xxv

Editorial Note.

Text.

The editors have attempted to reproduce the texts of these documents exactly as found—word for word and letter for letter. But the reader is warned that this is not always the straightforward process that it appears. As Roy P. Basler, the most notable Lincoln editor of the twentieth century, wrote: " To record what the eye could see seemed simple enough. With Lincoln’s handwriting being what it was, however, the trouble was to know what one saw."