Abraham Lincoln quarterly. [Vol. 3, no. 2]

THE LINCOLN COLLECTOR'
Lincoln's First Separately Published Speech
ON THE day after Christmas, 1839, Abraham Lincoln,
then a Whig member of the Illinois House of Representatives, delivered a political speech on the subtreasury plan of President Martin Van Buren. It was an effective argument, and Lincoln's Whig friends liked it so well
that they decided to print it as a campaign document. Several
thousand copies must have been distributed, but today it is
so hard to locate that it is one of the relatively few Lincoln
items that really deserve to be called rare.
In addition, the speech, at least in the form in which most
collectors know it, has aroused considerable speculation. The
mystery surrounding it, if it can be called that, is best stated
in a letter I received from Daniel H. Newhall some years ago.
I have enclosed in your package today a copy of Fish 518 of
which I want your opinion. This piece, the last owner told me,
came out of John Hay's library, having been presented to him
by Thos. J. Henderson.
According to my records you [the Illinois State Historical Library] and Governor Horner are the only collectors that have it.
It is on the want lists of all the others. Stewart never saw it nor
McLellan.
But what is it? Obviously, it was not printed in 1839. Is this
Henderson the old time Illinois man who was a Congressman in
1874 when he was 50 years old? And where did he get it? It is on
pulp paper which was not used until the middle 80s.
It certainly is a good piece but I suspect it is comparatively
modern. If you throw any light on it I will appreciate it.
Thomas J. Henderson was an Illinois Congressman, as Mr.
Newhall surmised. He died in February, 1911, and two
1This article is based upon the author's "Four Lincoln Firsts," which was published in The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, First Quarter, 1942.
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