''Abe'' Lincoln's Yarns and Stories - University of Macau Library

Yarns and Stories, by Alexander K. McClure 239NOT TO "OPEN SHOP" THERE.President Lincoln was passing down Pennsylvania avenue in Washingtonone day, when a man came running after him, hailed him, and thrust abundle of papers in his hands.It angered him not a little, and he pitched the papers back, saying, "I'm notgoing to open shop here."WE HAVE LIBERTY OF ALL KINDS.Lincoln delivered a remarkable speech at Springfield, Illinois, when buttwenty-eight years of age, upon the liberty possessed by the people of theUnited States.In part, he said:"In the great journal of things happening under the sun, we, the Americanpeople, find our account running under date of the nineteenth century of theChristian era."We find ourselves in the peaceful possession of the fairest portion of theearth as regards extent of territory, fertility of soil, and salubrity of climate."We find ourselves under the government of a system of politicalinstitutions conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religiousliberty than any of which history of former times tells us."We, when mounting the stage of existence, found ourselves the legalinheritors of these fundamental blessings."We toiled not in the acquisition or establishment of them; they are a legacybequeathed to us by a once hardy, brave, and patriotic, but now lamentedand departed race of ancestors.