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                      Books by Alonzo Rothschild

                             PUBLISHED BY

                       HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

     “HONEST ABE.” A Study in Integrity based on the Early Life of
     Abraham Lincoln.

     LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN. Illustrated.




                             “HONEST ABE”

                    [Illustration: ABRAHAM LINCOLN

From a woodcut by T. Johnson after a daguerreotype owned by Mr. Robert
                              T. Lincoln]




                             “HONEST ABE”

                         A STUDY IN INTEGRITY
                      BASED ON THE EARLY LIFE OF
                            ABRAHAM LINCOLN

                                  BY

                           ALONZO ROTHSCHILD

                  AUTHOR OF “LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN”

                       [Illustration: colophon]

                          BOSTON AND NEW YORK
                       HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
                                 1917


                  COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY META ROTHSCHILD

                          ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

                      _Published September 1917_


                               IN MEMORY
                                  OF

                               “DEAREST”
                         KATHERINE ROTHSCHILD

                          TO WHOM THE AUTHOR
                          OWES NOT LESS THAN
                           LINCOLN OWED HIS
                            “ANGEL MOTHER”
                             THIS BOOK IS
                            AFFECTIONATELY
                               DEDICATED




CONTENTS


  I. PINCHING TIMES                      1

 II. TRUTH IN LAW                       41

III. PROFESSIONAL ETHICS                79

 IV. DOLLARS AND CENTS                 130

 V. HONESTY IN POLITICS                195

    ALONZO ROTHSCHILD                  283

     _Memoir by John Rothschild_

    A LIST OF BOOKS CITED              307

    NOTES                              321

    INDEX                              361




ILLUSTRATIONS


ABRAHAM LINCOLN                                            _Frontispiece_

From a woodcut by T. Johnson in the _Century Magazine_
for February, 1897, after a daguerreotype owned by Mr.
Robert T. Lincoln. It is not known when or where the
daguerreotype was taken, but it seems probable that it was
made either at St. Louis or at Washington when Lincoln
was in Congress, December, 1847,-March, 1849

_Alonzo Rothschild_                                                  285

From a photograph by Marceau, Boston




“HONEST ABE”




CHAPTER I

PINCHING TIMES


He who seeks to understand the character and achievement of Abraham
Lincoln must begin with a study of the man’s honesty. At the base of his
nature, in the tap-root and very fiber of his being, pulsed a fidelity
to truth, whether of thought or of deed, peculiar to itself. So
thoroughgoing was this characteristic that it seems to have begun in him
where in other men it generally leaves off. Politicians without number
have yielded a work-a-day obedience to the rules of honor, but there is
record of no other public leader in recent times who, among the
vicissitudes of a trying career, has endeavored to balance actions and
principles with such painstaking nicety. To trace these efforts from
Lincoln’s early years is to pass with him, pace for pace, over part of
the road that led to distinction. As we go we shall have to take account
of happenings, little as well as big; for every man is the sum of all
his parts, and in no other way may we hope to comprehend how the esteem
that began with a few rustic neighbors grew until it filled the heart of
a nation.

To what extent, if any, Lincoln inherited his uprightness of mind from
remote ancestors will probably never be known. The bare lines of the
genealogical chart afford no clues to the characters of the men and
women whose names appear there. If any of the threads spun out of their
several lives met and twined in the broad strand of blue that enriched
his, there is no way of identifying the spinners. Less obscure, though
perhaps of only passing interest, is what may be gleaned under this head
about two of Lincoln’s nearer relations. His father’s brothers, Mordecai
and Josiah, appear to have enjoyed general respect on account of their
probity. “They were excellent men,” said one who claimed to know them
intimately, “plain, moderately educated, candid in their manners and
intercourse, and