Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1864-02-04
Who is Abraham Lincoln P

a man Of the te0rlsiag CLASSES. All. his ad-.
vantages and abilities are those of a man Of
the working classes; all his disadvantages
and disabilities are those of man of tho
working classes and his position row at
the head OF one OF the most powerful ma
tions of the earth, is sign to all who live
by labor that their day is coming. Lincoln
was born to the inheritance of hard work,
as truly as the poorest laborer's son that
digs in our fields. At seven years of age be
was set to work, ak in hand, to clear up a
farm in Western forest. Until he was
seventeen his life was that of simple farm
laborer, with only such intervals Of school
ing as farm laborers get. Probably the
school instruction o. bis whole life would
not amount to more than one year. At
nineteen he made trip to New Orleans a.
hired hand on fat boat, and on his re-
turn he split the rails for a log cabin and
built it, and enclosed ten acres of land with
a rail fence of his own handiwork. The
next year he hired himself for twelve dol
lars month to build fiat boat and take
her to New Orleans, andany one who knows
what the life Of Mississippi boatman was
in those days, must know that it involved
every kind of labor. In 1892, in the Black
Hawk Indian war, the hardy boatman vol
unteered to fight for his country, and was
unanimously elected a captain, and served
with honor for a season in frontier military
life After this, while serving as post
master, be began bis law studies, borrow.
ing the law books he was too poor to buy.
and studying by the light of his evening
FIRE. He acquired name in the country
about as man Of resources and shrevdness;
be was one that people looked to for counsel
in exigencies, and to whom they were ready
to depute almost any enterprise which need
ed skill and energyS The surveyor Of San
CANON county being driven with work, came
to him to take the survey ofa tract off from
his hands. True, he had never studied
surveying-but what of that? He accept
on surveying, and did the toork Do We not
see in this parable of the wider wilder
ness which in later years he has undertaken
to survey and fit for human habitation With
out chart or surveyors chain.
In 1886 our rbackwoodsman, fiet boat hand.
captain, surveyor, obtained a license TO
practice law, and as might be expected, rose
rapidly One anecdote will show the esteem
| in which he was held in his neignborhood
A client came to him in a case relating to
certain land claim, and Lincoln said to him.
''your first step must be TO take thirty thou
sand dollars and go and make legal tender
it of course will be refused, but it isa
necessary STEP"
But" said the man, u haven't the
thirty thousand dollars to make it with"
"Oh, that's it. Just step over to the
bank with me and I'll get il"
So into the hank they went, and Lincoln
says to the cashier, I'VE just want to take
thirty thousand dollars 10 make a legal
fender with. Fll bring it back in an hour
or two,"
The cashier handed across the money 10
Honest Abe" and without scratch of the
pen in knowledgement he strobe his way
with the specie, all in most sacred simplicity,
made the tender, and brought il back with
as much nonchalance as if he had been bors
rowing silver spoon OF his grandmother.
Honesty, shrewdness, energy, and keen
practical insight into men and things soon
made him the most influential man in his
!, State. He became the reputed leader OF
the Wing party, and canyassed the State as
stump speaker in the time of Henry Clay,
, and in 1916 was elected representative to
/ Congress. Here he met the grinding of the
: great question of the day-the upper and
1 neither millstene Of slavery and freedom re-.
: voiying against each other. Lincoln's whole
: nature inclined him to be harmoniEer Of
/ conflicting parties rather than a committed
p combatant on either SIDE. he was nrmfy
i and from principle an enemy TO slavery
! but the ground he occupied in Congress was
in some respects middle one between the
: advance guard Of the anti-slavery and the
. spears of the ffre-eaters. He voted With
r John Quincy Adams for the receipt Of anti
! slavery petitions; he voted with 'Giddings
! for committee Of inquiry into the constr
tutioha1ity Of slavery in the District Of Co
, lumbia, and the expediency of aboliships
slavery in that District he voted for the
: various resolutions prohibiting slavery in
Q the territories to be acquired from Mexico,
Z and he voted forty.two times for the Wilmot
r provisc. In January l6, ls49, he offered a
J, plan for abolishing slavery in the District Of
!. Columbia, by compensation from the ma
l. tional treasury. with the consent of ma
: Ijority of the citizens. He opposed the an
: nexation of Texas, but voted for the bill Il
:. pay the expenses Of the war
But at the time OF the repeal OF the Missouri comrre
;, mise he took The field hear and soul against the pg
" betrny our territories slavery Il was mnniy owini
10 his exerois that this critic al period Reabesi
- Senator elected from Illinois, when kerubica
Senator in the trembling national caes OF he eonnie
4 was worth thousand times his weight IN goss-aIs'
\ HarnSt RssShsT SlCws.