. Abraham Lincoln and the downfall of American slavery. ingness again ; large tracts of land were covered withcabins of settlers and were again depopulated as the fancyof the wandering tribes seized them. New Salem wasvery new when Lincoln was stuck on the dam before it;he spent only a short time there, giving it an immortalityof name that few villages ever earn ; it faded away intonothingness and its site was forgotten, after he went managing the country store, as in every thing thathe undertook for others, Lincoln did his very best. Hewas honest, civil, ready to do any thing that sho
. Abraham Lincoln and the downfall of American slavery. ingness again ; large tracts of land were covered withcabins of settlers and were again depopulated as the fancyof the wandering tribes seized them. New Salem wasvery new when Lincoln was stuck on the dam before it;he spent only a short time there, giving it an immortalityof name that few villages ever earn ; it faded away intonothingness and its site was forgotten, after he went managing the country store, as in every thing thathe undertook for others, Lincoln did his very best. Hewas honest, civil, ready to do any thing that should en-courage customers to come to the place, full of pleasantries,patient, and alert. On one occasion, finding, late at night,when he counted over his cash, that he had taken a fewcents from a customer more than was due, he closed thestore and walked a long distance to make good the de-ficiency. At another time, discovering on the scales, inthe morning, a weight with which he had weighed out apackage of tea for a woman, the night before, he saw that. HIS CHIVALRY. 5 I fie had given her too little for her money ; he weighed outwhat was due and carried it to her, much to the surpriseof the woman, who had not known that she was short inthe amount of her purchase. Innumerable incidents ofthis sort are related of Lincoln ; and we should not havespace to tell of the alertness with which he sprung toprotect defenceless women from insult, or feeble childrenfrom tyranny; for in the rude community in which helived, the rights of the defenceless were not alwaysrespected as they should have been. There were bulliesthen, as now. Lincoln soon had a taste of the quality of some ofthese. Not far from New Salem was a group of farms inwhat was known as Clarys Grove. The Clarys Groveboys, as the overgrown young men of the settlementwere called, were rude, boisterous, swaggering, and tre-mendous fighters. They cast their eyes on the youngstranger at Offutts store, so well liked by the women, and
Size: 1255px × 1990px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecad, booksubjectslavery, booksubjectslaves
