added insult to injury by making him one of the delegates to the
convention and instructing him to vote for his successful rival, Baker.
This did not interrupt the friendship which united the two for many
years, lasting, indeed, until the death of Colonel Baker on the field
of battle.

In 1846 he renewed his candidacy, and this time with flattering
success. His opponent was a traveling preacher, Peter Cartwright, who
was widely known in the state and had not a little persuasive power. In
this contest Cartwright's "arguments" were two: the first, that Lincoln
was an atheist, and the second that he was an aristocrat. These
"arguments" were not convincing, and Lincoln was elected by a handsome
majority, running far ahead of his ticket. This was, at the time, the
height of his ambition, yet he wrote to Mr. Speed: "Being elected to
congress, though I am grateful to our friends for having done it, has
not pleased me as much as I expected."

His one term in congress was uneventful. Twice his humor bubbled over.
Once was when he satirized the claims that Cass was a military hero, in
the speech already mentioned. The other time was his introducing the
resolutions known as the "spot resolutions." The president had sent to
congress an inflammatory, buncombe message, in which he insisted that
the war had been begun by Mexico, "by invading our territory and
shedding the blood of our citizens on our own soil." The resolutions
requested from the president the information:

"_First_. Whether the spot on which the blood of our citizens was shed,
as in his messages declared, was or was not within the territory of
Spain, at least after the treaty of 1819, until the Mexican
revolution."