The only preliminary expected of a candidate for the legislature 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."
[Illustration: BOWLING GREEN'S HOUSE.
From a photograph taken for this Magazine.
Bowling Green's log cabin, half a mile north of New Salem, just under
the bluff, still stands, but long since ceased to be a dwelling-house,
and is now a tumble-down old stable. Here Lincoln was a frequent
boarder, especially during the period of his closest application to
the study of the law. Stretched out on the cellar door of his cabin,
reading a book, he met for the first time "Dick" Yates, then a
college student at Jacksonville, and destined to become the great "War
Governor" of the State. Yates had come home with William G. Greene
to spend his vacation, and Greene took him around to Bowling Green's
house to introduce him to "his friend, Abe Lincoln." Unhappily there
is nowhere in existence a picture of the original occupant of this
humble cabin. Bowling Green was one of the leading citizens of the
county. He was County Commissioner from 1826 to 1828; he was for many
years a justice of the peace; he was a prominent member of the Masonic
fraternity, and a very active and uncompromising Whig. The friendship
between him and Lincoln, beginning at a very early day, continued
until his death in 1842.--_J. McCan Davis_.]
At that time the State of Illinois--as, indeed, the whole 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, "indispensably 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 accompanying the
amount of its cost, which forces us to shrink from our pleasing
anticipations." Improvement of the Sangamon River he declared the most
feasible plan. That it was possible, he argued from his experience
on the river in April of the year before (1831), when he made his
flatboat trip, and from his observations as manager of Offutt's
saw-mill. He could not have advocated a measure more popular. At
that moment the whole population of Sangamon was in a state of wild
expectation. Some six weeks before Lincoln's circular appeared, a
citizen of Springfield had advertised 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 "Talisman"
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.
[Illustration: THE BLACK HAWK.
From a photograph made for this Magazine.
After a portrait by George Catlin, in the National Museum at
Washington, D.C., and here reproduced by the courtesy of the director,
Mr. G. Brown Goode. Makataimeshekiakiak, the Black Hawk Sparrow,
was born in 1767 on the Rock River. He was not a chief by birth, but
through the valor of his deeds became the leader of his village. He
was imaginative and discontented, and bred endless trouble in
the Northwest by his complaints and his visionary schemes. He was
completely under the influence of the British agents, and in 1812
joined Tecumseh in the war against the United States. After the close
of that war, the Hawk was peaceable until driven to resistance by
the encroachments of the squatters. After the battle of Bad Axe he
escaped, and was not captured until betrayed by two Winnebagoes. He
was taken to Fort Armstrong, where he signed a treaty of peace, and
then was transferred as a prisoner of war to Jefferson Barracks, now
St. Louis, where Catlin painted him. Catlin, in his "Eight Years,"
says: "When I painted this chief, he was dressed in a plain suit of
buckskin, with a string of wampum in his ears and on his neck, and
held in his hand his medicine-bag, which was the skin of a black hawk,
from which he had taken his name, and the tail of which made him a
fan, which he was almost constantly using." In April, 1833, Black Hawk
and the other prisoners of war were transferred to Fortress Monroe.
They were released in June, and made a trip through the Atlantic
cities before returning West. Black Hawk settled in Iowa, where he and
his followers were given a small reservation in Davis County. He died
in 1838.]
[Illustration: WHIRLING THUNDER.
From a photograph made for this Magazine.
After a painting by R.M. Sully in the collection of the State
Historical Society of Wisconsin, and here reproduced through the
courtesy of the secretary, Mr. Reuben G. Thwaites. Black Hawk had
two sons; the elder was the Whirling Thunder, the younger the Roaring
Thunder; both were in the war, and both were taken prisoners with
their father, and were with him at Jefferson Barracks and at Fortress
Monroe and on the trip through the Atlantic cities. At Jefferson
Barracks Catlin painted them, and the pictures are in the National
Museum. While at Fortress Monroe the above picture of Whirling Thunder
was painted. A pretty anecdote is told of the Whirling Thunder. While
on their tour through the East the Indians were invited to various
gatherings and much done for their entertainment. On one of these
occasions a young lady sang a ballad. Whirling Thunder listened
intently, and when she ended he plucked an eagle's feather from his
head-dress, and giving it to a white friend, said: "Take that to your
mocking-bird squaw." Black Hawk's sons remained with him until his
death in 1838, and then removed with the Sacs and Foxes to Kansas.]
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. Lincoln proposed a law fixing the limits of
usury, and he closed his paragraph on the subject with these words,
which sound strange enough from a man who in later life showed so
profound 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 change in the laws of the State was also a 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 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."
[Illustration: WHITE CLOUD, THE PROPHET.
From a photograph made for this Magazine.
After a painting in the collection of the State Historical Society of
Wisconsin, and here reproduced through the courtesy of the secretary,
Mr. Reuben G. Thwaites. The chief of an Indian village on the Rock
River, White Cloud was half Winnebago, half Sac. He was false and
crafty, and it was largely his counsels which induced Black Hawk to
recross the Mississippi in 1832. He was captured with Black Hawk, was
a prisoner at both Jefferson Barracks and Fortress Monroe, and made
the tour of the Atlantic cities with his friends. The above portrait
was made at Fortress Monroe by R.M. Sully. Catlin also painted White
Cloud at Jefferson Barracks in 1832. He describes him as about forty
years old at that time, "nearly six feet high, stout and athletic." He
said he let his hair grow out to please the whites. Catlin's picture
shows him with a very heavy head of hair. The prophet, after his
return from the East, remained among his people until his death in
1840 or 1841.]
[Illustration: BLACK HAWK.
From a photograph made for this Magazine.
After an improved replica of the original portrait painted by R.M.
Sully at Fortress Monroe in 1833, and now in the museum of the State
Historical Society of Wisconsin, at Madison. It is reproduced through
the courtesy of the secretary of the society, Mr. Reuben G. Thwaites.]
[Illustration: LINCOLN IN 1860
From a photograph loaned by H.W. Fay of DeKalb, Illinois. After
Lincoln's nomination for the presidency, Alex Hesler of Chicago
published a portrait he had made of Lincoln in 1857. (See McCLURE'S
MAGAZINE for December, p. 13.) At the same time he put out a portrait
of Douglas. The contrast was so great between the two, and in the
opinion of the politicians so much in Douglas's favor, that they
told Hesler he must suppress Lincoln's picture; accordingly the
photographer wrote to Springfield requesting Lincoln to call and sit
again. Lincoln replied that his friends had decided that he remain
in Springfield during the canvass, but that if Hesler would come to
Springfield he would be "dressed up" and give him all the time he
wanted. Hesler went to Springfield and made at least four negatives,
three of which are supposed to have been destroyed in the Chicago
fire. The fourth is owned by Mr. George Ayers of Philadelphia. The
above photograph is a print from one of the lost negatives.]
The audacity of a young man in his position presenting himself as a
candidate for the legislature is fully equalled 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 erroneous, I shall be
ready to renounce them.
"Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it
be true or not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so
great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men by
rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall
succeed in gratifying this ambition is yet to be developed.
I am young, and unknown to many of you. I was born, and have
ever remained, in the most humble walks of life. I have no
wealthy or 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
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."
[Illustration: BLACK HAWK WAR RELICS.
Tomahawk. Indian Pipe. Powder-horn. Flintlock Rifle. Indian Flute.
Indian Knife.
From a photograph made for this Magazine.
This group of relics of the Black Hawk War was selected for us from
the collection in the museum of the Wisconsin Historical Society by
the Secretary, Mr. Reuben G. Thwaites. The coat and chapeau belonged
to General Dodge, an important leader in the war. The Indian relics
are a tomahawk, a Winnebago pipe, a Winnebago flute, and a knife. The
powder-horn and the flintlock rifle are the only volunteer articles.
One of the survivors of the war, Mr. Elijah Herring of Stockton,
Illinois, says of the flintlock rifles used by the Illinois
volunteers: "They were constructed like the old-fashioned rifle, only
in place of a nipple for a cap they had a pan in which was fixed an
oil flint which the hammer struck when it came down, instead of the
modern cap. The pan was filled with powder grains, enough to catch the
spark and communicate it to the load in the gun. These guns were all
right, and rarely missed fire on a dry, clear day; but unless they
were covered well, the dews of evening would dampen the powder, and
very often we were compelled to withdraw the charge and load them over
again. We had a gunsmith with us, whose business it was to look after
the guns for the whole regiment; and when a gun was found to be damp,
it was his duty to get his tools and 'draw' the load. At that time the
Cramer lock and triggers had just been put on the market, and my
rifle was equipped with these improvements, a fact of which I was very
proud. Instead of one trigger my rifle had two, one set behind the
other--the hind one to cock the gun, and the front one to shoot it.
The man Cramer sold his lock and triggers in St. Louis, and I was one
of the first to use them."]
Very soon after Lincoln had distributed his handbills, enthusiasm
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 piloting 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 as settlements were passed. At every stop speeches were made,
congratulations offered, toasts drunk, flowers presented. It was
one long hurrah from Beardstown to Springfield, and foremost in
the jubilation was Lincoln, the pilot. The "Talisman" went as near
Springfield as the river did, and there tied up for a week. When
she went back Lincoln again had a conspicuous position as pilot. The
notoriety this gave him was quite as valuable politically, probably,
as was the forty dollars he received for his service financially.
[Illustration: MAJOR ROBERT ANDERSON.
From a photograph in the war collection of Robert A. Coster.
Born in Kentucky in 1805. In 1825 graduated at West Point. Anderson
was on duty at the St. Louis Arsenal when the Black Hawk war broke
out. He asked permission to join General Atkinson, who commanded the
expedition against the Indians; was placed on his staff as Assistant
Inspector General, and was with him until the end of the war. Anderson
twice mustered Lincoln out of the service and in again. When General
Scott was sent to take Atkinson's place, Anderson was ordered to
report to the former for duty, and was sent by him to take charge of
the Indians captured at Bad Axe. It was Anderson who conducted Black
Hawk to Jefferson Barracks. His adjutant in this task was Lieutenant
Jefferson Davis. From 1835-37 Anderson was an instructor at West
Point. He served in the Florida War in 1837-38, and was wounded at
Molino del Rey in the Mexican War. In 1857 he was appointed Major of
the First Artillery. On November 20, 1860, Anderson assumed command
of the troops in Charleston Harbor. On April 14 he surrendered
Fort Sumter, marching out with the honors of war. He was made
brigadier-general by Lincoln for his service. On account of failing
health he was relieved from duty in October, 1861. In 1865 he was
brevetted major-general. He died in France in 1871.]
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 was possible, the store in which he clerked was "petering
out"--to use his own expression. 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.