Note 51 — Chapter XVIII

This incident must have appeared in print immediately after Lincoln's death, for I find it quoted in memorial addresses of May, 1865. Mr. Oldroyd has endeavored to learn for me in what paper he found it and on whose authority it rests, but without result. He does not remember where he found it. It is inherently improbable, and rests on no adequate testimony. It ought to be wholly disregarded. The earliest reference I have found to the story in which Lincoln is alleged to have said to an unnamed Illinois minister "I do love Jesus" is in a sermon preached in the Baptist Church of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, April 19, 1865, by Rev. W. W. Whitcomb, which was published in the Oshkosh Northwestern, April 21, 1865, and in 1907 issued in pamphlet form, by John E. Burton. The form of quotation is indefinite, but I judge that the incident was current in the papers of that week, as it is quoted as something with which the congregation was assumed to be familiar. I judge, therefore, that this was a story that found currency immediately after Lincoln's death, running the round of the newspapers with no one's name attached.