Lincoln Denies A Loan

A few weeks ago we were rummaging through my in-laws barn, helping them get rid of boxes of old stuff, and we came across The Book of Virtues, by William J. Bennett. It is a collection stories and poems that teach all kinds of moral lessons on things like hard work, faith, courage, etc. Regina and I absolutely fell in love with it, and Reg tries to read a little to the kids every day. We're fully convinced that every family should have this book in their house. It is a perfect companion to lessons we are teaching them right out of the Bible. The author's credibility has been called into question because it was revealed in 2003 that he has gambled excessively and lost millions of dollars over the years. While he is Catholic (they don't condemn gambling), and he is not in debt due to his gambling, some feel this makes him a hypocrite. Regardless, he did not write the moral stories and poems, he just compiled them, and the debatable morality of his gambling doesn't change those moral truths contained in his book.

The following is a letter contained within the Book of Virtues, written from Abraham Lincoln to his half brother, who had requested a loan of $80 because he had fallen on hard times. As if I didn't already have the utmost respect and admiration for President Lincoln, I was very impressed by his response to his half-brother. I've bolded my favorite parts:


[Dec. 24, 1848]

"Dear Johnston:

Your request for eighty dollars, I do not think it best to
comply with now. At the various times when I have helped you a little, you have said to me, "We can get along very well now," but in a very short time I find you in the same difficulty again. Now this can only happen by some defect in your conduct. What that defect is, I think I know. You are not lazy, and still you are an idler. I doubt whether since I saw you, you have done a good whole day's work, in any one day. You do not very much dislike to work, and still you do not work much, merely because it does not seem to you that you could get much for it. This habit of uselessly wasting time, is the whole difficulty; it is vastly important to you, and still more so to your children, that you should break this habit. It is more important to them, because they have long to live, and can keep out of an idle habit before they are in it, easier than they can get out after they are in. You are now in need of some ready money; and what I propose is , that you shall go to work, "tooth and nail," for somebody who will give you money for it. Let Father and your boys take charge of your things at home - prepare for a crop, and make the crop, and you go to work for the best money wages, or in discharge of any debt you owe, that you can get. And to secure you a fair reward for your labor, I now promise you that for every dollar you will, between this and the first of May, get for your own labor wither in money or in your own indebtedness, I will then give you one other dollar. By this, if you hire yourself at ten dollars a month, from me you will get ten more, making twenty dollars a month for your work. In this, I don't mean you shall off to St. Louis, or the lead mines, or the gold mines in California, but I mean for you to go at it for the best wages you can get close to home - in Coles County. Now if you will do this, you will soon be out of debt, and what is better, you will have a habit that will keep you from getting in debt again. But if I should now clear you out, next year you will be just as deep in as ever. You say you would almost give your place in Heaven for $70 or $80. Then you value your place in Heaven very cheaply, for I am sure you can with the offer I make you get the seventy or eighty dollars for four of five months' work. You say if I furnish you the money you will deed me the land, and if you don't pay the money back, you will deliver possession - Nonsense! If you can't now live with the land, how will you then live without it? You have always been kind to me, and I do not now mean to be unkind to you. On the contrary, if you will follow my advice, you will find it worth more than eight times eighty dollars to you."

Affectionately,
Your Brother

A. Lincloln