Dr. Byron K. Barton, The Eastern Illinois State College at Charleston.

Dr. Roy P. Basler, formerly, The Abraham Lincoln Association.

Mr. Clarence W. Bell, Mattoon, Illinois.

Dr. Robert L. Blair, The Eastern Illinois State College.

Mr. C. C. Burford, Urbana, Illinois.

Mr. William F. Cavins, Lansing, Illinois.

Mr. Elmer Elston, County Clerk, Coles County, Illinois.

Mrs. John H. Marshall, Charleston, Illinois.

Dr. J. Monaghan, former Illinois State Historian.

Miss Margaret C. Norton, Illinois State Archivist.

Dr. C. Percy Powell, The Library of Congress.

Dr. Harry E. Pratt, Illinois State Historian.

Mrs. Harry E. Pratt, The Abraham Lincoln Association.

Dr. James G. Randall, The University of Illinois. Deceased.

Mrs. James G. Randall, Urbana, Illinois.

Mr. George P. Rodgers, Pleasant Grove Township, Coles County.

Mr. Samuel S. Sargent, Hutton Township, Coles County.

Mr. Joseph F. Snyder, Circuit Clerk, Coles County.

Dr. S. E. Thomas, The Eastern Illinois State College, Emeritus.

Dr. Louis A. Warren, The Lincoln National Life Foundation, For Wayne, Indiana.

The following individuals and publishers generously gave permission to quote from the books indicated:

Dr. Bruce Barton. William E. Barton: The Paternity of Abraham Lincoln. New York, George HL Doran Co., 1920.

Mrs. Eleanor C. Robinson. Eleanor Atkinson: The Boyhood of Lincoln. New York, Doubleday, 1910.

Mrs. Queen Gridley Thomas. Eleanor Gridley: The Story of Abraham Lincoln. Chicago, M. A. Donahue, 1927.

Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc. William H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik: Abraham Lincoln. The True Story of a Great Life. Two vols., 1928.

The Caxton Printers, Ltd. Henry C. Whitney: Life on the Circuit With Lincoln. 1940.

Dodd, Mead and Co. John W. Starr: Lincoln and the Railroads. 1927.

Harcourt, Brace and Co. Carl Sandburg: Lincoln Collector. 1950.

Harper and Brothers. Lexv Wallace: An Autobiography. Two vols., 1906.

Henry Holt and Co. L. White Busbey: Uncle Joe Cannon. 1927.

Houghton Mifflin Co. Albert J. Beveridge: Abraham Lincoln. Four vols., 1928. Also, Jesse W. Weik: The Real Lincoln, A Portrait. 1932.

Liveright Publishing Corp. Emanuel Hertz: Abraham Lincoln. A New Portrait. Two vols., 1931. Also, Herndon s Life of Lincoln. 1930.

Rutgers University Press. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Eight vols., 1953. Roy P. Basler, Marion D. Pratt and Lloyd Dunlap, editors. Copyright 1953 by The Abraham Lincoln Association.

Among their five sons and four daughters were: Lucy (c. 1765-c. 1825), Elizabeth (1771-1818), William ( ? -c. 1851) and Nancy. Lucy Hanks, daughter of Joseph Hanks, m. (1791) Henry Sparrow (1765-1844). They had four sons and four daughters.
Lucy also was the mother of
Nancy Hanks (c. 1784-1818) m. (1806) Thomas Lincoln (1778- Elizabeth Hanks, daughter of Joseph Hanks, m. (1796) Thomas Sparrow ( ? -1818). They had no children.
William Hanks, son of Joseph Hanks, m. Elizabeth Hall.
Nancy Hanks, daughter of Joseph Hanks, m. Levi Hall, brother Nancy Hanks, daughter of Joseph Hanks, also was the mother

Sarah Bush, daughter of Christopher Bush, m. (1) Daniel Johnston (? -181 6). Their children were: Sarah Elizabeth (1807.1864), Matilda (1809- ?) and John Davis (1810-1854). Sarah Bush m. (2) Thomas Lincoln, father of Abraham Lincoln. They had no children.

John
Isaac
Hannah, m. John Sawyer. Among their children were

The Reson is This we war perplext By a Disease Cald Milk Sick my Self Being the oldest I was Determined to Leve and hunt a Cuntry whare the milk was not I maried his oldest Step Daughter I Sold out and they concluded to gow with me Billy I was tolerably popular at that time for I had sum mony My wifs mother could not think of parting with hir and we Riped up Stakes and Started to Illinois and landed at Decatur This this [sic.’] is the Reason for Leaving Indiana.⁵

Thomas Lincoln, age 52. Abraham Lincoln, age 21, the son of Thomas by his first wife, Nancy Hanks Lincoln.
Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln, age 41, who had married Thomas Lincoln on December 2, 1819. Her first husband, Daniel Johnston, had died in 1816.
Sarah Elizabeth Johnston Hanks, age 22, oldest child of Mrs. Lincoln and the wife, since 1821, of Dennis Hanks.
Dennis Friend Hanks, age 31, the son of Nancy Hanks Hall, the great-aunt of Abraham Lincoln. With Dennis and his wife were their four children:
Sarah Jane Hanks, age 8.
John Talbot Hanks, age 7.
Nancy Hanks, age 6.
Harriet Hanks, age 4.
Matilda Johnston Hall, age 20, daughter of Mrs. Lincoln and wife of Squire Hall, whom she had married in 1826.
Squire Hall, age about 25, the son of Levi and Nancy Hanks Hall and half-brother of Dennis Hanks. With Squire Hall and his wife was their son.
John Johnston Flail, age 11 months.
John Davis Johnston, age 19, youngest child of Mrs. Lincoln.⁸

March 1st. 1830 – A. having just completed his 21st. year, his father and family, with the families of the two daughters and sons-in-law, of his step-mother, left the old homestead in Indiana, and came to Illinois. Their mode of conveyance was waggons drawn by ox-teams, or [and] A. drove one of the teams.⁹

It tuk us two weeks to get thar, raftin’ over the Wabash, cuttin’ our way through the woods, fordin’ rivers, pryin’ wagons and steers out o’ sloughs with fence rails, an’ makin’ camp. Abe cracked a joke every time he cracked a whip, an’ he found a way out o’ every tight place while the rest of us was standin’ round scratchin’ our fool heads. I reckon Abe an’ Aunty Sairy [Sarah] run that movin’, an’ good thing they did, or it’d a ben run into a swamp and sucked under. ¹⁷

Affiant further states that the party passed through Palestine, Illinois; that she remembers said town from the fact that it had a Bible name. Affiant further states that the party finally reached the national road, and crossed the Embarras[s] river at Greenup, Illinois; passed through Paradise, located in what is now the southwestern corner of Coles County, Illinois.
Affiant states that she has often heard her father, Dennis Hanks, speak of crossing the Embarras river at Greenup, Illinois and that the cause of said Hanks speaking of this event repeatedly was that he after- wards worked on the bridge built at that point.
Affiant further states that the party did not follow the national road far west of Greenup, that it did not go to Vandalia, Illinois, and that the trip was made directly to Decatur.²

My father said that they came through Palestine and that they fol- lowed an old Indian trail northwest from there, as there were no main roads as there are today, as they had to pick their way as best they could. Dennis Hanks often visited my father here at the old cabin and stayed as long as a month at a time, and I have heard them both talk about how they came and what a time they had on the road and they both agreed that they came through Palestine in the direction I have mentioned. My father said: "Dennis, don’t you mind when we crossed Hurricane how we all like to got drowned?" I have also heard my father and Dennis Hanks both say that there was a deer lick near the farm, that night overtook them, and they camped over night. My father said that they camped at Muddy Point near the little town of Paradise and that they stopped with a family named Radley. My father said his name was Ichabod Radley. The bridge that Dennis Hanks worked on was built across the Embarrass river at McCann’s ford. I never heard my father or uncle Dennis Hanks speak of a family by the name of Harrison.
I have heard my father say that they travelled north through the western edge of what is now Mattoon, that they could have entered land where Mattoon is now for $1.25 an acre but it was so low and swampy that nobody could live there.¹⁰

A’s father, with his own family & others mentioned, had, in pursuance of their intention, removed from Macon to Coles county. John D. Johnston, the step-mother’s son, went to them; and A. stopped indefinitely, and, for the first time, as it were, by himself at New Salem, before mentioned. This was in July 1831.⁷

A comparison of the land in these two tracts indicates that Thomas Lincoln not only was ambitious to obtain an estate but also desired a farm which would produce an adequate living for himself and his family. The 80 acres which he had obtained by public land entry was largely upland prairie land. Numerous swales are found which even with modern methods of land drainage are difficult to farm in "rainy" years. Thomas Lincoln undoubtedly found farming this wet prairie land a very trying task.
Immediately to the south and west Reuben Moore owned 80 acres of land which was a well-drained forest soil and contained only three small areas of wet prairie. It is not inconceivable that Thomas Lincoln viewed this more rolling, well-drained and more easily worked land with an envious eye and when the opportunity presented itself traded with Moore for a farm which Lincoln considered more desirable.
Developments of the past one hundred years on this farm land have altered the picture. The prairie soils through adequate farm management have been improved and their productive capacity increased while the rolling forest soil shows the ravages of erosion, but Thomas Lincoln, as many farmers of today, was considering the present and the immediate future and like his contemporaries could not see that agricultural techniques would some day make his decision appear erroneous.¹³

A group of Chicago business men formed the Abraham Lincoln Log Cabin Association in 1891. They asked me to go down to Coles County, Illinois, and write a book about a cabin there that Abe Lincoln, at the age of 22, helped his father build. Well, I lived in the cabin for two months. I took notes, interviewed neighbors and worked on the book. Upon my return to Chicago I suggested that the cabin be taken apart and set up in the Exposition building on the lake front. This was done. The cabin was visited by thousands.³¹

The cabin stood on a little rise of ground about fifty yards from the roadside facing the south ... it was old and battered. The winds and the rains of full fifty years had beaten upon it. The roofs that now cover it are not the original ones, these having been placed there within the last twenty years.³²

Thomas Lincoln was a large, bulky man, six feet tall and weighing about two hundred pounds. He was large-boned, coarse-featured, had a large blunt nose, florid complexion, light sandy hair and whiskers. He was slow in speech and slow in gait. His whole appearance denoted a man of small intellect and less ambition. It is generally supposed that he was a farmer; and such he was, if one who tilled so little land by such primitive modes could be so called. He never planted more than a few acres, and instead of gathering and hauling his crop in a wagon he usually carried it in baskets or large trays. He was uneducated, illiterate, content with living from hand to mouth.

. . . made a good living, and I reckon he would have got something ahead if he hadn’t been so generous. He had the old Virginia notion of hospitality – liked to see people sit up at the table and eat hearty, and there were always plenty of his relations and grandmother’s willing to live on him. Uncle Abe got his honesty, and his clean notions of living and his kind heart from his father. Maybe the Hanks family was smarter, but some of them couldn’t hold a candle to Grandfather Lincoln, when it came to morals. I’ve heard Grandmother Lincoln say, many a time, that he was kind and loving, and always paid his way, and never turned a dog from his door.¹⁰

’I suppose that Abe is still fooling hisself with eddication. I tried to stop it, but he has got that fool idea in his head, and it can’t be got out. Now I hain’t got no eddication, but I get along far better than ef I had. Take bookkeepin’ – why, I’m the best bookkeeper in the world! Look up at that rafter thar. Thar’s three straight lines made with a firebrand; ef I sell a peck of meal I draw a black line across, and when they pay, I take the dishcloth and jest rub it out; and that thar’s a heap better’n yer eddication,’ etc. (In point of fact, a part of his business was to superintend a small neighborhood mill.)¹⁴

He was the Beau Brummel of Goosenest Prairie, and would sport the best clothes to be had, regardless of whether they were ever paid for or not . . . the term shiftless fitted him in respect of his having no particular occupation. He was always prepared to make a pleasing address, and was smart for a young man of those days, but without other education than that acquired by contact with others. Some per- sons thought him a blighter man than the immortal Lincoln. Had Johnston lived in this age, he would have filled the niche of the dude to perfection.²⁴

Sometimes Uncle Abe would take our horses and wagon and drive over to his father’s place. When he did this he took some of the children with him. ... I remember one trip I made when Uncle Abe stopped the horse in Kickapoo Creek to give it a drink. I stood up in the rear of the rig, and Uncle Abe gave the horse a little cut and started out of the creek with a rush. I plunged out into the water at the first jump, and in a moment I was . . . floating and sinking and choking with water as I tried to scream. I shall never forget how Uncle Abe jumped from the buggy [sic] and came back after me. He ran with such great, long strides, and came plunging into the creek with his long arms reaching out toward me. The water which was so deep to me was easy wading for Uncle Abe, and he came to me as fast as he could run, his long legs making him remind me of some great wading bird. He fished me out hurriedly and called that "Mandy’s ducking." . . . He was very generous with us, and was also to his father and stepmother, giving them $10 or $15 every time we went down there with him.²¹

Dear Son
I will in form you I and the old womman is in the best of health at this time and soe is all of the relations at present. I belive I injoy as good health at this time as I have for many years past and I hope these few Lines will find you enjoying the same state of health, I was gratly in hopes that you would have come a past heer on your way to Wash- ington as I wished to see you, but as you faild to come a past, I am compeled to make a request by Letter to you for the Lone of, Twenty Dollars, which sum I am compeled to razes, or my Land will be sold I have beged time Till I could wright to you to send me that a mount of money by Letter Send it to me if you can, for neither I nor Johnston can razes it for we have nothing that will bring money, I doe expect you will think Strang at this request, for that much money & it was eaquely as strange to me & John when I was cold on for it not long sence for it was an old Transcript of a bout Eigh years standing, that we thought was paid Long a goe & still think so, but we have Lost the recpt if we ever had won, & all, the Plantif & officers denies it ever being paid so we have it to pay again and I now you cant apreciate the reluctance that I have made this request of you for money but I am compled to doe so & I hope you will grant it, & excuse me for soe doing and I am in hopes I will be able to make you requempence for all of your favours, I sopous it would be of sattisfaction to you now how I have disposed of them notes you gave me, the one on James Gill I got the money for & the one Robert Mattison I tried to sell it for 15 $ in cash and coudent doe it So James M Miller offerd John Twenty Dollars in goods at his Trade prices & Monroe advised him to take it, so he sold it to him with out recourse on any body & the two small notes we ar likely not to do much with, but I am glad that I have lived to see anuther Whig Presadent alected & hope live to see monarcha or Locofoco principals crmble to dust be of good cheer four you ar on a good caus and I think old Zak will make all things right, we have razed this summor as much as fifty bushels of corne to the acor & our wheat was very good, your Father in haste

My dear Father: Your letter of the 7th was received night before last. I very cheerfully send you the twenty dollars, which you say is necessary to save your land from sale. It is singular that you should have forgotten a judgment against you; and it is more singular that the plaintiff should have let you forget it so long, particularly as I suppose you always had property enough to satisfy a judgment of that amount. Before you pay it, it would be well to be sure you have not paid it; or, at least, that you cannot prove that you have not paid it. Give my love to Mother, and all the connections. Affectionately your son,

A. Lincoln
Dear Brother, I & famly is well but I am Down in Spirits becous I owe somthing like 70 or 80 Dollars in small dribes [dribbles?] & I have kept from paing them by not having any property & have maid no new contracts but traid all together on Fathers property & I am dund & doged to Death so I am all most tired of Living, & I would all most swop my place in Heaven for that much money I know you will think little of this for you never had the Tryal, but Abe, I would Drother Live on bread & wotter than to have men allways duning me for just [?] contrcts & if you can send me 80 Dollars I am willing to pay you any Intrust you will ask, & to make you safe Father will make you a Deed for all of his Land when you come in the spring my reason for makcn this propositi is becous you dont wont us to sell out & I cant pay my debts without, so if you will send us a hundred Dollars you Shall have a Deed for all of the Land and if I cant razs the money for you at Fathers Death or before I am & Shall be willing to give you up Possesion of all of the Land & improvements with out charge for any improvement maid on said Land by me or my ares [heirs], and I will comencc daring & Improveing righ off and be contented to goe to work with soiri hart, and not be a fraid of the officer Taken the bread and meat out of my childrens mothes, I have faith that I can razs you that much money in Three years when the Time would come that I could razse a calf & pig of my owen for Tom & Abe can now Doc nearly as much work in a Crop as a man, I candadly would drother never own a foot of Land than to not pay my Debts, nor lave any to my children Indad I would drother give possession now than to live hur and have men a watching [?] me, to see if I hadent something the Law would take, to set a man wonst behind hand in this country & no other way to make a living only by his Laber, it will take him his Life Time to git out fc pay the cost if he has a large family Wright soon & Let us no & send me some of all the Dockments you must excuse this painful letter your Brother A. Lincoln

Dear Johnston: Your request for eighty dollars, I do not think it best, to comply with now. At various times when I have helped you a little, you have said to me "We can get along very well now" but in a very short time I find you in the same difficulty again. Now this can only happen by some defect in your conduct. What that defect is, 1 think I know. You are not lazy, and still you are an idler. I doubt whether since I saw you, you have done a good whole day’s work in any one day. You do not very much dislike to work, and still you do not work much, merely because it does not seem to you that you could get much for it. This habit of uselessly wasting time, is the whole difficulty; and it is vastly important to you, and still more to your children that you should break this habit. It is more important to them, because they have longer to live, and can keep out of an idle habit before they are in it, easier than they can get out after they are in. You are now in need of some money; and what I propose is, that you should go to work, "tooth and nails," for somebody who will give you money [for] it. Let father and your boys take charge of your things at home – prepare for a crop, and make a crop; and you to go to work for the best money wages, or in discharge of any debt you owe, that you can get. And to secure you a fair reward for your labor, I now promise you, that for every dollar you will, between this and the first of next May, get for your own labor, either in money, or as your own indebtedness, I will then give you one other dollar. By this, if you hire yourself at ten dolla[rs] a month, from me you will get ten more, making twenty dollars a month for your work. In this, I do not mean you shall go off to St. Louis, or the lead mines, or the gold mines, in calif [fornia], but I [mean for you to go at it for the best wages you] can get close to home [in] Coles county. Now if you will do this, you will soon be out of debt, and what is better, you will have a habit that will keep you from getting in debt again. But if I should now clear you out, next year you would be just as deep in as ever. You say you would almost give your place in Heaven for $70 or $80. Then you value your place in Heaven very cheaply for I am sure you can with the offer I make you get the seventy or eighty dollars for four or five months work. You say if I will furnish you the money you will deed me the land, and, if you dont pay the money back, you will de- liver possession. Nonsense! If you can’t now live with the land, how will you then live without it? You have always been [kind] to me, and I do not now mean to be unkind to you. On the contrary, if you will but follow my advice, you will find it worth more than eighty times eighty dollars to you.

Dear Brother Your letter about a mail contract was received yester- day. I have made out a bid for you at $ 120, guaranteed it myself, got our P M here to certify it, and send it on. Your former letter, concern- ing some man’s claim for a pension, was also received. I had the claim examined by those who are practised in such matters, & they decide he can can [sic] not get a pension.

A. Lincoln⁴³

Uncle Abe was at our home more than he was out at his father’s . . . when he was in the Charleston neighborhood his business was almost always in town. He made our home his regular stopping place. . . . Our cabin had three rooms, all on one floor, and was daubed weathertight with mud. When Uncle Abe came we had to make arrangements to give him room. I was the youngest child, and generally went to the floor to sleep while Uncle Abe occupied my bed. . . .
In the spring of the year, when court was to be in session a week in Charleston, we always looked forward to the coming of Uncle Abe, who would be at our home and spend the week there, giving his days to his work in the court room and giving his nights to us in our home. We would gather around him in front of the fireplace and he would tell us stories until far into the night. . . .
[When Abraham was coming] we laid in an additional supply of provisions, for he was a great eater. He liked everything. He came to us just his plain simple self. His trousers were almost always patched, and my father used to call them "Abe’s spectacle pants." He went around in his shirt sleeves when he was in the house, and never wore a necktie. His clothes were always a poor fit, his trousers being too short and his coat always short enough to show the patches on his spectacle pants. There were no airs about him. He never sought to impress us with his importance. He didn’t tell us he saw finer things in other houses. He indicated in every way that the way we had things in our home was just what he liked and that he dearly loved to be with us.²

One night, when Judge Treat and four lawyers, including Lincoln, were staying at a farmhouse east of Charleston, they were all put in two connecting rooms to sleep, in one of which was a fire, whose smoldering embers cast fitful flashes of light in the opaqueness of the two chambers. Judge Treat slept in the room with no fire, and getting up in his long nightgown in the night to visit the fireplace for something, awoke Gen. Linder, who slept in the room having the fire. The latter, being superstitious, thought a veritable ghost had entered the room, and he set up a series of shrieks, which Lincoln afterwards avowed, chilled his blood to the extreme capillaries. Lincoln said, in describing the scene, that no one who had never heard such exclamations, could imagine the awful terror which the human voice could convey.⁴

The judge told me he never saw Lincoln angry at poor accommodations on the circuit but once. They arrived at Charleston on a cold, wet afternoon, chilled through and uncomfortable; the landlord was away; there were no fires nor wood. Lincoln was thoroughly incensed; he threw off his coat, went to the wood-pile, and cut wood with an axe for an hour. Davis built a fire, and when the landlord made his appear- ance late, Lincoln gave him a good scoring.⁵

Mr. Lincoln was compelled to stoop very much in order to enter the door and the seats were so low that he doubled up his legs like a jackknife. Mr. Lincoln was obliged to sit upon a school bench and just in front of him was another, making the distance between him and the seat in front of him very narrow and uncomfortable. His position was almost unbearable and in order to carry out his preference which he secured as often as possible, and that was to "sit as near to the jury as convenient," he took advantage of his discomfort and said to the justice, "Your Honor, with your permission I’ll sit up nearer to the gentlemen of the jury, for it hurts my legs less to rub my calves against the bench than it does to skin my shins."

Justin Harlan, 1836-1840.
Chief Justice William Wilson of the Illinois Supreme Court, 1841-1848, as required by the Act of February 10, 1841, which abolished the office of Circuit judge and assigned circuit duty to Supreme Court justices. Other Justices substituted for Chief Justice Wilson at times.
Justin Harlan, 1849-1856, after the Constitution of 1848 revived the office of circuit judge (Article 5, section 1) . Appointed Indian Agent by President Lincoln in 1862.
Charles Emmerson, 1857-1859.

Garland B. Shelledy, 1839-1840.
Aaron Shaw, 1841-1842.
Alfred Kitchell, 1843-1854, with others serving in a pro-tempore capacity during portions of those years.
Edward Kitchell, 1855-1856.
John R. Eden, 1857-1859, later a member of Congress, 1863-1865, 1873-1879 and 1885-1887.

Nathan Ellington, 1835-1855, until his murder by his son-in-law, Adolphus F. Monroe.⁸ James D. Ellington, 1856, son of Nathan Ellington.
George W. Teel, 1857-1864.

Albert Compton, 1839-1845.
Lewis R. Hutchason, 1846-1850.
Richard Stoddart, 1851-1852.
Thomas Lytle, 1853-1854.
John R. Jeffries, 1855-1856.
Harvey B. Worley, 1857-1858.

Abraham Lincoln’s Coles County Cases

It has long been considered as a standing reproach to the Common Law, that it furnishes no means to punish the seducer of female innocence and virtue, except through the fiction of supposing the daughter was a servant of her parent, and that in consequence of her seduction, the parent has lost some of her services as a menial. It is high time this reproach should be wiped out.

This action ought then, no longer to be considered a means of recovering damages for the loss of menial services, but as an instrument to punish the perpetrator of a flagitious outrage upon the peace and happiness of the family circle.
We are consequently of opinion, that that portion of the instruction excepted to was not erroneous. The judgment is consequently affirmed with costs.³¹

Defendant states that he has never spoken the slanderous words in the declaration alleged, that he always has believed and still believes the plaintiff to be an honest man, that he never has believed and does not now believe that the plaintiff stole, embezzled, or in any way appropriated to his own use any of the Defendant’s money, and that he makes this statement to be placed upon the record as the most public and enduring vindication that he can make of the Plaintiff’s reputation against such a charge.

This day came the defendant and moved the court to quash the Indictment herein because of a misjoinder of counts which motion was over-ruled by the court– The defendant then moved the court, to rule the prosecuting attorney to elect as to which count of the Indictment he would proceed upon, and to enter a nolle prosequi as to the other counts because of a misjoinder of counts, which motion was also overruled by the court.³⁷

To the Honorable, the Governor of the State of Illinois—
Whereas Sigler H. Lester was, at the May term 1847 of the Cumber- land circuit court, by said court, convicted of an assault with intent to commit murder, and sentenced to confinement in the Penitentiary for the term of one year, and whereas there are circumstances, which in our opinion render it proper, that the Executive clemency should be extended to him, therefore We, the undersigned, respectfully recommend that Your Excellency grant a pardon of said offence to said Lester.

In July 1850, a man by the name of William D. Davis, was tried and convicted of the crime of Manslaughter and sentenced to the Peniten- tiary for the term of three years, by the circuit court of Clark County, whither the case had been taken by a change of venue from Coles County—
I assisted in his defence, and thought his conviction was right, but that the term fixed was too long under the circumstances. I told him that if he would behave himself well for a considerable portion of the time, I would join in asking a pardon for the remainder. He has a young family, and has lost one of his arms— He has now served about five sixths of his time; and I understand, the Warden, who is now in Springfield, testifies that he has behaved well— Under these circumstances I hope he may be released from further confinement—

To the Honorable, the Judge
of the Coles County Circuit Court
in Chancery sitting:
Humbly complaining showeth unto your Honor your orator, Dennis F. Hanks, that for some time previous and up to the day of [October 24] A.D. 1834 one Nathan Ellington was the owner in fee simple of Lot numbered Thirty-nine in Parker’s Addition to the town of Charleston, in said County of Coles; that previous to said day, said Ellington had contracted to sell said Lot to one Brown, who in like manner had contracted to sell the same to your orator, that said Ellington still holding the legal title; that on the day last aforesaid your orator furnished the money, necessary to pay for said lot [$24], to one William B. White, and engaged said White to get said Ellington and Brown together, pay for the lot, and have a deed made for the same; that said White did on said day, with your orator’s said money, pay for said lot, and take a deed for the same from the said Ellington and his wife [Fanny M. Ellington], a copy of which is herewith filed marked (A) and prayed to be taken as part hereof— But, in taking said deed, said White did, for some reason unknown to your orator, take said deed to himself, instead of your orator; and your orator, at the time having confidence in the said White, that he would convey said Lot to your orator on request, let the matter pass; but your orator immediately took possession of said Lot, built a house thereon, and otherwise improved it, moved into said house, and continually resided in it for about ten years, when, it suiting his convenience, he removed off of said Lot, leaving it without any actual occupant, in which condition it has ever since continued, and still is– And your orator charges that said White has not any time exercised any acts of ownership over said Lot, or paid any taxes thereon; but on the contrary, your orator has continually, openly treated said Lot as his own, and regularly paid all taxes upon it, from the said [24th] day of [October] A.D. 1834 up to the present time— Yet so it is, that the said White has been requested by your orator, and utterly refuses to convey said Lot to your orator—
In tender consideration of which your orator prays that said William B. White be made defendant to this Bill; that the People’s writ of Subpoena issue for him, that he answer all and singular the allegations of this Bill, but his oath to his answer is hereby expressly waived; and that on a final hearing of this cause, your Honor will adjudge the legal title of said defendant to be in trust for your orator, and that your Honor will grant such other and further relief as equity may require, and as in duty bound &c.

In the case of John Crabtree plaintiff in error vs. William Kile and David Nichols defendants in error now in the Supreme Court from Coles Circuit Court; my clients Kile and Nichols wish to have the benefit of your services. The writ is returnable on the 4th of January, I believe. Will you be so kind as to take charge of the case? It was tried by Mr. Usher of Terre Haute and myself for K and N and messers Linder and Green for Crabtree.
Dr. Kile of this place whom I suppose you know will be in Springfield about the first of January and see you in person. I will add if you undertake your fee is certain to be paid.⁶⁸

Hon. A. Lincoln, Springfield
I left your city on Friday last without being able to see and talk with you on the subject of the case Harris and Headen [?] vs. J. W. True.
The plaintiffs you have doubtless learned were allowed to amend their appeal bond within ten days. Should they do so I still desire that you look after the suit and will be with you again on Monday evening next.

I found him at the tavern sitting on the veranda, his chair tilted back against one of the wooden pillars entertaining the bystanders and loungers gathered about the place with one of his . . . stories. My head was full of the impending lawsuit and I found it a great test of my patience to await the end of the chapter. . . . Before he could begin another I interrupted and called him aside.
I told him in detail the story of my troubles, reminded him that we had always agreed on the questions of the day, and asked him to represent me at the trial of my case in court. He listened attentively . . . but I noticed a peculiarly troubled look came over his face now and then, his eyes appeared to be fixed in the distance beyond me and he shook his head several times as if debating with himself some question of grave import.

I speak in the spirit of the British law, which makes liberty commensurate with and inseparable from British soil; which proclaims even to the stranger and sojourner the moment he sets foot upon British earth, that the ground on which he treads is holy and consecrated by the genius of universal emancipation, no matter what complexion incompatible with freedom an Indian or African sun may have burnt upon him, no matter in what disastrous battle his liberty may have been cloven down; no matter with what solemnities he may have been devoted upon the altar of slavery; the first moment he touches the sacred soil of Britain the altar and the god sink together in the dust; his soul walks abroad in her own majesty; his body swells beyond the measure of his chains that burst from around him and he stands regenerated and disenthralled by the irresistible genius of universal emancipation.⁷

his opponents’ points and arguments with such amplitude and seeming fairness and such liberality of concession of their force and strength that it increased in his adversaries their confidence of success. This was done in this case, but his trenchant blows and cold logic and subtle knitting together and presentation of facts favorable to his side of the case, soon dissipated all hope that any advantage was likely to be gained by Lincoln’s liberal concession, but rather that he had gained from the court a more patient and favorable hearing and consideration of the facts on which he relied for success. The fact that General Matson had at such a time when he placed a slave on his Illinois farm, publicly declared that he was not placed there for permanent settlement, and that no counter statement had ever been made publicly or privately by him, constituted the web and woof of the argument of Mr. Lincoln, and these facts were plausibly, ingeniously and forcibly presented to the court, so as to give them all the effect and significance to which they were entitled and more.⁸

In the matter of the petition o£ Jane Bryant, Mary Jane Bryant, Mary Catherine Bryant, Sally Ann Bryant and Robert Noah Bryant, Persons of Color, on application by Habeas Corpus for freedom,
Now at this day come the said applicants and presented by Gideon M. Ashmore their petition for the writ of Habeas Corpus directed to Lewis R. Hutchason, Esqr. Sheriff of Coles County who held them in custody, and this court being satisfied in the premises, ordered the said writ to issue, returnable forthwith before his Honor Chief Justice Wilson assisted by the Honorable Samuel H. Treat Associate Justice of the Supreme Court; and the said writ having been returned, and the said Lewis R. Hutchason having returned upon the said writ the causes of capture and detention together with the said Negroes into court, and the cause coming on to be heard after testimony adduced and argument had and the court being satisfied what judgment to render, it is finally considered and adjudged that the said Applicants Jane Bryant, Mary Jane Bryant, Mary Catherine Bryant, Sally Ann Bryant, and Robert Noah Bryant be discharged from the custody as well of the said Lewis R. Hutchason as of Robert Matson and all persons claiming them by through and under him as slaves, and they be and remain free and discharged from all servitude whatever to any person or persons from henceforth and forever. It is further adjudged that this proceeding be certified to said Negroes, as evidence of their freedom, And the Sheriff, Lewis R. Hutchason having returned that said Negroes were retained by him upon proceedings instituted by the said Robert Matson as owner of said Negroes, it is further ordered that the said Robert Matson pay all costs due and owing by reason of the original arrest of said Negroes including the costs of this application and that execution issue from this court therefore etc.¹⁰

It will be 30 years next December since Lincoln and myself met at Vandalia as members of the Legislature, a friendship then commenced which remained unbroken by political differences, personal interests or otherwise, up to his death. I knew him well as a lawyer, a statesman and citizen, valued him highly, and deeply deplored his death. He was a case lawyer, but in a case when he felt that he had the right, none could surpass him. As a statesman he was deeply imbued with the principles of Henry Clay, but was conscientiously opposed to slavery all his life, and he expressed his views honestly and truly to the Kentucky delegation when he urged them so strongly to accept compensational emancipation. He had a nice and keen perception of right and wrong, and did not wish to see rich men made poor by having their negroes freed without compensation.⁴

Usher Linder was drunk. They dismounted from their horses and when they reached the house, Lincoln said: "Lish, we are going over to Shelbyville to plead some cases and Ursh has been drinking heavy and is so drunk we can’t go any further. Help me sober him up." Grandmother asked Lincoln if they had had any dinner. He replied, "No, Becky, we haven’t eaten anything since breakfast." Grandmother killed a chicken and fried it for dinner while Grandfather gave Usher strong coffee to sober him up. He thought he had succeeded, so they sat down to dinner. Usher reached for the plate of chicken, .poured it all out on his own plate, and handed Lincoln the empty plate, saying, "Abe, have some chicken." Abe and my grandfather had to pour Ursh more strong coffee. After the meal they proceeded on their way to Shelbyville.⁸

Linder, Baker and I are apprehensive that you may be attacked by some of those ruffians who insulted you from the galleries, and we have come up to escort you to your hotel. We both think we can do a little fighting, so we want you to walk between us until we get you to your hotel; your quarrel is our quarrel, and that of the great Whig party of this nation, and your speech upon this occasion is the greatest one that has been made by any of us, for which we wish to honor, love and defend you.

U. F. Linder: In law it is good policy to never plead what you need not, lest you oblige yourself to prove what you can not. Reflect on this well before you proceed. The application I mean to make of this rule is, that you should simply go for Gen. Taylor; because by this, you can take some democrats and lose no whigs; but if you go also for Mr. Polk on the origin and mode of prossecuting the war, you will still take some democrats, but you will lose more whigs, so that in the sum of the opperation you will be the loser. This is at least my opinion; and if you will look around, I doubt, if you do not discover such to be the fact amongst your own neighbors. Further than this: By justifying Mr. Polk’s mode of prossecuting the war, you put yourself in opposition to Gen. Taylor himself, for we all know he has declared for, and, in fact originated, the defensive line of policy.
You know I mean this in kindness, and wish it to be confidential.¹⁰

The change of circuits prevents my attending the Edgar court this Spring, and perhaps generally hereafter. There is a little Ejectment case from Bloomfield, in which the name of Davidson figures . . . and for defending which I have been paid a little fee. Now I dislike to keep the money without doing the service; & I also hate to disgorge; and I therefore request of you to defend the case for me; & I will, in due time, do as much or more for you. Write me whether you can do it.¹²

I wrote to Mr. Lincoln. I was in a quarter of the country where I knew he was a tower of strength; where his name raised up friends; where his arguments at law had more power than the instructions of the Court. I feared, many of his political friends being united against my son, that his services and his talents might be enlisted against him. I wrote to him, giving him all the circumstances, telling him of my wife’s grief and my own, and soliciting that he would come and assist me to defend my son; that I thought he had been employed against him.

Condoled with me and my wife in our misfortune, and assured us that, no matter what business he might be engaged in, he would come, and he was truly sorry that I had supposed that he would take part in the prosecution of the son of a friend of his. I had offered him a fee, and in that letter he also said he knew of no act of his life that would justify me in supposing that he would take money from me or any dear friends for assisting in the defence of the life of a child. 13

My brother Dan, in the heat of a quarrel, shot a young man named Ben Boyle and was arrested. My father was seriously ill with inflammatory rheumatism at the time, and could scarcely move hand or foot. He certainly could not defend Dan. I was his secretary, and I remember it was but a day or so after the shooting till letters of sympathy began to pour in. In the first bundle which I picked up there was a big letter, the handwriting, on which I recognized as that of Mr. Lincoln. The letter was very sympathetic.

"I know how you feel, Linder," it said. "I can understand your anger as a father, added to all the other sentiments. But may we not be in a measure to blame? We have talked about the defense of criminals before our children; about our success in defending them; have left the impression that the greater the crime, the greater the triumph of securing an acquittal. Dan knows your success as a criminal lawyer, and he depends on you, little knowing that of all cases you would be of least value in this."
He concluded by offering his services, an offer which touched my father to tears.
Mr. Lincoln tried to have Dan released on bail, but Ben Boyle’s family and friends declared the wounded man would die, and feeling had grown so bitter that the judge would not grant any bail. So the case was changed to Marshall County, but as Ben finally recovered it was dismissed.¹⁴

It will be recalled that young Daniel Linder was supposed to have gone to Central America after his shooting episode with John Boyle. Apparently this was hearsay, for his case has been heard this week before the Edgar County grand jury. He was charged with "assault with a deadly weapon" and released on a $100 bond. His father had charge of the case and disqualified some of the jurors because they read the Beacon, which he claimed, villified him and prejudiced his son’s case. A reading of the newspaper does not sustain these charges. The case was transferred to another county.¹⁷

By some means, he was enlisted in the service of the rebel army. My friends here know, as you judges who sit upon the bench know, that I called upon them to unite with me in adding your influence to mine to prevail upon President Lincoln to induce him to release my boy from prison. He was captured a year and a half ago. Mr. Lincoln did so without any hesitation, and he took the pains – it was the day before Christmas a year ago, and it made my home happy – to telegraph me of the fact. . . . He said to me "Your son has just left me with my order to the Secretary of War to administer the oath of allegiance. I send him home to you and his mother."²²

Bates, I have an almost parallel case. The son of an old friend of mine in Illinois ran oft and joined the rebel army. The young fool has been captured, and is a prisoner of war, and his old, broken-hearted father has asked me to send him home, promising, of course, to keep him there. I have not seen my way clear to do it; but if you and I unite our influence with this administration, I believe we can manage it together and make two loyal fathers happy. Let us make them our prisoners.²⁵

Edwin C. Claybrook, of 9 Reb Cavy. is a prisoner of war, at Point Lookout. He is a youth of 18 or 20 son of Col Claybrook of Northd Cy. [Northumberland County] Va. The Prest, being abt. to send for young Linder of Ills, at my instance, ordered up young Claybrook also, with the view, in both cases, to release them, if they will only accept the boon, on any reasonable terms.
The Prest: is anxious to gratify Linder, the father, who is his old friend; and I am very desirous to make a New Year’s gift of Claybrook, to his father and family.²⁶

My Dear Sir: In the revolutions of the wheel of fortune I have often been at the top – and as often at the bottom – In other words I have been, now, four years at this place, and notwithstanding I have exerted a dilligence and prudence, hardly common to me, no prosperous wind has yet filled my sail – but the whole bag full have steadily set against me. I have never before asked an office of any president, or any executive of a state – but taking into consideration the wants of myself and family – If the government of the U. S. has anything to do which I am capable of performing – you may consider me as an humble applicant – I am seeking no sinecure; my health is good thank God – and I am only 55 years old the 20th inst.
I am constrained to believe friend Lincoln that you have ever cherished the kindest feelings for me as I know I have for you and although we have been often thrown in opposition to each other I think there has never been anything said by either that has left a pang behind–
If there had been, you, I know are too magnanimous to remember it now, considering the vast distance which fame fortune and distinction have made between us, and I make these remarks simply to place myself outside of the category of your personal enemies – If you should think me loyal, competent and worthy – and upon these considerations offer me a place where I can be of service to the country, I will accept it however humble or insignificant it may be – and bring to the discharge of the duties thereof all the zeal and talents I have, be they great or small – Now – I suppose you have thousands of just such letters as these written to you every day, well this is the first of the kind I have written and I assure you, I shall not trouble you with another – I don’t ask you to prepare a feather bed for me for I had just as soon have a hard bed as a soft one. A place in the army – in the distant territories, indeed anything that needs work and thinking I am ready and anxious to obtain – and for which I shall feel ever grateful. Knowing the importance of time with you I regret that my necessities have made it necessary to inflict upon you so long a letter – And let me assure you that whether my application is considered favorably or unfavorably – I shall never cease to pray God to crown your administration with complete success – for it is my sincere wish that the brightest page of your country’s history, may be that which records your struggles and triumphs over treason and oppression – 1 wish you in conclusion to pardon me if I have presumed too much upon old friendship and acquaintance – and act in obedience to your own honest instincts which I have trusted and am still willing to trust.

But you speak of our mutual friend Lincoln – What a strange and marvelous career he had, he was a man of singular [talents?], but a large minded man – I think his greatest fort was, as a lawyer – and I don’t know whether he was strongest before the judge or the jury. I certainly never liked to have him against me.
How very many of our old acquaintances are dead and gone and the question occurs shall we ever see them again, in the language of Job. "If a man dies shall he live again." I reckon Lincoln would say if here "A living dog is better than a dead lion." He was, as you say wise, and O Lord wasn’t he funny?³⁰

Dear Brother
I hast to inform you That father is yet a Live & that is all & he Craves to See you all the time & he wonts you to Come if you ar able to git hure, for you are his only Child that is of his own flush & blood 8c it is nothing more than natere for him to crave to See you, he says he has all most Despared of Seeing you, & he wonts you to prepare to meet him in the unknown world, or in heven, for he thinks that ower Savour Savour has a crown of glory, prepared for him I wright this with a bursting hart, I Came to town for the Docttor, & I won you to make an effort Come, if you are able to get hure, & he wonts me to tell your wife that he Loves hure & wants hur to prepare to meet him at ower Savours feet, we are all well, your Brother in hast

Mr. Lincoln –
Sir – at the special request of J. D. Johnsin I write you to inform you of the very Severe illness of your Father, he was atacken with a lesion of the Heart Some time Since & for the last four days Has been getting much Worse & at this time He is very Low indeed. He is very anxious to See you before he dies & I am told that His Cries for you for the last few days are truly Heart-Rendering. He wished you to come & see him instontly if you possibly can. If you are fearfull of Leaving your family on account of the Children & can bring them With you we would be very Glad for you to bring them with you. the Health of our place is excelent & Harriett & I would be very glad to Have [you] bring them with you as we are very comfortably fixed & will do all we can to render you stay agreeable. Yours in great Haste
You need Have no fears of your Father Suffering for any thing He may need as Harriett & I will see that He Has everything He may need.

Charleston, Ills. May 28th, 1849 [Monday]
Mr. Lincoln –
Sir on Friday last I wrote you at the request of J. D. Johnson which I suppose Has given you Considerable unnecessary trouble on account of your Father. I was fearful at the time I wrote to you that I was giving you considerable unnecessary uneasiness & So told Johnson, but he said that it was not So. I wished him to wait until Allison returned from your Fathers but he would not consent on the grounds that if He did not Send you a Letter then that he would not Have the Opportunity of writing until the present mail. So I wrote you at his Earnest Solicitation & He had the Letter Mailed instontly. I now Have the pleasure of informing you that your Father is not only out of all Danger but that he is not afflicted with a Disease of the Heart as Dr. Allison had Supposed all along but that his illness arose from an unusual amount of matter being confined in His Lungs which occasioned the Oppression of the Heart & let Allison to Suppose this Disease was one of the Heart – Yesterday & today He has raised a Large amount of matter or Fleghm from Lungs & is almost entirely Releaved & will doubtless be well in a Short time. I hope you will receave this before you get off for this place if you are intending to come here as I would be very sorry indeed for my Last Letter to cause you to Leave any important business that you Might have on Hands & that required your imediate attention. I hope you will forgive me for writing you as I did without knowing what I was about & promise for the future to be more careful Harriett send Her love to you all.

Dear Brother:
On the day before yesterday I received a letter from Harriett, written at Greenup. She says she has just returned from your house; and that Father is very low, and will hardly recover. She also says you have written me two letters; and that although you do not expect me to come now, you wonder that I do not write. I received both your letters, and although I have not answered them, it is not because I have forgotten them, or been uninterested about them – but because it appeared to me I could write nothing which could do any good. You already know that I desire that neither Father or Mother shall be in want of any comfort either in health or sickness while they live; and I feel sure you have not failed to use my name, if necessary, to procure a doctor, or any thing else for Father in his present sickness. My business is such that I could hardly leave home now, if it were not, as it is, that my own wife is sick-abed. (It is a case of baby-sickness, and I suppose is not dangerous.) I sincerely hope Father may yet recover his health; but at all events tell him to call upon, and confide in, our great, and good, and merciful Maker; who will not turn away from him in any extremity. He notes the fall of a sparrow, and numbers the hairs of our heads; and He will not forget the dying man, who puts his trust in Him. Say to him that if we could meet now, it is doubtful whether it would not be more painful than pleasant; but that if it be his lot to go now, he will soon have a joyous meeting with many loved ones gone before; and where the rest of us, through the help of God, hope ere-long to join them.
Write me again when you receive this. Affectionately

Abraham Lincoln had come to see him [Thomas Lincoln] in response to his wish through a letter from Mr. A. H. Chapman, and spent some time with him. He left word to send for him in case the disease took a malignant form. A severe attack soon followed his departure, proving fatal, and before Abe could be notified his father was gone.⁹

came to my father’s in February [January 31] 1861, before he was inaugurated, and asked my father to go with him to his father’s grave. They went over to the old cementery where Lincoln stood by his father’s grave and wept, saying the country was approaching a critical time and that he never expected to get back here again – and never did.¹⁸

Before noon Uncle Abe told me to hitch up; that he wanted to go over to the graveyard. Just before we started he said: "John, have you any good, solid joists around here?" I said yes, and got him some white oak timbers about three inches wide and two inches thick. He took one and got the saw and ax and made two grave markers – one for the head and the other for the foot. He then took his knife and cut in the headboard the initials "T. L."
We drove over to the graveyard and he cleared up the grave and drove the posts at the head and foot. Those markers were stolen after he was assassinated, and from that time until the present shaft was put up the grave was unmarked and Grandmother’s grave has never been marked at all.¹⁹

I went to the home of Lincoln’s parents in this county on last Thursday. I also visited the little churchyard where their bodies now lie. I find their home an old double cabin, now much worn and inhabited by a Mr. Hall and family, who are, I judge, in poor circumstances. . . . I was shown the old bureau they brought from Ky in 1811 [1819], still in good order. It cost originally $40, they told me, and was, in its day, quite a grand affair. I was also shown the old family bible, now well worn. The leaf containing the family record had been stolen out, so Mr. Hall says, but he had taken the precaution to copy it in an old book. [I] made a copy of that, which I enclose you. . . . When Abe used to come here, it was his custom to fill a buggy with provisions and go down and visit his parents a day or two. After he was elected president, he came down, visited his father’s grave, and with his own hands cut the letters T. L. in a small walnut board and placed it at the head of the grave. I was told that board was "kicking around in the grass," having rotted from its connections with the ground. Shame! I thought, and so said. I went to the churchyard, with three gentlemen living near to find it, telling them I would send it to you for preservation. We could not find it, and inquiry developed the fact that it had been stolen some time ago, and was, – no one knew where.²⁰

Another rumour is prevalent in the community where Thomas Lincoln died. It is supposed that when the President visited the grave ... he cut the letters "T. L." on a walnut board and drove it into the ground at the head of the grave. This the writer of these pages endeavored to find, but could not. Mr. Chapman says he did not cut the letters and place the board at the grave as represented. He was with him all the time and he says no such thing happened.

... he visited the grave of his father in company with A. H. Chapman and John Hall. . . . When Mr. Lincoln returned to Charleston he asked one of the younger members of the [Dennis] Hanks family to find out the probable cost of the tombstone for his father’s grave. During the conversation on the subject Mr. Lincoln asked Mr. Chapman what he thought the expense would be. Mr. Chapman answered not less than $40 nor more than $60 he thought. "Well," said the President, "see what it will cost and let me know at Washington, and I will send you an inscription I want put on." The war came and he could not attend to it. It has been erroneously supposed that he left money and it was not appropriately used. This, Mr. Chapman says, is untrue, and that the only arrangements made was the one already given. Further proof is given in a letter from Mrs. Lincoln after her husband’s untimely death, wherein she refers to the thought often expressed by the Presi- dent that as soon as his term of office expired, he would return here and see to the erection of the monument.²¹

he intended to have the grave enclosed and suitable tombstones erected over his father’s grave and requested me to ascertain what the cost would be and he would furnish Dennis Hanks the money to have it done. Said he would furnish an inscription for the tombstone as he wished inscribed on it. Said he would do it as soon as he got time for me then to see the marble dealer and write him the cost and he would furnish Dennis the money to have it all done just as he wished. . . . He never furnished me the inscription for his father’s tombstone and none has ever been erected on his grave. 22

... it is generally believed he [Lincoln] left a sum of money here with some one to build a small monument. The money was squandered, and no monument is yet built. This should not be so. He did certainly make arrangements for its erection. Whether he left money is not certainly known. I think if Mr. Robert Lincoln knew of it, he would do it out of his father’s estate.²³

My husband a few weeks before his death mentioned to me, that he intended that summer, paying proper respect to his father’s grave, by a head & footstone, with his name & age & and I propose very soon carrying out his intentions. It was not from want of affection for his father, as you are well aware that it was not done, but his time was so greatly occupied always.²⁷

I

In a low, sweet vale, by a murmering rill,
The pioneer’s ashes are sleeping,
Where the white marble slabs are so lonely and still,
In their silence their vigil are keeping.

II

On their sad, lonely faces are words of fame,
But none of them speak of his glory,
When the pioneer died, his age and his name,
No monument whispers the story.

III

No myrtle, nor ivy, nor hyacinth blows,
O’er the lonely grave where they laid him;
No cedar, nor holly, nor almond tree grows
Near the plebian’s grave to shade him.
IV

Bright evergreens wave over many a grave
O’er some bow the sad weeping willow,
But no willow trees nor evergreens wave
Where the pioneer sleeps on his pillow.

V

Some are inhumed with honors of state
And laid beneath temples to moulder;
The grave of the father of Lincoln the great,
Is known by a hillock and boulder.
VI

Let him take his lone sleep, and gently rest,
With naught to disturb or wake him,
When the angels shall come to gather the blest
To Abraham’s bosom, they’ll take him.²⁸

LINCOLN

Thomas and Sarah Bush Lincoln
1778-1851 1788-1869
Father and Stepmother
Of our Martyred President
Their Humble but Worthy Home
Gave to the World
Abraham Lincoln

SHILOH CEMETERY

In Shiloh Cemetery are the graves of Thomas and Sarah Lincoln, father and stepmother of Abraham Lincoln. On January 31, 1861, shortly before assuming the presidency, Lincoln came here from Springfield to visit his father’s grave in company with his stepmother.

Dear Brother: When I came into Charleston day-before yesterday, I learned that you are anxious to sell the land where you live, and move to Missouri. I have been thinking of this ever since; and cannot but think such a notion is utterly foolish. What can you do in Missouri, better than here? Is the land any richer? Can you there, any more than here, raise corn, & wheat & oats without work? Will any body there, any more than here, do your work for you? If you intend to go to work, there is no better place than right where you are; if you do not intend to go to work, you cannot get along any where. Squirming & crawling about from place to place can do no good. You have raised no crop this year, and what you really want is to sell the land, get the money and spend it – part with the land you have, and my life upon it, you will never after, own a spot big enough to bury you in. Half you will get for the land, you spend moving to Missouri, and the other half you will eat and drink, and wear out, & no foot of land will be bought. Now, I feel it my duty to have no hand in such a piece of foolery. I feel that it is so even on your own account; and particularly on Mother’s account. The Eastern forty acres I intend to keep for Mother while she lives – if you will not cultivate it; it will rent for enough to support her – at least it will rent for something. Her Dower in the other two forties, she can let you have, and no thanks to [me].
Now do not misunderstand this letter. I do not write it in any unkindness. I write it in order, if possible, to get you to face the truth – which truth is, you are destitute because you have idled away all your time. Your thousand pretenses for not getting along better are all nonsense – they deceive nobody but yourself. Go to work is the only cure for your case.

A word for Mother. Chapman tells me he wants you to go and live with him. If I were you I would try it awhile. If you get tired of it (as I think you will not) you can return to your own home. Chapman feels very kindly to you; and I have no doubt he will make your situa- tion very pleasant.³

Dear Brother; When I wrote you before I had not received your letter. I still think as I did; but if the land can be sold so that 1 get three hundred dollars to put to interest for mother, I will not object if she does not. But before I will make a deed, the money must be had, or secured beyond all doubt, at ten per cent.⁴

Dear Brother: Your letter of the 22nd. is just received. Your proposal about selling the East forty acres of land is all that I want or could claim for myself; but I am not satisfied with it on Mother’s account. I want her to have her living, and I feel that it is my duty, to some extent, to see that she is not wronged. She had a right of Dower (that is, the use of one-third for life) in the other two forties; but, it seems, she has already let you take that, hook and line. She now has the use of the whole of the east forty, as long as she lives; and if it be sold, of course she is entitled to the interest on all the money it brings, as long as she lives; but you propose to sell it for three hundred dollars, take one hundred away with you, and leave her two hundred at 8 percent, making her the enormous sum of 16 dollars a year. Now, if you are satisfied with treating her in that way, I am not. It is true, that you are to have that forty for two hundred dollars, at Mother’s death; but you are not to have it before. I am confident that land can be made to produce for Mother at least $30 a year, and I can not, to oblige any living person, consent that she shall be put on an allowance of sixteen dollars a year. Yours, etc.⁵

Dere Abe I Receivd your Little [Letter?] Check for 50.00 I shoed it to mother She cried like a child Abe She is mity childish heep of truble to us Betsy is very feble and has to wait on hir which ort to have some person to wait on hir we are getting old we have a great many to wait on of our connections they will cum to see us while we Live. . . ."

John I want you to cum and take grand Mother and keep hir untile I see that your ant lives or not. It looks very strange to me to no that you have no simpany for your ant than you have that has waited on you a many a time and Matilda allso John she has worked hir self down just at such business But the time has cum that youall cant trot a round and she doo the worke for all John you would not no hir My hart is grieved with teres in my eyes But it does no good now the thing is dun Now John I have bin to see old Abe and now I say to you that that forty acres of land was left for your Grand mother’s support and if you dont tend to it I will tend to it for you shore I am treated very rong a bout it you think that it cant be dun but I will show you a bout it but if you will rather pay the back rent rather than keep hir you must do it shore Take your choise a bout it one or the other has to be dun shore Not one of them that she has cooked for and waited on is any a count to hir now so cum and take your grand Mother from here untile your ant lives or dies .... it is not a fitting place for your grand Mother I entend to do as I say a bout it shore take your chies I want to hear from you a meaditly for I shall prosed in time

President Lincoln
Dear Uncle
I have been intending to write to you for some time, but felt so bad that I had not the heart to write to anyone save my husband. Our family have resently met with a great loss. God in his divine mercy has seen fit to take from our midst a Kind and devoted Mother. She died on the 18th of Dec after an Illness of about 6 months in her death we have lost a devoted Mother one whose place can never be fild on this Earth, You also have lost a friend for Mother was indeed a friend to you and Spoke of you often during her last moments. But we ought not to grieve too much for her for She died happy and left behind every assurance that she has gone hapy. Father takes her death very hard he is not well and I fear that he is not long for this world and it is heart rendering to think of having to give him up too. I was down to see Grand Ma Lincoln on Newyears. She seems to be failing fast and is grieving her self to death about Mother. Poor woman how my heart aches for her. She was so destitute of every comfort. She wants to leave there very bad and come to my house and tells me that she is badly treated. I told her that it was impossible for me to take her just now for my house is small and not very Comfortable and my family is large but I told her to wait till my Husband come home his time of Service expires the 17th of Feb. 19 and then we would try and do something for her it looks too hard for as good a woman as She is to be compeld to Spend her last days in want and misery and I for one will do as I have always done my part in her behalf and now want you to assist me by giving my Husband a situation so that he can support his family and take good care of her as long as She lives if we should be spared that long, you can do this and not discomode yourself in the least and I think that Augustus deserves your favor. He has always been a Strong Union man spent both time and money in your election has now been in the Army for 3 years and 3 months and would remain longer if his family was better situated – during that time he has never been sick a day or unfit for duty and has never had but one furlough home and that only for 15 days, has not made ennything but a living for himself and family and this is why I ask you for your assistance feeling sure that you would not deny me and them Gran Ma made me promise to write to you and tell you to do all you could for us for she would rather live with us then enny where els. The rest of the relations are all well.
The roling months have brought us the close of an other year. There has been much suffering throughout our land during that time. Many are the Vacant Chair. Houses have been made desolate partings en- dured. Heart Strings have been broken – and many widows and orphans have mourned for the loved and lost. But let us look forward to a better picture and welcome young ’65 with bright hopes and pleasant anticipations let us hope that before its Close smiling peace will return once more and scatter its blessings through all our land.
Well I have written a much longer letter than I intended to trouble you with this time and if I have transgrest I hope you will forgive. If you feel disposed and can assist Augustus please let him know soon. He will be at home in about 6 weeks. Remember me kindly to your wife and children, yours with love

Private
Charleston Coles County Illinois Oct 18th 1864
Dear Uncle,
This Leaves us all well but Grand Mother. She is quite puny [poor?]. I write to inform you that Grand Mother has not and does not receive one cent of the money you send her Dennis & Chapman keep all the money you send her. She now needs clothing and shoes, they have the money in their Pockett & Uncle Dennis is cussing you all the time and abusing me & your best friends for supporting you they make you believe they are taking care of her which is not the case. I & my Mother 21 are now taking care of her and have for the past four years. If you wish her to have anything send it by check here to the bank of Charleston, or send none for I tell you upon the honor of a man she does not get it & he Dennis has threatened to put her on the county. I hope to hear from you soon. Brother Alfred is wounded & badly, shot through the foot & now is in hospital at Quincy. he was wounded at Dallas Ga 27th of May last. I remain your nephew
N. B. I have written you these plain truths by Gran Mothers request She has been asking me to do this for four years – please write soon

Well John, Old Abe, as he is called, is again to be our President. I sincerely regret it indeed. I can see nothing but war, war, war, under his reign, and if ever a people were thoroughly scourged by war, the American people are certainly that people. Peace, with union or disunion would certainly be ten thousand times preferable to the people, even if the Negro was continued in bondage [,] to this desolating and heartrending strife.

I made a visit to Washington in the latter part of winter & saw Father Abraham. I found him very busy, but very kind and agreeable. He seemed pleased to see me. Tell Aunt that they are working him very hard at Washington & if he had not been raised to maul rails, he could never stand the hard labor at the White House.²⁷

I had to go out to the farm to tell Aunt Sairy. Tom’d ben dead a good while, an’ she was livin’ on thar, alone.²⁹
"Aunt Sairy," sez I, "Abe’s dead."
"Yes, I know, Denny. I knowed they’d kill him. I ben awaitin’ fur it," an’ she never asked no questions. She was gettin’ purty old, an’ I reckon she thought she’d jine him. She never counted on seein’ him agin after he went down to Washington, no how.³⁰

Mrs Sally Lincoln
My Dear Madam:
In memory of the dearly loved one, who always remembered you with so much affection, will you not do me the favor of accepting these feW trifles? God has been very merciful to you, in prolonging your life and I trust your health has also been preserved – In my great agony of mind I cannot trust myself to write about, what so entirely fills my thoughts, my darling husband; knowing how well you loved him also, is a grateful satisfaction to me. Believe me, dear Madam if I can ever be of any service to you, in any respect, I am entirely at your service. ... I will be pleased to learn whether this package was received by you – Perhaps you know that our youngest boy, is named for your husband, Thomas Lincoln, this child, the idol of his father – I am blessed in both my sons, they are very good & noble. The eldest is growing very much like his own dear father. I am a deeply afflicted woman & hope you will pray for me –
This letter please consider entirely private – I shall be greatly pleased to hear from you.³²

just returned from speaking at Paris and Grandview in Edgar County – & Charleston and Shelbyville, in Coles and Shelby counties. Our whole trouble along there has been & is Fillmoreism. ... I think we shall ultimately get all the Fillmore men, who are really anti-slavery extension – the rest will probably go to Buchanan where they rightfully belong; if they do not, so much the better for us.¹⁵

Our friends . . . insist that you must come and that soon. The work goes on finely but many are hanging back yet, & we think one of your speeches now will be worth two after a while. There will be a big circus here on the 24th and a crowd ready collected for you if you should come that day. You know all about circuses. They collect crowds, but not exactly the sort of crowd we want. Give us a week’s notice if you fix any other day, and you shall have a fine audience. If we can have some assistance in the way of a few first-rate speeches, Coles will roll up a booming majority for Fremont.¹⁶

Hon: T. A. Marshall
Charleston, Ills.
My dear Sir,
I wish you, G. W. Rives of Edgar, and O. L. Davis, of Vermillion, to co-operate in getting a Senatorial candidate on the track, in your District – Davis is here, and agrees to do his part – The adversary had his eye upon that district, and will beat us, unless we also are wide awake – Under the circumstances, a District convention may, or may not be the best way – you three judge of that – I think you better take some good reliable Fillmore men into conference with you, and also some person or persons from Cumberland. Indeed, it may appear expedient to select a Fillmore man as the candidate – I also write to Rives – I am most anxious to know that you will not neglect the matter, not doubting that you will do it rightly, if you only take hold of it –
I was in Springfield during the sittings of the two democratic conven- tions day-before-yesterday – Say what you will, they are having an abundance of trouble – Our own friends were also there, in consider* able numbers from different parts of the State – They are all in high spirits, and think, if we do not win, it will be our own fault – So I really think –

This letter reveals something of Mr. Lincoln’s accurate knowledge of political conditions in this part of the State, and his political insight into practical methods. There were a large number of Clay-Fillmore Whigs in this part of the State many of whom had not definitely affiliated with either the Democrats or the new Republican party and both parties were making every effort to capture their votes. The great contest was to elect men to the State Legislature who would vote for Mr. Douglas or for Mr. Lincoln for United States Senator. The Democrats nominated Usher F. Linder, a very capable public speaker, as their candidate for the State Senate from this district. The Republicans finally agreed upon Thomas A. Marshall as their candidate for the State Senate, and W. W. Craddock as their candidate for the Illinois House of Representatives. The Republicans went to work with enthusiasm early in the campaign and before the time of the great debate here, September the 18th, had compiled a list of all the voters in the district, and the political affiliation of each. So that they knew all the Republicans, all the Democrats and all of the "doubtfuls" and where to find them. At the ensuing election the Republicans were successful in carrying the district and elected Marshall and Craddock to the State Legislature where they voted for Lincoln as United States Senator for Illinois.

Dear Lincoln:
Your favor of 23rd ult, came duly to hand. I would have written at once in reply [but] that really there was no occasion for a reply and moreover you were not at home and I did not know where you would be.
I think we can carry our Senatorial and Representative District. The Fillmore men will generally vote with us, as many will vote for a Republican I think as would for a Fillmore man. That is all will go with us anyhow, except those who have made up their minds to turn Democrats and recent events have staggered even them, a good many of them I am confident. We can and will elect a Senator and a Representative who will vote for Lincoln for the U. S. Senate.
For the rest, we have quite a warm feeling for Douglas, and if a resolution by the Legislature approving his course on Lecompton will do him any good I am for sustaining him in that way.

My name has been announced as a candidate for the Senate – appar- ently with the concurrence of everybody we could expect to get, except my own – Our friends think that I am a hundred or two votes stronger in this county than anybody else, and that here is the principal fighting ground of the district.²²

Hon. A. Lincoln
Dear Sir – Personally we are not acquainted and possibly may never be but I find myself placed in a position where it is necessary to address you in this way lest the latter coming conclusion may be verified.
I have just read your speech delivered at Chicago [on July 10] and desire to say something to you about it, but before doing so I will promise that I am a member of the American party and as such participated in the canvass of 1856 with the consciousness of defeat before me, activated by a desire to prove there was a conservative element in the government. I have ever entertained a political hostility to Judge Douglas, and perhaps there is no man with my humble capacity, who can entertain a more sincere desire to see him beaten in the coming contest than myself, – none who would do more in an honorable way than I will to accomplish his defeat. My opposition to him is based upon principle. I admire his talents and his genius, and would rejoice if I could have confidence in the man or have faith in his government policy, but I can not and therefore I want some man to defeat him. Since last winter I have not hesitated to avow myself in your favor for that position, feeling that we had not the man who could be run with any prospect of success.
With this brief introduction I will proceed with my intention.
I do not see any necessity for discussing the subject of slavery in a theoretical point of view, and very certainly we are not interested in its practical workings, unless you have determined to keep alive a sectional party; everything as I understand it, now tends to have a unified opposition to the administration, and to have a platform upon which the Republican and American parties north and south can stand. I hope it is not your intention to thwart this movement. Less of the discussion and less of the favoring of negro equality will satisfy your friends in the extreme north part of the state, and you may rely upon it some explanation will be necessary to carry the south. For one I can not defend your positions as I understand them, and there are Republicans here who are getting very shy, and do not hesitate to condemn your course. I am an humble citizen, but take this liberty of thinking and speaking for myself, and no one is responsible but myself for what I say or do.
If I advocate your claims, I do not want my opposition to Senator Douglas to be the only reason for doing so, and if to do any one thing political would be calculated to rejoice me more than any other one thing, it would be the means of explaining away some objectionable views expressed by you in your Chicago speech, and I must be allowed to say that unless some movement is made in that direction, I shall hold my peace upon the subject of the election. I have told Mr. T. A. Marshall that I will give him my support, and my Fillmore friends understand this, but under existing circumstances I can not urge them to do as I do.
I am very sure that no action but to kindly suggest has prompted me in this matter, and to warn you that your position is dangerous to your success, and one that a large body of your fellow citizens, who are opposed to the Democratic party can not endorse.
It is thought here by many of our warmest admirers, that [there] is no need of your letting Douglas place you on the defense, there is enough of his political inconsistencies and tergiversations to keep you busy a year, and I submit to you if it were not better to handle those than disturb the elements that are so kindly affiliating.
Suit yourself about an answer to this, but I would suggest that if you can in any way defend your position by rendering it less objectionable to many devoted friends you had better fix an early day to come over to this part of the state.
Please inform me if I may rely on your attention to this matter.

I would say something like this – for instance that as his letter does not specify the particular parts of the Chicago speech that do not meet his approval, you do not know exactly what part to explain and it would exceed the bound of a letter and take more time than you now have at your command to enter into a detailed defense of the whole. That you expect to visit Coles County during the canvass (which I trust is the case) and that then you will take occasion both in private and in public to make such explanations as will satisfy him. That you have been contending only for what you consider the fundamental principles of our institutions. That as for negro equality in the sense in which the expression is used you neither believe in or desire it. You desire to offer no temptations to negroes to come among us or remain with us, and therefore you do not propose to confer upon them any further social or political rights than they are now entitled to. As a citizen of a Free State, as a member of Congress you would have no right to interfere with slavery in the states and you have no such desire and you consider the idea of changing the constitution so as to give Congress control over the subject of slavery in the states as impractical -and absurd. I think that some such letter as I have here sketched would satisfy the doctor and remove a good deal of trouble out of your way. Our enemies are preparing for a desperate fight. We must go into it with as little weight as possible. Unless they succeed in exciting some strong prejudices against us we are safe in the [this] quarter.²⁵

Dear Lincoln
Trumbull has made a list of appointments. He has made none for Danville. They need waking up there, if you have a chance it would be good for you to go there –. It would do much good, in fact I consider it very important for you to go to Moultrie. Trumbull has made no appointments there. He promises to go to Cumberland – but not at the court. These small counties ought to be attended to. The enemy pays special attention to them. I make these suggestions to you at the suggestion of the gentlemen here. I will see you when you come over to Paris. I have written to Mattoon that you will be there Tuesday morning September 7 – and leave when the train goes east. They will be in to see you that morning.²⁶

Our Republican friends request me to say to you that they want you to pay them a visit and make them a speech in the town of Mattoon. I am sure that a speech from you in this place would do much for the party that you lead. S. A. Douglas was here last week and spoke for 1¼ hours to quite a respectable audience and at the conclusion of the speech the audience gave three cheers for Abe Lincoln. Now Abe, get your time that you will make us a speech and I will get you an audience that will do honor to any speaker. I want you to be fully prepared to give your views on the Dred Scott case and on the nigger Equality which your enemies charge upon you. There are numbers here that are wavering in their politics. Tonight we are organizing a Republican Club in this place.²⁸

Douglas has already addressed the people here and after Douglas had left the stand and three faint cheers were given, three cheers were proposed for Hon. Abe Lincoln & given with a hearty good will and 3 more on top. We can get you an audience of 3 or 4000. Douglas had an audience of about 5 or 600 & most of them were Republicans.²⁹

Dear Lincoln –
If you are able to stand the labor you must fill your appointments at Monticello and at Paris on the 6th and 7th. Get from Bloomington or Clinton to Monticello by private conveyance. Monday afternoon after speaking go to Bement. Take the night train to Tolono. The morning train will take you to Mattoon. There you will have to remain until one o’clock, a little late it is true but time enough if they know you are coming. By this plan you will be at Mattoon from 6 o’clock AM to one o’clock. While there you can give them a talk if you feel able to, and presuming that you will, and that you must be there at this time, I will write the Mattoon people and [let them] know it. If when you get there you can’t speak, why you can show yourself. Douglas spoke at Mattoon, and it will have a good effect for you to speak there. If they know you will speak they can get you a good audience. Prospects are bright.³⁰

Dear Sir:
Mr. Craddock, the Republican candidate for representative in Coles and Moultrie counties wishes me to write you for him and ask you to send him at your earliest convenience the most bitter speech that Douglas ever made in his best days against the Know Nothing or American parties. You know that in our district there is between 3 and 4 hundred more American voters than there is Republican voters and Craddock thinks if he had one of Douglas’ bitterest speeches against the American or Know Nothing Parties that he could use it to great advantage as John Monroe his Douglas opponent³⁶ is striving very hard to make the Americans believe that Douglas and his party have never been hostile to them at least not nearly as much so as we Republicans represent them to have been. If you can possibly send Craddock such a copy of one of Douglas’ speeches do so by all means. I will guarantee he will make a judicious use of it. It affords me great pleasure to be able to say to you at this time that our prospects for success in the fall election for representative and senator are brightening every day and very fast and that we now feel certain of success almost beyond a doubt. At the meetings of our secret vigilance committee last night the reports were of the most encouraging character and w T e parted in glorious spirits. Several of the most bitter American leaders of our county came out this week for Douglas and openly avowed themselves Democrats from this time on. You can hardly form an idea at the storm which arose among the honest voters of the party. They curse these fellows loud and long denouncing them as Traitors and damd rascals in fact for anything that was mean and degrading and the way that the honest ones, the hopes of the party, flocked over to our side was truly astonishing, they . . . will do battle for us manfully from this time on. Nothing has happened for years that has done us so much good. These Scamps [who] would be leaders of the K N are now thank God where they could do us any [no] further harm, right where we wanted them. Col. John Coffee the American presidential Elector for this district during the last election has come out on our side and is doing all he can to advance our interest and let me tell you he is a host. All is peace among us, no rivalry or quarreling but all united and determined to win or die atrying while the Democracy are in confusion on all hands, quarrels, strife, bickering, stare them in the face at all points. It has been the intention of the Democracy to run Jim Robinson for Congress in this district but they have become so much alarmed at the enthusiasm for Oglesby among their opponents that they are now trying to arrange it to run Aron Shaw, whether they can get it so arranged I know not but hope they can not for as Robinson is their candidate we think we stand a slight chance of beating him but if they run Shaw they will in all probability have the dead wood on us but will they run who they may we will give them the very best that we have in the locker. We think Tom Marshall’s election is sure by from 3 to 5 hundred majority at least and we also intend to elect Craddock. If not by as big a majority over John Monroe. Craddock is the best stump speaker in our ranks in the Wabash valley and the Locoes fear him more than any other man we have in our ranks. We have our party better organized than we have ever had before [by] a long ways and you may expect to have a favorable report from Old Coles the day of the election. Dr. Win. Chambers a very prominent American leader in this country has not yet taken ground on either side. We are very anxious to secure him. He will write you soon if has not already done so and Tom Marshall will write you and post you in regard to what he wants, if you can consistently say anything to him that will have a tendency to bring him over to our side do so by all means. We are amaking the fight on slave and free white labor and not saying much about equality or anything of that kind. . . . :³⁷
Your friends and relatives in this county are all well and prospering about as usual. Grandmother Lincoln is a member of our family and will continue to be [in] all probability until she dies. I often take my Republican papers and read extracts from them that eulogize you. You can hardly form an idea how proud that makes her. She often says Abram was always her best child and that he always treated her like a son. I told her I was agoing to visit you today and she said tell him she sends a load of love to you and wants to see you once more very much. Harriet also sends love to you all. She has been quite unwell lately but is getting well slowly. She was confined about two weeks since and has not been very well since. We had a big fine son the last time but we lost our boy that was a baby when you were here. Lost our little son a year ago. No other news of interest. Hope Douglas comes out and makes us a speech this season [and] that you will do the same.

Do you remember that the ship was trimmed with cedar from Father’s yard, which made the red, white and blue with which it was covered much more effective? Our double-decked wagon was built like a ship and called "The Ship of State." Our Motto on one side suggested by Lavina Baker’s father was: "Westward the car of empire takes its way, the girls link on to Lincoln, their mothers were for Clay." I think the names of "Marshall and Craddock" were on the other side. The ship stood on the street, on the north side of the Postoffice opposite Father’s old store. Nell Wilson (Nell McCrory) rode horse back with the Democratic girls who were also in uniform. Do you remember our uniform? White dresses with long red and blue sashes, fastened on the left shoulder and tied down on the right side. White hats with a deep fall of lace around the brim and a wreath of cedar around the crown. I was with the older girls on the lower deck and you with the younger ones on the upper deck. You were dressed as Goddess of Liberty, of which there were two, one at each end of the ship, holding a flag, because the judges could not decide between the beauty of yourself and Nora Strickland. Each of you had natural curls flying. We all sang at intervals, and I’m surprised to find I have forgotten what we did sing.⁶

I was present ... as a candidate for Congress. It was a grand occasion to all political parties of the day. To the Republicans it was a day of triumph and of glory. Douglas was manifestly tiring of the joint discussion. Lincoln, on the contrary, like a precious stone in the rough, was growing constantly brighter and more brilliant by the attrition of the contest. Douglas was petulant. Lincoln was calm, grave, and impressive, like one who already feels the good of ambition attained, and making ready to accept and bear the just responsibility of victory. I remember the special incidents of the debate that day. . . . When Lincoln snatched Orlando B. Ficklin by coat collar and dragged him to the front of the stand to prove by him that the intimation by Douglas that he Lincoln had refused in Congress to vote supplies to our vol. [volunteers] in the Mexican War, "was a lie" – "Ficklin personally knows this to be a lie" too – Ficklin looked so surprised and the whole performance was so grotesque and unexpected everybody burst out into a roar of laughter which went far towards mollifying an irritation resulting from the mental conflict between the two great debaters.¹⁷

I do not mean to do anything with Mr. Ficklin except to present his face and tell you that he personally knows it to be a lie [the charge that Lincoln voted against supplies for the troops]! He was a member of Congress at the only time I was in Congress, . . . and he knows, as well as Judge Douglas, that whenever a dollar was asked, by way of compensation or otherwise, for the benefit of the soldiers, I gave all the votes that Ficklin or Douglas did, and perhaps more.

My friends, I wish to say this in reference to the matter. Mr. Lincoln and myself are just as good personal friends as Judge Douglas and myself. In reference to the Mexican War, my recollection is that when Ashmun’s resolution [amendment] was offered by Mr. Ashmun of Massachusetts, in which he declared that the Mexican War was unnecessary and unconstitutionally commenced by the President – my recollection is that Mr. Lincoln voted for that resolution.

That is the truth. Now, you all remember that was a resolution censuring the President for the manner in which the war was begun. You know they have charged that I voted against the supplies, by which I starved the soldiers who were fighting the battles of their country. I say that Ficklin knows it is false.

Richard J. Oglesby, the Republican nominee for Congress [afterward General, Governor and Senator], addressed one of them. At the Douglas meeting, Richard T. Merrick and U. F. Linder were the speakers. Merrick was a young lawyer from Maryland, who had lately settled in Chicago, and was a fluent and rather captivating orator. Under was an Old Line Whig, of much natural ability, who had sided with the Democrats on the breakup of his own party.²³

How angry my mother was when the Lincoln-Douglas debate occurred at Charleston. Everyone wanted to take Uncle Abe home or to some hotel or some other place of entertainment, and my mother and father had a hard time getting possession of him. . . . My mother would speak rather sharply to him, saying: "Abe, don’t you let any of those people pull you away tonight. You come right straight back here. . . ." And he did stay with us.³¹

Dear Sir:
The undersigned were appointed to a committee by the "Young Men’s Literary Association of Charleston" to select persons to deliver lectures the coming winter in our Town.
Your reputation as a thinker and speaker has pointed you out as a very proper person to write, and in our capacity we very earnestly solicit you to accept this an invitation to deliver a lecture upon some subject (of your own selection) in our town sometime during the coming winter.
You are aware we have not a city to boast of, but we have a town made up of an intelligent & appreciative people, and a large Hall to speak in, and will promise you a hearty welcome.
If it is possible, please accept and fix some time for the purpose and also the amount you will charge, and let us know as soon as it is in your power to do so.

We as editors of the Mattoon Gazette have been advocating the Re- publican cause to the best of our ability since the opening of the campaign, and finding "Jordan a hard road to -travel" in financial affairs, hope you will excuse us for asking the fee which we charge candidates for the publication of their names – $3 – not for our editorial services.
Your prospects in the county are flattering.⁴⁰

9:50 A.M. Left Springfield on the Great Western Railroad.
2:50 P.M. Arrived at Tolono, after a possible layover at Decatur.
3:50 P.M. Left Tolono on the Chicago Express of the Illinois Central Railroad (estimated departure time) .
5:15 P.M. Arrived Mattoon (twenty minutes before scheduled departure of the Express from Mattoon at 5:35 P.M.) .
5:40 P.M. Left Mattoon on a freight train of the Terre Haute, Alton and St. Louis Railroad.
6:15 P.M. Estimated time of arrival at Charleston.

The passenger trains on all roads made very slow time in 1861. The running time between Champaign and Chicago was approximately eight hours. Freights took longer, of course, especially way freights. Yet, they were a possibility. . . . We must recall that locomotives in 1861 burned wood for fuel. There were many delays to /’wood up," with passengers assisting in the process. The Great Western used to "wood up" at Sidney, southeast of Champaign. Possibly the long time required to move from Springfield to Tolono was partly caused by the stop in Decatur to "wood up. .
My opinion is that the train routes of Lincoln, Springfield to Charles- ton and return, can be only partly substantiated. We have so little material upon which to build. ... I am wondering if Lincoln did not keep plans on his Charleston trip secret, as the same plots against his life were active January 30 as they were ten or twelve days later. We must recall that the special inaugural train was preceded by a pilot engine. There was wide publicity on the special train. Also, there were many Southern sympathizers south of Charleston and Mattoon, which may explain partially why there is so little source material available on the January 30 trip. 3 As Mr. Burford states, there was little publicity about the trip. Apart from his "family, it appears that Lincoln gave advance notice of his plan for the trip only to Senator Marshall, who accompanied him. The Springfield papers referred to the trip only after he had left for Charleston, and after his return to Springfield.

a faded hat, innocent of a nap; and his coat was extremely short, more like a sailor’s pea-jacket than any other describable garment. It was the same outer garment that he wore from Harrisburg to Washington when he went to be inaugurated. A well-worn carpet-bag, quite collapsed, comprised his baggage.

Mr. Lincoln, who seems to have made a temporary escape from the office seeking host at Springfield, passed through this place last Wednesday evening. He came in on the regular evening train from Chicago, and went on the freight to Charleston, from which place we understand from Hon. T. A. Marshall, who accompanied him, he will soon return to Springfield. Thinking it none of our business what Mr. Lincoln’s business in Charleston was, we made no inquiries; and having seen him frequently, we concluded that as we wanted no office and could get none even if we did, we would not impose our presence upon him during his short stay at the Essex House. The large crowd, of all parties, which collected on the platform, were evidently delighted to see him, and he greeted his old friends as cordially as though he were simple friend Lincoln and not the most noted personage in the civilized world.
Since writing the above we learned from the papers that Mr. Lincoln is on a visit to his step-mother, whom we will lay a wager he found in less time than it took for Douglas to "find his mother."⁸

When the train finally drew in and stopped, the locomotive was about opposite the station and the caboose, or car which carried the pas- sengers, was some distance down the track. Presently, looking in that direction, we saw a tall man wearing a coat or shawl, decend from the steps of the car and patiently make his way through the long expanse of slush and ice beside the track as far as the station platform. I think he wore a plug hat. I remember I was surprised that a railroad company, with so distinguished a passenger aboard its train as the President elect of the United States, did not manifest interest enough in his dignity and comfort to deliver him at the station instead of dropping him off in the mud several hundred feet down the track. In addition to myself quite a crowd of natives were gathered on the plat- form to see him. . . . There were no formalities. Lincoln shook hands with a number of persons whom he recognized or who greeted him, and in a few minutes left for the residence of a friend, where, it was understood, he was to spend the night.⁹

When we reached the house the family were still at the supper table, but Mr. Lincoln himself had withdrawn and was in the front room sitting before the fire. In response to our knock the door opened and who should step forward to greet us but Lincoln himself. Grasping Dunbar’s outstretched palm with one hand and resting the other hand on his shoulder, he exclaimed in a burst of animation, "Lord A’mighty, Aleck, how glad .1 am to see you!" That broke the spell; and if any stiffness or formality was intended it disappeared like magic. I was introduced and presently we were all sitting together and facing the fire. Lincoln did most of the talking. He was cheerful and communicative. After an exchange of ideas and recollections of the past with Dunbar, he was soon telling stories. Apparently there was a flood of them, one following another and each invariably funnier than its predecessor. It was a novel experience for me. I certainly never before heard anything like it. I shall never forget the one story which he had evidently reserved for the last, for he announced that it was the strangest and most amusing incident he had ever witnessed. I knew it would be interesting and was, therefore, all attention. It was about a girl whose duty it was to find and drive home the family cow. "One day," said Mr. Lincoln, "she rode a horse bareback to the woods. On the way home the horse, frightened by a dog or something which darted from behind a bush, made a wild dash ahead, the girl still astride when suddenly – " at this point Mr. Lincoln halted a moment, for some one was knocking at the door. He stepped across the room and opened it, there stood the Presbyterian preacher, his wife, and two other ladies. Of course Mr. Lincoln had to suspend his narrative. Meanwhile other callers arrived and in a short time the house began to fill with them, whereupon Dunbar and I decided to withdraw. As we made our way downtown, Dunbar, well knowing what an admirer of Douglas I was inquired: "Now that you have seen and heard the long-legged individual whom our friend Douglas defeated for Senator, what do you think of him?" I had to confess that he was a marvel – a charming story teller and in other respects one of the most remarkable men I had ever listened to. "But he was guilty of one thing I shall never cease to regret," I added. "What was it?" he asked. "He failed to relate the closing chapter of that last story," I answered.¹⁹

a few young Germans appeared there, with some stringed instruments to give the President a serenade. They came into the room and played; while they did so, Lincoln stood near them, seeming to be more interested in the music than any other person present. After this, an hour was spent in social converse.

Perhaps he would be like the young man who was going to war, whose two loving and admiring sisters had made an embroidered belt for him to wear, and when they had it completed, they asked him what motto they should put upon it, "Victory or death?" "No, no," says he. "don’t put it quite that strong. Put it ’Victory or get hurt pretty bad.’"²¹

was mostly concerning family affairs. Mr. Lincoln spoke to me ... of his stepmother in the most affectionate manner. Said she had been his best friend in this world and that no man could love a mother more than he loved her. He also told me of the condition of his father’s family at the time he married his stepmother and the changes she made in the family and of the encouragement he, Abe, received from his stepmother. He spoke on the road of the various men that had sup- ported him during the canvass and said he thought Caleb B. Smith [of Indiana] had done him more service than any public speaker. Spoke of his father and related some amusing incidents of the old man, of the bull-dog biting the old man on his return from New Orleans, of the old man’s escape when a boy from an Indian who was shot by his Uncle Mordecai. Spoke of his uncle Mordecai as being a man of very great natural gifts. Spoke of his stepbrother John D. Johnston, who had died a short time previous in the most affectionate manner.²²

One day when I was out with an axe cutting some sapplings, Gus Chapman and Abe Lincoln came driving along. I did not know Lincoln. He said to Gus, "Well, if she was my wife, I wouldn’t claim her!" I told him that he was putting on style with his stove pipe hat and talking about his betters, and that maybe the clothes on his back had not been paid for. Gus, he just haw-hawed like he would burst. He told Lincoln that "She knows how to work, Abe, they know how to make a clearing." . . . We finished our cabin that spring. . . ,²³

Mrs. Matilda Moor wife of Ruban Moor deceased wishes you to come down and help defend a case in court. Moor died and fixed all of his property so that the widow is left to shift for herself. Mr. Clark C. Starkweather is employed to defend the case and wants you to come and help him. Court commences the first Monday of October. By request of Matilda Moor.³¹

Mrs. Sarah Bush Lincoln.
Mrs. Matilda Moore, her daughter.
Mrs. Sarah Louisa Hall Fox, Mrs. Moore’s daughter, married the preceding August to Merrill Fox (1839-1881) .
John Johnston Hall, Mrs. Moore’s son.
Joseph Hall, his younger brother, later in Co. G, 54th Illinois Infantry.
R. L. Osborne, local schoolmaster.
David Dryden, Osborne’s father-in-law.
Isaac Rodgers.
Andrew H. Allison. His wife was in St. Louis on a trip at this time.
Rufus Allison.
Fred Bidle (or Biddle), local blacksmith.
The ladies of the neighborhood who had helped prepare and serve the dinner, probably including Mrs. Rodgers, Mrs. Dryden, Mrs. Rufus Allison, and Mrs. N. S. Freeman.

When it became generally known that the President-elect was in the village, school was dismissed; many assembled to give him welcome. Oliver Harris being away the store was forcibly entered and drums and fifes were secured and while martial music was being played they picked up Mr. Lincoln and carried him about the front yard of Mrs. Moore’s residence.

I was in the room when Mr. Lincoln was getting ready to take his farewell of his stepmother, about three o’clock in the afternoon. On the bed was the fur cape which he had brought her as a present. Sarah Bush Lincoln was seated in a rocking chair near him and while he was talking to those who were in the room one of his hands clasped the rocking chair in which she was seated and the elbow of the other arm rested on the mantle piece. When in repose his face presented a very sad appearance, but when he smiled a radiance passed over his countenance. When the time came for him to bid his stepmother goodbye, he put him arm gently about her and it was at this time she uttered those prophetic words: "Abe, I’ll never see you alive again. They will kill you."⁴⁵

I did not want to see Abe run for President, did not want him elected, was afraid, somehow or other, felt it in my heart that something would happen to him, and when he came down to see me after he was elected President, I still felt that something told me that something would befall Abe and that I should see him no more. Abe and his father are in Heaven, I have no doubt, and I want to go to them, go where they are. God bless Abraham.⁴⁶

In the audience were many persons who had known him first as the stalwart young ox-driver when his fathers family drove into Illinois from southern Indiana. One man had brought with him a horse which the President-elect, in the earlier days of his law practice, had recovered for him in a replevin suit; another one was able to recite from personal recollection the thrilling details of the famous wrestling match between Lincoln the flatboatman in 1830 and Daniel Needham; and all had some reminiscence of his early manhood to relate.⁵¹

The hall was densely packed with our citizens without regard to political preferences, for Mr. Lincoln was popular with the people. Mr. Lincoln entered the overflowing hall about 8 o’clock with Col. A. H. Chapman and wife, whose guest he then was. He was soon "surrounded by a surging and admiring crowd. He was comparatively cheerful, and still carried the grave face for which he was noted (except when lighted up temporarily by the recital of some of his inimitable stories) . The crowd in some way, expected to hear him speak. Perceiving the spirit and expectation, he took a position on the stand and gravely said, "You, my friends, are anxious to hear from me, what I think of the outlook for the future, but I am equally anxious with you, to see what lies before us and you will therefore have to excuse me from saying more, but if it will be any gratification to you, I shall be glad to take each one of you by the hand." The great crowd then moved past him, and he gave to each a cordial warm-hearted grasp of the hand – but many of the ladies present not contented with this manifestation, insisted on a warmer salute; and so, the president carried from the hall, that night, the aroma of many a pouting lip.⁵³

My brother-in-law, John A. Miles was an applicant for the office of Postmaster at this place & being an excellent man, had a large number of respectable signatures to his petition, but as you expressed yourself very decidedly desirous of conferring the place on A. H. Chapman I never pressed the name of my brother in law, nor even encouraged him to do so.
Yesterday I learned that another person David C. Ambler was appointed to this office – thus cutting off both Gus Chapman & Mr. Miles. I suppose this appointment was made without your knowledge. It is however a very good one, suitable in every way to be made, but it leaves Gus Chapman without anything. He would like something better than the Post Office but would be glad to get that. Ambler the appointee is a very good man, & was strongly recommended for the Post Office, but on learning that you desired "Gus" to have it, changed his application to one for a route agency on one of the Rail Roads. I wish to suggest that if there is any Route agency vacant Ambler might still have it, and "Gus" have the Post Office. I write this without con- sulting "Gus," and because he has talked to me a great deal about his hopes & wishes. I shall show it to him, however before mailing it.¹

It will not be necessary for me in speaking of John Hanks to recount his virtues to you. You know his worth his capacity and his defects if he has any. I only wish to say this to you that if you can find it within your reach to confer some mark of respect upon him during your administration – I know of no man who will feel it more keenly than John Hanks himself. Besides it will be felt and appreciated all over the country in which he lives as a just recognition of old personal ties. No attribute of nature is more beautiful when fitly illustrated than the acknowledgment of former relations in life when one may be supposed to have forgotten them by reason of advancement to distinction and power in earthly honors. The difficulty I plainly see will be to overcome the misfortune Mr. Hanks labors under of not knowing how to write. Should you be able to confer upon him some position where this requirement may be dispensed with – you will have favored an old friend and pleased everybody else. Further than this as the personal friend of Mr. Hanks I do not ask or desire you to go.⁸

Sarah Jane, born June 14, 1822, married Thomas S. Dowling of Charleston, died March 20, 1907.
Nancy, born 1824, married James Shoaff of Edgar County, 1843.
Harriet A., born 1826, married Augustus H. Chapman of Charleston, September 9, 1847.
Amanda, born 1833, married Allison C. Poorman of Charleston.
Mary, born after 1833, married William F. Shriver, June 10, 1862.

After consultation with the President, we have concluded to authorize Dr. William M. Chambers of Illinois, to organize a brigade of four regiments of infantry, native-born Kentuckians, now residents of Illinois, to serve for three years, or during the war. As the several regimental organizations are filled they will be sent to Kentucky for service. Please furnish such aid and facilities as may be necessary to organize promptly.²⁰

I will suppose it is because the number of desirable places you can bestow upon the Republicans of this state is limited, & there are others who have greater claims, in sufficient numbers to fill them. In that case, I shall go to work with a stout heart to support my family, & if possible to retrieve my fortunes, not one whit abating my zeal for the Republican cause, or my devoted friendship for yourself.²³

My friend Thomas A. Marshall, who will hand you this, informs me that he has some difficulty in managing a plantation in your Department. It may be that you withhold nothing from him which can safely be granted; and I do not make any order in the case; but simply wish to say I personally know, so far as such things can be known, that Mr. Marshall is loyal, truthful, and honorable; and that I shall be glad for him to be obliged in any not unreasonable way.³⁴

While nothing has been found in the records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to prove definite guilt on the part of Mr. Hanson, it would seem clear that he was under a heavy cloud of suspicion during most of his tenure of office and that he was replaced because of his administrative inability and this suspicion.⁴⁰

Hanson moved to California with his family and was made Indian Agent for the Digger Indians ... by President Lincoln. Notwithstanding his being a Methodist minister he skinned not only the cattle he purchased for the Indians, but he skinned the Indians as well, sold the beef and fed the Indians on the hoofs, horns and hides. I saw him in 1864, at Long Valley, in the Coast Range mountains, a poor old broken down man; the fire had faded from his eyes and his hands shook with the palsy of age.⁴¹

At the request of Mrs. Fannie Haller a resident of this place, seventy-six years of age, whose love for her country and appreciation of your services in behalf of that country prompted her in the month of May last to send you by express a beautiful quilt, the work of her own hands almost half a century ago. She has not yet been favored with an acknowledgment. . . A note from you stating whether or not you have received it would gratify her.
On the reverse of this letter is the notation in Lincoln’s hand, "Acknowledged, October 5, 1864."⁴³

When Father was in the Union Army and stationed in Virginia, he was sick in the hospital. It was noised about that Lincoln was coming through the hospital. Father said he was beginning to feel pretty good, so when he saw him coming down the row of beds, he sat up in bed and decided to see if Lincoln would recognize him. He said that Lincoln came up to his bed and spoke to him calling him John and asked how the folks were back home and some other questions about his service.⁴⁵

Charley was tried and sentenced to be shot, but Uncle Abe saved him fur he promised to go back into the war ag’in and be a good soldier, and Uncle Abe said to some of the big fellers down to Washington, "Charley used to be a neighbor of mine and I know what kind of stuff he’s made of. He’ll do as he says." So he let him go and Uncle Abe’s words proved true.⁴⁶

James M. Bresee, a well known veteran of the Civil War states that when living near the Coles County village of Trilla with his parents before enlisting, a young woman named Ida Couch came with her children from Kentucky in an ox cart to live near them. Her husband was a soldier in the Union Army. He had sent her $5.00 which she never received and which she very much needed. Being unable to read or write she asked a neighbor to write a letter to the President explaining her plight, and called on Mr. Bresee’s mother to read for her the President’s reply. Mr. Lincoln stated that due to the confusion of the war the mail service was somewhat inefficient and that letters when lost were not easily traced. Fearing that she might not get the money and lest she might suffer for the need of it, he was therefore enclosing money to the amount that had miscarried.⁵⁰

Abe we had a horible time a Munday of court it broke up got in to a fuss by a drunkin Soldier I never saw such a time Thare was 8 or 10 killed in the fight one you no Doct York of paris Edgar County young E. winkler was wounded. . . .¹

I had about concluded to send the Coles County men home, turning over the indicted to the authorities, and discharging the others, when Col. Oaks’ 5 report, with the evidence he had taken in the case was put in my hands. The evidence is very voluminous, and Col. Oaks says it fully implicates every one of the sixteen [fifteen] now held; and so far as I have been able to look into it, his statement is sustained. I cannot now decide the case until I shall have fully examined this evidence.⁶

I have received your note in reference to the Coles County prisoners & appreciate the embarrassment under which you are placed by the report of Col. Oaks. The evidence on which his report is based is not only wholly exparte but was taken when the town was a military camp & the whole community was excited beyond description.
Richard Robinson (brother to James C. Robinson) , was proven to be there, was arrested at his house in Clark County and brought to Charleston & the best men in his neighborhood without distinction of party proved that he was at home all day drunk.⁷
I could cite other cases of similar character which simply prove that there were mistakes growing out of excitement intensified.
If these men can be tried at home or if the testimony can be retaken, before any fair minded man it will establish the innocence of those not indicted.
I deprecate & openly denounce all resistance to or violation of law as much as any one can or need to, but the community genuinely believes most of these men to be innocent & they have confidence that you will not allow them to be sacrificed for the sins of others. I leave this matter in your hands in the full confidence that you will deal justly by these men.⁸

I am requested by our old friend Ficklin to write to you my notions about releasing the 15 copperheads that were arrested for being con- cerned in the outbreak here last spring & have been taken to Fort Delaware. I think none of them are of sufficient consequence to be made state- prisoners of. Several of them were I hear not indicted for any offence by the grand jury of this county which body was thoroughly loyal & well disposed to bring all to justice, against whom there was any proof. I think those who were indicted had better be handed over to the authorities here for trial & the others let loose. Most of them are poor miserable devils, that can do but little good or harm in any way. The leaders and indeed most of the actors in the affair here have so far escaped arrest. So far as 1 understand the feeling here the public would be satisfied to have the prisoners discharged.⁹

I beg leave to enclose you the letter of our mutual friend Thomas A. Marshall, than whom no more ultra Republican lives in this latitude.
He tells you of the insignificance & want of influence & of consequence of the 15 Coles Co. prisoners. Why keep them confined in Fort Delaware.
Powerless for good or evil, & wholly disconnected with the Coles Co. riot, their confinement is entirely without significance. It is a punishment to innocent men but furnish no warning to the guilty. Washington Raridan¹⁰ is in Hospital with slight hopes of recovery. Send him home to be tried at our Court on the 4th Monday of this month. He can give all the bail required, but kept there he is likely to die.
I have told the friends of these prisoners that I had known you long & well & that you would not keep them in prison when there was no proof of their guilt. What have they done that is worthy of death or of bonds? Raridan, Brooks & Shelburne¹¹ are now in hospital with a fair prospect of not getting out alive. Can you not be merciful to the afflicted & give ear to the wailings of the wife and children of each of these afflicted and wrongfully punished men?
Republicans, Democrats & Conservatives here all unite in asking that these men be tried or discharged & why can it not be done? Is the government afraid of a trial in open day? From March till September these men have pined in a prison & most of them have no more connection than your Excellency with the Coles Co. raid. Why then hold them. The 54, Col. Mitchell’s Regt captured at Devall’s Bluff arrive daily & will all be here soon.¹²
I beg of you to act in the case of the Coles Co. prisoners.¹³

Certainly; there were some folks arrested in Charleston, and I for their folks’ sake, went on durin’ the war to get them free, for it was best. I got there and found the White House surrounded with soldiers. I got up to the door to go in, and a reporter [means porter] stopped me and said: "Who do you want to see?" I said, "Mr. Lincoln." He said, "You can’t see him; it aint the time of day yet." "I hain’t come here from Illinois for nothin’." He grinned and showed me the door to his office. Outside was a heap of fellers waitin’ to get in to see the President. I opened the door kinder soft, and at the other end of a big room sat Abe at an old desk worth about six bits. "Hey?" I hollered, "you’re a pretty President, ain’t ye?" He looked up and said, "Well, Dennis is that you?" and made a run and just gathered me. When I could git able to talk I said: "I don’t want no offis, Abe." He said, "most of ’em do Dennis" and smiled kinder tired. I told my errand and he said to come up next morning and he would fix it. We talked an hour as friendly as ever about long-ago times, then he told me to go down to the house and see Mary – that’s his wife. She’s dead now, poor soul. I knowed they was too high-falutin’ down to Mary’s for me, so I went to a tavern and put up. Next morning I went up, and Abe had an arm-load of indictments, and he said, "take these over to Stanton and he’ll fix it." I said, "Abe, I don’t know where the plaguegoned place is." So he called a reporter standin’ by and said: "Take these to Mr. Stanton." Pretty soon Mr. Stanton, in a bobtail coat, came in. He didn’t want to let ’em go; but Abe was kind and made him sign ’em. When Stanton went out, I said: "Abe, if I was as big as you are, I would take Stanton over my knee and spank him." He laughed and said, "it is not easy to keep my cabinet all in good humor." I left an’ came home and never saw him again. The next spring he was killed.²⁰

Pursue no halting policy. Do not fear to march right up to the limit of all the power conferred on you. The blood of the North is up, take advantage of it. Garrison Washington and Harper’s Ferry, and New- port Ky. and St. Louis or Jefferson Barracks with heavy bodies of Northern volunteers. It is the way to save the border states.¹

You will unquestionably need more troops. You ought to make quick work with Missouri. I have no faith in Kentucky & believe that Crittenden & his friends only make matters worse. I fear in sending arms there you are only aiding the traitors unless you send a strong military force there. All good Union men would be glad to see a strong government army among them & whoever would be offended at that will prove a secessionist in the end. I am sorry Genl McClellan censured Prentiss for breaking up a secession camp in Ky. I had hoped we were done with that policy. ... It is no time to temporize with treason. You have drawn troops from Wisconsin and Indiana to the east, while the best fighting states against you are in the west, Tennessee, Missouri & Kentucky and you may as well make up your mind you have got them all to fight.²

First the Army ought to be purged of unworthy officers. Rigid examination should be at once instituted, and no man allowed to receive or retain a commission, unless his qualifications are fair. . . . Next there ought not to be any new regiments received into the service. You have regimental organizations enough already. It is in every way wasteful and wrong to increase the number. There are regiments in the field, with full sets of officers of all kinds & less than 200 men. I presume none are full. . . . But will you dismiss these officers, because their men have been killed in battle or by disease in your service, especially when they understand the business of soldiering so much better than new men can. If you do you make a terrible mistake. Nor will it do to reply that new regiments will be officered by men from old regiments. That is true, but what sort of men will get new Commissions. Often as I know the very meanest & worst. The good ones are not hanging around Governors’ Mansions, for executive favor. They are in the field trying to make the most of the handful of men they have left. It is those who care for nothing but the pay and promotion, & by one false pretext or another have been able to leave their regiment and hang around cities that get promotions in new regiments. Besides it will take six months to raise new regiments & fit them for the field. ... It may be said that you can not fill up old regiments by the volunteer system. Then fill them by draft. You can’t get new regiments by the volunteer system in time to do any good . . . adopt some sure and simple system of drafting, fill your regiments to the maximum in 30 days. Let your conscripts go in with your veterans, and under experienced officers who have staid in the field. . . . Your $25 bounty in advance is well enough but give it to the conscripts. You will be able to get far better material by drafting.³

Volunteering, if we may believe the papers, is going on finely, it may be so in other places, nothing is being done here. A war meeting at the Court House yesterday was well attended. The house would not hold the people. Fine speeches were made. A band of music as well as the Drum and fife were on hand to kindle enthusiasm. The result was, that besides the self chosen Captain & Lieutenants, three men volunteered. Yet Coles County is not exhausted. There were 500 able bodied men in the Court House yard yesterday after noon & I think there are at least 100 in this town, between the ages of 18 & 30, who are unmarried. Not one of them will volunteer. The right plan is to make a levy en masse, put the young unmarried men into active duty, & organize the others as a reserve. Men with families have no business in the ranks while the country is full of those who have no such charge upon them. I have not read the law. I do not know whether you have technically the power to do these things or not, but I do know that something energetic must be done, to inspire public opinion. . . .
To me it seems that so long as the Rebellion is sustained by the labor of the slaves & the energy of leaders that are really in earnest, it will make head against such measures & such leaders as are trusted to overthrow it. . . . You must weaken the enemy by depriving him of the service of the negro. This can be easily done – promise them freedom so they will come to you by the 100,000. I saw enough in Arkansas to know that this is true. But the author of Order No. 3 is Commander in Chief.⁴
This nation can not exist half slave & half free. It is not often that the opportunity is given to a man, to do as much good as you can now do. You can make this nation all free. You can preserve its existence. You can give freedom to 4,000,000 of human beings. You can make yourself the greatest benefactor of the human race, that God ever permitted to walk the earth. But you cant do it, by pursuing a halting policy – you cant do it by listening to the authors of the border state address to you,⁵ nor can you as I fear do it by entrusting the command of your armies to men who have no sympathies with you on these subjects. If it is necessary to have Halleck & McClellan to command your armies, & so continue to lay month after month digging ditches at least make them open in every camp a recruiting office for niggers, & thus they will do something to weaken the enemy.
You certainly know that no great object good or bad was ever ac- complished except by boldness. Suppose Caesar had stopped to dig a ditch at the Rubicon. Suppose he or Cromwell or Alexander or Moses had consulted the Crittendens & border state men of their day. What would they have accomplished. You have the opportunity to play with the chances in your favor for the greatest prize that fame can bestow, but if you do not play with the utmost boldness, you lose it.⁶

You can get the ear of the President.
Tell him to either make a Head to the Medical Dept of the Army or abolish the whole thing. I dont think it fair that we should be denied a head.
Individuals are small affairs now. Let us have right. The Secretary of War is a man, – that is all, and has no right as we all think to sacrifice a noble and time honored profession to passion or because of fancied or real derelictions of one individual.
I ask nothing for Chambers. I am ever for "Father Abraham." I think him a man of more unbending integrity than any man in the country. God bless him!

Mr. Lincoln
This is from your old friend Dr. Chambers of Charleston, Ill. I know nothing of the controversy. I send you the letter as I rec’d it.

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