monize with material interests.
There would always be war so long as interests conflicted. The lesser
had to give way to the larger. War was a factor in the game of
supremacy, of life. If Great Britain stood in our way, fight her. If
Mexico made trouble about Texas, conquer her. War is the execution of
the law of progress. Reason can go only so far, and then the sharpness
of the sword is necessary.

CHAPTER XXIX

I sold the farm at last and moved to Chicago. It was with sorrow that I
broke up my association with Reverdy and Sarah, and their little family.
But I was much relieved to be out of the situation that had been so full
of annoyance to me. I had friends to be sure, but I was English; I was a
little reserved even yet; I was a driver, a money maker. Then there had
been Zoe and Lamborn. Besides, the life on the farm was monotonous. The
end of the day marked lonely hours for me. And I was looking forward to
much association with Abigail.

I saw her frequently now that I was in Chicago. She was teaching school.
Mr. Williams, his wife, their children, were my first friends, the
beginning of my new associations.

I began at once to speculate in real estate. Mr. Williams proved an
invaluable counsel in these ventures. I made money faster than I could
ever have believed it possible to me. I was now very well off at
twenty-seven. But was life nothing but money making?

As I had sold the farm on partial payments I was compelled to make
frequent trips to Springfield to collect the purchase money notes; and I
always saw Douglas unless he was away campaigning. By the new census of
1840 Illinois was entitled to seven Congressmen instead of the four
which it had hitherto been allowed. A legislature had reapportioned the
state in such a way as to give Douglas a chance to be elected. Douglas'
friends had called a convention. The re-apportionment of the state was
charged to be arbitrary; the convention was styled "machine-made" with a
view to Douglas' nomination. Had he had a hand in this--the young judge
of the Supreme Court? If so, many others had had a hand in it.

In the convention Douglas' friends rode roughly over the other
aspirants; and when he received the prize they withdrew and accorded him
their support. All of this was the perfection of party organization, to
which Douglas, with a leader's genius, had directed his party from the
moment he had set foot in Jacksonville. Douglas found an opponent in a
Whig