The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-02-12
EAR1Y LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

father could do neither; but his parents sent
him, with an old spelline-book to school, and he
learned in his childhood 10 do both.
When eight years old he Aoated down the Ohio
with his father on raft which bore the family
and all their possessions to the shore OF Indiana;
and, child as he was, he gave help as they toiled
through dense forests to the interior of Spencer
county. There in the land of free labor he grew
up in q log-cabin, with the solemn solitude for
his teacher in medltative hours. OF Asiatic
literature he knew only the Bible; of Greek,
Latin, and medieval, no more than the transll.
tion of "Esop's Fables;n of ENGLISH, John Bun
yan's Pilgrims Progress" The traditions of
George Fox and William Penn passed 10 him
dimly along the lines of two centuries through
his ancestors, who were Quakers.
HIS EDUCATION.
Otherwise his education was altogether Ameri
can. The Declaration Of independence was his
compendium of political wisdom, the Life CT
Washington his constant study, and something
OF Jefferson and Madison reached him through
Henry Clay, whom he boLored from boyhood.
For the rest from day to day, he lived the life of
the American people; walked in its light; rea-
soned with its reason; thought with its power Of
thought; felt the beatinRs of its mighty heart;
and so was in every way q child of nature-a
Child of the West-a child of America.
HIS PROGRESS IN LIFE.
At nineteen, feeling impulses OF ambition to
get on in the world, he engaged himself to go
down the Mississippi in q hat-boat, receiving ten
dollars month for his wages and afterwards he
made the trip once more. AT twenty-one he
drove his fathers cattle as the family migrated
to Illinois, and split rails to fence in the new
homestead in the wild. AT twenty-three he was
q captain of volunteers in the Black Hawk war;
He kept shop; he learned something OF sur
veymg; but OF English literature he added to
Bunyan nothing but Shakespeare's plays. At
twenty-five he was elected to the Legislature of
Illinois, where he served eight years. AT twenty
seven he was admitted to the bar. In 1887 he chose
his home at Springfield the beautiful centre OF the
! richest land in the State. In lS47 he was
1 ,lnr h.ks .l,s.wn b,
voted about forty times In favor of the principle
| OF the Jefferson provlso. In 1854 he gave his
| influence to elect from Illinois to the American
Senate Democrat who would certainly do JUS
! tice to Kansas. In 1858, as the rival OF Douglas,
| he 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 be
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 Presi-
| dent 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 eleventh Of February 1861, he left
| Springfield, which for quarter OF century
had been his happy home, to the crowd OF his
| friends and neIghbors whom he was never more
| to meet, he spoke solemn tarewell:-'I know
|
| has devolved upon me, greater than thas
| which has devoved upon any other man since
| Washington. He never would have succeeded,
except Tor the aid OF Divine Providence, upon
which he at all times relied. On the same
| Almighty Being place my reliance. Pray that
| | may receive that Divine assistance, without
which cannot succeed, but with which sue
cess is certain.n To The men OF Indiana he
said:-'I am but an accidental, temporary in
| strument; it is your business to rise up and pre-
serve the Union and liberty" AT the capital OF
Ohio he said:-"Without a name, without a
reason why / should have name, there has
fallen upon me a task such as did not rest even
upon the Father of his Country" At various
places in New York, especially at Albany be-
fore the legislature, which rendered him the
united support Of the great Empire State, he
said:-"While hold myself the humblest OF all
the individuals who have ever been elevated to
the Presidency, have more difficult task to
| perform than any of them. | bring q true heart
10 the work. / must rely upon the people of the
whole country for support; and with their sus-
tanning aid even l. humble as am, cannot fail
to carry the ship of state safely through the
Storm" To the Assembly of New Jersey at Tren
ton he eXplained:-"I shall take the ground |
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.
l am devoted to peace; but il may be necessary
| to put the foot down firmly" In the old Inde-
pendence Hall OF Philadelphia he said.-'T have
never had feeling politically that did not spring
from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration
of Independence, which gave liberty, not alone
to the people ofthis country but to the world in all
future time. If the country cannot be saved
without giving up that principle, would rather
be assassinated on the spot than surrender it.
l have said nothing but what am willing to
live and die by"
IN WHAT STATE HE FOUND THE COUNTRY
Travelling in the dead of night to escape assas-
sination, Lincoln arrived at Washington nine
days before his Inauguration. The outgoing
President, at the opening of the session Of Con-
gress, had lstill kept as the majority of his ad-
| Visers men engaged in treason; had declared that
in case OF even an Imaginary" apprehension of
danger from notions of freedom among the
slaves, "disunion would become inevitable y
| Lincoln and others had questioned the opinion
of Taney; such impugning he ascribed to the
"factlous temper of the Tunes" The favorite
doctrine of a majority of the Democratic party
on the power OF q territorial legislature over
slavery he condemned as an attack on ''the sacred
| tights of property" The State Legislatures, he
insisted, must repeal what he called their un-
constitutional and obnoxious enactments," and
which, if such, were null and void" or "tt
| would be impossible for any human power to
save the Union" Nay if these unimportant
acts were not repealed, "the injured States
would be justified in revolutionary resistance to
the Government of the Union" He maintained
that no State might secede at its sovereign will
| and pleasure; that the Union was meant Tor
| perpetuity; and that Congress might attempt to
\ preserve, but only by concillaClon; that the
sword was not placed in their hands to preserve
! il by force;n that ''the last desperate remedy
| of despairing people, would be an explana-
| tory amendment recognizing the decslon OF the
Supreme Court OF the United States" The
| American Union he called "a coniederacy' OF
States and he thought il duty to make the
appeal for the amendment before any of these
States should separate themselves from the
| Union.n The views of the LieutenantGenera
containing some patriotic advice, conceded the
| right of secession pronounced q quadruple
/ Of fho vii