Abraham Lincoln Penned Only Three Autobiographies.

The First Autobiography - June 1858

Abraham Lincoln wrote three autobiographies in a two-year period.

This first, terse effort was prepared at the request of Charles Lanman, who was compiling the Dictionary of Congress.

• Born, February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky.
• Education defective.
• Profession, a lawyer.
• Have been a captain of volunteers in Black Hawk War.
• Postmaster at a very small office.
• Four times a member of the Illinois legislature, and was a member of the lower house of Congress.

The Second Autobiography - December 20, 1859

Lincoln wrote this second autobiography for Jesse Fell, a long-time Illinois Republican friend who was a native of Pennsylvania. Fell used his influence to get the piece incorporated in an article appearing in a Pennsylvania newspaper on February 11, 1860. Lincoln enclosed the autobiography in a letter to Fell which said, "There is not much of it, for the reason, I suppose, that there is not much of me."

I was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families—second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks, some of whom now reside in Adams and others in Macon Counties, Illinois. My paternal grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, emigrated from Rockingham County, Virginia, to Kentucky, about 1781 or 1782, where, a year or two later, he was killed by Indians, not in battle, but by stealth, when he was laboring to open a farm in the forest. His ancestors, who were Quakers, went to Virginia from Berks County, Pennsylvania. An effort to identify them with the New-England family of the same name ended in nothing more definite than a similarity of Christian names in both families, such as Enoch, Levi, Mordecai, Solomon, Abraham, and the like.

My father, at the death of his father, was but six years of age; and he grew up, literally without education. He removed from Kentucky to what is now Spencer County, Indiana, in my eighth year. We reached our new home about the time the State came into the Union. It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals, still in the woods. There I grew up. There were some schools, so-called; but no qualification was ever required of a teacher beyond "readin, writin, and cipherin" to the Rule of Three. If a straggler supposed to understand Latin happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizard. There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education. Of course, when I came of age I did not know much. Still, somehow, I could read, write, and cipher to the Rule of Three; but that was all. I have not been to school since. The little advance I now have upon this store of education, I have picked up from time to time under the pressure of necessity.

I was raised to farm work, which I continued till I was twenty-two. At twenty one I came to Illinois and passed the first year in MaconCounty. Then I got to New-Salem (at that time in Sangamon, now in MenardCounty), where I remained a year as a sort of Clerk in a store. Then came the Black Hawk War; and I was elected a Captain of Volunteers—a success which gave me more pleasure than any I have had since. I went the campaign, was elated, ran for the Legislature the same year (1832), and was beaten—the only time I ever have been beaten by the people. The next, and three succeeding biennial elections, I was elected to the Legislature. I was not a candidate afterward. During this Legislative period, I had studied law, and removed to Springfield to practice it. In 1846 I was once elected to the Lower House of Congress. Was not a candidate for re-election. From 1849 to 1854, both inclusive practiced law more assiduously than ever before. Always a Whig in politics, and generally on the Whig electoral tickets, making active canvasses—I was losing interest in politics when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again. What I have done since then is pretty well known.

If any personal description of me is thought desirable, it may be said, I am, in height, six feet, four inches, nearly; lean in flesh, weighing on an average one hundred and eighty pounds; dark complexion, with coarse black hair, and grey eyes—no other marks or brands recollected.

The Third and Last Autobiography - June 1860

When Lincoln first ran for President, John L. Scripps of the Chicago Press and Tribune asked him for an autobiography to write a campaign biography about him. This third-person account is the result. The longest of his autobiographies, it offers fascinating information about his early years.

Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809, then in Hardin, now in the more recently formed county of La Rue, Kentucky. His father, Thomas, and grandfather, Abraham, were born in Rockingham County, Virginia, whither their ancestors had come from Berks County, Pennsylvania. His lineage has been traced no farther back than this. The family was originally Quakers, though in later times they have fallen away from the peculiar habits of that people. The grandfather, Abraham, had four brothers—Isaac, Jacob, John, and Thomas. So far as known, the descendants of Jacob and John are still in Virginia. Isaac went to a place near where Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee join; and his descendants are in that region. Thomas came to Kentucky, and after many years died there, whence his descendants went to Missouri. Abraham, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, came to Kentucky and was killed by Indians about the year 1784. He left a widow, three sons, and two daughters. The eldest son, Mordecai, remained in Kentucky till late in life, when he removed to Hancock County, Illinois, where soon after he died, and where several of his descendants still remain. The second son, Josiah, removed at an early day to a place on Blue River, now within Hancock County, Indiana, but no recent information of him or his family has been obtained. The eldest sister, Mary, married Ralph Crume, and some of her descendants are now known to be in Breckenridge County, Kentucky. The second sister, Nancy, married William Brumfield, and her family is not known to have left Kentucky, but there is no recent information from them. Thomas, the youngest son, and the father of the present subject, by the early death of his father, and very narrow circumstances of his mother, even in childhood was a wandering laboring-boy and grew up literally without education. He never did more in the way of writing than to bunglingly write his own name. Before he was grown he passed one year as a hired hand with his uncle Isaac on Watauga, a branch of the Holston River. Getting back into Kentucky, and having reached his twenty-eighth year, he married Nancy Hanks—mother of the present subject—in the year 1806. She also was born in Virginia; and relatives of hers of the name of Hanks, and of other names, now reside in Coles, in Macon, and in Adams counties, Illinois, and also in Iowa. The present subject has no brother or sister of the whole or half-blood. He had a sister, older than himself, who was grown and married, but died many years ago, leaving no child; also a brother, younger than himself, who died in infancy. Before leaving Kentucky, he and his sister were sent, for short periods, to A B C schools, the first kept by Zachariah Riney and the second by Caleb Hazel.

At this time, [Thomas Lincoln], his father resided on Knob Creek, on the road from Bardstown, Kentucky, to Nashville, Tennessee, at a point three or three and a half miles south or southwest of Atherton's Ferry, on the Rolling Fork. From this place he removed to what is now Spencer County, Indiana, in the autumn of 1816, Abraham then being in his eighth year. This removal was partly on account of slavery, but chiefly on account of the difficulty in land titles in Kentucky. He settled in an unbroken forest, and the clearing away of surplus wood was the great task ahead. Abraham, though very young, was large of his age, and had an ax put into his hands at once; and from that till within his twenty-third year he was almost constantly handling that most useful instrument—less, of course, in plowing and harvesting seasons. At this place, Abraham took an early start as a hunter, which was never much improved afterward. A few days before the completion of his eighth year, in the absence of his father, a flock of wild turkeys approached the new log cabin, and Abraham with a rifle-gun, standing inside, shot through a crack and killed one of them. He has never since pulled a trigger on any larger game. In the autumn of 1818 his mother died; and a year afterward his father married Mrs. Sally Johnston, at Elizabethtown, Kentucky, a widow with three children of her first marriage. She proved a good and kind mother to Abraham and is still living in Coles County, Illinois. There were no children of this second marriage. His father's residence continued at the same place in Indiana till 1830. While here Abraham went to A B C schools by littles, kept successively by Andrew Crawford,—Sweeney, and Azel W. Dorsey. He does not remember any other. The family of Mr. Dorsey now resides in Schuyler County, Illinois. Abraham now thinks that the aggregate of all his schooling did not amount to one year. He was never in a college or academy as a student, and never inside of a college or academy building till since he had a law license. What he has in the way of education he has 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 as well as he now does. He studied and nearly mastered the six books of Euclid since he was a member of Congress. He regrets his want of education and does what he can to supply the want. In his tenth year, he was kicked by a horse [in the head] and apparently killed [dead] for a time. When he was nineteen, still residing in Indiana, he made his first trip upon a flatboat to New Orleans. He was a hired hand merely, and he and a son of the owner, without other assistance, made the trip. The nature of part of the "cargo-load," as it was called, made it necessary for them to linger and trade along the sugar-coast; and one night they were attacked by seven negroes with intent to kill and rob them. They were hurt some in the mêlée but succeeded in driving the negroes from the boat, and then "cut cable," "weighed anchor," and left.

March 1, 1830, Abraham having just completed his twenty-first year, his father and family, with the families of the two daughters and sons-in-law of his stepmother, left the old homestead in Indiana and came to Illinois. Their mode of conveyance was wagons drawn by ox-teams, and Abraham drove one of the teams. They reached the county of Macon and stopped there sometime within the same month of March. His father and family settled a new place on the north side of the Sangamon River, at the junction of the timberland and prairie, about ten miles westerly from Decatur. Here they built a log cabin, into which they removed, and made sufficient of rails to fence ten acres of ground, fenced and broke the ground, and raised a crop of sown corn upon it the same year. These are or are supposed to be, the rails about which so much is being said just now, though these are far from being the first or only rails ever made by Abraham.

The sons-in-law were temporarily settled in other places in the county. In the autumn all hands were greatly afflicted with ague and fever, to which they had not been used, and by which they were greatly discouraged, so much so that they determined on leaving the county. They remained, however, through the succeeding winter, which was the winter of the very celebrated "deep snow" of Illinois. During that winter Abraham, together with his stepmother's son, John D. Johnston, and John Hanks, yet residing in Macon County, hired themselves to Denton Offutt to take a flatboat from Beardstown, Illinois, to New Orleans; and for that purpose were to join him—Offutt—at Springfield, Illinois, so soon as the snow should go off. When it did go off, which was about the first of March, 1831, the county was so flooded as to make traveling by land impracticable; to obviate which difficulty they purchased a large canoe, and came down the Sangamon River in it. This is the time and the manner of Abraham's first entrance into SangamonCounty. They found Offutt at Springfield but learned from him that he had failed in getting a boat at Beardstown. This led to their hiring themselves to him for twelve dollars per month each, and getting the timber out of the trees and building a boat at Old Sangamon town on the Sangamon River, seven miles northwest of Springfield, which boat they took to New Orleans, substantially upon the old contract.

During this boat-enterprise acquaintance with Offutt, who was previously an entire stranger, he conceived a liking for Abraham, and believing he could turn him to account, he contracted with him to act as clerk for him, on his return from New Orleans, in charge of a store and mill at New Salem, Illinois, then in Sangamon, now in Menard County. Hanks had not gone to New Orleans, but having a family, and being likely to be detained from home longer than at first expected, had turned back from St. Louis. He is the same John Hanks who now engineers the "rail enterprise" at Decatur and is a first cousin to Abraham's mother. Abraham's father, with his own family and others mentioned, had, in pursuance of their intention, removed from Macon to Coles County. John D. Johnston, the stepmother's son, went with them, and Abraham stopped indefinitely and for the first time, as it were, by himself at New Salem, before mentioned. This was in July 1831. Here he rapidly made acquaintances and friends. In less than a year Offutt's business was failing—had almost failed—when the Black Hawk War of 1832 broke out. Abraham joined a volunteer company, and, to his own surprise, was elected captain of it. He says he has not since had any success in life which gave him so much satisfaction. He went to the campaign, served near three months, met the ordinary hardships of such an expedition, but was in no battle. He now owns, in Iowa, the land upon which his own warrants for the service were located. Returning from the campaign, and encouraged by his great popularity among his immediate neighbors, he the same year ran for the legislature, and was beaten,—his own precinct, however, casting its votes 277 for and 7 against him—and that, too, while he was an avowed Clay man, and the precinct the autumn afterward giving a majority of 115 to General Jackson over Mr. Clay. This was the only time Abraham was ever beaten on a direct vote of the people. He was now without means and out of business but was anxious to remain with his friends who had treated him with so much generosity, especially as he had nothing elsewhere to go to. He studied what he should do—the thought of learning the blacksmith trade—thought of trying to study law—rather thought he could not succeed at that without a better education. Before long, strangely enough, a man offered to sell and did sell, to Abraham and another as poor as himself, [William Berry] an old stock of goods, upon credit. They opened as merchants [Berry-Lincoln Store], and he says that was the store. Of course, they did nothing but get deeper and deeper in debt. He was appointed postmaster at New Salem—the office being too insignificant to make his politics an objection. The store winked out. The surveyor of Sangamon offered to depute to Abraham that portion of his work which was within his part of the county. He accepted, procured a compass and chain, studied Flint and Gibson a little, and went at it. This procured bread and kept soul and body together. The election of 1834 came, and he was then elected to the legislature by the highest vote cast for any candidate. Major John T. Stuart, then in full practice of the law, was also elected. During the canvass, in a private conversation, he encouraged Abraham [to] study law. After the election, he borrowed books of Stuart, took them home with him, and went at it in good earnest. He studied with nobody. He still mixed in the surveying to pay board and clothing bills. When the legislature met, the lawbooks were dropped but were taken up again at the end of the session. He was reelected in 1836, 1838, and 1840. In the autumn of 1836 he obtained a law license, and on April 15, 1837, removed to Springfield and commenced the practice—his old friend Stuart taking him into partnership. March 3, 1837, by a protest entered upon the "Illinois House Journal" of that date, at pages 817 and 818, Abraham, with Dan Stone, another representative of Sangamon, briefly defined his position on the slavery question; and so far as it goes, it was then the same that it is now. The protest is as follows:

"Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having passed both branches of the General Assembly at its present session, the undersigned hereby protest against the passage of the same.

They believe that the institution of slavery is founded on both injustice and bad policy, but that the promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than abate its evils.

They believe that the Congress of the United States has no power under the Constitution to interfere with the institution of slavery in the different States.

They believe that the Congress of the United States has the power, under the Constitution, to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, but that the power ought not to be exercised unless at the request of the people of the District.

The difference between these opinions and those contained in the above resolutions is their reason for entering this protest."

Dan Stone,

A. Lincoln

Representatives from the County of Sangamon.

In 1838 and 1840, Mr. Lincoln's party voted for him as Speaker, but being in the minority he was not elected. After 1840 he declined reelection to the legislature. He was on the Harrison electoral ticket in 1840, and on that of Clay in 1844, and spent much time and labor in both those canvasses. In November 1842, he was married to Mary, daughter of Robert S. Todd, of Lexington, Kentucky. They have three living children, all sons, one born in 1843, one in 1850, and one in 1853. They lost one, who was born in 1846.

In 1846 he was elected to the Lower House of Congress, and served one term only, commencing in December 1847, and ending with the inauguration of General Taylor, in March 1849. All the battles of the Mexican war had been fought before Mr. Lincoln took his seat in Congress, but the American army was still in Mexico, and the treaty of peace was not fully and formally ratified till the June afterward. Much has been said of his course in Congress in regard to this war. A careful examination of the "Journal" and "Congressional Globe" shows that he voted for all the supply measures that came up, and for all the measures in any way favorable to the officers, soldiers, and their families, who conducted the war through: with the exception that some of these measures passed without yeas and nays, leaving no record as to how particular men voted. The "Journal" and "Globe" also show him voting that the war was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally begun by the President of the United States. This is the language of Mr. Ashmun's amendment, for which Mr. Lincoln and nearly or quite all other Whigs of the House of Representatives voted.

Mr. Lincoln's reasons for the opinion expressed by this vote were briefly that the President had sent General Taylor into an inhabited part of the country belonging to Mexico, and not to the United States, and thereby had provoked the first act of hostility, in fact the commencement of the war; that the place, being the country bordering on the east bank of the Rio Grande, was inhabited by native Mexicans, born there under the Mexican government, and had never submitted to, nor been conquered by, Texas or the United States, nor transferred to either by treaty; that although Texas claimed the Rio Grande as her boundary, Mexico had never recognized it, and neither Texas nor the United States had ever enforced it; that there was a broad desert between that and the country over which Texas had actual control; that the country where hostilities commenced, having once belonged to Mexico, must remain so until it was somehow legally transferred, which had never been done.

Mr. Lincoln thought the act of sending an armed force among the Mexicans was unnecessary, inasmuch as Mexico was in no way molesting or menacing the United States or the people thereof; and that it was unconstitutional, because the power of levying war is vested in Congress, and not in the President. He thought the principal motive for the act was to divert public attention from the surrender of "Fifty-four, forty, or fight" to Great Britain, on the Oregon boundary question.

Mr. Lincoln was not a candidate for reelection. This was determined upon and declared before he went to Washington, in accordance with an understanding among Whig friends, by which Colonel Hardin and Colonel Baker had each previously served a single term in this same district.

In 1848, during his term in Congress, he advocated General Taylor's nomination for the presidency, in opposition to all others, and also took an active part for his election after his nomination, speaking a few times in Maryland, near Washington, several times in Massachusetts, and canvassing quite fully his own district in Illinois, which was followed by a majority in the district of over 1500 for General Taylor.

Upon his return from Congress, he went to the practice of the law with greater earnestness than ever before. In 1852 he was upon the Scott electoral ticket and did something in the way of canvassing, but owing to the hopelessness of the cause in Illinois he did less than in previous presidential canvasses.

In 1854 his profession had almost superseded the thought of politics in his mind when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused him as he had never been before.

In the autumn of that year, he took the stump with no broader practical aim or object than to secure, if possible, the reelection of Hon. Richard Yates to Congress. His speeches at once attracted more marked attention than they had ever before done. As the canvass proceeded he was drawn to different parts of the State outside of Mr. Yates' district. He did not abandon the law but gave his attention by turns to that and politics. The State agricultural fair was at Springfield that year, and Douglas was announced to speak there.

In the canvass of 1856, Mr. Lincoln made over fifty speeches, no one of which, so far as he remembers, was put in print. One of them was made at Galena, but Mr. Lincoln has no recollection of any part of it being printed; nor does he remember whether in that speech he said anything about a Supreme Court decision. He may have spoken upon that subject, and some of the newspapers may have reported him as saying what it now ascribed to him, but he thinks he could not have expressed himself as represented.

Written by Abraham Lincoln

Edited for misspellings and punctuation by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

An Abraham Lincoln Biography written in 1868.

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In historical writing and analysis, PRESENTISM introduces present-day ideas and perspectives into depictions or interpretations of the past. Presentism is a form of cultural bias that creates a distorted understanding of the subject matter. Reading modern notions of morality into the past is committing the error of presentism. Historical accounts are written by people and can be slanted, so I try my hardest to present fact-based and well-researched articles.

Facts don't require one's approval or acceptance.

I present [PG-13] articles without regard to race, color, political party, or religious beliefs, including Atheism, national origin, citizenship status, gender, LGBTQ+ status, disability, military status, or educational level. What I present are facts — NOT Alternative Facts — about the subject. You won't find articles or readers' comments that spread rumors, lies, hateful statements, and people instigating arguments or fights.

FOR HISTORICAL CLARITY

When I write about the INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, I follow this historical terminology:

• The use of old commonly used terms, disrespectful today, i.e., REDMAN or REDMEN, SAVAGES, and HALF-BREED are explained in this article.

Writing about AFRICAN-AMERICAN history, I follow these race terms:

• "NEGRO" was the term used until the mid-1960s.
• "BLACK" started being used in the mid-1960s.
• "AFRICAN-AMERICAN" [Afro-American] began usage in the late 1980s.

— PLEASE PRACTICE HISTORICISM —

THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PAST IN ITS OWN CONTEXT.

 

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Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth President of the United States, was born in Hardin County, Kentucky, on February 12, 1809, of obscure and humble parents. His father, Thomas Lincoln, and his grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, after whom he was named, were natives of Rockingham County, Virginia, their ancestors having emigrated from Burks County, Pennsylvania. Further back than this but little is known pertaining to the genealogy of the Lincoln family. (Today, we know the origins of the Lincoln family beginning in Medieval England in 1495.)

Abraham Lincoln, the grandfather of our present subject, removed to Kentucky in the year 1780 and settled on a small tract of land in the deep and almost impenetrable recesses of the forest, surrounded only by the stealthy savage [1], and the wild beasts which roamed at will, unmolested by the hand of the white man, over a large area of the western country at that early period. Here in the gloomy depths of the forest, far remote from the nearest white settlements, and isolated from all society, except now and then a visit from a straggling "redskin. [1]" eager, perhaps, for a favorable opportunity to get a crack at some 'pale-face,' our hardy pioneer commenced (he erection of a hewed log cabin, for the shelter of his family, preparatory to clearing up his farm for its support. In this perilous and unprotected situation he was permitted to pursue, uninteruptedlj^, his usual avocation of hunting and tilling his scanty acres in corn and potatoes for a period of tour years, when, on a certain occasion he was hewing timber, about four miles from home, a bullet from the gun of treacherous savage put an end to his earthly career; and, thus, in the same manner as his illustrious grandson, he was snatched from the bosom of his family without a moment's warning, by the ruthless hand of an assassin. Failing to return to his home as usual in the evening, the most painful apprehensions for his safety were entertained by the family during the lonely night, when on making search in the morning his scalped remains, mutilated by the tomahawk of the redskin, we've discovered by the side of the tree on which he had been at work the preceding day. The widow, thus bereft of her natural support. with no provision for the maintenance of herself and family but the scanty yield of a few acres of cultivated ground, still surrounded by a primeval forest, was compelled through sheer poverty to a separation of her family, composed of three sons and two daughters, and removal to more hospitable and less dangerous quarters, retaining only Thomas, her youngest son and the father of our martyred president. Owing to the straitened circumstances of his mother, Thomas was compelled to be a wandering farm boy and thus grew up without the advantage of an education. In 180G, in the 2Sth year of his age, he married a Miss Nancy Hanks, also a native of Virginia, who became the mother of our present subject. Both were equally uneducated, being barely able to read; while Thomas could bunglingly manage his own signature, which was the extent of his acquirements in the art of chirography. They subsequently removed to that portion of Hardin County which has since been formed into the county of Laren, where Abraham, the youngest of three children, two sons, and a daughter, was born, as we have before said, in the year 1809. His brother died in infancy, and although his sister lived to arrive at adult age and marry, she has long since been dead, so that Mr. Lincoln, at the time of his death, had neither brother nor sister living.

In the autumn of 1816, Mr. Thomas Lincoln having become thoroughly disgusted with the institution of slavery, for which he seems to have had an inherent dislike, and which had begun to assume considerable proportions in his neighborhood, determined to leave the State and seek a home in another clime uncontaminated by the effects of the peculiar institution on his own class, north of the Ohio River. Having disposed of his Kentucky farm for ten barrels of whisky and twenty dollars in money he proceeded to construct a rude flat-boat, on which he placed his cargo of whisky and such other effects as could be immediately dispensed with by the family, and embarked down the Rolling Fork to the broad current of the Ohio River, in quest of a market for his whisky, and with the intention of investing the proceeds in a new home in a free state. He swiftly glided down the rapid stream uninterruptedly till he reached the Ohio River, where an accident happened to his frail craft which came near costing him his life, with the loss of all his effects, except three barrels of whisky and a few tools. A sudden gust of wind capsized his boat and spilled her captain, whisky and all, into the Ohio River, from which perilous condition he was rescued by some woodmen nearby in a skiff, who were attracted thither by his lusty cries for help. Having righted his boat, with the assistance of his rescuers he placed the three barrels of whisky, together with his ax and some other tools fished from the water, aboard once more and proceeded on his voyage down the Ohio River, no further mishap occurring to interrupt his progress.

His point of debarkation was at Thompson's Ferry, on the north bank of the Ohio River, in the State of Indiana, where he sold his boat and the remaining three barrels of whisky, and set out in company with a man by the name of Posey, with whom he had fallen in at the landing, for Spencer county, distant about twenty miles through an unbroken forest, where he had some relations residing. Here he selected a site for his future home, and returned on foot to his family in Kentucky, and commenced making preparations for their journey. Being able to muster three ponies, Mrs. L. and the daughter were placed upon one, little Abe on another, and the head of the family on the third, when they proceeded, Indian style, on their way for their new home in the Hoosier State. Their route lay in an almost wholly uninhabited wilderness country through which they were obliged to travel, and after a wearisome journey of seven days, camping out by night, they arrived at their destination in their adopted State, north of the Ohio River. The father at once commenced clearing a site for a homestead, and with the assistance of a neighbor erected a log cabin, 18 feet square, with only one room, into which the family moved and resided for many years. Two years after their removal to this place Abraham had the misfortune to lose his mother, but as his father was soon after married to another very excellent woman, the void which had been created in the family circle was partially filled. This lady, to whom young Lincoln became strongly attached, on account of her kind and motherly treatment, is still living in the southern part of Illinois, and she continued to be the recipient of his favors down to the time of his death. Mr. Thomas Lincoln, with his family, continued to reside in his Indiana home for a space of 14 years—master Abraham during this time devoting himself to the employment common to backwoodsmen, of hunting, of felling trees, splitting rails, etc., during the day, and devoting all his leisure hours during the evening to the improvement of his mind, by the perusal of such meager reading matter as a new and sparsely populated country afforded. Although he learned the rudiments of common arithmetic, together with reading and writing, from an itinerant schoolmaster who set up in his neighborhood for a short time, he declared that the aggregate of his schooling would not exceed twelve months; but like all great men in whom a thirst for knowledge is inherent, he improved every opportunity, from the imperfect and scanty means at his command, for the cultivation and development of his intellectual powers. A story illustrating this desire for knowledge and his proverbial honesty is told as follows: "A Mr. Crawford had lent him a copy of Ramsey's Life of Washington. During a severe storm, Abraham improved his leisure by reading this book; at night he laid it down carefully, as he thought, and the next morning he found it soaked through with water. The wind had changed, the rain had beaten in through a crack in the logs and the book was ruined. How could he face the owner under such circumstances? He had no money to offer as a return, but he took the book, went directly to Mr. Crawford, showed him the irreparable injury, and frankly and honestly offered to work for him until he should be satisfied. Mr. Crawford accepted the otter, and gave Abraham the book for his own, in return for three day's steady labor in pulling fodder." His manliness and straight-forwardness won the esteem of the Crawfords, and indeed of all the neighborhood " During the last two years of his father's residence in Indiana, Abraham was employed as a flat boatman on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, at ten dollars a month; his employer being principally engaged in trading stores along the Mississippi and Louisiana plantations. It was during one of these voyages that our youthful hero and his only shipmate, the son of his employer, met with a fearful rencounter, by being attacked at the dead hour of the night by a gang of half a dozen or more of black river pirates, who sought to capture their boat, with the view, no doubt, of first murdering them and then robbing them of their stores. They were approaching the Cresent City and had disposed of a portion of their cargo when this noticeable incident in their voyage occurred. "Their boat was made fast to a lonesome shore when somewhere near the middle of the night, young Lincoln was startled from his slumber by a noise which aroused his apprehensions. Awaking his comrade he called out through the darkness, in order to learn if anyone was approaching the boat. A ferocious shout from several throats, in concert, was his answer, and the boat was immediately attacked by a party of seven desperate negroes from some of the neighboring plantations, who, doubtless, suspecting that there was money on board, had thought it an easy undertaking to overpower and murder the sleeping boatmen and possess themselves of the property they guarded. There was no time for parley. The robbers upon finding their stealthy approach discovered made a bold push for the coveted prize. Hardly had young Lincoln's call of inquiry passed from his lips before one of the ruffians sprung upon the edge of the boat, but no sooner did he touch the deck with his feet than he was knocked sprawling into the water by a blow from our backwoodsman's terrible fist. Nothing daunted by their comrades fall several more of the black river pirates leaped upon the boat with brandishing billets. But by this time the courageous boatmen had armed themselves with huge cudgels, to the serious detriment of the dark assailants Heavy and rapid blows fell upon either side, until the fighting-quarters became so close that the clubs were partially relinquished for a hand to hand fight. After a desperate struggle of several moments duration, three more of the ruffians were tumbled into the river, and those who still remained on the boat took counsel of prudence and beat a sore-headed retreat shoreward, as best they might but, young Lincoln nothing disposed to rest satisfied with an indecisive victory was after them in an instant. Before the last three who had been plunged into the river had succeeded in crawling up the bank, Abraham had pounded two of them on the shore almost to death with a ponderous cudgel. The first negro who had been knocked into the water fled from the avenging boatman in utter dismay, in fact, all of the "land-forces " of the enemy were speedily scattered in a panic-stricken rout, when the victors paid their respects to the marine reinforcements, dealing heavy blows upon the luckless darkies before they were well out of the water. Feeling that it was a case of life and death, doubting not that the negroes meant to murder them, the young boatmen fought with desperation; while the negroes driven at bay were scarcely less determined; Abraham's strength is said to have been almost superhuman on this occasion, but both he and his comrade were badly bruised by the negroes' cudgels before the latter were compelled to beat a final retreat. Though aching from the blows which they had received, the next immediate care of the victors was to unfasten their craft and push her far out in the stream, as a precaution against further attacks, but none other were made." (Lincoln is the only U.S. President to-date to hold a U.S. Patent for a "Device for Buoying Vessels over Shoals.")

How little did those benighted black men think that the man whose life they sought would become the future liberator of their race! A similar circumstance occurring to most of the youths, of his age, would have so prejudiced their minds against the negro that the lapse of no time would have been sufficient to eradicate the antipathy. Not so, however, with the broad and comprehensive intellect of Abraham Lincoln. He knew that there were good and bad among all classes, races, and colors, and that, perhaps, the very institution which a narrower and less comprehensive mind would have justified from so trivial an occasion if from no other motives, was the cause of rendering them brutal and ferocious. About the time that Abraham arrived at age, news of the wonderful fertility of the western prairies began to spread throughout Indiana and Ohio, and many settlers were attracted thither. The movement became contagious, and Mr. Thomas Lincoln not being exempt from its influence determined to sell his Indiana homestead and remove it to the broad and rolling prairies of Illinois. Accordingly, in the month of March 1830, all arrangements having been completed, he set out with his family in quest of a new home in the Sucker State. The journey, this time, was performed by means of ox-teams, and fifteen days were consumed in the transit. Their point of destination was Macon county, in which they halted, on the north bank of the Sangamon River, about ten miles from Decatur, in a westerly direction. Here they erected another log-cabin, into which the family removed and resided. The next improvement was to split the rails and fence and break ten acres of ground, in which master Abraham assisted, these being the identical rails which subsequently became so famous in history. On this small patch of ground, they raised a large crop of sod-corn the first year, which, with the game procured by Abraham's rifle was their only sustenance through a long and rigorous winter, which was the most severe of any that had ever been known in that climate.

In the following spring, Abraham hired himself out to a man by the name of Offult, to assist in building a flat-boat, on the Sangamon River, about seven miles northwest of Springfield, on which he made another voyage to the Cresent City. Being much liked and highly respected by his new employer, he was engaged by him, after his return from New Orleans, as a clerk in a store and mill at New Salem, Illinois, where he remained till the breaking out of the Black Hawk War in 1832, when he joined a volunteer company, of which he was duly elected captain. His company was immediately marched to the expected scene of conflict in the northern part of the state, but as its time of enlistment (30 days) expired before any engagement ensued, it was disbanded and the men sent home without the honor of participating in a battle with the "pesky redskins." A new levy, however, was soon called for, and Capt. Lincoln not being content with his first campaign, and being anxious to serve his country in some capacity, re-enlisted as a private. Time passed on without any noticeable incident till the term of their enlistment again expired, and they were disbanded before the termination of the war. Still determined to serve his country till the end of the war, and being desirous of participating in a battle, young Lincoln enlisted a third time with the same results so far as a battle was concerned. 

The war being over, he returned to his home and began to look about for something to do, when, greatly to his surprise, he found himself nominated, by his friends, as a candidate for the State Legislature. He accepted the nomination, and notwithstanding the issue was averse to him, he had the gratifying compliment of receiving two hundred and seventy-seven votes out of the two hundred and eighty-four cast in his own town, New Salem. This is said to be the only instance wherein he was ever bea'^en in a direct issue before the people; but, taking into consideration the fact that he had been a resident of the county only nine months, and that there were eight aspirants for the same office, the result was not to be wondered at. The large vote polled for him in his own town, where he was best known, shows his extreme popularity, and had he been as well known throughout the county the result of the election would doubtless have been in his favor by an overwhelming majority. We next find him officiating as post-master of the town, and the joint proprietor of a small stock of goods which he and his partner had purchased on credit. This proving profitless speculation, he soon retired from the mercantile business, and commenced the study of law, in the practice of which he afterward became very proficient.

He continued his study, by borrowing books, about one year, at the end of which time he formed the acquaintance of one John Calhoun, (afterward the president of the notorious Lecompton-Kansas Constitutional Convention), by whom he was persuaded to take up the study and practice of surveying. He soon found plenty of business in his new profession, which he continued to prosecute profitably for upwards a year when he was again nominated for the Legislature of Illinois. Having become well known throughout the surrounding country, by means of his profession, as a surveyor, and now being very popular, he was this time elected by a large majority over his competitor. This was his first political preferment, and his rise from this time was rapid and uninterrupted. In this, as in all former positions, he must have been a faithful and industrious servant; for he was three times re-elected to the same office, in which he served from 1834 to 1842—a period of eight years—during which time he devoted himself diligently to the study of the law. Having obtained a license to practice in the courts in 1836, he removed to Springfield in April 1837 and commenced practice as a partner of the Honorable John T. Stuart.

During the exciting presidential campaign of 1844, Mr. Lincoln, being an old-line Whig, ''stumped" the State of Illinois for Henry Clay. His name headed the Whig electoral ticket, in opposition to that of John Calhoun, which headed the Democratic electoral ticket. Calhoun was regarded as the ablest debater of his party in that State and he and Mr. Lincoln stumped the State together. It was in these debates that Mr. Lincoln first demonstrated his ability as a clear-headed, augmentative debater and he came out of this canvass the acknowledged champion of the Whig party in that State. During this campaign, at a convention held at Vandalia the old capital of the State, an old man carried a banner with this device:

"This is a well-attested fact," says the writer, "but what was the prophet's name we have not been able to learn "

If this is true, as we have no reason to doubt, it was remarkably prophetic, as it was some sixteen years before Mr. Lincoln's name was ever thought of by anyone else in connection with the Presidency. 

In 1846 Mr. Lincoln was elected a Representative to Congress from the central district of Illinois. He was the first Whig who had ever been elected to represent the State in Congress—his six colleagues all having been elected under Democratic reign. Although Mr. Lincoln's Congressional career was brief, he always took an active part in all measures which came before the house for its deliberation—voting either pro or con upon all questions. In 1849 he was a candidate before the Illinois Legislature for U. S. Senator, but that body being strongly Democratic, elected Mr. James Shields in his stead. For four or five years succeeding this period Mr. Lincoln devoted himself almost exclusively to the study and practice of his profession, being but little engaged in public affairs. But the desperate political struggle which ensued in 1854, on the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, again brought him into the political arena in defense of freedom and the right; and it was mainly through his influence and labors that Illinois elected her first Republican Legislature, which gave her in return Lyman Trumbull, a lawyer and statesman of no ordinary ability, for United States Senator. Mr. Lincoln was a candidate for the same office, the Republicans invariably casting their votes for him on every ballot, while the anti-Nebraska Democrats united on Mr. Trumbull Mr. Lincoln fearing that the latter would withdraw from Trumbull and unite upon someone else of less ability, and whose anti-slavery record was not so clear as that of Mr. T., begged of his friends to desert him and cast a solid vote for Mr. Trumbull Although the sacrifice was a dear one to them, they finally, through Mr. Lincoln's personal appeals yielded, and thus elected Mr. Trumbull. It was in this year that the anti-Nebraska (afterward the Republican) party offered Mr. Lincoln the nomination for governor, but he declined, saying, "No, I am not the man; Bissell will make a better governor than I, and you can elect him on account of his Democratic antecedents." Bissell was accordingly put in nomination and elected.

The next important event in the history of Mr. Lincoln, which contributed very materially to his growing celebrity, and which was the cause of bringing him out more prominently before the American people as a representative man, was his canvassing the State of Illinois, in the campaign of 1858, in connection with Stephen A. Douglass; though this was not the first time that he had measured his strength with the Little Giant. Their first meeting, a debate, took place in Springfield, Illinois, in October, during the campaign of 1854, in which it is said that Mr. Lincoln came out gloriously triumphant. A similar passage was tried at Peoria, but Mr. Douglas came out of this so badly worsted, that he afterward "failed to come to time," by keeping out of the way during the remainder of the campaign.

But it remained for the great senatorial contest of 1858 to engage the herculean strength of these two representative men in a deadly conflict for the mastery of a principle. 

As the Capitol Building expanded to twice its length, the original dome looked out of place. It was removed in 1856 and replaced with a redesigned cast-iron dome.
This photograph shows the dome under construction in 1859.

Judge Douglas was the universally acknowledged champion of Democracy and was considered by far the ablest man of the party; while the position which Mr. Lincoln held in the Republican ranks, was but little inferior.

It, therefore, was not at all surprising that the eyes of an entire continent of people, who were then standing upon the brink of a mighty revolution, which might at any time launch them upon an unknown political sea, without either chart or compass, were turned to the scene of conflict, to await the result with breathless anxiety. 

The day of the election finally arrived, and although Mr. Lincoln received the popular vote, indirectly, the direct vote, which was cast by the Legislature, was in favor of Mr. Douglas who was thereby returned to the Senate by a majority of eight. The contest, however, was not merely to decide who should represent the State of Illinois in the National Councils, but it was for the ascendency of a principle, and that principle involving the stability, nay, the very existence of our republican institutions, for the able manner in which Mr. Lincoln disposed of his antagonist, and his popular dogma of "Squatter Sovereignty," we must refer the reader to the published reports of those debates, as the limits which we have set for this work will not admit of even a summary of the powerful arguments by which he carried his points on those memorable occasions. As an instance, however, of his eloquence and patriotism, we will here subjoin the following tribute which he paid to the Declaration of Independence, during that campaign:

"Now, my countrymen, if you have been taught doctrines conflicting with the great land-marks of the Declaration of independence; if you have listened to suggestions which would take away its grandeur and mutilate the fair symmetry of its proportions, if you have been inclined to believe that all men are not created equal in these inalienable rights enumerated by our chart of liberty, let me entreat you to come back—return to the fountain whose waters spring close to the blood of the revolution. You may do anything with me you choose, if you only heed these sacred principles. You may not only defeat me for the Senate, but you may take me and put me to death. While pretending no indifference to earthly honors, I do claim to be actuated in this contest by something higher than an anxiety for ofiice. I charge you to drop every paltry and insignificant thought for any man's success. It is nothing; I am nothing; Judge Douglas is nothing. But do not destroy that immortal emblem of humanity—the Declaration of American Independence."

After the close of this senatorial contest, and before the opening of the Presidential campaign of 1860, Mr. Lincoln visited several other States, where he made a large number of speeches, which were received with great enthusiasm; but the crowning effort of his life was made at the Cooper Institute, in New York, in February 1860 With this speech he ended his labors in that direction and remained quietly at home till after his nomination and election to the Presidency, when, on March 4, 1861, he entered upon the eventful life of the past four years, with the history of which all are familiar. Never did a President of the United States come into power under such perplexing and embarrassing circumstances as those which surrounded the Government at the advent of Mr. Lincoln's Administration. Six of the Southern States had already passed ordinances of secession, while several others were on the eve of doing the same. Fort Sumter was completely besieged by a gordian line of batteries, nearly surrounding it on all sides, and cutting off its garrison from all reinforcements and supplies, while several other forts, arsenals, navy yards, etc., had already fallen into the hands of the enemy. The United States Treasury had been robbed and plundered of the last dollar and copper coin by the sneak-thieves of Mr. Buchanan's Cabinet. John B. Floyd, Mr. Buchanan's Secretary of War, had completely dismantled and stripped all the Northern forts and arsenals of all ordnance, arms, ammunition, etc., and had them shipped to the South to be used in the destruction of the Government. The small standing army had been dispersed along the frontier of Texas and to other remote territories beyond the immediate control of the in-coming Executive, while the few ships belonging to the Navy were scattered to the remotest quarters of the globe. United States Senators and Representatives had sat in midnight conclave in the Legislative Halls of the Nation, concocting treason for the overthrow and subversion of the Constitution which each had solemnly sworn to uphold and support. The Cabinet of the preceding administration, with two or three honorable exceptions, was reeking with damnable treason of the foulest dye, while nearly every branch of the Government was administered by the hands of its enemies instead of those of its friends, and even the Chief Executive himself, either paralyzed with fear or purposely conniving with the treason-mongers of his own creation, looked quietly on and saw the noblest work of man—a republican government—disappear, as he supposed, beneath the dark waters of oblivion, over which the mighty waves of rebellion and despotism, for aught, that he cared, might roll for ages unborn. Bold, defiant treason, disrobed of all habiliments of pretended loyalty, stalked abroad in midday through the highways as well as the byways of the National Capital, hissing fiery intonations of hatred to the Union through a thousand serpent tongues, and breathing bitter imprecations upon the heads of its supporters. An impenetrable gloom, like a funeral pall, hung over the future of the Nation, and the stoutest hearts quailed with fear before the impending storm which none, save a providential hand, could then avert. Such were the circumstances under which the administration of Abraham Lincoln came into power and assumed control of the Government. 

The events of the first term of his administration—his re-election to the same office in 1864, and the dreadful tragedy of April 14, 1865, which terminated his life on the succeeding day, must here be omitted, as they belong to a more detailed history of himself and the war to which the student is respectfully referred. 

The only fault, if any, that can be found with the Administration of Mr. Lincoln, was that he was too mild and lenient with traitors, and not sufficiently vigorous in the prosecution of the war. True, his enemies—the Copperheads of the North—charged him with being a tyrant, and with wielding the military power of the Government with despotic away, for the advantage of himself and party, and to the disadvantage and oppression of his political opponents; but the very fact of their having been allowed to go about the country spouting treason from every rostrum, and abusing the Administration in the most unmeasured terms, was a sufficient refutation of these charges, and gave the lie to the foul mouths and hypocritical hearts of those who uttered them. Many of his friends, with more impulsive temperaments than that which Mr. Lincoln possessed, were impatient at the dilatory manner in which the war was conducted during the first two years of its progress, and judging from a material standpoint, they were correct in their estimates; but when the whole situation is viewed from a more interior perception of the nature and causes of the difficulty and the results necessary to be brought about, it will readily be acknowledged that all has been for the best; or in other words, that the hand of a special Providence, whose purposes were far above the comprehension of all human wisdom, has guided the Nation through the perilous storm of the past four years, and shaped its destinies in accordance with the great fundamental principles of Human Rights, inherent in all men, of all colors, and of all nationalities. 

The curse of human slavery was not only a foul blot upon the otherwise bright escutcheon of the Nation, and a libel upon the Declaration of Rights, which preceded American Independence, but it was a canker of immense proportions, gnawing at the very heart of the Nation, and destined, sooner or later, to absorb its vitality, but the question of how to dispose of four millions of human beings, held in abject servitude to the will of the master, who was bound to the institution by all the selfish ties of his nature, without disrupting the Union, was one which baffled the skill of the wisest statesmen. To have made war directly upon the institution, with the avowed purpose of exterminating it, would have thrown the responsibility of all the blood-shed, crime and unutterable horrors growing out of it, upon us of the North, from which all, but the most reckless of hot-headed abolitionists, would have shrunk appalled; yet nothing short of a hostile collision between the two antagonistic sections and conditions of society, would accomplish the result. It, therefore, became necessary to verify the old adage of " Whom the Gods would destroy they first make mad." That the friends of the Government might be in the right and clearly acting on the defensive, it was necessary that its enemies should be instigated to strike the first blow. That such was the case the writer of this not only believes, but he also believes that " Old Crazy John Brown," so-called, was merely an instrument in the hands of a Higher Power to probe this purulent sore, and bring the morbific matter to the surface before it should strike in so deep as to destroy the vital organs of the patient. The Government had become so corrupt under so-called Democratic rule, that had things been allowed to proceed uninterruptedly for a few years longer, it would have fallen to pieces of its own inherent rottenness and consequently been past all cure. 

The war, ostensibly commenced in the interest of slavery, was one, nevertheless, on the part of a Higher Power, for the destruction of the institution and the purgation of the Government Now had Mr. Lincoln been possessed of a military genius and the strong iron will and individuality of an Andrew Jackson, he would have brought the entire strength of the Government down upon the rebellion at once and wiped it out, in which event the status of slavery would not have been disturbed, as the public opinion of the North would not have sustained the President, in case of any attempted interference in that direction, in so radical a measure. Under this adjustment of the National difficulties, the doughfaces of the North, in order to placate the slave-drivers of the South, lest they might be instigated to a renewal of hostilities, would not only have yielded their liberties but even their manhoods to the behests of their Southern masters, who would have become more imperious and domineering than ever before. The only effectual plan which supernal wisdom could devise, was to prolong the war under the cruelest and barbarous practices of the rebels, till the people of the North should be educated, as it were, into the idea of exterminating slavery, root, and branch, and till the haughty and overbearing spirit which it engendered should be completely cowed and whipped into submission, and nothing short of great tribulation to the people of the North, and complete physical prostration of the people of the South would accomplish this result, and how well it has been done, let the proceedings of the recent conventions of Mississippi and South Carolina, two of the most rabid of the late Confederate States, attest.

A greater reformation of the political, social and moral status of the United States has taken place within the last four years, under the scourge of cruel war, than could have been accomplished in centuries without it, so that what at first appeared to be a great National calamity, has proven to be a great National "blessing in disguise." True, the iron heel of relentless war has left its foot-prints in deep scars all over the land, and nearly every family has been called upon to mourn the loss of a victim to its remorseless hand; but war, with all its horrors, is not the greatest calamity which can befall a nation. It is better to suffer the amputation of a limb, than that the entire body should perish with it.

So far, then, as the general results of the war are concerned, they could not have been bettered. Not that Mr. Lincoln, or any other living man, foresaw the results and shaped the course of the Old Ship of State accordingly; but, as has been intimated, a Higher Power was at the helm, and no fitter instrument than Abraham Lincoln could be found as an agent in the hands of that power to carry out its general designs. 

Again: had Mr. Lincoln adopted the rigorous policy pursued by Mr. Davis in his dominions, respecting the free expression of opinion, and put a padlock upon every man's lips, the consequence would have been that as soon as the fortunes of war were decided in our favor, every copperhead of the North would have sworn that he was just as good a union man as his neighbor, and had always been in favor of coercion; but every man having been allowed to freely express his opinions, the enemies of the Government—the Vallandigham's, the Woods, the Seymours, the Voorhees, etc.—unwittingly committed themselves, and are now—they and their posterity—indelibly stamped with the "Seal of a traitor on their brows," and, consequently, under the ban of all respectable society, and forever excluded from holding any office of profit or trust under the Government, with decently civilized people for constituents. One of the objects of the war, as we have already stated, was to purge the Government of all corrupt and dirty politicians of the North, as well as to break down the slave aristocracy of the South, and nothing could have contributed so effectually to this end as the mild course pursued by the Administration with respect to its enemies in the North, so that in this arrangement, also, we clearly perceive the wisdom manifested in selecting a man of Abraham Lincoln's kind and genial nature for such an occasion. That the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln was also Providential, is the humble opinion of the writer. Not that a kind Providence instigated the minions of slavery to the fiendish and cowardly act, but it was in their wicked and rebellious hearts to do so from the beginning, and the same guardian hand which had protected him so far, might, as on former occasions, have interfered so as to have averted the calamity. Why then, it may be asked, was not this power brought into requisition, that his life might have been spared to the nation, and he permitted to reap the reward of his labors? Tlie war was virtually ended, and the angel of Peace was about to smile again upon the Nation, and oh! how cruel that he, who was about to extend the olive branch of peace and fraternal love to his bitterest enemies, should thus be stricken down and snatched in such a manner from the field of his labors. Where, oh, where was that protecting hand which had guided his every step through the fiery ordeal from which the Nation was just emerging? Had the Gods abdicated their Thrones and abandoned the control of the Universe to blind Fate that anarchy and misrule might reign Supreme? Why permit the enactment of this dreadful tragedy which plunged an entire Nation into profound grief, and sent a reverberating echo of thrilling horror to the remotest parts of the civilized world? We answer, for wise and benevolent purposes, that good might come out of, or through evil. 

Abraham Lincoln had finished his work, and when the hour came wherein he could serve his country better in death than in life, then, and not till then, was the enemy permitted to carry out a long-cherished design. The military power of the rebellion was broken, and in the work of reconstruction, a hand of sterner justice was needed to hold the reins of government, lest the fruits of victory, so dearly won, might, in a great measure, be lost through mistaken kindness. But this was not all, another victim, still, was required as a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom. There was no crime, however revolting, which the rebels had not been guilty of during the progress of the war; but the murdering in cold blood of the good, the noble, the kind-hearted President of the people was demanded as the last crowning act of INFAMY to place the institution of slavery, in whose interest the deed was committed, under the ban of the whole civilized world, /or all time to come. The sentence has been passed, and nearly every man in the South, identified with the interests of slavery, now feels that the blood of that great and good man is upon his own head, and this, in no inconsiderable degree, tends to humble his pride and render him obedient to the powers that be. It was for these, and perhaps other kindred reasons, that the lamented President was permitted to be removed from earth's scenes to a brighter and more exalted sphere of existence, where his pure spirit now commingles, in council, with those of Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, etc., who are not dead to the interests of their country. 

Should the reader differ with us in opinion, theologically as well as politically, we would ask if he believes in an Overruling Power, which, acting either directly or through intermediate agents, shapes and controls the destinies of nations? If so, we would suggest that that Power has neither looked quietly on, maintaining a position of "armed neutrality," and let things take their own course during the mightj^ events of the past four years nor left its work half done.

"The House-Keeper's Guide and Everybody's Hand-Book," 1868. 

Edited by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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[1] "SAVAGE" is a word defined in U.S. dictionaries as a Noun, Verb, Adjective, and Adverb. Definitions include:

• a person belonging to a primitive society
• malicious, lacking complex or advanced culture
• a brutal person
• a rude, boorish or unmannerly person
• to attack or treat brutally
• lacking the restraints normal to civilized human beings

Unlike the terms "REDSKIN or REDMEN," dictionaries like Merriam-Webster define this term, its one-and-only definition, as a Noun meaning: AMERICAN INDIAN (historically dated, offensive today).

These terms are often used often in historical books, biographies, letters, and articles written in the 18th and 19th centuries, and even into the early 20th century.