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PURSUIT OF LITERATURE UNDER DIFFICULTIES.

his father, who could barely sign his name, and of his mother, who, "though a ready reader, had not been taught the accomplishment of writing," but of many of the other rude settlers of the wilderness. He thus early acquired a facility of expression which proved of good service to him in after time, and aided his future advancement in life.

This, however, was only the occupation of his rare intervals of leisure. He more frequently handled the axe than the pen. A log-house was to be built, and his father's land to be cleared of its forest growth of oaks and hickories. Abraham was young, but well-grown, and wondrously strong for his age, and took to the rude labor with instinctive readiness. "An axe was at once placed in his hands, and from that time until he attained his twenty-third year, when not employed in labor on the farm, he was almost constantly wielding that most useful instrument."*

In 1818, young Lincoln lost his mother, a pious woman of the Baptist persuasion, who had taken care that no Sunday should pass without having a chapter of the Bible read either by herself or one of her children. Her son is said thus to have acquired a familiarity with the words and principles of the Scriptures, which made an abiding impression upon his memory and conduct. His father, however, soon provided himself with another wife, by marrying a Mrs. Sally Johnston, of Kentucky, who proved a worthy substitute to her not

"Life of Abraham Lincoln." New York, 1860.

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able predecessor. Schooling was too
dear, and the necessity of hard work
too pressing, to allow of much devotion
to study, and Abraham was left chiefly
to his own unaided exertions for his
education. With
With barely a year's in-
struction in all, he succeeded, by dili-
gently reading the rare books that fell
in his way, in developing his naturally
vigorous understanding, and preparing
himself for the success which has mark-
ed his life. His earliest literary acqui-
sitions, after his spelling-book and the
Bible, were a stray copy of Esop's
Fables, which he conned until he learned
it by heart; the Pilgrim's Progress,
Franklin's Autobiography, Weems' pic-
turesque Life of Washington, and Riley's
wondrous narrative of travel. At the
age of fifteen he earned, by three days'
work, in reaping a distant neighbor's
corn, Ramsay's History of the Revolu-
tion, and soon after crowned his ardu-
ous pursuit of literature with the acqui-
sition of a copy of Plutarch's Lives.
"He studied English grammar after he
was twenty-three years of age; at
twenty-five he mastered enough of
geometry, trigonometry, and mensura-
tion to enable him to take the field as a
surveyor; and he studied the six books
of Euclid after he had served a term in
Congress, and when he was forty years
of age, amid the pressure of an exten-
sive legal practice, and of frequent de-
mands upon his time by the public.

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In the mean time, while young Lincoln was striving against every disad

"Life of Abraham Lincoln." New York, 1860.

vantage for mental progress, he was advancing rapidly in physical stature and robustness. His rough backwoods life was hardening his muscle and knitting his stalwart frame, so that he soon became not only foremost in felling a tree or "splitting a rail," but the most noted among his comrades in feats of wrestling, leaping, and throwing the bar.

His spirit of independence and adventure was displayed in a trip on a flat-boat to New Orleans, which he made at the age of nineteen, as one of the hands.

The fame of the prairie lands of Illinois, with their seductive promise of cheap lands and natural richness of soil, had reached the Lincoln family, and tempted them to seek its "fresh fields and pastures new." Accordingly, in the spring of 1830, Thomas Lincoln, with his wife and children, abandoned his home in Indiana and journeyed to the new land of promise. Ox-carts loaded with the women folk, the household goods, the farming utensils, and provision of corn and bacon for the journey, and driven by the patriarch and his son, our present President, carried all the hopes and fortunes of the Lincolns to their new home. After a slow and long journey through an unfrequented country, picturesque to the eye with its diversified scenery, but trying to the endurance of the traveler with its mountain acclivities, its deep watercourses, and perplexing forests, they finally arrived in Illinois. Here the Lincolns settled in Macon County, where the strong arm and skilled labor of Abraham, now one-and-twenty years

of age, were at once put to service. The summer was mostly spent in building the log-house, as a protection against the storms and frosts of the approaching autumn and winter. The next step was to prepare the bit of prairie which had fallen to the lot of the Lincolns, for a crop of Indian corn. It was now that Abraham accomplished that memorable feat of "splitting the rails" for the tenacre field, which has subsequently been cultivated to such advantage by the fertilizing rhetoric of political orators.

The winter compelling an intermission of labor on the farm, and the severity of the season restricting the means of livelihood at home, young Lincoln was induced to accept the offer of a neighbor to assist in floating a flat-boat from Beardstown, on the Illinois River, to New Orleans. Having performed this service greatly to the satisfaction of his employer, he was rewarded by him with the appointment of general manager of his shop and mill in New Salem. He had been thus occupied for several months, when, on the breaking out of the Black Hawk war in 1832, he joined a company of volunteers. Lincoln was at once chosen the captain, an unexpected elevation, which he declared gave him more pleasure than any subsequent honor which has fallen to his lot. The war being soon brought to a close, Lincoln returned to civil life, after the brief military career of three months.

On reaching New Salem, he was induced to offer himself as a "Whig" candidate for the Legislature, but was defeated by his Democratic opponent. He

MEMBER OF CONGRESS.

now formed a partnership, and buying a stock of goods on credit, opened a coun try store. He was also appointed postmaster at New Salem. The business, however, not proving successful, nor the office remunerative, he was soon in such pecuniary straits as to be forced to close his doors. His next effort for a livelihood was as an extemporaneous assistant surveyor, for which he readily prepared himself by obtaining a field compass, a chain, and a treatise on surveying. In 1834, Lincoln was elected a member of the Legislature of Illinois. Although reticent of speech, he by the faithful discharge of his duties, and his personal and political rectitude of conduct, won so much of the good opinion of his constituents that they re-elected him for three successive terms.

Even while practicing as a surveyor, Lincoln had been in the habit of reading books on law. After entering the Legislature, he began to study them with increased attention, and in 1836 had made such progress that he was admitted to the bar. In April of the following year he became a partner of a Mr. John F. Stuart, and removed to Springfield, where he began the practice of his profession. His success as a lawyer was immediate, and he soon attained to such eminence, that he ranked among the chief legal practitioners of the neighborhood. His forte was in the management of jury cases. Though laboriously occupied with his profession, Lincoln took a prominent lead in politics. His sympathies were with the Whigs, and having been chosen a candi

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date for Presidential elector in 1844, he canvassed the whole State of Illinois and a portion of Indiana in favor of Henry Clay. In 1846 he was elected by the Whigs a member of Congress, and in December, 1847, took his seat in the House of Representatives. Though opposed to the annexation of Texas and the war with Mexico, which had been then brought to a triumphant close by the conquest of the Mexican capital, Lincoln never failed to recognize the good service of our soldiers, and to join in all the congressional votes of acknowledgment and reward.

At an early period Lincoln had manifested those opinions on slavery which secured for him the nomination of the Republican party, and elevated him to his present high position. In a protest, which is recorded upon the journal of the Illinois Legislature on the 3d of March, 1837, he united with a fellow-member in saying that: "They believe that the institution of slavery is founded on both injustice and bad policy; but that the promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than abate its evils.

"They believe that the Congress of the United States has no power, under the Constitution, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the different States.

"They believe that the Congress of the United States has the power under the Constitution to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia; but that the power ought not to be exercised unless at the request of the people of said District."

His action while in Congress, as since his election to the Presidency, has been in strict accordance with the scrupulous regard thus early expressed for all constitutional obligations in respect to Southern slavery, while he has never failed to do his utmost to restrict within its legal bounds an institution which he does not favor. He showed his resolute opposition to its extension by voting, while in Congress, no less than fortytwo times for the Wilmot proviso. His action on other questions was in harmony with his professed Whig principles, and a protective tariff, river and harbor improvements, and the sale of the public lands at a low valuation, received his support and vote.

Lincoln, having served in Congress but a single term, returned to the practice of his profession in Springfield. In 1848, however, he was a member of the Whig National Convention, and warmly concurred in the nomination of General Zachary Taylor for the Presidency. In 1849 he was the Whig candidate for the United States Senate, but as the majority of the Legislature of Illinois was Democratic, was beaten by his competitor, General Shields.

The repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused Lincoln once more to active political effort, and he came forward as a champion of the new Republican party organized to resist the extension of slavery. In the canvass for the choice of a senator in the place of General Shields, he sustained Judge Trumbull, and to his spirited efforts was attributed the triumph of that Republi

can candidate. So prominent had he now become as a leader of the new party, that in the Republican National Convention of 1856, which nominated John C. Fremont for President, Lincoln was pressed by the delegates from the State of Illinois as a nominee for the Vice-Presidency.

Being nominated on the 2d of June, 1858, by the Republican party of his State, candidate for the United States Senate, in opposition to Douglas, Lincoln canvassed Illinois together with his eminent competitor. Having already, in the struggle between Trumbull and Shields, tested his powers with the "Little Giant," as the partisans of Douglas fondly termed him, in allusion to his combined loftiness of intellect and smallness of stature, Lincoln did not hesitate to challenge his doughty antagonist to another encounter. The political contest which ensued became memorable, and Lincoln exhibited, as a freesoil combatant, such pluck and bottom that he was hailed by the Republicans of Illinois as their favorite champion. They claimed that he had victoriously sustained their principles against the stoutest leader of their antagonists. He, however, with all his vigor of fight, did not succeed in his immediate purpose of gaining the prize of the senatorship. The popular vote, it is true, proclaimed him victor, but his competitor, Douglas, received the suffrage of the State Senate in consequence of the unequal apportionment law of Illinois, which gave the Democrats an undue share of its members. Lincoln, however, had se

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