ANECDOTE OF LEWIS CASS. 61 sundry railroad and wagon thoroughfares. The advance guard of all scouting-parties, according to Father Dixon, was Lincoln, whose keen eyes and subtle woodcraft enabled him to detect signs of Indians that less skilful observers would fail to note. At night, loitering around the camp-fire, the volunteer soldiers drank in with delight the jests and stories of the tall captain. Æsop's fables in new dress he gave them, or he recounted the tales of war, humor, and wild adventure that he had brought away with him from Kentucky and Indiana. It was related of him, too, that his inspiration was never stimulated by recourse to the whiskey-jug. When his grateful and delighted auditors pressed this on him, he had one reply: "Thank you, I never drink it." During the short campaign, the time for which the men enlisted expired, and some of the tired soldiers gladly went home. But Lincoln again re-enlisted, this time serving as a private, and he was a second time mustered in by Lieutenant Anderson. The fighting, however, was practically over, and Lincoln and his comrade, George W. Harrison, started for New Salem, having been mustered out at Whitewater. In 1848, while Lincoln was in Congress, General Lewis Cass was a candidate for the presidency, and his friends made much of his military record. To Lincoln's mind, ever disposed to the humorous side of things, this seemed absurd, and, addressing the Chair, one day, in the course of debate, he said: "Did you know, Mr. Speaker, I am a military hero? In the days of the Black Hawk war I fought, bled, and came away. I was not at Stillman's defeat, but I was about as near it as General Cass was to Hull's surrender; and, like him, I saw the place very soon afterwards. It is quite certain I did not break my sword, for I had none to break, but I bent my musket pretty badly on one occasion. If General Cass went in advance of me picking whortleberries, I guess I surpassed him in charges on the wild onions. If he saw any live fighting Indians, it was more that I did, but I had a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes; and although I never fainted from loss of blood, I can truly say I was often very ́ hungry. Mr. Speaker, if ever I should conclude to doff whatever our Democratic friends may suppose there is of blackcockade Federalism about me, and thereupon they shall take me up as their candidate for the presidency, I protest that they shall not make fun of me, as they have of General Cass, by attempting to write me into a military hero." On their way home, the two heroes of the Black Hawk war had their only horse stolen from them. They had been proceeding in the manner known as "ride and tie," taking alternate spells on the horse's back; now they were forced to take "shanks' mare and they made their weary way to Sangamon County, where the tall champion story-teller and debater had only ten days to make his canvass for the seat in the Legislature to which he aspired. Part of the way down the Illinois they floated in a canoe that they bought at a great bargain, and then they walked across country for New Salem. The election soon came on, and, although Lincoln received a majority of the votes of his own precinct, he was not chosen to the Legislature. For member of Congress, both candidates together received in New Salem, 206 votes; Lincoln received 207. This tribute to his personal popularity gratified Lincoln very much. He had not built great hopes on his election, and he was not seriously disappointed by his failure to get a majority of all the votes in the district. In those primitive days, it was not usual for candidates to expend much money in a canvass, and this fact did not make Lincoln's defeat so great a misfortune to him as it might have been under other circumstances. In his speeches, we are told, Lincoln announced himself opposed to the party then in power. In the circular before-mentioned, he had taken ground as a Whig; and in one of the few speeches of which we have scanty reports, he said: "I am in favor of a national bank; I am in favor of the internal improvement system, and of a protective tariff. These are my sentiments and political principles." They were sentiments and principles exactly opposed to the party in power. Andrew Jackson was President of the United States. He had informed the Democratic party with a spirit of proscription, and it had been publicly announced, that every man who was not a "wholehog Jackson man" was to be whipped out of place and office"like dogs out of a smoke-house," was the homely and striking phrase used. It cost some effort, perhaps, for a poor and comparatively unknown young man, without family friends to back him, to cast in his lot with the despised minority. But in that path Lincoln followed. Lincoln's canvass brought him into contact with many |