Recollected Words of Abraham Lincoln (review)

BOOK REVIEWS173 insensitivity toward the plight ofblacks in the South is especially telling for its demonstration of the narrow limits of his definition of reform. What emerges with the greatest clarity in Simpson's lucid pages is that Henry Adams never enjoyed significant poUtical influence at any time. Moreover, serious politicians knew that he was a marginal gadfly. Even Adams's voluminous contemporary writings turn out to have been little regarded. At most, in Simpson's words, he was "a minor political celebrity," the Gilded Age equivalent of a substitute panelist on the "Capital Gang." SinceAdams had only a subsidiary role in the political life ofthe GildedAge, a small book is appropriate to coverhis erratic involvements. There are times in the narrative when it seems that Simpson is stretching to make Adams and his inept machinations reach book-length status. Yet, given the cottage industry that has made Henry Adams one of the most documented individuals in the period, it is good that Simpson's sprightly book is available as welcome counterbalance to the historical idolizing of Henry Adams. Perhaps in the next century, historians of the Gilded Age will put aside their fascination with Adams, who was articulate but unimportant, and provide the political biographies of Grant, Samuel J. Tilden, John Sherman, and other major figures that are so much needed. If Brooks Simpson's book diminishes the incessant scholarly cud-chewing about Henry Adams, it will have performed a notable public service. Lewis L. Gould University of Texas at Austin Recollected Words ofAbraham Lincoln. Edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher and Virginia Fehrenbacher. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996. Pp. xiv, 592. $60.00.) This is the most significant reference book on Lincoln since Mark E. Neely, Jr.'s TheAbraham Lincoln Encyclopedia (1982). The pubUsher's dustjacket of the present book incidentally quotes Neely as characterizing it as the "most important archival work on Lincoln since the pubUcation ofthe Collected Works ofAbraham Lincoln [1953]." To rate such strong praise, a book must represent a labor of research and make an original contribution to historical interpretation . Such is the case with the Fehrenbachers' book. (There is no indication of the specific contribution of each of the editors.) The compilers have attempted to collect from a wide range of sources of oral statements attributed to Lincoln. Their coverage ofthe material has been all but exhaustive. They have arranged the quotations alphabetically according to the hearer. Well aware of the varying reUability of such evidence, they grade each quotation by a classroomlike system ranging from A to E. While they explain the theory behind the system, its application to individual cases is not always 174CIVIL war history fully evident, especially in the distinction between items classified as C, the lowest satisfactory grade, and D, about which they express more than average doubt. Nonetheless, Fehrenbacher's long experience in the field, so evident in the comments on the probable probity of auditors and the contexts of quotations , tends to reassure the reader. The book contains envies on obscure individuals such as Newton Bateman, who claimed to quote Lincoln on religion and slavery, and Lucius E. Chittenden with allegations about Lincoln and the delegates to the 1861 peace convention and a version of the story of Lincoln's pardoning of a sleeping sentinel. In the cases of such witnesses, the editors carefully explain the reasons why their alleged quotations are or are not probable and how their evidence compares with similar stories. Some witnesses they scornfully dismiss (even while quoting), such as Charles P. G. Chiniquy, "perhaps the biggest liar in Lincoln hterature" (98). Even more illuminating is the discussion of generally better known people who claimed to be able to report more quotations from Lincoln. Among them are Benjamin F. Butler, John Hay, William H. Hemdon, Wood Hill Lamon, and Alexander K. McClure.The succession ofalleged quotations that each attributes to Lincoln gives the Fehrenbachers a fine opportunity to test the relative reliability ofeach witness and his evidence. While they find possible worth in even questionable material, they make it clear that some of these are among those whom they earUer termed "Munchausens of Lincoln literature" (ii). Throughout they deal with varying quotations on...