I took up with him at once the matter of Zoe’s common-law marriage.  There was first the question whether Zoe could enter into any marriage with a white man.  But I had settled that with Mr. Brooks, when going into that matter of my father’s marriage with Zoe’s mother.  Zoe was not a negro, not a mulatto; she had less than one fourth negro blood.  Therefore, she did not fall under the inhibitions of the Illinois law forbidding marriages between persons of color, negro or mulatto, with a white person.  Douglas confirmed what Mr. Brooks had told me; and he gave me the opinion that a common-law marriage was legal, but that Fortescue would have to bring witnesses to Jacksonville to testify that he and Zoe had taken each other as husband and wife; and that this had been followed by an assumption of the marriage relation.

Douglas advised me to look carefully into the proofs.  Well, why should he not return to Chicago with me and help with the investigation?  He was willing.  Meanwhile Fortescue was waiting for me.  When I told him that I was coming to Chicago with a friend he looked suspicious, as if he thought that I was trying to evade him.  As he began to press me then, saying that we could all travel together, I forgot myself for the moment in a rise of temper.  “The land can’t get away; nothing can run away; and you can’t get anything until you prove your case.  I am going to Chicago with a friend.  I will see you there.  You can go your own way.”  Fortescue acquiesced apologetically; and having done with him for the time, I turned again to visit with Douglas.

I had never seen him in a more interesting mood.  He wished for good fortune to befall him so that he could do something for the education of the young, since his own opportunities had been limited.  In this connection he spoke of the grants of land which had been made to Illinois for institutions and schools of higher learning.  And while talking of the Louisiana territory which Napoleon had granted to America, and of Texas whose recent independence the United States had recognized, his imagination glowed before the future power and glory of the country.  He was delighted that so many Germans and Irish, fleeing from disorder and oppression in Europe, were seeking freedom and opportunity here, and filling up the new lands.  But while my inheritance of a few thousand acres was already perplexing me, Douglas was still free of the great calamity that would befall him because of the new domains!  If Zoe as one of the numerous persons of color had already involved my life, how terribly would the curse pronounced upon the descendants of Ham fall upon this Titan, this nation builder!  Douglas indulged his satirical talent in an amusing description of General Taylor who was now talked of by the Whigs for President.  He charged the Whigs with cunningly picking rough and ready characters, pioneer types, for their appeal to the plain people—­pioneer types who really entertained monarchistic principles.  There was already much talk that Texas was being drawn toward the United States by the slavocracy.  Well, what of it?  The main thing was to get Texas.  What is this sanctimonious talk in prose and verse in England about Texas?  Douglas was very contemptuous of all of this.