Abraham Lincoln: A Life, Volume 1

by Michael Burlingame

  52. Ford, History of Illinois from Its Commencement as a State in 1818 to 1847, 304.

  53. Ibid., 90, 288–89.

  54. William H. Fithian to Amos Williams, Vandalia, 26 Jan. 1835, Springfield, 2 Dec. 1839, Woodbury Collection, Illinois Historical Survey, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in Donald G. Richter, Lincoln: Twenty Years on the Eastern Prairie (Mattoon, IL: United Graphics, 1999), 16, 33.

  55. Chicago Democrat, n.d., quoted in the Illinois State Register (Springfield), 23 Apr. 1841.

  56. Caton, Early Bench and Bar of Illinois, 231.

  57. John T. Stuart, interview with Herndon, [1865–1866], HI, 481.

  58. William H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik, Herndon’s Lincoln, ed. Douglas L. Wilson and Rodney O. Davis (1889; Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006), 227.

  59. Andy Van Meter, Always My Friend: A History of the State Journal-Register and Springfield (Springfield, IL: Copley Press, 1981), 109.

  60. Douglas L. Wilson, Honor’s Voice: The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), 302.

  61. Illinois State Register (Springfield), 25 July 1840.

  62. Sangamo Journal, 31 Jan. 1835.

  63. CWL, 1:31.

  64. Joshua F. Speed, interview with Herndon, [1865–1866], HI, 476.

  65. Harry E. Pratt, “Lincoln and the Division of Sangamon County,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 47 (1954):400.

  66. Stuart, interview with Herndon, [1865–1866], HI, 481.

  67. John Moses, Illinois, Historical and Statistical (2 vols.; Chicago: Fergus, 1889), 1:403–404.

  68. Linder, Reminiscences, 37, 40; speech of Linder before the bar of Chicago, 17 Apr. 1865, Washington Sunday Chronicle, 23 Apr. 1865.

  69. Dubois, interview with John G. Nicolay, Springfield, 4 July 1875, Burlingame, ed., Oral History of Lincoln, 31.

  70. John Locke Scripps, Life of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler and Lloyd A. Dunlap (1860; Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1961), 68–69.

  71. Abner Y. Ellis to Herndon, Moro, Illinois, 6 Dec. 1866, HI, 501.

  72. Fred R. Jeliff, “The Lincoln-Douglas Debate,” Galesburg Republican-Register, 10 Oct. 1896.

  73. Vienna Camron, quoted in H. Donald Winkler, The Women in Lincoln’s Life (Nashville, TN: Rutledge Hill Press, 2001), 47.

  74. Havana correspondence, 14 Dec. 1865, Chicago Republican, n.d., copied in the Belleville Advocate, 5 Jan. 1866.

  75. Jason Duncan to Herndon, [late 1866–early 1867], HI, 541.

  76. Nathaniel W. Branson to Herndon, Petersburg, Illinois, 3 Aug. 1865, HI, 91.

  77. Statement by Ellis, enclosed in Ellis to Herndon, Moro, Illinois, 23 Jan. 1866, HI, 170.

  78. Interview with Susan Reid Boyce, Calistoga, California, correspondence, 22 May 1897, San Francisco Call, n.d., copied in Iowa State Register (Des Moines), 6 June 1897.

  79. William E. Connelley, p. 3 of a commentary on chapter six of the first volume of Albert J. Beveridge’s biography of Lincoln, memo enclosed in Connelley to Beveridge, [Topeka, Kansas], 7 Dec. 1925, copy, Beveridge Papers, IHi.

  80. Interview with Mrs. Alexander R. McKee (née Martinette Hardin), Marietta Holdstock Brown, “A Romance of Lincoln,” clipping identified as “Indianapolis, January 1896,” LMF.

  81. Art Wells, “Incident Shaped Lincoln’s Future,” unidentified clipping, “Childhood and Youth—Illinois” folder, LMF.

  82. Mrs. [H. K.?] Rule of Tallula, Illinois, quoted in George A. Pierce’s dispatch dated “on the cars,” 15 Apr., Chicago Inter-Ocean, 16 Apr. 1881.

  83. William Butler, interview with John G. Nicolay, Springfield, 13 June 1875, Burlingame, ed., Oral History of Lincoln, 19.

  84. John Q. Spears, grandson of Mary Spears, undated interview with Herndon, HI, 705.

  85. Charles Maltby, The Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln (Stockton, CA: Daily Independent Steam Print, 1884), 28.

  86. Havana, Illinois, correspondence, 14 Dec. 1865, Chicago Republican, n.d., copied in the Belleville Advocate, 5 Jan. 1866.

  87. Reminiscences of E. J. Rutledge, nephew of Ann Rutledge, Ottumwa, Iowa, Courier, n.d., typed copy, clipping collection, LMF.

  88. William G. Greene, interview with Herndon, Elm Wood, Illinois, 30 May 1865, HI, 21; John McNamar to G. U. Miles, 5 May 1866, ibid., 253.

  89. Ida M. Tarbell, The Early Life of Abraham Lincoln (New York: McClure, 1896), 211, 217.

  90. William G. Greene, interview with Herndon, Elm Wood, Illinois, 30 May 1865, HI, 21.

  91. Isaac Cogdal, interview with Herndon, [1865–1866], HI, 440.

  92. Mrs. Samuel Hill, in Laura Isabelle Osborne Nance, A Piece of Time (In Lincoln Country), ed. Georgia Goodwin Creager (n.p.: n.p., n.d. [ca. 1967]), 26.

  93. Henry B. Rankin, Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1916) 69–70.

  94. Nance, A Piece of Time, 26.

  95. Interview with Mrs. Josephine Chandler by Malvina Lindsay, Washington Post, 7 July 1937.

  96. Interview with Nancy Rutledge Prewitt, conducted by Margaret Flindt, Fairfield, Iowa, correspondence, 10 Feb., Chicago Inter-Ocean, 12 Feb. 1899.

  97. Sarah Rutledge Saunders, interview with Katherine Wheeler, Chicago Tribune Magazine, 22 Feb. 1922; undated statement by Sarah Rutledge Saunders, enclosed in J. R. Saunders (her daughter) to Mary Saunders, Sisquoc, California, 14 May 1919, Saunders Papers, IHi; interview with Nancy Rutledge Prewitt, conducted by Margaret Flindt, Fairfield, Iowa, correspondence, 10 Feb., Chicago Inter-Ocean, 12 Feb. 1899; interview with Nancy Rutledge Prewitt, conducted by E. E. Sparks, Los Angeles Times, 14 Feb. 1897.

  98. Henry McHenry to Herndon, Petersburg, Illinois, 8 Jan. 1866, HI, 155–156.

  99. William G. Greene, interview with Herndon, Elm Wood, Illinois, 30 May 1865, HI, 21.

  100. Greene in an 1887 interview, Paul Hull, “Another Lincoln Tale,” New York Mail and Express, 15 Feb. 1896, p. 16.

  101. Elizabeth Abell to Herndon, n.p., 15 Feb. 1867, HI, 556–557.

  102. Eliza Armstrong Smith, daughter of Hannah Armstrong, Springfield correspondence, 9 Sept., Lerna, Illinois, Eagle, 19 Sept. 1930.

  103. George U. Miles to Herndon, Petersburg, Illinois, 23 Mar. 1866, HI, 236.

  104. John Hill to Ida M. Tarbell, Columbus, Georgia, 6 and 17 Feb. 1896, Tarbell Papers, Allegheny College.

  105. Eliza Armstrong Smith, daughter of Hannah Armstrong, Springfield correspondence, 9 Sept., Lerna, Illinois, Eagle, 19 Sept. 1930.

  106. “Stories of Lincoln: Reminiscences Missed by His Biographers Gathered in the ‘Old Salem’ Region,” unidentified clipping, LMF.

  107. Mentor Graham, interview with Herndon, 2 Apr. 1866, HI, 243.

  108. Robert L. Wilson to Herndon, Sterling, Illinois, 10 Feb. 1866, HI, 205.

  109. Cogdal, interview with Herndon, [1865–1866], HI, 440.

  110. Matthew Marsh to George M. Marsh, New Salem, 17 Sept. 1835, Lincoln Papers, Addendum 1, DLC.

  111. Lincoln to Speed, Springfield, 13 Feb. 1842, CWL, 1:269–270.

  112. Graham to Herndon, Petersburg, Illinois, 29 May 1865, HI, 11.

  113. Cogdal, interview with Herndon [1865–1866], HI, 441.

  114. Sangamo Journal, 23 June 1838.

  115. Douglas L. Wilson, Lincoln Before Washington: New Perspectives on the Illinois Years (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997), 63, 66.

  116. Reminiscences of Col. L. H. Waters, Kansas City Star, 10 Feb. 1907.

  117. Letter to the editor of the Sangamo Journal, [New Salem], 13 June 1836, CWL, 1:48.

  118. John Woods, Two Years’ Residence on the English Prairie of Illinois, ed. Paul M. Angle (1822; Chicago: Lakeside Press, 1968), 175.

  119. Thomas F. Gossett, Race: The History of an Idea in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 59, 63.

  120. Jesse W. Weik, The Real Lincoln: A Portrait, ed. Michael Burlingame (1922; Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2002), 70.

  121. Herndon to Jesse W. Weik, Springfield
, 23 Jan. 1890, H-W MSS DLC.

  122. Helen Ruth Reed, “A Prophecy Lincoln Made,” Boston Herald, 9 Feb. 1930.

  123. James Matheny, quoted in Weik, Real Lincoln, ed. Burlingame, 71.

  124. Stevens, A Reporter’s Lincoln, ed. Burlingame, 7.

  125. CWL, 1:48.

  126. Henry C. Whitney, Lincoln the Citizen, vol. 1 of A Life of Lincoln, ed. Marion Mills Miller (2 vols.; New York: Baker and Taylor, 1908), 127.

  127. Lincoln to Allen, New Salem, 21 June 1836, CWL, 1:48–49.

  128. Undated handbill [ca. July 1836], CWL, 8:429.

  129. Vandalia correspondence, 26 and 27 Dec. 1835, Sangamo Journal, 2 Jan. 1836.

  130. Joshua Speed, statement for Herndon, [by 1882], HI, 589.

  131. Account of the meeting by “Up to the Hub,” Sangamo Journal, 16 July 1836.

  132. Linder, Reminiscences, 280.

  133. Scripps, Life of Lincoln, ed. Basler and Dunlap, 73–74.

  134. Johnny Blubberhead to “My inesteemable friend,” Springfield, 17 Feb., Sangamo Journal, 20 Feb. 1836.

  135. B. Willis to Artemas Hale, 26 Dec. 1834, IHi, quoted in Simon, Lincoln’s Preparation for Greatness, 19.

  136. Johnny Blubberhead to “My Dear Friend,” Springfield, 29 [sic] Feb., Sangamo Journal, 27 Feb. 1836.

  137. Letter by “May,” Washington, 13 Feb., Sangamo Journal, 19 Mar. 1836.

  138. Letter dated Springfield, 9 Apr., Sangamo Journal, 30 Apr. 1836.

  139. Sangamo Journal, 7 Nov. 1835.

  140. Ibid., 3 Sept. 1836.

  141. Vandalia correspondence, 6 Jan., Sangamo Journal, 16 Jan. 1836.

  142. Letter dated Washington, 27 Apr., Sangamo Journal, 4 June 1836.

  143. Sangamo Journal, 4 June 1836.

  144. Anonymous letter from North Fork, 4 June, Sangamo Journal, 11 June 1836.

  145. Letter dated Springfield, 14 June, Sangamo Journal, 18 June 1836.

  146. Letter dated Springfield, 23 June, Sangamo Journal, 25 June 1836.

  147. Letter from a Democrat, Lick Creek, 2 July, Sangamo Journal, 9 July 1836.

  148. Van Buren to Junius Amis et al., 4 Mar. 1836, quoted in William G. Shade, “ ‘The Most Delicate and Exciting Topics’: Martin Van Buren, Slavery, and the Election of 1836,” Journal of the Early Republic 18 (1998):478.

  149. Sangamo Journal, 2 and 16 Jan. 1836 (dispatches of 26 Dec. and 6 Jan.).

  150. Letter dated Springfield, 23 Mar., Sangamo Journal, 2 Apr. 1836.

  151. Undated letter by “Spoon River,” Sangamo Journal, 11 June 1836.

  152. Sangamo Journal, 2 Jan. 1836 (dispatches of 26 and 27 Dec.).

  153. Springfield Republican, n.d., quoted in the Sangamo Journal, 16 Jan. 1836.

  154. Sangamo Journal, 16 Jan. 1836 (dispatch of 7 Jan.).

  155. Ibid., 19 Dec. 1835 (dispatch of 14 Dec.).

  156. Ibid., 19 Dec. 1835 (dispatch of 13 Dec.).

  157. Ibid., 2 Jan. 1836 (dispatch of 26 Dec. 1835).

  158. Ibid., 19 Dec. 1835 (dispatch of 13 Dec.) and 16 Jan. 1836 (dispatch of 7 Jan.).

  159. Herndon’s recollection of a story he heard Lincoln tell often, n.d., H-W MSS DLC.

  160. Robert L. Wilson to Herndon, Sterling, Illinois, 10 Feb. 1866, HI, 202–205.

  161. John Hill to Ida M. Tarbell, Columbus, Georgia, 4 Apr. and 17 Feb. 1896, Tarbell Papers, Allegheny College.

  162. Bledsoe, review of Ward Hill Lamon’s biography of Lincoln, Southern Review 12 (Apr. 1873): 333–334.

  163. Thomas J. Nance to Catherine Nance, Springfield, 19 Dec. 1839, Fern Nance Pond, ed., “Letters of an Illinois Legislator: 1839–1840,” Abraham Lincoln Quarterly 5 (1949):42.

  164. William Herndon to C. O. Poole, Springfield, 5 Jan. 1886, H-W MSS DLC.

  165. Whitney, Lincoln the Citizen, 140.

  166. Lincoln to Mary Owens, Vandalia, 13 Dec. 1836, CWL, 1:54–55.

  167. Illinois State Register (Vandalia), 12 Dec. 1836.

  168. Speech of 11 Jan. 1837, CWL, 1:61–69.

  169. Ibid., 1:69.

  170. “The Difference,” Sangamo Journal, 13 Oct. 1838.

  171. “Seat of Government,” by “The People,” Sangamo Journal, 1 June 1833.

  172. Chester A. Loomis, A Journey on Horseback through the Great West in 1825 (Bath, NY: Plaindealer Press, n.d.), unpaginated (entries for 4 and 5 July).

  173. William Oliver, Eight Months in Illinois (Newcastle upon Tyne: William Andrew Mitchell, 1843), 99–100.

  174. Stevens, A Reporter’s Lincoln, ed. Burlingame, 14.

  175. Samuel D. Lockwood to Mary V. Nash Lockwood, Vandalia, 15 Dec. 1836, Lockwood Papers, IHi.

  176. Stuart, interview with John G. Nicolay, Springfield, 24 June 1875, Burlingame, ed., Oral History of Lincoln, 13.

  177. Recollections of Benjamin F. Lee (1817–1916) as told to a Mr. Goad, Vandalia Union, 28 Dec. 1916.

  178. “An Observer,” Illinois State Register (Vandalia), 22 Dec. 1837; “Spectator” to the editor of the Vandalia Free Press, 23 Dec. 1837, copied ibid., 2 Mar. 1838.

  179. Sangamo Journal, 1 July 1837.

  180. Hardin to the editor, 15 Dec., Jacksonville Patriot, 22 Dec. 1836, copied in the Illinois State Register (Vandalia), 30 Dec. 1836.

  181. Hardin to Sarah Smith Hardin, Vandalia, 14 Dec. 1836 and 26 Feb. 1837, Hardin Family Papers, ICHi.

  182. David Davis to William P. Walker, Bloomington, 26 Jan. 1839, Davis Papers, IHi.

  183. Springfield correspondence by G., 18 Dec., Alton Telegraph, 28 Dec. 1839.

  184. John Reynolds, My Own Times, Embracing Also the History of My Life (Chicago: Fergus, 1879), 324.

  185. Ford, History of Illinois, 186–187.

  186. Speech of 20 June 1848 in the U.S. House of Representatives, CWL, 1:488–489.

  187. John F. Snyder, Adam W. Snyder and His Period in Illinois History, 1817–1842 (2nd ed., rev.; Virginia, IL: E. Needham, 1906), 200.

  188. Dubois, interview with John G. Nicolay, Springfield, 4 July 1875, Burlingame, ed., Oral History of Lincoln, 31.

  189. Wilson to Herndon, Sterling, Illinois, 10 Feb. 1866, HI, 204.

  190. Representative John Hogan of Madison County, paraphrasing the charges of the system’s opponents, speech in the House, 30 Jan., Alton Telegraph, 10 May 1837.

  191. Whitney, Lincoln the Citizen, 131–132.

  192. House Journal, 1836–1837, 702.

  193. Dubois, interview with John G. Nicolay, Springfield, 4 July 1875, Burlingame, ed., Oral History of Lincoln, 30.

  194. Henry C. Whitney, Lincoln the Citizen, manuscript version, 174, Lincoln Memorial University, Harrogate, Tennessee. This passage was omitted from the published edition of Whitney’s biography.

  195. Walker in the Jacksonville Gazette and News, n.d., copied in the Sangamo Journal, 20 May 1837.

  196. “The Internal Improvements System,” Jacksonville Illinoisan, 10 Feb. 1838.

  197. Congressional Globe, 28th Congress, 1st Session, Appendix, 236 (17 Jan. 1844).

  198. Letter by Ewing, 9 July, in “The Seat of Government,” Sangamo Journal, 21 July 1838.

  199. Linder, Reminiscences, 62.

  200. Statement made at a public meeting, Vandalia, 7 July, Illinois State Register (Vandalia), 20 July 1838.

  201. Statement by a committee headed by N. M. McCurdy, Vandalia, July 1838, Illinois State Register (Vandalia), 10 Aug. 1838.

  202. Letter by “Oregon,” Illinois State Register (Springfield), 22 Sept. 1843.

  203. “Removal of the Seat of Government,” Alton Telegraph & Democratic Review, 24 May 1845.

  204. “Internal Improvements, No. VI,” by E[dson] H[arkness], Peoria Register and North-Western Gazette, 8 Sept. 1838.

  205. Vandalia Free Press, 21 Feb. 1839, in CWL, 1:144.

  206. “Mr. Lincoln,” Illinois State Register (Vandalia), 5 Apr. 1839.

  207. Sangamo Journal, 29 July 1837.

  208. Wilson to Herndon, Sterling, Illinois, 10 Feb. 1866, HI, 206.

  209. Sangamo Journal, 29 July 1837.


  210. Harry E. Pratt, ed., Lincoln: 1809–1839 (Springfield, IL: Abraham Lincoln Association, 1941), liii.

  211. Joshua Speed, interview with Herndon, [1865–1866], HI, 475.

  212. William Butler, interview with John G. Nicolay, Springfield, 13 June 1875, Burlingame, ed., Oral History of Lincoln, 21.

  213. Logan, interview with John G. Nicolay, Springfield, 6 July 1875, Burlingame, ed., Oral History of Lincoln, 37.

  214. Linder, Reminiscences, 61.

  215. Vandalia correspondence by “Illinois,” 23 Feb., Sangamo Journal, 4 Mar. 1837.

  216. Linder, Reminiscences, 59–60.

  217. Ford, History of Illinois, 187.

  218. Ibid., 222.

  219. Stuart to John J. Hardin, Washington, 24 Jan. 1843, Hardin Family Papers, ICHi.

  220. Springfield correspondence by Henry Villard, 29 Nov., New York Herald, 4 Dec. 1860.

  221. House Journal, 1836–1837, 241–244.

  222. CWL, 1:75

  223. Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 25 Aug. 1860.

  224. Duncan to Gideon Blackburn, Jacksonville, 12 Dec. 1837, Julia Duncan Kirby, “Biographical Sketch of Joseph Duncan, Fifth Governor of Illinois” (pamphlet; Fergus Historical Series, no. 29; Chicago: Fergus, 1888), 50–51.

  225. Clay to Calvin Colton, Lexington, 2 Sept. 1843 and to John Sloane, Lexington, 27 Oct. 1843, James F. Hopkins et al., eds., The Papers of Henry Clay (11 vols.; Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1959–1992), 9:852, 874.

  226. Paul Revere Frothingham, Edward Everett: Orator and Statesman (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1925), 132.

  227. Albany Argus, 7 Jan. 1837, quoted in Lorman Ratner, Powder Keg: Northern Opposition to the Antislavery Movement, 1831–1840 (New York: Basic Books, 1968), 72; Marcy, message of 5 Jan. 1836, quoted in Ivor Debenham Spencer, The Victor and the Spoils: A Life of William L. Marcy (Providence, RI: Brown University Press, 1959), 104.

  228. Sangamo Journal, 28 Oct. 1837.

  229. Van Meter, Always My Friend, 30.

  230. Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 19 Oct. 1854.

  231. E. M. to Messrs. Leavitt and Alden, Morgan County, Illinois, 22 June, Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle (Boston), 16 July 1845.

  232. Our Constitution (Urbana), 16 Aug. 1856.

  233. CWL, 2:492

  234. Parks to Herndon, Lincoln, Illinois, 25 Mar. 1866, HI, 239.

  235. Ralph Hoyt, “Personal Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln,” unidentified clipping [15 Apr. 1900], Lincoln Shrine, A. K. Smiley Public Library, Redlands, California.