[Privately printed by H. E. Barker, Springfield, 1917, edition limited to 75 copies.]
APPENDIX VI
THE IRWIN ARTICLE WITH LETTERS CONCERNING
LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS BELIEF
Another Valuable Contribution to the History of the Martyr
President.—Was Abraham Lincoln an Infidel?—A Painstaking
Examination of the Case by An Old Acquaintance.—Important
Testimony of Contemporaneous Witnesses.—History
of the Famous Manuscript of 1833.—Mentor Graham
Says It Was a Defence of Christianity.—The Burned Manuscript
Quite a Different Affair.—The Charge of Infidelity in
1848, Said to Have Been Disproved at the Time.—Letter of
Hon. Wm. Reid, U. S. Consul at Dundee, Scotland.
By B. F. Irwin
Pleasant Plains, Ill., April 20, 1874.
Editor State Journal: For some time, I believe, in 1870 there has been a constant and continued effort upon the part of the Hon. W. H. Herndon, Springfield, Ill., to convince and prove to the world that Abraham Lincoln lived and died an infidel. He has succeded, as I suppose, in proving that proposition to his own entire satisfaction and probably to the satisfaction of some others. The last effort I have noticed upon the subject was Herndon's reply to the Rev. J. A. Reed, in a lecture delivered in the court house in Springfield, some months ago. A few days after that lecture was delivered, I was urgently requested by a prominent minister of the gospel and friend of Lincoln's (and also a lady friend now residing in Kansas) to review that speech. I promised each of those persons I would do so at the proper time. That time has now arrived, and I propose noticing a few points in the address of Mr. Herndon,
"THE RELIGION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN"