| LITTLE BLUE BOOK NO. Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius | 324 |
| TEN CENT POCKET SERIES | |
Life of Abraham
Lincoln
John Hugh Bowers, Ph.D., LL.B.
Dept. History and Social Sciences,
State Teachers' College, Pittsburg, Kans.
HALDEMAN-JULIUS COMPANY
GIRARD, KANSAS
Copyright, 1922,
Haldeman-Julius Company
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
The story of Lincoln, revealing how one American, by his ownhonest efforts, rose from the most humble beginning to the mosthigh station of honor and worth, has inspired millions and willinspire millions more. The log cabin in which he was born, the axwith which he split the rails, the few books with which he got therudiments of an education, the light of pine knots by which hestudied, the flatboat on which he made the long trip to NewOrleans, the slave mart at sight of which his sympathetic soulrevolted against the institution of human slavery—these areall fraught with intense interest as the rude forces by which heslowly builded his great character.
Great suffering taught him great sympathy. His great sympathyfor men gave him great influence over men. As a lonely motherlesslittle boy living in the pitiless poverty of the backwoods helearned both humility and appreciation. Then from a gentlestepmother he learned the beauty of kindness.
As a clerk in a small store that failed, as a defeated candidatefor the legislature, as Captain in the Black Hawk War, as studentof Law in his leisure moments, as partner in a small store thatfailed, as Postmaster at the little village of New Salem, as DeputySurveyor of Sangamon County, as successful candidate for thelegislature, as member of the legislature and as country lawyer, hewas learning to love his fellow men and to get along well withthem, while keeping his own conscience and building a reputationfor honesty. When as a member of Congress and as a successfullawyer his proved ability brings him a measure of security andcomfort he is not elated. And when his fellow men, reciprocatinghis great love for them, and manifesting their confidence in hisintegrity, make him President of the Republic he still remains thehumble brother of the common people.
But fate did not decree that he should enjoy the honors he hadso richly deserved. The White House was not a resting place forhim. In the hour of his election the Nation for which he prayed wasdivided and the men that he loved as brothers were rushing headlongtoward fratricidal war. He who loved peace was to see no more peaceexcept just a few hopeful days before his own tragic end. He whohated war must captain his dear people through their long andmighty struggle and share in his gentle heart their greatsacrifices. As the kindly harmonizer of jealous rivals, as theunifier of a distracted people, as the sagacious leader ofdiscordant factions, he proved his true greatness in the hours ofthe nation's peril. In many a grave crisis when it seemed that theConfederacy would win and the Union be lost the almost superhumanwisdom of Lincoln would see the one right way through the storm.For good reasons, the followers of Lincoln came to believe that hewas being guided by God Himself to save the Union.
The genealogists of Lincoln trace his ancestry back to Virginiaand to Massachusetts and to those Lincolns who came from Englandabout 1635. The name Abraham recurs frequently among the Lincolnsand our President seems t