Your court in Morgan commences on the fourth Monday; and it is my purpose to be with you then, and make a speech. I mention the Coles and Edgar courts in order that if I should not reach Jacksonville at the time named you may understand the reason why. I do not, however, think there is much danger of my being detained; as I shall go with a purpose not to be, and consequently shall engage in no new cases that might delay me.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
VERSES WRITTEN BY LINCOLN AFTER A VISIT TO HIS OLD HOME IN INDIANA-(A FRAGMENT).
[In December, 1847, when Lincoln was stumping for Clay, he crossed into Indiana and revisited his old home. He writes: "That part of the country is within itself as unpoetical as any spot on earth; but still seeing it and its objects and inhabitants aroused feelings in me which were certainly poetry; though whether my expression of these feelings is poetry, is quite another question."]
Near twenty years have passed away Since here I bid farewell To woods and fields, and scenes of play, And playmates loved so well.
Where many were, but few remain Of old familiar things; But seeing them to mind again The lost and absent brings.
The friends I left that parting day, How changed, as time has sped! Young childhood grown, strong manhood gray, And half of all are dead.
I hear the loved survivors tell How naught from death could save, Till every sound appears a knell, And every spot a grave.
I range the fields with pensive tread, And pace the hollow rooms, And feel (companion of the dead) I 'm living in the tombs.
VERSES WRITTEN BY LINCOLN CONCERNING A SCHOOL-FELLOW WHO BECAME INSANE--(A FRAGMENT).
And when at length the drear and long Time soothed thy fiercer woes, How plaintively thy mournful song Upon the still night rose
I've heard it oft as if I dreamed, Far distant, sweet and lone; The funeral dirge it ever seemed Of reason dead and gone.
Air held her breath; trees with the spell Seemed sorrowing angels round, Whose swelling tears in dewdrops fell Upon the listening ground.
But this is past, and naught remains That raised thee o'er the brute; Thy piercing shrieks and soothing strains Are like, forever mute.
Now fare thee well! More thou the cause Than subject now of woe. All mental pangs by time's kind laws Hast lost the power to know.
O Death! thou awe-inspiring prince That keepst the world in fear, Why dost thou tear more blest ones hence, And leave him lingering here?
SECOND CHILD
TO JOSHUA P. SPEED
SPRINGFIELD, October 22, 1846.
DEAR SPEED:--You, no doubt, assign the suspension of our correspondence to the true philosophic cause; though it must be confessed by both of us that this is rather a cold reason for allowing a friendship such as ours to die out by degrees. I propose now that, upon receipt of this, you shall be considered in my debt, and under obligations to pay soon, and that neither shall remain long in arrears hereafter. Are you agreed?
Being elected to Congress, though I am very grateful to our friends for having done it, has not pleased me as much as I expected.
We have another boy, born the 10th of March. He is very much such a child as Bob was at his age, rather of a longer order. Bob is "short and low," and I expect always will be. He talks very plainly,--almost as plainly as anybody. He is quite smart enough. I sometimes fear that he is one of the little rare-ripe sort that are smarter at about five than ever after. He has a great deal of that sort of mischief that is the offspring of such animal spirits. Since I began this letter, a messenger came to tell me Bob was lost; but by the time I reached the house his mother had found him and had him whipped, and by now, very likely, he is run away again. Mary has read your letter, and wishes to be remembered to Mrs. Speed and you, in which I most sincerely join her.
As ever yours,
A. LINCOLN.
TO MORRIS AND BROWN
SPRINGFIELD, October 21, 1847.
MESSRS.