the result.  If Lincoln had not been gifted with innate greatness, though unknown to himself and all the world, to be developed as occasions should arise, no fortunate circumstances could have produced so extraordinary a career.  If Lincoln had not the germs of greatness in him,—­certain qualities which were necessary for the guidance of a nation in an emergency,—­to be developed subsequently as the need came, then his career is utterly insoluble according to any known laws of human success; and when history cannot solve the mysteries of human success,—­in other words, “justify the ways of Providence to man,”—­then it loses half its charm, and more than half its moral force.  It ceases to be the great teacher which all nations claim it to be.

However obscure the birth of Lincoln, and untoward as were all the circumstances which environed him, he was doubtless born ambitious, that is, with a strong and unceasing desire to “better his condition.”  That at the age of twenty-four he ever dreamed of reaching an exalted position is improbable.  But when he saw the ascendency that his wit and character had gained for him among rude and uncultivated settlers on the borders of civilization, then, being a born leader of men, as Jackson was, it was perfectly natural that he should aspire to be a politician.  Politics ever have been the passion of Western men with more than average ability, and it required but little learning and culture under the sovereignty of “squatters” to become a member of the State legislature, especially in the border States, where population was sparse, and the people mostly poor and ignorant.

Hence, “smart” young men, in rude villages, early learned to make speeches in social and political meetings.  Every village had its favorite stump orator, who knew all the affairs of the nation, and a little more, and who, with windy declamation, amused and delighted his rustic hearers.  Lincoln was one of these.  There was never a time, even in his early career, when he could not make a speech in which there was more wit than knowledge; although as he increased in knowledge he also grew in wisdom, and his good sense, with his habit of patient thinking, gave him the power of clear and convincing statement.  Moreover, at twenty-four, he was already tolerably intelligent, and had devoured all the books he could lay his hand upon.  Indeed, it was to the reading of books that Lincoln, like Henry Clay, owed pretty much all his schooling.  Beginning with Weems’s “Life of Washington” when a mere lad, he perseveringly read, through all his fortunes, all manner of books,—­not only during leisure hours by day, when tending mill or store, but for long months by the light of pine shavings from the cooper’s shop at night, and in later times when traversing the country in his various callings.  And his persistent reading gave him new ideas and broader views.

With his growing thoughts his aspirations grew.  So, like others, he took the stump, and as early as 1832 offered himself a candidate for the State legislature.  His maiden speech in an obscure village is thus reported:  “Fellow citizens, I am humble Abraham Lincoln.  My politics are short and sweet, like the old woman’s dance.  I am in favor of a National Bank, of internal improvements, and a high protective tariff.  These are my sentiments.  If elected, I shall be thankful; if not, it will be all the same.”