[Illustration:  Whirling thunder.

From a photograph made for this Magazine.

After a painting by R.M.  Sully in the collection of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, and here reproduced through the courtesy of the secretary, Mr. Reuben G. Thwaites.  Black Hawk had two sons; the elder was the Whirling Thunder, the younger the Roaring Thunder; both were in the war, and both were taken prisoners with their father, and were with him at Jefferson Barracks and at Fortress Monroe and on the trip through the Atlantic cities.  At Jefferson Barracks Catlin painted them, and the pictures are in the National Museum.  While at Fortress Monroe the above picture of Whirling Thunder was painted.  A pretty anecdote is told of the Whirling Thunder.  While on their tour through the East the Indians were invited to various gatherings and much done for their entertainment.  On one of these occasions a young lady sang a ballad.  Whirling Thunder listened intently, and when she ended he plucked an eagle’s feather from his head-dress, and giving it to a white friend, said:  “Take that to your mocking-bird squaw.”  Black Hawk’s sons remained with him until his death in 1838, and then removed with the Sacs and Foxes to Kansas.]

Lincoln’s comments in his circular on two other subjects on which all candidates of the day expressed themselves are amusing in their simplicity.  The practice of loaning money at exorbitant rates was then a great evil in the West.  Lincoln proposed a law fixing the limits of usury, and he closed his paragraph on the subject with these words, which sound strange enough from a man who in later life showed so profound a reverence for law: 

“In cases of extreme necessity, there could always be means found to cheat the law; while in all other cases it would have its intended effect.  I would favor the passage of a law on this subject which might not be very easily evaded.  Let it be such that the labor and difficulty of evading it could only be justified in cases of greatest necessity.”

A change in the laws of the State was also a topic which he felt required a word.  “Considering the great probability,” he said, “that the framers of those laws were wiser than myself, I should prefer not meddling with them, unless they were attacked by others; in which case I should feel it both a privilege and a duty to take that stand which, in my view, might tend most to the advancement of justice.”

[Illustration:  White cloud, the prophet.

From a photograph made for this Magazine.