Abraham Lincoln, Miss. Ann Rutledge, New Salem, Pioneering and the Poem - A Lecture Delivered in the Old Sangamon Country Court House, November, 1866 #261020

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.