er, felled him to the earth and belabored him until
the wretch begged for mercy. The precious boon was withheld until
the now penitent disturber, after promising to repent, had been
given the humblest seat in the "amen corner." This all satisfactorily
completed, and his garment replaced, the minister, scarcely ruffled
by the trifling incident, re-entered the pulpit, and with the words,
"As I was saying, brethren, when interrupted," continued his
discourse.

This little sketch would be unpardonably incomplete if the important
fact were withheld that Peter Cartwright had a relish for politics,
as well as for salvation. He was more than once a member of the
General Assembly of Illinois, and be it said to his eternal honor his
speech and vote were ever on the side of whatever conduced to
the best interests of the State. In him the cause of education,
and the asylums for the unfortunate, had ever an earnest advocate.

Though many years his senior, he was the contemporary of Abraham
Lincoln, and a resident of the same county. Mr. Lincoln was, in
1846, the Whig candidate for Representative in Congress. The
district was of immense area, embracing many counties of Central
Illinois. Newspapers were scarce, and the old-time custom of joint
discussions between opposing candidates for high office were still
in vogue. Mr. Lincoln's unsuccessful competitor was none other
than the subject of this article. The great Whig leader and his
Democratic antagonist--"My friend the Parson," as Mr. Lincoln
familiarly called him--were soon engaged in joint debate. It is
to be regretted that there is no record of these debates. There
is probably no man now living who heard them. But what rare reading
they would be at this day, if happily they had been preserved.
The earnest, inflexible parson,--even then "standing upon the
Western slope,"--backed by his party, then dominant in the national
government, upon the one side; the comparatively youthful lawyer, whose
fame was yet to fill the world, upon the other. No doubt, daily
upon "the stump" and at night at the village taverns, the changes
were rung upon the then all-absorbing subjects, the Walker Tariff,
the War with Mexico, and the Wilmot Proviso. These questions belong
now to the domain of history; as do indeed issues of far greater
consequence, upon which Lincoln and an antagonist more formidable than
Cartwright crossed swords a dozen years later.

At the Democratic State Conven