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 Houser, M.L. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln. 
 
LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 presented by 
 
 M. L. Horner 
 
Abraham Lincoln 
 
 An Address 
 
 BY 
 M. L. HOUSER 
 
 521 Spruce Ave. 
 KANSAS CITY. MISSOURI 
 
 THE U8B.«Ry Of THE 
 
 JUN 7 1933 
 
 UNIVERSITY Of ILLINOIS, 
 
 MARCH 1. 1928 
 
 PRESENTATION COPY 
 PRIVATELY PRINTED AND NOT FOR SALE 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
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 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://archive.org/details/abrahamlincolnadOOhous 
 
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 COPYRIGHTED. 1928 
 
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 EDWARD J. JACOB 
 
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 Printed in the United States of America 
 
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PREFACE 
 
 The Publisher has asked me to write a Preface. Since they 
 are seldom read, it may be all right for me to make this one 
 a bit personal. 
 
 My forefathers followed Boone into Kentucky about the 
 same time the Lincolns did, and settled near them. They removed 
 to The Old Eight Judicial District of Illinois soon after Abraham 
 Lincoln went there. A great-uncle spent the year 1834 at New 
 Salem and knew him as a young man. My great-grandfather was 
 his personal friend and local, political lieutenant. Both grand- 
 fathers admired and followed him. My father's chief claim to 
 fame was that a few months before he became of age, in 1861, he 
 voted illegally for Lincoln and Hamlin. 
 
 I was born almost within sight of the county-seat town in 
 Illinois that bears Mr. Lincoln's name, in the county named for 
 his partner, Judge Logan. As a wide-eyed, open-mouthed boy, 
 I listened with intense interest to stories told of him by people 
 who had known him in life. Since securing a temporary armistice 
 with the wolf that lingers near my door, I have enjoyed buying 
 and reading every worth-while book about Lincoln that I could 
 obtain — and pay for. 
 
 If the conclusions I have reached prove of interest to any- 
 body, or encourage someone to make a study of the best authorities 
 on the life of our First American, I shall be pleased. 
 
 Respectfully, 
 
 M. L. H. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 Many of our great men and our statesmen have 
 been self-made; but Lincoln rose from a lower depth 
 than any of them — from a stagnant, putrid pool, — 
 Herndon. 
 
 This great contest has visibly been held in the 
 hands of Almighty God. It was He who chose the 
 instrument for this work. — Stowc. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln, I believe, was neither a Political 
 Acccident nor a Special Instrument of Divine Prov- 
 idence. He was, I believe, the natural product of 
 his Ancestry, his Training, his Environments, and 
 his Times. 
 
ANCESTRY 
 
 Most of the information we have regarding Mr. Lincoln's 
 ancestry was unknown to him; and practically all we now know 
 about his childhood environment and early training only recently 
 became available. 
 
 When he grew to manhood, he knew very little about his 
 people, and did not like to talk about them. (1) He believed 
 his mother to be the illegitimate daughter of a well-bred but ob- 
 scure Virginia planter, and was unable to find a record of the 
 marriage of his parents. (2) His attitude; their own lack of 
 skill Jn securing accurate information; and, in Lamon's book, 
 political hatred, explain why some of his early biographers related 
 as history the scurrilous stories told about his parentage and child- 
 hood, by his enemies, in the political campaigns of 1860 and 
 1864. (3) These stories were supplemented by the testimony 
 of some members of 'certain cognate families, who apparently 
 thought to minimize their ov/n inferiority by making derogatory 
 statements concerning the Lincolns. (4) Many subsequent 
 biographers simply repeated what they elected to select from the 
 mass thus made available. 
 
 But some later, better-trained and less-easily-satisfied investiga- 
 tors have uncovered fact after fact which prove that the truth is 
 the exact contrary to most of what has been written on the sub- 
 ject. Miss Tarbell and Dr. Barton established his honorable 
 ancestry, and wrote about his early life in a judicious and sympa- 
 thetic manner. 
 
 It remained, however, for Professor Louis A. Warren to un- 
 cover the evidence which now enables us, for the first time, to speak 
 with confidence regarding the life of the Lincolns in Kentucky. 
 From 1919 to 1925, inclusive, in thirty Kentucky counties and 
 elsewhere, he gathered over 1,500 court entries and other documents 
 which relate to the Kentucky life and environment of the Lincoln 
 and Hanks families. (5) 
 
 Within twenty-five years after the landing of the Mayflower, 
 eight men of the name of Lincoln had come from the west of 
 England, and settled at Hingham, Massachusetts. (6) Enter- 
 prise, a desire for more liberty and love of adventure seem to 
 have caused their migration; so it is not strange that ambition, a 
 
 9 
 
passion for justice and the pioneer spirit have lead as the charac- 
 teristics of their descendants. They were generally prosperous, 
 prolific and patriotic. One was a member of the Boston Tea Party. 
 Many served in the Revolutionary War. To Massachusetts alone, 
 they gave a Revolutionary general, two governors, a number of 
 judges, and many legislators. (7) 
 
 Samuel Lincoln, the first American ancestor of the President 
 bearing that name, arrived at Hingham in 1637. Many of his 
 descendants became men of position and property. One was head 
 of the Massachusetts bar. Attorney General and Secretary of State 
 of the United States, and declined an appointment to the Supreme 
 Court. Another was Governor of Maine, and a writer of more than 
 ordinary ability. (8) 
 
 One grandson of Samuel Lincoln, Mordecai, went first to New 
 Jersey, then to Pennsylvania. He became wealthy and influential; 
 and many of his descendants who remained in the Keystone State 
 have been men of prominence and distinction, generation after 
 generation. 
 
 A, grandson of Mordecai, called Abraham, removed to Vir- 
 ginia. During the Revolutionary War, he was a captain of militia, 
 and, for three years, was judge advocate of the military court. (9) 
 He became a prosperous planter; but the lure of Kentucky caught 
 his restless, independent spirit, and he went there in the wake of 
 his friend and relative, Daniel Boone. In Kentucky, he bought 
 several large tracts of land, the aggregate probably being about 
 5,000 acres. (10) Captain Lincoln took his wife and five chil- 
 dren to a fort near the present site of Louisville, and built a cabin 
 on his 400 acre farm nearby. Here, he was killed by an Indian. 
 
 The widow, Bersheba, took her flock to a settlement of friends 
 and relatives who lived about forty miles south, near where Spring- 
 field, Kentucky, is now located. Here, the boys grew up into 
 useful, well-to-do citizens, and the girls married into good 
 families. (11) 
 
 Thomas, the third son of Captain and Bersheba Lincoln, and 
 now famous as the father of the President bearing that name, 
 received about the usual education common in Kentucky at that 
 time. Documents have been discovered which proved that he wrote 
 a good legible hand. Hie first worked as a laborer, and then 
 became a skilled carpenter and cabinet-maker. He is said to have 
 owned the best set of tools in his county. (12) In 1803, he 
 paid £118 cash for 238 acres of land on Mill Creek. (13) 
 Some time after his marriage to Nancy Hanks, they removed to 
 
 10 
 
a 300 acre farm on the South Fork of Nolin Creek; for which 
 tract, except for a small obligation due a former title-holder, he 
 also paid cash. (14) This farm, lying about two and a half 
 miles south of Hodgenville, is now famous as the birthplace of 
 their illustrious son. A little later, Thomas bought a better farm 
 on Knob Creek. It was about eleven miles east, and on the main- 
 traveled road running from Louisville to Nashville. 
 
 Tax lists, the account books of merchants and professional 
 men, auction-sales reports, and many other documents relating to 
 Thomas Lincoln have recently been found by Professor Warren. 
 These show, that, while he lived in Kentucky, Thomas had, for 
 that day, a comfortable and well-furnished home; that he paid 
 his taxes and received credit; that he had ready money to pay 
 cash for the necessities and some of the luxuries he bought at auc- 
 tion for his family; that he held minor offices of trust; that he 
 was a church member in good standing and of considerable in- 
 fluence. In the thousands of Kentucky records which Professor 
 Warren found, not one was detrimental in any way to Thomas 
 Lincoln. (15) Physically, he was an athlete. In his early 
 manhood, he was subject to fits of depression. Both he and his 
 brother Mordecai were noted story-tellers. 
 
 Nancy Hanks Lincoln, the mother of President Lincoln, has 
 been the subject of much controversy. Many articles and several 
 books have been written to prove various theories regarding her 
 ancestry. As a matter of fact, we do not now certainly know 
 whether her father was a well-bred, Virginia planter, as Mr. Lin- 
 coln thought, or a son of Joseph Hanks, as Professor Warren 
 believes. (16) It is agreed, however, that she was born in 
 1784, in Virginia, and that, soon afterwards, she accompanied her 
 mother and the family of Joseph Hanks to Kentucky. (17) 
 
 She lived, successively, with her grandparents, an aunt, and 
 in the homes of other relatives and friends. The traditions of 
 the Kentucky families in which she lived as a girl agree that she 
 was "a young woman of marked ability and high moral char- 
 acter." (18) "They picture her as vivacious, spirited, beau- 
 tiful; they tell of her skill in handicraft — spinning, weaving, all 
 the household arts of the day. She was obliged to pay her way in 
 the families in which she lived, but she was a welcome guest 
 wherever she went, industrious, cheerful and competent." (19) 
 
 In the Ancestry of Abraham Lincoln can be found, I believe, 
 a reason for every natural quality which he had. 
 
 11 
 
CHILDHOOD ENVIRONMENT 
 
 Instead of being born in the squalor depicted by his early- 
 biographers, Abraham probably came into what was, for that 
 time and place, a rather superior home. Thomas then owned over 
 500 acres of land, and was a prosperous well-to-do citizen. Being 
 a skilled cabinet-maker, he no doubt furnished the home in a way 
 that made Nancy the envy of her neighbors. Only a month before 
 the arrival of his son, he secured an order on the county treasurer 
 for £3 10s due him for guarding prisoners. (20) Sometime 
 before that, at an auction sale, he spent $8.92, a considerable sum 
 for that day, most of it going for dishes and spoons. (21) 
 
 They soon removed to the Knob Creek farm, still considered 
 one of the best in that part of the country. (22) The house 
 there was about the same as the one they had left, and they would 
 take their furnishings with them. This was the only Kentucky 
 home that Mr. Lincoln afterwards remembered. 
 
 Living on the main-traveled road between Louisville and Nash- 
 ville, they often entertained travelers, thereby keeping in touch 
 with the great outside world. Their guests for the night would 
 discuss a variety of subjects, bringing to them many new view- 
 points; would tell them of the late books and papers; and con- 
 tinually add to Thomas* fund of stories. After his first years, 
 Abraham would absorb all this, ponder over the things he learned, 
 and beg his mother for an explanation of the things he had not 
 understood. 
 
 By this time, twenty-odd years had elapsed since the death of 
 Captain Lincoln. The Indians were all gone, the country was 
 rapidly being settled, and local governments were firmly established. 
 Three years before Abraham was born, Elizabethtown had a new 
 brick court-house. At the time of his birth, the best race-course 
 in Hardin County was at Middle Creek, only eight miles from 
 the Lincoln Farm. The next year, the winners at a meet there 
 received 520 bushels of corn which had been subscribed by thirty 
 prominent citizens. The same year, a circus containing an elephant 
 gave an exhibition at Elizabethtown. (23) 
 
 Books and newspapers were not plentiful but they could be 
 obtained. An old Bardstown paper, published at the time Abra- 
 ham was six years old, contains an advertisement of "a general 
 assortment of books of the most approved authors, with school 
 books of every description." (24) 
 
 The records show that Thomas received several minor politi- 
 
 12 
 
cal appointments. (25) These plums were given to faithful and 
 successful political workers. So we may be quite sure that Abraham 
 absorbed his first knowledge of local statecraft and political intrigue 
 while still a child. 
 
 Sessions of the court were attended by practically the whole 
 community, sometimes for purposes of litigation, but oftener to 
 trade and indulge in social recreation. The Lincolns lived within 
 reach of four county-seats, and Thomas probably attended some 
 of the sessions of court at each. (26) We can easily believe 
 that when Abraham was old enough he begged to be taken along, 
 and that sometimes Thomas took the boy with him. It was 
 probably on these occasions he received his first bias toward the 
 legal profession. 
 
 TRAINING 
 
 Abraham was both the eldest and the only son; and anyone 
 who has been either the eldest or only son in an ambitious and 
 religiously inclined family knows that the amount of training 
 such a boy receives is only limited by the number of hours there 
 are in a day, and his own physical and mental endurance. 
 
 The Lincoln family could attend monthly services at the Little 
 Mount church near their home; and, on some other Sundays, no 
 doubt visited sister churches within reach. (27) Thomas had 
 an unusually large and expensive Bible. Hearing his mother read 
 aloud from that book probably awakened in Abraham the interest 
 he took in the Bible all his life. His own reading in it, later, 
 undoubtedly influenced his thought, conduct, and style in com- 
 position. 
 
 No one doubts that Abraham was inherently honest, and both 
 the precept and example of his father would strengthen that ten- 
 dency. But it would be Nancy's teachings which made him so 
 metriculous that he later acquired the sobriquet of "Honest Abe." 
 Her teaching him such sentiments as that contained in the old and 
 once popular couplet, 
 
 "It is a sin to steal a pin, 
 The same as any greater thing", 
 
 may have been responsible, years afterward, for his walking a long 
 distance to return a few cents taken from a customer by mistake. 
 (28) And her lessons in "kindness" were probably the remote 
 cause of his once returning several miles, when on a journey, to 
 release a pig he had seen fast in a mud-hole. (29) 
 
 That Thomas instilled into his son his own dislike for slavery 
 
 13 
 
was indicated when Mr. Lincoln once said that he could not re- 
 member when he did not think that institution wrong. (30) 
 
 Nancy had an unusually good education, judged by the stand- 
 ard of those days; and she was both intellectual and ambitious; 
 so we may be quite sure that she was never too busy to teach 
 Abraham his lessons, tell him a story that would stimulate his 
 ambition for learning, nor too tired to answer his questions. All 
 the circumstances indicate that by his tenth year he was reading 
 every book he could borrow, had been taught to form opinions 
 of his own, and that he did not hesitate to express them. (31) 
 
 MISFORTUNE'S ENVIRONMENT 
 
 In the meanwhile, Thomas Lincoln had fallen upon evil days. 
 His title to both the Nolin Creek and Knob Creek farms had been 
 attacked in the courts. 
 
 At the time Kentucky was settled, that territory had never 
 been officially surveyed. Anyone holding a land warrant could 
 survey and file on any piece of land he desired; but his title would 
 only be good if no one else had a prior claim. A man might buy 
 a tract of land and spend years improving it for a home, only to 
 find that it was part of a much larger tract that had previously been 
 patented by some distant and unknown owner. (32) In his 
 "History of Kentucky", Collins says; 
 
 "Unnumbered sorrows, lawsuits and heart rending vexations 
 were the consequences of this unhappy law. In the unskilled hands 
 of the hunters and pioneers of Kentucky, entries, surveys and 
 patents were piled on each other, overlapping and crossing in end- 
 less perplexity." (33) 
 
 The records show that by 1816 Thomas had lost one farm, 
 and despaired of saving the other. (34) The attendant litiga- 
 tion had been vexatious and expensive, probably consuming all 
 he had received for the farm which he sold. 
 
 Nor was that all. The evidence indicates that Thomas started 
 for New Orleans with a boat load of produce; that for some reason, 
 he suffered disaster; and that instead of recouping the losses he 
 had sustained through defective land titles, he made a substantial 
 addition to them. (35) Dismayed but not yet beaten, I believe 
 they paid every obligation, and decided to take what little they 
 h^d left and make a /fresh start, in free territory, where they 
 could build a home with some prospect of being able to retain it. 
 
 Many an early Kentuckian, including the famous Daniel Boone, 
 when dispossessed of his property, removed to Ohio, Indiana, Illi- 
 
 14 
 
nols or Missouri, where the government had surveyed the land into 
 square sections, and titles were secure. 
 
 In the late fall of 1816, Thomas took his family across the 
 Ohio into what is now Spencer County, Indiana. That country 
 was still a wilderness, but it was probably the closest government 
 land he could find. A year later, Thomas and Betsey Sparrow, 
 Nancy's relatives and foster parents, joined them there. They were 
 soon followed by another uncle and aunt, Levi and Nancy Hall. 
 
 Thomas and Nancy were poor, now, poorer than they ever 
 had been before; but they were in a free territory where the title 
 to their home, when paid for, would be secure; and they had their 
 favorite relatives near them for mutual help and companionship; 
 so they hoped and believed that their hardest times were over, and 
 that Fortune would now be kinder to them. 
 
 Then came the crowning disaster. An epidemic which the 
 settlers called "milk sickness" swept over the neighborhood; and, 
 in rapid succession, Thomas and Betsey Sparrow, Levi and Nancy 
 Hall, and Nancy Lincoln, died. (36) 
 
 Need we doubt that here and now was where Thomas lost 
 faith in himself and hope for the future? From Thomas Lincoln, 
 a leading and respected citizen, he had been reduced, in spite of 
 all he could do, to Old Tom Lincoln, a broken failure. 
 
 And what eiFect might we expect all this to have on the 
 mind of the thoughtful, sensitive Abraham? With probably some 
 hereditary tendencies towards melancholy, is it any wonder that 
 he was afterwards subject to fits of depression so profound that 
 Mr. Herndon once said "his melancholy dripped from him as he 
 walked?" (37) 
 
 In his later years, when depressed or his life was running in 
 a minor strain, Mr. Lincoln loved to recite the poem which he has 
 made famous: 
 
 Oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud? 
 Like a swift, fleeting meteor — a fast-flying cloud — 
 A flash of the lightning — a break of the wave — 
 Man passes from life to his leuc in the grave. 
 
 t'* 'I* 'f* *»* 
 
 'Tis the wink of an eye; 'tis the draught of a breath. 
 From the blossom of health to the paleness of death, 
 From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud; 
 Oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud? 
 
 15 
 
YOUTHFUL ENVIRONMENT 
 
 About a year after Nancy's death, Thomas returned to Ken- 
 tucky, and married Sarah Johnson, a widow with three children. 
 
 In the one-room cabin on his clearing, Thomas now had a 
 family of eight for which to provide. The soil was not very 
 fertile, and, with the utmost coaxing, only furnished moderate 
 returns. It was necessary that they secure outside employment; and 
 Abraham was hired out to work for other settlers whenever pos- 
 sible. He was conscientious about his work, without pretending 
 to love it; was "nice to have around the house", often helping the 
 women folks with their tasks; so was in good demand as extra 
 help. 
 
 He soon developed into a young giant, reaching six feet and 
 four inches in height during his seventeenth year. Toil, clean living 
 and plain fare developed in him to a superlative degree the potential 
 strength he had inherited from his forefathers. (38) 
 
 His work among their neighbors gave him an opportunity to 
 find out what books were had, read some of them while employed, 
 and borrow others when he went home. He once told Leonard 
 Swett that while a boy in Indiana he had borrowed and read every 
 book he could hear of for fifty miles around. (39) 
 
 He sometimes tried his own hand at composition. At least 
 one of his articles was published in a paper. Others were extrava- 
 gantly praised by some of his mentors. 
 
 Whenever possible, he attended sessions of the court at the 
 county-seats within reach. He was charmed by the legal arguments 
 he heard, and fixed them in his own mind by repeating them at 
 the village store, and to his fellow laborers — sometimes to the 
 annoyance of his employer. As he grew up, a favorite diversion 
 was to re-state the things he had learned in language so plain 
 that the most ignorant of his companions could not fail to under- 
 stand. At this time, too, he learned the value of a story in 
 illustrating a thought. 
 
 As in his childhood Abraham had lived on a main-traveled 
 road running from the north to the south, so now he was located 
 near the principal avenue of travel from east to west. The Ohio 
 River, only a few miles away, was a main artery of western travel. 
 In his book, "The Ohio River, A Course of Empire", Hulbert 
 says; 
 
 "There is no believing the stories told of the busy scenes on 
 this river and its tributaries while it was for a few mad years 
 
 16 
 
hurrying a whole vast Nation into the Middle West. Sixty and 
 seventy flat boats have been seen to pass a given point in a 
 single day. * * * In almost a moment's time, the population of 
 the Ohio Basin sprang from three-quarters of a million to over 
 three and one-half million souls. * * * The boatman's whistle 
 died away * * * [about 1820] * * * and the booming note of 
 the steamboat's whistle heralded the Steamboat Age." 
 
 The stream of emigrants passing down the river often paused 
 for the night, leaving news of other worlds, and thoughts worth 
 pondering over. His work was a ferryman at the mouth of Ander- 
 son Creek, and a trip to New Orleans on a trading voyage, gave 
 young Lincoln an insight into different environments, and practice 
 in meeting strangers. 
 
 There were only eight families in the Little Pigeon Creek settle- 
 ment when the Lincolns arrived there. But an influx of new 
 settlers soon followed. Among others, who then came to that part 
 of Indiana, were some English and Scotch emigrants who brought 
 with them many new ideas and their best books. 
 
 That part of Indiana attracted the kind of people he needed 
 for his development, and the hardships incidental to his life there 
 helped to instill in him those qualities which enable a man to hew 
 his way to success. 
 
 So it was, altogether, a very promising young giant who left 
 Indiana, in the spring of 1830, for the Sangamo country of Illinois. 
 In appearance, he was uncouth, almost grotesque; but he had de- 
 veloped a physique which commanded respect, a character that 
 inspired confidence, and a mentality presaging the brilliancy of his 
 later career. 
 
 YOUNG-MANHOOD ENVIRONMENT 
 
 After seeing his parents settled on a farm near Decatur, Abra- 
 ham, now twenty-one, struck out for himself. He first worked 
 as a farm laborer, and at any other employment that was offered 
 him. Incidentally, he -continued to read every new book that 
 he found in the homes where he was employed, and borrowed all 
 the others he could hear of. 
 
 The next spring, he accompanied Denton OfFutt on a trading 
 voyage to New Orleans. OfFutt then employed him to manage a 
 store and mill at New Salem, a village on the Sangamon River, 
 about twenty miles northwest of Springfield. 
 
 Because it was first hoped that New Salem would become the 
 metropolis of that part of the country, that town had attracted 
 
 17 
 
some very superior people from widely dilFerent points. (40) 
 James Rutledge, scion of the famous Southern family, embodied 
 the best traditions of his clan. His nephew, James Cameron, was 
 both a minister and business man. Mentor Graham, the school- 
 master, was well educated, philosophical, and loved his vocation. 
 Jack Kelso, a peculiar, unpractical genius, loved to read and discuss 
 Shakespeare, Burns and Byron. Dr. John Allen was at once 
 physician, counselor and friend to the whole community. Matthew 
 and Mrs. Rodgers, living only a few miles away, had sons and a 
 daughter already well advanced in their studies, and they had 
 brought their text-books with them from New York. Others had 
 come from New England, bringing with them the traditions and 
 culture of that section. (41) 
 
 Young Lincoln's passion for study soon attracted the favorable 
 notice of the intellectuals. His unassuming manner and common 
 sense gave him the confidence of plain, honest folks like Squire 
 Bowling Green. His physical powers brought him the admiration 
 of the rough-and-ready Clary Grove boys, and their kind. His 
 character and disposition insured his receiving the friendship of all. 
 
 When Offutt's business failed, young Lincoln bought a half 
 interest in a store, receiving credit for the full purchase price. His 
 partner was more interested in drink than business, and Lincoln 
 cared more for books than trade; so it is not surprising that they 
 closed their commercial career some $1,100 in debt. (42) He 
 became a deputy surveyor, and that occupation was his principal 
 source of income during the remainder of his life at New 
 Salem. 
 
 His former wide reading had given him a vast fund of un- 
 organized information. Now, he filled in the gaps. Under Mentor 
 Graham's efficient tutorship and advice, he began studying to a 
 more definite purpose, starting with English Grammar. While 
 running the New Salem store, he got hold of a set of Blackstone's 
 Commentaries, and he read these with an appetite almost insatiable. 
 Later, he continued his law studies under the tutorship of Major 
 Stuart. 
 
 After a residence there of only two years, this young man of 
 twenty-three had so impressed the community with his ambition, 
 his power, and his genius for leadership, that it was suggested he 
 become a candidate for the state legislature. He was defeated, but 
 received 277 out of the 290 votes cast in his own precinct. (43) 
 In the next four campaigns, he was an easy victor. 
 
 18 
 
In the midst of his first campaign, he enlisted as a soldier in 
 the Black Hawk War, and was elected Captain of his company. 
 He was afterwards inclined to speak slightingly of this experience, 
 but he probably learned much about military matters that was of 
 vital service to him when Commander-in-Chief during the Great 
 Rebellion; and an English military expert has recently written a 
 book to prove that the outstanding military genius developed by 
 our Civil War was not Grant, or Sherman, or Lee, but Abraham 
 Lincoln. (44) 
 
 When he went back to Vandalia for his second term in the state 
 legislature, Mr. Lincoln was the longest of Sangamon County's 
 famous "Long Nine." Their paramount ambition was to secure 
 the state capital. They made Mr. Lincoln their leader; and the 
 capital was removed to Springfield. He soon became the leader of 
 his party in the state, a position he retained until he went to 
 Washington. 
 
 New Salem has well been called "Lincoln's Alma Mater." She 
 helped him to escape drudgery, guided him in his studies, fostered 
 his ambition, and sent him to the state legislature where he could 
 whet his mind by contact with those of the most brilliant men of 
 the state. It was at New Salem that he found himself. 
 
 One incident in Mr. Lincoln's life at this time has been so dis- 
 torted, exaggerated, and given prominence out of all proportion to 
 its importance, that many have been deceived. 
 
 When he arrived at New Salem, Rutledge ^ Cameron owned 
 the mill, the tavern and other property there, besides farms on Sand 
 Ridge, a few miles away. 
 
 There had come to the town from New York a young man 
 who gave his name as McNeil. He was a good trader and a shrewd 
 financier. He pretended to love Ann Rutledge, a charming girl of 
 seventeen; and she trustingly gave him her affections. 
 
 Rutledge ^ Cameron became financially involved, and had to 
 sell their farms on Sand Ridge. McNeil bought them at bargain 
 prices. 
 
 When he found that, instead of giving him social and financial 
 prestige, Ann's family might even become something of a charge 
 upon him, his love for her cooled. He then told her that his real 
 name was McNamar, and that he was going east to see his family. 
 After he left, his letters gradually became colder and less frequent 
 until they ceased altogether. (45) 
 
 Later, the proud but disappointed girl and young Lincoln be- 
 
 19 
 
came engaged. There does not seem to have been anything very 
 ardent in their courtship. She was to attend college at Jacksonville; 
 he was to continue his law studies; sometime, they were to be 
 married. 
 
 In the fall of 1835, an epidemic which was called "malarial 
 fever" swept over the country, few families escaping. Many died. 
 Among those attacked were Ann Rutledge, her father and young 
 Lincoln. On August 25, Ann died, followed in a few weeks by 
 her father. Mr. Lincoln soon recovered. (46) 
 
 Over thirty years later, in 1866, Mr. Herndon interviewed 
 McNamar, who had returned to New Salem and become wealthy. 
 He told Herndon that the girl he jilted had loved him so much 
 that she died of a broken heart, and that young Lincoln had loved 
 his cast-off sweetheart so devotedly that her death caused Lincoln 
 to become insane. (47) 
 
 He forgot to say that Ann's father had died from anguish 
 caused by not securing him for a son-in-law. 
 
 Mr. Herndon, who hated Mrs. Lincoln, hastened to deliver 
 a lecture in which he related as facts the falsehoods that McNamar 
 had told him. Mr. Lincoln's former intimates were astounded and 
 indignant; (48) but both Herndon and Lamon told the 
 McNamar version of the story in their biographies; and it soon 
 became History, as defined by him who called that science "a lie 
 agreed to". 
 
 That Mr. Lincoln admired, pitied, and perhaps felt some 
 affection for the beautiful Ann Rutledge, there can be no doubt. 
 That her death caused him to become insane is disproved by the 
 records, which show that he continued to do his work as post- 
 master and surveyor with his usual accuracy. (49) That his 
 heart was not crushed is shown by his soon being in the midst 
 of a love affair with Mary Owens. (50) 
 
 LEGAL ENVIRONMENT 
 
 Mr. Lincoln was admitted to the practice of law early in 
 1837. He removed to Springfield, and became the junior partner 
 in the firm of Stuart ^ Lincoln. He was pitted in the courts 
 against men of much natural ability, many of them afterwards 
 attaining great eminence. He showed so much potential ability 
 that Judge Logan offered him a partnership, which he accepted. 
 This enabled him to continue his studies under the direction of a 
 noted preceptor and the acknowledged leader of the bar. (51) 
 
 20 
 
A natural leader, he at length wearied of occupying a sub- 
 ordinate position in his firm. Because of this, and possibly financial 
 and political reasons, he resigned as a junior, about the first of 
 1 844, and became senior partner in the new firm of Lincoln ^ 
 Herndon. This change made it possible for him to attend each 
 session of the Circuit Court in all the counties of the Eight Dis- 
 trict; and, for years, he was the only lawyer who did that. (52) 
 
 At this time, one term as a member of the national House of 
 Representatives gave him an opportunity to study such men as 
 Webster, Calhoun and Benton, at close range, and an insight into 
 the workings of the government at Washington. 
 
 His success with juries, before the courts, and on appeals, 
 gradually caused both litigants and local attorneys to seek his 
 help. He became a favorite with Judge Davis, and sometimes 
 occupied the bench for that jurist when the judge was called 
 away. (53) His cases gradually increased in number and im- 
 portance until he finally took Judge Logan's place as the leader 
 of the bar. (54) It is believed that he tried more cases in the 
 Circuit Court, and argued a greater number before the Supreme 
 Court, than any other lawyer of his day. (55) 
 
 The influence of his legal training is plainly shown in the 
 self-confidence and resourcefulness of his later years. New questions 
 did not confuse him; he faced emergencies with perfect serenity; 
 and he had long been accustomed to responsibility when he was 
 called on to decide questions of national importance. In his contest 
 with Douglas, it was his skill and experience as a lawyer that 
 enabled him to clear the case of technicalities and swing it to the 
 voters in such a way that he was the final victor before the bar 
 of public opinion. 
 
 It was a small group of men who had learned to know and 
 appreciate him on the Old Eight Circuit who urged his nom- 
 ination with so much earnestness and skill, at the Chicago Con- 
 vention, in 1860, that they gave him to the nation. (56) 
 
 Long before he was called to Washington, his daily life in 
 the courts had made him familiar with all sorts and conditions of 
 men. Years before he encountered them in his cabinet, he had 
 taken the measure of, and learned how to handle, such men as 
 Stanton and Seward and Chase. Where a man of less experience 
 or of other training would have quarreled with them, or been him- 
 self torn apart in their struggles for supremacy, he handled them 
 with the sure touch of command that made them all work together 
 for the salvation of the nation. (57) 
 
 21 
 
DOMESTIC ENVIRONMENT 
 
 Mr. Lincoln was very fortunate in his Domestic Environment, 
 notwithstanding a wide-spread, popular opinion to the contrary; 
 and there is no good evidence that his heart was ever seriously 
 engaged before he met Miss Mary Todd. 
 
 Miss Todd was one of the Todds, of Lexington, Kentucky. 
 She had come to Springfield to visit her sister, the wife of a son 
 of ex-Governor Edwards. They had wealth and were leaders in 
 society. She was splendidly educated, speaking French fluently. 
 She was handsome, vivacious, brilliant in repartee, proud, ambi- 
 tious, and high-tempered. (58) Springfield, then the capital of 
 the state, had an unusual number of ambitious and promising 
 young men. Several were soon paying earnest court to Miss Todd, 
 Mr. Lincoln among them. To the surprise and dismay of her 
 family, she gave her. love to that brilliant, but poor and unpolished, 
 young man. 
 
 The course of their true love did not run smooth. He was a 
 careless, over-confident lover; she an exacting, jealous sweetheart. 
 On a date which he afterwards referred to as "the fatal first of 
 January", their engagement was broken. Both were very un- 
 happy. Through the good office of a friend, a reconciliation was 
 affected, and they were married. He was too poor to furnish a 
 house; but she loved him enough to leave the finest home in the 
 city^ and live with him in a third-rate tavern, at a total cost of 
 $4.00 a week for both. (59) Some months later, he bought the 
 modest home in which they lived during the rest of their life in 
 Springfield. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln never had what Herndon called "a money sense"; 
 but she was economical, almost to a fault; and she always stretched 
 his meager income until it provided for him a comfortable and 
 well-regulated home. Isaac N. Arnold, Henry C. Whitney, and 
 Henry B. Rankin, who were among their most intimate friends, 
 have all testified about her ability as a housewife. (60) Mrs. 
 Lincoln adapted herself cheerfully to all those exacting functions 
 at their house required of Mr. Lincoln in his public life. (61) 
 No one else ever had such faith in Lincoln as she. He had less 
 faith and hope in himself than she had. She cheered him when 
 he ran, sympathized with him when he fell, and always encour- 
 aged him to press on. She was the only one who dared, or could, 
 lead him out of his fits of melancholy. (62) And she prevented 
 his being handicapped and beggared by a swarm of the unworthy 
 
 22 
 
relatives of his mother and stepmother as, during his later years, 
 his father had been. 
 
 She was anxious that he receive political preferment, and be- 
 came his shrewdest councillor. She knew that his indifference to 
 conventions, in diet, dress and conduct, was a social, professional 
 and political handicap. When all other means of correction failed, 
 or she had consumed her small stock of patience, she used her 
 last weapon, and stormed him with reproaches. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln did not enjoy the verbal castigations he some- 
 times received — no man does; but he knew he deserved them, 
 appreciated her devotion, and he never doubted the sentiment he 
 had caused to be engraved in her wedding ring — "Love is Eternal**. 
 
 That during her later years, she suffered from a cerebral tumor, 
 which caused her to act erratically and finally led to her death, 
 does not alter the fact that during the most of his public career 
 she was his greatest inspiration and he loved her. 
 
 TIMES 
 
 Only in the Times in which he lived, probably, could the 
 Lincoln that we know have been possible. In 1860, the grasp 
 he had of the slavery question in all its bearings; his ability to 
 analyze the subject, historically and constitutionally, as no one 
 else had ever done; and a character which gave him the confidence 
 and friendship of all factions of his party, made him its logical 
 candidate for President. The division of the voters who opposed 
 him into three parties insured his election. 
 
 But only two-fifths of the voters had supported him; and 
 many of them feared he was too conservative, or too radical. 
 When his election was quickly followed by the secession of several 
 Southern states, and war became a possibility, many who had 
 voted for him became panic stricken and doubtful. At the time 
 of his inauguration, it is not probable that he had the entire con- 
 fidence and loyal support of over one-fifth of his fellow-citizens. 
 (63) 
 
 Though compelled to make use of the most discordant ele- 
 ments, he, for four long years, through toilsome days and sleepless 
 nights, pressed on towards his goal — instructing, warning, en- 
 couraging, praising or chiding, various individuals and factions, 
 as occasion demanded. The Congress and his Cabinet, he handled 
 as an instructor might his class — a coach, his crew. (64) 
 
 23 
 
On April 9, 1865, General Lee surrendered. In the mean- 
 while, both houses of Congress had passed the Thirteenth Amend- 
 ment; and its ratification was assured. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln had saved the Union and made Freedom secure. 
 
 For the power to accomplish this, he was indebted, I believe, 
 to his Ancestry, his Training, and his Environments; and in the 
 Times in which he lived, I think he found the opportunity to 
 develop, refine and display a genius for statesmanship so trans- 
 cendent that its comprehension has been the despair of every 
 student of his life. 
 
 24 
 
AUTHORITIES 
 
 Arnold: The Life of Abraham Lincoln, By Isaac N. Arnold. 
 Chicago, 1887. 
 
 Atkinson: The Boyhood of Lincoln. By Eleanor Atkinson. 
 New York, 1908. 
 
 Barton (Life) : The Life of Abraham Lincoln. 2 Vol. By Wil- 
 liam E. Barton. Indianapolis, 1925. 
 
 Barton (Paternity) : The Paternity of Abraham Lincoln. By 
 
 William E. Barton. New York, 1920. 
 Barton (New Salem) : Abraham Lincoln and New Salem. By 
 
 William E. Barton. Transactions No. 33. 111. State His. 
 
 Soc, 1926. 
 Barton (Women Loved) : The Women Lincoln Loved. By Wil- 
 liam E. Barton. Indianapolis, 1927. 
 Blaine: Twenty Years of Congress (1861-1881) 2 Vol. By 
 
 James G. Blaine. Norwich, Conn., 1884. 
 Browne, R. H. : Abraham Lincoln and The Men of His Time. 
 
 2 Vol. By Robert H. Browne. Chicago, 1907. 
 Burgess: The Civil War and the Constitution. 2 Vol. By John 
 
 W. Burgess. New York, 1901. 
 Clark: Lamons "Life of Lincoln" . In "Proceedings", Vol. LI, 
 
 Massachusetts Historical Society. Boston, 1918. 
 Collins: History of Kentucky. By Lewis Collins. Revised by 
 
 Richard H. Collins. Louisville, Ky., 1877. 
 Gridley: The Story of Abraham Lincoln. By Eleanor Gridley. 
 
 N. P. 1900. 
 Herndon ^ Weik: Herndons Lincoln — The True Story of a 
 
 Great Life. 3 Vol. By William H. Herndon and Jesse W. 
 
 Weik. Chicago, 1889. 
 Hill: Lincoln, The Lawyer. By Frederick T. Hill. New York, 
 
 1906. 
 Lamon: The Life of Abraham Lincoln. By Ward H. Lamon. 
 
 Boston, 1872. 
 Newton: Lincoln and Herndon. By Joseph F. Newton. Cedar 
 
 Rapids, la., 1910. 
 Nicolay ^ Hay: Abraham Lincoln, Complete Works. 2 Vol. 
 
 Edited by John G. Nicolay and John Hay. New York, 1920. 
 
 25 
 
Nicolay: The Personal Traits of Abraham Lincoln, By Helen 
 
 Nicolay. New York, 1912. 
 Old Salem League: Lincoln and New Salem, By The Old Salem 
 
 Lincoln League (Inc.) Petersburg, 111., N. D. 
 Rankin: Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, By Henry 
 
 B. Rankin. New York, 1916. 
 
 Rhodes: History of The United States, (1850-1877) 7 Vol. 
 
 By James F. Rhodes. New York, 1907. 
 Rice: Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln, Collected and Edited 
 
 by Allen T. Rice. New York, 1909. 
 Rothschild (Honest Abe) : Honest Abe, A Study in Integrity. 
 
 By Alonzo Rothschild. Boston, 1917. 
 Rothschild (Master) : Lincoln, Master of Men, By Alonzo 
 
 Rothschild. Boston, 1906. 
 Richards: Abraham Lincoln, The Lawyer Statesman. By John 
 
 T. Richards. Boston, 1916. 
 Stephenson: Lincoln, By Nathaniel W. Stephenson. Indianapo- 
 lis, 1922. 
 Tarbell (Early Life) : The Early Life of Abraham Lincoln, By 
 
 Ida M. Tarbell and J. McCan Davis. New York, 1896. 
 Tarbell (Life) : The Life of Abraham Lincoln, 2 Vol. in 1. By 
 
 Ida M. Tarbell. New York, 1923. 
 Tarbell (Footsteps) : In The Footsteps of The Lincolns, By 
 
 Ida M. Tarbell. New York, 1924. 
 Warren: Lincolns Parentage and Childhood, By Louis A. 
 
 Warren. New York, 1926. 
 Weik: The Real Lincoln, By Jesse W. Weik. Boston, 1922. 
 Whitney (Life) : Life and Works of Lincoln, 2 Vol. By Henry 
 
 C. Whitney. Commemorative Edition, Vol. 1^2. New 
 York, 1907. 
 
 Whitney (Circuit) : Life on The Circuit with Lincoln, By Henry 
 C.Whitney. Boston, 1892. 
 
 26 
 
REFERENCES 
 
 1. Hcrndon ^ Weik, 1; Weik, 13, 28; Barton (Paternity) 35. 
 
 2. Herndon ^ Weik, 3; Barton (Paternity) 35; Newton, 320- 
 
 321. 
 
 3. Barton (Paternity) 35; Newton, 306-308, 320; Clark, 498- 
 
 500; Warren, 38. 
 
 4. Atkinson, 11, 21, 39, 44, 45; Gridley, 60, 97, 191, 201; 
 
 Lamon, 16, 31, 40 (note). 
 
 5. Warren viii; Tarbell (Footsteps) 108; Barton (Life) i, 13. 
 
 6. Tarbell (Life) i, 1; Whitney (Life) i, 2-3. 
 
 7. Barton (Life) i. 22-23; Tarbell (Life) i, 1-2. 
 
 8. Tarbell (Life) i, 1-2; Whitney (Life) i, 2-3. 
 
 9. Tarbell (Footsteps) 56. 
 
 10. Warren, 11; Barton (Life) i, 30, (2334 a.) ; Tarbell (Foot- 
 
 steps) 66 (3000 a.). 
 
 11. Barton (Life) i, 11-12; Warren, 13-15. 
 
 12. Tarbell (Life) i, 6; Tarbell (Early Life) 233. 
 
 13. Warren, 47; Barton (Life) i, 75; Tarbell (Footsteps) 74. 
 
 14. Warren, 54. 
 
 15. Warren, 56. 
 
 16. Herndon ^ Weik, 3; Warren, 34-36. 
 
 17. Barton (Life) i, 58; Warren, 29, 62. 
 
 18. Barton (Life) i, 66. 
 
 19. Tarbell (Footsteps) 89. 
 
 20. Warren, 55; Barton (Life) i, 12. 
 
 21. Warren, 51, 129; Barton (Life) i, 73. 
 
 22. Tarbell (Footsteps) 101; Warren, 166; Barton (Life) i, 93. 
 
 23. Collins, 308; Tarbell (Footsteps) 90; Warren, 254. 257. 
 
 27 
 
24. Warren, 197. 
 
 25. Warren, 273; Tarbell (Life) i, 13. 
 
 26. Barton (Life) i, 97, 
 
 27. Barton (Life) i, 105; Warren, 243. 
 
 28. Tarbell (Life) i, 65; Arnold (Life) 38; Old Salem League, 
 
 35. 
 
 29. Nicolay (Personal Traits) 8 1 ; Herndon ^ Weik, 150. 
 
 30. Nicolay^ Hay (Works) ii, 508. 
 
 31. Tarbell (Footsteps) 107; Browne, R. H., i, 64; Herndon ^ 
 
 Weik, 22. Per contra, Warren, 196. 
 
 32. Barton (Life) i, 99-100; Warren, 188-189. 
 
 33. Collins, 813. 
 
 34. Warren, 189-191; Barton (Life) i, 100; Tarbell (Foot- 
 
 steps) 111. 
 
 35. Tarbell (Early Life) 233; Gridley, 61. 
 
 36. Herndon ^ Weik, 27; Barton (Life) i, 115. 
 
 37. Herndon^ Weik, 588; Whitney (Circuit) 139-140; Browne, 
 
 R. H., i, 82. 
 
 38. Herndon ^ Weik, 61-62; Rice, 71 (Article by Swett) ; 
 
 Stephenson, 15; Rothschild (Master) 8-33. 
 
 39. Rice, 71 (Article by Swett) . 
 
 40. Rankin, 61-95; Tarbell (Footsteps) 172. 
 
 41. Rankin, 61-95. 
 
 42. Tarbell (Life) 105; Herndon ^ Weik, 109; Barton (Life) i, 
 
 183; Rothschild (Honest Abe) 24. 
 
 43. Barton (Life) i, 182; Tarbell (Early Life) 158; Herndon 
 
 ^ Weik, 105. 
 
 44. "The Military Genius of Abraham Lincoln". By Brigadier- 
 
 General Colin R. Ballard, C. B., C. M. G. Oxford 
 University Press, London, 1926. 
 
 45. Barton (Life) i, 211-213, (Women Loved) 167-186; Tar- 
 
 bell (Footsteps) 211-217. Herndon ^ Weik, 128-135; 
 Rankin, 61-95, 
 
 28 
 
46. Rankin, 73, 87; Barton (Life) i, 218. 
 
 47. Barton (Life) i, 219-221; Rankin, 61-95. 
 
 48. Barton (New Salem) 128; Rankin, 91-95. 
 
 49. Rankin, 87-88; Barton (Life) i, 223. 
 
 50. Herndon y Weik, 161; Tarbell (Life) i, 153; Barton (Life) 
 
 i, 224-237. 
 
 51. Hill, 93, 113-115; Richards, 26. 
 
 52. Hill, 167; Whitney (Circuit) 40. 
 
 53. Hill, 188; Whitney (Circuit) 263. 
 
 54. Hill, 202; Richards, 66) Rice, 123-141. 
 
 55. Hill, 202; Richards, 63. 
 
 56. Hill, 195, 285; Blaine, i, 168; Burgess, i, 65. 
 
 57. Hill, 206-207. 
 
 58. Herndon ^ Weik, 207-208; Whitney (Circuit) 96; Rankin, 
 
 157-201. 
 
 59. Whitney (Circuit) 93; Nicolay ^ Hay (Works) i, 81-82. 
 
 60. Arnold, 82-83; Whitney (Circuit) 96; Rankin, 157-201; 
 
 Barton (Women Loved) 281. 
 
 61. Rankin, 172; Tarbell (Footsteps) 370-371. 
 
 62. Rankin, 174; Weik, 94-95. 
 
 63. Blaine, i, 216, 273, 290; Burgess, i, 145; Rhodes, iii, 144. 
 
 64. Stephenson, 188-414; Rothschild (Master of Men) 121-288. 
 
 29 
 
THE imm OF THE 
 
 JUN 7 1833 
 UNiVEHSlTY OF IIUNOIS, 
 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
 973.7L63GH81A C002 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN PEORIA 
 
 3 0112 031819862