[v-10] Letter from Judge Stephen T. Logan, quoted in Nicolay and Hay, i, 102-03, note; and Master, 47.

[v-11] The practice of carrying documents in his hat became a habit with Lincoln. While at the bar in Springfield, long after the postmastership had become a memory, he explained his failure to answer a communication promptly, by writing: “When I received your letter I put it in my old hat, and buying a new one the next day, the old one was set aside, and so the letter was lost sight of for a time.” (See Tarbell, i, 98; and Tarbell’s Early Life, 179.)

[v-12] Lincoln was appointed Postmaster at New Salem on May 7, 1833. He served until May 30, 1836, by which time the population of the place had fallen off to such an extent that the office was discontinued, and its business transferred to Petersburg.

[v-13] Herndon, i, 111. See, also: Onstot, 249; Tarbell’s Early Life, 181; Tarbell, i, 99; Coffin, 81. Some currency having been given to an exaggerated and obviously erroneous report of the incident, Mr. Carpenter (110-12) repeated that version one day in the White House to Mr. Lincoln. The President thought they had “stretched the facts somewhat”; but his denial, such as it was, leaves the original story told by Simmons to Herndon, practically unimpeached.

[v-14] For a comprehensive note in which the local election returns of 1834 are collated, the reader is referred to Master, § 22, pp. 445-46.

[v-15] In a referendum of the question submitted to the people at the election of 1834, 7514 voters expressed a preference for Alton, 7148 for Vandalia, 7044 for Springfield, 744 for Illiopolis the geographical center, 486 for Peoria, and 272 for Jacksonville. When the final balloting took place in the General Assembly, twenty-nine places were voted upon. (See Parrish’s Illinois, 313.)

[v-16] Whitney, i, 139; Nicolay and Hay, i, 139.

[v-17] Details of these encounters are related in Master, 60-62.

[v-18] Lamon, 195; Herndon, i, 166.

[v-19] General T. H. Henderson, in Tarbell, i, 139.

[v-20] Whitney’s Life, i, 146.

[v-21] Statement of Coleman Smoot, in Lamon, 157. As Lincoln was thus supplied with sufficient means to defray his traveling expenses, the oft-repeated story, which depicts him as trudging, pack on back, over the road to Vandalia, may perhaps, with propriety, be assigned to a place among those pleasing traditions of history that are found, upon close scrutiny, to be more picturesque than plausible.

[v-22] Nicolay and Hay, i, 158; Pratt, 52-53; Coffin, 125-27; Nicolay’s Boy’s Life, 59. Lincoln’s experience, it should be noted, in canvassing his district with a nominal outlay of money, was not uncommon. Gustav Koerner, running for the Illinois Legislature on the Democratic ticket, a few years later, did so under similar circumstances. “There were hardly,” he tells us, “any election expenses. We always stayed with friends when traveling through the county. We had our horses anyway. My entire electioneering expenses amounted to four dollars, and that for the printing of tickets. One Democratic Frenchman from the Bottom afterwards sent me a bill of $6.65 for which he said he had gratuitously treated for me. As he was a good fellow, I paid him, although I had not given him the slightest authority to do so.” (Koerner, i, 468-69.)

[v-23] See letter of Lincoln to Stuart, February 14, 1839, in Works, xi, 98.

[v-24] Works, i, 6-7.

[v-25] This is exclusive of what was appropriated for the Illinois and Michigan Canal, then already in process of construction. That enterprise, the other improvement projects, and a few smaller public outlays carried the State debt, by the close of 1842, above $15,000,000.

[v-26] Works, i, 146.

[v-27] An Act to establish and maintain a General System of Internal Improvements. Approved February 27, 1837. Section 22, Illinois Session Laws, 1836-37.

[v-28] Works, i, 154-55; Lamon, 213-15.

[v-29] Gillespie, 24-25; Lamon, 216-17; Nicolay and Hay, i, 161-62; Davidson, 422-27; Herndon, i, 217; Morse, i, 60; Hapgood, 72-73. It may be of interest to note that Lincoln and his two colleagues were not the only acrobatic legislators revealed by our early local histories. General Lew Wallace, in his Autobiography (i, 251), tells, with contrition, how he bolted from the Indiana Senate to prevent an election of United States Senator; and Thaddeus Stevens, during his turbulent days in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, jumped from a window after a scene of violence, in which, by a singular coincidence, he too had acted as the Whig leader.

[v-30] Lamon, 324; Browne, 237.

[v-31] Works, i, 27.

[v-32] Works, i, 135-37.

[v-33] Joshua F. Speed in Herndon, i, 161-63; Speed, 17-18; Speed, in Oldroyd, 143-45; Master, 50-52, 446.

[v-34] Holland, 97-98.

[v-35] Eulogy on Henry Clay, in Works, ii, 165.

[v-36] In the ballot for Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives on December 3, 1838, William Lee D. Ewing received 43 votes, and Abraham Lincoln 38 votes. In a similar contest on November 24, 1840, Ewing received 46 votes, and Lincoln 36 votes.

[v-37] Browne’s Lincoln and Men, 185.

[v-38] White, 19-20.

[v-39] Joseph D. Roper, in Springfield (Ill.) Journal, January 30, 1909.

[v-40] Gibson W. Harris, in Woman’s Home Companion, December, 1903, p. 15.

[v-41] Herndon, ii, 45.

[v-42] Works, i, 142-45.

[v-43] During Lincoln’s last term in the Illinois House of Representatives he offered the following resolution:—

“Resolved, that so much of the Governor’s message as relates to fraudulent voting, and other fraudulent practices at elections, be referred to the Committee on Elections, with instructions to said committee to prepare and report to the House a bill for such an act as may, in their judgment, afford the greatest possible protection of the elective franchise against all frauds of all sorts whatsoever.”

This failed of adoption, and in its stead was passed a substitute offered by John A. McClernand, one of the Democratic leaders. (See Illinois House Journals, 1840-41, p. 34; and Works, i, 152-53.)

[v-44] Horace White, in Herndon, i, xxii.

[v-45] Lincoln to Herndon, June 22, 1848, Works, ii, 50. See, also: Herndon, i, 270-72; Lamon, 295.

[v-46] Phillips’s Men Who Knew, 160-62.

[v-47] Whitney, 117.

[v-48] Schurz, ii, 91.

[v-49] The sequel to this little adventure, as Mr. Nelson tells it, should not be omitted. “I had many opportunities after the stage ride,” he relates, “to cultivate Mr. Lincoln’s acquaintance, and was a zealous advocate of his nomination and election to the Presidency. Before leaving his home for Washington, Mr. Lincoln caused John P. Usher and myself to be invited to accompany him. We agreed to join him in Indianapolis. On reaching that city the Presidential party had already arrived, and upon inquiry we were informed that the President-elect was in the dining-room of the hotel, at supper. Passing through, we saw that every seat at the numerous tables was occupied, but failed to find Mr. Lincoln. As we were nearing the door to the office of the hotel, a long arm reached to my shoulder and a shrill voice exclaimed, ‘Hello, Nelson! Do you think, after all, the world is going to follow the darned thing off?’ It was Mr. Lincoln.” (Herndon, i, 303-06. See, also: Coffin, 132; Selby, 89-90; Williams, 136-37; McClure’s Yarns, 410.)

[v-50] Herndon, i, 253.

[v-51] The affair with James Shields. See Master, 65-77.

[v-52] Lincoln to Martin M. Morris, March 26, 1843, Works, i, 262.

[v-53] A. Y. Ellis, in Lamon, 143; and in Herndon, i, 255.

[v-54] For an amusing account of how Lincoln exposed one of these demagogues to public ridicule, on the stump, see Master, 54-56.

[v-55] Works, v, 238-39.

[v-56] “He took his friend James Matheney out into the woods with him one day and, calling up the bitter features of the canvass, protested ‘vehemently and with great emphasis’ that he was anything but aristocratic and proud. ‘Why, Jim,’ he said, ‘I am now and always shall be the same Abe Lincoln I was when you first saw me.’ ” (Herndon, i, 256; Lamon, 273.)

[v-57] Lincoln’s second son, born a few years later, on March 10, 1846, was named for Baker.

[v-58] Lincoln to Speed, March 24, 1843, Works, i, 261.

[v-59] Lincoln to Morris, March 26, 1843, Works, i, 262-65. See, also, the letter to Morris of April 14, 1843, Works, i, 265-66.

[v-60] General J. M. Ruggles, quoted in Tarbell, i, 195-96; Curtis’s Lincoln, 138.

[v-61] Lincoln to Speed, May 18, 1843, Works, i, 268. This letter was written after the convention. To accord with that fact, the obvious printer’s error in punctuation has been corrected.

[v-62] Lincoln to Hardin, May 11, 1843, Works, i, 266-67.

[v-63] Lincoln’s Autobiography, in Works, vi, 36-37; Scripps, 18, the authorized campaign biography of which Lincoln critically read the advance sheets. See, also: Nicolay, 73-74, 90; Newton, 19; Dr. Robert Boal, in Peoria (Ill.) Herald, February 14, 1899; Gibson W. Harris, in Woman’s Home Companion, December, 1903, p. 15. But to the contrary see: Lamon, 275-77; Herndon, i, 257; Nicolay and Hay, i, 242-43; Morse, i, 72.

[v-64] Baker resigned from Congress to engage in the Mexican War, a few months before the end of his term. The short period that remained was of no interest to the leading Whigs, so a local politician named John Henry secured the office for the unexpired time.

[v-65] Lincoln to Hardin, January 19, 1845, Works, i, 271-74. This letter is also printed in the Lapsley Edition of the Works, ii, 5-8, as of 1845. But the date evidently should be 1846. See also Lincoln to B. F. James, January 16, 1846, Works, i, 285-86.

[v-66] Woman’s Home Companion, December, 1903, p. 15; Browne, 222.

[v-67] Lamon, 277-78; Nicolay and Hay, i, 248-49.

[v-68] Browne’s Lincoln and Men, i, 300.

[v-69] Lincoln to Speed, October 22, 1846, in Works, i, 298.