Lincoln's Christianity by Michael Burkhimer

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Why only Herndon? You could frame it like the Apostles. When the one fell out, they chose another, and the necessary qualifications included having been with Him, from the outset. William Herndon met those qualifications, while Nicolay and Hay did not. Still, having known Lincoln from very early times, Herndon did what no one else did. He actually traveled the country and took statements from folks who had known Lincoln in even his earlier youth. We all like to believe in the Freedom of the Press and that authors and reporters genuinely do such in-depth investigation. But, in fact, they rarely did and far less so, today. Nicolay and Hay were balked of the really good material from Robert Lincoln to begin with, and then only shown some of his father's material later. How much did Robert Lincoln burn of Lincoln letters and personal notes? WHAT was in there which might have been so embarrassing or so volatile? We'll never know. How many death threats did Lincoln receive? How many did poor Boston Corbett get? How many more did William Herndon get, I wonder, yet? Countless Northern families had lost the flower of their generation in a bizarre invasion of the South, and none of them wanted to hear that they may have been deceived into joining it, that their sons and fathers died in vain, or that Lincoln was anything less than the kindest most honest and Christian man in history. Herndon's material infuriated them, and they would not hear it.