When they started to New Orleans their boat got stuck on a dam in the Sangamon River at New Salem, but Mr. Lincoln thought out a good plan for getting it off and they finally reached New Orleans in May 1831. They remained there a month. It was a large city and was very interesting to Abraham. It was the great business center of the South, and as negro slavery was a very prominent feature of the South, they saw it in all its wickedness. At New Orleans one day, John Hanks and Abraham were walking along the street and came to a slave market. They saw a beautiful slave girl put up for sale. They pinched her and trotted her up and down the street just as you would a horse to show its fine parts. This disgusted Abraham so much that he turned to Hanks and said, "John, if I ever get a chance to hit that thing (slavery) I will hit it hard." Strange was it not that he should be the man that would hit it so hard that it died.
When he returned from New Orleans, Mr. Offut hired him to take charge of a little store at New Salem, which he started. This town was a very little village twenty miles north-west of Springfield. The place where it was located is now simply a pasture for cattle and sheep, the town having entirely passed away; but it will always be noted in history as the place where Abraham Lincoln, the great man lived and conducted a store. Thus you see that men are so much more important than places, and it is their deeds that make history. In after years when Mr. Douglas was debating with Mr. Lincoln he joked him about this store keeping, and said that he sold liquor over the New Salem bar. When it came Mr. Lincoln's turn to reply, he was just as witty in his reply and said that if he did sell liquor over the New Salem bar as his friend had said, he could assure his audience that the best patron he had was Stephen A. Douglas. This was simply a joke between these two debaters; but it illustrates how quick Mr. Lincoln's wit was.
We all no doubt think ourselves honest; but I wonder if we are as strictly honest as Mr. Lincoln was. After measuring out some tea for a lady one evening in the store, he gave it to her. After attending to other work in the store, he happened to pass by the scales and noticed he had made a mistake and given her too little. He measured out the difference, wrapped it up, and although the woman lived a long distance away, he hastened off to bring her the difference. Perhaps the most of us might have thought that we would wait until she came in again and give it to her and perhaps then forget all about it; but that was not Mr. Lincoln's way. One evening after discovering that he had taken six and a fourth cents too much from a customer, he walked three miles and returned the money at once. He also was postmaster, but the postoffice was so small and did such a little business that the government closed it up. They neglected, however, to get the balance due them of about sixteen dollars. Many years afterwards when Mr. Lincoln was living in Springfield, the agent for the government came to his office for the money. In the meantime Mr. Lincoln had been through some very great poverty, and often needed just a little money very much. I presume many people would have borrowed that sixteen dollars for the time and returned it when the agent came for it. A friend of Mr. Lincoln's called him to one side when the agent came for the money, and said he knew he was poor, and probably did not have that amount with him, and he would loan it to him; but Mr. Lincoln said he did not need it, and asking the agent to wait awhile, he went over to his room and got an old sock out of his trunk and bringing this back to the office, untied it and dumped on the table the exact money he had received as the postmaster many years before. Here is a good lesson for us in strict and exact honesty. This instance illustrates Mr. Lincoln's very strict honesty, and as he became known about New Salem, and this characteristic was seen by the people, he was nicknamed "Honest Abe," and this name for honesty went with him ever afterward, and when he would speak to the jury in a law suit, and tell them the facts, they would always believe him because he was known as "Honest Abe," and would not tell a lie. So you see that it was a very great advantage to him in after years to have been so strictly honest. It proves the old saying true, that "Honesty is the best policy."
Mr. Offut, Abraham's employer was very proud of his strength and was wont to boast of it very often. There was a settlement near New Salem called Clary's Grove. A large number of young men who lived in that vicinity ran together and were known as the Clary's Grove boys. They were large and strong young men, and very much given to fun and sport. They were rude and rough and would wrestle, fight and do a great many tricks. Abraham, being a stranger bragged on by his employer they thought it was necessary to "take the starch out of him," so they put up their best man, Jack Armstrong to wrestle against Abraham. Jack Armstrong was a square built fellow and strong as an ox. Abraham did not like this sort of thing, but it was hard to avoid it. So they met on a certain day for the wrestling match. The crowd came to witness the contest. For a long time they struggled without either gaining a victory, and both keeping on their feet. Finally Armstrong made a foul and this made Abraham furious, so he caught Jack by the throat, held him out at arm's length and shook him as though he was only a child. Armstrong's friends rushed to his aid, but Abraham backed up to the building and stood ready. His friends came to his support, and when all knew about Armstrong's trick and also recognized Abraham's wonderful strength, they became admirers of him, and ever after the Clary's Grove boys were staunch friends of Mr. Lincoln.
He used the influence thus acquired to teach them that the mind is the measure of the man, and not physical strength and by his example taught them that to cultivate the mind by reading and study was the more important thing and he did them a great deal of good.
CHAPTER IV.
While Abraham clerked in Mr. Offut's store he studied hard. Some one told him he ought to study grammar. In all the neighborhood there was but one grammar. He heard where it was, and started off at once, and got Kirkham's grammar. He applied himself to learning it, and would recite to his friend, Green, and then would consult the school teacher, Mr. Graham about points. In a few weeks he had learned it, and then took up other studies. The men thereabouts, seeing him study so much, got the idea that he was going to be a great man.
One morning in April, 1832, a messenger from the governor came into New Salem, scattering circulars asking for volunteers for the Black Hawk war. Black Hawk was one of the Indian chiefs who had caused the government a great deal of trouble.
He made an attack on the settlers. The governor called for help, and volunteers. Mr. Lincoln with a number of the Clary's Grove boys and others about New Salem volunteered and went down to Beardstown on the 22nd of April, 1832 to form a regiment. They did not have regular uniform, but each was dressed in whatever clothing he had. Many of them wore buckskin breeches and coonskin caps. Each man had his own blanket, and carried flint lock rifles, with a powder horn slung over his shoulder. Mr. Kirkpatrick wanted to be captain, and Lincoln thought he would like to be. This same Mr. Kirkpatrick had owed Abraham some money for a long time and would not pay it; so Lincoln said to a friend, he would run for the place, and may be Kirkpatrick would pay him. Each one stood out, and the men were told to stand beside the man they preferred for captain, and about two-thirds of them stood beside Lincoln, and thus he was made captain. He said afterwards when he was president, that he was never so proud of any election as that. They were not very well trained soldiers, and Mr. Lincoln did not know the commands very well. One day he wanted to get his company through a gateway, and he said, "I could not for the life of me remember the word of command for getting my company endwise so that it would get through the gate. So as we came near the gate, I shouted, this company will disband for two minutes, then it will fall in again on the other side of the gate."