Appointed Deputy Surveyor--Elected to Legislature in 1834--Campaign
Issues--Begins Study of Law--Internal Improvement System--The
Lincoln-Stone Protest--Candidate for Speaker in 1838 and 1840
When Lincoln was appointed postmaster, in May, 1833, the Lincoln-Berry
store had not yet completely "winked out," to use his own picturesque
phrase. When at length he ceased to be a merchant, he yet remained a
government official, a man of consideration and authority, who still had
a responsible occupation and definite home, where he could read, write,
and study. The proceeds of his office were doubtless very meager, but in
that day, when the rate of postage on letters was still twenty-five
cents, a little change now and then came into his hands, which, in the
scarcity of money prevailing on the frontier, had an importance
difficult for us to appreciate. His positions as candidate for the
legislature and as postmaster probably had much to do in bringing him
another piece of good fortune. In the rapid settlement of Illinois and
Sangamon County, and the obtaining titles to farms by purchase or
preëmption, as well as in the locating and opening of new roads, the
county surveyor had more work on his hands than he could perform
throughout a county extending forty miles east and west and fifty north
and south, and was compelled to appoint deputies to assist him. The name
of the county surveyor was John Calhoun, recognized by all his
contemporaries in Sangamon as a man of education and talent and an
aspiring Democratic politician. It was not an easy matter for Calhoun to
find properly qualified deputies, and when he became acquainted with
Lincoln, and learned his attainments and aptitudes, and the estimation
in which he was held by the people of New Salem, he wisely concluded to
utilize his talents and standing, notwithstanding their difference in
politics. The incident is thus recorded by Lincoln:
"The surveyor of Sangamon offered to depute to Abraham that portion of
his work which was within his part of the county. He accepted, procured
a compass and chain, studied Flint and Gibson a little, and went at it.
This procured bread, and kept soul and body together."
Tradition has it that Calhoun not only gave him the appointment, but
lent him the book in which to study the art, which he accomplished in a
period of six weeks, aided by the schoolmaster, Mentor Graham. The exact
period of this increase in knowledge and business capacity is not
recorded, but it must have taken place in the summer of 1833, as there
exists a certificate of survey in Lincoln's handwriting signed, "J.
Calhoun, S.S.C., by A. Lincoln," dated January 14, 1834. Before June of
that year he had surveyed and located a public road from "Musick's Ferry
on Salt Creek, _via_ New Salem, to the county line in the direction to
Jacksonville," twenty-six miles and seventy chains in length, the exact
course of which survey, with detailed bearings and distances, was drawn
on common white letter-paper pasted in a long slip, to a scale of two
inches to the mile, in ordinary yet clear and distinct penmanship. The
compensation he received for this service was three dollars per day for
five days, and two dollars and fifty cents for making the plat and
report.
An advertisement in the "Journal" shows that the regular fees of another
deputy were "two dollars per day, or one dollar per lot of eight acres
or less, and fifty cents for a single line, with ten cents per mile for
traveling."
While this class of work and his post-office, with its emoluments,
probably amply supplied his board, lodging and clothing, it left him no
surplus with which to pay his debts, for it was in the latter part of
that same year (1834) that Van Bergen caused his horse and surveying
instruments to be sold under the hammer, as already related. Meanwhile,
amid these fluctuations of good and bad luck, Lincoln maintained his
equanimity, his steady, persevering industry, and his hopeful ambition
and confidence in the future. Through all his misfortunes and his
failures, he preserved his self-respect and his determination to
succeed.
Two years had nearly elapsed since he was defeated for the legislature,
and, having received so flattering a vote on that occasion, it was
entirely natural that he should determine to try a second chance. Four
new representatives were to be chosen at the August election of 1834,
and near the end of April Lincoln published his announcement that he
would again be a candidate. He could certainly view his expectations in
every way in a more hopeful light. His knowledge had increased, his
experience broadened, his acquaintanceship greatly increased. His
talents were acknowledged, his ability recognized. He was postmaster and
deputy surveyor. He had become a public character whose services were in
demand. As compared with the majority of his neighbors, he was a man of
learning who had seen the world. Greater, however, than all these
advantages, his sympathetic kindness of heart, his sincere, open
frankness, his sturdy, unshrinking honesty, and that inborn sense of
justice that yielded to no influence, made up a nobility of character
and bearing that impressed the rude frontiersmen as much as, if not more
quickly and deeply than, it would have done the most polished and
erudite society.
Beginning his campaign in April, he had three full months before him for
electioneering, and he evidently used the time to good advantage. The
pursuit of popularity probably consisted mainly of the same methods that
in backwoods districts prevail even to our day: personal visits and
solicitations, attendance at various kinds of neighborhood gatherings,
such as raisings of new cabins, horse-races, shooting-matches, sales of
town lots or of personal property under execution, or whatever occasion
served to call a dozen or two of the settlers together. One recorded
incident illustrates the practical nature of the politician's art at
that day:
"He [Lincoln] came to my house, near Island Grove, during harvest. There
were some thirty men in the field. He got his dinner and went out in the
field where the men were at work. I gave him an introduction, and the
boys said that they could not vote for a man unless he could make a
hand. 'Well, boys,' said he, 'if that is all, I am sure of your votes.'
He took hold of the cradle, and led the way all the round with perfect
ease. The boys were satisfied, and I don't think he lost a vote in the
crowd."
Sometimes two or more candidates would meet at such places, and short
speeches be called for and given. Altogether, the campaign was livelier
than that of two years before. Thirteen candidates were again contesting
for the four seats in the legislature, to say nothing of candidates for
governor, for Congress, and for the State Senate. The scope of
discussion was enlarged and localized. From the published address of an
industrious aspirant who received only ninety-two votes, we learn that
the issues now were the construction by the general government of a
canal from Lake Michigan to the Illinois River, the improvement of the
Sangamon River, the location of the State capital at Springfield, a
United States bank, a better road law, and amendments to the estray
laws.
When the election returns came in Lincoln had reason to be satisfied
with the efforts he had made. He received the second highest number of
votes in the long list of candidates. Those cast for the representatives
chosen stood: Dawson, 1390; Lincoln, 1376; Carpenter 1170; Stuart, 1164.
The location of the State capital had also been submitted to popular
vote at this election. Springfield, being much nearer the geographical
center of the State, was anxious to deprive Vandalia of that honor, and
the activity of the Sangamon politicians proved it to be a dangerous
rival. In the course of a month the returns from all parts of the State
had come in, and showed that Springfield was third in the race.
It must be frankly admitted that Lincoln's success at this juncture was
one of the most important events of his life. A second defeat might have
discouraged his efforts to lift himself to a professional career, and
sent him to the anvil to make horseshoes and to iron wagons for the
balance of his days. But this handsome popular indorsement assured his
standing and confirmed his credit. With this lift in the clouds of his
horizon, he could resolutely carry his burden of debt and hopefully look
to wider fields of public usefulness. Already, during the progress of
the canvass, he had received cheering encouragement and promise of most
valuable help. One of the four successful candidates was John T. Stuart,
who had been major of volunteers in the Black Hawk War while Lincoln
was captain, and who, together with Lincoln, had reënlisted as a private
in the Independent Spy Battalion. There is every likelihood that the two
had begun a personal friendship during their military service, which was
of course strongly cemented by their being fellow-candidates and both
belonging to the Whig party. Mr. Lincoln relates:
"Major John T. Stuart, then in full practice of the law [at
Springfield], was also elected. During the canvass, in a private
conversation he encouraged Abraham to study law. After the election, he
borrowed books of Stuart, took them home with him, and went at it in
good earnest. He studied with nobody.... In the autumn of 1836 he
obtained a law license, and on April 15, 1837, removed to Springfield
and commenced the practice, his old friend Stuart taking him into
partnership."
From and after this election in 1834 as a representative, Lincoln was a
permanent factor in the politics and the progress of Sangamon County. At
a Springfield meeting in the following November to promote common
schools, he was appointed one of eleven delegates to attend a convention
at Vandalia called to deliberate on that subject. He was reëlected to
the legislature in 1836, in 1838, and in 1840, and thus for a period of
eight years took a full share in shaping and enacting the public and
private laws of Illinois, which in our day has become one of the leading
States in the Mississippi valley. Of Lincoln's share in that
legislation, it need only be said that it was as intelligent and
beneficial to the public interest as that of the best of his colleagues.
The most serious error committed by the legislature of Illinois during
that period was that it enacted laws setting on foot an extensive system
of internal improvements, in the form of railroads and canals,
altogether beyond the actual needs of transportation for the then
existing population of the State, and the consequent reckless creation
of a State debt for money borrowed at extravagant interest and liberal
commissions. The State underwent a season of speculative intoxication,
in which, by the promised and expected rush of immigration and the
swelling currents of its business, its farms were suddenly to become
villages, its villages spreading towns, and its towns transformed into
great cities, while all its people were to be made rich by the increased
value of their land and property. Both parties entered with equal
recklessness into this ill-advised internal improvement system, which in
the course of about four years brought the State to bankruptcy, with no
substantial works to show for the foolishly expended millions.
In voting for these measures, Mr. Lincoln represented the public opinion
and wish of his county and the whole State; and while he was as
blamable, he was at the same time no more so than the wisest of his
colleagues. It must be remembered in extenuation that he was just
beginning his parliamentary education. From the very first, however, he
seems to have become a force in the legislature, and to have rendered
special service to his constituents. It is conceded that the one object
which Springfield and the most of Sangamon County had at heart was the
removal of the capital from Vandalia to that place. This was
accomplished in 1836, and the management of the measure appears to have
been intrusted mainly to Mr. Lincoln.
One incident of his legislative career stands out in such prominent
relation to the great events of his after life that it deserves special
explanation and emphasis. Even at that early date, a quarter of a
century before the outbreak of the Civil War, the slavery question was
now and then obtruding itself as an irritating and perplexing element
into the local legislation of almost every new State. Illinois, though
guaranteed its freedom by the Ordinance of 1787, nevertheless underwent
a severe political struggle in which, about four years after her
admission into the Union, politicians and settlers from the South made a
determined effort to change her to a slave State. The legislature of
1822-23, with a two-thirds pro-slavery majority of the State Senate, and
a technical, but legally questionable, two-thirds majority in the House,
submitted to popular vote an act calling a State convention to change
the constitution. It happened, fortunately, that Governor Coles, though
a Virginian, was strongly antislavery, and gave the weight of his
official influence and his whole four years' salary to counteract the
dangerous scheme. From the fact that southern Illinois up to that time
was mostly peopled from the slave States, the result was seriously in
doubt through an active and exciting campaign, and the convention was
finally defeated by a majority of eighteen hundred in a total vote of
eleven thousand six hundred and twelve. While this result effectually
decided that Illinois would remain a free State, the propagandism and
reorganization left a deep and tenacious undercurrent of pro-slavery
opinion that for many years manifested itself in vehement and intolerant
outcries against "abolitionism," which on one occasion caused the murder
of Elijah P. Lovejoy for persisting in his right to print an antislavery
newspaper at Alton.
Nearly a year before this tragedy the Illinois legislature had under
consideration certain resolutions from the Eastern States on the subject
of slavery, and the committee to which they had been referred reported a
set of resolves "highly disapproving abolition societies," holding that
"the right of property in slaves is secured to the slaveholding States
by the Federal Constitution," together with other phraseology calculated
on the whole to soothe and comfort pro-slavery sentiment. After much
irritating discussion, the committee's resolutions were finally passed,
with but Lincoln and five others voting in the negative. No record
remains whether or not Lincoln joined in the debate; but, to leave no
doubt upon his exact position and feeling, he and his colleague, Dan
Stone, caused the following protest to be formally entered on the
journals of the House:
"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 reasons for entering this protest."
In view of the great scope and quality of Lincoln's public service in
after life, it would be a waste of time to trace out in detail his words
or his votes upon the multitude of questions on which he acted during
this legislative career of eight years. It needs only to be remembered
that it formed a varied and thorough school of parliamentary practice
and experience that laid the broad foundation of that extraordinary
skill and sagacity in statesmanship which he afterward displayed in
party controversy and executive direction. The quick proficiency and
ready aptitude for leadership evidenced by him in this, as it may be
called, his preliminary parliamentary school are strikingly proved by
the fact that the Whig members of the Illinois House of Representatives
gave him their full party vote for Speaker, both in 1838 and 1840. But
being in a minority, they could not, of course, elect him.