Presentation of a Gold Medal to Lieut.-Gen. Grant by Presi- The President's Letter to Hon. Jas. C. Conklin, August 16, 1863........ 268 LINCOLN'S GREAT SPEECHES............ A Humorous Speech-Lincoln in the Black Hawk War 332 Douglas's Seven Questions-Lincoln's Position Defined on 327 Emancipation Proclamation ....... Extracts Upon which Seward Based His “Irrepressible Con- 447 415 422 273 425 315 Lincoln's Speech at Columbus, Ohio, Feb. 13th, 1861 Lincoln's Speech at Indianapolis, Feb. 12th, 1861........... 417 Lincoln's Speech at Washington, Feb. 27th, 1861 Lincoln's Temperance Speech ....... Lincoln's Second Inaugural Speech........ National Bank vs. Sub. Treasury President Lincoln's Adieu to Springfield. President Lincoln's Last Speech Reply to the Committee from the Virginia Convention, April Response to Serenade from Marylanders, Washingtua, Nov., 1864..... 458 Second Nomination.............. 457 417 312 445 273 456 ILLUSTRATIONS. PAOB 121 "And Couldn't Ye Put a Little Brandy In All Unbeknown to Myself? ...... 313 Chicago Wigwam Where the Convention of 1860 Was Held .. 137 Campaign Badge 131 Campaign Badges .... Colored People's Reception, New Year's, 1865............ 215 Dinner Given to the President-elect at Harrisburg, Feb. 22, 1860........ 441 House in which Lincoln Died, Washington, D. C............. 239 Lincoln and Son Tad 157 Lincoln as a Rail Splitter ..... 55 Lincoln Getting the Worst of a Horse Trade 105 Lincoln's Early Home, Elizabethtown, Ky...... 65 Lincoln's First Home in Illinois, 77 Lincoln's Home in Springfield 77 Lincoln Defending Armstrong 95 Lincoln's Death 242 Lincoln Reading by a Pine Knot 47 Lincoln Rescues a Pig ........ 85 Lincoln Receiving Dennis Hanks....... 145 Listening, but Not Convinced 383 Parlor in Lincoln's Home, Springfield, Ill... Reception Given by Lincoln 423 Second Inaugural Address of President Lincoln.... 459 State House in Springfield, I11.- Now Courthouse ... 117 The Fretting Questions of Even a Great War Seemed to Perish Until “Tad” Had Completed His Romp ........ 197 III Abraham Lincoln. A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. I. HIS BIRTH AND ANCESTRY. A perennial charm attaches to the name and, memory of Abraham Lincoln. Among those who knew him personally in the intimacy of private life, his simplicity and geniality of character, his intense humanity, and an absolute confidence in his personal integrity won him friends; with the nation-including many who had been his bitterest political foes—his exalted patriotism and the part which he played in the preservation of his country and the emancipation of a race commanded respect and admiration; with the world at large, all these characteristics, and the place which he filled with such unswerving uprightness, ability, and success, during one of the most perilous and dramatic crises in all history, made him the most important and conspicuously historic figure of his time. While the lineage of such a man may be a matter of comparative indifference, in the light of what he accomplished for his country and mankind, his life history becomes of the most absorbing interest not only to his own countrymen, but in all lands where the virtues of personal integrity, unselfish patriotism and far-reaching political sagacity are appreciated and held in proper esteem-a fact attested by the avidity with which each new volume dealing with his public or private career, and every incident, event, or anecdote connected with his life, is caught up and absorbed by those of whom he was accustomed to speak as “the plain common people." There could be no more appropriate place than this to introduce what Mr. Lincoln himself had to say of his own and his family history, in a letter to his friend, the Hon. Jesse W. Fell, of Bloomington, 111., under date of December 20, 1859—the year preceding his election to the Presidency, and about the time his friends were beginning to think seriously of his nomination for that office. He then said: HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY. "I was born, February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families--second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks, some of whom now reside in Adams and others in Macon County, Illinois. My paternal grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, emigrated from Rockingham County, Virginia, to Kentucky, about 1781 or 1782, where, a year or two later, he was killed by Indians, not in battle, but by stealth, when lie was laboring to open a farm in the forest. His ancestors, who were Quakers, went to Virginia from Berks County, Pennsylvania. An effort to identify them with the New England family of the same name ended in nothing more than a similarity of Christian names in both families, such as Enoch, Levi, Mordecai, Solomon, Abraham, and the like. "My father, at the death of his father, was but six years of age, and he grew up literally without education. He removed from Kentucky to what is now Spencer County, Indiana, in my eighth year. We reached our new home about the time the State came into the Union (1816). It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up. There were some schools, so-called, but no qualification was ever required of a teacher beyond 'readin', writin', and cipherin'' to the Rule of Three. If a straggler, supposed to understand Latin, happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizard. There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education. Of course, when I came of age, I did not know much. Still, somehow, I could read, write, and cipher to the Rule of Three, but that was all. I have not been to school since. The little advance I now have upon this store of education I have picked up from time to time under the pressure of necessity. "I was raised to farm-work, which I continued until I was twenty-two. At twenty-one I came to Illinois and passed the first year in Macon County. Then I got to New Salem, at that time in Sangamon, now in Menard County, where I remained a year as a sort of clerk in a store. Then came the Black Hawk War, |
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