The sense of equality was his also, for he grew from childhood to
manhood in a state of society where there were neither rich to
envy nor poor to despise, and where the gifts and hardships of
the forest were distributed without favor to each and all alike.
In the forest he learned charity, sympathy, helpfulness--in a
word neighborliness--for in that far-off frontier life all the
wealth of India, had a man possessed it, could not have bought
relief from danger or help in time of need, and neighborliness
became of prime importance. Constant opportunity was found there
to practice the virtue which Christ declared to be next to the
love of God--to love one's neighbor as oneself.
In such settlements, far removed from courts and jails, men were
brought face to face with questions of natural right. The
pioneers not only understood the American doctrine of
self-government--they lived it. It was this understanding, this
feeling, which taught Lincoln to write: "When the white man
governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs
himself and also governs another man, that is more than
self-government that is despotism;" and also to give utterance
to its twin truth: "He who would be no slave must consent to have
no slave."
Lincoln was born in the slave State of Kentucky. He lived there
only a short time, and we have reason to believe that wherever he
might have grown up, his very nature would have spurned the
doctrine and practice of human slavery.
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