als, when the need
was very urgent, a new hat.

These are amiable personal traits, but they mark the limitations of his
capacity as a statesman. The chief questions which agitated the
Illinois Legislature were economic, and so at first were the issues
between Whigs and Democrats in Federal policy. Lincoln, though he
threw himself into these affairs with youthful fervour, would appear
never to have had much grasp of such matters. "In this respect alone,"
writes an admirer, "I have always considered Mr. Lincoln a weak man."
It is only when (rarely, at first) constitutional or moral issues
emerge that his politics become interesting. We can guess the causes
which attached him to the Whigs. As the party out of power, and in
Illinois quite out of favour, they had doubtless some advantage in
character. As we have seen, the greatest minds among American
statesmen of that day, Webster and Clay, were Whigs. Lincoln's simple
and quite reasonable, if inconclusive, argument for Protection, can be
found among his speeches of some years later. And schemes of internal
development certainly fired his imagination.

After his failure in business Lincoln subsisted for a while on odd jobs
for farmers, but was soon employed as assistant surveyor by John
Calhoun, then surveyor of the county. This gentleman, who had been
educated as a lawyer but "taught school in preference," was a keen
Democrat, and had to assure Lincoln that office as his assistant would
not necessitate his desertion of his principles. He was a clever man,
and Lincoln remembered him long after as the most formidable antagonist
he ever met in debate. With the help, again, of Mentor Graham, Lincoln
soon learned the surveyor's business. He continued at this work till
he was able to start as a lawyer, and there is evidence that his
surveys of property were done with extreme accuracy. Soon he further
obtained the local Postmastership. This, the only position except the
Presidency itself which he ever held in the Federal Government, was not
onerous, for the mails were infrequent; he "carried the office around
in his hat"; we are glad to be told that "his administration gave
satisfaction." Once calamity threatened him; a creditor distrained on
the horse and the instruments necessary to his surveyorship; but
Lincoln was reputed to be a helpful fellow, and friends were ready to
help him; they bought the horse and instruments back for him. To this
time belongs his f