BERRY AND LINCOLN TAKE OUT A TAVERN LICENSE AND HIRE A CLERK.—LINCOLN
BEGINS TO STUDY LAW.
It was not only Burns and Shakespeare that interfered with the
grocery-keeping; Lincoln had begun seriously to read law. His first
acquaintance with the subject had been made when he was a mere lad in
Indiana and a copy of the “Revised Statutes of Indiana” had fallen into
his hands. The very copy he used is still in existence, and,
fortunately, in hands where it is safe. The book was owned by Mr. David
Turnham of Gentryville, and was given in 1865 by him to Mr. Herndon, who
placed it in the Lincoln Memorial collection of Chicago. In December,
1894, this collection was sold in Philadelphia, and the “Statutes of
Indiana” was bought by Mr. William Hoffman Winters, Librarian of the New
York Law Institute, and through his courtesy I have been allowed to
examine it. The book is worn, the title page is gone, and a few leaves
from the end are missing. The title page of a duplicate volume which Mr.
Winters kindly showed me reads: “The Revised Laws of Indiana, adopted
and enacted by the General Assembly at their eighth session. To which
are prefixed the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the
United States, the Constitution of the State of Indiana, and sundry
other documents connected with the Political History of the Territory
and State of Indiana. Arranged and published by authority of the General
Assembly. Corydon: Printed by Carpenter and Douglass, 1824.”
We know from Dennis Hanks, from Mr. Turnham, to whom the book belonged,
and from other associates of Lincoln’s at the time, that he read the
book intently and discussed its contents intelligently. It was a
remarkable volume for a thoughtful lad whose mind had been fired already
by the history of Washington; for it opened with that wonderful
document, the Declaration of Independence, a document which became, as
Mr. John G. Nicolay says, “his political chart and inspiration.”
Following the Declaration of Independence was the Constitution of the
United States, the Act of Virginia passed in 1783 by which the
“Territory North Westward of the river Ohio” was conveyed to the United
States, and the Ordinance of 1787 for governing this territory,
containing that clause on which Lincoln in the future based many an
argument on the slavery question. This article, No. 6 of the Ordinance,
reads: “There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the
said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the
party shall have been duly convicted: provided always, that any person
escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed
in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully
reclaimed, and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labour or
service, as aforesaid.”
Following this was the Constitution and the Revised Laws of Indiana,
three hundred and seventy-five pages, of five hundred words each, of
statutes—enough law, if thoroughly digested, to make a respectable
lawyer. When Lincoln finished this book, as he had, probably, before he
was eighteen, we have reason to believe that he understood the
principles on which the nation was founded, how the State of Indiana
came into being, and how it was governed. His understanding of the
subject was clear and practical, and he applied it in his reading,
thinking, and discussion.
It was after he had read the Laws of Indiana that Lincoln had free
access to the library of his admirer, Judge John Pitcher of Rockport,
Indiana, where, undoubtedly, he examined many law-books. But from the
time he left Indiana in 1830 he had no legal reading until one day soon
after the grocery was started, when there happened one of those trivial
incidents which so often turn the current of a life. It is best told in
Lincoln’s own words.[19] “One day a man who was migrating to the West
drove up in front of my store with a wagon which contained his family
and household plunder. He asked me if I would buy an old barrel for
which he had no room in his wagon, and which he said contained nothing
of special value. I did not want it, but to oblige him I bought it, and
paid him, I think, half a dollar for it. Without further examination, I
put it away in the store, and forgot all about it. Some time after, in
overhauling things, I came upon the barrel, and emptying it upon the
floor to see what it contained, I found at the bottom of the rubbish a
complete edition of Blackstone’s Commentaries. I began to read those
famous works, and I had plenty of time; for during the long summer days,
when the farmers were busy with their crops, my customers were few and
far between. The more I read”—this he said with unusual emphasis—“the
more intensely interested I became. Never in my whole life was my mind
so thoroughly absorbed. I read until I devoured them.”
Footnote 19:
This incident was told by Lincoln to Mr. A. J. Conant the artist, who
in 1860 painted his portrait in Springfield. Mr. Conant, in order to
catch Mr. Lincoln’s animated expression, had engaged him in
conversation, and had questioned him about his early life; and it was
in the course of their conversation that this incident came out. It is
to be found in a delightful and suggestive article entitled, “My
Acquaintance with Abraham Lincoln,” contributed by Mr. Conant to the
“Liber Scriptorum,” and by his permission quoted here.
[Illustration:
From a photograph made for this biography.
ELIJAH ILES, CAPTAIN OF ONE OF THE COMPANIES IN WHICH LINCOLN SERVED
AS PRIVATE IN THE BLACK HAWK WAR.
After a painting by the late Mrs. Obed Lewis, niece of Major Iles, and
owned by Mr. Obed Lewis, Springfield, Illinois. Elijah Iles was born
in Kentucky, March 28, 1796, and when young went to Missouri. There
he heard marvellous stories about the Sangamon Valley, and he
resolved to go thither. Springfield had just been staked out in the
wilderness, and he reached the place in time to erect the first
building—a rude hut in which he kept a store. This was in 1821. “In
the early days in Illinois,” he wrote in 1883, “it was hard to find
good material for law-makers. I was elected a State Senator in 1826,
and again for a second term. The Senate then comprised thirteen
members, and the House twenty-five.” In 1827 he was elected major in
the command of Colonel T. McNeal, intending to fight the
Winnebagoes, but no fighting occurred. In the Black Hawk War of
1832, after his term as a private in Captain Dawson’s company had
expired, he was elected captain of a new company of independent
rangers. In this company Lincoln reënlisted as a private. Major Iles
lived at Springfield to the end of his life. He died September 4,
1883.
]
BERRY AND LINCOLN GET A TAVERN LICENSE.
But all this was fatal to business, and by spring it was evident that
something must be done to stimulate the grocery sales.
On the 6th of March, 1833, the County Commissioner’s Court of Sangamon
County granted the firm of Berry and Lincoln a license to keep a tavern
at New Salem.
It is probable that the license was procured to enable the firm to
retail the liquors which they had in stock, and not for keeping a
tavern. In a community in which liquor-drinking was practically
universal, at a time when whiskey was as legitimate an article of
merchandise as coffee or calico, when no family was without a jug, when
the minister of the gospel could take his “dram” without any breach of
propriety, it is not surprising that a reputable young man should have
been found selling whiskey. Liquor was sold at all groceries, but it
could not be lawfully sold in a smaller quantity than one quart. The
law, however, was not always rigidly observed, and it was the custom of
storekeepers to treat their patrons. Each of the three groceries which
Berry and Lincoln acquired had the usual supply of liquors, and it was
only good business that they should seek a way to dispose of the surplus
quickly and profitably—an end which could be best accomplished by
selling it over the counter by the glass. To do this lawfully required a
tavern license; and it is a warrantable conclusion that such was the
chief aim of Berry and Lincoln in procuring a franchise of this
character. We are fortified in this conclusion by the coincidence that
three other grocers of New Salem—William Clary, Henry Sinco, and George
Warberton—were among those who took out tavern licenses. To secure the
lawful privilege of selling whiskey by the “dram” was no doubt their
purpose; for their “taverns” were as mythical as the inn of Berry and
Lincoln. Lincoln may, of course, have desired to go into the tavern
business and so have taken out a license, but it is certain that he
never realized his ambition and that it was only in the grocery that he
sold liquor.
[Illustration:
A DISCHARGE FROM SERVICE IN THE BLACK HAWK WAR SIGNED BY ABRAHAM
LINCOLN AS CAPTAIN.—NOW FIRST PUBLISHED.
]
The license issued to Berry and Lincoln read as follows:
Ordered that William F. Berry, in the name of Berry and Lincoln,
have a license to keep a tavern in New Salem to continue 12 months
from this date, and that they pay one dollar in addition to the six
dollars heretofore paid as per Treasurer’s receipt, and that they be
allowed the following rates (viz.):
French Brandy per ½ pt. 25
Peach Brandy per ½ pt. 18¾
Apple Brandy per ½ pt. 12
Holland Gin per ½ pt. 18¾
Domestic per ½ pt. 12½
Wine per ½ pt. 25
Rum per ½ pt. 18¾
Whiskey per ½ pt. 12½
Breakfast, dinner or supper 25
Lodging per night 12½
Horse per night 25
Single feed 12½
Breakfast, dinner or supper for Stage Passengers 37½
who gave bond as required by law.
At the granting of a tavern license, the applicants therefor were
required by law to file a bond. The bond given in the case of Berry and
Lincoln was as follows:
Know all men by these presents, we, William F. Berry, Abraham
Lincoln and John Bowling Green, are held and firmly bound unto the
County Commissioners of Sangamon County in the full sum of three
hundred dollars to which payment well and truly to be made we bind
ourselves, our heirs, executors and administrators firmly by these
presents, sealed with our seal and dated this 6th day of March A.D.
1833. Now the condition of this obligation is such that Whereas the
said Berry & Lincoln has obtained a license from the County
Commissioners Court to keep a tavern in the Town of New Salem to
continue one year. Now if the said Berry & Lincoln shall be of good
behavior and observe all the laws of this State relative to tavern
keepers—then this obligation to be void or otherwise remain in full
force.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN [Seal]
WM. F. BERRY [Seal]
BOWLING GREEN [Seal]
[Illustration:
MAP OF ILLINOIS IN 1832.—PREPARED SPECIALLY FOR THIS WORK.
]
This bond appears to have been written by the clerk of the
Commissioners’ Court; and Lincoln’s name was signed by some one other
than himself, very likely by his partner Berry.
THE FIRM HIRES A CLERK.
The license seems to have stimulated the business, for the firm
concluded to hire a clerk. The young man who secured this position was
Daniel Green Burner, son of Isaac Burner, at whose house Lincoln for a
time boarded. He is still living on a farm near Galesburg, Illinois, and
is in the eighty-second year of his age. “The store building of Berry
and Lincoln,” says Mr. Burner, “was a frame building, not very large,
one story in height, and contained two rooms. In the little back room
Lincoln had a fireplace and a bed. There is where we slept. I clerked in
the store through the winter of 1833–34, up to the 1st of March. While I
was there they had nothing for sale but liquors. They may have had some
groceries before that, but I am certain they had none then. I used to
sell whiskey over their counter at six cents a glass—and charged it,
too. N. A. Garland started a store, and Lincoln wanted Berry to ask his
father for a loan, so they could buy out Garland; but Berry refused,
saying this was one of the last things he would think of doing.”
[Illustration:
FACSIMILE OF AN ELECTION RETURN WRITTEN BY LINCOLN AS CLERK IN
1832.—NOW FIRST PUBLISHED.
From the original now on file in the county clerk’s office,
Springfield, Illinois. The first civil office Lincoln ever held was
that of election clerk, and the return made by him, of which a
facsimile is here presented, was his first official document. All
the men whose names appear on this election return are now dead,
except William McNeely, now residing at Petersburg. John Clary lived
at Clary’s Grove; John R. Herndon was “Row” Herndon, whose store
Berry and Lincoln purchased, and at whose house Lincoln for a time
boarded; Baxter Berry was a relative of Lincoln’s partner in the
grocery business, and Edmund Greer was a school-teacher, and
afterwards a justice of the peace and a surveyor; James Rutledge was
the keeper of the Rutledge tavern and the father of Ann Rutledge;
Hugh Armstrong was one of the numerous Armstrong family; “Uncle
Jimmy” White lived on a farm five miles from New Salem, and died
about thirty years ago, in the eightieth year of his age; William
Green was father of William G. Greene, Lincoln’s associate in
Offutt’s store; and as to Bowling Green, more is said elsewhere. In
the following three or four years, very few elections were held in
New Salem at which Lincoln was not a clerk. It is a somewhat
singular fact that Lincoln, though clerk of this election, is not
recorded as voting.
]
Among the other persons yet living who were residents with Lincoln of
New Salem or its near neighborhood, are Mrs. Parthenia W. Hill, aged
seventy-nine years, widow of Samuel Hill, the New Salem merchant; James
McGrady Rutledge, aged eighty-one years; John Potter, aged eighty-seven
years; and Thomas Watkins, aged seventy-one years—all now living at
Petersburg, Illinois. Mrs. Hill, a woman of more than ordinary
intelligence, did not become a resident of New Salem until 1835, the
year in which she was married. Lincoln had then gone out of business,
but she knew much of his store. “Berry and Lincoln,” she says, “did not
keep any dry goods. They had a grocery, and I have always understood
they sold whiskey.” Mr. Rutledge, a nephew of James Rutledge the
tavern-keeper, has a vivid recollection of the store. He says: “I have
been in Berry and Lincoln’s store many a time. The building was a
frame—one of the few frame buildings in New Salem. There were two rooms,
and in the small back room they kept their whiskey. They had pretty much
everything, except dry goods—sugar, coffee, some crockery, a few pairs
of shoes (not many), some farming implements, and the like. Whiskey, of
course, was a necessary part of their stock. I remember one transaction
in particular which I had with them. I sold the firm a load of wheat,
which they turned over to the mill.” Mr. Potter, who remembers the
morning when Lincoln, then a stranger on his way to New Salem, stopped
at his father’s house and ate breakfast, knows less about the store, but
says: “It was a grocery, and they sold whiskey, of course.” Thomas
Watkins says that the store contained “a little candy, tobacco, sugar,
and coffee, and the like;” though Mr. Watkins, being then a young boy,
and living a mile in the country, was not a frequent visitor at the
store.
[Illustration:
A STAGE-COACH ADVERTISEMENT, 1834.
This advertisement appeared in the “Sangamo Journal” in April, 1834,
and held a place in the paper through the next three years. As the
“Four Horse Coach” ran through Sangamontown and New Salem, it
doubtless had Lincoln as a passenger now and then; but not often,
probably, for the fare from New Salem to Springfield was one dollar
and twenty-five cents, and walking, or riding upon a borrowed horse,
must generally have been preferred by Lincoln to so costly a mode of
travelling.
]