LINCOLN LETTERS

By Abraham Lincoln

Published by The Bibilophile Society

NOTE

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

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

THE ORIGINALS FROM WHICH THE WITHIN FACSIMILES WERE MADE ARE IN THECOLLECTION OF MR. WILLIAM K. BIXBY, AND THROUGH HIS COURTESY THEYARE 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 verycheerfully send you the twenty dollars, which sum you say isnecessary to save your land from sale. It is singular that youshould have forgotten a judgment against you; and it is moresingular that the plaintiff should have let you forget it so long, particularly as I suppose you have always had property enough tosatisfy a judgment of that amount. Before you pay it, it would bewell to be sure you have not paid it; or, at least, that you cannot prove you have paid it. Give my love to Mother, and all theconnections. 

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 complywith now. At the various times when I have helped you a little, youhave said to me, "We can get along very well now, " but in a veryshort time I find you in the same difficulty again. Now this canonly happen by some defect in your conduct. What that defect is, Ithink I know. You are not _lazy_, and still you _are_ an _idler_. Idoubt whether since I saw you, you have done a good whole day'swork, in any one day. You do not very much dislike to work, andstill you do not work much, merely because it does not seem to youthat you could get much for it. This habit of uselessly wastingtime, is the whole difficulty; and it is vastly important to you, and still more so to your children, that you should break thishabit. It is more important to them, because they have longer tolive, and can keep out of an idle habit before they are in iteasier 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 willgive you money for it. Let father and your boys take charge ofthings at home--prepare for a crop, and make the crop; and you goto work for the best money wages, or in discharge of any debt youowe, that you can get. And to secure you a fair reward for yourlabor, I now promise you that for every dollar you will, betweenthis and the first of next May, get for your own labor either inmoney or in your own indebtedness, I will then give you one otherdollar. By this, if you hire yourself at ten dollars a month, fromme you will get ten more, making twenty dollars a month for yourwork. In this, I do not mean you shall go off to St. Louis, or thelead mines, or the gold mines, in California, but I mean for you togo at it for the best wages you can get close to home, in ColesCounty. Now if you will do this, you will soon be out of debt, andwhat is better, you will have a habit that will keep you fromgetting in debt again. But if I should now clear you out, next yearyou will be just as deep in as ever. You say you would almost giveyour place in Heaven for $70 or $80. Then you value your place inHeaven very cheaply, for I am sure you can with the offer I makeyou get the seventy or eighty dollars for four or five months'work. You say if I furnish you the money you will deed me theland, and if you don't pay the money back, you will deliverpossession--Nonsense! If you can't now live _with_ the land, how willyou then live without it? You have always been kind to me, and I do notnow mean to be unkind to you. On the contrary, if you will but follow myadvice, you will find it worth more than eight times eighty dollars toyou. 

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, Iwish to express, in this way, my entire satisfaction with what youhave done up to this time, so far as I understand it. Theparticulars of your plans I neither know, or seek to know. You arevigilant and self reliant; and, pleased with this, I wish not toobtrude any constraints or restraints upon you. While I am veryanxious that any great disaster, or the capture of our men in greatnumbers, shall be avoided, I know these points are less likely toescape your attention than they would be mine. If there is anythingwanting which is within my power to give, do not fail to let meknow 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 apardon for John B. Corner is contained in files linc005. Jpg andlinc006. Jpg. Lincoln's note approving the pardon is contained infile linc007. Jpg. As these letters were not transcribed in theprint book, they have not been transcribed here. ]