Nor
were the Whigs a whit superior to the Democrats. William L.D. Ewing,
Ebenezer Peck, William Thomas, James Shields, John Calhoun, were in
every respect as able as the best men of the Whig party. Indeed, one
of the prominent Democrats with whom Lincoln came often in contact,
was popularly regarded as the most brilliant and promising politician
of the State--Stephen A. Douglas. His record had been phenomenal.
He had amazed both parties, in 1834, by securing appointment by the
legislature to the office of State Attorney for the first judicial
circuit, over John J. Hardin. In 1836 he had been elected to the
legislature, and although he was at that time but twenty-three years
of age, he had shown himself one of the most vigorous, capable, and
intelligent members. Indeed, Douglas's work in the Tenth Assembly gave
him about the same position in the Democratic party of the State at
large that Lincoln's work in the same body gave him in the Whig
party of his own district. In 1837 he had had no difficulty in being
appointed register of the land office, a position which compelled
him to make his home in Springfield. It was only a few months after
Lincoln rode into town, all his earthly possessions in a pair of
saddle-bags, that Douglas appeared. Handsome, polished, and always
with an air of prosperity, the advent of the young Democratic
official was in striking contrast to that of the sad-eyed, ill-clad,
poverty-stricken young lawyer from New Salem.
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