four, and Tad was still a baby.
The neighbors used to smile to see Lawyer Lincoln walking down the
street carrying Tad on his shoulders, while Willie clung to his
coattails. The boys adored their father.

Mary did, too, but she wished that Abe would be more dignified. He sat
reading in his shirt sleeves, and he got down on the floor to play with
the boys. His wife did not think that was any way for a successful
lawyer to act. It also worried her that he was no longer interested in
politics.

And then something happened that neither Mary nor Abe had ever expected.
Their old friend, Stephen A. Douglas, who was now a Senator in
Washington, suggested a new law. Thousands of settlers were going West
to live, and in time they would form new states. The new law would make
it possible for the people in each new state to own slaves, if most of
the voters wanted to.

Abraham Lincoln was so aroused and indignant that he almost forgot his
law practice. He traveled around Illinois making speeches. There were no
laws against having slaves in the South, but slavery must be kept out of
territory that was still free, he said. The new states should be places
"for poor people to go to better their condition." Not only that, but it
was wrong for one man to own another. Terribly wrong.

"If the Negro is a man," he told one audience, "then my ancient faith
teaches me that all men are created equal."

Perhaps he was thinking of the first time he had visited a slave market.
He was remembering the words in the Declaration of Independence that had
thrilled him as a boy.

Two years later Abraham Lincoln was asked to be a candidate for the
United States Senate. He would be running against Douglas. Abe wanted
very much to be a Senator. Even more he wanted to keep slavery out of
the new states. Taking part in the political campaign would give him a
chance to say the things that he felt so deeply.

"I am convinced I am good enough for it," he told a friend, "but in
spite of it all I am saying to myself every day, 'It is too big a thing
for you; you will never get it.' Mary insists, however, that I am going
to be Senator and President of the United States, too."

Perhaps it was his wife's faith in him that gave him the courage to
try. Never was there a more exciting campaign. Never had the people of
Illinois been so stirred as during that hot summer of 1858. A series of
debates was held in seven different towns. The two candidates--Douglas,