[Sidenote: =Abraham Lincoln, 1809=]
[Sidenote: =Moves to Indiana at the age of seven=]
=158. The Backwoodsman Who Became President.= Abraham Lincoln was born
in Kentucky, February 12, 1809. His parents were so poor that they
hardly knew that they were poor. When he was seven years old his family
crossed the Ohio River and settled in Indiana. There they found a place
in the deep, dark forest, in the southern part of the state, and began
to build a cabin for a home. Abe worked hard to help build it. It was
not much of a house--only fourteen feet square. One side was left out,
and here they built the fire. It was not very warm in winter and not
very cool in summer. The hard ground was the floor.
[Illustration: THE BIRTHPLACE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN]
[Sidenote: =Lincoln's father makes the furniture=]
The father was a sort of carpenter, and out of rough timbers he made a
table and some three-legged stools. He also made the bedsteads, which
consisted of poles driven into the wall.
In the loft of the cabin Abe made himself a bed of leaves. Every night
he climbed into the loft by means of wooden pins driven into the wall.
He was busy helping cut down trees and burning them to make room for a
patch of corn and pumpkins.
The lad and his sister roasted the ears of young corn over the fire.
The ripe corn was ground into meal from which corn bread was made. This
was baked in the ashes or on a board in front of a bed of red-hot coals.
[Illustration: THE GRAVE OF NANCY HANKS LINCOLN]
[Sidenote: =As a hunter=]
The woods, great thick woods for miles on all sides of them, were
broken only here and there by a "clearing." In these forests Abe went
hunting with a gun on his shoulder. He often came back laden with
squirrels, wild turkeys, and other game.
[Sidenote: =His mother's death=]
They were living in the cabin when Abe's mother sickened and died. He
was broken-hearted. She had taught him what little he knew. Her last
words to him were: "Try to live as I have taught you and to love your
Heavenly Father."
[Sidenote: =Lincoln's tribute to his mother=]
Many years after, when he became famous, he said: "All that I am or
hope to be, I owe to my angel mother." She was put in a coffin roughly
cut out of logs by the same tools that had made their furniture, and
laid to rest in a corner of the clearing. Long years afterward a good
man put a stone over the grave, with this inscription: "Nancy Hanks
Lincoln, the mother of President Lincoln, died October 5, A.D. 1818,
aged 35 years."
[Sidenote: =Lincoln gets a new mother=]
After a year his father went back to Kentucky to look about for a wife.
He found a widow, named Sarah Bush Johnston, and married her. He had
known her before he met Nancy Hanks. She was thrifty and industrious,
and her bedding and other household goods filled a four-horse wagon.
Before winter came she made her husband put a good floor, and a door,
and windows in the cabin. She took charge of Abe and his sister, and
made them "look a little more human." She put good clothes on the
children and put them to sleep in comfortable beds.
[Sidenote: =Abe's education=]
=159. Lincoln Educates Himself.= Schools were scarce in that new
country, and Abe never had more than a year at school. His stepmother
encouraged him in every way to study at home.
[Sidenote: =A taste for reading=]
[Sidenote: =He copies down what pleases him=]
When Abe got a taste for reading it was hard to satisfy it. He read
the Bible, _Æsop's Fables_, _Robinson Crusoe_, _Pilgrim's Progress_,
a history of the United States, and Weem's _Life of Washington_. He
borrowed the _Revised Statutes of Indiana_. These were all solid books,
good for a young boy to read. When a sentence pleased him, he read and
reread it. If he did not own the book, he took many notes, filling his
copy book with choice sentences.
[Illustration: LINCOLN READING BY THE LIGHT OF THE OPEN FIRE
_After a painting by Eastman Johnson_]
[Sidenote: =Lincoln reads while he eats=]
John Hanks, a boy brought up with Lincoln, says: "When Abe and I
returned to the house from work, he would go to the cupboard, snatch a
piece of corn bread, sit down, take a book, cock his legs up as high as
his head, and read." He read, wrote, and ciphered incessantly.
[Sidenote: =A great story-teller when a boy=]
Young Lincoln was soon able to do a "man's labor," although only a boy.
He was strong and powerful, and a great favorite. In that family of
brothers, sisters, and cousins, his good-natured jokes and stories kept
peace. Abe was the great story-teller of the family.
[Sidenote: =At nineteen years of age=]
At the age of nineteen Lincoln reached his full height of six feet four
inches. By that time he had read every book he could find, and could
"spell down" the whole country. "He could sink an ax deeper into the
wood than any man I ever saw," said a neighbor.
[Illustration: FASHIONS IN THE DAYS OF LINCOLN'S BOYHOOD]
[Sidenote: =Moves to Illinois=]
When Abe was twenty-one, the entire family started for Illinois. Along
forest roads, and across muddy prairies, for two weeks they traveled
till they came to the Sangamon River.
They built a cabin on the north fork of the river. With the help of
John Hanks, young Lincoln plowed fifteen acres, planted it in corn, and
split the rails from the tall walnut trees on the ground and fenced it.
[Sidenote: =A trip to New Orleans=]
=160. Tries to be a Business Man.= The next year he was hired to take
a flatboat to New Orleans. The boat was loaded with hogs, pork, and
corn. The wages of the trip were fifty cents a day, and twenty dollars
besides for each man.
[Sidenote: =A slave auction=]
[Sidenote: =Clerk in a store=]
They "poled" and rowed their slow way down the Ohio and the
Mississippi. At New Orleans, Lincoln first saw a slave auction. He saw
men and women sold. As he turned away he said to a friend: "If ever I
get a chance to hit that thing, I'll hit it hard." He did not then
dream of the mighty blow he would one day strike. After his return from
New Orleans, he became a clerk in a store.
One day a woman gave Lincoln six cents too much. That very evening he
walked several miles to find her and give back the money. At another
time Lincoln found that he had not given a woman as much tea as she
paid for. He went in search of her and gave her the rest of the tea.
[Sidenote: =The Black Hawk War=]
About this time Lincoln joined a company of soldiers going to the Black
Hawk War. An Indian chief named Black Hawk was on the "war path." All
the frontier was up in arms against him and his band of braves.
[Sidenote: =Lincoln elected captain=]
Lincoln was well pleased when nearly all the men in his company walked
over and stood by his side. This was their way of electing a captain.
No election in later days gave him greater pleasure.
[Sidenote: =Fame as a story-teller spreads=]
Little fighting was done by Lincoln's company, but sitting around the
camp fires in the evening, he became famous as a story-teller, and he
made many friends.
[Illustration: LINCOLN SPLITTING RAILS TO FENCE IN THEIR FARM]
=161. Makes a Success in Politics.= On his return from the war, though
he was only twenty-three years old, he became a candidate for the state
legislature, but was defeated.
[Sidenote: =Elected to the legislature=]
A little later he was again a candidate. This time he won. After the
election, he said to a friend: "Did you vote for me?" "I did," replied
the man. "Then you must lend me two hundred dollars." Lincoln needed
a suit of clothes and money to pay the expenses for traveling in a
stagecoach to the capital!
In 1837 the legislature passed a set of resolutions in favor of slavery
and condemning the Abolitionists. Lincoln could not stand this. He and
one other man signed a protest declaring that slavery was founded on
"injustice and bad policy."
[Illustration: LINCOLN AS A CIRCUIT RIDER]
Lincoln was reëlected to the legislature seven times. He generally got
more votes than other men on the ticket because the people liked his
quaint sayings and his unpretending manner.
[Sidenote: =Lincoln licensed to practice law=]
In the meantime, after three or four years of study, he was given a
license to practice law. He made it a rule never to take a case which
he believed to be wrong. He was a successful lawyer, but the road to
fame by way of the law was a slow one. It gave Lincoln a chance to
engage in politics, as we have already seen.
[Sidenote: =His taste for public speaking=]
He liked "stump speaking." He liked to go about the country from one
speaking place to another, or to travel from one county to another
to meet the different sessions of the courts. He spoke for what he
believed to be the truth. He was always in earnest, and made his
hearers feel that he was sincere.
[Sidenote: =Speaks for Harrison and for Henry Clay=]
In 1840 he was one of Harrison's orators, and in 1844 he threw all his
power and influence in favor of Henry Clay, his favorite among the
great men, for the presidency.
[Sidenote: =Lincoln in Congress=]
In 1846 the Whigs of Springfield, where he was then living, put Lincoln
forward for Congress, and succeeded in getting him elected. He was not
in favor of the war with Mexico, then going on, and was not selected to
run again. Lincoln returned to Springfield, and began the practice of
law with greater success than ever before.
When Senator Douglas of Illinois, in 1854, carried the Kansas-Nebraska
Bill through Congress, anti-slavery men all over the nation raised a
storm of indignation. This bill repealed the Missouri Compromise, which
had stood for thirty years, and threw the territories open to slavery.
[Sidenote: =The champion against Douglas=]
Douglas spoke at the state fair, held in Springfield. He tried to
explain why he favored the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. Lincoln made a speech
four hours in length, ably answering the argument of Douglas. This
speech made him the champion for the anti-slavery people in the state
against Douglas.
[Sidenote: =Public opinion points toward Lincoln=]
The same question was fought out between them at Peoria, a little
later. Again Lincoln met Douglas' arguments. People began to talk of
Lincoln as the next United States senator. More and more, popular
opinion in the state began to turn toward Lincoln.
[Illustration: WHALE-OIL LAMP
_From Lincoln's log cabin_]
[Sidenote: =Nominated for United States senator=]
Accordingly, in 1858, at Springfield, the Republicans in convention
named Lincoln for United States senator. He made a speech to the
Republicans in which he said that this country cannot remain half slave
and half free--that it must become all slave or all free.
This called every man to face a new question. No greater question could
be raised. Some friends of Lincoln pleaded with him not to say that
the country could not remain half slave and half free. "I had rather
be defeated with that expression in my speech than to be victorious
without it," said Lincoln.
[Sidenote: =Lincoln challenges Douglas=]
=162. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates.= Douglas attacked this speech, and
Lincoln challenged him to hold several joint debates before the people
of Illinois. Seven debates were arranged, in which Douglas insisted
upon opening and closing four.
[Sidenote: =People come from far away to hear the debates=]
The people of Illinois were mainly farmers in 1858. They traveled long
distances to hear these giants debate the question of slavery. Some
of them were several days coming and going--in wagons, on horseback,
or on foot. The newspapers in the larger cities sent men to listen to
these debates, and take down the words used by Lincoln and Douglas. The
editors knew the people were anxiously waiting to read what these men
had to say about slavery.
[Sidenote: =The fatal answer=]
"Can the people of a ... Territory, in any lawful way, against the
wish of any citizen ... exclude slavery?" Lincoln asked. "Yes," said
Douglas. That was a fatal answer. For, by this answer, Douglas lost the
support of the Democrats of the South, although he held the Democrats
of Illinois. He could still be senator, but he could never be president.
The debates went on. "I do not perceive," said Lincoln, "that because
the white man is to have the superior position, the negro should be
denied everything ... there is no reason in the world why the negro is
not entitled to all the natural rights [named] in the Declaration of
Independence ... I agree with Judge Douglas, he [the negro] is not my
equal in many respects--certainly not in color, perhaps not in moral or
intellectual endowments. But, in the right to eat the bread, without
the leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal,
and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man."
[Sidenote: =Lincoln made famous by the debates=]
These debates made Lincoln widely known. He accepted invitations to
speak in Ohio, New York, and New England.
[Sidenote: =Lincoln the rail-splitter=]
In May, 1860, the Republicans of Illinois met in state convention.
Lincoln was there. The people picked him up, lifted him over their
heads, and placed him on the platform. The cheering was loud. Just at
this moment John Hanks came into the hall carrying two fence rails,
with the Stars and Stripes mounted between them, bearing in large words
the following: "Taken from a lot made by Abraham Lincoln and John
Hanks in the Sangamon Bottom in the year 1830." The people stood up
and cheered, and threw their hats high and shouted for Lincoln, the
"rail-splitter." He made them a speech. The convention then and there
named him as the choice of the Republican party of Illinois for the
next President of the United States.
[Sidenote: =The candidate of the Republican party=]
=163. Lincoln President.= A few weeks later Abraham Lincoln was
nominated in Chicago by the National Convention of the Republican party
for the presidency. Just as the passage of Douglas' Kansas-Nebraska
Bill killed the old Whig party, so the debates between Lincoln and
Douglas split the Democratic party into a northern and a southern wing.
[Illustration: LINCOLN SPEAKING IN THE STATE CONVENTION]
[Sidenote: =Lincoln elected=]
Douglas was nominated by the northern wing, and Breckenridge by the
southern wing. This division in the Democratic party resulted in the
election of Lincoln to the presidency, in November, 1860.
During the fall and winter, seven southern states left the Union,
and set up a government called the "Confederate States of America."
They had their government all in running order before Lincoln left
Springfield.
[Sidenote: =Bound for Washington=]
[Sidenote: =At Independence Hall=]
In February, 1861, Lincoln said good-by to the people of Springfield,
and started for Washington to take his seat as president. The people
were bound to see him and hear his voice and shake his hand. Along the
route there were cheers, bonfires, and military parades with miles of
marching men. At Philadelphia he raised a flag over Independence Hall.
He made a touching speech in regard to the men of the Revolution who
had sat in that hall, and pledged himself to abide by the principles of
the Declaration of Independence.
[Sidenote: =The inauguration=]
On March 4, with soldiers guarding the capitol, Lincoln read his
inaugural address and took the oath of office which all presidents
before him had taken. This speech was listened to with the greatest
interest. It was now plain to everybody that Lincoln meant to fight, if
fighting were necessary to save the Union.
In April Confederates fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor,
South Carolina. After awful hardships, Colonel Anderson and his men
surrendered the fort to the Confederate troops.
[Sidenote: =The call for men=]
Lincoln immediately sent forth the call for seventy-five thousand
men. He made it a call to save the Union which Jackson, Webster, and
Clay had done so much to save. War had come--civil war, the most
dreadful kind of war. Four more states left the Union, and joined the
Confederate States. But the slave states of Maryland, Kentucky, and
Missouri remained with the Union.
[Sidenote: =Blockade of Confederate States=]
While the Union troops were gathering and drilling in Washington,
Lincoln declared a blockade of the ports of the Confederate States.
He saw that if he closed the ports of the South he could prevent the
shipment of cotton to Europe and so keep the Confederacy from getting
supplies in exchange for the cotton. This was a heavy blow to the
Confederates.
[Sidenote: =The "Merrimac" and the "Monitor"=]
The South depended on the _Merrimac_ to break the blockade. The
_Merrimac_ was a wooden war vessel which had been covered with a double
coat of iron. It had a great iron beak with which it could ram wooden
vessels. The _Merrimac_ moved to attack the Union fleet, which was
stationed in Hampton Roads. The shot fired from the Union vessels and
from the shore batteries had no more effect on the iron coat of the
_Merrimac_ than hail on a tin roof. She sank one wooden war vessel and
set another on fire. What was to hinder her from going up the Potomac
and bombarding Washington?
[Illustration: THE CONFEDERATE STATES]
[Sidenote: =Battle between ironclads=]
But Lincoln placed his hope in the _Monitor_. This strange craft,
"looking like a cheese box on a raft," reached Hampton Roads that
night and took position to defend the Union fleet from the _Merrimac_.
The next morning the two ironclads met in battle. It was a battle
of giants. "Why do you stop firing?" asked an officer of one of the
gunners on the _Merrimac_. "I can do her as much damage by snapping my
thumb at her every two minutes and a half," was the reply.
[Illustration: ABRAHAM LINCOLN
_From a rare photograph taken by Alexander Hesler in Chicago, 1860, and
loaned by the Chicago Photogravure Company, who own the original_]
It was a drawn battle. Washington was safe. The South could not break
the blockade. This battle between the _Merrimac_ and the _Monitor_
changed the navies of the world. Wooden war vessels now gave place to
iron vessels.
[Sidenote: =McClellan in the East=]
Meantime great battles were also being fought on land. In the East the
Union army under General McClellan had been hurled back in an attack on
Richmond. The Confederates under General Lee, in an attempt to invade
the North, had been forced to retreat.
[Sidenote: =Grant in the West=]
In the West events of equal importance were taking place. The Union
troops under General Grant defeated the Confederates in many battles
in Kentucky and Tennessee. Then with the aid of the Union fleet under
Captain David Farragut, Grant captured the Confederate strongholds
along the Mississippi River, and so cut the Confederacy in two.
[Sidenote: =Slavery question to the front=]
Lincoln had declared the war was to be fought to save the Union and not
to get rid of slavery. But as the war went on, the slavery question
would keep coming up. The Confederates used the slaves to build forts,
cook for the army, and to do other work. Thus the slave took the place
of the white soldier. Other slaves raised food supplies and cared for
the women. In this way the slaves were constantly being used to help
fight against the Union.
[Sidenote: =Proclamation of Emancipation=]
The time had come to destroy slavery. Lincoln now saw that by freeing
the slaves he could strike a heavy blow at the Confederacy. So as
commander in chief of the Union armies he issued the Proclamation of
Emancipation January 1, 1863.
The war, however, continued more than two years longer. The long list
of dead and wounded on both sides saddened Lincoln. Day by day the
lines in his kindly face grew deeper.
Finally the news came that General Grant had hammered General Lee's
lines to pieces, and that Jefferson Davis and his cabinet were leaving
Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy.
[Illustration: THE STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN LINCOLN PARK, CHICAGO
_By Augustus St. Gaudens_]
Early in April President Lincoln went to visit the city of Richmond.
Here he saw a city on fire, and a mob breaking into houses.
[Sidenote: =Lee surrenders=]
Grant was pursuing Lee's army. He overtook it, and on April 8 offered
terms of surrender. Lee accepted. The president's heart was filled with
gratitude that no more lives were to be sacrificed on either side.
[Sidenote: =Lincoln shot=]
=164. President Lincoln Assassinated.= The evening of April 14, 1865,
Lincoln went to Ford's Theater in Washington to rest his body and mind.
As he sat in a box, John Wilkes Booth, an actor, shot him in the back
of the head. Booth sprang upon the stage, flourished his revolver, and
escaped.
[Sidenote: =Dies April 15, 1865=]
Abraham Lincoln died the next day. Thus the nation lost a great man. He
was truly a man "with malice toward none, with charity for all."
[Illustration:
Courtesy of
_Youth's Companion_