for his party the military hero of the hour, he aided in forming a Taylor Club in Congress.

He attended the National Convention at Philadelphia which nominated General Taylor for President. To the same end, he delivered on the floor, in the midst of the campaign, a rousing stump speech, which set the House in an uproar of laughter and applause. A press correspondent pictured him as he worked his way down the aisle, talking and gesticulating, until he reached the clerk's desk, only to retreat to his starting point and then march down again.

As the campaign advanced, there was a call for him from Massachusetts, where the Whigs were troubled by the rise of the Free Soil party, standing for the policy of keeping the soil of all the territories of the United States free from slavery. It was a novel experience for him to speak to audiences in the staid and settled East, and to see and hear this "capital specimen of a Sucker Whig," as one of the Massachusetts papers described him, was a novelty to the New Englanders.

A lively demand for his services sprang up in the Old Bay State, and his stay there was crowded with engagements. Instead of the orator in a swallowtail, to which the people were used, they saw a prairie giant in a black alpaca coat, who, in begin

ning, would roll up his sleeves, then roll back his cuffs, next loosen his tie, and finally pull it off in the melting heat of the weather and of his fervid oratory.

In Boston he spoke with William H. Seward of New York, and at the hotel, after the meeting, he remarked: "Governor Seward, I have been thinking about what you said in your speech. I reckon you are right. We have got to deal with this slavery question and got to give much more attention to it hereafter."

For the first time he found himself in a community where there was an active, organized sentiment on that question and he felt the influence of his surroundings. His party had nominated Taylor, a southern slaveholder, and was ignoring all the problems connected with slavery. Lincoln, however, face to face with the Free Soilers in Massachusetts, plainly saw that the politicians could not dodge the subject much longer and that the great conflict must come.

He was not a candidate for reëlection to Congress, because it was the custom in his district to give a member only one term, and besides his opposition to the Mexican War had made it impossible for him to win at the polls. Returning to Washington the following winter, he distinguished the closing year of his service by introducing a well-thoughtout measure against slavery.

UNIV. OF

From the collection of Frederick H. Meserve, Esq., New York City

LINCOLN AT THIRTY-NINE

There was a slave mart in sight of the Capitol, "a sort of negro livery stable," Lincoln said, "where droves of negroes were collected and temporarily kept, and finally taken to southern markets, precisely like droves of horses." To remove this spectacle, he offered a bill abolishing the slave trade in the District of Columbia and for the gradual abolition of slavery there, with compensation for the slaveholders.

For this bill he labored earnestly and at one time succeeded in bringing together the opponents of slavery and the then Mayor of Washington in support of it. Afterward, however, southern sentiment was aroused against it, the Mayor withdrew his indorsement, and Lincoln's bill was laid on the table, where it slumbered until it was awakened, a dozen years later, by the clash of arms in the Civil War.

As the inauguration of President Taylor drew near, the only Whig representative from Illinois had a busy time. He was on the committee in charge of the inaugural ball, at which he lost his hat and was obliged to walk home bareheaded. The office-seekers under the new administration pressed hard for his influence. He acted in this matter with dignity and fairness.

In the end, he sought for himself the appointment as Commissioner of the General Land Office.