"
It will be remembered that the internal improvement theories had not
worked so well in practice. The panic of 1837 had convinced both him and
his supporters of the unwisdom of attempting such improvements on too
large a scale at one time. Though he had been mistaken he seems not to
have lost the support of his followers, for they were mistaken with him;
and the experience shows that "it is more popular for a politician to be
with his constituents in the wrong than to be in the right against
them."

Though he declined the nomination for Governor, his ambitious wife
encouraged his natural inclination to keep his eye on the political
field, and to glance in the direction of Congress. His ambitions were
temporarily thwarted. On Washington's birthday in 1842, during the
Washington Temperance movement he made a speech on temperance. While the
whole address was admirable and conceived in a high humanitarian tone
it did not please all. He was full of a wise and gentle tolerance that
sprang alike from his knowledge and his love of men.

When accused of being a temperance man he said "I don't drink."

He was criticised, and because of this, and because his wife was an
Episcopalian, and an aristocrat, and because he had once accepted a
challenge to fight a duel, which friends prevented, his congressional
ambitions had to be postponed. Also there were other candidates. He
stood aside for Hardin and for Baker. In 1844 he was on the Whig
electoral ticket and stumped the state for Henry Clay whom he greatly
admired.

Finally in 1846 the Whigs nominated him for Congress. The Democrats
nominated the pioneer Methodist preacher, Peter Cartwright, who used the
Washington's birthday address against Lincoln and even the charge of
atheism, which had no worthy foundation, for Lincoln was profoundly
religious, though he never united with any church. He said that whenever
any church would inscribe over its altar as the only condition for
membership the words of Jesus: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength, and thy
neighbor as thyself;" he would join that church. Lincoln's life proved
his sincerity in this statement.

Lincoln made a thorough campaign, watching most carefully all the many
interests which can contribute to the success of a candidate, and was
elected by an unusual majority. Moreover, he was the only Whig who
secured a place in the Illinois delegation that year.