There was a deal of "flourishing around in carriages," as Lincoln
wrote Miss Owens, and business and politics and society all
played an active part in the life of the little town. The
meetings of the legislature brought to the new capital a group of
young men of unusual talent and ability. There was friendly
rivalry between them, and party disputes ran high, but social
good-humor prevailed, and the presence of these brilliant young
people, later to become famous as Presidential candidates,
cabinet ministers, senators, congressmen, orators, and battle
heroes, lent to the social gatherings of Springfield a zest
rarely found in larger places.
Into the midst of this gaiety came Mary Todd of Kentucky,
twenty-one years old, handsome, accomplished and witty--a dashing
and fascinating figure in dress and conversation. She was the
sister of Mrs. Ninian W. Edwards, whose husband was a prominent
Whig member of the legislature--one of the "Long Nine," as these
men were known. Their added height was said to be fifty-five
feet, and they easily made up in influence what they lacked in
numbers. Lincoln was the "tallest" of them all in body and in
mind, and although as poor as a church mouse, was quite as
welcome anywhere as the men who wore ruffled shirts and could
carry gold watches. Miss Todd soon singled out and held the
admiration of such of the Springfield beaux as pleased her
somewhat wilful fancy, and Lincoln, being much at the Edwards
house, found himself, almost before he knew it, entangled in a
new love-affair.
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