Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 4 [Mar. 5, 1860-Oct. 24, 1861].

Annotation

[1]   Tracy, pp. 161-62. Anson G. Chester was editor of the Buffalo, New York, Commercial Advertiser. In 1864 he left journalism for a commission as major

and appointment as New York military agent at Buffalo, and in later life entered the Presbyterian ministry. His letter of September 1 is not in the Lincoln Papers. See the note, Lincoln to A. Chester, March 14, supra. The newspaper clipping was undoubtedly from the Chicago Times and Herald. The Illinois State Journal, September 6, 1860, denounced the forgery in the following article, which may have been written by Lincoln and was certainly authorized by him:

``In the Chicago Times and Herald of the 4th we find the following, purporting to be `a quotation from a speech made by Mr. Lincoln in 1844,' as taken from the Macomb Eagle:

`Mr. Jefferson is a statesman whose praises are never out of the mouths of the Democratic party. Let us attend to this uncompromising friend of freedom whose name is continually invoked against the Whig party. The character of Jefferson was repulsive. Continually puling about liberty, equality, and the degrading curse of slavery, he brought his own children to the hammer, and made money of his debaucheries. Even at his death he did not manumit his numerous offspring, but left them soul and body to degradation and the cart whip. A daughter of this vaunted champion of Democracy was sold some years ago at public auction in New Orleans, and purchased by a society of gentlemen, who wished to testify by her liberation their admiration of the statesman, who

``Dreamt of freedom in a slave's embrace.''

`This single line I have quoted gives more insight to the character of the man than whole volumes of panegyric. It will outlive his epitaph, write it who may.'

``This is a bold and deliberate forgery, whether originating with the Chicago Times and Herald or the Macomb Eagle. Mr. Lincoln never used any such language in any speech at any time. Throughout the whole of his political life, Mr. Lincoln has ever spoken of Mr. Jefferson in the most kindly and respectful manner, holding him up as one of the ablest statesmen of his own or any other age, and constantly referring to him as one of the greatest apostles of freedom and free labor. This is so well known that any attempt, by means of fraud or forgery, to create the contrary impression, can only react upon the desperate politicians who are parties to such disreputable tactics.''