Your opinion on why New Salem died

[Liz Rosenthal]

Troy,

The closeness of a pair of friends is only one consideration in determining whether one friend's recollections of the other are accurate.

(But "best" friend of Lincoln is probably overstating it - I think the only person who qualified in that regard was Joshua Speed.)

An individual needs to have a good memory and no motivation for puffing up his own importance or misrepresenting or overdramatizing certain events in his friend's life to be considered reliable.

I'm not suggesting that the Clary's Grove Boys weren't rowdies. We all know they were. But suggesting that they held the entire town of New Salem in a state of terror is just plain silly.