Abraham Lincoln

Selected Speeches and Writings
Introduced by Gore Vidal

Ranging from finely honed legal argument to wry and sometimes savage humor to political rhetoric of unsurpassed grandeur, the writings collected in this volume are at once a literary testament of the greatest writer ever to occupy the White House and a documentary history of America in Abraham Lincoln’s time. They record Lincoln’s campaigns for public office; the evolution of his stand against slavery; his electrifying debates with Stephen Douglas; his conduct of the Civil War; and the great public utterances of his presidency, including the Gettysburg Address and the First and Second Inaugurals.

Gore Vidal is an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and essayist, whose many best-selling works include The City and the Pillar, Myra Breckinridge, Burr, Lincoln, 1876, and, most recently, Point to Point Navigation: A Memoir. In 1993, he won the National Book Award for his collection of essays, United States 1952–1992.

Contents:
Contains more than 200 letters, speeches, fragments, and
other writings from 1832 to 1865, including:
• Protest to the Illinois Legislature on Slavery (March 3, 1837)
• Address to the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois (January 27, 1838)
• Address to the Washington Temperance Society of Springfield, Illinois (February 22, 1842)
• “Spot” Resolutions in the U.S. House of Representatives (December 22, 1847)
• From Speech in the U.S. House of Representatives on the War with Mexico (January 12, 1848)
• Notes on the Practice of Law (1850?)
• From Eulogy on Henry Clay at Springfield, Illinois (July 6, 1852)
• From Speech on the Kansas-Nebraska Act at Peoria, Illinois (October 16, 1854)
• On Stephen Douglas (c. December 1856)
• “House Divided” Speech at Springfield, Illinois (June 16, 1858)
• Extensive excerpts from all seven Lincoln-Douglas debates (August – October 1858)
 • On Pro-Slavery Theology (1858?)
• Lecture on Discoveries and Inventions (February 11, 1859)
• From Address at Cooper Institute, New York City (February 27, 1860)
• Autobiography Written for Campaign (c. June 1860)
• Farewell Address at Springfield, Illinois (February 11, 1861)
• Speech at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (February 22, 1861)
• First Inaugural Address (March 4, 1861)
• Message to Congress in Special Session (July 4, 1861)
• Appeal to Border-State Representatives for Compensated Emancipation (July 12, 1862)
• Address on Colonization to a Committee of Colored Men (August 24, 1862)
• Meditation on the Divine Will (c. early September 1862)
• Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation (September 22, 1862)
 • Proclamation Suspending the Writ of Habeas Corpus (September 24, 1862)
• Message to Senate on Minnesota Indians (December 11, 1862)
• Final Emancipation Proclamation (January 1, 1863)
• Order of Retaliation (July 30, 1863)
• Opinion on the Draft (c. mid-September 1863)
• Address at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (November 19, 1863)
• Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction (December 8, 1863)
• Proclamation Concerning Reclamation (July 8, 1864)
• Memorandum on the Probable Failure of Re-election (August 23, 1864)
• Second Inaugural Address (March 4, 1865)
• Speech to the 140th Indiana Regiment (March 17, 1865)
• Response to Serenade (April 10, 1865)
• Speech on Reconstruction (April 11, 1865)