Lincoln, the unknown

18 • LINCOLN THE UNKNOWNgested that they move farther West and begin life all over againinkindlier surroundings. She refused that customary means ofescape. She wasn't bad, she said; and she held her head high asshe said it. She wasn't going to run away. She was determinedto settle down there in Fort Harrod and fight it out.And she did. She reared eight children and redeemed hername in the very community where it had once been a signalfor coarse jests.In time two of her sons became preachers; and one of hergrandsons, the son of her illegitimate daughter, became Presidentof the United States. His name was Abraham Lincoln.I have told this story to show Lincoln's more immediate ancestry.He himself set great store by his well-bred Virginiagrandfather.William H. Herndon was Lincoln's law partner for twentyoneyears. He probably knew Lincoln better than any otherman who ever lived. Fortunately, he wrote a three-volume biographyof Lincoln that appeared in 1888. It is one of the mostimportant of the multitude of works on Lincoln. I quote nowfrom pages 3 and 4 of Volume I:On the subject of his ancestry and origin I only rememberone time when Mr. Lincoln ever referred to it. It wasabout 1850, when he and I were driving in his one-horsebuggy to the court in Menard county, Illinois. The suit wewere going to try was one in which we were likely, eitherdirectly or collaterally, to touch upon the subject of hereditarytraits. During the ride he spoke, for the first time inmy hearing, of his mother, dwelling on her characteristics,and mentioning or enumerating what qualities he inheritedfrom her. He said, among other things, that she was theillegitimate daughter of Lucy Hanks and a well-bred Virginiafarmer or planter; and he argued that from this lastsource came his power of analysis, his logic, his mentalactivity, his ambition, and all the qualities that distinguishedhim from the other members and descendants ofthe Hanks family. His theory in discussing the matter ofhereditary traits has been, that, for certain reasons, illegitimatechildren are oftentimes sturdier and brighter thanthose born in lawful wedlock; and in his case, he believedthat his better nature and finer qualities came from this