Honest Abe Lincoln card art from Lost Chapters (Garnet, Character) — Card art: Honest Abe Lincoln

Honest Abe Lincoln: Garnet Character

Abraham Lincoln was called Honest Abe because of his reputation for honesty as a lawyer in Illinois, long before he ran for president. Historians note the nickname was not invented by party publicists; it showed the wide respect he had earned, even from political rivals like Stephen Douglas.

Cost: 4 crystals
Type: Character · Founder
Power / Health: 3 / 4
Color: Garnet (Rebels, Pirates & War)
Rarity: Uncommon
Set: Liberty & Lightning (Set 1)

On play: Recover 1.

Rail-splitting lawyer whose integrity matched his height, preserving a union while ending its greatest moral failing.

Real history

The real history

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. When he was about 7, his family moved to Indiana, and his mother died when he was 9. He had little formal schooling and largely taught himself. At 21 he moved with his family to Illinois.

In 1831 the young Lincoln floated down the Sangamon River on a flatboat and reached the village of New Salem. When the boat stuck on a milldam, he unloaded cargo, drilled a hole to drain the water and got it over. The trader who had hired him, Denton Offutt, was impressed and gave him a job as a clerk in his store. Lincoln later became New Salem's postmaster in May 1833 and worked as a deputy county surveyor. A store partnership left him struggling with debt.

He borrowed law books, studied on his own and earned his law license. In April 1837 he rode into Springfield on a borrowed horse to start his legal career. There he built a busy practice and rode the Illinois court circuit, where he became widely respected for his honesty. The historian Richard Carwardine writes that the name Honest Abe was a mark of that respect, not a campaign invention. Even his rival Stephen Douglas called him as honest as he was shrewd.

In May 1860, at the Illinois Republican convention in Decatur, his relative John Hanks marched in carrying two old fence rails with a sign calling Lincoln the Rail Candidate. Lincoln told the crowd he could not swear these rails were his, but that he had split many better ones. The rail splitter image, a reminder of his frontier roots, followed him through the 1860 campaign.

Sources

Abraham Lincoln: Life Before the Presidency, Miller Center, University of Virginia
Lincoln's New Salem 1830 to 1837, Lincoln Home National Historic Site, National Park Service
Did Lincoln deserve the nickname, Honest Abe?, House Divided Project, Dickinson College
Railsplitter, House Divided Project, Dickinson College

Checked against these sources on October 2, 2026. Spot a mistake? Report an error. How we check facts.

Game lore (invented)

In the game's story

In the game's invented story, Lincoln is the tall man in the stovepipe hat the Travelers first glimpse in the Folded Corner, winning an argument with a knight about a joke. He spends his evenings trading stories by the tavern fire and his days advising the Folio Council, where he warns that the answer to a divided house is not to throw half the family out. Of his two cards, the people of Marginalia prefer Honest Abe.

In Lost Chapters' frame story, history's heroes fall into an invented world called Marginalia. That story is fiction; the history on this page is real.

How the card plays

Honest Abe Lincoln costs 4 crystals and is a 3/4 Garnet Founder. When he enters play, Recover 1: the top card of your deck goes into your Life, up to the maximum of 5. That puts back a Life card you have lost, and since a Life card that is hit goes to your hand, it also banks a card for later.

He is legal in Garnet decks led by Blackbeard. Play him on turn 3 or 4, after your Leader has taken a hit or two, so the Recover is not wasted.

Redcoats Redcoats has Guard, so it blocks without resting while Lincoln holds the line. Parley Parley cancels an attack and protects the Life he restored. The American Dream The American Dream is a Triumph: if Recover tucks it into your Life, you can play it free when it is revealed.

Playable in decks led by Edward Teach "Blackbeard", and by any Traveler Leader whose colors include Garnet.
In the Blackbeard starter deck (1 copy). Deck code: LC2-Aj4BPwFAAUEBQgFDAUQCRQFGAkcBSAFJAkoBSwFMAU0BTgFPAlACUQFSAVMCVAFVAVYBVwFYAVkBWgFbAVwBXQJeAW9C
A deck holds up to 3 copies of this card.

Questions about Lincoln

Did Abraham Lincoln really split rails?

Yes. He did hard farm work on the frontier as a young man, splitting rails among other jobs. At the 1860 Decatur convention, though, he admitted he could not be sure the two rails carried in were his own.

Did Lincoln go to law school?

No. Lincoln never attended law school. He borrowed law books, taught himself in New Salem, earned his license and practiced law in Springfield for more than 20 years before he became president.

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