The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1883-01-05

resolved to lick Lincoln, but never accom-
plished it till they all attacked him at once,
and when they had knocked him down and
got him helpless his good huInor disabled
them from treating him with extreme harsh
ness.
He borrowed grammar while at this store,
and began to study English from the root up.
Lincoln once said to the owner OF the gram
mar: Il never knew any Of my fam y that
didn't have good sense, yet never knew one
of them that brought himself to much. I"
There was debating society started in New
way and tried to debate He began to take the
daily newspaper when he had not enough
money to buy his clothes, and subscribed for
The Louisville Journal
Finally Lincoln's employer failed from too
much ambition. The name that he brought
through life Of &Honest Abe" he got IN this
store.
The BlackiHawk war now broke out. Black
Hawk was chief of the Sacs, whose tribe
had been removed across the Mississippi Not
liking their new lands, they came back with
out leave and took their old hunting grounds
on the Rock river again. General Gaines
marched against Black Hawk and drove him
across the river, but in 1882, about the time
Andrew Jackson was running his second
term, Black Hawk came across the Mississippi
again, and the governor called for volunteers,
and Abe Lincoln enlisted and was elected cap
tain of company at Richland The COM
pany marched to Beardstown, on the illinois
river, and thence to the mouth of Rock river,
and, the war with the Indians proving inglo-
rious, many Of the volunteers left, but Lin
coin re-enlisted He was not in action, but he
served to the end of the war. Zach Taylor
was in the same little war.
He came out of the war % years old and was
run for the legislature from Sangamon county,
all his soldiers working for him; but, being
defeated, he thought seriously about learning
the blacksmith trade For while Lincoln
kept store, but had bad partner, and did
not do well
President Jackson appointed Lincoln post
master, and he liked the place because it let
him read newspapers taken by the neighbors.
His hat was the postofice for the letters.
Then John Calhoun, of Springfield, employed
Lincoln to be deputy land surveyor, and he
surveyed the town Of Petersburg, ILL.,, and
worked for more than year, his surveys
standing to this day as sound
Reading wherever he got chance, Lincoln.
In these simple pursuits became an authority
with everybody. One time Dick Yates, who
was going to Illinois college, was brought
home by another youth and taken to see Abe
Lincoln as the most remarkable young indi-
vidual in the vicinity, and they found Lin
coin lying fiat on his back on a cellar-door,
reading newspaper 1t was said that he.
could repeat nearly the whole of Burns, so
much he loved the plain, rough verse of that
self-made poet When people asked if Lin
coin was worth anything, the answer was,
mo, except friends, and he is richer in them
than any man here" Everybody wanted to
see him get along we'll Surveying around the
county of Sangamon made hun generally ac-
quainted, and he had got to be public speak
er-rough, slow and argumentative, but very
pleasing to the people. In 1884 he was elected
TO the legislature, where he found an old friend
of the Black Hawk war, Major John d. Stew
art, who was in fine practice at Springfield
Stewart lent him law books, which he took to
New S.lem and would read till he was out of
money and then go and survey, and old peo-
pie in New Salem used to see him sitting I'M
der an oak 70 on hill reading his books,
moving around the trunk of it to keep in the
shade as the sun circled. He became so alb
sorbed in his law books that he was very abb
sent-minded, would not see old friends as they
passed him, and some thought he was crazy.
As the time to go to the legislature approached
he started on foot, with his baggage on his
back, TO Vandalia, the capital Of the state, 100
miles distant.
In the legislature he was dressed in Jeans
with surtout over it He made no speeches.
but listened, and watched, and walked home at
the close of the session. In the campaign for
reelection, in 1886, he made speech in the
court house at Springfield, which developed
his astonishing power of slowly welding his
argument and encircling his opponent with it,
putting in wit as well as strength, and his fig
ure heightened and Strengthened as he went
on, and his dreamy eyes took mild flash of
fire, and the people said to each other: @Who
would have thought that Lincoln was an ora
tor?" The nine members from Sangamon
county were so long that they were called "the
long nine, all being over six feet high, and
Lincoln the tallest Of all.
In the legislature that year were General
McClernand, Jesse K. Dubois, General James
Shields, Stephen A. Douglas, John J. Hardin
and William A. Richardson. Abe Lincoln was
considered ono of the most substantial men in
the legislature Lincoln and his colleagues
demanded the removal of the capitol from
Vandalia to Springfield, and accomplished it
by omnibusing with the system of public i'm
provements demanded by the rest of the state
He was then only q years old Douglas was
% years old and the youngest man in the
house. Lincoln in this legislature took posi-
ton against the establishment of slavery in
Illinois. He walked during this session 100
miles and back to Vandalia again. The other
eight members of the delegation were on
horseback, and Lincoln walked behind on
foot
Major Stewart Of Springfield, now made him
a proposition to become his law partner, and
the people then felt grateful to Lincoln for
having assisted to give them the state capital,
April, 1887. 1t was almost the anniversary of
his death, twenty-four years later. He went
to Springfield with apprehension and anxiety,
having nothing and freshly admitted to the
bar He left New Salem, which was full of
his friends, with regret At Springfield he
boarded with William Butler. The Springfield
people in 1888 sent him to the legislature, and
there he was considered the leading Wing in
the house. He ran for speaker and was de-
feated by one vote In the debates he was one
of the most active men. One of his speeches
ct this period described his opponent as like a
man who fired at squirrel. and having
missed bin eSvoral tmea- HtartAd t~ '~----G
gate the reason, and found that he had been
firing at a louise on his eyebrow. The mem-
bers laughed his opponent out of hearing.
Lincoln now began to ride the judicial cir
cults. He was what was called case lawyer,
not deeply grounded in the law, but with
abundant Justice and common sense, always
weak on weak side and hence he was slow
TO take case where there was not right and
reason. He was great advocate, however,
astonishing before a jury, his lucidity, fair
ness and skill making the jury delighted to
hear him. He often showed the melancholy
constitution which weighed him down in sub
sequent years He got the name of the San
CANON Chief in the legislature, and was
sent there again in 1910, and that year Spring
field received the legislature, the archives and
the Offices. he was again defeated for
speaker. and never again ran for the legisla-
ture Gen. James Shields challenged him on
account Of poem that woman had pub
lished in a Springfield paper whom Lincoln
desired to protect he selected broadswords,
and began to take exercise in Springfield and
they met on Bloody island, in the Mississippi
river, opposite St Louis, but reconciliation
was effected there. In 1910 he left Mr.. Stewart
and went into law firm with Judge Logan,
Of Springfield. In 1912, at the age of thirty
Hon. Robert S. Todd, of Lexington, KY,
| where the bride had lived several years. Nine.
teen years afterward he was president of the
United States.