Lincoln on Democracy

Afterword

Afterword THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN ASSOCIATION BY FRANK J. WILLIAMS Carl Sandburg was right when he said at the end of his oration before a joint session of the United States Congress: The people of many other countries take Lincoln now for their own. He belongs to them. He stands for decency, honest dealing, plain talk, and funny stories. . . . He had something they would like to see spread everywhere over the world ... Democracy. But why would the Abraham Lincoln Association, originally organized in Springfield, Illinois, for a neighborhood Lincoln's birthday party, become a major sponsor of this volume? The organization, known at first as the Lincoln Centennial Association, was begun in 1908 to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of Lincoln's birth the following February. Until 1924, its major function was to stage an annual observance on Lincoln's birthday, featuring prominent speakers giving banquet addresses. Fortunately, the Association was reorganized to support activities of a broader nature. This was appropriate-as Lincoln no longer belonged just to the people ofSpringfield but to the entire world. The Association recognized its responsibility to help bring information about him to all people, not just those who lived within the precincts of Lincoln's hometown . Our sponsorship of this book, containing material from the million -word Lincoln utterance record that relates to democracy, civil liberties, and freedom, represents a recognition of this mission. It also represents recognition of changes in our emphasis over the 352 AFTERWORD years. After the Association reorganized in 1924, its principal mission was to discover and make accessible unknown facts about the life of Lincoln. Beginning in 1940, with the pUblication of The Abraham Lincoln Quarterly, the Association increased its emphasis on the interpretation of the facts already accumulated and, at the same time, brought Lincoln's presidency more frequently within its examination. This bold research program was undertaken as a result of the leadership of Springfield lawyer Logan Hay (the son of Milton Hay, who had studied law in Lincoln's office), who hoped the Association would "... contribute something solid and lasting to the understanding and appreciation of Lincoln's life." An extensive publications program began with the first annual volume of the Lincoln Centennial Association Papers. This was followed shortly by a bulletin published regularly and written by Paul M. Angle, the first full-time, paid secretary. It was he who made the Association famous in 1928 by uncovering the fraud of the Wilma Frances Minor letters, purportedly written by and between Abraham Lincoln and Ann Rutledge. In 1929, the Lincoln Centennial Association changed its name to the Abraham Lincoln Association. Successor secretaries read like a Who's Who of Lincoln scholars: Benjamin P. Thomas, Harry E. Pratt, William E. Baringer, and Roy P. Basler. As a result, other important reference books became available: Lincoln Day by Day: A Chronology, 1809-1865 (Angle and Thomas), Lincoln's New Salem (Thomas), Personal Finances of Abraham Lincoln (edited by Pratt). Then, exhausted and wrongly believing its work to be finished, the Association almost ceased to exist when The Collected Works ofAbraham Lincoln was published in 1953. It revived to raise the financing necessary for furnishing the restored old state capitol, where Lincoln delivered his House Divided speech, and it remains active to this day in the vanguard of Lincoln studies. Sixty-six years have elapsed since the Association inaugurated its publishing program, and sixty years have passed since the first of its special studies appeared. As this present volume attests, the work is not over. This is the only book anywhere that attempts to present in one place the documents, speeches, and writings of Lincoln relating to such a critical part ofman's existence: freedom. To that end, the contribution ofthe Abraham Lincoln Association in publishing The Collected Works cannot be overemphasized, as it is the source for most ofthese selections Afterword 353 expressing Lincoln's literary and democratic genius. There are other efforts under way too. The annual Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, the successor to The Abraham Lincoln Quarterly, publishes, in addition to news in the Lincoln field, thoughtprovoking papers on various aspects of Lincoln's life. Lincoln symposia are held every February 12 in Springfield. The Association is a major sponsor of the Lincoln Legals Project, an effort to collect, collate, and publish all documents relating to the twenty-four-year law practice of Abraham Lincoln. Support of other Lincoln groups and projects is...