The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-28 00:00:00

HIS PROGRESS DI LIFE.

At 19, feeling impulses of ambition to get on in the
world, he engaged himself to go down the Mississippi in a
flatboat, receiving 510 a month for his wages, and after-
ward he made the trip once more. At 21 he drove his
father's cattle as the family migrated to Illinois, and split
rails to fence in the new homestead in the wild. At 23 he
was a captain of volunteers in the Black Hawk war. He
kept a shop; he learned something of surveying; but of
English literature he added to Bunyan nothing but Shak-
spere's plays. At 25 ho was elected to the Legislature of
Illinois, where he served eight years. At 27 ho was ad-
mitted to the bar. In 1837 he chose his home at Spring-
field, the beautiful centre of the richest land in the State.
In 1847 he was a member of the National Congress, where
ho voted about 40 times in favour of the principle of the Jef-
ferson Proviso. In 1854 he gave his influence to elect from
Illinois to the American Senate a Democrat who would
certainly do justice to Kansas. In 1858, as the rival of
Douglas, ho went before the people of the mighty Prairie
State, saying—" This Union cannot permanently endure,
half slave and half free ; the Union will not be dissolved,
but the house will cease to bo divided ; and now in 1861,
with no experience whatever as an executive officer, while
States were madly flying from their orbit, and wise men
knew not where to find counsel, this descendant of Quakers,
this pupil of Bunyan, this child of the great West, was
elected President of America.

He measured the difficulty of the duty that devolved on
him, and was resolved to fulfil it.

HE GOES TO WASHINGTON.

As on the 11th of February, 1861, he left Springfield,
which for a quarter of a century had been his happy home,
to
to the crowd of his friends and neighbours whom he was
never more to meet, he spoke a solemn farewell:—"l know
upon
me, how soon I shall see you again. A duty has devolved
greater than that which has devolved upon any
other man since Washington. He never would
suc-
ceeded except
for
have
he at all timesor the aid of Divine Providence, upon which
relied. On the same Almighty Being I
Place ray relian
assistance, with'''. Pray that I may receive that Divine
which success • out
which I cannot succeed, but with
nriacseciduevnthali
is certain."
temporaryt he men
instrument o f Indiana
:i
thies
ysaid,
busine sate
At the capital of °hi: hpreserve the Union and liberty."
out a reason why I shouled said--" Without a name, with-
upon me a task such as did note a name, there has fallen
of his country." At various re: rest
upon the Father
ally at Albany before the Legislatureaein New York, especi-
the united support of the great m, which tendered him
" While I hold myself the humblestPoifr° State, he said
u
who have ever been elevated to the Preasiildthe individuals
more difficult task ta perform than an eucy, 1 have a
yof thorn I .
a true heart to the work. I must rely upon the: bring
the whole country for support, and with their Pe
sustainingpeople Of
aid even I, humble as I am, cannot fail to carry the ship of
state safely through the storm." To the assembly of Now
Jersey at Trenton, he =plain ed " I shall take the ground
I deem most just to the North, the East, the West, the
South, and the whole country, in good temper, certainly
with no malice to any section. lam devoted to peace, but
it may be necessary to put the foot down firmly." In the
old Independence Hall of Philadelphia he said—" I have
never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the
sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence,
which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this coun-
try, but to the world in all future time. If the country
cannot be saved without giving up that principle, I would
rather be assassinated on the spot than surrender it. 1
have said nothing but what I am willing to live and die
by.,, 1