When Abraham Lincoln was a young boy, he walked around town barefoot, often wearing a long linsey shirt that only just covered his small derrière. That he was a poor man’s child was obvious. But unfortunately for him, he was also the “homeliest” looking child in Hoosierland. As he came of age, he became even less appealing to many of his neighbors for his fascination with books. He definitely seems to have had a few disadvantages which could have derailed his chances of success in life. But despite being poor, plain, and peculiar, Lincoln turned his weaknesses into his strengths and became a legendary figure in American history.
1) Poor
Poverty wasn’t uncommon in Lincoln’s neck of the woods but abject poverty — now that was a different kind of beast altogether. Lincoln himself described his early life as that from “the short and simple annals of the poor.” Other contemporaries called the Lincolns “poor folks” living in very poor circumstances without even the simple provisions of pioneer days in their home. Their furniture was crude: three legged stools and a primitive looking table, a Dutch oven, and a few pewter dishes. Food was scarce, often limited to potatoes, wild game (if they were lucky), and wheat for a Sunday cake (if they were truly lucky). One night when Lincoln’s father, Thomas Lincoln, was praying for a blessing over their meager meal of roasted potatoes, Lincoln quipped, “I call these mighty poor blessings.”
As to the home, upon their arrival in Indiana, the family first stayed in a hunter’s half-face camp measuring fourteen feet on each side, having three walls and no windows or door. The roof of the camp was covered with brush and supported by wooden poles. A fire burned at the opening to keep everyone on the inside warm, with a makeshift door of animal skin used as covering when the fire was put out. Anyone who has ever experienced a bitter and harsh winter in Indiana can vouch for the kind of December the Lincolns must have spent living in their southern Indiana home that first year.
The log cabin that was eventually erected was somewhat of an improvement over the half-face camp. It was made up of logs measuring eighteen feet by twenty-four feet. The floors were made of puncheon and the high roof allowed for a loft which Lincoln and his cousin Dennis Hanks used as a shared bedroom. In this humble abode, Lincoln lived with his family, which at one point included thirteen people huddled together at the same time.
The lack of life’s basic necessities hardly stunted Lincoln’s growth and development. But that in itself was problematic for the youth, as he was confronted with the snubs that came his way because of his appearance.
2) Plain
Lincoln’s mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, was probably the only person who found any beauty in the features of her son when he was a youngster. In a recent article, “Thespians in Chief” (American History Magazine) author Richard Brookhiser has aptly described Lincoln’s “face as homely as a shovel.” In his youth, Lincoln was described as the “homeliest boy” who was “ugly,” “gawky,” “uncouth,” and “extremely awkward.” He was remembered as “not a good-looking young man.” Secretary of War, Edward Stanton, called him a “baboon.” His wife Mary Todd Lincoln called him “not pretty.” Even Lincoln himself said that he was “the homeliest man in the State of Illinois.” Once in a debate he was called two-faced to which he joked and asked if he would have “had another face, do you think I’d wear this one?”
Lincoln found a way to offset such hurtful and derogatory remarks by using humor. Indeed, it was his humor that won him some complimentary remarks too. Author Nathaniel Hawthorne found him to be the “homeliest man I ever saw, yet by no means repulsive or disagreeable.” Others found his face to be “a pleasant surprise” because he was “better looking” than expected. Lincoln sent his detractors scurrying by using his easy-going manner to ward off their criticism. Instead of getting agitated over something he couldn’t control (his looks), he kept his focus on strengthening himself in areas which he could control (his humor, wit, and charm). As such, he was able to win over friends and even some foes.
The ability to strengthen himself came from broadening his mind by reading and thinking about things that were important to people. His passion for learning was endless but it made him an unusual character amongst his contemporaries.
3) Peculiar
Lincoln developed a love for learning at a very young age. Sitting at his mother’s lap, he would enjoy listening to her read to him and his sister Sarah from the Bible. The great heroic tale of David and others undoubtedly filled his mind and helped form that “no quitting” mentality which would carry him through his adulthood.
Indeed, he loved learning so much that he willingly accepted his punishment for a mistake he made as a youth. One night, Lincoln was reading Parson Weems biography of George Washington which he had borrowed from a stingy neighbor named Josiah Crawford. Lincoln left the book on a shelf overnight. A torrential rain poured in all night and rainwater seeped through the cracks in the walls of the log cabin. Unfortunately, the book’s cover was ruined, and Lincoln had to pull fodder for three days at a rate of twenty-five cents per day to compensate Crawford (or Ole Blue Nose as Lincoln nicknamed him) for the total cost of seventy-five cents for the book. It was only yet another incident that solidified the value of learning over hard labor in his mind.
As Lincoln became older, he became more immersed in thinking deeply about matters of the world. Instead of working the field, performing hard labor which he loathed, Lincoln was often caught sitting under a tree with his nose buried in a book. For this, his neighbors and even his own father — all farmers and hard-working men — thought that Lincoln was lazy. Yet, Lincoln never quit on his passion for renewing his mind. He courageously continued to pursue his studies because he understood the value of good learning.
But retaining a love for learning is different than getting an actual formal education in school. Lincoln himself complained that growing up, “all his schooling did not amount to one year” and that there was “absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education.” Nonetheless, he was able to learn how to read, write, and “cipher to the Rule of Three.” Indeed, Lincoln’s love of learning was hardly a result of having the perfect environment for schooling — because there was scarcely any of that on the frontier at the time — nor did it come from a complete lack of availability of schooling — because there were opportunities to learn albeit on a much smaller scale. Lincoln’s pure and unadulterated love for learning came from within himself. Sure, he may have been influenced by his mother’s readings, meeting the few educated men in the towns he visited, and even by reading about great men such as George Washington, but ultimately, his desire to learn was an outgrowth of his own need to learn. He refused to let his circumstances, challenging as they were, stop him from pursuing his happiness.
By developing an interest in reading, Lincoln fell in love with learning. And by doing so, Lincoln opened his mind to thinking deeply about important matters related to the people on the frontier. This in turn helped him to come up with solutions to resolve their problems by favoring a more robust Hamiltonian commercial plan for the future rather than an agricultural Jeffersonian plan of the past.
Undoubtedly, Lincoln faced many challenges as a youth, even more so as an adult. But he had learned early in life to disallow his circumstances to determine the outcome for the course of his life. Lincoln was not a meek cow but a raging bull. From struggling with want of food as a child to being ridiculed for having unusual features and pursuing his own dreams, Lincoln faced challenges in life head on with wit, humor, and courage.
Ref:
Richard Brookhiser, “Thespians in Chief,” American History Magazine, Autumn 2022, 16–18.
Michael Burlingame, “Abraham Lincoln: A Life,” Knox.edu, date accessed August 13, 2022, Abraham Lincoln: A Life — Lincoln Studies Center — Knox College.
William H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik, “Abraham Lincoln, Volume 1 (of 2) The True Story of a Great Life,” Gutenberg.org, November 10, 2012, Abraham Lincoln, by William H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik (gutenberg.org).
John G. Sotos, “The Physical Lincoln,” Physical-Lincoln.com, Mount Vernon Book Systems, 2007–2015, The Physical Lincoln: Appearance (physical-lincoln.com).
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