Abraham Lincoln

C

New Salem

Denton Offutt was impressed with Lincoln's abilities. When they returned to Illinois, he hired Lincoln as a clerk in a general store in New Salem, a small community near the growing town of Springfield, Illinois. The pay was $15 a month, plus the use of the store as sleeping quarters.

Although he was a newcomer in New Salem, Lincoln soon became one of its most popular citizens. He won the respect and fellowship of the local ruffians by besting their strong man, Jack Armstrong, in a wrestling match. And he soon earned the friendship of the more peaceable citizens of the community by his good humor, intelligence, and integrity. As in all small towns of the day, the general store was an informal meeting place. Customers who came to buy at Offutt's store would usually linger to exchange anecdotes and jokes with his clerk. Lincoln, an avid newspaper reader, enjoyed the popular frontier pastime of discussing politics. Because he could read and write, Lincoln was often called on to draw up legal papers for the less literate citizens of New Salem.

Clerking in a store gave Lincoln time to read all the books, newspapers, and political tracts that came his way. Always endeavoring to improve his education, he studied books on grammar and acquired a lifelong taste for the poetry of English poet and playwright William Shakespeare and Scottish poet Robert Burns. Novels, however, held little interest for him, and he later admitted that he never was able to finish one in his entire life. Lincoln also joined the local debating society. A member had this reaction to Lincoln's first debate: “A perceptible smile at once lit up the face of the audience, for all anticipated the relation of some humorous story. But he opened up discussion in splendid style, to the infinite astonishment of his friends. . . . He pursued the question with reason and argument so pithy and forcible that all were amazed.”

III

Early Political Career

In the spring of 1832, Lincoln decided to run for a seat in the Illinois house of representatives. This was a logical step for Lincoln to take, for on the frontier a young man with ability and ambition could rise rapidly in politics.

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A month after Lincoln announced his candidacy, Offutt's general store went bankrupt and Lincoln found himself without a job. But almost immediately, Governor John Reynolds of Illinois called for volunteers to put down a rebellion of the Native American Sauk (or Sac) and Fox peoples led by Chief Black Hawk. Lincoln enlisted at once and, because of his popularity, was elected captain of his company. When his term expired, he reenlisted as a private. In all, he served three months, but saw no actual fighting. However, Lincoln took great pride in this brief military career.

A

First Campaign

When Lincoln returned to New Salem in 1832, election day was two weeks away. It was a presidential election year, and political parties had formed around the contending candidates. Followers of Andrew Jackson, who was seeking a second term as president, called themselves Democrats. Followers of U.S. Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky called themselves National Republicans and later Whigs. Lincoln supported Clay, who had long been his political idol. He remained a faithful Whig until the party disintegrated over the question of slavery in the 1850s.

Lincoln's program, as published in the Sangamon, Illinois, Journal, called for the construction of canals and roads, better schools, and a low interest rate to stimulate local economic growth. In his brief campaign, Lincoln spoke from tree stumps in village squares, visited farmers in their homes and fields, and shook hands and exchanged stories with as many people as he could meet. Nevertheless, he was defeated. There were 13 county candidates running for four legislative seats. Lincoln finished eighth. In his own precinct, however, he got 277 out of 300 votes even though the precinct voted overwhelmingly to support the Democrat, Jackson, for the presidency.

B

Postmaster

After his defeat, Lincoln opened a general store in New Salem with William F. Berry as his partner. But Berry misused the profits, and in a few months the venture failed. Berry died in 1835, leaving Lincoln responsible for debts amounting to $1100. It took him several years to pay them off.

After the general store failed, Lincoln was appointed postmaster of New Salem. The appointment came from Jackson's Democratic administration. Lincoln's Whig views were well known, but, as Lincoln explained it, the postmaster's job was “too insignificant to make his politics an objection.” As postmaster, Lincoln earned $60 a year plus a percentage of the receipts on postage. He ran an informal post office, often doing favors for friends, such as undercharging them for mailing letters. The job gave him time to read, and he made a habit of reading all the newspapers that came through the office. To augment his income, he became the deputy surveyor of Sangamon County.

C

Illinois Legislator

In 1834 Lincoln again ran for representative to the Illinois legislature. By then he was known throughout the county, and many Democrats gave him their votes. He was elected in 1834 and reelected in 1836, 1838, and 1840. As a member of the Whig minority he became the protégé of the Whig floor leader, Representative John T. Stuart of Springfield. When Stuart ran for a seat in the Congress of the United States in 1836, Lincoln replaced him as floor leader. Stuart also encouraged Lincoln to study law, which Lincoln did between legislative sessions.

Lincoln's main achievement as a state legislator was the transfer of the state capital from Vandalia to Springfield. In this effort he acted as the leader of Sangamon County's delegation of seven representatives and two state senators, a group called the Long Nine because they were all tall men. Lincoln devised a strategy whereby the Sangamon delegation supported the projects of other legislators in return for their support of Springfield as the capital city. In American politics this kind of aid is called logrolling, a term derived from frontier families' tradition of helping each other to build log cabins.

Lincoln's other votes in the state legislature reflected his Whig background. He supported the business interests in the state and defended the pro-business national platform of Henry Clay. Lincoln's experience in the Illinois legislature sharpened his political skills. He was adept at logrolling, skilled in debate, and expert in the art of political maneuver.

In 1837 Lincoln took his first public stand on slavery when the Illinois legislature voted to condemn the activities of the abolition societies that wanted an immediate end to slavery by any means. Lincoln and a colleague declared that slavery was “founded on both injustice and bad politics, but the promulgation of abolitionist doctrine tends rather to increase than abate its evil.” Lincoln was against slavery, but he favored lawful means of achieving its destruction. Throughout his political career, Lincoln avoided extreme abolitionist groups.

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