Scope and Content Note
Shortly after the death of Abraham Lincoln, William Henry Herndon began gathering material for a biography of his former law partner. In 1885, Jesse William Weik brought new inspiration and assistance to the endeavor, and in 1888 Herndon's biography was completed through their joint effort. This collection of Lincolniana is the product of their research. The material covers the time period circa 1824-1933 and is divided into six groups: I: Arithmetic Book and Scrapbooks ; II: Correspondence of Lincoln; III: Legal Documents ; IV: Papers of William Henry Herndon; V: Papers of Jesse William Weik; and VI: Miscellany.
Group I consists of one leaf (two pages) of an arithmetic book, into which Lincoln, as a young man, entered tables and exercises in linear measure, and two scrapbooks of newspaper clippings. One scrapbook contains editorials, news items, letters, and a number of statistical tables dealing with such subjects as demographics, slavery, geography, religion, railroads, agriculture, immigration, and monetary matters. Lincoln is alleged to have gathered the material for his debates with Stephen Arnold Douglas during their race for the United States Senate in 1858. The other scrapbook contains similar clippings and also includes material on the presidential election of 1860.
Group II, comprised largely of correspondence, is divided into three sections. Section A consists of twelve letters and a certificate of survey in Lincoln's hand. These items are listed as Nos. 3-14 and 770 in the inventory and include six letters from Lincoln to Mark William Delahay. Section B consists chiefly of reproductions of letters and papers written by Lincoln. Several letters from Lincoln to Joshua Speed document the friendship between the two men and their close communication on personal and public affairs. Other recipients include Joshua R. Giddings, Samuel Haycraft, John D. Johnston, Andrew McCallen, Leonard Swett, Richard S. Thomas, Henry Clay Whitney, and Archibald Williams. Letters to Lincoln from 1848 through 1861 and listed as Nos. 774-806 in the inventory constitute Section C of Group II. The campaign of 1856 is the subject of much of the correspondence. The candidates, Millard Fillmore, John C. Fremont, and James Buchanan; campaign strategy; and the strength of the Democratic, Republican, and Know-Nothing parties are among the topics discussed. The correspondents include John Bell, Joshua R. Giddings, Norman B. Judd, Thaddeus Stevens, John Wentworth, Richard Yates, and others. This section also contains newspaper clippings and miscellaneous printed material.
Group III comprises documents related to Lincoln's legal cases. It contains certificates, petitions, affidavits, notices, abstracts, writs, briefs, depositions, and other papers dealing with such subjects as divorce, slander, assault and battery, and usury. Most of this material is described as Nos. 15-773 and 2000-78 in the inventory.
The largest series in the collection, Group IV, consists of correspondence, interviews, recollections, notes, newspaper clippings, and other material of William Henry Herndon. Included are an interview with Mary Todd Lincoln in 1866, two long interviews with Dennis Hanks, letters from Hanks to Herndon written in 1865 and 1866 mainly on family history, letters to Herndon from Charles Friend on the Enlow story, and letters and notes from Herndon to Weik between 1881 October 1 and 1891 February 27 containing reminiscences of Lincoln's life.
Prominent in this series are Lincoln's family members, schoolmates, neighbors in New Salem and Springfield, Illinois, law partners, colleagues at the bar and in the Illinois legislature, political party allies, and White House associates. Representative names include Ninian Wirt Edwards (brother-in-law), Kate Roby Gentry (schoolmate), Mentor Graham (teacher), John Hay, whose letter of 1866 September 5 discusses Lincoln's daily life in the White House and ends with the statement that he was "the greatest character since Christ," John B. Helm (store clerk), Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln (stepmother), Stephen T. Logan (law partner), Leonard Swett (lawyer), Frances Wallace (sister-in-law), and Robert L. Wilson (one of the "Long Nine," a group of tall Whigs, including Lincoln, who served together in the Illinois legislature). Also in Group IV are manuscripts by Herndon bearing such titles as "Lincoln's Development," "Lincoln's Courtship with Miss Owens," "The Lincoln-Douglas Debates," "Miss Rutledge and Lincoln," and "Lincoln's Ways."
Group V, the papers of Jesse William Weik, consists of correspondence, notes, extracts, interviews, typed and handwritten copies of documents, and other items. Correspondents include Albert Jeremiah Beveridge, James Cook Conkling, Richard Henry Dana, John Hay, John G. Nicolay, Edward Lillie Pierce, Lyman Trumbull, and Horace White.
Group VI is an assortment of unbound material which includes photostatic copies and facsimiles of documents mostly by Lincoln, a printed sermon and speech by Theodore Parker, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, pamphlets, one chapter of Albert Jeremiah Beveridge's Abraham Lincoln (1928), Charles M. Thompson's report on the "Lincoln Way" investigation, records of the Weik Manuscript Corporation, and negative photographs of documents collected by Herndon and Weik.