Birth of Lincoln.-His Ancestry.-Humble Parentage.-Early Education.-Small Accomplishments extensively Util-
ized.—Handling of the Axe.-Death of his Mother.-Study of the Bible.-Second Marriage of his Father.-Young
Lincoln's earliest Literary Acquirements.-Later pursuits of Learning.-Bodily Development and Accomplish-
ments. First Trip on a Flat Boat.-A Migration to Illinois. A feat of "Splitting Rails."-A Hand on a Flat
Boat.-Reward of Industry and Integrity.-General Manager of a Shop and Mill.--A Volunteer in the Black
Hawk War.--A sudden and unexpected Promotion. --Return to Civil Life.--A Candidate for the Legislature.-A
Partnership in a Shop.-Failure.-An extemporaneous Surveyor-Elected Member of the Legislature.—Good
opinion of his Constituents.-Reading Law.-Admission to the Bar.-Professional Success.-Prominent among the
Politicians.-A Canvass of the State.-Elected Whig Member of Congress.-His Votes and Opinions on the Slave
Question. Return to practice as a Lawyer.-Member of Whig National Convention.-A Champion of the Repub-
lican Party. Nominated a United States Senator.-Canvass of the State.--Contest with Douglas.-A Victory and a
Defeat. His candid Answers to Questions on Slavery.-Nominated for the Presidency.-Enthusiasm of his Party.—
An exciting Canvass.-Elected President.--Sudden Elevation.-"Honest Abe."-Character and Manners.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN was born in Hardin | out property and without education,
County, Kentucky, on the 12th of Feb- Thomas Lincoln found himself in the
ruary, 1809. From the dark and con- unenviable position of one of those
fused traditions of an humble ancestry, "poor whites" who in a society based
a mole-eyed investigator has traced on slavery are contemned alike by the
back the lineage of our President to negro and his master. He therefore de-
some forefathers who emigrated from termined to emigrate to a free State,
England to America, and settled in where personal labor was deemed no
Berks County, Pennsylvania, where they humiliation and honest poverty no dis-
were engaged in the tranquil pursuit of grace. He accordingly moved, in the
farming, and known as peaceful mem- autumn of 1816, to Spencer County,
bers of the "Society of Friends." One Indiana, when his son Abraham had
of them, however, the great-grandfather reached the age of eight years. The
of Abraham Lincoln, removed to Vir- youth had already, while in Kentucky,
ginia, where his grandson, Thomas Lin- picked up some stray scraps of learning,
coln, the father of the President, was and could not only read and cipher, but
born. The family soon migrated to write. This rare accomplishment of the
Kentucky. Here Thomas, Abraham's juvenile scholar proved invaluable to
father, being left poor and uneducated, the Lincoln family and the illiterate
led the life of an itinerant laborer, ready neighbors of their forest home in Indi-
to put his shoulder to any work that ana. They had left relatives and friends
promised a fair day's wages. He, how- in Kentucky, and were naturally desir-
ever, on marrying Nancy Hanks, in ous of keeping up a correspondence
1806, became less movable, and fixed with them. Young Abraham's Lin-
himself a settler in Hardin County, coln's services were accordingly put into
where our President was born. With-requisition as the secretary, not only of