973.7L63 Lincoln, Abraham. 
 RH796d 
 
 A Digest of the Wit and 
 
 Wisdom of Abraham 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 MEMORIAL 
 
 the Class of 1901 
 
 founded by 
 
 HARLAN HOYT HORNER 
 
 and 
 
 HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER 
 
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 dom of Abraham Lincoln 
 
 by KING V.HOSTICK 
 
The 
 
 Gettysburg 
 
 Address 
 
 in the 
 
 handwriting 
 
 of 
 
 Abraham 
 
 Lincoln 
 
 Shown is a facsimile 
 
 copy of the dedicatory 
 
 remarks made by 
 
 President Abraham 
 
 Lincoln at the National 
 
 Cemetery in Gettysburg, 
 
 Pennsylvania, 
 
 November 19, 7863. 
 
 The original of this copy 
 
 is now owned by the 
 
 Illinois State Historical 
 
 Library, having been 
 
 purchased in 1944. Five 
 
 copies of the address 
 
 in the hand of Lincoln 
 
 are known to exist. 
 
 
 
 
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 Copyright 1958, by King V. Hostick. 
 
In a short autobiography Abraham Lincoln wrote "I was born Feb. 12, 1809, 
 in Hardin County, Kentucky." The son of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, 
 young Lincoln was reared to a typical frontier farm life of crop planting and 
 harvesting. During these years, he also did his share of forest clearing and rail 
 splitting and helped to build the 
 family homestead from the virgin 
 forest. As a young man the Lincoln 
 family moved to Southern Indiana 
 where he spent his formative years. 
 
 Possessed of less than one year's 
 formal education, as a youngster, 
 Lincoln was a constant reader. By 
 reading Lincoln improved upon 
 his lack of schooling. In 1830 when 
 Lincoln was 21 years old, the fam- 
 ily moved to Illinois settling near 
 Decatur. The following year at the 
 age of 22, Lincoln moved to New 
 Salem, Illinois. 
 
 LINCOLN'S BIRTHPLACE 
 
 ... '7 believe it is universally understood and acknowledged, that 
 all men will ever act correctly, unless they have a motive to do 
 
 Otherwise." _ From a speec h, January 77, 7837 
 
 . . . A story is told of Lincoln while a young lawyer. He was engaged 
 in a case in which the opposing lawyer made an elaborate and mis- 
 leading speech to the jury. In his opening remarks Lincoln said: "My 
 friend who has just spoken to you would be all right if it weren't for 
 one thing, and I don't know that you ought to blame him for that, for 
 he can't help it. What I refer to is his reckless disregard for the truth. 
 You have seen instances of this in his speech to you. Now the reason 
 lies in the constitution of his mind. The moment he begins to talk all 
 his mental operations cease, and he is not responsible. He is, in fact, 
 much like a little steamboat that I saw on the Sangamon River when 
 I was engaged in boating there. This little steamer had a five-foot 
 boiler and a seven-foot whistle, and every time it whistled the engine 
 stopped." 
 
. . . "In very truth he was, the noblest work of God — an honest man." 
 
 —From an eulogy by Lincoln, February 8, 1842 
 
 • • • 
 
 . . . Lincoln once advised his law partner, William Herndon: "The 
 way for a young man to rise is to improve himself every way he can, 
 never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him. 
 
 "Allow me to assure you that suspicion and jealousy never did help 
 any man in any situation. There may sometimes be ungenerous 
 attempts to keep a young man down; and they will succeed, too, if 
 he allows his mind to be diverted from its true channel to brood over 
 the attempted injury. Cast about, and see if this feeling has not injured 
 every person you have ever known to fall into it." 
 
 -From a letter to William H. Herndon, July 10, 1848 
 
 NEW SALEM 
 
 . . . "In law it is good policy to never plead what you need not, lest 
 you oblige yourself to prove what you cannot." 
 
 -From a letter to U. F. Under, February 20, 1848 
 
 . . . Upon his defeat for the Senate by Douglas, Lincoln expressed 
 his feelings: "I feel like the boy that stumped his toe — it hurt too bad 
 to laugh, and he was too big to cry." 
 
 . . . "As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This 
 expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the 
 extent of the difference, is no democracy." -Springfield, in., circa 1858 
 
dft 
 
 
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 . . . In offering advice to young men, Lincoln once said : 
 "Now, as to the young men. You must not wait to be 
 brought forward by the older men. For instance, do 
 you suppose that I should ever have got into notice if 
 I had waited to be hunted up and pushed forward by 
 
 Older men?" -From a letter to William H. Herndon, June 22, 1848 
 
 ... 7 take it that it is best for all to leave each man free 
 to acquire property as fast as he can. Some will get 
 wealthy. I don't believe in a law to prevent a man from 
 getting rich; it would do more harm than good. So while 
 we do not propose any war upon capital, we do wish to 
 allow the humblest man an equal chance to get rich with 
 everybody else. When one starts poor, as most do in the 
 race of life, free society is such that he knows he can 
 better his condition; he knows that there is no fixed con- 
 dition of labor for his whole life." 
 
 —From a speech at New Haven, Conn., March 6, I860 
 
 . . . General McClellan's long delays in the dark days 
 of the Civil War caused Lincoln great anxiety. He ex- 
 pressed his annoyance with McClellan thus: "It is called 
 the Army of the Potomac but it is only McClellan's 
 bodyguard ... If McClellan is not using the Army, I 
 should like to borrow it for a while." 
 
 —Remarks, circa April, 1862 
 
 . . . A soldier came to Lincoln with a complaint about 
 his superior officers and the President said: "I cannot 
 meddle in your case. I could as easily bail out the 
 Potomac with a teaspoon as attend to all the details of 
 the army." 
 
 • • • 
 
 . . . "// the head of Lee's army is at Martinsburg and the 
 tail of it on the Plank road between Fredericksburg and 
 Chancellorsville, the animal must be very slim some- 
 where. Could you not break him? 
 
 —A telegram to General Hooker from Lincoln, June 14, 1863 
 
 . . . To politicians who found fault with Lincoln for not 
 giving certain generals choice commands, the President 
 replied: "The fact is, I have got more pegs than I have 
 holes to put them in." 
 
During his years at New Salem, young Lincoln diligently started upon the task 
 of self education. Writing of himself later Lincoln said: The aggregate of all 
 his schooling did not amount to one year. He was never in a college or academy 
 as a student. What he has in the way of education he picked up. After he was 
 twenty-three and had separated from his father, he studied English grammar — 
 imperfectly, of course, but so as to speak and write well. 
 
 These years did much to display the true qualities which Abraham Lincoln 
 possessed. Many of the well known stories of Lincoln's character stem from inci- 
 dents occurring during this period. 
 
 One trait in his life was uppermost. It was Lincoln's absolute honesty. The most 
 outstanding story showing this quality was told of his walking three miles to 
 return six cents he had overcharged a customer while a clerk in the New Salem 
 general store. It was this desirable trait of basic honesty and his sense of fair play 
 that the world will always associate with the name of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 . . . Advising young lawyers Lincoln remarked: "Don't shoot too 
 high. Aim lower, and the common people will understand you. They 
 are the ones you want to reach — at least they are the ones you ought 
 to reach. The educated and refined people will understand you, any- 
 way. If you aim too high, your ideas will go over the heads of the 
 masses and only hit those who need no hitting." 
 
 —Springfield, Illinois, circa 1850 
 
 . . . To an improvident relative, Abraham Lincoln wrote in a letter 
 "If you intend to go to work, there is no better place than right where 
 you are; if you do not intend to go to work, you cannot get along 
 anywhere. Squirming and crawling about from place to place can do 
 no good. . . . Part with the land you have, and my life upon it, you 
 will never after own a spot big enough to bury you in . . . Your thou- 
 sand pretenses for not getting along better are all nonsense; they de- 
 ceive nobody but yourself. Go to work is the only cure for your case." 
 
 —From a letter to John D. Johnston, November 4, 1851 
 
 . . . Abraham Lincoln believed self-interest the prime motive behind 
 slavery. "The plainest print cannot be read through a gold eagle; and 
 it will be ever hard to find many men who will send a slave to Liberia, 
 and pay his passage while they can send him to a new country — 
 Kansas, for instance — and sell him for fifteen hundred dollars and 
 
 the rise." -Speech at Springfield, Illinois, June 26, 1857 
 
. . . Lincoln went into the Black Hawk War as a volunteer soldier. 
 During his early military experiences, he was marching men across a 
 field. He desired to -pass through a gateway into the next inclosure. "I 
 could not for the life of me, remember the proper word of command 
 for getting my company endwise, so that it could get through the 
 gate; so, as we came near I shouted: "This company is dismissed for 
 two minutes, when it will fall in again on the other side of the gate." 
 
 . . . Speaking of a certain strict judge Lincoln remarked: "He would 
 hang a man for blowing his nose in the street, but he would quash the 
 indictment if it failed to specify which hand he blew it with." 
 
 . . . "// you are resolutely determined to make a lawyer of yourself, 
 the thing is more than half done already. It is but a small matter 
 whether you read with any body or not. I did not read with any one. 
 Get the books, and read and study them till you understand them in 
 their principal features; and that is the main thing. It is of no con- 
 sequence to be in a large town while you are reading. I read at New 
 Salem, which never had three hundred people living in it. The books, 
 and your capacity for understanding them, are just the same in all 
 
 places. -Letter to Isham Reavis, November 5, 1855 
 
 The first job Abraham Lincoln ever held in New Salem was that of a clerk 
 in a general store. During his New Salem residence, Lincoln was able 
 to further study and improve his mind under the tutelage of Bowling 
 Green and Mentor Graham, educated men of the frontier village. The 
 New Salem years also developed his early interest in politics and law. 
 
 During his residence in New Salem, Lincoln saw military service as a 
 captain in the Black Hawk War in 1832 and served as New Salem's 
 Postmaster. After one unsuccessful attempt in 1832, Lincoln was elected 
 in 1834 to the Illinois legislature for four terms. 
 
 Through the encouragement of John Todd Stuart, who made his library 
 available to him, Lincoln read law. After being admitted to the bar, Lincoln 
 moved to Springfield, 18 miles distant, to make his home and become the 
 law partner of Stuart. 
 
. . . "Stand with anybody that stands right. Stand with him while 
 he is right and part with him when he goes wrong." 
 
 —From a speech at Peoria, Illinois, October 16, 1854 
 
 . . . "If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, 
 we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far 
 into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object 
 and confident promise of putting an end to slavery agitation ... 'A 
 House divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this government 
 cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect 
 the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I 
 do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, 
 
 Or all the Other. —From a speech before the Republican State Convention, June 16, 1858 
 
 . . . Lincoln once remarked that his religious code was like that of an 
 old man he once knew who said: "When I do good I feel good, and 
 when I do bad I feel bad, and that's my religion." 
 
 Abraham Lincoln moved to Springfield, Illinois in 
 1837 and regarded this city as his home for the re- 
 mainder of his life. During these years the State 
 Capital of Illinois was moved from Vandalia to 
 Springfield, largely through the influence and 
 efforts of Lincoln. 
 
 Late in 1839 Lincoln began the practice of law on 
 the 8th Judicial Circuit, composed of a score of 
 counties across the wide breadtfi of Illinois. From 
 the contacts and friendships he made practicing on 
 the circuit, Abraham Lincoln began to build his 
 legal profession. He also successfully became a 
 member of Congress, representing the Springfield 
 district in the 30th Congress in Washington. 
 He married Mary Todd in Springfield, on Novem- 
 ber 4, 1842, and from this union four sons were born. 
 In 1844 Abraham Lincoln purchased in Springfield 
 the only home he ever owned where with his wife 
 and sons the Lincolns were to reside until they left 
 Springfield for the White House. 
 
 LINCOLN'S HOME IN SPRINGFIELD 
 
. . . "/'// do the very best I know how — the very best I can; what is 
 said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out 
 wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference." 
 
 . . . "My friends: No one, not in my situation, can appreciate my 
 feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of 
 these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a cen- 
 tury, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children 
 have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when or 
 whether ever I may return, with a task before me greater than that 
 which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of that Divine 
 Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance, 
 I cannot fail. Trusting in Him, who can go with me, and remain with 
 you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will 
 yet be .well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers 
 you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell." 
 
 To friends and neighbors on February I 7, 1867, Springfield, Illinois 
 
 . . . Lincoln's interpretation of Young America: "He owns a large 
 part of the world by right of possessing it, and all the rest by right of 
 wanting it and intending to have it." 
 
 As well as having a keen mind and a reputation as an 
 able attorney, Abraham Lincoln also became legendary 
 as a story teller and yarn swapper. Among his clients 
 and fellow lawyers, both on the 8th circuit and in Spring- 
 field, Lincoln gained a reputation as a story teller which 
 ever remained with him. 
 
 The Springfield years, however, had their serious aspect. 
 A living had to be provided by Lincoln for his wife and 
 sons which by this time numbered three and would 
 soon be four. 
 
 Although not actively an office holder now, Lincoln 
 maintained a keen interest in political issues. He often 
 spoke on behalf of Whig political candidates both on a 
 local and national level. It was inevitable that active 
 participation in political issues doomed him to becom- 
 ing an active candidate. Again elected to the Illinois 
 legislature in 1854, Lincoln declined in order to run 
 for the United States Senate. His bid for the Senate 
 seat was unsuccessful. He was, however, beginning to 
 emerge on the national scene, receiving 110 votes on 
 an informal ballot for Vice President at the first Repub- 
 lican Convention in Philadelphia in 1856. 
 
 INTERIOR OF LINCOLN'S SPRINGFIELD HOME 
 
TftE FAMOUS DEBATES 
 
 The menacing shadow of hu- 
 man slavery was beginning 
 to cast itself over the United 
 States. This issue, of course, 
 was to have a marked effect 
 on the Nation as a whole 
 and Abraham Lincoln in 
 particular. 
 
 Again a candidate for the 
 United States Senate and 
 again unsuccessful, Lincoln's 
 debates with Stephen A. 
 Douglas, the winning candi- 
 
 date, were the vehicle needed to bring him into national focus. 
 In February 1860 Lincoln delivered his famous Cooper Union address in New York. 
 As much as any other, Lincoln's New York speech was credited with bringing him 
 to the favorable attention of powerful Eustern political leaders. 1860 also brought to 
 Lincoln the nomination and election to the Presidency of the United States. 
 "With a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington," Abraham 
 Lincoln left Springfield on February 11, 1861 to take the oath as President of the 
 United States. 
 
 . . . Telegram to General G. B. McClellan: "I have just read your 
 despatch about sore tongued and fatigued horses. Will you pardon me 
 for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of 
 Antietam that fatigue any thing?" 
 
 -Washington, D.C., October 25, 1862 
 
 . . . General Hooker, a bitter critic of Lincoln's administration of 
 the war, told newspapermen a dictator was needed for the country. 
 Four days later Hooker was appointed commander of the Army of 
 the Potomac and received from Lincoln one of the most famous letters 
 in history: "I have heard, in such way as to believe it, of your 
 recently saying that both the army and the government needed a 
 dictator. Of course it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have 
 given you the command. Only those generals who gain successes can 
 set up dictators. What I now ask of you is military success, and I will 
 
 risk the dictatorship." -From a letter to General Hooker, January 26, 1863 
 
 . . . "If we do right God will be with us, and if God is with us we 
 
 Cannot fail." Remarks, circa July, 1864 
 
 10 
 
Abraham Lincoln became the 16th 
 President on March 4, 1861, and 
 within six weeks, the nation was 
 plunged into Civil War. The war 
 years brought personal sorrow to 
 Lincoln's family with the death of 
 his eleven year old son, William. 
 Statesmen and political leaders al- 
 lowed Lincoln very little time unto 
 himself while he was President. 
 Stories are legion of Lincoln's sym- 
 pathy for the mothers whose sons 
 were fighting. Story upon story has 
 been told of Lincoln's compassion 
 even for the sons themselves, many 
 ready to be shot for desertion. On 
 President Lincoln's direct orders to 
 the War Department hundreds of 
 soldiers were released to be returned to their families. During his White House 
 tenure Lincoln once remarked: "It makes me feel rested after a hard day's work 
 if I can find some excuse to save a man's life." 
 
 PRESIDENT AND MRS. LINCOLN WITH THEIR SONS, 
 ROBERT, WILLIE AND TAD 
 
 . . . Once as Lincoln had difficulty with his two crying children, 
 Willie and Tad, a neighbor asked what was the matter. "Just what's 
 the matter with the whole world. I've got three walnuts and each 
 wants two." 
 
 . . . "Dear Madam: I have been shown in the files of the War De- 
 partment a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that 
 you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field 
 of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine 
 which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so over- 
 whelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation 
 that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. 
 I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the' anguish of your 
 bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved 
 and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so 
 costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom. 
 
 Yours, very sincerely and respectfully, 
 A. LINCOLN" 
 
 Abraham Lincoln to Mrs. Bixby of Boston, November 21, 1864 
 
 11 
 
. . . During a period when 
 office seekers and politi- 
 cians were besieging him, 
 Lincoln sighed, "I am 
 like a man so busy in 
 letting rooms in one end 
 of his house, that he can't 
 stop to put out the fire 
 that is burning the other." 
 • • • 
 
 . . . To a man who apolo- 
 gized to Lincoln for wak- 
 ening him at midnight to 
 show him important in- 
 tercepted mail, the Presi- 
 dent said: "You may 
 waken me whenever you 
 please. I have slept with 
 one eye" open ever since 
 I came to Washington. I 
 never close both except 
 when an office seeker is 
 looking for me." 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHED IN THE WHITE HOUSE 
 
 . . . After pardoning a condemned soldier, Lincoln commented: "If 
 a man had more than one life, I think a little hanging would not hurt 
 this one, but after he is once dead we cannot bring him back, no 
 matter how sorry we may be, so he shall be pardoned." 
 
 . . . A committee of rich men hurried to Washington when the Con- 
 federate ironclad Merrimac was striking terror into hearts along the 
 Atlantic coast. Upon their demand for a gun-boat for the protection 
 of New York harbor, Lincoln said: "Gentlemen, the credit of the 
 Government is at a very low ebb. It is impossible under the present 
 conditions to do what you ask. But it seems to me, that if I were half 
 as rich as you are reputed to be, and half as badly scared as you appear 
 to be, I would build a gun-boat and present it to the Government." 
 
 . . . "General Sheridan says: 'If the thing is pressed I think that Lee 
 will surrender.' Let the thing be pressed." 
 
 —A telegram to General Grant, April 7, 1865 
 
 12 
 
Replying to a well-known New York newspaperman who had criticized his admini- 
 stration policy Abraham Lincoln wrote: "My paramount object in this struggle is 
 to save the Union, and is not either to save or to 'destroy slavery." 
 However the days left for human bondage in our country were numbered. On 
 January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation whereby slaves 
 in the Confederate areas were declared free. Slightly more than two years later, 
 approved with President Lincoln's signature, the 13th Amendment forever abolished 
 slavery in the United States. 
 
 At the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Novem- 
 ber 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln delivered his brief remarks which will forever be 
 regarded as a classic example of American literature. 
 
 Re-elected President, he began his second term on March 4, 1865, almost exactly 
 a month before the ces- 
 sation of the war and 
 the surrender of the 
 Southern forces. 
 The following month, 
 April 14, 1865, Abra- 
 ham Lincoln was shot 
 by an assassin's bullet 
 while attending Ford's 
 Theatre in Washing- 
 ton. He was buried on 
 May 4, 1865, in Oak 
 Ridge Cemetery in 
 Springfield, Illinois 
 after a slow funeral 
 train returned his re- 
 mains to Springfield. 
 
 PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION 
 
 . . . Upon ordering reinforcements for General McClellan, Lincoln 
 said: "Sending men to that army of the Potomac is like shoveling fleas 
 across a barnyard — not half of them get there." 
 
 • • • 
 
 . . . A group called on Lincoln to ask for the appointment of a 
 politician as Commissioner to the Sandwich Island. They urged that 
 he was in bad health, and said a residence in that balmy climate would 
 be of great benefit to him. 
 
 The President remarked: "Gentlemen, I am sorry to say that there 
 are eight applications for that place, and they are all sicker than 
 your man." 
 
 . . . In 1863 Lincoln contracted a mild form of smallpox. To office 
 seekers suddenly fleeing the White House on hearing what ailed him, 
 the President remarked: "Tell all the office-seekers there is one good 
 thing about this. I have something now that I can give everybody." 
 
 13 
 
. . . "The strongest bond of human sympathy, outside of the family 
 relation, should be one uniting all working people, of all nations, and 
 tongues, and kindreds. Nor should this lead to a war upon property, 
 or the owners of property. Property is the fruit of labor; property is 
 desirable; is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich 
 shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement 
 to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down 
 the house of another, but let him labor diligently and build one for 
 himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from 
 violence when built." 
 
 -Washington, D. C, March 27, 7864 
 
 . . . "With malice toward none, with charity for all; with firmness 
 in the right, as God gives 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 a lasting peace, 
 among ourselves, and with all nations." 
 
 —From the Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865 
 
 THE ASSASSINATION 
 
 3§L 
 
Springfield Marine & Fire Insurance i oiH|>ttin , 
 
 r igMu^A^ _ : ^ ~^^3ZE1"^*\^. _ J i ( f ( f Dollars 
 
 Richards It Smith, printers. 
 
 BANK CHECK SIGNED BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 Abraham Lincoln's bank account with the Springfield Marine & Fire 
 Insurance Company records that his check dated February 22, 1860, 
 made payable to Mrs. S. Allen, was presented for payment on Feb- 
 ruary 29 and $11.05 deducted from his account. Mrs. Solomon Allen 
 was*a neighbor who lived one block south of the Lincolns in Springfield. 
 
 Although born of parents of modest means, on his death in 1865, 
 Abraham Lincoln left an estate in excess of $100,000. 
 
 Photographs reproduced are by courtesy of The Library of Congress, Washington, D. C, 
 Illinois State Historical Library, Springfield, Illinois 
 and The Herbert Georg Studio, Springfield, Illinois. 
 
 The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C shown on the back cover was especially photographed 
 for reproduction here by Mr. Gene Snack, Decatur, Illinois. 
 
 Front cover photograph of Abraham Lincoln was made from a negative owned by 
 King V. Hostick, Springfield, Illinois. 
 
 15 
 
THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL 
 WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA 
 973.7L63RH796D C001 
 
 A DIGEST OF THE WIT AND WISDOM OF ABRAHA 
 
 IN Ml I Ml II 
 3 0112 031834432