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569. Edward L. Pierce to William H. Herndon.

Milton Mass 23 Dec 1889

My dear Sir.

I send you by this mail a parcel in large envelope containing my notes on Mr Lincoln's visit to Mass in 1848 — and other matters — this being in accordance with your request. I also as you desired, return you the letters I send you some weeks since but as they are fully covered by the better prepared M.S.S. which I now send, it may be as well to destroy them to simplify matters.

Please let me know that the M.S.S have reached you safely. In case you do not ever use the material I send, I would like the MSS on the visit of 1848 returned — as it might be of interest to have printed here.

What I send is entirely at your disposal — to do as you like with — using in whole or in part.

Yours truly
Edward L Pierce

nts

Notes.

1. Because the contents of Pierce's large envelope are no longer intact, what is offered here is the editors' attempt to reconstruct the contents from the scattered materials in HW. On October 27, Pierce responded to a request from WHH to write something for the new edition of his biography on the topics Pierce had mentioned in his letter of September 15: (1) meeting AL in Chicago in 1856; (2) attending the 1860 nominating convention; (3) his encounter with AL as president; and (4) corresponding with WHH in 1860 — 61 about AL. These are the topics treated in enclosures A — D. Pierce's account of AL's giving Chase credit for the closing of the Emancipation Proclamation constitutes enclosure E. Pierce says he also included some notes on AL's visit to Massachusetts in 1848. These apparently included the extracts from the Worcester Spy supplied by Bartlett, enclosure F, and a notice of the Whig rally at Lowell from the Lowell Journal and Courier, Sept. 18, 1848, enclosure G. The original of Pierce's narrative does not seem to be in HW, but a version of it was included in the revised 1892 edition of WHH and JWW's biography. A fragment in Pierce's hand that may represent an omitted opening is printed as enclosure H. The portion that appeared in the 1892 edition is reproduced as enclosure I.