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“How I Earned my First Dollar”
In the Executive Chamber one evening, there were present a number of gentlemen, among them Mr. Seward.
A point in the conversation suggesting the thought, the President said: “Seward, you never heard, did you, how I earned my first dollar?” “No,” rejoined Mr. Seward. “Well,” continued Mr. Lincoln,
I was about eighteen years of age. I belonged, you know, to what they call down South, the “scrubs;” people who do not own slaves are nobody there. But we had succeeded in raising, chiefly by my labor, sufficient produce, as I thought, to justify me in taking it down the river to sell.
After much persuasion, I got the consent of mother to go, and constructed a little flatboat, large enough to take a barrel or two of things that we had gathered, with myself and little bundle, down to New Orleans. A steamer was coming down the river. We have, you know, no wharves on the Western streams; and the custom was, if passengers were at any of the landings, for them to go out in a boat, the steamer stopping and taking them on board.
I was contemplating my new flatboat, and wondering whether I could make it stronger or improve it in any particular, when two men came down to the shore in carriages with trunks, and looking at the different boats singled out mine, and asked, “Who owns this?” I answered, somewhat modestly, “I do.” “Will you,” said one of them, “take us and our trunks out to the steamer?” “Certainly,” said I. I was very glad to have the chance of earning something. I supposed that each of them would give me two or three bits. The trunks were put on my flatboat, the passengers seated themselves on the trunks, and I sculled them out to the steamboat.
They got on board, and I lifted up their heavy trunks, and put them on deck. The steamer was about to put on steam again, when I called out that they had forgotten to pay me. Each of them took from his pocket a silver half-dollar, and threw it on the floor of my boat. I could scarcely believe my eyes as I picked up the money. Gentlemen, you may think it was a very little thing, and in these days it seems to me a trifle; but it was a most important incident in my life. I could scarcely credit that I, a poor boy, had earned a dollar in less than a day,–that by honest work I had earned a dollar. The world seemed wider and fairer before me. I was a more hopeful and confident being from that time.
Quoted in Francis B. Carpenter, The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln: Six Months at the White House (New York:Hurd and Houghton, 1867), p96
This friendly spirit on the part of the President made the captain think that he ought to reciprocate the courtesy; so on one occasion, when we were all sitting on the quarter-deck, the captain undertook to contribute some rather uninteresting personal reminiscences, that had no point whatever to them, – in fact, they merely related to the various positions he had held in the mercantile marine, and the amount of wages he had received from the different parties that had employed him, with various other insignificant items of information of no interest except to himself, – when the President, who, in spite of his uniform good-nature, began to feel extremely bored, suggested by way of checking the captain’s loquacity, that he, too, had been something of a sailor, and would give a little of his experience in that capacity. Whereupon he gave us his own version of an incident in his life that I have since heard repeated with a very different significance,
“When I was a young man,” said Mr. Lincoln, “about eighteen years of age, I was living in Kentucky, and, like everybody else in that part of the country at that time, I was obliged to struggle pretty hard for a living. I had been at work all winter helping a man distill a quantity of whisky, and as there was little or no money in the country, I was obliged to take the pay for my winter’s services in whisky.” Turning to Mr. Chase with a quizzical look, he added; “You were not around in those days. Chase, with your greenback printing-machine. Whisky,” he continued, “ was more plentiful than almost anything else, and I determined, if possible, to find a market for my share in some other locality, so as to get the largest amount possible for my winter’s work. Hearing that a man living a short distance up the Ohio River was building a flat-boat to send to New Orleans as soon as the water in the river was at a proper stage, I paid him a visit and made an agreement with him that if he would take my whisky to that city I would go with him and work my passage. Before the boat was completed and ready to start, I made up my mind that I should find a good deal of whisky in New Orleans when I arrived there, and having found a man who had a lot of tobacco that he was sending to market, I made a trade with him for half of my whisky, so that if whisky should be down when I got there, tobacco might be up, or vice versa ; at any rate, I should not have all my eggs in the same basket. The boat was ready at the proper time, and stopped at our landing for me and my whisky and tobacco.
My short experience as a sailor began from that moment. Our voyage down the river was not attended by much excitement or any catastrophe. Floating with the current during the day, we always tied up to a tree on the bank of the river at night. One evening, just after we had tied up the flat-boat, two men came down to the shore and asked me what I would charge them to row them out in the small-boat that we had with us into the middle of the river to meet a steamboat that was coming up the river, and on which they wanted to take passage. I told them I thought it would be worth a shilling apiece, and the bargain was made. I pulled out into the stream and delivered them safe on board the steamer, and, to my astonishment, received for my services a dollar. It was the first money I had had for some time. On my way back to the flat-boat, I made a calculation to myself that I had been gone about an hour, and that if I could earn a dollar every hour and live long enough, I would be a rich man before I died.” Here Mr. Lincoln’s story ended.
The captain, whose curiosity had been somewhat excited, inquired how the whisky and tobacco sold in New Orleans; but the President, with a peculiar twinkle in his eye, replied: “Captain, I was only relating to you my experience as a marine, not as a merchant,” which hint the captain had the good sense to understand. Lincoln did not refer to the subject again, and I never knew the result of his rather shrewd commercial venture.
In the admirable oration on the life of Lincoln, delivered by Mr. Bancroft before the two houses of Congress, he alluded to this incident as the beginning of the President’s career, – “commencing life as a flat-boatman on the Mississippi,” etc.; but I think Mr. Bancroft was somewhat in error in his conclusions. Mr. Lincoln was never a “flat-boatman.” Flat-boatmen are a peculiar class in the West, – rough, uncouth, almost uncivilized, they are unlike any other class of laborers, and lead a reckless, “devil-may-care” sort of existence. I went up the Mississippi on one occasion when a lot of men from the Wabash were returning home from a flatboat service down the river, and although I have been four years among the Indian tribes, I never saw or heard anything more like savage life than these young fellows exhibited. Mr. Lincoln was not like one of these; and to compare a man of earnest purpose working his way from a youth of privation and penury to the head of a great nation, making the means that presented themselves secure the ends he sought, adapting himself to the situation with a skill akin to genius, – to compare such a man with a class of mere physical toilers is a great error.
Quote in Egbert L. Viele, “A Trip with Lincoln, Chase, and Stanton,” Scribners Monthly 16 (October 1878), p. 816
“If I have One Vice”
Physically, as every one knows, Mr. Lincoln was not a prepossessing man, with scarcely a redeeming feature, save his benignant eye, which was the very symbol of human kindness. “If I have one vice,” he said to me one morning , – “and I can call it nothing else, – it is not to be able to say no ! Thank God,” he continued, “for not making me a woman, but if He had, I suppose He would have made me just as ugly as He did, and no one would ever have tempted me. It was only the other day, a poor parson whom I knew some years ago in Joliet, came to the White House with a sad story of his poverty and his large family, – poor parsons seem always to have large families, – and he wanted me to do something for him. I knew very well that I could do nothing for him, and yet I couldn’t bear to tell him so, and so I said I would see what I could do. The very next day the man came back for the office which he said that I had promised him, – which was not true, but he seemed really to believe it. Of course there was nothing left for me to do except to get him a place through one of the Secretaries. But if I had done my duty, I should have said ‘no’ in the beginning.”
Quote in Egbert L. Viele, “A Trip with Lincoln, Chase, and Stanton,” Scribners Monthly 16 (October 1878), p. 818.
“I Could not have Slept Well To-night”
Lincoln had the tenderest heart for any one in distress, whether man, beast, or bird. Many of the gentle and touching sympathies of his nature, which flowered so frequently and beautifully in the humble citizen at home, fruited in the sunlight of the world when he had power and place. He carried from his home on the prairies to Washington the same gentleness of disposition and kindness of heart.
Six gentlemen, I being one, Lincoln, Baker, Hardin, and others were riding along a country road. We were strung along the road two and two together. We were passing through a thicket of wild plum and crab-apple trees. A violent wind-storm had just occurred. Lincoln and Hardin were behind.
There were two young birds by the roadside too young to fly. They had been blown from the nest by the storm. The old bird was fluttering about and wailing as a mother ever does for her babes. Lincoln stopped, hitched his horse, caught the birds, hunted the nest and placed them in it. The rest of us rode on to a creek, and while our horses were drinking Hardin rode up. ” Where is Lincoln,” said one? ” Oh, when I saw him last he had two little birds in his hand hunting for their nest.” In perhaps an hour he came. They laughed at him. He said with much emphasis, ” Gentlemen, you may laugh, but I could not have slept well to-night, if I had not saved those birds. Their cries would have rung in my ears.” This is one of the flowers of his prairie life. Now for the fruit.
Quoted in Joshua F. Speed, Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln and Notes of a Visit to California(Louisville, Ky.: John P. Morton & Co., 1884), p. 25.
“I am Sorry You did not Think Differently”
To John T. Hanks
Dear John Springfield, Ills. Sep. 24, 1860
Your letter of July 22— was received a few days ago. If your Father and Mother desire you to come home, it is a delicate matter for me to advise you not to do it. Still, as you ask my advice, it is that if you are doing well, you better stick to it. If you have a good start there, and should give it up, you might not get it again, here, or elsewhere. It can not be other than their first wish that you shall do well.
And now, as to politics, I am very much obliged to you for what you offer to do for me in Oregon. This side of the Rocky Mountains things appear reasonably well for the general result. In opposing David Logan, at the late congressional election in Oregon, I suppose you did what you thought was right; and when a man does what he thinks is right, he does the best he can. Still, I am sorry you did not think differently, as I knew David from his childhood, and he studied law in our office when his father and I were partners.
I heard from our relations over at Charleston, about three weeks ago, and they were well then.
Write me again when you receive this. Your Uncle
A. LINCOLN
-Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 4, edited by Roy P. Basler et al.
“Work, Work, Work, is the Main Thing”
To John M. Brockman
J. M. Brockman, Esq Springfield, Ills. Sep. 25. 1860
Dear Sir: Yours of the 24th. asking “the best mode of obtaining a thorough knowledge of the law” is received. The mode is very simple, though laborious, and tedious. It is only to get the books, and read, and study them carefully. Begin with Blackstone’s Commentaries, and after reading it carefully through, say twice, take up Chitty’s Pleading, Greenleaf’s Evidence, & Story’s Equity &c. in succession. Work, work, work, is the main thing.Yours very truly A.Lincoln
-Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 4.
“You must Succeed in it”
Letter to George Latham
Springfield, Ills. July 22, 1860
My dear George
I have scarcely felt greater pain in my life than on learning yesterday from Bob’s letter, that you failed to enter Harvard University. And yet there is very little in it, if you will allow no feeling of discouragement to seize, and prey upon you. It is a certain truth, that you can enter, and graduate in, Harvard University; and having made the attempt, you must succeed in it. “Must” is the word.
I know not how to aid you, save in the assurance of one of mature age, and much severe experience, that you can not fail, if you resolutely determine, that you will not.
The President of the institution, can scarcely be other than a kind man; and doubtless he would grant you an interview, and point out the readiest way to remove, or overcome, the obstacles which have thwarted you.
In your temporary failure there is no evidence that you may not yet be a better scholar, and a more successful man in the great struggle of life, than many others, who have entered college more easily.
Again I say let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you, and in the end you are sure to succeed.
With more than a common interest I subscribe myself Very truly your friend,
A. Lincoln.
Source: Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Roy P. Basler et al.
“That are Smarter at about Five than Ever After”
To Joshua F. Speed [1]
Dear Speed: Springfield, Octr. 22nd. 1846
Owing to my absence, [2] yours of the 10th. Inst. was not received until yesterday. Since then I have been devoting myself to arive [sic] at a correct conclusion upon your matter of business. It may be that you do not precisely understand the nature and result of the suit against you and Bell’s estate. It is a chancery suit, and has been brought to a final decree, in which, you are treated as a nominal party only. The decree is, that Bell’s administrator pay the Nelson Fry debt, out of the proceeds of Bell’s half of the store. [3] So far, you are not injured; because you are released from the debt, without having paid any thing, and Hurst [4] is in no way left liable to you, because the debt he & Bell undertook to pay, is, or will be, paid without your paying it, or any part of it. The question, then, is, “How are you injured?” By diverting so much of the assets of Bell’s estate, to the payment of the Fry debt, the general assets are lessened, and so, will pay a smaller dividend to general creditors; one of which creditors I suppose you are, in effect, as assignor of the note to W. P. Speed. [5] It incidentally enlarges your liability to W. P. Speed; and to that extent, you are injured. How much will this be? I think, $100- or $120- being the dividend of 25 or 30 per cent, that Hurst’s half of the Fry debt, would would [sic] pay on the W. P. S. debt. Hurst’s undertaking was, in effect, that he would pay the whole of the Fry debt, if Bell did not pay any part of it; but it was not his undertaking, that if Bell should pay the whole of it, he would refund the whole, so that Bell should be the better able to pay his other debts. You are not losing on the Fry debt, because that is, or will be paid; but your loss will be on the W. P. S. debt,—a debt that Hurst is under no obligation to indemnify you against. Hurst is bound to account to Bell’s estate, for one half of the Fry debt; because he owed half, and Bell’s estate pays all; and if, upon such accounting any thing is due the estate from Hurst, it will swell the estate, and so far enlarge the dividend to the W. P. S. debt. But when Bell’s estate shall call Hurst to account, he will will [sic] I am informed show that the estate, after paying the whole of the Fry debt is still indebted to him. If so, not much, if any thing can come from that quarter—nothing, unless it can be so turned, as to compel him [to?] pay all he owes the estate, and take a dividend only, upon what the estate owes him. If you had paid the Fry debt yourself, you could then turn on Hurst and make him refund you; but this would only bring [you?] where you started from, excepting it would leave Bell’s estate able to pay a larger dividend; and Hurst would then turn upon the estate to contribute one half, which would enlarge the indebtedness of the estate in the same proportion, and so reduce the dividend again. I believe the only thing that can be done for your advantage in the matter, is for Bell’s administrator to call Hurst to account for one half the Fry debt, and then fight off, the best he can, Hurst’s claim of indebtedness against the estate.
I should be much pleased to see [you?] here again; but I must, in candour, say I do not perceive how your personal presence would do any good in the business matter.
You, no doubt, assign the suspension of our correspondence to the true philosophical cause, though it must be confessed, by both of us, that this is rather a cold reason for allowing a friendship, such as ours, to die by degrees. I propose now, that, on the receipt of this, you shall be considered in my debt, and under obligation to pay soon, and that neither shall remain long in arrears hereafter. Are you agreed?
Being elected to Congress, though I am very grateful to our friends, for having done it, has not pleased me as much as I expected.
We have another boy, born the 10th. of March last. [6] He is very much such a child as Bob [7] was at his age—rather of a longer order. Bob is “short and low,” and, I expect, always will be. He talks very plainly—almost as plainly as any body. He is quite smart enough. I some times fear he is one of the little rare-ripe sort, that are smarter at about five than ever after. He has a great deal of that sort of mischief, that is the offspring of much animal spirits. Since I began this letter a messenger came to tell me, Bob was lost; but by the time I reached the house, his mother had found him, and had him whip[p]ed—and, by now, very likely he is run away again.
Mary has read your letter, and wishes to be remembered to Mrs. S. and you, in which I most sincerely join her. As ever Yours—
A. LINCOLN
Annotation
[1] ALS, IHi.
[2] Lincoln had been on the circuit attending court.
[3] Nelson Fry got a judgment for $810 against William H. Herndon, administrator of James Bell, and Joshua F. Speed, on July 28, 1846.
[4] Charles R. Hurst who had bought Speed’s interest in Bell & Company.
[5] William Pope Speed, a brother.
[6] Edward Baker Lincoln, named for Edward D. Baker.
[7] Robert Todd Lincoln.
-Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 1.
“I Knew Poor Ellsworth Well”
Few men have been appointed of God to bear such burdens as were laid upon President Lincoln. A distracted country, a people at war, all the foundations of society broken up; the cares, trials, and perplexities which came every day without cessation, disaster upon disaster, the loss of those he loved, — Ellsworth, Baker, and his own darling Willie.
A visitor at the White House the day of Ellsworth’s death found him in tears. “I will make no apology, gentlemen,” said he, “for my weakness; but I knew poor Ellsworth well, and held him in great regard. Just as you entered the room. Captain Fox left me, after giving me the painful details of Ellsworth’s unfortunate death. The event was so unexpected, and the recital so touching, that it quite unmanned me. Poor fellow,” he added, “it was undoubtedly a rash act, but it only shows the heroic spirit that animates our soldiers, from high to low, in this righteous cause of ours. Yet who can restrain grief to see them fall in such a way as this, — not by the fortunes of war, but by the hand of an assassin?”
Quoted in “The boys of ’61; or, Four years of fighting”,by Coffin, Charles Carleton, p. 31
“The First Time I Ever Saw Mr. Lincoln”
The first time I ever saw Mr. Lincoln was the day after his nomination by the Chicago Convention. I accompanied the committee appointed to inform him of the action of the Convention to Springfield. It was sunset when we reached the plain, unpretentious two-story dwelling, — his Springfield home. Turning to the left as we entered the hall, and passing into the library, we stood in the presence of a tall man, with large features, great, earnest eyes, a countenance which, once looked upon, forever remembered. He received the committee with dignity and yet with evident constraint of manner. The address of Mr. Ashmun, chairman of the committee, was brief, and so was Mr. Lincoln’s reply. Then followed a general introduction of the party.
There was a pitcher of ice-water and goblets on a stand, but there were no liquors. The next morning a citizen narrated the following incident.
When the telegraph informed Mr. Lincohi’s neighbors that the committee were on their way, a few of his friends called upon him to make arrangements for their reception.
“You must have some refreshments prepared,” said they.
“certainly, certainly. What shall I get? “
“You will want some brandy, whiskey, wines, fec.”
“I can’t do that, gentlemen. I never have kept liquors, and can’t crct them now.”
“Well, we will supply them.”
“No, gentlemen, I can’t permit you to do what I would not do myself. I will furnish good water and enough of it, but no liquors.”
He adhered to his decision ; and thus at the beginning of the contest gave an exhibition of that resoluteness of character, that determination of will to adhere to what he felt was right, which was of such inestimable value to the nation, in carrying the cause of the Union triumphantly through all the dark days of the Rebellion.
Quoted in “The boys of ’61; or, Four years of fighting”,by Coffin, Charles Carleton, p. 31
“Cameron gratefully remembered”
It is proper to mention in this connection that the Cabinet change here described caused no change in the friendship between Lincoln and Cameron. Three or four months afterwards a violent factional assault upon the latter in the House of Representatives resulted in the passage of a resolution of censure, charging Cameron, while Secretary of War, with having adopted in certain transactions ” a policy highly injurious to the p.im public service.” As soon as Mr. Lincoln’s attention was called to the resolution, he wrote and transmitted to the House a special message explaining that the censured “transactions” occurred during the days of the first and extreme peril of the Grovernment, when Washington was cut off from communication with the North by the insurrection in Maryland; that the acts complained of were not done by Cameron exclusively, but were ordered by the President with the full assent of his Cabinet, every member of which, with himself, was equally responsible for the alleged irregularity. Cameron gratefully remembered this voluntary and manly defense of his official integrity. He remained one of the most intimate and devoted of Lincoln’s personal friends, and became one of the earliest and most effective advocates of his renomination and reelection to the Presidency.
Quoted in John G. Nicolay and John Hay, Abraham Lincoln: A History, Vol. I (New York: Century Co., 1917), p. 130. Vol. v.— 9