The incident had a basis of fact. Neither Bateman nor Holland would have created such a story out of whole cloth. But Bateman was under very strong temptation to enlarge upon the incident, and had had five years in which to magnify it in his own mind. The then recent death of Mr. Lincoln and the strong desire of Christian people for a clear statement of his faith, made it easy to color the recollection and sketch in details, which did not seem to be important departures from the truth when related in verbal conversation, but which had a different look when they appeared in cold type. Holland, who was a writer of fiction as well as history, did not fail to embellish the story as Bateman told it to him. He probably did not write it down at the time, but recalled it afterward from memory, and in his final report it underwent additional coloring and the sketching in of detail. Neither of these two men intentionally falsified, but between the two the story was materially enlarged, and there was an undistributed margin of error between the original event as it occurred in 1860 and the very pretty story which Holland printed in 1865. Neither Holland nor Bateman cared, probably, to face too searching an inquiry as to how that enlargement had come. Dr. Bateman was a man of probity and upright character. He never willfully misrepresented. But he had a rhetorical mind; not only his style, but his mind, was rhetorical. He embellished his narratives because it was in him to do so. The two reports which he made of Lincoln's farewell address in Springfield[30] showed, both of them, such embellishments,[31] and he was as unconscious that he in later years enlarged upon his own first report as he was that his first report enlarged upon the address itself. These enlargements were slight, and did not destroy nor greatly alter the sense; but his changes never tended to simplicity. He was a master of good English style, but it was a grander, more rhetorical style than that of Lincoln. Lincoln, after receiving his special notice of nomination, submitted his letter of acceptance to Bateman, and at Bateman's suggestion changed a split infinitive. Lincoln knew that Bateman was an authority on good English, and respected his opinion and valued his friendship. Whatever enlargements Bateman's memory made upon his interview with Lincoln were made without intent to deceive; and whatever Holland added was added without intent to deceive. But the interview of 1860 and the story about it in Holland's book five years later have between them a discrepancy which must be distributed in a ratio which we are not able positively to determine between two good and truthful men, each of whom enlarged a little upon the material that was given to him.