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Masterpieces of eloquence; famous orations of great world leaders from early Greece to the present time

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A BR AH AM LINCOLN was born in Hardin County, Kentucky, on February ** 12, 1809. His father, Thomas Lincoln, and his mother, Nancy Hanks, were both natives of Virginia. When Lincoln was eight years of age, hia father moved into Indiana, buying a farm in what is now Spencer County. Schools were rare and the teachers were only qualified to impart the rudiments of instruction. ""When I came of age," wrote the future President, "I didn't know much ; still I could read, write and cipher to the rule of three, but that was all. I have not been to school since. The little advance I now have upon this store of education I have picked up from time to time under the pressure of necessity," At the age of 19, Lincoln made a journey as a hired hand on a flat boat to New Orleans, and two years later with his father emigrated to Macon, Illinois. Lincoln helped to build a cabin, clear a field and split rails to fence it. At the age of 21, he assisted in building a flat boat and in floating it down the Sangamon, Illinois and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans. Afterward he was a clerk in a country store, but, when the Black Hawk Indian War broke out, he volunteered, was elected the captain of a company and took part in the campaign. Having failed in store-keeping, he was glad to accept the ofQce of County Surveyor of Sangamon. In 1834 he was chosen a member of the Illinois Legislature, and was re-elected successively in 1836, 1838 and 1840, after which he declined a nomination. Having been admitted to the bar in 1836 he removed to Springfield, which soon afterward became the capital of the State. In 1846, he was elected a member of the National Houss of Representatives. In 1854, Lincoln, who hitherto had been a member of the Whig party, took an energetic part In the slavery agitation, and joined the Republican parly when it was organized in 1856. In 1858 he contested in public debate with Stephen A. Douglas the nomination to a seat in the Federal Senate, but was defeated. The remarkable campaign, however, attracted close attention in every part of the Union, and Lincoln's speeches gave him a national lame which caused him to be nominated for the Presidency at the Republican Convention held in Chicago on May 16, 1860. In the inaugural address pronounced by him on March 4, 1861, he declared the Union perpetual and all acts of secession void, and announced the determination of the Federal Government to defend its authority. After having vigorously conducted the war for

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New York : P.F. Collier., [19--]

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25 v.

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English

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NONE

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text

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computer

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online resource

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Mayo Hazeltine W (Wiliamson Mayo), 1841-1909

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Fidel

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https://archive.org/details/masterpiecesofel16haze/page/6560/mode/2up

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