At the close of his long term of service as Superintendent of Schools, he became President of Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, from 1875 to 1893. He was small in stature, and by his friends was familiarly called "Little Newt," but was held in high regard as a man of honor and an educator of note. Besides his published reports and addresses, he compiled a large encyclopedia of men of Illinois,—a kind of "Who's Who" of much value. His family at one time proposed to gather and issue a memorial volume of his addresses, but the plan appears not to have been carried out. He died of angina pectoris at Galesburg, October 21, 1897.
[30] Bateman's version of the Farewell Address, as reported in the State Journal, was that accepted by Herndon, and, with its more profound recognition of God's providential care, is given in Lamon's Life of Lincoln, p. 506. It is repeated in his Recollections, p. 31.
[31] For these two reports and that of Lincoln and Hay, see the Appendix.
[32] Mr. Jesse W. Weik, who was associated with Herndon in the authorship of his Life of Lincoln, and who has Herndon's papers, has made diligent search for me in the effort to locate the notes of these interviews. Herndon certainly desired to preserve them, and desired that they should be published. But thus far they have not been found, and presumably are not in existence.
[33] Lamon was a Virginian by birth, and was, in many of his habits, a very different man from Lincoln, but Lincoln liked and trusted him.
[34] Black was Lamon's law partner in Washington after the war. The firm of Black, Lamon, and Hovey did a large business in prosecuting claims against the Government.
[35] This lecture is now very rare, and the text is given in the Appendix to this volume.
[36] This important communication containing signed letters from a number of Lincoln's friends is given in full in the Appendix.
[37] Although a number of these letters are quoted in the text, the article as a whole is so important that it is given in full in the Appendix.
[38] Herndon's letter to Dr. Smith was impudent, demanding that he answer as a man, if he could, and if not as a man, then as a Christian—a challenge which the old Scotchman answered in kind.