Abraham Lincoln - THE POSTMASTER

It was the year of 1830’s, the Postal Department of the United States of America, decided to club a few Post Offices and create new, bigger and better ones. The aim was to reach out with more and more people in an efficient way.  As a part of this operation the Post Office at New Salem, was relocated to Petersburg, which meant that the Postmaster at the New Salem Office has to now, lose his job.

During this period, every Postmaster ought to get some amount of money and resources and further during his discharge, has to return all those to the trustie back. So now, the postmaster at the New Salem was now, supposed to return all the left 17 dollars to the US Postal Department.

The department felt that this amount was too little and they did not send any of their agent to collect the dues from the Postmaster for quite some time. 

After more than a half year ago, the agent was sent to get the money from the old Postmaster. The Post Master was now living in extreme hard times and was hardly pressed for the money.  Dr. Henry, a friend of the Postmaster got to know about his situation. He knew that his friend is currently unemployed would have used those money for his personal and household expenses. Dr.Henry accompanied the postal agent when thelatter went to collect money from the Postmaster. He wanted to loan the money to his friend and save him from the embarrassment. But, what happened now shocked Dr. Henry.

This is what Dr Henry had to say about what had transpired later.

“I was about to call him(the Postmaster) aside and loan him the money but astonishingly, he asked the agent to be seated for a moment and went inside. He went over to his trunk at his boarding house, and returned with an old blue sock with a quantity of silver and copper coin tied up in it. He, then untied the sock and poured all the contents on the table. The sock was full of coins. He proceeded to count the coins, which consisted of such silver and copper pieces as the country-people were then in the habit of using those in paying postage. On counting it up, it found to be the exact amount left at the time of discarding, to a cent, of the draft, and all same identical coin which had been received earlier. He never used those trust funds under any circumstances.”

Amazing honesty, isn’t it?  This man lost his job for no mistake, was now practically living in penury but did not touch a single cent from the State’s money.  Just look at the character of the man who faced all hardships while he had those amount of government’s money with him.

That man who surprised that postal agent and Dr. Henry with his honesty, did not stop there. He was elected as the 16th President of the United States of America.  He surprised the world another time when he came up with the emancipation declaration that effectively banned slavery from the US. He was so strong with his convictions, character and beliefs that he laid down his life while trying to get a complete ban on slavery.

As you might have guessed by now, that noble soul who achieved all this in his life with the strength of his character is none other than the great Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States of America.

Having a great character is one of the greatest assets one can ever possess.  One must have strong ideals in life and one should not move back from his path.  Once a person stands firm on his ideals and displays his strong will, great things will start happening to him. Pick your ideals, be committed to your goals and start working, as you work and display your character great things start happening to you.