How an old man, a barrel and a kindness shaped Abe Lincoln’s destiny

 

Abraham Lincoln often credited Blackstone’s Commentaries – the four-volume series on English common law by Sir William Blackstone – for kindling his desire to become a lawyer, and from there the rest of his life unfolded as we know it.

But it’s the story behind the way this struggling country store owner in a tiny village of just twenty log cabins on the Illinois prairie came into this influential work that makes one realize how small decisions can shape a destiny.

This story of greatness involved an old man, a barrel, and a kindness.

Lincoln (as only Lincoln can) told the story like this:

One day a man who was migrating to the West drove up in front of my store with a wagon which contained his family and household plunder. He asked me if I would buy an old barrel for which he had no room in his wagon, and which he said contained nothing of special value. I did not want it, but to oblige him I bought it, and paid him, I think, half a dollar for it. Without further examination I put it away in the store and forgot all about it.

Some time after, in overhauling things, I came upon the barrel, and emptying it upon the floor to see what it contained, I found at the bottom of the rubbish a complete edition of Blackstone’s Commentaries.”

I began to read . . . and I had plenty of time; for during the long summer days, when the farmers were busy with their crops, my customers were few and far between. The more I read, the more intensely interested I became. Never in my whole life was my mind so thoroughly absorbed. I read until I devoured them. (Ketcham, 1901)

Lincoln later remarked that this was “the best stroke of business I ever did in the grocery line.”

Indeed it was – or maybe it was just his act of kindness to an old man that allowed Abraham Lincoln to have the opportunity that changed his life and shaped his destiny.

And by default, shaped ours.

This was another tale from Abe Lincoln, storyteller.

Mac

Works Cited

[1] Ketcham, Henry (1901). The Life of Abraham Lincoln. New York, NY: The Perkins Book Company. pp.66-67.