MEMOIR

OF

HON. LEVI LINCOLN.

BY EMORY WASHBURN.

THE circumstances under which such a memoir as is proposed in the following pages, must, almost necessarily, be prepared, should serve as an apology for its defective execution. The work to be done is not sufficiently removed from the subject of it, to have had its relations to the historical events with which it is connected, sufficiently defined to do it justice; while, on the other hand, the personal relations of the writer to one with whom he had long been associated in the offices of courtesy and friendship, are in danger of giving to the work more of the character of a eulogy than an impartial biography. Such are some of the embarrassments which are to be anticipated, in undertaking to prepare a notice of the Hon. Levi Lincoln, in accordance with the request of the Massachusetts Historical Society, with which he was associated. The most that can be hoped, in the way of its execution, is, that the details here preserved may serve as materials for a more ample memoir of one who has been identified with so many of the events which have characterized the last half-century of the history of the country.

To do any thing like justice to the subject, it will be necessary to speak of his private, his professional, and his political