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In getting up these little sketches of the life of Mr. Lincoln it is not my intention to go into a general history of his life, for after he was elected to the Legislature in 1834 his grand and noble life was an open book and is known and read by all men, but to speak of those little things that led him up step by step to that honorable and noble life. It may be an encouragement for may young men to follow his example.

The first thing he undertook after coming to Illinois, worth mentioning, and that started him on his way to the White House, was his trip down the Sangamon river on a flat boat loaded down with produce. He was twenty-one years old, dressed in buckskin pants, butternut colored jeans coat, checked shirt and straw hat. If a casual observer had been told that the young man was starting for the White house at Washington he would probably have said such a thing was impossible. But nevertheless such were the facts of the case, for inside of that checked shirt and jeans coat was an honest, generous and noble heart; inside of that straw hat was a head filled with good, solid horse sense, and the good Lord had blessed him with an indomitable will, a sound body, a good pair of eyes and a good memory. He commenced using his eyes and memory as soon as the boat started down stream. He spied out snags, sandbars, overhanging trees and other obstructions to navigation and remembered them, which secured him the position of pilot on a steamboat that ran up the Sangamon river the next year. His boat floated down the Sangamon, Illinois and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, where he sold boat and produce for a good price. He remained there

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long enough to visit the slave market and to see husbands and wives, parents and children torn from each other’s arms to be separated perhaps forever. These things he also remembered, and when turning away he said to his companion, "If ever I get a chance I will strike that thing, and I will strike it hard"—meaning the institution of slavery. As time rolled on his opportunity to strike came and the slaves were freed!

He went to the steamboat landing to take passage for St. Louis, but instead of paying $40 for a passage and spending his time drinking, smoking and playing cards as the other young men did, he went to the captain and asked him if he wanted another hand on the boat. The captain told him to come around the next morning and he could have work, so he got his passage free and made a nice little sum of money besides. When he got to St. Louis he found the Illinois river steamboat had just left and that there would not be another one going for several days. He left his baggage with his partner and went across the country to Coles county to visit his parents, but did not stay long, as he was anxious to return to New Salem and turn over the money to the man who had shipped the produce. That transaction showed the people that he was capable and honest and he immediately received employment as a clerk and was afterwards appointed postmaster and county surveyor. This was another step towards the White House.

The next spring he was looking over a newspaper and saw that a steamboat was to come up the Illinois river with the intention of running up the Sangamon as far as Springfield. Learning what time she would reach Beardstown Mr. Lincoln set out afoot for that place, and when the steamboat Talisman landed and threw out her gang plank, he was the first person to step on board. He offered his services to pilot the boat up the Sangamon river, telling the captain that he had navigated that stream in a flat boat and knew where all the obstructions were, so he was secured to pilot the boat to Springfield and back for $50. The running of a steamboat on the Sangamon river caused a wonderful excitement in Springfield, and, in fact, in all the country round about, for at that time no railroads had been built

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and the merchants and farmers had to haul their goods and produce to and from St. Louis, a distance of ninety-five miles. It took from ten days to two weeks to make a trip, but now they were to have a market right at home.

When the legislature had passed a law a few years before declaring the Sangamon a navigable stream, little was thought of it. Now Lincoln had taken a flatboat load of produce down the river and had brought a steamboat up, which demonstrated the fact to a certainty that Sangamon river was navigable stream. Great crowds of people came from all parts of the country to see her, as few had ever seen a steamboat. She laid at the wharf near Springfield a week and during that time Lincoln was the hero of the occasion. He took advantage of this by getting acquainted with the people, making several speeches and shaking hands with every one. He got acquainted with more people during that one week than he could have met in three months in traveling around the country. It was on this occasion that Mr. Lincoln’s friends brought him out for the legislature. There was another circumstance connected with the running of the steamboat up the Sangamon that benefited Mr. Lincoln. It induced almost every man who had land above high water to have it laid out in town lots, and Mr. Lincoln got several fat jobs of surveying.

Mr. Lincoln had become very popular among the people because he had been so fair and honorable in all his dealings, and he would no doubt have been elected to the legislature had not the Democrats put up grand old Peter Cartwright, the Methodist circuit rider and camp-meeting orator. Cartwright had the advantage because he had preached in every church and school house and at every camp-meeting in the county and had lived in the county six years longer than Lincoln. He also had the advantage in age, being forty-seven years old, while Lincoln was but twenty-three. Cartwright had served a term in the legislature and was one of the best members in that body, therefore the people sent him back by a small majority over Lincoln. That was the only time Lincoln was ever beaten for office, and the only time Cartwright was ever beaten for office was by Lincoln in 1846, when they were running for Congress. It was unfortunate

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for the people that both of these noble men could not have been elected. Peter Cartwright was a simon pure Andrew Jackson Democrat and Abraham Lincoln was a Henry Clay Whig.

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