pitious as these, into one who, in due time, should be able to mould circumstances themselves. This frontier life, coarse as it may seem, yet developes the essential stamina of character; it fosters no fastidious refinements, but it produces men capable of material and even of intellectual greatness.

In 1831, Lincoln still changing his home until he should find one thoroughly to suit him, removed to New Salem, in Sagamon county, Illinois; here he remained a year, salesman in a country shop, or store; but trade was not long to engross his energies; the Black Hawk war broke out, and opened a new sphere to him; gave him another opportunity of seeing life in still another phase. The federal government called for volunteers, and he responded. He must have already shown some marks of determination or of character, for he was chosen captain of his company. The settlers of that day were obliged thus to defend their farms and their scanty trade against the attacks of the Indians, not yet permanently repulsed. Illinois, especially, was often beset by the invaders; and the hardy adventurers, mostly like Lincoln from Kentucky and Virginia, were like the New Englanders two centuries earlier, obliged to leave the plow for the rifle, and resist, by turns, the attacks of the Sacs, the Pottawatamies, the Kickapoos, and the Shawnees. So they marched into the wilderness to repel Mucata-Muhicata, the fiercest of the marauders. Generals Gaines and Atkinson led on the settlers, and it was two years before the series of skirmishes had rid the country of its pestilent assailants. Mr. Lincoln thus humorously alluded to this experience many years after in a Congressional speech :

"By the way, Mr. Speaker, did you know I was a

military hero? Yes, sir, in the days of the Black Hawk war I fought, bled, and came away. Speaking of Gen. Cass's career, reminds me of my own. I was not at Sullivan's defeat, but I was about as near it as Cass was to Hull's surrender; and like him I saw the place soon after. It is quite certain that 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 the musket by accident. If Gen. 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 certainly can say, I was often very hungry."

It is highly probable that in this description, Mr. Lincoln underrated his own services for the sake of ridiculing those of Gen. Cass, who was then running for the Presidency. He, probably, little thought that he himself would one day be in a similar predicament.

In an unsettled region, the arts of war and peace are often confounded, and as republics of ancient and modern times have offered civic honors to their successful generals, it was not surprising that Capt. Lincoln should be nominated for the State Legislature immediately after his return from the Black Hawk war. He was not elected, but the mention of his name in connection with office, at so early an age, only twenty-three, indicates the progress he was making in the estimation and confidence of those by whom he was surrounded. One defeat, however, did not dishearten him; and in 1833 he was elected by the Whig party to the lower House, and served for

five successive sessions. During this legislative career, he first met Stephen A. Douglas, and then began the rivalry which has been at times so fierce, and which has not yet, after a quarter of a century, subsided; but has instead become a matter of national interest. At this time he was a land surveyor, but so poor that in 1837 his instruments were sold under execution. While serving as a member of the State Legislature, and contriving to gain a scanty livelihood by his laborious occupation, Lincoln found time to study the law, and was admitted to the Illinois bar, where he ever since has maintained a position of importance and influence. He distinguished himself by his political affiliations, being early a popular advocate of Whig principles, and especially of the famous protective policy of Henry Clay, which was then one of the matters engrossing public attention and interest. In fact, he was a Whig candidate for Presidential Elector in every quadrennial contest from 1836 to 1852, inclusive, and in 1844 he stumped the state for Clay, making an entire tour of Illinois, and learning to perfection the art of addressing popular assemblages.

Mr. Lincoln's style and manner are peculiarly adapted to produce effects upon what, in this country, are called mass meetings. He is ready, precise, and fluent; witty and humorous by turns; has a good command of forcible and telling, but homely language-all the more telling, because homely; his illustrations are apt, his arguments often cogent, his good-nature and self-possession unfailing. His enunciation is slow and emphatic, and his whole bearing indicates great sincerity and earnestness, which alone are sufficient to awaken the sympathy of his listeners. His features are not handsome, but extremely mobile; his mouth particularly so. He has a faculty of

contorting that feature in a style excessively ludicrous, and which never fails to provoke uproarious merriment. In fact, the good humor that gleams in his eye, and lurks in the corners of his mouth, is perfectly irresistible. His complexion is dark, his eyes small but twinkling, his hair of a mingled grey and brown, his nose long and penetrating; his whole countenance indicates character, and is susceptible of an expression of great impressiveness, all the more remarkable from the contrast with the extremely humorous air it sometimes assumes: the forehead and nostrils, to a physiognomist, afford sure evidence of thought. He is tall and lank in figure; at once elastic and awkward in his ordinary movements, but when infused with that profound earnestness he so often manifests, all his gesticulation is appropriate; his voice then becomes sharp and powerful, his movements lose their angularity, and that magnetic quality seems evolved that is only found in natural orators, but which is more effective in moving or swaying the passions and sometimes the convictions of an audience, than the most elaborate results of the oratory of the schools.

The quality of his speeches will be sufficiently indicated in this volume; they are, however, eminently addressed to the popular mind. Although they often contain arguments and are marked by peculiarities that scholars and rhetoricians will appreciate, their eloquence is natural, their rhetoric unstudied. The language is not elegant, but frequently has ten times more force than the carefully rounded periods which lose their point by being moulded and smoothed so persistently. In fact, all the peculiarities and excellencies of Abraham Lincoln are those of a man whose life has been spent in the West; who has made himself, who is accustomed to dealing with

men of all sorts and conditions, whose talents and ener gies are undoubted and matured, but not refined or highly cultivated. His personal demeanor is of the same sort. Those who have known him best, describe him as genial, manly, frank, and although his experiences have been of the roughest kind, free from many of the habits common among his associates. He neither drinks, nor chews, nor swears, nor smokes, and even the most inveterate advocate of these practices will acknowledge that such abstinence in one surrounded by his associations, is an indication of more than ordinary firmness and independence of character. The synonym of "Honest Old Abe" betrays the estimation put upon his integrity, and conveys also an intimation of his personal popularity. A writer in the "Evening Post," speaks thus of an interview with the candidate of the Republican party:

"It had been reported by some of Mr. Lincoln's political enemies that he was a man who lived in the 'lowest hoosier style,' and I thought I would see for myself. Accordingly, as soon as the business of the Convention was closed, I took the cars for Springfield. I found Mr. Lincoln living in a handsome, but not pretentious, double two-story frame house, having a wide hall running through the centre, with parlors on both sides, neatly, but not ostentatiously, furnished. It was just such a dwelling as a majority of the well-to-do residents of these fine western towns occupy. Every thing about it had a look of comfort and independence. The library I remarked in passing, particularly, and I was pleased to see long rows of books, which told of the scholarly tastes and culture of the family.

"Lincoln received us with great, and to me, surpris ing urbanity. I had seen him before in New York, and brought with me an impression of his awkward and ungainly manner; but in his own house, where he