to be forgotten. But its
events are so numerous that they swamp the figure of Lincoln and yet are
not numerous enough to constitute a definitive history of the times. It
is wholly eulogistic. The same authors edited "The Writings of Abraham
Lincoln" (Biographical Edition, 2 vols., 1894), which has since been
expanded (1905) and now fills twelve volumes. It is the definitive
presentation of Lincoln's mind. A book much sought after by his enemies
is William Henry Herndon and Jesse William Weik, "The History and
Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln", 8 vols. (1889; unexpurgated
edition). It contains about all we know of his early life and paints a
picture of sordid ugliness. Its reliability has been disputed. No study
of Lincoln is complete unless one has marched through the "Diary" of
Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy, 3 vols. (1911), which is our most
important document showing Lincoln in his Cabinet. Important sidelights
on his character and development are shown in Ward Hill Lamon,
"Recollections of Lincoln" (1911); David Homer Bates, "Lincoln in the
Telegraph Office" (1907); and Frederick Trevor Hill, "Lincoln as a
Lawyer" (1906). A bibliography of Lincoln is in the twelfth volume of
the latest edition of the "Writings".

The lesser statesmen of the time, both Northern and Southern, still, as
a rule, await proper treatment by detached biographers. Two Northerners
have had such treatment, in Allen Johnson's "Stephen A. Douglas" (1908),
and Frederic Bancroft's "Life of William H. Seward", 2 vols. (1900).
Good, but without the requisite detachment, is Moorfield Storey's
"Charles Sumner", ("American Statesmen Series", 1900). With similar
excellences but with the same defect, though still the best in its
field, is Albert Bushnell Hart's "Salmon P. Chase" ("American Statesmen
Series", 1899). Among the Southern statesmen involved in the events of
this volume, only the President of the Confederacy has received adequate
reconsideration in recent years, in William E. Dodd's "Jefferson Davis"
(1907). The latest life of "Robert Toombs", by Ulrich B. Phillips
(1914), is not definitive, but the best extant. The great need for
adequate lives of Stephens and Yancey is not at all met by the obsolete
works--R. M. Johnston and W. M. Browne, "Life of Alexander H. Stephens"
(1878), and J. W. Du Bose, "The Life and Times of William Lowndes
Yancey" (1892). There is a brief biography of Stephens by Louis
Pendleton, in the "American C