When Lamon's work appeared, Holland, backed by the Christian element generally, fell upon it like a savage and sought, as far as possible, to suppress it. Lamon had committed an unpardonable offense. He had declared to the world that Lincoln had died a disbeliever, and, what was worse, he had proved it. Holland's attack was made in an eight-column review of Lamon's "Life," which was published in Scribner's Monthly, for August, 1872. In order to give an air of candor and judicial fairness to his venomous criticisms, he opens with this flattering recognition of its merits: "It is not difficult to see how Colonel Lamon, who during Mr. Lincoln's Presidency held an office in the District of Columbia, which must have brought him into somewhat frequent intercourse with the President, and who, indeed, had come with him from Springfield to the Capital, should feel that there rested on him a certain biographical duty. And certainly he was in possession of a mass of material so voluminous, so original, and so fresh that in this respect at least his fitness for the work was remarkably complete. Moreover, Mr. W. H. Herndon, who was Mr. Lincoln's partner in the practice of the law at Springfield, and was, of course, closely intimate with his partner in a business way,... added to Colonel Lamon's material the valuable documents which he had himself collected, and the memoranda which, with painstaking and lawyer-like ability, he had recorded from the oral testimony of living witnesses.
"As far as the story of Mr. Lincoln's childhood and early life is concerned, down to the time when his political life began, it has never been told so fully, with such spirit and zest, and with such evident accuracy, as by Colonel Lamon."
Nearly the entire review is devoted to a denunciation of Lamon's exposition of Lincoln's religious opinions. He repeatedly pronounces this "an outrage on decency," and characterizes Lincoln's Free-thought companions as "heathen," "barbarians," and "savages." The review concludes as follows:
"The violent and reckless prejudice, and the utter want of delicacy and even of decency by which the book is characterized, in such instances as this, will more than counterbalance the value of its new material, its fresh and vigorous pictures of Western life and manners, and its familiar knowledge of the 'inside politics' of Mr. Lincoln's administration, and will even make its publication (by the famous publishers whose imprint imparts to it a prestige and authority which its authorship would fail to give) something like a national misfortune. In some quarters it will be readily received as the standard life of the good President. It is all the more desirable that the criticism upon it should be prompt and unsparing."
Christianity must have the support of Lincoln's great name. To secure it Holland is willing to misrepresent the honest convictions of Lincoln's lifetime, to traduce the characters of his dearest friends, and to rob a brother author and a publisher of their just reward.
Lamon states that during the last years of Lincoln's life he ceased to proclaim his Infidel opinions because they were unpopular. Referring to this statement, Holland says: "The eagerness with which this volume strives to cover Mr. Lincoln's memory with an imputation so detestable is one of the most pitiable exhibitions which we have lately witnessed."
This outburst of righteous indignation, coming from the source it does, is peculiarly refreshing. To appreciate it, we have only to open Holland's work, and read such passages as the following: "I am obliged to appear different to them." "It was one of the peculiarities of Mr. Lincoln to hide these religious [Christian] experiences from the eyes of the world." "Who had never in their whole lives heard from his lips one word of all these religious convictions and experiences." "They [his friends] did not regard him as a religious man." "All this department of his life he had kept carefully hidden from them." "There was much of his conduct that was simply a cover to these thoughts—an effort to conceal them" (Holland's Life of Lincoln, pp. 239, 240).
Consummate hypocrisy in a Christian is all right with this moralist; but for a Freethinker to withhold his views from an intolerant religious world is a detestable crime.
As a biographer of Lincoln, Holland possessed many advantages over Lamon. His work was written and published immediately after the awful tragedy, when almost the entire reading public was deeply interested in everything that pertained to Lincoln's life. So far as Lincoln's religious views are concerned, he advocated the popular side of the question; for while those outside of the church cared but little about the matter, the church desired the influence of his great name, and was ready to reward those who assisted her in obtaining it. Holland, too, had an established reputation as an author—had nearly as large a class of readers as any writer in this country. His name alone was sufficient to guarantee a large circulation to any book he might produce. Lamon, on the other hand, possessed but a single advantage over his rival, that of having the truth on his side. And while "truth is mighty," and will in the end prevail, yet how often is it "crushed to earth" and for the time obscured. In view of all this, it is not strange that the public should be so slow to reject the fictions of Holland and accept the facts of Lamon.
That Lamon's "Life of Lincoln" is wholly undeserving of adverse criticism, is not claimed. He has, perhaps, given undue prominence to some matters connected with Lincoln's private affairs which might with propriety have been consigned to oblivion. A larger manifestation of charity, too, for the imperfections of those with whom Lincoln mingled, especially in the humbler walks of life, would not have detracted from its merit. And yet, those who desire to know Lincoln as he really was, should read Lamon rather than Holland. In Lamon's work, Lincoln's character is a rugged oak, towering above its fellows and clothed in nature's livery; in Holland's work, it is a dead tree with the bark taken off, the knots planed down, and varnished.