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: