moors. But my bones were cold, and I ran faster and faster.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

BY IDA M. TARBELL.

LINCOLN'S PROMINENCE AS A WHIG POLITICIAN AT THIRTY-TWO.--STEPHEN A.
DOUGLAS'S REMOVAL TO SPRINGFIELD.--BEGINNING OF THE RIVALRY BETWEEN
LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS.--LINCOLN'S PART IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1840.--MARY
TODD AND HER ENGAGEMENT TO LINCOLN.--FALSE STORIES REGARDING LINCOLN'S
COURTSHIP.--THE LINCOLN AND SHIELDS DUEL.--LINCOLN'S MARRIAGE.

By the time Abraham Lincoln was thirty-two years old--that is, in
1841--he was one of the leading Whig politicians of Illinois. Four
times in succession he had been elected to the General Assembly of the
State--in 1834, 1836, 1838, and 1840. Twice he had been a candidate
for Speaker of the House--in 1838 and in 1840--both times against
William L.D. Ewing; and though both times defeated, the vote had in
each instance been close. In 1841 he had been talked of as a candidate
for governor, a suggestion to which he would not listen.

He had not taken this prominent position because the Whig party lacked
material. Edward Dickinson Baker, Colonel John J. Hardin, John T.
Stuart, Ninian W. Edwards, Jesse K. Dubois, O.H. Browning, were but
a few of the brilliant men who were throwing all their ability and
ambition into the contest for political honors in the State. Nor
were the Whigs a whit superior to the Democrats. William L.D. Ewing,
Ebenezer Peck, William Thomas, James Shields, John Calhoun, were in
every respect as able as the best men of the Whig party. Indeed, one
of the prominent Democrats with whom Lincoln came often in contact,
was popularly regarded as the most brilliant and promising politician
of the State--Stephen A. Douglas. His record had been phenomenal.
He had amazed both parties, in 1834, by securing appointment by the
legislature to the office of State Attorney for the first judicial
circuit, over John J. Hardin. In 1836 he had been elected to the
legislature, and although he was at that time but twenty-three years
of age, he had shown himself one of the most vigorous, capable, and
intelligent members. Indeed, Douglas's work in the Tenth Assembly gave
him about the same position in the Democratic party of the State at
large that Lincoln's work in the same body gave him in the Whig
party of his own district. In 1837 he had had no difficulty in being
appointed register of the land office, a position which compelled
him to make his home in Springfield. It was only a few