Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1889-09-16
A CASE FOR COMSTOCK.
A CHICAGO EDITOR DBNOUNCBs A BIOGRA-
PLY OF LINCOLN.
Law Palmer Herndons Life Of the President De-
clarsd to be the Most Infamous Book Ever
Writer and Printed N the Garb Of
an Historic Work.

CHICAGO, September 1.-THE Euening
Journal, one of the leading Republican
newspapers of the country, publishes to-
day the following editorial review of the
biography Of Abraham Lincoln written by
his law partner. 1t says:
"Au alleged biography of Abraham Lin
coin by W. H. Herndon, of Springfield,
ILL.,, hes been recently published and
placed on the market. II is an infamous
book. I. is one of the most infamous
books ever written and printed in the garb
of historical work relating 10 a great and
illustrious man. 1t vilely distorts the i'm
age ofan ideal statesman, patriot and mar
tyr. It clothes him in vulgarity and
grOssness. It's indecencies are spread like
a curtain to hide the colossal proportions
and the splerdid purity Of his character.
1t makes him the button and jester which
his enemies describe-that is, it makes his
bufOOnery the principal trait of his
mind and the most conspicuous Of his
habits. It brings out all that should
have been hidden-it Teproduces shameless
gossip and hearsey not authenticated By
proof-it msgnifies the idle and thought
less antics of youth as main features of
the man in his life and accomplishment
it degrades and belittles him. Where
it aspiTes to be pathetic and eulogistic it is
failure. The pathos ia maudlin, and
the eulogy is tsWdry. It is the work of q
filthy iconOclsst who defiles and befouls
the idol that he skaters.
PRINTS THE SHAME
''The author of this indescribable book
vas law partner and assumes the have
been an intimate friend of Abraham Lin
coin. But in his book be prints every
thing that most men would hide and deny
as to a friend. All that malice has invent
ed, all that impure backWOods humOr and
frontier coarssness has created, or carried
about, or aggravated, he gives rs history
"a part OF the history Of one of the few
greatest men that the county has produced
What other men would have discredited
aud disavOWed, he relates TO its minutest
particularly and surrounds with an air OF
probability, or at least with au implication
that, as Lincolh's law partner and friend,
be believes in its truth. No man has
ever before found in his biogrspher so
malevolent an enemy as Abraham LincOln's
''frieno" has proved to bs TO him The
book is the shame and disgrace OF Ameri-
can literature.
"The obscenity Of the work is surpris.
ing and shocking. Anthony C0mstcck
should give it his attention It Is not fl
for family reading. It's saIacious nara
tiyes and implications, and lis elaborate
calumnies on the legitimacy not only of
Lincoln himself but of bis mother, and in
regard to the morals generally Of his
mothers side of the family, are simply
outrageous. Mr.. Herndon says that
in 1860 Lincoln discussed with him the
question OF blood heredity. Lincoln, &C.
cording to HerDdon, said that his mother
6as the illegi.imaic daughter OF Lacy
Hanks and a Well-bTed Virginia planter.
Lincoln argued that through this illicit
channel he had derived his power Of
analysis, his logic, his mental activity,
his ambition and all the qualities that
distinguished him from the other men,
bers and descendants Of the Hanks family
His theory, Gays Mr.. HerndOn, in dis
cussing the matter of hereditary traits had
been that, for cartain reasons, illegihmate
children are oftentimes sturdier and
brighter than those born in lawful we'd
lock; and in his case he believed that his
better nature and finer qualities came
from this bTOad.mindsd, unknown Yir-
giniau.
HIS OWN LEGITIMACY.
"Think Of Abraham Lincoln boasting
that he derived his intellectual greatness
from the fac. that his grandmother had
been debauched by a wealthy and licen-
tious neighbOE Nothing could be worse
except that which follows, which is to the
effect he was born within a too brief period
after the marriage of his mother to Thomas
Lincoln-that the marriage was a vile bar
gain to cover up her intrigue with Abra- |
ham I1low, the husband knowing the
facts, and that the bastard babe was
named Abraham after his real and Lin
coin after his pu.ative father. There
is evidence that the frat child of
Thomas Lincoln was not a male, but
female; but apparently, in the mere wan
tonnes Of indecency, the biographer |
assumes that such evidence is untrust- |
worthy, and that Lincoln was the child |
born under the circumstances described.
Our decent readers must pardon us for ref
erence to another obscene chapter in the
book, describing how Lincoln, when a
young man, having been omitted from the
invited guests to double wedding in the /
neighborhcod where he lived, out Of re-
venge and mischief, planned it 80 that
after the brides had respectively retired for
the night, each Of the new-made husbands
was conducted in the dark to the wrong
bed. Il is too bad to mention such things,
but 10 no other way can the nnfathomable
vileuess Of Mr.. HerndOn's book be salts
factorily exemplifsd.
INSULTING TO THE DEAD.
THAT portion of the narrative which
relates to Lincolns eourship OF Ann Rut-
lege and his subsequent attentions to Mary
S. Owens, with his fnAl marriage to Mary
Todd. is indelicste, is every way in bad
taste. is insulting to the memory Of the
dead. and calculated to mortiiy and lacer-
ate the hearts OF the living. Equally
shameful is the discussion of Lincoln's
unripened religions, or rather irreligious,
beliefs. which be abandoned when he came
to feel and know that an ovverruling
Providence was his guide. In all its parts
and aspecis-if we are a Judge, and we
think we are, Of the pr0prieties OF litera-
ture and of human life-we declare that
This hook ia 20 bad il could hardly have