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Abraham Lincoln—The Man and “Patriot
INCOLN’S clear and elegant style in
speech and writing is not surpassed by
any other American writer of prose.
This style, which is the wonder of
many, is the result of a decided liter
ary instinct and genius developed by
long and careful study. When Lin
coln began to take an interest in poli
tics and to make public speeches, he
I
decided to study English grammer. There was on
ly one book on the subject in the community, and
Lincoln walked six miles to obtain it. He gave ev
ery moment of his spare time to the study until
he had absolutely mastered the contents of the
book. “Well,” said he, “if that’s what they call
science. I think 1 will go at another.” He, then,
mastered the subject of geometry which taught him
to reason clearly and correctly.
If writing paper was scarce in his day, he prac
ticed trimming his expressions to save space and
carefully studied to find the exact word he need
ed before putting it down on such precious ma
terial. In this way his style became pithy and
pointed and he could say more in ten minutes at
Gettysburg than Edward Everett could say in two
hours. If he heard or read a phrase or an expres
sion he did not understand, he kept revolving it in
his mind till he was able to express it in his own
words. Being asked, on one occasion, how he ac
quired his wonderful style, he said: “I can remem
ber, as a child, going io my little room after hear
ing the neighbors talk of an evening w T ith my father
and spending no small part of the night in walking
up and down trying to make out what was the exact
meaning of some of their, to me, dark sayings. I
could not sleep, although I tried, when I got on
such a hunt for an idea, until I caught it, and
when I thought I had got it I was not satisfied
until I had repeated it over and over and had put
it in language plain enough, as I thought, for any
body I knew to comprehend. This was a kind of
passion with me and it has stuck by me, for I am
never easy now when I am handling a thought until
I have bounded it north and bounded it south and
bounded it east and bounded it west.’’ It will be
remembered that Demosthenes acquired his style
by transcribing Thucydides’ History nine times;
and that Henry Clay became proficient in. the use
of words by reading thoroughly a portion of some
historical or scientific work and then closing the
book and expressing in his own words the substance
he had read.
In all l.is reading Lincoln made long extracts
with his “turkey buzzard pen and briar root ink.”
While the early schools which Lincoln attended
taught nothing further on the subject of language
than to spell, Lincoln had learned the uses of
words and how to put them together and he wrote
many compositions on such subjects as “Cruelty to
Animals,” “The Horrors of War,’’ and “Temper
ance,” etc.
In 1831, Abraham Lincoln, then twenty-two years
old, a mere farm laborer and shabbily dressed, was
cast ashore, a fragment of human driftwood at the
thriving little village of New Salem, Sangamon
county, Illinois. Possibly nothing is more neces
sary to the success of any man than the ability to
win the confidence, respect and friendship of peo
ple. It is interesting to note the qualities and hab
its which first made Lincoln prominent and influen
tial in this rural village and started him on his
great career, in which step by step he advanced for
thirty years, mounting upon his difficulties as upon
stepping stones till, as many believe, a divine
power took him by the hand and led him to the
most exalted position in all the world and placed
in his hands the destiny of this great republic.
> On election day in New Salem, being asked if he
could write he replied,-“I can make a few rabbit
tracks.’’ Thus, as a clerk of the election, the
“stranded stranger” performed his first public du-
ARTICLE n.
Th« Golden Ajje for March 14, 1907.
ties. The burning question of the day with the
people of New Salem was the navigation of the
'Sangamon River. Lincoln, with his experience in
such matters, attracted great attention by his ef
forts in piloting a boat up this small stream. He
had previously won the unbounded admiration of
one Denton Offutt, a native of New Salem, by his
successful maneuvers in floating a flat boat belong
ing to Offutt over a mill dam in the Sangamon
river, where it had stuck fast. Offutt declared that
he would build a steamboat to run on the Sanga
mon river and provide it with runners for the ice
and rollers for the shoals, and with “Abe Lincoln
in command, she would have to go.” Lincoln al
ways imagined that there was nothing pertaining
to the navigation of rivers by steamboats and flat
boats that he did not know. He even invented
and had patented a device for lifting boats over
shoals by means of air bags fastened to the bottom
of the boats.
While waiting for something further to “turn
up” in New Salem Lincoln employed his time in get
ting acquainted with the rural population. He was
a man of great physical strength. It is said that
he could easily carry six hundred pounds or lift
a barrel of whiskey and drink from the bung, not,
however, because he liked the whiskey. This great
strength, which he never used to oppress any one,
soon made him a hero in New Salem. A certain
“bully,” Jack Armstrong, a leader of a notorious
band of ruffians, endeavored to throw Lincoln in
a wrestling match by using an unfair advantage.
Lincoln seized him by the throat and shook him
like a child. Henceforth New Salem declared that
a man who could not only read and write, but
also manage a “bully,” was worthy of any honor
they could confer.
Lincoln’s popularity was further increased by
his peaceable disposition and his friendliness and
“neighborliness.” He assisted every 7 man whose
wagon had stuck in the mud and visited the widows
and the orphans in their afflictions and cut their
wood for them. He could not see suffering in man
or best, without an effort to relieve it. He was
at home with all and possessed a peculiar power
of entering into the thoughts, interests and feelings
of others. He was human in the best sense of that
fine word. His witticism, droll sayings and inim
itable story telling made him popular with all
classes. He was greatly admired because he had
a greater fund of information than any of his un
couth neighbors. As a result of the confidence thus
imposed in him he became the peacemaker of the
community, a judge at the horse races, a second at
the duels, which he usually managed to avert with
out bloodshed, though preserving the “honor” of
all concerned, and the arbiter of all disputed ques
tions in literature, science, woodcraft, etc.
Lincoln became postmaster of the village and it
is said that he carried the letters in his hat. As
postmaster his business was to write all the out
going letters for his neighbors and to read all
those coming in. Later he “set up in store busi
ness” with a dissolute partner. Lincoln spent
most of his time entertaining his customers with
droll stories or lying on his back with his feet up
a tree and reading by the hour, “grinding around
with the shade.” After the business had duly
“winked out,” he set to work to learn surveying
and applied himself so diligently that in six weeks
he was able to accept a position as assistant sur
veyor of Sangamon county. His work in this of
fice was remarkably well done.
No small degree of Lincoln’s popularity in New
Salem was due to his honesty. The failure of his
“store business’’ left his firm badly in debt and
his partners fled the realm. Lincoln, however, re
mained and shouldered his load of debt manfully.
His horse and surveying instruments were seized
by the sheriff; but Lincoln never lacked friends in
New Salem and some well-to-do farmers, Messrs.
Short and Green, came to his rescue.
When the Black Hawk War came on Lincoln was
By Mark Bolding.
elected captain of a volunteer company composed
of ruffians and sent from New Salem. “A suc
cess,” he says, “which gave me more pleasure than
any I have had since.” In this war Lincoln went
out as captain and returned as private. He
seems to have won no other distinction than that of
protecting, at the risk of his own life, a poor old
Indian who had strayed into the camp.
When Lincoln had been in New Salem little more
than a year so popular had he become that he
determined to enter the race for the legislature.
He issued a circular, setting forth his view’s and
advocating the improvement of the Sangamon river,
education and a national bank and concluding with
these words: “But if the good people, in their
wisdom, shall see fit to keep me in the ‘background,
I have become too familiar with disappointments
to be very much chagrined.” Being unknown gen
erally by the people of the county Lincoln was de
feated in this race, the only time he was ever de
feated by the people.
How strong v’as the attachment and confidence
his genial and upright character had inspired
among those who knew him best is shown by the
fact that in the New Salem district, of two hundred
and eighty votes cast, he received all but three. At
the next election for representative in the legis
lature, Lincoln led the ticket and continued to rep
resent Sangamon county as long as he would con
sent k> be a candidate. It is said that at his first
election he did not have money to buy suitable
clothes in which to appear in the legislature.
Shortly before his election to the legislature,
Lincoln had become deeply attached to a beautiful
and intelligent young woman, Atm Rutledge, and
they became engaged to be married. Love seemed
to have a happy effect on Lincoln. Inspired by a
hope more bright and beautiful than any dream he
had ever had, he worked and studied as never be
fore, and seemed thirsting for such honors as would
render him worthy of Ann Rutledge. But when
the golden days of Autumn came, in 1832, Ann was
stricken with brain fever and soon passed away.
Machines of finest workmanship are most easily
thrown out of repair, while crude and simple con
trivances withstand any amount of ill-usage. Over
come by grief, Lincoln’s great mind was unbal
anced, and he became temporarily insane, piteous
ly moaning and raving, “I can never be reconciled
to have the snow, rains and storms to beat upon
her grave.’’
Lincoln’s friends, and especially Bowlin Green,
came to his aid, carried him to their own homes,
and kept strict watch over him day and night, until
his reason was restored. These sorrows of their
neighbor greatly touched the hearts of the people
of New Salem, and as he went about among them,
thin, haggard and gloomy, his popularity daily in
creased. and he became more and more the idol of
the community.
During the years that Lincoln spent in New Sa
lem, and until he moved to Springfield to begin
the practice of law, he appeared to be entirely in
different to money-making further than was neces
sary for a meager support. Day and night he was
intently reading every book and newspaper that he
could obtain, including Chitty and Blackstone, and
was profoundly studying human nature, men and
events.
There is nothing in his career of several terms
in the legislature worthy of special notice farther
than that he became proficient in the art of “log
rolling,” recorded a protest against the spread of
slavery, and was a leader in unsound financial leg
islation which overwhelmed the state in debt.
But Lincoln was studying men and measures. No
young man in his college course ever studied more
diligently, or acquired more information than Lin
coln in New Salem and in the legislature. Lincoln
finally moved to Springfield to take up the prac
tice of law, and was sent to Congress one term,
but did not distinguish himself in that budy.