Dr. Johnson endeavored to investigate this story for his book, _Lincoln the Christian_.[48] The evidence seemed to him sufficient to justify him in including it in his volume. It rests on the explicit statement of Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher and was communicated to the public through some of her grandchildren. This, surely, is evidence that cannot be wholly disregarded. Mr. Samuel Scoville, Jr., a lawyer in Philadelphia, a grandson of Henry Ward Beecher, confirmed the accuracy of the story as here given, saying that this was the form in which his grandmother had related the story to her grandchildren. Another grandson, Rev. David G. Downey, D.D., Book Editor of the Methodist Book Concern of New York said: "It has always seemed to me to be a perfectly possible situation. It has never, however, been corroborated by any of the members of the family. It rests entirely upon the statement of Mrs. Beecher in her old age."--_Lincoln the Christian_, p. 201. Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher was a truthful woman. She did not manufacture an incident of this character, but the incident is highly improbable. It would be ungracious to point out in detail the elements of weakness in the story. Let one consideration alone be stated. The publishers of the _North American Review_ gathered from the leading men of America a series of chapters in which each man related his own personal reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln. That volume is still easily obtained and is a valuable mine of information. Among the other men who contributed to it was Henry Ward Beecher. He wrote a chapter in which he told in detail of his personal association with Mr. Lincoln. This incident finds no mention there nor anything remotely resembling it.