Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), the sixteenth President of the United States, is best known for preserving the Union during the American Civil War and for the emancipation of the slaves.
Of humble origins, Lincoln was a self educated lawyer in frontier Illinois, noted not only for his shrewdness and practical common sense, but also for his invariable fairness and honesty.
His style of leadership came from his confidence in “The People” and his belief that all are to have equal access to the resources of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Before his election in 1860, Lincoln had been a country lawyer, an Illinois state legislator, a member of the United States House of Representatives, and twice an unsuccessful candidate for election to the U.S. Senate. Lincoln is also the only US president to hold a patent.
The poet Walt Whitman, who spent much of the Civil War in Washington, often saw President Lincoln on the street. Whitman wrote in 1863, “I think well of the President. He has a face like a Hoosier Michael Angelo, so awful ugly it becomes beautiful with its strange mouth, its deep cut, criss-cross lines, and its doughnut complexion.” Lincoln described himself as ...“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.”
“... Just look at 'Old Abe,' and from that time we all called him "Old Abe." No one who saw him can forget his personal appearance at that time. Tall, angular and awkward, he had on a short-waisted, thin swallow-tail coat, a short vest of same material, thin pantaloons, scarcely coming down to his ankles, a straw hat and a pair of brogans with woolen socks.
“I am slow to learn and slow to forget that which I have learned. My mind is like a piece of steel—very hard to scratch anything on it, and almost impossible after you get it there to rub it out.” ~ Herndon's Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life (1889)
The Creative Process publishes and distributes Frank Szasz's portrait of Abraham Lincoln in poster, notecard, and bookmark formats with the quote “I am a slow walker but I never walk back...”. The quote alludes to the criticism of the Radical Republicans, an abolitionist faction of the Republican Party, for moving too slowly in abolishing slavery.
“I was losing interest in politics when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again.” related by Elihu B. Washburn as letter to a friend. ~ Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln: by distinguished men of his time, ~ Rice, Allen Thorndike, 1851-1889, ed, Internet Archive
“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.” - Gettysburg Address | Project Gutenberg
“Freedom is the last, best hope for Earth.” ~ Annual Message to Congress, Concluding Remarks, Washington, DC, December 1, 1862
“What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling sea coasts, the guns of our war steamers, or the strength our our gallant and disciplined army. These are not our reliance against a resumption of tyranny in our fair land. All of them may be turned against our liberties, without making us stronger or weaker for the struggle. Our reliance is in the love of libertywhich God has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all man, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism at your own door.” September 11, 1858: From a Speech at Edwardsville, Illinois (see https://www.nps.gov/liho/learn/historyculture/independence-hall.htm)
The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves - in their separate, and individual capacities. In all that the people can individually do as well for themselves, government ought not to interfere. The desirable things which the individuals of a people can not do, or can not well do, for themselves, fall into two classes: those which have relation to wrongs, and those which have not. Each of these branch off into an infinite variety of subdivisions. The first - that in relation to wrongs - embraces all crimes, misdemeanors, and nonperformance of contracts. The other embraces all which, in its nature, and without wrong, requires combined action, as public roads and highways, public schools, charities, pauperism, orphanage, estates of the deceased, and the machinery of government itself. From this it appears that if all men were just, there still would be some, though not so much, need for government.
Fragment on Government (1 July 1854?) in "The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln", ed. Roy P. Basler, Vol. 2, pp. 220-221
“It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.” According to The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln (1867) by F. B. Carpenter, Lincoln quoted this as having been said to him by a fellow-passenger in a stagecoach.
“I intend no modification of my oft-expressed wish that all men everywhere should be free.” - Abraham Lincoln
Excellence “Whatever you are, be a good one.” Abraham Lincoln
Think “I spend two-thirds of the time thinking what people want to hear and one-third thinking about what I want to say.” Abraham Lincoln
“Commitment is what transforms a promise into reality.” attributed
Text of Grace Bedell's letter-
Hon A B Lincoln...
Dear Sir My father has just home from the fair and brought home your picture and Mr. Hamlin's. I am a little girl only 11 years old, but want you should be President of the United States very much so I hope you wont think me very bold to write to such a great man as you are. Have you any little girls about as large as I am if so give them my love and tell her to write to me if you cannot answer this letter. I have got 4 brothers and part of them will vote for you any way and if you let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be President. My father is going to vote for you and if I was a man I would vote for you to but I will try to get every one to vote for you that I can I think that rail fence around your picture makes it look very pretty I have got a little baby sister she is nine weeks old and is just as cunning as can be. When you direct your letter direct to Grace Bedell Westfield Chautauqua County New York.
I must not write any more answer this letter right off Good bye
Grace Bedell
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Text of Lincoln's response:
Springfield, Ill Oct 19, 1860
Miss Grace Bedell
My dear little Miss
Your very agreeable letter of the 15th is received - I regret the necessity of saying I have no daughters - I have three sons - one seventeen, one nine, and one seven years of age - They, with their mother, constitute my whole family - As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affectation if I were to begin it now?
