It was among such people sacrificing themselves for humanity that Lincoln found his great inspiration from the sordid and mean that are ever to be found muckraking at the bottom. The family may be in a good home, safe for its children, but the good home must be in a good community or they are not safe. In fact, we cannot be sure of a good home unless its good community is in a good world. Good people in a good community are of priceless help to a good mother bringing up a good boy, with the biggest meaning of life in the word good.
V. EXPERIENCES IN THE INDIAN WAR
Great events probably have less effect in shaping one"s life than the little incidents that compose them. It seems so with Lincoln.
The confidence and appreciation of his friends (note that it was not his self-seeking aggressiveness) caused him to believe that he should try to become their representative in the state legislature. He was in the midst of this, his first political campaign, which was at the age of twenty-three, when Black Hawk, the Indian warrior, crossed the Mississippi River, April 6, 1832, with his five hundred followers and began what is known as the Black Hawk War.
The white settlers had gradually occupied the Indians" land, and the government by treaties had caused the Indians to be removed to territory west of the Mississippi. Black Hawk, a leader of the Sacs and Foxes, believed the Indians to be mistreated and so resolved to drive the white settlers back to the treaty line.
"My reason teaches me," he wrote to the government, "that land cannot be sold. The Great Spirit gave it to his children to live upon, and cultivate, as far as is necessary for their living; and so long as they occupy and cultivate it they have a right to the soil, but, if they willingly leave it, then any other people have a right to settle on it. Nothing can be sold but such things as can be carried away."
There are now several social theories based on this idea that the earth belongs to the people who use it. The theory of right things governs the minds of all who think, even of the wild men in the wilderness.
When the news arrived that the Indians had declared war against the whites, with the appeal from Governor Reynolds for volunteers, Lincoln dropped his canva.s.s for the legislature in order to enlist for the defense of his country.
The man-making incident in this important event was Lincoln"s election as captain of his home company. If there had been one thing which Lincoln had not studied, that was the tactics of a soldier. He knew nothing about military orders, and yet the time was coming, all too soon, when he was to be chief of the greatest military organization then in the world.
A sawmill owner named Kilpatrick was pushing himself forward to be made captain. This man owed Lincoln two dollars for work and would not pay it.
Lincoln got an idea and he said to his friend Greene, "Bill, I believe I can now make Kilpatrick pay that two dollars he owes me. I"ll run against him for captain."
When it came to the vote, the two candidates stood out in the open, and the men were told to stand up by the man they wanted to be captain. More than three-fourths of them gathered around Lincoln, and he became Captain Lincoln. He tells us himself that he never had any success in life which gave him more satisfaction. It was a vote of confidence in the reality of a man.
In telling of his ignorance of military command, he says that he was marching his company across a field when they came to a gate. "I could not for the life of me remember the proper word of command for getting my company endwise, so that the line could get through the gate; so, as we came up to the gate, I shouted, "This company is dismissed for two minutes, when it will fall in again on the other side of the gate.""
He was also totally unfamiliar with camp discipline, and he once had his sword taken from him for shooting off his rifle within limits. At another time his company stole some whisky, and, during the night, became so drunk that they could not fall in line the next morning. For this neglect of discipline Lincoln had to wear a wooden sword for two days. But his men respected him and were his devoted friends. They knew he meant what he said, and whatever they saw of him was the truth.
His firmness in the right "as G.o.d gives us to see the right," even against his a.s.sociates, is ill.u.s.trated in the incident of saving an Indian"s life.
The frontiersman"s standard of morality toward an Indian was that the only good Indian is a dead Indian.
One day an Indian was brought into camp. He was trying to cross the country and return to his tribe. To do this was his privilege and General Ca.s.s had given him an order of safe conduct. But the frontiersmen had come out to kill Indians and this was their first chance. Lincoln stood up by the side of the red man, and boldly took the Indian"s part. Some rebellious ones determined to take the Indian and kill him, even if they had to fight Lincoln to do it. But Lincoln stood up by the side of the red man and gave them to understand that it could be done only over his dead body. They knew that he meant it.
The result was that the Indian was allowed to go his way, and the resolute Captain never lost a friend for it. Many an act of mercy in keeping with this one has made his name beloved throughout the earth.
His soldiering lasted three months, but it doubtless gave him many ideas for use in the greater events of after years.
VI. LIFE-MAKING DECISIONS
At the close of his unsuccessful canva.s.s, in August of 1832, for the Illinois a.s.sembly, he was out of anything to do, and he seriously considered the advice of his friends to become a blacksmith. This was a suitable trade for him, they said, because he was so strong armed.
But this work gave him no leisure for study and he decided against it.
The only thing he knew was store-keeping and he decided to buy a store. The opportunity was open for him to buy a half interest with William Berry and he did so, giving notes for the goods. Business prospered rapidly while the enthusiasm was on, but Berry loved whisky as much as Lincoln loved books, and between the one who squandered time and money on liquor, and the one who neglected business for books, there could not be expected any results more natural than that business should finally go to pieces.
It was in the midst of these conditions that Berry took out a tavern license for the firm. It is understood that this was not for the purpose of keeping a liquor grocery, but to enable them to sell the stock on hand that had come to them from the stores they had bought out, and probably to get the much needed money to conduct their business. In those days a store could get no business if it had no liquor to sell. The personal morality of a thing must be considered in relation to the times. The selling of liquor by the quart was then as unquestioned propriety as selling potatoes or flour. Liquor was sold in all grocery stores as a part of the general business of the store the same as tobacco or sugar.
But it should be noted that the license was taken out in the name of Berry and that Lincoln"s name was signed by some other person to the bond.
Among the characteristic incidents told of Lincoln during this period is that of his encounter with a swaggering stranger who came into the store and used his choicest oaths in the presence of some women.
Lincoln asked him to stop but he paid no attention. At the second request, more firmly given, he declared that n.o.body could dictate his style of language in a free country.
"Well," said Lincoln, as the newcomer continued swearing, "if you must be whipped, I suppose I might as well whip you as any other man."
The man believed he could "whip" Lincoln and vindicate the freedom of speech and the rights of man. According to his theory, right was on his side, and it could be vindicated by battle. Lincoln"s more concrete object was to prevent swearing in the presence of women. So they went outside to begin the war. The obliging persons present formed a ring around the combatants to insure fair play, and the freedom of decency began its war with the freedom of speech, according to the ancient wager of battle.
New Salem had little doubt about which would win. In a minute Lincoln was rubbing smartweed into the eyes of the freedom of speech, and the rights of man was bellowing for mercy.
New Salem was at bottom composed of real men and they liked that sort of thing. The champion of genuine human freedom and real rights in New Salem was building his unknown way to be the champion of the same fundamental human interests in the capital of his nation.
It is very likely that those who feel little think even less, because those wideawake enough to think much must have imagination, which is the mother of sympathy. Many stories are told of Lincoln"s deep feeling of sympathy for those about him, and especially he was the friend who believed in decency and loved moral order.
"Honest Abe" is a name that would be generally regarded now as a "nickname" expressing a kind of good-natured contempt. Justice now wades deep streams in the adjustments of big business. But Abraham Lincoln had a musical soul and the color harmony of a great scenic artist for humanity. He might not have an eye for fitness in clothes or the idealism of pretty things, but his soul was in pain over any mistreatment of human beings. He could not endure the discordant note in any dishonest transaction, and he could not stand for any blur on the canvas in the scenes of mercy and justice. Like great standards of right-life waving in the breeze were many acts of Lincoln endearing him to the confidence of his people. As an ill.u.s.tration may be mentioned the incident of his taking six and a quarter cents too much from a customer. He walked three miles in the evening after the store closed, in order to restore the money. Another time he weighed out half a pound of tea and afterward discovered that a four-ounce weight had been on the scales. He weighed out the extra four ounces and closed the store so he could promptly deliver the remainder of the tea. This was probably poor business, but it meant much for human liberty that the people believed in him, and that he always made good in fulfillment of that belief.
Any one doing these things now would very likely be playing the game of getting a reputation for honesty as the best policy for the sake of the policy, and if he required such strictness of dealing with himself he would be regarded merely as a miser. Only bankers, the post office and big business are expected legitimately to hunt for the lost cent all night before the account books can be closed. But this was Lincoln"s whole life and his neighbors knew it. They told other people that he was a man to be trusted until at last the whole world knew it, and the historians recorded it among the imperishable records of civilization.
A nation is rich as it has such ideals of character, especially in this kind striving on from the lowliest to the highest, through the dest.i.tution and discouragement that may drag down the aspiring dream of better life.
Robert Browning appreciates the honored names when he says,
"A nation is but an attempt of many, To rise to the completer life of one; And they who live as models for the ma.s.s Are simply of more value than they all."
CHAPTER V
I. BUSINESS NOT HARMONIOUS WITH THE STRUGGLE FOR LEARNING
The people believed in Lincoln and that made him believe in himself, but they would never have believed in him if they had not seen the unchanging conduct that is necessary for human confidence. If the people had not believed in him he would never have had the confidence to develop his way of life, able at last to face the world-making problems of the great Civil War, and thus to hold to a course of conduct, which he knew to be right, against the hisses, slander and desperate intrigue of men and ma.s.ses, who knew that he was making a civilization in America contrary to their mercenary interests and their customary moral standards.
Business men are devoted to the business game. Otherwise the play is poor business. So, the man whose happiness was in learning could not be a business man. The store did not pay. As Lincoln was compelled to earn his living at other work, the management of the store was entirely in the hands of Berry, with whom it went from bad to worse until two brothers offered to buy out the business. The store was sold, not for cash, but for notes covering the amount.
When the notes became due, the two brothers fled. The store was closed by the creditors, the goods were auctioned off, and a heavy remaining debt was against Berry and Lincoln. Soon after this Berry died and all the debt was against Lincoln. Now was the time for him "to skip the country," as was the custom. But he did not "clear out" and therewith beat his creditors out of the debt of eleven hundred dollars.
Lincoln told a friend that this debt, in many ways an unjust one, because he did not make it, was "the greatest obstacle I ever met in life. I had no way of speculating, and could not earn money, except by labor; and to earn by labor eleven hundred dollars, besides the interest and my living, seemed the work of a lifetime." It did, indeed, take all he could earn above his living for seventeen years.
But he did it. He paid the debt in full. The moral system in his soul was never sold for the mess of pottage in any temporary distress. "To thyself be true," says Shakespeare, "and it follows, as the night the day, thou canst not be false to any man." Many think themselves to be an emotion, or a tired feeling, or a fool ambition, or a will to do something, but it is not so. My self is a system, an ident.i.ty, an integrity, a consistency, that has no hour, or day, or year, but at least a life time.
One of Lincoln"s creditors, who was like Shylock, demanded his exact dues the exact time they were due. He sued Lincoln and got judgment, so that the surveyor"s tools, and everything by which he made his living were seized and put up for sale by auction.
Lincoln"s friends gathered at the sale without saying anything about what they would or would not do. The demand was for one hundred and twenty dollars. Very few could spare any such sum. But the things, horse, saddle, surveying instruments, etc., were all bought in by James Short, a farmer living on Sand Ridge, just north of New Salem.
Then this farmer turned them all over to Lincoln. That benevolent farmer did not know what he was doing for his country when he did that, but it was a great deed.
A few years later James Short moved out to California. For some reason he had lost most of his property and had become a poor man. When Lincoln became president he heard of the distress "Uncle Jimmy" was in and one day the old man received a letter from Washington. Opening it, he found an appointment from Lincoln as commissioner to the Indians.
II. MAKING A LIVING AND LEARNING THE MEANING OF LIFE
Lincoln belonged to the Whig political party, but he was appointed postmaster by the Democratic administration in 1833. That there was not much mail may be inferred from the fact that it would cost twenty-five cents, in those scarce times, to send a letter or the ordinary magazine of today from any distance around of four hundred miles. His kindliness of spirit is well ill.u.s.trated in the fact that he delivered most of the mail himself, knowing how precious it was to the person addressed.