The Lincoln Collection of the Illinois State Historical Library

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The Lincoln collection of the
Illinois State Historical Library
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LINCOLN ROOM

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
LIBRARY

MEMORIAL

the Class of 1901

founded by

HARLAN HOYT HORNER

and

HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER

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THE Lincoln
COLLECTION

of the

ILLINOIS STATE
HISTORICAL LIBRARY

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THE LINCOLN COLLECTION

of the ILLINOIS STATE HISTORICAL LIBRARY

By
PAUL M. ANGLE

This is the first of a series of booklets describing
the resources of the Illinois State Historical Library.
Published by the Library , at Springfield, 1940.

PRINTED BY AUTHORITY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2012 with funding from

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

http://archive.org/details/lincolncollectionOOangle

oc

THE ILLINOIS STATE HISTORICAL LIBRARY

CENTENNIAL BUILDING

Springfield, Illinois

TRUSTEES

Oliver R. Barrett Kenilworth

Lloyd Lewis Chicago

Irving Dilli ard Collinsville

LIBRARIAN

Paul M. Angle Springfield

THE ILLINOIS STATE
HISTORICAL LIBRARY

The Illinois State Historical Library had its origin
forty-one years ago when the Secretary of State
transferred 442 volumes of American history to the
newly-appointed Trustees. Today (1940) its collection
of books and pamphlets numbers approximately 75,000.
On its shelves are 10,000 bound volumes of newspapers
and 60,000 feet of newspaper microfilm. Many thou-
sands of manuscripts, photographs, paintings, prints,
broadsides and posters round out holdings which crowd
its present quarters almost to the limit.

THE LINCOLN COLLECTION

Early in the history of the Illinois State Historical
Library the Trustees decided that an inclusive collection
of Lincolniana should be an objective of primary im-
portance. Abraham Lincoln was not only the greatest
Illinoisan; he was also the greatest American. More-
over, he was a resident of Springfield for nearly a quarter
of a century; his home stood — and still stands — there;
his body lay in final peace at the limits of the city. Time
was to bring about another appropriate coincidence then
unforeseen, for the building in which the Library is now
housed stands on the site of the residence of Ninian W.
Edwards, in which Lincoln and Mary Todd were mar-
ried.

6 THE LINCOLN COLLECTION

LINCOLN MANUSCRIPTS

More than two hundred autograph letters and docu-
ments of Lincoln constitute the heart of the collection.
Chronologically these range from a signature on a peti-
tion to the Sangamon County Commissioners' Court
dated March, 1831 — one year after Lincoln's settlement
in Illinois — to a telegram to Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks
sent from City Point, Virginia, on April 5, 1865 — ten
days before his death. In size they vary from small cards
to an eight-page letter. In character and importance
they cover the whole range of Lincoln's writings.

The collection is especially rich in early documents.
Included are a number of poll books in Lincoln's hand-
writing, testifying to his service as an election clerk at
New Salem; several surveys represent that phase of his
life. Legal documents as early as 1837 illustrate the be-
ginnings of his professional career, while others show
his steady progress from an obscure practitioner to lead-
ership at the bar of Illinois.

In many letters the human qualities of Lincoln stand
out. Two of the most interesting, for example, concern
William Florville, a colored barber of Springfield whom
Lincoln referred to as "our 'Billy the Barber.' In the
first letter, written from Bloomington, Sept. 27, 1852,
to C. R. Welles, Lincoln asked Welles to facilitate his
attempt to get Florville a decree for the conveyance of
certain town lots, and added, "Billy will blame me, if
I do not get the thing fixed up this time." On Feb. 10,
1860, hardly more than three months before his first
presidential nomination, Lincoln wrote from Spring-
field to ask a fellow-lawyer in Bloomington to pay the
taxes on Florville' s lots. He himself had been paying

THE LINCOLN COLLECTION 7

the taxes for several years, he explained, but forgot to
do it on his last trip to Bloomington.

In letters and documents of the war years, Lincoln's
humanity shines from the drab horror of the conflict.
"A poor widow, by the name of Baird," he informed
Stanton on March 1, 1864, "has a son in the army, that
for some offence has been sentenced to serve a long time
without pay or at most, with very little pay. I do not
like this punishment of withholding pay — it falls so
very hard upon poor families." Whereupon he ordered
that the soldier be allowed to re-enlist on the usual
terms. Again, on March 15, 1864, he wrote to Stanton
asking him to see "the gallant Drummer-boy, Robert H.
Hendershot, whose history is briefly written on the fine
drum presented him which he now carries. He must
have a chance, and if you can find any situation suitable
to him, I shall be obliged." Perhaps the most revealing
item in the entire collection, however, is a small pass,
dated April 9, 1864, permitting "John Ehler, a boy 10
years old," to join a certain soldier in the 61st New York
Infantry in the Army of the Potomac. On the back are
these words, written two days later: "They say that by
the destruction of a bridge this boy has been unable to
pass on this. Might it not be renewed for the little fel-
low? A. Lincoln."

Many letters in the collection relate to matters of out-
standing importance, both in Lincoln's life and in the
affairs of the nation. The Library owns the remarkable
series of letters which Lincoln wrote to Elihu B. Wash-
burne of Galena between 1854 and 1860. Without much
exaggeration this series could be described as a history
of the Republican Party in Illinois during these critical
years, and the letters certainly define and describe Lin-

8 THE LINCOLN COLLECTION

coin's position in the party for this period. Another
series of seven letters and telegrams to Gen. George B.
McClellan throw light on one of the most heart-break-
ing episodes of the Civil War — the Peninsular campaign
— and portray Lincoln's mounting doubt of his com-
mander's capacity. At the same time, they reveal the
President's genius for phrase-making. Not frequently
do military communications contain a sentence like Lin-
coln's telegram of July 5, 1862, to McClellan, when
there still seemed to be some hope that Richmond might
be taken: "If you can hold your present position, we
shall 'hive' the enemy yet." And not often does a com-
mander-in-chief write with the patience-worn-thin that
marks Lincoln's telegram of October 24, 1862 to the
same officer: "I have just read your despatch about sore-
tongued and fatigued horses. Will you pardon me for
asking what the horses of your army have been doing
since the battle of Antietam that fatigues anything?" It
is not surprising that the Library's collection should
contain an order dated November 5, 1862, in which the
first sentence reads as follows: "By direction of the Pres-
ident, it is ordered that Major-General McClellan be re-
lieved from the command of the Army of the Potomac,
and that Major-General Burnside take command of that
army. ... A. Lincoln."

Lincoln's relations with other major commanders are
exemplified in many letters in the Library's possession.
Of several letters and telegrams to "Fighting Joe"
Hooker while Hooker was at the head of the Army of
the Potomac, perhaps the most interesting is the tele-
gram of June 5, 1863, in which Lincoln offers this advice:
"I have one idea which I think worth suggesting to you,
and that is, in case you find Lee coming to the north of

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Marriage License of Lincoln and Mary Todd

With the return of the Rev. Charles Dresser, the officiat-
ing clergyman.

THE LINCOLN COLLECTION 9

the Rappahannock, I would by no means cross to the
south of it. . . .1 would not take any risk of being en-
tangled upon the river, like an ox jumped half over a
fence and liable to be torn by dogs front and rear with-
out a fair chance to gore one way or kick the other."
Most characteristic, as far as Lincoln is concerned, of
the six letters to Gen. John A. McClernand in the collec-
tion, is the one (August 12, 1863) in which he applied
balm to McClernand' s wounded pride. "My belief,"
Lincoln concluded, "is that the permanent estimate of
what a general does in the field is fixed by the 'cloud of
witnesses' who have been with him in the field; and that
relying on these, he who has the right needs not to
fear." Illustrating well the calm mastery to which Lin-
coln finally attained is a letter (December 2, 1864) to
Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks which opens with this sen-
tence: "I know you are dissatisfied, which pains me very
much, but I wish not to be argued with further;" and
closes: "This is certainly meant in no unkindness, but
I wish to avoid further struggle about it."

To select any single letter or document in the Li-
brary's collection and say, "This is easily the finest,"
would be a rash undertaking, but one of the candidates
for the honor surely would be Lincoln's letter of August
26, 1863 to James C. Conkling, together with the several
telegrams which relate to it. This letter, which was
sent to be read at a mass meeting in his old home, has
been described as Lincoln's last stump speech. Certainly
he rarely reached greater heights of eloquence than !~~
attained in its conclusion, when he said : "Peace does not
appear so distant as it did. I hope it will come soon, and
come to stay; and so come as to be worth the keeping in
all future time. It will then have been proved that

10 THE LINCOLN COLLECTION

among free men there can be no successful appeal from
the ballot to the bullet, and that they who take such
appeal are sure to lose their case and pay the cost. And
then there will be some black men who can remember
that with silent tongue, and clenched teeth, and steady
eye, and well-poised bayonet, they have helped man-
kind on to this great consummation, while I fear there
will be some white ones unable to forget that with ma-
lignant heart and deceitful speech they strove to hinder
it."

Many letters and documents not written by Lincoln
himself relate so directly to his life that they constitute
an integral part of the Lincoln collection. The Library
possesses, for example, the unique document licensing
Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd to marry, which bears
on its face the return of Charles Dresser, the officiating
minister: "Solemnized on the same 4th day of Nov.
1842. ' ' It owns many letters written by members of Lin-
coln's family, including two childish notes of great ap-
peal by Willie Lincoln. (One of these, written from
Washington on May 3, 1861, describes the thousands of
soldiers in the national capital and mentions partic-
ularly Elmer Ellsworth, whose death three weeks later
plunged the entire North into sorrow.) It owns the tele-
gram, dated April 15, 1865, in which Robert Lincoln
asked David Davis to come at once to Washington and
take charge of his father's affairs. And it possesses all
the papers in the estate of Abraham Lincoln, deceased.

PRINTED LINCOLNIANA

The heart of the Illinois State Historical Library's
collection of printed Lincolniana is the Henry Horner
Collection, presented to the library by Governor Henry

THE LINCOLN COLLECTION 11

Horner on April 23, 1940. This collection, the result of
forty years of discriminating work, has been supple-
mented by the Library's own extensive holdings in
printed Lincolniana, so that it now numbers approxi-
mately 4,500 titles — books, pamphlets and broadsides —
relating wholly or in major part to Abraham Lincoln,
his immediate family, or his ancestry. In addition,
duplicate copies of many titles have been retained so
that they may be lent to scholars and to other libraries
much more freely than in the past.

To describe a collection of this size in detail is obvi-
ously an impossibility. Perhaps, however, some idea
of its scope and quality will be conveyed by mention of
a few of its many rare and unusual items.

Of the first (1860) campaign biographies listed by
Ernest James Wessen,1 the Henry Horner Collection con-
tains at least one edition of all except three — the very
rare Vose campaign life, and one Welsh and one German
biography. On the other hand, the collection includes
two titles listed by Wessen which are not to be found in
any of the other large public collections: I. Codding, A
Republican Manual for the Campaign, Princeton, Illinois,
1860; and an anonymous work in German, Das Leben von
Abraham Lincoln, nebst einer kur%en Ski%& des Lebens von
Hannibal Hamlin, Chicago, 1860.

Most of the books and pamphlets in any large Lin-
coln collection can be procured, with patience, for rel-
atively small sums. There are others, however, which
are infrequently available, and the rarity of which is
demonstrated by the high prices they command. Most
of these — perhaps all — are to be found in the Henry

1 "Campaign Lives of Abraham Lincoln, 1860," in Paters in Illinois History, 19V .
Springfield, 111., 1938.

LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF MHffl*

12 THE LINCOLN COLLECTION

Horner Collection. Without attempting an inclusive
list, one may specify as typical the Fish bibliographies of
1900 and 1906; the Oakleaf bibliography; Frederick Hill
Meserve, The Photographs of Abraham Lincoln (one of 102
copies); Ben: Perley Poore, The Conspiracy Trial for the
Murder of the President, including, of course, the rare third
volume; an edition of this same work in ten parts in
paper, no other copy of which is known to exist; and the
folio edition of Tributes to the Memory of Abraham Lincoln,
Washington, 1885. One of the two known copies of the
Life of Abe Lincoln, of Illinois, a diminutive (1 }/£" x 2^;/)
satirical campaign biography of eight pages, published
in 1860, is included in the collection. So also is an ap-
parently unique copy of Lincoln's " House Divided"
speech printed by the True Republican Press at Syca-
more, Illinois, in 1858. Rarely found in other collec-
tions are original time tables of the Lincoln funeral
train: (1) from New York to Albany on the Hudson
River Railroad (2) from Buffalo to Erie on the Buffalo
and Erie Rail Road, and (3) from Indianapolis to Chi-
cago over three separate railroads.

Over the years "association" copies — that is, copies
of books "associated" in unusual or especially appro-
priate ways with certain individuals — accumulate in any
large collection. The Henry Horner Collection contains
many such, but there are three which deserve particular
mention. The first is a copy of Joseph G. Baldwin's
Plush Times of Alabama and Mississippi, a humorous
book, popular in its day, of which Lincoln was very
fond. The copy which he himself read, worn by its
travels over the old eighth judicial circuit and damaged
by the Chicago fire, is naturally highly prized. The sec-
ond is Isaac N. Arnold's own copy of his book, The His-

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The "Good Neighbor" Policy in 1861

THE LINCOLN COLLECTION 13

tory of Abraham Lincoln, and the Overthrow of Slavery. The
mere fact of the author's ownership would lead any li-
brarian to prize the book, but this volume has impor-
tance as well as interest: heavily marked and annotated,
it was obviously used by the author in the preparation
of his later and better known work, The Life of Abraham
Lincoln. The third volume is a copy of Ward Hill La-
mon's The Life of Abraham Lincoln, inscribed and pre-
sented by the author to John Hay, and bearing many of
Hay's marginal notes and corrections. The facts that
both Lamon and Hay were intimate associates of Lin-
coln, and that both men wrote important books about
him, raise this particular volume well above the level
even of association copies.

PAINTINGS AND MEMORABILIA

The Lincoln Collection includes a large number of
prints and photographs, but two paintings give real dis-
tinction to the pictorial section. Both were painted
from sketches drawn from life. One is by George H.
Story, the other by William Coggswell. Both men were
portrait painters of reputation in their day. Neither
portrait is great art, but each possesses value as an his-
torical document. Excelling the portraits in artistic
merit, but lacking their documentary value, are six
miniatures, five of Lincoln and one of Mrs. Lincoln,
recently painted by the late William Patterson. The
work of a fine artist thoroughly familiar with his sub-
ject, the miniatures should preserve a faithful record of
Lincoln's appearance for centuries.

Memorabilia, or what might be called association
articles, can be found almost without end in institutions
or in the hands of private collectors. Unfortunately,

14 THE LINCOLN COLLECTION

many if not most are of doubtful authenticity. In the
Library's collection, however, are several articles of es-
tablished genuineness — Lincoln's shaving mirror; the
original doorplate from his Springfield home; a pair of
his riding gloves, with a letter from Robert T. Lincoln
to Gen. C. C. Augur stating that he was sending the
gloves as a mark of appreciation for Augur's sympathetic
aid at the time of the President's funeral. On deposit in
the Library, though not its property, is the desk on
which Lincoln wrote his first inaugural address.

MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS

Although not considered integral parts of the Lincoln
Collection, several of the Library's collections of manu-
scripts relate to subjects of such great concern to Lincoln
that they have large value in the study of his life. Brief
mention of the most important follows :

THE GEN. CHRISTOPHER C. AUGUR COLLECTION
THE GIFT OF HIS SON, MURRAY B. AUGUR

This collection of several hundred letters and papers
of one of the distinguished Union commanders relates
principally to the Civil War and particularly to the siege
of Port Hudson, where Augur was in command of the
left wing of the Northern army. Represented are letters
from Augur himself, Generals Nathaniel P. Banks, U. S.
Grant, B. H. Grierson, Joseph E. Johnston (C. S. A.),
Phil Sheridan, T. W. Sherman, and Admirals David G.
Farragut and D. D. Porter. Of unusual interest is a letter
from Sheridan to Augur written on Oct. 21, 1864 — two
days after the Battle of Cedar Creek — in which Sheridan
described his famous ride from Winchester and the battle

THE LINCOLN COLLECTION 15

itself. "Disaster in the morning," he summarized,
"turned out a magnificent victory in the evening."
From this collection and its donor came the Lincoln
riding gloves mentioned in another connection.

THE NATHANIEL P. BANKS COLLECTION

This collection of the papers of a famous Republican
leader and Union general consists of approximately 2,000
letters for the years 1840 to 1894. The majority of the
letters relate to the Post-Civil War period. Included is
much important material on the formation of the Repub-
lican Party, the campaign of 1856 and 1860, and on the
military occupation of Louisiana while Banks was in
command there. A fine series of letters from John C.
Fremont after the Civil War is of particular interest.

THE ORVILLE H. BROWNING PAPERS

In addition to the original of the Browning Diary,
published as Vols. 20 and 22 of The Illinois Historical Col-
lections, this collection includes several hundred letters,
chiefly in the period 1860-1870. Represented, among
many others, are Schuyler Colfax, David Davis, Preston
King, John A. McClernand, Gen. George E. Pickett (C.
S. A.), S. C. Pomeroy, George D. Prentice, Admiral
Charles Wilkes and Richard Yates. The collection is
not a large one, but it is important because of the long
and intimate association between Browning and Lin-
coln, and because of the intrinsic value of many of the
letters it contains.

LINCOLN REMINISCENCES

Ninety-six letters and statements written at the time
of the Lincoln Centennial make up this collection.

16 THE LINCOLN COLLECTION

Many are from men then prominent in American life;
many others were written by individuals who knew
Lincoln more than casually.

THE JOHN A. MCCLERN AND- WILLI AM J. BUTLER COLLECTION

One may say without exaggeration that this is one
of the finest collections of Civil War papers in existence.
McClernand, Springfield lawyer and Democratic leader,
entered the Union army as a brigadier general after the
Battle of Bull Run. As a major general in command of
the XIII Corps he served in the Vicksburg campaign
until relieved by Grant two weeks before the fall of the
city. Eight months later he regained ommand of his
old corps, but acute illness soon forced him to return to
Illinois. In November, 1864, he resigned his commis-
sion.

The McClernand Papers, which include nine letter
and order books and more than 10,000 letters, extend
from 1823 to 1896, but the great majority fall between
1861 and 1864. For these years they represent the com-
plete correspondence and records of a major general out-
ranked in the West only by Halleck and Grant. The col-
lection contains more than two hundred letters from
Grant alone, while practically every prominent military
and political leader of the North is represented. For the
war in the West, this collection is indispensable.

THE NATIONAL LINCOLN MONUMENT ASSOCIATION PAPERS

The National Lincoln Monument Association was
the organization which built the Lincoln Monument at
Springfield and administered it until it was transferred
to the State of Illinois. This collection consists of the
Association's complete records. Three classes of ma-

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The Torture of Patronage
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Conclusion of the Conkling Letter, Aug. 26, 1863

The word "poised," the close and the signature are in
Lincoln's handwriting.

THE LINCOLN COLLECTION 17

terial may be differentiated: (1) Correspondence for the
years 1865-1882; (2) Duplicate receipts for contributions
to the monument, 1865-1868; (3) Circulars, contracts,
reports, etc., for the duration of the Association's life.
Altogether, these papers provide a detailed picture of
the difficulties which beset the Springfield men who
undertook to erect the monument which has since be-
come a place of pilgrimage for many millions.

THE NICOLAY AND HAY COLLECTION

This collection, the gift of Alice Hay Wadsworth,
consists in the main of notes and memoranda used by
John G. Nicolay and John Hay in the preparation of
their famous biography, Abraham Lincoln: A History, to-
gether with portions of the original manuscript and
proofs. Although the collection is by no means com-
plete, it contains much important material, including
original letters by Robert Todd Lincoln, Nathaniel P.
Banks, William Tecumseh Sherman, Simon Cameron,
Adam Gurowski and others. Many letters, often con-
taining information of value, were called forth by the
serial publication of Abraham Lincoln: A History in the
Century Magazine, and these are included in the collec-
tion. Also included is a file of letters received from the
Century editors during serial publication.

One unique Lincoln item found its way into the
Nicolay and Hay Collection. This is a sheaf of tele-
grams from Governors of the Union states giving official
returns in the presidential election of 1864, all tied to-
gether. On each telegram is the name of the state in
Lincoln's careful handwriting. Obviously, this was his
own file.

The Nicolay and Hay Collection includes another

18 THE LINCOLN COLLECTION

unique manuscript of considerable interest and impor-
tance. This is the transcript of John Hay's letters and
diaries made by Henry Adams soon after John Hay's
death. This material, with names represented only by
capital letters, was privately printed in a small edition
in 1908. In this printing, however, occasional passages
from the diary and some letters were omitted.

The Henry Adams transcript remains of importance
in spite of the much fuller and more scholarly Dennett
edition (Lincoln and the Civil War, in the Diaries and Let-
ters of John Hay) because it contains some material which
is not to be found in either the Dennett edition or the
privately printed Letters and Diaries.

THE JESSE J. RICKS COLLECTION

This collection, named for its donor, comprises more
than a hundred letters of men prominent in American
life during Lincoln's lifetime. Most of the letters have
intrinsic importance. In the collection, to name only a
few, are letters from William H. Bissell, John Brown,
Orville H. Browning, Henry Clay, Edward Coles, David
Davis, Jefferson Davis, John A. Dix, Edward Everett,
U. S. Grant, Horace Greeley, Andrew Jackson, George
B. McClellan, John A. McClernand, Richard J. Oglesby,
F. B. Sanborn, John Reynolds, Lyman Trumbull and
Richard Yates. The collection also contains several hun-
dred letters written to Norman L. Freeman, Illinois
lawyer and politician, during the years 1852-1858; as
well as an unusual book-length manuscript entitled
"The Woodcutter, or a Glimpse of the 19th Century at
the West." This is a description and critique, done
with considerable insight and a great deal of asperity,
of American life and -manners. Apparently written

THE LINCOLN COLLECTION 19

about 1840, it is the work of Paul Brown, who described
himself on the title page as the author of "Disquisition
on Faith," and "A Dialogue on Commonwealths."

Several Greeley items in the Ricks Collection deserve
mention, even though they fall outside the Lincoln pe-
riod. One is the manuscript notification of Greeley's
nomination for the Presidency in 1872, signed by J. R.
Doolittle, chairman of the Liberal Republican National
Convention. Another is the manuscript of Greeley's let-
ter of acceptance, while the third consists of the proof
sheets of Greeley's letter of acceptance with his own
corrections in the margins.

THE PAPERS OF RICHARD YATES AND RICHARD YATES
THE GIFT OF MRS. RICHARD YATES

Included in this collection are the papers of Richard
Yates (1815-1873) and Richard Yates (1860-1936). Both
men, father and son, were distinguished public servants.
The elder Yates represented his state in Congress both
as a member of the House of Representatives and as a
Senator, and guided its destinies as Governor during the
critical years from 1861 to 1865. The younger Yates was
Governor of Illinois from 1901 until 1905, a member of
the national House of Representatives for seven con-
secutive terms, and an able occupant of other positions
of public trust.

The bulk of the Yates Papers, which approximate
10,000 in number, cover the years 1852-1873 and relate
to the career of Richard Yates, the Civil War Governor.
They are especially rich in political material for the
critical period prior to 1860, and present a vivid picture
of a state at war. The collection has only recently been
made available, and is therefore virgin material.

20 THE LINCOLN COLLECTION

NEWSPAPERS

Although not considered integral parts of the Lincoln
Collection, the Illinois State Historical Library pos-
sesses newspaper files which are practically indispensa-
ble to the close student of Lincoln's life. With the ex-
ception of sixteen months in 1843 and 1844, its file of
the Sangamo Journal (later called the Illinois Journal and
now known as the Illinois State Journaf) is practically
complete from the first issue (November 10, 1831) until
Lincoln's death. (The file is unbroken from 1865 to the
present time.) The editors of this paper were close
political and personal friends of Lincoln, and as a result
it reported his activities fully and sympathetically. His
first campaign announcement (1832) appeared in its
columns, and his great speeches at Peoria on October 16,
1854 and at Springfield on June 16, 1858 (the "House
Divided" speech) were first printed in its pages. In
addition to these high points of his career, hundreds of
lesser activities are recorded.

Hardly less important is the file of the Illinois State
Register which, except for the year 1859, is complete
from the date of its establishment in Springfield (1839)
to the present. What the Journal was to Lincoln and the
Whigs and Republicans, the Register was to Douglas and
the Democrats. Not only did the Register record faith-
fully the political career of Lincoln's foremost rival; it
also gave expression to that not inconsiderable portion
of the Illinois body politic which looked upon Lincoln
and his followers with disapproval. Taken together,
Register and Journal furnish the full background for Lin-
coln's progress from obscurity to fame and martyrdom.

THE LINCOLN COLLECTION 21

IN GRATITUDE

Were it not for the public-spirited generosity of many
individuals, the Lincoln Collection of the Illinois State
Historical Library would never have attained its present
status. In the text of this booklet some of those who
have contributed to the enrichment of the Lincoln Col-
lection have been mentioned — Gov. Henry Horner, Mrs.
Alice Hay Wadsworth of Geneseo, New York, Mr.
Jesse J. Ricks of New York City; Mrs. Richard Yates,
now residing at Royal Oak, Michigan; and the late Mr.
Murray B. Augur of Chicago. To others the Trustees
of the Library are equally indebted — to Mrs. William
F. Dummer of Chicago, the donor of a splendid series of
letters from Lincoln to her husband's father, Henry
Enoch Dummer of Beardstown and Jacksonville; to the
late Dr. Otto L. Schmidt of Chicago, long President of
the Library's Board of Trustees, and to the surviving
members of his family, for benefactions too numerous
to mention; to the late Clinton L. Conkling of Spring-
field for the superb letter which Lincoln sent to his
father, James C. Conkling, and for the gift of many
other papers of importance. Hundreds of authors have
given copies of their writings in order that the Library's
Collection might approach completeness; many pos-
sessors of valuable material, not in position to make
outright gifts, have made substantial concessions in
order that their possessions might be preserved for
posterity. To all these, on behalf of the people of the
State of Illinois, the Trustees of the Illinois State His-
torical Library make public acknowledgment of their
gratitude.

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA
973.7L63AAN4L C001

THE LINCOLN COLLECTION OF THE ILLINOIS S

3 0112 031780866