Abraham LincolnABAA
1863ref. 2972001/09/1863. A powerful letter showing Lincoln's direct involvement with the chief judicial military officer showing the merciful Lincoln at work and showing his prioritizing retaining experienced veterans in the service <img class=""alignnone size-post-window wp-image-29790"" src=""https://cdn.raabcollection.com/wp-content/uploads/20240123003955/Lincoln-Sept-1-1863-3-1600x295.jpg"" alt="""" width=""1600"" height=""295"" /> The Judge Advocate General of the United States Army is the senior officer of the Judge Advocate General's Corps of the United States Army. The position was abolished but then reinstated in 1849. In 1862 Lincoln appointed his first Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt only the second since 1783. He named Joseph Holt. Holt joined the Army as a colonel in 1862. As Judge Advocate General of the Army Holt oversaw the expansion of military law to include the military prosecutions of citizens who were not in the military service. By the time he joined the Army he believed that the only means to prevent treason from occurring again was to ensure that slavery was abolished for all time and eventually equal treatment under the law enforced in the South. At the beginning of the Civil War Joseph Carbery Lay had an office in Washington D. C. as an agent for the transaction of all kinds of business including procuring patents pensions back pay purchase and sale of real estate writing of deeds releases and other instruments regarding settlement of accounts with and claims against the Government. He quickly enlisted in the 12th Infantry Regiment of the Regular Army as a lieutenant. During the Peninsula Campaign in the spring of 1862 the 12th Infantry distinguished itself in its first combat action at the Battle of Gaines Mill in June 1862 while sustaining fifty percent casualties. Lay was a captain at that time. <img class=""alignnone size-post-window wp-image-29789"" src=""https://cdn.raabcollection.com/wp-content/uploads/20240123003932/Lincoln-Sept-1-1863-2-1600x746.jpg"" alt="""" width=""1600"" height=""746"" /> Captain Joseph Carbery Lay was cashiered - dismissed - from the Army on July 21 1862 for being drunk on duty and breach of arrest. Lay felt that an injustice had been done and wanted the dismissal revoked. In 1863 the matter came to the attention of President Lincoln who insisted on seeing the record of the case. He was always anxious to prevent injustice from being done and even a case in which alleged drunkenness was involved was not beneath his notice. Autograph letter signed as President on Executive Mansion letterhead Washington September 1 1863 to the Judge Advocate General insisting that he receive the records in Lay’s case. “Sir: I am told that Carbery Lay a Captain in the 12th. Regular Infantry has been dismissed by a Court-Martial. Please get the record and examine the case & report to me. Yours truly A. Lincoln.” <img class=""alignnone size-post-window wp-image-29791"" src=""https://cdn.raabcollection.com/wp-content/uploads/20240123004036/Lincoln-Sept-1-1863-4-1600x491.jpg"" alt="""" width=""1600"" height=""491"" /> Lincoln prioritized retaining experienced veterans in the service and sided with Lay as is indicated by the fact that Lay was reinstated by being appointed a lieutenant in the Seventeenth Infantry on October 30 1863 less than two months after this letter. While Lay was serving in that unit in 1863 it was present in engagements at Rappahannock Station and on Mine Run and marched with it until going into winter camp. In 1864 the regiment took part in the Wilderness Campaign and the operations before Petersburg inscribing on its colors Laurel Hill North Anna Bethesda Church Cold Harbor and Petersburg; while its records show in addition that it was also engaged at Spotsylvania Court House and the battle of the Wilderness. Lay’s problems were not over however as in June 1864 he was accused of having returned to his home in Washington without leave. He came back to base soon after and made a statement that he had been ill and sent to hospital and then had a difficult time rejoining his regiment. Perhaps to avoid disciplinary action he resigned from the Army a few months later on September 12 1864. Over the years we’ve had just a handful of letters showing the kindly merciful Lincoln at work and none to Holt. <img class=""alignnone size-post-window wp-image-25018"" src=""https://cdn.raabcollection.com/wp-content/uploads/20231204144051/Folder-site-11-1600x1327.jpg"" alt="""" width=""1600"" height=""1327"" /> unknown books
1863ref. 373004Washington D.C. 1863. 1p. plus integral blank. 4to 9-3/4x7-3/4 inches. Minor smudging to signature. Housed in a blue full morocco box. 1p. plus integral blank. 4to 9-3/4x7-3/4 inches. The first military draft in U.S. history was passed by Congress in early 1863 and signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln in March of that year. The Enrollment Act or Civil War Military Draft Act required the enrollment of every male citizen between twenty and forty-five years of age as well as those immigrants who had filed for citizenship unless exempted by the Act. It set enlistment quotas for each state and required states to draft men if they did not meet their enlistment quotas through volunteers. It also included the policies of substitution furnishing a suitable substitute to take the draftee's place and commutation paying $300 to avoid the draft which led to substantial resentment among working-class citizens not wealthy enough to pay their way out of service. Only July 13 during the draft lottery in New York City a riot broke out leading to three days of violence and destruction. Although initially focused on the draft the protests subsequently devolved into vicious race riots. The rioters were largely white and in the wake of the Emancipation Proclamation claimed to fear that freed enslaved men would migrate to the city and take their jobs. Since Blacks were exempted from the draft the Draft Act only heightened fears of Black migration to the city. The violence against the Black community in New York as well as against abolitionists was substantial: the death toll reached upwards of 120 and numerous homes and churches were burned. Since most of the New York State Militia was fighting with Union troops at Gettysburg the New York Police Department was the only force on hand to deal with the rioters initially and they were badly outnumbered and underequipped. By day four of the riots five New York Militia units had reached the city along with the 26th Michigan Volunteers and the 27th Indiana Volunteers and were able to start restoring order. Eventually there were several thousand troops in the city and they brutally put down the remaining rioters. Almost immediately calls came to suspend the draft in New York most notably by Horatio Seymour the Governor of New York who wrote to Lincoln several times in the weeks which followed arguing against the constitutionality of the draft and the inequity in its application. Lincoln replied on August 7 refusing to acquiesce to Seymour's demands writing: "I shall direct the draft to proceed in all the Districts drawing however at first from each of the four Districts towit: the second fourth sixth and eighth . I do not object to abide a decision of the United States Supreme Court or of the judges thereof on the constitutionality of the draft law. In fact I should be willing to facilitate the obtaining of it; but I can not consent to lose the time while it is being obtained. We are contending with an enemy who as I understand drives every able bodied man he can reach into his ranks very much as a butcher drives bullocks into a slaughter-pen. No time is wasted no argument is used. This produces an army which will soon turn upon our now victorious soldiers already in the field if they shall not be sustained by recruits as they should be. It produces an army with a rapidity not to be matched on our side if we first waste time to re-experiment with the volunteer system already deemed by congress and palpably in fact so far exhausted as to be inadequate; and then more time to obtain a court decision as to whether a law is constitutional which requires a part of those not now in the service to go to the aid of those who are already in it; and still more time to determine with absolute certainty that we get those who are to go in the precisely legal proportion to those who are not to go. My purpose is to be in my action just and constitutional; and yet practical in performing the important duty with which I am charged of maintaining the unity and the free principles of our common country" Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln Vol. 6. Three days later on August 10 Lincoln signed the present order to resume the draft in the Second Congressional district of New York the western portion of Long Island primarily Nassau County and part of Queens County. This is the first draft order following his refusal to Governor Seymour to suspend the draft in the New York City area. In full manuscript accomplishments in brackets: "I Abraham Lincoln President of the United States of America and Commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy thereof having taken into consideration the number of volunteers and militia furnished by and from the several States including the State New York and the period of service of said volunteers and militia since the commencement of the present rebellion in order to equalize the numbers among the Districts of the said States and having considered and allowed for the number already furnished as aforesaid and the time of their service aforesaid do hereby assign Two Thousand and Fifty 2050 as the first proportional part of the quota of troops to be furnished by the 2ndDistrict of the State of New York under this the first call made by me on the State of New York under the act approved March 3 1863 entitled 'An Act for Enrolling and Calling our the National Forces and for other purposes' and in pursuance of the act aforesaid I order that a draft be made in the said 2nd District of the State of New York for the number of men herein assigned to said District." On the same day as this order Lincoln would meet with Frederick Douglass at the White House to discuss his traveling through the south to recruit former slaves to fight for the Union. An extraordinary Lincoln document at a turning point moment in the Civil War. unknown books
1865ref. 376410Montauk Montauk Navy Yard Wash D.C. 1865. 4 pp. 8vo. Slight soiling and minor tears along old folds otherwise in very good condition. 4 pp. 8vo. ".About 10:25 P.M. a man came in and walked slowly along the side." A remarkably clear and dramatic eyewitness account of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln from a naval surgeon who was close to the President's box at Ford's theater on that fateful night of April 14 1865. In this letter to his brother written the night after the assassination while the details were still fresh in his memory Dr. George B. Todd surgeon aboard the U.S. "Montauk" at anchor in the Navy Yard that day recounts the terrible event with a clarity of observation one might expect of his profession-a rarity among confused eyewitness accounts. The text of Todd's letter one of only 7 eyewitness accounts written within 24 hours of the assassination reads: "The few hours that have intervened since that most terrible tragedy of last night have served to give me a little clearer brain and I believe I am now able to give you a clear account up to this hour. Yesterday about 3 P.M. the President and wife drove down to the navy yard and paid our ship a visit going all over her accompanied by us all. Both seemed very happy and so expressed themselves - glad that this war was over or so near its end and then drove back to the White House. In the evening nearly all of us went to the Ford's Theatre. I was very early and got a seat near the President's private box as we heard he was to be there. About half past nine he came in with his wife a Miss Harris and Major Rathburn and was cheered by every one. As soon as there was a silence the play went on and I could see that the "pres." seemed to enjoy it very much. About 10:25 P.M. a man came in and walked slowly along the side on which the 'pres.' box was and I heard a man say "there's Booth" and I turned my head to look at him. He was still walking very slow and was near the box door when he stopped took a card from his pocket wrote something on it and gave it to the usher who took it to the box. In a minute the door was opened and he walked in. No sooner had the door closed then I heard the report of a pistol and on the instant Booth jumped out of the box onto the stage holding in his hand a large knife and shouted so as to be heard all over the house - 'Sic Semper Tyrannis' "so always with tyrants" and fled behind the scenes-I attempted to get to the box but I could not and in an instant the cry was raised 'The President is Assassinated.' "Such a scene I never saw before. The cry spread to the street only to be met by another 'So is Mr. Seward.' Soldiers had gone. Some General handed me a note and bid me go to the nearest telegraph office and arouse the nation. I ran with all my speed and in ten minutes the sad news was all over the country. Today all the city is in mourning nearly every house being in black and I have not seen a smile. No business and many a strong man I have seen in tears. "Some reports say Booth is a prisoner others that he has made his escape but from orders received here I believe he is taken as a mob once raised now would know no end. I will not seal this until morning and I may have some more news. "April 24th. "I have had no time to write until now as I have been a detective. We have now 7 that are implicated. Why don't you write Love to all George" Several important facts regarding the movements of both the President and John Wilkes Booth are recorded here: 1 This appears to be the only eyewitness account of the President's inspection of the "Montauk" earlier that afternoon. 2 Todd's account of Booth's interaction with the "usher" sitting outside the President's box "took a card from his pocket wrote something on it and gave it to the usher" is especially intriguing and reveals not only something of Todd's powers of observations but also his proximity to the assassin immediately before the shooting. Todd alone among eyewitnesses notes that the "usher" first took the card from Booth then went into the box and that a short time later the door opened and Booth went in. In fact Good finds only 7 other eye-witness accounts of the Lincoln assassination as early as April 15-most of these witnesses record little or nothing regarding the events before hearing the shot itself and none of them noticed Booth's interchange with the usher who was in fact Lincoln's valet Charles Forbes. There are three other accounts by eyewitnesses which partially corroborate Todd's observation of the Forbes and Booth interchange-but they were written much later than Todd's. 3 Todd's observation of the time he spotted Booth moving toward the box "about 10:25" corresponds to Good's own conclusion that Booth fired the fatal shot close to 10:30 PM. According to James Swanson MANHUNT p. 419 "the exact time of Booth's shot cannot be fixed . Booth may have shot Lincoln as early as 10:13 or as late as 10:30" Todd's account - again one of the freshest and most reliable weighs heavily in favor of Good. 4 Todd by his own account played a role in alerting the nation by telegraph. 5 Although he doesn't mention it as a surgeon of the ironclad Montauk Todd was also probably present at the autopsy of John Wilkes Booth on Thursday April 27 in the gun room of his ship. Indeed in an article in the February issue of the Baltimore and Ohio Magazine 1926 where the letter was first published and reproduced Todd is reported to have been "one of the surgeons who performed the autopsy." That as well as the fact that the other prisoners were being held on board the ironclad "Montauk" and "Saugus" may explain his cryptic remark near the end ". I have been a detective .". Todd actually mailed the letter on April 30 3 days after the autopsy and may very have participated in the actual investigation of the captives aboard the "Montauk." AN EXTRAORDINARY AND UNIQUE RECORD OF ONE THE NATION'S GREAT TRAGEDIES. Published from a copy in the State Historical Library of Wisconsin in Timothy S. Good WE SAW LINCOLN SHOT U. of Miss. 1995; with the mistaken date of April 30 1865 unknown books
1864ref. 24088President Abraham Lincoln seeks counsel from his cabinet on the appropriate response to the massacre at Fort Pillow Tennessee three weeks earlier. More than 400 African-American Union troops and their white officers were slain many of them after surrendering. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Letter Signed to Gideon Welles May 3 1864 Washington D.C. 1 p. 8 x 10 in. With: FORT PILLOW MASSACRE LYMAN TRUMBULL. Signed Presentation Copy. Reports of the Committee on the Conduct of the War: Fort Pillow Massacre. Returned Prisoners. 8vo. Illustrated with 8 portraits on 4 pages of woodcut engravings after photographic portraits of Belle Island POWs. Contemporary green cloth gilt with morocco spine label gilt-lettered. First Edition. Washington D.C. 1864. Inscribed on front fly leaf: "Lyman Trumbull to D.J. Ely". The cover title of sammelband that contains two Senate Reports related to Confederate atrocities: 1. U.S. Congress. May 5 1864. - Ordered to be printed.Joint Resolution directing the Committee on the Conduct of the War to examine into the recent attack on Fort Pillow. Senate Report 38th Congress 1st Session. Senate Rep. Com. No. 63. Nevins I: 204. 2. U.S. Congress. May 9 1864 - Ordered That the report.be printed in connexion with the report of the committee in relation to the Fort Pillow massacre.Joint Resolution directing the Committee on the Conduct and Expenditures of the War. Senate Report 38th Congress 1st Session. Senate Rep. Com. No. 68. On April 12 1864 1500 Confederate troops under Nathan Bedford Forrest attacked a Union outpost at Fort Pillow Tennessee. After four hours of intense fighting Forrest demanded the garrison surrender. Although outnumbered almost three to one the Union troops inside the fort at first refused. Confederate forces eventually captured the position. According to survivors Confederate troops motivated by racial hatred proceeded to kill Union prisoners as they pleaded for their lives. It is unclear how many were killed after the surrender but first-hand accounts suggest that the numbers were high. Of 262 black soldiers at Fort Pillow only 58 survived to be taken prisoner; of 395 white soldiers 168 survived as prisoners. On May 3 President Lincoln sent a letter like this one to each of the members of his cabinet. Three days later Lincoln held a cabinet meeting at which each cabinet member read his opinion on the appropriate response. All agreed that the U.S. government should demand "an explanation" from the Confederacy. Seward Chase Stanton and Welles advised holding Confederate prisoners equal in numbers to the Union troops massacred as hostages; if the Confederate government avowed the massacre those prisoners would be executed. Usher Bates and Blair strongly disagreed with Blair pointing out that such a response "would not be justified by the rules of civilized warfare." Bates concurred noting that "retaliation is not mere justice. It is avowedly revenge; and it is wholly unjustifiable in law and conscience." Little formal action beyond a Congressional investigation took place. Perhaps the greatest impact that Fort Pillow had was on the morale of black troops. Knowing what their fate would be if captured on the field by Confederate soldiers black Union soldiers charged into battle with the war cry "Remember Fort Pillow!" Complete Transcript Executive Mansion Washington May 3d 1864 Hon. Secretary of the Navy. Sir: It is now quite certain that a large number of our colored soldiers with their white officers were by the rebel force massacred after they had surrendered at the recent capture of Fort-Pillow. So much is known though the evidence is not quite ready to be laid before me. Meanwhile I will thank you to prepare and give me in writing your opinion as to what course the Government should take in this case. Yours truly A. Lincoln With abolitionist Senator Lyman Trumbull's signed presentation copy of Congressional reports. Condition: very good. books
1864ref. 3082New York: Mathew Brady 1864. First edition. Very Good. SIGNED CDV PHOTOGRAPH FROM 1864 MATHEW BRADY SITTING WITH DIRECT FAMILY PROVENANCE. Vignetted photographic portrait from Mathew Brady's sitting of January 8 1864 signed by Lincoln along the lower edge of the photograph. The photograph descended directly through Lincoln's family from the president and Mary Todd Lincoln through five generations to the family of Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith the last surviving direct descendant of Abraham Lincoln. The photograph remained within Lincoln's direct family until it appeared at Cowan's Auctions in 2010 offered as lot 272 along with other items descended in the Lincoln-Beckwith lineage. It had passed from Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln to their son Robert Todd Lincoln and from him to his daughter Jessie Lincoln Beckwith. Jessie's son Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith 1904-1985 was the last surviving direct descendant of Abraham Lincoln; the photograph passed to his wife Margaret Fristoe Beckwith and by descent to her daughter from whose estate it was consigned to the sale. Albumen print carte-de-visite on Brady's photographic mount; 1864. Small abrasion at bottom margin toning to verso; ink blot original on "A. Mathew Brady unknown books
1851ref. 27561A list of stockholders entirely in Lincoln's hand filed as evidence in his first significant railroad case. Lincoln's own appearance in the shareholder list represents only the second known instance of a stock purchase by the future president. The Illinois Supreme Court's ultimate ruling in favor of Lincoln and the railroad set an important legal precedent upholding the binding nature of a stockholder's contractual and financial obligations. "The decision subsequently cited in twenty-five other cases throughout the United States helped establish the principle that corporation charters could be altered in the public interest and it established Lincoln as one of the most prominent and successful Illinois practitioners of railroad law" Donald p.155. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Autograph Manuscript Signed by Lincoln in text constituting his official transcript of the "Subscription Book of the Capital Stock of the Alton and Sangamon Rail Road Company" incorporated February 27 1847 transcribed in early 1851. Comprising a cover sheet titled in Lincoln's hand the joint stock subscription statement and list of 91 shareholders with the number of shares subscribed and leaf with Lincoln's legal docket: "Alton and Sangamon Railroad Company vs. James A. Barret. Copy of contents of subscription book." 8 pp. 6 x 8¼ x ¼ in. With Lincoln's original stock certificate for the six shares noted in his manuscript. One of only two instances of his owning a stock and the only certificate of his known to survive. Historical Background The Alton and Sangamon Rail Road Company was chartered in 1847 to construct a line from Alton via New Berlin to Springfield. In 1850 however the Illinois General Assembly approved a more direct route bypassing the landholdings of some investors. Claiming breach of contract James A. Barret refused to make further installment payments for his 30 shares of stock as did several others who no longer stood to benefit from the new line. In 1851 Lincoln was hired to compel the defaulting shareholders to pay the balance of their promised investment. The tactical details are spelled out in a February 19 1851 letter from Lincoln to William Martin a commissioner for the sale of the company's stock. Four suits were to be brought against stockholders who had subscribed to the initial offering but had then failed to make the additional installment payments. In preparation Lincoln listed the essential documents he would need in order to win a judgment. "We must prove" he advised Martin "that the defendant is a Stockholder" "that the calls have been made" and "that due notice of the calls has been given." To show that the defendants were in fact stockholders Lincoln explained he needed to produce "the subscription book with the defendant's name and proof of the genuineness of the signature together with any competent parole or evidence that he made the advance payment" Basler 2:99. Lincoln's meticulous transcript of the subscription book was a key piece of the evidence filed in Sangamon Circuit Court on February 22 1851. The book includes Barret's name and the subscription statement transcribed by Lincoln on page two is explicit about the shareholders' obligations. We the subscribers to the Capital Stock of the Alton and Sangamon Rail Road Company.do hereby agree.to pay the balance of the installments due on said stock by us subscribed when the same may be called for by the board of Directors of said Company when duly organized in conformity with the Charter approved February 27th 1847. "A. Lincoln" with six shares for $600 is prominent among the 91 subscriber names. The only other known record of a Lincoln stock purchase dates from 1836 when he bought one share in the Beardstown and Sangamon Canal. In June of 1847 as head of a committee to promote subscriptions for the projected railroad Lincoln wrote an open letter to the "People of Sangamon County" appealing for their support. Railroad construction was booming and Lincoln anticipated that a line between Springfield and Alton would prove a lucrative investment for himself and his state. "The whole is a matter of pecuniary interest" he argued. "The proper question for us is whether with reference to the present and the future and to direct and indirect results it is our interest to subscribe. If it can be shown that it is we hope few will refuse" Basler 1:396-398. The list of subscribers is itself of considerable interest. It includes John Hay 1775-1865 the grandfather of Lincoln's later secretary John Hay 2 shares Ninian W. Edwards 1809-1889 husband of Mary Todd Lincoln's sister 20 shares John T. Stuart 1807-1885 Lincoln's law partner 5 shares Henry Yates 1786-1865 father of Illinois governor Richard Yates 10 shares Noah W. Matheny 1815-1877 clerk of Sangamon County and others. In the subscription book Henry Yates hedging his bets has added a condition beneath his name: "if the Road intersects the M. & S R R at New Berlin." Lincoln was mindful of the critical issues raised by the Alton and Sangamon lawsuits and "took extraordinary pains to construct an airtight case for his client" Donald p.155. To Martin he pointed out the legal issues adding "I have labored hard to find the law" in preparation for the trials. In the end two of the defaulting stockholders paid their delinquent calls. The suits against James A. Barret and Joseph Klein came to trial in the Sangamon Circuit Court in August of 1851 with Lincoln handling both the trials and the appeals for the railroad. Lincoln's preparation proved its worth the rulings were in favor of the railroad. "Illinois Supreme Court Justice Samuel H. Treat ruled that public utility superseded private profit. If Barret had won the case other stockholders would balk at fulfilling their obligations. The rule of caveat emptor protected corporate management from stockholder's personal interests and encouraged subsequent investment" Lincoln Legal Briefs Oct-Dec 1990 no. 16 online. At the time he transcribed this document Lincoln was an attorney on the 8th Judicial Circuit and also managed a thriving appellate and federal court practice. He handled a number of railroad-related cases representing both private individuals as well as the railroads themselves. He was not as some have argued a hired gun for corporate interests. Rather as his law partner William Herndon described him Lincoln was "purely and entirely a case lawyer." The fact that Lincoln despite his commitment to railroading often handled suits against the carriers casts light on his understanding of the lawyer's role in societyHe simply could not afford to take only one side in legal disputes. Nor did Lincoln pursue some political or philosophical agenda through litigation. He was not concerned with developing a consistent legal ideology. His business as Donald reminds us "was law not morality." James W. Ely "Lincoln as Railroad Attorney" Indiana Historical Society Symposium April 15-16 2005 Though a prominent lawyer Lincoln was still smarting over recent political defeats. Elected to the U.S. Congress in 1846 he had served out his term but his outspoken opposition to the Mexican-American War had cost him any chance at a second term. He subsequently failed in his attempt to become commissioner of the General Land Office. Lincoln declined an appointment as governor of the Oregon Territory instead returning to his law practice with William H. Herndon in Springfield Illinois. He would not attempt a political comeback until 1854. The rail line was ultimately highly profitable. Lincoln's overriding belief in the broader benefits of internal improvements is best expressed in a speech he delivered before Congress in 1848. Let the nation take hold of the larger works and the states the smaller ones; and thus working in a meeting direction discreetly but steadily and firmly what is made unequal in one place may be equalized in another extravagance avoided and the whole country put on that career of prosperity which shall correspond with it's extent of territory it's natural resources and the intelligence and enterprize of it's people. Reference "Barret v. Alton & Sangamon Railroad" in Daniel W. Stowell et al. eds. The Papers of Abraham Lincoln: Legal Documents and Cases 4 vols. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press 2008 2:172-210. books
1836ref. 24346.991836. No binding. Fine. Autograph Letter Signed to Mary S. Owens December 13 1836 2 pp. 9 3/4 x 7 3/4 in. ""Write back as soon as you get this and if possible say something that will please me for really I have not been pleased since I left you.""Here Lincoln perfectly demonstrates what Owens later described as deficiencies ""in those little links which make up the chain of a woman's happiness."" Rather than expressing his feelings for Owens Lincoln complains about his health and discusses political issues swirling in the Illinois General Assembly. Although inept at love the letter offers rare insight into the young representative's thoughts on a variety of political issues. In this highly important letter to Mary Owens a self-absorbed Lincoln complains to his potential spouse of his health both physical and mental and discusses political issues to the point that he describes his own letter as ""dry and stupid."" Perhaps more revealing than he realized it illustrates the tension in Lincoln's early life between matters of the head with which he was comfortable and matters of the heart with which he clearly was not. Complete Transcript Vandalia Decr 13. 1836Mary I have been sick ever since my arrival here or I should have written sooner. It is but little difference however as I have verry little even yet to write. And more the longer I can avoid the mortification of looking in the Post Office for your letter and not finding it the better. You see I am mad about that old letter yet. I dont like verry well to risk you again. I'll try you once more anyhow. The new State House is not yet finished and consequently the legislature is doing little or nothing. The Governor delivered an inflamitory political message and it is expected there will be some sparring between the parties about it as soon as the two Houses get to business. Taylor delivered up his petitions for the New County to one of our members this morning. I am told that he despairs of its success on account of all the members from Morgan County opposing it. There are names enough on the petitions I think to justify the members from our county in going for it; but if the members from Morgan oppose it which they say they will the chance will be bad. Our chance to take the seat of Government to Springfield is better than I expected. An Internal Improvement Convention was held here since we met which recommended a loan of several millions of dollars on the faith of the state to construct Rail Roads. Some of the legislature are for it and some against it; which has the majority I can <2> not tell. There is great strife and struggling for the office of U.S. Senator here at this time. It is probable we shall ease their pains in a few days. The opposition men have no candidate of their own and consequently they smile as complacently at the angry snarls of the contending Van Buren candidates and their respective friends as the Christian does at Satan's rage. You recollect I mentioned in the outset of this letter that I had been unwell. That is the fact though I belive I am about well now; but that with other things I can not account for have conspired and have gotten my spirits so low that I feel that I would rather be any place in the world than here. I really can not endure the thought of staying here ten weeks. Write back as soon as you get this and if possible say something that will please me for really I have not been pleased since I left you. This letter is so dry and stupid that I am ashamed to send it but with my present feelings I can not do any better. Give my respects to Mr & Mrs Abell and family. Your friend LincolnMiss Mary S. OwensHistoric BackgroundThis is one of the ten oldest Lincoln letters known to have survived. Although 11 leaves 9 of which are in institutions from Lincoln's educational sum book a few documents written or signed by Abraham Lincoln in 1832 relating to his service in the Black Hawk War again mos. See website for full description books
1845ref. 28226A master storyteller and talented mimic Lincoln's humor was the product of his upbringing in the frontiers of Kentucky Indiana and Illinois where tall tales and exaggeration were key ingredients to good jokes and effective tools in the courtrooms and legislative halls. For some it made him more appealing and approachable to the common man. For others his coarse backwoods humor was undignified reinforcing their belief that he was unfit to be president. This manuscript utilizes a series of "spoonerisms" in which the storyteller transposes the first few letters of two adjacent or nearby words for humorous effect. Its namesake Rev. William Archibald Spooner of New College Oxford University was allegedly prone to unintentionally making such mistakes in speaking Complete Transcript He said he was riding bass-ackwards on a jass-ack through a patton-cotch on a pair of baddle-sags stuffed full of binger-gred when the animal steered at a scump and the lirrup-steather broke and throwed him in the forner of the kence and broke his pishing-fole. He said he would not have minded it much but hefell right in a great tow-curd; in fact he said it give him aright smart sick of fitnesshe had the molera-corbus pretty bad. He said about bray dake he come to himself ran home seized up a stick of wood and split the axe to make a light rushed into the house and found the door sick abed and his wife standing open. But thank goodness she is getting right hat and farty again. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Autograph Manuscript "Bass-Ackwards" story ca. 1845-1850 Springfield IL. 1 p. 7 x 8.5 in. Historical Background C. F. Gunther of Chicago told Jesse W. Weik that Lincoln penned this for a bailiff in the Springfield courts. It was first published by Emanuel Hertz in The Hidden Lincoln in 1938. It once belonged to the Illinois State Historical Library in Springfield which traded it for a first edition of the Book of Mormon. According to auctioneer Charles Hamilton one collector considered it so unworthy of Lincoln's sacred memory he bid intending to burn it! Fortunately he lost. Provenance Abraham Lincoln to a bailiff of a Springfield court reportedly Arnold R. Robinson > The Illinois State Historical Library gift of a descendant > Charles Hamilton Galleries May 16 1963. See account in Hamilton Auction Madness 119: "This unsigned bit of Lincolniana was knocked down for $4000 at one of my earliest auctions nearly twenty years ago. What would it fetch today!" > Lindley and Charles Eberstadt > Parke-Bernet Galleries Eberstadt sale October 13 1964 lot 124 described as being "the most intimate and unusual Lincoln document known to survive" and "perhaps the greatest Presidential character piece extant" > Christie's a Western Collector December 9 1994 lot 84 > Louise Taper Beverly Hills California > The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Foundation 2007 > Freeman's/Hindman May 21 2025 lot 21. Exhibitions The Last Best Hope of Earth: Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America at the Huntington Library October 1993-August 1994 Abraham Lincoln: A Personal Journey at the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum October 12 2001February 18 2002 Condition: Silked; creasing from folds; small losses along folds affecting a few letters; small marginal loss in upper right corner not affecting text; scattered spotting. books
