[Footnote 117: Letter of J.H. Roberts, Esq., of Chicago, to the
writer; see also Illinois _State Register_, October 2, 1840.]




CHAPTER III

LAW AND POLITICS


The years were passing rapidly during which Douglas should have laid
broad and deep the foundations of his professional career, if indeed
law was to be more than a convenient avocation. These were formative
years in the young man's life; but as yet he had developed neither the
inclination nor the capacity to apply himself to the study of the more
intricate and abstruse phases of jurisprudence. To be sure, he had
picked up much practical information in the courts, but it was not of
the sort which makes great jurists. Besides, his law practice had
been, and was always destined to be, the handmaid of his political
ambition. In such a school, a naturally ardent, impulsive temperament
does not acquire judicial poise and gravity. After all, he was only a
soldier of political fortune, awaiting his turn for promotion. A
reversal in the fortunes of his party might leave him without hope of
preferment, and bind him to a profession which is a jealous mistress,
and to which he had been none too constant. Happily, his party was now
in power, and he was entitled to first consideration in the
distribution of the spoils. Under somewhat exceptional circumstances
the office of Secretary of State fell vacant in the autumn of 1840,