May 2017
Civil War News
5
The Source By Michael K. Shaffer
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln “To the people of Lincoln’s home town, the preservation of his works and the memory of his deeds, not in idolatry but in honest fact, is an enduring monument, better perhaps than marble or bronze.” Roy P. Basler, the editor of the original nine-volume set of The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, penned these words in the introduction to volume one, offering an apt testimony to the legacy of this primary source collection. Under the purview of the Abraham Lincoln Association (ALA), located, appropriately in Springfield, Illinois, the first president of the organization, Logan Hay, had a dream. His vision: one day, the ALA would collect, and publish, all known writings of our nation’s 16th president. Unfortunately, Hay died in 1942, but others within the association carried his mission forward. Beginning in 1945, and working for many years to complete the program, a team of researchers, which Basler directed, scoured the country looking for all known Lincoln documents. Yes, they visited the large institutions: National Archives, Huntington Library, and a score of others; their travels also took them to meetings with private collectors, those holding the much sought after
Collected Works Title Page.
Lincoln signature on a document. Continuing their work, which exceeded five years in duration, Basler’s team set parameters for the material to include in the collection. They also made difficult decisions regarding the various documents to omit. For the most part, the original collection, published by Rutgers University Press beginning in 1953, contains writings from Lincoln’s hand. Also, correspondence from the pens of others, but containing the president’s signature of approval, made the collection, as did letters many different people wrote, but Lincoln kept in his files. Lastly, period newspaper accounts, often printed verbatim one of Lincoln’s various speeches, and these sources enabled Basler and team to fill voids within the collection. Working on a project of this nature often presents a great challenge to the compilation group. What to omit? Basler and company opted to leave out Lincoln’s legal documents, from his pre-war law practice. As a side note, some of these papers have appeared in subsequent books. The editors also decided to leave out routine letters, pardon documents, forgeries, and materials known to have existed, but the text lost to history. Anything Basler left out of the collection, one can find in Appendix II of volume eight. While discussing appendices, Appendix I, also in volume eight, contains undated documents, and material discovered too late to place in proper chronological order within the collection. Striving to maintain Lincoln’s original writings, the correction of misspelled words or punctuation errors remain at a minimum. Readers will see any editorial corrections identified through the traditional use of a [ ]. Assisting researchers using this collection, the editors placed a listing
Nine Volume Set of Collected Works.
Collected Works Sources and Symbols. of sources and symbols at the beginning of each volume. Following the title page, readers can glean over the listing of various repositories, which contributed material for each respective volume. Familiarize oneself with the symbols, as they appear over and over within the footnotes. One of the strengths of this collection for researchers exists within the many footnotes accompanying Lincoln’s writings. When possible, the editors, within the notes, provided a brief background on the person(s) mentioned in the document. They also explained, if not obvious, the nature of the document, and set the correspondence in proper context amid events unfolding at the time. The following notes the time periods covered within each of the eight volumes. The first, contains correspondence from May 26, 1830, to August 28, 1848. Volume two, September 3, 1848, until August 21, 1858. The third installment contains writings from August 21, 1858, to March 4, 1860. Marking the first of the “Civil War” volumes, the fourth has material starting March 5, 1860, going to a letter written on October 24, 1861. Volume five, October 24, 1861 – December 12, 1862; six, December 13, 1862 – November 3, 1863; seven, November 5, 1863 – September 12, 1864. The final volume, eight, starts September 12, 1864, and ends with Lincoln’s last letter, written on the day of his assignation, April 14, 1865. A typical page within any of the eight volumes appears as shown in the example. Providing a very helpful index to the entire Collected Works, James Allen, with the Illinois State Historical Library, developed a user-friendly format for the index. As one might expect, many listings appear beneath Lincoln’s name. So, to facilitate, for example, Civil War research (the focus of this column), users can quickly locate war-related correspondence via
Collected Works Sample Page. a subcategory within the index. Allen also provided a listing of all institutions housing Lincoln papers! The ability to quickly locate copies of The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, makes this source readily available. Those preferring a hard-copy version can purchase the set from various booksellers. If one wishes to explore easily, and for free, visit the Abraham Lincoln Association’s website at http://quod.lib.umich. edu/l/lincoln/. Users can conduct keyword searches, and quickly locate information relevant to the topic under study. Also, remember to check WorldCat http://
www.worldcat.org for help in finding this set in a local library. Preparing to send years of work to press, Basler reflected upon what he hoped his team had accomplished. “To have helped in preserving an accurate record of a great man’s work is a privilege of the present which the future can properly assess only by pledging itself in some degree to those principles of honesty, justice, and human brotherhood which will distinguish the writings of Lincoln as long as they are read.” Mr. Basler, we continue to read! Next month, we will explore other sources, perhaps the two supplemental volumes of the Collected Works, published years after Basler and team completed the original set. Please keep suggestions for future ‘The Source’ columns coming; send them to the email address shown below. Continued good luck in researching the Civil War! Michael K. Shaffer is a Civil War historian, author, lecturer, and instructor, who remains a member of the Society of Civil War Historians, Historians of the Civil War Western Theater, and the Georgia Association of Historians. Readers may contact him at mkscdr11@gmail.com, or to request speaking engagements via his website www.civilwarhistorian.net. Follow Michael on Facebook www.facebook.com/ michael.k.shaffer and Twitter @ michaelkshaffer.
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