Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/175

Rh forth with great clearness (page 181), his duty to tell the whole truth, good and bad, and especially (page 86, et seq.), to correct the statements of indiscreet admirers who have tried to make Lincoln out a religious man, and, though he indignantly remonstrates against such stories, as making his hero a hypocrite, the whole book shows an exceedingly high estimate of the friend of his lifetime.

Hapgood (page 291, et seq.) records that the pious words with which the emancipation proclamation closes were added at the suggestion of Mr. Secretary Chase. Lamon says that, after Lincoln (page 497) "appreciated * * * the violence and extent of the religious prejudices which freedom of discussion from his standpoint would be sure to rouse against him," and "the immense and augmenting power of the churches," * * * (page 502) "he indulged freely in indefinite expressions about 'Divine providence,' the 'justice of God,' the 'favor of the Most High,'" in his published documents, "but he nowhere ever professed the slightest faith in Jesus as the Son of God and the Saviour of men." (Page 501, et seq.) "He never told any one that he accepted Jesus as the Christ, or performed one of the acts which necessarily followed upon such a conviction." (Page 487.) "When he went to church at all, he went to mock, and came away to mimic.". On page 157 and thereafter, Lamon tells minutely of the writing and the burning of "a little book," written by Lincoln with the purpose to disprove the truth of the Bible and the divinity of Christ, and he tells how it was burned without his consent by his friend, Hill, lest it should ruin his political career before a Christian people. On pages 487 to 504 he records numerous letters from Lincoln's intimate associates, and one from his wife, that fully confirmed the above testimony as to his attitude of hostility to religion.

Herndon's "True Story of a Great Life" (dated 1888), sets forth on the title page that Lincoln was for twenty years his friend and law partner, and says (preface, page 10): "Mr. Lincoln was my warm, devoted friend; I always loved him, and I revere his name to-day." He quotes, with approval, and reaffirms Lamon's views as to the duty to tell the faults along with the virtues and great achievements, and says (preface, page 10): "At last the truth will come out, and no man need hope to evade it," and he betrays his sense of the seriousness of the faults he has to record by calling