e Black Hawk War.--_J.
McCan Davis._]

[Illustration: JOHN CALHOUN, UNDER WHOM LINCOLN LEARNED SURVEYING.

From a steel engraving in the possession of R.W. Diller, Springfield,
Illinois. John Calhoun was born in Boston, Massachusetts, October 14,
1806; removed to the Mohawk Valley, New York, in 1821; was educated
at Canajoharie Academy, and studied law. In 1830 he removed to
Springfield, Illinois, and after serving in the Black Hawk War was
appointed Surveyor of Sangamon County. He was married there December
29, 1831, to Miss Sarah Cutter. He was a Democratic Representative in
1838; Clerk of the House in 1840; circuit clerk in 1842; Democratic
presidential elector in 1844; candidate for Governor before the
Democratic State convention in 1846; Mayor of Springfield in 1849,
1850, and 1851; a candidate for Congress in 1852, and in the same year
again a Democratic presidential elector. In 1854, President Pierce
appointed him Surveyor-General of Kansas, and he became conspicuous in
Kansas politics. He was president of the Lecompton Convention. He died
at St. Joseph, Missouri, October 25, 1859. Mr. Frederick Hawn, who was
his boyhood friend, and afterward married a sister of Calhoun's wife,
is now living at Leavenworth, Kansas, at the age of eighty-five years.
In an interesting letter to the writer, he says: "It has been related
that Calhoun induced Lincoln to study surveying in order to become
his deputy. Presuming that he was ready to graduate and receive his
commission, he called on Calhoun, then living with his father-in-law,
Seth R. Cutter, on Upper Lick Creek. After the interview was
concluded, Mr. Lincoln, about to depart, remarked: 'Calhoun, I am
entirely unable to repay you for your generosity at present. All that
I have you see on me, except a quarter of a dollar in my pocket.' This
is a family tradition. However, my wife, then a miss of sixteen, says,
while I am writing this sketch, that she distinctly remembers this
interview. After Lincoln was gone she says she and her sister,
Mrs. Calhoun, commenced making jocular remarks about his uncanny
appearance, in the presence of Calhoun, to which in substance he made
this rejoinder: 'For all that, he is no common man.' My wife believes
these were the exact words."--_J. McCan Davis._]

We know from Dennis Hanks, from Mr. Turnham, to whom the book
belonged, and from other associates of Lincoln's at the time, that he
read this book intently and discussed its contents int