stroke blasted Forquer's political prospects forever, and satisfied
the Clary's Grove Boys that it was even better than all the things they
would have done to him.

ABE LINCOLN AS A "BLOATED ARISTOCRAT"

On another occasion Lincoln's wit suddenly turned the tables on an
abusive opponent. One of the Democratic orators was Colonel Dick Taylor,
a dapper, but bombastic little man, who rode in his carriage, and
dressed richly. But, politically, he boasted of belonging to the
Democrats, "the bone and sinew, the hard-fisted yeomanry of the land,"
and sneered at those "rag barons," those Whig aristocrats, the "silk
stocking gentry!" As Abe Lincoln, the leading Whig present, was dressed
in Kentucky jeans, coarse boots, a checkered shirt without a collar or
necktie, and an old slouch hat, Colonel Taylor's attack on the "bloated
Whig aristocracy" sounded rather absurd.

Once the colonel made a gesture so violent that it tore his vest open
and exposed his elegant shirt ruffles, his gold watch-fob, his seals and
other ornaments to the view of all. Before Taylor, in his embarrassment,
could adjust his waistcoat, Lincoln stepped to the front exclaiming:

"Behold the hard-fisted Democrat! Look at this specimen of 'bone and
sinew'--and here, gentlemen," laying his big work-bronzed hand on his
heart and bowing obsequiously--"here, at your service, is your
'aristocrat!' Here is one of your 'silk stocking gentry!'" Then
spreading out his great bony hands he continued, "Here is your 'rag
baron' with his lily-white hands. Yes, I suppose I am, according to my
friend Taylor, a 'bloated aristocrat!'"

The contrast was so ludicrous, and Abe had quoted the speaker's stock
phrases with such a marvelous mimicry that the crowd burst into a roar,
and Colonel Dick Taylor's usefulness as a campaign speaker was at an
end.

Small wonder, then, that young Lincoln's wit, wisdom and power of
ridicule made him known in that campaign as one of the greatest orators
in the State, or that he was elected by such an astonishing plurality
that the county, which had always been strongly Democratic, elected Whig
representatives that year.

After Herculean labors "the Long Nine" succeeded in having the State
capital removed from Vandalia to Springfield. This move added greatly to
the influence and renown of its "prime mover," Abraham Lincoln, who was
feasted and "toasted" by the people of Springfield and by politicians
all over the State. After reading "Bla