LIFE

AND

PUBLIC SERVICES

OF

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

CHAPTER I.

BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD.

The character of the subject of these memoirs is so unique, and his life so illustrious, that a narrative of his parentage and early history is of peculiar interest to the American people. It is a notable career. His devotion to the Nation's interest, his connection with and management of the great and most momentous events of our country's history give special importance and interest to the place of his nativity, to his early life, to his youthful hardships, to his limited facilities for obtaining an early education and to his success amidst his struggles and toils for an upright manhood.

When, in 1860, he was about to be called to the highest office in the gift of the people, he was consulted with reference to incidents of his early history. His reply was characteristic: "You will find the whole of my life in a single line of Gray's Elegy, ‘The short and simple annals of the poor.' At that time he did not realize the interest and curiosity that were being manifested by his fellow-citizens to be informed of his early life and parentage.

Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President of the United States, was born in Hardin county, Kentucky, on the 12th day of February, 1809, in a rustic

log cabin, such as were the tenements of most of the emigrants in that State at that early day.

The early slumbers of the young stranger were not broken by the shrill whistle of the locomotive, nor by the sound of the church bells calling their devotees to their regular hours of worship. The woodman's ax as he felled the forest, the crack of the huntsman's rifle, or the shrill screech of the panther or how! of the wolf broke the stillness of his surroundings. Here no scholastic or collegiate edifice with its portals stood open to receive the youthful student, but in Nature's unpolluted and stately surroundings was planted the germ of those principles and deeds that have made his name and fame immortal.

The ancestors of Abraham Lincoln settled in Berks county, Pennsylvania, at an early day; they were of English extraction; they were of the Quaker order and principles. Mr. Lincoln held that they came over from England under the auspices of William Penn, while some of his biographers, from the similarity of family Christian names, class them as a branch of the Lincoln families of New England. The more immediate ancestors of Lincoln, previous to 1752, removed from Berks county, Pennsylvania, to Virginia, and settled in Shenandoah valley. Abraham Lincoln, the grandfather of the President, was born in that valley, Rochingham county, and removed from there to Kentucky in 1780. The desire of change and love of adventure, which appears peculiar to the Lincoln family, and the captivating reports from the Western lands of promise, seem to have been the inducements for him with his young and tender wife to leave the home of his nativity and the land of security and plenty for the then savage wilderness of Kentucky. He settled in Bullitt county, and in 1784 he was killed by the savages while at work in the field, a short distance from his family and cabin. He left a widow and five helpless and dependent children; sons-Mordecai, Josiah and Thomas (the father of the President); daughters-Mary and Nancy. The widow, soon after the murder of her husband, removed to Washington county and there, as necessity and poverty prescribed, raised to mature years her dependent and helpless family. Mordecai removed late in life from Kentucky to Illinois. Josiah, while young, settled in Indiana. The daughters married and settled in Kentucky.

Thomas, the youngest son (father of the President), by the death of his father when he was six years of age, was left in the care of a widowed mother in straitened circumstances, with no immediate friends or relatives to help her bear her burdens, and only the kind offices of the neighbors, many of whom were almost as needy and helpless as herself. There were no schools, and the mother had no time to devote to the instruction of her children. Thomas grew up to manhood with no knowledge of his own language and no

knowledge of letters except those of his own name, and this only could he write. As soon as he was able to provide for himself he became a day laborer and a number of years were spent in laboring for others, and when not thus engaged he was hunting game, of which Kentucky was noted for the abundance and variety. Laboring under these disadvantages he grew up to manhood ignorant, wanting in those energetic and enterprising impulses which give success to the efforts and industries of life.

He was held by his friends and neighbors as a man of strict integrity, notably fond of telling anecdotes and stories, loved by his family and respected by all his associates. He was of medium stature, well-proportioned, robust and elastic in his movements, and clothed in the rustic garb which his indigence necessitated, he was a fair representative of the humble pioneers of that day and age.

Thus, from early boyhood until he was twenty-eight years of age, was his life spent with no plans for the future and no opportunities for acquiring a competence for the present or future wants. He now concluded to settle in life and to assume the duties, relations and responsibilities of a married life.

In 1806 he married Nancy Hanks. She was a native of Virginia, and came to Kentucky, some years previous to her marriage, with some relatives. Coming from Virginia to Kentucky at an early age, her opportunities and facilities for obtaining a common education had been very limited and meager, She was of medium stature, light and fragile in form, of a grave and sensitive nature, pure and heroic, and of a deep and abiding affection, loving all and beloved by all her associates.

Soon after their marriage her husband took her to their humble dwelling, which he had prepared for their residence. It was a lowly home, still it was a home where love, affection and virtue reigned supreme.

This was the birthplace of the President, and here, within a few years of ber married life, she had born to her husband three children; the first, a daughter named Sarah; second, Abraham; third, Thomas, who died in infancy. The father and mother of Abraham were members of the Baptist Church, and inculcated in the minds and hearts of their children the essential, holy truths of the Bible. The mother, following at her humble distance in the footsteps of the illustrious mothers of Adams, Washington, Madison and Clay, began early in her humble way to instill in the minds of her children lessons of patriotism, love, purity and fidelity from the inspiration of God's holy word, and from the history of the revolution and the lives of Franklin and Washington, and other books which could be obtained. Thus were their young minds directed to lives and pursuits noble and elevating in their

haracter.

Here, in this lowly cottage, with mother for teacher and sister for a companion, the first eight years of the President's life were passed. Those days of his childhood were the most impressive and important in the history of his life. Drawn by the secluded and tender relations of his humble home to those endearing and delicate affections of son and brother, he early evinced a wonderful love and affection for his mother and sister, which grew with his growth and increased with his years, until it became a leading and absorbing principle of his life, and on it was engrafted all of the humanity and kindness of his later years.

The associates of Abraham Lincoln who were favored with his friendship and confidence in his youth, and in those days when he was struggling with poverty and adversity for place and influence with his fellow-citizens, and heard from his own lips how a devoted mother labored to instill correct principles into his young mind, and to guide his footsteps in the paths of virtue and Christian influence, saw early in his life omens of success and grand ideals of human excellence. But to the American people, and to the world, it required the labor of a life and a martyr's death to exhibit fully his manhood, his tender, sympathetic regard for suffering humanity and his patriotic principles which inspired the people with a devotion to country and nationality such as the world has never witnessed.

The historian, the patriot, looking back for the first cause of those grand results, will find that in the lowly cottage, in the humble family circle, his mother was his inspiration; her wise counsels and her blessed words and example planted the seeds in a heart that was filial, obedient and affectionate, and at the death of his mother, when he was ten years of age, her lessons of divine wisdom and hallowed influences had become a part of his being, and he could say as he often said in his later years: "All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother-blessings on her sacred memory."

The parents of Abraham were desirous that their children should receive at least the first rudiments of an education, but in those early days in Kentucky, schools were few and irregular. Abraham, when he was seven years old, with his sister, commenced his attendence at the nearest school, which was four miles distant from their home. His first teacher was Zachariah Riney, and second, Caleb Hazen. He attended those two schools six months, and learned to read well and write a fair, legible hand.

At this period of his life, being eight years old, his father became dissatisfied with his location and surroundings in Kentucky, and proposed to sell his humble home and remove to a more desirable locality. The State at that time was settling up rapidly, and many of the settlers, by slave labor, were becoming prosperous and wealthy. Abraham's father inherited the Quaker

principles of his Pennsylvania ancestors in regard to slavery, and realized fully the fact that the institution of slavery was making the situation of the poor man hopeless and unpleasant, and that the future was not promising and hopeful for himself and family. Defective land titles in Kentucky were an additional cause of removal. The Northwestern Territory, which had been set apart and dedicated to freedom by the fathers of the Republic, was at that time attracting the attention of those who desired to remove from the slave States to free territory.

The father finally decided to remove to Indiana, it having been admitted the year previous as a State into the Union, and although then an unbroken wilderness it was rapidly settling up with a vigorous and enterprising population. Mr. Lincoln soon found a purchaser for his homestead, for which he received ten barrels of whisky and $20 in money. The homestead was on the Rolling Fork river, and as soon as the sale was concluded he constructed a small flat-boat, and putting aboard his heavy household goods, tools and whisky, he bid adieu to his family and was soon sailing down the river on his way to select a new home in Indiana. Soon after reaching the Ohio river his frail boat upset and the cargo was thrown into the river. Some men on the bank, witnessing the accident, assisted in saving the boat; all the freight was lost, except three barrels of whisky, some carpenter's tools and a few other articles. He soon proceeded down the river to a ferry, where the road crossed the river, and procuring a guide and team made his way, cutting a road most of the way through the forest, eighteen miles, when Spencer county was reached and the site of his new home selected. Mr. Lincoln, now leaving his goods in care of a family living a few miles distant, returned to Kentucky on foot, and made preparations at once to remove his family. Before leaving the old homestead, Mr. Lincoln, with Abraham and sister, visited the grave of the little son and brother and paid their last tribute of affection and sorrow, an incident often mentioned by Abraham with tender emotion and interest.

In a short time the Lincoln family bid adieu to their old home and slavery, and on horseback, Mrs. Lincoln and her daughter riding one horse, Abraham another and the father a third, and driving two or three pack animals, after seven days' journey through the wilderness, they reached the location selected for their future home. The next morning after their arrival Mr. Lincoln and Abraham, with his small ax in hand, were engaged in clearing a site for a log cabin. This being done the assistance of a neighbor was procured, and in a few days Mr. Lincoln had a comfortable log house, eighteen feet square, erected; the roof was covered with shakes, the floor was laid with slabs hewn with a broad ax and the door was made of the same