their fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters, and many of them from their wives and children, and going into perpetual slavery, where the lash of the master is proverbially more ruthless than anywhere else; and yet amid all these distressing circumstances, as we would think them, they were the most cheerful and apparently happy people on board. One, whose offence for which he was sold was an over-fondness for his wife, played the fiddle almost continually, and others danced, sang, cracked jokes, and played various games with cards from day to day. How true it is that God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb,' or, in other words, that He renders the worst of human conditions tolerable, while He permits the best to be nothing better than tolerable.” (1) In Kentucky slavery was in some respects patriarchal. Kind-hearted planters felt a degree of responsibility for the physical and moral welfare of their slaves. Those of the household had many liberties, and enjoyed rollicking times in the kitchen, singing songs and dancing. It was for the planter's interest to provide them comfortable cabins. Each had its patch of ground for a garden. In sickness they received kindly care. The dark side was revealed when they were sold to enable the master to pay his debts. There were mournful scenes when the law stepped in to settle an estate of a deceased planter. The inexpressible hideousness of the institution was revealed when hard-hearted men disposed of their slaves for gain, just as they sold cattle and pigs. Mr. Lincoln did not write to Miss Speed the effect that the spectacle had upon himself, but it intensified his abhorrence of such a condition of affairs in a free republic. ever. Times were hard. The period which people were looking for when everybody was to be rich had not arrived, but seemed farther off than There had been a period of speculation in the East and South as well as in the West. In Illinois the inhabitants were feeling the outcome of the legislation which appropriated $12,000,000 for the construction of railroads and a canal. The bonds had been printed and a portion of them sold; but the rich men of New York and Boston, who were expected to purchase them, had themselves been speculating, buying farms and house-lots, borrowing money from the banks. When their notes became due they were unable to pay them. The banks had no more money to loan and were crippled. A firm in New Orleans, which had been buying cotton at high prices and borrowing money, failed to pay its notes when due. It was the beginning of a financial crash. Men who supposed themselves rich suddenly found they were penniless. Banks and individuals alike failed. Trade was at a stand still. Very little money passed between buyer and seller. The merchant was obliged to take farm produce at low price in exchange for his goods. Creditors were suing those who owed them. Lawyers were making out writs and trying cases. Taxes were especially burdensome by the action of State officials, who refused all bank-bills and demanded gold or silver, which had disappeared from circulation. People saw their farms sold for taxes and were powerless to prevent the sale. The official most active in this period of financial distress was Mr. Shields, an emigrant from Ireland, who had been elected State Auditor. He was believed by many to be vain, egotistical, and pompous in the discharge of the duties of the office. The Auditor regarded himself with much complacency when in the society of ladies, and lost no opportunity of showing them attentions. He was a Democrat, whereas quite a number of the young ladies of Springfield were ardent Whigs, especially Miss Mary Todd and Miss Julia Jayne. The action of Shields in refusing to receive bank-bills in payment for taxes gave 1842. great offence. He was bitterly denounced. Abraham Lincoln gave utterance to no denunciation, but, knowing Shields was sensitive to ridicule, adopted a far different method of attack. The "Springfield Journal," the last week in August, contained a letter which set the Whigs to laughing, but which irritated Mr. Shields. It was written from "Lost Township," a place not found on any map. The writer was a widow, and signed herself "Rebecca." The widow gave an account of a visit to her neighbor, whom she found very angry. "What is the matter, Jeff?" she asked. "I'm mad, Aunt 'Becca! I've been tugging ever since harvest, getting out wheat and hauling it to the river to raise State bank paper enough to pay my tax this year and a little school debt I owe; and now, just as I've got it, here I open this infernal Extra Register' [Democratic newspaper], expecting to find it full of Glorious Democratic Victories and High Com'd Cocks, when, lo and behold! I find a set of fellows calling themselves officers of the State have forbidden the tax collectors and school commissioners to receive State paper at all; so here it is, dead on my hands." The widow went on to tell how her neighbor used some bad words. "Don't swear so," she said, in expostulation to Jeff; "you know I belong to the meetin', and swearing hurts my feelings." 66 "Beg pardon, Aunt 'Becca, but I do say that it is enough to make one swear, to have to pay taxes in silver for nothing only that Ford may get his $2000, Shields his $2400, and Carpenter his $1600 a year, and all without danger of loss from State paper." (2) The ridicule of "Rebecca" was merciless. A week passed and a second letter appeared, not written by Abraham Lincoln, but by Mary Todd and Julia Jayne, in which "Rebecca" satirized the Auditor upon his attention to the ladies. Besides the letter there were rhymes: "Ye Jews harp, awake! the Auditor's won; Has been wooed and won by a woman's smile." (3) The Auditor, instead of laughing at the satire, became very angry, and demanded the name of the writer. "Give him my name, but say nothing about the young ladies," said Lincoln. (*) Shields demanded satisfaction. In the Southern States a refusal to fight a duel was looked upon as evidence of cowardice. Many public men had fought duels-Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, Colonel |