ded to Nancy Hanks is the greatest. The story which cast a
shadow upon her parentage, and on that of her illustrious son as well,
should be sternly relegated to the oblivion whence it came. Mr. Henry
Watterson, in his brilliant address on Lincoln, refers to him as "that
strange, incomparable man, _of whose parentage we neither know nor
care_." In some localities, particularly in Kentucky and South Carolina,
the rumor is definite and persistent that the President was not the son
of Thomas Lincoln, the illiterate and thriftless, but of one Colonel
Hardin for whom Hardin County was named; that Nancy Hanks was herself
the victim of unlegalized motherhood, the natural daughter of an
aristocratic, wealthy, and well-educated Virginia planter, and that this
accounted for many of her son's characteristics. The story has long
since been disproved. Efforts to verify it brought forth the fact that
it sprang into being in the early days of the Civil War and was
evidently a fabrication born of the bitter spirit of the hour.

It was not from his father, however, that Lincoln inherited any of his
remarkable traits. The dark coarse hair, the gray eyes, sallow
complexion, and brawny strength, which were his, constituted his sole
inheritance on the paternal side. But Nancy Hanks was gentle and
refined, and would have adorned any station in life. She was beautiful
in youth, with dark hair, regular features, and soft sparkling hazel
eyes. She was unusually intelligent, and read all the books she could
obtain. Says Mr. Arnold: "She was a woman of deep religious feeling, of
the most exemplary character, and most tenderly and affectionately
devoted to her family. Her home indicated a love of beauty exceptional
in the wild settlement in which she lived, and judging from her early
death it is probable that she was of a physique less hardy than that of
those among whom she lived. Hers was a strong, self-reliant spirit,
which commanded the love and respect of the rugged people among whom she
dwelt."

The tender and reverent spirit of Abraham Lincoln, and the pensive
melancholy of his disposition, he no doubt inherited from his mother.
Amid the toil and struggle of her busy life she found time not only to
teach him to read and write but to impress upon him ineffaceably that
love of truth and justice, that perfect integrity and reverence for God,
for which he was noted all his life. Lincoln always looked upon his
mother with unspeakable affection,