Evening star., 1948-02-01

"a little speech" which he had pre-
pared for delivery before the House,
but with failure of a chance to get
the floor interest in the subject
has passed away, too" He had
failed to find any plaid stockings
that would fit Eddy's dear little
feet"
six Democrats From Illinois
One letter indicates the incipient
stage of Mrs. Lincoln's extravaganza
which during her White House days
led to the incurrence of secret debts
and torment from a train of credi-
tors. After Mrs. Lincoln had left
Washington her husband wrote her
that two firms had dunned him for
purchases made by her. You told
me when you went away" he added,
there was nothing left unpaid y
1t was characteristic of the indul-
gent and imperturbable attitude
that he was obliged to assume to-
ward her during unhappier days
that lay ahead.
The Illinois delegation in the
Thirtieth Congress was comprised of
six Democrats and one Wing, Abra-
ham Lincoln. Four of them were
born in Kentucky-William A. Rich
ardson, Orlando B. Ficklin, John A.
McClernand and Lincoln. They had
served together in the rickety legis-
lative halls in Vandalia where the
General Assembly of Illinois met.
Richardson, later Senator, was
known as the most aggressive pro-
moter of the political fortunes of
Stephen A. Douglas. McClernand's
career was blemished by dismissal
from the Union Army under charges
of sending to the Northern press re-
leases which exaggerated his mill
tary exploits. Another Illinois COL
league of Lincoln, Long John"
Wentworth, so called from his height
of feet inches, was to gain dis
tinction during his subsequent serv-
ice in Congress and as an editor of
a Chicago paper
Jeff Davis in Senate
In the House was Alexander H.
Stephens, for whom Lincoln formed
an enduring attachment. After lis
tening to "the little, slim, pale-faced,
consumptive man" from Georgia,
whose struggle up from obscurity
had been so like his own, Lincoln
wrote to Herndon, his law partner
back in Springfield, that sit was the
very best speech of an hours length
I ever heard. My old, withered, dry
eyes are full of tears yet"
On the day Lincoln took the oath
of Office in the House, December 6,
1847, a slender Mississippi ofhcer
bearing wounds and glory received
in the Mexican War, from which he
had recently returned, stood on
crutches to take the oath of a
Senator. Both had been born in
Kentucky on dates separated by
only eight months, and in places
within 100 miles of each other. And
there is a tradition that they once
met on the Illinois prairies on
muster day during the Black Hawk
War. Before Abraham Lincoln and
Jefferson Davis, as future Presidents
of two governments and comman-
ders in chief of two contending
American armies, lay an ordeal
which would involve many other
members of the Thirtieth Congress.
The verdict of history is that
Lincoln's career as a Federal legis-
lator was a failure. His first speech
in presenting his spot resolution
in which he called upon President
Polk to identify and submit proof
that the Mexican War was precipi-
tated, as he claimed, by an aggressor
enemy shedding "the blood of our
fellow citizens on our own soil had
passed unnoticed in Washington.
In Illinois, however, the State from
which a former Congressman, John
]. Hardin, had marched away to-
fall at Buena Vista, and popular
and gallant James Shields had gone
to be carried severely wounded from