Gentryville. Going home with a companion, late on a cold night, they found an acquaintance dead drunk in the road. Although his companion refused assistance, young Lincoln would not leave the drunken man, but, lifting him in his long, stalwart arms to his shoulders, he carried him a considerable distance to the cabin of Dennis Hanks, and there warmed him and brought him to consciousness. The poor

fellow often afterwards declared: "Abe Lincoln's strength and kindness saved my life."

CHAPTER II.

LIFE AT NEW SALEM.

THE LINCOLN FAMILY REMOVE TO ILLINOIS.

ABRAHAM'S SECOND TRIP TO NEW ORLEANS.-LIFE AT NEW SALEM.-JACK ARMSTRONG AND THE CLARY GROVE BOYS.- BLACK HAWK WAR.— LINCOLN ACQUIRES THE NAME OF HONEST ABE."-POSTMASTER AT SALEM. TRUST FUNDS. STUDIES LAW.-A SURVEYOR. STORY OF ANNE RUTLEDGE.- ELECTED TO THE LEGISLATURE.

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In the spring of 1830, the Lincoln family removed from Indiana to Illinois, and settled near Decatur, in Macon County. The family and their personal effects were transported by an ox-team, consisting of four yoke of oxen, which were driven by the future President.

Young Lincoln helped to build a cabin for his father, and to break up, fence, and plant a portion of the farm-splitting the rails for the enclosure himself. He was now in his twenty-second year, and living in the land of the Illinii, which signifies the land of full grown men; as an example of such in size, strength, and capacity, one might search the country through and not find his equal. Up to this time all his earnings, with the exception of his own very frugal support, had gone to the maintenance of his father and family. Ambitious to make his way in the world, he now asked permission to strike out for himself, and to seek his own fortune.

His father, after several changes, finally settled near "Goosenest Prairie," in Coles County. There he made his home, until his death, in 1851, at the age of seventy-three. He lived to see his son one of the most prominent lawyers,

and one of the most distinguished men of the state. During his life this son was continually performing for him acts of kindness and generosity. He shared in the prosperity, and his pride was gratified in the rising fortunes of his son, who often sent money and other presents to his father and mother, bought land for them, and always treated them with the kindest consideration.

When, in 1830, Lincoln became a citizen of Illinois, this great commonwealth, now the third or fourth state in the Union, and treading fast upon the heels of Ohio and Pennsylvania, was on the frontier, with a population a little exceeding one hundred and fifty thousand. In 1860, when Lincoln was elected President, it had nearly two millions, and was rapidly becoming the center of the republic.

Perhaps he was fortunate in selecting Illinois as his home. Touching on the northeast the vast chain of lakes through which passes to the Hudson and to the St. Lawrence the commerce of the valley of the Mississippi, and having that river along its entire western boundary, more than five hundred miles in length; on the south the Ohio, reaching eastward to the mountains of Pennsylvania and Virginia; while from the west comes to its shores the Missouri, bringing for three thousand miles the waters of the springs of the Rocky Mountains; this was the Illinois in which he settled; then a wilderness, but destined to become in the near future the keystone of the Federal arch. Being thus situated, the National Union was to this state an obvious necessity, and Lincoln, as we shall see, early and always recognized this fact. He realized that his own state, with its vast products, must seek the markets of the world by the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico, as well as by the Great Lakes and the Hudson, but never through foreign territory. He early declared that no foreign flag or custom house must ever intervene between Illinois and salt water. To these lakes and rivers encircling her with their mighty arms, is Illinois indebted for her prosperity. Her rich soil, her emerald prairies, her streams fringed with stately forests, have made her

the emigrant's paradise. And this land so attractive and beautiful, lacked not the charm of early historic association. Before Penn had pitched his tent on the banks of the Delaware, LaSalle had found his way around the chain of lakes to Chicago, and erected Fort St. Louis on the banks of the Illinois. The settlement of Kaskaskia and Cahokia was contemporaneous with the founding of Philadelphia.

Young Lincoln, although a thoughtful, dreamy youth, would, when brooding over the future, have been almost as unlikely to anticipate the marvelous growth of the state, as to foresee his own still more wonderful elevation. When the sturdy blows of his axe resounded through the primeval forests, or while he lay on the grass at his nooning, with his ear to the earth, one would like to know whether he heard

"The sound of that advancing multitude,

Which soon should fill these deserts; from the ground
Come up the laugh of children, the soft voice

Of maidens, and the sweet and solemn hymn
Of Sabbath worshippers."

Did he hear this? If so, he was soon awakened to the stern necessities of the hour. Day dreams would bring neither food nor clothing.

Leaving his father's cabin and seeking abroad for employment, he was engaged by one Denton Offutt to aid in taking a flat-boat loaded with provisions to New Orleans. In April, 1831, the boat reached New Salem, on the Sangamon, and lodged on the dam which had been erected across the stream. When the owner had given up all hope of being able to get the craft over the dam, Lincoln, by the exercise of that ingenuity of invention for which he was ever distinguished, devised a means for the extrication of the boat, and it passed on safely to the Illinois and down the Mississippi to New Orleans.

On this his second visit, he for the first time observed slavery in its most brutal and revolting form. New Orleans was a slave mart, and his companion' reports that Lincoln then

1. John Hanks.

witnessed for the first time the spectacle of the chaining together and whipping of slaves. He saw families sold, the separation forever of husband and wife, of parent and child. When we recall how deeply he always sympathized with suffering, brute as well as human, and his strong love of justice, we can realize how deeply he was affected by these things. His companions on this trip to New Orleans have attempted to describe his indignation and grief. They said, "his heart bled," "he was mad, thoughtful,

abstracted, sad and depressed."

Lincoln often declared to his intimate friends that he was from boyhood superstitious. He said that the near approach of the important events in his life were indicated by a presentiment or a strange dream, or in some other mysterious way it was impressed upon him that something important was to occur. There is a tradition that on this visit to New Orleans he and his companion, John Hanks, visited an old fortune teller, a Voudou negress. Tradition says that during the interview she became very much excited, and after various predictions exclaimed: "You will be President, and all the negroes will be free." That the old Voudou negress should have foretold that the visitor would be President is not at all incredible. She doubtless told this to many aspiring lads, but the prophecy of the freedom of the slaves requires confirmation.1

On his return from New Orleans, in July, 1831, he was employed by Offutt to take charge of a country store at New

1. The author wrote to William H. Herndon, the partner of the President, inquir. ing if he had heard of the tradition referred to in the text. In the reply, dated October 21, 1882, Herndon said: "It seems to me just now that I once heard of the fortunetelling story, but can not state when I heard it, nor from whom I got it. It seems that John Hanks, who was with Lincoln at New Orleans in 1831, told me the story. At that time and place, Lincoln was made an anti-slavery man. He saw a slave, a beautiful mulatto girl, sold at auction. She was felt over, pinched, trotted around to show to bidders that said article was sound, etc. Lincoln walked away from the sad, inhuman scene with a deep feeling of unsmotherable hate. He said to John Hanks this: By God! if I ever get a chance to hit that institution, I'll hit it hard, John.' He got his chance, and did hit it hard. John Hanks, who was two or three times examined by me, told me the above facts about the negro girl and Lincoln's declaration. There is no doubt about this. As to the fortune-telling story, I do not affirm anything or deny anything."