THE SOUL OF
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
BY
WILLIAM E. BARTON
AUTHOR OF "A HERO IN HOMESPUN,"
"THEPRAIRIE SCHOONER," "PINE KNOT,"
ETC.
NEW 
YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1920,
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
TO MY FOUR SONS
BRUCE, CHARLES, FREDERICK, ROBERT
AND MY SON-IN-LAW, CLYDE
PREFACE
The author is aware that he is dipping his net into a streamalready darkened by too much ink. The fact that there are somany books on the religion of Abraham Lincoln is a chiefreason why there should be one more. Books on this subjectare largely polemic works which followed the publication ofHolland's biography in 1865, and multiplied in the controversiesgrowing out of that and the Lamon and Herndonbiographies in 1872 and 1889 respectively. Within that periodand until the death of Mr. Herndon in 1892 and the publicationof his revised biography of Lincoln in 1893, there was littleopportunity for a work on this subject that was not distinctivelycontroversial. The time has come for a more dispassionateview. Of the large number of other books dealingwith this topic, nearly or quite all had their origin in patrioticor religious addresses, which, meeting with favor when orallydelivered, were more or less superficially revised and printed,in most instances for audiences not greatly larger than thosethat heard them spoken. Many of these are excellent littlebooks, though making no pretense of original and thoroughinvestigation.
Of larger and more comprehensive works there are a few,but they do not attempt the difficult and necessary task ofcritical analysis.
So much has been said, and much of it with such intensityof feeling, on the subject of Lincoln's religion, that a numberof the more important biographies, including the greatwork of Nicolay and Hay, say as little on the subject aspossible.
The author of this volume brings no sweeping criticismagainst those who have preceded him in the same field. Hehas eagerly sought out the books and speeches of all such[Pg viii]within his reach, and is indebted to many of them for valuablesuggestions. A Bibliography at the end of this volume containsa list of those to whom the author knows himself to bechiefly indebted, but his obligation goes much farther thanhe can hope to acknowledge in print. With all due regard forthese earlier authors, the present writer justifies himself inthe publication of this volume by the following considerations,which seems to him to differ in important respects from earlierworks in the same field:
(1) He has made an effort to provide an adequate historicalbackground for the study of the religious life of AbrahamLincoln in the successive periods of his life; and withoutimmediately going too deeply into the material of the mainsubject, to relate the man to his environment. In this theauthor has been aided not only by books and interviews withmen who knew Lincoln, but by some years of personal experiencein communities where the social, educational, and religiousconditions were in all essential respects similar to those inwhich Mr. Lincoln lived during two important epochs of hiscareer. The author was n