Conflicts over Owen Lovejoy An important cause of conflict among Mr. Lincoln’s friends in 1856 and 1858 was the Republican candidacy for Congress of Owen Lovejoy. Lovejoy was an avowed and impassioned abolitionist – while many of the friends of Mr. Lincoln were…” Abraham Lincoln and Friends >

Kansas-Nebraska and the Senate Mr. Lincoln moved quickly to mobilize his friends in the days after the legislative elections. “During the anxious moments that intervened between the general election and the assembling of the Legislature he…” Abraham Lincoln and Friends >

Congressional Nomination of 1843 The importance of friends was perhaps never so evident as when Mr. Lincoln sought the Whig nomination for Congress in 1843. He had been associated – personally and by marriage – with a group of Springfield Whigs known as… Abraham Lincoln and Friends >

New Salem Lincoln biographer William E. Gienapp wrote: “Lincoln’s modest demeanor, affable manner, and rollicking sense of humor gained him many friends, and village loafers regularly congregated in the store to listen to…” Abraham Lincoln and Friends >

Meeting and Greeting Friends Journalist William O. Stoddard recalled meeting Mr. Lincoln in Champaign, Illinois in 1859: “He greeted me cordially as though we had known each other for a long time. There was no strangeness about him. He knew…” Abraham Lincoln and Friends >

The Women Historian David Herbert Donald observed that Mr. Lincoln “was extremely awkward around women. With the wives of old friends, like Mrs. Hannah Armstrong, he could be courtly, even affectionate, but he froze in the presence of…” Abraham Lincoln and Friends >

The Preachers Springfield printer Gilbert J. Greene recalled accompanying Mr. Lincoln in the late 1850s into the country to help a dying woman write her will. Greene remarked on the sympathy, compassion and religious comfort Mr. Lincoln brought the woman…” Abraham Lincoln and Friends >

The Sons “My Father’s life was of a kind, which gave me but little opportunity to learn the details of his early career. During my childhood and early youth he was almost constantly away from home, attending courts or making political…” Abraham Lincoln and Friends >

The Officers President was careful in dealing with the egos of his generals. In a letter to General Nathaniel Banks, President Lincoln wrote: “My dear general, this expanding and piling up of impedimenta has been so far…” Abraham Lincoln and Friends >

The Cabinet Mr. Lincoln’s Cabinet was not composed of friends – at least not initially. It was composed of major Republican figures with whom Mr. Lincoln’s personal acquaintance was very limited. The lone friend who… Abraham Lincoln and Friends >