John George Nicolay

John George Nicolay (February 26, 1832 – September 26, 1901) was a German-born American author and diplomat who served as private secretary to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and later, with John Hay, co-authored Abraham Lincoln: A History, a ten-volume biography of the 16th president. He was a member of the German branch of the Nicolay family.

John George Nicolay
Nicolay (c. 1855–1865)
2nd Marshal of the United States Supreme Court
In office 1872–1887
Preceded by	Richard C. Parsons
Succeeded by	John M. Wright
Private Secretary to the President
In office March 4, 1861 – April 15, 1865
President	Abraham Lincoln
Preceded by	James Buchanan II
Succeeded by	William A. Browning
Personal details
Born	(1832-02-26)February 26, 1832 Essingen, Kingdom of Bavaria
Died	September 26, 1901(1901-09-26) (aged 69) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Resting place	Oak Hill Cemetery Washington, D.C., U.S.
Occupation	Newspaper editor, diplomat

U.S. Indian Commissioner William P. Dole seated, John G. Nicolay standing at Big Lake encampment, Sherburne County, Minnesota mid-August 1862. They were en route to make a treaty with the Chippewa on the Red River that was postponed due to the Uprising. Nicolay had been sent as Lincoln's personal representative to the Chippewa.

U.S. Chippewa treaty Commission led by William P. Dole in camp at Big Lake, Sherburne County; John G. Nicolay on horse at left, 1862.

Early life

He was born Johann Georg Nicolai in Essingen, Kingdom of Bavaria. In 1838, he immigrated to the United States with his father and attended school in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Career

Nicolay moved to Illinois, where he edited the Pike County Free Press at Pittsfield, Illinois, and he became a political power in the state. Then he became assistant to the secretary of state of Illinois. While in this position, he met Abraham Lincoln and became his devoted adherent.

In 1861, Lincoln appointed Nicolay as his private secretary, which was the first official act of his new administration. Nicolay served in this capacity until Lincoln's death in 1865. Twice Lincoln sent Nicolay to record treaties with Native Americans. In 1862 he went to Minnesota for a Chippewa treaty that was delayed because of the Santee Sioux uprising. The next year he traveled to Colorado for the Ute Treaty. Shortly before his assassination, Lincoln appointed Nicolay to a diplomatic post in France. After the death of the president, Nicolay became United States Consul at Paris, France (1865–69). For some time after his return to the United States, he edited the Chicago Republican. He was marshal of the United States Supreme Court (1872–1887). In 1881, Nicolay wrote The Outbreak of Rebellion.

Nicolay and John Hay, who had worked with Nicolay as assistant secretary to Lincoln, collaborated on Abraham Lincoln: A History. It appeared in The Century Magazine serially from 1886 to 1890 and was issued (1890–94) in book form as 10 volumes, together with the two-volume Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln. The resulting biography is a definitive resource on Lincoln and his times. Nicolay and Hay also edited Lincoln's Works in 12 volumes (1905).

In 1912, Nicolay's daughter, Helen Nicolay (1866–1954), published Personal Traits of Abraham Lincoln. The book was based on envelopes of material that Nicolay had collected but been unable to use in the biography of Lincoln that he wrote with Hay. Helen Nicolay wrote in the preface to the book that the envelopes contained "miscellaneous notes, personal jottings, private letters, and newspaper clippings." In 1949, Helen Nicolay published a biography of her father.

Historian Joshua M. Zeitz writes, "Above all, Nicolay and Hay created a master narrative whose influence would ebb and flow over the years but that continues to command serious scrutiny and engagement.... Early in the writing process, Nicolay assured Robert Todd Lincoln":

We hold that your father was something more than a mere make-weight in the cabinet ... We want to show that he formed a cabinet of strong and great men—rarely equaled in any historical era—and that he held, guided, controlled, curbed and dismissed not only them but other high officers civilian and military, at will, with perfect knowledge of men.

Nicolay was a founding member of the Literary Society of Washington in 1874, according to a book about the society written by his daughter Helen Nicolay. Both Nicolay and Hay were members of long standing in the society.

Death

Grave of Nicolay in Oak Hill Cemetery

Poor health had forced Nicolay to resign as Marshal of the Supreme Court, and he suffered from a wide range of ailments in his final years. He lived with his daughter Helen Nicolay at her home at 212 B Street SE in Washington, D.C. He died at home of unspecified causes on September 26, 1901. He was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in the city.

In popular culture

In the TV series Carl Sandburg's Lincoln, aired on NBC in 1974–1976, he was portrayed by Michael Cristofer. In the 1992 documentary Lincoln, the German-born Nicolay is voiced by the Austrian-born actor Arnold Schwarzenegger. In the 1988 NBC mini-series Lincoln, based on Gore Vidal's book, Nicolay is portrayed by actor Richard Travis. In Steven Spielberg's 2012 film Lincoln, Nicolay is portrayed by Jeremy Strong. In the 2017 documentary film The Gettysburg Address, Nicolay is portrayed by actor William Fichtner.

Works

• Nicolay, John George; Hay, John (1914). Abraham Lincoln : a history, Vol I. New York : The Century Co.
• —— (1914). Abraham Lincoln : a history, Vol II. New York : The Century Co.
• —— (1914). Abraham Lincoln : a history, Vol III. New York : The Century Co.
• —— (1914). Abraham Lincoln : a history, Vol IV. New York : The Century Co.
• —— (1914). Abraham Lincoln : a history, Vol V. New York : The Century Co.
• —— (1914). Abraham Lincoln : a history, Vol VI. New York : The Century Co.
• —— (1914). Abraham Lincoln : a history, Vol VII. New York : The Century Co.
• —— (1914). Abraham Lincoln : a history, Vol VIII. New York : The Century Co.
• —— (1914). Abraham Lincoln : a history, Vol IX. New York : The Century Co.
• —— (1914). Abraham Lincoln : a history, Vol X. New York : The Century Co.
• Campaigns of the Civil War, Volume 1: The Outbreak of Rebellion (originally published in 1881)

Further reading

• Burlingame, Michael, ed. (2000). With Lincoln in the White House: Letters, Memoranda, and other Writings of John G. Nicolay, 1860-1865. Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 978-0809326839
• Burlingame, Michael, ed. (2007). Abraham Lincoln: The Observations of John G. Nicolay and John Hay. Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 978-0809338634
• Carden, Allen; Ebert, Thomas J. (2019). John George Nicolay: The Man in Lincoln's Shadow. University of Tennessee. ISBN 9781621904984.
• Keller, Marisa (Spring–Summer 1999). "Oak Hill Cemetery Marks 150th Anniversary". Washington History: 75–76.
• Nicolay, Helen (1949). Lincoln's Secretary: A Biography of John George Nicolay. Longman's Green. Review by J. G. Randall, who calls Helen Nicolay "a well-known Lincoln scholar in her own right".
• Zeitz, Joshua (2014). Lincoln's Boys: John Hay, John Nicolay, and the War for Lincoln's Image. Penguin. ISBN 9780143126034.
• Zeitz, Joshua (February 2014). "The History of How We Came to Revere Abraham Lincoln". Smithsonian. 44 (10).

External links

• Works by Helen Nicolay at Project Gutenberg
• Works by John George Nicolay at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about John George Nicolay at the Internet Archive
• Works by or about Helen Nicolay at the Internet Archive
• Works by John George Nicolay at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Mr. Lincoln's White House: John G. Nicolay
• Truman Praises "Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln" by John G. Nicolay and John Hay Archived 2014-06-10 at the Wayback Machine Shapell Manuscript Foundation
• Mr. Lincoln and Friends: John G. Nicolay Archived 2004-09-29 at the Wayback Machine