The frigate and the frugal chariot : Jefferson and Lincoln as readers -- Herndon's legacy -- William H. Herndon and the "necessary truth" -- Abraham Lincoln versus Peter Cartwright -- Abraham Lincoln, Ann Rutledge, and the evidence of Herndon's informants -- Abraham Lincoln and "that fatal first of January" -- Abraham Lincoln and the spirit of mortal -- The Lincoln-Douglas debates : an unfinished text -- Lincoln's declaration