s" mentioned, and one much more famous, yet to be
noted, were all honorably adjusted without physical harm to any of
the participants.

The "affair of honor," the mention of which will close this chapter,
owes its chief importance to the prominence attained at a later
day by its principals. The challenger, James Shields, was at that
time, 1842, a State officer of Illinois, and later a general in
two wars and a Senator from three States. The name of his adversary
has since "been given to the ages." Mr. Lincoln was, at the time he
accepted Mr. Shields's challenge, a young lawyer, unmarried, residing
at the State capital. He was the recognized leader of the Whig
party, and an active participant in the fierce political conflicts
of the day. Some criticism in which he had indulged, touching the
administration of the office of which Shields was the incumbent,
was the immediate cause of the challenge.

That Mr. Lincoln was upon principle opposed to duelling would be
readily inferred from his characteristic kindness. That "we are
time's subjects," however, and that the public opinion of sixty-odd
years ago is not that of to-day will readily appear from the
published statement of his friend Dr. Merryman:

"I told Mr. Lincoln what was brewing, and asked him what course he
proposed to himself. He said that he was wholly opposed to duelling
and would do anything to avoid it that might not degrade him in
the estimation of himself and friends; but if such a degradation, or
a fight, were the only alternatives, he would fight."

It is stated by one of the biographers of Mr. Lincoln that he
was ever after averse to any allusion to the Shields affair. From
the terms of his acceptance, it is evident that he intended neither
to injure his adversary seriously nor to receive injury at his
hands. In his lengthy letter of instruction to his second, he
closed by saying:

"If nothing like this is done, the preliminaries of the fight are to
be, first, weapons: cavalry broadswords of the largest size,
precisely equal in all respects. Second, position: a plank ten
feet long and from nine to twelve inches broad, to be firmly fixed
on edge on the ground as the line between us which neither is to
pass his foot over upon forfeit of his life. Next, a line drawn
on the ground on either side of said plank and parallel with it,
each at the distance of the whole length of the sword, and three
feet additional from the plank; the passing o