who had made oath that he beheld the blow delivered by the light of the brightly shining moon, he produced an almanac and showed that on the night in question there was no moon at all! The climax was reached, and the jury brought in a verdict of “ Not guilty."

The widow had not been able to endure the suspense in court, and had gone out to weep and pray alone. Before the sun went down, a messenger came running to her with the glad tidings: "Bill is free; your son is cleared." For this inestimable service Lincoln would take no fee.

An eminent judge said of Lincoln: "I have no hesitation in saying that he was one of the ablest lawyers I have ever known." And, speaking of his personal appearance and manner at the bar, the judge said: "With a voice by no means pleasant, and, indeed, when excited, in its shrill tones sometimes almost disagreeable; without any of the personal graces of the orator; without much in the outward man indicating superiority of intellect; without great quickness of perception, still, his mind was so vigorous, his comprehension so exact and clear, and his judgment so sure, that he easily mastered the intricacies of his profession, and became one of the ablest reasoners and most impressive speakers at our bar. . . . He always tried a case fairly and honestly. He never intentionally misrepresented the evidence of a witness or the argument of an opponent. He met them squarely, and if he could not explain the one or answer the other, substantially admitted it. He never misstated the law according to his own intelligent view of it."

CHAPTER X

IN

A GREAT AWAKENING

N 1850 it seemed to most men that human slavery was forever fixed in this country. Congress had passed a series of measures that were supposed to settle everything, but which satisfied neither the slave States nor the free States. Mr. W. H. Herndon relates that as he and Lincoln were wayfaring together that year Lincoln gloomily said: "How hard, ah, how hard it is to die and leave one's country no better than if one had never lived in it! The world is dead to hope, deaf to its own death-struggle, made known by a universal cry. What is to be done? Is anything to be done? Who can do anything? And how is it to be done? Do you ever think of these things?

In that year Thomas Lincoln died. Burdened with many cares, Lincoln could not go to see his father, who was reported to him as very low in health. To the ill-faring stepbrother, John Johnston, Lincoln wrote while his father was yet alive :

"I sincerely hope that father may yet recover his health; but, at all events, tell him to remember to call upon and confide in our good and great merciful Father and Maker, who will not turn away from him in any extremity. He notes the fall of the sparrow, and numbers the hairs of our heads; and he will not forget the dying man who puts his trust in him. Say to him

that, if we could meet now, it is doubtful whether it would not be more painful than pleasant, but that if it be his lot to go now, he will soon have a joyful meeting with the loved ones gone before, and where the rest of us, through the mercy of God, hope erelong to join them."

In 1852 Lincoln accepted the place of elector on the Whig ticket in his State. As he was wont to say, he was "a standing candidate for Whig elector, but seldom elected anybody." He took small part in a campaign in which he could have had no heart. His party's platform had closed his mouth on the only subject on which he felt very deeply. In fact, the whole country seemed to be waiting in dumb silence as if anticipating the storm that was brewing. This time, as was expected, the Whig candidate was defeated, and the Democratic nominee, Franklin Pierce, was chosen.

In 1854 came the great awakening. Once more the battle was to be fought between slavery and freedom. By the Ordinance of 1787 slavery was forever forbidden in the region north of the Ohio River, and that stream was felt to be the natural boundary for it. Not until 1820 did such a dividing line become necessary in the new country beyond the Mississippi. When the State of Missouri, jutting north nearly its whole length into the latitude of the free States, wished to join the Union as a slave State, it met much opposition. By the Compromise of 1820, under which Missouri came in as a slave State, it was definitely agreed that all the land to the west and north of that State should be free from slavery.

In 1854 the new Territories of Kansas and Nebraska were knocking at the door for admittance. As these lay to the west of Missouri they were included in

the prohibition of slavery. Stephen Arnold Douglas, Senator from Illinois, introduced in the Senate a bill organizing the two Territories, and leaving the question of slavery to be settled by the voters of the region. This was a repeal of the much-vaunted Missouri Compromise, which positively prohibited slavery in those Territories.

Words can but feebly describe the excitement that this bold and unexpected concession to the slave States created throughout the North. To repeal the Missouri Compromise now would be to remove the one existing barrier that pent the flood of slavery in its present limits, and throw open to it an area as great as that covered by the thirteen original States. Amidst the most intense excitement, Douglas's bill was finally passed through Congress on the 8th of May, 1854. The event was celebrated by the booming of an artillery salute fired on Capitol Hill, Washington. That boom was the death-knell of slavery in the United States.

Instantly the whole North was aflame. Douglas was everywhere denounced, for it was generally believed that his course had been prompted by a desire to gain the support of the slave States in his plans to be elected President of the Republic. With wonderful skill and audacity he defended himself, insisting that the popular will should be sovereign, and that that will should determine whether slavery or freedom should rule in each community. As the settlers in a Territory were called "squatters," the friends of Douglas invented the phrase "squatter sovereignty."

Then began a race to take possession of the new Territory. From the Northern States went large numbers of people bent on being early on the ground to occupy

the soil for freedom; and from the slave States migrated others equally resolved to secure the young Territory for the dominion of slavery. Kansas, being readiest of access, received the full volume of the wave of immigration. The free-State men moved from the Western States nearest ; northern Illinois and Iowa more especially contributing companies of actual settlers. But even in far-off New England organizations were formed to assist those who would go to help swell the free population of Kansas. Missouri and Arkansas, however, both slave States, and both having a large floating population, had the advantage which their position gave them; and their people, fired with a determination to save the Territory for slavery, swarmed over the border. These movements, which began almost as soon as the bill passed Congress, occupied the summer of that year. Before three months had passed “freeState men and " pro-slavery men" had become familiar words all over the West.

Congress adjourned in August, and the great chiefs hurried home, astonished by the angry roar that came up from the people of the North. Douglas hastened to Illinois, confident that, with his crafty logic and audacious declamation, he could convince the people that the Kansas-Nebraska Bill did not contain the pernicious and destructive influences that they believed it did. In Chicago, where he first tarried, his constituents refused to hear him, and placarded the walls with hostile words against him.

When the time for the great agricultural fair of the State drew near, it was noised abroad that Douglas was to speak there to the people in justification of his By common consent, all eyes were turned to Lincoln as the speaker best qualified to answer the

course.