Description:

Lincoln Abraham

Lincoln's biographers Hay & Nicolay and Emanuel Hertz evaluated by Supreme Court Associate Justice Harlan Stone


1p TLS on watermarked paper with "Supreme Court of the United States, Washington, D.C." letterhead, signed by then Supreme Court Associate Justice Harlan Stone (1872-1946) as "Harlan F. Stone" at center. Docketed in another hand in the lower right corner. In very good to near fine condition. Overall toning and a few isolated discolored spots. Paper folds, including some well-defined and slightly torn. Two pin holes in the upper left corner. Page measures 8" x 10.5."


Harlan Stone wrote this TLS on February 28, 1941 from his chambers in Washington, DC, thanking Harold Roland Shapiro for sending him a copy of his book Lincoln Historian: Tribute to Work of the late Emanuel Hertz. "Thank you for sending me your very interesting tribute to the late Emanuel Hertz," Stone wrote. "Although I never had the privilege of knowing him I have for sometime [sic been aware of the important work which he has been doing. I always felt that it was a great misfortune that he or someone with his zeal for truth in history could not much earlier have applied his methods to the study of Lincoln."


Emanuel Hertz (1870-1940) gained prestige as a Lincoln historian with his Abraham Lincoln: A New Portrait (1931), Abraham Lincoln: The Tribute of the Synagogue (1936), and The Hidden Lincoln from the Letters and Papers of William H. Herndon (1938). Hertz collected roughly 4,000 previously unknown items of Lincolniana while researching his books, later donating much of it to the Library of Congress. Stone's correspondent Harold Roland Shapiro praised his deceased friend in his 1941 book.


Lincoln enthusiast Harlan Stone deliberated on the proper methodology of writing historical biographies in this exceptional letter. According to Stone, a historian needed to combine exacting evidence-based research along with a sincere interest to do justice to the historical subject.


Stone wrote: "You will be interested to know that in a conversation recently with Miss Nicolay she told me that Hay and Nicolay, in the publication of their monumental work on Lincoln, refrained throughout from including anything in their account of Lincoln resting on their own personal recollection unless it was supported by documentary proof. Unfortunately not many have followed so high a standard, and until Mr. Hertz began his work no one seemed willing to search out and report the whole truth."


"Hay and Nicolay" referred to John Hay (1838-1905) and John George Nicolay (1832-1901), two of Lincoln's private secretaries. After the president's death, Nicolay and Hay published "their monumental work on Lincoln," a 10-volume biography called Abraham Lincoln: A History. Hay and Nicolay also coedited Lincoln's Complete Works. "Miss Nicolay" referred to Helen Nicolay (1866-1954), John George Nicolay's daughter. She had collaborated with her father in completing A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln, and, in many ways, "Abraham Lincoln's Secretary's Secretary" continued her father's tribute to the assassinated president.


Associate Justice Stone showed remarkable insight into the difficulty of maintaining high standards in historical writing. Stone appreciated that, while Nicolay and Hay could draw on personal reminiscences of their interactions with Lincoln, they attempted to corroborate these experiences with evidence. Clearly a lawyer and judge like Stone would admire this fact-finding process, for, after all, the law attempted "to search out and report the whole truth."


Harold Roland Shapiro (active 1930-1970) was admitted to the New York bar in 1927. Shapiro served for many years as a New York City Assistant District Attorney dealing mainly with criminal cases. He was also a writer. Shapiro's scholarly interests were diverse: he published monographs on topics ranging from labor law to Lincoln biography. Shapiro also contributed to the New York Times and wrote book reviews.


Harlan Stone was first appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by 30th U.S. President Calvin Coolidge. Stone served on the bench from 1925 to 1941 as an Associate Justice, and from 1941 to 1946 as its 12th Chief Justice. (He was appointed Chief Justice just five months after this correspondence.) Like his colleague Felix Frankfurter, Stone taught at a prestigious law school (in this case Columbia) and privately practiced before his Supreme Court appointments. Stone formed one third of the left-leaning Supreme Court's “Three Musketeers”. Throughout his twenty-year-long Supreme Court career, Stone adjudicated  issues ranging from World War I conscientious objectors to World War II German saboteurs, and from anti-trust laws to personal jurisdiction.


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