97^.7163 C*G??am Gates, Arnold Francis Amberqfow of Abraham Lin- coln and Joshua Speed LINCOLN ROOM UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY MEMORIAL the Class of 1901 founded by HARLAN HOYT HORNER and HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER AMBERGLOW BY ARNOLD FRANCIS GATES LINCOLN ROOM UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY MEMORIAL the Class of 1901 founded by HARLAN HOYT HORNER and HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://archive.org/details/amberglowofabrahamOOgate COPYRIGHT, 1941 BY ARNOLD FRANCIS GATES. FIRST EDITION A-2 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES- AMBERGLOW OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND JOSHUA SPEED BY ARNOLD FRANCIS GATES PUBLISHED BY THE GRIGLAK PRINTERY. WEST LEISENRING, PA. FRIEND SPEED T STAND alone -*- In silent cry. Why am I? If, perhaps, trees feel no pain, Then the seed that gave me sky Was rain! And shall I grow And yet not know? Could I be wind And feel no pain? Or sun - And know not heat? I am of the earth I walk upon. I speak for those beneath my feet Who have yet to come. I have a friend and home And yet I walk alone. Why do I wander in the mist - Friend Speed? 1 r "N SPRINGFIELD today there is a marker on the site of the Joshua Speed store. It is simple and direct: WHEN ABRAHAM LINCOLN ARRIVED IN SPRINGFIELD IN 1837 THERE STOOD ON THIS SITE A TWO STORY BUILDING THE FIRST FLOOR WAS OCCUPIED BY THE GENERAL STORE OF JOSHUA F. SPEED ON THE SECOND FLOOR ONE ROOM WAS SHARED BY LINCOLN AND SPEED AS A BEDROOM FROM 1837 UNTIL 1841 In Springfield today - if one comes there in a sympathetic mood - one can see Abe Lincoln 3 come out of that old store and walk across the muddy street and on to the State House. Standing near the corner, in the shade of the Stuart -Lincoln office building, one can almost touch Abe's arm as he goes by. For very honest reasons the spirit of Lincoln hovers strongly over his ' ' home town. ' ' It fills the air and whispers in the trees along Eighth Street. And the warmth of the friendship that grew up between Abe Lincoln and Josh Speed is also mingled in that living, growing spirit It is generous with this streak that waves back tw y miles and over the way of a young man who Me into town on a borrowed horse. And of another young man who ran a general store and used a plain room overhead for home, a bed large enough for brothers. All this is there with its gentle flavor and force. It will ever be there. A. F. G. February 12, 1941 AMBERGLOW >T1HE STORY IS ALMOST patent- how -*- Abraham Lincoln and Joshua Speed grew to know each other well. Invariably it goes: Young Abe Lincoln came to Springfield on Api 1 15, 1837, all his possessions in saddlebags. He owned a rough-hewn bed, needed the furnish- ings and priced these at Joshua Speed's general store. It all came to more than he had, so he asked for credit until Christmas, promising to pay as his law practice progressed. "If I fail in this I do not know that I can ever pay you. " Speed warmed to the gloomy, melancholy man before him. "I have a large room with a double bed up- stairs, which you are welcome to share with me. " 5 AMBERGLOW Abe asked directions to it, took his saddle- bags up, put them on the floor and came down beaming with pleasure. "Well, Speed, I'm moved!" He said. And out of that grew the first tangibles that were to shape a friendship between two men- two men who were so unlike and yet so under- standing with each other. Out of this grew the companionship that was to know deepest sensing and intimate confidence. Out of this was to come finer lines of meaning. During his days Lincoln could prop his legs up on a sill of the Stuart- Lincoln law office and look across the town square. If he was preoccupied with a case he might miss the sight of a friend. But if he wasn't in thought, he would call to some one in the street below and exchange comments. It wasn't a rush of hours and yet things grew out of the bustle of a growing town and the law. There were constant changes and Abe was quick in sight and observation. He could tell the shifting of growth from the more obvious sight of just current activity. It was not the movement of water flow but more like stormfall showing new views of shaping and tendency. The midwest wascoming into its own and Lincoln somehow knew without actually knowing. AMBERGLOW For well over three years Abe trudged from the State House, from his office and places of work, from the little barber shop run by Billy Florville, from the ink -smelling offices of the Sangamo Journal - to that room over the store. Back to the store or bedroom for the evenings of talk with Speed. And the evening talks and the pauses of silence between them helped shapeunder- standing. For these years the two men grew to know all the secret ambitions and hopes held for the future. For those nights each man saw his own doubts and fears as not so baffling with com- panionship at hand. When the town quieted to the prairie dusk they would listen to the last sounds and talk of the day and its people. What each did was exchanged and reflected on. There were all moods of human living from haste to waste and bitter words. There was humor, too, because a touch of it could always creep into Abe's day hours. Yet there were serious words in serious moments - for both men held uncommon depths. There grew a bond between these two men that was an unusual thing. Joshua Speed was five years Lincoln's junior, a man of college learning, often bluntinhisdirectway of speaking, able in business matters and a man who did not appear conscious of youth and roses AMBERGLOW Abraham Lincoln - on the other hand - was mood} 7 , searching and seeking something he wanted and feared, careful of words spoken and humorous with delicate truths, a man with no head for business, product of prairie settlement and a hard education that went back into earth-close years, a lanky man who once stooped to put a little bird back into its nest. These two were to be friends, to share thoughts and worries and to understand. Men came to Speed's store to talk with Lincoln- to argue and discuss. But they would leave and it was always when Josh and Abe were alone that deeper thoughts were worded. They talked of men and ways and what was done during a single day. They talked of women and what was different about married life. Abe worried about his own future with women - they confused him somehow. There was a Mary Owens but nothing came of that. Then Abe met Mary Todd atNinian Edwards' home. This was about two years later and there was much hesitation and doubt in the young man. What it was that made him fear marriage was vague, but he sought answers with Speed. His analytical mind would not rest with the as- sumed, he must know the full reasons but even AMBERGLOW Speed could find no explanation. He could en- courage and reassure but he could not clear, and that was all Lincoln wanted then. Abe and Mary were engaged and then there was this fear all over again. He turned to his friend and Speed told him to face it, to tell Mary. That was in 1841, the fatal first of January. That same day Joshua Speed sold his store and prepared to return to Kentucky. Abe was glad to join him there, to have this " reason' ' for leaving, and together they spent several months of the summer with Speed's mother at Farmington. It was Kentucky and the land was fresh and new to weary eyes. The two men were on the soil of their birth. It was good to be back to origins. The farm was quiet and still to the brooding thoughts Lincoln brought with him. At dawn and dusk he could look off to the distant hills and something young and free tugged at his spirit and stirred depths in him that were of his mother - of her horizon searchings and love for blue haze. Speed watched his friend and saw many things he had not seen before: Where Abe wandered into a wide field and stopped to notice sky and distance. Speed watched Lincoln from 10 AMBERGLOW across the field, saw that Abe was not so big as he seemed among men. Yet, only the trees towered above him. Something of Speed's very spirit was proud. For he was friend to Lincoln, and Lincoln was not a common man. There were great depths to the man, sad pools and gentle compassion and strength of coming greatness. Abe Lincoln was not a common man . . . nor a common friend. There was even more that Josh could not define or touch . . . the field, the man and the sky and the distance. In turn, Abe Lincoln met the young lady Speed was to marry. He watched a romance and it eased the melancholy moodiness he had known, made his own doubts so many senseless things. Feeling much better, he could return to Springfield and his work and problems. He rode the river steamer to St. Louis, thought of the changes that were to come. From Bloomington Abe wrote back to Speed's sister, Mary, and mentioned the trip and of seeing slaves in chains, "strung to- gether precisely like so many fish upon a trot- line. " Joshua Speed returned because he had business to clear in Springfield and then he would go back AMBERGLOW 11 to Kentucky. Abe felt the regret the parting would bring and there was consciousness of past understanding. The two young men revisited the spots and scenes they had passed so often in other days and they talked over all the old things and the new possibilities. There was much to feel in these remaining days and not enough time for the full sensing. And so Joshua Speed left his friend standing apart with a sadness that was his alone. There were letters between the two men, fine moving words that touched tender places and quiet thoughts. Where Abe wrote: It is the peculiar misfortune of both you and me to dream dreams of Elysium far exceeding all that anything earthly can realize. There was something in Lincoln that would seek articulation- something vague that must strive to comprehend men and acts. He could never rest in thought, for there was ever the constant question - the persistent doubts and futile doing. . . The pattern and weave of the moment had to be unraveled by the plodding, seeking sureness of his probing mind. x»cRS\Tf ur uwweRS 12 AMBERGLOW In February of 1842 Joshua married Fanny Henning and settled on a quiet farm - to grow and tend roses. Slowly something like confidence came to Abe Lincoln. He saw his friend married and happy and encouraged. In nine months Lincoln married Mary Todd. The friendship went on through personal contacts and by mail, but it was not quite the same. They were apart and each new year raised long dark shadows across the land, through Kentucky and over the gentle prairie of Illinois. Abraham Lincoln was a citizen of Springfield and growing with law. There was a lot of talk - heated words and quiet opinions - on one topic. Common men were siding and their leaders were looking for a leader. After the presidential election Lincoln invited Joshua Speed and his wife to meet him in Chicago. There the two old friends tried to talk of old memories but it was not easy. There was nothing in the future that might assure the promise of confident hope. Yet it was good to be near each other again and both carried something of that feeling into the other days. The friendship went on. Through the stirring months and the painful years the two men AMBERGLOW 13 remembered. Joshua Speed often hurried to Washington and the quick consultations Lincoln needed. Kentucky wavered and it was Speed and his brother who were influences in keeping that state in the Union during the testing months. Abe wanted Josh in his cabinet but Speed thought he could help his friend more at home. Lincoln found that true, and so put his brother, James, into his cabinet. And so, through the rushing battle years, Abe Lincoln could only catch flashing glimpses of his friend of quieter days. He remembered and could recall, but it was so hard to relive in the midst of cannon thunder and fight. It was so hard to see again into what had been and muse over words said by candlelight. It was so difficult and futile to turn back to these quiet things when the world was aflame and scarred by steel. The years were quick and yet so slow with the painful ordeal of struggle. Lincoln often wished for familiar things - for the sight of his friend - but when they could meet, it was always for the limit of hours and often for pressing reasons of a nation. There was no time for just meeting. They had to see each other in the brief whiles between other actions and there were no set dates for even that. 14 AMBERGLOW About two weeks before the assassination Joshua Speed saw his tired friend. The strife was almost done and the light was clean across the countryside. Cloudshadows were almost gentle with the first green of another spring. It was in April of 1865 when all the light drained from the sky and Joshua Speed was alone in a broad field. There was yet sky and distance, but the horizon seemed futile now and wrong. A tree growth was gone and there was the raw gap against the endless height. How miserably things seem to be arranged in this world! If we have no friends , we have no pleasure; and if we have them, we are sure to lose them, and be doubly pained by the loss. - Abraham Lincoln In a letter to Speed February 25, 18U2 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA 973.7L63C3G22AM C001 AMBERGLOW OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND JOSHUA 3 0112 031804112