Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 January 1887 — Lincoln and the “Clary’s Grove Boys.” [ARTICLE]

Lincoln and the “Clary’s Grove Boys.”

Fublie opinion at New Salem was formed by a crowd of ruffianly young fellows who were called the “Clary’s Grove Boys.” Once or twice a week they descended upon the village and passed the day in drinking, fighting and brutal horse-play. If a stranger appeared in the place, he was likely to suffer a rude initiation into the social life of New Salem at the hands of these jovial savages. Sometimes he was nailed up in a hogshead and rolled down hill, sometimes he was insulted into a fight and then mauled black and blue; for despite their pretensions to chivalry, they had no scruples about fair play or any such superstitions of civilization. At first they did not seem inclined to molest young Lincoln. Bis appearance did not invite insolence; his reputation for strength and activity was a greater protection to him than his inoffensive good-nature. But the loud admiration of Offut gave them umbrage. It led to dispute, contradictions, and finally to a formal banter to a wrestling-match. Lincoln was greatly averse to all this “wooling and pulling,” as he called it. But Offut’s indiscretion had made it necessary for him to show his mettle. Jack Armstrong, the leading bully of the gang, was selected to throw him, and expected an easy victory. But he soon found himself in different hands from any he had heretofore engaged with. Seeing he could not manage the tall stranger, h s friends swarmed in, and, by kicking and tripping nearly succeeded in getting Lincoln down. At this, as has been said of another hero, “the spirit of Odin entered into him,” and, putting forth his whole strength, he held the pride of Clary’s Grove in his arms like a child, and almost choked the exuberant life out of him. For a moment a general fight seemed nevitable; but Lincoln, standing undismayed with his back to the wall, looked so formidable in his defiance that an honest admiration took the place of momentary fury, and his initiation was oyer. As to Armstrong, he was Lincoln's friend and sworn brother as soon as he recovered the use of his larynx, and the bond thus strangely created lasted through life. Lincoln had no further occasion to fight his own battle while Armstrong was there to act as his champion. The two friends, although so widely different,, were helpful to each other afterward in many ways, and Lincoln made ample amends for the liberty his hands had taken with Jack’s throat, by saving, in a memorable trial, his son’s neck from the halter. This incident, trivial and vulgar as it may seem, was of great importance in Lincoln’s life. His behavior in this ignoble scuffle did the work of years for him, in giving him the position he required in the community where his lot was cast. He became from that moment, in a certain sense, a personage, with a name and standing of his own. The verdict of Clary’s Grove was unanimous that he was “the cleverest fellow that had ever broke into the settlement. ” He did not have to be constantly scuffling to guard his self-respect, and at the same time he gained the good-will of the better sort by his evident peaceableness and integrity. —Century.