The Portage County Democrat. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1864-02-24
Auditor

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serving as postmaster, he began his law
studies, borrowing the law books he was too
poor to buy, and studying by the light of his
evening fire. Ho acquired a name IN the
country about as a man of resources and
shrewdness; he was one that people looked
TO forE csuasel IN exigencies. and to whom
sfhsy were ready to- epute almost any ehter-
prise which needed skill shd energy. Fhe'
surveyor of Sangamon county being driven
with work, came to him to take the survey
of tract off from his hands. True, he had
never studied surveying-but what of that ?
He accepted the "job," procured chain,
treatise on surveying and did the ,co,k. Do
we.potsee in this q parable of the saderswil-
derness which in later years he has underta-
ken to survey and fit for human habitation
s0ithout chart or orsuryeyor,s chain.
In 1886 our backwoodsman, fat boat hand,
captain surveyor, obtained a license to prac-
tise law, and, as might be expected, rose rap
idly. aaecdete will show. the esteem in
which, be was held in hi, ineighborhoed. A
client came TO him in a case relating to a GER
tain land claim, snd Lincoln said to HIM
] & Your first, step mlst,be to take thirty thou
Sand dollars and go and make a legal BENDER
it of course will be refused, but it is neces-
sary STEP" - .s.s etsg9 ~
,lss HIut,,, said the man, at haven't thirty
thousand dollars to make it WITH
& so; that's it. Just step over to the bank
la 1911 l,,+ "a sses AA g fsfesf
'ss So intothe bank they vent, and, Lincoln
says to the cashier, "We just want to take
thirty thousand dollars to make a slegaliten-
der WITH I'lls bring it back in an hour or
Fi% The cashier handed across the money to
.sHonest Abe,s and without scratch Of the
pensin acknowledgement He strobe hisway
with the specie, all in most sacred simplicity,
| madetthe tender, and brought it back with as
much nonchalance as if he had been borrow
ing 4 Silver spoon of his grandmother. His
honesty shrewdness, energy. and keen sPracti-
cal qinsight into nleii4 and things soon made
him the most influential man in his State
He. became the reputed leader of the Whig
party, and canvassed the State as stump
speaker in the time of Henry Clay, and in
/ 1876 was elected representative to Congress.
Here he met the grinding Of the great ques-f
ton Of the day-the upper and neither mill
stone of slavery and freedom revolving against
each other. Lincoln's whole nature inclined
him to be harmonizer of conflicting parties
rather than committed combatart on either
sides9 He was firmly and from principles an
enemy 10 slasery--but the ground be occu-
pied in Congress was in some respects a mid
dle1one between the. advance guardsof the
anti7slavery and the spears of the .fre-eaters.
| .5Hetsvoted with John Quincy Adams for the
receipt Of. anti-slavery petitions ]; he voted
with Giddings for committee of inquiry in
to the constitutionality of slavery in the Dis
triet Of Columbia, and the expediency- Of
abolishing slavery in that District; !; he voted
for the various resolutions prohibiting slavery
in the territories to be acquired from Mexico,
and he voted forty times for the Wilmot
Proyise. In Jan. 16. 1s49, he offered a plan
for abolishing slavery in the District of Co
lumbia, by compensation from the national
treasury. with the consent of majority oi
the citizens. He opposed the annexation Of
Texas but voted for the bill to pay the .ex.
penses of the war. se... -. i
i But atsthegtime of the repeal of the Mis-
souri, Compromise he took the field, heart anc
soul against the plot to betray our territorie.
to slavery. Itwas mainly owing TO his exer
lions that at this critical period a Republican
: Senatorawas elected from Illinois, when !.
Republican Senator in the trembling nationa
scales of the conflict was worth Thousand
times his weight in gold. -
Little did the Convention that nominated
Abraham Lincoln for President know wha
theyswere doing. Little did the honest, faith
i erty. patriotic man, who stood in his simplici
ty on the platform at Springfield, asking tn
t prayers of his townsmen and receiving thei
pledgest to remember him, foresee how awful
r ~ he was to need those prayers, the prayer
S of all this nation and the prayers of all tn
t working, suffering common people through
. out the world. Gods hand was upon hir
: with visible protection, saving FIRST from tn
: danger of assassination at Baltimore an
: bringing him safely to our national capital
4 Then the world have seenand wondered q
t the greatest sign and marvel of our day, t
wit, plain working man of the people, wit
a no more culture, instruction or education tba
: any such working man may obtain for him
b SELF called on to conduct the passage of
{ great people through crisis involving tb
e destinies of the whole world The eyes <
e princes, mobiles, aristocrats, of dukes, earl
a scholars. statesmen warriors, all turned 0
) the plain backwoodsman, with his simp
,r sense, his imperturbables simplicity, his d.
termined self rehances. his impracticables ar
e incorruptible honesty, as he sat amid the W.
l. of conflicting elements with unpretendr
e steadiness striving to guide the national shi
5 through channel at whose perils the world
% oldest statesmen stood aghast. The brillial
If courts of Europe levelled their opera glass,
lie at the phenomenon. Fair ladies saw th
at he had horny hands and disdained viii
to gloves. Dapper diplomatists wore shock.
le at his system of etiquette, but old statesme
- who knew the terrors of that passage, we
Re wiser than court ladies and dandy diploma
r ists and watched him with a fearful curios
at ty, simply asking, :" VII that awkward o
n baekwoodsman really get that ship through
It. If he does, it will be time for us to look abo
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