Of the several Abraham Lincoln biographies vying for attention on his bicentennial, Looking for Lincoln: The Making of an American Icon has some advantages. In size, it engulfs the rest, appearing more like a textbook than a standard hard back. Its scrapbook-like format, too, sets it apart. The exhaustively thorough collection of text, photographs and letters were compiled by Philip B. Kunhardt III, Peter W. Kunhardt, and Peter W. Kunhardt Jr., scions of a family that has chronicled Lincoln for five generations. They begin their story with Lincoln’s final day, when he “could barely contain his excitement” at the peace he had achieved. They conclude with the death of Lincoln’s son in 1926, arranging the events between by order of discovery rather than chronology. The speech below appears in the midst of an accounting of Lincoln’s policy legacies. Frederick Douglass delivered it, his final words on the president, on February 13, 1893:

Having witnessed the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln in the morning, my colored friends urged me to attend the inauguration reception at the executive mansion in the evening. Here, indeed, I found solid ice to break, for no man of my race, color or previous condition, had ever attended such a reception, except as a servant or waiter….

To a gentleman who was passing at the moment I said “Tell Mr. Lincoln that Frederick Douglass is at the door and is refused admission.” I did not walk the plan, and, to the policeman’s astonishment, was especially invited into the spacious East Room, and we found ourselves in a bewildering sea of beauty and elegance…such as my poor eyes had never before seen in any one room at home or abroad. High above every other figure in the room, and overlooking the brilliant scene, stood the towering form of Mr. Lincoln, completely hemmed in by the concourse of visitors passing and taking his hand as they passed. The scene was so splendid, so glorious that I almost repented of my audacity in daring to enter.

But as soon as President Lincoln saw me I was relieved of all embarrassment. In a loud voice, so that all could hear, and looking toward me, he said, “And here comes my friend, Frederick Douglass!” (Good! Good!) I had some trouble in getting through the crowd of elegantly dressed people to Mr. Lincoln.

When I did succeed, and shook hands with him, he detained me and said, “Douglass I saw you in the crowd today, listening to my inaugural address. How did you like it?” I replied, “Mr. Lincoln, I must not stop to talk now. Thousands are here, wishing to shake your hand.” But he said, “You must stop. There is no man in the United States whose opinion I value more than yours. How did you like it?”…I said, “Mr. Lincoln, it was a sacred effort.”…And this was the last time that I heard the voice and saw the face and form of honest Abraham Lincoln.

*Photos courtesy Alfred A. Knopf.