Among these were letters from men who professed to have heard Lincoln charged with infidelity and had heard him deny it. The most important of these letters, however, aside from that of Mentor Graham, have value for us in the light they shed upon what really constituted Lincoln's alleged infidelity at this early period. That he had doubts and misgivings upon various subjects was not denied, but his hostility to the orthodox belief expressed itself chiefly in a vigorous denial of the endlessness of future punishment. This dogma Lincoln denied upon two grounds, as these letters affirm. First, the justice and mercy of God; and secondly, the fact that according to the Biblical scheme of redemption, whatever right the human race had possessed to immortality and lost through sin, had been restored in Christ. Lincoln was, according to the testimony of a number of these men who had known him, not an infidel, nor even a deist, but essentially a Universalist. Irwin had interviewed Colonel James H. Matheny and quoted Matheny as denying that he had ever heard Lincoln admit that he was an infidel and did not himself believe it. Irwin himself had known Lincoln personally for many years and had known large numbers of men who were intimately acquainted with him and he said: "I have never yet heard one single man express the belief that Lincoln was an infidel. Mr. Herndon, it is true, did have opportunities over others in knowing Mr. Lincoln's religious opinions, but other men had some opportunities, as well as Mr. Herndon, and to them I shall have to appeal, for I do not claim to personally know anything about Mr. Lincoln's religious faith. Though personally acquainted with Mr. Lincoln for twenty-eight years and often in his office, I never heard him say a word on the subject of his religious belief." It will be noted that while the statements concerning Mr. Lincoln's alleged infidelity have been published over the name of Lamon, Herndon was held responsible for them in these controversies. The impetuous Herndon possessed none of the reticence of Bateman; and while denying that he wrote Lamon's book, rushed in as Lamon's champion and covered himself with wounds if not with glory. Irwin's article proceeds to quote these old neighbors and friends of Lincoln, whose testimony, added to those adduced by Dr. Reed, was of very great weight. I have copied these[37] from the files of the _Illinois State Journal_ in the Library of the Illinois State Historical Society in Springfield and here produce three of them, reserving others for later comment. One of the letters quoted in full by Irwin was from Thomas Mostiller, of Pleasant Plains, Menard County, Illinois. He professed to have heard Lincoln when he was a candidate for Congress in 1847 or 1848, when he was charged with being an infidel and explicitly denied it. Said he: