472 



LICHTENSTEIN. 



LINCOLN, ABRAHAM. 



superior character and capable of earning larger 

 profits." A dividend "of eight shillings per 

 share for the half year, free of income tax, pay- 

 able on and after December 8th," was de- 

 clared. Another new enterprise in London is 

 the Commercial Company of Africa, the capi- 

 tal of which is fixed at 300,000, with a pres- 

 ent issue of 200,000, in 20,000 shares of 10 

 each. The prospectus states that this com- 

 pany is formed " for the purpose of conducting, 

 upon an extensive scale, a trade in the Bights 

 of Benin, Biafra, the River Niger, and other 

 parts of Africa, chiefly by barter, of European 

 manufactured goods for palm oil, palm-nut 

 kernels, ground nuts, gold dust, ivory, cotton, 

 and other produce ; also for the purpose of 

 manufacturing oil from the kernels of the palm- 

 nut," 



The number of emigrants sent by the Ameri- 

 can Colonization Society to Liberia during the 

 year 1865, amounted to 527, a number exceed- 

 ing the emigration of any year since 1856. 



LICHTENSTEIN, a principality in Germany. 

 Reigning prince, Johann II. ; born October o, 

 1840 ; succeeded his father, November 12, 1848. 

 Area, 64 square miles. Population, in 1864, 

 7,150. A new constitution was given to the 

 principality on October 15th, 1862, by the terms 

 of which the whole legislative power is vested 

 in one house of representatives, comprising fif- 

 teen members, three to be chosen by the reign- 

 ing prince, and the other twelve by the people 

 in public election. A vote is given to all in- 

 habitants who can read and write; but to be- 

 come a deputy, a small property qualification 

 is required. 



LINCOLN, ABBAHAM, sixteenth President 

 of the United States, and Commander-in-Chief 

 of the Army and Navy of the same, was born 

 in Ilardin County, Kentucky, February 12, 

 1809, and died in Washington, from a pistol- 

 shot wound inflicted by an assassin, April 15, 

 1865. His father was very poor, and the region 

 of Kentucky in which he lived afforded at that 

 time but scant opportunities for education. At 

 seven years of age he was sent to school for a 

 short time, and his only text-book was an old 

 copy of Dilworth's Spelling-Book. "When he 

 was in his eighth year, his father, tired of the 

 hopeless struggle which even then crushed all 

 the energies of the poorer white settlers in the 

 slave States, sold his little homestead, and put- 

 ting his family and his few household goods 

 upon a raft, sought a new home in the then 

 wilderness of Spencer County, Indiana, cutting 

 his road with his axe through the dense forest 

 during the last eighteen miles of his route. 

 Rearing a log-cabin two or three miles distant 

 from the nearest neighbor, the family entered 

 upon a pioneer's life. The mother of the future 

 President, herself a woman of intelligence and 

 piety, taught her boy to read and write, and 

 encouraged the taste for books which even 

 their circumstances could not wholly repress. 

 When ho was ten years of age she died. His 

 father married again a year or two later, and 



the step-mother proved a kind and tendei 

 friend to the orphaned boy. When he waa 

 about twelve years old a Mr. Crawford, one of 

 the settlers, opened a school in his own cabin, 

 and young Lincoln attended and studied arith- 

 metic and some of the other branches of a com- 

 mon school education. But few books had 

 found their way into the wilderness of the 

 " Pocket," as this portion of Indiana was call- 

 ed, but whenever one could be obtained his 

 father always endeavored to procure the read- 

 ing of it for him. In this way he became famil- 

 iar with Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, ^sop'a 

 Fables, Weems's and Ramsay's Life of Wash- 

 ington, a Life of Henry Clay, and perhaps a 

 few other volumes. At the age of nineteen he 

 made a trip to New Orleans in company with 

 the son of the owner of a flatboat, who intrust- 

 ed to the care of the two youths a valuable 

 cargo. Attacked on their way down by a gang 

 of thievish negroes, the two young men de- 

 fended the property and drove off the plun- 

 derers, and pushing out into the stream suc- 

 ceeded in saving it from depredation. 



In 1830 Mr. Lincoln's father determined upon 

 another removal to Decattir, Illinois, and his 

 son assisted him in settling in his new home, 

 breaking the ground for a crop of corn, and 

 building a rail fence around his farm. The 

 winter which followed was very severe, and it 

 required the utmost exertion of Abraham Lin- 

 coln, now a stalwart youth of twenty-one years, 

 and his father, to keep the family in food, which 

 was mostly obtained by hunting. Two years 

 more were passed in working on a farm, or as 

 clerk in a store. In 1832 the Black Hawk war 

 occurred. Volunteers were called for, and 

 young Lincoln enlisted and was at once made 

 captain. He experienced considerable march- 

 ing during the campaign, but had no oppor- 

 tunity of exhibiting his prowess as a fighter. 

 After his return from the war he ran for the 

 Legislature, but was defeated, though receiving 

 a heavy vote. He next purchased a store and 

 stock of goods, and was appointed postmaster. 

 The store proved unprofitable and he sold out, 

 but through the whole pursued his studies at 

 every opportunity. Having acquired a knowl- 

 edge of surveying, he spent the greater part of 

 the next two or three years as government sur- 

 veyor, and won a high reputation for the ac- 

 curacy of his surveys. In 1834 he was a mem- 

 ber of the Illinois Legislature, and after the 

 session closed, devoted all his leisure time to the 

 study of law. In 1836 he was admitted to the 

 bar, and in April, 1837, removed to Springfield, 

 Illinois, and commenced practice in partnership 

 with Hon. John T. Stuart. He soon won a 

 good reputation as an able pleader, both in civil 

 and criminal practice. He was reflected twictf 

 to thte Legislature, where he formed the acquaint- 

 ance of his subsequent political antagonist. Hon. 

 Stephen A. Douglas. In 1840 he declined being 

 a candidate for the Legislature, and tlioii-rh 

 taking a deep interest in political matters, rank- 

 ing as a Whig of the Henry Clay school, ho 



