I sold the farm at last and moved to Chicago. It was with sorrow that I
broke up my association with Reverdy and Sarah, and their little family.
But I was much relieved to be out of the situation that had been so full
of annoyance to me. I had friends to be sure, but I was English; I was a
little reserved even yet; I was a driver, a money maker. Then there had
been Zoe and Lamborn. Besides, the life on the farm was monotonous. The
end of the day marked lonely hours for me. And I was looking forward to
much association with Abigail.
I saw her frequently now that I was in Chicago. She was teaching school.
Mr. Williams, his wife, their children, were my first friends, the
beginning of my new associations.
I began at once to speculate in real estate. Mr. Williams proved an
invaluable counsel in these ventures. I made money faster than I could
ever have believed it possible to me. I was now very well off at
twenty-seven. But was life nothing but money making?
As I had sold the farm on partial payments I was compelled to make
frequent trips to Springfield to collect the purchase money notes; and I
always saw Douglas unless he was away campaigning. By the new census of
1840 Illinois was entitled to seven Congressmen instead of the four
which it had hitherto been allowed. A legislature had reapportioned the
state in such a way as to give Douglas a chance to be elected. Douglas'
friends had called a convention. The re-apportionment of the state was
charged to be arbitrary; the convention was styled "machine-made" with a
view to Douglas' nomination. Had he had a hand in this--the young judge
of the Supreme Court? If so, many others had had a hand in it.
In the convention Douglas' friends rode roughly over the other
aspirants; and when he received the prize they withdrew and accorded him
their support. All of this was the perfection of party organization, to
which Douglas, with a leader's genius, had directed his party from the
moment he had set foot in Jacksonville. Douglas found an opponent in a
Whig of Kentucky birth. A Democrat from Illinois, a Whig from
Kentucky--such was the anomalous situation. And both agreed about taking
over the Oregon territory. But Douglas was the better campaigner, the
more winning personality, the more indefatigable worker. Like Napoleon,
his sleep was intermittent, his meals eaten on the run. He made speeches
for more than a month of successive days. And he was elected. A member
of Congress at thirty!
I could see that the hard life was wearing upon him. Perhaps he was too
convivial. There was hard drinking everywhere about him; and he did not
abstain. He had supreme confidence in the lasting character of his own
vitality. He might be ill for a few days occasionally, but he was soon
up and actively at work again. His "integrity is as unspotted as the
vestal's flame--as untarnished and pure as the driven snow," said a
local newspaper when his methods were assailed, and no one could face
him without believing that he had courage that would have its way
without stooping to meanness, and vision that saw its objective through
the hesitant dreams and sickly qualms of lesser strength.
When I went to Springfield in the fall about my farm I found that
Douglas had been seriously ill for some weeks. The campaign had
exhausted him. There was more gentleness in his manner now than was his
wont. He held my hand warmly and was visibly grateful that I had come.
He was heartened by this fresh evidence of my affectionate interest. He
talked of his plans. He wished to visit his mother in New York State as
soon as he could be about. He said that he was entering upon a new stage
of his life--upon the beginning of his real career. He wished to have
his mother's blessing before taking his seat in Congress.
When I next went to Springfield I found him gone. The place was lonely
to me. I collected my note and wandered about idly; passed the Ridgeway
mansion where I had met Abigail; went through the new state house. The
years between seemed so brief but so full of events. I was twenty-eight,
Douglas was thirty; Reverdy had passed forty; Zoe was dead. My farming
days were over. It all seemed a dream. My grandmother in England was now
in the middle sixties. There were steamships crossing the Atlantic, the
first one four years before. Great forces here and in Europe, movements
of peoples, and interests were flowing to carry Douglas along for some
years, and to carry me and all others in their sweep. I was lonely in
Springfield on this trip. Douglas was gone! His career here seemed
finished, as if he were dead. Like a camper he had foraged upon the
country, made his tent and taken it down. And now he was gone!
Everywhere there was talk of war with Mexico. Had Douglas gone forth to
bring this about in realization of his dream of America's greatness? A
man must be made president who would annex Texas. If there should be war
let it come. The land is ours. Our people have gone there. We must seize
the whole continent north of the Gulf.
Now that I was separated from him how should I follow him day by day? I
got Niles' _Register_ in order to keep in touch with him.