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NO President of the United States has risen to that eminence from humbler origin or from less propitious early surroundings than Abraham Lincoln. In his upward career, in spite of serious mistakes and sore stumbles, he steadily developed qualities fitting him for the high stations he was summoned to fill and the onerous public duties he was thus required to perform. Himself one of "the plain people," as he

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called them, he had firm faith in their sincere devotion to justice and liberty, and was assured of their support when aiming to treat the great questions of the day by the highest ethical standards. When he rose above the trifling disputes of local politics and grappled with the national problem of the extension of slavery, he, by instinctive devotion to duty, exemplified the maxim of Emerson, "Hitch your wagon to a star," and by so doing reached an eternity of fame.

Abraham Lincoln was born in Hardin County, Kentucky, February 12, 1809. His ancestry has been traced by genealogists to Samuel Lincoln, who emigrated from Norfolkshire, England, to Hingham, Massachusetts, about 1638. Members of the family lived successively in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Virginia, and followed Daniel Boone to Kentucky. Here

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Abraham Lincoln, the President's grandfather, while ploughing, was killed in 1784 by Indians. His son Thomas, then a boy, grew up without education, and in 1806 married Nancy Hanks, who, like the Lincolns, had moved from Virginia to Kentucky. In 1816 Thomas Lincoln moved across the Ohio to Indiana, which in that year was admitted to the Union. Here the family lived for a year in a "half-faced camp," and afterwards in a log-cabin without windows.

In that wilderness the struggle for life was severe, and hardships had to be borne which only strong constitutions could survive. After the death of Abraham's mother, in 1818, Thomas Lincoln married a widow Johnston, who taught her illiterate husband and her step-son to read and write. The latter also attended such schools as were opened at long intervals, about twelve months in all. The books of his boyhood were limited to the Bible, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Weems' Life of Washington, and the poems of Robert Burns. When attending at a trial for murder at Booneville, he was impressed with the eloquence of one of the Breckinridges of Kentucky, who conducted the defence, and may have had his ambition stirred to become a pleader. At the age of seventeen he wrote a neat, legible hand and was quick at figures, but was especially noted among his rough acquaintances for his power of narration and story-telling, which he cultivated with some care. His first experience at any distance from his rude home was when at nineteen he was hired to help in building a flat-boat and making a voyage on it down the Mississippi to New Orleans.

In the spring of 1830 the family moved again, and settled near Decatur, in Macon County, Illinois, where Abraham helped his father to build a cabin and split the rails for fencing the farm. But the locality proved unhealthy, and they resolved to abandon the place. The father, a proverbial "rolling stone," finally settled down in Coles County, where he died in 1851 at the age of seventy-three. Abraham, after making another flat-boat trip to New Orleans, took charge of a country store at a hamlet called New Salem, but spent much time in studying the few books he could obtain.

In 1832 there was trouble with the Sac Indians under their

formidable chief, Black Hawk. Lincoln, having volunteered with other young men, was proud of being elected captain of the company; but though they encountered some hardships, they were not called upon to do any fighting. This company was discharged at the end of a month's service, but Lincoln remained as a private in a company of mounted rangers. At Dixon's Ferry, Rock River, the captain of the company reported to Colonel Zachary Taylor, afterwards President, and Lincoln's final certificate of discharge was signed by Lieutenant Robert Anderson, who afterwards commanded Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor, at the outbreak of the Civil War. Before taking part in the Black Hawk War, Lincoln had offered himself as a candidate for the Legislature. The election took place in the summer and he was defeated, though he received the almost unanimous vote of his township. A speculative fellow, named Berry, then took him into partnership and purchased a small store. But Berry turned to engage in other schemes, the enterprise failed, and Lincoln was left with liabilities which it took him several years to discharge. While he was connected with this little store, his exactness in dealing procured for him the sobriquet of "Honest Abe," which his after career justified. He was next made a deputy surveyor of Sangamon County, and also commenced the study of law by the advice of John T. Stuart, who had been a comrade in the Black Hawk War, and was now in practice in Springfield. His early law practice brought him little remuneration, but he had plenty to do in land surveying, as a rage for speculation in land and town-sites had seized the people.

In 1834, at the age of twenty-five, this honest, hard-working, rough-built frontiersman found himself a popular man and a member of the Legislature of Illinois. The Sangamon County delegation consisted of seven members of the House and two senators, all over six feet in height, and was designated the "Long Nine." Lincoln, who was six feet four inches in height, being tallest of all, was called the "Sangamon Chief." One of the principal works of the "Long Nine" was the transfer of the State capital from Vandalia to Springfield. The passage of this measure proved Lincoln's

perseverance and skill in practical politics. He was now the recognized leader of the Whig party in the Legislature, and in 1838 he was put forward as their candidate for the Speaker's place, but was defeated. On his removal to Springfield he formed a law partnership with his friend John T. Stuart, which lasted for four years. Springfield was Lincoln's home for twenty-five years, until his election to the Presidency. He attended the courts of all the neighboring counties, and was thus brought in contact with many distinguished men, including Lyman Trumbull, William H. Bissell, David Davis, Justin Butterfield, of Chicago, and many others of equal note. It was in conflict and competition with these celebrities that Lincoln received the discipline to fit him for the great work that lay before him. Thus trained, Lincoln, without much knowledge of books, became a successful advocate, if not an able lawyer. His never-failing fund of wit and humor, and his remarkable power of apt illustration, made him popular with the bench, the jury, and his brethren of the bar, whether in the Circuit or the Supreme Court. He was also noted for the clearness and effectiveness of his speeches on various topics. In one delivered at Springfield in 1837, on the "Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions," when speaking of the heroes of the Revolution, he employed the following striking figure: "They are gone. They were a forest of giant oaks; but the resistless hurricane has swept over them and left only here and there a lonely trunk, despoiled of its verdure, shorn of its foliage, unshading and unshaded, to murmur in a few more gentle breezes, to combat with its mutilated limbs a few more rude storms, then to sink and be no more. Two years later, Lincoln took part in a joint discussion in the Hall of the Assembly at Springfield. Replying to Lamborn, who taunted the opponents of Van Buren with the hopelessness of their struggle, Lincoln nobly said: "Address that argument to cowards and knaves. With the free and the brave it will effect nothing. It may be true; if it must, let it be so. Many free countries have lost their liberties, and ours may lose hers: but if she shall, let it be my proudest plume, not that I was the last to desert her, but that I never deserted her."

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