Lincoln (131 page)

55
“he was reading”: Hidden Lincoln,
p. 321.

55
“He studied with nobody”: CW,
4:65.

55
“would craze himself”:
Henry McHenry to WHH, May 29, 1865, HWC.

55
returned it to him:
James Short to WHH, July 7, 1865, HWC.

55
“and clothing bills”: CW,
4:65.

55
She was Ann Rutledge:
The Ann Rutledge story is highly controversial. It derives almost exclusively from letters and statements that Herndon collected after Lincoln’s death. In a lecture delivered in November 1866, Herndon gave wide publicity to the Lincoln-Rutledge romance, going far beyond his evidence to argue that Ann Rutledge was the only woman Lincoln ever loved and that her death left Lincoln so desolated that “his mind wandered from its throne.” Later Herndon went on to speculate that Lincoln’s persisting infatuation for Ann explained the unhappiness in his marriage to Mary Todd Lincoln, whom he never loved. For an account of Herndon’s lecture and the sources on which it was based, see David Herbert Donald,
Lincoln’s Herndon
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1948), chap. 15. Widely echoed by romantic biographers, Herndon’s story came under close scrutiny from twentieth-century Lincoln scholars such as Paul M. Angle, and J. G. Randall made a devastating analysis of Herndon’s sources in “Sifting the Ann Rutledge Evidence,” in his
Lincoln the President: Springfield to Gettysburg
(New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1945), 2:321–342. Much of Randall’s criticism was justified, for it is clear that Herndon’s inferences and speculations about the Lincoln-Rutledge romance were unwarranted.
Moreover, Randall showed that the basic facts concerning the affair could not be proved in a court of law, where the firsthand testimony of two independent witnesses would be required. On the other hand, the court of history usually accepts a less rigorous standard of proof; indeed, if Randall’s criteria were applied, almost nothing could be unquestionably proved about the first thirty years of Lincoln’s life. With these problems in mind, scholars have recently undertaken a reexamination of the Ann Rutledge story. For their findings, from which I have learned a great deal, see John Y. Simon, “Abraham Lincoln and Ann Rutledge,”
Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association
11 (1990): 13–33, and Douglas L. Wilson, “Abraham Lincoln, Ann Rutledge, and the Evidence of Herndon’s Informants,”
Civil War History
36 (Dec. 1990): 301–324. For a more general attempt to restore faith in Herndon’s credibility, see Douglas L. Wilson, “William H. Herndon and His Lincoln Informants,”
Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association
14 (Winter 1993): 15–34. John Evangelist Walsh,
The Shadows Rise: Abraham Lincoln and the Ann Rutledge Legend
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993), is a retelling of the Ann Rutledge story, largely on the basis of a reexamination of Herndon’s sources.

55
“Heavy set”:
Mrs. Samuel Hill, statement to WHH, [1866], HWC.

56
“kindness
—
sympathy”:
Henry McHenry, statement to WHH, undated, HWC; W. G. Greene to WHH, May 30, 1865, HWC.

56
“him beyond recovery”: Herndon’s Lincoln,
1:133.

56
to save them:
There was, in fact, something odd about McNamar’s story, since his father died on Apr. 10, 1833. It is not clear why he was unable to return to New Salem until 1835. Simon, “Abraham Lincoln and Ann Rutledge,” p. 23.

56
“an insurmountable bar[r]ier”:
Jason Duncan to WHH, undated, HWC.

57
“engagement with McNamar”:
R. B. Rutledge to WHH, Nov. 18, 1866, and Nov. 21, 1866, HWC; James M. Rutledge, statement to William H. Herndon, undated, HWC.

57
“on her Grave”:
Mrs. E. Abell to WHH, Feb. 15, 1867, HWC.

58
“of her now”:
Isaac Cogdal, statement to WHH, undated, HWC.

58
“the Democratic party”:
Frank E. Stevens, “Life of Stephen Arnold Douglas,”
JISHS
16 (Oct. 1923-Jan. 1924): 295. For the effort to achieve party regularity through a convention system, see Theodore C. Pease,
The Frontier State, 1818–1848
(Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1918), chap. 13.

58
“of the people”:
Simon,
Lincoln’s Preparation for Greatness,
p. 34.

59
“interest on it”: CW,
1:48.

59
“means excluding females”:
Ibid.

59
in the militia:
Faragher,
Sugar Creek
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986), p. 106.

60
“a good wringing”: CW,
8:429.

60
“an offended God”:
Joshua F. Speed,
Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln and Notes of a Visit to California: Two Lectures
(Louisville, Ky.: John P. Morton & Co., 1884), pp. 17–18.

60
to vote for him:
Mark E. Neely, Jr., “The Political Life of New Salem, Illinois,”
LL,
no. 1715 (Jan. 1981).

60
their floor leader:
Once again, my account of Lincoln in this session of the legislature is drawn from Simon,
Lincoln’s Preparation for Greatness,
with additional information from Baringer,
Lincoln’s Vandalia.

61
something to everybody:
For a full, disapproving account, see Pease,
The Frontier State,
chap. 10.

61
“of the United States”:
Simon,
Lincoln’s Preparation for Greatness,
pp. 84, 86.

61
total state revenues:
Ibid., p. 52.

62
“seat of government”:
Usher F. Linder,
Reminiscences of the Early Bench and Bar of Illinois
(Chicago: Chicago Legal News Co., 1879), pp. 62–63.

62
or a bribe:
Simon,
Lincoln’s Preparation for Greatness,
chap. 4, definitively explodes this myth. See also Gabor S. Boritt,
Lincoln and the Economics of the American Dream
(Memphis: Memphis State University Press, 1978), pp. 8–11.

63
“hitherto found security”: CW,
1:61–69.

63
“the shot home”:
Baringer,
Lincoln’s Vandalia,
p. 99.

64
“abate its evils”: CW,
1:75.

64
lobby doubtful members:
Robert L. Wilson to WHH, Feb. 10, 1866, HWC.

64
“Natures Noblemen”:
Ibid.

64
the Supreme Court:
Paul M. Angle, “Where Lincoln Practiced Law,”
Lincoln Centennial Association Papers, 1927
(Springfield, III.: Lincoln Centennial Association, 1927), p. 19.

Paul M. Angle,
“Here I Have Lived”: A History of Lincoln’s Springfield, 1821–1865
(New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1950), is a superior social history. The three best books on Lincoln’s law practice are Albert A. Woldman,
Lawyer Lincoln
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1936); John J. Duff, A.
Lincoln: Prairie Lawyer
(New York: Rinehart & Co., 1960); and John P. Frank,
Lincoln as a Lawyer
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1961), but a reappraisal of this topic is needed in light of the vast amount of documentary sources collected by the Lincoln Legal Papers in Springfield. Gabor S. Boritt,
Lincoln and the Economics of the American Dream
(Memphis: Memphis State University Press, 1978), is an important study of Lincoln’s Whig philosophy and of his role in the campaign of 1840. The standard works on Lincoln’s courtship and marriage are by Ruth Painter Randall:
Mary Lincoln. Biography of a Marriage
(Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1953), and
The Courtship of Mr. Lincoln
(Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1957).

66
“I am moved!”:
Joshua F. Speed,
Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln and Notes of a Visit to
California: Two Lectures
(Louisville, Ky.: John P. Morton & Co., 1884), pp. 21–22.

67
a frontier town:
The following sketch of Springfield is drawn from Paul M. Angle,
“Here I Have
Lived”
pp. 42–46, and Beveridge, 1:206–208.

67
“to marry her”:
WHH, interview with Mentor Graham, April 1,1866, HWC; Beveridge, 1:155.

68
“of woman’s happiness”: Herndon’s Lincoln,
1:148; WHH, interview with Johnson G. Green, [1866], Lamon MSS.

68
“or forty years”: CW,
1:117–118. Lincoln was probably referring to his stepmother, Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln, not to Nancy Hanks Lincoln, of whose appearance he could have had only a vague memory since she died when he was nine years old.

68
“so dry and stupid”: CW,
1:55.

69
“you now immagine”: CW,
1:78.

69
“to your happiness”: CW,
1:94–95.

69
“to have me”: CW,
1:118–119.

69
“in my life”: CW,
1:78.

69
his close companion:
The only biography, which includes the Lincoln-Speed correspondence, is Robert L Kincaid. Joshua Fry Speed: Lincoln’s Most Intimate Friend (Harrogate, Tenn.: Lincoln Memorial University, 1943).

70
above Speed’s store:
See the sensible comment on this point in Charles B. Strozier,
Lincoln’s
Quest for Union: Public and Private Meanings
(New York: Basic Books, 1982), p. 43.

70
all other subjects: Herndon’s Lincoln,
1:187–189.

71
“for a desk”:
Ibid., p. 148.

71
Justice Clemment’s hearing:
Stuart & Lincoln Fee Book, ISHL.

71
over land and timber: Robert Davidson
v.
lsham Reavis,
Morgan County Circuit Court, July 1836, photostat, Lincoln Legal Papers.

71
procedures of litigation:
The following paragraphs lean heavily on an illuminating unpublished study, “The Common-Law Forms of Action and Rules of Pleading in Lincoln’s Illinois,” by Eric T. Freyfogle (1991). See also Abraham Caruthers,
History of a Lawsuit; or a Treatise on the Practice in Suits and Proceedings of Every Description
(Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1866).