uaintances, read many books, mastered the grammar of his own
tongue, won a multitude of friends. Those who could appreciate
intelligence and character respected him, and those whose highest ideas
of a man related to his physical prowess were devoted to him. Everyone
trusted him. He was judge, arbitrator, referee, authority in all
disputes, games, and matches whether of man-flesh or horse-flesh. He was
the peacemaker in all quarrels. He was everybody's friend--the
best-natured, most sensible, best-informed, most modest, unassuming,
kindest, gentlest, roughest, strongest, best young fellow in all New
Salem or the region about. But Mr. Offutt's trading enterprises ended
disastrously in the year 1832. The store was closed, the mill was shut
down, and Lincoln was out of business.

At the very moment, however, that he found himself adrift Illinois was
filled with excitement over the Black Hawk War. The centre of alarm was
in the Rock Valley, in the northern part of the State, which had been
formerly the home of the Sac tribe of Indians. Discontented with their
life on the reservation west of the Mississippi, to which they had been
removed, the Sacs, with several other tribes, resolved to recover their
old hunting-grounds. The warlike chief, Black Hawk, was at the head of
the revolt, and his march toward the Rock river was signalized by a
number of massacres. Governor Reynolds of Illinois issued a proclamation
calling for volunteers to aid the regular troops in the emergency.
Lincoln was one of the first to answer the call, the brave "Clary Grove
Boys" also coming promptly to the rescue. "The volunteers gathered,"
writes Mr. Arnold, "at Rushville, in Schuyler County, at which place
they were to be organized, and elected officers. Lincoln was a candidate
for the place of captain, and in opposition to him was one William
Kirkpatrick. The mode of election was novel. By agreement, each
candidate walked off to some distance and took position by himself. The
men were then to form, and those who voted for Kirkpatrick were to range
on a line with their candidate. When the lines were formed, Lincoln's
was three times as long as that of Kirkpatrick, and so Lincoln was
declared elected. Speaking of this affair when President, he said that
he was more gratified with this his first success than with any other
election of his life. Neither Lincoln nor his company was in any
engagement during the campaign, but there was plenty of hardships an