e.
Always a Whig in politics; and generally on the Whig electoral tickets,
making active canvasses. I was losing interest in politics when the
repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again. What I have done
since then is pretty well known.

If any personal description of me is thought desirable, it may be said
I am, in height, six feet four inches, nearly; lean, in flesh, weighing
on an average one hundred and eighty pounds; dark complexion, with
coarse black hair and gray eyes. No other marks or brands recollected.

NOTES

COMMUNICATION TO THE PEOPLE OF SANGAMON COUNTY

This announcement of political principles appeared in the Sangamon
_Journal_, at that time the only newspaper published in Springfield.
The present text, which differs in some details from that found in the
various editions of Lincoln's works, follows the original, except in
changing the spelling of Sangamo to Sangamon.

PERPETUATION OF OUR POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS.

On the close of the address resolutions were passed requesting the
author to furnish a copy to the press, but for some unexplained reason
it was not published until a year later. The present text is taken
from the Sangamon Journal. Lincoln was one of the organizers of the
Lyceum.

All through his life Lincoln showed a marked respect for the law, and
the present warning against the consequences of lawlessness, so
rhetorically sounded by the young orator of twenty-eight, was a
perfectly sincere expression of a profound conviction.

"_The gates of hell_." Matthew xvi. 18. This quotation was repeated
in a speech delivered at Indianapolis twenty-four years later, when
civil war was threatening.

THE SPRINGFIELD SPEECH

During the summer of 1858 Lincoln delivered two important anti-slavery
speeches at Springfield. The first and more important of these was
made June 16,[*] at the close of the Republican State Convention, at
which Lincoln was declared the party candidate for the United States
Senate. The second, delivered a month later, is in part a defence and
explanation of the earlier speech, which had been severely criticised
by Lincoln's old opponent Judge Douglas. The first Springfield speech
was very carefully prepared and the MS. was submitted to several of
Lincoln's friends, all of whom objected to the opening statement as
being impolitic and sure to lose the speaker the position for which he
was a candidate. Lincoln refused to make any change, ho