Prologue: "Not much of me," Autobiography, December 20, 1859 I --
I. "Peculiar Ambition," 1831-1853 --
"I am young and unknown," Communication to the People of Sangamo County, March 9, 1832 5 --
"I shall be governed by their will," Letter to the Editor of the Sangamo Journal, June 13, 1836 7 --
"Founded on both injustice and bad policy," Protest in the Illinois Legislature on Slavery, March 3, 1837 8 --
"Cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason," Speech to the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, January 27, 1838 9 --
"Bow to it I never will," Speech on the Subtreasury, December 26, 1839 13 --
"The most miserable man living," Letter to John T. Stuart, January 23, 1841 15 --
"An evil tree can not bring forth good fruit," Letter to Williamson Durley, October 3, 1845 16 --
"I am not a member of any ... Church," Handbill Addressed to the Voters of the Seventh Congressional District, July 31, 1846 18 --
"No one man should hold the power," Letter to William Herndon, February 15, 1848 19 --
"I like the letters very much," Letter to Mary Todd Lincoln, April 16, 1848 20 --
"Resolve to be honest," Notes for a law lecture, July 1, 1850? 22 --
"More painful than pleasant," Letter to John D. Johnston, January 12, 1851 24 --
II. "Half Slave and Half Free," 1854-1860 --
"The legitimate object of government," Fragment on government, July 1, 1854? 27 --
"Our republican robe is soiled," Speech at Peoria, October 16, 1854 28 --
"Where I now stand," Letter to Joshua Speed, August 24, 1855 34 --
"Can we not come together, for the future," Speech at a Republican banquet, December 10, 1856 37 --
"All the powers of earth seem rapidly combining against him," Speech in Springfield, June 26, 1857 39 --
"A question of interest," Fragment on slavery, 1857-1858? 42 --
"A house divided," Speech to the Republican state convention, June 16, 1858 43 --
"Construed so differently from any thing intended by me," Letter to John L. Scripps, June 23, 1858 51 --
"Public sentiment is every thing," Notes for speeches, August 1858 52 --
"Blowing out the moral lights around us," First debate, at Ottawa, August 21, 1858 55 --
"The social and political equality of the ... races," Fourth debate, at Charleston, September 18, 1858 57 --
"A moral, a social and a political wrong," Sixth debate, at Quincy, October 13, 1858 58 --
"The eternal struggle between ... right and wrong," Seventh debate, at Alton, October 15, 1858 60 --
"For, and not against the Union," Last speech of the campaign, October 30, 1858 67 --
"Opens the way for all," Address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, September 30, 1859 68 --
"Right makes might," Speech at the Cooper Union, February 27, 1860 71 --
"I am not the first choice of ... many," Letter to Samuel Galloway, March 24, 1860 81 --
"The taste is in my mouth," Letter to Lyman Trumbull, April 29, 1860 82 --
"I accept the nomination," Letter to George Ashmun, May 23, 1860 83 --
"A piece of silly affection," Letter to Grace Bedell, October 19, 1860 84 --
III. "The Perpetuity of Popular Government," 1860-1861 --
"The tug has to come," Letter to Lyman Trumbull, December 10, 1860 85 --
"There is no cause for such fears," Letter to Alexander H. Stephens, December 22, 1860 86 --
"It is the end of us," Letter to James T. Hale, January 11, 1861 86 --
"An affectionate farewell," Farewell Address at Springfield, February 11, 1861 87 --
"The Union ... is perpetual," First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861 88 --
"To suppress said combinations," Proclamation calling the militia, April 15, 1861 97 --
"The most prompt, and efficient means," Letter to Winfield Scott, April 25, 1861 98 --
"A People's contest," Message to Congress, July 4, 1861 99 --
"Constantly drilled, disciplined, and instructed," Memoranda of military policy suggested by the Bull Run defeat, July 23, 27, 1861 107 --
"To conform to ... the act of Congress," Letter to John C. Fremont, September 2, 1861 108 --
"I cannot assume this reckless position," Letter to Orville H. Browning, September 22, 1861 109 --
"For a vast future also," Message to Congress, December 3, 1861 111 --
"Grumbling despatches and letters," Letter to David Hunter, December 31, 1861 115 --
IV. "We Cannot Escape History," 1862 --
"Making our advantage an over-match for his," Letter to Don Carlos Buell, January 13, 1862 117 --
"Gradual ... emancipation, is better for all," Message to Congress, March 6, 1862 118 --
"But you must act," Letter to George McClellan, April 9, 1862 120 --
"Questions ... I reserve to myself," Proclamation revoking General Hunter's order of emancipation, May 19, 1862 122 --
"I expect to maintain this contest," Letter to William H. Seward, June 28, 1862 124 --
"The incidents of the war can not be avoided," Appeal to the border state representatives, July 12, 1862 125 --
"Leaving any available card unplayed," Letter to Reverdy Johnson, July 26, 1862 127 --
"A single half-defeat," Letter to Agenor-Etienne de Gasparin, August 4, 1862 128 --
"The ban is still upon you," Address on colonization, August 14, 1862 130 --
"I would save the Union," Letter to Horace Greeley, August 22, 1862 134 --
"The will of God prevails," Meditation on divine will, September 2?, 1862 135 --
"Shall be ... thenceforward, and forever free," Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, September 22, 1862 136 --
"The Writ of Habeas Corpus is suspended," Proclamation, September 24, 1862 137 --
"Breath alone kills no rebels," Letter to Hannibal Hamlin, September 28, 1862 138 --
"If we never try, we shall never succeed," Letter to George McClellan, October 13, 1862 139 --
"I do not see that their superiority of success has been so marked," Letter to Carl Schurz, November 10, 1862 141 --
"The last best, hope of earth," Message to Congress, December 1, 1862 143 --
"In this sad world of ours," Letter to Fanny McCullough, December 23, 1862 150 --
V. "A New Birth of Freedom," 1863 --
"Are, and henceforth shall be free," Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863 151 --
"Broken eggs can not be mended," Letter to John A. McClernand, January 8, 1863 153 --
"I will risk the dictatorship," Letter to Joseph Hooker, January 26, 1863 154 --
"There is no eligible route for us into Richmond," Memorandum on Joseph Hooker's plan of campaign against Richmond, ca. April 6-10, 1863 155 --
"Constantly denounced and opposed," Letter to Isaac Arnold, May 26, 1863 156 --
"Lee's Army ... is your true objective point," Letter to Joseph Hooker, June 10, 1863 157 --
"Indispensable to the public Safety," Letter to Erastus Corning, June 12, 1863 158 --
"Few things are so troublesome," Letter to William Kellogg, June 29, 1863 165 --
"You were right, and I was wrong," Letter to Ulysses S. Grant, July 13, 1863 166 --
"I am distressed immeasureably," Letter to George G. Meade, July 14, 1863 167 --
"The same protection to all its soldiers," Order, July 30, 1863 169 --
"I can not consent to suspend the draft," Letter to Horatio Seymour, August 7, 1863 170 --
"It works doubly," Letter to Ulysses S. Grant, August 9, 1863 171 --
"I am not watching you with an evil-eye," Letter to William S. Rosecrans, August 10, 1863 172 --
"A fair specimen of what has occurred to me through life," Letters to James H. Hackett, August 17, November 2, 1863 174 --
"The heaviest blow yet dealt to the rebellion," Letter to James C. Conkling, August 26, 1863 175 --
"Give up all footing upon constitution or law," Letter to Salmon P. Chase, September 2, 1863 179 --
"An idea I have been trying to repudiate for quite a year," Letter to Henry W. Halleck, September 19, 1863 180 --
"Quarrel not at all," Letter to James M. Cutts, Jr., October 26, 1863 181 --
"Give me a tangible nucleus," Letter to Nathaniel P. Banks, November 5, 1863 182 --
"A new birth of freedom," Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863 183 --
VI. "Events Have Controlled Me," 1863-1864 --
"The new reckoning," Message to Congress, December 8, 1863 185 --
"A full pardon," Proclamation of amnesty and reconstruction, December 8, 1863 189 --
"The jewel of liberty," Letter to Michael Hahn, March 13, 1864 193 --
"If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong," Letter to Albert G. Hodges, April 4, 1864 193 --
"The world has never had a good definition of ... liberty," Address at Sanitary Fair, April 18, 1864 196 --
"I wish not to obtrude any constraints ... upon you," Letter to Ulysses S. Grant, April 30, 1864 198 --
"Not best to swap horses when crossing streams," Reply to delegation from the National Union League, June 9, 1864 199 --
"Unprepared ... to be inflexibly committed to any single plan," Proclamation concerning reconstruction, July 8, 1864 199 --
"Will be received and considered," Letter "To Whom it may concern," July 18, 1864 201 --
"Not ... an entirely impartial judge," Letter to John McMahon, August 6, 1864 201 --
"Hold on with a bull-dog gripe," Telegram to Ulysses S. Grant, August 17, 1864 202 --
"The curses of Heaven," Letter to Charles D. Robinson, August 17, 1864 202 --
"Equal privileges in the race of life," Speech to One Hundred Sixty-sixth Ohio Regiment, August 22, 1864 204 --
"This Administration will not be re-elected," Memorandum, August 23, 1864 205 --
"Go far towards losing the whole Union cause," Letter to William T. Sherman, September 19, 1864 206 --
"I am struggling to maintain the government, not to overthrow it," Response to a serenade, October 19, 1864 206 --
"The election was a necessity," Response to a serenade, November 10, 1864 208 --
VII. "To Bind Up the Nation's Wounds," 1864-1865 --
"So costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom," Letter to Lydia Bixby, November 21, 1864 211 --
"An issue which can only be ... decided by victory," Message to Congress, December 6, 1864 212 --
"The honor is all yours," Letter to William T. Sherman, December 26, 1864 216 --
"Time ... is more important than ever before," Letter to Edwin Stanton, January 5, 1865 217 --
"My son ... wishes to see something of the war," Letter to Ulysses S. Grant, January 19, 1865 217 --
"Three things are indispensable," Letter to William H. Seward, January 31, 1865 218 --
"A King's cure for all the evils," Response to a serenade, February 1, 1865 219 --
"With charity for all," Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865 220 --
"A truth which I thought needed to be told," Letter to Thurlow Weed, March 15, 1865 222 --
"Let the thing be pressed," Telegram to Ulysses S. Grant, April 7, 1865 222 --
"No exclusive, and inflexible plan can safely be prescribed," Speech, April 11, 1865 223.
