The Life of Abraham Lincoln

PREFACE

THE work here offered the public was begun in 1894 at the suggestion of Mr. S. S. McClure and Mr. J. S. Phillips, editors of " McClure's Magazine." Their desire was to add to our knowledge of Abraham Lincoln by collecting and preserving the reminiscences of such of his contemporaries as were then living. In undertaking the work it was determined to spare neither labor nor money and in this determination Mr. McClure and his associates have never wavered. Without the sympathy, confidence, suggestion and criticism which they have given the work it would have been impossible. They established in their editorial rooms what might be called a Lincoln Bureau and from there an organized search was made for reminiscences, pictures and documents. To facilitate the work all persons possessing or knowing of Lincoln material were asked through the Magazine to communicate with the editor. The response was immediate and amazing. Hundreds of persons from all parts of the country replied. In every case the clews thus obtained were investigated and if the matter was found to be new and useful was secured. The author wrote thousands of letters and travelled thousands of miles in collecting the material which came to the editor simply as a result of this request in the magazine. The work thus became one in which the whole country co-operated.

At the outset it was the intention of the editors to use the results of the research simply as a series of unpublished rem

iniscences, but after a few months the new material gathered, while valuable seemed to them too fragmentary to be published as it stood, and the author was asked to prepare a series of articles on Lincoln covering his life up to 1858 and embodying as far as possible the unpublished material collected. These articles, which appeared in "McClure's Magazine” for 1895 and 1896, were received favorably, and it was decided to follow them by a series on the later life of Lincoln. This latter series was concluded in September, 1899, and both series, with considerable supplementary matter, are published in the present volumes.

It is impossible in this brief preface to mention all who have aided in the work, but there are a few whose names must not be omitted, so essential has their assistance been to the enterprise.

From the beginning Mr. J. McCan Davis of Springfield, Illinois, has been of great service, particularly in examining the files of Illinois newspapers and in interviewing. It is to Mr. Davis's intelligent and patient research that we owe the report of Lincoln's first published speech, the curious letters on the Adams law case, most of the documents of Lincoln's early life in New Salem and Springfield, such as his first vote, his reports and maps of surveys, his marriage certificate and many of the letters printed in the appendix. Mr. William H. Lambert of Philadelphia has also assisted us constantly by his sympathy and suggestions, and his large and valuable Lincoln collection has been freely at our disposal. Other collections that have been generously opened are those of O. H. Oldroyd of Washington, R. T. Durrett, Louisville, Ky., C. F. Gunther, Chicago, Ill., and Louis Vanuxem, Philadelphia, Pa. The War Department of the United States Government has extended many courtesies, the War Records being freely opened and the members of the War Records Commission aiding us in every way

in their power. The librarians of the War Department, of the Congressional Library, of the Boston Public Library and of the Astor Library of New York, have also been most helpful.

The chief obligation which any student of Abraham Lincoln owes is to the great work of Messrs. Nicolay and Hay. In it are collected nearly all the documents essential to a study of Lincoln's life. Their History has been freely consulted in preparing this work and whenever letters and speeches of Lincoln appearing in their collection of his writings have been quoted, their version has been followed. Other lives of Lincoln that have been found useful are those of W. H. Herndon, W. O. Stoddard, John T. Morse, Isaac Arnold, Ward H. Lamon, H. C. Whitney, and J. G. Holland.

The new material collected will, we believe, add considerably to our knowledge of Lincoln's life. Documents are presented establishing clearly that his mother was not the nameless girl that she has been so generally believed. His father, Thomas Lincoln, is shown to have been something more than a shiftless poor white," and Lincoln's early life, if hard and crude, to have been full of honest, cheerful effort at betterment. His struggles for a livelihood and his intellectual development from the time he started out for himself until he was admitted to the bar are traced with more detail than in any other biography, and considerable new light is thrown on this period of his life. The sensational account of his running away from his own wedding, accepted generally by historians, is shown to be false. To the period of Lincoln's life from 1849, when he gave up politics, until 1858, the period of the Lincoln and Douglas Debates, the most important contribution made is the report of what is known as the "Lost Speech."

"The second volume of the Life contains as an appendix

196 pages of letters, telegrams and speeches which do not appear in Lincoln's "Complete Works," published by his private secretaries Messrs. Nicolay and Hay. The great majority of these documents have never been published at all. The source from which they have been obtained is given in each case.

No attempt has been made to cover the history of Lincoln's times save as necessary in tracing the development of his mind and in illustrating his moral qualities. It is Lincoln the man, as seen by his fellows and revealed by his own acts and words, that the author has tried to picture. This has been the particular aim of the second series of articles,

I. M. T.