Clay’s speech was written and read; it lacked entirely the fire and eloquence which Lincoln had anticipated.  At the close of the meeting Lincoln secured an introduction to the great orator and as Clay knew what a friend Lincoln had been to him, he invited his admirer and partisan to Ashland.  No invitation could have delighted Lincoln more.  But the result of his private intercourse with Clay was no more satisfactory than that which followed the speech.  Those who have known both men will not wonder at this; for two men could hardly be more unlike in their motives and manners than the two thus brought together.  One was a proud man; the other was a humble man.  One was princely in his bearing; the other was lowly.  One was distant and dignified; the other was as simple and approachable as a child.  One received the deference of men as his due; the other received it with an uncomfortable sense of his unworthiness.  A friend of Lincoln, who had a long conversation with him after his return from Ashland, found that his old enthusiasm was gone.  Lincoln said that though Clay was polished in his manners, and very hospitable, he betrayed a consciousness of superiority that none could mistake.”

For two years after the Presidential contest between Clay and Polk, Lincoln devoted himself assiduously to his law practice.  But in 1846 he was again active in politics, this time striving for a seat in the National Congress.  His chief opponent among the Whig candidates was his old friend John J. Hardin, who soon withdrew from the contest, leaving Mr. Lincoln alone in the field.  The candidate on the Democratic ticket was Peter Cartwright, the famous Methodist preacher.  It was supposed from his great popularity as a pulpit orator that Mr. Cartwright would run far ahead of his ticket.  Instead of this, Lincoln received a majority of 1,511 in his district, which in 1844 had given Clay a majority of only 914 and in 1848 had allowed the Whig candidate for Congress to be defeated by 106 votes.

Lincoln took his seat in the Thirtieth Congress in December, 1847, the only Whig member from Illinois.  Among the notable members of this Congress were ex-president John Quincy Adams; Andrew Johnson, elected Vice-President with Lincoln on his second election; A.H.  Stephens, afterwards Vice-President of the Confederacy; Toombs, Rhett, Cobb, and others who afterwards became leaders of the Rebellion.  In the Senate were Daniel Webster, Simon Cameron, Lewis Cass, Mason, Hunter, John C. Calhoun, and Jefferson Davis.

Lincoln entered Congress as the Illinois leader of the Whig party.  He was reputed to be an able and effective speaker.  In speaking of the impression he made upon his associates, the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop says:  “I recall vividly the impressions I then formed both of his ability and amiability.  We were old Whigs together, and agreed entirely upon all questions of public interest.  I could not always concur in the policy of the party which made him President, but I never lost my personal regard for him.  For shrewdness, sagacity, and keen practical sense, he has had no superior in our day or generation.”