measures, were at stake in this campaign, for on the only national issue which they seemed to have discussed—­Oregon—­they were in practical agreement.[159] Both cultivated the little arts which relieve the tedium of politics.  Douglas talked in heart to heart fashion with his “esteemed fellow-citizens,” inquired for the health of their families, expressed grief when he learned that John had the measles and that Sally was down with the chills and fever.[160] And if Browning was less successful in this gentle method of wooing voters, it was because he had less genuine interest in the plain common people, not because he despised the petty arts of the politician.

The canvass was short but exhausting.  Douglas addressed public gatherings for forty successive days; and when election day came, he was prostrated by a fever from which he did not fully recover for months.[161] Those who gerrymandered the State did their work well.  Only one district failed to elect a Democratic Congressman.  Douglas had a majority over Browning of four hundred and sixty-one votes.[162] This cheering news hastened his convalescence, so that by November he was able to visit his mother in Canandaigua.  Member of Congress at the age of thirty!  He had every reason to be well satisfied with himself.  He was fully conscious that he had begun a new chapter in his career.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 118:  Ford, History of Illinois, pp. 213-214.]

[Footnote 119:  Davidson and Stuve, History of Illinois, pp. 454-455.]

[Footnote 120:  Why McClernand was passed over is not clear.  Douglas entered upon the duties of his office November 30, 1840.]

[Footnote 121:  Wheeler, Biographical History of Congress, p. 74.]

[Footnote 122:  Sheahan, Douglas, p. 43.]

[Footnote 123:  Ford, History of Illinois, p. 217.]

[Footnote 124:  Ibid., pp. 212-222.]

[Footnote 125:  Davidson and Stuve, History of Illinois, p. 456.]

[Footnote 126:  Illinois State Register, January 29, 1841; Ford, History of Illinois, p. 220.]

[Footnote 127:  Davidson and Stuve, History of Illinois, pp. 457-458.]

[Footnote 128:  Ibid., pp. 457-458.]

[Footnote 129:  Illinois State Register, February 5, 1841.  Judge Smith is put in an unenviable light by contemporary historians.  There seems to be no reason to doubt that he misinformed Douglas and others.  See Davidson and Stuve, History of Illinois, pp. 458-459.]

[Footnote 130:  Chicago American, February 18, 1841.]

[Footnote 131:  Sangamo Journal, March 19, 1841.]

[Footnote 132:  Chicago American, February 18, 1841.]

[Footnote 133:  Wheeler, Biographical History of Congress, p. 74.]

[Footnote 134:  Ford, History of Illinois, pp. 263-265; Linn, Story of the Mormons, pp. 236-237.]