The Life and Writings of Abraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln, the greatest of all American presidents, left us a vast legacy of writings, some of which are among the most famous in our history. Lincoln was a marvelous writer—from the humblest letter to his great speeches, including his inaugural addresses, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Gettysburg Address. His sentences were so memorably crafted that many resonate across the years. "Fourscore and seven years ago," begins the Gettysburg Address, "our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." In 1940, the prolific author and historian Philip Van Doren Stern produced this volume as a guide to Lincoln's life through his writings. Stern's "Life of Abraham Lincoln" is a full biography of the man and includes a detailed chronology. Stern has collected all the essential texts of Lincoln's public life, from his first public address—a stump speech in New Salem, Illinois, in 1832 for an election he went on to lose—to his last piece of public writing, a pass to a congressman who was to visit the president the day after Lincoln went to Ford's Theater on April 14, 1865. Some 275 such documents are collected and placed in their historical context. Together with the "Life" and the Introduction, "Lincoln in His Writings," by noted historian Allan Nevins, they give a full and vivid picture of Abraham Lincoln. |
Contents
Chronology | |
Speech at Peoria Illinois in Reply to Senator Douglas | |
Announcement of Political Views June 13 1836 | |
Address Before the Young Mens Lyceum of Springfield | |
Letter to Mrs O H Browning April 1 1838 | |
Letter to John T Stuart January 20 1841 | |
From an Address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural | |
Letter to A Jonas February 4 1860 | |
From a Speech at New Haven Connecticut March 6 1860 | |
Autobiographical Sketch Written for Use in Preparing | |
Letter to F A Wood June 1 1860 | |
Letter to Samuel Haycraft June 4 1860 | |
Letter to George D Prentice October 29 1860 | |
Letter to Samuel Galloway June 19 1860 | |
Letter to Joshua F Speed February 3 1842 | |
Letter to Miss Mary Speed September 27 1841 | |
From an Address to the Springfield Washingtonian | |
Letter to Joshua F Speed February 25 1842 | |
Letter to Joshua F Speed October 4? 1842 | |
Letter to Joshua F Speed May 18 1843 | |
The Bear Hunt 1846 | |
From Notes for a Tariff Discussion December 1 1847 | |
From a Speech in the United States House of Representatives | |
Letter to William H Herndon February 1 1848 | |
Letter to Mary Lincoln April 16 1848 | |
Letter to William H Herndon January 8 1848 | |
From a Speech in the House of Representatives July | |
Letter to John D Johnston February 23 1850 | |
Resolutions in Behalf of Hungarian Freedom January | |
Letter to E B Washburne February 9 1855 | |
Letter to Joshua F Speed August 24 1855 | |
Letter to George P Floyd February 21 1856 | |
From a Speech on Sectionalism October 2? 1856 | |
From a Speech in Springfield Illinois June 26 1857 | |
Letter to Hannah Armstrong September 1857 | |
Letter to John L Scripps June 23 1858 | |
From a Speech at Springfield Illinois July 17 1858 | |
Letter to Stephen A Douglas July 24 1858 | |
From Lincolns Reply in the First Joint Debate at Ottawa | |
From Lincolns Opening Speech at the Second Joint Debate | |
From Lincolns Opening Speech at the Fourth Joint Debate | |
From Lincolns Opening Speech at the Sixth Joint Debate | |
Letter to Edward Lusk October 30 1858 | |
Letter to Henry Asbury July 31 1858 | |
Letter to Thomas J Pickett March 5 1859 | |
From a Speech at Cincinnati September 17 1859 | |
Letter to E B Washburne December 13 1860 | |
Letter to W H Seward January 3 1861 | |
From an Address at Cleveland Ohio February 15 1861 | |
First Inaugural Address March 4 1861 | |
Letter to Colonel Ellsworths Parents May 25 1861 | |
Memoranda of Military Policy Written after the Defeat | |
Note to Major Ramsey October 17 1861 | |
From the Annual Message to Congress December 3 1861 | |
Letter to James A McDougall March 14 1862 | |
Letter to E M Stanton Secretary of War June 1862 | |
Letter to August Belmont July 31 1862 | |
From an Address on Colonization to a Negro Deputation | |
Letter to Horace Greeley August 22 1862 | |
Letter to Hannibal Hamlin September 28 1862 | |
Order Relieving General G B McClellan November 5 1862 | |
From the Annual Message to Congress December 1 1862 | |
Letter to Governor Andrew Johnson March 26 1863 | |
Response to a Serenade July 7 1863 | |
Draft of Letter to General G G Meade July 14 1863 | |
Letter to James H Hackett August 17 1863 | |
Telegram to Mrs Hannah Armstrong September 18 1863 | |
Note to Secretary E M Stanton November 11 1863 | |
Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction December | |
From the Annual Message to Congress December 8 1863 | |
From a Reply to a Committee from the New York | |
Telegram to Mrs Lincoln April 28 1864 | |
Letter to General U S Grant April 30 1864 | |
Letter to Secretary Chase June 30 1864 | |
Pardon for Roswell McIntyre October 4 1864 | |
Letter to General U S Grant January 19 1865 | |
Letter to Thurlow Weed March 15 1865 | |
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