The publication of the Lamon biography and the Reed lecture brought him into a conflict from which no power on earth could probably have kept him out, and in it he did and said many things which for his own sake and Lincoln's he might better not have said.
But Herndon was no liar3. Biased4 as he was, and himself a free-thinker or perhaps worse, he told the truth in such fashion as to throw it out of perspective, and sometimes told what he believed to be the truth in a passion which compels us to discount some of his testimony5. But he did not lie nor intentionally6 misrepresent.
For twenty years Lincoln and Herndon were law partners, and their partnership7 was never formally dissolved. Lincoln liked Herndon, but there was no loss of love between Herndon and Mrs. Lincoln. She, if tradition about Springfield is to be believed, disliked him personally for his habits, and possibly also for his politics, for he was an Abolitionist before Lincoln, and a very ardent8 one at that. Had she known what Herndon was to say about her in later years she might have been more gracious to her husband's junior partner, who had learned some habits at the bar of his father's tavern9 which he might better not have learned.
Herndon in his later life looked not a little like Lincoln,[Pg 141] and showed no disposition10 by any change of beard or other device to lessen11 the resemblance; but in other particulars the two men were most unlike. Herndon was five feet nine, Lincoln more than six feet three. Herndon was impetuous, Lincoln extremely deliberate and cautious to a fault. Herndon was a good judge of human nature and excelled in cross-examination, while he failed in the careful preparation of his cases; Lincoln was a very poor judge of human nature, but reduced his cases to simple principles, and carefully worked up his evidence with deliberate care. Herndon was a great reader; Lincoln seldom read a book through. Herndon spent his money for books and had a valuable library; Lincoln seldom wasted a dollar on a book. Herndon was outspoken12; Lincoln was secretive. Herndon wanted all the world to know what he thought about everything; Lincoln kept his ear to the ground and chose his own time for the utterance13 of his convictions.
We shall never have another as good description of Abraham Lincoln's appearance and manner as that which comes from the pen of Herndon, nor shall we ever obtain better pen pictures of many of the incidents in his career. But Herndon was too good a witness to be a good judge, and he lived too near the stump14 to behold15 the tree.
Herndon had already attempted to catechize Dr. Smith,[38] Mr. Lincoln's pastor16, concerning his relations with Lincoln, and Smith had replied that he was willing to tell what he knew about Lincoln's faith, but did not choose to make Mr. Herndon his vehicle of communication to the public. This did not tend to increase Herndon's love for the clergy17: and when Dr. Holland printed Dr. Reed's lecture, with its letters in which several of the men whom Lamon, on Herndon's authority, had quoted in support of Lamon's declaration, Herndon quickly replied and Holland refused to print his article.
Herndon spilled much ink through a New York newspaper[Pg 142] whose editor later was sent to prison for the circulation of obscene literature, and wrote a number of letters, in each of which he tended to become a little more pronounced.
He scorned the idea that Lincoln had taken strangers into his confidence concerning his faith. He said in a letter to J. E. Remsburg, under date of September 10, 1887, "He was the most secretive, reticent18, shut-mouthed man that ever existed."
The Reed lecture infuriated him. He denounced Dr. Reed publicly as a liar, and said many things which a more prudent19 man would not have said. On November 9, 1882, he issued a broadside, entitled "A Card and a Correction," beginning:
"I wish to say a few short words to the public and private ear. About the year 1870 I wrote a letter to Mr. F. E. Abbott, then of Ohio, touching20 Mr. Lincoln's religion.[39] In that letter I stated that Mr. Lincoln was an infidel, sometimes bordering on atheism21, and I now repeat the same. In the year 1873, the Right Rev22. James A. Reed, pastor and liar of this city, gave a lecture on Mr. Lincoln's religion, in which he tried to answer me,—" and more to the same purport23.
While Herndon and Lamon were men of quite different, mind and ability, the two men used essentially24 the same body of material for the making of their books about Lincoln, Herndon having sold copies of all his Lincoln manuscripts to Lamon.
Herndon delivered at least three lectures on Lincoln. The first, and most popular and valuable, was on the "Life and Character of Lincoln." It was first delivered to a Springfield audience in 1866, was repeated many times, and it forms the substance of the twentieth chapter of his book, as it appeared in the first edition, and the eleventh chapter in the second. It contains the incomparable description of Lincoln's personal appearance which must stand to all time as the best and final pen-picture of the man.
[Pg 143]
The second was entitled "Abraham Lincoln; Miss Ann Rutledge; New Salem; the Poem." It was delivered in the old Sangamon County court house in Springfield in November, 1866, and was based on notes which Herndon had recently made on a visit to New Salem, Sunday and Monday, October 14-15, 1866. It contains the material out of which all subsequent romantic works about Lincoln and Ann Rutledge have been woven. It was heard by a small audience, greeted with manifest disapproval25, and came near to being hopelessly lost; but is preserved in a limited edition published by H. E. Barker, Springfield. This edition is quoted in part in the foregoing pages, with special reference to Herndon's personal touch with New Salem.
The third was on "The Religion of Abraham Lincoln," and was called out by the Holland biography and the Bateman interview. Of this and the first, Mr. Barker says in his preface to the Ann Rutledge lecture, that they "were allowed to perish for lack of permanence in printed form. Their subject-matter, however, was embodied26 in the extended Life of Lincoln published in 1872 by Ward27 H. Lamon, and in the still later Life of Lincoln written and published by Mr. Herndon in 1889."
This material is quoted practically in extenso in the pages of this volume, no important statement having been omitted.
Herndon's regret increased that he had sold to Lamon the copies of his papers. He was in a position where he was getting most of the blame for what Lamon had written, and he was not wholly in sympathy with Lamon's and especially with Black's point of view. Lamon's proposed new edition, with the new volume that was to have covered the years of Lincoln's Presidency28, did not materialize. There was probably no publisher who dared undertake it. At length Herndon got to work on his own biography of Lincoln, and was fortunate in associating with himself Mr. Jesse W. Weik, who helped him to complete it. The work was published in 1889 by Belford, Clarke, & Company, of Chicago, and made its appearance in three volumes. Soon after its publication the firm failed. The books were hawked29 about for a song, the greater[Pg 144] part of the edition was unsold, and the balance of the edition is alleged30 to have been bought up by Lincoln's friends and destroyed. The author of this book paid $35.00 for his set, and could sell it at a profit.
It is a great pity that Herndon had not learned his lesson from the fate of Lamon's book. If he had omitted some of the objectionable matter, he would have made for himself a great name. Even as it was, he did a great piece of work: but he gained neither money nor commendation.
In 1892, Appletons brought out a new edition in two volumes, with some matter omitted, and some new matter by Horace White, and that edition met with favor. But Herndon did not live to see it. He died, poor and battle-scarred, denounced as the maligner31 of the man he loved.
In his younger days, Herndon drank, and it is alleged that in his later life he used morphine. It is said that he wanted an appointment to a Government Land Office, but that Lincoln, knowing his weakness, did not appoint him, and that this had some share in his feeling, which he still thought to be one of reverence32 for Lincoln, but which was unconsciously tinged33 with resentment34. To this it is answered that Lincoln did offer Herndon an appointment which Herndon declined: but it was not a very attractive appointment, and there is good reason to believe that Herndon was disappointed, and that he knew Lincoln's reason.
The name which Herndon applied35 to Lincoln he accepted for himself, that of infidel. Yet it is fair to ask whether this was a just term as applied to Herndon himself. In his lecture on Ann Rutledge, he had occasion to defend himself in advance for views which he knew would be heard with suspicion, and which, indeed, like almost everything he said and did, had the unfortunate quality of increasing his unpopularity, he said:
"You know my Religion, my Philosophy: That the highest thought and acts of the human soul and its religious sphere are to think, love, obey, and worship God, by thinking freely, by loving, teaching, doing good to, and elevating mankind. [Pg 145]My first duty is to God, then to mankind, and then to the individual man or woman."—Lecture on Ann Rutledge, pp. 9-10.
One cannot help regretting that the man who had thus defined his own religion should ever have been led to think himself or any other man whom he supposed to be like-minded an infidel.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
astigmatism
|
|
| n.散光，乱视眼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
invaluable
|
|
| adj.无价的，非常宝贵的，极为贵重的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
liar
|
|
| n.说谎的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
biased
|
|
| a.有偏见的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
testimony
|
|
| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
intentionally
|
|
| ad.故意地，有意地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
partnership
|
|
| n.合作关系，伙伴关系 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
ardent
|
|
| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
tavern
|
|
| n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
disposition
|
|
| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
lessen
|
|
| vt.减少，减轻；缩小 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
outspoken
|
|
| adj.直言无讳的，坦率的，坦白无隐的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
utterance
|
|
| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
stump
|
|
| n.残株，烟蒂，讲演台；v.砍断，蹒跚而走 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
behold
|
|
| v.看，注视，看到 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
pastor
|
|
| n.牧师，牧人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
clergy
|
|
| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
reticent
|
|
| adj.沉默寡言的；言不如意的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
prudent
|
|
| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
touching
|
|
| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
atheism
|
|
| n.无神论，不信神 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
rev
|
|
| v.发动机旋转，加快速度 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
purport
|
|
| n.意义，要旨，大要；v.意味著，做为...要旨，要领是... | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
essentially
|
|
| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
disapproval
|
|
| n.反对，不赞成 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
embodied
|
|
| v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 )；象征；包括；包含 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
ward
|
|
| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
presidency
|
|
| n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
hawked
|
|
| 通过叫卖主动兜售（hawk的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
alleged
|
|
| a.被指控的，嫌疑的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
maligner
|
|
| n.诽谤者，中伤者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
32
reverence
|
|
| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
tinged
|
|
| v.（使）发丁丁声( ting的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
resentment
|
|
| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
applied
|
|
| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |