Modern history furnishes no life more eventful and important, terminated
by a death so dramatic, as that of the Martyr President. Poetry and
painting, sculpture and eloquence, have all sought to illustrate his
career, but the grand epic poem of his life has yet to be written. We
are too near him in point of time, fully to comprehend and appreciate
his greatness and the vast influence he is to exert upon the world. The
storms which marked his tempestuous political career have not yet
entirely subsided, and the shock of his fearfully tragic death is still
felt; but as the dust and smoke of war pass away, and the mists of
prejudice which filled the air during the great conflict clear up, his
character will stand out in bolder relief and more perfect outline.
The ablest and most sincere apostle of liberty the world has ever seen
was Abraham Lincoln. He was a Christian statesman, with faith in God and
man. The two men, whose pre-eminence in American history the world will
ever recognize, are Washington and Lincoln. The Republic which the first
founded and the latter saved, has already crowned them as models for her
children.
Abraham Lincoln was born, February 12th, 1809, in Hardin County, in the
Slave State of Kentucky.[1]
[1] When the compiler of the Annals of Congress asked Mr. Lincoln to
furnish him with data from which to compile a sketch of his life, the
following brief, characteristic statement was given. It contrasts very
strikingly with the voluminous biographies furnished by some small great
men who have been in Congress:--
"Born, February 12th, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky.
"Education defective.
"Profession, a Lawyer.
"Have been a Captain of Volunteers in Black Hawk War.
"Postmaster at a very small office.
"Four times a member of the Illinois Legislature, and was a member of
the Lower House of Congress.
"Yours, &c.,
"A. LINCOLN."
His father Thomas and his grandfather Abraham were born in Rockingham
County, Virginia. His ancestors were from Pennsylvania, and were Friends
or Quakers. The grandfather after whom he was named, went early to
Kentucky, and was murdered by the Indians, while at work upon his farm.
The early and fearful conflicts in the dense forests of Kentucky,
between the settlers and the Indians, gave to a portion of that
beautiful State the name of the "_dark and bloody ground_." The subject
of this sketch was the son, the grandson, and the great grandson of a
pioneer. His ancestors had settled on the border, first in Pennsylvania,
then in Virginia, and from thence to Kentucky. His grandfather had four
sons and two daughters. Thomas the youngest son was the father of
Abraham, and his life was a struggle with poverty, a hard-working man
with very limited education. He could barely sign his name. In the
twenty-eighth year of his age he married Nancy Hanks, a native of
Virginia, she was one of those plain, dignified matrons, possessing a
strong physical organization, and great common sense, with deep
religious feeling, and the utmost devotion to her family and children,
such as are not unusual in the early settlements of our country. Reared
on the frontier, where life was a struggle, she could use the rifle and
the implements of agriculture as well as the distaff and spinning-wheel.
She was one of those strong, self-reliant characters, yet gentle in
manners, often found in the humbler walks of life, fitted as well to
command the respect, as the love of all to whom she was known. Abraham
had a brother older, and a sister younger than himself, but both died
many years before he reached distinction.
In 1816, when he was only eight years old, the family removed to Spenser
County, Indiana. The first tool the boy of the backwoods learns to use
is the ax. This, young Lincoln, strong and athletic beyond his years,
had learned to handle with some effect, even at that early age, and he
began from this period to be of important service to his parents in
cutting their way to, and building up, a home in the forests.
A feat with the rifle soon after this period shows that he was not
unaccustomed to its use: seeing a flock of wild turkeys approaching, the
lad seized his father's rifle and succeeded in shooting one through a
crack of his father's cabin.
In the autumn of 1818 his mother died. Her death was to her family, and
especially her favorite son Abraham, an irreparable loss. Although she
died when in his tenth year, she had already deeply impressed upon him
those elements of character which were the foundation of his greatness;
perfect truthfulness, inflexible honesty, love of justice and respect
for age, and reverence for God. He ever spoke of her with the most
touching affection. "All that I am, or hope to be," said he, "I owe to
my angel mother."
It was his mother who taught him to read and write; from her he learned
to read the Bible, and this book he read and re-read in youth, because
he had little else to read, and later in life because he believed it was
the word of God, and the best guide of human conduct. It was very rare
to find, even among clergymen, any so familiar with it as he, and few
could so readily and accurately quote its text.
There is something very affecting in the incident that this boy--whom
his mother had found time amidst her weary toil and the hard struggle of
her rude life, to teach to write legibly, should find the first occasion
of putting his knowledge of the pen to practical use, was in writing a
letter to a traveling preacher, imploring him to come and perform
religious services over his mother's grave. The preacher, a Mr. Elkin,
came, though not immediately, traveling many miles on horseback through
the wild forests; and some months after her death the family and
neighbors gathered around the tree beneath which they had laid her, to
perform the simple, solemn funeral rites. Hymns were sung, prayers said,
and an address pronounced over her grave. The impression made upon young
Lincoln by his mother was as lasting as life. Love of truth, reverence
for religion, perfect integrity, were ever associated in his mind with
the tenderest love and respect for her. His father subsequently married
Mrs. Sally Johnson, of Kentucky, a widow with three children.
In March, 1830, the family removed to Illinois, and settled in Macon
County, near Decatur. Here he assisted his father to build a log-cabin;
clear, fence, and plant, a few acres of land; and then, being now
twenty-one years of age, he asked permission to seek his own fortune. He
began by going out to work by the month, breaking up the prairie,
splitting and chopping cord wood, and any thing he could find to do. His
father not long afterward removed to Coles County, Illinois, where he
lived until 1851, dying at the age of seventy-three. He lived to see his
son Abraham one of the most distinguished men in the State, and received
from him many memorials of his affection and kindness. His son often
sent money to his father and other members of his family, and always
treated them, however poor and illiterate, with the kindest
consideration.
It is clear from his own declarations that he early cherished an
ambition, probably under the inspiration of his mother, to rise to a
higher position. He had in all less than one year's attendance at
school, but his mother having taught him to read and write, with an
industry, application, and perseverance untiring, he applied himself to
all the means of improvement within his reach. Fortunately,
providentially, the Bible has been everywhere and always present in
every cabin and home in the land. The influence of this book formed his
character; he was able to obtain in addition to the Bible, AEsop's
Fables, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Weems' Life of Washington, and
Burns' Poems. These constituted nearly all he read before he reached the
age of nineteen. Living on the frontier, mingling with the rude,
hard-working, honest, and virtuous backwoodsmen, he became expert in the
use of every implement of agriculture and woodcraft, and as an ax-man he
had no superior.
His days were spent in hard manual labor, and his evenings in study; he
grew up free from idleness, and contracted no stain of intemperance,
profanity, or vice; he drank no intoxicating liquors, nor did he use
tobacco in any form.
There is a tradition that while residing at New Salem, Mr. Lincoln
entertained a boy's fancy for a prairie beauty named Ann Rutledge. Mr.
Irving, in his life of Washington, says: "Before he (Washington) was
fifteen years of age, he had conceived a passion for some unknown
beauty, so serious as to disturb his otherwise well-regulated mind, and
to make him really unhappy." Some romance has been published in regard
to this early attachment of Lincoln, and gossip and imagination have
converted a simple, boyish fancy, such as few reach manhood without
having passed through, into a "grand passion." It has been produced in a
form altogether too dramatic and highly-colored for the truth. The idea
that this fancy had any permanent influence upon his life and character
is purely imaginary. No man was ever a more devoted and affectionate
husband and father than he.
In the spring of 1832 Lincoln volunteered as a private in a company of
soldiers raised by the Governor of Illinois, for what is known as the
Black Hawk War. He was elected captain of the company, and served during
the campaign, but had no opportunity of meeting the enemy.
Soon after his return he was nominated for the State Legislature, and in
the precinct in which he resided, out of 284 votes received all but
seven. It was while a resident of New Salem that he became a practical
surveyor.
Up to this period the life of Lincoln had been one of labor, hardship,
and struggle: his shelter had been the log-cabin; his food, the "_corn
dodger and common doings_,"[2] the game of the forests and the prairie,
and the products of the farm; his dress, the Kentucky jean and buckskin
of the frontier; the tools with which he labored, the ax, the hoe, and
the plow. He had made two trips to New Orleans; these and his soldiering
in the Black Hawk War showed his fondness for adventure.
[2] The settlers have an expression, "Corn dodger and common doin's," as
contradistinguished from "Wheat bread and chickin fixin's."
Thus far he had been a backwoodsman, a rail-splitter, a flatboatman, a
clerk, a captain of volunteers, a surveyor. In 1834 he was elected to
the Legislature of Illinois, receiving the highest vote of any one on
the ticket. He was re-elected in 1836 (the term being for two years). At
this session he met, as a fellow-member, Stephen A. Douglas, then
representing Morgan County.
He remained a member of the Legislature for eight years, and then
declined being again a candidate.
He was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of Illinois in the
autumn of 1836, and his name first appears on the roll of attorneys in
1837.
In April of this year he removed to Springfield, and soon after entered
into partnership with his friend, John T. Stewart. As a lawyer he early
manifested, in a wonderful degree, the power of simplifying and making
clear to the common understanding the most difficult and abstruse
questions.
The circuit practice--"riding the circuit" it was called--as conducted
in Illinois thirty years ago, was admirably adapted to educate, develop,
and discipline all there was in a man of intellect and character. Few
books could be obtained upon the circuit, and no large libraries for
consultation could be found anywhere. A mere case lawyer was a helpless
child in the hands of the intellectual giants produced by these
circuit-court contests, where novel questions were constantly arising,
and must be immediately settled upon principle and analogy.[3]
[3] Vide "History of Abraham Lincoln and the Overthrow of Slavery," p.
76.
A few elementary books, such as Blackstone's and Kent's Commentaries,
Chitty's Pleadings, and Starkie's Evidence, could sometimes be found, or
an odd volume would be carried along with the scanty wardrobe of the
attorney in his saddle-bags. These were studied until the text was as
familiar as the alphabet. By such aid as these afforded, and the
application of principles, were all the complex questions which arose
settled. Thirty years ago it was the practice of the leading members of
the bar to follow the judge from county to county. The court-houses were
rude log buildings, with slab benches for seats, and the roughest pine
tables. In these, when courts were in session, Lincoln could be always
found, dressed in Kentucky jean, and always surrounded by a circle of
admiring friends--always personally popular with the judges, the
lawyers, the jury, and the spectators. His wit and humor, his power of
illustration by apt comparison and anecdote, his power to ridicule by
ludicrous stories and illustrations, were inexhaustible.
He always aided by his advice and counsel the young members of the bar.
No embarrassed tyro in the profession ever sought his assistance in
vain, and it was not unusual for him, if his adversary was young and
inexperienced, kindly to point out to him formal errors in his pleadings
and practice. His manner of conducting jury trials was very effective.
He was familiar, frequently colloquial: at the summer terms of the
courts, he would often take off his coat, and leaning carelessly on the
rail of the jury box, would single out and address a leading juryman,
in a conversational way, and with his invariable candor and fairness
would proceed to reason the case. When he was satisfied that he had
secured the favorable judgment of the juryman so addressed, he would
turn to another, and address him in the same manner, until he was
convinced the jury were with him. There were times when aroused by
injustice, fraud, or some great wrong or falsehood, when his
denunciation was so crushing that the object of it was driven from the
court-room.
There was a latent power in him which when aroused was literally
overwhelming. This power was sometimes exhibited in political debate,
and there were occasions when it utterly paralyzed his opponent. His
replies to Douglas, at Springfield and Peoria, in 1858, were
illustrations of this power. His examination and cross-examination of
witnesses were very happy and effective. He always treated those who
were disposed to be truthful with respect.
Mr. Lincoln's professional bearing was so high, he was so courteous and
fair that no man ever questioned his truthfulness or his honor. No one
who watched him for half an hour in court in an important case ever
doubted his ability. He understood human nature well; and read the
character of party, jury, witnesses, and attorneys, and knew how to
address and influence them. Probably as a jury lawyer, on the right
side, he has never had his superior.
Such was Mr. Lincoln at the bar, a fair, honest, able lawyer, on the
right side irresistible, on the wrong comparatively weak.
MR. LINCOLN FROM HIS RETIREMENT FROM THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE TO HIS
ELECTION TO CONGRESS.
A friend and associate of Mr. Lincoln, speaking of him, as he was in
1840, says: "They mistake greatly who regard him as an uneducated man.
In the physical sciences he was remarkably well read. In scientific
mechanics, and all inventions and labor-saving machinery, he was
thoroughly informed. He was one of the best practical surveyors in the
State. He understood the general principles of botany, geology, and
astronomy, and had a great treasury of practical useful knowledge."
He continued to acquire knowledge and to grow intellectually until his
death, and became one of the most intelligent and best-informed men in
public life.
Early in life he became an anti-slavery man, as well from the impulses
of his heart as the convictions of his reason. He always had an intense
hatred of oppression in every form, and an honest, earnest faith in the
common people, and his sympathies were ever with the oppressed. The most
conspicuous traits of his character were love of justice and love of
truth. It is false, very arrogant, and to those who knew Lincoln in his
earlier years, it is very amusing, for any man or set of men to assume
to himself or themselves the credit of having inspired him with hatred
of slavery. No man was less influenced by others in coming to his
conclusions than he; and this was especially true in regard to questions
involving right and justice. His own heart, his own observation, his own
clear intellect led him to become an anti-slavery man. Long before he
plead the cause of the slave before the American people, he said to a
friend,[4] "It is strange that while our courts decide that a man does
not lose his title to his property by its being stolen, but he may
reclaim it whenever he can find it, yet if he himself is stolen he
instantly loses his right to himself!"
[4] Hon. Jos. Gillespie.
In November, 1842, he was married to Miss Mary Todd, daughter of the
Hon. Robert S. Todd, of Kentucky. The mother of Mrs. Lincoln died when
she was young. She had sisters living at Springfield, Illinois. Visiting
them, she made the acquaintance and won the heart of Mr. Lincoln. They
had four children, Robert, Edward (who died in infancy), William, and
Thomas. Robert and Thomas survive. William, a beautiful and promising
boy, died at Washington, during his father's presidency. Mr. Lincoln was
a most fond, tender, and affectionate husband and father. No man was
ever more faithful and true in his domestic relations.