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They would do almost anything for sport or fun, love or necessity. They were friendly and good-natured they could trench a pond, dig a bog, build a house they could pray and fight, make a village or create a state. That wild bunch lived a few miles outside town and were, despite their roguish gallantry, “a terror to the entire region,” as Lincoln’s future law partner William Herndon reports. This last led Lincoln’s impulsive employer to wager that Lincoln was not only the smartest fellow around but could outwrestle the toughest man in the county-Jack Armstrong, leader of the Clary Grove boys. In coming weeks and months-Lincoln now “a sort of Clerk in a store,” as he put it-New Salemites saw more of his storytelling as well as his affability, surprising gentleness, hard work, an unequalled determination and capacity to learn, honesty that immediately became legendary, and prodigious physical strength. He told his lizard story that day, about how an old line Baptist preacher in the Indiana backwoods, delivering a sermon, had the misfortune to have a little blue lizard run up inside his pantaloons, with results that caused some distress among the faithful.
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In the course of a leisurely afternoon, as citizens came into the voting place, the election judge calling out their votes and the clerk writing them down, townsmen became familiar with another Lincoln ability-as a spell-binding storyteller. Local civic leaders, discovering that Lincoln could write-a prized ability in those parts-put him to work as a recording clerk registering ballots. Some days after Lincoln floated into town, New Salem was holding elections. It was the most civilized and populous place Lincoln had ever lived.
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He described himself as “a strange, friendless, uneducated, penniless boy, working on a flat boat-at ten dollars per month.” New Salem had existed for barely three years and had a population of about 100, a handful of whom had attended college. The 22-year-old Lincoln had arrived, as he would often say, like “a piece of floating driftwood” in the village of New Salem, in Sangamon County, in the summer of 1831. Looking back in his sketch across the whole span of his adult life, he fondly recalled “a success which gave me more pleasure than any I have had since.” He was thinking of his election at the age of 23 in the spring of 1832 as “a Captain of Volunteers” from Sangamon County, Illinois, in the Black Hawk war. “There is not much of it,” said Lincoln about his autobiographical sketch, “for the reason, I suppose, that there is not much of me.” In the race of ambition, he regarded himself as largely a failure, especially compared with his famous rival, Stephen Douglas. The Republican national convention would be held in Chicago in a few months, and Lincoln was being mentioned by some newspapers as a possible vice presidential or presidential candidate. In December 1859, Abraham Lincoln wrote a “little sketch” of his life for use by Republican friends who sought to make him better known outside his home state of Illinois.