om Coles [Mr. Linder].
Indeed, I do not believe I could muster a sufficiency of
courage to come in contact with that gentleman, were it
not for the fact that he, some days since, most graciously
condescended to assure us that he would never be found wasting
ammunition on _small game_. On the same fortunate occasion he
further gave us to understand that he regarded _himself_
as being decidedly the _superior_ of our common friend from
Randolph [Mr. Shields]; and feeling, as I really do, that I,
to say the most of myself, am nothing more than the peer of
our friend from Randolph, I shall regard the gentleman from
Coles as decidedly my superior also; and consequently, in
the course of what I shall have to say, whenever I shall have
occasion to allude to that gentleman I shall endeavor to adopt
that kind of court language which I understand to be due to
decided superiority. In one faculty, at least, there can be no
dispute of the gentleman's superiority over me, and most other
men; and that is, the faculty of entangling a subject so that
neither himself, or any other man, can find head or tail to
it."

[Illustration: LINCOLN AND HIS SON THOMAS, FAMILIARLY KNOWN AS "TAD."

From a photograph made by Brady early in Mr. Lincoln's first term.]

[Illustration: PAGE FROM STUART AND LINCOLN'S FEE BOOK.

From the original, owned by Jesse W. Weik, by permission.]

Taking up the resolution on the bank, he declared its meaning:

"Some gentlemen have their stock in their hands, while others,
who have more money than they know what to do with, want it;
and this, and this alone, is the question, to settle which
we are called on to squander thousands of the people's money.
What interest, let me ask, have the people in the settlement
of this question? What difference is it to them whether the
stock is owned by Judge Smith or Sam Wiggins? If any gentleman
be entitled to stock in the bank, which he is kept out of
possession of by others, let him assert his right in the
Supreme Court, and let him or his antagonist, whichever may be
found in the wrong, pay the costs of suit. It is an old maxim,
and a very sound one, that he that dances should always pay
the fiddler. Now, sir, in the present case, if any gentlemen
whose money is a burden to them, choose to lead off a dance,
I am decidedly opposed to the p