leisure in constant reading and study. He learned
during this time the elements of English grammar,
and made a beginning in the study of surveying
and the principles of law. But the next year an
Indian war began, occasioned by the return of
Black Hawk with his bands of Sacs and Foxes
from Iowa to Illinois. Lincoln volunteered in a
company raised in Sangamon county, and was im-
mediately elected captain. His company was or-
ganized at Richland on 21 April, 1832; but his
service in command of it was brief, for it was
mustered out on 27 May. Lincoln immediately
re-enlisted as a private, and served for several
weeks in that capacity, being finally mustered out
on 16 June, 1832, by Lieut. Robert Anderson, who
afterward commanded Port Sumter at the begin-
ning of the civil war. He returned home and began
a hasty canvass for election to the legislature. His
name had been announced in the spring before his
enlistment ; but now only ten days were left before
the election, which took place in August. In spite
of these disadvantages, he made a good race and
was far from the foot of the poll. Although he
was defeated, he gained the almost unanimous
vote of his own neighborhood, New Salem giving
him 277 votes against 3. He now began to look
about him for employment, and for a time thought
seriously of learning the trade of a blacksmith ; but
an opportunity presented itself to buy the only store
in the settlement, which he did, giving his notes for
the whole amount involved. He was associated with
an idle and dissolute partner, and the business soon
went to wreck, leaving Lincoln burdened with a
debt which it required several years of frugality and
industry for him to meet ; but it was finally paid
in full. After this failure he devoted himself with
the greatest earnestness and industry to the study
of law. He was appointed postmaster of New Sa-
lem in 1833, an office which he held for three years.
The emoluments of the place were very slight, but it
gave him opportunities for reading. At the same
time he was appointed deputy to John Calhoun, the
county surveyor, and, his modest wants being sup-
})lied by these two functions, he gave his remaining
eisure unreservedly to the study of law and politics.
He was a candidate for the legislature in August,
1834, and was elected this time at the head of the
list. He was re-elected in 1836, 1838, and 1840, af-
ter which he declined further election. After enter-
ing the legislature he did not return to New Salem,
but, having by this time attained some proficiency
in the law, he removed to Springfield, where he
went into partnership with John T. Stuart, whose
acquaintance he had begun in the Black Hawk
war and continued at Vandalia. He took rank
from the first among the leading members of the
legislature. He was instrumental in having the
state capital removed from Vandalia to Springfield,
and during his eight years of service his ability,
industry, and weight of character gained him such
standing among his associates that in his last two
terms he was the candidate of his party for the
speakership of the house of representatives. In
1846 he was elected to congress, his opponent being
the Rev. Peter Cartwright. The most important
congressional measure with which his name was
associated during his single term of service was a
scheme for the emancipation of the slaves in the
District of Columbia, which in the prevailing tem-
per of the time was refused consideration by con-
gress. He was not a candidate for re-election, but
for the first and only time in his life he applied for
an executive appointment, the commissionership
of the general land-office. The place was given to
another man, but President Taylor's administra-
tion offered Mr. Lincoln the governorship of the
territory of Oregon, which he declined.
Mr. Lincoln had by this time become the most
influential exponent of the principles of the Whig
party in Illinois, and his services were in request
in every campaign. After his return from con-
gress he devoted himself with great assiduity and
success to the practice of law, and speedily gained
a commanding position at the bar. As he says
himself, he was losing his interest in politics when
the repeal of the Missouri compromise aroused him
again. The profound agitation of the question of
slavery, which in 1854 followed the repeal of the
Missouri compromise, awakened all the energies of
Lincoln's nature. He regarded this act, in which
Senator Douglas was the most prominent agent of
the reactionary party, as a gross breach of faith,
and began at once a series of earnest political
discussions which immediately placed him at the
head of the party that, not only in Illinois but
throughout the west, was speedily formed to pro-
test against and oppose the throwing open of the
territories to the encroachments of slavery. The
legislature elected in Illinois in the heat of this
discussion contained a majority of members op-
posed to the policy of Douglas. The duty of select-
ing a senator in place of Gen. Shields, whose term
was closing, devolved upon this legislature, and
Mr. Lincoln was the unanimous choice of the Whig
members. But they did not command a clear ma-
jority of the legislature. There were four mem-
bers of Democratic antecedents who, while they
were ardently opposed to the extension of slavery,
were not willing to cast their votes for a Whig
candidate, and adhered tenaciously through several
ballots to Lyman Trumbull, a Democrat of their
own way of thinking. Lincoln, fearing that this
dissension among the anti-slavery men might re-
sult in the election of a supporter of Douglas, urged
his friends to go over in a body to the support of
Trumbull, and his influence was sufficient to ac-
complish this result. Trumbull was elected, and
for many years served the Republican cause in the
senate with ability and zeal.
As soon as the Republican party became fully organized in the nation, embracing in its ranks the anti-slavery members of the old Whig and Democratic parties, Mr. Lincoln, by general con- sent, took his place at the head of the party in Illinois ; and when, in 1858, Senator Douglas sought a re-election to the senate, the Republicans with one voice selected Mr. Lincoln as his antagonist. He had already made several speeches of remarkable eloquence and power against the pro-slavery reaction of which the Nebraska bill was the significant beginning, and when Mr. Douglas returned to Illinois to begin his canvass for the senate, he was challenged by Mr. Lincoln to a series of joint discussions. The challenge was accepted, and the most remarkable oratorical combat the state has ever witnessed took place between them during the summer. Mr. Douglas defended his thesis of non-intervention with slavery in the territories (the doctrine known as " popular sovereignty," and derided as "squatter sovereignty") with remarkable adroitness and energy. The ground that Mr. Lincoln took was higher and bolder than had yet been assumed by any American statesman of his time. In the brief and sententious speech in which he accepted the championship of his party, before the Republican convention of 16 June, 1858, he uttered the following pregnant and prophetic words : " A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endui'e permanently half slave and half free.
