I Will Prepare And Some Day My

I Was Born Feb. 12, 1809, In Hardin County, Kentucky. My Parents Were Both Born In Virginia, Of Undistinguished Families--second Families, Perhaps I Should Say. My Mother, Who Died In My Tenth Year, Was Of A Family Of The Name Of Hanks.... My Father ... Removed From Kentucky To ... Indiana, In My Eighth Year.... It Was A Wild Region, With Many Bears And Other Wild Animals Still In The Woods. There I Grew Up.... Of Course When I Came Of Age I Did Not Know Much. Still Somehow, I Could Read, Write, And Cipher ... But That Was All.

I Do Not Understand That Because I Do Not Want A Negro Woman For A Slave I Must Necessarily Want Her For A Wife. My Understanding Is That I Can Just Let Her Alone.

Every Man Is Born An Original, But Sadly, Most Men Die Copies.

A Universal Feeling, Whether Well Or Ill Founded, Cannot Be Safely Disregarded.

There Was The Strangest Combination Of Church Influence Against Me. Baker Is A Campbellite; And Therefore, As I Suppose With Few Exceptions, Got All Of That Church. My Wife Had Some Relations In The Presbyterian Churches, And Some In The Episcopal Churches; And Therefore, Wherever It Would Tell, I Was Set Down As Either One Or The Other, While It Was Everywhere Contended That No Christian Ought To Vote For Me Because I Belonged To No Church, And Was Suspected Of Being A Deist And Had Talked Of Fighting A Duel.