[Footnote 28: _Ibid._]

[Footnote 29: MS. Autobiography.]

[Footnote 30: _Ibid._]

[Footnote 31: Letter of E.G. Miner, January, 1877, in Proceedings of
the Illinois Association of Sons of Vermont.]

[Footnote 32: _Ibid._]

[Footnote 33: _Ibid._; MS. Autobiography.]

[Footnote 34: MS. Autobiography.]

[Footnote 35: Hon. J.C. Conkling in Fergus Historical Series,
No. 22.]




CHAPTER II

THE RISE OF THE POLITICIAN


The young attorney who opened a law office in the Court House at
Jacksonville, bore little resemblance to the forlorn lad who had
vainly sought a livelihood there some months earlier. The winter winds
of the prairies, so far from racking the frame of the convalescent,