The dark form rose to the height of a giant and poured forth his soul, and he said:
"It is not necessary for me to be re-elected President of the United States, but it is necessary for the soldiers at the front to be re-enforced by five hundred thousand men, and I shall call for them; and if I go down under the act, I will go down like the Cumberland, with my colors flying."
It required a high school of experience to train a soul to an utterance like that; and that fateful declaration began in those moral syllables that defended the rights of the animals of the woods, that said "No" to a horse-race, that refused from the first to accept an unjust case at law, and that from the first declared that right is might.
CHAPTER XVII.
THOMAS LINCOLN MOVES.
Jasper taught school for a time in Boonesville, Indiana, and preached in the new settlements along the Wabash. While at Boonesville, he chanced to meet young Lincoln at the court house, under circumstances that filled his heart with pity.
It was at a trial for murder that greatly excited the people. The lawyer for the defense was John Breckinridge, a man of great reputation and ability.
Jasper saw young Lincoln among the people who had come to hear the great lawyer's plea, and said to him: