the State was now beginning to fall across his
pathway. He says:

"It would require volumes to record the transactions of these
Legislatures, and of my humble labors in them; but it was my course
of conduct in these two sessions of the General Assembly that
induced my friends, _without any solicitation on my part,_ to offer
me as a candidate for Governor. I was urged not by politicians,
but by reasonable and reflecting men, more to advance the interest
of the State than my own."

If we did not, from his own lips, know how the Judge loathed
"the arts of politicians," we might almost be tempted to conclude from
the following that he was one of them:

"I traversed every section of the State, and knew well the people.
My friends had the utmost confidence in my knowledge of the people,
and when I suggested any policy to be observed, this suggestion
was consequently carried out as I requested--thus placing all under
one leader."

This, it will be remembered, was in 1830, and neither Reynolds nor
Kinney, his competitor, had received a party nomination. Both were
of the same party, Kinney being a strong Jackson man of the
ultra type, and the Judge only a "plain, humble, reflecting Jackson
man."

At one time during the campaign it seemed as if there were real
danger of this candidate of the "reflecting men of the State"
actually falling into the ways and wiles of politicians. "I often
addressed the people in churches, in courthouses, and in the
open air, myself occupying literally the stump of a large tree;
_at times also in a grocery."_

The fiery and abusive hand-bills against his competitor he did not
attempt to restrain his friends from circulating, "as they had a
right to exercise their own judgment"; but he declares he did
not circulate one himself. He moreover felicitates himself upon
the fact that his conciliatory course gained him votes.

This noted contest lasted eighteen months, as Reynolds says, and, the
State being sparsely populated, he enjoyed the personal acquaintance
of almost every voter. The fact, as he further states, that his
opponent was a clergyman, was a great drawback to him, and almost all
the Christian sects, except his own--the anti-missionary Baptists--
opposed him. With a candor that does him credit, the Judge admits
"the support of the religious people was not so much _for me,_ but
_against him."_

No national issues were discussed, but one point urged by Kinney
against the prop