in force over
twenty years.

It was about this time the great American statesman, W. H. Seward,
visited Minnesota. I heard him make his famous speech in St. Paul, in
which, with the gift of prophecy, he depicted the future grandeur of the
twin cities. I also heard Owen Lovejoy, a member of congress from
Illinois, and one of the leading anti-slavery agitators of the times.

During the presidential election of 1860 the political excitement ran
very high in the whole country. The Southern states had assumed a
threatening position, and expressed their intention to secede from the
Union if Lincoln was elected president. Throughout the whole country
political clubs were organized. The Democrats formed companies which
they called "Little Giants," which was the nickname given to Stephen A.
Douglas, their candidate for president.

The Republicans also organized companies which they called "Wide
Awakes." I was chosen leader of the Republican company in Red Wing.
Political meetings were very frequent during the last few weeks before
election, and among the most prominent features of those meetings were
processions and parades of the companies, which were uniformed, and
carried banners and torches. During the campaign C. C. Andrews and the
late Stephen Miller, respective candidates for presidential electors on
the Democratic and Republican tickets, held meetings together and
jointly debated the important questions of the day, taking of course
opposite sides, but within a year both were found as officers in the
Union army, gallantly fighting for the same cause.

About this time a company of militia organized in Red Wing, and I was
one of the lieutenants, and took active part in its drill and maneuvers.
Although none of the men who took part in these movements could foresee
or suspect the approach of the awful struggle which was to plunge the
country into a deluge of fire and blood, still they all seemed to have a
presentiment that critical times were near at hand, and that it was the
duty of all true citizens to make ready for them. It is a significant
fact that fifty-four men out of our little company of only sixty, within
two years became officers or soldiers in the volunteer army of the
United States. Although the Scandinavian emigrants had been in the state
only a few years, they still seemed to take as great an interest in the
threatening political difficulties of the times, and were found to be
just as willing as their na