estion; and he himself does not seem ever to have doubted his fitness
to lead, or ever to have agonized over the choice of a path and the
responsibilities of leadership. Principles he had--the principles of
Jefferson and Jackson as he understood them. These, apparently, he held
sufficient for every problem and every emergency of political life.

He believed in party organization quite as firmly as he believed in
party principles, and in the summer of 1837 he had a hand in building up
the machinery of conventions and committees through which the Illinois
Democrats have governed themselves ever since. He defended Van Buren's
plan of a sub-treasury when many even of those who had supported
Jackson's financial measures wavered in the face of the disfavor into
which hard times had brought the party in power, and in November,
although the Springfield congressional district, even before the panic,
had shown a Whig majority of 3000, he accepted the Democratic nomination
for the seat in Congress to be filled at the election in August, 1838,
and threw himself with the utmost ardor into the canvass. The district
was the largest in the whole country, for it included all the northern
counties of the State. His opponent was John T. Stuart, Lincoln's law
partner, and for five months the two spoke six days every week without
covering the whole of the great region they aspired to represent. The
northern counties had been filling up with immigrants, and more than
36,000 votes were cast. Many ballots were thrown out on technicalities;
most of the election officials were Whigs. After weeks of uncertainty,
Stuart was declared elected by a majority of five. The moral effect,
however, was a triumph for Douglas, who at the time of his nomination
was not of the age required of congressmen.

He announced that he would now devote himself to his profession. But it
was by this time very difficult, even if he so wished, to withdraw from
politics. He was constantly in council with the leaders of his party,
and belonged to a sort of "third house" at Springfield which nowadays
would probably be called a lobby. During the winter there was an angry
controversy between the Democratic governor and the Whig senate over the
question of the governor's right to appoint a secretary of state, the
senate refusing to confirm his nomination of McClernand on the ground
that the office was not vacant. The question was brought before the
supreme court, whose Whig majo