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presidency and the policy of his administration, while the free-soilers,
whom he denounced, were among his strongest supporters, advisers and
followers.

At the second session of Congress Mr. Lincoln's one act of consequence
was the introduction of a bill providing for the gradual emancipation
of the slaves in the District of Columbia. Joshua R. Giddings, the great
antislavery agitator, and one or two lesser lights supported it, but the
bill was laid on the table.

After General Taylor's election Mr. Lincoln had the distribution of
Federal patronage in his own Congressional district, and this added much
to his political importance, although it was a ceaseless source of worry
to him.

DECLINES A HIGH OFFICE.

Just before the close of his term in Congress Mr. Lincoln was an
applicant for the office of Commissioner of the General Land Office, but
was unsuccessful. He had been such a factor in General Taylor's election
that the administration thought something was due him, and after
his return to Illinois he was called to Washington and offered the
Governorship of the Territory of Oregon. It is likely he would have
accepted this had not Mrs. Lincoln put her foot down with an emphatic
no.

He declined a partnership with a well-known Chicago lawyer and returning
to his Springfield home resumed the practice of law.

From this time until the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, which
opened the way for the admission of slavery into the territories, Mr.
Lincoln devoted himself more industriously than ever to the practice of
law, and during those five years he was probably a greater student than
he had ever been before. His partner, W. H. Herndon, has told of the
changes that took place in the courts and in the methods of practice
while Mr. Lincoln was away.

LINCOLN AS A LAWYER.

When he returned to active practice he saw at once that the courts
had grown more learned and dignified and that the bar relied more upon
method and system and a knowledge of the statute law than upon the stump
speech method of early days.

Mr. Herndon tells us that Lincoln would lie in bed and read by candle
light, sometimes until two o'clock in the morning, while his famous
colleagues, Davis, Logan, Swett, Edwards and Herndon, were soundly and
sometimes loudly sleeping. He read and reread the statutes and books of
practice, devoured Shakespeare, who was always a favorite of his, and
studied Euclid so diligently that he could e