Fillmore, Millard.  Born at Summer Hill, Cayuga County, New York, January 7, 1800; admitted to the bar, 1823; member of New York State legislature, 1829-31; member of Congress, 1833-35, 1837-43; elected Vice-President, 1848, and succeeded to presidency on the death of Taylor, July 9, 1850; died at Buffalo, New York, March 8, 1874.

Pierce, Franklin.  Born at Hillsborough, New Hampshire, November 23, 1804; member of Congress, 1833-37; United States senator, 1837-42; served with distinction in Mexican war; President, 1853-57; died at Concord, New Hampshire, October 8, 1869.

Buchanan, James.  Born at Stony Batter, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, April 22, 1791; member of Congress, 1821-31; minister to Russia, 1831-33; United States senator, 1833-45; secretary of state, 1845-49; minister to Great Britain, 1853-56; President, 1857-61; died at Wheatland, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, June 1, 1868.

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CHAPTER IV

LINCOLN AND HIS SUCCESSORS

And so we have come down through the years to Abraham Lincoln—­that patient and gentle man whose memory ranks with Washington’s as America’s priceless heritage.  A blessing and an inspiration—­a mystery, too; an enigma among men, lonely and impressive; not fully understood nor understandable to the depths of that great heart of his; not fully explainable, for what strange power was it lifted that ignorant, ill-bred, uncouth, backwoods boy to a station among the stars?

Seldom has any man who started so low mounted so high.  Abraham Lincoln’s early life was of the most miserable description.  His father, Thomas Lincoln, was a worthless rover; his mother, Nancy Hanks, was of a “poor white” Virginia family with an unenviable record.  His birthplace was a squalid log cabin in Washington County, Kentucky.  His surroundings were such as are commonly encountered in a coarse, low, ignorant, poverty-stricken family.  His father was at the very bottom of the social scale, so ignorant he could scarcely write his name.  His mother inherited the shiftlessness and carelessness which is part and parcel of “poor white.”  These things are incontestable, they must be looked in the face.  And yet, in spite of them, in spite of such a handicap as few other great men even approximated, Abraham Lincoln emerged to be the leader of a race.

In 1816, Thomas Lincoln decided he would remove to Indiana.  Abraham was at that time seven years old, and for a year after the removal, the family lived in what was called a “half-faced camp,” fourteen feet square—­that is to say, a covered shed of three sides, the fourth side being open to the weather.  Then the family achieved the luxury of a cabin, but a cabin without floor or door or window.  Amid this wretchedness, Lincoln’s mother died, and was laid away in a rough coffin of slabs at the edge of the little clearing.  Three months later, a passing preacher read the funeral service above the grave.