Recollections of Abraham Lincoln 1847-1865 Part 2

Yours most truly, DAVID DAVIS.

The faithfulness till death of this n.o.ble man's friendship is shown in the following letter written for him when he was dying, twenty-one years later.

BLOOMINGTON, ILL., June 22, 1886.

COL. W. H. LAMON:

DEAR SIR,--On my return from Washington about a month since Judge Davis said to me that he had a long letter from you which he intended to answer as soon as he was able to do so. Since that time the Judge has been declining in health until he is now beyond all capability of writing. I have not seen him for three weeks until yesterday morning when I found him in lowest condition of life.

Rational when aroused but almost unconscious of his surroundings except when aroused.

He spoke in the kindest terms of you and was much annoyed because an answer to your letter was postponed. He requested me this morning through Mrs. Davis to write you, while Mrs. Davis handed me the letter. I have not read it as it is a personal letter to the Judge. I don't know that I can say any more. It was one of the saddest sights of my life to see the best and truest friend I ever had emaciated with disease, lingering between life and death.

Before this reaches you the world may know of his death. I understood Mrs. Davis has written you.

Very truly, LAWRENCE WELDON.

In striking contrast to this beautiful friendship is another which one would p.r.o.nounce equally strong were he to judge the man who professed it from his letters to Lamon, covering a period of twenty-five years, letters filled throughout with expressions of the deepest trust, love, admiration, and even grat.i.tude; but in a book published last November [1910] there appear letters from this same man to one of Lamon's _bitterest_ enemies. In one he says, "Lamon was no solid firm friend of Lincoln." Let us _hope_ he was sincere when he expressed just the opposite sentiment to Lamon, for may it not have been his poverty and not his will which consented to be thus "interviewed." He alludes twice in this same correspondence to his poverty, once when he gives as his reason for selling something he regretted to have sold that "I was a poor devil and had to sell to live," and again, "---- are you getting rich? I am as poor as Job's turkey."

One of Lamon's friends describes him:--

"Of herculean proportions and almost fabulous strength and agility, Lamon never knew what fear was and in the darkest days of the war he never permitted discouragement to affect his courage or weaken his faith in the final success of the Nation. Big-hearted, genial, generous, and chivalrous, his memory will live long in the land which he served so well."

Leonard Swett wrote in the "North American Review":--

"Lamon was all over a Virginian, strong, stout and athletic--a Hercules in stature, tapering from his broad shoulders to his heels, and the handsomest man physically I ever saw. He was six feet high and although prudent and cautious, was thoroughly courageous and bold. He wore that night [when he accompanied Lincoln from Harrisburg to Washington] two ordinary pistols, two derringers and two large knives. You could put no more elements of attack or defence in a human skin than were in Lamon and his armory on that occasion.... Mr. Lincoln knew the shedding the last drop of blood in his defence would be the most delightful act of Lamon's life, and that in him he had a regiment armed and drilled for the most efficient service."

The four or five thousand letters left by Colonel Lamon show that his influence was asked on almost every question, and show that Mr. Lincoln was more easily reached through Colonel Lamon than by any other one man; even Mrs. Lincoln herself asked Lamon's influence with her husband.

Extracts from some of these letters may be found at the end of this volume. They breathe the real atmosphere of other days.

After his resignation as Marshal, he resumed the practice of law in company with Hon. Jeremiah S. Black and his son, Chauncey F. Black.

Broken in health and in fortune, he went to Colorado in 1879, where he remained seven years. It was here that the beautiful friendship began between Colonel Lamon and Eugene Field. This friendship meant much to both of them. To Eugene Field, then one of the editors of the Denver "Tribune," who had only a boyhood recollection of Lincoln, it meant much to study the history of the War and the martyred President with one who had seen much of both. To Colonel Lamon it was a solace and a tonic, this a.s.sociation with one in whom sentiment and humor were so delicately blended.

One little incident of this friendship is worth the telling because of the pathetic beauty of the verses which it occasioned.

One day when Field dropped in to see Lamon he found him asleep on the floor. (To take a nap on the floor was a habit of both Lamon and Lincoln, perhaps because they both experienced difficulty in finding lounges suited to their length--Lamon was six feet two inches, Lincoln two inches taller.) Field waited some time thinking Lamon would wake up, but he did not; so finally Field penciled the following verses on a piece of paper, pinned it to the lapel of Lamon's coat, and quietly left:--

As you, dear Lamon, soundly slept And dreamed sweet dreams upon the floor, Into your hiding place I crept And heard the music of your snore.

A man who sleeps as now you sleep, Who pipes as music'ly as thou-- Who loses self in slumbers deep As you, O happy man, do now,

Must have a conscience clear and free From troublous pangs and vain ado; So ever may thy slumbers be-- So ever be thy conscience too!

And when the last sweet sleep of all Shall smooth the wrinkles from thy brow, May G.o.d on high as gently guard Thy slumbering soul as I do now.

This incident occurred in the summer of 1882. Eleven years after Colonel Lamon lay dying. He was conscious to the last moment, but for the last sixteen hours he had lost the power of speech. His daughter watched him for those sixteen hours, hoping every moment he would be able to speak.

She was so stunned during this long watch that she could not utter a prayer to comfort her father's soul, but just before the end came, the last lines of the little poem came to her like an inspiration which she repeated aloud to her dying father:

"And when the last sweet sleep of all Shall smooth the wrinkles from thy brow, May G.o.d on high as gently guard Thy slumbering soul as I do now."

These were the last words Colonel Lamon ever heard on earth. He died at eleven o'clock on the night of May 7th, 1893; and many most interesting chapters of Lincoln's history have perished with him.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Letter page 1]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Letter page 2]

RECOLLECTIONS

OF

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

CHAPTER I.

EARLY ACQUAINTANCE.

When Mr. Lincoln was nominated for the Presidency in 1860, a campaign book-maker asked him to give the prominent features of his life. He replied in the language of Gray's "Elegy," that his life presented nothing but

"The short and simple annals of the poor."

He had, however, a few months previously, written for his friend Jesse W. Fell the following:--

I was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Harden County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families--second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks, some of whom now reside in Adams, some others in Macon counties, Illinois--My paternal grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, emigrated from Rockingham County, Virginia, to Kentucky, about 1781 or 2, where, a year or two later, he was killed by indians,--not in battle, but by stealth, when he was laboring to open a farm in the forest--His ancestors, who were quakers, went to Virginia from Berks County, Pennsylvania--An effort to identify them with the New England family of the same name ended in nothing more definite, than a similarity of Christian names in both families, such as Enoch, Levi, Mordecai, Solomon, Abraham, and the like--

My father, at the death of his father, was but six years of age; and he grew up, literally without education--He removed from Kentucky to what is now Spencer county, Indiana, in my eighth year--We reached our new home about the time the State came into the Union--It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods--There I grew up--There were some schools, so called; but no qualification was ever required of a teacher, beyond "_readin, writin, and cipherin_" to the Rule of Three--If a straggler supposed to understand latin happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizzard--There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education. Of course when I came of age I did not know much--Still, somehow, I could read, write, and cipher to the Rule of Three; but that was all--I have not been to school since--The little advance I now have upon this store of education, I have picked up from time to time under the pressure of necessity--

I was raised to farm work, which I continued till I was twenty two--At twenty one I came to Illinois, and pa.s.sed the first year in Macon county--Then I got to New-Salem at that time in Sangamon, now in Menard county, where I remained a year as a sort of Clerk in a store--Then came the Black Hawk war; and I was elected a Captain of Volunteers--a success which gave me more pleasure than any I have had since--I went the campaign, was elected, ran for the Legislature the same year (1832) and was beaten--the only time I ever have been beaten by the people--The next, and three succeeding biennial elections, I was elected to the Legislature--I was not a candidate afterwards. During this Legislative period I had studied law, and removed to Springfield to practice it--In 1846 I was once elected to the lower House of Congress--Was not a candidate for re-election--From 1849 to 1854, both inclusive, practiced law more a.s.siduously than ever before--Always a whig in politics; and generally on the whig electoral tickets, making active canva.s.ses--I was losing interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again--What I have done since then is pretty well known--

If any personal description of me is thought desirable, it may be said, I am, in height, six feet, four inches, nearly; lean in flesh, weighing, on an average, one hundred and eighty pounds; dark complexion, with coa.r.s.e black hair, and grey eyes--No other marks or brands recollected--

Yours very truly A. LINCOLN.

J. W. Fell, Esq.

WASHINGTON, D. C., March 20, 1872.

We the undersigned hereby certify that the foregoing statement is in the hand-writing of Abraham Lincoln.

DAVID DAVIS.

LYMAN TRUMBULL.