{
    "schema": "prokopton42-public-passage-v1",
    "id": "abraham_lincoln.papers_authored",
    "canonical_url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/abraham-lincoln/lincoln-authored-papers/reference-mal0045200/",
    "language": "en",
    "title": "Abraham Lincoln Papers: Lincoln-Authored Documents",
    "author": "Abraham Lincoln",
    "date": "1833-1865",
    "summary": "Letters, speeches, proclamations, and notes follow Lincoln from Illinois politics through the Civil War. They show his language of Union, slavery, emancipation, executive power, and reconciliation taking shape under pressure.",
    "learning": "Trace how a political decision moves from draft to public order, and distinguish moral argument, constitutional authority, and military necessity.",
    "long_summary": "The writings attributed to Lincoln mix public address with administrative decision: private letters, speeches, notes, proclamations, and orders show a political leader adjusting arguments to changing audiences and constraints. The crisis of Union and the Civil War give these texts their immediate pressure.\n\nSlavery, emancipation, war powers, and reconciliation do not form an abstract system here. They emerge through decisions, hesitations, and revised formulations. Attribution remains archival: it identifies responsibility for a document without claiming that every line was physically written in Lincoln’s hand.",
    "historical_context": "The documents span the rise of an Illinois lawyer, the secession crisis, four years of civil war, and the legal destruction of slavery. Telegrams, speeches, orders, and drafts show executive power exercised under pressure, with decisions revised through contact with Congress, the military, and public opinion.",
    "material_world_label": "Industrial world of the 19th century",
    "material_world": {
        "technology": "Steam, coal, factories, steel, machine tools, railways, and telegraphy concentrate unprecedented mechanical power.",
        "science": "Laboratories, journals, precision instruments, and professional institutions accelerate physics, chemistry, geology, and life science.",
        "medicine": "Anaesthesia, germ theory, vaccination, and antisepsis gradually transform care, with sharp inequalities of access.",
        "transport": "Rail and steamship shrink distances; horses, walking, and carriages remain ordinary in town and country.",
        "agriculture": "Machinery, fertilizers, breeding, and rail transport expand output and markets without eliminating manual labour or food crises.",
        "communication": "Telegraphy, mass newspapers, photography, post, and the emerging telephone speed news and business.",
        "clothing": "Dark suits, shirts, and hats dominate bourgeois menswear; long dresses, corsets, and layers shape women’s fashion, with more functional working clothes."
    },
    "material_world_scenes": [
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/24-1876-ce/world-01.webp",
            "title": "Technology, science, and care",
            "description": "Steam, coal, factories, steel, machine tools, railways, and telegraphy concentrate unprecedented mechanical power. Laboratories, journals, precision instruments, and professional institutions accelerate physics, chemistry, geology, and life science. Anaesthesia, germ theory, vaccination, and antisepsis gradually transform care, with sharp inequalities of access."
        },
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/24-1876-ce/world-02.webp",
            "title": "Travel and communication",
            "description": "Rail and steamship shrink distances; horses, walking, and carriages remain ordinary in town and country. Telegraphy, mass newspapers, photography, post, and the emerging telephone speed news and business."
        },
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/24-1876-ce/world-03.webp",
            "title": "Farming and food",
            "description": "Machinery, fertilizers, breeding, and rail transport expand output and markets without eliminating manual labour or food crises."
        },
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/24-1876-ce/world-04.webp",
            "title": "Clothing, women and men",
            "description": "Dark suits, shirts, and hats dominate bourgeois menswear; long dresses, corsets, and layers shape women’s fashion, with more functional working clothes."
        }
    ],
    "intellectual_tradition": {
        "id": "political-thought",
        "label": "Political thought and democracy"
    },
    "period": {
        "id": "modern",
        "label": "Modern era"
    },
    "languages": [
        "en",
        "fr"
    ],
    "manifestations": [
        {
            "coverage": "complete_for_attribution_partition",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/abraham_lincoln/papers_authored/representations/en.ndjson",
            "language": "en",
            "records": 982,
            "role": "archival_transcription",
            "sha256": "63463c543fac6ee567e989219d99a2fe3df152997ade1f61970d8de8bf66b41f",
            "source_id": "loc-abraham-lincoln-papers-complementary-datasets-2025"
        },
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/abraham_lincoln/papers_authored/representations/ai-generated/fr-gpt-5-6-sol-corpus-passage-translation-v1.ndjson",
            "generated_on": "2026-09-11",
            "language": "fr",
            "model": "gpt-5.6-sol",
            "official_status": "non_official",
            "prompt_version": "corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "provider": "codex_subscription",
            "records": 982,
            "role": "ai_generated_translation_non_official",
            "sha256": "513406f7addfb9b2078bf76fef6341ef3b473f65cdd7f40b424c561c6c7a1ef0",
            "source_id": "prokopton42-codex-translation:gpt-5.6-sol:corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "translation_type": "ai_generated_translation"
        }
    ],
    "concepts": [
        {
            "id": "care_of_soul",
            "label": "Care of the soul"
        },
        {
            "id": "civil_war",
            "label": "Civil war"
        },
        {
            "id": "constitutional_government",
            "label": "Constitutional government"
        },
        {
            "id": "democracy",
            "label": "Democracy"
        },
        {
            "id": "emancipation",
            "label": "Emancipation"
        },
        {
            "id": "executive_power",
            "label": "Executive power"
        },
        {
            "id": "justice",
            "label": "Justice"
        },
        {
            "id": "messiah",
            "label": "Messiah"
        },
        {
            "id": "political_equality",
            "label": "Political equality"
        },
        {
            "id": "political_union",
            "label": "Political union"
        },
        {
            "id": "reason",
            "label": "Reason"
        },
        {
            "id": "reconciliation",
            "label": "Reconciliation"
        },
        {
            "id": "sin",
            "label": "Sin"
        },
        {
            "id": "slavery",
            "label": "Slavery"
        },
        {
            "id": "time",
            "label": "Time"
        },
        {
            "id": "tranquillity",
            "label": "Tranquillity"
        },
        {
            "id": "war_and_peace",
            "label": "War and peace"
        }
    ],
    "source_work_ids": [
        "abraham_lincoln.papers_authored"
    ],
    "passages": 982,
    "word_count": 326103,
    "word_counts_by_language": {
        "en": 326103,
        "fr": 337343
    },
    "editorial_status": "curated_semantic_v1",
    "structure": {
        "citation_scheme": "loc-abraham-lincoln-papers-item-v1",
        "kind": "native",
        "levels": [
            {
                "key": "archive_item",
                "label_fr": "Document d’archive",
                "label_en": "Archive item"
            }
        ],
        "leaf_fr": "Document",
        "leaf_en": "Document"
    },
    "canonical_passage_id": "passage:abraham_lincoln.papers_authored:mal0045200",
    "canonical_ref": "mal0045200",
    "canonical_parent_ref": null,
    "canonical_parent_id": null,
    "representations": [
        {
            "language": "en",
            "text": "Abraham Lincoln, Fragment on Niagara Falls, [September-October 1848]\n\nNiagara –Falls! By what mysterious power is it, that millions and millions, are drawn from all parts of the world, to gaze upon Niagara Falls? There is no mystery about the thing itself-- Every effect is just such as any inteligent man knowing the causes, would anticipate, without it— If the water moving onward in a great river, reac[hes] a point when there is a perpendicular jog, of a hundred feet in descent, in the bottom of the river, — it is plain the water will have a violent and continuous plunge at that point— It is also plain the water, thus plunging, will foam, and roar, and send up a mist, continuously, in which last, during sunshine, there will be perpetual rain-bows— The mere physical of Niagara Falls, is only this— Yet this is really a very small part of that world's wonder— It's power to excite reflection, and emotion, is it's great charm— The geologist will demonstrate that the plunge or fall, was once at Lake Ontario, and has worn its' way back to it's present position; he will ascertain how fast it is wearing now, and so get a basis for determining how long it has been wearing back from Lake Ontario, and finally demonstrate by it that the world is at least fourteen thousand years old— A philosopher of a slightly different turn will say Niagara Falls is only the lip of the basin out of which pours all the surplus water which rains down on two or three hundred thousand square miles of the earths surface— He will estimate w[ith] approximate accuracy, that five hundred thousand [to]ns of water, falls with it's full weight, a distance of a hundred feet each minute — thus exerting a force equal to the lifting of the same weight, through the same space, in the same time— And then the further reflection comes that this vast amount of water, constantly pouring down, is supplied by an equal amount constantly lifted up, by the sun; and still he says, “If this much is lifted up, for this one space of two or three hundred thousand square miles, an equal amount must be lifted for every other equal space; an[d] he is overwhelmed in the contemplation of t[he] vast power the sun is constantly exerting in [the] quiet, noisless opperation of lifting water up t[o be] rained down again—\n\nBut still there is more. It calls up the indefinite past— When Columbus first sought this continent — when Christ suffered on the Cross — when Moses led Israel through the red Red-Sea — nay, even, when Adam was made— first came from the hand of his Maker — then as now, Niagara was roaring here— The eyes of that species of extinct giants, whose bones fill the Mounds of America, have gazed on Niagara, as ours do now— Cotemporary with the whole race of man, men, and older than the first man, Niagara is strong and fresh to-day as ten thousand years ago— The Mammoth and Mastodon — now so long dead, that fragments of their monstrous bones, alone testify, that they ever lived, have gazed on Niagara— In that long — long time, never still for a single moment— Never dried, never froze, never slept, never rested,",
            "edition": "Library of Congress Abraham Lincoln Papers transcription dataset",
            "source_id": "loc-lincoln-knox-2025-12-10"
        },
        {
            "language": "fr",
            "text": "Abraham Lincoln, Fragment sur les chutes du Niagara, [septembre-octobre 1848]\n\nLes chutes du Niagara! Par quel pouvoir mystérieux des millions et des millions de personnes sont-ils attirés de toutes les parties du monde pour contempler les chutes du Niagara? Le phénomène lui-même n'a rien de mystérieux. Chaque effet est précisément celui auquel tout homme intelligent, connaissant les causes, s'attendrait sans les avoir sous les yeux. Si l'eau qui avance dans un grand fleuve atteint un point où le lit du fleuve présente une rupture verticale entraînant une descente de cent pieds, il est évident que l'eau connaîtra en ce point une chute violente et continue. Il est également évident que l'eau tombant ainsi écumera, rugira et fera continuellement monter une brume, dans laquelle, lorsqu'il y aura du soleil, paraîtront perpétuellement des arcs-en-ciel. La seule réalité physique des chutes du Niagara n'est que cela. Pourtant, ce n'est en vérité qu'une très petite partie de cette merveille du monde. Son pouvoir d'éveiller la réflexion et l'émotion constitue son grand charme. Le géologue démontrera que la cascade, ou chute, se trouvait autrefois au lac Ontario et a rongé son chemin en arrière jusqu'à sa position actuelle; il déterminera la vitesse à laquelle elle recule maintenant et obtiendra ainsi une base permettant d'établir depuis combien de temps elle recule à partir du lac Ontario, puis démontrera finalement par ce moyen que le monde est âgé d'au moins quatorze mille ans. Un philosophe d'un tour d'esprit légèrement différent dira que les chutes du Niagara ne sont que le bord du bassin par lequel se déverse toute l'eau excédentaire tombée en pluie sur deux ou trois cent mille milles carrés de la surface terrestre. Il estimera avec une exactitude approximative que cinq cent mille tonnes d'eau tombent chaque minute de tout leur poids sur une distance de cent pieds, exerçant ainsi une force égale à celle qu'exigerait l'élévation du même poids sur la même distance dans le même temps. Puis vient cette autre réflexion: cette immense quantité d'eau qui se déverse constamment est alimentée par une quantité égale que le soleil élève constamment; et il dit encore: «Si une telle quantité est élevée pour ce seul espace de deux ou trois cent mille milles carrés, une quantité égale doit être élevée pour tout autre espace égal»; et il est accablé par la contemplation de l'immense puissance que le soleil exerce constamment dans cette opération tranquille et silencieuse qui élève l'eau afin qu'elle retombe en pluie.\n\nMais il y a encore davantage. Elles évoquent le passé indéfini. Lorsque Colomb chercha pour la première fois ce continent, lorsque le Christ souffrit sur la Croix, lorsque Moïse conduisit Israël à travers la mer Rouge, oui, même lorsqu'Adam fut créé, lorsqu'il sortit pour la première fois des mains de son Créateur, alors comme aujourd'hui, le Niagara rugissait ici. Les yeux de cette espèce de géants disparus, dont les ossements remplissent les tertres d'Amérique, ont contemplé le Niagara comme les nôtres le font aujourd'hui. Contemporain de toute la race humaine, des hommes, et plus ancien que le premier homme, le Niagara est aujourd'hui aussi puissant et aussi frais qu'il y a dix mille ans. Le mammouth et le mastodonte, morts depuis si longtemps que seuls des fragments de leurs os monstrueux attestent qu'ils vécurent jamais, ont contemplé le Niagara. Durant ce long, long temps, jamais immobile un seul instant. Jamais tari, jamais gelé, jamais endormi, jamais reposé,",
            "translator": "Codex gpt-5.6-sol",
            "edition": "Prokopton42 non-official AI translation, 2026-09-11",
            "source_id": "prokopton42-codex-translation:gpt-5.6-sol:corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "translation_type": "ai_generated_translation",
            "official_status": "non_official",
            "generation_model": "gpt-5.6-sol"
        }
    ],
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}