细节
[LINCOLN, Abraham]. JEFFERY, John, Superintendant of the Cincinnati Gas Light & Coke Company. Autograph letter signed to "Dear Alick" (his brother Alexander), Cincinnati, Ohio, 16 February 1861. 1½ pp., 4to, on lined stationery, tiny chip to bottom edge.
"HE IS A DISGRACE AS THE HEAD BOSS OF ANY CIVILIZED NATION..." A letter written a few weeks before Lincoln's inauguration, expressing concern over the effects of the "confounded dis-Union" secession movement, discussing stock certificates, dividends, commodities, and remarking on a recent appearance of the President-elect. Jeffery reports that he has not sent a certain stock certificate, since Alec is "away in Yankee Land," and it might not arrive safely. Another business contact promiseds to "remit me on the 15th Inst. the proceeds of dividend declared on the 4th, which is quite prompt for the Southern Confederacy...It was a 5 dividend but it is doubtful if they keep up to that...as they must reduce the price of gas [kerosene?] to $4.00. New Orleans having done so, and then the consumption is falling off instead of increasing on account of their confounded dis-union [secession]."
He adds that "Old Abe Lincoln was here this week, & looks, talks, & acts, just as you may have seen some long slab sided flatboat capting [sic], who has sold out his produce at Memphis, & invested $12 at a slop shop tailors in rigging himself out for Sunday. He is a disgrace, as the head boss of any civilized nation..."
Jeffery had evidently been present, four days earlier, when Lincoln visited Cincinnati, the first stop on the President-elect's meandering rail journey from Springfield to Washington D.C., a trip which "had the larger purpose of encouraging support for the Union and fostering loyalty," as David Herbert Donald points out. In his Cincinnati address (see Basler 4:197-200) Lincoln sounded a conciliatory, non-partisan note, reaffirming faith in "the good sense of the American people," and vowing that "we shall again be brethren, forgetting all parties--ignoring all parties."
"HE IS A DISGRACE AS THE HEAD BOSS OF ANY CIVILIZED NATION..." A letter written a few weeks before Lincoln's inauguration, expressing concern over the effects of the "confounded dis-Union" secession movement, discussing stock certificates, dividends, commodities, and remarking on a recent appearance of the President-elect. Jeffery reports that he has not sent a certain stock certificate, since Alec is "away in Yankee Land," and it might not arrive safely. Another business contact promiseds to "remit me on the 15th Inst. the proceeds of dividend declared on the 4th, which is quite prompt for the Southern Confederacy...It was a 5 dividend but it is doubtful if they keep up to that...as they must reduce the price of gas [kerosene?] to $4.00. New Orleans having done so, and then the consumption is falling off instead of increasing on account of their confounded dis-union [secession]."
He adds that "Old Abe Lincoln was here this week, & looks, talks, & acts, just as you may have seen some long slab sided flatboat capting [sic], who has sold out his produce at Memphis, & invested $12 at a slop shop tailors in rigging himself out for Sunday. He is a disgrace, as the head boss of any civilized nation..."
Jeffery had evidently been present, four days earlier, when Lincoln visited Cincinnati, the first stop on the President-elect's meandering rail journey from Springfield to Washington D.C., a trip which "had the larger purpose of encouraging support for the Union and fostering loyalty," as David Herbert Donald points out. In his Cincinnati address (see Basler 4:197-200) Lincoln sounded a conciliatory, non-partisan note, reaffirming faith in "the good sense of the American people," and vowing that "we shall again be brethren, forgetting all parties--ignoring all parties."