bition to aim
higher; a former law partner of his was now in Congress, and he wished
to follow. But he had to submit to a few years' delay of which the
story is curious and honourable. His rivals for the representation of
his own constituency were two fellow Whigs, Baker and Hardin, both of
whom afterwards bore distinguished parts in the Mexican war and with
both of whom he was friendly. Somewhat to his disgust at a party
gathering in his own county in 1843, Baker was preferred to him. A
letter of his gives a shrewd account of the manoeuvres among members of
various Churches which brought this about; it is curiously careful not
to overstate the effect of these influences and characteristically
denies that Baker had part in them. To make the thing harder, he was
sent from this meeting to a convention, for the whole constituency,
with which the nomination lay, and his duty, of course, was to work for
Baker. Here it became obvious that Hardin would be chosen; nothing
could be done for Baker at that time, but Lincoln, being against his
will there in Baker's interests, took an opportunity in the bargaining
that took place to advance Baker's claim, to the detriment of his own,
to be Hardin's successor two years later.

By some perverse accident notes about details of party management fill
a disproportionate space among those letters of Lincoln's which have
been preserved, but these reveal that, with all his business-like
attention to the affairs of his very proper ambition, he was able
throughout to illuminate dull matters of this order with action of
singular disinterestedness. After being a second time postponed, no
doubt to the advantage of his law business, he took his seat in the
House of Representatives at Washington for two years in the spring of
1847. Two short sessions can hardly suffice for mastering the very
complicated business of that body. He made hardly any mark. He
probably learned much and was able to study at leisure the characters
of his brother politicians. He earned the valuable esteem of some, and
seems to have passed as a very pleasant, honest, plain specimen of the
rough West. Like others of the younger Congressmen, he had the
privilege of breakfasting with Webster. His brief career in the House
seems to have disappointed him, and it certainly dissatisfied his
constituents. The part that he played may impress us more favourably
than it did them, but, slight as it was, it requires a histor