has entered into the glass.




III. A VILLAGE LEADER

Though placid, this early Lincoln was not resigned. He differed from the
boors of Pigeon Creek in wanting some other sort of life. What it was he
wanted, he did not know. His reading had not as yet given him definite
ambitions. It may well be that New Orleans was the clue to such stirring
in him as there was of that discontent which fanciful people have called
divine. Remembering New Orleans, could any imaginative youth be content
with Pigeon Creek?

In the spring of 1830, shortly after he came of age, he agreed for once
with his father whose chronic vagrancy had reasserted itself. The whole
family set out again on their wanderings and made their way in an oxcart
to a new halting place on the Sangamon River in Illinois. There Abraham
helped his father clear another piece of land for another illusive
"start" in life. The following spring he parted with his family and
struck out for himself.(1) His next adventure was a second trip as a
boatman to New Orleans. Can one help suspecting there was vague hope in
his heart that he might be adventuring to the land of hearts' desire?
If there was, the yokels who were his fellow boatmen never suspected
it. One of them long afterward asserted that Lincoln returned from New
Orleans fiercely rebellious against its central institution, slavery,
and determined to "hit that thing" whenever he could.

The legend centers in his witnessing a slave auction and giving voice to