doubtless feels himself freer than in the strange New York circles, he had thrown this off, and appeared easy, if not graceful. He is, as you know, a tall, lank man, with a long neck, and his ordinary movements are unusually angular, even out west. As soon, however, as he gets interested in conversation, his face lights up and his attitudes and gestures assume a certain dignity and impressiveness. His conversation is fluent, agreeable, and polite. You see at once from it that he is a man of decided and original character. His views are all his own; such as he has worked out from a patient and varied scrutiny of life, and not such as he has learned from others. Yet he cannot be called opinionated. He listens to others like one eager to learn, and his replies evince at the same time both modesty and self-reliance. I should say that sound common sense was the principal quality of his mind, although at times a striking phrase or word reveals a peculian vein of thought. He tells a story well, with a strong idiomatic smack, and seems to relish humor both in himself and others. Our conversation was mainly political, but of a general nature. thing Mr. Lincoln remarked which I will venture to repeat. He said that in the coming presidential canvass he was wholly uncommitted to any cabals or cliques, and that he meant to keep himself free from them, and from all pledges and promises.

One

Mr. Lincoln's early political advancement was not rapid, for he espoused the cause which in Illinois was unpopular; when he entered public life the State was decidedly Jacksonian; it even resisted the avalanche of Whig success, which in 1840 overwhelmed the country, and carried Harrison triumphantly to Washington; it was one of the seven States that then cast its electoral vote for Van Buren; it was unfavorable both to Clay and to Taylor, and to this day has never elected a Whig to the United States Senate; but in despite of all these,

that to a man bent merely on personal aggrandizement, would have been effectual reasons for changing his political relations, Lincoln remained firm in the faith he first professed. His Whig comrades appreciated this fidelity. He was only thirty-five when chosen to head the Clay electoral ticket-a position he has since maintained, either in the Whig or Republican party, until the present year, when his name will not probably be included in the list. He has, however, never but once, since 1844, been a candidate for any other office in the gift of the people, although he has repeatedly worked in behalf of his party, stumping the state at every Presidential election with vigor, if not with success.

In 1846 he was elected to Congress from the Central District of Illinois; he was the only Whig in the state delegation of seven, and his majority (1511), was the largest ever given in that District to any candidate opposed to the Democracy; larger even than that received by Gen. Taylor, and twice larger than Henry Clay's; so that his popularity among those with whom he lived may be fairly affirmed. During the first session of the thirtieth Congress (that only in which he served), he made three important speeches, two of them on what are now forgotten issues-the Mexican War, and the Presidential canvass of 1848; in the former, his attack on the President was pungent, and severe, and logical; in the latter, his Western style of oratory was still more fully developed; on each occasion he maintained with vigor and ability the views of the Whig party. He was a warm and personal friend of Henry Clay, and advocated the doctrines advanced by that statesman with all the ardor of which he was capable.

The following resolutions introduced by him on the

Mexican War question, give the gist of the ideas that were more amply set forth in his speech of a few weeks later.

RESOLUTIONS.

MR. LINCOLN moved the following preambles and resolutions, which were read and laid over under the rule:

"Whereas the President of the United States, in his message of May 11, 1846, has declared that "the Mexican Government not only refused to receive him (the envoy of the United States), or listen to his propositions, but after a long-continued series of menaces, have at last invaded our territory and shed the blood of our fellow citizens on our own soil."

And again in his message of December 8, 1846, that "we had ample cause of war against Mexico long before the breaking out of hostilities, but even then we forbore to take redress into our own hands until Mexico herself became the aggressor, by invading our soil in hostile array, and shedding the blood of our citizens."

And yet again in the message of December 7, 1847, that "the Mexican Government refused even to hear the terms of adjustment which he (our minister of peace), was authorized to propose, and finally, under wholly unjusti fiable pretexts, involved the two countries in war, by invading the territory of the State of Texas, striking the first blow, and shedding the blood of our citizens on our own soil."

And whereas this House is desirous to obtain a full knowledge of all the facts which go to establish whether

the particular spot, on which the blood of our citizens was so shed, was or was not at that time our own soil. Therefore,

Resolved by the House of Representatives, That the President of the United States be respectfully requested to inform this House,

1st. Whether the spot on which the blood of our citizens was shed, as in his messages declared, was or was not within the Territory of Spain, at least after the treaty of 1819, until the Mexican revolution.

2nd. Whether that spot is or is not within the territory which was wrested from Spain by the revolutionary Government of Mexico.

3rd. Whether that spot is or is not within a settlement of people, which settlement has existed ever since long before the Texas revolution, and until its inhabitants fled before the approach of the United States Army.

4th. Whether that settlement is or is not isolated from any and all other settlements by the Gulf and the Rio Grande, on the south and west, and by wide uninhabited regions, on the north and east.

5th. Whether the people of that settlement, or a majority of them, or any of them, have ever submitted themselves to the Government or laws of Texas or of the United States, by consent or by compulsion, either by accepting office, or voting at elections, or paying tax, or serving on juries, or having process served upon them, or in any other way.

6th. Whether the people of that settlement did or did not flee from the approach of the United States army, leaving unprotected their homes and their growing crops, before the blood was shed, as in the message stated; and whether the first blood, so shed, was or was not shed

within the enclosure of one of the people who had thus fled from it.

7th. Whether our citizens, whose blood was shed, as in his messages declared, were or were not at that time, armed officers and soldiers, sent into that settlement by the military order of the President, through the Secretary of War.

8th. Whether the military force of the United States was or was not so sent into that settlement after General Taylor had more than once intimated to the war department that, in his opinion, no such movement was necessary to the defence or protection of Texas."

The speech itself that was made in favor of these resolutions was forcible, both logical and humorous by turns, and a successful initiatory effort in Lincoln's congressional career. It was followed up by one less elaborate, on the Soldiers' Bounty; and on the 4th of May, 1848, some few remarks were made by him in regard to the payment by government for the horses lost in the war by the Texas volunteers. These we append: they indicate Lincoln's desire for fairness in the distribution of governmental favors.

SOLDIERS' BOUNTY.

Mr. Lincoln said: "If there was a general desire on the part of the House to pass the bill now, he should be glad to have it done-concurring, as he did generally, with the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Johnson), that the postponement might jeopard the safety of the proposition. If, however, a reference was to be made, he wished to make a very few remarks in relation to the