Book 
 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
• 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 ON WATERWAYS 
 
 WILLIAM A. MEESE 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 INCIDENTS IN HIS LIFE 
 RELATING TO 
 WATERWAYS 
 
 WILLIAM A. MEESK 
 
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 Uncolniint 
 
 Entered According to the Act of Congress in the year 1908 
 
 By WILWAM A. MEESE 
 In the Office of the Ivibrarian of Congress at Washington 
 
 MOLINE, ILLINOIS 
 DESAULNIERS & CO., PRINTERS 
 
 1908 
 
NOTE 
 
 TN presenting these few pages I lay 
 no claim to anything new in the life 
 of our great president. I have simply 
 gathered all of the data within my 
 reach, relating to Abraham Lincoln's 
 connection with Waterways and Water- 
 way Legislation. At this time, when 
 the trend of public sentiment is so 
 strong toward the improvement of rivers 
 and harbors, I believed it might be in- 
 teresting to the advocates of waterways 
 to know that Abraham Lincoln, in his 
 day, when the means of navigation were 
 so crude, advocated the policy which 
 today, a half -century later is being 
 just as strongly urged, and that the 
 policy he advocated was the result of 
 Lincoln's personal observations and 
 practical experience upon our western 
 rivers. Thus did Lincoln do his share 
 toward that work, the advancement of 
 which so many are today still trying to 
 promote. 
 
 William A. Meese. 
 
 February 12, 1908. 
 Moline, Illinois. 
 
LINCOIvN'S BOYHOOD ON THE RIVER. 
 
 Abraham I^INCOLN, a boy of sixteen living near 
 '^^-*- Gentryville, Indiana, on the banks of the Ohio 
 river, was employed for nine months in 1825 by 
 James Taylor as a ferryman to operate a boat which 
 crossed the Ohio river at the mouth of Anderson creek. 
 Lincoln worked as a ferryman and as a boy-of-all-work 
 and earned six dollars a month. 
 
 The only modes of travel in those days were by wagon 
 overland, or by boat on our lakes and rivers. The 
 latter, where it could be followed, was the popular way. 
 The Ohio river was thronged with boats. 
 
 President Lincoln, one evening at the White House, 
 told the following interesting story of his early experience 
 while a ferryman on the river to Mr. Seward and a few 
 friends. The president said : 
 
 "Seward, you never heard, did you, how I earned my 
 first dollar?" 
 
 "No," rejoined Mr. Seward. 
 
 "Well," continued Mr. Lincoln, "I belonged, you 
 know, to what they called down south the 'scrubs.' We 
 had succeeded in raising, chiefly by my labor, suflScient 
 produce, as I thought, to justify me in taking it down 
 the river to sell. 
 
 "After much persuasion I got the consent of mother 
 to go. I constructed a little flatboat, large enough to 
 take a barrel or two of things that we had gathered, with 
 myself and little bundle, down to the southern market. 
 A steamer was coming down the river. We have, you 
 
know, no wharves on the western streams, and the 
 custom was, if passengers were at any of the landings, 
 for them to go out in a boat, the steamer stopping and 
 taking them on board. 
 
 "I was contemplating my new flatboat and wondering 
 whether I could make it stronger or improve it in any 
 particular, when two men came down to the shore in 
 carriages, with trunks, and looking at the different boats 
 singled out mine and asked: 
 
 " 'Who own this? ' I answered, somewhat modestly, 
 'I do.' 
 
 " 'Will you,' said one of them, 'take us and our 
 trunks out to the steamer?' 
 
 "'Certainly,' said I. I was very glad to have the 
 chance of earning something. I supposed that each of 
 them would give me one or two or three bits. The 
 trunks were put on my flatboat, the passengers seated 
 themselves on the trunks and I sculled them out to the 
 steamboat. 
 
 "They got on board and I lifted up their heavy trunks 
 and put them on deck. The steamer was about to put 
 on steam again, when I called out that they had forgot- 
 ten to pay me. Each of them took from his pocket a 
 silver half-dollar, and threw it on the floor of my boat. 
 I could scarcely believe my eyes when I picked up the 
 money. Gentlemen, you may think it was a very little 
 thing, and in these days it seems to me a trifle ; but it 
 was a most important incident in my life. I could 
 scarcely credit that I, a poor boy, had earned a dollar. 
 The world seemed wider and fairer before me. I was a 
 more hopeful and confident being from that time." 
 
 In March, 1828, when only nineteen years old, Lincoln 
 hired out to Mr. Gentry, the leading citizen of the 
 vicinity, as a "bow hand" and "to work the front oars" 
 on a flatboat going with a cargo of bacon to New 
 Orleans. His wages were eight dollars a month and his 
 passage home. The trip was about 1800 miles in length 
 
and it was lyincoln's first experience away from home. 
 The entire business of the trip was placed in Lincoln's 
 care, and a son of Mr. Gentry was his sole companion. 
 
 One night when the flatboat was laid up at a sugar 
 plantation six miles below Baton Rouge and while the 
 boys were asleep, seven negroes attempted to board her 
 intending to commit robbery. Lincoln and young 
 Gentry were awakened. Lincoln seized a hand spike, 
 and as the foremost negro jumped on the boat, 
 knocked him into the water. The second, third and 
 fourth robber as each tried to board the boat was 
 treated in the same way, and then the negroes turned 
 and fled. 
 
 Young Gentry and Lincoln pursued the robbers and 
 administered to them a severe beating. In this encounter 
 Lincoln received a wound, the scar of which he bore 
 through life. Arriving at New Orleans, the "load" as 
 well as the flatboat were sold and the young men re- 
 turned to their homes some time in June. 
 
 LINCOLN A BOAT BUILDER. 
 
 In 1830, when Lincoln was twenty-one years old, his 
 father moved from Indiana to Illinois, and Lincoln then 
 started out in life for himself. 
 
 In the spring of 1831 he superintended and helped to 
 build a flatboat at Kirkpatrick's mill in Sangamon town 
 on the Sangamon river. The boat was built for a Mr. 
 Orfutt and was completed in thirty days. Lincoln was 
 one of the crew that started in the latter part of April 
 with the boat, loaded with corn and pork, for New 
 Orleans. But just before starting he had quite an ad- 
 venture which was described as follows by an eye wit- 
 ness, John Roll : 
 
 ' ' It was the spring following the winter of the deep 
 snow. Walter Carman, John Seamon and myself, and 
 
at times others of the Carman boys, had helped Abe in 
 building the boat, and when we had finished we went to 
 work to make a dugout, or canoe, to be used as a small 
 boat with the flat. We found a suitable log about an 
 eighth of a mile up the river, and with our axes went 
 to work under I^incoln's direction. The river was very 
 high, fairly 'booming.' 
 
 "After the dugout was ready to launch, we took it to 
 the edge of the water and made ready to 'let her go,' 
 when Walter Carman and John Seamon jumped in as 
 the boat struck the water, each one anxious to be the 
 first to get a ride. As they shot out from the shore they 
 found they were unable to make any headway against 
 the strong current. Carman had the paddle and Seamon 
 was in the stern of the boat. lyincoln shouted to them 
 to 'head up stream' and 'work back to shore,' but they 
 found themselves powerless against the stream. 
 
 "At last they began to pull for the wreck of an old 
 flatboat, the first ever built on the Sangamon, which had 
 sunk and gone to pieces, leaving one of the stanchions 
 sticking above the water. Just as they reached it 
 Seamon made a grab, and caught hold of the stanchion, 
 when the canoe capsized, leaving Seamon clinging to 
 the old timber, and throwing Carman into the stream. 
 It carried him down with the speed of a mill-race. 
 Lincoln raised his voice above the roar of the flood and 
 yelled to Carman to swim for an old tree which stood 
 almost in the channel, which the action of the high 
 water had changed. 
 
 "Carman, being a good swimmer, succeeded in catch- 
 ing a branch and pulled himself up out of the water, 
 which was very cold and had almost chilled him to 
 death; and there he sat shivering and chattering in the 
 tree. Lincoln, seeing Carman safe, called out to Seamon 
 to let go the stanchion and swim for the tree. With 
 some hesitation he obeyed and struck out, while Lincoln 
 cheered and directed him from the bank. As Seamon 
 
 10 
 
neared the tree, he made one grab for a branch, and 
 missing it, went under the water. Another desperate 
 lunge was successful, and he climbed up beside Carman. 
 Things were pretty exciting now, for there were two 
 men in the tree and the boat gone. 
 
 "it was a cold, raw April day and there was great 
 danger of the men becoming benumbed and falling back 
 into the water. lyincoln called out to them to keep their 
 spirits up and he would save them. The village had 
 been alarmed by this time, and many people had come 
 down to the bank. lyincoln procured a rope and tied it 
 to a log. He called all hands to come and help roll the 
 log into the water, and after this had been done, he with 
 the assistance of several others towed it some distance 
 up the stream, A daring young fellow by the name of 
 'Jim' Dorrel then took his seat on the end of the log, 
 and it was pushed out into the current, with the expec- 
 tation that it would be carried down stream against the 
 tree where Seamon and Carman were. 
 
 "The log was well directed and went straight to the 
 tree. But Jim, in his impatience to help his friends, fell 
 a victim to his good intentions. Making a frantic grab 
 at a branch, he raised himself off the log, which was 
 swept from under him by the raging water, and he soon 
 joined the other two victims upon their forlorn perch. 
 
 "The excitement on shore increased and almost the 
 whole population of the village gathered on the river 
 bank. 
 
 "lyincoln had the log pulled up stream, and securing 
 another piece of rope, called to the men in the tree to 
 catch it if they could when he should reach the tree. 
 He then straddled the log himself and gave the word to 
 push out into the stream. When he dashed into the 
 tree, he threw the rope over the stump of a broken limb 
 and let it play until it broke the speed of the log which 
 gradually drew back to the tree, holding it there until 
 
the three now nearly frozen men had climbed down and 
 seated themselves astride. He then gave orders to the 
 people on the shore to hold fast to the end of the rope 
 which was tied to the log, and leaving his rope in the 
 tree, he turned the log adrift. The force of the current, 
 acting against the taut rope, swung the log around 
 against the bank and all 'on board' were saved. 
 
 "The excited people, who had watched the dangerous 
 experiment with alternate hope and fear, now broke into 
 cheers for Abe L-incoln and praises for his brave act. 
 This adventure made quite a hero of him along the 
 Sangamon, and the people never tired telling of the 
 exploit." 
 
 The flatboat was soon loaded and the trip south com- 
 menced. But the boat got only to New Salem, where it 
 stuck fast on a milldam, and for nearly twenty-four 
 hours it lay, the bow in the air and the stern in the 
 water. I/incoln's ingenuity, however, came to the 
 rescue. The cargo was first unloaded, and then I^incoln 
 succeeded in tilting the boat forward, after which he 
 bored holes in the bow, thus allowing the water to run 
 out, when the boat was easily moved over the dam. 
 This was considered a great feat and was talked about 
 for years afterward. The boat reached New Orleans in 
 May, and after a month's stay in that city, Lincoln took 
 passage on a steamboat for St. Louis and from that city 
 walked to New Salem. 
 
 HIS FIRST OBSERVATION OF SLAVERY. 
 
 On this trip and on the one in 1828, Lincoln first saw 
 the true side of the institution of slavery. New Orleans 
 was then one of the largest slave markets in the country, 
 and Mr. J. R. Herndon, afterwards Lincoln's law partner, 
 says: 
 
 "In New Orleans for the first time, Lincoln beheld the 
 true horrors of human slavery. He saw negroes in 
 
chains — whipped and scourged. Against this inhu- 
 manity his sense of right and justice rebelled, and his 
 mind and conscience were awakened to a realization of 
 what he had often heard and read. No doubt, as one of 
 his companions said, 'Slavery ran the iron into him 
 then and there.' 
 
 "One morning in their rambles over the city the trio 
 passed a slave auction. A vigorous and comely mulatto 
 girl was being sold. She underwent a thorough exam- 
 ination at the hands of the bidders ; they pinched her 
 flesh and made her trot up and down the room like a 
 horse, to show how she moved and in order, as the 
 auctioneer said, that bidders might satisfy themselves 
 whether the article they were offering to buy was sound 
 or not.' The whole thing was so revolting that Lincoln 
 moved away from the scene with a deep feeling of 
 'unconquerable hate.' Bidding his companions follow 
 him, he said : 
 
 "Boys, let's get away from this. If ever I get a 
 chance to hit that thing (meaning slavery), I'll hit it 
 hard." 
 
 A short time after this Lincoln took a job of piloting 
 a flatboat bearing Dr. Nelson, a pioneer, and his family 
 down the Sangamon river and thence down the Illinois 
 river to Beardstown. Nelson was intent on settling 
 in Texas. 
 
 LINCOLN'S FIRST SPEECH. 
 
 In March, 1830, while in Macon county and when 
 only twenty-one years old, Abraham Lincoln made his 
 first public speech. It was on Waterways. A candidate 
 for the legislature named John F. Posey had made a 
 speech where Lincoln and his cousin John Hanks were 
 at work. John Hanks said "it was a bad one" and 
 that Lincoln could beat it. Hanks turned down a box, 
 
 13 
 
lyincoln mounted it and made his speech. Hanks says : 
 "Abe beat him to death." lyincoln discussed "The 
 Navigation of the Sangamon River." 
 
 Lincoln's great ambition to be prominent in public 
 life is early evinced. One of his biographers says : 
 
 "Although he had never made a speech except in 
 debating clubs and by the roadside, had read only the 
 books he could pick up and had known only the men 
 who made up the poor, out-of-the-way towns in which 
 he had lived, 'encouraged by his great popularity among 
 his immediate neighbors,' as he says himself, he decided 
 to announce himself in March, 1832, as a candidate for 
 the General Assembly of the state." 
 
 A CANDIDATE FAVORING WATERWAY 
 IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 It was a custom of the times for a candidate for office 
 to issue a printed announcement, stating his "sentiments 
 with regard to local affairs." Illinois was in the throes 
 of an Internal Improvement era. lyincoln, knowing his 
 people, believed in improving the Sangamon river so 
 that the Sangamon country people could get to Beards- 
 town and the Mississippi river by water, and he devoted 
 most of his "Announcement" to this subject. Speaking 
 of the Sangamon river he said : 
 
 "Respecting this view, I think I may say, without the 
 fear of being contradicted, that its navigation may be 
 rendered completely practicable, as high as the mouth of 
 the south fork or probably higher, to vessels of from 
 twenty-five to thirty tons burden for at least one-half of 
 all common years, and to vessels of much greater burden 
 a part of the time. From my peculiar circumstances, it 
 is probable that for the last twelve months I have given 
 as particular attention to the stage of the water in this 
 river as any other person in the country. In the month 
 
of March, 1831, in company with others, I commenced 
 the building of a flatboat on the Sangamon, and finished 
 and took her out in the course of the spring. Since that 
 time I have been concerned in the mill at New Salem. 
 
 "These circumstances are sufficient evidence that I 
 have not been very inattentive to the stages of the water. 
 The time at which we crossed the mill-dam in the last 
 days of April, the water was lower than it had been since 
 the breaking of winter in February or than it was for 
 several weeks after. The principal difficulties we en- 
 countered in descending the river were from the drifted 
 timber, which obstructions all know are not difficult to 
 be removed. Knowing almost precisely the height of 
 water at that time, I believe I am safe in saying that it 
 has as often been higher as lower since. 
 
 "From this view of the subject it appears that my cal- 
 culations with regard to the navigation of the Sangamon 
 cannot but be founded in reason ; but, whatever may be 
 its natural advantages, certain it is that it never can be 
 practically useful to any great extent without being 
 greatly improved by art. 
 
 "The drifted timber, as I have before mentioned, is 
 the most formidable barrier to this object. Of all parts 
 of this river, none will require so much labor in propor- 
 tion to make it navigable as the last thirty or thirty -five 
 miles ; and going with the meanderings of the channel, 
 when we are this distance above its mouth we are only 
 between twelve and eighteen miles above Beardstown in 
 something near a straight direction ; and this route is 
 upon such low ground as to retain water in many places 
 during the season and in all parts such as to draw two- 
 thirds or three-fourths of the river water at all high 
 stages. 
 
 "This route is on prairie land the whole distance, so 
 that it appears to me, by removing the turf a sufficient 
 width and damming up the old channel, the whole river in 
 a short time would wash its way through, thereby cur- 
 
tailing the distance and increasing the velocity of the 
 current very considerably, while there would be no tim- 
 ber on the banks to obstruct its navigation in future ; 
 and being nearly straight, the timber which might float 
 in at the head would be apt to go clear through. There 
 are also many places above this where the river, in its 
 zigzag course, forms such complete peninsulas as to be 
 easier to cut at the necks than to remove the obstructions 
 from the bends, which if done would also lessen the 
 distance. 
 
 "What the cost of this work would be, I am unable to 
 say. It is probable, however, that it would not be 
 greater than is common to streams of the same length. 
 Finally, I believe the improvement of the Sangamon 
 river to be vastly important and highly desirable to the 
 people of the county; and, if elected, any measure in 
 the legislature having this for its object, which may 
 appear judicious, will meet my approbation and receive 
 my support." 
 
 At this time occurred an event that aroused the great- 
 est enthusiasm among the settlers in the Sangamon 
 Valley. Some weeks before Lincoln issued his circulars, 
 it was announced that a steamboat named the "Talis- 
 man" would, as soon as the ice was out of the river, 
 make a trip from Cincinnati via the Ohio, Mississippi 
 and Illinois rivers up the Sangamon. The "Talisman" 
 made the trip soon after, and its advent was hailed by 
 all the country as a great event. 
 
 Lincoln was hired as pilot to guide the boat up the 
 Sangamon, and he safely brought her to a point near 
 Springfield where she lay the object of an admiring 
 country people for one whole week. Lincoln was also 
 her pilot on her return trip to Beardstown. This was 
 the first and only time a steamboat ever navigated the 
 Sangamon river. Yet this trip for years was regarded 
 as a practical demonstration of the navigability of that 
 river. 
 
 16 
 
LINCOLN IN BLACK HAWK WAR. 
 
 Before the campaign was far advanced, the Black 
 Hawk war broke out. Abraham Lincoln then twenty- 
 three years old, on April 28, 1832, volunteered as a 
 soldier and was mustered into the service of the state of 
 Illinois in a company organized among the settlers in 
 and around his home. Lincoln was elected captain of 
 the company, and in after years in speaking of his elec- 
 tion, he said that "not since, had he had any success in 
 life which gave him so much satisfaction." 
 
 The enlistments for this war were all for twenty and 
 thirty days, as it was believed the war would be of short 
 duration, and on May 27th Captain Lincoln and his 
 company were mustered out of service. Lincoln on the 
 same day re-enlisted as a private in Captain Elijah He's 
 company for twenty days' service, and on June 13th his 
 term of enlistment having expired, he was mustered out 
 of the service. But immediately on that day he enlisted as 
 private in the company of Captain Jacob M. Early. 
 The officer who mustered Lincoln "in" and "out" on 
 the 13th of June was Lieutenant Robert Anderson, after- 
 ward of Fort Sumter fame. 
 
 Lincoln's company was mustered out July 10, 1832, 
 at the mouth of the Whitewater river in Wisconsin, and 
 he in company with George Harrison started for home. 
 Having lost their horses, they came afoot to Dixon, 
 thence walked across the country to Peru, thence down 
 to Peoria where they bought a canoe and floated down 
 the Illinois river to Havana, from where they walked 
 across the country to New Salem. 
 
 In 1831 occurred the first Sac and Fox uprising. At 
 this time Governor Reynolds issued a call for troops and 
 at the head of his Illinois army marched against the 
 Indians and destroyed their village at the mouth of Rock 
 river. Lincoln at this time was on his second trip to 
 New Orleans, or he would undoubtedly have enlisted in 
 this campaign. 
 
Of Lincoln's war record, one of his early biographers 
 said : 
 
 "Mr. Lincoln, as yet a youth of but twenty-three, 
 faithfully discharged his duty to his country, as a soldier 
 persevering amid peculiar hardships and against the in- 
 fluence of older men around him during the three 
 months' service." 
 
 LINCOLN IN THE LEGISLATURE. 
 
 Upon arriving home he had but ten days before the 
 August election, to which he in March had announced 
 his candidacy for representative. Lincoln now took up 
 his neglected campaign, and when the election was held 
 on August 6th he found he was defeated. This was his 
 first and only defeat. He ran as a Clay man in a county 
 which was strongly democratic, and though beaten he re- 
 ceived two hundred and vSeventy-seven votes out of the two 
 hundred and eighty-four votes cast in the precinct in 
 which he lived. A few months later Andrew Jackson, 
 for president, received in this precinct a majority of one 
 hundred and fifty-five. 
 
 Lincoln now engaged in "keeping store," but spent 
 most of his time studying. In a barrel of old junk he had 
 purchased, he found a copy of Blackstone's Commentaries. 
 Of these he said: 
 
 "The more I read, the more intensely interested I be- 
 came. Never in my whole life was my mind so thorough- 
 ly absorbed. I read until I devoured them. " 
 
 Lincoln was appointed postmaster at New Salem on 
 May 7, 1833, holding the office until May 30, 1836, when 
 the office was discontinued. This position brought in 
 small revenue. He now took up the study of civil en- 
 gineering, and six weeks after commencing was appoint- 
 ed a deputy surveyor of Sangamon county. He sold his 
 interest in the store in 1834 and devoted his time to sur- 
 veying and the study of law. 
 
Ivincoln tried for the legislature in 1834 and at the 
 August election was chosen as one of the four assembly- 
 men from Sangamon county. He walked from his home 
 to Vandalia to attend his first session . He was the young- 
 est member of that legislature, with the exception of Jesse 
 K. Dubois. 
 
 The Ninth General Assembly to which lyincoln had 
 been elected undertook to do great things. A new state 
 bank was chartered and an act was passed providing for 
 the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. 
 Lincoln was appointed on the committee on Public Ac- 
 counts and Expenditures. He offered several resolutions 
 during this session, but was not successful, except in 
 answering roll calls, where his name is invariably record- 
 ed. He however was a strong advocate of the construc- 
 tion of the canal. 
 
 There appeared in the Sangamon Journal June 13, 1836, 
 an announcement by Abraham I^incoln of his intention 
 to try for reelection . In speaking of Internal Improve- 
 ments, he said: 
 
 "Whether elected or not, I go for distributing the pro- 
 ceeds of the sales of the public lands to the several states, 
 to enable our state in common with others to dig canals 
 and construct railroads without borrowing money and 
 paying the interest on it. " 
 
 lyincoln was elected to the Tenth General Assembly and 
 was assigned to the committee on finance. 
 
 Sangamon county under the new redistricting sent two 
 senators and seven members of the house. Each one of 
 the nine members was over six feet in height and they 
 were ever afterward known as the "lyong Nine." At 
 this time the question of removing the capital from Van- 
 dalia was before the legislature. Springfield was an ac- 
 tive candidate and the "L,ong Nine," it is said, "rolled 
 along like a snowball, gathering accessions of strength at 
 every turn, until they swelled up a considerable party for 
 
 19 
 
Springfield , which part}^ they managed to take ahnost as 
 a unit in favor of the Internal Improvement system, in re- 
 turn for which the active supporters of that system were 
 to vote for Springfield to be the seat of government. " 
 
 This legislature held two sessions, and lyincoln soon be- 
 came recognized as the whig leader. Among the mem- 
 bers were: Stephen A. Douglas, Edward D. Baker, O. H. 
 Browning, William ly. D. Kwing, John I^ogan, father of 
 the late Senator, General John A. Logan, Richard M. 
 Cullom, father of Senator Shelby M. Cullom, General 
 James Shields, Colonel John J. Hardin and a score of 
 others who afterward achieved renown. 
 
 Lincoln was licensed to practice law in the courts of 
 Illinois September 9, 1836, and made his appearance in 
 his first case in October. That year Lincoln took an ac- 
 tive part in the Internal Improvement measures before the 
 Assembly, but his most active work by far was in behalf 
 of the removal of the capital from Vandalia to Springfield. 
 
 In 1838 he was reelected to the Eleventh General As- 
 sembly. He had by this time achieved a reputation "not 
 only as a debater but as a watchful and successful repre- 
 sentative." So well recognized was his position in his 
 party that by common consent he received the whig vote 
 for the speakership. 
 
 During this session occurred an incident which, 
 although not strictly relating to Internal Improvements, 
 is exceedingly interesting. I once heard a very learned 
 and well-known gentleman remark : 
 
 "There is only one thing in the life of Abraham 
 Lincoln that I do not like, and I do not know the reason 
 for that. It is said he once jumped out of a window of 
 the house of representatives to escape voting." 
 
 Sometime afterward I ran across an account of the 
 incident, and I give it here as it was given by Mr. Joseph 
 Gillespie, a contemporary of Lincoln : 
 
 20 
 
"The banks throughout the country became crippled 
 during the panic of 1837, and they were throughout the 
 west allowed to suspend specie payments. At the 
 session of 1837-38, an act was passed authorizing the 
 State Bank of Illinois to suspend 'until the end of the 
 next General Assembly.' 
 
 "Governor Carlin convened the next session two 
 weeks earlier than the time prescribed for its meeting by 
 the constitution. A quarrel occurred between some of 
 the members of the dominant party and the bank, and it 
 was secretly determined to adjourn the legislature, sine 
 die, at the end of the first two weeks of the next session. 
 That would be the next session after the act allowing 
 the bank to suspend, and it would be compelled to 
 resume while the banks in the other states were sus- 
 pended, and they would drain the specie from our bank 
 and pay out none themselves. 
 
 "The whigs regarded this move as being unjust to the 
 bank and detrimental to the welfare of the people. They 
 got wind of the thing on the morning of the day when 
 the adjournment was to take place, and they instantly 
 resolved that they would absent themselves and thus 
 break up a quorum. But, as the constitution of 1818 
 would allow such a vote to be taken without a call of 
 the ayes and nays, it was necessary that two whigs 
 should be in the house to call for them , so that it should 
 appear that a quorum was not voting, in which case the 
 legislature could only adjourn from day to day, and the 
 following Monday they would be convened by the 
 constitution. 
 
 "lyincoln and I were selected to call the ayes and nays, 
 and the whigs promised to keep out of the way. When 
 the motion was put we called for the ayes and nays, and 
 there was no quorum voting. A call of the house was 
 ordered, and the sergeant-at-arms was sent for the 
 absentees, many of whom, we discovered, allowed them- 
 selves to be caught and brought in. 
 
"Lincoln and I began to suspect that they had a 
 quorum. Finding that the whigs who had been brought 
 in would not withdraw, we got them to agree to call for 
 the ayes and nays, and we concluded to leave. But 
 ascertaining that the doors were locked, we raised the 
 windows of the church in which the session was held and 
 jumped out. The sergeant-at-arms, William Murphy, 
 reported that he had commanded Cyrus Edwards to 
 attend in his place. 
 
 'What did he say?' inquired the speaker of the 
 house. 
 
 'He said he would not.' 
 'what did you say?' 
 " 'l told him I would take him by force.' 
 " 'What did he do?' 
 
 'He raised his cane and said : 'Touch me at your 
 peril! ' 
 
 'What did you do?' 
 '"I sloped, sir."' 
 
 For the fourth successive time Mr. Lincoln was elected 
 to the legislature in 1840. This was the last election 
 that he would accept, as in the last legislature he was 
 the acknowledged whig leader and the candidate of his 
 party for speaker. One of his biographers speaking of 
 Lincoln in 1842 at the close of his legislative career says : 
 
 "At the close of this period, with scarcely any con- 
 sciousness of the fact himself, and with no noisy demon- 
 strations or flashy ostentation in his behalf from his 
 friends, he was really one of the foremost political men 
 in the state." 
 
 At the time Lincoln was elected to the legislature, the 
 state was in a prosperous condition. Yet the legislature, 
 seeking to emulate the example of some of the older 
 states, undertook to improve conditions by chartering 
 banks, building railroads to connect distant parts of the 
 
 22 
 
state, dig canals and to improve the navigation of the 
 Kaskaskia, Illinois, Great and Little Wabash and Rock 
 rivers to all of which the state lent its aid. It was 
 argued at public gatherings that "Illinois had all the 
 natural advantages which constitute a great state ; a rich 
 soil, variety of climate and great extent of territory." 
 
 All it needed, it was said, was inhabitants and enter- 
 prise. Cities and towns were laid out in all sections of 
 the state. Grave fears were felt that the whole country 
 was to be laid out in towns and that no land would be 
 left for farming purposes. 
 
 Counties that were not provided with projected rail- 
 roads or canals were placated by promises to divide two 
 hundred thousand dollars among them according to 
 population. One forcible argument advanced was that 
 the state would derive a very large sum as rent for the 
 water power made by these improvements. The Internal 
 Improvement era is best characterized by Governor 
 Duncan in his valedictory address. He said : 
 
 "Experience has now sufiiciently shown that all my 
 objections to it must in time be fully realized. * * * 
 That there should have been many mistakes committed 
 and much waste of public money in conducting a system 
 of internal improvements upon so large a scale, in a 
 country almost entirely destitute of skill and experience 
 in such works, was to be expected. But I confess they 
 have occurred to an extent never anticipated by myself 
 and, whether by mistake or design, it is very manifest 
 that large sums have been squandered on objects of little 
 or no general utility, and in some cases to the detriment 
 of the public interest." 
 
 lyincoln was an ardent advocate of all internal im- 
 provements, especially the improvement of rivers, upon 
 which subject he brought to bear his experience as a 
 boatman and his knowledge otherwise acquired. In his 
 advocacy of these subjects he was prompted by honest 
 motives and a practical and personal knowledge of boat- 
 
ing, steamboats and waterways superior undoubtedly to 
 that possessed by any of his colleagues. 
 
 In 1843 lyincoln tried to secure the nomination for 
 congress. One of the stories told by his political 
 enemies was that he was an aristocrat. In speaking of 
 this lyincoln in a letter dated March 26, 1843, to Martin 
 M. Morris said : 
 
 "It would astonish, if not amuse, the older citizens to 
 learn that I (a stranger, friendless, uneducated, penniless 
 boy, working on a flatboat at ten dollars a month) 
 have been put down here as the candidate of pride, 
 wealth and aristocratic family distinction." 
 
 IvINCOI^N AT THE CHICAGO RIVER AND 
 HARBOR CONVENTION. 
 
 In July, 1846, a bill for the improvement of harbors 
 and the navigation of rivers passed both houses of 
 congress. President James Polk vetoed the bill August 
 3. Among the items in this bill were $15,000 for Buffalo 
 harbor, $40,000 for Erie harbor, $20,000 for Cleveland 
 harbor, $80,000 for Racine, Little Fort, Southport, 
 Milwaukee and Chicago Dredge boat. President Polk 
 said : "it would seem the dictate of wisdom under such 
 circumstances to husband our means and not waste them 
 on comparatively unimportant objects." 
 
 The war with Mexico was in progress and the north 
 became aroused. The Chicago Daily Journal of August 
 12, 1846, in commenting on the message, said : "Husband 
 our means forsooth. Are not millions being squandered 
 by this same James K. Polk for the invasion of Mexico 
 and the extension of slavery?" 
 
 Another one of Polk's reasons was that "some one of 
 the objects of the appropriation, contained in this bill. 
 

are local in their character, and lie within the limits of 
 a single state ; and though in the language of the bill 
 they are called harbors, they are not connected with 
 foreign commerce, nor are they places of refuge or of 
 shelter for our navy or commercial marine on the ocean 
 or lake shores. ' ' 
 
 At this time, the following vessels navigated the lakes 
 above the Falls of Niagara: Steamboats 52, tonnage 
 29,500; propellers 8, tonnage 2,500 ; brigs 50, tonnage 
 11,000 ; schooners 270, tonnage 42,000. Total boats, 
 380 ; total tonnage, 76,000. The cost of the construc- 
 tion of these vessels was $4,600,000. 
 
 Polk's veto aroused the people of the north and north- 
 west, and Monday, July 5, 1847, pursuant to a widely 
 advertised call, a convention was held in Chicago at 
 which delegates from nineteen states were present. 
 Horace Greeley was present, representing the New York 
 Tribune. In an article published in that paper Saturday, 
 July 17, 1847, he said: "A judicious estimate makes 
 the number present today 20,000 men, of whom 10,000 
 are here as members of the convention." 
 
 New York state sent about 300. The Chicago Even- 
 ing Journal of Tuesday, July 6, 1847, in a lengthy 
 account of the convention, among other things, said : 
 
 "it was a display, such as the west had never before 
 beheld, but we value it not for the badges and banners 
 and pageantry, not for its array of military or its blasts 
 of music, but for the community of interest and of feel- 
 ing that it indicated, thus gathering from every quarter 
 of a republic, wide as the New World and comprehended 
 by two oceans, gathering here at the hithermost extrem- 
 ity of the great lake chain, the trading post, the very 
 outpost of civilization, no, no, not that, for that was 
 Chicago of 1812, but at the city of sixteen thousand, the 
 Chicago of today, in itself a glorious exponent of tie 
 triumph of enterprise," 
 
To this convention as delegates from Sangamon coun- 
 ty, Illinois, came Dr. E. H. Merry man, Fred Doyle and 
 Hon. Abraham Lincoln. The states were called alpha- 
 betically and each was requested to select one of their 
 number as a committee to nominate oflScers for the per- 
 manent organization of the convention. Illinois named 
 Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 The Chicago Journal of July 6, 1847, said : 
 
 "We are happy to see the Hon. Abraham Lincoln in 
 attendance upon the convention, the only whig repre- 
 sentative to congress from this state. This is his first 
 visit to the commercial emporium of the state, and we 
 have no doubt his visit will impress him more deeply if 
 possible with the importance and inspire a higher zeal 
 for the great interests of river and harbor improvements. 
 We expect much from him as a representative in con- 
 gress, and we have no doubt our expectations will be 
 more than realized, for never was reliance placed in a 
 nobler heart and a sounder judgment. We know the 
 banner he bears will never be soiled." 
 
 The same paper says in its convention report : 
 
 "Hon. A. Lincoln of Illinois in response to numerous 
 calls made his appearance on the stand and addressed 
 the convention." 
 
 In the forenoon David Dudley Field of New York 
 had spoken against the right of the federal government 
 to improve rivers and harbors, and Lincoln was called to 
 answer him. One of his early biographers says : 
 
 "A brief fifteen-minute speech of his on that occasion, 
 of which there appears to be no report extant, is still 
 remembered by many of those who heard it as one of 
 the most eloquent and impressive efforts of that memo- 
 rable convention." 
 
 As to Lincoln's appearance at this period, the follow- 
 ing reminiscence by Hon. E. B. Washburne is given: 
 
 "One afternoon several of us sat on the sidewalk under 
 the balcony in front of the Sherman House, and among 
 
the number the accomplished scholar and unrivalled or- 
 ator lyisle Smith. He suddenly interrupted the conver- 
 sation by exclaiming: ' 'There is lyincoln on the other side 
 of the street! Just look at ' 'Old Abe! ' ' And from that time 
 we all called him "Old Abe." No one who saw him can 
 forget his personal appearance at that time. Tall and 
 angular and awkward, he had on a short waistcoated thin 
 swallow-tail coat, a short vest of same material, thin pan- 
 taloons, scarcely coming down to his ankles, a straw hat 
 and a pair of brogans with woolen socks." 
 
 The New York Semi-Weekly Tribune gave a full ac- 
 count of the convention and from its report of July 17, 
 1847, we may learn how L,incoln at this time impressed 
 the great editor. In his afternoon report of July 6, Mr. 
 Greeley said: 
 
 ' ' In the afternoon Hon. Abraham lyincoln, a tall speci- 
 men of an Illinoisan, just elected to congress from the 
 only whig district in the state, was called out and spoke 
 briefly and happily in reply to Mr. Field." 
 
 I.INCOI.N'S SPEECH IN CONGRESS ON 
 WATERWAYS. 
 
 In May, 1846, lyincoln had been nominated by the 
 whigs for congress. His opponent was Peter Cart- 
 wright, the celebrated Methodist circuit rider. The cam- 
 paign was vigorously prosecuted on both sides, but 
 lyincoln was elected by over 1500 majority. 
 
 In November, 1847, lyincoln left for Washington. He 
 had hardly taken his seat in congress before he had an 
 opportunity to take part in the consideration of Internal 
 Improvements. Following Polk's veto and the Chicago 
 river and harbor meeting, there was great enthusiasm for 
 river and harbor improvements. 
 
 lyincoln voted for the following resolution December 
 20, 1847: 
 
 Resolved, That if in the judgment of congress it be 
 necessary to improve the navigation of a river to expe- 
 
 27 
 
dite and render secure the movements of our army and 
 save from delay and loss, our arms and munitions of war, 
 congress has the power to improve such river. 
 
 Resolved, That if it be necessary for the preservation 
 of the lives of our seamen, repairs, safety or main- 
 tenance of our vessels of war, to improve a harbor or 
 inlet, either on our Atlantic or lake coast, congress has the 
 power to make such improvement. 
 
 Ivincoln's record in congress was brief. He made sev- 
 eral speeches, the most notable, but less known one, on 
 Internal Improvements. 
 
 Congressman Frank O. lyowden, of Illinois, at a ban- 
 quet tendered the delegates to the Upper Mississippi River 
 Improvement Association at Moline, Illinois, by the man- 
 ufacturers of that place on October 22, 1907, among 
 other things said: 
 
 ' ' I had the good fortune within the last few days to 
 read a speech which Abraham L,incolu made in the house 
 of representatives of this old question of Internal Improve- 
 ments. That was nearly sixty years ago. I was sur- 
 prised, as I ought not to have been, at the strong argument 
 which he advanced in favor of the general government 
 undertaking Internal Improvements. The same master- 
 ful accuracy and analysis were found in that speech which 
 distinguished all his utterances, and if you have not read 
 it I do hope that all of you who are interested in this 
 great question will take the first opportunity to read it. 
 Of course, one of the great questions which they had to 
 meet at that time has since been decided by the courts, 
 and that is the question of constitutionality. This ques- 
 tion no longer enters into the thing, but among the ques- 
 tions discussed beside the question of constitutionality 
 was one which is just as important today as it was then, 
 namely: that the improvement of a waterway is not a 
 local improvement in any proper sense of the word. He 
 admitted that one section would be, perhaps, more bene- 
 
fited than remote sections, but he insisted that after all 
 it was in the interest of commerce which made for the 
 benefit of the entire community." 
 
 Lincoln's speech was made on June 20, 1848, in com- 
 mittee of the whole house, and is reported in the Ap- 
 pendix to the Congressional Globe for that session (p. 
 709). It was as follows: 
 
 Mr. lyincoln said : 
 
 "Mr. Chairman : I wish at all times in no way to 
 practice any fraud upon the house or the committee, and 
 I also desire to do nothing which may be very disagree- 
 able to any of the members. I therefore state, in 
 advance, that my object in taking the floor is to make a 
 speech on the general subject of Internal Improvements ; 
 and if I am out of order in doing so, I give the Chair an 
 opportunity of so deciding, and I will take my seat. 
 
 The Chair : "l will not undertake to anticipate what 
 the gentleman may say on the subject of Internal Im- 
 provements. He will, therefore, proceed in his remarks, 
 and if any question of order shall be made, the Chair 
 will then decide it." 
 
 Mr. Lrincoln : "At an early day of this session the 
 president sent to us what may properly be termed an 
 Internal Improvement veto message. The late demo- 
 cratic convention which sat at Baltimore and which 
 nominated General Cass for the presidency, adopted a 
 set of resolutions, now called the democratic platform, 
 among which is one in these words : 
 
 " 'That the constitution does not confer upon the 
 general government the power to commence and carry 
 on a general system of Internal Improvements.' 
 
 "General Cass, in his letter accepting the nomination, 
 holds this language : 
 
 " 'I have carefully read the resolutions of the demo- 
 cratic national convention, laying down the platform of 
 our political faith, and I adhere to them as firmly as I 
 approve them cordially.' 
 
"These things, taken together, show that the question 
 of Internal Improvements is now more distinctly made — 
 has become more intense than in any former period. It 
 can no longer be avoided. The veto message and the 
 Baltimore resolution I understand to be, in substance, 
 the same thing ; the latter being the more general state- 
 ment, of which the former is the amplification — the bill 
 of particulars. While I know there are many demo- 
 crats, on the floor and elsewhere, who disapprove that 
 message, I understand that all who shall vote for General 
 Cajss will thereafter be considered as having approved it, 
 as having indorsed all its doctrines. I suppose all, or 
 nearly all, the democrats will vote for him. Many of 
 them will do so, not because they like his position on 
 this question, but because they prefer him, being wrong 
 in this, to another whom they consider further wrong 
 on other questions. In this way the Internal Improve- 
 ment democrats are to be, by a sort of forced consent, 
 carried over and arrayed against themselves on this 
 measure of policy. 
 
 "General Cass, once elected, will not trouble himself 
 to make a constitutional argument, or perhaps any 
 argument at all, when he shall veto a river or harbor 
 bill. He will consider it a sufficient answer to all demo- 
 cratic murmurs to point to Mr. Polk's message, and to 
 the democratic platform. This being the case, the ques- 
 tion of improvements is verging to a final crisis ; and 
 the friends of the policy must now battle, and battle 
 manfully, or surrender all. 
 
 I.INCOI.N DISCUSSES THK 
 PRESIDENT'S VETO. 
 
 "in this view, humble as I am, I wish to review and 
 contrast as well as I may the general positions of this 
 veto message. When I say general positions, I mean to 
 
exclude from consideration so much as relates to the 
 present embarrassed state of the treasury, in consequence 
 of the Mexican war. 
 
 "Those general positions are : That Internal Improve- 
 ments ought not to be made by the general government. 
 
 1 . Because they would overwhelm the treasury ; 
 
 2. Because, while their burdens would be general, 
 their benefits would be local and partial, involving an 
 obnoxious inequality ; 
 
 3. Because they would be unconstitutional ; 
 
 4. Because the states may do enough by the levy and 
 collection of tonnage duties ; or, if not, 
 
 5. That the constitution may be amended. 
 
 " 'Do nothing at all, lest you do something wrong,' 
 is the sum of these positions — is the sum of this 
 message ; and this, with the exception of what is said 
 about constitutionality, applying as forcibly to making 
 improvements by state authority as by the national 
 authority. So that we must abandon the improvements 
 of the countr}'' altogether, by any and every authority, 
 or we may resist and repudiate the doctrines of this 
 message. Let us attempt the latter. 
 
 "The first position is, that a system of Internal Im- 
 provement would overwhelm the treasury. 
 
 "That in such a system^ there is a tendency to undue 
 expansion is not to be denied. Such tendency is founded 
 in the nature of the subject. A member of congress will 
 prefer voting for a bill which contains an appropriation 
 for his district, to voting for one which does not ; and 
 when a bill shall be expanded till every district shall be 
 provided for, that it will be too greatly expanded is 
 obvious. But is this any more true in congress than in 
 a state legislature? If a member of congress must have 
 an appropriation for his district, so a member of a legis- 
 lature must have for his county ; and if one will over- 
 whelm the national treasury, so the other will overwhelm 
 the state treasury. Go where we will, the difficulty is 
 
the same. Allow it to drive us from the halls of 
 congress, and it will just as easily drive us from the 
 state legislature. 
 
 '%et us, then, grapple with it and test its strength. 
 Let us, judging of the future by the past, ascertain 
 whether there may not be, in the discretion of congress, 
 a sufficient power to limit and restrain this expansion 
 tendency within reasonable and proper bounds. The 
 president himself values the evidence of the past. He 
 tells us that at a certain point of our history more than 
 two hundred millions of dollars have been applied for to 
 make improvements, and this he does to prove that the 
 treasury would be overwhelmed by such a system. Why 
 did he not tell us how much was granted? Would not 
 that have been better evidence? 
 
 "Let us turn to it, and see what it proves. In the 
 message, the president tells us that 'during the four 
 succeeding years, embraced by the administration of 
 President Adams, the power not only to appropriate 
 money, but to apply it, under the direction and authority 
 of the general government, as well to the construction of 
 roads as to the improvement of harbors and rivers, was 
 fully asserted and exercised.' 
 
 "This, then, was the period of greatest enormity. 
 These, if any, must have been days of the two hundred 
 million dollars. And how much do you suppose was 
 really expended for improvements during those four 
 years? Two hundred millions? One hundred? Fifty? 
 Ten? Five? No, sir, less than two millions. As shown 
 by authentic documents, the expenditures on improve- 
 ments during 1825, 1826, 1827 and 1828 amounted to 
 $1,879,627.01. These four years were the period of 
 Mr. Adams' administration, nearly and substantially. 
 This fact shows that when the power to make improve- 
 ments was 'fully asserted and exercised,' the congresses 
 did keep within reasonable limits ; and what has been 
 done, it seems to me, can be done again. 
 
 32 
 
IvOCAIv IMPROVEMENTS ARE A 
 GENERAL BENEFIT. 
 
 "Now for the second position of the message, namely ; 
 that the burdens of improvements would be general, 
 while their benefits would be local and partial, involving 
 an obnoxious inequality. That there is some degree of 
 truth in this position I shall not deny. No commercial 
 object of government patronage can be so exclusively 
 general, as not to be of some peculiar local advantage ; 
 but on the other hand, nothing is so local as not to be of 
 some general advantage. 
 
 "The navy, as I understand it, was established and is 
 maintained at a great annual expense partly to be ready 
 for war when war shall come, but partly also, and 
 perhaps chiefly, for the protection of our commerce on 
 the high seas. This latter object is, for all I can see, in 
 principle the same as Internal Improvements. The 
 driving a pirate from the track of commerce on the 
 broad ocean and the removing a snag from its more nar- 
 row path in the Mississippi river, cannot, I think, be 
 distinguished in principle. Each is done to save life and 
 property, and for nothing else. The navy, then, is the 
 most general in its benefits of all this class of objects ; 
 and yet even the navy is of some peculiar advantage to 
 Charleston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and 
 Boston, beyond what it is to the interior towns of Illinois. 
 
 "The next most general object I can think of, would 
 be improvements on the Mississippi river and its tribu- 
 taries. They touch thirteen of our states — Pennsylvania, 
 Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, 
 Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin 
 and Iowa. Now, I suppose it will not be denied, that 
 these thirteen states are a little more interested in im- 
 provements on that great river than are the remaining 
 seventeen. These instances of the navy and the Missis- 
 sippi river show clearly that there is something of local 
 advantage in the most general objects. 
 
 33 
 
"But the converse is also true, nothing is so local as 
 not to be of some general benefit. Take for instance, 
 the Illinois and Michigan canal. Considered apart from 
 its effects it is perfectly local. Every inch of it is within 
 the state of Illinois. That canal was first opened for 
 business last April. In a very few days we were all 
 gratified to learn, among other things, that sugar had 
 been carried from New Orleans, through the canal, to 
 Buffalo in New York. This sugar took this route doubt- 
 less because it was cheaper than the old route. Sup- 
 posing the benefit in the reduction of the cost of carriage 
 to be shared between seller and buyer, the result is that 
 the New Orleans merchant sold his sugar a little dearer, 
 and the people of Buffalo sweetened their coffee a little 
 cheaper than before ; a benefit resulting from the canal, 
 not to Illinois where the canal is, but to lyouisiana and 
 New York, where it is not. 
 
 "in other transactions Illinois will, of course, have 
 her share and perhaps the larger share too in the benefits 
 of the canal, but the instance of the sugar clearly shows 
 that the benefits of an improvement are by no means con- 
 fined to the particular locality of the improvement itself. 
 
 "The just conclusion from all this is, that if the nation 
 refuse to make improvements of the more general kind, 
 because their benefits may be somewhat local, a state 
 may, for the same reason, refuse to make an improve- 
 ment of a local kind, because its benefits may be some- 
 what general. A state may well say to the nation: 'If 
 you will do nothing for me I will do nothing for you.' 
 Thus it is seen, that if this argument of 'inequality' is 
 sufl&cient anywhere, it is sufficient everywhere, and puts 
 an end to improvements altogether. I hope and believe, 
 that if both the nation and the states would in good faith, 
 in their respective spheres, do what they could in the way 
 of improvements, what of inequality might be produced 
 in one place might be compensated in another, and that 
 the sum of the whole might not be very unequal. 
 
 34 
 
But suppose, after all, there should be some degree of 
 inequality. Inequality is certainly never to be embraced 
 for its own sake; but is every good thing to be discarded 
 which may be inseparably connected with some degree of 
 it? If so, we must discard all government. This capitol 
 is built at the public expense, for the public benefit; but 
 does anyone doubt that it is of some peculiar local advan- 
 age to the property holders and business people of Wash- 
 ington? Shall we remove it for this reason? And if so, 
 where shall we set it down and be free from the difficulty? 
 To make sure of our object, shall we locate it nowhere 
 and leave congress hereafter to hold its sessions as the 
 loafer lodged, 'in spots about?' 
 
 "I make no special allusion to the present president 
 when I say, there are few stronger cases in this world of 
 'burden to the many, and benefit to the few' — of 
 'inequality' — than the presidency itself is by some 
 thought to be. An honest laborer digs coal at about 
 seventy cents a daj', while the president digs abstractions 
 at about seventy dollars a day. The coal is clearly 
 worth more than the abstractions, and yet what a 
 monstrous inequality in the prices! Does the president, 
 for this reason, propose to abolish the presidency? He 
 does not and he ought not. The true rule, in determin- 
 ing to embrace or reject anything, is not whether it have 
 any evil in it, but whether it have more of evil than 
 good. 
 
 "There are few things wholly evil or wholly good. 
 Almost everything, especially of government policy, is 
 an inseparable compound of the two; so that our best 
 judgment of the preponderance between them is con- 
 tinually demanded. On this principle, the president, his 
 friends and the world generally act on most subjects. 
 Why not apply it, then, upon this question? Why, as 
 to improvements, magnify the evil and stoutly refuse to 
 see any good in them? 
 
 35 
 
THE CONSTITUTIONAL QUESTION. 
 
 "Mr. Chairman, on the third position of the message 
 (the constitutional question) I have not much to say. 
 Being the man I am, and speaking when I do, I feel that 
 in any attempt at an original, constitutional argument, 
 I should not be, and ought not to be, listened to patiently. 
 The oldest and the best of men have gone over the whole 
 ground long ago. I shall attempt but little more than a 
 brief notice of what some of them have said. In relation 
 to Mr. Jefferson's views, I read from Mr. Polk's veto 
 message: 
 
 'President Jefferson, in his message to congress in 
 1806, recommended an amendment of his constitution, 
 with a view to apply an anticipated surplus in the treasury 
 'to the great purpose of the public education, roads, rivers, 
 canals and such other objects of public improvements as 
 it may be thought proper to add to the constitutional 
 enumeration of the federal powers.' And he adds: I 
 suppose an amendment to the constitution, by consent of 
 the states necessary, because the objects now recommen- 
 ded are not among those enumerated in the constitution, 
 and to which it permits the public moneys to be applied.' 
 In 1825, he repeated in his published letters, the opin- 
 ion that such power has been conferred upon congress.' 
 
 "I introduce this not to controvert just now the con- 
 stitutional opinion, but to show that on the question of 
 expediency Mr. Jefferson's opinion was against the 
 present president — that this opinion of Mr. Jefferson, in 
 one branch at least, is in the hands of Mr. Polk, like 
 McFingal's gun: 
 
 '"Bears wide and kicks the owner over.' 
 
 "But, to the constitutional question. In 1826, Chan- 
 cellor Kent first published his Commentaries on Ameri- 
 can Law. He devoted a portion of one of the lectures 
 to the question of the authority of congress to appropriate 
 public moneys for internal improvements. He men- 
 
 36 
 
tions that the question had never been brought under 
 judicial consideration, and proceeds to give a brief sum- 
 mary of the discussions it had undergone between the 
 legislative and executive branches of the government. 
 He shows that the legislative branch had usually been for, 
 and the executive against, the power till the period of 
 Mr. J. Q. Adams' administration, at which point he con- 
 sidered the executive influence as withdrawn from 
 opposition and added to the support of the power. In 
 1844 the Chancellor published a new edition of his Com- 
 mentaries, in which he adds some notes of what had 
 transpired on the question since 1826. I have not time 
 to read the original text or the notes, but the whole may 
 be found on page 267 and the two or three following 
 pages of the first volume of the edition of 1844. As what 
 Chancellor Kent seems to consider the sum of the whole, 
 I read from one of the notes: 
 
 " 'Mr. Justice Story, in his Commentaries on the Con- 
 stitution of the United States, Vol. 2, page 429 - 440, and 
 again, page 519 - 538, has stated at large the arguments 
 for and against the proposition that congress has a con- 
 stitutional authority to lay taxes and to apply the power 
 to regulate commerce as a means directly to encourage 
 and protect domestic manufactures; and, without 
 giving any opinion of his own on the contested doctrine, 
 he has left the reader to draw his own conclusion. I 
 should think, however, from the arguments as stated, 
 that every mind which has taken no part in the discus- 
 sions and felt no prejudice or territorial bias on either 
 side of the question, would deem the arguments in favor 
 of the congressional power vastly superior.' 
 
 "It will be seen, that in this extract, the power to 
 make improvements is not directly mentioned; but by 
 examining the context both of Kent and of Story, it will 
 appear that the power mentioned in the extract and 
 the power to make improvements are regarded as 
 identical. It is not to be denied that many great and 
 
good men have been against the power; but it is 
 insisted that quite as many as great and as good 
 have been for it; and it is shown that on a full survey 
 of the whole, Chancellor Kent was of opinion that the 
 arguments of the latter were vastly superior. 
 
 "This is but the opinion of a man, but who was that 
 man? He was one of the ablest and most learned lawyers 
 of his age or of any other age. It is no disparagement 
 to Mr. Polk nor, indeed, to any one who devotes much 
 time to politics, to be placed far behind Chancellor Kent 
 as a lawyer. His attitude was most favorable to correct 
 conclusions. He wrote coolly and in retirement. He was 
 struggling to rear a durable monument of fame; and he 
 well knew that truth and thoroughly sound reasoning 
 were the only sure foundations. Can the party opinion 
 of a party president on a law question, as this purely is, 
 be at all compared or set in opposition to that of such a 
 man in such an attitude as Chancellor Kent? 
 
 "This constitutional question will probably never be 
 better settled than it is, until it shall pass under judicial 
 consideration; but I do think that no man who is clear 
 on this question of expediency need feel his conscience 
 much pricked upon this. 
 
 "Mr. Chairman, the president seems to think that 
 enough may be done in the way of improvements by 
 means of tonnage duties, under state authority, with the 
 consent of the general government. Now, I suppose this 
 matter of tonnage duties is well enough in its own sphere. 
 I suppose it may be efficient to make slight improvements 
 and repairs in harbors already in use and not much out of 
 repair. But if I have any correct general idea of it, it 
 must be wholly inefiBcient for any general beneficent 
 purposes of improvement. I know very little, or rather 
 nothing at all, of the practical matter of levying and 
 collecting tonnage duties; but I suppose one of its 
 principles must be to lay a duty for the improvement of 
 any particular harbor upon the tonnage coming into that 
 
harbor. To do otherwise — to collect money in one 
 harbor to be expended on improvements in another — 
 would be an extremely aggravated form of that inequality 
 which the president so much deprecates. If I be right 
 in this, how could we make any entirely new improve- 
 ments by means of tonnage duties? How make a road, 
 a canal or clear a greatly obstructed river? The idea that 
 we could involves the same absurdity of the Irish bull 
 about the new boots: 'l shall niver git 'em on,' says 
 Patrick, 'till I wear 'em a day or two, and stretch 'em a 
 little.' We shall never make a canal by tonnage duties 
 until it shall already have been made awhile so the 
 tonnage can get into it. 
 
 "After all, the president concludes that possibly there 
 may be some great objects of improvements which can 
 not be effected by tonnage duties and which therefore 
 may be expedient for the general government to take in 
 hand. Accordingly, he suggests, in case any such be 
 discovered, the propriety of amending the constitution. 
 Amend it for what? If, like Jefferson, the president 
 thought improvements expedient but not constitutional, 
 it would be natural enough for him to recommend such 
 an amendment; but hear what he says in this very 
 message: 
 
 " 'In view of these portentous consequences, I cannot 
 but think that this course of legislature should be arrested, 
 even were there nothing to forbid it in the fundamental 
 laws of our Union.' 
 
 "For what, then, would he have the constitution 
 amended? With him it is a proposition to remove one 
 impediment, merely to be met by others, which in his 
 opinion cannot be removed — to enable congress to do 
 what, in his opinion, they ought not to do if they could. ' ' 
 
 Here Mr. Meade, of Virginia, inquired if Mr. Lincoln 
 understood the president to be opposed on grounds of 
 expediency to any and every improvement. To which 
 Mr. Lincoln answered: 
 
"in the very part of his message of which I am now 
 speaking, I understood him as giving some vague 
 expressions in favor of some possible objects of improve- 
 ments; but, in doing so, I understand him to be directly 
 in the teeth of his arguments in other parts of it. 
 Neither the president nor anyone can possibly specify 
 an improvement which shall not be clearly liable to one 
 or another of the objections he has urged on the score of 
 expediency. I have shown, and might show again, that 
 no work, no object can be so general as to dispense 
 its benefits with precise equality; and this inequality is 
 chief among the 'portentous consequences* for which he 
 declares that improvements should be arrested. No, sir; 
 when the president intimates that something in the way 
 of improvements may properly be done bj^ the general 
 government, he is shrinking from the conclusions to 
 which his own arguments would force him. He feels 
 that the improvements of this broad and goodly land are 
 a mighty interest; and he is unwilling to confess to the 
 people, or perhaps to himself, that he has built an argu- 
 ment which when pressed to its conclusion entirely 
 annihilates this interest. 
 
 "I have already said that no one who is satisfied of 
 the expediency of making improvements need be much 
 uneasy in his conscience about its constitutionality. 
 
 "l wish now to submit a few remarks on the general 
 proposition of amending the constitution. As a general 
 rule, I think we would do much better to let it alone. 
 No slight occasion should tempt us to touch it. Better 
 rather habituate ourselves to think of it as unalterable. 
 It can scarcely be made better than it is. New provisions 
 would introduce new difl&culties and thus create and 
 increase appetite for further change. No, sir; let it stand 
 as it is. Now, hands have never touched it. The men 
 who made it have done their work and have passed away. 
 Who shall improve on what they did ? 
 
ANSWERS THE ARGUMENT OF 
 INEQUAIvlTY. 
 
 "Mr. Chairman, for the purpose of reviewing this 
 message in the least possible time, as well as for the sake 
 of distinctness, I have analyzed its arguments as well as 
 I could and reduced them to the propositions I have 
 stated. I have now examined them in detail. I wish 
 to detain the committee only a little while longer with 
 some general remarks on the subject of improvements. 
 That the subject is a difficult one, cannot be denied. 
 Still, it is no more difficult in congress than in the 
 state legislatures, in the counties or in the smallest 
 municipal districts which everywhere exist. All can 
 recur to instances of this difficulty in the case of county 
 roads, bridges and the like. 
 
 "One man is offended because a road passes over his 
 land; and another is offended because it does not pass 
 over his; one is dissatisfied because the bridge, for which 
 he is taxed, crosses the river on a different road from 
 that which leads from his house to town; another cannot 
 bear that the county should get in debt for these same 
 roads and bridges; while not a few struggle hard to have 
 roads located over their lands, and then stoutly refuse to 
 let them be opened, until they are first paid the damages. 
 Even between the different wards and streets of towns 
 and cities, we find this same wrangling and difficulty. 
 Now these are no other than the very difficulties against 
 which and out of which the president constructs his 
 objections of 'inequality', 'speculation,' and 'crushing 
 the treasury.' There is but a single alternative about 
 them — they are sufficient, or they are not. If sufficient, 
 they are sufficient out of congress as well as in it, and 
 there is the end. We must reject them as insufficient, 
 or lie down and do nothing by any authority. Then, 
 difficulty though there be, let us meet and overcome it. 
 
" 'Attempt the end, and never stand to doubt; 
 Nothing so hard, but search will find it out.' 
 
 "Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and 
 then we shall find the way. The tendency to undue 
 expansion is unquestionably the chief difficulty. How 
 to do something, and still not to do too much is the 
 desideratum. I^et each contribute his mite in the way of 
 suggestion. The late Silas Wright in a letter to the 
 Chicago convention contributed his, which was worth 
 something; and I now contribute mine, which may be 
 worth nothing. At all events, it will mislead nobody 
 and therefore will do no harm. I would not borrow 
 money. I am against an overwhelming, crushing system. 
 Suppose that at each session, congress shall first determine 
 how much money can for that year be spared for improve- 
 ments; then apportion that sum to the most important 
 objects. So far, all is easy; but how shall we determine 
 which are the most important? On this question comes 
 the collision of interests. I shall be slow to acknowledge 
 that your harbor or your river is more important than 
 mine, and vice versa. To clear this difficulty, let us 
 have that same statistical information which the gentle- 
 man from Ohio (Mr. Vinton) suggested at the beginning 
 of this session. In that information we shall have a 
 stern, unbending basis of facts — a basis in nowise sub- 
 ject to whim, caprice, or local interest. The pre -limited 
 amount of means will save us from doing too much, and 
 the statistics will save us from doing what we do, in 
 wrong places. Adopt and adhere to this course, and, 
 it seems to me, the difficulty is cleared. 
 
 "One of the gentlemen from South Carolina (Mr. 
 Rhett) very much deprecates these statistics. He partic- 
 ularly objects, as I understand him, to counting all the 
 pigs and chickens in the land. I do not perceive much 
 force in the objection. It is true, that if everything be 
 enumerated a portion of such statistics may not be very 
 
useful to this object. Such products of the country as 
 are to be consumed where they are produced, need no 
 roads and rivers, no means of transportation, and have 
 no very proper connection with this subject. The sur- 
 plus, that which is produced in one place to be consumed 
 in another; the capacity of each locality for producing a 
 greater surplus; the natural means of transportation and 
 their susceptibility of improvement; the hindrances, 
 delays and losses of life and property during transporta- 
 tion, and the causes of each would be among the most 
 valuable statistics in this connection. 
 
 "From these it would readily appear where a given 
 amount of expenditure would do the most good. These 
 statistics might be equally accessible, as they would be 
 equally useful, to both the nation and the states. In 
 this way and by these means, let the nation take hold of 
 the larger works and the states the smaller ones; and 
 thus, working in a meeting direction, directly, but 
 steadily and firmly, what is made unequal in one place, 
 may be equalized in another, extravagance avoided, and 
 the whole country put on that career of prosperity which 
 shall correspond with its extent of territory, its natural 
 resources and the intelligence and enterprise of its 
 people." 
 
 lyincoln's speech shows careful preparation. The 
 authorities he used were secured from the Library of 
 Congress. Today a member of congress wanting author- 
 ities, leaves his desk, goes to a telephone in the cloak- 
 room and calls up the Congressional Library and makes 
 his request. The librarian with the aid of innumerable 
 clerks at once gets the books from their shelves, carries 
 them to a large automatic tube and by means of com- 
 pressed air in a minute's time wafts, so to speak, the 
 books to the halls of congress, almost on top of the mem- 
 ber's desk. In Lincoln's day this was not so. The 
 librarian of congress at that time told how Lincoln got 
 his authorities : 
 
"Mr. Ivincoln came to the library one day for the pur- 
 pose of procuring some law books which he wanted to 
 take to his room for examination. Getting together all 
 the books he wanted, he placed them in a pile on a table. 
 Taking a large bandanna handkerchief from his pocket, 
 he tied them up, and putting a stick which he had 
 brought with him through a knot he had made in the 
 handkerchief, adjusting the package of books to his 
 stick, he shouldered it and marched off from the library 
 to his room. In a few days he returned the books in the 
 same way." 
 
 IvINCOLN'S VISIT TO NIAGARA FAI^LS. 
 
 In the summer of 1848 Lincoln went to the New 
 England States, where he made a number of political 
 speeches, and in September on his homeward trip he 
 stopped off to see Niagara. After his death there were 
 found among his papers various notes for lectures, 
 among which was the following which shows "how 
 deeply his mind was affected by the majesty of that 
 mighty wonder : ' ' 
 
 Niagara Falls ! By what mysterious power is it 
 that millions and millions are drawn from all parts of 
 the world to gaze upon Niagara Falls ? 
 
 "There is no mystery about the thing itself. Every 
 effect is just as any intelligent man, knowing the causes, 
 would anticipate without seeing it. If the water moving 
 onward in a great river reaches a point where there is a 
 perpendicular jog of a hundred feet in descent in the 
 bottom of the river, it is plain the water will have a vio- 
 lent and continuous plunge at that point. It is also 
 plain, the water, thus plunging, will foam and roar and 
 send up a mist continuously, in which last, during sun- 
 shine, there will be perpetual rainbows. 
 
 "The mere physical of Niagara Falls is only this. 
 Yet this is really a very small part of that world's won- 
 
 44 
 
der. Its power to excite reflection and emotion is its 
 great charm. The geologist will demonstrate that the 
 plunge, or fall, was once at L,ake Ontario, and has worn 
 its way back to its present position ; he will ascertain 
 how fast it is wearing now, and so get a basis for deter- 
 mining how long it has been wearing back from Lake 
 Ontario, and finally demonstrate by it that this world is 
 at least fourteen thousand years old. 
 
 "A philosopher of a slightly different turn will say: 
 'Niagara Falls is only the lip of the basin out of which 
 pours all the surplus water which drains down on two 
 or three hundred thousand square miles of earth's sur- 
 face.' He will estimate with approximate accuracy that 
 five hundred thousand tons of water fall with their full 
 weight a distance of a hundred feet each minute — thus 
 exerting a force equal to the lifting of the same weight, 
 through the same space, in the same time. 
 
 "But still there is more. It calls up the indefinite 
 past. When Columbus first sought this continent — 
 when Christ suffered on the Cross — when Moses led 
 Israel through the Red Sea — nay, even when Adam first 
 came from the hand of his Maker; then, as now, Niagara 
 was roaring here. The eyes of that species of extinct 
 giants whose bones fill the mounds of America have 
 gazed on Niagara, as ours do now. Contemporary with 
 the first race of men, and older than the first man, Niag- 
 ara is strong and fresh today as ten thousand years ago. 
 The Mammoth and Mastodon, so long dead that frag- 
 ments of their monstrous bones alone testify that they 
 ever lived, have gazed on Niagara — in that long, long 
 time never still for a single moment, never dried, never 
 froze, never slept, never rested." 
 
 lylNCOIvN'S PATENT BOAT. 
 
 There is no question lyincoln understood the naviga- 
 tion of our western rivers and that he was thoroughly 
 
 45 
 
familiar with those rivers, their currents, snags, sand- 
 bars and other impediments. That he thought much on 
 the improvement of waterways is evinced, for in 1849 
 he applied for and on May 2 2d of that year secured a 
 patent for "an improved method of lifting vessels over 
 shoals." The model is a bellows attached to each side 
 of a boat, below the water line, and which, when it was 
 desired to lift the boat over shoals or sandbars, were in- 
 flated full of air. The model was whittled by I^incoln 
 apparently out of a cigar box and a shingle, and is now 
 in the patent ofi&ce in Washington. 
 
 THE BRIDGE CASE. 
 
 The cornerstone was laid September 1, 1854, for the 
 first bridge across the Mississippi river between Daven- 
 port, Iowa, and the Island of Rock Island. The bridge 
 was to be built for the then Chicago and Rock Island 
 road. St. I^ouis had hitherto enjoyed a monopoly of the 
 western commerce. Her merchants became very much 
 exercised over the contemplated bridge. The St. I^ouis 
 Chamber of Commerce adopted the following : 
 
 "Resolved, That a bridge is unconstitutional, an 
 obstruction to navigation, dangerous, and that it is the 
 duty of every western state, river city and town to take 
 immediate action to prevent the erection of such a struc- 
 ture." 
 
 A resolution was also passed by the city council of 
 St. Louis, instructing the mayor of that city to apply to 
 the supreme court of the United States for an injunction, 
 restraining the building of the bridge. 
 
 This was the beginning of a long and bitter warfare 
 carried on by many of the river cities and towns and the 
 steamboat people against the railroads. The steamboat 
 Efl&e Afton on May 6th, 1856, while trying to pass 
 through the draw pier of the then completed bridge, was 
 
struck by a wind and driven against a pier. The boat 
 took fire, which was communicated to the bridge, a por- 
 tion of which was consumed. The steamer was a total 
 wreck. 
 
 The owners of the boat commenced suit against the 
 bridge company, and in 1857 Abraham I^incoln was 
 called into the case as one of the counsel for the com- 
 pany. In Chicago it was openly charged that the St. 
 lyouis Chamber of Commerce had bribed the captain to 
 purposely run his boat against the pier. 
 
 The case was tried in the United States circuit court 
 at Chicago in September, 1857, Judge John McL,ean pre- 
 siding. The case was entitled, Hurd et al vs. Railroad- 
 Bridge Company. The trial lasted fourteen days, and 
 it was probably the most noted and widely advertised 
 case ever tried in Chicago up to that time. The Hon. 
 R. R. Hitt, afterward member of congress from the 
 Thirteenth Illinois district was the reporter. H. M. 
 Wead of Peoria, T. D. Lincoln of Cincinnati and C. 
 Beckwith of Chicago represented the steamboat interests 
 while Norman B. Judd of Chicago, Joseph Knox of Rock 
 Island and Abraham Lincoln of Springfield represented 
 the bridge company. The Chicago Press gave a full ac- 
 count daily of the trial, also a synopsis of the arguments 
 of counsel, under date of September 25th. It said : 
 
 "Mr. A. Lincoln in his address to the jury was very 
 successful, as far as clear statement and close logic was 
 concerned." 
 
 The jury, however, failed to agree, which was con- 
 sidered a victory for the bridge company. 
 
 Judge H. W. Blodgett who was present at the trial, 
 said the steamboat men relied on two points : 
 
 "First. That the river was the great waterway for 
 the commerce of the valley, and could not legally be 
 obstructed by a bridge. 
 
 "Second. That this particular bridge was so located 
 with reference to the channel of the river at that point 
 
 47 
 
as to make it a peril to all water craft navigating the 
 river and an unnecessary obstruction to navigation. 
 
 "The first proposition had not at that time been 
 directly passed upon by the supreme court of the United 
 States, although the Wheeling bridge case involved the 
 question ; but the court had evaded a decision upon it, 
 by holding that the Wheeling bridge was so low as to be 
 an unnecessary obstruction to the use of the river by 
 steamboats. The discussion of the first proposition on 
 the part of the bridge company devolved mainly upon 
 Mr. Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 "I listened with much interest to his argument on this 
 point, and while I was not impressed by it as a specially 
 eloquent effort (as the word eloquent is generally under- 
 stood) , I have always considered it as one of the ablest 
 efforts I ever heard from Mr. Lincoln at the bar. His 
 illustrations were apt and forcible, his statements clear 
 and logical, and his reasons in favor of the policy (and 
 necessarily the right) to bridge the river, and thereby 
 encourage the settlement and building up of the vast 
 area of fertile country to the west of it, were broad and 
 statesmanlike. 
 
 "The pith of his argument was in his statement that 
 one man had as good a right to cross a river as another 
 had to sail up or down it ; that these were equal and 
 mutual rights which must be exercised so as not to inter- 
 fere with each other, like the right to cross a street or 
 highway and the right to pass along it. From this un- 
 deniable right to cross the river he then proceeded to 
 discuss the means for crossing. Must it always be by 
 canoe or ferryboat ? Must the products of all the bound- 
 less fertile country lying west of the river for all time be 
 compelled to stop on its western bank, be unloaded from 
 the cars and loaded upon a boat, and after the transit 
 across the river, be reloaded into cars on the other side, 
 to continue on their journey east? 
 
"In this connection he drew a vivid picture of the 
 future of the great west lying beyond the river, and 
 argued that the necessities of commerce demanded that 
 the bridges across the river be a conceded right, which 
 the steamboat interests ought not to be allowed to suc- 
 cessfully resist, and thereby stay the progress of develop- 
 ment and civilization in the region to the west. 
 
 "While I cannot recall a word or sentence of the 
 argument, I well remember its effect on all who listened 
 to it, and the decision of the court fully sustained the 
 right to bridge so long as it did not unnecessarily 
 obstruct navigation." 
 
 Lincoln's argument covered the channel of the river, 
 its currents and their effect at the different stages of 
 water at the bridge and up over the rapids. In illus- 
 trating his points, Lincoln used a very fine miniature 
 steamboat . 
 
 A few incidents relating to the river at the point where 
 this bridge crossed are of interest in connection with 
 Lincoln's plea. 
 
 In the summer of 1837, the United States government 
 ordered a survey of the Rock river rapids in the 
 Mississippi river, at the foot of which was afterward 
 built the bridge involved in the law suit. December 6th, 
 1837, the lieutenant of engineers, to whom had been 
 assigned the duty, made an exhaustive report, accom- 
 panying the same with a map of the river from the lower 
 end (the foot of Rock Island) to the upper end of the 
 rapids. 
 
 In his argument to the jury, Lincoln necessarily used 
 all of the government surveys and maps, as well as all 
 other data available and undoubtedly possessed himself 
 of the information given in the report and map made by 
 the engineer's corps. This same United States engineer, 
 who had been commissioned a lieutenant in 1837, made 
 other plans that gave to the then President Lincoln, 
 much concern and trouble in the years from 1861 to 
 
 49 
 
1865. The United States lieutenant of engineers of 1837 
 — Robert K. Lee — later became general in command of 
 the confederate army. 
 
 When Ivincoln was endeavoring to convince the jury 
 that the bridge was neither an object of danger, nor an 
 obstruction to the navigation of the Mississippi river, he 
 might have called as a witness another person who was 
 also in after years to become a powerful factor in shaping 
 Lincoln's destiny. 
 
 In September, 1832, the Sac war chief. Black Hawk, 
 whom Abraham Lincoln as a soldier boy tried to help 
 capture, became a prisoner of war at Prairie du Chien, 
 was placed on board a steamboat to be taken to Fort 
 Armstrong on Rock Island. Upon the boat's arrival at 
 the fort, it was learned that cholera was raging there, 
 and the United States lieutenant in charge of the boat 
 was not permitted to land. He anchored his boat in the 
 river opposite the fort, but a few hundred feet above 
 where the bridge was afterward built. Had this young 
 lieutenant been called, he might have given valuable 
 testimony concerning the current of the river at this 
 point. During the civil war this young lieutenant, 
 Jefferson Davis, became president of the confederate 
 states. 
 
 LINCOLN AND THE MONITOR. 
 
 Lincoln's election to the presidency, the breaking out 
 of the civil war and its sanguinary prolongation absorbed 
 the entire interests of the country and of congress and 
 gave to Lincoln neither the time nor opportunity to 
 promote the project of the development of our waterways. 
 As commander-in-chief of our army and navy, Lincoln 
 was brought closely and largely in contact with military 
 matters, and there is no reason to doubt that his expe- 
 rience as a captain and private in the Black Hawk war 
 was of much benefit to him. 
 
Lincoln had never been on an ocean-going vessel, his 
 knowledge of boating being confined solely to craft that 
 navigated our inland waters. Yet there is one incident 
 in his connection with our navy in which his decision, I 
 think, was aided largely by his early experience on our 
 western waterways. 
 
 In the spring of 1861 during our civil war, the con- 
 federates took possession of the steamer Merrimac, which 
 they found in Norfolk harbor, and converted her into a 
 formidable iron-clad vessel, re-naming her the Virginia. 
 This boat destroyed the frigates Cumberland and Con- 
 gress, and for a while all of our shipping seemed at the 
 mercy of this rebel boat. One Captain John Ericsson 
 had the plans of a boat which he wanted our government 
 to build. Experts to whom the project was submitted 
 regarded it as a very doubtful experiment. President 
 Lincoln, on being shown the model, believed the boat if 
 built would be able to successfully overcome the Merri- 
 mac and would be a valuable addition to our navy. 
 
 Captain Fox, the adviser of Captain Ericsson, once 
 expressed a doubt as to the Monitor's success upon which 
 the president said: 
 
 "I believe in the Monitor and her commander. If 
 Captain Worden does not give a good account of the 
 Monitor and of himself, I shall have made a mistake in 
 following my judgment for the first time. Since I have 
 been here, captain, I have not made a mistake in follow- 
 ing my clear judgment of men since this war began. I 
 followed that judgment when I gave Worden the 
 command of the Monitor. I would make the appoint- 
 ment over again today." 
 
 The Monitor was built, and afterward while the 
 boat was on her way from New York to Hampton Roads, 
 Captain Fox again presented what he considered the 
 possibilities of failure. The president replied:" 
 
 "No, no, captain, I respect your judgment, as you 
 have reason to know, but this time you are all wrong. 
 
The Monitor was one of my inspirations; I believed in 
 her firmly when that energetic contractor first showed me 
 Ericsson's plans. Captain Ericsson's plain but rather 
 enthusiastic demonstration made my conversion per- 
 manent. It was called a floating battery then; I called 
 it a raft. I caught some of theinventoj^'s enthusiasm and 
 it has been growing upon me. I thought then, and I am 
 confident now, it is just what we want. I am sure that 
 the Monitor is still afloat and that she will yet give a 
 good account of herself. Sometimes I think she may be 
 the veritable sling with a stone that will yet smite the 
 Merrimac Philistine in the forehead." 
 
 The president's judgment was verified, for the fight of 
 the Monitor and Merrimac changed all the conditions of 
 naval warfare. Captain Fox afterward said: "l know 
 all the facts which united to give us the Monitor. I 
 withhold no credit from Captain Ericsson, her inventor, 
 but I know that the country is principally indebted for 
 the construction of the vessel to President Lincoln." 
 
 There can be no doubt that in forming his estimate of 
 the Monitor's capabilities, Lincoln was guided largely 
 by his experience as a boat builder, pilot and navigator 
 opon our western rivers. 
 
 Most of Lincoln's early life was interwoven with the 
 pioneer history of our rivers and their commerce. Much 
 of his knowledge was obtained from travel thereon and 
 observation thereof, and as has been well said by one of 
 his biographers : 
 
 "All that Abraham Lincoln saw of men and the world 
 outside of Gentry ville and its neighborhood, until after 
 he was twenty-one years of age, he saw on these rivers. ' ' 
 
 His legislative experience had been of great benefit to 
 him. There he had always favored the policy of develop- 
 ing the rivers and the resources of the state by the 
 fostering aid of the local government. His speech in 
 congress shows he understood the waterway problem, 
 
 52 
 
was fully alive to its interests and realized its needs. 
 Had he lived longer there is no doubt our rivers and 
 harbors would have found in him a worthy champion." 
 It was as a youth, while engaged on the river in the 
 humble capacity of a flatboat man, that he was brought 
 face to face with the slave question, and it was then that 
 he formed those opinions which in after years became 
 such a potent factor in shaping his life and the destiny 
 of our country. 
 
LFJc ^'3 
 
 ±