ss, refused his
sanction, voting a resolution that the war had been "unnecessarily and
unconstitutionally" begun. On December 22d he made his debut in the
House by the famous "Spot Resolutions," a series of searching questions
so clearly put, so strong historically and logically, that they drove
the administration step by step from the "spot" where the war began, and
showed that it had been the aggressor in the conquest. In January
Lincoln followed up these resolutions with a speech in support of his
position. His action was much criticised in Illinois, where the sound of
the drum and the intoxication of victory had completely turned attention
from the moral side of the question, and Lincoln found himself obliged
to defend his position with even his oldest friends.

[Illustration: THE CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON IN 1846]

The routine work assigned him in the Thirtieth Congress was on the
Committee on the Post-office and Post Roads. Several reports were made
by him from this committee. These reports, with a speech on internal
improvements, cover his published work in the House up to July. Then he
made a speech which was at the time quoted far and wide.

In July Zachary Taylor had been nominated at Philadelphia for President
by the Whigs. Lincoln had been at the convention, and went back to
Washington full of enthusiasm. "In my opinion we shall have a most
overwhelming, glorious triumph," he wrote a friend. "One unmistakable
sign is that all the odds and ends are with us--Barnburners, Native
Americans, Tyler men, disappointed office-seekers, Locofocos, and the
Lord knows what. This is important, if in nothing else, in showing which
way the wind blows."

In connection with Alexander H. Stephens, with whom he had become a warm
friend, Toombs, and Preston, Lincoln formed the first Congressional
Taylor Club, known as the "Young Indians." Campaigning had already begun
on the floor of Congress, and the members were daily making speeches for
the various candidates. On July 27th Lincoln made a speech for Taylor.
It was a boisterous election speech, full of merciless caricaturing, and
delivered with inimitable drollery. It kept the House in an uproar, and
was reported the country over by the Whig press. The "Baltimore
American," in giving a synopsis of it, called it the "crack speech of
the day," and said of Lincoln: "He is a very able, acute, uncouth,
honest, upright man, and a tremendous wag, withal.... Mr. Lincoln's
manner was so