Abraham Lincoln and men of war-times : some personal recollections of war and politics during the Lincoln administration ; with introduction by . ^r -tfta&c PREFACE. The chapters inthis volume maken o pretensions t ogive either a biog-raphy of AbrahamLincoln or a historyof his were writtenamidst the constantpressure of editorialduties simply to cor-rect some popular er-rors as to Lincolnscharacter and actions. So much has been written ofhim by persons assuming to possess information obtainedin the inner circle of his confidence, and such conflictingpre
Abraham Lincoln and men of war-times : some personal recollections of war and politics during the Lincoln administration ; with introduction by . ^r -tfta&c PREFACE. The chapters inthis volume maken o pretensions t ogive either a biog-raphy of AbrahamLincoln or a historyof his were writtenamidst the constantpressure of editorialduties simply to cor-rect some popular er-rors as to Lincolnscharacter and actions. So much has been written ofhim by persons assuming to possess information obtainedin the inner circle of his confidence, and such conflictingpresentations of his personal attributes and private andpublic acts have been given to the public, that I havedeemed it a duty to contribute what little I could frompersonal knowledge, to correct some common errors inestimating his character, ability, and efforts. The closest men to Abraham Lincoln, both before andafter his election to the Presidency, were David Davis,. 4 PREFACE Leonard Swett, Ward H. Lamon, and William H. Hern-don. Davis and Swett were his close personal andpolitical counselors; Lamon was his Marshal for Wash-ington and Herndon had been his law-partner for twentyyears. These men, who knew Mr. Lincoln better thanall others, unite in testifying that his extreme cautionprevented him from making a personal confidant of anyone; and my own more limited intercourse with himtaught me, in the early period of our acquaintance, thatthose who assumed that they enjoyed Lincolns confi-dence had little knowledge of the man. It is the gen-erally honest bnt mistaken belief of confidential relationswith Lincoln on the part of biographers and magazineand newspaper writers that has presented him to thepublic in such a confusion of attitudes and as possessingsuch strangely contradictory individual qualities. I saw Mr. Lincoln many times during his Presidentialterm, and, like all of the many others who had intimaterelations with him, I enjoyed his confi
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