in such ways as I needed to shape the dramatic significance of my
subject. I should add that the fictitious Burnet Hook is admitted
to the historical company of Lincoln's Cabinet for the purpose of
embodying certain forces that were antagonistic to the President. This
was a dramatic necessity, and I chose rather to invent a character for
the purpose than to invest any single known personage with sinister
qualities about which there might be dispute.

Secondly, my purpose is, again, that of the dramatist, not that of the
political philosopher. The issue of secession was a very intricate
one, upon which high and generous opinions may be in conflict, but
that I may happen to have or lack personal sympathy with Lincoln's
policy and judgment in this matter is nothing. My concern is with the
profoundly dramatic interest of his character, and with the inspiring
example of a man who handled war nobly and with imagination.

Finally, I am an Englishman, and not a citizen of the great country
that gave Lincoln birth. I have, therefore, written as an Englishman,
making no attempt to achieve a "local colour" of which I have no
experience, or to speak in an idiom to which I have not been bred. To
have done otherwise, as I am sure any American friends that this play
may have the good fortune to make will allow, would have been to treat
a great subject with levity._


J.D. _Far Oakridge, July-August, 1918_



INTRODUCTORY NOTE