CHAPTER III.

THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE.

LINCOLN AT TWENTY-FIVE.-At VANDALIA.-RE-ELECTED IN 1836. — REPLIES TO FORQUER.-TO DR. EARLY.-TO COL. TAYLOR.STATE CAPITAL REMOVED FROM VANDALIA TO SPRINGFIELD.— ANTI-SLAVERY PROTEST.-RE-ELECTED IN 1838.-REMOVES TO SPRINGFIELD. RE-ELECTED IN 1840.-PARTNERSHIP WITH JOHN T. STUART.-RIDING THE CIRCUIT.

He

Up to this time Lincoln's work had been up-hill, and his humble life had been a constant struggle with difficulties. By heroic endeavor, by persevering effort, by fortitude and constancy, and a resolute will, he had overcome these difficulties, and had at length found his true vocation. was now to enter upon a new career. What he was he had made himself. What he knew he owed to his own exertions. Let us pause for a moment, and see what he was and what were his acquirements.

We find him now, at the age of twenty-five, a vigorous, well-developed man, with a constitution inured to toil and hardened by exposure-a sound body upon which he could rely for almost any amount of physical or mental labor, and great powers of endurance. He knew the Bible by heart. There was not a clergyman to be found so familiar with it as he. Scarcely a speech or paper prepared by him, from this time to his death, but contains apt allusions and striking illustrations from the sacred book. He could repeat nearly all the poems of Burns, and was familiar with Shakspeare. In arithmetic, surveying, and the rudiments of other branches

of mathematics, he was perfectly at home. He had mastered Blackstone, Kent, and the elementary law books. He had considerable knowledge of physics and mechanics. He showed how much better it is to know thoroughly a few books, than to know many superficially. Such had been his education. He was manly, gentle, just, truthful, and honest. In conduct, kind and generous; so modest, so considerate of others, so unselfish, that every one liked him and wished him success. True, he was homely, awkward, diffident; but he was, in fact, strictly a gentleman-" in substance, at least, if not in outside polish."1

From the books named, and especially from the Bible, he had acquired that clear, concise, simple, nervous, AngloSaxon style so effective with the people, and in this he was scarcely equalled by any American writer or speaker. It is wonderful how many sentences can be found in his writings, short, striking, clear and emphatic, in which every word consists of a single syllable.

His residence at Vandalia during the session of the Legislature, and his removal to Springfield, brought him into association with many families of culture and refinement. He now met as associates men of learning and intellect. He had access to all the books he could read, and the world of English literature, history and science lay open before him. He became and continued through life a student, always seeking and constantly acquiring knowledge. He was never ashamed to acknowledge his ignorance of any subject, and he rarely lost an opportunity to remedy it. At the first session of the Legislature he took no very active part in the discussions, but was studious and observant. He said little, and learned much.

In 1836, he was again a candidate for the Legislature, and in this canvass he greatly distinguished himself. On

1. In his reply to Douglas, at Springfield, July 17, 1858, he said: "I set out in this campaign with the intention of conducting it strictly as a gentleman, in substance, at least, if not in outside polish. The latter I shall never be, but that which constitutes the inside of a gentleman, I hope I understand, and I am not less inclined to practice than another." (Lincoln and Douglas Debates, p. 57.)

one occasion there was to be a public discussion among the opposing candidates, held at the Court House at Springfield, and Lincoln, among others, was advertised to speak. This was his first appearance "on the stump" at the County Seat. There lived at this time in the most pretentious house in the town a prominent citizen with the name of 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 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.

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There was a very large meeting, and there was great curiosity to hear the orator from New Salem, who, as the "Clary Grove Boys" insisted, could make a better stump speech than any man at the County Seat. A Kentuckian,' then lately from his native state, and who had heard Clay, Rowan, and many of the orators for which that state was then so distinguished, says: "I stood near Lincoln and heard his speech, and it struck me then, and it seems to me now, I never heard a more effective speaker." "The crowd seemed to be swayed by him, as he pleased." 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 discussion. He did it 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

1. Joshua F. Speed.

2. Joshua F. Speed. See the Lincoln Memorial Album, pp. 144, 145.

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He was

the young countryman 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, fluent and ready with the rough sarcasm of the stump, and he went on to ridicule the person, dress, and arguments of Lincoln with so much success that Lincoln's friends feared that he would be embarrassed and overthrown. The "Clary Grove Boys," who were present to cheer, applaud, and back Lincoln, could scarcely be restrained from getting up a fight in behalf of their favorite. They and all his friends, felt that the attack was ungenerous and unmanly.

Lincoln, however, stood calm, but his flashing eye and pale cheek indicated 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 the 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, and with the change receive an office worth three thousand dollars a year, and then," continued he, then feel obliged to erect a lightning-rod over my house to protect a guilty conscience from an offended God."

It is difficult to-day 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 extra

1. Joshua F. Speed. Letter of 1882.

ordinary protection from Almighty God. These old settlers thought that 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 the 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."

Lincoln's reply to Dr. Early, a prominent democratic leader, in the same canvass, has been 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 soon becoming warm, and 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.

Among the democratic orators who canvassed Sangamon County in 1836, was Colonel Dick Taylor. He was a small, but very pompous little gentleman, who rode about in his carriage, neatly dressed, with many and very conspicuous ruffles to his shirt, with patent leather boots, kid gloves, some diamonds and gold studs in his linen, an immense watch-chain with many seals, charms, and pendants, and altogether in most striking contrast with the simple, and plainly clad people whom he addressed. The Colonel was a very amiable man, but pompous. Vain, and affecting to be, withal, an ex

1. Holland's Life of Lincoln. Statements to the Author by the by-standers.