On two days of voyage Lincoln and Levi North of Kewanee, Ill. hold running political debate, North defending Van Buren's Free Soil candidacy, Lincoln boosting "Old Zack."Levi North to Lyman Trumbull, 16 April 1864, Lyman Trumbull Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

[Voyage inspires Lincoln to thoughts about how lake boats could be lifted over shoals. In subsequent weeks, in leisure time after election, he designs buoy. [See also March 10, 1848, and May 22, 1849.]Application for Patent on an Improved Method of Lifting Vessels over Shoals, 10 March 1849, CW, 2:32-36.]

Globe stops en route to Chicago.ISLA—Files.

Lincoln registers at Sherman House. Chicago Journal, 6 October 1848; Beveridge, Abraham Lincoln, 1:477.

"Hon. A. Lincoln and Family passed down to Springfield this morning on his way home from Congress," notes Chicago Democrat.

Lincoln and J. Y. Scammon speak at courthouse in evening. After chairman "designated the spot where he should stand," reported Democratic Free Press (October 11, 1848), "Mr. L. blew his nose, bobbed his head, threw up his coat tail, and in the course of two hours was delivered of an immense amount of `sound and fury'." He defends Taylor's seeming lack of principles and urges Free Soil men to support Taylor rather than Van Buren.

"Hon. Abraham Lincoln . . . arrived at home on Tuesday last," records Register October 13, 1848. "We are pleased to observe that his arduous duties since the adjournment of Congress in franking and loading down the mails with whig electioneering documents, have not impaired his health. He looks remarkably well."

Mrs. Lincoln buys $2 in groceries and pair of kid slippers, $1.25.Irwin Ledger and Journal.

Lincoln and Henry deliver addresses at Magnolia in afternoon. Lincoln then goes on alone to Hennepin where he speaks at seven o'clock.Illinois Journal, 27 October 1848.