distinction; but hardly any one would at that time have seen in him the
man destined to lead the nation through the greatest crisis of the
century.

His time had not yet come when, in 1846, he was elected to Congress. In
a clever speech in the House of Representatives he denounced President
Polk for having unjustly forced war upon Mexico, and he amused the
Committee of the Whole by a witty attack upon General Cass. More
important was the expression he gave to his antislavery impulses by
offering a bill looking to the emancipation of the slaves in the District
of Columbia, and by his repeated votes for the famous Wilmot Proviso,
intended to exclude slavery from the Territories acquired from Mexico.
But when, at the expiration of his term, in March, 1849, he left his
seat, he gloomily despaired of ever seeing the day when the cause nearest
to his heart would be rightly grasped by the people, and when he would be
able to render any service to his country in solving the great problem.
Nor had his career as a member of Congress in any sense been such as to
gratify his ambition. Indeed, if he ever had any belief in a great
destiny for himself, it must have been weak at that period; for he
actually sought to obtain from the new Whig President, General Taylor,
the place of Commissioner of the General Land Office; willing to bury
himself in one of the administrative bureaus of the government.
Fortunately for the country, he failed; and no less fortunately, when,
later, the territorial governorship of Oregon was offered to him, Mrs.
Lincoln's protest induced him to decline it. Returning to Springfield, he
gave himself with renewed zest to his law practice, acquiesced in the
Compromise of 1850 with reluctance and a mental reservation, supported in
the Presidential campaign of 1852 the Whig candidate in some spiritless
speeches, and took but a languid interest in the politics of the day.
But just then his time was drawing near.