by Larry Tagg
123 “rough, uncombed and uncombable”: Dicey, p. 91.
123 “bristling and compact”: Russell, p. 44.
123 “lean, lank, and indescribably gawky figure”: Villard, Memoirs, p. 93.
123 “a thin … raw-boned man”: Lamon, The Life of Abraham Lincoln, p. 469.
123 “Always cadaverous”: Holzer, Lincoln As I Knew Him, 90-91.
123 “Fancy a man six-foot”: Dicey, p. 91.
124 “a huge skeleton in clothes”: Angle, p. 299.
124 “awkwardness that was uncommon in men of intelligence”: McClure, p. 49.
124 “loose-jointed” and “There is no describing”: Holzer, Lincoln As I Knew Him, p. 166, 167.
124 “His posture was awkward”: ibid., p. 117.
124 “with a shambling … unsteady gait”: Russell, p. 44.
124 “thin through the breast”: John Fort Newton, Lincoln and Herndon (Cedar Rapids: The Torch Press, 1910), p. 324.
124 “He was very awkward in all the little common-places of life”: Whitney, p. 538.
124 “when standing Straight”: Wilson and Davis, p. 201.
124 “the length of his legs” and “When he sat down on a chair”: Lamon, Lincoln As I Knew Him, p. 468-9.
125 Description of Lincoln’s walk: ibid., p. 470.
125 “Lincoln stands six feet twelve in his socks”: Harry J. Maihafer, War of Words (Washington: Brassey’s, 2003), p. 218.
125 “Abraham Lincoln is a man”: September 13, 1864, Kentucky Statesman, from Townsend, p. 296.
126 “If he aint a long wun an a narrow wun, I’m durned”: Michael Davis, The Image of Lincoln in the South (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1971), p. 33.
126 “He probably had as little taste”: Holzer, Lincoln As I Knew Him, p. 60.
126 “an ungainly back woodsman”: Donald, Lincoln p. 186-7.
126 “more or less careless”: Wilson and Davis, p. 728.
126 “wearing a dirty linen duster”: Sandburg, The War Years, p. I: 442.
127 “On his head he wore”: Holzer, Lincoln As I Knew Him, p. 55.
127 “dressed in an ill-fitting, wrinkled suit of black”: Russell, p. 44.
127 “in a long, tight, badly fitting suit of black”: Dicey, p. 91.
127 “He was dressed ina rusty black frock-coat”: Holzer, Lincoln As I Knew Him, p. 167.
127 “Abraham Lincoln looks very awkward”: February 26, 1861, Springfield Republican, from Harper, p. 94.
127 “He had very defective taste”: Lamon, Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, p. 96-100.
128 “He was, apparently, the tallest”: Francis Adams Donaldson, Inside the Army of the Potomac: The Civil War Experience of Captain Francis Adams Donaldson, Ed. J. Gregory Acken (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole, 1998), p. 433-4.
128 “His grammar is weak”: Entry of October 23, 1861, Strong, p. III:188.
Page 128 “words in a manner that puzzles”: September 18, 1859, Cincinnati Enquirer, Harper, p. 40.
128 keer fer sich idees and unly way he would ra-ally yearn respect: These are not direct quotes, but collections of Lincoln’s mispronunciations I have gleaned from many first person accounts of his speech, including those in Paludan, The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln, p. 95; Sandburg, The Prairie Years, p. II: 137; Garrison, The Lincoln No One Knows, p. 51; The Diary of George Templeton Strong, p. III: 204; and P.M. Zall, “Abe Lincoln Laughing” in Gabor Boritt, ed., The Historian’s Lincoln (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996), p. 24. His mispronunciation of “inauguration” and “inaugural” were well known, and his misspellings of those words can be found in his letter to Trumbull, April 29, 1860 and his letter to A.G. Curtin, Dec. 21, 1860. That he mispronounced “picture” I infer from the misspelling in his letter to Henry Raymond, Dec. 18, 1860.
129 “Wa-al that reminds me”: Entry of January 29, 1862, Strong, p. III: 204-5.
129 “Here was an heir of poverty”: Holzer, Lincoln As I Knew Him, p. 111.
129 “the Magician asked the Presdt”: Letter of November 21, 1861, George B. McClellan, The Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan: Selected Correspondence 1860-1865, Ed. Stephen Sears (NY: Ticknor and Fields, 1989), p. 137.
129 “far from musical”: Holzer, Lincoln As I Knew Him, p. 117.
129 “His voice was naturally good”: Villard, “Recollections of Lincoln,” Atlantic Monthly (February 1904).
129 “a thin tenor”: Garrison, p. 51-2.
129 “a homeliness of manner”: McClure, p. 48.
130 “I don’t believe first class people”: Reprinted in September 12, 1861, The Crisis, from Harper, p. 93.
130 “Neither was Lincoln a good listener.”: William Herndon and Jesse Weik, Herndon’s Lincoln, Vol. I, (Springfield: The Herndon’s Lincoln Publishing Co., 1888), p. 333.
130 “He is an overgrown nature-child”: Letter of October 12, 1864, Schurz to Theodore Petrasch, Carl Schurz, Intimate Letters of Carl Schurz (Kessinger Publishing, 2005), 308-309.
130 “a barbarian, a Scythian, a yahoo”: Entry for January 29, 1862, Strong, p. III: 204.
130 “rarely read”: According to his friend and law partner William Herndon, “The truth about Mr. Lincoln is, that he read less and thought more than any man in his sphere in America. No man can put his finger on any great book written in the last or present century that he read.” (Herndon and Weik, p. 593) His secretary John Hay wrote, “He read very little. Scarcely ever looked into a newspaper unless I called his attention to an article on some special subject. He frequently said, ‘I know more about that than any of them.’“ (Wilson and Davis, p. 332) Lincoln told artist Francis Carpenter, “It may seem somewhat strange to say, but I never read an entire novel in my life! … I once commenced ‘Ivanhoe,’ but never finished it.” (Francis B. Carpenter, The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln: Six Months at the White House (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995), p. 114-115.)
130 “read out loud”: William Herndon wrote that Lincoln “never read any other way but aloud. This habit used to annoy me almost beyond the point of endurance. I once asked him why he did so. This was his explanation: ‘When I read aloud two senses catch the idea: first, I see what I read; second, I hear it, and therefore can remember it better.’“ (Herndon and Weik, p. 332.) Lincoln’s sister-in-law, Mrs. Wallace, also testified, “He would read, generally aloud (couldn’t read otherwise).” (Lamon, The Life of Abraham Lincoln, p. 472.)
130 “abandon of President Lincoln”: June 17, 1861, New York Times, from Goodwin, p.
130 “like a man pumping for life”: Randall, Mr. Lincoln, p. 173.
131 “As he advanced through the room”: Russell, p. 22.
131 “It is impossible to be more bitter”: Anonymous, p. 55-6.
Page 131 “His conversation consists of vulgar anecdotes”: Donald, Lincoln, p. 186-7.
131 “his laugh was the laugh of a yahoo”: Entry of October 23, 1861, Strong, p. III: 188.
132 “the ‘neigh’ of a wild horse”: Carpenter, p. 150.
132 “When he told”: George Julian, from Allen Thorndike Rice, ed., Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln by Distinguished Men of His Time (NY: Harper & Bros., 1909), p. 234.
132 “His body shook all over”: Holzer, Lincoln As I Knew Him, p. 93-95.
132 “Such a book would stink like a thousand privies.”: Don E. Fehrenbacher and Virginia E. Fehrenbacher, eds., Recollected Words of Abraham Lincoln (Stanford University Press, 1996), p. 146. However, both Thurlow Weed and Francis Carpenter both testified to the contrary—that in their presence, Lincoln did not tell dirty stories.
132 “the riskiest of story tellers”: William E. Gienapp, Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America: A Biography (NY: Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 185-6.
132 “I do wish Abraham”: Entry of February 24, 1864, from Strong, p. III: 408.
132 “Although Mr. Lincoln’s walk”: Lamon, The Life of Abraham Lincoln, p. 480.
133 “Well, there was a party once”: P.M. Zall, ed., Abe Lincoln Laughing (Berkeley: University of C
alifornia Press, 1982), p. 100-101.
134 “We had gatherings”: Angle, p. 300.
134 “He interspersed our conversation”: Holzer, Lincoln As I Knew Him, p. 56.
134 “What a disgusting Scene”: Sandburg, The War Years, p. I: 116.
134 “a man of no intelligence”: Letter of February 22, 1861, Doniphan to “My dear Jno,” from William Marvel, Mr. Lincoln Goes to War (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006), p. 10.
134 “a cross between a sandhill crane” Sandburg, The War Years, p. I: 115.
135 “Superficially vulgar”: Entry of October 23, 1861, Strong, p. III: 188.
135 “sense of superiority possessed President Lincoln”: Don Piatt, from Rice, p. 359.
135 “Lincoln’s intellectual self-confidence”: Miller, p. 64
136 “[Charles Francis Adams] had been summoned”: Charles Francis Adams, Jr., Charles Francis Adams, (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., 1900), p. 145-146.
137 “Few, very few, of the Republican leaders”: McClure, p. 59.
137 “Few men believed”: Lamon, The Life of Abraham Lincoln, p. 468.
137 “Mr. Lincoln has not hitherto given proof”: Jay Monoghan, Diplomat in Carpet Slippers (Indianapolis: Charter Books, 1945), p. 36.
137 “honest simplicity”: Klein, p. 276.
137 “He is not a great man”: Burton J. Hendrick, Lincoln’s War Cabinet (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1946), p. 117.
137 “I doubt Mr. Lincoln’s capacity”: Holzer, Lincoln As I Knew Him, p. 93.
137 “He is unequal to the crisis”: Allan Nevins, The War for the Union: The Improvised War, 1861-1862 (NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1959), p. 4.
137 “great ability in affairs”: ibid., p. 437.
138 “Old Abe is honest”: ibid., p. 452.
138 “simply, we believe, an honest man”: Sandburg, The War Years, p. I: 115.
138 “no man living”: Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1918), p. 172.
Chapter 14: The First Inaugural
139 “Caesar had his Brutus”: Furgurson, p. 59.
141 “The 4th of March”: Leech, Margaret, Reveille in Washington (NY: Harper & Brothers, 1941), p. 46.
141 “for the first time”: Michael Davis, p. 65.
141 “dissolve the Confederacy”: Holzer, Lincoln As I Knew Him, p. 110.
Page 141: The First Inaugural Address: Lincoln, Works, p. IV: 265.
143 “We are receiving Lincoln’s inaugural”: Klein, p. 317.
143 “A tall, ungainly man”: Furgurson, p. 60.
143 “Mr. Lincoln was pale”: Anonymous, p. 85.
143 “The address has disappointed every one”: ibid., p. 86.
144 “was received with nothing like enthusiasm”: Villard, Memoirs, p. 156.
144 “just what was expected”: Klein, p. 317.
144 “tocsin of battle”: March 6, 1861, Charleston Mercury, Mitgang, p. 243.
144 “It would have been almost as instructive”: Sandburg, The War Years, p. I: 137.
144 “The Country No Wiser” and “weak, vacillating”: Douglas Fermer, James Gordon Bennett and the New York Herald: A Study of Editorial Opinion in the Civil War Era, 1854-1867 (NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1986), p. 179.
144 “to terrify the heart”: March 4, 1861, Philadelphia Morning Pennsylvanian, from Kenneth Stampp, And the War Came: The North and the Secession Crisis, 1860-1861 (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 1970), p. 197.
144 “a sad disappointment”: Klein, p. 316.
144 “a wretchedly botched and unstatesmanlike paper”: Hartford Times, reprinted in March 7, 1861, New York Times, from Goodwin, p. 330
144 “lost beyond hope”: Randall, Springfield to Gettysburg, p. I: 306.
144 Wood refused to hoist the national flag: Sandburg, The War Years, p. I: 137.
144 “if it means what it says”: ibid.
144 “If declaring the Union perpetual”: E.B. Long, The Civil War Day by Day (NY: Doubleday & Co., 1971), p. 46.
145 “deceptive”: Klein, p. 316.
145 “the cool, unimpassioned, deliberate language”: Sandburg, The War Years, p. I: 137.
145 “involved, coarse, colloquial”: Potter, The Impending Crisis, p. 568.
145 “a wishy-washy, unscholarly affair”: Howard Cecil Perkins, ed., Northern Editorials on Secession (Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith, 1964), p. II:643.
145 “one of the most awkwardly constructed”: Philip Shaw Paludan, The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln (Lawrence, University Press of Kansas, 1994), p. 57.
145 “a lame, unsatisfactory and discreditable production”: Klein, p. 316.
145 “mean, involved, and inconclusive”: Reynolds, p. 190.
145 “A loose, disjointed, rambling affair”: Randall, Springfield to Gettysburg, p. I: 306.
145 “tawdry and corrupt schoolboy style”: ibid., p. 303.
145 “A schoolboy production”: Reynolds, p. 190.
145 John Tyler’s criticism: Sandburg, The War Years, p. I: 137.
145 “is generally attributed”: Monoghan, p. 38.
145 “the New Yorker with his Illinois attachment”: Nevins, 1859-1861, p. 446.
Chapter 15: The Struggle with Seward, Then Sumter
146 “I am without schemes”: Potter, Lincoln and his Party, p. 83.
146 “It has been my purpose”: Lincoln, Works, p. IV: 148.
147 “some loud threats and much muttering”: Thurlow Weed, Autobiography of Thurlow Weed, Ed. Harriet Weed (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1884), p. 604-5.
149 “that there was no great difference”: Goodwin, p. 342.
150 “I will try to save freedom”: Potter, The Impending Crisis, p. 562.
150 “I have assumed a sort of dictatorship” Letter of January 3, 1861, to his wife, from Potter, The Impending Crisis, p. 310.
Page 150 “If you will only give it time”: ibid., p. 243.
151 “All old party platforms”: Klein, p. 325.
151 “Come forward promptly”: Letter of February 6, 1861, Barbour to Seward, from Daniel W. Crofts, Reluctant Confederates: Upper South Unionists in the Secession Crisis (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993), p. 261.
152: Seward looked to the Virginia elections in May: Henry Adams, The Great Secession Winter of 1860-1861, and Other Essays (NY: Sagamore Press, 1958), p. 27-8.
152 “Mr. Seward’s real view”: Nevins, 1859-1861, p. 401.
152 “the two or three hundred thousand voices”: Crofts, p. 269
154 “The quietest joint Assembly”: Klein, p. 274.
155 “meet prejudice with conciliation”: Julian, p. 185
155 “I listened to every word”: Sandburg, The War Years, p. I: 19.
156 “is now … virtual ruler”: Glyndon G. Van Deusen, William Henry Seward (NY: Oxford University Press, 1967), p. 246.
156 “Mad men North and mad men South”: Hendrick, p. 129.
156 “It seems to me”: Van Deusen, p. 246.
156 “Away with all parties”: ibid., p. 305.
156 “They have abandoned the doctrine”: Douglas in United States Senate, March 3, 1861, from Randall, Springfield to Gettysburg, p. I: 230.
156 “Mr. Seward waived”: James G. Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress (Norwich, CN: Henry Bill, 1884), p. I: 271.
156 “The Gulf Confederacy can count Virginia out”: Potter, The Impending Crisis, p. 310.
156 “For more than two months”: ibid., p. 310.
157“The ancient Seward is in high spirits”: ibid., p. 313.
157 “Those who saw and followed Mr. Seward”: Adams, The Great Secession Winter, p. 22-23.
157 “Seward has had Old Abe”: Klein, p. 277.
158 “A distracted country appeared” and “I did not dare to go home”: Letter of March 8, 1861, to his wife, from Goodwin, p. 318.
159 “Only the soothing words”: Nevins, 1861-1862, p. 22.
159 “give such an advantage to the Disunionists”: Hendrick, p. 152
159 “I am loat
h to close”: Lincoln, Works, p. IV:271.
160 “It was this almost implicit trust”: Gideon Welles, The Diary of Gideon Welles, Ed. Howard K., Beale (NY: W. W. Norton & Co., 1860), p. I: 33-3.
162 “It was bad enough in Springfield”: Villard, Memoirs, p. 156.
162 “more scheming, plotting heads”: Russell, p. 20
162 “two thousand and five hundred patriots”: Sandburg, The War Years, p. I: 163.
162 “Solicitants for offices”: ibid., p. 164.
162 “I have been to see him”: ibid.
162 “Mr. Lincoln I have not seen”: Letter of April 3, from Anonymous, p. 117.
163 “he was entirely ignorant”: Wilson and Davis, p. 207.
163 “Mr. Lincoln had no method”: Holzer, Lincoln As I Knew Him, p. 63-4.
163 “much absorption in the details”: Goodwin, p. 341.
163 “the difficulty with Mr Lincoln”: Donald, Lincoln, p. 285.
163 “He is ignorant, and must have help”: Goodwin, p. 335.
163 “Our poor President is havinga hard time of it”: Sandburg, The War Years, p. I: 164.
163 “unconciliatory,” “ignorant,” etc.: Fermer, p. 180
163 “owes a higher duty”: April 4, 1861, New York Times, from Goodwin, p. 335.
163 “I am like a man”: Sandburg, The War Years, p. I: 182.
Page 164: March, April Confederate Army strength: Albert Nofi, A Civil War Treasury (Da Capo Press, 1995), p. 42.
164 “I must have reached Washington”: Paul M. Angle and Earl Schenk Miers, eds., Tragic Years, 1860-1865: A Documentary History of the American Civil War (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1960), 76-7.
165 “Through patronage and offices”: Adam Gurowski, Diary, from March 4, 1861 to November 12, 1862 (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1862), p. 17-21.
166 “every day affords proof”: Letter of March 16, 1861, Edwin Stanton to James Buchanan, from Hedrick, p. 258.
167 “with a familiarity”: Welles, p. I: 135.
167 “There was very little concerted action”: ibid., p. 136.
168 “Erring Sisters, depart in Peace”: Crofts, p. 271.
168 “I now see no alternative”: Lincoln, Works, p. IV:279.
169 “in favor of withdrawing the Troops”: ibid., p. IV:288.
169 “the Hector or Atlas”: Goodwin, p. 341.
169 “Unionists look only to yourself”: ibid.
