Those who seek to understand the character and achievement of Abraham Lincoln must begin with a study of the man's honesty. At the base of his nature, in the tap-root and very fiber of his being, pulsed a fidelity to truth, whether of thought or of deed, peculiar to itself. Lincoln was a poor boy growing up in a remote area. His mother died when he was young. With no formal schooling available to him, the young Lincoln set out to shape his own character.