“I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me,” Abraham Lincoln wrote in an 1864 letter to Albert Hodges, editor of Kentucky’s Frankfort Commonwealth. These words can be found in Lincoln’s hand in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress, along with 20,000 original letters, notes, and drafts written by and to Lincoln and donated to the Library by his son in 1923. The Library’s Lincoln collection—one of the largest in the world—also includes 10,500 pieces of memorabilia, more than 10,000 digital records related to Lincoln’s legal career, and such affecting articles as the contents of Lincoln’s pockets on the night he was assassinated.
Lincoln’s connection to the Library began in 1861, when he stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol building—then the home of the Library of Congress—to be sworn in as the nation’s sixteenth president. In the four years before his assassination he appointed two Librarians of Congress and charged 125 books to his Library account. Today, Lincoln quotations found throughout the Library’s flagship building, opened in 1897, celebrate the influence “Father Abraham” has had on all Americans. So it is only fitting that the Library of Congress has joined with the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission to honor the 2009 bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth with an exhibition and this companion book, a unique presentation of forty-some documents in Lincoln’s own hand, chosen by Lincoln scholars Harold Holzer and Joshua Wolf Shenk.
In Lincoln’s Hand brings us a richer understanding of the power of Lincoln’s rhetoric. Many of Lincoln’s speeches are imprinted on the public mind, but those polished works show nothing of his raw, unedited prose. The cross-outs, misspellings, and rewrites reproduced in this volume reveal not just his words, but also his thought process as he meticulously crafted what he wanted to say. The array of public figures who offer their insights in this book gives evidence of the wide range of individuals Lincoln’s legacy continues to reach today. The exhibition on which this book is based, made possible by a generous donation from Union Pacific, will travel to Sacramento, Chicago, Omaha, Atlanta, and Indianapolis, and the book will travel even farther—into homes and libraries across the country and throughout the world. We hope this volume will move you to further explore Lincoln’s life, and history in general, by visiting the Library in person, or online at www.loc.gov.
—James H. Billington
Librarian of Congress