oln's early life,
but I see that I shall have to do so. He was born in a mean little
log-cabin in the back woods a hundred years ago, in the year 1809. His
father could not read and did not like to work, and the poor little
fellow had hardly enough to eat.

His mother loved him, but she could do little for him, and she died when
he was only eight years old. Then his father married a second wife. She
was a good woman, and she did all she could for the poor, forlorn little
boy. But it did not look much then as if this ragged and hungry little
chap would become President of the United States.

There was one good thing about little Abe, he had a great love for
books. He went to school only long enough to learn to read and write,
but he borrowed and read all the books he could get. When he found he
could not go to school he studied at home. He had no slate or pencil, so
he studied arithmetic by the light of the kitchen fire, working out the
problems on the back of a wooden fire shovel. When this was full he
would scrape it off smooth and begin again. In this way the boy got to
be the best scholar in all the country around him. How many of you would
have worked as hard as he did to get an education? Yet it was this kind
of work that made him President.

Lincoln knew how to make use of his learning. He was always a good
talker, and he grew to be one of the best public speakers of his times.
He became so well known and so well respected that at length he was sent
to Congress. Lincoln did not believe that slavery was a good thing for
the country, and was sure it was a wrong thing in itself. So he joined
the Republican Party, which had just been formed.

There was another fine speaker in Illinois named Douglas, who had
different ideas about slavery from Lincoln and was a member of the
Democratic Party. Lincoln and Douglas went about Illinois making
speeches to the people, and great crowds came to hear them, for they
were two of the best speakers in the country. Everywhere people were
talking about Lincoln and Douglas and saying what able men they were.

In 1860 came the time when a new President was to be chosen, and out of
all the political leaders of the country these two men from far-west
Illinois were selected--Douglas by those who were in favor of slavery
and Lincoln by those who opposed slavery. When election day came round
and the votes were counted, Abraham Lincoln, the rail splitter, was
found to be elected Presiden