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U 
 
 The Dual Personality of 
 Abraham Lincoln" 
 
 A Brief Psychological Study 
 
 By 
 
 John W. Starr, Jr. 
 
 PRIVATELY PRINTED 
 1928 
 
Edition of 75 numbered and signed copies. 
 
 Copyright, 1928 
 John W. Starr, Jr. 
 

 FOREWORD 
 
 /T^riefly, the purpose of this monograph has been an 
 f*J investigation of the so-called "dual personality" of 
 Abraham Lincoln from a new point of view — primarily 
 psychological. The resultant conclusions largely grew out 
 of a series of discussions with my brother, Dr. Henry E. 
 Starr, Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of 
 Pennsylvania, to whom grateful acknowledgment is hereby 
 made. I am also indebted to Merritt Starr, Esq., of Chicago, 
 for several suggestions used in the preparation of the text. 
 
 This paper in no sense denies that the character of 
 Abraham Lincoln was singularly rich in what may be re- 
 garded as contrasting if indeed not conflicting strains of 
 personality. It aims simply to indicate the psychological 
 sources of error and scientific unreliability of much that has 
 heretofore been regarded as evidence, thereby inaugurating 
 a rather unusual criteria in the consideration of historical 
 data. Applying this method to a study of what is regarded 
 popularly as the most flagrant example of contradictoriness 
 in the life of Lincoln, namely his "Religion," we find the 
 element of contradiction in this as in other instances to be 
 found in the individual differences existing among the many 
 witnesses. 
 
 It is intended that the present study will be but prelim- 
 inary to a more extended psychological survey of Abraham 
 Lincoln from various angles. For instance, the matter of 
 a manic-depressive cycle in the emotional reactions of 
 Abraham Lincoln gives promise of a rather interesting con- 
 sideration. In fact, an attempt is now being made to repre- 
 sent graphically his emotional fluctuations, yet even here 
 there appears to be no evidence of any abnormal emotional 
 instability. 
 
"The Dual Personality of 
 Abraham Lincoln 11 
 
 « i braham Lincoln, 1 ' said the eloquent Henry Watterson by 
 
 J\ way of apotheosis, "was without ancestors, fellows or succes' 
 %S JL sors." "It is doubtful if history has produced a more mys- 
 terious personality than that which was incarnate in the long, gaunt, 
 uncouth form of the First American," wrote Robert Knowles in the 
 year of the Lincoln centenary. 
 
 Probably more analyses — or rather attempts at analysis — have been 
 made of his character than that of any other human being, and yet 
 none has as yet fathomed the depths of his personality, and I believe 
 we can never arrive at an approximately full understanding until an 
 extended and intensive study of it is made from a psychological stand- 
 point. Call it genius, call it the result of special Providence, call it 
 but the application of profound common sense, I venture the state- 
 ment that Abraham Lincoln was the greatest intellect yet produced 
 on the American continent, and the one thing needed as a fitting 
 climax to all that has been done before, is an illuminating psycho- 
 logical analysis, with all that that implies, and in all its ramifications. 
 
 Those of his contemporaries who stood nearest to him agree as to 
 the element of an apparent, glaring and highly antithetical incongruity 
 being a major component of his nature, combined with an original and 
 distinctive individuality. 
 
 "Lincoln," said Henry C. Whitney, who knew him on the Circuit 
 and at Washington, "was one of the most heterogeneous characters 
 that ever played a part in the great drama of history. * * * One of 
 his peculiarities was his inequality of conduct; his dignity, inter- 
 spersed with freaks of frivolity and inanity; his high aspiration and 
 achievement, and his descent into the most primitive vales of listless - 
 ness." In short, said Whitney, "his character might be defined as a 
 combination of many antitheses: some obvious, some perplexing, 
 others occult." He also refers to him as being at once "the most 
 
melancholy and the most jocound of men," combining within himself 
 the' 'strangely diverse roles of headof the State" and "the court jester." 
 
 His more or less discriminating friends of the old circuit-riding and 
 Springfield days agree as to his being a singularly reticent individual, 
 listening to all, yet keeping his own counsel, and having no confidants 
 as we understand the term, which accounts in some measure for our 
 lack of understanding. And this lack of understanding has been 
 augmented largely by the conflicting "personal recollections" and 
 "reminiscences" of literally scores and hundreds of his so'called 
 "friends," who having seen, heard or met him on one or two occasions, 
 have left their "intimate" impressions to baffle an inquiring posterity. 
 
 William H. Herndon, associated with him in the practice of law 
 for eighteen years, said that "he never revealed himself entirely to 
 any one man;" David Davis, Judge of the old 8th Illinois Circuit, 
 afterwards elevated by President Lincoln to Associate Justice of the 
 United States Supreme Court, has testified that "he was the most 
 reticent, secretive man I ever saw or expect to see;" Ward Lamon, 
 with whom he formed a local partnership and whom he took to 
 Washington to be Marshal of the District of Columbia, has witnessed 
 that he was "a man apart from his kind;" and Leonard Swett, who 
 was stated by the late Col. A. K. McClure to have been the one whose 
 counsels were among the most welcome to Lincoln, at one time 
 referred to the great public mistake in estimating his character as 
 "frank, guileless and unsophisticated," saying that "beneath a smooth 
 surface of candor and apparent declaration of all his thoughts and 
 feelings he exercised the most exalted tact and wisest discrimination." 
 
 Writing in 1892, Col. McClure, the veteran journalist who as one 
 of the Pennsylvania politicians during the war period materially 
 assisted in keeping the state in the Republican fold, said that of all 
 the public men he had ever met, Lincoln was the most difficult to 
 analyze. "His characteristics were more original," said McClure, 
 "more diversified, more intense in a sober way, and yet more flexible 
 under many circumstances, than I have seen in any other," and adds 
 that those of his personal friends closest to him, found him "utterly 
 impassable and incomprehensible" and refers to his "common mingling 
 of greatness and infirmities." 
 
 Joshua Speed, the man to whom Lincoln opened his soul during 
 his trying match-making days, and who was also probably the most 
 
intimate friend that Lincoln ever had, in-so-far as he had an intimate, 
 said that "he was so unlike all the men I had ever known before, or 
 have seen or known since, that there is no one to whom I can compare 
 him. 11 
 
 Charles Sumner, the polished New England statesman, declared 
 that "when he spoke the recent West seemed to vie with the ancient 
 East. * * * He was original in mind as in character. His style was 
 his own; formed on no model, and springing directly from himself. 11 
 
 "His mental eye was clear and accurate, 11 said Isaac N. Arnold, 
 another member of the early Illinois Bar, and member of the national 
 House of Representatives from 1861 to 1867, during which tenure he 
 was referred to by President Lincoln as the one Republican member 
 in whose personal and political friendship he had absolute faith. 
 "He had a sagacity which seemed almost instinctive in sifting the 
 true and real from the false. Extraneous circumstances, coloring, 
 association, and accidents, did not mislead him. 11 And as an interest' 
 ing and significant aside, Merritt Starr, Esq., of Chicago, informs the 
 writer that Arnold, whom he knew, had exceptional means of knowl' 
 edge and understanding of Lincoln. "Mr. Arnold, 11 he adds, "was 
 himself a man of scholarly interests, and a gentleman of elegance in 
 heart, speech, dress and manner, and he found nothing alien in his 
 elegant nature in Lincoln. 11 
 
 One month after the battle of Gettysburg the versatile John Hay 
 wrote to his coworker in the Presidential offices with respect to his 
 superior, that "the Tycoon is in fine whack. I have rarely seen him 
 more serene and busy. He is managing this war, the draft, foreign 
 relations, and planning a reconstruction of the Union, all at once. I 
 never knew with what a tyrannous authority he rules the Cabinet 
 till now. The most important things he decides, and there is no cavil. 11 
 
 Long before this, one of the intellectual giants of his Cabinet, 
 Premier Seward, who thought that he would be the power behind 
 the throne, saw the handwriting on the wall, and two weeks after 
 the new administration was in charge of national affairs, wrote to his 
 wife that "the President proposes to do all his work 11 (the italics are 
 mine), and three months later had come to the point when he could 
 inform her that "the President is the best of us all. 11 
 
 His countenance, and particularly his eyes, reflected his varying 
 moods. "In repose it was the saddest face I ever knew, 11 said Car- 
 
penter the artist, who spent six months in the Executive Mansion 
 painting his First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation Before the 
 Cabinet. "There were days when I could scarcely look into it with' 
 out crying. " 
 
 "His eyes," according to Arnold, were a "dark gray, clear, very 
 expressive, and varying with every mood: now sparkling with 
 humor and fun, then flashing with wit; stern with indignation at 
 wrong and injustice, then kind and genial, and then dreamy and 
 melancholy, and at times with that almost superhuman sadness which 
 it has been said is the sign and seal of those who are to be martyrs." 
 
 When in 1865 J. G. Holland, later editor of Scribner's magazine, 
 went to Illinois to gather data for a contemporary perspective of 
 Abraham Lincoln to be used in the preparation of a biography, he 
 was confronted on every hand with the problem of his subject's 
 ambiguity. 
 
 "I have conversed with multitudes of men who claimed to know 
 Mr. Lincoln intimately," he wrote, "yet there are not two of the 
 whole number who agree in their estimate of him. The fact was that 
 he rarely showed more than one aspect of himself to one man. He 
 opened himself to men in different directions. * * * 
 
 "He lived for years a double life, a deep and a shallow one," 
 Holland reasoned. "Oppressed with great responsibilities, absorbed 
 by the most profound problems relating to his own spirit and destiny, 
 brought into sympathetic relation with the woes of the world, and 
 living much in the very depths of a sadness whose natural fountain 
 had been deepened by the experience of his life, he found no relief 
 except by direct and entire translation to that other channel of his 
 life which lay among his shallowest emotions. * * * Such a nature 
 and character seem full of contradictions, and a man who is subject 
 to such transitions will always be a mystery to those who do not 
 know him fully. Thus no two men among his intimate friends will 
 agree concerning him." 
 
 This so-called antithetical characteristic of Abraham Lincoln has 
 been in a large measure responsible for the never ending stream of 
 controversial processions which from time to time have wended and 
 continue to wend their way across the historical and national stage; 
 this is why he is claimed by both the "Wets" and the "Drys;" why, 
 as an example, it is still an unsettled problem in the minds of many 
 
students as to whether President Lincoln favored either Hannibal 
 Hamlin or Andrew Johnson for a running mate in 1864; why he has 
 been acclaimed by not only the Republican and Democratic parties but 
 the Socialist as well; and finally, why he has been variously termed an 
 Agnostic, an Infidel, a Free thinker, a Deist, a Rationalist, a Materi- 
 alist, a Spiritualist, a Mystic, a Seer, a Catholic, a Unitarian, a Uni- 
 versalist, an orthodox and an unorthodox Christian, and a patron 
 saint of every sect and cult on our mundane sphere. 
 
 And it is undeniable, and must be admitted, that the individual 
 who could compose the Gettysburg Address, the Second Inaugural 
 and the letter of condolence to Mrs. Bixby, could also regale his 
 chance listener or intimate friend with stories which would not bear 
 repetition in the drawing-rooms of his day. And the enigmatical figure 
 who was, as John Hay has said, "with all his foibles the greatest 
 character since Christ,' 1 could, while entertaining a profoundly honest 
 and deeply sincere religious feeling, yet loosen the valves of his pent 
 up emotional nature and either delight or disgust his auditor by an 
 apparently irrelevant, irreverent remark or story. 
 
 In this connection I purpose to formulate a series of deeply rooted 
 beliefs and traits generally accepted by the intelligent Lincoln students 
 correlated with a series of well authenticated anecdotes and stories 
 which it will readily be discerned formed an apparently sound frame' 
 work for deducing an attitude of irreverence and ir religiousness. And 
 with relation to my statements of belief I do not propose to enter into 
 a polemical discussion as to what this or that acquaintance or friend 
 said in allegation of the faiths, or lack of faith, attributed to him. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln believed in a Supreme Being, an Over-ruling 
 Providence. The late Col. McClure once informed the writer that 
 many times he had heard him speak of the Overruling power of the 
 nation and world. And although he could not understand its work- 
 ings, he believed in the will of God, and that he was an instrument in 
 the hands of Divine Providence for carrying out this Will. His 
 document "not written to be seen of men," as his secretaries put it, 
 commencing "the will of God prevails," composed when his great 
 heart as well as his equally great intellect was grappling with his 
 weightiest problem, the Emancipation Proclamation, proves con- 
 clusively the workings of his mind in thinking the matter to a finish m 
 
 He believed in the efficacy of prayer. "I have been many times 
 driven to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had no- 
 
where else to go, 11 he told his friend Noah Brooks during the dark 
 days of civil conflict. Before the battle of Gettysburg he importuned 
 his God for victory and had no doubt of the result. In 1862 he made 
 a promise to himself and his Maker that if the Confederate army should 
 be driven out of Maryland, he would issue a proclamation of emanci- 
 pation for the negro. And yet notwithstanding this, and as a strong 
 commentary on his apparent contradictoriness, it should be stated 
 that the preliminary proclamation of September 22nd contained no 
 reference whatever to the Deity, and it was only at the suggestion of 
 Secretary Chase that the final proclamation invoked the "gracious 
 favor of Almighty God." 
 
 He was as thoroughly familiar with the Scriptures as he was with 
 Blackstone, and we have every reason to believe that he read the Bible 
 daily. Some of his greatest utterances show the effect of this close 
 study. In the summer of 1864 Speed called on him at the Soldier's 
 Home and found the President sitting near a window reading this 
 book by the gathering twilight. "Take all of this book upon reason 
 that you can, and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a 
 happier man," he told his old associate, whom he had known as a 
 fellow'skeptic in their earlier days. 
 
 He believed in exemplifying the teachings of Christ. For dogmas 
 and creeds he cared little. Some years ago the writer was informed 
 by Alban Jasper Conant, the artist, that he once heard Lincoln make 
 a remark to the effect that when he found a church that taught the 
 teachings of Christ, he should join it. This statement is in line with 
 an expression he once made to Hon. H. C. Deming of Connecticut, 
 that "when any church will inscribe over its altar as its sole quali' 
 fication for membership, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all 
 thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thy 
 neighbor as thyself,' that church will I join with all my heart and 
 with all my soul." 
 
 He believed in the sanctity of the Sabbath Day, and one of his 
 generals, Haupt, has related how upon one occasion when a military 
 movement was to be initiated and the President was told that all 
 would be in readiness the following Sunday, after a short reflection 
 Lincoln said: "I'll tell you what to do; take a good ready and start 
 Monday morning." 
 
 Although he never united with it, he believed in the Christian 
 Church as an agency for good, and was deeply grateful for the support 
 
accorded the government by the various denominational bodies during 
 the war. And during these latter years of his life, while carrying the 
 tremendous responsibility of the nation upon his shoulders, he 
 attended church with as much regularity as the duties of his office 
 would permit. 
 
 Coupled with his religious practicality was a deep-seated super- 
 stition. He was greatly impressed by dreams of various kinds. Upon 
 one occasion he telegraphed from the Executive Mansion to his wife 
 in Philadelphia: "Think you had better put Tad's pistol away. I 
 had an ugly dream about him. 11 While visiting at Fort Monroe shortly 
 after the death of an older son, he borrowed the commandant's copy 
 of Shakespeare, and after reading aloud from "Macbeth" and "King 
 Lear 11 turned to "King John. 11 Deeply moved by the passages in 
 which Constance bewails the loss of her boy, he closed the book and 
 repeated : 
 
 "And, father cardinal, I have heard you say 
 That we shall see and know our friends in heaven: 
 If that be true, I shall see my boy again. — 
 
 "Colonel Cannon, 11 he said, "did you ever dream of some lost friend, 
 and feel that you were having a sweet communion with that friend; 
 and yet have a sad consciousness that it was not a reality? Just so 
 I dream of my boy Willie, 11 and overcome by his emotions he laid his 
 head upon the table and broke into convulsive weeping. At the 
 Cabinet meeting held the morning of his assassination he recounted a 
 dream he had had the previous night which had preceded nearly 
 every important event of the war. 
 
 There can be no question that he was interested to some extent in 
 Spiritualistic phenomena, although obviously the accounts of the 
 devotees of that cult have been over-drawn. It is my opinion that 
 this interest was due chiefly to the death of his son, which occurred 
 about a year after the Lincoln family took up their residence in the 
 White House. 
 
 Turning to the other side of the picture, I append some of the best 
 of the authentic stories told of and by Lincoln, which, without a 
 context, and attributed to some unnamed individual, would be 
 enough to put him in the category of the irreligious, the sacreligious, 
 and in some quarters the "damned. 11 
 
One of the best stories in this collection, I believe, is the one told 
 by Henry B. Rankin, a law student in the Lincoln-Herndon office, 
 who recently died at an advanced age in Springfield. 
 
 It seems that during the Presidential campaign of 1856 the office 
 was often the scene of political discussion, and that upon one occasion 
 when the senior partner was present a budding voter was strenuously 
 advocating the election of Millard Fillmore and dilated upon his 
 4 'goodness/ ' 
 
 After listening to this twaddle for awhile, Lincoln, who had been 
 at work on his desk and had taken no part in the conversation, rose 
 to leave. 
 
 "My young friend" he said, "I think you are making a mistake in 
 voting for Mr. Fillmore because of his goodness. You can do some 
 thing much better. There is One whose goodness and greatness all 
 agree far exceed Mr. Fillmore's, and in fact, all others that could be 
 named. No one will question this; no one doubts this. 
 
 "So on the 6th of November next I advise you to go to the polls and 
 vote for Almighty God for President. He is unquestionably the best 
 being who exists. There is practically as much chance of electing 
 God Almighty President of the United States at this time, as Millard 
 Fillmore," he said as he left the office. 
 
 James R. Gilmore, the lecturer and writer, whose pen'name of 
 Edmund Kirke was widely known at one time, accompanied Colonel 
 Jaquess on his mission in 1864 to interview Jefferson Davis. He has 
 related the following story as being told by President Lincoln upon 
 the occassion of their conferring together as to the practicability of 
 allowing Jaquess to go unaccompanied on a similar undertaking in the 
 summer of 1863, the latter feeling as he said, that "God's hand was in 
 it." Gilmore in the course of his remarks suggested that as the Con' 
 federate leaders might consider Jaquess in the light of a spy, and so 
 deal summarily with him, he hoped in that event the President might 
 find some means to interfere. 
 
 "I don't see how I could," Lincoln replied, "without appearing to 
 have a hand in the business," and then he told a story illustrating his 
 purpose to "let the Lord take care of Jaquess." 
 
 "What you suggest reminds me of a man out west, who was not 
 over'pious, but rich, and built a church for the poor people of his 
 neighborhood. When the church was finished, the people took it into 
 
their heads that it needed a lightning-rod, and they went to the rich 
 man, and asked him for money to help pay for it. 
 
 " 'Money for a lightning-rod f he said. 'Not a red cent! If the 
 Lord wants to thunder down his own house, let him thunder it down 
 and be damned. 1 " 
 
 Carpenter states that at one of the Presidential receptions a visitor 
 mentioned having met in California some time previously an old 
 Springfield friend of the President, by the name of Thompson Camp- 
 bell. 
 
 "Ah! I am glad to hear of him," said Lincoln. "Campbell used to 
 be a dry fellow. For a time he was secretary of state. 
 
 "One day during the legislative vacation," he went on, "a meek, 
 cadaverous-looking man, with a white neck-cloth, introduced himself 
 to him at his office, and stating that he had been informed that Mr. 
 Campbell had the letting of the Assembly Chamber, said that he 
 wished to secure it, if possible, for a course of lectures he desired to 
 deliver in Springfield. 
 
 " 'May I ask, 1 said the Secretary, 'what is to be the subject of your 
 lectures? 1 
 
 ' 'Certainly, 1 was the reply, with a very solemn expression of 
 countenance. 'The course I wish to deliver is on the Second Coming 
 of our Lord. 1 
 
 " 'It is of no use, 1 said Campbell. 'If you will take my advice you 
 will not waste your time in this city. It is my private opinion that 
 if the Lord has been in Springfield once, He will not come the second 
 time. 1 " 
 
 This same artist says that about a year before the assassination 
 Lincoln was waited upon by a delegation of clergymen of various 
 denominations. These gentry had come to expostulate with the 
 President concerning the necessity of scrutinizing more carefully the 
 characters of the men who were being selected as army chaplains, it 
 being asserted that many of these appointees were notoriously unfit. 
 
 In vain the President explained that as the chaplains were chosen 
 by the various regiments the government had nothing to do with it, 
 and finally he could stand the tirade no longer. 
 
 "Without any disrespect, gentlemen, 11 he said, "I will tell you a 
 little story. 
 
 "Once in Springfield I was going off on a short journey, and reached 
 the depot a little ahead of time. Leaning against the fence just outside 
 
 13 
 
the depot was a little darkey boy, whom I knew, named Dick, busily 
 digging with his toe in a mud-puddle. As I came up I said: 'Dick, 
 what are you about?' 'Making a church,' said he. 'A church/ said 
 I; 'what do you mean? 1 "Why, yes, 1 said Dick, pointing with his toe, 
 'don't you see? There is the shape of it; there's the steps and front' 
 door — here's the pews, where the folks set — and there's the pulpit.' 
 'Yes, I see,' said I, 'but why don't you make a minister?' 'Laws,' an- 
 swered Dick, with a grin, 'I hain't got mud enough.' '" 
 
 Donn Piatt, the journalist, related how upon one occasion when 
 Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury was advancing an elaborate 
 argument against a certain measure, the President heard him through 
 patiently, and then said : 
 
 "Chase, down in Illinois I was held to be a pretty good lawyer, 
 and I believe I could answer every point you have made, but I don't 
 feel called upon to do it. 
 
 "This thing reminds me of a story I read in a newspaper the other 
 day. 
 
 "It was of an Italian Captain who ran his vessel on a rock and 
 knocked a hole in her bottom. He set his men to pumping and he 
 went to prayers before a figure of the Virgin in the bow of the ship. 
 The leak gained on them. It looked at last as if the vessel would go 
 down with all on board. The Captain at length in a fit of rage at not 
 having his prayers answered, seized the figure of the Virgin and threw 
 it overboard. Suddenly the leak stopped, the water was pumped out, 
 and the vessel got safely into port. When docked for repairs, the 
 statue of the Virgin Mary was found stuck head-foremost in the hole. 
 
 "Now Chase, I don't intend precisely to throw the Virgin Mary 
 overboard, and by that I mean the Constitution, but I will stick it 
 in the hole if I can." 
 
 It would be well if this little incident could be absorbed by some 
 of our present-day political so-called Constitutionalists. 
 
 Among the "stories" which Lincoln regarded as the best in his 
 repertoire, was one he called his "slow-horse story," and for which he 
 was originally indebted to the artist Conant. 
 
 "There was a Missouri candidate for country judge," he would 
 relate, "who applied to a liveryman for a fast horse that would get 
 him sixteen miles to a nominating convention before evening — in 
 time to do a little log-rolling before the meeting. But as the liveryman 
 
was secretly supporting a rival candidate, he hired out a horse that 
 broke down before half the journey was done, and the man never got 
 to the convention. Seeing the trick, and realizing that resentment was 
 useless, the would-be candidate brought back the old nag to its owner 
 and said drily: 
 
 " 'I see, Jones, you are training him for a hearse horse, but it's no 
 use. He'd never get a corpse to the cemetery even in time for the 
 Resurrection/ " 
 
 Upon the resignation of Attorney General Bates in 1864, his 
 assistant, Titian J. Coffey, was strongly urged to succeed him. But 
 from a political standpoint, President Lincoln believed that a selection 
 should be made from the south. 
 
 "My Cabinet has shrunk up north," he said, "and I must find a 
 southern man. I suppose if the twelve apostles were to be chosen 
 nowadays the shrieks of locality would have to be heard/ 1 
 
 James M. Scovel, a contemporary New Jersey legislator, is author- 
 ity for this pertinent story of Lincoln's which the latter used to tell 
 with great gusto, in connection with the prevailing petty jealousies 
 of various Congressmen and army officers, as they came to him with 
 their complaints. 
 
 "Gentlemen, 11 he would say, "you remind me of two good sound 
 Methodist men, both friends of mine in Sangamon County, Farmer 
 Jones and Fiddler Simpkins. 
 
 "Jones, a class leader, was exceptionally gifted in prayer, while 
 his neighbor Simpkins, who could not boast of a similar gift, was 
 known all over the country for his skill as a fiddler, which made him 
 a welcome guest at every country hoe-down. 
 
 "One night at a Wednesday evening prayer-meeting Brother Jones 
 made a wonderful prayer which touched the spirit of the assembly 
 and Simpkins thought it became him to say something. 
 
 '* 'Brethring and sistring, I know that I can't make half as good a 
 prayer as Brother Jones, but by the grace of God I can fiddle the shirt 
 off of him. 1 " 
 
 In January 1863 President Lincoln was waited upon by a self- 
 constituted committee of Young Christians (?) for the purpose of 
 inducing him to withdraw the name of James Shrigley of Philadelphia 
 which had been presented to the Senate for a chaplaincy in the army. 
 
 "On what ground do you wish the nomination withdrawn? 11 
 asked the President. 
 
 15 
 
11 Mr. Shrigley is not sound in his theological opinions, 11 was the 
 reply. 
 
 "On what question is the gentleman unsound?" 
 
 "He does not believe in endless punishment; not only so, sir, but 
 he believes that even the rebels themselves will finally be saved. 11 
 
 "Well, gentlemen, if that be so, and there is any way under heaven 
 whereby the rebels can be saved, then for God's sake and their sakes, 
 let the man be appointed. 11 And he was appointed. 
 
 "When I was in New Orleans during the days of slavery, 11 Lincoln 
 once related to General Wilson, "there was a man making ascents in 
 a balloon, which created a good deal of excitement in the city. I went 
 to see the spectacle; the wind was rather too strong for the fellow, 
 who instead of coming down as he intended at the starting point, 
 was blown away some miles into the country, finally landing in a 
 cotton field, where there was a gang of slaves at work. 
 
 "When they saw the bespangled creature coming apparently from 
 Heaven, the darkies all took to the woods, except a rheumatic old 
 negro who could not run, so he stood his ground. When the air 
 navigator, gorgeous in spangles and bright colored silks, stepped out 
 of the balloon and came towards the frightened old darkey, the latter 
 thought he would do the best he could for himself, so he said : 'Good 
 morning, Massa Jesus, how's your Pa? 1 " 
 
 In 1862 when Lincoln was considering the appointment of Edwin 
 M. Stanton as Secretary of War to succeed Simon Cameron, a discus' 
 sion once arose in his office during the course of which Stanton's 
 various defects were brought out rather strongly, special mention 
 being made of his "impulsiveness. 11 
 
 "Well, 11 said Lincoln, who had already made up his mind to the 
 appointment, "we may have to treat him as they are sometimes 
 obliged to treat a Methodist minister I know of out west. He gets 
 wrought up to so high a pitch of excitement in his prayers and ex' 
 hortations that they are obliged to put bricks into his pockets to keep 
 him down. We may be obliged to serve Stanton the same way, but 
 I guess we'll let him jump awhile first. 1 ' 
 
 Another story which had to do with the Methodist brethren, but 
 of another color, was told by President Lincoln to Cassius M. Clay, 
 his Minister to Russia, one day in the White House when word was 
 brought in that a captured Union man, on being condemned to death 
 
 16 
 
by the Confederates, had been given the chance of either being shot 
 or hung. Lincoln immediately sensed the possibilities of the incident, 
 and was reminded of a story. 
 
 "There was a camp-meeting of colored Methodists in my earlier 
 days," he said, "at which was a brother who responded often to the 
 preacher with an 'Amen, 1 'Bless the Lord, 1 and so on. 
 
 "The preacher drew a strong line, sweeping the sinners on both 
 sides into the devil's net. 
 
 " "All those, 1 he said, 'who thus sin are in the downward path to 
 ruin, and all those who so act, including about the whole human race, 
 are on the sure road to hell. 1 
 
 "To which the unctious brother, bewildered, cried out: 'Bless the 
 Lord, this nigger takes to the woods. 1 v 
 
 It will have been observed that in several of his stories, Lincoln 
 referred by name to the Methodist denomination, which may be 
 adjudged as sly gibes at the members of that faith, whereas nothing 
 of the kind was intended. He merely used the incidents for the 
 purpose of bringing out the point he had in mind. As Dr. Barton has 
 clearly pointed out, the Lincoln family appears never to have been 
 strongly under the influence of Methodism, but it should also be 
 noted that as such times as he did come into contact with its in' 
 fluences, they were of the sort to make a favorable impression on his 
 mind. As a young man, he in company with some of his fellows, 
 attended a Methodist camp-meeting and listened with rare interest 
 to a virile and independent speaker, Rev. Peter Akers, prophesying 
 the "downfall of castes, the end of tyrannies, and the crushing of 
 slavery; 11 ten years later as a Springfield attorney he came into contact 
 with Rev. James F. Jaquess, of the later Jaquess-Gilmore mission, 
 and was markedly impressed with his strong and magnetic personality; 
 but more particularly did the Methodist Church as a whole or rather 
 the northern branch thereof, receive his profound gratitude during 
 the Civil War period for its various activities in upholding the admin- 
 istration. And last but not least, he was indebted to a good parson, 
 Colonel Moody by name, who was not "too proud to fight 11 but on 
 the contrary had been dubbed the "Fighting Methodist Parson 11 by 
 the people of Tennessee, for his good works in their behalf, for an 
 original story giving him a good "kick 11 at a time when he needed it, 
 and which was added to his already large store-house of anecdotes. 
 
 17 
 
Carpenter, who came into the room soon after the departure of Moody, 
 was immediately told the tale with all its trimmings. In explanation 
 it should be stated that Andrew Johnson was then acting as Military 
 Governor of Tennessee and General Buell was in command of the 
 Union forces there. 
 
 "The Colonel happened to be in Nashville the day it was reported 
 that Buell had decided to evacuate the city," said Lincoln. "The 
 rebels, strongly reinforced, were said to be within two days' march 
 of the capital. Of course the city was greatly excited. 
 
 "Moody said he went in search of Johnson, at the edge of the 
 evening, and found him at his office, closeted with two gentlemen, 
 who were walking the floor with him, one on each side. 
 
 "As he entered they retired, leaving him alone with Johnson, who 
 came up to him, manifesting intense feeling, and said: 'Moody, we 
 are sold out ! Buell is a traitor ! He is going to evacuate the city, and 
 in forty-eight hours we shall all be in the hands of the rebels f 
 
 "Then he commenced pacing the floor again, twisting his hands, 
 and chafing like a caged tiger, utterly insensible to his friend's en- 
 treaties to become calm. Suddenly he turned and said: 'Moody, 
 can you pray?' 
 
 ' 'That is my business, sir, as a minister of the Gospel,' returned 
 the Colonel. 
 
 " "Well, Moody, I wish you would pray,' said Johnson; and in- 
 stantly both went down upon their knees, at opposite sides of the 
 room. As the prayer waxed fervent, Johnson began to respond in 
 true Methodist style. Presently he crawled over on his hands and 
 knees to Moody's side, and put his arm over him, manifesting the 
 deepest emotion. Closing the prayer with a hearty 'Amen' from each, 
 they arose. 
 
 "Johnson took a long breath, and said, with emphasis: 'Moody, 
 I feel better !' Shortly afterwards he asked : 'Will you stand by me?' 
 'Certainly I will' was the answer. 'Well, Moody, I can depend 
 upon you; you are one in a hundred thousand !' Suddenly he wheeled, 
 the current of his thought having changed, and said : 
 
 "' 'Oh! Moody, I don't want you to think I have become a religious 
 man because I asked you to pray. I am sorry to say it, but I am not, 
 and have never pretended to be religious. No one knows this better 
 than you; but Moody, there is one thing about it — I DO believe in 
 
 18 
 
ALMIGHTY GOD! And I believe also in the BIBLE, and I say 
 
 damn me if Nashville shall be surrendered/ v And Carpenter adds 
 "and Nashville was not surrendered." 
 
 James E. Murdoch, the elocutionist, is responsible for the preser- 
 vation of the following incident, which occurred one day while a 
 detachment of troops was marching down Pennsylvania Avenue, 
 spectators and participants vieing with each other in singing the 
 familiar strains of "John Brown." The streets were thronged, and 
 in the midst of the excitement the President's attention was directed 
 to a solitary individual who had climbed into a tree, too light for his 
 weight, as could be testified by his antics as he tried to overcome the 
 swaying of the stem to which he clung. "Lincoln," said Murdoch, 
 "paused in the serious conversation in which he was deeply interested, 
 and in an abstracted manner, with a droll cast of the eye, and a nod 
 of the head in the direction of the man, he repeated in his dry and 
 peculiar utterance, the following old-fashioned couplet : 
 '' 'And Zacchaeus he, did climb a tree, 
 His Lord and Master, for to see — ' 
 
 "And amid the laughter of those who had observed the incongruity 
 of the scene, Mr. Lincoln resumed the serious tone of his remarks, as 
 if nothing unusual had happened." 
 
 On the road to Washington in 1861, President-elect Lincoln gave 
 a story which he said best described his doubts as to the possibility 
 of harmonizing the northern and southern wings of the Democratic 
 party. 
 
 "I once knew," he said, "a sound churchman by the name of Brown, 
 who was a member of a very sober and pious committee having in 
 charge the erection of a bridge over a dangerous and rapid river. 
 Several architects failed, and at last Brown said he had a friend named 
 Jones who had built several bridges and undoubtedly could build 
 this one. So Mr. Jones was called in. 
 
 ' ■ 'Can you build this bridge? 1 inquired the committee. 
 
 ' 'Yes/ replied Jones, 'or any other. I could build a bridge to hell 
 if necessary. 1 
 
 "The committee was shocked, and Brown felt called upon to defend 
 his friend. 
 
 ' 'I know Jones so well, 1 said he, 'and he is so honest a man and so 
 good an architect, that if he states soberly and positively that he 
 
 19 
 
can build a bridge to — to — the infernal regions, why I believe it; 
 but I feel bound to say that I have my doubts about the abutment on 
 the other side/ " 
 
 Upon many occasions Lincoln has been known to have made use 
 of the following story, notably upon the occasion of the jaunt to 
 Gettysburg in 1863. While the distinguished party was lunching 
 the train passed through a deep cut, which darkened the car and in' 
 tensified the noise of the train. 
 
 "This situation, 11 said Lincoln, "reminds me of a friend of mine in 
 southern Illinois, who was riding over a corduroy road where the 
 logs were not sufficiently close together. He found himself out of his 
 reckoning and a thunder'Storm came up to add to his troubles. The 
 rain fell in torrents accompanied by terrible thunder and most terrific 
 lightning. He floundered along until his horse at length gave out. 
 In the glimpse of light afforded by the lightning his horse would en' 
 deavor to reach another log, but frequently missed it and fell with his 
 rider. 
 
 "One bolt, which struck a neighboring tree, seemed to crash the 
 earth beneath him, and brought him to his kness. Although not 
 accustomed to prayer, the traveler thought that the time had come 
 to address his Maker, and his petition was short and to the point : 
 
 ,k 'Oh, good Lord, if it is all the same to you, give us a little more 
 light and a little less noise. 1 " 
 
 At this point I close my presentation of what has gone into the 
 records before. It will readily be seen that by selecting the material 
 on the basis of "proving 11 a preconceived thesis, one could prove 
 Abraham Lincoln to have been anything or nothing. This fact is 
 evidenced also by hundreds of volumes of Lincolniana in which, 
 deliberately or naively, the facts have been chosen to fit the theory. 
 The present writer has endeavored to avoid this pitfall, the sole 
 criteria for acceptance or rejection of material for presentation being 
 pertinancy to the immediate problem, and historical accuracy. 
 
 In view of the evidence adduced what are the conclusions, psy' 
 chologically valid, as to this complexus of alleged incongruities in- 
 volving this "man of mystery, 11 this heterogeneous, antithetical "dual 
 personality 11 who was "all things to all men. 11 Contrary to the ex' 
 pectations of the writer, his study has led him inevitably to the 
 conclusion that while the personality of Abraham Lincoln was un- 
 
 20 
 
doubtedly intricate, profound, even complex, there was not a dual 
 personality. 
 
 Judging by the insistence upon the contradictory elements of 
 Abraham Lincoln's nature, one would suppose him to have been 
 afflicted with schizophrenia from the moment that Cousin Dennis 
 held the "pulpy little red fellow 11 in his arms, whereas the fact appears 
 to be that the largest factor in the contradictory character elements 
 reported arose primarily from the contradictory character and oppos- 
 ing orientations of the reporters. The myth of the dual personality 
 of Lincoln came into being largely from the limited apperceptive back' 
 ground of his observers, many being among those who flattered them' 
 selves that they best understood him. 
 
 Again, Lincoln's strangely magnetic personality frequently enabled 
 him to cause his visitors to see him as he chose to be seen. It can 
 scarcely be doubted that so adroit a politician as was Lincoln was wr 
 aware of this ability, but whether consciously or unconsciously 
 exerted, the existence of this power adds another point of interrogation 
 to append to the many and diverse reports of "my intimate relations 
 with the Martyr President/' 
 
 The apperception of the observers and the behavior of Lincoln 
 alone, however, did not determine the Lincoln each one saw. We see 
 largely if possible what we look for. Roughly three classes came into 
 contact with Abraham Lincoln, often obtaining what they regarded 
 as a sufficient understanding of the man in a five minute interview to 
 enable them subsequently to explain him ad infinitum. The first class 
 was prepared to find something agreeable to themselves; the second 
 open minded — neutral (at least so far as human nature permits of in- 
 tellectual honesty); a third expected to see the disagreeable. The 
 degree of their suggestibility to their preperceptions would be •" 
 prime determinent of the "Lincoln as I Knew Him." 
 
 Abraham Lincoln need have been no chameleon. He might have 
 been a leopard with unchangeable spots, yet according as the first 
 class above mentioned preferred spots to tawney hide, they would 
 see spots. Obviously as to the third class the number of spots detected 
 would vary inversely with their agreeableness to the observer. The 
 small but honest second class so far as they were able, saw the leopard 
 — spot and hide — as clearly as their apperceptive background per- 
 mitted. Thus both the Lincoln seen and the Lincoln interpreted 
 probably but rarely corresponded very closely to the Lincoln that was. 
 
Paradoxical as it may sound, it is not unlikely that one who never 
 encountered Lincoln in the flesh may acquire a better understanding 
 of the living Lincoln through careful sympathetic yet impartial study 
 of his writings and adequately attested behavior than did many who 
 may have virtually lived with him. There is always the danger of the 
 trees preventing one seeing the forest. There is also the fact that so 
 complex a thing as the character of any normal human being can be 
 neither understood, explained nor even at all adequately perceived 
 from one or two orientations. When the orientation is conditioned 
 strongly by personal bias, as in the case of propagandists for or against 
 institutions churchly or secular, this is peculiarly the case. 
 
 Later writers who have had to depend upon contemporaneous 
 testimony are free from the glamour of personal contact. No one, 
 however, can be perfectly free from a certain apperceptive predeter- 
 mination of their perceptions — of their conclusions. The utmost that 
 one can do is to seek to maintain a scientific impartiality so far as in 
 their power lies. By all means there must be avoided further distor' 
 tion of truth by warping preperceptions arising from emotional bias, 
 usually, as indicated above, of a sectarian or political nature. And 
 even, in the words of Bertrand Russell, the great British Mathe- 
 matician, "Ethical considerations can only legitimately appear when 
 the truth has been ascertained ; they can and should appear as determin' 
 ing our feeling towards the truth, and our manner of ordering our 
 lives in view of the truth, but not as themselves dictating what the 
 truth is to be." 
 
 Viewing the material presented in this monograph in the impartial 
 light of modern psychology, what appears? To analyze the setting of 
 each of Lincoln's acts or stories as herein recorded, would require a 
 volume considerably beyond the space at my disposal in this brochure. 
 It appears evident, however, that considering each instance in its 
 context, we find — not a dual personality — but a singularly consistent 
 picture of Abraham Lincoln as an honest, forthright, individual of 
 profound depths of religious feeling with a corresponding disregard 
 for prevailing sectarian conventions and contempt for cant, blended 
 with a most keen sense of humor. Men to whom the observance of 
 conventions, churchly or otherwise, constituted a large part, if indeed 
 not the whole of their "religion" or of their conception of "religion" 
 
coming into contact with the sane Rabelaisian mysticismf of Abraham 
 Lincoln, would naturally apperceive him as grossly irreligious. This 
 would apply equally to those who observed and those who hated the 
 observance of such conventions. Similarly, those whose concept of 
 religion had little to do with conventional observance, but who were 
 themselves more or less mystical, would regard Lincoln as essentially 
 "religious. 11 And so it will be with the readers of this monograph. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, it appears evident to me, may be termed truly 
 "that rare type of being: an Intellectual Mystic. 11 To be even more 
 specific I should call him as I have above, a Rabelaisian Mystic. The 
 First American may be likened to a diamond of many facets — but 
 none'the-less a single diamond. 
 
 f By the term "sane mysticism" as here employed I refer to a combination of 
 intellectual ability, profound emotional depths, and a reliance upon intuition con' 
 firmed and clarified by reason. I do not refer to the misty "mysticism" of the 
 various pseudo-mystic cults and isms of the mystery monger. 
 
 n