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THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Explanatory
IN presenting to the public a facsimile of Abraham Lincoln's Autobiography, it is due to the memory of that great man, that a brief statement be made of the circumstances which it was written. In the Autumn of 1858, during the celebrated discussion between Senator Douglas and Mr. Lincoln, I had occasion to travel in the Middle and Eastern States, and finding there a laudable curiosity to learn something more of the latter than was then generally known, and looking too, to the possibilities of his becoming an available candidate for the Presidency in 1860, I applied to him for a brief history of his early life.
After repeated efforts on my part, in December 1859, he placed in my hands a manuscript, of which the following is a copy in facsimile, written with that freedom and unreserve which one friend would exercise in talking to another, and in which his peculiar conversational style is so happily set forth.
I need scarcely add that this simple unadorned statement of his was not intended for publication, but merely to give a few facts relating to his early history.
Jesse W. Fell.
Normal, Illinois.
March 20th, 1872.
Extract from a Speech of Mr. Lincoln's delivered at Springfield, June 16h, 1858.
“A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this Government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.”
Remarks of Mr. Lincoln at the Dedication of the Gettysburg Cemetery, November, 1863.
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this Continent a new Nation conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now, we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here, have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this Nation, under God, shall have a new birth of Freedom, and that Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Extract from Mr. Lincoln's Last Inaugural, delivered March 4th, 1865.
“Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet if God will that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty hears of unrequited toil, shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn by the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said that the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the word we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphans, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves, and with all Nations.
I was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families — ninth
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"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 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—
Hon. J. W. Fell
A. Lincoln
[seal of the United States]
Washington, D. C. March 20. [?]
We the undersigned hereby certify that the foregoing statement is in the hand writing of Abraham Lincoln.
David Davis
Lyman Trumbull
Charles Sumner
REPRODUCED BY THE EDWARD T. KELLY COMPANY, CHICAGO, WITH THE PERMISSION OF THE HEIRS AND DESCENDANTS OF JESSE W. FELL.
COPYRIGHT