[Illustration: A HARRISON BADGE OF 1840.
From the collection of Mr. O.H. Oldroyd of Washington, D.C.]
[Illustration: A HARRISON BUTTON OF 1840.
From the collection of Mr. John C. Browne of Philadelphia.]
As a good Democrat was expected to do, Douglas had explained with
plausibility why the Van Buren administration had in 1838 spent
$40,000,000. Lincoln takes up his statements one by one, and proves,
as he says, that "the majority of them are wholly untrue." Douglas had
attributed a part of the expenditures to the purchase of public lands
from the Indians.
"Now it happens," says Lincoln, "that no such purchase was
made during that year. It is true that some money was paid
that year in pursuance of Indian treaties; but no more, or
rather not as much, as had been paid on the same account in
each of several preceding years.... Again, Mr. Douglas says
that the removal of the Indians to the country west of the
Mississippi created much of the expenditure of 1838. I have
examined the public documents in relation to this matter, and
find that less was paid for the removal of the Indians in
that than in some former years. The whole sum expended on that
account in that year did not exceed one quarter of a
million. For this small sum, although we do not think the
administration entitled to credit, because large sums have
been expended in the same way in former years, we consent it
may take one and make the most of it.
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