Clearfield Republican

Life of Abe Lincoln by Judge Douglas.
We abstract the following brief recital
of the career of Mr. Lincoln from one of
the speeches made by Stephen A. Douglas
during the canvass in Illinois in 1858:
"I have known Mr. Lincoln for nearly
twenty-five years. We had many points
of sympathy when I first got acquainted
with him. We were both comparatively
boys: both struggling with poverty for
our support- an humble school-teacher
in the town of Winchester, and he a flourishing
grocery keeper in the town of Salem.
He was more successful in occupation
than I, and hence became more fortunate
in this world's goods. I made as
good a school teacher as I could, and
when a cabinetmaker made the bedsteads
and tables, but my old boss said I succeeded
better in bureaus and secretaries than
in anything else. But I believe that Mr.
Lincoln was more successful in business
than I for his business as a grocery
keeper soon carried him into the Legislature.
There I met him in a little time, and I had
sympathy for him because of the up-hill
struggle we had in life. He was then as
good at telling an anecdote as now. He
could beat any of the boys wrestling, could
outrun them at a foot-race, beat any of
them at pitching quoits and tossing a copper,
and could win more liquor than all
the boys put together, and the dignity
and impartiality with which he presided
at a horse race or a fist fight were the
praise of everybody that was present or
participated. Hence I had sympathy for
him, because he was struggling with misfortune,
and so was I. Mr. Lincoln served with me,
or I with him in the Legislature
of 1834, when we parted. He subsided
or submerged for some years, and I
lost sight of him. In 1846, when Wilmot
raised the Wilmot proviso tornado, Mr. Lincoln
appeared again as a member of Congress
from Sangamon Dist. I, being in the
Senate of the United States, was called to
welcome him, then without friend and
companion. He then distinguished himself
by his opposition to the Mexican war
taking part with the common enemy in
time of war, against his own country.
When he returned home from that Congress
he found that the indignation of the
people followed him everywhere, until he
again retired to private life, and was submerged
until he was again forgotten by
his friends. He came up again in 1854, in
time to make the abolition black republican
platform, in company with Lovejoy.
Giddings, Chase and Fred. Douglass, for
the republican party to stand upon."