Archer’s Ethical Obligations: Ethical Obligations of the Lawyer. By Gleason Leonard Archer. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1910.
Arnold: The Life of Abraham Lincoln. By Isaac N. Arnold. Seventh Edition. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co. 1896.
Atkinson: The Boyhood of Lincoln. By Eleanor Atkinson. New York: The McClure Company. 1908.
Banks: The Lincoln Legion. The Story of Its Founder and Forerunners. By Rev. Louis Albert Banks, D.D. Illustrated with Drawings by Arthur I. Keller and Photographs. New York: The Mershon Company. 1903.
Barrett, New: Abraham Lincoln and His Presidency. By Joseph H. Barrett, LL.D. Illustrated. In Two Volumes. Cincinnati: The Robert Clarke Company. 1904.
Barrett: Life of Abraham Lincoln. Presenting his early history, political career, and speeches in and out of Congress. By Joseph H. Barrett. Cincinnati: Moore, Wilstach & Baldwin. 1865.
Bartlett: The Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln. With a Portrait on Steel. To which is added a biographical sketch of Hon. Hannibal Hamlin. By D. W. Bartlett. New York: H. Dayton. 1860.
Bateman: Abraham Lincoln; an address. By Newton Bateman. Galesburg, Ill.: Cadmus Club Publications. 1899.
Binney: The Life of Horace Binney, with selections from his letters. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. 1903.
Binns: Abraham Lincoln. By Henry Bryan Binns. London: J. M. Dent & Co. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. 1907.
Boyden: Echoes from Hospital and White House. A Record of Mrs. Rebecca R. Pomroy’s Experience in War-Times. By Anna L. Boyden. Boston: D. Lothrop & Co. 1884.
Brady: Washington and Lincoln. A comparison, a contrast, and a consequence. An address delivered on June 18, 1904, at Valley Forge, Penna. before the Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution: to commemorate the abandonment of the camp by the continental army in 1778. By Cyrus Townsend Brady. Philadelphia: Sons of the Revolution, Pennsylvania Society Publications. 1904.
Brockett: The Life and Times of Abraham Lincoln, Sixteenth President of the United States. By L. P. Brockett, M.D. Philadelphia: Bradley & Co. 1865.
Brooks: Abraham Lincoln and the Downfall of American Slavery. By Noah Brooks. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. 1896.
Brougham’s Works: Works of Henry Peter Brougham, First Baron Brougham and Vaux. Seven volumes. Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black. 1872.
Browne: The Every-day Life of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln’s life and character portrayed by those who knew him. Prepared and arranged by Francis F. Browne. St. Louis: William G. Hills. 1896.
Browne’s Lincoln and Men: Abraham Lincoln and the Men of his Time. By Robert H. Browne, M.D. Two volumes. Cincinnati: Jennings & Pye. New York: Eaton & Mains. 1901.
Campbell’s Reports: Reports of cases determined at nisi prius in the courts of King’s Bench and Common Pleas, and on Circuit. Four Volumes. By John, Baron Campbell. New York: Riley. 1810-1816.
Carpenter: The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln. Six Months at the White House. By F. B. Carpenter. New York: Hurd & Houghton. 1867.
Caton: Miscellanies. By John Dean Caton. Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co. 1880.
Chiniquy: Fifty years in the Church of Rome. By Father Chiniquy, the apostle of temperance in Canada. 3d Edition. Chicago: Craig & Barlow. 1886.
Chittenden: Recollections of President Lincoln and his Administration. By L. E. Chittenden, his Register of the Treasury. New York: Harper & Bros. 1891.
Clarke: James Freeman Clarke. Autobiography, Diary, and Correspondence. Edited by Edward Everett Hale. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1891.
Coffin: Abraham Lincoln. By Charles Carleton Coffin. New York: Harper & Bros. 1893.
Curtis’s Lincoln: The True Abraham Lincoln. By William Eleroy Curtis. Philadelphia and London: J. B. Lippincott Co. 1904.
Davidson: A Complete History of Illinois from 1673 to 1873. By Alexander Davidson and Bernard Stuvé. Springfield: Illinois Journal Co. 1874.
Debates: Political Debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, in the Celebrated Campaign of 1858 in Illinois. Including the preceding speeches of each at Chicago, Springfield, etc. Also the Two Great Speeches of Abraham Lincoln in Ohio in 1859. Cleveland: O. S. Hubbell & Co. 1895.
Dodge: Abraham Lincoln, the evolution of his literary style. By Daniel Kilham Dodge. Champaign, Ill.: University of Illinois. 1900.
Douglass: Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. Written by himself. His early life as a slave, his escape from bondage, and his complete history to the present time. With an introduction by Mr. George L. Ruffin of Boston. Hartford, Conn.: Park Publishing Co. 1881.
Edmonds: Facts and Falsehoods concerning the war on the South, 1861-1865. By George Edmonds. Memphis, Tenn.: Taylor & Co. 1904.
Flower: Edwin McMasters Stanton, the Autocrat of the Rebellion, Emancipation, and Reconstruction. By Frank Abial Flower. Akron, Ohio: The Saalfield Publishing Co. 1905.
French: Abraham Lincoln, the Liberator. A biographical sketch. By Charles Wallace French. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. 1891.
Gallaher: Best Lincoln Stories, tersely told. By J. E. Gallaher. Chicago: James E. Gallaher & Co. 1898.
Gillespie: Recollections of early Illinois and her noted men. Read before the Chicago Historical Society, March 16, 1880. By Hon. Joseph Gillespie, Judge of Circuit Court of Madison County District. Chicago: Fergus Printing Co. 1880.
Greeley: Greeley on Lincoln. With Mr. Greeley’s Letters to Charles A. Dana and a Lady Friend. To which are added reminiscences of Horace Greeley. Edited by Joel Benton. New York: The Baker & Taylor Co. 1893.
Gridley: The Story of Abraham Lincoln, or the Journey from the Log Cabin to the White House. By Eleanor Gridley, Secretary of the Lincoln Log Cabin Association. Copyright, 1902, by Eleanor Gridley.
Gridley’s Defense: Lincoln’s Defense of Duff Armstrong. The story of the trial and the celebrated almanac. By J. N. Gridley. Reprint from the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society: April, 1910.
Hamlin: The Life and Times of Hannibal Hamlin. By his grandson, Charles Eugene Hamlin. Cambridge: The Riverside Press. 1899.
Hanaford: Abraham Lincoln: His Life and Public Services. By Mrs. P. A. Hanaford. Boston: B. B. Russell & Co. 1865.
Hapgood: Abraham Lincoln, the Man of the People. By Norman Hapgood. New York: The Macmillan Company. 1899.
Hart’s Sketch: A Biographical Sketch of Abraham Lincoln. By Charles Henry Hart. Reprinted from the introduction to Bibliographia Lincolniana. Albany: Munsell. 1870.
Haynie: The Captains and the Kings. Anecdotes and biographical notes on contemporary celebrities. By Henry Haynie. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co. 1904.
Herndon: Abraham Lincoln. The True Story of a Great Life. By William H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik. With an introduction by Horace White. Illustrated. In Two Volumes. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1896.
Hill: Lincoln, The Lawyer. By Frederick Trevor Hill. New York: The Century Company. 1906.
Hilliard’s Memoir: Politics and Pen Pictures at home and abroad. By Henry Washington Hilliard. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. 1892.
Hitchcock: Nancy Hanks. The Story of Abraham Lincoln’s Mother. By Caroline Hanks Hitchcock. New York: Doubleday & McClure Co. 1899.
Hobson: Footprints of Abraham Lincoln. Presenting Many Interesting Facts, Reminiscences, and Illustrations Never Before Published. By J. T. Hobson, D.D., LL.B., author of “The Lincoln Year Book.” Dayton, Ohio: The Otterbein Press. 1909.
Holland: The Life of Abraham Lincoln. By J. G. Holland. Springfield, Mass.: Gurdon Bill. 1866.
Howells: Lives and Speeches of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin. By W. D. Howells and John L. Hayes. Columbus, O.: Follett, Foster & Co. 1860.
Irelan: The Republic; or A History of the United States of America in The Administrations, From the Monarchic Colonial Days to the Present Times. By John Robert Irelan, M.D. In Eighteen Volumes. Chicago: Fairbanks and Palmer Publishing Co. 1888.
Jayne: Abraham Lincoln. Personal Reminiscences of the martyred President. An address delivered by William Jayne to the Grand Army Hall and Memorial Association, February 12, 1900. Chicago: The Grand Army Hall and Memorial Assn. 1908.
Jennings: Abraham Lincoln, The Greatest American. By Janet Jennings. Dedicated to the plain people of the Nation he saved—To the University of Wisconsin that honors his memory. Copyright, 1909, by Janet Jennings. Madison, Wis.
Jones: Lincoln, Stanton, and Grant. Historical Sketches. By Major Evan Rowland Jones. London: Frederick Warne & Co. 1875.
Keckley: Behind the Scenes. By Elizabeth Keckley, formerly a slave, but more recently modiste, and friend of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln. Or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House. New York: G. W. Carleton & Co. 1868.
Ketcham: The Life of Abraham Lincoln. By Henry Ketcham. New York: A. L. Burt Co. 1901.
Koerner: Memoirs. Life sketches written at the suggestion of his children. By Gustav Philipp Koerner. Edited by Thomas J. McCormack. 2 Volumes. Cedar Rapids, Iowa: The Torch Press. 1909.
Lamon: The Life of Abraham Lincoln; from his Birth to his Inauguration as President. By Ward H. Lamon. Boston: James R. Osgood & Co. 1872.
Lamon’s Recollections: Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, 1847-65. By Ward Hill Lamon. Edited by Dorothy Lamon. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co. 1895.
Larwood’s Humor of Law: Humor of the Law. Forensic anecdotes. By Jacob Larwood [pseudonym for L. R. Sadler]. London: Chatto & Windus. 1903.
Leland: Abraham Lincoln and the Abolition of Slavery in the United States. By Charles Godfrey Leland. New York: Merrill & Baker. 1879.
Lewis’s Great American Lawyers: Great American Lawyers. A history of the legal profession in America. (University Edition.) Eight volumes. Edited by William Draper Lewis. Philadelphia: The John C. Winston Co. 1907-1909.
Liber Scriptorum: The First Book of the Authors’ Club. Liber Scriptorum. New York: Published by the Authors’ Club. 1893.
Lincoln and Douglas: Abraham Lincoln. A Paper Read before The Royal Historical Society, London, June 16, 1881. By Hon. Isaac N. Arnold, F.R.H.S. Stephen A. Douglas: An Eulogy Delivered before the Chicago University, July 3, 1861. By Hon. James W. Sheahan. Chicago: Fergus Printing Co. 1881.
Lincolnics: Familiar Sayings of Abraham Lincoln. Collected and Edited by Henry Llewellyn Williams. New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. 1906.
Ludlow: President Lincoln, Self-Pourtrayed. By John Malcolm Ludlow. Published for the benefit of the British Foreign Freedmen’s Aid Society. London: Alfred W. Bennett; Alexander Strahan; Hamilton, Adams & Co. 1866.
McCulloch: Men and Measures of Half a Century. Sketches and Comments. By Hugh McCulloch. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1889.
MacChesney: Abraham Lincoln. The Tribute of a Century, 1809-1909. Commemorative of the Lincoln Centenary and containing the principal speeches made in connection therewith. Edited by Nathan William MacChesney. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co. 1910.
McClure’s Stories: Abraham Lincoln’s Stories and Speeches. Edited by J. B. McClure, A.M. Chicago: Rhodes & McClure Publishing Co. 1899.
McClure’s Yarns: “Abe” Lincoln’s Yarns and Stories. A complete collection of the funny and witty anecdotes that made Lincoln famous as America’s Greatest Story Teller. With introduction and anecdotes by Colonel Alexander K. McClure of the Philadelphia Times, a personal friend and adviser of the Story-Telling President. The Story of Lincoln’s Life told by himself in his stories. Wit and Humor of the War, the Courts, the Backwoods, and the White House. Copyright by Henry Neil, 1901.
Magruder’s Marshall: John Marshall. By Allan B. Magruder. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1899.
Markens: President Lincoln and the Jews. By Isaac Markens. New York: Printed for the Author. 1909.
Master: Lincoln, Master of Men. A Study in Character. By Alonzo Rothschild. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin Company. 1906.
Merrick’s Narrative: Old Times on the Upper Mississippi. The Recollections of a Steam-Boat Pilot from 1854 to 1863. By George Byron Merrick. Cleveland, Ohio: The Arthur H. Clark Co. 1909.
Morgan: Abraham Lincoln, The Boy and the Man. By James Morgan. New York: The Macmillan Company. 1908.
Morgan’s Henry: The True Patrick Henry. By George Morgan. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co. 1907.
Morse: Abraham Lincoln. By John T. Morse, Jr. Two volumes. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1896.
Newton: Lincoln and Herndon. By Joseph Fort Newton. Cedar Rapids, Iowa: The Torch Press. 1910.
Nicolay: A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln. Condensed from Nicolay and Hay’s Abraham Lincoln. By John G. Nicolay. New York: The Century Company. 1904.
Nicolay’s Boys’ Life: The Boys’ Life of Abraham Lincoln. By Helen Nicolay. New York: The Century Company. 1906.
Nicolay & Hay: Abraham Lincoln, A History. By John G. Nicolay and John Hay. Ten Volumes. New York: The Century Company. 1890.
Oldroyd: The Lincoln Memorial. Album-Immortelles. Original Life Pictures, with autographs, from the hands and hearts of eminent Americans and Europeans, contemporaries of the great martyr to liberty, Abraham Lincoln. Together with extracts from his speeches, letters, and sayings. Collected and edited by Osborn H. Oldroyd. With an introduction by Matthew Simpson, D.D., LL.D., and a sketch of the patriot’s life by Hon. Isaac N. Arnold. Chicago: Gem Publishing House. 1883.
Onstot: Pioneers of Menard and Mason Counties. Made up of personal reminiscences of an early life in Menard County, which we gathered in a Salem life from 1830 to 1840, and a Petersburg life from 1840 to 1850, including personal reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln and Peter Cartright. By T. G. Onstot. Forest City, Illinois: T. G. Onstot. 1902.
Parkinson’s Tour in America: A tour in America, in 1798, 1799, and 1800. Exhibiting sketches of society and manners, and a particular account of the American system of agriculture. By Richard Parkinson. London: J. Harding. 1805.
Paul: Massachusetts’ practice with reference to proceedings before masters and auditors, and their reports. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1909.
Phillips’s, Men who knew: Abraham Lincoln, by some men who knew him. Being personal recollections of Judge Owen T. Reeves, Hon. Jas. S. Ewing, Col. Richard P. Morgan, Judge Franklin Blades, John W. Bunn. With introduction by Hon. Isaac N. Phillips. Bloomington, Ill.: Pantagraph Printing and Stationery Co. 1910.
Pratt: Lincoln in Story. The Life of the Martyr-President told in Authenticated Anecdotes. Edited by Silas G. Pratt. Illustrated. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1901.
Ram: A treatise on facts as subjects of inquiry by a jury. Fourth American Edition. Edited by John Townshend, and additional notes by Charles F. Beach, Jr. Also appendix. New York: Baker, Voorhis & Co. 1890.
Raymond: The Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln, Sixteenth President of the United States, together with his State Papers. By Henry J. Raymond. To which are added anecdotes and personal reminiscences of President Lincoln. By Frank B. Carpenter. New York: Derby & Miller. 1865.
Rice: Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln. By distinguished men of his time. Collected and edited by Allen Thorndike Rice. New York: The North American Review. 1888.
Salkeld’s Reports: Reports in French and English, containing cases heard and determined in the court of King’s Bench, during the time that Sir Robert Foster, Sir Robert Hyde, and Sir John Kelyng were chief Justices there, as also of certain cases in other courts at Westminster during that time. 2d Edition. Two Volumes. Translated into English by Mr. Serjeant Salkeld and others. London: Browne. 1722.
Schurz: The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz. Three Volumes. New York: The McClure Company. 1907-1908.
Schurz’s Essay: Abraham Lincoln. An Essay. By Carl Schurz. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1892.
Scripps: Tribune Tracts No. 6. Life of Abraham Lincoln. Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1860 by Horace Greeley and Company in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.
Selby: Stories and Speeches of Abraham Lincoln. Including stories of Lincoln’s early life, stories of Lincoln as a lawyer, Presidential incidents, stories of the war, etc., etc. Lincoln’s Letters and Great Speeches Chronologically arranged; with Biographical Sketch by Paul Selby (Associate Editor of the Encyclopedia of Illinois). Fully Illustrated. Chicago: Thompson & Thomas. 1900.
Sheppard: Great Americans of History: Abraham Lincoln. A Character Sketch. By Robert Dickinson Sheppard, D.D. With supplementary essay, by G. Mercer Adam. Together with Anecdotes, Characteristics, and Chronology. Milwaukee: H. G. Campbell Publishing Co. 1903.
Speed: Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln and Notes of a Visit to California. Two Lectures by Joshua F. Speed. With a sketch of his Life. Louisville: John P. Morton & Co. 1884.
Stephens: Recollections of Alexander H. Stephens. His Diary, kept when a prisoner at Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, 1865; giving incidents and reflections on his prison life and some letters and reminiscences. Edited, with a biographical study, by Myrta Lockett Avary. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co. 1910.
Stevens’s Black Hawk: The Black Hawk War, including a review of Black Hawk’s life. Chicago: Stevens. 1903.
Stoddard: Abraham Lincoln. The True Story of a Great Life. By William O. Stoddard, one of President Lincoln’s Private Secretaries during the War of the Rebellion. New York: Fords, Howard & Hulbert. 1896.
Stovall: Robert Toombs. Statesman, Speaker, Soldier, Sage. By Pleasant A. Stovall. New York: Cassell Publishing Co. 1892.
Stowe: Men of Our Times, or Leading Patriots of the Day. Being a narrative of the lives and deeds of Statesmen, Generals, and Orators. By Harriet Beecher Stowe. Hartford: Hartford Publishing Co. 1868.
Sumner: The Promises of the Declaration of Independence. Eulogy on Abraham Lincoln, delivered by Charles Sumner before the municipal authorities of the City of Boston, June 1, 1865. Boston: Farwell & Co., Printers to the City. 1865.
Tarbell’s Early Life: The Early Life of Abraham Lincoln. Containing many unpublished documents and unpublished reminiscences of Lincoln’s early friends. By Ida M. Tarbell, assisted by J. McCan Davis. New York: S. S. McClure. 1896.
Tarbell: The Life of Abraham Lincoln. Drawn from original sources and containing many speeches, letters, and telegrams hitherto unpublished. Two Volumes. By Ida M. Tarbell. New York: The Doubleday & McClure Co. 1900.
Thayer: The Pioneer Boy and How He Became President. By William M. Thayer. Boston: Walker, Wise & Company. 1864.
Trevelyan’s Fox: The Early History of Charles James Fox. By Sir George Otto Trevelyan. New York: Harper & Bros. 1880.
Ward: Abraham Lincoln. Tributes from his associates. Reminiscences of soldiers, statesmen, and citizens. With introduction by The Rev. William Hayes Ward, D.D. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. 1895.
Whipple: The Story-Life of Lincoln. A Biography composed of Five Hundred True Stories, told by Abraham Lincoln and his friends, selected from all authentic sources, and fitted together in order, forming His Complete Life History. By Wayne Whipple. Memorial Edition. Issued to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of Lincoln’s Birth. Copyright, 1908, by Wayne Whipple.
White: Abraham Lincoln in 1854. An address delivered before the Illinois State Historical Society. By Horace White. January 30, 1908. Illinois State Historical Society Publication.
White, Money and Banking: Money and Banking, illustrated by American history. By Horace White. Boston: Ginn & Co. 1896.
Whitney: Life on the Circuit with Lincoln. With Sketches of Generals Grant, Sherman, and McClellan, Judge Davis, Leonard Swett, and other contemporaries. By Henry C. Whitney. Boston: Estes & Lauriat. 1892.
Whitney’s Life: Life of Lincoln. By Henry C. Whitney. Edited by Marion Mills Miller, Litt.D. Two Volumes: Vol. I., Lincoln, The Citizen; Vol. II., Lincoln, The President. New York: The Baker & Taylor Company. 1908.
Williams: The Burden Bearer, an Epic of Lincoln. By Francis Williams. Philadelphia: Jacobs & Co. 1908.
Wilson’s Washington: George Washington. By Woodrow Wilson. Illustrated by Howard Pyle. New York: Harper & Bros. 1905.
Works: Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln. Edited by John G. Nicolay and John Hay. With a General Introduction by Richard Watson Gilder, and Special Articles by Other Eminent Persons. New and Enlarged Edition. Twelve Volumes. New York: Francis D. Tandy Company. 1905.
NOTES
The author would have wished to acknowledge his indebtedness to the many admirers of Abraham Lincoln who so cheerfully and readily replied to his inquiries. The responsiveness of all to whom he applied for information and particularly the eagerness with which collectors entrusted precious pamphlets and scrap-books to him were a constant source of gratification and encouragement.
In the following notes there are frequent references to secondary authorities. They are given, not to authenticate what has been said on direct authority, but for the convenience of readers and the service of students. The reader may find one book more available than another; and the student, who may wish to collate all that has been published on a subject, will have at hand an adequate bibliography.
CHAPTER I
[i-1] Henry Pirtle, quoted in Herndon, i, 7. See, also, W. F. Booker, in Barrett (New), i, 6; Irelan, xvi, 21.
[i-2] George B. Balch in Browne, 87; Samuel Haycraft in Barrett (New), i, 8; Rev. Thomas Goodwin, ibid., 115.
[i-3] Atkinson, 44-45.
[i-4] Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks were married near Beechland, in Washington County, Kentucky, on the 12th of June, 1806.
[i-5] Usher F. Linder, who was born in Hardin County, Kentucky, became a prominent Democratic leader in Illinois. Delivering a eulogy of Lincoln in 1865 and speaking from his recollections of the old Kentucky days, he said: “They were a good family. They were poor, and the very poorest people, I might say, of the middle classes, but they were true.”
[i-6] Sarah Lincoln was born February 10, 1807. The removal to Nolin Creek is said to have occurred in the following year.
[i-7] Speed, 30; Browne, 489; Barrett (New), ii, 122-23; Morgan, 255-56.
[i-8] The reader who wishes to follow Thomas Lincoln in his migrations is referred for some of the fuller accounts to: Lamon, 12-15, 19-22, 25-26, 73-75; Herndon, i, 15-18, 57-61; Holland, 24-26, 38-41; Brockett, 37-40, 51-54, 57; Barrett, 21-24, 30-34; Barrett (New), i, 9-10, 12-14, 25-26; Brooks, 6, 8-13, 44-45; Browne, 42, 45-51, 80-85; Tarbell’s Early Life, 40, 51-55, 94-101; Tarbell, i, 13-15, 18-19, 45-49, 59; Nicolay and Hay, i, 24-30, 45-47; Whitney’s Life, i, 21-28, 57-64; Stoddard, 10-18, 57-59; Coffin, 18-29, 46-49; Irelan, xvi, 34-40, 64-65; Curtis’s Lincoln, 19-22, 26, 30; Works, vi, 26-31.
[i-9] Gridley, 47-48. For the story of a previous speculation, of a similar nature, that resulted disastrously, see Dr. C. C. Graham in Tarbell’s Early Life, 233; also, Hitchcock, 93-97, and Gridley, 47. The loss of the cargo by an accident to the vessel, however, as told by Dr. Graham, bears a striking, perhaps suspicious resemblance to what befell Thomas Lincoln (note 8) when he tried to move his belongings by water from Kentucky to Indiana.
[i-10] Nancy Hanks Lincoln died at Little Pigeon Creek, Indiana, on October 5, 1818, in her thirty-fifth year.
[i-11] Holland, 23; Arnold in Oldroyd, 33; Barrett (New), i, 16; Browne, 43-44; Coffin, 28; Ketcham, 12; Hart’s Sketch, 5; L. S. Portor, in the Woman’s Home Companion, February 1909, pp. 10, 64; see, also, Speed, 19. Attention is called to the slight variations in the language as reported by these several writers.
[i-12] In the Little Pigeon Creek cabin were Abraham, his sister Sarah, and cousin Dennis Hanks, sometimes called Dennis Friend, whom luckless chance had made a member of the Lincoln family. The Johnston children comprised John D., Sarah, and Matilda.
[i-13] Thomas Lincoln and Sarah Bush Johnston were married on December 2, 1819. The episode of the debts is related in Barrett (New), i, 17; Herndon, i, 26; Lamon, 29; Coffin, 31; McClure’s Stories, 272-74; Tarbell’s Early Life, 52.
[i-14] But see charges or surmises that Thomas Lincoln, in his anxiety to win Mrs. Johnston, had misrepresented conditions at home: Lamon, 11, 30-31; also Herndon, i, 27; Brooks, 28; French, 28; Leland, 18; Irelan, xvi, 44; Hapgood, 9; Stoddard, 21-22, 24; Sheppard, 118. These latter writers, following the lead of Lamon, have done so, apparently, to explain what needs no historical explanation—an improvident marriage; and Lamon quotes neither chapter nor verse for the faith, or, more accurately speaking, the lack of faith, that is in him. On the other hand, Cousin Dennis Hanks, though not always a trustworthy witness, offers what look like sufficient reasons for the lady’s course. “Tom,” he says, “had a kind o’ way with the women, an’ maybe it was somethin’ she tuk comfort in to have a man that didn’t drink an’ cuss none.” (Atkinson, 21.)
[i-15] Irelan, xvi, 26-27, 41; Lamon, 32; Leland, 20; Jones, 4; Hapgood, 8; Janes, 7; E. I. Lewis in St. Louis Globe-Democrat, February 12, 1899.
[i-16] Brooks, 28; Short Autobiography, in Works, vi, 27.
[i-17] Danville (Ill.) News, February 12, 1904.
[i-18] Probably Webster’s American Spelling Book, Dilworth’s Spelling Book, Pike’s Arithmetic, Murray’s English Reader, Scott’s Lessons in Elocution, and the Kentucky Preceptor. Lincoln studied Kirkham’s Grammar after he left home. See Dodge, 4-6; Sumner, ix, 375; Scripps, 3; Herndon, i, 34, 44-45, note, 75-76; Lamon, 37, note, 50; Hitchcock, 87; Atkinson, 18; Leland, 22; Browne, 70, 96; Brooks, 54; Morse, i, 19; Holland, 46; Tarbell’s Early Life, 124-25, 132; Tarbell, i, 66-67; Nicolay and Hay, i, 84; Nicolay, 25-26; Nicolay’s Boy’s Life, 36-37; Ketcham, 66; Howells, 29-30; Irelan, xvi, 96-97; Stoddard, 70; Browne’s Lincoln and Men, i, 158-59; Jones, 8.
[i-19] Scripps, 3; Speed, 38; Herndon, i, 36; Lamon, 37, 57 note; Tarbell, i, 29-34; Binns, 18-19; Atkinson, 23-27; Selby, 45; Stowe, 15; Nicolay and Hay, i, 35; Oldroyd, 33-34; McClure’s Stories, 22-23; Schurz’s Essay, 4-5; Chittenden, 433-34; Nicolay, 14; Nicolay’s Boy’s Life, 23; Morse, i, 13; Swett’s Reminiscences, in Rice, 459; Raymond, 22; Hobson, 30-31; Barrett (New), i, 23-24; Arnold, 21; Brooks, 23-24, 29-30; Browne, 66-68; Holland, 31; Morgan, 19-21; Whitney’s Life, i, 41-42; Tarbell’s Early Life, 69-71; French, 24-25; Hitchcock, 87-88; Leland, 22; Stoddard, 32-33, 36-37, 43; Sumner, ix, 375; Curtis’s Lincoln, 56-58; Beach, 8-9; H. W. Mabie, in the Chautauquan, April, 1900, pp. 33-34, and in the Outlook, February 20, 1904, pp. 454-55. See also infra, p. 331.
[i-20] According to most of our authorities this was the book by Mason L. Weems, entitled The Life of George Washington; with curious anecdotes, equally honourable to himself and exemplary to his young countrymen. But Scripps (3), Raymond (21-22), Brockett (47), and Holland (32) are apparently accurate in stating that the work was Dr. David Ramsay’s The Life of Washington. It should be remembered that Mr. Lincoln himself, looking with uncommon care through the advance sheets of Scripps’s biography, published in 1860, made no correction as to the name Ramsay there employed in connection with the anecdote. Lincoln’s reference to Weems’s Life, moreover, in the speech at Trenton (Works, vi, 150-51), indicates that he had read that book during his early childhood—some years before he could as a “tall and long-armed” youth have “made a clean sweep” of Crawford’s fodder-corn.
[i-21] Herndon, i, 52, note.
[i-22] For the fuller accounts of this episode see: Whitney’s Life, i, 42-43; Arnold, 23; Raymond, 21-22; Lamon, 38, 50-51, 55, 66, note; Scripps, 3; Holland, 31-32; Brockett, 47-48; Herndon, i, 37, 52, note; Stoddard, 37-38; French, 26; Irelan, xvi, 55-56; Brooks, 24-25; Barrett, 25-26; Browne, 67, 69-70; Bartlett, 116-17. A somewhat fanciful narrative may be read in Thayer, 120-30, 177.
[i-23] Herndon, i, 29-31; Pratt, 11-12; Hapgood, 18-19. An instance of truth-telling by Lincoln, regardless of impending punishment, quite after the Weems manner, is related by Thayer (110-11), in his story about the broken buck’s horn.
[i-24] Lamon, 71.
[i-25] How serious these abuses ultimately became may be inferred from Merrick’s narrative (174-80), and from what Horace White says on the subject, in Money and Banking, pp. 351-52:—
“The bewildering state of the paper currency before the Civil War may be learned from the numerous bank-note reporters and counterfeit detectors of the period. It was the aim of these publications to give early information to enable the public to avoid spurious and worthless notes in circulation. These were of various kinds: (1) ordinary counterfeits; (2) genuine notes altered from lower denominations to higher ones; (3) genuine notes of failed banks altered to the names of solvent banks; (4) genuine notes of solvent banks with forged signatures; (5) spurious notes, such as those of banks that had no existence; (6) spurious notes of good banks, as 20’s of a bank that never issued 20’s; (7) notes of old, closed banks still in circulation.
“The number of counterfeit and spurious notes was quite appalling, and disputes between payer and payee as to the goodness of notes were of frequent occurrence, ranging over the whole gamut of doubts,—as to whether the issuing bank was sound or unsound, whether the note was genuine or counterfeit, and, if sound and genuine, whether the discount was within reasonable limits.”
[i-26] For a severe, though manifestly biased comment on the bad money episode, so far as it concerned Lincoln, see Edmonds, 47-48.
[i-27] Wilson’s Washington, 11-12.
[i-28] Hill, 219-20.
[i-29] New Salem, Illinois, when Lincoln took up his residence there in the summer of 1831, was a busy little village of recent origin, near the west bank of the Sangamon River, in the county of that name. Its site—for the place has long since fallen into decay—is within the present limits of Menard County, about twenty miles northwest of Springfield.
[i-30] The anecdote is from Parkinson’s Tour in America, ii, 436-37 (London, 1805). Whether or not it had come under Lincoln’s notice we have no means of knowing.
[i-31] William McNeely, in Oldroyd, 393-94; Browne, 104.
[i-32] John Rowan Herndon, in Herndon, i, 98.
[i-33] William G. Greene, in Browne, 116-17; and in Onstot, 81-83. A more circumstantial account, based on correspondence with Greene, may be found in Coffin, 73-76. See, also, Nicolay and Hay, i, 110-11; Herndon, i, 98-99; Lamon, 136-37; Tarbell, i, 92; Tarbell’s Early Life, 160; Holland, 54; Brooks, 66.
[i-34] Lincoln’s experience with Berry reminds one of Benjamin Franklin’s trials with his partner Hugh Meredith, who was “often seen drunk in the streets, and playing at low games in the ale houses.” It is an interesting coincidence, moreover, that both Franklin and Lincoln were aided, at these critical junctures, by generous friends.
[i-35] Dennis Hanks, in Atkinson, 50.
[i-36] Leonard Swett, in Rice, 465-66.
[i-37] At about the time Abraham Lincoln thus spoke to his creditors in Illinois, a young man in far-away Maine named Hannibal Hamlin, destined to share his electoral honors, used somewhat similar language under corresponding circumstances. He had gone on the bond of a certain deputy sheriff for four thousand dollars. That officer became a defaulter, and the people who had claims against him looked to his bondsmen. Hamlin, having called the creditors together, said: “My friends, I have lived among you only a few years, but I think you know that I keep my word. I am poor, young, and struggling for an honest support for myself. This struggle will continue right among you, my neighbors. I am unable now to meet this just debt; but if you will give me time, and God will give me strength, I will pay off every dollar I owe you, even if it takes me a lifetime to do it.”
He redeemed his promise to the last cent; but at what cost may be inferred from his exclamation, many years later, in telling the story: “Heavens! how long it kept my nose on the grindstone.”
A fuller narrative of the incident may be found in Hamlin, 46. For another somewhat similar episode, in the early life of Andrew Jackson, the reader is referred to Brady, 56-57.
[i-38] A patron of Samuel Hill’s store, Harvey Ross who carried the mails, once told how he, as well as others, was impressed by Lincoln’s straightforward methods. His narrative which belongs perhaps to this period may be found in Onstot, 76-77.
“Mr. Lincoln,” said Ross, “was very attentive to business; was kind and obliging to the customers, and they had so much confidence in his honesty that they preferred to trade with him rather than Hill. This was true of the ladies who said he was honest and would tell the truth about the goods. I went into the store one day to buy a pair of buckskin gloves, and asked him if he had a pair that would fit me. He threw down a pair on the counter: ‘There is a pair of dogskin gloves that I think will fit you, and you can have them for seventy-five cents.’ When he called them dogskin I was surprised, as I had never heard of such a thing before. At that time no factory gloves had been brought into the county. All the gloves and mittens then worn were made by hand, and by the women of the neighborhood from tanned deerskins, and the Indians did the tanning. A large buckskin could be bought for fifty to seventy-five cents. So I said to Lincoln: ‘How do you know they are dogskin?’ ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I’ll tell you how I know they are dogskin. Jack Clary’s dog killed Tom Watkins’s sheep, and Tom Watkins’s boy killed the dog, old John Mounts tanned the dogskin, and Sally Spears made the gloves, and that is the way I know they are dogskin gloves.’ So I asked no more, but paid six bits, took the gloves, and can truly say that I have worn buckskin and dogskin gloves for sixty years and never found a pair that did me such service as the pair I got from Lincoln.”
[i-39] Lincoln to George Spears, Works, i, 11. A facsimile of the letter is reproduced from the Menard-Salem-Lincoln Souvenir Album, in Tarbell, i, 97.
[i-40] Tarbell’s Early Life, 190, note.
[i-41] This kind act is attributed to James Short and one of the Greenes,—whether Bowling or William G. appears to be in doubt. See Lamon, 138-39, 149-50; Arnold, 41-42; Herndon, i, 114-15; Leland, 43-44; Barrett (New), i, 40; Morse, i, 42; Curtis’s Lincoln, 33-34; Stoddard, 88-89; Irelan, xvi, 109; Tarbell, i, 105-06; Tarbell’s Early Life, 188-90.