McClures Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 4, March, 1896 | Page 9

the files instituted by this Magazine.
[Illustration: MARY L. OWENS.
Born in Kentucky in 1808. Lincoln first met Miss Owens in 1833 at
New Salem, where she made a short visit. In 1836 she came back to
New Salem, and a warm friendship sprang up between them. The
question of marriage was discussed in a disinterested way. Miss Owens
left Illinois in 1838, and in 1841 she married a Mr. Jesse Vineyard. The
letters written to her by Mr. Lincoln she herself gave to Mr. Herndon
for publication.]

Lincoln began these remarks by good-humored but nettling chaffing of
his opponent.
"Mr. Chairman," he said: "Lest I should fall into the too common error
of being mistaken in regard to which side I design to be upon, I shall
make it my first care to remove all doubt on that point, by declaring
that I am opposed to the resolution under consideration, in toto. Before
I proceed to the body of the subject, I will further remark, that it is not
without a considerable degree of apprehension that I venture to cross
the track of the gentleman from 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 people's money being used to pay
the fiddler. No one can doubt that the examination proposed by this
resolution must cost the State some ten or twelve thousand dollars; and
all this to settle a question in which the people have no interest, and
about which they care nothing. These capitalists generally act
harmoniously and in concert to fleece the people; and now that they
have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to
appropriate the people's money to settle the quarrel."
The resolution had declared that the bank practised various methods
which were "to the great injury of the people." Lincoln took the
occasion to announce his ideas of the people and the politicians.
"If the bank really be a grievance, why is it that no one of the real
people is found to ask redress of it? The truth is, no such oppression
exists. If it did, our people would groan with memorials and petitions,
and we would not be permitted to rest day or night till we had put it
down. The people know their rights, and they are never slow to assert
and maintain them when they