Lincoln was no coward, and he would unquestionably have held his own against his antagonist, for he was a powerful man and well skilled in the use of the broadsword.

Lincoln said to me, after the affair was all over, 'I could have split him in two.'" But there can be little doubt that he was well pleased that the affair proved a bloodless one.
The mention of Miss Mary Todd, in the preceding paragraph, brings us to Lincoln's marriage with that lady, which occurred in 1842, he being then in his thirty--fourth year.

Miss Todd was the daughter of the Hon.
Robert T.Todd, of Lexington, Kentucky.

She came to Springfield in 1839, to live with her sister, Mrs.Ninian W.Edwards.

"She was young," says Mr.Lamon, "just twenty-one,--her family was of the best and her connections in Illinois among the most refined and distinguished people.
Her mother having died when she was a little girl, she had been educated under the care of a French lady.