CHAPTER XV. Lincoln appointed Postmaster.—Masters Surveying in Six Weeks, and becomes Deputy County Surveyor.—Surveying with a Grapevine.—His 175 Work and Earnings as a Surveyor.—Early Illinois Towns laid out by Lincoln CHAPTER XVI. Business Reverses.—The Kindness shown Lincoln in New Salem.—His Helpfulness to all about him.—Growing Esteem and Influence in Sangamon County.—Becomes a Second Time a Candidate for Member of 187 the Illinois Assembly.—Lincoln on the Stump.—Lincoln’s Election.—The Vote CHAPTER XVII. Lincoln decides finally on a Legal Career.—His Methods of Study.—First Session in the General Assembly.—Distrust of Yankees in Early Illinois.—Description of the Early Frontier 197 Legislator.—Questions before the Assembly.—Internal Improvements.—The State Bank CHAPTER XVIII. Lincoln’s Romance with Ann Rutledge.—Ann’s First Lover, John McNeill, or McNamar.—McNeill’s Departure from New 208 Salem.—Lincoln’s Engagement.—Ann Rutledge’s Death, and Lincoln’s Deep Grief CHAPTER XIX. Abraham Lincoln at Twenty-six Years of Age.—A Review of his Career 218 thus far.—His Excellent Preparation for what was to come APPENDIX. I. Memoranda for Lincoln’s Genealogy. By the Hon. L. E. 223 Chittenden II. Christopher Columbus Graham and his Reminiscences of 227 Lincoln’s Parents III. A Leaf from Lincoln’s Exercise-Book 236 IV. The Oldroyd Lincoln Collection 237 [Illustration: LINCOLN IN 1854.—HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED. From a photograph owned by Mr. George Schneider of Chicago, Illinois, former editor of the “Staats Zeitung,” the most influential anti-slavery German newspaper of the West. Mr. Schneider first met Mr. Lincoln in 1853, in Springfield. “He was already a man necessary to know,” says Mr. Schneider. In 1854 Mr. Lincoln was in Chicago, and Mr. Isaac N. Arnold, a prominent lawyer and politician of Illinois, invited Mr. Schneider to dine with Mr. Lincoln. After dinner, as the gentlemen were going down town, they stopped at an itinerant photograph gallery, and Mr. Lincoln had the above picture taken for Mr. Schneider. The newspaper he holds in his hands is the “Press and Tribune.” ] [Illustration: LINCOLN IN 1863. From a photograph by Brady, taken in Washington. ] THE EARLY LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. CHAPTER I. THE ORIGIN OF THE LINCOLN FAMILY.—THE LINCOLNS IN KENTUCKY.