THE CHILDREN’S HEROES SERIES EDITED BY JOHN LANG THE STORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN [Illustration--Map of the Southern United States] [Illustration: For the first time he saw negroes being scourged] THE STORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN BY MARY A. HAMILTON WITH PICTURES BY S. T. DADD LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO. TO MARGOT O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN! “O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done! The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won. The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; Rise up--for you the flag is flung--for you the bugle trills, For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths--for you the shores a-crowding: For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; Here Captain! dear father! This arm beneath your head! It is some dream that on the deck You’ve fallen cold and dead. My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will, The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done, From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won; Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells! But I with mournful tread Walk the deck; my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.” --_Walt Whitman._ CONTENTS Chapter Page I. Boyhood 1 II. The Young Backwoodsman 17 III. Slavery 30 IV. Lincoln the Lawyer 44 V. Defeat of the Little Giant 57 VI. The New President and Secession 73 VII. The War 84 VIII. Victory 100 IX. “O Captain! My Captain!” 110 LIST OF PICTURES “For the first time he saw negroes being scourged” _Frontispiece_ “The bullet passed right through his heart” 6 “Sometimes he did sums on the wooden shovel” 14 “His huge arms closed round Armstrong like a vice” 24 “Springing to his feet, he poured out what was in his mind” 58 Lincoln reading Emancipation Proclamation to his Cabinet 94