File:Abraham Lincoln; a history (1890) (14739676726).jpg

Identifier: abrahamlincolnhi01nico (find matches)
Title: Abraham Lincoln; a history
Year: 1890 (1890s)
Authors: Nicolay, John G. (John George), 1832-1901 Hay, John, 1838-1905
Subjects: Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 United States -- History Civil War, 1861-1865
Publisher: New York : The Century Co.
Contributing Library: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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k it for gi-anted that thepioneers were all of one piece. The ruling motivewhich led most of them to the wilds was that Anglo-Saxon lust of land which seems inseparable fromthe race. The prospect of possessing a four-hundred-acre farm by merely occupying it, and theprivilege of exchanging a basketful of almost worth-less continental currency for an unlimited estate atthe nominal value of forty cents per acre, wereirresistible to thousands of land-loving Virginiansand Carolinians whose ambition of proprietorshipwas larger than their means. Accompanying thisflood of emigrants of good faith was the usual frothand scum of shiftless idlers and adventurers, whowere either drifting with a current they were tooworthless to withstand, or in pursuit of dishonestgains in fresher and simpler regions. The vicesand virtues of the pioneers were such as proceededfrom their environment. They were careless ofhuman life because life was worth comparatively o a KKO a wo ^ Cj». o n no CO o o GO W w M H 0
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THE ir*ftRY OF THE \IH1VERS1IV GF 51L1NG1S LINEAGE 17 little in that hard struggle for existence ; but they chap. i.had a remarkably clear idea of the value of property,and visited theft not only with condign punish-ment, but also with the severest social proscrip-tion. Steahng a horse was punished more swiftlyand with more feeling than homicide. A manmight be replaced more easily than the other animal.Sloth was the worst of weaknesses. An habitualdrunkard was more welcome at raisings and log-rollings than a known faineant. The man who didnot do a mans share where work was to be done waschristened Lazy Lawrence, and that was the endof him socially. Cowardice was punished by inex-orable disgrace. The point of honor was as strictlyobserved as it ever has been in the idlest and mostartificial society. If a man accused another offalsehood, the ordeal by fisticuffs was instantlyresorted to. Weapons were rarely employed inthese chivalrous encounters, being kept for moreserious use with Indi

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