|
 Lincoln accumulated less than a year of formal
schooling.
Yet it is today, Wheeler said, "the values we ascribe as inherently
"Lincolnian" are the very one's we work so hard to instill in the
next generation."
Those character qualities include: Honesty - Humility - Integrity -
Courage - Empathy; all characteristics celebrated in the Abraham
Lincoln Center for Character Development, the Lincoln Heritage
Museum, and the qualities on which the college is dedicated.
Wheeler progressed through Lincoln's life from childhood to the
Presidency describing Lincoln's passion and determination to learn
at every stage of his life, and how Lincoln encouraged others to do
the same at every turn and request of him.
Wheeler narrated Lincoln's life story slipping in quotes that
attributed Lincoln's constant pursuit of knowledge.
Lincoln would write words down that he didn't recognize, write on
boards if he had no paper, look it up, study and commit to memory
what words meant.
"Those stories that Lincoln would walk miles to borrow a book or
stay up reading all night; those were true," Wheeler said.
Months after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, his former law
partner, William Herndon of Springfield, sought out Lincoln's
step-mother, Sarah Bush Lincoln, who was living near Charleston, IL.
He wanted to write a biography, but there were many questions to
address: "How did a little boy who grew up in a log cabin with a
dirt floor and largely illiterate parents go on to achieve
greatness?"
Sarah met her step-son at nine years-of-age. She fed him and cleaned
him up. She told Herndon there was something different about her
step-son. He was, "Diligent for knowledge."
She had kept the crude homemade 'copy book' that Lincoln wrote in
growing up and much has been learned today from those early
writings.
The pages were later divided and shared as artifacts at various
locations. The pages at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and
Library are writings of the 14 to 15-year-old lad. He practiced
figures and wrote a poem:
Abraham Lincoln is my name
And with my pen, I wrote the same
I wrote in both hast and speed
and leave it here for fools to read
Out of the family's dire needs, Lincoln labored at farm work,
plowing and clearing land and chopping trees from eight years-of-age
to 22. He was also hired out to work other farms. He was noted to
carry a book for his break times.
Wheeler said, "Lincoln was desperate to learn."
"Why?"
His biological family suffered in ways that he saw education could
have prevented or solved. Education was his ticket out of the
wilderness that he grew up in.
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In New Salem, he found mentors that nurtured his talents and he
continued his self-studies, and there he explored various professions from store
clerk, surveyor, postmaster and soldier to lawyer.
Of Lincoln's determined spirit, Wheeler said, "His ambition was
endless."
As Lincoln entered politics, he was passionate about public education, saying,
"I can only say that I view education as the most important subject which we as
a people can be engaged in,” Lincoln said. He signed for Land Grant Colleges in
1862. This was an Act that revolutionized higher education, Wheeler said.
Lincoln married a well-educated woman, Mary Todd, who would go on
to encourage a love of learning and education in their children. Lincoln was
proud that his oldest son Robert became a Harvard grad.
Admired in his law practice, Lincoln would get requests for mentoring. To one
law student asking to clerk, he said, "If you are resolutely determined to make
a lawyer of yourself, the thing is more than half done already... Get the books
and read. Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more
important than any other thing."
To another student Lincoln ended his letter emphasizing, "Work, work, work is
the main thing."
For a man without a formal education, it might mean working exponentially
harder, but Lincoln believed that determination could overcome all odds, Wheeler
said.
As President, Lincoln applied the same practice when the bloody battles of the
Civil War dragged on and the country struggled. He by-passed his West Point
educated generals, went to the Library of Congress books to study military
strategies for himself. He then searched and found a general who saw the war the
way he did, Ulysses S. Grant.
Lincoln came from the humblest of circumstances and came to see education as his
deliverance. He bettered himself through hard work, persistence and grit. He
freely told anyone who wanted to know his secret - 'work, hard work, punishingly
hard work.'
In speaking to a group of soldiers to inspire, Lincoln said, "I beg you to
remember this, not merely for my sake but for yours. I happen to temporarily
occupy this big white house. I'm a living witness that any one of your children
may look to come here, as my father's child has."
Lincoln added, "It's an order that each of you may have through this free
government, which we have enjoyed an open field and fair chance for your
industry, free enterprise and intelligence. The you may all have equal
privileges in the race of life with all of its desirable human aspirations.
In looking at Abraham Lincoln's life, Wheeler says, "It doesn't matter where you
start in life, you can achieve greatness."
[Jan Youngquist] |
