The Democrats tried to seize the moment for some mischief. Since a recent law provided that the Bank of Illinois would have to resume specie payments at the end of the “next session” of the legislature, Democrats argued that the Bank must meet that burdensome requirement as of December 5 when the special session closed. The Whigs, hoping to have the regular session combined with the special session and thus postpone the bank’s day of reckoning, boycotted the legislature, thereby preventing the necessary two-thirds quorum for adjournment sine die. When the representatives gathered on December 5, the Whigs stayed away, except for Lincoln, Joseph Gillespie, and Asahel Gridley, who were to observe the proceedings and demand roll call votes. The frustrated Democrats, eager to hurt the state bank by adjourning, instructed the sergeant-at-arms to round up absent Whigs. When that tactic failed, the Democrats managed to bring in enough of their own previously absent members to create a quorum. Lincoln and his two Whig colleagues angrily bolted for the door, which was locked. Because the sergeant-at-arms had received no instruction to unlock the door, he refused to do so. Lincoln then opened a window and stepped through, followed by Gillespie and Gridley. When the sergeant-at-arms was instructed to pursue, he exclaimed: “My God! gentlemen, do you know what you ask? Think of the length of Abe’s legs, and then tell me how I am to catch him.”
Source: Abraham Lincoln ∶ A Life ▫𓂃
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