Abraham Lincoln the Liberator of the Slaves
[1809-1865]
[Illustration: Abraham Lincoln.]
While Morse had been patiently struggling toward the completion of his
invention, the nation had been growing more and more tense in its
contest over slavery and State rights. As an outcome of the bitter
feeling in 1846, two years after the fulfilment of Morse's scheme,
Congress declared war against Mexico.
The Southern slaveholders hoped by this war to gain from their weak
neighbor territory favorable for the extension of slavery. For slavery
had long since been dying out in the States east of the Mississippi and
north of the Mason and Dixon Line and the Ohio. On the south of this
natural boundary line the soil and climate were adapted to the
cultivation of rice, cotton, sugar, and tobacco. These four staples of
the South called for large plantations and an abundance of cheap labor
always subject to the bidding of the planter. Slavery satisfied these
conditions, and therefore slavery seemed necessary to the prosperity of
the South.
It was because the soil and climate north of this natural boundary line
did not favor the use of slaves that slavery gradually died out in the
North. The result was that in one section of the Union, the South, there
was a pressing demand for slavery; and in the other, the North, there
was none. As time wore on, it became evident that the North was growing
in population, wealth, and political influence much faster than the
South. Observing this momentous fact, the slaveholders feared that in
the course of years Congress might pass laws unfriendly to slavery.
Hence, their stubborn purpose to struggle for the extension of slavery
as far as possible into the territory west of the Mississippi.
[Illustration: Lincoln's Birthplace.]
But in the North so powerful did the opposition to the spread of slavery
to new States become, that by 1855 there was a great political party
that had such opposition as its leading principle. One of its ablest and
most inspiring leaders was Abraham Lincoln. He was born in Kentucky,
February 12, 1809. The rough log cabin in which he first saw the light
was the wretched home of a father too lazy and shiftless to work, and so
ignorant that he is said not to have learned his letters until taught
by his wife. Little Abe's only playmates were his sister Sarah, two
years older than himself, and his cousin, Dennis Hanks, who lived in the
Lincoln home.
When Abe was seven years old the family moved to Indiana, and settled
about fifteen miles north of the Ohio River. The journey to their new
home was very tedious and lonely, for they had in some places to cut a
roadway through the forest.
Having arrived safely in November, all set vigorously to work to provide
a shelter against the winter. Young Abe was healthy, rugged, and active,
and from early morning till late evening he worked with his father,
chopping trees and cutting poles and boughs for their "camp." This
"camp" was a mere shed, only fourteen feet square, and open on one side.
It was built of poles lying upon one another, and had a thatched roof of
boughs and leaves. As there was no chimney, there could be no fire
within the enclosure, and it was necessary to keep one burning all the
time just in front of the open side.
In this rough abode the furniture was of the scantiest and rudest sort,
very much like what we have already observed in Boone's cabin. For
chairs there were the same kind of three-legged stools, made by
smoothing the flat side of a split log, and putting sticks into
auger-holes underneath. The tables were of the same simple fashion,
except that they stood on four legs instead of three.
The crude bedsteads in the corners of the cabin were made by sticking
poles in between the logs at right angles to the wall, the outside
corner where the logs met being supported by a crotched stick driven
into the ground. Upon this framework, shucks and leaves were heaped for
bedding, and over all were thrown the skins of wild animals for a
covering. Pegs driven into the wall served as a stairway to the loft,
where there was another bed of leaves. Here little Abe slept.
In the space in front of the open side of the cabin, hanging over the
fire, was a large iron pot, in which the rude cooking was done. These
backwoods people knew nothing of dainty cookery, but they brought keen
appetites to their coarse fare. The principal vegetable was the ordinary
white potato, and the usual form of bread was "corn-dodgers," made of
meal and roasted in the ashes. Wheat was so scarce that flour bread was
reserved for Sunday mornings. But generally there was an abundance of
game, such as deer, bears, and wild turkeys, many kinds of fish from the
streams close by, and in summer wild fruits from the woods.
During this first winter in the wild woods of Indiana little Abe must
have lived a lonely life. But it was a very busy one. There was much to
do in building the cabin which was to take the place of the "camp," and
in cutting down trees and making a clearing for the corn-planting of the
coming spring. Besides, Abe helped to supply the table with food, for he
had already learned to use the rifle, and to hunt and trap animals.
These occupations took him into the woods, and we must believe,
therefore, in spite of all the hardships of his wilderness life, that he
spent many happy hours.
If we could see him as he started off with his gun, or as he chopped
wood for the fires, we should doubtless find his dress somewhat
peculiar. He was a tall, slim, awkward boy, with very long legs and
arms. In winter he wore moccasins, trousers, and shirt of deerskin, and
a cap of coonskin with the tail of the animal hanging down behind so as
to serve both as ornament and convenience in handling the cap. On a cold
winter day, such a furry costume might look very comfortable if
close-fitting, but we are told that Abe's deerskin trousers, after
getting wet, shrunk so much that they became several inches too short
for his long, lean legs. As for stockings, he tells us he never wore
them until he was "a young man grown."
But although this costume seems to us singular, it did not appear so to
his neighbors and friends, for they were used to seeing boys dressed in
that manner. The frontiersmen were obliged to devise many contrivances
to supply their lack of manufactured things. For instance, they all used
thorns for pins, bits of stone for buttons, and home-made soap and
tallow-dipped candles. Candles, indeed, were a luxury much of the time,
and in Abe's boyhood, he was obliged in the long winter evenings to read
by the light of the wood fire blazing in the rude fireplace of the log
cabin.
[Illustration: Lincoln Studying.]
Great as had been his privations in this Indiana home, Abe had now to
suffer a more grievous loss in the death of his mother. The rough life
of the forest and the exposure of the open cabin had been too much for
her delicate constitution. Before she died she said to her boy:
"Abraham, I am going away from you, and you will never see me again. I
know that you will always be good and kind to your sister and father.
Try to live as I have taught you, and to love your Heavenly Father."
Many years later Lincoln said, "All that I am, or I hope to be, I owe to
my angel mother."
A year after this sad event, his father brought home a second wife, who
became a devoted friend to the motherless boy. Energetic, thrifty, and
intelligent, this woman, who had been accustomed to better things than
she found in her new home, insisted that the log cabin should be
supplied with a door, a floor, and windows, and she at once began to
make the children "look a little more human."
Abraham Lincoln's schooling was brief--not more than a year in all. Such
schools as he attended were nothing like the graded schools of to-day.
The buildings were rough log cabins with the earth for floor and oiled
paper for windows. Desks were unknown, the little school-house being
furnished with rude benches made of split logs, after the manner of the
stools and tables in the Lincoln home. The teachers were ignorant men,
who taught the children a little spelling, reading, writing, and
ciphering. While attending the last school, Abe had to go daily a
distance of four and a half miles from his home.
In spite of this meagre schooling, however, the boy, by his
self-reliance, resolute purpose, and good reading habits, acquired the
very best sort of training for his future life. He had but few books at
his home, and found it impossible in that wild country to find many in
any other homes. Among those which he read over and over again, while a
boy, were the Bible, "AEsop's Fables," "Robinson Crusoe," "Pilgrim's
Progress," a History of the United States, and "Weems's Life of
Washington."
His step-mother said of him: "He read everything he could lay his hands
on, and when he came across a passage that struck him, he would write it
down on boards, if he had no paper, and keep it before him until he
could get paper. Then he would copy it, look at it, commit it to memory
and repeat it."
His step-brother said: "When Abe and I returned to the house from work,
he would go to the cupboard, snatch a piece of corn-bread, take down a
book, sit down, cock his legs up as high as his head, and read." When
night came he would find a seat in the corner by the fireside, or
stretch out at length on the floor, and write or work sums in arithmetic
on a wooden shovel, using a charred stick for a pencil or pen. When he
had covered the shovel, he would shave off the surface and begin over
again.
Having borrowed a copy of the "Life of Washington" on one occasion, he
took it to bed with him in the loft and read until his candle gave out.
Then before going to sleep, he tucked the book into a crevice of the
logs in order that he might have it at hand as soon as daylight would
permit him to read the next morning. But during the night a storm came
up, and the rain beat in upon the book, wetting it through and through.
With heavy heart Lincoln took it back to its owner, who told him that
it should be his if he would work three days to pay for it. Eagerly
agreeing to do this, the boy carried his new possession home in triumph.
This book had a marked influence over his future.
Until he was twenty his father hired him out to all sorts of work, at
which he sometimes earned $6 a month and sometimes thirty-one cents a
day. Just before he came of age his family, with all their possessions
packed in a cart drawn by four oxen, moved again toward the West. For
two weeks they travelled across the country into Illinois, and finally
made a new home on the banks of the Sangamon River, a stream flowing
into the Ohio. The tiresome journey was made in the month of March along
muddy roads and over swollen streams, young Lincoln driving the oxen.
On reaching the end of the journey, Abraham helped his father to build a
hut and to clear and fence ten acres of land for planting. Shortly after
this work was done he bargained with a neighbor, Mrs. Nancy Miller, to
split 400 rails for every yard of brown jeans needed to make him a pair
of trousers. As Lincoln was tall, three and one-half yards were needed,
and he had to split 1,400 fence rails--a large amount of work for a pair
of trousers.
From time to time he had watched the boats carrying freight up and down
the river, and had wondered where the vessels were going. Eager to know
by experience the life of which he had dreamed, he determined to become
a boatman. He was hungry for knowledge, and with the same earnestness
and energy with which he had absorbed the great thoughts of his books,
he now applied himself to learn the commerce of the river and the life
along its banks. When an opportunity presented, he found employment on a
flat boat that carried corn, hogs, hay, and other farm produce down to
New Orleans. On one of his trips he chanced to attend a slave auction.
Looking on while one slave after another was knocked down to the highest
bidder, his indignation grew until at length he cried out, "Boys, let's
get away from this; if I ever get a chance to hit that thing" (meaning
slavery), "I'll hit it hard." Little did he think then what a blow he
would strike some thirty years later.
Tiring at length of his long journeys to New Orleans, he became clerk in
a village store at New Salem. Many stories are told of Lincoln's honesty
as displayed in his dealings with the people in this village store. It
is said that on one occasion a woman in making change overpaid him the
trifling sum of six cents. When Lincoln found out the mistake he walked
three miles and back that night to give the woman her money.
He was now six feet four inches tall, a giant in strength, and a skilful
wrestler. Much against his will--for he had no love of fighting--he
became the hero of a wrestling match with a youth named Armstrong, who
was the leader of the rough young fellows of the place. Lincoln defeated
Armstrong, and by his manliness won the life-long friendship of his
opponent.
At times throughout his life he was subject to deep depression, which
made his face unspeakably sad. But as a rule he was cheerful and merry,
and on account of his good stories was in great demand in social
gatherings and at the cross-roads grocery stores. At such times, when
the social glass passed around, he always declined it, never indulging
in strong liquor of any kind, nor in tobacco.
Lincoln was as kind as he was good-natured. His step-mother said of him:
"I can say, what scarcely one mother in a thousand can say, he never
gave me a cross word or look, and never refused in fact or appearance to
do anything I asked him." He was tender-hearted too, as the following
incident shows:
Riding along the road one day with a company of men, Lincoln was missed
by his companions. One of them, going to look for him, found that
Lincoln had stopped to replace two young birds that had been blown out
of their nest. He could not ride on in any peace of mind until he had
restored these little ones to their home in the tree-branches.
In less than a year the closing of the village store in which Lincoln
was clerk left him without employment. He therefore enlisted as a
volunteer for the Black Hawk War, which had broken out about this time,
and went as captain of his company. On returning from this expedition,
he opened a grocery store as part owner, but in this undertaking he soon
failed. Perhaps the reason for his failure was that his interest was
centred in other things, for about this time he began to study law.
For a while after closing his store he served the Government as
postmaster in New Salem, where the mail was so scanty that he could
carry it in his hat and distribute it to the owners as he happened to
meet them.
He next tried surveying, his surveyor's chain, according to report,
being a trailing grapevine. Throughout all these years Lincoln was
apparently drifting almost aimlessly from one occupation to another. But
whatever he was doing his interest in public affairs and his popularity
were steadily increasing. In 1834 he sought and secured an election to
the State Legislature. It is said that he tramped a distance of a
hundred miles with a pack on his back when he went to the State Capitol
to enter upon his duties as law-maker.
About four years after beginning to study law, he was admitted to the
bar and established himself at Springfield, Ill. From an early age he
had been fond of making stump speeches, and now he turned what had been
a pleasant diversion to practical advantage in the progress of his
political life. In due time he was elected to Congress, where his
interest in various public questions, especially that of slavery, became
much quickened.
On this question his clear head and warm heart united in forming strong
convictions that had great weight with the people. He continued to grow
in political favor, and in 1858 received the nomination of the
Republican party for the United States Senate. Stephen A. Douglas was
the Democratic nominee. Douglas was known as the "Little Giant," on
account of his short stature and great power as an orator.
The debates between the political rivals challenged the admiration of
the whole country. Lincoln argued with great power against the spread of
slavery into the new States. Although unsuccessful in securing a seat in
the Senate, he won a recognition from his countrymen that led to his
election as President two years later. In 1860 the Republican National
Convention, which met at Chicago, nominated "Honest Old Abe, the
Railsplitter," as its candidate for President, and elected him in the
same autumn.
The burning political question before the people at this time, as for
many years before, related to the extension of slavery into the
Territories. The South was eager to have more States come into the Union
as slave States, while the North wished that slavery should be confined
to the States where it already existed.
Before the purchase of the Louisiana Territory in 1803, Mason and Dixon
Line and the Ohio River formed the dividing line between the free States
on the north and the slave States on the south. But after that purchase
there was a prolonged struggle to determine whether the new territory
should be slave or free.
It was thought that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 would forever settle
the trouble, but such was not the case. It broke out again, as bitter as
ever, about the Mexican Cession, which became ours as a result of the
Mexican War. Again it was hoped that the Compromise of 1850 would bring
an end to the struggle. But even after this second compromise, the
agitation over slavery continued to become more and more bitter until
Mr. Lincoln's election, when some of the Southern States threatened to
secede, that is, withdraw from the Union. These States claimed the right
to decide for themselves whether or not they should remain in the Union.
On the other hand, the North declared that no State could secede from
the Union without the consent of the other States.
Before Lincoln was inaugurated, seven of the Southern States had
seceded. The excitement was everywhere intense. Many people felt that a
man of larger experience than Lincoln should now be at the head of the
Government. They doubted the ability of this plain man of the people,
this awkward backwoodsman, to lead the destinies of the nation in these
hours when delicate and intricate diplomacy was needed. But, little as
they knew it, he was well fitted for the work that lay before him.
While on his way to Washington for inauguration, his friends learned of
a plot to assassinate him when he should pass through Baltimore. To save
him from violence, therefore, they prevailed upon him to change his
route and make the last part of his journey in secret.
In a few weeks the Civil War had begun. We cannot here pause for full
accounts of all Lincoln's trials and difficulties during this fearful
struggle that began in 1861 and ended in 1865. His burdens were almost
overwhelming, but, like Washington, he believed that "right makes might"
and must prevail.
When he became President he declared that the Constitution gave him no
power to interfere with slavery in the States where it existed. But as
the war continued, he became certain that the slaves, by remaining on
the plantations and producing food for the Southern soldiers, were a
great aid to the Southern cause, and thus threatened the Union. He
therefore determined, as commander-in-chief of the Union armies, to set
the slaves free in all territory whose people were fighting against the
Union. He took this step as a military necessity.
The famous state paper, in which Lincoln declared that the slaves were
free in all the territory of the seceded States whose people were waging
war against the Union, was called the Emancipation Proclamation. This he
issued on January 1, 1863, and thus made good his word, "If ever I get a
chance to strike that thing" (meaning slavery), "I'll strike it hard."
[Illustration: SLAVES ON A COTTON PLANTATION.]
On April 9, 1865, General Lee surrendered his army to General Grant at
Appomattox Court House. By this act the war came to a close. Great was
the rejoicing everywhere. But suddenly the universal joy was changed
into universal sorrow. Five days after Lee's surrender Lincoln went with
his wife and some friends to see a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington.
In the midst of the play, a half-crazed actor, who was familiar with the
theatre, entered the President's box, shot him in the back of the head,
jumped to the stage, and, shouting "Sic semper tyrannis!" (So be it
always to tyrants), rushed through the wing to the street. There he
mounted a horse in waiting for him, and escaped, but was promptly hunted
down and killed in a barn where he lay in hiding. The martyr-President
lingered some hours, tenderly watched by his family and a few friends.
When on the following morning he breathed his last, Secretary Stanton
said with truth, "Now he belongs to the ages." A noble life had passed
from the field of action; and the people deeply mourned the loss of him
who had wisely and bravely led them through four years of heavy trial
and anxiety.
Wise and brave as the leadership of Abraham Lincoln was, however, the
drain of the Civil War upon the nation's strength was well-nigh
overwhelming. Nearly 600,000 men lost their lives in this murderous
struggle, and the loss in wealth was not far short of $8,000,000,000.
But the war was not without its good results also. One of these,
embodied later in the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, set free
forever all the slaves in the Union; and another swept away for all time
the evils of State rights, nullification, and secession. Webster's idea
that the Union was supreme over the States had now become a fact which
could never again be a subject of dispute. The Union was "one and
_inseparable_."
[Illustration: Map of the United States showing the Southern
Confederacy, the Slave States that did not Secede, and the
Territories.]
The immortal words that Lincoln uttered as part of his Second Inaugural
are worthy of notice, for in their sympathy, tenderness, and beautiful
simplicity they reveal the heart of him who spoke them. This inaugural
address was delivered in Washington on March 4, 1865, only about six
weeks before Lincoln's assassination. It closed with these words:
"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the
right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the
work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who
shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan--to do all
which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves
and with all nations."
REVIEW OUTLINE
THE MEXICAN WAR.
CONFLICT OVER THE EXTENSION OF SLAVERY.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN HIS KENTUCKY HOME.
THE LINCOLN FAMILY MOVES TO INDIANA.
THE FURNITURE AND THE FOOD OF THE BACKWOODS PEOPLE.
LITTLE ABE'S BUSY LIFE.
HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE.
BACKWOODS MAKESHIFTS.
HIS SCHOOL LIFE; HIS READING HABITS.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN AS A BOATMAN.
"HONEST ABE."
HIS PHYSICAL STRENGTH.
HIS KINDNESS AND SYMPATHY.
HE IS ELECTED TO THE STATE LEGISLATURE.
THE GREAT DEBATE WITH STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN AS PRESIDENT.
HE ISSUES THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION.
HIS ASSASSINATION.
TO THE PUPIL
1. Explain the conflict between the North and the South over the
extension of slavery.
2. Form mental pictures of the following: the "camp"; the
furniture and the food of the backwoods people; and Abraham
Lincoln's personal appearance.
3. What were his reading habits?
4. Imagine yourself with Lincoln when he saw the slave auction in
New Orleans, and tell what you see.
5. Tell, in your own words, what you have learned of his honesty,
sympathy, and kindness.
6. The greatest act of Abraham Lincoln's life was the issuing of
the Emancipation Proclamation. What was this?
7. What do you admire in the character of Abraham Lincoln?