Beschreibung:

LINCOLN, ABRAHAM, President . Autograph letter signed ("A. Lincoln") as Republican nominee for President, to Charles C. Nott, a board member of the Young Men's Republican Union; Springfield, Illinois, 31 May 1860. 3 pages, 4to, 249 x 198 mm. (9 7/8 x 7 3/4 in.). Fine condition. TWO WEEKS AFTER HE BECOMES THE REPUBLICAN NOMINEE FOR PRESIDENT, LINCOLN PREPARES THE COOPER INSTITUTE ADDRESS FOR PUBLICATION: "I DO NOT WISH TO HAVE THE SENSE CHANGED, OR MODIFIED, TO A HAIR'S BREADTH" A very significant letter to Nott, of the New York Young Men's Republican Union, who had been instrumental in inviting Lincoln to New York to deliver the Cooper Institute address, a pivotal speech which introduced Eastern Republicans to the previously obscure Illinois lawyer and helped propel him to the forefront of the Republican contenders for the presidential nomination. The letter is noteworthy for portraying Lincoln's meticulous concern with the apparently minor details of the text of this highly significant address. Charles Nott had written Lincoln on May 23: "I enclose a copy of your address...We (the Young Mens Rep[ublican] Union) design to publish a new edition in larger type & better form, with such notes & references as will best attract readers...Have you any memoranda of your investigations which you would approve of inserting? You & your Western friends, I think underrate this speech. It has produced a greater effect here than any other single speech. It is the real platform in the Eastern States, and must carry the conservative element in New York, New Jersey & Penn. Therefore I desire that it should be as nearly perfect as may be. Many of the emendations are trivial & do not affect the substance--all are merely suggested....I cannot help adding that this speech is an extraordinary example of condensed English. After some experience in criticising for Reviews, I find hardly anything to touch & nothing to omit. It is the only one I know of, which I cannot shorten and--like a good arch--moving one word tumbles a whole sentence down..." In reply, Lincoln writes: "Yours of the 23rd, accompanied by a copy of the speech delivered by me at the Cooper Institute, and upon which you have made some notes for emendations, was received some days ago. Of course I would not object to, but would be pleased rather, with a more perfect edition of that speech. "I did not preserve memoranda of my investigations; and I could not now re-examine, and make notes, without an expenditure of time which I can not bestow upon it. Some of your notes I do not understand. "So far as it is intended merely to improve in grammar, and elegance of composition, I am quite agreed; but I do not wish the sense changed, or modified, to a hair's breadth. And you, not having studied the particular points so closely as I have, can not be quite sure that you do not change the sense when you do not intend it. For instance, in a note at bottom of first page, you propose to substitue "Democrats" for "Douglas." But what I am saying there is true of Douglas, and is not true of "Democrats" generally; so that the proposed substitution would be a very considerable blunder. Your proposed insertion of "residences" though it would do little or no harm, is not at all necessary to the sense I was trying to convey. On page 5 your proposed grammatical change would certainly do no harm. The "impudently absurd" I stick to. The striking out "he" and inserting "we" turns the sense exactly wrong. The striking out "upon it" leaves the sense too general and incomplete. The sense is "act as they acted upon that question" --not as they acted generally. "After considering your proposed changes on page 7, I do not think them material, but I am willing to defer to you in relation to them. "On page 9, striking out "to us" is probably right. The word "lawyer's" I wish retained. The word "Courts" struck out twice, I wish reduced to "Court" and retained. "Court" as a collection more properly governs the pl