The Story of Young Abraham Lincoln Part 13

But their hero, with pale face and flas.h.i.+ng eyes, smiled as he shook his head at them, and calmly answered the insulting speech of his opponent.

Among other things he said:

"The gentleman commenced his speech by saying 'this young man,' alluding to me, 'must be taken down.' I am not so young in years as I am in the tricks and trades of a politician, but"--pointing at Forquer--"live long or die young, I would rather die now than, like the gentleman, change my politics, and with the change receive an office worth three thousand dollars a year, and then feel obliged to erect a lightning-rod over my house to protect a guilty conscience from an offended G.o.d!"

This stroke blasted Forquer's political prospects forever, and satisfied the Clary's Grove Boys that it was even better than all the things they would have done to him.

ABE LINCOLN AS A "BLOATED ARISTOCRAT"

On another occasion Lincoln's wit suddenly turned the tables on an abusive opponent. One of the Democratic orators was Colonel d.i.c.k Taylor, a dapper, but bombastic little man, who rode in his carriage, and dressed richly. But, politically, he boasted of belonging to the Democrats, "the bone and sinew, the hard-fisted yeomanry of the land,"

and sneered at those "rag barons," those Whig aristocrats, the "silk stocking gentry!" As Abe Lincoln, the leading Whig present, was dressed in Kentucky jeans, coa.r.s.e boots, a checkered s.h.i.+rt without a collar or necktie, and an old slouch hat, Colonel Taylor's attack on the "bloated Whig aristocracy" sounded rather absurd.

Once the colonel made a gesture so violent that it tore his vest open and exposed his elegant s.h.i.+rt ruffles, his gold watch-fob, his seals and other ornaments to the view of all. Before Taylor, in his embarra.s.sment, could adjust his waistcoat, Lincoln stepped to the front exclaiming:

"Behold the hard-fisted Democrat! Look at this specimen of 'bone and sinew'--and here, gentlemen," laying his big work-bronzed hand on his heart and bowing obsequiously--"here, at your service, is your 'aristocrat!' Here is one of your 'silk stocking gentry!'" Then spreading out his great bony hands he continued, "Here is your 'rag baron' with his lily-white hands. Yes, I suppose I am, according to my friend Taylor, a 'bloated aristocrat!'"

The contrast was so ludicrous, and Abe had quoted the speaker's stock phrases with such a marvelous mimicry that the crowd burst into a roar, and Colonel d.i.c.k Taylor's usefulness as a campaign speaker was at an end.

Small wonder, then, that young Lincoln's wit, wisdom and power of ridicule made him known in that campaign as one of the greatest orators in the State, or that he was elected by such an astonis.h.i.+ng plurality that the county, which had always been strongly Democratic, elected Whig representatives that year.

After Herculean labors "the Long Nine" succeeded in having the State capital removed from Vandalia to Springfield. This move added greatly to the influence and renown of its "prime mover," Abraham Lincoln, who was feasted and "toasted" by the people of Springfield and by politicians all over the State. After reading "Blackstone" during his political campaigns, young Lincoln fell in again with Major John T. Stuart, whom he had met in the Black Hawk War, and who gave him helpful advice and lent him other books that he might "read law."

THE LINCOLN-STONE PROTEST

Although he had no idea of it at the time, Abraham Lincoln took part in a grander movement than the removal of a State capital. Resolutions were adopted in the Legislature in favor of slavery and denouncing the hated "abolitionists"--or people who spoke and wrote for the abolition of slavery. It required true heroism for a young man thus to stand out against the legislators of his State, but Abe Lincoln seems to have thought little of that. The hatred of the people for any one who opposed slavery was very bitter. Lincoln found one man, named Stone, who was willing to sign a protest against the resolutions favoring slavery, which read as follows:

"Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having pa.s.sed both branches of the General a.s.sembly at its present session, the undersigned hereby protest against the pa.s.sage of the same.

"They believe that the inst.i.tution of slavery is founded on both injustice and bad policy.

[After several statements of their belief concerning the powers of Congress, the protest closed as follows:]

"The difference between their opinions and those contained in the said resolution is their reason for entering this protest.

"DAN STONE, "A. LINCOLN."

CHAPTER XIV

MOVING TO SPRINGFIELD

New Salem could no longer give young Lincoln scope for his growing power and influence. Within a few weeks after the Lincoln-Stone protest, late in March, 1837, after living six years in the little village which held so much of life and sorrow for him, Abe sold his surveying compa.s.s, marking-pins, chain and pole, packed all his effects into his saddle-bags, borrowed a horse of his good friend "Squire" Bowling Green, and reluctantly said good-bye to his friends there. It is a strange fact that New Salem ceased to exist within a year from the day "Honest Abe"

left it. Even its little post office was discontinued by the Government.

Henry C. Whitney, who was a.s.sociated with Lincoln in those early days, describes Abe's modest entry into the future State capital, with all his possessions in a pair of saddle-bags, and calling at the store of Joshua F. Speed, overlooking "the square," in the following dialogue:

Speed--"h.e.l.lo, Abe, just from Salem?"

Lincoln--"Howdy, Speed! Yes, this is my first show-up."

Speed--"So you are to be one of us?"

Lincoln--"I reckon so, if you will let me take pot luck with you."

Speed--"All right, Abe; it's better than Salem."

Lincoln--"I've been to Gorman's and got a single bedstead; now you figure out what it will cost for a tick, blankets and so forth."

Speed (after figuring)--"Say, seventeen dollars or so."

Lincoln (countenance paling)--"I had no _idea_ it would cost half that, and I--I can't pay it; but if you can wait on me till Christmas, and I make anything, I'll pay; if I don't, I can't."

Speed--"I can do better than that; upstairs I sleep in a bed big enough for two, and you just come and sleep with me till you can do better."

Lincoln (brightening)--"Good, where is it?"

Speed--"Upstairs behind that pile of barrels--turn to the right when you go up."

Lincoln (returning joyously)--"Well, Speed, I've moved!"

STUART & LINCOLN

Major Stuart had grown so thoroughly interested in Lincoln, approving the diligence with which the young law student applied himself to the books which he had lent him, that, after his signal success in bringing about the removal of the State capital to Springfield, the older man invited the younger to go into partners.h.i.+p with him.

Abe had been admitted to the bar the year before, and had practiced law in a small way before Squire Bowling Green in New Salem. Greatly flattered by the offer of such a man, Abe gladly accepted, and soon after his arrival in Springfield this sign, which thrilled the junior partner's whole being, appeared in front of an office near the square:

------------------------------ | STUART & LINCOLN | | ATTORNEYS-AT-LAW | ------------------------------

"I NEVER USE ANYONE'S MONEY BUT MY OWN"

After a while Lincoln left Speed's friendly loft and slept on a lounge in the law office, keeping his few effects in the little old-fas.h.i.+oned trunk pushed out of sight under his couch.

One day an agent of the Post Office Department came in and asked if Abraham Lincoln could be found there. Abe arose and, reaching out his hand, said that was his name. The agent then stated his business; he had come to collect a balance due the Post Office Department since the closing of the post office at New Salem.

The young ex-postmaster looked puzzled for a moment, and a friend, who happened to be present, hastened to his rescue with, "Lincoln, if you are in need of money, let us help you."

Abe made no reply, but, pulling out his little old trunk, he asked the agent how much he owed. The man stated the amount, and he, opening the trunk, took out an old cotton cloth containing coins, which he handed to the official without counting, and it proved to be the exact sum required, over seventeen dollars, evidently the very pieces of money Abe had received while acting as postmaster years before!

After the department agent had receipted for the money and had gone out, Mr. Lincoln quietly remarked:

"I never use anyone's money but my own."