Thomas Lincoln was now well fixed to begin life over again, and as
Abraham was twenty-one, he wished to do for himself and started out. He
never afterwards was a member of his father's household. Thomas Lincoln
lived here a number of years; but afterwards moved to Coles county,
where he lived on a farm near the village of Farmington, that Abraham
bought for him. He died January 17th, 1851. Abraham at the time could
not be present on account of sickness in his own family, so he wrote as
follows: "I sincerely hope that father may recover his health. Tell him
to remember to call upon the great God and all-wise Maker, who will not
turn away from him in any extremity. He notes the fall of the sparrow,
He numbers the hairs of our heads, and will not forget the dying man who
puts his trust in Him. Say to him that if we could meet now it is
doubtful whether it would not be more painful than pleasant; but that if
it be His will for him to go now, he will soon have the joyous meeting
of the loved ones gone before, where the rest of us with the help of God
will hope ere long to join them." Talking to a friend after the death of
his father about his mother, he said "that whatever might be said of his
parents, however unpromising the surroundings of his mother may have
been, she was highly intellectual by nature and had a strong memory and
acute judgment." She had no doubt risen above her surroundings, and had
she lived, the stimulus of her nature would have accelerated the son's
success.
When Abraham started out for himself, he had almost nothing, not even a
nice suit of clothes, and the very first work he did was to split four
hundred rails for enough money to buy him a pair of brown jeans pants.
He had no trade or influence; but he was strong and good natured. He
could out-lift and out-wrestle and out-work any man he came across. His
friends used to boast of his strength a great deal. One time when he was
president, a man came to him, who was shy on account of being before the
president. After his errand was done, Mr. Lincoln asked him to measure
with him, and the man proved to be even taller, and went away seeming to
think there was something wrong in his being taller than the president
of the United States. While his strength made him popular with the hard
working men, his good nature, wit, stories, and ability to make a good
speech made him popular with everybody! The people liked to have him
around, so he could always get work in the various kinds of labor
necessary on the farm about there. He remained in Macon county a year,
and made for one man alone, three thousand rails. He continued at this
time to read all the books he could get, and also to make stump
speeches, often doing it alone in the woods. A man came along making
political speeches. John Banks told Abraham that he could do better.
Abraham tried it, and the man after hearing his speech took him aside
and asked him how he learned so much and how he could do so well.
Abraham told him that he read a great deal and the man encouraged him to
continue.
A Mr. Benton Offut wanted to send some produce to New Orleans. Abraham
had had some experience on a trip you will remember before, and so Mr.
Offut hired him at the rate of fifty cents a day to take a flat boat of
goods to New Orleans and sell them. When they were building this boat at
Sangamon, a town that is now gone, Lincoln used to tell stories
particularly in the evening when work was done. They would sit along a
log, and when they came to a funny part, they would laugh so hard that
the men would roll off the log. It is said they did this so often that
it polished the log. They called this "Abraham's log," and many years
afterward, even when Mr. Lincoln was noted, this log was pointed out to
strangers as "Abraham's log."
When they started to New Orleans their boat got stuck on a dam in the
Sangamon River at New Salem, but Mr. Lincoln thought out a good plan for
getting it off and they finally reached New Orleans in May 1831. They
remained there a month. It was a large city and was very interesting to
Abraham. It was the great business center of the South, and as negro
slavery was a very prominent feature of the South, they saw it in all
its wickedness. At New Orleans one day, John Hanks and Abraham were
walking along the street and came to a slave market. They saw a
beautiful slave girl put up for sale. They pinched her and trotted her
up and down the street just as you would a horse to show its fine parts.
This disgusted Abraham so much that he turned to Hanks and said, "John,
if I ever get a chance to hit that thing (slavery) I will hit it hard."
Strange was it not that he should be the man that would hit it so hard
that it died.
When he returned from New Orleans, Mr. Offut hired him to take charge of
a little store at New Salem, which he started. This town was a very
little village twenty miles north-west of Springfield. The place where
it was located is now simply a pasture for cattle and sheep, the town
having entirely passed away; but it will always be noted in history as
the place where Abraham Lincoln, the great man lived and conducted a
store. Thus you see that men are so much more important than places, and
it is _their deeds_ that make history. In after years when Mr. Douglas
was debating with Mr. Lincoln he joked him about this store keeping, and
said that he sold liquor over the New Salem bar. When it came Mr.
Lincoln's turn to reply, he was just as witty in his reply and said that
if he did sell liquor over the New Salem bar as his friend had said, he
could assure his audience that the best patron he had was Stephen A.
Douglas. This was simply a joke between these two debaters; but it
illustrates how quick Mr. Lincoln's wit was.
We all no doubt think ourselves honest; but I wonder if we are as
strictly honest as Mr. Lincoln was. After measuring out some tea for a
lady one evening in the store, he gave it to her. After attending to
other work in the store, he happened to pass by the scales and noticed
he had made a mistake and given her too little. He measured out the
difference, wrapped it up, and although the woman lived a long distance
away, he hastened off to bring her the difference. Perhaps the most of
us might have thought that we would wait until she came in again and
give it to her and perhaps then forget all about it; but that was not
Mr. Lincoln's way. One evening after discovering that he had taken six
and a fourth cents too much from a customer, he walked three miles and
returned the money at once. He also was postmaster, but the postoffice
was so small and did such a little business that the government closed
it up. They neglected, however, to get the balance due them of about
sixteen dollars. Many years afterwards when Mr. Lincoln was living in
Springfield, the agent for the government came to his office for the
money. In the meantime Mr. Lincoln had been through some very great
poverty, and often needed just a little money very much. I presume many
people would have borrowed that sixteen dollars for the time and
returned it when the agent came for it. A friend of Mr. Lincoln's called
him to one side when the agent came for the money, and said he knew he
was poor, and probably did not have that amount with him, and he would
loan it to him; but Mr. Lincoln said he did not need it, and asking the
agent to wait awhile, he went over to his room and got an old sock out
of his trunk and bringing this back to the office, untied it and dumped
on the table the exact money he had received as the postmaster many
years before. Here is a good lesson for us in strict and exact honesty.
This instance illustrates Mr. Lincoln's very strict honesty, and as he
became known about New Salem, and this characteristic was seen by the
people, he was nicknamed "Honest Abe," and this name for honesty went
with him ever afterward, and when he would speak to the jury in a law
suit, and tell them the facts, they would always believe him because he
was known as "Honest Abe," and would not tell a lie. So you see that it
was a very great advantage to him in after years to have been so
strictly honest. It proves the old saying true, that "Honesty is the
best policy."
Mr. Offut, Abraham's employer was very proud of his strength and was
wont to boast of it very often. There was a settlement near New Salem
called Clary's Grove. A large number of young men who lived in that
vicinity ran together and were known as the Clary's Grove boys. They
were large and strong young men, and very much given to fun and sport.
They were rude and rough and would wrestle, fight and do a great many
tricks. Abraham, being a stranger bragged on by his employer they
thought it was necessary to "take the starch out of him," so they put up
their best man, Jack Armstrong to wrestle against Abraham. Jack
Armstrong was a square built fellow and strong as an ox. Abraham did not
like this sort of thing, but it was hard to avoid it. So they met on a
certain day for the wrestling match. The crowd came to witness the
contest. For a long time they struggled without either gaining a
victory, and both keeping on their feet. Finally Armstrong made a foul
and this made Abraham furious, so he caught Jack by the throat, held him
out at arm's length and shook him as though he was only a child.
Armstrong's friends rushed to his aid, but Abraham backed up to the
building and stood ready. His friends came to his support, and when all
knew about Armstrong's trick and also recognized Abraham's wonderful
strength, they became admirers of him, and ever after the Clary's Grove
boys were staunch friends of Mr. Lincoln.
He used the influence thus acquired to teach them that the mind is the
measure of the man, and not physical strength and by his example taught
them that to cultivate the mind by reading and study was the more
important thing and he did them a great deal of good.