Abraham Lincoln : his life and public services

Front matter

%n f ift anb f wHk S^rljic^s,

BY

MRS. P. A. HANAFORD,

Preface

It has been thonglit tliat a biography of our martyred President, brief yet comprehensive, and published in a style which would bring it within the limits of all who would buy any volume, ought to be published at once.

Of this remarkable man it can be said, as it was said of our Lord Jesus Christ, " The common people heard him gladly ; " and therefore a memoir expressly designed for the mass of readers in our country cannot fail to be warmly welcomed.

There will doubtless be many biographies of our late President, written by different pens, and of varying size, style, and merit. But the field is open to all ; and no one has a right to monopolize it, and thus prohibit others from labor in the same direction. Every new book finds new readers, and meets some unsupplied demand. If a volume, like this now offered, be indeed — as it is supposed to be — a desideratum^ its own readers, for whom it is designed, will cluster about it, and the hopes of its author and publisher be realized.

The special aim of this volume is twofold : First, To present a truthful picture of the character of the great and good man who has fallen among us ; delineating, as far as possible in narrating the events of his life, the growth and development of those grand and heroic virtues which stamp him with the unmistakable seal of Heaven's approval, and make his name

" One of the few, the immortal names That were not born to die. "

And, secondly, To show that "the course of human events" was such, during his earthly existence, and his relation to tl:.em so peculiar in the providence of God, as to indicate that he was specially commissioned for his day and work, — a 1* 5

6 PREFACE.

man of the times, and a man for the times ; that he lived long enough to be able to say, like his Lord, " It is finished," and then passed on to hear from divine lips the unrivalled words of welcome, " Well done, good and faithful servant ! enter thou into the joy of thy Lord ! " '

Should this volume deepen the convictions of its readers in the grand truths of God's sovereignty on earth as well as in heaven, and of his love to all the family of man, shown especially in his care for the outcast and oppressed ; and should it make them love freedom and righteousness more and more, as they contemplate the character and life of the Martyr-President, — the labor spent in its preparation will not have been in vain, and to God will be ascribed the glory.

P. A. H.

Beading, Mass.

Chapter I. Early Days In Obscurity

"Honor and shame from no condition rise: Act well your part, — there all the honor lies."

Pope.

" But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty ;

"And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are :

" That no flesh should glory in his presence." — St. Paul (1 Cor. i. 27).

The sixteenth President of the United States was born in obscurity. No Gabriel heralded his birth; no shepherds saw the star of his nativity, and heard the chanting of celestial visitants to earth ; nor did sages and philosophers come to his cradle-side with " costly offerings and significant homage. Yet he had a grand mission on earth to perform, and was to be, in some sense, the savior of many, and in the obscurity of his birth, at least, resembled the Master whose footsteps he afterward loved to follow. It is the design of Infinite Wisdom that the tiny acorn should precede the towering oak, the little rivulet commence the mighty river ; and that Wisdom was no less manifest in the humble birth and parentage of one whom the good of all nations, in all time, should afterward delight to honor.

In that part of Hardin County, Ky., now known as La Eue, on the 12th of February, 1809, Abraham

Lincoln entered upon existence. His father, Thomas Lincohi, and the grandfather whose patriarchal name ho bore, were natives of Rockingham County, Va., a part of the " Old Dominion '' to which their ancestors had removed from Berks County, Penn.

Abraham, the grandfather, migrated to Kentucky with his family in the year 1780, where he obtained possession of a small tract of land in the then wilderness, and there erected a rude cabin, and commenced a life of toil and danger. Like the Pilgrim colonists of our own New England, he was accustomed to carry his gun with his axe, or other implement of labor, when he went forth to his toil; and, when he laid his head upon his nightly pillow, it was with his trusty firelock conveniently at hand, that there might be safety for him and his should the wild war-whoop of the savage Indian break upon his slumbers. These merciless " lords of the forest" manifested intense hostility to the " pale-faces," and with ruthless barbarity murdered men, women, and children, when the opportunity was afforded them. For four years, our President's grandfather was unharmed ; but at the end of that period, while he was using his axe at a place some four miles from his home, he was suddenly attacked by the Indians, and, unable to reach his gun in season, was overpowered, killed, and scalped after the hideous Indian fashion. Search was made for him when his prolonged absence awakened alarm, and the next morning his remains were discovered. This loss of their beloved father resulted finally in the scattering of the children.

The father of our martyred President left his early home when only about twelve years old, but afterwards returned to Kentucky, and in 1806 married Miss Nancy Sparrow, who was a native of Virginia. Both of our late. President's parents were members of the Baptist Church, and well known as a pious, unassuming, but uneducated couple. The father could neither read nor write, save to scribble his name in rude hieroglyphic letters which could hardly be understood. The mother could not write, but she could read ; and this accomplishment made her seem a remarkable woman for that time and place. Moreover, it gave her the power to peruse the blessed volume, and to read its holy words to her husband for his guidance and consolation, and its interesting stories to her beloved son Abraham.

Thomas Lincoln appreciated this privilege which his wife possessed, and it deepened his respect for her,* for, though himself so unlearned, he appreciated all the more, perhaps, the advantages of education : and all who possessed a more than ordinary share of learning challenged and received from him the most unbounded respect. And, could he have foreseen the career of his noble and excellent son, he would have been still more desirous than he was that Abraham should have the opportunity to study, and still more proud of the facility with which he mastered his lessons.

It was at the age of seven that "Abe," as he was familiarly termed in the home-circle, first began to attend school in a small academy with a teacher who loved not his great work, and was only anxious that his pupils should learn to read and write. Having put into their hands the power to do these two great things, he left them to use that power or not, as they pleased. But, under this apathetic and incompetent teacher, Abraham was not destined long to stay.

His father was a lover of liberty. He could not breathe freely in a slave State. He saw the peculiar disadvantages of life for poor whites in a land where labor was degraded by slavery ; and he resolved that his children

12 ABRAHAM LmCOLir.

should be relieved from his own unsatisfactory lot of hopeless endeavor, where the very genius loci was against him.

Therefore, early in October, 1816, when Abraham was nearly eight years old, and had been in school but a brief period, the family removed to Indiana, and settled in Spencer County, in the southern part of the State, near the Ohio Hiver, about midway between Louisville and Evansville.

The farm and homestead which Thomas Lincoln sold could not have been very valuable ; for the equivalent received was ten barrels of whiskey, valued at two hundred and eighty dollars, and twenty dollars in money. Mr. Lincoln was a temperate man, and consented to this arrangement, not from any love of the " fire-water," but because it was a customary transaction, and, in those days, regarded as perfectly proper.

The following description of the exodus from Kentucky presents such a graphic idea of the early days of President Lincoln, that it is quoted verbatim. The author is anonymous; but it is believed to be correct in every particular : —

" The homestead was within a mile or two of the Rolling Fork River ; and, as soon as the sale was effected, Mr. Lincoln, with such slight assistance as little Abe could give him, hewed out a flat-boat, and, launching it, filled it with his household articles and tools and the barrels of whiskey, and bidding adieu to his son, who stood upon the bank, pushed off, and was soon floating down the stream, on his way to Indiana to select a new home. His journey down the Rolling Fork and into the Oliio River was successfully accomplished; but, soon afterwards, his boat was unfortunately upset, and its cargo thrown into the water. Some men standing on the bank witnessed the accident, and saved the boat ana its owner ; but all the contents of the craft were lost, except a few carpenter's tools, axes, three barrels of whiskey, and some other articles. Ho again started, and proceeded to a well-known ferry on 'the river, from whence he was guided into the interior by a resident of the section of country in which he had landed, and to whom he had given his boat in payment for his services. After several days of difficult travelling, much of the time employed in cutting a road through the forest wide enough for a team, eighteen miles were accomplished, and Spencer County, Ind., was reached. The site for his new home having been determined upon, Mr. Lincoln left his goods under the care of a person who lived a few miles distant, and, returning to Kentucky on foot, made preparations to remove his family. In a few days, the party bade farewell to their old home and slavery ; Mrs. Lincoln and her daughter riding one horse, Abe another, and the father a third. After a seven-days' journey through an uninhabited country, their resting-place at night being a blanket spread upon the ground, they arrived at the spot selected for their future residence ; and no unnecessary delays were permitted to interfere with the immediate and successful clearing of a site for a cabin. An axo was placed in Abe's hands ; and, with the additional assistance of a neighbor, in two or three days Mr. Lincoln had a neat house of about eighteen feet square, the logs composing which being fastened together in the usual manner by notches, and the cracks between them filled with mud. It had only one room; but some slabs laid across logs overhead gave additional accommodations, which were obtained by climbing a rough ladder in one corner. A bed, table, and four stools, were then made by the two settlers, father and son ; and the building was

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

ready for occupancy. The loft was Abe's bed-room ; and there, night after night, for many years, he who now occupies the most exalted position in the gift of the American people, and who dwells in the White House at Washington, surrounded by all the comforts that wealth and power can give, slumbered, with one coarse blanket for his mattress, and another for his covering.

LINCOLN'S EARLY HOME IN KENTUCKY.

"Although busy during the ensuing winter with his axe, he did not neglect his reading and spelling, and also practised frequently with a rifle ; the first evidence of his skill as a marksman being manifested, much to the delight of his parents, in the killing of a wild turkey, which had approached too near the cabin. The knowledge of the use of the rifle was indispensable in the border settlements at that time, as the greater portion of the food required for the settlers was procured by it; and the family which had not among its male members one or more who could discharge it with accuracy was very apt to sufi'er from a scarcity of comestibles."

When Abe went to Mr. Hazel's school in Kentucky he took with him a ,copy of Dillworth's Spelling-book, one of the three books which composed the whole of the family library. The Bible and Catechism were the other two. Diligently conned, and even well-studied, his scanty early library did much to form the character of the child and the man. The spelling-book was the key to unlock for him all the treasures of knowledge he afterward made his own. From iEsop's lesson-fraught fables, soon after presented to him, he gained the aptness of illustration which has made ^^ the President's last anecdote" a byword; and from the best of books and Catechism he gathered those ripe sheaves of wisdom which fitted him for his place in life and in history.

His mother — noble and blessed woman — was his inspiration. She was determined that her son should at least learn to read his Bible ; and, before God called her to dwell with the angels, she had the satisfaction of seeing him read the volume which he never afterward neglected. Abraham's mother might have said, as did Mary the mother of Jesus, '^ From henceforth all generations shall call me blessed ] " and while this nation shall revere the name and memory of the mother of George Washington, side by side with hers will it write the name of the mother of Abraham Lincoln. The parallel between Washington and Lincoln does not linger here. It pauses not till the bells toll a requiem, and a nation once more weeps over its beloved dead. True, there were apparent points of difference, but only such as, under Providence, were needed to fit each for their separate duties and destinies as leaders of the American people in their two great wars, — one for national independence, the other for national unity.

Washington was of a family renowned in English heraldry. Lincoln could trace an honorable descent from Quaker stock in Pennslyvania.

^' Washington was the natural representative of national independence. He might also have represented national unity, had this principle been challenged to bloody battle during his life ; for nothing was nearer his heart than the consolidation of our Union, which, in his letter to Congress transmitting the Constitution, he declared to be the greatest interest of every true American. . . . But another person was needed, of different birth and simpler life, to represent the ideas which were now assailed." '^''

There were not a few contrasts — in origin, in early life, in condition and opportunities — between Washington and Lincoln, but the parallels are more numerous; e and Washington himself had a mighty influence on the boy Lincoln through the record of his life, which Abraham read while yet a dweller in the rude log-cabin on the outskirts of civilization. One biographer f of Lincoln says, ^' The hatchet story of Washington, which has done more to make boys truthful than a hundred solemn exhortations, made a strong impression upon Abraham, and was one of those unseen, gentle influences which helped to form his character for integrity and honesty. Its eflect may be traced in the following story, which bids fair to become as never-failing an accompaniment to a Life of Lincoln as the hatchet case to that of Washington : —

'' Mr. Crawford had lent him a copy of Ramsay^s ' Life of Washington.' During a severe storm, Abraham improved his leisure by reading this book. One night he laid it down carefully, as he thought, and the next morn-

* " Eulogy on Abraham Lincoln," by Hon. Charles Sumner. t H^nry J. Raymond.

ing he found it soaked through. The wind had changed, the storm had beaten in through a crack in the logs, and the appearance of the book was ruined. How could he face the owner under such circumstances ? He had no money to oifer as a return ] but he took the book, went directly to Mr. Crawford, showed him the irreparable injury, and frankly and honestly offered to work for him until he should be satisfied. Mr. Crawford accepted the offer, and gave Abraham the book for his own in return for three days^ steady labor in ^ pulling fodder.' His manliness and straight-forwardness won the esteem of the Crawfords, and indeed of all the neighborhood."

Eev. William M. Thayer states, probably on the authority of those who knew Abraham Lincoln in early life, that, ^^ during the long winter evenings of that first winter in Indiana, he read by the light of the fire only ; for they could not afibrd the luxury of any other light in their cabin. This was true, very generally, of the pioneer families : they had no more than was absolutely necessary to supply their wants. They could exist without lamp-oil or candles, and so most of them did without either. They could afford the largest fire possible, since wood was so plenty that they studied to get rid of it. Hence the light of the fire was almost equal to a good chandelier. Large logs and branches of wood were piled together in the fireplace, and its mammoth blaze lighted up every nook and corner of the dwelling. Hence lamps were scarcely needed." ^^ ^ Not long after the removal of the family to Indiana, the mother of Lincoln died. This was a sad loss to the whole of the little circle, especially to the children. Abraham had one sister who lived to womanhood, was

* " The Pioneer Boy," p. 102.

2* married, and died shortly after, leaving no children. His only brother died in infancy. Mrs. Lincoln, as has been intimated, was one of the most devoted of mothers, sparing no pains to insure the welfare of her beloved children. Abraham was always a dutiful son, and her counsel and example were not lost on him, but, as good seed sown on good ground, her instructions sprang forth into a life of good order and usefulness. The bereaved boy was almost inconsolable at her loss. No minister was near to pray with the survivors as they laid down the dear head of the wife and mother for the last, long sleep amid tlie shadows of the forest. Sympathizing neighbors gathered around; but the want of a minister to conduct the usual solemn rites of Christian burial was deeply felt. Some months afterward, Abraham had an opportunity of learning to write, which with characteristic energy and industry he faithfully improved. ^' After a few weeks of practice under the eye of his instructor, and also out of doors with a piece of chalk or charred stick, he was able to write his name, and in less than twelve months could and did write a letter." ' One of the first letters he wrote was to an old friend of his mother, a travelling preacher, whom he desired to come and preach her funeral sermon. Parson Elkins did not receive the letter for some three months ; but then he hastened to Indiana, and the neighbors again assembled — a year after her death — to pay a last tribute of respect to one universally beloved. Abraham's services as a letter-writer were thus known, and he soon found himself busied in writing letters for his neighbors.

President Lincoln never forgot his mother. It was very long before the loneliness and desolation of that sad bereavement passed away. Her lessons of divinest wisdom he kept stored in his heart, and all her hallowed influence was eternally sealed upon his soul by her departure from earth. Who shall say that it was not deepened and intensified by that very change which gave her henceforth more intimate communion with spirits, and possibly with the spirit of her son ? Her grave, to which hallowed spot the bereaved son was wont frequently to repair, and muse upon his great loss and her eternal gain, is still embowered amid the majestic foresttrees of that region. No tombstone yet denotes the sacred spot ; and the place where the remains lie buried is an unfrequented locaHty, or nearly so. President Lincoln wrote a letter, shortly before his death, expressing his intention to visit the grave during the approaching summer, and cause a suitable monument to be erected; and in that letter, which was to an old friend, he expressed regret that care and business had so long hindered him from performing this duty.

He will never perform it. Instead of going to her grave, he has gone to her ; and blissful beyond human computation must have been, ere this, the meeting of such a mother with such a son. Yet that humble grave should not be neglected. A nation owes it to the memory of a President martyred in its holy cause that his mother's tomb should be honorably distinguished.

During the next year after Mrs. Lincoln's death, Abraham's father married again, and secured in Mrs. Sally Johnston of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, a worthy step-mother for his children. She had three children, and seemed to have been one who could say with Mrs. Howe, - —

" Then spoke the angel of mothers

To me in gentle tone, * Be kind to the children of others,

And thus deserve thine own.' "

Between her and the son to whom she became a true friend as well as a step-mother sprang np a devoted attachment ; and she ever acted as if she said to him in tender tones of ardent sympathy, using the words of Mrs. Welby,—

" Child of the lost, the buried, and the sainted, I call thee mine.

Till fairer still, with tears and sin untainted. Her home be thine."

Step-mothers are not all heartless, and those who, like the writer of these pages, have known the devoted care and tender love of a good step-mother ^ do not like to hear them as a class condemned. This second mother of our late President still survives to remember his nobleness of soul, and to mourn his martyrdom. She resides at Goose Nest, Coles County, eight miles south of Charlestown, Illinois.

A few years after the death of his mother, a Mr. Crawford, one of the settlers, opened a school in his own cabin ; and thither Abraham regularly repaired to add a knowledge of arithmetic to his reading and - writing. His appearance was in keeping with his humble home. He was arrayed in buckskin clothes, with a raccoon-skin cap, and carried an old arithmetic, which had been industriously sought for his benefit. " His progress was rapid, and his perseverance and faithfulness won the interest and esteem of his teacher." His love of books continued, and he read all that he could obtain far and near. With the immortal dreamer of Bedford jail, he traced the pathway of the Christian pilgrim from the City of Destruction to his Celestial Home beyond the river ; and no doubt he felt that he, too, would gladly follow such a path, sure as he was that his own dear mother would be one of the shining ones to greet him on the heavenly shore. He pored over such books* as the " Lives of Clay and Washington," till the fires of a noble emulation and true patriotism glowed in his heart ; and he thus daily grew more and more to be of the very spirit of which heroic leaders and wise counsellors are made. God was fitting him, even in his childhood and his youth, for the very work which was before him. Bishop Simpson expressed this idea in his funeral sermon at Springfield, Illinois, on the 4th of May, 1865. He said, " Mr. Lincoln was no ordinary man. I believe the conviction has been growing on the nation's mind, as it certainly has been on my own, especially in the last years of his administration, that by the hand of God he was especially singled out to guide our Government in these troublesome times ; and it seems to me that the hand of God may be traced in many of the events connected with his history. First, then, I recognize this in the physical education which he received, and which prepared him for enduring herculean labors. In the toils of his boyhood, and the labors of his manhood, God was giving him an iron frame. Next to this was his identification with the heart of this great people, understanding their feelings because he was one of them, and connected with them in their movements and life. His education was simple. A few months spent in the schoolhouse gave him the elements of education. He read few books, but mastered all he read. ^ Pilgrim's Progress,' ^ J^sop's Fables,' and the ^ Life of Washington,' were his favorites. In these we recognize the works which gave the bias to his character, and which partly moulded his style. His early life, with its varied struggles, joined him indissolubly to the working masses ; and U no elevation in society diminished his respect for the sons of toil. He know what it was to fell the tall trees of the forest, and to stem the current of the broad Mississippi.

His home was in the growing West, the heart of the Republic ; and, invigorated by the wind which swept over its prairies, he learned lessons of self-reliance which sustained him in seasons of adversity."

Bishop Simpson's allusion to Abraham's efforts on the broad bosom of the ^^ Father of Waters " was founded, doubtless, on the fact, that, when about nineteen years of age, Abraham accompanied the son of the owner of a flatboat, who intrusted a valuable cargo to their care, to the city of New Orleans. He was hired at the rate of

FLATBOAT.

ten dollars a month, and the twain composed the only crew. With only one companion, it was rather a dangerous journey. ^' At night they tied up alongside of the bank, and rested upon the hard deck, with a blanket for a covering ; and during the hours of light, whether their lonely trip was cheered by a bright sun, or made disagreeable in the extreme by violent storms, their craft ^oated down the stream, its helmsmen never for a moment losing their spirits, or regretting their acceptance

EARLY DAYS IN OBSCURITY.

of the positions they occupied. Nothing occurred to mar the success of the trip, nor the excitement naturally incident to a flatboat expedition of some eighteen hundred miles, save a midnight attack by a party of negroes, who, after a severe conflict, were compelled to flee.'^

In the spring of 1830, the Lincoln family again sought a new home. Their journey, in a region where roads were rough and railroads unknown, was made in fifteen days. They carried their goods in large wagons drawn by oxen, and Abraham himself drove one of the teams. They halted on the north side of the Sangamon River, at a place about ten miles west of Decatur, Illinois. While crossing the bottom lands of the Kaskaskia River on their way, the men of the party were obliged to wade through water several feet deep. So the journey was not ac-

LINCOLN'S FIRST HOUSE IN ILLINOIS.

complished without some hinderances. On their arrival a log-cabin was to be built, ground broken for corn, and a rail-fence to be made around the farm, in all of which Abraham labored faithfully."^ Those rails have been im-

*■ In this work the Lincohis were assisted by a relative of Abraham's mother, named John Hanks. While this volume was in preparation, Mr. Hanks was in Boston exhibiting this identical log-cabin, together with other rehcs mortalized by orators and poets, and will henceforth be mentioned bv historians. Sumner says, " These rails have become classicalin our history, and the name of ^ rail-splitter ' has been more than the degree of a college. Not that the splitter of rails is especially meritorious, but because the people are proud to trace aspiring talent to humble beginnings, and because they found in this tribute a new opportunity of vindicating the dignity of free labor, and of rej)elling the insolent pretensions of slavery." The newspaper report of the first public mention of Abraham Lincoln as a rail-splitter is as follows: ^^ During the sitting of the Republican State Convention at Decatur, a banner attached to two of these rails, and bearing an appropriate inscription, was brought into the assemblage, and formally presented to that body, amid a scene of unparalleled enthusiasm. After that, they were in demand in every State in the Union in which free labor is honored, where they were borne in processions of the people, and hailed by hundreds of thousands of freemen as a symbol of triumph, and as a glorious vindication of freedom and of the rights and dignity of free labor. These, however, were far from being the first or only rails made by Lincoln. He was a practised hand at the business. Mr. Lincoln has now a cane made from one of the rails split by his own hands in boyhood.^'