he had travelled up and down Illinois trying to prove to men that
slavery extension was wrong. It was by no one speech, by no one
argument that he had wrought. Every day his ceaseless study and
pondering gave him new matter, and every speech he made was fresh. He
could not repeat an old speech, he said, because the subject enlarged
and widened so in his mind as he went on that it was "easier to make a
new one than an old one." He had never yielded in his campaign to
tricks of oratory--never played on emotions. He had been so strong in
his convictions of the right of his case that his speeches had been
arguments pure and simple. Their elegance was that of a demonstration
in Euclid. They persuaded because they proved. He had never for a
moment counted personal ambition before the cause. To insure an ardent
opponent of the Kansas-Nebraska bill in the United States Senate, he
had at one time given up his chance for the senatorship. To show the
fallacy of Douglas's argument, he had asked a question which his party
pleaded with him to pass by, assuring him that it would lose him the
election. In every step of this six years he had been disinterested,
calm, unyielding, and courageous. He knew he was right, and could
afford to wait. "The result is not doubtful," he told his friends. "We
shall not fail--if we stand firm. We shall not fail. Wise counsels may
accelerate or mistakes delay it; but, sooner or later, the victory is
sure to come."

The country, amazed at the rare moral and intellectual character of
Lincoln, began to ask questions about him, and then his history came
out; a pioneer home, little schooling, few books, hard labor at all
the many trades of the frontiersman, a profession mastered o' nights
by the light of a friendly cooper's fire, an early entry into politics
and law--and then twenty-five years of incessant poverty and struggle.

The homely story gave a touch of mystery to the figure which loomed so
large. Men felt a sudden reverence for a mind and heart developed to
these noble proportions in so unfriendly a habitat. They turned
instinctively to one so familiar with strife for help in solving the
desperate problem with which the nation had grappled. And thus it was
that, at fifty years of age, Lincoln became a national figure.

[4] _By special permission of the McClure Company._

[A] _Stephen_ A. Douglas, _Franklin_ Pierce, _Roger_ Taney, _James_
Buchanan.

LINCOLN'S LOVE FOR THE LITTLE ONES

Soon