Abstract
If "environment wields the mightiest mallet that hammers out the status of our souls," there must be in the being of every man a tiny mallet which shapes his individuality. Andrew Johnson and Abraham Lincoln sprang from similar backgrounds which had exactly opposite effects. The life line of Lincoln and Johnson are strongly parallel. Lincoln's father was a failure as a farmer but a handy man at most any kind of manual labor, and with occasional jobs he eked out a miserable existence, Johnson's father never attempted to follow a steady career. He was porter at Old Casso's inn at Raleigh, North Carolina, Sexton for the church, and keeper in Colonel William Polk's bank. He was the handy man around the town. Both Mary McDonough and Nancy Hanks were women of sterling character and great good sense who took a strong stand against the vicissitudes of life which threatened to overpower them.