Abraham Lincoln: A History (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Abraham Lincoln: A History

It is not, therefore, with any thought of materially adding to his already accomplished renown that we have written the work which we now offer to our fellow-citizens. But each age owes to its successors the truth in regard to its own annals. The young men who have been born since Sumter was fired on have a right to all their elders know of the important events they came too late to share in. The life and the fame of Lincoln will not have their legitimate effect of instruction and example unless the Circumstances among which he lived and found his opportunities are placed in their true light before the men who never saw him.

To write the life of this great American in such a way as to show his relations to the times in which he moved, thbe stupendous Issues he controlled, the remarkable men by whom he was surrounded, has been the purpose which the authors have diligently pursued for many years. We can say nothing of the result of our labor; only those who have been similarly employed can appreciate the sense of inadequate performance with which we regard what we have accomplished. We can only Claim for our work that we have devoted to it sixteen years of almost unremitting assiduity that we have neglected no means in our power to ascertain the truth that we have rejected no authentic facts essential to a candid story that we have had no theory to establish, no personal grudge to gratify, no unavowed objects to subserve. We have aimed to write a sufficiently full and absolutely honest history of a great man and a great time; and although we take it for granted that we have made mistakes, that we have fallen into such errors and inaccuracies as are unavoidable in so large a work, we promise there shall not be found a line in all these chapters dictated by malice or unfairness.

Our desire to have this work placed under the eyes of the greatest possible number of readers induced us to accept the generous offer of the century magazine to print it first in these pages. In this way it will receive the intelligent criticism of a million people, con temporaries of the events narrated, and we expect to profit by the suggestions and corrections which such a method of publication invites. Moreover, as we have endeavored to write this history with a purpose of absolute fairness to every party and every section of the country, we ardently desire that, by its wide dissemination, it may contribute to the growth and maintenance throughout all our borders of that spirit of freedom and nationality for which Abraham Lincoln lived and died.

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