The sacrifice had cost him something, but the unexpected reward was promptly and loyally paid him.

It was an additional recompense, shortly afterwards, to find how bravely and how well Senator Trumbull was performing the high duty so magnanimously surrendered to him. His very presence in the Senate-chamber was a visible warning to the slavery propagandists that their long control of the Democratic party of the North had been broken forever.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE NEW PARTY.

Bleeding Kansas-A Watchful Friend-Trapping a Trapper-The Bloomington Convention-General Apathy-The Voice of Faith.

Of the two Territories created by the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, the former was manifestly the more nearly ready for admission into the Union as a State. Upon the soil of Kansas, therefore, the contending political forces had already begun to pour themselves, in a tide of extraordinary immigration from the older States. The lawless and often bloody scenes enacting there were doing much to convince the nation that the days of mere argument, and even of mere balloting, were passing away. A most peaceful generation, born and nurtured in the hatred of all violence, was undergoing a process of habituation to the idea of brute force as a tribunal of final appeal.

The sympathies of the anti-slavery men of Illinois were strongly appealed to on behalf of their downtrodden brethren of Kansas. In 1856, not long after the Senatorial election, an association was formed of the more zealous Abolitionists, with the view of emigrating, armed and equipped, to what was practically the seat of civil war. Among these was Mr. Herndon, and his purpose could not long be concealed from his wiser, cooler, more far-seeing law-partner. By some means Mr. Lincoln got the hot-heads together, and addressed them in the name of peace, law, order, and sound common-sense. not only convinced them that their purpose was wrong, but that it was foolish, and persuaded them to stay at home. He joined them, however, in sending pecuniary and other contri

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butions to the assistance of the actual Kansas settlers who were suffering in consequence of the political disorders.

He himself had been too wise, in his most earnest utterances, to avow himself an extreme Abolitionist. In his mind, the country had other interests than those of the black man. The future of the white race was also entitled to some consideration. The best good of all forbade indifference to the wel fare of any part.

The several factions into which the opposition to the controlling party was still divided in Illinois were in a state of seeming blindness to their approaching consolidation; but Mr. Lincoln was not. Each coterie put forth eager but vain efforts to secure the adhesion to their number of the man who contained in himself more power than any or all of them. They compelled him to exercise great care. So reticent was he, so cautious not to make any answer which should seem to identify his name with any clique or segment, that even Mr. Herndon felt himself called upon to labor with his friend in the interest of the cause of freedom. He lent him antislavery books and papers; read him extracts from speeches and lectures; strove in every way to arouse in him a more aggressive hatred of slavery and a disposition to fight against it. Mr. Lincoln might well have said to him, as he had said to Mr. Jayne: "You don't begin to know the half of it, and that's enough."

He said very little, however, and his friend persisted in considering him unsettled in his political mind.

The radicals of every name were shortly summoned to a State convention to be held at Bloomington, and a "call" was circulated in Springfield for a county convention for the selec tion of delegates. There still remained a curious doubt as to the course Mr. Lincoln would pursue. He was absent when the "call" was passed around for signatures, but Mr. Herndon, zealously determined to make him commit himself, signed his name to it for him. Nothing could add to Mr. Herndon's own account of the transaction and its consequences. He says:

should pursue, that the entire voting population may be said to have held its political breath. About five days after the adjournment of the convention, a public meeting was called in Springfield to "ratify" the action taken. The county courthouse, where the meeting was to be held, was well lighted; the usual posters on all the fences had announced the meeting and the name of the distinguished orator who was to address it; a band of music paraded the streets to drum up enthusiasm, and the bells were rung. The net result of all these praiseworthy efforts is reported by Mr. Herndon, who, with Mr. Lincoln and a man named John Pain, were all the multitude the occasion brought together:

"When Mr. Lincoln came into the court-house, he came with a sadness and a sense of the ludicrous on his face. He walked to the stand, mounted it with a kind of mocking,mirth and sadness all combined, and said: Gentlemen, this meeting is larger than I knew it would be. I knew that Herndon and myself would come, but I did not know that any one else would be here; and yet another has come,—you, John Pain. These are sad times and seem out of joint. All seems dead, dead, dead; but the age is not yet dead: it liveth as sure as our Maker liveth. Under all this seeming want of life and motion the world does move, nevertheless. Be hopeful. And now let us adjourn, and appeal to the people." "

He made many longer speeches in the course of his life, but not one that was braver or better. He well understood the true nature of the temporary paralysis of the new political movement, and had measured the forces whose irrepressible activities forbade its long continuance. Nevertheless, it required a good deal of faith to stand up in an empty hall and so address Mr. Herndon and John Pain.

It was pretty well understood that his utterance would be regarded as the voice of the convention, and would be, to all intents and purposes, the "platform" upon which it would be compelled to stand. So to speak, he had taken possession of the trap wherein his wise friends had caged him and was calmly proceeding to capture the trappers.

The speech he made has been declared the ablest of his strictly political addresses. In many respects it is certainly the most interesting of all. He was able, for the first time, to free his arguments from many of the meshes formerly cast around them by existing laws, by "compromises," and by expressed or implied social contracts. Mr. Douglas and his friends in Congress had done this much for him and for freedom.

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The new party, thus beginning to assume organic existence, first assumed the name of " Republican" at this particular Convention at Bloomington, Illinois, and it has been common to say that it was born" then and there. This is simply a confusion of ideas, for the young political organism had already left its cradle and was advanced far along the line of preparation for the severe work of early manhood. There is a difference between mere ceremonies of christening and other vitalizing processes of creation.

Apart from the more glowing paragraphs of Mr. Lincoln's speech, the proceedings at Bloomington were apparently conservative, and the extremists were but little pleased with them.

The "platform" actually adopted did not go far enough, and yet it went to the limit of what Mr. Lincoln believed the people were ready to accept. It went so much further than that in fact, and the whole undertaking had in it so much of audacity, of presumptuous rebellion against the existing order of things, of an adyance into unknown and perilous ground, that the report of it was received with general apathy and was followed by a mysteriously deep and timid reaction. So strong in the minds of men was the doubt as to what course they