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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: shipwrecked by it; he had, moreover, been one of a party of men
and boys, armed with long-handled axes, who went out to chop away
obstructions and meet a small steamer that, a few weeks earlier,
had actually forced its way up from the Illinois River.
Following the usual custom, he announced his candidacy in the
local newspaper in a letter dated March 9, addressed "To the
People of Sangamon County." It was a straightforward, manly
statement of his views on questions of the day, written in as
good English as that used by the average college-bred man of his
years. The larger part of it was devoted to arguments for the
improvement of the Sangamon River. Its main interest for us lies
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