A high-resolution version of this object is only available for registered users - register here.
High-resolution images are also available to schools and libraries via subscription to American History, 1493-1943. Check to see if your school or library already has a subscription or click here for more information.
- GLC#
- GLC03876
- Type
- Letters
- Date
- 22 July 1860
- Author/Creator
- Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865
- Title
- to George C. Latham re: encouraging Robert's friend to reapply to Harvard
- Place Written
- Springfield, Illinois
- Pagination
- 2 p. : + blank Height: 20 cm, Width: 13.4 cm
- Primary time period
- National Expansion and Reform, 1815-1860
- Sub-Era
- Age of Jackson Lincoln
Lincoln writes to his son's friend, who had been rejected by Harvard. He writes a letter of encouragement: "It is a certain truth, that you can enter, and graduate in, Harvard University; and having made the attempt, you must succeed in it. 'Must' is the word. [....] In your temporary failure there is no evidence that you may not yet be a better scholar, and a more successful man in the great struggle of life, than many others, who have entered college more easily. Again I say let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you, and in the end you are sure to succeed." According the Lincoln's editor, Roy P. Basler, this document is Lincoln's greatest personal letter.
Basler, Roy P. The Collected Works Of Abraham Lincoln. (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953), Vol. IV 1860 - 1861,
p. 87.
Citation Guidelines for Online Resources
- Copyright Notice
- The copyright law of the United States (title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specific conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be “used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research.” If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of “fair use,” that user may be liable for copyright infringement. This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if, in its judgment, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of copyright law.