Imagine arriving in a new city to begin your career with everything you own packed into your saddlebags. You’re twenty-eight old. You’ve managed to become a lawyer despite having almost no formal education. You’re ambitious. You believe you might be capable of something more.
There’s just one problem. You can’t afford a bed…or a room.
That was Abraham Lincoln when he arrived in Springfield, Illinois, in 1837. It’s difficult to reconcile that young man with the Lincoln we know today. We see the photographs. We know about the presidency, the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation. We visit the Lincon Memorial and look up at the enormous marble figure.
But the twenty-eight-year-old Lincoln didn’t know any of that was coming. He was simply trying to make a life for himself.
Not long after arriving in Springfield, Lincoln went into Joshua Speed’s store and asked about the cost of the supplies he needed for a bed. Speed told him the price. Lincoln couldn’t afford it. He asked whether he could pay later, explaining that if his new legal career succeeded, he would pay. If it didn’t, he wasn’t sure when he could.
Speed saw how discouraged he was and offered another solution. There was a room upstairs with a bed large enough for two. Lincoln was welcome to share it.
Lincoln carried his saddlebags upstairs. A short time later, he came back down and announced that he had moved in. from that small act of kindness grew one of most important friendships of Lincoln’s life.
With young Lincoln, nothing was certain. He had taught himself by reading whatever books he could find. He was intelligent and enormously curious, but he could also be insecure. He worried about his future. He experienced periods of profound melancholy.
In 1837, he was trying to establish himself in a new town with little money and no guarantee that any of his ambitious would amount to anything. This is the Lincoln I wanted to capture in Lincoln Seeks Justice for Elijah Lovejoy.
Current Projects
My Book: Continuing revisions of Lincolnd Seeks Justice for Elijah Lovejoy, my historical mystery featuring the young Abraham Lincoln of 1837–before anyone knew what he would become.
Edward Bryant: Continuing preparations for future publication of stories by my friend Edward Bryant.
Thanks for walking alongside me.
The View From The Imaginarium 