Class. BooL T ^f / li LINCOLN AND THE NEW YORK HERALD UNPUBLISHED LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN FROM THE COLLECTION OF JUDD STEWART Privately Printed PLAINFIELD, NEW JERSEY 1907 H^ n^ .4 '•.;_M,.-,>?¥ of 00f>GiitSS| Twc CiiOies Received | Cu-jj r,y)u\ cr'.tr,¥ /7 :? a3y Copyright, 1907, by THE LINCOLN FELLOWSHIP The letters reprinted herein are from the Gettysburg Edition of The Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln and are reproduced through the courtesy of the Francis D. Tandy Company, 'The letters given in fac- simile^ which perhaps complete all that Lincoln ever wrote upon this incident^ have never heretofore been published. They were written to George G, Foggy who was Secretary of the first Republican National Convention, In order that this incident in the Great Martyr s career may be pre- sented in as interesting a form as possible^ the Ambrotype of Lincoln [7] ABRAHAM LINCOLN taken August Ijth, i860 (three days before his letter for the New York Herald") now in the collectiofi of Major William H. Lambert of Philadelphia, is used as a frontis- piece. These letters of Lincoln telling of his boyhoody of his parents — his father in particular — and showing his great forbearance under a false imputation, seem to justify the pub- lication of them as a separate addi- tion to the great number of volumes on his life and work, JuDD Stewart. Plainfieldy Nov. 7, igoy. L8] Letters to Samuel Haycraft (Private) Springfield, Illinois, May 28, i860. Dear Sir : Your recent letter, without date, is received. Also the copy of your speech on the contemplated Daniel Boone Monument, which I have not yet had time to read. In the main you are right about my history. My father was Thomas Lincoln, and Mrs. Sally Johnston was his second wife. You are mistaken about my mother. Her maiden name was Nancy Hanks. I was not born at Elizabethtown, but my mother's [9] ABRAHAM LINCOLN first child, a daughter, two years older than myself, and now long since deceased, was. I was born February 12, 1 809, near where Hog- ginsville (Hodgensville) now is, then in Hardin County. I do not think I ever saw you, though I very well know who you are— so well that I recognized your handwriting, on opening your letter, before I saw the signature. My recollection is that Ben Helm was first clerk, that you succeeded him, that Jack Thomas and William Farleigh graduated in the same office, and that your hand- writings were all very similar. Am I right? My father has been dead near ten years; but my step-mother, (Mrs. Johnston,) is still living. [10] LETTERS TO HAYCRAFT I am really very glad of your letter, and shall be pleased to re- ceive another at any time. Yours very truly, A. Lincoln. (Private) Springfield, Illinois, June 4, i860. Dear Sir: Your second letter, dated May 31st, is received. You suggest that a visit to the place of my nativity might be pleasant to me. Indeed it would. But would it be safe? Would not the people lynch me.r^ The place on Knob Creek, men- tioned by Mr. Read, I remember very well; but I was not born there. ABRAHAM LINCOLN As my parents have told me, I was born on Nolin, very much nearer Hodgen's Mill than the Knob Creek place is. My earliest recollection, however, is of the Knob Creek place. Like you, I belonged to the Whig party from its origin to its close. I never belonged to the American party organization; nor ever to a party called a Union party, though I hope I neither am, nor ever have been, less devoted to the Union than yourself or any other patriotic man. It may not be altogether without interest to let you know that my wife is a daughter of the late Rob- ert S. Todd, of Lexington, Ky., and that a half-sister of hers is the wife of Ben Hardin Helm, born and [12] LETTERS TO HAYCRAFT raised at your town, but residing at Louisville now, as I believe. Yours very truly, A. Lincoln. Springfield, Illinois, August 1 6, i860. My Dear Sir : A correspondent of the Nezv y^ork He7^aldy who was here a week ago, writing to that paper, represents me as saying I had been invited to visit Kentucky, but that I suspected it was a trap to inveigle me into Kentucky in order to do violence to me. This is wholly a mistake. I said no such thing. I do not remember, but possibly I did mention my correspondence with [13] ABRAHAM LINCOLN you. But very certainly I was not guilty of stating, or insinuating, a suspicion of any intended violence, deception or other wrong, against me, by you or any other Kentuckian. Thinking the Herald correspond- ence might fall under your eye, I think it due to myself to enter my protest against the correctness of this part of it. I scarcely think the cor- respondent was malicious, but rather that he misunderstood what was said. Yours very truly, A. Lincoln. Springfield, Illinois, August 23, i860. My Dear Sir: Yours of the 19th just received. I now fear I may have given you [h] LETTERS TO HAYCRAFT some uneasiness by my last letter. I did not mean to intimate that I had, to any extent, been involved or embarrassed by you; nor yet to draw from you anything to relieve myself from difficulty. My only object was to assure you that I had not, as represented by the Herald correspondent, charged you with an attempt to inveigle me into Ken- tucky to do me violence. I believe no such thing of you or of Ken- tuckians generally; and I dislike to be represented to them as slandering them in that way. Yours very truly, A. Lincoln. 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