With Independence Day coming this weekend, I want to share a bit of history I just read in David Elton Trueblood’s 1973 book on Abraham Lincoln. In a chapter on Lincoln’s habits of prayer, Trueblood reports:

The fact that the prayers of the North and South obviously conflicted lent credence to a story in which President Lincoln took unusual delight. According to the common version of the story, two Quaker women, riding together on the train, began to compare the two Presidents.

“I think,” said the first, “Jefferson will succeed.”

“Why does thee think so?”

“Because Jefferson is a praying man.”

“And so is Abraham a praying man.”

“Yes, but the Lord will think Abraham is joking.”

Of this, Lincoln said that it was the best story about himself that he had ever “read in the papers.”