Abraham Lincoln - The Life and Writings of Abraham Lincoln

2000 Modern Library Paperback Edition

Copyright 1940 by Random House, Inc.

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by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

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to reprint previously published material:

ALFRED A. KNOPF, A DIVISION OF RANDOM HOUSE, INC .: Excerpt from Abraham Lincoln by Benjamin P. Thomas. Copyright 1952 by Benjamin P. Thomas. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.

HARCOURT, INC .: Excerpt from Abraham Lincoln: The War Years by Carl Sandburg. Copyright 1939 by Harcourt, Inc. and copyright renewed 1966 by Carl Sandburg. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

THE ESTATE OF J. G. RANDALL : Excerpt from Lincoln the President, Volume 2: Springfield to Gettysburg by J. G. Randall. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of J. G. Randall.

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Lincoln, Abraham. 18091865.
The life and writings of Abraham Lincoln/edited, and with a biographical essay by Phillip Van Doren Stern; with an introduction, Lincoln and his writings, by Allan Nevins.2000 Modern Library ed.
p. cm.
Originally published: New York: Random House, C1940.
eISBN: 978-0-307-81681-8
1. United StatesPolitics and government18611865. 2. Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865. 3. United StatesPolitics and government1845-1861. 4. IllinoisPolitics and governmentTo 1865. I. Stern, Philip Van Doren, 1900. II. Nevins, Allan,
1890-1971. III. Title.
E457.92 1999
973.7092dc21 99-12661

Modern Library website address: www.modernlibrary.com

v3.1

A S C ARL S ANDBURG points out in the foreword to his Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, the total number of Lincolns words preserved for posterity is more than one milliona figure greater than that of all the words in the Bible (including the Apocrypha) or of Shakespeares complete works. Strangely enough, there is no adequate complete edition of Lincolns works, nor is there likely to be until after 1947, when certain papers deposited by his son Robert in the Library of Congress will at last be made public. At present, the largest collection is the Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by John G. Nicolay and John Hay and published in 1905. This was issued in twelve volumes, and in 1905 could be considered a reasonably complete edition. Since that time much new Lincoln material has been discovered. In 1917, Gilbert A. Tracy edited the Uncollected Letters of Abraham Lincoln; in 1927, the Lincoln Letters at Brown was issued by Brown University; in 1930, Paul M. Angles New Letters and Papers of Lincoln was published; in 1931, Emanuel Hertz, in the second volume of his Abraham Lincoln: A New Portrait, brought out still more new material.

All these sources have been carefully examined in compiling the present edition. This volume, of course, does not pretend to completeness, but it is the largest single-volume collection of Lincolns writings ever published. The principle of selection used has been to include all those items which are of biographical interest or of historical importance. In order to bring within the covers of one volume a large and representative selection of Lincolns writings, it has been necessary to print excerpts from some of the longer pieces. When deletions have been made, they have been frankly indicated either by asterisks or by ellipsis points. For the general reader these excisions should not be serious, for the material omitted has been left out because it is relatively unimportant, dull, repetitious, of ephemeral interest or because it pertains only to Lincolns legal or business life.

A survey of Lincolns life has been included in order to give the background needed to understand the full import of his writings. This biographical section is closely integrated with the Lincoln text and with the notes to the text. For quick reference, an extensive chronology is appended to this section so the reader can see at a glance the salient events of Lincolns life and of the history of his time.

In compiling a volume of this kind, the author has had to call upon the services of many people to whom he gratefully acknowledges his indebtedness. In particular, however, he would like to mention the name of Mr. Paul M. Angle, Librarian of the Illinois State Historical Library, whose reputation as a Lincoln scholar is too great to need any comment here. He has been endlessly patient in answering questions and in giving advice. The invaluable day-by-day record of Lincolns life from 1847 to 1861, edited by him and by Mr. Benjamin P. Thomas, has served not only as the basis for the chronology in this volume, but also as an authoritative guide to check the disputed dating of some of Lincolns letters and speeches. Mr. Angle has kindly supplied a photo-static copy of the significant Kalamazoo speech of August 27, 1856, which has never before been printed in any collection of Lincolns works.

P HILIP V AN D OREN S TERN

Brooklyn, New York

December 24, 1939

N O LONELY mountain peak of mind, wrote Lowell of Lincoln in the Commemoration Ode, emphasizing Lincolns broad humanity of intellect and character; but a mountain peak of spirit he did represent, and as the years furnish perspective his countrymen more fully realize the fact. There was a time when Americans were too near Lincoln to comprehend his full greatness. To a traveler standing near a mountain range many eminences seem to have approximately the same altitude; it is difficult to disengage Everest from his lofty neighbors. But as the range recedes in the distance, the highest peak lifts more and more above its fellows, until it alone fills the horizon. So it has been with Lincoln. Of all the men whom Americans of 1870 or even 1890 placed near himDouglas, Seward, Chase, Sumner, Grantnone but now seems small when measured against his fame. Or to change the simile, the Civil War era was a crowded stage on which many heroes strutted and struggled. To people of Southern blood and sympathies some of the scenes still show Robert E. Lee in the foreground. But to Americans, North and South, the drama as a whole has but one dominating figure, and all the dramatis personae are grouped about and subsidiary to the tall, gaunt form of Lincoln.

A study of Lincolns writings obviously has two great elements of interest, one historical, the other biographical. To these might be added a lesser elementthe purely literary interest of the latest and best of his work; but that actually belongs to the study of the man, for he never deliberately tried to be a literary artist, and wrote only to express his thought and emotions. Most men will read Lincoln either to find out what contributions he was making to his time, or to learn something about his mind, heart and personality. And of these two elements, the historical and the biographical, the latter is by far the more alluring and important.

It is true that even in 1844, when Lincoln was on the Whig electoral ticket and stumped Illinois for Clay, or at least in 1847, when he entered Congress, he was making some small contributions to American destiny; that after 1854 these contributions became important; and that beginning in 1861 they were of transcendent value. But after all, to study the history of the slavery struggle and Civil War we must go to far ampler sources than Lincolns writings. Our principal reason for reading and re-reading them is to learn what Lincoln was thinking, feeling and hoping; to penetrate the lucid depths of his mind, to learn something of his wisdom and moderation, to refresh ourselves with his sensitive, lofty and sometimes half-mystical spirit.