fine-looking boys here, Mr. Ewing, can't you give me one of them to raise up for a good Whig?'

"Well, there is my youngest son,' said my father, pointing to me. He is about the no-accountest chap of

the lot, you can take him.'

Mr. Lincoln patted me on the chin with a smile of acceptance, and from that day until I was grown the neighborhood boys called me Whig Ewing.

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Judge Moses' Early Recollections of Lincoln.

Judge John Moses, President of the Chicago Historical Society, at a Lincoln celebration in Chicago, February 12, 1894, gave the following interesting account of the early life of the war President.

Besides myself there are at present living in Chicago only two men who knew Lincoln as well as I. Mr. Lincoln began his public career nearly half a century ago. The first time I saw him was at the great convention at Peoria, in June, 1844, during the Clay-Polk campaign. Great crowds were gathered at the city, and among them were all the leaders of the old Whig party. At that time I was only a boy.

I can well remember the tall, slim, sallow-complexioned man, with long, bushy hair, addressing the crowd from one of the many platforms. The man was Abraham Lincoln, and he was discussing the tariff question. He was then 35 years old, married, and had one son, Robert T. Lincoln.

In 1836, Lincoln, who was living on a farm in West Salem, borrowed a horse and rode to Springfield. He secured a room of Mr. Steel, and in partnership with John

T. Stuart started a law office. The business was only partially successful, and in a short time Lincoln returned home and rented a room at the home of old 'Aunt Susan' Johnson. There he stayed for ten weeks and studied hard. He then returned to Springfield, and previous to the Peoria convention was an elector and canvassed the State.

Two years afterwards, in 1846, he was elected to Congress and took a prominent part in the election of 1848, when General Taylor was elected President. During Taylor's administration Lincoln was a candidate for land commissioner at Washington, but failed to get the office. He then retired from pclitics for a time and studied and continued to practice law

Lincoln's really active political life began in 1854, after the repeal of the Missouri compromise. He went to Winchester, Ill., where he made his first speech on the Missouri compromise. At that time it was generally con-ceded that Lincoln ought to be a nominee for Senator,. and he was afterward indorsed as such, but on account of the refusal of three Democrats to support him he lost the ballot.

After the campaign came the presidential election of 1856. The Republican party was then formed in the State by a conference of editors at Decatur. A large convention was called at Bloomington, and Lincoln was the most conspicuous person there and seemed to dominate the convention.

Among the speakers were O H. Browning, Owen Lovejoy and Colonel Bissell. Lincoln was the first to speak, and at the convention made a platform against slavery. During this great speech the audience became

so excited that it rose to its feet in a body and Lincoln with both hands raised said: 'We will not dissolve the Union, and they shall not."

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Senator Cullum's Interesting Reminiscences of Lincoln.

At the third annual banquet of the Lincoln Association of Philadelphia, given February 12, 1894, Senator Cullum of Illinois, among other good things, gave the following reminiscences.

It was my fortune to know Mr. Lincoln well. My knowledge of him dates baek in my own life to the time I was ten or twelve years old, and even before this time I can remember that men would come twenty or thirty miles to see my father in those pioneer days to learn whom to employ as a lawyer when they were likely to have cases in court. He would say to them: "If Judge Stephen T. Logan is there employ him; if he is not; there is a young man by the name of Lincoln who will do just

about as well."

In my boyhood days I was permitted to attend the sessions of the Circuit Court one week, twice a year. The first time I enjoyed the privilege I saw Mr. Lincoln and the gallant Col. E. D. Baker engaged in defence of a man charged with the crime of murder, That great trial, especially the defence hy those great lawyers, made an impression on my mind which will never be effaced.

Late in 1846, when Mr. Lincoln became the Whig candidate for Congress, I heard him deliver a political speech. The county in which my father and family resided was a

part of his Congressional district. When Mr, Lincoln came to the county my father met him with his carriage and took him to all his appointments. I went to the meeting nearest my home; it was an open-air meeting in On being introduced Mr. Lincoln began his speech as follows:

a grove'

"Fellow-citizens: Ever since I have been in Tazewell county my old friend Major Cullum has taken me around; he has heard all my speeches, and the only way I can fool the old Major and make him believe I am making a new speech is by turning it end for end once in awhile.

"I knew him at the bar, both when I was a boy and afterwards when I came to the practice of the law in the capital of Illinois, his home then, mine now. I knew him in the private walks of life, in the law office, in the court room, in the political campaigns of the time, and to the close of his great career. I knew him as the leader of the great Republican party, when, as now, it was full of enthusiasm for liberty and equal rights, when the platform was, in substance the declaration of independence, and he was its champion.

"He believed in 'preserving the jewel of liberty in the family of freedom.' Aye, he believed in making the American people one great family of freedom.

"I heard much of the great debate between him and Douglas, the greatest political debate which ever took place in America. I heard him utter the memorable words in the Republican Convention of my State, in 1858.

"A house divided against itself cannot stand. I be

lieve this Government cannot permanently endure half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved-I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one

thing or all the other

"What words of wisdom! He could look through the veil between him and the future and see the end. It is said that before this great speech was delivered he read it to friends, and all of them but one advised against its delivery. With a self-reliance born, of earnest conviction he said the time had come when these sentiments should be uttered, and that, if he should go down because of their utterances by him, then he would go down linked with the truth.

"It lifts up and ennobles mankind to hear and study brave words of truth uttered by great men. 'Let me die in the advocacy of what is just and right,' he said again.

"In these days of apparent shallow convictions on many subjects; days of greed for wealth, of rushing for the mighty dollar, is it not well to pause and think over the lives of great men of our own country and the world? We are now in the very shadow of the death of a great and good man-George W. Childs-just passed away. A man who lived to do good; to make the pathway of his fellows smoother and easier; a great hearted philanthropist whose fame is world-wide, and will endure as long as sympathy and generosity are found in the human

heart.

"Mr. Lincoln was a great debater, as was Douglas. They often met in debate. On one occasion Douglas