His subsequent career proved the assertion no idle one.

Nearly twenty years later he wrote to a friend:

"That sight was a continual torment to me; and I see something like it every time I touch the Ohio or any other slave border.

"It is not fair for you to assume that I have no interest in a thing which has, and continually exercises, the power of making me miserable.”

After this voyage Abraham entered the business field. In the summer of 1831 a friend opened a “general store" at New Salem, and employed Lincoln as its manager; later Abraham was also given a gristmill to superintend.

Not far from New Salem, at a place called Clary's Grove, a gang of frontier ruffians had established headquarters, and the champion wrestler of the Grove was "Jack" Armstrong, a bully of the worst type.

Learning that Abraham was something of a wrestler himself, “Jack” sent him a challenge. At that time and in that community a refusal would have resulted in social and business ostracism, not to mention the stigma of cowardice which would attach.

It was a great day for New Salem and the Grove when Lincoln and Armstrong met. Settlers within a radius of fifty miles flocked to the scene, and the wagers laid were heavy and many. Armstrong proved a weakling in the hands of the powerful Kentuckian, and "Jack's" adherents were about to mob Lincoln when the latter's friends saved him from probable death by rushing to the rescue.

It had been fully demonstrated that Abraham was the better man; Armstrong confessed himself beaten, and from that time men of the "gang" were Lincoln's stanchest political supporters.

Their work at the polls was remarkably effective. When the "Butcherknife boys," the "huge-pawed boys," and the "half-horse-half-alligator men" declared for a candidate the latter was never defeated.

In after years, when Lincoln, in his speeches, spoke of the "common people," none could deny his knowledge of them. He was one of them; no man in public life was in such close touch with them; none understood them so well as he; his sympathies were with them; he had always lived among them and loved them.

When he became President of the United States he was not above them, and when he chanced to meet a friend of the olden times was heartily and unaffectedly glad to see him.

Lincoln never outgrew the "common" people; they knew he was their friend; and that when he spoke of them his heart was in his words.

It may be said Lincoln was a politician of the practical sort, but his politics was of that school approved by the people of his day.

LINCOLN AS A MAN OF WAR.

Lincoln was naturally a politician, and did not underestimate the value of election to office. He started in life as a candidate for the suffrages of the people.

Having mismanaged, to quote his own words, the business affairs of his friend at New Salem to "the best of his ability," Lincoln found himself at the end of a year with nothing to do, and the Black Hawk War having just broken out, he enlisted. Three-fourths of the members of his company were personal friends, and when the captain was elected Lincoln was the fortunate man. His company belonged to the Fourth Illinois Regiment, but the only field and active service the future President saw was a rough march to the field of the first battle, the tramp also including fatigue and hunger.

There being no opportunity for gathering military laurels, Captain Lincoln cheered his men during the monotonous life of the camp by telling stories; but, good as they were, the majority of his homesick comrades, regardless of their duty to the Nation and State, calmly walked away one night and left their captain with no company to command.

Determined to "see the war through," Lincoln re-enlisted as a private. He served his time, but no battles came his way, and when mustered out had the satisfaction of knowing he had "killed as many of the Indians as they did of me."

CHAPTER VII.

BUSINESS POLITICS-THE LEGISLATURE- THE LAWLOVE AND MARRIAGE-CONGRESS.

DESIRE place and distinction as a politician," was Lincoln's retort

to an opponent's sneer because the gawky lawyer was young; "but I would rather die now than, like the gentleman, live to see the day when I should have to erect a lightning-rod to protect a guilty conscience from an offended God."

This opponent was a rich man who had built the finest house in the country and decorated it with the first lightning-rod in that section.

Lincoln was stumping the county as a candidate for the Legislature, but was beaten at the polls, the owner of the lightning-rodded house being active in opposition. Also, the Jacksonian Democrats were in such majority a Whig had no show whatever.

Having no money, and nothing to do, Abraham bought an interest in a New Salem grocery store, giving his notes of hand in lieu of cash. It turned out he could do no better for himself than others, and the end of the year found Abraham again adrift. The sheriff had made a friendly call and sold the grocery out.

It was many years afterwards Lincoln succeeded in paying his grocery debts, but he did not rest easy until he had pacified the last creditor. While a member of Congress he devoted a portion of his salary to this purpose.

The community in which Lincoln lived was indicative of the western frontier in every essential. The people were simple, whole-hearted and generous, their hospitality being limited by their means; when a man built a house his neighbors neglected their crops to help him.

Fashion magazines did not have a large circulation among the women, and at the numerous social gatherings where dancing was the order of the evening, men and women came barefooted.

Political spirit ran high wherever there was a gathering of men and women (except at funerals); speech-making was a part of the programme; whiskey flowed like water, and a refusal to drink subjected a man to ridicule, insult and abuse; controversies were settled with fists, not with fire-arms;

potatoes were a luxury, corn-bread being the chief article of diet; the most popular assemblages were camp meetings, where the residents of the community gave vent to their emotions in hysterical outbursts.

No man was richer than his fellows, and there was no aristocracy; the women wore linsey-woolsey of home manufacture, and dyed them in accordance with the tastes of the wearers; calico was rarely seen, and a woman wearing a dress of that material was the envy of her sisters.

There being no shoemakers the women wore moccasins, and the men made their own boots. A hunting shirt, leggins made of skins, buckskin breeches, dyed green, constituted an apparel no maiden could withstand.

LINCOLN WAS NO DUDE.

Indifferent in matters of dress, Lincoln cut but small figure in social circles. His trousers were too short, his hat too small, and, as a rule, the buttons on the back of his coat were nearer his shoulder-blades than his waist.

Lincoln was an abstainer, but his popularity and physical strength were so great the men of the community looked upon his dislike for liquor as a mental eccentricity and a physical peculiarity. He was constantly in demand; his stories were always fresh and well told, and he had a reply ready when badgered by an opponent.

He understood the people so thoroughly, and his sentiments, expressed honestly and awkwardly, met with approval at all times and places.

Politics was also a personal matter, and the man whose declarations were controverted settled the matter then and there in a pugilistic way; political meetings were usually held at the taverns; and judges held court either in bar-rooms or the "sittin' room" of some settler's cabin, a bed serving as a woolsack.

Men went to extremes in political discussion. Candidates were praised without stint or vilified without limit. A candidate considered a vote against him as a personal insult; and a campaign was a period of which stump speaking, fighting and whiskey-drinking were the chief ingredients.

Taking into consideration Lincoln as a man, a statesman, a diplomat, a keen lawyer, tactful politician and leader and ruler of men, it is difficult to comprehend why he was not corrupted by the conditions and influences which surrounded him the first years of his manhood.

He was not regarded by his neighbors as a man of genius, learning or accomplishments; they voted for him because they liked him; they did not

see in him a man capable of great achievements; to them he was simply "Abe Lincoln."

While wrestling with commercial problems Abraham devoted his spare hours to the study of law. He had an indefinite idea that perhaps he might develop into a pretty good attorney, and was not unmindful that his methods and style of speech would have weight with a jury; in fact, he had confidence enough in himself.

Having been a failure in the commercial line there was every reason to suppose he would be a success in a legal way. Law and politics were hand in hand among the people, who had an inborn inherited taste for both; therefore, Lincoln, already a politician, took up the law as the most natural thing in the world.

The first political office Lincoln ever held was postmaster at New Salem. He put the mail into his hat, and when he met those for whom he had letters he handed them out. The regulation "Lincoln luck" kept pace with him, for within three years New Salem ceased to exist and the postoffice was abolished.

Not discouraged-small matters never bothered him—Abraham turned his attention to surveying, and assisted the official surveyor of the county. He was more than a mild success at this, but one of his creditors happened along one day and levied upon his horse and surveying instruments.

BREAKS INTO THE LEGISLATURE.

Lincoln's second attempt to break into the Legislature, in 1834, was successful, but the records of that session show nothing calculated to inculcate the belief that the future President was destined for a great career.

He was re-elected in 1836, and made a member of the Committee on Finance, possibly for the reason that he was distinguished by an entire absence of "money sense."

This Legislature was notable for its lavish appropriations for "internal improvements," and Lincoln was one of the most ardent advocates of these measures which burdened the State with debt. His declared ambition was to be "the De Witt Clinton of Illinois."

Clinton was the man who put the Erie Canal through.

This Legislature passed sundry resolutions favoring slavery and disapproving abolition societies and doctrines, and although representing a proslavery constituency, Lincoln introduced a strenuous protest. He lost no political prestige because of this, owing to his personal popularity.