HOW LINCOLN BECAME KNOWN AS “HONEST ABE.”
As a grocery clerk at New Salem Lincoln was scrupulously honest. This trait of his soon became known, but the two following incidents are particularly responsible for the appellation of “Honest Abe,” given him and by which he has been so familiarly known. He once took six and a quarter cents too much from a customer. He did not say to himself, “never mind such little things,” but walked three miles that evening, after closing his store, to return the money. On another occasion he weighed out a half-pound of tea, as he supposed, it being night when he did so, and that having been the last thing he sold in the store before going home. On entering in the morning he discovered a four-ounce weight on the scales. He saw his mistake, and shutting up shop, hurried off to deliver the remainder of the tea. These acts of his, as well as his thorough honesty in other respects, soon gained for him the now famous title of “Honest Abe.”
LINCOLN WAS AN “OBLIGING” MAN.
Lincoln was always ready to help any man, woman, child or animal. He was naturally kindhearted, and “possessed in an extraordinary degree the power of entering into the interests of others, a power found only in reflective, unselfish natures.” He loved his friends and sympathized with them in their troubles. He was anxious always to do his share in making their labors day after day as light as possible.
Thus we are told by his neighbors (biography by Mr. Herndon and others) that he cared for the children while on a visit to a friend’s house; gave up his own bed in the tavern where he was boarding when the house was full, and slept on the counter; helped farmers pull out the wheel of their wagon when it got stuck in the mud; chopped wood for the widows; rocked the cradle while the woman of the house where he was staying was busy getting the meal, and otherwise made himself useful. No wonder there was not a housewife in all New Salem who would not gladly “put on a plate” for Abe Lincoln, or who would not darn or mend for him whenever he needed such services. It was the “spontaneous, unobtrusive helpfulness of the man’s nature which endeared him to everybody.”
HOW LINCOLN PAID A LARGE DEBT.
Mr. Lincoln went into partnership in the grocery business in New Salem. Ill., with a man named Berry. This man Berry mismanaged the business while Lincoln was away surveying. Eventually he died, leaving Lincoln to pay a debt of eleven hundred dollars contracted by the firm. In those days it was the fashion for business men who had failed to “clear out,” that is, skip the town and settle elsewhere. Not so with “Abe.” He quietly settled down among the men he owed and promised to pay them. He asked only time. For several years he worked to pay off this debt, a load which he cheerfully and manfully bore. He habitually spoke of it to his friends as the “national debt,” it was so heavy. As late as 1848, when he was a member of Congress, he sent home a part of his salary to be applied on these obligations. All the notes, with the high interest rates then prevailing, were finally paid.