1) Carl August Sandburg (1878 – 1967) was a renowned American poet, biographer & journalist. He is the author of The Prairie Years & The War Years, (Harcourt Brace Company, 1954).
Special to United Methodist Insight | September 10, 2026
Who is evil?
If you ask that question in a public forum these days, one political party is sure to point to the other and then offer a list of all their misdeeds and lies. The truth is that there is some darkness in all of us. The technical term for this is sin, a word one is unlikely to hear in political circles or on cable news. Acknowledgment of this dark side is the beginning of spiritual health and is necessary for the well-being of individuals and nations.M. Scott Peck writes in his book People of the Lie: "The central defect of the evil person is not the sin but the refusal to acknowledge it...those who cross over the line are characterized by their absolute refusal to tolerate the sense of their own sinfulness. Unpleasant as it may be, a sense of our own sinfulness is precisely that which keeps our sin from getting out of hand....
“One of the signs of spiritual health is a soul in anguish. A person who is aware of his or her sin and is troubled by it is on the road to salvation. Spiritual pain, like physical pain, is a warning. It tells us something is wrong, and we better do something about it. It is the person who feels no pain or denies his or her pain who is in the greatest danger." Abraham Lincoln was once challenged to a duel when he was a young man. The year was 1842, when Lincoln was a lawyer in Springfield, Illinois. He had apparently sent some letters to the editor of the local paper making sport of a political foe, one James Shields, who was at that time the State Auditor. Shields was a handsome man, well-mannered, a good dancer, much admired by the ladies, a war hero, and a dead shot with a pistol. He and Lincoln disagreed over what Lincoln considered an unfair tax ruling that harmed the poor.The letters to the Sangamon Journal "condemned Shields' fiscal policy and implied that Shields was a liar and a fool." One letter "scoffed at Shields' social performances, 'floating from one lady to another' on the dance floor, displaying his distress for being so 'handsome and interesting' yet unwilling to marry any of the eligible women who deserved him. The letter also speculated that Shields, who was 36, might wind up marrying a barrel-shaped widow of 60 winters.
The letters, crowded with back woods dialect, were signed 'Rebecca,' supposedly a chronicler of the goings-on in Springfield."Shields demanded to know who had written the letters. Lincoln had written one letter and had helped Mary Todd and her friend compose the others. He took full responsibility for writing all the letters. "Shields, well-known for his pistol skill, challenged Lincoln to a duel and to name the weapons."
Lincoln accepted after much deliberation and chose cavalry broadswords because he was much taller and had a longer reach than the 5'6" Shields. Lincoln would regret the decision to duel the rest of his life.The duel was to take place on a Mississippi River sandbar called Bloody Island, a notorious dueling ground. "On Bloody Island -- as biographer Carl Sandburg recounts -- Lincoln sat calmly on a willow log, taking warm-up swings with his great broadsword.... Then Lincoln, apparently sensing that Shields was watching, 'arose and slashed and swished the air in all directions.' ...Lincoln felt along the edge of the weapon with his thumb, like the barber feels the edge of his razor. He raised himself to his full height, stretched out his arms, and clipped a twig from the tree above his head."It was a ridiculous sight, which nearly caused one observer to laugh out loud at the idea of such an extraordinarily tall man as Lincoln fighting a short man with very limited reach. Shields apparently saw the absurdity of it too, for a peace was negotiated immediately and the duel canceled. In her book, Mary Lincoln: Biography of a Marriage,” Ruth Painter Randall wrote that Lincoln told a friend: “I did not want to kill Shields, and I felt sure I could disarm him. Furthermore, I didn't want the damned fellow to kill me, which I rather think he would have done if we had used pistols.”
Lincoln's public life was not damaged by stories about the prospective duel. But it left a private anguish.
Randall added, “'The occasion was so silly that my husband was always ashamed of it,’ Mary Todd Lincoln once wrote to a friend. 'It annoyed his peaceful nerves. We mutually agreed never to mention it.' At a White House reception, a general was 'so ill advised as to bring up the subject,' Mrs. Lincoln was quoted as saying. 'Mr. President,' the general asked, 'is it true, as I have heard, that you once went out to fight a duel, and all for the sake of the lady at your side?'
“'I do not deny it,' said Lincoln, his face flushing. 'However, if you desire my friendship, you will never mention it again.' " We all have our dark sides -- events from our past which we would rather not remember. Acknowledgment of the evil we have done, confession of sin, is essential for good spiritual health. It must be done regularly, and it is never routine. It may be the most difficult thing we humans have to do. Consequently, some people are never able to truly confess their sin. It is just too difficult to look at the part of the self we don't want to believe exists.
The Rev. John Sumwalt is a retired pastor and the author of “Shining Moments: Visions of the Holy in Ordinary Lives.” Email him.