characterized his efforts.

He came immediately to be a favorite figure in all sorts of local
affairs. What he said and did on these occasions is still recollected
by those interested in them. "When the seat of government was removed
from Vandalia to Springfield in 1836," says the Rev. Peter Wallace
of Chicago "I obtained the contract of taking down the court-house to
make a place for the State House. Lincoln, with others, was present
to receive the job. 'Peter,' he said to me, 'if you succeed as well
in building houses as you have in tearing this one down, you will make
your mark as a builder.'" Mr. Wallace tells, too, of hearing Lincoln
say in a speech, at the funeral of one of their friends: "I read in a
book whose author never errs, 'Woe unto you when all men shall speak
well of you.' Our friend will escape that woe, for he would be the
exception had he no enemies."

The most pleasing feature of his early life in the town was the way in
which he attached all classes of people to him. He naturally, from his
political importance and from his relation to Mr. Stuart, was admitted
to the most exclusive circle of society. But Lincoln was not received
there from tolerance of his position only. The few members left of
that interesting circle of Springfield in the thirties are emphatic in
their statements that he was recognized as a valuable social factor.
If indifferent to forms and little accustomed to conventional usages,
he had a native dignity and self-respect which stamped him at once as
a superior man. He had a good will, an easy adaptability to people,
which made him take a hand in everything that went on. His name
appears in every list of banqueters and merry-makers reported in the
Springfield papers. He even served as committee-man for cotillion
parties. "We liked Lincoln, though he was not gay," said one charming