The Capitol Dome

35 THE CAPITOL DOME Drawing largely from that collection, Roy P. Basler, Marion Dolores Pratt, and Lloyd A. Dunlap produced eight vol- umes of e Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln between 1953 and 1955 and two supplemental volumes published in 1974 and 1990. ese volumes have been the standard resource for Lincoln scholarship ever since, but they suf- fer from numerous limitations and omissions, such as the exclusion of incoming correspondence which prevented important contextualization. Modern digital technology and advances in professional documentary editing now permit more faithful renditions of the texts and the vir- tual reunification of documents' pieces that have torn or had portions cut out. Furthermore, in the 60 years since publication of Collected Works, researchers have discovered many new Lincoln documents. During my tenure as assistant editor for the Papers of Abraham Lincoln, it was my assigned task to si through the papers produced by Congress for the years 1847–1849 in order to uncover all traces of Lincoln. In completing that task, I have gotten to know Representative Lincoln well. Over a year was required to locate and search through the sea of papers generated by the irtieth Congress: handwritten dra bills, printed amended bills, enrolled bills, engrossed bills, resolutions, joint resolutions, simple motions, yea and nay journals, petitions, letters, committee papers, and many others. Unlike Lincoln—who, aer four terms in the Illinois State House was already familiar with most of the rules that allowed a legislative body to function—editors had to learn and understand the procedures by which Congress operated in the late 1840s and reconstitute the nuances of how legislation was introduced, passed through committee, and then was voted on or killed in the chamber. e dif- ferences and subtleties between introduced bills, amend- ments, enrolled bills, engrossed bills, and third readings had to be deciphered in addition to comprehending joint resolutions, petitions, memorials, motions, and functioning of the "Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union." Furthermore, all legislation that passed the House during Lincoln's time in Congress and was signed into law by President James K. Polk had to be given special consideration. Lincoln's congressional debut began when he arrived late on ursday, 2 December 1847 in Washington, still an unfinished city of some 40,000 inhabitants with wide vistas and a few grand buildings, where livestock continued to amble freely in the streets. In a departure from most of his peers, Lincoln brought his family with him, first taking rooms at a cheerless hotel before moving into Mrs. Anna G. Sprigg's boarding house located across from the Capitol on the present-day site of the omas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress (fig. 2). 4 e other lodgers, such as Ohioan Joshua R. Giddings, were all fellow Whig representa- tives known for their strong anti-slavery sentiments, thus Fig. 2. Mrs. Anna G. Sprigg's boardinghouse was the second building om the le in this undated image of Carroll's Row, looking east om the Capitol across First St. SE to the present-day site of the Jefferson Building of Library of Congress.

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