So many friends, old and new, have offered encouragement, hospitality, and insight along this journey. I can only mention a few: Herb and Roberta Ludwig, Gordon and Sandy Hess, Don and Deanda Roberts, John and Lois Harrison, and Dale Soden.
Mary Evans, my literary agent, has once again been a thoughtful editor, counselor, and cheerleader for this, our third book together.
The greatest privilege and joy has been working with my editor, David Ebershoff, at Random House. A brilliant novelist, David worked with me chapter by chapter as he brought his perceptive counsel and penetrating questions, always ending every interchange with encouragement. I thank Lindsey Schwoeri and many others at Random House for their support. I am grateful to Michelle Daniel for her excellent skills in copy editing.
Finally, and foremost, my best reader has been my wife, Cynthia, who read every page, in many versions, with wisdom and questions born of her own love of reading. Her good humor in relation to my insatiable curiosity about Mr. Lincoln became more than matched by her affirmation of every facet of the long-distance journey of writing this biography. I dedicate this book to Cynthia.
Notes
ABBREVIATIONS AND SHORT TITLES EMPLOYED IN NOTES
AL Abraham Lincoln
ALPLC Available at Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, Manuscript Division (Washington, D.C.: American Memory Project, 2000), http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/ alhome.html, accessed 2002.
ALPLM Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Springfield, Illinois
ALQ Abraham Lincoln Quarterly
Baker, Mary Todd Lincoln Jean H. Baker, Mary Todd Lincoln: A Biography (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1987).
Bates, Diary The Diary of Edward Bates, 1859–1866, ed. Howard K. Beale (Washington, D.C: Government Printing Office, 1933).
Beveridge, Abraham Lincoln Albert J. Beveridge, Abraham Lincoln 1809–1858, 2 vols. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1928).
Browning, Diary The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, Vol. 20, ed. Theodore C. Pease and James G. Randall (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1925).
Chase, Diaries Inside Lincoln s Cabinet: The Civil War Diaries of Salmon P. Chase, ed. David Donald (New York: Longmans, Green and Company, 1954).
CW The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, 9 vols., ed. Roy P. Basler (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1953–55) and Supplement, 1832–1865, 2 vols. (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1974).
Day by Day Early Schenk Miers, ed. Lincoln Day by Day, 3 vols. (Washington, D.C: Lincoln Sesquicentennial Commission, 1960).
Donald, Lincoln David Herbert Donald, Lincoln (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995).
Fehrenbacher, Recollected Words Don E. Fehrenbacher and Virginia Fehrenbacher, eds., Recollected Words of Abraham Lincoln (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1996).
Frederick Douglass John W. Blasingame et al., eds., The Frederick Douglass Papers, 5 vols. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1979–1992).
Hay, Inside Inside Lincoln’s White House: The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay, ed. Michael Burlingame and John R. Turner Ettlinger (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1997).
HEH Huntington Library, San Marino, California
HI Douglas L. Wilson and Rodney O. Davis, eds., Herndon’s Informants: Letters, Interviews, and Statements about Abraham Lincoln (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998).
HL William H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik, Herndon’s Lincoln, ed. Douglas L. Wilson and Rodney O. Davis (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006).
JISHS Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society
Johannsen, Douglas Robert W. Johannsen, Stephen A. Douglas (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1973).
LEGAL Daniel W. Stowell, ed., The Papers of Abraham Lincoln: Legal Documents and Cases, 4 vols. (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008).
McClellan, Civil War Papers Stephen W. Sears, ed. The Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan (New York: Ticknor and Fields, 1989).
MTL Justin G. Turner and Linda Levitt Turner, eds., Mary Todd Lincoln: Her Life and Letters (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972).
Nicolay and Hay Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, 10 vols., ed. John G. Nicolay and John Hay (New York: Francis D. Tandy Company, 1905).
OR Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 128 vols. (Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880–1901).
PUSG John Y Simon et al., eds., Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, 28 vols. (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1967–).
Strong, Diary The Diary of George Templeton Strong, vol. 2, 1850–59, and vol. 3, 1860–65, ed. Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1952).
Taft, Diary Washington During the Civil War: The Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft, vol. 1, 1861–1865 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division).
Welles, Diary Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, 3 vols., ed. Howard K. Beale and Alan W. Brownsword (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1960).
The original spelling and punctuation are used in quotations without adding the intrustive “[sic]. ”
CHAPTER 1. A. Lincoln and the Promise of America
“so awful ugly” Walt Whitman to Nathaniel Bloom and John F. S. Gray, March 19–20, 1863, in Walt Whitman: The Correspondence, vol. 1, 1842–1867, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961), 81.
“The first task” G. Vann Woodward, “The Great Prop,” Time LXIII, no. 13 (March 29, 1954), 52.
“He was the most… shut-mouthed man” Brief Analysis of Lincoln’s Character: A Letter to J. E. Remsburg from W. H. Herndon, September 10, 1887, (Springfield: H. E. Barker, 1917), 3.
Lincoln’s “diary” consists of hundreds Roy P. Basier and the editors of The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1953—55) called “fragments.” These fragments in The Collected Works, arranged chronologically, are thus kept separate from one another.
“The dogmas of the quiet past” AL, “Annual Message to Congress,” December 1, 1862, CW, 5:537.
CHAPTER 2. Undistinguished Families: 1809-16
“A. now thinks” AL, “Autobiography,” CW, 4:62.
referring to himself as “A” Ibid., 61 62.
Lincoln’s spare account John Locke Scripps, Life of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basier and Lloyd A. Dunlop (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1961).
“to induce [Lincoln]“John L. Scripps to WHHJune 24, 1865, HI, 57-58.
“It is a great piece of folly” Scripps, Life of Abraham Lincoln, 13.
portrait of himself See Daniel Walker Howe, Making the American Self: Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997), 108-14.
“My parents were both born” AL to Jesse W. Fell, “Enclosing Autobiography,” December 20, 1859, CW, 3:511.
“the Great Migration” For a description of the migration to New England, see Virginia D. Anderson, New England’s Generation: The Great Migration and the Formation of Society and Culture in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 22.
these emigrants had given up hope David Hackett Fischer, Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989) discusses the religious, social, and regional origins of the migration from England to New England, 13—36.
Like many of his fellow immigrants For the story of Samuel Lincoln, see Ida M. Tarbell, In the Footsteps of the Lincolns (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1924), 1—16, and William E. Barton, The Lineage of Lincoln (Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1929), 20-40.
Samuel Lincoln landed in Salem See Tarbell, In the Footsteps of the Lincolns, 2.
church membership provided Barton, The Lineage of Lincoln, 35—36.
next generations of American Lincolns Kenneth J. Winkle places the story of young Abraham Lincoln in the context of his larger family; see The
Young Eagle: The Rise of Abraham Lincoln (Dallas: Taylor Trade Publishing, 2001), 1—9.
new immigrants were Quaker farmers Tarbell, In the Footsteps of the Lincolns, 45—48. Abraham Lincoln believed his ancestors at one time were Quakers, a fact difficult to prove or disprove since Quaker meetings did not keep lists of members for their first two hundred years in the United States. See David S. Keiser, “Quaker Ancestors for Lincoln,” Lincoln Herald 63 (Fall 1961), 134—37.
the grandfather of Abraham Lincoln For the story of Abraham Lincoln, grandfather of Abraham Lincoln, see Larbell, In the Footsteps of the Lincolns, 53—63, and Barton, The Lineage of Lincoln, 51—62.
“Eden of the West” Steven A. Channing, Kentucky: A Bicentennial History (New York: Norton, 1977), 4.
Lincoln built his family Barton, The Lineage of Lincoln, 58—59.
the future president’s grandfather Louis A. Warren, Lincoln’s Parentage and Childhood: A History of the Kentucky Lincolns Supported by Documentary Evidence (New York: The Century Company, 1926), 4—5; Larbell, In the Footsteps of the Lincolns, 62—65.
“legend more strongly” AL to Jesse Lincoln, April 1, 1854, CW, 2:217.
the future president’s father For the story of the young Lhomas Lincoln, see Larbell, In the Footsteps of the Lincolns, 53—63, and Barton, The Lineage of Lincoln, 51—62.
“Even in childhood” AL, “Autobiography,” CW, 4:61.
“grew up literally” Ibid.
“He was a man who took” Dennis F. Hanks (Erastus Wright interview), June 8, 1865, Hi, 27.
“plain unpretending plodding man” Samuel Haycraft to WHH, [June 1865], HI, 67.
“good quiet citizen” John Hanks (John Miles interview), May 25, 1865, HI, 5.
“accumulated considerable property” A. H. Chapman (written statement), [September8, 1865], Hi, 97.
Nancy Hanks‘s ancestry On Nancy Hanks see Larbell, In the Footsteps of the Lincolns, 78—89; and Paul H. Verduin, “New Evidence Suggests Lincoln’s Mother Born in Richmond County, Virginia, Giving Credibility to Planter-Grandfather Legend,” Northern Neck of Virginia Historical Magazine 38 (December 1988), 4354-389.
Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks probably met William E. Barton, The Women Lincoln Loved (Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1927), 73—77.
Thomas and Nancy Lincoln moved again E. R. Burba to WHH, May 25,
1866, HI, 257.
“Slavery Inconsistent with Justice” John B. Boles, Religion in Antebellum Kentucky (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1976), 101—3.
experienced slavery everywhere they lived Louis A. Warren, The Slavery Atmosphere of Lincoln’s Youth (Fort Wayne, Ind.: Lincolniana Publishers, 1933), 4-5.
Baptists in Kentucky were divided John B. Boles, The Great Revival, 1787—1805: The Origins of the Southern Evangelical Mind (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1972), 3-4.
“amansapator” Warren, The Slavery Atmosphere of Lincoln s Youth, 8.
“My earliest recollection” Warren, Lincoln’s Parentage and Childhood, 143.
“He married Nancy Hanks” A. H. Chapman (written statement), [September 8, 1865], Hi, 97.
“quiet and amiable” John Hanks (John Miles interview), May 25, 1865, HI, 5.
“a Kind disposition” Dennis F. Hanks (Erastus Wright interview), June 8, 1865, Hi, 27.
his “angel mother” Joshua F. Speed, Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln and Notes of a Visit to California: Two Lectures (Louisville, Ky.: John P. Morton and Company, 1884), 19.
No Man may put off Thomas A. Dilworth, A New Guide to the English Tongue (London: W. Osborne and T. Griffin, 1786), 5, 7.
“could perhaps teach spelling” Samuel Haycraft to WHH, [June 1865], HI, 67.
instructions for teachers Gerald R. McMurtry, A Series of Monographs Concerning the Lincolns and Hardin County, Kentucky (Elizabethtown, Ky.: Enterprise Press, 1938), 25.
“partly on account of slavery” AL, “Autobiography,” CW, 4:61—62.
“There shall be neither slavery” Robert M. Taylor, Jr., ed., The Northwest Ordinance 1787: A Bicentennial Handbook (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1987), 72.
the American Lincolns migrated Winkle, Young Eagle, 2—8, tells the story of the Lincoln family migration with maps and graphs.
CHAPTER 3. Persistent in Learning: 1816-30
In the fall of 1816 Beveridge, Abraham Lincoln 1:37. Beveridge is the most reliable guide to Lincoln’s early years.
Coming ashore in Indiana Ibid., 41—42.
“avastforest” Elias Pym Fordham, Personal Narrative of Travels in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and of a Residence in the Illinois Territory, 1817—1818, ed. Frederic Austin Ogg (Cleveland, Ohio: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1906), 96.
Stepping onto Indiana soil Beveridge, Abraham Lincoln, 1:38—42.
“Although very young” AL, “Autobiography,” CW, 4:62. Lincoln’s Indiana years are not easy to track, because much of our information comes from persons remembering back thirty-five to fifty years to the young Abraham.
An ax in Lincoln’s day For a discussion of the ax in pioneer America, see R. Carlyle Buley, The Old Northwest: Pioneer Period 1815—1840 (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1950), 159—62.
When first my father AL, “The Bear Hunt” [September 6, 1846?], CW, 1:386.
“a few days before” AL, “Autobiography,” CW, 4:62.
“[I have] never” Ibid.
She died seven days later Dennis F. Hanks to WHH (interview), June 13, 1865, Hi, 40.
“Her good humored laugh” Nathaniel Grigsby (WHH interview), September 12, 1865, Hi, 113.
Each had lost a spouse Beveridge, Abraham Lincoln, 57—58.
“She Soaped—rubbed” Dennis F. Hanks to WHH (interview), June 13, 1865, HI, 41.
“She proved a good and kind mother” AL, “Autobiography,” CW, 4:62.
“In [my] tenth year” Ibid.
“the OldMan Loved” Dennis F. Hanks to WHH, January 26, 1866, HI, 176.
“Thos. Lincoln never showed” A. H. Chapman to WHH, September 28, 1865, HI, 134.
“Owing to my father” AL to Solomon Lincoln, March 6, 1848, CW, 1:455-56.
Abraham showed little empathy See the perceptive book by John Y. Simon, House Divided: Lincoln and His Father (Fort Wayne, Ind.: Lincoln Library and Museum, 1987).
“I can say what scarcely” Sarah Bush Johnson, interview by WHH, September 8, 1865, Hi, 107.
“God bless my mother” HL, 3—4. Lhere is some dispute about the year Lincoln made this statement. Simon, House Divided, 23—24 n. 5.
“didn’t like physical labor” Sarah Bush Lincoln (WHH interview), Septembers, 1865, Hi, 107.
“Abe was not Energetic” Matilda Johnston Moore (WHH interview), September 8, 1865, Hi, 109.
Abraham’s first teacher Beveridge, Abraham Lincoln, 1:55—56.
“There were some schools” AL to Jesse W. Fell, “Enclosing Autobiography,” December 19, 1859, CW, 3:511.
“Whilst other boys were idling” Nathaniel Grigsby (WHH interview), September 12, 1865, HI, 113.
“What Lincoln read” David Lurnham (HH interview), September 15, 1865, HI, 121.
“What he has in the way” AL, “Autobiography,” CW4:62.
“Abe was getting hungry” Dennis F. Hanks to WHH (interview), June 13, 1865, Hi, 41.
Lincoln read the King James Version Beveridge, Abraham Lincoln, 10—12.
“a difficulty” Aesop’s Fables: With Upwards of One Hundred and Fifty Fmblemati-cal Devices (Philadelphia: John Locken, 1821?), 5—6.
According to Grigsby and Turnham Nathaniel Grigsby (WHH interview), September 12, 1865, HI, 112; David Lurnham (WHH interview), September 15, 1865, HI, 121; and David Lurnham to WHH, December 30, 1865, HI, 148.
young Abraham did not have a voice HL, 49.
John Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress Beveridge, Abraham Lincoln, 70, 72; and Warren, Lincoln’s Youth, 49.
Lincoln read William Grimshaw’s Mat
ilda Johnston Moore (WHH interview), September 8, 1865, HI, 109.
“What a climax of human cupidity” William Grimshaw, History of the United States (Philadelphia: Grigg and Elliott, 1820), cited in Beveridge, Abraham Lincoln, 73—74.
“he would write it down” Sara Bush Lincoln (WHH interview), September 8, 1865, HI, 107.
Abraham Lincoln is my nam AL, “Copy-Book Verses,” [1824—26], CW, 1:1.
Abraham realized that he was different Douglas L. Wilson, “Young Man Lincoin,” in The Lincoln Enigma: The Changing Focus of an American Icon, ed. Gabor Boritt (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 35.
“His mind soared” Nathaniel Grigsby (WHH interview), September 12, 1865, Hi, 114.
“We saw something laying” David Turnham (WHH interview), September 15, 1865, Hi, 122.
“A devout Christian” Nathaniel Grigsby to WHH, September 4, 1865, HI, 94.
asked Thomas Lincoln to oversee Beveridge, Abraham Lincoln, 71.
“by Experience” Minute Book, Little Pigeon Baptist Church, June 7, 1823, and April 8, 1826, ALPLM.
“He sometimes attended Church” Sara Bush Lincoln (WHH interview), September 8, 1865, Hi, 108.
“call the children” Matilda Johnston Moore (WHH interview), September 8, 1865, Hi, 110.
the need for fences grew Warren, Lincoln’s Youth, 142—44.
“Gentleman, you may think” Francis Bicknell Carpenter, The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln: Six Months at the White House (New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1866), 97-98.
he had not violated any law Beveridge, Abraham Lincoln, 85.
“One night they were attacked” AL, “Autobiography,” CW, 4:62.
Men, women, and children Years later, John Hanks reported that Lincoln, deeply troubled by what he saw at the slave auction, exclaimed, “If I ever get a chance to hit that thing, I’ll hit it hard.” Hanks’s recollections, however, were often not reliable.
he decided to help his father move David Lurnham (WHH interview), September 15, 1865, HI, 121.
Lincoln family camped in the village square John Hanks (WHH interview) [1865-66], HI, 456.
Lincoln made his first political speech Jane Martin Johns, Personal Recollections of Early Decatur, Abraham Lincoln, Richard J. Oglesby and the Civil War, ed. Howard C. Schaub (Decatur, 111.: Decatur Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution, 1912), 60-61.
A. Lincoln Page 76