hen living in Springfield was one
James Shields, auditor of the State. He was a hot-headed, blustering
Irishman, not without ability, and certainly courageous; a good
politician, and, on the whole, a very well-liked man. However, the
swagger and noise with which he accompanied the execution of his
duties, and his habit of being continually on the defensive, made
him the butt of Whig ridicule. Nothing could have given greater
satisfaction to Lincoln and his friends than having an opponent who,
whenever they joked him, flew into a rage and challenged them to
fight.

At the time when Lincoln was visiting Miss Todd at Mr. Francis's
house, the Whigs were much excited over the fact that the Democrats
had issued an order forbidding the payment of State taxes in State
bank-notes. The bank-notes were in fact practically worthless, for the
State finances were suffering a violent reaction from the extravagant
legislation of 1836 and 1837. One of the popular ways of attacking an
obnoxious political doctrine in that day was writing letters from some
imaginary backwoods settlement, setting forth in homely vernacular
the writer's views of the question, and showing how its application
affected his part of the world. These letters were really a rude form
of the "Bigelow Papers" or "Nasby Letters." Soon after the order
was issued by the Illinois officials demanding silver instead
of bank-notes in payment of taxes, Lincoln wrote a letter to a
Springfield paper from the "Lost Townships," signing it "Aunt
Rebecca." In it he described the plight to which the new order had
brought the neighborhood, and he intimated that the only reason for
issuing such an order was that the State officers might have their
salaries paid in silver. Shields was ridiculed unmercifully in the
letter for his vanity and his gallantry.

It happened that there were several young women in Springfield who
had received rather too pronounced attention from Mr. Shields, and
who were glad to see him tormented. Among them were Miss Todd and her
friend Miss Julia Jayne. Lincoln's letter from the "Lost Townships"
was such a success that they followed it up with one in which "Aunt
Rebecca" proposed to the gallant auditor, and a few days later they
published some very bad verses, signed "Cathleen," celebrating the
wedding.[1]

Springfield was highly entertained, less by the verses than by the
fury of Shields. He would have satisfaction, he said, and he sent a
friend, one Ge