Produced by Nicole Apostola





LINCOLN LETTERS

By Abraham Lincoln


Published by The Bibilophile Society




NOTE

The letters herein by Lincoln are so thoroughly characteristic of
the man, and are in themselves so completely self-explanatory, that
it requires no comment to enable the reader fully to understand and
appreciate them. It will be observed that the philosophical
admonitions in the letter to his brother, Johnston, were written on
the same sheet with the letter to his father.

The promptness and decision with which Lincoln despatched the
multitudinous affairs of his office during the most turbulent
scenes of the Civil War are exemplified in his unequivocal order to
the Attorney-General, indorsed on the back of the letter of Hon.
Austin A. King, requesting a pardon for John B. Corner. The
indorsement bears even date with the letter itself, and Corner was
pardoned on the following day.


THE ORIGINALS FROM WHICH THE WITHIN FACSIMILES WERE MADE ARE IN THE
COLLECTION OF MR. WILLIAM K. BIXBY, AND THROUGH HIS COURTESY THEY
ARE REPRODUCED FOR MEMBERS OF THE BIBLIOPHILE SOCIETY


[Illustration: 01 TO HIS FATHER]


[Illustration: 02 TO HIS BROTHER]


[Illustration: 03 TO HIS BROTHER]




Washington, Dec. 24th, 1848.

My dear father:--

Your letter of the 7th was received night before last. I very
cheerfully send you the twenty dollars, which sum you say is
necessary to save your land from sale. It is singular that you
should have forgotten a judgment against you; and it is more
singular that the plaintiff should have let you forget it so long,
particularly as I suppose you have always had property enough to
satisfy a judgment of that amount. Before you pay it, it would be
well to be sure you have not paid it; or, at least, that you can
not prove you have paid it. Give my love to Mother, and all the
connections.

Affectionately your son,

A. LINCOLN.


[Written on same page with above.]

Dear Johnston:--

Your request for eighty dollars, I do not think it best to comply
with now. At the various times when I have helped you a little, you
have said to me, "We can get along very well now," but in a very
short time I find you in the same difficulty again. Now this can
only happen by some defect in your conduct. What that defect is, I
think I know. You are not _lazy_, and still you _are_ an _idler_. I
doubt whether since I saw you, you have done a good whole day's
work, in any one day. You do not very much dislike to work, and
still you do not work much, merely because it does not seem to you
that you could get much for it. This habit of uselessly wasting
time, is the whole difficulty; and it is vastly important to you,
and still more so to your children, that you should break this
habit. It is more important to them, because they have longer to
live, and can keep out of an idle habit before they are in it
easier than they can get out after they are in.

You are now in need of some ready money; and what I propose is,
that you shall go to work, "tooth and nail," for somebody who will
give you money for it. Let father and your boys take charge of
things at home--prepare for a crop, and make the crop; and you go
to work for the best money wages, or in discharge of any debt you
owe, that you can get. And to secure you a fair reward for your
labor, I now promise you that for every dollar you will, between
this and the first of next May, get for your own labor either in
money or in your own indebtedness, I will then give you one other
dollar. By this, if you hire yourself at ten dollars a month, from
me you will get ten more, making twenty dollars a month for your
work. In this, I do not mean you shall go off to St. Louis, or the
lead mines, or the gold mines, in California, but I mean for you to
go at it for the best wages you can get close to home, in Coles
County. Now if you will do this, you will soon be out of debt, and
what is better, you will have a habit that will keep you from
getting in debt again. But if I should now clear you out, next year
you will be just as deep in as ever. You say you would almost give
your place in Heaven for $70 or $80. Then you value your place in
Heaven very cheaply, for I am sure you can with the offer I make
you get the seventy or eighty dollars for four or five months'
work. You say if I furnish you the money you will deed me the
land, and if you don't pay the money back, you will deliver
possession--Nonsense! If you can't now live _with_ the land, how will
you then live without it? You have always been kind to me, and I do not
now mean to be unkind to you. On the contrary, if you will but follow my
advice, you will find it worth more than eight times eighty dollars to
you.

Affectionately your brother,

A. LINCOLN.


[Illustration: 04 TO GENERAL GRANT]




Washington, April 30, 1864.

Executive Mansion,

Lieutenant-General Grant,--

Not expecting to see you again before the spring campaign opens, I
wish to express, in this way, my entire satisfaction with what you
have done up to this time, so far as I understand it. The
particulars of your plans I neither know, or seek to know. You are
vigilant and self reliant; and, pleased with this, I wish not to
obtrude any constraints or restraints upon you. While I am very
anxious that any great disaster, or the capture of our men in great
numbers, shall be avoided, I know these points are less likely to
escape your attention than they would be mine. If there is anything
wanting which is within my power to give, do not fail to let me
know it.

And now with a brave Army, and a just cause, may God sustain you.

Yours very truly,

A. LINCOLN.



[Illustration: 05 REQUEST FOR A PARDON]


[Illustration: 06 REQUEST FOR A PARDON]


[Illustration: 07 APPROVAL OF A PARDON]


[Transcriber's Note: The letter from Austin A. King, requesting a
pardon for John B. Corner is contained in files linc005.jpg and
linc006.jpg. Lincoln's note approving the pardon is contained in
file linc007.jpg. As these letters were not transcribed in the
print book, they have not been transcribed here.]