Holland wrote an eloquent eulogy of Abraham Lincoln within days of Lincoln's death, prompting a commission for a full biography of the late president. He quickly pulled together the lengthy "Life of Abraham Lincoln", finished in February 1866, which portrayed Lincoln as an emancipator opposed to slavery. Although Holland wrote using "on-the-ground investigation," later historians noted that as a journalist with a deadline, the work had "the signs of hurry." His work also spurred Lincoln's law partner William Herndon to commence his own research and biography. Herndon was happy to help Holland but took issue with a tangential quote attributed to Lincoln in the work describing God's role in emancipation; Herndon believed Lincoln "had no religion more intense than a bland deism."