by Joshua Zeitz
the population of Washington swelled: Nevins, Ordeal of the Union, 5:223–24, 227–29, 291.
elaborate reviews: Ibid., 293.
“Went out to-day”: JGN, Memorandum, Nov. 20, 1861, box 7, JGN-LC.
“I had tired myself out”: JGN to TB, Nov. 21, 1861, box 7, JGN-LC.
“We could hear the explosion”: JGN to TB, May 10, June 2, 1861, box 7, JGN-LC.
“The battle is lost”: JGN to TB, July 21, 1861, box 7, JGN-LC.
“with the ushering in of daylight”: New York World, July 22, 1861, in LJOUR, 75–79.
In Missouri: Foner, Fiery Trial, 176–79; Nevins, Ordeal of the Union, 5:331–33.
Lincoln’s action: Foner, Fiery Trial, 178; Nevins, Ordeal of the Union, 5:338.
“quiet earnest”: Hay Diary, Aug. 28, 1861.
“one of the most troublesome affairs”: JGN, Memorandum, Sept. 17, 1861, box 7, JGN-LC.
“neither [General John] Pope”: JGN to Lincoln, Oct. 17, 1861, Burlingame, With Lincoln in the White House, 60.
“taken some pains to learn”: JGN to Lincoln, Oct. 21, 1861, ibid.
“I intend to be careful”: Hay Diary, Oct. 10, 1861.
“you must not fight”: Ibid., Oct. 26, 1861.
extreme derision: McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 359; Donald, Lincoln, 319.
“portent of evil to come”: Hay Diary, Nov. 13, 1861.
back on his heels: JGN, Memorandum, Oct. 2, 1861, box 7, JGN-LC.
“The people are impatient”: Donald, Lincoln, 30.
“John and I are moping”: JGN to TB, Dec. 25, 1861, box 7, JGN-LC.
Chapter 7: Despotic Act in the Cause of Union
“the best preparation in the world”: JGN to TB, Jan. 2, Jan. 3, 1862, box 7, JGN-LC.
$70,000 of his official salary: Baker, Mary Todd Lincoln, 186–92; Donald, Lincoln, 309, 312.
“hideously dull”: JH to Fanny Campbell Eames, Aug. 21, 1861, in ALS, 11–12.
“the Hellcat”: JH to JGN, March 31, 1862, reel 5, frame 1336, JH-BU.
“I told her to kiss mine”: JH to JGN, April 4, 1862, reel 5, frames 1339–40, JH-BU.
“The devil is abroad”: JH to JGN, April 5, 1862, reel 5, frame 1342, JH-BU.
“The Hellcat is getting”: JH to JGN, April 9, 1862, reel 5, frame 1344, JH-BU.
“‘Well, Nicolay,’ said he”: JGN, Journal Entry, Feb. 20, 1862, JGN-LC.
In the months that followed: Baker, Mary Todd Lincoln, 208–17; Donald, Lincoln, 336.
The western campaign: McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 392–427; Guelzo, Fateful Lightning, 200–213; JGN to TB, April 4, 1862, JGN-LC.
“upon the highest principles”: McClellan to Lincoln, July 7, 1862, ALP.
“You cannot if you would”: Foner, Fiery Trial, 200.
“half the army”: Ibid., 211.
“paramount object”: Ibid., 228; Lincoln to Greeley, Aug. 22, 1862, AL-CW.
“by mere friction and abrasion”: Foner, Fiery Trial, 212–13.
“military necessity absolutely essential”: Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, 1:70.
“Broken eggs”: Foner, Fiery Trial, 218–20; Lincoln to Belmont, July 31, 1861, ALP.
“flaying the Abolitionists”: JH to “Friends,” Sept. 30, 1855, reel 5, frames 1219–21, JH-BU; JH-LL, 1:82.
Like Nicolay: JGN to JH, Aug. 17, 1863, box 7, JGN-LC.
“a jolly-hearted old Shaker”: Hay Diary, April 25, 1861.
frequent, anonymous dispatches: Missouri Republican, June 14, July 22, 1862, Oct. 19, 1861, in LJOUR, 111, 192–95, 283–85.
visit to Yorktown: Missouri Republican, June 14, June 27, 1862, in LJOUR, 192–95, 271–75.
“fanatics and fire-eaters”: Missouri Republican, July 22, 1862, in LJOUR, 284.
“this bloody revolution”: Missouri Republican, March 27, 1862, in LJOUR, 235.
“slavery offers itself”: Hay Diary, May 10, 1861.
“the General says”: JH to JGN, April 4, 1863, reel 5, frame 1379, JH-BU.
presidents communicated at large: Carwardine, “Abraham Lincoln and the Fourth Estate.”
“one thing we have certainly gained”: Missouri Republican, April 27, 1862, in LJOUR, 253–57.
“How gloriously”: JH to Jay, July 20, 1862, in ALS, 22–23.
“far more nearly sympathize[d]”: Missouri Republican, Jan. 28, 1862, in LJOUR, 239, 202.
“They are nearer to me”: Hay Diary, Oct. 28, 1863.
“I walked up this morning”: JGN to TB, Jan. 25, 1863, box 7, JGN-LC.
“a party at Mrs. Hoopers”: JGN to TB, March 3, 1863, box 7, JGN-LC.
“In the garden”: JGN to TB, May 31, 1861, box 7, JGN-LC.
“Some of our northerners”: Hay Diary, May 7, 1861; JGN, Memorandum, May 7, 1861, box 7, JGN-LC.
“The dogmas of the quiet past”: Abraham Lincoln, Annual Message to Congress, Dec. 1, 1862, AL-CW.
The preliminary Emancipation Proclamation: Foner, Fiery Trial, 231, 242; Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, 1:141–43; Hay Diary, Sept. 24, 1862.
“extremists from the North”: Missouri Republican, Sept. 26, 1862, in LJOUR, 311.
“I told you so”: Donald, Lincoln, 380, 382.
“things look badly”: JH to JGN, Oct. 28, 1862, reel 5, frames 1360–65, JH-BU.
“This temple of our idolatry”: Washington Daily Morning Chronicle, Jan. 2, 1863.
“We shall never agree”: JH to Charles G. Halpine, Aug. 14, 1863, in ALS, 50–51.
Chapter 8: God Placed Him Where He Is
worried constantly about their health: JGN to TB, July 18, July 20, 1861, box 7, JGN-LC.
“flat of my back”: JH to JGN, Aug. 24, 1861, reel 5, frame 1320, JH-BU.
“all bugdom outside”: JGN to TB, July 20, 1862, box 7, JGN-LC.
“The ghosts of twenty thousand”: JH to JGN, June 20, 1864, in ALS, 85.
“almost too numb to write”: JGN to TB, Feb. 17, 1864, box 7, JGN-LC.
“So Washington weather goes”: JGN to TB, April 24, 1864, box 7, JGN-LC.
“a very quaint and old place”: JGN to TB, Aug. 11, Aug. 18, 1861, box 7, JGN-LC.
In August 1862: See Wilson and Moe, “Secretary Nicolay’s Souvenir Album.”
“The trip is truly delightful”: JGN to JH, Aug. 9, 1862, box 7, JGN-LC.
“Our point of destination”: JGN to TB, n.d. [ca. Aug. 9, 1862], Aug. 19, 1862, box 7, JGN-LC.
“the mess with Hole-in-the-Day”: JGN to TB, Sept. 1, 1862, box 7, JGN-LC.
“Since I wrote you last”: JGN to TB, Sept. 8, 1862, box 7, JGN-LC.
“there is positively nothing”: JH to JGN, Aug. 1, 1862, JH-BU.
“horribly hot”: JH to JGN, Aug. 11, 1862, JH-BU.
“Where is your scalp?”: JH to JGN, Aug. 27, 1862, in ALS, 25.
“I could not afford to hang”: Donald, Lincoln, 394–95.
“scalp was yet safe”: JGN to JH, Sept. 12, 1862, box 7, JGN-LC.
On April 2: JH to Mrs. Charles Hay, March 19, 1863, JH-BU; JGN to TB, April 5, 1863, box 7, JGN-LC.
“The President and Mrs. L.”: JGN to JH, April 16, 1863, JGN-LC.
“solitary agony”: Hay Diary, April 4, 1863.
Hay interviewed Du Pont: JH to JGN, April 8, April 10, April 16, April 23, 1863, JH-BU; JH to Lincoln, April 10, May 2, 1863, JH-BU.
“I am a Colonel”: JH to JGN, May 1, 1863, JH-BU.
“Write to me”: JH to JGN, April 16, 1863, JH-BU.
“getting browned by equitation”: JH to Mrs. Charles Hay, April 23, 1863, JH-BU.
“the land of the rebels”: JH to John Hay, May 2, 1863, JH-BU.
“I wish you could be down here”: JH to JGN, April 8, 1863, JH-BU.
“As we sat in the shade”: JH to JGN, May 1, 1863, JH-BU.
“The sunset scene”: Hay Diary, May 14, 1863.
“pomegranate at Major Dormans”: Hay Diary, April 29, 1863.
“Secesh women”: Ibid., April 12, 1863.
thirteen hundred contrabands: Ibid., April 24, 1863.
Robert Smalls: Ibid., April 12, 1863.
“Eugene, an intelligent contraband”: Ibid., May 10, 1863.
“Talk about Linkum!”: Ibid., April 19, 1863.
“Williams says they work better”: Ibid., May 21, 1863. The term “rehearsals for Reconstruction” is taken from Foner, Reconstruction.
“Song by a Florida slavegirl”: Hay Diary, April 19, 1863.
“Went to the colored Schools”: Ibid., April 27, 1863.
“Genl. Hunter sitting”: Ibid., May 23, 1863.
“Why is not authority given”: JH to JGN, May 24, 1863, JH-BU.
“Pennsylvania and Maryland”: JGN to TB, June 21, June 30, 1863, box 7, JGN-LC.
“The Prest was deeply grieved”: Hay Diary, July 14, 1863.
draft riots: Bernstein, New York City Draft Riots.
Colorado Territory: JGN to William P. Dole, July 22, 1863, box 7, JGN-LC.
“in a coach”: JGN to TB, Aug. 17, 1863, box 7, JGN-LC.
“Off to the west”: JGN to JH, Aug. 17, 1863, box 7, JGN-LC.
“frailly built of knotty pinelumber”: JGN to JH, Aug. 21, 1863, box 7, JGN-LC.
“I have not experienced”: JGN to TB, Aug. 23, 1863, box 7, JGN-LC; JGN to JH, Aug. 25, 1863, box 7, JGN-LC.
“Today we spent 6 hours”: JH to JGN, July 28, 1863, JH-BU; Hay Diary, July 18, 1863.
“The house is gradually going to the bad”: JH to JGN, July 18, Sept. 11, 1863, JH-BU.
“The newspapers say”: JH to JGN, Aug. 7, Sept. 11, 1863, reel 5, frames 1420–22, 1434, JH-BU.
“You are a fortunate man”: Hay Diary, Nov. 18, 1863.
“The Tycoon is in fine whack”: JH to JGN, Aug. 7, 1863, reel 5, frames 1434–37, JH-BU.
“The old man sits here”: JH to JGN, Sept. 11, 1863, reel 5, frame 1448, JH-BU.
Chapter 9: New Birth of Freedom
modicum of order: Boritt, Gettysburg Gospel, 5–9.
without regard for rank: Ibid., 39.
“we had a great many pictures”: Hay Diary, Nov. 8, 1863.
“Spent the evening at the theatre”: Ibid., Nov. 9, Nov. 11, 1863.
“It was a time when [the president]”: JGN, “Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.”
“Except during its days of battle”: Ibid., 598–601.
“a straggled, hungry set”: Young, Men and Memories, 59–61. For a firsthand description of Gettysburg on the eve and day of the speech, see Klement, “Milwaukeean Witnesses Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.”
“ugly and dangerous”: Hay Diary, Nov. 18, 1863.
“when that cause is removed”: JGN, “Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address,” 601.
“taking more decided anti-slavery grounds”: Detroit Free Press, Nov. 21, 1863.
Days later the Chicago Tribune: Boritt, Gettysburg Gospel, 78.
“large and clamorous”: Hay Diary, Nov. 18, 1863.
had not yet seen a draft: Young, Men and Memories; Boritt, Gettysburg Gospel, 77.
“In the morning I got a beast”: Hay Diary, Nov. 19, 1863.
Initial reviews were mixed: Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln, 2:575–77.
still mere prophecy: Reid, “Newspaper Response to the Gettysburg Address”; George, “World Will Little Note?”
“He says they will carry Ohio”: JH to Lincoln, Oct. 4, 1863, reel 5, frame 1451, JH-BU.
Behind the scenes: Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln, 2:488, 558, 560–61, 564–65.
“a good man”: Hay Diary, n.d. [ca. July–Aug. 1863].
Ten Percent Plan: See Donald, Lincoln Reconsidered, 57–81.
“a lonesome sort of Christmas”: Hay Diary, Dec. 25, 1863.
“about the matter of reconstruction”: Ibid., Dec. 28, 1863.
“that fellow five feet tall”: Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln, 2:601.
“Great good luck”: Hay Diary, Jan. 13, 1864.
“Variety of complexions”: Ibid., Jan. 15, 1864.
“held the President’s letter”: JH to JGN, Jan. 21, 1864, reel 5, frames 1466–68, JH-BU.
“The people are ignorant and apathetic”: JH to Lincoln, Feb. 8, 1864, in ALS, 76.
“I came down the St. John’s River”: JH to JGN, Feb. 8, 1864, reel 5, frames 1469–70, JH-BU.
“a few men straggled in”: Hay Diary, Feb. 6, 1864.
“dirty swarm of grey coats”: Ibid., Feb. 11, 1864.
“Some wrote [in] good hands”: Ibid.
“The fact that more than 50 per cent”: Ibid., Feb. 12, 1864.
“I find nearly everybody”: JH to Nathaniel P. Banks, March 7, 1864, in ALS, 78.
“a gigantic humbug”: Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln, 2:602.
“simply . . . for the purpose”: Ibid.
“The original lie”: JH to Charles G. Halpine, April 13, 1864, in ALS, 80.
“I have seen some rather rough incidents”: JH to JGN, Feb. 8, Feb. 23, 1864, in ALS, 78.
“glad the President has sloughed off”: Hay Diary, July 1, 1864.
“There was a pic-nic yesterday”: Ibid., July 5, 1864.
“made a mistake”: Ibid., June 30, 1864.
He sent Nicolay to Baltimore: JGN to JH, June 6, 1864, box 7, JGN-LC.
“weak-kneed d——d fools”: JGN to JH, Aug. 25, 1864, box 7, JGN-LC.
“unless something was done”: JGN to TB, Aug. 28, 1864, box 7, JGN-LC.
“badly beaten”: Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln, 2:658.
Lincoln bandwagon: JGN to Lincoln, Aug. 29, Aug. 30, Aug. 31, 1864, in Burlingame, With Lincoln in the White House, 154–56; JGN to TB, Sept. 4, 1864, box 7, JGN-LC.
“Lose ten times as much”: Hay Diary, Oct. 11, 1864; Taliaferro, All the Great Prizes, 86–88.
collect and disburse party funds: JH to Henry J. Raymond, Oct. 17, 1864, in ALS, 98; JH to JGN, Oct. 8, 1864, reel 5, frames 1521–24, JH-BU.
“an encouraging view”: JGN to TB, Sept. 11, 1864, box 7, JGN-LC.
“The Republicans here are talking better”: JH to JGN, Sept. 7, 1864, reel 5, frames 1508–10, JH-BU.
“this nation may have sinned grievously”: JH to George Wilkes, Sept. 2, 1864, reel 5, frames 1508–14, JH-BU.
“It is a little singular”: Hay Diary, Nov. 8, 1864.
“haunting strain of poetry”: ALS, 169, 184.
“wrote very few letters”: JH to Herndon, Sept. 5, 1866, in WH, 307–8.
A subsequent analysis: ALS, 169–84.
Chapter 10: His Heart Was Too Sad
“because I have written nothing of it”: JGN to TB, Feb. 10, 1865, box 7, JGN-LC.
“When it came time to direct”: JGN to JH, Jan. 18, 1864, box 7, JGN-LC.
“the afternoon of the dinner”: JGN to JH, Jan. 29, 1864, box 7, JGN-LC.
Noah Brooks: Burlingame, Lincoln Observed.
“As the case now stands”: JGN to TB, Feb. 10, 1865, box 7, JGN-LC.
George could wait: JGN to TB, Sept. 20, 1863, Feb. 12, Feb. 17, 1864, Jan. 26, 1865, box 7, JGN-LC. On January 26, 1865, Nicolay made reference to an occasion “after my return from Colorado, and while you were here.” It is unclear whether “here” was the White House or Washington, D.C., more generally.
“What did you mean”: JGN to TB, May 22, 1864, box 7, JGN-LC.
“You have probably seen”: JGN to TB, March 12, 1865, box 7, JGN-LC.
The evidence establishes otherwise: Brooks to Isaac P. Langworthy, May 10, 1865, in Hugh McClellan, Ch
aracter and Religion of President Lincoln, 9–10. In a letter dated several weeks after Lincoln’s assassination, Brooks told a friend that “the death of our beloved Lincoln changes all my plans. At first, when it appeared doubtful if Nicolay could be induced to go abroad, I accepted from Mr. Lincoln the promise of a lucrative place in San Francisco, and had well-nigh concluded to go there when Nicolay concluded to go abroad. The President was then anxious for me to take the place near him.”
“sail as soon as the President can spare me”: JH to Manning Leonard, April 13, 1865, reel 6, frames 5–7, JH-BU; JH to Charles Hay, March 31, 1865, quoted in Dennett, John Hay, 57.
“a day of deep and tranquil”: The Century, vol. 39, no. 17, 428.
“breathed with slow and regular”: Ibid., 436.
“took a pilot on board”: JGN to TB, April 17, 1865, box 7, JGN-LC.
“describe the air of gloom”: JGN to TB, April 18, 1865, box 7, JGN-LC.
“After the funeral”: JGN to TB, April 24, 1865, box 7, JGN-LC.
Thaddeus Stevens and James Buchanan: Power, Abraham Lincoln, 131.
“He looked very much fatigued”: Corneau, “Girl in the Sixties,” 445.
the grand review: JGN to TB, May 24, 1865, box 7, JGN-LC.
“sorry to say”: JGN to TB, May 5, 1865, box 7, JGN-LC.
“We will have the ceremony”: JGN to TB, May 30, 1865, box 7, JGN-LC.
“to Pike so as to be there”: JGN to JH, June 1, 1865, reel 9, frames 638–39, JH-BU.
“The storm passed”: Helen Nicolay, Lincoln’s Secretary, 241.
“The White House was full”: Taliaferro, All the Great Prizes, 5.
Chapter 11: Europe
“I learned yesterday”: Bigelow to JGN, March 31, 1865, in Bigelow, Retrospections of an Active Life, 2:440–42.
“an intelligent, honorable man”: Weed to Bigelow, April 26, 1865, in Bigelow, Retrospections of an Active Life, 2:520–21.
“Paris of the Second Empire”: Helen Nicolay, Lincoln’s Secretary, 241–45; Taliaferro, All the Great Prizes, 109.
“the literary lady”: JGN to TB, Aug. 21, 1866, box 4, JGN-LC.
“a great city”: JGN to Charles Walker, Dec. 14, 1865, box 3, JGN-LC.
“I wish you could take a look”: TB to Emma Westlake, Dec. 1, 1868; TB to Dorus Bates, Aug. 14, 1867, Nov. 13, 1868, boxes 3, 4, JGN-LC.
“George has been gone”: TB to Dorus Bates, Sept. 26, 1867, box 3, JGN-LC.