Tuesday, December 20, 1859.Springfield, IL.
| Lincoln writes to his friend Jesse W. Fell of Normal, Illinois.
Fell prompted Lincoln to provide an autobiography that could be used to promote
Lincoln's political career. Lincoln writes, "Herewith is a little
sketch . . . There is not much of it, for the reason, I suppose, that there is not
much of me. If any thing be made out of it, I wish it to be modest, and not to
go beyond the material." Of his early years in Indiana, Lincoln recalls, "It
was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the
woods . . . There were some schools, so called; but no qualification was ever
required of a teacher, beyond ' readin, writin,
andcipherin' . . . If a straggler supposed to
understand latin, happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked upon
as a wizzard." Abraham Lincoln to Jesse W. Fell,
Enclosing Autobiography, 20 December 1859,
CW, 3:511-12. |