The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1889-02-12
One Written to Abraham Lincoln
and the other by Him.
rcentury Magazine.l


"The remarkable popular interest In every
thing that throws light upon the character
of Abraham Lincoln, which the serial publ
cation of his life in the Century Magazine in
part finds and In part creates, emboldens me
to believe that recent discovery Of my own
bearing on the matter may be accepted by
many readers as contribution not without
its value to the growing public fund of Lin
coin memorabilia. use the word discovery
although that word may seem not fit, when l
say, as must, that what discovered was
already public enough to be seen framed and
hanging on the interior walls of the fne State
Capitol In Nashville, Tenn. The documents
to which refer are now no longer to be seen
where saw them, they having since my visit
to Nashville few years ago, been removed
to much less frequented place of custody in
the same city. Through the Intervention OF
friend / lately found them again, though
not without trouble, and here show them for
the examination of the curious.
They consist Of two letters, one written to,
and the other written by Abraham Lincoln
How they came into public keeping, and with
what history, in the case of the illustrious
writer of one of the letters, they may be as.
ISOLATED, have sought In vain to learn. But
the letters happily explain themselves. Per
haps.the enterprising author of the biography
now being published In the magazine may be
able to bring these letters into their proper
setting in the circumstances of Lincoln's
life;
zone thing was very noteworthy in the
autograph letter of Lincoln, and thas was its
Immediately neat and correct mechanical
execution. The manuscript had the physi
ognomy and air Of one produced by an habit
ually fastidious literary man. The hand.
writing was finished enough to be called
elegant the punctuation, the spelling, the
capitalizing, were as conscientious as the
turn of the phrase may be seen to be.
1T is Mr.. w. G. Anderson, who writes
a covertly threatening letter to Lincoln-lit-
tie dreaming at the moment that 1t was an
historic document that he was so seriousl,
inditiDg. The date is Lawrenceville, Oct0
Der 30. 1910. The address is stiffiy, mean,
perhaps to be even formidably formal Il
is "A Lincoln, Esqr. Dear Sir Mr.. Ander
son straitly says:
ION our first meeting on Wednesday last
difficulty in words ensued between us
which deem Ii my duty to notice further
think you was the agrgessor. Your words
imported insult; and whether you meant
them as such is for you to say. You will
therefore please inform me on this point
And If you designed to offend me, please
communicate to me your present feelings on
the subject. and whether you persist In the
stand you took
"And Mr.. Anderson sternly signs himself
Your obedient Servant
Lincoln. How win he meet it? Will he
chat Mr.. Anderson? Will he give him stiff.
ness for stiffness? There will surely be ar
interesting revelation of character. The
actual fact Is, If Abraham Lincoln had
known in writing his reply, that he was
writing 1t much more for the whole worlt
and for the future generations, than simply
for his personal friend Mr. Anderson, L
read, DO not see how he could have writer
It better for the advantage of his own goo(
fame. Here is his reply:
'LAwERENCEvILLE, Oct. 81, l84o.
".W. G. Anderson,
Dear Sir: Your note of yesterday is received
In the difficulty between us of which you speak
you say you think was the agressor, / do mo-
think was. You say my words imported lnsul
= L meant them as fair set of 10 your owl
statement, and not otherwise; and In that ligb
alone now wish you to understand them. Yol
ask for my present feelings on the subject
entertain no unkind feeling TO you, and none o.
any sort upon the subject, except sincere regret
that permitted myself to get into any snch alter
cation. Yours etc. "a. LINCOLN"