Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/682

 658 LINCOLN [PRESIDENT. The charities comprise the new county hospital, general dis pensary, lunatic asylum, penitent females home, and institute for mirses. The educational institutions comprise a theological college (formerly old county hospital), grammar school (formerly Grey- friars), blue coat school, training college for mistresses (Newport), St Martin s parochial schools, British schools (in Newland), Wesleyan school, and a school of art. Of other institutions may be named the Lincolnshire agricultural society, permanent library, mechanics institute, county newsroom (above hill), city newsroom, and choral society. The remaining public buildings are the new corn exchange and masonic hall, county a,ssembly-room and theatre in High Street. The public park is near the cattle market, and the racecourse beyond Newland. Population in 1811, 7000; in 1871, 26,766; in 1881, 37,312. For the county and city of Lincoln sec Wm. White, History of Lincolnshire, historic Europe, 181 ; S. H. Miller and S. B. J. Skertclily, The Finland Past and Present, 1878 ; Kev. M. C. Walcott, Memorials of Lincoln, 18GG, and English Minsters, 1879, 2 vo .s. &amp;lt;C. H. C.) LINCOLN, a city of the United States, capital of Logan county, Illinois, is situated near Salt Creek, at the junction of three railways, 145 miles south-west of Chicago. It has fifteen churches, three banks, a high school, a telephone exchange, a coal-mine, two foundries, three flour-mills, five newspapers, and several grain elevators. It is the seat of Lincoln university (Cumberland Presbyterian) and of the State asylum for feeble-minded youth. A portion of the town dates from 1835, but the newer part was named in honour of Abraham Lincoln, and was incorporated in 1853. Population in 1880, 5639. LINCOLN, a city of the United States, county seat_of Lancaster county, Nebraska, and capital of the State. It is pleasantly situated about 50 miles west of the Missouri river, at the junction of several railroads, in the midst of a highly fertile and healthful region of undulating prairie, and near rich salt springs. Lincoln is the seat of the following State institutions : university, State prison, insane asylum, and home for the friendless. The prison and the asylum grounds, occupying several hundred acres, are 3 miles from the centre of the city, and 2 miles from each other. The United States Government has lately completed, at a cost of $200,000, a massive building for collection of revenue, United States courts, and post- office. With its broad streets, its public park, and the State House and other grounds, the healthful ventilation of Lincoln is amply provided for. It has three daily papers, four banks, one of the largest printing and publish ing houses west of the Mississippi, and several prosperous wholesale stores. Although but thirteen years old, it has a population (1880) of 13,003. ABEAHAM LINCOLN Copyright, 1882, ly John G. Nicolay. A BRAHAM LINCOLN (1809-1865), sixteenth presi- jf. dent of the United States of America, was born in Hardin county, Kentucky, on February 12, 1809. His father, Thomas Lincoln, and his mother, Nancy Hanks, were both natives of Virginia, as was also his paternal grand father, whose ancestors came from Berks county, Pennsyl vania. When Lincoln was eight years of age his father moved to Indiana, in what is now Spencer county. The region was still a wilderness, and the boy grew up in pioneer life, dwelling in a rude log-cabin, and knowing but the primi tive manners, conversation, and ambitions of sparsely settled backwood neighbourhoods. Schools were rare, and teachers only qualified to impart the merest rudiments of instruction. &quot; Of course when I came of age I did not know much,&quot; wrote the future president; &quot;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.&quot; In 1818 his mother died, and his father a year afterwards married again. When nineteen years of age Lincoln made a journey as a hired hand on a flatboat to New Orleans. In 1830 his father emigrated to Macon county, Illinois, and Lincoln aided in building the cabin, clearing a field, and splitting rails to fence it. The locality proved unhealthy, and general sickness made them resolve to abandon it. Being now twenty-one years of age, Lincoln hired himself to one Offutt, in Sangamon county, assisting him to build a flat- boat and float it down the Sangamon, Illinois, and Missis sippi rivers to New Orleans. Afterwards Offutt made him clerk of his country store at New Salem; this gave.; him moments of leisure to begin self-education. He borrowed a grammar and other books, and sought explanations from the village schoolmaster. Next year the Black Hawk Indian war broke out ; Lincoln volunteered in one of the Sangamon county companies, and was elected captain. He was already a candidate for the Illinois legislature when this occurred; his printed address &quot;To the people of Sangamon county&quot; bears date March 9, 1832, and betokens talent and education far beyond mere ability to &quot; read, write, and cipher.&quot; The Black Hawk campaign lasted about three months ; Lincoln shared the hardships of camp and march, but was in no battle. He was defeated for the legislature that summer, being yet a comparative stranger in the county, but received a flattering majority in his own election precinct, where also, a little later, local friendship, disregarding politics, procured his appointment as postmaster of New Salem. The purchase and failure of a small country store having burdened him with debt, the county surveyor of Sangamon opportunely offered to make him one of his deputies. He qualified himself by study in all haste, and entered upon the practical duties of survey ing farm lines, roads, and town sites. &quot; This,&quot; to use his own words, &quot; procured bread, and kept body and soul together.&quot; The year 1834 had now arrived, and Lincoln was chosen one of the members of the Illinois legislature. He was re-elected successively in 1836, 1838, and 1840, after which he declined further nomination. At the two latter terms he received the complimentary vote of his party friends for speaker, they being in the minority. During the canvass of 1834 his political friend and colleague John T. Stuart, a lawyer in full practice, strongly encouraged him to study law, and lent him text-books to begin his reading. Lincoln followed his advice, and, working diligently, was admitted to the bar in the autumn of 1836. On April 15, 1837, he quitted New Salem, and removed to Springfield, which was then the county seat, but soon after became the capital of the State, to begin practice in partnership with his friend Stuart. His legislative experience was still further enlarged by his service of one term as representative to the Congress of the United States, to which he was elected in August 1846. He had become an eloquent and influential public speaker, and in several campaigns was on his party ticket as Whig candidate for presidential elector. Though to some extent still mingling in politics, Lincoln now for a period of about five years devoted himself more exclusively to the study and practice of law, his repeated successes drawing him into the most important cases. In 1854 began the great slavery agitation by the repeal of the slavery prohibition of 1820, called the Missouri Compromise. Aroused to new activity by what he regarded a gross breach of political faith, Lincoln entered upon public discussions with an earnestness and force that by common consent gave him leadership of the opposition in Illinois, which that year elected a majority of the legis lature. This would have secured his election to the United States senate, in the winter of 1854, to succeed Shields, a