Excerpt from Abraham Lincoln, Miss. Ann Rutledge, New Salem, Pioneering and the Poem: A Lecture Delivered in the Old Sangamon Country Court House, November, 1866 William H. Herndon had curiously announced his lecture for the evening of November 16, 1866, as on Abraham Lincoln, Miss Ann Rutledge, New Salem, Pioneering, and the Poem Yet that strange title attracted only a meagre group of people to the Court House in Springfield, Illinois, to hear him interpret their friend and his late law partner, the Martyred President. He had lectured on Lincoln thrice before, and it's likely that some who heard all four lectures asked themselves in wonder what was Billy Herndon driving at? Actually this was a trial flight for the biography he purposed. Cer tainly none had opportunity to know Abraham Lin coln better, and since that sorrowful day when the body of their neighbor had lain in state in the Illi nois state house, Herndon had been visited by many an ambitious writer seeking to levy on his store of facts and memories. That had been a disillusioning experience. Already he could perceive the folk spirit of a people busy making its herointo a demi god. He could not recognize the Lincoln whom he knew in what resulted. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.