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smith's shop at the cross-roads, or the knot of farm laborers that gathered about to hear him "make a speech on internal improvements. And, above all, by his unvarying good-nature and helpfulness, he had made friends of all who ever met him.

One historian, who happened to see him about this time, says he found him lying on a trundle-bed, reading intently while he rocked a cradle with his foot. He had plenty of leisure; he was ready to lend a hand (or foot) to any overworked housewife, but he could not neglect his book. Always a book was ready to his hand, and it is said of him that when he had nothing else to do, he laid himself at length in the shade of a tree, wheeling around with the sun all day long, reading, reading, always reading. At the bottom of a barrel of "trash" that Offutt had bought of some speculative person, or had taken in exchange for goods, Lincoln found two old law books. On these he fell like a hungry child, and he never left them until he had mastered their contents, dry and indigestible though they might have seemed to the average youngster of his day. In this way, Lincoln had absorbed a great deal of useful knowledge. He was always thirsty for information. If he heard of a new book, and new books were pretty scarce in those days, he was restless until he had got a sight at it. For this purpose, he walked many a mile, counting no labor, no privation anything, if it brought him nearer the coveted information of men and things. He was accounted very learned by those of his neighbors who knew aught of his studies; not that his

A CANDIDATE FOR THE STATE LEGISLATURE. 57

knowledge was aired with any pride; but they argued that nobody could read so much as he and not be very erudite. And in the village debates, held in the country store or at other lounging-places, the admiring community united in the verdict that "Abe Lincoln could out-argue any ten men in the settlement."

Lincoln resolved to become a candidate for Representative to the Legislature, and in a circular, dated March 9, 1832, he appealed to his friends and fellow-citizens to vote for him. He had by this time become a pronounced Whig in politics, following in the footsteps of his great chief and pattern, Henry Clay. But he hoped, and not without reason, to secure many of the votes of those who knew and liked him for his manly and admirable qualities. Before the election came on, however, there was a call for volunteers to repel hostile Indians. The famous chief, Black Hawk, was on the warpath. During the previous year, the Sacs, of whom Black Hawk was the recognized leader, had given much trouble to the settlers along the east bank of the Mississippi, in Illinois. By treaty, the band had gone to the west of the river and had given up all claim to their old hunting-grounds and corn-fields on the other side of the stream; but they insisted that they had been wrongfully dealt with by the white man, and that they still had a right to "make corn" in their old haunts. It is a matter of record, too, that they had been shamefully treated by some of the settlers, and that, on the least provocation, they were made to suffer the white man's vengeance. These troubles came to a head in May,

1832, when Black Hawk, at the head of about forty braves, crossed the Mississippi near the mouth of the Rock River, in the northern part of the State, and pursued his way upstream in a leisurely manner. The governor of the State called for two thousand volunteers. The country was panic-stricken.

Lincoln was among the first to volunteer. Whether he went from pure love of adventure, or because he thought his services in the expected war would help him in his canvass, we can only guess. At the head of a party of Sangamon County men, among whom were many of the Clary's Grove boys, Lincoln made his way to the North, where General Atkinson, then in command of the small United States force operating in the region, was encamped. The company was organized in Rushville, Schuyler County, and Lincoln was chosen captain. The only other candidate for martial honors was one Kirkpatrick, a substantial trader from the New Salem country, with whom Lincoln had had a slight difference before that, owing to Kirkpatrick's overbearing manners towards the young backwoodsman. The Clary's Grove boys insisted that nobody but Lincoln should lead them to the war. Word was given that all in favor of Lincoln should range themselves by his side, as he stood on the village green, and all who favored Kirkpatrick should take position near him. When the lines were formed, Lincoln's was three times as long as Kirkpatrick's; and so he was joyfully declared to be elected. This unsought honor, the first elective office that he ever held, gave Lincoln so

SAVING AN INDIAN.

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much pleasure that years after, when he was President, he said that nothing that came to him afforded him so much solid satisfaction.

Lincoln's company was mustered into the service of the United States at Dixon's Ferry, Rock River, by Robert Anderson, a lieutenant and assistant inspector-general of the army. The little force reported to Colonel Zachary Taylor, U. S. Army. In later years, Robert Anderson commanded at Fort Sumter, when the first gun of the rebellion was fired. As "Rough and Ready" General Taylor was endeared to the hearts of his countrymen, and he was elected to the presidency in 1848. The campaign against Black Hawk was short and decisive.

Two incidents are related of Lincoln. An aged Indian, half-starved and alone, came into camp, one day, bearing a safe-conduct from General Cass. The soldiers, infuriated by some recent atrocities of Black Hawk's men, fell upon him and would have killed him. Lincoln, hearing the tumult, burst excitedly into the group and, throwing up their levelled muskets with his own hands, cried: "Boys! You shall not do this thing! You shall not shoot at this Indian!" For an instant, he stood defiantly between the red refugee and his assailants, sheltering himfrom their ready weapons, and it was for a time doubtful if both would not bite the dust. But the men, seeing the courage and manliness of their captain, lowered their guns and turned sullenly away. One of Lincoln's faithful comrades, Bill Green, said of this: "I never saw Lincoln so roused before."

When Lincoln was in the White House, he told this story: The only time he ever saw blood in this campaign was one morning when, marching up a little valley that makes into the Rock River bottom, to reinforce a squad of outposts that were thought to be in danger, they came upon the tent occupied by the other party, just at sunrise. The men had neglected to place any guard at night, and had been slaughtered in their sleep. As the reinforcing party came up the slope on which the camp had been made, Lincoln saw them all lying with their heads towards the rising sun, and the round red spot that marked where they had been scalped, gleamed more redly yet in the ruddy light of the sun. This was Lincoln's first glimpse of what war might be, and years afterwards, when the land was being desolated, he recalled it with a certain shudder.

The guide, philosopher, and friend of the troops was John Dixon, even then known as Father Dixon, the pioneer, who kept a ferry on the Rock River, at the point where the Galena wagon-road to the lower part of the State crossed the stream. Father Dixon was well known to the Indians as "Na-chu-sa," or "the white-haired." On that historic spot, where met Lieutenant-Colonel Zachary Taylor, Lieutenant Jefferson Davis, Lieutenant Robert Anderson, and Private Abraham Lincoln, now stands the city of Dixon, in Lee County. At that time it was only a hamlet of log-houses that marked the spot, and the rope-ferry of Father Dixon was all the means of communication between the shores now spanned by

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