FOREWORD Not long after the appearance of Herndon's Life of Lincoln, in the preparation of which I collaborated with the author, I was asked by the late Leonard Swett to visit him when I next came to Chicago. In due time I complied with the invitation. It was not long after I had called until our conversation turned on the Life of Lincoln which was then undergoing the test of popular approval. It was soon apparent that Mr. Swett greatly admired Herndon and he was generous and complimentary in his allusions to the book; but while he expressed the belief that Herndon, of all persons who had attempted to narrate the story of Lincoln's life, was best qualified to tell all the truth and had religiously tried to do so, yet he felt that in some respects, due probably to his advanced age, he had fallen short of his full task. Mr. Swett intimated that he had talked to certain other friends, to whom he purposed sending me, who knew Lincoln personally, and they coincided with his view. He mentioned Joseph Medill, Horace White, Henry C. Whitney, Leonard W. Volk, the sculptor, and Alexander Hesler, the photographer, all of whom I interviewed. In addition he took me to see Lyman Trumbull, and I listened with deep interest to their recollections of Lincoln and Herndon. Regarding the need, in view of his unusual opportunities, of fuller revelations from Herndon, Swett and Trumbull agreed with each other, but in certain other respects, notably their estimate of Lincoln, they were not in complete accord. Trumbull, I regret to say, mani fested an inclination to rob Lincoln of the credit of some of his achievements. I remember he criticized Nicolay and Hay because they claimed that Lincoln opened the way for the freedom of the slaves, whereas, as he contended, Congress had done it by two laws it passed before Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Mr. Swett's criticism of Herndon was that he had failed to bring out as fully as he should the human side of Lincoln, the incidents of his domestic and home life, and especially a definite and searching insight into his activities as a lawyer. He maintained that Mr. Lincoln, notwithstanding his brilliant career as a statesman, would never cease to be remembered as a lawyer and as such would be judged by the world; that therefore the more we learned of that phase of his life, the clearer and more impressive would be the portrait we should be able to transmit to posterity. Our knowledge, therefore, of all that Lincoln accomplished in the law office and the court-room, as well as how he did it, is in the highest degree essential. Another criticism by Mr. Swett was that not enough attention had been given to Mr. Lincoln's Springfield environment - his connection with local affairs, commercial as well as political. We should know more about him as a fellow townsman - where and how he lived and how he spent his money. A great deal has been written regarding his public career, as statesman and Chief Magistrate during the most eventful period in our national history; but more remains to be said of that period of his evolution which antedates his elevation to the Presidency; in other words, there should be more local color, more of the details of his personal history as revealed by his neighbors - in short, the doors of his office and of his home should be made to swing open and the light turned on so that we may indeed view him as a man. My visit to Chicago convinced me that Mr. Swett simply voiced the opinion of the friends of Lincoln whose names I have mentioned, as well as others whom I elsewhere encountered. Since then my earnest endeavor has been to learn and record the truth as it developed in a careful study of one of the greatest characters in human history, and to that end these pages have been written. For the benefit of their ripe knowledge and discriminating judgment as well as the use of a generous array of letters, papers, and other valuable historical material, I am indebted to an army of friends. Among them may be named Charles A. Dryer, of Indianapolis; Dr. William W. Sweet, of DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana; and Isaac R. Diller and the late John W. Bunn, of Springfield, Illinois. The full list is too large for individual mention, but each contributor may console himself with the reflection that he has added materially to a truthful history of THE REAL LINCOLN. Greencastle, Indiana August 10, 1921 JESSE W. WEIK |