Peeps at Abraham Lincoln MAX VIVIER 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/peepsatabrahamliOOvivi Peeps at Abraham Lincoln By MAX VIVIER Author of "Peeps at George Washington" FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY NEW YORK MCMXXXII COPYRIGHT, 1932, BY MAX VIVIER All rights reserved. No part of this work may be repro- duced without the written permission of the publishers. Printed in the United States of America .£-*> FOREWORD Abraham Lincoln has given us a perfect example of the self- made man and the story of his life should prove very inspiring to all young people, for Abraham Lincoln was a real leader. It is the story of a life of hard beginnings, of constant and honest work and of success and achievement; a life dominated by one great love, which made him accept responsibilities and face sacrifices: the love of a man for his country. Those children who have had in their hands the "Peeps at George Washington" will find again the same type of illustrations and the simple text which will enable them to remember better the main events in the life of that great President who followed so successfully in the footsteps of his model and predecessor, George Washington, in preserving intact for future generations the great united nation which the "Father of His Country" had so nobly toiled to create. Max Vivier Seldom was a child born with so few chances as Abraham Lincoln had of becoming a great man, for his father was very, very poor and did not even seem to know how to make a good living. The boy was born in a log cabin near Hogdenville in Kentucky, on February 12th, 1809. Some said: "He will never come to much." Others remarked: "He is as solemn as a papoose." His family soon moved to Knob Creek and little Abe began to learn things. He learned that the State he lived in was Kentucky, but he also learned that men had fought and died for the mother country — the United States. He learned what the American flag meant, and why, one morning, his father shot a long rifle into the air. It was the Fourth of July, the day his country had become a free nation. Although only seven years old, Abe walked four miles each day to school, where he learned his letters, how to spell and sign his name and how to count numbers. He wanted very much to learn and to be able to read in the family Bible. And he loved to listen to Dr. Graham, their guest — who was given the only bed, while the Lincolns slept on the floor — for the Doctor knew much about rocks, flowers, plants and trees. Abe was kept very busy and he liked it. At night he held a pine-knot to light his father at work and during the day he carried water, brought in wood, cleaned the fireplace, or, with his sister Sarah, picked berries, grapes, walnuts, hickory and hazelnuts, blackberries and crab-apples for the winter. But it was great fun, after the plowing, to ride the horse down to the old swimming-hole to join his friend, Austin Gollaher. 8 When Abe was nearly eight years old, his father, Tom Lincoln, decided to move to Little Pigeon Creek in Indiana and took their poor furniture on a flatboat, but the boat turned over and almost everything was lost. So when the father came back to fetch his wife and two children, they had to walk most of the way, to spare the two borrowed horses laden with sacks full of pots, pans, kettles and baskets. The first winter was very hard, for Abraham knew no other home than a shed, built of poles and open to the wind and snow on one side. And soon after his father had finished building their new cabin, Nancy Lincoln, the boy's mother, died. She had been a good mother. She had taught him to read, had always made him wash extra clean to go to school, and always told him to learn all he could. They made her coffin, and buried her with their own hands in the wood near by. 10 * w if m Pff ■flfi fp W,p+WVyWM ,] *>Wlf*f' m y/fPM fWM¥/^/^ y ^ m i Tivrti i , . tit' 11 ■" i - h)mi'iii'iMin"»iiiniM'niiri Game such as wild turkey, grouse, partridge, and rabbit was the best part of their food. Abe had watched his father load his gun many times and one day, as a flock of wild turkeys came near, he took down the gun and shot through a crack between two of the cabin logs and killed one of the big birds. But he could never shoot another, nor fire at the deer which came to the salt-lick near by: he had too kind a heart to do harm to animals. 11 His father married a widow, Sarah Bush Johnston, and she came with her three children. She brought mattresses, pillows, a walnut bureau and many things Abe had never seen before. Best of all, she was kind and friendly and soon Abe felt he could love her as a real mother. She insisted that he should keep going to school, and gave him his first real bed. Before, he had slept on leaves, or skins stretched on poles. 12 Abe was growing fast, much faster than all his friends. When he was full grown, he was six feet, four inches tall. His father put him to handling the ax and the boy became hard and wiry, with strong muscles, and was admired by all for his strength. He could lift a barrel and drink from the bung, or carry a chicken- house heavy enough for four men to move with poles. 13 Hard work made him fast, strong and keen in sports. He was the best wrestler in the country around, besides being better than all others at jump- ing, racing, throwing the maul or pitching the crowbar. Although very tired at night, instead of going to bed, he would lie in front of the fire and study, cipher- ing with a piece of charcoal on the wooden shovel, which he cleaned afterwards, or doing sums on the cabin's boards. 14 Books were what he wanted most. He learned them by heart: "Aesop's Fables," "Robinson Crusoe/' "Pil- grim's Progress" and The Life of George Washing- ton," which he borrowed from Farmer Josiah Crawford. Once, when rain came in through chinks of the loft where he slept and soiled a book, Abe worked two days in the fields to pay for it, but he thought this was cheap in view of the wonderful things he had learned. 15 "Long Shanks" — as he then was called because his legs and arms had grown so long that his clothes were always too short — made a little money ferrying people to the steamboats in the middle of the stream. James Gentry asked him to take the produce of his farm down the Mississippi River and trade it for cotton, sugar and tobacco. Abe built a flatboat with a deck-shelter and oars, and with Gentry's son, Allen, made a successful trip to New Orleans. There he first saw slaves being sold and felt ashamed that such a thing should be done in his country. 16 On his return, besides splitting enough rails to fence in fifteen acres, he began to study law from a borrowed book. He borrowed many more, for he felt that without learning no man can ever succeed. Often now he would go alone in the woods and fields and make speeches to the trees, the rocks and the potato fields. He knew that without serious and constant practice no one can become good at anything. 17 When Abraham Lincoln was twenty-one, his family moved to Macon County, Illinois, and he left them to become a clerk in Denton Offutt's store in New Salem. "Honest Abe/' he was now called, for if he made a mistake in giving back the change, or found a pack- age was underweight, he would run after a customer on the street to correct his mistake. 18 Already he was known for telling funny stories, but that did not prevent him from keeping his mind on serious work. Offutt thought much of him and boasted that his clerk knew more than any other man in the United States and that one day he would be President; he could outrun, outlift, outwrestle and throw down any man in Sangamon County: yes, he was a fine fellow, although he did not drink whisky or play cards. 19 Denton Offutt's store failed, and as Black Hawk, chief of the Sac Indians, was on the war-path, Abraham Lincoln volunteered for service and was elected cap- tain of the company of men who offered themselves to defend the settlement. The trouble was over, however, before Abe's company had seen any fighting. On his return he opened a grocery store with his friend, Berry, who was too fond of his drink. Abe was often found in summer, outside the store, under an oak-tree, lying on his back on the ground, his legs up in the air, reading a book. 20 The new store failed in a few months, leaving Honest Abe to pay his partners debts, which it took him years to clear to the last penny. Abe had to work for his clothing and board as a plowman, a harvest-hand and a wood-cutter until 1833, when he was made postmaster at New Salem. Mails came once a week and he carried his post- office in his hat, handing the letters out as he went to his other work. Yet he found time to study hard and was not ashamed to go and sit among the children in the little school to find out how much he knew. 21 Then he became a land-surveyor, as George Wash- ington had been, plotting out farms for the new settlers. To do this well, he had to study mathematics and worked at them till he was fagged. He had also become an eloquent speaker, with a wonderful knowledge of the law, though he had to walk to and from Springfield, carrying the lawbooks which Major Stuart loaned him, tied in a bundle. But he thought nothing of it as long as he felt he was learning more and more, and now he thought he could go into politics. In 1834 he was elected a member of the Illinois State Legislature by a large majority. 22 While living in New Salem, Abraham was a boarder at the log tavern kept by James Rutledge, and he fell in love with Ann Rutledge, a very beautiful young girl with rosy cheeks. They became engaged. Sincere and honest as he was, Abraham Lincoln was heartbroken when she died, a few months later, and his friends feared for his life and his reason. Several times they found him wandering through the woods or lying with one arm across her grave. 23 For several years Abraham could not forget Ann Rutledge. At last he met Mary Todd, the pretty and accomplished daughter of a banker. They were mar- ried and settled in Springfield, Illinois. Abe was now a young lawyer, yet people spoke affectionately of him as "Old Abe" or "Old Mr. Lin- coln," when they met him going to the market with a basket in one hand and holding his little boy with the other. In 1844 Abraham Lincoln was elected to repre- sent his State in Congress at Washington. 24 Every one knew he was frank and honest and would not, as a lawyer, take up a case he did not think right. He asked little for his services, and in the case of friends asked nothing. People knew he was kindness itself, dismounting in the rain to help fallen nestlings back to the nest or rescuing a pig from a quagmire. And he remained simple, spending little money, and the people liked him for it. 25 All eyes were on Abraham Lincoln now, and in 1860 he was elected President of the United States. They called him the "Rail Candidate," for he had cut so many of them, and two rails which he had split years before were brought to the convention to point to Lincoln's humble birth and show how in a republic the poorest man, through hard and honest work, can rise to places of eminence in the nation. Before he was inaugurated in 1861, seven States had claimed their right to buy and sell slaves, even if it meant leaving the Union, and had decided to fight for their claims. 26 Abraham Lincoln believed that his most sacred duty as President was to keep all the States together. Therefore, although it grieved his heart to see the beginning of the Civil War, he was obliged to sign the orders that sent men of the North against men of the South, to force them to remain in the Union. But the idea of brothers fighting preyed upon his mind, and with a sad face, now adorned with a beard, he would haunt the corridors of the White House in a dressing-gown, his head bowed, repeating to himself to keep up his resolve: 'The Union must be saved!" 27 Because he believed it also necessary, in order to preserve the Union, Abraham Lincoln issued an Eman- cipation Proclamation that all the slaves should be freed on January 1st, 1863. The war went on and Abraham Lincoln's intense patriotism helped him bear the terrible sight of its horrors, either when visiting the hospitals with Mrs. Lincoln or going to see his generals in camp, where Duty took him, although he often repeated: "I cannot bear it! I cannot bear it!" 28 Personal resentment he had none and so he was honored by friends and enemies alike and became known as "Father Abraham/' He came from the people, and for the people he labored and toiled, never thinking himself superior, friendly to all, shaking hands with the humblest. At Gettysburg, in November, 1863, Lincoln made a great speech dedicating the nation to a new birth of freedom and to "government of the people, by the people and for the people/' He was re-elected Presi- dent in 1864 and the Civil War ended, with the Union saved, in 1865. 29 And after Abraham Lincoln's life of devotion to his duty and to his country, after handing down such a fine example of what a real self-made man should be, he was to die a martyr's death in the midst of honors and of national gratitude for the return of peace. On April 14th, 1865, while he was at the theater in Washington, President Lincoln was shot by a half- crazed actor, John Wilkes Booth, who believed Lincoln a tyrant. Abraham Lincoln died the next day and was truly mourned by the nation and the whole world. 30 A great patriot was Abraham Lincoln, who loved his country above everything and foresaw that one break in the Union might be followed by another, which would leave the divided States a prey to foreign nations. He foresaw that, should the Union be broken, the United States could never become the great country it is now, hailed as a leader among nations. He spared no personal effort, suffered and toiled to keep his country free and united, and to make good his motto: JUSTICE TO ALL. 31