Lincoln, the Politician Part 4

The testimony of Judge Logan shows that Lincoln had in his youth a mature mind. "He was a very tall, gawky, and rough looking fellow then; his pantaloons didn't meet his shoes by six inches. But after he began speaking I became very much interested in him. He made a very sensible speech. His manner was very much the same as in after life; that is, the same peculiar characteristics were apparent then, though of course in after years he evinced more knowledge and experience. But he had then the same novelty and the same peculiarity in presenting his ideas. He had the same individuality that he kept through all his life."[67]

[67] Nicolay & Hay, 1, 108.

A companion allows us a view of Lincoln as a politician at this period.

Deferential to the rich, agreeable to the poor, he was at home everywhere. He talked with the husband and wife about their hopes in life, about the school and the farm. The mother would hear with joy of her fine children; Willie was the image of father; Sarah the most beautiful, and looked like her mother. The distribution of nuts and candy captured the children. During the preparation for supper, he would walk over the farm with his host, and be shown its worth. After the meal he would tell the boys and girls stories of the trials of frontier life in Indiana. He thus secured the esteem of all.

Early in this campaign, he issued a political circular. This first written address of Lincoln should command attention. It contains abundant evidence of close thinking, political sagacity and quaint utterance. This youthful appeal of Lincoln is a sober production expressing thoughts that go straight to the mind. The circular is conclusive that his style and his thought were not altogether the fruition of his maturity.

The address deals mainly with the navigability of the Sangamon River. No theme was closer to the people in the county. The arrival of the steamer _Talisman_ had been hailed with rapture. A newspaper thus gave utterance to the common feeling: "We congratulate our farmers, our mechanics, our merchants and our professional men, for the rich harvest in prospect, and we cordially invite emigrating citizens from other states, whether rich or poor, if so they are industrious and honest, to come thither and partake of the good things of Sangamon."[68] The enthusiasm reached the women, for they indulged in a grand ball to honor the occasion.[69] The ardent champions.h.i.+p of this vain proposal, for it was never either effected or seriously attempted, is proof that Lincoln was a student of popularity. At this period he proclaimed the doctrine that the representative of the people should reflect the known views of his const.i.tuency.[70]

[68] History of Sangamon County, 53.

[69] _Ibid._

[70] Lincoln's Speeches, 1, 7.

He next paid heed to the problem of usury. Money, always seeking the highest bidder, preyed on the industry of the people. The common contract rate was about fifty per cent. In many instances it rose to more than one hundred, and unfortunates even paid two or three times as much.[71] "It seems," Lincoln said, "as though we are never to have an end to this baneful and corroding system, acting almost as prejudicial to the general interests of the community as a direct tax of several thousand dollars annually laid on each county for the benefit of a few individuals only, unless there be a law made fixing the limits of usury.

A law for this purpose, I am of the opinion, may be made without materially injuring any cla.s.s of people. In cases of extreme necessity, there could always be means found to cheat the law; while in other cases it would have its intended effect. I would favor the pa.s.sage of a law on this subject which might not be easily evaded. Let it be such that the labor and difficulty of evading it could only be justified in cases of greatest necessity."[72] This rather remarkable admission is interesting in view of his subsequent utterances on the sacred enforcement of all laws lest single relaxations prove an inducement for other violation.[73]

[71] Lamon, 133.

[72] Lincoln's Speeches, 1, 3.

[73] _Ibid._, 12.

A rather becoming modesty pervades the conclusion of his address. He maintained that he might be wrong in regard to any or all the subjects he discussed, declaring that it was better only sometimes to be right than at all times to be wrong, that he was ready to renounce his opinions as soon as he discovered them to be erroneous.[74]

[74] _Ibid._, 4.

"Every man," he observed, "is said to have his peculiar ambition.

Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem."[75] This illumines our limited knowledge of his att.i.tude toward an essential problem of life. Lincoln did not fling away ambition. With patient footstep he restlessly followed the vision of higher place along the road of helpful service to his fellow-men. As he rose in influence, he never forsook his early ideals; that the measure of success was worthiness and not station, that power was only respectable as it was mercifully exercised. He believed that altruistic responsibility expanded with growing opportunities. His good deeds, not his personal wants, grew with his growth.

[75] _Ibid._

He did not rest with an appeal to the reason of men. He deftly put in motion the human chord in democracy that vibrates to the poor and the struggling. He declared that he was young and unknown; that he was born, and would ever remain, in the most humble walks of life; that he had no wealthy or popular relations or friends to recommend him; that his case was thrown exclusively upon the independent voters of the county; and that, if elected, they would have conferred a favor upon him, for which he would be unremitting in his labors to compensate.[76]

[76] Lincoln's Speeches, 1, 4.

"But, if the good people," he concluded, "in their wisdom shall see fit to keep me in the background, I have been too familiar with disappointments to be very much chagrined."[77] Suffused with seeming humor and the pathos of half hidden tragedy this averment brings us face to face with a life reluctantly a.s.serting its individuality. It is hardly strange that one who p.r.o.nounces himself a companion of many disappointments when only twenty-three years old should soon get the name of "Old Abe." Sorrow had already left its traces on his heart and brain, so that the appellation was fitting. Still, he encountered uncomplainingly the exigencies of human events.

[77] _Ibid._

"The Democrats of New Salem worked for Lincoln out of their personal regard for him. That was the general understanding of the matter here at the time. In this he made no concession of principle whatever. He was as stiff as a man could be in his Whig doctrines. They did this for him simply because he was popular--because he was Lincoln."[78] Despite the efforts of his friends in New Salem, Lincoln was yet too little known to be elected a representative of Sangamon County.

[78] Nicolay & Hay, 1, 102-103.

One fact stands out boldly. Out of the total 300 votes cast in the precinct of New Salem, where he was best known, Lincoln received 277.[79] This did not pa.s.s without the scrutiny of those who studied the details of local politics. It revealed an amazing popularity. It was a defeat that practiced politicians knew betokened future triumphs. It marked the trail of a triumphing career in the common course of events.

With ardent pride, he later said of this defeat, that it was the only time he was ever beaten on a direct vote of the people.[80]

[79] Nicolay & Hay, 1, 109. Tarbell, 1, 91.

[80] Lincoln's Speeches, 1, 641.

John Calhoun, a stalwart Democrat, a surveyor in Sangamon County, and later infamous in Kansas history, needed a deputy. He selected Lincoln, who thereupon retreated to a farm of the schoolmaster Graham, where he studied a book on surveying. Struggling with the task for six weeks, he came forth prepared for his new work. He so mastered the subject that he became renowned for the accuracy of his measurements. "If I can be perfectly free," Lincoln is reported to have said, "in my political action, I will take the office, but if my sentiments or even expression of them is to be abridged in any way I would not have it or any other office."[81] This story is rather heroic. The work was of a business character, and politics did not dictate every act of Calhoun; he was willing to help a worthy ambitious young man. On the other hand, the store of Lincoln had "winked out"; he had nothing to do; he was eager to enter into an honorable vocation without an inquisition into the motives of Calhoun. It was a friendly act without any suggestion of political obligation; a kindly service that cemented a friends.h.i.+p never severed, though they met as rivals on the field of controversy. Even in the days when it was common to blacken the name of Calhoun, Lincoln never joined in the general hue and cry.[82]

[81] Herndon, 1, 111.

[82] Lamon, 148.

The acceptance of the office of postmaster at New Salem, under the administration of General Jackson, had no particular bearing upon the political views of Abraham Lincoln. The office was of so little monetary importance, that Lincoln carried its whole contents in his hat. He was the only man of standing in the community that could afford to give it abundant attention for the small pay. The office was doubtless freely tendered, the more freely as Lincoln was not of a partisan temperament.

It was of value to him. It enabled him to be of service and thus gain the good will of many. He readily made known the contents of letters to the illiterate. He also read aloud to the inhabitants gathered at the store, all the news from the recent papers.[83]

[83] _Ibid._

"The first time I ever saw Abe with a law-book in his hand," says Squire G.o.dbey, "he was sitting astride Jake Bale's wood pile in New Salem. Says I, 'Abe, what are you studying?'--'Law,' says Abe. 'Great G.o.d Almighty!'

responded I."[84] Lincoln states in his campaign biography that one of his fellow candidates, Major John T. Stuart, in his first canva.s.s encouraged him to study law, and that after election he borrowed books of Stuart and went at it in good earnest. He also states that he never studied with anybody.[85]

[84] _Ibid._, 140.

[85] Lincoln's Speeches, 1, 642.

During his legal apprentices.h.i.+p of three or four years, he was at the call of every citizen. He wrote deeds, contracts and other legal papers, and often appeared before the local Justice of the Peace. All this service was free. He was not forgotten by those he helped. Even when he moved to Springfield, his New Salem friends found that his counsel was ever at their disposal. His door was as open to poverty as to riches.

His study of the law widened the exercise of his sympathy and his usefulness. Then, too, every satisfied client was likely to become a political supporter.

It would have been amazing if Lincoln had come short of being the hero of New Salem. He won "golden opinions" from every cla.s.s of men. His popularity had a substantial basis. He rode into favor on the tide of service to his fellowmen. Wholesale dispenser of laughter and sympathy, clerk at a store of the village, athlete of renown, arbiter of fights and games, pilot on a memorable journey, a debater of singular skill, an orator commanding attention, a sincere student, a soldier of some distinction, popular postmaster, a skilled surveyor, and later a lawyer and legislator--master in all these relations, he proved his worth and value to the community. No man was more thoroughly gifted in the qualities of manhood and character that lodge in the human heart. He took up the harp of pioneer life and smote all "the vital chords with might." Attuned to the lowly sentiments, to the humble ways and the hards.h.i.+ps of the people of the prairie, his sympathies were as broad as the plains of Sangamon County. The drunkard, the outcast, the children and the women, the rowdy and the ruffian, the teacher, the store keeper, and politicians, all were his friends. He was odd in liking so many of his kind, in the universality of his sympathies.

While Lincoln acted from a "full warm heart," policy could not have dictated wiser conduct for a political career. Could genius have planned the course, it would not have added greater skill to its success. His very faults were the highway to public esteem. Almost every man, each woman and child in New Salem were gladdened by his honest hand shake, the cheer of his voice and the charm of his character.

CHAPTER IV

PRACTICAL LEGISLATOR

The fame of Lincoln as a law student and lawyer, as surveyor and postmaster, spread beyond New Salem, and the qualities that had attracted local distinction continued to find him admirers in a broader world. He steadily gained headway with an ever growing audience.

Naturally, the Whigs gave him concerted support as one of their candidates for the Legislature of 1834. In addition he made large inroads into the Democratic party. Its leaders sought to diminish the strength his name would add to the Whig ticket by adopting him as one of their candidates.[86] The flattering proposal was not swallowed by Lincoln. He realized that acceptance might involve estrangement from his own party--no small matter for one who was ambitious politically. He was wise enough to counsel with the leading Whigs and his personal friends as to the prudence of such an alliance. They advised an agreement. It is claimed by Lamon that Lincoln and Dawson made a bargain with the Democratic party that nearly demoralized the Whigs, decidedly weakening the vote of their favorite champion, Major Stuart.[87] In fact, the alliance was more disastrous to the enemy. The Whigs fared well, as it was, in the campaign; and in a year or two, Sangamon County, a former stronghold of Jackson, pa.s.sed into the control of the followers of Clay.

[86] Lamon, 155-156.

[87] _Ibid._, 156.

We have no evidence as to whether Lincoln was less a partisan in the campaign as the result of Democratic endors.e.m.e.nt. It was largely a "hand shaking" canva.s.s, a man to man combat. Affable to every one, Lincoln was master in this mode of securing support. On one occasion he came upon thirty men in a field. They declared they would not vote for a man unless he could make a hand. "Well, boys," said he, "if that is all, I am sure of your votes." Taking hold of the cradle, he led the way all the round with perfect ease, and the boys were satisfied.[88]

[88] Lamon, 156.

"The next day he was speaking at Berlin. He went from my house with Dr.