to join the movement of Black Hawk. Accordingly, with the appearance of the new levies, which had been divided into three regiments, and their junction with the regular and volunteer forces already in the field, the whole number of volunteers alone being thirty-two hundred, the army was placed in a formidable and effective attitude for offensive warfare, and finally made a forward movement. A severe action at Kellogg's Grove, in the Indian country, on the 25th of June, resulted in the retreat of the enemy, with much loss. Black Hawk then withdrew his forces to a fortified position, at the Four Lakes, the present site of Madison, Wisconsin, where he awaited the issue of a general engagement. On the part of the American commanders, the campaign was carried forward with all the celerity possible; but they were in a strange country, in which, for lack of correct information, they were obliged to advance slowly and cautiously. Meanwhile, the new volunteers had many of them become discontented. Nearly two months had now elapsed since the opening of the campaign, and its purpose seemed as remote from accomplishment Their numbers had become reduced, in fact, one-half. Wearisome marches, and still more wearisome delays, privations and exposure, had deprived the service of whatever romance it may have originally possessed. They were fretfully sickened of duty, home-sick, and eager to escape from the restraints of military life. This state of feeling, of course, hampered the action of those in command, and had its effect in determining the result of the campaign. Lincoln was not of this class. As on his previous campaign, he accepted whatever befell him in the line of his duty, without com

as ever.

plaint or murmuring. It was not destined, however, that he should be actively engaged in any encounter more serious than those already mentioned. The forces were divided and dispersed in different directions for the purpose of obtaining supplies, and while thus divided, that portion of the army with which Lincoln was not connected, coming upon Black Hawk and his warriors near the present city of Madison, signally defeated and routed him, driving him down the, Wisconsin to the Mississippi, where, four days later, the battle of Bad-ax closed the war, with the capture of the chief and his warriors. The fates were against our hero, for his division took no part in either of these battles, and before the last term of enlistment had expired the contest was at an end.

We cannot better close our brief sketch of Mr. Lincoln's military career, than by presenting his own humorous and characteristic reference to it in a Con gressional speech delivered during the canvass of 1848. Sarcastically commenting on the efforts of General Cass's biographers to render him conspicuous as a military hero, he said:

"By the way, Mr. Speaker, did you know I am a military hero? Yes, sir, in the days of the Black Hawk war, I 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 to Hull's surrender; and like him, I saw the place very soon afterward. It is quite certain I did not break my sword, for I had none to break; but I bent a musket pretty badly on one occasion. If Cass broke his sword, the idea is, he broke it in desperation. I bent the mus

ket 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 I was often very hungry.

say

"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 should 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."

But, although thus humorously deprecating his own services, it will not be disputed that Mr. Lincoln, at the age of twenty-three, faithfully acted his part as a soldier, with an energy and perseverance, in the face of peculiar hardship, which rebuked the lukewarmness and discontent of many older men with whom he was associated. Though he never set up any claim for a heroism which opportunity was never afforded him to exhibit, he believed that he did his duty, and such also was the opinion of others. In his brief career of three months' service he acquired the reputation of a favorite in the army-an efficient officer-and a brave, patient, and reliable soldier.

These early military experiences undoubtedly had no small influence in developing that paternal interest in the personal welfare of the private soldier and sailor, and that intense care for their comfort and individual rights, which so eminently characterized him in later

years, when, as President of a great republic, he was commander-in-chief of its army and navy.

The feeling which enabled him to sympathize so freely and kindly with the little trials of these humble servants of the country-which made him always as easy of access to the simple private as to the Major-General-— which led him so frequently, amid his all-engrossing cares, to visit the hospitals where these brave fellows lay wounded and weary with patient waiting; which, in short, seemed to make "his brave boys in blue" as near and dear to his great heart as if, almost they were his own sons—this feeling, the outgushing of his exceeding kindness of disposition, was, no doubt, intensified by the remembrance of what he himself had experi enced while a frontier volunteer in the old "Black Hawk War."

CHAPTER IV.

MR. LINCOLN AS A POLITICIAN.

He becomes a candidate for the Legislature, but is defeated.—Becomes a storekeeper, and postmaster.-Commences the study of law.-Studies and practices surveying.-Is elected to the Legislature.-Re-elected for a second term.-Defines his position on the subject of domestic slavery.— Is elected for a third and fourth time, to the Legislature.-Is admitted to the practice of law. His characteristics as a lawyer.-Thrilling incident of his law practice. His associates of the Springfield Bar.— Enters warmly into the Presidential canvass of 1840.-Accepts, in 1842, the Whig nomination for Congress.-Establishes his home at Springfield. His marriage.

MR. LINCOLN had now reached a point in his history, when he was about to enter upon a new and different walk of life, from any which he had ever before tried; and one in which, as a professional man and a statesman, he was destined to attain a success and an eminence, which has since rendered his name worldrenowned in the history of his country, and in the interests of humanity. The whole varied experience of his previous life had been a course of unconscious training for the conspicuous part which, in the providence of God, he was to assume in public affairs. His rough experiences had taught him much of the world, of men and their motives, and he had, also, gained some true knowledge of himself. The stern discipline of those youthful years of toil and penury, so cheerfully and manfully met, was about to prove "its own exceed