Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-01-26
Who Is Abrahnm LIncoIn,

Who is Abraham Lincoln!
Abraham Lincoln is in the strictest sense
man Of the working cluSSeS. All his ad
vantages and abilities are those of man
of the working classes all bis disadvan-
tages and disabilities are those of a man
of the working classes and his position
now at the head of enc OfLhe most power
full nations of the earth, is u sligo to all who
live by labor that their day is coming
Lincoln was born to the inheritance of bard
work, as truly as the poorest lMborer's son
that digs in our fields. At seven years Of
age he was set to work, ak in hand. to clear
up farm in a western forest. Until he
was seventeen his life was that of simple
farm laborer, with only such intervals OF
schooling as farm laborers get. Probably
the school instruction Of his whole life
would not amount to more than one year.
AT nineteen he made trip to New Orleans
as a hired hand on q fiat boat, and on his
return he split the rails for log cabin aud
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 q month to build fiat boat and take
her to New Orleans, and any one who
knows what the life of a Mississippi boat |
man was in those days, must know that it
involved every kind of labor. In 1882, in
boatman volunteered to fight for bis coun-
try, and was unanimously elected a cap
tain, and served with honor for season in
frontier military life. After this, while
serving as postmaster, he began his law
studies, borrowing the law books he was
too poor to buy, and studying 10y the light
of his evening fire. He acquired a name
in the country about as a man of resources
and shrewdness he was one that people |
looked to for counsel in eXigencies, and to
whom they were ready 10 depute almost
any enterprise which needed skill and en-
ergy. The surveyor of Sangamon county
being driven with work, came to him to
take the survey of a tract of from his hands.
True, he had never studied surVeying-but
what of that2 He accepted the LOB" pro-
cured chain, treatise on surveying, and
did the COTk. Do we not see in this q par
able of the wider wilderness which in later
years he las undertaken to survey and fit
tor human habitation without chart or sur
VeyOr's chain.
In 1886 our backwoodsman, fat boat
hand, captain, surveyor, obtained license
to practice law, and as might be expected,
rose rapidly. One anecdote will show the
esteem in which he was held in his neigh
0orhood. client came to him in a case
relating to a certain land claim and Lincoln
said to him, your first step must be TO take
thirty thousand dollars and go and make
legal tender-it of course will be refused,
but it is necessary STEP"
But said the man, al haven't the
thirty thousand dollars 70 make it with"
"Oh, that's 1t. Just step over to the
bank with me and I'll get it,"
So into the bank they went, and Lincoln
says to the cashier, ave Just want to take
thirty thousand dollars to make legal
tender with. I'll bring it back in an hour
or two"
] TIhe cashier banded across the money to
"hOnest Abe" and without scratch of
the pen in acknowledgment he strobe his
way with the specie, all in most sacred
simplicity, made the tender, and brought
1t back with as much nOnchalance us if
be had been borrowing a silver spoon of
his grandmother. His honesty, shrewd-
less, energy, and keen practical Insight
into men and things soon made him the
most Influential man in his state. He be-
came the repGted 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
question of the day-the upper and neither
milestone of slavery and freedom revolving
against each other. LincoIn's whole ma
ture inclined him to be a harmouiZer of
conflicting parties rather than commit
ted combatant on either side. He was
hrmIy and from principle an enemy to
slavery-but the ground he occupied in
Congress was in some respects a middle
one between the advance guard of the
ant-slavery and the spears of the fire.
enters. He voted with John Quincy
Adams for the receipt of anti-slaveeS. pc
titionsi he voted with GiddiuCs fSr a
committee of inquiry into the constitu-
tlonality OF slavery in the District of Co.
lum6ia, and the expediency of abollshing
slavery in that District he voted for the
various resolutions prohibiting slavery in
the territories to be acquired from Next
co, and be voted forty TWO times for the
Wilmot prOviso. 10 January l6, lS49, he
offered plan for abolishing slavery in
the District of Columbia, by compensation
from the nationsl treasury, with the con-
sent of majority of the citizens. He op.
posed the annexation of Texas, bur voted
Tor the bill to pay the expenses OF the
war. ,-..r 100 nj
But at the time of the repeal of the
Missouri compromise he tonk the field,
heart andssoul, against the plot to betray
our territories to slavery. 1t was mainly
owing to his exertious that at this critical
peTlodra republican senator was elected
from lHluois; when republican seuntor in
the trembling national scales of the con-
hlct WAS. worth. a thousand times his
weight in 'gold.-HTs. BeecAer IStotce. J i
WHOLESALE DRY GOODS.