[Illustration: OLD STATE-HOUSE AT SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS.
From a recent photograph made for MCCLURE'S MAGAZINE. The corner-stone
was laid July 4, 1837, about four months after the passage of the
act removing the capital to Springfield. The event was attended with
elaborate ceremonies. The orator of the day was Colonel E.D. Baker. It
was nearly four years before the building was finally completed, at a
cost of two hundred and forty thousand dollars. It was first occupied
by the legislature during the regular session of 1840-1841, that body,
at two previous special sessions, being obliged to use the Methodist
church for the Senate, and the Second Presbyterian church for the
House. The Supreme Court found a meeting place in the Episcopal
church. The legislative committees met in rooms in private houses
about town. This building was the State capitol for more than thirty
years, becoming, upon the completion of the present State-house, the
court-house of Sangamon County.]
Lincoln must have learned by the end of 1840, if not before, something
of the power of the "Little Giant," as Douglas was called. Certainly
no man in public life between 1837 and 1860 had a greater hold on his
followers. The reasons for this grasp are not hard to find. Douglas
was by nature buoyant, enthusiastic, impetuous.
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