a courthouse and a university, were determined, and a sonorous name
was selected out of Plutarch, before its location was even considered.
For this latter office the intervention of an official surveyor was
necessary, and therefore Mr. Calhoun had more business than he could
attend to without assistance. Looking about for a young man of good
character, intelligent enough to learn surveying at short notice, his
attention was soon attracted to Lincoln. He offered young Abraham a
book containing the elements of the art, and told him when he had
mastered it he should have employment. The offer was a flattering one,
and Lincoln, with that steady self-reliance of his, accepted it, and
armed with his book went out to the schoolmaster's (Menton Graham's),
and in six weeks' close application made himself a surveyor.
[Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote (2) relocated to chapter end.]

[Illustration: AUTOGRAPH PLAN OF ROAD SURVEYED BY A. LINCOLN AND
OTHERS. The lower half is the right-hand side of the plan which, in
the original, is in one piece.]

[Illustration: Fac-simile of Lincoln's Report of the road survey.]

It will be remembered that Washington in his youth adopted the same
profession, but there were few points of similarity in the lives of
the two great Presidents, in youth or later manhood. The Virginian had
every social advantage in his favor, and was by nature a man of more
thrift and greater sagacity in money matters. He used the knowledge
gained in the practice of his profession so wisely that he became
rather early in life a large land-holder, and continually increased
his possessions until his death. Lincoln, with almost unbounded
opportunities for the selection and purchase of valuable tracts, made
no use whatever of them. He employed his skill and knowledge merely as