LIFE AND SPEECHES

OF

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

PART FIRST.

EARLY HISTORY.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN is a native of the county of Hardin, Kentucky. He was born February 12, 1808. His parents came from Virginia, and it is said made no pretensions of belonging to "one of the first families." His grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, emigrated from Rockingham county, Virginia, to the State of Kentucky, about the year 1781. A year or two later than this, he was killed by the Indians, while at work in the forest. Mr. Lincoln's earlier ancestors were members of the Society of Friends, and went to Virginia from Berks county, Pennsylvania, where some of the family still reside.

Mr. Lincoln's father, at the death of his father, in 1783, was but six years old. He removed to what is now Spencer county, Indiana, in 1816. The early,

Indiana life of Mr. Lincoln is thus described by one of his friends:

"The family reached their new home about the time the State was admitted into the Union. The region in which they settled was rude and wild, and they endured, for some years, the hard experience of a frontier life, in which the struggle with nature for existence and security is to be maintained only by constant vigilance. Bears, wolves, and other wild animals, still infested the woods, and young Lincoln acquired more skill in the use of the rifle than knowledge of books. There were institutions here and there, known by the flattering denomination of "schools," but no qualification was required of a teacher beyond "readin', writin', and cipherin'," as the vernacular phrase ran, as far as the rule of three. If a straggler, supposed to understand Latin, happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizard, and regarded with an awe suited to so mysterious a character.

"Hard work, and plenty of it, was the order of the day, varied, indeed, by an occasional bear-hunt, a not unfrequent deer-chase, or other wild sport. Of course, when young Lincoln came of age, he was not a scholar. He could read and write, and had some knowledge of arithmetic, but that was about all; and as yet, he had but little ambition to know more of what was to be found in books. His attainments otherwise were not to be despised. He had grown to be six feet four inches in stature, was active and athletic, could wield the axe, direct the plough, or use the rifle, as well as the best of his compeers, and was fully up to all the mysteries of prairie farming, and fully inured to hardship and toil.

Since he arrived at age he has not been to school. Whatever his acquirements are, they have been picked up from time to time as opportunity occurred, or as the pressure of some exigency demanded."

At the age of twenty-one he removed to the State of Illinois, which was thereafter to be his home. The first year he passed in Macon county, in hard labor upon a farm, where he and a fellow-laborer of the name of Hawkes, in the year 1830, split three thousand rails. He also, at one time, managed a flat-boat on the Ohio river. From Macon county he went to New Salem, now Menard county, where he remained a year. Then the Black-Hawk war broke out. A company of volunteers was raised in his county, and he was elected its captain. He served through the war, and gained much popularity. It may not be amiss to give a sketch here of the origin of this war, which engaged Lincoln's services at so early an age, and we make the subjoined extracts from Brown's History of Illinois, for that purpose:

THE BLACK-HAWK WAR.

Black-Hawk, the Indian chief, who has recently occupied a considerable space in the public mind, and cost, it is said, the United States more than two millions of dollars, was born, as it was supposed, about the year 1767, on Rock river, in Illinois.

At the time of which we are about to speak, the Winnebagoes occupied all that part of the Wisconsin territory bordering on the river Wisconsin and in the vicinity of Winnebago lake. Their population in 1820 was estimated at one thousand five hundred and fifty

souls, of whom five hundred were warriors. White Tom was a conspicuous chief among them. He opposed General Wayne in 1794-fought at Tippecanoe in 1811-was active during the war of 1812 on the side of the British, and treated with General Harrison at Greenville, in 1814.

The Menomonies resided 'still farther north, upon a river of that name, in the vicinity of Green Bay. They were estimated in 1860 at three hundred and fifty souls, of whom one hundred were warriors.

The Pottawatomies occupied the head waters of Lake Michigan; they were estimated in 1820 at three thousand four hundred souls. The United States paid them, yearly, five thousand seven hundred dollars. The Pottawatomies were known to the French at an early day. In 1668, three hundred of these warriors visited Father Allouez at Chegaumegon, an island in Lake Superior.

The Sacs (or rather the Sauks) and Foxes-usually mentioned together (one nation, in fact), occupied the country west of the Pottawatomies, between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers; they were estimated, in 1860, at three thousand souls. They were also known to the French, and Christianity was taught them by the Jesuits, in 1668. Keokuk was, for many years, a conspicuous chief among them, as also Black-Hawk, before referred to. The latter was a grandson of Nana-ma-kee, or Thunder, and having taken the scalp of an enemy at the early age of fifteen, was admitted to the rank of "a brave," A short time afterward he joined a war party against the Osages, and became noted for his valor. On his return he was allowed to join

the war-dance of his nation. He frequently led war parties against the enemies of his tribe, and, in almost every instance, was victorious.

On the 27th of June, 1804, a treaty was made at St. Louis, by General Harrison, with the Sacs and Foxes, and the lands east of the Mississippi were ceded to the United States. This treaty, having been executed, as Black-Hawk pretended, without the knowledge or consent of the nation, was the subject of much altercation and serious difficulty thereafter.

The territory of Illinois, in 1818, having been admitted into the Union, and peace between Great Britain and United States restored, emigrants from every direction repaired thither, and the country of the Sacs and Foxes was shortly surrounded by the settlements of white men. In order to hasten the departure of the Indians from the ceded territory, some outrages, it is said, and we have no doubt of the fact, were committed on their persons and effects.

The United States However pure their could have been de

On the 19th of August, 1828, a treaty was held at Prairie du Chien, with the Sacs, Foxes, Winnebagoes, Chippewas, Sioux, and other northwestern tribes, by William Clark and Lewis Cass, in behalf of the United States, for the purpose of bringing about a peace between the Sacs and other tribes. undertook the part of mediators. motives, the effect was not such as sired. Hostilities continued, and murders frequently happened. In the summer of 1821, a party of twentyfour Chippewas, on a tour to Fort Snelling, were surprised by a band of Sioux, and eight of their number were killed and wounded. The commander of Fort