Dear Mr. Lincoln

by Holzer, Harold

• ISBN13: 9780809326860
• ISBN10: 0809326868
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-02-28
• Publisher: Southern Illinois Univ Pr

Summary

During the Civil War, Americans felt themselves to be on intimate terms with their commander in chief, sending President Abraham Lincoln between two hundred and five hundred pieces of mail every day--letters that expressed the concerns, aspirations, grievances, and obsessions of the nation. Ranging from weighty political tomes to greetings accompanying homespun gifts, the letters reflect the pulse of the country in a time of upheaval. This illuminating collection includes straightforward correspondence from ordinary Americans requesting autographs and favors as well as pleas from the influential, such as the anguished open letter fromNew York Tribunepublisher Horace Greeley imploring Lincoln to end his "remiss" policy of caution on emancipation. This new paperback edition, featuring twenty-two illustrations, portrays a president clearly eager to review and respond to the advice, criticism, and requests of the nation's citizens.

Author Biography

Harold Holzer is the senior vice president for external affairs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Among the country’s leading authorities on Abraham Lincoln and the political culture of the Civil War era, Holzer is the author, coauthor, or editor of twenty-three books—including The Lincoln Image, The Lincoln Family Album, and Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President—for which he has received numerous awards. He is the cochair of the U.S. Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	1	(334)
1 Advice and Instruction	43	(28)
2 Requests and Demands	71	(46)
3 Compliments and Congratulations	117	(24)
4 Complaints and Criticism	141	(30)
5 Inventions and Innovations	171	(24)
6 Gifts and Honors	195	(40)
7 Official Business	235	(42)
8 Presidential Invitations	277	(26)
9 Family Matters	303	(32)
10 Threats and Warnings	335	(16)
Notes to Introduction	351	(6)
Sources	357	(3)
Bibliography	360	(9)
Index	369