Lincoln's Beginning as a Lawyer--His Early Taste for
Politics--Lincoln and the Lightning-Rod Man--Not an
Aristocrat--Reply to Dr. Early--A Manly Letter--Again in the
Illinois Legislature--The "Long Nine"--Lincoln on His Way to the
Capital--His Ambition in 1836--First Meeting with Douglas--Removal
of the Illinois Capital--One of Lincoln's Early
Speeches--Pro-Slavery Sentiment in Illinois--Lincoln's Opposition
to Slavery--Contest with General Ewing--Lincoln Lays out a
Town--The Title "Honest Abe."
Abraham Lincoln's career as a lawyer covered a period of a quarter of a
century, beginning about 1834 or '35, and ending with his election to
the Presidency, in November, 1860. When he began his professional life
he was an obscure and unpromising youth of twenty-five, with but little
learning and fewer accomplishments, and without advantages of social
influence or wealthy friends. Step by step, with patient industry and
unflinching determination, he climbed the ladder of professional
advancement until he stood among the foremost lawyers of the West. He
had, indeed, won a national reputation; and when he laid aside his law
books, a mature man of fifty, it was to enter upon the great honors and
responsibilities of the Presidency of the American Republic.
Lincoln was devoted to his profession, and his success in it was earned
by hard and constant application. But his natural taste for politics led
him to take a full share in the activities of political life. He had
already served a term in the Illinois Legislature (1834-35), and so well
satisfied were his constituents that they renominated him for the
succeeding term. In the canvass which followed he distinguished himself
as a stump-speaker; showing, by his tact and ability, by the skill and
ingenuity with which he met his opponents in debate, by his shrewdness
in attack and readiness in retort, how much he had profited by the
training of the previous years.
An incident illustrating his ready wit and his keen insight into human
nature occurred early in this campaign, at Springfield, where a public
discussion was held between the opposing candidates. An interesting
version of this incident is given by Mr. Arnold: "There lived at this
time in the most pretentious house in Springfield a prominent citizen
named George Forquer. He had been long in public life, had been a
leading Whig--the party to which Lincoln belonged--but had lately gone
over to the Democrats, and had received from the Democratic
administration an appointment to the lucrative post of Register of the
Land Office at Springfield. Upon his handsome new house he had lately
placed a lightning-rod, the first one ever put up in Sangamon County. As
Lincoln was riding into town with his friends, they passed the fine
house of Forquer, and observed the novelty of the lightning-rod,
discussing the manner in which it protected the house from being struck
by lightning. In this discussion there were seven Whig and seven
Democratic candidates for the lower branch of the Legislature; and after
several had spoken it fell to Lincoln to close the arguments. This he
did with great ability. Forquer, though not a candidate, then asked to
be heard for the Democrats in reply to Lincoln. He was a good speaker
and well-known throughout the county. His special task that day was to
attack and ridicule the young man from Salem. Turning to Lincoln, who
stood within a few feet of him, he said: 'This young man must be taken
down, and I am truly sorry that the task devolves upon me.' He then
proceeded, in a very overbearing way, and with an assumption of great
superiority, to attack Lincoln and his speech. Lincoln stood calm, but
his flashing eye and pale cheek showed his indignation. As soon as
Forquer had closed he took the stand and first answered his opponent's
arguments fully and triumphantly. So impressive were his words and
manner that a hearer believes that he can remember to this day, and
repeat, some of the expressions. Among other things, he said: 'The
gentleman commenced his speech by saying that this _young_ man--alluding
to me--must be taken down. I am not so young in years as I am in the
tricks and trades of a politician; but,' said he, pointing to Forquer,
'live long or die young, I would rather die now, than, like the
gentleman, change my politics for a three thousand dollar office, and
then feel obliged to erect a lightning-rod over my house to protect a
guilty conscience from the vengeance of an offended God!'"
"It is difficult to-day," says Mr. Arnold, "to appreciate the effect on
the old settlers, of this figure. This lightning-rod was the first which
most of those present had ever seen. They had slept all their lives in
their cabins in conscious security. Here was a man who seemed, to these
simple-minded people, to be afraid to sleep in his own house without
special and extraordinary protection from Almighty God. These old
settlers thought nothing but the consciousness of guilt, the stings of a
guilty conscience, could account for such timidity. Forquer and his
lightning-rod were talked over in every settlement from Sangamon to the
Illinois and the Wabash. Whenever he rose to speak thereafter, they
said, 'There is the man who dare not sleep in his own house without a
lightning-rod to keep off the vengeance of the Almighty.'"
Another amusing incident of the same campaign, and one which illustrates
Lincoln's love of a practical joke, is given as follows: "Among the
Democrats stumping the county at this time was one Dick Taylor, a most
pompous person, who was always arrayed in the richest attire--ruffled
shirts, seals, etc., besides a rich embroidered vest. Notwithstanding
this array, he made great pretentions of being one of the 'hard-handed
yeomanry,' and ridiculed with much sarcasm the 'rag barons' and
'manufacturing lords' of the Whig party. One day, when he was
particularly aggravating in a speech of this kind, Lincoln decided on a
little sport, and sidling up to Taylor suddenly threw open the latter's
coat, showing to the astonished spectators a glittering mass of ruffled
shirt, gold watch, and glittering jewels. The crowd shouted
uproariously. Lincoln said: 'While he [Colonel 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, I was a poor boy,
hired on a flatboat at eight dollars a month, and had only one pair of
breeches to my name, and they were buckskin,--and if you know the nature
of buckskin, when wet and dried by the sun it 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. 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.'"
"The Saturday evening preceding the election," says Mr. Lamon, "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 which Mr. 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 everyone 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 a duel must settle the difficulty. Lincoln,
by the programme, followed Early. He took up the subject in dispute and
handled it fairly and with such ability that everyone was astonished
and pleased. So that difficulty ended there. Then for the first time,
aroused by the excitement of the occasion, he spoke in that tenor
intonation of voice that ultimately settled down into that clear, shrill
monotone style that afterwards characterized his public speaking, and
enabled his audience, however large, to hear distinctly the lowest sound
of his voice." Mr. Arnold says that Lincoln's reply to Dr. Early was
"often spoken of as exhibiting wonderful ability, and a crushing power
of sarcasm and ridicule. When he began he was embarrassed, spoke slowly
and with some hesitation and difficulty. But becoming excited by his
subject, he forgot himself entirely, and went on with argument and wit,
anecdote and ridicule, until his opponent was completely crushed. Old
settlers of Sangamon County who heard this reply speak of his personal
transformation as wonderful. When Lincoln began, they say, he seemed
awkward, homely, unprepossessing. As he went on, and became excited, his
figure rose to its full height and became commanding and majestic. His
plain face was illuminated and glowed with expression. His dreamy eye
flashed with inspiration, and his whole person, his voice, his gestures,
were full of the magnetism of powerful feeling, of conscious strength
and true eloquence."
The inflexible honesty and fine sense of honor which lay at the
foundation of Lincoln's character are nobly exhibited in the following
letter to a former friend but now political opponent, Col. Robert Allen:
DEAR COLONEL:--I am told that during my absence last week, you
passed through this place, and stated publicly that you were in
possession of a fact or facts which, if known to the public, would
entirely destroy the prospects of N.W. Edwards and myself at the
ensuing election, but that through favor to us you would forbear to
divulge them. No one has needed favors more than I, and generally
few have been less unwilling to accept them; but in this case
favor to me would be injustice to the public, and therefore I must
beg your pardon for declining it. That I once had the confidence of
the people of Sangamon County is sufficiently evident; and if I
have since done anything, either by design or misadventure, which
if known would subject me to a forfeiture of that confidence, he
who knows of that thing and conceals it is a traitor to his
country's interest.
I find myself wholly unable to form any conjecture of what fact or
facts, real or supposed, you spoke. But my opinion of your veracity
will not permit me for a moment to doubt that you at least believed
what you said. I am flattered with the personal regard you
manifested for me; but I do hope that on more mature reflection you
will view the public interest as a paramount consideration, and
therefore determine to let the worst come.
I assure you that the candid statement of facts on your part,
however low it may sink me, shall never break the ties of personal
friendship between us.
I wish an answer to this, and you are at liberty to publish both if
you choose.
Very respectfully,
A. LINCOLN.
COL. ROBERT ALLEN.
The campaign resulted in Lincoln's election to the Legislature of 1836.
The nine delegates from Sangamon County happened to be men of remarkable
stature, each one measuring six feet or more in height; and very
naturally they were nicknamed the "Long Nine." Lincoln overtopped all
the rest, and as a consequence was called "the Sangamon Chief." The
State capital was then at Vandalia; and Lincoln's journey there from
Springfield was made mainly on foot. As he was trudging along the muddy
road, he fell in with Judge John Dean Caton, one of the early lawyers of
Illinois, afterwards Chief Justice of the State, who became an intimate
friend of Lincoln. Judge Caton gives an interesting account of their
first meeting, which occurred at this time. "I first met Mr. Lincoln,"
says Judge Caton, "about the last of November, 1835, when on my way to
Vandalia to join the Supreme Court, which met there the first Monday in
December, at the same time as the meeting of the Legislature. There were
a great many people and all sorts of vehicles on the road from
Springfield to Vandalia. The roads were very bad, and most of the
passengers got out and walked a considerable portion of the distance. It
seemed almost like the movement of a little army. While walking thus
along the side of the road I met Mr. Lincoln for the first time, and in
the course of a two days' journey we became quite well acquainted. If he
had been admitted to the bar at that time, he had not become known as a
lawyer out of his own immediate circuit. He was going to Vandalia as a
member of the Legislature. He was one of the 'Long Nine,' as it was
called, from Sangamon County, who by their successful manoeuvring and
united efforts succeeded in getting the seat of government moved from
Vandalia to Springfield. During my stay of a few weeks in Vandalia I
frequently met Mr. Lincoln. He was a very pleasant companion; but as we
walked along the road on the occasion referred to, talking about
indifferent subjects, nothing impressed me with any idea of his future
greatness."
When Lincoln took his seat in the first session of the new Legislature
at Vandalia, his mind was full of new projects. His real public service
was now about to begin, and having spent his time in the previous
Legislature mainly as an observer and listener he was determined during
this session to identify himself conspicuously with the "liberal"
progressive legislation, dreaming of a fame far different from that he
actually obtained as an anti-slavery leader. As he remarked to his
friend Speed, he hoped to obtain the great distinction of being called
"the De Witt Clinton of Illinois."
It was at a special session of this Legislature that Lincoln first saw
Stephen A. Douglas, his great political antagonist of the future, whom
he describes as "the _least_ man" he ever saw. Douglas had come into the
State from Vermont only the previous year, and having studied law for
several months considered himself eminently qualified to be State's
attorney for the district in which he lived. General Linder says of the
two men at this time: "I here had an opportunity, better than any I had
previously possessed, of measuring the intellectual stature of Abraham
Lincoln. He was then about twenty-seven years old--my own age. Douglas
was four years our junior; consequently he could not have been over
twenty-three years old. Yet he was a very ready and expert debater, even
at that early period of his life. He and Lincoln were very frequently
pitted against each other, being of different politics. They both
commanded marked attention and respect."
A notable measure effected by the "Long Nine" during this session of the
Legislature was the removal of the State Capital from Vandalia to
Springfield. It was accomplished by dint of shrewd and persistent
management, in which Lincoln was a leading spirit. Mr. Robert L. Wilson,
one of his colleagues, says: "When our bill to all appearance was dead
beyond resuscitation, and our friends could see no hope, Lincoln never
for a moment despaired. Collecting his colleagues in his room for
consultation, his practical common-sense, his thorough knowledge of
human nature, made him an overmatch for his compeers, and for any man I
have ever known."
Lincoln's reputation as an orator was gradually extending beyond the
circle of his friends and constituents. He was gaining notice as a ready
and forcible speaker, with shrewd and sensible ideas which he expressed
with striking originality and independence. He was invited to address
the Young Men's Lyceum at Springfield, January 27, 1837, and read a
carefully prepared paper on "The Perpetuation of Our Political
Institutions," which was afterwards published in the Springfield
"Weekly Journal." The address was crude and strained in style, but the
feeling pervading it was fervent and honest, and its patriotic sentiment
and sound reflection made it effective for the occasion. A few
paragraphs culled from this paper, some of them containing remarkable
prophetic passages, afford a clue to the stage of intellectual
development which Lincoln had reached at the age of twenty-seven, and an
interesting contrast with the terser style of his later years.
In the great journal of things happening under the sun, we, the
American people, find our account running under date of the
nineteenth century of the Christian era. We find ourselves in the
peaceful possession of the fairest portion of the earth, as regards
extent of territory, fertility of soil, and salubrity of climate.
We find ourselves under the government of a system of political
institutions conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and
religious liberty than any of which the history of former times
tells us. We, when mounting the stage of existence, found ourselves
the legal inheritors of these fundamental blessings. We toiled not
in the acquisition or establishment of them; they are a legacy
bequeathed us by a once hardy, brave and patriotic, but now
lamented and departed race of ancestors. Theirs was the task (and
nobly they performed it) to possess themselves, and, through
themselves, us, of this goodly land, and to uprear upon its hills
and valleys a political edifice of liberty and equal rights; 'tis
ours only to transmit these--the former unprofaned by the foot of
an invader, the latter undecayed by the lapse of time and untorn by
usurpation--to the latest generation that fate shall permit the
world to know. This task, gratitude to our fathers, justice to
ourselves, duty to posterity, all imperatively require us
faithfully to perform.
How, then, shall we perform it? At what point shall we expect the
approach of danger? Shall we expect some transatlantic military
giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the
armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure
of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a
Bonaparte for a commander, could not, by force, take a drink from
the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a
thousand years! At what point, then, is the approach of danger to
be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, _it must spring up
amongst ourselves_. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be
our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation
of free men, we must live through all time, or die by suicide. I
hope I am not over-wary; but, if I am not, there is even now
something of ill-omen amongst us. I mean the increasing disregard
for law which pervades the country, the growing disposition to
substitute the wild and furious passions in lieu of the sober
judgment of the courts, and the worse than savage mobs for the
executive ministers of justice. This disposition is awfully fearful
in any community; and that it now exists in ours, though grating to
our feelings to admit it, it would be a violation of truth and an
insult to our intelligence to deny. Accounts of outrages committed
by mobs form the every-day news of the times. They have pervaded
the country from New England to Louisiana; they are neither
peculiar to the eternal snows of the former, nor the burning sun of
the latter. They are not the creature of climate; neither are they
confined to the slaveholding or non-slaveholding States. Alike they
spring up among the pleasure-hunting masters of Southern slaves and
the order-loving citizens of the land of steady habits. Whatever
their course may be, it is common to the whole country. Here, then,
is one point at which danger may be expected. The question recurs,
How shall we fortify against it? The answer is simple. Let every
American, every lover of liberty, every well-wisher to his
posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate
in the least particular the laws of the country, and never to
tolerate their violation by others. As the patriots of
'seventy-six' did to the support of the Declaration of
Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and the Laws
let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred
honor; let every man remember that to violate the law is to trample
on the blood of his father, and to tear the charter of his own and
his children's liberty. Let reverence for the laws be breathed by
every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap.
Let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges. Let it
be written in primers, spelling-books, and in almanacs. Let it be
preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and
enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the
political religion of the nation.
During the years of Lincoln's service in the Illinois Legislature the
Democratic party was strongly dominant throughout the State. The feeling
on the subject of slavery was decidedly in sympathy with the South. A
large percentage of the settlers in the southern and middle portions of
Illinois were from States in which slave labor was maintained; and
although the determination not to permit the institution to obtain a
foothold in the new commonwealth was general, the people were opposed to
any action which should affect its condition where it was already
established. During the sessions of 1836-7 resolutions of an extreme
pro-slavery character were carried through the Legislature by the
Democratic party, aiming to prevent the Abolitionists from obtaining a
foothold in the State. Lincoln could not conscientiously support the
resolutions, nor hold his peace concerning them. He did not shrink from
the issue, but at the hazard of losing his political popularity and the
gratifying prospects that were opening before him he drew up a protest
against the pro-slavery enactment and had it entered upon the Journal of
the House. The state of public opinion in Illinois at that time may be
judged by the fact that of the hundred Representatives in the House
_only one_ had the courage to sign the protest with him. Lincoln's
protest was as follows:
_March 3, 1837_.
The following protest, presented to the House, 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 Sangamon._
The great financial panic which swept over the country in 1837 rendered
expedient an extra session of the Legislature, which was called together
in July. General Lee D. Ewing had been elected to this session from
Fayette County for the express purpose of repealing the law removing the
capital from Vandalia to Springfield. "General Ewing was," says Mr.
Linder, "a man of considerable notoriety, popularity, and talents. He
had been a member of Congress from Illinois, and had filled various
State offices in his time. He was a man of elegant manners, great
personal courage, and would grace either the _salons_ of fashion or the
Senate chamber at Washington. The Legislature opened its special session
(I was there as a spectator), and General Ewing sounded the tocsin of
war. He said that 'the arrogance of Springfield, its presumption in
claiming the seat of government, was not to be endured; that the law had
been passed by chicanery and trickery; that the Springfield delegation
had sold out to the internal improvement men, and had promised their
support to every measure that would gain them a vote to the law removing
the seat of government.' He said many other things, cutting and
sarcastic. Lincoln was chosen by his colleagues to reply to Ewing; and
I want to say here that this was the first time that I began to conceive
a very high opinion of the talents and personal courage of Abraham
Lincoln. He retorted upon Ewing with great severity, denouncing his
insinuations imputing corruption to him and his colleagues, and paying
back with usury all that Ewing had said, when everybody thought and
believed that he was digging his own grave; for it was known that Ewing
would not quietly pocket any insinuations that would degrade him
personally. I recollect his reply to Lincoln well. After addressing the
Speaker, he turned to the Sangamon delegation, who all sat in the same
portion of the house, and said: 'Gentlemen, have you no other champion
than this coarse and vulgar fellow to bring into the lists against me?
Do you suppose that I will condescend to break a lance with your low and
obscure colleague?' We were all very much alarmed for fear there would
be a personal conflict between Ewing and Lincoln. It was confidently
believed that a challenge must pass between them; but friends on both
sides took the matter in hand, and it was settled without anything
serious growing out of it."
When the legislative session ended, in February, 1837, Lincoln returned
to a job of surveying which he had begun a year before at Petersburg,
near his old home at Salem. He spent a month or two at Petersburg,
completing the surveying and planning of the town. That his work was
well and satisfactorily done is attested by many--among them by Mr. John
Bennett, who lived in Petersburg at the time. "My earliest acquaintance
with Lincoln," says Mr. Bennett, "began on his return from Vandalia,
where he had spent the winter as a member of the Legislature from
Sangamon County. Lincoln spent most of the month of March in Petersburg,
finishing up the survey and planning of the town he had commenced the
year before. I was a great deal in his company, and formed a high
estimate of his worth and social qualities, which was strengthened by
many years of subsequent social intercourse and business transactions,
finding him always strictly honest. In fact, he was now generally spoken
of in this region as 'Honest Abe.' After Menard County was formed out of
a portion of Sangamon County, and the county seat established at
Petersburg, Mr. Lincoln was a regular attendant at the courts. I was
then keeping a hotel, and he was one of my regular customers. Here he
met many of his old cronies of his early days at Salem, and they spent
the most of the nights in telling stories or spinning long yarns, of
which Mr. Lincoln was particularly fond."