ABRAHAM LINCOLN:

THE EVOLUTION OF HIS LITERARY STYLE

At a time when lives and studies of Abraham Lincoln are almost as thick as leaves in Vallombrosa, a further contribution to the subject would seem to call for explanation. The only apparent excuse for adding to the list of Lincolniana is the ability to present new facts or to treat old facts in a new way. For the former, no substantial claim is made. It is hoped, however, that by bringing together the known facts of Lincoln's reading and writing and by comparing the views of his contemporaries as to the intellectual side of his character, it will be possible to help the present generation to assign to Abraham Lincoln his proper place in the history of our country.

In this study of Lincoln as a writer the following topics will be discussed. After briefly noting the main facts of Lincoln's early education, we shall pass on to his reading and its relation to his taste and mental development, concluding this part of the subject by giving several specimens of his expressions of critical opinion on Shakspere. The consideration of Lincoln's imagination and of his interest in words prepares for the immediate study of his prose style. After a brief survey of the minor writings, the letters, poems and lectures, the speeches and other public papers will be taken up in chronological order.

To the student of Lincoln's writings no single topic is of greater interest than the careful tracing out of the culture of that self-taught genius. And lest expectation be raised too

high, it may be stated at the very outset that, while Herndon's claim is far from true that "He [Lincoln] read less and thought more than any [other] man in his sphere in America", yet it is undoubtedly true that no other man in any sphere or in any country who had read and retained as much as Lincoln, quoted so little. Although Lincoln lived at a time when direct quotations were in far greater favor with public speakers and writers than they are now, the approximately complete list of quotations occurring in his public utterances must occasion surprise by reason of its brevity and limited range.

But before considering the relation of Lincoln's knowledge of literature to his writings let us glance at the beginnings of his culture. The story of Abraham Lincoln's early education in Kentucky and Indiana has been so often told and the different accounts agree so closely, that we need not dwell upon it here. All the important facts can be obtained from Nicolay and Hay's Life. His schooling "amounted to less than a year in all." "His last school days were passed with one Swaney in 1826, when he was seventeen years old, who taught at a distance of four and a half miles from the Lincoln cabin.” No one was more conscious of the shortcomings of his education than Lincoln himself. In the Dictionary of Congress he describes his education as "defective," and in the Short Autobiography he writes: "He regrets his want of education, and does what he can to supply the want.”* A chief difficulty at the beginning of his career was the mastery of English grammar. In 1831, when he was twenty-two years old, he studied Kirkham's English Grammar. According to Nicolay and Hay, "he seemed surprised at the ease with which it yielded all there was to it to the student." In the Autobiography Lin

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1Herndon, 593. "Nicolay and Hay, Life I., 34.

3Ibid. Works, I., 240. Nicolay and Hay's statement does not seem to be quite accurate. The article itself reads, "received a limited education." The Dictionary of the U. S. Congress, edit. by Charles Lanman, 1859.

*Nicolay and Hay, Works, I., 640.

"Ibid. Life, I., 84. For an account of the study of grammar, see Tarbell, I., 66° "Nicolay and Hay, Life, I., 84.

coln says: "He studied grammar-imperfectly, of course, but so as to speak and write as well as he now does."

Mr. Lincoln's desire to improve himself received fresh impetus from his life in Washington while a member of Congress. "He began a serious course of self-education, studying mathematics, astronomy, poetry as regularly as a school-boy who had lessons to recite. In the winter of 1849-50 he even joined a club of a dozen gentlemen of Springfield who had begun the study of German." Arnold states: "He studied Euclid, Algebra, and Latin, when traveling the circuit as a lawyer." But if he studied Latin, Mr. Lincoln never mastered it. The only other references to the language that were noted occur in Carpenter and Tarbell. Commenting on a Latin quotation that was made in a conversation Mr. Lincoln said: "which, I suppose you are both aware, I do not understand." Speaking of the clearness of Mr. Lincoln's legal arguments, Miss Tarbell relates the following anecdote: "A lawyer quoting a legal maxim one day in court, turned to Lincoln, and said: "That's so, is it not, Mr. Lincoln ?' 'If that's Latin,' Lincoln replied, you had better call another witness."""4

The study of mathematics here mentioned is evidently that referred to in the following extract:

"His wider knowledge of men and things, acquired by contact with the great world, had shown him a certain lack in himself of the power of close and sustained reasoning. To remedy this defect, he applied himself, after his return from Congress, to such works upon logic and mathematics as he fancied would be serviceable. Devoting himself with dogged energy to the task in hand, he soon learned by heart six books of the propositions of Euclid, and he retained through life a thorough knowledge of the principles they contain."

1Tarbell, I., 239.

2Arnold, 24.

Carpenter, 78.

4Tarbell, I., 254.

"Nicolay and Hay, Life, I., 298. “He studied and nearly mastered the six books of Euclid since he was a member of Congress." Autobiography. A striking example of Lincoln's use of his knowledge of Euclid is given by the following: "If you have ever studied geometry, you will remember that by a course of reasoning Euclid proves that all the angles in a triangle are equal to two right angles. Now if you undertake to disprove that proposition would you prove it to be false by calling Euclid a liar?" Nicolay and Hay, Works, I., 412. This is the only direct reference to Euclid that was noted.