Lincoln Letters

Lincoln Letters, by Abraham
Lincoln

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Title: Lincoln Letters
Author: Abraham Lincoln
Release Date: May, 2005 [EBook #8110] [This file was first posted on

June 15, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: US-ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, LINCOLN
LETTERS ***

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LINCOLN LETTERS
Published by The Bibilophile Society
NOTE
The letters herein by Lincoln are so thoroughly characteristic of the
man, and are in themselves so completely self-explanatory, that it
requires no comment to enable the reader fully to understand and
appreciate them. It will be observed that the philosophical admonitions
in the letter to his brother, Johnston, were written on the same sheet
with the letter to his father.
The promptness and decision with which Lincoln despatched the
multitudinous affairs of his office during the most turbulent scenes of
the Civil War are exemplified in his unequivocal order to the
Attorney-General, indorsed on the back of the letter of Hon. Austin A.
King, requesting a pardon for John B. Corner. The indorsement bears
even date with the letter itself, and Corner was pardoned on the
following day.

THE ORIGINALS FROM WHICH THE WITHIN FACSIMILES
WERE MADE ARE IN THE COLLECTION OF MR. WILLIAM K.
BIXBY, AND THROUGH HIS COURTESY THEY ARE
REPRODUCED FOR MEMBERS OF THE BIBLIOPHILE SOCIETY
[Transcriber's Note: The following letters, to Lincoln's father and
brother, make up files linc01.jpg, linc02.jpg, and linc03.jpg]
Washington, Dec. 24th, 1848.
My dear father:--
Your letter of the 7th was received night before last. I very cheerfully
send you the twenty dollars, which sum you say is necessary to save
your land from sale. It is singular that you should have forgotten a
judgment against you; and it is more singular that the plaintiff should
have let you forget it so long, particularly as I suppose you have always
had property enough to satisfy a judgment of that amount. Before you
pay it, it would be well to be sure you have not paid it; or, at least, that
you can not prove you have paid it. Give my love to Mother, and all the
connections.
Affectionately your son,
A. LINCOLN.
[Written on same page with above.]
Dear Johnston:--
Your request for eighty dollars, I do not think it best to comply with
now. At the various times when I have helped you a little, you have
said to me, "We can get along very well now," but in a very short time I
find you in the same difficulty again. Now this can only happen by
some defect in your conduct. What that defect is, I think I know. You
are not lazy, and still you are an idler. I doubt whether since I saw you,
you have done a good whole day's work, in any one day. You do not
very much dislike to work, and still you do not work much, merely

because it does not seem to you that you could get much for it. This
habit of uselessly wasting time, is the whole difficulty; and it is vastly
important to you, and still more so to your children, that you should
break this habit. It is more important to them, because they have longer
to live, and can keep out of an idle habit before they are in it easier than
they can get out after they are in.
You are now in need of some ready money; and what I propose is, that
you shall go to work, "tooth and nail," for somebody who will give you
money for it. Let father and your boys take charge of things at
home--prepare for a crop, and make the crop; and you go to work for
the best money wages, or in discharge of any debt you owe, that you
can