OF course; who should it be if not our Lincoln? The name is a household
word in all our homes, and I doubt if I can tell you anything which you
do not already know about this great man; the story of his life and his
deeds are familiar to every schoolboy. His features are well known to
you all, for there is scarcely a home that has not his portrait upon
its walls.
In 1809 Abraham Lincoln was born in a lonely cabin on the banks of
a small river or creek in Kentucky; born to poverty, hardship and
obscurity, born to rise from obscurity, through poverty, hardship and
toil to the highest point of an American boy's ambition. He early
learned the meaning of privation and self-denial. The accounts of his
early life are somewhat meagre, but he has told us himself that he had
only about one year of school-life. Think of that, you boys who are
going steadily forward year after year, from the primary school through
all the intermediate grades up to the advanced, then to the academy,
thence to college, and afterwards to law and divinity schools, think of
Abraham Lincoln's school privileges and be thankful for your own. And
more, show your appreciation by your improvement of your advantages.
Like many of our great men, Lincoln was what we style a self-made
man, and yet it seems that he owed something of his making to his
stepmother. His own mother died when he was a small boy, and the new
mother who sometime after came into the family was very helpful to
the boy, encouraging him in his love of books, and under her guidance
he became a great reader, devouring every book he could lay his hands
upon. Did it ever occur to you that it might be an advantage to some
of us if we had fewer books? Driven back again and again to the few,
we should read them more carefully and make the thoughts our own, and
perhaps the stock of ideas gathered from books would even exceed that
which we gain from the multitude of books we have in these days of
bookmaking. Whether you read much or little, few books or many, boys,
read with careful thought. Take in and digest thoroughly the thoughts
presented to you.
Well, this young man had but few books, but he seems to have laid by
a number of ideas which should develop in time into acts which were
to startle the world and overthrow existing institutions. He worked
through his boyhood and early manhood with his hands, sometimes on a
farm, sometimes as a clerk in a country store. Now as a boatman, now at
clearing up and fencing a farm.
[Illustration: LINCOLN'S EARLY HOME IN KENTUCKY.]
It was while engaged in this last-mentioned employment that he earned
the title afterwards given him in derision by his political opponents,
"The rail splitter," but I suspect that he could have answered as did
the boy who in the days of prosperity was taunted with having been a
bootblack, "Didn't I do it well?"
At length the way opened--or, as I think, he by his exertions forced
a way to study law, and he began his practice of the profession in
Springfield, Ill.
I ought to have told you, however, that before his admission to the bar
he served in the Black Hawk War as captain of a company of volunteers.
He soon gained distinction as a lawyer, but presently became interested
in politics.
And from that time his history is closely identified with that of his
country. To tell you of the leading incidents even of his career would
be to give you in a nutshell the history of the United States for that
period. His noted contest with Stephen A. Douglas, his election to the
presidency, his re-election, his celebrated Emancipation Proclamation,
all these matters belong to the story of the stirring events of those
years of our history. Then came the sad ending of this noble life; the
cruel assassination of the beloved President, and the great man of the
time.
[Illustration: LINCOLN'S FIRST HOUSE IN ILLINOIS.]
Boys, you who have studied his character, will you tell me what made
Abraham Lincoln great?