hat little rooster of a man, he had such a high and
mighty way with him and so frankly opposed the principles we believe in.
He was an out and out pro-slavery man. He would have every state free to
regulate its domestic institutions, in its own way, subject only to the
Constitution of the United States. Lincoln held that it amounted to
saying 'that if one man chose to enslave another no third party shall be
allowed to object.'"

In the course of the argument Douglas alleged that the Whigs were the
aristocrats of the country.

"That reminds me of a night when I was speaking at Havana," said Honest
Abe. "A man with a ruffled shirt and a massive gold watch chain got up
and charged that the Whigs were aristocrats. Douglas in his broadcloth
and fine linen reminds me of that man. I'm going to answer Douglas as I
answered him. Most of the Whigs I know are my kind of folks. I was a poor
boy working on a flat boat at eight dollars a month and had only one pair
of breeches and they were buckskin. If you know the nature of buckskin,
you know that when it is wet and dried by the sun it will shrink and my
breeches kept shrinking and deserting the sock area of my legs until
several inches of them were bare above my shoes. Whilst I was growing
longer they were growing shorter and so much tighter that they left a
blue streak around my legs which can be seen to this day. If you call
that aristocracy I know of one Whig that is an aristocrat."

"But look at the New England type of Whig exemplified by the imperious
and majestic Webster," said Douglas.

"Webster was another poor lad," Lincoln answered. "His father's home was
a log cabin in a lonely land until about the time Daniel was born when
the family moved to a small frame house. His is the majesty of a great
intellect."

There was much talk of this sort until Mr. Lincoln excused himself to
walk home with his two friends who had just returned from the North,
being eager to learn of Samson's visit. The latter gave him a full
account of it and asked him to undertake the collection of Brimstead's
note.

"I'll get after that fellow right away," said Lincoln.

"I'm glad to get a chance at one of those men who have been skinning the
farmers. I suppose he has other creditors in Tazewell County?"

"I presume there are many of them."

"I'll find out about that," said Lincoln.

They sat down by the fireside in Samson's house.

"Joe has decided that he wants to be a lawyer," said Sam