in 
 
 HARVEY H. SMITH 
 
 
LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 MEMORIAL 
 
 the Class of 1901 
 
 founded by 
 
 HARLAN HOYT HORNER 
 
 and 
 
 HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://archive.org/details/lincolnlincolnsOOsmit 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
President Abraham Lincoln 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 BY 
 HARVEY H. SMITH 
 
 Author of 
 
 The Confessions of an American Citizen, 
 
 Mark Henry, 
 
 Downfall of a Politician, etc. 
 
 Memorial Edition 
 
 Pioneer Publications, Inc. 
 Publishers 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1931, BY PIONEER PUBLICATIONS, INC. 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO REPRODUCE 
 THIS BOOK OR PARTS THEREOF IN ANY FORM 
 
 PUBLISHED NOVEMBER, 1931 
 
 Printed by 
 
 LACOSTE PRINTING COMPANY 
 
 158 West 27th Street 
 New York, N. Y. 
 
1 
 
 DEDICATION 
 
 This modest volume of "Lincoln and 
 the Lincolns" is affectionately dedicated: 
 
 To my mother y Mary E. Smith, whose 
 broad-minded view of life, whose suffer- 
 ings and sacrifices contributed in no small 
 degree to the author's ability to look dis- 
 passionately on the recurring events en- 
 countered in an active life; 
 
 To Abraham Lincoln, the man of 
 human outlook on the affairs of men — the 
 saviour of the Republic; 
 
 To the Lincolns, valiant and sturdy 
 pioneers of a strong civilization; 
 
 To the "Salt River Tigers," the most 
 daring and brilliant pioneer soldiers of all 
 time, and whose sons have made their 
 stand for liberty and free government in 
 the states of this Union. 
 
 Harvey H. Smith. 
 
INTRODUCTION OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 We were born and reared in the same neigh- 
 borhood, and attended the same school in Har- 
 din County, Kentucky, the county in which 
 Lincoln first saw the light of day. 
 
 The author grew to manhood, with many 
 favored opportunities, walking daily amid the 
 atmosphere of first-hand knowledge of Lin- 
 coln's early boyhood days. When but a boy, 
 of studious and inquiring mind, he often sat 
 silent by the fireside of his old Kentucky home 
 and listened intently as the neighbors, who 
 personally knew the Lincolns, told over and 
 over again the many incidents and historical 
 facts connected with this most remarkable 
 man and his family. 
 
 Mr. Smith was among the first young men 
 of the South to raise his voice in recognition of 
 Lincoln's real worth as a statesman. 
 
 Far seeing and able, he solved the status of 
 Lincoln, and did much to raise him in public 
 estimation in Kentucky. 
 
 Considering the tragedies that were enacted 
 in both of our families under Lincoln's admin- 
 
viii INTRODUCTION OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 istration, during the struggle between the 
 North and the South, this unbiased and true 
 estimate of Lincoln as one of our foremost 
 statesmen, by this young man at so early a date 
 after the war seemed strange at first, but forty 
 years have only strengthened the truth and 
 established the clearness of his vision. 
 
 Very early in his life he gathered the infor- 
 mation and tabulated the evidence presented 
 in this book. Though it was wanted long ago, 
 he now considers this hour ripe and the occa- 
 sion proper to send it forth with his version 
 and message. * • 
 
 In 1890, just graduated from law school, 
 he became a candidate to represent this county 
 in the Constitutional Convention, which 
 adopted the present Constitution of Ken- 
 tucky, and won a most remarkable race 
 against a field of very popular citizens. 
 
 In the Convention, he proved to be a very 
 influential member in spite of his extreme 
 youth. Since that time, on other great occa- 
 sions, when called to severe contests, he has 
 shown unusual ability and grasp of public 
 questions and has justified his eminence as a 
 lawyer. * 
 
 His career in the legislative halls of two 
 states has proven beyond question his steady 
 adherence to Lincoln's principles and the value 
 he places on them. 
 
INTRODUCTION OF THE AUTHOR ix 
 
 Born himself into the environment of trag- 
 edies which arose from the mal-administra- 
 tion of Stanton, that resulted in the most hor- 
 rible crimes of the Civil War, he was able to 
 see and sense the vast potential influence of 
 Lincoln as a safeguard to liberty and the rights 
 of the common people. In the courts, in the 
 forum and in the legislative halls, he has evalu- 
 ated Lincoln to a greater destiny each step in 
 his life. 
 
 Wholly distinguished from the average bio- 
 grapher, by conviction and fame, he is the one 
 great defender of what Lincoln stood for and 
 what Lincoln's principles mean to us and the 
 coming generations. The author of great 
 measures tested and crystallized into law, his 
 judgment today should ring sound. 
 
 This volume will testify eloquently to the 
 soundness and value of these principles. It 
 also furnishes abundant evidence of the power 
 and strength of these ideas of government 
 when handled by an advocate so able. 
 
 My grandfather's death enumerated herein 
 — the result of the reign of terror in Ken- 
 tucky, gives the writer some satisfaction in its 
 historical exposition, and the same may well 
 be said of these other crimes exposed in this 
 work. 
 
 It is well also to say that the witnesses he 
 calls from the Lincoln environs were all 
 
x INTRODUCTION OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 known to the writer personally or so well 
 established prior to his time in office that he 
 can vouch for their high standing, integrity, 
 character and family connection. They were 
 universally esteemed in virtue of well doing, 
 good deeds and success in this County of 
 Hardin. 
 
 Robert Emmett Settles, 
 
 Ex'Clerk of the Circuit Court, of Hardin 
 County, Kentucky. 
 
 Elisabethtown, Ky., May 6th, 1931 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 It requires but a brief word to state the 
 purpose of this volume. I write of Abraham 
 Lincoln as a human power, not as a saint or 
 martyr. This is a story and not altogether a 
 biography. 
 
 First: Who were the Lincolns? What was 
 their background in Hardin County? 
 Who were their neighbors and what 
 have they said about them? 
 We undertake to give the first 
 authentic answers to these questions. 
 Was Thomas Lincoln a wandering, 
 poor boy of the woods and unknown, 
 as the President says? We answer: 
 No. 
 
 Were the Lincolns a second rate fam- 
 ily, as the President says? We an- 
 swer: No. 
 
 Were they opposed to slavery? We 
 answer: No. 
 
 Second: Did the President make a solemn 
 promise to the Kentuckians in 1860 
 that he would not interfere with 
 slavery? We answer: Yes. 
 
xii FOREWORD 
 
 Did he make the Kentuckians a 
 promise that he would maintain the 
 neutrality of Kentucky if the state 
 refused to secede? We answer: Yes. 
 Was he justified in making these 
 promises? We answer: Yes. 
 Was he justified in breaking these 
 promises? We answer: Yes. 
 
 Third: Did the making of these two prom- 
 ises gain him the support of the Ken- 
 tuckians in a political way? We an- 
 swer: No. 
 
 Was he responsible for the reign of 
 terror in Kentucky? We answer: 
 No. 
 
 Did he perform the part of a states- 
 man and humanitarian in putting a 
 stop to it? We answer: Yes. 
 We undertake to place the responsib- 
 ility where it belongs and to appraise 
 the Lincoln women, as they deserve, 
 although we call this simply a story 
 of the Lincolns. 
 
 If we have fulfilled our ambition in 
 these respects, we are satisfied that we 
 have contributed something to the 
 understanding of this great man. 
 
 In determining what should be left out of 
 the interviews with the old residents of Mill 
 
FOREWORD xiii 
 
 Creek, the writer thought it best to delete the 
 strongest language used without destroying 
 the atmospheric quality. 
 
 Lincoln's vision grew into a larger and 
 broader aspiration for his country than some 
 of these country people could have ever 
 dreamed of, consequently when these facts 
 are considered, we will be able to understand 
 these criticisms. 
 
 It also covers the story of Nancy Lincoln 
 and her son-in-law, Bill Austin, in their rela- 
 tion to the President. The unanimous opinion 
 was that Nancy did not die on the date shown 
 on her tombstone, but in the year 1875, 
 making her 9 5 years of age at her death. 
 
 The removal of Generals of the Federal 
 Armies, murders, and actual happenings are 
 described just as they took place. We have 
 confined the story of Stanton to actual con- 
 versations with men who knew all about his 
 actions, including General Buell's recollec- 
 tion, about which he was reluctant to be 
 quoted, and many other original facts. 
 
 Most of these individuals were either rel- 
 atives or neighbors of the Lincolns, from the 
 earliest to the latest times. It seemed to be a 
 settled fact among the old residents of Mill 
 Creek, that the President was born on the 
 Thomas Lincoln Farm, on Mill Creek. The 
 author, after intensive research into all cir- 
 
xiv FOREWORD 
 
 cumstances, reached the same conclusion, de- 
 spite the assertions of historians. The inter- 
 views were made from 1882 to 1890, the ma- 
 jor portion being taken in 1887-88 and 1890. 
 The earlier ones were reduced to quotations, 
 as a rule. 
 
 With two exceptions, none of these people 
 had been approached by a biographer of Lin- 
 coln. Outside of this neighborhood, there was 
 little to be known about the Lincolns of Tom 
 Lincoln's family, as they lived a short time on 
 Knob Creek and Nolin Creek, most assuredly 
 after the birth of President Lincoln; and all of 
 these witnesses passed away before there was 
 any interest in President Lincoln. 
 
 We have given, herewith, the birth and 
 death dates of the principal witnesses which, 
 in some cases, varies on the tombstones from 
 the Bible dates. This, we found very common, 
 as in the writer's mother's case, ten years were 
 added to her age. 
 
 We have included the first published story 
 of Bill Austin, vouched for mainly by Captain 
 Thomas Hines and Owen Cowley. The worE 
 also explains Austin's and Hines' relation to 
 the Muldraugh Hills massacre of Jarrett's men, 
 and their relation to each other and President 
 Lincoln. It also contains the truth about the 
 alleged organization of the Kentuckians to as- 
 
FOREWORD xv 
 
 sassinate Lincoln's cabinet, charged to Young, 
 Hawkins and Sue Munday. 
 
 In most cases, the language used is that of 
 the person interviewed. In others, it is very 
 nearly exact, but the substance has not been 
 changed. Some of the earlier conversations 
 have been sharply deleted, and where quota- 
 tions are made, the entire substance has not 
 been changed, though some words have been 
 transposed or eliminated — a few are literal, 
 having been taken in short hand. All notes 
 have been transcribed from time to time and 
 amended slightly. 
 
 Many of these people loved Lincoln in spite 
 of what occurred to them during the war. 
 Many of them had the dislike that grows out 
 of war, but they were honest men and women, 
 and far above the average in intelligence. 
 
 The reader must bear in mind that there 
 never was any opposition to Slavery in Hardin 
 County, for there existed here in fact no abuse 
 of the negro. 
 
 In the second part of this work, we have un- 
 dertaken, by constructive criticism, which at 
 times goes to the root of our trouble: to apply 
 Lincoln's principles; in the writer's opinion, 
 this, we justify as a departure from the bio- 
 graphical part of this work, because the nation 
 is in sore distress, and aggravating and unof- 
 ficial acts continue to overlook our perils. 
 
XVI 
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 These perils flowed over from conditions, 
 which were bitterly assailed by the writer at 
 the close of the world war, and for which pre- 
 dictions he was threatened with the strong 
 arm of the government, but which time has 
 proven, to a mathematical certainty, to have 
 been correct. 
 
 Dangers of national policy as now outlined 
 threaten the country, and further trouble is 
 in store for the Democratic principles of Mr. 
 Lincoln. 
 
 With this thought in mind, those who be- 
 lieve, with the author, will find comfort in the 
 analysis of conditions and the application of 
 Lincoln principles, and those who do not, may 
 lay aside the work when they have finished 
 "Part One," which deals with the man Lincoln 
 and the Lincolns. 
 
 Harvey H. Smith. 
 
 Vine Grove, Kentucky, June 1st, 1931. 
 

 ■ 
 
 Harvey H. Smith, the author. Photograph 1884, Lebanon, 
 Ohio, and photo of 1890, by Sarony, N. Y., the beginning 
 and conclusion of the interviews contained in this volume. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PART I 
 
 Chapter I. Early immigration to Kentucky — movement and 
 
 origin of the Lincolns 3 
 
 Chapter II. Captain Abraham Lincoln of the Virginia Militia 25 
 
 Chapter III. Lincoln and the Lincoln family 37 
 
 Chapter IV. The Lincoln Associates 54 
 
 Chapter V. The old Mill Creek Baptist Church and War 
 
 Council Parliament 63 
 
 Chapter VI. " Crist and his great fight with the Indians on 
 
 Salt River 83 
 
 Chapter VII. "General Braddock," the great Negro 100 
 
 Chapter VIII. The Lincoln birth-place 115 
 
 Chapter IX. Sam Haycraft's Diary — interview with Judge 
 
 Laban Moore 131 
 
 Chapter X. President Lincoln's religion — his birth'place 145 
 
 Chapter XI. Squire Boone and his colony — Lincoln's birth' 
 
 place. Findings 162 
 
 Chapter XII. President Lincoln's birth-place. Findings 181 
 
 Chapter XIII. Dr. William Smith, friend of Lincoln. Death 
 
 of Captain Lincoln „. 230 
 
 Chapter XIV. Captain Thomas H. Hines of Morgan's Con' 
 
 federate Cavalry, and Bill Austin, Lincoln Spy 247 
 
 Chapter XV. Planned Assassination of Lincoln's Cabinet 283 
 
xviii CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter XVI. Lincoln's Position on Kentucky, trouble with 
 
 Stanton 304 
 
 Chapter XVII. Southern Aristocracy: Lincoln's speech to 
 
 the Kentuckians „ 317 
 
 PART II 
 
 Chapter XVIII. Lincoln on Labor and Capital 347 
 
 Chapter XIX. Lincoln National Organization 385 
 
 Chapter XX. Lincoln's Ideals — Jefferson's Democracy...,.—,... 395 
 
 Chapter XXI. Application of Lincoln Principles........ ,._..... 414 
 
 Appendix;. Origin of the Federal Reserve Act m 471 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 President Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 Harvey H. Smith, the author. Photograph 1884, Lebanon, Ohio, 
 and photo of 1890, by Sarony, N. Y., the beginning and 
 conclusion of the interviews contained in this volume. 
 
 Graves of Bersheba Lincoln to right, grandmother of President 
 Lincoln; Mary and Nancy Lincoln at the left in the order 
 named, at the old Mill Creek Baptist Cemetery. 
 
 House where resided Bersheba Lincoln, grandmother of President 
 Lincoln and her daughter Nancy Lincoln Brumfield, built by 
 Thomas Lincoln in 1803 on Mill Creek. 
 
 Pen sketch of Bersheba Lincoln from an old daguerreotype, not 
 definitely identified. 
 
 Nancy Lincoln, from a sketch made from an old tin type, not 
 definitely identified. 
 
 The old Baptist Chuch of Mill Creek, third church built west of 
 the Alleghany mountains. 
 
 Catherine Peck, who tells the story of Elinor Peck, intimate associate 
 of Tom and Nancy Lincoln, 
 
 Cartoon based on story of John Smith of the birth of President 
 Lincoln on Mill Crek, winter of 1809. Loaned by John H. 
 Smith, Sterling, Kansas — credited to New York Globe and H. 
 T. Webster. 
 
 Thomas B. Peck, near neighbor of Tom Lincoln. 
 
 Samuel Haycraft, intimate friend of Thomas Lincoln, whose Mill 
 Creek farm house appears, one half mile from Bersheba and 
 Nancy Lincoln home. 
 
 Bill Austin, Lincoln Spy, simulating as a country cousin of the 
 President. 
 
xx ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Photo copies of tin type of four of the eight Ditto Brothers, whose 
 father was intimately associated with Thomas Lincoln in 
 building the present Dixie Highway in Hardin County. Births 
 ranging from 1807 to 1818. 
 
 Photo copies of tin type of four of the eight Ditto Brothers, whose 
 father was intimately associated with Thomas Lincoln in 
 building the present Dixie Highway in Hardin County. Births 
 ranging from 1807 to 1818. 
 
 Dr. William Smith, son of James, grandson of old John, friend of 
 all the Lincolns. 
 
 Judge Thomas H. Hines, Captain of Cavalry with General John 
 Morgan. 
 
 Bennett H. Young, leader of the twentyseven who raided and set 
 fire to St. Albans, Vermont, who planned to kidnap Lincoln 
 and who refused to join Booth in his assassination scheme. 
 
 Silas Smith, who was ordered hung by Jarrett, and whose life was 
 saved by General Davis, who killed General Miles in a quarrel 
 about it. 
 
 Shooting of Vanmeter, Settles and Vertrees on the order of Captain 
 Jarrett without trial, for alleged criticism of enlistment of slaves. 
 
 Pen drawing of the house rebuilt by Thomas Lincoln in 1804 on 
 Mill Creek, according to old foundation and description of 
 neighbors; torn down in about 1860. 
 
 House where Mary E. Smith was assaulted and where author's 
 brother was assassinated during 1863; one mile from Thomas 
 Lincoln farm on Mill Creek. 
 
 Proposed Lodge of Lincoln National Institute. 
 
 Lincoln Hotel, New York City, Eastern Headquarters of Lincoln 
 National Institute. 
 
 Map of district where witnesses resided and relative location of 
 Lincoln families. 
 
ODE TO LINCOLN 
 
 By Mary E. Davison Clarke 
 (1851-1928) 
 
 I 
 
 To theey Defender of Man's rights, 
 
 Strong champion of Man in chains, 
 Our Country turns, with throbbing hearts, 
 To chant thy praise in hallowed strains. 
 The young and old 
 The song unfold 
 That rings through Mother Earth's domains. 
 
 II 
 
 Descendant from New England line, 
 
 In youthful days, an humble cot, — 
 Thy noble life shall ever shine, 
 By thy Nation ne'er be forgot! 
 With courage bold 
 Thou hadst foretold 
 That Freedom's soil must bear no blot. 
 
xxii ODE TO LINCOLN 
 
 III 
 
 Emancipator of our land! 
 
 Thy fearless soul chose valiant way, 
 When Duty stern called forth to thee, 
 Her mandate voice thou dist obey. 
 Thy magic hand 
 Did wield the wand 
 That gave the slave a freed man's day. 
 
 IV 
 
 Thou, on the field of Gettysburg, 
 Thus hallowed by our heroes 9 blood. 
 In thrilling tones implored our Land 
 To give new birth to Freedom's sod. 
 The people's voice, 
 The people's choice; 
 The Nation rules it's trust, in God. 
 
 V 
 
 When stricken by assassin's hand, 
 
 Thy towering form, in death laid low, 
 Through shuddering, suffering land, 
 Was heard the moan and wail of woe. 
 Then — martyred One! 
 Thy blood alone 
 Didst make the World its tribute show. 
 
 VI 
 
 Grand Victor in the moral fight! 
 
 Thy quickened conscience was thy guide, 
 As in thy life's simplicity, 
 
ODE TO LINCOLN xxiii 
 
 Ne'er false to man, — so thou hast died. 
 The Lincoln name 
 Through paths of pain 
 Fans Freedom's fires and Nation's pride. 
 
 VII 
 
 Behold , from darkness into light, 
 
 Our favored Country has come forth, — 
 The passing of one hundred years, 
 
 To it, has shown your matchless worth! 
 While bells in spires 
 In songful choirs, 
 All bless the day that gave thee birth. 
 
 VIII 
 
 Thou, to the Ages dost belong! 
 
 Thy noble name, uplifted high 
 On Freedom's scroll, shall ever rest 
 Immortalized! not born to die — 
 Thy sepulchre lone, 
 With shaft of stone. 
 We'll trust to One Mi-seeing Eye. 
 
 IX 
 
 May mem'ries rich of noble dead 
 
 Pass proudly down descendants' line! 
 Their vernal graves a sacred spot, 
 A Mecca — yea, a Holy Shrine. 
 Our blessed land 
 From hill to strand, 
 Sends forth its praise through Aisles of Time. 
 
Part I 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 EARLY IMMIGRATION TO KENTUCKY.— MOVE- 
 MENT AND ORIGIN OF THE LINCOLNS 
 
 TN reading all of the biographical histories of the 
 
 early life of Abraham Lincoln, I have been im" 
 pressed with the lack of material which the authors 
 had at hand. 
 
 In order to determine what influenced the Presi- 
 dent in his public utterances, and the accuracy of 
 history, as it relates to him, we must go back to the 
 influences that were operating on the Lincoln family 
 at the time of the birth of the President. 
 
 The writer became interested in the character of 
 Abraham Lincoln in a personal way in the year of 
 1884, while attending the history class of Alfred 
 Holbrook, President of the National Normal Univer- 
 sity of Lebanon, Ohio, and founder of that institu- 
 tion. Holbrook, in a number of lectures, character- 
 ised Abraham Lincoln as the great man of the 
 Republic and assailed and criticised all of the his- 
 tories that had been written up to that date. 
 
 The writer was born in the Lincoln neighborhood, 
 near Mill Creek, in Hardin County, Kentucky. His 
 relatives and acquaintances were friends of the 
 Lincolns and the elders of his family, neighbors and 
 associates of all of the early Lincolns who migrated 
 from Virginia to this part of Kentucky. 
 
 The founder of the Lincoln family in this section 
 
4 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 was Captain Abraham Lincoln, the grandfather of 
 President Lincoln. He, with a brother, Thomas, 
 and two of his cousins, came to Kentucky from 
 Virginia, with the early settlers of 1780. Captain 
 Lincoln was a soldier in the Revolutionary War and 
 had been associated with William Owens and Samuel 
 Haycraft, Sr. The Captain did not settle at the 
 point in Jefferson County where he was killed. At 
 the time he came to Kentucky, all of the territory, 
 afterward included in Hardin County, was then in' 
 eluded in Nelson County. The entire state had been 
 originally called Kentucky County and was a part of 
 the State of Virginia, and governed under the author' 
 ity of the General Assembly of Virginia. 
 
 The State of Virginia offered Treasury Script land 
 to all soldiers of the Revolutionary War in the 
 County of Kentucky. Captain Lincoln was among 
 those who took advantage of this offer. He acquired 
 land in Kenton County, Washington County, Jeffer' 
 son County and Hardin County. After remaining 
 at Harrodsburg, Kentucky, a short time, he moved 
 over to Washington County, and remained there for 
 a short period. He took up land in Jefferson County, 
 at the Falls of Rough Creek, now Grayson County, 
 and an additional plot on Mill Creek in Hardin 
 County. He owned about 5800 acres in these places 
 at the time of his death. 
 
 Prior to his coming to Kentucky, a man named 
 Meyers, who had rendered considerable service to 
 the State of Virginia in surveying Kentucky, acquired 
 a large tract of land on Mill Creek. He sold his pat' 
 ents to various people, and Samuel Haycraft, Sr., 
 purchased a large tract in 1781 from him. About 
 that time Captain Lincoln acquired a similar tract on 
 Mill Creek. The Haycraft tract was Warrant 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 5 
 
 No. 1098, issued by the State of Virginia, 1781. In 
 some cases, deeds to these lands were never made 
 by Meyers, although he made a deed to Samuel 
 Haycraft on June 1st, 1785. 
 
 It was at this time that Captain Lincoln, William 
 Owens, Luke Colvin and Samuel Haycraft built the 
 Baptist Church on the banks of Mill Creek, within 
 the Cowley area of land and adjoining the plot of 
 Samuel Haycraft, Sr. In this neighborhood, Captain 
 Lincoln lived a while, but at the time of his death he 
 was engaged in planting a crop on his land located in 
 Jefferson County, about 25 miles north and east of 
 the Mill Creek location where he had moved his 
 family. The Indians were raiding this part of Ken' 
 tucky all of the early Spring. At this time, they 
 wounded one of my great-grandfather's brothers, 
 who escaped and died in a cave on Mill Creek. Cap' 
 tain Lincoln was shot by the Indians on his Jefferson 
 County farm. 
 
 After the death of Captain Lincoln, his widow 
 went to Washington County and remained for ap- 
 proximately twelve years. She then returned to the 
 Mill Creek section, disposed of the Captain Lincoln 
 land, though all of this land technically descended 
 to Mordecai, the oldest son, under the laws of Vif 
 ginia; went back to Washington County and two 
 years later returned to Mill Creek. 
 
 Daniel Boone also came to this section shortly 
 thereafter and located with Squire Boone on the 
 banks of the Ohio. 
 
 It is important to keep in mind that the Indians 
 did not cease to trouble the Whites until about 1798. 
 John Swank and his brothers, and John McMahan, 
 Captain Lincoln and his cousins and the Boones 
 went from Berkes County, Pennsylvania, through 
 
6 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 the James Smith Colony at York, and through Win- 
 Chester, Va., to what is now Rockingham County, 
 near Harrisonburg. Captain Lincoln was a single 
 man at this time. He married Bersheba Herriot 
 in Rockingham County, after a few years resi- 
 dence there. The colony then came to Kentucky 
 and afterwards located in and around Mill Creek. 
 This place must hereafter be considered the center 
 of the Lincoln activities. They employed the Baptist 
 Church as their place of meeting. 
 
 Samuel Hay craft, Sr., though born in Virginia, 
 came directly from Fort Pitt down the Ohio River. 
 One of his three brothers was killed on this trip by 
 the Indians. They had known Captain Lincoln in the 
 Revolutionary War as Lincoln of the Virginia Mili- 
 tia division. 
 
 Captain Lincoln had been associated with Colonel 
 Neville, the man who was at the head of the forces 
 of the Government in putting down the Whiskey 
 Rebellion (1791). Neville was also one of the 
 founders of Pittsburgh. 
 
 Samuel Haycraft and his brothers were the foster 
 children of Colonel Neville; their father was named 
 James Haycraft. He was an English sailor settling 
 in the United States in 1740, and was a very close 
 friend of Colonel Neville. 
 
 Captain Lincoln became associated with Samuel 
 Haycraft, Sr. through the Colonel Neville con- 
 nection. 
 
 The original name of Lincoln in Pennsylvania was 
 Linkhorn and they were so known in Pennsylvania. 
 This much the writer gathered through the families 
 of Joseph Swank and John McMahan. The latter, 
 as will appear later, is the great, great grandfather 
 on the writer's maternal side. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 7 
 
 In the immediate section where the Lincolns lived 
 were such settlers as William Owen Sr., William 
 Jr., and Jonathan Owens; Mahalon Hibbs, Thomas 
 Howard, Colonel John Cowley, Jacob Pearman, 
 Henry Ditto, Luke Colvin, Ben Crist, John Peck, 
 Henry Peck, Solomon Irwin, John Culee, James 
 Smith, William and John Smith, Daniel Haycraft, 
 Samuel Haycraft, John Brumfield, Jim Davis, Henry 
 Brownlow, William Maffitt, Silas Hobb, James 
 Selby, William Hayes, Robert Huston, Squire 
 Boone, William Lewis, John Henry Lewis, Charles 
 Ray, Jacob Van Meter, Sr. and Jacob Van Meter, 
 Jr., James Settles, Sr. and John Woodring, John 
 Henry Shelton (relative of Patrick Henry's wife) 
 Henry Coffman, James Crutcher, Thomas Gray, 
 John McMahan, John Nail, Tom Melton and many 
 other names which are not important for the pur' 
 pose of this work. All of these people were patrons 
 of the War Council which met at the old Mill Creek 
 Church to provide defense against Indian outrages; 
 therefore, the interest of many of these settlers was 
 religious in this church, others were affiliated as mem' 
 bers for war purposes. 
 
 The writer had the first opportunity to ascertain 
 from these old families the true facts concerning the 
 Lincolns. 
 
 In 1889, the writer was requested to establish for 
 the purpose of publishing the truth about the Lin' 
 coins, the facts which were to be included in the 
 Honorable Zack Smith's History of Kentucky. The 
 facts which follow in this work are taken from con' 
 versations had from 1882 to 1891. The writer has 
 also had access to the diaries of Dr. William Smith, 
 son of James Smith, his great grandfather, and 
 Samuel Haycraft, grandfather of G. E. McMurtry. 
 
8 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 Up to this time, no person except Herndon had 
 ever visited any of these people. Herndon came to 
 Elisabethtown, Ky. (1865-7), consulted Samuel 
 Haycraft, Jr., Christy Bush and Silas Smith. He 
 then returned to Illinois and based his references of 
 the early life of the Lincolns on what these men 
 said. 
 
 The next visitor was Miss Ida Tarbell, and she 
 consulted very few, if any, of the names mentioned 
 in the preceding statement. When she arrived 
 Samuel Haycraft was dead and his son'in'law, 
 Stephen McMurtry, resided on the Haycraft farm 
 adjoining the Mill Creek or Lincoln Cemetery. 
 
 It is needless to say that in pursuing this subject 
 the writer had a frank and free discussion with the 
 native sons and daughters of the names herein men' 
 tioned, many of whom were closely associated with 
 Thomas Lincoln and all of whom had personal 
 knowledge of his movements and his family. 
 
 In analysing the character of Abraham Lincoln, 
 it must be kept in mind that his life was lived among 
 people of his kind, native Kentuckians. Those who 
 were transplanted to Indiana and Illinois were com' 
 posed of men and women from this immediate sec 
 tion. All of them, without exception, left the old 
 country for the new, solely because of the opportun' 
 ities it furnished in the way of cheap land. All of 
 Lincoln's law partners were native born Ken' 
 tuckians. Ann Rutledge, Mary Owen and Mary 
 Todd, his sweethearts, were all Kentuckians. 
 
 There is no theme to this work. It is written 
 mainly by one whose forebears were all Southerners 
 and slave owners and it will bear no relation to the 
 personal feeling of the writer or any of his ancestors, 
 who spoke with authority about the Lincolns. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 9 
 
 Whatever is written about Abraham Lincoln in 
 respect to the writer's version, is written as history, 
 and those matters that are circumstantial in their 
 nature, on which conclusions have been based, will 
 be swept aside in the conclusions arrived at by the 
 writer. Neither is it proposed to spare President 
 Lincoln's name with critical facts. 
 
 Mordecai Lincoln, the oldest son of Captain Ab- 
 raham, never resided in Hardin County for any con' 
 siderable length of time. Josiah Lincoln, Thomas 
 Lincoln's brother, resided on Mill Creek about two 
 years, and the balance of his residence in Kentucky 
 was completed in the Squire Boone Colony, about 
 eight miles from where his mother lived most of her 
 life after the death of the Captain. Thomas Lincoln, 
 during his boyhood, after the death of his father, re- 
 sided with his mother until his marriage, which oc- 
 curred on September 21st, 1805, according to 
 Samuel Haycraft's diary, and this year is fixed as the 
 date by Elinor Peck. After his marriage, he lived 
 first, on the farm adjoining the Henry Peck farm, 
 which he sold to Thomas Melton in 1814. He 
 moved from this farm to Elizabethtown where he 
 lived for a short time. From there, he continued to 
 work the Knob Creek farm and the Nolin farm 
 where the Lincoln Shrine is now located. Then he 
 moved on to the Knob Creek farm, and lived there 
 a part of the time. During the time he was at 
 work up in the blue grass, Nancy Hanks, his wife, 
 and Sarah, his daughter, lived in Washington 
 County at a little settlement called Burlington, where 
 the Berrys lived, the foster parents of Nancy Hanks, 
 if we accept the story of M. R. Rodgers. 
 
 It has always been questionable whether Abraham 
 Lincoln was born in Burlington or at the Nolin Farm 
 
10 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 or on Mill Creek. As Charles Friend, a lawyer in 
 Hodgenville, and neighbor to the Lincolns once 
 told the writer "Abe missed being born in Burling- 
 ton about twenty-four hours," according to the 
 tradition in his family. 
 
 M. R. Rodgers of Cane Ridge, Bourbon County, 
 Ky., told the writer in 1890 that Tom Lincoln was 
 at work on his father's mill in Bourbon County 
 when a letter was received from Nancy Hanks, the 
 mother of the President, saying that she was soon 
 to be confined and desired his presence at home, if 
 possible. This letter was written from Burlington, 
 in Washington County. Thomas in response to it, 
 left in a very few days for the settlement at Bur- 
 lington and as evidence shows, went to his Mill 
 Creek farm. 
 
 Mrs. Elinor Peck, who was the close friend of 
 Nancy Hanks Lincoln, when they lived on the Mill 
 Creek Farm, said that Nancy had told her that Ab- 
 raham was born on the Mill Creek Farm. President 
 Lincoln himself said that he was born on Nolin 
 Creek, but had not received this information from 
 either mother or father. 
 
 The Mill Creek house was built by Thomas Lin- 
 coln and his neighbors, and it contained for many 
 years a very fine stairway built by Thomas Lincoln. 
 It was a two room log house, two stories. Elinor Peck 
 thought that Thomas Lincoln was away from the 
 Mill Creek Farm about four years altogether. During 
 two of these years, William Brumfield, his brother- 
 in-law, husband of Nancy Lincoln, and Thomas 
 Melton took care of this farm. Nancy Melton con- 
 firmed this. 
 
 Thomas Lincoln sold this farm in October, 1814, 
 after he had visited Hananiah Lincoln, his cousin, 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 1 1 
 
 in Indiana. He sold it for the express purpose of 
 procuring money to buy land in Indiana. He did 
 not have a good and clear title to the Knob Creek 
 Farm, she said, and he finally lost the Knob Creek 
 Farm in about 1825, after several years of litigation. 
 The last year that he lived in Kentucky, he probably 
 spent in Elisabethtown. 
 
 It becomes important to determine who Elinor 
 Peck was. She came originally from Pennsyl' 
 vania. She knew Captain Abraham Lincoln well; 
 she was born in 1773 and died in 1853. She lived 
 all of her life in Kentucky within a stone's throw of 
 the Thomas Lincoln farm on Mill Creek. 
 
 She was a broad-minded woman with considerable 
 education for that day and time; she was a friend of 
 Nancy Hanks and did not take any stock in the 
 whispered criticism that Nancy Hanks was not a 
 legitimate child. This had been discussed at every 
 fireside on Mill Creek. The facts concerning her 
 ancestry were well known to most of the people in 
 that section. 
 
 Colonel John Cowley, John Swank, Joseph and 
 David Swank and Joseph's daughters and John Mc 
 Mahan and his daughters, Margaret Peck, Pamelia 
 Cowherd, Polly Watts, and the widow of William 
 Maffitt, all knew the history of Nancy Hanks and 
 her mother, Lucy Hanks. Concurrent with the in' 
 formation derived in this community from these old 
 people, the writer in 1887 consulted the Hon. Phil 
 Thompson of Harrodsburg, then about eighty years 
 old, and a lawyer of great distinction, to verify or 
 reject these rumored statements. Colonel Thomp' 
 son told him that he had examined the records du' 
 ring the war, after many people had asked him to 
 furnish them this information, and he reported it to 
 
1 2 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 me as being substantially the version since published 
 in Dr. William Barton's History. 
 
 The writer served in the Constitutional Convene 
 tion of Kentucky of 1890 with Col. Thomas Hanks 
 (a son of Thomas Hanks, who was a nephew of 
 Lucy Hanks, the mother of Nancy Hanks Lincoln). 
 He was then about eighty years of age, and his ver- 
 sion of the birth of Nancy Hanks Lincoln was the 
 same as that of Dr. Barton, with this exception. He 
 said, that Lucy Hanks had married a married man 
 who had been a sailor and when the facts were dis- 
 covered, that the President's mother took the name 
 of Hanks instead of the name of the man Lucy 
 Hanks had married. This is in consonance with 
 Nancy's story to Elinor Peck. I did not tell Col. 
 Hanks what Col. Phil Thompson had told me. It is 
 not necessary for me to repeat in this chapter the 
 history of the Hanks family. Josiah Hanks, the 
 grandfather of Nancy Hanks, married Anne Lee, a 
 cousin of the grandfather of Robert E. Lee. Josiah, 
 William and Joseph all lived in Hardin and Wash- 
 ington Counties. 
 
 No woman in Kentucky, after the marriage of 
 Nancy Hanks to Thomas Lincoln, had more to do 
 with her than Elinor Peck, her nearest neighbor, a 
 most remarkable woman. She raised a large family, 
 died at eighty-four years of age and could ride horse- 
 back when she was eighty years old. 
 
 Her son, Henry Peck, married Thomas Melton's 
 daughter, the man to whom Thomas Lincoln sold 
 his Mill Creek farm. There was a slight friction be- 
 tween Nancy Hanks and Bersheba Lincoln, the 
 grandmother, and Mary and Nancy Lincoln, sisters 
 of Thomas. About what this difference was, it is 
 not necessary to discuss in this article; Nancy Hanks, 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 1 3 
 
 however, visited her mother'in4aw and both of her 
 sisters^n-law. Nancy Lincoln was Thomas's fav 
 orite sister. 
 
 The men most intimately associated with Thomas 
 Lincoln were Samuel Haycraft, Sr., Samuel Hay 
 craft, Jr., John Smith, Dr. William Smith, Thomas 
 Melton, Isaac, Joseph and Jefferson La Follette. 
 (Joseph La Follette was the great grandfather of 
 Senator Robert M. La Follette, of Wisconsin.) 
 Samuel Haycraft, Sr., Samuel Haycraft, Jr., Jacob 
 Van Meter, Sr., Jacob Van Meter, Jr., Colonel 
 Cowley. Thomas Lincoln worked for these men at 
 various times, and before his marriage he, Thomas, 
 spent years at the home of Jacob Van Meter, Jr., 
 who was ten years older than he. 
 
 His employment in the militia was due to the fact 
 that General Caldwell was the intimate friend of his 
 father and cared for the widow of Captain Lincoln 
 and her children, after the death of the Captain. 
 
 Colonel Cowley was the head of the militia in 
 Hardin County for years. Samuel Haycraft, Sr., 
 Captain Thomas Helm, Jacob Van Meter, Sr., and 
 a man by the name of Vertrees, were the first settlers 
 of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, Samuel Haycraft, Sr., 
 was born on September 11th, 1752, in Virginia, and 
 died October 15th, 1823. He was Judge of the 
 Court of Quarter Sessions, which he organised on 
 April 18th, 1803. He was one of the organizers of 
 the County Court in 1792, and he was a Judge of 
 the First Circuit Court organized after 1800. He 
 was Judge of the Circuit Court when he was refused 
 his seat in the Legislature of Kentucky by Henry 
 Clay because he could not hold two offices at one 
 time. He organized the first distillery and the first 
 mill in Hardin County. He employed Ike Radley 
 
14 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 and John Pirtle as the first and second school 
 teachers in the county. He brought James Buchanan 
 from Lancaster, Pa., to Elizabethtown in 1813, 
 where he practised law with him until James Bucha- 
 nan returned to Pennsylvania. He was the intimate 
 friend of General Duff Greene of the firm of Greene 
 and Helm, merchants. We will speak of General 
 Duff Greene later in this article. 
 
 Samuel Haycraft, Jr., his son, was a deputy and 
 Clerk of the Hardin County and Circuit Court 
 from October, 1809, until 1850. He was a Senator 
 for four years, and was the head of the Baptist 
 Church in Hardin County after the death of Jacob 
 Van Meter, Sr. 
 
 John Smith, Surveyor, resided for a time about 
 five miles from Elizabethtown between Mill Creek 
 and what is now known as the Dixie Highway. He 
 was an older brother of Dr. William Smith. Dr. 
 William Smith lived on Mill Creek about two miles 
 from the Thomas Lincoln farm. Thomas Melton 
 lived in the same neighborhood when he bought the 
 Thomas Lincoln farm. The La Follettes lived in the 
 Severn's Valley within about two miles of Elizabeth' 
 town, Kentucky. Jacob Van Meter, Sr., lived and 
 died in Severn's Valley within two miles of Elizabeth- 
 town, Kentucky. Jacob Van Meter, after the death 
 of his father in 1798, took up his residence at the 
 forks of Otter Creek, where Vine Grove is now 
 located. William P. Nail and his family lived in this 
 neighborhood also. 
 
 Colonel John Cowley owned a large tract of land 
 where the old Lincoln Cemetery is now located and 
 adjoining the farm of Samuel Haycraft and Bersheba 
 Lincoln. 
 
 In the history of the early events, the reader will 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 1 5 
 
 be able to determine by looking at the map, the 
 respective locations of these important witnesses and 
 their families and their proximity to the Lincoln 
 families, both Bersheba and Thomas. They will then 
 appreciate to what extent they had opportunity to 
 know of them and their affairs. 
 
 The nearest neighbors to Thomas Lincoln were 
 John and Elinor Peck, Thomas Williams and his son 
 John Williams, Billy Smith, his father, James, John 
 Moore and John Smith, John, the younger, was asso- 
 ciated with Thomas Lincoln frequently in various 
 deals, and they were close friends. John was an older 
 brother of Billy Smith and in late years moved to 
 Arkansas, and then to St. Louis and there died. He 
 was a son of James, who lived in that community to 
 be about eightyfour years of age. James was born 
 in 1761, whether in Virginia or Pennsylvania is not 
 certainly known. He was a son of Colonel John 
 Smith, born in 1735 in Franklin or Westmoreland 
 County, Pennsylvania. 
 
 John was under Washington and with Bullitt at 
 the battle of Fort Du Quesne, where Braddock fell 
 in a disastrous fight with the Indians, when George 
 Washington took charge after Braddock's death. 
 The Swank brothers, Thomas and John McMahan, 
 were also closely associated with John Smith and 
 originally came from the same section in Pennsyl- 
 vania. This will account for just why they were so 
 closely allied with the movements of the Lincolns. 
 
 Their church affiliations were all at the old Mill 
 Creek Baptist Church, located within a half mile of 
 where Bersheba Lincoln lived, and this church was 
 approximately ten miles from the Boone colony in 
 the northern part of Hardin County. 
 
 The travel in these days was from and to Bullitts 
 
16 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 Lick, the great salt manufacturing place about ten 
 miles east. This section is where the greatest num- 
 ber of conflicts with the Indian tribes took place. 
 
 John Smith was two years older than James, and 
 at one time in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, 
 he was a Justice of the Peace, while James was 
 charged by Commander Hamilton with being a vil- 
 lain and with the crime of leading a mob, defying 
 constituted authority of the King of England. John 
 was charged with failure to enforce the law. 
 
 Old John, their father, was born in Bristol, Eng- 
 land. James was captured by the Indians and kept 
 in captivity for seven years, being released in the 
 sixties. He witnessed the burning at the stake of 
 the white soldiers captured by the French and 
 Indians at Fort Du Quesne. James was a member of 
 the Pennsylvania Convention of 1776, called to form 
 a Constitution for Pennsylvania. James Smith of 
 York, who had signed the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence, is not to be confused with him, though he was 
 also a member of the Pennsylvania Convention. 
 
 James was in 1796-1800 a member for two terms 
 of the Legislature of Kentucky, elected from Bour- 
 bon County, and John was a member for two terms 
 from Franklin County. James died in 1812 in 
 Washington County and John died in about 1842 in 
 Woodford County, near Frankfort, Kentucky. Both 
 of them, however, were the ring leaders with the 
 Boones in founding the settlement of Hardin County. 
 
 History tells the story of the two Smith families. 
 James of York had a brother named Absalom, who 
 settled in and about Salem, then Masons Cove, Vir- 
 ginia, where he had a son named John, who in turn 
 had a son named John, who had a son named 
 

 
 
 
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 Marion; John and Marion, his son, settled in this 
 section of Hardin County. He, Marion, married the 
 writer's mother, Mary E. in 1856. She was a 
 daughter of Silas, he, a son of William, (he a son of 
 James and he a son of John. So that the families 
 starting in Pennsylvania, in 1 770, met again in Hap 
 din County) . Absalom the first, however, was born 
 in Ireland, and the other branch as we shall see, came 
 from Bristol, England. And within this family the 
 history of the Lincolns has been a household mat' 
 ter of information. They were not a second family. 
 It was a good name, and in the earlier days, it was 
 a good name in Germany when it came with the in' 
 flux of the Von Metres, of Holland, and the good 
 Germans who fled from persecution to England. 
 
 It was from Hingham, ten miles of Norwich, a 
 noted old town in England, that Samuel Lincoln 
 migrated with many of its citizens to Hingham, 
 Massachusetts, to escape religious prescriptions then 
 prevailing in England; and there in this Bay State 
 Colony they established themselves with little or 
 no plan of community government except that pre 
 vided by the plan of the old Bible. It was essentially 
 a family of church dissenters that hated the yoke of 
 Christian domination in their affairs. 
 
 He had four sons and one daughter, whose off' 
 spring were important and more or less conspicuous 
 in the Revolutionary War. Levi Lincoln, grandson, 
 was a follower of Jefferson, and his Attorney Gen' 
 eral. His son Levi became a Governor of Massa' 
 chusetts, and the elder Levi's other son, Enoch, be 
 came a Governor of the adjoining state of Maine 
 about the time Andrew Jackson was a national fig' 
 ure. Mordecai was an industrialist and paid little or 
 no attention to politics. He had a son, Mordecai, 
 
18 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 who had the same inclinations and migrated at an 
 early date to Berkes County, Pennsylvania, where he 
 became prominent as a miller and iron master. He 
 came direct from New Jersey with Jacob Van Meter, 
 who migrated to Hardin County in 1779, as a settler 
 at Elisabethtown. In Berkes County, Pennsylvania, 
 there lived also the Boones, Swanks, McMahans and 
 Grays. There, also these men came to know James 
 and John Smith, brothers who had already been 
 West, John as a surveyor with Washington, and 
 James interpreter and treaty maker with the Indians. 
 He had been for many years in captivity (since 
 1755). 
 
 John and James were interested in Western Vir' 
 ginia and Kentucky. John had been with Colonel 
 Floyd and also with the Boones on expeditions for 
 the Virginia government in surveying and in mat- 
 ing treaties with the Indians in Kentucky. His dc 
 position having been taken many times to determine 
 the lines of tracts of land in Kentucky. He was also 
 in command of a thousand men when the Choctaws 
 were troublesome in and around the inflow of the 
 Big Sandy near where Ohio, West Virginia and 
 Kentucky now border on the Ohio River, less than 
 one hundred miles from the center of Indian head' 
 quarters at Chillicothe, Ohio. He was a survivor 
 of the battle of the Lower Licks in August, 1782, 
 surveyor of Jefferson and Hardin Counties in 1774. 
 
 This influence brought forth a large number of 
 settlers from Pennsylvania and Rockingham County, 
 Virginia, among them, Thomas and Abraham Lin" 
 coin, grandsons of Mordecai in Berkes County and 
 sons of old John Lincoln, as he was known in and 
 around what is now Harrisonburg, Virginia. In 
 this section, also lived the Hanks family, who trav 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 19 
 
 eled across the Cumberland mountains to Kentucky, 
 some of them stopping in Mercer County, some in 
 Fayette, some in Bourbon, and others in Nelson. 
 But soon the western fever kept them moving and 
 the Lincolns, Smiths, Grays, McMahans, Swanks, 
 Moores, Maffits, Pecks, Hynes, Woodrings, Nop 
 rises, Dittos, Cruses, Hustons, La Follettes, Irwins, 
 Hobbs, Davises, Cowleys, Owens, Van Meters, 
 Thomases, Watts, Crists, Crutchers, Rays, Tar 
 pleys, Berrys, Howards, Kings, Rawlings, Wool- 
 folks, Craycrofts, Flahertys, Nails, Vertrees, Howes 
 and numerous others migrated to Hardin County. 
 Captain Abraham Lincoln scattered his purchases 
 of land, and Thomas settled in Lexington, and there 
 became prominent. He purchased real estate in 
 Bourbon and Fayette Counties, but finally he moved 
 into Tennessee. 
 
 These settlers who travelled across the mountains 
 from 1779 to 1783, originated principally in Vir- 
 ginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and North Carolina. 
 They located in central and middle west Kentucky. 
 They undoubtedly were the most remarkable race 
 of emigrants who had ever before or since made a 
 single trek in America. 
 
 Before 1900, their descendants, born in Kentucky, 
 had produced sixty-nine native Kentucky Ministers, 
 Ambassadors and Consuls to foreign countries; twen- 
 ty-two Federal, and eighteen Confederate Generals 
 in the war of the Rebellion. 
 
 There were also eight Speakers of the Congress, 
 nine members of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States, seventy-one Governors of other States, two 
 Presidents of the Senate and three Presidents of the 
 United States and the Confederacy. 
 
 If the last thirty years were included, it would be 
 
20 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 easy to locate a greater number of Governors of 
 other states whose fathers were born in Kentucky. 
 Governors of Kentucky have not been included in 
 these lists. 
 
 Those who find ground and feel it opportune to 
 regard the lowly birth from which Lincoln sprang, 
 with abounding ignorance, should feel it is truly un- 
 fortunate that the nation was not afflicted at that 
 time with more of the same misfortunes — culture 
 rather than education. 
 
 The President thought he should be born in a 
 very lowly cabin, and he was anxious to get his 
 birth place out from the Mill Creek country. Thus, 
 if we observe closely, we find his statement has in' 
 fluenced all of his biographers to accept his opinion 
 without investigation, and the result has been that 
 in the light of the facts their statements as well as 
 his are impossible. 
 
 Carl Sandburg falls into the error, for he says in 
 Volume One, Page Fifteen of his work: — 
 
 "In May and the blossom time of the year, 1808, 
 Tom and Nancy with little Sarah moved out from 
 Elisabethtown to the farm of George Brownfield, 
 where Thomas did carpenter's work and helped 
 farm. The same year (1808) saw the Lincolns re 
 moved to a place on the Big South Fork of Nolin's 
 Creek, about two and a half miles from Hodgen- 
 ville. They were trying to farm a little piece of 
 ground and make a home. ,, 
 
 This tremendous effort to make a ' home when 
 Thomas already had a home on Mill Creek twenty 
 miles from this spot and two hundred and thirty 
 acres of fine land, excites our pity. It is too bad 
 Thomas was endowed with such a weak mind. Here, 
 we have him on the Nolin farm before he purchased 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 21 
 
 it, and on BrownfielcTs farm working for wages as 
 a hired hand while his Mill Creek farm was thrown 
 into the discard. But he must be moved somehow 
 onto the Nolin Creek farm in order to prepare for 
 the great event, so that Dennis Hanks could run 
 over from a nearby house, in which he did not live, 
 and help name the "pulpy baby." 
 
 This would be news to old George Brownfield, as 
 it was news to his grandsons when informed that 
 his forebear must have known all about Abra- 
 ham's birth on the 12th of February, 1809. The 
 fact that he had lived on Brownfield's farm was 
 news to them. George Redmond, near by, whose 
 father and grandfather should have known these 
 facts never heard of them. The writer had also at 
 this time fortified himself, through Mr. Chris M. 
 Fraise, Clerk of the Hardin Circuit Court, with the 
 fact that Thomas Lincoln was selected on the Jury 
 Panel in 1808 as a Mill Creek citizen. Neither Hol- 
 land nor Miss Tarbell had seen any of these folks 
 about Thomas living on Brownfield's farm. The 
 writer was the first one to interrogate them, and 
 probably the last. 
 
 The reader must keep in mind that the history of 
 the United States would always yield much that is 
 untrue to a very thorough search, as in this case. 
 
 The reader will also keep in mind the fact, in re- 
 viewing Lincoln's position, that he was first a poli- 
 tician, without a party, and he had prospected very 
 carefully his success. His mistake, as we view it, 
 was that he thought he must cultivate the aristoc- 
 ratic element of his world. This explains why he 
 flouted Mary Todd at first and finally married her 
 against his personal wish. It will also explain his 
 statement that he sprung from a second-class family; 
 
22 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 his indirect reflection on his father and the Lincoln 
 family, was due to the fact that he wanted the 
 world to understand that he rose from a lower 
 human level by virtue of his great ability. 
 
 However, as a politician, he did not lose sight of 
 the fact that he must be a commoner's man to the 
 common people, and the log cabin birth and the very 
 humble origin were the outcome of this state of 
 mind. No one has been able to find a statement 
 *nade by Tom Lincoln in support of the President's 
 f og cabin origin. 
 
 The President's doubtful statement about his 
 birth is explained fully when it is realized that he 
 wanted to protect his mother's memory, from, what 
 he thought to be a scandal in the family closet, by 
 reason of her illegitimacy, and the misconduct of his 
 aunts. The Mill Creek man, who had traveled with 
 the Lincolns and the Hanks, knew all of these cir' 
 cumstances, and the Nolin neighbors knew nothing 
 of the history of either family. As a politician, he 
 did not wish these facts to get into the campaign of 
 1860. 
 
 From any point of view, it must be considered 
 Mr. Lincoln's weakness. Both his family relations 
 and his back-up on his birth, and misstatement about 
 it, resulted in loss of popular respect in Hardin 
 county, for he received only six votes in this county 
 in 1860, and eightytwo in 1864, though the Union 
 candidates for other offices, state and county, re' 
 ceived a very large vote, Governor Bramlette being 
 elected Governor of Kentucky, later. 
 
 The men who are quoted in this book were neigh" 
 bors of the Lincolns and might be divided into two 
 classes: those who severely criticised him on the 
 basis of his public acts and their antagonism to him, 
 

 ^3 
 
 & *«£$ 
 
 i\ 
 
 mkA mm 
 
24 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 the others who were friendly to him, personally, and 
 on account of his Union views. These criticisms 
 must be read in this light. If we were to subject 
 them to change, then the reader would lose the at' 
 mosphere of these surroundings, and their value, as 
 they relate to the making of Lincoln, would be lost. 
 
 We cannot agree with many of these witnesses, 
 but when their narrowed views of national affairs 
 and of life are taken into consideration, we can readi- 
 ly make allowance for their distorted view. And 
 the book is not aimed to be a defense or an attack on 
 Lincoln. It should present certain facts that permit 
 the reader to judge Lincoln's character and his pub' 
 lie acts. The work would lose its value if we under' 
 took to please any school of Lincoln's admirers. 
 
 Colonels James and John Smith, with the Floyd 
 Brothers, and Colonel Bullitt, founded the city of 
 Louisville, Kentucky. Its founding has been cred' 
 ited to Colonel Bullitt, but this is due to the fact 
 that the Colonel was prolific in claiming, and was 
 not inclined to divide his pioneer honors with his 
 more modest associates. The writer's search in' 
 dicates that many of the largest surveys in Kentucky 
 were under the supervision of the other men, whose 
 backers furnished the financing. Colonel Bullitt 
 was a very excellent promoter. The Sadowsky 
 brothers, Wolf and Myers were Jews, under the 
 control of James Smith, particularly. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 CAPTAIN ABRAHAM LINCOLN OF THE 
 VIRGINIA MILITIA 
 
 FT appears that a majority of the historians, who 
 
 have written of Abraham Lincoln, found it neces- 
 sary to slander his immediate family in order to prop' 
 erly appraise his extraordinary virtues. This is 
 a senseless and offensive verdict and has not one 
 single fact to sustain it. 
 
 Captain Abraham Lincoln had, approximately, 
 $18,000 in cash when he came to Kentucky from 
 Virginia, according to Colonel Cowley, and yet he 
 lived and moved as one of a thousand pioneers. He 
 had been under the orders of Governor Patrick Hen' 
 ry, who directed the Virginia militia coordinating 
 at the time with the army of General Washington. 
 
 It is not surprising, therefore, that a record of 
 Captain Lincoln's achievements have not been found 
 in the war department, but that does not indicate he 
 was in any sense a coward and ran away from the 
 defense of his country. 
 
 It is approximately 175 miles from the military 
 base in Virginia to York, Pa., a position which was 
 sustained against the British and their allies, the In' 
 dians. In other words, his military requirements 
 moved him from about Lexington, Virginia, to York, 
 Pennsylvania, which was the western frontier of 
 Washington's army. 
 
 25 
 
26 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 The center of all migratory movements west of 
 Lexington, Kentucky, was in and around Bullitt's 
 Lick, where a thousand men were employed in mak" 
 ing salt, the largest industry, west of the Allc 
 ghanies. All roads in the Hardin County and Nel' 
 son sections led to these works. 
 
 It is easy to locate the nativity of the population 
 moving into this section by the names of the creeks. 
 Otter Creek and Mill Creek, for instance, are the 
 names of creeks between Harrisonburg, Virginia, 
 and Roanoke, Virginia. 
 
 I have had occasion before to go into the pedi- 
 grees of many of the families located in this section, 
 and in answer to their traducers I may say that they 
 trace back to most courageous and refined people in 
 every instance. 
 
 It is true they had no schools, except the schools 
 provided by the Catholic persuasion. They did 
 have subscription schools, sometimes carried on at 
 the homes of the more opulent pioneers. 
 
 The Lincoln name was, ancestorially speaking, a 
 good German name. It was traceable to Germany, 
 even though the name, as now pronounced and 
 spelled, was found in England. Lincoln was a 
 descendant of King Charlemagne, King of the 
 Franks, a German tribe of the Rhine, in 900. (Miss 
 Kimball — "Genealogy of Lincoln"). 
 
 The pioneers of this section had no available sea" 
 port through which they could import luxuries that 
 could be brought from England and Germany by 
 New England settlers. They had very few mills 
 at this time, and consequently, very little sawed 
 lumber; they had very few other conveniences, such 
 as were available in later days; therefore, we find, 
 as a rule, a uniform service in their household, a 
 
\ 
 
 Pen sketch of Bersheba Lincoln from an old daguerreotype, 
 not definitely identified 
 
28 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 uniform type of residence, not unlike the pioneers 
 of later days in the west. The churches were built 
 of logs, with very few windows, because glass was 
 not available at this time. We cannot condemn the 
 Lincolns because they had not mansions in which 
 to live. 
 
 The Mill Creek house, located on the Thomas 
 Lincoln farm, which he purchased in the Fall of 
 1802, was built by himself with the assistance of his 
 neighbors in 1804 (deed in 1803). It was a two- 
 room, two story log house, with a porch in the cen- 
 ter. It stood there for more than forty years, and 
 when rebuilt, the stairway, which was considered a 
 very fine one, was transplanted to its successor on 
 the same spot. 
 
 Tom Lincoln's prosperity cannot be judged by 
 either the Knob Creek or Nolin one-room house. 
 The Nolin place was never anything but his tempor- 
 ary residence, occupied while he farmed the land on 
 which it was located. This was also the smallest 
 body of land that he had and it must be remem- 
 bered that at the same time, he owned a lot in Elisa- 
 bethtown. (The Bersheba Lincoln house was built 
 in 1803 by Tom Lincoln and William Brumfield.) 
 
 The house built on his Mill Creek farm was the 
 kind of a house the very thrifty built. In a few 
 cases, they built brick houses, like the old residence 
 of Billy Smith on Mill Creek, but they were quite 
 rare and, as a rule, came only after shipping was safe 
 and transportation routes more definite. 
 
 There is absolutely no excuse for denunciation of 
 the "hog wallow 1 ' residences and "rat houses," 
 phrases indulged in by imaginative historians and 
 many public critics of the Lincolns, especially from 
 the South. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 29 
 
 I am a southerner, born of original Virginia fam- 
 ilies, which will stand the test of a search, accord- 
 ing to southern aristocratic standards, but I know 
 too well, as Mr. Jefferson said in his day, the tenden- 
 cy of a class to decry the common man, who was 
 without property or slaves, regardless of his culture, 
 was all too common; placing him in a social class 
 with the negro, under the name of "white trash," a 
 term applied often by the slaves. From this basic 
 source of criticism is born the accusation against 
 Thomas Lincoln, as a lowly nondescript without 
 education or thrift. It is but just to say that facts 
 which are plentiful disprove this statement. 
 
 If I may be excused this digression, I will illustrate 
 the facts further, by my own case. 
 
 My father was born in 1835, my mother in 1842, 
 and I was born as late as 1869 in exactly just such 
 a log home as I have described and within seven 
 miles of the Lincoln location; yet on that date, I am 
 safe in saying that my grandfather on my paternal 
 side, was the largest land owner in that section and 
 had about $10,000 cash on hand. My maternal 
 grandfather had more than this amount of money 
 in cash, yet neither of them thought well of destroy- 
 ing the initiativeness of their sons by setting them 
 up in business with ready-made fine houses or prov- 
 iding them with a gift of luxuries obtainable in that 
 day. They regarded this as ruining their offspring. 
 They undertook to teach their children to work, 
 and inculcated into them the discipline of saving. I 
 mention this personal fact to show that the efforts 
 of the father and mother in that day were to train 
 their children to become self-reliant and thrifty. 
 They feared to produce the ne'er-do-wells of which 
 there were many in the South in that day, who 
 
30 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 boasted that their sons "never did a day's work in 
 their lives." 
 
 I have but lately read an author's "Life of Lin' 
 coin," who makes this the basis of his complaint. 
 Upon that issue the worst detractors of Lincoln in 
 this section of country would take issue with him. 
 One of the richest men in the United States, one of 
 the greatest Industrialists, and one of the greatest 
 bankers in the world was born in a log house in 
 Hardin County, without servants, or rugs or car- 
 pets. This man's early training to save made him 
 a master of himself and consequently enabled him 
 to command subject matters and men at an early day 
 in his life. 
 
 At the time of the birth of the President, there 
 were no homes of squalor, there was no poverty, no 
 immorality, or abuse of those amenities which square 
 with virtue and its standards, the English speaking 
 world over. The people were not rich, but they 
 lived very plainly, they worked very hard, they wove 
 and spun all the wares they used; they killed wild 
 game and raised pork and mutton, very much in the 
 manner of today. They cooked in open fireplaces 
 and used pots and baking utensils, because they had 
 no stoves. 
 
 The facts are so universally known in this section 
 that they are in themselves an answer to this indict- 
 ment against Thomas Lincoln. If there is one fact 
 the writer is certain of, it is that Thomas Lincoln 
 was never at any time called a poor man in Hardin 
 County, and so far as any of his associates ever 
 knew, he was never actually in need of money and 
 without cash. 
 
 When Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809 there 
 were some thousand slaves owned in Hardin County; 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 3 1 
 
 these slaves were valued at approximately one mil- 
 lion dollars; they represented that amount of money 
 in market cash. Land values and personal property in 
 this county may be rated proportionately and ac- 
 cordingly. When Thomas Lincoln left Hardin 
 County, in 1816, the value of slaves had increased 
 about one-third. No one opposed slavery; no one 
 talked about it, in spite of the fact that New England 
 Societies were attempting to induce negroes to run 
 away from their owners. I mean to say that slavery 
 was a settled institution and no one in this imme- 
 diate section thought seriously enough about it to 
 debate it as an issue. It only became an issue after 
 the Lincoln-Douglas debates in Illinois. 
 
 According to the associates of Thomas Lincoln, 
 he was an average citizen; he had horses, cattle, hogs, 
 and three farms, any one of which at the then valua- 
 tion would have entitled him to as much as a five 
 hundred dollar credit at the National City Bank of 
 New York. He paid his bills, if he incurred them. 
 He was a good mechanic and he roved about where 
 his services were in demand, and he received good 
 pay in that day for such services. He was a mill- 
 wright, a carpenter, a very handy man with the 
 shovel and pick. He was more than this: he was 
 regarded as a smooth politician. 
 
 When he held office, he was trusted by his sup- 
 eriors; he bought county warrants at different times 
 at a discount. He owned a house in Elisabethtown 
 when he owned the farms; he had the confidence of 
 Sam Haycraft, Judge of the Circuit Court, and the 
 confidence of his son, Sam, Jr., who was Clerk for 
 fifty years of the District and County Courts. This 
 period of office holding covered most of Tom Lin- 
 coln's residence in the county. When public roads 
 
32 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 were to be laid out, and a franchise granted by the 
 court, Thomas Lincoln was the man who had enough 
 influence to secure confirmation of the petitions, 
 consequently you will find his name among the first 
 on the petitions for the opening of at least four 
 roads in that county. If a supervisor was needed to 
 watch the survey of the road and the building of it, 
 either Thomas was that supervisor or some of his 
 friends. He was relied upon by the court as a man 
 of sound judgment, and General Caldwell, the head 
 of the militia in that section, relied upon him as a 
 patroller to enforce the law against negro baiting. 
 He served on Grand and Petit juries; he was deputy 
 jailor and appraised estates, fixing their market value. 
 
 If the writer had not heard, firsthand, from per' 
 
 sons who knew him, just what manner of man he 
 
 was, the records of the Hardin County Clerk's Office 
 
 would be ample to show that he was not a 
 
 dummy. 
 
 Generally speaking, he was regarded as a strong 
 Democrat, a partisan of Jefferson. He took "likker" 
 very often as the average man did in that day and 
 time, but, as described by one who knew him well, 
 "never got down.' "He was about five feet ten 
 inches, weighed 180 pounds, with broad shoulders 
 and strong as a bull." "He was accommodating and 
 pleasant, ready to do one a favor and had the reputa- 
 tion of meeting his promises." "He could read and 
 write his name and make estimates on buildings." 
 
 Before approaching the actual questionnaires 
 which will follow this article, a brief resume of the 
 statement of Owen Cowley will be given, inasmuch 
 as this is the personal estimate of a man universally 
 regarded in the county of Hardin as very able and 
 very trustworthy. 
 
Nancy Lincoln, from a sketch made from an old tin type, 
 not definitely identified. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 3 3 
 
 He was about fifteen years younger than the 
 President and the oldest son of Colonel Cowley and 
 grandson of William Owens, the intimate associate 
 of Captain Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Lincoln. 
 His grandfather and mother had described Captain 
 Abraham Lincoln to him as a man spare and 
 rugged, about six feet and unafraid. The Cap' 
 tain had some education, enough to make out reports 
 to superior officers. He had a sense of humor, but 
 was usually serious'minded. The money he had 
 saved while in the militia and the proceeds from the 
 sale of his land in Virginia gave him a capital of 
 about $18,000. He bought land in Kentucky and 
 took up land under the Virginian laws. He owned 
 land in about six counties, Hardin, Nelson and Jef' 
 ferson and what is now Grayson; and in Mercer and 
 Kenton. 
 
 His wife, Bersheba, was a Virginia woman. He 
 knew her very well and her description of her hus' 
 band was about as Owens had appraised him. She 
 was very active and alert at sixty-five years or more 
 when he first remembers her. She got very little of 
 what was coming to her by right; but she did well 
 in raising her children, and was a managing, wise 
 woman. 
 
 She did not have a great deal of "book learning," 
 but she was shrewd, used good language in her con' 
 versation; she was friendly but quite stern and took 
 an active part in all the neighborhood conclaves and 
 meetings. She was an Episcopalian and her children 
 were: Mordecai, Josiah, Mary, Thomas and Nancy, 
 in the order named. Bersheba Lincoln was eighty 
 five or ninety when she died in 1833. Owen Cowley 
 was at the funeral; she lived the last forty years on 
 Mill Creek, most of the time with her daughter, 
 
34 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 Nancy Lincoln Brumfield, Bill BrumfielcTs wife. 
 They lived in a prominent meeting place on Mill 
 Creek for all public purposes. They lived in a large 
 house, and there was a blacksmith shop and a store 
 very close to the house. The store and the house had 
 been there "ever since I can recollect. I would be 
 safe in saying before 1810." 
 
 Thomas Lincoln lived with his mother, when not 
 at work, until he married. He then moved to his 
 farm about four miles up Mill Creek, which he had 
 owned for several years. Bersheba Lincoln or Nan' 
 cy were not what you would call poor. They al' 
 ways had plenty on which to live. Neighbors in 
 this section loaned each other various kinds of food 
 products and, of course, they paid each other back. 
 "When I was a boy, I was often in her house on 
 these errands and I have heard her talk a number 
 of times about old times in Virginia, about the Re 
 volutionary War, about the Indians and about the 
 Captain, her husband." 
 
 Captain Lincoln was a friend of Squire and Daniel 
 Boone; they had been friends in Berkes County, 
 Pennsylvania, and Virginia where they lived. Squire 
 Boone, she said, was an educated man, a wise man, 
 and advised the settlers. Young Squire was a sur' 
 veyor and surveyed a great deal of the north section 
 of Hardin County; he was the head of a colony on 
 the Ohio River, about five miles below West Point 
 at what is now called Rock Haven, and prior to this, 
 in Shelby and Jefferson Counties. 
 
 William Owens had told Cowley that folks said 
 none of Captain Lincoln's sons had the ability of the 
 Captain. The Captain was a partisan of Thomas 
 Jefferson, though he was a great admirer of Gover" 
 nor Patrick Henry; he was also a friend and asso' 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 35 
 
 date of Samuel Haycraft, Sr. He said he was a 
 neighbor to Bersheba Lincoln for at least ten years. 
 He knew Nancy Lincoln and thought she was the 
 best-looking of the women. Mary Lincoln married 
 a man by the name of Grume, who lived in the 
 western part of Hardin County. He had seen her 
 several times, but did not know much about her. 
 His father told him Tom Lincoln and Nancy Hanks 
 left for Indiana in about 1817. His father was near- 
 ly grown at this time and Abe was a very large boy. 
 They left his mother's house and went straight west 
 in a two-horse wagon. 
 
 Samuel Haycraft, Sr., owned the farm adjoining 
 that where Bersheba lived and he, at various times, 
 saw the daughter of Jacob Van Meter, later Mrs. 
 Haycraft, at the farm and also at Mill Creek Church. 
 Mrs. Haycraft was a great Baptist, and was quite 
 a good friend to Bersheba Lincoln. Samuel Hay- 
 craft, Jr., inherited this farm from his father; his 
 daughter, Maria, married Stephen McMurtry. She 
 inherited the place from her father. Stephen Mc- 
 Murtry and his wife lived on it at the time of this 
 interview in 1887. They were very good friends 
 of Nancy Lincoln Brumfield. He thought Nancy 
 Lincoln died in about 1875, although her headstone 
 indicated that she died in 1845. This was a mistake 
 in marking the tombstone. 
 
 His mother was a daughter of William Owens, 
 consequently his name, "Owen Cowley. 1 ' 
 
 This resume of the principal witness is given, in 
 the early part of this article for the purpose of meet- 
 ing the issue which is presented by these interviews 
 with representatives of various families, who lived 
 in this community from the day that Captain Lin- 
 coln came to Hardin County up to the Civil War. 
 
36 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 The writer realises that in many respects the facts 
 developed from their conversations are entirely in 
 consonance with established historical facts, but in 
 the main, these conversations, producing the best 
 evidence about the Lincolns, are in direct conflict 
 with statements made by imaginative historians re 
 garding the early history of Lincoln. 
 
 Up to about 1885 it would have been no trouble 
 for these biographers of Lincoln to go into this sec 
 tion and obtain complete and exact information 
 about the Lincoln family, such as might have been 
 obtained about any ordinary family in any neighbor- 
 hood in Kentucky.* 
 
 It is a serious indictment against the idolators of 
 President Lincoln that they have so misrepresented 
 and fabricated the facts in respect of his early life 
 in Hardin County, and in respect of the life of 
 Thomas Lincoln and his immediate forebears and 
 relatives. 
 
 *It may be well at this point in our narrative to say the Sadowsky 
 Bros, and James Smith were operating in the land business around 
 Beech Fork in Washington County, Kentucky, and there took the 
 Lincolns, Crumes, Berrys, Brumfields and other migrating families, 
 and it was there Mary Lincoln found her husband Ralph Crume, 
 and also Nancy Lincoln Brumfield found her husband William 
 Brumfield. 
 
 Likewise the Sadowsky Bros, and John Smith were surveying 
 in Jefferson and Hardin County, and their land agent Myers was 
 doing business in the Mill Creek Country. We thus find a good 
 many explanations of family connections by keeping this trend of 
 population in mind. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLN FAMILY 
 
 ]\/jR. COWLEY, it is said by President Lincoln 
 that his father left Kentucky because of slavery 
 and principally on account of land titles. What do 
 you know about it?" 
 
 "There is no truth in it. President Lincoln was 
 a politician when he said this, and he wanted to give 
 himself some background out in Illinois. That state- 
 ment was made for national consumption, for the 
 Abolitionist to hear in New England. Tom Lincoln 
 was a good negro catcher and he worked well at the 
 job. He, himself, had not enough money to buy 
 many negroes, and Tom was a wise fellow; he knew 
 it was better to put his money in land at the price. 
 Josiah went over into Indiana, old Billy Owens said, 
 for the express purpose of getting a lot of rich bot- 
 torn land and working it with slave labor. I do not 
 know how many negroes Josiah had, but Squire 
 Boone had plenty of them. Hananiah Lincoln was 
 here a while and he put the cheap land bug in Tom's 
 ear; then, as I have said to you, Nancy Hanks had 
 some encumbrances that did not set well with all of 
 the people around in this section, and she wanted to 
 get away, and she "ruled the roost 11 in Tom's house- 
 hold, from all I heard. 11 
 
 "The Lincolns were all pro-slavers; Abraham was 
 too young to know anything about it and when he 
 
 37 
 
38 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 grew to manhood, out in the West, I suppose he 
 caught the Abolitionist's fever, but he did not catch 
 it until after he quit Congress; he did not try to do 
 much against slavery in Congress, at least we never 
 heard about it here." 
 
 "Did the people discuss slavery at this time in this 
 section? I mean, did they debate the question much 
 before the Civil War?" 
 
 "They discussed slavery, yes, but not in a neg- 
 ative way; there was no one opposed to it here, for 
 there was no abuse of the negro in this section. The 
 owners handled them like pet lambs; they were too 
 valuable to neglect, and such a thing as an Overseer 
 in this section was unknown. There were no de- 
 bates in the churches about it. When Lincoln ran 
 for President in 1860, he got less than ten votes in 
 Hardin County, which indicates that the people 
 figured out his speeches made in the Douglas debates 
 literally. They accepted him as an eventual Aboli- 
 tionist. Notwithstanding the armies were here in 
 this county in 1864 to guarantee the free sort of a 
 vote, he got less than ninety votes against McClel- 
 Ian. That simply meant that there never was any 
 anti-slavery sentiment here in this county." 
 
 "The New Englanders used to send papers down 
 here, and these papers excited the negroes, and some 
 of them often tried to get away." 
 
 "Are you related to Mary Owen, one of Lincoln's 
 sweethearts?" 
 
 "Yes, I am some relation. My mother was Wil- 
 liam Owen's sister, old William's daughter, and 
 Mary's father was a brother to my mother. Her 
 father lived down in the Falls of Rough Country, 
 maybe it would be in Green County now, and he 
 seldom came up here. We heard that Mary "sacked" 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 39 
 
 Abe (a term used in that day for rejecting a suitor), 
 but I do not know anything about it. I don't think 
 anyone could blame her. Women liked men who 
 were good-looking and who knew how to use he 
 neyed words. I guess Abe was not much on beauty 
 and probably he was a little awkward on sparking 
 manoeuvres." 
 
 "How old are you, Mr. Cowley?" 
 
 "I do not know exactly. I guess I was born 
 around 1820. I have no family Bible. My mother 
 died when I was a young man and Father married 
 a Miss Hibbs the next time. Jim Cowley is the 
 second woman's son; he lives on the old place." 
 
 "Did you know Mrs. Elinor Peck?" 
 
 "You mean John Henry Peck's wife? Yes, I 
 knew her; she lived up the creek, close to the Tom 
 Lincoln place, where Aunt Kit lives now."" 
 
 "What kind of a woman was she?" 
 
 "Very smart, active woman; lived a long time, on" 
 ly died thirty years ago at Henry Peck's, her son." 
 
 "You knew Bersheba Lincoln?" 
 
 "Yes; she was very well known in this section to 
 everybody; she was a fine, orderly sort of woman. 
 She was the Captain's widow and, according to re" 
 ports, the Captain was the best of the whole "kit 
 and biling" of the Lincolns, though I am not saying 
 the Lincolns are not good honest folks, but if the 
 Captain had lived, with the start he had, he would 
 have been a big man and a rich man in this country. 
 He was about forty years old when he was killed." 
 
 "Mr. Cowley, I would like to ask you if you knew 
 anything about President Lincoln's promise to the 
 people of Kentucky to the effect that if they would 
 not secede, he would guarantee Kentucky's neutral" 
 ity during the war?" 
 
40 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 "I don't know at first hand, much about it. I 
 have no gift for reading and know little about let- 
 ters. Lincoln did make such a promise to the More' 
 head Commission, and that Commission reported to 
 the Legislature, and the Legislature met at Frankfort 
 and voted by a narrow majority against secession. 
 I heard Sam Haycraft tell about this, and at that 
 time he was our Senator. He was opposed to seces' 
 sion anyway, and he was a great Union man, though 
 he was not opposed to slavery. 
 
 "He, like many other men, did not regard the 
 slavery question as a big question; most politicians 
 did. But for this promise made to Kentucky by Lin' 
 coin, I am sure the state would have seceded." 
 
 "A politician is usually about the same every 
 where; he fixes his sails to suit the wind, and Abe 
 was a thorough-going politician. Lincoln and Doug' 
 las had been speech'making in Illinois and the result 
 of these speeches was to lose Lincoln whatever fol' 
 lowing he had in Kentucky. He had no political 
 friends after these debates in this section, but 
 rightly, I think the people believed that he was not 
 sincere in his slavery statement; but, as a matter of 
 caution, they got after him about it before he was 
 inaugurated for President. He told them he had no 
 intention of disturbing slavery except that the 
 people might be paid for their slaves and they could 
 be gradually freed." 
 
 "I then thought, and my guess proved a good one, 
 that the Abolitionists would force him to free the 
 slaves; it was bound to come, or he would be left 
 without a party. He would be forced to lead the 
 followers of Henry Clay, and join them with old 
 Garrison's Abolition crowd — that was Lincoln's na' 
 tional support. He would then have to do as they 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 41 
 
 said or he would be impeached as President, and it 
 finally came to about that. The fanatics in all wars 
 get the "murder fever," and killing is the sport they 
 look for in order to get what they want — they never 
 reason, they simply agitate. They are like the negro 
 preachers who exhort. They tell the poor devil 
 worshippers that they will burn — burn in hot water 
 if they' do not follow Christ. Well, if there is any 
 doubt about the hot water treatment, they reason 
 that it don't cost anything to follow Christ." 
 
 "Many men in this section talked about Lincoln, 
 after and before he was elected President the first 
 time, and I have no doubt they believed what he 
 said, but I did not. I made up my mind that the 
 "coons" had to be freed, and I suppose most politi' 
 cians would have surrendered under the circum' 
 stances, just as Lincoln did, that was the logic of 
 politics under such conditions. Law does not mean 
 anything to fanatical people; they have less respect 
 for the law than the criminal; — the Constitution 
 was a good thing to talk about in 1860, but a darn 
 poor thing to follow. Courts do not mean anything 
 to a determined fellow with a rifle in his hand — that 
 was the situation everywhere in 1860. The matter 
 that was finally of great importance to Lincoln was 
 his self-interest, and perhaps, he argued, would free- 
 ing the slaves save the Union; so that it was with 
 him where he would land in politics, and would it 
 be the patriotic thing to do, the Constitution be 
 damned! Nobody wanted to destroy the Union — 
 many men in the South thought when the English 
 took such a sudden interest in buying Confederate 
 bonds, that it was time to decide whether we wanted 
 to be ruled by old England or lose the negroes. Many 
 of our people decided the negroes were not worth 
 
42 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 the sacrifice; to be free from England and lose the 
 negroes was better than to subject ourselves to Eng' 
 lish influence and retain the negroes. This is what 
 broke the back of the Confederacy, English in' 
 fluence. The people had enough of England; she 
 had tried twice to destroy this country within the 
 memory of our oldest men, and the third time was 
 just what we could not afford to risk. It is possible 
 this feeling is what moved Mr. Lincoln for eman- 
 cipation. " 
 
 "Old Billy Smith, Sam Haycraft and our best men 
 thought about it that way. Mr. Haycraft concluded 
 with some degree of reason that Lincoln was a fore' 
 seeing statesman. " 
 
 "Mr. Cowley, I would like to ask you what you 
 know about the parentage of Nancy Hanks?" 
 
 "In view of the fact that what I say might be pub' 
 lished, I suggest that this is a very delicate matter. 
 What difference does it make when the subject is 
 President Lincoln, about her back folks? I do not 
 think it makes any difference — all the more credit 
 should young Abe have, if he succeeded without a 
 pedigree on his dam's side, as we say in the breed' 
 ing of horses. I never saw Nancy Hanks Lincoln 
 and my mother only saw her a few times, but I will 
 say on description of her, she was a likely looking 
 woman about 5 feet 8 inches — that's a guess. She 
 was rather inclined to be a "raw boned woman 11 and 
 had a smart face, but she was not at all good looking, 
 so far as we say when we are talking about beautiful 
 women. She moved about spiritedly and was re 
 garded by her neighbors as a comely sort of person. 
 The Hanks family were few in this county — there 
 was Joseph and Josiah, I believe, but in Virginia, 
 they were considered average folks. I have heard 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 43 
 
 from pretty good sources that Nancy Hanks 1 mother 
 was a very good looking woman and she liked the 
 men pretty well. Is there anything wrong about 
 that? She had a sweetheart back in Virginia some- 
 where when a young country girl; she was deceived 
 by him and the result was Nancy Hanks. That is 
 simple enough, and it is a thing that is liable to hap- 
 pen in the best of families; of course, all I know 
 about it is hearsay. I expect my father knew all 
 about it, as he knew most of the Hanks family that 
 moved from Virginia to Kentucky. I have heard a 
 great deal of talk about Nancy's mother and about 
 her sister, but I do not think well enough to repeat 
 it. Sounds too much like talking about somebody 
 that can't defend themselves." 
 
 "Anyway, on that point, I am for Nancy; she 
 was good enough to raise a President of the United 
 States and that is a lot more than about 999 women 
 of a thousand have been able to do, and I will bet if 
 Nancy was tried for that offense, she would get a 
 unanimous verdict from the jury, because all men 
 know about how this sort of thing happens. You 
 may know something about women — I don't, but 
 women as a rule are very "catty" — I guess that's the 
 word, about their own sex, but they will put up 
 with anything that a man does to the womanhood of 
 the country, and accept it without a word. The 
 facts have been so often discussed that I feel that 
 the talkers should be outlawed or suppressed. Nancy 
 had a good many friends up and down the creek 
 here, in spite of this well known fact, so her conduct 
 must have been impressive." 
 
 "Were the people in this section, as a rule, moral 
 or immoral at that time?" 
 
 "I would say that they were pretty straight-laced, 
 
44 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 pretty hard on any woman that made a mistake, and 
 generally speaking, they observed the old Virginia 
 code of morals, which was pretty high, I would say. 
 Their public social matters were conducted in the 
 church, and their private social matters at their 
 homes; they consisted of dances, quilting bees, spell' 
 ing matches and such like. Of course, when they 
 met together they talked, and generally discussed 
 neighborhood affairs.'" 
 
 "Now, you asked me about the church at Mill 
 Creek." 
 
 "At this time, this was the only church in this 
 section and was patronised by .everybody of any reli' 
 gious persuasion. There are buried there most of the 
 old settlers around here who died in that time, in' 
 eluding the three Lincoln women and some of their 
 offspring." 
 
 "Did Abraham Lincoln look like his father, 
 Thomas?" 
 
 "He did not in any respect, everybody said. If 
 the Captain was the kind of a man I think he was, 
 Abraham looked more like him. Abraham was 
 what we call "breeding back," and since some his' 
 tory has been made about this subject, I will say 
 that in my opinion, he was a Lincoln. I say this, 
 because it has been freely told here that Thomas 
 was not Abraham's father. How is such a fact to 
 have solid foundation, when a man and woman live 
 together; and who is to know outside of them? 
 That is a sufficient answer to that criticism.'" 
 
 "Do you know if Nancy Hanks Lincoln commun' 
 icated with her motherin'law after, she left here?" 
 
 "The old lady Nancy told me, "not," and she 
 thought Thomas was quite neglectful of her, but in 
 these days you will understand that letter writing 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 45 
 
 was not a practice between families, even though the 
 distance between them was not great. " 
 
 "President Lincoln says that he never saw his 
 grandmother but once. 11 
 
 "To dispute him would seem like I was overreach- 
 ing myself, but I will give you facts. The President 
 saw his grandmother before he left for Indiana, 
 because Thomas and Sarah and Nancy and Abra- 
 ham stayed over there, both father Cowley and 
 mother Owens said; he came down to his grand- 
 mother's often and hunted coons up and down Mill 
 Creek with young boys a little older than he was, 
 John Cowley, William Owens, Jr., Sol Irwin, Jack 
 Peck and John Melton. After his mother died in 
 Indiana, he returned to Mill Creek on a visit with 
 his father; they were there, Nancy said, for a couple 
 of weeks. Bill Brumfield and Tom Lincoln split rails 
 across on the Haycraft farm, by mistake, and Abe 
 was with them at the time. They built a fence along 
 there and Nancy Lincoln told me that the fence was 
 off of her land. Well, I think this is the time that 
 Tom was sparking the widow Johnson.' 11 
 
 "Did your father, Colonel John Cowley, like the 
 Lincolns? 11 
 
 "He was a good friend to Bersheba and Nancy 
 and on good terms with all of them. He thought a 
 lot of "Granny," as we called Bersheba; they were 
 our nearest neighbors until I moved over here on 
 Cedar Creek: 1 
 
 "Did you know Billy Smith? 11 
 
 "Yes, everybody in the county knew him; he lived 
 up the creek, about two miles from our place in a 
 brick house. He lived about a mile or two from the 
 old Peck farm and the Tom Melton place, formerly 
 the Tom Lincoln farm. He was a steam doctor and 
 
46 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 mighty smart man, people said. He died during the 
 Civil War, I guess. He knew the Bible from "kiv- 
 ver to kivver" and could down any preacher in an 
 argument; mighty few of them tackled him. He 
 owned some slaves and had a great deal of land — 
 I knew all of his family. Your grandfather, Silas, 
 and Catherine Peck were two of his children, and I 
 will say they were pretty smart people, who said 
 what they meant and meant what they said." 
 
 "What was his position about the Lincolns? Did 
 you ever hear him discuss them?" 
 
 "Well, he was a very good friend of Tom Lin- 
 coln and he would back Tom on his word any time. 
 He was a popular man and took a broad view of 
 everything; he helped the churches but had little 
 faith in their kind of God; he believed in God, but 
 he said it was not a church God; his God was the 
 universal God, Father of All Things. He said that 
 God was right in your mind, directing you with a 
 conscience that He gave you and you must appeal 
 to that conscience for rectitude. He was younger 
 than Tom Lincoln." 
 
 "He thought young men ought to go West. He 
 was a great follower of Jefferson and Tom Paine, 
 and claimed they had done more to establish this 
 government than all of the balance of the friends of 
 Liberty in America. He disliked the English; any- 
 thing favorable to the English got on his nerves pret- 
 ty well and set him a-going." 
 
 "Do you know whether he knew Bersheba Lin- 
 coln or not?" 
 
 "Yes, he knew everybody in this neighborhood. 
 He was a mighty helpful man to all of us poor folks. 
 I think he was born here, maybe up in Orange Coun- 
 ty where my father came from, though they came 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 47 
 
 first from Maryland. The Marshalls and the Smiths 
 were intermarried in Virginia, but old Billy was no 
 Marshall man. He was a Jeffersonite through and 
 through, but his folks may have originated in Penn- 
 sylvania. " 
 
 "Would you say he had pretty good knowledge 
 of the Lincolns? 11 
 
 "Yes, he had books, took papers and was a well 
 read man, the best in this country. He was recog- 
 nised in the State and in the County as a man of wis- 
 dom, but he would never run for office. Your grand- 
 father, Silas, who went to California in 1848, was 
 about such a man, and he was his favorite son, but 
 Silas did not take to books like his father, yet he 
 was also a very smart man. When the Yankees took 
 Silas out to hang him, it nearly killed the old man, 
 and when your mother was assaulted, that finished 
 him. He was the first to see that awful crime; he 
 cursed the Lincoln administration as long as he lived; 
 he said that Stanton was a murderer and ought to 
 be hung for punishing innocent people, because they 
 talked about Lincoln's failure on his word when he 
 went back on his promise to observe the neutrality 
 of Kentucky. Kentucky, as you understand, was 
 under martial law most of the time; he was old and 
 they did not bother him, but what they did to Silas 
 and his family was quite more than enough. He was 
 a Union man and he thought that when Abraham, 
 the son of his old friend, had permitted these depre- 
 dations, it broke him, he failed very fast and died be- 
 fore the war was over. When he died, let me tell 
 you, a very able and very good man passed away. 
 With Kentucky under martial law and the army in 
 conflict with civil authority; Stanton's spys every- 
 where, Mr. Lincoln surely had his troubles. 11 
 
48 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 Under the lamp light, this old man reminisced, 
 alternately a scowl and a smile came upon his face 
 as he detailed the terrible tragedies that happened in 
 that section during the war. For a minute he sat 
 looking into the fire, then he spat tobacco juice with 
 a crash on the coals, and continued: 
 
 "They might just as well have taken him out and 
 shot him, for, all of his senses stopped functioning — 
 he was going to another world — he was through 
 with this one." 
 
 "Did you know anything about the death and 
 shooting of James Settles, Bob Van Meter and Ver* 
 trees, Mr. Cowley?" 
 
 "That is the sad part of it. I knew it too well. 
 They took them over into Bullitt County and shot 
 them without the semblance of a trial. I vowed 
 that some day we would hunt up Capt. Jarrett and 
 strangle him with our own hands. Lincoln was ap- 
 pealed to, General Palmer, in charge at Louisville, 
 was appealed to, but I do not know what Lincoln 
 did. Palmer permitted the soldiers to take this man 
 out and hang him for the assault on your mother 
 and the killing of your brother. The murders, how- 
 ever, went on, it was said through Jarretts emis- 
 saries, by Stanton's orders. If any man was ever 
 hated in this section, Stanton was that man. The 
 people excused the President somewhat, still he lost 
 caste. Even Nancy Lincoln, his aunt, bitterly ex- 
 pressed herself about Stanton. She was thoroughly 
 stirred up against Jarrett. The tie between Nancy 
 Lincoln and the people of this section was thus for- 
 ever afterwards a very close one. Stanton said it 
 was a war to the hilt, and one of extermination." 
 
 "How do you, my son, feel about it?" he said, 
 putting his hand on my knee, the steel of his keen 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 49 
 
 eyes shining. I replied: "Mr. Cowley, I am a student 
 only, and far removed from the scenes that are real 
 to you. Of course I have listened to my mother tell 
 the story, but I look upon the President as having 
 had terrible responsibilities imposed upon him, and 
 I know too, that he was bitterly opposed to such tac 
 tics. I know that he was surrounded by spies of his 
 own cabinet. Chase and Stanton especially gave him 
 great trouble. The duty uppermost in his mind was 
 to save the Union and to save it at all hazards. I 
 have solved to my satisfaction the guilt of Lincoln 
 as a Southerner, and I appraise him as a great man. 
 I cannot bring myself to accuse him, with all that I 
 know, even though these very things you talk about, 
 deeds of his emissary, touched me very closely ." 
 
 "That is a credit to your mind, perhaps, but to me, 
 an old man now, I cannot look upon Abraham Lin' 
 coin as I looked upon his father. What would old 
 Tom have said, they used to argue. Over there in 
 the cemetery lie three good Lincoln women of his 
 blood; they were befriended by these folks, who 
 were now being crucified for honest thoughts. It 
 was not right, and as long as you live, people will 
 not respect Abraham Lincoln, as they did his family. 
 I would not, at my time in life, unjustly indict any 
 man, but I do, before my God, indict Abraham Lin' 
 coin." 
 
 He got out of his chair and straightened his bent 
 body, his gaze was lofty, and his eyes blazed like a 
 torch. 
 
 "Can you think of your beautiful mother, twenty 
 one years old, broken, bleeding, bruised unto death, 
 lying upon the grass, her nursing child's brains and 
 dead body in front of her, the brutal deed of the bni' 
 tal emissary of Jarrett, without damning forever 
 
50 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 the men who permitted war upon women? God, I 
 shall never forget that sight." 
 
 Finally we lighted our pipes, took a drink of moon' 
 shine as old as the hanging stars, and as silky and soft 
 as the balmy air of the Cedar creek hills. 
 
 These crimes, conspiracy to murder Lincoln's Ca' 
 binet, he pointed out, were due to the flaming hatred 
 of Lincoln's Cabinet rather than Lincoln himself. 
 He reasoned that if Napoleon had been sitting at 
 Washington or Grant he would have quickly dis' 
 posed of Burbridge and Paine and men of their ilk. 
 
 He said; "The Lincolns are our kind of people. 
 Abraham Lincoln once asserting his nature was a 
 just man I think. But he was a new man in that of' 
 fice, he did not know the tricks of the Yankee, he 
 looked upon them as he looked upon the Western 
 man and the Kentuckian he knew; that was the limit 
 of his ability to judge, to sit in judgment on men, 
 you must understand that judging men who are 
 to have great power is the most important responsi' 
 bility any man can have." 
 
 "The Yankee has always been in favor of blue 
 laws. He has them on his statute books, to enforce 
 on others his narrow vision of life. He has no 
 forgiveness. He is as drastic as his ancient forebear 
 of the Roman days. He would like to put you in 
 a thumb rack or lead you up to a whipping post 
 and give you a few lashes, not to punish you, but 
 to show the balance of the world what a d — pious 
 good man he is, and how intolerant he is of wrong 
 doing. And he will murder you for opinions sake. 
 Down here where Lincoln was born there was a 
 different race of men. We believed all laws were 
 burdens and we wanted as few laws as we could 
 well get along with." 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 51 
 
 Therefore our people were liberal; they had no 
 desire to rob anybody or murder anybody for opi" 
 nion's sake. The Yankee was a religious fanatic on 
 slavery, while we looked on slavery as a question of 
 economy, for I really think in this country the ne" 
 groes were better off in slavery but the white man 
 who owned them I am sure was worse off than the 
 men who did not. Slave poor was much worse than 
 being land poor. 11 
 
 "Our people sprung from men who fought the 
 Kings over there because they wanted actual free" 
 dom to pursue their lives as they ordered, and the 
 New England Yankee wanted his religion free, he 
 did not give a d — about anything else; he wanted 
 to make the other fellow see and act as he saw and 
 acted. 11 
 
 "Such was Stanton, and as for Chase he was a 
 lawyer, and it is an accident when a man is honest 
 and straight if he is educated in the law. It fur" 
 nishes him so many advantages over the layman he 
 gets in the habit of taking advantage of him. 11 
 
 "Well, anyway, Lincoln did not understand these 
 fellows, and he was kind and easy going, he did not 
 want to assert himself though he was a strong man, 
 ten times as strong as all of his Cabinet, but the dam" 
 age was all done when he asserted himself. 11 
 
 "Yes, I know that Tom Hines knew that these 
 boys went from Kentucky intending to kill the Presi" 
 dent and all of his Cabinet, and I did not blame them, 
 although it was a fool thing to do. Their kin, just 
 as dear to them as anybody's were murdered without 
 a chance, and this was their revenge. What did 
 they care about danger; why sir, if you arouse one of 
 this race of people to the point where he believes he 
 is grievously wronged he will kill you in a moment's 
 
52 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 time; that's the temper of our people, and his temper 
 will be aroused about his love of justice, nothing 
 else." 
 
 "Religion here we treat as the individual's busi' 
 ness with God, not of any concern of others, but 
 over there in the Yankee country they want to use 
 religion to govern the other fellow. After all, my 
 son, that is all life is, justice to one another and a 
 fair deal with your own God. That was the motto 
 of the old Lincolns, that's mine, and you are in a d — 
 bad fix if that is not your religion. " 
 
 Thus did I reason that this old man was a great 
 and sound philosopher, the close friend of all the 
 Lincolns. 
 
 "Mr. Cowley I want to ask you if you know where 
 Abe Lincoln was born?" "I would say that fact was 
 not one any person could testify about, but as folks 
 know such things, talk of neighbors, we knew it here 
 on the creek." 
 
 "Abe and the girl were both born on the Mill 
 Creek farm. Those who were neighbors to Tom 
 said that. It was not discussed for forty years after 
 I was grown up, then all the fuss about Lincoln came 
 up and it was talked. He had a good farm up there 
 and a good house, and he always had some work 
 about the court house at odd times, and that place 
 was convenient. I do not think he lived much in 
 Etown. He would go over and farm the Larue 
 places, and I think he lived there some. Nancy Lin- 
 coln told me once Abraham was born on Mill Creek. 
 There was a man here after the war who was writ- 
 ing a book about Lincoln, but I did not see him. 
 He talked to Silas Smith but did not get much out 
 of him. His inquiries were principally about the 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 53 
 
 Hanks women, and I have a deep seated prejudice 
 against discussing other men's women." 
 
 "You may know it was talked here that Thomas 
 was not the father of the President, and the inquiries 
 were also about that I heard. Some said that John, 
 our old Judge, they called him, was his father, and 
 Sam Haycraft thought an Enlow was his father, but 
 I don't think they knew a damn thing about it. That 
 is my opinion. Nancy Lincoln or Nancy Hanks as 
 folks called her was not that kind of a woman in my 
 opinion. The fact that she was an illegitimate and 
 the Hanks women had not a good name altogether, 
 gave rise to talk — that's what I figured." 
 
 "I think, however, in this connection it is well 
 enough to say, that this is the real reason why Presi- 
 dent Lincoln t made that indefinite statement about 
 being born on Nolin Creek. He did not guess that 
 any one would question it or be interested in it, and 
 if it at any time came down to a defense of the state- 
 ment, he could easily say, as he did say, his memory 
 was bad and his father had never told him where he 
 was born, so that the Nolin Creek birth statement 
 was a very good guess at it." 
 
 "There were men here, had it ever got down to a 
 political issue, who would have, and could have em- 
 barrassed him by some little family history which is 
 commonly accepted as very irregular by mankind, 
 but I never took any stock in it, as an important fac- 
 tor in Lincoln's life, though in politics it would 
 doubtless have cut quite a figure. In 1864, when 
 he ran for President our people said nothing, for al- 
 ready there had been too many deaths resulting from 
 talk, idle and non-productive talk, but Lincoln of 
 course got no votes here. 1 ' 
 
I 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE LINCOLN ASSOCIATES 
 
 T must be borne in mind, the writer went to inter' 
 view Col. John Cowley, but found that his eldest 
 
 son had all of the knowledge of his father, about 
 
 Nancy Lincoln, Bersheba Lincoln, Mary Austin and 
 
 William Owens and the Owens family. 
 
 Col. Cowley died shortly after this interview. 
 "Mr. Cowley, did you know Nancy Lincoln's 
 
 children? 11 
 
 "I suppose I did. I knew Bill Austin's wife, Billy 
 Nail's wife, but I hardly recall the first names of any 
 of them, unless it would be Elizabeth. Nancy lived 
 there at the old place. We do not know what be" 
 came of Bill Austin. The daughter that married 
 Billy Nail lived by your father's farm. 11 
 
 "What was Bill Austin's politics?" 
 
 "I guess Bill was a pretty strong Democrat. When 
 John Young Brown was a candidate for Congress in 
 1856, the KnowNothings were as thick as hops 
 around here. 
 
 "John Brown came down to Brumfields to make a 
 speech, and the KnowNothings had notified Bill 
 Austin he could not speak there, for if he did, Austin 
 could move and they would kill Brown. Well, it 
 was talked over by Brown with old Nancy Lincoln, 
 and she said that if free speech was denied in this 
 country all of the Lincolns might as well be dead. 
 
 54 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 55 
 
 She advised Brown to make his speech and when 
 the time came to open services, Brown put one six 
 shooter on the table and kept the other in his pocket 
 as a reserve, announcing what had been told him but 
 with the affirmation that if anybody wanted to start 
 the shooting it would be better to start it before the 
 speaking. "But it is my opinion that you are a lot of 
 dirty, lying, cowardly fanatics and are not going to 
 kill anybody." 
 
 "John Brown made his speech, was also elected to 
 Congress, and Austin and Nancy lived at the same 
 old cross roads farm without hindrance from the 
 Know-Nothings. Those were pretty tough times 
 over there, and I want to tell you, if these Yankee 
 preachers had kept out of here, we would have never 
 had a crusade against our good Catholics. I do be- 
 lieve the old Pioneers were alright on religion and 
 such matters, but these smart fellows with monkey 
 wrench faces from up North, they were tough, hard 
 hearted scoundrels who had been born with hate. 
 
 "Well, John Brown, after the war, denounced old 
 Ben Butler in Congress for stealing the good folks 
 silver in and around New Orleans: 
 
 "He was a game devil of a young fellow, with 
 plenty of ability, and when Congress expelled him 
 for denouncing Butler he was unanimously reelected. 
 Old Ben ever afterwards in this country was referred 
 to as "Spoon Butler." 
 
 "Did you know any of Mary Lincoln's children?" 
 
 "I did not. She lived over at Howe's Valley with 
 her husband, Crume, who was a German, I think. 
 She died when about 55 and is buried over here in 
 the old Lincoln place, on Mill Creek, by the side of 
 her mother. She had a pretty good family, I under- 
 stand, and I think most of them live in Howe's Val- 
 
56 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 ley today. "I got this from Nancy Lincoln, but I re 
 member myself when she was buried." 
 
 "Now, I will ask you about Josiah Lincoln. What 
 became of him?" 
 
 "Well, Josiah was here when his mother was 
 buried. He was living in Harrison County, Ind., 
 about twenty miles from Mill Creek, where his 
 mother lived. He went over there with Squire 
 Boone and took up land. I never saw him when he 
 was here, to know him, but this is what I heard. I 
 don't think I would know him anyway unless he was 
 identified to me, for I was small.' 1 
 
 "Mr. Cowley, many people say Tom Lincoln lived 
 most of his life over on Knob Creek farm. What do 
 you know about it?" 
 
 "That is not true, for all of the people up the creek 
 say he lived on Mill Creek and in Elizjabethtown most 
 of his time after he married, and I reckon they ought 
 to know. I do know he came here often to see his 
 mother, when my father was a small lad, but my 
 mother's people knew them best. You know in these 
 days if a dog killed a neighbor's sheep, or a neighbor 
 went away from the country, it was news immediate 
 ly throughout the neighborhood. We had no papers 
 and that is the way news passed around, at gather' 
 ings. I always heard that Tom did not have much 
 land over there and did not have much title to that." 
 
 "Compared with other folks, how did Thomas 
 Lincoln stand as an owner of property?" 
 
 "Tom was a trader and he worked for wages. 
 Neighbors said that he always had some money. He 
 was above the average in land ownership and if I 
 made a guess, I would say, he was comfortable all the 
 time he was here. I heard Mr. McMurtry say that 
 his father'in'law, Sam Haycraft, bought Abe a pair 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 57 
 
 of shoes in the winter. I guess that's true, boys 
 generally went barefooted half of the winter, some 
 of them all the winter, but old Sam was well off, and 
 he was a friend of Tom Lincoln, a very good friend, 
 and he was a politician — he bought the kids candy 
 too. 
 
 "Mr. Cowley, I have in mind interviewing all of 
 the people in this neighborhood who would know 
 anything about the Lincolns, or their children, or the 
 children of those who would know, that are now 
 dead. Please give me the names of the people whom 
 you think would know about them." 
 
 "Betsy and Jane Owens on Mill Creek, both very 
 old women, the widow Maffitt, Johnny Moore, Silas 
 Hobb, Jonathan Owen, Jack and Reuben Peck, John 
 and Bill Williams. John Williams married Elinor 
 Peck's daughter; some of the old Cofers, Stephen 
 McMurtry, John Hargan, old Ab Ray, Jack Mel' 
 ton's widow, Nancy, would know all about them. 
 Then there is James Davis. John Henry Shelton, I 
 expect, would be a good man, and his neighbor John 
 Stator. I think John Stator's father was very well 
 acquainted with Tom Lincoln. There is Luke Col' 
 vin, whose father knew all about the Lincolns, and 
 Jacob and William Pearman, whose father is buried 
 by the side of Bersheba Lincoln." 
 
 "Now, I want to call your attention to a matter 
 that grew out of these depredations of Jarret and his 
 men. I would like to know whether the statement 
 that Bill Austin was back of the slaughter of Jarrett's 
 men at Muldraughs Hill, above West Point, is true 
 or not?" 
 
 "If I knew, I would not say anything about it. The 
 facts are, in reference to that transaction, that seven 
 men went into the hills at night, heavily armed with 
 
58 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 Army rifles. They placed themselves along dif' 
 ferent sides of the gulch, I mean the main gulch, and 
 when Jarrett's men came, in the early morning, or 
 late at night, as was their habit, these seven men 
 opened an unexpected fire on them. Jarrett's men 
 were disconcerted and instead of fighting they com" 
 menced running, thinking that the hills were filled 
 with John Morgan's men, as it had been rumored for 
 several days that Morgan's men were expected there. 
 In their confusion, and on account of the running 
 and neighing of the horses, which had been turned 
 loose, they ran up and down the main gulch in the 
 darkness, and into the side gulches. One of these 
 seven men cut loose all of the horses, about 500 in 
 number, that they had tethered in a big draw like a 
 bowl, where they kept these horses and prepared 
 them for shipment by boat down the river to Owens- 
 boro, where they sold them to the United States 
 Army — buyers of cavalry horses. Their plan was to 
 go to the farmer and say to him, they wanted his 
 horses for the government. They would give the 
 farmer the OK, a piece of paper, which was supposed 
 to be a receipt for the horse, entitling him to pay 
 from the United States. They usually gathered up 
 these horses at night, it was supposed, for fear they 
 would run into General Palmer's men, and the dup' 
 licity of Jarrett would be exposed. Jarrett claimed 
 to have authority from Stanton or the War Depart- 
 ment for his spying operations, hence the murders 
 he committed were beyond all military discipline, 
 thinking he would be protected, and he surely was 
 protected by somebody. The raids against human 
 beings were reported to General Palmer, who, it was 
 said, in turn, reported the facts to Washington, but 
 it was plain that the facts never got before the Pres- 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 59 
 
 ident. At any rate, Washington did nothing and 
 Jarrett kept on in his deviltry. Palmer seemed to have 
 no authority to stop him; at any rate, he was afraid 
 to arrest him. He was the General in command at 
 Louisville, Kentucky, and had at his disposal prob" 
 ably 30,000 troopers at all times. Finally these 
 seven men took the matter in hand and were assem- 
 bled by one of Morgan's "relieved men." They or' 
 gammed and went into these hills at night and just as 
 soon as Jarrett's men came in with the horses they 
 had collected for the day, the seven men started to 
 fight. I do not know how many of Jarrett's men 
 were killed, but they were burying them all of the 
 next day, and it was said that about forty of them 
 were buried, though there might have been more 
 wounded. The seven men escaped, and so far as I 
 ever heard, there was one trained soldier in the 
 crowd, and he was a Morgan man. Bill Austin was 
 suspicioned of being there, so was I. General Palmer 
 insisted after this trouble on Jarrett being with" 
 drawn, and I believe he was. Jarrett was responsible 
 for the assaults and murders, and he made them on 
 the pretext that the men he arrested had been dc 
 nouncing President Lincoln. It was one of General 
 Palmer's aides who saved your grandfather. Jarrett, 
 himself, rode into your grandfather's house on horse 
 back, had five of his men to take bodily possession of 
 Silas Smith and ordered them to take him down the 
 pike and hang him. He ordered your grandmother 
 to cook his breakfast. He remained in the house 
 drinking whiskey, and your grandfather was taken 
 away. They stopped at Cephas Smith's store, about 
 a quarter of a mile down the pike, and demanded 
 that he sell them some whiskey. He told them he 
 had no whiskey, but he had a jug hid out in the 
 
60 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 orchard for his personal use, and they ordered him 
 to get it. He went out and notified his wife of Silas' 
 arrest, who put a boy on horseback and sent him 
 post haste to General Palmer's headquarters at Louis- 
 ville, telling him what would happen to Silas Smith. 
 This boy got as far as West Point and met a lieu- 
 tenant with a number of soldiers on their way to 
 Eli^abethtown; they stopped him and he told them 
 what his errand was. It is about five miles from 
 where he met these men to where Jarrett's men pro- 
 posed to hang Silas Smith. The lieutenant and his 
 men spurred their horses and travelled very fast in 
 order to intercept Jarrett's men. They did so, on the 
 turnpike, about five miles north of the Silas Smith 
 residence. There they were in the act of hanging 
 him, were drunk and having plenty of fun, pulling 
 him up, strangling him, and letting him down. The 
 lieutenant immediately arrested the men and released 
 Silas Smith. They told the lieutenant they were 
 acting on Jarrett's orders. ,, 
 
 "Silas Smith was taken back to his home and in the 
 meantime Jarrett had had his breakfast and had 
 made his graceful exit." 
 
 "It was a mystery for many years just what Jar- 
 rettfs backing was. He was next heard of in the last 
 year of the war, buying mules in southern Kentucky. 
 In the raid of Muldraughs Hill, made by the seven 
 men, Jarrett appears to have taken no part. He was 
 sleeping soundly about two miles away at West 
 Point. Jarrett was never punished for any of his 
 crimes, and although President Lincoln has the 
 credit of having interfered in the matter, brought 
 about by a communication of Nancy Lincoln to him, 
 I, myself, take no stock in this story. I think that 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 61 
 
 old Jarrett figured that in due time, Thomas Hines, 
 or somebody else would get him.'" 
 
 Supplemental to Mr. Cowley's statement, I will 
 say that I was a desk mate of Thomas H. Hines, the 
 head of this band of Musketeers, during the session 
 of the Constitutional Convention of 1890. He had 
 been Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals and dur- 
 ing the war was a captain on Morgan's staff. He 
 planned Morgan's escape from Columbus peniten- 
 tiary. He could speak French and German fluently 
 and was a man of wonderful mathematical talent. 
 He weighed less than 100 pounds when I knew him. 
 He was as gentle in his manners as a sixteen-year old 
 girl. He seldom spoke in the Constitutional Con" 
 vention. I was his most intimate friend. He told 
 me who the members of this band were, that Cow- 
 ley was one of them, Bill Austin was one of them, 
 the others were respectively named, Hawkins, Hayes, 
 Melton and Gray. They lived in the Mill Creek 
 section and none of them had ever had military ex- 
 perience. 
 
 I knew before I ever discussed the question with 
 him who they were. The writer must say, that of 
 all the remarkable men he has known, Hines was 
 one of the most accomplished, and a man who 
 looked upon death stoically. He was the D'Arta- 
 gnan of the Civil War, known to nobody, and yet 
 in the archives at Washington as one of the best 
 known men of the South, generally feared and 
 dreaded as the Sphinx of Morgan's army; known 
 at Washington also as having some mysterious con- 
 nection with the President, unknown to his Cabinet. 
 Hines had said to Austin, "Go to Washington and 
 see the President; something is going to happen; the 
 war for the South is lost, and all of the d in- 
 
62 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 cendiaries are assembling at Washington; the ma" 
 chine has gone to pieces, but we can save the South 
 from the Cannibals — Go to Washington — Go to 
 Washington; remain as you are to all of these young 
 devils, the spy of John Morgan; you are the only 
 man who can go everywhere and now is the time to 
 serve Lincoln and serve the South. 
 
 But Austin never moved without invitation; he 
 never took the initiative. Had he accepted Hines 1 
 advice, the map of the civil war in 1865 might have 
 been greatly changed. The man who stepped into 
 Ford's theatre would never have slipped by the 
 searchlight eyes of Bill Austin — indeed, he never 
 would have gone, to the theatre, and neither would 
 have Lincoln. 
 
 The friendship of Austin and Hines teach the 
 world of men how clever was Lincoln, how much 
 he knew, how little he was deceived, and how broad 
 and sweeping his knowledge of men and their nee 
 essary relations, irregular though they were under 
 the circumstances of the situation. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE OLD MILL CREEK BAPTIST CHURCH AND 
 THE WAR COUNCIL PARLIAMENT 
 
 T ET us turn back to the advent of Captain Abra- 
 ham Lincoln, son of John Lincoln of Rocking- 
 ham County, Virginia, and see if we can, by the 
 witnesses we introduce, unknown to history, settle 
 some of the disputed points brought about by want 
 of facts, quite apparent in all of the books of the 
 Lincoln biographers. We can solve the relation, at 
 least, of the principal Lincoln intimates. 
 
 Captain Abraham Lincoln left his brother in 
 Bourbon County, and moved first to that part of 
 Nelson, known as Washington County at that time. 
 His brother was named Thomas, and the father of 
 the President was named for this uncle. They were 
 probably both born in Pennsylvania rather than 
 Rockingham County, Virginia. They had lived a 
 while in Berkes County. As a rule, settlers left 
 Pennsylvania to go to Virginia, and rarely left Vir- 
 ginia to go to Pennsylvania. This happened only 
 in rare cases like that of the Boones. 
 
 Mordecai, the father of old John was a black- 
 smith. He settled in Berkes County, after he had 
 been in business in New Jersey, and with him at that 
 time came Jacob Van Meter, who was born in New 
 Jersey. Jacob died just out of Elisabethtown and 
 is buried on his old farm. His death occurred in 
 
 63 
 
64 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 1 798. He was the father-in-law of Samuel Haycraft, 
 the first. Samuel Haycraft was the son of James Hay- 
 craft, an English sailor who settled in Virginia in 
 1 742. At that time, Jacob Van Meter had gone with 
 John Smith and others to Rockingham County, Vir- 
 ginia. We know that Samuel Haycraft and three or 
 four brothers were of a party which rafted down 
 from Pittsburgh to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1779, 
 and located in Elizjabethtown, Kentucky. Jacob, Jr., 
 was married when eighteen years of age. They left 
 Virginia in 1780, crossing the mountains at Cumber- 
 land Gap, arriving in Hardin County in early spring. 
 In this group were Captain Abraham Lincoln, his 
 brother Thomas, John, David and Joseph Swank, 
 John McMahan with a colony of settlers headed by 
 James and Colonel John Smith, former Pennsylva- 
 nians. Also with this colony came most of the names 
 found herein. Many of these families originated in 
 Pennsylvania. While coming down the river, 
 Samuel Haycraft's brother, George, was killed by the 
 Indians. These Haycraft brothers had been raised 
 by Colonel Neville, founder of Pittsburgh, and the 
 man who tried, in 1791, to put down the Whiskey 
 Rebellion. James Haycraft, the father, had been 
 killed by the Indians in Virginia when Samuel was 
 about eleven years of age. James Smith, then promi- 
 nent in Pennsylvania and in Indian affairs, at the in- 
 stance of Daniel and Squire Boone, sons of old Squire 
 of North Carolina, joined their forces and they were 
 responsible for the emigration of these settlers from 
 Pennsylvania and Virginia. Smith had money and 
 financed, with his brother John, the movement of the 
 settlers and the land locations. 
 
 John Smith had at this time already moved to Vir- 
 ginia. He had been with Washington and Colonel 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 65 
 
 Bullitt in their western operations about Pittsburgh. 
 James had been a member of the Constitutional Con- 
 vention of Pennsylvania from Westmoreland 
 County. James had strong influence with Franklin, 
 Washington and Jefferson. He was the best known 
 man in the party and had been over Kentucky be' 
 fore Daniel Boone had explored the state. He was 
 in Kentucky in 1765. He had been a prisoner of 
 the Chippewa Indians for seven years, and spoke 
 most all of the Indian dialects and languages. He 
 had executed many treaties for Great Britain with 
 the Indians and had their confidence. He settled at 
 Cane Ridge, in Bourbon County, Kentucky, and 
 represented that county twice in the Legislature of 
 Kentucky. He moved finally to Washington Coun- 
 ty, Kentucky, and there died in 1812. 
 
 He assisted Colonel Floyd and Captain Floyd and 
 his brother John, who was with Colonel Bullitt in 
 the settlement of Jefferson County, and projected 
 many colonies in Kentucky. The brothers were, 
 therefore, acquainted with all of the families in the 
 movement to Hardin County. John surveyed a 
 good part of Jefferson County with Colonel Floyd, 
 and they sold Captain Lincoln the land on which he 
 was killed. It was purchased with a Virginia Treas- 
 ury receipt. They had a great many locations, 
 which, under the existing laws of Virginia, soldiers 
 of the Revolution or soldiers engaged in the Indian 
 warfare could acquire by such rights. Lincoln was 
 one of these. When the limit was reached, many of 
 them bought rights from others. This was the case 
 of Captain Lincoln. 
 
 In this party were Elinor Peck and her father, 
 John Thomas. She was about seven years old when 
 her father came to Hardin County. Thomas Lin- 
 coln was much younger. Some of them stopped in 
 
66 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 Mercer, Fayette, Bourbon and Washington; a ma' 
 jority of them came to Hardin. Elinor's husband, 
 John, descended from Rev. Thomas Peck, the ultra- 
 Puritan preacher of Norwich, England. 
 
 In the party were also Bersheba Lincoln, wife of 
 the Captain and her children; she was then about 
 thirty-five years of age. So far as is known, Captain 
 Floyd and John Smith brought them to Hardin 
 County, among which was his son, James, founder 
 of the family to which the writer belongs. William 
 Owens, Captain Abraham Lincoln, Jacob Pearman, 
 John Davis, Thomas and John Howard, brothers, 
 John Austin, John Stator, Thomas Melton, and 
 many others located on Mill Creek within a range of 
 five miles of each other. In this community, they 
 established the Baptist Church (1782, organised in, 
 1806) where are now buried the older Lincolns. 
 Later, they established Mount Zion just five miles 
 south of this church. You will find in the Owen 
 Cemetery, the Maffit Cemetery and Mount Zion 
 Cemetery, the remains of these old families and their 
 descendants. At Otter Creek lived Jacob Van 
 Meter, who at a later date established there the old 
 Baptist Church in 1800 and deeded it in 1826 to 
 the organised congregation, Chairman of which 
 Board was James, brother of William P. Nail, son- 
 in-law of Nancy Lincoln. 
 
 Although the old church had existed for twenty- 
 four years, it was organised into a regular congrega- 
 tion in 1806. Shadrach Brown first Pastor in 1806. 
 Daniel Walker, from 1821 to 1831. Jacob Rodgers, 
 from 1831 to 1854. William Rodgers, the writer's 
 neighbor in 1885, very old, gave him the history of 
 this church in detail. He knew the Lincolns, and 
 was a visitor to Nancy Lincoln's home after her 
 

 V. n> 
 
 ^ * N 'V / 
 
 * - . / •. i f «> 
 
 w 
 
 
 
 
 
 M ' 
 
 M 
 
 k\ MMm 
 
 % 111 W •'■ 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 P 
 
 ■g 
 
 3 
 
 *J3 
 
 O 
 H 
 
68 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 daughter married Austin. He was the son of Rev. 
 Jacob Rodgers. 
 
 In the Lincoln Cemetery will be found the Col- 
 vins, Howards, Pearmans, Bersheba, Nancy and 
 Mary Lincoln; also Mary Austin, daughter of Nan' 
 cy. In the upper cemetery will be found the Smiths, 
 Swanks, Pecks, Williams, Meltons, etc. Myers, the 
 land agent of James Smith and John Smith passed 
 the title to Samuel Haycraft. They built a Baptist 
 Church there on the banks of Mill Creek at this 
 time, because that was the faith of the principal 
 membership, and such churches were more general" 
 ly used as a meeting place for councils to provide 
 ways and means for their common defense rather 
 than for religious worship. To this extent Bersheba 
 Lincoln, an Episcopalian, will be found to be the 
 principal person and factor in its leadership in this 
 early day. 
 
 Captain Abraham Lincoln, according to family 
 tradition, lived here, in the winter of 1783, before 
 going to Jefferson County. The land was located 
 near the Bersheba Lincoln tract where she and Bill 
 Brumfield lived. This church was built in 1782 
 when the Captain lived in this neighborhood, and 
 the Cowleys, Lincolns, Smiths, Owens, Howards, 
 Stators, etc., contributed to its construction. 
 
 It will not, therefore, be surprising to find 
 Thomas Lincoln, as a young man spending a greater 
 share of his life in this section, intimately associated 
 with those he had known for many years. He was 
 at Jacob Van Meter's in 1798, helping him build 
 his house. His mother, according to Elinor Peck, 
 moved into Mill Creek again in about 1802 with 
 William Brumfield who had married her daughter. 
 Thomas bought the Mill Creek farm in 1803 from 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 69 
 
 John Stator, though Thomas had been there all the 
 while working for Haycraft, Owens, Van Meter 
 and others. 
 
 It is complained by historians that no one knew 
 Bersheba or Thomas Lincoln's farm locations on 
 Mill Creek. The knowledge of their locations in 
 the writer's day as a boy was a matter of common 
 knowledge. The fact that few of them ever knew 
 where the family was buried, is a clear indication 
 that no great effort was ever made to clear up the 
 Lincoln mystery. In fact, there never was a Lin" 
 coin mystery. Elinor Peck did not die until 1853. 
 Dr. Smith did not die until 1864. Polly Watts and 
 Pamelia Cowherd lived to be near 100 years of age, 
 both born about 1802 and both knew the Lincolns 
 very well. Tom Peck died in 1864. Owen Cow 
 ley, son of the man who knew Thomas Lincoln, and 
 grandson of Bill Owens who knew Tom Lincoln best, 
 did not die until about 1894. He certainly knew the 
 Lincoln story and the Lincolns as well as anyone in 
 the country. 
 
 Elinor Peck talked to Catherine Peck, her daugh' 
 ter'in4aw, for twenty years about the Lincolns when 
 they were front page news. Her daughter, Rebec 
 ca Williams, her sons Jack Peck and Reuben Peck 
 must have heard her story many times. She visited 
 her granddaughter, Rebecca Smith, wife of Silas 
 Smith, many times and talked freely about the Lin' 
 coins, and through many other sources this inform' 
 ation was available. Thomas Peck, of his personal 
 knowledge, knew about the President's birth and 
 left the Lincoln story with Polly Watts and Pamelia 
 Cowherd, sisters'in4aw. 
 
 It is said that no one knew that Thomas Lincoln 
 ever lived on Mill Creek. Historians fix no time 
 
70 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 that he ever lived there, simply because their entire 
 investigations have been directed to the Nolin Creek 
 country. 
 
 The fact remains that in the early days of the 
 writer, knowing nearly every household in Hardin 
 County, he found few in 1890 on Mill Creek that 
 did not know all about the entire family. There 
 were then living many descendants of the Meltons, 
 some of the Maffits, many of the Pecks and quite a 
 few of the Irwins and Cowleys. William Rodgers, 
 John Hargan, Stephen McMurtry, and some of the 
 old Owens women. 
 
 The writer's mother knew well all of these people, 
 and heard them talk before and during the war, a 
 very natural thing for them to do. In fact, it was 
 a matter of common knowledge that Thomas Lin" 
 coin farmed the Mill Creek farm for ten years, ex- 
 cepting the year he was at Cane Ridge. He went 
 to Indiana with Hannaniah Lincoln before he moved 
 from Mill Creek. That was a fact well known in the 
 community, fifty years or more after it happened. 
 
 He worked on the Cane Ridge Mill Dam and Mill 
 for over a year. This is in Bourbon County. He 
 visited his uncle, Thomas Lincoln, at Lexington, a 
 well'to'do man, and often spoke of him when he re 
 turned, so he must have met up with him. 
 
 Thomas was a good stone mason, and in those 
 days they called them millwrights, if they had ever 
 had experience in building burr mills. He built the 
 foundation of Jacob Van Meter's house, and his mill 
 at the forks of Otter Creek, a fact about which Mrs. 
 Robert Van Meter spoke. She was very bitter 
 towards President Lincoln. She thought him 
 responsible for Jarrettfs murder of her husband, 
 Robert, in "sixty'three." 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 71 
 
 The Mill Creek Church was constructed with 
 lapped long logs tied in the center with two attached 
 logs tied together as a cross beam. The foundation 
 is there yet. William Rodgers said his father helped 
 to build it and Captain Lincoln also assisted, the 
 Captain's wife, in later years, being an attendant. 
 
 The neighbors assembled and called it a house 
 raising. The carpenters finished the job, then the 
 plasterer "chinked" up the cracks and the work was 
 done. 
 
 Owen Cowley was quite averse to saying any- 
 thing detrimental to Nancy Hanks. He regarded 
 her as conversationally sinned against in that com' 
 munity; so did Elinor Peck. 
 
 The testimony of Elinor Peck and Mrs. Maffit 
 taken with Owen Cowley's will constitute the sum 
 of the important facts not settled in history, facts 
 almost common to all. The other witnesses will 
 bear out their reflections, and thus we will have all 
 of the important facts about the Lincolns, showing 
 clearly where President Lincoln was born. 
 
 We know already by the records produced for 
 public view by the excellent work of Mr. Warren, 
 that the facts were a matter of record as to Thomas 
 Lincoln. We know that Bill Brumfield's widow lived 
 seventyfive years of her life in the county, and Ber- 
 sheba at least thirty'five of hers, Mary probably for" 
 ty. We know it was no trick to travel from the 
 Bersheba Lincoln place to Louisville and Elizabeth' 
 town by wagon or horseback. 
 
 We know, by name, that Bersheba Lincoln's home 
 was the Mecca of the Lincolns. She not only was 
 a very able woman, but one of high character, and 
 that her daughter, Nancy, was the peer of the well' 
 bred. In the light of these facts it is no credit to the 
 
72 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 great man that he dodged discussion of his family, 
 and spoke of them as "second" families. This was 
 the view, perhaps, of the intolerant Todds, but never 
 the view of a real Lincoln. 
 
 Here was the grand old church of the pioneer 
 civilization. Here lived the bravest and the best 
 of western civilization. Here were the names you 
 may read today on the front page of history, Borahs, 
 Boones, Norrises, Reeds, Woodrings, Smiths, Moor' 
 mans, Clarksons, Woolfolks, Rays, Browns, Irwins 
 and hundreds of other names that flash across the 
 news of the day. They may trace their names to 
 this colony. Thomas Lincoln explored and sur' 
 veyed the road from Elizabethtown to Louisville, 
 Brandenburg and Hardinsburg. There you find the 
 names of the Dittos, Crutchers, La Follettes, etc. 
 If Thomas Lincoln was in this kind of company, he 
 could hardly have been the strolling wanderer the 
 President would have you believe. Was he doing 
 something destructive or constructive? Wherever 
 he could make a dollar or help the community you 
 would find him very active. Meade County, made 
 from a part of Hardin County, housed many of the 
 Catholics, but Tom Lincoln went among them as 
 one who had an open mind on every question. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson rode to the White House and 
 hitched his own horse, and Thomas Lincoln was 
 one who applauded him. If the President could 
 hitch his horse himself, he would find it agreeable 
 to do things for a people who hitched their own 
 horses, and I doubt if any one in the President's day 
 would call him second rate. 
 
 The explanation is that the President was playing 
 a bit of politics, and he desired that the American 
 people should know he had lifted very hard at his 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 73 
 
 bootstraps to raise himself from a very low to a very 
 high place. Thomas Lincoln, as we know him, 
 would not have said it, and it is not a remark credit" 
 able to the President. 
 
 Catherine Peck, daughter-in-law of Elinor Peck, 
 also daughter of Dr. Billy Smith, second wife of 
 Henry Peck, was born in Hardin County in 1826. 
 She was known all over that section as a woman of 
 very precise knowledge and fine intelligence. She 
 tells the story of Elinor Peck, who lived forty-six 
 years after the President was born and knew the 
 Lincolns from old John to the President. It covers 
 every desired cycle of the Lincoln family. 
 
 Bersheba Lincoln told her she was born in 1745 
 in Virginia. She died in 1833, buried at the Mill 
 Creek, Lincoln Cemetery. She told her the names 
 and ages of all of her children, but she did not re 
 member the ages exactly. Bersheba told her she was 
 twenty-four when she married the Captain; she 
 thought the Captain a year older, but he did not 
 know the day of the month of his birth. He was in 
 the Militia in Virginia. All of the children were 
 born in Virginia in Rockingham County. Her 
 family name was Herriot, and it was of French 
 origin. Her people came there before the English. 
 Herriot was the way Elinor Peck spelled it. Captain 
 Lincoln was not in the Revolutionary Army of Ge- 
 neral Washington, but was under the orders of 
 Governor Patrick Henry. The Captain's regiment 
 was in Pennsylvania, from York to Winchester, 
 Waynesboro and down to Lexington. She had 
 travelled this route as a little girl and remembered 
 the towns, and that, Bersheba told her, was the 
 western front. They were fighting the Indians and 
 their British allies. It was known as the "Southern 
 
74 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 Trail." It was the same road the soldiers travelled. 
 Bersheba was good looking for her age when she 
 saw her and spoke with a southern accent. She first 
 saw them when they moved to Mill Creek, then 
 when they went back to Washington County after 
 the death of Captain Lincoln, and very often after 
 they returned to Mill Creek in 1802, for it was the 
 time Nancy Lincoln married William Brumfield. 
 Bersheba had told her that James Smith had brought 
 out the colony, that was why they did not buy lands 
 from the Boones. Bersheba told her they went 
 down the creek and bought a farm near Sam Hay- 
 craft's place, but they had previously had a claim 
 there, and had sold this before they went up to 
 Washington County. Elinor thought they were 
 there a "good while," about twelve years before 
 they returned. 
 
 Bill Brumfield had married Nancy, and Mary a 
 little later married a "German fellow," named 
 Crume, and that was the year they came back to 
 Mill Creek. Thomas bought a place about that 
 time from Johnny Stator, near hers, out of the 
 May survey. Bersheba told her they settled there 
 because of her friendship with Sam Haycraft, Sr., 
 and William Owens. "Bersheba came to see me as 
 soon as they got set up in house keeping." 
 
 Bersheba said they built the Mill Creek church 
 in about 1783, before they moved to Jefferson — they 
 had helped their "might" to do it. There was a 
 store at the Bersheba Lincoln place and it was built 
 by Thomas Lincoln and Bill Brumfield. It was there 
 when she first saw the place, and later there was a 
 blacksmith shop, and it became a common meeting 
 place to hold elections. Many folks attended the 
 Baptist Church "that did not belong." They had 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 75 
 
 their war meetings there to plan against the "dod' 
 rotted" Indians. Bersheba was an entertaining wc 
 man, had read books and could talk about anything. 
 They often visited, though she (Elinor) was not 
 much older than Mary and Nancy Lincoln. The 
 Shepherdsville road which passed her door was the 
 first road built in Hardin County, the people said; it 
 went down the creek close to Bersheba's and crossed 
 the river at Pitts Point. It was called the road to 
 Bullitts Lick. When the road was opened that went 
 to Louisville, Bersheba did not travel by her house 
 very often. 
 
 Thomas Lincoln laid out that road. Billy Smith 
 was his near neighbor, he knew Thomas Lincoln 
 quite well. She knew John Smith but not as in' 
 timately as William. She never saw James Smith but 
 once, he lived in the Blue Grass. Billy Smith's 
 daughter, Catherine, married her son Henry, long 
 after James Smith's death. Bersheba Lincoln had 
 great courage, and was afraid of nothing; she had 
 killed the Indian who killed her husband. 
 
 Nancy Hanks was married to Thomas Lincoln in 
 1805 and moved into the Mill Creek house at that 
 time, she was pretty sure. September twentyfirst, is 
 the date given in Sam Haycraft's diary, though the 
 records in Washington County say June 12th, 1806. 
 The writer might enter on some explanation of this 
 discrepancy in the dates of marriage but thinks it 
 immaterial. 
 
 Nancy was her neighbor; they often visited. She 
 told her she was born in Virginia (what is now West 
 Virginia) . It was a mountainous section. Her grand' 
 father, Joseph Hanks, gave her the name of Hanks 
 because the man her mother married ran away, she 
 was told, and he would not allow his name in the 
 
76 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 house. She lived with her grandfather until she, 
 with her mother, came to Kentucky, then she moved 
 to "Uncle Berry's" in Washington County. Her 
 mother was named Lucy, and she had five brothers 
 and three sisters, one of them was Nancy, and that 
 was where she got her first name. Bill Brumfield 
 operated Thomas' farm when he was away, some" 
 times they lived on Nolin and Knob Creek but they 
 always called Mill Creek their home. It had the best 
 house on it, Nancy told her. 
 
 Nancy Hanks was angular, sharp'faced, nervous 
 and high strung. She had pretty black hair, was not 
 at all good looking but talked well; about five feet 
 seven inches, slender but "withy." She talked about 
 books and listened to me. She did not have much 
 education, but could sign her name and read some 
 when she first came to see me; I taught her read" 
 ing and multiplying. 1 '' She was smart and quick to 
 catch on, was very proud, had a good heart, talked 
 in a soft voice. People talked about her sometimes, 
 and that depressed her, hurt her, but she, Elinor, told 
 her to hold her head high and pay no attention to the 
 "blabbers," though she had a sharp tongue when she 
 wanted to answer. Elinor Peck only saw Captain 
 Lincoln a few times before he was killed, but she 
 remembers that he had a soldiery bearing, rough 
 features, was straight, and inclined to be slender. 
 They said he had a strong face but to her it was 
 rough. He also had black hair. That is also about 
 the description she had heard Bersheba give of him. 
 He wanted to buy land while it was very cheap. She 
 had told Elinor about the killing of Captain Lincoln, 
 her husband, by a single Indian. 
 
 Thomas was a round faced, heavy jawed, gray 
 eyed man, about five feet ten inches, weighed about 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 77 
 
 one hundred and eighty pounds and looked nothing 
 like his mother or the Captain. He was entertaining, 
 good natured, strong as a bull and also unafraid like 
 his mother, Thomas Lincoln liked his "likker 11 but 
 he never "got down." He did not belong to any 
 church and seemed to be proud of it. He was a 
 strong talking Jeffersonite. He was a politician and 
 had much influence, knew most everybody, and 
 mixed with the people. Thomas owned the Mill 
 Creek farm, the Knob Creek farm, the Nolin farm, a 
 house in Eli^abethtown, and had some stock all of 
 the time she knew him. "They were at my 
 house often, sometimes twice a week. I often saw 
 Sarah and Abe. He was a big boy. He could shoot 
 a rifle and drive a team of horses. They came here 
 after they sold the farm to Tom Melton to tell me 
 good-bye. They had sold off their crop on the Knob 
 Creek farm and were going down to see Melton, then 
 down to Bersheba's where they would stay a few 
 days. Then they would strike out west to Indiana. 11 
 Sarah was born in this house, I think, though it might 
 have been at Elizjabethtown. Abraham was born 
 over at the Mill Creek house as she remembered. 
 
 Thomas Lincoln, Billy Smith and young John 
 Smith were very good friends. They lived about 
 two miles apart. They talked about the Tories, the 
 folks that opposed Jefferson, both Thomas and Billy 
 were "pisen 11 against the Federalists as they were 
 sometimes called. 
 
 Thomas was an officer at different times and held 
 other jobs. He was a good friend to the Haycrafts, 
 the old man, and young Sam, the Clerk of the Court. 
 
 She would always remember William Owens, he 
 was a mighty good looking man, and had much influ" 
 ence — he was a good friend of Thomas Lincoln, folks 
 
78 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 said. Thomas Lincoln went away from home a 
 great deal but was always on a job of work of some 
 kind. He always had some money — that is cash, and 
 that was scarce. 
 
 Nancy Lincoln was the best looking one of the 
 Lincolns, Bill Brumfield's wife, and Thomas had told 
 her Nancy was his favorite. Thomas and Bill Brum' 
 field were good friends, she often saw them passing 
 around together. Thomas was with his mother until 
 he married. She knew the Austins also, old John 
 and Thomas Williams. Thomas, with young Abe 
 often hunted on the Creek and hunting was good 
 then. Thomas Lincoln returned from Cumberland 
 County when his mother returned to Hardin County. 
 Elinor Peck was a Pennsylvanian; she never lost the 
 brogue of the dutch country, as it was known in that 
 section. 
 
 She, Catherine, did not think much of slavery, but 
 she was surprised when she knew young Abe picked 
 up with the Abolitionists — he was the only Lincoln 
 she ever saw or heard of who was opposed to slavery. 
 
 She knew all about what happened during the war, 
 and told about the President not getting a vote in the 
 upper Mill Creek country when he ran for president. 
 
 She also knew young Bill Austin, Nancy Lincoln's 
 son'in4aw; she thought he was a wonderfully nice 
 fellow. She could not figure what ever caused him 
 to leave the country. 
 
 The Lincolns were not church people, but as was 
 common practice, folks used language from the Bible, 
 not knowing what it meant at all and the Lincolns 
 did likewise. 
 
 Mrs. Elinor Peck died at the age of eightytwo, in 
 1853. She was the friend of those she liked, and 
 those she did not, were passed by. She differed ma' 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 79 
 
 terially from many of her sordid and explosive neigh" 
 bors. Life to her was one solid pathway of fun from 
 the beginning to the end. Though she was Lutheran, 
 she kept her God right along with her all the time. 
 No less in many respects was Catherine Peck, her 
 daughter "in-law, everything else but of a Teutonic 
 nature. 
 
 Catherine had a tongue as sharp as steel, and she 
 did not hesitate to cut and slash Abraham Lincoln 
 when she paused to express her real self. He was 
 everything to her from a peddler of small ideas to a 
 bargaining politician. 
 
 To make sure of the location of the Thomas Lin- 
 coin farm the writer saw Bill Williams, son of John 
 Williams, the latter a son-in-law of Elinor Peck. 
 Bill was a grandson of Thomas Williams, who owned 
 this tract when Thomas Lincoln lived there; he had 
 him point it out to him. The land belonged to the 
 William May survey, of approximately sixteen 
 hundred acres. Thomas Lincoln purchased from 
 Stator 237 acres, the description of which "run him" 
 into the Williams tract, and of course, he lost part 
 of it. This Bill Williams was also a grandson of 
 Elinor Peck. He pointed out where the Lincoln 
 house was, and the stairway which had been in the 
 old house made by the hand of Thomas Lincoln. 
 Young John Smith had lived in that neighborhood. 
 He married Elisabeth Williams, then finally moved to 
 Arkansaw. 
 
 When President Lincoln was a candidate for Presi- 
 dent, all of the people in and around the Mill Creek 
 section "freshed up" on the Lincolns and discussed 
 them more than ever before, Catherine Peck had 
 said. 
 
 Elinor Peck and Nancy Lincoln Brumfield were 
 
80 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 the two oldest women in the country who would 
 know anything about the Lincoln folks. Frequently, 
 the people called on Catherine during the war to talk 
 about President Lincoln. Thomas Williams was 
 dead; her neighbor, John Williams, was not; Pame- 
 lia Cowherd, Polly Watts, Margaret Peck were all 
 living. Margaret Peck was her sister-in4aw. But 
 none of them knew the Lincolns quite so well as 
 Elinor Peck, and never were in sympathy with them 
 as she was. That was settled opinion. 
 
 Mrs. Catherine Peck herself had a good recollec 
 tion of the Lincoln women who remained in Ken' 
 tucky. She was born in 1826. She knew Bersheba, 
 and was on visiting terms with Nancy Lincoln Brum' 
 field. She said she was a very good looking, and a 
 very bright woman. She, Nancy, had never men' 
 tioned Thomas Lincoln but a few times or his son 
 during all of the times she had talked with her. 
 
 She knew the general feeling of the people to' 
 ward Lincoln. She also knew Jacob Van Meter, Jr., 
 and knew of his friendship for Thomas Lincoln. He 
 lived at the forks of Otter Creek where he died in 
 1850, at the age of about eighty years. He had been 
 chiefly behind building the Mill Creek and Otter 
 Creek Churches with his father, who had died about 
 twenty years before she was born. Elinor Peck knew 
 Squire Boone and Daniel Boone. John and James 
 Smith had been responsible for most of the migra' 
 tion of the settlers into Hardin, and James, John and 
 Colonel Bullitt were also active in Jefferson. 
 
 These settlers had been brought over on the prom' 
 ise of rich and cheap lands. Elinor was clear on the 
 fact that John and James Smith had lived originally 
 in Pennsylvania, being active in Virginia and Penn' 
 sylvania. 
 
Catherine Peck, who tells the story of Elinor Peck, 
 intimate associate of Tom and Nancy Lincoln. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 8 1 
 
 John had resided in Hardin for a time where his 
 son James, had located, and his brother James whose 
 business was in the upper counties had also visited 
 him, and she knew that James had been a "way up 
 man" in Pennsylvania. They were old men when 
 President Lincoln was born, and at that time James 
 resided in Washington County. 
 
 Catherine Peck's father, Billy Smith, grandson of 
 old John, lived two miles from the Thomas Lincoln 
 farm and the same distance from her place. He was 
 about twelve years younger than Thomas Lincoln, 
 but they were friends and visited together, played 
 politics together, and worked together in many ways. 
 
 In Catherine's opinion, Thomas was alright, and 
 that was her mother-in-law's opinion. She knew 
 that Squire Boone and Josiah Lincoln lived down at 
 Rock Haven, but did not know when they crossed 
 the river to Indiana. 
 
 Squire was all around everywhere, surveying in 
 the early days. He was intimate with the Millers 
 and Stators who lived in that section. She had heard 
 that they were at the old Mill Creek Church and in- 
 terested in its success. The Squire, her mother said, 
 was a good talker, but Daniel was poor on the oratory 
 and did not attempt that accomplishment. She often 
 heard Daniel had built a house on the highest point 
 on Muldraughs Hill so that he could see the Indians 
 when they crossed the Ohio River. 
 
 She knew that Thomas Lincoln had lost part of 
 his Mill Creek survey on account of a wrong descrip' 
 tion put in the deed of purchase. 
 
 Catherine was a sister-in-law of Jack Peck, Thomas 
 Peck, Reuben Peck, Nellie and Rebecca Peck. She 
 was the second wife of Henry, the youngest, born in 
 
82 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 1815. Henry's first wife was a daughter of Thomas 
 Melton, the purchaser of the Tom Lincoln farm. 
 
 Jack Melton, one of Tom's sons was father-in'law 
 of Ben Irwin, her nephew, who had lived down Mill 
 Creek two miles. 
 
 She was familiar with the deeds of one Captain 
 Jarrett, and was first on the ground when the writer's 
 mother was assaulted over on Mill Creek during the 
 war. For this crime she blamed Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 She was a knowing and intelligent woman and in' 
 herited much of the mind of her intellectual father, 
 and had a very fine memory for detail. 
 
 She flamed when she got on war subjects. She 
 drew a very sharp line against Mr. Lincoln, and was 
 entertaining on this subject when she was free to 
 dwell on her own grounds of detail, nevertheless she 
 could do the Lincolnites justice. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 CRIST, AND HIS GREAT FIGHT WITH THE 
 INDIANS ON SALT RIVER 
 
 'THE boy who made great, grist mills of corn stalks 
 in a branch that sang its songs close to his home, 
 and foundationed it with willow sprigs for spiles, 
 will understand the modern day process of generating 
 heroes from "tin horns." 
 
 The individual who gets into the limelight for a 
 day by accident, immediately becomes a professional 
 and paper-made hero. The "tin horn gambler," as he 
 was known in the west, was a smirk chap who won 
 his money from suckers in barnyards, wagon yards 
 and fence corner sessions. There is the origin of 
 "tin horn:' 
 
 Since we have so much money and so much Press, 
 we have become a nation of tin horn manufacturers. 
 We make statesmen of fish peddlers and vendors of 
 vegetables. Our entire artistic life is revitalised if 
 our dear Jane can get presented to the Queen's Court 
 at St. James. 
 
 We make our heroes from the cultured refinement 
 of the kingdom of the back alley rats. Our aviator 
 heroes, we make over-night and by them we swear all 
 kind of avowals. The truth is that we, in America, 
 have come to be a very shoddy aristocracy, and are 
 the well-known and willing kissers of the King's gar' 
 ment without any choice as to what part of it we con' 
 
 83 
 
84 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 tract. So base and coarse has our society become, 
 that we are perfectly delighted if some nincompoop 
 with the royal leather of a royal ass around his loins, 
 can afford us an opportunity to mouth and slobber in 
 "dress of state" over his royal feet. The original ass 
 may have been born in Palestine but he has flourished 
 beyond the dream of his progenitors in America. 
 
 Go to the forum and find the squeaky rats who call 
 themselves great entertainers, and you will see the 
 replica of the tinhorns. 
 
 Look over your Congress and there you will find 
 the tinhorns. See the Judges who administer the 
 law, and you will find the tinhorn, strutting his brief 
 day. Go to the American Bar Association and ex' 
 amine what brilliant exudations trickle from the 
 brains of tinhorns. 
 
 Parlor statesmen, parlor soldiers, parlor profes' 
 sionals — you would be ashamed of them if God and 
 your mother gave you an ounce of common sense. 
 
 Bluff and noise have come to take the place of the 
 men and women we had in Lincoln's day. If the 
 police capture a nineteen year old boy by calling out 
 a regiment, the good folks hold a mass meeting and 
 pin the baton of honor on the brave heroes. 
 
 We have truly run mad on the paint and brush 
 flourish, and the dictionary will have to be enlarged 
 to give us words to express our grand emotion and 
 thought. 
 
 Pick them out and lay them along side Lincoln, 
 and see how short we are of real man material in 
 America. Where are the men who mold with those 
 in the story which follows? Go to Hollywood and 
 Park Avenue and pick the best, then compare them 
 with the men who walked out of Kentucky, followed 
 the Indians to Canada and trimmed the British and 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 85 
 
 Indians in a thrilling fight that required rqal men, at 
 the battle of the Thames. 
 
 The weakness of our country lies in the weakness 
 of our men; poverty, as universal as it is, today, re' 
 suits alone from the poverty of brains; other excuses 
 may be offered but poverty of brains in the White 
 House and Congress, is truth's answer and history's 
 apology. 
 
 The writer, therefore, gives you a thrilling story 
 of one of the greatest fights in history, told by Mr. 
 Crist, a surviving participant, to a reporter for Judge 
 Collins. This will give you an idea of the class of 
 people that gave sinew and inspiration to Abraham 
 Lincoln; parts for his reserve that he made use of 
 when he finally came to deal with the great situations 
 of his career. At least, let us remember that he had 
 background, just of what your statesman today is 
 sadly in need. Compare our poverty in men with 
 these actors who make your blood steam up and ask, 
 what's ailing us? 
 
 Henry Crist was born in the State of Virginia in 
 the year of 1764. During the Revolutionary War, 
 his father with a large family emigrated to the 
 western part of Pennsylvania, from whence young 
 Henry and other ardent youths of the neighborhood, 
 made frequent and daring excursions into the western 
 wilderness, sometimes into what is now the State of 
 Ohio, sometimes into Limestone (now Maysville, 
 Kentucky) and finally to the falls of the Ohio, which 
 place he first visited in 1779. The buffalo and deer 
 had clearly indicated to the early settlers those places 
 where salt water was to be found. The great difii' 
 culty of importing salt, the increasing demand and 
 high price of the article, encouraged the attempt to, 
 manufacture here at a very early date. Salt was 
 
86 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 made at Bullitt's Lick, now in Bullitt County, over 
 ninety years ago. (Interview 1869 by Collins.) 
 
 In Crist's excursions to the west, he had become 
 acquainted and associated with an enterprising 
 Dutchman, named Myers, a land agent and general 
 locator, in whose name more land had been entered 
 than in that of almost any other man in the West. 
 This pursuit of locator of lands, brought Crist at a 
 very early date to Bullitt's Lick, where he took a pro' 
 minent and active part in some of those scenes which 
 have contributed to the notoriety of that renowned 
 resort of all who lived within fifty miles around the 
 first settlement of the country. 
 
 Here, the first salt was made in Kentucky; and here 
 from five hundred to a thousand men were collected 
 together in the various branches of salt making, as 
 well as buying of, selling to and guarding the salt 
 when Louisville could boast but a few hovels, and 
 when the buffalo slept in security around the base 
 of Capitol Hill. 
 
 In May, 1 788, a flat boat loaded with kettles, in' 
 eluded for the manufacture of salt at Bullitt's Lick, 
 left Louisville with thirteen persons, twelve armed 
 men and a woman on board. The boat and cargo 
 was owned by Henry Crist and Solomon Spears, and 
 the company consisted of Crist, Spears, Christian 
 Crepps, Thomas Floyd, Joseph Boyce, Evans Moore, 
 and an Irishman named Fossett and five others, and a 
 woman, whose name the writer cannot now recol' 
 lect, though he has heard Crist often repeat them. 
 
 The intention of the party was to traverse Rolling 
 Fork River, which was then very high to the north 
 of Salt River and ascend the latter river, the current 
 of which was entirely deadened by back water from 
 the Ohio, to a place near Licks, called "Mud Garri' 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 87 
 
 son," which was a temporary fortification, cons' 
 tructed of two rows of slight stockades, and the space 
 between filled with mud and gravel from the bank 
 of the river close by. The works enclosed a space of 
 about half an acre and stood about midway between 
 Bullitt's Lick and the falls of the Salt River, where 
 Shepherdsville now stands. These works were then 
 occupied by the families of the salt makers, and those 
 who hunted to supply them with food and acted as 
 an advance guard to give notice of the approach of 
 any considerable body of men. 
 
 On the 25th of May, the boat entered Salt River, 
 and the hands commenced working her up with 
 sweep oars. There was no current one way or the 
 other — when they came into Salt River, they were 
 within reach of the Indian rifles from either shore, 
 while in the Ohio, the great breadth of the river 
 secured them against any sudden attack. It became 
 necessary, therefore, to send out scouts, to apprise 
 them of any danger ahead. In the evening of the 
 first day of their ascent of the river, Crist and Floyd 
 went above to reconnoitre the bank of the river ahead 
 of the boat. Late in the evening, they discovered a 
 fresh trail, but for want of light, they could not 
 make out the number of Indians. They remained 
 out all night but made no further discoveries. In 
 the morning, as they were returning down the 
 river towards the boat, they heard a number of 
 guns which they believed to be Indians, killing game 
 for breakfast. They hastened back to the boat and 
 communicated what they had heard and seen. They 
 pulled up the river until about eight o'clock and ar- 
 rived about eight miles below the mouth of the Rol' 
 ling Fork, where they drew into shore on the north 
 side of the river, now in Bullitt County, intending to 
 
88 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 land and cook and eat their breakfast. As they 
 pulled into shore, they heard the gobbling of tur- 
 keys, (as they supposed) on the bank where they 
 were going to land, and as the boat touched, Fossett 
 and another sprang ashore, with their guns in their 
 hands to shoot turkeys. They were cautioned of 
 their danger, but disregarding the admonition, hast- 
 ily ascended the bank. Their companions in the boat 
 had barely lost sight of them when they heard a 
 volley of rifles discharged all at once on the bank im- 
 mediately above, succeeded by a yell of savages so 
 terrific as to induce a belief that the woods were filled 
 with Indians. 
 
 This attack so sudden and violent took the boat's 
 company by surprise; and they had barely time to 
 seise their rifles and place themselves in a position of 
 defense, when Fossett and his companion came dash- 
 ing down the bank, hastily pursued by a large body 
 of Indians. 
 
 Crist stood in the bow of the boat with his rifle in 
 his hand. At the first sight of the enemy he brought 
 his rifle to his face, but instantly perceived the object 
 of his aim was a white man, and the sudden thought 
 flashed across his mind, that the enemy were a com- 
 pany of surveyors that he knew to be in the woods, 
 and that the attack was made in sport, etc. He low- 
 ered his gun and at the same time his foeman sunk 
 out of sight behind the bank. But the firing had be- 
 gun in earnest by both sides. Crist again brought 
 his rifle to his face, and as he did so the white man 
 rose over the bank, with his gun also drawn up and 
 presented. Crist got the fire on him, and at the crack 
 of his rifle the white man fell forward dead. Fosset's 
 hunting companion plunged forward into the water, 
 and got in safely at the bow of the boat. But Fos- 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 89 
 
 set's arm was broken by the first fire from the hill. 
 
 The boat, owing to the high water, did not touch 
 the land, and he got into the river further toward 
 the stern, and swam around with his gun in his hand, 
 and was taken safely in the stern of the boat. So 
 intent were the Indians in the pursuit of their prey, 
 that many of them ran to the water's edge, struck 
 and shot at Fossett and his companion while they 
 were getting into the boat, and some even seised the 
 boat and attempted to draw it nearer the shore. In 
 this attempt many of the Indians perished; some were 
 shot dead as they approached the boat, others were 
 killed in the river, and it required the most stubborn 
 resistance and determined valor to keep them from 
 carrying the boat by assault. 
 
 The Indians, repulsed in their efforts to board the 
 boat, withdrew higher up the bank, and taking their 
 station behind the trees, commenced a regular and 
 galling fire which was returned with the spirit of 
 brave men, rendered desperate by the certain knowl- 
 edge that no quarter would be given and that it was 
 an issue of victory or death to every soul on board. 
 
 The boat had a log-chain for the cable and when 
 she was first brought ashore, the chain was thrown 
 around a small tree that stood in the water's edge and 
 the hook run through one of the links. This had 
 been done before the first fire was made upon Fossett 
 on shore. The kettles in the boat had been stacked 
 up along the sides, leaving an open gangway through 
 the middle of the boat from bow to stern. Unfor- 
 tunately, the bow lay to shore so that the guns of the 
 Indians raked the whole length of the gangway, and 
 their fire was constant and destructive. 
 
 Spears and several others of the bravest men had 
 already fallen, some killed and others wounded. From 
 
90 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 the commencement of the battle, many efforts had 
 been made to disengage the boat from the shore, all 
 of which had failed. The hope was that, if they 
 could once loosen the cable, the boat would drift out 
 of the reach of the enemy's guns, but any attempt to 
 do this by hand, would expose the person to certain 
 destruction. Fossett's right arm was broken, and he 
 could no longer handle his rifle. He got a pole, and 
 placing himself low down in the bow of the boat, 
 commenced punching at the hook of the chain but 
 the point of the hook was turned from him and all his 
 efforts seemed only to drive it further into the link. 
 He at length discovered where a small limb had been 
 cut from the pole, and left a knot about an inch long. 
 This knot, after a number of efforts, he placed 
 against the point of the hook and, jerking the pole 
 suddenly towards him, threw the hook out of the 
 link. The chain fell and the boat drifted slowly out 
 from the bank, and by means of an oar worked over' 
 head, the boat was brought into the middle of the 
 river with her side to shore, which protected them 
 from the fire of the Indians. The battle had now 
 lasted an hour. The odds against the crew was at 
 least ten to one. The fire had been very destructive 
 on both sides, and a great many of the Indians had 
 been killed, but if the boat had remained much long- 
 er at the shore, it was manifest that there would have 
 been none of the crew left to tell the tale of their 
 disaster. The survivors had now time to look around 
 upon the havoc that had been made of their little 
 band. Five of their companions lay dead in the gang' 
 way — Spears, Floyd, Fossett and Boyce were wound' 
 ed — Crepps, Crist and Moore remained unhurt. It 
 was evident that Spears 1 wound was mortal, and that 
 he could survive but a few moments. He urged the 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 91 
 
 survivors to run the boat to the opposite side of the 
 river and save themselves by immediate flight and 
 leave him to his fate. Crepps and Crist positively 
 refused. But the boat was gradually nearing the 
 southern shore of the river. 
 
 At this time, forty or fifty Indians were seen cros' 
 sing the river above, at a few hundred yards distant, 
 some on logs, some swimming and some carrying 
 their rifles over their heads. The escape was now 
 hopeless, as there was a large body of Indians on 
 each side of the river. If the boat had been carried 
 immediately to the opposite side of the river, as soon 
 as her cable was loosened, the survivors might have 
 escaped, but to such minds and hearts, the idea of 
 leaving their dying friends to the mercy of the In' 
 dian Tomahawk was insupportable. The boat, at 
 length, touched the southern shore — a hasty prepara- 
 tion was made to bear the wounded into the woods; 
 Floyd, Fossett and Boyce got to land and sought con' 
 cealment in the thick wilderness. Crepps and Crist 
 turned to their suffering friend, Spears, but death 
 had kindly stepped in and cut short the savage 
 triumph. The woman now remained. They offered 
 to assist her to shore that she might take her chance 
 of escape in the woods, but the danger of her posi' 
 tion, and the scenes of blood and death around her 
 had overpowered her senses, and no entreaty or re 
 monstrance could prevail with her to move. She sat 
 with her face buried in her hands, and no effort could 
 make her sensible of any hope of escape. The In' 
 dians had gained the south side of the river and were 
 yelling like bloodhounds as they ran down towards 
 the boat which they now looked upon as their cer' 
 tain prey. Crepps and Crist each sized a rifle and as' 
 cended the river bank; at the top of the hill they met 
 
92 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 the savages and charged them with a shot. Crepps 
 fired upon them but Crist, in his haste, had taken 
 up Fossett's gun, which had gotten wet as he swam 
 with it to the boat on the opposite side, and it missed 
 fire. At this time, Moore passed them and escaped. 
 The Indians when charged by Crepps and Crist, fell 
 back into a ravine that put into the river immediately 
 above them. Crist and Crepps again commenced 
 their flight. The Indians rallied, and rose from the 
 ravine and fired a volley at them as they fled. Crepps 
 received a ball in his left side; a bullet struck Grist's 
 heel, and completely crushed the bones of his foot. 
 They parted and met no more. 
 
 The Indians intent on plunder, did not pursue — 
 they rushed into the boat. Crist heard one long ago' 
 nixing shriek from the unfortunate woman, and the 
 wild shouts of the savages as they possessed them' 
 selves of the spoils of a costly but barren victory. 
 
 Crepps, in the course of the next day, arrived in 
 the neighborhood of Long Lick, and being unable to 
 travel further, laid down in the woods to die. Moore, 
 alone, escaped unhurt and brought in the tidings of 
 the defeat of the boat. The country was at once 
 roused. Crepps was found and brought in, but died 
 about the time he reached home. Crist described 
 Crepps as a tall, fair'haired, handsome man, kind and 
 enterprising, and possessed of those high and striking 
 qualities that gave the heroic stamp to that hardy 
 race of pioneers amongst whom he had lived and 
 died. He had been the lion of the fight. By exposing 
 himself to the most imminent peril, he inspired his 
 companions with his own contempt of danger. He 
 and Crist had stood over Fossett and got the Indians 
 treed while he disengaged the cable, and his coolness 
 during the long, bloody struggle of the day, had won 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 93 
 
 the admiration of Crist himself, than whom no more 
 dauntless man had ever contented with mortal foe. 
 Crepps left a young wife and one son, then an infant. 
 His wife was enceinte at the time of his death — pos- 
 thumously, there was a daughter who became the 
 wife of Hon. Charles A. Wickliffe. The son died 
 shortly after he arrived at man's estate. 
 
 Crist was so disabled by the wound that he could 
 not walk. The bones of his heel were crushed. He 
 crept into a thicket and laid down — his wound bled 
 profusely. He could not remain here long. His feet 
 were now of no use to him. He bound his mocca- 
 sins on his knees and commenced his journey. Piece 
 by piece, his hat, hunting shirt and vest were con' 
 sumed to shield his hands against the rugged rocks 
 which lay in his way. He crawled on, all day up the 
 river, and at night crossed over to the north side 
 upon a log that he rolled down the bank. He con- 
 cealed himself into the thicket and tried to sleep. 
 His foot and leg were much swollen and inflamed. 
 
 Guided by stars, he crept on again, between mid- 
 night and day, he came in sight of a camp fire and 
 heard the barking of a dog. A number of Indians 
 rose up from around the fire, and he crept softly 
 away from the light. He laid down and remained 
 quiet for some time. When all was still again, he 
 resumed his slow and painful journey. He crawled 
 into a small branch, and went down it for some 
 distance upon rocks, that he might leave no trace be- 
 hind him. 
 
 At daylight, he ascended an eminence of consider- 
 able height, to ascertain, if possible, where he was 
 and how to shape his future course, but all around 
 was wilderness. He was aiming to reach Bullitt's 
 
94 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 Lick now about eight miles distant and his progress 
 was not half a mile an hour. He toiled on all day — 
 night came on, the second day of his painful journey. 
 Since leaving the small branch the night before, he 
 had found no water — since the day before the battle 
 he had not tasted food. Worn down with hunger, 
 raging thirst, want of sleep, acute pain, he laid him" 
 self down to die. But his sufferings were not to end 
 there — guided by the stars, he struggled on. Every 
 rag that could interpose between the rugged stones 
 and his bleeding hands and knees (for now he could 
 only use one) was worn away. 
 
 The morning came — the morning of the third day 
 — it brought him but little hope, but the old indom' 
 itable spirit within him disdained to yield, and during 
 the day he made what progress he could. As the 
 evening drew on, he became aware that he was in the 
 vicinity of Bullitt's Lick, but he could go no further, 
 nature had made her last effort and he laid himself 
 down and prayed that death would speedily end his 
 sufferings. When darkness came on, from where he 
 lay, he could see the hundred fires of the furnaces at 
 the Licks glowing; and he even fancied that he could 
 see the dusky forms of the firemen as they passed 
 around the pits, but they were more than half a mile 
 off, and how was he to reach them? He had not 
 eaten a morsel in four days, he had been drained of 
 almost his last drop of blood; the wounded leg had 
 become stiff and swollen, for the last two days and 
 nights he had dragged it after him; the flesh was 
 worn from his knee and from the palms of his hands. 
 
 Relief was in his sight, but to reach it was impos' 
 sible. Suddenly he heard the tramp of a horse's feet 
 approaching him, and hope once more sprang up in 
 his breast. The sound came near and still nearer. A 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 95 
 
 path ran near the place where he lay, a man on horse- 
 back approached within a few rods of him; he mus- 
 tered his remaining strength, and hailed him; but to 
 his utter surprise and dismay, the horseman turned 
 suddenly and galloped off toward the Licks. Despair 
 now seized him. To die alone of hunger and thirst, 
 in the sight of hundreds and of plenty, seemed to him 
 the last dregs of the bitter cup that Fate could offer 
 to mortal lips. O, that he could have fallen by the 
 side of his friends in the proud battle. That he could 
 have met the Indian Tomahawk and died in the 
 strength of his manhood, and not have been doomed 
 to linger out his life in days and nights of pain and 
 agony, and die by piece meal in childish despair. 
 
 While these thoughts were passing in his mind, the 
 horseman (a negro, "General Braddock" then owned 
 by Jacob Van Meter, who had offered him his free- 
 dom for so many Indian heads) regained the Licks 
 and alarmed the people there with the intelligence 
 that the Indians were approaching. On being inter- 
 rogated, all the account he could give was that -some 
 person had called to him in the woods a half mile off 
 and called him by the wrong name. It was manifest 
 it was not an Indian. So, forthwith, a number of 
 men set out, guided by the negro, to the place where 
 he heard a voice, calling a man by name. Crises 
 hopes again revived, when he heard voices, and saw 
 lights approaching. They came near and hailed 
 Crist. He knew the voice and called the man by 
 name. This removed all doubt, and they approached 
 the spot where he lay. A sad and mournful sight 
 was before them. A man that left them but a few 
 days before, in the bloom of youth, health and 
 buoyant spirits, now lay stretched upon the earth, 
 
96 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 a worn and mangled skeleton of his former self, un- 
 able to lift a hand to bid them welcome. 
 
 They bore him home, the ball was extracted; but 
 his recovery was slow and doubtful. It was a year 
 before he was a man again. Health restored in part, 
 there was a deep remorse and suffering as keen as 
 the physical pain that had been preying on his mind. 
 
 The young woman in the boat in the beginning of 
 the flight was carried away, a prisoner to Canada, 
 What had happened to her, and on whose responsi- 
 bility rested the horror of her plight? These thoughts 
 now racked him. 
 
 Ten years afterward, after suffering what was 
 death to him, she reappeared, her release having been 
 obtained by a white trader. Crist suddenly came 
 face to face with her. She told her story. The white 
 man had bargained for her liberty just before she was 
 about to become the forced chattel of an Indian 
 Chief. He brought her to General Wayne's camp 
 on the Maume, and, she was, by General Wayne, 
 released to her friends. 
 
 She told Crist that the body of the Indians which 
 made the attack on the boat, numbered over one 
 hundred and twenty, of whom about thirty were 
 killed in the engagement. This account was later 
 confirmed by Indians whom Crist met afterward, and 
 who had been in the battle. They told him that the 
 crew in the boat fought more like devils than men. 
 and if they had taken one of them prisoner, they 
 would have roasted him alive. These desperate 
 fighting men had filled the Indians with admiration 
 and respect, which probably contributed to saving 
 the life of the young woman. 
 
 Crist lived many years, honored by the people of 
 Kentucky. He was elected to the Legislature of the 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 97 
 
 State and finally to Congress in 1808. He died in 
 1844 at the age of eighty-eight years. This story 
 was related to me by a grandson, and is confirmed by 
 the history of Kentucky. (Collins.) 
 
 This desperate fight occurred about two years 
 after the killing of Captain Lincoln. And it was a 
 major force in the organisation of an army of Ken- 
 tuckians determined to drive the Indians out of the 
 entire northern country, which culminated in the 
 battle of the Thames. 
 
 The Salt River Tigers as they became known, and 
 were known in 1860, always had a community of 
 spirit that was indomitable. They formed a part of 
 General Caldwell's division at the Thames in 1812. 
 Others, of their own choice went into the command 
 of General McAfee. A history of this battle relates 
 the killing of Tecumseh, the whites giving no quarter 
 to the Indians wherever in contact. The command of 
 the English General Proctor, was put to inglorious 
 flight, Tecumseh and all of his followers slaughtered 
 and captured in the fiercest charge ever made in the 
 history of American wars. 
 
 At the time of this interview with Mr. B. F. Crist 
 of Muldraughs Hill the writer had already, in an in- 
 terview with Mr. Owen Cowley developed from him 
 the story of Bersheba Lincoln, of the death of the 
 President's grandfather, as she had told it to him. I 
 asked Mr. Crist if he had any family tradition on this 
 subject. He then told me what his grandfather had 
 said about it, and in substantial particulars it was as 
 told me by Catherine Peck. He said that according 
 to the tradition of his family, Bersheba had shot the 
 Indian from the house, participated in, maybe, by 
 Mordecai, but believed to have been modified to give 
 Mordecai some glory in the event; first, by his 
 
98 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 mother, and then amended by him so as to take en' 
 tire credit for it; and thus it has passed into history as 
 the act of a young boy. They, at this time, were un- 
 der the protection of the Bullitt's Lick organisation 
 and that of Squire Boone in eastern Jefferson County. 
 
 He also developed what I had suspected in these 
 searches, * that Myers, the Hebrew, deserved great 
 credit for the organisation of the Pioneers; that he 
 owned nearly all of the land on Mill Creek, having it 
 in his own name or that of one of his surveyor subor- 
 dinates. John Smith and Captain Floyd, both of 
 whom had great experience in handling the Indians, 
 actually put the organisation together, taking in men 
 of known courage for forty miles around. Captain 
 Lincoln was one of the early men of this organic 
 tion, and had acquired his lands through Myers and 
 John Smith. 
 
 The very best rifles were thus furnished the pio' 
 neers, both women and men being taught to handle 
 them at an early age. Wealthier men from Bullitt's 
 Lick, and toward Elisabethtown, including Mill 
 Creek and Muldraughs Hill, had been included in 
 this military and business organisation. Hon. Frank 
 Straus, member of the Constitutional Convention for 
 Bullitt County in 1890, who married a Crist, also 
 confirmed the story of Grist's fight and escape, as re' 
 iterated by Judge Collins. 
 
 Mr. James Hawkins, whose ancestors had lived in 
 the Salt River hills as long as any, told me the story 
 as it is related, with slight changes except as to indi- 
 vidual participants. "He should have married the 
 young lady," I observed; and he thought t'was pos- 
 sible he did, but I told him she had married a very 
 prominent lawyer and had given to the world many 
 prominent men. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 99 
 
 The story of Captain Lincoln's death was slightly 
 different from what I have related through Dr. 
 Smith and Catherine Peck, but not in any substantial 
 particular, as he had received it from his grandfather. 
 Floyd and John Smith were in Jefferson County 
 when assailed at or about the time the Captain was 
 killed, but they had ambushed and shot the Indians 
 as they were crossing the Ohio. If James Hawkins 
 was a sample of the great Tigers, they need not have 
 feared the scorn of the critical world, for he was at 
 seventy, the most magnificent specimen of a physical 
 and intellectual man I had ever looked upon. He 
 might have easily been mistaken by Cicero for a new 
 Senator. 
 
 If it were in this company Abraham Lincoln's for" 
 bears travelled, then I see no reason for the statement 
 that Thomas had sprung from a second class family. 
 Thomas himself, in later years participated, as an ac- 
 tive patroller with the Tigers of the hills, and we 
 may assume, was a welcome adjunct. Then may we 
 not assume also that the Lincolns were not of the 
 hovel house fraternity whose huts were inhabited by 
 "vermin and rats." 
 
 No less a person than Colonel Young, who wrote 
 the best history of the battle of the Thames, said of 
 these men, that they were the ablest fighters, man for 
 man, brain for brain, that ever faced frontier trials in 
 this country. They carried the battle of 1812 from 
 Kentucky to Canada, travelling hard on hostile tribes 
 of Indians five hundred miles, fighting them as a pas- 
 time each day of their travel. All honor to the Salt 
 River Tigers. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 GENERAL BRADDOCK, THE GREAT NEGRO 
 
 QENERAL BRADDOCK," the slave negro, who 
 found Crist dying in the woods, was the most 
 renowned and interesting negro in the early days of 
 Kentucky. Squire Boone and Colonel John Smith 
 have handed down to us stories of his remarkable 
 skill as an Indian fighter and as a man of fine char- 
 acter. 
 
 The story goes that Braddock was the body serv 
 ant of General Braddock of Indian fighting fame, and 
 when Braddock was shot, he was shifted over to 
 Colonel Smith and thereby came to be a fixture in 
 Hardin County. 
 
 He was purchased by the elder Jacob Van Meter. 
 It is not known whether he was one of Washington's 
 servants or whether he was owned by General Brad" 
 dock himself, but it is a fact that he trained with them 
 in all of the Indian fights prior to the Revolutionary 
 War and was at the battle of Fort Du Quesne. He 
 was known to have great cunning and courage as 
 well. The stories that come to us are very numerous 
 and none to his discredit. He was Thomas Lincoln's 
 friend. He worked with Lincoln, and he fought In- 
 dians with Lincoln. 
 
 At the time of the shooting of Crist, he was hunt- 
 ing Indians on his own account. He wanted his free- 
 dom, and old Jacob Van Meter, it is said, sold him 
 his freedom on a condition that required him to kill 
 
 100 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 101 
 
 ten Indians. He could then be a free negro. We 
 know that he was the first free negro in Hardin Coun- 
 ty, and there were only thirty-three of these in 1860, 
 out of about twenty-four hundred slaves. 
 
 Braddock hunted Indians in pairs; if he found 
 more than a pair, he did not assail them, but if he 
 found two away any distance from a greater number, 
 he would lay his plans to execute them in short order. 
 
 He was an expert with a rifle, pistol or Tomahawk. 
 It is said that he could stick a Tomahawk into an oak 
 tree at fifty yards and never miss. He was a danger- 
 ous antagonist in a close contest, as his use of the 
 hunting knife was also of deadly effect. 
 
 He is described as a man of powerful build, about 
 five feet ten, with a very intelligent face and head, 
 could read and write well, and was a very fast runner. 
 
 Braddock's plan was to carry three rifles, and to 
 ride a fast horse. If he found his Indians, he would 
 do his shooting rapidly in order to make believe there 
 was a strong body of whites in the attacking party. 
 The Indians, if any were left, would flee, so that he 
 would be safe in furnishing evidence of his prey. He 
 usually cut the hair of the Indian off with his hunt- 
 ing knife, taking a piece of the hide to show it was a 
 recent victim. His master's instruction was not to 
 scalp the Indian victim. 
 
 He and "Sharp Eye" Hart were two men the In- 
 dians had sworn to get. They did get Hart but the 
 ever elusive Braddock escaped capture. He died a 
 natural death. 
 
 Braddock once picked a pair of Indians in the Mill 
 Creek by imitating the gobbler, and the hens, with 
 his turkey bone, which he operated much as a flute 
 would be blown. He would, in this way, lie in the 
 woods and wait for the Indians to go on the trail of 
 
/ANY NEWS DOWN T % TH" VmAOE,BZRY?~ 
 
 '' WELL. 5QU1RE M: LEAT15 GONE f WAJHlrf TO1 
 T SEE MADISON 5WOBE IN, AH*OL SPELLMAff 
 TELLS ME THIS BONAPASTYE FULA HAS CAPTUKED 
 MOST fli SPAIN. WNAT5 NEWarrHEPF,NH6H&0fc? 
 
 "Nl/THltf ATALl, NUTHlrfATALL,'C2?PTFTR —=———======: 
 
 A NEW BABY POWNT'TOM UNCOUfS. "~ 
 
 • HimtlrfEVER HAPPENS OUT HERE w -=^- HARD,N C0UNTY ' 180 » 
 
 Cartoon based on story of John Smith of the birth of 
 President Lincoln on Mill Creek, winter of 1809. Loaned 
 by John H. Smith, Sterling, Kansas — credited to New 
 York Globe and H. T. Webster. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 103 
 
 the turkeys. He would hide behind a log or crawl 
 into the brush and start his operations. As they 
 drew closer to him, he would gobble louder, which 
 would cause the Indian to believe he was getting 
 closer to his find. When he felt certain, he would 
 chance his first shot, down went the Indian, and he 
 left it to his rifle, Tomahawk or knife to get the 
 other. 
 
 At one time he missed his Indian, and a powerful 
 pair came upon him, and these young bucks started 
 in to butcher him with glee. Braddock jumped out, 
 and as the Indians thought, attempting to make his 
 flight, running just slow enough for the buck to get 
 nearly to him, he then turned quickly and threw his 
 Tomahawk, slitting the nearest Indian's skull. By 
 that time, the second Indian was very close to him 
 when they embraced in a deadly duel. The Indian 
 hug was a favorite plan of his, to pretend with his 
 long knife to fight the Indian antagonist, but at the 
 opportune time, Braddock would grab his Indian and 
 bring him so close that he could use his knife, then 
 with a half Nelson, send him to the ground and stab 
 him to death as he arose. 
 
 If the Indians were on horses he would pretend to 
 be running afoot, always keeping somewhere in 
 the neighborhood of his horse. They would, as a 
 rule, circle him so that his body would be exposed to 
 fire from one or the other. He carried with him a 
 rope which he was an expert at throwing. When the 
 Indians got close enough to him he would be apt to 
 jirk one from his horse in case his rifle was not avail- 
 able, force the other to dismount to rescue his mate. 
 Then Braddock would shoot him with his old cap 
 and ball pistol. If he failed by chance, he would 
 keep the Indian on the ground with his rope, or draw 
 
104 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 him quickly to a tree that he was behind, and knock 
 his brains out with his Tomahawk, then finish the 
 second Indian. He was many times wounded in this 
 kind of a fight but never failed to get his Indian, and 
 sometimes two. 
 
 It will be noticed that when Crist had called for 
 help, Braddock was taking no chance of meeting the 
 fire of other Indians skulking around, waiting for him 
 to go to the white man. He flew away for assistance, 
 which returned in sufficient numbers to give battle to 
 a body of Indians. 
 
 Crist, himself, during his membership of Congress 
 in later years never tired of telling stories of the won" 
 derful negro slave. 
 
 Braddock once followed two Indians in a small 
 canoe down Salt River until they halted close to the 
 bank some thirty feet away, listening to his turkey 
 gobble. He shot one from his position in a clump of 
 trees, then ran to the bank and roped the other at" 
 tempting to flee in his canoe. He jirked him into the 
 water with his rope and Tomahawked him when he 
 got him close to the bank of the river. 
 
 But Braddock was also a friend of "de Lawd." 
 When he went looking for Indians he always had a 
 little conference with "de Lawd." It was "de Lawd" 
 that gave him a keen eye and a steady arm, and it was 
 "de Lawd" that gave him his freedom. 
 
 When fc 'Raccoon' ' Smith came to Mill Creek to 
 preach and doffed his "Raccoon" cap, Braddock was 
 in his corner of the white folks church to say amen 
 every now and then. He stood well in the "Baptist 
 Church of Mill Creek" on account of his piety, and 
 it is quite certain that his ability to take down Indian 
 marauders was no discredit to the sanctity of his 
 amens. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 105 
 
 He lived to be nearly a hundred and died at the old 
 Otter Creek farm of Jacob Van Meter, Jr., where he 
 founded, before his death, what we knew to be "the 
 free negroes of Meade County," part of the old 
 County of Hardin cut off into Meade County. 
 
 Thus may we say that Thomas Lincoln had some 
 reason in Braddock to feel that all negroes the equal 
 of Braddock should have long ago received the bene 
 fits of his son's PROCLAMATION. 
 
 "Sharp Eye" Hart who came from Rockingham 
 County, Virginia, lost his life shortly after the death 
 of Captain Lincoln, in a fight a short distance from 
 his original home in Eli^abethtown. He was the com' 
 panion of Braddock in many a fight where the In' 
 dians came off second best. 
 
 The Braddock negroes did not breed on, but the 
 Harts became the very important white citizens in 
 the section where they lived. The farm is now owned 
 by the United States Government for target practice 
 at Camp Knox. 
 
 Braddock' s conduct exemplifies the loyal charac 
 ter of the negro. His love for freedom, when slavery 
 was not physically oppressive to him, is expressed in 
 his willingness to kill Indians in order that he might 
 buy it. 
 
 It has been often asserted that Lincoln was influ' 
 enced to free the slaves by what he saw at the auc 
 tion block in New Orleans. This cannot be true, 
 as no man of Lincoln's nature was ever influenced by 
 a single instance or a single circumstance or fact. 
 Lincoln's objection was constitutional. He loved li' 
 berty, and desired to extend it down to the most or' 
 dinary man. Lincoln understood mental oppression 
 and had been made to feel it, and slavery was a men' 
 tal oppression to him. It was inconsistent with his 
 
106 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 visualisation of life and the purposes of God. Lin- 
 coln, like the negro, was close to God. We may call 
 it superstition, nevertheless, it is a communion with 
 the Spirit of the Almighty. 
 
 The negro is more of a spiritual mental being than 
 the white man. He loves the sunlight, and it makes 
 him sing like a bird. He is a songster himself. He is 
 the father of the "J^zT music today, that, commer- 
 cially speaking has overthrown the music of the great 
 geniuses of the world. The negro is only brutal when 
 incited by the brutality of the white man; his crimes 
 may be attributed to white demoralisation, for, it is 
 his nature to be just and loyal. His sympathy is 
 easily enlisted in any cause where suffering is within 
 his sight. The negro may be a strutter for the same 
 reason a peacock is such, but the negro is never as 
 cold blooded or arrogant as the white man. He is 
 not the leading criminal in America; that doubtful 
 honor belongs to the white race; nor does his race 
 furnish the principal racketeers. 
 
 He will fight for his country quickly when it is 
 assailed, though he owns but a small portion of it. 
 He loves harmony, therefore he wants peace. Such 
 also, was the nature of Abraham Lincoln. He, by his 
 proclamation, commanded the negro to rise from the 
 dust and stand among free men. 
 
 Lincoln was the extreme partisan of Jefferson and 
 he loved Democracy, because he was by nature, of 
 personal and political equality. He hated caste, and 
 to him, classes represented poverty and negative op- 
 pression; he was therefore for the underdog, the 
 negro. Lincoln hated slavery for the same reason 
 Voltaire hated Emperors and Kings — they were the 
 oppressive opposites of liberty. 
 
 The negro owes all to Lincoln, and the advance- 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 107 
 
 ment of the race has shown his far seeing wisdom of 
 judgment. 
 
 There is no longer a negro problem in America, 
 though there are more than ten million blacks. They 
 have been removed as a problem. 
 
 The negro looks always to a wider field of activity. 
 The white man needs to do but one thing for him, 
 open the gates of industrial opportunity. 
 
 He judges accurately the white man, for much the 
 same reason the loyal and faithful dog guesses the 
 wishes of his master. The negro has native-born in- 
 tuition inherited from the days of his slavery, as an 
 endowment of the Almighty. 
 
 He knows that he has already been judged, and as 
 a citizen, that he is an automatic civiliser of himself, 
 for he well understands that civilisation brings him 
 into the spotlight place of peace and happiness. 
 
 The negro is the last who, in consequential num' 
 bers, will turn to Communism, though he is the first 
 of his race, perhaps, to receive benefits above his pre- 
 sent situation; yet he is wise enough to see that, 
 eventually, his troubles would there begin. He would 
 lose his segregation socially, which is the safety valve 
 of his perpetual advancement. 
 
 As the arm of Democracy is strenghtened, so will 
 the negro improve his lot, since his nature and ambi- 
 tion is to place himself on a political equality with his 
 white brother. 
 
 The negro is building his institutions securely as 
 he moves up, and he knows well the cost of each 
 step. He improves his morals, for his religion is based 
 on his moral uplift, as he has it revised today, and he 
 understands that, as he disciplines his nature, he can 
 better stand alone. 
 
 "Miscegenation, he sees, as an assignation where 
 
108 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 his race disappears, and he leans on the towers God 
 gave him, for they are of social segregation, his ulti' 
 mate salvation. " 
 
 He is one of "we, Americans," and no blabbering 
 of fanatics nor political school of patronisers will di' 
 vert him from his intellectual course. 
 
 He was once Lincoln's negro; today in Lincoln's 
 country, he is a citizen of the world — come at last, 
 but come to stay. 
 
 It is timely to quote from the speech of the author 
 when a member of the House of Representatives of 
 Oklahoma in March, 1913. 
 
 "And so you have cheated him of his suffrage by 
 a willy nilly grandfather clause. But let me tell you, 
 as a white man, from a white race of Pioneers, who 
 helped to make this country, and who owned blacks, 
 that the negro must not be cramped in his mental 
 latitudes, for already he is the victim of race preju' 
 dice and class discrimination. 
 
 You cannot, you must not, bleed the last drop of 
 his human endurance, before his approach to indus' 
 trial liberty and political freedom. He must come to 
 know that the white man is honest with him, that he 
 can count him as his friend, but above all, you must 
 teach him by your own conduct, that justice is even' 
 handed and interchangeable without discrimination 
 as to race. For, if he is good enough to build ditches, 
 climb your scaffolds of industrializing, sustain and 
 defend the republic, he must come to know it also 
 as his Republic, and that it is his fireside as well as 
 yours he rushes forth to defend in time of war; 
 this presupposes that he, who is willing in war to 
 give his life and blood, must have some reward in 
 peace, and these rewards must not be measured in 
 dribbles of liberty. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 109 
 
 And gentlemen, I admonish you, as men of a white 
 race, that if you have Christianity in your hearts, it 
 must mean something to the living and nothing to 
 the dead, for it was his Christ and your Christ who 
 said to the Pharisees, "God is not the God of the 
 dead, but of the living." So, Mr. Speaker, in the last 
 analysis, it comes down to this proposition. We have 
 the negro with us. Are we honest enough, and will 
 it pay us better in the end to treat him right? My 
 appeal today is, that, in distinguishing the principles 
 of the law we put out of our minds the crass minions 
 who plead with us to do this for the white man 
 and that against the black man. As for me, I 
 see no such division or distinction, as matter of 
 political or legal discrimination, and I will stand 
 here forever in defense of liberty — liberty as Lin' 
 coin and Jefferson saw it and understood it, and as 
 brave men, free men, the world over, are willing to 
 make provision for, in the administration of that law 
 and that justice, which is the inalienable right of 
 every man, be he white or black." 
 
 If there be those who fear the autocracy of the 
 mob, let me point to the negro as one, who has ever 
 been found in the mob, and yet has used his power 
 and might for the law, when law had little concern 
 of justice; and as justice is builded well in the brain 
 and heart of the Common people, we pin our faith 
 to the Common people Lincoln trusted and who have 
 been justly trusted in all the ages. 
 
 The negro is the least hard to understand of our 
 American races. He has two pre-dominant char' 
 acteristics which, if understood, will determine his 
 movements in ninety per cent of cases — his desire for 
 material pleasure and his superstition. Both are 
 highly developed in him. 
 
110 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 The writer, on entering the Legislature of Okla- 
 homa, knew that he had undertaken a task that few 
 men believed he could perform, and that was to in- 
 fluence both Houses to the point of securing certain 
 important legislation which was dominant in his 
 mind. It is rather a complicated situation but not one 
 as hard as determining the minds of a jury. In the 
 former case, the men talk, and you get the reflex of 
 what is going on in their minds. In the case of the 
 jury, you have only to examine them briefly, study 
 their faces and shoot, avoiding, throughout the trial, 
 the prejudice that lies dormant in the average juror's 
 mind. He had succeeded in ninety per cent of his 
 practical tests before juries through a long experience 
 in the practice. In fact it was a matter of no great 
 mental strain to solve a jury finally. 
 
 At the beginning of the Legislature, he estimated 
 the same rules would work on the human beings 
 found in that body of men. 
 
 After watching their movements for a month he 
 classified them in this way. Twenty-seven negative, 
 perverse, lean backs, strongly filtered with egotism 
 and vanity, moved by something, the objective of 
 which would enhance their importance and advance 
 their interests. 
 
 Seventeen, absolutely devoid of moral strata, 
 strength of mind; what we call, lacking of stability, 
 easily influenced with position or material things. 
 
 Twenty-two, fairly certain of themselves, inclined 
 to the right thing, and with open minds, but having 
 no initiative and easily influenced by a strong, persu- 
 asive leadership directed to just things, just measures 
 and measures which appealed to their sense of fair- 
 ness, and proportioned for the people. These were 
 the first allies he sought. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 1 1 1 
 
 Thirty-one, strong, purposeful characters, whose 
 point of view was set to a fixed objective, certain 
 somewhat of themselves, full of prejudice, as a rule, 
 but who could be set down by strong, persuasive 
 arguments to stand on their pride of mentality, and 
 with no certain selfish influence to interfere, would 
 follow a lead which would insure to their benefit. 
 They were open to trade. They were the types of 
 men who could swap horses, make money by compa- 
 rison of values. There was your lower House. 
 
 The Senate was small, and the opportunity was 
 not so good to study them, but results could there be 
 had with less complication. 
 
 Finally, through a long session, the House came 
 around to prove this analysis to be a correct one, or 
 ninety per cent correct, which was sufficient to 
 obtain results. Firing, and fencing and feigning soon 
 brought forth those qualities which you look for in 
 such a body of men. 
 
 If a man grows to be disliked by the body you al- 
 ways want to appear to drive him away from you, 
 making him if possible your chief antagonist, and 
 directing your fire personally at his opposition. 
 
 These methods worked to perfecton in both 
 Houses. To create an antagonism through vanities 
 and egotisms between these bodies and the chief Ex- 
 ecutive was a point of little resistance. It was soon 
 done. In the House, an issue was made and a test 
 vote showed a remarkable solution: eighty-eight to 
 four, five absent. 
 
 Taking Lincoln as a standard, and guessing what 
 he would do under a stated case, ten prominent men 
 were tested with the aid of a Psychoanalyst by writ- 
 ing a letter to each about different forms of the same 
 matter, but relating so far as we could determine, to 
 
1 1 2 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 matters in which they had an interest, directing their 
 attention to a point where their unselfish mind 
 would be called on to act. If they were responsive, 
 the men would have the element which made Lin- 
 coln a great character. If they rebelled, they had the 
 element of smallness, and were both selfish and egot- 
 istic to the point of weakness. When we had agreed 
 on the methods which we thought would develop, 
 the writer sent out the letters. 
 
 Five of these letters brought answers, four of them 
 direct, positive and responsive. The fifth was non- 
 committal and uncertain. The other five failed to 
 answer. We knew we had four men who had one 
 characteristic which made Lincoln great. It was 
 proven. We then prepared five letters to these silent 
 five, calling their attention to a previous letter, and 
 shifting in the contents the appeal which we thought 
 might test a smallness in that individual. We got 
 three prompt replies. That left us two. We then 
 prepared the letters on the basis of extreme egotism 
 and self adulation as skillfully as we could put the 
 matter without disclosing our hand. Both men re- 
 sponded, showing that we had proven the law of 
 mind analysis without ever having met either of the 
 ten men, and judging them by their public utterances, 
 which for a long series of years made them more or 
 less national characters. You would be surprised to 
 know that one of the last two men was a candidate 
 for President of the United States. 
 
 Out of the first five, one of them is now a potential 
 candidate for President, and the others are now, two 
 of them, Governors of two great states, and both 
 under fifty years of age. One of them was a Justice 
 of the Supreme Court of the United States. The 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 1 1 3 
 
 subject matter, in the beginning, related to the cause 
 and principles of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 The writer convinced his highly learned friend in 
 Psychology that the law of mind interpretation was 
 at least eighty-five per cent perfect. 
 
 The greater your opportunity to hear and see your 
 subject, the more certain you are to control his mind 
 and finally his action. 
 
 The Italian for instance is a test within himself, 
 the easiest, next to the negro. The Irishman is the 
 next susceptible, but all nationalities fall for the rule 
 when put in operation carefully and skillfully. 
 
 Lincoln was the master of this kind of philosophy 
 and formula. This is exactly how he controlled men, 
 and with incredible craftiness subordinated his likes 
 and dislikes to the will of his mind, and bent his en- 
 tire mentality to reach the objective he had in mind. 
 He always landed his boat, and that without respect 
 to the surging waves of discord. He took the route 
 of least resistance. 
 
 The writer applied the principles to Woodrow 
 Wilson, and the result came out perfectly. He was 
 the most perfect type of the first twenty-seven char- 
 acters found in the Legislature of Oklahoma. We 
 doubt if his like was ever, or will ever be seen again 
 in the White House. 
 
 An old negro in Kentucky, once said to an owner 
 and trainer of bird dogs: "Boss tell me why does you 
 always bring 'dat pup along to flush 'des birds, when 
 you could j'es as well take him out by hissef ." 
 
 The boss replied, "Someday this fine dog may die, 
 or I may dispose of him, and I must teach the pup by 
 comparative values of loss and gain, the methods of 
 the old dog, so that if he is not great on his own ac- 
 count, he will become a good imitator of the methods 
 
1 14 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 of the old one. He is in line of succession, and he 
 may always be the pup, but he has a chance to 
 develop to be a great hunting dog." 
 
 There you are, the same instinct lies in the brain 
 of man. There is the great dog and there are his 
 imitators, the pups. Make your deductions — the 
 rules fit the times and the men. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE LINCOLN BIRTHPLACE 
 
 §AM HAYCRAFT, Sr, Sam Haycraft, Jr., and 
 Jacob Van Meter, Sr., and Jacob Van Meter, Jr., 
 had more to do with the life of Abraham Lincoln's 
 father than all of the balance of his associates. 
 
 Sam Haycraft was born in Virginia, as we have 
 seen, September 11th, 1752. He married the daugh- 
 ter of Jacob Van Meter, who was born in New Jer- 
 sey in 1723, and died in Elizjabethtown, 1798. Sam 
 Haycraft, Sr., died in the same place in 1823. After 
 their deaths, Sam, Jr., and Jacob Van Meter, Jr., took 
 over the reign of affairs to a very considerable extent. 
 
 The elder Van Meter was the leader and dictator 
 of the Baptist Church organization in that county. 
 Sam Haycraft was a man with strong influence in the 
 control of the counties fiscal as well as its judicial af- 
 fairs. Sam, Sr., owned a farm on Mill Creek, which 
 he purchased in 1783, and left it to his son. Jacob 
 Van Meter came down within four miles of this sec- 
 tion after the death of his father, and lived at Vine 
 Grove. Sam, Sr., brought the first two teachers to 
 Hardin County, and Van Meter the first preachers. 
 Sam, Jr. was deputy clerk of the County Court from 
 October 1808 until October 1817, then he succeeded 
 his chief and held that office for more than thirty- 
 one years. 
 
 He says in his diary: "On the 10th day of Octo- 
 
 115 
 
116 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 ber, 1809, at the age of fourteen, I commenced to 
 write in the Clerk's office as deputy under Major Ben 
 Helm, the Clerk. I was forty-one years, four months 
 and eight days in this office. I was a deputy seven 
 years, three months and fourteen days before my offi- 
 cial appointment to this office. I was a Senator four 
 years. I was in office altogether fifty-two years, 
 eleven months and eighteen days." 
 
 Prior to his office-holding, his father was Sheriff, 
 Judge of the County Court, Representative, Judge of 
 the Circuit Court, and he practiced law in the last 
 years of his life. 
 
 He brought President Buchanan to Hardin in 
 1813 and practised with him for nearly two years be 
 fore Buchanan's return to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 
 He had come a year before Van Meter and located 
 the town in 1780. So that both were living as long 
 as Thomas Lincoln lived in the county. According 
 to the standard today, they were good politicians. 
 Thomas Lincoln came into notice according to the 
 records when he was twenty-one, but, as a matter of 
 fact, he had been working with Jacob Van Meter and 
 living with him before he was grown and probably 
 before his mother moved back to Hardin County. 
 
 Both the younger Van Meter and Lincoln worked 
 for Sam Hay craft as shown by indisputable records. 
 
 Now, about the time Thomas was twenty-one or, 
 a little later, the mother moved back onto Mill Creek 
 with her two daugthers, who both married the same 
 year, about 1802. They located where the Captain 
 had first stopped when he came to Hardin County. 
 He was serving in the Militia, occasionally, when 
 needed at this time. (General Caldwell's, "Chrono- 
 logical Files 1795.) 
 
 Now, then let us see if the records enlighten us 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 1 1 7 
 
 about Abraham's birth. Thomas served as Deputy 
 Sheriff, and was paid at the June Term of Court in 
 1809 for guarding William Bray, (Judgment Bundle 
 181142, Hardin County Circuit Court) . John Smith 
 assigns him a certificate for guarding prisoner, the 
 25th day of March, 1808. (Judgment Bundle 1811- 
 12, Hardin County Court.) 
 
 He serves on the Jury, March 1808, in the case of 
 Melton vs. Barlow. ( Order Book C 194, Hardin 
 Circuit Court.) 
 
 He serves on the Jury, Monday, April 25th, 1808, 
 with John Stator, in the case of Commonwealth vs. 
 Walters, on the regular panel, (Order Book C 119 
 Hardin Circuit Court.) Again, about the same date, 
 on another Jury, on regular panel. June 7th, 1808. 
 (Order Book 194, Hardin Circuit Court), he serves 
 on the Jury. Commonwealth vs. Alexander on Nc 
 vember 15th, 1808, he served on the Jury, Hardin 
 Circuit Court. March 15th, 1809, on the jury in 
 the Hardin Circuit Court with John Smith, Jacob 
 Van Meter, Joseph Swank, (Order Book C 277.) 
 
 Considering that he was on the regular panel, we 
 know that his constant time was required in the 
 Court. He might have been excused from many 
 cases, and there may have been other cases taking a 
 week, when he would have been dismissed for a few 
 days. 
 
 We must conclude that he was not at Cane Ridge 
 and did not get an urgent letter to come home stating 
 his wife was about to be confined. 
 
 We may be assured of another fact, that he was 
 not over on Nolin River, cutting logs, hewing them 
 and getting ready on the 12th day of February, 1809, 
 for the birth of the President. 
 
 He bought the Nolin farm, December 12th, 1808 
 
118 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 as shown by the records of the Hardin County 
 Clerk's office, witnessed by assignment of Certificate 
 of Isaac Bush, attested by Sam Haycraft, (Equity 
 Bundle No. 24, Hardin Circuit Court.) 
 
 Then, let us assert that he had no time on account 
 of jury service to build any log house twenty miles 
 away from his Mill Creek home, where he had a two- 
 room log house, and an upstairs with a fine stairway 
 in it about which folks were talking, with Nancy, 
 therein, ready to be confined with a child, the future 
 President of the United States. 
 
 As Bill Williams said, and as biographers assert, 
 he built that one-room cabin on Nolin; (in the sum- 
 mer-time, after Abraham's birth in 1809); and he 
 made it one room because he guessed he might have 
 no title to it and because the contract of purchase 
 was of doubtful value, which he got from Isaac Bush. 
 
 But William Hodgen clinches it when he says, that 
 he built the house in the summer. His father had 
 said he had two children when he moved in, and 
 surely, one of them was Abe. The third child was 
 younger than he. This proof is conclusive to any 
 average mind, but we will bring on an array of wit- 
 nesses, so that the point can be well sustained. 
 
 BILL WILLIAMS— MILL CREEK. 
 
 Mr. John Moore had said that Bill Williams'' moth- 
 er had told him all about the birth of the Lincolns 
 and what she knew about it, so the writer went to 
 see Mr. Williams. 
 
 "My father was John Williams, son of Thomas, 
 all lived here most of their lives. My mother was 
 named Rebecca: she was older than Abe Lincoln. 
 She lived, of course, close to them, as my father did 
 and his father, Thomas Williams. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 119 
 
 "I heard Elinor Peck mention about the birth of 
 Lincoln before her death. People who went out to 
 Illinois and returned here for a visit would tell about 
 what a big man Abe Lincoln was out there, and that 
 brought up the discussion, the birth place. Well, 
 when he made the race for President everybody 
 talked about it. My mother and father were both 
 living then and they and the neighbors talked, of 
 course. Some thought it was an honor to us here, 
 but some did not think so. 1 ' 
 
 "He came out in a Louisville paper and said he was 
 born on Nolin; well the old people disputed it right 
 away. They told about when Thomas bought the 
 Nolin place and allowed it was in the spring; some of 
 them went over and helped him at the house raising; 
 and such talk you would hear, but all said he was 
 born over here in the Melton house." 
 
 "They called Mrs. Maffit, who was some kin of 
 Nancy Hanks, and she said that her mother told her 
 many times, the children were both born there in the 
 Melton house. Then the Owens' folks talked about 
 it some; they lived down by old Bersheba Lincoln's 
 place, east of the Cowley place." 11 
 
 "Then I heard it talked by grandfather, that they 
 got Lincoln's lines run again, and he was short thirty 
 acres of land, but he and the Stators fixed it up some 
 way the winter they got it surveyed. That was the 
 winter most of them said that Nancy had their sec 
 ond baby, the winter they run the lines." 
 
 "Then my father said that Thomas went over in 
 the spring and put in a little crop at the Nolin Creek, 
 cut some house timber, and in the summer put up 
 the house on it. Grandfather advised him not to 
 spend much money on it until he was certain about 
 the title, and Lincoln said old Sam Haycraft so ad' 
 
1 20 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 vised him, so he only put up a small log house, and 
 that I suppose was the reason. Anyhow, it is a sure 
 thing that it was built in the summer. Nobody is go' 
 ing to dob one of these old log houses in the winter 
 — they wait for warm weather to do that." 
 
 "What did your grandmother, Elinor Peck, say 
 about his being born there?" 
 
 "She had said when the matter came up that he 
 was born in the Melton house; that she would have 
 been there but she had sickness at that time, and that 
 was why she was not there, but some of the neighbor 
 women were. I am pretty sure Mrs. Maffitt's 
 mother was there. I have heard that." 
 
 "Well, Mr. Williams, your father was John Wil- 
 liams; he married Rebecca Peck, sister of Uncle Tom 
 and Jack; and John Williams was a son of Tom, who 
 neighbored with Thomas Lincoln, is that correct?" 
 
 "Yes sir, that is the way it is. Uncle Tom Peck was 
 grown when Abe Lincoln was born I think, but he 
 was not married. He married Margaret McMahan, 
 who lived over here back of the creek." 
 
 "Do you think a man would move in the winter 
 when his house was good that he was living in, and 
 hew and cut logs twenty miles away, and move into 
 that house in the dead of winter in order that his 
 wife might be confined in it?" 
 
 "Nobody but a crazy man could do that, and Tom 
 Lincoln was not crasy. Anyway, Mr. Smith, where 
 so many people's children in a neighborhood tell sub- 
 stantially the same story about a fact, a single fact 
 like the birth of a child, that is about as good evi- 
 dence as if you heard the old people say it, who were 
 there and knew the facts, but here there were people 
 living like Jack Peck, Tom Peck, my mother, my 
 grandmother, Elinor Peck and grandfather Williams, 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 121 
 
 and all the neighbors, who were living, and knew the 
 facts, so to my mind, there was no doubt about it. 
 He had a good house here and a good farm and did 
 not have to move." 
 
 On this point Mrs. Catherine Peck, when inter" 
 rogated, said that her mother-in-law, Elinor Peck, 
 could not state for sure the date of Abraham's birth, 
 but she was certain it was in the early springtime, and 
 before they moved to the Nolin farm. That year 
 she thought Bill Brumfield ran the farm. Elinor did 
 remember that they were there after Christmas and 
 that they were building a house over on Nolin in the 
 summer. That, after that time, they traveled back and 
 forth but were not away more than two years at a 
 time. This is borne out partially by the tax returns. 
 Her mother-in-law thought that was a hard winter. 
 She, herself, had children and some sickness when 
 Nancy's second baby was born. If Nancy had moved 
 over to Nolin how would she know this fact? 
 
 Catherine said that she had no doubt that both 
 children were born there, as she herself had talked 
 to the Meltons, Williams, and Thomas Lincoln had 
 never told the President he was born on Nolin Creek. 
 Then Thomas Peck, who was then grown, had told 
 her positively, when the matter came up before and 
 during the war, that the President was born there. 
 He lived the closest, and he was still living in 1860. 
 He was Martha Howell's father. Nancy Melton 
 who was seven years old, says, she was pretty sure, 
 but on account of the positive statement of her 
 father-in-law, Thomas Melton, she preferred not to 
 base the fact on her independent recollection. 
 
 All common sense was against Tom Lincoln 
 making a move within sixty days, and building a log 
 house with his hands after cutting the timber. No, 
 
1 22 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 he was not there, but on the jury in Eli^abethtown, 
 just where the records show him to be. 
 
 Lincoln's associates were his neighbors, and some 
 of them were on the jury. 
 
 Let us explode another myth, that Thomas was a 
 wandering boy without intelligence or of sufficient 
 character to sit on a jury. 
 
 In November, 1803, he buys from John Stator a 
 farm on Mill Creek, let us add, where the President 
 was born. 
 
 In 1804, April Term, he was on the jury. See 
 Order Book B 17. This would mean that he was a 
 Freeholder at the previous assessing time of year. 
 So he was in Hardin County nearly a year before 
 this time. Order Book, Quarter Sessions, April 
 19th, 1804. 
 
 On June 10th, 1805, he was appointed Patroller. 
 See Order Book 17, Hardin County Court. 
 
 In June 1806 he gave bond to marry Nancy Hanks 
 (Bond Book for Taxes in Hardin County Court.) 
 
 June 12th in Washington County, Marriage Cer 
 tificate is filed as of date of April 27th, 1807. This 
 was performed for Thomas Lincoln and Nancy 
 Hanks on June 12th, 1806. 
 
 On the 15th day of January, 1807, he purchased 
 at Thomas Mclntire's sale, spoons, dishes, plates, etc. 
 
 On 25th day of March, 1807, sued Ed Geoghegan; 
 John Smith and Pete Bodine, witnesses. 
 
 Thomas Lincoln served on Jury Panel October 
 Term of Quarter Sessions Court, 1803. 
 
 On September 2nd, 1805, petition for Elisabeth' 
 town" West Point road (Bundle, Petitions for 1805) 
 signed by Thomas Lincoln, John Smith, George 
 Watts, Henry Ditto, Henry Ditto, Jr., Jeremiah 
 Cruse, George Howard, John Howard, Isaac Ditto, 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 123 
 
 Jacob Van Meter, John Austin, Sam Pearman, Jacob 
 Pearman, etc. 
 
 Served on Jury (1808) with John Smith, John 
 Austin, Sam Pearman, Joseph La Follette, etc. Order 
 Book D 188, Hardin County Court. 
 
 Entered into bond security for marriage of Caleb 
 Hasel for fifty pounds, Bond Book (1816). 
 
 *Haycraft'Berry Account Book. To cash paid 
 Thomas Lincoln from July 13 th to September 23 rd, 
 1796. December 14th, 1796, same. August and 
 September, cash paid Thomas Lincoln and Jacob 
 Van Meter— (1797). 
 
 The above is sufficient recitation to show Lincoln's 
 association with the names mentioned in this book, 
 and the fact of his residence in the county as early 
 as 1796. 
 
 The record which was finally found in the Clerk's 
 office of Washington County, shows his marriage 
 was carried out on June 12th, 1806. The date fixed 
 by Hay craft and Mrs. Peck, may be attributed to bad 
 memory, or to a situation. 
 
 There is no point of proof in the argument that 
 Lincoln lived in Eli^abethtown because he served on 
 juries during the time of the birth of President Lin- 
 coln; if this is proof then we may say that Sam Pear- 
 man, John Smith, serving on the same jury, both of 
 whom lived a greater distance from Eli^abethtown 
 than Thomas Lincoln, might be stopping in Eli^a- 
 bethtown permanently. 
 
 Nolin farm was sixteen miles from Eli^abethtown, 
 and his Mill Creek farm was about five miles, almost 
 due North. He had owned this farm as we see since 
 1803 and there he had, up to this time lived con- 
 
 *Warren. 
 
1 24 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 tinuously, at least after marriage. He purchased a 
 certificate or contract for the Nolin farm on Decern" 
 ber 12th, 1808, sixty days before the fixed date of the 
 President's birth — February 12th, 1809. 
 
 When the President in 1860 stated he was born 
 somewhere on Nolin Creek, he admits it was a guess, 
 as he had not been informed of the definite location, 
 so that when the locators of that "Farm'birthplace" 
 got on the job, they found they could not fix his 
 birth at Knob Creek, because he did not own it be 
 fore the President's birth, and was probably only a 
 tenant on it. 
 
 **They had only sixty prior days in which to fix 
 a birthplace. Ownership tested by a certificate on 
 the Nolin farm and without other investigation, they 
 fixed it on the creek where the President thought he 
 was born. It is conceded, and was conceded by him, 
 that he did not get that information from his mother 
 or father; then he could guess only by the fact that 
 his first conscious life found him on Nolin Creek. 
 There is a reason also, deleted from these interviews, 
 why the President might have wished to transplant 
 his birth from Mill Creek. If the fact had ever been 
 settled in his family, he must have known it as a 
 definite fact. On Mill Creek, he lived in a very com" 
 fortable house, and had plenty around, so that the 
 myth, that has been spread over the world that he 
 was born in a single room log hut with dirt floors, is 
 the most spurious, universally accepted "y arn " the 
 writer has ever run across in history. It is fixed on 
 the same unsound basis as the rail'splitting philos' 
 ophy — an appeal to the lack of intelligence of the 
 common folks. There is nothing to the Washington 
 
 **C. M. Fraise — Circuit Court Clerk— Hardin County. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 125 
 
 County birth theory. We feel confident it was a 
 myth also. 
 
 SILAS HOBBS. 
 
 Mr. Hobbs was for fifty years a leader in the 
 Mount Zion Baptist Church, and heard discussions 
 of the Lincoln birth. This church was built in 1826. 
 
 "Mr. Hobbs, I know that you know all of these 
 neighbors whose fathers or grandfathers knew all 
 about the Lincolns, so in the beginning I want to 
 know what they say about his birthplace. " 
 
 "Mr. Smith, I do not know where the President 
 was born, it would be very unlikely that any one 
 could answer that question unless he was present on 
 the occasion. 1, 
 
 "I always heard that both of these children were 
 born at the Lincoln Mill Creek farm, until the Presi- 
 dent came out with a statement that he was born on 
 Nolin Creek, but that changed nobody's opinion 
 around here. They simply said he did not know, 
 and his mother and father had not told him, or there 
 was some reason for that statement." 
 
 "If you will notice, the President has always 
 dodged discussion of his mother's antecedents, and 
 there were reasons either in his mind or his mother's 
 mind why the birth was not wanted on Mill Creek. 
 This you may have heard, but the President's moth- 
 er or the marriage relation or some other thing was 
 the matter that caused some people to talk around 
 here. I do not think the President wanted any in- 
 quiries to come to Mill Creek; and this is exactly, in 
 my opinion, why he chose to make that indefinite 
 statement about his birth on Nolin Creek. That 
 would take all inquiries there, where there would be 
 no adverse comment. That explains the entire situ- 
 
1 26 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 ation, if you want to go into these facts. I have 
 heard them, and in my opinion they were not such 
 that the President should have been ashamed of 
 them, but he evidently was." 
 
 "Thomas Williams, Billy Smith, John Peck, James 
 Smith, Tom Gray, John Gray, John Thomas, John 
 Shepherd and the old Moore lived right along by 
 Thomas Lincoln, and if their folks did not know 
 about the family, no one else could have known 
 about them." 
 
 "They all said he was born on the Mill Creek farm. 
 There is no doubt but that the President had either 
 heard, from Dennis Hanks or his mother, some cri' 
 ticism that moved him in his public announcement 
 to say that he was born on Nolin." 
 
 "The Peck farm and the Williams farm are very 
 close to the Lincoln farm, and there are at least a 
 half dosen farms within two or two and a half miles 
 of it. These folks could not all be mistaken." 
 
 "Did you know John McMahan?" "Yes, he lived 
 down the Creek two miles, west of it. He had three 
 daughters, Polly Watts, Margaret Peck and Mrs. 
 Cowherd. He was, so I have heard said, a close 
 friend of Thomas Lincoln, and these old women 
 would know, but I think they are all dead except 
 Mrs. Cowherd. Mrs. Maffitt will know all you will 
 want to know, because she can gossip and she was of 
 kin to Lincoln's wife." 
 
 "Old Sam Haycraft once said that Thomas Lin' 
 coin's wife was as good as somebody's wife, and this 
 brought up a discussion about the birth of Abraham 
 Lincoln, and in this conversation he had said — Enlow 
 is not the father of Abe Lincoln, Abe was born on 
 the Mill Creek farm and there was no association be' 
 tween the families.' 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 1 27 
 
 "Young Sam had also denied that Lincoln was 
 born on Nolin, and while he claimed he was born at 
 Elisabethtown, he did not necessarily mean in the 
 town. We all around here get our mail there, and 
 did then, and we call out here in the country, "at 
 Elisabethtown," if we were speaking from the out- 
 side. Well old Sam was a better witness." 
 
 "I am not willing to go into further details. You 
 will find more competent people, though I could 
 quote my mother and father, I prefer not to do so." 
 
 The writer consulted William and Quince John- 
 ston, old Court House men, to determine just what 
 the argument was about, between old Sam and young 
 Sam Haycraft. 
 
 "The old man said that the Lincoln boy was not 
 the son of Enlow, and young Sam said he was, and in 
 this conversation old Sam said that Abe was born on 
 Mill Creek, and Enlow was too far away, but young 
 Sam gave his reasons for it in his argument. That is 
 the story as it comes down through the families, at 
 least our families and the Bush families — they quoted 
 old Sam in defense of the legitimacy or fatherhood of 
 Abraham Lincoln. They both agreed on this state- 
 ment. 
 
 It will be recalled that Sam Haycraft, Jr. as late as 
 1865 wrote Herndon that Enlow was the father of 
 Abe Lincoln. 
 
 JOHN STEWART. 
 
 "Mr. Stewart, you are a grand old Republican and 
 a Lincoln student, I want to ask you where Abra- 
 ham Lincoln was born. 1,1 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln, says he was born on Nolin 
 Creek, and until we get some better evidence we will 
 have to accept that. Will we not?" 
 
1 28 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 The writer's answer was. "We do not have to 
 accept that against better evidence. It looks to me as 
 though the President was mistaken, in spite of the 
 fact that he was present. The evidence, so far as I 
 have found, is all in favor of the Mill Creek farm. 11 
 
 "I expect you are right. Sam Haycraft, Elizabeth' 
 town historian once told me that he thought he was 
 born there, until Lincoln stated differently, and he 
 was pulled as to just how it happened. He said he 
 owned a lot in Elisabethtown, but lived on the Mill 
 Creek farm, close to town, if his memory served him, 
 just before the second child was born. Thomas was 
 about the Court House then considerably, and he 
 must have been living out at the Mill Creek farm. 
 He had not bought the Nolin farm until the follow 
 ing year. (He bought it as we see December 12th 
 of the winter of 1808-09.) That is in substance 
 what he said, as I recollect. 11 
 
 There is another fact supporting Mill Creek. His 
 mother and favorite sister lived within a few miles of 
 him. He had no relatives living on Nolin Creek, and 
 if he regarded such an event as of major importance, 
 he would have remained in hailing distance of his 
 mother so long as Nancy had no mother near. Doc- 
 tors were very scarce, and far between in the Nolin 
 country, but in Eriz;abethtown at this time there was 
 a doctor and perhaps two or three midwives who in- 
 dulged in the practice of obstetrics. 
 
 Hon. Zach Smith, historian and railroad Presi- 
 dent, had analysed President Lincoln's statement, 
 and said, "that inasmuch as the President had said 
 that the first home he recollected was on a farm on 
 Knob Creek, how was it possible then that he did 
 assume that he was born on Nolin Creek? Since he 
 did not know himself where he was born, and his 
 
W^' "' ' 
 
 
 
 y- 
 
 * ~> "*^ 
 
 . • . 
 
 W-,'y 
 
 f 1 
 
 
 I '< ' ' ' ■ 
 
 
 p* . 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 m 
 
 V.^-^ 
 
 
 Thos. B. Peck, near neighbor of Tom Lincoln. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 1 29 
 
 parents being dead, his memory not serving,'" he 
 could not locate himself only by a supposition not 
 based on any hearsay fact told him by his mother or 
 father, but purely on his independent recollection 
 which did not exist, as he admits as to Nolin Creek 
 spot by the use of the words "no means of identify- 
 ing," and "it was on Nolin Creek. 1 ' 
 
 The writer is of the opinion from all of the evi- 
 dence he could find, while it was not an impossibility, 
 he was not born at Nolin. Most of those he talked 
 to put him on the Nolin farm before he bought it and 
 all of them said he built the house in the summer, if 
 he did so, he hewed the logs in the dead of winter, 
 and pegged it together under the blasts of snow while 
 on the jury at Elisabethtown? 
 
 If the first recollection of a home was Knob Creek, 
 then it was not of Nolin Creek. Consequently, we 
 must assume that it was a mere guess with him, and 
 a very wild one at that. He was prominent in Illi- 
 nois before Thomas Lincoln or his stepmother died, 
 and it would, in the course of matters have been dis- 
 cussed between himself and these two persons, but it 
 was not according to his version. We are therefore 
 left purely to conjecture and to base our opinion on 
 circumstances entirely outside of his personal knowl- 
 edge. 
 
 This is the judgment of a man who had gone into 
 the Nolin side of the question, and when the writer 
 discussed with him at Frankfort, Kentucky, during 
 the session of the Constitutional Convention the 
 birth question, he decided to accept the Mill Creek 
 theory, provided he was permitted by the writer to 
 publish the evidence, which he declined to agree to 
 under the existing proposals of his publishers. 
 
 Virginia, rich in the production of strong and 
 
1 30 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 courageous men, springing from a race of intrepid 
 souls, pioneers who loved freedom and hated oppres' 
 sion, founded here around the Lincoln family an en' 
 vironment which enriched the Lincoln birth. 
 
 The locality has been assailed by turned up nose 
 historians, as though Mr. Lincoln was an accident, 
 but this environment produced many of the greatest 
 men in the West. 
 
 It gave to Illinois alone, five governors, Edwards, 
 Oglesby, Yates, Palmer, Cullom, and two United 
 States Senators. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln himself at times gave off a lack of re' 
 finement of mind for which he has been severely 
 criticised, but down deep in the fibre of Lincoln's 
 character, he possessed rare gentility and strength 
 which saved him from the grossness that now and 
 then permeated his actions in small things. 
 
 At top speed his mind rose to meet the require 
 ments of great occasions. He was never the master 
 hero returned from the fields of Marengo. He was 
 always the simple man, and in this he shines like the 
 stars of the planet compared to the peanut statesmen 
 who have occupied the White House in the writer's 
 time. 
 
 I have searched diligently to find an answer for 
 this peculiarity of Lincoln in the Hanks line, from 
 Orange County, Virginia to Hardin County, and 
 while I find nothing to strengthen him, I find nothing 
 that would deteriorate him. The Hanks line was one 
 of almost negligible phenomenon, passive and unim' 
 pressive, but it was not on the wrong side. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 SAM HAYCRAFTS DIARY, INTERVIEW WITH 
 JUDGE LABAN MOORE 
 
 HTHERE has been no allowance for either the times 
 or the fact that Abraham Lincoln was a human 
 being when critical examination is made of his pub' 
 lie career. He was essentially a politician until pep 
 haps the last two years of his life. 
 
 Sam Haycraft had accepted the President as an 
 exponent of his views while in the Senate of Ken' 
 tucky. He had opposed secession strenuously and 
 had succeeded in defeating it in Kentucky. 
 
 Lincoln had evolved his position, as Haycraft saw 
 it, in his debates with Douglas, and Haycraft, un' 
 questionably, believed that Lincoln was opposed to 
 disturbing slavery as it existed in the admitted states. 
 He also went further than was necessary in saying 
 that slaves might be protected in territory of the 
 United States provided the people wanted to protect 
 it, for in sound logic this was not a defensible posi- 
 tion, unless he stood squarely behind the Taney dc 
 cision, that it could be extended everywhere a new 
 state was admitted. But Lincoln believed that it 
 was always more or less a local question of sovereign' 
 ty regardless of statehood. 
 
 Early in his campaign he assured the people of 
 Kentucky that he had no intention of changing his 
 position. But the people of this particular section 
 
 131 
 
1 3 2 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 were long schooled in the art of analysing public 
 men and they did not, as Mr. Owen Cowley said, 
 take any stock in Mr. Lincoln's statement; they 
 judged him, and determined his place with his prom' 
 ises according to political rules. On this basis, they 
 cast him over permanently with the Abolitionists. 
 But this was not true of Sam Haycraft. Hay craft 
 was a straight'line thinking man, a very devout 
 religionist, and equally as devout as a working Chris' 
 tian. He kept his counsel and supported Mr. Lin" 
 coin, at least, in all of his mental activities. In Ken' 
 tucky, there was a widespread school of Union men 
 who stood for the Union, let slavery rise or fall, but 
 even they were not with Lincoln. They believed 
 Mr. Lincoln would do what he finally did, and they 
 judged him by the support he had, and by the ex' 
 igencies which this support was bound to bring him, 
 and to the nation to win the war, once it was started. 
 
 Sam Haycraft, undoubtedly, believed in the sin- 
 cere purposes of Abraham Lincoln. He was a loyal 
 Union man, and it seemed to have grieved him that 
 Lincoln had received no support in Hardin County 
 or Kentucky; he wrote Mr. Lincoln, expressing his 
 desire that he come to Kentucky. Out of the 2195 
 votes polled in Hardin County, Sam Haycraft surely 
 was one of the six. But Sam Hay craft's day had 
 passed. His last service was in the Senate. 
 
 He was a student and prolific writer, but the very 
 church he presided over had departed from him on 
 the question of slavery. Lincoln's election, how 
 ever, elated him, and he attempted to bring the coun- 
 ty to accept Lincoln views, but it had no confidence 
 in the party behind him. 
 
 In July, 1862, as the forces of the two contending 
 armies began to assemble, he wrote: — 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 133 
 
 "The year just closed has been one of great trial 
 to me, and has not been much marked by spirituality 
 on my part. I have gone far astray in sin, and my 
 enemies have slandered me with great falsehood, and 
 persecuted me severely. I am a friend of the Union 
 of states, and bitterly oppose secession. I cannot 
 see how any Kentuckian can be against his country ." 
 
 "The South wants to force Kentucky out of the 
 Union, and have invaded her with an army of rebels 
 and traitors. They now hold Bowling Green and 
 the lower part of the state; their forces not known 
 but variously estimated at from 25,000 to 80,000. 
 The Federal troops from Ohio, Pennsylvania, In" 
 diana, Illinois, Wisconsin, including about 28,000 
 Kentucky troops; a battle is expected to take place 
 near Bowling Green in a short time. Lord help me 
 to spend this year a more devoted Christian. " 
 
 Again on the 17th of January, 1862, he wrote:— 
 
 "Last night a strange man called at my gate and 
 in a loud voice called me to come out. I asked his 
 name and he refused to give it, but he still inquired 
 of my coming, and finding I would not, he called me 
 a black-hearted rascal, and said he would shoot me. 11 
 
 And on the 18th, he wrote: — 
 
 "A gloom is over this once happy land; the future 
 is dark, our institutions are in peril, and the whole 
 fabric of our government tottering to fall; God only 
 knows what will be the result. The battles so far 
 have been desperately bloody; wandering and des- 
 perate bands invade our county, rendering property 
 and crops uncertain. This trouble has divided states, 
 counties and families, and produced discord among 
 neighbors and old friends." 
 
 On the 20th of October, he wrote: — 
 
 "General Morgan entered Elizjabethtown with 
 
1 34 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 1 5,000 Cavalry during the night, pursued by United 
 States troops, and he went through the papers in the 
 Clerk's office and some private homes, left in a hurry, 
 his retiring pickets being fired upon." 
 
 Morgan's second invasion troubled him and on 
 the 27th of October, 1862, he wrote: — 
 
 "General Morgan entered Elisabethtown with 
 5,000 Cavalry, fired 107 shots, when the town capit' 
 ulated, occupied with 500 Illinois troops. He 
 burned the railroad bridge, and about 3,500 bushels 
 of grain, private property, and took all of the horses, 
 dry goods and provisions in town. 
 
 On the 29th, he felt some relief and wrote: — 
 
 "General Harlan passed through town on the 
 29th, in pursuit of General Morgan." 
 
 On the 4th of January, 1863, he welcomed Buell's 
 army, for he wrote: — 
 
 "On this day General Buell's army passed through 
 town; Colonel Paine of the 124th Ohio, camped on 
 my lawn." 
 
 This was the notorious Ele^eanor Paine who had 
 taken in hand the levying of tribute and the recruit' 
 ing of negroes. It is not any wonder that men called 
 on him to come out in a loud voice. 
 
 He was the friend of Hon. John J. Crittenden, for 
 he wrote of his death, July 26th, 1863. 
 
 "Today died the Hon. John J. Crittenden in full 
 possession of his faculties, the best man in the nation, 
 whose services are lost in the present hour of de- 
 pravity and enduring shame." 
 
 Assault on the memory of the President's father 
 brought him to the rescue, for he wrote, August, 
 1863:— 
 
 "Thomas Lincoln was married to Nancy Hanks 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 1 3 5 
 
 on the 21st day of September, 1805, father and 
 mother of President Lincoln. 11 
 
 After the close of the war, a good word for Pre 
 sident Lincoln in the county was equivalent to social, 
 and certainly political ostracism. The crimes of his 
 subordinates had done its deadly work, and the old 
 man feeling a measure of this censure was directed 
 at his few supporters, made no public appearances, 
 devoting himself entirely to Baptist church affairs. 
 
 He had publicly invited President Lincoln in 1860 
 to visit Kentucky, and a New York Herald reporter, 
 to whom Lincoln had read the letter, published na' 
 tion'wide that Lincoln had received such a letter but 
 would not accept the invitation for fear of being 
 assassinated. 
 
 This interpretation placed by the reporter on 
 what he assumed was Lincoln's interpretation, 
 caused Mr. Haycraft to write him a sharp letter, 
 thereupon, President Lincoln promptly wrote him 
 that he had no such suspicion, and had not so ex' 
 pressed himself, at any time to anybody. He had no 
 belief that anything would befall him should he 
 visit the State or the County. This revealed Mr. 
 Haycraft 1 s position however, and caused him the 
 annoyance he complained of during the war. 
 
 The Hon. Laban T. Moore was a member of the 
 Constitutional Convention of 1890, also a friend of 
 Haycraft and a Union man; but his bitter words still 
 ring in the writer's ears. 
 
 On February 12th, 1891, he said: 
 
 "Nothing more accursed has ever transpired in 
 this country than the free hand given by President 
 Lincoln to Stanton, Secretary of War. For saying, 
 publicly, that the Emancipation by the President as 
 a proclamation had no force in law until the amend' 
 
1 36 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 ment recommended by him, and universally agreed as 
 a matter of law, had been ratified by the requisite 
 number of states; this opinion given, which was not 
 as a political opinion but as a lawyer to the owner of 
 conscripted slaves, caused my arrest at my home by 
 a military satrap of Stanton's secret regime in Ken' 
 tucky. Instead of being accorded my constitutional 
 rights, I was thrown into a mad house or bull pen 
 and not allowed to communicate with my family or 
 friends. Their interposition outside through Gen" 
 erals in the regular army only gave me a chance to 
 present my case to a military tribunal fixed by Stan' 
 ton's spies. My appeal to Lincoln with several 
 Generals and suspended officers of the army resulted 
 in a delay of trial, and finally through Lincoln's 
 close friends in Kentucky, to a more impartial mili' 
 tary tribunal. I was acquitted. " 
 
 "The brutal treatment of many others, less for' 
 tunate in friends than myself, resulted in sickness, 
 suffering, humiliation and death." 
 
 "I cannot speak of high'minded, white women 
 who were insulted by both white and negro sol' 
 diers, knowing they had full protection in their 
 superiors, for committing the most dastardly crimes 
 in the calendar, without loss of respect for Lincoln. 
 
 The President, himself, seems to have been tied 
 by a cabal headed by Chase, Stanton and Thaddeus 
 Stevens. Had he been the man of the hour, of the 
 calibre of Washington, he would have promptly 
 appealed to the sound sense of the American 
 people, reduced these men to ranks and ordered a 
 military trial or civil, of these culprits in uniform, 
 who had violated the civil laws of the state and na' 
 tion. Instead of this, he made half 'hearted moves, 
 retained Stanton in office and elevated Chase to the 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 1 37 
 
 highest judicial office in the United States. Is a 
 President not to be censured who, knowingly, puts 
 such a man in such a position, who had aided and 
 abetted the violation of the very Constitution, he 
 had sworn to defend? That question, no one of 
 Mr. Lincoln's admirers have ever answered in his- 
 tory and they never will. That is a more pre- 
 eminent crime than imposition on the individual 
 member of society, for that in its essence is anarchy. 
 
 If the Proclamation of Emancipation was a war 
 measure of necessity, it could have proceeded in an 
 orderly and legal manner. The highest court had de- 
 cided slavery was protected under the Constitution. 
 There was nothing for a law-abiding Union man 
 to do but to say that we are fighting this war to 
 save the Union and therefore, the Constitution. We 
 will make effective the Proclamation by a vote of 
 two-thirds of the states in due time, even if we have 
 to appoint Legislatures in the Southern states under 
 military force, and secure a violent ratification by 
 the use of such force. It would have had the "fiat" 
 of the mailed fist, but it would have been, constitu- 
 tionally, in order. 
 
 But the President ordered these slaves as citizens 
 to be conscripted, when as a matter of fact they had 
 not been freed at all. It was admitted by him that 
 if the required states refused to ratify the Proclama- 
 tion it would only be a scrap of paper. 
 
 Such ratification never took place, at any rate; 
 there was no ratification until 1865, and that was, 
 admittedly, a ratification in the South by Legis- 
 latures picked at the point of Federal bayonets, 
 composed, in many cases, of negro members whose 
 liberty was involved in the vote. 
 
 As a self-respecting member of the Union party, 
 
1 38 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 I could not affirm this policy, either in times of war 
 or peace. 
 
 This experience taught me that Constitutional 
 safeguards should be thrown around the proper ad' 
 ministration of law in times of war to protect citi- 
 Sens against the arbitrary action of soldiers. 
 
 The statutes of limitation should never run against 
 such a crime and it should be defined as treason 
 against the nation. It should be punishable only af- 
 ter the close of the military regime, and triable only 
 under the forms of law in a civil trial court before 
 a Jury. If the offender was convicted, he should 
 be punished with death. That would give the 
 people a chance to get justice administered against 
 these scoundrels in a vicinage where there would be 
 a fair determination. 
 
 The violation of this constitutional provision by 
 the President, through his failure to stop it or by 
 his condoning it, should constitute grounds of im- 
 peachment, and if his impeachment could not be 
 set in motion and concluded, he should be tried at 
 the expiration of his term of office in the same man- 
 ner as the actual offender, unless, of course, he had 
 acted promptly when the matter had been brought 
 to his attention through a civil commission selected 
 by Congress and not by him. If it were otherwise, 
 he would pack the commission. If this commission 
 found in favor of the offender he should be restored 
 to his military standing, but if it found against him, 
 he should be remanded to prison during the period 
 of the war, and at its close he should have the right 
 to be tried by a civil authority in review. 
 
 The Writ of Habeas Corpus should never be 
 suspended, and any President who does it should 
 be impeached. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 1 39 
 
 During this period, the Generals paid no atten- 
 tion to the rulings of the Federal Courts. Judge 
 Bland Ballard, of the Federal Court at Louisville, 
 issued writ after writ only to be defied by Generals 
 Burbridge, Palmer and others. 
 
 Finally a compromise was reached where General 
 George Thomas would be the final Court of Ap- 
 peal. This, Lincoln approved. It is conceded to 
 be a ruling in violation of all law and constitutional 
 guarantee. 
 
 This government was founded on the principle 
 that the liberty of the citizen is the highest single 
 privilege to be protected by the Constitution, and as 
 Lincoln well said, no people should be governed 
 without the consent of the governed. 
 
 Therefore, we lose nothing in our form of gov 
 ernment by making such liberty more secure as the 
 years go by. If we do not make it so, and arrange 
 to have the citizens protected, we are sure to fall 
 on evil times. Military formations and creations 
 are the most dangerous things to our liberties in our 
 scheme of government." 
 
 "The state and nation should beware of the blows 
 delivered from within not without. No nation has 
 t alien from outside aggression; the fall has always 
 been initiated by some class or group of its own 
 making. Military sentiment in a nation is inimical 
 to liberty, and no man, who has seen and ex- 
 perienced it, doubts for a single moment how im- 
 possible it is to control the militia once its momen- 
 tum is set up in a lawful manner." 
 
 "National defense is another matter; that is a pre- 
 paration against national aggression, and that will 
 not again ever happen in America." 
 
 "Making due allowances for President Lincoln's 
 
140 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 unfortunate position during the war, he still does 
 not stand four square to all criticism, nor will his 
 course approach to a standard of patriotism which 
 this nation demands from its highest officers, as 
 exemplified in Washington and Jackson. " 
 
 By the side of this gray-haired veteran, Union 
 leader of his day, backer of the Union party of 
 Kentucky in 1860, stood Governor Bramlette and 
 his staff. Judge De Haven, who served with Sam 
 Haycraft and badgered the friends of secession in 
 the Legislature of 1859, nodded his head in ap- 
 proval at every word Judge Moore uttered. 
 
 Surely it seemed to me that the idealistic wings 
 which had carried me into the Lincoln forum of de- 
 fense, had been pretty well scorched, and I felt a 
 keen urge to make Lincoln's defense, but it was not 
 my province to make my inquiry one of debate, 
 though I daresay the effort would have brought 
 forth a more fierce response, for Moore had said to 
 the President in sixty-three, "If there was a Judi- 
 cial tribunal that would convict him, he would wil- 
 lingly submit to life imprisonment." 
 
 Sitting in this Convention at this time were 
 General Simon Buckner, Confederate leader, Cap- 
 tain Thomas Hines, Colonel Robert Rhodes, Cap- 
 tain W. G. Bullitt, Governor J. Proctor Knott, Col- 
 onel Bennett H. Young, Major P. P. Johnston, Cap- 
 tain H. J. May, Captain Sam Blackburn, all on the 
 Confederate side. On the Union side were Colonel 
 Curtis F. Burnham, Cassius M. Clay, Captain S. B. 
 Hogg, Colonel Laban T. Moore, Samuel De Haven, 
 eminent as a jurist, on the side of the Union. They 
 all echoed these sentiments of Judge Moore, a 
 finished philosophy grown from the bloody ex- 
 periences of the war. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 141 
 
 I perceived from this contact that theories of 
 government must be put in the fire and burned by 
 the crucibles of hate before they could be ironed 
 and laid out as the finished product. Voltaire said 
 that no individual could be trusted in war; systems 
 and fixed policies were bad enough. The latter 
 eliminated tyranny to some extent and made in- 
 dividuals amenable to a system. 
 
 Lincoln, a country lawyer, thrust into the Presi- 
 dency, standing alone for the Union and nothing 
 but the Union, could not have forseen these un- 
 briddled passions of men who had a national re- 
 putation. He had to take a few days off to go to 
 school. After all, he did not make the Constitu- 
 tion, and he could not amend it immediately. Af- 
 ter all, he was meeting a morass of men schooled in 
 the craftiest kind of diplomacy, backed by the 
 basest passions in the breast of man, the passions of 
 war. 
 
 Lincoln must ride a battered and crippled ship 
 into port. He must get money; he must have 
 Generals who could fight and manage armies, and 
 he must avoid jealousies, that when put into action 
 produce calamities, and this was no hour for calam- 
 ities. There were enough of them in the making by 
 Robert E. Lee. Traitors, there were within his 
 cabinet who would have traded a victory of the 
 Union armies for the presidency and impeached 
 Lincoln for the mistake. Thieves there were who had 
 progressed to power in this brief making of a great 
 army. Trustful but untrusting he sat, unable to fol- 
 low the letter of the Constitution, knowing that 
 the great mass looked to him for victory. The 
 crimes Judge Moore argued against could not be 
 reviewed in a passing moment, nor the remedies ap- 
 
142 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 plied at the hour of seasoned judgment; such were 
 the problems of Lincoln, and by such mesalliance 
 of diverging troubles did he rise, the supreme com' 
 mander of men and magnitudes. 
 
 "The good that I would, I do not: but the evil 
 which I would not, that I do." 
 
 Hell hath its fury no less than war, but there in 
 Kentucky was the boiling teapot of the inferno 
 whose fires were lighted by the slinking Secretary 
 of War, who was willing that the ignorant and 
 crass, still unfreed by law, should now avenge their 
 slavery with blood letting of women and children; 
 ready to betray the devoted leader of the nation, 
 that he, Stanton, like the infamous Catiline that he 
 was, might ride to the presidency upon a catalog 
 of crimes, unsurpassed in the tyrannical wars of the 
 Romans. 
 
 To the infamy of betrayal he added the more 
 lustrous crime of murder, in the holy name of a 
 motto, "save the Union." Satiated with the lust 
 of a base ambition, he and the unscrupulous Chase 
 were willing to compromise the war in order to 
 sidetrack Lincoln by driving him into a mortuary 
 of murdered women and children and then hide like 
 Pharisaical minions of the deep under Lincoln's 
 coat-tails with the coward's answer: "this is war." 
 
 They had taken the oath to sustain the ConstitU' 
 tion, and Lincoln had told them that the Proclama- 
 tion to free the slaves did not become effective as a 
 matter of law until the states ratified the proposed 
 Amendment to the Constitution, which would 
 probably not occur until the close of the war; that 
 until that time slaves would remain the property 
 of their masters unless and when they were vol- 
 untarily freed. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 143 
 
 They could not be enlisted as soldiers, their 
 ownership must be protected, and the judgment of 
 civil courts could not be otherwise. Yet, in spite 
 of this, they falsely arrested negroes, and forced 
 them into the Federal service, defied courts of law, 
 suspended Generals who would not violate the Con' 
 stitution, gave them such military trials as they 
 wanted to hold, arrested men and women for criti' 
 cising their infamous conduct, threatened Lincoln 
 with annihilation, forced him to sign orders for the 
 enlistment of negroes by assembling hordes of cow 
 ardly fanatics in Washington, until at last the iron 
 in the man Lincoln we know, humbled them into the 
 dust, forced them to face the bloody poignards that 
 might be buried in their own breasts which they had 
 planted for him. Stanton was cursed in Kentucky 
 and Chase was damned. 
 
 In Kentucky steel met steel. The answer of man" 
 hood was not for a plea of mercy but a plea of jus' 
 tice, if only such justice as war chieftains visit on the 
 defenseless and loyal Union supporters. Men were 
 shot down in their civilian capacity, women were 
 raped and the weak plunged into dirty dungeons; 
 property stolen with an O. K. that was worth not 
 the paper it was written on. Finally, at last the 
 awakened soul of Nancy Lincoln, brave daughter of 
 the Captain, hurled her anathemas over Stanton's 
 head into the President's lap, and in the name of a 
 Lincoln, she cried out, that these insults be avenged 
 by him, one of her race. That this message would 
 not die in the hands of the sneaking Secretary of 
 War, Bill Austin the intrepid, daring and unafraid 
 Captain of Lincoln laid it into the President's hands 
 and commanded him, not in the name of justice or 
 liberty, but in the name of a Lincoln, greater in the 
 
144 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 might of her people than he, to rise from his slumber 
 and awaken the conscience of his Lincoln manhood 
 — and arise he did, so that within twenty hours 
 Chase and Stanton were on the carpet in front of a 
 tiger ready to spring, with their resignations, smat' 
 tered with the crimes that sprung from their emmis' 
 saries in Kentucky; but Lincoln made them stay, to 
 feel the steel they had sharpened for him. 
 
 Who knows what Austin told Lincoln, in the re 
 cesses of the dark, these two lone vigils of one house 
 hold. Had Hines said to Austin "There are on the 
 way to Washington twentyseven of the bravest 
 youths whoever tracked a shoe, who have come to 
 avenge these crimes; whether a bullet or hunting 
 knife do the work, you, Mr. President, Stanton and 
 Chase will pay — that is the law of the race you have 
 assailed. You will pay, and God will balance the ac 
 counts." The twenty-seven knights who represent 
 the spirits of their dead for vengeance, marched into 
 Washington, and who shall say that an eye for an 
 eye and a tooth for a tooth was not founded on the 
 philosophy of war. In Kentucky murder was war, 
 but in Washington war was murder, a matter of 
 geography, but in the minds of these young men it 
 was the same, murder everywhere. 
 
Samuel Haycraft, intimate friend of Thomas Lincoln, 
 
 whose Mill Creek farm house appears; one half mile 
 
 from Bersheba and Nancv Lincoln home. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S RELIGION. HIS BIRTH 
 
 PLACE 
 
 TT has been universally asserted that Abraham Lin- 
 coln was a religious man. In the sense that the 
 churches generally regard a man as religious, the 
 writer is sure he was not. 
 
 The consensus of opinion is, that he would not 
 answer the requirements of the churches of that day 
 or now. He was no more a religious man than 
 Thomas Jefferson or Andrew Jackson. They were 
 the two men President Lincoln regarded the most 
 highly of our Presidents. 
 
 William Sharp of Breckenridge County, Ken" 
 tucky, who was born in about 1815, told the writer 
 that he had made a trip to Illinois in about 1856, and 
 with another had occasion to call on Lincoln and 
 Herndon, and at the time they were engaged in quite 
 a spirited argument about the Bible. While there, 
 Lincoln had started in on the Know-Nothings, say- 
 ing that they arose from ignorance of religion and 
 intolerance and he berated the schism. He charged 
 that religious fanatics of the country were behind 
 the Know-Nothings, and that they had the right 
 name — they knew nothing. 
 
 He thought Voltaire had conclusively proven that 
 the New Testament was a concoction mixed by early 
 Roman day Priests who had accepted the manus- 
 
 145 
 
146 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 cripts found, and proceeded to establish a creed and 
 a construction to meet their demands by rewriting 
 portions of it to suit themselves. 
 
 The tithe or percentage was a plan to play on the 
 ignorance of the people, and by law collect ten per 
 cent of their earnings for the Church, through the 
 state, and that this doctrine had found its way into 
 Russia, where, during the established Monarchy, it 
 became part of the Church of State. 
 
 The scheme, he thought gave itself away, by the 
 fact that the duty was imposed on the citizen by the 
 Bible to pay demands of money to the King, the 
 highest authority, except the Priests. That indi' 
 cated to his mind that the creation of Christ as a God 
 was necessary with a plan of personal redemption, 
 so that the ignorant could be denied salvation and 
 consigned to Hell unless they accepted the doctrine 
 of his resurrection and agreed that the power, as an 
 adjunct went with it to save sinners. As further 
 proof of this fact, the Church had for hundreds of 
 years controlled the executive authority of their re 
 spective governments whenever the priests and Pope 
 had such power. Until Napoleon had imprisoned 
 the Pope and took him to Paris, and until the Catho' 
 lie Church had relented of their tenacious hold on 
 the state, nobody doubted that such was the God" 
 given word of the Bible. Napoleon and Voltaire had 
 torn the mask off, and started the stampede against 
 a Union of church and state, and except for Jeffer' 
 son and Paine, there would have been nothing in the 
 Constitution of the United States guaranteeing a 
 free religion. 
 
 Lincoln did not believe the Bible was inspired any 
 more than the statutes of Illinois, but he did believe 
 there was a God, and it was manifested in everyday 
 
Bill Austin, Lincoln spy simulating as a country cousin of 
 the President. 
 
148 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 life, and in the theory of propagation. He believed 
 the spirit, which was God, gave the germ action in 
 the male and female, and that this same spirit of 
 God was a part of man's mind. He said he had gone 
 into this subject of late years, and some day would 
 be able to crystalline his views along this line, show" 
 ing conclusively that the religious dogma as preach" 
 ed, was all wrong in its operative respects, that ma" 
 terialism did not mix with spiritualism, and that 
 man's spiritual nature was a thing apart from his 
 material nature. 
 
 Mr. Sharp was a man of unusual student qualities. 
 
 This conforms with the view of Billy Smith, that 
 the Lincolns held about the same views he had on 
 religion. He refers to Rev. Harry Moulin, Secret" 
 ary of State of Kentucky, who was the leader of the 
 Unitarians in Kentucky in his earlier years. 
 
 More confirmatory however is an article published 
 by Herndon in 1870 in a Toledo, Ohio, paper, assert" 
 ing that Mr. Lincoln had, prior to 1858, written a 
 book assailing the features of the Bible referred to in 
 Sharp's conversation. This statement of Herndon 
 was so universally read that the writer found that 
 the Kentucky Gazette, published in Lexington, Ken" 
 tucky, had stated that the editor had read the inter" 
 view, and that they believed the facts stated in it 
 were correct. 
 
 Mrs. Lincoln also had stated to Mr, Herndon that 
 President Lincoln was religious, but not a Christian. 
 There are many other confirmatory statements which 
 the writer had heard about President Lincoln which 
 indicate that he was a Unitarian in belief. He cer" 
 tainly was not a Baptist. 
 
 He had a strong moral and religious nature, but 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 149 
 
 to make him a worshipper of any particular school 
 seems to be without foundation of fact. 
 
 Pamelia Cowherd, youngest of William McMa' 
 han's daughters, born in 1804 knew very well the 
 persuasion of the Lincolns. Her father was an inti' 
 mate friend of Thomas, and emigrated with the older 
 Lincolns. 
 
 The writer interviewed her in 1885. 
 
 "Aunt Pamelia when were you born?" 
 
 "I was born in about 1804." 
 
 "Did you know Thomas Lincoln and his family?" 
 
 "I knew all of the Lincolns. Thomas married and 
 brought his wife to Mill Creek when I was small. 
 I don't know when, but I remember seeing them 
 there and at the Mill Creek church. I knew Nancy 
 and her mother very well. They lived there for a 
 very long time, and died there. That was Lincoln 
 headquarters at the old lady Lincoln's house. My 
 father John McMahan came from Pennsylvania with 
 the Captain, and he was associated with Thomas Lin- 
 coln quite a bit. We lived on Mill Creek at that 
 time. I thought both Nancy Lincoln and her moth' 
 er were right smart women — they took an active 
 part in neighborhood affairs; never knew much 
 about Thomas Lincoln's wife. We had quilting 
 bees, log rollings, house raisings, corn husking bees, 
 spelling bees and church affairs — that was our form 
 of entertainment. The women came with the men 
 and we had a big time, generally wound up with a 
 dance at night, and many is the time I have seen 
 them all. I saw little Abe and Sarah a good many 
 times." 
 
 "Thomas Lincoln had a good log house on the 
 upper creek where he lived for many years. He left 
 that country about the time I got married. Thomas 
 
1 50 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 went about a good deal as a mechanic or carpenter 
 and stayed away for a good spell." 
 
 "He had a round face, rather a full face and was a 
 big man, nearly six feet, I would say, and the men 
 said he was a very strong man. His wife was slim' 
 like, and had sharp features like myself, but she was 
 a brisk'moving woman, not so very sociable. She 
 visited Elinor Peck a good deal, and I suppose the 
 Maffits, they were kin; that is the Maffit women. 
 Nancy did not talk much like the Pennsylvania folks; 
 she was more southern, had a southern brogue, I 
 guess you call it." 
 
 "We had monthly preaching in those days and 
 most everybody went to church whether it was 
 a "Jack leg" preacher or a good one, and when the 
 church had "doings" sinners and saints all helped. 
 I heard "Raccoon" Smith, Peter Cartwright, a man 
 by the name of McKendre, he was the best of all of 
 them." 
 
 "Thomas Lincoln was a good worker, folks said. 
 He took liquor sometimes too, but he was a good 
 citizen. When he was a boy he lived with Jacob 
 Van Meter a good deal. The Van Meters were very 
 strong Baptists, dyed in the wool." 
 
 "John Peck and Elinor were their close neigh' 
 bors and the Williams' and Meltons'. They were 
 older than Thomas and his wife." 
 
 "Where was Abraham Lincoln born?" "I could 
 not tell you that for sure, but I always heard from 
 his neighbors the children were born on the Mill 
 Creek farm." 
 
 "It was not talked until about the war, then every 
 body commenced talking about Abe being the boy 
 that was around Mill Creek with his daddy; and 
 Thomas was known to everybody in this part of the 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 151 
 
 county, Billy Smith, John Moore, my sister Polly, 
 my brother-in-law, Thomas Peck, Thomas Williams, 
 all of these people knew most of the Lincolns and 
 their movements. " 
 
 "I could not tell you about their intimate affairs 
 but the neighbors up there would be able to tell you 
 more about them. Thomas Peck was born in 1794. 
 He was fifteen years old when Lincoln was born. 
 He said positively he was born in the Melton house. 
 He was my brother-in-law." 
 
 She thought the people liked Nancy (Lincoln), 
 Brumfield's wife best of all; she supposed it was be- 
 cause she was so sociable. She saw her after she 
 married Brumfield, but not before. Her acquain- 
 tance with the Lincolns commenced in 1810, she 
 thought. She did not know that she had seen Mary 
 Lincoln, though they had said she was not so good- 
 looking. 
 
 She had seen Nancy Lincoln quite a few times 
 in ten years, and her daughters — Mrs. Nail and Mrs. 
 Austin. Nancy Hanks was a quiet sort of person, 
 did not talk much, and was of a sad appearance 
 though that was just attributed to her ways. There 
 was talk that her mother was a little "fast" but she 
 did not think the people paid much attention to 
 that. She thinks this came from the Lincoln wo- 
 men, otherwise, the people never would have known 
 about it. There were no aristocratic people in that 
 section, and they looked upon each other as equals. 
 
 Her father, John McMahan, and Thomas, worked 
 on several jobs together, were patrollers together at 
 times; and Thomas had been to her father's house 
 several times. He was a sociable fellow, and most 
 of the people treated him well and liked to have him 
 come around. He often had told how his father was 
 
1 52 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 killed by an Indian, shooting from the woods, and 
 how he and the balance of them were scared. 
 
 "I have seen Josiah I suppose with his mother, as 
 he used to come to that Church but I don't think I 
 could pick him out. Squire Boone sometimes came 
 to this Church and talked to the people. He was a 
 brother of Daniel, and had a good education. I 
 knew the Pearmans, Cowleys, Howards, Colvins, 
 McCullums, Stators, Owens. Betsy and Jane Owens 
 are not as old as I am by a good many years. I knew 
 the Hibbs too, Calvin and Mahalon. I knew Billy 
 Smith as well as I knew my father. He is a bit older 
 than I, mighty good man and a smart man. He doc 
 tored the people but I do not know whether he was 
 a licensed doctor or not." 
 
 Pamelia Cowherd was a sister to Margaret Peck 
 who married Thomas Peck, the son of Aunt Elinor 
 and Uncle Henry or John, "some called him one 
 name and some another." "Elinor Peck was a very 
 remarkable woman. I saw her when she was a very 
 old woman. She was from Pennsylvania, the 
 k 'dutch' ' country. She was a very good friend of 
 Bersheba Lincoln and her family, and lived right by 
 Tom Lincoln and Nancy for a long time." 
 
 I talked to John Watts in 1880 and finished with 
 him in 1884 after his mother's death. 
 
 Polly Watts, by her son John. This was the wife 
 of George Watts, who with Thomas Lincoln had pc 
 titioned for and built the Elisabethtown and Bran' 
 denburg road. Watts was a young man at this time, 
 (1804). He, as well as she, had known all of the 
 Lincolns very well except the Captain. She said she 
 had seen almost the entire population at the old Mill 
 Creek Church at different times. The folks came 
 there from all over the county, and the most distin' 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 153 
 
 guished preachers in the state had preached there at 
 one time or another. 
 
 She had a very strong recollection of Bersheba 
 Lincoln, who was probably sixty or near it when she 
 first saw her.. 
 
 "She was the principal woman in that church 
 when she was a girl. Captain Palmer, whose family 
 left the county in about 1830 and went to Illinois 
 was a prominent man in the church at this early date. 
 He owned land in the community. She would be 
 pointed at and folks would say, there is the head of 
 the Lincoln tribe. She kept these children together 
 in tragic days and that excited the admiration of the 
 people. She was from Virginia, and if you were 
 from Virginia you were alright. The men stood 
 right up for anything she proposed. 
 
 "She had a son'in4aw, Bill Brumfield who was a 
 clever man, and his wife was a very pretty woman. 
 She was probably twenty years older than I. I saw 
 her for many years after her mother's death and I 
 guess she did not die until long after the Civil War. 
 I knew Bill Austin to see him, he married one of 
 Nancy's girls. He ran away, no one ever knew what 
 became of him; it was right after the war. Well it 
 was curious, and he was a curious man, people 
 said, but I had no acquaintance with him. Her 
 father, John McMahan, was quite intimate with 
 Thomas Lincoln, more so than her husband, for they 
 claimed to be Pennsylvania "Dutch," "though I 
 guess Lincoln was such only through his father." 
 
 She thought Thomas must have been a man of 
 influence because he was in everything that went on, 
 and he was a pleasant man, people liked to deal with 
 him. Thomas, her husband said, liked a drink pretty 
 well. Both of the children, she had always heard, 
 
1 54 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 were born on Mill Creek, until of late she had read 
 different. 
 
 While hardly as active physically as her sister, 
 Pamelia, it was said, she had a much brighter mind 
 and certainly was a credit to the race. She died Sep- 
 tember 23rd, 1880. Her family was a large one and 
 are scattered over Missouri and Oklahoma, occupy- 
 ing prominent positions wherever they live. At this 
 time, one is Chairman of the Board of Directors of 
 a large bank in St. Louis. Another has been Judge 
 and another Attorney General. 
 
 JOHN CRUSE. His father was named Jeremiah 
 Cruse and lived a mile from the Mill Creek Church. 
 His father was a friend of Thomas Lincoln and 
 served on the jury and worked on the Eli^abethtown- 
 Brandenburg road with him. He knew well Nancy 
 Lincoln Brumfield, although he had talked to her 
 but a few times. She was a bright woman, a good 
 talker. He knew Bersheba Lincoln in her life time 
 and while he had no personal acquaintance with her 
 he knew her history and her story. He had heard 
 the story of the killing of Captain Lincoln many 
 times through that family. He had heard Thomas 
 tell about it. He knew that he was a close friend of 
 Jacob Van Meter at the forks of Otter Creek and 
 lived there some part of his life. He knew from his 
 father that the old Mill Creek Church was the sec 
 ond oldest in the county and that at Bersheba Lin- 
 coln's there was a store and blacksmith shop. It was 
 a place of meeting for the section and the elections 
 were held there. His father had known Bill Brum- 
 field well. He had also known Bill Austin. He re- 
 membered himself when old Mrs. Lincoln died, and 
 very well when Nancy Lincoln was buried at Mill 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 155 
 
 Creek. His father had told him that Bersheba Lin- 
 coln preferred to live on Mill Creek and she and 
 Brumfield and Tom had bought that land and built 
 the house. Thomas and Bill and the mother got along 
 fine, the people said. Thomas was mighty good to his 
 mother. Sam Hay craft the first, his father said, had 
 more influence than any other man in the county, and 
 he was a friend of the Lincolns. Thomas lived on the 
 Shepherds ville Road farm after he married. Abe 
 Lincoln, his father said, was born on the Mill Creek 
 farm. He had never heard anything different until 
 they commenced to write history. 
 
 STEPHEN McMURTRY. He lived on the old 
 Haycraft farm which adjoined the Nancy Lincoln 
 farm as he knew it to be. He moved there after the 
 Civil War. He was born in 1816. He knew Nancy 
 Lincoln. She did not die until 1875. The mark on 
 her tombstone was a mistake of the convivial mech- 
 anic who inscribed it. 
 
 She was buried on the hill in the old cemetery a 
 half mile from his house. He was son-in-law to Sam 
 Haycraft, and his wife was a close friend and visitor 
 often to Nancy Lincoln BrumfiekTs house. When 
 he first moved there, after the war, he went to see 
 her about re-building the line fence between them, 
 and she told him that the timber had been cut on his 
 land by Thomas and Bill Brumfield, and she thought 
 the fence was over the line, and that they had made 
 a mistake. Little Abe cut the splinters and the 
 others had split the rails. He might cut the timber 
 on her farm if he wished and build the fence — that 
 would only be fair to him. She said that Thomas 
 and little Abe came back to visit them after Nancy 
 Hanks' death and stayed there quite a while, and 
 
1 56 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 built the fence at that time in about 1819 in the 
 winter. She laughed and said that he was probably 
 on a matrimonial venture so far as she could see. He 
 married Sarah Johnston and took her back with him. 
 Tom had gone out to Indiana to see the land, and 
 returned, sold his Mill Creek farm, his other prop' 
 erty and left here in about December 1816 for In' 
 diana. He stayed at her house for several days and 
 then struck out west with his family in a two horse 
 wagon with some household furniture. He had re- 
 turned again and sold out Sarah Johnston's property 
 and went back to Indiana. He never returned, and 
 that was the last time she ever saw him. She had 
 heard from Abraham during the war. Her mother 
 died in 1833 and was buried at the old Mill Creek 
 Cemetery. So was Mary Austin, he thought this was 
 the name of the oldest daughter of Nancy. 
 
 SOLOMON IRWIN. Solomon was two months 
 younger than President Lincoln. He lived on Mill 
 Creek and knew young Abe Lincoln and Thomas 
 well. He had hunted fox up and down the creek 
 with the older men and Abe was present. He had 
 also hunted Coons with them once. Abe was a 
 head taller than he, a very big boy. He could knock 
 a squirrel out of a tree with a rock, could climb a 
 tree like a coon, and was a good jumper. He saw 
 the family at the Mill Creek Church a few times 
 and had heard Thomas was a fine mechanic. 
 
 Irwin saw Nancy but a few times referred to her 
 as very "skinny." He knew old Sam and young Sam 
 Haycraft, and knew that they had been friends of 
 Thomas Lincoln. Thomas was what you would call 
 now a strong Democrat. He did not belong to the 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 1 57 
 
 Baptist Church, and he got "tight" sometimes, but 
 was a happy fellow. 
 
 Solomon had married a daughter of Billy Smith 
 and lived in that section all of his life. Billy Smith 
 lived up the creek close to the Tom Lincoln farm. 
 Catherine Peck was his wife's sister. She lived ad- 
 joining it, and her mother-in-law, Mrs. "Elinor" 
 Peck, was there before Thomas bought the farm 
 from Stator across the way. Tom Melton, Tom 
 Lincoln and Peck, he had heard, built the house on it 
 before Thomas got married, and that Thomas lived 
 there most of the time, after he was big enough to 
 know anything about it. 
 
 He knew that Jack Peck and Reuben Peck 
 were raised there adjoining it, and must have known 
 about the Lincolns. Jack married his wife's sister, 
 was ten years older than he, and Reuben was about 
 his age. They knew all about Thomas Lincoln. He 
 knew "Elinor," their mother. She was the oldest 
 woman, he thought, in that country. She could 
 spin and weave when she was very old. He knew 
 David and Joseph Swank, John McMahan, Polly 
 Watts and Pamelia Cowherd. The latter women 
 were sisters to Margaret Peck, the wife of Thomas 
 Peck. He was Thomas Lincoln's nearest neighbor, 
 and knew more about the Lincolns than he did. 
 After he married, he lived on the road laid out by 
 Thomas Lincoln about three and half miles from 
 Thomas Lincoln's farm, and about the same distance 
 from where Bersheba Lincoln lived. He knew her 
 by sight, and had spoken often to Nancy Lincoln. 
 They were both smart women for that day and 
 time. Nancy had some influence with the Presi- 
 dent. She and his father-in-law Billy Smith had a 
 pretty strong pull with Lincoln. 
 
1 58 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 They worked together and stood some of the 
 Yankee Generals on their heads toward the end of 
 the war. He knew Bill Austin. He did not know 
 what he did during the war, though he was sus" 
 pected of being a spy for Lincoln. His position had 
 the people pulled. Some people said he was in 
 with General Morgan but he guessed he was in with 
 Lincoln. He left the country suddenly after the 
 war. 
 
 Solomon fell from his once high estate but still 
 had a good mind in his ninetieth year when this in' 
 terview took place and he was very positive Ab" 
 raham Lincoln could not have been born on Norm 
 Creek, as he himself saw him too much on Mill 
 Creek and had heard nearly every one along the 
 Creek discuss it. He sent the writer to Thurman 
 Thomas, who was a grandson of John Thomas. John 
 Thomas and his son and Thos. Melton, he had heard, 
 helped Thomas Lincoln to build the Nolin Creek 
 house in the summer, but he did not know just what 
 year it was. 
 
 Calvin Watts, of Vine Grove, born about 1832, 
 told me that his grandfather was well acquainted, as 
 was his father with the entire Lincoln family, and 
 that he was surprised when Mr. Lincoln said in 
 1860 that he was born somewhere on Nolin Creek. 
 He had been to the Tom Lincoln house on Mill 
 Creek and it was as good as the average house of the 
 pioneers. He was there in Melton's lifetime. 
 
 He had heard Nancy Ann Pauley say that she 
 was present with her mother when Lincoln was 
 born, and it was not true that he was born in Elisa' 
 bethtown, but he was born on Mill Creek. She 
 lived to be a very old woman. He thought her ten 
 years older than Polly Watts. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 1 59 
 
 WILLIAM RODGERS, VINE GROVE, KEN- 
 TUCKY. 
 
 Mr. Rodgers was a neighbor to the writer and 
 often talked to him about the Lincolns. He was well 
 versed in the early history of Mill Creek. His father 
 was a Baptist minister and commenced to preach at 
 the Mill Creek church in 1831. 
 
 The first church, he had heard, was built in 1783 
 but did not join the association until 1806, that 
 would mean they had no regular preacher until 
 then. Captain Lincoln spent that winter on Mill 
 Creek and helped build that church. 
 
 His wife, Bersheba, was prominent and active in 
 it. He knew all of them well. He had been to 
 Nancy Lincoln's house and also knew Bill Austin and 
 his wife. His father's name was Jacob and he had 
 a son named Jacob. He was born in 1815. The old 
 church had only four preachers before his fathers' 
 ministry there. "Raccoon" Smith was probably the 
 greatest preacher who had ever occupied that pul- 
 pit. Gov. Garrard and Peter Cartwright had both 
 preached there. 
 
 He had heard the Lincoln birth discussed several 
 times, especially at the beginning of the war, but he 
 had never heard Nancy Lincoln discuss it. His near 
 neighbors for thirty years, members of the church, 
 he belonged to, were William P. Nail and his wife 
 Elisabeth. They had often discussed it in his pre- 
 sence. They lived a half mile or less from his house. 
 Nail was about fifteen years his senior, and his wife 
 about twelve. Mrs. Nail, her mother and grand- 
 mother, had often said that Abe Lincoln was born 
 on Mill Creek; in fact it was never disputed until 
 1860, when the President came out with a statement 
 
160 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 in the Journal at Louisville, which Rodgers read, 
 and they discussed it. Of course, she disputed it 
 rather sharply, saying that she guessed Abraham 
 was ashamed of his own people since he had come to 
 be a big man. She was Nancy's second daughter. 
 
 He had been in the old Bersheba Lincoln house 
 several times and had been in the Melton house also. 
 These houses were both built from logs. The Mel' 
 ton house had an open porch between two log box 
 houses about 18 by 16 feet. The Bersheba Lincoln 
 house was a little larger and the porch was enclosed, 
 and it had a dining room and kitchen, which the 
 Melton house did not have. The Melton place was 
 just a short distance from John Peck's house. 
 
 While Mr. Rodgers was plain spoken he was a 
 very religious man. The writer recalls that he would 
 pass the fields where he worked on Saturday — on 
 his way to church and often would admonish him 
 to give a few hours to God. However, he frankly 
 said that he thought Lincoln told an untruth about 
 his birth and did it because he did not think his kin 
 could measure up to his new life or "grand style," as 
 he put it. 
 
 He thought he had seen Abe Lincoln on Mill 
 Creek a few times, as a boy. He had heard the Lin' 
 coin birth discussed since the Lincoki'Douglas dc 
 bates, and the Mill Creek people said he was born 
 there on the Tom Lincoln farm. Nancy Lincoln, 
 Mary Austin (a Brumfield), and Mrs. Nail all died 
 within a few years of each other. 
 
 THURMAN THOMAS. 
 
 Thurman was a grandson of old John Thomas. He 
 said that both his father and grandfather helped 
 Thomas Lincoln build the Nolin Creek house before 
 
Photo copies of tin types of four of the eight Ditto brothers whose father 
 
 was intimately associated with Thomas Lincoln in building present Dixie 
 
 Highway in Hardin County. Births ranging from 1807 to 1818. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 161 
 
 he moved from Mill Creek, and he recalled they 
 said it was in early spring but he did not remember 
 what year. They cut the trees and hewed the logs, 
 then had a house raising and put it up in a day. His 
 grandfather was also a witness for Lincoln, the 
 defendant, as he was present when Bush sold the land 
 to Lincoln. 
 
 His father knew all about it as they lived close to 
 Tom Lincoln on Mill Creek. His father's and 
 mother's statement was that Lincoln was born on 
 the Mill Creek farm. He was sure of that himself 
 from what he had heard during the war, and had 
 heard Lincoln criticised for abandoning his birth 
 place. He charged it to family affairs, his lack of 
 interest in them, or he was ashamed of them, and 
 wanted no one to come around and see them or talk 
 with his father's early neighbors. The neighbors 
 used to sit around at Church and talk about such 
 things in that day while the preacher "whaled away 
 at the sinners." He then lived there and thought he 
 knew Tom Lincoln by sight though he was about 
 the President's age. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 SQUIRE BOONE AND HIS COLONY- 
 LINCOLN'S BIRTH PLACE— FINDINGS 
 
 THE settlement of Squire Boone's colony on the 
 Ohio River, which was a shifting to the west 
 of his Shelby- Jefferson County colony was one of 
 the causes that stirred the Indians. 
 
 No treaty with the Indians, had ever up to this 
 time been observed by the whites. They continually 
 moved west all of the time regardless of convention 
 agreements with the Indians. Our early settlers 
 may be regarded at this distance of having soulless 
 honor so far as their point of view went. If an agree- 
 ment was made with General Clark or General 
 Wayne, the government at Richmond, and subse- 
 quently the government at Washington, had a right 
 to overrule it. The history of the white man's rela- 
 tions with the Indians is one of broken contracts, 
 disregarded treaties, and scraps-of-paper-solicitude* 
 on their part. If the savage had no rights in the 
 matter then the whites should have said, we need 
 your land, we want it, and these agreements are 
 made merely for delay, until we can reinforce. That 
 would have been an honest way to do it. The cruel- 
 ties of the individual cases on the part of the Indians 
 do not compare with the summed up cruelties of the 
 whites. 
 
 The government simply did not recognise that 
 
 162 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 163 
 
 the Indians had any rights in the matter, and all of 
 the trouble came about entirely on account of the 
 dishonorable procedure of our dear Anglo-Saxon 
 method of grabbing the Indians' land. 
 
 After the treaty at Chillicothe, in 1782, the plan 
 inaugurated by the government, was simply one of 
 waiting until conditions might improve, and in the 
 meantime the treaties would serve to camouflage 
 the hand of the aggressor. 
 
 Rogers Clark himself was nothing more nor less 
 than an adventurer, hoping to put himself in a posi- 
 tion to deal with the Spanish government and the 
 Indians under cover of authority from the state of 
 Virginia. There is no doubt he had confederates. 
 The incursions into Hardin County, and the death 
 of Captain Lincoln may be attributed to the policy 
 of Rogers Clark and his backers. 
 
 The avaricious whites had no desire to civilise the 
 Indian or teach him the route to God by way of 
 noisy prayers except as a solace of his hostility, until 
 the entire fc 'works" of pillage could be given the Red 
 man. Brashears Station, on the banks of Salt River, 
 was built and the lands of that entire section were 
 surveyed by Colonel John Smith, Captain Floyd and 
 their surveyors, solely for the purpose of passing out 
 land warrants for the services of soldiers, for them- 
 selves and friends, without having the slightest right 
 by treaty or otherwise to such lands. There can 
 never be any justification for it. Hence no great 
 amount of tears should be shed at this distance from 
 the scene because of the outrages committed by the 
 Indians. It is a supreme wonder that any white 
 man or woman captured by them ever returned 
 from captivity alive and well. 
 
 "Sharp Eye" Silas Hart, a companion and friend 
 
164 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 of Captain Lincoln, descending from Silas Hart, of 
 Rockingham County, Virginia, neighbor of John 
 Lincoln, was ever and always on the lookout for 
 Indians, and in a death struggle with the brother of 
 a Chief, he was shot through the heart. His son 
 took up his rifle, shooting his father's assailant, but 
 the mother and young Hart were taken by the 
 Indians, held prisoners, and in a few years carried 
 back to the white settlements. His widow married 
 a man named Countryman, lived in Hardin County, 
 up to the day of her death, about 1840. 
 
 ENOCH BOONE, son of Daniel, settled about 
 three miles from Mr. Hart, and lived to be ninety. 
 Judge Fitch, his son-in-law (in 1887), a very estim- 
 able man, talked freely to me about the movement 
 of the Boones. He then lived at what is called 
 Garnettsville. This point is but a very short dis- 
 tance from the dream colony of Squire Boone and 
 the Englishman who laid out a city that would hold 
 forty thousand inhabitants. It was to be the gate- 
 way to Kentucky and out-rival Pittsburgh as an in- 
 dustrial city. The noble Squire did the surveying 
 and the distinguished Englishman did the dreaming. 
 The Squire's principal understudy, Judge Fitch told 
 me, was Josiah Lincoln. 
 
 SUSAN B. HAYNES. Susan B. Haynes was 
 the daughter of James Crutcher, who lived at Vine 
 Grove. James was the son of John Crutcher who 
 built the first Court House in Hardin County, and 
 brother to James the oldest merchant in Elizabeth- 
 town, Kentucky. 
 
 She lived within a stone's throw of where Daniel 
 Boone perched his lookout cabin for a while and 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 165 
 
 about a mile from Squire Boone's colony. Her hus- 
 band's father had been one of the intimates of the 
 Squire and had joined in the big land schemes which 
 cover all of Boone Township in Harrison County, 
 Indiana. 
 
 She had not herself known the Lincolns, though 
 she was familiar with the history of both sides of the 
 family. The Boone and Lincoln negroes were buried 
 on the hill just above the farm she was occupying, 
 and which she owned, at this time, in 1885. Josiah, 
 apparently, had no great prejudice against owner' 
 ship of slaves, if these facts are true. She had heard 
 her father recount seeing the Lincoln women. He 
 had promoted and built Crutcher's Church, about 
 midway between Vine Grove and Mill Creek, an 
 entire distance of four miles. This was a Metlv 
 odist church. His story of Thomas Lincoln, is that 
 Thomas was a very active politician, pulling his 
 wires for roads and other public improvements. Ac 
 cording to her father's story, Thomas was a good 
 enough wire puller and a strong enough Democrat 
 to have been eligible as a Knight of Tammany Hall. 
 Thomas, generally, got the real job on all the 
 schemes he put through at county headquarters. 
 Thomas belonged to no church, neither did his wife. 
 This estimable lady had no relish for the President's 
 war policy, and she said her father and his brothers 
 were equally set on this question. They voted for 
 McClellan in 1864. 
 
 JUDGE FITCH, had equally positive notions 
 about the President's war policy. He thought all of 
 the scoundrels in the world had been elevated to 
 Generals and sent to Kentucky to pillage and rob 
 good union men, who voted to keep Kentucky from 
 
166 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 seceding; beyond this, he assumed the President was 
 a very excellent statesman. 
 
 JACK PECK. Jack Peck was a son of Elinor 
 
 Peck, brother of Reuben. His wife was a daughter 
 
 of Billy Smith, a sister of Catherine. He had lived 
 
 adjoining Thomas Lincoln. (1888) Interview date. 
 
 "Uncle Jack about what is your age?" 
 
 "I will be about eighty-eight my next birthday ." 
 
 "Did you know Thomas Lincoln or his mother, 
 
 or Nancy Lincoln Brumfield or President Lincoln?" 
 
 "I knew all of them. I am nine years older than 
 
 President Lincoln, though when his father lived on 
 
 the Mill Creek farm I was not grown. Young Abe 
 
 was a very large lad though he was only born in 
 
 1809. I was born in 1800, Thomas in 1794, 
 
 Reuben in 1810 and Henry in 1815." 
 
 "I saw Thomas very often, and Nancy, his wife, 
 frequently came to our house just as neighbors will. 
 They visited us frequently, though I may say we 
 were just friendly neighbors. My mother very 
 often visited Nancy Hanks Lincoln. I knew the old 
 lady, Bersheba. She, in passing our place going to 
 town sometimes, stopped, and she came often with 
 Nancy Lincoln Brumfield and stayed all day. I re- 
 member very well when Thomas and family, went 
 to Indiana, they came over and told us good-bye. 
 They then I think lived in Elisabethtown, or had 
 lived there since selling the farm to Tom Melton. 
 Aunt Kit, your Aunt Kit, lives on the place now, 
 where my brother Henry used to live. That was a 
 part of the land known as the Robert Huston and 
 May surveys. My father and John Stator, Thomas 
 Williams, and I believe old Johnny Moore owned 
 that land. That is the way I think it is. Stator sold 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 167 
 
 his part to Thomas Lincoln and he moved to Green 
 County." 
 
 "Do you remember how long Thomas Lincoln 
 lived there?" 
 
 "No, I do not. Thomas had other farms up about 
 Hodgenville and worked them. He told us that he 
 had the best house on this place and the best title to 
 it. He moved into the house, I guess, in about 1804, 
 that only I know by hearsay. Then he was a 
 mechanic and worked sometimes for several months. 
 Then I know that he had a house in Elizabeth- 
 town." 
 
 "Was your mother very friendly to them?" 
 
 "Oh yes, my mother was a pretty friendly woman, 
 and they claimed Pennsylvania kin." 
 
 "Was Thomas a good-sized man?" 
 
 "Well, Thomas was about five feet ten inches, and 
 pretty stout. He was a good-natured story-telling 
 fellow and folks liked that sort of a man. He was 
 the kind that has friends." 
 
 "Did he have any money?" 
 
 "Well, as to that I do not know, but he had cows 
 and sometimes four horses. He traded some, and 
 he worked all of his farms and passed back and 
 forth, from one to the other, rented them out you 
 know, sometimes for money rent but I suppose 
 mostly on the shares, like other folks that had more 
 than they could work, but Thomas was a first-class 
 workman. He liked to have his fun, hunting pretty 
 much when he was at home on rainy days. He was 
 a fox hunter and run the hounds. He had good 
 hounds too." 
 
 |TKd Abe look like him?" 
 
 "Not much; Abe did not look like any of his 
 family, unless, as I have heard it said, he looked like 
 
168 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 the old Captain. My mother said he looked like the 
 Captain, but the Captain was killed by the Indians 
 fifteen years before I was born. I dare say the Cap" 
 tain was a pretty good man. He came here from 
 Virginia with the Swank boys and I have heard my 
 mother and Joseph Swank say he was a good man. 
 The Captain had money when he got here; he sold 
 out in Rockingham County, Virginia, and had all 
 the money he needed to start, but his oldest son got 
 most of that when he was killed, so they say. 
 Thomas was good at getting things done. He was 
 either surveyor or laid out the road. He got this 
 road through here in front of my house. He had a 
 good friend in old Sam Haycraft, who was the 
 Judge and the first settler in Elisabethtown. He gave 
 Thomas his first start in life. Then there was young 
 Jake Van Meter who was about ten years older than 
 Thomas, he had money, and he had Thomas around 
 him a good deal." 
 "Where did he live?" 
 
 When his mother moved down to Mill Creek I 
 think he lived with her until he got married, then he 
 and Nancy moved over there. I cannot tell you just 
 how long he lived there but he always called that 
 his home place." 
 
 "Do you know where young Abe was born?" 
 "No, I have heard that he was born up the way, 
 that would be over about Hodgenville, but mother 
 said he was born on the Mill Creek farm; and I feel 
 sure of that." 
 
 "How about Thomas Lincoln's habits?" 
 "Well, Tom was alright, I think, he would take 
 his fc Tea' sometimes, but he did not get drunk. He 
 did not belong to church, but he was a good average 
 man." 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 169 
 
 "What was his politics?" 
 
 "In the days I guess he was for Jefferson and his 
 crowd. He was pretty strong for Virginia, that 
 meant Jefferson. Then the old lady, Bersheba, was 
 mighty strong against the Whigs, I guess you would 
 call them." 
 
 "Was he against slavery?" 
 
 "Never heard of it. He was a "Patroller." That 
 meant he would bring back the runaway negroes. I 
 guess he had no objection to slavery." 
 
 "What kind of looking woman was Bersheba 
 Lincoln?" 
 
 "She was a right proud Virginia woman and right 
 good-looking, for an old lady. Nancy was very 
 good-looking, she was Bill Brumfield's wife, lived 
 down near old Sam Hay craft, on the creek. We 
 sometimes went down there to church meeting, the 
 Mount Zion was not built then." 
 
 "Was she friendly with your father-in-law, Billy 
 Smith?" 
 
 "Yes, the two of them, I heard, were about all 
 the protection we had around here from these rob- 
 bing "Yankees" during the war. The old man knew 
 how to work the business and Nancy Lincoln 
 backed him up, and I guess Abe Lincoln paid atten- 
 tion to them. They made a pretty good team, and 
 they agreed on things pretty well, that I know. 
 
 Uncle Jack Nancy's tombstone says she died in 
 1845. No, No, that's a mistake. She was about 
 ninety-five when she died, figure that yourself." 
 
 "Did you know Bill Brumfield or Bill Austin?" 
 
 "Yes, I knew them to see them; Bill Austin was a 
 quiet fellow, but it is said he was a regular 'hell 
 raiser/ He was Nancy Lincoln's right arm, they 
 said. In those days you had to keep your mouth 
 
170 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 shut, and I did not meddle. I got along very bad as 
 it was, very bad. We could not keep anything from 
 the devilish soldiers; they called it foraging, I have 
 another word for it. They took our stock and we 
 never got a thing from them and we never will." 
 
 "Did you know of your own knowledge that 
 Nancy Lincoln was active during the war?" 
 
 "I know old Burbridge was afraid of her influ' 
 ence, he was the worst we ever had here. General 
 Palmer was not so bad, yet civil law did not mean 
 anything to him. They say that Nancy finally got 
 rid of Burbridge, though nobody ever knew that I 
 guess but Billy Smith, and I don't suppose he ever 
 told anybody." 
 
 "Did you ever see Nancy Hanks Lincoln?" 
 
 "Yes. She was a tall woman, pretty thin, and had 
 a sharp face but I could not tell you the color of her 
 eyes or hair; she did not talk much, as I remember, 
 she did not have much of a chance when my mother 
 and Tom got together, and that was generally when 
 I saw her. They came by to see us when they went 
 to Indiana in a two-horse wagon, Sarah, a girl and 
 Abe and Tom and his wife. He told us he had been 
 out there twice and had his eye on some land. I 
 was about two-thirds grown when they left." 
 
 "I hunted once with young Abe and he was a 
 sprightly boy. He would try anything that he saw 
 men do. In those days boys were men; their 
 mothers turned them out to go when they got their 
 diapers off and they had to "root hog or die," and 
 they got so they could take care of themselves pretty 
 soon. A boy that could not plow when he was eight, 
 was not much of a boy, and all of them had to do it, 
 and they did not whine about it. When they got 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 171 
 
 orders they obeyed them very promptly, and they 
 did not do much talking." 
 
 "Your mother, Elinor Peck was a very good friend 
 of Thomas and all of the Lincolns?" 
 
 "My mother was good to anybody that would do 
 half right, and she could go; I guess she never got 
 tired. She could stand on the ground and jump on 
 a horse bare back when she was sixty. She liked 
 the Lincolns, and she stood for them all of her life. 
 She was ready for any kind of a frolic and she would 
 try anything from dancing a jig to working in the 
 field." 
 
 "Did you know the Hanks that lived in Eli' 
 zjabethtown?" 
 
 "No, I knew Sarah Johnston to see her, and I 
 knew old and young Sam Haycraft, and voted for 
 young Sam all of my life. But my mother and 
 Uncle Billy Smith knew more about the Lincolns 
 than anybody." 
 
 "Did you know Colonel Cowley? Did you know 
 John Smith?" 
 
 "Yes, I knew John Cowley; he was some kind of 
 an officer. I knew Owen Cowley, his son; Owen 
 was smart and knew how to make money, and I 
 guess the Colonel and Owen were about as good 
 friends as old lady Nancy and old Bersheba had in 
 their Jiast days, people said that, who lived down the 
 creek. John Smith was a very close friend of Lin' 
 coin, and he died in Arkansas, I heard. He was 
 my wife's uncle." 
 
 "Did you know where Abe Lincoln was born?" 
 
 "Not old enough to know, but Mrs. Maffitt and 
 my mother said Tom's children were born in the 
 Melton house." 
 
1 72 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 WILLIAM P. NALL. Mr. Nail was the writer's 
 
 near neighbor. He married the daughter of Nancy 
 Lincoln Brumfield. He married in about 1821, was 
 born in 1798, near Mill Creek. 
 
 The writer heard him talk in 1884, the year of 
 his death, and before this particular occasion, had 
 often listened to him, discuss the Lincolns. One 
 of his sons, Hon. Luther Nail, seems to have been 
 in the mind of most of Lincoln's biographers. 
 Another of his sons, John G., was Postmaster for 
 many years under President Cleveland at Vine 
 Grove. They were very strong Democrats. Mr. 
 Nail said he did not vote for his cousin Abraham 
 Lincoln, and had no sympathy with the policy of 
 President Lincoln in freeing the slaves, nor in any 
 of his promises about respecting the neutrality of 
 Kentucky, or in maintaining the integrity of civil 
 authority in Kentucky. His mother-in-law, Nancy 
 Lincoln, did, however, have such faith, and kept 
 the President informed constantly about what she 
 heard. Her son-in-law and others close to her did 
 believe she had influence with the President even 
 though far removed from the scene. He did not 
 know the President, and had only seen Thomas 
 Lincoln once, but knew Bersheba, who was living 
 when he married. She was then in the eighties. 
 
 He heard her say she was born in Virginia, and 
 she frequently talked of the killing of Captain Lin- 
 coln by the Indians. He was not clear on the cir- 
 cumstances, but he thought a single Indian killed 
 him, though they were over-running that section at 
 the time. He considered the Lincolns superior 
 women or he would not have married into the 
 family. Bersheba had died in 1833 and was buried 
 at Mill Creek. Nancy Lincoln had been dead only 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 173 
 
 about ten years prior to this conversation, and she 
 was buried at the same place. Mary had visited 
 them once after they were married. She had some 
 family and her husband was a well-to-do farmer of 
 German origin. He was of the opinion that the 
 Lincolns had lived most of their lives on Mill Creek. 
 He thought that Thomas Lincoln's farm on Mill 
 Creek was his mainstay. His mother-in-law had 
 said that Abraham Lincoln was born on Mill Creek 
 but it might have been in Elisabeth town. His wife 
 however, Nancy's daughter, always said, "Abraham 
 was a Mill Creek Colt." 
 
 "When did Nancy Lincoln die?" 
 
 "About ten years after the war, Mary Lincoln 
 died early and the old lady just before her in 1833." 
 
 REUBEN PECK. He was a son of Elinor and 
 brother to Jack, Thomas and Henry Peck. He was 
 raised on the adjoining farm to where the Tom Lin- 
 colns lived. He was about a year younger than 
 the President, and did not recollect much about him 
 or Thomas Lincoln, but had heard his mother talk 
 about them a lot just before the war and after 
 President Lincoln became prominent. 
 
 There was a great deal of talk about his wife and 
 many people said that Thomas was not the father 
 of the President, but he thought his mother knew 
 as much as anybody, and had a better chance to 
 know anyway, and she had said there was nothing 
 to such talk. He did know the old Lincolns, Ber- 
 sheba and Nancy Lincoln and he had heard they 
 were good people and pretty smart women. 
 
 He had heard Billy Smith talk about them, Owen 
 Cowley, Bill Owens, John Melton and his mother. 
 He supposed he had heard others but did not re' 
 
1 74 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 member it. In an early day, the lower Mill Creek 
 church was where the people worshipped. The 
 people talked about the Lincolns for several years 
 during the war. After the war, they argued about 
 where Abe was born, but all of Lincoln's neighbors 
 agreed he was born on Mill Creek — John Williams, 
 Mrs. Maffitt, and old Tom Melton among them. 
 
 His chief accusation against the President was 
 that he believed he should have stopped the thiev- 
 ing going on during the war. The fact that a man 
 was for the Union did not help him. Then the 
 soldiers in authority had no respect for law. They 
 took men out and hung them without a trial. They 
 did not even have a military trial. They also levied 
 assessments on us by saying, "You permitted the 
 Confederate guerrillas to steal meat and other things 
 of value which our army needs and now we are go- 
 ing to make you put up the money." Of course, 
 they had no authority, but who could stop them? 
 And they would shoot you if you did not put up 
 money. Lincoln could have stopped this; and it 
 was said he did stop it, but it was not done until 
 the people had nothing. Then they got to calling 
 everybody a traitor who was opposed to negro en- 
 listment. This enlistment was ordered by Lincoln 
 before the Emancipation clause of the Constitution 
 was ratified. This was a violation of law. He got 
 no votes in 1864 anywhere around here. 
 
 Mrs. LUCY McCARTY. This very prominent 
 Christian woman was best versed of all I interviewed 
 on the family history of the people of Hardin Coun- 
 ty. She was a daughter of James Crutcher who 
 had built Crutcher's Church. She lived on the old 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 175 
 
 place. Her husband was a brother-in-law of Dr. 
 Henry Pusey, of a noted family in Kentucky. 
 
 She had collected a very large scrap book which 
 gave me considerable information about events and 
 persons, Jacob Van Meter's daughter, Susan, was 
 her grandmother. She herself knew a great deal 
 about Squire Boone's family as well as Josiah Lin- 
 coln. They had become the owners of a great deal 
 of land in Harrison County, Indiana. 
 
 She had witnessed the taking of Robert Van Me- 
 ter by the Jarrett soldiers, and had herself pleaded 
 with them to release him and his companions. She 
 knew the men so well that she knew that they had 
 committed no fault. Jarrett was insulting in his 
 language to her. 
 
 She had attended the Mill Creek Church often 
 when a girl. She knew Nancy Lincoln at sight and 
 felt sorry for her after the war was over, as the pec 
 pie denounced Lincoln so much, it must have em- 
 barrassed her a great deal, but she was a very clever 
 old lady. 
 
 She did not think from what her father had told 
 her that any of the Lincolns were church people in 
 the sense that they were religious and accepted any 
 creed. Neither were any of them opposed to slav- 
 ery, Her father's father and mother had both been 
 born in Virginia, and had previously been associated 
 with the Lincolns before they came over. 
 
 The conduct of the soldiers at Louisville under 
 General Burbridge was terrible. Law and order 
 was not respected. It was a destruction of every- 
 thing the people had, from day to day, until there 
 was nothing to destroy. 
 
 She remembered that many people thinking Nan- 
 cy Brumfield might help them, did make their ap- 
 
176 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 peal to her, but she doubted if she was ever able 
 to do anything, because of the powerful self-seek- 
 ing politicians. She had heard that Nancy Lin- 
 coln's son-in-law had a very quick approach to the 
 President and did a lot of good things for the poor 
 people. Austin was his name. She was glad to 
 know that it had passed, never to return. Her folks 
 were in sympathy with the Confederacy. 
 
 JOHN MOORE. He was born in 1816. He 
 lived in the house where the writer's mother was 
 assaulted in 1863. He owned a distillery on Mill 
 Creek, and knew that Tom Lincoln had built it. 
 He knew the Lincolns very slightly, though in grow- 
 ing up, his father had talked a good deal about 
 Tom Lincoln, having been such close neighbors, 
 Thomas being a politician. He knew all of the Mel- 
 tons who owned the farm that Thomas Lincoln sold 
 them. He also knew Elinor Peck ("Leona," they 
 called her). "She was an authority on the Lin- 
 colns, was neighbor to them. He had heard her 
 talk about them many times. He had no patience 
 with those who had a good word for President Lin- 
 coln, whatever his people might have been. He 
 had always heard Thomas Lincoln spoken well of." 
 
 "If a man running for President could not get a 
 vote in the precinct where he was born, and only 
 six in a big county like this, there was certainly 
 something wrong with him. Then after the people 
 had tried him out four years, with soldiers all round 
 to interfere with the free vote of the people, he 
 could get only about seventy-five votes, surely that 
 was proof enough; well that was about the sise of 
 Abe Lincoln. ,, 
 
 "Where was he born Mr. Moore?" 
 
Photo copies of tin types of four of the eight Ditto brothers whose father 
 
 was intimately associated with Thomas Lincoln in building present Dixie 
 
 Highway in Hardin County. Births ranging from 1807 to 1818. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 177 
 
 The Williamses and Pecks, and my father said "He 
 was born in the Thomas Melton house. Old John 
 Peck died in 1866 — if any man living knew where 
 Abe Lincoln was born he did. He told me several 
 times the children were born there. Tom, he said, 
 was intimate with his family ." 
 
 "If you had been around here during the war and 
 had witnessed the atrocious things that went on, 
 you never could have any respect for a soldier in 
 uniform, nor for Abraham Lincoln. War develops 
 the worst that is in a man it seems, and when you 
 put a uniform on a damn fool and give him some 
 authority he becomes a knave at once. All of the 
 hell that is born in him comes right out; killing is his 
 pastime." 
 
 Bill Williams over there, son of old John and 
 grandson of old Tom can tell you where Abe was 
 born and all about the farm house better than any- 
 body living here, unless it would be Uncle Jack and 
 Reuben Peck. They knew of course." 
 
 "Right there in this yard is where your mother 
 was assaulted by a scoundrel in a Yankee uniform. 
 He got swelled up and thought he must kill some one 
 so he picked out a child and a woman." 
 
 "That act was the result of the environ of mur- 
 der, and it went on here for years in this section. 
 Lincoln had the power to stop it, but did he? I say 
 he did not try to do it. He left old Jarrett and Bur- 
 bridge here until he got tired of the smell of blood 
 himself. I cannot see anything grand or glorious in 
 Lincoln. I do not think he had ability in the first 
 place, and I do not think he had either courage or 
 humanity in the next place. If he had, then he would 
 have stopped these outrages on our good citizens." 
 
 "Kentucky would have been better off if she had 
 
1 78 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 seceded. These weak-kneed Union men thought 
 that if the state remained in the Union, the soldiers 
 would protect us from the guerrillas, but that made 
 it worse. Well they got down to the point where 
 they put the negroes over us, to guard our homes, 
 and they insulted us, raped our women, rode like 
 lords over our property and stole for the d....onery 
 white Captains. They defied the courts, shot to 
 death innocent people, and showed no respect for 
 law or decent society. The result was nobody had 
 any respect for Abe Lincoln." 
 
 "Find me an upstanding man in this county, living 
 through that period, for Lincoln, and I will show 
 you a two-headed horse." 
 
 As for me you can put me down as saying, I have 
 no respect for the memory of Abraham Lincoln. 
 Herndon was here, and wanted to talk to me and 
 Si Smith, but I refused to talk to him." 
 
 FRANKLIN DITTO. 
 
 Mr. Ditto was about eighty in 1887 when I asked 
 him if he knew anything about Thomas Lincoln or 
 the Lincolns. He had heard his father say that 
 Thomas Lincoln was responsible for the building 
 and laying out of the main highway to West Point, 
 and also for the road from Elisabethtown to Branden- 
 burg. Both of these, Thomas Lincoln had, in some 
 capacity, worked on, he could not remember in what 
 capacity, but he was responsible for getting them 
 through. Both his father and grandfather were in- 
 terested in the Brandenburg road, and they signed 
 the petition and log rolled to get it through; he knew 
 that Thomas was the principal man in that deal 
 though he might have been a surveyor or supervisor. 
 It was a very important highway in those days. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 1 79 
 
 Thomas was employed somewhat on account of his 
 influence with the court in Hardin County. At that 
 time, my father lived in Hardin County, before 
 Meade was cut oif, and when the road was built 
 father lived in this section here close to West Point, 
 Kentucky. 
 
 He also thought that before Captain Lincoln was 
 killed there had been a raid on the block house or a 
 fight with the Indians, Captain Bland Ballard's 
 crowd had had a skirmish down Salt River some" 
 where near Brashears Station or Fort. He had 
 heard, however, that a single Indian came back, and 
 unawares shot the Captain. This would be southeast 
 of Louisville in Jefferson County, known in that 
 time as a Squire Boone colony, where his father set" 
 tied, and then the Boones went over into Harrison 
 County, Indiana, just across the river and took up 
 a good big body of land along the river. Josiah Lin- 
 coln was in that crowd. Charles Howard's father 
 was also in this colony, attached to Squire Boone, 
 who had the title of Captain. Daniel had the title 
 of Colonel. Mary Jane Hart was a daughter of Silas 
 Hart of Rockingham County, Virginia. She was 
 born in 1775, and was sister to the man they called 
 "sharp eye," that the Indians killed, but I have 
 heard the story that the Indian who killed the Cap- 
 tain thought he was shooting Hart, and later they 
 did kill Hart, although his son, father of the man 
 they call Silas, who lives at Tip Top, shot the 
 Indian that killed his father. Mary Jane married 
 into the Boones, I do not know which one, but I 
 knew her." 
 
 "I saw Mrs. William Nail once when on a visit 
 to my brother at Vine Grove at the Otter Creek 
 Church; she, I think, was a daughter of Nancy Lin- 
 
1 80 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 coin. That was before the war, in 1860, I would 
 say. They had a basket dinner and I was intro- 
 duced to her, and had a conversation at some length. 
 I was curious about the Lincolns and asked her a 
 good many questions, and really got more informa- 
 tion from her than I ever had, though I had heard 
 my father talk often about her uncle Thomas Lin- 
 coln. She was, I judge, older than I. Mr. Nail was 
 an active member of that church. " 
 
 The foregoing individuals, it must be kept in mind 
 were most intimately, through their families, asso- 
 ciated with the movements of the Lincolns. Mrs. 
 McCarty and Mrs. Haynes were of the Crutcher 
 tribe who were among the very first settlers in 
 Elizabethtown. 
 
 Jackson Peck was nine years old when President 
 Lincoln was born; a man of more than ordinary in- 
 telligence, living on an adjoining farm to Tom Lin- 
 coln, it is quite certain his knowledge of the Lincoln's 
 was as accurate as boys of that age would have 
 about matters in the neighborhood. He was seven- 
 teen years of age when Tom Lincoln left Hardin 
 County for Indiana. His mother was a very good 
 friend of Nancy Hanks. Tom Lincoln, he observed 
 to the writer, lived most of his life on the Mill 
 Creek farm, and from this point farmed the Knob 
 Creek and Nolin farms; and this was the most 
 logical conclusion one would reach in delving into 
 his manner of living, his method of business and the 
 conditions that surrounded him. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S BIRTH PLACE— FINDINGS. 
 
 HTWO men, bred in the same community, yet with 
 widely different personalities were closely allied 
 with the Lincoln period of Mill Creek history. They 
 were Rev. John Hargan, Methodist Evangel, erst' 
 while preacher at the Mill Creek Baptist Church, 
 liberal per se, and James Proctor Howell, erudite 
 philosopher and Magistrate for fifty years. 
 
 Hargan was a Godfearing, red devil hater of the 
 period of fire and brimstone. He believed it and 
 preached it. 
 
 Naturally, they arrived at different estimates of 
 President Lincoln, though both were entirely fam" 
 iliar with all of the Lincoln antecedents. 
 
 James Proctor Howell was influenced by the 
 views of his father, Clairborne Howell. The elder 
 Howell was a strict follower of the Voltaire" Jeffer 
 son'Paine school of thinking. John Hargan came 
 from an old Virginia family of religious autocrats 
 who believed that Jefferson and Paine were to be 
 tolerated only because of their devotion to George 
 Washington and the actual support of religious free- 
 dom as a policy of the state. One class feared the 
 preceding history of the Catholics, the other be" 
 lieved the day of religious tyranny had long since 
 passed. 
 
 The Reverend John could remove his coat and 
 
 181 
 
182 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 put it away as a cloth of Christ and accommodate 
 any slapper of one cheek not turning the other with' 
 out seriously endangering his devotion to the ten car' 
 dinal commandments of the Red Sea martyrs. 
 
 INTERVIEWS (1889) 
 
 James Proctor much preferred a quiet corner for 
 a snooze while the Reverend John told his hearers 
 how Judas had betrayed the Saviour and how at last, 
 that Saviour had died, that ordinary mortals might 
 have a chance to embrace a plan of salvation that 
 cleared the stumbling blocks to the next world. 
 
 These men possessed one common fact, important 
 in this inquiry, about the Lincolns, a knowledge of 
 the birthplace of young Abraham. John had voted 
 for Abraham Lincoln, he was one of the six in 1860, 
 and freely admitted he was proud of it. His father 
 had lived on Mill Creek, and had been one of the 
 supporters and admirers of Bersheba Lincoln. John 
 himself had looked at the tottering old lady in an 
 early day without any thought that she was des' 
 tined to become famous as the founder of the 
 House of Lincoln. He knew the smart and clever 
 Nancy. He had heard his father say that the Lin- 
 coln children were both born at the Mill Creek farm, 
 but since the President had said that he was born on 
 Nolin, he could not remember the exact spot. John 
 was sufficiently loyal to the Abe Lincoln school to 
 accept that as reversing the tradition of his family, 
 and averred that tradition must have stepped on a 
 banana peel. 
 
 He was sound on Lincoln's war policy, but he be' 
 lieved it was the business of the government, as long 
 as Lincoln had done so much for the United States 
 of America, to take over the old church and Lin' 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 183 
 
 coin Cemetery as a shrine for all the idolators of the 
 Lincoln regime. 
 
 He knew that Lincoln could not be answerable for 
 the crimes of Jarrett, Burbridge and Ekeanor Paine. 
 The facts bored him, but nevertheless, it was war, 
 and you had to fight fire with fire. The great thing 
 which the President had to do was to save the Union, 
 and those who got in the way of the Juggernaut of 
 Union salvation were just unfortunate and ought 
 not, in the course of events, to cast any blame on 
 Lincoln. 
 
 He was sure that the country would finally appre- 
 ciate this supreme fact, first, because he believed, 
 now and forever, in the Union at all hazards, and 
 secondly, because Lincoln had founded the G. O. P., 
 destined to function as the source of human relief in 
 all emergencies that would arrive, and mount the 
 stages of progress in future years. That, with his 
 fount of Methodism, made him an ideal optimist, al" 
 ways and ever happy and hopeful. John said; "If 
 Abe Lincoln said he was born on Nolin, that settles 
 it for me, but my father said he was born in the Tom 
 Melton house, but Abe was there when he was born 
 and Pap was not." 
 
 The philosophic James Proctor Howell of the law 
 and not of the cloth was not so certain of the infal- 
 libility of Abraham Lincoln. He was more parti- 
 cular how his politics were boiled for him. John 
 had grown to manhood when he got up to the pants 
 wearing age, chasing his coat tails and had never 
 really gotten anywhere in religion or his belief in how 
 to run governments. Therefore, he did not accept 
 a thing he said, and as for his politics he was quite 
 as sure he would follow Dick Croker as quick as he 
 would Benjamin Harrison if he had three letters 
 
184 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 written on the seat of his jeans, — G. O. P. That 
 was his estimate, in plain language, of the reversal of 
 the Rev. John of his father's findings on the Lincoln 
 birthplace. 
 
 James Proctor was Justice of the Peace for about 
 fifty consecutive years in Hardin County, and his 
 constable for thiry of these years, was James Peck, 
 grandson of Elinor, whose granddaughter, Martha, 
 he had married. 
 
 They were, therefore, of kin by interposition of 
 law. They both had little fear when it served the 
 ends of justice of taking a "horn" of the right kind 
 of "liquor" during court recesses. James Proctor 
 was more or less of a sage. He knew what Vol- 
 taire had written about the Pope of Rome and what 
 should be done with him, and he could tell you ex- 
 actly what kind of a brush and the quality of paint 
 Voltaire used to paint the figure of Louis the Six- 
 teenth. He also knew what was in the Constituiton 
 of the United States. Law was not a figure of speech 
 with him; it had prongs for execution, and sound 
 husky legs to stand on, and when it struck out from 
 his court he meant the kick to bring results. So 
 when the war, with its trappings came along and old 
 Jarrett told him on whom to levy his writs of reple- 
 vin, he was as incorrigible as a three-year old mule. 
 Jarrett's credentials meant nothing to him. Gen- 
 eral Burbridge, to him was a damphool Yankee with 
 a blue coat, meddling in other people's affairs for the 
 benefit of the "coons," "and them," said he, "are my 
 sentiments." 
 
 Well, I just showed him a new picture of Presi- 
 dent Lincoln and asked him if he saw any resem- 
 blance in it to the President, as he had seen him and 
 knew him. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 185 
 
 "Say, son, I have not taken a drink for twenty 
 years, nor have I had any internal trouble, but if 
 you don't put that paper away I am sure to take to 
 the bottle." 
 
 "Yes, I knew some of the old Lincolns and father 
 knew them all, good and well. I have heard their 
 history many times, especially during the war and 
 just before, when the d — Know Nothings were 
 squirting their tobacco juice in your eyes. I was a 
 full-fledged man during the reign of terror in 1860, 
 to '65; during the reign of Abraham the First and 
 Abraham the Last, thank God; and that was a reign 
 of terror when no man knew where to lay his head 
 and call it safe for the morning. Nancy Lincoln is 
 worth all of the Lincolns, and that is no compliment 
 to her. They lived on Mill Creek, after they got 
 here from Virginia, and they put Mill Creek on their 
 deer skin coat of arms." 
 
 "Young Abe won the war with main strength and 
 awkwardness, and by suspending all of the constitu- 
 tional guarantees in the Constitution of the United 
 States and a thousand more that Stanton put in for 
 good measure. If Stanton knew anything about Jus- 
 tice, then on the same theory Jeffrys should have 
 been made, at his death, counsellor for God Almigh- 
 ty. There was Ekjeanor Paine of Ohio, Captain Jar- 
 rett of the guards, Burbridge of bluemule fame, Pal- 
 mer, Davis. Nero, by comparison, would look like 
 salvation to a sinner wrecked by diabolical de- 
 bauches. Yes, I knew the Lincolns, especially the 
 President. By their works we shall know them." 
 
 "Uncle James, it is said that in that section on Mill 
 Creek in the days when the President was born, the 
 people were very debauched, ordinary, immoral, com- 
 
1 86 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 mon, ignorant, half savages, subsisting on roots, and 
 half-fed all of the time." 
 
 "That came from where? Listen to me. There 
 never has been born a more able or a more brainy 
 people in this world than these same half savages. 
 
 They have been coming out of the woods over 
 there for fifty years and going out into the world 
 making a reputation for that breeding plant, the like 
 of which you will never live to see; for that reason, 
 I have marvelled at Lincoln's crudeness, lack of in- 
 dustry, and manhood." 
 
 "It was these folks whose sons drove the English, 
 at the battle of the Thames, into hell and the lakes. 
 They were the boys that got Tecumseh and shot it 
 out with him at his own game. They were the boys 
 that put the pepper under the English at New Or- 
 leans, in spite of the snorting Jackson. They had 
 sense enough to fight only when they had a chance 
 to win, they were not willing to be murdered in mass 
 in order to make old Hickory President. They 
 biased a trail for Rogers Clark, and they met the 
 Indians first for General Wayne. They pilgrimaged 
 for Lewis and Clark, took them to the Pacific coast 
 and got back safe with their hides sound and their 
 muskets ready for more. They could fight on an 
 empty stomach and foot it in a day as far as a tho- 
 roughbred horse. Where do you get your Christy 
 Millers, Ben Grists, Nigger Brodericks, "Sharp Eye 
 Harts?' ' These precious products of a raw civilisa- 
 tion came out of these woods, and they learned to 
 write and read without warming a seat six years in 
 a red school house while they hung on to their 
 mothers 1 apron strings. " 
 
 "Uncle James, Herndon stated that Lincoln said 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 187 
 
 he was born on Nolin Creek. Did you ever hear 
 where he was born?" 
 
 "That's no loss to Nolin if he was not, and it is 
 no gain to Mill Creek if he was." 
 
 "But he was born on Mill Creek up by the Tom 
 Williams farm, and the old Henry Peck place that 
 was once owned by old John Stator's daddy. That's 
 what Aunt Peck said, and old Tom Williams. It is 
 what my father said also. Why, I have been a mag- 
 istrate for a long time, and the first roads built ac 
 cording to the records were built by old Tom Lincoln 
 while he owned that place and before he married. 
 He used to live down here on the creek with Jacob 
 Van Meter. All of these old Vertrees's, who have 
 been here for always will tell you the same thing. 
 Old Jacob and William both; and Jacob Pearman 
 who was a friend of Tom's. I have heard all of them 
 talk about it. Especially when Abe got to be talked 
 about, and the slave question got red hot around 
 here. Who didn't cuss Abe Lincoln then." 
 
 "Uncle James, they tell a story here about you 
 during the war. I want to ask you if it is true. 
 They say Jarrett sent one of his men over to your 
 court at the close of the war to help you render 
 proper judgments, and you dismissed court on the 
 theory that everyone connected with the court was 
 drunk. How about it?" 
 
 "Well, Jim Peck, my constable, was drunk, the 
 soldier was drunk, so I wrote this entry on the 
 docket; "Court adjourned on account of drunkenness 
 of officers," and in order to make it the truth, I got 
 drunk. Any man in his right mind in those days 
 could not stay sober. He had to get drunk to keep 
 uniform with the company he had there. It was 
 that or suicide, and I wanted to go on living, and 
 
188 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 you see I am still here; under the circumstances not 
 a bad prescription. " 
 
 "It may be, I am too hard on Abraham Lincoln; 
 perhaps he was better than I think of him, and it 
 maybe we got the worst of it here. At any rate, the 
 Union did not split, that's one thing; Lincoln passed 
 on as the Union came back, that's another thing; 
 and if Abe died to save the Union then he is another 
 figure in history, and in my mind. I am here today, 
 but a very old man, so what difference does it make 
 in the end. Better we forget the wrongs of that day 
 and forgive him, we may need him somewhere else." 
 
 JAMES DAVIS (1888). 
 
 Oldest member of the Davis family, then residing 
 within a mile of the old church; his grandfather was 
 an Indian fighter for ten years or more, a woodsman 
 who never spared an Indian; whose body was marked 
 from toe to head with wounds he had received from 
 Indians. He was a friend of Captain Lincoln. He 
 had seen Bersheba Lincoln, knew Bill Brumfiekfs 
 wife. His father had served on the Jury with Thomas 
 Lincoln, and in a few instances on jobs with him; 
 some kind of road service. His father always had 
 said the Lincolns were his old friends. His grand" 
 father lived until before the war of 1860; he did not 
 know the exact year of his death, but he heard the 
 Lincolns discussed in the Douglas-Lincoln debates. 
 They took a lively interest in it because they could 
 not understand how Abe got to be opposed to slav- 
 ery. Tom was a "Patroller" and was on the other 
 side, the old man said. He knew Abe's birthplace 
 had been discussed, and the old man said he was born 
 up Mill Creek. He could not say just the spot, but 
 it was in the Mount Zion country. In fact, he, 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 189 
 
 James, said "that was the common understanding in 
 that country during the war. Do not know anything 
 about what church they belonged to, if any." 
 
 JOHN G. NALL, Vine Grove, Postmaster, 1892. 
 
 "My father was William P. Nail. He married a 
 daughter of Nancy Lincoln, hence I am a second 
 cousin of the President." 11 
 
 "My father always told me substantially what you 
 have quoted there in your statement. My mother 
 also visited back and forth with Nancy Lincoln and 
 Austin's wife, the daughter. I knew Bill Austin, 
 who was a very clever and yet a very peculiar man. 
 The old folks are all buried at the Mill Creek Cem- 
 etery ." 
 
 "So far as I ever knew, they were all Democrats. 
 I do not think the President ever knew where he was 
 born and I doubt if the subject was ever discussed 
 between himself and mother or father. He was just 
 confused about the creeks he was born on. It most 
 likely was on Mill Creek, though I could not give 
 you any valuable information about it, though my 
 father and mother both thought he was born on 
 Mill Creek. John Nail, my grandfather was born in 
 1772 and he was well acquainted with the entire 
 family, as my father was. I think my mother was 
 born in about 1803, though I am not sure. My grand- 
 father came west with the balance of the settlers 
 there." 
 
 "My brother Luther lives in Missouri but I don't 
 think he knows any more about the family than I do. 
 There was never any opposition to slavery in the Lin- 
 coln family. Abraham, I think, inherited his opposi- 
 tion from politics. He was in reality a Democrat, 
 but there was not room enough for two big Demo- 
 
190 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 crats in the party in Illinois like Lincoln and 
 Douglas." 
 
 ABNER RAY, Stithton, Kentucky. Eighty- 
 eight years of age — 1887. 
 
 "Well, my father came here with the Lincolns 
 and knew them. We were Catholics and most of 
 the Catholics came over here with the Marylanders 
 in this part of Hardin, but the Lincolns were not 
 church people; they hated the Kings and they al- 
 lowed religion and Kings had been abed together too 
 much. I knew Nancy and Bersheba and Bill Austin 
 — they were good folks, unafraid folks. Yes, I knew 
 Nail's wife." 
 
 "Tom and my father laid out these roads. It's 
 news to me when you tell me Abraham was born 
 over on Nolin. I would bet a coon skin against a 
 dime he was born on Mill Creek, so said all of the 
 old folks. Nancy Lincoln was a great woman, and 
 a good-looking righting woman, you bet she was 
 that." 
 
 JOHN STATOR, Mill Creek (1888). 
 
 "Born and raised on Mill Creek, lived there all of 
 my life. Grandfather, I suppose, sold Thomas Lin- 
 coln the Mill Creek farm. Always heard the two 
 children were born on Mill Creek before they moved 
 to Larue. Heard it discussed during the war, but I 
 had heard it discussed in my family before. Grand- 
 father served with Tom Lincoln on the Jury when 
 Abe was born, I have heard from the family." 
 
 WILLIAM DECKERD (1888). 
 
 "I have lived here within a mile of Mill Creek 
 most all of my life. Never heard about Abe Lin- 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 191 
 
 coin being born any other place than Mill Creek 
 until after the war. I voted for him in 1860 and 
 1864. The old folks around here said he was born 
 there. ,, 
 
 JOHN OWENS, Cedar Creek (1888). 
 
 "The Lincolns, so my father said, were born on 
 the old William May survey of land or Tom Melton 
 farm as most people called it. It is about three miles 
 from this place. My grandfather was as old as Tom 
 Lincoln and lived here and run a store and a farm all 
 of his life. I knew Nancy Lincoln Brumfield. My 
 father was the President's age." 
 
 DAVID SELBY, Mill Creek (1887). 
 
 ■a -—— n . 
 
 "It was settled tradition in this section of Mill 
 Creek that Abe Lincoln was born on the old Melton 
 place and old Tom bought it from Thomas Lincoln. 
 I was born in 1 829 and have lived here most all of my 
 life. John Williams who was born up there by it 
 told me that once, and Uncle Billy Smith said so." 
 
 JAMES STOVALL, Colesburg (1889). Son of 
 John O. Stowall, born in 1813. 
 
 "I never heard much mention of it except during 
 the war, the old folks said Abe was born on the 
 headwaters of Mill Creek, by Sim Rosiers 1 place, on 
 the old Tom Melton farm. My father said Tom Lin' 
 coin built the house on that place, the first one, the 
 old house. 
 
 JACK MELTON, Mill Creek, made this state- 
 ment to Solomon Irwin in 1860. 
 
 "My father was Tom Melton. He bought the 
 old Thomas Lincoln farm. It had a log house on it 
 
192 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 when we moved there. I was raised there; before 
 that we lived a mile away. Abe Lincoln, my mother 
 and father said, was born in that house in the Spring 
 of 1809. They went to Indiana after they sold out. 
 I am older than Abe Lincoln some." 
 
 JAMES CULEE, Mill Creek (1888). 
 
 "I was not there, of course, but all of our old 
 people said the Lincoln children were born on the 
 Melton Mill Creek farm, up by Mount Zion. John 
 Moore, Colonel John Cowley, Jack Melton, Uncle 
 Billy Smith and the Williams 1 said that. I never 
 heard anything different. The house is back of the 
 Shepherdsville road, and about five miles from Eliz,a- 
 bethtown. 11 
 
 CEPHAS SMITH (1887). 
 
 "I am a son of William Smith and was born and 
 raised on Mill Creek about two miles from the old 
 Melton Place, we call it. Tom Melton lived there 
 and he bought the place from Thomas Lincoln. I 
 always heard from the neighbors that in that house 
 on the Melton place the Lincoln children were born. 
 I was not born at that time but was born about the 
 time Thomas Lincoln left there, 1816. I heard old 
 Mrs. Tom Williams say that, and she was their near- 
 est neighbor I would guess, and Aunt Peck they call- 
 ed her, I guess was about the next nearest. 11 
 
 THOMAS HARRIS, Mill Creek (1887). 
 
 "Surely the Lincolns lived over here for a long 
 time and sold out to Thomas Melton. I am a car- 
 penter, so was my father, and I have heard him talk 
 about Tom Lincoln many a time. I was born in 1820 
 but I heard plenty talk about it during the war when 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 193 
 
 they got up the subject. The children were born 
 there, both Abe and his sister. All of the old people 
 said so. I heard my father say that when he was an 
 old man. He liked Thomas Lincoln, said he was a 
 good mechanic and a fine fellow." 
 
 WESLEY COWLEY, Mill Creek (1890). 
 
 "I could not tell you where Lincoln was born. I 
 lived here close to the BrumfiekTs farm but I always 
 heard from the Austins that Abe Lincoln was born 
 up the creek at the old Melton farm. I heard it dis- 
 cussed when the war was on, and when I was a boy 
 I heard mention of it. ,, 
 
 JORDON WATTS (1890), Justice of the Peace, 
 Stithton, Kentucky. 
 
 "I was a tax collector in this district and have been 
 Justice of the Peace for a long time. I have heard a 
 lot of discussion about Abe Lincoln. This was par- 
 ticularly true during the war and right after the war. 
 
 I knew the Austin girl, Mary, and Elisabeth Nail, 
 daughters of Nancy Lincoln Brumfield, and I knew 
 the old lady; once I was there and asked them about 
 Lincoln, they did not want to talk much about Lin- 
 coln — the feeling was bitter here, but they did say 
 that they were related to him and that he was born 
 on the "Creek." I talked freely to the old lady, 
 telling her that no one held anything against her, 
 but the feeling was due to what the soldiers did, and 
 Lincoln was not responsible for that. They lived 
 then about four miles or more north of the old 
 Thomas Melton farm once owned by Thomas Lin- 
 coln. I knew every old man in that country and had 
 at one time or another talked to them and have heard 
 some of them discuss Lincoln. All that I ever heard 
 
194 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 mention the subject of where he was born, said, 
 "Mill Creek," including Nancy Brumfield, referring 
 to the Mill Creek farm." 
 
 "I knew Bill Austin, he married a daughter of 
 Nancy Lincoln Brumfield, and a d — fine fellow he 
 was. I knew Sam Haycraft. He owned the farm 
 by Nancy Lincoln. He was unpopular after the 
 war." 
 
 EDWARD GEOGHEGAN, West Point(1888). 
 
 "My father and grandfather knew the Lincolns, all 
 of them in their time. My grandfather was well ac 
 quainted with Thomas. Tom worked for him 
 around Elisabethtown. I never heard much talk 
 about Abe Lincoln until during the war and after 
 the war. I saw a discussion of Hendorn's 'Life of 
 Lincoln/ I am sure of one thing, that he was not 
 born on Nolin Creek but on Mill Creek, if I have his 
 personal history straight. A lot of the articles writ' 
 ten about Lincoln are pure imagination anyway." 
 
 JOHN HOWLETT, Stithton, Kentucky (1888). 
 
 "Father and myself have lived here in the Mill 
 Creek section, he since 1807; and I have often heard 
 him and others discuss Abe Lincoln (during the 
 war), and among the things they discussed was his 
 birth. They said he was born on Mill Creek, up by 
 Mount Zion." 
 
 NANCY MELTON, by Ben Irwin. (Fall of '83.) 
 
 This lady at this time was in poor health and died 
 shortly after I tried to talk to her. Her son'in4aw, 
 Benjamin Irwin was a son of Solomon Irwin and 
 Lucretia Smith, the latter, daughter of Dr. William 
 Smith. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 195 
 
 She was the widow of John Melton or "J ac k," 
 as he was commonly called on Mill Creek. They had 
 lived close to the Thomas Lincoln farm purchased 
 from Lincoln by her f ather'in4aw, and on it Jack was 
 raised. They moved on it in 1815; she was twelve 
 years old. She saw the Lincolns herself when they 
 went to Indiana, living close to the Melton farm at 
 that time, when they stopped to see Thomas Melton. 
 
 Thomas Lincoln built the house on it before he 
 was married, and when he married he moved into it. 
 She had been in it many times in her lifetime. John 
 lived there when they were married and they had 
 the "infare," a wedding supper in it. It was a two" 
 room log house and in one end had a nice finished 
 stairway built in it by Thomas Lincoln, which was 
 uncommon in those days. She was very certain 
 Abraham was born there. She was about six years 
 older than Abraham Lincoln at that time, and it was 
 talked so many times in her family and the Melton, 
 Peck and Williams families she had not the slightest 
 doubt of it. She remembered that Sarah was run' 
 ning around about that time. Thomas Melton had 
 said that he helped Thomas Lincoln build the Nolin 
 "shack" and it was done in 1809 in the summertime, 
 after Abe Lincoln was born. That was her best re" 
 collection of just what he said. Her husband was a 
 son of Thomas Melton, and was also six years older 
 than Abe Lincoln. Thomas Melton her father'in' 
 law, worked the Mill Creek farm before he bought 
 it from Thomas Lincoln. He bought it in the Win' 
 ter of 1814. She had often heard both her husband 
 and his father talk about it, and she had heard old 
 John Thomas talk about it. 
 
 She often went to church and there saw the Lin' 
 coins, the mother of Thomas, the sisters, and the 
 
196 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 Thomas Lincoln children. She could not be mis- 
 taken about how they looked, and who they were, as 
 all the neighbors around that creek knew each other 
 very well. She remembered that Nancy Lincoln, 
 Thomas Lincoln's wife was a sharp-faced homely 
 woman but accounted smart. Nancy Lincoln, 
 Thomas Lincoln's sister, was good-looking and ac- 
 counted to be the brightest mind in the Lincoln 
 family. She did not die until after the war, and if 
 her death was reported in 1845, that was somebody's 
 mistake. She was pretty well on to a hundred when 
 she died, she had heard the neighbors say. She had 
 heard some talk about Nancy Hanks that was not 
 complimentary but she believed not one word of it. 
 
 MARTHA HOWELL, wife of James Proctor 
 Howell and daughter of Thomas Peck and Margaret 
 McMahan (1890). 
 
 She heard her mother, born in 1798 and her 
 father born in 1794, talk about the Lincolns. Her 
 father was a very near neighbor of the Thomas Lin- 
 colns when they lived on Mill Creek. He was about 
 grown when Abe Lincoln was born. He had said 
 when they were talking about it on numerous occa- 
 sions in her presence when it came up during the 
 war, she thought it was, that Abe Lincoln was 
 born on the Thomas Lincoln farm on Mill Creek. 
 The farm he sold to Thomas Melton. Thomas Peck 
 was raised there near them. He was the son of 
 John and Elinor Peck. Her grandfather, John Mc- 
 Mahan came to Kentucky with the Lincolns, she un- 
 derstood. Her father died in the Fall of 1866 and 
 her mother in the Fall of 1880. 
 
 She had heard lots of talk about the Lincolns but 
 she did not herself know much about them as she 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 197 
 
 was raised on the "turnpike," now the Dixie High' 
 way, but she was sure that her father had the best 
 opportunity to know where the Lincolns lived and 
 where the President had been born. She did not 
 know there was a doubt about it until she had read 
 in the Journal, Louisville, that Lincoln said he was 
 born somewhere on Nolin Creek. 
 
 She had never seen a statement from Thomas Lin" 
 coin supporting the President's statement, and was 
 sure the president knew of his own knowledge very 
 little about where he was born. Her husband, 
 James Proctor, wished to add that the smaller the log 
 cabin and the poorer it looked the better it suited 
 Abraham's purpose, and the reason he did not fix 
 the present spot was because he wanted to cover 
 more territory as a matter of safety — not knowing 
 his birthplace. 
 
 BETSY OWENS. (Born August 13th, 1807, 
 died November 26th, 1887.) 
 
 It was in 1885 that the writer interviewed this old 
 lady who lived a few hundred yards up the creek 
 from the Colonel John Cowley place. 
 
 She lived there with her sister, Jane. She knew 
 of all the Lincolns but was acquainted with Bersheba 
 and Nancy Lincoln Brumfield and Elisabeth Nail and 
 Mary Austin who lived within two miles of her. 
 She had heard them a few times talk about Abraham 
 Lincoln, and her recollection was that they had said, 
 he was born on the Mill Creek farm of Thomas Lin' 
 coin. That Thomas, when he married, moved into 
 this house which he had already built. It was on the 
 Shepherdsville Road to the right as you go to Eliz,a' 
 bethtown, and that was, she had always heard, the 
 place the two children were born. 
 
198 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 Lincoln lived there, she thought, seven or eight 
 years. She had often seen him when she was young, 
 but did not remember just how he looked. 
 
 She was born in that neighborhood and had at 
 ways lived there. Nancy Lincoln Brumfield was a 
 smart woman, lived to be very old and was buried 
 over at the old Baptist Church Cemetery, she was 
 sure of that, as her mother, Bersheba, had also been 
 buried there. Nancy, not until after the war. She 
 knew the Austins and she had heard the story that 
 Bill Austin left home after the war, and they had 
 never heard from him or about him. She considered 
 him a strange man anyway. Bill Brumfield was a 
 good neighbor, — they were Democrats in politics. 
 She knew most of all of the men whose names I 
 went over. 
 
 WILLIAM HODGEN, Shawnee, Oklahoma, in 
 1909. 
 
 "I was born about three miles from Hodgen' 
 ville close to what they call the birthplace of Abra' 
 ham Lincoln. I was born in the thirties. My father 
 was born there in Hardin County also. I knew the 
 Friends, and most of those who claim to know about 
 the Lincolns. According to my father, Lincoln never 
 lived there very long. He came from Mill Creek 
 over on to that place, he said, in about 1809 or 10, 
 in the spring of the year and hewed and cut logs for 
 a small house, which I suppose you have seen. My 
 father was a youngster at that time but big enough 
 to run about and take interest in such things." 
 
 "We were pretty certain in our family that Abe 
 Lincoln was not born there, although folks ac 
 quiesced in the statement of the President, who did 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 199 
 
 not know where he was born, having probably not 
 heard his mother and father say, who were not in' 
 terested in the subject." 
 
 "Now I suppose Lincoln built the house in the 
 summer early, but if it is as you say, he did not buy 
 it until a few months before that date, it makes it 
 more certain that he was not born there." 
 
 "Generally, they would cut such timber in the 
 Winter and hew the logs then, and when warm 
 weather would come they would have a house rais' 
 ing, and put up the logs. The sap would commence 
 to come up about the middle of April and the logs 
 should be cut before." 
 
 "I am informed that they lived in this place only 
 about two years, but I am not in doubt that both 
 father and grandfather said that Abe was an infant 
 when they moved into it and it was warm weather, 
 and I feel sure that Thomas built it." 
 
 "Leases of land were made in that country to run 
 until March 1st, of each year, so it is not likely Tom 
 Lincoln could get possession of this place until after 
 March 1st, 1809." 
 
 "He had a big farm over on Mill Creek which he 
 owned, so I understood from them, that Lincoln 
 moved directly from that farm, so Abe must have 
 been born there. He, later, bought some land in the 
 Knob Creek country, but that did not turn out so 
 well, something wrong with the title, but he did not 
 buy this farm until after he had owned the Nolin 
 place close to grandfather's. My father and grand' 
 father both told me that Thomas Lincoln had two 
 children when he moved over on that Nolin Place. 
 I have no interest in the matter at all, and I have 
 heard other talk from some of the old Millers and 
 Redmonds who lived around there to that effect, 
 
200 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 but I base my information on the recollection of 
 what grandfather and father said about it; my 
 mother knew very little about it. If you have talked 
 to John Kennedy, whose folks lived in that section, 
 you found out about the same. This is about the 
 truth as near as hearsay and family tradition could 
 get it." 
 
 FREDERICK TULL, Vine Grove, Kentucky. 
 (1884), (born in 1809). 
 
 Frederick Tull was a harness maker in Vine 
 Grove when the writer was going to High School 
 in that town. His father was removed as road super' 
 visor and Tom Lincoln appointed to succeed him of 
 what is known as the Bardstown-Shepherdsville 
 road, which roads branch, after leaving Elizabeth" 
 town, one going to Bardstown, the other to Pitts 
 Point, passing Tom Lincoln's farm about three miles 
 from the cross roads. This road was probably laid 
 out before this time 1803, but not officially surveyed 
 and land-condemned, which made it a public road 
 that had to be maintained. 
 
 "I knew the Lincolns, yes, but I did not know 
 Thomas, though I heard he was a good man. I can 
 say that my father knew him well for he lived up 
 about the forks of the Shepherdsville and Bardstown 
 road just outside of town. "(Hisabethtown.) 
 
 "All of this d — moonshine about his being born 
 on Nolin, President Lincoln got up himself. He was 
 off on the slavery question and he did not want these 
 Mill Creek neighbors shooting at his family on ac- 
 count of this slavery business. That is the whole 
 matter. Abe Lincoln was born right down the 
 Shepherdsville road there below us, going north to 
 PittS'Point, where you cross the Rolling Fork. It 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 201 
 
 was owned by Tom Melton when I got to be a young 
 man, and there some of the Meltons lived, and there, 
 Tom Williams and men like Joe Swank said Abe and 
 the girl were born. My father helped to lay out 
 those roads up there and I think old Tom helped 
 him. John Smith was a Surveyor and he carried 
 Tom around with him, and they were in together as 
 thick as Siamese twins." 
 
 "I knew most all the old ones and have heard 
 them talk about Tom Lincoln. Joe Swanks, Christy 
 Bush, John Price, Tom Williams, John Smith, Tom 
 Melton, lived over there together, and were friends. 
 Josiah Lincoln married old Mike Barlow's daughter, 
 and they moved down into what is now Grayson 
 County and then back to Hardin in the Rock Haven 
 country." 
 
 "I knew Jacob Vertrees and Joseph and have talk' 
 ed to them and Billie Vertrees a lot of times about 
 the Lincolns; both Tom and Josiah; they knew them 
 well in their time, and I have heard them all say 
 that President Lincoln was born up there on Mill 
 Creek. Jacob served on the Jury with Tom Lincoln 
 at about the time young Abe was born, I have heard 
 him say, and of course such men knew, when they 
 lived by him." 
 
 John Thomas, Joe Hanks, Tom Williams, John 
 Smith, Jno. Williams and Tom Lincoln served on a 
 Jury the 15th of November, 1808. Jacob and Joseph 
 and William Vertrees served on juries with Tom 
 Lincoln. James Pauley who married Nancy Smith 
 also served with Tom Lincoln. 
 
 JAMES HORN, Vine Grove, Kentucky (1890). 
 
 "My own personal knowledge of Lincoln's birth- 
 place is of course nothing. My ancestors lived in the 
 
202 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 Nolin Creek country and I believe one of the Horn's, 
 an uncle, owned the Tom Lincoln farm at one 
 time, after he owned it. It was then known to them 
 as the farm once owned by the President's father 
 but as for them knowing it as "his birthplace," I 
 never heard any of the old ones assert that fact." 
 
 "I am inclined to the opinion from all that I have 
 heard, that he did not buy this farm until after the 
 President was born. I have heard, however, that 
 he built the cabin on it." 
 
 "In recent years, of course, it has been stated that 
 he was born on this farm. This fact, however, has 
 been generally disputed by the old residents of Mill 
 Creek, then living, and their sons and daughters. He 
 was born up near the Mount Zion Church on the; 
 old Tom Lincoln farm located about four miles 
 northeast of Elizabethtown." 
 
 JAMES CUNNINGHAM, Vine Grove, Ken- 
 tucky (1888). 
 
 "I was born in that part of Hardin County where 
 it is said that Abraham Lincoln was born, though I 
 lived in Elisabethtown, the greater part of my young 
 manhood. I have heard since the war many times 
 that President Lincoln was born on the Nolin Creek 
 farm, but I would regard it as very unsatisfactory 
 evidence, what I have heard and what I have read. 
 No one has been able to tell a straight story about 
 it and the published statements, including the Presi- 
 dent's statement, are very conflicting." 
 
 "I have lived here in this section, near Mill Creek, 
 the greater portion of my life and I have heard many 
 men on Mill Creek discuss the fact of his birth and 
 all of them who had any knowledge about the matter 
 said he was born on Mill Creek; that would be close 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 203 
 
 to Elizjabethtown on the Shepherdsville Road and on 
 the farm that was owned by Tom Lincoln from the 
 time he was a grown man until he left Hardin 
 County." 
 
 "Mr. William Nail, and his wife, Elisabeth, said 
 he was a "Mill Creeker;" that, I suppose would 
 mean that he was born there. Mrs. Nail was a good 
 many years older than the President, and the dauglv 
 ter of Nancy Lincoln Brumfield, who lived nearby 
 the Tom Lincoln farm. This was a very good farm 
 and had a good house on it, which I have always 
 understood was built by Tom Lincoln. It would 
 seem to me unreasonable that Lincoln would move 
 out of his house and rent that farm and move into a 
 cabin like the one which has been generally accepted 
 as the birthplace of President Lincoln." 
 
 "There is another matter to be considered and 
 that is, that the oldest people in Elisabethtown say 
 that he did not buy any land on Nolin Creek until 
 after Abraham Lincoln was born. These people, of 
 course, are dead, including my father and mother." 
 
 "I knew Sam Haycraft very well and it was his 
 contention that he was born close to Elizabethtown. 
 He said at times, "at Elizabethtown" — which could 
 mean his Shepherdsville road farm. His nearest 
 relatives, including his two aunts and his grand' 
 mother, all lived on Mill Creek." 
 
 "About his birth Lincoln said, in 1860 — "My pa' 
 rents being dead, and my memory not serving, I 
 know no means of identifying the precise locality — 
 it was on Nolin." 
 
 "Now, if Tom did not sell the Mill Creek farm 
 until about the time he left for Indiana, it would 
 seem to me, from all that I know and have heard, 
 that the President was born there." 
 
204 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 "I do not think the President's statement in this 
 matter, or in any other matter, could be taken liter' 
 ally. I only have to refer to his position on the slav 
 ery question to support this contention." 
 
 "You may take his Gettysburg speech and that 
 speech is an abstraction of statements made by the 
 philosopher Rousseau, and Alexander Hamilton, 
 who wrote the articles concerning our form of gov- 
 ernment in the Spectator." 
 
 "Much of the philosophy of Abraham Lincoln, as 
 well as the words, were carved, in my opinion, from 
 Voltaire, Rousseau, Alexander Hamilton and 
 Thomas Jefferson." 
 
 Mr. Cunningham, furthermore, went into the Eli' 
 Sabethtown theory at one time held that Thomas 
 Lincoln was living in Elisabethtown at the time or 
 before the birth of the President. This investigation 
 was pretty thoroughly made in 1860, and the con' 
 elusion was reached that Tom Lincoln had never 
 lived in Elisabethtown at any time after his marriage 
 and never at any time owned a house in Elizabeth' 
 town; that, at one or two intervals, his family had 
 occupied for a time one of the Hank's boy's house, 
 but that this was after Hanks had moved away from 
 Elizabethtown. He had visited them and his wife 
 had frequently been seen around there with the 
 Hanks women. His family knew about as much 
 about the Lincolns as any one, and they had also 
 concluded that his sister, Sarah, was not born in Eli' 
 Sabethtown either, but out on the Mill Creek farm 
 where he had built a substantial cabin into which he 
 had moved after his marriage. 
 
 Mr. Cunningham belonged to a very old and intel' 
 lectual family. He was known for his student qual' 
 ities and general information. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 205 
 INTERVIEW (1887) 
 
 JUDGE MATHIS, former County Judge of the 
 County Court, told the writer in 1887 that Judge 
 Fairleigh had told him, what he, Fairleigh, believed 
 to be the truth about Lincoln's birth, coming from 
 a humble but pretty free source. An old Smith 
 negro had told him in 1860 when they were talking, 
 about Eli^abethtown as his birth place, "that he 
 knew all about Lincoln's birth, if the President was 
 the son of Mr. Thomas Lincoln, because Mr. Tom 
 Lincoln lived right close to his white folks, and "what 
 his eyes saw they believed, 1 ' was the expression; that 
 it was in the very cold weather in 1809, and Mr. Lin- 
 coln was away from home when the baby's mother 
 was taken sick, and two or three of the white women 
 went over to the house and were there when the 
 baby was born. 
 
 He had lived there all the time Mr. Tom Lincoln 
 was living there, which was about seven or eight 
 years. The writer concluded that this colored man 
 was either one of the slaves of Dr. William Smith or 
 James Smith, his father, on Mill Creek, and that it 
 fitted the Nancy Ann Smith Pauley story, which 
 was a legend in his family. He was about seventy 
 five years old at this time, as Judge Mathis remem' 
 bered. The writer was impressed with the story and 
 found that this old Negro was George Smith, and 
 that his son worked for John L. Helm at the old 
 Helm place. The son was at least fifty years old; 
 and when acquainted with what the writer wanted, 
 immediately claimed his kinship after the old negro 
 fashion, telling that he had heard his father often 
 tell the story after the negroes moved to Elisabeth' 
 town. He thought his father was born about 1788, 
 
206 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 belonged to James Smith, husband of Sallie Gentry 
 Smith. She was supposed to have been present at 
 the President's birth. 
 
 A. M. BROWN AND D. C. HAYCRAFT— 
 
 Attorneys At Law (1889). 
 
 Brown and Haycraft as a firm and individually 
 were the oldest at the bar (Elizjabethtown) . Clin- 
 ton Haycraft was the son of Daniel Haycraft who 
 lived in the Mill Creek environs about three miles 
 from Bersheba Lincoln. He knew very little about 
 the birth of the President but could retail a good 
 many stories which revolved around the President's 
 family on Mill Creek. 
 
 Mr. Brown had been among the investigators of 
 Lincoln's birth in Elisabethtown and was interested 
 in the Lincoln stories. He was quite old at this time, 
 at least seventy-five. This was the year I returned 
 from college, and knowing James Kirkpatrick, form" 
 erly of the Nolin neighborhood, at whose grand- 
 father's Mill Abraham Enlow has been long supposed 
 to have taken that flying Sunday trip when called to 
 do service at the birth of the President, I enlisted his 
 services. Mr. Brown told me the Gollaher story. 
 We drove over to see him, and after an hour's con- 
 versation, the writer concluded he could only be 
 right about one thing, that he had attended school 
 with Lincoln. He did not know when the President 
 moved to Nolin Creek or to Knob Creek, but he had 
 heard, and was sure, it was in the summer he built 
 the cabin on Nolin, as all of the people around there 
 said. He then admitted to Mr. Kirkpatrick after 
 cross-examination that he did not move into the 
 Knob Creek country until the President was about 
 four years old. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 207 
 
 Mr. Chas. Friend, Hodgenville lawyer in 1889, dis- 
 cussed with me the same story, about both Enlow 
 and Gollaher and admitted there was nothing to 
 either. Gus Enlow who lived in the Mill Creek 
 country, and who belonged to the Abraham Enlow 
 family had already exploded the Isom Enlow stories 
 about the President's birth and the wonderful serv- 
 ices he had rendered, as a grape vine yarn, twin of 
 the Dennis Hanks story. These stories were built 
 up for the purpose of sustaining the doubtful birth 
 statement of the President; and the writer, taking 
 the rules of evidence and of legal Psychology, and 
 the facts, concluded they resulted largely from the 
 fertile fermentations of Mr. Herndon's mind. 
 
 Mr. A. M. Brown also aided the writer materi- 
 ally in running down the theory that Tom Lincoln 
 lived in Elizabethtown immediately after his mar- 
 riage, and both concluded that this theory was not 
 sustainable by any established fact of record that 
 would not apply equally well to the Mill Creek farm, 
 which was about five miles out on the Shepherdsville 
 road. On Mill Creek he had a home; in Elizabeth- 
 town, none. 
 
 Mr. W. B. Kirkpatrick, druggist in Elisabethtown, 
 brother of James, but much older, had been raised in 
 the Nolin section. He was very emphatic that his 
 forebears knew as much about President Lincoln's 
 birth at Nolin as anyone, and they had never heard 
 of his birth date there except from people who knew 
 less than they knew. His grandfather and his 
 brother had said that Lincoln had two children when 
 he moved over there, and he gave me the names of 
 men to interview in that section. It was covered com- 
 pletely, and the writer affirms as a lawyer, if he had 
 to depend on the evidence so discovered, he would 
 
208 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 find in behalf of the public and against the Presi- 
 dent on the evidence he produced. Most of them 
 knew nothing of it, and it was as much news to them 
 when President Lincoln announced it, as it was to 
 the balance of the world, but on first thought they 
 assumed he was right, and so asserted the fact, but 
 when the writer read Lincoln's statement and cross- 
 examined them, invariably they admitted the facts, 
 on which they had based their opinion, were un- 
 founded. 
 
 We know by the Hardin County records that 
 Tom Lincoln was not on the tax rolls of the Nolin 
 Creek section until 1810, and by the same token that 
 he was at Knob Creek as early as July 1811, and by 
 another record fact, as early as May, 181 1, so that he 
 likely went to Nolin in the summer of 1809, as stated 
 by Thurman Thomas, and others; was there about 
 eigtheen months altogether. 
 
 If he went to Nolin in December, 1808, or before 
 the President was born, February 12th, 1809, he 
 would have been on the tax rolls in 1809, assessing 
 time being before July. 
 
 This is a pretty conclusive fact against the "log 
 cabin" birth. 
 
 In the opinion of the writer, no two greater stories 
 have ever been perpetrated, innocently no doubt, 
 than Thomas Lincoln's living in Eli^abethtown and 
 the President's birth on Nolin. Those who asserted 
 it, when you put their knowledge in the melting pot, 
 as worth while facts for fact finding, had none. The 
 fact that he bought a pound of salt in Elisabethtown 
 or worked a day for Sam Haycraft was put down as 
 a fact, supporting his residence there — when nothing 
 could be further from the truth. 
 You must place him where his real home was at 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 209 
 
 the moment, especially when it was so close by. 
 Here he had a good house and a good farm. 
 
 Judge Fairleigh, who was most familiar with the 
 era of Lincoln's fulminations in Elizabethtown, 
 agreed with Mr. A. M. Brown that Lincoln had 
 only purchased some lots in Elisabethtown, and one 
 of these lots had a "coal shed" or a small log "dug 
 out" which he said had never been habitable since 
 his early recollection, and his information was that 
 it was never occupied by a human being. Lincoln 
 might have lived on the Sarah Johnston or Haycraft 
 property but the oldest men and women, many of 
 whom were living in his, Fairleigh's time, and 
 Browns, knew nothing of Lincoln ever having lived 
 there. He had always lived on the Mill Creek farm, 
 and as that was a matter of common knowledge, cer' 
 tainly, if he had lived in Elisabethtown, that also was 
 a matter of common knowledge, or in the very nature 
 of things should have been. Fairleigh was very old 
 and well informed. He had been both Clerk and 
 Judge. 
 
 "No man could ordinarily own property in any 
 part of the county without paying taxes, so that 
 the fact that he may have paid taxes in 1809 on town 
 property or the Nolin farm was not conclusive evi- 
 dence that he lived at either place on February 
 12th, 1809." Assessment might be made in another's 
 name and taxes paid in that name, or taxes might 
 have been paid in the owner's name. Taxes fol" 
 lowed assessment and not ownership, and that was 
 a practice sometimes indulged in during the early 
 part of the organisation of the county. 
 
 However, lest we be accused of dodging the evi' 
 dence in favor of the Nolin birth place, we desire to 
 
210 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 meet that issue before we reach the main part of the 
 actual evidence against it. 
 
 We consider Mr. Louis A. Warren the only de- 
 fense counsel for that location worthy of considera- 
 tion, and we will call him as a witness. 
 
 He says in his "Lincoln's Parentage and Child- 
 hood" : — 
 
 "My parents being dead and my own memory not 
 serving, I know of no means of identifying the pre 
 cise locality. It was on Nolin." 
 
 Mr. Warren adds to this statement of the Presi' 
 dent. 
 
 "The positive announcement here eliminates sites 
 other than those on Nolin Creek." 
 
 This shows his complete reliance on the Presi- 
 dent's statement. 
 
 But as a matter of fact does it eliminate anything? 
 
 The President says that his memory refuses to 
 serve him well enough to locate it. He avers by 
 way of affirmation and denial that his father never 
 told him in his lifetime, covering a period of forty- 
 one years, where he was born. Neither did his 
 mother, in his nine years of association with her. 
 These are the only two persons who would actually 
 know. So we dismiss both as witnesses by the Presi- 
 dent's own word. 
 
 Then as to himself, his memory refuses to func- 
 tion, but "it was on Nolin." 
 
 If he could recollect that it was on Nolin Creek, 
 why could he not recall the place? We must infer 
 that he never heard of it from any other source, un- 
 less from Dennis Hanks, and as Dennis knew only 
 one place on Nolin, the actual place of Lincoln's 
 birth, which is the exact spot Lincoln could not lo- 
 cate, so it was not Dennis; and therefore all of the 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 21 1 
 
 witnesses for the present are out of the way. We 
 must now rely upon the President in spite of his lack 
 of memory. If he relies on himself or we depend on 
 him to inform us, and he cannot recall the place, may 
 he not tell us which barrel of his recollection he uses 
 to have Nolin Creek served up by his memory. By 
 what kind of memory magic can he recall Nolin 
 Creek and not recall the "spot" of his birth. 
 
 There was not in his two-year old existence on 
 Nolin another memory circumstance half so impres- 
 sive to him as the actual place of his birth, at least on 
 Nolin Creek. 
 
 But, as to the place he says, his memory does not 
 serve, but it does serve as to Nolin Creek. 
 
 He was born February 12th, 1809, and lived on 
 the Nolin farm two years, then moved over to Knob 
 Creek, and on this place, he says, he has his first re- 
 collection of his existence of being anywhere on this 
 earth; and we may assume that he was four years old 
 before he had such memory of being able to identify 
 spots or places, and when this faculty came to him 
 he was on Knob Creek. Thus we must eliminate 
 Nolin Creek from his mind as a place of memory. 
 
 Was there any circumstance on Knob Creek to 
 tell him that he was born on Nolin Creek? There 
 was not, because we take his word for the fact that 
 his mother and father had never in their lives told 
 him were he was born. 
 
 Up to, and at the time he had a serving recollec- 
 tion, his father did not tell him the spot on Nolin 
 Creek, nor did his mother. 
 
 Then he is reduced to the field of pure specula- 
 tion, and becomes no better witness than the writer 
 or the average person. What did he rely on for his 
 speculative basis? He was a mature man when he 
 
212 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 made the statement, and he probably may have 
 known from his father that Thomas Lincoln bought 
 the Knob Creek farm after his birth so he could not 
 speculate on Knob Creek without danger to his cred' 
 ibility. 
 
 Hence there was left only Nolin Creek, and he 
 did not care to name a place on Nolin Creek because 
 his memory not serving him and he might name the 
 wrong place— a place where his father never lived 
 nor owned, and he wanted to avoid this very fact, 
 for he knew it was a fact the American people would 
 want to inquire about. He was therefore put to 
 a statement at which he was clever; what lawyers 
 sometimes call a plea in confession and avoidance, it 
 does both and does neither. 
 
 Then, if we accept the writer s theory, we must 
 find some reason for the charge that it was such a 
 plea. 
 
 At any rate, we have to accept the fact that his 
 father, then on a Jury at Elisabethtown, and that, the 
 regular panel when he bought the farm on Nolin, 
 December 12th, 1808, had to get off of the jury, 
 hustle around and build a cabin before February 
 12th, 1809, sixty days, and move his household 
 equipment, his stock and his grain over to the Nolin 
 farm in order to be prepared for the great event. 
 
 There should be some reason for this action, for 
 it was out of the ordinary, but we have failed to find 
 any. 
 
 Most of the witnesses say he built this house in 
 the early summer. 
 
 However, you may find another circumstance, and 
 that is, that if you will look up the practice of sum- 
 moning juries in that day you will find that a num- 
 ber of names were selected from a neighborhood, 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 213 
 
 and you will find these names in this instance to be 
 Tom Lincoln's neighbors on Mill Creek and not on 
 Nolin. At any rate, the court did not really get 
 him from the Assessors list of the year 1809 on 
 the Nolin Creek farm because he had not purchased 
 this farm on the previous July when assessment was 
 taken, so that he had to come from either Elisabeth' 
 town or Mill Creek, but when we look the list over 
 we find in a row, Tom Lincoln with his Mill Creek 
 neighbors; so he was on Mill Creek in December, 
 1808. 
 
 Then he would have to cut the logs, hew them, 
 put them up and plaster them, and if he could do 
 this and travel back and forth twenty miles each 
 day, we still would have to eliminate him from that 
 jury service, for we know he was on it as late as 
 March 9th, 1809, twentynine days after the presi' 
 dent's birth. 
 
 What impelling reason would there be for his 
 moving in such a hurry from Mill Creek or Eliza' 
 bethtown? We leave that for the reader to answer. 
 
 His plea in confession and avoidance was to get 
 his birth place away from Mill Creek, where the 
 people knew of the illegitimacy of his mother and 
 the misconduct of both of his aunts, Nancy and 
 Lucy. On Nolin Creek they knew nothing about 
 it, and thereby they would not embarrass him in his 
 political career with these facts; and you will not 
 forget Mr. Lincoln was then America's best politi- 
 cian. 
 
 But let us pursue the Nolin birth to see what other 
 men found, and what was the grand reason Congress 
 accepted the site. The principal reason was that 
 the district had a slick trading Congressman, who 
 lived at Hodgenville at the time of the selection. 
 
214 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 In 1894, Mr. Dennett purchased that farm. In 
 1904, the Lincoln Farm Association acquired it, and 
 then they got affidavits about it; most of them to the 
 effect that this farm was owned by Thomas Lincoln, 
 some of them covering facts that by any stretch of 
 the imagination could not have been known to the 
 affidavitors. 
 
 This was to convince Congress that it was Lin' 
 coin's birthplace, and we must admit on such occa' 
 sions when men have an interest they will go far, 
 but none of these in fact knew anything about Lin' 
 coin's residence there before February 12th, 1809, 
 not one single one of them. They did not know 
 when he came to it or left it. 
 
 They did not then know there was a record in the 
 Hardin Circuit Court, unearthed by Mr. Chris M. 
 Frai^e, the then Clerk (in 1889) — and since by Mr. 
 Warren to the affect that Tom Lincoln acquired this 
 farm December 12th, 1808. 
 
 The writer and Mr. James Kirkpatrick canvassed 
 this district fourteen and seventeen years before 
 1904, when there was no dream of Lincoln Shrines, 
 and we failed to find any man who knew about it, 
 and who was old enough to furnish credible evi' 
 dence as to the President's birth there. Most of them 
 said their fathers told them he lived there but a short 
 time and moved there in the summer, and others that 
 they had heard he had two children when he moved 
 there. 
 
 GoUaher knew nothing; when he was asked to fix 
 the time he moved into the neighborhood, he fixed 
 it after Lincoln's birth date. He then insisted he 
 went to school with the President. 
 
 Mr. Kirkpatrick interrogated most of these peo' 
 pie, for his forebears had lived there and he knew 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 215 
 
 they should, and did know as much as any one in the 
 section, and yet what they knew was entirely against 
 the theory of Lincoln's birth in this world famous 
 cabin. 
 
 Let it be remembered that during all of this time, 
 Thomas Lincoln owned a good farm and a good 
 house on it at Mill Creek, which he did not sell until 
 October, 1814, when the President was nearly six 
 years old. 
 
 Then we fall back on the statement of President 
 Lincoln. Dennis Hanks was there, he says, yet 
 through all of their years of association he never 
 told the President the spot of his birthplace. If he 
 did tell him, the President must have doubted him, 
 or he would not have made the disputed statement. 
 
 It is also a curious fact that Dennis waited so long 
 to come forth with this statement, as and when Mr. 
 Herndon needed it to back up his political plans for 
 Mr. Lincoln. 
 
 Then there is the outstanding fact, that in all of 
 Thomas Lincoln's life in Illinois after the President 
 was a national character he did not tell anyone where 
 the President was born. His silence or neglect is 
 ominous in the opinion of impartial men who have 
 patiently examined the facts. 
 
 Is there another public man in America who 
 reached Mr. Lincoln's prominence whose father or 
 mother had not told him where he was born? 
 
 It was a conceded fact in the writer's family 
 always, that the Nolin birth theory was a myth, and 
 certainly coming from Dr. William Smith, his sister, 
 Nancy Smith Pauley and John Smith, it had the 
 element of truth about it because of their opportun- 
 ity to know. Dr. Smith was as good a friend as 
 
216 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 Tom Lincoln ever would have needed, and would 
 have backed him promptly when occasion arose. 
 
 When Dennis Hanks gave out his statement for 
 Herndon and to Herndon, he could tell all about the 
 details of the coverlets of the bed and the color of 
 the baby's skin, but he did not tell the President 
 where his birth house was, and the clever Herndon 
 kept away from that fact because he did not know 
 whether it was purchased after February 12th, 
 1809, or before. That is the crucial point. Dennis 
 may have had the serving memory but it was dan' 
 gerous yet to have him serve. 
 
 When all of the evidence is considered, we think 
 it will appear that Herndon, sharp trigger politician, 
 trying to meet the exigencies of politics and help the 
 President, who was torn by tender emotions for his 
 mother, desiring not to risk his future on this turn 
 of a card, acceded to the clever juggling by Hern' 
 don of his birth place, thereby saving himself from 
 answering embarrassing questions. 
 
 At Mr. Cowley's request, I went to see old Mrs. 
 Maffitt who was thought by him to possess the key 
 information to what I wanted. I did so, but got not 
 a warm reception, and returned to meet her at Cath' 
 erine Peck's house under more favorable opportune 
 ities, in 1889. At this meeting, she was more than 
 assured and had the advice of Catherine in putting 
 together her recollection of facts. 
 
 She talked freely. She was related to Nancy 
 Hanks through her mother, and Nancy and her fam' 
 ily were intimate and friendly. She lived two miles 
 from the Tom Lincoln farm due North. The Pecks, 
 Williamses, Meltons, and Smiths were closer than 
 she. 
 
 She confirmed much that Catherine Peck had said 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 217 
 
 in my interview with her, and they argued some- 
 times facts and dates before they agreed. 
 
 I told her what President Lincoln had said about 
 his birth place and she smiled and said she could not 
 see why he said that; he must have been pretty badly 
 off on his recollection or had some motive in making 
 the statement, or he might actually not have known. 
 Her mother and father both had told her positively 
 that he was born over here at the Melton farm, and 
 they certainly knew, as her mother went over as 
 soon as she heard the baby was born. She found a 
 colored woman there looking after her, one of the 
 Smith negroes she thought it was, and Sally Gentry 
 Smith, mother of Nancy and grandmother of Cath- 
 erine Peck had been there. To this Catherine as' 
 sented, as the story was told to her in her family — 
 her father and mother. Her mother, she said, was 
 Jane Gray and lived about two miles away or more 
 she would say, but was not married to Dr. William 
 Smith, her father, until 1813. 
 
 James Smith and his wife lived here at this time, 
 father of Dr. Smith. 
 
 Mrs. Maffitt, however, did not see Nancy Smith 
 there, though she had heard it said she had been 
 there with her mother. 
 
 The writer then had her go over the Gray family 
 and Smith family to test her recollection. She said, 
 two of the Smith women married Grays, and two of 
 the Gray women married Smiths, and two of the 
 Smith women married Aliens, Tobe Allen's sons. 
 Nancy Smith married Jim Pauley. John Smith 
 married Tom Williams' daughter, Elizabeth; and 
 Wash married Hannah Mc Williams, who lived up 
 by the Miller's, Peter Millers near Elizabethtown. 
 Washington's son, Jim, married Jane Swank, daugh' 
 
218 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 ter of Joe Swank the year before Bersheba Lincoln 
 died. 
 
 Catherine told the old lady that was wonderful, 
 for that was a true statement of that family. (It was 
 a correct statement of their marriages.) 
 
 Sallie Smith married John Gray, and she thought 
 he was the father of William who was living in that 
 neighborhood then. She had heard Sallie Gray say 
 that it was a fact, her mother was present when Abe 
 Lincoln was born. 
 
 The writer then asked her if she knew old John 
 Nail. She promptly said she did, and that he was 
 buried at the Owens graveyard, and was related to 
 Owen Cowley. 
 
 His wife was probably a sister to Bill Owens. She 
 then said that John Nail was at her house when the 
 Civil War broke out and she heard him say on the 
 subject of Abraham Lincoln's birth, that he was 
 born there at Mill Creek, and that Sam Haycraft, the 
 younger, had told him that he did not see how Lin- 
 coln could have been born on Nolin Creek, as it was 
 the first year he was Deputy Clerk and he signed the 
 papers when Lincoln bought the land from Isaac 
 Bush, and that he did not buy the land in time. He 
 was pulled about it and said he must have been 
 born in Elizabethtown or Mill Creek, as that was a 
 hard winter; talked about for a long time as such; 
 that Haycraft asked Nail if he knew about his birth, 
 and Nail said he had heard he was born down here 
 on the Shepherdsville road. Well, Haycraft said he 
 was either born there or in Elizabethtown. His son, 
 William, married Nancy Lincoln's daughter Eliza- 
 beth, when she was a young girl, and she remem- 
 bered that very well. Mr. Nail, she thought, died at 
 the close of the war about the time of Dr. Smith. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 219 
 
 The writer informed her it was a year afterward, and 
 she agreed that was about right. This conversation 
 must have been in about 1860 or 1861. The war 
 had not gone very far and they were stirred up about 
 what Lincoln's position would be, though Mr. Nail 
 said Lincoln did not intend to bother about freeing 
 the slaves — even though he had said so. People 
 talked in those times a lot about Lincoln. She was 
 sure Nancy Hanks Lincoln was alright though she 
 did not recollect her. Her mother thought so and 
 said, "Nancy was more sinned against than sinning." 
 Nancy would go over to Elisabethtown when Tom 
 Lincoln was away, and that she thought gave rise to 
 some talk. Folks in those days thought women 
 ought to stay at home and do the work. 
 
 Tom Lincoln, always, she had heard, regarded the 
 Mill Creek place as his regular home, though he did 
 live for a "spell" at times over at Knob Creek, but 
 she did not think Nancy ever lived in the Nolin 
 cabin, unless it would be while they were putting in 
 the crops. She could not say where Tom Lincoln 
 was when Abe was born, but he was away, and he 
 might have been on the jury, as he was a great Court 
 House Fellow. 
 
 She had heard that the farm was never rented, 
 but William Brumfield farmed some for Lincoln and 
 Tom Melton also did the same thing, though she 
 would not state this fact except on what her mother 
 and father said. She then said she was uncertain 
 what year she was born but thought it in 1812. If 
 this is correct she would be in her 69th year. Her 
 story was entirely accurate about all of the neigh- 
 bors, so I am sure she had a clear recollection sbout 
 Lincoln's birth story. 
 
 In summing up, this statement is so direct, it is 
 
220 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 well here to see how much it is supported. We have 
 a statement from Thomas Harris, whose grandfather 
 served on the Jury with Tom Lincoln April 19th, 
 1804. Therefore, when Thomas quotes his father 
 and grandfather we may know he knew what he was 
 talking about. 
 
 John Stator makes a statement, and we find his 
 grandfather on the Jury as late as April 25th, 1808. 
 Therefore, Mr. Stator, the grandson, must have had 
 pretty direct knowledge in his family. We find also 
 John and James Pauley, the latter the husband of 
 Nancy Smith, brothers, serving on a jury in 1804 
 with Thomas Lincoln. At the same time, Jacob 
 Vertrees, Joseph Vertrees, both quoted by Frederick 
 Tull on the Mill Creek birth, also Jackson Smith of 
 Mill Creek, son of Washington Smith (cousin of 
 James) . 
 
 John Smith, brother of Nancy Smith Pauley, a 
 witness for Tom Lincoln on the 25th of March, 
 1807; also Joseph Kirkpatrick, forebear of James and 
 William, both quoted on the Nolin birth. On June 
 25th, 1816, George Redmond, one of the plaintiffs 
 against Tom Lincoln, and his grandson, George, 
 stated he never heard of the fact in his family that 
 the President was born on Nolin, where the Red' 
 monds lived, and his grandfather having a lawsuit 
 with Lincoln, certainly he knew of his affairs. 
 
 As late as April 25th, 1808, we find John Stator, 
 John Thomas, John Smith, Tom Williams, Jim Wil" 
 mouth, each and all neighbors of Tom Lincoln, sum' 
 moned with Thomas from the Mill Creek country 
 as jurymen, because under the assessment of the 
 previous year veniremen were picked in localities 
 principally, in probably not over three localities in 
 the county. 
 
 .* , . .«,■ dUuffeml 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 221 
 
 On March 15th, 1809, in a case we find Jacob 
 Vanmeter, Joe Swank, William McCullum, Uriah 
 Pirtle, all Mill Creek neighbors of Lincoln with him 
 on a panel (33 days after Thomas became the father 
 of the President), still acting on the Jury from the 
 Mill Creek selectmen. 
 
 As late as September the 2nd, 1811, Tom Lincoln, 
 John Smith, Nim House, Phil Rodgers, John Aus- 
 tin, Sam Pearman, Joe Thomas, all Mill Creek neigh- 
 bors of Tom serving on the Jury, showing that Lin- 
 coln, though he might have finished the Nolin cabin, 
 still held Mill Creek as his residence so far as the 
 record goes. 
 
 Then in 1807, he was appointed road Supervisor 
 in place of Frederick TulFs father for a road, one 
 branch of which went by his Mill Creek farm, and 
 so far as we may say, he continued here for several 
 years. 
 
 Wherever and whenever you point to Thomas 
 Lincoln's movements about the time of the Presi- 
 dent's birth, you find him with all of his associations 
 around his Mill Creek farm and his neighbors there, 
 and rarely a name associated with him officially at 
 this time or as matter of record, connected him with 
 any other locality. In fact, not until he moved to 
 the Knob Creek farm. 
 
 WILLIAM GRAY (1889-1890). 
 
 The writer talked to this gentleman twice, in 1889 
 and 1890, at the home of Silas Smith. They were 
 first cousins. William said it was, in his opinion, a 
 settled matter that President Lincoln was born on 
 the Melton farm. 
 
 He had never heard, otherwise, and it was a mat- 
 ter in his opinion of no importance. He was born 
 
222 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 there and had lived there all of his life, and was fam' 
 iliar with the story. His mother was the daughter 
 of Sally Gentry Smith, and in his mother's lifetime 
 he had heard it said that Lincoln was born there. 
 
 It was discussed during the Civil War, and he had 
 seen Lincoln's statement, that he was born some- 
 where on Nolin Creek, but those who knew better 
 said it was not so. Dr. Smith, his mother's brother, 
 also said there was no truth in it. So far as he was 
 concerned, he had no faith in him for one thing about 
 what he was going to do about slavery when he was 
 elected, and he did the opposite. He said he would 
 guard the Neutrality of Kentucky and he made it 
 the slaughter house of the nation and the abode of 
 thievery, hence he would discount his story about 
 where he was born about 100 per cent, in view of 
 his record with Kentuckians. He knew Mrs. Maf- 
 fitt, and would believe anything she said about it as 
 true, if she could remember, as she was a very intel- 
 ligent woman. 
 
 There was nothing in his judgment to the Lin- 
 coln statement. "Nobody ever heard old Tom lie 
 about it in his life time. Did they?" was the parting 
 shot he gave me. 
 
 The President visited Louisville several times. He 
 visited Lexington, and he says he saw his grand- 
 mother but once in his life. He had lived eight 
 years within fifteen miles of her. If he lived on Mill 
 Creek, he was within four miles of her. Consider- 
 ing that his father was sufficiently devoted to his 
 mother to build her a house on Mill Creek it would 
 seem strange that Thomas Lincoln would not visit 
 his mother, and stranger that he would not take his 
 son. 
 
 Sarah Johnston, the second wife of Thomas Lin- 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 223 
 
 coin was a Bush, but she was partly raised by Elinor 
 and John Peck, relatives, and neighbors to Tom Lin- 
 coln's mother, and very close to his Mill Creek farm. 
 Thomas knew her before he married Nancy Hanks, 
 had proposed marriage to her but was refused. Sarah, 
 therefore, must have known that Abraham Lincoln 
 was born somewere at sometime, and she could 
 have stated the facts without doubt, and with some 
 degree of personal knowledge, but not a word came 
 from her on this point. 
 
 Tom Lincoln was dead in 1860; no one could visit 
 him and ask him personal questions about Lincoln's 
 family or about the President's birthplace. 
 
 Therefore, through all the President's statements, 
 he studiously avoids any reference that would lead 
 inquiries to Mill Creek, and if we are writing his- 
 tory, and not holding a brief for the President or his 
 family, we must say it is a fact that confronts you 
 all of the time. 
 
 William Johnston, Sarah's nephew, told the writer 
 that it was a legend in his family that Lincoln was 
 born on Mill Creek, and for what reason may we ask 
 would Tom Lincoln be buying farms and building 
 houses on them in more than temporary fashion 
 when he owned a good farm at Mill Creek and had 
 built a good house on it? What would keep him 
 from living on it? We have no word or act showing 
 that he, Tom Lincoln, did abandon it. 
 
 It was handed down in the James Pauley family 
 that Nancy Pauley was present in the Tom Lincoln 
 farm house on Mill Creek, and that she had said, her 
 mother, Sallie Gentry (Smith), and herself, were 
 called there as neighbors when the President was 
 born, by Nancy Hanks. This story was emphatically 
 affirmed to the writer by James Pauley, son of Nancy 
 
224 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 in 1885. Nancy was a sister of John and William 
 Smith and sister to the wife of Thomas Gray, a two 
 mile neighbor, who had stated the same thing. Nan* 
 cy was born in 1798. 
 
 John Smith is supposed to be responsible for the 
 idea of the cartoon, a pen sketch in its day, of the 
 Mill Creek birth of Tom Lincoln's son during the 
 severe winter of 1808-09. He was Tom's intimate, 
 according to the records of the Court in Hardin 
 County. 
 
 But when the President located his birth some- 
 where on Nolin Creek, the Pauley story went to the 
 limbo of myths, but taken with an analysis of the 
 facts, the writer has no doubt of its truthfulness. 
 These many events could not have occurred and con- 
 curred with Tom Lincoln's constant service on the 
 Jury Panel at the time at Elisabethtown, without 
 truth behind them. 
 
 But let us see if Nolin neighborhood offers any 
 facts as to why Lincoln moved over this severe win- 
 ter within sixty days, after buying the farm, while 
 serving on the jury, and built this log cabin so that 
 Nancy could give birth to a President there on Feb- 
 ruary 12th, 1809. There was no one moving into 
 the Mill Creek house, and probably he had collected 
 the winter wood, and though it might be zero 
 weather he certainly would not chance mixing mor- 
 tar or plaster to cover the cracks after chinking that 
 Nolin cabin, a system that no one else had discovered 
 up to that time. It is unbelievable. 
 
 The writer thought of these matters in 1885 and 
 decided to go over and interrogate these Nolin 
 folks whose sons were still living. 
 
 He covered the neighborhood that year and re- 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 225 
 
 turned in the summer of eighty-seven to make sure 
 that he had not missed any of them. 
 
 In 1885, he had talked to a Mr. Gollaher, re- 
 ferred to by numerous others, who told him how 
 he was there and "the house was built by Lincoln 
 in the summer time," the year before Abe was born, 
 so as to have it ready for the great event. His stories 
 as a whole sounded improbable and would not fit 
 the facts in the case. 
 
 Thus, as Billy Hodgen said, if it was built in the 
 summer it had to be built either before Abe was 
 born, when the land had not been purchased or af' 
 ter he was born on the Mill Creek farm. But he 
 said another thing very important. "His father 
 had told him Tom Lincoln had two children when 
 he moved there." 
 
 The Redmonds, Brownfields, Hawkins, Hub- 
 bards, Smiths, Brownlows, Enlows, Kennedys, 
 Akers, Uptons, Starks, Harts, Highbaughs, and a 
 dozen or more, whose names are out of the writer's 
 memory, could give him nothing more, than that, 
 "history said so." 
 
 Gus Enlow said he had read the Dennis Hanks 
 story, and he regarded it as made from the whole 
 cloth, from what his family had told him. Besides 
 Dennis was not in high standing as a young man for 
 truth telling, when Herndon quoted him on the 
 birth of the "pulpy baby." 
 
 The writer and Thomas Grundy, of Springfield, 
 visited the Burlington-Beech Fork country to run 
 down the story of his birth there, and found some 
 strong facts supporting it, but when these facts were 
 put beside the ones which could not be disputed, he, 
 abandoned the theory. He also made diligent search 
 for a record of Tom Lincoln's marriage and was 
 
226 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 unable to find it, but in later years was advised by 
 Mr. Grundy's son-in-law that it had been discovered. 
 I wanted to know why Tom Lincoln had given this 
 date to Sam Haycraft and he had written it down 
 in his diary that way. The record shows it to have 
 been June 12th, 1806, instead of September 22nd, 
 1805. 
 
 We know that Dennis Hanks, who was born in 
 1799, was an illegitimate, and we know that he re' 
 sponded to President Lincoln's wishes, and Herndon 
 made a birth witness of him, knowing his loyalty 
 to the President. He did not visualize that Dennis 
 was not in the Nolin neighborhood at that time, and 
 that it could be proven that his presence was quite 
 improbable. His evidence has already been ruled out 
 as wanting in substantiation. 
 
 There is little doubt that the President knew from 
 Dennis that his mother was an illegitimate daughter 
 of Lucy Hanks, and that he, Dennis, was an illegiti' 
 mate son of Nancy Lincoln's aunt. Mr. Lin' 
 coin knew, that as a candidate for President, the eyes 
 of the world would be directed to him and his birth 
 place, and the people where he was born would be 
 visited. If they visited Nolin Creek the neighbors 
 would have no gossip inclinations, but if they visited 
 Mill Creek, it would be different. 
 
 If Sallie Gentry Smith visited Nancy Hanks when 
 President Lincoln was born and she told her son, 
 John Smith, who was then on the Jury with Thomas, 
 and John told the artist who made the cartoon or 
 pen sketch, and Nancy Pauley, John's sister was 
 with her mother, then we must say, that the Nancy 
 Pauley story is anything but a myth. 
 
 The Nancy Hanks travail is the disagreeable part 
 of Lincoln's life to the writer and he bears on it here 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 227 
 
 only as it relates to the President's birth statement. 
 The question to be answered is this. Did the fact 
 that all of Nancy Hank's neighbors on Mill Creek 
 know her story and none knew it on Nolin Creek, 
 influence the President's statement as to his birth? 
 The writer thinks he was justified, in order that he 
 might spare his mother's memory and himself, for 
 these were bitter times, and Mill Creek would have 
 made bitter statements. "Somewhere on Nolin 
 Creek," was a flexible statement and was subject to 
 revision. 
 
 The facts which follow relate materially to, and 
 throw some light on where Thomas Lincoln lived 
 most of his married life in Kentucky. 
 
 Much discussion has been indulged in about Mr. 
 Lincoln's opportunities to go to school in Hardin 
 County. Jackson Peck discussed this question. 
 
 Lincoln, in the winter of 181 3, attended a subscrip- 
 tion school on Mill Creek at the old Smith house, 
 and he thought that Abraham Lincoln attended that 
 school two or three times with his sister, Sarah, 
 though he did not remember that he went to a reg- 
 ular school on Mill Creek, all of which were called 
 by subscription. These schools were three months 
 affairs, and generally cost about three dollars to the 
 pupil. There were several school teachers in Elisa- 
 bethtown, and the preachers who came into the 
 country generally would teach a short school in the 
 winter. He himself got what education he acquired 
 in this way. Tom Lincoln himself had a fair educa- 
 tion, though his wife Nancy did not. His mother 
 had taught her some, and as he recollected, she was 
 fond of books and learned fast. About nine years 
 old when Lincoln was born, he did have a pretty 
 good recollection of what transpired. 
 
228 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 He remembered one of the Smith's came from 
 Virginia and taught a school on Mill Creek when he 
 was a boy. They did not have to have a license then. 
 
 Abe and another boy wanted to buy a dog that be- 
 longed to one of the Shepherds, and they were sit- 
 ting on a log when James Crutcher, the merchant at 
 Elisabethtown, came along, stopped his horse, and 
 inquired how they were and what they were doing. 
 Abe replied that they were trying to figure how they 
 could buy old John Shepherd's dog. It was not a 
 shepherd dog Abe insisted, but a coon dog. Well, 
 Crutcher agreed to loan them two dollars, but Abe 
 allowed a dollar would be a plenty, so that is what 
 they got. They then made off to find the Shepherd 
 dog, but located no one at home. The dog was tied 
 on a block, and they released him and put the dollar 
 under the door jam. As they left the yard, they met 
 Mrs. Shepherd, who promptly accused them of steal- 
 ing her dog. Well they were in a fix, and insisted 
 Mr. Shepherd had offered them the dog for one dol- 
 lar, but they had to give up the dog and lost the 
 dollar, but they worked hard for ten cents each on 
 odd jobs and caught a couple of coons in traps, and 
 in this way were able to pay Mr. Crutcher his dol- 
 lar. Tom Lincoln spent most of his winters on Mill 
 Creek and farmed the Mill Creek farm most of the 
 time he owned it. He lived there and knew that fact. 
 
 Abe was around here, and a very big boy for his 
 age. He remembered him as a funny awkward kind 
 of a boy. One of the visitors to the neighborhood 
 asked Abe why he had such big feet and hands, and 
 Abe's reply was that, "Pap says the Lord gave them 
 to him, and he was trying to grow up to them. ,, 
 
 Solomon Irwin, exactly Lincoln's age, lived about 
 two miles north on the turnpike, and he well remem- 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 229 
 
 bered Lincoln as a boy who could "skin a cat" on 
 a tree limb, jump and "throw a rock like a bullet." 
 He remembered him as being funny and "in for 
 doing anything." 
 
 Tom Lincoln had built the old distillery on Mill 
 Creek and it was thought he operated it for a season 
 or two. It was later known as the John Moore dis' 
 tillery. 
 
 These facts show clearly that Tom Lincoln was at 
 his Mill Creek farm the major portion of young 
 Abe's life in Kentucky. 
 
 On the wall of the old Hughes Mill on Mill Creek 
 (sometimes called Sander's Mill) , just below the Ben 
 Irwin place, and two miles north of the Lincoln farm 
 was the name of A. Lincoln scrawled on the wall by 
 soap stone as though written by a beginner in the art 
 of writing. It was said Abe wrote it there with the 
 figures 1814. It was a well known fact that Tom 
 Lincoln operated this old grist mill in the winter for 
 several years. 
 
 Solomon Irwin, the father of Ben Irwin, and who 
 knew young Abe and lived a mile from this Mill, said 
 that he was often with Abe, and that Abe used to 
 shoot the flat rocks on the water, and had an expres' 
 sion about it which is not printable. He regarded 
 him as full of fun, somewhat full of tales for a boy, 
 and old Solomon talked of him, in his late years as a 
 "romancer." The writer concluded from these vari" 
 ous investigations that Tom Lincoln lived probably 
 altogether two years in the Knob Creek and Nolin 
 sections, and the balance of his matured life, until he 
 left Kentucky, on Mill Creek. He certainly rebuilt 
 the old Stator house on his farm exactly as described. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 DR. WILLIAM SMITH, FRIEND OF LINCOLN. 
 DEATH OF CAPTAIN LINCOLN. 
 
 No history of the Mill Creek country would be 
 complete without mention of Billy Smith, who prac 
 tised as steam doctor and a little Osteopathy. He 
 was a most retiring modest man with sound business 
 judgment, and a philosopher of no less ability. He 
 was about twelve years junior to Thomas Lincoln. 
 For the day and time in which he lived, he was the 
 intellectual man of his section, around whom assem' 
 bled men of all shades of opinion. He lived in a 
 brick house on Mill Creek exactly two miles from 
 Thomas Lincoln. He knew something about reli' 
 gious creeds, and was a man on the order of Voltaire 
 and Thomas Paine. He could write and talk well. 
 It is unfortunate that his diary is only to be found in 
 scraps. This article is made from scraps from this 
 diary, and principally from conversations of the fam' 
 ily — sons and daughters. 
 
 While his education was secondary, he improved 
 it to a first class position by his study. He was able 
 to buy the best books written, and had something 
 over two hundred volumes at the time of his death. 
 
 His daughter, Catherine Peck, may be considered 
 a chip of the old block. 
 
 Bersheba Lincoln, who liked him, had often talked 
 to him. She would naturally bring her counsel to 
 
 230 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 23 1 
 
 his very door, for those were times that required 
 counsel. His father, and particularly his grand- 
 father, had been prominent in the early counsels at 
 Harrodsburg, and the grandfather was an Indian 
 fighter of some renown, along with the Boones, 
 Todds and Kenton. He was born in 1793, John, his 
 brother, much earlier, and his father, James, in 1761. 
 (Bersheba had told him of the death of Captain 
 Lincoln. She saw the killing of her husband from 
 their cabin.) An Indian, a Wabash, had called to 
 see the Captain while he was hoeing in a corn patch 
 close to their cabin on the Jefferson County farm. 
 The Captain, supposing it to be a friendly visit, re 
 turned to his work, and the Indian saluted him good- 
 bye and took off to the nearby woodland. In a few 
 moments after he left, she heard the crack of a rifle, 
 which the Indian had not with him when he greeted 
 the Captain. She could see no smoke, but did see 
 the Captain fall to his knees; knowing as she 
 thought, that it was the Indian shooting from a sec- 
 reted position in the woods, she did not run to him, 
 but waited to see what happened. The same Indian 
 came out of the woods, gun in hand, and walked 
 toward the Captain. She got the Captain's rifle and 
 called on her son Mordecai to get his — they leveled 
 them resting on the base of the window of the cabin, 
 and on her command, both fired. The Indian fell 
 within a few feet of the Captain, evidently dying 
 instantly. She remained in the cabin, thinking that 
 other Indians might be lurking about. The shots 
 brought their Fort neighbors, who arrived in a few 
 minutes. No other Indians appeared. They then 
 went to the place where they were lying, about 
 one hundred and fifty yards away, found the Indian 
 dead and the Captain in a dying condition. "We re- 
 
232 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 mained in the Fort for about two days, though we 
 felt in ample protection from the Militia Post which 
 was stationed about where we were located in the 
 night time. We buried Captain Lincoln there 
 (where the old church now stands), and remained 
 there until the crops matured. The Indians seemed 
 to be more troublesome later in the year, and we 
 moved over to Washington county where there was 
 little or no trouble, we lived in that county until the 
 Spring of 1802, and then moved to Mill Creek, 
 where we bought land. We lived there all of the 
 time after this; Mordecai had married, and the two 
 girls married that year. 
 
 Thomas did not live long with us in Washington 
 County. He came down to Hardin County with 
 Josiah, and he worked for Jacob Van Meter before 
 he was grown, living with him, and at times he 
 worked for others. He wanted us to move there on 
 Mill Creek, and after we came down he shortly after' 
 ward bought a farm from a neighbor, Mr. Stator, 
 whose family had owned this farm, about three 
 miles up the creek. He had been up in Cumberland 
 County, where he had some land." 
 
 "It was thought at the time of Captain Lincoln's 
 death a peace treaty with all the Indian tribes (in 
 Ohio and Indiana), had been signed, and the settlers 
 were less cautious than they were when the Indians 
 were on the war path. At such times men and often 
 women carried rifles to their work and to church 
 meetings or other gatherings. The Indians were 
 again bad in 1788. The Captain's death occurred 
 in May, 1786 — all of the children were born. Mary 
 was about eleven years old, Nancy, about six years 
 old. There were a number of men killed within a 
 few days of his death by scouting bands of Indiana 
 
Dr. William Smith, son of James, grandson of old John, 
 friend of all the Lincolns. 
 
234 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 and a lot two years later. We lived at an old Fort 
 joined together by about ten houses, in one of which 
 we lived. 11 
 
 "It seems that Captain Lincoln had purchased a 
 Treasury warrant from Myers and Crist for a plot 
 of land by the Haycraft's farm on Mill Creek, and 
 Mordecai had sold this, and they then bought either 
 this land back or very close to it, and made this their 
 home. Bill Brumfield and Thomas lived there with 
 them. 11 
 
 "Mary's husband lived down on the Hardinsburg 
 road close to Breckenridge County. Nancy told me 
 that Thomas stopped over a few days with her be 
 fore he left for Indiana. I saw her often and I will 
 say that our folks said Bersheba was a very superior 
 woman of Huguenot French origin, and I should say 
 a very handsome woman in her youth. 11 
 
 "I am quite certain the breed of such a woman 
 will go on. She lived somewhat for her own family, 
 and when the children married and went away she 
 insisted on Nancy living with her. She carried her- 
 self well and lived the most of her time in comfort, 
 unless in her latter years living was lean. However, 
 the neighbors were kind to her and gave her more 
 than ordinary attention. It will be many years be' 
 fore so strong a woman of her trials will live among 
 us again. 11 
 
 "My opinion of Thomas, her son, is quite favor' 
 able. I liked him. We played cards together many 
 evenings, we played a little politics together, and 
 Thomas was a good mixer, and people liked his way 
 of greeting them. When he worked, he worked, 
 when he played he played. His sport was hunting 
 and he and young Abe were up and down the creek 
 often looking for game, which was then aplenty, 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 235 
 
 when they lived over there. He worked for me some 
 before he left here, and a great deal for Jacob Van 
 Meter, Bill Owens, John McMahan and Sam Hay 
 craft. He was a handy man, ready and willing. I 
 knew his wife, and while I may say she did not com' 
 pare to the Lincoln women she was a spunky, likely 
 sort of a person, doubtful perhaps about her course 
 in life; she was good at heart, and I should say did 
 as well by Thomas as she could." 
 
 "Josiah Lincoln I knew. He was more slender 
 than Thomas and not so strong nor so clever. He 
 lived the most of his life in Hardin with Squire 
 Boone, who finally settled down on the Ohio, and 
 later moved over into Indiana. Abe was a large boy 
 when Thomas left Kentucky and unusually inquir- 
 ing for his age. Thomas was more than an important 
 man in Hardin County. He travelled about a great 
 deal, ran his farms and always had a little money. I 
 would trust Tom Lincoln anywhere." 
 
 "He did not like the Whigs any better than I did 
 and had about my kind of religion and politics. He 
 was in the Mill Creek house about ten years, off and 
 on, but always farmed it. He lived over at Elizabeth- 
 town some, mostly to please Nancy, and I guess he 
 was on the Knob Creek farm a good deal." 
 
 "It was said the Hanks women, that is Nancy's 
 aunts, had a good many accidents during their lives, 
 and were a loose lot, but I do not think about such 
 matters, and they should concern no one unless he 
 wants to attend to the other's business rather than 
 his own." 
 
 "I considered the Hanks good people. Nancy was 
 sharp-featured and tall, rather agreeable, without 
 much to say. They were down here before they left 
 to bid the neighbors good-bye as they were leaving. 
 
236 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 They had sold the Mill Creek farm to Tom Melton. 
 Nancy could talk about anything and had a good sen' 
 sible point of view." 
 
 "I saw Nancy Lincoln Brumfield very often and 
 have been to her house. I call her the star of the 
 Lincolns. She was a woman of more than average 
 mind and sense. She was liked by her neighbors, 
 went about a great deal, and was about as unafraid 
 as a man." 
 
 "None of the Lincolns were afraid, that I am sure 
 of. Nancy lived here I suppose the most of her life, 
 and she had a pretty good man in Bill Brumfield. 
 They were helpful neighbors with a lot of good fun 
 in them. ,, 
 
 "I saw pictures of Abraham after he got into the 
 papers, and he looked the man which you might have 
 expected the boy to grow into. I am not myself 
 wedded to slavery, and I am sure we ought to save 
 the Union with or without slaves; in this, Abraham 
 is clearly sound, but as a matter of principle I do not 
 think we should go to war about the negroes any 
 more than about the mules. Mine have been a bur- 
 den to me, good enough at times to have, but to feed 
 and keep and clothe, bad enough. As an institution 
 it's a failure, and if continued will keep the South 
 poor, and the man poor who owns them. That is 
 about what the Lincolns believed, as I know their 
 views." 
 
 "The English have too much interest in the Con- 
 federacy for me. I can say this much — free negroes 
 and America rather than England and slavery. I have 
 amused myself talking things I do not believe, and 
 therefore, we may say that all that you read about 
 what a man says, is not just what is down in his 
 heart." 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 237 
 
 "I do not believe in all of these fantastic religions, 
 but it is not necessary for me to fall out with them 
 about that. They had better be Separatist Baptist 
 than to chew tobacco, drink whiskey or have some 
 other bad habit. They soon get through with the 
 noise and it is over. Well, the Lincolns were sound 
 on these matters. They could sing the old hymns as 
 good as the next but they did not have to shout about 
 being in partnership with God; that was a matter for 
 him to circulate any way. So, we common folks 
 thought as a rule, and I think it is good sound phil- 
 osophy. It's too bad to be poor, and it's dangerous 
 to be rich, so we all risk it here just as it is, and we 
 have our share of happiness." 
 
 "I have talked very much with Bersheba and her 
 daughter Nancy, and we think alike about these 
 things. This being as it is, I will say Nancy Lincoln 
 especially has good judgment about affairs in the 
 world. She is worth listening to. She is a self "edu- 
 cated person, and such knowledge comes along with 
 experience in life. We used to go over to the old 
 church of the Cedar Creek Colony and have pretty 
 good times together." (This was known as The 
 Cedar Creek Colony originally when first settled.) 
 
 "I did not know much about Mary or Mordecai, 
 but I have seen all of them except the Captain — he 
 was before my time. Bersheba was probably an 
 Episcopalian, but the others were more like Unitari- 
 ans. We had such preachers as "Raccoon" Smith, 
 Governor James Garrard, Rev. Harry Moulin; all 
 here at different times to preach. They called them- 
 selves Unitarians, and a good many of us here were 
 bitten by the same tribe. This was the third church 
 built in Kentucky." 
 
 The balance of his views we gather entirely from 
 
238 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 his family. He read the Lincoln-Douglas debates, 
 and had no very high opinion of Douglas. 
 
 He bitterly resented Stephen Burbridge's cam- 
 paign against the real Union men of Kentucky as 
 rebels. Burbridge was the first Martial Law gov- 
 ernor in western Kentucky, General Palmer the sec- 
 ond, and Jefferson C. Davis the third. He made an 
 unceasing campaign to Lincoln against General Bur- 
 bridge and surely kept Lincoln well informed. In 
 spite of the fact that he was friendly to Abraham 
 Lincoln's administration he realised its shortcomings 
 and was particularly critical of his Proclamation. 
 
 "If," he wrote, "there is virtue in the President's 
 philosophy or reasoning, that the negroes are prop- 
 erty and like any other property may be conscripted 
 for war purposes under the war clause of the Consti- 
 tution, then they are not property after they are 
 freed by his Proclamation, and they must be recog- 
 nised as human beings and not property. Admitting 
 that they are conscriptable as such, the President 
 must take an entirely different attitude. If they are 
 property he must make some arrangement with their 
 owners for their payment just as he must make such 
 arrangement for payment of our hogs and beef cattle 
 which he has taken and allowed us pay for them, at 
 a price fixed by his War Board. He says nothing 
 about doing this. If property, then under an order- 
 ly government, the constitutional right to payment 
 must be recognised. If, on the other hand, he has 
 the power to conscript them as human beings, must 
 he not wait until they are recognised as such under 
 the law of the land; and taking his view of the law at 
 this late day, that cannot come about until his ratifi- 
 cation Amendment is submitted and becomes a part 
 of the Constitution. That, he admits, cannot come 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 239 
 
 about right now because his position is that this 
 Amendment must be ratified by the states of the 
 South, because such states have not in legal parlance 
 departed from the Compact or the Union, and can- 
 not do so until a majority of the states so agree, and 
 he admits they will not so agree. They are out in 
 the open attempting to prevent such action by force 
 of arms. ,, 
 
 "I have said that this Proclamation is a sham and 
 a pretense for raising negro soldiers to oppress and 
 insult the white people of the South, and it has 
 wrought no end of misery and disaster to the Union 
 and to all concerned. It is a blot on our civilization 
 and must always be so regarded. I have high regard 
 for the President's dilemma, but that dilemma will 
 not be helped by giving false reasons and taking a 
 position that is indefensible in morals or fact. The 
 truth is that Lincoln is hard pressed and his Cabinet 
 of dishonest men have forced him to do something 
 that his better judgment in after years is bound to 
 condemn. I am not a lawyer, but I think the posi- 
 tion I take is sustainable and sound." 
 
 The old Mill Creek Church may be said to have 
 been the most important church in the west at one 
 time. It was a Van Meter, Haycraft, Owens church 
 at one time, of the Baptist liberal persuasion. All of 
 these men were pretty strong Baptists, Jacob having 
 founded also the forks of Otter Creek Church, where 
 he lived most of his life, and where he died. 
 
 Crist and Spears engaged in their celebrated fight 
 with one hundred and twenty Indians for more than 
 a day up Salt River about five miles from this 
 Church. 
 
 Billy Smith took part in many important discus- 
 
240 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 sions involving President Lincoln's administration of 
 Kentucky during the Civil War period. No little 
 reliance was placed at times on his wisdom. That 
 was a reign of terror lasting three years. From the 
 time Stanton became Secretary of War, January 
 20th, 1862. 
 
 He protested Burbridge's policy to blaspheme 
 every General who did not believe in a policy of levy 
 ing tribute on the citizens for what masquerading 
 bands might steal in Kentucky. He denied that the 
 Federal Government had any right to suspend the 
 civil authority, organize negro bands to override and 
 shoot white people on one pretext and another. 
 Captain Jarrett, he argued, was no worse than Bur' 
 bridge. Frank Wolford, Federal Colonel of Cavalry, 
 was suspended by Burbridge and disgraced for dc 
 nouncing the enrollment of negro regiments in Ken' 
 tucky to police over white citizens. He influenced 
 him to go to Washington to see Lincoln. Wolford 
 went, and Lincoln ordered a trial immediately, an 
 impartial and fair tribunal, and Wolford was ac 
 quitted and restored to his place in the army. Gen' 
 eral Buell was also suspended for refusal to draft 
 negro regiments for this duty; he again appealed to 
 the President, and a trial was ordered, which prompt' 
 ly acquitted Buell. Governor Bramlette elected as 
 a Union candidate, prcLincoln in 1862, also joined 
 in the denunciation at Washington. Lincoln re 
 sponded, that thieves of the people's property would 
 not be rewarded with military protection. An un' 
 ceasing campaign was made to Washington to avert 
 the severe and savage military restrictions placed on 
 business and the rights of the people — each time the 
 President responded in some manner. Sailing across 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 241 
 
 Hardin County was one band of military despera- 
 does after another, wearing the Federal uniform 
 when he fired into Washington this — "you are here 
 to protect the people, and not to oppress them." 
 Colonel Jacobs was arrested for saying that the au' 
 thority of the government exercised to take prop- 
 erty by soldiered organisations was against every 
 good Union man's judgment in Kentucky — though 
 he was Lieutenant Governor at this time, elected on 
 the Union ticket, he was promptly arrested and es- 
 corted out of the state. Again he appealed to Lin- 
 coln, and Jacobs was ordered returned and tried, by 
 the civil authorities, and acquitted. He assumed his 
 civil position. 
 
 The Federal Court at Louisville issued a habeas 
 corpus writ, and ordered three citizens and General 
 Palmer before it after the fall of Burbridge, but Gen- 
 eral Palmer refused to obey the writ. He was cited 
 for contempt and arrested but refused to obey, again 
 his appeal was heard in Washington, and Palmer 
 gave bond, but his case was finally settled on an 
 abandonment of the policy. 
 
 When his son, Silas, was about to be hung for re- 
 fusing to pay a tax levied by military authority, he 
 flew at Palmer with a denunciation that swept the 
 state. Lincoln ordered, "that it was not in the power 
 of the Martial authority of the United States to make 
 the citizen responsible for the act of an illegal band, 
 neither were the citizens the keepers of the peace, 
 nor was it their duty to fight guerrillas, but the duty 
 of the United States forces to keep the state clear of 
 them and protect the citizens." 
 
 Thus the old man with everlasting courage, and 
 a faith in the final triumph of justice kept up the bat- 
 tle, fearless and unafraid of consequences. None 
 
242 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 dared molest him, lest the President took a strong 
 hand, and thus was the President rightly guided by 
 justice in every case, serving the friend of his father, 
 and the guardian and friend of his aunt, Nancy Lin" 
 coin. 
 
 But when Stanton again ordered that the negroes, 
 former slaves, be recruited in spite of the fact that 
 the Thirteenth Amendment had not been constitU' 
 tionally ratified, it was the last straw that broke the 
 Camel's back. 
 
 The net result of negro recruiting and persecution 
 of the white people by negro killings, negro pickets, 
 superseding Police and Sheriff authority, aroused the 
 people generally in Kentucky, bringing forth bands 
 of guerrillas that shot many innocent negroes and 
 killed Federal police officials wherever they were 
 found. Negroes were encouraged by Jarrett's band 
 to carry on a destructive plan including murder of 
 all whites, who had ever offered any resistance to 
 negro recruiting. 
 
 Assaulting of his granddaughter and killing of her 
 son brought forth a veritable round robin from the 
 old man, backed up by Governor Bramlette and half 
 of the Union Generals in Kentucky. President Lin' 
 coin issued an order that final power of arrest of 
 citizens and trial should be placed in the hands of 
 General Thomas, then located in Tennessee, in all 
 matters pertaining to civilian offense in the district 
 where Martial Law was extended. 
 
 The old man demanded straightforth that this in' 
 famous soldier should be shot by the Federal soldiers 
 at sunrise; his voice was heard so quickly by the in' 
 ner resources of President Lincoln that all Kentucky 
 was surprised, as they had been shocked by the crime, 
 to learn that a Michigan regiment had taken the 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 243 
 
 brute out at sunrise, and while he was hanging, rid- 
 died his body with a thousand bullets. To witness 
 a thousand Michigan soldiers cheering a helpless and 
 dying wretch was a sight that made the nerves of 
 strong men tingle. 
 
 His resolute and determined character, his certain- 
 ty of viewpoint, his high sense of justice, his devo- 
 tion to the Union, gave him such standing and force 
 with the President, that Mr. Lincoln announced 
 that, "the government could not take over the gov 
 ernment of Kentucky for the redress of private 
 wrongs without seriously hampering the furtherance 
 of the war," and he called upon all the people to 
 abide the final sense of justice of General Thomas, 
 to review all disputes between citizens and the sol- 
 diery. His statement brought forth a strong reply 
 from Governor Bramlette that the trouble could be 
 ended by refusing to recruit another negro soldier, 
 and an order that all negro soldiers now recruited 
 be sent to the South or to the North. And the old 
 man wrote: "Unless, sir, you can dismiss from your 
 mind the necessity of negro domination to end a war 
 instituted to free them, you might as well expect to 
 see the last drop of blood of a proud people flow 
 through the highways of Kentucky, for it will be 
 asking more than man or God's restraint to expect us 
 to stand in front of this racial outrage and insult, and 
 keep our lips closed and our arms folded. It will not 
 be done." 
 
 And again he wrote: "So long as this damnable 
 imposition must come to our door, that we feel the 
 blood of our darling babes dashed in our faces, from 
 the blows of ignorant and unconscienable slaves, then 
 we must forget there is law to respect or a constitu- 
 tion to protect. We must conclude that justice has 
 
244 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 fled and cruel men with beastly appetites are to finally 
 drink and quaff our own blood to satiate their fear- 
 ful lust and vengeance." 
 
 His bitter eloquence, his poised and strong posi- 
 tion touched humanity's cord everywhere in Ken- 
 tucky, but in the end it broke. He saw all that he 
 had asked for, come about, but he also saw that 
 Kentucky, broken and bleeding had no more resist- 
 ance; and the people were starving. 
 
 His tottering frame now bent more than ever. The 
 light and fire of his eye began to fade, his voice was 
 that of one who had said effectively his last word on 
 earth — he was on the road to the end, he was passing 
 and before the clarion notes of the mighty Lee were 
 heard around the world, "I surrender, 11 the old pa- 
 triot had delivered his accounting and bid a lasting 
 farewell to those he had served and those he loved. 
 
 But to the last, he was a friend of Lincoln, and 
 Lincoln somewhere within him felt the cord of his 
 own soul that bound him to the words flashed to him 
 by the man he knew as a boy. Lincoln had been his 
 friend, and Lincoln had furthered the plans of jus- 
 tice he knew was in the old man's heart. He died 
 in 1864. 
 
 To the ages Lincoln belongs, but to men who 
 think and are thinkers, Lincoln will ever hold his 
 greatest appeal, because his was a mind always open 
 to hear the counsel of reason and appeal. 
 
 The old man is reputed to have written this on 
 October 10th, 1833: 
 
 "In these autumn days it has pleased the All Pow- 
 erful to take from our midst Bersheba Lincoln, neigh- 
 bor and friend, a woman of no ordinary merit. 
 Daughter of the forest, forerunner of a civilisation — 
 the East's contribution to the West. But she has 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 245 
 
 passed, and the storm of her life has receded for the 
 calm that comes afterward. Her passing reminds us 
 that Destiny, casting a load upon the shoulders of 
 she who never shirked, has not impartially placed its 
 burden where equal honors fall. The mother builded 
 her house in the wilderness, for the same reason the 
 eagle did; to do her work, though it cost her a life of 
 ease. She was to give forth children, she was to bare 
 her breast for their sake, and as the deadly Red 
 passed her by she was to say to her God, "Remem- 
 ber these are mine." The sun might shine in other 
 homes, but she would toil and await its coming, for 
 God's adjustment and life's eternal rewards, if such 
 there be. And now on the banks of the old stone 
 bound creek, she lies, to rest her proud spirit, to go 
 on, never, never to surrender. In that future world 
 it may be her voice will ring again, for God may 
 touch the spires of heaven, and his esquire will write 
 in the great book, the name of a Lincoln — Bersheba 
 Lincoln. " 
 
 He freed all of his negroes the day after the issu- 
 ance of the Proclamation by President Lincoln. He 
 called them together, saying: "You have been freed 
 by the President, which however cannot take effect 
 until ratified by three-fourths of the states, but I give 
 you your freedom from this day on. You must earn 
 your own living, you can no longer depend on me. 
 When you want to come back here to visit me, you 
 are welcome, and I will be glad to see you. The cab- 
 ins you may use as your homes. 
 
 "You are free to go, but your responsibility you 
 must assume as a citizen by paying taxes. What I 
 have taught you in your relation to others, I wish 
 that you may observe with the strictest discipline of 
 yourselves, if you wish to get on." 
 
246 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 "I shall feel friendly and near to you, and so far as 
 it is in my power, I will help you, but I am an old 
 man now, pretty well broken down in health and 
 means. ,, 
 
 "The war may end soon or not, no man can tell, 
 but I wish that you would always act according to 
 the principles of honesty; if you do, the white people 
 will respect you, and your success will be assured. 
 May the good Lord bless you and keep you safe from 
 trouble and harm." 
 
 Such a scene had rarely been witnessed. The few 
 old negroes pleaded to remain as before. They were 
 weeping and sorrowing for days, because they were 
 out in the world, with no work and no future. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 CAPTAIN THOMAS H. HINES OF MORGAN'S 
 
 CONFEDERATE CAVALRY AND BILL 
 
 AUSTIN, LINCOLN SPY. 
 
 Thomas Hines had probably read more books 
 than any other man in the Southern Army. From 
 teacher to soldier, soldier to lawyer and Chief Jus- 
 tice of the highest court of Kentucky,, commanding 
 popular support, Hines had never made a speech, and 
 never submitted to an interview — he was just Hines. 
 
 Hines and Mark Smith, the fastest big man in 
 Morgan's Command, were riding along one day in 
 Tennessee, looking for a likely place to forage, when 
 they saw three Federal outposts riding in their direc- 
 tion. Hines told Smith to ride down in a dry basin, 
 hid by foliage, and come out quickly when he blew 
 his bugle. Smith and Hines rode thoroughbred 
 mares and could leave an ordinary cavalryman of the 
 Federal troops far behind. The three Federals fi- 
 nally rode up in front of Hines and commanded him 
 to halt, telling him that he was under arrest and to 
 dismount. 
 
 "I have just mounted," said Hines, "I was taking 
 my thoroughbred mare out for a little airing, and I 
 thought I might practice playing Dixie on my little 
 horn out here away from Morgan's men; now just 
 let me show you how I have progressed." And he 
 started tooting away on his bugle much to their sur- 
 
 247 
 
248 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 prise, paying no attention to the order to dismount. 
 
 They looked at him in astonishment — he was so 
 small that he looked like a mere boy. On hearing 
 the bugle, Smith came dashing out of the woods, fell 
 upon two of the men, slashed them off their horses 
 with his sword before they could gather themselves 
 together from the surprise of limes' conduct. 
 
 The immense Smith was about to dispatch the 
 third, when Hines commanded him to stay his hand 
 — "You're about to kill a boy," he said. Smith 
 reached over and dragged the astonished Federal 
 soldier from his horse on to the horn of his saddle, as 
 though he intended to spank him with his already 
 bloody sword. Smith insisted he would finish him 
 in spite of Hines' command, when Hines said to him 
 in a roaring laugh — 'this is the first dam Jew I ever 
 captured during this war and I am going to take him 
 back and exhibit him to John Morgan'." 
 
 The Jew turned out to be of national prominence 
 since the Civil War, head of a great firm in Chicago. 
 For many years the story went the rounds of the in' 
 ner circles of Chicago, always applauded by the vic- 
 tim. 
 
 Hines undoubtedly planned Morgan's escape from 
 Columbus near the close of the war. He told me in 
 1890 the facts were just as published throughout 
 the country by the Century Magazine, but it was 
 commonly asserted at the time, and after the war, 
 that Hines, by some mysterious hokus'pokus, had in' 
 fluenced President Lincoln to convey to the officials 
 of Columbus the information that the government 
 would wink at their escape. This story was bruited 
 about Kentucky as late as 1887. Hines was then 
 Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals of Kentucky. 
 The Courier Journal and Marse Henry Watterson, 
 
Judge Thomas H. Hines, Captain of Cavalry 
 with General John Morgan. 
 
250 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 then the ever-ready mouthpiece editorially and as a 
 matter of news, of reactionary legislation, and reac- 
 tionary judicial decrees, were not enamored of the 
 Hines decision in a certain case involving large inter" 
 ests, and Mr. Watterson had directed its Frankfort 
 correspondent to prepare an article depreciating and 
 reflecting on Hines. This article went back to war 
 time, and insinuated that Hines had been influenced 
 as a member of the Court of Appeals, that his con- 
 duct during the war was duplicitous. This came to 
 Hines' ears, and he proceeded at once to the press 
 room of the old Capitol Hotel, called on the corre- 
 spondent, who admitted that he had sent such an 
 article to the Courier- Journal; that it was already 
 printed and could not be recalled. 
 
 Hines said to him: "Tell your chief, Henry Wat- 
 terson, if that article appears in the Courier-Journal, 
 I will kill you first and kill him next, and he knows 
 me well enough to know whether I mean what I 
 say." He turned and walked out. The frantic cor- 
 respondent communicated immediately with Mr. 
 Watterson, who sat in his editorial rooms at Louis- 
 ville. Many thousand papers had already been run 
 off the press; the presses were stopped, the papers 
 were destroyed and the article never appeared. Wat' 
 terson lived to a ripe old age, but Watterson knew 
 Hines and he knew that Hines would kill him with 
 impunity, and be exonerated by Kentuckians every- 
 where. 
 
 When Hines escaped from Columbus, he was sit- 
 ting in the coach of a train travelling to Cincinnati, 
 sharing his seat with another, who was talking to 
 two men in front of him and exhibiting the Cincin- 
 nati "Gazette," telling all about Morgan and Hines' 
 escape from the penitentiary. They were telling 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 25 1 
 
 that the terrible Hines would never get to Cincinnati 
 and that they would certainly like to meet up with 
 him. Hines joined in the conversation and was vc 
 hement in denouncing the officials of the govern' 
 ment for permitting the escape, and when they were 
 about to leave the train at Cincinnati, they invited 
 Hines to join them at the police station in a hunt for 
 Morgan and Hines. Hines readily agreed, bade them 
 the pleasure of the day, telling them that he had an 
 engagement and would meet them in less than an 
 hour at the office of the Chief of Police of Cincin' 
 nati, where he would be delighted to join them in a 
 search for the notorious pair. In one hour he was 
 on his road to Louisville as a coal heaver on a tug 
 boat, joking with an old Irish pal, named Peter Mc 
 Ginnis. 
 
 When Hines arrived at Louisville, he travelled 
 rapidly to the house of Nancy Lincoln and in less 
 than twentyfour hours Bill Austin had cleared the 
 way for himself and Morgan into Tennessee. 
 
 General Simon Bolivar Buckner was then (1890) 
 a member of the Constitutional Convention and 
 Governor of the State. He verified in part Hines' 
 story concerning the notorious Captain Jarrett. He 
 said that he had discussed the matter in after years 
 with General Palmer, and that Palmer had wondered 
 just what Jarrett's real connection was with the War 
 Department. Buckner afterwards made the race for 
 Vice-President in 1896 with General Palmer for 
 President. 
 
 Jarrett knew General Morgan had issued orders 
 to get Jarrett dead or alive. At the time he shot Van 
 Meter and companions, he had gone to Nancy Lin' 
 coin Brumfield's house enroute to Bullitt County to 
 discuss with her plans for discovering and trapping 
 
252 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 those who were denouncing President Lincoln. He 
 expected her to find out through Austin what was 
 going on. It is quite sure that he did not know Aus- 
 tin's relation to the President. She then, at her ad- 
 vanced age, was shrewd enough to make Jarrett be 
 lieve she would do it, but in less than thirty minutes 
 from the time Jarrett left her, Austin was on Jarrett's 
 trail to see just how Van Meter, Settles and Vertrees 
 were to be killed. 
 
 Jarrett ordered his soldiers to tie them separately 
 to different trees and they were shot face forward, 
 unblindfolded and helpless. 
 
 Austin returned and reported to their families, 
 "What a terrible villain he is to wear a Federal uni- 
 form" — said Nancy Lincoln, and she attempted to 
 communicate the facts to the President at once. 
 
 Three days prior to the time of the raid of Mul- 
 draughs Hill, Hines was secreted in the house of 
 Hannah Rodman Smith in Vine Grove (which still 
 stands) unknown to her husband. When Hines and 
 Austin were ready to spring the trap at Muldraughs 
 Hill, not a soul, outside of their companions and this 
 woman, knew what was going on. Hines had met 
 Austin and his confederates at Wiggington's Woods, 
 within a mile of Jarrettfs rendezvous. 
 
 When Jarrett had arrested the three men, whom 
 he shot in Bullitt County, he had taken them to this 
 same Hoosier John Smith's house, herded them dur- 
 ing the night in his corn crib, close to the house, 
 ordered his wife to cook supper for himself and his 
 men, which she refused to do, telling Jarrett that her 
 dough was made for the express purpose of throwing 
 in his face. He drew his gun and ordered her to 
 comply, but she tore open the bosom of her dress 
 and told him he was too big a coward to shoot at her 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 253 
 
 — a defenseless woman. Her husband and the writ- 
 er's mother, her daughter-in-law, took her upstairs 
 after this scene and locked her in a room, then with 
 a colored servant, cooked supper for Jarrett and all 
 his men. 
 
 Tom Hines all the while had a secret code from a 
 Confederate spy in Washington showing that Jar- 
 rett was making reports to the War Department as 
 a spy on three Union Generals in Kentucky, Buell, 
 Harlan and Palmer. These men were all located in 
 Kentucky and Tennessee with armies of approxi- 
 mately 125,000. It also gave the names passed to him 
 for investigation in that section. These investigations 
 not only bore upon individuals disconnected with 
 the armies, but upon important situations and offi- 
 cers of the respective armies. There was no doubt 
 that Jarrett was an investigator for some one in that 
 department. There was no doubt that Stanton knew 
 all about Jarrett. Hines and Austin passed the word 
 to these people by and through their neighbors; thus 
 they were enabled to keep on Jarrett's trail, and Aus- 
 tin kept General Palmer constantly informed, but 
 Jarrett was a sly fox with all of his drinking and 
 wickedness. He calmly laid his wires and kept in 
 the background so that in the massacre at Mul- 
 draughs Hill the wily Jarrett had eluded Hines. 
 Morgan's Army was in Tennessee and at that time, 
 it took two days and nights to reach him by horse- 
 back. 
 
 General Harlan was camped with 50,000 men 
 around Bowling Green; BuelFs Army was at Nash- 
 ville; Palmer was military Governor at Louisville, 
 but Hines or his Lieutenant were every day in touch 
 with Jarrett's movements, but at no time was their 
 
254 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 strategy sufficient to get Jarrett without exposing 
 their own hands. 
 
 These facts were generally known to Owen Cow- 
 ley and the situation stirred his blood. He was in 
 and out of his saddle, following the trail of the busy 
 Austin, who seemed to be everywhere and nowhere 
 in particular except at home. Now and then one of 
 Jarrett's lieutenants disappeared, never again to be 
 heard of. The midnight man who took him off was 
 unknown. 
 
 It was evident that Lincoln trusted General 
 Palmer and his Illinois troops, that Stanton did not, 
 but he was attempting to obscure his distrust of Gen- 
 eral Palmer from the President. 
 
 Through all of these multifarious transactions, 
 Hines used Austin and Austin used Hines. Their 
 entire movements involved plots and superplots, but 
 the ingenious Hines found nothing but praise for the 
 high character of President Lincoln and grounds for 
 the most damning criticism of Stanton. 
 
 "Little Hines," as Nancy Lincoln called him, was 
 the spear head that stalled the villainous Jarrett 
 throughout the balance of his career. It seemed only 
 a question of time until Jarrett would meet his Wa- 
 terloo, but his character and his vocation changed 
 so often that he always escaped. In the meantime, 
 more than 500,000 men had passed down this terrain 
 to the South, the suffering of the people of this sec- 
 tion was intense and they had not bread to eat. What 
 food they were able to conserve was buried in the 
 ground in order to prevent its detection and when 
 they partook of their meals, sentinels stood in the 
 yards of their homes to protect them. 
 
 Bill Austin has no mark in history — he belongs to 
 the Lincoln family. No more daring character lived 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 255 
 
 in Civil War times. He was the counterpart of his 
 master, Tom Hines. He was the mystery man who 
 rode at night and farmed in day time under the simple 
 tutelage of Nancy Lincoln Brumfield. He shot to 
 kill and never missed his mark. He was the cousin 
 of the President of the United States; he was the 
 man Abe Lincoln knew as a truth getter; his dual 
 character only the President, Hines and his immedi- 
 ate family knew. He was the sharp poignard of 
 Captain Hines. He was the friend of General Ben 
 Hardin Helm, brother-in-law to Lincoln and hus- 
 band of Emily Todd. 
 
 Austin knew every move that Stanton and Chase 
 made in Kentucky. Two Governors had been 
 forced to resign in three years during the war as a 
 result of the machinations of Stanton's tricks and by 
 plays. Did Lincoln know? He certainly did. He 
 knew that the resignations would be forthcoming for 
 weeks before they matured. He knew this through 
 the dumb farmer, Bill Austin. Austin was every- 
 thing from a smiling maid in a hotel in Louisville to 
 a rube, asking questions of military leaders. He 
 could outride any man in his section; his smile was 
 said to be bewitching; he had no gift for speech; he 
 was the maximum of ignorant simplicity; he served 
 Jarrett in his nearby hotel; he listened to Jarrett ex- 
 alt himself as a shrewd man with power, and poured 
 his whiskey with the delicacy and refinement of a 
 finished lady. When Jarrett was drunk, he purred 
 in front of him and got him to talk unceasingly, and 
 Jarrett talked. He liked to talk to women. He 
 talked about Lincoln. Jarrett considered that Lin- 
 coln was a farmer, born of the dumb poor and had 
 to be piloted and directed by brilliant men like Stan- 
 ton. Austin listened. He wound his black hair 
 
256 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 around his head and dressed like a woman, attended 
 social functions of the Federal Army at Louisville. 
 
 When the severe Chase bowed in front of the 
 President to present his intrigue, and Stanton snorted 
 his disgust and discouragement, Lincoln quietly 
 looked upon both of them and heard them not, keep' 
 ing his mind to himself. Lincoln, the dumb poor to 
 Jarrett; Bill Austin the agreeable maid to Jarrett; Bill 
 Austin, the Morgan spy. How easily might the maid 
 have strangled the bloody Jarrett and fled to his lair 
 with unctious joy, but no, Jarrett was his prey for 
 more reasons than one. To Palmer and Harlan and 
 Buell, he was Lincoln's cousin, son-in-law of old Tom 
 Lincoln's favorite sister. How he would have de- 
 lighted in shooting Jarrett through the heart and 
 to wire Mr. Stanton, with the compliments of Bill 
 Austin, farmer, but Jarrett, drunk and at play, was a 
 barometer of news — the kind of news maybe Lin- 
 coln wanted. It is to wonder — did Lincoln know 
 Bill Austin was Morgan's spy — Captain nines' pu- 
 pil? Somehow Bill Austin never had to hide; he 
 passed muster with Federal Generals as a simple cou- 
 sin of the President, and through the Confederate 
 lines, as an old friend of Morgan, Duke, Hines & 
 Company, but to Morgan and Hines — the flying 
 horseman at night. If a Captain H — (a horse thief 
 in a gray uniform) imposed on homefolks, Bill Aus- 
 tin's business was to report. If there were Yankee 
 Armies coming, Bill Austin must know. Morgan 
 sent a hundred or five hundred men on Bill Austin's 
 order. Lincoln, on Austin's word, looked over every 
 movement of Stanton and the Anti-Lincoln Claque 
 in Washington. General Palmer listened to Bill Aus- 
 tin, for he knew Lincoln's confidence in his rural cou- 
 sin, and Major Generals waited in the corridors of 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 257 
 
 Palmer's headquarters, and flying messengers cov- 
 ered with dust, delayed their orders until Austin 
 took his leave, but they wondered who the simp 
 relation of the President was, and laughed and joked 
 that he took himself so seriously. The remark jocu- 
 larly passed around, "ah well, that's Lincoln's coun- 
 try cousin." 
 
 If Lincoln wanted Stanton's literal dispatch to 
 fall into Austin's hands, he found a way, for he knew 
 he could trust Bill with his tricks, and Lincoln always 
 himself had a few up his sleeve. Bill turned the cards 
 and Lincoln read them. But through all this, Hines 
 says he never betrayed Lincoln, and he never be- 
 trayed Morgan or his men, nor did Morgan ever mis- 
 use Bill Austin's confidence: War was one thing, 
 honor among men another. 
 
 When Morgan and Hines languished in prison, 
 Bill Austin's anguish of mind was more than theirs. 
 When Morgan and Hines escaped Bill Austin cleared 
 the way for their escape into Tennessee — the Fed- 
 eral spies and redoubts recognised Bill Austin's signs 
 and countersigns, though they asked no questions. 
 
 Everywhere in the day time, he was the simple 
 cousin of the President, and at night he did his work 
 — he was a flying horseman to them, doing his ter- 
 rible task. 
 
 He passed sentinels who halted him for a moment, 
 saluted, and bid him pass on. 
 
 If he needed a fresh horse, it was saddled, and he 
 leaped from one to the other as if on the errand of 
 one doing a marathon ride. What a life was this 
 cousin of old Abraham leading, and what a duty he 
 had to perform, but the machine of the mysterious 
 character clicked always, the man nobody really 
 knew. 
 
258 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 The war's end at last was in sight, in Bill Austin's 
 mind — the tragedies would soon be over. 
 
 Hardly had Morgan passed to his retreat than he 
 was betrayed by a woman and treacherously shot to 
 death, his body dragged and kicked through the gut' 
 ters of a Tennesse town. The silent Hines and Bill 
 Austin had met and grieved together; the shouting 
 was near, the works were dismantled. 
 
 They talked about the trail of blood, they visited 
 with the spirits of their departed friends, but lo, the 
 greatest tragedy of all was on the road; a derringer 
 cracked in Ford's Theater and resounded around the 
 world. A horseman passed across the blue imagina- 
 tive sky, their dreams were shattered, and the friend 
 they both knew, one only by his power, had fallen 
 too, to arise again as the man of all the ages. 
 
 Lincoln was dead, and the dreaded thing Hines 
 knew would happen, was a front page line in the 
 news of the world. The last great soldier had 
 sheathed his sword, the work of spies, assassins was 
 over; Lincoln had taken the road Morgan had al- 
 ready commenced to ride, their Jerusalem was the 
 insoluble task of mankind. But the important thing 
 had transpired — the Union was saved and peace 
 would regain its place throughout the land; the 
 sword was broken and the plough share would come 
 forth. 
 
 Now Bill Austin went to his humble home, his 
 old saddle that hung in the shed of the house of 
 Nancy Lincoln, he took it down, placed it gently 
 on the back of his white faced horse, kissed the old 
 woman good-bye, embraced her daughter, his wife, 
 Mary Lincoln Brumfield Austin, saying that he 
 would go over and see his old friend, Owen Cowley, 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 259 
 
 — the friend of his youth and a life time. The man 
 who knew his heart pulse. 
 
 The sun had set, the rays of daylight were disap' 
 pearing from the rocky banks of old Mill Creek when 
 he dismounted in Owen Cowley's yard. "Well," 
 said Owen, "Lincoln is the last." "Yes," said Bill, 
 and the tears rolled down their cheeks as they choked 
 back the words. The tanned face of Abe Lincoln's 
 boyhood friend, strained and changed as if he was in 
 agony, and they both stood silently, looking into the 
 face of each other. For hours they talked, and at last 
 Bill Austin rose and said, "Owen I am going away, 
 Good-bye"; and the terrible horseman mounted his 
 horse and rode away like mad. Bill Austin disap' 
 peared forever, and to this day his body lies, no one 
 knows where. But his devoted wife and mother'in' 
 law lie in unmarked graves, the sorry, neglected re' 
 mains of a nation that has forgotten. 
 
 Perhaps somewhere the spirit of the two great 
 horsemen, Tom Hines and Bill Austin, have dis' 
 mounted, doffed their hats to the Great Chief who 
 recognised these valorous men with the gentle ad' 
 monition, — "this government of ours, born of our 
 fathers' blood, sanctified by our mothers 1 tears, shall 
 never, never pass away." 
 
 INTERVIEW (1890) 
 
 Let Hines tell the story of the Muldraughs Hill 
 fight. 
 
 "For many months it came to Morgan through 
 Austin, that Jarrett's men were stealing horses in 
 this fashion. They would go to a farmer, tell him 
 that the government needed horses, and it had been 
 reported that the farmer was saving this particular 
 
260 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 horse for Morgan's men. It would be better in the 
 end for him to turn the horse over to the United 
 States in order to get pay for it and to prevent be- 
 ing under suspicion. The particular horse thief 
 would sign an O.K., a piece of paper, which was a 
 receipt, after a fashion, that would entitle the holder 
 to get his pay from the Quartermaster. 
 
 The horse would be surrendered, and sometime 
 during the night a different man would come for the 
 horse, sometimes two or three. These horses were 
 tied in a big bowl up the gulch near the turn pike 
 between West Point and what was known as Wig- 
 ginton Woods, just at the rise of the turnpike going 
 south, a distance of three miles. This main gulch 
 was intersected with other gulches and secreted by 
 small hills. Here they kept these horses, sent them 
 on army buying days down the Ohio river by boat 
 in charge of what was called an employee of the gov- 
 ernment, who would present them for sale and re- 
 ceive pay. No questions so far as I ever knew were 
 asked him. It might have been the buyers were his 
 confederates. Many complaints were made about it, 
 so Austin made a full report to me and I in turn 
 decided we would intercept the game. This gang 
 allegedly were keeping the peace and protecting 
 the citizens from guerrilla warfare. 
 
 We collected five men and laid our plans, stretch- 
 ing our line on both sides of the top of the main 
 gulch. But prior to this time Austin was to scout 
 for the incoming train of horses and men. About 
 four in the morning, they came in, with about thirty 
 horses. There were probably some fifty or sixty men, 
 but a camp was maintained down toward West Point 
 near the Pike or turn in the road. Here would re- 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 261 
 
 main about twenty men as usual. We had the 
 ground mapped by both Austin and Hawkins. 
 
 The horses in the bowl were to be cut loose deftly 
 after we thought the incoming men were up into the 
 center of the gulch and before they got over the hill 
 to the bowl or on the plateau between the bowl and 
 the gulch. Here we caught them and opened fire, 
 well and doubly armed. Austin commanded the 
 North side and I kept the South side. Our horses 
 were within easy access, a half mile of us. It 
 was a "moonshine night" — the moon lighted the 
 bottom of the gulch so we could see the individual 
 man pretty well. We picked the rear and front men 
 first and then followed our own individual inclina- 
 tion afterward. I could see Austin on the North side 
 when he ran down the side of the hill and mixed the 
 fight close to where men were falling and horses run- 
 ning and neighing. He and Hawkins were opening a 
 deadly fire at close range. The horses and men were 
 excited and seemed to be running around with no 
 place to go. The horses came out of the bowl in 
 large numbers endeavoring to find their way out. 
 Men were yelling and were being run over all the 
 way down the gulch to which end we worked our 
 way where we could load and fire at much closer 
 range. Austin matched a hand to hand fight, it 
 seemed to me about one hundred yards from where 
 I was and both he and Hawkins, both big men 
 bayonetted and slashed many men off of their horses. 
 
 Nobody gave orders, we executed as fast as pos- 
 sible. Up the gulch they would go for a half mile 
 and a shot from where our horses were guarded 
 would bring them back. The horses were now the 
 real commanders of the situation, and the few men 
 left were almost, if not entirely helpless. We grad- 
 
262 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 ually cut them to pieces, and I cannot believe many 
 of them got away alive. 
 
 We went back to our horses up the side of the 
 gulch and found a number of dead men on the way. 
 Except a few scars, none of us were hurt but thor- 
 oughly worn out. I would say the battle lasted an 
 hour. 
 
 With one exception, none of the men were sol- 
 diers. When we got to the top of the hill and were 
 about to separate, Hawkins said, "h — , I could'nt 
 miss 'em." I rode into the Vine Grove section, re- 
 mained for two days, and returned to my regiment. 
 Austin and Hawkins and the others disappeared into 
 the Salt River hills, and no doubt were soundly 
 asleep by daylight. Hawkins is the man who slashed 
 his way out of Secretary Seward's room — April 14th, 
 1865. 
 
 I heard the next day they were burying men and 
 hunting through the country for "Confederate 
 Guerrillas," who had massacred about fifty men. 
 
 Our forces were estimated to be from one hun- 
 dred to three hundred men. There were seven in 
 all. Austin afterward told me about riding into 
 Louisville the next two days. He had to stop at 
 West Point, and the soldiers along the route were 
 telling him about the "Morgan Guerrillas," and their 
 terrible execution in the hills. Austin, in the most 
 surprised fashion, would utter some whimsical 
 phrase, innocent like and sometimes idiotic, but al- 
 ways of such character as to relieve him of the slight- 
 est suspicion. Austin loved his home people, and he 
 hated a thief. He was no less loyal to Lincoln. 
 
 He had formed a habit of foolish expression, so 
 that at times when he was talking to me he would un- 
 consciously drift into it. But his mind was a power 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 263 
 
 house of moving thoughts, and when he finished the 
 subject, it was well organised and he was ready to 
 execute its plans. 
 
 It was not until just before Lee's surrender that he 
 was found out, and then he was known only in a 
 very limited military circle. At this time he was 
 most completely in the confidence of Lincoln. I doubt 
 if he ever stated a fact or a situation that Lincoln 
 did not find it exactly that way, and Austin saved 
 Lincoln some very hard falls in Kentucky. He was a 
 man up in years, older than Lincoln, but as handsome 
 a picture in his saddle as Robert E. Lee. 
 
 The last time Austin saw Lincoln, he said, put- 
 ting his arm around his shoulder before saying good 
 bye; "Austin, it was once my ambition to be Presi' 
 dent of the United States. I am that. It is my wish 
 that the cruelties of this war end. If I could save 
 the Union tomorrow, I would walk out of here, and 
 leave the glory to others; I would go back to the 
 country with you and be content to live the simple 
 life of my fathers. 
 
 But God has decreed the destinies of men, and 
 this torture and suffering is my lot. I will suffer the 
 end of that service bearing the cross for the people I 
 love, and finally what is my lot matters not, but I 
 trust they will be happy and love and peace again 
 will prevail in the land." 
 
 One of the episodes in Austin's career during the 
 war occurred in Louisville in 1863. He had appeared 
 during the day at Military headquarters as the simple 
 cousin of Abe Lincoln. It became necessary for him 
 to change his appearance and sleuth at a social func- 
 tion as a representative of large contractors in con- 
 nection with war supplies. During the evening, he 
 was thrown in the company of a very talkative Gen- 
 
264 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 eraFs wife. She discussed the affairs of her husband 
 and President Lincoln and as is often the case, cov 
 ered the field of mental adventure within her limited 
 scope. She criticised the poor manners of Mr. Lin' 
 coin and related the circumstance of one of his kin 
 who annoyed her husband so much by coming 
 around at headquarters. No one of course could 
 blame the President for being friendly to his ignorant 
 kin and no one could expect all of their relatives to 
 be brillant, but the terrible person she spoke of was 
 impossible. 
 
 Austin listened attentively, enjoyed her huge ig" 
 norance and eventually escaped her toils. 
 
 At another time the President desired to find out 
 how the War Department was carrying on the Com" 
 missary Department at Louisville. Austin appeared 
 to a Commissary agent to sell a few "shoats" and 
 was offered less than the price fixed by the depart" 
 ment. Austin complained about it, and the agent 
 made out his slip for more than the actual weight, 
 and intimated Austin should bring him back the dif- 
 ference. 
 
 So Austin appeared in due time with the differ" 
 ence. He then made a deal to buy hogs for the agent 
 and invariably the excessive weight or lower price 
 racket was worked on the farmers. Lincoln got all 
 of the evidence and filed it away in his vast vocab" 
 ulary of things unsaid against Stanton. 
 
 An agent once disclosed to Austin that the Presi" 
 dent was a very ordinary person, had no manners and 
 was nothing in the management of the war. Then he 
 told Austin how well Lincoln liked the ladies, but 
 he had very little opportunity to take advantage of 
 such good chances as he had presented to him. 
 
 "Well, I guess he puts on a few airs, anyway. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 265 
 
 Don't he?" inquired the innocent Austin. "Surely," 
 came the quick reply, as to how Lincoln cracked 
 his high jokes with half naked women on the quiet 
 and drank his fine imported champagnes. The point 
 was, he liked ginger cake and got less of it than any 
 boy who ever had such fine chances; and as a man he 
 had the best of opportunities, and he would have 
 liked to take advantage of them, but there was the 
 ginger cake philosophy that handicapped him. Aus" 
 tin "cackled" and "lowed he'd have to tell old Nancy 
 Lincoln that story about her 'prim' nephew." 
 
 Thus intrigue as well as murder went on, both 
 against Lincoln, all the while, even in Kentucky, but 
 the "crude" Lincoln was not always in the dark 
 about it. 
 
 Once a man, who had seen Austin faking the old 
 man, came to him. A soldier had committed an 
 outrage on his daughter at the point of a gun, and 
 inquired of young Bill where his father was, and Bill 
 told him his father had departed on a visit. The old 
 man had seen him on parade, and was impressed 
 with his reality — old man Austin. Bill inquired if he 
 could do anything for him and he told his story. 
 Bill insisted he would inform the old man about 
 it and see if anything could be done. At the oppop 
 tune time Bill, the mysterious night rider, met the 
 young man at the appointed rendezvous with the 
 daughter, shot a good hole in his uniform, rolled him 
 into a ditch, and left him for future observation. 
 
 In the military barracks, he heard a story about a 
 certain old man Booth, who lived on the Bardstown 
 pike with a beautiful daughter, and no one had yet 
 been able to settle the affections of the young lady 
 or get any money out of the old man, so these as' 
 piring youngsters were asking Bill if he knew any 
 
266 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 thing about the lay of the land out there and Bill 
 insisted he did. 
 
 Whereupon they informed him, they would ap' 
 pear and check up the old man for noisy talk about 
 the government enlisting negroes. They would ap' 
 pear in early morning, Austin believed, as a mere 
 guess, suspecting that they wanted the girl as much 
 as they wanted money and would probably in the 
 end, go after both. 
 
 He timed them about right, went home on Mill 
 Creek, picked up a couple of "Tigers" and spent 
 the preceding night in the woods near by. About 
 daybreak there came galloping along, the noble five, 
 and they halted in front of old Booth's house. 
 
 Austin and his companions crept closely up a 
 hedge near the house, and there observed three of 
 the men keeping guard outside while two went in. 
 The light shown out of the window in their faces. 
 Now and then they heard the old man protest, and 
 the daughter begging, and in tears. Austin gave the 
 word, and over the hedge fence three deadly rifle 
 volleys cracked, and three marauders fell dead. The 
 two remaining in the house immediately came out 
 in the yard to see what had happened, and there 
 found their three comrades dying and on the ground. 
 Crack! crack! and the twin rifle balls went over the 
 hedge and lodged in the bodies of the two remaining 
 romancers, who fell in the great cause (?) with their 
 brothers. 
 
 Austin commanded the horses to the road, and he 
 leaped the hedge and called for the father and 
 daughter to come forth, a friend was on hand. 
 Scared and almost lifeless, he carried the daughter 
 under his arm and led the old man down to the pike 
 where his companions waited with the horses. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 267 
 
 Mounting his horse, he took the reviving girl in his 
 lap and they all rode hastily up the road to a neigh- 
 bor. 
 
 When they arrived, Austin said to the girl, tell no 
 story about being assaulted, only that a band of guer- 
 rillas chased these five poor soldiers into your yard 
 and there shot them to death, but do not make your 
 report for an hour — we will then be on our way." 
 There is one request I have to make of you, said the 
 young woman, amid the profuse thanks of her father. 
 "Ask it and I will grant it," said the boiling Austin. 
 "I want to kiss you," she said; "A thousand times if 
 you will," replied the gallant Austin, and the beauti- 
 ful girl, her face wet with tears, flung her arms 
 around him and kissed him as if he had been a 
 Saviour from the world above. Austin and his com- 
 panions rode into the Mill Creek hills and were 
 asleep before the sun had kissed the dew from the 
 leaves of the wild grass as it awakened from its night- 
 ly slumber. 
 
 The next day the numerous squads of soldiers 
 were searching the country for guerrillas when they 
 crossed the path of Austin going to camp at West 
 Point. 
 
 "Have you seen any guerrillas around here of 
 late," they inquired. "Nope," replied Bill, " I ain't 
 seed a guerrilla for so long I couln't tell you what 
 that thar animal looks like." And so no guerrillas 
 were found." 
 
 Years passed, Father Time had long ago kicked 
 his dust over Bill Austin's grave. A handsome 
 middle-aged woman was introduced to the writer in 
 1888 at a social gathering in Louisville, and she 
 desired to, and did bring forth her son, a bright lad 
 of eighteen and introduced him. There we sat and 
 
268 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 talked, about the future young man, the war, and 
 she told me her experience. 
 
 I could see her pulling back the tears as she told 
 of the marvellous handsome Knight who had saved 
 her honor and her father's life. What had become 
 of him? 
 
 In her life he had ever been a present picture, the 
 man on a horse. I told her I had heard the story 
 from the lips of Thomas Hines and John Headly — 
 the man's name was Bill Austin, and he was Lin' 
 coin's spy and first cousin, the friend of Captain 
 Hines. Imagine the picture as it now appeared to 
 her after thirty years; and strange as it may seem, not 
 a word was uttered by either of us for a few mo- 
 ments, but in front of me there appeared a man in 
 a slouched black hat riding a dashing chestnut horse, 
 who stopped in front of the woman and saluted. 
 It was his shadow perhaps, but to her it was the real 
 man. In awe, she almost shrieked and fled from the 
 room. 
 
 Perhaps Bill Austin, still riding in the spirit world, 
 came back to say that through all the years he de' 
 sired to speak to her, to tell her what might have 
 been in his heart, and up there he could, and he 
 would, guide her footsteps through the material 
 world until the gates ajar might open. 
 
 Down near the turn of the pike before you get 
 into the Muldraugh Hills lived a little boy who had 
 a dog, the only partner he had. One day the soldiers 
 shot him; the lad took sick and had been many weeks 
 in bed. His case was peculiar, the doctor said. 
 
 Austin reined in his horse one day to see him. The 
 boy told his story. 
 
 Old Bill diagnosed his case. He mounted his 
 horse and on his way to Louisville met a caravan of 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 269 
 
 supplies; perched high on one load was a half grown 
 pup poking his nose now and then out for air. Aus- 
 tin spied him and persuaded the commissary to give 
 him the lonely dog. Taking him under his arm, he 
 galloped back two miles to the boys house by the 
 roadside, went in to see him, and told him he was a 
 doctor and would cure him of his sickness. "First, 
 you are going to get well, and I am going to give 
 you my dog to keep you company." "What's his 
 name? 1 " inquired the youngster. "He has no name," 
 replied the Doctor. "What's your name?" demanded 
 the youngster. "My name is Bill," said Austin. 
 "Then, we will call him, Bill," snorted the youngster, 
 in glee. 
 
 The Doctor rose to go, and the boy said, "I am 
 feeling better, but I was pretty sick, I tell you, Doc- 
 tor, but I think I will get out of here this week." 
 
 "Good bye, old man," said Austin and rode away. 
 
 Forty years after this time, that old man told me 
 the story in the Hotel Seelbach, at Louisville. 
 He had many times dreamed of seeing that Doc- 
 tor again. The war was a memory. He inquired, 
 but no one could tell him anything, except he was a 
 man who rode a sorrel horse. 
 
 "I learned just recently it was Bill Austin, Lin- 
 coln's spy," he said. 
 
 He looked out into space, holding back the tears 
 with his quivering eyelids. "Maybe some time we 
 will see Bill Austin or the Doctor, and maybe we will 
 see the pup, who knows." 
 
 Once a lonely old lady with two girls, living in 
 the Camp Knox country, came over to see old man 
 Austin and complained about an attack on one of her 
 daughters, "and now," she said, "he comes and makes 
 her go with him away, and he keeps her a day or so 
 
270 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 and brings her back — she has told me her story. Can 
 I not do anything about it, Mr. Austin?" "Well, 
 madame, I do not know, you see I am a cousin of 
 Abe Lincoln, but down here we poor folks don't 
 have much influence over there, but maybe some' 
 thing will happen anyway." 
 
 Something happened. The next rendezvous found 
 the man and the girl riding together about a mile 
 away from her home; the sun had long ago set, night 
 was coming on; a horseman rode into a clump of 
 woods at the foot hills of old Muldraugh, and 
 waited; he did not have to wait long, his prey ar- 
 rived. One crack of his rifle and the gallant re 
 mancer tumbled from his horse dead. The girl was 
 haled into headquarters, and she told her tsory; a 
 story that could have often been duplicated, without 
 a gallant headsman to rid the girl of her trouble. 
 
 Memories of Austin; they would fill pages of such 
 stories, who, now nearing his sixtieth year, young 
 and lithe as a boy of thirty, had no destiny except to 
 save his people and serve Abraham Lincoln. Austin 
 never thought of himself; Austin never dreamed of 
 a palace built by other's money or built by honest 
 money. Austin lived for the cause of others, and his 
 happiness was in service, even though he violated 
 the Golden Rule to render that service. Bill Austin, 
 Dr. Austin, old man Austin and Abe Lincoln — the 
 inseparables. 
 
 It was in 1890, during the session of the Consti- 
 tutional Convention, when General Don Carlos Buell 
 visited, at its invitation, the Convention. 
 
 Buell was entertained by Gov. Simon Bolivar 
 Buckner, Captain Thomas Hines, Ex'Gov. J. Proc- 
 tor Knott and the writer. In the afternoon, we re- 
 paired to the Haley Salon, an Annex to Mike Ha- 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 271 
 
 ley's famous repertoire for fine cocktails; and it is not 
 to be forgotten that this famous white-haired host 
 was an Irishman of no mean virtues himself. 
 
 Buell was a stocky mountaineer, with a large head 
 and deep blue eyes, as blue and as deep as the ocean. 
 He told how he had, by extraordinary marches, 
 reached the battle of Shiloh in order to save Grant 
 and cut off Forrest's army of forty thousand, which 
 had all but driven Grant into the Tennessee River. 
 After desperate fighting for twenty-four hours, the 
 battle was a draw. Buell had saved Grant's Army 
 and Grant's reputation; and so Buckner agreed, that 
 but for Buell, Grant would have gone down in his- 
 tory as a failure. 
 
 When the writer asked him to tell how he came to 
 be restored to his command, after his removal by 
 Stanton, he snapped back, "Lincoln, Abe Lincoln 
 and the Lincoln family." Then he started to explain 
 that Lincoln relied on his remarkable cousin to get 
 the low down on Buell. "Austin, was the fellow's 
 name, a damnder fool you would not want to see, I 
 thought, when he came to me at Louisville and said, 
 "General, I believe I can help you in this matter." I 
 had no intention of seeing Lincoln, but he set me 
 thinking and, as sure as you live, this fellow had two 
 natures, one was towering, when he asserted him- 
 self, and the other bordered on idiocy." 
 
 "I thought I would take the chance, and in less 
 than twenty hours he had arranged my conference 
 with President Lincoln. What he had said to Lin- 
 coln or how he said it, I will never be able to tell you, 
 but when I arrived at the White House, I found the 
 President waiting for me. He did not even mention 
 Austin's name — merely said, as he rose, "General, 
 I am only too happy to see you — we must win the 
 
272 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 war, and it will take men like you to win it." I knew 
 I was on safe ground. Then I went over the causes 
 of my removal and reviewed the conditions. He 
 listened intently, without a word, looking sometimes 
 at me and sometimes out the window. When I had 
 concluded he said: "Next to Grant, you are my man. 
 I will arrange with Thomas that you have a fair 
 Military trial." "Winning the war is partly balancing 
 the job up here, but we must have Generals, and I 
 want you to know that I regard you as a courageous 
 man and loyal to the Union cause." 
 
 With this remark, he rose, and I knew I was to 
 go, but my heart was thenceforth for Lincoln; I had 
 confidence in his sense of Justice and his courage. 
 I was tried and acquitted, and rejoined my command. 
 
 "I never say Austin for sometime, but I knew he 
 was around, and the result of his work was quite 
 apparent. Reliance on him was a certain thing, by 
 President Lincoln, and I knew enough to ask no 
 questions." 
 
 Hines, the silent man, who looked at the floor 
 while Buell was talking, opened his mouth for the 
 first time during the afternoon. The cocktails had 
 loosened the conversation. 
 
 "General, I knew this fellow. He had the great' 
 est cunning, the finest imagination, the best cour' 
 age of any man I met during the war of the Rebel' 
 lion. He would have been a great actor. I knew 
 old John Austin his father, a woodsman, the equal 
 of Boone. Bill Austin was an actor, had he been 
 trained for the stage he could have reached fame as 
 a comedian or a tragedian; he had it in his blood, and 
 he had a fifth wheel sense about men and events. 
 Once he made up his mind and cleared the decks for 
 action, there was no stopping him. I think he showed 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCGLNS 273 
 
 the strong side of his character to Lincoln. The 
 President knew only one Bill Austin, out here in 
 Kentucky we knew also the clown — the simple 
 clown, who clowned the real man to perfection. 
 
 When Morgan and my companions were getting 
 through Kentucky, Austin had been everywhere and 
 nowhere — it is enough to say the way was clear. 
 And all that he ever said to me was, "you have 
 arrived !" 
 
 At the close of the war, I tried to tell him that 
 Lincoln was in danger of assassination, and he should 
 go to Washington. He replied, "when Lincoln 
 wants me, he will send for me." 
 
 And the last word I ever spoke to him was when 
 the war was at an end. He said, "Captain, all I have 
 against Abe Lincoln is that he kept me from shooting 
 old Jarreta." 
 
 Then, General Buckner said, "Tom, I understand 
 all too well how you got your reputation for going 
 through the lines — you had Austin at your elbow, 
 and that meant Lincoln." 
 
 Hines said: "It only meant that if Lincoln's cause 
 was involved, Austin was willing to perform his 
 service, and if Lincoln's cause was not at stake, I 
 only had to show him where he could serve justice 
 and a square deal and he was at my command. I 
 call him a woodsman, but no man living during that 
 war had his ability for doing certain things, and I 
 doubt if he ever shot a man that did not well deserve 
 to be shot, and I would not like to count all of them 
 he shot. It would have been his pleasure to shoot 
 Jarrett or Stanton, and had he had the freedom to 
 do so, I doubt not he would have done both; and 
 who is to track him and find out — nobody." 
 
 J. Proctor Knott, probably the greatest American 
 
274 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 the writer has known in his time, re-told the story of 
 the destruction of James G. Blaine. How the Dem- 
 ocrats expected him to repeat his Duluth onslaught 
 again and ridicule Blaine out of public life, on ac- 
 count of his connection with the Star Route cases. 
 
 "James G. Blaine had many of the elements of a 
 great man; he was weak in dealing with his friends, 
 he had been poor, and he wanted to make money. 
 He was as cold as the snows of Maine, but no man 
 could say Jim Blaine was dishonest. I talked it over 
 with my wife, and she said, "well, Proctor, you have 
 the ability, the power and the opportunity to ruin 
 James G. Blaine by your speech in Congress. Now, 
 if you think he is honest, are you going to do it, be- 
 cause the Democrats expect you to do it?" 
 
 "That was a fair question," I said, "Becca, you 
 and I can live a long time without ruining any man, 
 and I guess we will stay on the old course. I will file 
 the report, and say, that the House may do with it, 
 what it likes. That is what I did, and instead of 
 Blaine being the ruined man, I was the one who fell 
 under the debris. Cleveland would have appointed 
 me to the Supreme Bench but the Democrats said, I 
 either sold out or was afraid of Jim Blaine, and in 
 either case, Mr. Cleveland concluded I was unfit for 
 the Bench, and refused my appointment. Melville 
 Fuller was named in my stead, after Cleveland had 
 promised the Kentucky delegation I would be ap- 
 pointed." 
 
 Many summers have passed since that good day 
 in 1890; these men have joined Bill Austin in the 
 mighty somewhere, and of that conference the 
 writer remains, to have seen a new world of men, a 
 new era of despotism ringed around with Democra- 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 275 
 
 tic skies, but nowhere is there pointed the road to 
 the end of the rainbow. 
 
 Peace to the proud spirits, their ashes are the in- 
 heritance only that we pride ourselves in; history 
 has done a poor job by each. 
 
 Tom Hines was Bill Austin's Captain, but Tom 
 Hines somewhat lowered his Confederate flag in rec 
 ognising Abraham Lincoln as the General of both. 
 
 Once Austin listened indifferently to a Jarrett 
 Lieutenant tell his story in a grocery and rum shop 
 down on the Turnpike near Austin's home. The 
 Lieutenant wanted to take over and possess the hand- 
 some daughter of old man Day, one of Austin's 
 friends. He had to dispose of the father before he 
 captured the daughter. So, one day, on no great 
 provocation, he shot the father. He, of course, shot 
 him because he was a traitor to the great Union of 
 states. Austin listened to his animated story, the net 
 result of which was he had captured the old man's 
 daughter; romance or no romance; she was in his 
 possession, and possession was nine points in law. 
 He could well use her during his stay in Kentucky, 
 and the dumb Austin allowed, that was real bravery 
 to shoot the old Rebel and take the girl. It did not 
 matter much about the girl or the old man, the thing 
 was to save the Union and get some boot in the 
 saving. 
 
 It happened that Day, the father, was Austin's 
 friend, and that proved bad for the romance loving 
 Lieutenant. 
 
 Austin took his drink, bid his new acquaintance 
 good day, mounted his horse, rode off up the lane to 
 the west, and in less than thirty minutes took a 
 "bead" on the noble Lieutenant (who continued to 
 imbibe), through the one little window in the rear 
 
276 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 of the grog shop. He tore a window light in the 
 Lieutenant's head large enough, that the undertaker 
 had no doubt he came to his death by a bullet wound. 
 In less than thirty more minutes Austin's horse was 
 in Nancy Lincoln's barn and Austin had his feet 
 under Nancy Lincoln's supper table, as though noth- 
 ing had happened. 
 
 The next day, he heard the rumor that Jarrett's 
 men were arresting all women and men in the neigh- 
 borhood, trying to find the murderer of the dead 
 Lieutenant. The keeper of the shop was telling Aus- 
 tin in a few days just how the mysterious thing hap- 
 pened, and Austin cleared it up by telling him that 
 it no doubt was done by one of Hines' guerrillas, for, 
 it was a fact he had seen a band of them roaming the 
 Wigginton Woods prior to that time. 
 
 "But who wants to tackle that gang," interrupted 
 the grog shop keeper; and to this, Austin agreed, 
 they were a bad lot. Following this information, all 
 the women and men arrested were released. If Bill 
 Austin had seen them, then they were there, and if 
 they were there, they would take pleasure in shoot- 
 ing one of Jarrett's men without cause. Jarrett's men 
 had no desire to mix a fight with that Hines' gang 
 after dark — they were always after-dark fighters, and 
 you could never hear of them after the fight was 
 over. 
 
 Day was a friend of Austin, and Austin took care 
 of his friends. He cut another notch on the back 
 log he was saving for next winter. 
 
 When Austin saw Hines, he told him he had an- 
 other murder charged up to his guerrillas; he had 
 heard that they had sent a Jarrett Lieutenant to the 
 spirit world where he hoped some good day to send 
 Jarrett. Thomas replied, "that the real chosen spirit 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 277 
 
 of the Lord never missed a target, and it was one 
 more star in their crown. " 
 
 Once, a band of Confederate guerrillas rode up to 
 Nancy Lincoln's house and demanded a feed, where- 
 upon the old lady told them if she fed one of them 
 her house would be burned the next day, because she 
 was an aunt of the President and her son-in-law Bill 
 Austin was his trusted friend. The Chief bowed his 
 compliments on hearing the magic name of Austin, 
 bid her the blessings of the day for having such a 
 nephew and such a noble son-in-law. 
 
 France had her Musketeers, but neither France nor 
 the old world ever produced two such dumb animals 
 as Bill Austin and Tom Hines: They would not have 
 spoken a word during the civil war unless they were 
 required in the presence of their chiefs, or met, them' 
 selves on a lonely highway to compare notes. 
 
 "How is Morgan?" Austin would say. "How is 
 Lincoln?" Hines would ask. That ended the con" 
 versation. 
 
 No two more ingenious men ever astrided a 
 horse, and never was more courage wrapped in two 
 such human hides. 
 
 General Buell insisted that he tell me the story 
 of Tom Hines' capture in the hills of Tennessee. 
 
 "Hines was the intellectual of General John Mor- 
 gan's command, that fact I think was quite well un- 
 derstood. Hines was on a scouting trip in the hills 
 around the Gallatin country. To save his plans he 
 braved a trip alone in the midst of some of my scouts. 
 Five of my men captured him in the woods, and they 
 were about to_ dismiss him when he told a story about 
 looking for his mother's cows. Well, the cow story 
 was alright, but Hines rode a very excellent horse 
 and had his feet hooked into a very natty pair of 
 
278 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 spurs. One of my men said to him, "boy, where did 
 you get the spurs, and where did you get the thor- 
 oughbred mare?" That question Hines could not 
 answer so well, and they arrested him, took him along 
 with them, stopping at an old cabin in the woods 
 where, they were making their quarters for the time. 
 Hines alighted, and they searched him but found 
 nothing except a "jewsharp" which he could play 
 very well. 
 
 They hitched their horses and started to cook a 
 fine meal on the logs of the fire they built up in the 
 fire place of the old house. Hines showed them a 
 sample of his mother's cooking, seeming not to bother 
 about the fact he had failed to find his mother's 
 cows. 
 
 Well, the evening went along, and Hines played 
 the "jewsharp" and danced a few jigs. Then he com- 
 menced to tell them that he had been a year in 
 France; about all the wonderful things he had seen 
 in France. He spoke and wrote French very well, 
 and was full of French war stories, which he reeled 
 off by the yard. 
 
 He finally got down to the point where he insisted 
 they drink all the liquor they had, and he knew of a 
 still where they could get plenty good liquor in the 
 morning. These men, of course, enjoyed him. He 
 told the story of the three Musketeers; how they 
 fought many wonderful duels and saved the throne 
 of Louis the Thirteenth and his father, and how 
 they drank and loved and spreed. 
 
 He got down to the point where Athos was the 
 great hero of the Musketeers, and he reeled off the 
 story of his love affairs, and what his great son, who 
 was an illegitimate had done; and how Athos had 
 broken his sword and thrown it at the King's feet in 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 279 
 
 defiance of his authority. They had never heard 
 anything more charming and entertaning in their 
 lives. 
 
 He told how Athos had been dodging around to 
 spy on the Bourbons, and for safety was driven to 
 hide in a wine cellar. There he decided to play 
 crazy to save himself from arrest, and he took one of 
 the men's six shooter and repeated several times the 
 motions Athos went through to prove that he was 
 really crazy. 
 
 He was very real and dramatic about it, and then 
 he extolled the wonderful Frenchman in many ways, 
 all the while mimicking the brilliant Musketeer. 
 
 At last, when he had about put them under his 
 hypnotic influence, one of my boys said to him in 
 blunt curiosity, "How did he get away from that 
 cellar I would like to know?" 
 
 Hines replied, "Wait a moment, and I will show 
 you. 
 
 At this, he ran around the room as though he was 
 trying to climb the wall, and then dashed out of the 
 door, saying, "this is the way he did it," dashing 
 from the room, shouting in a dramatic voice, "I am a 
 Frenchman who loves the cause of the Bourbons, 
 and I will kill the tyrant who sits on the throne of 
 a Bourbon." 
 
 Before they realized it was not all play, he had 
 reached his horse, cut the tie strap of his mare, 
 mounted, wheeled, and was flying through the woods 
 before they could get their pistols and get to their 
 horses. The mother's cow hunter was gone, and 
 they realized that it must have been the devil they 
 had been looking for — Tommy Hines. 
 
 When they reported the fact, they were about the 
 worst looking five soldiers I had ever looked at. 
 
280 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 Hines, who spoke few words to his companions dur' 
 ing his entire service with Morgan, was a marvel at 
 action as well as speech. I suppose this is an old 
 story to you, many times published, but never ex- 
 actly as it was related to me by the men. They got 
 the guard house for losing one of the valuable finds 
 of the war." 
 
 General Forrest, the great genius of the war, was 
 prevented from crushing Federals by General Bragg 
 according to both Buckner and Buell. 
 
 Forrest had told Bragg he was a coward, ordered 
 him never to interfere with him during the war on 
 the penalty of death. Bragg was called to Richmond 
 by President Davis, and was busy during the bal' 
 ance of the war thwarting Forrest's plans. Davis 
 distrusted Forrest on account of Bragg's influence. 
 
 Had Austin not secured the restoration of Buell, 
 he would not have gone to Grant's rescue at Shiloh. 
 Johnston, Forrest and Hood would have driven 
 Grant to surrender in order to save his Army. Buell 
 by the most extraordinary forced marches arrived in 
 the niche of time. Grant was preparing to surrender. 
 
 Forrest's plan was to capture Grant's Army, and 
 he left Morgan to harrass General Buell's rear. It 
 was Lincoln who ordered Buell to go to Grant's 
 rescue. 
 
 Once Grant was out of the way, Forrest, Morgan, 
 Hood and Johnston would have crossed Tennessee 
 and Thomas would have been crushed between 
 Johnston's Army in the South and the invading ar- 
 mies of the four Generals. This plan would have 
 succeeded without doubt. 
 
 This would have released these armies to make 
 a junction with Joseph Johnston north of Atlanta 
 and Lee's Army in Virginia, enveloping the Federal 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 281 
 
 Army of the Potomoc with an iron circle of the two 
 southern armies of Albert Sidney Johnson and Joseph 
 Johnston. Morgan would have been left to harrass 
 BuelFs army in Kentucky and Tennessee. 
 
 Lee on the East, Hood and Johnston with Forrest 
 on the West, would have quickly ended the war. 
 The strategy of this move was put up to Lincoln 
 both by Austin and General Buell. 
 
 Such in brief was the tremendous influence of the 
 simple Austin, who saw the impending fate of the 
 Union Armies. Stanton had blundered into remov- 
 ing General Buell, and there stood his mighty Army 
 sulking and leaderless. 
 
 Who can value the genius of this simple country 
 cousin of President Lincoln. Wise and far seeing, 
 Lincoln acted at once, and Buell was again inspired 
 to save the Union as he knew he must. Austin had 
 detailed this plan to Buell, whose pride would not 
 permit him to go to Washington. And Lincoln seeing 
 the tragedy, said to Buell — "Next to Grant, you are 
 my man." It was Buell who saved the battle at 
 Shiloh. 
 
 In a sentence, he saved Grant's reputation, and 
 made Buell his enthusiastic arm to win the war. Thus 
 did Lincoln again show that magnificent judgment 
 which alone was his, of the magnitude of men and 
 events. Thus did he arise to see and know that, 
 against the brilliant Forrest, he had the equally bril- 
 liant Austin. 
 
 Buell, in his old age, long after the strife, shook 
 hands with Buckner in this little cafe at the capital 
 of Kentucky, to renew their knowledge of the 
 mightiest events of the war. 
 
 It was the "towering" mind of Bill Austin that 
 told the disaster of Grant to Buell and made Buell 
 
282 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 feel the great importance of seeing Lincoln. Once 
 Buell had told Lincoln what Austin saw, Lincoln 
 was aroused. Hines and Austin maybe, discussed the 
 movement of war on the chess board. Who knows; 
 and were there two greater geniuses of war than 
 these two men, neither of whom perhaps quite un- 
 derstood that the brain storm that came to them 
 struck from the clock of that imperial place which 
 controls the destinies of men and nations. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 PLANNED ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN'S 
 CABINET. 
 
 A CONFEDERATE soldier captured two wound" 
 ed Federals at the battle of Murphresboro, Terr 
 nesse. He would have shot them, but they begged 
 him to spare them, that they might get back to their 
 lines and to a hospital. Fortunately, the Confeder- 
 ate boy was close to his home and decided he would 
 secrete them in his mother's care after dark, when all 
 chance of detection would likely be gone, but he said 
 he knew, if he were caught, it would mean death. 
 He took them at nightfall to his mother's home. 
 There she nursed them back to a point where they 
 would be able to travel, and gave them the last horse 
 she had on the farm. They had instructions to put 
 on gray uniforms, which the son picked from the 
 battlefield. It would pass them to Bowling Green in 
 safety. When they reached the Federal lines at 
 Elizabethtown, Kentucky, they took their blue uni- 
 forms from under their saddle, put them on and 
 threw away the ones they were wearing. They were 
 trying to make Louisville, where they would report 
 and where they would be able to identify their Mich" 
 igan Regiment and receive money from home. They 
 were captured by Captain Jarrett near Vine Grove 
 and taken to John Smith's house for the night. 
 Nothing they could say or do would convince 
 
 283 
 
284 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 Jarrett that they were anything other than spies of 
 John Morgan. Their blue uniforms and wounds 
 convinced him that they were Confederate guerril- 
 las masquerading under Federal colors; the penalty 
 was death. They were boys under twenty. Their 
 pleas were re-inforced by neighbors, who believed 
 their story — a very truthful and a very likely story, 
 and after the war, proved to be true in every detail. 
 The older exhibited a letter from his mother in 
 Michigan, which completely identified him, but Jar" 
 rett would not listen. In the eyes of Jarrett they 
 were spies, or they would be attached to some army, 
 which they could not prove without getting into 
 Louisville. Their youth and appeals were pitiful, 
 but in the breast of old Jarrett there was not a spark 
 of humanity. The neighbors proposed to wire for in- 
 tervention at Washington, but there was no time. 
 When they arrived at Garnettsville, a nearby town, 
 a posse of men undertook to rescue them, and a fight 
 ensued — these citizens were killed, and the two 
 young men were shot to death. 
 
 Years after the war, the mother of the oldest came 
 to find and mark her son's grave, and the sad fate 
 which the citizens had to relate changed her opinion 
 of the people of the South. This cruel murder was 
 the result of the "black flag" order of Jeffrys Bur- 
 bridge, super-scoundrel, and cruelly inhuman. 
 
 The assassination of Mr. Lincoln was never pre 
 posed by the adventurous Kentuckians, but as matter 
 of fact, the plan included his abduction, which was 
 believed to be the most feasible, but both Hines and 
 Young knew that the whole matter might result in 
 his assassination. He was, as soon as they reached 
 Washington, subject to their plan of retaliation for 
 the crimes committed in Kentucky. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 28 5 
 
 Booth, undoubtedly, expected to convince them 
 of the feasibility of his scheme, which was refused by 
 them when they arrived in Washington. He did 
 not, however, lose hope, because he followed them to 
 Canada, and there got no support, except from Haw- 
 kins, who had not been arrested in Canada. He, 
 however, aided Booth later, and joined in his con- 
 spiracy after the St. Albans episode. 
 
 Sue Munday, who was the chief spirit of this en- 
 terprise, was captured in Kentucky and was shot 
 without trial or ceremony for earlier guerrilla esca- 
 pades. 
 
 The plans would have undoubtedly resulted in the 
 kidnapping of the President, and the probable assas- 
 sination of the balance of the Cabinet. 
 
 Mr. Young refused to participate in any plan ex- 
 cept the kidnapping of the President. 
 
 Hawkins, by a remarkable twisting of fate, es- 
 caped the death that would have been his, and died 
 in the Salt river country, with very few men ever 
 knowing just what was his connection with the en- 
 tire matter; there seems to have been little doubt 
 that he assaulted Seward, and not the man who suf- 
 fered execution for the crime. 
 
 Captain Hines knew what had occurred in Ken- 
 tucky prior to the departure of the adventurers, and 
 it was fear of the outcome of their visit to Washing- 
 ton that induced him to urge Austin to go to Lin- 
 coln's rescue. Austin's disappearance may have re- 
 sulted from his mortification or remorse, when it was 
 brought home to him that he had failed to save Lin- 
 coln's life. 
 
 The writer visited Hawkins in his life time, but 
 was warned by Young not to discuss this question 
 with him. 
 
286 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 Hawkins was known by his neighbors to have had 
 narrow escapes during the war, but they had no real 
 knowledge of the actual dramatic life he had led. 
 
 Young and Tevis and the others did not return to 
 America until after they were pardoned, and of 
 course had no knowledge of what Booth really in' 
 tended to do, but Hawkins had not been arrested, 
 and after the trial, or prior to that time, came into 
 the United States and joined Booth at Washington. 
 These facts, in part, were well known to Captain 
 Hines, who like Young, kept them a secret the major 
 portion of his life. 
 
 The two chapters that follow will give some of 
 the details of this escapade. 
 
 The imagination of a young man is easily fired. 
 The bloody murders, atrocious acts of rapine, assault 
 and thievery, justified any form of retaliation. It was 
 not surprising when a small number of young gentle 
 men met in Louisville and decided something des' 
 perate must be done. The Treasury was to be blown 
 up, that all the money in the hands of the govern- 
 ment might be destroyed. That duty was assigned 
 to Mark Smith. Towns in the East were to be 
 burned by Captain Hawkins and Lieutenant Bennett 
 Young. Reprisals at home were to be under Sue 
 Munday. We will read the story of Sue Munday, 
 who was shot without a trial. 
 
 Mark Smith and Lieutenant Young went to Wash' 
 ington, Hawkins to Philadelphia. It did not take 
 Mark long to get started. He did not even wait un' 
 til he could cultivate the acquaintance of the best 
 bombers in the Capitol. Perhaps, he did not see 
 John Wilkes Booth or any number of characters who 
 could have told him in lurid language what a tyrant 
 sat in the White House. He went about his busi' 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 287 
 
 ness, set his powder and lighted his match. The 
 Treasury was hard to blow. It was not a success, 
 but Mark was on his way soon to destroy another 
 city, or join his comrades in sacking and burning the 
 town of St. Albans, Vermont. Twenty-seven of 
 these doughty souls headed in at nightfall on the hills 
 of Vermont's good old town. Let Judge J. W. Bai- 
 ley of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, tell the story. (In 
 1898.) 
 
 "At nightfall we saw burning fires on the hills 
 above the city, it looked like the encampment of a 
 large army. During the night, we heard them drilling. 
 It seemed like several thousand men were up there. 
 There were only about five hundred soldiers in the 
 town, of which I was one. We evacuated the town 
 so that the fight would be on the outside, when they 
 started their assault, as we expected about daylight. 
 Morgan's men were supposed to be collecting by 
 train to carry some sudden assault in the East. All 
 kinds of stories were woven about him and his daring 
 men. Well, here was Morgan, that was our conclu- 
 sion. 
 
 "At about daylight some twenty-five horsemen, 
 the advance scouting cavalry, as we thought, rode 
 into the town, blew the banks, robbed them, set fire 
 to the town and departed, with over $200,000 in 
 cash. The damage ran into a million dollars. At the 
 head of the flashing horsemen was a young man after- 
 ward identified by me as Lieutenant Young. He 
 could not have been over twenty. How did they get 
 their horses? They were home guard soldiers, and 
 sacked these horses from the farmers the day before 
 giving Quartermaster Generals vouchers for them. 
 These were identical with those used by the United 
 States army. 
 
288 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 The citizens and soldiery were busy saving the 
 town, and the entire gang got away; Young, Hut" 
 chinson and Hawkins, I believe, got into Canada. 
 That is the story, and it is true. ,, 
 
 Once on the Canadian side, Bennett Young's case 
 was one of International importance. It was a front 
 page story for years. The court had been equally 
 divided. Young was the dashing and handsome 
 prince to all of the young fluttering hearts in Mont- 
 real and Ottawa. He had D'Artagnan outdone a 
 thousand ways. 
 
 Among these young ladies was the daughter of the 
 Chief Presiding Justice. After his capture, she and 
 her friends visited the jail every day to see the hand" 
 some Lieutenant. They sent flowers. They cooked 
 the delicacies of the market that he might live as a 
 Prince deserved. Poems were written and passed to 
 him with the inspiring notes of love converted into 
 songlets. He was the hero of all Canada and Eng- 
 land. 
 
 The Court was about to decide that he was ex' 
 traditable. Senator George Edmunds, Attorney Gen- 
 eral of the United States made two arguments, one 
 on rehearing. Did he and his Confederates have a 
 Commission from the Confederate States of America, 
 and was it an act of war? That was the sole ques- 
 tion. Well, the everlasting Hawkins, he of the great 
 base voice, would see, between the date of the ruling 
 and the time for the second hearing, that all papers 
 would be forthcoming; back to the "Salt River Ti- 
 gers" he came, and back to the ingenious Hines. Ere 
 long the mighty Hawkins returned to Canada, certi- 
 fied copies and all, and into the bodice of the Honor- 
 able Presiding Justice's daughter they were lodged, 
 and on the first opportunity they were produced into 
 
Bennett H. Young, leader of the twentyseven who raided 
 
 and set fire to St. Albans, Vermont; who planned to 
 
 kidnap Lincoln, and who refused to join Booth in his 
 
 assassination scheme. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 289 
 
 the proper niche of Lieutenant Young's cell where 
 he had lost them. He knew he had them, they must 
 have been lost in the raid at St. Albans. They were 
 produced in Court. That was important, but not 
 entirely convincing to the Chief Presiding Justice, 
 who lent himself to the idea that Young's act was not 
 one of war. 
 
 That question was not plain to him; he halted; 
 the court was still divided. 
 
 He had decided to give up Young. The daughter 
 was the first to know it, even before his associates. 
 She was the darling of the old man's heart; and how 
 she loved the magnificent young Lieutenant. It 
 would be the joy of her life some day to march into 
 the Queen of all the British possessions, and on the 
 arm of this magnificent man, present herself to this 
 court, escorted by the most daring Cavalier of the 
 ages. It occurred to her that she would pour out 
 her heart to her father, and she did. He refused, and 
 there was more grief, and threats of suicide. Her 
 tears and sobs stirred the household. What did the 
 great Judge do? He was human, that was his daugh- 
 ter, and that would be his handsome son'in4aw. So 
 he turned the law hair the other way; and thus a 
 famous case decided on other than points of law. 
 The daughter won; extradition was refused. Young, 
 in his turn, now went to England, returning to 
 America four years after the war, pardoned by Gen' 
 eral Grant. There was, waiting on the steps of a 
 Castle in Kentucky, the proud daughter of Stuart 
 Robinson, the great preacher, and the Lieutenant be 
 came the wedded lover and redeemer of that immor' 
 tal pledge, made in 1860. We are sorry to spoil the 
 picture. Here is a clipping from the press of the day, 
 containing the indictment: 
 
290 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 "Confederate soldiers in Canada, did by First 
 Lieutenant Young of Kentucky, acting under orders 
 from the Confederate states, Secretary of War, who 
 authorised it in retaliation for the disgraceful burn- 
 ing of farm houses and dwellings, and pillaging, and 
 other outrages, in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia 
 by the direct act of General Phil Sheridan — make 
 raid upon the town of St. Albans in Vermont, on the 
 Central Railroad about fifteen miles from the Cana- 
 dian frontier, for three quarters of an hour, hold the 
 citizens prisoners of war; seise all of the money in 
 three banks, $211,150.00 and a number of horses, 
 killing one man who resisted, and attempted to set 
 fire to the town, but failed in this. Immense alarm 
 all along the Canadian border, militia enlisted, arms 
 and troops sent from New York, and a patrol kept 
 up for some time. The Canadian government proves 
 very prompt in arresting the raiders and securing 
 their money, acting as United States Secretary, W. 
 H. Seward, says — "in entire conformity with the 
 wishes of the United States." 
 
 Under the proceedings in Court for their extradi- 
 tion as burglars and murderers, they are discharged 
 by Judge Coursol on a technical defect in the indict- 
 ment under which they are tried, released from cus- 
 tody and money restored. 
 
 Their release provokes a "blood and thunder" pro- 
 clamation from Major General John A. Dix of New 
 York, who orders any more such marauders to be 
 shot down if possible while in the very act, but by all 
 means to be followed into Canada if necessary and 
 there arrested and brought back. 
 
 President Lincoln is alarmed by the stupid blunder 
 of General Dix, and on December 1 7th, modifies the 
 order so as to require military Commanders to report 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 291 
 
 to headquarters at New York for instructions before 
 crossing the boundary line in pursuit of guilty parties. 
 
 The claim was subsequently renewed under the 
 treaty with Great Britain, for the delivery of Lieute- 
 nant Young, Wallace, Spurr, Tevis, Hunter and sev- 
 enteen others, his Kentucky companions in the St. 
 Albans raid; but Mr. Justice Smith speaking for the 
 Court, held that, — 
 
 "The said attack was a hostile expedition under- 
 taken and carried out under the authority of the so- 
 called Confederate states, by one of the officers of 
 their army; and being both a belligerent act of hostil- 
 ity and a political offense, quoad the state, now de- 
 manding extradition, was not controlled by the Ash- 
 burton Treaty nor by the statutes of Canada — for 
 neither authorized the extradition of belligerents or 
 political offenders; therefore, the prisoners are dis- 
 charged. ,, 
 
 The sensational trial once at an end, the difficulty 
 arose, how would they come back into the jurisdic- 
 tion of the United States. Some of them went to 
 England, others slipped into the states under other 
 names, and some did not return until after President 
 Grant's election. He was known to be friendly, treat- 
 ing it as an act of war. 
 
 What happened to poor Mark Smith? As the 
 trip East had largely been a failure, the next best job 
 would be in Buffalo where he went to unswitch a 
 frog and turn over a trainload of soldiers. That he 
 did, but only killed a dozen or so and finally in the 
 getaway was shot to death for his pains, while cross- 
 ing into Canada to rejoin his companions. 
 
 Young and his partners survived. Hawkins, it is 
 said, after Booth's visit, went to Washington to dis- 
 suade Booth from killing, but to kidnap Lincoln and 
 
292 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 carry him into Richmond where they might hold him 
 as a hostage under the threat of death until they 
 could make a good compromise for the South. Vain 
 and visionary dream of youth. 
 
 In Nicolay's "Life of Lincoln ' he, no doubt, had 
 heard of the black magic somewhere in his move- 
 ments. He says: — 
 
 "After the re-election of Mr. Lincoln, he, Booth, 
 visited Canada, consorted with the rebel emmissaries 
 there, and whether or not at their instigation cannot 
 certainly be said, conceived a scheme to capture the 
 President and take him into Richmond." 
 
 But Bennett Young told the writer, in 1890, that 
 there was never any serious plan to kill Lincoln by 
 the Kentuckians; that, however, they would, on 
 reaching Washington, have entertained a scheme of 
 kidnapping him and carrying him by forced ride into 
 the hills of Virginia, there to remain under their care 
 until the terms had been reached between the South 
 and the North. He did not entertain a high regard 
 for Booth, though he believed him a young man of 
 unquestioned courage, and of insane, though theat- 
 ric devotion to the South. Hawkins, without doubt, 
 was the man who assaulted Seward, but escaped 
 without serious suspicion on the part of the govern- 
 ment officials. 
 
 Many of these young men who had gotten away 
 with a fair job and arrived in Canada safely were 
 willing to entertain any scheme to revenge the bloody 
 deeds of the administration, but they thought that 
 the death of the President would have harmed their 
 cause, and though they were actuated by revengeful 
 motives, they had no desire to punish the South and 
 Southern people, which must have resulted from the 
 assassination of the President. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 293 
 
 He described Booth as a man of rare good looks, 
 twenty-six years old and daring to the point of ab- 
 solute fearlessness. 
 
 * * * 
 
 The arrest of Silas Smith in Kentucky prior to 
 this exploit at St. Albans was an event of some trag- 
 edy, though it followed one of similar character 
 daily. General Nelson had severely criticised Gen- 
 eral Jefferson C. Davis of Indiana for the interference 
 of his men and disapproval of their act. Words fol- 
 lowed, and Davis told Nelson to defend himself, fired 
 on him, killing him instantly. That gave it national 
 incidence. 
 
 Captain Jarrett, notorious Spy of Stanton, rode 
 into Silas Smith's house one morning and ordered his 
 breakfast cooked forthwith. Perhaps it was not an 
 order of Quaker Oats or Aunt Jemimah cakes, he 
 wanted, but liquor. At any rate, he ordered his 
 men to take Mr. Smith down the road and hang him 
 while he and his horse guest enjoyed their morning 
 repast, oats for the horse, liquor and pancakes for the 
 Captain. The soldiers, not to be outdone, stopped 
 at Cephas Smith's grocery for liquor; seeing the prey 
 they had with them, he informed them he had his 
 liquor hid in the orchard — to which they ordered 
 him immediately. Cephas found it convenient to 
 whisper to his wife, who put a boy on horseback to 
 ride to Louisville and inform the Governor of Militia, 
 but he only reached West Point, and there found one 
 of Davis' Lieutenants on his way to Elisabethtown, 
 accompanied by a detachment of soldiers. The mur- 
 dering scoundrels, however, got their prey to a great 
 oak, and after drawing him up and down until he 
 was limp, were confronted with the Davis Lieutenant 
 who arrested them. The Lieutenant took them to 
 
294 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 Louisville, and after Stanton got in action they were 
 released and suffered not for their adventure. Silas 
 Smith had been a fortysevener. With thirty other 
 men he had travelled the plains to the Gulf, crossing 
 Mexico to the coast, and there he took a ship for the 
 promised land. Lincoln was to go but he was then 
 in Congress. 
 
 Silas Smith had two reputations in Hardin County. 
 He had more money than any man in it, resulting 
 from mining operations in California, and he was the 
 best poker player on the Louisville and Nashville Pike 
 between the two cities. 
 
 Jarrett was intending to levy money tributes. He 
 needed the cash. The government had no money to 
 buy the Cavalry horses, and its O.K. was as good as 
 gold. But Silas Smith had no money to pass out on 
 O.K.'s. He had seen it done in the mining camps of 
 California and invariably the money never came back. 
 He indulged in some doubt about Jarrett's promises. 
 
 Jarrett made up his mind that he would succeed in 
 the enterprise by hanging him. 
 
 His daughter, Mary E. Smith, lived a mile away 
 on Mill Creek. She was twentyone. She had two 
 children. Known as a woman of more than average 
 personality, and to have been a favorite of her fath- 
 er's and old grandfather Billy Smith, she was thought 
 to be the source of the true route to Silas'* pocket- 
 book. Well, what difference did it make, that Silas 
 was a Union man; he had the money, and what was 
 the Union to Jarrett and his men. Just a cloak to 
 grab the cash with a few murders thrown in. 
 
 Negro soldiers were assembling everywhere. Why 
 not send an ignorant soldier of the negroes to do the 
 job. 
 
 So at one sunset the negro soldier appeared. He 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 295 
 
 came to the house and wanted to know if there were 
 any men about the farm, he wanted to buy some feed 
 for the soldier's horses. 
 
 Mrs. Smith replied, "Yes, there are men in the 
 fields." He went away and wandered about the 
 place, he saw no men, it was beginning to get dark; 
 night had settled in the little valley. What a fine 
 advantage then to have had a telephone, when she 
 could have summoned the neighbors, but she dared 
 not leave these children. Finally he came back toward 
 the house. She closed and locked the door. He dc 
 manded she open it; she refused, he battered it down 
 with the butt of his rifle, and in he came. First, he 
 struck her with his rifle, and she then knowing it was 
 a question of death, or of quicker wit, fainted to dc 
 ceive him, and seising a poker she struck with all her 
 might and floored him. She then attempted to take 
 his rifle from him and shoot him, but he held on to 
 it, rose and knocked her senseless to the floor. He 
 then jerked the baby from the cradle in which he lay, 
 and holding him by the heels, walked out of the 
 house, around the big chimney, hurled his little head 
 against it, scattering his brains all over the yard. The 
 agonised insensible mother could not utter a cry, but 
 it seemed to her that the stars had gone out of the 
 heavens and God had turned loose the minions of 
 Hell to do their bloody work. 
 
 The elder child, three and a half years old, with 
 superhuman presence of mind, ran into the back yard 
 and jumped into an old well, where she stood for 
 many hours. 
 
 But the unsatiated brute returned, and taking his 
 victim by the hair, dragged her around in the yard, 
 stopping now and then to stamp his rough military 
 boots into her face and breast. Her jaws and nose 
 
296 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 were broken; her breast bone and ribs were broken, 
 and blood had literally soaked her hair and the 
 ground around over the yard, but gamely and fiercely 
 had she fought and gamely would she survive. He 
 had fled, on hearing a voice far away; the ghost of 
 distant sounds seems to an ignorant negro like the 
 demon's approach from the caves of the inferno. She 
 crawled around, and finally gained consciousness, she 
 looked for the older child on hands and knees. At 
 last, her husband, afraid himself of arrest in daytime, 
 made his appearance, but before this she, lying in 
 the presence of the battered and dead baby, deter- 
 mined she would arise out of the terrible nightmare, 
 exercised a super will and nature to get into the 
 house. At the nightfall, the husband returned, and 
 the terrible smell of blood greeted the father and 
 husband — he flew accross the fields for help, be- 
 lieving that others lay in wait for him; first, to the 
 house of William Smith, then old and broken from 
 the wrongs of the war; but the brave man came onto 
 the scene in haste. Such rage was never before 
 visited on a scene. The last expiring drop of blood 
 of his race, he vowed, would descend on the scoun* 
 drels whose sole game was murder, not war. The 
 man whose father and grandfather had stood at 
 Washington's back, when Braddock fell and took up 
 the cause of the broken army, had not lost the mind 
 or courage of his race. Union or no Union, Lincoln 
 himself must pay the crime — debt off, for he was 
 the real power, and that power he must use, or show 
 to him that gratitude and justice had gone out of his 
 heart. 
 
 He knelt upon the ground wet with the blood of 
 his race and imprecated infamy with prayers to that 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 297 
 
 great power of truth and life in which he firmly be' 
 lieved. His white hair waved defiance to all the 
 wrongs of Christiandom — he would avenge. 
 
 The Lincoln head, old, but firm in her step came 
 quickly. Bill Austin, to see with the eyes of Abra- 
 ham Lincoln, and with that adventurous heart of 
 steel, came also. 
 
 The neighbors came by the hundreds, and at last 
 the soldiers came — Lincoln's soldiers or Stanton's 
 soldiers — that was the question of the hour. A 
 young man by the name of Jefferson Davis came, a 
 General in the Union Army, and Washington heard 
 that the deed was the result of the policy of enlisting 
 negroes and inflaming of their minds by the terrible 
 Burbridge. Lincoln must end it or Lincoln must die, 
 was the flaming fire that broke out in the souls of men 
 and women who had never faltered; and from that 
 day Lincoln was not safe. It would not end with the 
 death of the negro soldier. Immediate trial by court 
 martial and hanging was the verdict of soldier and 
 layman, and all human hearts stood frozen in the 
 bodies of men and women. The older child survived 
 the terrible ordeal, and as the writer pens this chap" 
 ter, she lives in Hardin County, in peace and happi' 
 ness, as Mrs. Henry Ditto. The daring mother finally 
 recovered, and lived many years. Three children 
 were born afterward, who attained reasonable dis- 
 tinction in life, Mrs. G. E. McMurtry, wife of G. E. 
 McMurtry, Cashier, Farmers Bank of Vine Grove, 
 Kentucky, S. H. Smith, former counsel of the 
 Interstate Commerce Commission, now living in 
 California, and the writer. 
 
 On the day the news was flashed, of the Jarrett 
 murder, as it was called, the chill winds of November 
 warmed the blood of every thinking man in Ken- 
 
298 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 tucky, whose mind was either free or submerged. 
 The Generals, whose consciences were yet alive, felt 
 the moral suasion of immediate action. The Michi- 
 gan soldiers at Eli2iabethtown held the culprit from 
 civil authorities in violation of law. What would 
 they do, everybody asked? They would do as the 
 bloody butchers demanded or decided. That was 
 the answer. 
 
 Could old Nancy Lincoln, whose voice was known 
 as a vibrant force in Washington, circumvent the tri- 
 umvirate of Jarrett, Burbridge and Paine, the Nero's 
 of the North. Would Abraham Lincoln dare let the 
 challenge go unaccepted? Was he not of the same 
 race and kind? Did he have the manhood or the cour- 
 age to fall on the cabal of cowards? Those Generals 
 who were sick of the smell of blood, who despised 
 in their hearts the hesitancy of the White House, 
 had nothing to say. On the one hand, was the im- 
 placable Stanton, replying "this is war," and on the 
 other, Lincoln looking with serious and determined 
 scowl over the reports coming from Kentucky. 
 
 In their last desperate stand for right and dignity, 
 these Generals met at the old Gault House in Louis- 
 ville. That night, their wine was bitter, their food 
 tasteless. Children had been murdered before, wo- 
 men had been assaulted before, but women had not 
 been assaulted and children murdered under the form 
 of a yankee uniform, and the murderer denied to 
 civil law. That was a double disaster, and all men 
 that had an ounce of manhood would curse the flag 
 and the uniform. Why should they not rise in their 
 might and tell Lincoln what must be done in Ken- 
 tucky? Did they dare do it in Kentucky? Who 
 would move? 
 
 Finally, there rose a slim, keen eyed, black haired 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 299 
 
 young man, who had just been made a General. His 
 name was Davis. Jefferson C. Davis, of kin to the 
 President of the Confederacy, but known to be a 
 fanatic on freeing the slaves. Would Davis, excuse, 
 would he apologize and call for one more cheer for 
 the flag and tell them, "this is war?" If that was 
 their conclusion, they had guessed wrong. Davis, 
 firm, erect, flashing an eye that was unafraid, dc 
 nounced the act, denounced the cowardice of the 
 Generals that countenanced the deed, that protected 
 the culprit out of respect to Paine and his gang. The 
 President must act, and he must act quickly. He 
 could not await a military report. 
 
 Sentiment will crystalline in the Army; it will 
 mutinize the troops, for after all a common soldier is 
 not a dog; you cannot feed him and have him bite the 
 hand that gives him food. No, the dogs were better 
 than the Captains who indorsed such war plans. 
 
 Davis had concluded briefly. He knew a man and 
 called him forth to go to Washington, fast, and free 
 of questions; the President knew him, the President 
 would listen to him. So Davis dramatically intro- 
 duced the quiet, drawling spoken Austin, and Austin 
 as meek as the child of the forest, whitened by na- 
 ture, whiter still by the terrors of his days, now stood 
 up like a ghost from the hidden garret, and for the 
 first time these Generals saw the mysterious friend 
 of Lincoln, about whom they had heard in council — 
 the enemy of Stanton and Chase. 
 
 Davis drew up the message — read it, read it three 
 times, to make sure every name would be there neces- 
 sary to carry conviction, but Davis knew that Lincoln 
 only needed one indorsement — the name of Nancy 
 Lincoln. He knew that it would be preserved in 
 Bill Austin's mouth and never put on paper. But 
 
300 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 Davis wanted to break the back of the Cabal of Stan- 
 ton and Chase. He knew that Lincoln was looking 
 for leaders, and he proposed to lead, and down on the 
 spotless paper went the names of the Generals — 
 there for Abe Lincoln alone to see — not Stanton nor 
 Chase. That day Davis was made. In a few months, 
 he became Military General of all Kentucky. Austin 
 left. Into the White House, he dashed with a dis- 
 patch from General Davis — "messenger of General 
 Davis carying important dispatch to President Lin- 
 coln only — clear way." Austin hit the White House 
 in three bounds and Lincoln, sad-eyed, grim, resolute, 
 determined, rose and embraced the tired, white-faced 
 raven of the night. These two men sat alone and 
 discussed the doings in Kentucky. It was no longer 
 the drawling Austin. It was the spirited, erect eagle- 
 eyed Austin opening his real nature to the President, 
 speaking as though he had the confidence of a Clay, 
 for when truth rushed out of Bill Austin it spoke its 
 own eloquence. Save the actor's poise, Bill Austin 
 anywhere would have been an eagle of controversy, 
 but in his place Bill Austin must be and he was an 
 actor — a perfect actor of his time. 
 
 Lincoln had known him only since the war, but 
 Lincoln put his great hand on Austin's shoulder and 
 tears streamed down his rough cheeks, but Austin, 
 stern and courageous, did not let the President know 
 what went on within him. Lincoln the humane, 
 could afford to give away, but Austin, the devils eye 
 to Stanton, could not afford for any human being 
 to see that his pounds were anything but steel, not 
 even his chief, the man he came to know and love, 
 the blood of his own wife. 
 
 "Hang him, hang him quick, let the soldiers do 
 it, and let it be an example that the flag is no protec- 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 301 
 
 tion to murderers within or without — give him a 
 military trial, but if the facts are as you say, let the 
 verdict be instant and the execution be accordingly." 
 
 And in the mail went a letter to General Davis 
 from the President of the United States, thanking 
 him for "report on serious matters," and exacting 
 of him to call on him when he, Lincoln's services 
 were needed to further the ends of Justice. Months 
 flew by and Davis heard no more, and finally in 
 1864 came an order superseding Palmer and ap- 
 pointing Davis Military Governor of Kentucky. 
 
 When Austin had received his orders, back to 
 Louisville he went as fast as the train could carry 
 him. He arrived at Louisville and went to Davis' 
 office. Quickly he was dispatched to Elizabethtown 
 with an order of trial and before daylight the judg- 
 ment of the military court was to "hang and shoot," 
 and in concurrence both acts of punishment took 
 place on the hillside where now stands the little vil- 
 lage of Claysville. 
 
 Who did it? The question passed from General 
 to General, as each read the news. Who dared to 
 do it? Young Davis was the chorus of answers. 
 "No, said Davis, "it was a woman, defending one 
 of her race — it was a Lincoln woman; mine is only 
 the spokesman's voice — mine is that of the inter- 
 preter — mine is the chill, swift voice of justice speak- 
 ing for the voice of all ages, love for love and life 
 for life, the law of a woman's existence." 
 
 Bill Austin was now somewhat uncovered, the 
 silent man of the war. Generals took off their hats 
 and saluted the mysterious friend of President Lin- 
 coln. Yet how and why could it be as it was — this 
 simple Simon of the hills whose devotion was not 
 unlike that of the Hunchback of Notre-Dame. 
 
302 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 Nothing more need be said. He was the son'in' 
 law of Nancy Lincoln, and what Nancy Lincoln 
 said, this old woman of the hills also — the Mill 
 Creek Hills, — was law henceforth to Generals. A 
 President once persuasive and diplomatic had now 
 taken into the velvet hand, the sword of the Muskc 
 teer, and he need not brandish it to have each and 
 all know that he had asserted the arbitrary power 
 put into his hands, as the head of the Army, for it 
 was Lincoln and no longer Stanton who ruled the 
 land. These were days that tried the hearts of men 
 for love of country. The men and women equally 
 devoted to their country would now give their last 
 drop of blood to avenge innocence and childhood, 
 but those who were anxious to act hastily have 
 passed to their reward. The soul of the mighty 
 liberator of the blacks had delivered his accounts 
 and received judgment. The world moves to new 
 problems, and the responsibility of a new day has 
 arisen to stay the minds of men. 
 
 The old banks of Mill Creek are traveled by a 
 new generation whose point of view is now beyond 
 the deeds of crime once committed in their midst to 
 terrify their fathers. The solemn churches that 
 housed and heard the prayers of our fathers are still 
 housing and holding generations whose religion 
 looks now to life as the day of reckoning rather than 
 to the great day of judgment pictured by their 
 fathers. We are a day in front of the metered hour 
 called death. 
 
 The good little mother has passed on; her hair, 
 silvered with a happy age, and who lived to bless 
 and be blessed in the community where she knew 
 all, saw all, and where she loved the flowers that 
 bloomed in their wild flavor over the hills where she 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 303 
 
 had met her first great tragedy; her work is done; 
 her day is past. 
 
 The good Jefferson Davis, whose kind heart and 
 high sense of duty put an end to these infamous 
 outrages on women and children, died in high 
 reward. 
 
 Stanton, of infamous fame in Kentucky, uni- 
 versally detested by its manhood, has rolled his 
 bloody chariot from the paths of Caesar across the 
 horizon of hell, and the keeper of thunderbolts has 
 e'er this day crushed him into dust and nothingness. 
 The "Salt River Tigers," civilizers of Indians, by 
 the sword, have disintegrated, and their descend- 
 ants, the La Follettes, Turners, and Woodrings, 
 heads of the great states of the Union; their Sen- 
 ators, like Norris and Borah, sit in high estate, de- 
 fenders of the common people; others, direct the 
 destinies of great industrial concerns; and the pure 
 waters of the famous old stream keeps murmuring 
 its history over and over again by the silent graves 
 of the great Lincoln dead. Only the noisy new Jays 
 persist in telling you the glorious history of the once 
 glorious country, and the blue sky alone remains to 
 look down on the ancient trails of the Wabash 
 bucks of one hundred and sixty years ago, smiling 
 on the newcomer of a new race and generation of 
 men and women, who, like the world, have forgot- 
 ten its past. There is little left of the old day, and 
 the new day has no glorious story to tell, but the 
 march of time has not destroyed the memory of 
 those who lived there and performed their high 
 duty to the civilisation we know and enjoy. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 LINCOLN'S POSITION ON KENTUCKY, TROUBLE 
 WITH STANTON. 
 
 TT is well known that President Lincoln was deeply 
 chagrined because he received less than two 
 thousand votes in Kentucky in 1860. This fact left 
 him a prey to Stanton's machinations in controlling 
 the very difficult situation in Kentucky. Lincoln 
 himself had no heart in the destruction of his own 
 people, so that he backed away from the responsibil- 
 ity and left it in his Secretary's hands. This is why 
 there was so little interference by him in the begin- 
 ning. Stanton picked Burbridge for the job of Mil- 
 itary Governor, out of place, in view of the fact that 
 Kentucky had chosen Bramlette, a strong Union 
 man, after the resignation of Magoffin, for Gov- 
 ernor. 
 
 There was no Stanton following in Kentucky. 
 The Generals cordially hated him and he distrusted 
 them. Stanton had no scruples about law or the 
 Constitution; he had admitted as much. He had ex- 
 pressed this in connection with Lincoln's promises 
 to the Kentuckians. He had no intention of inter- 
 fering with the slavery institution as such. 
 
 Palmer, Buell, Davis, Wolford, Jacobs were antag- 
 onistic to Stanton. He attempted to get rid of them, 
 and he was so persistent that Lincoln became suspi- 
 cious of his motives. Stanton knew the Kentucky 
 
 304 
 
Silas Smith who was ordered hung by Jarrett, and whose 
 
 life was saved by General Davis, who killed General 
 
 Miles in a quarrel about it. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 305 
 
 situation was a powder mill and he wanted the 
 blowing'iip responsibility to be on Lincoln; and 
 finally Lincoln understood as much. Lincoln has 
 been bitterly arraigned because of laxity on his part 
 relative to this situation. 
 
 Lincoln being the titular head of the government, 
 Stanton foresaw that it would break Lincoln and im- 
 peril the success of the war. He had a willing ad- 
 visor in Salmon P. Chase. Lincoln's intense mo- 
 ments were devoted unselfishly to winning the war; 
 he excused himself for inactivity on this front. They 
 bullied him into the order enlisting the slaves, as the 
 first rock that would break him with his leading 
 Generals. Thus, they played an unpatriotic, as well 
 as an unscrupulous game — the game of politics. 
 
 As the situation grew desperate, Lincoln began to 
 look into it, and it grew so irksome that he was 
 forced to show his hand. Stanton insisted that 
 McClellan would be the candidate against him; and 
 the danger was, rebellious generals headed by Mc- 
 Clellan, and the situation would require a very dras- 
 tic rule of discipline, and this looked reasonable to 
 Lincoln; it, at least, was acceptable as a probable 
 thing. 
 
 The Kentucky Governor was a strong and cour- 
 ageous man; he did not hesitate to open the fight 
 against Stanton, and he opened it against Lincoln 
 himself. 
 
 If Stanton took water, Bramlette forced him to 
 do it. Stanton had no heart in winning the war, 
 though he hated the Southerners, and he loved 
 Stanton amazingly to the extent of intriguing for 
 him. 
 
 The generals were afraid to move lest they get 
 pinched in the war that was inevitable between 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 307 
 
 Stanton and the President, and thus inaction, crime 
 and inefficiency was the rule everywhere. Lincoln 
 came to see that it was his war, and his rise or fall 
 would be governed by its success. He knew that an 
 effort to impeach him for Stanton's and Chase's 
 misdeeds would be one of the results of his failure. 
 This resurrected the iron in his nature, and his 
 stride from that time on was a real Lincoln stride. 
 He moved late, but he finally moved in time to save 
 the situation for the Union, but not in time to save 
 himself. Murders in Kentucky, fixed military trials, 
 no trials at all, shooting and looting by Federal of' 
 ficials, recruiting of negroes, putting them in a posi- 
 tion to insult and arrest the whites, was Stanton's 
 program. General Paine, whose trial was forced by 
 Bramlette, proved to be the blast of a bugle that 
 stirred Lincoln and aroused the thinking men of the 
 state to the point where nobody's life was safe and 
 nobody's liberty or property was respected. 
 
 Outrages that quailed the average mind were 
 common every day. This was not required to car" 
 ry on the war, and finally visionary young men dc 
 cided on a campaign at Washington, which included 
 the assassination of the entire Lincoln cabinet, 
 though Captain Thomas Hines believed it would 
 lead to the death of the President. Hines could see 
 a good deal further than the oath they had taken. 
 He wisely knew where Lincoln stood, and that Lin' 
 coin was the hope of the South in the final account' 
 ing. He tried to move Austin, but Austin was not 
 the type of man to start anything; he executed. 
 
 Well, they went into Washington's quiet circles, 
 and they were well guided, young as they were. 
 The council may or may not have included Booth; 
 this, Hines did not know, but Booth was the very 
 
308 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 man to be happy in such company, for Hines be' 
 lieved that the men who were allies in Washington 
 would put these young men to the real execution of 
 the plans; and while death meant nothing to them 
 it would be a terrible stain on Kentucky, as he looked 
 at it. Finally, after a futile attempt to blow up the 
 Treasury Building, they decided and agreed on a 
 course to clean the Cabinet and finish with Lincoln. 
 Booth proved intemperate, bold, unflinching and 
 blood-thirsty. He believed his name would ring 
 around the world. They abandoned it and went on 
 to St. Albans, promising, it is said, they would re" 
 turn and finish the job. But we will see that, while 
 the St. Albans job was well done and never ex' 
 ceeded in daring, it was a long way back to Wash' 
 ington, and there was no Canada line to cross after 
 the job was finished. Counsel and wisdom, in the 
 South, knowing what barely missed happening on 
 their way East, got into action, and their projected 
 visit to Washington was abandoned. 
 
 The war was over, and the suffering would end, 
 but the thrill of doing the thing and standing in Bni' 
 tus' place to square with the world that would 
 acclaim Lincoln a tyrant had not left the breast of 
 Booth and his companions, who remained behind. 
 They took new oaths, and proposed to start with a 
 certainty of reaching Mr. Lincoln himself. The Ken- 
 tuckians would have reversed Booth's order of pro' 
 cedure; they would have taken Stanton, for after all, 
 a Kentuckian has pride in another Kentuckian, and 
 that alone would have spared Lincoln; and Lincoln 
 had already proceeded far on the road to redress their 
 grievances. 
 
 Bill Austin had only to appear for an order of 
 reversal or execution, and Lincoln consulted no 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 309 
 
 cabinet, for he, with Austin, constituted a cabinet 
 for all Kentucky. 
 
 Hines was the supreme champion of truth. He 
 came to understand Lincoln and to value him for the 
 South, as a factor of peace. Hines is accounted 
 little in history, but his friendship was a guarantee 
 of his life if a friend needed it in an extreme emer' 
 gency. The writer saw him tested, and believes 
 that Hines was one of the few great men of the war, 
 Basil Duke who was linked to Morgan, was among 
 the elect of Morgan after the war, but there was no 
 comparison between the two men. Morgan himself 
 did not stand in Hines' class, either as a man of coup 
 age or a man of extraordinary resources of mind. 
 
 Hence, Hines saw in Austin's friendship to Lin' 
 coin, the opportunity to save the South, and the 
 people of Kentucky, and he was unwilling to use 
 Austin for any other purpose, though it is asserted 
 his escape from the Ohio prison was winked at by 
 officials, knowing that it would please Lincoln. It 
 is not doubtful either that Lincoln knew all about 
 Hines, and he knew that from Austin, but it is cer- 
 tain that Lincoln putting value on men like Hines 
 knew that the day could arrive when he could hon- 
 orably use Hines through Austin. 
 
 Lincoln as a man, and as a politician, and as a 
 statesman, cannot well be analysed and separated. 
 In the first place, he was the master politician of our 
 time. As a statesman he may be said to be very in' 
 ferior to many Americans of his time, including 
 Douglas of his state. As a judge of men, as a master 
 of current forces, he excelled all men of his time. 
 
 He has many inconsistencies of position which 
 open him to logical criticism, and he can be made to 
 look very small if we rely on logic to test a public 
 
310 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 character or a political character. After all is said, 
 the answer to such critics is, that he did it. Did 
 what? Saved the Union. He saved it in spite of 
 the greatest combination of machinations which had 
 ever confronted a public man. 
 
 He was slow to act. He would wait until all of 
 the opposition forces had spent their ammunition, 
 then he solved his way out, and regardless of what 
 his position had been before, he walked through to 
 success. He has been charged with irrational think- 
 ing. Mr. Lincoln had convictions, but he often 
 submerged them to accomplish what was the next 
 best plan. He was in this way a very practical man. 
 Suppose he had mapped a plan to win the war, then 
 have called his Cabinet together and said to them, 
 "All other plans are out," he would have met fierce 
 resistance. He chose the better plan. It was to try 
 out the other plans and, if not successful, to lay the 
 failures to them. That is what he did with Stanton 
 and Chase. They failed; they had lost the war. He 
 then steps in with a plan, based on the knowledge 
 of their failure, and won the war. Lincoln won the 
 war, do not forget that, Mr. Historian. It was Lin' 
 coin's plan. He saw the weakness of the opposition 
 and profited by the weakness of the plans of his 
 Cabinet. He was slow to act, but never too late to 
 act. I do not call this genius; rather it belongs to 
 the field of common sense and a sound judgment. 
 Grant was a drunkard; he all but lost the battle of 
 Shiloh; was licked to a fra^le except for the arrival 
 of Buell, discredited and removed by Stanton. "If 
 Grant is a drunkard, tell me the kind of whisky he 
 drinks and I wil buy it for my generals." "If Buell 
 is unfaithful, get me a list of the unfaithful and I 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 3 1 1 
 
 will quickly end the war." That spells Lincoln as 
 a politician — a strategist. 
 
 If the Union could be saved by men who favored 
 the Union, but also favored slavery, that was the 
 wise course to pursue. There was plenty of time to 
 save the faces of the Abolitionists, and what is more, 
 the world could produce more Abolitionists, but it 
 could not build another republic on this spot, once 
 it was dismembered. 
 
 His hair-splitting critics would have you believe 
 that his oath to administer the Constitution was 
 vastly more important than preserving the Union. 
 What good to preserve the Constitution without 
 the Union. By and large Lincoln would fetch in 
 the crippled Constitution from the rain of disaster 
 when the Union was saved. 
 
 The Union was not a fetich, it was the soul of 
 America and its breath, the Constitution, was its 
 prayer book. It might have to be set aside while 
 bludgeons were used, and in the end the Constitu- 
 tion belonged to the victor. It was not written 
 altogether for war times but mostly for peace times. 
 This is not sophistry, nor does it excuse the violation 
 of the Constitution. We rely on our army in time 
 of war, on the Constitution and the courts in time of 
 peace. 
 
 The South had nothing to offer; it offered nothing 
 for the sake of peace or to save the Union. It offered 
 to trade the Union for slavery. That was poor 
 economy and poorer statesmanship. It had no leader- 
 ship. It had not a statesman worthy of that name. It 
 was fighting against assessment of the institution of 
 slavery and its growth. 
 
 Emergencies which are grave and arise quickly, 
 must at times supercede the law. 
 
512 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 What nonsense to talk about the Constitution 
 when the Nation was drowning; better to get the 
 the Nation out of the water, than talk about the Con- 
 stitution. What use to talk about the formula of the 
 Declaration when blood was pouring and states were 
 setting up another government. Why quote deci- 
 sions on abstract rights when the Union was seventy 
 years bound together? The sovereignty of the states 
 could be settled at a later time. They already knew 
 what they could do with their slaves. That was their 
 business. What limitations could be placed on slav- 
 ery in new territory was a matter for the Union and 
 not the states. The Constitution did not expressly 
 provide for the extension of slavery. It was written 
 there by the Taney decision. Nevertheless, the peo- 
 ple could give up that decision for the safety of the 
 Union. Breckenridge and Davis could not see it, and 
 because they could not, they were willing to dis- 
 member the Union — poor statesmanship and poorer 
 sense. 
 
 It is immaterial just how many states made up the 
 Union, the others came in, and they surely came in 
 with the understanding that they accepted the Union 
 made by the ratifying states. Why assail Lincoln be- 
 cause these political hair-splitters can bring forth the 
 decisions of the Supreme Court defining powers of 
 the Union when we know that the inherent right of 
 every compact is to sustain itself, first in a peaceful 
 way but finally by resort to arms. 
 
 Belligerent power, under the terms of war, the 
 South may have been, but the South was a part of 
 the Union, and unless it, as a unit, had been de- 
 pressed it would not crawl out. It proposed to treat 
 the Union as a foreign foe and drive it out of Fort 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 3 1 3 
 
 Sumter. Could it do it upon any ground of reason 
 that is sound? The South falling back on the rules 
 of war, ignoring the Union and the compact, said 
 it could. But that is the point, could it ignore the 
 compact? Not by any stretch of the imagination, or 
 else the convention of states that made the Constitu- 
 tion made nothing but a scrap of paper. If so, why 
 wail about its violation by Lincoln in saving the 
 Union? 
 
 Looking at Lincoln's course, as a Southerner, it is 
 apparent that he worked Douglas into a position 
 where the South would not accept him, and the 
 South was equally subject to the criticism of stupidity 
 when it did not see the point. Had it espoused the 
 cause of Douglas it would have saved slavery for the 
 time being, and that was something. It could have 
 later put its position beyond the point of danger by 
 proposing some plan of emancipation or it could have 
 rested the slavery question with protection in the 
 states where it was permitted. But showing no wis' 
 dom in the matter, it insisted that slavery must be 
 permitted to be extended into territory where the 
 people revolted against it. It thus skated on very 
 thin ice, because it denied the right of the very sover" 
 eignity which it so strongly contended for, that the 
 slavery question was a domestic question and could 
 not be interfered with. 
 
 Reading the debates at this late date and the best 
 reasons advanced in its behalf, one must marvel at 
 the stupid position which the South attempted to 
 sustain. Why not let the radicals agitate? They 
 could not do away with slavery except by constitu* 
 tional amendment, and the required number of states 
 could never have been secured to carry such an 
 amendment. It nominated Breckenridge on a plat' 
 
314 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 form that no college student would write today, had 
 he been the arbiter of its platform in the Convention. 
 
 It may be admitted with safety that the Writ of 
 Habeas Corpus can only be suspended by Congress 
 because it in its nature is the repeal of a constitutional 
 right and therefore legislative, and let us admit that 
 the appropriation of that right by Lincoln subjected 
 him to impeachment. What practical justification 
 did he have? 
 
 In the first place John Morgan had invaded Ken- 
 tucky. Kentucky was a state of the Union and its 
 territory was invaded by a foreign foe — foreign to 
 its civil jurisdiction or the exercise of its court func 
 tions, and if Morgan may take and conquer in spite 
 of the courts, shall Lincoln await the assembling of 
 the Congress to repel John Morgan? A day's delay 
 may be too late. Morgan may fortify himself with 
 impregnable positions. Who knows? It was Lin" 
 coin's position to know. Hence in the very nature 
 of things Lincoln must act. To act he must suspend 
 court orders and courts or make their power ancillary 
 to the military in order to protect them, and the 
 other varied civil institutions. How is he going to 
 do it? If he substitutes a power that is efficient for 
 one that is inefficient, he must make way for the 
 action of that power. Martial law is the answer, and 
 in substituting it he must act without the consent of 
 the Congress — he may hope for the approval of the 
 Congress, offering as an extenuation the emergency, 
 and surely Congress will look beyond the strict letter 
 of the Constitution with the knowledge that the Con- 
 stitution is in fact a piece time document. Such may 
 not be the sound reasoning of a court bound to con- 
 strue the law, but it is entirely within reason and 
 sound philosophy, because law in every instance is 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 3 1 5 
 
 a part protection of the rights of the citizen. Here 
 it required more, but in such cases the Constitution 
 was entirely too Democratic; it did not meet the re' 
 quirements. 
 
 The position of Judge Moore is far more tenable. 
 Let the President act, and when the emergency is 
 past, let him be tried by a power that has the right 
 to determine from the facts, if a crime has been com' 
 mitted, and if so, was it committed in defense of the 
 lives of the people and their liberties. That is sound, 
 and by this rule, Mr. Lincoln would have been will' 
 ing to be judged and acquitted or convicted accord' 
 ingly. 
 
 The blame that Mr. Lincoln cannot escape, how 
 ever, is that he did not oversee that crimes were not 
 committed, under such supreme authority, against 
 the peace of the citizen and the dignity of law — the 
 law that governs the rights of men. 
 
 He must in Kentucky plead guilty to this indict' 
 ment, for, knowing the facts and pointing them out 
 there is no answer. His was a slow mind however, 
 and when each case came before him, he acted 
 promptly in behalf of justice, though that action was 
 tardy and insufficient. 
 
 If Lincoln must be accused of looking on individual 
 life in a cold and neurotic way, when he looks into 
 the larger field, the suffering of a people, he must be 
 extolled as a humane man and always ready to act 
 to protect the mass as well as the individual. That 
 is proven in Kentucky. He stood by the Governor. 
 
 But the writer possesses no illusions about Lin' 
 coin. If he is judged by many responsible acts which 
 resulted in cruelties, we must take his career as Presi' 
 dent in its entire functioning, and in respect of pub' 
 lie men freely expressing themselves to no disadvan' 
 
3 1 6 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 tage of the Union, he was lamentably lame, and in 
 respect of his treatment of confederate prisoners, he 
 was anything but humane and fair to the South. 
 That fact cannot be forgotten or overlooked. An' 
 dersonville did not lose as many northern soldiers 
 as like prisons in the North lost of Southern prison' 
 ers, and there are many other reasons that form a 
 sound basis of criticism against his conduct in respect 
 of these prisoners. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 SOUTHERN ARISTOCRACY, LINCOLN'S SPEECH 
 TO THE KENTUCKIANS. 
 
 HTHE writer does not pretend to speak for Southern 
 aristocracy, though he knows it in all its refine 
 ments and ills. Lincoln hated it because he was not 
 a part of it, perhaps some may say, but Lincoln was 
 a man who traveled somewhat with the tide, withal 
 he was a great leader, a leader of men, of thinking 
 men. We dislike the opposite usually of what we 
 are. If Lincoln had been raised like Lee he would 
 never have espoused emancipation. Slavery was a 
 social, never an industrial attribute of man's life. 
 
 The writer's old slave mother once was asked, do 
 you belong to the Smiths; and her reply was typical 
 of the South: "yes, and the Smiths belongs to me." 
 
 Southern women by nature came up in luxury, 
 refinement and idleness. The tendency toward aris- 
 tocratic ideas had taken unwonted shape toward the 
 end of the first half of the eighteenth century. It 
 was a false ideal, but the Southern woman was the 
 aristocrat par excellence of America. This social 
 condition was brought about by the institution of 
 slavery, so that Lincoln knew these two institutions, 
 one wrong and one false, intertwined together; as he 
 hated the aristocratic idea and was made to feel it, 
 he thus came to hate slavery. Mary Owen flattened 
 him because, from her point of breeding he would 
 
 317 
 
318 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 never make a gentleman. It stung him, and he 
 sought a mate with whom he would be mismated, an 
 aristocratic girl from an aristocratic family. But he 
 never could make himself over. His nature was 
 molded already and it was too democratic, too far 
 down on the plane of equality to commune or be 
 satisfied with such a woman as Mary Todd. 
 
 This woman's field he sought to enter, was for' 
 eign to him. The woman he sought was the reprc 
 sentative in many ways of the feudal chatelaine of 
 olden times in England, with added refinements of 
 luxury and culture. 
 
 *The Southern woman despised her sister of the 
 North; the Northern woman hated her Southern 
 cousin. With the quick enthusiasm in such matters, 
 that is an attribute of their sex, and which blinds 
 women even more than men to the calmer sugges' 
 tions of reason, the women of the country became 
 divided into two bitterly hostile camps, because of 
 the matters which their husbands and brothers dis" 
 cussed in the council of the nation. The main issue 
 had an unwonted appeal to the women themselves; 
 for she of the South saw her wealth and luxury 
 threatened by the Abolitionists, while she of the 
 North made herself a part of the cause of ill-treated 
 humanity, as she deemed it. Had the men been able 
 to settle the controversy the women never would 
 have permitted the glowing embers to become extin* 
 guished without being fanned into red flame. Hence 
 the women were responsible for bringing on the fra' 
 tricidal strife which shook the country. It was the 
 fanaticism of the North against the fury of the South. 
 
 The Garrisons and Phillips thus had their fol' 
 
 *Larus. 
 
320 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 lowers in women, but for a different reason of convic 
 tion. So that we, who lived in the Thomas Lincoln 
 environs, know too well when the President says his 
 father left Kentucky partly on account of slavery, it 
 was merely political ballyhoo spoken without the 
 advice of counsel. 
 
 Thomas Lincoln, never in his lifetime had a con' 
 viction against slavery. That thought did not belong 
 to the Lincoln family. Abraham Lincoln wanted to 
 give a reason that sounded well to the Garrisons, 
 though it would fail to go down in history. Mr. 
 Abraham Lincoln was always a politician, he only 
 became a statesman after the responsibility of the 
 Presidency came full bloom upon him. 
 
 Hardin County was divided into two camps, 
 neither of them enamored of Mr. Lincoln's position. 
 Those who by conviction were Democrats, and those 
 who by the necessity of slavery were forced to be 
 Democrats. 
 
 The Mill Creekers were invariably Democrats by 
 choice, and they were real friends of the Union. 
 They were perfectly willing to lose slavery provided 
 the Union could be saved. The aristocrats whom 
 Lincoln hated, preferred the institution of slavery to 
 a naked Democracy without it. And thus, too, was 
 the state of Kentucky divided, and thus did Lincoln 
 transfer his natural allegiance to the Mill Creekers' 
 choice, a Union with slavery; and this position he 
 never abandoned until as a matter of political exi- 
 gency, to a Union without slavery, mainly because 
 the women of the North, and the heated Garrisons 
 and Phillip's would not accept the former, but dc 
 manded the latter, with a candidate who could stand 
 on that platform. And in this change Mr. Lincoln, 
 so far as Kentucky was concerned, perished by the 
 
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 U 
 
 l-l 
 
 CO © 
 
 Efl 
 
 ""O to 
 
 c 53 
 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 321 
 
 sword, "peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must." 
 The cat was out of the bag. Slavery would be abol- 
 ished by Lincoln, who had said, "The Union must 
 be preserved, with or without slavery, but it must be 
 preserved at all hazards." Thus did ninetynine per 
 cent of the people in Kentucky bid good-bye to him. 
 And to pay off the Kentuckians in coin for their 
 presidential preference Mr. Lincoln in the beginning, 
 sent in Stanton's man Burbridge, to recruit the ne- 
 groes, not yet freed, and start a reign of terror. It 
 became a serious thing to him as well as to the 
 people, and threatened a resignation of his principal 
 Federal Generals. 
 
 *It would never have occurred or been permitted, 
 except for a lack of understanding, first of the negro 
 as a slave and as a free man; and second as to his 
 new relation to the whites. In the South we knew 
 his bad qualities as well as his good; and, while the 
 women of the South knew that their house servants 
 would protect them with their lives, they also knew 
 that the hordes of field hands, intoxicated by a liberty 
 they did not understand the nature of, which had 
 slept chained within them, and once aroused, would 
 make of the land an offense to heaven. 
 
 The North saw not any danger here, and we do 
 believe if the sister of the North talking equality, 
 knowing little of what it meant to her, could have 
 seen the peril in which her Southern sister stood, she 
 would have been the first to rend the North with 
 her cries. Instead, they saw the enrollment of the 
 negro as a soldier a just retribution to men — slave 
 owners without any other consequences. 
 
 A veritable simoon of fanaticism swept the North, 
 
 *Larui. 
 
322 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 and those who did see the peril of the South dared 
 not lift their voices against the clamor of the masses. 
 Men like Chase and Stanton, lost to reason or honest 
 conviction, fanned the flame of prejudice to a white 
 heat, with the hope they might hold Lincoln in their 
 grasp; and while this tragedy was being enacted, 
 there stood the women of the South, the real victims 
 of their damnable machinations. 
 
 In turn the woman of the South who could not 
 understand the nature of her Northern sister's ignc 
 ranee and lack of vision, indicted her, accused her of 
 lack of honor, lack of enthusiasm for the protection 
 of the race to which both belonged. She laid it to 
 sectional hatred and fell back on her Cavalier honor 
 in great anger against the more Puritan and cold' 
 blooded character, whose responsibility she fixed for- 
 ever as that of a type of low-bred womanhood. 
 Finally, all this Mr. Lincoln came to know and saw, 
 but the prairie fire was flying, and now beyond his 
 control; it touched him closely, for without under' 
 standing, northern men and northern women came 
 to hate Mary Todd, the mother of his own. 
 
 Stanton, alive to this situation, turns the roving 
 slave into a uniform, gives him a gun, and tells him 
 to avenge himself for a century of slavery. He be' 
 came a savage with unlicensed authority, believing 
 his limit was in the field where revenge might 
 lead him. Knowing the soul of the Southerner 
 was in his womanhood, he thrust himself coldly into 
 bedrooms for rape and murderous purposes. It was 
 true that the grand old cultured slave, refined in all 
 his senses, used every effort to stay the young ne' 
 groes hand, but he was powerless. Protests went up, 
 but the North swept, with its fanaticism, and urged 
 on by the necessity of meeting reverses with fresh 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 323 
 
 soldiers, aroused to its uttermost, the sleeping tiger 
 of barbarism to go on and do his damnedest, on the 
 theory that everything is fair in love and war. 
 
 Southern men in Kentucky, devoted to the Union, 
 knew what a terrible mistake had been made, and 
 they opened every battery they could invent to save 
 their womanhood. Promptly suspended and promptly 
 jailed were the Federal Generals who protested to 
 the War Department, dictated not by Lincoln, but 
 by a bench of as graceless scoundrels as ever robbed 
 a hen roost or scuttled a ship. 
 
 But there was one woman in all Kentucky who 
 knew the real heart of the man who was leading the 
 nation, and the same blood flowed in her veins that 
 flowed in his. The God that stood on the ramparts 
 of the national conscience ticked away the heart 
 throbs of her own breast. It was upon the rock of 
 her white soul Kentucky womanhood paused in its 
 hour of peril for hope. This hope was not in vain. 
 All of the blood of the Lincoln women for genera' 
 tions seemed to converge into her heart, and she 
 broke at last with fury into the White House to 
 arouse the President. The brain that gave Abraham 
 Lincoln foresight and understanding beyond the men 
 of all ages, saw that he must rely on Nancy Lincoln 
 to wreck the plans of the butcher Jeff rys, who called 
 himself General Burbridge of the Federal Army. And 
 that immortal son'in4aw, the silent d'Artagnan flew 
 back from Washington at greater speed than she had 
 dispatched him to the President, with the arbitrary 
 authority to pass directly to him the truth of the 
 conduct of men high or low in the Federal Army, 
 and what Bill Austin saw, the President saw. Men 
 were released from jail, they had a fair trial. And 
 through violence of speech and a storm of protests, 
 
324 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 Lincoln called his cabinet, and told them once for all 
 he was the master of this nation for the hour, and 
 all would take his orders. Murder would end, jus- 
 tice must intervene, truth must have a chance, the 
 hand of lust must be stayed, lest the flower of man- 
 hood go with the flower of womanhood. Stanton 
 handed in his resignation, Chase sent word he could 
 have his, but the President said, "No, you will stay 
 and bear the point of the poignard you have shar- 
 pened, and beware that you are not the first to feel 
 it. 
 
 Can it be that the womanhood of America have 
 no understanding of this fierce fighting woman who 
 was determined to save the womanhood of her race? 
 Can it be there is not yet enough gratitude in the 
 mother's breast to yield a penny of admiration for 
 the hours Nancy Lincoln spent in planning, grieving, 
 that the women of her race might go down in Ken- 
 tucky to their graves with unscarred souls freed from 
 the black lust of dishonor? 
 
 And so the great man's soul was touched by one 
 of his own race, and the nation was saved in part 
 from the horror of all horrors, the further desecra- 
 tion of its womanhood. 
 
 The nation has honored its Willards, Anthonys 
 and Stowes, but here is the woman of the age, si- 
 lently, forcibly and fiercely taking over for the hour 
 the conscience and hand of the President of the 
 United States. 
 
 And shall we remember that between two great 
 armies, with none too careful sentinels, passed that 
 invincible Knight of the times, with the sword of a 
 D'Artagnan, the soul of an Athos, the cunning of 
 an Aramis, the strength of a Porthos, always with a 
 task to save those he loved from a terrible fate, and 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 325 
 
 whose plea was the salvation of the womanhood, to 
 which duty, he had consecrated his life, with a 
 promise to that great Lincoln woman, that nothing 
 less than its sacrifice would atone for his failure. 
 Yesterday there was the brutal assault of barbarism 
 on innocence with military protection; tomorrow 
 came the swift order: Let the will of justice be done 
 and the brute's veins be opened before the next sun' 
 rise to atone for his bloody crime. 
 
 Let it be remembered, through all this turbulence 
 of thrill and horror, bearing the olive branch, walked 
 the shadow of the lion of the forest, now aroused to 
 his great responsibility. These monstrous pictures 
 which Austin had thrust before him seemed a night' 
 mare to him, but he struck out with the power in 
 his hand unafraid, and the bewildered hostages of 
 hatred and revenge slunk, with tails dragging into 
 the very dust of their foul and filthy beginnings. 
 
 This world pays homage to him who comes now 
 quickly to the front page, and disappears again, as 
 though but a dream. Men and women who perform 
 heroic deeds live in history, but the silent watches of 
 the night alone can tell you the story of Nancy Lin- 
 coln, from 1861 to 1865. 
 
 While these circumstances are a part of Lincoln 
 and Kentucky, they reflect great credit on a woman 
 of his house unknown to fame. 
 
 The women of Kentucky were not daunted by the 
 ruin of their homes, by the death of their loved ones, 
 by their own sufferings and perils. 
 
 When at last the skeleton army of Lee was driven 
 from its defenses and forced to lay down its arms at 
 Appomattox, it was the women of Kentucky with 
 bitterest grief, who counted their losses, took courage 
 
326 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 for the future, knowing that it was to Lincoln and 
 his own they might expect the resurrection of peace 
 with honor. 
 
 When the great blow came to Kentucky that Lin" 
 coin had been assassinated, the women of Kentucky 
 unlike those in the South, were not blinded by their 
 prejudices and sufferings to the true character of the 
 great man. They did not hold him in detestation, 
 nor did they exult in his death. They arose from the 
 mesalliance of war and cried out in bitterness against 
 the assassin, knowing that in their hearts, Abraham 
 Lincoln was the saviour of their discords and the 
 salvation and hostage of their honor. Lest these un- 
 pleasant words have your suspicion, as words of 
 exaggeration, we print the record of the day. 
 
 In order to arrive at the basis of the bitter criti" 
 cism of President Lincoln we start with a statement 
 by himself of his position: 
 
 "He hoped Kentucky would stand by the govern" 
 ment in the present difficulties; but if she would not 
 do that, let her stand still and take no hostile part 
 against it; and that being so no hostile step should 
 tread her soil." 
 
 Speech to the Kentuckians, April 27th, 1861. 
 
 He said again, on March 4th, 1861: 
 
 "I declare I have no right to interfere with the 
 
 institution of slavery those who elected me did 
 
 so with full knowledge that I had made this state" 
 ment^' He then reads his platform declaration sup" 
 porting this position. 
 
 These are both very positive statements, and have 
 led to no end of criticism against the president in 
 view of the record which the writer believes is im" 
 portant. He thinks, notwithstanding this, he can 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 327 
 
 still see a clear vindication of Lincoln, the official, 
 and Lincoln the man. 
 
 DIARY OF KENTUCKY EVENTS 
 
 November 22nd, 1862. "Lincoln meets Ken- 
 tuckians to discuss gradual abolishment of slavery." 
 
 November 27th, 1862. "General Boyle issues 
 order No. 27 for soldiers not to meddle with slaves. 11 
 
 December 9th, 1862. "Colonel John H. McHenry 
 dismissed by order War Department for returning 
 slaves to their masters. 11 
 
 "Sheriff of Fayette County denied right to return 
 slaves to their masters on the order of court. 11 Lex- 
 ington, Kentucky, December 10th, 1862. 
 
 "Colonel Gilbert arrests delegates to Democratic 
 State Convention at Frankfort. 11 February 18th, 
 1863. 
 
 "Captain Hines retaliates by destroying railroad 
 property of the United States Government, valued 
 at $500,000: 1 February 21st, 1863. 
 
 "General Saunders arrests negroes at church and 
 puts them in army service. 11 March 24th, 1863. 
 
 "General Burbridge issues order to get all secret 
 mail not sent through United States Post Offices. 11 
 April 13th, 1863— Order 38. 
 
 "Citizens killed by violence of soldiery in Meade 
 County. 11 April 29th, 1863. 
 
 May 10th. "Trial of General Buell for refusing to 
 enlist negroes on the order of the War Department. 11 
 
 "Burbridge in Order 56. Spies to be arrested who 
 are unwilling to disclose authority for their actions. 11 
 May 13th, 1863. 
 
 "Burbridge orders Chicago Times and New York 
 World not circulate in Kentucky. 11 June 2nd, 1863. 
 
 "Ten women arrested in Pendleton County for 
 
328 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 criticising negro enlistment. Sent South." June 10th, 
 1863. 
 
 "War Department orders general enrollment of 
 negroes in Kentucky into army." June 12th, 1863. 
 
 "Suspended by order of President Lincoln." 
 October 10th, 1863. 
 
 "President Lincoln declared Martial Law in Ken' 
 tucky."" July 5th, 1863. 
 
 "Colonel Young issues order that soldiers may take 
 private property by issuing vouchers, to be paid at 
 the end of the war." July 31st, 1863. 
 
 "Burbridge declares martial law in Kentucky." 
 
 "Federal Court of Louisville sentences Thomas 
 Shacklett of Meade County to ten years imprison' 
 ment, $10,000 fine for criticising government for en' 
 listment of slaves." August 5th, 1863. 
 
 "General Boyle orders 6,000 negroes enlisted." 
 August 10, 1863. 
 
 "General Thomas Crittenden suspended, to be 
 tried for refusal to command or accept negro sol' 
 diers " October 10th, 1863. 
 
 "General Buell acquitted for criticising enlistment 
 of negroes." October 16th, 1863. 
 
 "Morgan and Captain Hines escape from Camp 
 Chase. Hines writes a note in French to the War' 
 den, thanking him for vigilance." November 28th, 
 1863. 
 
 'Legislature of Kentucky takes steps for payment, 
 or return of property taken by Federal soldiers." 
 December 13th, 1863. 
 
 "The negroes who refused to enlist voluntarily at 
 Lexington arrested and confined to military service." 
 January 13th, 1864. 
 
 "General Crittenden acquitted for refusing to ac- 
 cept enlisted negro soldiers." February 25th, 1864. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 329 
 
 "General Wolford arrested immediately for 
 making statement against the enlistment of negro 
 soldiers." March 10th, 1864. 
 
 "President Lincoln orders fair trial and restoration 
 pending the same." 
 
 "Governor Bramlette, Dixon and Hodges leave 
 Kentucky to see President Lincoln concerning order 
 for enlistment of negroes not free." March 22nd, 
 1864. 
 
 "General Burbridge issues order No. 34 for the 
 enlistment of negroes." April 18th, 1864. 
 
 "General Marshall arrested for criticising order for 
 enlistment of negroes." April 24th, 1864. 
 
 "Guerrillas attack and kill soldiers at Muldraughs 
 Hill." June 21st, 1864. (Hines- Austin attack with 
 five assistants.) 
 
 "President Lincoln orders suspension of the writ 
 of Habeas Corpus." July 5th, 1864. 
 
 "Some guerrilla band attacks Federal forces at 
 Elisabethtown." July 11th, 1864. 
 
 "Governor Bramlette in a declaration to President 
 Lincoln resents political arrests." July 11th, 1864. 
 
 "General Burbridge issues a drastic order to shoot 
 all citizens professing sympathy with Confederates, 
 and resisting enlistment of negroes." July 16th, 
 1864. 
 
 "Negroes enlisted in Louisville by Burbridge 
 order." July 16th, 1864. 
 
 "Twenty -four women arrested at Louisville, order 
 by General Sherman, taken to prison and then sent 
 out of state without trial." July 18th, 1864. 
 
 "General Paine starts fiftyone days reign of ter' 
 ror, extortion, murder in western Kentucky." July 
 19th, 1864. 
 
 "Two young men shot at Henderson for criticism 
 
3 30 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 of negro enlistment and charges of Confederate sym' 
 pathy." July 19th, 1864. 
 
 "Candidates for office furnish list of names of men 
 who are arrested in order to secure their own elec- 
 tion." July 20th, 1864. 
 
 "Judge Robinson shot at Eagle Creek by order of 
 Burbridge." July 21st, 1864. 
 
 "Second War Department order No. 25 to arrest 
 all negroes and enroll them as soldiers." July 24th, 
 1864. 
 
 "Gibson and Mallory, citizens, killed by soldiers. 
 Released by Burbridge prior ." July 26th, 1864. 
 
 "Burbridge issues order for arrest of men on Dem- 
 ocratic ticket and fifty prominent citizens, including 
 Colonel Laban T. Moore, for criticism of enlistment 
 of negro soldiers." July 29th, 1864. 
 
 "General Paine issues order levying $100,000 taxes 
 on citizens of Paducah." August 1st, 1864. 
 
 "Squire Turner, aged seventy-two, shot by a Col- 
 onel." August 9th, 1864. 
 
 "General Paine turns over many prominent women 
 and their daughters to negro soldiers, to take to 
 military prison and out of the state." August 10th, 
 1864. 
 
 "Negroes arrested in Louisville and forced to en' 
 list." August 16th, 1864. 
 
 "General Bloom orders prominent man by name 
 of Cave blindfolded and shot." August 29th, 1864. 
 
 "Burbridge orders arrest of Democratic delegates 
 to National Convention to nominate McClellan at 
 Chicago." They were jailed at Louisville. August 
 30th, 1864. 
 
 "Ex-Governor Wickliife scores government for 
 keeping thirty women in foul and dirty military cells 
 at Louisville." August 29th, 1864. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 331 
 
 "Four men shot at Brandenburg without trial." 
 September 4th, 1864. 
 
 "General Ewing issues orders for Judges to levy 
 taxes to equip soldiers. Governor Bramlette de- 
 nounces it and asks Lincoln to revoke, which he 
 does." September 5th, 1864. 
 
 "President Lincoln orders investigation of Gen- 
 eral Paine s arrest of women.' 1 September 9th, 1864. 
 
 "The Commission reported, brutality, corruption, 
 execution of innocent people, and Major Harling and 
 Colonel Barry for bribery and extortion of money to 
 pay to prostitutes. Commission shows that from 
 $5.00 to $400.00 exacted from old men unable to 
 work and paid in order to escape hard physical 
 labor." Report of Governor Bramlette, Message H. 
 J., 1865. 
 
 "Burbridge admits outrages on citizens, and says 
 that killings by soldiers without trial must stop." 
 September 13 th, 1864. 
 
 "General Wolford publishes his defense evidence 
 against Burbridge's orders." September 13th, 1864. 
 
 "Burbridge issues order arresting Mrs. Marshall 
 and other women at Louisville." September 21st, 
 1864. 
 
 "Riot at Versailles between citizens and negro sol- 
 diers. Negroes stationed at the crossings of all 
 streets." October 7th, 1864. 
 
 "Four men ordered by Burbridge shot to death 
 without trial." October 25th, 1864. 
 
 "Burbridge orders the black flag hoisted." Octo- 
 ber 26th, 1864. 
 
 "Burbridge issues order for government taking all 
 hogs." October 28th, 1864. 
 
 "Governor Bramlette protests to President Lin- 
 coln." November 14th, 1864. 
 
332 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 "Graham and Hunt shot in Franklin County with" 
 out trial. ,, November 2nd, 1864. 
 
 "Four men shot without trial in Hart County ." 
 November 3rd, 1864. 
 
 "Orders of Burbridge, two men shot at Midway." 
 November 9th, 1864. 
 
 "Governor Bramlette telegraphs Lincoln protesting 
 against the arrest of General Huston because of his 
 support of McClellan. Lincoln orders Huston's re- 
 lease." November 9th, 1864. 
 
 "Governor Bramlette protests rapid increase of 
 military murders without process of trial and no evi- 
 dence. Protests arrest of Governor Jacobs and send- 
 ing out of state." November 11th, 1864. 
 
 "November 11th, in a speech at Lexington, Gov- 
 ernor Bramlette denounces General Burbridge and 
 demands his removal from the state." 
 
 "November 19th, Burbridge orders eight men 
 shot without trial." 
 
 "Burbridge orders six men shot in Green County 
 without trial." November 19th, 1864. 
 
 "Governor Bramlette reviews Lincoln's promises 
 that have not been kept. Lincoln sets aside Bur- 
 bridge's trade orders." January 6th, 1865. 
 
 "Soldiers shoot young man in Todd County with- 
 out trial." January 10th, 1865. 
 
 "Governor Bramlette presents to the Legislature 
 Amendment abolishing slavery in accordance with 
 Proclamation." February 7th, 1865. 
 
 "General Burbridge is removed to Tennessee, and 
 General Palmer is sent in his place as Military Gov- 
 ernor of Kentucky. Courier Journal thanks God and 
 President Lincoln." February 10th, 1865. 
 
 "General Palmer relieves Burbridge as Military 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 3 3 3 
 
 Governor and issues his order to that effect." Feb- 
 ruary 22nd, 1865. 
 
 "Sue Munday, dashing soldier, surrendered at 
 Cloverport, on the promise he would receive treat- 
 ment as soldier of war. He was twenty years old. 
 This promise was not kept. He was not allowed to 
 produce witnesses. Ordered shot. Asked leave to 
 write letter to his betrothed before shooting took 
 place. Letter was pathetic." March 12th, 1865. 
 
 The long arm of revenge thus reached from Mun- 
 days' grave to the Cabinet of Lincoln and to Lin- 
 coln himself; and we have the realization of the age- 
 old law of Moses — "Vengeance is mine saith the 
 Lord." And "He who lives by the sword must perish 
 by the sword." 
 
 "Fight at Wiggintons Woods, citizen killed." 
 March 12th, 1865. 
 
 (Austin shoots soldier.) 
 
 "Lee surrenders at Appomattox, April 9th. John- 
 ston surrenders, April 13th. Lincoln assassinated, 
 April 14th, 1865." 
 
 Heretofore is the tragic recital of the diary of the 
 Kentucky Gazette. It fastens on the imagination a 
 terrible indictment. It is also a recitation of the be- 
 trayal of the President by members of his Cabinet 
 and their Generals and Captains in the field. 
 
 It has not in complete detail been surpassed in the 
 history of the world by inhuman tools put in the field 
 to destroy life and defy law, that the author's might 
 profit in their filthy ambition. Had Booth or the 
 Kentuckians, who went to Washington to avenge 
 these crimes, found their way to the right places, no 
 human law of fairness could have condemned them. 
 For men in authority, for no crime, to murder men 
 in Kentucky without the semblance of trial, was just 
 
334 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 as bad and no worse than for the infuriated sons to 
 send their stillettos into the heart of cabinet members 
 who kept in power men who inspired and committed 
 these atrocious crimes — the murder of their fathers. 
 
 If Stanton was responsible for keeping Jarrett in 
 power, and Jarrett sent an ignorant soldier to the 
 boudoir of my own mother to wring her soul and 
 kill her own, and on proof undeniable and uncontro- 
 verted, why should not I, by right of the law of the 
 ages, go out under the authority of the good book, 
 "an eye for an eye" and "a tooth for a tooth," strike 
 his soul from his heart in the twinkling of an eye. 
 And thus did hundreds of men who were innocent, 
 who could not get a trial of any kind, telegraph back 
 to their living and say — "Have you lost your man' 
 hood? If not, go out and settle the debt." 
 
 The President lost his life because he waited too 
 long to reverse the action and misconduct of his ca" 
 binet and their officers in the field. As good a man as 
 General Davis, had said so, and up to this day the 
 writer lays the death of Abraham Lincoln right at 
 the door of Stanton and Chase, as sure as reasoning 
 is the power of and part of unravelling the cause of 
 every disaster. Lincoln bore the blunt of it, innc 
 cent as we think he was, or he would not have in 
 the end followed up these orders of his Secretary 
 by reversing him or suspending orders made by 
 generals under his direct influence. 
 
 We must not forget that Lincoln was dealing with 
 a fanatical crowd who were not moved by these 
 outrages. The foregoing diary gives only a small 
 part of what actually did take place. The President, 
 out of the emergencies of his position, knew well 
 what might happen if the world actually knew what 
 did go on between himself and these men in his 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 335 
 
 cabinet. Then he lacked experience. It took some 
 time for confidence to fade from his breast in the 
 honesty of men. He knew but one character, the 
 Kentuckian, who kept his word, and here in Ken- 
 tucky great difficulties were presented, with no one 
 quite able to solve them. Therefore, conditions got 
 beyond his power. 
 
 I speak for my race, not for all Kentuckians, but 
 knowing the worst of the truth as the world does 
 not know it, and knowing the brutality of some men 
 in war, though memories are dim and reasoning is 
 not clear, we still thank God for Abraham Lincoln. 
 If we could call back Lincoln and Hines and Austin, 
 the writer feels sure they alone could have averted 
 these wrongs by a clear understanding of the law of 
 mind of the people involved. Could Lincoln have 
 early and first hand got the truth, he would have 
 risen with these two iron spirits to the obligation 
 required. Let us remember that, as we look back, 
 the war had its good results; it created conditions 
 that have borne good fruit in a thousand ways. 
 
 We, of Kentucky, appraise him now, and can say, 
 — "Long live Abraham Lincoln!" 
 
 The reputation of Mr. Lincoln does not suffer in 
 what we are about to say of his chief opponent, 
 Stephen A. Douglas. 
 
 On the one hand there was Phillips who would 
 not trade the cause of the Union for a kind of reli- 
 gion in which he thought that he might make the 
 people believe he was a stout and faithful defender. 
 Phillips simply lied. He was merely a crusader. 
 There was the destestable Chase close on his trail 
 with the doctrine of hypocrisy that there was a 
 sublimer origin for undoing the protection to slave- 
 ry than law. Mr. Lincoln could not go so far, yet 
 
336 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 he was on the narrow edge at times, of merely, dis- 
 sent. At other times he was on solid ground with 
 Clay's doctrine as his mouthpiece and guide. 
 
 So long as the Democratic party stood on the 
 rights of the states with the spirit of national unity, 
 it was on safe ground, but when it departed to make 
 the Democratic basis a slave basis, its undoing was 
 in sight. And so, the Republican party, standing 
 on the wooden crutch of fanaticism and slavery de- 
 nunciation, it was even a poorer substitute as a na- 
 tional political creed for the people. They were 
 driven by the poverty of thought to abandon men 
 and measures that required clear thinking and sound 
 understanding. They abandoned men like Douglas 
 and Crittenden, and chose men like Breckenridge 
 and Lincoln as a last choice, each, of extremities, 
 hazardous to liberty, travelling in opposite direc- 
 tions. 
 
 Douglas veering back to safe ground, yet embar- 
 rassed by the Jefferson Davis position, proposed 
 finally to land where he should have started from — 
 free soil for slaves, if the people so voted, and if the 
 people renounce slavery ownership, then the insti- 
 tution in that state was without the protection of 
 the Constitution except to return the slaves to the 
 states whence they came. 
 
 Douglas pursued Lincoln with persistent and 
 brilliant logic, lacking himself the sound position on 
 which he might have taken a permanent stand. 
 When he quoted Lincoln's New York speech to the 
 effect that neither he nor Jefferson meant to say that 
 the power of emancipation is in the Federal Govern- 
 ment, and Douglas asked him if it was upon this 
 ground he wished to found his position, Lincoln 
 was driven to say, that a house divided against it- 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 3 37 
 
 self could not stand, in order to hold the fanatical 
 followers of the East and West, pledged to resolve 
 slavery out of the protection of law, regardless of 
 the Constitution. 
 
 Douglas was the worthy successor of Clay, 
 Choate and Webster. There was no other sound 
 ground than to allow the territories to control 
 slavery as they with sufficient population came into 
 the Union. It is hardly possible to see the two op' 
 posite prevailing idiocies of the times outdistancing 
 Mr. Douglas' final position. There is this to be said 
 for the South, that it was inflamed by scurrilous 
 pamphleteers advising all kinds of treacheries, and 
 this character of campaigning was not only per' 
 mitted by the government but winked at by most 
 of the men of the North in public office. 
 
 Douglas would have reached his deserts in history 
 had he not unfortunately labored under the dis' 
 agreeable duty of having to differ with his party in 
 the South, and to defend himself against the enemies 
 of the party while refusing to defend the majority 
 opinion. That was his undoing as a national char' 
 acter, and for this reason he has lost his rightful posi' 
 tion as a great statesman in an hour when the judg' 
 ment of fanaticism prevailed rather than the wisdom 
 of thinking men. 
 
 It is to be said of him more than of any man of his 
 period, he will grow in stature, as he is studied, and 
 measure up finally as a bulwark and a rock of rescue 
 which secured the nation against fanatics in the 
 North and wild, intemperate, unstatesmanlike pol' 
 iticians of the South. 
 
Part II 
 
A FOREWORD TO PART II 
 
 The incentive to complete and hand the 
 facts contained in Part One of this story to 
 the public, would not in itself have been suf- 
 ficient to justify its publication, although few 
 would agree with the author in this conclusion. 
 Part Two, which follows, in his opinion, is 
 very important, though severe, and as a rule, 
 the reader of biography would not be in- 
 terested in what is said in the second part of 
 the work. In the first place the average in- 
 dividual would say, that the second discussion 
 contains matter unrelated to the field of bio- 
 graphy, and as an application of Lincoln prin- 
 ciples it is unfair to our present public service, 
 to industrial relations, and the political se- 
 quence of such relations. Then we would find 
 those who would say that the writer is entire- 
 ly too caustic and unfair to the present day 
 Christian organizations, the administration of 
 the law, and the administration of public af- 
 fairs. We have, therefore, divided the story 
 into two parts. 
 
 We have no desire to inflict our opinion on 
 the public, in a work of this character, nor to 
 
 341 
 
342 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 connect such opinions with the oustanding 
 immensity of the Lincoln movement in the 
 United States, but he happens to have had 
 such experience as leads him safely to the con- 
 viction that severe treatment must be dealt 
 out to those, who have approached these prob- 
 lems with arrogance and with a disbelieve air. 
 Present conditions support and verify his 
 opinions, and his long experience and service 
 in public bodies, in some of which he has by 
 impeachment charges, proven more than he 
 believed himself possible in the beginning, 
 make it very necessary at this time, and by this 
 occasion to disavow such friendly critics, on 
 the ground that they do not know. 
 
 If a reader will get and digest his experience 
 in the world war, Mark Henry, he will un- 
 derstand just why he has at least reached the 
 conclusion that Americans must get very busy 
 to save our countrymen by the intellectual 
 sword, from the enemies of liberty, within 
 and not without. 
 
 In the next few years, we will have serious 
 agitation from the. Communist, against our 
 form of government, and there has already 
 been inflicted, severe and lasting wounds on 
 our Democracy by the Tories who assume a 
 certain disdaining of Democratic principles, 
 while openly professing them. Between the 
 two classes, we are suffering, and will suffer 
 more. That is the drive of dictatorship, al- 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 343 
 
 ready strongly entrenched in America, sup- 
 ported by social autocrats and business greed. 
 
 No real American wants to see either pre- 
 vail, and the writer is sure, one or the other 
 will prevail, for the clear reason that Democ- 
 racy is now rapidly progressing backwards — 
 the Democracy of Mr. Lincoln. 
 
 The Church, most of all, should be the 
 champion of this position, but an examination 
 of the facts will prove that Christianity as a 
 whole has its hands tied, first by the powerful 
 influence of money, and secondly, by the blind 
 prejudice of all creeds which have been warped 
 in vision by sharp competition and by the 
 natural impact of the times in which we live. 
 There is a vast difference between living 
 by God, walking in the way of His Truth, 
 and in worshipping Him by proxy; and it is 
 this worship by proxy which has driven us 
 away from the real Master — the soul of life. 
 
 The writer, too, has no desire to see the nar- 
 row views of the proletariat, with its lower 
 levels of citizenship, obtain a foothold in 
 America, on the theory that it is better, this, 
 than monopoly. The only safe way to defeat 
 Communism is to fight it with a reason, and 
 Democracy is the only safe and certain reason 
 to bring to the front. 
 
 The certain decadence of the law profes- 
 sion, by, and on account of the laws of self- 
 
344 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 preservation, which applies to lawyers, has 
 wrought its downfall as a safeguard. 
 
 As we have the Christianity of our fathers 
 and the law profession of our fathers bleeding 
 to death by the sting of this adder of selfish 
 privilege, we must now go to the great open 
 spaces where the common mind of the average 
 man awaits an appeal, to better his condition, 
 and find his proper place in the world. 
 
 With this understanding, the reader will 
 find the author's excuse for injecting his views, 
 on these questions, into such a work. This 
 frankness, we think, will appeal to those who 
 disagree with him, and who will say, his views 
 are extreme, and his facts out of proportion to 
 present conditions. Maybe so. We shall see. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 LINCOLN ON LABOR AND CAPITAL 
 
 T ABOR is prior to and independent of capital. 
 Capital is only the fruit of labor and could 
 not have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor 
 is the superior of capital and deserves higher con- 
 sideration. And inasmuch as most things have been 
 produced by labor, it follows that all such things 
 belong of right to those whose labor has produced 
 them. But it so happened in all ages that some have 
 labored and others have, without labor, enjoyed a 
 large portion of the fruits. This is wrong and should 
 not continue. To secure to each laborer the whole 
 products of his labor, as nearly as possible, is a 
 worthy object of any government." 
 
 The foregoing quotation would be regarded as 
 the rankest kind of socialism today had it not the 
 name of Abraham Lincoln behind it. The facts, 
 however, as they are produced in 1931, demonstrate 
 the wisdom of the man we call, Lincoln of the ages. 
 That he foresaw the coming of bad events must be 
 clear to the average man who reads his first and 
 second inaugural addresses. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln understood the Tory theory of gov- 
 ernment, and he knew that this vigilant and untiring 
 minority was very certain in the future to devise 
 ways and means at Washington to circumvent the 
 equal distribution of the earnings of labor. He fore 
 
 345 
 
346 LINCOLN AND THE LINGOLNS 
 
 saw that legislation would drive money into the 
 hands of a few men, and he wanted history to record 
 the formula of distribution, as he understood it. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln had never lived in New York or Lon' 
 don. If he could have transferred his four years in 
 the White House to Forty-second Street and Broad' 
 way or Wall Street, from 1926 to 1930, his dream of 
 certain anguish of mind would have been realised. 
 
 When we allude to New York, we include the 
 environs of the great city. These environs lie in 
 every state Legislature of most of the populated 
 states in the Union. They include the banking and 
 manufacturing business of America. They include 
 the public utilities, exploited under franchises 
 granted by virtue of rights filched from the people 
 by and through corrupt politicians, bowing to the 
 party yoke whose members, at the time, called them" 
 selves statesmen. They were but the paid vassals 
 of the money-mad great of the nation. Legislation 
 granted the monopoly, and money and executives of 
 the Tories did the rest. 
 
 Let us take New York as a unit of what we have 
 in the great whole. In New York, they have stricken 
 from the Ten Commandments, "thou shalt not 
 steal, 11 and they have substituted the words, "steal 
 within the law," and the "Law" is made to benefit 
 the business of separating the unwary from their 
 money. "To be or not to be," we learned from the 
 ancient Shakespeare! that, too, has been eliminated 
 with the prepossessing words — "take all and give 
 nothing." The law is but a piece meal, patclvwork' 
 crazyquilt constructed to aid the lawless — the big 
 and respectable lawless. 
 
 The police frame the framers and the framers 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 347 
 
 frame the innocent. The law profession, the med' 
 ical profession are both operating a system within 
 the law. The lawyer takes you into his confidence, 
 loses your confidence somewhere between the mael- 
 strom of graft and the courts, to find that your road 
 to success depends, not on justice, but on his stand- 
 ing in the high light society of graft. Men who lost 
 their money under the system, inclined to talk, go 
 to jail on some pretext, and if they get out, their 
 testimony is branded with the taint of the jail-bird. 
 You may suffer there for the highest principles of 
 American Justice and Liberty, as our forebears knew 
 it, but in the end, the system marks you as a crim- 
 inal. 
 
 Go to the hospitals where the last dying breath is 
 moaned, and the last dollar taken from the victim. 
 There you find a poor working girl in a crowded 
 room paying fifty dollars a week; to nurses, ten dol- 
 lars a day, bleeding her life into the tomb of 
 death, dripping the dollars her hard hands and be- 
 numbed brain has earned in a sweat-shop for the mas- 
 ters of the Roll. And then if you look around, you 
 will find the charities begging and driving for money 
 to maintain the worthy cause of caring for the sick- 
 poor, stretched in these miserable places, cold and 
 bloodless — and graft is taking its toll under the 
 forms of law and within the law. 
 
 The doctors, to add to the patient's misery have 
 taken an X-ray picture a day at twenty dollars "per 
 take, 11 in order that their dull brains may find some 
 excuse for more and more "observation tests, 11 until 
 at last, when the last drop is drained, the poor vic- 
 tim is told that there is nothing to be done — he or 
 she must die; and in many cases they go, but some- 
 times God, in his infinite care, pulls the child of his 
 
348 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 own through the filth and graft to sunshine, health 
 and happiness. 
 
 To stand before a high court and plead the law 
 and the facts, and strike out boldly to sense the Jus- 
 tice of the Court, you would be regarded today as a 
 fool. Who have you seen? Who, for you, has 
 passed up the word — this man is a friend of Peter 
 Donnigan of the Second Ward. Peter may have 
 been a fishmonger on Front Street, until he fell into 
 the elect of politics, but Peter made the Judge, and 
 as Peter is not provided with a job by the Legislature, 
 he has turned interpreter for the Courts at so much 
 per case, payable in advance in cash — no checks. 
 
 Go to the Barber Shop and pay for a shave, but 
 fail if you will to check out to the barber an addi- 
 tional fifty per cent, and then to the hat girl an addi' 
 tional twenty, and find how unpleasantly you will be 
 regarded later when you return. 
 
 Buy a dinner, and fail to tip the waiter twenty- 
 five per cent of your meal, and watch the reception 
 you get when you return. 
 
 Go to the theatre or picture show and find seats 
 from five to ten dollars, to hear nimble-legged Sally 
 throw a fit of wit, or one dollar and a half to see 
 calf -kneed Mary amble through a picture. Step into 
 a gown shop on Fifth Avenue and get a taste of what 
 one hundred and fifty per cent profit is. 
 
 Deposit your money in one of the big banks, and 
 in case you need money, you can only borrow against 
 the cash deposit. Borrow ten thousand, but leave 
 twenty-five hundred of that on deposit or else you 
 are not wanted, and your name, if you withdraw, is 
 on the black-list of all of the banks. It's a racket, 
 banking is, purely today. Pay twentyseven and 
 thirty cents for a quart of milk when the poor 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 349 
 
 farmer is getting sixteen cents a gallon. That's a 
 racket. 
 
 Walk into a shine shop and pay ten cents for a 
 shine, but fail if you will to give the poor hired man 
 ten cents, half of which the house gets. 
 
 Go to a department store and work, and sell 
 thirteen hundred dollars' worth of its cheap mer' 
 chandise, and get twenty-five dollars per week on 
 a forty per cent profit markup; out of a gross profit 
 of forty per cent, the poor girl gets two per cent. 
 
 If you need money temporarily go to the middle 
 bank shark, and for fifty dollars, pay thirty-three and 
 a third per cent interest and bonus, with the best 
 collateral in the world. Nobody stops it for the law 
 is with them. 
 
 This surely is done within the law, but who runs 
 the law — who drives the machine? 
 
 Lincoln said it was the business of government to 
 see that the laborer got the real product of his labor. 
 
 We have Senators in Congress and Members in 
 the Congress, but who knows anything about what 
 they are doing? They have also a Legislature, but 
 what does it do but make more laws, that the system 
 may take its toll under the plea of working the shell 
 game strictly within the law. 
 
 Go to the million-dollar churches of New York, 
 pay your pew rent at good figures or get out to the 
 halls and by-ways, and there hand over your nickels 
 — take your chance. 
 
 New York is the dream place of avarice, the 
 Avatar of greed and the scourge of God's wrath, as 
 in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. Who answers 
 for it? Nobody but the RACKETEER. Read the 
 Press — picture the free rein the gangster has — the 
 big gangster, who owns government not policemen. 
 
3 50 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 Millions have been drained to New York banks 
 from the country banks, until a single bank has more 
 money than Indiana and Kentucky, and ten others 
 have more than the states west of the Missouri River. 
 Built on a system that the great Lincoln foresaw 
 would trouble his countrymen and endanger liberty 
 — this is what you may see here in New York. 
 
 Tammany Hall is the best known and best abused 
 of New York Institutions, but of all things of New 
 York, Tammany is its redeeming institution. Tani' 
 many Hall is not bloodless. It runs its system, it 
 is asserted like the old time gambler in the West, for 
 every dollar bet on a call it gets a dime. Tammany 
 gets its dime, so say its critics. Justice is there, and 
 you get Justice if you pay at a price the victim can 
 stand. If you are framed, the framing is easily broken 
 with a little cash. All this you may read in the daily 
 press. 
 
 But we should not overlook Washington, while 
 we pause to mention Tammany Hall. 
 
 Let us see how many of the last President's policies 
 were carried out. None. He flunked with the 
 farmers, in his promises made to the people. He 
 flunked with the working man. He flunked on Mus- 
 cles Shoals, on his tariff and foreign policy combined. 
 He seems not to know what execution means — he 
 calls Conferences, not of thinking men but of rich 
 men. 
 
 The public utilities paid into campaign funds a 
 might, enough to elect him. Men like Ford, who 
 collects in profits, for three in a family, the tidy sum 
 of eighty millions, were out and in the open flaunting 
 the Prohibition issue, stirring up the poor church 
 folk, easily ensnared by their leaders into the belief 
 that we would have a Sodomized Republic bowing to 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 3 5 1 
 
 the King of Boose and Catholicism; and finally they 
 brought them baggage and bag into the fold of the 
 great interests and they were voted as the dumb 
 cattle are driven. 
 
 Ten million dollars to run a campaign is not much 
 money if you can use the arm of the government to 
 get it back. Either party will bow the pregnant 
 hinges of the knee of politics to get into power, that 
 they may serve masters that pay well. The man 
 who mounts the soap box of protest in democratic 
 Mississippi is immediately denounced as a Com' 
 munist and goes to jail just as quickly as his brother 
 in the North who does the same thing. You are not 
 a patriot until you submit to everything that eman' 
 ates from Washington, D. C. Woodrow Wilson 
 was just as bad in his day and just as autocratic as 
 another woodenhead President we could name — but 
 we will not do that; we will strike at the system. 
 
 In the meantime, as Lincoln thought and believed, 
 one hundred and ten millions of our population are 
 losing their business, losing gradually their respect 
 for law, and are ready to entertain any kind of rabid 
 and unsound philosophy, while six millions or more 
 starve and beg in the street. Misery is misery, and 
 everywhere its cry is, "give me a job or give me 
 death." They are not going to die. They are go' 
 ing to live, but they must open wide their eyes to 
 the health of the republic and they must restore it, 
 the one hundred and ten million — they are common 
 men and women of the Republic who comprise no 
 part of Communism or Socialism or the gaudy'inad 
 rich. They are Lincoln's people. 
 
 We are tired of making annually millionaires in 
 America, and we are going to stop it. Abraham 
 Lincoln would have stopped it with the simple for' 
 
352 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 mula quoted in the beginning of this chapter. Give 
 to labor that which it earns. LONG LIVE ABRA- 
 HAM LINCOLN! 
 
 The personal application may seem unjust but the 
 basis of it is made up from actual facts published 
 nation-wide in the press and from personal contact 
 of the writer. 
 
 He has sought to test out the greater financial in' 
 terests by personally visiting heads of many big busi- 
 ness institutions, that he might point out to them the 
 importance of changing their attitude toward the 
 masses, if such change seemed desirable or was ne- 
 cessary. Founded on their reasoning he has been 
 able to reach the following conclusions. 
 
 The universal refusal to aid in establishing a Na- 
 tional Memorial to Lincoln and the Lincolns — a 
 live teaching Lincoln school. 
 
 The danger today is not from without but from 
 within. There are two contributing forces, one as 
 dangerous as the other, and both working against 
 the principles of Republican government, and 
 neither caring about it, the salvation of present in- 
 stitutions — they are scared about the gold standard 
 only a little bit. 
 
 The Communist believes in mass ownership and 
 a dictatorship of workers, monarchistic in itself. The 
 second is the Industrial Communist who believes in 
 the extreme power of capital, and capital control of 
 every form of wealth, massed in the form of corpor- 
 ations, with legislative assistance to gather the net 
 earnings of the great body of the people. This In- 
 dustrial Communist nominally comes from the cor- 
 poration, actually owned by the great banking insti- 
 tutions. 
 
 Solicitation from these heads for aid to renew 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 3 5 3 
 
 agitation that Lincoln's principles might be appealed 
 to as a safety valve against radical agitation, 
 FOUND NO RESPONSE WHATEVER. The 
 sentiment was negligible. Some of them frankly told 
 the writer they were not interested in Lincoln or Lin' 
 coin's principles. The country had advanced too far 
 to give heed to these plain remedies for evils arising. 
 It would take a stronger force than the evaluated 
 doctrines of Mr. Lincoln. Others were not so bold 
 but reached the same nice conclusion. They said 
 their budget would not allow such financial aid; still 
 others believed in laws that would jail for life peace 
 ful agitators for a change of our administration of 
 laws. What we needed was a greater restriction of 
 the Press and Speech, and an Army and Navy com- 
 mensurate with the danger of disturbing present 
 conditions, when such arose. Others would not 
 discuss their reasons or give any, but their refusal 
 was just as flat. Some advocated an industrial 
 dictatorship. 
 
 The writer considers such men enemies of free 
 speech and free government. Their grounds of ob' 
 jection flow from the same autocracy of opinion and 
 power. They are just as unreasonable as the rabid 
 Communist. On the one hand they claimed prog' 
 ress had carried us beyond the principles of govern' 
 ment as applied by Jefferson and Lincoln. The 
 Communist, of course, derides all forms of govern' 
 ment except a pure dictatorship, the abolition of all 
 property rights, and the reduction of citizenship to 
 a social and economic equality to be determined by 
 leaders selected by their chosen workers from time 
 to time, suffrage being dependent upon support of 
 such a state with such extraordinary powers. 
 
 Ten of the largest banking institutions in the 
 
3 54 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 East declined to give aid to the Lincoln School — a 
 national institute, in a nice excuse, framed by selfish 
 but velvet words. 
 
 I made these visits to determine actually the state 
 of mind of big business, and I argued that forms of 
 government had always meant everything to 
 Liberty, but they smirkingly found words to deny 
 such reasoning. 
 
 To the writer it seemed that they sat back with 
 the power they already had acquired, believing that 
 they could perpetuate that power through control 
 of politics, and through the ignorant mass of voters, 
 whose prejudice might be appealed to on other mat' 
 ters wholly immaterial to any economic change. I 
 have thought wise to inform the American people 
 of these views, given to me in an unguarded mo' 
 ment, not visualising what actual practical use I 
 might make of them in surrounding Lincoln's name 
 with the vibrant and present dangers to Liberty in 
 America, so I have chosen to add to this book a list 
 of these names in a memorial page dedicated to the 
 cause of research devoted to Lincoln and the Truth. 
 
 I did not know Abraham Lincoln, but I have 
 visited with enough of his relatives, and read enough 
 about him to know that he was no snob nor the son 
 or grandson of a snob. But if Abraham had been 
 living his life over again and had become acquainted 
 with a certain Democratic Mayor of New York and 
 a certain President of the United States, he would 
 have decided that snobbery was the prevailing 
 fashion in America's greatest city and in America's 
 capitol in the land of his Democracy. 
 
 What we find here in high office is just what the 
 cowboys in the writer's youthful days used to shoot 
 the curls from in order to test both their risibles and 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 355 
 
 their marksmanship. Lincoln himself, we think, 
 would have enjoyed the same kind of sport because 
 he would find the woods full of them. 
 
 I like to write counts in my indictment, so here 
 is one. 
 
 In the national capital, a thief can steal your 
 purse and run away with it, but if you are lucky 
 enough to over-take him and identify him, and are 
 able to haul him into court, it is a complete defense 
 if he files as a fact, that you are a Communist; 
 he does not have to prove it, he simply says 
 so and smirkingly insinuates that you have grass- 
 roots in your hair or hayseed in your socks. That 
 is also a good defense in the City of New York 
 against any thieving game you can think of, and it 
 is an absolute defense against pilfering the public 
 treasury, provided there is anything left after the 
 "Bureaucracy" gets through rocking it. Any critic 
 of graft is considered a radical or Communist. 
 
 New York wants to have a President, not to 
 imitate Lincoln, but to put the hydraulic brakes on 
 the principles of Jesus Christ. They have already 
 done it in the churches, and now they would like 
 to do it at Washington. What we really need in 
 Washington once again, is a ham and egg president, 
 and a CABINET that has been to a fish fry or a 
 grand moonshine ball in the mountains — something 
 to acquaint them with real life. 
 
 A poor girl's mother asks that Mass be said for 
 her daughter on the day of her death, and she is told 
 the lowest Mass that can be sold on the menu, is 
 thirty-five per, payable in advance — that is a new 
 wrinkle on Jesus Christ and Mary the Mother. But 
 the writer was told this was the universal rule when 
 he made the inquiry; well, he came near falling out 
 
3 56 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 of the fifth story of his hotel, because the woman he 
 loves best believes in that clan. 
 
 He immediately made arrangements with an 
 insurance company to stack away thirty'five, so 
 that when his good wife passed away she would be 
 sure of prayer that was paid for in advance, and 
 would ring the door bell of the Great One above so 
 that he could admit the proud spirit of the writer's 
 devoted spouse without being annoyed with a bill 
 collector later on in the programme. What chance 
 has a very poor man to gratify his Christian inclina' 
 tions under such an administration? 
 
 We need a president also who can hitch his own 
 horse, even if it is made by Ford — less talk, more 
 Democracy. 
 
 Everytime a rumor goes flying around Washington 
 about something, they immediately have a Commis' 
 sion appointed to see if the rumor, first, is a rumor, 
 and second, if there is any fire behind it. Well, if 
 there is fire, then they call in a great man who grew 
 from a smutty nubbin of corn up in New York, has 
 spent his life herding a few slick dimes, and has 
 finally graduated into a tenant capitalist — then they 
 send him out Fishing to see if he can find evidence 
 of red, if he naturally sees red, it is much easier to 
 find red. Well, he generally returns and is ready to 
 prove, if it should, in the course of a few Congresses 
 become necessary, that the Communist started the 
 fire and what is more, there are plenty of these 
 torches in every black cat owner's back yard. They 
 have corralled a great issue at Washington, and that 
 is an excuse to raise the ante of the taxpayers — save 
 the Country from the political Communist for the 
 the Capitalistic Communist. 
 
 The raising of the taxpayer's ante is an incidental 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 357 
 
 of patriotism but it is just as important as patriotism 
 itself, only it soaks in a little deeper each year, and 
 finally it will get to be a cancerous running sore that 
 will stop all of the throw-off valves of Mr. Taxpayer, 
 and as and when the valves cease to function I am 
 sorely afraid the taxpayer will lose some of his pa- 
 triotism, which is a virulent disease, and makes him 
 a second-hand nuisance next to a Communist. 
 
 The people have lost their morale and are un- 
 moral as a race — their religion with its fine old super- 
 stitions has gone down to a dollar basis — and their 
 dignity, they have consigned it to the dressmaker 
 and tailor. They are travelling fast, spending and 
 being spent. They are running away from their 
 creditors in one case and after money in every other 
 case. They are willing to trade ideals, morals and 
 Christianity for cash in many cases and they spend it 
 when they get it to be "high-lifed" and to live high. 
 Some of their Bishops not only sell their religion and 
 themselves, but they include their church following 
 for paltry sums in presidential elections to monopol- 
 istic bidders, if we are to believe the press. 
 
 They will give you only pennies to exploit the 
 principles of Lincoln, one of our two greatest Amer- 
 icans. They are headed toward the Bourbons and 
 may enjoy Hell and high water before they reach 
 the end of their terrible fight. 
 
 More poverty, more class legislation, more crimes, 
 more judges to try, and more prosecutors to perse- 
 cute the ignorant and unfortunate; that is the rem- 
 edy of the fine theorists that monopoly buys to 
 re-write annually their creed — let us not lie about 
 it, for it is upon us — the truth of it. 
 
 Autocracy used to stand in the park in front of 
 the Capitol at Washington; today, it rides through 
 
3 58 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 the White House, spurred and fashioned to suit the 
 smirk and pilfering owners who make presidents, 
 and one party is as bad as the other, and who dares 
 deny its commands. 
 
 Boldly and calmly it waits to ride over the prec" 
 ipice where it will no longer find in the valley below 
 a common man marking his way by the sweat 
 of his brow, but a servile race of beggars and dole 
 supplicants who once represented a great race of 
 independent, hardworking Americans. What has 
 caused the change? 
 
 Ask the great banks; ask the President of the 
 United States; ask their fido economists, and if they 
 will write a sound reason why America is bankrupt 
 in dollars and morals, then we will all bow down and 
 lick the sores of the Lasaruses that remain with us. 
 My answer is, that they have abandoned Abraham 
 Lincoln's principles, lock, stock, barrel, body and 
 breeches, apolo2;iging for the failure of Democracy. 
 
 The writer has been in Wall Street for many 
 years. He needs not quote what he is required to 
 know himself. If forms of government, on the Lin" 
 coin formula mean nothing to the masses, then why 
 debate about forms of government or denounce 
 Monarchy or Communism? Any kind of govern" 
 ment will do, for if, in fact, we abandon a govern" 
 ment BY THE PEOPLE, then the quicker we get to 
 the dump heap, the better off we surely will be. 
 
 A gentleman, the writer regards highly for his 
 honesty, who was in the know of the present de" 
 pression, informed him recently (told him months 
 before it blew in, to keep out of the street, it was on 
 its road, cooked and prepared) that his house boss 
 had cleaned up $70,000,000 in cash and his house 
 $300,000,000 by virtue of the depression, and pre" 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 3 59 
 
 ceding it. It commenced in 1927 to accumulate 
 stocks at an average cost of forty-seven dollars per 
 share and by pools and market making Bull methods 
 put the stock up to one hundred and forty-one dol- 
 lars, when the last was unloaded; and that the aver- 
 age was better in profit than seventy-five dollars per 
 share. That at this last conversation the house was 
 buying back most of these stocks at an average of 
 twenty-eight dollars per share. That was how they 
 made the $300,000,000 from the stock sucker 
 buyers. I asked him if he did not consider that, high 
 way tactics; and his response was, that it was en- 
 tirely legal and within the law, and common busi' 
 ness practice. 
 
 The average investor is ignorant, and he is ad- 
 vised by his "Better Business Bureau 1 ' to go and 
 consult his banker before investing his money; that 
 in practical effect is to have him make the bank his 
 investing agent. The banker puts him in the stock 
 sent to him for distribution by the ORIGINATING 
 head of the syndicate in New York, and at a ficti- 
 tious market maintained during the unloading pro- 
 cess on the "sucker" market. When the stock is all 
 sold out and distributed, the crash comes in, natur- 
 ally, or by a regularly organized system until it is 
 very low, and his banker advises him to sell. He 
 does sell and pockets his loss. Consequently, every 
 bank has a Securities Department to pull the chest- 
 nuts through the fire, so that the bank may not be 
 accused. The bank passes to the Security market 
 the names of its depositors who have money, and 
 the work is done. 
 
 Such stocks on the New York Exchange, regard- 
 less of their value, are exempt from control by the 
 "Blue Sky" laws of the states, a law usually propa- 
 
360 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 gandaed by Trade Journals, and the Banks, or "Bet' 
 ter Business Bureaus, 11 owned by the banks, and 
 certain business interests controlled by them, 
 directly or indirectly. The entire machinery is now 
 in fine working condition in America, and it was 
 organised to take the American masses for a ride. 
 $90,000,000,000 of such securities were sold in less 
 than five years, now worth, and most of it re-pur- 
 chased, or in the process of re-purchase, for less than 
 $'25,000,000,000. Who got the money? Al Ca- 
 pone or the respectable house who gives out daily 
 advice on sound business principles? Al should be 
 commended by the bankers for his modesty and 
 moderation. 
 
 The writer has in mind a common stock, syndic- 
 ated for thirty-nine dollars per share, sponsored by 
 a big house in the street, that they are now buying 
 back for six and a half. Who lost the thirty-two 
 dollars and fifty cents? The "suckers 11 of our great 
 land. Poor old Capone, he would not suffer in the 
 comparison as an honest hold-up man. 
 
 Who made the panic? Secretary Mellon says it 
 flowed over from the war fifteen years ago. In part 
 he is right. Myron Treaylor, President of a lead- 
 ing bank in Chicago, a high authority, says that the 
 bankers brought it, organised it, and fanned it, so 
 to speak. Indictment from high authority. That 
 it was done by inducing the public to buy stocks at 
 a price of inflated values, knowing what was com- 
 ing. My friend informed me the process was 
 "within the law, 11 and a matter of pure business, 
 though Al Capone he imagined got "his 11 without 
 the law. What difference to the victim? Who will 
 stop it? Nobody in Congress, for he fears the big 
 banks. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 361 
 
 Give the writer a few months in Congress and a 
 free hand, and he will stop it with teeth in a law 
 that will shut out the sunlight. It cannot be done? 
 Well, he would stop the machinery of the govern' 
 ment or it would be done, or he would make it the 
 issue of the century. There is no kidding or joking, 
 to use street parlance; it must be done to save years 
 of future suffering and dishonesty within the law. 
 
 If you have not confidence in the banks of your 
 community, where will you place your confidence? 
 These are the institutions that have done the work, 
 and the big banks today that borrow and loan and 
 rediscount to the Federal Reserve could be proven 
 guilty with the goods on them. The banks that 
 were out of the ring, they usually went down, and 
 thousands of them went that way — are, as I write, 
 still going, victims of the system. 
 
 If you read these lines, take the first words of 
 this chapter to your banker, but first ask him if he 
 believes in the principles of Lincoln. If he says yes, 
 hand it over for him to read; then ask him if he has 
 a Securities Department, and if he answers yes, get 
 him to explain to you where he gets his securities, 
 and you will get him every time with the goods on. 
 Securities' departments must be divorced from the 
 banks. 
 
 "Stop, Look and Listen," is a familiar phrase. 
 
 Billions each year are taken away from the people 
 in this way; cowardly and ignorant politicians have 
 permitted it, and the people under God alone, and 
 a brave, honest and unselfish leader only, can stop it. 
 If it is not stopped, wait some opportune hour, and 
 see the blood flow, and the riots that follow it. If 
 you have a heart in your breast or a soul in your 
 head, take courage that honest and good men are 
 
362 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 a-plenty in America; and this position I advocate is 
 sustainable without believing for one moment in 
 either Socialism or Communism. 
 
 Read of Thomas Jefferson and his great pupil, 
 Abraham Lincoln, then write your formula, change 
 ing nothing but the date from 1862 to 1931 as to 
 Lincoln, and you may ignore the dates for Jefferson, 
 who said quite enough each year of his noble life, 
 to guide the nation to safety. 
 
 That very question must be left to you, not to 
 Lincoln or Jefferson, or Jackson, for they have 
 passed; not certainly to Hoover or Smith, for if 
 either had the inspiration or ability, they would 
 have forecast the issue, and opened the glorious 
 road to freeing the white race from certain anguish 
 and slavery in the coming years, far more frightful 
 in suffering than the black race ever endured before 
 Lincoln's time. 
 
 The campaign of 1928 indicated our mental pov- 
 erty in America. I offer it as Exhibit One. 
 
 One candidate stood for poorer liquor at higher 
 prices (bootlegging) subject to Protestant denomin- 
 ational approval; the other stood for better liquor at 
 lower prices, subject to government approval. The 
 latter on this issue lost out because it was suspi- 
 cioned that the Catholic persuasion might have the 
 inside track on distribution. If this indictment is 
 not true, why do the racketeering bootleggers carry 
 on in face of the present law? 
 
 Malevolence is often the partner of ignorance, and 
 the best advertised fool in America, as a presiden- 
 tial candidate, may be made to look like real material 
 for statesmanship. However, give him the acid test 
 of defending what ideas he has and his weakness 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 363 
 
 develops quickly, and his knowledge flies away like 
 the morning dew under the sun rays. 
 
 The last Republican candidate, at close range, 
 was the nescient dilettante of a depressing political 
 age, unwitted and unfitted to meet the exigencies 
 heading for eruption. 
 
 The Democratic candidate was equally immobile 
 to the intellectual requirements of his countrymen. 
 He came from the ordinary walks of life, but was 
 quickly seised with a hi'hatric disease which prod- 
 uces such diaphanous illusions as to develop self' 
 evaluation to the point of complete eclipse of the 
 real scientific questions that are troubling the con' 
 science of his country. 
 
 There are fifteen thousand speakeasies in New 
 York City alone. Let us assume that each speak' 
 easy gives up only five hundred dollars graft per 
 week, which we said for a guess, is divided between 
 the police and prohibition officers; this means an an' 
 nual sum of three hundred and fifty million per an' 
 num for graft. I have been informed by an Admin' 
 istrator that commercial alcohol permits run into 
 about twentyfive per cent of liquor grafts, which 
 source of liquor finds its way into the wholesale bus' 
 iness. In New York City and environs, he estim' 
 ated this meant a sum of at least fifty million per 
 annum. He has openly said this money finds its way 
 into the hands of political bosses who use it for 
 campaign purposes; in plain language, to corrupt the 
 electorate and insure such men in office as will guar* 
 antee a continuation of the business. 
 
 It has been charged that a politician paid over 
 money to the actual head of a great Protestant dc 
 nomination collected from some source, and he has 
 openly admitted he got the money, but refused un' 
 
364 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 der supposed guarantees of the Constitution to dis' 
 close what he did with the money, though that is 
 privately known to have been spent for a president 
 tial candidate. An investigating Committee of 
 Congress, fearful of his church following, have 
 cowered under his refusal to divulge and under the 
 influence of powerful interests and their political go' 
 betweens, so that the arm of Congress has been para' 
 lysed. A courageous man in Congress, indifferent to 
 consequences, could expose all of this rottenness. 
 
 It is known that these bootlegging politicians have 
 dominated Illinois politics, and it was publicly stated 
 in the Press of the day that one hundred million of 
 dollars was available for this corruption fund when 
 and as it was necessary. 
 
 If we take a pencil and calculate only ten per 
 cent for graft of the sales of "boose" in the United 
 States, three billion per annum, we have three hun- 
 dred million used for corruption purposes. This 
 money goes into the hands of bankers, sometimes 
 ministers of the gospel, occasionally to heads of re' 
 ligious organisations, public speakers under one 
 philanthropic guise and another, political bosses and 
 political machines and to great financial houses who 
 have other interests to conserve, the press and 
 various influential interests, and performs the func 
 tion of destroying honest criticism and investigation. 
 This power, in its evil form, has at its command a 
 horde of criminals who will kill any man or woman 
 who gets in its way, or the way of the men who 
 drive the machine; and that machine is the branch 
 of monopoly engaged in this line of business. This 
 is why racketeering goes on. 
 
 Unless some able and brave man arises in Con' 
 gress, controlled by an agricultural community, 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 365 
 
 there is little chance of a successful campaign against 
 it. Prohibition in itself rightly conducted is to be 
 welcomed, but present conditions develop as they 
 operate its enforcement, a collecting agency for pol" 
 itical crooks and criminals, although we may feel 
 the enforcement bureaus do the best they can under 
 conditions as they find them. The higher up powers 
 who make presidents are the real men who deter' 
 mine policies. 
 
 Men are appointed to places of enforcement on 
 their OK, and ignorance is solicited for these places 
 rather than independence and intelligence. One 
 needs but to interview any one of the vast army of 
 attorneys employed in this department to discover 
 the truth of this averment. There is not a sound, 
 able lawyer of experience in the entire department. 
 The consequence is, if they are honest — and most 
 of them are — any able advocate on the defense side 
 can take advantage of their ignorance, and this has 
 been done so often that the pages of the Federal re 
 ports are full of such instances. 
 
 As we have said, no able, courageous man could 
 get a position under the present administration, and 
 it is not likely any such man could get one under the 
 succeeding administration, for the powers that make 
 presidents would not permit it. 
 
 Liberty is hamstrung, the people are down. Thip 
 ty dollars a barrel beer, and eight dollars per quart 
 whiskey have contributed their share. 
 
 Thus, we come now to look upon Lincoln as an 
 unusual man with characteristics which led some 
 men to believe he was unbalanced when acting alone. 
 The fact of his mental operations being different 
 from the average man caused him to be misjudged; 
 his virtues, they either exaggerated, or his intel' 
 
366 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 ligence, they underrated, according to the point of 
 view of his critics. 
 
 Let us find the REAL Lincoln. "Lincoln," as 
 Owen Cowley said, "was one of our kind of people." 
 Lincoln had all of the typical characteristics of the 
 Mill Creek natives. He had borrowed their ambling, 
 staggering walk; he had their slowness of speech, 
 their accurate judgment, their certainty of opinion, 
 their disinterestedness in other people's business. 
 He hated the Hebraic practices of hypocrisy, inch' 
 ing a foot to get set into a situation, then taking a 
 dosen more feet. He disliked equally the Puritan' 
 ical fanaticism of his day — he was the plain man un' 
 der God's guidance. 
 
 The natural Mill Creeker loved Liberty; they be' 
 lieved in God and had a sound religion, ignorant and 
 rambling though it might seem, but these men knew 
 and understood that Christianity was a man'made 
 institution, while Religion was a matter between 
 God and man, and man always found himself, 
 whether he was christianized in a church of creeds 
 or was walking alone in the wilds of the forest. 
 
 This is a Buddha religion, a communication with 
 God and the Spirit world. 
 
 A man could not be religious without being close 
 to God, while he could be a Christian and be far 
 away from God. Men never die; their Spirit lives 
 with God, and like Lincoln, they converse with God. 
 
 "Raccoon" Smith, a great Baptist'Unitarian 
 preacher at the Mill Creek Church, had said: "Our 
 fathers, in defense of religion, came to hate the 
 Christianity of the Puritanical Protestantism of the 
 Cromwells, and at the same time they held in con' 
 tempt the ritualised powers of God, as claimed by 
 the Popes." 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 367 
 
 "Neither represented Religion nor God; both 
 represented man-made opinion, christianized to suit 
 the evil propensities and purposes of each; both are 
 antagonistic to a free religion or a free country and 
 both must be condemned by those who love God 
 and defend the freedom of men.'" 
 
 Such, in a nut-shell, was the religion of Lincoln, 
 and this is exactly what Mary Todd, his wife, said. 
 ("Mr. Lincoln was religious but not a Christian.") 
 
 His father and mother were neighbors to the 
 church, and followers of the old preacher just men- 
 tioned, famous first as a Baptist and then, as a Unit- 
 arian. 
 
 The people in the district knew the difference be- 
 tween religion — which belongs to God — and Christ- 
 ianity — which was holden to men. The latter was 
 the product of the conception of Christianity or 
 Christ, while the former was the child of God. They 
 could have close relations but often they were very 
 far apart. 
 
 Lincoln believed in Liberty, not government by 
 Force. These factions for ages had contended for 
 the mastery. Government by Force usually ruled by 
 the army, the King or the Emperor. Government 
 by Liberty was a rule established by the common 
 people. Lincoln hated government by Force, and 
 he hated any Christian form or creed born of it or 
 that leaned on it. Liberty and Religion were in- 
 separable terms to him. Christianity and Force had 
 often been one and the same to him. 
 
 Ancestrally speaking, Lincoln came from the 
 "Linkorns," who migrated to England from the 
 tyrannies and unmoral days of the "Mastersingers," 
 in Germany. There, in England, they insurged and 
 insurrected against the Popes and the Kings, invit- 
 
368 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 ing defiance to their authority. The family finally 
 came to the free colony of Massachusetts. 
 
 When this colony leaped to the forefront as an 
 aggressive Puritanical organisation, the Lincolns 
 fled to the free Dutch country of Pennsylvania, 
 where both religion and democracy were unre- 
 strained. To be a Democrat, was to belong to the 
 great common herd; to worship God in your own 
 free way was universal. 
 
 Later, the Lincolns trekked on to Virginia and 
 then to Kentucky, still further away from man-made 
 laws and the hard rules and limitations of civilisa- 
 tion. Whatever the law yoke might be, it was irk- 
 some and a useless burden. 
 
 So that, we have an explanation of the Lincoln 
 character. Abraham Lincoln's religion came from 
 this environment, and he was not unlike the major- 
 ity of the men and women of this section. His skep- 
 ticism or atheism, sometimes referred to, was only 
 based on his depreciation of Christianity as practiced 
 by the creed where men placed their own interpreta- 
 tion on religion according to the creed they be- 
 longed to. This faith or religion gave him the 
 power to see far and to judge only when all of the 
 forces of opinion had been considered by him. 
 Therefore, he was slow to many in his mental pro- 
 cesses. Once advised, however, he saw everything 
 material, enveloped the entire question, and acted 
 promptly. He was brains, advised by the Spirit of 
 "that something superior to the material" self, and 
 he was that much nearer the "perfection of his 
 Father in Heaven." 
 
 Philosophers of this day will admit the operation 
 of this phenomenon. He was close to Truth and 
 Life. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 369 
 
 Lincoln's surroundings were anti'Spiritual. Seward 
 was a narrow, egotistical mentality with limitations, 
 and Stanton was a materialist who could not under' 
 stand men of a high spiritual nature. Stanton did 
 not know one side of Lincoln, and he misconceived 
 his purposes. Stanton was cruel, narrow and 
 stupid, yet he loved power, hated justice and was 
 tyrannical when exercising the slightest authority. 
 
 Chase hated the truth — it got too often in his 
 way, when he wanted to use a lie. He misconceived 
 Religion, and Christianity and Religion were one 
 and the same thing to him. He, therefore, thought 
 Lincoln a fool when he talked of his God. Lincoln 
 could not accept Chase's advice, as he could not 
 accept the advice of another mind, for his mental 
 powers were vastly superior to those he came in con' 
 tact with, so he contented himself with borrowed 
 facts, which he spread out before himself and on 
 these facts he was 100 per cent certain of his 
 ground. 
 
 In a measure, his loneliness was accounted for by 
 his tremendous moving mind; men must be alone to 
 think accurately and well. Thinking men are lone 
 some. 
 
 We once had a Democratic President, so called, 
 since Lincoln's time. He was smart in his preten' 
 sions, brilliant in his mental ensemble; he was in the 
 end puerile, as expressed in final example, which his 
 philosophy produced. If a Republican like Lincoln 
 is democratic, it is by his actions he must be tested. 
 If the Democrat is to be judged a great Democrat, it 
 is by the same test we must find him out. And so, 
 we find the sum of the Democratic presidents reflec 
 tions on the body politic, resulting in an inheritance 
 of diseases as fatal to Liberty as Paganism to the 
 
370 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 conscience of mankind. Woodrow Wilson was not 
 a Democrat. 
 
 Since the funeral of these policies, so named, 
 this great Democrat has been succeeded by a pupil 
 and a proponent whose policies are equally blighting 
 to liberty and prosperity. He now lays the nation's 
 trouble to WAR which he helped to promote and 
 had not the courage to oppose. He puts it on CROP 
 failures for fear war diseases are not quite sufficient, 
 when crop failures in the past left no such sickness 
 to explain present fatalities. But in this last misery 
 he has been most reluctant to extend a Federal hand 
 or contribute the Nation's aid. He also charged it 
 to economic conditions which have long had his 
 personal and official support. As a matter of fact, 
 if you put his ideas in the solvent and judge him by 
 what is left, you will find him one of those men who 
 profess the cloak of Jacob, while wearing threadbare 
 the garment of Esau. 
 
 He gravely imitates the words, not the deeds of 
 his fathers and of Lincoln, while he emulates the 
 philosophies of Industrial Despotism. He talks like 
 a voice from the golden era, while his services seem 
 commanded for the enemies of free government — 
 government by the people. 
 
 He would cure economic success at home by spit' 
 ting in the Soviet's face, let the rebound be what it 
 might. Like his patron saint of war memory, he 
 pours forth an avalanche of syllogisms, while his 
 servants burn out the pillars of the temple that it 
 may fall on the worshippers he has inspired within 
 at the shrine of the people. 
 
 By this good time he should know that Truth and 
 God are one, travelling a destiny marked by time, 
 and that at the cross-roads, he is bound to wreck his 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 371 
 
 caravan of specialised excuses and false remedies; 
 but under all these clever machinations is the Truth 
 mightier than his sword, and behind it, the solidar- 
 ity of Lincoln's principles and Lincoln's common 
 people. Were this not true, we, who believe in 
 them, would have to find a new Moses to lead us 
 through another Red Sea and on to a Land of 
 Promise. 
 
 Lincoln was bitterly criticized because he ap- 
 pointed Chase, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court 
 of the United States, but he had little choice in that 
 matter because it was the question whether he saved 
 the Union or lost it, and Chase being his chief 
 stumbling block, riddance of him was a justifiable act. 
 
 The Presidents, since Lincoln's time, have always 
 been in a mood to listen to the interests of their po- 
 litical backers when making appointments to the 
 Supreme Bench and to the District Courts. They 
 are rarely ever in a mood to consider an appoint- 
 ment from one of Lincoln's common people, who 
 would be au unfettered judge of the Court. 
 
 The writer's experience in Appellate and Trial 
 Courts, and in the Federal Courts, lead him to be' 
 lieve that if Judges are loyal to right administration 
 of justice, they have no fear of the loyalty of Lin- 
 coln's common people, but if they are the "chip- 
 munks" of a.gystem, it is well for the President to 
 call on the people in the name of the few good 
 judges to stand by the Courts so as to cloak all with 
 a halo of righteousness, but such commands would 
 at once excite my suspicion, knowing what I do from 
 experience with the Bench. 
 
 Judges who are appointed to the Bench represent 
 special interests most often, unless it might be in ex- 
 ceptional cases where a man would be so outstand- 
 
372 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 ingly fitted that to refuse his appointment would af * 
 front a great majority of the people. And in some 
 cases, men knowing they cannot secure appoint' 
 ments otherwise, play with the interests until they 
 are appointed and then, when on the Bench, assert 
 their independence. This sometimes happens, but 
 the two classes combined still leave the honest and 
 faithful judges in the minority. The majority may 
 be divided into two classes, those "caught," and 
 those "not caught." 
 
 Large interests know the value a special group in' 
 fluence have on such appointments, and they never 
 fail to exert that influence. I once knew a man ap' 
 pointed to the Federal Bench who had openly dc 
 nounced that President when a candidate, who 
 chose him, and he did everything to defeat his 
 nomination, but the interests forced his appoint' 
 ment, and there he sits as I write. 
 
 A keen lawyer has but to read the opinions of the 
 Appellate Courts to discover the clever turns of 
 points which do not exist in the record, in order to 
 enable a Court to decide the case for the interests 
 which put them on the Bench; it is a rare man who 
 can resist such influence. 
 
 Thus the Judiciary has been corrupted, and will 
 so remain corrupted, and thus will the people, Lin' 
 coin's common people, justly hold them in con' 
 tempt. And so long as this situation exists it will 
 be necessary for a President to call upon them to 
 have faith in the Courts. The lawyers have tried 
 to purify and cure this situation, but have found it 
 a political and not a professional condition. 
 
 The writer has never made a charge in a Legisla' 
 tive body where he served that did not stick with 
 plenty of proof to back it. He brought the im' 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 373 
 
 peachment charges in the Legislature of Oklahoma 
 in 1913, and every charge was proven. He fairly 
 believes that he could, anywhere in America, prove 
 political caste, exercising its influence, or money, in 
 hundreds of judicial positions where men are 
 pilfered without ever knowing how gently the oper' 
 ation has been pulled off. 
 
 There never was a scheming, crooked lawyer 
 with a brief case of the magicians legal curves, that 
 did not pronounce largely for due obedience and 
 admiration for the courts of the land; denunciation 
 of radicals is the first part of this daily used creed. 
 
 There never was a usurping cowardly King that 
 has not on every occasion in history denounced the 
 enemies of "my people" so as to inspire faith, while 
 he, under loyalty thus provoked, picked their 
 pockets with ruthless abandon. 
 
 There never was a preaching pretentious saint of 
 the gospel that did not sound his Amens in a tre- 
 mulous voice, or reach the major notes in singing 
 his reverential hymns, while taking undue liberties 
 with the most beautiful woman of his choir, in a 
 smashing romantic drive, in which he was convicted 
 that his unction flowed from the Lord. 
 
 There never was a man in the White House who 
 had a philosophy that poured out words of loyalty 
 to the Courts and the Constitution, that was not 
 packing the Courts with servants picked by his pol' 
 itical bosses who had secured his election; and such 
 appointees knew at first hand the source of their 
 success, and were willing and did return four fold, 
 in accordance with the implied understanding, legal 
 justice, in keeping with the crystallized demand of 
 the political system. 
 
 The call for law and order is a yellow cry that of" 
 
374 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 ten comes from a criminal conscience as guilty as 
 hell. When justice prevails in the Courts there will 
 be no need for such a cry. 
 
 The human slavery interests pronounced the 
 Dred Scott decision a sacred thing, and they called 
 loudly for the people to stand by the Courts and the 
 Constitution, but Lincoln rightly denounced it and 
 advised the people to ignore it. 
 
 Today, it is the same yellow cry which flows from 
 the putrid mouths of men who call on Lincoln's 
 common people to protect the Courts and the Con- 
 stitution while and when Liberty is raped in the 
 Temples of Justinian, and the special powers of 
 despotism enthrone government by Force, and 
 throttle to its death, Lincoln's government by Lib' 
 erty. It's the story over again of the Carolina 
 negro. "Well, Sam, why did you remain out there 
 in front?" "I wuz; g'wine watch dat white man's 
 do'r while my brother, Henry, went in dat meat 
 house and got what was a'belong'g to him." 
 
 When the butcher Jeffrys, law enforcer of Eng' 
 land, murdered the law and unsexed Justice, the 
 same appeal was made to protect the Courts. The 
 cry is as old as Nero and as young as the depression 
 of 1931, and when it is heard, the people of Mr. Lin- 
 coln may well gird their loins for a spilling of more 
 of their well earned substance. 
 
 If Hell has its angels; if God is the King of the 
 dust of its dead remains, then Justice is the partner 
 of these political scoundrels who have paraded their 
 wares in the by-ways of the common people since 
 the day Judas betrayed the Saviour. 
 
 Let Dr. Elmer Barnes tell you how far we have 
 bounced on our aristocratic conscience since 1776. 
 
 "The principles of '76 are conveniently assembled 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 375 
 
 in Jefferson's famous paragraph from the Declara' 
 tion: — 
 
 We hold these truths to be self "evident: That all 
 men are created equal; that they are endowed by 
 their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that 
 among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of hap- 
 piness; that, to secure these rights, governments are 
 instituted among men, deriving their just powers 
 from the consent of the governed; that, whenever 
 any form of government becomes destructive of 
 these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or 
 abolish it, and to institute a new government. 
 
 In short, the fathers stood for revolution; human 
 equality before opportunity and the law; the aboli' 
 tion of special privilege; natural rights; the dom- 
 inion of the people, and the reduction of the powers 
 of government to the lowest point compatible with 
 social well-being. 
 
 How does 1776 fare in 1931? Paine is either for' 
 gotten or held in disrepute by respectable persons. 
 Even that great tribune of the people, Roosevelt, 
 called him a dirty little atheist. He would be black' 
 listed seven times over by the D. A. R. if alive today. 
 
 Jefferson has come through a little better as the 
 mythical founder of a still extant political party. But 
 many a person is in prison in this country for mouth' 
 ing Jefferson's doctrines, and thousands are being 
 deported for holding similar views. 
 * * * 
 
 What about equality before the law and equality 
 of opportunity? On the one hand we have the due 
 process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the 
 greatest juristic bulwark of special privilege ever con' 
 structed by human ingenuity. 
 
 On the other, we find injunction and contempt 
 
376 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 proceedings against labor, in which a prejudiced 
 judge may act as a judge, investigator, prosecutor and 
 jury rolled into one, passing on the validity of his 
 own acts. 
 
 These are only examples and overlook entirely the 
 disparity in ordinary justice between the man who 
 can hire Max Steuer or Clarence Darrow and the 
 poor defendant who must accept a green or reluctant 
 lawyer appointed by the court. 
 
 Equality of opportunity is a hollow sham in a 
 country where on one end we find 500 men with an' 
 nual incomes averaging $2,500,000 and on the other 
 some 7,000,000 men out of work altogether, with 
 more millions of hungry and ill-clad dependents. 
 
 Revolution is outlawed. No less than thirtytwo 
 States make its advocacv a felony. Even a liberal 
 federal judge has upheld the barring of a reputable 
 magazine from the mails because it uses revolutionary 
 phrases. 
 
 Special privilege is rampant in tariffs, utilities, tax 
 favors, injuctions, due process decisions and the like. 
 Popular sovereignty is a mere form when small 
 cliques of men nominate our rulers and engineer the 
 passage of oppressive amendments and laws. Life, 
 liberty and the pursuit of happiness mean little when 
 a man cannot get a job, buy a glass of beer or speak 
 out fearlessly in the language of the men who once 
 made this country a free land. 
 
 It is the privilege of any one to prefer the spirit of 
 1931 to the spirit of 1776. But let him not imagine 
 that they are one and the same thing or that we have 
 preserved the heritage of the fathers. If the price 
 of liberty is eternal vigilance we have slept at the 
 post of duty." 
 
 This is how Mellon and Hoover propose to get 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 377 
 
 back the millions given to Europe — put a tax on Lin- 
 coln's common people. 
 
 "As one means of making up the Treasury deficit 
 of nearly a billion dollars Mr. Mellon suggests a 
 gasoline tax. The alleged merit of such a tax rests 
 chiefly on the ease of collection and the certainty of 
 a large revenue from this source. The objections to 
 it are, however, conclusive. 
 
 Apply the gasoline tax proposal of Mr. Mellon to 
 this pyramid of cars and we find that the brunt of 
 the tax would fall on the many relatively small in- 
 comes — owners of Fords, Chevrolets, etc. — and very 
 lightly on the rich. A gas tax would certainly harm 
 the oil industry, the motor industry and the general 
 trade. Hard pressed consumers paying this tax 
 would have less money with which to buy other 
 
 things " (World-Telegram.) 
 
 Napoleon did not organize and send Commission 
 after Commission to find what ought to be done in a 
 given situation. He acted. 
 
 Again and again we have had to listen to these in- 
 numerable "horse plays" and lying fostering excuses 
 while business and good citizenship were given a 
 ride. 
 
 There are men in America who have patriotism 
 and brains, let us make the call for a national insti- 
 tute in the name of Lincoln, and cast out the devils — 
 revive the spirit of liberty. 
 
 No less a person than Dr. Butler of Columbia 
 points the way and gives a reason. 
 
 Dr. Butler: "... Immense masses of food 
 material are produced and no market is found for 
 them, while not far away thousands upon thousands 
 of human beings are in want of food. . . These 
 
378 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 are all familiar facts. The only possible reason for 
 restating them is that nothing adequate or even 
 earnest is being done in regard to the grave matters 
 to which they relate. . . . If we are effectively 
 to allay discontent and successfully to remove temp' 
 tation to disorder and revolution, we dare not sit in' 
 definitely in contemplative inaction. The challenge 
 is too peremptory and too ominous. Cool and de* 
 tached contemplation will not do. Action is essen' 
 tial. Today progressive and enlightened liberalism 
 is everywhere true conservatism. Stubborn resist' 
 ance to betterment may well be the first step toward 
 catastrophe. . . Youth is always in the saddle." 
 
 As in the refrain of a Greek chorus, youth, in the 
 person of the rich young intellectual, Lamont, an' 
 swers: — 
 
 "This system concentrates two'thirds of the 
 wealth and oncthird of the income in the hands of 
 approximately 10 per cent of the people and provides 
 for the other 90 per cent chiefly on the marvellous 
 theory that enough will somehow trickle down from 
 the top. When we ask the master minds why today 
 more than 6,000,000 American children are suffer' 
 ing from malnutrition, or why more than 6,000,000 
 unemployed adults walk the streets with lean and 
 hungry looks, the answer is that the reason for there 
 not being enough to eat is that there is too much to 
 eat! I submit that such a system is a veritable won' 
 der of wonders. . . ." 
 
 The author would hardly dare such a criticism, 
 but here is eminent authority for his position. His 
 experience and close study of the situation teaches 
 him that we are bankrupt of leadership. We either 
 accept worn out partisanship advice or ride along 
 with industrial culprits who stand on a lofty peak of 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 379 
 
 wealth produced by virtue of stealthy legislation, and 
 these pose as our leaders, and the advice of such mal' 
 apropots we accept, either because they have been 
 elected to office or have accumulated money. 
 
 Then we turn at times to so called economists who 
 are so thoroughtly wanting in practical experience 
 that we are in the end lost in the desert of imprac- 
 tical theory and gross ignorance. 
 
 Looking over the last fifty years of the growth of 
 intelligent stupidity, we may wonder that fanaticism 
 of one kind and another can so easily submerge the 
 sound common sense of a nation of men and women 
 who had such strong forebears. 
 
 Today in America we are a proud creditor nation 
 with billions in the central banks, which no one but 
 the holders of market pooled securities can borrow, 
 and these loans become speculative loans made with 
 money drained from the interior of the country on 
 account of loose legislation, and these loans are 
 largely the product of American labor increment, 
 delivered to an impoverished class of clients in Eu- 
 rope at usurious rates of interest, who, it seems, can 
 never pay. 
 
 The small bank has gone, and the loan once made 
 on personal endorsement is a thing of the dead past, 
 under highly specialized influence of the Federal 
 Reserve. 
 
 A personal loan today in New York City is a viola- 
 tion of the rules of the system fostered by and under 
 the wing of the ruling power in Washington. 
 
 If you would have contempt for a human vulture 
 who would sell the virtue of his sister, you must have 
 the same feeling toward men of this type. 
 
 Millions of bushels of foods are stored in the 
 granaries of America without a buying market while 
 
380 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 five million of unemployed and starving walk its 
 streets only too glad to get a job. 
 
 This system has controlled the government so long 
 and is so well intrenched that the masses are power' 
 less to help themselves, while a despotism of poverty 
 is creeping on them with but few men in public 
 places who dare raise their voices that the people 
 may have a ray of hope for their lost and damned 
 birthright of liberty. 
 
 Men who see the awful plight of Lincoln's com' 
 mon people and who dare speak out are shunted out 
 of Universities into the streets on the command of 
 those who run the system; and the soul of America's 
 honor is stamped ruthlessly in the dust by this in' 
 visible power that lurks in every big financial house 
 in America, whose business is like that of Capone, 
 extorting money from the men and women who live 
 by their hands and the sweat of their brow. Oil sold 
 for thirty cents a barrel: A Governor closed down 
 production — monopoly had then to pay one dollar. 
 
 Present conditions, they well know have resulted 
 from their drastic methods in capturing, by corrupt 
 tion, men of the public service to do their will, so 
 that today no thinking man with a mind for truth 
 and philosophy who has eyes to see with who but 
 understands we are riding from a despotism of Com' 
 munistic Capitalism to a despotism of Communistic 
 Workers, and those who decry it must sit idly by 
 and watch the deadly poison infect the patriotism of 
 the Land of Lincoln. 
 
 A very great part of this story would be lost if the 
 author did not arouse the people to rally around the 
 Lincoln principles. 
 
 England, Germany, France, America have neither 
 a plan, and seemingly their stupidity persists in 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 381 
 
 flaunting the remedies which produced the disease 
 right in our faces. 
 
 They brought the war, all equally guilty, now they 
 want some one nation to pay the debt created by 
 their folly. They reason, that more armaments will 
 bring peace, which is maintained at a terrible drain 
 on labor. Taxes mount, expenses mount, production 
 falls away and markets die. Russia has a plan, and 
 berate Communism as we may, Russia is making 
 away with poverty; it does not exist there today, 
 and the American who says it does, has either not 
 been there or lies for some system. Forces are there 
 fore at work that has brains for a guide that makes 
 our situation in America more dangerous for ulti' 
 mate and certain revolution than ever existed in 
 France before the bloody marches began of the cit' 
 isen through its streets. 
 
 The writer would avoid Communism, but as Com' 
 munism is backed by brains, we may expect nothing 
 more than its overthrow of Democracy as long as we 
 worship at the shrine of that stupidity which be 
 lieves in class legislation and ignorant manifestoes. 
 
 If the bank extends your note for one year it does 
 not publish state wide that it is a piece of statesman' 
 ship, but as I write and since writing the preceding 
 part of this Chapter THE ADMINISTRATION 
 has announced to a waiting world that it has devel' 
 oped a cure for the depression. It has extended 
 Germany's obligations, and the balance of the obliga' 
 tions of the Allied countries to the United States, 
 one year. This is heralded as a great bit of states' 
 manship. 
 
 Let us see if it is. 
 
 Germany is spending one hundred and seventy 
 eight million for an army and a navy — a tax on her 
 
382 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 people who cannot meet their obligations. The 
 United States is spending over six hundred million 
 a year for her army and navy, and for what? 
 
 A cut in these appropriations by this nation and 
 the allied nations would easily solve the debt ques' 
 tions, and those of us who have scruples about stand' 
 ing for the truth as against its opposite would feel 
 there was an honest attempt to settle the depression 
 involvement if these appropriations were cut to the 
 point where each and all of the nations could meet 
 their obligations. 
 
 This may be homely philosophy or truth, what' 
 ever you please to call it. 
 
 But, in the end, the opportunity to exploit the 
 common people of Mr. Lincoln would pass from the 
 picture, and that is outside the present programme. 
 
 Italy and Russia have made propositions to abol' 
 ish, for the time being, all war propositions, but the 
 United States, France and England will not agree 
 to the curtailment. One is a Fascist government, the 
 other is a Communistic government, so we, who 
 propose this proposition for these three countries 
 cannot be accused of being Communistic; and we get 
 down to the fact that there must be a "nigger in the 
 woodpile." What is it? It is this. If the good 
 League of Nations could or would control all gov 
 ernments as to armament, these three countries would 
 then control the destinies, by the League, of the 
 peoples of every nation. The League could and it 
 would destroy the liberty of the citizens of every 
 oppressed nation by force, unless they agreed to the 
 dictation of the ruling nations of the League. We 
 could safely say goodbye to liberty. 
 
 For, in America at least, we have now laws against 
 revolution to oppose oppression by the ruling author" 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 383 
 
 ity at home. The yoke that is upon us now; that we 
 thought was lifted by the revolutionary spirit of 
 1776 will remain, for such power is not going to take 
 the chance of losing the chief arm of that domina' 
 tion, expressed in a militarist autocracy, so we will 
 continue to raise taxes and build armament forces, so 
 as to perpetuate what we have. 
 
 This may sound like Jefferson but it happens to be 
 the doctrine of Abraham Lincoln, who said, "the 
 business of government is to see that labor gets what 
 it earns." But if labor is forced to spend, of its earn' 
 ings, more than six hundred million a year for arma' 
 ments in time of peace, it is very certain that Lin- 
 coln's doctrine is in the discard. 
 
 But there are many things for which we may be 
 thankful with the Chief of our country. When Cap' 
 tain Lincoln was born it was perfectly legal to go to 
 bed with another man's wife provided she had her 
 clothes on, but if the rightful husband should kiss 
 his wife publicly before she took her leave of him he 
 was certain to be jailed. Prudery has somewhat de' 
 parted, and realism entrenched itself with us. It is 
 now a crime for a man to go to bed with another 
 man's wife with or without clothes, and it is a ground 
 for divorce. 
 
 Lincoln's principal crime in the perversity of his 
 youth was his plainness of speech and dress. He was 
 denounced as a barbarian and a rowdy because he 
 wrestled with men and not women. One hundred 
 and twentytwo years after his birth, wrestling with 
 both sexes has become a national sport, for which his 
 countrymen are willing to pay a high price for the 
 principal front seats. 
 
 The law licenses the gamble as a man's game, and 
 plenty there are who engage in the pastime. Though 
 
384 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 we lose with the years the perversities of youth, we 
 gain the serenity and optimism of age without the 
 annoyance of youth's desire. 
 
bo 
 o 
 
 h-1 
 
 HE£_j2Ua . — 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE LINCOLN NATIONAL ORGANIZATION 
 
 HTHE writer has proposed a Lincoln National Op 
 ganization built on independent lines of thought 
 and wholly independent of politics; that is the safety 
 of our Democratic institutions. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln passed through a period of our 
 country when financial questions bounded over for 
 his decision that were vastly of greater importance 
 and more difficult of solution than the questions 
 which arise today. 
 
 The world war Conference justifies every criti' 
 cism made in this work, and as I write, we are con' 
 fronted with the disasters of that Conference. 
 
 We bring to the forum of debate, results which 
 we then predicted in a round robin presented to the 
 Big Four, which they ignored, except to say, that 
 Germany brought her misfortunes on herself and 
 must abide by them. These conference critics, includ' 
 ing the writer, foretold these happenings, and said 
 that Germany's misfortunes, whatever they might be, 
 were now those of the Allies, and, if they were not 
 differently treated, civilisation in Germany would go 
 to pieces, and this chaos brought about by the un' 
 statesmanlike assessment against Germany would in' 
 volve the financial world. 
 
 Time has proven that there was neither wisdom 
 nor statesmanship applied in the Conference findings, 
 
 385 
 
386 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 but men there, who could, and did give advice, and 
 were capable of giving it, were cast aside as inter' 
 ferers in the grand scheme of exploitation. 
 
 This proves to us, as we have said here, that we 
 have no diplomacy in Europe, save that which we 
 furnish from a political group in America. These 
 men are ignorant of the fundamentals of finance and 
 unacquainted with our international aspirations. 
 They are looking only to the success of their party 
 in America, and their advice comes wholly from 
 Bankers of the world whose business is to exploit 
 every opportunity they have for themselves and their 
 business; yet in America, with dreadful results star' 
 ing us in the face, we refuse to recognise the perilous 
 situation, which involves us at home. 
 
 We need a Lincoln. Where will we get him? Not 
 surely out of either political party. If Lincoln were 
 living today, these politicians would say, we must 
 have the Morgans and the Mellons, who know fi' 
 nance — finance for Morgan and Mellon, not for the 
 American or European masses. 
 
 The principles of finance are bound up with busi- 
 ness, but political conventions in Europe seem to be 
 the order of the day, and these are called with the 
 counsel of international bankers, who advise the grab 
 game along banking lines based on the ability of each 
 government to levy taxes against the assets of each 
 nation, and distribute the proceeds accordingly, as 
 the plan is laid. 
 
 To them, Lincoln would have been another comv 
 try lawyer; but Lincoln had something they did not 
 have. He was looking through glasses that found 
 only the people, and their happiness, while today, 
 the interests of the people are not taken into the 
 equation. Lincoln would have said, the producing 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 387 
 
 and working classes come first, not last. Lincoln 
 would have recognised that human beings are assets, 
 not alone dollars, that can be garnered for the selfish 
 interests. 
 
 How often do we have to be directed to Lincoln's 
 sayings, one of which is, that, Labor is first, Capital 
 is secondary. 
 
 What did Wilson or Clemenceau or George know 
 about such matters, and what did they care about 
 the people! Clemenceau's platform was, "all I can 
 get for France; 1 ' George, "extension of the domain 
 of England; 11 Wilson, "my little paper pact to add 
 fame to my name 11 — let the dogs have all that is left. 
 That was the true spirit of Versailles, and that is 
 the spirit of today. The result is, that we are driving 
 businessmen on the streets as beggars of the dole, 
 without constructive assistance from the govern' 
 ments — without statesmanship to solve questions in 
 either party. 
 
 But as we pause for a Lincoln, let us also look 
 around for a Douglas. If he can be found, the 
 finder will be immediately rewarded with a trip 
 around the world and the Vice Presidency, which 
 latter needs a social interpreter for the monstrous 
 troubles of the socially elect part of the business end 
 of the political side of the servile administration at 
 Washington. 
 
 It is too bad that we cannot all respect the King, 
 when our King in America is a fit subject for so 
 much respect. But it must be remembered we are 
 no longer a lot of traditional worshippers of fads, 
 cold storage heroes and ancient symbols. 
 
 We care not about a President we know to 
 be nothing but a bird dog for the oil monopoly or 
 the tariff bunco men. There is no great difference 
 
388 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 between phlegmatic intellectuality and cold common 
 imbecility, in results, so that we discern no more in 
 actual accomplishment from one than the other. We 
 do not care if he was the best man in Hicksborough, 
 Arkansaw, and is the champion Putter of the Senate, 
 or whether the player is chief "Butler in Andy Mel' 
 Ion's back yard, until thrust by the greatest financier 
 since Hamilton" into the august shoes of Quay or 
 Penrose: we expect results, and not the kind of re" 
 suits we find in 1931, where misery is so near, you 
 cannot get to your bathroom on account of the 
 hungry beggars of the street, thrown out of employ 
 ment, due to the over production of prosperity cer- 
 tificates of the Hoover regime, the brand of wisdom 
 put out by the bird dogs of monopoly's philosophy. 
 
 Every time these gentlemen, consorts of Wall 
 Street in financial wisdom, made a move, the Bears 
 hopped from their inactive seats, the police run down 
 a few women, trailing with the Communists, and the 
 air reverberated with cries of wrath that prosperity 
 persisted in staying around the corner, though called 
 by its amorous lover, he of the throne of the great — 
 great in professions. 
 
 Harding had a great disarmament conference, and 
 the mighty Hughes was there to extemporate and 
 orate, and so was Briand, volatile prescriptionist of 
 the French. It sat at Washingon, spewed its Juniper 
 juice, drank its bootleg carbonated water, agreed 
 to burn three hundred million dollars of ships built 
 by money appropriated out of the helpless tax- 
 payers' substance by the wise men of the House and 
 Senate. These taxpayers and the gopher hole ow 
 ners still would exist and be happy on the philosophy 
 of the howling prosperity gents who would not go 
 wrong provided they accepted Hoover and Pro-high" 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 389 
 
 bi-shun. That assembly passed away honored and 
 sung of its promises, and finally left only those sweet 
 memories not unlike what the country boy could 
 smell when he saw the high birds floating out of the 
 sky. 
 
 But this balloon having never returned with its 
 joyous freight of peace, the President called old 
 daddy short legs of Minneapolis, with his marvellous 
 "pact" of paper proposals, the grand-children, so 
 said, of William J. Bryant, or was it Bryan, blessed 
 disciple of the original House of Peace, whose great 
 acclaim was that he had been a Secretary of State 
 under Woodrow the wise, and knew the difference 
 between the Monroe doctrine and a filled out prom- 
 ise of Republican Prosperity. 
 
 The grand old hero of many paper battles, daddy 
 Kellogg, went forth, armored and advised, and added 
 one more splendid accomplishment, hog tied and 
 delivered it to the regime of Herbert Hoover, of 
 great engineering fame and of enduring policies of 
 state. 
 
 War was to be thereafter dead, in fact it was al- 
 ready dead, dead as a horse that would not smell, in 
 fact deader than hell in a heavenly chorus. 
 
 And the grand old man of the c TOCO-TALES" 
 was rewarded with an Ambassadorship at St. Den- 
 nis, where they argue in French; and though he has 
 been there a year as I write, the old philosopher has 
 not yet found out whether they are proselyting with 
 Gandhi's principles and points or amending the rules 
 of Baccarat — play for St. Morits. 
 
 The reason is plain to see; the dialectic Norwegian 
 tongue he absorbed in Minne-sotto is quite different; 
 so that when results are obtained through his intel- 
 lectual carniverousness Saint Sir Hanni — court trans- 
 
390 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 lates it — the debates I refer to — and old daddy tele- 
 phones it over to Hoover; and what Hoover cannot 
 tell an Ambassador about foreign countries could not 
 be spoken in Chinese; for was he not the man who 
 shoveled out millions of American money to save 
 the bloodless foreigner; more millions than he could 
 save if he was King of the Blue Ribboners for life. 
 
 Then, thinking it was not well done enough, we 
 sent over Mellon's bird wise man in the Senate, lately 
 legal watch dog of his back yard, like Reed of Mis- 
 souri, in name only, and a Mr. Stimson who had 
 worn out a thousand pair of shoes chasing office in 
 New York, which he failed to tree, and who by 
 grace of appointment has held many educational 
 training jobs to find out what it was all about. And 
 these fine diplomats or diplomancers were reinforced 
 by old Joe Robinson, who had fought many intellec- 
 tual battles on the field of Golf, putting his tees or 
 failing to mashie in the right place. He, the lion 
 hearted of the swamps of Arkansaw, who, unlike 
 Richard never called for a horse, fisherman per se and 
 Golfer, supernumerary; the f is small and the G is to 
 fit the important subject matter. 
 
 Joe is the one time brilliant educator and Super- 
 intendent of Public Instruction in Arkansaw, who 
 plowed old Artansaw's lands with deep furrows, 
 until agriculture came to him as a practical science. 
 
 Who learned his law at the bar by asking ques- 
 tions, and learned early that Kent was not an Okla- 
 homa oil magnate but a commentator of Commenta- 
 tories. 
 
 Now what Mellon's handy man could not do, old 
 Joe "sure was thar," in the language of his native 
 hills. 
 
 In the meantime, Hoover chuckled, as he and his 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 391 
 
 bosses put over the Bull Pen tariff proposed by the 
 intellectual Tom Cat of the Schuylkill, otherwise 
 known as Tom Grundy, the man who wants but 
 little here below but wants that little now. 
 
 During old Joe's absence, the gosling Democrats, 
 with their brillant leader settling war and armaments 
 for all time, lost the scent and trail of Democracy, 
 the old Theodosiphus of magnitudinous pulchritude 
 put over his prosperity patent, which is to say, in the 
 language of Arkansaw's elect — "monopoly's shrew 
 put another nail in the coffin of Lincoln's Common 
 People." 
 
 Now then, if Hoover can suspend the debts Eu- 
 rope owes us and finally give them a life time mora- 
 torium, he will get a few columns about his wisdom 
 in the Mail at London, the Ecat at Paris and the 
 Zoostung at Berlin. He can offer as a fine sustitute 
 a tax bill at home to raise the suckers another ante, 
 and we will have more prosperity around the corner; 
 a piece of statesmanship, the like of which never 
 escaped from mortal mind since Moses kicked the 
 salt out of the Dead Sea. All to be recorded for the 
 credit of the G. O. P. 
 
 This nation commenced its decadence with the tin 
 can intellectuals of the Wilson administration, and 
 the country in disgust fled to the era of the business 
 poltroonism of Harding's administration. At his 
 death it passed by acclamation, the successorship, on 
 to the pauceous immobility of Coolidge and his 
 country lawyer doodleburg statesmanship, as applied 
 to Nicaragua and the White House quiet and bril- 
 liant aphorisms. 
 
 Then came a choice between side walks democracy 
 and Arkansaw basket meeting philosophy on one 
 hand, and the genius distributor of flour, cigarettes 
 
392 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 and hard candy, plus the chief Indian horse race phi' 
 losopher of the prairies. 
 
 With such a choice to make, it was no trouble for 
 the Bulls and Bears of Wall Street and environs to 
 make the latter pair the favorites in the polling, as 
 the scared Protestants on one hand had to watch the 
 bootleggers of the Coolidge era, with one eye, and 
 keep the other on the Pope of Rome — they could see 
 only Hoover. 
 
 The net result was a foregone conclusion. The 
 bubble had so long been filled with the gaseous con' 
 tent of many campaign nostrums it would not hold 
 together, and the consequence was, the flood tide of 
 the stink pots of 1930, the depression so called, com' 
 pressing the money mad dough of the country into 
 the hollow of Wall Street's hand. 
 
 So long as the leadership of Democracy combines 
 the canned freeze of General Motors with refriger 
 ated Copelandism, plus the Arkansaw swamp philc 
 sophy, the party of Jefferson may cry aloud its mis' 
 eries in the wilderness and the market places, and 
 none but fools will halt to hear. 
 
 So long as front page boomerangs are advertised 
 as a quick cure for economic disaster like the relin' 
 quishment of foreign debts due us, in consonance 
 with the swift kick labor and agriculture gets in the 
 pants, we will stand on the side lines and see both 
 the circus of the "lean-backs" and the Communists 
 goby. 
 
 In the meantime, there will be a chance for com' 
 mon sense and Lincoln principles to take stock and 
 start a crusade for liberty and a square deal. 
 
 In the to-morrows they will have a presidential 
 election. The Republicans will not confess the ills 
 of their administration, nor will they announce their 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 393 
 
 shortcomings, but earnestly deny that the cause of 
 suffering is due in any wise to their neglect of sound 
 policies of state, or to existing meddling statutes. 
 
 The Democrats will assert that the tariff, which 
 they helped to make, is responsible for all of our ills, 
 and they will point with pride to a superficial pros- 
 perity during the war; and another "buck-fuss" issue 
 of make believe differences will be fought out. The 
 poor "suckers 1 ' in the trenches will have decided 
 something; they will not know what it is, but it will 
 be something of magnitude, and the cancerous trou' 
 bles will progressively evolve until some stout hearted 
 philosopher patriot with a human complex comes 
 along to upset the wrongs imposed by politicians on 
 God's world. 
 
 Mr. Hoover of four years miserable failure and 
 neglect will pose for the galleries, and his sour sar' 
 donic smile will cover the front pages, with a front 
 gate appearance of wisdom, all too galling to think- 
 ing men; and Mr. Roosevelt will usher forth with an 
 array of promises, carefully confining himself to 
 issues sparkling with meaningless awe, prepared by 
 the Warwick of excusers, Mr. Garner of Texas, and 
 the American voter will again be on his way to Hell 
 and highwater. Such is the crowning glory that 
 comes from the field of battle where Mr. P. T. Bar- 
 num first glorified our chief national virtue. 
 
 The glorious campaign is already ripening. It is 
 now proposed from Washington to legislate directly 
 against the movement of the Bears. If the Bears 
 could be or should be eliminated we would then give 
 free reign to the Bulls who could shoot the watered 
 stocks skyward and put their felonious hands down 
 deep into the pockets of the unwary, with no fear of 
 scouts exposing, for their benefit, the weaknesses of 
 
394 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 these stocks and exposing the frauds involved in their 
 financial statements. Perhaps both parties will be 
 committed to this outrage on freedom of the Press 
 and free speech. Nobody has proposed to batter the 
 Bulls, for it is assumed the selling of stocks is a virtue, 
 and buying by the Bears never so. Was such hypoc 
 risy ever before so boldly promoted in a free and en' 
 lightened country? Ask any sane man in Wall 
 Street. If this is the only route back to prosperity, 
 may the good Lord deliver us from our saviours. 
 
 Patriots of Prosperity! Can you not bring forth 
 some cleverer scheme for entering on the preserves 
 of the downtrodden to relieve them of their few pal' 
 try savings left over from the late raid of the Bulls, 
 ably supported at Washington by both parties. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 LINCOLN'S IDEALS— JEFFERSON'S DEMOCRACY 
 
 IT is quite beyond the writer's intention to discuss 
 the varied relations of Lincoln to the institutions 
 his action affected. However, the stature of Lincoln 
 does not depend on his personality established, but 
 is more certainly measured by eighty years of time 
 than all of the men who have held the office of Presi- 
 dent since his day. Lincoln either changed our form 
 of government unconsciously, or definitely, with aim 
 and malice aforethought. 
 
 If we are to follow him today, and he is of value 
 to us as a guide under existing conditions, it must be 
 in the leadership of ideas he left us. 
 
 The writer long ago reached the conclusion that 
 Lincoln definitely aimed to rehabilitate the plan of 
 national unity. He aimed to make a national unity 
 of a lot of non-cohesive states. If this policy was 
 right and workable, then his greatness is established. 
 But this is provided, that another thing does not 
 spring up, to be of permanent form as a menace to 
 our existence as a Republic, with a Republican form 
 of government. If this menace becomes acute, then 
 the greatness or wisdom of Lincoln must diminish. 
 No name is greater than the cause it stands for. It 
 now seems the product of this menace has arrived in 
 the form of a depression brought about by a partner" 
 ship between politics and money. 
 
 395 
 
396 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 Jefferson's Democracy was Lincoln's ideal, but he 
 realised that the Union was not bound securely 
 enough together. Just how much he robbed the 
 sovereignty of the people, and just how much he 
 parted us from real Democracy, we shall find out 
 maybe in the very near future. 
 
 Until these questions are answered, the final stat' 
 ure of Abraham Lincoln cannot be fixed in history. 
 He came from the people, he believed in them; they 
 trusted him, and he had the utmost faith in their 
 cause. He answers firmly and completely that he 
 desires every human to be free, and this conviction 
 took him out to drop the chains from the limbs of the 
 blacks. But once convicted of this principle, there 
 is no room to draw the color line politically. Even 
 so, there are problems which indirectly may enslave 
 blacks and whites, compared to which, legal slavery 
 would be preferable. And this problem, eighty 
 years after Lincoln's inauguration, is the acute one 
 now before the American people. Lest you forget 
 this, when you think of Lincoln, compare him with 
 the present chief Executive of the United States, 
 whoever he may be — with great power, greatly 
 abusing it by his inactivity in behalf of the people. 
 
 Men have been concerning themselves with thee 
 ries of government for ages, and but two factions 
 have really contended; the one who believed that all 
 might should be in equality, and the other, that class 
 should be supreme. Industrialism now controls the 
 people's government and agriculture struggles to 
 maintain its life. 
 
 The states have gradually lost their power, be" 
 cause forsooth, public men have bartered away this 
 power for self and pelf, and self and pelf have pros' 
 pered accordingly.. The results have all been against 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 397 
 
 the public welfare, and here we are, bogged in the 
 mire up to our chin. 
 
 The national power has grown enormously, and 
 he who wanted to spend his money for place and 
 power looked entirely to Washington. The question 
 now is, to what extent have the people bartered 
 away that power, and is it ever to be regained in this 
 Democracy. 
 
 Since Lincoln's time, various glittering generalities 
 have been held out to them, and they have hugged 
 them into their arms to find them a vanishing thing 
 without substance. We have now to go back to 
 Lincoln to find out whether fundamental rights have 
 been converted into dollar marks. Party prejudice 
 and party regularity are responsible for this, whether 
 it is ignorance or greed and mendacious selfishness. 
 
 To idealize Lincoln once a year is now a fashion 
 — a vogue. To dispute his principles and hold them 
 in contempt is a practiced reality of the present day 
 American aristocracy, for you cannot hold a Democ 
 racy together with governing powers and have a 
 political industrial dictatorship. That is exactly 
 your present day statesmanship, a character of na' 
 tional selfish aspiration Lincoln would have despised. 
 
 We see here in Kentucky the reign of terror dur- 
 ing the war, and just how under a Democracy the 
 people were left powerless to cope with military 
 thieves and scoundrels basking in the sun of a 
 glorious principle and a good sentiment — "the Union 
 must be saved." 
 
 These men borrowed under their brass buttons 
 the savage principles of the ancient tyrants, might is 
 power, and cursed Lincoln, that he was the only 
 limitation between their monstrous lust and the prey 
 — the people's savings. 
 
398 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 Judge Moore makes recommendations that seem 
 sound. Whether we agree with him or not, we do 
 have reason to fear the wrongful exercise of military 
 authority, over the civil war powers of the state. 
 And we need go back only to the late war to find 
 substantial proof of the danger of military govern' 
 ment. There was a sample of military intolerance of 
 civilian rights. 
 
 With such a just and strong man in the White 
 House as Lincoln, we see how often the President 
 had to act to circumvent these bigoted, ignorant, 
 selfish and dishonest military chiefs. 
 
 We have only to think what would have happened 
 if Stanton had been president instead of Lincoln. 
 And if war should arise today, the President could, 
 and he would control a national Press, and what re 
 dress would the people have? There should be a 
 check somewhere in a dictatorship created by the 
 Common people. As I write, the president is propos' 
 ing under an unrepealed war statute to exercise war 
 powers. 
 
 It is not a question of the form of government 
 either, but it is important that some responsibility be 
 fixed somewhere in a tribunal of influence, beyond 
 military subjugation as final arbiter of conflicting 
 authority and disputes. 
 
 Lincoln was a strong man in 1860; he not only 
 could not surround himself with honest and strong 
 men, but he had to play chess with men he knew to 
 be dishonest, and ready with a knife to cut his throat. 
 Lincoln knew this, but the exigencies of his position 
 demanded that he compromise with them, shift them 
 out of power so they could not conflict with his 
 orders; and by strategic and subtle means he played 
 his cards against, a wicked world, to great success. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 399 
 
 He looked into the lying faces and heard the lying 
 tongues, knowing well that he must, to a certain 
 extent, depend on these men who spoke with lying 
 intentions. 
 
 Men with pure clean lives were compelled to lie 
 in jail and wait until some chance advocate should 
 appear to the great man and reverse the cause of 
 their incarceration. For after all, it was Lincoln, who 
 had sprung from the gamest and the cleanest of our 
 American races, never lost to humanity's appeal and 
 never wanting in common sense and sympathy. That 
 could not be said of any of Stanton's satraps. 
 
 When we see the devilish deeds of the war claque 
 in Washington and how Lincoln shoved them 
 around, we know the danger of the military system. 
 It took a genius then, and now it may take both a 
 genius and a magician to protect the people from the 
 proposed dictatorship powers. 
 
 The writer's experience in two legislative bodies 
 taught him that less than a tenth of the people's rep' 
 resentatives that were there by vote of the people 
 could be relied on, and if we were required to find 
 your necessary ability and courage in the other ten 
 per cent, you will understand what a small chance 
 the people have to get a square deal. A less propor' 
 tion of lawyers are reliable today than in 1860, and 
 there are few who will make the sacrifice for honest 
 service, for the reason it has been proven that Dc 
 mocracies are ungrateful. This is an age of san' 
 guinary impulse founded on cold selfishness. We are 
 weary following corruptionists with commissions 
 and investigations. Preferring impeachment charges 
 once in a state Legislature, the writer was con' 
 founded with the character of men who would 
 bribe and threaten when the emergency arose. What 
 
400 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 then may we dread in a national war with the 
 militia in power, grown fat by the nursing bottle of 
 public pap always at hand, and a concerted effort to 
 make a God from a real devil. Lincoln had solved the 
 difficulty probably by insisting that caution must be 
 exercised in giving power to Executives, and reserv 
 ing more power to the people; but who is going to 
 reserve and partition this power? Who is going to 
 look out for the waif in the street? The man in 
 power is sure to look out for himself. The balance 
 of power has not been maintained since Lincoln's 
 day; it may get better, but it is likely, it will grow 
 worse. 
 
 Party government is infamous today. It has killed 
 the independence of men who seek to do right. If 
 we cannot improve, the day will arrive when we shall 
 have to accuse Lincoln of letting down the bars. We 
 have a despotism of commissions, and bureaus of or' 
 dinaries — they are intrenched of power, they serve 
 corruption, they trade and traffic with criminals, who 
 in turn pillage the man in the street, and who is 
 going to say he shall not pass. That is a despotism. 
 
 There is no kinship between a Commission and a 
 Democracy. Private interests are camped at Wash" 
 ington; they flaunt their business with million dollar 
 owned buildings in the face of the Congress and no 
 man dare assail them. 
 
 In a Monarchy we would need only to see a King, 
 and in Jefferson's day we would have a quota of 
 states to see, but alas today what is it? More power 
 absorbed and less good use made of that power. 
 Finally may we not lose our liberties, by having no 
 means at hand to protect ourselves. Then we are 
 driven to fight like the Communist for a place on 
 which to plant and occupy our forum. And if in the 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 401 
 
 end, we can weather the storm, wealth will go into 
 the hands of a few men; who can say that the suffer- 
 ing of the people will not be great. 
 
 Good men today will tell you that Democracy in 
 America is a myth; depression, which represents dis- 
 solution of business, dissolution of employment, loss 
 of markets, and consequent disasters, has come to 
 stay under our system. Distress takes the place of 
 equality; instead of the music of the choir, we have 
 to listen to the cry of misery in the street, and no 
 man regards it. Out of such situations come red 
 revolutions with their hideousness. Women find 
 their day to weep and strong men go to slaughter 
 while the babes starve. Of this my countrymen you 
 may say, is the philosophy of war, but out of it comes 
 the light of the world whence liberty sprang. 
 
 One of the shameful examples of the monopolistic 
 influence in America is the control of the Red Cross 
 and the perversion of that institution to the pur- 
 poses of greed and selfishness. It is a Tory owned 
 institution and operated as a subservient and depen- 
 dent organisation for all the purposes of the auto- 
 crat's bureaucratic desires. 
 
 Over there in the Pennsylvania-Kentucky coal 
 fields are ten thousand hungry and starved children; 
 first abused and trampled in the dust by a lot of hired 
 assassins called police, made by the subsidized corrupt 
 political machine of Pennsylvania politics to do the 
 cowardly bidding of monopolistic influences. Then 
 by methods of coercion turned out to poverty that 
 they might lay their heads where they could find a 
 stone. 
 
 These gaunt baby faces peered through the black 
 clouds of the blackest night of unchivalric America 
 but not a single ray of the sun had arrived, not a unit 
 
402 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 of its warmth would beat on their delicate bodies, 
 gnawed and eaten to the very bone by hunger and 
 fear. A father would go sometimes, and then again 
 the mother, worn and grieved, but youth and inno' 
 cence still walked with God. The funeral car would 
 come and take away the dead; the little ones would 
 wonder where was the smile of the boasted white 
 bearded Santa Glaus, and where was God, and where 
 was Christ. 
 
 And finally, appeal was made to the Red Cross of 
 Gold, the Red Cross of the sciolistic Payne and the 
 more sciolistic Hoover, boasted friend of childhood, 
 but no answer came except the slam of the door in 
 the little unfortunate's face, with the servile excuse 
 of garrulous greed — only calamities caused by the act 
 of God do we attend. 
 
 Did mortal man ever witness such effrontery? Re' 
 pairing only the damage done by God. And this 
 implies God must have a checker between his acts 
 and those damaged immortals of the materialistic 
 world. Think of God damaging the world by dis' 
 aster, bleeding the life blood he gives to his own, 
 and John Barton Payne and Hoover coming along to 
 check up, dole out and make recompense for a wild 
 night spree of the Almighty. Can we find in the 
 pages of history an example of voluntary sacrilegious 
 deposition equal to this hypocrisy. Judas was a man 
 of virtue and Caligula a prince of justice compared 
 to this pair of logic hair splitters. If you called on 
 Payne you would find the sign on his door, "not at 
 home, out repairing the damage done by God;" and 
 if perchance you found the sciolistic charity presi' 
 dent not at the White House, you would be told he 
 was out in the world industrially helping old Barton 
 Payne, repair the damage done by God. By the 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 403 
 
 time they conclude their campaign, God will have 
 quite a lot of charges laid at his door, for which he 
 must sometime answer to the Paynes and Hoovers. 
 
 In the meantime, the babes of the woods, the chil- 
 dren of men, must wait until God, by some of his 
 avenues, reaches their little bodies through their 
 souls, and nourishes them back to life. And it is 
 always, "maybe God will come." 
 
 Lincoln said; 
 
 "It is the eternal struggle between these two prin- 
 ciples — right and wrong throughout the world. They 
 are two principles that have stood face to face from 
 the beginning of time, and will ever continue to 
 struggle. The one is the common right of humanity. 
 The other the divine right of Kings. It is the same 
 spirit in whatever shape it develops itself. It is 
 the same spirit that says, "you toil and work and earn 
 bread and IT1 eat it." No matter in what shape it 
 comes, whether from the mouth of a King who seeks 
 to bestride the people of his own nation, and live by 
 the fruit of their labor or from one race of men as an 
 apology for enslaving another race, it is the same 
 tyrannical principle." 
 
 And there it is, the babies starving for want of 
 the fruit of the labor of their fathers in order that 
 monopoly's barons may bestride them and live by 
 the fruit of what does not belong to them. And 
 along comes the Red Gold Cross to echo the cry of 
 the children and mock their mothers' miseries who 
 brought them forth into the world, and deny them 
 the spirit and love of God in his Kingdom. 
 
 As I write this chapter, the government tells us 
 that there are now five hundred and fifty-four men 
 who pay an income tax on a million of dollars, and 
 that in spite of this fact there are more than six mil- 
 
404 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 lion men out of employment. The amount of charity 
 collected and disbursed is equal to the expense of the 
 Federal government when Lincoln was inaugurated 
 President in 1860. That, at the beginning of the 
 World War, our national wealth was one hundred 
 and twenty billion; today it is three hundred and fifty 
 billion. Somebody has taken money away from 
 somebody very fast indeed. If the rich grow richer 
 and the poor grow poorer, there is certain some' 
 where, to have been an abuse of power. 
 
 If government by the people can allow men to 
 earn by private effort in industry or trade, a million 
 per annum to the individual, somebody makes the 
 loss with the corresponding gain, and if we are over' 
 producing, to lower prices, of the necessaries of life, 
 and six million men are penniless and hungry, the 
 corrective arteries of government are dead and with' 
 out force. But let the Bankers call for a suspension 
 of foreign debts to us, then you will see how quickly 
 both national parties respond. That is a test of 
 where we stand. 
 
 The age flies by, and the people weep for a safe 
 leader. The crowd stops on the twelfth day of 
 February to pay their homage to a man who, if here, 
 might say, this government of ours born of our herit' 
 age and blood shall not pass away. And if he should 
 look at the good lady who personifies liberty en' 
 lightening the world, he might point a moral and 
 adorn a tale with things as they are. If God, Lin' 
 coin's God, furnishes the dynamo, it is now neces' 
 sary to back the powers of both. If praying and 
 thinking and exercising the mind will put action into 
 the mainspring that clicks off the years, the years of 
 human destiny, our appeal must carry the common 
 people of Lincoln, that they may not be oppressed 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 405 
 
 under the benign influence of the immutable and wv 
 transferable laws of the spirit and the life. 
 
 If we are the divine servants of God, and we are 
 ever at the task of the All High, then when may we 
 exact for our peace and happiness here the immop 
 tal power that moves and equalises the material 
 things of life. Something is wrong. Our religion is 
 wrong or our messenger on High is out of tune with 
 the grand truth of our existence. What was Lin* 
 coin's peace with God? Was it a personal peace or 
 did he in his mighty ministrations for the common 
 people appeal for a mind of peace for them? Any 
 way, there was a response — he solved the trouble. 
 
 The writer, speaking from a careful study of Lin' 
 coin's environment and breeding, believes that Lin' 
 coin was and is a man of destiny. 
 
 There is a bit of valorous conjugation of nothings 
 in the estimates of Lincoln, wholly illogical and un' 
 akin to the nature of the man; and if we read the 
 stars aright or the world of spirit movement, Lincoln 
 is there fulfilling the high purpose of his destiny, 
 which was here on this earth, a service to his coun' 
 trymen. 
 
 The men who hated him did not understand the 
 power he had to combat in order to guide the ship 
 of state as its commander. In the South and else 
 where there exists the ancient prejudice of the Tory, 
 the Aristocrat who cannot forget his menials and his 
 dogs; his slaves are his dogs and his menials the or- 
 dinary whites to which he thinks Lincoln belongs. 
 
 They have their ideas of personal conduct; they 
 have their set code of manners, and Lincoln in no 
 respect measured up to these. From this source 
 principally has come the bitter castigation of Presi' 
 dent Lincoln. 
 
406 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 The immortality of man may be purely a concept 
 of mind but we fully believe that Lincoln was of that 
 mental development which would be such a state of 
 mind as enabled him to know his God. There is a 
 difference in the mental development of men's rela' 
 tion to the Supreme Spirit. 
 
 That he communed understanding^ with this 
 High Spirit, the writer does not doubt, and it soft" 
 ened the bitterness of his surroundings, gave him a 
 true feeling, and enabled him to evangelise the souls 
 of others who came in contact with him. 
 
 Death had no terror for him, and he knew as well, 
 that his time was coming swiftly from a direction 
 that he could not and would not evade. 
 
 As Christ philosophically took the punishment 
 meted out to him on the Cross, so Abraham Lincoln 
 faced about to meet the punishment in store for the 
 career that he swapped for the preservation of the 
 Union. Unlike thousands of statesmen, who lived 
 for nothing and died for nothing, Abraham Lincoln 
 lived for a great cause and died that his spirit might 
 consecrate its success. We have not conceived it 
 within our purpose or duty to interpret Abraham 
 Lincoln. The world has already done this; humanity 
 has spoken and history doth record its verdict, but 
 of him it could be said, he stood for something, he 
 accomplished something. 
 
 We have desired to fix his relation to world events 
 by the logic of his environment as shown in the iron 
 of his nature. We have not sought to excuse him 
 or build him with false foundations. We have tried 
 to distinguish him as a racial type, rare in the his' 
 tory of mankind, by giving a picture of men who 
 were his men, his women, his race, that were of his 
 country and his antecedents. Lincoln stars to us as 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 407 
 
 a man of magnitude, in his courage, his gentility, his 
 sense of justice and his love of liberty, the kind of 
 liberty that makes men free and strong. 
 
 It matters not what others think and say, Lincoln 
 is still Lincoln, the man of the ages, standing above 
 the malice and hatred of the day in which he lived, 
 filled with tragedy, the tragedy of forceful and ter' 
 rifying situations. 
 
 We have endeavored to lift his family from the 
 dark pages of history, consigned there by men and 
 women who knew not Lincoln or his kind; from the 
 page of the vulgar and ordinary. The men you have 
 seen in action here were the men able to solve, fitted 
 to meet great events, and carry tremendous respon" 
 sibilities. 
 
 For at last and in the end, Lincoln's greatness was 
 shown in him by his capacity to judge men and move 
 them along the paths of justice, toward the standards 
 of Liberty, in spite of the recriminations and bicker- 
 ings of the small, the weak and the selfish. 
 
 Lincoln's life will solve and measure out and up; 
 his character will stand, the rock of ages, for men 
 who worship and value liberty as an asset of happi' 
 ness; who love justice; who fight tyranny in all of its 
 hideous forms, to the end that love shall remain the 
 true altar of man's life. 
 
 God raised him up, and he passed when his 
 duty was performed according to the inexorable laws 
 of his being — to dare events and to pass, as was des' 
 tined to be his course when his work was done. 
 With uplifted eyes to LIFE let us plead our gratitude 
 to God, that this generation shall receive from the 
 same great POWER, a guiding hand equal to Lin- 
 coln, and great as the peril requires, when this nation 
 
408 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 shall have need of him — and let us also hope that 
 such need is farther away than it now seems. 
 
 EXTRACT 
 
 FROM SPEECH OF HON. H. H. SMITH BEFORE 
 
 THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL HIGHWAY COM- 
 
 MISSION OF KENTUCKY, at Eluabethtown, 
 
 Kentucky, January 10th, 1931. 
 
 (The Commission located this memorial highway as shown 
 by Map, October, 1931) 
 
 T WISH now while in this presence as an addition 
 to the evidence which shows where this road 
 should be laid out, to call your attention to a situ' 
 ation, that I, as a boy, forty'five years ago, marvelled 
 at, and today after having looked over it again, I 
 marvel that in this land of millionaires and Lincoln 
 worshippers, the old cemetery of the Lincoln family 
 should lie there neglected and forgotten. 
 
 Not in the history of the United States can you 
 find description of a more historic spot, from the 
 standpoint of valiant and heroic deeds. There are 
 men there who engaged in hair-raising duels with In' 
 dians. There lies King and Howard who matched 
 and fought great duels with Indian Chiefs. King, at 
 the age of seventeen shot and killed Tecumseh, an 
 age when most of the boys are hugging nursing bot' 
 ties and begging money from their mothers. Here is 
 the most historic church and council house west of 
 the Alleghany Mountains. Here preached the im" 
 mortal "Raccoon" Smith and the Rev. Gov. John 
 Garrard. The foundation lies in leaves and dust, 
 forgotten by the great Baptist leaders of America. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 409 
 
 Just above the spring driven creek, on a sloping 
 hill, lost to ownership, father or claimant, is a Geme 
 tery, where lie the progenitors of the greatest fam' 
 ilies in America. The Lincoln women are here with' 
 in the shadow of the old council church that lies in 
 ruins. 
 
 It was here they planned the last drive to end In- 
 dian ravages in Kentucky, and the battle of the 
 Thames may be said to have been born here. Here 
 Squire and Daniel Boone listened to words of wis* 
 dom and expounded their own views. 
 
 These brave Lincoln women who raised the Lin' 
 coin name on its flight to fame, sweltered in the field, 
 shouldred a rifle when need arose, praised God and 
 kept the hearthstone fires burning, that white civilis- 
 ation might not perish from the earth. There they 
 await the bugle call of the spartan rich and loyal poor 
 to do them the simple honors of well done thou 
 faithful servants. 
 
 The debt paying women have forgotten the 
 gratitude America owes for the great sacrifice these 
 women endured, nearly one hundred and forty years 
 ago. Winter after winter, the white lust has covered 
 their bodies over and over again, and melted and run 
 away to the coming sun rays of springtime. 
 
 The old chirping robins have held their carnival 
 of joy year after year, and watched the falling leaves 
 cover these graves of the dead for a century. Not a 
 sprig or limb or blade of grass has been lifted, that 
 the millions of America might know the fate of 
 these spartan souls. 
 
 The great Baptist Church that prides itself on 
 civilizing Kentucky, has not turned its hand to re 
 surrect the most notable house of worship on its en' 
 tire list of drama'making institutions. Brethren of 
 
410 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 the church here is an indictment against your pa' 
 triotism and spirit of God that cannot be answered. 
 
 In a day and time when those who lie there carried 
 his or her life in hand, with rifle as a twin of the 
 bible, these women certainly made the great sacrifice, 
 a sacrifice that reflected into the civilisation of Amer- 
 ica; and yet how doth the memory of man run, and 
 how easy doth a nation forget. 
 
 Must we go out and make a call on the women of 
 this country, or shall both men and women have a 
 part in honoring a woman who had braved an In- 
 dian's fire in single combat? Shall we all have a part 
 in performing a duty hoary with age? 
 
 If you worship at the shrine of the immortal who 
 stood at Gettysburg, at Shiloh, at Richmond and 
 Appomattox, then why have you turned back the 
 clock of the century that you might not do honor to 
 those Lincoln said were his. Shall you pay your 
 debt balance to Abraham Lincoln that he may dare 
 pay his obligation to his kin and resurrect their names 
 from the dead tomb to history. If that is where you 
 stand, with a century of neglect, then consecrate all 
 that Lincoln is and ever has been, there to be for- 
 gotten and despised. 
 
 For all that I believe he is, to the heart of man, 
 the world over, I would cash in and draw the bal- 
 ance in his favor, go there and say to his dead — "we 
 owe and we will pay." 
 
 Before looking on this scene of shame and neglect, 
 I had but recently visited some of the palaces of 
 learning in this country, built by many of the nation's 
 money bawds who had great desire to leave a mo- 
 nument to their vulgar ostentation, a display of what 
 they had been able to gather from the world of in- 
 dustry by pressing the thumbscrew automaton of the 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 41 1 
 
 machines, that more than enough might be on hand 
 to perpetuate the dollar's intellectual bankrupcy and 
 the educator's monumental coarseness. 
 
 Indeed, my friends, I did not believe here in 
 America I could, or would ever see such a contrast! 
 Why not, with ideals half decent and mentalities 
 half developed, has not some one of our millionaires 
 said to himself, here can I dedicate my faith in the 
 men and women of my country without seeming dis' 
 play of too much of my wealth, that generations to 
 come might say, here was a man who still believed 
 in the glorious and courageous past of his country; 
 who still loved the heritage in these dead women and 
 men of a pioneer race. 
 
 Rather than such a man, I did find, "Better Busi' 
 ness Bureaus," tools of the rich, who wanted the 
 question answered, — by what authority do you ask 
 these good rich men for money to celebrate a dead 
 Lincoln, and take from them the money "they stole 
 from both the dead and the living?" 
 
 And then I thought of these lanes of the woods I 
 used to travel as a boy, where men were happy and 
 contented with their simple work, and God, the God 
 of our silent moments was with us to comfort us 
 with that marvel of word emotion — "I am with thee 
 always." These days were the days of happiness, 
 but just the same, as I looked up at the sky above, I 
 heard not the sound of a leaf, the swish of the 
 wings of a free bird of the air; a terrible lonesome" 
 ness came over me, with the words of him who said, 
 "a house divided against itself cannot stand," then 
 my silent cry went out, of what for the moment was 
 a savage breast, seeking to curse those who had 
 neither charity in their hearts or gratitude in their 
 souls. 
 
412 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 What would he, Abraham Lincoln, have said, 
 could he have stood by my side and looked on the 
 desolate scene, and then looked over America to 
 find the house he had saved for the millions strewn 
 with wrecks, resulting from the lust of those who 
 wrapped the flag around them for its commercial 
 value. And who now, rich in this world's goods 
 cared nothing for the house that was salvaged from 
 the passions of men or the man who made its perpe- 
 tuity an asset and an asylum of liberty. 
 
 The crash of that night in Ford's Theatre rang 
 through my ears like a lightning stroke in my face, 
 and I said "there goes the man of the ages doomed to 
 death by deeds of love, patience and untiring work, 
 that others might reap the reward of his well doing." 
 
 Where are the mighty majestic men of Wall 
 Street, and of the market ways of commerce, who 
 have collected their toll from humanity, that they 
 will not throw out a life line, and at least save this 
 picture before me, that I and thousands would look 
 upon with sorrow, in and out of season until at last 
 the name of Lincoln would be blotted from the pages 
 of history. 
 
 Are we, Mr. Chairman, a nation of ingrates? Are 
 we a cold, selfish dollar-hunting race, without human 
 ideals or levels? Have we ever believed in great and 
 noble things, and in the men of noble characters, or 
 in the women who gave their last drop of blood that 
 we might march on to immortal heights as the race 
 of white supremacy? 
 
 I looked again upon the tombs of Nancy Lincoln 
 and her mother, blackened by the hoariness of age 
 and neglect, and there I read the answer, "the indict- 
 ment is true." 
 
 I then turned away, with courage growing, and 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 41 3 
 
 resolution certain, that I would wake up the torpid 
 souls of my race, and make this spot bloom with the 
 sweet fragrance of love and loyalty, or else the blis- 
 tering words of contempt and ridicule would be 
 visited on my countrymen. Until this is done, I may 
 say with Emmett — "Farewell." 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 APPLICATION OF LINCOLN PRINCIPLES 
 
 TN respect of Lincoln's relation to the South, we 
 hold no brief for the South nor for the President's 
 position, except to state the facts as we see them. We 
 are well aware, however, of the Southern character 
 and we may say that when freed from passion, there 
 is no more gentle, just or refined sentiment anywhere 
 in America than in the South, but this may be said 
 with the reservation that there is no more intolerant, 
 arrogant or more unreasonable statesman anywhere 
 than your man of the South when spurred on by in- 
 terest, which he sees from the single angle of his 
 isolated position. 
 
 There is a class in the South today, and it was far 
 in the ascendency in 1860, that was intolerant of any 
 compromise on the slavery question. One hundred 
 years may refine it but it was built on the theory that 
 there should be an aristocracy, which means always 
 that there is also an under class. If there are not 
 blacks then there must be a class of whites to sustain 
 its relation to that aristocracy as a sub'ordered insti' 
 tution to do the work. There was no spirit of com' 
 promise in the South in 1860, until and when defeat 
 stared them in the face; then there was the Chase 
 Stevens negro idolators of the North to deal with. 
 More or less Lincoln's hands were tied by these radi' 
 
 414 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 41 5 
 
 cals, an idiotic statesmanship just a bit less than 
 insanity possessed them. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln in his inaugural address indicated his 
 knowledge of this situation, so he endeavored to pave 
 the way for some amicable settlement. 
 
 He read the resolution of his party to convey his 
 position. 
 
 Resolved: "That the maintainance inviolate of the 
 right of the states, and especially the right of each 
 state to order and control its own domestic institu' 
 tions according to its own judgment exclusively, is 
 essential to that balance of power on which the pep 
 fection and endurance of our political fabric depend, 
 and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force 
 of the soil of any state or territory, no matter under 
 what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes." 
 
 Then he said: 
 
 "I hold that, in contemplation of universal laws 
 and of the Constitution, the union of these states is 
 perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in 
 the fundamental law of all national governments. 
 Again, if the United States be not a government 
 proper but an association of states in the nature of 
 contract merely, can it, as a contract, be peaceably 
 unmade by less than all the parties who made it? 
 One party to a contract may violate it — break it, so 
 to speak, but does it not require all to lawfully 
 rescind it." 
 
 Again he said; reverting to the facts as related to 
 this statement of law. 
 
 "It is true, then, that any right, plainly written 
 into the Constitution, has been denied? I think not. 
 Happily the human mind is so constituted that no 
 part can reach to the audacity of doing this." 
 
 "Plainly, the central idea of Secession is the essence 
 
416 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 of anarchy — a majority held in restraint by constitu" 
 tional checks and limitations and always changing 
 easily with deliberate changes of popular opinion and 
 sentiments — is the only true sovereign of a free 
 people. 1 ' 
 
 To interpret this language is not difficult. If slav 
 ery is secured in the states where it exists, as he pro' 
 f esses, that is not enough; they must have the right 
 to extend it into states where the people by a vote 
 oppose it, regardless of that people's right of sover' 
 eignty. This is an abandonment of state sovereignty 
 and self determination. To accept the South's view 
 point; they claimed in one breath the right of sover" 
 eignty and in the next they denied it, a very selfish 
 and ridiculous doctrine, though one sustained by the 
 Taney decision, and therefore a vested constitutional 
 right, they said. But we must not forget that it was 
 no less a personage than Jefferson who stood squarely 
 on the Lincoln doctrine, supported by the South 
 when he engaged John Marshall in their controversy 
 about the right of the Supreme Court to nullify laws 
 passed by the Congress. The Democratic party in 
 the South was in no attitude to oppose the Lincoln 
 position, unless it should abandon the entire line of 
 tenets of that historic party's position. 
 
 After all, it was a political question, and Judge 
 Taney could have easily said in construing the Con' 
 stitution, that the right of determining the sovereign 
 rights of the States rested with the people of the 
 state, and that power was never delegated to the Na" 
 tional government but reserved to the states, acting 
 on the voice of the majority of each. Hence, Mr. 
 Lincoln took the position that it was not a vested 
 property right inherent in the individual to extend 
 slavery into new territory whenever he got ready to 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 417 
 
 change his domicile, but it was the political right, 
 unlimited by Federal Constitutional provision to pre 
 hibit slavery within its territory. 
 
 That is a sound doctrine. But the South was in 
 no frame of mind to accept anything short of vie 
 lence to the rights of the states formed from new 
 territory, and it was an indefensible position. 
 
 You might as well say today, the states must pass 
 laws to carry out the Eighteenth Amendment; it is 
 a matter of compulsion. If this is so, the sovereignty 
 of each state is wiped out, and its legislatures are 
 mere vassals, subject to the order of Congress or ex- 
 ecutive power of the Federal government. What 
 could be more absurd? New territory, the property 
 of the Federal government could, by no stretch of the 
 imagination become, in any movement, a vested sub- 
 jugated right of Georgia, for instance. 
 
 The South's sole reliance was on the Taney deci- 
 sion under the provision of the Constitution which 
 gave them the right to pursue and take their prop- 
 erty, and a prohibition to any state against the pas- 
 sage of laws by it, interfering with such security in 
 property so guaranteed. 
 
 Upon this proposition, Mr. Lincoln took a sound 
 position. 
 
 If the government was a mere compact, as Cal- 
 houn claimed it was, then a contract could not be 
 broken until all, or a majority of the states, agreed to 
 it, and as Congress acted by majority rule, and as the 
 people of the states acted by the rule of the Amend- 
 ment, they could not withdraw from the Union un- 
 less it was done in one of these ways, compact or no 
 compact. To say that each state made a contract 
 with a WHOLE that did not exist, that enabled 
 them to withdraw when they liked, would be to state 
 
418 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 an absurd rule of law. These states consisted of a 
 unity, the unity could not be broken except by con" 
 sent of a majority, but no consent was asked, for 
 none would have been granted. Any position the 
 South took was in fact untenable. 
 
 What is more, there was no complaint that the 
 institution was not protected where it existed when 
 the compact was made, and no complaint made that 
 the people were not sovereigns at all times. But if 
 they were not in these respective states, then a ma' 
 jority of these states acting as a WHOLE had the 
 right to say on what conditions a state could be ad' 
 mitted. If this is not true and was not always true, 
 we have fallen on evil days, having on our hands as 
 a national unity, a government that could not pre 
 scribe any condition on which another contracting 
 party could come into the contract. Such a situation 
 would mean that a contract might be made by one 
 party, as to terms, and the other party would have 
 to submit, although such terms were entirely to its 
 disadvantage and against its interest. 
 
 Here again stands Lincoln, wise and sound in his 
 statesmanship. 
 
 Let us see where Mr. Lincoln stood at the time he 
 made the Gettysburg speech. He said: 
 
 "Four score and seven years ago, our fathers 
 brought forth on this continent a new nation, con- 
 ceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition 
 that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged 
 in a great Civil War, testing whether that nation, or 
 any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long 
 endure. We are met on a great battlefield of this 
 war; we have come to dedicate a portion of that field 
 as a final resting place for those who here gave their 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 419 
 
 lives that that nation might live. It is altogether 
 proper and fitting that we should do this. 
 
 But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate — we 
 cannot consecrate — we cannot hallow this ground. 
 The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, 
 have consecrated it far above our power to add or 
 to detract. The world will little note or Ions re 
 member what we say here, but it can never forget 
 what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to 
 be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they 
 who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. 
 
 It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great 
 task remaining before us; that from these honored 
 dead we take increased devotion to that cause for 
 which they gave the last full measure of devotion; 
 that we here highly resolve that these dead shall 
 not have died in vain; that this nation under God, 
 shall have a new birth of freedom, and that govern- 
 ment of the people, by the people, for the people, 
 shall not perish from the earth. " 
 
 This speech immortalizes the sentiment of govern- 
 ment by the people; it also recreates the spirit of 
 liberty limited only by a government of the people. 
 
 Stepping onto the same battlefield today, let us 
 take stock and make answer, both to Lincoln and to 
 the people he had in mind — the common people of 
 this country, and ask ourselves if we have been true 
 to the Trust, a Trust confided to us in a sacred mo- 
 ment, in the invited presence of the same God. Is 
 there equality of government in this world of new 
 events within the sound of Lincoln's voice and under- 
 standing, that his dedication has been fulfilled? Are 
 the rights of those he had in mind being conserved, 
 and do they participate in the benefits and advan- 
 tages of a civilization sprung from the salvation of 
 
420 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 the nation and the enlarged powers of the national 
 government? Can we stand there under the immop 
 tal influence of the Spirit of his God, and answer 
 truthfully the question, to the living and the dead, 
 that there should not be and is not financial want 
 or hunger in our land — the land of Lincoln and 
 those of his dead and his living. I will not make 
 answer, in the presence of him who labored to make 
 whole and secure a government of the people, or in 
 the presence of his God. 
 
 But I do and I can, with uncovered head, stand' 
 ing before the same sky, appeal for Lincoln to come 
 back and see; and to Lincoln, his equal living, who 
 may, with the power of immortality within him, an" 
 swer to Lincoln and to God. 
 
 As for myself, I find my voice going out into the 
 wilderness of thought and emotion seeking for a lost 
 lamb that will not return, and for Lincoln agjin to 
 come with us, that in his name we may preserve the 
 proud spirit of equality for all men, and the fair and 
 equal distribution of burdens of government, of cares 
 of life, of opportunities open to all, denied to none, of 
 law that senses and springs from justice, that liberty 
 may stand again, free to all, the bloom of the morn' 
 ing, graceful and sweet to him whose nostrils now 
 smell not, and whose ears seem to hear the chains of 
 a civilisation fettering his free step. 
 
 And to that God to whom he appealed in faith, 
 we may in fervent prayer, ask Him to take away the 
 suffering of those, in the land Lincoln preserved for 
 us, and strike from the limbs of those who are indus' 
 trially and financially shackled, the chains that bind, 
 to the end that the wounds mav be healed and the 
 heart made light and happy again. O! land, of the 
 once free, O! God with the infinite power, give us 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 421 
 
 liberty, give us opportunity; give us another Lincoln! 
 Lincoln! what mastery lies in that name. Ten mil" 
 lion blacks must turn their eyes from the evil of our 
 times because it rings in their ears and bleeds their 
 hearts with music, the sweetest cadence that ever 
 led mortal to immortality and to God. 
 
 And today, one billion white men rise from its 
 sound with the lustre of hope and youth upon their 
 smiles as if God eternal had sent his Messiah to lead 
 their poor wrecked souls from the depth of darkness 
 into the sunlight that kisses away the tears of sorrow. 
 
 Immortalized for his simplicity, revered for his 
 truth, loved for his justice, honored for his devotion 
 to liberty, Lincoln will measure up to the sages of 
 history, the idol of the weak, the master mind to the 
 world's strong and great. 
 
 A brief resume of where we are travelling in the 
 dark, and a pointed example of political frauds as 
 they are palmed off on the people may be in point 
 in determining if we have altogether abandoned the 
 Lincoln simplicity. 
 
 Jefferson made a Republic from chips and whet" 
 stones, flotsam and jetsam; he annexed the entire 
 western empire to make it a solid and defensible 
 whole, yet the people today have little knowledge of 
 Lincoln's principles or of Jefferson's, and even less 
 real respect for Jefferson's memory than any national 
 leader. Hence they roll over into the mire of depres" 
 sions and suffer, and they should. They much prefer 
 to make heroes of aviators who have summersaulted 
 in the air, or of a grilled young thing who has just 
 won a national golf prize. 
 
 Lincoln put a new roof on the Republic, that the 
 leaks might cease to rot it: and that the house we live 
 in might be kept in order, but the people look on Lin" 
 
422 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 coin as a name customary to honor; their formal 
 tribute to him each year is graceless and begrudge 
 ing. The pleasurcloving "lasarf in America con" 
 demn him because he did not present a sure cure for 
 government oppression and an everlasting receipt 
 for prosperity. Consequently, our Republic which 
 was one in fact in Jefferson and Lincoln's day, has 
 become an industrial despotism by its decadence, 
 with only a few features of Democracy left. 
 
 We have mental professions and impeachments 
 from the White House, thoroughly disgusting in 
 their crass deception and underlying viciousness. We 
 have counter pronouncements from the most contu' 
 macious politicians, pretending and professing, until 
 mole hills become mountains in the public mind. 
 That is the front page sight that greets us in aid of 
 a poor digestion. Nostrums there are aplenty, but 
 they are the nostrums of the tinhorn, and read like a 
 primary school child interpreting Revelations. Bet- 
 ter philosophy has emanated from our national cul' 
 tural school, the speakeasy, and political doctors 
 their equals are there, but none deserving to blacken 
 the boots of Jefferson or Lincoln. 
 
 A case in point is the authorship of the Federal 
 Reserve Act. Not one of these pretenders engaged 
 at any time in its construction or passage, told the 
 whole truth about it„ for if they had done so, it 
 would have detracted from egotistic U I" and arrc 
 gant "We; 1 ' this statement applies to all, from the 
 President of the United States down to the Com" 
 mittee members of Congress. In support of this 
 statement, owing to the importance of the legislation, 
 the author's connection with it, and to illustrate the 
 point made, he has exposed the truth about it in the 
 appendix of this volume. This truth means only 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 423 
 
 that the American people should rush away from 
 worship or adulation or public praise of any man; we 
 have not only entirely disgusted the cultured men 
 and women of our own country, but taught the uni- 
 versal world of intelligence to hold us in thorough 
 contempt. For we are a nation of braggarts. Boast' 
 ing, pretending and make believing. 
 
 For our relief, Socialism is proposed as a remedy, 
 a midway doctrine between a pure Democracy and 
 Communism. Presented many times in the old 
 world, tried out as a dream of a perfect state and 
 found wanting. It actually proposes that the state 
 exercise the dual powers of a Monarchy and a De- 
 mocracy, a panacea for headaches and poverty. It 
 would hold the state to the responsibility of exer- 
 cising control of all public and semi-public utilities, 
 and leave Democracy, or the people to wriggle in 
 and out, with a few individual occupations. It looks 
 well as a critic but as a performer it would be and 
 has been a failure. In the word it thrives well on 
 the slogan, that capital is a dastard, and poverty its 
 twin. It cannot be a way out. There are other and 
 sounder fundamentals. 
 
 Communism is more respectable, because its bni' 
 tality stands in the forefront, where all can see it 
 plainly. Communism is a disciplined economic con- 
 crete form of despotism that abolishes liberty en- 
 tirely; that makes the dollar the basis of life, by state 
 management of income and distribution. The King, 
 Bootlegger, Bootblack, Baker, Doctor, Artist, all 
 divide the crumbs of prosperity rolling from the same 
 tough dough. He who will not work is made to 
 work, and he who is willing to work is made to di- 
 vide, and equality of opportunity is audited in the 
 counting house of addition and subtraction. 
 
424 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 As a pure philosophy of economics, of dollars 
 earned and saved, as a machine organised to control 
 production and distribution, it is a success. It will 
 perhaps prove the soundest economic policy of the 
 ages, solving the problem of waste. If we live to 
 forget the national aspiration for liberty and freedom, 
 then we may safely embrace Communism. If we 
 will degrade the brain of man or the genius of youth 
 and parcel it out in the intellectual gutters of the na" 
 tion, we may safely embrace Communism. 
 
 If we may change the ambitious nature of the in" 
 dividual and plant in front of him a stone wall, say 
 ing to him, when you reach here, this is the end, 
 then we may safely embrace Communism. It has its 
 good features in spite of the babbling brainless fad" 
 dists of cheap aristocracy in America, who have in" 
 dustriously attempted to spread fear of the imme" 
 diate infection of the disease. It abolishes the rich; 
 it clamps down to a common level the arrogance of 
 creeds and puts them on a pay"as"you"gO"plan. It 
 simplifies the plan of distribution of the products of 
 man's labor and emasculates all the back alley trusts, 
 that rob and pilfer the poor. 
 
 It was born in the cellar, not in the garrett where 
 genius is nurtured; it never saw the sun until revolu" 
 tion broke aslant on the map of the world; it was 
 christened under the shadow of hunger, and its 
 mother was poverty, long denied the spiritual in" 
 fluence of God Almighty. It was decreed to Hell by 
 creeds and religions made by Monarchy, that owned 
 all, bled all, and the body until it was a dry stink, in 
 order that CLASS might wave its bloody flag in the 
 face of misfortune and misery, so that there was left 
 in the land, on one side, the importuning poor, and 
 on the other, the damned rich. 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 425 
 
 It is a stout Patriarch of human suffering and 
 knows a pain without medical advice. It has iron 
 in its liver and no digestive disorders, for it can live 
 on shouts of man-made and man-pronounced hallelu- 
 jahs, and with pleasure, trample creeds under its 
 feet. It has no gods and heroes; that divinity, it has 
 leveled to the standing of men in overalls. But at 
 last it levels aspiration, rules by a class, and restores 
 in a working jacket, that which our fathers despised 
 —MONARCHY. 
 
 In America, it is ordered by the Mellons and the 
 slinking monkeys of finance, who want our police 
 and militia to close its mouth and keep it from our 
 old backyards, so that, as it concerns us and our 
 liberties, it will in the end depend upon the good 
 sense of Americans whether they reject it or accept 
 it. On their judgment we gamble. Marvellous is 
 the word that must be applied to these Doctors of 
 economics and political wrongs who accuse it and 
 offer nothing instead. 
 
 The head of the greatest University in New York 
 tells us that Prohibition has ruined the nation eco- 
 nomically, but that a League of Nations, which will 
 keep rottenborough organizations and run-down 
 monarchies in power, would save the economic dis- 
 tress in America and elsewhere. This is Butlerizing 
 the master wrongs with vaseline. 
 
 Our very brainy (?) president, says that great ex- 
 penditures on public works will tend to bring back 
 employment at high wages, so consequently, on with 
 the money distributing brigade. If the government 
 as an agency, has collected this money wrongfully, 
 that philosophy gives a part of the people a chance 
 to get back by work what has been wrongfully taken 
 from all of the people. But wages fall and Commerce 
 
426 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 dies. Arrogance and ignorance, however, still live. 
 
 Another brilliant banker advocates to the mer- 
 chant that he keep his employment list well up at 
 high wages in order to bring prosperity. Marvellous 
 economic wisdom, this. Fundamentally, consump' 
 tion resources must be working in order to have the 
 buying power in the nation somewhere, and this is 
 sound, but based on another condition, and one of 
 precedent, that the selling forces must be function' 
 ing, and this fact presupposes a market of normal 
 production, consequently normal consumption, con' 
 sequently normal employment and a normal wage 
 price. After all, it is back to a market, that may con' 
 sume a normal production; then you, automatically, 
 have a purchasing power, which is an assurance of 
 prosperity. 
 
 If we can go out in the markets of the world and 
 make a good trade for exchange of products; and 
 incur good will in the trade, and treat our buyers 
 fairly, we may expect a recurrence of good trading, 
 otherwise not. If we erect vicious tariff walls to 
 satisfy a group that want to rob the folks at home 
 because of their contribution to political success of 
 a named party or group, prosperity will be destroyed, 
 because markets will be destroyed. Thus we pillage 
 the entire nation to satisfy a group of political and in' 
 dustrial pilferers. These pilferers get away with this 
 kind of sabotage because they are able to thrust out a 
 religious, or uneconomic issue, like Prohibition; none 
 of which could be entertained if we had an en" 
 lightened nation of voters. 
 
 The Republicans in the last campaign obscured 
 the cancerous disease of depression in order to raise 
 campaign money in presenting the moral or church 
 issue — "shall a Catholic rule America?" The De' 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 427 
 
 mocrats, equally dumb and unscrupulous, presented 
 Prohibition as a great back breaker of America's 
 prosperity. Nothing could be quite so stupid. The 
 people decided in favor of superstition as against a 
 "belly" issue, like Prohibition, because it, at least, 
 had higher ideals in it, though deceptive in truth and 
 unyielding in returns. 
 
 There is only one way to run a mining camp, a 
 logging trail, a farm, a merchandise business, or a 
 bank, and as long as we have a Democracy, where 
 individual effort is free, this rule of action will not 
 be different, and so it may be applied with equal 
 force to operation of the government. Any man 
 with an ounce of brains can master the tariff prin' 
 ciple in thirty days or any other economic principle 
 to be applied in practice, but in America we have 
 come upon a plan of appointing a commission to 
 study the situation. We are a government of "study 
 iers." Simply and frankly we "had better" tell the 
 people the truth — that truth is, that we have law 
 and political administration via the commission, 
 which is an excuse for doing nothing. It is our mod' 
 ern well organised way of lying to the people, defer" 
 ring hope, while the pillage is carried on. That is 
 what Mr. Lincoln would tell you. "We need brains 
 to win the war — my Generals." The administration 
 has hired commissions from time to time to lie to the 
 American people, while the pillage goes on. No 
 more disgraceful report of a commission was ever 
 evolved than the Wickersham Commission. Any 
 high school lad without experience or any New York 
 City Speakeasy proprietor could have excelled it in 
 one week's study for practical and efficient informa' 
 tion, and as a basis of working plans. 
 
 We are continually destroying individual rights 
 
428 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 by new laws, and appointing new judges to enforce 
 these foolish statutes, conceiving for each Congress 
 a plan to prevent jury trials, and thus more and more 
 assault the functions of liberty by placing power in 
 an autocrat's hands. We can trust crooked lawyers 
 but we cannot trust the homespun people, collected 
 from the vicinage to pass on the facts. This diver' 
 sion from the application of Lincoln principles is 
 permissible because of the stranded condition of our 
 population, due to abandonment of thinking, and 
 therefore they are more easily made the dupes of 
 shyster financiers and doctors of spending. 
 
 When the writer first conceived the Federal Re 
 erve Act and passed it on to Senator Owen and Con' 
 gressman Carter, he had advocated an issuance by 
 the government of money at a two per cent rate of 
 interest. He has since concluded that no country 
 can long prosper unless it abandons entirely the 
 charge of interest on money. This may seem 
 strange, but it is sound philosophy. 
 
 We have legislated in America for money and 
 against men since we quit the principles of Lincoln. 
 Legislation must now begin on the theory that man' 
 production and high wages create a consuming 
 market for industry. 
 
 Three hundred and eighty thousand men of one 
 hundred and twenty million now pay ninetyseven 
 percent of income taxes. That situation is the net 
 result of ignorance of financial and economic prob' 
 lems. It is, to speak more specifically, the result of 
 an ignorant voting population, an ignorant member' 
 ship in Congress, and the manipulation of as grace 
 les a lot of financial rascals as ever rifled a ship of 
 gold. 
 
 The country has been run by economists whose 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 429 
 
 theories looked defensible on paper, but when put 
 into actual working places, failed to deliver the goods. 
 Mr. Mellon, for instance, believes the province of 
 government is to raise money by taxation, because 
 the average man has to pay it; when as a matter of 
 fact, the first duty as Lincoln said, was that statesmen 
 should see that government protected labor in secur- 
 ing what it earned. 
 
 If you borrow money, you secure it with property, 
 and money has no value unless it is backed by value. 
 Men who own values, and who constitute the bone 
 of the government make good the word of the gov 
 ernment, which issues and makes money for a mere 
 medium or yardstick of exchange. It would, there 
 fore, be infinitely better for the government to issue 
 money directly against values as and when needed, 
 and withdrawn and cancelled when the use for it by 
 the individual had disappeared. 
 
 If men who work have a surplus of earned money 
 they create a market for the products of industry. 
 If they earn enough to buy bread, they are only a 
 market for bread. That is the theory of high wages. 
 The question then of markets is more of mechanics, 
 but the basis of world-wide prosperity is the wage 
 earned. 
 
 This is why Russia has no idle, as the balance of 
 the world suffers; it has fixed the universal wage 
 level, and left a balance for buying after eating, 
 though it has fixed the amount of eating. But the 
 economic fact is that all men have a certain equality. 
 That, however, is no reason for adopting their sys- 
 tem of government. 
 
 Interest rates and interest paying on bonds and 
 mortgages is just what is ruining most all countries, 
 and the time must approach when money will be in 
 
430 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 fact controlled by the government and moved for the 
 people under a law pledging certain values until it is 
 to be returned. 
 
 If gold is to be sustained as a standard we must 
 expect to sit in slavery to the order of the owners of 
 it. Chain us, we might as well tell them, and as we 
 work, take the returns. That is the gold standard 
 or any single standard. International rules by eco< 
 nomic agreement should settle our balances of trade. 
 Here internationalism should supersede nationalism. 
 Today, the men is business who owed a thousand 
 dollars, now owe $3,000. The farmer who owned 
 $10,000 of wheat now owns $4,000, because the 
 owners of gold have said so. 
 
 In Russia they have mass PROTECTION as well 
 as mass production. We do not need either to be 
 prosperous in America. We can make farming an 
 adjunct to industry and make industry an adjunct 
 to farming, and it can be done by intelligent plan' 
 ning on the basis of individually educated effort. But 
 before this era transpires, we must put unscrupulous 
 dumb'bells out of Congress and make way for honest 
 intelligence. 
 
 Legislation does not cure anything but it can pre 
 tect the doctors while they work on the patient, and 
 it can make penalties for getting into the patient's 
 pocket. 
 
 We brought our troubles with the tariff. We cul' 
 tured monopoly with it, and monopoly soon became 
 a bold and petted son of America. It was the ad' 
 vertised shin plaster that covered the sores of the 
 Republican party, and it was the chief Intern at the 
 Democratic Hospital where it might minister the 
 last rites to an impoverished Democratic party of 
 opposition — so that if the kicking Jackass ever got 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 43 1 
 
 dangerous it had him well in hand. It was thus able 
 to put its hand in everybody's pocket, without fear 
 of impeachment, having always a lot of ready-made 
 harmless issues. It, therefore, bought and paid for 
 directly and indirectly, circuitously and by political 
 favors the nominations of both dominant parties, so 
 that it might in the general elections select between 
 two bargains. It was thus able to organise all of 
 the avenues of wealth and cause it to flow into one 
 source. 
 
 We have had a party government without prin- 
 ciple or statesmanship; our laws have served one end, 
 the privileged at the expense of the masses. Our 
 educational system, our club life, our military system, 
 our creed — religion, have each and all been under its 
 dictation for so long that we have classes today in 
 vulgar and unrefined snobbery that would shame 
 the days of Louis the Liar. This industrial despotism 
 has given us country editors, county surveyors, some 
 times called engineers, to fill the responsibilities of a 
 statesman; and as a result we have put in the presi- 
 dential chair a graduated decadence of ignorance 
 and lack of service, growing worse each year from 
 Grant down to the ready-made hour of the victim of 
 the disaster in front of us — unparalleled of stupidity, 
 and lacking foresight, the equal of which, mankind 
 has rarely witnessed. 
 
 The nation is influenced today by propaganda. 
 The war with Germany was a propaganda war, built 
 on falsehood which established for us miseries that 
 will live longer than the suckling babe born to' 
 morrow. Howling fools and unthinking ignorance 
 brought it on. We had not a single ground of inter" 
 ference. It was simply a Contractor's war, an Im' 
 penalises war, a Monopolist's war, made by the rich, 
 
432 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 fought by the poor. We were bulldozed, bought 
 and paid for by England, that we might in the end 
 endorse the bond. So here we have arrived today, 
 a bankrupt in morals and money after a drunken 
 brawl of fifteen years. We have nothing to show 
 for it, except a sorry contemptible policy that sub" 
 merges millions in the dust of poverty. It has cost 
 us fifty billions in money, one hundred billions in 
 property, and it will cost us one hundred billions 
 more before the end is in sight. 
 
 For one industry, farm values have decreased from 
 $78,000,000,000 to $58,000,000,000 in ten years, 
 while the obligation to industrial despotism has in" 
 creased from $3,000,000,000 to $11,000,000,000. 
 The farmers are riding down the road to tenants at 
 will and sufferance. Those that are not now paupers, 
 in twenty years will be there — on the paupers bench. 
 Is there a remedy? Not a single one, but many that 
 may cure. 
 
 The people need long time cheap money at no 
 more than three per cent with their real estate as 
 security to get them out of the hands of the Shylocks. 
 They need to bring the tariff down to a common 
 level, and above that point, to make reciprocal agree" 
 ments with favored foreign nations. They may 
 shorten or not the work hour, that is immaterial. 
 The farms can be restored by brains only, not by 
 political Jackass Boards. International trade balances 
 must by law be settled as domestic balances are 
 settled. 
 
 The people can control the banks under rigid laws 
 made by the people, not by the banks and the Presi' 
 dent. Strip the President of appointive power and 
 break the evil of the bureaucrat. Stop speculation, 
 by controlling Interstate Commerce in securities, 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 433 
 
 leaving only underwriters a free hand under limita- 
 tions; that will stop the bleeding process carried on 
 in Wall Street. Prohibit foreign loans without con- 
 sent of a Commission selected by the Congress. 
 Regulate and dictate to Public Utilities, and fix the 
 rates on properly appraised values. Cut our national 
 appropriations in half, kick the World Court non- 
 sense, the League of Nations' panorama into the 
 backyard. Gird our loins for discipline of ourselves 
 in spending, lay off of the ways of snobbery, become 
 again just what we are, and deliver ourselves through 
 our own communion to God; attend to business, and 
 stay at home — not isolation, but keep our d — long 
 noses out of old world affairs. 
 
 A very close reading of the history of the war and 
 the operation of the power assumed by President 
 Lincoln teaches us one very sure thing, that the 
 Constitution, with all of its limitations, means noth- 
 ing in times of war, hence I have referred to the Con- 
 stitution as a peace time document, leaving us at the 
 mercy of an army and a President, when we shall so 
 declare war with another. The President, as head 
 of the Army, can execute any order which he 
 chooses to make as President. He can squelch the 
 Press if he does not agree with it. He can suspend 
 the civil authorities and declare martial law, and the 
 men he appoints to office or in the army will try the 
 offender, who has scant chance of getting justice in 
 that trial under present regulations, which ought in 
 reason to be a fair trial. 
 
 No lawyer who understands the principles under- 
 lying justice doubts the supreme danger of this 
 power. Excitement runs high in times of war and it 
 runs into fanaticism and cruelty, and it runs with the 
 army and the President. The President is a dictator, 
 
434 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 and no one doubts that the President was a dictator 
 finally in 1863. 
 
 The query to all Americans is this: — is it wise or 
 is it safe? Dare we place in any man's hands that 
 much power? President Wilson himself abused that 
 power; Lincoln abused it, and there is no answer of 
 defense for that abuse except to say it was neces' 
 sary to win. The man who today knows what we 
 reaped, and will yet reap, from the World War, can 
 appreciate the danger to the liberty of the citizen 
 and to Democracy. Democracy does not protect us 
 as Jefferson so intended, as the fathers so intended. 
 
 Politicians may differ, but their difference is only 
 a difference of words; in the execution of these prin' 
 ciples which they propose to espouse, they would be 
 equally tyrannical and unjust to the citizen. 
 
 It is the most serious question before us in Amer" 
 ica. We can discuss the power of Communism, but 
 it is not one whit different from the same power we 
 use when the time comes to use it, here under our 
 form of government. 
 
 I have always believed, and I think it would not 
 be difficult to prove, that grounds of impeachment 
 could be brought against one-half of the Presidents 
 who have occupied that office since Lincoln, and 
 successfully sustained, but the sentiment of the peo' 
 pie is entirely against it. When the nation elects a 
 President with a doddering mind for elocution sput* 
 tering like this, what may we not expect from such 
 statesmanship. 
 
 "This degree of independence gives assurance that 
 with the passage of the temporary dislocations and 
 shocks, we can and will make a large measure of re- 
 covery, irrespective of the rest of the world. " 
 
 And, may it please the Court, in the same speech 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 435 
 
 comes the substitution of elocution for common 
 sense. 
 
 "Our economic condition and suffering results 
 from world wide depression. The fall of the German 
 Mark would have frightful economic consequences 
 all over the world." 
 
 If our economic independence gives us such gobs 
 of assurance that prosperity will return, how can 
 other consequences in Germany affect our wonderful 
 independence? That is a common sense question. 
 
 The Honorable Secretary of State of the said 
 President rushes across the water to stabilize the 
 Mark by a suspension of debts due us as a nation 
 from Germany. 
 
 The reason is convicting and plain to see. This is 
 a government of Wall Street selection and here we 
 find it — wait until we get ours. 
 
 Twenty billions are loaned in Europe, floated by 
 American Bankers, principally with money of Amer' 
 ican Saving Banks, the money of ordinary American 
 working people; five billions or near thereat loaned 
 to financial and industrial institutions in Germany. 
 The bankers have already received their heavy com' 
 missions, and it would impair their clients money 
 loaned to Germany if the Communist should repudi' 
 ate American debts, take possession of German busi' 
 ness, and the German government, telling us politely 
 to whistle or go to hell. 
 
 In another study (Handbook on American Under' 
 writings of Foreign Securities) prepared by the Dc 
 partment of Commerce late in 1930, the total of fop 
 eign capital issues publicly offered in the United 
 States during 19144929 aggregated, exclusive of 
 refunding operations, $11,834,154,676. If allow 
 ance is made for the above $1,144,722,000, which 
 
436 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 is included in America's direct investments, the bal' 
 ance of $10,689,432,676, plus our direct invest' 
 ments, gives a total of $18,167,167,676 at the end 
 of 1929, or $19,167,167,676 at the end of 1930. 
 
 So the boss in Wall Street hurries to Washington 
 and barrages the government servants on to the 
 scene of action there, to force France to relinquish 
 debt collecting of due amounts under the Owen 
 Young settlement, from Germany. 
 
 The money suspension is to permit prosperity in 
 Wall Street, not in America, and the protection of 
 the masters roll coming into jeopardy; this is the 
 cause of the action. 
 
 When this money was collected from the Amer' 
 ican people and loaned to our blessed Allies, there 
 was no understanding with them that there would 
 be a suspension, or that such money loaned dc 
 pended on Germany paying the other nations. 
 
 What is now proposed, is that taxes shall be col" 
 lected from the same American suckers, at least from 
 all who are on the sucker list with funds to pay, to 
 meet the deficit of their creditors, so that as we re' 
 lieve Germany, to head off Communism, we saddle 
 the loan so remissed on the shoulders of these same 
 loyal fools at home. In sound business we collect 
 from the stockholders by way of additional assess' 
 ment, or more money, to replace funds voluntarily 
 released, or for money mislaid or misappropriated, for 
 purely political reasons. 
 
 Why not stop the loans in the first instance abroad 
 and loan the money at home? 
 
 Thus we see the call of the strong voice of Wall 
 Street, far different from the call of the vast agri' 
 cultural forces of our own America. If patriotism 
 means anything, it means, as Roosevelt said: "Amer' 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 437 
 
 ica first, last and all the time," then we can give at' 
 tention to the miseries of the foreigners which he 
 sought himself. Words, words, and more words, 
 and much elocution instead of common sense and 
 common ordinary human action to preserve our' 
 selves. Either we will recover from our depression 
 or we will lean on the balance of the world, and if 
 we are to lean on them let us start with the tariff, 
 and divide with them on a trade basis. 
 
 It is the writer's misfortune to have tested in actual 
 conflict the reputations of many eminent men, who 
 believed as they looked in the mirror, here is the 
 making of a vastly superior mentality to old Abe 
 Lincoln himself. But neither time nor old acid could 
 aprove such highly illusive opinions. 
 
 The present occupant we think is one of these men 
 — we mean the leaseholder of the White House. He 
 is one of those accidental strictures of American 
 politics which imposes obligations on the patriotism 
 and pride of intellectual Americans without giving 
 them a good chance to be heard. Nominated by the 
 varied ingenuities of the industrialist's machinery, 
 as either a possibility, or a complacent time server, 
 he has not a chance to be anything but a servant 
 ready made to order, to the order of his party, and is 
 as much a misfit as a store suit of clothes on a hump' 
 back man. 
 
 I sat in a meeting once where appeared two men, 
 both supposed to be great, and I made up my mind 
 that I would see there a test by all the rules of the 
 game. 
 
 One was William J. Bryan and the other Senator 
 Joe Bailey of Texas. Having had intimate personal 
 relation with both men I had decided opinions, but 
 
438 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 my conferees had not such fixed opinions, with about 
 a four-fifth leaning to Bryan. 
 
 The master was the man who had the real brain, 
 and that is always the case when duty calls you to 
 the class. Bailey overwhelmed Bryan with profound 
 and correct reasons, as a professor would a child 
 pupil, and well did Mr. Bryan know it. 
 
 The Republicans believed that John C. Spooner 
 of Wisconsin was more than a legal match for Bailey, 
 but when the occasion arose for them to meet in the 
 forum of a debate as to the powers of the Federal 
 judiciary, Bailey killed Spooner's egotism as you 
 would crush a fresh egg in your hand. Spooner, dis- 
 graced in his own mind, resigned from the Senate 
 and passed out of the world unsung and unnoticed. 
 When a leader comes into your crowd and opens his 
 mouth, the atmosphere is supercharged at once with 
 his superior ability. And so when a man faces the 
 problems of the Presidency, he may be a Henry of 
 Navarre, distributing wisdom according to engineer- 
 ing rules or crispy crackers; but he is licked without 
 the real stuff out of which Presidents are made. Mr. 
 Hoover simply is not there. He has nothing of the 
 decision of Andrew Jackson, none of his courage to 
 risk disaster to himself, and he has absorbed all of 
 the temperamental weaknesses of Woodrow Wilson. 
 As a human being with a grasp or an understanding, 
 he can never have it, nor can any living mind dress 
 it up and pass it to him. More than this. He is 
 surrounded with cissy girls who parade through the 
 world as men of brains, and as self imposed immortals 
 they would have been alright at the court of the 
 FOURTEENTH LOUIS as a jester or a lackey, but 
 in a house where thinking is first, grasp is second, 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 439 
 
 and action third, they rattle like a mustard seed in 
 the brain pan of a certain Vice President. 
 
 Such is the power of problems when they approach 
 in irregular order, as they do to the President, that 
 the man who picks up his bat must have real brains, 
 and a master discipline which he knows how to use, 
 with courage and broad strength of will to finish the 
 job. By no stretch of the imagination can the un' 
 fortunate Hoover ever qualify. There is not a man 
 in his cabinet above the quality of a regimental quar- 
 termaster, and none will be there, for the President 
 must borrow the lens of a Gladstone or a Jackson to 
 see one, and he must make room for such a sight by 
 hoisting that intestinal ego which is so splendidly his. 
 
 The Stimsons and Hurleys, for statesmanship, 
 might mingle their mathematics with bird-dog-ology 
 for a century, without knowing the difference be- 
 tween a mile post and a good stand. Truly, it is most 
 unfortunate for the American people. "Come and 
 wrestle with me," said Abe Lincoln. When the 
 wrestling was over, Abe was easily king of wrestling 
 alley. Hoover does not know the game — any trouble 
 game. 
 
 A Kentuckian on his way back from the west 
 with plenty aboard wandered into a Salvation army 
 camp, and during the exhortation to join the Lord's 
 cause, he was the only one in the room who failed to 
 stand up, when the exhorter finally went to him and 
 said, "brother, you are on the road to Hell." 
 
 "Guess again," said the convivial Kentuckian. 
 The exhorter called on the audience to pray for the 
 sinner, which they did. "My brother, where are you 
 bound for to night, Heaven or Hell, do you know?" 
 "Oh," said the old Kentuckian, "you got to guess 
 again." "You are on your road to Hell," yelled out 
 
440 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 the exhorter. "Nope, by gosh, I got my ticket for 
 Kentucky." "Well," said the exhorting lieutenant, 
 "do you want to go to Hell?" "Sure, Fd like the 
 trip but I got to go to Kentucky 'fust' to see my old 
 mother." 
 
 In the camp of the near great at Washington, D. 
 C. the administration today, economically speaking, 
 does not know whether it is on the road to Iowa or 
 the other place, which the Kentuckian had not seen, 
 and regardless of the route or results, it has not the 
 courage to make a decision. 
 
 Mr. Wilson had that courage, but Mr. Wilson 
 had not a conception of what common every day 
 men and women had to fight in order to keep in the 
 straight and narrow path of life, and keep bread in 
 the oven. Lincoln's common people compose eighty 
 per cent of our American population, and you can 
 fool a part of the people all of the time, and all of 
 them a part of the time, but you cannot fool all the 
 people all of the time. That game of fooling has 
 been over played for fifty years, with a great banker 
 like Mellon, a great Secretary like Hugues, a great 
 Commerce genius like Hoover, neither of whom 
 knew anything about the science of practical eco" 
 nomics, or the economic ratios of world wide com' 
 mercial relations. They may have pursued the idea 
 that a "biled" shirt and a peacock dress'up are social 
 astringents that will bring down the intestinal pains 
 of commercial disorder, but the good Lord organised 
 the world on a far different basis. When you get 
 beyond the shadows and see the race of life with the 
 naked eye, you will know that neither Mr. Hoover 
 nor all of his oygablers of the hustings or the 
 "mike" are mile "hosses." The race is too long for 
 them — they cannot go the distance, and the sooner 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 441 
 
 the good old folks from Lake Michigan to Huey Long 
 find this out, then the depression and financial com' 
 pression will reach its end. 
 
 The haphasarders, hamstringers and boosing pol- 
 troons are making social life at the capital an eco- 
 nomic hell in the average American household; and 
 that comedy must ring down the curtain or the guil- 
 lotine band will await us with a serenade just around 
 the corner. So it happened in France, once on a 
 time; so it happened in Moscow and St. Petersburg, 
 and so it has now projected its death rattle into the 
 lungs of Germany; and by the grace of all the 
 Hoovers in Iowa, it is sure to come to us — lest we 
 arouse and mend our ways. 
 
 It will not be averted by the Mellons or the Adonis 
 like Morrows; it will take great minds and strong 
 wills to hold it beyond the firesides of our dear old 
 joys and sorrows of the past. 
 
 Then what is the Constitution for, and what pro- 
 tection is it to those who are helpless to protect 
 themselves. The Tories would have liked very 
 much to have tried Jefferson, but there were too 
 many powerful stratas of the Common people in his 
 day. Now, the power is in the hands of a few men. 
 A man recently died and left to his son more than 
 half a billion dollars. On how well he uses that 
 power depends the safety of the people. We must 
 not forget that the people love money, and for the 
 love of it they will go a long way to compromise 
 principles, life or law. They will, and they do mur- 
 der for money. There is more money today in a 
 small circle than ever before in America, and that 
 money is very close to the command of power. 
 There are more poor people than ever before, and 
 they are much further away from the command of 
 
442 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 power. It is a question which all patriotic men 
 should think about. 
 
 It can only be curbed or controlled by law and a 
 free people back of the law. If we are lacking in 
 either, we are at the mercy of the powerful. This 
 power has been gained by stealth, moving over the 
 rights of men and trampling liberty in the dust. No 
 longer do we actually have free speech, and the free 
 right of assembly. The excuse is false for the sup' 
 pression of these liberties. It does not exist. One 
 calls free speech today Radicalism, another calls it 
 Communism, and another Socialism. Voltaire well 
 said, that he did not care for what a man said, but he 
 stood for his right to say it. These evils I can see 
 coming on the people rapidly, and as they approach 
 they are a menace to liberty. Lincoln said, rather 
 than submit to debauching the Declaration, he 
 would risk assassination. 
 
 There must be a re-distribution and a rcvalua' 
 tion of the powers of government as well as a re' 
 distribution of wealth. Let it be done lawfully, and 
 not in rioting and war. TJiis does not mean that we 
 must be unjust to capital, for capital is the preserved 
 fruits of labor. These statements are loudly dis' 
 puted, but the disputants come from the breed of 
 monopolists, and net figures tell the story, that labor 
 is not receiving its reward. 
 
 Fascism has the right to do and does do anything 
 it wants to do in America, but everytime a Com' 
 munist whispers down a back alley, a policeman 
 raises his club. Fascism represents Mussolini's idea 
 of the suppression of liberty of the many; Commu' 
 nism represents liberty only for working men, and 
 the class that controls America are not working men, 
 they are of the few. . 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 443 
 
 Democracy stands in the distance feeble and un- 
 enlightened. In the last campaign its party issue was 
 cheaper wiskey, and it polled sixteen million votes; 
 the issue of its successful opposition was a monopoly 
 of liquor in the hands of the ruling political party, 
 profits to be honestly divided between the Racketeer 
 and their political machine. Did Jefferson ever dream 
 of such sordid ignorance, or brazen dishonesty? 
 
 These issues were provided for the two parties by 
 monopoly. Some similar issue will again be pre 
 vided for them, and the ignorant will slack up on 
 progress — the unthinking, God help them. 
 
 Congress has been robbed of the power to make 
 tariffs, that has been handed over to a single individ- 
 ual who represents despotism — a man. 
 
 Recently we have agitated to change the control 
 of liquor, but liquor control will stay where it is, be 
 cause it furnishes the money to run traffic in it and 
 all of its incidentals, one of which is politics. Pro- 
 hibition has taught the politicians that fact value. 
 A Commission has been appointed by the President 
 to investigate liquor. It reported, just what the 
 President influenced its members to report, not the 
 truth, but everything else but the truth. It was a 
 political report. 
 
 The Prohibition Commissioner has recently ap- 
 pointed a new "gang" of investigating officials to 
 find out how the traffic can be improved, not con- 
 trolled. 
 
 A man who can enforce the law could not get an 
 appointment to a three thousand dollar job if he was 
 a man who had done anything. That was tried. A 
 man with the very highest recommendations, earn- 
 ing himself, ten times the salary he would get in this 
 
444 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 position, failed because he had a reputation for do- 
 ing things of this kind. He was not appointed. 
 
 The play, is with the corruption in the handling 
 of liquor. It bleeds millions for monopoly, and it is 
 not going to be changed as long as the politicians can 
 fool the ignorant churchmen of the land. The 
 writer appeared many times in the Federal Court on 
 matters of this kind, but found, that was the wrong 
 place to go for relief of his clients. Relief lay in the 
 hands of political go-betweens and all power was 
 there. Profit was fixed on a commission basis. In a 
 single state it amounted to more than twenty mil' 
 lions for corruption. Who got the money? You 
 may answer that question, when you ask, why we 
 do not stop racketeering? 
 
 Name the last two men appointed to the Supreme 
 Court of the United States, and develop the sources 
 of their backing, and you will find that the people 
 had nothing to do with their selection. They were 
 backed by politicians. When it came to confirming 
 them, who helped; the liquor monopoly and the 
 churchman got into action, and the churchman got 
 behind Senators, and demanded that they get into 
 line. They were confirmed by Democratic votes and 
 Republican votes, but they were votes who step to 
 the command of some branch of the monopoly trust. 
 In the campaign closed, liquor, as we said, was an 
 issue. The churches were taken in; — their leaders 
 were influenced and acquired; that is a known fact 
 in a limited circle — about which fact you may hear 
 no whispers if you go to Wall Street. 
 
 In New York City two Commissions are at work 
 unearthing corruption in and under a Democratic 
 administration, but it is all "horse-play 1 ' and poli- 
 tics. The thing will go on, because there is more 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 445 
 
 than one hundred million dollars to be divided each 
 year, and who doubts that monopoly has an interest 
 in this money — a brajnch of monopoly's organization. 
 Why does Mr. Capone consort and flirt with Amer- 
 ican morals? Because he delivers cash, monopoly's 
 part of the proceeds to the right channels, and that 
 means liberty and cash for that great General. No- 
 body but a fool doubts this fact, the sublime ignor- 
 ance of Americans and the power of monopoly to 
 control public sentiment makes Capone an institu- 
 tion. 
 
 When Russia suddenly seized power with its 
 Army, the Czar was tricked by the petard he had 
 created. The Allies were astounded. Look out in 
 America with your Boy Scouts and Army and Navy, 
 that the same thing cannot be done for Mr. Monop- 
 olist. Are we affraid of Communism? Not one of 
 us. That is the bogie man for ignorance, stupidity, 
 and the credulous, provided by the tools and tin- 
 horns of monopoly. 
 
 Communism may some day rear its head in dan- 
 gerous form but not while America is completely 
 absorbed in playing with the monopolist toy; not 
 while it believes it can resurrect Democracy when it 
 pleases; not until all of the grease is soaked out of the 
 bacon, then Communism will be a philosophy of the 
 desperate, not of wise and thinking counsel. 
 
 Communism took charge in Russia because ninety 
 per cent of its people had been starved for four hun- 
 dred years by Monopoly — the Czar's monopoly; a 
 hungry crowd does not reason about liberty or the 
 rights of men — it strikes boldly for the hash house. 
 Communism said it would lead the way, and it did. 
 It took all the aristocrats owned, and trusteed it 
 with the State. It did not then, and does not as a 
 
446 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 theory, concern itself about liberty. In this respect 
 it is honest, and therein differs from government by 
 Monopoly. If you would like a guarantee of three 
 meals and lose liberty then embrace Communism. 
 
 This pussyfooting reactionary claque in America 
 will profess any kind of an ism so long as action is in 
 terms of monopoly; the government aids the big 
 bankers, and trusts them to aid the people. 
 
 Men are hired today on the basis of how much 
 they can take away from the public, and many 
 bonuses and salaries are fixed to exceed a million 
 dollars each year as a result of this policy. Why? 
 Mr. Lincoln makes that answer in saying, labor? 
 must get its own. 
 
 Is there difference between highway larceny, legal' 
 ized by Monopoly, and porch-climbing in America? 
 The former is worth-while, and is licensed; the other 
 is made a crime, and is unprofitable. God Almighty 
 no doubt prefers the latter person as a working sin- 
 ner, if He must deal with sinners. 
 
 If Mr. Lincoln opened the way by destroying state 
 sovereignty, then Mr. Lincoln's statues that we erect 
 will some day be thrown into the streets and broken 
 to pieces. 
 
 Did power, surrendered to Washington prove our 
 undoing, if so, Mr. Lincoln may some day answer 
 for his part in the game. But the era of corruption 
 is everywhere in the states; we must blame an un- 
 moral people. The Legislatures are the tools of in- 
 terests. The Judges are unwilling to decide issues 
 today on the basis of law or justice but on the issue 
 of politics and gang control, and the gangster does 
 not have to be a lieutenant of Capone — the influence 
 is always operating. 
 
 Commercial organisations, Boards of Trade have 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 447 
 
 their annuals, and prate about what to do for the 
 country, fooling themselves and the ignorant masses. 
 They intend to do nothing but protect monopoly, 
 and proof of this is, that with the worst suffering in 
 a century, in America, they have no remedy to offer. 
 Let us tell the truth about it. They know the truth 
 of this statement, and every economist of intelligence 
 knows that there is no honest effort to settle these 
 questions. We have now marshalled a dole com' 
 mission to feed the unemployed. 
 
 Lincoln did ignore the Constitution, let us say, 
 but who shall say that Congress cannot now by 
 proper trial and penalty make it very dangerous to 
 defy the Constitution in time of war or peace? 
 
 What good will come out of this situation? The 
 good that comes out of the blood of the lamb wash' 
 ing away the sins of ignorance. You pay what you 
 fail to provide for the reaping, and you reap what 
 you sow. Nothing more need be said, except that 
 we may dream of a day of lucid thinking when 
 America will come back to the principles of our 
 fathers, and the word Democracy shall mean some 
 thing more than nine letters of the alphabet. Shall 
 this day arrive before terror is burned into the hearts 
 of all men, or the tremor of shame comes to woman' 
 hood, or children moan their lot in the public place. 
 Time, not men will answer this question. 
 
 If Legislatures and Parliaments could be abolished 
 and a pure Monarchy substituted for any kind of a 
 Parliamentary form of government, there is no doubt 
 that great economies could be introduced, but expc 
 rience has taught the world that wherever power is 
 granted, it is not only used to the extent of the grant 
 but greater powers assumed than were granted. This 
 results in tyrannies and finally in the destruction of 
 
448 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 the liberty of the people. Men love power and osten' 
 tation, and both result in class distinctions politically. 
 
 The present Italian government is a modern ex' 
 ample. No man dares utter his sentiments or ad' 
 minister his life without censorship of the ruling 
 power. We have a class in America, and they are 
 numerous, who believe in class society and class gov 
 ernment. It is made use of by favoring class indus' 
 tries and electing Presidents who favor the class 
 which finances the elections. Congress has fostered 
 this class sentiment to the great detriment of the 
 equal distribution of wealth and, in this way, dc 
 priving labor in every branch of activity of that 
 which it earned. 
 
 We have reversed the Lincoln theory completely, 
 and established a theory and class who believe in the 
 superior right of capital. If Parliaments and Leg' 
 islatures are a nuisance and a detriment to happiness 
 and prosperity, they are a necessary balance of power 
 in any well'administered government. The very fact 
 that they have abused their power in coordination 
 with the Executive, is proof that wherever there is 
 loss of power even with delegation from the people 
 of that power, it is always to the detriment of Lin" 
 coin's theory of a government for the people, of the 
 people and by the people. 
 
 Present bad conditions in America are due entire 
 ly to loss of power on the part of the people. We 
 are fortunate only in having a few noble Senators 
 who still adhere to the Lincoln theory of government. 
 
 If we surrendered the power of the people to a 
 class Communism where property rights would be 
 extinguished, and the aspiration of the people to save, 
 was submerged in the state, we would parallel mon- 
 archy, only in a different direction, by placing 
 
Eastern Headquarters 
 
 Lincoln National Institute 
 
 New York 
 
 HOTEL 
 
 LINCOLN 
 
 TELEPHONE LACKAWANNA 1400 
 
 EIGHTH AVENUE, 44th io 45th Streets, TIMES SQUARE 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 449 
 
 power in the hands of class organizations, whose in' 
 clination would be to destroy individual enterprise 
 and genius. No man is going to do for another as 
 well as he will do for himself. This is against the 
 laws of nature. 
 
 On the other hand, there is no theory of govern' 
 ment which will insure individual gain quite so well 
 as a Democracy with limitations on the mob spirit, 
 so made by law. There is, therefore, but one way 
 to go, to return to prosperity and happiness. We 
 must return to Democracy — the Democracy as re 
 vised by Jefferson and interpreted by Lincoln. The 
 sooner men of wealth, acquired by lawful means, yet 
 acquired in violation of all sound morals, turn to the 
 laws of equal balance, that soon prosperity will re' 
 turn, and extremes in government like Communism 
 be avoided. 
 
 Legislation for privilege has brought about these 
 opportunities to amass immense fortunes, with a 
 consequent failure to provide checks and enforce 
 them. We then get back to those reforms that must 
 take away, by taxation large fortunes, and curb priv 
 ileges that never should have been granted. We 
 must talk to patriotism and not to selfishness in order 
 to accomplish this feat, in times of peace. 
 
 Political treaties and anti'war agreements amount 
 to nothing, and are a waste of time, for nations that 
 are ill'favored by forms of government of their own 
 making will lay their misfortunes at the door of 
 other nations, and wars are, and will be planned on 
 one excuse and another, in spite of paper made 
 treaties. Therefore, entangling alliances with none, 
 endorsed by Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln, 
 should be a better principle for our guidance today 
 than at any time in the history of the world. Com' 
 
450 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 mercial and economic treaties may be made to our 
 great advantage, but so long as both parties stand 
 for a high tariff, this cannot be done. 
 
 SAVAGERY OF THE NORTH 
 
 We have seen that Lincoln himself made the mis' 
 takes which led to his destruction, but it is not for 
 the writer to point out further the inharmonious 
 action of the President which brought it about, nor 
 to grieve over the sad days allotted to the people of 
 the South. For many years, after the close of the 
 war, he had been made to feel the sorrow, pain and 
 suffering of the old South, of the men and women 
 who were the victims of a false and selfish states' 
 manship; nevertheless, we cannot part with this 
 story without saying that the burning, murdering, 
 outraging of men, women and children in Kentucky 
 and the South during the last years of the war, and 
 the intolerant spirit exhibited toward justice or 
 Christianity by the Northern armies, evidences one 
 fact, that the savage instincts of men may be culti' 
 vated by brutal acts until the sight of blood and suf' 
 fering is their pleasure. The acts of these soldiers 
 here in Kentucky, as well as in the South, demon' 
 strated beyond doubt, that in the American char' 
 acter there is yet savagery and brutality equal at 
 least to our fathers and our fathers' fathers, with no 
 hope of bleeding it from us by the ordinary processes 
 of civilizing influences. 
 
 The doctrine that we are fighting always for the 
 principle of self 'preservation, and must be prepared, 
 is one of the canards not unlike those written into 
 the Munchausen stories. You had but to visit any 
 part of this section twenty years after the war to 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 451 
 
 meet with evidences of destruction, and the conse- 
 quent poverty that followed in its train. You may 
 well shudder at the expressions you will hear in the 
 Congress at most any session, and the utter lack of 
 human understanding of national controversies. Men 
 prefer to serve hell, for that which begets war is the 
 instinct of the devil — phases of man's make-up and 
 his incorrigible spirit to riot and run amuck. There 
 is no thinking of war only as a matter of cowardice, 
 but it is the field where the coward is the equal of 
 the brave man, and mass ignorance is equal to spe- 
 cialized intelligence. It is the machine of war that 
 is conceived in hell, born of depraved bastardy, and 
 cultured in the atmosphere of arrogance and false 
 hood. 
 
 In this enlightened age we stand to test civilize 
 tion by the acts of the living in time of peace, and by 
 that sure test on the question of maintaining peace, 
 we have every reason to be ashamed of our public 
 men and of our nationwide intelligence, if we shall 
 judge by congressional attitudes and the negligible 
 amount of brains we have sent over the water to dis- 
 cuss peace. 
 
 If men are born to be butchered bv war, and wo- 
 men are to bear children for the murderer's morgue, 
 and children are to come into the world to suffer for 
 the sins of their damned ignorant and malevolent 
 fathers, then the Almighty's purpose of life is a lie 
 and God is a demon of the darkness. On the con- 
 trary, if we are the righteous sons of a great Father, 
 in harmony with everlasting life, imbued with the 
 spirit of the kingdom of his peace, and keeping step 
 in consonance with these great Christianizing move- 
 ments, there is but one philosophy to embrace, intel- 
 ligent peace proposed and maintained by intelligent 
 
452 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 men. Then those who seek, write, talk and provide 
 for war, and demonstrate the power of the state for 
 war, are the criminals of the nation who are destitute 
 of human love for their brothers or for God. 
 
 The logic of this reasoning is that we must first 
 get rid of these blatant and powerful noises, these 
 strutting, thimble brained weaklings, who mount the 
 front pages of the Press and the Forum with a flam' 
 boyant flaunting of their stupid slobber about a great 
 national destiny selected by God; it is only to lead 
 the world to hell and darkness by way of war, by 
 encouraging the mailed fist in peace times. 
 
 Materialism has run mad — it has supplanted the 
 creative spirit of life, for it has set up as a God, and 
 would damn all, who refuse to worship it. Its mental 
 despotism rakes the halls of learning, that criminal 
 minds may be inspired for the making of this fact, 
 that war is ever upon us, and blood letting and blood 
 pouring is ever a grim specter at our very door. If 
 suppression of free speech should ever be justified, 
 its doors should be closed to these human monsters 
 and open to the advocate who refuses to sanction the 
 war illusion; and the jails should be ajar for the man 
 who sits in palaces of luxury and sees no way to 
 maintain his industrial thievery at home without in' 
 volving all men in war. 
 
 Law should mean something in a country half 
 free, but such decisions as we have read from our 
 highest court on this very question should excite the 
 apprehension of the lovers of liberty and of a free 
 Christianity everywhere. Some man should rise in 
 Congress and look into the impeachment grounds in 
 order to determine for once, whether men, calling 
 themselves public servants, can so outrage reason, 
 liberty, and the Constitution. Men should be re' 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 453 
 
 strained from cultivating the brutal instincts of char- 
 acter. Our constant word battle on peace subjects 
 is but an affirmative way to excite us to war, and the 
 disgraceful brains, if brains such may be called, sent 
 by us to world conferences, is another route and 
 means to drive us into war and war preparations. 
 No man of vision or courage has been sent to Europe 
 on this subject for fifteen years, and none will be 
 sent. 
 
 It is for the Congress to take the entire subject out 
 of the President's hands and enter into such treaties 
 only as insure no entangling alliances. The unbridled 
 and irresponsible campaign for peace in America 
 presupposes war. Commercial Peace Pacts will in- 
 sure peace, Political Agreements, never. 
 
 We are not a lot of carnivorous beasts in America 
 but we are showing to the world at large, that we 
 do not fear war, but threaten war when our vague 
 policies, industriously circulated in Europe, most 
 puerile and unsound, are not sustained and accepted. 
 
 Let real patriots open their batteries, and shut the 
 mouths of these pack hounds, or tear down the 
 churches, with an open declaration to God and man- 
 kind, that Christ was a historical fake and an im- 
 poster, and his Christianity a supreme monumental 
 lie preached on earth to men, that a few graceless 
 dogs may purloin the pockets of the laborer who 
 gets his hire — for it is certain, going to war robs 
 Christ and despoils labor. 
 
 From the Supreme Court of the United States 
 down to the humblest town organization, we have, 
 on this subject, debauched justice and intelligence by 
 the lowest type of intellectual flub dubbery that 
 could flow only from conceit and egotistic poverty of 
 brains. 
 
454 LINCOLN AND THE LINGOLNS 
 
 We have found in America a determined effort to 
 build a military party in every branch of public life 
 and in the various avenues of business and social life. 
 A military satrap is always made a front page military 
 hero. 
 
 During the World War the writer, when a candi' 
 date for Congress, denounced this organised effort 
 which drove us unwillingly into the World War. 
 You have but to read that speech today, take a look 
 over your country, and say to yourself how true a 
 picture he drew of the results of that war. 
 
 Hundreds of men who heard him make that 
 speech, were arrested, tried for disloyalty, and sen' 
 tenced to years in a Federal penitentiary, for expres' 
 sing the same sentiments, after war was declared. 
 The writer made great effort to secure their release as 
 political prisoners under the Wilson regime, but the 
 autocratic Wilson had no ear of sympathy for any 
 man who stood on his constitutional rights. Appeal 
 was then made to Harding, and the greater number 
 of them were either paroled or pardoned by him. 
 And Mr. Harding suffers in reputation today com' 
 pared to Wilson. 
 
 In the Mark Henry story, you will see how a man 
 suffered the greatest persecution by the President, 
 and was compelled to take a hand in his own defense 
 to such an extent as to go deep into the World Com' 
 missioned affairs, finding pay dirt at every step, and 
 who brought back to America, and was furnished 
 sufficient information, that he was able to embarrass 
 Wilson in his efforts to propaganda the American 
 people for his League of Nations; so that in the end 
 Wilson was afraid to match an issue, and abandoned 
 the arrest of Henry after a court statement by him 
 in Nashville, Tennessee, in March, 1919. The 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 455 
 
 writer is happy to say Henry challenged him from 
 one end of America to another and finally had the 
 pleasure of seeing him quit the field dishonored and 
 unsung, but what if Mark Henry had been a Lan' 
 sing, the League of Nations would be imposed upon 
 America. 
 
 The decision of the Supreme Court, recently 
 rendered, is an effort to destroy free religion or con' 
 scientious conviction in this country. It bases cit' 
 izenship on a religious test. The man who says, "I 
 am opposed to this war, 11 is a traitor, and unfit to 
 remain or become an American citizen; that is the 
 import of that militarist decision of our highest court. 
 It endangers liberty of religion and liberty of speech 
 on man's war convictions when and as soon as we 
 shall have another war. 
 
 What we are trying to drive into the spirit of 
 America is that Mr. Lincoln's common people are 
 asleep on duty, and are gradually losing their rights 
 by permitting the President, the Congress and the 
 Supreme Court of the United States to strip them 
 of all power, so that at the proper time they can be 
 delivered body and soul to the Monopolists who may 
 use the right to declare war when it shall seem pre 
 fitable to them — that was the case in 1917. 
 
 Leaders of men and rulers have subjugated man' 
 kind by war, and the Caesers, Napoleons, Fredericks 
 and Nero's would not have existed had it not have 
 been for the power obtained by conquest over foreign 
 foes and foes at home. Let us understand that our 
 form of government has been rifted from the Lincoln 
 harbor by judicial decision. Let us come now to real' 
 ize the danger that confronts us when we read on the 
 screen, of these propagandist organizations who fol- 
 low these methods of filling the front pages with war 
 
456 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 news, and war conferences and war preparations. It 
 is a literal war on you, Mr. Common Man, of the 
 faith of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 THE PROPHETIC SPEECH— WETUMKA, 
 OKLAHOMA, May 2nd, 1916 
 
 "My fellow citizens, your Congressman, and many 
 Democratic state leaders have unburdened them- 
 selves with the solo that I am a vindictive person and 
 that I am unjustly criticising the Wilson Adminis' 
 tration. That I ought not to receive support of Dc 
 mocrats and I am disloyal to my country. Such is 
 the cry of ignorance and stupidity, and not of intel' 
 ligence or patriotism. 
 
 The Wilson Administration is leading us directly 
 to war, for England and France, because it is permit' 
 ting them to propaganda this country with false- 
 hoods as base and as unholy as ever came from the 
 lying cavern of criminal assault. History will prove 
 what I say today. It has but one purpose, to arouse 
 the American passion to the point of war. 
 
 If you would go to war today you would go for 
 nothing. You would spend billions of dollars, shed 
 treasures of blood in order to satiate the desire of 
 contractors and fools who are driven by words, like 
 dumb cattle to their slaughter. 
 
 The President of the United States is a better 
 Englishman than an American, and a better aristocrat 
 or autocrat than he is a Democrat. 
 
 The commercial jealousy between Germany on the 
 one side and England, Russia and France on the 
 other, is the basis of this war. We owe them noth- 
 ing, and yet we are to entangle ourselves in their 
 affairs, spend billions of dollars, and lose millions of 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 457 
 
 our sons simply because we have little sense to deter' 
 mine our rights. 
 
 If we go in there, we will incur the enmity of 
 every nation allied together, and certainly the nations 
 of the Central alliance; for what, may I ask. 
 
 To serve the monarch loving Cz,ar of Russia and 
 his aristocratic subjects. The blessed King George 
 of England and his factories. The descendants of the 
 Louises of France. What have we in common with 
 them? Not an ounce of obligation to either or all 
 of them. Not more than we owe to the Emperor of 
 Germany, and that is so small a fraction of justice 
 you could run it through the eye of a needle and 
 never turn a hair. 
 
 Debts to us in the end will be our lot, which will 
 never be paid. Our affairs will be disturbed for 
 years, and finally run into one panic after another, 
 with suffering and unemployment everywhere in our 
 own land. We will make millionaires from the fav 
 ored pets of this administration, but in the end the 
 common people will suffer, and they will pay. It 
 will then be too late to appeal to reason, to God, to 
 the courage of good men or to your vaunted Chris' 
 tianity. 
 
 If I am to be crucified for uttering these senti' 
 ments, let it be done, for better men than I have been 
 crucified for less, but I will be carried on the martyr 
 roll, and the nation will know that another man be' 
 sides Henry Clay threw away an office in order to 
 be right and square with the people. When I quit 
 this campaign, I am going to fight with all my power. 
 
 The liar and tale-bearer may tread this land and 
 falsify, but I am going to drive straight with the 
 truth as I see it, and I see nothing but great disaster, 
 debts, demoralization in America, and a trampling 
 
458 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 of constitutional safeguards. I have already been 
 warned myself, as evidence of what these intemperate 
 thieves and money hunters will do. I say it will cost 
 us twenty-five billions of dollars, and we will land in 
 the end where all creditor nations land in war, in the 
 contempt of all of our loyal associates when peace 
 times and settlement day comes. 
 
 I denounce the hypocrital asseverations of Wood' 
 row Wilson as a lie and a sham: that he has or is 
 keeping us out of war, for I know it is in his power 
 to stop this propaganda in America, but if you would 
 follow him, go headlong to the devil, and mix in the 
 old world's quarrels, remember what I say, that you 
 will rue the day you made the step; but as for me, 
 candidate or not, I stand here on the platform of 
 Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln, entangling alii' 
 ances with none, and no mess of pottage which you 
 may offer will tempt me to abandon this flag." 
 
 It is impossible in this volume to discuss the in' 
 triguing of great interests in America to break faith 
 with the people, and it serves only a slight purpose 
 to denounce the demagogues in Congress who have 
 voted to keep this nation on a war basis, and who 
 have been virtually lying about their peace senti' 
 ments. By the act of a people you can judge them. 
 England has kept her promises about peace, we in 
 America have not, and we are commencing to see the 
 terrible effects of seventy per cent of our taxes voted 
 to war purposes, past, present and future. 
 
 Hear Dr. France, former United States Senator 
 from Maryland. 
 
 "It is impossible, in my brief time, to retrace the 
 continuous repudiation of the vital principles of our 
 American system, during these recent years of stress. 
 It is enough to state that during the war, largely un' 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 459 
 
 der the domination of foreign influences, we aban- 
 doned Democracy and established a virtual auto- 
 cracy. 
 
 "In violation of the very fundamental principles of 
 sovereignty of the people, alien-hearted leaders and 
 those alienated by them from fidelity to the constitu- 
 tion enacted the Espionage Act, a tyrannical meas- 
 ure, which was a flagrant violation of our bill of 
 rights. 
 
 "Perhaps no single act, in our history, ever struck 
 a more deadly blow against our institutions. It sub- 
 verted our system. It ended free discussion, intimi- 
 dated the sovereign people, stripped them from their 
 sovereignty and transferred the sovereignty from the 
 people and the States to the government at Wash- 
 ington. 
 
 "The Federal government, made immune from cri- 
 ticism, that embarked upon ill considered policies of 
 radical socialism and there was created a swollen and 
 inefficient socialistic bureaucracy. 
 
 "The leaders established dictatorship, meddled 
 with industry, muddled with price fixing, tampered 
 with the normal operation of natural economic law, 
 and flagrantly violated supreme Federal Law. 
 
 "The inevitable result of this departure from the 
 established principles of our government was a loss 
 by this republic of a measure of confidence and re- 
 spect at home and diminished prestige before the na- 
 tions of the world. 
 
 "This period of unconstitutional action is the 
 source of our domestic strife and is responsible for 
 the prolongation of the world's disorganisation." 
 
 Let Ex-Premier Lloyd George tell you with what 
 hypocrisy, France, the United States and Italy have 
 persisted in violating the letter and the spirit of agree- 
 
460 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 ments to further the ends of Peace. Men who are 
 now fighting war measures in Congress, are censured, 
 citizenship has been denied to educated men who 
 conscientiously oppose war, by the Supreme Court 
 of the United States. 
 
 Lloyd George: — 
 
 "They all renounced war, but they forgot to re 
 nounce preparation for war. (Applause.) Just like 
 a man who takes the pledge and then proceeds imme' 
 diately to fill his cellar with the choicest wines and 
 the most potent spirits which he can purchase in the 
 market. 
 
 It is only twelve years ago since peace was made. 
 Ten millions of young men were slaughtered, many 
 millions more mutilated. I think the chairman said 
 it cost sixty or seventy thousand millions of pounds. 
 In this country, with the heaviest taxation in the 
 world — one reason is because we pay our debts — our 
 income tax is heaviest, our super tax is heaviest, our 
 death duties the heaviest, our duties, I believe, on 
 beer and tobacco and spirits the heaviest in the world; 
 we raise the gigantic sum of over £500,000,000 from 
 these sources, something which is beyond the dreams 
 of even the nightmare of taxpayers and tax gatherers 
 before the war. 
 
 Where do those £500,000,000 go? I will tell you. 
 Every cent goes to liquidate the cost of past wars and 
 to pay £100,000,000 to prepare for future wars. And 
 her armaments are going on. Half the cost of un- 
 employment is due to war. The nations of the world 
 are now spending over £800,000,000. We are tot- 
 tering on the brink of bankruptcy because of the 
 war. There you are — the debts of war, the devasta- 
 tion of war, recently in our minds, all forgotten, and 
 nations preparing for more wars of a more terrible 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 461 
 
 and a more devastating character than anything they 
 have ever experienced. 
 
 Let us be quite frank. The only lessons of the war 
 to which practical effect has been given today are the 
 military lessons of the war. Military defects are 
 studied, and steps are immediately taken to remedy 
 them for the next war. The weapons of war are 
 studied, stronger weapons, more powerful, have been 
 devised and invented and manufactured. The bom' 
 bers were not efficient in the last war and not terrible 
 enough, so their numbers multiplied, their destruc 
 tive effect is intensified. Poisons, more deadly than 
 anything ever devised before are now being consid- 
 ered or manufactured. What for? The next war. 
 In the last war you had a horrible time; the next is 
 inconceivable, and yet the world is going on steadily, 
 horribly, stupidly marching toward war, that catas- 
 trophe, singing the songs of peace and preparing for 
 war." 
 
EPILOGUE 
 
 What I have written is written. As the cycles of 
 time roll around my head, and I look back over the 
 past I find that this is the first time these hardy 
 pioneers of Mill Creek have been meted out even a 
 part of the justice due to them. 
 
 They harnessed the wilderness, and there of their 
 egotism, to make a place in the Sun, they died by the 
 Sun. 
 
 Lincoln would have returned to the simple life of 
 his fathers and left behind him all of the glories of 
 the presidency. That was the intellectual progress 
 of genius. Men are the geniuses of the world; wo' 
 men look upon life with personal ends. The madness 
 of genius comes from knowledge, and the self willed 
 materialist man lags with the woman behind the 
 stars. Lincoln was the last of our race of Presidents 
 who belonged to the genius class; he made his stand 
 on knowledge — knowledge of men, of the world and 
 of matter. But he was the last, and there will be no 
 more. This is why Lincoln has lived, will live; why 
 Napoleon died, and will remain dead. Lincoln had 
 no theories — he killed them with facts. 
 
 The author commenced life at twenty; he has 
 ended now the period of his illusions. He has lost 
 his self conscious pessimism, and has nothing to re' 
 gret. 
 
 The warning which he has written here by the 
 side of the great name of Lincoln will go unheeded, 
 
 462 
 
LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 463 
 
 for this is an age of self willed materialism. His goal 
 is higher than this, and he now lives in the hope 
 that when he perishes in the flesh, he will find it. 
 This may be his last illusion. 
 
 He can see that religion is dying, Christianity is 
 reduced to a political machine, as sordid as the dirty 
 politicians who consort with its leaders; and with 
 religion, is dying, its twin, Democracy, that Democ- 
 racy which denies a place in the world for the genius. 
 On that fatal road we have arrived where we no 
 longer count noses, we count men and money. This 
 is the true basis of aristocracy. 
 
 We are a nation of merchandisers, selling influence 
 and place, location and advantage, that we may get 
 away from Democracy's herd. This merchandise is 
 the basis of our piratical morality, constructing the 
 law for the protection of class thievery, and severely 
 penalizing the petty thief, that our cloak of self im' 
 posed ermine may be clean. 
 
 And so I do not say good bye; we will keep the 
 grand illusion, for, across the gold that glitters in the 
 sky, at the base of the great plain of human hearts, 
 we may find the heart of pure gold, where genius 
 will be King, and Democracy forever will be mv 
 known. 
 
 But as we go, as we rub our fingers through the 
 silvered years on our head, may we hope that those 
 who remain will reverence liberty, as they worship 
 wealth and forget God. 
 
 I have written with malice toward none, and if my 
 language seemed strong at times, let it be understood 
 that conditions are much worse than the average 
 man knows, and language to meet the requirements 
 is not yet created; and I have thought that we might 
 gather from the great character of Lincoln both in' 
 
464 LINCOLN AND THE LINCOLNS 
 
 spiration, and a charter to regain all that we have 
 lost. I have experienced fifty years of intimate relation 
 to great men and great events as a student of moving 
 forces, and have always been able to predict correctly 
 events and results arising from these forces. I have 
 risked the persecution of a President who deserved 
 worse of his countrymen than he received, that I 
 might express my convictions for the benefit of my 
 own love of country and its flag, as taught me by my 
 fathers. This record is written; it is a record of 
 devotion to principle; what has proven to be the 
 right principle, which had so often been proven be 
 fore in the history of the world. I know that vio' 
 lence is coming; it is bound to come as a result of the 
 transgression of definite rules of justice. Some men 
 cannot always suffer and others prosper. We must 
 put a strong man, a brave man in the White House 
 to save liberty; he must be a Lincoln or a Jackson, 
 and we must move alertly from our apathy, to save 
 American institutions from the fools that have beset 
 us, will again trouble us, and bring ruin to our 
 children. 
 
AlNflOD NOS13W 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 TITLE TO THE RESPECTIVE FARMS OWNED OR 
 
 LEASED BY THOMAS LINCOLN SUSTAIN 
 
 THE AUTHOR'S CONCLUSIONS 
 
 The following record facts sustain the author's conten- 
 tion as to Lincoln's residence on Mill Creek, directly and 
 indirectly, and establish the facts: — 
 
 (1) That Thomas Lincoln never owned the Knob Creek 
 Farm, but occupied it as a Tenant, and this occupancy 
 was long after the President's birth. 
 
 (2) That John Thomas, father of Elinor Peck, was Lin- 
 coln's advisor in these trades as handed down through 
 his grandson, Thurman Thomas, to the writer. He 
 was called as a witness in the litigation. 
 
 (3) That Thomas Lincoln never seriously treated the No- 
 lin Creek or "log cabin farm," as his permanent resid- 
 ence (where it is contended the President was born), 
 because it had a small cabin, of about 10 x 12 on it, 
 of the most temporary character, and he permitted it 
 to be sold for $87.74 (300 acres). 
 
 (4) That during all of this time he owned the Mill Creek 
 Farm, without calling for deed until April 1814. This 
 farm, he purchased in September 1803, and sold it to 
 Thomas Melton, October 27th, 1814, holding it as his 
 homestead all of this time. To this farm he had a 
 good title. It also shows that the Williamses were his 
 adjoining neighbors. 
 
 (5) That acknowledgement to most all of these documents 
 were taken before Samuel Haycraft, Deputy and Clerk 
 of the Court, whose knowledge of Lincoln's where- 
 abouts was most excellent. That is to say, if Tom Lin- 
 
 466 
 
APPENDIX 467 
 
 coin had moved off of his Mill Creek Farm within the 
 fiftynine days after his purchase contract shows he 
 bought the Nolin tract in the winter, and the President 
 in this time was born in the cabin, Haycraft would 
 have known it, but John Nail reported to Mrs. Maffit 
 in 1860, that Haycraft told him he could not have 
 been born on Nolin Creek, that he might have been 
 born in Elizabethtown. 
 
 (6) The record also indicates that he moved off of the 
 Knob Creek Farm in the Fall, and was probably in 
 Elizabethtown just before December when he went 
 down and visited with his mother and sisters and took 
 the direct road west as indicated on the map. 
 
 DEED TO THE MILL CREEK FARM 
 FROM JOHN F. STATER 
 
 Sept. 2nd, 1803 
 
 This indenture made this second day of September, one 
 thousand eight hundred and three, between Dr. John F. 
 Stater, of Green County and State of Kentucky, of the one 
 part, and Thomas Lincoln of Hardin County, state afore 
 said of the other part, WITNESSETH: that for and in 
 consideration of the sum of one hundred and eighteen 
 pounds in hand paid, the receipt of which before signing 
 and sealing of these presents, he the said Dr. John F. Stater 
 doth hereby acknowledge, have bargained and sold by 
 these presents, doth grant bargain and sell unto the said 
 Thomas Lincoln a certain tract and parcel of land contain' 
 ing 238 acres, part of the one thousand six hundred acre 
 survey patented to William May, bought by said Stater of 
 Joseph Fen wick and bounded as follows to wit: — Beginning 
 at a hickory corner to Robert Huston survey, part of said 
 1600 acre survey, thence south thirty degrees, west one 
 hundred and eighty poles to a stake corner to Huston, 
 thence North fortyfive degrees West one hundred and 
 fiftyfive poles to a black oak corner to the original survey 
 North twentyfour degrees West one hundred and forty 
 
468 APPENDIX 
 
 poles to a white oak in Shepherd's line corner to the orig' 
 inal; thence North thirty-one degrees West fifty poles to 
 a dog wood white oak and gum corner to THOMAS WIL' 
 LIAMS (grandfather of Bill Williams whose testimony ap' 
 pears herein) in the original line, thence with Williams 
 line South sixty-seven East two hundred and fifty poles to 
 a white oak and hickory South 31 degrees West twenty 
 poles to the beginning. 
 
 To have and to hold the above mentioned two hundred 
 and thirty-eight acres of land with all its appurtenances, 
 barns, stable, ways, houses, water and conveniences, to the 
 above mentioned Thomas Lincoln, his heirs, executors and 
 administrators forever against him, the said Dr. John F. 
 Stater, as well for his heirs as for himself, doth further 
 covenant and agree to and with the said Thomas Lincoln 
 and his heirs that he will warrant and forever defend the 
 above mentioned two hundred and thirty-eight acres of 
 land with all of its appurtenances to the said Thomas Lin- 
 coln, his heirs, executors and administrators forever to their 
 proper use and behalf against him the said Dr. John F. 
 Stater and his heirs, executors, etc., forever, but not against 
 the claim or claims of any person or persons whatever but 
 — be it plainly understood, should said land be taken by 
 any prior or legal claim, then the above bound Dr. John 
 F. Stater, his heirs, executors, are to pay to the said Thomas 
 Lincoln, his heirs, executors, etc., the above mentioned sum 
 of one hundred and eighteen pounds. 
 
 In witness, of the above bound, Dr. John F. Stater doth 
 hereunto set his hand and affix his seal the day and date 
 above written. 
 
 John F. Stater (Seal). 
 
 MARGINAL NOTE: 
 
 Delivered to Thomas Lincoln, April 23, 1814 
 Hardin County; Set. SS. 
 
 I hereby certify that on the second day of September 
 
 last this indenture from John F. Stater 
 
 to be his act and deed and the same was admitted to record 
 on this 26th day of November 1803. 
 
 Benjamin Helm, H. C. C. 
 Deed Book B, 253, Hardin County Court. 
 
APPENDIX 469 
 
 DEED OF THIS FARM FROM THOMAS LINCOLN 
 AND NANCY TO THOMAS MELTON 
 
 October 27th, 1814. (Five years, eight months and nine 
 days after the President's birth.) (Thomas Lincoln spent 
 Christmas with his mother in 1816 before going to Indiana, 
 according to the traditional story of Nancy Lincoln.) 
 
 This indenture made this, the twenty-seventh day of 
 October Eighteen Hundred and Fourteen in the year of our 
 Lord, Thomas Lincoln and Nancy, his wife, of the County 
 of Hardin and the state of Kentucky, of the one part, and 
 Thomas Melton of the county and state aforesaid, of the 
 other part, Witnesseth: 
 
 That the said Thomas Lincoln and Nancy, his wife, have 
 this day granted, bargained and sold, and by these presents 
 doth grant bargain and sell, alien and convey unto the said 
 Thos. Melton a certain parcel or tract of land containing 
 two hundred acres of land for and in consideration of one 
 hundred pounds to the said Lincoln and Nancy, his wife, 
 and in hand paid by the said Melton, the receipt whereof 
 is acknowledged, which land was patented in the name of 
 William May and is conveyed from John Tom Stater to 
 Thomas Lincoln of deed bearing the date of the 2nd of 
 September, 1803, lying, and being in Hardin County on the 
 waters of Mill Creek and bounded as follows: 
 
 Beginning at a hickory corner to Robert Huston's survey, 
 part of a sixteen hundred acre furvey, thence South 30 
 degrees West 183 poles to a stake corner to Huston, thence 
 North 45 degrees West 155 poles to a black oak, corner of 
 the original survey, North 24 degrees West 140 poles to a 
 white oak in Shepherd's line, corner to the original survey, 
 thence 31 degrees West 60 poles to a dog wood white oak 
 and gum corner to Thomas Williams in the original line, 
 thence with Williams line South 67 degrees East 250 poles 
 to a white oak and hickory, South 3 1 degrees west 22 poles 
 to the beginning, which courses contain 238 acres, and the 
 said Melton is at liberty to take 200 acres out of the saiu 
 238 acres where he thinks proper and the said Lincoln and 
 Nancy, his wife, does forever warrant defend the said two 
 hundred acres of land from themselves and their executors, 
 administrators and assigns forever, to the said Melton, but 
 
470 APPENDIX 
 
 not from the claim or claims of any other person. But if 
 the said land should be lost by any better or prior claim, 
 then the said Lincoln is to pay Melton the sum of one 
 hundred pounds. In witness whereof, the said Thomas 
 Lincoln and Nancy, his wife, hath hereunto set their hands 
 and affixed their seals the day and date before written. 
 Interlined before signing. 
 
 Thomas Lincoln (seal). 
 
 Nancy X. Hanks (mark). 
 
 Hardin County Set. 
 
 I, Samuel Hay craft, Jr., Deputy Clerk of the County 
 Court for the County aforesaid, do hereby certify that on 
 the day of the date hereof, Thomas Lincoln and Nancy, his 
 wife, personally appeared before me and acknowledged the 
 within indenture or deed of bargain and sale to Thomas 
 Melton as and for their voluntary act and deed, she the 
 said Nancy at the same time examined by me separate and 
 voluntary relinquished her right and dower which she has 
 or may have in and to the land hereby conveyed and that 
 she was willing that the same should be recorded and that 
 I have truly recorded the same this 27th day of October, 
 1814. 
 
 Samuel Haycraft, Jr., D.C., H.C.C. 
 Deed Book E, 193 Hardin County Court. 
 
 NOTE: Thomas Melton herein described was the father 
 of Jack Melton whose widow, Nancy Melton, was inter- 
 viewed by the writer in 1883 through Benjamin Irwin, 
 her son-in-law, in which she described the house rebuilt 
 by Thomas Lincoln after purchase from Stater. 
 
 This farm had all ordinary improvements on it includ- 
 ing a very good five room log house, two below, and three 
 above, when President Lincoln was born. The house de- 
 scribed by Nancy Melton, William Rodgers and by wit- 
 nesses born later, indicate beyond doubt, that this house 
 remained intact until about the civil war ((I860) when it 
 was torn down and then rebuilt. This, Catherine Peck, and 
 Bill Williams were both certain of. 
 
APPENDIX 471 
 
 CONTRACT FOR NOLIN LAND— DEC. 12th, 1808 
 Based on Articles of Agreement between Richard 
 Mather and David Vance, executed, May 1st, 1805, as- 
 signed by Vance to Ike Bush, Nov. 2nd, 1805, Thomas Lin* 
 coin purchased the same on the day and date following: 
 
 For value received I assign the within article to Thomas 
 Lincoln witness my hand and seal the 12th day of Dc 
 cember, 1808. 
 Test. Sam Haycraft Isaac Bush. 
 
 Equity Bundle 24 Hardin Circuit Court 
 
 This was an exhibit in the answer of Thomas Lincoln, 
 to suit of Mather vs. Lincoln et al, filed, Sept. 1st, 1813 — 
 the answer of Lincoln being filed Sept. 18th, 1813. 
 
 In the suit in the Hardin Circuit Court by Stout vs. 
 Thomas Lincoln, filed Sept. 15th, 1815, Thomas Lincoln 
 is shown to be a fc 'tenant 1 ' and served as such (Knob Creek 
 Farm). 
 
 The Judgment decree, and receipt from the sale pro- 
 ceeds of the Nolin farm (the log cabin farm), is as fol' 
 lows: 
 
 Receipts, Exhibit 8. 
 
 Received of Benj. Wright Commissioner $87.74 the 
 amount of my debt cost and interest obtained against David 
 Vance. Received by me this, the 19th day of December, 
 1816. (John Welsh was the purchaser.) 
 
 Richard Mather. 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE ACT 
 
 As the writer has suggested in this volume at page 422 
 that he considered it an important item to prove his posi' 
 tion there taken, he would place in the appendix of this 
 work facts showing the origin of the Federal Reserve Act, 
 its authorship having been claimed by at least a half dozen 
 public men. 
 
 Mr. Owen, Senator from Oklahoma, the writer is in' 
 formed, introduced the Bill in the Senate and it was re- 
 ferred to the Committee on Banking and Currency, of 
 which he was the Chairman. Senator Carter Glass was 
 
472 APPENDIX 
 
 Chairman of a similar Committee in the House of Rep' 
 resentatives. 
 
 The House of Representatives of Oklahoma, Session 
 1913, House Journal, shows that The Committee on Bank' 
 ing reported favorably Resolution of Smith of Potta- 
 watomie on January 18th, 1913. 
 
 — RESOLUTION 41 — 
 
 "RESOLVED: That we, the members of the House of 
 Representatives herewith express our unqualified disap' 
 proval of the Central Banking scheme as expressed in the 
 Aldrich Currency Bill now pending before Congress, as an 
 attempt to centralize the money of the nation and secure 
 further control over commerce and the products of the 
 people of the United States. 
 
 That we instruct our Senators and Members of Congress 
 to use every effort in their power to secure the ultimate de' 
 feat of the said measure and now proposed by the National 
 Bankers of the United States as an unlawful attempt to 
 secure in the hands of the money TRUST greater powers 
 over the liberties as well as the prosperity of the Common 
 people and the producers of wealth in the United States. 
 
 That we favor some measure destroying the centralis' 
 tion of power as now possessed by the money trust over 
 the business of the people. 
 
 That a copy of this Resolution be sent by the Clerk to 
 the Senators and Members of Congress from Oklahoma." 
 
 On January 22nd, 1913, the Journal shows — 
 
 "The election of a United States Senator being the or' 
 der, Mr. Smith of Pottawatomie was recognized and on be' 
 half of the House of Representatives nominated Hon. R. 
 L. Owen." 
 
 The enacting clause of the proposed substitute Bill is as 
 follows: 
 
 "Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Represent' 
 atives of the United States of America in Congress As' 
 sembled: 
 
APPENDIX 473 
 
 An Act to provide for the establishment of Sub-Treasury 
 Banks in districts herein defined, and to create an elastic 
 currency to provide for effective distribution of credits 
 and supervision of banking in the United States, and for 
 other purposes designated in this Act." 
 
 The Bill then provides for twelve districts and five mem- 
 bers to be appointed in the United States at large by the 
 President. It contains twenty-six sections setting out a 
 practical plan for carrying on the business of the organ- 
 ization. 
 
 Congressman Ferris on February 1st, 1913, presented the 
 same Memorial, which was referred to the Committee on 
 Banking and Currency of the House. 
 
 The Bill, therefore, was before the respective Commit- 
 tees of the Senate and the House, and inasmuch as the 
 adopted Bill contains much of the identical substitute Bill's 
 language, it is the same bill. The Aldrich Bill had been 
 before Congress for two years, and no substitute Bill had 
 been offered until this Bill was offered by way of the 
 Memorial from the Legislature of Oklahoma. 
 
 The title of the Act, as passed, reads as follows: — 
 
 "An Act to provide for the establishment of Federal 
 Reserve Banks, to furnish an elastic currency, to afford 
 means of rediscounting commercial paper, to establish a 
 more effective supervision of banking in the United States 
 and for other purposes." 
 
 The Act contains thirty sections, as against twenty-six 
 in the original Bill. 
 
 The Act was approved December 23, 1913, nearly one 
 year after the Memorial Bill reached the Committees of the 
 House and Senate on Banking and Currency. 
 
 Both the Memorial Bill and Enacted Bill provide for five 
 members outside of the Comptroller and Secretary of the 
 Treasury. The Memorial Bill provided for twelve Districts 
 and the Enacted Bill provides for not less than eight and 
 as many as twelve. 
 
 The entire substance of the original Act is carried over 
 into the Enacting Bill, although in different language on 
 
474 APPENDIX 
 
 the whole. The similarity of the Enacting clause will in' 
 dicate the similarity of the language used. 
 
 The copy of the letter to Hon. Chas. Carter is as fol' 
 lows: — 
 
 Oklahoma City, Okla. 
 
 January 25th, 1913. 
 Hon. Chas. Carter, 
 House Building, 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 My Dear Sir: — I am sending you a copy of the Memorial 
 reported by the House Committee on Banking, which, I 
 suppose, will be furnished you by the Clerk, but in case he 
 fails to do it, you will have this copy. Kindly introduce it 
 and refer to your Committee on Banking and Currency. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 LM/HHS H. H. SMITH. 
 
 A like letter was sent to Hon. Scott Ferris. 
 
 The copy of the letter to the Hon. R. L. Owen, whose 
 name the Bill bears, and which was according to his direc' 
 tion, is as follows: — 
 
 Oklahoma City, Okla. 
 
 January 26th, 1913. 
 Hon. Robt. L. Owen, 
 Senate Building, 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 My dear Sir: 
 
 I herewith send you a copy of the Resolution against the 
 Aldrich Currency plan, reported on the eighteenth by the 
 Committee on Banking, of the House of Representatives 
 of Oklahoma. 
 
 I also enclose a rough draft of a Bill which I think is 
 the remedy and this the opportune time to propose it as 
 substitute legislation for this bill. 
 
 I have not the time to give it very intensive study, but 
 it, in the main, contains the system which I have advocated 
 
APPENDIX 475 
 
 for several years though it is much more conservative than 
 I would pass were it in my power. However, I realize that 
 the banking interests would fight to a finish any such bill 
 as I would like to see enacted by the Congress. Such a bill 
 as I have proposed attached to the Resolution, will, I think, 
 have a chance of passage. 
 
 I use the words "Sub'Treasury," which might be of' 
 fensive, because this was the name given similar legisla' 
 tion by the old Populist platform, and for this reason it 
 might be well to use another; let us say, National Reserve, 
 or Federal Reserve. 
 
 This Bill is sound in its main points and should enable 
 you to gain considerable fame as its author; and I believe 
 you can force it through Congress provided you first get 
 Mr. Wilson committed to it. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 LM/HHS H. H. SMITH. 
 
 NOTE: The Congressional record may not show clear' 
 ly how it got into the Senate Banking and Currency Com' 
 mittee, but it does show clearly how it went to the House 
 Committee on Banking and Currency via both Congress- 
 man Ferris and Congressman Carter, of Oklahoma. 
 
BIRTH DATES OF WITNESSES AND 
 DEATHS 
 
 NAMES BORN DIED 
 
 MAFFITT BURIAL GROUNDS 
 
 Dr. William Smith 
 
 Jane Gray, his wife 
 
 Thomas B. Peck 
 
 Margaret McMahan, his wife 
 
 John Peck 
 
 Elinor Thomas, his wife 
 
 John Melton 
 
 (son of Thomas Melton) 
 Nancy Williams, his wife 
 
 (daughter Tom Williams) 
 Henry B. Peck 
 Catherine Smith, his wife 
 Tack P. Peck 
 Malinda Smith 
 James Smith 
 Sally Gentry Smith 
 John Smith (Frankfort) 
 Widow Maffitt 
 
 June 10th, 1793 
 Nov. 2nd, 1798 
 Oct. 9th, 1794 
 March 10th, 1798 
 Dec. 23, 1770 
 Oct. 7th, 1773 
 June 25th, 1806 
 
 Sept. 27th, 1864 
 April 7th, 1851 
 Sept. 15th, 1869 
 Oct. 11th, 1880 
 April 16th, 1856 
 Nov. 30th, 1853 
 Oct. 8th, 1877 
 
 Dec. 12th, 1804 Nov. 6th, 1883 
 
 Jan. 29th, 1815 
 
 Dec. 12th, 1827 
 
 March 17th, 1800 
 
 May 7th, 1824 
 
 1761 
 
 1762 
 
 1735 
 
 1814 
 
 Rueben Peck 
 John P. Moore 
 Polly Watts 
 Silas Smith 
 Solomon Irwin 
 John Smith 
 
 MT. ZION CEMETERY 
 
 Feb. 19th, 1811 
 
 Nov. 4th, 1817 
 
 May 23rd, 1802 
 
 1818 
 
 1809 
 
 July 10th, 1789 
 
 OWENS' CEMETERY 
 
 John Nail 
 Henry Wolf 
 John O. Stovall 
 Susan Owens, his wife 
 William Owens, Sr. 
 Col. John Cowley 
 William Owen Cowley 
 Mary Ann, his wife 
 William Owens, Jr. 
 Elizabeth (Betsy) Owens 
 
 July 22nd, 1772 
 
 1794 
 
 July 28th, 1813 
 
 1811 
 
 1777 
 
 Oct. 2nd, 1802 
 
 Dec. 9th, 1821 
 
 May 23rd, 1819 
 
 Feb. 22nd, 1809 
 
 Aug. 13th, 1807 
 
 Feb. 17th, 1875 
 March 23rd, 1909 
 March 29th, 1890 
 Aug. 7th, 1846 
 May 16th, 1842 
 Jan. 13th, 1841 
 May, 1842 
 July 11th, 1902 
 
 April 14th, 1894 
 
 Sept. 6th, 1896 
 
 Sept. 23rd, 1880 
 
 1900 
 
 1894 
 
 St. Louis, 1862 
 
 Oct. 7th, 1865 
 Jan. 29th, 1860 
 March 6th, 1890 
 1844 
 
 Feb. 26th, 1856 
 Nov. 1st, 1884 
 Aug. 24th, 1892 
 Aug. 16th, 1881 
 Aug. 26th, 1867 
 Nov. 26th. 1887 
 
 476 
 
BIRTH DATES 
 
 477 
 
 NAMES 
 
 BORN 
 
 DIED 
 
 HOWELL'S CEMETERY 
 
 Nancy Smith Pauley 
 Martha Howell 
 James Howell 
 William P. Nail 
 Elizabeth Brumfield, his wife 
 (daughter Nancy Lincoln) 
 
 1798 1870 
 
 1823 1906 
 
 1820 1902 
 
 Sept. 22nd, 1798 Dec. 3rd, 1884 
 
 Dec. 8th, 1804 Jan. 8th, 1874 
 
 
 OTTER CREEK 
 
 
 Pamelia Cowherd 
 Prederick Tull 
 James Cunningham 
 William Rodgers 
 
 May 12th, 1805 
 
 1809 
 
 1832 
 
 1812 
 
 ELIZABETHTOWN 
 
 Feb. 20th, 1901 
 
 1886 
 
 1898 
 
 1895 
 
 Stephen Mc Murtry 
 Sam Haycraft, Sr. 
 Sam Haycraft, Jr. 
 
 1816 
 
 Oct. 11th, 1752 
 
 1796 
 
 BRANDENBURG 
 
 1897 
 1823 
 1876 
 
 Franklin Ditto 
 
 1810 
 
 1892 
 
INDEX TO PERSONS 
 
 Austin Bill, 54, 57, 59, 61, 62, 
 
 78, 143, 144, 147, 153, 158, 
 
 159, 169, 176, 189, 247, 256, 
 
 257, 261, 262, 264, 265, 266, 
 
 269, 273, 275, 276, 277, 282, 
 299, 300, 301, 307, 308, 309. 
 
 Austin, John, 66, 123, 221, 272. 
 
 Austin, Mary, 54, 151, 156, 160, 
 258. 
 
 Bailey, J. W., 287, 288. 
 Barton, Wm. E., 12. 
 Blaine, James G., 274. 
 Boone, Daniel, 5, 34, 64, 65, 80, 
 
 81. 
 Boone, Squire, 5, 34, 37, 646, 80, 
 
 81. 
 Booth, John Wilkes, 285, 286, 
 
 291, 292, 293, 307, 308. 
 Borah, Senator Wm., 72 303. 
 Boyce, Joseph, 86, 90. 
 Braddock, General, 15, 95. 
 Braddock, General (negro), 15, 
 
 95, 101, 103, 104, 105, 186. 
 Bramlette, Governor, 22, 140, 
 
 240. 
 Brown, A. M., 206. 
 Brown, Gov. John Y., 54, 55. 
 Brown, Shadrach, 66. 
 Brownfield, George, 20, 21. 
 Brownfield, John, 7. 
 Brownfield, William, 10. 
 Brownlow, Henry, 7. 
 Brumfield, William, 28, 35, 45, 
 
 68, 74, 76, 78, 121, 219. 
 Buchannon, James, 14, 116. 
 Buckner, Gen. (Gov.), 140, 251, 
 
 270, 271, 273, 281. 
 
 Buell, Gen. Don Carlos, 270, 
 272, 277, 280, 281, 282, 304, 
 310. 
 
 Bullitt, Colonel, 24, 64, 80. 
 
 Burbridge, General, 139, 323, 
 327, 328, 330. 
 
 Bush, Christy, 8, 201. 
 Butler, General Ben, 54, 55. 
 Butler, Murray, 377. 
 
 Caldwell, General, 13, 32, 97, 
 
 116. 
 Carter, Congressman Chas., 428. 
 Clay, Henry, 13, 40, 337. 
 Coffman, Henry, 7. 
 Colvin, Luke, 5, 57. 
 Congressional Record, Jan. 29, 
 
 Feb. 1, 1913 (Fed. Reserve 
 
 Bill). 
 Cowherd, Pamelia, 11, 69, 80, 
 
 126, 149, 152. 
 Cowley, James, 39. 
 Cowley, Col. John, 7, 11, 15, 14, 
 
 25, 33, 45, 171. 
 Cowley Owen, 32, 33, 35, 37, 39, 
 
 42, 49, 54, 56, 69, 71, 132, 171, 
 
 173, 259. 
 Cowley, Wesley, 193. 
 Crepps, Christian, 86, 90, 91, 92, 
 
 93. 
 Crist, Ben, 7, 85, 186. 
 Crist, Henry, 85, 86, 88, 90, 91, 
 
 92, 93, 94, 104. 
 Crume, Ralph, 55. 
 Cruse, Jeremiah, 122. 
 Cruse, John, 154. 
 Crutcher, James, 7, 174, 228. 
 Crutcher, John, 7. 
 Culee, John, 7, 192. 
 Cunningham, James, 202. 
 
 Davis, James, 57, 188. 
 
 Davis, General Jeff., 293, 297, 
 
 299, 300, 301, 302, 303, 304, 
 
 334. 
 Davis, John, 7, 66. 
 Deckerd, William, 190. 
 Ditto, Franklin, 178, 179. 
 Ditto, Henry, Jr., 7, 122. 
 Ditto, Henry, Sr., 7, 122. 
 
 478 
 
INDEX 
 
 479 
 
 Ditto, Ike, 7, 122. 
 Ditto, Margaret, 296, 297, 298. 
 Douglas, Stephen A., 310, 314, 
 315, 337. 
 
 Enlow, Abraham, 206. 
 Enlow, Gus, 207, 225. 
 Enlow, Isora, 127. 
 
 Fairleigh, Judge, 209. 
 
 Ferris, Congressman Scott, 428. 
 
 Fitch, Judge, 165. 
 
 Floyd, Captain, 65. 86, 87, 90, 
 
 98, 163. 
 Floyd, Colonel, 18, 24, 65. 
 Fossett, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 92. 
 Fraize, Chris M., 21, 124, 214. 
 Friend, Charles, 10, 207. 
 France, Dr., 458, 459. 
 
 Garrard, James (Gov.), 237. 
 Grant, U. S., 271, 272, 280, 281, 
 
 289, 310. 
 Gray, James, 217. 
 Gray, Jane, 217. 
 Gray, John, 126, 217. 
 Gray, Sallie, 217. 
 Gray, Thomas, 126, 217. 
 Gray, William, 221. 
 Grundy, Thos., 225. 
 George, Lloyd, 450, 459. 
 Geohegan, Edward, 122, 194. 
 Green, General Duff, 14. 
 Gollaher, Austin, 206, 225. 
 
 Hanks, Dennis, 21, 126, 207, 
 
 210, 226. 
 Hanks, Joseph, 42, 75. 
 Hanks, Josiah, 12, 42. 
 Hanks, Lucy, 11, 42, 43, 76, 226. 
 Hanks, Nancy, 9, 10, 11, 12, 35, 
 
 71, 76, 121, 122, 134, 151. 
 Hanks, Thomas, 12. 
 Hargan, Rev. John, 181, 182, 
 
 183, 184. 
 Hanks, Thomas, 12. 
 Hart, Mary Jane, 179, 180. 
 Hart, "Sharp Eye," 101, 163, 
 
 186. 
 Hart, Silas, 163. 
 
 Hawkins, James, 98, 261, 262, 
 
 285, 286, 288, 291, 292. 
 Hawkins, Captain Wm., 286. 
 Haycraft, Daniel, 7. 
 Haycraft, D. C, 206. 
 Haycraft, James, 64. 
 Haycraft, Mariah, 35. 
 Haycraft, Peggy, 35. 
 Haycraft, Samuel, Jr., 8, 9, 13, 
 
 14, 31, 35, 40, 42, 53, 76, 115, 
 
 123, 126, 127, 128, 131, 132, 
 
 135, 140, 156. 
 Haycraft, Samuel, Sr., 4, 5, 6, 7, 
 
 13, 31, 35, 71, 75, 76, 115, 119, 
 
 156. 
 Haynes, Susan, Mrs., 164, 180. 
 Haynes, Thomas, 164. 
 Hays, William, 7. 
 Helm, Ben, 116. 
 Helm, Thomas, 13. 
 Henry, Mark, 342, 454, 455. 
 Henry, Gov. Patrick, 7, 25, 34, 
 
 73. 
 Herndon, William, 8, 127, 148, 
 
 216. 
 Hibbs, Calvin, 7, 152. 
 Hibbs, Mahalon, 7, 152. 
 Hines, Thomas H., 51, 61, 62, 
 
 144, 247, 254, 256, 259, 268, 
 
 270, 273, 275, 277, 278, 279, 
 
 307, 308, 309. 
 Hobbs, Silas, 7, 57, 125. 
 Hodgen, William, 118, 198, 225. 
 Holbrook, Alfred, 3. 
 Holland, 21. 
 
 Hoover, President, 362, 393. 
 Horn, James, 201. 
 House Journal, Okla., Jan. 18, 
 
 1913 — shows Fed. Reserve 
 
 Memorial 471. 
 Howard, John, 66, 122. 
 Howlett, Thomas, 194. 
 Howard, William, 19 66, 68. 
 Howell, Claiborne, 181. 
 Howell, James, 181, 182, 183, 
 
 184, 185. 
 Howell, Martha, 121, 196. 
 Howlett, John, 194. 
 Howlet, Thomas, 194. 
 Huston, John, 7. 
 Huston, Robert, 7. 
 Hynes, William, 13. 
 
480 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Irwin, Ben, 82, 194. 
 
 Irwin, Lucretia (Smith), 157. 
 
 Irwin, Solomon, 7, 45, 156, 229. 
 
 Jacobs, General, 305. 
 Jackson, Andrew, 17, 145. 
 Johnston, Quince, 127, 223. 
 Johnston, Sarah-Bush, 156, 171, 
 
 222. 
 Johnston, William, 127, 223. 
 
 Kenton, Simon, 231. 
 King, Addius, 19, 408. 
 Kirkpatrick, James, 206, 214. 
 Kirkpatrick, W. B., 207. 
 Knott, Proctor (Gov.), 140, 270, 
 273, 274. 
 
 I 
 
 La Follette, Isaac, 13. 
 La Follette, Jefferson, 13. 
 La Follette, Jesse, 13. F 
 La Follette, Joseph, 13, 123. 
 La Follette, Sen. Robt. M., 13. 
 Lamont, 378. 
 Lee, Anne, 12. 
 Lee, Robert, E., 141, 273. 
 Lewis, John Henry, 7. 
 Lewis, William, 7. 
 Lincoln, Captain Abraham, 4, 5, 
 6, 9, 11, 19, 25, 33, 34, 63, 64, 
 
 65, 68, 71, 73, 76, 99, 168, 179. 
 Lincoln, Bersheba, 6, 12, 13, 14, 
 
 15, 27, 33, 34, 35, 39, 45, 46, 
 
 54, 57, 66, 68, 69, 71, 73, 74, 
 
 80, 97, 159, 160, 169, 172, 183, 
 
 231, 237, 244. 
 Lincoln, Governor Enoch, 17, 75. 
 Lincoln, Hannaniah, 10, 37, 70. 
 Lincoln, John, 18. 
 Lincoln, Josiah, 9, 33, 35, 55, 71, 
 
 179, 235. 
 Lincoln, Gov. Levi, 17, 75. 
 Lincoln, Mary, 12, 33, 35, 55, 71, 
 
 173. 
 Lincoln, Mordecai, 9, 17, 18, 33, 
 
 63, 97. 
 Lincoln, Nancy (Brumfield), 10, 
 
 12, 13, 33, 34, 45, 52, 54, 60, 
 
 66, 69, 70, 75, 80, 81, 151, 157, 
 160, 169, 172, 236, 298, 302, 
 412. 
 
 Lincoln (Nancy Hanks), 37, 42, 
 44, 45, 170, 196, 219. 
 
 Lincoln, Samuel, 17. 
 
 Lincoln, Sarah, 9, 45, 149. 
 
 Lincoln, Thomas, 8, 10, 12, 13, 
 15, 20, 22, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 
 39, 45, 46, 56, 57, 68, 89, 71, 
 72, 75, 77, 79, 105, 116, 117, 
 120, 123, 149, 153, 158, 165, 
 167, 175, 178, 180, 188, 195, 
 213, 215, 219, 221, 229, 234, 
 319. 
 
 Lincoln, Thomas, Sr., 4, 14, 63, 
 64, 122, 134. 
 
 Maffitt, William, 7, 11. 
 Maffitt, Mrs. Win, 57, 71, 119. 
 
 126, 150, 171, 174, 216, 221. 
 Mathis, Judge, 205. 
 Melton, Jack, 45, 82, 173, 191. 
 Melton, Thomas, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 
 
 14, 66, 77, 81, 121, 157, 158, 
 
 160, 174, 195, 219. 
 Melton, Nancy, 10, 57, 121, 194, 
 
 195. 
 Miles, General, 293, 454, 456. 
 Miller, Christy, 186. 
 Moore, Evans, 86, 90, 92. 
 Moore, John, 15, 57, 118, 151, 
 
 166, 176. 
 Moore, Laban T., 135, 136, 137, 
 
 140, 315. 
 Moulin, Rev. Harry, 148, 237. 
 Munday, Sue, 285, 286, 287. 
 Myers, Henry, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 15. 
 
 I 
 McCarty, Mrs. Lucy, 174, 180. 
 McCullum, William, 22L 
 McMahan, John, 7, 11, 126, 149, 
 
 151, 153, 157. 
 McMahan, Thomas, 15. 
 McMurtry, G. E., 7, 297. 
 McMurtry, Mrs. G. E., 297 
 McMurtry, Stephen, 8, 35,56, 57, 
 
 70. 
 
 Nail, Mrs. Elizabeth (daughter 
 of Nancy Lincoln), 151, 159, 
 179, 203, 204. 
 
 Nail, John G., Sr., 172, 189. 
 
 Nail, John G., Jr., 7, 218. 
 
 Nail, Luther, 172, 189. 
 
INDEX 
 
 481 
 
 Nail, William P. (son-in-law of 
 Nancy Lincoln), 14, 66, 159, 
 172, 189, 203, 104. 
 
 Neville, Colonel, 6, 64. 
 
 Owen, R. L., 428. 
 
 Owens, Betsy, 57, 152, 197. 
 
 Owens, Jane, 55. 
 
 Owens, John, 191, 192. 
 
 Owens, Jonathon, 7, 37. 
 
 Owens, Mary, 8, 38, 317. 
 
 Owens, William, Jr., 7, 33, 34, 
 
 35, 37, 38, 45, 54, 69, 77, 173. 
 Owens, William, Sr., 4, 5, 7, 33, 
 
 66, 74, 77, 173. 
 
 Palmer, General, 139, 301, 304. 
 Palmer, Captain Thomas, 153. 
 Pauley, James, 217, 220. 
 Pauley, John, 220. 
 Payne, John Barton, 393. 
 Pearman, Jacob, 7, 57, 66, 123, 
 
 128. 
 Pearman, Sam, 123. 
 Pearman, William, 57. 
 Peck, Catherine, 39, 46, 69, 73, 
 
 75, 78, 79, 80, 81, 121, 157, 
 
 166, 218. 
 Peck, Elinor (Leona), 9, 10, 11, 
 
 12, 15, 39, 57, 65, 68, 69, 71, 
 
 73, 76, 78, 80, 119, 120, 150, 
 
 152, 157, 171, 186. 
 Peck, Henry, Jr., 7, 9, 12, 152. 
 Peck, Jackson, 45, 57, 81, 12$, 
 
 157, 166, 177. 
 Peck, James, 187. 
 Peck, John Henry, Jr., 12. 
 Peck, John, Sr., 7, 39, 69, 126, 
 
 150, 160, 177. 
 
 Peck, Margaret, 11, 80, 120, 126, 
 
 157. 
 Peck, Rebecca, Jr. (Smith), 69. 
 Peck, Rebecca, Sr. (Williams), 
 
 81^118, 120. 
 Peck, Reuben, 57, 69, 81, 173, 
 
 177. 
 Peck, Thomas B., 69, 81, 120, 
 
 151, 152. 
 Pirtle, John, 14. 
 Pirtle, Uriah, 221. 
 
 Radley, Ike, 13. 
 
 Ray, Abner, 57, 190. 
 
 Ray, Charles, 7. 
 
 Rawlings, George, 21. 
 
 Redmond, George, Jr., 220. 
 
 Redmond, George, Sr., 21, 220. 
 
 Rodgers, Jacob, 66, 68, 159. 
 
 Rodgers, Phil, 221. 
 
 Rodgers, William, 66, 70, 71, 
 
 159, 160. 
 Rutledge, Anne, 8. 
 
 Sadowsky Bros., 24, 36. 
 Sandbeig, Carl, 20. 
 Selby, David, 3. 
 Selby, James, 7. 
 Settles, James, Sr., 7. 
 Settles, James, Jr., 48, 306. 
 Settles, William, 7. 
 Shepherd, John Henry, 7, 57. 
 Shepherd, John, 126. 
 Smith, Absalom, 16. 
 Smith, Cephas, 59, 192, 293, 295. 
 Smith, Chief Justice of Canada, 
 
 289, 290, 291. 
 Smith, George (colored), Sr., 
 
 205. 
 Smith, George (colored), Jr., 
 
 205, 206. 
 
 Smith, Mrs. George Sr. (col- 
 ored), 205. 
 
 Smith, Hannah Rodman, 252, 
 253 283. 
 
 Smith, Harvey H., 108, 408, 456. 
 
 (See Appendix, shows author- 
 ship Federal Reserve Act.) 
 
 Smith, Hoosier John, 17, 252, 
 293. 
 
 Smith, James, Jr., 7, 16, 81„ 126, 
 
 206, 217. 
 
 Smith, James, Sr., 7, 15, 16, 24, 
 59, 64, 68, 80, 81. 
 
 Smith, Colonel John, 7, 8, 17, 68, 
 80, 81, 98, 163. 
 
 Smith, John (Mason's Cove, 
 Va.), 16. 
 
 Smith, James, 16 (signer Decla- 
 ration of Independence). 
 
 Smith, John, Jr., 7, 13, 14, 15, 16, 
 18, 24, 64, 75, 77, 117, 123, 
 124, 201, 215. 
 
 Smith, John H. (Kansas), 102. 
 
482 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Smith, Mrs. John Smith (Wil- 
 liams), Jr., 79. 
 Smith, Malinda (Jackson Peck's 
 
 wife), 205. 
 Smith, Marion, 17. 
 Smith, Mark, 247, 236, 287, 291, 
 
 484 485 
 Smith, Mary E., 17, 294, 297. 
 Smith, Nancy (Pauley), 158, 
 
 215, 223. 
 Smith, Rebecca (daughter of 
 
 James), 69. 
 Smith, Rebecca Peck (wife of 
 
 Silas Smith), (daughter Thos. 
 
 B. Peck), 69. 
 Smith Sally (Gray), 69. 
 Smith, Sally Gentry, 221, 222, 
 
 223, 226. 
 Smith, Silas, Sr., 8, 17, 52, 60, 
 
 69, 293, 294. 
 Smith, Silas H., Jr., 297. 
 Smith, Washington (son of 
 
 James), 217. 
 Smith, Dr. William, 7, 13, 14, 
 
 15, 17, 18, 28, 42, 45, 47, 69, 
 
 73, 75, 81, 126, 151, 157, 173, 
 
 215, 230, 231, 232, 233, 234, 
 
 246, 296. 
 Smith, Colonel Zachariah, 128. 
 Spears, Solomon, 86, 90. 
 Stator, John, Sr., 166. 
 Stator, John, Jr., 57, 666, 69, 74, 
 
 102, 122, 190, 220. 
 Straus, Hon. Frank, 98. 
 Swank, David, 11, 157. 
 Swank, Isaac, 64. 
 Swank, John, 5, 11, 64. 
 Swank, Joseph, 6, 11, 64, 221, 
 
 157, 201. 
 Swank, William, 11. 
 
 Tarbell, Miss Ida M., 8, 21. 
 
 Thomas, Joe, 221. 
 
 Thomas, John, 65, 126, 158, 160. 
 
 Thomas, Thurman, 158, 160, 
 
 208. 
 Thomas, William, 7. 
 Thompson, Col. Phil., 11, 12. 
 Tull, Frederick, Sr., 200. 
 Tull, Frederick, Jr., 200. 
 Todd, Mary, 8, 21, 318, 322. 
 
 Vanmeter, Jacob, Sr., 7, 13, 14, 
 
 18, 63, 115. 
 Vanmeter, Jacob, Jr., 7, 13, 14, 
 
 64, 66, 68, 70, 80, 105, 115, 
 
 116, 117, 123, 150, 168, 175. 
 Vanmeter, Mrs. Robt. H., 70, 
 
 175. 
 Vanmeter, Susan, 175. 
 Vertrees, Jacob, 187, 201. 
 Vertrees, John, 187, 201. 
 Vertrees, William, 187, 201. 
 
 Watts, Polly, 11, 69, 126, 152, 
 
 157, 158. 
 Watts, Jordan, 193. 
 Watts, John, 126. 
 Watts, Calvin, 158. 
 Watterson, Henry, 250. 
 Wairen, L. A., 210. 
 Walker, Daniel, 66. 
 Washington, George, 15, 25, 64. 
 Webster, H. T., 102. 
 Williams, Bill, 57, 79, 118, 177. 
 Williams, Elizabeth, 57. 
 Williams, John, 15, 57, 79, 80, 
 
 118, 120, 166. 
 Williams, Mrs. John, 69. 
 Williams, Thomas, 15, 79, 118, 
 
 126, 166. 
 Williams, Mrs. Thomas, 15. 
 Wilson, Woodrow, 113, 351. 
 Wilmouth, James, 220. 
 Wolfe, Henry, 24. 
 Wolford, Colonel Frank, 240, 
 
 304. 
 Woodring, John, 7. 
 
is 
 
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