Time out of mind, words prefatory have been considered indispensable to
the successful publication of a book. This sketch of the LIFE and DEATH
of ABRAHAM LINCOLN is intended as an accompaniment to the Historical
Painting which has rescued from oblivion, and, with almost perfect
fidelity, transmitted to futurity, "THE LAST HOURS OF LINCOLN." In its
preparation has been invoked the aid of one who in life was near the
heart of MR. LINCOLN, and at death was a witness to that last sad scene,
so accurately delineated by the painter's art--the Hon. ISAAC N. ARNOLD.
His intimate and social relations with MR. LINCOLN, his unbounded
admiration of the goodness and sincerity of the Great Emancipator,
renders this invocation eminently appropriate. This sketch contains
subject-matter never before made public, presented in the full dress of
the author's happiest style.
In confident reliance upon the affection of the people for the great
Apostle of Liberty--the Martyr--who in his blood wrote his belief "that
all men everywhere should be free," this sketch is submitted.