The Life and Writings of Abraham Lincoln by Abraham Lincoln Page A

ended in 1844. Herndon had not yet been admitted to the bar when Lincoln asked him to join him; as soon as he was, Lincoln made him his partner.
    Herndon was politically useful to Lincoln. He had many friends and he could make friends easily, so that he could rally even the “wild boys” of the town to Lincoln’s support. Whenever Lincoln had to be away from Springfield, Herndon kept him posted on developments on the home front. He acted as Lincoln’s publicity manager, as his scapegoat when necessary, as his political under-cover man and, finally, as the preserver of his life record, energetically seeking out everything that was of interest in connection with the man who had been his partner.
    Of the two men, Herndon was unquestionably the more forthright, the more passionately idealistic. He was ready to fight at the drop of a hat, and equally ready to forget his quarrels as soon as they were over. Lincoln’s slower nature,which required him to weigh every phase of any situation before taking action, seems less admirable than Herndon’s “happy warrior” attitude—but it was to take him farther. His was a mind that could function over a long series of carefully planned moves; it was like his ability to learn and memorize—slow, steady and sure. Lincoln never possessed wide learning, but what he did learn he never forgot.
    The slow but stolidly ambitious Lincoln bided his time during the years after his marriage. Then, on May 1, 1846, he finally received the long-coveted nomination. His opponent on the Democratic ticket was Peter Cartwright, picturesque Methodist circuit-rider, who attacked Lincoln as an infidel throughout the whole hotly contested campaign. The two men met one day in Springfield. Cartwright hoped to embarrass his opponent publicly. “If you are not going to repent and go to heaven, Mr. Lincoln, where are you going?”
    “To Congress,” Lincoln said quietly. He was right, and he was elected by a large majority.
THE CONGRESSMAN FROM ILLINOIS
    Before he could go—before his election actually—war with Mexico was declared. With its declaration, and with his election to an office in the Federal Government, Lincoln’s career became associated for the first time with national issues. Hitherto he had been an Illinois man; his interests had never gone beyond the borders of his own state; his experience had touched local legislation only; his training had been provincial, restricted to the narrow boundaries of one small segment of the nation. He went to Chicago for the first time in his life to attend the Rivers and Harbors Convention there. He met such men as Horace Greeley, Thurlow Weed, Schuyler Colfax and Dudley Field. The world was beginning to open up before him, and his eyes reached beyond the horizon of the prairies to see the problems that were confronting a nation.
    The Mexican War was no isolated incident in Americanhistory. It was fought not merely for patriotic reasons or to protect the lives and rights of American citizens in the newly admitted state of Texas. It was in reality a part of a great and tremendous movement that was to tear the country in two—it was part of the slavery issue that was then building up to the conflict that was to be fought fifteen years later under the leadership of this obscure Illinois Congressman who went to Washington late in 1847 to serve his first and only term.
    The Mexican War was an imperialistic move on the part of the pro-slavery forces to gain more territory for their expansion. Cotton land was rapidly being depleted under slave labor, and fresh soil was needed to grow new crops. Almost instinctively, Lincoln seems to have grasped the essential nature of the Mexican War. He opposed it from the beginning, and his opposition nearly wrecked his political career.
    Lincoln’s sojourn in the nation’s capital must have had an important influence on him. He left Springfield in November, 1847, in company with Mrs. Lincoln and their two sons, Robert and