Базовый курс английского языка - Эккерсли К.Э.
ISBN 5-7871-0174-X
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Сочинение
Напишите небольшое сочинение на тему: "The Englishman's home is his castle".
QpOK 26
The American Scene (3)
The Greatest American
MR, PRISTLEY: I have told you about a number of "Great Britons",
I thought you might like this account of the Greatest American.
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln is the most famous instance of the claim that Americans often make that in their country a man may rise from the lowest to the highest position in their land, "from log-cabin to White House"-for that is exactly what Lincoln did.
He was bom in 1809, in a small farm in Kentucky, but while Abraham was quite young, the family moved into the wild forest land of Indiana. Here, his home was what was called a "half-faced camp", that is, a rough shelter of logs and boughs, enclosed on three sides and with the fourth side protected only by a roaring wood-fire. Though "Abe" was young he was big and strong. At eight years of age an axe was put into his hands and he worked with the rest of his family at their main task-clearing the land of trees. Of education he had hardly any. There was no public education in Indiana then; a few teachers got a living from the small fees that they chaiged, and Abraham went to one or two of these from time to time and learned to read and write and do simple arithmetic. "All told," he once said, " I attended school less than one year. "
He grew up tall with huge hands and long arms, but with enormous strength in his leg, arm and chest muscles. He was considered lazy except in his desire to learn. He took a book to read while he was ploughing, and when he had no paper or slate he would lie before the fire at night practising writing and arithmetic on a piece of wood and cleaning it again by shaving the writing off with a hunting-knife.
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Among the books that he read were A Life of George Washington, Robinson Crusoe,1 and The Pilgrim's Progress2 but the only book that he owened in his youth was the Bible, and its influence is seen in all his speeches and writings.
The first big experience that opened up the world for him occurred when he was nineteen. He was given a job on a river boat to go with a cargo down the Mississippi to New Orleans, a busy commercial port and the first town that he had ever seen. It was here, in the famous (or infamous) slave market, that he saw men, women and children being sold to the highest bidder, and, greatly moved, he said, "If ever I get a chance to hit that thing, I'll hit it hard."
In 1830 Abraham left his father's farm and went to Springfield, Illinois. Here he became a clerk in a store and worked hard to improve his education. He studied English Language and Literature (he developed a lasting fondness for Shakespeare, learning laige portions by heart) and, in 1836, he .qualified as a lawyer.
In spite of this untidiness, he was a great lawyer-not as an expert on legal matters, but as an advocate in court; he was able to present a case simply, powerfully and convincingly-mainly because he himself was completely and fiercely honest.
He had, too, entered politics and in 1832 became a candidate for the Legislature3 of his State, Illinois; but the election was interrupted by an attack by Red Indians led by "Black Hawk". Volunteers were called for to defend the city. Lincoln volunteered and was made captain of his company. At the next election, in 1834, he was elected to the Legislature of Illinois. He soon became a force in political life and in 1847 he went as a Congressman to the National Assembly4 in Washington. There, close to the beautiful White House where the President lived, he saw-to use his own words-"a sort of negro stable where herds of negroes were collected, temporarily kept and finally
1 By Daniel Defoe (1661-1731).
2 By John Bunyan (1628-1688).
3 i.e. the "Parliament".
4 The National Assembly is the national' Parliament.
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taken to Southern markets exactly like herds of horses", and his hatred of slavery hardened.
Slavery was now becoming a burning question in American politics. A great many people in the Northern states of America wanted to abolish it; a great many in the Southern states bitterly opposed abolition. The prosperity of the South was built largely on cotton growing, and the negroes were able to work in the hot steaming cot-ton-fields where white men could not. Abolition of slavery would, said the Southerners, mean economic ruin for them and they threatened that unless the North ceased its fight against slavery, the Southern states would leave the Union and form an independent "Confederacy". It was in 1860, when the storm clouds had blown up dark between North and South and feeling between them was very bitter that Lincoln was elected President of the United States. South Carolina left the Union, followed shortly after by six other states. They called for "immediate, absolute, eternal separation from the North" and elected their own President, Jefferson Davis.
Lincoln was an unbending foe of slavery; he was even more strongly against the break-up of the union. If the Union could not be preserved, the struggle for the abolition of slavery was lost. If there was no other way, he would preserve the Union by force. There was no other way. In 1862 the American Civil War between North and South began; four bitter years were to pass before it ended.
