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973.7L63

A A nil f

Angte, PaulM

Four Lincoln firsfs

LINCOLN ROOM

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
LIBRARY

MEMORIAL

the Class of 1901

founded by

HARLAN HOYT HORNER

and

HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER

FOUR LINCOLN FIRSTS

By Paul M. Angle

[Separate from the Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America]
Volume Thirty-six, First Quarter, 1 942

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2012 with funding from

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

http://archive.org/details/fourlincolnfirstOOangl

'S.7U

FOUR LINCOLN FIRSTS

By Paul M. Angle

In the f reparation of this paper I have been aided most generously by Ernest J.
Wessen, Mansfield , Ohio; Daniel H. New hall. New York; Harold Lancour, Li-
brarian, The Cooper Union Library; Joseph Gavit, Associate Librarian, New
York State Library; Gail Curtis, Reference Librarian, Michigan State Library;
and Paul North Rice, Chief of the- Reference Department, New York Public Li-
brary. All undertook extensive research in my behalf, and this note of acknowl-
edgment is far from adequate recognition of their services.

Subtreasury Speech > December 26 y 183Q

IN Illinois, a century ago, politics centered at Springfield.
There lived such aggressive leaders as Stephen A. Douglas,
John Calhoun, John T. Stuart, E. D. Baker, and Abraham
Lincoln, while others equally prominent and mettlesome were
frequently attracted to the state capitol by the sessions of the leg-
islature and the courts. Given an occasion, there was certain to be
speechmaking, and then as now, speeches got into print.

In the fall of 1839, the time was ripe for political oratory.
Martin Van Buren, in the White House, was unpopular, and the
Whigs of Illinois were elated by the prospect of toppling him

* Read at the Society's Meeting held in Chicago, December 30, 1941.

2 Bibliographical Society of America

from what they were pleased to call his throne. The President,
however, had staunch defenders, unafraid to meet his critics in
open argument. In November, when a number of leaders of both
parties were brought together in Springfield by a court session, a
nightly debate of nearly a week's duration took place. A month
later, after the opening of the biennial session of the legislature
had brought the politicians together again, the performance was
repeated. One of the Whig speakers on both occasions was Abra-
ham Lincoln, then serving his third term as a member of the
House of Representatives from Sangamon County.

Lincoln's speech in the second debate, delivered on the night of
December 26, 1839, was an argument against the subtreasury,
presented so effectively that the Whigs decided to print it in pam-
phlet form and distribute it as a campaign document. It was the
first of his speeches to be accorded this distinction. Because of this
fact, and because the form in which most collectors have seen it
has mystified them, it deserves to be included in this discussion.

The mystery I shall state in the words of a dealer of long ex-
perience. I quote from a letter received some years ago :

I have enclosed in your package today a copy of Fish 5 1 8 of which I want
your opinion. This piece, the last owner told me, came out of John Hay's library,
having been presented to him by Thos. J. Henderson.

According to my records you and Governor Horner are the only collectors
that have it. It is on the want lists of all the others. Stewart never saw it nor Mc-
Lellan.

But what is it? Obviously, it was not printed in 1839. Is this Henderson the
old time Illinois man who was a Congressman in 1 874 when he was 50 years old?
And where did he get it? It is on pulp paper which was not used until the middle
80s.

It certainly is a good piece but I suspect it is comparatively modern. If you
throw any light on it I will appreciate it.

Light came not from me but from Thomas J. Henderson him-
self, who had been, as my correspondent surmised, a prominent
Illinois Republican congressman. Henderson died in February,
1 9 1 1 . Two months later a sketch of his life was published in the
Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society.1 In that sketch sev-

1 Vol. IV, No. 1, pp. 67-81.

Four Lincoln Firsts 3

eral paragraphs were quoted from the manuscript of a speech
which death had prevented him from delivering on Lincoln's
Birthday. There he related that his father — like Lincoln, a
Whig member of the Illinois legislature — had been present at
the political debate in Springfield in December, 1839. Hender-
son wrote :

Abraham Lincoln made a speech on the Whig side, replying to Mr. Douglas
and Mr. Lamborn, which was of so much ability and force that when the Legisla-
ture met, the Whig members had the speech printed in pamphlet form as a cam-
paign document, and when my father came home from Springfield he brought a
number of copies of the speech with him, and attracted as I was, by the eloquent
peroration of Mr. Lincoln's speech, although but a boy, I preserved a copy of the
speech and committed the peroration to memory. . . . Some years ago I brought
with me to Washington City the copy of this old speech, which I had preserved
and still keep, and at his request, I permitted John G. Nicolay to copy and pub-
lish it in one of the last volumes of his and John Hay's life of Lincoln.

If I had not preserved this pamphlet copy of Mr. Lincoln's speech, when a
boy, I have good reason to believe the speech would have been lost, for a few years
ago at the request of some friends, I had a reprint of the speech made by Gibson &
Sons, in Washington, and presented a copy of it to John Hay, then Secretary of
State of the United States, and when I did so, I asked him the question, whether
he or John Nicolay in their researches for material for the life and speeches of
Abraham Lincoln, had found any other copy of the speech than the one I per-
mitted them to copy and publish, and he said, no, they never found any other copy.

Even without Henderson's copy of the original pamphlet, the
text of Lincoln's Subtreasury Speech would have been preserved,
for it was published in the Sangamo Journal before it was issued as a
pamphlet. Nevertheless, the original edition is very rare. The
Illinois State Historical Library, however, has an uncut copy in its
collection. It is a ten-page pamphlet which measures 7 by 9^
inches, and has the following caption title :

Speech of Mr. Lincoln, | At a Political Discussion, | In the Hall of the House
of Representatives, December, 1839. | At Springfield, Illinois.

The Henderson reprint also has ten pages but is somewhat
smaller, measuring 6% by 9^ inches. It too has a caption title,
identical with that of the original edition. The paper, however, is
wood pulp, and the type much too modern for the year 1839.

4 Bibliographical Society of America

Paper and type should enable all except tyros to recognize the re-
print for what it is, but for anyone so unsure of himself as to need
other means of identification, it may be noted that on p. 10 of the
reprint there are 28 lines, instead of 33 as in the original.

The "House Divided" Speech

Disdaining strict accuracy, we may say, with Alexandre Dumas,
"twenty years after." It is the night of the 16th of June, 1858,
and Abraham Lincoln is about to address the members of the Re-
publican State Convention, who that afternoon had selected him
as the man in the party most likely to defeat Stephen A. Douglas
for election to the United States Senate. The crowd in the Hall of
the House of Representatives listens intently as he begins slowly
and with emphasis:

If we could first know zvhere we are, and whither we are tending, we could
then better judge what to do, and how to do it.

We are now far into the jijth year, since a policy was initiated, with the
avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation.

Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only, not ceased, but
has constantly augmented.

In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and
passed.

Then came the paraphrase2 which furnished the title by which
the speech has ever since been known : "A house divided against
itself cannot stand."

It was a bold speech and a good speech, and because of its pre-
diction of certain strife, it aroused as much controversy as any-
thing Abraham Lincoln ever said. For these reasons the identifi-
cation of the first separate publication of the speech would be a
matter of interest. But there is an additional reason for establish-
ing the original text. In Lincoln's published writings the "House

2 "If a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand." Mark. Ill, 25.

Four Lincoln Firsts 5

Divided" speech is printed in straight roman type, and divided
into orthodox paragraphs. In all contemporary printings, on the
other hand, the text is heavily italicized and set in very short
paragraphs. The effect of the two different typographical styles
upon a reader is materially different. Which conveys the impres-
sion Lincoln desired?

Very soon after the adjournment of the convention, its pro-
ceedings were published by the proprietors of the Illinois State
Journal. This pamphlet, octavo,3 with twelve pages, has this cover
title:

Except for the cover, three short paragraphs on p. 9, and half a
column on p. 1 2, all type used in this pamphlet was lifted from
the June 17 and June 18 issues of the Illinois State Journal— the,
convention proceedings from the issue of the 1 7th, the speeches
of Lincoln and Gustave Koerner from that of the next day. The
use of the newspaper type distinguishes this from a second edition
which has the same title and the same general appearance, but
which was completely reset. One may assume, I think, that the
publishers, anticipating no extraordinary demand, distributed the
type after one printing, and then found that there was a large
enough market to justify another edition. Fortunately, for pur-
poses of easy identification, the typesetters had difficulty with the
word "Springfield" in the title of both editions. In the first, they
spelled it "Springfied" in the next to the last line; in the second,
it was spelled "Spingfield" in the fifth line. Typographical er-
rors have their uses.

Among those in attendance at the Republican State Convention
was C. W. Waite, editor of The True Republican of Sycamore, De
Kalb County, Illinois. Waite was impressed by the convention,

3 The Illinois State Historical Library has three copies of this pamphlet, all uncut.
They measure, in inches: 6}& x 9^, 6j4 x 10^, and 7^2 x io}4-

6 Bibliographical Society of America

and ran a four-column account of it in the first issue of his paper
to be published after his return home — that for June 22.4 In that
account is this sentence:

As Mr. Lincoln's speech was phonographically reported, we shall attempt to
give no abstract of it this week, but will present it entire to our readers in our next
issue.

True to its promise, The True Republican for June 29, 1858,
carried the text of Lincoln's speech. With it appeared this editorial
endorsement:

Of course every Republican will carefully read the speech of Hon. Abram
Lincoln, which we publish in another column. It was reported phonographically,
with all the emphases which the distinguished speaker made accurately marked.
As we glance over the emphasized portions, every gesture is vividly recalled to our
mind, and the convincing and earnest tones again ring in our ear.

Perhaps the demand for copies of the paper containing Lin-
coln's speech outran the supply 5 perhaps it was simply Waite's
enthusiasm that led him to lift the type from his issue of June 29
and print Lincoln's speech separately in a sextodecimo pamphlet
of 1 6 pages. Whatever the reason, the honor of issuing the first
exclusive publication of one of Lincoln's greatest speeches must
go to him and to the Sycamore True Republican.5

Here is the full title — a cover title — of one of the very rarest
items in Lincolniana:

Comparison of texts poses an interesting question. The True
Republican text is inferior to that of the Proceedings — on p. 4 of the
former two paragraphs are transposed, on p. 10 two lines are
dropped out, and not quite so many words are italicized. Even so,

4 The True Republican was a weekly.

5 The edition of the "House Divided" speech brought out by the Albany Evening
Journal — Evening Journal Tracts No. j — was published during the campaign of
i860. The text of that pamphlet is something of a mystery. In italics, it is identical
with the Proceedings, but there are important and unaccountable variations in
language.

Four Lincoln Firsts y

in paragraphing and italics the degree of similarity between the
two texts is too great to be accidental. One must conclude, with
Douglas C. McMurtrie,6 that the compositor who set the True
Republican type had before him either a copy of the Illinois State
Journal for June 1 8, 1 858, or one of the Proceedings pamphlets.

Yet Waite insisted that the speech was "phonographically"—
that is, stenographically — reported, and certainly led his readers
to believe that he printed it from a shorthand record. On the
other hand, William H. Herndon stated that Lincoln wrote the
"House Divided" speech

on stray envelopes and scraps of paper, as ideas suggested themselves, putting
them into that miscellaneous and convenient receptacle, his hat. As the conven-
tion drew near he copied the whole on connected sheets, carefully revising every
line and sentence, and fastened them together, for reference during the delivery
of the speech, and for publication.7

Horace White was even more explicit:

I sat a short distance from Mr. Lincoln when he delivered the "house-di-
vided-against-itself" speech, on the 1 7th of June. This was delivered from man-
uscript, and was the only one I ever heard him deliver in that way. When it was
concluded he put the manuscript in my hands and asked me to go to the State
Journal office and read the proof of it. I think it had already been set in type. Be-
fore I had finished this task Mr. Lincoln himself came into the composing room
of the State Journal and looked over the revised proofs. He said to me that he had
taken a great deal of pains with this speech, and that he wanted it to go before the
people just as he had prepared it.8

Here, apparently, is contradiction, one man asserting that the
speech was printed from a stenographic report, others that it was
printed from manuscript copy. The differences between the True
Republican and Illinois State Journal texts are slight, but in view of
Lincoln's insistence that the speech be printed accurately, the
truth of the matter is worth establishing.

6 "A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand" By Abraham Lincoln The
Text of This Celebrated Speech as Originally Written, Paragraphed, Italicized &
Proofread by its Author, Printed in its Entirety for the First Time since its Con-
temporary Publication. With an Introduction by Douglas C. McMurtrie. Chicago
and New York, 1936.

7 W. H. Herndon. Life of Lincoln, New York, 1930, p. 324.

8 Herndon & Weik. Abraham Lincoln, The True Story of a Great Life, New
York, 1893, II, p. 92.

8 Bibliographical Society of America

On reflection, there appears to be no real contradiction. The
proceedings of the convention were reported stenographically.
That we know. Waite, therefore, undoubtedly saw a stenogra-
pher at work, perhaps saw him taking notes while Lincoln was
speaking. In all probability, he assumed that the Journal's report
of the speech came from these notes. He was simply mistaken.

Ill

The Cooper Union Address

Students of Lincoln's life are agreed that his address at
Cooper Institute on February 27, 1 860, was essential to his nomi-
nation for the Presidency. Without the favorable impression that
he created on that occasion, it is unlikely that his aspirations
would have been taken seriously. And of major importance in
creating that impression were the thousands of pamphlet copies
of his speech distributed after its delivery. A study of those pam-
phlets, therefore, is of historical as well as bibliographical im-
portance.

The New York Tribune, most influential newspaper in the
country, printed Lincoln's speech in full in its issue for February
28, i860. In that same issue appeared an editorial, presumably
by Horace Greeley, praising the speech and speaker in glowing
terms:

The Speech of Abraham Lincoln at the Cooper Institute last evening was one
of the happiest and most convincing political arguments ever made in this City,
and was addressed to a crowded and most appreciating audience. Since the days
of Clay and Webster, no man has spoken to a larger assemblage of the intellect and
mental culture of our City. Mr. Lincoln is one of Nature's orators, using his rare
powers solely and effectively to elucidate and to convince, though their inevitable
effect is to delight and electrify as well. We present herewith a very full and ac-
curate report of this Speech ; yet the tones, the gestures, the kindling eye and the
mirth provoking look, defy the reporter's skill. The vast assemblage frequently
rang with cheers and shouts of applause, which were prolonged and intensified
at the close. No man ever before made such an impression on his first appeal to a
New-York audience. . . .

We shall soon issue his Speech of last night in pamphlet form for cheap circu-
lation.

Four Lincoln Firsts 9

In this same issue of the New York Tribune appeared an adver-
tisement which had been running since February 2 1 — an adver-
tisement of The Tribune Campaign Tracts. Listed were No. 1 , Wil-
liam H. Seward's "Irrepressible Conflict" Speech j and No. 2,
Henry Wilson's speech entitled, "Democratic Leaders for Dis-
union." Unnumbered, but advertised as available, was Cassius M.
Clay's speech at Cooper Institute, February 17, i860; while it
was also announced that orders for Helper's Impending Crisis
could be filled on the day of receipt.

On March 1 this notice, which was kept standing for months,
was enlarged by the addition of No. 3 — Seward's speech of Feb-
ruary 29, 1 860, in the U. S. Senate. On March 6 it was enlarged
again — this time with the announcement of No. 4— "Speech of
Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, delivered at the Cooper Institute."
An editorial in the same issue contained this statement: "The
Speech of Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, at the Cooper Institute
in this City . . . has just been issued in pamphlet form on large

type at this office " (Dealers please note: price was 4^ a single

copy, 25^ per dozen, $1.25 per 1 00, $ 1 0.00 per 1 ,000. )

The New York Tribune, therefore, had Lincoln's Cooper Union
Speech in pamphlet form on sale just eight days after its delivery.

But what of other editions of the speech, issued by other pub-
lishers? At least a dozen editions were printed in 1 860. Not long
ago, when I asked a veteran bookman for his opinion about them,
his reply was: "Which of these was the first is anybody's guess."

The guessing, however, can be very greatly restricted. The
contents or imprints of several prove that they were published
after Lincoln's nomination. They, therefore, are eliminated as
possibilities. Moreover, the publication dates of most of those
which remain can be established definitely or approximately.

Closest in time to Tribune Tract No. 4 was probably the Chi-
cago Press & Tribuneys edition with the title, Press £5? Tribune Docu-
ment No. 1. This paper printed Lincoln's speech in its issue of
March 2, i860, and praised it editorially. On March 9 it an-

i o Bibliographical Society of America

nounced, under the heading, "Press and Tribune Documents for
i860": "We shall immediately issue in pamphlet form the two
most effective political documents of the year— the speeches of
Abraham Lincoln at the Cooper Institute, New York, and of
William H. Seward in the Senate of the United States. ..." I
have not been able to establish the exact date of publication, but
even if the pamphlet came out within a day or two, it was later
than Tribune Tract No. 4 by several days.

In Lincoln's home, the Illinois State Journal printed the Cooper
Union Address on March 3. On March 1 3 it ran this notice under
the heading, "Campaign Documents": "We shall shortly issue a
revised pamphlet edition of Mr. Lincoln's Great New York
Speech, printed with large type and on good paper. Also Mr. Sew-
ard's late speech in the United States Senate. ..." Although this
notice headed the city column, which was devoted to live local
news and was changed daily, it was kept standing until April 3,
and then dropped. Not until April 24 did the following notice
appear, also at the head of the city column :

Journal Campaign Documents
No. 1.
A vindication of the principles of the Republican party, embraced in the
speech of Abraham Lincoln, delivered in Cooper Institute, New York City,
Feb. 27, i860. Now ready.

Evening Journal Tract No. 5, the Albany Evening Journal's
pamphlet edition of the Cooper Union Address, was published at
about the same time. Tract No. 2, Seward's speech of February
29, was advertised at the paper's masthead on and after March 8,
but the notice was not enlarged to include Tract No. 5 — Lincoln's
speech— until April 23. Another newspaper publication of the
speech — Detroit Tribune Tract No. 5 — came at least weeks later.
The Detroit Tribune did not publish Lincoln's speech in its news
columns until May 28, and an editorial reference in the same
issue proves that at that date the paper had it available in no other
form.

Four Lincoln Firsts 1 1

Only one other edition of the Cooper Union Address can be
considered as a possible contestant of Tribune Tract No. 4's claim
to primacy.9 That is a sixteen-page octavo pamphlet with the fol-
lowing cover title :

In addition to the text of the address, this pamphlet contains a re-
porter's account of the extemporaneous speeches made at the
meeting by Horace Greeley, James W. Nye, James A. Briggs,
and Judge Culver.

While the New York Tribune was the source of most printings
of the Cooper Union Address, the text of The Republican Party
Vindicated came from the New York Herald, which published
Lincoln's speech in full in its issue for February 28. The Tribune
and Herald versions, moreover, vary in several particulars. Most
of the variations are of little consequence, but two are important.
Between the second and third sentences in the paragraph be-
ginning, "To enumerate. . ." as the speech is printed in The Com-
plete Works of Abraham Lincoln, V, p. 301, The Republican Party
Vindicated {Herald text) has this sentence: "He was a Georgian,
too." It also has this passage after the sentence, "The elections
came, and your expectations were not quite fulfilled," V, p. 315:
"You did not sweep New York, and New Jersey, and Wisconsin,
and Minnesota, precisely like fire sweeps over the prairie in high
wind. You are still drumming at this idea. Go on with it. If you
think you can, by slandering a woman, make her love you, or by
villifying a man make him vote with you, go on and try it." The
passage was punctuated, if the reporter is to be believed, with
"laughter," and "boisterous laughter and prolonged applause."

This text, moreover, was the one used by the Republican Exec-

9 I am not ignoring New-Yorker Demokrat Flugblatt No. 4 — a German trans-
lation of the Cooper Union Address. The fact that the other titles in the series were
identical with those of the Tribune Tracts indicates that all were German translations
of the New York Tribune campaign documents. I have been unable to locate a file of
the New-Yorker Demokrat.

LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OP HHMnrf

1 2 Bibliographical Society of America

utive Congressional Committee in the edition of the Cooper
Union Speech which it published and circulated. It was also used
in the party pamphlet that contains the speech of John Hickman,
July 24, 1 860, in addition to Lincoln's address. The fact that both
these pamphlets also have the title, The Republican Party Vindi-
cated—The Demands of the South Explained , which was used, I
think, in no other edition, may mean that all three were pub-
lished at about the same time. If that is the case, the first Wash-
ington edition undoubtedly came out after Lincoln's nomination.
On the other hand, the use of the same title may be without sig-
nificance as far as the date of publication is concerned. The best
reason for assigning priority to Tribune Tract No. 4 lies in the
fact that in 1 860, New York and Washington were at least a day
apart as far as mail was concerned. Presumably, the New York
Tribune got out Tribune Tract No. 4 as soon as possible after the
delivery of Lincoln's speech. If The Republican Party Vindicated
was also issued as soon as possible, it would have been at least a
day later.

The textual differences between the three Washington pam-
phlets and all others raise the question of the correct text of the
address. According to Lincoln's own statement,10 Tribune Tract
No. 4 was published without supervision on his part, but Journal
Campaign Document No. 1— the Springfield publication — had
the benefit of his own "hasty supervising." The text of the latter,
however, is identical with the former 5 the only differences are in
spelling and capitalization. However, the Nott-Brainerd edition,
published by The Young Men's Republican Union of New York,
differs from all earlier editions in one important respect — the
correction of a factual statement — and in several minor matters of
phraseology. Because Lincoln read the proofs of this edition,11

10 Lincoln to Charles C. Nott, Springfield, May 31, i860. Gilbert A. Tracy.
Uncollected Letters of Abraham Lincoln, pp. 149-51.

11 The Address of the Hon. Abraham Lincoln . . . With Notes by Charles C. Nott
& Cephas Brainerd. New York, i860. The Editors' Preface is dated September, 1 860.
A facsimile reprint of this pamphlet, with an added Introduction and the Nott-
Lincoln correspondence, was published in 1907.

Four Lincoln Firsts i 3

and carried on a correspondence with one of its editors, this is the
authoritative text. Fortunately, in the case of the Cooper Union
Address, the editors of Lincoln's writings departed from their
customary practice of following the poorest possible version.
Both Nicolay & Hay and Lapsley adhered to the Nott-Brainerd
text — the latter even to the reproduction of italics.

The Gettysburg Address

Beyond question, Lincoln's greatest speech — perhaps the
greatest speech in the English language — is the Gettysburg
Address.

Collectors have generally agreed that the Gettysburg Address
was first put into print, aside from the newspapers, in a 4 8 -page
booklet entitled An Oration Delivered on the Battlefield oj Gettys-
burg . . . , by Edward Everett, published by Baker & Godwin,
New York, 1863, although two Boston publications12 have had
some stout champions. But one of the fascinations of bibliography
comes from the possibility that at any time a new discovery may
overturn accepted beliefs. Such a discovery was provided by the
Lincoln Collection of the late Governor Henry Horner, which is
now a valued possession of the Illinois State Historical Library.

In this collection is a 16-page pamphlet, uncut, unopened,
measuring 7 by 10 J^ inches, with the following cover title:

This pamphlet contains a description of the Gettysburg battle-
field, an account of the activities at Gettysburg on November 1 8

12 Address of His Excellency John A. Andrew, to the Two Branches of the Legis-
lature of Massachusetts, January 8, 1864, Boston, 1864, and Addresses of Hon. Ed-
ward Everett, at the consecration of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg . . . , Boston :
Little, Brown and Company, 1864.

1 4 Bibliographical Society of America

and 19, the text of the short speech which Lincoln delivered
there on the evening of the 1 8th, Edward Everett's address, and
Lincoln's speech of dedication. Except for a few column inches,
the pamphlet was printed from type lifted from the issues of the
Washington Chronicle for November 18, 19, 20, and 21. Included
in the newly set material was the text of Lincoln's speech — the
one feature of the pamphlet that gives it distinction.

(Curiously, the Washington Chronicle failed to publish Lin-
coln's speech in its daily issues. Everett's oration was printed in the
issue for November 20 ; in that of the following day appeared
dispatches describing the ceremonies and concluding: "The Presi-
dent then delivered his address j which, though short, glittered
with gems, evincing the gentleness and goodness of heart peculiar
to him, and will receive the attention and command the admira-
tion of all the tens of thousands who will read it.")

When newspaper type has been used for a separate publication,
one may safely assume that the separate publication was issued
with little delay. In this case, however, we need not rely on as-
sumptions. In the Washington Chronicle for November 20 ap-
peared this notice: "Edward Everett's Great Oration and the
Proceedings of the Dedication of the National Cemetery at
Gettysburg, will be issued tomorrow in pamphlet form. — For
Sale at the Chronicle Office." On the next day the same no-
tice appeared without change. Since that was the day— November
21— when the Chronicle merely mentioned Lincoln's speech, I
think we may assume that the publication of the pamphlet was
held up until the text of his address was available. If this assump-
tion is correct, the pamphlet was not published before November
22, but there can be little doubt that it was issued then, or, at the
latest, a day or two afterward. Certainly it appeared long before
the carefully printed, 48-page booklet which has heretofore been
credited with first publication.

Now, having, as I believe, identified the true first printing of
the Gettysburg Address, I regret the necessity of pointing out the

Four Lincoln Firsts 1 5

fact that the text to be found in The Gettysburg Solemnities is a
faulty one. Here it is:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a
new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men
are equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation,
or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are now on a
great battle-field of that war. We are met to dedicate a portion of that field as the
final resting-place of those who have given their last life-blood that that nation
might live. But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we
cannot hallow this ground. The brave men living and dead who struggled here
have consecrated it far above our poor power to add to or detract. [Applause.]
The world will little know nor long remember what we say; but it can never for-
get what they did here. [Applause.] And it is for us living to be dedicated here to
the unfinished work that they have thus far so nobly carried forward. [Applause.]
It is rather for us here to be dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that
from this honored day we take increased devotion to that cause for which they
here gave the last full measure of devotion. That we here highly resolve that
these dead shall not have died in vain ; that the nation shall, under God, have a
new birth of freedom. [Applause.] And that government of the people, by the
people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth. [Applause.]

Note that the sentence, "It is altogether fitting and proper
that we should do this," is omitted. The other differences be-
tween this and the accepted text will be readily apparent to every
reader.

The textual deficiencies of this version of the Gettysburg Ad-
dress lead one to ask when the accepted text was first printed. Be-
fore that question can be answered we must ask another: What is
the accepted text? The answer is not so simple as one would think.

In Abraham Lincoln: A History™ Nicolay and Hay present a
version taken, according to their footnote, from an autograph
copy of the address dated November 19, 1863. The text, how-
ever, is not that of Lincoln's first draft, nor is it that of the fair
copy which he made on the morning of November 19.14 In an

13 VIII, p. 202.

14 The five extant manuscript copies of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address are printed
in facsimile in William E. Barton. Lincoln at Gettysburg, Indianapolis, 1930, and
Charles Moore. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural, Boston and
New York, 1927.

1 6 Bibliographical Society of America

article entitled, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address™ John G. Nicolay
undertook to show how the "authentic text" of the address— by
which he meant the one printed in Abraham Lincoln: A History —
was established. He related that soon after Lincoln's return from
Gettysburg, David Wills, who had arranged the dedication, asked
the President for a copy of his remarks.

To comply with this request [Nicolay wrote], the President reexamined his
original draft, and the version which had appeared in the newspapers, and saw
that, because of the variations between them, the first seemed incomplete, and
the others imperfect. By his direction, therefore, his secretaries made copies of
the Associated Press report as it was printed in several prominent newspapers.
Comparing these with his original draft, and with his own fresh recollection of
the form in which he delivered it, he made a new autograph copy — a careful and
deliberate revision — which has become the standard and authentic text.

So Nicolay said. But if this "careful and deliberate revision"
was ever sent to Wills, the latter failed to use it in the official ac-
count of the ceremonies— the Little, Brown and Company publi-
cation of 1 864. There the text appears to be that of the New York
Tribune, with two variations which probably resulted from type-
setters' carelessness or editorial meddling. Moreover, the manu-
script which Nicolay described is not known to exist, so if Lincoln
really intended it to be the official version, we shall probably
never know exactly how he wanted his greatest speech preserved
for posterity.

Actually, I think we do know exactly how Lincoln wanted his
speech preserved. In February, 1 864, George Bancroft asked for
a copy of the address in order that it might be included in a vol-
ume of facsimiles entitled, Autografh Leaves of our Country's
Authors. Lincoln complied, but because he wrote on both sides of
the paper, his manuscript was not suitable for reproduction. At
Bancroft's request he sent a second copy on March 1 1, 1 864, this
time writing only on one side of the sheets. This copy was duly
reproduced in the book for which it was intended, which was pub-
lished by Cushings & Bailey, Baltimore, 1 864. As far as is known,
this was Lincoln's final revision.

15 Century Magazine, February, 1894, pp. 596-608.

Four Lincoln Firsts 1 7

Verbally, this is the text which Nicolay & Hay printed in
Abraham Lincoln: A History. There, however, they set it in one in-
stead of three paragraphs, and failed to follow exactly Lincoln's
punctuation and capitalization. When they printed the speech in
the Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, they took more editorial
liberties. This time they followed Lincoln's own paragraphing,
but "four score" was rendered "fourscore," "can not" was
changed to "cannot," several commas were omitted, and three
dashes were changed to semicolons. Arthur Brooks Lapsley, in
the Federal Edition of The Works of Abraham Lincoln, New York
and London, 1906, VII, p. 20, did much better. Had he only put
a comma after the first "nation" in the sixth line of the text and a
period at the end of the twenty-first line, he would have achieved
complete accuracy. These variations, of course, are of small im-
portance, but when editors have before them a text which the
author has revised with care, there can be no excuse for any de-
parture from it.

Now to answer the questions which precipitated this digression :
The accepted text of the Gettysburg Address is that which Lin-
coln prepared for Autograph Leaves of our Country* s Authors, and it
was first published, but only in facsimile, in that book. In type, a
wholly accurate text is not to be found in any of the standard
compilations of Lincoln's writings.

Throughout this paper I have emphasized, perhaps unduly,
the comparison of texts. The emphasis, however, has been delib-
erate. That we have no reliable edition of Lincoln's writings is a
standing reproach to American scholarship. The fact that the edi-
torial shortcomings which Lincoln's published works exhibit re-
sulted from carelessness and lax standards rather than from intent
does not mitigate the misfortune. The greatest need in all Lin-
colniana is an inclusive, scholarly edition of Lincoln's writings.
And textual accuracy is bibliography's greatest potential contri-
bution to that end.

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA

973.7L63AAN4F C001

FOUR LINCOLN FIRSTS. NY

3 0112 031780858

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