HISTORICAL NOTES: The Lincoln Letters

One night last week, the Library of Congress staged the biggest show in its history. Its collection of Lincoln papers, given to the Library by Lincoln's son Robert on condition that they be kept under lock & key until 21 years after his death, was about to be opened.

As the 12:01 deadline (the hour of Robert Lincoln's death) approached, 23 Lincoln scholars and members of the Library staff left a banquet hall and walked solemnly into a room in the Library annex. Among them was white-thatched Lincoln Historian Carl Sandburg, who had...

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