The conclusion of this address is also a sure sign of prolonged association with the hue and cry of party spirit: It stated with assurance that the Whigs were always a majority of the nation, and that if every Whig would act as though he knew the result to depend upon his action, that surely a Whig would be elected President of the United States.[181]
Political office being the reward of party service, Lincoln was a zealous worker in the ranks. He was ever at the call of the party managers for speeches or other personal work. They could not charge him with being a laggard in the day of defeat. He did not wait for waves of advancement. He was not in accord with the policy that the office should seek the man. He slowly toiled his way to the eminence he reached. While Lincoln was in Congress, Herndon wrote to him complaining of his sluggard progress in politics, and carped at the old men for usurping all the places of power and profit. In an intimate reply to his associate, we find the plain paths he trod: "You must not wait to be brought forward by the older men. For instance, do you suppose that I should ever have got into notice if I had waited to be hunted up and pushed forward by older men? You young men get together and form a 'Rough and Ready Club,' and have regular meetings and speeches. Take in everybody you can get. Harrison Grimsley, L. A. Enos, Lee Kimball, and C. W. Matheny would do to begin the thing; but as you go along gather up all the shrewd, wild boys about town, whether just of age or a little under age,—Chris. Logan, Reddick Ridgely, Lewis Swizler, and hundreds such. Let every one play the part he can play best,—some speak, some sing, and all 'holler.' Your meetings will be of evenings; the older men and the women will go to hear you; so that it will not only contribute to the election of 'Old Zach,' but will be an interesting pastime, and improving to the intellectual faculties of all engaged. Don't fail to do this."[182]
Lincoln no sooner completed his long term in the Legislature than he cast his eye on a seat in Congress. "Now, if you should hear" he wrote a friend, "any one say that Lincoln don't want to go to Congress, I wish you, as a personal friend of mine, would tell him you have reason to believe he is mistaken. The truth is I would like to go very much. Still, circumstances may happen which may prevent my being a candidate. If there are any who be my friends in such an enterprise, what I now want is that they shall not throw me away just yet."[183]
Lincoln's race for the nomination was full of excitement. When he began his canvass, he was a member of the firm of Logan and Lincoln. Besides Hardin, Baker and Lincoln, Logan also was a candidate. Logan deemed his long service as entitling him to the honor, while Lincoln regarded his legislative career as his claim to distinction. It is not amazing that concord did not dwell in this home of political rivalry. Herndon says he was not, therefore, surprised to have Lincoln rush into his quarters and with more or less agitation tell him that he had determined to sever the partnership with Logan; and Herndon states that although painfully aware of his want of ability and experience, when Lincoln remarked in his earnest, honest way, "Billy, I can trust you if you can trust me," he felt relieved and accepted the generous proposal of legal partnership.[184]
The most dramatic incident in this fight was the contest between Baker and Lincoln. It was a battle between brilliancy and solidity. No man of his time surpassed Baker in dashing eloquence. Handsome, of winning personality, he was the idol of the young men of Springfield. Lincoln was no longer, as at New Salem, the leader of the gang. His alliance with aristocratic Mary Todd, the demands of his profession and a settled life largely sundered the partnership. It was a natural, not a sudden, intentional separation. Strange rumors were afloat that he was no more a friend to the lowly and that he was seeking new ways. Not free to mingle with the people, he could not readily combat the suspicion. And they were ever demanding a perfect embodiment of their conception of heroism. They found it fully in one of the most dramatic heroes and charming personalities in the panorama of American politics—Edward D. Baker.
When the friends of Baker first put forth the charge that Lincoln belonged to a proud family, he was amused. He met it with a laughing remark: "That sounds strange to me, for I do not remember of but one who ever came to see me, and while he was in town he was accused of stealing a Jew's harp."[185] But as the campaign developed in intensity, and he realized that the shameless report was scattered to his harm, he thought bitterly of the false charge. The injustice of the accusation and his incapacity to meet it, quite crushed him. He could meet an open foe with a giant's strength, but the gnat of malignant rumor defied him. Thus the humblest politician that ever trod the soil of the Western continent was not saved from the charge of being "puffed up," and the leader of the lowly traveled in the domain of bitter experience. The enthusiasm of the young men carried the day for Baker in Sangamon County.
After his defeat, Lincoln took his old friend Jim Matheny far into the woods. He unburdened himself, protesting that he was anything but aristocratic and proud. "Why, Jim," he said, "I am now and always shall be the same Abe Lincoln I was when you first saw me."[186]
The story of the defeat as told by Lincoln to Speed, shows much of his political training: "Baker beat me, and got the delegation instructed to go for him. The meeting, in spite of my attempt to decline it, appointed me one of the delegates; so that in getting Baker the nomination I shall be fixed a good deal like a fellow who is made a groomsman to a man who has cut him out and is marrying his own dear 'gal'."[187]
Yet, Lincoln did not at once reconcile himself to the selection of Baker. A letter from his friends in Menard County led him still to contemplate possibilities and induced him to skirmish on the frontier of his duty to the choice of Sangamon County. He wrote to a supporter: "You say you shall instruct your delegates for me unless I object. I certainly shall not object. That would be too pleasant a compliment for me to tread in the dust. And besides if anything should happen (which, however, is not probable) by which Baker should be thrown out of the fight, I would be at liberty to accept the nomination if I could get it."[188]
In this same letter, he gave an account of the factors that conspired to his defeat, saying that it would astonish the older citizens to learn that he (uneducated, penniless boy, working on a flatboat at $10.00 per month) had been put down there as a candidate of pride and wealth; that there was, too, the strangest combination of church influence against him; that Baker was a Campbellite, and with few exceptions got all that church; that his wife had some relations in the Presbyterian churches, and some with the Episcopal churches, and wherever it would tell, he was set down as either one or the other, while it was everywhere contended that no Christian ought to go for him, because he belonged to no church, was suspected of being a deist, and had talked about fighting a duel.[189] In the long letter Lincoln did not even mention the personal strength and popularity of his opponent, or suggest that Baker was the victor by his own merit.