s Methodist preacher and circuit
rider. Cartwright had preached to almost every congregation in the
district and had a strong following in all the churches. Mr. Lincoln did
not underestimate the strength of his great rival. He abandoned his law
business entirely and gave his whole attention to the canvass. This time
Mr. Lincoln was victorious and was elected by a large majority.

When Lincoln took his seat in Congress, in 1847, he was the only Whig
member from Illinois. His great political rival, Douglas, was in the
Senate. The Mexican War had already broken out, which, in common with
his party, he had opposed. Later in life he was charged with having
opposed the voting of supplies to the American troops in Mexico, but
this was a falsehood which he easily disproved. He was strongly
opposed to the War, but after it was once begun he urged its vigorous
prosecution and voted with the Democrats on all measures concerning the
care and pay of the soldiers. His opposition to the War, however, cost
him a re-election; it cost his party the congressional district, which
was carried by the Democrats in 1848. Lincoln's former law partner,
Judge Logan, secured the Whig nomination that year and was defeated.

MAKES SPEECHES FOR "OLD ZACH."

In the national convention at Philadelphia, in 1848, Mr. Lincoln was a
delegate and advocated the nomination of General Taylor.

After the nomination of General Taylor, or "Old Zach," or "rough and
Ready," as he was called, Mr. Lincoln made a tour of New York and
several New England States, making speeches for his candidate.

Mr. Lincoln went to New England in this campaign on account of the
great defection in the Whig party. General Taylor's nomination was
unsatisfactory to the free-soil element, and such leaders as Henry
Wilson, Charles Francis Adams, Charles Allen, Charles Sumner, Stephen
C. Phillips, Richard H. Dana, Jr., and Anson Burlingame, were in open
revolt. Mr. Lincoln's speeches were confined largely to a defense of
General Taylor, but at the same time he denounced the free-soilers for
helping to elect Cass. Among other things he said that the free-soilers
had but one principle and that they reminded him of the Yankee peddler
going to sell a pair of pantaloons and describing them as "large enough
for any man, and small enough for any boy."

It is an odd fact in history that the prominent Whigs of Massachusetts
at that time became the opponents of Mr. Lincoln's election to th