Lincoln (128 page)

HWC—Herndon-Weik Collection, Library of Congress

ISHL—Illinois State Historical Library, Springfield

JISHS
—
Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society

Journal
—Springfield
Illinois State Journal

LC—Library of Congress

LH
—
Lincoln Herald

Lincoln MSS, LC—The Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress

LL
—
Lincoln Lore

McClellan,
Civil War Papers
—Stephen W. Sears, ed.,
The Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan
(New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1989)

Nicolay and Hay—John G. Nicolay and John Hay,
Abraham Lincoln: A History
(10 vols.; New York: Century Co., 1890)

Pratt,
Personal Finances
—Harry E. Pratt,
The Personal Finances of Abraham Lincoln
(Springfield, Ill.: Abraham Lincoln Association, 1943)

Randall,
Lincoln the President
—J. G. Randall,
Lincoln the President
(4 vols.; New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1945–1955). The final volume,
Last Full Measure,
was completed by Richard N. Current.

Randall,
Mary Lincoln
—Ruth Painter Randall,
Mary Lincoln: Biography of a Marriage
(Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1953)

Register
—Springfield
Illinois State Register

Sandburg—Carl Sandburg,
Abraham Lincoln: The War Years
(4 vols.; New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1939)

Segal,
Conversations
—Charles M. Segal, ed.,
Conversations with Lincoln
(New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1961)

Strong,
Diary
—Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas, eds.,
The Diary of George Templeton Strong: The Civil War, 1860–1865
(New York: Macmillan Co., 1952)

Turner,
Mary Todd Lincoln
—Justin G. Turner and Linda Levitt Turner,
Mary Todd Lincoln: Her Life and Letters
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972)

UR—University of Rochester

Welles,
Diary
—Howard K. Beale and Alan W. Brownsword, eds.,
Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson
(3 vols.; New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1960)

WHH—William H. Herndon

Zornow—William F. Zornow,
Lincoln and the Party Divided
(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1954)

The basic source for Abraham Lincoln’s early years is the collection of letters and statements that his law partner, William H. Herndon, made shortly after the President’s death. The originals of these documents are in the Herndon-Weik Collection in the Library of Congress, and there are copies in the Ward Hill Lamon MSS in the Huntington Library. Emanuel Hertz published an extensive sampling of these papers in
The Hidden Lincoln: From the Letters and Papers of William H. Herndon
(New York: Viking Press, 1938), but the transcriptions are not very reliable.

Drawing heavily on the Herndon materials, Albert J. Beveridge,
Abraham Lincoln, 1809–1858
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1928), is the most richly detailed account of Lincoln’s early years, but it is marred by the author’s much too negative view of the Hanks family and his low opinion of Thomas Lincoln. Louis A. Warren offers a valuable corrective in
Lincoln’s Parentage and Childhood
(New York: Century Co., 1926) and
Lincoln’s Youth: Indiana Years, Seven to Twenty-One, 1816–1830
(New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1959). Ida M. Tarbell,
In the Footsteps of the Lincolns
(New York: Harper & Brothers, 1924), presents much information in a charming fashion. Charles B. Strozier,
Lincoln’s Quest for Union: Public and Private Meanings
(New York: Basic Books, 1982), is an intelligent and persuasive interpretation of Lincoln’s early years from a psychoanalytical perspective.

19
in his ancestry:
He did answer a number of inquiries about his Lincoln ancestors, saying that he knew only about members of his father’s and his grandfather’s generations.
CW,
1:455–456, 459–460, 461–462; 2:217–218; 4:37, 117.

19
“I should say”: CW,
3:511.

19
“make of it”:
John L. Scripps to WHH, June 24, 1865, HWC.

19
during the 1780s:
Adin Baber,
Nancy Hanks of Undistinguished Families
(Kansas, Ill., privately published, 1960), p. 40.

20
power of analysis: Herndon’s Lincoln,
1:3–4. Lincoln cautioned Herndon not to mention this conversation while he was alive. So far as I know, Herndon first revealed it in a letter to the bibliographer Charles Henry Hart, dated Dec. 28, 1866. Hart MSS, HEH. Thereafter, he told it many times, with a number of variations. For instance, in letters to Ward H. Lamon (Feb. 24, 1869, and Mar. 6, 1870, Lamon MSS, HEH), he declared that Lincoln said that “a Virginia nabob” or “nobleman” took advantage of his “poor and credulous” grandmother.

20
out of wedlock:
There used to be much controversy about the legitimacy of Nancy Hanks. William E. Barton,
The Lineage of Lincoln
(Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1929), accepted Herndon’s story. Warren,
Lincoln’s Parentage and Childhood,
vigorously rejected it. The argument has now died down, and most—but not all—scholars believe she was illegitimate.

20
charge of fornication:
For an explanation of this charge, and a defense of Lincoln’s grandmother, see James A. Peterson,
In re Lucey Hanks
(Yorkville, Ill., privately published, 1973), chap. 5.

20
Lincoln’s maternal grandsire.
See two careful explorations by 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 (Dec. 1988): 4354–4589, and “Lincoln’s Tidewater Virginia Heritage: The Hidden Legacy of Nancy Hanks Lincoln” (unpublished address to the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia, Oct. 17, 1989).

20
“of that people”: CW,
4:60–61.

20
“and absolute darkness”:
W. D. Howells,
Life of Abraham Lincoln
(facsimile ed.; Springfield, Ill.: Abraham Lincoln Association, 1938), p. 18. Howells’s biography carries unusual authority because Lincoln, at the request of a friend, read it and corrected what errors he found in the margins.

21
of public service:
This account of the Lincoln family relies heavily on Thomas L. Purvis, “The Making of a Myth: Abraham Lincoln’s Family Background in the Perspective of Jacksonian Politics,”
JISHS
75 (Summer 1982): 148–160, an important interpretation. Ida Tarbell,
In the Footsteps of the Lincolns,
offers excellent sketches of these early Lincolns. Those interested in the more technical aspects of Lincoln genealogy should consult J. Henry Lea and J. R. Hutchinson,
The Ancestry of Abraham Lincoln
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1909); Marion Dexter Learned,
Abraham Lincoln: An American Migration
(Philadelphia: William J. Campbell, 1909); and Waldo Lincoln,
History of the Lincoln Family
(reprint ed.; Boston: Goodspeed’s Book Shop, 1981).

21
“mind and memory”: CW,
2:217.

21
“of the family”: Francis F. Browne, The Every-Day Life of Abraham Lincoln
(Chicago: Browne & Howell Co., 1913), 1:4. See also “Uncle Mordecai Lincoln: Only Lincoln Relative with Whom the President Was Familiar,”
Lincoln Kinsman,
no. 12 (June 1939).

22
a difficult time:
My account of Thomas Lincoln and his property holding derives principally from Warren,
Lincoln’s Parentage and Childhood.

22
“and good natured”:
Samuel Haycraft to WHH, Aug. 1, 1865 [?], HWC.

22
“the creek bottoms”:
E. R. Barbee to William H. Herndon, May 25, 1866, Lamon MSS, HEH.

22
a shadowy image:
Betty J. Atkinson, “Some Thoughts on Nancy Hanks,”
LH
73 (Fall 1971): 127–137, reviews the historiography. The only attempt at a biography is Harold E. Briggs and Ernestine B. Briggs,
Nancy Hanks Lincoln: A Frontier Portrait
(New York: Bookman Associates, 1952).

23
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 Co., 1884), p. 19.

23
“owe to her”: Herndon’s Lincoln,
1:3

23
“off the field”:
Warren,
Lincoln’s Parentage and Childhood,
p. 143.

23
“would learn much”:
Dennis F. Hanks, statement written by A. H. Chapman, Sept. 8, 1865, HWC.

23
was a Catholic:
Roger H. Futrell, “Zachariah Riney: Lincoln’s First Schoolmaster,”
LH
74 (Fall 1972): 136–142.

23
“to his school”:
Samuel Haycraft to WHH, Hardin Co., Ky., [Aug. 1, 1865], Lamon MSS, HEH.

23
“somewhat wild nature”:
Dennis Hanks, statement written by A. H. Chapman, Sept. 8, 1865, HWC.

24
“land titles in Ky.”: CW,
4:61–62.

24
opposed to slavery:
Warren,
Lincoln’s Parentage and Childhood,
chaps. 14 and 18, offers an excellent account of the Lincolns’ religious views.

24
“think, and feel”: CW,
7:281.

24
age of sixteen:
Mark E. Neely, Jr.,
The Abraham Lincoln Encyclopedia
(New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1982), p. 188.

25
on the swine: CW,
1:386.

25
proper log cabin:
Charles H. Coleman, “The Half-Faced Camp in Indiana—Fact or Myth?”
ALQ
7 (Sept. 1952): 138–146, demolishes the myth that the Lincolns remained in the half-faced camp for the entire winter.

25
“all the time”:
Dennis F. Hanks to WHH, June 13, 1865, HWC.

25
“any larger game”: CW,
4:62.