John Calhoun was at that time surveyor of Sangamon county. He had been
a lawyer and had noticed the studious Lincoln. Needing an assistant he
offered the place to Lincoln. The average young man without any regular
employment and hard-pressed for means to pay his board as Lincoln was,
would have jumped at the opportunity, but a question of principle was
involved which had to be settled before Lincoln would accept. Calhoun
was a Democrat and Lincoln was a Whig, therefore Lincoln said, “I will
take the office if I can be perfectly free in my political actions, but
if my sentiments or even expression of them are to be abridged in any
way, I would not have it or any other office.”
With this understanding he accepted the office and began to study
books on surveying, furnished him by his employer. He was not a natural
mathematician, and in working out his most difficult problems he sought
the assistance of Mentor Graham, a famous schoolmaster in those days,
who had previously assisted Lincoln in his studies. He soon became a
competent surveyor, however, and was noted for the accurate way in which
he ran his lines and located his corners.
Surveying was not as profitable then as it has since become, and the
young surveyor often had to take his pay in some article other than
money. One old settler relates that for a survey made for him by Lincoln
he paid two buckskins, which Hannah Armstrong “foxed” on his pants so
that the briars would not wear them out.
About this time, 1833, he was made postmaster at New Salem, the first
Federal office he ever held. Although the postoffice was located in
a store, Lincoln usually carried the mail around in his hat and
distributed it to people when he met them.