LINCOLN'S EARLY ORATORY[1]
Lincoln in the Legislature.
By Gurdon S. Hubbard, Legislator at Vandalia.
My acquaintance with the lamented President Lincoln began in the winter of 1832-3, during the session of the Legislature of this State, of which I was a member, and warmly interested in procuring an act for the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, for which I had introduced a bill, which was defeated. I then introduced a bill for a railroad, instead of a canal, which passed the House, lost in the Senate by the casting vote of the Speaker, Zadoc Casey. At the next session Mr. Lincoln was a member. I, as a lobbyist, attended that and the successive sessions until the passage of the act to construct the canal. Mr. Lincoln, in and out of the Legislature, favored its construction at the earliest possible moment, by his advice, and rendered efficient aid. Indeed, I very much doubt if the bill could have passed as early as it did without his valuable help. We
- ↑ In 1882 Osborn H. Oldroyd of Springfield, Ill., published under the title of "The Lincoln Memorial" a collection of tributes to Lincoln, chiefly from those who had known him personally. With the editor's permission we reproduce a few extracts bearing upon Lincoln's oratory during the period (1832 to 1856) covered by the present volume.
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