THE SOUL OF ANN RUTLEDGE

ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S ROMANCE

SECOND IMPRESSION

"ABRAHAM, THIS PLACE SEEMS HOLY AND YOU ARE ITS PROPHET"
Page 276

THE SOUL OFANN RUTLEDGE

ABRAHAM LINCOLN'SROMANCE

BY

BERNIE BABCOCK

WITH A FRONTISPIECE IN COLOR BYGAYLE HOSKINS

PHILADELPHIA & LONDON
J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
1919

COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY

PRINTED BY J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY

AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS

PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A.

To J

AUTHOR'S NOTE

In the tremendous output of Lincolniana that has been given toliterature, it seems strange that no adequate story has been given ofone of the greatest loves in history.

Many writers have referred to it and to its moulding power on thelover's after life. Some have thrown sidelights on the character ofthe woman. Some have mentioned her rare gift of song and her unusualendowment of mind, and one writer has given a careful description ofher personal appearance. But so far as careful and exhaustive researchshows, all this matter has never been woven into one story.

It is also strange that there has been so much controversy regardingthe religious views of Abraham Lincoln, and by those whose faith isbased on the evidence required by the Great Teacher When He said, "Yeshall know them by their fruits." Nor should it ever have been takenas an evidence of lack of faith because he did not accept the creedalbeliefs of his day, for had not the Christ Himself strenuously deniedmuch that was insisted on in His day, Christianity could never havebeen possible.

In this story both the love and the faith of one of earth's noblestsouls is simply and intimately told.

In an age when the cynical opinion is too often heard, that betweenmen and women there can be no different or more lasting love than themating instinct of animals, and at a time when the death of millionsof the world's best men has brought into fresh insistence the age-longquestion, "If a man die shall he live again?" a fresh and differentsetting forth of Abraham Lincoln's master passion for a woman, and hiscalm and unshakable faith in immortality, may be of more than usualinterest and value.

CONTENTS