The Soul of Abraham Lincoln

by William E. Barton

In the spring of the year 1850, after the death of their little son Eddie, Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln visited Mrs. Lincoln's relatives in Kentucky. While they were on this visit, Mr. Lincoln picked up a book entitled The Christian's Defence, by Rev. James Smith. He was interested, for Dr. Smith was a townsman of his, and in the absence of Mrs. Lincoln's rector Dr. Smith had conducted the little boy's funeral service in the Lincoln home. Lincoln read a part but not the whole of the book while on this visit. Dr. Smith, as the book showed, had himself been a doubter, but had become convinced of the truth of the Christian religion, and had become a valiant defender of the faith, and an eager debater with skeptics. Out of a three weeks' discussion with one of these this book had grown.

On his return to Springfield Mr. Lincoln took occasion to secure the book, and to cultivate a closer acquaintance with its author.

Lincoln found him well worth knowing; and the reader of this book deserves an introduction to him and his work.

I have obtained from Miss Jeanette E. Smith, of Springfield, granddaughter of Rev. James Smith, a considerable body of manuscript and other material relating to her grandfather.

James Smith was born in Glasgow, Scotland, May 11, 1801, and died in Scotland July 3, 1871. He was the son of Peter and Margaret Smith. In youth he was wild, and in his opinions was a deist; but when converted he became a fearless defender of the faith. He was a big, brainy man, with a great voice and with positive convictions. He was called from Shelbyville, Kentucky, to the First Church of Springfield, his pastorate beginning March 14, 1849, and closing December 17, 1856.

He was a strong temperance man. His sermon on "The Bottle, Its Evils and Its Remedy," from Habakkuk 2:15, was preached on January 23, 1853, and printed at the request of thirty-nine men who heard it, Abraham Lincoln being one of those who signed the request. "Friends of Temperance" they called themselves. I have a copy of this remarkable sermon. In one part it essayed a vindication of the distiller and liquor-seller, affirming that a community that licensed them had no right to abuse them for doing what they had paid for the privilege of doing; and that the State with money in its pocket received as a share in the product of drunkenness had no right to condemn the saloonkeeper for his share in the partnership. He called on the Legislature then in session to pass a prohibitory law, forbidding all sale of intoxicating liquor except for medical, mechanical, and sacramental purposes.

Such sermons became abundant forty years afterward, but they were not abundant in 1853. Dr. Smith was one of the men who held these convictions, and Abraham Lincoln was one of the men who wanted to see them printed and circulated.

It is remarkable that all knowledge of the massive book which Dr. Smith wrote and published should have perished from Springfield. Lamon manifestly knew nothing of it as a book, but thought of it as a manuscript tract, prepared especially for the ambitious business of converting Mr. Lincoln. His sarcastic description implies this, and Herndon, who may have known better at the time, had apparently forgotten. Both men were disqualified for the discussion of it by their ignorance of it, as well as the violence of their prejudice.

On February 12, 1909, a service was held in the old First Presbyterian Church in Springfield, then occupied by the Lutherans, the Presbyterians having erected a larger building. The address was given by Rev. Thomas D. Logan, Dr. Smith's successor, whose pastorate had begun in 1888. In all the more than twenty years of his ministry in Springfield, he had never seen this book. He had never known of it as a book at the time he wrote the first draft of this centenary address. The substance of the address he sent in advance as an article for the Lincoln Number of The Continent in February, 1909; but in the revision of the proof he inserted a footnote saying that Dr. Smith's granddaughter, Miss Jeanette E. Smith, had come into possession of a copy of her grandfather's book, which he had just seen.

The prime reason for this complete ignorance of the book, even in the church which Lincoln attended, is that it was published six years before Dr. Smith came to Springfield, in a limited edition, and completely sold out before it came from the press; so that it never came into general circulation in Springfield.