[Sidenote: 1832.]

A new period in the life of Lincoln begins with the summer of 1832. He
then obtained his first public recognition, and entered upon the
course of life which was to lead him to a position of prominence and
great usefulness.

The business of Offutt had gone to pieces, and his clerk was out of
employment, when Governor Reynolds issued his call for volunteers to
move the tribe of Black Hawk across the Mississippi. For several years
the raids of the old Sac chieftain upon that portion of his patrimony
which he had ceded to the United States had kept the settlers in the
neighborhood of Rock Island in terror, and menaced the peace of the
frontier. In the spring of 1831 he came over to the east side of the
river with a considerable band of warriors, having been encouraged by
secret promises of cooperation from several other tribes. These failed
him, however, when the time of trial arrived, and an improvised force
of State volunteers, assisted by General E. P. Gaines and his
detachment, had little difficulty in compelling the Indians to re-
cross the Mississippi, and to enter into a solemn treaty on the 30th
of June by which the former treaties were ratified and Black Hawk
and his leading warriors bound themselves never again to set foot on
the east side of the river, without express permission from the
President or the Governor of Illinois.

[Sidenote: Reynolds, "Life and Times," p. 325.]

[Sidenote: Ford, "History of Illinois," p. 110.]