it was the best speech he had ever heard, and of his feeling that if ever he could make such a speech as that his soul would be satisfied. stirring in him then, and

High aspiration was evidently more than once, when twitted with his fooling, as his story telling and pranks were called, and asked what would ever become of him, he was wont to answer that he was going to be President of the United States. In the rude circles in which he moved, his power of instructing, entertaining and leading was recognized. It was a prophecy to him of leadership in a larger sphere.

In 1828, he made his first trip to New Orleans as a flatboatman at eight dollars a month. The trip was full of adventure, and attended with some danger, but it was a profitable one for his employer, and one of enlargement of mind for the employed. From that time till 1830, when he became of age, he worked among the neighbors or for his father. And then it was determined to emigrate to Illinois. There, at a point ten miles west of Decatur, the Lincolns settled, and Abraham's last filial act before his majority was to split rails for the fencing of the ploughed land of the new homestead. Then he was free and the home ties were sundered, though his love for his step-mother was often manifested in later years by frequent gifts of money and frequent visits.

He took odd jobs in the country round and the pay was all his own. In 1831, he went to New Orleans on a flat-boat which he helped to build. The boat was launched on the Sangamon, stranded on a dam, and relieved by Lincoln's ingenuity, and started again on a suc

It was

cessful voyage, laden with pork, hogs and corn. on this trip that his reflective mind evolved an invention for helping flat-boats over snags and shoals. The invention was patented, but like many another patent, failed to enrich the owner. It was on this trip that Lincoln observed for the first time some of the abominations of the slave trade in the City of New Orleans. It depressed him and drew from him the emphatic, almost prophetic statement, "If I ever get a chance to hit slavery, I'll hit it hard."

He found his way back to New Salem where he kept store for the same employer that sent him to New Orleans. There he won his way to consideration by his genial ways, his gift of story telling, and his strength and skill in wrestling. There, too, he found an English grammar and mastered it by the light of pine shavings, in the long evening hours.

In 1832, the Black Hawk War broke out. Lincoln enlisted, and though without military experience, his popularity won him the captaincy of his company by popular election. His career as an officer was not a brilliant one. His command was an unsoldierly company of American citizens who respected their captain, but who were unwilling to subject themselves to very strict discipline. They did no fighting and were discharged from service after a brief campaign, and Lincoln re-enlisted as a private in the Independent Spy Company. He was wont afterwards to excite much amusement by his stories of this bloodless war. Yet it was a school to him that revealed his relations to his country and helped to fit him

for the great duties of Commander in-Chief in the War of the Rebellion.

Returning to New Salem after the war, his friends urged him, in view of his popularity in the recent war,

pearance in debate, and the favorable impression he made, settled the question of his candidacy for his friends. He felt that an election was an impossibility for him at that time, but he undertook the canvass. It was the custom then for every candidate to stand on his own merits without the aid of a nominating convention. Mr. Lincoln at

this time was nominally a Jackson Democrat, though some of his statements in his first campaign for office resembled very closely Whig utterances, and he will be found speedily to be on that side.

He issued a manifesto to the people of Sangamon County on the question of local improvements, proposing the improvement of the Sangamon River. He announced himself in favor of usury laws which would limit the rate of interest to be paid in the state. He was in favor of education,and of the enactment of sundry laws that would benefit the farming community in which he lived. His manifesto was that of a crude and immature statesman-or better, perhaps, of a young politician, seeking to adjust himself to the popular opinions about him and to reach public office thereby. He was defeated at the election, but he had the satisfaction of knowing, that the people who knew him best gave him their votes. canvass, however, gave him a wider acquaintance with the people of the district and established him in their eyes as a young man of considerable promise.

The

In default of a political opening, the question of his future career pressed upon him. He could earn a poor livelihood with his brawny arms, but to this he was indisposed, feeling, as he did, that there was a larger destiny before him than of mere manual labor. He tried clerking in a store, then merchandising on credit, which last experience ended disastrously and left him a burden. of debt. Then he began the study of law, with borrowed books. He put his new knowledge into practice by writing deeds, contracts, notes and other legal papers for his

neighbors, following prescribed forms, and conducting small cases in justice's courts without remuneration. This was his law school, self-conducted. Volumes on science were at the same time eagerly devoured by him, and the few newspapers on which he could lay hands were the sources of his political information. Burns and Shakespeare were his especial delight.

To pay his way, he won the good opinion of the surveyor of Sangamon County, who appointed him deputy, and gave him a chance to acquire a knowledge of surveying, in which he became an expert. He was called hither and yon about the county as a surveyor, and was made arbiter in disputes on lines and corners. Best of all, he earned a good living and made many friends for the future.

From 1833 to 1836, he was postmaster of New Salem, as a Jackson appointee on the score of right opinions. The emoluments of the position were not burdensome. He kept his office in his hat.

In 1834, he was again a candidate for the Legislature. This time he leaned to the Whig party. It was during this year that his personal effects, including his surveying instruments, were sold under the hammer by the sheriff to satisfy a judgment against him on account of his unsuccessful career as a merchant. But warm personal friendship intervened to save his property and keep him in courage for the work of his life.

The campaign of 1834 was personally conducted, as was that of 1832. In the harvest field, at the grocery or on the highway, wherever he could find men to listen,