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49 ( I]ZA^cXdac"7jgch8dccZXi^dc In the fall of 1859, an old friend J. W. Fell of Springfield, Illinois, asked Abraham Lincoln for a brief biography to use in promoting his presidential aspirations. On December 20, 1859, Lincoln wrote the following: I was born February 12, 1809, in Hardin Co., Ky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families—second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks, some of whom now reside in Adams Co. and others in Mason Co., Ill. My paternal grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, emigrated from Rockingham Co., Va., to Kentucky, about 1781 or 1782 where a year or two later he was killed by the 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 Co., Pa. 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 grew up literally without any education. He removed from Kentucky to what is now Spencer Co., Ind., 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 ‘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 wizard. 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 the store of education I have picked up from time to time under the pressure of necessity. the lincoln-burns connection 50 I was raised to farm work, at which I continued till I was twentytwo . At twenty-one I came to Illinois, and passed the first year in Macon County. Then I got to New Salem, at that time in Sangamon, now 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 I have had since. I went into the campaign, was elected, ran for the Legislature the same year (1832), and was beaten—the only time I have ever been beaten by the people. The next and three succeeding biennial elections I was elected to the Legislature. I was not a candidate afterward. During the legislative period I had studied law, and removed to Springfield to practice it. In 1846 I was 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 ticket, 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 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 gray eyes—no other marks or brands recollected. Yours very truly, A. Lincoln1 Here, succinctly, is the life of the man about whom more words have been written than any other person in history, save Jesus Christ. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, Lincoln still stands as the central figure of the American past. In December 2006, the editors of the Atlantic ranked him first in their list of “the 100 most influential Americans of all time.” During his Indiana and Illinois years, the young Lincoln, who was gifted with a prodigious memory, learned many of Burns’s poems...

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