Personal encounters were of frequent occurrence in Gentryville in early
days, and the prestige of having thrashed an opponent gave the victor
marked social distinction. Green B. Taylor, with whom “Abe” worked the
greater part of one winter on a farm, furnished an account of the noted
fight between John Johnston, “Abe’s” stepbrother, and William Grigsby,
in which stirring drama “Abe” himself played an important role before
the curtain was rung down.
Taylor’s father was the second for Johnston, and William Whitten
officiated in a similar capacity for Grigsby. “They had a terrible
fight,” related Taylor, “and it soon became apparent that Grigsby was
too much for Lincoln’s man, Johnston. After they had fought a long time
without interference, it having been agreed not to break the ring, ‘Abe’
burst through, caught Grigsby, threw him off and some feet away. There
Grigsby stood, proud as Lucifer, and, swinging a bottle of liquor over
his head, swore he was ‘the big buck of the lick.’
“‘If any one doubts it,’ he shouted, ‘he has only to come on and whet
his horns.’”
A general engagement followed this challenge, but at the end of
hostilities the field was cleared and the wounded retired amid the
exultant shouts of their victors.
“GOVERNMENT RESTS IN PUBLIC OPINION.”
Lincoln delivered a speech at a Republican banquet at Chicago, December
10th, 1856, just after the Presidential campaign of that year, in which
he said:
“Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public
opinion can change the government practically just so much.
“Public opinion, on any subject, always has a ‘central idea,’ from which
all its minor thoughts radiate.
“That ‘central idea’ in our political public opinion at the beginning
was, and until recently has continued to be, ‘the equality of man.’
“And although it has always submitted patiently to whatever of
inequality there seemed to be as a matter of actual necessity, its
constant working has been a steady progress toward the practical
equality of all men.
“Let everyone who really believes, and is resolved, that free society is
not and shall not be a failure, and who can conscientiously declare that
in the past contest he has done only what he thought best--let every
such one have charity to believe that every other one can say as much.
“Thus, let bygones be bygones; let party differences as nothing be,
and with steady eye on the real issue, let us reinaugurate the good old
‘central ideas’ of the Republic.
“We can do it. The human heart is with us; God is with us.
“We shall never be able to declare that ‘all States as States are
equal,’ nor yet that ‘all citizens are equal,’ but to renew the broader,
better declaration, including both these and much more, that ‘all men
are created equal.’”