McClures Magazine, January, 1896, Vol. VI. No. 2 | Page 7

sang a
ballad. Whirling Thunder listened intently, and when she ended he
plucked an eagle's feather from his head-dress, and giving it to a white
friend, said: "Take that to your mocking-bird squaw." Black Hawk's
sons remained with him until his death in 1838, and then removed with
the Sacs and Foxes to Kansas.]
Lincoln's comments in his circular on two other subjects on which all
candidates of the day expressed themselves are amusing in their
simplicity. The practice of loaning money at exorbitant rates was then a
great evil in the West. Lincoln proposed a law fixing the limits of usury,
and he closed his paragraph on the subject with these words, which
sound strange enough from a man who in later life showed so profound
a reverence for law:
"In cases of extreme necessity, there could always be means found to
cheat the law; while in all other cases it would have its intended effect.
I would favor the passage of a law on this subject which might not be
very easily evaded. Let it be such that the labor and difficulty of
evading it could only be justified in cases of greatest necessity."
A change in the laws of the State was also a topic which he felt
required a word. "Considering the great probability," he said, "that the
framers of those laws were wiser than myself, I should prefer not
meddling with them, unless they were attacked by others; in which case
I should feel it both a privilege and a duty to take that stand which, in
my view, might tend most to the advancement of justice."
[Illustration: WHITE CLOUD, THE PROPHET.
From a photograph made for this Magazine.
After a painting in the collection of the State Historical Society of
Wisconsin, and here reproduced through the courtesy of the secretary,
Mr. Reuben G. Thwaites. The chief of an Indian village on the Rock
River, White Cloud was half Winnebago, half Sac. He was false and
crafty, and it was largely his counsels which induced Black Hawk to
recross the Mississippi in 1832. He was captured with Black Hawk,
was a prisoner at both Jefferson Barracks and Fortress Monroe, and
made the tour of the Atlantic cities with his friends. The above portrait
was made at Fortress Monroe by R.M. Sully. Catlin also painted White
Cloud at Jefferson Barracks in 1832. He describes him as about forty
years old at that time, "nearly six feet high, stout and athletic." He said

he let his hair grow out to please the whites. Catlin's picture shows him
with a very heavy head of hair. The prophet, after his return from the
East, remained among his people until his death in 1840 or 1841.]
[Illustration: BLACK HAWK.
From a photograph made for this Magazine.
After an improved replica of the original portrait painted by R.M. Sully
at Fortress Monroe in 1833, and now in the museum of the State
Historical Society of Wisconsin, at Madison. It is reproduced through
the courtesy of the secretary of the society, Mr. Reuben G. Thwaites.]
[Illustration: LINCOLN IN 1860
From a photograph loaned by H.W. Fay of DeKalb, Illinois. After
Lincoln's nomination for the presidency, Alex Hesler of Chicago
published a portrait he had made of Lincoln in 1857. (See McCLURE'S
MAGAZINE for December, p. 13.) At the same time he put out a
portrait of Douglas. The contrast was so great between the two, and in
the opinion of the politicians so much in Douglas's favor, that they told
Hesler he must suppress Lincoln's picture; accordingly the
photographer wrote to Springfield requesting Lincoln to call and sit
again. Lincoln replied that his friends had decided that he remain in
Springfield during the canvass, but that if Hesler would come to
Springfield he would be "dressed up" and give him all the time he
wanted. Hesler went to Springfield and made at least four negatives,
three of which are supposed to have been destroyed in the Chicago fire.
The fourth is owned by Mr. George Ayers of Philadelphia. The above
photograph is a print from one of the lost negatives.]
The audacity of a young man in his position presenting himself as a
candidate for the legislature is fully equalled by the humility of the
closing paragraphs of his announcement:
"But, fellow-citizens, I shall conclude. Considering the great degree of
modesty which should always attend youth, it is probable I have
already been more presuming than becomes me. However, upon the
subjects of which I have treated, I have spoken as I have thought. I may
be wrong in regard to any or all of them; but, holding it a sound maxim
that it is better only sometimes to be right than at all times to be wrong,
so soon as I discover