At six feet, four inches tall, Lincoln planned to use his height to his advantage against Shields, who stood at a mere five feet, nine inches tall. For his own part, he did not want to kill Shields, but "felt sure could disarm him" with a blade. He chose cavalry broadswords "of the largest size." "I didn't want the d-d fellow to kill me, which I think he would have done if we had selected pistols," he later explained. Since Lincoln was challenged by Shields he had the privilege of choosing the weapon of the duel. It would be held in Missouri, where dueling was still legal. Instead, Shields challenged Lincoln to a duel. He returned Shields's letter with the request that Shields rewrite it in a more "gentlemanly" fashion.
BLOOD ISLAND SAINT LOUIS FULL
Only a full retraction may prevent consequences which no one will regret more than myself.” On September 19 at the Tremont County Courthouse, Shields had a handwritten note delivered to Lincoln which read: “I have become the object of slander, vituperation and personal abuse. Upon receiving this information, Shields demanded a retraction from Lincoln. Shields did not take kindly to the letters and demanded that Francis reveal Rebecca's true identity – to which Francis obliged. A few days later, without Lincoln's knowledge, Mary Todd submitted her own critique to the Journal under the pen name "Cathleen."
Lincoln showed the letter to Mary Todd-the couple had only recently gotten back together after Lincoln had called off their earlier engagement-and she found it delightful. Too well I know how much you suffer but do, do remember, it is not my fault that I am so handsome and so interesting.'" "His very features, in the ecstatic agony of his soul, spoke audibly and distinctly–'Dear girls, it is distressing, but I cannot marry you all. Lincoln went on to taunt Shields’ pursuit of women: “'I've been tugging ever since harvest getting out wheat and hauling it to the river, to raise State Bank paper enough to pay my tax this year, and a little school debt I owe and now just as I've got it…, lo and behold, I find a set of fellows calling themselves officers of State, have forbidden to receive State paper at all and so here it is, dead on my hands.'” Assuming the character of an Illinois farmer, Lincoln wrote: Lincoln was friendly with the editor of the Sangamo Journal, Simeon Francis, and Francis allowed him to write the letter under the penname “Rebecca.” As “Rebecca,” Lincoln attacked Shields for his politics and for his personal foibles. Shields became a target for Whig opposition to the financial plan and Lincoln, then a self-described “prairie lawyer,” added fuel to the fire with a sizzling editorial written in early September. Shields, the State Auditor, sided with his Democratic party and supported the decision to close the bank. Gold and silver, which most citizens did not have, became the only acceptable currency. In August of 1842, the Illinois State Bank went bankrupt and announced that it would no longer accept its own paper currency from private citizens looking to pay off debts. The ridicule pushed Shields to challenge Lincoln to a duel in which the victor took both the life and the pride of his opponent. In 1842, a young Abraham Lincoln publicly chastised James Shields in the course of a debate about banking in Illinois.
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