Frank J. Williams

Lincolniana in 1991

Abraham Lincoln, August 13, 1860, by Preston Butler, photographer, Springfield, Illinois [End Page 56]

Lincoln Group Activities

In October 1990, Richard N. Current spoke on "Lincoln and the Loyalists: His Soldiers From the South," and on February 12, Mark E. Neely, Jr., delivered "The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties" before the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia. The group has published a new membership directory.

The Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania heard Harold Holzer talk about "Lincoln on Democracy" on November 19, 1990. Jack F. Kemp, secretary of Housing and Urban Development, delivered the address at the Soldiers' National Cemetery. His paper is available from his office. Harold Holzer also delivered his paper before the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia on September 18, 1990, the Lincoln Group of Boston on December 8, 1990, and at the fifty-first annual meeting of the Lincoln Fellowship of Wisconsin on April 7, 1991.

Steve Rosswurm presented a series of lectures entitled "The Civil War in Perspective" at the Chicago Historical Society on November 7, 14, and 28, 1990, that focused on the growth of the Republican party and the greatness of Lincoln as a politician and military commander.

Carl N. Degler delivered the twenty-ninth annual Robert Fortenbaugh Memorial Lecture on November 19, 1990, at Gettysburg College: "One Among Many: The American Civil War in Comparative Perspective." An extract appeared in the New York Times on February 12, "Lincoln: Was He America's Bismarck?" in which Degler compared Lincoln to Otto von Bismarck, who achieved Germany's unification in 1871. Both, according to Degler, forged nations. His paper is available from Gettysburg College.

The eleventh annual Illinois History Symposium was held on November 30 and December 1, 1990. Harlington Wood, Jr., chaired the session on "The Lincoln Legals Papers Project," which included papers by William D. Beard ("Barrett v. Alton and Sangamon [End Page 57] Railroad Company") and Joanne R. Walroth ("Abraham Lincoln Circuit Court Case Work: A Report from Menard County"). Arthur McEvoy commented. Robert Bray presented his controversial "Reading Between the Texts: With Malice Toward None and Benjamin Thomas's Abraham Lincoln" (see "Stephen B. Oates and Robert Bray," p. 99), and Douglas Wilson presented "Abraham Lincoln, Joshua Speed and 'That Fatal First of January.'" James Hurt presented "With Malice Toward Some: The Historiography of Stephen Oates." G. Cullom Davis commented.

The eighteenth annual Abraham Lincoln symposium sponsored by the Abraham Lincoln Association, the Illinois State Historical Society, and the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency was held at the Old State Capitol in Springfield on February 12. Papers were presented by Douglas Wilson and Charles B. Strozier discussing Lincoln's last law partner and biographer, William H. Herndon. The year 1991 marked the centennial of Herndon's death. As curmudgeonly and outrageous as Herndon could be, both presenters and commentator Rodney O. Davis indicated how important it was to not ignore Herndon but to continue to study him and his work in order to ascertain the truth about Lincoln. Tom Wicker, New York Times columnist and author of Unto This Hour, delivered the banquet address. Wicker pointed out that dissent must be allowed in wartime even though free speech "can't be as free in wartime as in peace." The nucleus of his banquet address appeared in his column for the New York Times on February 13 as "Lincoln and the Gulf."

At the Lincoln Group of Boston on February 9, William E. Gienapp discussed how Lincoln was shaped by the unique political culture of antebellum America, and how he, in turn, contributed to that culture after he became president.

On February 7, Harold Holzer presented "Two Views of Abraham Lincoln" before the Lincoln Club of Delaware.

The speeches of Abraham Lincoln were the topic at the Illinois Writers Past and Present program on February 10 at the Nichols Library, Naperville, with Mark E. Neely, Jr., as guest speaker.

John Y. Simon delivered "In Search of Lincoln" before the Civil War Round Table in Chicago on April 14. Jean Baker presented "Mary Todd Loncoln" at the June 14 meeting of the group.

The Lincoln Museum in Fort Wayne, Indiana, has prepared a handsome new descriptive brochure about the museum and its collections and has also prepared a souvenir facsimile of the fifth and final draft of the Gettysburg Address. The original now hangs in the Lincoln Room of the White House. [End Page 58]

Thomas F. Schwartz, curator of the Henry Horner Lincoln Collection at the Illinois State Historical Library, spoke on "Lincoln in Springfield" when he delivered the fourth annual Harman Memorial Lincoln Lecture, at Washburn University, Topeka, on March 7.

Cullom Davis, director and senior editor of the Lincoln Legal Papers Project, spoke on "Lincoln the Lawyer" before the Lincoln Group of Florida on February 23. The group's first annual Basler Memorial Lincoln Symposium featured Freda Postle Koch on "Writing About Lincoln and Coggeshall" and Richard R. Adicks delivered "Writing a Lincoln Assassination Novel."

The annual ceremonies at the Lincoln Memorial commemorating the 182nd birthday of Lincoln featured the annual wreath-laying by Vice-President Dan Quayle and the recitation of the Gettysburg Address by Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Jack Kemp.

The annual Lincoln Day observance at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church was held on February 10 with readings from Lincoln by Nancy Grosshans.

Philip C. Stone of the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Historical Society in Dayton, Virginia, led the annual cemeteries at the Lincoln Family Cemetery on Linville Creek in the Shenandoah Valley on February 12. Here, Lincoln's great-grandparents are buried and his father was born.

The ubiquitous Wayne C. Temple presented "Living with Lincoln" at the Tagathon Club in Springfield, Illinois, on February 5 and "Lincoln at Gettysburg" at the thirty-fifth annual Lincoln Tomb Ceremony on April 15 in Springfield. Temple also delivered the keynote address at the Memorial Day services of the Illinois Grand Army of the Republic on May 27.

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns delivered the annual William B. Williams Lecture at Brown University on May 10. The title of his talk, "Mystic Chords of Memory," is from Lincoln's first inaugural address.

Merrill D. Peterson spoke on " 'This Grand Pertinacity': Abraham Lincoln and the Declaration of Independence" for the 1991 R. Gerald McMurtry Lecture at the Lincoln Museum on May 16.

The Supreme Council, 33d degree, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, United States of America, has proposed a 26th degree, to be named after Abraham Lincoln.

Hans L. Trefousse delivered "Lincoln Chooses a Vice President: The Succession of Andrew Johnson" at the April 24 meeting of the Lincoln Group of New York. [End Page 59]

Former Illinois Governor James R. Thompson delivered the annual address to the Stephen A. Douglas Association on June 1, "Stephen A. Douglas: Advocate of America First."

The annual meeting of the Lincoln Group of Illinois was held at Illinois Benedictine College, Lisle, on June 15. Lewis P. Mallow, Jr., offered his audio-visual production of "The Life of May Todd Lincoln."

William D. Beard of the Lincoln Legals staff presented the seventh annual Lloyd Ostendorf Lecture at Lincoln Memorial University, Harrogate, Tennessee, "We Thanked the Lord for the Illinois Central."

Awards and Prizes

Mario Cuomo and Harold Holzer received the first annual Achievement Award of the Abraham Lincoln Association and the Bardoness/Lincoln Award of the Civil War Round Table of New York for their Lincoln on Democracy. Governor Cuomo received the Lincoln Group of New York Award of Achievement for initiating this anthology.

Ralph G. Newman, a founder of the Civil War Round Table of Chicago, past president of the Ulysses S. Grant Association, and chair of the board of directors of the Stephen A. Douglas Association, was honored at the fiftieth anniversary celebration of the Civil War Round Table. For his work, the extensive Civil War Collection of the Chicago Public Library was named in his honor.

Ken Burns, producer of The Civil War for the Public Broadcasting System, was the winner of the first $50,000 Gettysburg College prize presented on February 9, received the New York Civil War Round Table's Bell I. Wiley Award, and was given an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Springfield College (Illinois) on May 17.

John Hope Franklin received one of seven achievement awards from Morehouse College, Atlanta.

Don Fehrenbacher received the Lincoln Diploma of Honor from Lincoln Memorial University.

The tenth annual Lincoln Era Essay Contest, sponsored by the endowment from the estate of Frank L. Jones and administered by the Lilly Library, was held by Indiana University. [End Page 60]

Lincoln Legals

Janis E. Harrison of Huntsville, Alabama, whose late husband's great-grandfather was the defendant Lincoln represented in a murder trial, donated the one-hundred-page People of Illinois v. Peachy Quinn Harrison transcript to the Illinois State Historical Library as a result of the transcript's coming to light when the Lincoln Papers Project began. Harrison, who retained literary and dramatic control over the transcript, has found a West Coast producer to develop a television show based on the trial in which lawyer Lincoln defends the son of a political ally in a murder trial hinging on the victim's deathbed testimony. A reproduction of the cover page for the transcript is given to those who contribute to the project. Cullom Davis's essay "Lincoln the Lawyer" is distributed to those who contribute $100 or more.

The Lincoln Papers Project has created two categories for contributors: "Partner" for those who contribute in the aggregate $1,500 and "Senior Partner" for those who contribute $5,000 or more. Handsome lucite mementos with the logo of the Lincoln Legals Project are presented to the recipients.

It was reported at the Project's advisory board meeting on February 12 that twenty-one thousand documents relating to Lincoln's career were in hand, and the staff had examined nine hundred cases in which Lincoln was involved. Such examination has led to new finds, for example, an astounding forty-three-page legal document in Lincoln's hand but without his signature was found in a dusty metal box at the Macoupin County Courthouse (reported in the July 31 issue of the State Journal-Register). It is now known that the number of cases in which Lincoln appeared before the Illinois Supreme Court has risen to 355, more than a hundred more than Harry Pratt originally listed.

Bill Furry profiled the Lincoln Legal Papers Project in "The Missing Lincoln" for the March 21 issue of Illinois Times.

Lincoln Home National Historic Site

On February 12, as part of the Lincoln Heritage Lectures at the Lincoln Home National Historic Site, Jame Stevenson delivered "A Providential Theology: Shakespeare's Influence on Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address," and Mark E. Neely, Jr., discussed his book, The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln on Civil Liberties. [End Page 61]

Awards were presented for the fifth annual Lincoln Essay Competition on February 10. This eighth-grade competition for students in Illinois had as its theme "Lincoln as President."

A special presentation entitled "Abraham Lincoln: A Biography in Words and Music" was presented at the Visitors Center on February 10. Actor Fritz Klein portrayed Lincoln in an 1865 political rally. Other events during the year included a slide presentation on June 18 entitled "New Salem Traditions"; a slide presentation entitled "Lincoln the Lawyer in Logan County" on June 19 and August 1; a presentation entitled "Mr. Lincoln's Religion" on June 20; a marionette performance by the DePriest Puppets entitled "Abraham Lincoln: New Salem to Springfield" on June 22 and August 25; a dramatization by Paul Presney, Jr., who plays William Herndon, on June 24, July 8, and August 19; a multidimensional presentation of "Mr. Lincoln's World" on June 25 and August 5; slide presentations of "The Life of Abraham Lincoln" and "The Life of Mary Todd Lincoln" on June 27; a twilight tour of the historic neighborhood on July 4, August 8, and August 25; a slide presentation entitled "Lincoln's Campaign Manager: David Davis" on July 10 and August 14; a dramatized interview with Mary Todd Lincoln's sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Todd Edwards, on July 15 and August 12; a slide presentation entitled "Lincoln Home Archaeology" on July 22; a slide presentation entitled "The Restoration of the Lincoln Home" on July 30; and a slide presentation entitled "Illinois Wildlife of the Lincoln Era" on July 18 and August 15.

Kim Burford's article "Park Service Proposal on Lincoln Center Stirs Preservationist's Ire," appearing in the Illinois Times February 14–20 issue, pointed out how in the case of a proposed $52.6 million Abraham Lincoln research and interpretive center the Historical Preservation Society of Springfield wants the NPS to use the historical buildings that date back to Lincoln's time. The intent of the study is to build a new facility. Representative Dick Durbin of Lincoln's old 7th Congressional District is pressing for a funding request for site acquisition. Other concerns dominate this proposal. Where will the historical and Lincoln material come from? What institutions are expected to give up their own treasure for this facility, and under what conditions? The Springfield State Journal-Register on May 25 reported that some state authorities, including Governor Jim Edgar, have expressed interest in cooperating with the project, including the possibility of loans of Lincoln materials from the Illinois State Historical Library.

The Eastern National Park and Monument Association, the Na- [End Page 62] tional Park Service, and the Lincoln National Home Historic Site have published Restoring Mr. Lincoln's Home with text by Judith Winkelmann.

Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial Lincoln City, Indiana

The Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Lincoln City, Indiana, celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the Nancy Hanks Lincoln Memorial Building. The cornerstone was laid on May 20, 1941, the end of work that began in 1926 to "preserve the grave of Nancy Hanks Lincoln and to erect a suitable, simple, yet dignified Memorial to both Lincoln and his mother." In 1962, the state of Indiana entrusted the Memorial Building and grounds to the stewardship of the National Park Service. On August 21, 1966, the Memorial Visitor Center was formally dedicated as a part of Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial. The year 1991 also represents the 175th anniversary of the Lincoln family's migration to Indiana in 1816, the year Indiana became a state. "We removed from Kentucky to what is now Spencer County, Indiana, in my eighth year. We reached our new home about the time the state came into the Union" (Abraham Lincoln's autobiographical letter to J. W. Fell on December 20, 1859).

Conferences

The Historical Society of Delaware presented Divided Nation, Divided State: Delaware and the Civil War on August 4, 10, and 17, 1990. Ken Burns discussed his documentary The Civil War on October 4; James Getty portrayed President Lincoln on October 10; and James McPherson delivered his paper interpreting "America's greatest crisis" on October 17.

Lee C. Moorehead conducted his "Long Look at Lincoln" on June 28, 29, and 30 in Springfield, New Salem, and Petersburg.

The Annual Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College was held from June 23 to June 29, with papers by James M. McPherson ("Why Did the Confederacy Lose?") and Harold Holzer ("The Lincoln Family Album").

The Organization of American Historians at its conference in Louisville, Kentucky, on April 13 heard Dwight T. Pitcaithley deliver "A Splendid Hoax: The Strange Case of Lincoln's Birthplace Cabin," [End Page 63] with comments by Charles W. Calhoun, Mark E. Neely, Jr., and Gabor S. Boritt, who presided. Frederick J. Blue delivered "The Emancipation Proclamation: Salmon P. Chase and Abraham Lincoln," with comments by James P. Stewart and Louis S. Gerteis as part of a session entitled "The Politics of Divided Counsels: Antislavery Republicans and Lincoln's Emancipation Policy" presided over by James A. Rawley.

On October 10–13 the Civil War Society held a seminar, "A Closer Look at A. Lincoln," in Springfield, Illinois, with tours of the Lincoln home, Lincoln-Herndon law office, the Old State Capitol, New Salem Village, and the Lincoln Tomb. Papers were given by Mark E. Neely, Jr., Harold Holzer, and William E. Gienapp.

The Lincoln Colloquium sponsored by the Lincoln Home National Historic Site was held on October 26 in Springfield with papers by myself ("Lincoln's World Stature: A Comparison With Other World Leaders of the Time"), Richard N. Current ("Lincoln's Loyalists in the South"), James M. McPherson ("Who Freed the Slaves"), and John Y. Simon ("Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation").

After forty years and eleven volumes containing a thousand pages each, at a total cost of $2 million, the work of producing The Papers of Henry Clay has been concluded. In honor of the publication of the final volume, the King Library at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, conducted a symposium on June 21–22 at which Mark E. Neely, Jr., spoke on "Henry Clay, Lincoln and War." Robert V. Remini spoke at a celebratory dinner on June 21, delivering "Henry Clay: Spokesman for the Union" based on his forthcoming biography of Clay. The exhibition "Henry Clay: Images of a Statesman" was prepared for the occasion.

"Perspectives on the War in the West" sponsored by the Civil War Society (August 14–17) included a paper by John T. Hubble, "Lincoln and the War in the West."

Editorials

In his "On Language" column in the New York Times Sunday Magazine on September 2, 1990, William Safire discussed whether or not to use the word blockade to describe interdiction in the Persian Gulf in order to thwart Iraqi shipping. He described how international law defines blockade as an act of war and how the use of the word presented a problem for Lincoln, who although blockading the South did not want to give the South official status as a [End Page 64] belligerent for what he termed an insurrection. Why didn't Lincoln use the term interdiction or quarantine?

In a column that appeared in the Providence Journal-Bulletin on October 26, 1990, Safire notes that someone like General Grant was needed to take care of the Iraqi problem and to implement a Lincoln-like strategy to "take casualties as needed to wear down a smaller enemy" and not equivocate like a General McClellan, but to prevail fully and completely. This was published before the emergence of General H. Norman Schwarzkopf.

James Krohe, Jr., of Illinois Times discussed his displeasure over the National Park Service's treatment of the Lincoln Home Site in "Ghost Houses" for the November 21–28, 1990 issue. Krohe does not believe that the NPS achieved its promise to recreate the Eighth Street of the 1850s. To him, the area has been made too neat and tidy, with white picket fences and cleaned-up lots.

Cartoonist Ohman, in his piece for The Oregonian for September 28, 1990, has President Bush dressed as Abraham Lincoln, saying "With Malice Toward Iraq, With Charity for the Rich."

A Mike Royko column that appeared in the Ashtabula (Ohio) Star Bulletin on November 19, 1990, described his outrage at scheduling the Super Bowl in Florida—a state that has no holiday commemorating Lincoln's birthday. According to Royko, "If it hadn't been for Lincoln, there wouldn't even be a Super Bowl as all the players would be white."

The Providence Journal-Bulletin on February 13 featured an essay by Paul Greenberg, editorial page editor of the Pine Bluff (Arkansas) Commercial, headlined "Lincoln—the Power of Myth." Greenberg feels Lincoln was a "moral realist," a rarity in any age, as he was able to oppose evil effectively. "His whole, uncertain career is a thesis against simple fanaticism and for resilient principle."

Mark Patinkin's column for the Providence Journal-Bulletin on February 14 presented questions by the author with answers from Abraham Lincoln. For example, "Shouldn't you have worked harder to negotiate a peace with the enemy?" Answer: "Human action can be modified to some extent, but human nature cannot be changed.... Those who deny freedom for others deserve it not for themselves." On Lincoln's birthday, the Journal-Bulletin reprinted a section from "Abraham Lincoln and the Self-Made Myth" found in The American Political Tradition by Richard Hofstadter (1948): "The great pose of the presidential years came from a soul that had been humbled. Lincoln's utter lack of personal malice during these [End Page 65] years, his humane detachment, his tragic sense of life, have no parallel in political history."

The annual Lincoln's Day editorial of the State Journal-Register appeared in its February 12 edition under the headline "Lincoln Provides Lesson for This Time of Conflict." Like so many editorials at the time, our Civil War and Lincoln's role in it were juxtaposed with the strife in the Persian Gulf, and the inevitable attempts at parallels were drawn. The editorial writer believed that Lincoln's sussess was a result of "his strong moral convictions and purpose.... with courage and firmness because he was confident that what he was doing was right."

Billy Porterfield called Lincoln the "Man for all Americans" in his column syndicated by Cox News Service and appearing in the Austin American Statesman on February 11. To Porterfield, Lincoln personified and was the connecting link for many ideologies. "Everyone claims Lincoln. His fellow presidents love him because he was the king of executive privilege when he felt he had to be. Liberal Democrats know in their hearts Abe was one of them. Conservatives think Lincoln was rightfully a Republican."

In a comparative sense, historians become nervous because they do not believe that history repeats itself says Peter B. Rose, who wrote "Historian: Bush Faces Well-Worn Challenges" for the Idaho Statesman on February 18. "Historical analogies are very dangerous." Yet, the problems that Washington and Lincoln dealt with are the same today because of a pluralistic country with its ethnic and economic divisions.

On February 13, Steve Blow wrote for the Dallas Morning News that the new man of the hour is Abraham Lincoln: "These Days, All Roads Lead to Honest Abe." Pointing to Lincoln's humor ("Well, for those who like that sort of thing, I think it's just the sort of thing they would like"), literary skills ("I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming...."), and his ability to inspire people in wartime, Blow believes that Lincoln is the "model of the American ideal" because there is a "yearning today for leaders who base their principles on something higher than the public opinion polls."

William F. Woo reflected on "What if Lincoln Had Lived on in a Persistent Vegetative State?" in the March 17 issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Woo questions whether modern emergency medicine might have saved Lincoln, holding that some doctors held out the possibility that the president might have lived in a vegetative state. [End Page 66] Such an event, Woo speculates, would have hastened what became the 25th Amendment regarding presidential disability because without it the nation may have been in a prolonged political and constitutional crisis. Should more or extraordinary efforts be made in keeping a president alive than an "ordinary" citizen and victim of an automobile accident? If the answer is yes, then we accept the conclusion that there exists an "aristocracy of survival" and that such a concept is hard to "square with democratic ideals."

Kitty Kelley's biography of Nancy Reagan provoked satire and parody from syndicated columnist Kevin Cowherd of the Baltimore Evening Sun in April with an "excerpt" from Kelley's "new book" Mary Todd Lincoln: The Unauthorized Biography, wherein Lincoln tells Mary to "Shut Up, Woman!" as he had been drinking for hours. "In addition to his fondness for alcohol and his undisguised cruelty toward animals, Lincoln had shown an alarming lack of interest in the affairs of state and was an inveterate liar."

In the aftermath of Presidential Chief of Staff John Sununu's traveling at taxpayers' expense, Lawrence D. Hogan wrote of Lincoln's offer to pay the cost for his son, Robert, to serve on General Grant's staff in a letter dated January 19, 1865. Hogan's letter appeared in the May 23 issue of the New York Times. Grant appointed Robert to his staff at government expense. Editorials about the Sununu flap abounded. Oliphant drew the best with "There'll Always Be a Sununu," which describes four major historical events wherein history could have been changed because transportation had been preempted by the chief of staff. One panel shows Lincoln at the train station saying, "I'm Due to Deliver an Address in Gettysburg—Where's the Train?" The station master responds, "John Sununu Took It to Go Get His Teeth Fixed, Sir."

In New York Newsday on May 4 M. G. Lord has a representative of the "Dems" visit a scientist, who has a portrait of Lincoln on the wall. The scientist states "Cloning him's a cinch! But what makes you think you can persuade him to change parties and run against Bush?"

Gore Vidal continues his musing about Lincoln in "Lincoln Up Close," an essay in the August 15 edition of the New York Review. He states that "for better or worse, we still live in the divided house that Lincoln cobbled together for us, and it is always useful to get to know through his writing ... a literary genius who was called upon to live, rather than merely to write, a high tragedy. I can think of no one in literary or political history quite like this essential American writer." [End Page 67]

The Lincoln on Democracy Project

A reception was held at the New York Historical Society on November 13, 1990 to announce the publication, in English and Polish, of Lincoln on Democracy (Harper/Collins). On November 16–17, 1990, a symposium was held in Albany, with panel discussions and remarks by Mario M. Cuomo and Harold Holzer, editors of the project; James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom; and myself. At the end of the year, fifteen hundred copies of the Polish edition were sent to the minister of education in Warsaw for distribution to the schools in Poland. When Minister Wiktor Kulerski acknowledged the gift on January 29, he announced that his ministry would be printing thirty thousand copies of Lincoln o Demokracji. The Harper/Collins edition is in its fifth printing and has been issued in paperback.

Arts

Jed Stevenson reported in the New York Times on Sunday, August 12, 1990 about a missing mint mark on some of the 3,500 1990 Lincoln penny proof sets, which sold originally for $11. The value of these is now $600 and expected to rise to more than $10,000 by the year 2000.

Fusion Video (17214 South Oak Park Ave., Tinley Park, IL 60477) has produced an Abraham Lincoln video.

Robert Jay Lifton discussed "Assassination: The Ultimate Public Theater" in the New York Times on September 9 while discussing Stephen Sondheim's latest work, Assassins. Lifton describes society's fascination with the killer, as we see "the dark underbelly of our own national reverence and loyalty." Lifton correctly states that John Wilkes Booth's act, contrary to a point of view that he killed Lincoln because of his frustrations as an actor and his rivalry with his more talented father and brother, was the result of his fierce advocacy of the Confederacy, with Lincoln representing everything Booth disliked.

Michiko Kakutani's essay on "Freedom of Fiction, Applied to Biography" appeared in the September 10, 1990 issue of the New York Times. Although Lincoln is not mentioned, many thoughts apply to him as he is portrayed in biographical novels, for example, Gore Vidal's Lincoln and William Safire's Freedom. Kakutani points [End Page 68] out, "There is no life that can be recaptured wholly, as it was, which is to say that all biography is ultimately fiction."

"Mr. Lincoln's World," a living history program presented at the Old State Capitol on October 6 by Carol Andrews, site manager, and her assistant, Jennie Battles, included the presentation of such historic figures from Lincoln's day as Mason Brayman, the attorney and chief solicitor for the Illinois Central Railroad, played by Tom Mason, and Brayman's wife Mary, portrayed by Sandy Temple.

The success of the Civil War series produced by Ken Burns and shown for eleven hours over five nights indicates that history does indeed "sell." Some fourteen million people watched the series. The book, The Civil War (Knopf), written by Geoffrey C. Ward with Ric Burns and Ken Burns, intended to accompany the series, was on the best-seller list of the New York Times Book Review for twenty-one weeks. John Milius interviewed Ken Burns in the Sunday New York Times on September 16, 1990, and iconographer Harold Holzer provided backup by discussing the provenance of the documentary images used in the series.

As a spin-off from The Civil War, a soundtrack album including twenty-eight musical excerpts was released by Elektra Nonesuch. Within ten days, 150,000 copies had been sold, making it the fastest-selling album in the label's history. The only contemporary piece on the soundtrack, "Ashokan Farewell," the fiddle lament composed and played by Jay Ungar, was released as a single. Bootstrapping, Philips's Mercury label, reissued the 1960s' production of The Civil War: Its Music and Its Sounds in a two-disk set.

Sculptor Seward Johnson, Jr.'s model for his Abraham Lincoln statue was unveiled in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on November 19, 1990. Abraham Lincoln stands with his hat pointed toward the Wills's house, a contemporary American with him. The sculptor, known for his realistic portrayals, has attempted to transport the figures in time. The life-sized statue is planned to be located on the sidewalk in the town square.

Teaberry Tapes (770 W. Landoran Lane, Tucson, AZ 85737) has produced "That Reminds Me of a Story ... the Wit and Humor of Abraham Lincoln," a well-narrated forty-two-minute presentation of Lincoln and the humorous stories he told.

Southern Illinois University Press has published The Federal Art Project in Illinois: 1935–1943 by George J. Mavigliano and Richard A. Lawson. The Illinois Art Project (IAP) put hundreds of artists to work during the depression, and they lined the walls of dozens of public buildings with murals. Among them are a 14 × 16 foot mural [End Page 69] of "Lincoln at New Salem" on the wall of the Petersburg Post Office and "Lincoln as Postmaster in New Salem," a 12 × 4 foot mural in the Salem Post Office.

The Chicago Historical Society has added imagist Roger Brown's Lost America to its collection. Painted in 1989, it is a portrayal of a thoughtful Lincoln striding through a surreal landscape and is evocative of the American Man of Sorrows with references to national ideals and national tragedy.

The fall 1990 issue of Prologue of the National Archives contained Jonathan Heller's "A Civil War Album" as a portfolio taken from his War and Conflict. Heller's edited publication from the National Archives contains 1,500 images that record America's military engagements from the Revolution to Vietnam.

The Lincoln Museum has produced a handsome poster entitled "Since 1928, The Lincoln Museum part of Lincoln National Corporation" and showing a montage of many of the first-rate items in its collection.

An original play by Ken Bradbury and Robert Crowe, The Shadow of Giants: Mr. Lincoln Comes to Jacksonville, was presented at the Morgan County Courthouse, Jacksonville, Illinois, from February 8 to 12. Based on an actual trial in which Abraham Lincoln was co-counsel for Colonel James Dunlap, who was blamed by the plaintiff Paul Selby, editor of the Morgan Journal, for causing financial problems at the local state hospital for the insane. Dunlap thrashed Selby with his cane and was fined $25 for breach of the peace. Selby, not satisfied, sued Dunlap for $10,000.

The Lincoln Museum chose Charles Keck's Lincoln statue located in Wabash, Indiana, as its 1991 attendance award card presented to those Boy Scouts who make the Lincoln Shrine pilgrimage on February 12.

The Procter & Gamble Company produced the television movie A Perfect Tribute, which aired on ABC on April 14, the anniversary of the shooting of President Lincoln. The movie, based on the short story by Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews that sold more than six hundred thousand copies, is about Lincoln at Gettysburg. Jason Robards portrayed President Lincoln.

As promised, the Department of Treasury has issued Mount Rushmore commemorative coins to help preserve the memorial. Intended to raise $18 million, the United States Mint has issued, in proof and uncirculated editions, a $5 gold piece with an eagle flying over the monument, a silver dollar with the monument itself, and a half-dollar, with the monument surrounded by a sunburst. The [End Page 70] sculpture, begun in 1927 by Gutzon Borglum, blasted away the entire face of the mountain so Lincoln's face could be carved.

Sculptor Jeffrey Barnard renovated the Abraham Lincoln statue for Lithia Park in Ashland, Oregon. The statue was originally donated to the city in 1917. Crafted in Florence, Italy, and displayed at the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915, the statue came to its final resting place in Ashland, where it remained until 1967 when it was removed because of vandalism. Because the original head was lost, Bernard had to create a new head from Italian marble. The Ashland Daily Tidings told the story in its February 11 issue.

Barbara W. Carlson discusses the actress Page Hedden Wilson in "Strong Women Live Again in Monologues" for the Sunday New York Times on March 31. Wilson's latest production, Proud Sorrow, depicts the Civil War's first ladies, Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Davis.

The Evansville, Indiana, Museum of Arts and Science displayed an exhibit from January 20 through April 21 entitled "Abraham Lincoln: A Legacy" designed to celebrate the 175th anniversary of Lincoln's arrival in Indiana. Several aspects of Lincoln's life, including his family and his political career, were featured. The museum owns a corner cupboard that belonged to Thomas Lincoln.

An operatic life of Frederick Douglass was written by Ulysses Kay and presented at Newark Symphony Hall on April 14. Kevin Maynor appeared in the title role, and Bernard Holland reviewed the performance in the New York Times on April 16.

Hudson Hills Press (235th Avenue, New York, NY 10001) published Albert Bierstadt: Art and Enterprise to accompany the major Bierstadt exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum from February 8 to May 6, the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco from June 8 to September 1, and at the National Gallery of Art in Washington from November 3 to February 17, 1992. Nancy K. Anderson and Linda S. Ferber were the authors, with a contribution by Helena E. Wright.

Technical Educational Consultants (76 N. Broadway, Hicksville, NY 11801) has produced "Review Bank Software" as an educational tool in American history. One disk covers exploration to Reconstruction. Disks are available to conform with the requirements of all computers. Each study guide contains more than 750 multiple-choice questions.

D. Mark Katz is the author of Witness to an Era: The Life and Photographs of Alexander Gardner (Viking). Many think that Gardner was a better photographer than Brady, whose poor eyesight required [End Page 71] him to rely on Gardner until Gardner's resignation in 1862. He earned the sobriquet "Mr. Lincoln's cameraman" during the war years because he photographed the president more than any other photographer. His photographs of the execution of the Lincoln conspirators were on exhibit at the National Defense University Library at Fort Lesley J. McNair in Washington, and others were displayed at the Washington Center for Photography from February 8 to March 2 and in a traveling exhibit by the Chrysler Museum of Norfolk from October 17 to January 5, 1992.

A play based on the life of Mary Todd Lincoln, written by Vaughn McBride and featuring Sylvia Caldwell, was presented at Lincoln Memorial University from February 12–15.

Your Obedient Servant, A. Lincoln by John Ahart was presented at New Salem as part of the Great American People Show from June 22 through August 24.

Noble E. Cunningham, Jr., is the author of Popular Images of the Presidency from Washington to Lincoln (University of Missouri Press), in which the author uses visual material as historical documentation. The popular images, many reproduced for the first time, reveal the development of our political tradition in which a national identity was forged and added to the legitimacy of early government.

Bernard F. Reilly, Jr., is the author of American Political Prints, 1766–1876: A Catalog of the Collections in the Library of Congress (G. K. Hall).

Ross J. Kelbaugh (7023 Deerfield, Baltimore, MD 21208) is the author of an instructive pamphlet, "Introduction to Civil War Photography."

Ford's Theatre

In the January–February issue of Americana, Harold Holzer, with photographs by Dennis Brack, told in "An Ornament Once Again" of how the new museum now displays much more of the assassination story than heretofore, with many "poignant reminders of the night Abraham Lincoln was killed."

Exhibits

The International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, has put together a show entitled "American Photography: 1839–1900." [End Page 72]

The Library of Congress concluded the two-year celebration of the 200th anniversary of the U.S. Congress, with an exhibit entitled "My Dear Wife: Letters from Members of Congress to their Spouses, 1791–1944." Henry Dawes of Massachusetts, who wrote to his "own Dear Wife" of the death of President Lincoln, said "I have never seen such awful sorrow—I can't talk about it—I am at a funeral and the nation are mourners."

The National Portrait Gallery commenced a new exhibition on February 1 with a handsome brochure, "Lincoln and His Contemporaries: Photographs by Mathew Brady from the National Portrait Gallery's Frederick Hill Meserve Collection." The exhibit was to run through February 17, 1992. Anne Shumard delivered her lecture at the gallery, "Lincoln's Contemporaries: Photographs by Mathew Brady" on February 21. Michael Kilian discussed the exhibit in "His Face in History" for the Chicago Tribune on February 12.

Highlights from the Lincoln Collection in the New York Historical Society were placed on exhibition to accompany the announcement of the publication of Lincoln on Democracy. Exhibited at the New York Historical Society on November 13, the New York State Museum on November 16 and 17, and at Gettysburg College on November 19 and 20, 1990, were a rare printing of Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address delivered on March 4, 1865, a letter written by Lincoln on behalf of his chiropodist, Dr. Zacharie, to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, and a letter from the president asking General Meade to transfer General Joseph Hooker.

To mark the first anniversary of A House Divided: America in the Age of Lincoln at the Chicago Historical Society, Eric Foner, exhibition co-curator, discussed the major issues leading to the Civil War on January 20. David Blight delivered "Keeping Faith in Jubilee: Frederick Douglass and the Meaning of the Civil War" on February 10 at the society.

100

Auctions

Brian Riba offered for auction on October 20, 1990, a letter from President Lincoln, on Executive Mansion stationery and marked "Private," to Secretary of War Stanton. Lincoln requested the appointment of two brigadier generals in Connecticut who supported the enlistment of "Negro soldiers." Estimated value before auction was $20,000 to $25,000, and the letter sold for $32,000. Lincoln's [End Page 73] endorsement on a letter written to him by former president Millard Fillmore went for $20,000 (the pre-bid estimate $14,000–$18,000).

101

The Riba auction held on July 13 featured an endorsement for Lincoln's podiatrist, Dr. Zacharie, which went for $65,000. A political letter of 1852 inquiring whether Missouri would go for Winfield Scott sold for $35,000. An interesting Mary Lincoln letter on black-bordered stationery that states "Without my idolized husband, I care not to live. Although I most truly acknowledge my gratitude for my good boys...." went for $19,000.

102

At the Sotheby's auction on October 30, 1990, a transcription of the proposed Thirteenth Amendment that had been copied as a souvenir, with signatures of Abraham Lincoln, Vice-President Hannibal Hamlin, and House Speaker Schuyler Colfax along with 148 senators and representatives, sold for $220,000. It was not expected that a president sign resolutions proposing an amendment to the Constitution, but Lincoln was so keen about the abolition of slavery that he signed several. At the same sale, the assassination reward poster with cartes-de-visite of John Surratt, John Wilkes Booth, and David Harold sold for $18,700, and a broadside from Ford's Theatre advertising Our American Cousin with Laura Keene for Friday, April 14, 1865, went for $14,300.

103

Christie's held an auction of printed books and manuscripts on December 7, 1990. An inscribed copy of the debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, "Alexander H. Todd with compliments A. Lincoln" sold for $71,500. Todd was Lincoln's brother-in-law. In the same sale, the pen Lincoln used to sign the Act of Emancipation for the District of Columbia on April 16, 1862 brought $77,000; the pre-auction estimate was $5,000–$7,000. The downward spiral of art prices has not affected Lincolniana. The December 1990 Auction News from Christie's contained Chris Coover's "Mary Todd Lincoln: President Lincoln's 'Confederate Connection.'"

104

Leslie Hindman Auctioneers' auction on December 10 in Chicago featured a heroic marble bust of Abraham Lincoln by Avard Tennyson Fairbanks. Bidding did not reach the reserve, however, and the bust was not sold after a catalog estimate of $50,000–$60,000.

105

The Sotheby's acution held on June 13 included a leaf from Lincoln's schoolboy sum book signed three times by him. Estimated at between $120,000 and $160,000, it sold for $143,000. The pen with which Lincoln signed the bill giving freedom to all the inhabitants in the territories of the United States on June 19, 1862, was sold for $33,000. [End Page 74]

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Periodicals

In "John Wilkes Booth's Other Victim" in the February–March issue of American Heritage, Richard Sloan discusses William Withers, Jr., the orchestra leader at Ford's Theatre on April 14. Withers believed that the night would end in triumph for him because his composition "Honor to Our Soldiers" would be sung by Laura Keene, the star of Our American Cousin. Her timidity and procrastination and Booth's deed prevented the performance. An article by George McClellan's biographer Steven W. Sears, "Getting Right with Robert E. Lee," is in the May–June issue. Sears notes that "Lincoln remains unchallenged as the Civil War's most written about figure," but Lee holds second place.

107

Harold Holzer writes about his and Mark E. Neely, Jr.'s "The Lincoln Family Album" in his annual article for The Antique Trader (February 13). James Swanson's survey of "Civil War Art" appeared in the May 1 and 15 issues.

108

Douglas L. Wilson's "What Jefferson and Lincoln Read" appeared in the January issue of The Atlantic.

109

The John Hay Sesquicentennial volume 35–36 (1988–89) of Books at Brown was devoted entirely to the one-time private secretary to President Lincoln. Guest editor Jennifer B. Lee wrote the Introduction, and articles include "Those Whom the Gods Would Disappoint They First Make Charming" by Gore Vidal; "John Hay and Abraham Lincoln: A Retrospective" based on the work of Henry B. Van Hoesson by Frank J. Williams; and "John Hay and the Five of Hearts: The Story of a Friendship" by Patricia O'Toole.

110

The December 1990 issue of Civil War History contains Douglas L. Wilson's "Abraham Lincoln, Ann Rutledge, and the Evidence of Herndon's Informants" and William A. Tidwell's "Booth Crosses the Potomac: An Exercise in Historical Research." In "Unconditional Surrender and the Rhetoric of Total War: From Truman to Lincoln" (Center on Violence and Human Survival Occasional Paper no. 2) Charles Strozier alleges that the Civil War was a "total war" by twentieth-century standards. Mark E. Neely, Jr., refutes this in "Was the Civil War a Total War?" for the March issue. Neely asserts that although the Civil War approached "total war," it was not the same as twentieth-century warfare; the Civil War remained constricted by Victorian standards.

111

The January–February issue of Civil War Times Illustrated contains Harold Holzer's portrayal of "Lincoln's Victory Tour" in Richmond, Virginia. In the same issue Richard Pindell discusses "The Vice [End Page 75] President Resides in Georgia" and how Lincoln's fellow Whig congressman and the Confederate vice president Alexander Hamilton Stephens found himself at odds with his Confederate government. Although longing for state's rights, he advocated peace negotiations to avoid the South's ruination. Lloyd Ostendorf discusses "Lincoln's 'Lost' Telegram" in the March–April issue, and John Stanchak writes of "An 'Historic' TV Doublefeature?" Did, he asks, the commander of the Confederate ironclad Virginia have a romance with a Union spy before he fought the enemy ship Monitor, and did President Lincoln befriend a small boy whose brother was a wounded Confederate officer at Gettysburg? Although neither event occurred, television producers presented "Ironclads" (TNT) on March 11, and ABC presented "A Perfect Tribute" in May. Lela Tindle inquires "Whatever Became of Boston Corbett?" Corbett was the reputed killer of John Wilkes Booth and disappeared without a trace. The entire July–August issue of Civil War Times Illustrated is devoted to the Confederate president, " 'We Will Vindicate the Right': An Account of the Life of Jefferson Davis" by Mark Grimsley.

112

The January–February Lincoln issue of Dispatch of the Illinois State Historical Society includes an article by Thomas Schwartz about the Lincoln Collection at the Illinois State Historical Library.

113

The winter 1990 issue of the Illinois Historical Journal contains Thomas F. Schwartz's "Grief, Souvenirs, and Enterprise Following Lincoln's Assassination" and Thomas Keiser's "The Prince of Wales and the United States: A Harbinger of English Opinion of the Civil War." The summer issue contains Schwartz's " 'About New Powder' An Unpublished Lincoln Note." In this recently discovered Lincoln manuscript, the president refers an old Springfield friend and colleague, Captain Isaac R. Diller, to John A. Dahlgren to test a new gun powder, the results of which showed great potential.

114

The theme of the annual Lincoln issue of Illinois History is "Abraham Lincoln—Idealist or Pragmatist?" with a feature essay, "Lincoln as a Writer," by the late Waldo W. Braden. Other articles are by Kristie Kramer ("Lincoln's Views of Slavery"); Heather Haliburton ("Lincoln's Changing Views on Slavery"); Ram Krishnamoorthi ("Slavery in the Great Lincoln-Douglas Debates"); Carrie Coplan ("Abraham Lincoln's Changing Views on Slavery"); Tom Quinn ("Government versus Justice"); Jane Comaroff ("Man of Myth, or American of Americans?"); Karen Weeks ("The Great Emancipator or the Great Pretender?"); Jenny Rubin ("Lincoln: Morality versus Reality"); Kyle Arlington ("Lincoln's Changing Views on Government"); Catherine Duggan ("Lincoln's Changing [End Page 76] Views on Political Parties"); Helen Odessky ("Lincoln's Changing Views on Presidential Powers"); Sharon Kukshiner ("That Unique Experiment"); and Todd Duda ("Lincoln and Patronage").

115

The June issue of Indiana Magazine of History contains Douglas L. Wilson's "Abraham Lincoln's Indiana and the Spirit of Mortal."

116

Frederick Hatch's "Dark Shadows" appeared in the December 1990 issue of the Journal of the Lincoln Assassination.

117

The spring issue of Kentucky Ancestors, the quarterly of the Kentucky Historical Society, is devoted entirely as an index of Kentuckians and Kentucky families, including the Lincolns.

118

The July issue of the Lincoln Group of Florida Newsletter, written and edited by Gary Planck, contains an updated compilation of Lincoln-related organizations, publications, and collections.

119

Garry Wills, in his cover essay "Lincoln" for the February issue of Life, points out that Lincoln was the only president "who became a great President because he was a great writer."

120

The summer 1990 issue of the Lincoln Herald contains Nicholas M. Cripe's "Abraham Lincoln Wins the Republican Nomination for President, 1860," W. Emerson Reck's "Tragic Death Also Takes Man Who Warned Lincoln," and Steven M. Wilson's discussion of The Lincoln Portrait by Thomas Buchanan Read. The fall 1990 issue contains Wayne C. Temple's "Abraham Lincoln's Doorplate" and his "Ruth Stanton Recalls the Lincolns." Steven M. Wilson, director of the Abraham Lincoln Museum at Lincoln Memorial University, describes the pressed-glass pattern in "The Lincoln Drape," and Robert Holloway writes on "Elijah Hanks." The winter issue contains "What's in a Name?" by Waldo W. Braden, "Abraham Jonas, Lincoln's Valued Friend" by Ira L. Harris, "The Folkmyth Lincoln" by Thomas R. Turner, and Gary Planck's always informative "Lincoln News Digest." The spring issue contains "The Lincoln Collection of Berea College" by Gerald F. Roberts, commencing a new series about Lincoln collections, "The Iowa Wesleyan College Harlan-Lincoln Relationship" by Karen Chabal, "Lincoln, Moore and Green: A New Document" by Wayne C. Temple, "Trial of Mrs. Surratt: John P. Brophy's Rare Pamphlet" by Joseph George, Jr., and Steven N. Wilson's discussion of the watch Lincoln purchased in 1840 that is now in the Lincoln Memorial University collection. Although it was intended for Mary Todd, Lincoln gave the watch to Mary N. Curtis, who opened it to find the engraved message, "To Mary Todd from A. L., 1841."

121

The Lincoln Legacy, the quarterly publication of the Lincoln Group of Illinois, has published a Chinese edition of its summer 1990 issue [End Page 77] reporting the International Conference on Abraham Lincoln held November 1989, in Taipei.

122

The October 1989 issue of Lincoln Lore continues Sarah McNair Vosmeier's "Photographing Lincoln." The November 1989 issue features "Lincoln's World: Spain." The January issue contains a review of Philip Shaw Paludan's A People's Contest by Matthew Noah Vosemeier. Mark E. Neely, Jr., wrote "Lincoln's World: Italy" for the February issue, describing the genuine outpouring of grief by Italians upon learning of President Lincoln's death. In May, Sarah McNair Vosemeier discusses a new letter found and contained in the second supplement to The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. In the letter Lincoln asked John M. Palmer, a Democratic state senator, to vote with the Whigs in their opposition to the party's Kansas-Nebraska Act. It was painful to break with one's party. Palmer, who was against popular sovereignty, would not desert the Democrats and vote for Lincoln, who wished to be elected U.S. senator when the legislature met in January 1855. Unable to obtain a majority, Lincoln directed his votes to Lyman Trumbull, who was elected. The letter was written to Jesse Olds Norton just over a week after Lincoln's defeat. One can detect Lincoln's hurt. The June and July issues contain "Lincoln and Legal Education in Antebellum America" by Matthew Noah Vosemeier.

123

"The Mini Page" syndicated in the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel for February featured "A Mini Biography: The Life of Lincoln" in photographs, all of which came from the Lincoln Museum.

124

The spring issue of The Lincoln Newsletter of the Lincoln College Museum was edited by Barbara Hughett, who wrote the cover story "Mary Lincoln Relics in the Robert Todd Beckwith Collection at the Lincoln College Museum." I discussed "The Abraham Lincoln Association, Its Five-Year Plan: A Vision for the Future"; Thomas F. Schwartz contributed "A Lincoln Oxymoron: Long Abe in Miniature"; and George L. Painter discussed " 'Abraham Lincoln: A Biography in Words and Music' at the Lincoln Home National Historic Site and the Fifth Annual Lincoln Essay Competition." The summer edition contains an obituary of Raymond Nelson Dooley by Ralph Geoffrey Newman, George L. Painter's "The Historic Significance of the Lincoln Home," and John Y. Simon's "Lincoln and Charles L. Frost."

125

The December 1990 issue of The Little Giant, newsletter of the Stephen A. Douglas Association, contains Barbara Hughett's "The [End Page 78] Tomb of Stephen A. Douglas." The May issue contains a sketch of Leonard Wells Volk, sculptor of Lincoln and Douglas.

126

The winter issue of Manuscripts contains "Unpublished Manuscripts: Recollections of Mary Todd Lincoln by Her Sister Emilie Todd Helm; an Invitation to a Lincoln Party" by Norman Boas.

127

The December 1990 issue of The Maryland Line contains Jean H. Baker's "The Lincolns' Marriage."

128

Allan Gurganus is the author of "The Civil War in Us," which appeared in the October 8, 1990 issue of the New York Times. Gurganus, author of The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, believes that "Lincoln's face predicted the 20th century ... [his] face is so beaten to the surface, a private pocket worn inside out. Its humanity and shrewd wasted wisdom almost shame and terrify us now. We long for a leader who can tell us stories that are not subcontracted, personal content not ceded to young Ivy League speech-writers."

129

Joseph George, Jr., is the author of "The World Will Little Note? The Philadlphia Press and the Gettysburg Address," which appeared in the July 1990 issue of The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. "'Black Flag Warfare': Lincoln and the Raids Against Richmond and Jefferson Davis," also by George, was part of the July issue, "The American Civil War: A Pennsylvania Perspective."

130

Shirley J. Burton, assistant director of the National Archives-Great Lakes Region, Chicago, wrote "Lincoln at the Bar: New Documentation of Abraham Lincoln's Law Career" for the summer 1990 issue of Prologue while doing research for the microfilm publication Lincoln at the Bar.

131

The May issue of reason contains Steven Hayward's "The Children of Abraham" in which he believes that the advocates of "equality" distort the meaning of Lincoln's message.

132

John Paul Heffernan is the authyor of "Mr. Lincoln's Mystery Cake" that appeared in the March issue of The Saturday Evening Post.

133

Springfield Magazine for February was full of Lincoln articles, from notice of the Abraham Lincoln symposium and Abraham Lincoln Association banquet to "A Real Valentine's Story about Mary and Abraham" and "After the Wedding—the Lincoln Family."

134

The summer issue of Traces contained Don Davenport's "Pretty Pinching Times: Lincoln's Hoosier Home, 1816–1830" and a reprint, in part, of Louis A. Warren's "Lincoln's Youth, 1818, Age 9." [End Page 79]

135

The autumn 1990 issue of The Wilson Quarterly contained Dorothy Wickenden's "Lincoln and Douglass."

136

Books

Lincoln

Richard Nelson Current called Mark E. Neely, Jr.'s The Fate of Liberty: Abraham and Civil Liberties (Oxford) "the most original book about Lincoln in many a year, [and] gives for the first time a true and adequate account of his policies in regard to civil liberties. It does not blink at his inconsistencies and excesses, yet clears him completely of the persisting charge of dictatorship." A History Book Club selection in March, the reviewer, Sanford Levinson, points out how Neely clearly shows that Lincoln's justification for the operation and existence of military commissions was "disingenuous."

137

Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution by James M. McPherson (Oxford) was also a History Book Club selection for March. McPherson takes issue with the propositions recently expounded that the Civil War achieved nothing much and that Lincoln did not know what he was about.

138

George L. Painter, site historian at the Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield, is responsible for publishing the Papers from the Fourth Annual Lincoln Colloquium delivered on October 14, 1989. Included are "Gradations in Our Knowledge of the Words of Lincoln" by Don E. Fehrenbacher, "Lincoln the Lawyer" by Cullom Davis, "Lincoln's Concern for Science and Technology" by Robert V. Bruce, and "'Living Monuments': The Image of the Lincoln Family" by Harold Holzer.

139

A rather simplistic view of Abraham Lincoln is portrayed in Funk and Wagnall's "Special Edition" of The Presidents, which went on sale in 1990 at supermarkets everywhere as part of a new edition of the Funk and Wagnall's Encyclopedia.

140

Mark E. Neely, Jr., and Harold Holzer are the authors of The Lincoln Family Album: Photographs from the Personal Collection of a Historic American Family (Doubleday). Unknown to most historians were the photographic album and contemporary photographs that the Lincoln family possessed. This book contains 120 photographs from this part of the private Lincoln family. The authors discuss this photographic treasure-trove in the November–December 1990 issue of American History Illustrated. [End Page 80]

141

Southern Illinois University Press has released a new and useful work, Lincoln as a Lawyer: An Annotated Bibliography compiled by Elizabeth Matthews, with a Foreword by Cullom Davis.

142

Jean H. Baker's paper, "Parallel Lives: Abraham and Mary Lincoln," delivered at the fifty-eighth annual Lincoln dinner of the Lincoln Memorial Shrine at Redlands, California, on February 12, 1990, has been published by the shrine.

143

The twenty-ninth annual Fortenbaugh Lecture delivered by Carl N. Degler at Gettysburg College on November 19, 1990, "One Among Many: The American Civil War in Comparative Perspective," is available from the college.

144

C. J. Carrier Co. (P. O. Box 1114, Harrisonburg, VA 22801) has reprinted The Lincoln's in Virginia by John W. Wayland.

145

Alice Provensen is the author and illustrator of The Buck Stops Here: The Presidents of the United States (Harper, Collins). One of the many "pithy" comments in this wonderfully illustrated volume for children is the description of Abraham Lincoln as "a strange, friendless, uneducated boy."

146

The Library of America has published in a subscriber's boxed edition its two-volume Speeches and Writings of Abraham Lincoln edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher. Viking-Penquin has published an abridgement of the two-volume set in paperback with selections by Fehrenbacher.

147

John Y. Simon provided the contribution on Mary Todd Lincoln to the Research Guide to volume 4 of the American Historical Biography (Beacham Publishing) along with an evaluation of biographical sources.

148

The Collected Writings of James T. Hickey from Publications of the Illinois State Historical Society, 1953–1984 was published by the society.

149

Waldo W. Braden served as editor of Abraham Lincoln, Public Speaker (Louisiana State University Press) and selected several masterful speeches delivered about Abraham Lincoln. Among them are some by Adlai Stevenson and one by Mario M. Cuomo.

150

David Zarefsky is the author of Lincoln, Douglas and Slavery in the Crucible of Public Debate (University of Chicago Press). Zarefsky proves the point Lincoln made during his first debate with Senator Douglas: "Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed. Consequently, he who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions." Skirting the central conflict of slavery in the territories, Lincoln and Douglas traded charges instead. [End Page 81]

151

Carolyn Pishny Miller's Ph.D. dissertation, "Biographies about Abraham Lincoln for Children (1865–1969): Portrayals of His Parents," (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990) examines portions of seventeen of the more significant books about Lincoln written for children. Miller discusses literary and historical prospectives and biographical information about the authors along with portrayals of Lincoln's parents.

152

Don Davenport is the author of In Lincoln's Footsteps (Prairie Oak Press, 2577 University Ave., Madison, WI 53705), which deals with approximately twenty major Lincoln sites in the Midwest.

153

Louis A. Warren's Lincoln's Youth, Indiana Years, Seven to Twenty-One, 1860–1830 has been reprinted in cloth and paper by Indiana University Press.

154

Americana House of the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop in Chicago has reprinted John Frank's Lincoln as a Lawyer.

155

Stephen B. Oates's With Malice Toward None has been reproduced by Recorded Books in unabridged cassette form with Nelson Runger as the reader.

156

After many decades of Lincoln lectures, Basil Moore has published them (Mayheaven Publishing, P.O. Box 509, Mahomet, IL 61853), with illustrations by Lloyd Ostendorf.

157

The University of Illinois Press has reissued Lincoln the President: Last Full Measure by J. G. Randall and Richard N. Current with a new Introduction by Current. A second edition of Victor Hicken's Illinois in the Civil War and Albert Furtwangler's Assassin on Stage: Brutus, Hamlet, and the Death of Lincoln have also been published.

158

Robert W. Johannsen is the author of Lincoln, the South and Slavery: The Political Dimension (Louisiana State University Press). Johannsen shows how Lincoln's argument against slavery and his method for dealing with it moved from moderate to radical. As an ambitious politician, Lincoln delivered statements during his campaigns to satisfy political goals, even on the race issue, more than has previously been acknowledged.

159

Bonnie Stahlman Speer is the author of The Great Abraham Lincoln Hijack about the 1876 attempt to steal the body of President Lincoln (Reliance).

160

Donald T. Phillips has taken the cue from In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies by Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr., and applied them to a study of Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln on Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times (Warner). [End Page 82]

161

Higginson Books of Salem, Massachusetts, has reprinted The Ancestry of Abraham Lincoln by J. Henry Lea.

162

The sixth annual Lloyd Ostendorf Lecture delivered at the Abraham Lincoln Museum of Lincoln Memorial University by Gary R. Planck and titled "Abraham Lincoln, America's Tragic Hero" has been published by LMU.

163

Civil War

Gary W. Gallagher's review of the Library of America's Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Selected Letters 1839–1865 and the Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman appeared in the October 21, 1990 New York Times Book Review section. The biographical chronology of the Grant book along with the selected letters are choice and taken from the good work of the Ulysses S. Grant Association and the Grant papers edited by John Y. Simon.

164

Charles P. Roland is the author of An American Iliad: The Story of the Civil War (University Press of Kentucky).

165

Michael Perman is the editor of Major Problems in the Civil War and Reconstruction (Heath).

166

Robert Leckle is the author of An Expiration of the Civil War in his The Saga of the American Civil War: None Died in Vain (Harper).

167

The letters of the Union counterpart to Mary Chesnut have been published by the University of Illinois Press as Wartime Washington: The Civil War Letters of Elizabeth Blair Lee, edited by Virginia Jeans Laas.

168

General

Sheldon M. Novick is the author of Honorable Justice: The Life of Oliver Wendell Holmes (Little, Brown), in paper from Laurel/Dell. It was Justice Holmes, a young officer during the Civil War, who admonished Lincoln at Fort Stevens to "Get down, you damn fool" while under enemy fire.

169

Paul C. Nagel is the author of The Lees of Virginia: Seven Generations of an American Family (Oxford).

170

Kenneth M. Stampp is the author of America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink (Oxford), a History Book Club selection. Stampp argues that the handling of whether or not Kansas should be admitted to the Union with a pro-slavery constitution, and President Buchanan's urging that it be so, represented "the fatal step" that led to the disruption of union. [End Page 83]

171

Lloyd E. Ambrosius is the editor of A Crisis in Republicanism: American Politics During the Civil War and Lewis O. Saum is the author of The Popular Mood of America, 1860–1890 (University of Nebraska Press). Also from the University of Nebraska Press is a reprint of Allan Pinkerton's The Spy of the Rebellion, with a new Introduction.

172

Presidential guru Richard E. Neustadt gave us the fourth edition of his Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents (Free Press). Although Lincoln does not figure prominently in it, the book would have been a good primer for him. As it is, Lincoln is used as a counterpoint. For example, in discussing the transition of administrations with Congress in adjournment, Neustadt indicates that the long span of time from Election Day to Inauguration Day the following March helped Lincoln, as opposed to "Congress thrust upon him" if in session. They may have wound up running the Civil War and "bungled [it] still more badly than by him." In discussing the commitments that Ronald Reagan took into office in 1981, Neustadt alleges that such a practice was not Lincoln's, who had no such agenda as, for example, emancipation. Perhaps Neustadt has forgotten Lincoln's standing commitment against the extension of slavery, part of the Republican platform that he followed aggressively between election and inauguration.

173

David Buisseret presented a stunning visual record in Historic Illinois from the Air (University of Chicago Press).

174

William S. McFeely is the author Frederick Douglass (Norton), a February Book-of-the-Month Club and History Book Club selection. In a review for the History Book Club, Eric Foner points out that in an age of the self-made man, few Americans rose so far from such humble beginnings as did Frederick Douglass, Lincoln notwithstanding. Lincoln reached the White House from very modest beginnings, but Douglass, "a man of remarkable intelligence and great oratorical powers who became one of the coutnry's most celebrated reformers, was born a slave."

175

Donald W. Treadgold is the author of A History of Freedom (New York University Press).

176

Edgar Lee Masters's Spoon River Anthology has been published by the University of Illinois Press in an annotated edition and edited by John E. Hallwas.

177

Andrew Rolle is the author of John Charles Frémont: Character as Destiny (University of Oklahoma Press). [End Page 84]

178

Reference

The Manuscript Society has published its indispensable tool for the collector and librarian: The Autograph Collector's Checklist (David R. Smith, 350 N. Niagara St., Dept. SA, Burbank, CA 91505).

179

Tom Broadfoot has published Civil War Books: A Price Checklist with advice in a new 1990 edition.

180

Reviews

Mark E. Neely, Jr., reviewed Come Retribution: The Confederate Secret Service and the Assassination of Lincoln by William Tidwell, James O. Hall, and David Winfred Gaddy in the June 1990 issue of American Historical Review.