himself embroiled with Mr. Shields, who demanded satisfaction. Nothing but a duel or an abject apology would be accepted, and the mutual friends of Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Shields were kept busy arranging the preliminaries of a contest. Mr. Lincoln treated the matter with indifference, chose broadswords as the weapons, and agreed upon the time and place for meeting, with little thought that the duel would ever come off. He was opposed to dueling, and in choosing the weapons, he avoided pistols to avert a tragedy, and chose cavalry broadswords, knowing, as Arnold says, that if the meeting should take place nothing but a tragedy could have prevented its being a farce. The matter was adjusted by the publication of a statement that while Mr. Lincoln was the author of the article signed "Rebecca," he had no intention of injuring the personal or private character or standing of Mr. Shields as a gentleman or man, and that he did not think that the article could produce such an effect, and had Mr. Lincoln anticipated such an effect he would have forborne to write it. Thus this serio-comic affair passed with little result save to emphasize the vanity and sensitiveness of Gen. Shields, and the cleverness and candor of Mr. Lincoln.

Mr. Lincoln carried out his engagement with Mary Todd, and was married to her in November, 1842, with forebodings that did not promise well for a happy married. life. Possibly, as Mr. Lincoln feared, they were not altogether fitted for each other. But never, by word or deed, was he disloyal to his marriage vows, nor did he expose the wounds of his heart.

and had removed to

He was not able at this time to provide a home of his own, but took up his residence at the Globe Tavern in Springfield at an expense of four dollars a week for board and lodging for himself and wife. Mr. Lincoln had been licensed as an attorney in 1837, Springfield when that city became the capital of the state. Among the men who were his compeers, some of whom afterwards attained prominence, were Stephen T. Logan, Stephen A. Douglas, E. D. Baker, John T.Stuart, Ninian W. Edwards, Jesse B. Thomas, and others of local re

nown.

Mr. Lincoln's reputation, thus far, has been as a politician in Sangamon Co. Politics will continue to have the chief fascination for his mind, but law will be his profession and his means of livelihood. He found his first law partner in his friend John T. Stuart, to whom he had previously been indebted for the loan of books from which to learn the law. In a little dingy office in the then unkempt town of Springfield, the firm of Stuart & Lincoln was installed, and Lincoln began his career of divided interest between politics and law. He was still a member of the legislature, and though the affairs of the state were in sad need of attention, the politics of the time began to be confined to national issues, and Mr. Lincoln, like the rest, began to occupy himself with a survey of national affairs.

In January, 1837, he delivered an address before the Springfield Lyceum on the Perpetuation of our Free Institutions, which shows that the young lawyer had now attained to the full consciousness and dignity of an Amer

ican Citizen, who prizes his birth-right and seeks calmly to discern the perils of the nation, and earnestly to put her in a position of security and permanence. This speech marks him at that early date, as more than a politician, grabbing and compromising in the state assembly for local interests; rather as an American citizen opening his eyes to the greatness of the nation, the difficulties and the dangers that hazard the common weal.

As his physical vision overtopped that of his fellows, so now he seems to look out on a broader political horizon than they. His eye henceforth will not be withdrawn from that wide view until all shall be clear to him, and he shall be accepted as his nation's prophet and The speech to which I refer may be overcharged with rhetoric, a vice that is common with young orators, but it has the true ring of sincerity and patriotism, and time will add the charm and force of directness and simplicity to his style.

seer.

In all the political campaigns of the time his voice was heard in the meetings of politicians, in the grocery, or the office or on the rostrum. He was a central figure in these meetings. He studied politics, got in shape his arguments, and learned the art of putting things to an average American audience, as few politicians have acquired it. The question of the sub-treasury was an absorbing question of 1840. It was the Democratic party measure to provide for the convenient and safe keeping of the national funds. It has proved a wise expedient, but Mr. Lincoln opposed it, as did his party. Apparently, on questions of public credit, fiscal expedients and finance,

he was not destined to be an authority. It was on the questions of freedom and union, and the measures that make for them, that he was to specialize and succeed. Meanwhile, he was working hard at the bar, but leaving no opportunity unused to evince his interest in politics.

In 1843, he aspired to run for Congress, but was distanced in the race for the Whig nomination by E. D., Baker. He was appointed a delegate to the nominating convention, and magnanimously served. He humorously alludes to his predicament in writing to his friend Speed, where he says, "In getting Baker the nomination I shall be fixed a good deal like a fellow who is made groomsman to a man that has cut him out and is marrying his own dear 'gal.'"'

In 1844, he was a candidate for election on the Whig ticket, and stumped the state for Mr. Clay for President. In joint debates and independent speeches he maintained his Whig principles and chivalrously labored for the idol of his party. The defeat of Clay was, to him, a source of sorrow, but setting aside his political disappointment, he studiously set himself to the discharge of his professional duties until 1846, when he was nominated for Congress and elected. Peter Cartwright was the standard-bearer of the opposition. He was a doughty antagonist, whose clerical relations were dead weight upon him, and Mr. Lincoln easily "got the preacher" as he expressed it, and with the aid of Democratic votes. He was the only Whig member from Illinois, and thus came into special prominence. Some of his colleagues from the state were Wentworth, McClernand, Ficklin,