The Chemawa American, March 01, 1916, Page 17, Image 17

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THE CHEMA WA AMERICAN
“ It is a stran g e fact” m used Dr. H u n t, “ th a t three of our greatest
m en— W ashington, A ndrew Jackson and L incoln— never read a book
w hen they could help it, or for the joy of reading. L incoln developed
his own m ind w ith o u t im itatin g the th o u g h ts and conclusions of others
as recorded in books.
T he main body of L in co ln 's papers is in possession of his son, Robert
L incoln, and will come eventually to the L ibrary of C ongress. These
are m ainly the state papers and are m ostly well know n. T hey are of
m uch less intim ate interest than those of Mr. Jesse W eik, of G reen­
castle, In d ., who ow ns most of the papers p ertain in g to L in co ln ’s early
life. Many of these were gathered together by L in co ln ’s law p artn er,
W illiam H . H ern d o n , for use in th e preparation of his biography of
A braham L incoln. T h e W eik collection of papers is the most rem a rk ­
able and in terestin g , containing as it does the ru.ie epistles of the early
friends of the Lincoln fam ily, who were draw n from the very hum blest
class.
“ W eik also has m any of the law papers of H erndon and L incoln, but
these are not of m uch historical value, being briefs and other legal d o cu ­
m ents draw n up by L incoln. In the iaw he was a careful and good
law yer, and m ethodical in conducting the affairs of others, although he
had no m ethod in co n d u ctin g his own affairs.
“ Lincoln stood for the rig h ts of the common m an, b u t he did not
when President attem p t to govern by m eans of common m en. H e s u r­
rounded him self in official life, for the most part, w ith men of training-
in the G overnm ent affairs, and he had no an tip ath y tow ard any man
who had superior social associations to his ow n. An instance of th at
is the confidence he placed in John Hay— a litterateu r, scholar and poet.
A nd while he was in the W hite H ouse he may have shocked his visi­
tors by his uncouth attitudes; nevertheless, he observed all the form s
th a t were usual and according to the trad itio n s of the E xecutive
M ansion.
“ W hen Lincoln was in Illinois his acquaintances were m ainly the
ordinary run of politicans, and hardly any of his friends rose to
N ational im portance. Tw o exceptions were E lih u B. W ashburn, long
tim e a member of Congress, S ecretary of S tate and M inister to F rance,
and Senator Lym an T rum bull. H e was very little know n in th e E ast
and was nom inated by W estern votes. An in terestin g result of L in ­
co ln ’s friendship w ith W ashburn was th at W ash b u rn first introduced
to his notice U lysses S. G ran t. W ashburn had know n G ran t at Balena,
111., and took him out of the tan n ery w here he was w orking for his fa th ­
er, and succeeded in g ettin g him a com m isson in the A rm y. G ra n t's
m ilitary prom otions were all made at the request of W ash b u rn , a l­
th o u g h his requests had their foundation in G ra n t’s achievem ents.