The Soul of Abraham LincolnBarton, William E. (William Eleazar)
Religion
The Soul of Abraham Lincoln
Barton, William E. (William Eleazar)
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Religion; Presidents -- United States -- Biography
Herndon in his later life looked not a little like Lincoln, and
showed no disposition by any change of beard or other device to lessen
the resemblance; but in other particulars the two men were most
unlike. Herndon was five feet nine, Lincoln more than six feet three.
Herndon was impetuous, Lincoln extremely deliberate and cautious to
a fault. Herndon was a good judge of human nature and excelled in
cross-examination, while he failed in the careful preparation of his
cases; Lincoln was a very poor judge of human nature, but reduced his
cases to simple principles, and carefully worked up his evidence with
deliberate care. Herndon was a great reader; Lincoln seldom read a book
through. Herndon spent his money for books and had a valuable library;
Lincoln seldom wasted a dollar on a book. Herndon was outspoken;
Lincoln was secretive. Herndon wanted all the world to know what he
thought about everything; Lincoln kept his ear to the ground and chose
his own time for the utterance of his convictions.
We shall never have another as good description of Abraham Lincoln's
appearance and manner as that which comes from the pen of Herndon, nor
shall we ever obtain better pen pictures of many of the incidents in
his career. But Herndon was too good a witness to be a good judge, and
he lived too near the stump to behold the tree.
Herndon had already attempted to catechize Dr. Smith,[38] Mr. Lincoln's
pastor, concerning his relations with Lincoln, and Smith had replied
that he was willing to tell what he knew about Lincoln's faith, but
did not choose to make Mr. Herndon his vehicle of communication to the
public. This did not tend to increase Herndon's love for the clergy:
and when Dr. Holland printed Dr. Reed's lecture, with its letters in
which several of the men whom Lamon, on Herndon's authority, had quoted
in support of Lamon's declaration, Herndon quickly replied and Holland
refused to print his article.
Herndon spilled much ink through a New York newspaper whose editor
later was sent to prison for the circulation of obscene literature,
and wrote a number of letters, in each of which he tended to become a
little more pronounced.
He scorned the idea that Lincoln had taken strangers into his
confidence concerning his faith. He said in a letter to J. E. Remsburg,
under date of September 10, 1887, "He was the most secretive, reticent,
shut-mouthed man that ever existed."
The Reed lecture infuriated him. He denounced Dr. Reed publicly as a
liar, and said many things which a more prudent man would not have
said. On November 9, 1882, he issued a broadside, entitled "A Card and
a Correction," beginning:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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