Lincoln also won admirers and votes in the neighboring town of Athens, primarily by saving one of their neighbors from the roughnecks of New Salem. A fierce rivalry had grown up between Athens and New Salem, fueled by raids that residents of one community made on the other; in turn, retaliatory counter-raids were executed. When one of the combatants from Athens incautiously visited New Salem alone, several villagers stuffed him into a sugar hogshead, nailed it shut, and prepared to roll him down the steep 200-foot bluff into the river. Lincoln intervened and talked them out of this potentially fatal plan. Thereafter, the Athens boys voted for him enthusiastically in all his campaigns for the legislature.
Source: Abraham Lincoln ∶ A Life ▫𓂃
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