Chapter 17

WHEREIN YOUNG MR. LINCOLN BETRAYS IGNORANCE OF TWO HIGHLY IMPORTANT
SUBJECTS, IN CONSEQUENCE OF WHICH HE BEGINS TO SUFFER SERIOUS
EMBARRASSMENT.

There were two subjects of which Mr. Lincoln had little understanding.
They were women and finance. Up to this time his tall, awkward, ill clad
figure had been a source of amusement to those unacquainted with his
admirable spirit. Until they had rightly appraised the value of his
friendship, women had been wont to regard him with a riant curiosity. He
had been aware of this, and for years had avoided women, save those of
old acquaintance. When he lived at the tavern in the village often he had
gone without a meal rather than expose himself to the eyes of strange
women. The reason for this was well understood by those who knew him. The
young man was an exceedingly sensitive human being. No doubt he had
suffered more than any one knew from ill concealed ridicule, but he had
been able to bear it with composure in his callow youth. Later nothing
roused his anger like an attempt to ridicule him. No man who came in his
way in after life was so quickly and completely floored as one George
Forquer, who, in a moment of folly, had attempted to make light of him.
Two women he had regarded with great tenderness--his foster mother, the
second wife of Thomas Lincoln, and Ann Rutledge. Others had been to him,
mostly, delightful but inscrutable beings. The company of women and of
dollars had been equally unfamiliar to him. He had said more than once in
his young manhood that he felt embarrassed in the presence of either, and
knew not quite how to behave himself--an exaggeration in which there was
no small amount of truth.
In 1836 the middle frontier had entered upon a singular phase of its
development. Emigrants from the East and South and from overseas had been
pouring into it. The summer before the lake and river steamers had been
crowded with them, and their wagons had come in long processions out of
the East Chicago had begun its phenomenal growth. A frenzied speculation
in town lots had been under way in that community since the autumn of
'35. It was spreading through the state. Imaginary cities were laid out
or the lonely prairies and all the corner lots sold to eager buyers and
paid for with promises. Fortunes of imaginary wealth were created by
sales of future greatness. Millions of conversational, promissory
dollars, based upon the gold at the foot of the rainbow, were changing
hands day by day. The Legislature, with an empty treasury behind it,
voted twelve millions for river improvements and imaginary railroads and
canals, for which neither surveys nor estimates had been made, to serve
the dream-built cities of the speculator. If Mr. Lincoln had had more
experience in the getting and use of dollars and more acquaintance with
the shrinking timidity of large sums, he would have tried to dissipate
these illusions of grandeur. But he went with the crowd, every member of
which had a like inexperience.
In the midst of the session Samson Traylor arrived in Vandalia on his
visit to Mr. Lincoln.
"I have sold my farm," said Samson to his old friend the evening of his
arrival.
"Did you get a good price?" Mr. Lincoln asked.
"All that my conscience would allow me to take," said Samson. "The man
offered me three dollars an acre in cash and ten dollars in notes. We
compromised on seven dollars, all cash."
"It's a mistake to sell now. The river is going to be deepened and
improved for navigation."
"I've made up my mind that it can't be done, unless you can invent a way
to run a steamboat on moist ground," said Samson. "You might as well try
to make a great man out of 'Colonel Lukins.' It hasn't the water-shed.
To dig a deep channel for the Sangamon would be like sending 'Colonel
Lukins' to Harvard. We're going too fast. We have little to sell yet but
land. The people are coming to us in great numbers, but most of them are
poor. We must give them time to settle down and create something and
increase the wealth of the state. Then we shall have a solid base to
build upon; then we shall have the confidence of the capital we require
for improvements. Now I fear that we are building on the sands."
"Don't you think that our bonds would sell in the East?"
"No; because we have only used our lungs in all these plans of ours. No
one has carefully considered the cost. For all we know, it may cost more
than the entire wealth of the state to put through the improvements
already planned. The eastern capitalists will want to know about costs
and security. Undoubtedly Illinois is sure to be a great state. But
we're all looking at the day of greatness through a telescope. It seems
to be very near. It isn't. It's at least ten years in the future."
Young Mr. Lincoln looked very grave for a moment. Then he laughed and
said: "I don't know but we're all a lot of fools. I begin to suspect
myself. The subject of finance is new to me. I don't know much about
it, but I'm sure if I were to say what you have said, in the House of
Representatives, they would throw me out-of-doors."
"Just at present the House is a kind of insane asylum," said Samson.
"You'll have to stick to the procession now. The road is so crowded that
nobody can turn around. The folly of the state is so unanimous no one
will be more to blame than another when the crash comes. You have meant
well, anyhow."
"You make me feel young and inexperienced."
"You are generally wise, Abe, but there's one thing you don't
know--that's the use of capital. For two years Sarah and I have
been studying the subject of finance."
"I've seen too little of you in the last year or so," said the young
statesman. "What are you going to do now that you have sold out?"
"I was thinking of going up to Tazewell County."
"Why don't you go to the growing and prosperous town of Springfield," Mr.
Lincoln asked. "The capitol will be there, and so will I. It is going to
be a big city. Men who are to make history will live in Springfield.
You must come and help. The state will need a man of your good sense. It
would be a great comfort to me to have you and Sarah and Harry and the
children near me. I shall need your friendship, your wisdom and your
sympathy. I shall want to sit often by your fireside. You'll find a good
school there for the children. If you'll think of it seriously, I'll try
to get you into the public service."
"We need you plenty," Samson answered. "We kind o' think o' you as one o'
the family. I'll talk it over with Sarah and see. Never mind the job. If
I keep you behavin' yourself, it'll be job enough. Anyway, I guess we can
manage to get along. Sarah's uncle in Boston died last month and left her
a little money. If we can get what we have well invested, all I shall
need will be a few acres and a few tools and some friends to swap stories
with."
"I've had a talk with Stuart and have some good news for Harry and Bim,"
said young Mr. Lincoln. "Stuart thinks she can get a divorce under the
law of 1827. I suppose they are still interested in each other."
"He's like most of the Yankees. Once he gets set, it's hard to change
him. The Kelsos have moved to Chicago, and I don't know how Bim stands.
If Harry knows, he hasn't said a word to us about it."
"I'm interested in that little romance," said the legislator. "It's our
duty to do what we can to secure the happiness of these young lovers. We
mustn't neglect that in the pressure of other things. They and their
friends are dear to me. Tell Harry to come over here. I want to talk with
him."
This dialogue was about the last incident in the visit of Samson Traylor.
Late in the historic session of that spring, wherein the Whigs adopted
the convention system of nominations and many plans were made for the
expenditure of visionary millions, young Mr. Lincoln received a letter
from his friend, Mrs. Bennet Able of New Salem, which conveyed a shock to
his nerves. Before, he had gone to the session, Mrs. Able had said to him
lightly:
"Abe, I'll ask my sister Mary to come up here for a visit if you'll agree
to marry her."
"All right," the young man had answered playfully. He remembered Mary.
When he had left Kentucky, years before, Mary--a slender, sweet-faced
girl--had been one of those who bade him good-by.
The letter had said among other things: "Mary has come, and now we expect
you to keep your word."
No knight of old had a keener sense of chivalry than the young statesman
of Salem Hill. It was almost as Quixotic as the excesses at which
Cervantes aimed his ridicule. An appalling fear took possession of
him--a fear that Mrs. Able and the girl had taken him seriously. It
worried him.
About this time Harry Needles arrived in Vandalia. The Legislature had
adjourned for a week-end. It was a warm, bright Saturday, early in March.
The two friends went out for a stroll in the woods.
"Have you seen Mrs. Able's sister, Mary Owens?" Abe Lincoln asked.
"I've seen her often."
"What kind of a girl is she?"
"A good kind, but-heavy."
"Fat?"
"Massive and most of her front teeth gone." Lincoln looked thoughtful.
"You look as if she had stepped on your foot," Harry remarked.
"The fact is I'm engaged to her in a kind of a way."
"Of course that's a joke."
"You're right; it's a joke, but I'm afraid she and her sister have taken
it seriously. A man must be careful of the heart of a young woman. After
all, it isn't a thing to play with. As usual, when I try to talk with
women, I make a fool of myself."
"It would be easier to make a whistle out of a pig's tail than a fool out
of you," said Harry. "I have joked like that with Annabel and other
girls, but they knew that it was only fun."
"Still true to your old love?"
"As firm as a nail driven in oak," said Harry. "I seem to be built that
way. I shall never care much for any other girl."
"Do you hear from Bim?"
"Once in a while I get a long, playful letter from her, full of things
that only Bim could write."
"Stuart says she can get a divorce. We know the facts pretty well. If you
say so, we'll prepare the papers and you can take them up to Chicago and
get them signed and attested. Stuart tells me that we can serve them by
advertising."
"Good!" Harry exclaimed. "Get the papers ready as soon as you can and
send them up to me. When they come I'll mount that new pony of mine and
start for Chicago. If she won't have me, let her take a better man."
"In my opinion Bim will want you," said the legislator. "I'll be coming
home in a few days and will bring the papers with me. The session is
about over. If the rich men refuse to back our plans, there's going to be
a crowd of busted statesmen in Illinois, and I'll be one of 'em."
"Shall you spend the summer in New Salem?"
"I don't know yet what I shall do. First I must tackle the delicate task
of getting disengaged from Mary."
"I shouldn't think it would take long," said Harry, with a smile.
"I can tell better after a preliminary survey."
"No doubt Mrs. Able would like to have you marry her sister. She knows
that you have a promising future ahead of you. But don't allow her to
look serious over that little joke."
Abe Lincoln laughed and said: "Mary would be like the man who traded
horses unsight and unseem and drew a saw horse."
Harry returned to New Salem. After the session, young Mr. Lincoln went to
Springfield and did not reach New Salem until the first week of May. When
he arrived there, Mrs. Able met the stage from which he alighted and
asked him to come to supper at her house that evening. Not a word was
said of Mary in the excitement, about all the folk of the village having
assembled to meet and cheer the triumphant Captain of Internal
Improvements. Abe Lincoln went to supper and met Mary, who had a cheerful
heart and good manners, and a schooled and active intellect, as well as
the defects which Harry had mentioned. She and the young statesman had a
pleasant visit together, recalling scenes and events which both
remembered from beyond the barrier of a dozen years. On the whole, he was
agreeably impressed. The neighbors came in after supper. Mrs. Able kept
the comedy moving along by a playful reference to the pseudo engagement
of the young people. Mr. Lincoln laughed with the others and said that it
reminded him a little of the boy who decided to be president and only
needed the consent of the United States.