(From Judge Nott)

WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS.,

July 26, 1909.

DEAR PUTNAM:

I consider it very desirable that the report of Mr. Lincoln's speech, embodying the final revision, should be preserved in book form.... The text in the pamphlet now in your hands is authentic and conclusive. Mr. Lincoln read the proof both of the address and of the notes. I am glad that you are to include in your reprint the letters from Mr. Lincoln, as these letters authenticate this copy of the address as the copy which was corrected by him with his own hand....

The preface to the address, written in September, 1860, has interest because it shows what we thought of the address at that time.... Your worthy father was, if I remember rightly, one of the vice-presidents of the meeting....

Yours faithfully,

CHARLES C. NOTT.


(From Cephas Brainerd)