The Wonderful Story of Lincoln Part 4

When his flatboat was finished at New Salem, it was necessary to have a canoe that was to trail along behind the boat. The canoe was made from a dugout log. When it was shoved into the booming Sangamon river, his two friends, John Seamon and Walter Carmon, sprang into it for the first ride, but the stream was too swift for them. The current began to sweep them away down stream.

"Head up stream," Lincoln shouted, "and work back to sh.o.r.e."

But they could not beat the rush of water. Nearing the wreck of an old flatboat, they tried to pull the canoe in among the timbers and hold themselves fast. Seamon caught hold of a stanchion as they came by and the canoe was overturned, leaving Seamon clinging to the timber and Carmon being borne down stream, clinging to the slippery log.

Lincoln yelled for Carmon to swim for the branches of an elm tree that swung in the high water near the sh.o.r.e. Carmon did this. Lincoln then called to Seamon to swim for the tree with Carmon and they could be rescued together.

It was a very cold April day and the men were in danger of becoming too benumbed to hold on. By this time the whole village of New Salem was gathered at the bank.

Lincoln procured a rope, which he fastened to a large log. The log was pushed into the water and a venturesome young fellow named Jim Darrell bestrode the log that was to be floated down stream to the rescue.

The log went straight to the tree all right, but the young man was too eager to help his fellows. In the struggles the log was turned and so caught in the current that it was swept away from them and there were now three to be rescued from the tree.

The log was towed back. Lincoln tied another rope to it, and held the end of the rope in his hand. He then mounted the log to take the dangerous ride himself. As the log came into the tree, he threw the rope around a limb and held fast. In another minute all three of the s.h.i.+pwrecked men were safely astride the log. He then told the people to let go the guiding rope. The well-calculated result was that the current against the log, and the pull on the rope fastened to the limb, swung them safely around to the sh.o.r.e.

Strange and foreign as it may seem, numerous clear-headed exploits like this made his neighbors believe in him. Such belief encouraged him to believe in himself, and, trivial as the a.n.a.logy may seem, and unworthy as the comparison might be, it doubtless had much to do in strengthening his ambition to surpa.s.s his surroundings and gain the larger fields of service. It is said that no one ever learned faster in any situation than Lincoln. He never "lost his head" in any whirl of events, and always before the crisis arrived he was facing it as master.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Lincoln's Residence at Springfield, Illinois.]

Lincoln's raft from New Salem arrived in New Orleans in May, 1831. At that time it seemed as if all the adventurers in the world had gathered there, and it was probably the wickedest city on earth. It was the gathering place of pirates, robbers and wild boatmen of the river and gulf.

The city in its wild prosperity and barbarity must have made a strong impression on Lincoln. Worst of all was its hideous slave market. Here men and women were herded together like animals and sold like cattle.

Here he saw negro girls, many of them nearly white, treated like beasts. At the auctioning off of a mulatto girl he turned away from the revolting spectacle, saying to his companions, "Boys, let's get away from this. If I ever get a chance to hit that thing (meaning slavery), I'll hit it hard."

And to him was given the chance, through the terrible ordeal of civil war, to drive that shame forever from the land of freedom. Only in the light of twentieth century developments can we look back and see what a desperate condition America would be in if the Southern half of the United States had succeeded in becoming a separate slave-nation. Great evils were involved and great wrongs had to be worked out from among the pa.s.sions and prejudice of the times, but we can now all believe, no matter how meritorious was state patriotism, or how sincere the faith of the people, or how correct their interpretation of the original Union, that we have a greater America, destined to take a better part in making a n.o.bler civilization for a more progressive world.

III. TESTS OF CHARACTER ON THE LAWLESS FRONTIER

There were gangs of good-natured rowdies, and there were roughhouse communities in pioneer days.

Such a community and such a gang was in the neighborhood of New Salem, known as Clary's Grove and the Clary Grove Boys. They delighted in being rough and coa.r.s.e, though, it is said, to their credit, that they were generous and most faithful friends.

Denton Offutt for some reason liked to boast to them of his hired man.

He seemed to believe that it shed glory on himself as an employer. He told the Clary Boys that his man could lift more, throw farther, run faster, jump higher and wrestle better than any man in Sangamon County. This hurt the Clary boys' sense of superiority. They decided to test it out. Accordingly, they appointed Jack Armstrong as their best man to prove their right to the champions.h.i.+p.

Lincoln objected to the "tussle and scuffle" ideas of the time, he disbelieved in the honors won by "wooling and pulling," but the age of "fist-and-skull" duels was not yet at an end, and the question of best man had to be tried out.

Clary's Grove came one day to back their man as representative of themselves, and New Salem turned out to back the other. It was to be "catch-as-catch-can and the best man wins."

The task to represent New Salem against the neighboring rowdydom was not an easy one. But such is human nature that who can say what effect it would have had on Lincoln's future if he had been beaten and bullied over in that fight. Perhaps it shows how needful it is to do well everything at hand to be done, because we do not know how it may be part of our way to the unknowable future.

The champions came together according to the "fair play" of the time.

They clinched and swayed, those two strong men, but neither could be moved from his feet. Each side was yelling itself hoa.r.s.e, as the one who was to be the greatest of Americans strove with the one who would long ago be as forgotten as his dust, except for the struggle he made and for the conquest.

Feeling himself being defeated, one of them did not play the game fair. It was not Lincoln. The champion of the Clary gang played a trick, and Lincoln caught him by the throat, holding him out at arm's length, where he could only kick, and squirm and beat the air, but could do nothing against that long, strong right arm. The Clary gang rushed to the rescue, and it looked as if he would have to fight them all when Armstrong declared that he had enough, and that Lincoln was the "best fellow that ever broke into camp."

Not long after this the Clary gang elected Lincoln as Captain of their sports and henceforth were among his most faithful friends. The fact that Lincoln could hold the political support and good-will of both the best and the worst shows that there was a reliability in his character to which they could together safely give allegiance.

The friends.h.i.+p of Jack Armstrong and his family, after the fight, never swerved, and the time came when Lincoln repaid their kindness and their simple loyalty in a great way. Years afterward, when Lincoln had become a renowned lawyer, Jack Armstrong's son was accused of murder. They went for Lincoln and Lincoln came. He studied the case and became convinced that the son of his old friend was innocent.

There had been a quarrel among some young men one night near an out-of-door camp meeting, and one had been stabbed to death.

Young Armstrong was arrested on the testimony of one who claimed to have seen the blow struck by the light of the moon.

Lincoln made the witness repeat his testimony about the moon and then began his address to the jury. He told of his relations to the prisoner's father, of the kindness of the mother, and how he had played with the boy as a child. Then he said that he was not there as paid attorney but as a friend of the family. With that explanation, he reviewed the testimony showing that all the evidence depended on what the witness had seen by the light of the moon. At this point he produced an almanac showing that there was no moon on the night of the murder. The jury took only a very short consultation to bring in a verdict of "Not Guilty."

This story has often been told in which the almanac is represented as having been an old one, thus winning the case by a trick of falsehood, but investigation has proven this to be untrue, accordingly supporting the statement that Lincoln never used such tactics to win a case.

We have learned that no character in history can be understood except in relation to its surroundings. Otherwise, Lincoln's fight with the backwoods' ruffians might now seem vulgar and lawless, but it was in truth a powerful factor in building his life for its supreme service.

It not only helped to establish his own conscious integrity, but it was planting respect for him among his neighbors, which was as necessary for his growth of reputation as anything at any time in his career. The time when a boy can afford not "to care what people think"

depends very much not only upon the boy and the people, but also upon what is meant by the "care" and the "think."

IV. THE PIONEER MISSIONARY OF HUMANITY

The pioneer West was indeed uncouth, but there were many noteworthy redeeming features in the zeal of the better cla.s.ses for ideal interests. Doubtless, Lincoln was often inspired by such a fair view of humanity. Many an incident is told of the unselfish devotion among the people with whom Lincoln lived.

The zeal in having a mission in those days was something that is almost unimaginable in these days. It is ill.u.s.trated by the following incident told by Milburn of the useful men of those days in touch with the Lincoln life.

A young travelling preacher, and the preachers of that period in those regions were really all travelling if they were preachers, for they had no abiding place, was so much beloved by a man who had acquired a large amount of land, that the man made the young preacher the present of a deed to half a section of land. The young man, being dest.i.tute, was much rejoiced to receive the gift of three hundred and twenty acres of good prairie soil. He went away with a grateful heart toward his generous benefactor. Three months later he returned, and, as he greeted the generous friend at the door, he handed back the deed, saying, "Here, sir, I want you to take back your t.i.tle-deed."

"What's the matter," asked the surprised friend. "Anything wrong with it?"

"No," replied the young man, as if somewhat ashamed to give his reason.

"Isn't the land good enough?"

"Good as any in the state."

"Are you afraid it is a sickly place?"

"Healthy as anywhere."

"Do you think I am sorry I gave it to you?"

"I haven't the slightest reason to doubt your whole-hearted generosity."

"Then why in the thunder don't you keep it?" inquired the dumbfounded benefactor.

"Well, sir, if I must tell you," said the young preacher, "you know I am very fond of singing, and there's one hymn in my book, which has been one of my greatest comforts in life, and it is not so any more. I have lost the joy of singing it, and it has killed so much other joy that I can no longer endure the privation. I will sing you one verse."

Then he sang:

"No foot of land do I possess, No cottage in the wilderness; A poor wayfaring man.

I lodge awhile in tents below, And gladly wander to and fro, Till I my Canaan gain; There is my house and portion fair, My treasure and my heart are there, And my abiding home."

"Please take your t.i.tle-deed," he exclaimed. "I want to have the joy I used to have in singing that song. I'd rather sing it with a clear conscience than to own America."