Mr. Lincoln. He took his seat on the first Monday of December, 1847.

Although, like a majority of the Whig party opposed to the declaration of war with Mexico by the President, he never failed to vote for any resolution or bill which had for its object the sending of supplies to our troops who had been ordered to the seat of war.

He supported measures for the "improvement" of western rivers and harbors, and on several occasions voted for the reception of petitions and memorials in favor of the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia; against the slave trade, and advocating the prohibition of slavery in the territory that might be acquired from Mexico.

On the seventeenth of February, 1848, Mr. Lincoln voted for a loan bill reported by the Committee of Ways and Means, authorizing the raising of sixteen millions of dollars to enable the Government to provide for its debts, principally incurred in Mexico.

On the nineteenth of June he first had an opportunity to record his views upon the tariff question, by voting in favor of a resolution instructing the Committee of Ways and Means to inquire into the expediency of reporting a bill increasing the duties on foreign luxuries of all kinds, and on "such foreign manufactures as are now coming into ruinous competition with American labor." He subsequently voted for a resolution instructing the Committee of Ways and Means to inquire into the expediency of reporting a tariff bill based upon the principles of the tariff of 1842.

On the 28th of July, 1848, the celebrated bill establishing territorial governments for Oregon, California and New Mexico, the peculiar feature of which was a provision prohibiting the Legislatures of California and New Mexico from passing laws in favor of or against slavery, and pro

viding that the laws of the Legislatures should be subject to the sanction of Congress, was argued, and after an exciting debate, laid on the table, Mr. Lincoln voting with Mr. Webster, Mr. Corwin, and other illustrious colleagues for this disposition of the bill. He opposed the annexation of Texas, and vigorously urged and supported the "Wilmot Proviso."

In the Whig National Convention of 1848, Mr. Lincoln was an active delegate, and earnestly advocated the selection of General Zachary Taylor as the nominee for the Presidency, and during the canvass which followed, he traversed the States of Indiana and Illinois, speaking on behalf of the choice of his party.

In 1849 he was a candidate before the Legislature of Illinois for United States Senator, but his political opponents being in the majority, General Shields was chosen. From that time until 1854, he confined himself almost exclusively to the practice of his profession, but in that year he again entered the political arena, taking an earnest part in the campaign which resulted in victory for the first time to the opposition of the Democratic party in Illinois, and gave that State a Republican Legislature, and sent Lyman Trumbull to the United States Senate, During the canvass, Mr. Lincoln was frequently brought into controversy upon the stand with Stephen A. Douglas, with whom he had formed acquaintance while a member of the Legislature.

Mr. Lincoln was, the following year, offered the nomination for Governor of Illinois, but declined in favor of Mr. Bissell; was also presented, but ineffectually, at the first Republican Convention for Vice-President; and at the next Presidential election headed the Fremont electoral ticket, and labored industriously in support of that candidate.

On the 2d of June, 1858, the Republican State Convention met at Springfield, and nominated Mr. Lincoln as their candidate for the United States Senate.

The contest which followed was one of the most exciting and remarkable ever witnessed in this country. Stephen A. Douglas, his opponent, had few superiors as a political debater. He had made many enemies by his course upon the Nebraska bill, but his personal popularity had been greatly increased by his independence, and by the opposition manifested to him by the Administration of James Buchanan.

Illinois was stumped throughout its length and breadth by both candidates and their respective advocates, and the people of the entire country watched with interest the struggle. From county to county, township to township, and village to village, the two leaders traveled, frequently in the same car or carriage, and in the presence of immense crowds of men, women and children, and face to face, the opposing champions argued the important points of their political belief, and contended for the mastery.

The Republican vote in the State was largely augmented, but more Democrats than Republicans were chosen to the Legislature. The popular vote stood 126,084 for the Republican candidates, 121,940 for the Douglas Democrats, and 5,091 for the Lecompton candidates. Mr. Douglas was elected United States Senator because in the Legislature his supporters had a majority of eight on joint ballot.

The manner in which Mr. Lincoln had met Douglas on the stump, the skill and power with which he had presented and argued the principles and policies underlying the Nebraska bill and the doctrine of "Popular Sovereignty," gave him a national reputation as a political

orator. Characteristics of his intellect and spirit now familiar to the people, were then approvingly dwelt upon by writers for the press, one of whom justly wrote as follows:

"In perhaps the severest test that could have been applied to any man's temper-his political contest with Senator Douglas in 1858—Mr. Lincoln not only proved himself an able speaker and a good tactician, but demonstrated that it is possible to carry on the fiercest political warfare without once descending to rude personality and coarse denunciation. We have it on the authority of a gentleman who followed Abraham Lincoln throughout the whole of that campaign, that, in spite of all the temptations to an opposite course to which he was continuously exposed, no personalities against his opponent, no vituperation or coarseness, ever defiled his lips. His kind and genial nature lifted him above a resort to any such weapons of political warfare, and it was the commonly expressed regret of fiercer natures that he treated his opponent too courteously and urbanely. Vulgar personalities and vituperation are the last thing that can be truthfully charged against Abraham Lincoln. His heart is too genial, his good sense too strong, and his innate self-respect too predominant to permit him to indulge in them. His nobility of nature—and we may use the term advisedly-has been as manifest throughout his whole career as his temperate habits, his self-reliance, and his mental and intellectual power."

The people of Illinois immediately brought forward Abraham Lincoln as a candidate for the Presidency of the United States. He was invited to speak in Ohio, in Indiana, in New York and in the New England States, and delivered a series of political addresses, which confirmed in the public mind the favorable impressions made by

reports of his Illinois campaigns. At a meeting of the Illinois State Republican Convention in 1859, a veteran Democrat of Macon county presented to the Convention two old fence-rails, gayly decorated with flags and ribons, and upon which the following words were inscribed:

ABRAHAM LINCOLN,

THE RAIL CANDIDATE

FOR PRESIDENT IN 1860.

Two rails from a lot of 3,000 made in 1830, by Thos.
Hanks and Abe Lincoln-whose father was

the first pioneer of Macon county.

This "delegation" was received with enthusiastic ap plause, and Mr. Lincoln was sent for to acknowledge the rails, which he did, modestly but happily.

The Republican Convention, called to nominate candidates for President and Vice-President of the United States, met at Chicago, Illinois, on the 16th of May, 1860. Two days were occupied in organization, and in the discussion and adoption of a Platform. On the third day Abraham Lincoln was nominated, as the candidate for the Presidency. On the first ballot he received 102 votes, Mr. Seward receiving, on the same ballot, 173 votes, the votes of the remainder of the delegates being divided between Salmon P. Chase, Simon Cameron, and other candidates. On the second ballot, the vote stood: Lincoln, 181; Seward, 1841; and on the third, Mr. Lincoln received 230 votes, or within one and one-half of a nomination. One of the delegates then changed four votes of his State, giving them to Mr. Lincoln, thus nominating him. Amid a scene of the most intense excitement, vote after vote was changed to the successful candidate. The nomination was then made unanimous,