Illinois, historical and statistical : comprising the essential facts of its planting and growth as a province, county, territory, and state ... . ocrats, Stephen A. Douglas being their almost unanimouschoice. No man had ever grown so fast into popular favor inthis State as he. Thirteen years before this he had come toIllinois, a beardless boy, without friends, fortune, or profes-sion. But he possessed what was more valuable than these,a mental and physical constitution of the highest order. Heread law, with a natural taste for it, was quickly admitted tothe bar, and in less than two years was
Illinois, historical and statistical : comprising the essential facts of its planting and growth as a province, county, territory, and state ... . ocrats, Stephen A. Douglas being their almost unanimouschoice. No man had ever grown so fast into popular favor inthis State as he. Thirteen years before this he had come toIllinois, a beardless boy, without friends, fortune, or profes-sion. But he possessed what was more valuable than these,a mental and physical constitution of the highest order. Heread law, with a natural taste for it, was quickly admitted tothe bar, and in less than two years was elected by the legisla-ture prosecuting-attorney of Morgan County, over John At Vandalia, where the contest took place, his com-prehensive mind took in the objective political situation atonce. He perceived that the democratic party, with which hecast his fortunes, lacked not only a leader, but also thatessential pre-requisite to success—organization. To perfectthis he bent his best energies. Taking into his counselsEbenezer Peck and a few others, he soon brought orderout of confusion, and thenceforth, under the convention sys-. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 509 tem adopted, there was no longer danger of losing an elec-tion by dissipating the party strength upon different can-didates. He was under the average size, being only five feetfour inches in height—just a foot shorter than Lincoln —but was compactly built and gracefully formed, with a finelydeveloped head — larger than the average — covered with athick growth of black hair. A never-failing flow of animalspirits imparted to manners naturally polite and winning afeature of whole-heartedness which made them reared in the cold latitude of New England hetook kindly to the easy ways of his adopted western faculty of adapting himself to his surroundings, and hisremarkable power as a conversationalist attached him to hisfriends, with whom he was ever popular, while toward hisopponents h
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookpublisherchica, bookyear1889
