No Ordinary Lives -- Four 19th Century Teenage Diariesw

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The diaries in this collection include the writings of four young people between the ages of twelve and twenty a boy growing up on a lake in Maine, a sea captain s daughter, a Shaker farm boy, and a daughter raised by a single mom. What can we discover from these diaries? Readers may be surprised, for example, by the technology available to Delmer Wilson in the Shaker community in 1887. Because all these diaries were produced during the writers developmental years, teachers and young readers may find comments about school and growing-up issues to be of some interest. Young readers will also want to compare teenage life today with that of the past. Some teenage girls of today may find that their pastimes don t differ all that much from those of Ethel Godfrey in 1894. And, like Augusta Skolfield, how many of us have gazed up at a bright moon and thought about that same light shining on loved ones far away? Readers will find the personalities themselves of great interest. Nat Hathorne, for example, can be seen to be a great wit and a fine storyteller as a lad. Rich and varied, each of these diaries contributes something different to young people s understanding of our American story.

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The Writings of Abraham Lincoln Volume 1: 1832-1843

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Immediately after Lincoln's re-election to the Presidency, in an off-hand
speech, delivered in response to a serenade by some of his admirers on
the evening of November 10, 1864, he spoke as follows:

"It has long been a grave question whether any government not too strong
for the liberties of its people can be strong enough to maintain its
existence in great emergencies. On this point, the present rebellion
brought our republic to a severe test, and the Presidential election,
occurring in regular course during the rebellion, added not a little to
the strain.... The strife of the election is but human nature
practically applied to the facts in the case. What has occurred in this
case must ever occur in similar cases. Human nature will not change. In
any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall
have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as good.
Let us therefore study the incidents in this as philosophy to learn
wisdom from and none of them as wrongs to be avenged.... Now that the
election is over, may not all having a common interest reunite in a
common fort to save our common country? For my own part, I have striven
and shall strive to avoid placing any obstacle in the way. So long as I
have been here, I have not willingly planted a thorn in any man's bosom.
While I am deeply sensible to the high compliment of a re-election and
duly grateful, as I trust, to Almighty God for having directed my
countrymen to a right conclusion, as I think for their own good, it adds
nothing to my satisfaction that any other man may be disappointed or
pained by the result."

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