Chapter X. Politics and Marriage
The next year after his removal to Springfield,
Mr. Lincoln was elected
to the legislature for the third time.
There were then, in this country, two great political parties,
the
Democrats and the Whigs. Mr. Lincoln was a Whig, and he soon
became the
leader of his party in the state. But the Whigs were not so
strong as
the Democrats.
The legislature was in session only a few weeks each year;
and so Mr.
Lincoln could devote all the rest of the time to the practice
of law.
There were many able lawyers in Illinois; but Abe Lincoln of
Springfield
soon made himself known among the best of them.
In 1840, he was again elected to the legislature. This was
the year in
which General William H. Harrison was elected president of
the United
States. General Harrison was a Whig; and Mr. Lincoln's name
was on the
Whig ticket as a candidate for presidential elector in his
state.
The presidential campaign was one of the most exciting that
had ever
been known. It was called the "log cabin" campaign,
because General
Harrison had lived in a log cabin, and his opponents had sneered
at his
poverty.
In the East as well as in the West, the excitement was very
great. In
every city and town and village, wherever there was a political
meeting,
a log cabin was seen. On one side of the low door hung a long-handled
gourd; on the other side, a coon-skin was nailed to the logs,
the blue
smoke curled up from the top of the stick-and-clay chimney.
You may believe that Abraham Lincoln went into this campaign
with all
his heart. He traveled over a part of the state, making stump-speeches
for his party.
One of his ablest opponents was a young lawyer, not quite
his own age,
whose name was Stephen A. Douglas. In many places, during this
campaign,
Lincoln and Douglas met in public debate upon the questions
of the day.
And both of them were so shrewd, so well informed, and so eloquent,
that
those who heard them were unable to decide which was the greater
of the
two.
General Harrison was elected, but not through the help of
Mr. Lincoln;
for the vote of Illinois that year was for the Democratic candidate.
In 1842, when he was thirty-three years old, Mr. Lincoln was
married to
Miss Mary Todd, a young lady from Kentucky, who had lately
come to
Springfield on a visit.
For some time after their marriage, Mr.
and Mrs. Lincoln lived in a
hotel called the "Globe Tavern," paying four dollars
a week for rooms
and board. But, in 1844, Mr. Lincoln bought a small, but comfortable
frame house, and in this they lived until they went to the
White House,
seventeen years later.
Although he had been successful as a young lawyer, Mr. Lincoln
was still
a poor man. But Mrs. Lincoln said: "I would rather have
a good man, a
man of mind, with bright prospects for success and power and
fame, than
marry one with all the horses and houses and gold in the world."
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