News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1914-02-11
LIFE HISTORY OF
GREAT PRESIDENT
LincoIn'S Career Can Not Be Too
AttentiveIy Studied by the
Youth of America.
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IH1QNgI memory Is reverenced by
all peoples, was born In
Hardin county, Kentucky, on Febru.
airy IL, 1909, descendant of Samuel
Lincoln OF Norwich, England, and the
son OF Thomas Lincoln, an unedu.
Gated and thriftless carpenter, who
had married Nancy Hanks. Few books
came within his way in boyhood, but
he had access to the Bible, Shake
speare, "Aesop's Fables" Robinson
Crusoe," Pilgrims Progress" and a
history Of the United States and
Weems' Washington, the reading and
re-reading of which laid the founda
ton of that mastery of idiomatic Eng.
fish which he was to show so often in
later life.
At the age of twenty-one he &C lon.
panied his father to Illinois, and there
won reputation as rail-splitter by
helping to clear and plant some Is
acres of land. In 1881 he made ac
quaintance with slavery in a trip to
New Orleans, renewing the expert
ence ten years afterward.
After slight service as a volunteer,
Lincoln settled at New Salem, enter
ed for a while into politics, tried his
fortunes in dry goods and grocery
store, and finally settled down to the
study of law. In May, 1888, he was
appointed to postmastership of New
Salem, and held the position for three
years.
Elected to the legislature as a Whig
in 1884, Lincoln was sent to congress
in 1916, from which date began his
public campaign against slavery and
his oratorical contest with his rival,
Stephen A. Douglas. On July l, 1852.
he delivered his eulogy on Henry
Clay, and in October, 1854, spoke pow
erfully against the extension OF slav.
cry into the territories, Lincoln, aft
er being again returned to the leg.
'islature, was an June II, 1856, named
for viee-president at the Republican
nominating convention in Philadel'
phia. Then followed his challenge to
the seven famous debates with Doug.
las, and in May, 1860, his nomination
as candidate for president at the Re-
publican national. convention in Chi.
cago,
The platform adopted, while de-
manding that slavery be forbidden
IN the territories, denied the right of
congress to interfere with slavery in
the states. The south now prepared
for secession. Lincoln, elected to the
presidency, denied in his inaugural
the right of any state or number of
states to leave the Union. The re-
ply of the Confederate government
was General Beauregard's lombard.
ment of Fort Sumter The president
at once called out $4,000 volunteers,
and the war for the Union was on.
The history of the conflict was thence
forward part of Lincoln's own polit-
ical history until his death by the
hand of an assassin on April IA,
1865.
The martyr president" says Ward
Aamon, in his life of Abraham Lin
,oln, was six feet four inches high,
he length of his legs being out of
Ill proportion to that of his body.
When he sat on a chair he seemed to
aller than an average man, measur-
ng from the chair to the crow of
lis head; but his knees rose hie in
ront. He weighed about $50 pou DIS,
nut was thin through the breast, mar
ow across the shoulders, and had
he general appearance of a consump-
i've subject. Standing up, he stoop-
d slightly forward; sitting down. he
sually crossed his long legs or threw
hem over the arms of the chair. His
cad was long and tall from the base
the brain and the eyebrows; his
orehead high and narrow, inclinipg
as it rose.
His ears were large and stood out;
yebrows were heavy, jutting forward
yer small sunken blue eyes; nose
ing, large and blunt; chin projecting
If all sharp, curved upward to meet
thick lower lip, which hung down.
ard; cheeks flabby, the loose skin
Hing in folds; a mole on one cheek
Id an uncommonly prominent AID
ms apple in his throat
Every feature of the mantle hol-
W eyes, with the dark rings be-
,ath; the long, sallow, cadaverous
ce, intersected by those peculiar
'ep lines; his whole air, his yalk,
s long and silent reveries, broken
intervals by sudden and startling
clamations, as If to confound an
server who might suspect the ma
re of his thoughts-showed that he
Is a man of sorrows not of today or
yesterday, but long treasured and
ep, bearing with him continual
nse of wearinr-s an1 main"