ABRAHAM LINCOLN

THE LAWYER-STATESMAN

CHAPTER I

LAYING THE FOUNDATION

HAT Abraham Lincoln was endowed with a

TH

1

mentality which has been equaled by few men must be admitted by all who are familiar with his remarkable career; for in no other way can the intellectual force which he displayed throughout his mature years be explained or accounted for. As he himself said, when he came of age he "could read, write, and cipher by the Rule of Three, but that was all." He had, as he stated in an autobiography which he wrote in 1860, attended school in all less than one year, and the teachers were required to teach only the three subjects before mentioned. Therefore, if the term education is confined to its primary meaning, as generally accepted, which may be defined as a training which results from the pursuit of a complete course in an institution of learning, it must be conceded that Mr. Lincoln was not an

1 See Letters, vol. II (Centenary Edition), p. 212.

educated man; but if by education is meant a "systematic development and cultivation of the normal powers of intellect, feeling, and conduct so as to render them efficient in some particular form of living, or for life in general," then, indeed, Lincoln was an educated man in the truest and best sense of the term.

The chief purpose of the pursuit of an orderly curriculum in schools and colleges is not so much to store the mind with knowledge as to train and discipline the intellect to grasp readily the subject presented, to reason correctly and think deeply, so to control the mind as to enable one to concentrate all one's energies upon the subject under consideration; and while such a systematic training enables its possessor to acquire knowledge more rapidly and with less arduous labor, it is by no means essential to success in any field of human activity.

That Lincoln's deprivation of that systematic mental training, considered so important in the twentieth century, added greatly to the task which confronted him when he attained the age of twentyone years, is beyond dispute. The great thirst for knowledge which possessed him as boy and man made him a constant student throughout his entire career. Such of his early speeches and writings as have come down to us, though few in number, dis

play a familiarity with history and a knowledge of the English language which, in such an environment as that which surrounded him, could not have been acquired except by deep study.

It is unfortunate that, beyond the general statement that, while a youth in Indiana, Lincoln read, besides the Bible, Shakespeare, "Pilgrim's Progress," and Weems's "Life of Washington," such other books as he could borrow, there is no evidence available as to the books which aided in the development of his mind up to the time when he removed to Illinois. After he was twenty-three years of age he studied English grammar, and he practically mastered the six books of Euclid after he had passed forty years of age, as stated in the autobiography before mentioned.

Lincoln arrived in Illinois in the early springtime of the year 1830. Two years later he was a candidate for the legislature. Although he was then but one month past twenty-three years of age, the address which he delivered on the Ist of March of that year, and which was printed and circulated as a campaign document, is remarkable for the lucid presentation of his views upon the questions then before the public. The language employed, as well as the method of statement, is in harmony with that contained in his great speeches delivered in the later

years of his life, and affords abundant evidence of a knowledge of pure English and the ability to think deeply and present forcefully the conclusions reached by his mental processes.

That Lincoln was well esteemed by the people is evidenced by the fact that he received liberal support for the office to which he sought to be elected. At that time the legislature was a much more important body than at present; its powers were far greater in 1832 than in 1914. It had power to grant corporate charters and other special privileges, and it also elected judicial and other officers. Lincoln failed of election, which, considering his youth, is not strange. It is worthy of remark, however, that one so young should have been even considered for that office, and the fact that he was so considered shows that there was something remarkable about him. Two years later he was elected as one of four members of the legislature from Sangamon County (among whom was John T. Stuart, afterwards Lincoln's law partner). Only one of the four received more votes than did Lincoln. He was reëlected to the legislature at the next three biennial elections and became a very influential member of that body. His speeches were of a high order. That on the State Bank, delivered in January, 1837, when he was but twenty-eight years of age, is an able argument,