Outside
the house the storm had died, and white sunlight broke over the sodden
moors. But my bones were cold, and I ran faster and faster.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
BY IDA M. TARBELL.
LINCOLN'S PROMINENCE AS A WHIG POLITICIAN AT THIRTY-TWO.--STEPHEN A.
DOUGLAS'S REMOVAL TO SPRINGFIELD.--BEGINNING OF THE RIVALRY BETWEEN
LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS.--LINCOLN'S PART IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1840.--MARY
TODD AND HER ENGAGEMENT TO LINCOLN.--FALSE STORIES REGARDING LINCOLN'S
COURTSHIP.--THE LINCOLN AND SHIELDS DUEL.--LINCOLN'S MARRIAGE.
By the time Abraham Lincoln was thirty-two years old--that is, in
1841--he was one of the leading Whig politicians of Illinois. Four
times in succession he had been elected to the General Assembly of the
State--in 1834, 1836, 1838, and 1840. Twice he had been a candidate
for Speaker of the House--in 1838 and in 1840--both times against
William L.D. Ewing; and though both times defeated, the vote had in
each instance been close. In 1841 he had been talked of as a candidate
for governor, a suggestion to which he would not listen.
He had not taken this prominent position because the Whig party lacked
material. Edward Dickinson Baker, Colonel John J. Hardin, John T.
Stuart, Ninian W. Edwards, Jesse K. Dubois, O.H. Browning, were but
a few of the brilliant men who were throwing all their ability and
ambition into the contest for political honors in the State.
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