idate, Governor Matteson would be elected. Lincoln sacrificed
himself to insure the election of Judge Trumbull, a Free-soiler.
The other Anti-Nebraska Democrats, who with General Palmer, elected
Trumbull, were Norman B. Judd, Burton C. Cook, G. T. Allen, and
Henry S. Baker, the last two from Madison County.

For some reason or other General Palmer resigned from the Senate.
He was one of the first to join the Republican party. He was a
delegate to the first Republican State Convention of Illinois. I
attended that convention, and recall that General Palmer made quite
an impression on the assemblage, in discussing some question with
General Turner, himself quite an able man, and then Speaker of the
House of Representatives of the Illinois Legislature. Intellectually,
General Palmer was a superior man, but he lacked stability of
judgment. You were never quite sure that you could depend on him,
or feel any certainty as to what course he would take on any
question.

His qualifications as a lawyer were not exceptional, nevertheless
I would rather have had him as my attorney to try a bad case than
almost any lawyer I ever knew; his talent for manipulating a jury
nearly, if not quite, offset all his legal shortcomings.

General Palmer was well known as the friend of the colored people,
both individually and as a race. His sympathy for them was so
thoroughly understood, that whenever a colored man had an important
case, or whenever there was a case involving the rights of the
colored people--such, for instance, as the school question of Alton
--General Palmer was appealed to, and he would take the case, no
matter how much trouble and how little remuneration there would be
in it for him.

He started out as a Democrat, but became a strong Republican, and
so continued for many years; but finally he became dissatisfied
with the Republican party and left it to support Tilden for President.
He continued a Democrat, being elected to the United State Senate
as such; but he left the regular organization of that party, and
became the head of the Gold Democracy, was its candidate for
President, and as such advised his friends to vote for McKinley.

He was the Republican Governor of Illinois during the great Chicago
fire. He acted with the poorest kind of judgment in his controversy
with General Sheridan and the National Administration, for using
the Federal troops in Chicago to protect the lives and property of
the people of t