It was

cessful voyage, laden with pork, hogs and corn. on this trip that his reflective mind evolved an invention for helping flat-boats over snags and shoals. The invention was patented, but like many another patent, failed to enrich the owner. It was on this trip that Lincoln observed for the first time some of the abominations of the slave trade in the City of New Orleans. It depressed him and drew from him the emphatic, almost prophetic statement, "If I ever get a chance to hit slavery, I'll hit it hard."

He found his way back to New Salem where he kept store for the same employer that sent him to New Orleans. There he won his way to consideration by his genial ways, his gift of story telling, and his strength and skill in wrestling. There, too, he found an English grammar and mastered it by the light of pine shavings, in the long evening hours.

In 1832, the Black Hawk War broke out. Lincoln enlisted, and though without military experience, his popularity won him the captaincy of his company by popular election. His career as an officer was not a brilliant one. His command was an unsoldierly company of American citizens who respected their captain, but who were unwilling to subject themselves to very strict discipline. They did no fighting and were discharged from service after a brief campaign, and Lincoln re-enlisted as a private in the Independent Spy Company. He was wont afterwards to excite much amusement by his stories of this bloodless war. Yet it was a school to him that revealed his relations to his country and helped to fit him

for the great duties of Commander in-Chief in the War of the Rebellion.

Returning to New Salem after the war, his friends urged him, in view of his popularity in the recent war,

His ap

to become a candidate for the State Legislature. pearance in debate, and the favorable impression he made, settled the question of his candidacy for his friends. He felt that an election was an impossibility for him at that time, but he undertook the canvass. It was the custom then for every candidate to stand on his own merits without the aid of a nominating convention. Mr. Lincoln at

this time was nominally a Jackson Democrat, though some of his statements in his first campaign for office resembled very closely Whig utterances, and he will be found speedily to be on that side.

He issued a manifesto to the people of Sangamon County on the question of local improvements, proposing the improvement of the Sangamon River. He announced himself in favor of usury laws which would limit the rate of interest to be paid in the state. He was in favor of education, and of the enactment of sundry laws that would benefit the farming community in which he lived. His manifesto was that of a crude and immature statesman-or better, perhaps, of a young politician, seeking to adjust himself to the popular opinions about him and to reach public office thereby. He was defeated at the election, but he had the satisfaction of knowing, that the people who knew him best gave him their votes. canvass, however, gave him a wider acquaintance with the people of the district and established him in their eyes as a young man of considerable promise.

The

In default of a political opening, the question of his future career pressed upon him. He could earn a poor livelihood with his brawny arms, but to this he was indisposed, feeling, as he did, that there was a larger destiny before him than of mere manual labor. He tried clerking in a store, then merchandising on credit, which last experience ended disastrously and left him a burden of debt. Then he began the study of law, with borrowed books. He put his new knowledge into practice by writing deeds, contracts, notes and other legal papers for his

neighbors, following prescribed forms, and conducting small cases in justice's courts without remuneration. This was his law school, self-conducted. Volumes on science were at the same time eagerly devoured by him, and the few newspapers on which he could lay hands were the sources of his political information. Burns and Shakespeare were his especial delight.

To pay his way, he won the good opinion of the surveyor of Sangamon County, who appointed him deputy, and gave him a chance to acquire a knowledge of surveying, in which he became an expert. He was called hither and yon about the county as a surveyor, and was made arbiter in disputes on lines and corners. Best of all, he earned a good living and made many friends for the future.

From 1833 to 1836, he was postmaster of New Salem, as a Jackson appointee on the score of right opinions. The emoluments of the position were not burdensome. He kept his office in his hat.

In 1834, he was again a candidate for the Legislature. This time he leaned to the Whig party. It was during this year that his personal effects, including his surveying instruments, were sold under the hammer by the sheriff to satisfy a judgment against him on account of his unsuccessful career as a merchant. But warm personal friendship intervened to save his property and keep him in courage for the work of his life.

The campaign of 1834 was personally conducted, as was that of 1832. In the harvest field, at the grocery or on the highway, wherever he could find men to listen,

he interested them in his cause and his personality, chiefly the latter. Where he was known he was welcomed, and where he found it necessary to make himself known, his auditors soon made the discovery that he belonged to the singed cat variety. With his calico shirt, short trousers, rough brogans, and straw hat without a band, he raised a laugh at his appearance that was soon turned to applause at his knowledge and his skill in presenting it. He headed the poll on election day, and appreciating the fact that a new outfit was necessary to comport with his dignity as a legislator, he borrowed two hundred dollars from Coleman Smoot, an admirer who had never seen him, and got himself up in the best clothes he had ever worn. The loan was scrupulously repaid. The time up to the session of the Legislature was spent in preparation for his new responsibilities, in reading and writing.

He had enough of his two hundred dollars remaining to pay his passage on the stage coach to the scene of the Legislature at Vandalia. That body was overwhelmingly Democratic in its political complexion, and set the pace for Illinois of that class of legislation so common in new countries: the creation of public debt and the starting of great and ill-considered public improvements, and the licensing of banks with great privileges, and practically no guarantees, a class of legislation that brought on the financial collapse of 1837. The legislature represented the overwhelming majority of the people and accomplished their behests. All were crazed with the spirit of speculation, all were similarly responsible,