Lincoln's Christianity by Michael Burkhimer

[RJNorton]

(11-12-2015 04:02 AM)maharba Wrote:  Herndon and others claim that Abraham Lincoln was anti-thetical to Jesus, that Lincoln had written a small book he wanted to publish attacking Jesus Christ and scripture. But it was snatched away from Lincoln (by Sam Hill?) and thrown into a blazing firebox.

Although I agree this story is carried in several books, and I agree there is evidence to support (more than just Herndon), there was at least one contemporary of Lincoln's who disputed it. His name was Harvey Lee Ross. Ross carried the mail to and from New Salem and was a member of the New Salem Debating Society. Ross wrote:

"Now I have good reason to believe that Mr. Herndon drew largely on his imagination for this story. I believe it to be without foundation. As I have before stated, my business as mail carrier required me to be in Lincoln's store and post office a part of four days in each week to have the mail changed, and at the same time stopped at the same tavern with Mr. Lincoln. I generally kept my eyes and ears open and knew pretty well what was going on. If there had been any discussion or writing of the sort alluded to by Mr. Herndon I certainly would have known it. Mr. Herndon was then sixteen years old and lived at Springfield, twenty miles away. His father kept the hotel where I put up two nights out of each week, and I generally found Bill on hand either at the hotel or the stable. If he had been away from his business to visit New Salem to look up Mr. Lincoln's religious record, I think that I would have known something about it. It will be noticed that Mr. Herndon says that Mr. Hill threw the infidel document into the stove. Now I know very well that in 1834 Mr. Hill never had a stove in his store. I remember that in the Rutledge tavern, where Mr. Lincoln boarded, they had a shelf put up in the sitting room, and on this shelf the library was kept. There were some twenty five or thirty books law books, histories and miscellaneous works but none of those books referred to by Mr. Herndon.

I have always believed that from the first that I knew of Mr. Lincoln that he was a Christian and one of the best men that I ever knew. I think that all his acts, letters and public documents will show that Mr. Herndon was mistaken in regard to his infidelity."