n," said
Lincoln, "you are a general,"--and he was from that moment. In a few
hours he received his commission and returned to the army with a rank
three degrees higher than that he held a few days before.

The subject of the conversation thus being Swedish officers, several
honorable deeds were told of some of them, among others, how Col.
Vegesack, his regiment making a charge with leveled bayonets, and his
color-bearer receiving a mortal wound, himself seized the colors and led
his regiment to victory.

Soon after the close of the war a well-known lawyer and myself opened a
law office in Red Wing, the name of the new firm being Mattson &
Webster. I had successfully practiced law but a few months when it was
announced that a new Swedish newspaper, to be called _Svenska
Amerikanaren_, was to be established in Chicago. This enterprise was
backed by a number of prominent Swedes of Illinois, who appointed me
editor in chief without my knowledge or solicitation. At that time there
was only one Swedish newspaper in this country, viz., _Hemlandet_, which
was more of a church than a political paper, hence this was an open and
large field for me. I accepted the appointment on condition that I
should not move to Chicago, but simply help to start the paper and put
it on a firm footing, and that I should be allowed to resign in case I
found this kind of work unfavorable to my health, which had been very
seriously affected by the hardships and sufferings of the war.

On September 18, 1866, the first number of the _Svenska Amerikanaren_
was published. I quote from the article announcing my having assumed
editorial charge of the paper as follows: "It shall be my ambition to so
write as to advance the interest of the laboring people of our
nationality, and to guide them in becoming good American citizens. I am
one of that class myself, and during my residence in the settlements of
the West I have learned to know their wants." The paper was very
favorably received both in this country and in Sweden, and, under the
name of _Svenska Tribunen_, is still exercising a great and good
influence among the Swedish Americans.

The following winter (1867) the legislature of Minnesota established a
state bureau with the purpose of inducing immigrants to settle in the
state, and I was appointed by Gov. W. R. Marshall to be secretary of the
board of emigration, with the governor and secretary of state as
_ex-officio_ members; the Rev. John Irela