Whether there be a ten per cent. modicum of fact at the root of the above letter I will not attempt to guess, for my own information is too meager. The picture, as a whole, of Mr. Lincoln preaching Unitarianism from a Unitarian pulpit, and at the close assuming charge of the service of farewell and exhorting the railroad hands to come again is too far from the possible truth to require very close analysis.
The Unitarian books which Mr. Lincoln read cursorily, the books by Parker and Channing, must have assisted him in this, that they gave assurance that there were forward-looking men who believed in God and in human freedom as he did, and who were quite as far from holding the teaching which he had been taught to call orthodox as he was, yet who were not infidels, but counted themselves friends of God and disciples of Jesus Christ.
Herndon asserts that Lincoln habitually spoke in his presence in terms of denial of the supernatural birth of Jesus. On this point I have seen but one bit of documentary evidence, and that of unique interest, in two words written in a book that once belonged to Lincoln. The book is entitled Exercises in the Syntax of the Greek Language, by Rev. William Nielson, D.D., and contains two appendixes by Prof. Charles Anthon, noted as a Greek scholar and the author of a Greek Grammar and other textbooks. It was published by T. & J. Swords in New York, in 1825. At the bottom of page 34 is a sentence, shortened and modified from John 16:27, and printed in parallel Greek and English,—
"Ye have loved me, and
have believed that I came forth
from God."
The words "from God" are erased with pen, and the words, "from nature" substituted, apparently in the handwriting of Mr. Lincoln. This, if its genuineness be established, would appear to be conclusive that at the time Lincoln owned this book he denied the supernatural birth of Jesus.
The book was formerly a part of the noted collection of Mr. John E. Burton, procured by him from the collection of Dr. J. B. English, and was retained by Mr. Burton with other unique items when his large collection was broken up some years ago. I was privileged to examine the book by A. C. McClurg & Co., in April, 1919; the book being then and possibly still owned by them.
That the book was once owned by Lincoln would appear certain. His signature on the flyleaf is in his firm, mature hand, written as he was accustomed to write it until some time after he became President, "A. Lincoln." The ownership would appear to be still further attested by an inscription on the inside of the front cover, "Compliments to Master Abe Lincoln, and good success, truly yours, Charles Anthon, Columbia College." But this inscription raises more questions than it answers. I am not familiar with the handwriting of Professor Anthon, but I am disposed to question the genuineness of this inscription. That it has been received as genuine by previous owners of the book is attested by the fact that another hand has written before "Columbia College" the words "A Prof." evidently that Professor Anthon might be properly introduced to persons who did not know him. Professor Anthon was a noted classical scholar, but I cannot help wondering at what period of his career he could have come into personal touch with Abraham Lincoln. Not, certainly, in 1825, when the book was published, and when Lincoln was sixteen years old. And at what later period would Professor Anthon have addressed him as "Master Abe Lincoln"?
If Anthon came to know Lincoln personally so as to care to present him with one of his books, it would seem as if he would have given him a book of which he was the sole or chief author, and not one in which his part was confined to the appendix. Anthon's interest in the Greek was primarily classical, and that of the author of this work was primarily Biblical. If Anthon came to know Lincoln it would probably have been after Lincoln had become a national figure, say in 1848 or some later year, by which time a book issued in 1825 would have become an old story to an author engaged in publishing new books.
Let me, then, in the absence of direct evidence, venture the hypothesis that the book was really owned by Lincoln; that it came into his possession not earlier than the time when, having mastered Kirkham's Grammar, he welcomed the ownership of a book which suggested the possible knowledge of a classical tongue. That he bought the book is hardly probable; that it was the gift of Professor Anthon is improbable, because there would appear to have been no contact between the two at a period when such a gift would have been appropriate: let us assume, then, that someone else gave him the book, and that the attribution to Professor Anthon is the conjectural record of a later owner.[47]
The book might conceivably have come into Lincoln's possession through the Green boys, or the brother of Ann Rutledge, returning from Illinois College to New Salem; for it was a book which might easily have been floating around Jacksonville, and picked up by a student there, and later discarded because he had no special interest in the Greek of the New Testament. Lincoln would have been more likely to feel a passing interest in it then than at any other period of his career, for he was widening his educational horizon, and had not as yet set any limits to his learning in one or another direction. He might have picked it up, or it might have been handed him by some minister, during his early years in Springfield; but by that time Lincoln must have given up any passing notion that he might ever learn Greek. He could hardly have procured it and would not have cared for it before he lived in New Salem: he must have ceased to think of the possibility of learning Greek before he had lived long in Springfield.