In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

55 3 Schooling in Lincoln’s America and Lincoln’s Extraordinary Self-Schooling Myron Marty Abraham Lincoln’s climb to the peak of what Kenneth J. Winkle calls the “occupational ladder” characteristic of nineteenth-century Illinois shows that, from early in life, he was a person to be reckoned with. At age twenty-two, after living and working as a farmer, he served a stint as a flatboatman on the Mississippi River. He was also a miller and a store clerk at that age. At age twenty-eight, he was officially enrolled as an attorney by the clerk of the Illinois Supreme Court. In overlapping episodes along the way, he was alsoa militia captain, a merchant, a postmaster, a surveyor, and a legislator.1 Schooling played a part in his climb, of course, but he aptly referred to it on one occasion as “defective.” It was something he and his peers got “by littles.”2 From the mid-1830s through the 1850s, while engaging in systematic selfschooling , Lincoln made a name for himself in the Illinois legislature and his law practice. By 1859, he was attracting attention beyond Illinois, and that year he sent a sketch of his life to Jesse W. Fell, secretary of the Illinois Republican state central committee, who had requested it on behalf of a Pennsylvania newspaper. “There is not much of it,” Lincoln wrote, “for the reason, I suppose, that there is not much of me.” Here is how he recalled his schooling on this occasion: My father, at the death of his father, was but six years of age; and he grew up, literally 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 56 Myron Marty 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 wizzard [sic]. There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education. Of course when I came of age I did not know much. . . . The little advance I now have upon this store of education, I have picked up from time to time under the pressure of necessity. Whatever the newspaper wrote about him, Lincoln suggested, should be modest, in keeping with the modesty of his sketch, although incorporating material from his speeches would be acceptable.3 By June 1860, Lincoln and others were contemplating the possibility that he might be chosen as the Republican Party’s candidate for president that year, and, as he was relatively unknown beyond Illinois, it was natural for prospective biographers to pursue him for information. He evidently prepared a form letter to be sent by his secretary, John G. Nicolay, to such persons stating that “applications of this class are so numerous that it is simply impossible for him to attend to them.” Nonetheless, he recognized the need for a campaign biography, and when John L. Scripps, a writer for the Chicago Press and Tribune, sought his assistance in preparing Life of Abraham Lincoln, he responded. Writing in the third person, he was again self-effacing about his schooling: “A. now thinks that the aggregate of all his schooling did not amount to one year. He was never in a college or Academy as a student; and never inside of a college or academy building till since he had a law license. What he has in the way of education he has picked up.”4 Admire as we must Lincoln’s intellect and accomplishments, his meager schooling notwithstanding, it is useful to recall that other middle-aged men in his times, particularly those reared in the rural South and Midwest, could have described their schooling in similar terms. Not that their parents and communities discounted the need for learning. In fact, they encouraged it, particularly in families, as learning on countless matters was passed on from generation to generation. Learning occurred also in workplaces, whether on farms or through apprenticeships in the shops of the towns and cities, and in churches. And schools had always been a part of American life. In pre-Revolutionary America, schools were typically church-sponsored or otherwise privately operated. Attendance was voluntary...

Share