Springfield, Dec: 20.
1859
W. Fell Esq.
My dear Sir:
Herewith is a little sketch, as you requested– There is not
much of it, for the reason, I suppose, that there is not much of me– If
anything is made out of it, I wish it to be modest, and not to go beyond the
materials– If it were thought necessary to incorporate any thing from any of my
speeches, I suppose there would be no objection– Of course it must not appear
to have been written by myself—
Yours very truly
A. Lincoln
_______________
[ Enclosure:]
I was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My
parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families – second
families, perhaps I should say– My Mother, who died in my ninth tenth year, was
of a family of the name of Hanks, some of whom now reside in Adams, and others
in Macon counties, Illinois— My paternal grandfather, Abraham Lincoln,
emigrated from Rockingham County, Virginia, to Kentucky, about 1781 or 2, when,
a year or two later, he was killed by indians, not in battle, but by stealth,
when he was laboring to open a farm in the forest– His ancestors, who were
quakers, went to Virginia from Berks County, Pennsylvania– An effort to
identify them with the New-England family of the same name ended in nothing
more definite, than a similarity of Christian names in both families, such as
Enoch, Levi, Mordecai, Solomon, Abraham, and the like—
My father, at the death of his father, was but six years of
age; and he grew up, litterally without education— He removed from Kentucky to
what is now Spencer county, Indiana, in my eighth year— We reached our new home
about the time the State came into the Union— It was a wild region, with many
bears and other wild animals still in the woods— There I grew up— There were
some schools, so called; but no qualification was ever required of a teacher,
beyond the reading, writing, and Arithmetic “readin, writin, and cipherin” to
the Rule of Three— If a straggler supposed to understand latin, happened to
sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizzard— There was
absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education. Of course when I came of
age I did not know much— Still somehow, 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 have picked up from
time to time under the pressure of necessity—
I was raised to farm work, which I continued till I was
twenty two— At twenty one I came to Illinois, and passed the first year in Illinois
— Macon County — Then I got to New-Salem ( then at that time in Sangamon, now
in Menard County, where I remained a year as a sort of Clerk in a store— then
came the Black-Hawk war; and I was elected a Captain of Volunteers — a success
which gave me more pleasure than any I have had since— I went the campaign, was
elated, ran for the Legislature the same year (1832) and was beaten — the only
time I ever have been beaten by the people— The next, and three succeeding
biennial elections, I was elected to the Legislature— I was not a candidate
afterwards. During this Legislative period I had studied law, and removed to
Springfield to make practice it— In 1846 I was once elected to the lower House
of Congress— Was not a candidate for re-election— From 1849 to 1854, both
inclusive, practiced law more assiduously than ever before— Always a whig in
politics, and generally on the whig electoral tickets, making active canvasses—
I was losing interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise
aroused me again— What I have done since then is pretty well known–
If any personal description of me is thought desired
desirable, it may be said, I am, in height, six feet, four inches, nearly; lean
in flesh, weighing, on an average, one hundred and eighty pounds; dark
complexion, with coarse black hair, and grey eyes — no other marks or brands
recollected—
SOURCE: Abraham Lincoln Papers
at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
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