ILLUSTRATIONS REPRODUCED FROM AN ETCHING BY JOSEPH PIERRE AND ETCHER. Frontispiece STATUE OF LINCOLN BY ANDREW O'CONNOR. Facing Page 64 CHAPTER I THE BEGINNINGS A Youth to whom was given So much of earth-so much of heaven. -Wordsworth. Abraham Lincoln's career is of perennial interest to the world because it represents a high personal achievement accomplished under severe difficulties. Such an achievement, entirely possible in a democracy, excites admiration among every generation of men. It contains so many points of human interest that a large and growing literature has come into existence to tell the story of his struggles with poverty, his untoward opportunities for acquiring an education, to describe his personality, to interpret his political views and policies, and to exhibit his "genius for expression." So significant is his position in history that we preserve every scrap of his writing, trivial or important, and perpetuate every tale or tradition that promises to add to our memorial of the man and his performance. For many, his utterances on public questions have become as touchstones of political wisdom. There are rea sons also for believing that, had the circumstances of his life, fallen in more favorable ways, he might have become as distinguished in the field of letters as he was eminent in statesmanship. These reasons are to be found within that large body of letters, addresses, and state papers which he has left as a legacy from the wealth of exertion and clear thinking which fell to his experience. We know Lincoln's biography intimately enough to discover that his mental life was a persistent and progressive unfolding in the direction of genuine culture. He was ambitious to acquire knowledge. He laid hold of even meagre occasions to widen his horizons. Apparently he was equally eager to lead a life of action. At the age of twenty-one he had successfully piloted his father's family from Indiana to their new homestead in Illinois. Within two years after this change of residence he became a candidate for election to the Illinois legislature from Sangamon county. In the address which he issued to the voters of the county in March, 1832, we may find a clear hint of the type of mind and aspiration which distinguished his maturity. Although up to this time he had enjoyed the privilege of less than a year's training in the elementary school and had 1 Page 219, Appendix. |