He resembled most boys
in liking to "show off." He had learned, too, that there were comforts
in the world which he need never look for in his father's house, and so,
as soon as he was of age, he left that unattractive dwelling-place and
struck out for himself, making a livelihood in various ways--by
splitting rails, running a river boat, managing a store, enlisting for
the Black Hawk war--doing anything, in a word, that came to hand and
would serve to put a little money in his pocket. He came to know a great
many people and so, in 1832, he proclaimed himself a candidate for the
state legislature for Sangamon County, Illinois, where he had made his
home for some years. No doubt to most people, his candidacy must have
seemed in the nature of a joke, and though he stumped the county
thoroughly and entertained the crowds with his stories and flashes of
wit, he was defeated at the polls.
That episode ended, he returned to store-keeping; but he had come to see
that the law was the surest road to political preferment, and so he
spent such leisure as he had in study, and in 1836 was admitted to the
bar. As has been remarked before, the requirements for admission were
anything but prohibitory, most lawyers sharing the oft-quoted opinion of
Patrick Henry that the only way to learn law was to practise it.
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