thought was the urge of his time, and took its form and expression from his environment, moderated certainly by his individual genius. Records of all ages which have possessed the qualities of permanence are of themselves proof of this opinion. Shakespeare's declaration that the purpose of dramatic art is "to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to Nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure," is not a bit of fine rhetoric but a deep conviction born of his own experience. With supreme poetical power the dramatist had so often transported himself to other times and other countries, had lived with Roman Senators, had laughed and wept with romantic Venetians, been a Briton at the several periods of England's history, from the mythological period of "Lear" to the latest of his historical plays, and had so often felt in his audience the response to his ideas when they were true to "the very age and body of the time," that he spoke directly out of his own acquired knowledge, as well as with the inspiration of genius.

That is the nature of the poet. More than any other author Shakespeare functioned upon the very borderland of creation. His ideas fledged and feathered and plumed themselves in the nests he built for them, and ventured forth to try conclusions with the nature of which they were a part. Lincoln was not born to create but to preserve. His mission was to preserve the Union. His theatre was not a Globe Theatre built by the hand of man, but the great Illinois Prairies, and later the whole United States. Yet he was no less responsive to the environment in which he moved for the perfection of his work, than was Shakespeare.

Chapter X

APOSTLE OF DEMOCRACY

I

T IS SAFE to say that a sympathetic reading of the best literature of any period of the world's history will reproduce its "age and body" in the mind of the reader, no matter in what field of speculation the writer may have worked. In a broad way Nature remains always harmonious. No American Beauty Roses have been discovered among the effects of the cave dweller of the Stone Age. The rosy-cheeked apple of the twentieth century would have been out of keeping with the man of that time. The sour little crab and the small almost colorless flower have kept pace with man, and the cultured woman and the studious philosopher sit down to a table covered with spotless linen with the splendid apple and the beautiful rose to respond to their refined sense of the beautiful.

The Illinois of Lincoln's day and that of ours have almost as radical differences of complexion as those here noted between the ages of man. Lincoln, himself, was a product of the soil, a wilderness child, and the road he had come from babyhood in the forest of Kentucky to the Capital of a rapidly developing state was ages long in experience and one which Lincoln must have appreciated, for we find him before he has reached the age of thirty referring to himself as old, and a little later to "these old eyes of mine." His quick response to

the life about him, and the simplicity of nature which kept him in dress, manners, and speech like one made in the image and likeness of his time and place, gave him unequaled susceptibility to the feelings of his fellows, and that God-like power to present principles and produce convictions in the minds of the wild, the uncultured and the ignorant.

In 1843 Lincoln made another change of partners, this time selecting William H. Herndon, a man considerably younger than himself but of studious habits and with a growing love of literature. This was because Judge Logan had political aspirations similar to those of Lincoln, as that year they were both candidates for the nomination to Congress. Herndon gives this intimate picture of the formation of his partnership with Lincoln, a partnership which continued without any break as long as Lincoln lived.

"Lincoln came rushing into my office quarters one morning and with more or less agitation told me he had determined to sever the partnership with Logan. I confess I was surprised when he invited me to become his partner. I was young in the practice and was painfully aware of my want of ability and experience; but when he remarked in his earnest, honest way, 'Billy, I can trust you if you can trust me,' I felt relieved, and accepted his generous proposal. It has always been a matter of pride with me that during our long partnership, continuing on until dissolved by the bullet of the assassin, we never had any personal controversy or disagreement."

Lincoln's efforts to obtain the congressional nomination in 1843 brought out several unique and amusing incidents. He and Edward D. Baker were the Sangamon County aspirants. Baker's long residence, extensive acquaintance, and general popularity served him well in the campaign and at the last moment Lincoln reluctantly withdrew from the field. He

gives the following account of the situation in a letter to Speed, of date March 24, 1843:

"We had a meeting of the Whigs of the County here last Monday to appoint delegates to the District Convention, and Baker beat me and got the delegation instructed to go for him. The meeting, in spite of my attempt to decline it, appointed me one of the delegates, so that in getting Baker nominated I shall be fixed a good deal like the fellow who is made groomsman to a man that has cut him out and is marrying his own dear gal."

The balm for all his wounds Lincoln found in humorous comparisons. A letter at this time to another friend reveals the careful study Lincoln made of his political campaigns and assembles the elements which contributed to the results. The fairness displayed and the utter absence of any feeling of bitterness, or what politicians call revenge, is as apparent here as in those sublime Inaugural Addresses which he afterward gave to the world:

"It is truly gratifying to me to learn that while the people of Sangamon have cast me off, my old friends of Menard, who have known me the longest and best, stick to me. It would astonish if not amuse the older citizens to learn that I (a strange, friendless, uneducated, penniless boy, working on a flat-boat at ten dollars per month) have been put down here as a candidate of pride, wealth, and aristocratic family distinction. Yet so, chiefly, it was. There was, too, the strangest combination of church influence against me. Baker is a Campbellite and therefore, I suppose, with few exceptions got all that church. My wife has some relations in the Presbyterian Churches and some with the Episcopalian Churches, and therefore, wherever it would tell, I was set down as either one or the other, while it was everywhere contended

that no Christian ought to go for me because I belonged to no church, was suspected of being a Deist, and talked about fighting a duel. With all these things Baker, of course, had nothing to do; nor do I complain of them. As to his own Church going for him I think that was right enough; and as to the influences I have spoken of in the others, though they were very strong, it would be grossly unjust to charge that they acted upon them in a body or were very near so. I only mean that those influences levied a tax of considerable per cent throughout the religious controversy."

Neither Baker nor Lincoln obtained the coveted honor, the Convention, which was held soon after in Pekin, picking another man. Lincoln bore this defeat with manful magnanimity. The only feature of it to which he made protest after the Convention was the charge of his so-called "aristocratic family distinction." To his friend, James Mathaney, a few days later he protested "vehemently and with great emphasis" that he was anything but aristocratic and proud. "Why, Jim," he said, "I am now and always shall be the same Abe Lincoln I was when you first saw me."

In the campaign of 1844 Lincoln was a Presidential Elector and stumped the State for Clay. The defeat of the gallant and magnetic statesman by Polk was a terrific blow to his followers. Men were never before so enlisted in any man's cause and when the great Whig chieftain went down, his followers suffered utter demoralization. It was thought by many to presage the end of popular government. But in the struggle Lincoln's power as a debater had been developed, his acquaintance favorably broadened, and in all political deliberations his influence was considered. In 1846 he was the unanimous choice of the Convention for Congress, Logan having withdrawn in favor of his old law partner. Peter Cartwright, the