is company in a roar of laughter."

Alluding to his first speech in Congress--on some post-office question
of no special interest--Lincoln wrote to his friend Herndon that his
principal object was to "get the hang of the House"; adding that he
"found speaking here and elsewhere about the same thing. I was about as
badly scared as when I spoke in court, but no more so."

Lincoln's mental power, as well as his self-confidence, developed
rapidly under the responsibilities of his new position. During his term
of service in the House he was zealous in the performance of his duties,
alert to seize every opportunity to strike a blow for his party and
acquit himself to the satisfaction of his constituents. In January,
1848, he made a telling speech in support of the "Spot Resolutions," in
which his antagonism to the course of the Administration in regard to
the war on Mexico was uncompromisingly announced. These resolutions were
offered for the purpose of getting from President Polk a statement of
facts regarding the beginning of the war. In this speech Lincoln warned
the President not to try to "escape scrutiny by fixing the public gaze
upon the exceeding brightness of military glory--that attractive rainbow
that rises in showers of blood, that serpent's eye that charms but to
destroy." In writing, a few days after the delivery of this speech, to
Mr. Herndon, Lincoln said: "I will stake my life that if you had been in
my place you would have voted just as I did. Would you have voted what
you felt and knew to be a lie? I know you would not. Would you have gone
out of the House--skulked the vote? I expect not. If you had skulked one
vote you would have had to skulk many more before the end of the
session. Richardson's resolutions, introduced before I made any move or
gave any vote upon the subject, make a direct question of the justice
of the war; so no man can be silent if he would. You are compelled to
speak; and your only alternative is to tell the _truth_ or tell a _lie_.
I cannot doubt which you would do."

Lincoln's position on the Mexican War has been generally approved by the
moral sense of the country; but it gave his political enemies an
opportunity, which they were not slow to improve, for trying to make
political capital out of it and using it to create a prejudice against
him. Douglas in particular never missed an opportunity of referring to
it. In the great joint debate in 1858 he spoke of Lincoln's having
"disti