Wilson, Douglas L., ed.; Davis, Rodney O., ed.; Jonas, Annie E. 'Annie E. Jonas to William H. Herndon' in 'Herndon's Informants: Letters, Interviews, and Statements About Abraham Lincoln' . Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998. [format: book], [genre: letter]. Permission: University of Illinois Press
Persistent link to this document: http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/file.php?file=herndon379.html

279. Annie E. Jonas to William H. Herndon.

Quincy Ills Oct 28th 1866.

Dear Sir

I am ashamed to confess the error I made in copying the letter I forwarded to you marked "Confidential"; of course the letter was dated, as the contents (for availability before the election) would indicate — 1860. ^[1] My apology for apparent careleness, is must also extenuate the seeming negligence of not having replied to your enquiry before — my time is not at my own command, and consequently I copied; as I now write in a room full of talkers — I shall be only too happy to do any-thing in my limited power to aid you, in your labor of love; but if your request was made in the principal papers, of the largest circulation, in the cities; unheard of letters might be brought to light — In our locality we have only seen your request once in the NY Tribune — I delayed sending you copies of the letters I had, in order to obtain a couple from New Orleans; having failed to obtain them, I will at least tell you the story of them; which you can make use of, if you like — E[i]ther in the winter of 1856, or the spring of /57 some colored man from Springfield, went to St Louis, and hired himself — (for what special service I forget — ) as a hand on a lower Missisippi boat — arriving at New Orleans, without free papers; he having been born free — he was subjected to the tyranny of the black code — all the more stringently enforced, because of the late excitement

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