under the charge of murder
to entrust the defence of his life to his hands, and finally took his
money and got him hanged. Is this the man that is to raise a breeze
in his favor by abusing lawyers? ... If he is not a lawyer, he _is_
a liar; for he proclaimed himself a lawyer, and got a man hanged by
depending on him." Lincoln concluded: "Farewell, General. I will see
you again at court, if not before--when and where we will settle the
question whether you or the widow shall have the land." The widow did
get the land, but this was not the worst thing that happened to Adams.
The climax was reached when the "Sangamo Journal" published a long
editorial (written by Lincoln, no doubt) on the controversy, and
followed it with a copy of an indictment found against Adams in Oswego
County, New York, in 1818. The offence charged in this indictment was
the forgery of a deed by Adams--"a person of evil name and fame and of
a wicked disposition."

Lincoln's victory in this controversy undoubtedly did much to impress
the community, not necessarily that he was a good lawyer, but rather
that he was a clever strategist and a fearless enemy. It was not, in
fact, as a lawyer that he was prominent in the first years after he
came to Springfield. Reelected to the Assembly in 1838, and again in
1840, his real impress on the community was made as a politician.
The qualities which he had already shown in public life were only
strengthened as he gained experience and self-confidence. He was the
terror of the pretentious and insincere, and had a way of exposing
their shams by clever tricks which, to voters, were unanswerable
arguments. A case in point happened in 1840. It was considered
necessary, at that day, by a candidate to prove to the farmers that
he was poor and, like themselves, horny-handed. Those politicians who
wore good clothes and dined sumptuously were careful to conceal their
regard for the elegancies of life from their constituents. One of
the Democrats who in this campaign took particular pains to decry the
Whigs for their wealth and aristocratic principles was Colonel Dick
Taylor, generally known in Illinois as "ruffled-shirt Taylor." He was
a vain and handsome man, who habitually arrayed himself as gorgeously
as the fashion allowed. One day when he and Lincoln had met in debate
at a countryside gathering, Colonel Dick became particularly bitter
in his condemnation of Whig elegance. Lincoln listened for a time, and
then, slippi