lliam F. Elkins, R.L. Wilson, Andrew
McCormick, Job Fletcher, and Arthur Herndon. Each one of these men
was over six feet in height, their combined stature being, it is said,
fifty-five feet. The "Long Nine" was the name Sangamon County gave
them.

[Illustration: EBENEZER PECK.

Ebenezer Peck, who was chiefly instrumental in introducing the
convention system into Illinois politics, was born in Portland, Maine,
May 22, 1805. He lived for some time in Peacham, Vermont, where he
was educated. While yet a boy, removed with his parents to Canada. He
studied law at Montreal, and practised there; became King's Counsel
for Canada East, and was finally elected to the provincial parliament
on the Reform ticket. In the summer of 1835 he removed to Chicago, and
there, as a lawyer and a politician, he at once made his mark. He was
a delegate to the first Democratic State convention in Illinois,
held at Vandalia, December 7, 1835, and was the chief advocate of the
general adoption of the convention system--a system which was at first
opposed and ridiculed by the Whigs, but which very soon they were
forced to adopt. In 1837 Mr. Peck was made one of the Internal
Improvement Commissioners. In 1838 he was elected to the State Senate,
and in 1840 to the House. He was clerk of the Supreme Court from
1841 to 1848, and reporter of that court from 1849 to 1863. His
anti-slavery sentiments led him to abandon the Democratic party in
1853, and in 1856 he helped establish the Republican party in the
State. He was again elected to the legislature in 1858. In 1863
President Lincoln appointed him a judge of the Court of Claims, and
he held this position until 1875. He died May 25, 1881.--_J. McCan
Davis._]

LINCOLN IS ADMITTED TO THE BAR.

As soon as the election was over Lincoln occupied himself in settling
another matter, of much greater moment, in his own judgment. He went
to Springfield to seek admission to the bar. The "roll of attorneys
and counsellors at law," on file in the office of the clerk of the
Supreme Court at Springfield, Illinois, shows that his license was
dated September 9, 1836, and that the date of the enrollment of his
name upon the official list was March 1, 1837. The first case in which
he was concerned, as far as we know, was that of Hawthorn against
Woolridge. He made his first appearance in court in October, 1836.

Although he had given much time during this year to politics and the
law, he had by no means abandon