eatest physical strength. He was tall, and perhaps a
little more slender than in later life, and more homely than after he
became stouter in person. He was then only thirty-one years of age,
and yet he was regarded as one of the ablest of the Whig speakers in
that campaign. There was that in him that attracted and held public
attention. Even then he was the subject of popular regard because of
his candid and simple mode of discussing and illustrating political
questions. At times he was intensely logical, and was always most
convincing in his arguments. The questions involved in that canvass
had relation to the tariff, internal public improvements by the
federal government, the distribution of the proceeds of the sales
of public lands among the several States, and other questions
that divided the political parties of that day. They were not such
questions as enlisted and engaged his best thoughts; they did not take
hold of his great nature, and had no tendency to develop it. At times
he discussed the questions of the time in a logical way, but much
time was devoted to telling stories to illustrate some phase of his
argument, though more often the telling of these stories was resorted
to for the purpose of rendering his opponents ridiculous. That was a
style of speaking much appreciated at that early day. In that kind
of oratory he excelled most of his contemporaries--indeed, he had no
equals in the State. One story he told on that occasion was full of
salient points, and well illustrated the argument he was making. It
was not an impure story, yet it was not one it would be seemly to
publish; but rendered, as it was, in his inimitable way, it contained
nothing that was offensive to a refined taste. The same story might
have been told by another in such a way that it would probably have
been regarded as transcending the proprieties of popular address. One
characterizing feature of all the stories told by Mr. Lincoln, on the
stump and elsewhere, was that although the subject matter of some of
them might not have been entirely unobjectionable, yet the manner of
telling them was so peculiarly his own that they gave no offence
even to refined and cultured people. On the contrary, they were much
enjoyed. The story he told on this occasion was much liked by the vast
assembly that surrounded the temporary platform from which he spoke,
and was received with loud bursts of laughter and applause. It served
to place the opposing part