The Jefferson Lemen Compact - Was it True

[Rob Wick]

There was published in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society Vol. 97, No. 3 (Autumn, 2004), pp. 192-215 an article by James A. Edstrom entitled "A Mighty Contest'': The Jefferson-Lemen Compact Reevaluated" in which he chronicles the history of the alleged compact and, in my mind, proves once and for all that the letter from Lincoln was undoubtedly a fraud (as were the other letters found in the family papers) and that there was no need for the family of the Rev. James Lemen Sr. to promote these documents because it had clearly been established that Lemen Sr., and his descendents were decidedly antislavery and had worked hard to keep Illinois a free state, adding that the myth of the compact did nothing to enhance Lemen's Sr.'s antislavery bona fides.

Edstrom shows that historians approached the documents on a continuum, with some pointing out the discrepancies evident but reserving final judgement while many believed them to be full-blown frauds. Even Ida Tarbell hesitated. In her 1924 In the Footsteps of the Lincolns she writes of Lemen Jr.'s reminisces (which are found in her papers) "In reading these reminiscences, one must remember that they were written long after the event by an aged and fervently pious man who probably exaggerated his intimacy with Lincoln." Tarbell wrote that she believed Lemen's writing was genuine, meaning he believed them to be true, but noted that the supposed letter to Lincoln was only a copy and that no original could be found, adding "several serious historical students have challenged its genuineness as that of the reminiscences." She had been contacted when she was with the American Magazine by Joseph Lemen, who urged her to publish the material, pointedly asking her how much she thought they were worth (they were never published).

Tarbell wrote to Clarence Alvord, a professor at the University of Illinois, who along with Solon J. Buck studied the Lemen material for Buck's Illinois in 1818 and both came to the conclusion that the documents were spurious.

One last point....if James Lemen Jr., had been such a close friend to Abraham Lincoln and was such a trusted spiritual adviser, where was he when Lincoln's body was buried in Springfield? There were six Protestant ministers involved in the services at the receiving vault, including Matthew Simpson and Phineas Gurley, yet Lemen had not even been invited to participate. Seems strange for someone who was said to have been so close to Lincoln, which, undoubtedly Lincoln's friends and family would have known.

Anyone who wants to read Edstrom's article can find it here on the JSTOR website. You can look at the first page for free, but to read the article you either need to register with JSTOR, which allows you to read three free articles for 14 days, or pay $10 and download it. If you have access to JSTOR nearby through a library, you can also download it there using the library's subscription.

Best
Rob