I. THE LINCOLN BOY AND HIS SISTER
The wilderness never brought forth a more wonderful being than the
child that became one of the greatest names in the history of America.
Deep in the wild woods of Kentucky, in the humblest conditions of
nature, farthest from the inventions of society, there arose a mind
that gave great riches of thought to the making of civilization.
Lincoln and his sister "hired out," and the position of servant can
hardly be servile or menial with such an illustrious American example,
unless the master make it so. One woman, whose family had hired them
both, testified to their lovable characters. Lincoln slept in the
hay-loft during the period of his work, and he was noted for being
remarkably considerate in "keeping his place," and for not coming in
"where he was not wanted." It is said that he would lift his hat and
bow when he entered the house, and that he was reliable, tender and
kind, "like his sister." We wonder if his employers had only known of
"the angel" they were "entertaining unawares," what would have been
"his place" and where he would have been "wanted." Every such soul
may, somewhere along the immortal way, be "an angel" "unaware" some
time in the meaning of the great moral universe.
As showing the making of Lincoln's mind, one of his first attempts at
essay writing was on the subject of "Cruelty to Animals" and another
on "Temperance."
During his earliest acquaintance with the first lawyer he had known,
he wrote a paper on "American Government," and he anxiously asked the
lawyer to read it and pass an opinion on its merits. The lawyer did
so, declaring that the "world couldn't beat it," and expressing the
opinion that some day the people would "hear from that boy."
His repugnance toward acts of cruelty is shown by the first fist fight
he ever had.
Some boys had caught a mud-turtle and were having great sport in
putting a coal of fire on its back to see it open up its shell and
run. Lincoln was then not as large as some of the tormentors of the
poor animal, but, coming by and seeing what they were doing, he dashed
in among them, knocked the firebrand from the boy's hand, and fought
them all away from the turtle. Then he gave them a fierce scolding for
their cruelty. With tears in his eyes he declared that the terrapin's
life was as sweet to it as theirs was to them. His appeal was
successful and there was freedom henceforth in that community for the
American turtle.
II. HOW THE LINCOLN BOY MADE THE LINCOLN MAN
The American boy, seeing anything of great interest accomplished,
wants to know how it was done. That is true all the way from winning
some game at play to making a million in some great enterprise. But
far more, in fact immeasurably more, is the making of a masterful
mind, the development of a nation-making character, and of a
world-historical man. Such was Abraham Lincoln, who was built up from
what seems to be nothing on to the very highest worth of mankind. How
did he do it? "If I only knew how," said a philosopher-mathematician,
"I could turn the world over with a lever." "If I only knew how," said
a philosopher-farmer, "I could make a three-year-old calf between now
and next Christmas." In other words, the belief has always prevailed
that by thought made into will anything can be accomplished, provided
thinking perseveres in the right way for the right thing. Successful
"might" always promotes the belief that it is right because it is
successful, but the "successful" is no more than a temporary expedient
toward coming failure, if it is not the righteousness of an immortal
social system.
So let us see how Lincoln did it. It is not much of a mystery how he
became a masterful man. There must be a beginning place, and, for such
a person, it must be a divine beginning place. He had a loving mother
and a home. It was the basis of his belief in humanity. The heart of
the world he believed to be like the two noble-souled women who
mothered his young heart and growing mind. He says himself that he
didn't do it but that they did it. So, the first thing for a boy who
wants to be a masterful man is to take the advice of Oliver Wendell
Holmes to have the right kind of ancestors. At least, it seems quite
necessary for him to choose a loving mother and it will be a lightened
task for him to do the rest.
In 1823, while going to the Crawford school, there occurred an
incident representing his invariable sense of honor. A buck's head was
nailed to the wall and one day, probably experimenting as all boys
do, he pulled too hard on one of the horns and broke it off. No one
saw him and when the teacher inquired for the mischief maker Lincoln
promptly told how it happened. The teacher believed him and said no
more about it.
The first reprehensible thing known of the Lincoln boy was done soon
after the death of his sister. She married at nineteen and died the
next year. Lincoln believed, as most others believed, that she died of
ill-treatment. There was no way to express his fierce resentment but
in writing, and he wrote some scurrilous letters to the ones against
whom he was so angry. Some biographers, in the supposed cause of
history, have published some alleged copies of those letters, but at
worst they merely show what a boy could do in the distress occasioned
by what he believed to be the murder of his sister, whom we may
believe was the one great love of his life after the death of his
mother.
Being a good penman, Lincoln was often called on to write a line in
copybooks. Among the proud possessors of a copybook so favored was Joe
Richardson. In his book Lincoln wrote these commonplace, yet
significant lines:
"Good boys who to their books apply
Will all be great men by and by."
Lincoln was brought up in the midst of superstitions that prevailed in
every act of life, but they seem to have made no impression on him.
Many of the most estimable people believed the sun went round the
earth, from the indisputable fact that in the morning it was on one
side of the house and in the afternoon was on the other side. Many
also believed the earth to be flat, because any one trying to go so
far as to go around it would naturally become lost, travel in a
circle, as all lost people do, and come back to the same place,
thinking they had gone around the world.
People who argued otherwise were merely "stuck up" and "just proud to
show themselves off." Doubtless, his belief about the sun and earth
lost him his first love affair.
He was going to school to Andrew Crawford, who also taught good
manners, when he began to exchange special attention with Miss Roby, a
fine lass of fifteen. He especially had her gratitude for some help he
gave her in a spelling class. When she was about to spell "defied"
with a "y," he pointed to his eye, just in time to save her from
disgrace with the teacher, and from losing her place in the class.
But one day as they were walking along the road she made a remark that
brought up an unfortunate subject.
"Abe," said she, "look yonder, the sun is going down."
"Reckon not," was the unfortunate reply. "It's us coming up. That's
all."
"Don't you suppose I've got eyes," she answered indignantly.
"Reckon so," he replied, "but the sun's as still as a tree. When we're
swung up so's the shine's cut off, we call it night."
"Abe," said she, "you're a consarned fool," and away she went, leaving
him to the glory of his "stuck-up larnin'."
III. SOME SIGNS ALONG THE EARLY WAY
The Lincoln boy impressed all who knew him as being different from
other boys, though they did not know just how. We now know that the
difference consisted in his having a purpose to have a mind rather
than to have a good time. And yet, Lincoln loved joyful sports and he
was a favorite in all the social gatherings of the community. But his
mind was not composed of sport experience, nor his interest in life
inspired by sport success. The world-mind of books contained more
value and richer promise than the turmoil of happenings among
companions, or than those who were juggling interests in the hope of
events.
Lincoln's books were very limited in number but exceedingly wide in
their humanity. Weems' "Life of Washington" seems to have given him
his ideal of American character and statesmanship, while the "Statutes
of Indiana" aroused his interest in civil law and the American
government.
When addressing the senate of the state of New Jersey, in 1861,
Lincoln said, "May I be pardoned if, on this occasion, I mention that
away back in my childhood, the earliest days of my being able to read,
I got hold of a small book, such a one as few of the younger members
have ever seen, 'Weems' Life of Washington.' I remember all the
accounts there given of the battlefields and struggles for the
liberties of the country, and none fixed themselves upon my
imagination so deeply as the struggle here at Trenton, New Jersey. The
crossing of the river, the contest with the Hessians, the great
hardships endured at that time, all fixed themselves in my mind more
than any single revolutionary event; and you all know, for you have
all been boys, how these early impressions last longer than others. I
recollect thinking then, boy even though I was, that there must have
been something more than common that these men struggled for. I am
exceedingly anxious that that thing shall be perpetuated in accordance
with the original idea for which that struggle was made."
Lincoln told one of his friends that he read through every book he had
ever heard of in his surroundings for a distance of fifty miles. The
industry with which he sought to learn and his unceasing endeavor to
build up his mind were marks of the genius that possessed him, the
spirit that made him one of the strongest men of a world-wide work.
In the whole country round there was only one newspaper subscriber,
and that was in Gentryville, Indiana, for a weekly paper from
Louisville. Lincoln walked to town every week to see that paper and
discuss the news. By the time he had become a man, in Menard County,
Illinois, his neighbors went to him in order to know things, and he
was a good custodian of the knowledge he had gained. His opinions
coincided with common sense. So, common sense made him President of
the United States, saved a United Nation, and gave Lincoln a
never-dying place in the love and honor of mankind.
Lincoln walked six miles to borrow a grammar, and he studied it till
he mastered the principles of the English language. Many another boy
has thought that he had few troubles more unbearable than the study
of composition, but many another boy has not been prepared to speak
the world-stirring speech, such as was spoken by Lincoln at the
dedication of the battlefield of Gettysburg.
IV. ILLUSTRATIONS SHOWING THE MAKING OF A MAN
Lincoln, very early in life, believed that witnesses must tell the
truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Matilda Johnson, his stepsister, was very fond of him, and she often
ran away from the house to be with him where he was at work. Lincoln
would rather tell her stories than work, so the mother forbade the
child from following him to work. But, one morning, she disobeyed and
ran after him. She tried to surprise him by jumping up at his back,
and catching him by the shoulders. In doing so the axe was swung
around so that it severely cut her ankle. Matilda screamed with pain
but Lincoln soon had the bleeding stopped and the wound bound. Then
came the problem.
"Tilda," he exclaimed, "I am astonished at you. How could you disobey
your mother? Now, what are you going to tell her?"
"I'll tell her I did it with the axe," she said in the midst of her
crying. "That will be the truth, won't it?"
"Yes," replied the boy, "that's the truth as far as it goes, but it is
not all of the truth. You tell the whole truth and trust your mother
for the rest."
Tilda went home limping and weeping with the whole truth, and the good
mother thought she had been punished enough.
The self-possessed way in which Lincoln conducted himself is well
illustrated in his experience with the boaster who was telling of his
horse-race, and especially endeavoring to impress his story upon the
youthful Lincoln.
Uncle Jimmy Larkins, the boastful owner of the fast horse, was much of
a hero in the eyes of a small boy who grew up to be Captain John
Lamar, the man who tells the story.
Lincoln paid no attention to the boasting. Uncle Jimmy did not like
this and the Lamar boy thought it very rude in Lincoln. Finally Uncle
Jimmy said, "Abe, I've got the best horse in the world: he won that
race and never drew a long breath."
But Abe still paid no attention. Uncle Jimmy didn't like it some more
and the Lamar boy was disgusted that Lincoln did not give due respect
for something so important.
"I say, Abe," repeated Uncle Jimmy emphatically, "I have the best
horse in the world; after all that running he never drew a long
breath."
Then Abe had to say something, so he said, "Well, Uncle Jimmy, why
don't you tell us how many short breaths he took."
"Everybody laughed and Uncle Jimmy got all-fired hot," says Captain
Lamar. "He spoke something about fighting Abe, and Abe said, 'If you
don't shut up, I'll throw you into the pond,' and Uncle Jimmy shut
up."
Captain Lamar, in concluding his comments, said, "I was very much hurt
at the way my hero was treated, but I have lived to change my ideas
about heroes."
V. LINCOLN'S FIRST DOLLAR
Lincoln enjoyed the commonplace interests of ordinary life, and much
that we know of him is from conversations with friends over the early
lessons of his youth.
One day while he was president, as he was talking with Secretary
Seward over weighty affairs of state, he suddenly broke from the
subject they were discussing and said, "Seward, do you know how I
earned my first dollar?"
The well-to-do and rather aristocratic Secretary of State replied that
he did not know.
"It was this way," Lincoln continued. "I was about eighteen years of
age and had succeeded in raising enough produce to justify a trip down
the Ohio to the markets at New Orleans. I made a flatboat big enough
to hold the barrels containing our things and was soon ready for
loading up and starting on our journey.
"There were few landing places for steamers, and, where passengers
desired to get on to one of the passing boats, they had to be taken
out into the river in order to get aboard.
"While I was looking my boat over to see if anything more could be
done to strengthen it, two men came down to the shore in a carriage,
with their trunks, for the purpose of boarding a passing steamer. They
looked the boats over and came down to me.
"'Who owns this boat?' they asked.
"I very proudly answered, 'I do.'
"'Will you take us and our trunks out to the steamer?'
"I was glad for a chance to earn something and I soon had them and
their trunks loaded into my boat. I soon sculled them out to the
steamer. They climbed aboard and I lifted their trunks on deck. I
expected them to hand me a couple of bits for my work, but both seemed
to have forgotten their dues to me. The steamer was about to start,
when I called out to them, 'You have forgotten to pay me.'
"Each took a silver half-dollar and threw it over into the bottom of
my boat. I could scarcely believe my good fortune. That seems like a
little thing but it was one of the most important incidents in my
life. I could hardly believe that I had been able to earn, by my own
work, a dollar in less than a day. I now knew that such things could
be done. I was a more hopeful and thoughtful boy from that time."
Lincoln received eight dollars a month for his trip down the Ohio and
Mississippi from Indiana, but he probably got much priceless value out
of it in the broader view of life it gave him. He had already prepared
himself to think on what he saw, and, from all attainable evidence
from every side, to reach reasonable and justified conclusions.
This voyage was comparatively uneventful except that one night, after
the little boat crew of three men had sold their goods, they were
attacked by seven negroes, who came aboard intending to kill and rob
them. But, after a lively fight, the assailants were driven off and
the boat was swung out into the river.
One cannot help thinking about what a difference it would have made to
the negro race if those negroes had killed the man whom destiny had
then started on the way to make their people free.
VI. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A SUPERIOR MIND
The boy who reads the story of Lincoln, desiring to get real help in
building his life, will find no miracle nor any short-cuts to get
easily the ambitions of life. Lincoln did not know the office he
wanted to hold, but he knew the kind of man he wanted to be and he
worked unceasingly to reach that ideal of mind and manhood. In
proportion, it is no harder now to know more than others, in order to
be correspondingly useful to others, than it was in Lincoln's time.
Lincoln said that he went to school by "littles" altogether not more
than a year, but no one ever thinks of him as anything less than a
learned man. All records show that he was intellectually at home in
company with any worldly-wise men. It was in the prudent selection of
interests nobly directed in honorable ways that gave him world-wisdom
from the most limited supply, while now the multiplication of great
books has made the diffusion of knowledge almost unlimited for anyone
who seeks to be worth while. But it was in his high moral nature where
was to be found the secret of his unwavering progress. Numerous
characteristic incidents illustrate how little he was disturbed by the
ill-nature of others.
That Lincoln was above "holding spite" or "bearing a grudge" is shown
in his experience with the noted Kentucky lawyer, John Breckenridge.
There had been a murder at Boonville, Indiana, and Lincoln went to
hear the speech made to the jury by the defense. He had never before
heard a learned and eloquent man. The powerful plea of the
silver-tongued John Breckenridge went through the sensitive soul of
Lincoln like heavenly music. Forgetting his backwoodsman appearance,
he rushed forward with others at the close of the speech to express
his admiration.
Breckenridge was a "gentleman" of the South, not used to being
familiarly addressed by anyone having the appearance of being "poor
white trash." He gazed in insulted amazement at the presumptuous youth
and strode indignantly away.
This was probably the first knowledge Lincoln had of the artificial
social barriers set up by men developing antagonizing classes. Here he
first met the great problem of the ages in a land where all are born
free and equal before life and law. It was a social partisanship not
only contrary to common sense and moral law, but in violation of the
Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States,
and the entire meaning of America. This is the great significance of
Lincoln, that his life so unmistakably refuted so many un-American
ideas of society and civilization.
In 1862 this same Breckenridge, now an humble petitioner for
presidential favors, was introduced to President Lincoln, who then
completed his expression of admiration for the excellent speech made
by Mr. Breckenridge in the Indiana murder case. The able lawyer was
indeed dumbfounded and it gave him a new vision of Lincoln, if not of
the relationship of men. That equality of mind and opportunity which
Lincoln represented was the master meaning of America, disclosing that
in its freedom there is opportunity for the poorest to become the
greatest through human values the most lasting and worthwhile.
Lincoln could have satisfied a righteous resentment against such
haughty treatment toward the poor as was shown by Breckenridge to him
at Boonville, and he could have given a deserved rebuke to pride in a
land where pride of that kind is unpatriotic as well as immoral, but
Lincoln chose the better part. It reminds us of the words of Ralph
Waldo Emerson, "Lincoln's heart was as large as the world, but nowhere
had any room for the memory of a wrong."