Peoria
_Register_, May 19, 1838.]

[Footnote 91: Palmer, Personal Recollections, p. 24.]

[Footnote 92: Forney, Anecdotes of Public Men, II, p. 180.]

[Footnote 93: Transactions of the Illinois Historical Society, 1902,
p. 110.]

[Footnote 94: Sangamo _Journal_, August 25, 1838; Peoria _Register_,
August 11, 1838.]

[Footnote 95: Election returns in the Office of the Secretary of
State.]

[Footnote 96: See Sheahan, Douglas, p. 37; also Illinois _State
Register_, October 12, 1838.]

[Footnote 97: MS. Letter, Benton to Douglas, October 27, 1838.]

[Footnote 98: For correspondence between Douglas and Stuart, see
Illinois _State Register_, April 5, 1839.]

[Footnote 99: Illinois _State Register_, October 26, 1838.]

[Footnote 100: _Ibid._, April 5, 1839.]

[Footnote 101: Illinois _State Register_, November 23, 1839.]

[Footnote 102: _Ibid._]

[Footnote 103: Nicolay and Hay, Lincoln, I, p. 181.]

[Footnote 104: Illinois _State Register_, November 23, 1839.]

[Footnote 105: _Ibid._, February 21, 1840.]

[Footnote 106: _Ibid._, April 24, 1840.]

[Footnote 107: See Illinois _State Register_, August 7, 1840.]

[Footnote 108: The Constitution of 1819 bestowed the suffrage upon
every white male "inhabitant" twenty-one years of age.]

[Footnote 109: Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 44-45.]

[Footnote 110: The title of the case was Thomas Spraggins, appellant
_vs._ Horace H. Houghton, appellee.]

[Footnote 111: Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 45-46; Wheeler, Biographical
History of Congress, p. 76.]

[Footnote 112: Illinois _State Register_, May 15, 1840.]

[Footnote 113: _Ibid._, June 12, 1840.]

[Footnote 114: Illinois _State Register_, July 10, 1840; Forney,
Anecdotes of Public Men, II, p. 180.]

[Footnote 115: _Ibid._, September 4, 1840.]

[Footnote 116: _Ibid._, October 2, 1840.]

[Footnote 117: Letter of J.H. Roberts, Esq., of Chicago, to the
writer; see also Illinois _State Register_, October 2, 1840.]

CHAPTER III

LAW AND POLITICS

The years were passing rapidly during which Douglas should have laid
broad and deep the foundations of his professional career, if indeed
law was to be more than a convenient avocation. These were formative
years in the young man's life; but as yet he had developed neither the
inclination nor the capacity to apply himself to the study of the more
intricate and abstruse phases of jurisprudence. To be sure, he had
picked up much practical information in the courts, but it