“I tell you,” said Cartwright, sternly, “I am the man.  Now, sir, you have to whip me, as you threatened, or quit cursing me, or I will put you in the river and baptize you in the name of the devil, for you surely belong to him.”  “This,” says Cartwright, “settled him.”

Once, having gone into the woods with a young man who had sworn he would whip him, he sprained his foot slightly in getting over a fence, and involuntarily placed his hand to his side.  “My redoubtable antagonist,” says he, “had got on the fence, and, looking down at me, said, ’D——­ you, you are feeling for a dirk, are you?’

“As quick as thought it occurred to me how to get clear of a whipping.

“‘Yes,’ said I, ’and I will give you the benefit of all the dirks I have,’ and advanced rapidly toward him.

“He sprang back on the other side of the fence from me; I jumped over after him, and a regular foot race followed.”

“It may be asked,” says the old man, naively, “what I would have done if this fellow had gone with me to the woods.  This is hard to answer, for it was a part of my creed to love every body, but to fear no one, and I did not permit myself to believe that any man could whip me until it was tried, and I did not permit myself to premeditate expedients in such cases.  I should no doubt have proposed to him to have prayer first, and then followed the openings of Providence.”

Mr. Cartwright was from the beginning of his ministry an ardent advocate of temperance, and, long before the first temperance society was organized in the country, he waged a fierce war against dram-drinking.  This fearless advocate of temperance came very near getting drunk once.  He had stopped with a fellow preacher at a tavern kept by an Otterbein Methodist, who, thinking to play them a trick, put whisky into the new cider which he offered them.  Cartwright drank sparingly of the beverage, though he considered it harmless, but, “with all my forbearance,” he says, “presently I began to feel light-headed.  I instantly ordered our horses, fearing we were snapped for once....  When we had rode about a mile, being in the rear, I saw Brother Walker was nodding at a mighty rate.  I suddenly rode up to Brother Walker and cried out, ’Wake up! wake up!’ He roused up, his eyes watering freely.  ‘I believe,’ said I, ’we are both drunk.  Let us turn out of the road and lie down and take a nap till we get sober,’ But we rode on without stopping.  We were not drunk, but we both evidently felt it flying to our heads.”

In 1826 Mr. Cartwright was elected to the Legislature of the State, and at the expiration of his first term was reflected from Sangamon County.  He was induced to accept this position because of his desire to aid in preventing the introduction of slavery into the State.  He had no liking for political strife, however, and was disgusted with the dishonesty which he saw around him.  “I say,” he declares, “without any desire to speak evil of the rulers of the people, I found a great deal of corruption in our Legislature, and I found that almost every measure had to be carried by a corrupt bargain and sale which should cause every honest man to blush for his country.”