Abraham Lincoln: A History, Vol.VIII (in 10 Volumes)
(Considered one of the best treatments of the presidency o...)
Considered one of the best treatments of the presidency of Abraham Lincoln of its time, this portrait of the man and his administration of the United States at the moment of its greatest upheaval is both intimate and scholarly. Written by two private secretaries to the president and first published in 1890, this astonishingly in-depth work is still praised today for its clear, easy-to-read style and vitality. This new replica edition features all the original illustrations. Volume Eight covers: • conspiracies in the North • habeas corpus • Chickamauga • Chattanooga • Burnside in Tennessee • the Gettysburg address • foreign relations in 1863 • Grant general-in-chief • Spotsylvania • and much more. American journalist and statesman JOHN MILTON HAY (1838-1905) was only 22 when he became a private secretary to Lincoln. A former member of the Providence literary circle when he attended Brown University in the late 1850s, he may have been the real author of Lincoln's famous "Letter to Mrs. Bixby." After Lincoln's death, Hay later served as editor of the *New York Tribune* and as U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom under President William McKinley. American author JOHN GEORGE NICOLAY (1832-1901) was born in Germany and emigrated to the U.S. as a child. Before serving as Lincoln's private secretary, he worked as a newspaper editor and later as assistant to the secretary of state of Illinois. He also wrote *Campaigns of the Civil War* (1881).
(Considered one of the best treatments of the presidency o...)
Considered one of the best treatments of the presidency of Abraham Lincoln of its time, this portrait of the man and his administration of the United States at the moment of its greatest upheaval is both intimate and scholarly. Written by two private secretaries to the president and first published in 1890, this astonishingly in-depth work is still praised today for its clear, easy-to-read style and vitality. This new replica edition features all the original illustrations. Volume Ten covers: • Franklin and Nashville • the Thirteenth Amendment • the Hampton Roads conference • the second inaugural • Appomattox • the fall of the rebel capital • the capture of Jefferson Davis • the assassination • and much more. American journalist and statesman JOHN MILTON HAY (1838-1905) was only 22 when he became a private secretary to Lincoln. A former member of the Providence literary circle when he attended Brown University in the late 1850s, he may have been the real author of Lincoln's famous "Letter to Mrs. Bixby." After Lincoln's death, Hay later served as editor of the *New York Tribune* and as U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom under President William McKinley. American author JOHN GEORGE NICOLAY (1832-1901) was born in Germany and emigrated to the U.S. as a child. Before serving as Lincoln's private secretary, he worked as a newspaper editor and later as assistant to the secretary of state of Illinois. He also wrote *Campaigns of the Civil War* (1881).
(Considered one of the best treatments of the presidency o...)
Considered one of the best treatments of the presidency of Abraham Lincoln of its time, this portrait of the man and his administration of the United States at the moment of its greatest upheaval is both intimate and scholarly. Written by two private secretaries to the president and first published in 1890, this astonishingly in-depth work is still praised today for its clear, easy-to-read style and vitality. This new replica edition features all the original illustrations. Volume Five covers: • "the Trent affair" • Grant and Thomas in Kentucky • Lincoln's plans of campaign • Manassas evacuated • the "Monitor" and "Merrimac" • Farragut's victory • the Shiloh campaign • Yorktown • and much more. American journalist and statesman JOHN MILTON HAY (1838-1905) was only 22 when he became a private secretary to Lincoln. A former member of the Providence literary circle when he attended Brown University in the late 1850s, he may have been the real author of Lincoln's famous "Letter to Mrs. Bixby." After Lincoln's death, Hay later served as editor of the *New York Tribune* and as U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom under President William McKinley. American author JOHN GEORGE NICOLAY (1832-1901) was born in Germany and emigrated to the U.S. as a child. Before serving as Lincoln's private secretary, he worked as a newspaper editor and later as assistant to the secretary of state of Illinois. He also wrote *Campaigns of the Civil War* (1881).
Abraham Lincoln: A History, Vol.III (in 10 Volumes) (Cosimo Classics)
(Considered one of the best treatments of the presidency o...)
Considered one of the best treatments of the presidency of Abraham Lincoln of its time, this portrait of the man and his administration of the United States at the moment of its greatest upheaval is both intimate and scholarly. Written by two private secretaries to the president and first published in 1890, this astonishingly in-depth work is still praised today for its clear, easy-to-read style and vitality. This new replica edition features all the original illustrations. Volume Three covers: • South Carolina's secession • Fort Sumter • Anderson's truce • the military situation at Charleston • the cotton "republics" • Lincoln's "secret night journey" • the inauguration • Lincoln's cabinet • and much more. American journalist and statesman JOHN MILTON HAY (1838-1905) was only 22 when he became a private secretary to Lincoln. A former member of the Providence literary circle when he attended Brown University in the late 1850s, he may have been the real author of Lincoln's famous "Letter to Mrs. Bixby." After Lincoln's death, Hay later served as editor of the *New York Tribune* and as U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom under President William McKinley. American author JOHN GEORGE NICOLAY (1832-1901) was born in Germany and emigrated to the U.S. as a child. Before serving as Lincoln's private secretary, he worked as a newspaper editor and later as assistant to the secretary of state of Illinois. He also wrote *Campaigns of the Civil War* (1881).
Abraham Lincoln: A History, Vol.VI (in 10 Volumes)
(Considered one of the best treatments of the presidency o...)
Considered one of the best treatments of the presidency of Abraham Lincoln of its time, this portrait of the man and his administration of the United States at the moment of its greatest upheaval is both intimate and scholarly. Written by two private secretaries to the president and first published in 1890, this astonishingly in-depth work is still praised today for its clear, easy-to-read style and vitality. This new replica edition features all the original illustrations. Volume Six covers: • diplomacy of 1862 • Antietam • Emancipation • the removal of McClellan • Fredericksburg • Seward and Chase • Perryville and Murfreesboro • Lincoln and the churches • Negro soldiers • and much more. American journalist and statesman JOHN MILTON HAY (1838-1905) was only 22 when he became a private secretary to Lincoln. A former member of the Providence literary circle when he attended Brown University in the late 1850s, he may have been the real author of Lincoln's famous "Letter to Mrs. Bixby." After Lincoln's death, Hay later served as editor of the *New York Tribune* and as U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom under President William McKinley. American author JOHN GEORGE NICOLAY (1832-1901) was born in Germany and emigrated to the U.S. as a child. Before serving as Lincoln's private secretary, he worked as a newspaper editor and later as assistant to the secretary of state of Illinois. He also wrote *Campaigns of the Civil War* (1881).
Abraham Lincoln: A History, Vol.IX (in 10 Volumes)
(Considered one of the best treatments of the presidency o...)
Considered one of the best treatments of the presidency of Abraham Lincoln of its time, this portrait of the man and his administration of the United States at the moment of its greatest upheaval is both intimate and scholarly. Written by two private secretaries to the president and first published in 1890, this astonishingly in-depth work is still praised today for its clear, easy-to-read style and vitality. This new replica edition features all the original illustrations. Volume Nine covers: • Sherman's campaign to the Chattahoochee • the Cleveland convention • the Wade-Davis manifesto • the last days of the rebel navy • Horace Greeley's peace mission • Atlanta • Sheridan in the Shenandoah • Cedar Creek • Lincoln reelected • and much more. American journalist and statesman JOHN MILTON HAY (1838-1905) was only 22 when he became a private secretary to Lincoln. A former member of the Providence literary circle when he attended Brown University in the late 1850s, he may have been the real author of Lincoln's famous "Letter to Mrs. Bixby." After Lincoln's death, Hay later served as editor of the *New York Tribune* and as U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom under President William McKinley. American author JOHN GEORGE NICOLAY (1832-1901) was born in Germany and emigrated to the U.S. as a child. Before serving as Lincoln's private secretary, he worked as a newspaper editor and later as assistant to the secretary of state of Illinois. He also wrote *Campaigns of the Civil War* (1881).
Abraham Lincoln: A History, Vol. I (in 10 Volumes) (Cosimo Classics)
(Considered one of the best treatments of the presidency o...)
Considered one of the best treatments of the presidency of Abraham Lincoln of its time, this portrait of the man and his administration of the United States at the moment of its greatest upheaval is both intimate and scholarly. Written by two private secretaries to the president and first published in 1890, this astonishingly in-depth work is still praised today for its clear, easy-to-read style and vitality. This new replica edition features all the original illustrations. Volume One covers: • the Lincoln lineage from the late 18th century • Lincoln's boyhood in Kentucky and Indiana • his experience in the legislature and his early law practice • Lincoln's early opposition to slavery • "The Shields Duel" • the campaign for Congress • "civil war" in Kansas • and much more. American journalist and statesman JOHN MILTON HAY (1838-1905) was only 22 when he became a private secretary to Lincoln. A former member of the Providence literary circle when he attended Brown University in the late 1850s, he may have been the real author of Lincoln's famous "Letter to Mrs. Bixby." After Lincoln's death, Hay later served as editor of the *New York Tribune* and as U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom under President William McKinley. American author JOHN GEORGE NICOLAY (1832-1901) was born in Germany and emigrated to the U.S. as a child. Before serving as Lincoln's private secretary, he worked as a newspaper editor and later as assistant to the secretary of state of Illinois. He also wrote *Campaigns of the Civil War* (1881).
Abraham Lincoln: A History, Vol.II (in 10 Volumes)
(Considered one of the best treatments of the presidency o...)
Considered one of the best treatments of the presidency of Abraham Lincoln of its time, this portrait of the man and his administration of the United States at the moment of its greatest upheaval is both intimate and scholarly. Written by two private secretaries to the president and first published in 1890, this astonishingly in-depth work is still praised today for its clear, easy-to-read style and vitality. This new replica edition features all the original illustrations. Volume Two covers: • the conventions of 1856 • "Congressional ruffianism" • Dred Scott • the Lincoln-Douglas debates • Lincoln's Ohio speeches • the Cooper Institute speech • the presidential election • beginnings of rebellion • the "Forty Muskets" • and much more. American journalist and statesman JOHN MILTON HAY (1838-1905) was only 22 when he became a private secretary to Lincoln. A former member of the Providence literary circle when he attended Brown University in the late 1850s, he may have been the real author of Lincoln's famous "Letter to Mrs. Bixby." After Lincoln's death, Hay later served as editor of the *New York Tribune* and as U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom under President William McKinley. American author JOHN GEORGE NICOLAY (1832-1901) was born in Germany and emigrated to the U.S. as a child. Before serving as Lincoln's private secretary, he worked as a newspaper editor and later as assistant to the secretary of state of Illinois. He also wrote *Campaigns of the Civil War* (1881).
John George Nicolay was an American government official and writer. He served as private secretary and biographer of Lincoln.
Background
John George Nicolay was born on February 26, 1832 in Essingen, Rhenish Palatinate, Bavaria, Germany. He was the son of John Jacob and Helena Nicolay. The family, with its five children, sailed from Havre to New Orleans in 1838, lived for a time at Cincinnati, moved to Indiana, shifted to Missouri, and later settled in Pike County, Illinois, where the father and brothers operated a flour mill for which John George acted as scribe and business interpreter.
Education
Denied the college training for which he yearned, Nicolay found his education in the Free Press office, in type-setting, in editorial tasks, in reading the Bible "for recreation, " and in the study of books.
Career
Thrown upon his own resources by the death of his parents, young Nicolay clerked for a year in a store at White Hall, Illinois; he then entered the establishment of the Free Press, published in the picturesque town of Pittsfield, county seat of Pike County, a New England town settled from Pittsfield, Massachussets, and surrounded by the primitive environment whose tang and flavor are preserved in John Hay's Pike County Ballads. From printer's devil and typesetter he became editor-proprietor of the paper in 1854.
In 1856 he sold the Free Press and became a clerk for the secretary of state in Springfield.
Nicolay became acquainted with Lincoln, whose private secretary he became upon Lincoln's nomination for the presidency. Nicolay obtained Hay's appointment as assistant secretary; and the two chums thus stepped together upon the escalator of fame. Sharing a room in the White House, the secretaries enjoyed the intimate friendship of the President, whom in their own chitchat they lovingly termed the "Tycoon, " or the "Ancient. " Few men, indeed, were as close to Lincoln as Nicolay or so fully enjoyed his confidence. Sometimes his duties were more than secretarial, as when he attended the Republican convention at Baltimore in June 1864 to "watch proceedings, " that is, to promote Lincoln's interests. Nicolay served as consul at Paris, 1865-69; in 1872 he became marshal of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving until 1887.
For fifteen arduous years, 1875-90, he collaborated with Hay on the ten-volume biography entitled Abraham Lincoln: A History (1890). The plan was conceived in 1861; and before they began to write Nicolay had spent six years in collecting and arranging the elaborate mass of Lincoln papers loaned by Robert Lincoln, and had blocked out the chapters. There was constant consultation; each chose the chapters he preferred; and the manuscript of each was passed to the other for criticism. Such is the literary blending of the final product that it is practically impossible by reading the text to distinguish the style of one author from that of the other. Prepared under the scrutiny of Robert Lincoln, and written by Republicans who were "Lincoln men all through", the work is caustic in treating Lincoln's opponents; yet it stands as an impressive monument, not only because of the vastness of the undertaking, but also because of its enduring historical significance.
(Considered one of the best treatments of the presidency o...)
Politics
Nicolay was an ardent Republican.
Personality
Nicolay was of slight build and frail health, and labored under the handicap of severe eye trouble. Beneath a grave exterior he revealed a charming vein of humor to his intimate friends.
Interests
He was interested in music and drawing, and was an inventor of various mechanical devices. Literary labors and historical interests occupied his later years.
Connections
On June 15, 1865, Nicolay married Therena Bates of Pittsfield, Illinois, who died in November 1885.