Excerpt from Personal Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln: An AddressI do not purpose in my remarks today to proceed into any extended relation of the justly celebrated political debate between Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Douglas in 1858, or concerning Mr. Lincoln's administration of the Federal Government from 1861 to 1865, because both are known to every intelligent and well informed person in our whole country, and more especially, as the great debate and the transactions of the period of the civil war is an open book, with the contents of which you all are familiar.I purpose to relate facts bearing upon his early days and incidents of his life, which are personally known to me, incidents which may seem small in themselves, but yet serve to show and illustrate the habits, traits of disposition and character, the heart and head, the humor and melancholy, in a word, the peculiar and varied moods in all affairs, great or small, private or public, of this pure, kind, gentle, decided, and steadfast man.He was sensitive and conscientious at all times and in every relation of life, and never in youth or man hood did he knowingly do wrong to any one.More than forty years have passed since his tragic death, seventy years are past and gone since he bade farewell to New Salem and the friends of his early manhood and settled in Springfield to commence the practice of law with John T. Stuart, his colleague in the Illinois Legislature of 1836. Probably there is not a man or woman living today who was of adultage when Mr. Lincoln left Salem. Before many years have come and gone the last person who has taken Mr. Lincoln by the hand and looked into that kind, familiar face will have passed from earth.So it is well that those who knew him should gather up facts, great and small, honestly related without prejudice or partiality. Let us, in narrating events and the story of his life, cling close to truth and the man, then those who come after us will know the real man - the true Lincoln.Let me repeat, if the story of his life is truthfully and courageously told - nothing colored or suppressed, nothing false either written or suggested - the coming generation will see and feel the presence of the living man.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.