Mr. Lincoln has been charged with selling whisky at New Salem, Illinois. Let us examine the facts and his own statement. In 1833, he and Mr. Berry bought out three groceries in New Salem. Berry was a drinking man and not a suitable partner for Lincoln. At that time grocery stores usually kept whisky on sale, so the firm had quite a stock of whisky on hand, along with other commodities. Drinking was common then. Even some ministers of the gospel would take their "dram." It appears that Lincoln trusted Berry to run the business. It is doubtful if Lincoln himself sold whisky, although his name was connected with the firm. The firm failed. Berry died, leaving Lincoln the debts to pay.
Mr. Douglas, in his debates with Lincoln, twitted him as having been a "grocery keeper" and selling whisky. In replying, Lincoln jokingly said Mr. Douglas was one of his best customers, and said he had left his side of the counter, while Douglas stuck to his side as tenaciously as ever. When Lincoln laid aside his jokes he declared that he never sold whisky in his life. (See Chapter IX.)
Mr. Lincoln often "preached" what he called his "sermon to boys," as follows: "Don't drink, don't gamble, don't smoke, don't lie, don't cheat. Love your fellow-men, love God, love truth, love virtue, and be happy."
On the 22d of February, 1842, he made a strong address before the Washingtonian Temperance Society, in the Second Presbyterian Church, Springfield, Illinois, in which he said: "Whether or not the world would be vastly benefited by a total and final banishment from it of all intoxicating drinks, seems to me not now an open question. Three-fourths of mankind confess the affirmative with their tongues, and, I believe, all the rest acknowledge it in their hearts."
Leonard Swett, who, for eleven years was associated with Lincoln in law in the Eighth Judicial District of Illinois, said, "Lincoln never tasted liquor, never chewed tobacco or smoked."
The late Philip Clark, of Mattoon, Illinois, an old-time friend of Lincoln, is reported to have said: "We were together one night in a country neighborhood, when some one proposed that we all go to church, close by, to hear the Rev. John Berry preach a temperance sermon. After listening intently, Abe remarked to me that that subject would some time be one of the greatest in this country."