Recollections of Abraham Lincoln

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U of Nebraska Press, Jan 1, 1994 - History - 337 pages
When President-elect Abraham Lincoln was preparing to go to Washington he appealed to his old friend and law partner Ward Hill Lamon: ?I want you to go along with me. . . . In fact I must have you. So get yourself ready and come along.? Lamon journeyed from Springfield to Washington in 1861 and returned to Illinois in mourning in 1865. Lincoln chose Lamon as his bodyguard when he slipped into Washington by night to foil conspirators intent on murder. The president sent him on missions and appointed him marshal of the District of Columbia. During that time of civil war Lincoln was often dispirited, and Lamon tried to cheer him.

These recollections were compiled from Lamon?s notes and papers by his daughter, Dorothy, and published in 1895. The expanded second edition of 1911 has been used for this reprinting. Recollections of Abraham Lincoln has often been cited for its firsthand testimony about key episodes and incidents, including at the phantom-like train trip to Washington in 1861, a visit to Charleston during the secession crisis, and Lincoln?s foreboding dreams.

As James A. Rawley points out in his introduction, Lamon?s recollections of Lincoln?s personal qualities an presidency are important to history.

 

Contents

INTRODUCTION TO THE BISON BOOK EDITION
xvi
Difficulties attending the Execution of the Fugitive Slave
xxiii
Civil Authority outranked the Military
xxxiii
Mr Lincolns Last Drive
xliii
CHAPTER I
9
Low Charges for Professional Service
15
Introduction to Mrs Lincoln
21
Plans for Safety
35
Death of Mr Lincolns Favorite Child
159
CHAPTER XI
169
Extract from Wendell Phillipss Speech
188
Mr Lincolns Treatment of the Subject of Dictatorship
195
Ploughed around him
200
not want to use it
202
Mr Lincoln hopes to be Dumped on the Right Side of
208
Busy letting Rooms while the House was on Fire
214

Formation of Cabinet and Administration Policy
49
Judge J S Black on Slavery as regarded by the Southern
57
CHAPTER V
80
Case of Young Man convicted of Sleeping at his Post
86
Reprieve given to a Man whom a little Hanging would
87
Mr Lincoln dismisses Committee of FaultFinding Clergy
93
Origin of Phrase Government of the People by the Peo
96
Bearing a Title should not injure the Austrian Count
99
Letters of Condolence 106108
105
SuperstitionA Rent in the Veil which hides from Mortal
111
Mr Lincoln calls himself Only a Retail StoryDealer
125
If a Cause of Action is Good it needs no Vindication
145
Proud?
153
First Proposition to Mr Lincoln to issue InterestBearing
220
The Trent Affair
227
Universal Suffrage One of Doubtful Propriety
242
Mr Lincoln and Jefferson Davis on an Imaginary Island
248
Marshals Office made a Subject of Legislation in Congress
259
Lincolns Last Laugh
283
Lincoln in a Law Case
291
Lincolns Views of the American or KnowNothing Party
299
Account of Arrangement for Cooper Institute Speech
303
Shrewdness
309
Religion
333
Copyright

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About the author (1994)

James A. Rawley, a Carl Adolph Happold Professor Emeritus of history at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is the author of Turning Points of the Civil War (1989), also available as a Bison Book.

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