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FACSIMILE OF A MANUSCRIPT WRITTEN BY ABRAHAM

LINCOLN IN DECEMBER,

1859, GIVING A BRIEF

ACCOUNT OF HIS EARLY LIFE.

This document was written at the request of the late Mr. Jesse W. Fell, with a view to its incorporation in a memoir to be used in the political campaign of 1860.

COPYRIGHT, 1872, BY JESSE W. FELL.

I was boon Feb. 12. 1809.

My parents

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were both boow in Virgence of undistiv. Decor a femiling, ponhaps I shove a day quishen families in my mother, who drew in my south year, was of a

of a family of

th name of tanks, Adams, and other

some of whom now renow in Macon Counties, Illinois My potemal granov: father, Abraham Lincolo, emigration from Rockinglane County, Virginia, to Kentucky, about 17810 2, when, year or two later, he was batth, but by stealth, when ho on the forest

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was laboring to oper

His anceston, who wew

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Killen by

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quakers, event to Virgine from Berks County, Pennsylvania_ Am effort to istentify them with the New Englanar family and nothing. more definato, thaw & fimulany of Christian names w both famelles, fushas Enoch, Levi, Morecer, Solomon, Abraham, aver the liko

My father, at the death of his father, was but pise gears of age; years of age; and he grew up, litterally without education. The removed from Kentucky to what is now Spencer County, Inow and on my eighth yearWe reachior our new home

about the time the Staw camo onto the denow- to

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wew some schools, so called, but no

qualification was ever regrind of a teacher, beyouar readin, writing, and cis Pezin reading, Thud- If a straggler happe by ding, waiting amovethulation to the Rule of

supposed to understanes latin, than to pound in sojour

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neighborhoow, he was looked upon as wizzard_ There was absolutely nothing to excito ambiation for sccucation. Of course when I came of адом dow not know much. Stite somehow, I could pear, prite, and cipher to the Rule of Threr, but ale_ I have not been to school pincom

that was

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I now have apon this plow of educers

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tion, I have band picked up from time to time unster the pressures of recent_

I was parsed to farms work, which I continued till I was twentytwo_ At twentyone I came to

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Illinois, and passen the fast year in Illumin Macon Counts - Then I got New Falem (the

in Sangamon,

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Mewond County, when I pus

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of black in or stow Then came the Black Howh

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I have had since I went the

for the Legislater the

succes which than any campaign, was elation san pasur gear (1832, and was beater _ the only time I ever have been beaten by the peoplo- The next, anow threw succeeding brennial elections, I was electe en to the Lagertatur. I was for a canotinati afterumos. During this Legistatim perion I had and removed to Springfieen to make practice it _ In 1841 I was

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lower House of Congress - Was not a cons

didate for re-election _ From 1849 to 1854, both

inclision, practicra kawe now assiduously then

before- Alway

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ever

why in politics; anos generally

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polities, when the repeal of the Merionn Compromir aconse mo again. What I hans

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face, four mel, read; leaw in дей, мева,

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height, six

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on average, one hundred and eighty pounds; complexion, wrth course black hair; one grey eyesno other marks or havas pecollectio

How J. W. Fell.

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A Lencobs

Washington, DC. March 20.1872

He the undersigned here by catify that the firegoing statement is in the hands conting of Abraham Lincoln.

David Dairs

Lyman Frumbull

Charles Summer

CHAPTER IX

FACING THE STORM

FROM his election to his inauguration Lincoln was compelled to watch the end of Buchanan's government proceed on a course the opposite of the one he deemed wise. His election was the signal for a secession movement throughout the South. Never before had the territory of the country been so open to slavery; but the leaders knew that an election which meant no further yielding struck also the final doom of their institution, and they were determined to found a slave empire while they could, peaceably if possible, forcibly if necessary. It was the only time in the history of the Republic that a President had been chosen by one of the two hostile sections alone. Lincoln and Douglas had divided almost the entire vote of the North, Breckenridge and Bell almost the whole of the South, and for the first time since the nation was founded the President had received no electoral vote from a slave state. In this situation the secession leaders saw that the hour had come. The mass of the slave-owners

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