The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, vol 1 | Page 8

alligator."
After his return he worked and lived in the old way until the spring of
1830, when his father "moved again," this time to Illinois; and on the
journey of fifteen days "Abe" had to drive the ox wagon which carried
the household goods. Another log cabin was built, and then, fencing a
field, Abraham Lincoln split those historic rails which were destined to
play so picturesque a part in the Presidential campaign twenty-eight
years later.
Having come of age, Lincoln left the family, and "struck out for
himself." He had to "take jobs whenever he could get them." The first
of these carried him again as a flatboat hand to New Orleans. There
something happened that made a lasting impression upon his soul: he

witnessed a slave auction. "His heart bled," wrote one of his
companions; "said nothing much; was silent; looked bad. I can say,
knowing it, that it was on this trip that he formed his opinion on slavery.
It run its iron in him then and there, May, 1831. I have heard him say
so often." Then he lived several years at New Salem, in Illinois, a small
mushroom village, with a mill, some "stores" and whiskey shops, that
rose quickly, and soon disappeared again. It was a desolate, disjointed,
half-working and half-loitering life, without any other aim than to gain
food and shelter from day to day. He served as pilot on a steamboat trip,
then as clerk in a store and a mill; business failing, he was adrift for
some time. Being compelled to measure his strength with the chief
bully of the neighborhood, and overcoming him, he became a noted
person in that muscular community, and won the esteem and friendship
of the ruling gang of ruffians to such a degree that, when the Black
Hawk war broke out, they elected him, a young man of twenty- three,
captain of a volunteer company, composed mainly of roughs of their
kind. He took the field, and his most noteworthy deed of valor
consisted, not in killing an Indian, but in protecting against his own
men, at the peril of his own life, the life of an old savage who had
strayed into his camp.
The Black Hawk war over, he turned to politics. The step from the
captaincy of a volunteer company to a candidacy for a seat in the
Legislature seemed a natural one. But his popularity, although great in
New Salem, had not spread far enough over the district, and he was
defeated. Then the wretched hand-to-mouth struggle began again. He
"set up in store-business" with a dissolute partner, who drank whiskey
while Lincoln was reading books. The result was a disastrous failure
and a load of debt. Thereupon he became a deputy surveyor, and was
appointed postmaster of New Salem, the business of the post-office
being so small that he could carry the incoming and outgoing mail in
his hat. All this could not lift him from poverty, and his surveying
instruments and horse and saddle were sold by the sheriff for debt.
But while all this misery was upon him his ambition rose to higher
aims. He walked many miles to borrow from a schoolmaster a grammar
with which to improve his language. A lawyer lent him a copy of
Blackstone, and he began to study law.
People would look wonderingly at the grotesque figure lying in the

grass, "with his feet up a tree," or sitting on a fence, as, absorbed in a
book, he learned to construct correct sentences and made himself a
jurist. At once he gained a little practice, pettifogging before a justice
of the peace for friends, without expecting a fee. Judicial functions, too,
were thrust upon him, but only at horse-races or wrestling matches,
where his acknowledged honesty and fairness gave his verdicts
undisputed authority. His popularity grew apace, and soon he could be
a candidate for the Legislature again. Although he called himself a
Whig, an ardent admirer of Henry Clay, his clever stump speeches won
him the election in the strongly Democratic district. Then for the first
time, perhaps, he thought seriously of his outward appearance. So far
he had been content with a garb of "Kentucky jeans," not seldom
ragged, usually patched, and always shabby. Now, he borrowed some
money from a friend to buy a new suit of clothes--"store clothes" fit for
a Sangamon County statesman; and thus adorned he set out for the state
capital, Vandalia, to take his seat among the lawmakers.
His legislative career, which stretched over several sessions-- for he
was thrice re-elected, in 1836, 1838, and 1840--was not remarkably
brilliant. He did, indeed, not lack ambition. He dreamed even of
making himself "the De Witt Clinton of Illinois," and he actually
distinguished himself by zealous and