7. "YOU SHALL GO TO WORK"
As his station in life slowly improved over that
of his poor relatives, Lincoln was frequently called upon for
assistance. He always displayed a keen interest in the welfare of those
who had been close to him in his youth, especially his stepmother, and
gave liberally to their aid from his limited means. The following letter
to his step brother, however, shows that he was not to be imposed upon
in this respect. It also bespeaks a regard for the dignity and value of
labor that is in the best American tradition.
Dear Johnston: Your request for eighty dollars
I do not think it best to comply with now. At the various times when I
have helped you a little you have said to me, "We can get along very
well now"; but in a very short time I find you in the same difficulty
again. Now, this can only happen by some defect in your conduct. What
that defect is, I think I know. You are not lazy, and still you are an
idler. I doubt whether, since I saw you, you have done a good whole
day's work in any one day. You do not very much dislike to work, and
still you do not work much, merely because it does not seem to you that
you could get much for it. This habit of uselessly wasting time is the
whole difficulty; it is vastly important to you, and still more so to
your children, that you should break the habit. It is more important to
them, because they have longer to live, and can keep out of an idle
habit before they are in it, easier than they can get out after they are
in.
You are now in need of some money; and what I propose
is, that you shall go to work, "tooth and nail," for somebody who will
give you money for it. Let father and your boys take charge of your
things at home, prepare for a crop, and make the crop, and you go to
work for the best money wages, or in discharge of any debt you owe, that
you can get; and, to secure you a fair reward for your labor, I now
promise you, that for every dollar you will, between this and the first
of May, get for your own labor, either in money or as your own
indebtedness, I will then give you one other dollar. By this, if you
hire yourself at ten dollars a month, from me you will get ten more,
making twenty dollars a month for your work. In this I do not mean you
shall go off to St. Louis, or the lead mines, or the gold mines in
California, but I mean for you to go at it for the best wages you can
get close to home in Coles County. Now, if you will do this, you will be
soon out of debt, and, what is better, you will have a habit that will
keep you from getting in debt again. But, if I should now clear you out
of debt, next year you would be just as deep in as ever. You say you
would almost give your place in heaven for seventy or eighty dollars.
Then you value your place in heaven very cheap, for I am sure you can,
with the offer I make, get the seventy or eighty dollars for four or
five months' work. You say if I will furnish you the money you will deed
me the land, and, if you don't pay the money back, you will deliver
possession. Nonsense! If you can't now live with the land, how will you
then live without it? You have always been kind to me, and I do not mean
to be unkind to you. On the contrary, if you will but follow my advice,
you will find it worth more than eighty times eighty dollars to you.
LINCOLN TO JOHN D. JOHNSTON, JANUARY 2, 1851.
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