_Abraham Lincoln._ By Noah Brooks. Centennial Edition. G. P. Putnam's
Sons, New York, 1888.
_Abraham Lincoln._ By Henry Bryan Binns. London: J. M. Dent & Co., 1907.
_Abraham Lincoln._ By Lord Charnworth (Godfrey Rathbone Benson). Henry
Holt and Company, 1907.
_Latest Light on Lincoln, and War Time Memories._ By Ervin Chapman,
D.D., LL.D. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1917.
_The Everyday Life of Abraham Lincoln._ By Frances Fisher Browne.
Chicago: Browne & Howell Co., 1913. New and thoroughly revised edition.
_The True Abraham Lincoln._ By William Eleroy Curtis. Philadelphia and
London: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1903.
_Abraham Lincoln: The Man of the People._ By Norman Hapgood. New York:
The Macmillan Co., 1899.
_Sketch of the Life of Abraham Lincoln._ Compiled in most part from the
History of Abraham Lincoln and the overthrow of slavery. By Isaac N.
Arnold. New York: John D. Bachelder, 1869.
_The Life of Abraham Lincoln._ By Isaac N. Arnold. Chicago: A. C.
McClurg & Co., 1901. Twelfth edition, 1916.
_Abraham Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life._ By William O.
Stoddard, one of President Lincoln's private secretaries during the War
of the Rebellion. Revised edition. New York: Fords, Howard & Hulbert,
1896.
_Abraham Lincoln._ By Charles Carleton Coffin. New York: Harper and
Brothers, 1893.
III. EARLY ILLINOIS HISTORY
_A. W. Snyder in Illinois 1817-1842._ Virginia, Illinois: E. Needham,
1906.
_Illinois in 1818._ By Solon Justus Buck. Illinois Centennial
Commission, Springfield, 1917.
_The Centennial History of Illinois._ Vol. II. _The Frontier State,
1818-1848._ By Theodore Calvin Pease. Published by the Illinois
Centennial Commission, 1918, Springfield, Illinois.
_The Lincoln Illinois Country._ By Daniel Kilham Dodge. _The
Independent._
_Pioneering: An Article on Lincoln and Herndon._ By C. H. Dall.
_Atlantic Monthly_, April, 1867.
_Lincoln and Salem: Pioneers of Mason and Menard Counties._ By T. G.
Onstott. Published by the author, Forest City, Illinois, 1902.
_Illinois._ An address delivered before the faculty and students of
the University of Illinois on Illinois Day, 1911, by Clark E. Carr.
Illinois University Press, December 6, 1911.
_The Illini: A Story of the Prairies._ By Clark E. Carr. Chicago: A. C.
McClurg & Co. Issued 1904; eighth edition, 1916.
_My Day and Generation._ By Clark E. Carr. Chicago: A. C. McClurg &
Co., 1908.
_Illinois: Travel and Description, 1765-1865._ By Solon Justus Buck.
Springfield, Ill. Published by trustees Illinois State Historical
Library, 1914.
IV. LINCOLN'S YOUTH
_Lincoln's Boyhood._ By Eleanor Atkinson. The Narrative of an Interview
with Dennis Hanks in 1889. _American Magazine_, February, 1908.
_In the Boyhood of Lincoln._ By Hezekiah Butterworth. New York: D.
Appleton & Co., 1892.
_The Boy Lincoln._ By W. O. Stoddard. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1905.
_The Pioneer Boy._ By William M. Thayer. Boston: Walker and Wise
Company, 1863.
_Abraham Lincoln, the Boy and the Man._ By James Morgan. New York: The
Macmillan Company, 1907.
_The Education of Lincoln._ By Hamilton W. Mabie. _The Outlook_,
February 20, 1904.
_Lincoln's Self-Education._ By Hamilton Wright Mabie. _The
Chautauquan_, April, 1900.
_Lincoln's Alma Mater._ By Eleanor Atkinson. _Harper's_, May, 1913.
V. LINCOLN'S LOVE AFFAIRS AND DOMESTIC RELATIONS
_Abraham Lincoln; Miss Ann Rutledge; New Salem; Pioneering; The Poem._
A lecture delivered in the old Sangamon court house, November, 1866,
by William H. Herndon, Springfield, Ill. H. E. Barker, 1916. Edition
limited to 150 copies.
_Lincoln's Love Story._ By Eleanor Atkinson. New York: Doubleday, Page
& Co., 1909.
_Abraham Lincoln in His Relations to Women._ By Julien Gordon. _The
Cosmopolitan_, December, 1894.
_Lincoln's Marriage._ Newspaper interview with Mrs. Frances Wallace,
September 2, 1895. Privately printed by H. E. Barker, Springfield,
1917. Edition limited to 75 copies. Denies that more than one date was
ever set for the Lincoln wedding.
_The Truth About Mrs. Lincoln._ By Howard Glyndon. _The Independent_,
August 10, 1882.
_Lincoln's Home Life in Washington._ By Leslie J. Perry. _Harper's_,
February, 1897.
VI. EPOCHS AND ASPECTS OF THE LIFE OF LINCOLN
_Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln._ By Henry B. Rankin. New
York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1916.
_Abraham Lincoln._ By H. C. Whitney. _The Arena_, April, 1898. Contains
some valuable reminiscences not in his book.
_Life on the Circuit with Lincoln._ By Major Henry C. Whitney. Boston:
Estes and Lauriat, 1892.
_Lincoln and Herndon._ By Joseph Fort Newton. Cedar Rapids, Iowa: The
Torch Press, 1910.
_Lincoln in Myth and in Fact._ By Dorothy Lamon Teillard. _World's
Work_, February, 1911.
_Six Months in the White House._ By Frank B. Carpenter. New York: Hurd
& Houghton, 1866. First edition.
_The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln: Six Months at the White House._ By
Frank B. Carpenter. New York: Hurd & Houghton, 1867.
_Lincoln and Seward._ By Gideon Welles. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1874.
_Diary of Gideon Welles._ _Atlantic Monthly_, 1909.
_Greeley on Lincoln and Mr. Greeley's Letters._ Edited by Joel Benton.
New York: The Baker & Taylor Co., 1893.
_Lincoln at Gettysburg._ By Clark E. Carr. Chicago: A. C. McClurg &
Co., 1906.
_Gettysburg and Lincoln._ By Henry Sweetser Burrage. New York: G. P.
Putnam's Sons, 1906.
_Lincoln's Gettysburg Address._ By Orton H. Carmichael. New York: The
Abingdon Press, 1917.
_Fiftieth Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg._ Report of the
Commission on the Gettysburg Reunion. Harrisburg, Pa., 1915.
_Recollections of Lincoln._ By James Grant Wilson, with facsimiles of
the Gettysburg and Second Inaugural Addresses. _Putnam's Magazine_,
February, 1909.
_The Gettysburg Address with Facsimile of the Manuscript._ By John G.
Nicolay. _Century Magazine_, 1894.
_Lincoln's Gettysburg Address._ By Prof. Philip M. Bikle and Rev. H. C.
Holloway. _Lutheran Church Work_, February 10, 1916.
_Variations in the Reports of the Gettysburg Address._ By W. H.
Lambert, _The Century Magazine_, February, 1894.
_Gettysburg._ By Elsie Singmaster. Boston: Houghton & Mifflin Co., 1913.
_Lincoln at Gettysburg._ Address delivered before the Illinois State
Historical Society at Springfield, Ill., January 25, 1906. By Clark E.
Carr.
_Lincoln's Masterpiece._ By Isaac Markens. Published by the author, 274
W. 140th Street, New York.
_The Perfect Tribute._ By Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews. New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907.
_Revised Report of the Select Committee on the Soldiers' National
Cemetery._ Together with the Accompanying Documents as Reported to
the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Harrisburg: Hornsby, Singerly & Myers, State Printers, 1865.
VII. THE DEATH OF LINCOLN
_The Death of Lincoln._ By Clara E. Laughlin. New York: Doubleday, Page
& Co., 1909.
_The Assassination of Lincoln._ By David Miller Dewitt. New York: The
Century Co., 1909.
_The Assassination of Lincoln: A History of the Great Conspiracy._ By
T. M. Harris, a member of the commission that tried the conspirators.
Boston: American Citizen Co., 1892.
_Assassination of Lincoln._ By Osborn H. Oldroyd. Washington D. C.,
1901.
_Through Five Administrations._ By William H. Crook. Lincoln's
Bodyguard. New York: Harper & Brother, 1910.
_Lincoln's Last Day._ By William H. Crook. _Harper's_, September, 1907.
VIII. ANTHOLOGIES
_The Lincoln Memorial: Album-Immortelles._ Collected and edited by
Osborn H. Oldroyd. New York: G. W. Carleton & Co., 1882.
_Poetical Tributes to the Memory of Abraham Lincoln._ Philadelphia: J.
B. Lippincott & Co., 1865.
_The Poets' Lincoln: Tributes in Verse to the Martyred President._
Selected by Osborn H. Oldroyd. Washington, D. C.: Published by the
editor at "The House Where Lincoln Died," 1915.
_The Praise of Lincoln: An Anthology._ Collected and arranged by A.
Dallas Williams. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1911.
_The Book of Lincoln._ Compiled by Mary Wright Davis. New York: George
H. Doran Company, 1919.
IX. LINCOLN'S LITERARY STYLE
_Abraham Lincoln As a Man of Letters._ By Luther Emerson Robinson, M.A.
Chicago: The Reilly & Britton Co., 1918.
_Lincoln's Literary Experiments._ By John G. Nicolay. With a lecture
and verses hitherto unpublished. _Century Magazine_, April, 1894.
_The Evolution of Lincoln's Literary Style._ By Prof. Daniel Kilham
Dodge. Champaign and Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1900.
X. THE RELIGION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
_Religious Views of Abraham Lincoln._ Compiled and published by Orrin
Henry Pennell. The R. M. Scranton Co., Alliance, Ohio, 1899.
_Brief Analysis of Lincoln's Character._ By W. H. Herndon. A letter to
J. E. Remsburg, September 10, 1887. Privately printed by H. E. Barker,
Springfield, Ill. Edition limited to 50 copies.
_A Card and a Correction._ A Broadside on Lincoln's religion. By W. H.
Herndon. Privately printed by H. E. Barker, Springfield, Ill. Edition
limited to 75 copies.
_Abraham Lincoln the Christian._ By William J. Johnson. New York and
Cincinnati: The Abingdon Press, 1913.
_The Later Life and Religious Sentiments of Abraham Lincoln._ By Rev.
James A. Reed. _Scribner's Monthly_, 1873, pp. 333-344.
_Lincoln's Religious Belief._ By B. F. Irwin. Article in the Illinois
_State Journal_ of May 16, 1874. Manuscript copy.
_More Testimony._ Letter from Hon. William Reid, U. S. Consul at
Dundee, Scotland. Article in Portland _Oregonian_, March 4, 1874.
Copied in Illinois _State Journal_. Manuscript copy.
_Abraham Lincoln's Religion._ By Madison C. Peters. Boston: Richard G.
Badger, The Gorham Press, 1909.
_Lincoln and the Church._ Article by John G. Nicolay and John Hay in
_Century_, August, 1889.
_The Record of a Quaker Conscience._ By Cyrus Pringle. New York:
Macmillan Company, 1918 (_Lincoln and the Quakers_).
_The Conversion of Lincoln._ By Rev. Edward L. Watson, New York,
_Christian Advocate_, November 11, 1909.
_The Religious Beliefs of Abraham Lincoln._ By R. C. Roper. Article in
_The Open Court_.
_Lincoln's Religious Faith and Principles._ By Thomas D. Logan, D.D.
_The Interior_, February 11, 1909.
_Abraham Lincoln._ Address delivered in Springfield, February 12, 1909,
and reported in, the Springfield _Evening Record_ of that date by Rev.
Thomas D. Logan, D.D.
_Lincoln Defamers Refuted._ By Henry B. Rankin. Broadside issued for
the Lincoln Day celebration at Old Salem, February 12, 1919, with
author's corrections and accompanying autograph letters.
_Abraham Lincoln's Cardinal Traits: A Study in Ethics, with an Epilogue
Addressed to Theologians._ By C. S. Beardslee. Boston: Richard G.
Badger, The Gorham Press, 1914.
_Abraham Lincoln: His Religion._ By Robert N. Reeves. Chicago: N. D.
_The Religion of Abraham Lincoln._ By George A. Thayer. Cincinnati:
1909.
_Abraham Lincoln the Preacher's Teacher._ By William J. Hutchins.
Lecture in volume on "The Preacher's Ideals and Inspirations." New
York: Fleming H. Revell, 1917.
_Essay on Lincoln: Was He An Inspired Prophet?_ By Milton R. Scott.
Published by the author, Newark, Ohio, 1906.
_Abraham Lincoln._ By Charles Henry Fowler, late bishop of the
Methodist Episcopal Church. Leading oration in volume of "Patriotic
Orations." New York: Eaton & Mains, 1910.
_Lincoln's Use of the Bible._ By S. Trevena Jackson. New York: The
Abingdon Press, 1909.
_The Agnosticism of Abraham Lincoln._ By Lyman Abbott. _The Outlook_,
November 17, 1906.
_Lincoln's Faith._ By John Hay. Address given from President Lincoln's
pew in the New York Avenue Church, November 16, 1902. In John Hay's
addresses.
_The Religious Opinions and Life of Abraham Lincoln._ By the Rev.
William H. Bates, D.D., Washington, D. C., 1914.
_Abraham Lincoln: A Lecture._ By Robert G. Ingersoll. New York: C. P.
Farrell, 1895.
_The Religion of Abraham Lincoln._ Correspondence between General
Charles H. T. Collis and Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll. With Appendix,
containing interesting anecdotes by Major-General Daniel E. Sickles and
Hon. Oliver S. Munsell. New York: G. H. Dillingham Company, 1890.
_Fifty Years in the Church of Rome._ By Father Chiniquy. 42nd edition.
Chicago: The Craig Press, 1892. Contains interesting account of
Lincoln's service as Father Chiniquy's attorney and of interviews at
the White House.
_Abraham Lincoln: Was He a Christian?_ By James E. Remsburg. Extended
chapter in "Six Historical Americans." New York: The Truth Seeker Co.
Extended argument to prove that Lincoln was and continued to be an
infidel.
_Was Abraham Lincoln a Spiritualist?_ By Mrs. Nettie Colburn Maynard.
Philadelphia: Rufus C. Hartranft, 1891. Contains extraordinary claims
of revelations made to Lincoln while in the White House by a trance
medium.
_Sir Oliver Lodge Is Right: Spirit Communication a Fact._ By Grace
Garrett Durand. Privately printed, Lake Forest, Ill., 1917. Contains
alleged revelations from Abraham Lincoln.
_Abraham Lincoln a Practical Mystic._ By Frances Grierson. New York:
The John Lane Co., 1918.
_The Abraham Lincoln Myth._ By Bocardo Bramantip (Oliver Prince Buel).
New York: The Mascot Publishing Co., 1894. A reprint from _The Catholic
World_ of November and December, 1893, intended as a satire upon the
Higher Criticism. Apparently suggested by the famous essay "Historical
Doubts Concerning the Existence of Napoleon Bonaparte."
_The Mythifying Theory; or, Abraham Lincoln a Myth._ By D. B. Turney.
Metropolis, Ill. B. O. Jones, Book and Job Printer, 1872. Photostat
from copy in Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.
XI. LINCOLN AND TEMPERANCE.
_Lincoln's First Address Delivered in Springfield_, February 22, 1842.
The Union Signal.
_A Discourse on the Bottle: Its Evils and Its Remedy._ By Rev. James
Smith. Sermon delivered in the First Presbyterian Church, Springfield,
January 23, 1853. Reprinted 1892. A surprisingly straightforward plea
for legislative prohibition, printed at the request of a committee who
heard it, among them being Abraham Lincoln.
_Lincoln a Temperance Man._ By Howard H. Russell. _The Interior_,
February 11, 1909.
_The Lincoln Legion._ By Howard H. Russell, Westerville, Ohio, 1913.
_Lincoln and Temperance._ By Rev. Thomas D. Logan. _The Advance_,
February 11, 1909.
XII. LINCOLN AND SLAVERY
_History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America._ By Henry
Wilson, 3 vols. Third edition. Boston: James R. Osgood & Co., 1875.
_Lincoln and Slavery._ By Albert E. Pillsbury. Boston and New York:
Houghton Mifflin Co., 1913.
_Abraham Lincoln: The Evolution of His Emancipation Policy._ By Paul
Selby. Chicago Historical Society, 1909.
_Anti-Slavery History: State and Nation._ By Austin Willey. Portland,
Maine: Hoyt, Fogg & Donham, 1886.
_The Dred Scott Decision._ New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1857.
_The Martyrdom of Elijah P. Lovejoy._ By H. Tanner. Chicago: Fergus
Printing Co., 1881.
_Dedication of Lovejoy Monument, November 8, 1897._ Alton, Ill.:
Charles Holden, 1897.
_The Underground Railroad._ By William M. Cockrum. Oakland City, Ind.:
J. W. Cockrum Printing Co., 1915.
_Lincoln, Grant, and the Freedmen._ By John Eaton. New York: Longmans,
Green & Co., 1907.
_The Negro a Beast._ By Charles Carroll. American Book and Bible House,
St. Louis, 1900.
_The Journal of Negro History._ Washington, D. C., 4 volumes to date.
_The History of Abraham Lincoln and the Overthrow of Slavery._ By Isaac
N. Arnold. Chicago: Clarke & Co., 1866.
XIII. ATTACKS ON THE CHARACTER OF LINCOLN
_The Real Lincoln._ From the testimony of his contemporaries. By
Charles L. C. Minor, M.A., LL.D. Second edition, revised and enlarged.
Richmond, Va.: Everett Waddey Co., 1904. A vicious assault on the
integrity of Lincoln.
_Facts and Falsehoods Concerning the War on the South, 1861-1865._ By
George Edmonds [Mrs. Elizabeth (Avery) Merriwether]. Memphis, Tenn. For
sale by A. R. Taylor & Co., 1904. Displays the most diligent effort in
the compilation of items derogatory to Lincoln and the North, but is
manifestly dependent upon second authorities and in some cases shows
marked ignorance of the original sources cited. Quotes freely from an
imaginary edition of Herndon, alleged to have been published in 1866
and suppressed.
_Abraham Lincoln: An Address Delivered Before R. E. Lee Camp, No. 1,
Confederate Veterans at Richmond, Virginia, October 29, 1909._ By Hon.
Geo. L. Christian. Second edition. Richmond: L. H. Jenkins, Publisher.
Based upon the historical data in Minor's _Real Lincoln_ and Edmonds'
_Facts and Falsehoods_.
_Crimes of the Civil War and Curse of the Funding System._ By Henry
Clay Dean. Baltimore: J. Wesley Smith & Brother, 1869. Excessively
scarce and most pronounced of its kind of literature. Denounces Lincoln
as a tyrant, murderer, and inhuman monster and lauds the act of
assassination by John Wilkes Booth.
_Confederate Echoes._ By A. T. Goodloe. Publishing House M. E. Church,
South, Nashville, Tenn., 1907.
_Lincoln the Rebel Candidate._ Democratic Campaign Pamphlet of 1864.
Photostat from original in New York Public Library.
XIV. LECTURES, ADDRESSES, AND REMINISCENCES
_Abraham Lincoln._ An address by Hon. Newton Bateman, LL.D. Galesburg,
Ill.: The Cadmus Club, 1909.
_Abraham Lincoln: An Oration._ Delivered on Washington's Birthday,
1891, by William Goodell Frost. Oberlin News, 1891.
_Abraham Lincoln: An Oration._ By John E. Burton. Lake Geneva,
Wisconsin, 1903.
_Abraham Lincoln: An Address._ By Frederick A. Noble. Chicago, February
12, 1901.
_Abraham Lincoln: An Essay._ By Joseph Fort Newton. The Torch Press,
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 1910.
_The Mystery of Lincoln._ By Robert E. Knowles. _The Independent._
_The Making of Lincoln._ Editorial in _The Outlook_, February 13, 1909.
_Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln._ By Distinguished Men of His Time.
Collected and edited by Allen Thorndike Rice. New York: _The North
American Review_, 1888. Separate articles by thirty-three distinguished
contemporaries of Lincoln.
_Abraham Lincoln: Tributes from His Associates._ Edited by William
Hayes Ward. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1895. Forty-five chapters
by soldiers, statesmen, and citizens who had known Lincoln.
_Sermons Preached in Boston on the Death of Abraham Lincoln, Together
with the Funeral Service in the East Room of the Executive Mansion in
Washington._ Boston: J. E. Tilton & Co., 1865.
_Our Martyred President: Lincoln Memorial Addresses._ The Abingdon
Press, 1915. A reprint of the original edition containing sermons by
New York ministers, together with the orations of George Bancroft,
Bishop Simpson, and Richard S. Storrs.
_Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of Abraham Lincoln in
the House of Representatives, February 12, 1866._ By George Bancroft.
Washington: Government Printing Office, 1866.
_Abraham Lincoln, by Some Men Who Knew Him._ Edited by Isaac N.
Phillips, Bloomington, Ill., Pantagraph Co., 1910.
_Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln; and a Visit to California._ By
Joshua Fry Speed, Louisville, 1884.
_Eulogy of Abraham Lincoln._ By Henry Champion Deming. Before the
General Assembly of Connecticut, Hartford, June 8, 1865. Hartford: A.
N. Clark & Co., State printers, 1865.
_Abraham Lincoln._ An address before the Lincoln League Club of
Chicago, in the Auditorium, February 12, 1895. By Henry Watterson.
_Lincoln._ By Isaac Newton Phillips. Reporter of Decisions of the
Supreme Court of Illinois. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1910.
_The Message of the President to Congress._ First message of Andrew
Johnson following the assassination of Lincoln, Washington, 1865.
_The Promises of the Declaration of Independence. Eulogy on Abraham
Lincoln._ By Charles Sumner. Boston: J. E. Farwell & Co., 1865.
_Abraham Lincoln._ By Joseph H. Choate. New York: T. Y. Crowell & Co.,
1901.
_Abraham Lincoln Today._ By William Charles Langdon, Edmund J. James,
and Captain Fernand Baldensperger. University of Illinois Press, 1918.
_Abraham Lincoln and Boston Corbett._ With personal recollections of
each. _John Wilkes Booth and Jefferson Davis._ A true story of their
capture. By Berkeley Byron Johnson. Waltham, Mass.: Privately printed,
1914.
_Abraham Lincoln._ By Phillips Brooks. A sermon preached in
Philadelphia, April 23, 1865.
_Abraham Lincoln._ By S. Parkes Cadman. Address before the New York
Republican Club.
_Some Impressions of Lincoln._ By E. S. Nadal. _Scribner's_, 1906.
_Life and Principles of Abraham Lincoln._ By Hon. Schuyler Colfax.
Philadelphia, 1865.
_The Voice of the Rod._ Funeral sermon by the Rev. P. D. Gurley, D.D.
Washington, 1865.
_Abraham Lincoln and the London Punch._ By William S. Walsh. New York:
Moffat, Yard & Co., 1909.
_Lincoln and Men of Wartime._ By A. K. McClure. Philadelphia: The Times
Publishing Co., 1892.
_Recollections of President Lincoln and His Administration._ By L. E.
Chittenden. New York: Harper & Brother, 1891.
_Personal Reminiscences Including Lincoln and Others._ By L. E.
Chittenden. New York: Richmond, Croscup & Co., 1893.
_Personal Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln._ By Thomas Lowry. Privately
printed, Minneapolis, 1910.
_The Footsteps of Lincoln._ By J. T. Hobson. Dayton, Ohio: The
Otterbein Press, 1909.
_The Master and His Servant._ A comparison of the incidents of
Lincoln's life with that of Jesus. By J. T. Hobson. United Brethren
Publishing House, Dayton, Ohio, 1913.
_The Picture and the Men._ Compiled by Fred B. Perkins. A. J. Johnson,
New York, 1867.
_Inside the White House in War Times._ By William O. Stoddard. New
York: Charles L. Webster & Co., 1890.
_Behind the Scenes._ By Elizabeth Keckley. New York: G. W. Carleton &
Co., 1868.
_Behind the Seams._ By a Nigger Woman Who Took in Work for Mrs. Lincoln
and Mrs. Davis. New York: The National News Company, 1868. A satire on
Mrs. Keckley's _Behind the Scenes_. Photostat of copy in Library of
Congress.
XV. BOOKS WHICH INFLUENCED LINCOLN
_The Holy Bible._
_The Elementary Spelling Book._ By Noah Webster. New York: D. Appleton
& Co.
_The Life of George Washington with Curious Anecdotes._ By W. R. Weems.
Philadelphia: Joseph Allen, 1844.
_Pilgrim's Progress._ By John Bunyan. London: Ward, Lock & Co. Reprint
with curious old cuts.
_Æsop's Fables._ Old edition with curious cuts. Title page missing.
_The English Reader._ By Lindley Murray. New York: Collins & Co., 1832.
_The Christian's Defence._ Containing a fair statement and impartial
examination of the leading objections, urged by infidels against the
antiquity, genuineness, credibility, and inspiration of the Holy
Scriptures; enriched with copious extracts from learned authors. Two
volumes in one. Volume I, The Old Testament, pp. 312; Volume II, The
New Testament, pp. 364. Cincinnati: J. A. James, 1843.
_Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation._ London: George Rutledge
& Sons, 1890. American agents, E. P. Dutton & Co., New York. Reprint of
the first edition, issued in 1844.
Second American edition of the same, with an introduction by Rev.
George B. Cheever, D.D. New York: Wiley & Putnam, 1845.
Third edition of the same, with an Appendix, containing an extended
review from the _North British Review_ of July, 1845. New York: Wiley &
Putnam, 1845.
_Explanations._ A sequel to _Vestiges of the Natural History of
Creation_. By the author of that work. New York: Wiley & Putnam, 1846.
From and after the sixth edition the explanations were added as a
supplement to regular editions of _Vestiges_. The author's name, Robert
Chambers, was not given in any edition of the _Vestiges_ until the
twelfth, which appeared after his death.
INDEX
Abbatt, William, 235.
Abbott, F. E., letter of Herndon to, 142, 337, 344.
Abbott, Lyman, on Lincoln's religion, 228-231.
Abolitionist, Lincoln not at beginning, 257;
how he became one, 268.
_Advance_, editorial in, 181.
Agnostic, Lincoln said to have been an, 226, 229.
Akers, Rev. Peter, anti-slavery preacher, 241.
Anthon, Prof. Charles, 184.
Antietam, Battle of, 269.
Arnold, Hon. I. N., 122, 315, 331, 334.
Astronomy, Lincoln's knowledge of, 33.
Atheist, Lincoln was not, 225.
Atkinson, Eleanor, interview with Dennis Hanks, 38.
_Atlantic Monthly_, 281-282.
Atonement as ground for universal salvation, 153.
Bale, Abraham, Baptist preacher, 55.
Baptists, in frontier communities, 34-45;
Lincoln family essentially Baptist, 50.
Barrett, J. H., author of _Life of Lincoln_, 25.
Bartlett, D. W., author of _Life of Lincoln_, 25.
Bartlett, Truman H., correspondence with Herndon, 264-267.
Bateman, Newton, superintendent of Public Instruction in Illinois;
his interview with Lincoln, 20;
outline of life and service, 114-115;
Holland's story of the interview, 114 _seq.;_
controversy with Herndon, 121 _seq._;
virtually repudiates Holland interview, 123;
corrects Lincoln's grammar, 124;
his lecture on Lincoln, 125;
what Lincoln probably said to him, 126;
extract from lecture on Lincoln, 303, 328-329.
Baxter, Richard, Lincoln's quotation, 289.
Bayley, T. H., 263.
Beecher, Edward, 67.
Beecher, Henry Ward, 198-201, 288.
Beecher, Mrs. Henry Ward, author of an honest but incredible story,
201.
Bible, Lincoln's use of, 93;
his lecture on, 159, 354;
gift of colored people, 217, 276;
knowledge of, 261-262.
Bibliography, 368-390.
Binns, Henry B., English biographer, 237.
Biology, Lincoln's knowledge of, 170.
Bishop, William, address on Lincoln, 160 _seq._
Black, Chauncey F., alleged author of Lamon's "Life of Lincoln," 26,
129.
Black, J. C., 315.
Books, read by Lincoln in youth, 47;
read few in later years, 166.
Boyd, Lucinda, quoted, 39.
Brodie, Sir Benjamin, 170.
Brooks, Noah, 327.
Browning, O. H., 249.
Browning, Mrs. O. H., 53.
Bryan Hall meeting, 268.
Buck, Solon J., on early Illinois, 57.
Buckle, Henry T., author of "History of Civilization," 29.
Burns, Robert, Lincoln's familiarity with, 150, 166, 263.
"Burnt Book," Lincoln's, 146, 148, 152 _seq._, 320, 341, 346-347.
Burton, John E., 184, 208.
Bushnell, Horace, author of "Christian Nurture," 50, 288.
Butterworth, Hezekiah, 49.
Byron, Lincoln's use of, 263.
Calhoun, John, loaned Lincoln books on surveying, 54.
Calvinism, a permanent influence in life of Lincoln, 171, 197, 271.
Carman, Dr. L. D., 242.
Carpenter, Frank B., painter of Emancipation picture, 206, 276, 281,
285, 328, 334.
Carr, Clark E., on Lincoln, 104-105.
Cartwright, Peter, pioneer preacher, 55;
candidate against Lincoln, 61;
career, 63, 345.
Case, Lizzie York, "There is no Unbelief," 290.
Catholic, Lincoln not a, 231.
Chambers, Robert, author of "Vestiges of Creation," 166-171.
Channing, William E., Lincoln reads, 175-178, 288.
Chapman, Ervin, "Latest Light on Lincoln," 48;
on the Beecher incident, 199, 275, 286.
Chase, Salmon P., account of Emancipation Proclamation, 283-284.
Chiniquy, Rev. Charles, 188-197.
Chittenden, L. E., 188-197.
"Christian's Defence," _see_ Smith, James.
_Christian Advocate_, 241.
_Christian Leader_, 183.
_Christian Register_, 183.
Church, Lincoln's esteem for, 240;
why he did not join, 244 _seq._
Churches, Lincoln and the, 377.
Cogdal, Isaac, on Lincoln's religion, 139, 287, 348-349.
Colfax, Schuyler, 95.
Collum, Shelby M., 67.
Congregational ministers, petition and delegation to influence
Emancipation Proclamation, 268-269.
Cooper Union Address, 73, 262.
Crawford, Andrew, teacher of Lincoln, 31, 33, 46.
Creed, Lincoln did not formulate, 291;
quotations used as basis of, 292-299;
compiled from his own utterances, 300.
Davis, David, on Lincoln's religion, 133, 248-249.
Deming, Henry C., address on Lincoln, 93-94, 244, 330.
Dempster, Rev. John, 268.
Dickens, Charles, Lincoln's use of, 263.
Disciples, so-called Campbellite church, 38.
Dodge, Daniel Kilham, 261-262, 270.
Dorsey, Abel W., teacher of Lincoln, 31.
Douglas, Fred, 247.
Douglas, Stephen A., 61, 73, 76, 104, 161, 263, 359.
Douthit, Rev. Jasper, 238.
Downey, David G., 199.
Dreams, Lincoln believed in, 233-236.
Dresser, Rev. Charles, 106.
_Edinburgh Review_, 167.
Edwards, Matilda, 52.
Edwards, Ninian W., 76;
testifies as to Lincoln's changed views, 164, 324, 359.
Elkin, David, preaches at Nancy Lincoln's funeral, 34, 39, 41.
Ellsworth, Col. Elmer, 128;
Lincoln's letter to his parents, 292.
Emancipation Proclamation, evolution of, 268-270, 281-286.
English, Dr. J. B., 184.
Farewell Address at Springfield, 84, 303-306.
Fell, Jesse W., Lincoln writes biographical sketch for, 236;
presents Lincoln books of Channing and Parker, 175, 321.
Ford, Governor Thomas, on frontier preachers, 58-59;
on "Long Nine," 82.
Fowler, Bishop Charles H., 103; 111 _seq._, 242, 253.
Freemason, Lincoln not a, 242.
Free-will Baptist, Thomas Lincoln not a, 37-38.
Funerals, often deferred, 40-45.
Geology, Lincoln's knowledge of, 170.
Gesture, Lincoln's use of, 263.
Gordon, Nathaniel, 293.
Grady, Josiah, questions Lincoln's religion, 138.
Graham, Mentor, teacher of Lincoln, 32, 51, 67, 68, 136;
on Lincoln's "Burnt Book," 152 _seq._, 346-347.
Grant, Ulysses S., 253-254.
Green, Bowling, 54, 185.
Greene, Gilbert J., 78-79.
Gurley, Rev. Phineas D., Lincoln's pastor in Washington, 87, 90, 244,
245, 325-326.
Gurney, Eliza P., 88-90; 294.
Hanks, Dennis, on Lincoln's youth, 38, 49.
Hanks, John, on Lincoln's impression of slavery, 96.
Hannah, William H., on Lincoln's faith, 287.
Harnett, Jonathan, 138, 349.
"Harp, French," 246.
Hay, John, author of "Life of Lincoln," 27.
Hazel, Caleb, teacher of Lincoln, 30.
Head, Rev. Jesse, 240.
Herndon, W. D., discussed religion with Lincoln, 132, 148.
Herndon, William H., author of "Life of Lincoln," 20, 24, 26, 27, 35;
says Lincoln was a fatalist, 50;
an infidel, 61-62;
his visit to site of New Salem, 62;
his lectures on Lincoln 62, 142-143;
his partnership with Lincoln, 71;
on Lincoln's letter to his father, 77;
letter from Nicolay, 91;
controversy with Bateman, 121 _seq._;
notes of his five interviews, 125;
writes a life of Lincoln, 140-145;
no friend of Mrs. Lincoln, 140;
the Abbott letter, 142;
his letter to Dr. Smith, 141;
reply to Reed lecture, 141;
regretted sale of papers to Lamon, 143;
revised edition of his work, 144;
personal habits and religion, 144-145;
never saw Lincoln's "Burnt Book," 148;
correspondence with Bartlett, 264-267;
attempts "to put at rest forever" the charge that Lincoln was an
atheist, 279;
affirms Lincoln's faith in immortality, 286;
reads reply to, 314 _seq._;
letters concerning Lincoln's religion, 336-340.
Herrick, Robert, 263.
Hill, Samuel, burns Lincoln manuscript, 146-155.
Hodgenville, Kentucky, a Baptist settlement, 34.
Hodges, A. G., Lincoln's letter to, 296.
Holland, Josiah G., author of "Life of Lincoln," 26;
asymmetry of Lincoln's life, 102 _seq._;
story of the Bateman incident, 115-117;
prints the Reed lecture in _Scribner's_ magazine, 135, 328-329,
337.
Holmes, O. W., 167.
Holt, Dr. E. E., on Lincoln's dream, 235.
Howells, William D., "Life of Lincoln," 25.
Illinois College, 67.
Illinois, twin born with Lincoln, 30.
Insanity, Lincoln's approach to, 252.
Irwin, B. F., on Lincoln's religion, 136, 287, 341.
Jacquess, Col. James F., story of Lincoln's conversion, 241, 309
_seq._
Jacquess, William B., 309.
Johnny Kongapod, 49, 271.
Johns, Mrs. Jane Martin, reminiscences of Lincoln, 248 _seq._
Johnson, John D., Lincoln's stepbrother, 77.
Johnson, William J., author of "Lincoln the Christian," 48;
on the Beecher incident, 199, 235.
Kansas, Lincoln visits, 73.
Keckley, Elizabeth, 203-204.
Keys, I. W., loaned Lincoln "Vestiges of Creation," 277.
Kirkham's Grammar, studied by Lincoln, 51, 67, 185.
Knox College, 125.
Krone, David, 249.
Lamon, Ward Hill, author of "Life of Lincoln," 26, 47, 52;
affirms Lincoln permitted himself to be misrepresented, 76;
quotes Herndon on Lincoln's letter to his father, 78;
answer to Holland, 117-120;
his relations with Lincoln, 128;
his life of Lincoln an unfinished fragment, 128;
the controversy growing out of his book, 128-134;
Black, the author, 129;
his recollections, 134;
on Lincoln's "Burnt Book," 146;
affirms Lincoln's faith essentially that of Parker, 279;
reads reply to, 314 _seq._
Lewis, Thomas, 158-163, 256, 325, 359.
Lincoln, Abraham, sixteenth president of the United States;
periods of his life, 29;
birth of, boyhood, 30 _seq._;
schools and teachers, 30-33;
early religious privileges, 33 _seq._;
early influence Baptist, 34 _seq._;
migration to Illinois, 51;
on flat-boat, 51;
at New Salem, 51 _seq._;
studies grammar, 51;
works on flat-boat, 51;
service in Blackhawk War, 52;
candidate for legislature, 52;
keeper of post office, 52;
love affairs, 52-53;
influenced by life in New Salem, 54;
did not drink or swear, 55;
Herndon's statement of his religion, 61;
known as "Honest Abe," 70;
removal to Springfield, 71;
his partnerships, 71;
beginnings of his interest in slavery, 72;
early orations, 72;
important cases, 73;
marriage, 73;
election as president, 73;
his children, 75;
death of Eddie, 75;
letter to dying father, 77;
comforts a dying woman, 78;
his stories, 80;
religious life in Springfield, 81;
development of political ideals, 82;
in Armstrong trial, 83;
ethical aspects of the slavery issue, 83, 268;
farewell at Springfield, 84;
inauguration as President, 86;
outline of his administration, assassination, and death, 87;
death of Willie, 95;
why he freed the slaves, 96;
domestic affairs, 106;
read "Artemus Ward," 111;
the charges in Lamon's biography, 130-134;
his "Burnt Book," 146-155;
reads "The Christian's Defence," 156 _seq._;
pronounces it unanswerable, 164;
reads "Vestiges of Creation," 166-171;
reads Channing and Parker, 172 _seq._;
erased words in Greek exercise book, 183;
the Chittenden interview, 188 _seq._;
the Chiniquy interview, 188 _seq._;
alleged visit to Beecher, 198 _seq._;
the Sickles interview, 201 _seq._;
life in the White House, 203 _seq._;
sorrow at death of Willie, 204;
alleged statement, "I do love Jesus," 208;
religious character of his proclamations, 210-221;
not an atheist, 225;
not a Roman Catholic, 231;
not a spiritualist, 232;
not addressed as "Abe," 233;
believed in dreams and signs, 233;
not a Quaker, 236;
questioned supernatural birth of Jesus, but not a Unitarian, 238;
denied eternal punishment, but not a Universalist, 238;
not a Methodist, 240;
not a Freemason, 242;
attended a revival, 244;
why he did not join the church, 244 _seq._;
the creed he could have accepted, 245;
lacked some of the finer feelings, 246;
his dress, 247;
possessed an innate courtesy, 247-249;
helps move a piano, 250;
morbidly cautious, 252;
breadth of his religious nature, 253;
not symmetrical in his development, 254;
essentially Calvinistic, 254, 271;
his capacity for obstinacy, 255;
his ability to evade an issue, 257;
his periods of mental uncertainty, 258;
his literary style, 261;
use of quotations, 262;
seldom told stories in speeches, 263;
thought and moved slowly, 264;
his characteristic pioneer trails, 265;
an embodiment of contrasts, 266;
neutral and spiritual evolution, 267;
interview with Chicago ministers, 268-269;
his changed style of oratory, 270;
his religious development, 270-275;
his belief in universal salvation, 272;
in immorality, 273, 286;
his references to God, 273-274;
his belief in the Bible, 274-275;
in Jesus Christ, 275-277;
his question of the supernatural birth, 277-278;
in divine destiny and prayer, 280-281;
his promise to God, 281-286;
in future but not endless punishment, 287;
not a theologian, 289;
his quotation from Baxter, 289;
materials for his creed, 291-299;
his creed in his own words, 300.
Lincoln, Edward Baker, son of the
President, birth and death, 75, 258.
Lincoln, Mary Todd, wife of Abraham;
courtship and marriage, 52-53, 73, 103;
relates incident of morning of inaugural, 86;
unites with Presbyterian Church, 159, 255-256;
broken engagement and wedding, 252.
Lincoln, Nancy Hanks, mother of the President;
marriage, 30, 48, 315;
death of, 31, 40;
at public worship, 34;
funeral, 40 _seq._
Lincoln, Robert Todd, son of President, 39;
birth, 75.
Lincoln, Sally, or Sarah Bush, second wife of Thomas, 31;
her religion, 37, 47, 50;
supplied information to Herndon, 36;
her love for Abraham, 50.
Lincoln, Sarah, daughter of Thomas and Nancy
(sometimes incorrectly called Nancy), 34;
united with Pigeon Creek Church, 37.
Lincoln, Thomas, father of the President;
marriages, 30, 31, 315;
religion of, 34, 36-45;
a thriftless farmer, 51;
Abraham's letter to, 77.
Lincoln, Thomas, "Tad," son of the President, birth and death, 75.
Lincoln, William Wallace, son of the President;
birth, 75;
death, 95.
Logan, Stephen T., Lincoln's partner, 71, 249.
Logan, Thomas D., address on Lincoln, 75;
learned of Dr. Smith's book in 1909, 157.
Lyon, Benjamin, early Baptist minister, 34.
Maryland Historical Society, 269.
Matheny, James H., on Lincoln's religion, 133-135, 137;
Herndon's authority for the story of Lincoln's "Burnt Book," 148,
320-321, 343.
Maynard, Nettie Colburn, 232.
McCrie, George M., 226.
McNamur, John, lover of Ann Rutledge, 151.
Medill, Joseph, 269.
Melancholy, Lincoln's habitual, 252.
Methodist Church, little influence in life of the Lincoln family, 48;
Lincoln's high regard for, 240.
Miner, Rev. Dr., 86, 333-334.
Ministers in early Illinois politics, 59-61.
"Miracles under law," 171, 279.
Missouri Compromise, 268.
Morgan, G. H., quoted, 21.
Morse, John T., Jr., author of "Life of Lincoln," 27.
Mostiller, Thomas, on Lincoln's religion, 138, 347-348.
Murray, Lindley, author of English Reader, 32.
Music, little appreciated by Lincoln, 246.
New England, Lincoln visits, 73.
New Light Church at Farmington, 38.
New Salem, Illinois, 51;
influence on Lincoln, 54;
Lincoln's Alma Mater, 67.
Newton, Joseph Fort, author of "Lincoln and Herndon," 26, 129.
Nicolay, John G., author of "Life of Lincoln," 27, 31;
letter concerning Lincoln's religion, 91, 279-280, 321.
Nielson, William, his book on Greek Syntax owned by Lincoln, 183.
Offutt, Denton, 51.
Oldroyd, Osborn H., 208.
Olmsted, Charles G., 76, 358 _seq._
Onstott, T. G., reminiscences of New Salem, 54 _seq._
_Open Court_, articles in, 225-227.
Owens, Mary, courted by Lincoln, 52, 69.
Paine, Thomas, author of "Age of Reason," read by Lincoln, 19, 61,
63, 146, 152, 343.
Parker, Theodore, Lincoln reads, 175-178, 288.
Patton, Rev. William W., 268.
Paul at Malta, 260.
Pease, Theodore C., on early Illinois, 56, 59.
Peck, John Mason, preacher in early Illinois, 59.
Peters, Madison, on Religion of Lincoln, 34.
Philosophy, unknown to Lincoln, 171.
Piano, Lincoln helps to move, 250.
Poems loved by Lincoln, 166.
Poetry, Lincoln's use of, 246, 263.
Poetry and religion, 230.
Pomeroy, Rebecca R., 205-206.
Pope, Alexander, 263.
Presbyterian, Thomas Lincoln was not, 37.
Quakers, Lincoln's attitude toward, 88, 236, 237.
Rankin, Henry B., 245.
Ray, Dr. C. H., on Lincoln's religion, 133.
Reed, Rev. James A., his lecture and the controversy which followed,
135 _seq.;_ 158;
text of lecture, 314, 337.
Reid, William, letter on Lincoln's religion, 352-356.
Religion in Kentucky backwoods, 34.
Religion, more and other than theology, 22;
part and parcel of Lincoln's life, 267.
Remsburg, J. E., Herndon's letter to, 336.
Reynolds, Governor, on early Illinois, 57.
Rickard, Sarah, alleged to have been courted by Lincoln, 52.
Riney, Zachariah, teacher of Lincoln, 30.
Roberts, William Henry, 90.
Roby, Katy (Mrs. Allen Gentry), 33.
Roper, R. C., on Lincoln's religion, 227.
Rusling, General James F., on Sickles interview, 201-202.
Rutledge, Ann, courted by Lincoln, 52 _seq.;_ 62, 69, 143, 352.
Rutledge, James, father of Ann, 54.
Science, little known by Lincoln, 171.
Scott, Milton R., 253.
Scott, Walter, Lincoln's use of, 263.
Scoville, Samuel, 199.
Scripps, John Locke, "Life of Lincoln," 24.
Shakspeare, Lincoln's use, 263.
Shields, James T., 72.
Shipman, Elder, alleged Unitarian minister, 181.
Shirley, Ralph, 268.
Shrigley, Rev. James, 356-357.
Sickles, General D. E., interview with Lincoln, 201-202.
Slavery, beginnings of Lincoln's interest in, 72;
growth of moral aspect, 83;
"If not wrong, nothing is wrong," 296.
Smith, Jeannette E., 158.
Smith, Rev. James, Lincoln's pastor at Springfield, 75-76;
relations with Lincoln, 132, 136;
his life and ministry, 156;
his sermon on temperance, 157;
Lincoln becomes a member of his congregation, 159;
Lincoln reads "The Christian's Defence," 162;
change in Lincoln's views, 164;
convinced Lincoln but did not wholly satisfy, 270, 323-324,
353-354;
complete chapter analysis of the book, 358 _seq._
Smith, Winfield, 289.
Speed, Joshua Fry, 92-93, 236, 336-337.
Spiritualist, Lincoln not a, 232.
Stanton, Theodore, article by, 226.
State Fair Speech of Lincoln, 257.
Stories, Lincoln's, 80, 263.
Stuart, John T., Lincoln's partner, 71;
on Lincoln's religion, 132, 249, 256, 319-320.
Sunderland, Rev. Byron, 332-333.
Superstition, Lincoln believed in, 233, 236.
Swett, Leonard, 249.
Tarbell, Ida, M., author of "Life of Lincoln," 27.
Teillard, Dorothy Lamon, 129-130, 134.
Thomas, Lewis, 244.
Toleman, letter of, 238.
Unitarian, Lincoln was not, 180, 238.
Universalist, Lincoln was not, 238.
Vandalia, state capital of Illinois, 52.
"Vestiges of Creation," by Robert Chambers, 166-171, 255, 265.
Vinton, Rev. Francis, alleged interview with Lincoln, 206.
Volney, Constantin François, author of "Ruins," read by Lincoln, 19,
61, 63, 146, 152.
Voodoo Fortune-teller, Lincoln visits, 236.
"Ward, Artemus," read by Lincoln, 113, 307.
Watson, Rev. Edward L., story of Lincoln's conversion, 24, 309.
Weik, Jesse W., associate of Herndon in authorship of
"Life of Lincoln," 26;
opinion of Thomas Lincoln's religion, 39;
searches for lost Herndon papers, 125.
Welles, Gideon, 268, 281.
_Westminster Review_, 167, 226.
Whitcomb, Rev. W. W., sermon on Lincoln, 208.
White, Charles T., 80.
White, Horace, 26, 27, 129.
White, William Allen, 110.
Whitney, Henry C., on Lincoln's religion, 94-95;
on Lincoln's lack of method, 103, 246, 247, 254, 263.
Wigwam edition of "Life of Lincoln," 24.
Wilberforce, Bishop Samuel, 170.
Yates, Governor Richard, 310.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] All the quotations in this book from Herndon's _Lincoln_ are from
the first edition in three volumes.
[2] The habit of studying aloud, learned in the "blab-school," remained
with him. Lamon says he read aloud and "couldn't read otherwise."
Whitney tells of his writing a ruling one time when he was sitting
(illegally) for Judge Davis, and he pronounced each word aloud as he
wrote it. This was not his invariable custom, but it was a common one
with him.
[3] Hodgenville was a Baptist settlement from its foundation. Robert
Hodgen, for whom the settlement was named, and John Larue, his
brother-in-law, for whom the county was named, were both Baptists, and
among the first settlers was a Baptist minister, Rev. Benjamin Lyon.
[4] Baptisms of this noisy character were familiar to Lincoln in his
boyhood and certainly as late as the period of his residence in New
Salem. Henry Onstott, at whose tavern Lincoln boarded, tells of such
baptisms performed by Rev. Abraham Bale, including one at which the
husband of the lady who was being baptized called out to the preacher
to hold her, as he valued her more highly than the best cow and calf in
the county (_Lincoln and Salem_, p. 122).
[5] While the statements of Dennis Hanks are often colored by his
imagination, he is, after all, our best witness concerning Lincoln's
boyhood.
[6] Some writers have spoken of Mr. Elkin as a Methodist circuit rider.
Mrs. Lucinda Boyd, in a book which might better not have been published
and which I will not name, but which is correct in some local matters,
speaks of Rev. Robert Elkin, the minister who preached the funeral
sermon of Mrs. Lincoln, as belonging to the "Traveling Baptist Church."
She says: "His grave is in the open field, and soon the traces of it
will be lost." Apparently this grave was in Clark County, Kentucky.
I think, however, that she is in error as to the name Robert. It was
David.
[7] The latest writer to lend to the incident of Nancy Lincoln's
funeral the aid of a vivid imagination and a versatile pen is Rose
Strunsky. Discarding the theory that Abraham wrote his first letter to
invite a minister to come from Kentucky to preach his mother's funeral,
she sends him on foot to a nearer settlement:
"The boy Abraham had his standards of life. There were things of too
much meaning to let pass without some gesture. And the unceremonious
burial in the forest haunted him. When he heard that a wandering
preacher had reached the neighborhood, he tramped many miles in the
snow to bring him to the spot where the dead body lay, so that a
funeral sermon might be delivered over the now white grave" (_Abraham
Lincoln_, p. 6).
There was nothing unusual about the burial. Nor was there anything
unusual about the deferred funeral. These writers simply do not know
the conditions of life in which the boy Lincoln lived.
[8] While this manuscript was in process of writing, Professor Raymond,
of Berea College, Kentucky, enumerating his summer engagements for the
season of 1919, informed me of a funeral he was engaged to preach in
August of a boy who died ten years ago. The boy's companions have by
this time grown to manhood, but the service will be held: and before
this book is published doubtless will have been held according to
immemorial custom in that region. This is not because there has been
no preacher in its vicinity within ten years; nor is there any reason
to suppose that the delay in the case of Lincoln's mother was due to
the utter absence of ministers. They were not abundant, certainly; but
there is no reason whatever to suppose that in the interval between
the death and funeral of Nancy Hanks no preacher had been in the
neighborhood of Pigeon Creek.
[9] I have often been deeply impressed by the charity of primitive
preachers for dead people, and their ingenuity in inventing possible
opportunities for repentance where no outward sign was given or
apparently possible. There was something impressive in their manner of
doing it, as well as an exhibition of fine tenderness for the feelings
of friends and of generosity toward the dead.
"_Between the saddle and the ground,
He pardon sought and pardon found_"
is a very precious article of faith in the creed of men who have to
preach a stern doctrine to the living, with warning of a hell that
yawns for all impenitent sinners.
[10] In my own judgment, it would have been better to have let the
first edition stand. It ought not to have included these vulgarities;
but they are not so bad as the impression which is created by the
knowledge that a new edition had to be made on their account. They are
coarse bits of rustic buffoonery.
[11] I do not forget that Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks were married
by Rev. Jesse Head, who was a Methodist preacher. But I do not find
evidence that Mr. Head exerted any marked influence over them. Mr. Head
was not only a minister, but a justice of the peace, an anti-slavery
man, and a person of strong and righteous character. I am not sure
whether the fact that he performed this marriage is not due in some
measure to the fact that he was about the court house, and a convenient
minister to find.
[12] Dr. Chapman goes even beyond Johnson in his admiration of these
youthful lines. He says:
"It is profoundly significant that this child of destiny, at his life's
early morning, in clumsy but impressive verse thus reverently coupled
his name with that of his Creator.... I am not claiming for this
fragment of a Lincoln manuscript any divine inspiration" (_Latest Light
on Lincoln_, p. 315).
But he stops little short of that, and might about as well have
claimed it. The simple truth is that the lines have no significance
whatever. They were a current bit of schoolboy doggerel, not original
with Lincoln, and were scribbled by him as by other boys, with no real
purpose beyond that of working his name into a jingle.
[13] I have seen these and other examples of Lincoln's early penmanship
in the library of Mr. Jesse W. Weik.
[14] The story of Johnny Kongapod was one which Lincoln often related
in after life. It is found in several collections of his stories, and
with some variation. The Indian himself has found a place in literature
in "In the Boyhood of Lincoln" by my friend, now deceased, Hezekiah
Butterworth. The epitaph more nearly in its ancient English form is
found in "David Elginbrod," by George Macdonald:
"_Here lie I, Martin Elginbrod;
Hae mercy o' my soul, Lord God,
As I would hae if I were God,
And Thou wert Martin Elginbrod._"
[15] "His early Baptist training made him a fatalist to the day of his
death" (Herndon, I, 34).
[16] The story of Lincoln's love affairs lies mostly outside the
field of our present inquiry. He had at least one more of them than
his biographers have learned about. Those that are best known are the
ones with Ann Rutledge, Mary Owens, and Mary Todd. Lamon declares that
Lincoln loved Miss Matilda Edwards, sister of Ninian W. Edwards, whose
wife was sister to Mary Todd. He gives this as the real reason for the
estrangement of Lincoln and his fiancée (Lamon's _Life of Lincoln_,
p. 259). This is vigorously denied by members of the Edwards family,
and the opinions in Springfield are anything but unanimous. Herndon
informs us that in 1840, when Lincoln was thirty-one, and during
the period when he was attracted to Mary Todd, he proposed to Sarah
Rickard, a girl of sixteen. The present writer has no occasion to go
into the discussions attending these several affairs of the heart.
Lincoln's unsettled condition of mind on matrimonial and other matters
is, however, an important element in any study of his religious life
in this period. Herndon, between whom and Mrs. Lincoln little love was
lost, was not unwilling to inform her and the world that Lincoln had
loved one woman, at least, more than he ever loved her; and that he
married her reluctantly. This was not pleasant information for a proud
and erratic grief-stricken woman, and it is not certain that Herndon
was impartial authority or that he learned the whole truth. Lincoln
was not a lady's man, and Mary Owens was quite right in deeming him
"deficient in those little links that make up the chain of a woman's
happiness."
Students of the Lincoln material are informed by those who suppose
themselves to know, that beside the above-mentioned adventures, Lincoln
had at least one additional love affair, and one that was not to his
credit. They are told that the proof of this exists in an unpublished
letter from the hand of Lincoln, a letter sacredly guarded and seldom
shown by its owner. If this book had any reason to go at length into
the subject of Lincoln's love affairs, I should be glad to consider
that matter in detail; for the owner of that letter has permitted me to
read and copy it, and I have the copy, which I intend to use in another
volume on Lincoln. I wish to say, however, that the letter, which is
a free, unguarded note to an intimate friend, does not sustain the
impression that Lincoln had any other love affair, or that any wrong
act or motive lay behind his words. Lincoln was not a tactful man in
his relations with women; but he was a clean man.
[17] "Mr. Lincoln was never agitated by any passion more than by
his wonderful thirst for distinction. There is no instance where an
important office was within his reach, and he did not try to get it"
(Lamon, _Life of Lincoln_, p. 237). This is a harsh and unfriendly way
of stating it, but it is not wholly false.
[18] Mr. John E. Burton has documentary evidence that Lincoln was
associated as so-called partner with seven law firms. Mr. Burton has
owned the firm signatures in Lincoln's handwriting as follows:
Stuart and Lincoln 1838
Ficklin and Lincoln 1842
Logan and Lincoln 1845
Harlan and Lincoln 1845
Goodrich and Lincoln October 1855
Lincoln and Herndon 1852
Lincoln and Lamon
But these associates, except Stuart, Logan, and Herndon, were not
strictly partnerships. They were local associations with lawyers whose
practice he shared.
[19] Mr. Barker, the bookseller and publisher of Springfield, has or
had an interesting item in a volume which Mr. Lincoln presented to Rev.
William A. Chapin, a returned missionary, who lived with the family of
his relative, Albert Hale. Mr. Lincoln was on close terms with "Father
Hale" and a friend of Mr. Chapin. The book is one volume, the others
being lost, of a set entitled "_Horae Solitariae, or, Essays on Some
Remarkable Names and Titles of the Holy Spirit._ First American from
the Second London Edition. Philadelphia: Cochran & McLoughlan, 1801."
The book bears no name of author. Upon the flyleaf is the autograph of
Mr. Chapin in these words, "William A. Chapin, 1844. A present from
Abr. Lincoln." How Lincoln obtained the book is not known; nor is it
one for which he would have been likely to care. But he cared enough
for the book or for the missionary or for both to present the one to
the other. His aversion to ministers, which Lamon portrays, may have
had some reason in certain cases; but it was not inclusive of all
ministers nor of ministers as a class.
[20] I have been at much trouble to get the exact name and dates of
this little boy. He was called Eddie, and the name is sometimes given
Edwin and sometimes Edward, and I did not find it easy to learn,
even at the monument at Springfield, the exact date of his death. He
was named for his father's friend, and associate in the Legislature,
Edward Baker. He was born March 10, 1846, and died February 1, 1850.
Lincoln's children were: Robert Todd, born August 1, 1843, still
living; Edward Baker, born March 10, 1846, died in Springfield February
1, 1850; William Wallace, born December 21, 1850, died in the White
House February 20, 1862; Thomas or "Tad," born April 4, 1853; died
in Chicago, July 15, 1871. Mary Todd Lincoln, their mother, was born
in Lexington, Kentucky, December 13, 1818; married Abraham Lincoln,
November 4, 1842, and died in Springfield July 16, 1882.
The date of the death of Eddie is important, because it gives us a
_terminus a quem_ for Lincoln's acquaintance with Rev. James Smith.
Dr. Smith gives the date as "in the latter part of 1849." I sought in
vain not only in published Lives of Lincoln but in the material on
file with the State Historical Society for the precise date. What is
more surprising, Colonel Johnson, custodian of the Lincoln tomb, has
made diligent search for me and cannot find the date. In an article,
prepared for the Lincoln Centenary in 1909, Rev. Thomas D. Logan,
D.D., then pastor of the church in Springfield which Lincoln attended
and successor of Dr. Smith, said it was "about 1848 or 1849"; but in
working over the material, as he manifestly did, after furnishing it to
_The Interior_, in which it was printed, and delivering the substance
of it as a centenary address, he gives the date as February 1, 1850.
This I judge to be correct, and it is upon his authority I have given
that date above. The other dates of the Lincoln family's relation to
this church support this statement.
[21] Governor Ford uses this term as inclusive of the "Long Nine" and
their associates who voted for the combination of evils which brought
financial disaster to Illinois in that early day. Among them were
Stephen A. Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, John A. McClernand, and James
Shields--"all of them spared monuments of popular wrath, evincing how
safe it is to be a politician, but how disastrous it may be to the
country to keep along with the present fervor of the people." FORD:
_History of Illinois_.
[22] A careful reading of Mr. Lincoln's speeches while en route for
Washington will reveal, I think, that Mr. Lincoln was confident there
would be no war. A much more solemn note was in his First Inaugural, a
few days later.
[23] Even Herndon commends Dr. Gurley and Bishop Simpson for their very
conservative claims concerning the religion of Lincoln.
[24] Carpenter says that these were the negroes of Baltimore, and is
probably correct.
[25] This curious passage, which is very nearly meaningless if read
apart from its context, has to do with the appointment of the priestly
families that furnished the porters, or guards, for the approaches to
the temple in Jerusalem. It is found in I Chronicles 26:17-18.
[26] This well-known and picturesque passage describes the army of
David when he was an outlaw and half a freebooter, fleeing from the
fury of Saul and hiding in the cave of Adullam. I Samuel 22:2.
[27] "Mr. Lincoln had no method, system, or order in his exterior
affairs; he had no library, no clerk, no stenographer; he had no
common-place-book, no _index rerum_, no diary. Even when he was
President and wanted to preserve a memorandum of anything, he noted it
down on a card and stuck it into a drawer or in his vest pocket. But in
his mental processes and operations, he had the most complete system
and order. While outside of his mind all was anarchy and confusion,
inside all was symmetry and method." WHITNEY: _Life on the Circuit with
Lincoln_, p. 110.
[28] Mrs. Edwards, Mrs. Lincoln's sister, in a published interview
which Barker of Springfield has reprinted in a limited edition, gives a
circumstantial account of the wedding, which, she affirms, occurred on
Sunday night. The calendar contradicts her. Nor would the court house
have been open for the issue of the license on Sunday; its date is the
date of the wedding. The license was procured, and the marriage was
solemnized, on Friday.
[29] Newton Bateman was born at Fairfield, New York, July 27, 1822, and
migrated with his parents to Illinois in his boyhood. He was graduated
from Illinois College, in Jacksonville, in 1843, and was honored as
one of the ablest men in the alumni of that institution. He first knew
Abraham Lincoln in 1847, and knew him with increasing intimacy during
the years of 1859 and 1860 when Mr. Bateman was in Springfield. Mr.
Bateman served as Superintendent of Schools of the State of Illinois
continuously from 1859 to 1875, except for the single term 1863-65.
During his administration the school system of Illinois made notable
progress, and he is remembered as having done large things for the
educational system of his State. He was the author of the plan for
the education of all the children of all the people of the State at
the expense of all the property of the State. He wrought his system
into the new constitution of Illinois, adopted in 1871, while he was
at the zenith of his power. He was repeatedly re-elected, his defeat
in 1862 being a defeat shared with the whole Republican ticket of the
State in an off-year election when nearly the whole North, weary of the
war which had scarcely begun, defeated partly by hostility and partly
by lethargy the party and the policies that had sent Lincoln to the
White House; and Bateman was triumphantly re-elected when Lincoln was
re-elected, and for many terms thereafter. He established the Normal
School system of the State; and his work was monumental in the life of
the State University. Few men deserve so well to be remembered with
honor in Illinois.
At the close of his long term of service as Superintendent of Schools,
he became President of Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, from 1875
to 1893. He was small in stature, and by his friends was familiarly
called "Little Newt," but was held in high regard as a man of honor
and an educator of note. Besides his published reports and addresses,
he compiled a large encyclopedia of men of Illinois,--a kind of "Who's
Who" of much value. His family at one time proposed to gather and issue
a memorial volume of his addresses, but the plan appears not to have
been carried out. He died of angina pectoris at Galesburg, October 21,
1897.
[30] Bateman's version of the Farewell Address, as reported in the
_State Journal_, was that accepted by Herndon, and, with its more
profound recognition of God's providential care, is given in Lamon's
_Life of Lincoln_, p. 506. It is repeated in his _Recollections_, p. 31.
[31] For these two reports and that of Lincoln and Hay, see the
Appendix.
[32] Mr. Jesse W. Weik, who was associated with Herndon in the
authorship of his _Life of Lincoln_, and who has Herndon's papers, has
made diligent search for me in the effort to locate the notes of these
interviews. Herndon certainly desired to preserve them, and desired
that they should be published. But thus far they have not been found,
and presumably are not in existence.
[33] Lamon was a Virginian by birth, and was, in many of his habits, a
very different man from Lincoln, but Lincoln liked and trusted him.
[34] Black was Lamon's law partner in Washington after the war. The
firm of Black, Lamon, and Hovey did a large business in prosecuting
claims against the Government.
[35] This lecture is now very rare, and the text is given in the
Appendix to this volume.
[36] This important communication containing signed letters from a
number of Lincoln's friends is given in full in the Appendix.
[37] Although a number of these letters are quoted in the text, the
article as a whole is so important that it is given in full in the
Appendix.
[38] Herndon's letter to Dr. Smith was impudent, demanding that
he answer as a man, if he could, and if not as a man, then as a
Christian--a challenge which the old Scotchman answered in kind.
[39] The Abbott letter is printed in Herndon's _Life of Lincoln_, pp.
492-497: portions of it have been quoted in this book.
The Remsburg letter and the broadside above referred to are printed in
full in the Appendix to this book.
[40] Statements of this nature show, what we know without them, that
Herndon had never seen the "book" nor heard it described by anyone who
actually saw it.
[41] We may note in passing that it is not in "Tam o' Shanter" but in
"Holy Willie's Prayer" that Burns uses the line quoted by Matheny.
[42] I am informed that this is a slight error. Dr. Smith had another
son, still younger.
[43] There are three copies in Chicago, one in the library of the
University of Chicago, one in the library of McCormick Theological
Seminary, and one in my own library. There are copies also in the
libraries of Union Theological Seminary, New York; Center College,
Danville, Kentucky; the College of the Bible, Lexington, Kentucky; the
Library of Congress, and Lane Theological Seminary, Cincinnati. These,
and the one owned by Miss Smith, are the only copies of which I have
learned thus far; though doubtless there are others in dusty attics.
[44] This date is wrong. The book was not published until 1844.
[45] _Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation_, by Robert Chambers,
is published still by E. P. Dutton & Co., New York, and sold at 75
cents. This is an excellent reprint of the first Edinburgh edition,
which Lincoln first read.
[46] It is now known that it was through the influence of Robert
Chambers that T. H. Huxley was present and made his famous reply
to Bishop Wilberforce at Oxford in 1860. Huxley was in Oxford, but
intended to have left that morning because he believed that the
discussion would take a theological, or other than a scientific turn,
and would be unprofitable, but "on the Friday afternoon he chanced
to meet Robert Chambers, the reputed author of the _Vestiges of
Creation_, who begged him not to desert them, accordingly he postponed
his departure" (_Life and Letters of Thomas H. Huxley_, by his Son, I,
193). In this discussion Bishop Wilberforce, in closing a half-hour's
clever, but unfair speech, turned to Huxley and asked him whether
it was on the side of Huxley's grandfather or grandmother that he
claimed his own descent from a monkey? Huxley endured the laughter
and applause which followed this personal sally with something more
than good nature. He turned to Sir Benjamin Brodie, who sat beside
him, and slapping his knee, exclaimed: "The Lord hath delivered him
into my hands!" It was even so. Huxley rose to reply, and said that he
would not be ashamed of having a monkey as an ancestor, but he would
be ashamed of any relationship to a gifted man, who, not content with
success in his own sphere of activity, plunged into a discussion of
matters of which he had no real acquaintance "only to obscure them by
an aimless rhetoric, and distract the attention of his hearers from the
real point at issue by eloquent digressions, and skilled appeals to
religious prejudice."
In its way that speech established the popularity of Huxley as a
debator, and effectually punctured one argument then coming into use in
the discussion of evolution. It also was an incident never forgotten
concerning Bishop Wilberforce. Huxley afterward wrote, "In justice to
the Bishop, I am bound to say he bore me no malice, but was always
courtesy itself when we met in after years." In the same letter Huxley
says, "The odd part of the business is, that I should not have been
present except for Robert Chambers."
[47] I have communicated with Mr. Burton and he agrees with me in the
opinion that the inscription from Professor Anthon is not genuine.
He thinks it may have been added by Dr. English, not with intent to
deceive, but as giving his impression of the manner in which Lincoln
acquired the book. Whoever wrote it I think was in error.
[48] This book had been written and was in course of revision when I
procured Dr. Chapman's _Latest Light on Lincoln_. It is a book by one
who loved Lincoln sincerely, and can discover in him no lack of any
desirable quality; even physical beauty and grace of movement are here
attributed to Lincoln, as well as the acceptance of all the fundamental
articles of the creeds. He accepts the Beecher incident, declaring that
Dr. Johnson informed him that "after thorough investigation he fully
believed it to be truthful and authentic," and affirming that "upon
the scene of this unique event there rests a halo of celestial beauty
too sacred to be regarded with indifference or doubt." The halo may be
there, but is it true? Was there any period of twenty-four hours while
Lincoln was in the White House when this could have occurred, and the
fact concealed from the public? It is altogether less improbable that
Mrs. Beecher in her extreme old age and failing mentality was mistaken
about the identity of one of Mr. Beecher's callers.
[49] Dr. Johnson quotes this in his _Abraham Lincoln the Christian_,
and with it gives a photo reproduction of this page of his manuscript,
bearing in the margin the attestation of both Generals Sickles and
Rusling:
"I certify that this statement of a conversation between President
Lincoln and General Sickles, in my presence, at Washington, D. C., July
5, 1863, relating to Gettysburg, is correct and true. JAMES F. RUSLING,
Trenton, N. J., Feb. 17, 1910."
"I hereby certify that the foregoing statement by General Rusling is
true in substance. I know from my intimate acquaintance with President
Lincoln that he was a religious man--God-fearing and God-loving ruler.
D. E. SICKLES, Major General U. S. Army, Ret'd, New York, Feb. 11,
1911."
[50] The Library of Congress has a scurilous pamphlet entitled _Behind
the Seams; by a Nigger Woman, who took in work for Mrs. Lincoln and
Mrs. Davis, New York: The National News Company, 21 and 23 Ann Street,
1868_. The preface is signed, "Betsy X (her mark) Kickley, a Nigger."
It is a coarse parody on the above, but would appear sometimes to have
been mistaken for the original work.
[51] This incident must have appeared in print immediately after
Lincoln's death, for I find it quoted in memorial addresses of May,
1865. Mr. Oldroyd has endeavored to learn for me in what paper he found
it and on whose authority it rests, but without result. He does not
remember where he found it. It is inherently improbable, and rests on
no adequate testimony. It ought to be wholly disregarded. The earliest
reference I have found to the story in which Lincoln is alleged to
have said to an unnamed Illinois minister "I do love Jesus" is in a
sermon preached in the Baptist Church of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, April
19, 1865, by Rev. W. W. Whitcomb, which was published in the Oshkosh
_Northwestern_, April 21, 1865, and in 1907 issued in pamphlet form, by
John E. Burton. The form of quotation is indefinite, but I judge that
the incident was current in the papers of that week, as it is quoted
as something with which the congregation was assumed to be familiar. I
judge, therefore, that this was a story that found currency immediately
after Lincoln's death, running the round of the newspapers with no
one's name attached.
[52] Lincoln addressed most of his friends by their family name,
seldom prefixing "Mr." A few he called by their first name. Herndon he
called "Billy." Ward Hill Lamon he addressed as "Hill." Some of his
friends called him "Lincoln," but most of them, "Mr. Lincoln." If any
habitually addressed him as "Abe," the author has been unable to learn
the fact.
"Although I have heard of cheap fellows, professing that they were
wont to address him as 'Abe,' I never knew any one who did it in his
presence. Lincoln disdained ceremony, but he gave no license for being
called 'Abe'." WHITNEY: _Life on the Circuit with Lincoln_, p. 53.
[53] Dr. Chapman, who appears to have permitted no improbable story of
Lincoln's orthodoxy to escape him, records this incident with complete
assurance of its correctness; but it is a story which it is impossible
to fit into the life of Lincoln.
In _Latest Light on Lincoln_, p. 396, Chapman says, "There is every
reason for giving this remarkable story unquestioning credence." On
the contrary, there is every good reason for questioning it at every
essential point, and the questions do not evoke satisfactory answers.
[54] Whitney affirms that Lincoln was never a member of any secret
society. If he had been, that society would certainly have produced a
record of his membership.
[55] Whitney tells us of this in his _With Lincoln on the Circuit_,
describing the instrument as a "French harp." This term has given rise
to some ludicrous mistakes on the part of those who have quoted it In
Kentucky and in "Egypt" a French harp is a harmonica.
[56]
"Of dress, food, and the ordinary comforts and luxuries of life,
he was an incompetent judge. He could not discern between well and
ill-cooked and served food. He did not know whether or not clothes
fitted. He did not know whether music was artistic or in bad taste."
WHITNEY: _Life on the Circuit with Lincoln_, p. 52.
[57]
"I repeat that his was one of the most uneven, eccentric, and
heterogeneous characters, probably, that ever played a part in the
great drama of history; and it was for that reason that he was
so greatly misjudged and misunderstood; that he was on the one
hand described as a mere humorist--a sort of Artemus Ward or Mark
Twain--that it was thought that by some irony of fate a low comedian
had got into the Presidential chair by mistake and that the nation was
being delivered over to conflagration, while this modern Nero fiddled
upon its ruins; or that, on the other hand, he should have been thus
sketched by as high authority as Ralph Waldo Emerson: 'He is the true
history of the American people to his time. Step by step he walks
beside them, quickening his march by theirs, the true representative
of this continent, an entirely public man, Father of his Country, the
pulse of twenty millions throbbing through his heart, the thought of
their minds articulated by his tongue. His heart was as great as the
world, but there was no room in it to hold the memory of a wrong.'"
WHITNEY: _Life on the Circuit with Lincoln_, p. 147.
"One of the most obvious of Mr. Lincoln's peculiarities was his
dissimilitude of qualities, or inequality of conduct, his dignity
of deportment and action, interspersed with freaks of frivolity and
inanity; his high aspiration and achievement, and his descent into
the most primitive vales of listlessness, and the most ridiculous
buffoonery. He combined the consideration of the movement of armies or
grave questions of international concern, with Nasby's feeble jokes or
Dan Rice's clownish tricks. In the chief drawer of his cabinet table,
all the current joke books of the time were in juxtaposition with
official commissions lacking only his final signature, applications
for pardons from death penalties, laws awaiting executive action,
and orders, which, when issued, would control the fate of a million
men and the destinies of unborn generations.... Hence it was that
superficial persons, who expected great achievements to be set in
a _mise en scéne_, and to be ushered in with a prologue, could not
understand or appreciate that this wonderful man's administration
was a succession of acts of grand and heroic statesmanship, or that
he was a prodigy of intellect and moral force, and a genius in
administration." WHITNEY: _Life on the Circuit with Lincoln_, pp.
147-48-49.
[58] Mr. Jesse W. Weik investigated this report, and told me of it. It
comes not through Lewis or other members of the church, but through
Lincoln's associates outside the church, who seem to have expected him
to unite.
[59]
"He had not then announced himself for freedom, only discussed
the inexpediency of repealing the Missouri Compromise line. The
Abolitionists that day [the day of Lincoln's State Fair speech]
determined to make Lincoln take a stand. I determined he should not
at that time, because the time had not yet come when Lincoln should
show his hand. When Lovejoy announced the abolition gathering in the
evening, I rushed to Lincoln, and said: 'Lincoln, go home, take Bob
and the buggy, and leave the country, go quickly, go right off, and
never mind the order of your going.' Lincoln took the hint, got his
horse and buggy, and did leave quickly, not noting the order of his
going. He stayed away till all conventions and fairs were over."
HERNDON, in LAMON, p. 354.
[60] Lincoln's evasion of an issue which he did not wish to meet was
put to a severe test in 1864, when the convention that renominated
him for the Presidency had to decide whether to renominate
also Vice-President Hamlin. Lincoln liked Hamlin; but, while a
Vice-President from Maine had strengthened the ticket in 1860, a war
Democrat from one of the border States could help it more in 1864.
Lincoln managed never to let it be known whether he favored Hamlin, who
greatly desired his support, or whether, as was probably the case, he
preferred Johnson. He was skillful in evasion when he chose to be so.
[61] _Abraham Lincoln; Evolution of His Literary Style._ By Daniel
Kilham Dodge. Press of the University of Illinois, 1900.
[62] Few writers who knew Lincoln intimately have given us more
detailed accounts of Lincoln's career as a story teller than his friend
and associate, Major Henry C. Whitney, who habitually shared his bed in
the rounds of the Eighth Judicial Circuit. In his chapter on "Lincoln
as a Merry Andrew," in which he tells the undignified length to which
these bouts of story telling were wont to go, he says: "But it is a
singular fact that Lincoln very rarely told stories in his speeches.
In both his forensic and political speeches he got down to serious
business, and threw away the mask of Momus altogether. I never heard
him narrate but one story in a speech." _Life on the Circuit with
Lincoln_, p. 179.
[63] These letters have lately been presented to the Massachusetts
Historical Society.
[64] _Abraham Lincoln; The Evolution of His Emancipation Policy._ An
address delivered before the Chicago Historical Society, February 27,
1906.
[65] See _The Evolution of Lincoln's Literary Style_, by Prof. Daniel
Kilham Dodge. University of Illinois Press, 1900.
[66]
"By reference to Mr. Lincoln's early political and literary
performances it will appear that he was more than usually addicted to
a florid style, and to greatly exaggerated figures of speech; that
the plain, direct, homely, common-sense methods of his later and
statesmanlike years were wholly wanting. Rhodomontade was as common
in those youthful productions as plain assertion was in his mature
life. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at that, in the years of
his adolescence, he is credited with very decided opinions, radical
views, and florid expressions on the subject of religion; but he
was forty-five years of age when I first knew him, and his views
either underwent a change or else he had grown reticent on that great
subject. Certain it is that I never heard Lincoln express himself on
the subject of religion at all." WHITNEY: _Life on the Circuit with
Lincoln_, p. 268.
[67] _The Evolution of Lincoln's Literary Style_, by Prof. D. K. Dodge.
[68] The foregoing list, together with a number which seem to me less
reliably attested, I have taken from Johnson, _Abraham Lincoln, the
Christian_, pp. 215-17.
[69] Dr. Chapman, who is not content with anything less than a complete
orthodox system of theology for Lincoln, says:
"In the forefront of Mr. Lincoln's religious thinking was his belief
in the Saviour's Deity." His first, and in fact his only proof, is,
of course, the Bateman interview. Beyond this he falls into such
generalities as his oft repeated mention of Him as "Our Lord," and
declares that "again and again does Mr. Lincoln thus speak of the
Saviour" (_Latest Light on Lincoln_, p. 319). If so, I have not found
these repeated references in his authentic speeches and papers.
[70] A reference to Christ dying on the cross is in his lecture on
Niagara Falls; and there are a few other references.
[71] Dr. Chapman's _Latest Light on Lincoln_ has a few hitherto
unprinted things, one of them being some notes by Rev. Dr. Gurley,
the beginnings of a contemplated book or pamphlet which he did not
complete. The manuscript as produced by Dr. Chapman was furnished by
Dr. Gurley's daughter, Mrs. Emma K. Adams, of Washington. The only
incident of any considerable value is that Mr. Lincoln one night
invited Dr. Gurley, who like himself was an early riser, to come to the
White House next morning at seven o'clock for an hour's talk before
breakfast. They had the talk and the breakfast. As Dr. Gurley walked
away, he was asked whether he and Mr. Lincoln had been talking about
the war, and he replied, "Far from it. We have been talking about the
state of the soul after death. That is a subject of which Mr. Lincoln
never tires. This morning, however, I was a listener, as Mr. Lincoln
did all the talking" (_Latest Light on Lincoln_, p. 500).
There can be, I think, no serious question of Mr. Lincoln's faith
in immortality. It was much more easy for a man of his training and
temperament to hold that article of faith than some others which might
seem to some other men more easily to be accepted.
[72] The chapter, sometimes alleged to have been from the Bible,
which Lincoln read to his cabinet before submitting the Emancipation
Proclamation.
[73] The accompanying article was originally prepared by its author
(the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, in Springfield, Ill.),
as a lecture, and has been repeatedly given in that form to various
audiences. At the request of the editor of _Scribner's Monthly_, to
whom it seemed that the testimony contained in the lecture was of
permanent value, it is here presented with slight alterations, and with
no departure from the rhetorical style which was determined by its
original purpose.
[74] This is an error doubtless made by Mr. Irwin in copying. It should
be June 16, 1858, instead of January. I have printed it as it stands,
but the date should be corrected.
[75] March 10, 1864. McPherson, "History of the Rebellion," p. 522.
[76] Report of Judge-Advocate General, April 30, 1864.
[77] March 7, 1864.
[78] Jan. 2, 1863.
[79] Dec. 22, 1863.
[80] "After having made these declarations in good faith and in
writing, you can conceive of my embarrassment at now having brought to
me what purported to be a formal order of the War Department, bearing
date November 30, 1863, giving Bishop Ames control and possession of
all the Methodist churches in certain Southern military departments
whose pastors have not been appointed by a loyal bishop or bishops,
and ordering the military to aid him against any resistance which may
be made to his taking such possession and control. What is to be done
about it?" [Lincoln to Stanton, MS., Feb. 11, 1864.]
[81] Lincoln to Hogan, Feb. 13, 1864.
[82] Lincoln MS., March 4, 1864.
[83] Lincoln MS., May 13, 1864.
[84] War Records, Vol. XVII, pp. 424, 530.
[85] General McDowell used to tell a story which illustrates Mr.
Lincoln's Sabbatarian feeling. The President had ordered a movement
which required dispatch, and in his anxiety rode to McDowell's
headquarters to inquire how soon he could start. "On Monday morning,"
said McDowell; "or, by pushing things, perhaps Sunday afternoon."
Lincoln, after a moment's thought, said, "McDowell, get a good ready
and start Monday." [Herman Haupt, MS. Memoirs.]
Transcribers Notes:
Italics are shown thus: _sloping_.
Small capitals have been capitalised.
Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.
Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.
Obvious typos were silently corrected.