urth negro blood.
Therefore, she did not fall under the inhibitions of the Illinois law
forbidding marriages between persons of color, negro or mulatto, with a
white person. Douglas confirmed what Mr. Brooks had told me; and he gave
me the opinion that a common-law marriage was legal, but that Fortescue
would have to bring witnesses to Jacksonville to testify that he and Zoe
had taken each other as husband and wife; and that this had been
followed by an assumption of the marriage relation.

Douglas advised me to look carefully into the proofs. Well, why should
he not return to Chicago with me and help with the investigation? He was
willing. Meanwhile Fortescue was waiting for me. When I told him that I
was coming to Chicago with a friend he looked suspicious, as if he
thought that I was trying to evade him. As he began to press me then,
saying that we could all travel together, I forgot myself for the moment
in a rise of temper. "The land can't get away; nothing can run away; and
you can't get anything until you prove your case. I am going to Chicago
with a friend. I will see you there. You can go your own way." Fortescue
acquiesced apologetically; and having done with him for the time, I
turned again to visit with Douglas.

I had never seen him in a more interesting mood. He wished for good
fortune to befall him so that he could do something for the education of
the young, since his own opportunities had been limited. In this
connection he spoke of the grants of land which had been made to
Illinois for institutions and schools of higher learning. And while
talking of the Louisiana territory which Napoleon had granted to
America, and of Texas whose recent independence the United States had
recognized, his imagination glowed before the future power and glory of
the country. He was delighted that so many Germans and Irish, fleeing
from disorder and oppression in Europe, were seeking freedom and
opportunity here, and filling up the new lands. But while my inheritance
of a few thousand acres was already perplexing me, Douglas was still
free of the great calamity that would befall him because of the new
domains! If Zoe as one of the numerous persons of color had already
involved my life, how terribly would the curse pronounced upon the
descendants of Ham fall upon this Titan, this nation builder! Douglas
indulged his satirical talent in an amusing description of General
Taylor who was now talked of by the Whigs for Presiden