The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-04-07
HoNEsr AnRAHAM L1NcoLN.
some of His Early Failures in Reaching the
Public Ear.

this city, on occasion OF the great hepublican
mass meeting of that year. Here | need not
Iinger long, as l had no personal intercourse
with him, and all the incidents connected
with his share in the meeting are within the
recollection of many who hear me. l may
say, however, for the encouragement OF
young orators, whose hearts have sunk within
them as they saw their audiences melt away
before they were regularly dismissed, that at
this meeting the fascinating voice and face
mud style and name, and a certain some
thing in the compound you can never
describe, of Owen Lovejoy, stole away
from even so popular a speaker
as Lincoln almost his entire crowd,
leaving only the old deacons and elders of
his political church, who were just bound
not to 60 out of meeting before the close of
the services. | was then a candidate for office,
and therefore felt myself peculiarly RESPONSE
bic to distinguished guests for the rood be-
havior of my constituents. 1 we'll remember
with what pain l saw the incipient stampede
of the unapprecialive swine, among whom
he vainly lowered his pearls of wit and
wisdom, and then and there-borne onward
by the rush-I stampeded myself. Think of
that, young man, when you conclude your
harangue to empty benches.
The second occasion in 1856 was on the
East Saturday preceding the Tuesday OF cleo
lion. The catastrophe at the mass-meeting,
IN his ill-starred rivalry with Lovejoy. was a
perfect ovation compared with the one that
followed. l shall never forget it. As have
over and over again informed you, your
humble speaker was candidate in that MEM
orable campaign. In that capacity it be-
came my duty ex oficio to help my friends,
Norton, Mcintosh, and others, get up, man,
equip and conduct the meetings. In an
evil hour we appointed a meeting, the
meeting, the grand final closing-up-the-
ranks rally before the battle for that fatal
Saturday night. 1t was to be in the court
room rs the courtroom was before the alter
II - IL NJ - L
come up from Springfield and serve as the
principal speaker. II the old pub. func.
whom we were then after had been after us,
in league with old Nick, the twain could not
have contrived things better to secure a most
transcendent failure. The night was cold,
dark, diabolical. Old Boreas howled around
the building and ratified the loose windows
like some old Democratic hummer who had
been hired to break up the meeting. The
room was dirty, dingy, ill-furnIshed, ill-seat-
ed, uncomfortable, and, that nothing should
be lacking to make our misery complete, was
dimly lighted by a feeble lamp, with a few
dismal tallow dips, that just illuminated the
darkness enough to make it plainly visible.
There was little or no fire in the stove,
the committee depending upon the sponta-
neous combustion of a crowded and enthusi-
astic audience to supply caloric. Worst of
all, the people were tired out. They had
been surfeited to nausea with topics of the
campaign, Kansas and Nebraska, slavery,
squatter sovereignty. free soil and the Mis-
eoIri compromise. Even fanaticism gasped
exhausted.
l never was a prophet, but occasionally I
have my presentiments, and l felt it in my
bones that the meeting was to be o failure.
Norton, by whom Mr.. Lincoln was enter
tanned. and myself were to escort him to the
courtroom. a duty which we delayed to the
last moment, in order that when he first saw
mis- crowd he might see the whole of it. more
mr. lose and mot nndura the nrOtrnrfoH tpr.
ture of watching it dribble in. Alas! / wish
we could also have saved him from the tor
ture of seeing it drihble out,
At last the inevitable moment arrived,
and we boldly faced the music. The actual
facts exceeded our fondest anticipatiOns.
An audience OF. say sevety-fve to one nun
dred were thinly scattered over the dirty
seats, each auditor colde than the weather.
As we entered not a cheer, not a motion Of
the leaden feet-no more of a welcome than
we could have expected in lakewood cemete-
ry. He got up; not n ripple of applause
greeted him on rising, He waded in; not n
hearty cheer, as l remember, encouraged
him throughout his whole speech. Demos
themes himself must have shivered under
this wettest of wet blankets. The partial
cause of this reception, however, was in the
character OF the speech itself. His greatest
reputation on the stump had been gained as
a funny man, Astounding in wit and humor,
quaint sayings and amusing little stories"
On this occasion Mr.. Lincoln, e~ssaying q
higher flight, completely expunged from his
address the faintest trace OF his usual style.
1t was thoroughly prepared, cold, systematic,
unimpassioned argument, with a
condensed history of the politics of slavery
from the origin of the government-the first
study, l suppose, of that speech at Cooper
Institute in New York three years afterward
which first gave him his assured national
reputation and made his nomination to the
presidency possible.
But the audience did not know that.
Soon, too Sooh, it commenced showing signs
of impatience. Then it began to stink. and
steal. and side, and tiptoe through the aisles,
first by units and then by tens-thank good
ness, it could not be by hundreds. When
Abraham Lincoln closed that speech I do not
believe there were to exceed twenty-five per-
sons III the room. Think OF that, my sensitive
and oft-desponding young Cicero, and be
comforted.
On his way to Norton's house I bore him
company as far as my own residence. |
hated to speak or even think of the wretched
affair, but how could l help it? | taxed my
swimming brain for something TO say which
might prove balsamic to our outraged guest.
But my first effort was a signal failure. Re
ferring to the smallness and apathy of the
audience, I spoke of the many reasons which
had occurred TO produce the result, adding
cheeriiy that | supposed an old stager like
aim q veteran in the vicissitudes of political
campaigning, became sort O callous to such
mishaps. Well do 1 remember his reply:
That isn't exactly SO with me" said he. II
Just reckon I'm one OF the thinnest-skinned
men to any marks of impatience in my audi
ence you ever saw, and l never shall get over
it." That settled il, and l dropped the sub
ject in despair.
After 1856 | saw Mr.. Lincoln again in the
winter of 1857. During that session the po-
a,tical complexion OF the House depended
upon one or more contested seats. The Re-
publican clerk of the preceding House, hay
ing more zeal than knowledge, conceived the
folly of attempting to call the roll and init
ate the organization himself, in the interest
Of his party. 1t was not only 4 crime. but a
blunder; it was worse than a blunder, it was