I have copied direct from the original letter, in possession of Mr. Jesse W. Weik, Nicolay's letter to Herndon affirming that, to the best of his knowledge, Lincoln's belief did not change during his years in the White House. It was addressed to Herndon, and it reads:
"Executive Mansion, "Washington, May 27, 1865.
"I have this morning received your note of the 23rd inst. and reply at once.
"Mr. Lincoln did not, to my knowledge, change in any way his religious views, beliefs, or opinions from the time he left Springfield to the day of his death. I do not know just what they were, never having heard him explain them in detail; but I am very sure he gave no outward indication of his mind having undergone any change in that regard while here.
While Nicolay's declaration that Lincoln gave no outward indication that his views had undergone any change during his residence in the White House is entitled to great weight, it is not wholly conclusive. It is quite possible that Mr. Lincoln changed more than those who were closest to him every day realized, more, indeed, than he himself realized. Some men who had known him in earlier years and who met him from time to time while he was in the White House observed a change too subtle to be fully realized by those who saw him daily. Joshua Fry Speed knew Lincoln from the day Lincoln arrived in Springfield until his death. Indeed, he had known Lincoln earlier; but their intimate acquaintance began on the day when Lincoln received his law license and moved to Springfield, where he shared Speed's bed. Speed told of that incident frequently, how Lincoln came into his store, greatly depressed, asking to be permitted to purchase a single bed which he was not certain he could ever pay for; but Speed invited Lincoln to sleep with him in the room above the store. Lincoln carried his saddlebags upstairs and set them down, and came down the stairs with his countenance beaming, as he said, "Well, Speed, I've moved!" Lamon declares that Speed was "The most intimate friend Mr. Lincoln ever had at this or any other time" (_Life of Lincoln_, p. 231). Says Lamon: "He made to Speed the most confidential communications he ever made to mortal man. If he had on earth 'a bosom crony,' it was Speed, and that deep and abiding attachment subsisted unimpaired to the day of Lincoln's death." To Speed alone Lincoln gave his full confidence in the matter of his love affairs, and they talked together as men seldom talk to each other. Speaking out of a most intimate knowledge, Speed wrote in his lecture on Lincoln: