CHAPTER XVII. THE YOUNG LAWYER. Admitted to the Bar-Honest Poverty-The Panic of 1837-Politics again -Matrimonial tendencies-Another Darkness. UNDER every disadvantage and in spite of all manner of interruptions and hindrances, Mr. Lincoln steadily pursued the study of the law. Early in the year 1837 he was admitted to practice. He could not hope to build up a law business at New Salem, and at once removed to Springfield. Here he sooned formed a partnership with John P. Stuart, the same kind friend from whom he had borrowed law-books in the by-gone years, when he was glad to walk to Springfield for them and read them all the long walk home. The young lawyer was still poor. He took his meals at the very respectable residence of Hon. William Butler, a political friend, but he slept on a narrow lounge in the law-office of Stuart & Lincoln, in the second story of the court-house building. He had debts to pay, and he was steadily, honestly paying them; not in any way wasting a dollar of other people's money. He was dealing with vast sums as a legislator, and the expenditure of these and the management of the many bubble schemes of the day were mixed and tainted with fraud, corruption, and bribery. Everybody knew this; but it was also known that the most active advocate of public improvement among the Illinois legislators could not afford to hire himself a small room in a Springfield boarding-house. The bitterest tongue of political detraction never ventured to assail his personal honor. Had any man been so silly as to question Lin coln's integrity, at that or any subsequent time, he would but have covered himself with derision. The Springfield bar, in those days, numbered among its members many men of more than common ability. There were some, indeed, whose names were soon to be familiar to the whole country. It was not, therefore, because his competitors were few or weak that Lincoln rapidly advanced to a foremost position as a sound and able lawyer. From the outset he was compelled to fight his way against men every way capable of testing his powers to the uttermost, and there was none of them whose apparent educational advantages had not been greater than his own. The year 1837 was marked in the history of the United States by the severest financial crisis the country had experienced since the close of the Revolutionary War. On the 10th of May the banks of New York suspended specie payments; and on the 12th the Bank of the United States and those of Philadelphia followed the example so set them. Fast and far the ruin spread in all directions. In July the Governor of Illinois called a special session of the State Legislature, to see if something could not be done for the epidemic bankruptcy by the passage of medicinal laws. The first act which was passed had the effect of permitting all the banks in the State to suspend specie payments. Nothing was done, however, to prevent them issuing further paper promises to pay the money they did not have and could not hope to obtain. Neither was any step taken towards diminishing the current outlay for internal improvements. More loans were actually authorized, and the State went on floundering deeper and deeper into the Dismal Swamp of disaster prepared for it by its crazy people as represented by young Lincoln and all the other " De Witt Clintons of Illinois." When all had been done that could be devised, the legislators from a distance went home to their constituents. There was no more mischief to be feared from them until another election CHAPTER XVII. THE YOUNG LAWYER. Admitted to the Bar-Honest Poverty-The Panic of 1837-Politics again -Matrimonial tendencies-Another Darkness. UNDER every disadvantage and in spite of all manner of interruptions and hindrances, Mr. Lincoln steadily pursued the study of the law. Early in the year 1837 he was admitted to practice. He could not hope to build up a law business at New Salem, and at once removed to Springfield. Here he sooned formed a partnership with John P. Stuart, the same kind friend from whom he had borrowed law-books in the by-gone years, when he was glad to walk to Springfield for them and read them all the long walk home. The young lawyer was still poor. He took his meals at the very respectable residence of Hon. William Butler, a political friend, but he slept on a narrow lounge in the law-office of Stuart & Lincoln, in the second story of the court-house building. He had debts to pay, and he was steadily, honestly paying them; not in any way wasting a dollar of other people's money. He was dealing with vast sums as a legislator, and the expenditure of these and the management of the many bubble schemes of the day were mixed and tainted with fraud, corruption, and bribery. Everybody knew this; but it was also known that the most active advocate of public improvement among the Illinois legislators could not afford to hire himself a small room in a Springfield boarding-house. The bitterest tongue of political detraction never ventured to assail his personal honor. Had any man been so silly as to question Lin coln's integrity, at that or any subsequent time, he would but have covered himself with derision. The Springfield bar, in those days, numbered among its members many men of more than common ability. There were some, indeed, whose names were soon to be familiar to the whole country. It was not, therefore, because his competitors were few or weak that Lincoln rapidly advanced to a foremost position as a sound and able lawyer. From the outset he was compelled to fight his way against men every way capable of testing his powers to the uttermost, and there was none of them whose apparent educational advantages had not been greater than his own. The year 1837 was marked in the history of the United States by the severest financial crisis the country had experienced since the close of the Revolutionary War. On the 10th of May the banks of New York suspended specie payments; and on the 12th the Bank of the United States and those of Philadelphia followed the example so set them. Fast and far the ruin spread in all directions. In July the Governor of Illinois called a special session of the State Legislature, to see if something could not be done for the epidemic bankruptcy by the passage of medicinal laws. The first act which was passed had the effect of permitting all the banks in the State to suspend specie payments. Nothing was done, however, to prevent them issuing further paper promises to pay the money they did not have and could not hope to obtain. Neither was any step taken towards diminishing the current outlay for internal improvements. More loans were actually authorized, and the State went on floundering deeper and deeper into the Dismal Swamp of disaster prepared for it by its crazy people as represented by young Lincoln and all the other "De Witt Clintons of Illinois." When all had been done that could be devised, the legislators from a distance went home to their constituents. There was no more mischief to be feared from them until another election should call them together. Mr. Lincoln remained in Springfield, resuming what there was of his law practice and the slow process of wiping out his debts. All idea of marrying Mary Owens seems to have left him early in 1838. Nothing more would ever have been heard of that affair if, in after-years, its futile record had not been disinterred too zealously from old letter-boxes and doubtful memories. One value of it now is the testimony so borne to the fact that not even his admitted abilities were as yet considered by many a social set-off to his gaunt, ungainly person, his awkward, unpolished manners, and the serious deficiencies of his early training and family connections. He had broken through every barrier but that of "caste." That, too, was yet to go down before him, and he was one day to take his seat, uncrowned indeed, but throned, among the kings of the earth. It was nearly a matter of course that Mr. Lincoln should be again elected to the Legislature in 1838; and when that body came together he was the candidate of the Whig party for Speaker of the House. The Democratic nominee, Mr. Ewing, was elected by a small majority; but the unquestioned leadership won by Lincoln at so early a day is worthy of especial notice. The same honorable nomination was given him by his party in the succeeding Legislature, and with the same foregone result, for the Democrats were in power. In that year, 1840, occurred one of the most remarkable of American political campaigns, resulting in the election of General Harrison as President of the United States. Mr. Lincoln was a candidate for Presidential Elector on the Whig ticket, and he "stumped" a large part of the State in company and contest with the leading orators of the opposite party. For the first time his reputation became other than somewhat local, and his tall form began to be familiar to the eyes of the general public of Illinois. Once seen, once heard, there was no danger that he would ever be forgotten. Prior to that |