oters would file up to the window on the
outside. For instance when I appeared at the window to vote, a judge
from within asked, "What is your name?" I replied, Z. S. Hastings.
"For whom do you vote," asked the judge. I vote for Stephen A.
Douglas," was my reply. The judge then said in a loud voice, "Z. S.
Hastings votes for Stephen A. Douglas." The clerk recorded it. That
was all. The next president I voted for was Abraham Lincoln. And,
as it is said, of some Democrats who are still voting for Thomas
Jefferson, I am still voting for Abraham Lincoln, that is to say,
these Democrats are still voting for some of the principles that were
taught by Thomas Jefferson, and I am still voting for some of the
principles held by Abraham Lincoln. Among them the rule which is
called Golden and is found the Book. This rule is not an "iridescent
dream" with me.

My oldest brother Joshua Thomas Hastings was a home guard soldier and
a teacher in Bolivar, Missouri, when the battle of Springfield was
fought and General Lyon was killed. After the battle the Home Guards
and Union men in general in that part of the state, had (using a war
word) to skedaddle for their lives. My brother tried to make his
escape to Kansas but three times was arrested by confederate scouts.
Once, in a road, sheltered on either side with hazel brush and a
thick undergrowth of other bushes, the leader of the band, who seemed
to want to befriend my brother, whispered to him, that a majority of
them (there were six or eight of them) had voted to kill him. "Now"
said he, "jump for your life," As soon as said, brother leaped into
the brush like a wild deer,--bang, went the cracking of half a dozen
or more guns, but each shot missed except one, which just grazed the
top of his shoulder. My brother then determined to return back to
Bolivar, and with his family return, if possible to Indiana. In this
he was successful.

At this time our mother and two sisters were living in Allen County
Kansas. Brother had not been back in Indiana long until he helped to
raise a new company for the war and with it went into the union army.
But in less than a year he was taken sick and died in an army
hospital at Henderson, in Kentucky, November 14th, 1863.

In the meantime I too had returned to Indiana, and, with brother's
wife, went to him, when hearing he was sick. We were with him only
about three hours before he died. At the end of the next two days we
returned