“Honest Abe” Becomes Postmaster of New Salem

Number Five

From Lincoln’s Autobiographies and other Sources

 

[the selections with bracket “first-person wording” is from

an interview of presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln, by John L. Scripps of the Chicago Press and Tribune]

          “I was appointed postmaster at New Salem--the office being too insignificant to make my politics an objection. 

. . . Out of a job, I went to work for general-store-owner Samuel Hill.  Hill sold whiskey and was the town postmaster.       However, the townspeople felt that I could be a better postmaster.  At the time my ambition was growing.   On May 7, 1833, I placed a five-hundred-dollar bond, and became postmaster.

          I was not paid much for splitting rails, helping at the mill, and being an assistant surveyor. In fact in the three years as postmaster, I was not paid more than two hundred dollars.
          In addition, my mailing route was huge. I helped out people who could not afford to pay their mail bills.  In one instance, I was turned in by a friend and fined ten dollars for delivering unpaid mail.  

          On May 30, 1836, I resigned as postmaster.”     A. Lincoln---  Scripps Interview