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 elected, 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 practice 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, practiced 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.

Yours truly,

A. Lincoln.

ON NOMINATION TO THE NATIONAL TICKET

To N. B. Judd.

SPRINGFIELD, FEBRUARY 9, 1859

Hon.  N. B. Judd.

Dear Sir:—­I am not in a position where it would hurt much for me to not be nominated on the national ticket; but I am where it would hurt some for me to not get the Illinois delegates.  What I expected when I wrote the letter to Messrs. Dole and others is now happening.  Your discomfited assailants are most bitter against me; and they will, for revenge upon me, lay to the Bates egg in the South, and to the Seward egg in the North, and go far toward squeezing me out in the middle with nothing.  Can you help me a little in this matter in your end of the vineyard.  I mean this to be private.

Yours as ever,

A. LINCOLN

1860

SPEECH AT THE COOPER INSTITUTE, NEW YORK FEBRUARY 27, 1860

Mr. President and fellow-citizens of new York:—­The facts with which I shall deal this evening are mainly old and familiar; nor is there anything new in the general use I shall make of them.  If there shall be any novelty, it will be in the mode of presenting the facts, and the inferences and observations following that presentation.