Although the economy was booming, the business struggled and Lincoln eventually sold his share. That March he entered politics, running for the Illinois General Assembly, advocating navigational improvements on the Sangamon River. He could draw crowds as a raconteur, but he lacked the requisite formal education, powerful friends, and money, and lost the election.Lincoln briefly interrupted his campaign to serve as a captain in the Illinois Militia during the Black Hawk War. When he returned to his campaign and first speech, he observed a supporter in the crowd under attack, grabbed the assailant by his 'neck and the seat of his trousers' and tossed him. Lincoln finished eighth out of 13 candidates (the top four were elected), though he received 277 of the 300 votes cast in the New Salem precinct.Lincoln served as New Salem's postmaster and later as county surveyor, but continued his voracious reading, and he decided to become a lawyer.