Lincoln & Herndon

[Mike B.]

(07-07-2014 08:57 PM)LincolnToddFan Wrote:  Mary Todd Lincoln in her September 1866 meeting with Herndon, said on the subject of her husband's religious beliefs that he had "no faith and hope" in the traditional sense, which was true. (Mary Todd Lincoln, Her Life and Letters, Linda Leavitt-Turner and Justin Turner)
From that interview Herndon promoted the idea that MTL had confirmed that Lincoln was an infidel and an atheist which most definitely was not true. She had stressed to him how the experience of the WH had deepened her husband's religious sensibilities, which Herndon chose to ignore. It did not fit the narrative he wanted to tell which was that his hero, a man he idolized, was like himself completely devoid of religious belief.

As for the "Tiger" incident, in which Lincoln is supposed to have spilled his guts about 15 years of domestic unhappiness to a virtual stranger on the street? Herndon wrote of this to Weik in 1887. He says it came to him from James Matheny which-like so many other unflattering MTL anecdotes-makes it a 3rd hand story occurring years after the fact. But even that is not what makes it so dubious...Herndon says the incident occurred in 1850. How on earth could Lincoln have complained about 15 years of marital misery in 1850 when he had only been married at that point for 7-8 years??

Then we have Herndon, in his infinite wisdom, assuring his audience that AL never signed off his letters to his wife "affectionately". Why MTL didn't simply produce the stack of letters she had in her possession that proved otherwise I will never know. Maybe she felt it beneath her to defend her marriage to a man who didn't have a clue what he was talking about.

All of the above tells me that if Herndon didn't sometimes straight out lie to make his points, he wasn't above embellishing and twisting facts.

I wrote a book on Lincoln's religion. It just got a good review in "Lincoln Lore." The WSJ says about it, "Not every attempt to enlist Lincoln is far-fetched, of course, and a good deal of energy has been expended in simply trying to figure out what religious convictions Lincoln held, if any. The latest effort in this very long quest comes from Michael Burkhimer, a high school history teacher and author of 100 Essential ­Lincoln Books . His recently published Lincoln’s Christianity is earnest and careful and as thorough as a book can be that hopes to treat so serpentine a subject in the span of two hundred pages. For the layman and the Lincoln buff alike, it’s a useful and reliable compendium of what we know about Lincoln’s religious views. If Burkhimer falters here and there, it is in assuming, or perhaps hoping, that we know more about the subject than we do."


Herndon can be more accurately be termed a universalist than an atheist. He also wanted Lincoln to be that way, and in large part Lincoln was, a position that would have made him an "infidel" in that day's views. (a position not controversial today). Wayne Temple calls him a "theist" in his book which is also an accurate description.

Mary did try to change what she said to him in that interview when she saw Herndon's take on the matter though. Correct me if I am wrong but I seem to remember that she later even denied talking to him about it.