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Show AMERICAN, LOGAN, UTAH CACHE Lincoln, Legislator V A. nw,-- u : -- S'? A, 1 ' X 4-- 's'teVL1.. T Za -- 'ZL, ; s W- V &&& L4f:i-VK-H..- i v . : ': -- f : - xvfc a il t.4 $ CSSft fW& vVil : r TJmU Lincoln in 1848 gS-vStS versary. g By ELMO SCOTT WATSON N FEBRUARY 12, 1835, the Illinois legislature, In session In the little town of Vandalia, was in the rush of finishing up its work before adjourning. That day one of its members was twenty-si- x years old, but it is doubtful if he paid much attention to the anniNor is it likely that his fellow-legislator- if indeed they knew about it, took the trouble to congratulate him and wish him many happy returns of the day. For he was just an obscure member of the lower house from Sangamon county. He had been an honest but unsuccessful storekeeper In the little hamlet of New Salem and a captain of volunteers in the Black Hawk war. But he had won no particular distinction in that unimportant conflict, nor had his brief military career helped him much politically. An unsuccessful candidate for the legislature in the autumn of 1832, he had split rails and done various other odd Jobs to make a living while studying law by himself. Chosen postmaster of New Salem, he had been successful in his second attempt to win a seat in the general assembly, but during the session now coming to a close he had done nothing to single him out among his fellows as a "comer. They knew him as a droll fellow who could set a group off Into a gale of laughter with one of his funny stories, told in his singsong, nasal voice. Yes, Abe Lincoln was good company but there was no reason to believe that he would ever become famous. So the fact that February 12 was his birthday didnt mean a thing to the men who sat beside him in a room brick building in Vanin the little dalia the capital of the sovereign state of Illinois. If they could have looked into the future and seen how that date was observed in every part of the United States, how their eyes would have bulged with surprise ! Cant you hear them exclaiming: "In honor of Abe Lincoln? Why, taint possible, So the "celebration of Lincoln's birthday a hundred years ago was no celebration at all, for the very good reason that no one, not even the man himself, considered it of any importance. But it Is worthy of remembrance for the reason that his biographer, Albert J. Beveridge, has pointed out in this paragraph from his Abraham Lincoln, (Houghton Mifflin company) : Finally, by the dim light of candles, the general assembly finished its work and, sometime before midnight, February 13, 1S35, adjourned sine die. His first legislative experience thus ended, Lincoln went back to New Salem and again took up his surveying and handling of the scanty mail. The sum of his sojourn in Vandalia had been the making of friends, lessons in legislative procedure and manipulation, and the acquiring of basic procedure and constitutional principles. He had heard great questions discussed by able and Informed men. He had met cultivated women, too, and, in short, had visited a new world. Small wonder that, when he reached New Salem, he plunged into study with such abandon that his health suffered and his friends thought him mentally affected. Hencehamlet on the Sangamon forth the held little or nothing that was attractive to the aspiring young Lincoln. So perhaps It Is not too much to say that the greatness that was to be Abraham Lincolns dates from that February day, a hundred years ago, when he turned his back on the scene of his first appearance on the stage of public affairs. Neither the scene nor his appearance upon it were especially impressive. Beveridge has given ns an excellent description of both. He writes : "Upon the west bluff of the Kaskgskla river, sixty feet above high water, stood in 1834, perhaps a hundred buildings. All but two were of wood, some of them frame structures, but most of them log cabins. A little frame Presbyterian church house, without a steeple, nestled on a side street, while a still smaller building served for all other religious denominations as well as for school purposes and public gatherings. . . . Five or six of the bigger houses were taverns or boarding places, two of them would accommodate thirty or forty persons, though they were not entirely finished. . . . About eight hundred people, including children, lived in the town, and the adjacent country was scantily settled; but marriages were frequent. For the most part the surrounding land was heavily timbered, but to the north and west rolling prairies stretched Into the horizon. The river bottoms were covered thickly with great trees, vines and all manner of rank vegetation; and from this valley came at the seasonable (time clouds of mosquitoes. I The streets of the village were eighty feet In width, deep with mud or dust, according to the weather. There were no sidewalks. Two main roads ran through the place, one the National road, scarcely opened as yet in this section, from Washington seven hundred and eighty-onmiles distant to SL Louis eighty-twmiles to the southwest. Mails from Philadelphia and .other eastern cities were between two and three .weeks on the way. . . , two-stor- y 1809-185- 8 n e o Old ' '1 :t-,-4 -- 5tate House at Vandalism. A n!i' The Rail -- Splitter iy Charles Mulligan Such was Vandalia when on a winter day late In November, 1834, the regular stage coach was driven into the capital of Illinois. Among the passengers was Abraham Lincoln, one of the newly elected representatives from Sangamon county. He wore a new suit which, made by a tailor in Springfield, had cost him sixty dollars. Lincoln had borrowed from Coleman Smoot two hundred dollars in order properly to equip himself and pay his expenses while away from New Salem on his first legislative adventure. The loan was, whimsically declared Lincoln when asking Smoot for the money, a kind of penalty upon Smoot for having voted for him. He was better attired and had more clothes than ever before in his life. During this session Lincoln played a very small part and such measures as he voted upon had He comparatively little historical significance. was appointed to one minor standing committee and later to two special committees. The first bill he introduced, providing for a private across Salt creek in Sangamon county, was passed promptly. But when he branched out into larger fields of legislation he was not so successful The disposal of public lands belonging to the United States was an important question at that time. On January 10, 1835, Lincoln offered a resolution that our senators be instructed and our representatives requested to use their whole influence in the congress of the United States to procure the passage of a law relative to the public lands, by the operation of which the state of Illinois would be entitled to receive annually a sum of money not less in amount than 20 per cent upon the amount annually paid Into the treasury of the United States, for public lands lying within the limits of the said state of Illinois. This resolution was laid on the where it peacefully extable, without pired. Even more important than the public land question was the problem of the National bank, the main issue in the Presidential campaign of A 1832 in which Andrew Jackson was resolution, supporting Jacksons stand on this question, was introduced in the Illinois legislature in January, 1835, and precipitated a vig. , For nearly orous dispute. Says Beveridge: three weeks Lincoln heard what was said on all phases of the National bank and the currency; but it does not appear that he took part in the controversy. But if Lincoln played an Insignificant role during his first legislative experience, he was to play an active and conspicuous part in the special session of the legislature which Gov. Joseph Duncan called the following December. (This was the same Joseph Duncan who, as one of had Maj. George Crogan's "boy lieutenants, won a vote of thanks from congress for their heroism at the defense of Fort Stephenson during the War of 1812.) During this session the state was reapportioned, the necessary legislation for starting work on the Illinois and Michigan canal was passed, as were the first of the flood bills providing for other Internal improvements which rose to such a high tide In the next legislature and played no small part in the panic of 1837. But more Important, as regards Lincolns career, was the fact that during this time he was helping pave the way for removing the capital to Springfield, an incident which brought him his first real prominence. to the legislature in 1836, at its opening session in December he became the Whig floor leader and was recognized on all hands as a clever parliamentary tactician and likely to become the manager in the house. . . . His supreme purpose now was to achieve the removal of the capital to Springfield and upon the achievement of that design he concentrated every faculty during the next three months. In 1833 the legislature had authorized a referendum vote by the people on the question of selecting a permanent site for the capital but no majority was given for any one location. The leaders In the voting were Alton, Vandalia, e roll-cal- l, Gov. Joseph Duncan Springfield, Jacksonville and Peoria, in the order named. The citizens of Vandalia didnt want to lose the capital so they raised $16,000 and hopefully began to build a new state house to replace the one in which Lincoln had first served as a legislator and which was now becoming sadly dilapidated. They little realized how the manipulations of some very clever politicians, including lanky Abe Lincoln, were to doom them to disappointment By the reapportionment act of 1835 Sangamon county had seven representatives and two senators, the largest delegation in the legislature. Because of the height of all these men (the average was well over six feet) they were called the Long Nine. The senators were Job Fletcher and Archer Herndon and the representatives were Abraham Lincoln, John Dawson, Dan Stone, Ninian W. Edwards (son of a former governor), William F. Elkin, R. L. Wilson, and Andrew McCormick. They voted solidly together on all questions and held out the bait of such an Important block of votes to backers of the internal improvements schemes in return for support of Spring-fielas the new capital "Although Lincoln and the Springfield partisans, of whom he was in command, strove to delay final action on the location of the capital until the passage of the Internal Improvement bill, they could not prevent frequent consideration of that Irritating and dangerous subject, says Beveridge. "Sometimes they were on the very edge of defeat, twice they were actually beaten. His colleagues were despondent, hopeless; but Lincoln never despaired. In the darkest hours he called the Long Nine to his room in the tavern, heartened them and devised plans for victory." That victory came on February 28, 1837. Six days before adjournment, after three months of management, bargaining and Intrigue, after the passage of the Internal Improvements bill with its clusters of improvident building, Impossible Improvements of impracticable streams, and appropriations of cash to importunate counties, the general assembly in Joint session chose Springfield as the permanent site of the state capitaL . . . The husbandry of the Long Nine had yielded its harvest After waging their successful fight to win the capital for their home county, Lincoln and the other members of the Long Nine went back to Springfield In triumph. He was resolved to make the new capital his home henceforth and to hang out his shingle as a lawyer there, for the very day after his victory for Springfield he had obtained from the Supreme court in Vandalia a certificate of admission to the bar of Illinois and was formally enrolled as an attorney. On April 15, 1837, the Sangamon Journal carried a new professional card In its advertising J. T. Stuart & A. Lincoln, Attorneys columns and Counsellors at Law, will practice, conjointly, in the Courts of this Judicial Circuit Office No. 4, Hoffman's Row, upstairs, Springfield. (Twenty-eight years later, to a day, the columns of this newspaper would appear with heavy black borders In mourning for one of these Attorneys and Counsellors at Law, now the Martyr President.) Here, then, was Lincoln, but iwenty-eigh- t years old, leader of his party In the house of representatives, winner of the fight for Spring-fielas the state capital, most talked of and best liked of all the Whigs of Sangamon county, and now partner of one of the ablest lawyers in Illinois and the foremost Whig In the state. Thus, Albert Beveridge Astounding progress! But yesterday pottering about New Salem in contact only with little things and crude surroundings, heavily in debt and with dim prospects for advancement; today starting on the high road of ambition and achievement! d d by Western Newspaper Union. the broker in the deal, the building and land on which they stand are assessed at $458,000. Literary Example Example has more followers than reason. We unconsciously imitate what pleases us, and insensibly ap.... i proximate to the characters we most In 1697, when some of his An- admire. In this way, a generous habglican subjects were worshiping in a it of thought and of action carries fort near the Battery, King William with it an Incalculable influence. III of England gave young Trinity Bovee. parish the land on which Trinity church now stands at the head of Wall street. There was no street then, but a wall, later razed to give the little city on Manhattan island room to grow. Later, the royal heart was struck with the thought that the struggling church could well do with some funds, and he gave the parish the right to sell all whales, wrecks and flotsam and jetsam flung up on Long island. What revenue, if any. Trinity derived from that privilege has not been discovered. At any rate, the parish did not prosper fast enough The Goat for Queen Anne, and In 1705 she beIs your wife economical, old boy? stowed on it a tract of land, which became known as the Queens farm. Oh, very. We do without It yielded a revenue of 40 a year. everything I need. As the thriving city began to spread out on Its narrow terrain, the Queens farm became covered with buildings. Subways underran it in later years, and rents went up. Though large slices of the farm were taken to provide for other Episcopal churches, Kings college, now Columbia university, and other buildings, the little church at the head of Wall street bad 700 lots remaining, and prospered until it bePriced came the wealthiest church in New At Low At York, and, probably, In the country. Light that floods the whole room with ft clear Recently the parish sold the east mellow radiance! Thft Com side of Hudson street from West nearest to daylight of any plU artificial light. Houston to Clarkson street, part More light than 86 com of the tract it received 237 years ago xnon kerosene lamps. Itft from King William. The transfer light that protects your aightl Plenty of light for every home need. Easy to operate . . . marked the first change in ownereasy to keep going. Only Coleman gives yon cost. Beautiful sew ship of this particular property since eo much light for bo littleshades. models with parchment y and the royal grant. Four See yotir hardware or honaefurniahtng dealer. If he doesnt handle, write us, buildings cover the block inTh Coleman Lamp 6 Stov Company volved in the transaction, and, actU.t Los M.WII1S, Wichita, Kaoa.f Chicago. cording to William S. Sussman, Inc., CaUf.i fhUwUlsbie, Fa.; loroat. Oataito. Gaaads ItiA Famous Old Trinity Endowed by Two Monarchs. L Usr , jceC , CHURCH THRIVES ON ROYAL GIFTS It Is seldom that Washington. any genuine widespread interest is evidence in Court elslons by the Hat Last Word Supreme Court of the United States. Although that distinguished body of nine men holds in its hands to that of the Presipower dent and of congress, some way it has never been a part of the government to which attention has been directed nationally. Of course, there are more people who are not lawyers than who are familiar with laws and that may be the answer to the fact that the Supreme court can be said to be little known. But it seems now that the court is to be a center of attraction just as interesting as either the executive or legislative branches. The reason is that the highest legal tribunal in the land has before it for decision some of the most momentous legal controversies to engage the country since the days of the Civil war. Through many months, questions concerning the New Deal, their legality and constitutionality, have been wending their slow, tortuous way through the lower courts, through the courts of appeals to the court of last resort under the structure which we know as our government. One of these, as I reported to you previously, has already been decided. In that Instance, the Supreme court by a vote of eight of the nine Judges determined that President Roosevelt had gone beyond the powers accorded him under the Constitution in prohibiting export of oil from the state where It was recovered. Within a very short time now the most important case of all affecting the New Deal will be decided, I refer to the gold cases. Five questions are before the court and if It decides adversely to the governments claim on any of them, the monetary policy upon which the New Deal has been operating becomes virtually null and void. The court heard lengthy arguments by high powered lawyers on the part of the government and on the part of private citizens who claim that their rights have been abridged by the Roosevelt money policies and they naturally are seeking redress. No one dares to make a prediction concerning pending action by the Supreme court It can be only a guess at any time In advance of a rule by that group of men because with one or two exceptions since the nation was founded, its decisions have never leaked out ahead of the time they are formally handed down from the bench. Lawyers throughout the land are watching and waiting for the courts But tire most fidgety of findings. all lawyers are those In the government who recognize that an adverse decision by the court will flatten out the New Deal and force a wholesale revision of policies. I am told that this group of lawyers Is none too certain of Its ground. True, they made what is recognized as a strong argument In support of the governments position but the difficulty seems to be from their standpoint that the Constitution was written before the brain trust came into action and the Constitution Itself provides the only ways by which It may be changed. . . Among Supreme the questions before the court in the gold cases, that one brought Important forward by a suit to compel the gov ernment to pay gold in redeeming one of Its own bonds Is by far the most important Indeed, that case can be said to have an overwhelming importance. If the court rules that the government cannot void Its contract for a bond is generally recognized as a contract to pay back the borrowed money under the term named in that bond, then the seizure of gold by the government In 1933 likewise is voided. In other words, every person holding a government bond containing a promise to pay In gold Is entitled to have that gold from the treasury. It takes no stretch of the imagination to see what effect that will have on the whole money program. Likewise, if the court determines that an individual who has promised to pay in gold must observe the terms of that agreement, the administration is again In a hole. or Since contracts, agreements bonds containing the promise to pay in gold are in general use and have been written since time Immemorial the amount of such payments is virtually incalculable. I have heard many estimates of the total amount of money Involved by the gold clause but I hesitate to use any of them because it is patent on the face of things that an accurate figure is Impossible. One can get down to brass tacks on the effect of affirmation of the gold clause, however, by the simple application of the ratio of gold to the present dollar. When those gold contracts were written a dollar In currency was redeemable for Question a dollar in gold. At that time gold was valued at around $21 an ounce. arThe Roosevelt administration bitrarily increased that value to a few cents over $35 an ounce. Without going into all of the details it means that to gain the same amount of gold now which a dollar would have brought prior to the Roosevelt administration action one will have to pay $1.G9. To state it another way, if the gold contracts involve $1,000,000,000, those who are obligated to pay in gold will have to pay $1,690,000,000, at the present rate. debtors under Obviously, that circumstance will find themselves between the upper and nether millstones, well squashed, if the court rules adversely to the governments policy. Attorney General Cummings in his plea to the Supreme court made the argument that an adverse decision would mean chaos to the counI believe there can be no try. doubt about that. But the point Is deeper. Roosevelt administration policies were hammered through congress and received the legislative bodys rubber stamp by direction of the President. What Is going to be done about It? I don't know. Further I dont believe the ad- - Whats to ministration knows what 11 18 going to do in event the court rules against the government in these cases. There has been numerous conferences, frequent speculations by subordinate officials and many guesses by individuals. The President himself said in a press conference the other day that he would not discuss the gold question while the matter was pending before the Supreme court. It was a simple way to avoid expressing his hopes or bis fears. It is to be noted, however, that during the ten days in which the court heard arguments in the gold cases, a considerable number of senators and representatives sat glued In their seats In the gloomy old Supreme court chamber under the dome of the Capitol They were obviously wondering. None of them thus far has offered publicly a suggestion as to what he will do in event the monetary policies are overturned. After all, if the Roosevelt program is upset, congress simply will have to enact some new laws, and that was the chief reason why so many of the congressional leaders were seen In attendance at Be Done? rent-payin- g :ofeman LAMP $5.95 five-stor- Try Faster Way to Relieve Your Colds Medical Discovery Bringing Almost Instant Relief to Millions REMEMBER ITake BAYER Aspirin Tablets. sure you get the BAYER 2 Tablets you ask lor. court The court will rush its decision. Of that there can be no doubt. Always it has put cases of paramount importance to the nation ahead of those that affect private litigants. Everyone believes, therefore, that In this Instance the Supreme court has laid aside most of its other work in order to devote its attenexamination to a thorough-gointion of the present problem. Lawyers tell me that if the court rejects the Roosevelt policies as untenable under the Constitution, congress will have to put through some new laws on the subject at break neck speed in order to avoid a hiatus that would flood the courts with an unprecedented number of suits. 3 Drink full glass of water. Repeat treatment in 2 hours. g The agricultural adjustment administration has fixed the cotton crop for the com- To Restrict lng season at bales the Output 500,000 same as year. At the same time, we have begun to hear talk in Washington of a plan to seek a world agreement restricting the output of cotton after the manner of the attempt to restrict the world production of wheat, a move that went exactly nowhere. Determination of the same production for cotton in 1935 that was used as the base in 1934 is accepted as in line with the administrations plans for raising prices artificially through curtailment of production. It has been expected that the 1935 crop might be as high as 12,000,000 bales . But since the administration has decided to carry on further its experiment into artificial price raising fields by production limitation, some of the background of that policy and the American relationship to the world condition warrant examination. The American production until a few years ago was about 60 per cent of the worlds cotton output. Now it is down to about 43 per cent of Last year, the world the total. consumption of cotton, according to the Department of Commerce figures, declined by about 700,000 bales, whereas the world consumption, Including that used in the United States, Increased by something over 1,300,000 bales. It is to be noted further that although American exports in general increased last year, the quality of cotton shipped last year fell off by approximately 28 per cent DIRECTIONS The simple method pictured here is the way many doctors now treat colds and the aches and pains colds bring with them! It is recognized as a safe, sure. QUICK way. For it will relieve an ordinary cold almost as fast as you caught it. Ask your doctor about this. And when you buy, be sure that you get the real BAYER Aspirin Tablets. They dissolve (disintegrate) almost instantly. And thus work almost instantly when you take them. And. for a gargle. Genuine Bayer Aspirin Tablets disintegrate with speed and completeness, leaving no irritating, particles or grittiness. BAYER Aspirin prices have beeir decisively reduced on ail sizes, so theres no point now in accepting other than the real Bayer article you want. If throat Is sore, crush and stir BAYER Aspirin Tablets in a third of a glass of water. Gargle twice. 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