Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/176

 them (preface, page 9) "ghastly exposures," and by saying (preface, page 8) that to conceal them would be as if the Bible had concealed the facts about Uriah in telling the story of King David; and the biographer next mentioned (Hapgood), just fresh from the press, written with all the light yet given to the world, says (preface, page 8): " Herndon has told the President's early life with refreshing honesty, and with more information than any one else."

Herndon, in his "True Story," &c., dated 1888, is silent about Lincoln's attitude towards religion, and his silence is significant, for Lamon gives in his " Life," dated 1872, the following extract from a letter from Herndon, written in answer to questions on this point: "As to Mr. Lincoln's religious views, he was, in short, an infidel. * * * He did not believe that Jesus was God, nor the Son of God. Mr. Lincoln told me a thousand times that he did not believe the Bible was a revelation from God. * * * The points that Mr. Lincoln tried to demonstrate (in his book), were: First, that the Bible was not God's revelation; and, second, that Jesus was not the Son of God."

Another letter of Herndon's, published in Lamon's "Life" (page 492, et seq.), says of Lincoln's contest with the Rev. Peter Cartwright for Congress in 1848 (page 494): "In that contest he was accused of being an infidel, if not an atheist; he never denied the charge—would not; 'would die first,' because he knew it could be and would be proved on him."

Herndon concedes the indecency of the jokes and stories, and gives (Volume I, page 55) a copy of "The First Chronicle of Reuben," and an account of the slight provocation under which Lincoln wrote it; and, in two foot-notes, describes the exceedingly base and indecent device by which Lincoln brought about the events which gave occasion for this satire. Morse (Volume I, page 13) denounces Herndon bitterly for publishing this chronicle, but suggests no doubt of its authenticity.

Morse's "Lincoln," one of the American Statesmen Series, published in 1892 by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., shows throughout, but notably in its last three pages, as ardent admiration for Lincoln as any other biographer; yet he concedes (Volume I, page 192) the truth of "the revelations of Messrs. Herndon and Lamon" as given