by Joshua Zeitz
“turn my eyes Eastward”: JH to Perry, Jan. 2, 1859, reel 5, frames 1266–74, JH-BU.
“a dreary waste of heartless materialism”: JH to Perry, Oct. 12, 1858, reel 5, frames 1254–59, JH-BU.
“give up my dreams”: JH to Whitman, Dec. 15, 1858, reel 5, frame 1260, JH-BU.
“somewhat undecided”: Charles Hay to Milton Hay, Sept. 6, 1858, reel 5, frames 990–92, JH-BU.
“I am not making the most rapid progress”: JH to Milton Hay, Jan. 28, 1859, reel 5, frames 1275–78, JH-BU.
“They would spoil a first-class”: JH-LL, 1:68.
“I am hardly in a situation”: JH to Hannah Angell, May 2, 1859, in CF, 45.
“insanity has not yet changed”: JH to Hannah Angell, May 5, 1860, in CF, 55.
“I am very easily contented”: JH to Milton Hay, Jan. 28, 1859, reel 5, frames 1275–78, JH-BU.
Chapter 2: The Homes of Free White People
“the grand theme is politics”: Nevins, Ordeal of the Union, vol. 1, Fruits of Manifest Destiny (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1947), 57.
John noted in passing: JH to Milton Hay, March 30, 1856, reel 5, frames 1225–27, JH-BU.
Whigs and Democrats: Holt, Political Crisis of the 1850s. See also Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 3–12; Potter, Impending Crisis. The above argument is drawn principally from Holt’s work.
Wilmot Proviso: Cong. Globe, 29th Cong., 1st Sess., 1217.
“As if by magic”: McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 54.
“the United States will conquer Mexico”: Edward Waldo Emerson and Waldo Emerson Forbes, eds., The Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, vol. II (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1912), 206.
new Fugitive Slave Act: Nevins, Ordeal of the Union, 1:381–82.
resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act: Ibid., 388.
federal marshals in Boston: Nevins, Ordeal of the Union, vol. 2, A House Dividing, 1852–1857 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1947), 151–52; Clarke, Anti-Slavery Days, 172
“We went to bed one night”: McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 199–20.
“morbid sympathy for the slave”: Ibid., 55.
“The whole nation is interested”: Goldfield, America Aflame, 102.
local, rather than national: Oakes, Freedom National, 21.
“exhausted soil”: Foner, Free Labor, Free Soil, Free Men, 41.
“Enslave a man”: Ibid., 46.
“Slavery always degrades labor”: Speech of the Hon. Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania on the Subject of the Admission of Slavery in the Territories, Feb. 20, 1850, Stevens ms., Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
“Go ask Virginia”: Foner, Free Labor, Free Soil, Free Men, 44.
“To the New England mind”: Adams, Education of Henry Adams, 47.
Southerners responded: McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 196–97.
“manifest destiny”: Hine and Faragher, Frontiers, 80.
“raise a hell of a storm”: Potter, Impending Crisis, 160.
“a terrible outrage”: McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 124.
“the North had got its back up”: Nevins, Ordeal of the Union, 2:111, 126.
Chapter 3: It Was My Privilege to Witness
“a hamlet too small”: Helen Nicolay, Lincoln’s Secretary, 4–5; JGN, Autobiographical sketch dictated to Helen Nicolay, Oct. 24, 1897, box 1, Scrapbook, JGN-LC.
“found little companionship”: JGN speech cited in Helen Nicolay, Lincoln’s Secretary, 6–7.
“I fancy my father was not sorry”: Helen Nicolay, Lincoln’s Secretary, 9–10; “Hon. John G. Nicolay,” Pike County Democrat, June 19, 1910.
“Franklin the Printer”: JGN, “Franklin the Printer,” JGN-LC.
“next to typesetting”: JGN, autobiographical fragment, JGN-LC.
politics and journalism: Howe, What Hath God Wrought, 225–29, 696; McGerr, Decline of Popular Politics, 14–18; Morr, American Journalism; Sellers, Market Revolution, 370.
“the mere money value”: Helen Nicolay, Lincoln’s Secretary, 10–11; Wayne Temple, “Abraham Lincoln and Pittsfield, Illinois,” Illinois Heritage, May/June 2010, 35–41.
sharp takedowns: PCFP, Oct. 25, 1854.
“Let it then be remembered”: PCFP, Sept. 21, 1854.
“great evil”: PCFP, Sept. 14, 1854.
“free and have committed no crime”: PCFP, April 21, 1853; JGN, 1858 notebook, box 1, JGN-LC.
“Without showing legal authority”: PCFP, March 16, 1854.
“life or progress”: PCFP, May 16, 1852.
“the rich inheritance of Freedom”: PCFP, June 19, 1856.
state of extreme confusion: Donald, Lincoln, 178–79.
“This is a disputed point”: Lincoln to Joshua Speed, Aug. 24, 1855, in AL-CW.
“A less good humored man”: Donald, Lincoln, 183–84.
“We have the pleasure of informing”: PCFP, Feb. 16, 1855.
“the game must be played boldly”: White, “It’s Your Misfortune and None of My Own,” 160.
“take up those fertile prairies”: Nevins, Ordeal of the Union, 2:306.
assaulting Free-Soil men: Goldfield, America Aflame, 113.
Charles Sumner rose on the Senate floor: Nevins, Ordeal of the Union, 2:437–44.
“No meaner exhibition of Southern cowardice”: Goldfield, America Aflame, 116.
“cowardly and atrocious”: PCFP, May 29, 1856.
“In the coming campaign”: PCFP, June 19, 1856.
Hoisting banners: Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 413.
“full of fire”: Donald, Lincoln, 191–92.
“good fortune”: JGN to Ezra M. Price, May 11, 1900, box 1, Scrapbook, JGN-LC.
Chapter 4: The Prairies Are on Fire
“assiduous student of election tables”: JGN, Autobiographical sketch dictated to Helen Nicolay, n.d., box 1, Scrapbook, JGN-LC.
“funeral sermon”: McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 176.
“moral weight [as] the judgment”: Nevins, Ordeal of the Union, vol. 3, The Emergence of Lincoln (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1950), 96.
Hay and Nicolay explained: N&H-AL (repr., New York: Century, 1918), 2:74.
“broken-down political hacks”: Nevins, Ordeal of the Union, 3:230.
“treachery and juggling”: Ibid., 250–53.
“Talk of ‘sectionalism’”: Fehrenbacher, Prelude to Greatness, 5–6.
North and South agreed: Ibid., 98; Donald, Lincoln, 214.
“The prairies are on fire”: Fehrenbacher, Prelude to Greatness, 101.
“his favorite misrepresentations”: Chicago Press and Tribune, Aug. 13, 1858.
“‘the nigger equality’ dodge”: Ibid., July 20, 1858.
“the negro was made his equal”: Fehrenbacher, Prelude to Greatness, 106.
“no reason in the world”: Political Debates Between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, 42–43.
“black Republicans”: Ibid., 84–85.
“White, white!”: Donald, Lincoln, 219–20.
facility for research: Helen Nicolay, Lincoln’s Secretary, 28.
campaign rallies: JGN to Schuyler Colfax, Oct. 23, 1858, HN-ACPL.
“In 1854”: JGN, 1858 Journal, box 1, JGN-LC.
“Pro-Slavery Black Democracy”: PCFP, June 19, June 26, Aug. 14, 1856.
“an outlet for free white people everywhere”: Political Debates Between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, ix, 352.
“territories [were] for free white men”: JGN, 1858 Journal, box 1, JGN-LC.
enormous crowds assembled: Fehrenbacher, Prelude to Greatness, 102; Nevins, Ordeal of the Union, 3:376.
“over long, weary miles”: Nevins, Ordeal of the Union, 3:385.
In Galesburg: Ibid., 387.
Carl Schurz: Schurz, Bancroft, and Dunning, Reminiscences of Carl Schurz, 89–91.
“After a hundred consecutive days”: N&H-AL, 2:166–67.
“wished, but . . . did not much expect”: Lincoln to Dr. Henry, Nov. 19, 1858, in AL-CW.
“that the negro is no longer a man”: Donald, Lincoln, 233.
“He came into the law office”: ALS, 115.
“Let us stand by our duty”: Donald, Lincoln, 238–39; Holzer, Lincoln at Cooper Union.
“The taste is in my mouth”: Donald, Lincoln, 214.
Chapter 5: Wide Awake
“life of listless apathy”: JH to Stone, May 20, 1859, reel 5, frames 1296–99, JH-BU; JH to Hannah Angell, Sept. 1, 1858, in CF, 31.
settled in quickly enough: JH-LL, 1:83; Caroline Owsley Brown, “Springfield Society Before the Civil War,” 497–98.
“a very pleasant young fellow”: LJOUR, xxv.
“I scarcely know what I shall do”: JGN to TB, Nov. 25, 1860, box 7, JGN-LC.
“It’s been raining all day”: JGN to TB, Dec. 9, 1860, box 7, JGN-LC.
“I have rarely ever”: JGN to TB, Jan. 20, 1861, box 7, JGN-LC.
the view from inside the “wigwam”: N&H-AL, 2:266.
“Our policy”: Donald, Lincoln, 244.
“united voice of a great crowd”: N&H-AL, 2:271.
the chairman began to call the roll: Ibid., 273–77.
“Well Gentlemen”: Donald, Lincoln, 250–51.
“the central city of the north”: Providence Journal, May 21, 1860, in LJOUR, 1–3.
“filled with an ambitious desire”: Helen Nicolay, Lincoln’s Secretary, 34; JGN to TB, June 7, 1860, box 7, JGN-LC.
“never, never, never”: New York Times, Apr. 27, 1860.
bound by tradition: McGerr, Decline of Popular Politics, 35–36; Wilentz, Rise of Popular Democracy, 60, 301; Wood, Radicalism of the American Revolution, 297; Wood, Empire of Liberty, 62, 210.
“bored—bored badly”: Donald, Lincoln, 254.
Wide-Awake Clubs: Howland, “Organize! Organize! Organize!”; Rinhart and Rinhart, “Prairies A-Blaze”; Grinspan, “‘Young Men for War.’”
“Party lines were as strictly drawn”: McGerr, Decline of Popular Politics, 13.
“Everybody was intensely excited”: Ibid., 5, 29–30.
“the greatest political demonstration”: Providence Journal, Aug. 9, 1860, in LJOUR, 3–6.
“effect of the glorious news”: Chicago Tribune, Oct. 13, 1860.
heady times: Helen Nicolay, Lincoln’s Secretary, 41; JGN to TB, July 16, 1860, box 7, JGN-LC.
“if ever there was a man”: Taliaferro, All the Great Prizes, 32.
Douglas rally: Chicago Tribune, Oct. 20, 1860.
“watchfires of liberty”: Providence Journal, Aug. 23, 1860, in LJOUR, 7.
“the dense crowd”: LJOUR, 69.
“Here in this little room”: N&H-AL (repr., New York: Century, 1918), 3:345.
“the crowd had speeches and songs”: Providence Journal, Nov. 7, 1860.
“shouting, yelling, singing”: JGN to TB, Nov. 8, Nov. 11, 1860, box 7, JGN-LC.
John Hay began showing up: JGN to TB, Nov. 25, 1860, box 7, JGN-LC.
“gratified to tell you”: JGN to TB, Dec. 9, 1860, box 7, JGN-LC.
“We can’t take all Illinois”: Donald, We Are Lincoln Men, 180.
“a decided disposition”: JGN to TB, Dec. 2, 1860, box 7, JGN-LC.
“bluntly replied”: N&H-AL, 3:280.
“The tug has to come”: Holzer, Lincoln, President-Elect, 158.
“We have just carried an election”: Ibid., 222–23.
“Give them that”: Ibid., 240.
“If that is true”: JGN to TB, Dec. 22, 1860, box 7, JGN-LC.
“Just think of it!”: JGN to TB, Dec. 30, 1860, box 7, JGN-LC.
“weak, pottering old man”: Providence Journal, March 2, 1861, in LJOUR, 50–51.
“Muddy boots and hickory shirts”: Holzer, Lincoln, President-Elect, 84.
“He reads letters constantly”: Providence Journal, Jan. 9, 1861, in LJOUR, 18.
“The President’s whiskers”: Providence Journal, Jan. 7, 1861, in LJOUR, 17.
“good room”: JGN to TB, Dec. 30, 1860, box 7, JGN-LC.
“there he wrote his first inaugural”: Holzer, Lincoln, President-Elect, 265.
specially outfitted railcar: “For the Reception of the President Elect,” box 1, Scrapbook, JGN-LC.
“The scene at the depot”: Providence Journal, Feb. 11, 1861, in LJOUR, 23.
“Lincoln appeared on the platform”: N&H-AL, 3:291.
“To this place”: Holzer, Lincoln, President-Elect, 300–301.
“something of the gloom”: Providence Journal, Feb. 11, 1861, in LJOUR, 23.
“don’t I feel at home?”: JGN to TB, Feb. 11, 1861, JGN-LC, box 7.
polar dispositions: JGN to TB, Feb. 11, 1861, box 7, JGN-LC; Providence Journal, Feb. 11, 1861, in LJOUR, 23.
Over the next ten days: Holzer, Lincoln, President-Elect, 389–90.
“Such crowds”: Providence Journal, Feb. 18, 1861, in LJOUR, 28.
“utterly inadequate”: JGN to TB, Feb. 17, 1861, box 7, JGN-LC; Providence Journal, Feb. 18, 1861, in LJOUR, 28.
“I’m a millionaire myself”: Holzer, Lincoln, President-Elect, 362.
At Trenton: Providence Journal, Feb. 21, 1861, in LJOUR, 40.
“This trip of ours”: JH to Annie E. Johnston, Feb. 22, 1861, reel 5, JH-BU.
“[T]here is something up”: Holzer, Lincoln, President-Elect, 388.
Nathaniel Hawthorne said: Furgurson, Freedom Rising, 45–47.
“all of the party except”: JGN to TB, Feb. 24, 1861, box 7, JGN-LC.
Walking from the hotel: Providence Journal, Feb. 25, 1861, in LJOUR, 46–47.
Monday, March 4: Holzer, Lincoln, President-Elect, 447–52.
Back inside the Capitol: JH, “The Heroic Age in Washington,” unpublished manuscript, JH-BU.
Chapter 6: A Young Man of His Age
“As you see from the heading”: JGN to TB, March 5, March 7, 1861, box 7, JGN-LC.
Washington was the largest city: Baker, Mary Todd Lincoln, 167–77; Furgurson, Freedom Rising, 13–14.
“the town is a congeries of hovels”: Providence Journal, March 1, 1861, in LJOUR, 48.
“beautiful on a moonlight night”: Dicey, Six Months in the Federal States, 98.
“very meagerly furnished”: Burlingame, Lincoln Observed, 83–84.
“very pleasant offices”: Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln, 2:249–50; JGN to TB, March 7, 1861, box 7, JGN-LC.
“extremely unmethodical”: JH to Herndon, Sept. 5, 1866, in ALS, 109–11; Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln, 2:255–56.
“took quite a stroll”: JGN to TB, March 31, 1861, box 7, JGN-LC.
“being continually haunted”: JGN to TB, March 24, 1861, box 7, JGN-LC.
“grounds, halls, stairways, closets”: Bancroft, Life of William H. Seward, vol. II (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1900), 94; JH to William Leete Stone, March 15, 1861, in ALS, 5.
inordinate attention to patronage: Holzer, Lincoln, President-Elect, 234–37; Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln, 2:69; Donald, Lincoln, 285. For an opposing argument, see Fehrenbacher, Lincoln in Text and Context, chap. 3.
“Mr. Lincoln owes a higher duty”: Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln, 2:72.
“It is morally impossible”: Ibid., 69.
“snobby and unpopular”: ALS, xii–xiv.
the position of secretary: Pendleton Herring, Presidential Leadership, 101–10; Price, “Secretaries to the Presidents.”
“the bull-dog in the anteroom�
��: Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln, 2:73.
“the thin, frail body”: Ibid.; Pittsburgh Dispatch, Aug. 23, 1891; Helen Nicolay, Lincoln’s Secretary, 84.
“sour and crusty”: Stoddard, Inside the White House in War Times, 57, 151.
“brilliant and chivalrous”: ALS, xxii; Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln, 2:74.
“a young, good-looking fellow”: ALS, xii–xiv.
struggled to conceal their self-satisfaction: JGN to TB, Dec. 9, 1860, Sept. 24, 1861, box 7, JGN-LC; JGN to the Tribune Company, June 19, 1863, box 7, JGN-LC.
“showed part of your last letter”: JH to Hannah Angell, Jan. 6, March 29, Aug. 12, 1861, in CF, 56–62.
Nathaniel Hawthorne scorned: Nevins, Ordeal of the Union, vol. 5, The Improvised War (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1959), 188.
“Keeper of the President’s Conscience”: Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln, 2:74.
“it still seems queer”: JGN to TB, March 31, 1861, box 7, JGN-LC.
“Lincoln loved him as a son”: DuBois and Matthews, Galusha A. Grow, 266–67.
“a little after midnight”: Hay Diary, April 30, 1864.
“the Mona Lisa of my stage”: Ibid., April 18, 1861.
“was little gaiety in the Executive house”: “Life in the White House in the Time of Lincoln,” in ALS, 134.
“the whole floor [was] as silent”: Stoddard, Inside the White House in War Times, 94.
frequent dinner guests: JGN to TB, Sept. 2, 1861, June 27, 1862, Jan. 15, Feb. 1, 1863, Jan. 13, 1865, box 7, JGN-LC.
“as gay, as jolly”: Missouri Republican, Nov. 24, 1861, in LJOUR, 146–47; JGN to TB, June 30, 1861, box 7, JGN-LC.
“obtained a position”: JH-LL, 2:152–53.
“stirring times”: JGN to TB, April 14, 1861, box 7, JGN-LC.
“all the excitement”: JGN to TB, April 7, April 11, 1861, box 7, JGN-LC.
attack on Fort Sumter: McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 284–85.
“the first bloodshed”: JGN, Memorandum of Events, April 19, 1861; JGN to TB, April 19, 1861, box 7, JGN-LC.
“Why don’t they come!”: Hay Diary, April 24, 1861.
“The contrast”: Ibid., April 20, 1861.
“with the city perfectly demoralized”: JGN to TB, April 26, 1861, box 7, JGN-LC.
“efficiency—to perfection in drill”: JGN to Hatch, April 26, 1861, in Burlingame, With Lincoln in the White House, 38–39.
