and blind rage, they believed, or affected to believe, that the "safe-conduct" of the old Indian, which was now produced, was a forgery, and they were approaching the old savage, with muskets cocked, to dispatch him, when Lincoln rushed forward, knocked up their weapons, and standing in front of the victim, in a determined voice ordered them not to fire, declaring that the Indian should not be killed. The mob, their passions fully roused, were not so easily to be restrained. Lincoln stood for a moment between the Indian and a dozen muskets, and, for a few seconds, it seemed doubtful whether both would not be shot down. After a pause, the militia reluctantly, and like bull-dogs leaving their prey, lowered their weapons and sullenly turned away. Bill Green, an old comrade, said: "I never in all my life saw Lincoln so roused before."

The time for which the company had volunteered having expired, the men were discharged. But Black Hawk and his warriors being still east of the Mississippi, Governor Reynolds issued a second call for troops, and Lincoln at once responded by volunteering again, and this time he served as a private in a company of which Elijah Iles, of Springfield, was elected captain. This company did service as a company of mounted rangers, and in it Lincoln served until the close of the war. Here he met as a fellow soldier, John T, Stuart, afterwards member of Congress, and others, who became prominent citizens of Illinois.'

In their camp on the banks of Rock River, near where the city of Dixon is now situated, there met at this time,

1. In a letter to the author, dated Springfield, Ills., December 7, 1868, Captain Iles says: "I have yours asking whether Mr. Lincoln was a member of my company in the Black Hawk war, etc. In reply, I answer he was a member of my company during a portion of the time. and received an honorable discharge. The first call for volunteers, Mr. Lincoln volunteered, and was elected captain. The term of Governor Reynolds' first call being about to expire, he made a second call and the first was then disbanded. I was elected a captain of one of the companies. I

had as members of my company, General James D. Henry, John T. Stuart, and A. Lincoln, and we were mustered into the service on the 29th of May, 1832, by Lieutenant Robert Anderson, Assistant Inspector General. We reported to Colonel Zachary Taylor, at Dixon's Ferry (on Rock River). Mr. Lincoln remained with the company to the close of the war."

Lieutenant Colonel Zachary Taylor, Lieutenant Jefferson Davis, Lieutenant Robert Anderson, and private Abraham Lincoln, of Captain Iles's company of Illinois Mounted Rangers.'

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Lincoln and Anderson did not meet again until sometime in 1861, and after Major Anderson had evacuated Fort Sumter. He then visited Washington, and called at the White House to pay his respects to the President. After having expressed his thanks to Anderson for his conduct in South Carolina, Mr. Lincoln said: Major, do you remember of ever meeting me before?" "No, Mr. President, I have no recollection of ever having had the pleasure before." "My memory is better than yours," said Mr. Lincoln. You mustered me into the service of the United States, in 1832, at Dixon's Ferry, in the Black Hawk war."?

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Father Dixon, who, as above stated, was attached to this company of mounted rangers as guide, says that in their marches, when approaching a grove or depression in which an Indian ambush might be concealed, and when scouts were sent forward to examine the cover, Lincoln was often selected for that duty, and he adds that while many, as they approached the place of suspected ambush, found an excuse for dismounting to adjust girths or saddles, Lincoln's saddle was always in order. He also states that at evening, when off duty, Lincoln was generally found sitting on the grass, with a group of soldiers eagerly listening to the stories of

1. John Dixon, who then kept the ferry across Rock River, was a guide attached to the troops. The Indians gave him the name of Na-chu-sa, or White-Head." He told the author of the curious meeting mentioned in the text.

2. The author happened to be present at this interview. Colonel Robert Anderson, in a manuscript sketch of the Black Hawk war, now before me, dated May 10, 1870, and addressed to the Hon. E. B. Washburne, to whom the manuscript belongs. says: **I also mustered Abraham Lincoln twice into the service, and once out. He was a member of two of the Independent Companies. I mustered him into the service at the mouth of Fox River (Ottawa), May 29, 1832, in Captain Elijah Iles's company. I have no recollection of Mr. Lincoln, but when President he reminded me of it. William S. Hamilton, son of Alexander Hamilton, joined us with a small party of friendly Indians. The Rock River country was beautiful beyond description, surpassing any thing I ever saw in our country, Mexico, or in Europe."

which his supply seemed inexhaustible, and that he invariably declined the whiskey which his comrades, grateful for the amusement he afforded, pressed upon him.

When a member of Congress, Mr. Lincoln made a very amusing campaign speech, in which, alluding to the custom of exaggerating the military service of candidates, and ridiculing the extravagant claims to heroism set up for General Lewis Cass, then a candidate for the Presidency against General Zachary Taylor, he referred with great good humor to his own services in the Black Hawk war in the following terms:

"By the way, Mr. Speaker, did you know I am a military hero? Yes, sir; in the days of the Black Hawk war fought, bled, and came away. Speaking of General Cass's career reminds me of my own. I was not at Stillman's defeat, but I was about as near it as 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 Cass broke his sword, the idea is he broke it in desperation. I bent my musket by accident. If General Cass went in advance of me in picking whortleberries, I guess I surpassed him in charges upon the wild onions. If he saw any live fighting Indians, it was more than I did; but I had a good many bloody struggles with the musquitoes, and, although I never fainted from loss of blood, I can truly say I was often very hungry. Mr. Speaker, if I should ever conclude to doff whatever our democratic friends may suppose there is of black-cockade federalism about me, and thereupon they shall take me up as their candidate for the Presidency, I protest they shall not make fun of me, as they have of General Cass, by attempting to write me into a military hero."

The volunteers returned from the Black Hawk war a short time before the state election. In this expedition Lincoln had rendered himself so popular that his comrades and others insisted upon his being a candidate for the Legislature. Although not elected, he received the unanimous vote of New Salem. For member of Congress both candidates together received 206 votes, while Lincoln alone received 207 votes for the Legislature.

Left again without employment, he was induced, in association with one Berry as partner, to become the purchaser

of a small store at New Salem. Berry turned out to be a dissipated, worthless fellow, and within a few months the enterprise failed, leaving Lincoln responsible for the purchase money. It was six years before he was able entirely to pay off the liabilities thus incurred.

It was while he was salesman for Offutt, and proprietor of this little store, that Mr. Lincoln acquired the sobriquet of "Honest Abe." Of many incidents illustrating his integrity one or two may be mentioned. One evening he found his cash overrun a little, and he discovered that in making change for his last customer, an old woman who had come in a little before sundown, he had made a mistake, not having given her quite enough. Although the amount was small, a few cents only, he took the money, immediately walked to her house, and corrected the error. At another time, on his arrival at the store in the morning, he found on the scales a weight which he remembered having used just before closing, but which was not the one he had intended to use. He had sold a parcel of tea, and in the hurry had placed the wrong weight on the scales, so that the purchaser had a few ounces less of tea than had been paid for. He immediately sent the quantity required to make up the deficiency. These and many similar incidents are told, exhibiting his scrupulous honesty in the most trifling matters, and for these the people gave him the name which clung to him through life. In the course of the great debate between Lincoln and Douglas, in 1858, at their joint discussion at Ottawa, Douglas alluded to Lincoln's store-keeping. He said:

"I have known him for nearly twenty-four years. There were many points of sympathy between us. When we first got acquainted, I was a school-teacher at Winchester, and he a flourishing grocery-keeper at Salem." 46 * He soon got into the Legislature. I met him then, and had a sympathy with him because of the up-hill struggle we both had in life."

*

*

On the 7th of May, 1833, he was appointed postmaster at New Salem. This was a small office with a weekly mail.

1. Lincoln and Douglas Debates, p. 69.

He kept the office until the station was discontinued and the place of delivery changed to Petersburg. The balance in his hands at the time of the discontinuance of the office was sixteen or eighteen dollars. This small sum was perhaps overlooked by the post-office department and was not called for until some years after Lincoln had removed to Springfield. During these years he had been in debt and very poor. So poor, indeed, that he had often been compelled to borrow money of his friends to pay for the very necessities of life. One day an agent of the post-office called at Dr. Henry's, with whom Lincoln at that time kept his law office. Knowing Mr. Lincoln's poverty, and how often he had been pressed for money, Henry says: "I did not believe he had the money on hand to meet the draft, and I was about to call him aside and loan him the money, when he asked the agent to be seated a moment, while he went over to his trunk at his boarding-house, and returned with an old blue sock with a quantity of silver and copper coin tied up in it. Untying the sock, he poured the contents on the table and proceeded to count the coin, which consisted of such silver and copper pieces as the country-people were then in the habit of using in paying postage. On counting it up there was found the exact amount, to a cent, of the draft, and in the identical coin which had been received. He never used, under any circumstances, trust funds. The anecdote will recall an incident narrated by Sir Walter Scott in the "Chronicles of the Canongate.'

On the return of Craftengry, who had been absent twenty years, honest Shanet," in triumph, hands him the fifteen shillings, she has kept sacred for him, saying: "Here they are, and Shanet has had siller, and Shanet has wanted siller, mony a time since that. The gauger has come, and the factor has come, and the butcher, and the baker. Cot bless us-just. like to tear poor ould Shanet to pieces, but she took good

1. Dr. Henry gave me the details of this incident at Washington when Mr. L. was President.-Author.

2. Waverley Novels," Black's Ed., v. 19, p. 384.