Produced by David Widger
THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN;
FROM HIS BIRTH TO HIS INAUGURATION AS PRESIDENT.
By
Ward H. Lamon.
With Illustrations.
Boston:
James R. Osgood And Company,
(Late Ticknor & Fields, And Fields, Osgood, & Co.)
1872.
[Illustration: Frontispiece]
[Illustration: Titlepage]
PREFACE.
IN the following pages I have endeavored to give the life of Abraham
Lincoln, from his birth to his inauguration as President of the United
States. The reader will judge the character of the performance by the
work itself: for that reason I shall spare him the perusal of much
prefatory explanation.
At the time of Mr. Lincoln's death, I determined to write his history,
as I had in my possession much valuable material for such a purpose. I
did not then imagine that any person could have better or more extensive
materials than I possessed. I soon learned, however, that Mr. William H.
Herndon of Springfield, Ill., was similarly engaged. There could be no
rivalry between us; for the supreme object of both was to make the real
history and character of Mr. Lincoln as well known to the public as they
were to us. He deplored, as I did, the many publications pretending to
be biographies which came teeming from the press, so long as the public
interest about Mr. Lincoln excited the hope of gain. Out of the mass
of works which appeared, of one only--Dr. Holland's--is it possible to
speak with any degree of respect.
Early in 1869, Mr. Herndon placed at my disposal his remarkable
collection of materials,--the richest, rarest, and fullest collection
it was possible to conceive. Along with them came an offer of hearty
co-operation, of which I have availed myself so extensively, that no art
of mine would serve to conceal it. Added to my own collections, these
acquisitions have enabled me to do what could not have been done
before,--prepare an authentic biography of Mr. Lincoln.
Mr. Herndon had been the partner in business and the intimate personal
associate of Mr. Lincoln for something like a quarter of a century; and
Mr. Lincoln had lived familiarly with several members of his family long
before their individual acquaintance began. New Salem, Springfield, the
old judicial circuit, the habits and friends of Mr. Lincoln, were as
well known to Mr. Herndon as to himself. With these advantages, and from
the numberless facts and hints which had dropped from Mr. Lincoln during
the confidential intercourse of an ordinary lifetime, Mr. Herndon was
able to institute a thorough system of inquiry for every noteworthy
circumstance and every incident of value in Mr. Lincoln's career.
The fruits of Mr. Herndon's labors are garnered in three enormous
volumes of original manuscripts and a mass of unarranged letters
and papers. They comprise the recollections of Mr. Lincoln's
nearest friends; of the surviving members of his family and his
family-connections; of the men still living who knew him and his parents
in Kentucky; of his schoolfellows, neighbors, and acquaintances in
Indiana; of the better part of the whole population of New Salem; of
his associates and relatives at Springfield; and of lawyers, judges,
politicians, and statesmen everywhere, who had any thing of interest or
moment to relate. They were collected at vast expense of time, labor,
and money, involving the employment of many agents, long journeys,
tedious examinations, and voluminous correspondence. Upon the value of
these materials it would be impossible to place an estimate. That I have
used them conscientiously and justly is the only merit to which I lay
claim.
As a general thing, my text will be found to support itself; but whether
the particular authority be mentioned or not, it is proper to remark,
that each statement of fact is fully sustained by indisputable evidence
remaining in my possession. My original plan was to verify every
important statement by one or more appropriate citations; but it was
early abandoned, not because it involved unwelcome labor, but because
it encumbered my pages with a great array of obscure names, which the
reader would probably pass unnoticed.
I dismiss this volume into the world, with no claim for it of literary
excellence, but with the hope that it will prove what it purports to
be,--a faithful record of the life of Abraham Lincoln down to the 4th of
March, 1861.
Ward H. Lamon.
Washington City, May, 1872.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Birth.--His father and mother.--History of Thomas Lincoln and his family
a necessary part of Abraham Lincoln's biography.--Thomas Lincoln's
ancestors.--Members of the family remaining in Virginia.--Birth of
Thomas Lincoln.--Removal to Kentucky.--Life in the Wilderness.--Lincolns
settle in Mercer County.--Thomas Lincoln's father shot by
Indians.--Widow and family remove to Washington County.--Thomas
poor.--Wanders into Breckinridge County.--Goes to Hardin County.--Works
at the carpenter's trade.--Cannot read or write.--Personal
appearance.--Called "Linckhom," or "Linckhera."--Thomas Lincoln as
a carpenter.--Marries Nancy Hanks.--Previously courted Sally
Bush.--Character of Sally Bush.--The person and character of Nancy
Hanks.--Thomas and Nancy Lincoln go to live in a shed.--Birth of a
daughter.--They remove to Nolin Creek.--Birth of Abraham.--Removal to
Knob Creek.--Little Abe initiated into wild sports.--His sadness.--Goes
to school.--Thomas Lincoln concludes to move.--Did not fly from the
taint of slavery.--Abraham Lincoln always reticent about the history and
character of his family.--Record in his Bible... 1
CHAPTER II.
Thomas Lincoln builds a boat.--Floats down to the Ohio.--Boat
capsizes.--Lands in Perry County, Indiana.--Selects a location.--Walks
back to Knob Creek for wife and children.--Makes his way through
the wilderness.--Settles between the two Pigeon Creeks.--Gentry
ville.--Selects a site.--Lincoln builds a half-faced camp.--Clears
ground and raises a small crop.--Dennis Hanks.--Lincoln builds a
cabin.--State of the country.--Indiana admitted to the Union.--Rise
of Gentryville.--Character of the people.--Lincoln's patent for his
land.--His farm, cabin, furniture.--The milk-sickness.--Death of Nancy
Hanks Lincoln.--Funeral discourse by David Elkin.--Grave.--Tom Lincoln
marries Sally Bush.--Her goods and chattels.--Her surprise at the
poverty of the Lincoln cabin.--Clothes and comforts Abe and his
sister.--Abe leads a new life.--Is sent to school.--Abe's appearance and
dress.--Learning "manners"--Abe's essays.--Tenderness for animals.--The
last of school.--Abe excelled the masters.--Studied privately.--Did not
like to work.--Wrote on wooden shovel and boards.--How Abe studied.--The
books he read.--The "Revised Statute of Indiana."--Did not read the
Bible.--No religious opinions.--How he behaved at home.--Touching
recital by Mrs. Lincoln.--Abe's memory.--Mimicks the preachers.--Makes
"stump-speeches" in the field.--Cruelly maltreated by his father.--Works
out cheerfully.--Universal favorite.--The kind of people he lived
amongst.--Mrs. Crawford's reminiscences.--Society about Gentryville.
--His step-mother.--His sister.--The Johnstons and Hankses.--Abe a
ferryman and farm-servant.--His work and habits.--Works for Josiah
Crawford.--Mrs. Crawford's account of him.--Crawford's books.--Becomes
a wit and a poet.--Abe the tallest and strongest man in the
settlement.--Hunting in the Pigeon Creek region.--His activity.--Love of
talking and reading.--Fond of rustic sports.--Furnishes the
literature.--Would not be slighted.--His satires.--Songs and
chronicles.--Gentryville as "a centre of business."--Abe and other
boys loiter about the village.--Very temperate.--"Clerks" for Col.
Jones.--Abe saves a drunken man's life.--Fond of music.--Marriage of his
sister Nancy.--Extracts from his copy-book.--His Chronicles.--Fight with
the Grigs-bys.--Abe "the big buck of the lick."--"Speaking meetings"
at Gentryville.--Dennis Hanks's account of the way he and Abe became so
learned.--Abe attends a court.--Abe expects to be President.--Going
to mill.--Kicked in the head by a horse.--Mr. Wood.--Piece on
temperance.--On national politics.--Abe tired of home.--Works for
Mr. Gentry.--Knowledge of astronomy and geography.--Goes to New
Orleans.--Counterfeit money.--Fight with negroes.--Scar on his face.
--An apocryphal story...........19
CHAPTER III.
Abe's return from New Orleans.--Sawing planks for a new house.--The
milk-sickness.--Removal to Illinois.--Settles near Decatur.--Abe leaves
home.--Subsequent removals and death of Thomas Lincoln.--Abe's relations
to the family.--Works with John Hanks after leaving home.--Splitting
rails.--Makes a speech on the improvement of the Sangamon River.--Second
voyage to New Orleans.--Loading and departure of the boat.--"Sticks" on
New Salem dam.--Abe's contrivance to get her off.--Model in the Patent
Office.--Arrival at New Orleans.--Negroes chained.--Abe touched by the
sight.--Returns on a steamboat.--Wrestles with Daniel Needham.........73
CHAPTER IV.
The site of New Salem.--The village as it existed.--The
first store.--Number of inhabitants.--Their
houses.--Springfield.--Petersburg.--Mr. Lincoln appears a second time
at New Salem.--Clerks at an election.--Pilots a boat to
Beardstown.--Country store.--Abe as "first clerk."--"Clary's Grove
Boys."--Character of Jack Armstrong.--He and Abe become intimate
friends.--Abe's popularity.--Love of peace.--Habits of study.--Waylaying
strangers for information.--Pilots the steamer "Talisman" up and down
the Sangamon.......85
CHAPTER V.
Offutt's business gone to ruin.--The Black Hawk War.--Black Hawk crosses
the Mississippi.--Deceived by his allies.--The governor's call for
troops.--Abe enlists--Elected captain.--A speech.--Organization of the
army.--Captain Lincoln under arrest.--The march.--Captain Lincoln's
company declines to form.--Lincoln under arrest.--Stillman's
defeat.--Wasting rations.--Hunger.--Mutiny.--March to Dixon.--Attempt
to capture Black Hawk's pirogues.--Lincoln saves the life of
an Indian.--Mutiny.--Lincoln's novel method of quelling
it.--Wrestling.--His magnanimity.--Care of his men.--Dispute with a
regular officer.--Reach Dixon.--Move to Fox River.--A stampede.--Captain
Lincoln's efficiency as an officer.--Amusements of the camp.--Captain
Lincoln re-enlists as a private.--Independent spy company.--Progress of
the war.--Capture of Black Hawk.--Release.--Death.--Grave.--George
W. Harrison's recollections.--Duties of the spy company.--Company
disbanded.--Lincoln's horse stolen.--They start home on foot.--Buy
a canoe.--Feast on a raft.--Sell the boat.--Walk again.--Arrive at
Petersburg.--A sham battle........98
CHAPTER VI.
The volunteers from Sangamon return shortly before the State
election.--Abe a candidate for the Legislature.--Mode of bringing
forward candidates.--Parties and party names.--State and national
politics.--Mr. Lincoln's position.--Old way of conducting
elections.--Mr. Lincoln's first stump-speech.--"A general fight."--Mr.
Lincoln's part in it.--His dress and appearance.--Speech at Island
Grove.--His stories.--A third speech.--Agrees with the Whigs in the
policy of internal improvements.--His own hobby.--Prepares an address to
the people.--Mr. Lincoln defeated.--Received every vote but three cast
in his own precinct....121
CHAPTER VII.
Results of the canvass.--An opening in business.--The firm of Lincoln
& Berry.--How they sold liquor.--What Mr. Douglas said.--The store a
failure.--Berry's bad habits.--The credit system.--Lincoln's debts.--He
goes to board at the tavern.--Studies law.--Walks to Springfield for
books.--Progress in the law.--Does business for his neighbors.--Other
studies.--Reminiscences of J. Y. Ellis.--Shy of ladies.--His
apparel.--Fishing, and spouting Shakspeare and Burns.--Mr. Lincoln
annoyed by company.--Retires to the country.--Bowlin Greene.--Mr.
Lincoln's attempt to speak a funeral discourse.--John Calhoun.--Lincoln
studies surveying.--Gets employment.--Lincoln appointed postmaster.--How
he performed the duties.--Sale of Mr. Lincoln's personal property under
execution.--Bought by James Short.--Lincoln's visits.--Old Hannah.--Ah.
Trent.--Mr. Lincoln as a peacemaker.--His great strength.--The
judicial quality.--Acting second in fights.--A candidate for the
Legislature.--Elected.--Borrows two hundred dollars from Coleman
Smoot.--How they got acquainted.--Mr. Lincoln writes a little book on
infidelity.--It is burnt by Samuel Hill........135
CHAPTER VIII.
James Rutledge.--His family.--Ann Rutledge.--John McNeil.--Is engaged
to Ann.--His strange story.--The loveliness of Ann's person
and character.--Mr. Lincoln courts her.--They are engaged to be
married.--Await the return of McNeil.--Ann dies of a broken
heart.--Mr. Lincoln goes crazy.--Cared for by Bowlin Greene.--The poem
"Immortality."--Mr. Lincoln's melancholy broodings.--Interviews with
Isaac Cogdale after his election to the Presidency.--Mr. Herndon's
interview with McNamar.--Ann's grave.--The Concord cemetery...159
CHAPTER IX.
Bennett Able and family.--Mary Owens.--Mr. Lincoln falls in love with
her.--What she thought of him.--A misunderstanding.--Letters from Miss
Owens.--Mr. Lincoln's letters to her.--Humorous account of the affair in
a letter from Mr. Lincoln to another lady......172
CHAPTER X.
Mr. Lincoln takes his seat in the Legislature.--Schemes of internal
improvement.--Mr. Lincoln a silent member.--Meets Stephen A.
Douglas.--Log-rolling.--Mr. Lincoln a candidate for re-election.--The
canvass.--"The Long Nine."--Speech at Mechanicsburg.--Fight.--Reply to
Dr. Early.--Reply to George Forquer.--Trick on Dick Taylor.--Attempts
to create a third party.--Mr. Lincoln elected.--Federal and State
politics.--The Bank of the United States.--Suspension of specie
payments.--Mr. Lincoln wishes to be the De Witt Clinton of
Illinois.--The internal-improvement system.--Capital located
at Springfield.--Mr. Lincoln's conception of the duty of a
representative.--His part in passing the "system."--Begins
his antislavery record.--Public sentiment against the
Abolitionists.--History of antislavery in Illinois.--The
Covenanters.--Struggle to amend the Constitution.--The "black
code."--Death of Elijah P. Lovejoy.--Protest against proslavery
resolutions.--No sympathy with extremists.--Suspension of
specie payments.--Mr. Lincoln re-elected in 1838.--Candidate for
Speaker.--Finances.--Utter failure of the internal-improvement
"system."--Mr. Lincoln re-elected in 1840.--He introduces a bill.--His
speech.--Financial expedients.--Bitterness of feeling.--Democrats seek
to hold a quorum.--Mr. Lincoln jumps out of a window.--Speech by Mr.
Lincoln.--The alien question.--The Democrats undertake to "reform" the
judiciary.--Mr. Douglas a leader.--Protest of Mr. Lincoln and
other Whigs.--Reminiscences of a colleague.--Dinner to "The Long
Nine."--"Abraham Lincoln one of nature's noblemen."..........184
CHAPTER XI.
Capital removed to Springfield.--Mr. Lincoln settles there to practise
law.--First case.--Members of the bar.--Mr. Lincoln's partnership with
John T. Stuart.--Population and condition of Springfield.--Lawyers
and politicians.--Mr. Lincoln's intense ambition.--Lecture before the
Springfield Lyceum.--His style.--Political discussions run
high.--Joshua F. Speed his most intimate friend.--Scene in Speed's
store.--Debate.--Douglas, Calhoun, Lamborn, and Thomas, against Lincoln,
Logan, Baker, and Browning.--Presidential elector in 1840.--Stumping
for Harrison.--Scene between Lincoln and Douglas in the Court-House.--A
failure.--Redeems himself.--Meets Miss Mary Todd.--She takes Mr. Lincoln
captive.--She refuses Douglas.--Engaged.--Miss Matilda Edwards.--Mr.
Lincoln undergoes a change of heart.--Mr. Lincoln reveals to Mary the
state of his mind.--She releases him.--A reconciliation.--Every thing
prepared for the wedding.--Mr. Lincoln fails to appear.--Insane.--Speed
takes him to Kentucky.--Lines on "Suicide."--His gloom.--Return
to Springfield.--Secret meetings with Miss Todd.--Sudden
marriage.--Correspondence with Mr. Speed on delicate subjects.--Relics
of a great man and a great agony.--Miss Todd attacks James Shields in
certain witty and sarcastic letters.--Mr. Lincoln's name "given up"
as the author.--Challenged by Shields.--A meeting and an
explanation.--Correspondence.--Candidate for Congressional
nomination.--Letters to Speed and Morris.--Defeat.. 223
CHAPTER XII.
Mr. Lincoln a candidate for elector in 1844.--Debates with
Calhoun.--Speaks in Illinois and Indiana.--At Gentryville.--Lincoln,
Baker, Logan, Hardin, aspirants for Congress.--Supposed
bargain.--Canvass for Whig nomination in 1846.--Mr. Lincoln
nominated.--Opposed by Peter Cartwright.--Mr. Lincoln called a
deist.--Elected.--Takes his seat.--Distinguished members.--Opposed
to the Mexican War.--The "Spot Resolutions."--Speech of Mr.
Lincoln.--Murmurs of disapprobation.--Mr. Lincoln for "Old Rough" in
1848.--Defections at home.--Mr. Lincoln's campaign.--Speech.--Passage
not generally published.--Letter to his father.--Second session.--The
"Gott Resolution."--Mr. Lincoln's substitute..............274
CHAPTER XIII.
Mr. Lincoln in his character of country lawyer.--Public feeling at
the time of his death.--Judge Davis's address at a bar-meeting.--Judge
Drummond's address.--Mr. Lincoln's partnership with John T.
Stuart.--With Stephen. T. Logan.--With William H. Herndon.--Mr.
Lincoln "a case-lawyer."--Slow.--Conscientious.--Henry McHenry's
case.--Circumstantial evidence.--A startling case.--Mr. Lincoln's
account of it.--His first case in the Supreme Court.--Could not defend a
bad case.--Ignorance of technicalities.--The Eighth Circuit.--Happy
on the circuit.--Style of travelling.--His relations.--Young Johnson
indicted.--Mr. Lincoln's kindness.--Jack Armstrong's son tried
for murder.--Mr. Lincoln defends him.--Alleged use of a false
almanac.--Prisoner discharged.--Old Hannah's account of it.--Mr.
Lincoln's suit against Illinois Central Railway Company.--McCormick
Reaping Machine case.--Treatment by Edwin M. Stanton........311
CHAPTER XIV.
Mr. Lincoln not a candidate for re-election.--Judge Logan's defeat.--Mr.
Lincoln an applicant for Commissioner of the Land Office.--Offered the
Governorship of Oregon.--Views concerning the Missouri Compromise
and Compromise of 1850.--Declines to be a candidate for Congress in
1850.--Death of Thomas Lincoln.--Correspondence between Mr. Lincoln
and John Johnston.--Eulogy on Henry Clay.--In favor of voluntary
emancipation and colonization.--Answer to Mr. Douglas's Richmond
speech.--Passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill.--Mr. Lincoln's views
concerning slavery.--Opposed to conferring political privileges
upon negroes.--Aroused by the repeal of the Missouri
Compromise.--Anti-Nebraska party.--Mr. Lincoln the leader.--Mr. Douglas
speaks at Chicago.--At Springfield.--Mr. Lincoln replies.--A
great speech.--Mr. Douglas rejoins.--The Abolitionists.--Mr.
Herndon.--Determined to make Mr. Lincoln an Abolitionist.--They refuse
to enter the Know-Nothing lodges.--The Abolitionists desire to force
Mr. Lincoln to take a stand.--He runs away from Springfield.--He
is requested to "follow up" Mr. Douglas.--Speech at
Peoria.--Extract.--Slavery and popular sovereignty.--Mr. Lincoln and
Mr. Douglas agree not to speak any more.--The election.--Mr. Lincoln
announced for the Legislature by Wm. Jayne.--Mrs. Lincoln withdraws his
name.--Jayne restores it.--He is elected.--A candidate for United-States
Senator.--Resigns his seat.--Is censured.--Anti-Nebraska majority in
the Legislature.--The balloting.--Danger of Governor Matteson's
election.--Mr. Lincoln advises his friends to vote for Judge
Trumbull.--Trumbull elected.--Charges of conspiracy and corrupt
bargain.--Mr. Lincoln's denial.--Mr. Douglas imputes to Mr. Lincoln
extreme Abolitionist views.--Mr. Lincoln's answer.............333
CHAPTER XV.
The struggle in Kansas.--The South begins the struggle.--The North meets
it.--The Missourians and other proslavery forces.--Andrew H. Reeder
appointed governor.--Election frauds.--Mr. Lincoln's views on
Kansas.--Gov. Shannon arrives in the Territory.--The Free State men
repudiate the Legislature.--Mr. Lincoln's "little speech" to the
Abolitionists of Illinois.--Mr. Lincoln's party relations.--Mr. Lincoln
agrees to meet the Abolitionists.--Convention at Bloomington.--Mr.
Lincoln considered a convert.--His great speech.--Conservative
resolutions.--Ludicrous failure of a ratification meeting at
Springfield.--Mr. Lincoln's remarks.--Plot to break up the Know-Nothing
party.--"National" Republican Convention.--Mr. Lincoln receives
a hundred and ten votes for Vice-President.--National Democratic
Convention.--Mr. Lincoln a candidate for elector.--His
canvass.--Confidential letter.--Imperfect fellowship with the
Abolitionists.--Mr. Douglas's speech on Kansas in June, 1857.--Mr.
Lincoln's reply.--Mr. Douglas committed to support of the Lecompton
Constitution.--The Dred Scott Decision discussed.--Mr. Lincoln
against negro equality.--Affairs in Kansas.--Election of a new
Legislature.--Submission of the Lecompton Constitution to
the people.--Method of voting on it.--Constitution finally
rejected.--Conflict in Congress.--Mr. Douglas's defection.--Extract from
a speech by Mr. Lincoln........366
CHAPTER XVI.
Mr. Douglas opposes the Administration.--His course in
Congress.--Squatter sovereignty in full operation.--Mr. Lincoln's
definition of popular sovereignty and squatter sovereignty.--Mr.
Douglas's private conferences with Republicans.--"Judge Trumbull's
opinion.--Mr. Douglas nominated for senator by a Democratic
Convention.--Mr. Lincoln's idea of what Douglas might accomplish at
Charleston.--Mr. Lincoln writing a celebrated speech.--He is nominated
for senator.--A startling doctrine.--A council of friends.--Same
doctrine advanced at Bloomington.--The "house-divided" speech.--Mr.
Lincoln promises to explain.--What Mr. Lincoln thought of Mr.
Douglas.--What Mr. Douglas thought of Mr. Lincoln.--Popular canvass for
senator.--Mr. Lincoln determines to "kill Douglas" as a
Presidential aspirant.--Adroit plan to draw him out on squatter
sovereignty.--Absurdities of Mr. Douglas.--The election.--Success of Mr.
Douglas.--Reputation acquired by Mr. Lincoln..................389
CHAPTER XVII.
Mr. Lincoln writes and delivers a lecture.--The Presidency.--Mr.
Lincoln's "running qualities."--He thinks himself unfit.--Nominated by
"Illinois Gazette."--Letter to Dr. Canisius.--Letter to Dr. Wallace
on the protective tariff policy.--Mr. Lincoln in Ohio and Kansas.--A
private meeting of his friends.--Permitted to use his name for
the Presidency.--An invitation to speak in New York.--Choosing a
subject.--Arrives in New York.--His embarrassments.--Speech in Cooper
Institute.--Comments of the press.--He is charged with mercenary
conduct.--Letter concerning the charge.--Visits New England.--Style
and character of his speeches.--An amusing encounter with a clerical
politician...421
CHAPTER XVIII.
Meeting of the Republican State Convention.--Mr. Lincoln present.--John
Hanks and the rails.--Mr. Lincoln's speech.--Meeting of the Republican
National Convention at Chicago.--The platform.--Combinations to secure
Mr. Lincoln's nomination.--The balloting.--Mr. Lincoln nominated.--Mr.
Lincoln at Springfield waiting the results of the Convention.--How
he received the news.--Enthusiasm at Springfield.--Official
notification.--The "Constitutional Union" party.--The Democratic
Conventions at Charleston and Baltimore.--The election.--The
principle upon which Mr. Lincoln proposed to make appointments.--Mr.
Stephens.--Mr. Gilmore.--Mr. Guthrie.--Mr. Seward.--Mr. Chase.--Mr.
Bates.--The cases of Smith and Cameron.--Mr. Lincoln's visit
to Chicago.--Mr. Lincoln's visit to his relatives in Coles
County.--Apprehensions about assassination.--A visit from Hannah
Armstrong... 444
CHAPTER XIX.
Difficulties and peculiarities of Mr. Lincoln's position.--A general
review of his character.--His personal appearance and habits.--His house
and other property.--His domestic relations.--His morbid melancholy
and superstition.--Illustrated by his literary tastes.--His humor.--His
temperate habits and abstinence from sensual pleasures.--His
ambition.--Use of politics for personal advancement.--Love of power
and place.--Of justice.--Not a demagogue or a trimmer.--His religious
views.--Attempt of the Rev. Mr. Smith to convert him.--Mr. Bateman's
story as related by Dr. Holland.--Effect of his belief upon his mind and
character...........466
CHAPTER XX.
Departure of the Presidential party from Springfield.--Affecting address
by Mr. Lincoln to his friends and neighbors.--His opinions concerning
the approaching civil war.--Discovery of a supposed plot to murder
him at Baltimore.--Governor Hicks's proposal to "kill Lincoln and his
men."--The plan formed to defeat the conspiracy.--The midnight ride
from Harrisburg to Washington.--Arrival in Washington.--Before the
Inauguration.--Inauguration Day.--Inaugural Address.--Mr. Lincoln's
Oath.--Mr. Lincoln President of the United States.--Mr. Buchanan bids
him farewell............505
LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
CHAPTER I.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN was born on the twelfth day of February, 1809. His
father's name was Thomas Lincoln, and his mother's maiden name was Nancy
Hanks. At the time of his birth, they are supposed to have been married
about three years. Although there appears to have been but little
sympathy or affection between Thomas and Abraham Lincoln, they were
nevertheless connected by ties and associations which make the previous
history of Thomas Lincoln and his family a necessary part of any
reasonably full biography of the great man who immortalized the name by
wearing it.
Thomas Lincoln's ancestors were among the early settlers of Rockingham
County in Virginia; but exactly whence they came, or the precise time of
their settlement there, it is impossible to tell. They were manifestly
of English descent; but whether emigrants directly from England
to Virginia, or an offshoot of the historic Lincoln family in
Massachusetts, or of the highly-respectable Lincoln family in
Pennsylvania, are questions left entirely to conjecture. We have
absolutely no evidence by which to determine them, Thomas Lincoln
himself stoutly denied that his progenitors were either Quakers or
Puritans; but he furnished nothing except his own word to sustain his
denial: on the contrary, some of the family (distant relatives of Thomas
Lincoln) who remain in Virginia believe themselves to have sprung from
the New-England stock. They found their opinion solely on the fact that
the Christian names given to the sons of the two families were the same,
though only in a few cases, and at different times. But this might have
arisen merely from that common religious sentiment which induces parents
of a devotional turn to confer scriptural names on their children, or it
might have been purely accidental. Abrahams, Isaacs, and Jacobs abound
in many other families who claim no kindred on that account. In England,
during the ascendency of the Puritans, in times of fanatical religious
excitement, the children were almost universally baptized by the names
of the patriarchs and Old-Testament heroes, or by names of their own
pious invention, signifying what the infant was expected to do and to
suffer in the cause of the Lord. The progenitors of all the American
Lincolns were Englishmen, and they may have been Puritans. There is,
therefore, nothing unreasonable in the supposition that they began the
practice of conferring such names before the emigration of any of them;
and the names, becoming matters of family pride and family tradition,
have continued to be given ever since. But, if the fact that
Christian names of a particular class prevailed among the Lincolns of
Massachusetts and the Lincolns of Virginia at the same time is no proof
of consanguinity, the identity of the surname is entitled to even less
consideration. It is barely possible that they may have had a common
ancestor; but, if they had, he must have lived and died so obscurely,
and so long ago, that no trace of him can be discovered. It would be
as difficult to prove a blood relationship between all the American
Lincolns, as it would be to prove a general cousinship among all the
Smiths or all the Joneses.1
1 At the end of this volume will be found a very interesting
account of the family, given by Mr. Lincoln himself. The
original is in his own handwriting, and is here reproduced
in fac-simile.
A patronymic so common as Lincoln, derived from a large geographical
division of the old country, would almost certainly be taken by many who
had no claim to it by reason of descent from its original possessors.
Dr. Holland, who, of all Mr. Lincoln's biographers, has entered most
extensively into the genealogy of the family, says that the father of
Thomas was named Abraham; but he gives no authority for his statement,
and it is as likely to be wrong as to be right. The Hankses--John and
Dennis--who passed a great part of their lives in the company of Thomas
Lincoln, tell us that the name of his father was Mordecai; and so also
does Col. Chapman, who married Thomas Lincoln's step-daughter. The rest
of those who ought to know are unable to assign him any name at all.
Dr. Holland says further, that this Abraham (or Mordecai) had four
brothers,--Jacob, John, Isaac, and Thomas; that Isaac went to Tennessee,
where his descendants are now; that Thomas went to Kentucky after his
brother Abraham; but that Jacob and John "are supposed to have" remained
in Virginia.1 This is doubtless true, at least so far as it relates to
Jacob and John; for there are at this day numerous Lincolns residing
in Rockingham County,--the place from which the Kentucky Lincolns
emigrated. One of their ancestors, Jacob,--who seems to be the brother
referred to,--was a lieutenant in the army of the Revolution, and
present at the siege of Yorktown. His military services were made the
ground of a claim against the government, and Abraham Lincoln, whilst a
representative in Congress from Illinois, was applied to by the family
to assist them in prosecuting it. A correspondence of some length
ensued, by which the presumed relationship of the parties was fully
acknowledged on both sides. But, unfortunately, no copy of it is now
in existence. The one preserved by the Virginians was lost or destroyed
during the late war. The family, with perfect unanimity, espoused
the cause of the Confederate States, and suffered many losses in
consequence, of which these interesting papers may have been one.
1 The Life of Abraham Lincoln, by J. G. Holland, p. 20.
Abraham (or Mordecai) the father of Thomas Lincoln, was the owner of
a large and fertile tract of land on the waters of Linnville's Creek,
about eight miles north of Harrisonburg, the court-house town of
Rockingham County. It is difficult to ascertain the precise extent of
this plantation, or the history of the title to it, inasmuch as all the
records of the county were burnt by Gen. Hunter in 1864. It is clear,
however, that it had been inherited by Lincoln, the emigrant to
Kentucky, and that four, if not all, of his children were born upon it.
At the time Gen. Sheridan received the order "to make the Valley of the
Shenandoah a barren waste," this land was well improved and in a state
of high cultivation; but under the operation of that order it was
ravaged and desolated like the region around it.
Lincoln, the emigrant, had three sons and two daughters. Thomas was the
third son and the fourth child. He was born in 1778; and in 1780, or a
little later, his father removed with his entire family to Kentucky.
Kentucky was then the paradise of the borderer's dreams. Fabulous tales
of its sylvan charms and pastoral beauties had for years been floating
about, not only along the frontiers of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North
Carolina, but farther back in the older settlements. For a while it had
been known as the "Cane Country," and then as the "Country of
Kentucky." Many expeditions were undertaken to explore it; two or three
adventurers, and occasionally only one at a time, passing down the Ohio
in canoes. But they all stopped short of the Kentucky River. The Indians
were terrible; and it was known that they would surrender any other
spot of earth in preference to Kentucky. The canes that were supposed
to indicate the promised land--those canes of wondrous dimensions,
that shot up, as thick as they could stand, from a soil of inestimable
fertility--were forever receding before those who sought them. One party
after another returned to report, that, after incredible dangers and
hardships, they had met with no better fortune than that which had
attended the efforts of their predecessors, and that they had utterly
failed to find the "canes." At last they were actually found by Simon
Kenton, who stealthily planted a little patch of corn, to see how the
stalk that bore the yellow grain would grow beside its "brother" of the
wilderness. He was one day leaning against the stem of a great tree,
watching his little assemblage of sprouts, and wondering at the strange
fruitfulness of the earth which fed them, when he heard a footstep
behind him. It was the great Daniel Boone's. They united their fortunes
for the present, but subsequently each of them became the chief of a
considerable settlement. Kenton's trail had been down the Ohio, Boone's
from North Carolina; and from both those directions soon came hunters,
warriors, and settlers to join them. But the Indians had no thought of
relinquishing their fairest hunting-grounds without a long and desperate
struggle. The rich carpet of natural grasses which fed innumerable
herds of buffalo, elk, and deer, all the year round; the grandeur of
its primeval forests, its pure fountains, and abundant streams,--made it
even more desirable to them than to the whites. They had long contended
for the possession of it; and no tribe, or confederacy of tribes, had
ever been able to hold it to the exclusion of the rest. Here, from time
immemorial, the northern and southern, the eastern and western Indians
had met each other in mortal strife, mutually shedding the blood which
ought to have been husbanded for the more deadly conflict with a common
foe. The character of this savage warfare had earned for Kentucky the
appellation of "the dark and bloody ground;" and, now that the whites
had fairly begun their encroachments upon it, the Indians were resolved
that the phrase should lose none of its old significance. White settlers
might therefore count upon fighting for their lives as well as their
lands.
Boone did not make his final settlement till 1775. The Lincolns came
about 1780. This was but a year or two after Clark's expedition into
Illinois; and it was long, long before St. Clair's defeat and Wayne's
victory. Nearly the whole of the north-west territory was then occupied
by hostile Indians. Kentucky volunteers had yet before them many a day
of hot and bloody work on the Ohio, the Muskingum, and the Miami, to say
nothing of the continual surprises to which they were subjected at home.
Every man's life was in his hand. From cabin to cabin, from settlement
to settlement, his trail was dogged by the eager savage. If he went
to plough, he was liable to be shot down between the handles; if he
attempted to procure subsistence by hunting, he was hunted himself.
Unless he abandoned his "clearing" and his stock to almost certain
devastation, and shut up himself and his family in a narrow "fort," for
months at a time, he might expect every hour that their roof would be
given "to the flames, and their flesh to the eagles."
To make matters worse, "the western country," and particularly Kentucky,
had become the rendezvous of Tories, runaway conscripts, deserters,
debtors, and criminals. Gen. Butler, who went there as a Commissioner
from Congress, to treat with certain Indian tribes, kept a private
journal, in which he entered a very graphic, but a very appalling
description of the state of affairs in Kentucky. At the principal
"points," as they were called, were collected hungry speculators,
gamblers, and mere desperadoes,--these distinctions being the only
divisions and degrees in society. Among other things, the journal
contains a statement about land-jobbing and the traffic in town lots,
at Louisville, beside which the account of the same business in "Martin
Chuzzlewit" is absolutely tame. That city, now one of the most superb in
the Union, was then a small collection of cabins and hovels, inhabited
by a class of people of whom specimens might have been found a few
months ago at Cheyenne or Promontory Point. Notwithstanding the
high commissions borne by Gen. Butler and Gen. Parsons, the motley
inhabitants of Louisville flatly refused even to notice them. They
would probably have sold them a "corner lot" in a swamp, or a "splendid
business site" in a mud-hole; but for mere civilities there was no time.
The whole population were so deeply engaged in drinking, card-playing,
and selling town lots to each other, that they persistently refused to
pay any attention to three men who were drowning in the river near by,
although their dismal cries for help were distinctly heard throughout
the "city."
On the journey out, the Lincolns are said to have endured many hardships
and encountered all the usual dangers, including several skirmishes with
the Indians. They settled in Mercer County, but at what particular spot
is uncertain. Their house was a rough log-cabin, their farm a little
clearing in the midst of a vast forest. One morning, not long after
their settlement, the father took Thomas, his youngest son, and went
to build a fence, a short distance from the house; while the other
brothers, Mordecai and Josiah, were sent to another field, not far
away. They were all intent about their work, when a shot from a party
of Indians in ambush broke the "listening stillness" cf the woods.
The father fell dead; Josiah ran to a stockade two or three miles off;
Mordecai, the eldest boy, made his way to the house, and, looking out
from the loophole in the loft, saw an Indian in the act of raising
his little brother from the ground. He took deliberate aim at a silver
ornament on the breast of the Indian, and brought him down. Thomas
sprang toward the cabin, and was admitted by his mother, while Mordecai
renewed his fire at several other Indians that rose from the covert of
the fence or thicket. It was not long until Josiah returned from the
stockade with a party of settlers; but the Indians had fled, and none
were found but the dead one, and another who was wounded and had crept
into the top of a fallen tree.
When this tragedy was enacted, Mordecai, the hero of it, was a
well-grown boy. He seems to have hated Indians ever after with a hatred
which was singular for its intensity, even in those times. Many years
afterwards, his neighbors believed that he was in the habit of following
peaceable Indians, as they passed through the settlements, in order to
get surreptitious shots at them; and it was no secret that he had killed
more than one in that way.
Immediately after the death of her husband, the widow abandoned the
scene of her misfortunes, and removed to Washington County, near the
town of Springfield, where she lived until the youngest of her children
had grown up. Mor-decai and Josiah remained there until late in life,
and were always numbered among the best people in the neighborhood.
Mordecai was the eldest son of his father; and under the law of
primogeniture, which was still a part of the Virginia code, he inherited
some estate in lands. One of the daughters wedded a Mr. Krume, and the
other a Mr. Brumfield.
Thomas seems to have been the only member of the family whose character
was not entirely respectable. He was idle, thriftless, poor, a hunter,
and a rover. One year he wandered away off to his uncle, on the
Holston, near the confines of Tennessee. Another year he wandered into
Breckinridge County, where his easy good-nature was overcome by a huge
bully, and he performed the only remarkable achievement of his life, by
whipping him. In 1806, we find him in Hardin County, trying to learn the
carpenter's trade. Until then, he could neither read nor write; and
it was only after his marriage that his ambition led him to seek
accomplishments of this sort.
Thomas Lincoln was not tall and thin, like Abraham, but comparatively
short and stout, standing about five feet ten inches in his shoes. His
hair was dark and coarse, his complexion brown, his face round and
full, his eyes gray, and his nose large and prominent. He weighed,
at different times, from one hundred and seventy to one hundred and
ninety-six. He was built so "tight and compact," that Dennis Hanks
declares he never could find the points of separation between his ribs,
though he felt for them often. He was a little stoop-shouldered, and
walked with a slow, halting step. But he was sinewy and brave, and, his
habitually peaceable disposition once fairly overborne, was a tremendous
man in a rough-and-tumble fight. He thrashed the monstrous bully of
Breckinridge County in three minutes, and came off without a scratch.
His vagrant career had supplied him with an inexhaustible fund of
anecdotes, which he told cleverly and well. He loved to sit about at
"stores," or under shade-trees, and "spin yarns,"--a propensity which
atoned for many sins, and made him extremely popular. In politics,
he was a Democrat,--a Jackson Democrat. In religion he was nothing at
times, and a member of various denominations by turns,--a Free-Will
Baptist in Kentucky, a Presbyterian in Indiana, and a Disciple--vulgarly
called Campbellite--in Illinois. In this latter communion he seems to
have died.
It ought, perhaps, to be mentioned, that both in Virginia and Kentucky
his name was commonly pronounced "Linck-horn," and in Indiana,
"Linckhern." The usage was so general, that Tom Lincoln came very near
losing his real name altogether. As he never wrote it at all until after
his marriage, and wrote it then only mechanically, it was never spelled
one way or the other, unless by a storekeeper here and there, who had
a small account against him. Whether it was properly "Lincoln,"
"Linckhorn," or "Linckhern," was not definitely settled until after
Abraham began to write, when, as one of the neighbors has it, "he
remodelled the spelling and corrected the pronunciation."
By the middle of 1806, Lincoln had acquired a very limited knowledge
of the carpenter's trade, and set up on his own account; but his
achievements in this line were no better than those of his previous
life. He was employed occasionally to do rough work, that requires
neither science nor skill; but nobody alleges that he ever built a
house, or pretended to do more than a few little odd jobs connected with
such an undertaking. He soon got tired of the business, as he did of
every thing else that required application and labor. He was no boss,
not even an average journeyman, nor a steady hand. When he worked at the
trade at all, he liked to make common benches, cupboards, and bureaus;
and some specimens of his work of this kind are still extant in Kentucky
and Indiana, and bear their own testimony to the quality of their
workmanship.
Some time in the year 1806 he married Nancy Hanks. It was in the shop of
her uncle, Joseph Hanks, at Elizabethtown, in Hardin County, that he had
essayed to learn the trade. We have no record of the courtship, but
any one can readily imagine the numberless occasions that would bring
together the niece and the apprentice. It is true that Nancy did not
live with her uncle; but the Hankses were all very clannish, and she was
doubtless a welcome and frequent guest at his house. It is admitted by
all the old residents of the place that they were honestly married, but
precisely when or how no one can tell. Diligent and thorough searches by
the most competent persons have failed to discover any trace of the fact
in the public records of Hardin and the adjoining counties. The license
and the minister's return in the case of Lincoln and Sarah Johnston, his
second wife, were easily found in the place where the law required them
to be; but of Nancy Hanks's marriage there exists no evidence but that
of mutual acknowledgment and cohabitation. At the time of their union,
Thomas was twenty-eight years of age, and Nancy about twenty-three.
Lincoln had previously courted a girl named Sally Bush, who lived in the
neighborhood of Elizabethtown; but his suit was unsuccessful, and
she became the wife of Johnston, the jailer. Her reason for rejecting
Lincoln comes down to us in no words of her own; but it is clear enough
that it was his want of character, and the "bad luck," as the Hankses
have it, which always attended him. Sally Bush was a modest and pious
girl, in all things pure and decent. She was very neat in her personal
appearance, and, because she was particular in the selection of her
gowns and company, had long been accounted a "proud body," who held
her head above common folks. Even her own relatives seem to have
participated in this mean accusation; and the decency of her dress
and behavior appear to have made her an object of common envy and
backbiting. But she had a will as well as principles of her own, and she
lived to make them both serviceable to the neglected and destitute son
of Nancy Hanks. Thomas Lincoln took another wife, but he always loved
Sally Bush as much as he was capable of loving anybody; and years
afterwards, when her husband and his wife were both dead, he returned
suddenly from the wilds of Indiana, and, representing himself as a
thriving and prosperous farmer, induced her to marry him. It will be
seen hereafter what value was to be attached to his representations of
his own prosperity.
Nancy Hanks, who accepted the honor which Sally Bush refused, was a
slender, symmetrical woman, of medium stature, a brunette, with dark
hair, regular features, and soft, sparkling hazel eyes. Tenderly bred
she might have been beautiful; but hard labor and hard usage bent her
handsome form, and imparted an unnatural coarseness to her features long
before the period of her death. Toward the close, her life and her face
were equally sad; and the latter habitually wore the wo-ful expression
which afterwards distinguished the countenance of her son in repose.
By her family, her understanding was considered something wonderful.
John Hanks spoke reverently of her "high and intellectual forehead,"
which he considered but the proper seat of faculties like hers.
Compared with the mental poverty of her husband and relatives, her
accomplishments were certainly very great; for it is related by them
with pride and delight that she could actually read and write. The
possession of these arts placed her far above her associates, and
after a little while even Tom began to meditate upon the importance of
acquiring them. He set to work accordingly, in real earnest, having a
competent mistress so near at hand; and with much effort she taught him
what letters composed his name, and how to put them together in a stiff
and clumsy fashion. Henceforth he signed no more by making his mark; but
it is nowhere stated that he ever learned to write any thing else, or to
read either written or printed letters.
Nancy Hanks was the daughter of Lucy Hanks. Her mother was one of four
sisters,--Lucy, Betsy, Polly, and Nancy. Betsy married Thomas Sparrow;
Polly married Jesse Friend, and Nancy, Levi Hall. Lucy became the wife
of Henry Sparrow, and the mother of eight children. Nancy the younger
was early sent to live with her uncle and aunt, Thomas and Betsy
Sparrow. Nancy, another of the four sisters, was the mother of that
Dennis F. Hanks whose name will be frequently met with in the course of
this history. He also was brought up, or was permitted to come up, in
the family of Thomas Sparrow, where Nancy found a shelter.
Little Nancy became so completely identified with Thomas and Betsy
Sparrow that many supposed her to have been their child. They reared her
to womanhood, followed her to Indiana, dwelt under the same roof, died
of the same disease, at nearly the same time, and were buried close
beside her. They were the only parents she ever knew; and she must
have called them by names appropriate to that relationship, for several
persons who saw them die, and carried them to their graves, believe to
this day that they were, in fact, her father and mother. Dennis Hanks
persists even now in the assertion that her name was Sparrow; but Dennis
was pitiably weak on the cross-examination: and we shall have to accept
the testimony of Mr. Lincoln himself, and some dozens of other persons,
to the contrary.
All that can be learned of that generation of Hankses to which Nancy's
mother belonged has now been recorded as fully as is compatible with
circumstances. They claim that their ancestors came from England to
Virginia, whence they migrated to Kentucky with the Lincolns, and
settled near them in Mercer County. The same, precisely, is affirmed
of the Sparrows. Branches of both families maintained a more or less
intimate connection with the fortunes of Thomas Lincoln, and the early
life of Abraham was closely interwoven with theirs.
Lincoln took Nancy to live in a shed on one of the alleys of
Elizabethtown. It was a very sorry building, and nearly bare of
furniture. It stands yet, or did stand in 1866, to witness for itself
the wretched poverty of its early inmates. It is about fourteen feet
square, has been three times removed, twice used as a slaughter-house,
and once as a stable. Here a daughter was born on the tenth day of
February, 1807, who was called Nancy during the life of her mother, and
after her death Sarah.
But Lincoln soon wearied of Elizabethtown and carpenter-work. He thought
he could do better as a farmer; and, shortly after the birth of Nancy
(or Sarah), removed to a piece of land on the south fork of Nolin Creek,
three miles from Hodgensville, within the present county of La Rue,
and about thirteen miles from Elizabethtown. What estate he had, or
attempted to get, in this land, is not clear from the papers at hand.
It is said he bought it, but was unable to pay for it. It was very poor,
and the landscape of which it formed a part was extremely desolate. It
was then nearly destitute of timber, though it is now partially covered
in spots by a young and stunted growth of post-oak and hickory. On every
side the eye rested only upon weeds and low bushes, and a kind of grass
which the present owner of the farm describes as "barren grass." It was,
on the whole, as bad a piece of ground as there was in the neighborhood,
and would hardly have sold for a dollar an acre. The general appearance
of the surrounding country was not much better. A few small but pleasant
streams--Nolin Creek and its tributaries--wandered through the valleys.
The land was generally what is called "rolling;" that is, dead levels
interspersed by little hillocks. Nearly all of it was arable; but,
except the margins of the watercourses, not much of it was sufficiently
fertile to repay the labor of tillage. It had no grand, un violated
forests to allure the hunter, and no great bodies of deep and rich soils
to tempt the husbandman. Here it was only by incessant labor and thrifty
habits that an ordinary living could be wrung from the earth.
The family took up their residence in a miserable cabin, which stood on
a little knoll in the midst of a barren glade.
A few stones tumbled down, and lying about loose, still indicate the
site of the mean and narrow tenement which sheltered the infancy of
one of the greatest political chieftains of modern times. Near by, a
"romantic spring" gushed from beneath a rock, and sent forth a slender
but silvery stream, meandering through those dull and unsightly plains.
As it furnished almost the only pleasing feature in the melancholy
desert through which it flowed, the place was called after it, "Rock
Spring Farm." In addition to this single natural beauty, Lincoln began
to think, in a little while, that a couple of trees would look well, and
might even be useful, if judiciously planted in the vicinity of his bare
house-yard. This enterprise he actually put into execution; and
three decayed pear-trees, situated on the "edge" of what was lately a
rye-field, constitute the only memorials of him or his family to be seen
about the premises. They were his sole permanent improvement.
In that solitary cabin, on this desolate spot, the illustrious Abraham
Lincoln was born on the twelfth day of February, 1809.
The Lincolns remained on Nolin Creek until Abraham was four years old.
They then removed to a place much more picturesque, and of far greater
fertility. It was situated about six miles from Hodgensville, on
Knob Creek, a very clear stream, which took its rise in the gorges
of Muldrews Hill, and fell into the Rolling Fork two miles above the
present town of New Haven. The Rolling Fork emptied into Salt River, and
Salt River into the Ohio, twenty-four miles below Louisville. This
farm was well timbered, and more hilly than the one on Nolin Creek. It
contained some rich valleys, which promised such excellent yields,
that Lincoln bestirred himself most vigorously, and actually got into
cultivation the whole of six acres, lying advantageously up and down
the branch. This, however, was not all the work he did, for he still
continued to pother occasionally at his trade; but, no matter what
he turned his hand to, his gains were equally insignificant. He was
satisfied with indifferent shelter, and a diet of "corn-bread and milk"
was all he asked. John Hanks naively observes, that "happiness was
the end of life with him." The land he now lived upon (two hundred and
thirty-eight acres) he had pretended to buy from a Mr. Slater. The
deed mentions a consideration of one hundred and eighteen pounds.
The purchase must have been a mere speculation, with all the payments
deferred, for the title remained in Lincoln but a single year. The
deed was made to him Sept. 2, 1813; and Oct. 27, 1814, he conveyed
two hundred acres to Charles Milton for one hundred pounds, leaving
thirty-eight acres of the tract unsold. No public record discloses what
he did with the remainder. If he retained any interest in it for-the
time, it was probably permitted to be sold for taxes. The last of his
voluntary transactions, in regard to this land, took place two years
before his removal to Indiana; after which, he seems to have continued
in possession as the tenant of Milton.
In the mean time, Dennis Hanks endeavored to initiate young Abraham, now
approaching his eighth year, in the mysteries of fishing, and led him
on numerous tramps up and down the picturesque branch,--the branch whose
waters were so pure that a white pebble could be seen in a depth of
ten feet. On Nolin he had hunted ground-hogs with an older boy, who has
since become the Rev. John Duncan, and betrayed a precocious zest in the
sport. On Knob Creek, he dabbled in the water, or roved the hills
and climbed the trees, with a little companion named Gallaher. On one
occasion, when attempting to "coon" across the stream, by swinging
over on a sycamore-tree, Abraham lost his hold, and, tumbling into deep
water, was saved only by the utmost exertions of the other boy. But,
with all this play, the child was often serious and sad. With the
earliest dawn of reason, he began to suffer and endure; and it was that
peculiar moral training which developed both his heart and his intellect
with such singular and astonishing rapidity. It is not likely that Tom
Lincoln cared a straw about his education. He had none himself, and is
said to have admired "muscle" more than mind. Nevertheless, as Abraham's
sister was going to school for a few days at a time, he was sent
along, as Dennis Hanks remarks, more to bear her company than with
any expectation or desire that he would learn much himself. One of the
masters, Zachariah Riney, taught near the Lincoln cabin. The other,
Caleb Hazel, kept his school nearly four miles away, on the "Friend"
farm; and the hapless children were compelled to trudge that long and
weary distance with spelling-book and "dinner,"--the latter a lunch of
corn-bread, Tom Lincoln's favorite dish. Hazel could teach reading
and writing, after a fashion, and a little arithmetic. But his great
qualification for his office lay in the strength of his arm, and his
power and readiness to "whip the big boys."
But, as time wore on, the infelicities of Lincoln's life in this
neighborhood became insupportable. He was gaining neither riches nor
credit; and, being a wanderer by natural inclination, began to long for
a change. His decision, however, was hastened by certain troubles which
culminated in a desperate combat between him and one Abraham Enlow.
They fought like savages; but Lincoln obtained a signal and permanent
advantage by biting off the nose of his antagonist, so that he went
bereft all the days of his life, and published his audacity and its
punishment wherever he showed his face. But the affray, and the fame
of it, made Lincoln more anxious than ever to escape from Kentucky. He
resolved, therefore, to leave these scenes forever, and seek a roof-tree
beyond the Ohio.
It has pleased some of Mr. Lincoln's biographers to represent this
removal of his father as a flight from the taint of slavery. Nothing
could be further from the truth. There were not at the time more than
fifty slaves in all Hardin County, which then composed a vast area of
territory. It was practically a free community. Lincoln's more fortunate
relatives in other parts of the State were slaveholders; and there is
not the slightest evidence that he ever disclosed any conscientious
scruples concerning the "institution."
The lives of his father and mother, and the history and character of the
family before their settlement in Indiana, were topics upon which Mr.
Lincoln never spoke but with great reluctance and significant reserve.
In his family Bible he kept a register of births, marriages, and deaths,
every entry being carefully made in his own handwriting. It contains the
date of his sister's birth and his own; of the marriage and death of his
sister; of the death of his mother; and of the birth and death of
Thomas Lincoln. The rest of the record is almost wholly devoted to the
Johnstons and their numerous descendants and connections. It has not a
word about the Hankses or the Sparrows. It shows the marriage of Sally
Bush, first with Daniel Johnston, and then with Thomas Lincoln; but it
is entirely silent as to the marriage of his own mother. It does not
even give the date of her birth, but barely recognizes her existence
and demise, to make the vacancy which was speedily filled by Sarah
Johnston.1
1 The leaf of the Bible which contains these entries is in
the possession of Col. Chapman.
An artist was painting his portrait, and asked him for a sketch of his
early life. He gave him this brief memorandum: "I was born Feb. 12,1809,
in the then Hardin County, Kentucky, at a point within the now county of
La Rue, a mile or a mile and a half from where Hodgens Mill now is. My
parents being dead, and my own memory not serving, I know of no means of
identifying the precise locality. It was on Nolin Creek."
To the compiler of the "Dictionary of Congress" he gave the following:
"Born Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. Education defective.
Profession, a lawyer. Have been a captain of volunteers in the
Black-Hawk War. Postmaster at a very small office. Four times a member
of the Illinois Legislature, and was a member of the Lower House of
Congress."
To a campaign biographer who applied for particulars of his early
history, he replied that they could be of no interest; that they were
but
"The short and simple annals of the poor."
"The chief difficulty I had to encounter," writes this latter gentleman,
"was to induce him to communicate the homely facts and incidents of his
early life. He seemed to be painfully impressed with the extreme poverty
of his early surroundings, the utter absence of all romantic and heroic
elements; and I know he thought poorly of the idea of attempting a
biographical sketch for campaign purposes.... Mr. Lincoln communicated
some facts to me about his ancestry, which he did not wish published,
and which I have never spoken of or alluded to before. I do not think,
however, that Dennis Hanks, if he knows any thing about these matters,
would be very likely to say any thing about them."