Lamon's "Life of Lincoln"--Lincoln's Early Skepticism--His
Investigations at New Salem--His Book on Infidelity--His
Religious Opinions Remain Unchanged--Holland's Condemnation
of Lamon's Work--Holland's and Lamon's Works Compared.
In 1872, seven years after the President's assassination, appeared the
"Life of Abraham Lincoln," written by Col. Ward H. Lamon. As a faithful
record of the life of one of the most sublime characters in the world's
history, this work stands unrivaled. More accomplished writers have
written biography--have written the biography of Lincoln. But no writer
has ever been more thoroughly informed respecting his subject, and no
writer has ever made a more conscientious use of the information in his
possession than has Colonel Lamon in his "Life of Lincoln." In Illinois
he was the friend and confidant of Lincoln. When the time approached for
Lincoln to take the Executive chair, and the journey from Springfield
to Washington was deemed a dangerous undertaking, to Colonel Lamon
was intrusted the responsible duty of conducting him to the national
capital. During the eventful years that followed, he remained at the
President's side, holding an important official position in the
District of Columbia. When Lincoln died, at the great funeral pageant
in Washington, he led the civic procession, and was, with Major General
Hunter and Judge David Davis, selected to convey the remains to their
final resting-place at Springfield.
The following extract, from the preface to his work, shows what an
inexhaustible mine of materials he had with which to prepare a full and
authentic record of Lincoln's life and character:
"At the time of Mr. Lincoln's death, I determined to write his history,
as I had in my possession much valuable material for such a purpose....
Early in 1869, Mr. Herndon placed at my disposal his remarkable
collection of materials--the richest, rarest, and fullest collection
it was possible to conceive.... Mr. Herndon had been the partner
in business and the intimate personal associate of Mr. Lincoln for
something like a quarter of a century; and Mr. Lincoln had lived
familiarly with several members of his family long before their
individual acquaintance began. New Salem, Springfield, the old judicial
circuit, the habits and friends of Mr. Lincoln, were as well known
to Mr. Herndon as to himself. With these advantages, and from the
numberless facts and hints which had dropped from Mr. Lincoln during the
confidential intercourse of an ordinary lifetime, Mr. Herndon was able
to institute a thorough system of inquiry for every noteworthy
circumstance and every incident of value in Mr. Lincoln's career. The
fruits of Mr. Herndon's labors are garnered in three enormous volumes of
original manuscripts and a mass of unarranged letters and papers. They
comprise the recollections of Mr. Lincoln's nearest friends; of the
surviving members of his family and his family-connections; of the men
still living who knew him and his parents in Kentucky; of his
schoolfellows, neighbors, and acquaintances in Indiana; of the better
part of the whole population of New Salem; of his associates and
relatives at Springfield; and of lawyers, judges, politicians, and
statesmen everywhere, who had anything of interest or moment to relate.
They were collected at vast expense of time, labor, and money, involving
the employment of many agents, long journeys, tedious examinations, and
voluminous correspondence. Upon the value of these materials it would be
impossible to place an estimate. That I have used them conscientiously
and justly is the only merit to which I lay claim."
Lamon's evidence concerning Lincoln's unbelief is complete and
unanswerable. He did not present it because he was himself an unbeliever
and wished to support his views with the prestige of Lincoln's great
name. While the Freethinker regards Lincoln's rejection of Christianity
as in the highest degree meritorious--a proof of his strong logical
acumen, his sterling common sense, and his broad humanity--Lamon
considered it a grave defect in his character. He states the fact
because it is a fact, and because the purpose of his work is to disclose
and not conceal the facts of Lincoln's life. If he devotes considerable
space to the subject, and exhibits a special earnestness in its
presentation, the misrepresentations of Lincoln's Christian biographers
have furnished a reasonable pretext for it.
In the pages immediately following will be given the individual
testimony of Colonel Lamon:
"Any analysis of Mr. Lincoln's character would be defective that did not
include his religious opinions. On such matters he thought deeply, and
his opinions were positive. But perhaps no phase of his character has
been more persistently misrepresented and variously misunderstood, than
this of his religious belief. Not that the conclusive testimony of many
of his intimate associates relative to his frequent expressions on such
subjects has ever been wanting; but his great prominence in the world's
history, and his identification with some of the great questions of our
time, which, by their moral import, were held to be eminently religious
in their character, have led many good people to trace in his motives
and actions similar convictions to those held by themselves. His
extremely general expressions of religious faith called forth by the
grave exigencies of his public life, or indulged in on occasions of
private condolence, have too often been distorted out of relation to
their real significance or meaning to suit the opinions or tickle the
fancies of individuals or parties.
"Mr. Lincoln was never a member of any church, nor did he believe in the
divinity of Christ, or the inspiration of the Scriptures in the sense
understood by evangelical Christians" (Life of Lincoln, p. 486).
Holland and other Christian biographers have represented Lincoln as
a youth of extreme piety, whose constant companion was the Bible. The
concurrent testimony of the friends of his boyhood compels Colonel Lamon
to affirm that the reverse of this is true--that Lincoln, at an early
age, was noted for his skepticism. He says:
"When a boy, he showed no sign of that piety which his many biographers
ascribe to his manhood.... When he went to church at all, he went to
mock, and came away to mimic" (Ibid, pp. 486, 487).
"At an early age he began to attend the 'preachings' roundabout, but
principally at the Pigeon Creek church, with a view to catching whatever
might be ludicrous in the preacher's air or matter, and making it the
subject of mimicry as soon as he could collect an audience of idle boys
and men to hear him. A pious stranger, passing that way on a Sunday
morning, was invited to preach for the Pigeon Creek congregation; but
he banged the boards of the old pulpit, and bellowed and groaned so
wonderfully, that Abe could hardly contain his mirth. This memorable
sermon was a great favorite with him; and he frequently reproduced it
with nasal tones, rolling eyes, and all manner of droll aggravations, to
the great delight of Nat Grigsby and the wild fellows whom Nat was able
to assemble" (lb., p. 55).
"His chronicles were many, and on a great variety of subjects. They
were written, as his early admirers love to tell us, 'in the Scriptural
style;' but those we have betray a very limited acquaintance with the
model" (Ib., p. 63).
Of his Freethought reading and theological investigations at New Salem,
and his book on Infidelity, Lamon says:
"When he came to New Salem, he consorted with Freethinkers, joined with
them in deriding the gospel history of Jesus, read Volney and Paine,
and then wrote a deliberate and labored essay, wherein he reached
conclusions similar to theirs. The essay was burnt, but he never denied
or regretted its composition. On the contrary, he made it the subject
of free and frequent conversations with his friends at Springfield, and
stated, with much particularity and precision, the origin, arguments,
and objects of the work" (lb., p. 487).
"The community in which he lived was preeminently a community of
Freethinkers in matters of religion; and it was then no secret, nor has
it been a secret since, that Mr. Lincoln agreed with the majority of his
associates in denying to the Bible the authority of divine revelation.
It was his honest belief, a belief which it was no reproach to hold
at New Salem, Anno Domini 1834, and one which he never thought of
concealing. It was no distinction, either good or bad, no honor, and no
shame. But he had made himself thoroughly familiar with the writings of
Paine and Volney--the 'Ruins' by the one, and 'The Age of Reason' by
the other. His mind was full of the subject, and he felt an itching to
write. He did write, and the result was a little book. It was probably
merely an extended essay, but it is ambitiously spoken of as 'a book' by
himself and by the persons who were made acquainted with its contents.
In this work he intended to demonstrate--
"'First, that the Bible was not God's revelation;
"'Secondly, that Jesus was not the son of God.'
"No leaf of this little volume has survived. Mr. Lincoln carried it in
manuscript to the store of Mr. Samuel Hill, where it was read and
discussed. Hill was himself an unbeliever, but his son considered his
book 'infamous.' It is more than probable that Hill, being a warm
personal friend of Lincoln feared that the publication of the essay
would some day interfere with the political advancement of his favorite.
At all events, he snatched it out of his hand, and thrust it into the
fire, from which not a shred escaped" (lb., pp. 157, 158).
Colonel Lamon is confident that while Lincoln finally ceased to openly
promulgate his Freethought opinions, he never abandoned them. He says:
"As he grew older, he grew more cautious; and as his New Salem
associates, and the aggressive Deists with whom he originally united
at Springfield, gradually dispersed, or fell away from his side,
he appreciated more and more keenly the violence and extent of the
religious prejudices which freedom in discussion from his standpoint
would be sure to arouse against him. He saw the immense and augmenting
power of the churches, and in times past had practically felt it. The
imputation of Infidelity had seriously injured him in several of his
earlier political contests; and, sobered by age and experience, he was
resolved that that same imputation should injure him no more. Aspiring
to lead religious communities, he foresaw that he must not appear as an
enemy within their gates; aspiring to public honors under the auspices
of a political party which persistently summoned religious people to
assist in the extirpation of that which is denounced as the 'nation's
sin,' he foresaw that he could not ask their suffrages whilst aspersing
their faith. He perceived no reason for changing his convictions, but he
did perceive many good and cogent reasons for not making them public"
(lb., pp. 497, 498).
But he never told anyone that he accepted Jesus as the Christ, or
performed a single one of the acts which necessarily follow upon such a
conviction.
"At Springfield and at Washington he was beset on the one hand by
political priests, and on the other by honest and prayerful Christians.
He despised the former, respected the latter, and had use for both. He
said with characteristic irreverence that he would not undertake to 'run
the churches by military authority;' but he was, nevertheless, alive to
the importance of letting the churches 'run' themselves in the interest
of his party. Indefinite expressions about 'Divine Providence,' the
'Justice of God,' 'the favor of the Most High,' were easy, and not
inconsistent with his religious notions. In this, accordingly, he
indulged freely; but never in all that time did he let fall from his
lips or his pen an expression which remotely implied the slightest faith
in Jesus as the son of God and the Savior of men" (Ib., p. 502).
Lamon was Lincoln's intimate and trusted friend at Washington, and had
he changed his belief, his biographer, as well as Noah Brooks and the
Illinois clergyman, would have been in possession of the fact.
In 1851 Lincoln wrote a letter of consolation to his dying father, in
which he counseled him to "confide in our great and good and merciful
Maker." This letter was given to the public by Mr. Herndon, and has been
cited by the orthodox to prove that Lincoln was a believer. Adverting to
this letter Lamon says:
"If ever there was a moment when Mr. Lincoln might have been expected to
express his faith in the atonement, his trust in the merits of a living
Redeemer, it was when he undertook to send a composing and comforting
message to a dying man.... But he omitted it wholly. He did not even
mention the name of Jesus, or intimate the most distant suspicion of the
existence of a Christ" (Ibid., p. 497).
Lincoln's mind was not entirely free from superstition, but though born
and reared in Christendom, the superstitious element in his nature was
not essentially Christian. His fatalistic ideas, so characteristic of
the faith of Islam, have already been mentioned by Mr. Herndon, and are
thus referred to by Colonel Lamon:
"Mr. Lincoln was by no means free from a kind of belief in the
supernatural.... He lived constantly in the serious conviction that he
was himself the subject of a special decree, made by some unknown and
mysterious power, for which he had no name" (Ibid., p. 503).
"His mind was filled with gloomy forebodings and strong apprehensions
of impending evil, mingled with extravagant visions of personal grandeur
and power. His imagination painted a scene just beyond the veil of the
immediate future, gilded with glory yet tarnished with blood. It was
his 'destiny'--splendid but dreadful, fascinating but terrible. His case
bore little resemblance to those of religious enthusiasts like Bunyan,
Cowper, and others. His was more like the delusion of the fatalist
conscious of his star" (Ibid,, p. 475).
When Lamon's work appeared, Holland, backed by the Christian element
generally, fell upon it like a savage and sought, as far as possible,
to suppress it. Lamon had committed an unpardonable offense. He had
declared to the world that Lincoln had died a disbeliever, and, what was
worse, he had proved it. Holland's attack was made in an eight-column
review of Lamon's "Life," which was published in _Scribner's Monthly_,
for August, 1872. In order to give an air of candor and judicial
fairness to his venomous criticisms, he opens with this flattering
recognition of its merits: "It is not difficult to see how Colonel Lamon,
who during Mr. Lincoln's Presidency held an office in the District of
Columbia, which must have brought him into somewhat frequent intercourse
with the President, and who, indeed, had come with him from Springfield
to the Capital, should feel that there rested on him a certain
biographical duty. And certainly he was in possession of a mass of
material so voluminous, so original, and so fresh that in this respect
at least his fitness for the work was remarkably complete. Moreover, Mr.
W. H. Herndon, who was Mr. Lincoln's partner in the practice of the law
at Springfield, and was, of course, closely intimate with his partner
in a business way,... added to Colonel Lamon's material the valuable
documents which he had himself collected, and the memoranda which,
with painstaking and lawyer-like ability, he had recorded from the oral
testimony of living witnesses.
"As far as the story of Mr. Lincoln's childhood and early life is
concerned, down to the time when his political life began, it has never
been told so fully, with such spirit and zest, and with such evident
accuracy, as by Colonel Lamon."
Nearly the entire review is devoted to a denunciation of Lamon's
exposition of Lincoln's religious opinions. He repeatedly pronounces
this "an outrage on decency," and characterizes Lincoln's Free-thought
companions as "heathen," "barbarians," and "savages." The review
concludes as follows:
"The violent and reckless prejudice, and the utter want of delicacy and
even of decency by which the book is characterized, in such instances as
this, will more than counterbalance the value of its new material,
its fresh and vigorous pictures of Western life and manners, and
its familiar knowledge of the 'inside politics' of Mr. Lincoln's
administration, and will even make its publication (by the famous
publishers whose imprint imparts to it a prestige and authority which
its authorship would fail to give) something like a national misfortune.
In some quarters it will be readily received as the standard life of the
good President. It is all the more desirable that the criticism upon it
should be prompt and unsparing."
Christianity must have the support of Lincoln's great name. To secure it
Holland is willing to misrepresent the honest convictions of Lincoln's
lifetime, to traduce the characters of his dearest friends, and to rob a
brother author and a publisher of their just reward.
Lamon states that during the last years of Lincoln's life he ceased to
proclaim his Infidel opinions because they were unpopular. Referring
to this statement, Holland says: "The eagerness with which this volume
strives to cover Mr. Lincoln's memory with an imputation so detestable
is one of the most pitiable exhibitions which we have lately witnessed."
This outburst of righteous indignation, coming from the source it
does, is peculiarly refreshing. To appreciate it, we have only to open
Holland's work, and read such passages as the following: "I am obliged
to appear different to them." "It was one of the peculiarities of Mr.
Lincoln to hide these religious [Christian] experiences from the eyes of
the world." "Who had never in their whole lives heard from his lips one
word of all these religious convictions and experiences." "They [his
friends] did not regard him as a religious man." "All this department of
his life he had kept carefully hidden from them." "There was much of his
conduct that was simply a cover to these thoughts--an effort to conceal
them" (Holland's Life of Lincoln, pp. 239, 240).
Consummate hypocrisy in a Christian is all right with this moralist;
but for a Freethinker to withhold his views from an intolerant religious
world is a detestable crime.
As a biographer of Lincoln, Holland possessed many advantages over
Lamon. His work was written and published immediately after the awful
tragedy, when almost the entire reading public was deeply interested
in everything that pertained to Lincoln's life. So far as Lincoln's
religious views are concerned, he advocated the popular side of the
question; for while those outside of the church cared but little about
the matter, the church desired the influence of his great name, and was
ready to reward those who assisted her in obtaining it. Holland, too,
had an established reputation as an author--had nearly as large a class
of readers as any writer in this country. His name alone was sufficient
to guarantee a large circulation to any book he might produce. Lamon, on
the other hand, possessed but a single advantage over his rival, that of
having the truth on his side. And while "truth is mighty," and will in
the end prevail, yet how often is it "crushed to earth" and for the time
obscured. In view of all this, it is not strange that the public should
be so slow to reject the fictions of Holland and accept the facts of
Lamon.
That Lamon's "Life of Lincoln" is wholly undeserving of adverse
criticism, is not claimed. He has, perhaps, given undue prominence to
some matters connected with Lincoln's private affairs which might with
propriety have been consigned to oblivion. A larger manifestation of
charity, too, for the imperfections of those with whom Lincoln mingled,
especially in the humbler walks of life, would not have detracted from
its merit. And yet, those who desire to know Lincoln as he really
was, should read Lamon rather than Holland. In Lamon's work, Lincoln's
character is a rugged oak, towering above its fellows and clothed in
nature's livery; in Holland's work, it is a dead tree with the bark
taken off, the knots planed down, and varnished.
In the New York _World_ appeared the following just estimate of these
two biographies:
"Mr. Ward H. Lamon is the author of one 'Life of Lincoln,' and Dr. J.
G. Holland is the author of another. Mr. Lamon was the intimate personal
and political friend of Mr. Lincoln, trusting and trusted, from the time
of their joint practice in the Illinois Quarter Sessions to the moment
of Mr. Lincoln's death at Washington. Dr. Holland was nothing to Mr.
Lincoln--neither known nor knowing. Dr. Holland rushed his 'Life' from
the press before the disfigured corpse was fairly out of sight, while
the public mind lingered with horror over the details of the
tragedy, and, excited by morbid curiosity, was willing to pay for its
gratification. Mr. Lamon waited many years, until all adventitious
interest had subsided, and then with incredible labor and pains,
produced a volume founded upon materials which for their fulness,
variety, and seeming authenticity are unrivaled in the history of
biographies.
"Dr. Holland's single volume professed to cover the whole of Mr.
Lincoln's career. Mr. Lamon's single volume was modestly confined to a
part of it. Dr. Holland's was an easy, graceful, off-hand performance,
having but the one slight demerit of being in all essential particulars
untrue from beginning to end. Mr. Lamon's was a labored, cautious,
and carefully verified narrative which seems to have been accepted by
disinterested critics as entirely authentic.
"Dr. Holland would probably be very much shocked if anybody should
ask him to bear false witness in favor of his neighbor in a court of
justice, but he takes up his pen to make a record which he hopes and
intends shall endure forever, and in that record deliberately bears
false witness in favor of a public man whom he happened to admire, with
no kind of offense to his serene and 'cultured' conscience. If this were
all--if Dr. Holland merely asserted his own right to compose and publish
elaborate fictions on historical subjects--we might comfort ourselves
with the reflection that such literature is likely to be as evanescent
as it is dishonest, and let him pass in silence. But this is not all. He
maintains that it is everybody's duty to help him to deceive the public
and to write down his more conscientious competitor. He turns up the
nose of 'culture' and curls the lip of 'art' at Mr. Lamon's homely
narrative of facts, and gravely insists that all other noses and all
other lips shall be turned up and curled because his are. He implores
the public, which he insulted and gulled with his own book, to damn Mr.
Lamon's, and he puts his request on the very ground that Mr. Lamon has
stupidly gone and narrated undeniable truths, whereby he has demolished
an empty shrine that was profitable to many, and broken a painted idol
that might have served for a god.
"The names of Holland and Lamon are not of themselves and by themselves
illustrious; but starting from the title-pages of the two Lives of
Lincoln, and representing, as they do, the two schools of biography
writers, the one stands for a principle and the other for the want of
it."