The early years

Political and legal success

The slavery crisis

The presidency.

Introduction

Address to the People of Sangamon County

Letter to Mary Owens (1-2)

Address before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois

Letter to Mrs. O.H. Browning

Letter to John T. Stuart

Letter to Joshua F. Speed (1-4)

Note: Washingtonian Temperance Society

Letter to Joshua F. Speed (1-5)

Letter to William Johnston (1-2)

The bear hunt

Letter to William Johnston

Letter to William H. Herndon

Fragment, notes for law lecture

Letter to John D. Johnston (1-2)

Letter to Jesse Lincoln

Letter to Joshua F. Speed

Speech delivered at Springfield, Illinois, at the close of the Republican State Convention by which Lincoln had been named as their candidate for United States Senator

The Seventh and Last Joint Debate with Stephen A. Douglas, at Alton, Illinois

Annual Address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, at Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Letter to J.W. Fell

Address at Cooper Institute, New York

Short autobiography written at the request of a friend to use in preparing a popular campaign biography in the election of 1860

Letter to Alexander H. Stephens

Farewell Address at Springfield, Illinois

Address in Independence Hall, Philadelphia.

First Inaugural Address

Reply to Secretary Seward's Memorandum

Proclamation calling "The First 75,000" (excerpt)

Message to Congress in Special Session

Note: "The Battle of Bull Run"

Letter to O.H. Browning

The President of the United States to the King of Siam

Message to Congress recommending Compensated Emancipation

Appeal to Favor Compensated Emancipation, read by the President to Border-State Representatives

Letter to Cuthbert Bullitt

Letter to Horace Greeley

Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation

Meditation on the Divine Will

Telegram to General G.B. McClellan (1-2)

Letter to Carl Schurz

Letter to Fanny McCullough

Final Emancipation Proclamation

Letter to the Working-men of Manchester, England

Letter to General Joseph Hooker

Letter to Erastus Corning and Others

Response to a Serenade

Letter to General U.S. Grant

Draft of Letter to General G.G. Meade

Letter to General O.O. Howard

Opinion on the draft, never issued or published by the President

Letter to J.H. Hackett

Letter to J.C. Conkling

Proclamation for Thanksgiving

Address at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetary

Letter to Edward Everett

Remarks on closing a Sanitary Fair in Washington

Letter to A.G. Hodges

Address at a Sanitary Fair in Baltimore

Letter to General U.S. Grant

Statement written out for Ward Lamon

Response to a Serenade

Letter to Mrs. Bixby

Letter to U.S. Grant

Second Inaugural Address

Letter to Thurlow Weed

Address to an Indiana Regiment

Telegram to General U.S. Grant

Last Public Address

Selected maxims, observations, and comments chronologically arranged.