The Source

The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Supplements; and Lincoln Day by Day

By Michael K. Shaffer · Originally published June 2017 · p. 6

Continuing in his quest to locate as many documents from President Abraham Lincoln as possible, Roy P Basler, editor of the original Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, which this article explored last month, produced the first of two supplemental volumes in 1974. Writing in the foreword to the first supplement, Basler noted “The continuing effort…to collect all extant unpublished writings or public utterances of Abraham Lincoln that come within the scope as defined in the Foreword to the Collected Works.” Researchers will find the layout and methodology in both supplements the same as found in the original collection.

The first supplement covers the period from 1832 until 1865 and totals 320 pages. Most of the included documents reside within the Civil War years. Passing years left Basler an older but no less determined historian. He knew several documents had emerged, some from private collections, others found on the shelves of dealers in Lincolniana. In 1990, shortly after his death in 1989, son Christian finished the compilation of the second supplement. Young Basler had worked hand-in-hand with his father during the collection and editorial stages of this volume, and carried the legacy forward, adhering to the standards outlined in the original works. Much like the first supplement, this volume focuses heavily on the wartime period. Beginning with the year 1848, some of Lincoln’s early employment as an attorney, and up-and-coming politician reside in this volume, but the lion’s share of the work’s 124 pages contains documents written about the war. Unlike the original Collected Works (viewable online at https://quod.lib. umich.edu/l/lincoln/), the supplements exist in printed form only, with the first supplement more readily available for purchase than the second. Serving as an annotated index of sorts, the Lincoln Day by Day collection offers a fascinating glimpse into his life, from cradle to grave. Working under the direction of Editor-in-Chief Earl Schenck Miers, a team of editors compiled three volumes as part of a Lincoln Sesquicentennial Commission project. These three volumes, totaling 1,119 pages, trace the life of the nation’s sixteenth president from his birth in 1809; the first installment covers the years 1809 to 1848. The second, 1849-1860; the final edition and largest of the three, includes Lincoln’s daily events during the war. Miers and his team patterned their work after Basler’s Collected Works, using, as Schenck explained, “…the same symbols for identifying manuscript sources.” Schenck believed the respective collections, his and Basler’s, “… are designed to be used together, yet each makes its own distinct (and in some respects unique) contribution to our understanding of the man and his age…day by day did the whole man emerge, and to chart that phenomenon for future historians is the function of these volumes.” C. Percy Powell, the editor of the third volume, described the cross-referencing method used. “Where the action is associated with one of his [Lincoln’s] manuscripts it is keyed to The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln by Roy P. Basler.” Researchers seeking printed copies of Day by Day can locate the original volumes from various online bookstores. In 1991, Morningside published all three works in one edition; helpful and available. Perhaps many readers will want to consult the fantastic website ‘The Lincoln Log,’ at http://www.thelincolnlog.org/Home.aspx. This site allows users to search a specific date, or use keywords in the advance search feature. Best of all, the resulting search findings contain online links to the text from Basler’s Collected Works!

Sample of cross-referencing used in Day by Day.

Thanks to the staff at ‘The Papers of Abraham Lincoln’ (http:// www.papersofabrahamlincoln. org) for their continued work in maintaining and updating ‘The Lincoln Log.’ Also, readers can view each of the three volumes at the following websites. Volume one: https://archive.org/details/ lincolndaybydayc01unit; two: https://archive.org/details/lincolndaybydayc02unit; and three: https://archive.org/details/lincolndaybydayc03unit. Remember to check WorldCat http://www. worldcat.org/ for help in finding printed copies in a local library. Introducing the Morningside compilation, the editor included a quote from Paul M. Angle, author of A Shelf of Lincoln Books, A Critical and Selective Bibliography of Lincolniana. Angle suggested, “Taken together, these books are to Lincoln study what the steel frame of a skyscraper is to the finished structure.” Basler, Schenck, and the hundreds of others involved in both projects served as top architects. Their designs remain modern, as when first unveiled, and continue to provide researchers with a firm foundation for constructing a study of Abraham Lincoln. Please keep suggestions for future ‘The Source’ columns coming; send them to the e-mail address shown below. Continued good luck in researching the Civil War!

Michael K. Shaffer is a Civil War historian, author, lecturer, and instructor, who remains a member of the Society of Civil War Historians, Historians of the Civil War Western Theater, and the Georgia Association of Historians. Readers may contact him at [email protected], or to request speaking engagements via his website www.civilwarhistorian.net. Follow Michael on Facebook www.facebook.com/ michael.k.shaffer and Twitter @ michaelkshaffer.