# Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, 1847–1865

RECOLLECTIONS
OF
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. (From a painting by G. P. A. Healy, 1868.)
Recollections
of
Abraham Lincoln
1847–1865
by Ward Hill Lamon
Edited by Dorothy Lamon
Chicago A. C. McClurg and Company 1895
Copyright By Dorothy Lamon A.D. 1895 All rights reserved
PREFACE.
THE reason for thinking that the public may be interested in my father's recollections of Mr. Lincoln, will be found in the following letter from Hon. J. P. Usher, Secretary of the Interior during the war:—
Lawrence, Kansas, May 20, 1885.
Ward H. Lamon, Esq., Denver, Col.
Dear Sir,—There are now but few left who were intimately acquainted with Mr. Lincoln. I do not call to mind any one who was so much with him as yourself. You were his partner for years in the practice of law, his confidential friend during the time he was President. I venture to say there is now none living other than yourself in whom he so much confided, and to whom he gave free expression of his feeling towards others, his trials and troubles in conducting his great office. You were with him, I know, more than any other one. I think, in view of all the circumstances and of the growing interest which the rising generation takes in all that he did and said, you ought to take the time, if you can, to commit to writing your recollections of him, his sayings and doings, which were not necessarily committed to writing ​and made public. Won't you do it? Can you not, through a series of articles to be published in some of the magazines, lay before the public a history of his inner life, so that the multitude may read and know much more of that wonderful man? Although I knew him quite well for many years, yet I am deeply interested in all that he said and did, and I am persuaded that the multitude of the people feel a like interest.
Truly and sincerely yours,
(Signed)J. P. Usher.
In compiling this little volume, I have taken as a foundation some anecdotal reminiscences already published in newspapers by my father, and have added to them from letters and manuscript left by him.
If the production seems fragmentary and lacking in purpose, the fault is due to the variety of sources from which I have selected the material. Some of it has been taken from serious manuscript which my father intended for a work of history, some from articles written in a lighter vein; much has been gleaned from copies of letters which he wrote to friends, but most has been gathered from notes jotted down on a multitude of scraps scattered through a mass of miscellaneous material.
D. L.
Washington, D. C., March, 1895.
CONTENTS.
Letter from Ex-Secretary Usher.
CHAPTER I.
EARLY ACQUAINTANCE.
CHAPTER II.
JOURNEY FROM SPRINGFIELD TO WASHINGTON.
CHAPTER III.
INAUGURATION.
CHAPTER IV.
GLOOMY FOREBODINGS OF COMING CONFLICT.
CHAPTER IV.
HIS SIMPLICITY.
CHAPTER VI.
HIS TENDERNESS.
CHAPTER VII.
DREAMS AND PRESENTIMENTS.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE HUMOROUS SIDE OF HIS CHARACTER.
CHAPTER IX.
THE ANTIETAM EPISODE.—LINCOLN'S LOVE OF SONG.
CHAPTER X.
HIS LOVE OF CHILDREN.
CHAPTER XI.
THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE GETTYSBURG SPEECH.
CHAPTER XII.
HIS UNSWERVING FIDELITY TO PURPOSE.
CHAPTER XIII.
HIS TRUE RELATIONS WITH M$^c$CLELLAN.
CHAPTER XIV.
HIS MAGNANIMITY.
CHAPTER XV.
CABINET COUNSELS.
CHAPTER XVI.
CONFLICT BETWEEN CIVIL AND MILITARY AUTHORITY.
CHAPTER XVII.
PLOTS AND ASSASSINATION.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1953, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse