Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power Read Online Free Page A

advocated low-interest credit, better navigation, and educational opportunity as the means of fostering an industrious, enterprising, and moral community. 8 In this he implicitly allied himself with the stance of the embryonic Whig party and the economic program of the national political leader whom he admired above all others, Henry Clay. But he chose to avoid any direct reference to national issues and politics, probably because of the popularity which Clay’s rival for the White House, the incumbent Democratic president, Andrew Jackson, enjoyed locally and throughout the western states.
    Soon after Lincoln declared his candidacy, the Black Hawk War provided him with heartening evidence of his local popularity, for the men of his volunteer company elected him captain; nearly thirty years later he would declare this “a success which gave me more pleasure than any I have had since.” Three months’ war service left him little time for campaigning in the elections for the state Assembly, but he made a few speeches and did himself no harm. Judge Stephen T. Logan encountered him for the first time, and though considering him “gawky, and rough-looking” (“his pantaloons didn’t meet his shoes by six inches”), he was much impressed by the novelty with which Lincoln set out his ideas: “He had the same individuality that he kept through all his life.” 9 Lincoln won almost all the votes of New Salem village, but was not well enough known across the electoral district to prevent the disappointment of defeat.
    That defeat did not dent his ambition or self-confidence. He had gained experience, as well as the friendship of Logan and other leading Whigs, including the urbane John Todd Stuart of Springfield. Running again in 1834, when thirteen candidates contested four legislative places, Lincoln was this time elected, and stepped into a new world. He bought a suit with borrowed money and, encouraged by Stuart, who lent him books and overcame the young man’s reservations about his inadequate education, turned to the study of law. The legislative session ending in February, Lincoln spent much of 1835 mastering Blackstone’s
Commentaries
and other legal texts by the same means as he had acquired his knowledge of surveying: studying alone and, in his own words, going “at it in good earnest.” 10 Impressively, within two years he was equipped to take the oath of admission to the Illinois bar. He rode out of New Salem for good in April 1837, heading the short distance to Springfield, the Sangamon County seat and a raw, bustling town of fifteen hundred inhabitants, where Stuart had offered him a partnership. A law practice was the ideal complement to a career in politics. It not only provided a livelihood and the technical grasp needed for the drafting of legislation, but offered a valuable social network and—since litigation was relatively uncomplicated—considerable time for public political conversation and debate, in front of curious and admiring onlookers.
    At Vandalia, the state capital, Lincoln remained largely inconspicuous through his first term of office, listening, observing, and quietly impressing. After his reelection in 1836 the Sangamon County Whig delegation, known as the “Long Nine” since each was over six feet tall, made him their floor leader out of respect for his parliamentary skills, a confidence fully repaid by his masterly handling of the bill to move the state capital to Springfield. Two more terms, from 1838 and 1840, further enhanced his confidence and reputation. He led the Whigs in the House, and was twice candidate for speaker, on one occasion failing by just a single vote. Though he chose not to stand for reelection at the end of his fourth term, this did not signal the end of political ambition, nor did his refusing (in 1841, and again in 1844) to run as a candidate for governor. Rather, it showed a clearheaded realism. In the Illinois legislature he had shown his political mastery