Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-01-23
A MEACER REWARD.
The Pay Received by Hay and Nicolay for
Their Life of Abraham Lincoln.

What is to be the ultimate form of
the publication of the life of Abraham
Lincoln which you TCol. John Hay1 and
Col. Nicolay are publishing seriallyP"
lit is to be published by the Century
company in ten volumes. and | have
just been reading some of the proofs.
1t has now been nearly twenty-five
years since you first announced in one
of your newspaper letters that we were
to write this book. / told YOU at the
white house just after Mr. Lincoln's
death that we were resolved to under
take If. AT the time we commenced
this publication great deal was said
and printed about the large sum of
money we received for the manuscript.
1t is true that the $50, 600 we were paid
between us was probably the largest
sum that serial publication had paid
for any series of contributions, but I
made computation few days ago
upon what had been paid for our time
in preparing this book. We have re-
ceived $3.50 day each and no more.
The rest has gone for expenses. have
been compelled to buy hundreds of
books and manuscripts, of which in
dividual volumes have cost me $25
apiece. Look here" Col. Hay showed
me from dozen to twenty volumes of
manuscripts bound carefully.
These said he, ARE the original
archives and letters of Jefferson Davis,
his cabinet, and the confederate govern
ment. l bought them from Col.
Pickett, the same officer who sold to
the United States for 5000 similar
set.n
The colonel opened one of the
volumes and showed me an indorse-
ment in lead pencil by Jefferson Davis
to Judah P. Benjamin, his secretary of
state. The whole penciling was in Mr..
Davis handwriting. He orders Benia-
min to write state letter to Mr.. Mer-
cier and Lord Lyons, calling them to
take action upon Mr.. Stewards reveal
ment of his policy toward the French
under Macmillan in Mexico. The let
ter was written in Davis generally pas
sionate or oratorical style, with abund-
ant adjectives.
''Why, | thought that these letters
were in the state department"
They are; you see these official pa
pers were very often issued in duplicate
or in triplicate, because a good many
of them had to be sent by blockade-run-
ners between the south and Europe, and
if one set was to be lost another set
would be preserved. In that way the
papers which bought are frequently
originals, while those in the state de-
partment are copies, and in other cases
the state department papers are original
and mine are copies. | have thought
that after we finish the publication of
Mr.. Lincoln's life | would issue limit
ed edition of these dispatches in par
ticular book"
Then you have not been getting for
all your original contributions and
compositions upon this work of % years
more than laborer's wages up at the
new Library building by the Capitol
building"
just that. Our partial papers in
the Century Magazine will come to an
end next February and will have occu-
pied three years in their publication.
Everything has been cut out of the
magazine chapters which did not direct
| ly bear upon Lincoln here in the east.
All reference to Sherman's campaign
and important matters in the west have
been omitted, which properly come
within the compass of Lincoln's life.
In the book publication this excepted
matter will be contained. "-GGth IN
Cincinnati Enquirer.