The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1860-06-06
THE EARLY LIFE OF ABE LINCOLN. !.

THE EARLY LIFE UE ABE L1HCU10. ~
80 We extract the following brief recital of the.
career Of Mr. Lincoln from one Of the speeches
made by Judge Douglas during the canvass in
Illinois in 1855 sI.a..
eI have known Mr.. Lincoln for nearly
twenty-five years We had many points of
sympathy when I first got acquainted with
him. We were both comparatively boys; both
struggling with poverty IN q strange town for
our support, an humble school teacher In the
town Of Winchester, and he fourishing gro
Gerry keeper In the town of Salem. He was
more successful in his occupation than /, and
hence became more fortunate In this worlds
goods I made as good a school teacher as
could, and when cabinet-maker made the
best bedsteads and tables, but my old boss said
I succeeded better in bureaus and secretaries
than in anything else. But believe that
Mr.. Lincoln was more successful in his busi-
ness, which soon carried him directly into the
Legislature. There met him in little time,
and had a sympathy for him because of the
uphill struggle we had in life. He was then
as good at telling an anecdote as now. He
could beat any of the boys at wrestling, could
outrun them at a foot race, beat them at pitch
ing quaits and tossing copper, and could win.
more liquor than an the boys put together,
and the dignity and impartiality with which
| he presided at horse race or a fist fight was
the praise of everybody that was present and.
participated. Hence had sympathy for
him, because he was struggling with misfor-
tune, and so was /. Mr.. Lincoln served with
me, or with him, in the legislature of 1886,
when we parted. He subsided or submerged
| for some years, and lost sight of him. In.
1910, when Wilmot raised the Wilmot Proyi-
so tornado, Mr.. Lincoln sgain5 turned up as q
| member of Congress from Sangamon district.
I being in the Senate of the United States,
was called tovwelcome him, then without
/ friend or companion. He then distinguished
himself by his opposition to the Mexican war,
| taking the side of the common enemy, In time
of war, against his own country. When he re-
turned home from that Congress he found that
the Indignation of the people followed him
everywhere, until he again retired to private
! life. and was submerged until he was again.
forgotten by his friends. He came up again
in 1854, in time to make the Abolition Black
Republican Platform, in company with, Love-
4 JOY, Giddings, Chase and Fred. Douglas, for
the Republican party to stand upon"
Here we have it from one who knows, that
keeping a ssgrocery," and selling forty
strychnine Whiskey, while preparing for adj
!, mission to practice at another kind of bar.
The friends of Mr.. Lincoln at Chicago, anx-
ious to keep this fact concealed, for fear Of
hurting their candidate with a portion of the
, temperance public, claimed that he had made
!, his living by splitting rails-while writer in
the Leader, of this city, is ready to swear thai
he never did anything before he was Law
yer, except to work in blacksmith shop
: Others, again, asserted that he was surveyor
; and made his living that way, while another
class are ready to take their aafidavy" that he
: never did anything but boat on the Ohio rive
). and chop cord-wood ON the Mississippi.
> Mr.. Douglas is the most responsible author
ity vet produced, and his statement complete
ly disproves the other tales.-Nat. DEM.