Life of Abraham Lincoln, (of Illinois.) With a condensed view of his most important speeches; also a sketch of the life of Hannibal Hamlin (of Maine.)

Front matter

fjy^Mims,

CORNELL

UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

Preface

In thankfully acknowledging the readiness with which all reasonable facilities have been afforded for obtaining authentic materials to be used in the production of this work, the writer owes it to Mr. Lincoln and to Mr. Hamlin, as well as to their immediate friends, to say that he expressly disclaims any authority to speak in their name. He alone is responsible for whatever statements and opinions appear in these pages, not otherwise distinctly credited.

The sketch of Mr. Hamlin's life has necessarily been compressed into smaller compass than was desired, to the exclusion of portions of his more important speeches, which would else have been given ; yet it presents a complete and accurate view, in outline, of the eventful career of this distinguished statesman. J. H. B.

{Gazette Office, Cincinnati, June 18, 1860.

Chapter I

Preliminary Remarks — Ancestry of Abraham Lincoln— Their Residence in Pennsylvania and Virginia — His Grandfather Crosses the Alleghanies to join Boone and his Associates — "The Dark and Bloody Ground" — His Violent Death — His Widow Settles in Washington county — Thomas Lincoln, his Son, Marries and Locates near Hodgenville — Birth of Abraham Lincoln — LaRue county — His Early Life and Training in Kentucky

Chapter II

The Removal from Kentucky — An Emigrant Journey — The Forests of Southern Indiana — New Home of the Lincoln Family — Indiana in 1816 — Slavery and Free Labor — Young Lincoln at His Work — His Schools and Schoolmasters — Self-Education — A Characteristic Incident — Acquaintance with River Life — His First Trip to New Orleans as a Flatboatman — Death of His Mother — His Father's Second Marriage — Recollections of an Early Settler — Close of an Eventful Period in Young Lincoln's History 21

Chapter III

The French Settlements — The North-West — The Advance of Emigration — Four Great States Founded in the Lifetime of Mr. Lincola's Father — North and South Meeting in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois — Sentiments of Southern Emigrants — The First Emigrations — A Coincidence of Dates — Mordecai and Josiah Lincoln — Removal to Illinois — Settlement on the Sangamon, in Macon' county — The Locality Described — Abraham Lincoln Splits Threo Thousand Rails — Another Removal of His Father — They Separate—His Father Spends the rest of his Days in Coles county — Abraham Lincoln makes Another Trip as a Flatboatman — Becomes Clerk in a Store on his Return — Leaves the Business after a Year's Service. - SQ

Chapter IV

Breaking Out of the Black Hawk War— The Invasion of 1831— The Kock-river Country Threatened — Prompt Action of Gov. Reynolds—Retreat of Black Hawk — Treaty of 1804 Re-affirmed — Bad Faith of the Indians — Invasion of 1832 — Volunteers Called For —

fv.)

VI. CONTENTS.

Abraham Lincoln one of a Company from Menard county — He is chosen Captain — Rendezvous at Beardstown — Hard Marches across the Country to Oquawka, Prophetstown, and Dixon — Expected Battle Avoided by the Enemy— Discontent among Volunteers — They are Disbanded — Captain Lincoln Remains, Volunteering for Another Term of Service — Skirmishing Fights — Arrival of New Levies — Encounter at Eellogg's Grove — Black Hawk at the Four Lakes— He Retreats— Battle on the Wisconsin— Hastens Forward to the Mississippi — Battle of the Bad-Ax — End of Lincoln's First Campaign — Autobiographic Note .— 37

Chapter V

A New Period in Mr. Lincoln's Life — His Political Opinions — Clay and Jackson — His First Run as a Candidate for Representative — His Election in 1834 — Illinois Strongly Democratic — Mr. Lincoln as a Surveyor — Land Speculation Mania — Mr. Lincoln's First Appearance in the Legislature — Banks and Internal Improvements — Whig Measures Democratically Botched — First Meeting of Lincoln with Douglas — The Latter Seeks an Office of the Legislature, and Gets it — Mr. Lincoln Re-elected in 1836 — Mr. Douglas also a Member of the House — Distinguished Associates — Internal Improvements Again — Mr. Lincoln's Views on Slavery — The Capital Removed to Springfield — The New Metropolis — The Revulsion of 1837 — Mr. Lincoln Chosen for a Third Term — John Calhoun, of Lecompton Memory — Lincoln the Whig Leader, and Candidate for Speaker— Close Vote — First Session at Springfield — Lincoln Re-elected in 1840 — Partizan Remodeling of the Supreme Court — Lincoln Declines Further Service in the Legislature — His Position as a Statesman at the Close of this Period — A Tribune of the People 47

Chapter VI

Mr. Lincoln's Law Studies — His Perseverance under Adverse Circumstances — Licensed to Practice in 1836 — His Progress in his Profession — His Qualities as an Advocate — A Romantic and Exciting Incident in his Practice — A Reminiscence of his Early Life — He Renders a Material Service to the Family of an Old Friend — Secures an Acquittal in a Murder Case, in Spite of a Strong Popular Prejudice Unjustly Excited Against the Prisoner — An Affecting Scene — Mr. Lincoln Removes to Springfield in 1837 — Devotes Himself to his Profession, Giving up Political Life — His Marriage — The Family of Mrs. Lincoln — Fortunate Domestic Relations — His Children and their Education Denominational Tendencies — Four Years' Retirement

Chapter VII

Mr. Lincoln's Devotion to Henry Clay — The Presidential Nominations of 1844 — The Campaign in Illinois — Mr. Lincoln Makes an Active Canvass for Clay — John Calhoun the Leading Polk Elector — The Tariff Issue Thoroughly Discussed — Method of Conducting the Canvass — The Whigs of Illinois in a Hopeless Minority — Mr: Lincoln's Reputation as a Whig Champion— Renders Efficient Service in Indiana — Mr. Clay's Defeat, and the Consequences —

CONTENTS. Vfi.

Mr. Lincoln a Candidate for Congressman in 1846 — President Polk's Administration — Condition of the Country — Texas Annexation, the Mexican War, and the Tariff — Political Character of the Springfield District — Mr. Lincoln Elected by an Unprecedented Majority — His Personal Popularity Demonstrated 68

Chapter VIII

The Thirtieth Congress — Its Political Character — The Democracy in a Minority in the House — Robert C. Winthrop Elected Speaker — Distinguished Members in both Houses — Mr. Lincoln takes his Seat as a Member of the House, ana Mr. Douglas for the first time as a Member of the Senate, at the same Session — Mr. Lincoln's Congressional Record that of a Clay and Webster Whig — The Mexican War — Mr. Lincoln's Views on the Subject- -Misrepresentations — Not an Available Issue for Mr. Lincoln's Opponents — His Resolutions of Inquiry in Regard to the Origin of the War — Mr. Richardson's Resolutions Indorsing the Administration — Mr. Hudson's Resolutions for an Immediate Discontinuance of the War — Voted Against by Mr. Lincoln — Resolutions of Thanks to Gen. Taylor — Mr. Henley's Amendment, and Mr. Ashmun's addition thereto — Resolutions Adopted without Amendment — Mr. Lincoln's First Speech in Congress, on the Mexican War — Mr. Lincoln on Internal Improvements — A Characteristic Campaign Speech — Mr. Lincoln on the Nomination of Gen. Taylor ; the Veto Power; National Issues : President and People ; the Wilmot Proviso ; Platforms ; Democratic Sympathy for Clay ; Military Heroes and Exploits ; Cass a Progressive ; Extra Pay ; the Whigs and the Mexican War ; Democratic Divisions — Close of the Session — Mr. Lincoln on the Stump — Gen. Taylor's Election — Second Session of the Thirtieth Congress — Slavery in the District of Columbia — The Public Lands — Mr. Lincoln as a Congressman — He Retires to Private Life 72

Chapter IX

Mr. Lincoln in Retirement for Five Tears — Gen. Taylor's Administration — The Slavery Agitation of 1850 — The Compromise of Clay and Fillmore— The "Final Settlement" of 1852— How, and by Whom it was Disturbed — Violation of the Most Positive Pledges — The Kansas Nebraska Bill — Douglas, the Agitator — Popular Indignation and Excitement — Mr. Lincoln Takes Part in the Canvass of 1854 — Great Political Changes — The Anti- Nebraska Organization — Springfield Resolutions of 1854 — Results of the Election — A Majority of Congressmen and of the Legislature Anti-Nebraska — Election of United States Senator to Succeed Gen. Shields — Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Trumbull — A Magnanimous Sacrifice — Mr. Trumbull Elected 119

^CHAPTER X.

The Republican Party Organized — Their Platform adopted at Bloomington — The Canvass of 1856 — Mr. Lincoln Sustains Fremont and Dayton — His Active Labors on the Stump — Col. Bissell Eleoted Governor of Illinois — Mr. Buchanan Inaugurated — His Kansas Policy — Mr. Douglas Committed to it in June, 1857 — John Calhoun His Special Friend — The Springfield Speech of Douglas — Mr. Lincoln's Reply 127

Till- CONTENTS.

Chapter XI

The Lecompton Struggle — The Policy of Douglas ChaDged — He Breaks with the Administration and Loses Caste at the South — Republican Sympathies — Douglas Falters, but Opposes the English Bill — Passage of that Measure — Democratic State Convention of Illinois — Douglas Indorsed, and Efforts for His Re-election Commenced — The Democratic Bolt — Meeting of the Republican State Convention in June — Mr. Lincoln named as the First and Only Choice of the Republicans for Senator — His Great Speech Before the Convention at Springfield — Douglas and Lincoln at Chicago — Speeches at Bloomington and Springfield — Unfairness of the Apportionment Pointed Out by Air. Lincoln — He Analyzes the Douglas Programme — Seven Joint Debates — Douglas Produces a. Bogus Platform, and Propounds Interrogatories — "Unfriendly Legislation" — Lincoln Fully Defines His Position on the Slavery Question — Result of the Canvass — The People for Lincoln ; the Apportionment for Douglas — Public opinion 141

Chapter XII

Mr. Lincoln in Ohio — His Speech at Columbus — Denial of the Negro Suffrage Charge — Troubles of Douglas with His "Great Principle " — Territories Not States — Doctrines of the Fathers — His Cincinnati Speech — "Shooting Over the Line" — What the Republicans Mean to Do — Plain Questions to the Democracy — The People Above Courts and Congress — Uniting the Opposition — Eastern Tour— The Cooper Institute Speech — Mr. Bryant's Introduction— What the Fathers Held— What Will Satisfy the Southern Democracy ?— Counsels to the Republicans — Mr. Lincoln Among the Children 182

Chapter XIII

The Republican National Convention at Chicago — The Charleston Explosion — "Constitutional Union" Nominations — Distinguished Candidates among the Republicans— The Platform— The Ballotings— Mr. Lincoln Nominated— Unparalleled Enthusiasm— The Ticket Completed with the Name of Senator Hamlin— Its Reception by the Country— Mr. Lincoln's Letter of Acceptance 190

Sketch of the Life of Hannibal Hamlin 194

LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

Chapter I

mr. Lincoln's early boyhood in Kentucky.

Preliminary Remarks. — Ancestry of Abraham Lincoln. — Their Residence in Pennsylvania and Virginia. — His Grandfather Crosses the Alleghanies to join Boone and his Associates. — "The Dark and Bloody Ground." — His Violent Death. — His Widow Settles in Washington county. — Thomas Lincoln, his Son, Marries and Locates near Hodgenville. — Birth of Abraham Lincoln. — La Rue County. — His Early Life and Training in Kentucky.

The name of no living man is more prominent, at this moment, on the lips and in the thoughts of the American people, than that of Abraham Lincoln. This happens not merely because he is the candidate of a great party for the highest political honors. He has a hold upon the public mind which a partizan nomination alone can not account for. This event, indeed, is the effect rather than the cause. An overwhelming popular enthusiasm in certain States where he is best known (and manifested also by the assembled crowds at Chicago, during the memorable week of the Convention) did much to turn the poising balance in his favor, and to determine his selection as a candidate over all his distinguished competitors. The popular response to that decision has been as hearty and as universal as these first demonstrations were unparalleled. The heart of the people has been touched. The sympathies of the masses have been moved, as seldom if ever before in any Presidential canvass.

What Robert Burns has proverbially been to the people of his native land, and, to a certain extent, of all lands, as a bard, Abraham Lincoln seems to have become' fo us as a statesman and a patriot, by his intimate relations alike with the humbler and the higher walks of life. ' By his own native energy and

10 LrFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

endowment, he has risen from a place of humble obscurity to a commanding position and power among his fellow-men, and achieved an enduring fame. The experiences of the " toiling millions," whether of gladness or of sorrow, have been his experiences. He has an identity with them, such as common toils and common emotions have produced. Thus and otherwise he has become, in person no less than in principle, a genuine representative man in the great cause of free labor. This is not the time to enter very minutely into the details of the private life of Mr. Lincoln. Still in the prime of his manhood, with long years of public service apparently yet before him, and with so large a proportion of those who have been associated with him now remaining on the stage of action, no multiplied and indiscriminate relations, designed merely to gratify public curiosity, should be expected in this connection. When the grand era on which, individually, he is now entering, shall have closed, let the more intimate and searching history of all that he has done, said and suffered, whether as a public or as a private citizen, be attempted by other, and more ambitious hands. It is rather the- purpose of the present work to furnish the true and complete outline of a life, which, though not uneventful, or wanting in enticing suggestions to the imagination, often tempting the writer aside into romantic episodes and gossiping researches, is more immediately interesting at this time as throwing light upon the mystery we have noted at the outset, and as bearing directly upon the present state of our national politics, to which Mr. Lincoln now holds so important a relation.

The reader is here given a reliable account of the main events of a remarkable career ; and should his curiosity at any stage demand more than is given, he may rest assured that nothing has been designedly omitted or glossed over that tends to illustrate the character, or to affect the public standing of the statesman who is the subject of this memoir. Characteristic anecdotes and personal incidents currently related of him will only be noted in these pages when clearly authentic. Those of questionable authority, or ascertained to be positively fictitious, will be carefully excluded. No statement is hazarded which is not capable of verification. A candid estimate of the man, and an accurate representation of his opinions and past acts as a statesman, have been attempted, and such as shall deserve the implicit confidence of the people, of whatever class or partizan predilection. Facts are set down without eulogistic comment, and the views of Mr. Lincoln, with such explanations as justice may seem to require, will usually be given in his own words.

The ancestors of Abraham Lincoln were of English descent. We find the earliest definite traces of them in Berks county, Pennsylvania, though this was almost certainly not the first place of their residence in this country. Their location, and their adherence to the Quaker faith, make it probable that the original emigration occurred under the auspices of Wm. Penn, or at least in company with those who sympathized and shared in his colonizing movement. It was doubtless a branch of the same family that, leaving England under different religious impulses, but with the same adventurous and independent spirit, settled, at an earlier date, in Old Plymouth Colony. The separation may possibly have taken place this side of the Atlantic, and not beyond. Some of the same traits appear conspicuously in both these family groups. One tradition indeed afiBrms that the Pennsylvania branch was transplanted from Hingham, Mass., and was derived from a common stock with Colonel Benjamin Lincoln, of Revolutionary fame. There is a noticeable coincidence in the general prevalence, among each American branch, of Scriptural names in christening — the Benjamin, Levi, and Ezra, of Massachusetts, having their counterpart in the Abraham, Thomas, and Josiah, of Virginia and Kentucky. The peculiarity is one to have been equally expected among sober Friends, and among zealous Puritans.

Berks county can not have been very long the home of Mr. Lincoln's immediate progenitors. There can hardly have been more than a slender pioneer settlement there, up to the time that one or more of the number made another remove, not far possession of more fertile fields, and to an easier subsistence, with new forest-expanses more eligible for the delights of the chase. Whatever the reason, he set out at the time just stated, with his wife and several young children, on his long journey across the mountains, and over the broad valleys intervening between the Shenandoah and the Kentucky.

At this date, and for ten or twelve years later, the present State of Kentucky formed part of the old Commonwealth of Virginia. " The dark and bloody ground," as afterward named for better reasons than the fiction which assigns this meaning to its Indian appellation, had then been but recently entered upon by the white. man. Its first explorer, Daniel Boone, whose very name suggests a whole world of romance and adventure, had removed, when a mere boy, among the earlier emigrants from Eastern Pennsylvania, to Berks county. Here he must have been a contemporary resident, and was perhaps an acquaintance, of some of the younger members of the Lincoln family. At all events, as substantially one of their own neighbors, they must have watched his later course with eager interest and sympathy ? and caught inspiration from his exploits. At eighteen, Boone had again emigrated, with his father as before, to the banks of the Yadkin, a mountain river in the north-west of North Carolina, at just about the same date as the removal of the Lincolns to Virginia. Some years later, Boone, in his hunting excursions, had passed over and admired large tracts of the wilderness north of his home, and especially along a branch of the Cumberland river, within the limits of what is now Kentucky. It was not until 1769, however, that, with five associates, he made the thorough exploration of the Kentucky valley, which resulted in the subsequent settlements there. The glowing descriptions which ultimately got abroad of the incredible richness and beauty of these new and remote forest-climes of Trans-Alleghanian Virginia, and of their alluring hunting-grounds, must have early reached the ears of the boyhood-companions of Daniel Boone, and spread through the neighboring country. The stirring adventures of the pioneer hero, during the next five or six years, and the beginnings of substantial settlements in that far-west country, must have suggested new attractions thitherward to the more active and daring spirits, whose ideal of manhood Boone so nearly approached.

From the borders, in various directions, hundreds of miles away, emigration had now begun. These recruits were from that class of hardy frontiersmen most inured to the kind of toils they were to encounter anew in the Kentucky forests. They went forward, fearless of the dangers to be encountered from the numerous bands of Indians already recommencing hostilities, after a temporary pacification. Here was a common territory and place of meeting for the tribes, both of the North and the South, and here, before and after this date, there were many exciting adventures and deadly conflicts with these savages, whose favorite haunts had been thus unceremoniously invaded.

It was not far from the date of the disastrous battle of the Lower Blue Licks, that the grandfather of Mr. Lincoln, with his young family, reached the region which had perhaps long been the promised land of his dreams. This transmigration was certainly some time later than 1778, and earlier than 1784, as circumstances hereafter to be stated will show. Boone, Kenton, Harrod, Floyd, and their brave associates, were still in the midst of the great struggles which have given them lasting memory in history. Lincoln was ambitious to share their fortunes, and to fix his home in this more genial and opulent clime.

The exact place at which he settled is not known. It was somewhere on Floyd's creek, and probably near its mouth, in what is now Bullitt county. The hopes which led to this change of his home were not destined to be fulfilled. He had made but a mere beginning in his new pioneer labors, when while at work one day, at a distance from his cabin, unsuspecting of danger, he was killed by an Indian, who had stolen upon him unaware. This took place in the year 1784, or very near that time, when he was probably not more than thirty-five years of age. His widow, thus suddenly bereaved in a new and strange land, had now their three sons and two daughters left to her sole protection and care, with probably little means far their support. She soon after removed to what became Washington county, in the same State, not far distant, and there reared her children, all of whom reached mature age. One of the daughters was married to a Mr. Crume, and the other to a man named Bromfield. The three sons, respectively named Thomas, Mordecai, and Josiah, all remained in Ken tucky until after their majority.

Thomas Lincoln, one of these sons, was born in 1778. He was a mere child when his father removed to Kentucky, and was but six years old at the time of the latter's death. The date of this event was consequently about 1784. Of the early life of the orphan boy, we have no knowledge, except what can be learned of the general lot of his class, and of the habits and modes of living then prevalent among the hardy pioneers of Kentucky. These backwoodsmen had an unceasing round of hard toils, with no immediate reward but a bare subsistence from year to year, and the cheering promise of better days in the future. But even their lands, as in the case of Boone, they were not always so fortunate as to retain in fee.

More comfortable days, and a much improved state of things had come, before Thomas arrived at maturity, but in his boy hood and youth, he must have known whatever was worst in the trials and penury of the first generation of Kentucky frontiersmen, with few other enjoyments than an occasional practice with his rifle. His training was suited to develop a strong, muscular frame, and a rugged constitution, with a characteristic quickness of perception and promptness of action. The Kentuckian of that and the succeeding generation had generally a tall, stalwart frame, a frank and courteous heart, and a humorous and slightly quaint turn of speech ; a fondness for adventure and for the sports of .hunting; a manly selfrespect, and a fearless independence of spirit.

" Pride in their port, defiance in their eye, » * * * *

Intent on high designs, a thoughtful band, By forms unfashioned, fresh from nature's hand, Fierce in their native hardiness of soul - True to imagined right, above control.

This generation began its life with the independent existence of the nation, and partook largely of the spirit of exultant self-confidence then abroad through the land.

These were the circumstances and associations under which, in those primeval days in Kentucky, Thomas Lincoln passed through the period of boyhood and youth. At the date of the political separation from Virginia, in 1792, and the formation of a new State, this orphan boy. struggling to aid his mother in the support of the ill-fortuned family, had reached the age of fourteen. The currents of emigration had become enlarged and accelerated, meantime, until the population was swelled, as early as 1790, to more than 73,000 ; and during the next ten years it was more than trebled, reaching 220,000. The wilderness that once was around Boonesborough, Harrodsburg, and Lexington, was now blossoming as the rose. Still, however, there was ample space unoccupied, within the limits of the new State, for those who craved the excitements and the loneliness of a home in the wilderness.

In 1806, Thomas Lincoln, being then twenty-eight years of age, was married to Nancy Hanks, a native of Virginia, and settled in what was then Hardin county, Kentucky. It does not appear that the parents of Miss Hanks ever removed to Kentucky, though others of the family did so. Of the history of her ancestry, we have no definite particulars. Her position in life appears to have been not dissimilar to that of her husband. That she possessed some rare qualities of mind and heart, there is reason to believe ; although, dying at an early age, and having, from the time of her marriage, passed her days on obscure frontiers, few recollections of her are accessible.

Abraham Lincoln was born of these parents on the 12th day of February, 1809. The place where they at this time resided, is in what is now LaEue county, about a mile and a half from Hodgenville, the county seat, and seven miles from Elizabethtown, laid off several years previously, and the county seat of Hardin county." He had one sister, two years his senior, who grew up to womanhood, married, and died while young. He had a brother, two years younger than himself who died in early childhoood. Mr. Lincoln remembers to have visited the now unmarked grave of this little one, along with his mother, before leaving Kentucky. These were the only children of Thomas Lincoln, either by the present or by a subsequent marriage, hereafter to be noticed. Abraham has thus, for a long time, been the sole immediate representative of this hardy and energetic race.

LaRue county, named from an early settler, John LaRue, was set off and separately organized in 1843, the portion containing Mr. Lincoln's birthplace having been, up to that date, included in Hardin county. It is a rich grazing country in its more rolling or hilly parts, and the level surface produces good crops of corn and tobacco. In the northern borders of the county, on the Rolling Fork of Salt river, is Muldrow's Hill, a noted eminence. Hodgenville, near which Mr. Lincoln was born, is a pleasantly situated town on Nolin creek, and a place of considerable business. About a mile above this town, on the creek, is a mound, or knoll, thirty feet above the banks of the stream, containing two acres of level ground, at the top of which there is now a house. Some of the early pioneers encamped on this knoll ; and but a short distance from it a fart was erected by Philip Phillips, an emigrant from Pennsylvania, about 1780 or 1781, near the time Mr. Lincoln's ancestor arrived from Virginia. John LaRue came from the latter State, with a company of emigrants, and settled, not far from the same date, at Phillips' Fort. Robert Hodgen, LaRue's brother-in-law, purchased and occupied the land on which Hodgenville is built. Both these pioneers were men of sterling integrity, and high moral worth. They were consistent and zealous members of the Baptist church, and one of their associates, Benjamin Lynn, was a minister of the same persuasion. Such were the influences under which, more than twenty years before Thomas Lincoln settled there, this little "colony had been founded, and which went far to give the community its permanent character.

It is needless to rehearse the kind of life in which Abraham Lincoln was here trained. The picture is similar in all such settlements. In his case, there was indeed the advantage of a generation or two of progress, since his grandfather had hazarded and lost his life in the then slightly broken wilderness. The State now numbered some 400,000 inhabitants, and had all the benefits of an efficient local administration, the want of which had greatly increased the dangers and difficulties of the first settlers. Henry Clay, it may here be appropriately mentioned, had already, though little more than thirty years of age, begun his brilliant political career, having then served for a year or two in the United States Senate.

Yet, with all these changes, the humble laborers, settled near " Hodgen's Mills,'' on Nolin creek, had no other lot but incessant toil, and a constant struggle with nature in the still imperfectly reclaimed wilds, for a plain subsistence. Here the boy spent the first years of his childhood. With apparently the same frowning fortune which darkened the early days of Robert Burns, it was not destined that young Lincoln's father should succeed in these first endeavors to secure a competency. Even before the date of his earliest distinct recollections, he removed with his father to a place six miles distant from Hodgenville, which was also ere long to be surrendered, as we shall presently see, for a home in the far-off wilderness, and for frontier life, in its fullest and most significant meaning.

The period of Abraham Lincoln's Kentucky life extends through a little more than seven years, terminating with the autumn of 1816. If it be true as a rule (as Horace Mann was wont to maintain), that the experiences and instructions of the first seven years of every person's existence, do more to mold and determine his general character, than all subsequent training, then must we regard Mr. Lincoln as a Kentuckian (of the generation next following that of Clay), by his early impressions and discipline, no less than by birth.

In those days there were no common schools in that country. The principal reliance for acquiring the rudiments of learnin was the same as that to which the peasant-poet of Ayrshi was indebted. Education was by no means disregarded nor did young Lincoln, poor as were his opportunities, grow up an illiterate boy, as some have supposed. Competent teachers ffere accustomed to offer themselves then, as in later years ire who opened private schools for a neighborhood, being supported by tuition or subscription. During his boyhood days in Kentucky, Abraham Lincoln attended, at different times, at least two schools of this description, of which he has clear recollections. One of these was kept by Zachariah Biney, a Roman Catholic, whose peculiarities have not been wholly effaced from the memory of his since so distinguished pupil. But although this teacher was himself an ardent Catholic, he made no proselyting efforts in his school, and when any little religious ceremonies, or perhaps mere catechizing and the like, were to be gone through with, all Protestant children, of whom, it is needless to say that young "Abe " was one, were accustomed to retire, by permission or command. Biney was probably in some way connected with the movement of the " Trappists," who came to Kentucky in the autumn of 1805, and founded an establishment (abandoned some years later) under Urban Guillet, as superior, on Pottinger's Creek. They were active in promoting education, especially among the poorer classes, and had a school for boys under their immediate supervision. This, however, had been abandoned before the date of Lincoln's first school-days, and it is not improbable that the private schools under Catholic teachers were an offshoot of the original system adopted by these Trappists, who subsequently removed to Illinois.