Isaac N. Arnold

“ There is more than a mere tradition, that, while residing at New Salem, he became very much attached to a prairie beauty, with the sweet and romantic name of Anne Rutledge. Irving, in his "Life of Washington," says: "before he was fifteen years old, he had conceived a passion for some unknown beauty, so serious as to disturb his otherwise well regulated mind, and to make him really unhappy." Lincoln was less precocious than Washington, or perhaps his heart was better shielded by the hard labor to which he was subjected. ”

“ He treated them like men, and always brought out the best there was in them. They felt his moral and intellectual superiority, but they also felt that he did not despise them, and that he sympathized with them. In a certain sense he was one of them, but he was their ideal, their hero.
A fellow-clerk in Offutt's store, a Mr. Green, declares that Lincoln's talk showed that he was, even then, dreaming of "a great life, and a great destiny." ”

“ Anecdotes of his scrupulous honesty and his bravery in protecting women from annoyance by bullies, are so numerous that we have not space to relate them. Offutt often declared that his clerk, or salesman, knew more than any man in the United States, and that he could outrun, whip or throw any man in the county. These boasts came to the ears of "The Clary Grove Boys," a set of rude, roystering, good-natured fellows, who lived in and around "Clary's Grove," a settlement near New Salem. ”

“ In 1832, Lincoln bought at auction, in Springfield, a second hand copy of Blackstone's Commentaries, and began to study law. A few weeks hard study, and he had mastered this elementary work, and laid the foundation of a good lawyer's education; he then resolved to make the law his profession. But he had neither books, nor any means of buying them. In this dilemma he sought the advice of his old friend, comrade and fellow soldier in the Black Hawk war, John T. Stuart. Mr. Stuart was a prosperous and successful lawyer at Springfield, and had, for a new country, a respectable law library. ”

“ Leaving his father's cabin and seeking abroad for employment, he was engaged by one Denton Offutt to aid in taking a flat-boat loaded with provisions to New Orleans. In April, 1831, the boat reached New Salem, on the Sangamon, and lodged on the dam which had been erected across the stream. When the owner had given up all hope of being able to get the craft over the dam, Lincoln, by the exercise of that ingenuity of invention for which he was ever distinguished, devised a means for the extrication of the boat, and it passed on safely to the Illinois and down the Mississippi to New Orleans. ”

“ An old friend [11] of Lincoln long years afterwards, on one occasion when they were talking of old times at New Salem, of the Greenes and Armstrongs and Rutledges, ventured to ask him about his early attachment, to which he replied: "I loved her dearly. She was a handsome girl, and would have made a good, loving wife. She was natural, and quite intellectual, though not highly educated."
In 1834, Lincoln was again a candidate for the Legislature, and was now elected, receiving a greater number of votes than any other man on either ticket. ”

“ Neither Lincoln nor his company was in any engagement during the campaign, but there was plenty of hardship and fatigue, and some incidents occurred to illustrate his courage and power over men. Perhaps the most notable event in the campaign, so far as Captain Lincoln was concerned, was his determined and successful effort to save the life of an Indian from the infuriated soldiers. ”

“ Tradition says that during the interview she became very much excited, and after various predictions exclaimed: "You will be President, and all the negroes will be free." That the old Voudou negress should have foretold that the visitor would be President is not at all incredible. She doubtless told this to many aspiring lads, but the prophecy of the freedom of the slaves requires confirmation. [2]
On his return from New Orleans, in July, 1831, he was employed by Offutt to take charge of a country store at New Salem, a small village near the Sangamon River. ”

“ He, at this time, although extremely poor, took, and read, the Louisville Journal, edited by George D. Prentice, a man who for wit and repartee has, perhaps, never had his superior among the editors of the United States.
In the spring of 1832, Offutt having failed, Lincoln was again out of employment. During the spring and summer, great excitement and alarm prevailed in Northern Illinois, on account of the Black Hawk war. There is nowhere a more beautiful, fertile, and picturesque valley, than the valley of Rock River, in Northern Illinois. ”

“ He shared in the prosperity, and his pride was gratified in the rising fortunes of his son, who often sent money and other presents to his father and mother, bought land for them, and always treated them with the kindest consideration. ”

“ By surveying, and his small law practice, he earned his very frugal livelihood, and made some progress in reducing the debts incurred by the purchase of the store. But, in 1834, one of the notes which he had given for it was put in judgment, and the impatient creditor seized his horse, saddle and bridle, and surveying instruments, and sold them under execution. ”