973.7L63 
 
 BC19a 
 
 1926 
 
 Carlton, Mabel Mason, 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, Preserver of 
 His Country. , 
 
LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 MEMORIAL 
 
 the Class of 1901 
 
 founded by 
 
 HARLAN HOYT HORNER 
 
 and 
 
 HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER 
 
Lincoln's early law training 
 was derived from borrowed 
 books, read by the light of a 
 pitch-knot fire. 
 
Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Preserver of his Country 
 
 Mabel Mason Carlton 
 
 Presented with the Compliments of 
 
 Company 
 
 of Boston. Massachusetts 
 
 THE OLD RELIABLE COMPANY 
 
L 
 
 That Government of the 
 People, by the People, for 
 the People, shall not per- 
 ish from the Earth 
 
 JL 
 
 Copyright 1926. — John Hancock Mut. Life Ins. Co.. Boston. Mass. 
 
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 Abraham Lincoln 
 
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 0£20H3S3EEr 
 
 Preserver of his Country 
 
 BORN in a log cabin, he ascended to the White 
 House; attending school less than one year, he 
 became a great orator and writer; beset with dis- 
 appointments and defeats, he rose above them and 
 became one of the most revered and beloved of states- 
 men in all history. So reads the remarkable career of 
 Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 He was born on February 12, 1809, in a rough log 
 cabin on a small farm in the backwoods of Kentucky, in 
 what is now Larue County. The United States Govern- 
 ment has recently enclosed this sacred hut in a great 
 stone memorial, thus seeking to preserve the birthplace 
 of one of our greatest Americans. 
 
 Lincoln's father, Thomas Lincoln, who could neither 
 read nor write, was not energetic nor ambitious and 
 provided only the barest kind of a living for his family; 
 Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, was gentle and 
 religious and too frail for the hardships of rude pioneer 
 life. 
 
 3 
 
In 1816, after having lived in several places, the 
 family moved to Indiana, working their way through 
 nearly one hundred miles of forest. During the first 
 winter, they lived in a three-sided shed, with a buffalo- 
 skin to close it. A year later, a log cabin was completed, 
 but it had only the earth as a floor. The next year Mrs. 
 Lincoln died. When a grown man, Abraham wrote of 
 her: "All that I am and all that I hope to be I owe to my 
 sainted mother." 
 
 Education 
 
 LINCOLN went to school "by littles," as he said, 
 for about nine years; but all his schooling together 
 did not amount to one full year. He taught himself to 
 read, cipher, and write. He had no pencils or paper, but 
 wrote his lessons and did his sums on a wooden shovel 
 with a piece of charcoal. Later, when he did secure 
 paper, he copied his compositions with a pen made from a 
 wild turkey's quill and ink from blackberry root. 
 
 Although he had to work very hard helping his 
 father clear the forest, plough ground, plant corn, gather 
 and shuck it, or doing odd jobs for neighboring farmers, 
 he read every book he could lay his hands on. He often 
 walked miles to borrow a book, and once told a friend that 
 he had "read through every book that he had heard of 
 within a circuit of fifty miles." 
 
 Lincoln was endowed with a great deal of native wit, 
 a ready tongue, and the ability to tell stories. Because 
 of these gifts, he was always a popular figure at house- 
 raisings and husking-bees, where he entertained the 
 country-folk with his speeches and funny stories. His 
 
natural gift for speech-making, coupled with a great love 
 of justice, made him consider law as a profession. But, 
 because he had no law books of his own and no money 
 with which to buy any, he often walked twelve miles to 
 the office of an acquaintance to read a volume on the 
 laws of Indiana. 
 
 At nineteen, Lincoln stood six feet four inches in his 
 bare feet. His arms and legs were unusually long, and his 
 hands and feet huge. His strength was equal to that of 
 three men ; he could lift and carry a pair of logs and could 
 outrun and outwrestle any man or boy in the countryside. 
 
 Down the Mississippi 
 
 IN 1828, when he was nineteen, Lincoln was given 
 charge of a neighbor's flatboat and sent on an eigh teen- 
 hundred-mile journey down the Mississippi River to 
 New Orleans to market vegetables and bacon among the 
 cotton planters. 
 
 Two years later, the Lincoln family, in wagons 
 drawn by heavy oxteams, moved to Illinois and built 
 another log cabin. Abraham split wooden rails to fence 
 in ten acres of land, and hence, years later, when a can- 
 didate for the presidency of the United States, he was 
 nicknamed the "rail splitter." The same winter, he split 
 fourteen hundred rails to pay a woman for a pair of 
 trousers which she made for him. The next spring he 
 made a second trip to New Orleans on a flatboat, and 
 saw for the first time negroes chained and put on a block 
 and sold to the highest bidder. It is said that the sight 
 made him sick at heart and that he then and there 
 
pledged himself to fight slavery if ever the opportunity 
 came. Little did he dream then that his name was to 
 go down in history as the great liberator of these oppressed 
 people. 
 
 War, Politics, and Business 
 
 ON his return, Lincoln settled in New Salem, Illinois, 
 where he lived for several years and did odd jobs 
 about town. Later he clerked in Denton Offutt's store, 
 finding time to study Kirkham's Grammar ; "lying full 
 length on the counter with his head on a parcel of calico," 
 and to spin his famous yarns to the men and boys who 
 gathered at the village store. Here he won the lasting 
 nickname of "Honest Abe." He is said to have walked 
 two miles to correct a mistake in change of six cents. 
 But within a year the store "petered out," and Lincoln, 
 now twenty-two, was without a job. 
 
 At the time of the Black Hawk war, volunteers from 
 New Salem chose Lincoln as their captain, but the war 
 was over before they saw active service. 
 
 Ambitious to enter politics, in the spring of 1832 
 Lincoln announced that he would be a candidate in the 
 autumn election for the State legislature. Although he 
 secured very nearly all of the votes of his immediate 
 neighborhood, he was not elected. 
 
 With a Mr. Berry as partner, Lincoln now bought 
 three small stores in New Salem and combined them into 
 one. The purchasing was done on credit, and early in 
 1833 the business "winked out," as Lincoln said, and left 
 the firm owing $1,200. Berry died soon after, and 
 
Lincoln assumed the entire debt. He might have freed 
 himself by declaring bankruptcy, but he chose rather to 
 pay every dollar of this debt, although it took about 
 fifteen years of struggling and saving to do so. 
 
 Lincoln soon obtained the position of assistant sur- 
 veyor to John Calhoun, then surveyor of the county. 
 Meanwhile he was appointed local postmaster; and 
 because the mails were small and infrequent, he ' 'carried 
 the office around in his hat." 
 
 In the Illinois State Legislature 
 
 CAN'T the party raise any better material than 
 that?" asked a bystander, as he looked at Lincoln, 
 who was about to make a speech in his second campaign 
 for State legislator in 1834. After Lincoln's speech the 
 bystander exclaimed that he knew more than all the 
 other candidates put together. This time Lincoln was 
 elected, and thereafter he was elected for three further 
 terms. 
 
 Lincoln went to Vandalia, then the State capital, in 
 a brand-new suit of "store clothes" bought with money 
 loaned by a friend. Here he met Stephen A. Douglas, 
 who for years was to be his rival in more than one affair. 
 In 1836, at the age of twenty-seven, Lincoln was admitted 
 to the bar, and went to live in Springfield, the new State 
 capital. On a borrowed horse, and with little money, 
 he rode up to the store of an acquaintance, Mr. Speed, 
 and asked if he could buy bedding and have credit until 
 Christmas, when he hoped to be a success at law. "If I 
 fail in this," he said, "I do not know that I can ever pay 
 
you." Speed offered to share his own large bed with 
 him in his room over the store. Lincoln carried his 
 saddle bags up to the room, dropped them on the floor, 
 and came back beaming with delight. "Well, Speed, 
 I've moved!" he said. 
 
 In the Illinois legislature, Lincoln's power and wisdom 
 as a statesman first began to develop. He lived close to 
 the people, and believed in their judgment as the surest 
 guide to right in public affairs. He worked hard to give 
 the State, railroads, canals, and banks. 
 
 During these eight years, Lincoln was also practicing 
 law, and he became widely known and admired as he 
 rode about the country with the district judge from one 
 court house to another. In 1843, he entered a law part- 
 nership with William Herndon. Lincoln made it a point 
 to defend only such cases as he believed to be absolutely 
 right and just. Once he gave up a case in the middle of 
 a testimony when he found that he was on the wrong 
 side. He had the habit of telling stories that not only 
 spread good humor in the courtroom, but that made his 
 case clear. He soon became one of the best lawyers in 
 Illinois. 
 
 When a young man, Lincoln had won the love of Ann 
 Rutledge. At her death, his grief was so great his friends 
 feared that he would lose his mind. Years later, in 1842, 
 Lincoln and Douglas were rivals for the heart and hand of 
 Mary Todd, a handsome young woman from Kentucky. 
 Lincoln was the victor, and they were married on Novem- 
 ber 4, 1842. Four boys were born to them, one of whom, 
 Robert T. Lincoln, later became United States Ambas- 
 sador to Great Britain. 
 
Lincoln and Slavery 
 
 WHEN Lincoln took his seat in the United States 
 House of Representatives to serve a two-year 
 term, the question of slavery was overshadowing both 
 national and state politics. 
 
 Here he declared: "If slavery is not wrong, nothing 
 is wrong." Lincoln fought for a plan to keep slavery 
 out of the territory from Texas to Oregon. He declared 
 that he voted for this plan "at least forty times," but 
 to no avail. He also tried to get a law passed to free slaves 
 in the District of Columbia, but failed. 
 
 He was not reelected to Congress and so returned to 
 his law practice. He was greatly in need of money. 
 Besides supporting his own family, he sent money to his 
 father, his stepmother, and a step-brother, and after 
 his father's death, he paid off a mortgage on the old home. 
 He "rode the circuit," a "gray shawl about his shoulders, 
 carrying a carpet bag, fat with papers and clothing, and 
 a faded green cotton umbrella without a handle, tied with 
 a piece of twine." 
 
 In 1854 the Kansas-Nebraska Bill became a law. It 
 was introduced into the Senate by Douglas, and per- 
 mitted the two new territories of Kansas and Nebraska 
 to decide for themselves, when admitted to the Union, 
 whether they would be free or slave States. The North 
 realized that this new law opened to slavery the great 
 territory of the northwest. 
 
 The Republican Party was born at this time, with 
 Abraham Lincoln as one of the founders. At the first 
 Republican National Convention held in Philadelphia, 
 
1856, Lincoln was conspicuously mentioned as candidate 
 for Vice-President, but was not nominated. 
 
 Senator Stephen A. Douglas came back to Illinois and 
 boldly defended his Kansas-Nebraska bill; whereupon 
 Lincoln made answer in a three-hour speech which made 
 him the champion in the great cause of human liberty. 
 In 1858 the Democrats of Illinois nominated Douglas as 
 Senator; and the Republicans declared that: 'The 
 Honorable Abraham Lincoln is our first and only choice 
 for United States Senator." Cheering throngs packed 
 the floor and galleries of the State House at Springfield 
 to hear Lincoln's speech of acceptance. His words have 
 come down to us, ringing with truth and justice: "A 
 house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe that 
 this government cannot endure permanently half slave 
 and half free." 
 
 Lincoln now challenged Douglas to meet him in a 
 series of debates. Seven debates were held. People 
 came from all over the country to the towns in Illinois 
 where the debates took place. Douglas's arguments 
 were fluent and brilliant; Lincoln's were straightforward 
 and simple, reaching the very hearts of the people. 
 Indeed, as Lincoln lost himself in his subject, his voice 
 rang with a deep, strange beauty, his sad eyes kindled, 
 and his tall, gaunt figure acquired a certain majesty. 
 
 Douglas argued that people had the right to choose 
 for themselves whether or not they would have slaves. 
 Lincoln argued that no man had the right to be master 
 of another; that slavery was wrong and that it must be 
 abolished. Although Douglas won the election as Sena- 
 tor, Lincoln was soon to have a greater honor, — that 
 of becoming President of the United States. 
 
 10 
 
President of the United States 
 
 AFTER the debates with Douglas, Lincoln's reputa- 
 tion as a great orator spread throughout the country 
 and he was invited to address audiences in every part of 
 the United States. The New York Tribune said of his 
 speech at Cooper Institute in New York, February, 
 
 1860, "No man every made such an impression in his 
 first appeal to a New York audience." This famous 
 speech was printed and quoted everywhere, and it 
 aided in securing his election as President. 
 
 As the presidential election of 1860 drew near, intense 
 bitterness spread between the North and the South. 
 On November 6, 1860, Lincoln was elected the sixteenth 
 President of the United States. Before the next February, 
 seven Southern States had left the Union, formed the 
 Confederate States of America, and elected Jefferson 
 Davis as their President. 
 
 In Lincoln's inaugural address, delivered March 4, 
 
 1861, he said: "The Union of these States (United States) 
 is perpetual. No State upon its own mere motion can 
 lawfully get out of the Union." Later he said: "The 
 country has placed me at the helm of the ship; I'll try to 
 steer her through." Many were those who shook their 
 heads and asked: "Will that awkward old backwoods- 
 man really get that ship through?" 
 
 Considerate, gentle, tender, firm as a rock when he 
 made up his mind, yet with a power to inspire and hold 
 his followers, through years of suffering and failure, 
 steady to their purpose, Abraham Lincoln finally proved 
 himself the most popular and beloved statesman in 
 America. He loved the common people, and they 
 trusted him. Often his Cabinet suggested that he write 
 
 11 
 
his state papers in more elegant form, but he continued 
 to write them in his own simple language, saying, "The 
 people will understand." 
 
 Beginning of the Civil War 
 
 VIRGINIA, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina 
 joined the Southern Federation. On April 12, 1861, 
 the Confederacy began the Civil War by firing upon the 
 Union flag flying over Fort Sumter, South Carolina. 
 
 Lincoln, who from the very first declared the war to 
 be for the Union, not against slavery, issued a call for 
 75,000 volunteers and made George B. McClellan chief 
 commander of the Northern army. In July the battle 
 of Bull Run, the first real fight of the war, was a victory 
 for the South. The North was stunned by this blow. 
 For months and months General McClellan organized and 
 drilled an excellent army, but made no move against the 
 South. It remained for General U. S. Grant to win the 
 first Northern victories. Early in the winter of 1862 
 he captured Ft. Henry and Ft. Donelson. Lincoln 
 finally dismissed McClellan and made Grant commander 
 of the Northern forces. 
 
 But the North was to meet defeat after defeat, and 
 Lincoln, whose small son, Willie, died at this time, grew 
 more and more tender toward the suffering. He often 
 visited the camps, hospitals, and prisons, talked with 
 officers and men and won their confidence and love. It 
 is said that throughout the war a Bible lay on his desk, 
 that he read it often, and many times spent all night in 
 prayer. 
 
 12 
 
Freedom for Slaves 
 
 ALTHOUGH Lincoln put the saving of the Union 
 as the first great purpose of the war, by 1862 he knew 
 that the abolishing of slavery should be made the second 
 great purpose. Thousands of slaves were escaping to the 
 North, and, in July, 1862, the Congress passed a law per- 
 mitting these escaped slaves to enter the Northern army, 
 and allowing them and their families freedom. Lincoln 
 first tried to have the slaves freed gradually and to have 
 the Government pay their owners for their loss, but the 
 South would not agree to this plan. Then, in his own 
 quiet, sincere way, without even consulting his Cabinet, 
 Lincoln framed the mighty sentences of the Emancipa- 
 tion Proclamation. But the time was not yet ripe for 
 announcing this proclamation. The Northern army was 
 defeated at Cedar Mountain and in the second battle of 
 Bull Run, and was now facing Lee, who had crossed the 
 Potomac into Maryland. Lincoln told his Cabinet that 
 he had made a promise to himself and his Maker, that if 
 God gave the victory in the approaching battle, he would 
 consider that God had decided his questions in favor 
 of the slaves. On September 17 the Northerners were 
 victorious at Antietam. Five days later, Lincoln issued 
 the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, making four 
 million slaves, "on the first of January, 1863, — thence- 
 forth and forever free." 
 
 On New Year's Day, when Lincoln signed the final 
 draft of the Proclamation, he said: "If my name ever gets 
 into history, it will be for this act, and my whole soul 
 is in it." 
 
 But the war was not yet over. The North suffered 
 terrible defeats at Fredricksburg and Chancellorsville, 
 
 13 
 
but victory awaited them at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. 
 Lincoln kept a large map of the United States on his wall 
 and carefully followed the movements of the armies. 
 Day and night he studied the campaign, pored over mili- 
 tary books on strategy, planned movements with his 
 generals, and often directed his leaders. But his heart 
 ached for the men on the battlefields and for their anxious 
 families at home. His face became thin and drawn, his 
 eyes heavy and sunken, and he remarked: "I feel as 
 though I shall never be glad again." Once when a 
 Union general urged him to execute twenty soldiers for 
 deserters he answered: "There are already too many 
 weeping widows in the United States. For God's sake 
 don't ask me to add to the number, for I won't do it." 
 
 The autumn of 1863 brought the Northern victory at 
 Chattanooga. The next spring saw Grant beginning his 
 attack on Richmond, with heavy losses at Wilderness, 
 Spottsylvania, and Cold Harbor. Lincoln called upon 
 the North for more men. By this time the people had 
 learned to love and trust Lincoln, and they rallied round 
 him, shouting: "We are coming, Father Abraham, three 
 hundred thousand strong." Again they elected him 
 President. 
 
 In the Congress of January, 1865, Lincoln's lifelong 
 dream and hope became a great reality when an amend- 
 ment was added to the Constitution of the United States, 
 forever forbidding slavery in every part of the United 
 States. 
 
 In his second inaugural address, delivered March 4, 
 1865, Lincoln said: "Fondly do we hope — fervently do 
 we pray — that this mighty scourge of war may speedily 
 pass away . . . With malice toward none; with 
 charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives 
 
 14 
 
us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we 
 are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him 
 who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and 
 his orphan, — to do all which may achieve and cherish 
 a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all 
 nations." 
 
 But it was not until after Sherman had marched 
 through Georgia, and the Northern army, on April 3, 
 1865, had entered Richmond, and Lee, on April 9, had 
 surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House, that 
 the war was over. When the news of Lee's surrender 
 reached the White House, Lincoln met with his Cabinet, 
 and at his word, silently and in tears, they knelt and gave 
 humble thanks to God. 
 
 The wildest delight swept the land. The long and 
 terrible war between the Blue and the Gray was over! 
 The Union was saved ! The slaves were free ! Abraham 
 Lincoln was hailed as the great friend of the people, the 
 liberator of an oppressed race. Lincoln went to Rich- 
 mond, the recent capital of the Southern Confederacy. 
 He passed a group of negroes digging at a river landing. 
 One of them, an old man, saw Lincoln, leaped forward, 
 and cried, exulting: "Bress de Lord, dere is the great 
 Messiah ! He's cum at las' to free his chillum from dere 
 bondage! Glory Hallelujah !" The old negro fell on his 
 knees and kissed Lincoln's feet. Surrounded by kneeling 
 negroes, Lincoln spoke: "Don't kneel to me. Kneel to 
 God only, and thank Him for liberty." 
 
 Lincoln had no hatred for the South. He honored 
 the valor of the Southern soldiers and generals. He 
 called Stonewall Jackson a "brave, honest soldier," and 
 once, when looking at Lee's picture, he said: "It is the 
 face of a brave and noble man." 
 
 15 
 
"Now He Belongs to the Ages" 
 
 GREAT of heart and mind, the kindly Lincoln has 
 won the hearts of the people as few men in all the 
 world's history have ever won them. He once remarked 
 that ''God must love the common people, he made so 
 many of them." It has been said that he never forsook 
 a friend or lost an opportunity to do a kind deed, be it 
 ever so humble a one. His last official act was one of 
 mercy: he signed a pardon for a soldier who had been 
 sentenced to be shot for desertion, and, as he did so, 
 Lincoln remarked: "I think the boy can do us more good 
 above ground than under ground." 
 
 The evening of the very day when he signed this 
 pardon, April 14, 1865, he went to the Ford Theatre with 
 Mrs. Lincoln, to see the play, "Our American Cousin." 
 His box was draped with flags; the happy excitement of 
 war ended, victory won, and peace promised, was every- 
 where. At twenty minutes after ten o'clock, when all 
 eyes were on the stage, a pistol shot rang out. Lincoln 
 fell forward in his chair, his assassin leaped to the stage, 
 caught his spur in a flag, and fell, but succeeded in getting 
 to the stage door and riding away on a horse. Mrs. 
 Lincoln cried out: "He has murdered the President." 
 Lincoln was carried to a house opposite, where he lay 
 silently through the night — while all Washington 
 watched, praying for his life — but the next morning, 
 without regaining consciousness, he died. Stanton, his 
 great friend, whispered to those about the bedside: "Now 
 he belongs to the ages." 
 
 16 
 
J^he debates with Douglas, in 
 1858, brought Lincoln's talents 
 and ability into nation-wide 
 prominence. 
 
 issue No.80. —Copyright, 1923. — John Hancock mutual Life Ins. Co.. Boston, Mass. 
 Livirmode & Knight Co., Provioenci 
 
^WW 
 
 Presented by the 
 
 of Boston, Massachusetts 
 
J 
 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 973 7L63BC19A1926 C0D1 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. PRESERVER OF HIS COUNTR 
 
 3 0112 031785261