– Early Years –

It is a great piece of folly to attempt to make anything out of me or my early life. It can all be condensed into a single sentence, and that sentence you will find in Gray’s Elegy, ‘The short and simple annals of the poor.’ That’s my life, and that’s all you or anyone else can make out of it.

—Lincoln’s response to John L. Scripps of the Chicago Tribune when asked for material to be used in a campaign biography, from Herndon’s Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life by William H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik

Good boys who to their books apply Will all be great men by and by.

—Doggerel penned by Lincoln as a youngster for his friend Joseph C. Richardson, from The Hidden Lincoln: From the Letters and Papers of William H. Herndon edited by Emanuel Hertz

Abraham Lincoln,
His hand and pen,

He will be good,
But God knows when.

—Doggerel written by Lincoln as a youngster in his notebook, from Herndon’s Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life by William H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik

My dear Sir:

Herewith is a little sketch, as you requested. There is not much of it, for the reason, I suppose, that there is not much of me. If anything be made out of it, I wish it to be modest, and not to go beyond the material. If it were thought necessary to incorporate anything from any of my speeches, I suppose there would be no objection. Of course it must not appear to have been written by myself.

I was born February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families—second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks. . . . 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 was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education. Of course when I came of age I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher to the Rule of Three; but that was all. I have not been to school since. The little advance I now have upon this store of education, I have picked up from time to time under the pressure of necessity.

—Excerpt from short sketch of his life that Lincoln wrote at the request of friend and supporter, J. W. Fell, for a biographical article, December 20, 1859

I can say this, that among my earliest recollections I remember how, when a mere child, I used to get irritated when anybody talked to me in a way I could not understand. . . . I can remember going to my little bedroom, after hearing the neighbors talk of an evening with my father, and spending no small part of the night walking up and down, and trying to make out what was the exact meaning of some of their, to me, dark sayings. I could not sleep, though I often tried to, when I got on such a hunt after an idea, until I had caught it; and when I thought I had got it, I was not satisfied until I had repeated it over and over, until I had put it in language plain enough, as I thought, for any boy I knew to comprehend.

—Remark to Reverend J. P. Gulliver, from Six Months at the White House with Abraham Lincoln by F. B. Carpenter

They got on board, and I lifted up their heavy trunks, and put them on deck. The steamer was about to put on steam again, when I called out that they had forgotten to pay me. Each of them took from his pocket a silver half-dollar, and threw it on the floor of my boat. I could scarcely believe my eyes as I picked up the money. Gentlemen, you may think it was a very little thing, and in these days it seems to me a trifle; but it was a most important incident in my life. I could scarcely credit that I, a poor boy, had earned a dollar in less than a day,—that by honest work I had earned a dollar. The world seemed wider and fairer before me. I was a more hopeful and confident being from that time.

—Lincoln’s remarks to Secretary Seward and others about how he had earned his first dollar, quoted in Six Months at the White House with Abraham Lincoln by F. B. Carpenter

My heart lies buried there.

—Remark to William H. Herndon about the death of Ann Rutledge, Lincoln’s first love who died in August of 1835, from Herndon’s Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life by William H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik

Friend Mary:

This thing of living in Springfield is rather a dull business after all, at least it is so to me. I am quite as lonesome here as ever was anywhere in my life. I have been spoken to by but one woman since I’ve been here, and should not have been by her, if she could have avoided it. I’ve never been to church yet, nor probably shall not be soon. I stay away because I am conscious I should not know how to behave myself.

I am often thinking about what we said of your coming to live at Springfield. I am afraid you would not be satisfied. There is a great deal of flourishing about in carriages here, which it would be your doom to see without sharing in it. You would have to be poor without the means of hiding your poverty. Do you believe you could bear that patiently? Whatever woman may cast her lot with mine, should any ever do so, it is my intention to do all in my power to make her happy and contented; and there is nothing I can imagine, that would make me more unhappy than to fail in the effort. I know I should be much happier with you than the way I am, provided I saw no signs of discontent in you.

—Letter to Mary S. Owens, May 7, 1837. Though Lincoln was initially ambivalent about his feelings for Owens, it was she who finally ended the relationship by rejecting his marriage proposal.

Others have been made fools of by the girls; but this can never be with truth said of me. I most emphatically, in this instance, made a fool of myself. I have now come to the conclusion never again to think of marrying; and for this reason; I can never be satisfied with any one who would be block-head enough to have me.

—Letter to Mrs. Orville H. Browning, explaining his mortification at Mary S. Owens’s refusal of his marriage proposal, April 1, 1838

Dear Stuart:

Yours of the 3rd. Inst. is recd. & I proceed to answer it as well as I can, tho’ from the deplorable state of my mind at this time I fear I shall give you but little satisfaction. . . . For not giving you a general summary of news, you must pardon me; it is not in my power to do so. I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth. Whether I shall ever be better I cannot tell; I awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible; I must die or be better, it appears to me. . . .

—Letter to John T. Stuart, Lincoln’s law partner, January 23, 1841. Having broken his engagement to Mary Todd weeks before writing this letter, Lincoln fell into a deep depression.

Since then, it seems to me, I should have been entirely happy but for the never-absent idea that there is one still unhappy whom I have contributed to make so. That kills my soul. I cannot but reproach myself for even wishing to be happy while she is otherwise.

—Lincoln’s letter to his lifelong friend Joshua F. Speed, referring to his broken engagement with Mary Todd, March 1842

Nothing new here, except my marrying, which to me, is matter of profound wonder.

—Closing remark in letter to Samuel D. Marshall, November 11, 1842