| Show A LOAN OF EIGHTY DOL LARS one of the most remarkable letters ever written by lincoln was addres seb to his stepbrother step brother john D johnison Johi ison in 1851 answering a request for a loan of eighty dollars tear dear John your request for eighty dollar do not think i it best to comply with nith nw at the various times when I 1 I 1 have helped you a little you have I 1 said to me we can get along very well now but in in a very short time I 1 find you in the same difficulty again now this can only happen by some defect in your conduct what that defect is I 1 think I 1 know you ate aie not lazy laty and stilt you are an ieter ieler I 1 doubt whether since I 1 saw you you have done a good whole days work in any one day yoli yoi do not very much dislike to work and still you do not work much merely because it does not seem to you that you could get much for it this habit babit bitof 0 uselessly iise ose lessly wasting time is the whole difficulty itis it is vastly important to you and still more so to your children that you should break the habit it is more mere important to them because they have longer to live and c can n keep out of an idle habit before they are in it easier than they can get out after they are in you are in need of some ready money and what I 1 propose is that you shul shall go to work tooth and nail for somebody who will give yo you yoi i money for it let father and your boys take charge of things at home pre pile pare for a crop and make the crop and you go to work for the best money wages or in discharge of any debt you owe that you can get and to secure you a fair reward for your labor I 1 now promise you that for every dollar you will between this and the first of next may get for your own labor either in money or as your awn wn indebtedness I 1 will give you one other dollar by this if y you 04 hire yourself at ten dollars a month from me you will get ten wore more making twenty dolla dollas s for your wui k in this I 1 do not mean you shall go off to st louis or the lead mine or the gold mines in california but I 1 mean for you to go for the best wages you can get close to home in coles county now if you will 10 lo do this you vou will soon be out of debt and what is better you will have a habit babit that ghitl will keep you from getting in deo again but if I 1 should now clear claar ou out next year you would be just ab ii deep in in as ever you say you would give your puce place in heaven for 70 or 80 then you value your place in heaven very cheap for I 1 am sure oti on can with the offer I 1 make get tb the leventi seventy or eighty dollars for four or five months work you say if I 1 wilt will furnish you the money ou will deed tiie me the lindi land and if you dont pay the money back you will delver po assion nonsense if you cant now live with the land how bow will you vou then live without 11 I 1 you have bave ildas datt il was s ben kind to me and I 1 d 1 not mean to bt bi tinkie to vou an n contrad it ion on will iut hui fillow mv alviti lv iti m n will rind find it x orth ei lit tunes tune el ei hav dollars to yo your y A your brother A lincoln |
