Part 11 (2/2)

[208] _Ibid._, 84.

He was sensitive to the s.h.i.+fting changes of the campaign. ”Nathan Dresser is here,” he wrote a friend, ”and speaks as though the contest between Hardin and me is to be doubtful in Menard County.--I know he is candid and this alarms me some--I asked him to tell me the names of the men that were going strong for Hardin; he said Morris was about as strong as any--Now, tell me, is Morris going it openly? You remember you wrote me, that he would be neutral. Nathan also said that some man he could not remember had said lately that Menard County was going to decide the contest and that that made the contest very doubtful. Do you know who that was?

”Don't fail to write me instantly on receiving telling me all--particularly the names of those who are going strong against me.”[209]

[209] Tarbell, 1, 204.

The splendid generals.h.i.+p of Lincoln, his telling blows gradually disposed of the gallant Hardin, who gracefully declined to be longer considered as a candidate. Through the inspiration of Lincoln, with equal gallantry, there promptly appeared in the leading Whig journal, a statement superbly designed to soothe the dignity of his late antagonist: ”We have had, and now have, no doubt that he (Hardin) has been, and now is, a great favorite with the Whigs of the district. He states, in substance, that there was never any understanding on his part that his name was not to be presented in the canva.s.ses of 1844 and 1846.

This, we believe, is strictly true. Still, the doings of the Pekin Convention did seem to point that way; and the general's voluntary declination as to the canva.s.s of 1844 was by many construed into an acquiescence on his part. These things had led many of his most devoted friends to not expect him to be a candidate at this time. Add to this the relation that Mr. Lincoln bears, and has borne, to the party, and it is not strange that many of those who are as strongly devoted to Gen.

Hardin as they are to Mr. Lincoln should prefer the latter at this time.

We do not entertain a doubt, that, if we could reverse the positions of the two men, that a very large portion of those who now have supported Mr. Lincoln most warmly would have supported Gen. Hardin quite as warmly.”[210]

[210] Lamon, 276-7.

He was a thorough politician. He attended to details himself. Like a general on the battlefield, he kept his reserve forces well in hand. He would rather minimize his own strength than mistake the power of opposing forces. He never lost a victory through misplaced confidence.

Though he looked darkly at a contest, this rather increased than abated his activity. From policy as well as inclination he did not engage in the crimination of his adversaries. He had a marvelous capacity of personally commanding the conduct of men.

Out of their ranks, the Democrats called the famed preacher--Peter Cartwright, as their standard bearer in this Congressional contest.

Until he was sixteen years old, he was a slave to the common vices of his day. His dramatic conversion during the revival of 1801 preluded the marvelous career of a man who unflinchingly, for sixty years, ”breasted the storm and suffered the hards.h.i.+ps” of his calling in forest and prairie. His heroic treatment of Jackson shows the man. ”Just then,”

Cartwright says, ”I felt some one pull my coat in the stand, and turning my head, my fastidious preacher, whispering a little loud, said: 'General Jackson has come in: General Jackson has come in.' I felt a flash of indignation run all over me like an electric shock and facing about to my congregation, and purposely speaking out audibly, I said, 'Who is General Jackson? If he don't get his soul converted, G.o.d will d.a.m.n him as quick as he would a Guinea negro!'”[211]

[211] Cartwright, 192.

The reasons that prompted Cartwright to follow the trail from Kentucky to Illinois are of historical importance. ”First, I would get entirely clear of the evil of slavery. Second, I could raise my children to work where work was not considered a degradation. Third, I believed I could better my temporal circ.u.mstances, and procure lands for my children as they grew up. And fourth, I could carry the gospel to dest.i.tute souls that had, by their removal into some new country, been deprived of the means of grace.”[212] The South poorly reckoned the cost to her, of the inst.i.tution that drove into exile such master spirits, who enriched the states of their adoption.

[212] _Ibid._, 245.

Hating human bondage, still he was no friend of abolitionism. He declared that it riveted the chains of slavery tighter; blocked the way to reasonable emanc.i.p.ation; threw fire brands into legislative halls; that millions were expended every year in angry debates and that laws for the good of the people were neglected; talents and money thrown away; that prejudice, strife, and wrath, and every evil pa.s.sion stirred up until the integrity of the Union was in imminent danger, and that not one poor slave was set free; not one dollar expended to colonize them and send them home happy and free; that through unchristian, excited prejudices mobs were fast becoming the order of the day.

He maintained that after more than twenty years' experience as a traveling preacher in slave states, he was convinced that the most successful way to ameliorate the condition of the slaves and Christianize them, and finally secure their freedom was to treat their owners kindly and not to meddle politically with slavery!

Patriot and prophet alike, he contended that abolitionism awakened a bitter and wrathful spirit among the guardians of the black man that made discord a partner in the Federal Union; that despite the legion moral evils of slavery, he had never seen a rabid abolition or free soil society that he could join, because they resorted to unjustifiable agitation, confounding the innocent with the guilty, and that if force was resorted to the Union would be dissolved, a civil war would follow, death and carnage would ensue, and the only free nation on the earth would be destroyed.[213] In early manhood, Cartwright cherished sentiments that were brother to those Lincoln later avowed at the outset of his career.

[213] Cartwright, 129.

In his autobiography, Cartwright states that he was twice elected as a representative from Sangamon County, and he found that almost every measure had to be carried by a corrupt bargain and sale.[214]

[214] _Ibid._, 262.

For nearly half a century he had traversed the western states. In nearly every Methodist Church and mission his voice had summoned many to a better life. His ministration to the sick, his rides at night over the lonely prairie to the death bed had endeared him to thousands of homes.

He had a host of relations in the Congressional district. All this and his steady advocacy of Jacksonian Democracy const.i.tuted him no paltry antagonist.

An active campaign ensued. Lincoln was again subjected to the harsh charge of religious infidelity. The Whigs, taking up the challenge rallied to his support. Their activity soon turned the tide. Lincoln carried the district by 1511, exceeding the vote of Clay in 1844 by nearly 600. Sangamon County showed her loyalty by piling up a larger majority than ever before given to a political favorite.[215] The battle largely centered around the wisdom of a preacher partic.i.p.ating in politics. The pioneer, who twenty years before, had voted for Cartwright had now become a citizen of a settled community. After this election, there was no question as to the deep seated distrust of the average voter permitting a church official to be the political representative of the people.

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