on all controverted points of literature, science, or woodcraft among
the disputatious denizens of Clary's Grove, and his decisions were
never appealed from. His native tact and humor were invaluable in his
work as a peacemaker, and his enormous physical strength, which he
always used with a magnanimity rare among giants, placed his off-hand
decrees beyond the reach of contemptuous question. He composed
differences among friends and equals with good-natured raillery, but
he was as rough as need be when his wrath was roused by meanness and
cruelty. We hardly know whether to credit some of the stories,
apparently well-attested by living witnesses, of his prodigious
muscular powers. He is said to have lifted, at Rutledge's mill, a box
of stones weighing over half a ton! It is also related that he could
raise a barrel of whisky from the ground and drink from the bung--but
the narrator adds that he never swallowed the whisky. Whether these
traditions are strictly true or not, they are evidently founded on the
current reputation he enjoyed among his fellows for extraordinary
strength, and this was an important element in his influence. He was
known to be capable of handling almost any man he met, yet he never
sought a quarrel. He was everybody's friend and yet used no liquor or
tobacco. He was poor and had scarcely ever been at school, yet he was
the best-informed young man in the village. He had grown up on the
frontier, the utmost fringe of civilization, yet he was gentle and
clean of speech, innocent of blasphemy or scandal. His good qualities
might have excited resentment if displayed by a well-dressed stranger
from an Eastern State, but the most uncouth ruffians of New Salem took
a sort of proprietary interest and pride in the decency and the
cleverness and the learning of their friend and comrade, Abe Lincoln.

It was regarded, therefore, almost as a matter of course that Lincoln
should be a candidate for the Legislature at the next election, which