"Here lie I, Martin Elginbrod;
Hae mercy o' my soul, Lord God,
As I would hae if I were God,
And Thou wert Martin Elginbrod."

[15] "His early Baptist training made him a fatalist to the day of his death" (Herndon, I, 34).

[16] The story of Lincoln's love affairs lies mostly outside the field of our present inquiry. He had at least one more of them than his biographers have learned about. Those that are best known are the ones with Ann Rutledge, Mary Owens, and Mary Todd. Lamon declares that Lincoln loved Miss Matilda Edwards, sister of Ninian W. Edwards, whose wife was sister to Mary Todd. He gives this as the real reason for the estrangement of Lincoln and his fiancée (Lamon's Life of Lincoln, p. 259). This is vigorously denied by members of the Edwards family, and the opinions in Springfield are anything but unanimous. Herndon informs us that in 1840, when Lincoln was thirty-one, and during the period when he was attracted to Mary Todd, he proposed to Sarah Rickard, a girl of sixteen. The present writer has no occasion to go into the discussions attending these several affairs of the heart. Lincoln's unsettled condition of mind on matrimonial and other matters is, however, an important element in any study of his religious life in this period. Herndon, between whom and Mrs. Lincoln little love was lost, was not unwilling to inform her and the world that Lincoln had loved one woman, at least, more than he ever loved her; and that he married her reluctantly. This was not pleasant information for a proud and erratic grief-stricken woman, and it is not certain that Herndon was impartial authority or that he learned the whole truth. Lincoln was not a lady's man, and Mary Owens was quite right in deeming him "deficient in those little links that make up the chain of a woman's happiness."

Students of the Lincoln material are informed by those who suppose themselves to know, that beside the above-mentioned adventures, Lincoln had at least one additional love affair, and one that was not to his credit. They are told that the proof of this exists in an unpublished letter from the hand of Lincoln, a letter sacredly guarded and seldom shown by its owner. If this book had any reason to go at length into the subject of Lincoln's love affairs, I should be glad to consider that matter in detail; for the owner of that letter has permitted me to read and copy it, and I have the copy, which I intend to use in another volume on Lincoln. I wish to say, however, that the letter, which is a free, unguarded note to an intimate friend, does not sustain the impression that Lincoln had any other love affair, or that any wrong act or motive lay behind his words. Lincoln was not a tactful man in his relations with women; but he was a clean man.

[17] "Mr. Lincoln was never agitated by any passion more than by his wonderful thirst for distinction. There is no instance where an important office was within his reach, and he did not try to get it" (Lamon, Life of Lincoln, p. 237). This is a harsh and unfriendly way of stating it, but it is not wholly false.

[18] Mr. John E. Burton has documentary evidence that Lincoln was associated as so-called partner with seven law firms. Mr. Burton has owned the firm signatures in Lincoln's handwriting as follows:

But these associates, except Stuart, Logan, and Herndon, were not strictly partnerships. They were local associations with lawyers whose practice he shared.

[19] Mr. Barker, the bookseller and publisher of Springfield, has or had an interesting item in a volume which Mr. Lincoln presented to Rev. William A. Chapin, a returned missionary, who lived with the family of his relative, Albert Hale. Mr. Lincoln was on close terms with "Father Hale" and a friend of Mr. Chapin. The book is one volume, the others being lost, of a set entitled "Horae Solitariae, or, Essays on Some Remarkable Names and Titles of the Holy Spirit. First American from the Second London Edition. Philadelphia: Cochran & McLoughlan, 1801." The book bears no name of author. Upon the flyleaf is the autograph of Mr. Chapin in these words, "William A. Chapin, 1844. A present from Abr. Lincoln." How Lincoln obtained the book is not known; nor is it one for which he would have been likely to care. But he cared enough for the book or for the missionary or for both to present the one to the other. His aversion to ministers, which Lamon portrays, may have had some reason in certain cases; but it was not inclusive of all ministers nor of ministers as a class.

[20] I have been at much trouble to get the exact name and dates of this little boy. He was called Eddie, and the name is sometimes given Edwin and sometimes Edward, and I did not find it easy to learn, even at the monument at Springfield, the exact date of his death. He was named for his father's friend, and associate in the Legislature, Edward Baker. He was born March 10, 1846, and died February 1, 1850. Lincoln's children were: Robert Todd, born August 1, 1843, still living; Edward Baker, born March 10, 1846, died in Springfield February 1, 1850; William Wallace, born December 21, 1850, died in the White House February 20, 1862; Thomas or "Tad," born April 4, 1853; died in Chicago, July 15, 1871. Mary Todd Lincoln, their mother, was born in Lexington, Kentucky, December 13, 1818; married Abraham Lincoln, November 4, 1842, and died in Springfield July 16, 1882.