ABRAHAM LINCOLN
The story of Abraham Lincoln should bring more inspiration to you than
that of any other man or woman who is mentioned in this book. For
Lincoln not only had a great mind, a great and forceful personality,
but a great and kindly heart, filled with charity for all. He was,
moreover, a man of the people. Whatever he gained in life, he gained by
his own efforts. Washington created the United States, but Lincoln
carried them through the most difficult crisis of their history--and it
is more than probable that without him there would be no United States
to-day.
He was born in 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky, on the Twelfth of
February, and was the son of Thomas Lincoln, a carpenter. Thomas
Lincoln was a good natured but shiftless man who never did any more
work than was absolutely necessary to keep his family from starving. He
had pioneer blood in his veins, as, indeed, all Lincoln's ancestors
had, from the time when they first came to America in 1637; and this
fact kept them pushing continually to the westward and taking up new
lands in unbroken country as opportunity offered. Thomas Lincoln's
wife, Nancy, was made of better stuff than her easy going husband, and
it is probably from her that the boy Abraham inherited the character
that was to make his name the greatest in his country, if not in the
entire world.
As a boy Abraham had little or no chance to go to school, but he was so
industrious and eager to learn that he borrowed every book that he
could lay his hand on, and in this way he obtained a thorough knowledge
of the bible and of Shakespeare as well as of a few other classics,
which included AEsop's fables, Robinson Crusoe, a history of Washington
and the Pilgrim's Progress.
When Abraham was eight years old, his father moved to Indiana, and
there the first great sorrow of his life befell the little boy. His
mother died of a fever that appeared among the settlers, leaving
Abraham and his sister Sarah, a little girl of eleven, to do the
housework and the heavy chores of a backwoods farm. The following year
Thomas Lincoln went away to Kentucky to marry again, and he brought
back with him a big hearted woman named Sally Johnson, who had three
children by a former marriage.
This marriage by Thomas Lincoln was the best thing that could have
happened for his two motherless children. Sally Johnson was able to
give them better care and more comforts than they had ever known. She
inspired their father also to work more regularly and to put a door on
the cabin in which they lived. Abraham helped his father in clearing
the land and hewing the trees. He was big and strong for his age, and
was constantly swinging an ax or guiding a plow.
All the time when not engaged in these active forms of labor, Abraham
was reading and studying, by candle light or by firelight, chalking up
sums of arithmetic on a board or the back of a shovel when he lacked
paper to write them on, and striving in every way to gain for himself
an education. Owing to the remote region where he lived and the
constant moves that were made by his family, he had less than a year's
schooling in the entire course of his life,--but his eagerness to learn
counterbalanced this disadvantage and when he reached young manhood he
knew as much as many who had been to the finest schools in the country
from their earliest years and without interruption.
When he was twenty-one years old his father moved again. This time
Thomas Lincoln settled in Illinois, and Abraham worked without pay for
a year, helping him to clear his property and settle his land. Then, as
was the custom in those days, he left home to seek his fortune
elsewhere.
By this time he had grown into a tall and powerful man who was able
with great ease to outstrip all others in running or jumping, swinging
an ax or carrying heavy weights. His strength, in fact, was as famous
throughout the country side as was his good nature and kindness, for he
was always ready to give his neighbors a hand when they needed help and
to do them a good turn when the chance came his way. Everybody liked
him and he was welcome wherever he went.
With two relatives Lincoln built a flatboat and started down the river
for New Orleans on a trading venture. He had been south once before,
when he traveled more than a thousand miles on a flatboat selling
groceries to the plantations of Mississippi, and these two trips
enabled him to see what slavery was like. He saw negroes being placed
on the auction block and knocked down to the highest bidder, separated
forever from their wives and families. He saw them toiling in the
fields and triced up under the lash. It was then, without doubt, that
he formed the opinions that directed his policy from the White House in
later years when he was President.
On returning to his home Lincoln had his first taste of military
service. A war had broken out with the Black Hawk Indians, and
volunteers were called for to drive them out of the country. Lincoln
was one of the first to offer his services, and although still very
young, every man in the neighborhood urged that he be made the captain
of the military company in which they were to serve. It was a sign of
the esteem in which the ungainly young man was held that those older
than himself should unanimously propose him for their leader.
Before this time Lincoln, young as he was, had announced his candidacy
for the Legislature of Illinois. The County of Sangamon, where he
lived, was entitled to four representatives. He had informed the
residents that he was a candidate by a characteristic letter which was
printed in the county newspapers and has been quoted in Lincoln's
biographies.
"Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition," he wrote. "Whether
it be true or not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so great as
being truly esteemed by my fellow men by rendering myself worthy of
their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition is
yet to be developed. I am young and unknown to many of you. I was born,
and have ever remained, in the most humble walks of life. I have no
wealthy or popular relations or friends to recommend me. My case is
thrown exclusively upon the independent voters of the county; and if
elected they will have conferred a favor upon me for which I shall be
unremitting in my labors to compensate. But if the good people in their
wisdom see fit to keep me in the background I have been too familiar
with disappointments to be very much chagrined."
But when the Indian war broke out Lincoln sacrificed his chances of
being elected, preferring to fight for his country in such fighting as
came his way, and the victory was won by his opponents.
On his return after a bloodless campaign, he started a grocery store in
the town of New Salem, Illinois, but the venture was destined to be an
unlucky one. The town dwindled in size; the store finally failed; his
partner ran away and then died, leaving Lincoln to shoulder all the
burden of the debt. Although he had no money and could earn but little,
he paid this debt to the last penny and with proper interest, but the
burden saddened his young manhood and put him in poverty and
difficulties from which he did not free himself for a number of years.
In the year 1834, Lincoln ran once more for the State Legislature, and
this time, as no obstacles beyond the ordinary came his way, he was
elected. This marked the turning point in his career, for he had now
embarked on the course that was to end with his election to the
Presidency. He was sent back to the Legislature in 1836 and again in
1838 and 1840; and his policy was marked by broad views and great
liberality. As a matter of fact, he was one of the first champions of
woman's suffrage, for in preparing his platform he said that he was for
allowing all whites to vote who bore the burdens of the Government,
including the women.
While in the Legislature Lincoln had the courage to voice a protest
against slavery, and at that time the feeling ran so strongly against
"abolitionists," as the would-be liberators of slaves were called, that
he could only get one man beside himself to sign this protest. In it he
stated that slavery in itself was evil and unjust, but that the efforts
of the abolitionists only served to add to its horrors. By this
statement Lincoln ran grave danger of being ruined in his political
career, and only his high moral courage impelled him to make it.
In 1839 the State Capitol of Illinois was moved to Springfield and
Lincoln decided to live in the same town. While he had been serving his
country in the Legislature he had also been studying law--a pursuit
that he commenced when he owned the unlucky general grocery store at
New Salem. Now he hung up his shingle as a lawyer, going into
partnership with John T. Stuart who was prominent in Lincoln's own
political party, whose members were called Whigs. Before very long he
had a good practice.
Here Lincoln engaged to fight a duel, showing at once his courage and
the keen sense of humor that he possessed. Some women friends of his
had sent to the newspapers a series of humorous letters criticizing one
James Shields, an Irishman, who was engaged in tax collecting. These
letters were signed by the name of "Aunt Rebecca," and to help the
ladies Lincoln had written the first letter as a model. When Shields
started inquiries, Lincoln took the entire responsibility. Shields
belonged to the opposite political party and challenged Lincoln to a
duel. As the challenged, Lincoln was allowed to chose the weapons. He
decided on broadswords of the largest possible size. A plank was to be
placed between the duelists, and neither allowed to cross it. On either
side of the plank lines were drawn at the length of the broadsword and
three feet extra,--and if the duelist stepped back across this line he
lost the fight.
These terms had a large element of the ridiculous about them. The
meeting came to pass but the duel never was fought, for Lincoln and his
adversary were reconciled before the swords were drawn. Soon after this
Lincoln married Mary Todd, a Kentucky girl who had been one of the
originators of the letters that brought about this duel.
A few years later, in 1846, Lincoln was elected to Congress. In his
first term in the House of Representatives he did nothing to
distinguish himself, but kept his eyes and ears open and used the term
more as an instructive course in some university of politics than
anything else, although he took care not to neglect the work of his
constituents. In fact there is, or was at that time a general idea that
it was impossible to distinguish oneself in a first term to Congress.
There was too much to learn, too many duties to perform, too slight an
acquaintance with fellow members.
Lincoln, however, quickly became known in Washington and was liked
wherever he went. He had a gift for story telling that he frequently
made use of, either to amuse his hearers or to take the bitterness out
of some political argument.
While in Washington as a congressman, he made his first actual effort
toward the abolition of slavery by drawing up a bill for the freeing of
slaves in the District of Columbia and paying their owners a good price
from the coffers of the Government. This bill had many supporters, but
it was obstructed and never came to a vote. It showed, however, as his
earlier and courageous protest showed, the thoughts that were in
Lincoln's heart about this great national evil, and that he could be
relied on to do all that lay in his power to end it.
After Lincoln's term in Congress was over he returned to Springfield,
where, for a number of years, he quietly practised law without thinking
of returning to office. He did desire to be Governor of the Territory
of Oregon and was offered this position, but gave it up because his
wife refused to live so far away. It is just as well that he did so,
for who knows if his great powers would ever have been recognized if he
had taken this appointment and lived in even more of a wilderness than
where his forefathers had cleared the land and made their homes?
The war against slavery was gaining headway, and every year the feeling
became more intense over the fact that certain States were allowed to
hold men in bondage and buy and sell them like animals. Whenever a new
territory was acquired by the Union a dispute arose as to whether it
was to be a slave or a free territory, and this discussion was opened
up with bitterness in 1854 when Lincoln's great rival, Senator Douglas,
offered a bill to bring about territorial government in Nebraska.
On account of this struggle Lincoln came once more into the public eye.
Douglas had believed that by working to repeal a measure known as the
Missouri Compromise, thereby throwing open to slavery a large amount of
territory that had been closed against it, he would stand an excellent
chance of being elected President of the United States. The struggle
between the slave and the free factions of the country had now taken on
national importance of the first order, and caused the readjustment of
the political parties. The Democratic party now became the champion of
slavery, while the Whig party, and those Democrats who desired slaves
to be free, were merged in the Republican party to which Lincoln
belonged.
In the State Convention in Illinois, where the Republican party was
formed, Lincoln made a wonderful speech, of which only the memory
remains. The stenographers and reporters who were supposed to take it
down became so enthralled by the words of the great leader that they
forgot to make note of those words, and Lincoln, who spoke with few
notes, could not remember afterward what he had said. How marvelous the
speech must have been is to be seen from the fact that even without
written reports its fame traveled through the United States, and those
that heard it never forgot the majesty and power of Lincoln's oratory.
Lincoln was not yet well enough known, to be considered as a candidate
for the Presidency, but he did receive some support from his party as
Republican nominee for Vice President. In the meantime, and even before
this speech had been made, Douglas had realized the strength of his new
opponent, and sought to silence Lincoln until after the election.
Lincoln and Douglas met in joint debate, and the result of the contest
made history. Hoping to entrap Lincoln, Douglas asked him a number of
questions, thinking that Lincoln might answer in such a way that his
reply would be unpopular to the people of the South. In return Lincoln
asked Douglas such a carefully thought out question that in answering
it Douglas was compelled either to deny his former words or make
himself unpopular with the Democratic party. And as a result of this
Douglas was greatly weakened for the presidency in the campaign of
1860.
Lincoln's brilliant speeches and his former political record, his
reputation for honesty and kindness, and his known firmness against the
issue of slavery were doing their work, although he himself did not
dream that he might gain the presidency that Douglas had aspired to. He
continued to make speeches in 1859 and followed Douglas about, speaking
against his policy. In May, 1860, the Republicans of the State of
Illinois declared Lincoln to be their choice for President without a
dissenting vote.
The Republican National Convention for that year, held in Chicago, was
a memorable meeting. The two names that stood out above all others were
those of William H. Seward and Abraham Lincoln. Several ballots were
taken amid scenes of great excitement, and at last the name of Lincoln
was given to the country as the Republican candidate for President.
And the campaign itself was the most memorable presidential campaign in
the history of this country. In all there were four candidates. The
Democratic party was split into two wings, one of which, with Douglas
for its choice, claimed that it did not pretend to decide whether
slavery was right or wrong; the other with Breckenridge was directly in
favor of slavery and sought to extend it and to add new States to the
slave list. There was also the Constitutionalist Union party in which
slavery was not an issue at all or anything else, for that
matter--while the Republican party, with Lincoln at its head, was
directly opposed to slavery and had come out as its open and declared
enemy.
On the night of the election, which fell on the Sixth of November,
Lincoln heard news by electric telegram of his overwhelming victory.
His speeches and his strong personality had won the day. He was chosen
as President at a time when the most difficult and arduous duties since
the time of Washington awaited the head of the nation.
Throughout the South, bitterness had been growing more and more marked
each day. The South had declared that it would never bear the rule of a
Republican President and an opponent of slavery. And after the Southern
States knew that Lincoln was to be their leader, one after another
withdrew its congressmen and senators from Washington, and passed what
they called "ordinances of secession," which meant that they no longer
considered themselves a part of the United States. More than this took
place, for one after one the army officers in charge of the Southern
forts and arsenals went over to the side of the South, allowing the
most important military strongholds and vast amounts of military stores
to fall into their hands, and President Buchanan, who was Lincoln's
predecessor, and in sympathy with the South himself, did nothing to
prevent these outrages against the Government he had sworn to uphold.
In the meantime Lincoln had performed his first official act which
would have indicated, if other things had not amply done so, his coming
greatness. This was his choice of a Cabinet. Believing that he must not
only surround himself with the strongest men he could find, but the
ones that the people placed most reliance in, he appointed to the
Cabinet all the other Republicans whose names had been mentioned for
President at the Republican convention in June. William H. Seward was
his Secretary of State and the other cabinet officials included Salmon
P. Chase of Ohio, who was Secretary of the Treasury, Simon Cameron of
Pennsylvania, and later Edwin M. Stanton as Secretary of War.
The difficulties and dangers of his position now beset him. On his way
to his inauguration he was warned that in Baltimore there had been
discovered a plot against his life, and so serious did this plot appear
that he had to go through secretly on another train than the one on
which he was expected. In his inaugural address, assuming the duties of
President, Lincoln denied the right of any State to secede from the
Union, and this was taken by those States that already had seceded and
in fact by the entire South as little less than a declaration of war
against them.
All through the South preparations for war were carried on as quickly
as possible. And in less than six weeks after Lincoln had taken over
the duties of his office, the Civil War was opened by the Confederates,
who turned their guns against Fort Sumter, which was held by the Union
commander, Major Anderson.
From that time on the story of Lincoln's life is almost the same as
that of the great Civil War, in which as President he decided most of
the momentous questions that came before the nation, and bore upon his
shoulders a weight even greater than what had been carried by
Washington when the United States was born.
In the first part of the war the South won many victories. They
defeated the Union forces at Bull Run and Fredericksburg, and with
smaller forces and these divided were able to fight what amounted to a
drawn battle at Antietam. They defeated General Hooker at
Chancellorsville, and it began to look as if the South, under the
brilliant General, Robert E. Lee, had more than a chance of gaining
what they desired, and winning independence from the Federal
Government. General after general was placed in command of the Union
forces and proved inadequate to the gigantic task that had to be
fulfilled. And Lincoln, in addition to his other duties, had to study
and master the art of war, so that he could intelligently understand
the military situations that came to him for final decision. No greater
tribute can be made to the power of his brain than to say that after he
had followed his military studies this lawyer and backwoodsman was
considered among the best strategists in the country.
It was shortly after the battle of Antietam that President Lincoln
decided to issue his famous proclamation giving freedom to all the
slaves in the United States. He decided to do this because it was a war
measure and the South had been able to obtain much military aid from
the slaves who were in their possession. Also it won the North to a
more whole-hearted prosecution of the war, since by far the greater
part of the North desired the immediate freedom of the slaves. This
proclamation was called the "Proclamation of Emancipation," and under
it all men in the United States really became free and equal, for the
first time in American History.
At last Lincoln had realized his lifelong desire to right the wrong of
slavery, and throughout the world this act added greatly to his fame.
By the black race he was looked upon as a second Savior and whenever he
was seen by a group of negroes they raised the echoes with their shouts
of enthusiasm and jubilee.
Another great deed was done by Lincoln and one that was to have an
immediate effect upon the course of the war. This was the appointment
of General Ulysses S. Grant to the position of Commander in Chief of
the Union forces. General Grant, like Lincoln, came from obscure
beginnings. He had volunteered his services at the beginning of the
war, and had won his way upward through sheer merit. On the Fourth of
July, 1863, he had captured the Southern city of Vicksburg, while
General Meade in the same year beat the Confederates decisively on the
field of Gettysburg which was the greatest battle of the war and marked
its turning point.
It was after Gettysburg that President Lincoln made the memorable
address upon the field of victory that has gone down into history as
one of the finest speeches ever made and has been placed above the
portals of one of England's greatest colleges as an example of the
purest example of English speech that has ever been uttered.
"Fourscore and seven years ago," said Lincoln, "our fathers brought
forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation
or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are
met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a
portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave
their lives that the nation might live. It is altogether fitting and
proper that we should do this.
"But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate--we cannot consecrate--we
cannot hallow--this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who
struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or
detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here,
but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living,
rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who
fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be
here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these
honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they
gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve
that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under
God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the
people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the
earth."
The turning point of the war had been reached; the victory of the
Northern forces was now assured. On the Ninth of April, 1865, General
Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House and the war was
brought to an end.
In the meantime Lincoln had been reelected President by an overwhelming
majority. He now had before him the difficult task of reconstruction,
and of bringing together the warring factions that so nearly had torn
our nation in two halves forever.
His kindliness, his personal bravery which made him regardless of all
risks and repeated threats of assassination, his infinite tact,
resourcefulness and good humor, coupled with the weightier abilities as
a ruler and a statesman, have made his name most justly the most famous
in our history with the possible exception of George Washington's.
There is an infinite fund of anecdotes concerning him and what he did
in the dark days through which he piloted the country. Lincoln was
always gentle when there was the least excuse for gentleness, and he
pardoned so many military offenders who had been under sentence of
death that the Union Generals complained that he was weakening their
discipline. Yet this gentleness on his part was never confounded with
weakness. No more terrible contestant could have appeared against the
rebellious South than the quiet, gaunt backwoodsman who had placed
himself in the President's chair by reason of his character alone.
On April 14, 1865, when attending a performance at Ford's Theater in
Washington, President Lincoln was murdered. His assassin was John
Wilkes Booth, brother of the famous actor, Edwin Booth, who was in no
way implicated with the terrible deed perpetrated by one that bore his
name. Wilkes Booth was a rabid Southerner and believed that since the
North had conquered, vengeance was necessary. He did not see, as many
of the defeated Southerners saw clearly, that with the war once ended
Lincoln, with his infinite tolerance and patience, was the best friend
that the South could possibly have.
Booth forced an entrance into the box where the President was seated
and walking up to him shot him in the head with a pistol. He then
vaulted over the rail and with the shout of "sic semper tyrannis" ran
from the stage in spite of the fact that he had broken his leg in his
fall from the box, and succeeded in escaping from the theater. The
unconscious President was tenderly lifted and carried across the street
to a house that was opposite the theater. Here at seven o'clock on the
following morning he passed away.
That Lincoln was one of the greatest men of all time and belongs to
eternity, was realized then, but is still more deeply realized now. His
wonderful name has become a household word, not only in the United
States but everywhere. And as the mist of the confusing events that
surrounded him is clearing away in the light of history, his form is
becoming mightier and more venerable every day.