HIS KINDNESS OF HEART
PUTTING TWO YOUNG BIRDS BACK IN THE NEST
Mr. Lincoln's tender-heartedness was the subject of much amusement among
his fellow attorneys. One day, while out riding with several friends,
they missed Lincoln. One of them, having heard the distressed cries of
two young birds that had fallen from the nest, surmised that this had
something to do with Mr. Lincoln's disappearance. The man was right.
Lincoln had hitched his horse and climbed the fence into the thicket
where the fledglings were fluttering on the ground in great fright. He
caught the young birds and tenderly carried them about until he found
their nest. Climbing the tree he put the birdlings back where they
belonged. After an hour Mr. Lincoln caught up with his companions, who
laughed at him for what they called his "childishness." He answered them
earnestly:
"Gentlemen, you may laugh, but I could not have slept tonight if I had
not saved those little birds. The mother's cries and theirs would have
rung in my ears."
LAWYER LINCOLN, IN A NEW SUIT OF CLOTHES, RESCUING A PIG STUCK IN THE
MUD
Lawyer Lincoln rode from one county-seat to another, on the Eighth
Judicial Circuit of Illinois, either on the back of a raw-boned horse,
or in a rickety buggy drawn by the same old "crowbait," as his legal
friends called the animal. The judge and lawyers of the several courts
traveled together and whiled away the time chatting and joking. Of
course, Abraham Lincoln was in great demand because of his unfailing
humor.
One day he appeared in a new suit of clothes. This was such a rare
occurrence that the friends made remarks about it. The garments did not
fit him very well, and the others felt in duty bound to "say things"
which were anything but complimentary.
As they rode along through the mud they were making Lincoln the butt of
their gibes. He was not like most jokers, for he could take as well as
give, while he could "give as good as he got."
In the course of their "chaffing" they came to a spot about four miles
from Paris, Illinois, where they saw a pig stuck in the mud and
squealing lustily. The men all laughed at the poor animal and its absurd
plight.
"Poor piggy!" exclaimed Mr. Lincoln impulsively. "Let's get him out of
that."
The others jeered at the idea. "You'd better do it. You're dressed for
the job!" exclaimed one.
"Return to your wallow!" laughed another, pointing in great glee to the
wallowing hog and the mudhole.
Lincoln looked at the pig, at the deep mud, then down at his new
clothes. Ruefully he rode on with them for some time. But the cries of
the helpless animal rang in his ears. He could endure it no longer.
Lagging behind the rest, he waited until they had passed a bend in the
road. Then he turned and rode back as fast as his poor old horse could
carry him through the mud. Dismounting, he surveyed the ground. The pig
had struggled until it was almost buried in the mire, and was now too
exhausted to move. After studying the case as if it were a problem in
civil engineering, he took some rails off the fence beside the road.
Building a platform of rails around the now exhausted hog, then taking
one rail for a lever and another for a fulcrum, he began gently to pry
the fat, helpless creature out of the sticky mud. In doing this he
plastered his new suit from head to foot, but he did not care, as long
as he could save that pig!
"Now, piggy-wig," he said. "It's you and me for it. You do your part and
I'll get you out. Now--'one-two-_three_--_up-a-daisy_!'"
He smiled grimly as he thought of the jeers and sneers that would be
hurled at him if his friends had stayed to watch him at this work.
After long and patient labor he succeeded in loosening the hog and
coaxing it to make the attempt to get free. At last, the animal was
made to see that it could get out. Making one violent effort it wallowed
away and started for the nearest farmhouse, grunting and flopping its
ears as it went.
Lawyer Lincoln looked ruefully down at his clothes, then placed all the
rails back on the fence as he had found them.
He had to ride the rest of the day alone, for he did not wish to appear
before his comrades until the mud on his suit had dried so that it could
be brushed off. That night, when they saw him at the tavern, they asked
him what he had been doing all day, eying his clothes with suspicious
leers and grins. He had to admit that he could not bear to leave that
hog to die, and tried to excuse his tender-heartedness to them by
adding: "Farmer Jones's children might have had to go barefoot all
Winter if he had lost a valuable hog like that!"
"BEING ELECTED TO CONGRESS HAS NOT PLEASED ME AS MUCH AS I EXPECTED"
In 1846 Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress, defeating the Rev.
Peter Cartwright, the famous backwoods preacher, who was elected to the
State Legislature fourteen years before, the first time Lincoln was a
candidate and the only time he was ever defeated by popular vote.
Cartwright had made a vigorous canvass, telling the people that Lincoln
was "an aristocrat and an atheist." But, though they had a great respect
for Peter Cartwright and his preaching, the people did not believe all
that he said against Lincoln, and they elected him. Shortly after this
he wrote again to Speed:
"You, no doubt, assign the suspension of our
correspondence to the true philosophic cause;
though it must be confessed by both of us that
this is a rather cold reason for allowing such
a friendship as ours to die out by degrees.
"Being elected to Congress, though I am very
grateful to our friends for having done it, has
not pleased me as much as I expected."
In the same letter he imparted to his friend some information which
seems to have been much more interesting to him than being elected to
Congress:
"We have another boy, born the 10th of March
(1846). He is very much such a child as Bob was
at his age, rather of a longer order. Bob is
'short and low,' and I expect always will be.
He talks very plainly, almost as plainly as
anybody. He is quite smart enough. I sometimes
fear he is one of the little rare-ripe sort
that are smarter at five than ever after.
"Since I began this letter, a messenger came to
tell me Bob was lost; but by the time I reached
the house his mother had found him and had him
whipped, and by now very likely he has run away
again!
"As ever yours,
"A. LINCOLN."
The new baby mentioned in this letter was Edward, who died in 1850,
before his fourth birthday. "Bob," or Robert, the eldest of the
Lincoln's four children, was born in 1843. William, born in 1850, died
in the White House. The youngest was born in 1853, after the death of
Thomas Lincoln, so he was named for his grandfather, but he was known
only by his nickname, "Tad." "Little Tad" was his father's constant
companion during the terrible years of the Civil War, especially after
Willie's death, in 1862. "Tad" became "the child of the nation." He died
in Chicago, July 10, 1871, at the age of eighteen, after returning from
Europe with his widowed mother and his brother Robert. Robert has served
his country as Secretary of War and Ambassador to the English court, and
is recognized as a leader in national affairs.
When Lincoln was sent to the national House of Representatives, Douglas
was elected to the Senate for the first time. Lincoln was the only Whig
from Illinois. This shows his great personal popularity. Daniel Webster
was then living in the national capital, and Congressman Lincoln stopped
once at Ashland, Ky., on his way to Washington to visit the idol of the
Whigs, Henry Clay.
As soon as Lincoln was elected, an editor wrote to ask him for a
biographical sketch of himself for the "Congressional Directory." This
is all Mr. Lincoln wrote--in a blank form sent for the purpose:
"Born February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky.
"Education defective.
"Profession, lawyer.
"Military service, captain of volunteers in Black Hawk War.
"Offices held: Postmaster at a very small office; four times a member of
the Illinois Legislature, and elected to the lower House of the next
Congress."
Mr. Lincoln was in Congress while the Mexican War was in progress, and
there was much discussion over President Polk's action in declaring that
war.
As Mrs. Lincoln was obliged to stay in Springfield to care for her two
little boys, Congressman Lincoln lived in a Washington boarding-house.
He soon gained the reputation of telling the best stories at the
capital. He made a humorous speech on General Cass, comparing the
general's army experiences with his own in the Black Hawk War. He also
drafted a bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, which was
never brought to a vote. Most of his care seems to have been for Billy
Herndon, who wrote complaining letters to him about the "old men" in
Springfield who were always trying to "keep the young men down." Here
are two of Mr. Lincoln's replies:
"WASHINGTON, June 22, 1848.
"DEAR WILLIAM:
"Judge how heart-rending it was to come to my
room and find and read your discouraging letter
of the 15th. Now, as to the young men, you must
not wait to be brought forward by the older
men. For instance, do you suppose that I would
ever have got into notice if I had waited to be
hunted up and pushed forward by older men?"
"DEAR WILLIAM:
"Your letter was received last night. The
subject of that letter is exceedingly painful
to me; and I cannot but think that there is
some mistake in your impression of the motives
of the old men. Of course I cannot demonstrate
what I say; but I was young once, and I am sure
I was never ungenerously thrust back. I hardly
know what to say. The way for a young man to
rise is to improve himself every way he can,
never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder
him. Allow me to assure you that suspicion and
jealousy never did keep any man in any
situation. There may be sometimes ungenerous
attempts to keep a young man down; and they
will succeed, too, if he allows his mind to be
diverted from its true channel to brood over
the attempted injury. Cast about, and see if
this feeling has not injured every person you
have ever known to fall into it.
"Now in what I have said, I am sure you will
suspect nothing but sincere friendship. I would
save you from a fatal error. You have been a
laborious, studious young man. You are far
better informed on almost all subjects than I
have ever been. You cannot fail in any laudable
object, unless you allow your mind to be
improperly directed. I have somewhat the
advantage of you in the world's experience,
merely by being older; and it is this that
induces me to advise.
"Your friend, as ever,
"A. LINCOLN."
LAST DAYS OF THOMAS LINCOLN
Mr. Lincoln did not allow his name to be used as a candidate for
re-election, as there were other men in the congressional district who
deserved the honor of going to Washington as much as he. On his way home
from Washington, after the last session of the Thirtieth Congress, he
visited New England, where he made a few speeches, and stopped at
Niagara Falls, which impressed him so strongly that he wrote a lecture
on the subject.
After returning home he made a flying visit to Washington to enter his
patent steamboat, equipped so that it would navigate shallow western
rivers. This boat, he told a friend, "would go where the ground is a
little damp." The model of Lincoln's steamboat is one of the sights of
the Patent Office to this day.
After Mr. Lincoln had settled down to his law business, permanently, as
he hoped, his former fellow-clerk, William G. Greene, having business in
Coles County, went to "Goosenest Prairie" to call on Abe's father and
stepmother, who still lived in a log cabin. Thomas Lincoln received his
son's friend very hospitably. During the young man's visit, the father
reverted to the old subject, his disapproval of his son's wasting his
time in study. He said:
"I s'pose Abe's still a-foolin' hisself with eddication. I tried to stop
it, but he's got that fool _idee_ in his head an' it can't be got out.
Now I haint got no eddication, but I git along better than if I had."
Not long after this, in 1851, Abraham learned that his father was very
ill. As he could not leave Springfield then, he wrote to his stepbrother
(for Thomas Lincoln could not read) the following comforting letter to
be read to his father:
"I sincerely hope father may recover his health; but at all events, tell
him to remember to call upon and confide in our great and merciful
Maker, who will not turn away from him in any extremity. He notes the
fall of the sparrow, and numbers the hairs of our heads, and He will not
forget the dying man who puts his trust in Him. Say to him that, if we
could meet now, it is doubtful whether it would be more painful than
pleasant, but if it is his lot to go now, he will soon have a joyful
meeting with the loved ones gone before, and where the rest of us,
through the mercy of God, hope ere long to join them."
Thomas Lincoln died that year, at the age of seventy-three.
A KIND BUT MASTERFUL LETTER TO HIS STEPBROTHER
After his father's death Abraham Lincoln had, on several occasions, to
protect his stepmother against the schemes of her own lazy,
good-for-nothing son. Here is one of the letters written, at this time,
to his stepbrother, John Johnston:
"DEAR BROTHER: I hear that you were anxious to sell the land where you
live, and move to Missouri. What can you do in Missouri better than
here? Is the land any richer? Can you there, any more than here, raise
corn and wheat and oats without work? Will anybody there, any more than
here, do your work for you? If you intend to go to work, there is no
better place than right where you are; if you do not intend to go to
work, you cannot get along anywhere. Squirming and crawling about from
place to place can do no good. You have raised no crop this year, and
what you really want is to sell the land, get the money and spend it.
Part with the land you have and, my life upon it, you will never own a
spot big enough to bury you in. Half you will get for the land you will
spend in moving to Missouri, and the other half you will eat and drink
and wear out, and no foot of land will be bought.
"Now, I feel that it is my duty to have no hand in such a piece of
foolery. I feel it is so even on your own account, and particularly on
mother's account.
"Now do not misunderstand this letter. I do not write it in any
unkindness. I write it in order, if possible, to get you to face the
truth, which truth is, you are destitute because you have idled away
your time. Your thousand pretenses deceive nobody but yourself. Go to
work is the only cure for your case."