tatesmen Series. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1883.]

* * * * *

AUTHORITATIVE LITERATURE OF THE CIVIL WAR.

BY GEORGE LOWELL AUSTIN.

II.

THE LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, sixteenth
President of the United States: together with His State Papers,
including his Speeches, Addresses, Messages, Letters, and Proclamations,
and the closing Scenes connected with his life and death. By Henry J.
Raymond. To which are added Anecdotes and Personal Reminiscences of
President Lincoln, by Frank B. Carpenter, with a steel portrait, and
other illustrations, 1 vol. octavo, pp. 808. New York: Derby and Miller,
1865.

During the Presidential canvass of 1864, the author of this volume
prepared a work upon the administration of President Lincoln. That
canvass resulted in the re-election of Mr. Lincoln, whose death occurred
soon after his second inauguration. As the editor of the _New York
Times_, Mr. Raymond possessed at the time ample facilities to prepare
such a book as was needed to interest the public in the life of one
whose work was at once as great as it was successful. Up to the day of
its publication, this book was the best and most authoritative that had
been published. Twenty years have since elapsed, and in many respects it
still maintains a just superiority and a historical value that cannot be
questioned. Its errors are of omission, rather than of commission; while
its merits are so great as to render it indispensable to all future
writers on the subject. Every public speech, message, letter, or
document of any sort of Mr. Lincoln's, so far as accessible in 1865,
will be found included in the volume. The rapidly occuring events of
the civil war, with much of their secret history, are tersely and
graphically described. The "Reminiscences" of Mr. Carpenter, covering
about thirty pages, add interest to the volume.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: The True Story of a Great Life. Showing the
inner growth, special training and peculiar fitness of the Man for his
work. By William O. Stoddard. Illustrated. 1 vol. octavo, pp. 508. New
York: Fords, Howard & Hurlbert, 1884.

Mr. Stoddard was one of President Lincoln's secretaries during the civil
war, and very naturally his work ought to have strong claims upon the
interest and attention of American readers. His book is not of a
profound or critical character; but a singularly honest and candid and
stric