political chiefs who had most actively opposed it were not at once available candidates for political honors. Mr. Lincoln saw clearly that not himself only but such men as Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and all the old-time Whig giants must be set aside. That men accustomed to control should fail to appreciate a necessity so disagreeable was every way natural, and their friends with keener perceptions were compelled to bestir themselves in time. It was needful that a Whig Presidential candidate should be fixed upon in advance of the Whig Na tional Convention if one was to be offered with any prospect of an election by the people. There did not really seem to be more than one man who met the requirements of the political situation. General Zachary Taylor was the hero of some of the hardest-fought battles of the war, and he probably possessed as much statesmanship as falls to the lot of most good military commanders. A respectable lawyer from Western New York, Millard Fillmore, was given the second place on the ticket. Nobody knew enough about either of these gentlemen to say a word against them, and Taylor's war-record was full of political campaign material. Mr. Lincoln took an active part in arranging its business beforehand for the National Convention. He attended its formal meeting at Philadelphia on the 1st of June, assisted in placing the candidates upon the platform of principles constructed for them, and then returned to Washington to finish his work as a member of Congress.

On the 20th of June he delivered in the House a speech upon his favorite subject of internal improvement. On the 27th of July following he again spoke in an argument which embraced the entire field of the Presidential election and the leading political issues of the day. The most interesting feature of this speech is the plainness with which it sets forth Mr. Lincoln's unalterable opposition to slavery. He could not and did not offensively formulate it then and there. If his opinions were at all in advance of those held at the time by a large part of the Whig party in the Northern States, a wise

ance.

care for the results of the pending election forbade their utterHe was cautious, but proslavery men were by no means either blinded or satisfied by such moderation in him or in others. They well understood that all opposition to the "extension of slavery" had for its source and foundation a hatred of human bondage for its own sake. It was easy for them, in their heated imaginations, to transfer that rooted hatred to themselves and to assume that it could not but be personal. They promptly adjusted themselves to that interpretation of all such utterances as those of Mr. Lincoln. They were men whose habits of life, of thought and action, forbade them to flinch from any issue presented. They were both able and courageous, and they ruled the country thereafter for twenty years by the mere presentation of the bold formula: "If you hate slavery, you hate us. If you desire to kill it, your real purpose is to murder the people of the South."

Congress adjourned on the 14th of August, and Mr. Lincoln went to New England on a brief tour of political speech-making. This was his first opportunity for acquiring any personal acquaintance with modes of life in the Eastern States. Except for what study he had made of Yankee settlers in the West, he was entirely ignorant concerning a population which was yet to give him its very heart. He was, however, a student accustomed to learn rapidly the contents of the human pages brought before him. He could not possibly fail to profit by such an experience of contact and observation.

The second session of the Thirtieth Congress did little or nothing for the reputation of Mr. Lincoln. He voted with his party, now in brief control of the House. He even offered a bill for compensated emancipation of slaves held in the District of Columbia, but it died the natural death of all such propositions in those days. Somewhat curiously, he made more and more lasting new friendships among Southern representative men than Northern. It was as if some subtle instinct bade him seek and study them, telling him the importance of his

acquiring a knowledge of them and an understanding through them of the people who sent them to Congress. Some of these friendships, as that with Mr. Stephens, of Georgia, came to the surface as political factors and powers in subsequent emergencies. His correspondence with Mr. Herndon during all this period exhibits his undiminished interest in his home affairs. It also shows that he was subject to all the minor annoyances and perplexities of a member of Congress, including the pertinacities of office-seekers and the carping criticism of personal friends. There was really no reason why he should be anxious for a re-election, and there were many good reasons why he should not openly seek for one. Of these, perhaps the best, in his judgment, was the absolute certainty of defeat at the polls if he should be nominated.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE COMING CONFLICT.

Office Refused-The Missouri Compromise-A Sure Prophecy-Inner Life -Ripening-Death of Tom Lincoln-A Written Confession of Faith.

MR. LINCOLN Would willingly have continued in Congress if such a thing had been politically possible; but it was not. Among other obstacles appears to have been some sort of an informal understanding between him and other Whig leaders of central Illinois aiming at a rotation among them of the honor of representing the Sangamon district. The nomination fell to Lincoln's friend, Judge Logan, but he received it only to meet the sure defeat prepared for him by the anti-war and antislavery record of his predecessor. The latter at this juncture of his affairs made an effort to obtain from the new Whig administration the appointment of Commissioner of the General Land Office at Washington. It was probably at that time the one public employment which would have offered him opportunities for furthering his internal-improvement schemes. The national landed property, always large, had been greatly increased by the results of the war with Mexico. It was impossible that Lincoln's mind should not turn with ideas and projects relating to the future use and occupation of areas so vast and so full of all the prophecies of empire.

The coveted post was given to another citizen of Illinois, and Mr. Lincoln was offered in its stead the governorship of Oregon Territory. He was urged by his friends to take the appointment, on the ground that Oregon would soon be a State and would thus send him to the United States Senate. It was a tempting bait, but all the reply he made was that he

would accept if Mrs. Lincoln approved. The question was duly submitted to her, and her refusal was equally absolute and prompt. She would not let her husband bury himself again in the wilds of another new country, and he acted upon her wifely advice, returning with all his accustomed vigor to his sadly run-down and neglected legal practice.

The Eighth Judicial District was territorially large, including fourteen prairie counties. To each of the several countyseats Mr. Lincoln traveled twice in each year. Each circuit required nearly three months, and not much more than half of any year could be spent quietly at home by an active practitioner. In the intervals of these unavoidable absences Lincoln's home grew very dear to him. His habits were simple and domestic to the last degree, and his fondness for his children was one of his most deeply marked characteristics. His wife was utterly devoted to him. His widening circle of friends grew more and more attached and trusting, and his affairs were eminently prosperous. His position was hardly second to that of any other man in the State, and it seemed that he had already won every success in life which could reasonably be aspired to by the son of an Indiana settler, a "poor white" from Kentucky.

He himself was anything but satisfied. He was still aspiring, studying, preparing, growing. He carried with him upon the circuit other books than those which treated of the law. Copies of Shakespeare, historical works, mathematical school text-books, were his frequent companions. He was still pursuing in his ripe manhood the tireless process of education which he had begun with a piece of charcoal and a wooden fire-shovel.

He was much sought after as a "counsel for the defendant" in criminal cases, although his noted power over a jury passed away from him at once if he himself believed his client to be guilty. In one such case that is recorded he remarked to his associate counsel: