and Lincoln was among those who enlisted. To his gratification and honour the volunteers, who had the privilege of choosing their own captains, chose him as theirs.

The war was short and swift, the enlistment only for a few weeks. They went to discover the enemy, found him, and then let themselves be discovered in turn by him, much to the enemy's advantage, for several days. The volunteers ran and left the country to the pillage of the Indians. More volunteers were assembled, re-enlistments were taken, among which was Lincoln again, who this time went as a private in a peculiarly unmilitary organization called the Spy Battalion, which seemed to have all the privileges of a body of young schoolboys out on a picnic. This time the army, plus the Spy Battalion, left no chance for the red men at all. They found Black Hawk's camp on the Wisconsin River, and inflicted a signal defeat on the whole army, pursued its broken remnants, and brought on another battle called the battle of the Bad Axe, which in reality was a slaughter of the few remaining and discouraged Indians who were fighting an army in front and a great river behind.

Of this war, and the part Lincoln played in it, he himself has left a famous memorandum in a speech in Congress, which destroyed forever all attempts to throw military glory upon his head. It was the call of youth that sent him out into the war. It was also a young, zealous patriotism, a crude form of centring the welfare of the community around its immediate needs; but of militancy and of military discipline this Western youth was delightfully free. Let him describe it for himself:

"Did you know, Mr Speaker, I am a military hero? In the days of the Black Hawk war I fought, bled and came away. I was not at Stillman's defeat, but I was about as near it as General Cass was to Hull's surrender; and, like him, I saw the place very soon afterwards. It is quite certain I did not break my sword, for I had none to break, but I bent my musket pretty badly on one occasion. If General Cass went in advance of me picking whortleberries, I guess I surpassed him in charges on the wild onions. If he saw any live fighting Indians it was more than I did, but I had a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes; and though I never fainted from loss of blood, I can truly say I was often very hungry. If ever I should conclude to doff whatever our Democratic friends may suppose there is of black-cockade Federalism about me, and thereupon they shall take me up as their candidate for the Presidency, I protest that they shall not make fun of me, as they have of General Cass, by attempting to write me into a military hero."

The new world lay open before the youth of twentytwo returned from the war. He had no position, no calling, no post. He had his brawny arms, and before him lay the primitive frontier town of New Salem, where he had been grocery clerk and mill overseer and pilot a few months before. Only one shred was left to him of that past. This was his candidature for the State Legislature. He had made his way back slowly from the scene of war, tramping on foot, for his horse was stolen, or paddling up the Illinois River. There was a serious practicality about him. He knew the value of money and economy. The comrades bought a little

canoe with which they paddled home, and carefully sold it again when its service was no longer needed. In this way, slowly, as if half fearing the sudden plunge into the world which he was about to take, he came back to New Salem, just ten days before the August elections.

His candidature had been almost forgotten; only a local newspaper, in giving the list of the candidates, remarked that Captain Lincoln " was now risking his life at the front." The gallant captain returned and threw himself into politics. Strange to say, the canvass did not daunt this youth of the backwoods. He had argued often enough when keeping store for Offutt, and stump-speaking was his forte even in the old days on the farm, where he would drop his plough in the cornfield to imitate a wandering preacher's sermon, or harangue in not too polite terms on any subject that the other hands called for. He knew how to speak, and he knew how to maintain his attitude as a speaker in this frontier canvass. The audience around the platform were not always docile. Sometimes they came because of the beer given, and not a few would show their disposition in true Clary Grove Boy fashion. At one time it was said that the young candidate saw in the midst of his argument a friend who was not being well handled by the crowd with whom he was holding a discussion aside, whereat Lincoln, descending from his rostrum, threw the enemy some ten feet, and returned, picking up his thread at the point where he had left off.

The youth had independence of thought as well as of action. The whole State was controlled by the Democrats "whole-hog Jackson men" they called themselves

arrogantly. No one who was not true to the last letter of the Jackson policy, who did not " go the whole hog," could hope for election or office. Yet he announced himself as a Whig, an avowed Clay man. His principles were not national or broad, yet, local as they were, they rested upon a basis capable of expansion. He stood for what was then called the "American system," which meant the national bank, a high productive tariff and internal improvements. In all this there was a germ of nationalism, new in the West.

He was defeated, not because his principles were too radical for Democrat or Whig, for both Democrat and Whig were shouting the same slogan of internal improvements, for which Lincoln also came forward. That he preferred the improvement of the Sangamon River to the laying of railroads was not held up against him as advocating unorthodox policies. He was defeated because he was unknown, young, inexperienced, and because he had only ten days with which to canvass in a district of about one thousand miles. Where he was known, in New Salem, he received an almost unanimous vote, all but thirteen voting for him, and of the thirteen only three were directly against him, the other ten were abstainers. Gratifying results to a youth of twenty

two.

But it did not give him employment. He thought for a while of blacksmithing. He did not want to go back to the farm, and this was a trade which would keep him in the city, and for which his great strength seemed to fit him. But his experience with Offutt made it easier for him to turn to shopkeeping again. There was a grocery store owned by two brothers called Rowan

and James Herndon. They were selling out, and a man called Berry bought James's half, and Lincoln bought the other, though neither Lincoln nor Berry had money with which to buy anything. The exchange was made in the easy-going frontier fashion, with promissory notes. Neither Berry nor Lincoln were interested in the work, Berry preferring to drink and Lincoln to read. Affairs did not go well from the beginning, and to the minds of the firm it seemed necessary to recoup themselves by an extension of business. They bought another grocery store. This opportunity came when the Clary Grove Boys broke the windows and wrecked the store owned by a man called Radford. Radford, as he was gazing at the ruins, was hailed by a passer-by called Green, who, after the usual greeting, offered to buy him out for $400. The hasty bargain completed, Green went to Lincoln, who, being in possession of a similar store, was in a position to know whether he had overpaid or done well. Lincoln assessed the goods and offered to buy it for $600. All these transactions went on without any money being passed through the hands of any of the parties. Lincoln went off with a bill of sale and Green with a promissory note. An almost complete monopoly of the grocery business in New Salem did not help them to prosper, the one remaining store competing too skilfully. After a few months, in March, they took out a licence to sell liquor. That was the undoing of the business, for it placed temptation too close to Berry. He remained indoors and tippled. They hired a clerk to sell the liquor, who said that when he came there were very little groceries, but whisky was sold over the counter at six cents a glass