in the Legislature to pass the "system" deserve some

notice for the instruction of posterity. "First, a large portion of

the people were interested in the success of the canal, which was

threatened, if other sections of the State were denied the improvements

demanded by them; and thus the friends of the canal were forced to

log-roll for that work by supporting others which were to be ruinous to

the country. Roads and improvements were proposed everywhere, to enlist

every section of the State. Three or four efforts were made to pass a

smaller system; and, when defeated, the bill would be amended by the

addition of other roads, until a majority was obtained for it. Those

counties which could not be thus accommodated were to share in the fund

of two hundred thousand dollars. Three roads were appointed to terminate

at Alton, before the Alton interest would agree to the system. The seat

of government was to be removed to Springfield. Sangamon County, in

which Springfield is situated, was then represented by two Senators

and seven Representatives, called the 'Long Nine,' all Whigs but one.

Amongst them were some dexterous jugglers and managers in politics,

whose whole object was to obtain the seat of government for Springfield.

This delegation, from the beginning of the session, threw itself as

a unit in support of, or in opposition to, every local measure of

interest, but never without a bargain for votes in return on the

seat-of-government question. Most of the other counties were small,

having but one Representative and many of them with but one for a

whole representative district; and this gave Sangamon County a decided

preponderance in the log-rolling system of those days. It is worthy of

examination whether any just and equal legislation can ever be sustained

where some of the counties are great and powerful, and others feeble.

But by such means 'The Long-Nine' rolled along like a snowball,

gathering accessions of strength at every turn, until they swelled up

a considerable party for Springfield, which party they managed to take

almost as a unit in favor of the internal-improvement system, in

return for which the active supporters of that system were to vote for

Springfield to be the seat of government. Thus it was made to cost the

State about six millions of dollars to remove the seat of government

from Vandalia to Springfield, half of which sum would have purchased all

the real estate in that town at three prices; and thus by log-rolling

on the canal measure; by multiplying railroads; by terminating three

railroads at Alton, that Alton might become a great city in opposition

to St. Louis; by distributing money to some of the counties to be wasted

by the county commissioners; and by giving the seat of government to

Springfield,--was the whole State bought up, and bribed to approve the

most senseless and disastrous policy which ever crippled the energies of

a growing country." 1

1 Ford's History of Illinois.

Enumerating the gentlemen who voted for this combination of

evils,--among them Stephen A. Douglas, John A. McClernand, James

Shields, and Abraham Lincoln,--and reciting the high places of honor and

trust to which most of them have since attained, Gov. Ford pronounces

"all of them spared monuments of popular wrath, evincing how safe it is

to a politician, but how disastrous it may be to the country, to keep

along with the present fervor of the people."

"It was a maxim with many politicians just to keep along even with the

humor of the people, right or wrong;" and this maxim Mr. Lincoln held

then, as ever since, in very high estimation. But the "humor" of his

constituents was not only intensely favorable to the new scheme of

internal improvements: it was most decidedly their "humor" to have the

capital at Springfield, and to make a great man of the legislator who

should take it there. Mr. Lincoln was doubtless thoroughly convinced

that the popular view of all these matters was the right one; but, even

if he had been unhappily afflicted with individual scruples of his own,

he would have deemed it but simple duty to obey the almost unanimous

voice of his constituency. He thought he never could serve them better

than by giving them just what they wanted; and that to collect the

will of his people, and register it by his own vote, was the first

and leading obligation of a representative. It happened that on this

occasion the popular feeling fell in very pleasantly with his young

dream of rivalling the fame of Clinton; and here, also, was a fine

opportunity of repeating, in a higher strain and on a loftier stage, the

ingenious arguments, which, in the very outset of his career, had proved

so hard for "Posey and Ewing," when he overthrew those worthies in the

great debate respecting the improvement of the Sangamon River.

"The Internal-Improvement Bill," says Mr. Wilson (one of the "Long

Nine"), "and a bill to permanently locate the seat of government of the

State, were the great measures of the session of 1836-7. Vandalia was

then the seat of government, and had been for a number of years. A new

state house had just been built. Alton, Decatur, Peoria, Jacksonville,

Illiapolis, and Springfield were the points seeking the location, if

removed from Vandalia. The delegation from Sangamon were a unit, acting

in concert in favor of the permanent location at Springfield. The bill

was introduced at an early day in the session, to locate, by a joint

vote of both Houses of the Legislature. The friends of the other points

united to defeat the bill, as each point thought the postponement of the

location to some future period would give strength to their location.

The contest on this bill was long and severe. Its enemies laid it on

the table twice,--once on the table to the fourth day of July, and

once indefinitely postponed it. To take a bill from the table is always

attended with difficulty; but when laid on the table to a day beyond

the session, or when indefinitely postponed, it requires a vote of

reconsideration, which always is an intense struggle. In these dark

hours, when our bill to all appearances was beyond resuscitation, and

all our opponents were jubilant over our defeat, and when friends could

see no hope, Mr. Lincoln never for one moment despaired; but, collecting

his colleagues to his room for consultation, his practical common sense,

his thorough knowledge of human nature, then made him an overmatch for

his compeers, and for any man that I have ever known."

"We surmounted all obstacles, passed the bill, and, by a joint vote of

both Houses, located the seat of government of the State of Illinois at

Springfield, just before the adjournment of the Legislature, which took

place on the fourth day of March, 1837. The delegation acting during

the whole session upon all questions as a unit, gave them strength and

influence, that enabled them to carry through their measures and give

efficient aid to their friends. The delegation was not only remarkable

for their numbers, but for their length, most of them measuring six

feet and over. It was said at the time that that delegation measured

fifty-four feet high. Hence they were known as 'The Long Nine.' So that

during that session, and for a number of years afterwards, all the bad

laws passed at that session of the Legislature were chargeable to the

management and influence of 'The Long Nine.'

"He (Mr. Lincoln) was on the stump and in the halls of the Legislature a

ready debater, manifesting extraordinary ability in his peculiar manner

of presenting his subject. He did not follow the beaten track of other

speakers and thinkers, but appeared to comprehend the whole situation

of the subject, and take hold of its principles. He had a remarkable

faculty for concentration, enabling him to present his subject in such a

manner, as nothing but conclusions were presented."

It was at this session of the Legislature, March 3, 1837, that Mr.

Lincoln began that antislavery record upon which his fame through all

time must chiefly rest. It was a very mild beginning; but even that

required uncommon courage and candor in the day and generation in which

it was done.

The whole country was excited concerning the doctrines and the practices

of the Abolitionists. These agitators were as yet but few in numbers:

but in New England they comprised some of the best citizens, and the

leaders were persons of high character, of culture and social influence;

while, in the Middle States, they were, for the most part, confined

to the Society of Friends, or Quakers. All were earnest, active, and

uncompromising in the propagation of their opinions; and, believing

slavery to be the "sum of all villanies," with the utmost pertinacity

they claimed the unrestricted right to disseminate their convictions in

any manner they saw fit, regardless of all consequences. They paid not

the slightest heed to the wishes or the opinions of their opponents.

They denounced all compromises with an unsparing tongue, and would allow

no law of man to stand, in their eyes, above the law of God.

George Thompson, identified with emancipation in the British West

Indies, had come and gone. For more than a year he addressed public

meetings in New England, the Central States, and Ohio, and contributed

not a little to the growing excitement by his fierce denunciations of

the slave-holding class, in language with which his long agitation in

England had made him familiar. He was denounced, insulted, and

mobbed; and even in Boston he was once posted as an "infamous foreign

scoundrel," and an offer was made of a hundred dollars to "snake him

out" of a public meeting. In fact, Boston was not at all behind other

cities and towns in its condemnation of the Abolitionists. A

great meeting in Faneuil Hall, called by eighteen hundred leading

citizens,--Whigs and Democrats,--condemned their proceedings in language

as strong and significant as Richard Fletcher, Peleg Sprague, and

Harrison Gray Otis could write it. But Garrison still continued

to publish "The Liberator," filling it with all the uncompromising

aggressiveness of his sect, and distributing it throughout the Southern

States. It excited great alarm in the slaveholding communities where its

secret circulation, in the minds of the slaveholders, tended to incite

the slaves to insurrections, assassinations, and running away; but

in the place where it was published it was looked upon with general

contempt and disgust. When the Mayor of Baltimore wrote to the Mayor of

Boston to have it suppressed, the latter (the eloquent Otis) replied,

"that his officers had ferreted out the paper and its editor, whose

office was an obscure hole; his only visible auxiliary a negro boy; his

supporters a few insignificant persons of all colors."

At the close of the year 1835, President Jackson had called the

attention of Congress to the doings of these people in language

corresponding to the natural wrath with which he viewed the character of

their proceedings. "I must also," said he, "invite your attention to the

painful excitements in the South by attempts to circulate through the

mails inflammatory appeals addressed to the passions of slaves, in

prints and various sorts of publications calculated to stimulate them

to insurrection, and to produce all the horrors of civil war. It is

fortunate for the country that the good sense, the generous feeling, and

deep-rooted attachment of the people of the non-slaveholding States to

the Union and their fellow-citizens of the same blood in the South have

given so strong and impressive a tone to the sentiments entertained

against the proceedings of the misguided persons who have engaged in

these unconstitutional and wicked attempts, and especially against

the emissaries from foreign parts, who have dared to interfere in this

matter, as to authorize the hope that these attempts will no longer

be persisted in.... I would therefore call the special attention of

Congress to the subject, and respectfully suggest the propriety of

passing such a law as will prohibit, under severe penalties, the

circulation in the Southern States, through the mail, of incendiary

publications, intended to instigate the slaves to insurrection."

Mr. Clay said the sole purpose of the Abolitionists was to array one

portion of the Union against the other. "With that in view, in all their

leading prints and publications, the alleged horrors of slavery are

depicted in the most glowing and exaggerated colors, to excite the

imaginations and stimulate the rage of the people of the Free States

against the people of the slaveholding States.... Why are the Slave

States wantonly and cruelly assailed? Why does the abolition press teem

with publications tending to excite hatred and animosity on the part of

the Free States against the Slave States?... Why is Congress petitioned?

Is their purpose to appeal to our understanding, and actuate our

humanity? And do they expect to accomplish that purpose by holding us

up to the scorn and contempt and detestation of the people of the Free

States and the whole civilized world?... Union on the one side will

beget union on the other.... One section will stand in menacing, hostile

array against another; the collision of opinion will be quickly followed

by the clash of arms."

Mr. Everett, then (1836) Governor of Massachusetts, informed the

Legislature, for the admonition of these unsparing agitators against

the peace of the South, that "every thing that tends to disturb the

relations created by this compact [the Constitution] is at war with its

spirit; and whatever, by direct and necessary operation, is calculated

to excite an insurrection among the slaves, has been held by highly

respectable legal authority an offence against the peace of this

Commonwealth, which may be prosecuted as a misdemeanor at common law."

It was proposed in the Legislature to pass an act defining the offence

with more certainty, and attaching to it a severer penalty. The

Abolitionists asked to be heard before the committee; and Rev. S. J.

May, Ellis Gray Loring, Prof. Charles Follen, Samuel E. Sewell, and

others of equal ability and character, spoke in their behalf. They

objected to the passage of such an act in the strongest terms, and

derided the value of a Union which could not protect its citizens in

one of their most cherished rights. During the hearing, several bitter

altercations took place between them and the chairman.

In New York, Gov. Marcy called upon the Legislature "to do what may be

done consistently with the great principles of civil liberty, to put an

end to the evils which the Abolitionists are bringing upon us and the

whole country." The "character" and the "interests" of the State were

equally at stake, and both would be sacrificed unless these furious and

cruel fanatics were effectually suppressed.

In May, 1836, the Federal House of Representatives resolved, by

overwhelming votes, that Congress had no right to interfere with slavery

in the States, or in the District of Columbia, and that henceforth all

abolition petitions should be laid on the table without being printed or

referred. And, one day later than the date of Mr. Lincoln's protest, Mr.

Van Buren declared in his inaugural, that no bill abolishing slavery

in the District of Columbia, or meddling with it in the States where it

existed, should ever receive his signature. "There was no other form,"

says Benton, "at that time, in which slavery agitation could manifest

itself, or place it could find a point to operate; the ordinance of 1787

and the compromise of 1820 having closed up the Territories against

it. Danger to slave property in the States, either by direct action,

or indirectly through the District of Columbia, were the only points of

expressed apprehension."

Abolition agitations fared little better in the twenty-fifth Congress

than in the twenty-fourth. At the extra session in September of 1837,

Mr. Slade of Vermont introduced two petitions for the abolition of

slavery in the District of Columbia; but, after a furious debate and a

stormy scene, they were disposed of by the adoption of the following:--

"Resolved, That all petitions, memorials, and papers, touching the

abolition of slavery, or the buying, selling, or transferring of slaves,

in any State, District, or Territory, of the United States, be laid on

the table, without being debated, printed, read, or referred; and that

no further action whatever shall be had thereon."

In Illinois, at the time we speak of (March, 1837), an Abolitionist was

rarely seen, and scarcely ever heard of. In many parts of the State such

a person would have been treated as a criminal. It is true, there were

a few Covenanters, with whom hatred of slavery in any form and wherever

found was an essential part of their religion. Up to 1824 they had

steadily refused to vote, or in any other way to acknowledge the State

government, regarding it as "an heathen and unbaptized institution,"

because the Constitution failed to recognize "Jesus Christ as the head

of the government, and the Holy Scriptures as the only rule of faith and

practice." It was only when it was proposed to introduce slavery into

Illinois by an alteration of that "heathen" Constitution, that the

Covenanters consented to take part in public affairs. The movement which

drew them out proved to be a long and unusually bitter campaign, lasting

full eighteen months, and ending in the fall of 1824, with a popular

majority of several thousand against calling a convention for the

purpose of making Illinois a Slave State. Many of the antislavery

leaders in _this_ contest--conspicuous among whom was Gov. Coles--were

gentlemen from Slave States, who had emancipated their slaves before

removal, and were opposed to slavery, not upon religious or moral

grounds, but because they believed it would be a material injury to the

new country. Practically no other view of the question was discussed;

and a person who should have undertaken to discuss it from the "man and

brother" stand-point of more modern times would have been set down as a

lunatic. A clear majority of the people were against the introduction of

slavery into their own State; but that majority were fully agreed with

their brethren of the minority, that those who went about to interfere

with slavery in the most distant manner in the places where it already

existed were deserving of the severest punishment, as the common enemies

of society. It was in those days a mortal offence to call a man an

Abolitionist, for Abolitionist was synonymous with thief. Between a band

of men who stole horses and a band of men who stole negroes, the popular

mind made small distinctions in the degrees of guilt. They were regarded

as robbers, disturbers of the peace, the instigators of arson,

murder, poisoning, rape; and, in addition to all this, traitors to the

government under which they lived, and enemies to the Union which gave

us as a people liberty and strength. In testimony of these sentiments,

Illinois enacted a "black code" of most preposterous and cruel

severity,--a code that would have been a disgrace to a Slave State, and

was simply an infamy in a free one. It borrowed the provisions of the

most revolting laws known among men, for exiling, selling, beating,

bedevilling, and torturing negroes, whether bond or free. Under this law

Gov. Coles, the leader of the antislavery party, who had emancipated his

slaves, and settled them around him in his new home, but had neglected

to file a bond with the condition that his freedmen should behave well

and never become a charge upon the public, was fined two hundred dollars

in each case; and, so late as 1852, the writer of these pages very

narrowly escaped the same penalty for the same offence.

In 1835-36 Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy had been publishing a moderately

antislavery paper at St. Louis. But the people of that city did not look

with favor upon his enterprise; and, after meeting with considerable

opposition, in the summer of 1836 he moved his types and press across

the river to Alton, Ill. Here he found an opposition more violent than

that from which he had fled. His press was thrown into the river the

night after its arrival; and he was informed that no abolition paper

would be allowed in the town. The better class of citizens, however,

deprecated the outrage, and pledged themselves to reimburse Mr. Lovejoy,

in case he would agree not to make his paper an abolition journal. Mr.

Lovejoy assured them it was not his purpose to establish such a paper in

Alton, but one of a religious character: at the same time he would not

give up his right as an American citizen to publish whatever he pleased

on any subject, holding himself answerable to the laws of his country

in so doing. With this general understanding, he was permitted to go

forward. He continued about a year, discussing in his paper the slavery

question occasionally; not, however, in a violent manner, but with a

tone of moderation. This policy, however, was not satisfactory: it was

regarded as a violation of his pledge; and the contents of his

office were again destroyed. Mr. Lovejoy issued an appeal for aid to

re-establish his paper, which met with a prompt and generous response.

He proposed to bring up another press, and announced that armed

men would protect it: meantime, a committee presented him with some

resolutions adopted at a large meeting of the citizens of Alton,

reminding him that he had previously given a pledge that in his paper he

would refrain from advocating abolitionism) and also censuring him for

not having kept his promise, and desiring to know if he intended to

continue the publication of such doctrines in the future. His response

consisted of a denial of the right of any portion of the people of

Acton to prescribe what questions he should or should not discuss in his

paper. Great excitement followed: another press was brought up on

the 21st of September, which shortly after followed the fate of its

predecessors. Another arrived Nov. 7, 1837, and was conveyed to a stone

warehouse by the riverside, where Mr. Lovejoy and a few friends (some

of them not Abolitionists) resolved to defend it to the last. That night

they were attacked. First there was a brief parley, then a volley

of stones, then an attempt to carry the building by assault. At this

juncture a shot was fired out of a second-story window, which killed a

young man in the crowd. It was said to have been fired by Lovejoy; and,

as the corpse was borne away, the wrath of the populace knew no bounds.

It was proposed to get powder from the magazine, and blow the warehouse

up. Others thought the torch would be a better agent; and, finally, a

man ran up a ladder to fire the roof. Lovejoy came out of the door, and,

firing one shot, retreated within, where he rallied the garrison for a

sortie. In the mean time many shots were fired both by the assailants

and the assailed. The house was once actually set on fire by one person

from the mob, and saved by another. But the courage of Mr. Lovejoy's

friends was gradually sinking, and they responded but faintly to his

strong appeals for action. As a last resource, he rushed to the

door with a single companion, gun in hand, and was shot dead on the

threshold. The other man was wounded in the leg, the warehouse was in

flames, the mob grew more ferocious over the blood that had been

shed, and riddled the doors and windows with volleys from all sorts of

fire-arms. The Abolitionists had fought a good fight; but seeing now

nothing but death before them, in that dismal, bloody, and burning

house, they escaped down the river-bank, by twos and threes, as best

they could, and their press was tumbled after them, into the river.

And thus ended the first attempt to establish an abolition paper in

Illinois. The result was certainly any thing but encouraging, and

indicated pretty clearly what must have been the general state of public

feeling throughout the State in regard to slavery agitation.

In fact, no State was more alive to the necessity of repressing the

Abolitionists than Illinois; and accordingly it was proposed in the

Legislature to take some action similar to that which had been

already taken, or was actually pending, in the legislatures of sister

Commonwealths, from Massachusetts through the list. A number of

resolutions were reported, and passed with no serious opposition. The

record does not disclose the precise form in which they passed; but

that is of little consequence now. That they were extreme enough may be

gathered from the considerate language of the protest, and from the fact

that _such a protest_ was considered necessary at all. The protest was

undoubtedly the product of Mr. Lincoln's pen, for his adroit directness

is seen in every word of it. He could get but one man--his colleague,

Dan Stone--to sign with him.

March 3,1837.

The following protest was presented to the House, which was read, and

ordered to be spread on the journals, to wit:--

Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having passed both

branches of the General Assembly at its present session, the undersigned

hereby protest against the passage of the same.

They believe that the institution of slavery is founded on both

injustice and bad policy; but that the promulgation of abolition

doctrines tends rather to increase than abate its evils.

They believe that the Congress of the United States has no power, under

the Constitution, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the

different States.

They believe that the Congress of the United States has the power, under

the Constitution, to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, but

that the power ought not to be exercised, unless at the request of the

people of the District.

The difference between these opinions and those contained in the said

resolutions is their reason for entering this protest.

(Signed) Dan Stone,

A. Lincoln, Representatives from the County of Sanqamon.

Mr. Lincoln says nothing here about slavery in the Territories. The

Missouri Compromise being in full force, and regarded as sacred by

all parties, it was one of its chief effects that both sections were

deprived of any pretext for the agitation of that question, from

which every statesman, Federalist or Republican, Whig or Democratic,

apprehended certain disaster to the Union. Neither would Mr. Lincoln

suffer himself to be classed with the few despised Quakers, Covenanters,

and Puritans, who were so frequently disturbing the peace of the country

by abolition-memorials to Congress and other public bodies. Slavery,

says the protest, is wrong in principle, besides being bad in economy;

but "the promulgation of abolition doctrines" is still worse. In the

States which choose to have it, it enjoys a constitutional immunity

beyond the reach of any "higher law;" and Congress must not touch

it, otherwise than to shield and protect it. Even in the District of

Columbia, Mr. Lincoln and Dan Stone would leave it entirely to the will

of the people. In fact, the whole paper, plain and simple as it is,

seems to have been drawn with no object but to avoid the imputation

of extreme views on either side. And from that day to the day of his

inauguration, Mr. Lincoln never saw the time when he would have altered

a word of it. He never sided with the Lovejoys. In his eyes their work

tended "rather to increase than to abate" the evils of slavery, and was

therefore unjust, as well as futile. Years afterwards he was the steady

though quiet opponent of Owen Lovejoy, and declared that Lovejoy's

nomination for Congress over Leonard Swett "almost turned him blind."

When, in 1860, the Democrats called Mr. Lincoln an Abolitionist, and

cited the protest of 1837 to support the charge, friends pointed to

the exact language of the document as his complete and overwhelming

refutation.

On the 10th of May, the New York banks suspended specie payments, and

two days afterwards the Bank of the United States and the Philadelphia

banks did likewise. From these the stoppage and the general ruin, among

business men and speculators alike, spread throughout the country.

Nevertheless, the Fund Commissioners of Illinois succeeded in placing a

loan during the summer, and before the end of the year work had begun

on many railroads. "Money was as plenty as dirt. Industry, in place of

being stimulated, actually languished. We exported nothing, and every

thing was paid for by the borrowed money expended among us." And this

money was bank-paper, such as a pensioner upon the Government of the

United States scorned to take in payment of his gratuity, after the

deposit banks had suspended or broken, with thirty-two millions of

Government money in their possession.

The banks which had received such generous legislation from the

Legislature that devised the internal-improvement system were not

disposed to see that batch of remarkable enterprises languish for want

of their support. One of them took at par and sold nine hundred thousand

dollars of bonds; while the other took one million seven hundred and

sixty-five thousand dollars, which it used as capital, and expanded its

business accordingly. But the banks were themselves in greater danger

than the internal-improvement system. If the State Bank refused specie

payments for sixty days, its charter was forfeited under the Act of

Assembly. But they were the main-stay of all the current speculations,

public and private; and having besides large sums of public money in

their hands, the governor was induced to call a special session of the

Legislature in July, 1837, to save them from impending dissolution. This

was done by an act authorizing or condoning the suspension of specie

payments. The governor had not directly recommended this, but he

had most earnestly recommended the repeal or modification of the

internal-improvement system; and _that_ the Legislature positively

refused. This wise body might be eaten by its own dogs, but it was

determined not to eat _them_; and in this direction there was no

prospect of relief for two years more. According to Gov. Ford, the cool,

reflecting men of the State anxiously hoped that their rulers might

be able to borrow no more money, but in this they were immediately and

bitterly disappointed. The United States Bank took some of their bonds.

Some were sold at par in this country, and others at nine per cent

discount in Europe.

In 1838, a governor (Carlin) was elected who was thought by many to be

secretly hostile to the "system;" and a new Legislature was chosen, from

which it was thought something might be hoped. Mr. Lincoln was again

elected, with a reputation so much enhanced by his activity and address

in the last Legislature, that this time he was the candidate of his

party for speaker. The nomination, however, was a barren honor, and

known to be such when given. Col. Ewing was chosen by a plurality of

one,--two Whigs and two Democrats scattering their votes. Mr. Lincoln

kept his old place on the Finance Committee. At the first session the

governor held his peace regarding the "system;" and, far from repealing

it, the Legislature added a new feature to it, and voted another

$800,000.

But the Fund Commissioners were in deep water and muddy water: they had

reached the end of their string. The credit of the State was gone,

and already were heard murmurs of repudiation. Bond County had in the

beginning pronounced the system a swindle upon the people; and Bond

County began to have admirers. Some of the bonds had been lent to New

York State banks to start upon; and the banks had presently failed. Some

had been sold on credit. Some were scattered about in various places on

special deposit. Others had been sent to London for sale, where the firm

that was selling them broke with the proceeds of a part of them in their

hands. No expedients sufficed any longer. There was no more money to be

got, and nothing left to do, but to "wind up the system," and begin the

work of common sense by providing for the interest on the sums already

expended. A special session of the Legislature in 1838-9 did the

"winding up," and thenceforth, for some years, there was no other

question so important in Illinois State politics as how to pay the

interest on the vast debt outstanding for this account. Many gentlemen

discovered that De Witt Clintons were rare, and in certain contingencies

very precious. Among these must have been Mr. Lincoln. But being again,

elected to the Legislature in 1840, again the acknowledged leader and

candidate of his party for speaker, he ventured in December of that year

to offer an expedient for paying the interest on the debt; but it was

only an expedient, and a very poor one, to avoid the obvious but

unpopular resort of direct taxation.

"Mr. Lincoln moved to strike out the bill and amendment, and insert the

following:--

"An Act providing for the payment of interest on the State debt.

"Section 1.--Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois

represented in the General Assembly, that the governor be authorized and

required to issue, from time to time, such an amount of State bonds, to

be called the 'Illinois Interest Bonds,' as may be absolutely necessary

for the payment of the interest upon the lawful debt of the State,

contracted before the passage of this Act.

"Section 2.--Said bonds shall bear interest at the rate of----per cent

per annum, payable half-yearly at----, and be reimbursable in years from

their respective issuings.

"Section 3.--That the State's portion of the tax hereafter arising from

all lands which were not taxable in the year one thousand eight hundred

and forty is hereby set apart as an exclusive fund for the payment of

interest on the said 'Illinois Interest Bonds;' and the faith of the

State is hereby pledged that said fund shall be applied to that object,

and no other, except at any time there should be a surplus; in which

case such surplus shall became a part of the general funds of the

treasury.

"Section 4.--That hereafter the sum of thirty cents for each hundred

dollars' worth of all taxable property shall be paid into the State

treasury; and no more than forty cents for each hundred dollars' worth

of such taxable property shall be levied and collected for county

purposes."

It was a loose document. The governor was to determine the "amount"

of bonds "necessary," and the sums for which they should be issued.

Interest was to be paid only upon the "lawful" debt; and the governor

was left to determine what part of it _was_ lawful, and what unlawful.

The last section lays a specific tax; but the proceeds are in no way

connected with the "interest bonds."

"Mr. Lincoln said he submitted this proposition with great diffidence.

He had felt his share of the responsibility devolving upon us in the

present crisis; and, after revolving in his mind every scheme which

seemed to afford the least prospect of relief, he submitted this as the

result of his own deliberations.

"The details of the bill might be imperfect; but he relied upon the

correctness of its general features.

"By the plan proposed in the original bill of hypothecating our bonds,

he was satisfied we could not get along more than two or three months

before some other step would be necessary: another session would have to

be called, and new provisions made.

"It might be objected that these bonds would not be salable, and the

money could not be raised in time. He was no financier; but he believed

these bonds thus secured would be equal to the best in market. A perfect

security was provided for the interest; and it was this characteristic

that inspired confidence, and made bonds salable. If there was any

distrust, it could not be because our means of fulfilling promises were

distrusted. He believed it would have the effect to raise our other

bonds in market.

"There was another objection to this plan, which applied to the original

bill; and that was as to the impropriety of borrowing money to pay

interest on borrowed money,--that we are hereby paying compound

interest. To this he would reply, that, if it were a fact that our

population and wealth were increasing in a ratio greater than the

increased interest hereby incurred, then this was not a good objection.

If our increasing means would justify us in deferring to a future time

the resort to taxation, then we had better pay compound interest than

resort to taxation now. He was satisfied, that, by a direct tax now,

money enough could not be collected to pay the accruing interest. The

bill proposed to provide in this way for interest not otherwise provided

for. It was not intended to apply to those bonds for the interest on

which a security had already been provided.

"He hoped the House would seriously consider the proposition. He had no

pride in its success as a measure of his own, but submitted it to

the wisdom of the House, with the hope, that, if there was any thing

objectionable in it, it would be pointed out and amended."

Mr. Lincoln's measure did not pass. There was a large party in favor,

not only of passing the interest on the State debt, which fell due in

the coming January and July, but of repudiating the whole debt outright.

Others thought the State ought to pay, not the full face of its bonds,

but only the amount received for them; while others still contended

that, whereas, many of the bonds had been irregularly, illegally,

and even fraudulently disposed of, there ought to be a particular

discrimination made against _these_, and these only. "At last Mr.

Cavarly, a member from Green, introduced a bill of two sections,

authorizing the Fund Commissioners to hypothecate internal-improvement

bonds to the amount of three hundred thousand dollars, and which

contained the remarkable provision, that the proceeds were to be applied

by that officer to the payment of all interest _legally_ due on the

public debt; thus shifting from the General Assembly, and devolving on

the Fund Commissioner, the duty of deciding on the legality of the debt.

Thus, by this happy expedient, conflicting opinions were reconciled

without direct action on the matter in controversy, and thus the two

Houses were enabled to agree upon a measure to provide temporarily for

the interest on the public debt. The Legislature further provided, at

this session, for the issue of interest bonds, to be sold in the market

at what they would bring; and an additional tax of ten cents on the

hundred dollars' worth of property was imposed and pledged, to pay the

interest on these bonds. By these contrivances, the interest for

January and July, 1841, was paid. The Fund Commissioner hypothecated

internal-improvement bonds for the money first due; and his successor in

office, finding no sale for Illinois stocks, so much had the credit of

the State fallen, was compelled to hypothecate eight hundred and four

thousand dollars of interest bonds for the July interest. On this

hypothecation he was to have received three hundred and twenty-one

thousand six hundred dollars, but was never paid more than two hundred

and sixty-one thousand five hundred dollars. These bonds have never

been redeemed from the holders, though eighty of them were afterwards

repurchased, and three hundred and fifteen thousand dollars of them

were received from the Shawneetown Bank for State stock in that

institution."1

1 Ford's History of Illinois.

This session (the session of 1840-1) had been called two weeks earlier

than usual, to provide for the January interest on the debt. But the

banks had important business of their own in view, and proceeded to

improve the occasion. In 1837, and every year since then, the banks

had succeeded in getting acts of the Legislature which condoned their

suspension of specie payments. But, by the terms of the last act, their

charters were forfeited unless they resumed before the adjournment of

the next session. The Democrats, however, maintained that the present

special session was _a session_ in the sense of the law, and that,

before its adjournment, the banks must hand out "the hard," or die. On

the other hand, the Whigs held this session, and the regular session

which began on the first Monday in December, to be one and the same, and

proposed to give the banks another winter's lease upon life and rags.

But the banks were a power in the land, and knew how to make themselves

felt. They were the depositories of the State revenues. The auditor's

warrants were drawn upon them, and the members of the Legislature paid

in their money. The warrants were at a discount of fifty per cent; and,

if the banks refused to cash them, the members would be compelled to go

home more impecunious than they came. The banks, moreover, knew how

to make "opportune loans to Democrats;" and, with all these aids, they

organized a brilliant and eventually a successful campaign. In the

eyes of the Whigs they were "the institutions of the country," and the

Democrats were guilty of incivism in attacking them. But the Democrats

retorted with a string of overwhelming slang about rag barons, rags,

printed lies, bank vassals, ragocracy, and the "British-bought, bank,

blue-light, Federal, Whig party." It was a fierce and bitter contest;

and, witnessing it, one might have supposed that the very existence

of the State, with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of

happiness, depended upon the result. The Democrats were bent upon

carrying an adjournment _sine die_; which, according to their theory,

killed the banks. To defeat this, the Whigs resorted to every expedient

of parliamentary tactics, and at length hit upon one entirely unknown

to any of the standard manuals: they tried to absent themselves in

sufficient numbers to leave no quorum behind. "If the Whigs absented

themselves," says Mr. Gillespie, a Whig member, "there would not be a

quorum left, even with the two who should be deputed to call the ayes

and noes. The Whigs immediately held a meeting, and resolved that they

would all stay out, except Lincoln and me, who were to call the ayes

and noes. We appeared in the afternoon: motion to adjourn _sine die_

was made, and we called the ayes and noes. The Democrats discovered the

game, and the sergeant-at-arms was sent out to gather up the absentees.

There was great excitement in the House, which was then held in a church

at Springfield. We soon discovered that several Whigs had been caught

and brought in, and that the plan had been spoiled; and we--Lincoln

and I--determined to leave the hall, and, going to the door, found

it locked, and then raised a window and jumped out, but not until

the Democrats had succeeded in adjourning. Mr. Grid-ley of McLean

accompanied us in our exit.... I think Mr. Lincoln always regretted

that he entered into that arrangement, as he deprecated every thing that

savored of the revolutionary."

In the course of the debate on the Apportionment Bill, Mr. Lincoln had

occasion to address the House in defence of "The Long Nine," who were

especially obnoxious to the Democrats. The speech concluded with the

following characteristic passage:--

"The gentleman had accused old women of being partial to the number

nine; but this, he presumed, was without foundation. A few years since,

it would be recollected by the House, that the delegation from this

county were dubbed by way of eminence 'The Long Nine,' and, by way of

further distinction, he had been called 'The Longest of the Nine.'

Now," said Mr. Lincoln, "I desire to say to my friend from Monroe (Mr.

Bissell), that if any woman, old or young, ever thought there was any

peculiar charm in this distinguished specimen of number nine, I have as

yet been so unfortunate as not to have discovered it." (Loud applause.)

But this Legislature was full of excitements. Besides the questions

about the public debt and the bank-charters, the Democrats proposed to

legislate the Circuit judges out of office, and reconstruct the Supreme

Court to suit themselves. They did this because the Supreme judges had

already decided one question of some political interest against them,

and were now about to decide another in the same way. The latter was a

question of great importance; and, in order to avoid the consequences of

such a decision, the Democrats were eager for the extremest measures.

The Constitution provided that all free white male _inhabitants_ should

vote upon six months' residence. This, the Democrats held, included

aliens; while the Whigs held the reverse. On this grave judicial

question, parties were divided precisely upon the line of their

respective interests. The aliens numbered about ten thousand, and

nine-tenths of them voted steadily with the Democracy. Whilst a great

outcry concerning it was being made from both sides, and fierce disputes

raged in the newspapers and on the stump, two Whigs at Galena got up an

amicable case, to try it in a quiet way before a Whig judge, who held

the Circuit Courts in their neighborhood. The judge decided for his

friends, like a man that he was. The Democrats found it out, and raised

a popular tumult about it that would have put Demetrius the silversmith

to shame. They carried the case to the Supreme Court, where it was

argued before the Whig majority, in December, 1889, by able and

distinguished counsellors,--Judge Douglas being one of them; but the

only result was a continuance to the next June. In the mean time Judge

Smith, the only Democrat on the bench, was seeking favor with his party

friends by betraying to Douglas the secrets of the consultation-room.

With his aid, the Democrats found a defect in the record, which sent the

case over to December, 1840, and adroitly secured the alien vote for the

great elections of that memorable year. The Legislature elected then was

overwhelmingly Democratic; and, having good reason to believe that

the aliens had small favor to expect from this court, they determined

forthwith to make a new one that would be more reasonable. There were

now nine Circuit judges in the State, and four Supreme judges, under the

Act of 1835. The offices of the Circuit judges the Democrats concluded

to abolish, and to create instead nine Supreme judges, who should

perform circuit duties. This they called "reforming the judiciary;" and

"thirsting for vengeance," as Gov. Ford says, they went about the work

with all the zeal, but with very little of the disinterested devotion,

which reformers are generally supposed to have. Douglas, counsel for one

of the litigants, made a furious speech "in the lobby," demanding the

destruction of the court that was to try his cause; and for sundry grave

sins which he imputed to the judges he gave Smith--his friend Smith--as

authority. It was useless to oppose it: this "reform" was a foregone

conclusion. It was called the "Douglas Bill;" and Mr. Douglas was

appointed to one of the new offices created by it. But Mr. Lincoln, E.

D. Baker, and other Whig members, entered upon the journal the following

protest:--

"For the reasons thus presented, and for others no less apparent, the

undersigned cannot assent to the passage of the bill, or permit it to

become a law without this evidence of their disapprobation; and they now

protest against the re-organization of the judiciary: Because,

"1st. It violates the great principles of free government by subjecting

the judiciary to the Legislature.

"2d. It is a fatal blow at the independence of the judges and the

constitutional term of their offices.

"3d. It is a measure not asked for, or wished for, by the people.

"4th. It will greatly increase the expense of our courts, or else

greatly diminish their utility.

"5th. It will give our courts a political and partisan character,

thereby impairing public confidence in their decisions.

"6th. It will impair our standing with other States and the world.

"7th. It is a party measure for party purposes, from which no practical

good to the people can possibly arise, but which may be the source of

immeasurable evils.

"The undersigned are well aware that this protest will be altogether

unavailing with the majority of this body. The blow has already fallen;

and we are compelled to stand by, the mournful spectators of the ruin it

will cause."

Mr. Lincoln was elected in 1840, to serve, of course, until the next

election in August, 1842; but for reasons of a private nature, to be

explained hereafter, he did not appear during the session of 1841-2.

In concluding this chapter, taking leave of New Salem, Vandalia, and

the Legislature, we cannot forbear another quotation from Mr. Wilson,

Lincoln's colleague from Sangamon, to whom we are already so largely in

debt:--

"In 1838 many of the Long Nines were candidates for re-election to the

Legislature. A question of the division of the county was one of the

local issues. Mr. Lincoln and myself, among others, residing in the

portion of the county sought to be organized into a new county, and

opposing the division, it became necessary that I should make a special

canvass through the north-west part of the county, then known as Sand

Ridge. I made the canvass; Mr. Lincoln accompanied me; and, being

personally well acquainted with every one, we called at nearly every

house. At that time it was the universal custom to keep some whiskey in

the house, for private use and to treat friends. The subject was always

mentioned as a matter of etiquette, but with the remark to Mr. Lincoln,

'You never drink, but maybe your friend would like to take a little.'

I never saw Mr. Lincoln drink. He often told me he never drank; had

no desire for drink, nor the companionship of drinking men. Candidates

never treated anybody in those times unless they wanted to do so.

"Mr. Lincoln remained in New Salem until the spring of 1837, when he

went to Springfield, and went into the law-office of John T. Stuart as a

partner in the practice of law, and boarded with William Butler.

"During his stay in New Salem he had no property other than what was

necessary to do his business, until after he stopped in Springfield. He

was not avaricious to accumulate property, neither was he a spendthrift.

He was almost always during those times hard up. He never owned land.

"The first trip he made around the circuit after he commenced the

practice of law, I had a horse, saddle, and bridle, and he had none.

I let him have mine. I think he must have been careless, as the saddle

skinned the horse's back.

"While he lived in New Salem he visited me often. He would stay a day or

two at a time: we generally spent the time at the stores in Athens. He

was very fond of company: telling or hearing stories told was a

source of great amusement to him. He was not in the habit of reading

much,--never read novels. Whittling pine boards and shingles, talking

and laughing, constituted the entertainment of the days and evenings.

"In a conversation with him about that time, he told me, that, although

he appeared to enjoy life rapturously, still he was the victim of

terrible melancholy. He sought company, and indulged in fun and hilarity

without restraint, or stint as to time; but when by himself, he told me

that he was so overcome by mental depression that he never dared carry

a knife in his pocket; and as long as I was intimately acquainted with

him, previous to his commencement of the practice of the law, he never

carried a pocket-knife. Still he was not misanthropic: he was kind and

tender-hearted in his treatment to others.

"In the summer of 1837 the citizens of Athens and vicinity gave the

delegation then called the 'Long Nine' a public dinner, at which Mr.

Lincoln and all the others were present. He was called out by the toast,

'Abraham Lincoln, one of Nature's noblemen.' I have often thought, that,

if any man was entitled to that compliment, it was he."