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,

Richardson and Turner. Douglas had just reached the Senate.

The roll of the house at this, the 30th Congress, showed a galaxy of great names. Robert Winthrop was

the Speaker, and among the Whigs were John Quincy Adams, Horace Mann, Collamer, Stephens and Toombs; and among the Democrats were Wilmot and Cobb, McDowell and Andrew Johnson, while Webster and Calhoun, and Benton and Clayton were members of the Senate.

Lincoln at once took an active part in the discussions that related to the Mexican War, that scheme of the Southern statesmen to acquire more territory for the expansion of slavery. He held, as did the Whigs, that the war was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally begun, and in his famous "Spot Resolutions," he called upon the president to put his finger on the spot on American soil on which the Mexicans were aggressors, as the president had alleged. Mr. Lincoln did, however, vote with his party to give supplies to the troops and thanks to the generals who conducted the war, while censuring the president for his part in bringing it on. Mr. Lincoln had a weary time explaining to his constituents what they considered his inconsistency in attacking the

president for bringing on the war and then voting supplies for its conduct. Before his return from the east and after the session of Congress, he made several campaign speeches in New England, enlarged his acquaintance and became more familiar with the elements that should enter into future politics.

His second session passed without any striking incident save one that indicated his attitude to the slavery question. On the Wilmot Proviso, which favored the purchase of Mexican territory and prohibiting of slavery thereon, he voted, as often as it was up, in the affirmative, and he himself proposed a resolution for the gradual compensated emancipation of slaves in the District of Columbia. Thus ended his congressional career in which, in the national arena, he had gained a unique outlook on public affairs, and where he won some reputation as a consistent Whig, loyal to his party, and opposed to the extension of slavery; and likewise as a political antagonist, clear in statement, fertile in illustration, and with a talent for ridicule and sarcasm that was difficult to be reckoned with. He easily yielded the nomination to the next Congress to his friend, Stephen T. Logan, and continued the practice of law, but with an abiding interest in national affairs, ready when the time should again come, to take his part in the struggle.

From 1848 to 1860, his chief work as a lawyer was to be done, and likewise the work that should determine his selection as a candidate for the presidency of the United States. In 1860, the scene of his legal services lay in the eighth judicial circuit in which Sangamon

County was included till 1859. The court intinerated from county to county, and Mr. Lincoln followed it, first on a borrowed horse, then on a nag of his own, which he cared for himself, and later, in a second-hand buggy. His coming was always welcomed at the hotel where he was wont to stop and by the lawyers on the circuit. Uncomplaining, genial and unselfish, he met the incidents and inconveniences of this itinerant life in so cheerful a manner, and his pranks and stories were so enjoyable, that outside of the court room and in it, no one was more popular than he. His honesty was a proverb. No shady case had any standing or encouragement from him. Poverty was no bar to the securement of his services, and when he entered on a case to which his judgment and conscience were committed he entered upon it with a thoroughness and fearlessness which seldom met with failure.

His

Judge Caton, for many years one of the judges of the Supreme Court and intimate with Mr. Lincoln, says of him: "He was a close reasoner, reasoning by analogy and usually enforcing his views by apt illustrations. mode of speaking was generally of a plain and unimpassioned character, yet abounding with eloquence, imagination and fancy. His great reputation for integrity was well deserved. The most punctilious honor ever marked his professional and private life. He seemed entirely ignorant of the art of deception and dissimulation. His frankness and candor were elements which contributed to his professional success. If he discovered a weak point in his cause he frankly admitted it and thereby prepared

the mind to accept the more readily his mode of avoiding it. No one ever accused him of taking an unfair or underhanded advantage in the whole course of his professional career."

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He put the kindest construction possible on the frailties of his fellow men. He sympathized with the unfortunate, and relieved them to the utmost of his ability in their distress. He was true as steel to his clear hension of intellectual and moral truth, unyielding in matters of honor and principle. He could fiay an adversary relentlessly who by cowardice or meanness, by malice or greed, exposed himself to his denunciation. He could be tender as a woman to misfortune or suffering. He was wondrously constituted to be a great jury lawyer with his power of analysis, his logical faculties, his generous sympathies, his apt illustration, his candor and his irresistable humor.

He was offered a lucrative partnership in Chicago with Grant Goodrich on his return from congress, but he preferred his old circuit and his old companions. Though he was frequently called to the trial of cases in prominent courts in his own and other states, and responded to the call, his heart was with his comrades on his old circuit, and he could not be tempted from it. The day before he left Springfield for Washington, in 1861, he went to the office to settle up some unfinished business. After disposing of it he gathered a bundle of papers and books he wished to take with him. Presently he addressed Mr. Herndon, his old partner:

"Billy, how long have we been together?"