POLITICS, WAR, STOREKEEPING AND STUDYING LAW
STUDYING GRAMMAR FIRST
By "a step still further in advance" Dr. Holland must have meant the
young clerk's going into politics. He had made many friends in New
Salem, and they reflected back his good-will by urging him to run for
the State Legislature. Before doing this he consulted Mentor Graham, the
village schoolmaster, with whom he had worked as election clerk when he
first came to the place. Abe could read, write and cipher, but he felt
that if he should succeed in politics, he would disgrace his office and
himself by not speaking and writing English correctly.
The schoolmaster advised: "If you expect to go before the public in any
capacity, I think the best thing you can do is to study English
grammar."
"If I had a grammar I would commence now," sighed Abe.
Mr. Graham thought one could be found at Vaner's, only six miles away.
So Abe got up and started for it as fast as he could stride. In an
incredibly short time he returned with a copy of Kirkham's Grammar, and
set to work upon it at once. Sometimes he would steal away into the
woods, where he could study "out loud" if he desired. He kept up his old
habit of sitting up nights to read, and as lights were expensive, the
village cooper allowed him to stay in his shop, where he burned the
shavings and studied by the blaze as he had done in Indiana, after every
one else had gone to bed. So it was not long before young Lincoln, with
the aid of Schoolmaster Graham, had mastered the principles of English
grammar, and felt himself better equipped to enter politics and public
life. Some of his rivals, however, did not trouble themselves about
speaking and writing correctly.
GOING INTO POLITICS
James Rutledge, a "substantial" citizen, and the former owner of
Rutledge's mill and dam, was the president of the New Salem debating
club. Young Lincoln joined this society, and when he first rose to
speak, everybody began to smile in anticipation of a funny story, but
Abe proceeded to discuss the question before the house in very good
form. He was awkward in his movements and gestures at first, and amused
those present by thrusting his unwieldy hands deep into his pockets, but
his arguments were so well-put and forcible that all who heard him were
astonished.
Mr. Rutledge, that night after Abe's maiden effort at the lyceum, told
his wife:
"There is more in Abe Lincoln's head than mere wit and fun. He is
already a fine speaker. All he needs is culture to fit him for a high
position in public life."
But there were occasions enough where something besides culture was
required. A man who was present and heard Lincoln's first real stump
speech describes his appearance and actions in the following picturesque
language:
"He wore a mixed jean coat, clawhammer style, short in the sleeves and
bob-tail--in fact, it was so short in the tail that he could not sit
upon it--flax and tow linen pantaloons, and a straw hat. I think he wore
a vest, but do not remember how it looked. He wore pot metal (top)
boots.
"His maiden effort on the stump was a speech on the occasion of a public
sale at Pappyville, a village eleven miles from Springfield. After the
sale was over and speechmaking had begun, a fight--a 'general fight' as
one of the bystanders relates--ensued, and Lincoln, noticing one of his
friends about to succumb to the attack of an infuriated ruffian,
interposed to prevent it. He did so most effectually. Hastily descending
from the rude platform, he edged his way through the crowd, and seizing
the bully by the neck and the seat of his trousers, threw him by means
of his great strength and long arms, as one witness stoutly insists,
'twelve feet away.' Returning to the stand, and throwing aside his hat,
he inaugurated his campaign with the following brief and juicy
declaration:
"'Fellow-Citizens: I presume you all know who I am. I am humble Abraham
Lincoln. I have been solicited by many friends to become a candidate
for the Legislature. My politics are "short and sweet" like the old
woman's dance. I am in favor of national bank. I am in favor of the
internal improvement system, and a high protective tariff. These are my
sentiments and political principles. If elected, I shall be thankful; if
not, it will be all the same.'"
The only requirement for a candidate for the Illinois Legislature in
1832 was that he should announce his "sentiments." This Lincoln did,
according to custom, in a circular of about two thousand words,
rehearsing his experiences on the Sangamon River and in the community of
New Salem. For a youth who had just turned twenty-three, who had never
been to school a year in his life, who had no political training, and
had never made a political speech, it was a bold and dignified document,
closing as follows:
"Considering the great degree of modesty which should always attend
youth, it is probable I have already been presuming more than becomes
me. However, upon the subjects of which I have treated, I have spoken as
I have thought. I may be wrong in regard to any or all of them, but,
holding it a sound maxim that it is better only sometimes to be right
than at all times to be wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be
erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them.
"Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether this is true
or not, I can say for one, that I have no other so great as that of
being truly esteemed of my fellow-men by rendering myself worthy of
their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition is yet
to be developed. I am young and unknown to many of you. I was born, and
have ever remained in the most humble walks of life. I have no wealthy
or popular relations or friends to recommend me. My case is thrown
exclusively upon the independent voters of the country; and, if elected,
they will have conferred a favor on me for which I shall be unremitting
in my labors to compensate. But if the good people in their wisdom shall
see fit to keep me in the background, I have been too familiar with
disappointments to be very much chagrined."
"CAPTAIN LINCOLN"
Lincoln had hardly launched in his first political venture when, in
April, 1832, a messenger arrived in New Salem with the announcement from
Governor Reynolds, of Illinois, that the Sacs and other hostile tribes,
led by Black Hawk, had invaded the northern part of the State, spreading
terror among the white settlers in that region. The governor called upon
those who were willing to help in driving back the Indians to report at
Beardstown, on the Illinois River, within a week.
Lincoln and other Sangamon County men went at once to Richmond where a
company was formed. The principal candidate for captain was a man named
Kirkpatrick, who had treated Lincoln shabbily when Abe, in one of the
odd jobs he had done in that region, worked in Kirkpatrick's sawmill.
The employer had agreed to buy his hired man a cant-hook for handling
the heavy logs. As there was a delay in doing this, Lincoln told him he
would handle the logs without the cant-hook if Kirkpatrick would pay him
the two dollars that implement would cost. The employer promised to do
this, but never gave him the money.
So when Lincoln saw that Kirkpatrick was a candidate for the captaincy,
he said to Greene, who had worked with him in Offutt's store:
"Bill, I believe I can make Kirkpatrick pay me that two dollars he owes
me on the cant-hook now. I guess I'll run against him for captain."
Therefore Abe Lincoln announced himself as a candidate. The vote was
taken in an odd way. It was announced that when the men heard the
command to march, each should go and stand by the man he wished to have
for captain. The command was given. At the word, "March," three-fourths
of the company rallied round Abe Lincoln. More than twenty-five years
afterward, when Lincoln was a candidate for the presidency of the United
States, he referred to himself in the third person in describing this
incident, saying that he was elected "to his own surprise," and "he says
he has not since had any success in life which gave him so much
satisfaction."
IGNORANCE OF MILITARY TACTICS
But Lincoln was a "raw hand" at military tactics. He used to enjoy
telling of his ignorance and the expedients adopted in giving his
commands to the company. Once when he was marching, twenty men abreast,
across a field it became necessary to pass through a narrow gateway into
the next field. He said:
"I could not, for the life of me, remember the word for getting the
company _endwise_ so that it could go through the gate; so, as we came
near the gate, I shouted, 'This company is dismissed for two minutes,
when it will fall in again on the other side of the fence.'"
A HISTORIC MYSTERY EXPLAINED
Captain Lincoln had his sword taken from him for shooting within limits.
Many have wondered that a man of Lincoln's intelligence should have been
guilty of this stupid infraction of ordinary army regulations.
Biographers of Lincoln puzzled over this until the secret was explained
by William Turley Baker, of Bolivia, Ill., at the Lincoln Centenary in
Springfield. All unconscious of solving a historic mystery, "Uncle
Billy" Baker related the following story which explains that the
shooting was purely accidental:
"My father was roadmaster general in the Black Hawk War. Lincoln used to
come often to our house and talk it all over with father, when I was a
boy, and I've heard them laugh over their experiences in that war. The
best joke of all was this: Father received orders one day to throw log
bridges over a certain stream the army had to cross. He felled some
tall, slim black walnuts--the only ones he could find there--and the
logs were so smooth and round that they were hard to walk on any time.
This day it rained and made them very slippery. Half of the soldiers
fell into the stream and got a good ducking. Captain Lincoln was one of
those that tumbled in. He just laughed and scrambled out as quick as he
could. He always made the best of everything like that.
"Well, that evening when the company came to camp, some of them had dog
tents--just a big canvas sheet--and the boys laughed to see Lincoln
crawl under one of them little tents. He was so long that his head and
hands and feet stuck out on all sides. The boys said he looked just like
a big terrapin. After he had got himself stowed away for the night, he
remembered that he hadn't cleaned his pistol, after he fell into the
creek.
"So he backed out from under his canvas shell and started to clean it
out. It was what was called a bulldog pistol, because it had a blunt,
short muzzle. Abe's forefinger was long enough to use as a ramrod for
it. But before he began operations he snapped the trigger and, to his
astonishment, the thing went off!
"Pretty soon an orderly came along in great haste, yellin', 'Who did
that?--Who fired that shot?' Some of the men tried to send the orderly
along about his business, making believe the report was heard further
on, but Lincoln he wouldn't stand for no such deception, spoken or
unspoken. 'I did it,' says he, beginning to explain how it happened.
"You see, his legs was so blamed long, and he must have landed on his
feet, in the creek, and got out of the water without his pistol getting
wet, 'way up there in his weskit!
"But he had to pay the penalty just the same, for they took his sword
away from him for several days. You see, he was a captain and ought to
'a' set a good example in military discipline."
HOW CAPTAIN LINCOLN SAVED AN INDIAN'S LIFE
One day an old "friendly Indian" came into camp with a "talking paper"
or pass from the "big white war chief." The men, with the pioneer idea
that "the only good Indian is a dead Indian," were for stringing him up.
The poor old red man protested and held the general's letter before
their eyes.
"Me good Injun," he kept saying, "white war chief say me good Injun.
Look--talking paper--see!"
"Get out! It's a forgery! Shoot him! String him up!" shouted the
soldiers angrily.
This noise brought Captain Lincoln out of his tent. At a glance he saw
what they were about to do. He jumped in among them, shouting
indignantly:
"Stand back, all of you! For shame! I'll fight you all, one after the
other, just as you come. Take it out on me if you can, but you shan't
hurt this poor old Indian. When a man comes to me for help, he's going
to get it, if I have to lick all Sangamon County to give it to him."
The three months for which the men were enlisted soon expired, and
Lincoln's captaincy also ended. But he re-enlisted as a private, and
remained in the ranks until the end of the war, which found him in
Wisconsin, hundreds of miles from New Salem. He and a few companions
walked home, as there were not many horses to be had. Lincoln enlivened
the long tramp with his fund of stories and jokes.
It is sometimes asserted that Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis met at
this early day, as officers in the Black Hawk War, but this statement
is not founded on fact, for young Lieutenant Davis was absent on a
furlough and could not have encountered the tall captain from the
Sangamon then, as many would like to believe.
Lincoln always referred to the Black Hawk War as a humorous adventure.
He made a funny speech in Congress describing some of his experiences in
this campaign in which he did not take part in a battle, nor did he even
catch sight of a hostile Indian.
AGAIN A RIVER PILOT
Abe was still out of work. Just before he enlisted he piloted the
_Talisman_, a steamboat which had come up the Sangamon on a trial trip,
in which the speed of the boat averaged four miles an hour. At that time
the wildest excitement prevailed. The coming of the _Talisman_ up their
little river was hailed with grand demonstrations and much
speech-making. Every one expected the Government to spend millions of
dollars to make the Sangamon navigable, and even New Salem (which is not
now to be found on the map) was to become a flourishing city, in the
hopeful imaginings of its few inhabitants. Lincoln, being a candidate,
naturally "took the fever," and shared the delirium that prevailed. He
could hardly have done otherwise, even if he had been so disposed. This
was before the days of railroads, and the commerce and prosperity of the
country depended on making the smaller streams navigable. Lincoln
received forty dollars, however, for his services as pilot. The
_Talisman_, instead of establishing a river connection with the
Mississippi River cities, never came back. She was burned at the wharf
in St. Louis, and the navigation of the poor little Sangamon, which was
only a shallow creek, was soon forgotten.
LINCOLN'S ONLY DEFEAT BY A DIRECT VOTE
When Abe returned from the war he had no steady employment. On this
account, especially, he must have been deeply disappointed to be
defeated in the election which took place within two weeks after his
arrival. His patriotism had been stronger than his political sagacity.
If he had stayed at home to help himself to the Legislature he might
have been elected, though he was then a comparative stranger in the
county. One of the four representatives chosen was Peter Cartwright, the
backwoods preacher.
Lincoln afterward mentioned that this was the only time he was ever
defeated by a direct vote of the people.