Excerpt from Lincoln's Springfield

Of pavement. Hogs, cows and chickens wandered at will, and disputed the few board walks and footpaths with pedes trians. (fin the twenty-four years Of Lin coln's residence Springfield grew to a city of ten thousand inhabitants. The brick court house was soon replaced by the stone State House. In time two and three story brick buildings supplanted the Smaller stores around the square and lined the adjacent streets Fine homes ap peared, and the log cabins vanished. Rail roads came, and with them, many of the conveniences and graces of life. But erudi ties remained, for except around the square the streets were still unpaved, hogs still wallowed in mud holes, and frogs croaked in undrained swamps. such, in brief, was the environment in which Lincoln, by the twin paths of law and politics, attained national promi nence. The successive steps in his tpro fessional life are found in summary orm in the following pages; his political career deserves a few words'here. at the time Of his settlement in Springfield, Lincoln was serving his second term as a member of the Illinois House Of Repre sentatives. In 1838 and again in 1840 hewas re-elected. after four terms in the General Assembly, Lincoln set elec tion to the national House of Representa rives as his goal. His chance came in 1846, and he was duly elected. His term in Congress, however, was a deep disap pointment. Not only did he fail to win the distinction he hoped for, but by op posing the Mexican War, he incurred the displeasure of most of his constituents. When, after Taylor's election in 1848, he was unable to secure appointment to an office which he wanted, he retired in dis appointment and resolved to devote him self to the law. (it his resolution he kept until 1854, when the passage Of the kansas-nebraska Bill thoroughly aroused him. From that time on he threw all his energies into the fight against what he considered to be the growing menace of slavery. By 1856, when the Republican Party was organized in Illinois, he was generally considered its leader; two years later all were agreed that he was the only possible opponent of Douglas. For three months the two rivals traveled over the state, speaking in every sizable town. Douglas won, but Lincoln did not lose, for a national reputation was the rewardof his effort. This reputation served him well in 1860, when the Republican Party gathered in national convention at Chicago. The most prominent leaders Seward, Chase, Bates and mclean - were either too radical, or too conservative, Old, or too long in public life, for strong factions of the party, and the prize fell to Lincoln. At the news cannon boomed, bonfires blazed, and Springfield went wild with joy - and not until Lin coln spoke his words of farewell onfeb ruary 11, 1861, did it relapse into its cus tomary uneventful existence. (lct he build ings described in this little book reflect much of Lincoln's life in Springfield. Perhaps, through them, the visitor will be able to visualize the town of which they were once an integral part. And if he is fortunate, he may even get a glimpse of a gaunt man in a tall hat, an Old gray shawl around his shoulders, walking slowly and with head bowed in thought.

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