He was born of an woman who was reported to be of illegitimate birth. But then she has carved a position for
herself in history by the simple statement of Abraham Lincoln: whatever I am and whatever I will be owe to my mother. “
His father was a drunkard. He never cared about his family. Whatever he earned he spent on liquor and his poor mother brought him up. But unfortunately, she died when he 9 and he was almost orphaned. at 9. Further he had to endure his father’s the frequent changes of the location of his stay. Of course he had very few things to be shifted. But the
little, tall lanky boy had to endure a new place without food, without friends.
The entire responsibly of the family fell upon the shoulders of this little boy. Every day morning he would hang an wood axe by shoulders and walk to the forest with a food packet tucked under his arm. His steps were sturdy and his intentions clear. He would stop by a glade where there were big trees and soon he started working on one of them It would soon fall down under his sturdy strokes. He them chopped off the branches, split them into logs and sold in the market and bought provisions for his family.
This continued for years. When kids of his age were going to school, he was cutting down trees. But he too had an intense desire to learn, but he lacked the means. By scavenging waste baskets of cities he got an old leather bound volume on law and he started reading it immediately. ( He had taught himself how to read and write)
After a few years Abraham Lincoln became a barrister at Law. He was always just in the profession as a lawyer. He never would take a case which was just or against his principles of truth even if it promised huge returns.
Once his partner asked him about it and Lincoln said: “ I do not take such cases as I do not want the name of Abraham Lincoln to go down in history associated with injustice.”
But his life was one of failures.
He contested the local assembly election and he was defeated. Later he tried his hand at business and failed. When he was 28 Anne Rutledge, the only woman he ever loved died leaving him in total misery.
Later he stood for the American Congress but failed. Another businesses attempt was a failure too. Again he contested in elections for the American Senate, as Vice President , as senator – in all of which he failed.
But at last he was elected as the President of the United States. He led the northerners’ army in the civil war and defeated the southerners who advocated slavery. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves and abolished slavery once and for all.
Once when he was a practicing lawyer, a young woman approached him to rescue her only girl child who was to be auctioned off the next day The law of the land permitted it. So he approached the
governor who simply washed off his hands. Lincoln declared then to the Governor:
My Lord, Governor, I will make the ground of America too hot for the foot of a slave.”
That was his life long desire. And he accomplished it.
He is, in my opinion, the greatest person ever lived.
pledge to do away with them and keep our vows.