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Lincoln was left without a job. Instead oftrying to find manual work—the only kind for which he had been trained—he was seized by a new ambition; he determined to run for the State Legislature.
    He was only twenty-three at this time (1832) and he had never done anything that would indicate to the public his fitness for the office he sought. But he was exceedingly popular in his community, and no one could object to the platform he announced for himself. He came out for internal improvements, for better roads, canals, navigable streams and even a railroad—although he admitted that it was difficult to see how one could be financed. He stood for education, too, and better laws. Everything was carefully calculated to please everybody and antagonize no one. Everything was expressed in general terms with no hard and fast promises that might be difficult to keep. Lincoln showed his political ability early.
    His lack of training for public office at this period of his life seems startling to us in an age in which education is taken for granted. He knew nothing about history or politics except what he had picked up himself in his own reading; his knowledge of law was very sketchy; economics, finance and business were unknown subjects to him; except for the few days he had spent in New Orleans, he had never seen a city or a factory or, in all probability, even one of the railroads about which he spoke so glibly in his platform speech. Yet his ignorance was no greater than that of most of the men around him, and unlike them he was willing to learn. Men were elected to public office in those days because they had many friends who could support their ticket, or because they could wield some power through organizations they controlled. Their ability to rule or administer was not questioned.
    The boy candidate started his campaign for election to the State Legislature. He canvassed the people, spoke to them in person wherever he could and hopefully awaited the results of the election.
    Before it could be held, war broke out—a miniature war ashistory records it, but it loomed large in the minds of the people in Illinois in those pioneer days. An Indian chief, Black Hawk, led his warriors back into the state to recover land that had been taken from his tribe some thirty years before. Lincoln immediately enlisted in a militia troop. He was made captain of his company for thirty days, and he kept chasing Indians for three months, never coming into actual conflict with any of them, and not even seeing a live one, except once, when an old drunken warrior stumbled into camp and had to be saved by Lincoln from molestation.
    In July, the young candidate was mustered out of service. 1 He went on quietly with his political campaign but he lost the election. The people of New Salem voted for him in an almost solid block, but he was still too new and unknown in Sangamon County to have made enough friends to elect him. He often proudly said that this was the only public office he ever failed to win by a direct vote of the people.
    Having been unsuccessful at politics, Lincoln tried his hand at trade again. He had an opportunity to acquire an interest in a general store in New Salem without putting up any cash. In partnership with one William Berry he started out hopefully in his own business. Berry promptly drank himself to death, leaving Lincoln saddled with an $1100 debt that took fifteen years to liquidate. Economically this was the lowest point in his life. He worked in the fields, split rails, did anything to earn his keep. His friends—who were always loyal—pulled wires to get him the postmastership of New Salem, and on May 7, 1833, he assumed his first position as an employee of the United States Government. At this time he taught himself surveying, and in six weeks mastered the rudiments of the science well enough to make actual surveys.
    He succeeded in getting himself appointed deputy surveyor. In addition to this he continued his