The Soul of Abraham Lincoln
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| Abraham Lincoln - |
The author is aware that he is dipping his net into a stream already darkened by too much ink. The fact that there are so many books on the region of Abraham Lincoln is a chief reason why there should be one more. Books on this subject are largely polemic works which followed the publication of Holland's biography in 1865 and multiplied in the controversies growing out of that and the Lamon and Herndon biographies in 1872 and 1889 respectively.
Within that period and until the death of Mr Herndon in 1892 and the publication of his revised biography of Lincoln in 1893, there was little opportunity for a work on this subject that was not distinctively controversial.
The time has come for a more dispassionate view. Of the large number of other books dealing with this topic, nearly or quite all had their origin in patriotic or religious addresses, which, meeting with favour when orally delivered, were more or less superficially revised and printed, in most instances for audiences not greatly larger than those that heard them spoken.
Many of these are excellent little books, though making no pretence of an original and thorough investigation. Of larger and more comprehensive works there are a few, but they do not attempt the difficult and necessary task of critical analysis. So much has been said, and much of it with such intensity of feeling, on the subject of Lincoln's religion, that a number of the more important biographies, including the great work of Nicolay and Hay, say as little on the subject as possible.
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