The National tribune., 1909-01-28

himself on the meager income Of the
1 fees of a Clerk of the County Court
| Harrison was not at that time identified
| with any leading political principles
| but received a large proportion of the
votes which had in the previous elec-
ton been cast for Henry Clay and John
| Quincy Adams.
Jackson's candidate was Martin Van
| Buren, of New York, who had been his
Vice President, and who represented
the Jackson ideas in their entirety. The
vote in the Electoral College in 1885
i was as follows:
IN Buren, Democrat. .......... 17C
". H Harrison, Whig. g.......... 73
H. L. White, Whig. g............... 26
Daniel Webster, Whig. .......... II
w. p. Mangum, Whig. ....... II
+ 1t will be seen from Lincoln's letter,
given above, that he had advanced
ideas on the widening of suffrage. He
would extend the vote to all whites
who paid taxes or bore arms The
question of universal suffrage was. un-
der Jackson's inspiration, becoming a
fragrant issue. Suffrage was still strong
ly restricted in the Eastern States, but
in the West the movement in favor of
giving every reputable man in the COM
munity vote was gaining ground,
which would be expected from the gen.
eral level upon which men stood in q
new country. 1t will be seen. however,
that Lincoln would confine The suffrage
to those who helped bear the burden
of Government, an important reserva-
ton. AS for the rest, he profeSsed i'm
plicit obedience to the will of the peo-
pie, which was part of the Jacksonian
thunder, and he struck the popular
chord by his utterances in favor of in
ternal improvements.
IlIinois's Speculative Delirium.
The new State of Illinois was then
entering upon what became almost
delirium Of sanguine expectation,
period crowded with the widest illu-
sions, most extravagant schemes and
reckless speculation, which ended in
heartbreak and disaster. 1t did not re-
Quire an eXuberant fancy to see in the
imperial new State a substantial basis
for a wealth beyond the dreams of
avarice. Its prairies.- stretching from
horizon to horizon, were of soil richer
than that age-old granary of the world,
the Nile, and five times as great in ex-
tent. Along the whole of one side Of
the State flowed the mighty Mississippi,
the artery of the Nations commerce.
To the south Illinois was bounded by
the majestic Ohio, and to the north
the land bordered upon the still more
majestic chain of Great Lakes. The
prairies were watered by large rivers
in their courses to join the still greater
streams, and over all bent a genial sky
smiling on fruitful land, intermediate
between the bitter cold of the North
and the burning heat of the South. 1t
was region favored of Heaven, where
every man and woman could get the
best that life offered. 1t appealed pow
erfully to a man who had struggled
with the granite rocks of New England,
the grudging soils of Virginia, the rugged
sleeps of Pennsylvania. and the dense
forests of the East, which eXacted the
toll of mans life before the acres
were really fit for cultivation. Here
there were no rocks to blast out of the
way, no obdurate tree roots to break
the husbandman's heart and strength,
no sterile clay and sand requiring nurs-
ing, coaxing and fertiliZing before 1t
would bring forth. For hundreds of
miles to the eastward of the Mississippi
River, for hundreds of miles from Lake
Michigan on the north to the Ohio Riv-
er on the south, stretched, with scarce
ly a break, the level of the alluvial
richness of the far-away mountains
brought down by the rushing streams
and deposited in a layer 80 feet deep
OF inexhaustible fertility. Illinois had
55, 200 square miles of this soil under
Its skies. watered by the Illinois, Kan
kakee, vermilion, Sangamon and Kas-
big as Holland and equal to the whole
area of England and Wales There
seemed absolutely no limit to the pos
rather, the probabilities. which
this garden spot offered to humanity.
1t Is no wonder, then, that mems
minds became infiamed with anticipa-
ton. The fever first struck the State
at the forlorn little village of Chicago.
at the mouth of the Des PLANES, which
at once became a boom city, with cor
ner lots in mire and morass inhabited
only by crawfish and frogs. selling at
prices which might have obtained for
choice locations in Philadelphia and
Baltimore. It must be kept In mind
that most Of these prices were on credit.
and people grew very rich on paper
by selling lots to one another.
Lincoln L. Elected.
The contagion spread rapidly thru
the State, with future emporiums of
commerce being plated all the way to
Cairo. There was an unprecedented
rush of immigrants to take UP the land
and justify its hopes, and the Legisla-
ture of Illinois became hotbed for all
these unsubstantial visions of future
greatnenss. Young Lincoln became a
member of that Legislature, and, level
headed as he was, shared In the In
fatuation. He was elected by hand
some majority, after an active canvas,
in which he showed unusual ability. He
went everywhere, met every opponent
returned every blow leyeled at him,
invariably coming out ahead in the
joint debates, intellectual tournaments
in which the people delighted. One of
these passages at arms with an oppo-
nent worthy of his steel is preserved.
A man named Forquer, also running
for the Legislature, had put on his
house in Springfield the first lightning
rod ever seen in that section. He was