Abraham Lincoln: Theologian of American Anguish (review)

BOOK REVIEWS361 Zebulon Baird Vance is best known for a distinguished political career which included service as North Carolina's governor during the Civil War and as its United States senator from 1879 to 1894. Personally, he was a charming, earthy, and witty man given to occasional vulgarity. In My Beloved Zebulon, Vance also emerges as an attentive and always proper suitor. The volume consists of the pre-nuptial correspondence of Zeb and Harriett Newell Espy from 1851 to 1853. It includes a well written Introduction in which Frances Gray Patton presents an informative sketch of these two young people, their families, and their courtship . Patton writes that at age twenty-one Zeb was still a poor, halfeducated , and rough country boy. As such he seemed less than ideally suited for the hand and heart of such a "pretty, pious, [and] well-connected " young woman as Harriett Espy. (p. xi). But whatever their differences, the two were in fact well matched. As a cautious, humorless , and obsessively religious individual, Harriett sought "a brilliant sinner to save." Likewise, Zeb, who was "untroubled by the least shadow of mystical faith," needed her "evangelical fervor." (p. xxiii). Because the couple met only nine times during their two and one-half year courtship, and then briefly and usually in company, the relationship matured through the 121 letters which comprise this volume These are essentially love letters in which Zeb and Harriett express their admiration for each other and write of their aspirations, ideals, and fears. Because the letters are written in the elaborate style and correct tone of the day, some of the couple's more real qualities and their candor tend to be obscured. For example, the earthy and impetuous Zeb is difficult to recognize in his high-minded and always proper letters. The letters also include descriptions of Harriett's day-to-day existence at the Quaker Meadows plantation in western North Carolina and of Zeb's life as a student at Chapel Hill and as a young lawyer which may be of limited value for social historians. But because of their narrow focus, these letters will be of primary interest to antiquarians and to future biographers of Vance. Those who do use this collection will find that it has been expertly edited. Places and persons mentioned in the letters have been carefully identified and an extensive index is included. John H. Schboeder University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Abraham Lincoln: Theologian of American Anguish. By Elton Trueblood . (New York: Harper and Row, 1973. Pp. ix, 149. $4.95.) Why should anyone write another book about Abraham Lincoln, already the most written-about American? And why another book about Lincoln's religion, previously treated by a number of writers. In answering the first question, Professor Trueblood, the author of this latest Lincoln item, quotes an English writer who explained his reason for writing another book about Cromwell—Cromwell was the greatest fig- 362CIVIL WAR HISTORY ure of his age and any person interested in that age would sooner or later want "to have his say" about him. Lincoln was the greatest figure in the American experiment, and Trueblood, as a student of that experiment , wants to have his say about Lincoln. As an answer to the second question, Trueblood emphasizes that he is not writing primarily about Lincoln's religion but about his "religious thinking." The key to Lincoln's greatness, the author states, was "his spiritual depth." This spiritual quality is seen most clearly in the Second Inaugural , which in addition to being a great state paper is a "theological classic." Therefore, Lincoln was a great theologian as well as a great political leader. The process or steps by which Lincoln developed his theology, or his concept of the relation of man to God, is the theme of the book. In tracing the process, Trueblood describes Lincoln's early religious ideas, his increasing awareness of a Divine Will influencing the affairs of men, his spiritual growth in the anguish of the Civil War, and such assorted subjects as Lincoln and prayer and Lincoln and the Bible and Lincoln and church membership. Little in the book will be new to Lincoln students. As example...