I was raised to farm work, which I continued till I was twenty-two.  At twenty-one I came to Illinois, Macon County.  Then I got to New Salem, at that time in Sangamon, now in Menard County, where I remained a year as a sort of clerk in a store.

Then came the Black Hawk War; and I was elected a captain of volunteers, a success which gave me more pleasure than any I have had since.  I went the campaign, was elated, ran for the legislature the same year (1832), and was beaten—­the only time I ever have been beaten by the people.  The next and three succeeding biennial elections I was elected to the legislature.  I was not a candidate afterward.  During this legislative period I had studied law, and removed to Springfield to practise it.  In 1846 I was once elected to the lower House of Congress.  Was not a candidate for re-election.  From 1849 to 1854, both inclusive, practised law more assiduously than ever before.  Always a Whig in politics; and generally on the Whig electoral tickets, making active canvasses.  I was losing interest in politics when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again.  What I have done since then is pretty well known.

If any personal description of me is thought desirable, it may be said I am, in height, six feet four inches, nearly; lean, in flesh, weighing on an average one hundred and eighty pounds; dark complexion, with coarse black hair and gray eyes.  No other marks or brands recollected.

NOTES

COMMUNICATION TO THE PEOPLE OF SANGAMON COUNTY

This announcement of political principles appeared in the Sangamon Journal, at that time the only newspaper published in Springfield.  The present text, which differs in some details from that found in the various editions of Lincoln’s works, follows the original, except in changing the spelling of Sangamo to Sangamon.

PERPETUATION OF OUR POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS.

On the close of the address resolutions were passed requesting the author to furnish a copy to the press, but for some unexplained reason it was not published until a year later.  The present text is taken from the Sangamon Journal.  Lincoln was one of the organizers of the Lyceum.

All through his life Lincoln showed a marked respect for the law, and the present warning against the consequences of lawlessness, so rhetorically sounded by the young orator of twenty-eight, was a perfectly sincere expression of a profound conviction.

“The gates of hell.”  Matthew xvi. 18.  This quotation was repeated in a speech delivered at Indianapolis twenty-four years later, when civil war was threatening.

THE SPRINGFIELD SPEECH