is to say, of all the humanity he then knew. At first he expressed what he could discern with the limited, inexperienced vision of the ignorant son of a wretched vagrant pioneer; later he gave expression to the humanity of a people engaged in a purpose physically and morally as vast and as grand as any enterprise which the world has seen. Thus, with perfect fairness, without wrenching or misrepresentation or sophistry, the ugliness of his youth ceases to be his own and becomes only the presentation of a curious social condition. In his youth he expressed a low condition, in later life a noble one; at each period he expressed correctly what he found. His day and generation uttered itself through him. With such thoughts, and from this point of view, it is possible to contemplate Lincoln's early days, amid all their degraded surroundings and influences and unmarked by apparent antagonism or obvious superiority on his part, without serious dismay.
[1] Two letters, now in the possession of Mr. Francis H. Lincoln of Boston, Mass.
[2] New England Hist. and Gen. Register, October, 1865.
[3] Ibid. April, 1887, vol. xli. p. 153.
[4] See articles in N.E.H. and G. Reg. above cited. Mr. Lincoln's article states that in Norwich, Norfolk County, Eng., there is a "curious chased copper box with the inscription 'Abraham Lincoln, Norwich, 1731;'" also in St. Andrew's Church in the same place a mural tablet: "In memory of Abraham Lincoln, of this parish, who died July 13, 1798, aged 79 years." Similarities of name are also noted.
[5] A town adjoining Hingham, Mass.
[6] His brother Abraham also resided in Chester County, and died there, April, 1745.
[7] N. and H. i. 3.
[8] A different pedigree, published in the Lancaster Intelligencer, September 24, 1879, by David J. Lincoln of Birdsboro, Berks County, Penn., is refuted by George Lincoln of Hingham, Mass., in the Hingham Journal, October 10, 1879.
[9] N. and H. i. 4 note.
[10] N. and H. i. 4 note.
[11] Herndon, 3.
[12] The unpleasant Dennis Hanks was an illegitimate son of an "aunt of the President's mother." Herndon, 13; and see Lamon, 12.
[13] Herndon, 14.
[14] Holland, 23; Lamon, 11; N. and H. i. 24; Herndon, 13, 28; Raymond, 20; but Raymond is no authority as to Lincoln's youth, and Holland is little more valuable for the same period.
[15] Lamon, 32. But see Herndon, 13.
[16] N. and H. 23; Herndon, 5; but see Lamon, 10.
[17] For instance, see the pages of the first chapter of the Life by Arnold, a book which becomes excellent after the author has got free from the fancied necessities of creating an appropriate background for the origin and childhood of the hero. So, more briefly, Raymond, who gives no authority to support the faith which is in him.
[18] For description of him, see Lamon, 8, 9; Herndon, 11.
[19] Herndon, 19; Lamon, 16; Holland, 25.
[20] Herndon, 25–28; Lamon, 26–28.
[21] Herndon, 34–37, 41; Lamon, 34–36; Holland, 28.
[22] Mr. Herndon did this ill deed; 50–54. Lamon prefers to say that most of this literature is "too indecent for publication," 63.
[23] Thomas Lincoln died January 17, 1851.
[24] Herndon, 75, 76; Lamon, 82; Arnold, 30; N. and H. i. 72.
[25] N. and H. i. 74.
[26] Lamon, 92, 93, has the best account of this famous encounter.
[27] Ford, Hist. of Illinois, 88.
[28] Ford, Hist. of Illinois, 81.
[29] See anecdote in The Good Old Times in McLean County, 48.
[30] "The jerks" was the graphic name of an attack not uncommon at these religious meetings.
[31] See Herndon, 104, 118; Holland has some singular remarks on this subject, p. 83; N. and H., i. 121, say that Lincoln was "clean of speech,"—an agreeable statement, for which one would like to have some authority.
[32] Ford, Hist. of Illinois, 82–86.
[33] Ford, Hist. of Illinois, 55, 86, 88,104; Herndon, 103; N. and H. i. 107; Lamon, 124, 230.
CHAPTER II
THE START IN LIFE
In Illinois during the years of Lincoln's boyhood the red man was retiring sullenly before the fatal advance of the white man's frontier. Shooting, scalping, and plundering forays still occurred, and in the self-complaisant reminiscences of the old settlers of that day the merciless and mysterious savage is apt to lend to the narrative the lively coloring of mortal danger.[34] In the spring of 1832 a noted chief of the Sacs led a campaign of such importance that it lives in history under the dignified title of "the Black Hawk war." The Indians gathered in numbers so formidable that Governor Reynolds issued a call for volunteers to