The Jefferson Lemen Compact - Was it True

[maharba]

I am pleased to have the benefit of your opinion on this Roger, and Anita. I'll push it a little further and highlight that portion of my question and inference: that the past,
published 'experts' make their case that the Lincoln letter of March 2 1857 was a forgery and (other experts?) that there really was no 'Jefferson-Lemen Compact', they want to broaden that denial, it seems, that Lemen never knew Thomas Jefferson and that Lemen's grandsons never knew Abraham Lincoln on any personal terms. That thought/conclusion cuts across several areas of historical expertise. You have to have studied Jefferson, the history of Slavery particularly in the NW Territory/Indiana Territory/early Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, and the history and genealogy of the Lemen family. I have no personal interest in how this plays out, at all. No family connection, no personal interest in linking Jefferson to Lemen and his anti-slavery activities, it doesn't cut for or against Lincoln at this date if he was or was not close friends with Lemen's. I will continue to gather and assess information. But my current conclusion is that Abraham Lincoln early on acquainted himself with the early history of Illinois and slavery and the integral work of the Lemen's in making Illinois a free state. I think Lincoln really did, in his travels, meet and chat with Benjamin F. Lemen several times and for long hours at a time. I also think that Thomas Jefferson really did talk with Rev James Levi Lemon and suggest, even ask him (and others) to move out to the Indiana Territory and work to keep slavery from spreading there. Jefferson had odd, conflicting notions on slavery. Never really freeing his own slaves.