who had fought
a-gainst the law of his land. His last act, as he was on his way to the
place where he was to be hung, was to kiss a lit-tle ba-by which a poor
slave held up to him as he passed.

His death was not in vain, for from now on the ques-tion of sla-ver-y
was the talk of the whole land, and in 1860 South Car-o-li-na took the
lead and said that she would not bear the laws of the Un-ion, but would
rule her land in her own way. Soon, six more South-ern states said the
same; and these states which cut loose from the North were called the
"Con-fed-er-a-cy;" at the head as pres-i-dent was Jef-fer-son Da-vis.

This was the state of things when Bu-chan-an left the chair, and went
to his home in Penn-syl-va-ni-a, at a place called Wheat-land.

In the last year of his life he wrote a book of his life, which is still
in print. He died at his home on June 1st, 1868. He was the last of the
"Peace" pres-i-dents, for it was A-bra-ham Lin-coln who took his place,
and in his term the strife as to the slave trade led to our "Civ-il War."

A-BRA-HAM LIN-COLN.

Thom-as Lin-coln, who was the fa-ther of A-bra-ham Lin-coln, had seen
a sad sight when he was but a boy of eight years; while he and his
brothers were hard at work with their fa-ther in the dense, wild woods
which grew close to their small home in Ken-tuck-y, an In-di-an chief
crept close to them; he fired one shot, and the boys saw their big,
strong fa-ther fall dead. They were brave boys, and while one ran for
help, the oth-ers kept at bay the In-di-ans who came from the woods. A
band of men soon came to their aid, and drove the fierce red men back to
the woods. It was a rough, hard life in which Thom-as Lin-coln grew up;
and he could not read or write when, at twen-ty years, he took as his
wife Miss Nan-cy Hanks; she was a bright girl and soon taught him at
least to write his name.

[Illustration: LINCOLN'S EARLY HOME.]

[Illustration: ABRAHAM LINCOLN.]

It was a poor log-house in Har-din Coun-ty, Ken-tuck-y, to which he
took his bride; and yet in this home so mean and small, was born, on
Feb-ru-a-ry 12th, 1809, the boy who was to be pres-i-dent of this great
land. Few boys and girls know what it is to be as poor as this lit-tle
boy was, or to lead as hard and sad a life. His clothes were thin and
poor, his shoes, when he had an-y, were oft-en full of holes; he did
not al-ways have as much as he would like to eat, and in the long, hard
win-ters he was o