If the best of America could be embodied in one man, that man would be Abraham Lincoln,

the 16th president of the United States.

Born on February 12, 1809, Lincoln lived his early years in a log cabin with a dirt floor.

He described his childhood and adolescence in Kentucky and later Indiana in bleak terms

as the back side of this world.

His father, Thomas Lincoln, didn't see much practical value in formal education and his

son received almost none.

But young Lincoln's instincts pointed in an entirely different direction.

He devoured every book he could get his hands on and ate it by a near-photographic

memory.

He retained everything he read.

His goal was always what he called improvement.

At age 19, now six feet four inches tall and all hard angles, he worked on flatboats

carrying cargo down the Mississippi River, finally settling as a store clerk in New Salem,

Illinois.

There, Lincoln quickly established a reputation for good humor, scrupulous honesty, and a fierce

determination to make the most of himself.

In 1832, following a stint in the state militia, he decided to pursue a legal career.

Like many lawyers, he was drawn to politics.

In 1834, he won election to the state legislature.

Lincoln endorsed the tenets of the Quig Party, which had been organized by Senator Henry Clay

as a brick away from the dominant Democratic Party.

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