look and never refused in fact or appearance to do anything I asked him. His mind and mine—what little I had seemed to run together.” Just before leaving for Washington for his first inauguration, Lincoln spent a day with his stepmother the last time they met. As to John Johnston, he was a well meaning, if shiftless, fellow, but as Messrs. Nicolay and Hay write apropos of this correspondence "a volume of disquisition could not put more clearly before the reader the difference between Abraham Lincoln and the common run of southern and western rural laborers."

72 Letter to John Johnston. Five days after Lincoln wrote the letter of January 12 his father died. John Hanks, loquacious cousin of the Lincolns, gave it as his opinion that Lincoln “did not care very much" for his father. Thomas Lincoln seems certainly to have given his son little in the way either of example or encouragement.

75 Speech at Peoria. With this speech Lincoln made himself a power in national politics. A Chicago editor likened him to Byron who awoke one morning to find himself famous. Lincoln had had little to do with politics since the expiration of his term in congress and his refusal of the proffered governorship of Oregon, but the repeal of the Missouri compromise again aroused him.

This measure, which allowed slavery in Missouri but forbade it in all the territory west of Missouri or north of the line 36° 30', was held as the great safeguard against the spread of the “peculiar institution" of the south. Its repeal in 1854, together with congressional insistence on the fugitive slave act, aroused public feeling to a degree unequalled perhaps even in the times of '76. Lincoln found himself again in opposition to his old antagonist of Springfield, Stephen Douglas. There is good authority for the story that the “Democratic giant was so amazed at the power of his rival that he sought him out privately and made an agreement that neither should speak again before election. The lives of Lincoln and Douglas are so connected that it is impossible fully to appreciate the career of the future president without a knowledge of his less successful rival.

Stephen Arnold Douglas was fated continually to cross swords with Lincoln. They met in Springfield where, so says tradition, they were both suitors for Miss Todd. DougJas was the conspicuous advocate in the state of Illinois of the principles opposed by Lincoln; indeed "the little giant," as the undersized man of great ability was called, seemed everything that Lincoln was not-small, well formed, good to look at, quick in perceptions, but often short-sighted in affairs of state. Like his great antagonist, Douglas came of humble folk. He was born on a farm at Brandon, Vermont, 23 April 1813. In spite of early hardships he secured a fair education. He went to Illinois, à penniless young man, in 1833, opened a law office the next year and within twelve months was elected attorney general of the state, before he had reached the age of twenty-two. In 1835 he resigned his office because he had been elected to the legislature. In 1837 he ran for congress to represent the most populous district in the country and was defeated by only five votes. He became secretary of state for Illinois in 1840 and judge of the supreme court in 1841. In 1843 he was elected to congress where he consistently advocated territorial expansion. As chairman of the territorial committee he reported and carried through bills organizing the territories of Minnesota, Oregon, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, Kansas and Nebraska, also bills granting statehood to Iowa, Wisconsin, California, Minnesota and Oregon. He advocated what he called “the great fundamental principle that every people ought to possess the right of framing and regulating their own internal concerns and domestic institu

are

tions in their own way.” “ These things,” he added, all confided by the Constitution to each state to decide for itself and I know of no reason why the same principle should not be extended to the territories.” He favored the acquisition of Cuba as soon as it could be honorably accomplished. He opposed the Clayton-Bulwer treaty on the ground that it would prevent the United States from extending southwards. He was a candidate for the nomination to the presidency in 1852 but was defeated. At the congressional session of 1858-4 he introduced the bill to organize on a “popular sovereignty” basis the territories of Kansas and Nebraskama measure which revolutionized American politics and brought the discussion regarding slavery to a white heat. It killed the old Whig party and created the antislavery “black Republican” party. It repealed the Missouri compromise which confined slavery to the states south of Mason and Dixon's line and opened the way, claimed its opponents, for the indefinite spread of slavery. The bill itself declared its purpose to be “not to legislate slavery into any state or territory nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the constitution of the United States.” On the basis of this doctrine of "popular sovereignty” Douglas tried for the nomination for president in 1866 but was defeated by Buchanan. The Kansas-Nebraska bill was very unpopular with the anti-slavery element and, as Douglas said, he could travel from Boston to Chicago by the light of his own burning effigies. But when the question of secession arose Douglas stood firm for the Union.

Douglas defeated Lincoln for senator in the contest of 1857-8 but his speeches did not add to his strength outside of Illinois. In 1860 Douglas ran against Lincoln for the presidency supported by the northern section of the

Democratic party, the south going for Breckenridge. After his defeat and the declaration of the south for secession Douglas remained staunch to the Union and died in 1861, declaring secession to be “ crime and madness."

85 Letter to Hon. G. Robertson. The Hon. George Robertson had been chief justice of Kentucky from 1829 to 1843. In the closing paragraph of this letter Lincoln strikes the note of his divided house " speech delivered three years later.

87 Letter to Speed. This frank expression of Lincoln's views on slavery has been much quoted. The condition of affairs in Kansas brought about by the Missouri compromise excitement deserved the name it received of civil war.” The commissioners appointed to inquire into it reported that it lasted from November 1855 to December 1856 and that the loss of life was something under 200. It further reported: Amount of crops destroyed..

$37,349.61 Number buildings burned....

78 Horses taken or destroyed. .

363 Cattle taken or destroyed.

533 Property taken or destroyed by pro-slavery men. $318,718.63 Property taken or destroyed by free-state men.. $94,529.40

$ 91 Speech at Galena. The closing words of this speech are famous. Secession talk was just beginning to assume importance.

93 Speech at Chicago. In the campaign of 1856 Frémont ran as the candidate of the newly formed Republican party in the organization of which Lincoln had been active. It opposed the repeal of the Missouri compromise and urged the admission of Kansas as a free state. The Know-nothings nominated Fillmore. The Democrats elected their candidate, James Buchanan. Lincoln narrowly escaped being nominated for vice president on the Republican

ticket. His closing address in the campaign is known as “ Lincoln's lost speech.” So moved were his hearers that they arose from their chairs with pale faces and quivering lips and pressed unconsciously toward him.” Even the reporters forgot to take notes. Joseph Medill, afterwards editor of the Chicago Tribune, says: “I well remember that after Lincoln had sat down and calm had succeeded the tempest, I waked out of a sort of hypnotic trance and thought of my report to the Tribune. It was some satisfaction to find that I had not been “scooped' as all the other newspaper men had been equally carried away by the excitement caused by the wonderful oration and had made no report or sketch of the speech.” In this Chicago speech Lincoln shows at least one great gift in a leader of menthat of inspiring new hope in defeated followers.

John Charles Frémont was the brave and high-spirited young explorer who did so much to open the west and earned the title of Pathfinder. From 1842 to 1854 he explored the Rockies, Utah and California. He served in the civil war and was nominated in 1864 by Republicans dissatisfied with Lincoln but withdrew from the contest.

96 Dred Scott. The Dred Scott decision was delivered by the supreme court 6 March 1856. Scott was a negro whose master had removed from Missouri to Illinois taking the slave with him. Two years later Scott's master removed to what is now called Minnesota and there sold Scott to one Sanford. Scott denied Sanford's right to hold him and claimed that his residence in a free state had given him his liberty. The court decided in Scott's favor but the case was appealed to a higher court which reversed the decision, then appealed to the supreme court. That tribunal handed down a decision on two points: (1) Is Dred Scott a citizen of the United States and as such entitled to bring suit in the United States courts? (2) Did Scott's residence of