Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation Owes Big $$$

[L Verge]

(05-22-2018 06:17 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Steve, I just wrote Dave McKinney about this. He is the former Chicago Sun-Times Springfield bureau chief. If I receive a reply, I shall post.

"Over the years, every scrap of paper on which Abe Lincoln scribbled is preserved and analyzed. But when William Waller got that hat, be it in Illinois or Washington, Abe Lincoln was on the edge of failure — losing a senatorial campaign or a civil war — not the kind of fame that got his face carved into mountainsides."

This paragraph from the NPR report that I posted earlier seems pretty definite that Waller received the hat around the time of the 1864 re-election battle. Am I correct in assuming that Lincoln did not campaign in Illinois at that time? Did Waller per chance come to D.C. for the inauguration after having been a solid supporter of Lincoln (finally) in his second campaign?