before, he at this time made a diligent canvass of the district. When
the election came off he was not only successful but he ran ahead of
his ticket. He usually did run ahead of his ticket excepting when
running for the presidency, and then it was from the nature of the case
impossible. Though Lincoln probably did not realize it, this, his first
election, put an end forever to his drifting, desultory, frontier life.
Up to this point he was always looking for a job. From this time on he
was not passing from one thing to another. In this country politics and
law are closely allied. This two-fold pursuit, politics, for the sake
of law, and law for the sake of politics, constituted Lincoln's
vocation for the rest of his life.

The capital of Illinois was Vandalia, a village said to be named after
the Vandals by innocent citizens who were pleased with the euphony of
the word hut did not know who the Vandals were. Outwardly the village
was crude and forbidding, and many of the Solons were attired in coon-
skin caps and other startling apparel. The fashionable clothing, the
one which came to be generally adopted as men grew to be "genteel," was
blue jeans. Even "store clothes," as they came to be called, were as
yet comparatively unknown.

But one must not be misled by appearances in a frontier town. The
frontier life has a marvelous influence in developing brains. It is as
hard for some people in the centers of culture to believe in the
possible intelligence of the frontier, as it was in 1776 for the
cultured Englishmen to believe in the intelligence of the colonial
patriots. In that collection of men at Vandalia were more than a few
who afterwards came to have national influence and reputation.

Apart from Lincoln himself, the most prominent member of the