UT Andrew Jackson scholar Daniel Feller this year joined a team of experts to review The Papers of Abraham Lincoln and to recommend a path to move the project forward. The team in June released their reports and, according to the Illinois State Journal-Register, noted that the project should have a clear strategic plan, narrow its focus to writings more directly related to Lincoln, and get documents with appropriate notes online soon.
The newspaper noted Feller wrote that the scope of the Lincoln project’s research has been too wide. As an example, he wrote, a state legislative bill dealing with Cook County was included, and several footnotes written, just because Lincoln was in the General Assembly when it passed.
“This is absurd,” Feller wrote. “It would be absurd even if this Act was an actual Lincoln document, but there is nothing to show that (it) is. Lincoln apparently did not introduce this law, or speak on it. It is not even clear that he voted on it. He just happened to be a member of the legislature that passed it.” Read the story online.