river into the slave State of Missouri-but rather from that lower social class to which, as we have noted, the economy of the Southern States offered neither hope nor encouragement. A simple, sociable, contented people, among whom a man of parts might readily rise to usefulness and leadership.

The principal worthy of those days was Governor Ninian Edwards, a man of fair talents and ponderous rhetoric, whose imposing and princely person was decorated with ruffles and gold buttons. He had grown up in Kentucky, of which State he had early been made Attorney-General. Thence he migrated to Illinois in 1809, and was its first territorial governor. At a later date he represented it in the United States Senate. When Illinois passed from the condition of a Territory to that of a State, Edwards was again elected Governor. His political influence, due in the first place to his ability, was doubtless increased among the Illinoisians of those days by his aristocratic presence, his broadcloth, and "the fine carriage driven by a negro," in which he and his family took the air.

By 1830, however, a change was entering into local politics: they had been swept by the political revolution which is associated with the name of President Jackson. Every national, as well as every local issue, came to be regarded as wholly secondary to the despotic will and prejudice of that extraordinary man, and his unscrupulous "Kitchen Cabinet." The Governor chosen in 1830 was typical of the new order of politicians, an order inferior in many respects to that represented by Ninian Edwards. He is known to fame as a "thorough-going original Jackson

man"; and he is said to have won his high office armed with a Bible in one pocket and a whisky bottle in the other.

It is little wonder that all the more sober and thoughtful people of America gradually gathered into a national party of opposition, which found its principal leader in Henry Clay, and which adopted the title of "Whigs," in contrast to that of " Democrats retained by the party of the Administration. At first one of the " nominal" as distinguished from the "wholehog" Jackson-men, young Lincoln early indentified himself with the Whigs.

But his first enterprise after the historic winter of 1830-1" the winter of the deep snow," when nearly all the wolves and game of the district were destroyed by the famished settlers-was a second flat-boat expedition to New Orleans. This time, Lincoln spent a month in the then rapidly increasing city, among the wild and reckless river boatmen. And here he saw that worst and ugliest of Southern institutions, the slave-market. Perhaps he had visited it already on his earlier expedition, but on this occasion all the horror of its sinister meaning seized him. And the sight of a mulatto girl at auction there, so stirred him to fierce indignation that he exclaimed to his companions, "if ever I get a chance to hit that thing" (meaning slavery) " I'll hit it hard." "It run its iron into him then and there, May, 1831: I have heard him say so often," quoth his cousin, John Hanks.

Returning by steamboat up the river to St Louis, then the principal city of the New West, he tramped thence to the new farm his father was clearing in the eastern part of the State, a foot-journey over-land of more

than a hundred miles. In July, he made his way down the Sangamon River to the little log-village of New Salem, where he was presently installed as manager of a new store and of a grist-mill. These were the property of the adventurer who, in the spring, had entrusted his goods to Lincoln for the river voyage. Abe had already, on his passage to New Orleans, made a favourable first appearance in the village. On that occasion his flat-boat had grounded upon the New Salem mill-dam, and had been successfully released from its precarious position after twenty-four hours of anxiety, by some simple but daringly ingenious mechanical expedient which had duly impressed the crowd of onlookers and advisers with the resourcefulness of the gigantic young stranger.

But it was by means of his unparalleled and inexhaustible capacity for story-telling, the art par excellence of the frontiersman, that he now won his way straight to their hearts. Wherever men gathered in New Salem, Lincoln's droll and pointed "Indian yarns began to be in demand; and from the outset, he had leisure enough for the spinning of them. He arrived before his employer's merchandise, and in the interval, accepted every opportunity for work, but especially for talking, that occurred. The first that offered was that of serving as assistant at the polling booth. Asked for his qualifications, he genially responded that he could make " a few rabbit tracks" with his pen. In the absence of competitors, such qualification was sufficient, and thus Abraham Lincoln entered by the most modest doorway into the political life of his new State. The voters were but few, and for that reason the opportunity for "yarning" was great.

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The second office he filled during these off-days was that of pilot on the river; and this he held again and with great éclat, in the succeeding spring, when he brought the first, and probably the only, steamer that ever ascended the shallow winding stream, up beyond New Salem to Springfield. By this time he had thoroughly established himself in the confidence and good-will of the little community. As to his employer, that chattering worthy's enthusiasm for his clerk and manager had long passed the bounds of discretion, and his noisy adulation brought about a trial of prowess which might easily have cost Lincoln dear.

Among frontiersmen, the wrestling ground provided the infallible standard of worth, and was in constant requisition. In New Salem, wrestlings, which too often deteriorated into savage personal encounters, were the order of the day. The district was dominated by a gang of young hooligans of "the half-horse, half-alligator " type, known as the "Clary's Grove Boys." These fellows always resented the advent of a stranger, and they could hardly be expected to endure the noise of Lincoln's praises. So it came about that he had early to prove his worth, by physical demonstration, upon their ox-like champion.1 It was a tough and doubtful combat, and owing to an attempt at foul-play, Lincoln himself became thoroughly roused and dangerous. He had the terrible temper of his father, though very few people ever had the misfortune to encounter it.

1 The encounter was repugnant to Lincoln's feelings: "I never tussle and scuffle," he is reported as saying, "I don't like this wooling and pulling."

Upon this occasion, Jack Armstrong had; and it is clear that he richly deserved whatever punishment he received. And this, he and his fellows, after the first moment of resentment and wrath, were eager to acknowledge; so the bout ended well. The worsted champion and his good-natured bullies acclaimed themselves the warmest supporters of the valiant newcomer, and remained loyal to him, and he to them, to the story's end.

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The incident illustrates Lincoln's way with his foes. He began with no desire for a quarrel, and however hot he might become in its pursuance, however “mad" he might be for the moment, when once it was settled, he was all generosity and good-nature as before. was rare indeed for him to retain the slightest trace of vindictiveness. Henceforward, having defeated the Clary's Grove champion, he became the undisputed peacemaker of the region, and his services were in constant demand.1

The praises of Mr Offutt his employer, and of " the boys," were endorsed by the more sober people of New Salem, his customers. Lincoln was courteous, and scrupulously, even quixotically, honest. Able to defend his own rights, he showed himself far more anxious not to trespass on those of others, walking many miles to refund threepence overpaid by one customer, or to deliver a few ounces of tea, of which he found he had unwittingly defrauded another.

1 Lincoln's physical strength has passed already into the region of legend: he could "pick up and carry away a chicken-house weighing six hundred pounds," ""could sink an axe deeper into wood than any man I ever saw"; could lift a hogshead of whisky and drink from the bung. Even as President he displayed curious feats of muscular power.