McClures Magazine, Volume VI, No. 3. February 1896 | Page 8

about to depart, remarked: 'Calhoun, I am
entirely unable to repay you for your generosity at present. All that I
have you see on me, except a quarter of a dollar in my pocket.' This is a
family tradition. However, my wife, then a miss of sixteen, says, while
I am writing this sketch, that she distinctly remembers this interview.
After Lincoln was gone she says she and her sister, Mrs. Calhoun,
commenced making jocular remarks about his uncanny appearance, in
the presence of Calhoun, to which in substance he made this rejoinder:
'For all that, he is no common man.' My wife believes these were the
exact words."--_J. McCan Davis._]
We know from Dennis Hanks, from Mr. Turnham, to whom the book
belonged, and from other associates of Lincoln's at the time, that he
read this book intently and discussed its contents intelligently. It was a
remarkable volume for a thoughtful lad whose mind had been fired
already by the history of Washington; for it opened with that wonderful
document, the Declaration of Independence, a document which became,
as Mr. John G. Nicolay says, "his political chart and inspiration."
Following the Declaration of Independence was the Constitution of the
United States, the Act of Virginia passed in 1783 by which the
"Territory North Westward of the river Ohio" was conveyed to the

United States, and the Ordinance of 1787 for governing this territory,
containing that clause on which Lincoln in the future based many an
argument on the slavery question. This article, No. 6 of the Ordinance,
reads: "There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the
said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the
party shall have been duly convicted: provided always, that any person
escaping into the same, from whom labour or service is lawfully
claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully
reclaimed, and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labour or
service, as aforesaid."
[Illustration: LINCOLN'S SADDLE-BAGS--PHOTOGRAPHED FOR
McCLURE'S MAGAZINE.
These saddle-bags, now in the Lincoln Monument at Springfield, are
said to have been used by Lincoln while he was a surveyor.]
Following this was the Constitution and the Revised Laws of Indiana,
three hundred and seventy-five pages of five hundred words each of
statutes--enough law, if thoroughly digested, to make a respectable
lawyer. When Lincoln finished this book, as he had probably before he
was eighteen, we have reason to believe that he understood the
principles on which the nation was founded, how the State of Indiana
came into being, and how it was governed. His understanding of the
subject was clear and practical, and he applied it in his reading,
thinking, and discussion.
[Illustration: REPORT OF A ROAD SURVEY BY
LINCOLN--HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED.
Photographed for McCLURE'S MAGAZINE from the original, now on
file in the County Clerk's office, Springfield, Illinois. The survey here
reported was made in pursuance of an order of the County
Commissioners' Court, September 1, 1834, in which Lincoln was
designated as the surveyor.]
It was after he had read the Laws of Indiana that Lincoln had free
access to the library of his admirer, Judge John Pitcher of Rockport,
Indiana, where undoubtedly he examined many law-books. But from
the time he left Indiana in 1830 he had no legal reading until one day
soon after the grocery was started, when there happened one of those
trivial incidents which so often turn the current of a life. It is best told
in Mr. Lincoln's own words.[2] "One day a man who was migrating to

the West drove up in front of my store with a wagon which contained
his family and household plunder. He asked me if I would buy an old
barrel, for which he had no room in his wagon, and which he said
contained nothing of special value. I did not want it, but to oblige him I
bought it, and paid him, I think, half a dollar for it. Without further
examination, I put it away in the store, and forgot all about it. Some
time after, in overhauling things, I came upon the barrel, and emptying
it upon the floor to see what it contained, I found at the bottom of the
rubbish a complete edition of Blackstone's Commentaries. I began to
read those famous works, and I had plenty of time; for, during the long
summer days, when the farmers were busy with their crops, my
customers were few and far between. The more I read"--this he said
with unusual emphasis--"the more intensely interested I became. Never
in my whole life was my mind so thoroughly absorbed. I read until I
devoured them."
[Illustration: A MAP MADE BY LINCOLN OF A PIECE OF ROAD
IN MENARD COUNTY, ILLINOIS--HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED.
Photographed from the original for McCLURE'S MAGAZINE.