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Title: The Soul of Abraham Lincoln
Author: Barton, William Eleazar
Language: English
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THE SOUL OF
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
BY
WILLIAM E. BARTON
AUTHOR OF "A HERO IN HOMESPUN," "THE
PRAIRIE SCHOONER," "PINE KNOT,"
ETC.
NEW [Illustration] YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
TO MY FOUR SONS
BRUCE, CHARLES, FREDERICK, ROBERT
AND MY SON-IN-LAW, CLYDE
PREFACE
THE author is aware that he is dipping his net into a stream already
darkened by too much ink. The fact that there are so many books on the
religion of Abraham Lincoln is a chief reason why there should be one
more. Books on this subject are largely polemic works which followed
the publication of Holland's biography in 1865, and multiplied in the
controversies growing out of that and the Lamon and Herndon biographies
in 1872 and 1889 respectively. Within that period and until the death
of Mr. Herndon in 1892 and the publication of his revised biography
of Lincoln in 1893, there was little opportunity for a work on this
subject that was not distinctively controversial. The time has come for
a more dispassionate view. Of the large number of other books dealing
with this topic, nearly or quite all had their origin in patriotic or
religious addresses, which, meeting with favor when orally delivered,
were more or less superficially revised and printed, in most instances
for audiences not greatly larger than those that heard them spoken.
Many of these are excellent little books, though making no pretense of
original and thorough investigation.
Of larger and more comprehensive works there are a few, but they do not
attempt the difficult and necessary task of critical analysis.
So much has been said, and much of it with such intensity of feeling,
on the subject of Lincoln's religion, that a number of the more
important biographies, including the great work of Nicolay and Hay, say
as little on the subject as possible.
The author of this volume brings no sweeping criticism against those
who have preceded him in the same field. He has eagerly sought out the
books and speeches of all such within his reach, and is indebted to
many of them for valuable suggestions. A Bibliography at the end of
this volume contains a list of those to whom the author knows himself
to be chiefly indebted, but his obligation goes much farther than he
can hope to acknowledge in print. With all due regard for these earlier
authors, the present writer justifies himself in the publication of
this volume by the following considerations, which seems to him to
differ in important respects from earlier works in the same field:
(1) He has made an effort to provide an adequate historical background
for the study of the religious life of Abraham Lincoln in the
successive periods of his life; and without immediately going too
deeply into the material of the main subject, to relate the man to his
environment. In this the author has been aided not only by books and
interviews with men who knew Lincoln, but by some years of personal
experience in communities where the social, educational, and religious
conditions were in all essential respects similar to those in which Mr.
Lincoln lived during two important epochs of his career. The author was
not born in this environment, but he spent seven years of his youth
and young manhood as a teacher and preacher in a region which give him
somewhat exceptional opportunities for a discriminating judgment.
(2) The author has assembled what is, so far as he knows, all the
essential evidence that has appeared in print concerning the religious
life and opinions of Mr. Lincoln, a larger body, as he believes, than
any previous writer has compiled. He has added to this all evidence
available to him from written and personal testimony.
He has subjected this evidence to a critical analysis, in an effort to
determine the degree of credibility with which its several portions may
reasonably be received. The author is not unaware that this is the most
disputable, as it is the most difficult part of his task, and, as he
believes, the most valuable part of it. Unless some such analysis is
made, the evidence resolves itself into chaos.
(3) Several entirely new avenues of investigation have been opened and
lines of evidence adduced which find no place in any previous book
on Mr. Lincoln's religious life, and very scant reference, and that
without investigation, in one or two of the biographies.
(4) The book also contains a constructive argument, setting forth the
conviction to which the author has come with regard to the faith of
Abraham Lincoln.
It is entirely possible that some readers will find themselves in
essential agreement with the author in the earlier parts of the book,
but will dissent in whole or in part from his own inferences. Whether
the reader agrees or disagrees with the author in his conclusions, he
will find in this book some material not elsewhere available for the
formation of an independent judgment. Nevertheless the author counts
himself justified not only in adducing the evidence but in stating
frankly the conclusion which to his mind this evidence supports.
This book treats of the religion of Abraham Lincoln; but it does not
consider his religion as wholly expressed in his theological opinions.
Important as it is that a man should think correctly on all subjects,
and especially on a subject of such transcendent value, religion is
more than a matter of opinion. We cannot adequately consider religion
apart from life. Abraham Lincoln's life was an evolution, and so was
his religion. In a way which this volume will seek to set forth,
Lincoln was himself a believer in evolution, and his life and religion
were in accord with this process as he held it.
This book is, therefore, more than an essay on the religion of Lincoln,
unless religion be understood as inclusive of all that is normal in
life. It deals, therefore, with the life, as well as with the opinions,
of Lincoln; and it considers both life and opinion as in process of
development in each of the successive stages of his career.
In this respect the present book may claim some distinctive place in
the literature of this subject. Other books have drawn sharp contrasts
between the supposed religious opinions of Lincoln's youth and those
which he is believed to have cherished later. This book undertakes what
may be termed a study of the evolution of the spiritual life of Abraham
Lincoln. The author is not aware that this has been done before in
quite this way.
The author acknowledges his obligations to many friends for their
assistance in the preparation of this volume. Mr. Jesse W. Weik, of
Greencastle, Indiana, associate of Mr. Herndon in the preparation of
his Life of Lincoln, and owner of the Herndon manuscripts, has been
generous to me. Mrs. Clark E. Carr, of Galesburg, Illinois, widow of
my honored friend, and the friend of Lincoln, Colonel Carr, author of
"Lincoln at Gettysburg," has placed at my disposal all her husband's
books and papers. Mr. Judd Stewart, of New York City, owner of one of
the largest collections of Lincolniana, has assisted me. President John
W. Cook of the Northern Illinois State Normal School has suggested
important lines of research. Mr. John E. Burton, of Lake Geneva,
Wisconsin, whose collection of Lincoln books was once the largest in
America, has sold me some of his chief treasures, and imparted to me
much of the fruit of his experience. Mr. O. H. Oldroyd, of Washington,
owner of the famous Lincoln Collection, and custodian of the house
where Lincoln died, has, on two visits, placed all that he has within
my reach. To these, and to a considerable number of men and women who
knew Lincoln while he was yet living, and to many others whom I cannot
name, my thanks are due.
I regret that one great collection, consisting, however, more largely
of relics than of manuscripts, is so largely packed away that it has
not been of much use to me. Mr. Charles F. Gunther of Chicago has,
however, produced for me such Lincoln material as seemed to him to bear
upon my quest, and I acknowledge his courtesy.
Mr. Oliver P. Barrett of Chicago has given me great joy in the
examination of his fine collection of Lincoln manuscripts.
I have spent a few pleasant and profitable hours in the collection of
Honorable Daniel Fish, the noted Lincoln bibliographer, of Minneapolis,
and thank him for his friendly interest in this undertaking.
Among libraries, my largest debt is to those of the Chicago Historical
Society, the Illinois State Historical Society at Springfield, and the
Library of Congress in Washington. In each of these I have had not only
unrestricted access to the whole Lincoln material possessed by them,
but the most generous and courteous assistance. I have examined every
rare Lincoln book, and many manuscripts, in these three collections. I
have had occasion also to use the Chicago Public Library, the Newberry
Library, and the Library of the University of Chicago, as well as those
of Chicago Theological Seminary and McCormick Theological Seminary. In
certain important local matters, I have been assisted by the libraries
of Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, Illinois College, Jacksonville,
Illinois, the Public Library of Peoria, Illinois, and the library of
Transylvania University at Lexington, Kentucky. I also visited the
Public Library of Louisville, with its historical collections, but most
that I found there I had already consulted elsewhere. The New York
Public Library and the Library of Columbia University supplemented my
research at a few important points. The Oak Park Public Library has
been constantly at my service. The Library of Berea College, Kentucky,
has given me very valuable assistance in finding for me a large amount
of periodical literature bearing on my study. The five great Boston
libraries would have yielded me much had I come to them earlier.
While the book was undergoing revision, I visited the Athenaeum, the
Massachusetts State, the Boston Public, the Massachusetts Historical,
and the Harvard University libraries. It was gratifying to discover
that even in the last named of these, enriched as it is with the
collections of Charles Sumner, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, and the
Lincoln collection of my friend Alonzo Rothschild, author of "Lincoln,
Master of Men," there was practically nothing relating to this subject
which I had not already seen and examined. In the Massachusetts
Historical Library, however, I discovered some manuscripts, and that
quite unexpectedly, which afford me much aid in a collateral study.
In addition to the foregoing, I have my own Lincoln library, which,
while a working collection rather than one of incunabula, and modest in
size as compared with some that I have used, is still not small. The
Bibliography at the end of the volume is virtually a catalogue of my
own Lincoln books.
Claims of completeness are dangerous, and I make none. But I have
been diligent in pursuit of all probable sources of knowledge of this
subject, and I do not now know where to look for any other book of
manuscript that would greatly alter or add to the material which this
book contains. I am glad, therefore, at this stage, to share the fruits
of my investigations with the reader.
W. E. B.
THE FIRST CHURCH STUDY OAK PARK, ILLINOIS
CONTENTS
PART I: A STUDY OF RELIGIOUS ENVIRONMENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I THE CONFLICT OF TESTIMONY 19
II WHY THE BIOGRAPHIES DIFFER 24
III THE ENVIRONMENT OF LINCOLN'S BOYHOOD 29
IV THE ENVIRONMENTS OF LINCOLN'S YOUNG MANHOOD 51
V THE ENVIRONMENT OF LINCOLN'S LIFE IN SPRINGFIELD 71
VI THE ENVIRONMENT OF LINCOLN'S LIFE IN WASHINGTON 86
PART II: AN ANALYSIS OF THE EVIDENCE
VII THE RULES OF EVIDENCE 101
VIII THE BATEMAN INCIDENT 114
IX THE LAMON BIOGRAPHY 128
X THE REED LECTURE 135
XI THE HERNDON LECTURES, LETTERS, AND BIOGRAPHY 140
XII LINCOLN'S BURNT BOOK 146
XIII "THE CHRISTIAN'S DEFENCE" 156
XIV "VESTIGES OF CREATION" 166
XV OTHER FORMATIVE BOOKS 172
XVI CHITTENDEN AND CHINIQUY 188
XVII THE BEECHER AND SICKLES INCIDENTS 198
XVIII "BEHIND THE SCENES" 203
XIX FROM THE HOUSETOPS AND IN THE CLOSET 210
PART III: THE RELIGION OF LINCOLN
XX WHAT LINCOLN WAS NOT 225
XXI WHY DID LINCOLN NEVER JOIN A CHURCH? 244
XXII THE CONSTRUCTIVE ARGUMENT 260
XXIII THE CREED OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 291
APPENDICES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
I EXTRACT FROM NEWTON BATEMAN'S LECTURE ON
LINCOLN WITH VARIANTS OF THE SPRINGFIELD
FAREWELL ADDRESS 303
II "HIGH-HANDED OUTRAGE AT UTICA" 307
By Artemus Ward
III "THE CONVERSION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN" 309
By the Rev. Edward L. Watson
IV THE REED LECTURE 314
V TWO HERNDON LETTERS CONCERNING LINCOLN'S
RELIGION 336
VI THE IRWIN ARTICLE, WITH LETTERS 341
VII "THE CHRISTIAN'S DEFENCE" 358
With full chapter analysis
VIII LINCOLN AND THE CHURCHES 377
By Nicolay and Hay
IX "BOUND TOGETHER IN CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM" 385
Hitherto unpublished address of Lincoln
BIBLIOGRAPHY 387
INDEX 401
PART I: A STUDY OF RELIGIOUS ENVIRONMENTS
CHAPTER I
THE CONFLICT OF TESTIMONY
OF no other American have so many biographies been written as of
Abraham Lincoln. No other question concerning his life has evoked more
interest than that of his religious faith and experience. What Abraham
Lincoln believed has been told by many who knew him and whose varied
relations to him during his lifetime rendered it not unreasonable to
suppose that they could give some assured answer to the question of his
belief. The answers are not only varied, but hopelessly contradictory.
It is stated on apparently good authority that in his young manhood he
read Volney's _Ruins_ and Paine's _Age of Reason_, and it is affirmed
that he accepted their conclusions, and himself wrote what might
have been a book or pamphlet denying the essential doctrines of the
Christian faith as he understood them. Friends of his who knew him
well enough to forbid the throwing of their testimony out of court
have affirmed that he continued to hold these convictions; and that,
while he became more cautious in the matter of their expression, he
carried them through life and that they never underwent any radical
change. On the other hand, there are declarations, made by those who
also knew Lincoln well, that these views became modified essentially,
and that Lincoln accepted practically the whole content of orthodox
Christian theology as it was then understood; that he observed daily
family worship in his home; that he carried a Bible habitually upon
his person; and that he was in short in every essential a professed
Christian, though never a member of a Christian church.
There is more than a conflict of testimony; there is positive chaos.
Every recent biographer has felt the inherent difficulties involved in
it. One or two of them have passed it over with practically no mention;
others have become fierce partisans of the one extreme or the other.
Besides the formal biographies, a literature of this special topic has
grown up. Entire books and many pamphlets and magazine articles have
been written on this one question. The Chicago Historical Society and
the Chicago Public Library have each devoted a principal division in
the Lincoln material to the literature relating to his religion. It has
been the writer's privilege to examine in both these libraries and in
several others the whole known body of literature of the subject.
In this investigation the writer came face to face with utterly
contradictory testimony from men who had known Abraham Lincoln
intimately.
Of him Mr. Herndon, for twenty years his law partner, said:
"As to Mr. Lincoln's religious views, he was, in short, an infidel....
Mr. Lincoln told me a thousand times that he did not believe the Bible
was the revelation of God as the Christian world contends."--LAMON:
_Life of Lincoln_, p. 489.
The direct antithesis of this statement is found in a narrative of Hon.
Newton Bateman, who knew Mr. Lincoln from 1842 until Mr. Lincoln's
death, and whose office was in the State House at Springfield next-door
to that which, for a period of eight months from the time of his
nomination till his departure for his inauguration, was occupied by Mr.
Lincoln. He affirmed (or at least was so quoted by Holland) that Mr.
Lincoln said to him:
"I know there is a God, and that He hates injustice and slavery. I
see the storm coming, and I know that His hand is in it. If He has a
place and work for me--and I think He has--I believe I am ready. I am
nothing, but truth is everything. I know I am right because I know
that liberty is right, for Christ teaches it, and Christ is God."--J.
G. HOLLAND: _Life of Lincoln_, p. 237.
Popular oratory has carried even farther these two extremes of
irreconcilable contradiction. On the one hand are to be found
scurrilous publications, shockingly offensive against all good taste,
declaring Lincoln to have been an atheist, a mocker, a hypocrite, a man
of unclean mind, and a violator in his speech of all canons of decency.
We will not quote from any of these at present; but of the length to
which the other extreme can go, has gone, and continues to go, let the
following incident, gleaned from a recent English book, serve as an
illustration:
"In the year 1861 the Southern States of America were filled with
slaves and slaveholders. It was proposed to make Abraham Lincoln
president. But he had resolved that if he came to that position of
power he would do all he could to wipe away the awful scourge from
the page of his nation's history. A rebellion soon became imminent,
and it was expected that in his inaugural address much would be said
respecting it. The time came. The Senate House was packed with people;
before him was gathered the business skill and the intellectual power
of the States. With one son lying dead in the White House, whom he
loved with a fond father's affection; another little boy on the
borders of eternity; with his nation's eternal disgrace or everlasting
honor resting upon his speech, he speaks distinctly, forcefully, and
without fear. Friend and foe marvel at his collected movements. They
know of the momentous issues which hang on his address. They know the
domestic trials that oppress his heart. But they do not know that,
before leaving home that morning, the President had taken down the
family Bible and conducted their home worship as usual, and then
had asked to be left alone. The family withdrawing, they heard his
tremulous voice raised in pleadings with God, that He whose shoulder
sustains the government of worlds would guide him and overrule
his speech for His own glory. Here was the power of this man's
strength."--G. H. MORGAN: _Modern Knights-Errant_, p. 104; quoted in
Hastings' _Great Texts of the Bible_, volume on "Isaiah," pp. 237-38.
This incident is now an integral part of the best and most recent
homiletic work in the English language, and will be used in thousands
of sermons and addresses. It is a story that carries its own refutation
in almost every line. Mr. Lincoln had no son either sick or dead and
lying in the White House or anywhere else at the time of his first
inaugural, nor had he as yet entered the White House; and the hours of
that day are fairly well accounted for; but this and similar incidents
illustrate the length to which the oratorical imagination may carry
a speaker either in the pulpit or on the platform, and not only be
preserved in books but pass the supposedly critical eye of a careful
compiler of material for sermons and lectures.
If another book is justified, it should be one that does more than
compile that part of the evidence which appears to support a particular
theory. The compilation should be as nearly complete as is humanely
possible. But it must do more than plunge the reader into this swamp of
conflicting testimony. It must somehow seek to evaluate the evidence
and present a reasonable conclusion.
Moreover, in the judgment of the present writer, religion is more
than opinion, and cannot be considered as a detachable entity.
Lincoln's religion was more than his belief, his conjecture, his
logical conclusion concerning particular doctrines. It can only be
properly appraised in connection with his life. While, therefore, the
writer does not now undertake a complete biography of Lincoln, though
cherishing some hope that he may eventually write a book of that
character, this present work endeavors to study the religion of Lincoln
not in detachment, but as part and parcel of his life.
A word may be said concerning the author's point of view and the
experience which lies behind it. In his early manhood he had an
experience of several years which he considers of value as affording a
background for the interpretation of the Lincoln material. For several
years the author taught school and afterward preached in the mountain
region of Kentucky and Tennessee amid social conditions essentially
parallel to those in which Mr. Lincoln was born and amid which he
spent his manhood up to the time of his going to Washington. The
same kind of preaching that Lincoln heard, not only in Kentucky but
in the backwoods of Indiana and the pioneer villages of central and
southern Illinois, the present author heard in his own young manhood
as a teacher in district schools far back beyond the sound of the
locomotive's whistle or the inroads of modern civilization. How that
kind of preaching affected the inquiring mind of the young Lincoln,
the author is sure he knows better than most of Lincoln's biographers
have known. The fierce theological controversies that waged between
the old-time Baptists and the itinerant Methodists, together with the
emphatic dogmatism of the Southern type of Presbyterianism as it was
held and preached in the Kentucky mountains forty years ago and in
southern Illinois and Indiana eighty years ago are part of the vivid
memory of the present writer. A young man who refused to accept this
kind of teaching might be charged with being an infidel, and might
easily suppose himself to be one; but whether that would be a just
or fair classification depends upon conditions which some of the
controversialists appear not to have known or to have been capable of
appreciating through lack of experience of their own.
This book attempts, therefore, to be a digest of all the available
evidence concerning the religious faith of Abraham Lincoln. It
undertakes also to weigh that evidence and to pass judgment, the
author's own judgment, concerning it. If the reader's judgment agrees
with the author's, the author will be glad; but if not at least the
facts are here set forth in their full essential content.
CHAPTER II
WHY THE BIOGRAPHIES DIFFER
THE many biographies of Abraham Lincoln differ widely in their estimate
of his religious opinions and life, partly because the biographers
approach the subject from widely differing angles, and some of them
are seeking in advance the establishment of particular conclusions.
But apart from that personal bias, from which no author can claim to
be wholly free, the biographical study of Abraham Lincoln was itself
an evolution whose main outlines and processes it will be profitable
briefly to consider.
The first printed biographies of Mr. Lincoln appeared in 1860. They
were the familiar campaign biography, such as is issued for every
candidate for the Presidency. The first man who approached Mr. Lincoln
with a proposal to write his Life was J. L. Scripps of the Chicago
_Tribune_. Mr. Lincoln deprecated the idea of writing any biography.
"Why, Scripps, [said he] it is a great piece of folly to attempt to
make anything out of me or my early life. It can all be condensed into
a single sentence, and that sentence you will find in Grey's 'Elegy':
'_The short and simple annals of the poor._'
That's my life, and that's all you or anyone else can make out of
it."--HERNDON, I, 2.
Lincoln felt the meagerness of his biographical material, but the
biographers succeeded in making books about him, Scripps wrote his
booklet, and it appeared in thirty-two closely printed double-column
pages, and sold at twenty-five cents. It is now excessively rare.
Lincoln read the proof and approved it. The "Wigwam" Life of Lincoln
appeared simultaneously with the Scripps booklet, and it is not quite
certain which of the two emerged first from the press. It contained
117 pages, of which the last seven were devoted to Hannibal Hamlin,
Republican candidate for Vice-President. This also had a wide sale, and
is now very rare. That Lincoln did not read the proofs of this book is
evidenced by the name "Abram" instead of "Abraham" on its title page
and throughout the book. It relates that "when he was six years old,
his father died, leaving a widow and several children, poor and almost
friendless"; and in other respects shows that Lincoln did not furnish
the data of it, and also indicates how meager was the biographical
material at hand outside the little sketch which Lincoln prepared for
Scripps.
Another pamphlet, containing 216 pages, was "The Authentic Edition" by
J. H. Barrett, and still another, the "Authorized" edition by D. W.
Bartlett, which extended to 354 pages and was bound in cloth. Perhaps
the best of these campaign biographies of 1860 was that written by
William Dean Howells, then a young man and unknown to fame. Apparently
Lincoln furnished to each of these writers--except the Wigwam
edition--essentially the same material which he had given to Scripps,
or else they borrowed from Scripps, with permission, and to this extent
they were "authorized" or "authentic." But there is no indication that
Lincoln read any of them except that of Scripps. Even this must have
surprised him when he beheld how his little sketch could be spread out
over as many as thirty-two pages.
The campaign of 1864 brought out a new crop of campaign biographies,
and these used essentially the same material up to 1860, and found
their new matter in the history of the Civil War up to the date of
their publication.
This campaign material still stood in type or stereotyped pages when
Lincoln was killed, and was hastily used again. The author, who
owns all the books cited above, has also others which came from the
press in May or June of 1865, whose main part was taken over bodily
from the campaign biographies of 1864 and speaks of Lincoln as still
living, while the back part is made up of material concerning the
assassination, the funeral, and the trial of the conspirators. These
called themselves "Complete" biographies, but they were merely revamped
campaign booklets of 1864 with appended matter and virtually no
revision.
These works represent the first stage of the attempt to make books
out of the life of Abraham Lincoln. The outline of the life itself is
meager in all of them, and they are well padded with campaign speeches;
and the last of them, with full and interesting details of the funeral
services of Lincoln, the death of Booth, and other matter lifted from
the newspapers of the period.
* * * * *
The second epoch began with the publication of the Life of Abraham
Lincoln by John G. Holland in 1865. It was by all odds the best of
the books that undertook within a few years after his death to tell
the story of the life of Lincoln, with some estimate of his place in
history. It is also the book which began the controversy concerning
Lincoln's religion.
* * * * *
The third period was introduced by the biography of Abraham Lincoln
by Ward Hill Lamon, which was issued in 1872. It was based upon
manuscripts that had been collected by William H. Herndon, who
was supposed to have had a considerable share in the work of its
preparation. Herndon emphatically denied writing any part of it, and
said in a letter to Mr. Horace White that it was written for Lamon
by Chauncey F. Black, son of J. S. Black, a member of Buchanan's
cabinet and a political enemy of Lincoln (Newton: _Lincoln and
Herndon_, p. 307). This valuable but unwisely written book, containing
many things offensive to good taste, occasioned much controversy
for its stark realism and what seemed to many of Lincoln's friends
misrepresentations. Some of the intimate friends of Lincoln are alleged
to have bought a considerable part of the edition and destroyed the
books, but copies are in the principal libraries and in the best
private collections.
Unterrified by the reception which had been accorded Lamon's work,
William H. Herndon, for twenty years Lincoln's law partner, assisted
by Jesse W. Weik, published in 1889 a Life of Lincoln, in three
volumes.[1] The storm of denunciation that beat upon Herndon's head was
fierce and long. The greater part of the edition disappeared. Libraries
that contain it keep it under lock and key, and the prices bid for it
at occasional book auctions contrast strikingly with those for which
it went begging immediately after it was issued. Four years later,
assisted by Mr. Horace White, Mr. Herndon reissued the book in two
volumes, with those passages elided which had given greatest offense.
These two biographies mark the rise and high-water mark of the demand
for "the real Lincoln"; and nobody can deny that they were quite
sufficiently realistic.
The next stage in the Lincoln biography was the ten-volume Life of
Lincoln by his former secretaries, John G. Nicolay and John Hay. It was
issued in 1890, and called itself "a history." It is a history rather
than a biography; the biographical material in it was condensed into a
single volume by Mr. Nicolay in 1904. This work is monumental, and may
be said to attempt the giving of materials for the complete Lincoln
rather than to be in itself an effort within the proper limits of
biography.
The two-volume biography by John T. Morse, Jr., issued in 1893, was the
first constructive piece of work in this field after the Nicolay and
Hay material had become available; and it remains in some respects the
best short Life of Abraham Lincoln; though the author's New England
viewpoint militates against his correct appraisal of many features of
the life of Lincoln.
The next period may be said to be the period of the magazine Lincoln,
and to be represented at its best by the work of Ida M. Tarbell, which
first appeared in _McClure's Magazine_, beginning in 1895, and was
subsequently issued in book form in several editions beginning in
1900. This was a pictorial biography, with much new illustrative and
documentary material, and is of permanent value.
Since 1900 the biographies that have been issued have largely been
devoted to specialized studies, as of Lincoln as a lawyer, Lincoln
as a political leader, Lincoln as a statesman; and there have been
innumerable books and articles made up of reminiscences of the men who
knew Lincoln more or less intimately.
None of the biographies before Holland attempted anything that could be
called a critical analysis of Lincoln's character. There is virtually
nothing in the earliest Lives of Lincoln concerning his religion or any
other important aspect of his private and personal life. In the nature
of the case those books were superficial.
Furthermore, some of the more important biographies of more recent
years have made no attempt at systematic character study. While there
is something about Lincoln's religion in almost every one of them, that
topic has been quite incidental and subordinate to the main purpose of
most of the larger books. The authors have been content to take for the
most part the ready-formed judgment of those whose views most nearly
accorded with their own.
The field of inquiry concerning Lincoln's religion is both more
narrow and broader than it would at first appear. Many even of the
more important biographical works about Lincoln yield nothing of
any real value, so far as this topic is concerned. On the other
hand, the subject has been exploited in magazine articles, newspaper
contributions, lectures and addresses almost innumerable and by no mean
consistent.
The task, then, is more and other than that of making a scrapbook of
what different authorities have said about Abraham Lincoln's religion.
A vast amount has been said by people who had no personal knowledge of
the subject they were discussing and no adequate power of historical
analysis. The volume of really first-hand evidence is not so vast as
at first it appears; and while it cannot all be reconciled nor its
direct contradictions eliminated, it is not hopelessly beyond the
limits of constructive probability. It is possible to determine some
facts about the religion of Abraham Lincoln with reasonable certainty
and to interpret others in the light of their probable bearing upon the
subject as a whole.
CHAPTER III
THE ENVIRONMENT OF LINCOLN'S BOYHOOD
WE have read Buckle's _History of Civilization_ to little effect if we
have not learned that the development of an individual or a nation is
profoundly influenced by environment. The biographers of Lincoln would
appear to have kept this fact carefully in mind, for they have been at
great pains to give to us detailed descriptions of the houses in which
Lincoln lived and the neighborhoods where from time to time he resided.
Although the camera and the descriptive power of the biographers have
done much for us, they leave something to be desired in the way of
sketching a background from which the Abraham Lincoln of the successive
periods emerged into conditions of life and thought that were more
or less religious. For the purpose of this present study the life of
Lincoln divides itself into four parts.
The first is the period of his boyhood, from his birth in Kentucky
until his coming of age and the removal of his family from Indiana into
Illinois.
The second is the period of his early manhood, from the time he left
his father's home until he took up his residence in Springfield.
The third is the period of his life in Springfield, from his first
arrival on April 15, 1837, until his final departure on February 11,
1861, for his inauguration as President.
The fourth is the period covered by his presidency, from his
inauguration, March 4, 1861, until his death, April 15, 1865.
Before considering at length the testimony of the people who knew him,
except as that testimony relates to these particular epochs, we will
consider the life of Lincoln as it was related to the conditions in
which he lived in these successive periods.
The first period in the life of Abraham Lincoln includes the
twenty-one years from his birth to his majority, and is divided
into two parts,--the first seven and one-half years of his life in
the backwoods of Kentucky, and the following thirteen years in the
wilderness of southern Indiana.
Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth President of the United States, was born
near Hodgenville, Kentucky, on Sunday, February 12, 1809. He was the
second child of Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, who were married near
Beechland, Washington County, Kentucky, on June 12, 1806, when Thomas
was twenty-eight and Nancy twenty-three. Nine days before the birth
of Abraham Lincoln the territory of Illinois was organized by Act of
Congress; the boy and the future State were twin-born. For four years
the family lived on the Rock Spring farm, three miles from Hodgenville,
in Hardin, now Larue County, Kentucky. When he was four years old his
parents moved to a better farm on Knob Creek. Here he spent nearly four
years more, and he and his sister, Sarah, began going to school. His
first teacher was Zachariah Riney; his second, Caleb Hazel.
In the autumn of 1816, Thomas Lincoln loaded his household goods upon
a small flatboat of his own construction and floated down Knob Creek,
Salt River, and the Ohio, and landed on the northern bank of the Ohio
River. He thence returned and brought his family, who traveled on
horseback. The distance to where the goods had been left was only about
fifty miles in a straight line from the old home in Kentucky, but was
probably a hundred miles by the roads on which they traveled. Thomas
doubtless rode one horse with a child behind him, and Nancy rode the
other, also carrying a child behind her saddle.
When the family arrived at the point where the goods had been left, a
wagon was hired, and Thomas Lincoln, with his wife, his two children,
and all his worldly possessions, moved sixteen miles into the
wilderness to a place which he had already selected, and there made his
home. That winter and the greater part of the following year were spent
in a "half-faced camp" from which the family moved in the following
autumn to a log cabin, erected by Thomas Lincoln. For more than a year
he was a squatter on this farm, but subsequently entered it and secured
title from the government. Here Nancy Hanks Lincoln died, October 5,
1818, when Abraham was less than ten years old. A year later Thomas
Lincoln returned to Kentucky and married Sally Bush Johnson, a widow,
with three children. She brought with her better furniture than the
cabin afforded, and also brought a higher type of culture than Thomas
Lincoln had known. She taught her husband so that he was able with some
difficulty to read the Bible and to sign his own name. On this farm
in the backwoods in the Pigeon Creek settlement, with eight or ten
families as neighbors, and with the primitive village of Gentryville a
mile and a half distant, Abraham Lincoln grew to manhood. Excepting for
a brief experience as a ferryman on the Ohio River and a trip to New
Orleans which he made upon a flatboat, his horizon was bounded by this
environment from the time he was eight until he was twenty-one.
The cabin in which the Lincoln family lived was a fairly comfortable
house. It was eighteen feet square and the logs were hewn. It was high
enough to admit a loft, where Abe slept, ascending to it by wooden
pins driven into the logs. The furniture, excepting that brought by
Sally Bush, was very primitive and made by Thomas Lincoln. Three-legged
stools answered for chairs, and the bedsteads had only one leg each,
the walls supporting the other three corners.
Of the educational advantages, Mr. Lincoln wrote in 1860:
"It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still
in the woods. There I grew up. There were some schools so-called,
but no qualification was ever required of a teacher beyond readin',
writin', and cipherin' to the Rule of Three. If a straggler supposed
to understand Latin happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was
looked upon as a wizard. There was absolutely nothing to excite
ambition for education."--NICOLAY, p. 10.
Here he attended school for three brief periods. The first school was
taught by Azel W. Dorsey, when Abraham was ten years old; the next by
Andrew Crawford, when he was fourteen; and the third by a teacher
named Swaney, whose first name Mr. Lincoln was unable to recall in
later life. His schooling was under five different teachers, two in
Kentucky and three in Indiana. It was scattered over nine years and
embraced altogether less than twelve months of aggregate attendance.
In Kentucky it is probable that his only textbook was Webster's
Elementary Speller. It was popularly known as the "Old Blueback."
Webster's Speller is a good speller and more. Each section of words
to be spelled is followed by short sentences containing those words,
and at the end of the book are three illustrated lessons in Natural
History--one on The Mastiff, another on The Stag, and the third on The
Squirrel. Besides these are seven fables, each with its illustration
and its moral lesson. I used this book in teaching school in the
backwoods of Kentucky, and still have the teacher's copy which I thus
employed.
The two Kentucky schools which Lincoln attended were undoubtedly "blab"
schools. The children were required to study aloud. Their audible
repetition of their lessons was the teacher's only assurance that they
were studying;[2] and even while he was hearing a class recite he would
spend a portion of his time moving about the room with hickory switch
in hand, administering frequent rebuke to those pupils who did not
study loud enough to afford proof of their industry.
In Indiana, Lincoln came under the influence of men who could cipher
as far as the Rule of Three. He also learned to use Lindley Murray's
English Reader, which he always believed, and with much reason, to be
the most useful textbook ever put into the hands of an American youth
(Herndon, I, 37). He also studied Pike's Arithmetic. Grammar he did not
study in school, but later learned it under Mentor Graham in Illinois.
The first of these schools was only about a mile and a half distant
from his home; the last was four miles, and his attendance was
irregular.
In the second school, taught by Andrew Crawford, he learned whatever he
knew of the usages of polite society; for Crawford gave his pupils a
kind of drill in social usages (Herndon, I, 37).
In Swaney's school he probably learned that the earth was round. A
classmate, Katy Roby, afterward Mrs. Allen Gentry, between whom and
Abraham a boy-and-girl attachment appears to have existed, and who at
the time was fifteen and Abe seventeen, is authority for the statement
that as they were sitting together on the bank of the Ohio River near
Gentry's landing, wetting their bare feet in the flowing water and
watching the sun go down, he told her that it was the revolution of the
earth which made the moon and sun appear to rise and set. He exhibited
what to her appeared a profound knowledge of astronomy (Herndon, I, 39;
Lamon's _Life_, p. 70).
It is not necessary for us to assume that Abraham knew very much more
about astronomy than the little which he told to Katy Roby; but it is
worth while to note in passing that when Abraham Lincoln learned that
the earth was round, he probably learned something which his father did
not know and which would have been admitted by no minister whom Abraham
had heard preach up to this time.
We are ready now to consider the character of the preaching which
Abraham Lincoln heard in his boyhood. Direct testimony is fragmentary
of necessity; but it is of such character that we are able without
difficulty to make a consistent mental picture of the kind of religious
service with which he was familiar.
A recent author has said that Lincoln never lived in a community having
a church building until he went to the legislature in Vandalia in 1834
(Johnson, _Lincoln the Christian_, p. 31). This is probably true if
we insist upon its meaning a house of worship owned exclusively by
one denomination, but the same author reminds us that there was a log
meeting-house[3] within three miles of Lincoln's childhood home in
Kentucky (p. 22).
Dr. Peters says:
"The prayers that Parson Elkin said above the mound of Nancy
Hanks were the first public prayers to which Abraham ever
listened"--_Abraham Lincoln's Religion_, p. 24.
This is absurdly incorrect. Abraham Lincoln almost certainly heard
public prayers at intervals, probably from the time he was three months
old.
Abraham Lincoln was born in February, or his mother probably would have
taken him to church earlier; but by May or June, when there was monthly
preaching at the log meeting-house three miles away, she mounted a
horse and Thomas Lincoln another, he with Sarah sitting before him
at the saddlebow and she with Abraham in her arms, and they rode to
meeting. If they had had but one horse instead of two they would have
gone just the same. She would have sat behind Thomas with Abraham in
her arms and Thomas would have had Sarah on the horse before him.
Thomas Lincoln was too shiftless to have a horse-block, but Nancy could
mount her horse from any one of the numerous stumps in the vicinity of
the home. She and every other young mother in the neighborhood knew how
to ride and carry a baby, and having once learned the art, the young
mother was not permitted to forget it for several years.
Arrived at the log meeting-house, they hitched their horses to
swinging limbs, where the animals could fight flies without breaking
the bridle-reins. Nancy went inside immediately and took her seat on
the left side of the room; Thomas remained outside gossiping with his
neighbors concerning "craps" and politics, and maybe swapping a horse
before the service had gotten fairly under way. After a while he heard
the preacher in stentorian tones lining and singing the opening hymn,
the thin, high voices of the women joining him feebly at first but
growing a little more confident as the hymn proceeded. Then Thomas and
his neighbors straggled in and sat on the right side of the house.
The floor was puncheon and so were the seats; they were rudely split
slabs, roughly hewn, and the second sitting from either end had an
added element of discomfort in the projection of the two legs that had
been driven in from the under side and were not sawed off flush with
the surface of the slab. There were no glass windows. On either side of
the house one section of a log may have been sawed out about four feet
from the floor; but most of the light of the interior came in through
the open door in mild weather, or was afforded by the fireplace in cold
weather.
On the rude pulpit lay the preacher's Bible and hymn book, if he had
a hymn book--no one else had one; and beside these were a bucket of
water and a gourd. There was no time in the service when Thomas Lincoln
did not feel free to walk up to the pulpit and drink a gourd of water,
and the same was true of every other member of the congregation, the
preacher included. As for Nancy, she spread her riding-skirt on the
seat under her and when her baby grew hungry she nursed him just as the
other women nursed their babies.
To such congregations the author of this present book preached hundreds
of times in the woods of Kentucky; and there is no essential feature of
the church services which he does not know.
In the autumn, just before fodder-pulling time, there was an
occasional camp-meeting or big revival, followed by a baptizing, which
brought multitudes of people from long distances. They brought their
provisions, or they stayed with friends, one cabin proving elastic
enough to accommodate two or three households. Under these conditions
the author of this book has slept many nights in houses of one room,
with as many beds as the room could well contain, inhabited not only by
the family but by visitors of both sexes; and in all that experience he
is unable to recall any incident that was immodest.
When the converts of the camp-meeting or revival were baptized, they
were led into the water with due solemnity; but as each one came to the
surface he or she was likely to break forth into shouting, a proceeding
which, as the author can testify, was sometimes embarrassing, if not
indeed perilous,[4] to the officiating clergyman.
Herndon tells us of the fondness of the Hanks girls for camp-meeting
and describes one in which Nancy appears to have participated a little
time before her marriage (I, 14). We have no reason to believe that
that was her last camp-meeting.
Thomas Lincoln is alleged by Herndon to have been a Free-will Baptist
in Kentucky, a Presbyterian in the latter part of his life in Indiana,
and finally a Disciple (I, 11). He does not state where he obtained
his information, but it is almost certain that he got it from Sally
Bush Lincoln on the occasion of his visit to her in 1865; as she is the
accredited source of most of the information of this character.
I am more than tempted to believe that either she or Herndon was
incorrect in speaking of Thomas Lincoln's earliest affiliation as a
Free-will Baptist. There were more kinds of Baptists in heaven and on
earth than were understood in her philosophy; and I question whether
the Free-will Baptists, who originated in New England, had by this
time penetrated to so remote a section of Kentucky. What she probably
told Herndon was that he was not of the most reactionary kind--the
so-called "Hardshell" or anti-missionary Baptists. Of them we shall
have something to say later. The Scripps biography, read and approved
by Lincoln, said simply that his parents were consistent members of
the Baptist Church. Nicolay and Hay do not record the membership of
Thomas Lincoln in the Presbyterian Church, and one is more than tempted
to question the accuracy of Herndon at this point. Presbyterianism
had at that date very little part in the shaping of the life of the
backwoods of Illinois and Indiana, as we shall see when we come to
the life of Lincoln in Illinois. Nicolay and Hay tell us that "Thomas
Lincoln joined the Baptist church at Little Pigeon in 1823. His oldest
child, Sarah, followed his example three years later. They were known
as consistent and active members of that communion" (Nicolay and
Hay, I, 32-33). If Sarah joined the Baptist church in 1826, and the
family was remembered as active in that church, the relation of Thomas
Lincoln with the Presbyterians in Indiana must have been brief, for
he left that State in 1830. We are assured that he observed religious
customs in his home and asked a blessing at the table; for one day,
when the meal consisted only of potatoes, Abraham said to his father,
that he regarded those as "mighty poor blessings" (Herndon, I, 24).
While Thomas Lincoln was not an energetic man, there is no reason
to doubt the consistency of his religion, in which he was certainly
aided by Sally Bush Lincoln. That he died in the fellowship either
of the Disciples or of the New Lights is probably correct; but the
Presbyterian membership in Indiana, while not impossible, appears more
likely to have been a mistake in Herndon's interpretation of Mrs.
Lincoln's narrative.
Herndon's statement concerning Thomas Lincoln's religion is as follows:
"In his religious belief he first affiliated with the Free-will
Baptists. After his removal to Indiana he changed his adherence to the
Presbyterians--or Predestinarians, as they were then called--and later
united with the Christian--vulgarly called Campbellite--Church, in
which latter faith he is supposed to have died" (I, 11-12).
I am satisfied that Herndon is mistaken in two if not in all three of
these assertions. I am confident that Predestinarian was not a popular
or commonly understood name for Presbyterians, but it was a name for
one type of Baptists. Mrs. Lincoln probably told Herndon that her
husband joined in Indiana, not the hardshell, or most reactionary kind
of Baptists, but the Predestinarians. Knowing that predestination
was a doctrine of Presbyterianism, Mr. Herndon assumed that that was
what the name implied. It implied nothing of the sort. Thomas Lincoln
probably belonged to the old Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian
Baptists, not quite as hard in their shell as the Hardshells, but very
different from the Free-will Baptists or the Presbyterians, the kind
whose preachers were accustomed to shout--"I'd rather have a hard shell
than no shell at all!"
Dennis Hanks[5] was far from being impeccable authority on matters
where his imagination permitted him to enlarge, but he seldom forgot
anything, and still less frequently made it smaller than it really was.
If Thomas Lincoln had ever sustained any relation to the Presbyterian
Church, he would surely have told it, or some member of his family,
jealous as those members were for the reputation of "Grandfather
Lincoln," would not have failed to report it. In his interview with
Mrs. Eleanor Atkinson, in which his family participated, Dennis evinced
a definite attempt to set forth Thomas Lincoln in as favorable a light
as possible, and there was a high and deserved tribute to his "Aunt
Sairy," Thomas Lincoln's second wife.
"Aunt Sairy sartainly did have faculty. I reckon we was all purty
ragged and dirty when she got there. The fust thing she did was to
tell me to tote one of Tom's carpenter benches to a place outside
the door, near the hoss trough. Then she had me an' Abe an' John
Johnson, her boy, fill the trough with spring water. She put out a
gourd full of soft soap, and another one to dip water with, an' told
us boys to wash up fur dinner. You just naturally had to be somebody
when Aunt Sairy was around. She had Tom build her a loom, an' when
she heerd o' some lime burners bein' round Gentryville, Tom had to
mosey over an' git some lime an' whitewash the cabin. An' he made her
an ash hopper fur lye, an' a chicken-house nothin' could git into.
Then--te-he-he-he!--she set some kind of a dead-fall trap fur him, an'
got Tom to jine the Baptist Church. Cracky, but Aunt Sally was some
punkins!"--_American Magazine_, February, 1908, p. 364.
I am of opinion that what Mrs. Sarah Bush Lincoln told Herndon was
that her husband sometimes attended the Presbyterian service, and that
the church he joined was the Baptist, but not the Hardshell Baptist.
But evidence is wholly lacking that he had any connection with the
Presbyterian Church, or with the Free-will Baptists, of which latter
sect he probably never heard.
The church at Farmington of which Thomas Lincoln became a member is
not now in existence. I have endeavored through investigation in
Farmington, and by correspondence with Mr. Robert T. Lincoln, to
ascertain its denomination. It called itself "Christian," and Herndon
did not doubt that that name indicated that it was a church of the
denomination sometimes called "Campbellite." But that is not certain.
Other denominations claim that as their distinctive name, and one of
them was at that time active in that part of Illinois. My inquiries
have brought me no certain knowledge on this point; but Mr. Jesse W.
Weik is of opinion that the denomination was that known as "New Light."
It is possible that Herndon was in error in every one of his three
affirmations concerning the religion of Thomas Lincoln, and that the
President's father was never a Free-will Baptist, never a Presbyterian,
and never a Disciple or Campbellite. I have endeavored to learn whether
his change from the Baptist to the "Christian" church was a matter of
conviction or convenience, but on this I have found nothing except a
statement from the minister who buried him, in which it would appear
that his change of polity was a matter of conviction. This minister
spoke very highly of Thomas Lincoln, whom he had known well in the
latter years of his life.
There has been undue attempt to credit the pious boy Abraham with the
religious service conducted over the grave of his mother by Rev. David
Elkin[6] some months after her demise. There is no good authority for
this legend. Herndon probably tells the truth about it:
"Within a few months, and before the close of the winter, David
Elkin, an itinerant preacher whom Mrs. Lincoln had known in Kentucky,
happened into the settlement, and in response to the invitation from
the family and friends, delivered a funeral sermon over her grave. No
one is able now to remember the language of Parson Elkin's discourse,
but it is recalled that he commemorated the virtues and good phases of
character, and passed in silence the few shortcomings and frailties of
the poor woman sleeping under the winter's snow."--HERNDON, I, 28.
This does not compel us to believe that there had been no preacher in
the Pigeon Creek settlement since the death of Nancy Hanks.[7] It was
customary among these Kentucky-bred people to hold the funeral service
some weeks or months after the burial. The author of this volume has
attended many such services.
The reasons require some explanation. The dead were commonly buried
on the day following death. There were, of course, no facilities for
embalming or preserving the corpse for any great length of time.
Preachers were nearly all farmers; and the particular minister
with whose church the family was affiliated might be living at a
considerable distance and be at that time at some distant place upon
his wide circuit. No minister expected to preach every Sunday in any
one place. A monthly appointment was the maximum attempted; and the
more remote settlements were not reached statedly by any one preacher
oftener than once in three months. There were occasional services,
however, by other ministers riding through the country and preaching
wherever they stayed overnight. It was the author's custom when coming
unexpectedly into a valley to spread word up and down the creek that
there would be preaching that night in the schoolhouse or in the home
where he was entertained. The impromptu announcement never failed to
bring a congregation.
What took David Elkin into Indiana we do not know. He may have been
looking for a better farm than he had in Kentucky, where he could dig
out a living between his preaching appointments. He may have been
burdened for the souls of certain families formerly under his care
and now gone out like the Lincolns into a howling wilderness. The
late summer and early autumn between the end of corn-plowing and the
beginning of fodder-pulling afforded such a minister opportunity to
throw his saddlebags over his horse and start on a longer circuit than
usual; and the winter gave him still another opportunity for long
absence. He took no money and he collected none, or next to none, but
he had free welcome everywhere with pork and corn pone for supper and
fried chicken for breakfast. Many a time the author of this volume has
ridden up to a house just before suppertime, has partaken with the
family of its customary cornbread and bacon or ham, and after preaching
and a good night's rest has been wakened in the morning before the
rising of the sun by a muffled squawk and flutter as one or more
chickens were pulled down out of the trees. After this fashion did the
people of the backwoods welcome the messengers of the Lord.
Not necessarily on his next appearance in a settlement is the preacher
requested to conduct the funeral service of persons deceased since his
last visit. The matter is arranged with more of deliberation. A date
is set some time ahead and word is sent to distant friends.[8] After
a time of general sickness such as had visited Pigeon Creek in the
epidemic of the "milk sick," Parson Elkin may have had several funerals
to preach in the same cemetery or at the schoolhouse nearest at hand. I
have known a half-dozen funerals to be included in one sermon with full
biographical particulars of each decedent and detailed descriptions
of all the deathbed scenes, together with rapturous forecasts of the
future bliss of the good people who were dead and abundant warnings of
the flaming hell that awaited their impenitent neighbors. Even those
people who had not been noted for their piety during life were almost
invariably slipped into heaven through a deathbed repentance or by
grace of the uncovenanted mercies of God. It is the business of all
preachers to be very stern with the living and very charitable toward
the dead.[9]
I must add a further word about the custom of deferred funerals.
Although the burial was conducted without religious service, it was not
permitted to be celebrated in neglect. The news that a man was dying
would bring the sympathetic neighbors from miles around, and horses
would be tied up the creek and down while people waited in friendly
sorrow and conversed in hushed voices in the presence of the solemn
dignity of death. That night a group of neighbors would "sit up" with
the dead, and keep the family awake with frequent and lugubrious song.
Next day the grave must be dug; and that required a considerable part
of the male population of the settlement. If only two or three men
came in the morning they would sit and wait for others and go home for
the dinner and come back. It thus has happened more than once in my
experience that we have brought the body to the burial and have had to
wait an hour or more in sun or wind for the finishing of the digging of
the grave.
I remember well an instance in which death occurred in the family of
one of the county officials. His wife died suddenly, and under sad
conditions. I mounted my horse and rode four or five miles to his
home. I hitched my horse to the low-swinging limb of a beech tree and
threaded my way among other horses into the yard, which was filled with
men, and up to the porch, which was crowded with women. Passing inside,
I spoke my word of sympathy to the grief-stricken husband and his
children. Then I passed out into the yard and moved from group to group
among the men. Presently a neighbor of the sorrowing husband approached
me and asked me to step aside with him for private converse. This was
strictly in accordance with the custom of the country, and I walked
with him behind the corn-crib. He said to me: "Mr. McCune"--naming
the bereaved husband--"wants to know whether you have come here as a
preacher or as a neighbor?" I answered, "Tell him that I have come as a
neighbor." With this word he returned to the house. Up on the hillside
I could see the leisurely movements of the grave-diggers. From the shed
behind the house came the rhythmic tap of the hammer driving in the
tacks that fastened the white glazed muslin lining of the home-made
coffin. We had some little time still to wait before either the grave
or the coffin would be finished. Presently the neighbor returned to
where I waited behind the corn-crib and brought with him Mr. McCune.
The latter shook my hand warmly and said, in substance: "I appreciate
your coming and the respect which you thus show for me and for my dead
wife. I was glad to see you come when you entered the house, but was
a little embarrassed because I knew it to be your custom to preach
the funeral sermon at the time of the burial. I have no objection to
that custom; and while we are Baptists [he pronounced it Babtist, and
so I have no doubt did Thomas Lincoln], there is no man whom I would
rather have preach my wife's sermon than you. We shall undoubtedly
have a Baptist preacher when the time for the funeral comes, but I
hope you also will be present and participate in the service. But it
is not our custom to hold the service at the time of the burial, and
we have distant friends who should be notified. Moreover, there is
another consideration. I have been twice married, and I never yet have
got round to it to have my first wife's funeral preached. It seems to
me that it would be a discourtesy to my first wife's memory to have my
second wife's sermon preached before the first. What I now plan to do
is to have the two funerals at once, and I hope you will be present and
participate."
I need only add that before I departed from that region he was
comfortably married to his third wife, not having gotten round to it to
have the funeral sermon of either of his first two wives. I am unable
to say whether when he finally got round to it there was any increase
in the number. It never was my fortune to conduct the joint funeral of
two wives of the same man at the same time; but I have more than once
been present where a second wife was prominent among the mourners; and
I sometimes believed her to be sincerely sorry that the first wife was
dead.
It is not easy for people who have not lived amid these conditions and
at the same time to have known other conditions to estimate aright
the religious life of a backwoods community. Morse, whose biography
of Lincoln is to be rated high, is completely unable to view this
situation from other than his New England standpoint. He says:
"The family was imbued with a peculiar, intense, but unenlightened
form of Christianity, mingled with curious superstition, prevalent in
the backwoods, and begotten by the influence of the vast wilderness
upon illiterate men of a rude native force. It interests scholars to
trace the evolution of religious faiths, but it might not be less
suggestive to study the retrogression of religion into superstition.
Thomas Lincoln was as restless in matters of creed as of residence,
and made various changes in both during his life. These were, however,
changes without improvement, and, so far as he was concerned, his son
Abraham might have grown up to be what he himself was contented to
remain" (I, 10).
This criticism is partly just, but not wholly so. There was
superstition enough in the backwoods religion, and Abraham Lincoln
never wholly divested himself of it; but it was not all superstition.
There was a very real religion on Pigeon Creek.
In like manner, also, it is difficult for Lincoln's biographers to
strike an even balance between adoring idealization of log-cabin life
and horrified exaggeration of its squalor. Here again Morse is a
classic example of the attempt to be so honest about Lincoln's poverty
as to miss some part of the truth about it.
The Lincoln family was poor, even as poverty was estimated in the
backwoods. Lincoln himself was painfully impressed with the memory of
it, and Herndon and Lamon, who understood it better than most of his
biographers, felt both for themselves and for Lincoln the pathos of his
descent from "the poor whites"; but there is no evidence that Lincoln
felt this seriously at the time. His melancholy came later, and was
not the direct heritage of his childhood poverty. Life had its joys
for families such as his. Poverty was accepted as in some sort the
common lot, and also as a temporary condition out of which everybody
expected sometime to emerge. Meantime the boy Abraham Lincoln had not
only the joy of going to mill and to meeting, but also the privilege
of an occasional frolic. We know of one or two boisterous weddings
where he behaved himself none too well. Besides these there were other
unrecorded social events on Pigeon Creek where the platter rolled
merrily and he had to untangle his long legs from under the bench and
move quickly when his number was called or pay a forfeit and redeem
it. He played "Skip-to-My-Lou" and "Old Bald Eagle, Sail Around," and
"Thus the Farmer Sows His Seed," and he moved around the room singing
about the millwheel and had to grab quickly when partners were changed
or stand in the middle and be ground between the millstones. As large a
proportion of people's known wants were satisfied on Pigeon Creek as on
some fashionable boulevards. We need not seek to hide his poverty nor
idealize it unduly; neither is it necessary to waste overmuch of pity
upon people who did not find their own condition pitiable.
* * * * *
What kind of man had been produced in this environment and as the
result of the conditions of his heredity and of his inherent qualities?
What do we know about the Abraham Lincoln who in 1830 took simultaneous
leave of Indiana and his boyhood, and entered at once upon his manhood
and the new State, that, twin-born with him, was waiting his arrival?
He was a tall, awkward, uncouth backwoodsman, strong of muscle,
temperate and morally clean. He had physical strength and was not a
bully; was fond of a fight but fought fairly and as a rule on the side
of weakness and of right. He was free from bad habits of all kinds, was
generous, sympathetic, and kind of heart. He was as yet uninfluenced
by any women except his own dead mother and his stepmother. He was
socially shy, and had not profited greatly by the meager lessons in
social usage which had been taught in Andrew Crawford's school. He was
fond of cock-fighting and of boisterous sports, and had a sufficient
leadership to proclaim himself "the big buck of the lick" and to have
that declaration pass unchallenged.
He could read, write, and cipher, and was eager for learning. He was
ambitious, but his ambitions had no known focus. He was only moderately
industrious, but could work hard when he had to do so. He had some
ambition to write and to speak in public, but as yet he had little
idea what he was to write or speak about. He was a great, hulking
backwoodsman, with vague and haunting aspirations after something
better and larger than he had known or seemed likely to achieve.
What do we know about the spiritual development of the young Boanerges
who grew almost overnight in his eleventh year into a six-footer and
was so wearied by the effort that he was slow of body and mind and was
thought by some to be lazy ever afterward?
We know the books he read--the Bible, _Pilgrim's Progress_, _Æsop's
Fables_, _Robinson Crusoe_, and Weems' _Life of Washington_. It was a
good collection, and he made the most of it. Sarah Bush Lincoln noted
that while he did not like to work he liked to read, and she said, "I
induced my husband to permit Abe to study" (Herndon, I, 36).
John Hanks said of him, "He kept the Bible and _Æsop's Fables_ always
within reach, and read them over and over again."
Sarah Bush did not claim that he showed any marked preference for the
Bible. Lamon quotes her as saying, "He seemed to have a preference for
the other books" (_Life_, pp. 34, 486). But he certainly read the Bible
with diligence, as his whole literary style shows. Indeed, if we had
only his coarse "First Chronicles of Reuben," which we could heartily
wish he had never written, and whose publication in Herndon's first
edition was one of the chief reasons for an expurgated edition,[10] we
should know that even then Abe Lincoln, rough, uncouth and vulgar as he
was, was modeling his style upon the Bible.
We are told that when he went to church he noted the oddities of the
preachers and afterward mimicked them (Lamon: _Life_, pp. 55, 486).
This might have been expected, for two reasons. First, he had a love of
fun and of very boisterous fun at that; secondly, he had a fondness for
oratory, and this was the only kind of oratory he knew anything about.
It is a remarkable fact that the Lincoln family appears never at
any time in its history to have been strongly under the influence
of Methodism.[11] This is not because they did not know of it; no
pioneer could hide so deep in the wilderness as to be long hidden from
the Methodist circuit riders. But the prevailing and almost the sole
type of religion in that part of Indiana during Lincoln's boyhood
was Baptist, and in spite of all that Mrs. Lincoln believed about
the freedom of it, it was a very unprogressive type of preaching.
The preachers bellowed and spat and whined, and cultivated an
artificial "holy tone" and denounced the Methodists and blasphemed the
Presbyterians and painted a hell whose horror even in the backwoods was
an atrocity. Against it the boy Abe Lincoln rebelled. Many another boy
with an active mind has been driven by the same type of preaching into
infidelity.
Dr. Johnson quotes as indicative of the religious mind of the young
Lincoln the four lines[12] which in his fourteenth year he wrote on
the flyleaf of his schoolbook, and the two lines which he wrote in the
copybook of a schoolmate:
"_Abraham Lincoln
his hand and pen--
he will be good but
God knows When_";
and
"_Good boys who to their books apply
Will all be great men by and by._"
Commenting on these Dr. Johnson says: "These show two things: First,
that the youthful boy had faith in his mother's God; and, second, that
he believed his mother's teachings."[13]
In like manner Dr. Johnson takes the four hymns which Dennis Hanks
remembered to have been sung by himself and Abe and says:
"A soul that can appreciate these hymns must recognize, first, that
without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin; second,
that Jesus Christ died upon the Cross for the salvation of the world;
third, that life without the Saviour is an empty bubble, and, fourth,
that loyal devotion to the Christ and his cause is man's highest
calling, and the test of true character."--_Lincoln the Christian_,
pp. 28-29.
This is very far-fetched. It shows only that Abe sang such songs, good,
bad, and indifferent, as were current in his day, and without any very
fine discrimination either in songs sacred or secular. If one were to
make a creed out of any of his poetry in this period, it were better to
find it in his jingle, about the Kickapoo Indian, Johnny Kongapod.[14]
He was supposed to have composed an epitaph for himself that ran on
this wise:
"_Here lies poor Johnny Kongapod;
Have mercy on him, gracious God,
As he would do if he was God
And you were Johnny Kongapod._"
It matters not for our purpose that these lines were not strictly
original with Johnny Kongapod. We meet them in George Macdonald's story
"David Elginbrod," and they have been used doubtless in rural England
for generations. But they involve a certain rude and noble faith that
the Judge of all the earth will do right and that divine justice and
human justice have a common measure. Lincoln never forgot that, and he
learned it on Pigeon Creek.
Herndon is our authority, if we needed any, that the Baptist preaching
of Lincoln's boyhood made him a lifelong fatalist.[15] He emerged into
manhood with the conviction that "whatever is to be will be," and Mrs.
Lincoln declared that this was his answer to threats concerning his
assassination; that it had been his lifelong creed and continued still
to be the ruling dogma of his life.
It would have gladdened the heart of Sarah Bush if her stepson, whom
she loved with a tenderness almost surpassing that which she bestowed
upon her own flesh and blood, had manifested in his youth some signs
of that irresistible grace which was supposed to carry the assurance
of conversion as an act not of man but of the Holy Spirit. He did not
manifest that grace in the form in which she desired. She could not
consistently blame him very much, for, according to her own creed and
that of Thomas Lincoln, nothing that he could have done of his own
volition would have mattered very much.
Horace Bushnell's _Christian Nurture_ had not yet been written; and if
it had there was not a preacher among the Baptists in southern Indiana
who would not have denounced it as a creation of the devil. There were
no Sunday schools in those churches, and when they began to appear they
were vigorously opposed. There was no Christian nurture for the boy Abe
Lincoln save the sincere but lethargic religion of his father and the
motherly ministrations of his stepmother.
But "Abe was a good boy." With tears in her eyes Sarah Bush could
remember that he never gave her a cross word. He was unregenerate, but
not unlovable; and he had more faith than perhaps he realized.
CHAPTER IV
THE ENVIRONMENTS OF LINCOLN'S YOUNG MANHOOD
THE second period of Lincoln's religious life extends from his removal
into Illinois in March of 1830 until the establishment of his residence
in Springfield, April 15, 1837.
Thomas Lincoln was a thriftless farmer who blamed external conditions
for his misfortunes. Following a second appearance of the "milk sick,"
which came to southern Indiana in the winter of 1829, he and his family
removed in March of 1830 to Illinois. Abraham was twenty-one years of
age. He assisted his father to get established in the new home, to
which a wearying journey of fourteen days had brought the household,
and then set out in life for himself. For several months he worked
near home, but in the spring of 1831 he made his second flatboat trip
to New Orleans. The boat stuck on a dam at Rutledge's mill at New
Salem, and his ingenuity in getting it over the dam won him local fame
and had something to do with his subsequent establishment of a home
there. The flatboat stuck on April 19, 1831. In June he returned to
New Salem and entered into business with Denton Offutt in a small and
non-remunerative general store. While waiting for the opening of this
store he became acquainted with Mentor Graham, a school teacher of
local celebrity, whom Lincoln assisted as clerk of a local election,
and through him learned the contents of Kirkham's Grammar, and also
acquired the essential elements of surveying. New Salem was a sporadic
town which had no good reason to exist. It was established in 1829 and
lasted barely seven years. It was located on the Sangamon River, some
fifteen miles from Springfield.
In February, 1832, this flatboat hand, then working as clerk, began
his canvass for the Legislature, his formal announcement of candidacy
appearing March 9. He was defeated, but received an encouraging local
vote. In 1832 he had a brief experience as a soldier, serving in the
Black Hawk War, starting in pursuit of the Indians on April 27 and
returning in July. Excepting for his absences at the Black Hawk War
and in attendance upon the meetings of the Legislature in Vandalia,
he was in New Salem practically during the whole of the history of
that little town. He established a partnership in the firm of Lincoln
& Berry, keepers of a general store, a business for which he had no
qualification, and he accumulated debts, which he was unable to pay in
full until after his first term in Congress seventeen years later. On
May 7, 1833, he became postmaster of the microscopic village of New
Salem, and held that position until May 30, 1836, about which date the
town disappeared. In August, 1834, he was elected to the Legislature,
then sitting at Vandalia, and had an important share in the removal of
the state capital from there to Springfield.
In New Salem occurred two of Lincoln's three recorded love affairs.[16]
In 1834 he fell in love with Ann Rutledge, to whom he became engaged,
and who died, August 25, 1835. In the autumn of 1836 he made love to
Miss Mary Owens, who refused him. These two love affairs are related
in detail by Lamon and by Herndon; the second of them gave rise to
Lincoln's letter to Mrs. Browning, one of the least creditable things
that ever came from his pen (Herndon, I, 192).
Heart-broken over the death of Ann Rutledge and ashamed of himself for
his lack of gallantry in his love affair with Miss Owens, he saw New
Salem doomed in all its hopes of being a city.
While sitting about the store waiting for business which did not come,
he read law after a desultory fashion, becoming what he called not
inappropriately "a mast-fed lawyer." For the benefit of any reader
to whom this term conveys no meaning, it may be stated that "mast"
consists of acorns, nuts, and other edible commodities, which hogs
running at large in the wilderness are able to feed upon. Between a
hog corn-fed in a stye and a backwoods mast-fed razor-back, there
is a marked difference, and Lincoln's phrase was a very apt one. In
the autumn of 1836 he obtained a law license. On March, 1837, he was
admitted to the bar. On April 15, 1837, he moved to Springfield.
With his Springfield experience we shall deal later; that is an epoch
by itself. We now consider the conditions of life in New Salem and
their influence in shaking the religious character of Abraham Lincoln.
New Salem, while an insignificant hamlet, was located on the Sangamon
River and received its share of the travel to and from Springfield.
Its central institutions were its tavern, where Lincoln boarded, and
the store, where he read grammar and law, discussed politics, and
occasionally sold goods.
The influence of life in New Salem upon the mind of Abraham Lincoln was
very marked. We must not make the mistake of considering it solely in
the character of a poor little frontier town destined to short life and
in its day of no consequence to the world. To Lincoln it was a city,
and it had its own ambitions to become a greater city. Although it had
scarcely twenty houses, not one of them costing much over a hundred
dollars, and not more than a hundred inhabitants, it was to him no mean
city. Here Lincoln developed rapidly. He read, discussed, thought,
wrote, and spoke on a wide variety of subjects. His style was that of
florid declamation, a stump oratory with some affectation of erudition.
He made the most of his few books, and every one of them left its deep
impression upon him. He continued to read the Bible, and grew somewhat
familiar with Shakespeare, Burns, and even Byron. While there was no
church building in New Salem, and church services were irregular, such
services as were held were generally in the tavern where he boarded, a
tavern kept at first by James Rutledge and afterward by Henry Onstott.
It is interesting to cull out of T. G. Onstott's reminiscences a number
that are based on his own recollections, supplemented perhaps by
traditions received from his father:
"After James Rutledge moved out of the log tavern, my father, Henry
Onstott, moved in and occupied it from 1833 till 1835, and still had
for a boarder Abraham Lincoln. It was at this time that my early
impressions of him were formed. We did not know at that time that
we were entertaining an angel unawares. My first knowledge of him
was as a great marble player. He kept us small boys running in all
directions gathering up the marbles he would scatter. During this
time he followed surveying, having learned in six weeks from books
furnished him by John Calhoun, of Springfield. About this time he
commenced to read some law-books which he borrowed of Bowling Green,
who lived one-half mile north of Salem. I think my father and Esquire
Green did more than any other two men in determining Lincoln's future
destiny."--T. G. ONSTOTT: _Lincoln and Salem--Pioneers of Menard and
Mason Counties_, p. 25.
Of Lincoln's habits he says:
"Lincoln never drank liquor of any kind and never chewed or smoked.
We never heard him swear, though Judge Weldon said at the Salem
Chautauqua that once in his life when he was excited he said, 'By
Jing!'"--ONSTOTT: _Lincoln and Salem_, p. 73.
Of Peter Cartwright, Onstott says:
"He was a great man for camp-meetings and prayer meetings. He was
converted at a camp-meeting, and in his early ministry lived in
a tented grove from two to three months in a year. He said: 'May
the day be eternally distant when camp-meetings, class meetings,
prayer meetings, and love feasts shall be laid aside in Methodist
churches.'...
"There was sound preaching in those days. The preachers preached hell
and damnation more than they do now. They could hold a sinner over
the pit of fire and brimstone till he could see himself hanging by a
slender thread, and he would surrender and accept the gospel that was
offered to him."--ONSTOTT: _Lincoln and Salem_, pp. 120, 127.
Of one of these preachers, Abraham Bale, Onstott says:
"He had a habit when preaching of grasping his left ear with his hand,
then leaning over as far as he could and lowering his voice. He would
commence to straighten up and his voice would rise to a high key. He
would pound the Bible with his fist and stamp the floor, and carry
everything before him. He created excitement in the first years of
his ministry in Salem. He was a Baptist, though not of the hardshell
persuasion."--ONSTOTT: _Lincoln and Salem_, p. 149.
This was the general and accepted habit of Baptist preachers in that
movement, and the author has heard scores of sermons delivered in this
fashion.
Of the religious life of early Illinois and of frontier communities in
general, Professor Pease says:
"Religion came to be the most universally persuasive intellectual
force of the frontier. As might be expected, on the frontier the first
tendency was toward a disregard of religious observances. The emigrant
from the older settled regions left behind him the machinery and the
establishment of sectarian religion. Until that machinery could be set
up again on the frontier he lived without formal worship and often for
the time at least the sense of the need of it passed out of his life.
In cases where observance had been due to social convention, there was
no doubt a welcome feeling of freedom and unrestraint.
"Normally the frontiersman was unreligious. Birkbeck noted with relish
the absence of ceremony at baptism or funeral and the tolerance
of all backwoods preachers alike, whether they raved or reasoned.
Sunday was a day for riot and disorder. Other observers looked with
horror on such a state of things, did their best to set up at least
stated regular worship, and noted an improvement in morals as a
result."--PEASE: _Centennial History of Illinois_, II, 23.
There were, however, some compensations. Fordham wrote:
"This is not the land of hypocrisy. It would not here have its reward.
Religion is not the road to wordly respectability, nor a possession of
it the cloak of immorality."--_Personal Narrative_, p. 128.
Of the sporadic nature of much of the religious effort on the frontier,
Professor Buck says:
"In spite of the tremendous exertions of the pioneer preachers,
many of the remote settlements must have been practically devoid of
religious observances, and even in the older settlements the influence
of occasional visitations, however inspiring they might be, was often
lacking in permanence."--_Illinois in 1818_, p. 179.
Of the lack of permanence there may be some room for a difference of
judgment; there certainly was lack of continuity. As in Kentucky and
southern Indiana, and for a time in southern Illinois, there was no
expectation of a regular weekly religious service conducted by any one
minister, but preachers moved in extended circuits and no considerable
settlement was long without occasional religious service.
There was much godlessness in many of the early settlements. John
Messenger wrote in 1815: "The American inhabitants in the villages
appear to have very little reverence for Christianity or serious things
in any point of view."
While there was some attempt at Sabbath observance, Reynolds says:
"In early times in many settlements of Illinois, Sunday was observed
by the Americans only as a day of rest from work. They generally were
employed in hunting, fishing, getting up their stock, hunting bees,
breaking young horses, shooting at marks, horse and foot racing, and
the like. When the Americans were to make an important journey they
generally started on Sunday and never on Friday; they often said; 'the
better the day the better the deed,'"--REYNOLDS: _My Own Times_, p. 80.
One must not infer from the irregularity of religious services that the
people in these new regions were wholly without religion. Professor
Buck says:
"The spiritual welfare of the Illinois pioneers was not neglected.
The religious observances, with the exception of those of the French
Catholics, were of the familiar type. The principal Protestant
denominations at the close of the territorial period were the
Methodists and the Baptists, the latter classified as 'regular,'
or 'hardshell,' and separating. Presbyterianism was just beginning
to get a foothold. The ministers were of two types--the circuit
rider, who covered wide stretches of country and devoted all his
time to religious work, and the occasional preacher who supplemented
his meager income from the church by farming or some other
occupation."--BUCK: _Illinois in 1818_, p. 173.
Governor Ford has left an account of the unlearned but zealous frontier
preachers, of their sermons, and of the results of their work, which
cannot easily be improved upon:
"Preachers of the gospel frequently sprang up from the body of the
people at home, without previous training, except in religious
exercises and in the study of the Holy Scriptures. In those primitive
times it was not thought to be necessary that a teacher of religion
should be a scholar. It was thought to be his business to preach from
a knowledge of the Scriptures alone, to make appeals warm from the
heart, to paint heaven and hell to the imagination of the sinner, to
terrify him with the one, and to promise the other as a reward for
a life of righteousness. However ignorant these first preachers may
have been, they could be at no loss to find congregations still more
ignorant, so that they were still capable of instructing someone. Many
of them added to their knowledge of the Bible, a diligent perusal of
Young's _Night Thoughts_, Watts' hymns, Milton's _Paradise Lost_, and
Hervey's _Meditations_, a knowledge of which gave more compass to
their thoughts, to be expressed in a profuse, flowery language, and
raised their feelings to the utmost height of poetical enthusiasm.
"Sometimes their sermons turned upon matters of controversy; unlearned
arguments on the subject of free grace, baptism, free-will, election,
faith, good works, justification, sanctification, and the final
perseverance of the saints. But that in which they excelled, was
the earnestness of their words and manner, leaving no doubt of the
strongest conviction in their own minds, and in the vividness of the
pictures which they drew of the ineffable blessedness of heaven, and
the awful torments of the wicked in the fire and brimstone appointed
for eternal punishment. These, with the love of God to sinful man,
the sufferings of the Saviour, the dangerous apathy of sinners, and
exhortations to repentance, furnished themes for the most vehement and
passionate declamations. But above all, they continually inculcated
the great principles of justice and sound morality.
"As many of these preachers were nearly destitute of learning and
knowledge, they made up in loud hallooing and violent action what they
lacked in information. And it was a matter of astonishment to what
length they could spin out a sermon embracing only a few ideas. The
merit of a sermon was measured somewhat by the length of it, by the
flowery language of the speaker, and by his vociferation and violent
gestures. Nevertheless, these first preachers were of incalculable
benefit to the country. They inculcated justice and morality, and
to the sanction of the highest human motives to regard them, added
those which arise from a belief of the greatest conceivable amount of
future rewards and punishments. They were truly patriotic also; for
at a time when the country was so poor that no other kind of ministry
could have been maintained in it, they preached without charge to
the people, working week days to aid the scanty charities of their
flocks, in furnishing themselves with a scantier living. They believed
with a positive certainty that they saw the souls of men rushing to
perdition; and they stepped forward to warn and to save, with all
the enthusiasm and self-devotion of a generous man who risks his own
life to save his neighbor from drowning. And to them are we indebted
for the first Christian character of the Protestant portion of this
people."--THOMAS FORD: _History of Illinois_, pp. 38-40.
"Of the hostility of certain of the early Baptists to enlightenment,
there is abundant evidence in their own fierce opposition to their
ablest minister, John Mason Peck. He was born in 1789 in the
Congregational atmosphere of Connecticut, but, becoming a Baptist
by conviction, became a missionary to the West in 1817. His foes
were they of his own household. They fiercely fought against Bible
societies, Sunday schools, and missionary societies. In 1828, when
Peter Cartwright and James Lemen endeavored to secure the passage of a
bill for the prevention of vice and immorality, there was an attempt
to amend it in the interests of certain of the Hardshell Baptists
by adding to the section against the disturbance of public worship
a clause to fine in any sum not less than five dollars or more than
fifteen any person who on Sunday would sell any pamphlet or book or
take up an offering 'for the support of missionary societies, Bible
societies, or Sunday school.' There were not less than twelve members
of the House of Representatives who voted for this bill."--PEASE:
_Centennial History of Illinois_, II, 28, 29.
One evidence of the hostility of many of the early inhabitants and
especially of some who were active in politics toward organized
religion, as well as the tendency of ministers of that period to
participate in politics, is found in the fact that Illinois narrowly
escaped having in her Constitution a provision disqualifying all
ministers to hold office in the State. When the Constitutional
Convention assembled at Kaskaskia this question was earnestly
discussed, and the controversy was waged also in the columns of the
_Western Intelligencer_, which was published in Kaskaskia from 1806
to 1814. A writer who signed himself "A Foe to Religious Tyranny"
roundly denounced the political sermons of certain of the ministers,
and charged that they intended to disqualify any citizens for office
excepting "professors of religion."
When the first draft of the Constitution was submitted in August, 1818,
Article II, Section 26, read: "Whereas the ministers of the gospel are
by their profession dedicated to God and the care of souls, and ought
not to be diverted from the great duties of their function: Therefore,
no minister of the gospel or priest of any denomination whatever, shall
be eligible to a seat in either house of the Legislature."
This article was warmly commended by a writer in the _Intelligencer_
under date of August 12, 1818, who commended the framers of the
Constitution for their provision "to exempt ministers of the gospel
from the servile and arduous drudgery of legislation, and of
electioneering to procure themselves seats in the Legislature," but
urged the convention to extend the provision so as to disqualify
ministers from holding any office whatever. A number of members of
the Constitutional Convention favored this drastic proscription. On
the first reading the proposed article was approved; but it was later
reconsidered and voted down.
Ministers thus were left on a plane with other citizens as regarded
the holding of public office; and their candidacy for the Legislature
especially was not infrequent; indeed, one of the writers who engaged
in this controversy considered the appalling possibility that the
Constitutional Convention might have been composed entirely of
ministers, and that some future session of the Legislature might find
them in complete control. There never was any danger that ministers
would make up a controlling faction in the Illinois Legislature; but
they were not a negligible element in the early political life of the
State.
Lincoln soon came into the political atmosphere which was thus affected
by religious controversy, and it had an influence upon him. His most
formidable and persistent opponent, until he met Douglas, was a
Methodist preacher, the redoubtable Peter Cartwright who defeated him
in a contest for the Legislature and whom he defeated in a race for
Congress. Lincoln was quite familiar with religion in its relation to
politics in early Illinois.
Of Lincoln's theological opinions, especially those which he cherished
while at New Salem, and which Herndon believed he did not materially
change, Herndon says:
"Inasmuch as he was often a candidate for public office Mr. Lincoln
said as little as possible about his religious opinions, especially
if he failed to coincide with the orthodox world. In illustration of
his religious code, I once heard him say that it was like that of an
old man named Glenn, in Indiana, whom he heard speak at a religious
meeting, and who said, 'When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad,
I feel bad; and that's my religion.' In 1834, while still living in
New Salem, and before he became a lawyer, he was surrounded by a
class of people exceedingly liberal in matters of religion. Volney's
_Ruins_ and Paine's _Age of Reason_ passed from hand to hand, and
furnished food for the evening's discussion in the tavern and village
store. Lincoln read both these books, and assimilated them into his
own being. He prepared an extended essay--called by many, a book--in
which he made an argument against Christianity, striving to prove that
the Bible was not inspired, and therefore not God's revelation, and
that Jesus Christ was not the Son of God. The manuscript containing
these audacious and comprehensive propositions he intended to have
published or given a wide circulation in some other way. He carried
it to the store, where it was read and freely discussed. His friend
and employer, Samuel Hill, was among the listeners, and seriously
questioning the propriety of a promising young man like Lincoln
fathering such unpopular notions, he snatched the manuscript from his
hands, and thrust it into the stove. The book went up in flames, and
Mr. Lincoln's political future was secure. But his infidelity and his
skeptical views were not diminished."--HERNDON, III, 439-440.
We shall have occasion in a subsequent chapter to recur to this
so-called book which Lincoln is alleged to have written while in New
Salem. It is sufficient at this time to remember, and the fact must
not be overlooked, that our knowledge of this book depends solely upon
the testimony of Herndon. Herndon never saw the book, and so far as
is known he never talked with anyone who had seen it. He affirms that
Lincoln never denied having written a book on the subject of religion,
but he nowhere claims that Lincoln told him in detail concerning its
contents. Herndon's principal visit, and perhaps the only one which
he made to New Salem in quest of literary material, was in October in
1866. He had attended the Circuit Court of Menard County on Saturday,
October 13, and on Sunday morning at 11:20 A.M., as he tells us with
painstaking and lawyer-like particularity, he visited the site of New
Salem. That afternoon and a part of the next morning, which he says
was misty, cloudy, foggy, and cold, he made inquiry of the oldest
inhabitant of that part of the country and wrote out the substance of
his lecture on Ann Rutledge. This was a whole generation after Lincoln
had removed from the now depopulated New Salem, and there were very
few people in the neighborhood who remembered him through any personal
association. The town had completely disappeared, but Herndon found
the site of the houses that once had stood there, and also found and
identified the grave of Ann Rutledge. To that visit we are indebted
for a good deal of our knowledge of the background of Lincoln's life
during this formative epoch. But we are not bound to accept all of Mr.
Herndon's inferences regarding it.
It must be remembered that Herndon's lecture did not pass unchallenged.
So small was the audience when he delivered it and so uniformally
unfavorable were the press comments that he never repeated this
lecture, and some of its statements are open to question. It is not in
this lecture that we learn of the essay which Lincoln is alleged to
have written in criticism of the Bible, but that was the visit on which
Herndon appears to have gathered his information concerning Lincoln's
more intimate relations with New Salem.
There is no good reason to doubt that Lincoln during this period read
Volney and Paine, and that having read them he rushed rather quickly to
paper and set down his immature thoughts in argumentative fashion. It
would divert us from our present purpose of portraying the environment
if we were to consider in detail at this point the story of Lincoln's
burnt book. The reader will do well to remember, however, that Herndon,
though truthful, was not infallible nor on this point free from bias;
that neither Herndon nor anyone else then living was known to have
seen, much less to have read, the book alleged to have been burned
thirty-two years before; and that there was abundant opportunity
not only for exaggeration but even for a complete misunderstanding
concerning the actual content of this book.
Indeed, this incident has been allowed to pass with too little
criticism or challenge. Those who did not believe Lincoln to have been
a man of faith were glad to accept the story; those who believed that
he later was a man of faith were not wholly unwilling to believe that
he had once been an infidel and later had undergone a marked change
of opinion. There seemed no good reason to dispute Herndon, and no
one else was supposed to know more about the subject than he. But we
shall discover that Herndon may not have learned the whole truth. There
is more than a possibility that the manuscript that was burned was a
document of quite another sort.
If Lincoln was regarded as an infidel, and if he ever was tempted
to think himself one, we should not be justified in accepting that
judgment as final until we knew and considered what was required in
that time and place to constitute a man an infidel.
In the mind of most if not all of the Baptist preachers whom Lincoln
heard while he was at New Salem, a belief that the earth was round was
sufficient to brand a man as an infidel. The Methodists, as a rule,
would have admitted that the earth was round, but Peter Cartwright
would probably have considered a man an infidel who believed that the
earth was not created in seven literal days. At Vandalia, Lincoln heard
some ministers of wider vision, such as Edward Beecher and Julian M.
Sturtevant, who were occasionally there, and John Mason Peck; but these
experiences were rare. His association with Methodists was largely in
the political arena, where he crossed swords three times with Peter
Cartwright. That doughty hero of the Cross was born in Virginia on
September 1, 1786, and exerted a mighty influence for good in early
Illinois. With a nominal salary of $80 a year, and an actual salary
of $30 or $40, he rode thousands of miles through deep mud, baptized
8,000 children and 4,000 adults, conducted camp-meetings and political
campaigns, and sang and shouted and in his own language whipped the
devil round the stump and hit him a crack at every jump until his death
at Pleasant Plains, Illinois, September 25, 1872. He defeated Lincoln
for the Legislature, and was defeated by him for Congress in 1846. So
far as we know, Lincoln left no record of his feeling toward Cartwright
and the Methodists. He could not have failed to respect such men, but
it is not altogether certain that he was tempted to love them.
By the time Lincoln was seventeen, and possibly earlier, he believed
the earth to be round. I shall not succeed in making the reader
understand the possible effect of this discovery upon him and certain
of his associates without relating an experience of my own.
In the summer of 1881, being then a college student on vacation, I
taught school in the mountains of Kentucky far beyond the end of
the railroad. The school was a large and prosperous one and brought
many students from other districts who paid a trifling tuition and
were preparing to teach. The curriculum included everything from the
alphabet to a simplified normal course. A majority of my pupils had but
one textbook, Webster's Blueback Speller. I endeavored to make up for
the lack of textbooks by lessons in the Natural Sciences and in such
other branches of study as seemed adapted to the requirements of my
pupils. After a few weeks one of my pupils, son of a Baptist minister,
was taken out of school. His father being interviewed stated that he
was sorry to have the boy lose his education, but could not afford to
permit him to be converted to infidelity. What the boy had learned
which disturbed his father was that the earth was round.
The subject provoked widespread discussion, and finally resulted in a
joint debate between two school teachers and two Baptist preachers on
the question:
"_Resolved_, That the earth is flat and stationary, and that the sun
moves around it once in twenty-four hours."
At early candle-lighting on two successive Friday evenings this
question was debated. On each night the procedure was the same. Each
of the speakers spoke forty-five minutes, and each of the leaders
spent a half-hour in rebuttal, a total of four hours each evening of
solid oratory. I should like to relate, but it would unduly extend
this narrative, the learned arguments of the two college students who
stood for the rotundity of the earth, and how those arguments were
met. I well remember the closing argument of my chief opponent, not
the local preacher but an abler man whom he brought in, the cousin of
a Confederate General of the same name (though himself a stanch Union
man) who stood beside and above me with long descending gestures that
threatened to crush my skull as he shouted:
"He's a college student-ah! And he's come out here to larn us and
instruct us about the shape of the yarth-ah! And he knows more'n
Joshua-ah! And he'd take Joshua into this here school and tell him he
didn't know what he'd ort to pray for-ah! He'd tell Joshua that he
hadn't orter said, 'Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon-ah, and thou moon
in the valley of Ajalon-ah!' He'd tell Joshua that he'd ort to have
prayed, 'Yarth, stand thou still upon thine axle-tree-ah!' But I reckon
God knowed what Joshua had ort to have prayed for, for it is written
in the Word of God that the sun stood still-ah! I tell ye, brethering,
hit's the doctrine of infidelity-ah! And any man that teaches it ort to
be drove out of the country-ah!"
There is much more of the story, but this must suffice to illustrate
an important point. Until he went to live in Springfield, Abraham
Lincoln probably never had heard a Baptist preacher, unless it was John
Mason Peck on some errand to Vandalia, who did not believe the earth
flat, and who would not have classified Abraham Lincoln as an infidel
for denying the declaration.
Now, I knew that I was not an infidel, even though I parted company
with my friends in the Baptist ministry in my belief that the earth
was round, and even though I had a similar debate with a well-informed
Methodist preacher on the length of time that was required to make the
earth. But Abraham Lincoln did not know. Thomas Paine and the preachers
were agreed in their misinformation.
I count it a privilege to have lived with earnest and intelligent
people who believed the earth flat, and to whom that belief was an
important article of Christian faith. But I saw intelligent young men
who had come to another opinion concerning some of these matters who
accepted without protest the names that overzealous mountain preachers
applied to them, and who, believing themselves to be infidels, in time
became so.
Not many of Lincoln's biographers, if indeed any of them, have shared
these advantages which for several profitable years I had in the
mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee; and I am less ready than some of
even the most orthodox of them have been to accept the declaration that
when Lincoln left New Salem he was an infidel. Even if I knew that
he thought himself to be such, I should like before forming my final
conclusion to know just what he thought constituted an infidel. I do
not think that at this period of his history Abraham Lincoln possessed
an adequate knowledge of the subject to have been altogether competent
to classify himself.
A few things we know about him. He had established a reputation for
courage, for kindness, and for honesty. "Honest Abe" was his sobriquet,
and he deserved it. Whatever his opinions, he held them honestly; and
neither on earth nor in heaven can any man be rightfully condemned for
the holding of an honest opinion.
We shall have occasion later to refer to Mentor Graham, and to quote
him. He came into Lincoln's life at this time, and taught him Kirkham's
Grammar, and the study of surveying, and assisted him with his literary
composition. He knew more of the mind of Abraham Lincoln during this
period than any other man, and we shall hear from him in due time.
New Salem "winked out," as Lincoln was accustomed to say. It
disappeared from the map. The post-office was discontinued. There was
nothing to hold Lincoln there. But the great city of Springfield,
with its one thousand inhabitants and its majestic pride in its new
State Capitol, which Lincoln had done much to remove thither from
Vandalia, beckoned to this ambitious young lawyer and politician, and
on March 15, 1837, he borrowed a horse, rode to Springfield with all
his worldly goods in his saddlebags, and the saddlebags none too full,
and thereafter became a resident of the capital city of Illinois, and a
permanent factor in its legal and political life.
* * * * *
Lincoln arrived in New Salem on April 19, 1831, a tall, lank flatboat
hand, with his trousers rolled up "about five feet," and he left it
on a borrowed horse with all his belongings in a pair of saddlebags,
March 15, 1837. So far as worldly wealth was concerned, he was richer
when he arrived at the age of twenty-two than when he left at the
age of twenty-eight, for he was heavily in debt. It had fared better
with him financially had he spent those six years in Illinois College
at Jacksonville. He might have entered Springfield at the same time
with a college diploma and a smaller debt. A college education was
not impossible for him, and he might have had it had he cared for it
as much as did the Green brothers or the brother of Ann Rutledge, or,
among his later associates, Shelby M. Collum or Newton Bateman. It is
a fair question whether an education under such good and great men
as Julian M. Sturtevant and Edward Beecher would have been more or
less valuable than what he actually got; in any event, it was not an
impossibility if he had cared as much for it as did some other boys as
poor as he.
But New Salem was his _alma mater_, as Mrs. Atkinson has aptly termed
it, and there he got what had to stand as the equivalent of his
academic course.
To have seen him entering New Salem on a flatboat and leaving it on
a borrowed horse, one might easily have arrived at very erroneous
conclusions as to what the six years had done for him. But the years
were not lost.
He came to New Salem a strong pioneer, proud of his great height,
and he always remained almost childishly proud of it, and ready to
challenge any other tall man to back up to him and discover which was
the taller. He was capable of hard work, and disinclined to perform it.
Thomas Lincoln had taught him to work, but not to love work; and his
employers declared that he loved labor far less than his meals and pay.
If he must work, he preferred almost any kind of work rather than that
of the farm, and he had welcomed the brief experiences of the river and
had serious thoughts of being a blacksmith. He had prized his great
strength less for the labor he might perform than for the supremacy
which it gave him in physical contests; and it had made him the admired
leader of the local wrestlers and the idol of the Clary Grove gang.
He had come to New Salem able to read, and to make what he called
"rabbit tracks" as clerk on election day, assisting Mentor Graham,
who rewarded him many fold in what he later taught to the young
giant. He left New Salem a competent surveyor, a member of the bar, a
representative in the Legislature, and, he might have called himself
Captain, if he had chosen to do so, or even taken advantage of the
frontier's ready system of post-bellum promotions and acquired higher
rank as an officer who had seen actual military service. He had the
good sense not to do this, and about the only commendable thing in
his one important speech in Congress in later years was his mirthful
description of his own military performance.
He had learned to think, to compose reasonably good English, to stand
on his feet and debate. He had learned to measure his intellectual
strength against that of other men, and to come out ahead at least part
of the time. He was possessed of almost inordinate ambition, and had
no false notion that in his case the office was to seek the man;[17] he
was more than ready for any office that would support him, enable him
to reduce his "national debt," and advance him toward something higher.
He was entering the profession of the law, but law was to him as yet a
means to an end, and that end was office. Politics was the vocation and
law the avocation in a large percentage of the law offices in Illinois
and other new States; and Lincoln was a politician long before he was a
lawyer.
His residence in New Salem had tested his moral character and confirmed
his personal habits. He did not drink nor swear nor use tobacco.
In a state of society such as then existed, there was almost nothing
which such a young man might not have aspired to, and Lincoln had high
self-esteem and large aspiration. From this distance we see him leaving
New Salem to "wink out" while he rode his borrowed steed far beyond
Springfield, to tether him at last where Thomas Jefferson is alleged to
have hitched his horse, to the palings of the White House.
But it was no exultant mood which possessed the soul of Lincoln as he
turned his back upon his _alma mater_ and went forth to conquer the
world. He was a briefless lawyer, and bedless as well as briefless. He
had met and mastered men, but had become painfully aware of his own
poverty, his lack of education, his utter ignorance of the usages of
even such polite society as had been in New Salem, to say nothing of
that in Springfield.
He was unsettled in love and unsettled in religion, though he had been
on speaking terms with both. He had loved and lost Ann Rutledge, and
he did not love Mary Owens and could not lose her. He was about to
begin one of the loneliest periods of his very lonely life. For a year
only one woman in Springfield spoke to him, and she would rather not
have done so. He did not go to church nor mingle in society, but faced
the hard and bitter problems that confronted him in earning a living,
making some small payments on his debt, settling his relations with
Mary Owens, and possibly giving some thought to his soul. But this was
not a time of one of his spiritual high water-marks.
If we had seen Abraham Lincoln as he entered New Salem and again
six years later as he left it, we should have found small reason to
anticipate very much of what afterward occurred. But looking back upon
him in the light of what occurred afterward, we discern the "promise
and potency" of the great man he afterward became in the sad young man
who already had become a leader of men, and had earned the right to be
called "Honest Abe."
CHAPTER V
THE ENVIRONMENT OF LINCOLN'S LIFE IN SPRINGFIELD
ABRAHAM LINCOLN became a resident of Springfield on Wednesday, March
15, 1837, and continued to live there until his removal, Saturday,
February 11, 1860, to assume his duties as President of the United
States. He was accepted as partner by his friend and former commander,
Major John T. Stuart, and shared an office in which politics was the
major interest and law was incidentally practiced. His partnership
with Stuart continued for four years, from April 27, 1837, until April
14, 1841. His next partnership was with Judge Stephen T. Logan, and
extended from April 14, 1841, to September 20, 1843.
He then formed a partnership with William H. Herndon which began on
the day of the dissolution of the partnership with Judge Logan and was
never formally dissolved. Lincoln had a working alliance with some
lawyer in almost every county seat which he habitually visited, whereby
the local lawyer secured the cases and worked them up, and Lincoln took
them in charge as senior counsel when they came to trial.[18] These
were not formal partnerships, though they were often so spoken of. This
method gave him a large practice, and brought him into contact and
collision with the ablest lawyers in central and southern Illinois.
In 1838 and again in 1840 he was re-elected to the Legislature, and
showed little of the ability which he later manifested, but was a
faithful member, and he flung himself with ardor into the noisy
campaign of 1840.
In 1842 he had his "duel" with James T. Shields, and later had the good
sense to be ashamed of it.
In 1846 he ran for Congress, and at this third attempt was elected,
taking his seat December 6, 1847, and continuing for two years.
The slavery issue was becoming dominant. Lincoln was not at the outset
an abolitionist, and was unwilling to be placed in a position where
he would be compelled to imperil his political chances by taking too
definite a stand on this divisive measure; but on March 3, 1837,
he introduced into the Legislature a vigorous protest against the
aggressions of the pro-slavery party, a protest which probably failed
to affect his political future because it contained only one signature
beside his own. Only a few months later occurred the martyrdom of Owen
Lovejoy at Alton, and the slavery issue was no longer one to be kept
in the background. It is good to be able to remember that Lincoln's
first protest against it was recorded before it had become so burning
an issue. He himself dated his hostility to slavery to what he saw of a
slave market in New Orleans when he visited that city as a boat hand.
But he was unable to remember a time when he had not believed that
slavery was wrong.
On other moral questions he now began to speak. He delivered an
address on Temperance on Washington's Birthday in 1842. His first
notable oratorical flight outside the spheres of politics and law was
delivered before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield on January 27,
1837, and was on "The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions."
It took him longer to say it than it did at Gettysburg, and it was
not so well said, but the rather florid lecture was intended to mean
essentially the same thing which he later expressed much more simply
and effectively.
His most important case that had a bearing on the slavery issue was
that of Bailey _vs._ Cromwell, when he was thirty-two years of age. In
preparing to argue before the Supreme Court of Illinois in favor of the
freedom of a slave girl, he learned the legal aspects of the question
which later he was to decide on its military and ethical character.
In 1858 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States Senate
against Stephen A. Douglas, and conducted that series of debates which
made him known throughout the nation as the champion of freedom in the
territories, and of the faith that the nation could not forever endure
half slave and half free. In the autumn of 1859 he visited Kansas, and
was hailed as the friend of freedom.
On Tuesday evening, February 27, 1860, he delivered an address in
Cooper Union in New York City, an address which greatly extended his
fame. On the preceding Sunday he attended Plymouth Church and heard and
met Henry Ward Beecher.
On May 16, 1860, he was nominated for the Presidency of the United
States by a great convention meeting in a temporary structure known as
"the Wigwam" standing on Lake and Market Streets near the junction of
the two branches of Chicago River. On November 7, 1860, he was elected
President.
On Friday, November 4, 1842, he was married to Miss Mary Todd. She
was born in Lexington, Kentucky, December 13, 1818, and had come to
Springfield to be with her sister, Mrs. Ninian W. Edwards, in whose
home the marriage occurred. Concerning this marriage and the events
which went before and after, much has been written and nothing need
here be repeated.
When Lincoln arrived in Springfield, he found himself for the first
time in his life living in a town with churches that held service every
Sunday, and each church under the care of its own minister. Springfield
had several churches, and he did not at first attend any of them.
This does not seem to have been on account of any hostility which he
entertained toward them, but his first months in Springfield were
months of great loneliness and depression. He was keenly conscious of
his poverty and of his social disqualifications. He was still tortured
by his unhappy love affair with Mary Owens. More than a year after his
arrival in Springfield he wrote to her that he had not yet attended
church and giving as the reason that he would not know how to behave
himself:
"This thing of living in Springfield is rather a dull business, after
all; at least, it is so to me. I am quite as lonesome here as I ever
was anywhere in my life. I have been spoken to by but one woman since
I have been here, and should not have been by her if she could have
avoided it. I have never been to church yet, nor probably shall not
be soon. I stay away because I am conscious I should not know how to
behave myself. I am often thinking about what we said of your coming
to live at Springfield. I am afraid you would not be satisfied. There
is a great deal of flourishing about in carriages here, which it would
be your doom to see without sharing it. You would have to be poor,
without the means of hiding your poverty."
Lincoln's habit with respect to churchgoing underwent no very marked
improvement after his marriage until the year 1850. He came, however,
to know a number of ministers[19] and to sustain somewhat pleasant
relations with some of them.
Mary Todd had been reared a Presbyterian. For a time after her
marriage she attended and was a member of the Episcopal Church. On
February 1, 1850,[20] their second son, Edward Baker Lincoln, died.
The little boy was between three and four years old. The rector of the
Episcopal Church was absent from the city and the funeral service was
conducted by Rev. James Smith, D.D., of the First Presbyterian Church.
A friendship was established between them, and Mr. Lincoln took a pew
in Dr. Smith's church and he and Mrs. Lincoln attended there regularly.
In a later chapter we shall have occasion to consider more directly and
at length the influence of Dr. Smith upon Mr. Lincoln. We now confine
ourselves to the fact that Lincoln now became a church attendant under
the ministry of a preacher quite different from any he had previously
known.
James Smith was a large and stalwart Scotchman. He is described as
Websterian in appearance and in the strength of logical argument. Lamon
speaks of him in contemptuous phrase which reflects little credit upon
Lamon, describing him as a man of slender ability. Whatever Dr. Smith
was, he was not a man of meager intellectual power. He had a massive
mind and one well trained. He had a voice of great carrying power and
was accustomed to speaking to large congregations both indoors and out.
He was a wide reader and a skilled controversialist. In his own young
manhood he had been a deist, and when he was converted he entered with
great ardor into various discussions with men who opposed the Christian
faith. One such discussion he had engaged in with a widely known
infidel author. The debate had continued evening after evening in a
Southern city for nearly three weeks and Dr. Smith had emerged from it
triumphant.
Dr. Smith was just the kind of man to win the admiration of Lincoln
at that time. There is some reason to believe that Dr. Smith's three
weeks' debate with C. G. Olmsted at Columbus, Mississippi, suggested to
Lincoln the idea of his debate with Stephen A. Douglas.
That Lincoln's views underwent some change at this time there is the
best reason to believe. Lincoln himself declared to his brother-in-law,
Ninian W. Edwards, that his views had been modified.
Lamon and Herndon both seek to represent Dr. Smith as an officious,
self-advertising meddler, who sought to win renown for himself by
proclaiming Mr. Lincoln's conversion through his personal influence.
The claims and conduct of Dr. Smith do not seem to merit any such
rebuke. Whatever Dr. Smith claimed, Mr. Lincoln knew about it and
was not offended by it. Subsequently he appointed Dr. Smith's son
United States Consul to Dundee, Scotland, and on the son's return to
the United States Mr. Lincoln appointed his father, who by that time
had retired from the ministry, to succeed him in that position. Even
Lamon is compelled to admit that Dr. Smith's claims were made with Mr.
Lincoln's knowledge, and says:
"Mr. Lincoln permitted himself to be misunderstood and misrepresented
by some enthusiastic ministers and exhorters with whom he came in
contact. Among these was the Rev. Mr. Smith, then pastor of the First
Presbyterian Church of Springfield, and afterward consul at Dundee, in
Scotland, under Mr. Lincoln's appointment."--LAMON, _Life of Lincoln_,
p. 498.
This statement is thoroughly discreditable, and that which follows
in Lamon's account of Mr. Lincoln's relations with Dr. Smith is a
thorough misrepresentation, as we shall later discover. Lamon was not a
deliberate liar; neither was he in this matter free from prejudice; and
he wrote with reckless disregard of some facts which he did not know
but ought to have known, and which the reader of this book shall know.
About this time Mr. Lincoln received word that his own father was
dying, and was prevented from making him a personal visit, which,
apparently, he was not wholly sorry for. On January 12, 1851, he wrote
to his stepbrother, John D. Johnson:
"I sincerely hope father may recover his health, but, tell him to
remember to call upon and confide in our great and good and merciful
Maker, who will not turn away from him in any extremity. He notes the
fall of a sparrow, and numbers the hairs of our head, and He will not
forget the dying man who puts his trust in Him. Say to him that if we
could meet now it is doubtful whether it would not be more painful
than pleasant, but that if it be his lot to go now, he will soon have
a joyous meeting with many loved ones gone before, and where the rest
of us, through the help of God, hope ere long to join them."
Even Herndon grew indignant when anyone attempted to explain away that
letter, or to make it seem anything less than it purported to be. He
said in his letter to Mr. Abbott, under date of February 18, 1870:
"It has been said to me that Mr. Lincoln wrote the above letter to
an old man simply to cheer him up in his last moments, and that
the writer did not believe what he said. The question is, Was Mr.
Lincoln an honest and truthful man? If he was, he wrote that letter
honestly, believing it. It has to me the sound, the ring, of an honest
utterance. I admit that Mr. Lincoln, in his moments of melancholy
and terrible gloom, was living on the border land between theism and
atheism, sometimes quite wholly dwelling in atheism. In his happier
moments he would swing back to theism, and dwell lovingly there....
So it seems to me that Mr. Lincoln believed in God and immortality as
well as heaven--a place."--LAMON, p. 495.
Another incident comes to us from this period and is related by Captain
Gilbert J. Greene. He was a young printer living in Springfield, and at
the time of this incident was eighteen years of age. Whether the story
was in any way exaggerated we may not certainly know, but it is here
given as he himself furnished it for publication and is now printed
with one or two other Lincoln stories in a small volume in limited
edition:
"'Greene,' said Lincoln to him one day on the streets of Springfield,
'I've got to ride out into the country tomorrow to draw a will for
a woman who is believed to be on her deathbed. I may want you for a
witness. If you haven't anything else to do I'd like to have you go
along.'
"The invitation was promptly accepted.
"On the way to the farmhouse the lawyer and the printer chatted
delightfully, cementing a friendship that was fast ripening into real
affection. Arriving at the house, the woman was found to be near her
end.
"With great gentleness Lincoln drew up the document disposing of the
property as the woman desired. Neighbors and relatives were present,
making it unnecessary to call on Greene to witness the instrument.
After the signing and witnessing of the will the woman turned to
Lincoln and said, with a smile:
"'Now I have my affairs for this world arranged satisfactorily. I am
thankful to say that long before this I have made preparation for the
other life I am so soon to enter. Many years ago I sought and found
Christ as my Saviour. He has been my stay and comfort through the
years, and is now near to carry me over the river of death. I do not
fear death, Mr. Lincoln. I am really glad that my time has come, for
loved ones have gone before me and I rejoice in the hope of meeting
them so soon.'
"Instinctively the friends drew nearer the bedside. As the dying woman
had addressed her words more directly to Lincoln than to the others,
Lincoln, evincing sympathy in every look and gesture, bent toward her
and said:
"'Your faith in Christ is wise and strong; your hope of a future life
is blessed. You are to be congratulated in passing through life so
usefully, and into the life beyond so hopefully.'
"'Mr. Lincoln,' said she, 'won't you read a few verses out of the
Bible for me?'
"A member of the family offered him the family Bible. Instead of
taking it, he began reciting from memory the twenty-third Psalm,
laying emphasis upon 'Though I walk through the valley of the shadow
of death I will fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy
staff they comfort me.' Still without referring to the Bible, Lincoln
began with the first part of the fourteenth chapter of John:
"'Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in
me.
"'In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would
have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
"'And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and
receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.'
"After he had given these and other quotations from the Scriptures, he
recited various familiar comforting hymns, closing with 'Rock of Ages,
cleft for me.' Then, with a tenderness and pathos that enthralled
everyone in the room, he spoke the last stanza--
"'_While I draw this fleeting breath,
When mine eyes shall close in death,
When I rise to worlds unknown,
See Thee on Thy judgment throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee._'
"While Lincoln was reciting this stanza a look of peace and
resignation lit up the countenance of the dying woman. In a few
minutes more, while the lawyer and the printer were there, she passed
away.
"The journey back to Springfield was begun in silence. It was the
younger man who finally said:
"'Mr. Lincoln, ever since what has just happened back there in the
farmhouse, I have been thinking that it is very extraordinary that you
should so perfectly have acted as pastor as well as attorney.'
"When the answer to this suggestion finally was given--and it was not
given at once--Lincoln said:
"'God, and Eternity, and Heaven were very near to me today.'"--CHARLES
T. WHITE, _Lincoln the Comforter_, pp. 11-16.
Reference should be made in our review of this period to Lincoln's
stories as exhibiting an important phase of his character.
It is not easy to decide what stories actually were Lincoln's. Very
few of them are to be found in their original setting, for he did not
commonly tell stories when he made speeches. They were told in personal
interviews, in hours of recreation, and especially in taverns and other
loafing places. The period of their greatest vogue was that in which
Lincoln traveled the circuit. Most of the successful lawyers of that
day were story-tellers; and in the evenings of court-week they swapped
yarns with local wits. Lincoln was the most famous of a considerable
group of noted Illinois story-tellers.
During his lifetime he was asked about how many of the stories
attributed to him were his own, and he said he thought about half.
A much larger discount would need to be made now. Many such stories
Lincoln probably never heard.
The stories which lawyers told to each other and to groups of men were
not all of them overnice; and Lincoln's stories were like the rest. He
did not always confine himself to strictly proper stories. But in those
that are authentic and not quite proper, it is to be observed that the
coarseness was incidental to the real point of the story. I have not
heard any story, authenticated as Lincoln's, which is actually obscene.
It has been my privilege to examine a considerable quantity of
unpublished writing of Lincoln's, including some manuscripts that
have been withheld for the reason that they were not quite proper.
Of these I can say that they are few in number, and that the element
of vulgarity is very small. Excepting only the "First Chronicles of
Reuben," which was a rude backwoods joke, written in his boyhood, and
in full accord with the standards of humor current in the time and
general environment, there is not very much that one could wish had
been destroyed.
The frankest piece of questionable literature from Lincoln's pen in
mature years, so far as I am aware, is in a private collection, and its
owner does not permit it to be copied. Not many people are permitted
to see it. It is probably the least attractive scrap of Lincoln's
writing extant that dates from his mature years. It is undated, but
belongs to the period of his life on the circuit. It is a piece of
extravagant nonsense, written in about twenty lines on a quarter sheet
of legal cap, and is probably the effort to recall and record something
that he had heard and which amused him. Its whole point is in the
transposition of the initial letters of compound words, or words in
juxtaposition in a sentence, such as a speaker sometimes makes in a
moment of mental confusion. Thus a cotton-patch is a "potten-catch" and
a fence-corner is a "cence-forner." Every clause contains one or more
of these absurdities, until a sense of boisterous mirth is awakened at
the possibility that there should be so many of them. Most of them are
harmless as the two above quoted, but there are two or three that are
not in good taste. They are not vile nor obscene, but not very pretty.
Lincoln wasted ten minutes of spare time in writing out this rather
ingenious bit of nonsense, and it is not worth more than that length of
discussion. It is probably the worst bit of extant writing of Lincoln's
mature years, written in the period of his circuit-riding, and it has
little to commend it and not a great deal to condemn.
* * * * *
Lincoln's religious life in Springfield has been and is the subject of
violent controversy. Much that has been written on both sides bears
the marks of prejudice and exhibits internal evidence of having been
consciously or unconsciously distorted. In a later chapter it will come
before us for review and analysis. Of it we may now remind ourselves
that in this period covering nearly a quarter of a century Lincoln
was developing in many ways. He emerged from grinding poverty into a
condition in which he owned a home and had a modest sum of money in the
bank. From an ill-trained fledgling lawyer, compelled by his poverty
to share a bed in a friend's room above the store, he had come to be a
leader at the Illinois bar. From an obscure figure in State politics
he had come to be the recognized leader of a political party that was
destined to achieve national success and to determine the policies of
the nation with little interruption for more than half a century. Out
of a condition of great mental uncertainty in all matters relating to
domestic relations he had come into a settled condition as the husband
of a brilliant and ambitious woman and the father of a family of sons
to whom he was devotedly attached. For the first time in his life he
lived in a community where there were buildings wholly dedicated to
the purposes of public worship; and after a considerable period of
non-church attendance, and perhaps another of infrequent or irregular
attendance, he had become a regular attendant and supporter of a church
whose minister was his personal friend and whom he greatly admired.
During his years in Springfield, Mr. Lincoln's political ideals had
undergone marked change. His experience in the Illinois Legislature is
not discreditable; neither does it manifest any notably high ideals.
Nor was he brilliantly successful in his one term in Congress. Lincoln
was an honest politician, in the sense that he kept his promises and
stood by his announced convictions. But it is impossible to read into
his legislative history any such lofty purpose as later possessed him.
He and the other members of the "Long Nine" log-rolled in orthodox
political fashion, and won from Governor Ford the title "spared
monuments of popular wrath."[21]
As a jury lawyer, also, his arts were those of the successful trial
lawyer of the period. So far as the author has been able to find,
there was no unworthy chapter in all this long history. The story,
for instance, that in the trial of Armstrong Lincoln used an almanac
of another year and won his case by fraud, has, as the author is
convinced, no foundation whatever in fact. On the contrary, Lincoln was
at a serious disadvantage in any case in whose justice he did not fully
believe.
But there came a time when Lincoln was more than a shrewd and
honest politician; more than a successful jury lawyer. In the brief
autobiographical sketch which he prepared for Mr. Fell, he speaks of
his work at the end of his term in Congress, and says:
"In 1846 I was once elected to the lower House of Congress. Was not
a candidate for re-election. From 1849 to 1854, both inclusive,
practiced law more assiduously than ever before. Always a Whig in
politics, and generally on the Whig electoral tickets, making active
canvasses, I was losing interest in politics when the repeal of the
Missouri Compromise aroused me again. What I have done since is pretty
well known."
He expanded this brief statement somewhat in the sketch which he
furnished a little later to Scripps as a basis of his campaign
biography:
"Upon his return from Congress, he went to the practice of the law
with greater earnestness than ever before.... In 1854 his profession
had almost superseded the thought of politics in his mind, when the
repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused him as he had never been
before."
The full effect of this unprecedented arousing was manifest
in his speech at Springfield on June 16, 1858, the
"House-Divided-Against-Itself" speech.
Lincoln himself is our authority for the statement that the moral
aspects of the slavery issue called him back into politics and roused
him as he never before had been aroused. Politically, at least, Abraham
Lincoln had been born again. Nor had it been a period of spiritual
inaction or retrogression, as we have seen and shall see yet further.
In addition to all this he had known the discipline of sorrow, and had
had occasion to test religion on the practical side of its availability
for comfort in time of bereavement. He had now been chosen to a
position of responsibility such as no man in all the history of his
nation had ever been called upon to occupy.
On the day before he was fifty-two years old he stood upon the platform
of a railroad train ready to leave Springfield for the last time.
He did not know that it was the last time, but he had a haunting
presentiment that it might be so. With tears filling his eyes and in
a voice choked with emotion he spoke his last words to his neighbors
and friends. Just what he said we shall never know. A shorthand
reporter endeavored to write it down, but with indifferent success.
Hon. Newton Bateman, State Superintendent of Schools, of whom we shall
hear later, hurried to his office after the train pulled out and wrote
down what, judged by any reasonable test, must be considered a very
satisfactory report of it. Lincoln sat down in the train after it had
left Springfield and endeavored to recall the exact language which
he had used, and in this was assisted by his private secretary, John
Hay. Of these three, and a considerable number of other versions, the
Illinois Historical Society has chosen the third as the authentic
version. It represents what Lincoln wished to be remembered as having
said, and very nearly what he actually did say. This version of his
farewell address, representing the deep feeling of his heart at
the hour of parting, and recorded on the same day as embodying his
deliberate revision of the extempore utterance, is taken from Nicolay
and Hay's edition of his Life and of his Works. It is that which was
cast in bronze and placed in the year of his Centennial, in front of
the State House at Springfield. If one would measure the growth of
Abraham Lincoln intellectually and spiritually he might ask, What kind
of an address in comparison with this Lincoln might have delivered on
his departure from Kentucky in 1816, from Indiana in 1830, or from New
Salem in 1837? The answer is so emphatic as almost to make the question
absurd; but it is worth while to ask the question before we read again
the familiar words of his farewell address. No one reading these few
sentences can question the sincerity of Lincoln's utterance or the
depth of his religious feeling:
"My friends: No one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling
of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these
people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century,
and have passed from a youth to an old man. Here my children have been
born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when or whether
ever I may return, with the task before me greater than that which
rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of that Divine Being
who ever attended him I cannot succeed. With that assistance, I cannot
fail. Trusting in Him, who can go with me, and remain with you and
be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be
well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will
commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell."--NICOLAY AND HAY,
III, 291.
CHAPTER VI
THE ENVIRONMENT OF LINCOLN'S LIFE IN WASHINGTON
ABRAHAM LINCOLN was inaugurated sixteenth president of the United
States, on Monday, March 4, 1861. His journey to Washington had served
to impress him even more deeply than before with a sense of the
solemnity of his task. He still was earnestly hoping, and if we may
judge from his speeches along the route, even expecting, that war would
be averted;[22] but the possibility of war was always apparent and its
probability was growing daily more certain.
Several incidents are related tending to show the solemnity of
Lincoln's feeling at this time. Some of them are plainly apocryphal,
but others are deeply significant. The following was related by Rev.
Dr. Miner, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Springfield, who
was intimately acquainted with the Lincoln family and who visited
them in the White House. This story he declared was related to him by
Mrs. Lincoln on the occasion of his visit to the White House and was
published while Mrs. Lincoln was still living. It appears to rest upon
a sound basis of fact:
"Here I relate an incident which occurred on the 4th of March, 1861,
as told me by Mrs. Lincoln. Said she:
"'Mr. Lincoln wrote the conclusion of his inaugural address the
morning it was delivered. The family being present, he read it to
them. He then said he wished to be left alone for a short time. The
family retired to an adjoining room, but not so far distant but that
the voice of prayer could be distinctly heard. There, closeted with
God alone, surrounded by the enemies who were ready to take his
life, he commended his country's cause and all dear to him to God's
providential care, and with a mind calmed by communion with his Father
in heaven, and courage equal to the danger, he came forth from that
retirement ready for duty.'"--_Scribner's Monthly_, 1873, p. 343.
Fort Sumter fell April 13, and on the 15th Lincoln issued his call for
volunteers, and called Congress in extraordinary session for July 4. On
July 21 occurred the battle of Bull Run, and the war settled down to
its weary and varying fortunes. On September 22, 1862, he issued the
Emancipation Proclamation to take effect January 1, 1863. The battle
of Gettysburg occurred July 1-4, 1863, and destroyed the hope of the
Southern Army of a successful invasion of the North. Simultaneously
with Lee's defeat at Gettysburg, General Grant captured Vicksburg,
opening the Mississippi to the Union gunboats. On November 19, 1863,
Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg address. On March 4, 1865, he was
inaugurated President a second time. On Sunday, April 9, 1865, General
Lee surrendered his army at Appomattox. On Friday night, April 14, at
10:20 P.M., Abraham Lincoln was shot in Ford's Theater and died on
Saturday morning, April 15, at 7:22. On Thursday, May 4, his body was
interred at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield.
During his residence in Washington, Mr. Lincoln habitually attended
the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. He was a warm personal friend
of the pastor, Rev. Phineas D. Gurley, D.D., whose grandson, Captain
Gurley of the War Department, relates that Lincoln sat with Dr. Gurley
on the rear porch of the White House during the second battle of
Bull Run, and when the strain had become almost unbearable he knelt
in prayer and Mr. Lincoln knelt beside him and joined reverently in
the petition. Dr. Gurley's testimonies to the religious development
of Lincoln's life were conservative, and bear upon their face marks
of trustworthiness. There are no extravagant claims; no florid and
declamatory theological affirmations,[23] but such as this which Dr.
Gurley remembers to have heard Lincoln say to a company of clergymen
calling upon him in one of the darkest times in the Civil War:
"My hope of success in this struggle rests on that immutable
foundation, the justness and the goodness of God; and when events
are very threatening I still hope that in some way all will be
well in the end, because our cause is just and God will be on our
side."--_Scribner's Magazine_, 1873, p. 339.
Lincoln sometimes varied this form of expression and said that he was
less anxious to proclaim that God was on his side than he was to be
sure that he was on God's side.
During this period Lincoln had frequent occasion to meet delegations
from religious bodies and to reply to their addresses. We shall have
occasion later to consider some of his words to these different
religious bodies. He also issued a number of proclamations, calling
for days of fasting and prayer and days of thanksgiving, in which
he expressed not only the formal sentiment which he might assume
represented the mind of the people, but also to a considerable extent
what must have been his own religious conviction.
An unbiased reading of these proclamations and addresses compels the
reader to recognize in them, not merely the formal courtesy of an
official to the representatives of large and influential bodies, but
the sincere expression of his own faith. An illustration may be found
in his attitude toward the Quakers. No religious body suffered more
during the Civil War, and with no religious fellowship did Mr. Lincoln
feel a more instinctive sympathy, though he was compelled by the logic
of events to pursue courses of action in contravention of their desires
and at times of their convictions.
In September, 1862, he received a delegation of Friends, and listened
to an address on their behalf by Mrs. Eliza P. Gurney, wife of Joseph
John Gurney, a wealthy banker, entreating him on behalf of their
peace-loving organization to bring the war to a speedy end. He could
not do what they wished, and moreover, he believed that it was not
the will of God that the war should end till it had wrought out the
purposes of the Divine will. He said:
"I am glad of this interview, and glad to know that I have your
sympathy and prayers. We are indeed going through a great trial--a
fiery trial. In the very responsible position in which I happen to
be placed, being a humble instrument in the hands of our Heavenly
Father, as I am, and as we all are, to work out His great purposes,
I have desired that all my works and acts may be according to His
will, and that it might be so, I have sought His aid; but if, after
endeavoring to do my best in the light which He affords me, I find my
efforts fail, I must believe that for some purpose unknown to me, He
wills it otherwise. If I had had my way, this war would never have
been commenced. If I had been allowed my way, this war would have been
ended before this; but we find it still continues, and we must believe
that He permits it for some wise purpose of His own, mysterious and
unknown to us; and though with our limited understandings we may not
be able to comprehend it, yet we cannot but believe that He who made
the world still governs it."
We are not permitted to believe that on this and similar occasions Mr.
Lincoln met the situation with words of pious evasion, or that what
he said was simply what he thought he might be expected to say. Some
months after this interview Mrs. Gurney, being then in London, wrote
to Mr. Lincoln. He could easily have acknowledged the letter without
committing himself to any religious expression. For several months he
kept the letter, and then, on September 4, 1864, he wrote to her as
follows:
"My esteemed Friend: I have not forgotten--probably never shall
forget--the very impressive occasion when yourself and friends visited
me on a Sabbath forenoon two years ago. Nor has your kind letter,
written nearly a year later, ever been forgotten. In all it has been
your purpose to strengthen my reliance on God. I am much indebted to
the good Christian people of the country for their constant prayers
and consolations; and to no one of them more than to yourself. The
purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and must prevail, though we
erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them in advance. We
hoped for a happy termination of this terrible war long before this;
but God knows best and ruled otherwise. We shall yet acknowledge His
wisdom, and our own error therein. Meanwhile we must work earnestly in
the best light He gives us, trusting that so working still conduces
to the great ends He ordains. Surely He intends some great good to
follow this mighty convulsion, which no mortal could make, and no
mortal could stay. Your people, the Friends, have had, and are having,
a very great trial. On principle and faith opposed to both war and
oppression, they can only practically oppose oppression by war. In
this hard dilemma some have chosen one horn, and some the other. For
those appealing to me on conscientious grounds, I have done, and shall
do, the best I could and can, in my own conscience, under my oath to
the law. That you believe this, I doubt not, and believing it, I shall
receive for my country and myself your earnest prayers to our Father
in Heaven."
Of Lincoln's habit of public worship during his Presidency, Rev.
William Henry Roberts, Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian General
Assembly, writes in a foreword to Dr. Johnson's book:
"It was my privilege as a young man to have known Abraham Lincoln.
Entering the service of the United States government in the fall
of 1863, the first Sabbath of my sojourn in Washington City I went
to the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. When the time for the
long prayer came, according to immemorial usage in many Presbyterian
congregations, a number of the men stood up for prayer, and among
those upright figures I noticed in particular that of the President
of the United States. As a member of the New York Avenue Church I was
seated not far from Mr. Lincoln at Sunday services for a year and
a half, and his attitude was always that of an earnest and devout
worshiper. He was also an attendant at the weekly meeting, though
for a considerable period taking part in the services privately. It
having become known that he was an attendant at the prayer meeting,
many persons would gather in or near the church at the close of the
service in order to have access to him for various purposes. Desiring
to put an end to these unwelcome interruptions, the Rev. Dr. Phineas
D. Gurley, the pastor of Mr. Lincoln, arranged to have the President
sit in the pastor's room, the door of which opened upon the lecture
room, and there Mr. Lincoln would take a silent part in the service.
He informed his pastor on several occasions that he had received great
comfort from the meetings, and for the reason that they had been
characterized more by prayer than by the making of addresses.
"Dr. Gurley bore repeated testimony to myself and to other members of
the church of the deeply religious character of Mr. Lincoln, and it is
with pleasure that I add this brief testimony from my own experience
and observation.
"It will be fifty years next fall since I came into direct touch with
the man, who in the providence of God was the liberator of a race, and
I shall always hold in sweet and blessed memory my first sight of him,
as a devout worshiper standing for prayer in the sanctuary of the Most
High."--_Abraham Lincoln the Christian_, pp. 13-15.
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.
"FRIEND HERNDON:--
"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.
"Very truly,
"JNO. G. NICOLAY.
"HON. WILLIAM H. HERNDON."
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:
"I have often been asked what were Mr. Lincoln's religious opinions.
When I knew him in early life, he was a skeptic. He had tried hard
to be a believer, but his reason could not grasp and solve the great
problem of redemption as taught. He was very cautious never to give
expression to any thought or sentiment that would grate harshly upon a
Christian ear. For a sincere Christian he had great respect. He often
said that the most ambitious man might live to see every hope fail;
but no Christian could live and see his hope fail, because fulfillment
could only come when life ended. But this was a subject we never
discussed. The only evidence I have of any change, was in the summer
before he was killed. I was invited out to the Soldiers' Home to spend
the night. As I entered the room, near night, he was sitting near a
window intently reading his Bible. Approaching him I said, 'I am glad
to see you so profitably engaged.' 'Yes,' said he, 'I am profitably
engaged.' 'Well,' said I, 'if you have recovered from your skepticism,
I am sorry to say that I have not.' Looking me earnestly in the face,
and placing his hand on my shoulder, he said, 'You are wrong, Speed;
take all of this Book upon reason that you can, and the balance on
faith, and you will live and die a happier man.'"--SPEED: _Lecture on
Abraham Lincoln_, pp. 32, 33.
The Bible which the colored people presented to Lincoln was kept and
prized by him. Hon. H. C. Deming, in his address before the Legislature
of Connecticut, just after Lincoln's death, referred to it:
"The interview which I am recalling was last summer [1864] just after
General Fremont had declined to run against him for the Presidency.
The magnificent Bible, which the negroes of Washington[24] had just
presented to him lay upon the table, and while we were both examining
it, I recited the somewhat remarkable passage from the Chronicles,
'Eastward were six Levites, northward four a day, southward four a
day, and toward Assuppim two and two. At Parbar westward, four at
the causeway, and two at Parbar.'[25] He immediately challenged me
to find any such passage as that in _his_ Bible. After I had pointed
it out to him, and he was satisfied of its genuineness, he asked me
if I remembered the text which his friends had applied to Fremont,
and instantly turned to a verse in the first of Samuel, put on his
spectacles, and read in his slow, peculiar, and waggish tone,--'And
everyone that was in distress and everyone that was in debt, and
everyone that was discontented gathered themselves unto him; and he
became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred
men.'"[26]
There are two interesting facts about this incident related by
Representative Deming. One is that Lincoln knew his Bible well enough
to challenge an unfamiliar passage and require that it be shown to him
before believing that the Bible contained it. Only a man who had read
his Bible much would have been so confident. The other is that this
story recalled to Mr. Deming that very important declaration of Lincoln
which is attested by a number of other credible witnesses in substance,
but which Deming first gave to the world in his notable address:
"I am here reminded of an impressive remark which he made to me
upon another occasion, and which I shall never forget. He said, he
had never united himself to any church, because he found difficulty
in giving his assent, without mental reservations, to the long
complicated statements of Christian doctrine which characterize their
Articles of Belief and Confessions of Faith. 'When any church,' he
continued, 'will inscribe over its altar as its sole qualification
for membership the Saviour's condensed statement of the substance
of both the law and Gospel, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thy
neighbor as thyself,--that church will I join with all my heart and
soul.'"--_Eulogy upon Abraham Lincoln, before the General Assembly of
Connecticut, 1865_, p. 42.
Henry C. Whitney knew Lincoln well, from the days of their circuit
riding in Illinois till Lincoln's death. His testimony is valuable:
"Mr. Lincoln was a fatalist: he believed, and often said, that
'_There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will,_'
and as a corollary from this belief, that the Almighty controlled the
affairs of men and made the wrath of men to praise Him. In all stages
of his administration and before, commencing with his first public
utterance after his election, he declared that with God's help he
should succeed, and without it he would fail. Likewise, before he was
run for the Presidency, he made frequent references to God in the same
spirit of devoutness and trust; and, therefore, he was honest; honest
with his Father on his dying bed, honest in what he feared was (and
which proved to be) his last affectionate farewell to his neighbors,
honest to the many eminent bands of clergymen and Christian people
who visited him, and honest with his Cabinet in the most important
consultation it ever held; then Lincoln, whether as man or as
President, believed in God as the Ruler of the Universe, in a blessed
hereafter, and in the efficacy of prayer. . . . Mr. Lincoln believed
himself to be an instrument of God; and that, as God willed, so would
the contest be. He also believed in prayer and its efficacy, and that
God willed the destruction of slavery through his instrumentality, and
he believed in the Church of God as an important auxiliary."--_Life on
the Circuit with Lincoln_, pp. 267-68.
Among the men in Washington who best knew the mind of Abraham Lincoln
was Schuyler Colfax, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and
afterward Vice-President under General Grant. In his memorial address
delivered just after the assassination, he paid a high tribute to the
deep religious spirit of Lincoln as he knew it, and said:
"Nor should I forget to mention that the last Act of Congress signed
by him was one requiring that the motto, in which he sincerely
believed, 'In God we trust' should hereafter be inscribed upon all
our national coins."--HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX, in _Memorial Address in
Chicago, April 30, 1865_.
During his residence in the White House Mr. Lincoln again met the
discipline of personal bereavement. His son Willie died. There is
conflict of testimony as to Mr. Lincoln's love for his wife, though
the present writer believes that he truly loved her, but no one who
knew him ever doubted his devotion to his children. The death of this
little boy, William Wallace, who was born in Springfield, December 21,
1850, and died in the White House, February 20, 1862, seemed, according
to the testimony of Mrs. Lincoln, to turn his thoughts more to
religion. It must have recalled to him all that had occurred when his
other boy died in Springfield, and it brought new and solemn thoughts
and possibly convictions.
Moreover, he was now father to the boys of a nation. They were marching
at his order, singing,
"_We are coming, Father Abraham,
Six hundred thousand more._"
They were laying down their young lives for a cause that he told
them was holy. How he felt for the fathers and mothers of the land,
his letter to Mrs. Bixby and his countless deeds of mercy testify.
Again and again, as Ingersoll well said, he abused his great power
on the side of mercy and never otherwise. The deepening sense of
responsibility, as he affirmed, again and again drove him to his knees
(Noah Brooks in _Harper's Monthly_ for July, 1885). Did he consciously
change his theology? Very likely not; but he certainly became a more
and more deeply religious man under the discipline of these experiences.
Perhaps more than all else, the moral aspects of the slavery question
thrust themselves into a foremost place in his religious thinking. We
need not trouble ourselves overmuch about the accuracy of John Hanks's
story that when Lincoln saw slaves sold in the market in New Orleans he
vowed to "hit that institution and hit it hard"; part of that story may
have originated in John's fertile imagination. But the story is not an
unworthy one, and we know from Lincoln's own declaration that on that
very occasion he was smitten with a sense of the iniquity of slavery,
and that on its moral rather than its political side. That he freed
the slaves as a war measure, and that he must thus justify the action
as an extra-constitutional prerogative, need not lessen in our mind
the moral aspects of the decision. The evidence is incontestable, and
we shall quote it later, that to him it was a solemn obligation, the
fulfillment of a vow which he had made to God.
We are presently to go into a detailed examination of the available
evidence concerning Lincoln's religious life. We are here considering
his environment in the successive stages of his career, and his visible
reaction to it. But even if we were to go no further, we should find
ourselves compelled to believe in the reality of Lincoln's religion.
We might not be able accurately to define it, and we may not be able
to do so to our complete satisfaction after we have finished; we might
even question, and we may still question, whether he himself ever fully
defined it. But we are assured that his religion was real and genuine,
and that it grew more vital as he faced more completely the moral and
spiritual aspects of the work to which, as he honestly believed, he was
divinely called.
When General Lee surrendered his armies on April 9, 1865, Mr. Stanton,
Secretary of War, though not a very religious man in his profession,
felt with the whole nation the Providence of God in the result. He
surrounded the dome of the Capitol with a transparency, reading, "This
is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes."
He believed it; the nation believed it; Abraham Lincoln believed it.
That conviction that the hand of God had been in it all had but lately
been expressed in his Second Inaugural. That faith was warm in his
heart, and its expression fresh upon his lips, when on April 14, 1865,
he was shot and killed.
So ended the earthly life of Abraham Lincoln; and with that end came
the beginning of the discussion of his religion. To the history of that
discussion, and the critical consideration of the evidence which it
adduced, we are now to address ourselves.
PART II: AN ANALYSIS OF THE EVIDENCE
CHAPTER VII
THE RULES OF EVIDENCE
THUS far we have dealt primarily with the environments of Lincoln's
religious life. We have not been able to escape the conviction
that Lincoln's religious life was an evolution, influenced by his
environment and experience. We have considered in these successive
chapters some matters in detail which seemed to belong particularly to
the respective periods of which those chapters have treated; but we
have reserved, in general, the evidence that bears upon his religion as
a whole for more critical examination. Particularly have we reserved
those portions of the evidence which, first published after his death,
belong to no one epoch of his life and have become the occasion of
controversy. What kind of man he was religiously in 1865 we shall hope
to know better; indeed, it is not unreasonable to hope that examination
may show in part the processes by which his religion found its final
form and expression.
We know already that there had been a development. We know that the
Abraham Lincoln who in 1834 delivered his political opinions in
labored and florid style and with the logic current in stump oratory
had undergone mental development and had emerged into the Lincoln who
delivered his thoughts in translucent Anglo-Saxon at Gettysburg and the
Second Inaugural. That there had been a moral and spiritual development
also we have already been assured. Perhaps it was greater than he
himself consciously understood. We shall now endeavor to ascertain what
it had come to be.
In this inquiry we have no easy task. The mass of evidence is great,
and the contradictions are many. There were contradictions in the
personality of the man himself, and many contradictions in the views
which men, even honest and unprejudiced men, had of him; and not all
the testimony is unprejudiced.
Lincoln was a man of many moods. He reacted differently to different
stimuli, and to the same stimulus at different times. His feelings ran
the gamut from abysmal dejection to rollicking gaiety: and he never
revealed his whole nature to any one man, nor showed the whole of his
nature at any one time. He cannot be judged by the mechanical tests of
a rigid consistency: for he was not that kind of man.
When Dr. J. G. Holland went to Springfield immediately after the death
of Lincoln to gather material for his biography he was surprised beyond
measure to find how conflicting were the local judgments of Lincoln's
character. Concerning this he wrote:
"Such a nature and character seem full of contradictions; and a man
who is subject to such transitions will always be a mystery to those
who do not know him wholly. Thus no two men among his intimate friends
will agree concerning him.
"The writer has conversed with multitudes of men who claimed to know
Mr. Lincoln intimately; yet there are not two of the whole number who
agree in their estimate of him. The fact was that he rarely showed
more than one aspect of himself to one man. He opened himself to
men in different directions. It was rare that he exhibited what was
religious in him; and he never did this at all, except when he found
just the nature and character that were sympathetic with that aspect
and element of his character. A great deal of his best, deepest,
largest life he kept almost constantly from view, because he would not
expose it to the eyes and apprehension of the careless multitude.
"To illustrate the effect of the peculiarity of Mr. Lincoln's
intercourse with men, it may be said that men who knew him through
all his professional and political life have offered opinions as
diametrically opposite as these, viz.: that he was a very ambitious
man, and that he was without a particle of ambition; that he was
one of the saddest men that ever lived, and that he was one of the
jolliest men that ever lived; that he was very religious, but that
he was not a Christian; that he was a Christian, but did not know it;
that he was so far from being a religious man or a Christian that 'the
less said upon the subject the better'; that he was the most cunning
man in America, and that he had not a particle of cunning in him; that
he had the strongest personal attachments, and that he had no personal
attachments at all--only a general good feeling toward everybody; that
he was a man of indomitable will, and that he was a man almost without
a will; that he was a tyrant, and that he was the softest-hearted,
most brotherly man that ever lived; that he was remarkable for his
pure-mindedness, and that he was the foulest in his jests and stories
of any man in the country; that he was a witty man, and that he was
only a retailer of the wit of others; that his apparent candor and
fairness were only apparent, and that they were as real as his head
and his hands; that he was a boor, and that he was in all essential
respects a gentleman; that he was a leader of the people, and that he
was always led by the people; that he was cool and impassive, and that
he was susceptible of the strongest passions. It is only by tracing
these separate streams of impression back to their fountain that we
are able to arrive at anything like a competent comprehension of the
man, or to learn why he came to be held in such various estimation.
Men caught only separate aspects of his character--only the fragments
that were called into exhibition by their own qualities."--HOLLAND:
_Life of Lincoln_, pp. 241-42.
Some writers, and more orators, have professed to see in the character
of Lincoln a perfect balancing of all desirable qualities. Bishop
Fowler, in what was perhaps the most widely popular of all popular
orations on Lincoln, attributed his own inability to analyze the
character of Lincoln to its perfect sphericity, a consistency such that
any attempt to consider any quality by itself met the counterbalancing
consideration of all the other qualities. But the antitheses in
Lincoln's character were not those of a perfect consistency.[27] They
were of a sort which puzzled those who knew him best, and were most
easily explained by those who gave least study to the man himself and
most to their own theories of what a man like Mr. Lincoln must have
been.
Of these sharp antitheses in Lincoln's character, Col. Clark E. Carr,
who knew him well, said in an address which I heard:
"Abraham Lincoln was the drollest man I ever saw.
"He could make a cat laugh. Never was another man so vivacious; never
have I seen another who provoked so much mirth, and who entered into
rollicking fun with such glee. He was the most comical and jocose of
human beings, laughing with the same zest at his own jokes as at those
of others. I did not wonder that, while actively engaged in party
politics, his opponents who had seen him in these moods called Abraham
Lincoln a clown and an ape.
"Abraham Lincoln was the most serious man I ever saw.
"When I heard him protest against blighting our new territories with
the curse of human slavery, in his debates with Senator Douglas,
no man could have been more in earnest, none more serious. In his
analysis of legal problems, whether in the practice of his profession
or in the consideration of State papers, he became wholly absorbed
in his subject. Sometimes he lapsed into reverie and communed with
his own thoughts, noting nothing that was going on about him until
aroused, when perhaps he would enter into a discussion of the subject
that had occupied his mind, or perhaps break out into laughter and
tell a joke or story that set the table in a roar.
"When I saw him at Gettysburg as he exclaimed, 'That we here highly
resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation
shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that the government
of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish
from the earth!'--when I heard him declare in his second inaugural
address, 'Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty
scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it
continue until all the wealth piled up by the bondman's two hundred
and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop
of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the
sword, as was said three thousand years, so still it must be said,
"the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."... With
malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right
as God gives us to see the right,'--as I looked upon him and heard him
utter these sentiments, upon these occasions, Abraham Lincoln was the
most solemn, the most dignified, the most majestic, and at the same
time the most benignant human being I ever saw.
"Rochefoucauld says that 'Gravity is a mystery of the body invented to
conceal defects of the mind.' Lord Shaftesbury says that 'Gravity is
the very essence of imposture.' Abraham Lincoln had none of this.
"Man is the most serious of animals. Man is the most frivolous of
animals. It is said that man is the only animal that can both laugh
and cry. Abraham Lincoln gave full vent to his emotions. He went
through life with no restraints nor manacles upon his human nature.
He was honest in the expression of his feelings, whether serious or
otherwise, honest in their manifestation, honest with himself.
"It was because Abraham Lincoln was the most human of human
beings that he is loved as has never been any other man that ever
lived."--CLARK E. CARR: _My Day and Generation_, pp. 107-9.
There was much reason for this wide disparity of opinion in the
varying moods of Lincoln himself, and the contrary aspects of his
personality. But this was not the sole reason. Springfield itself was
greatly divided concerning Mr. Lincoln. There were lawyers who had been
on opposing sides of cases against him and had sometimes won them.
There were all the petty animosities which grow up in a small city.
Furthermore, Springfield was moderately full of disappointed people
who had expected that their friendship for Lincoln would have procured
for them some political appointment. Any political aspirant living
in Maine or Missouri who had a fourth cousin living in Springfield
and possessed of a speaking acquaintance with Mr. Lincoln, felt that
he and his kinsfolk suffered an unmerited discourtesy if Mr. Lincoln
through such influence did not produce on application a commission as
Major-General or an appointment as Ambassador to some foreign court.
We have a yet further difficulty to face in the conflict of testimony
of habitually truthful people. If it were becoming in the author of
a book such as this to pass any general criticism upon those authors
who have preceded him in the same field, it might, perhaps, be counted
not invidious to say that for the most part writers on the religion of
Lincoln have been content to adduce the testimony of a limited number
of apparently truthful witnesses in support of their theory, but have
not given the evidence very much examination beyond the general fact
that the witnesses were habitually truthful people. We shall not arrive
at the truth in this fashion.
We may borrow an illustration from a field which lies just outside the
scope of our present inquiry. Even to this day it is possible to start
a warm discussion almost anywhere in Springfield over the question of
Lincoln's domestic affairs. It is possible to prove on the testimony
of unimpeached witnesses that Lincoln loved his wife passionately, and
that he did not love her at all; that he married Mary Todd because he
loved her and had already answered in his own heart all his previous
questions and misgivings, and that he married her because she and her
relatives practically compelled him to do so, and that he went to the
marriage altar muttering that he was going to hell; that Mary Todd
not only admired Abraham Lincoln, but loved him with a beautiful and
wifely devotion, and that she hated him and never ceased to wreak
revenge upon him for having once deserted her upon the eve of their
announced marriage; that Mary Todd wore a white silk dress on the night
of her wedding, and that she never owned a white silk dress until she
had become a resident of the White House; that the wedding was a gay
affair, with a great dinner, and was followed by a reception for which
several hundred printed invitations were issued, and that the wedding
was hastily performed on a Sunday evening, Mr. Dresser, the minister,
cutting short his evening service and dropping in on the way home
to solemnize a quickly extemporized marriage contract. It would seem
fairly easy to discover from a calendar of the year 1842 at least
what day in the week was chosen for the wedding, but few if any of
the disputants, or even of the biographers, appear to have taken this
pains. If the present writer should ever have occasion to write about
Abraham Lincoln's married life, he would not proceed very far without
consulting a calendar for that year; and he would hope to settle at
least one point in the controversy by telling the world that in 1842
the fourth day of November did not occur on Sunday or Tuesday, but on
Friday;[28] Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln both being tinged with superstition,
he might raise the question whether the celebration of the wedding upon
that date probably was or was not long premeditated. But the present
book does not concern itself with these questions, and the matter is
here introduced merely to illustrate that no point in controversy in a
matter of this character can be definitely settled by the unsupported
testimony of a single honest witness relying upon his memory after the
lapse of many years.
Evidence such as we are to consider is of two kinds, known in logic
as _a priori_ and _a posteriori_. The first kind is evidence from
antecedent probability; the second is evidence relating to matter after
the fact. An illustration will serve:
A man is found dead, with a wound in his forehead, and there are no
witnesses who can be produced in court who saw the man die. The wound
appears to have been produced by a bullet, and, as no weapon is found
beside the body, there is a presumption that the man has been murdered.
A neighbor is accused of having committed the deed. The _a priori_
evidence is adduced in testimony that the defendant and the deceased
had long been on bad terms with each other on account of a line fence
between their adjacent properties; that the defendant had threatened
to kill the deceased and had recently bought a revolver. The evidence
_a posteriori_ is found in the fact that the defendant's revolver on
examination shows one empty chamber and that the ball in the deceased
man's brain is of the caliber suited to his weapon and of the same
manufacture as the unused cartridges in the weapon. To this may be
added other incriminating facts, as of measured footprints near the
scene of murder which correspond to the size of the defendant's boots,
and of possible blood stains upon his clothing.
A very large volume of _a priori_ evidence is sometimes set aside
by a single _a posteriori_ fact; for instance, in the foregoing
supposititious case it may be entirely possible to prove that the
murder was committed by a tramp, and that the defendant was ten miles
away at the time the deed was done.
On the other hand, a large volume of _a posteriori_ evidence sometimes
disappears in the face of a single _a priori_ consideration. A man is
accused of having stolen a sheep. It is shown in evidence that on the
evening when the sheep was stolen he walked through his neighbor's
pasture and was seen to approach the sheep; that he sold mutton on the
day after the loss of the sheep, and that a fresh sheepskin was found
nailed to his barn door. All this _a posteriori_ evidence and much more
may be completely set aside in the minds of the jury by the single fact
that the man accused has lived for forty years in the community and has
borne a reputation incompatible with the crime of sheep-stealing.
In the examination of testimony concerning alleged utterances of
Abraham Lincoln in matters of religious belief, we must ask such
questions as these:
Is the witness credible? Had he opportunity to know what he professes
to relate? Were other witnesses present, and if so, do they agree in
their recollection of the words spoken? Was the interview published at
a time when it could have been denied by those who had knowledge of
the incident? Had the witness time to enlarge the incident by frequent
telling and by such exaggeration and enlargement of detail as is likely
to occur with the lapse of years? Had the witness a probable motive
for exaggeration; does he appear to tell what he would presumably have
liked Mr. Lincoln to say, and does it sound more like the narrator's
own style than it does like Mr. Lincoln? Do the language and the
sentiments expressed accord with the published addresses, letters, and
authentic documents of Abraham Lincoln, and are the views expressed
in accord with the views which he is known to have held? On the other
hand, is it possible that in the freedom of personal conversation Mr.
Lincoln may have said some things which he would not have been likely
to say in formal discourse or to write in official documents?
It is not necessary that we formally ask these and only these
questions; but these are the kinds of sieve through which oral
testimony must be passed if we are to learn the truth.
Particular care needs to be exercised in the application of these
tests, and especially in the employment of all _a priori_ methods. The
author of this volume is a Christian minister, and would be heartily
glad to find in Mr. Lincoln's authentic utterances indubitable evidence
that Mr. Lincoln was essentially a Christian; there is need that he
take especial care not to apply these discriminating tests in such
fashion as to sustain his own prejudices. Nor must he magnify his
caution until it becomes an inverted prejudice.
On the other hand, the _a priori_ method must on no account be ruled
out. Mr. Lincoln left a great quantity of authentic material. His
speeches, letters, and state papers fill twelve volumes, and even
these do not contain all of his signed material. We are compelled to
judge alleged utterances of his somewhat in the light of our certain
knowledge of what he wrote and said. Let us illustrate the application
of this principle:
If an aged man living in central Illinois were now to arise
and say: "I knew Abraham Lincoln, and he said to me one day in
private conversation, 'There is no God,'" we should be justified
in discrediting that man's testimony, even though he bore a good
reputation for veracity. The antecedent improbability of such a
declaration on the part of Mr. Lincoln is too great for us to accept it
on the basis of one man's recollection of a private and unwitnessed
conversation fifty years after Mr. Lincoln's death.
We should be equally justified in rejecting the testimony at this late
date of one of Mr. Lincoln's old-time neighbors who would say that Mr.
Lincoln told him that he believed the whole of the Athanasian Creed.
Especial care is necessary in dealing with the alleged utterances of
deceased persons in matters of religion. The author of this book has
conducted a thousand funerals, and has been told every conceivable kind
of story concerning some of the persons deceased. To the credit of our
frail humanity be it recorded that nine-tenths of this testimony was
favorable. There are few finer traits in human nature than those which
prompt us to speak only good of the dead. The eagerness of those who
have known not only the virtues but the faults of living men to pass
lightly over the faults and emphasize the virtues of these same men
when they are dead is not only a manifestation of the finest sort of
love of fair play in refusing to accuse those who cannot make answer,
but is also an exhibition of one of the noblest impulses of the human
spirit.
Even the tendency of ministers to lie like gentlemen on funeral
occasions is not to be too unsparingly condemned. It springs from a
belief that the better part of a man's life is the truer part of him,
and that a man has a right to be judged by the best that is in him not
only of achievement but even of defeated aspiration.
William Allen White is fond of relating a story concerning a funeral in
Kansas. The minister was in the midst of his eulogy when a man who had
come in late and had not heard the beginning of the discourse tiptoed
down the aisle, took a long look into the coffin, and returned to his
seat. The minister, somewhat disconcerted by this proceeding, addressed
him, saying, "The opportunity to view the remains will be given later."
"I know that," replied the man, "but I had begun to suspect that I had
gotten into the wrong funeral."
One who has had much experience with funerals and with attempts to
make dead men appear better than the same men living actually were or
appeared to be, knows that these efforts are not usually the result of
deliberate falsehood. They grow out of generous impulses and an easy
tendency to exaggeration. But some people do actually lie, and this
fact also is not wholly to be forgotten.
With these reminders of human frailty and human generosity and of the
uncertainty of all things human, we proceed to examine in some detail
the vast and contradictory mass of evidence which after the death of
Abraham Lincoln was published concerning his faith or the lack of it.
* * * * *
What is in some respects the foremost example of platform and pulpit
oratory concerning Lincoln is the oration of Bishop Charles Henry
Fowler, deceased, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. It illustrates at
once the excellency and the defects of works of this character. The
oration had its beginning in a eulogy delivered in Chicago on May 4,
1865, the day of Lincoln's burial at Springfield. From time to time as
years went by, Bishop Fowler had occasion to deliver other addresses on
Lincoln, which, in 1904, he reshaped into something like the final form
of the oration. First delivered in Minneapolis, it was repeated in many
cities and before great audiences. It became the Bishop's best known
and most popular address. It is the first and easily the greatest of
the five that make up the volume of his Patriotic Orations, the others
being on Grant, McKinley, Washington, and The Great Deeds of Great
Men. Of that large book it fills more than a hundred pages. It was too
long ever to be delivered at one time, but it was completely written,
and fully committed to memory, so that he chose at each delivery what
portions he would utter and what he would omit. Even with the omissions
he rarely spoke less than two and one-half hours, and sometimes
occupied three hours, his audiences hearing with sustained interest to
the close. Of it his son says, that "through its delivery in various
parts of the country, and by the natural process of accretion and
attraction, new facts were added and others verified, until in 1906 it
was put in this final form."
Here is an address whose composition occupied a strong and able man
for thirty-one years. It thrills with admiration for its subject. It
is alive with patriotism and religion. It deserved, in many respects,
the attention which it received. Men have been known to say that having
heard this address they would never spoil the impression by listening
to any other address on Lincoln.
And yet it would not be safe to quote this lecture in any of its
substantial parts without further investigation of the authority
on which Bishop Fowler relied. He was a truthful man, and a man of
ability, and if he had been asked what means he took to verify his
statements, he would probably have said that he admitted no statement
to his lecture which he did not find attested by some competent and
truthful witness. Doubtless so, and most of the lecture is true, and
the impression which it makes as a whole is substantially true, but
that is not enough. Doubtless Bishop Fowler read in some book or
magazine article by a truthful writer that on the day Lincoln submitted
the Emancipation proclamation to his Cabinet, he first read in the
presence of the Cabinet a chapter in the Bible. It would not have
required very much of investigation to have convinced Bishop Fowler
that what Lincoln really read was not the Bible, but Artemus Ward. He
did not intend to lie about it. He picked up the account from some
other speaker who had heard or read that Lincoln read a chapter from
some book, and thought that the Bible was the proper book to read on
an occasion of that character. Neither the speaker nor Bishop Fowler
intended to be untruthful, but neither of them had any training in or
inclination toward historical investigation. It would be easy to guess
that a thousand Methodist preachers and some others have retold the
story on the authority of Bishop Fowler. And that is far from being the
only inaccuracy in the lecture. Indeed, it shows throughout how much
it grew "by the natural process of accretion and attraction" and how
little by the verification of the facts.
This lecture is cited because it is in many respects the very best
of its type, as it is probably also the most noted, and one that was
delivered to more people than any other on Abraham Lincoln.
It does not suffice to rely upon any second authorities in
investigations of this character, nor to accept the statements of even
truthful witnesses without some sifting of the evidence.
With this in mind, we come to what is the most crucial and difficult of
all the incidents bearing upon our inquiry--the incident reported to
Dr. Holland by President Bateman.
CHAPTER VIII
THE BATEMAN INCIDENT
HON. NEWTON BATEMAN was for many years Superintendent of Public
Instruction for the State of Illinois, being chosen to that position
in 1858 and holding the place with one brief intermission for fourteen
years. He was then elected President of Knox College and served with
distinction in that capacity for seventeen years. He knew Lincoln well.
He was small in stature, and Lincoln was very tall. Lincoln used to
introduce Bateman to friends, saying, "This is my little friend, the
big schoolmaster of Illinois." He was, perhaps, the last man to shake
hands with Abraham Lincoln as Lincoln was leaving Springfield, and
he was one of the pallbearers at Lincoln's funeral. The version of
Lincoln's Farewell Address which was published in the _Illinois State
Journal_ was printed on the day following Lincoln's departure and was
reproduced from Dr. Bateman's memory of it. Although it varies from the
official report it appears to have been a very nearly accurate report
of what Lincoln actually said as judged by Lincoln's own reproduction
of the address.
Reference has already been made to the difficulties which Dr. J. G.
Holland met in Springfield when he journeyed thither in quest of
material on the _Life of Lincoln_. To his great satisfaction he was
able to obtain from Mr. Bateman an incident which has become the
corner-stone of a thousand Lincoln eulogies. It is here reproduced
entire:
"Mr. Newton Bateman,[29] Superintendent of Public Instruction for the
State of Illinois, occupied a room adjoining and opening into the
Executive Chamber. Frequently this door was open during Mr. Lincoln's
receptions; and throughout the seven months or more of his occupation
Mr. Bateman saw him nearly every day. Often when Mr. Lincoln was tired
he closed his door against all intrusion, and called Mr. Bateman into
his room for a quiet talk. On one of these occasions Mr. Lincoln took
up a book containing a careful canvass of the city of Springfield
in which he lived, showing the candidate for whom each citizen had
declared it his intention to vote in the approaching election. Mr.
Lincoln's friends had, doubtless at his own request, placed the result
of the canvass in his hands. This was toward the close of October, and
only a few days before the election. Calling Mr. Bateman to a seat
at his side, having previously locked all doors, he said: 'Let us
look over this book. I wish particularly to see how the ministers of
Springfield are going to vote.' The leaves were turned, one by one,
and as the names were examined Mr. Lincoln frequently asked if this
one and that were not a minister, or an elder, or a member of such
or such a church, and sadly expressed his surprise on receiving an
affirmative answer. In that manner they went through the book, and
then he closed it and sat silently and for some minutes regarding
a memorandum in pencil which lay before him. At length he turned
to Mr. Bateman with a face full of sadness, and said: 'Here are
twenty-three, ministers, of different denominations, and all of them
are against me but three; and here are a great many prominent members
of the churches, a very large majority of whom are against me. Mr.
Bateman, I am not a Christian--God knows I would be one--but I have
carefully read the Bible, and I do not so understand this book'; and
he drew from his bosom a pocket New Testament. 'These men well know,'
he continued, 'that I am for freedom in the territories, freedom
everywhere as far as the Constitution and laws will permit, and that
my opponents are for slavery. They know this, and yet, with this book
in their hands, in the light of which human bondage cannot live a
moment, they are going to vote against me. I do not understand it at
all.'
"Here Mr. Lincoln paused--paused for long minutes, his features
surcharged with emotion. Then he rose and walked up and down the room
in the effort to retain or regain his self-possession. Stopping at
last, he said, with a trembling voice and his cheeks wet with tears:
'I know there is a God, and that He hates injustice and slavery. I
see the storm coming, and I know that His hand is in it. If He has a
place and work for me--and I think He has--I believe I am ready. I am
nothing, but truth is everything. I know I am right because I know
that liberty is right, for Christ teaches it, and Christ is God. I
have told them that a house divided against itself cannot stand, and
Christ and reason say the same; and they will find it so. Douglas
don't care whether slavery is voted up or voted down, but God cares,
and humanity cares, and I care; and with God's help I shall not fail.
I may not see the end; but it will come, and I shall be vindicated;
and these men will find that they have not read their Bibles aright.'
"Much of this was uttered as if he were speaking to himself, and with
a sad and earnest solemnity of manner impossible to be described.
After a pause, he resumed: 'Doesn't it appear strange that men can
ignore the moral aspects of this contest? A revelation could not make
it plainer to me that slavery or the government must be destroyed.
The future would be something awful, as I look at it, but for this
rock on which I stand [alluding to the Testament which he still held
in his hand] especially with the knowledge of how these ministers are
going to vote. It seems as if God had borne with this thing [slavery]
until the very teachers of religion have come to defend it from the
Bible, and to claim for it a divine character and sanction; and now
the cup of iniquity is full, and the vials of wrath will be poured
out.'"--HOLLAND: _Life of Lincoln_, pp. 236-38.
Dr. J. G. Holland was an author of ability and character. His _Life
of Lincoln_ was up to the time of its publication far and away the
best that had appeared. Even Herndon and Lamon are compelled to
speak of it with respect. Lamon says: "Out of the mass of work which
appeared, of one only--Dr. Holland's--is it possible to speak with
any degree of respect." That this also represented substantially the
opinion of Herndon is clearly in evidence. With two such names as
Newton Bateman and J. G. Holland supporting it, an incident of this
character was certain to carry great weight. It can be found more or
less abridged and in some cases garbled and enlarged in any one of a
hundred books and of a thousand or probably ten thousand Lincoln's
Day addresses. This report was the direct occasion for the assembling
of a considerable mass of opposing evidence which we shall find in
succeeding chapters. It was attacked publicly and directly by Ward Hill
Lamon in his _Life of Lincoln_ in 1872. The following is Mr. Lamon's
reply:
"Mr. Newton Bateman is reported to have said that a few days before
the Presidential election in 1860, Mr. Lincoln came into his office,
closed the door against intrusion, and proposed to examine a book
which had been furnished him, at his own request, 'Containing a
careful canvass of the city of Springfield, showing the candidate
for whom each citizen had declared his intention to vote at the
approaching election. He ascertained that only three ministers of the
gospel, out of twenty-three, would vote for him, and that, of the
prominent church-members, a very large majority were against him.'
Mr. Bateman does not say so directly, but the inference is plain
that Mr. Lincoln had not previously known what were the sentiments
of the Christian people who lived with him in Springfield: he had
never before taken the trouble to inquire whether they were for him
or against him. At all events, when he made the discovery out of
the book, he wept, and declared that he 'did not understand it at
all.' He drew from his bosom a pocket New Testament, and, 'with a
trembling voice and his cheeks wet with tears,' quoted it against his
political opponents generally, and especially against Douglas. He
professed to believe that the opinions adopted by him and his party
were derived from the teachings of Christ; averred that Christ was
God; and, speaking of the Testament which he carried in his bosom,
called it 'this rock, on which I stand.' When Mr. Bateman expressed
surprise, and told him that his friends generally were ignorant that
he entertained such sentiments, he gave this answer quickly: 'I know
they are: I am obliged to appear different to them.' Mr. Bateman is a
respectable citizen, whose general reputation for truth and veracity
is not to be impeached; but his story, as reported in Holland's Life,
is so inconsistent with Mr. Lincoln's whole character, that it must
be rejected as altogether incredible. From the time of the Democratic
split in the Baltimore Convention, Mr. Lincoln, as well as every other
politician of the smallest sagacity, knew that his success was as
certain as any future could be. At the end of October, most of the
States had clearly voted in a way which left no lingering doubts of
the final result in November. If there ever was a time in his life
when ambition charmed his whole heart,--if it could ever be said of
him that 'hope elevated and joy brightened his crest,' it was on the
eve of that election which he saw was to lift him at last to the
high place for which he had sighed and struggled so long. It was not
then that he would mourn and weep because he was in danger of not
getting the votes of the ministers and members of the churches he
had known during many years for his steadfast opponents: he did not
need them, and had not expected them. Those who understood him best
are very sure that he never, under any circumstances, could have
fallen into such weakness--not even when his fortunes were at the
lowest point of depression--as to play the part of a hypocrite for
their support. Neither is it possible that he was at any loss about
the reasons which religious men had for refusing him their support;
and, if he had said that he could not understand it at all, he must
have spoken falsely. But the worst part of the tale is Mr. Lincoln's
acknowledgment that his 'friends generally were deceived concerning
his religious sentiments, and that he was obliged to appear different
to them.'
"According to this version, which has had considerable currency,
he carried a New Testament in his bosom, carefully hidden from
his intimate associates: he believed that Christ was God; yet his
friends understood him to deny the verity of the gospel: he based his
political doctrines on the teachings of the Bible; yet before all men,
except Mr. Bateman, he habitually acted the part of an unbeliever and
reprobate, because he was 'obliged to appear different to them.' How
obliged? What compulsion required him to deny that Christ was God
if he really believed Him to be divine? Or did he put his political
necessities above the obligations of truth, and oppose Christianity
against his convictions, that he might win the favor of its enemies?
It may be that his mere silence was sometimes misunderstood; but he
never made an express avowal of any religious opinion which he did
not entertain. He did not 'appear different' at one time from what he
was at another, and certainly he never put on infidelity as a mere
mask to conceal his Christian character from the world. There is no
dealing with Mr. Bateman, except by a flat contradiction. Perhaps
his memory was treacherous, or his imagination led him astray, or,
peradventure, he thought a fraud no harm if it gratified the strong
desire of the public for proofs of Mr. Lincoln's orthodoxy. It is
nothing to the purpose that Mr. Lincoln said once or twice that he
thought this or that portion of the Scripture was the product of
divine inspiration; for he was one of the class who hold that all
truth is inspired, and that every human being with a mind and a
conscience is a prophet. He would have agreed much more readily with
one who taught that Newton's discoveries, or Bacon's philosophy, or
one of his own speeches, were the works of men divinely inspired above
their fellows. But he never told anyone that he accepted Jesus Christ,
or performed a single one of the acts which necessarily follow upon
such a conviction. At Springfield and at Washington he was beset on
the one hand by political priests, and on the other by honest and
prayerful Christians. He despised the former, respected the latter,
and had use for both. He said with characteristic irreverence, that he
would not undertake 'to run the churches by military authority'; but
he was, nevertheless, alive to the importance of letting the churches
'run themselves in the interest of his party.' Indefinite expressions
about 'Divine Providence,' the 'justice of God,' 'the favor of the
Most High,' were easy, and not inconsistent with his religious notion.
In this, accordingly, he indulged freely; but never in all that time
did he let fall from his lips or his pen an expression which remotely
implied the slightest faith in Jesus as the Son of God and the Saviour
of men."--LAMON: _Life of Lincoln_, pp. 499-502.
Confronted by an irreconcilable contradiction like this, the easiest
way is to cut the knot, and this may be done by any one of several
methods. We may say that, while Lamon and Herndon were truthful men,
their reputation for veracity, good as it was, is less than that of
Bateman and Holland, and we prefer to believe the latter pair. Or, we
may say that, while Bateman knew Lincoln well, both Herndon and Lamon
knew him much better, and were better able to judge what Lincoln would
have said. Or, we may say that Bateman was present when Lincoln spoke,
and Holland was present when Bateman related the interview, and neither
Herndon nor Lamon was present on either occasion, and we will believe
the one credible witness who was actually there, and whose positive
testimony outweighs any possible volume of negative testimony on the
part of men who were not present, and who only imagine what Mr. Lincoln
would probably have said. Or, we may say that in the light of the
inherent improbability of such an utterance on the part of Mr. Lincoln,
as determined by a comparison of this alleged utterance with his
authentic statements, we cannot accept it, even though the two men who
vouch, the one for its utterance and the other for its transmission,
are men of exceptional veracity. Or, we may say that in such a
conflict of direct evidence and inherent improbability, and the mutual
opposition of honest men who were in a position to know something
about the religious views of Mr. Lincoln, it is impossible for us to
decide.
We will not seek by any of these convenient methods to cut the knot,
but endeavor to untie it. We are fortunate in having some collateral
evidence after the fact.
Herndon had awaited the publication of Holland's book with great
eagerness, and he was pleased with it as a whole. But the Bateman
incident roused his wrath. To him it made Lincoln a hypocrite,
dissembling a Christian faith, which he had no good reason to conceal,
beneath a pretense of infidelity, which was not, as Herndon believed, a
profession that would have helped him.
Herndon promptly walked over to the State House and interviewed Mr.
Bateman. "I instantly sought Mr. Bateman," he said, "and found him in
his office. I spoke to him politely and kindly, and he spoke to me in
the same manner. I said substantially to him that Mr. Holland, in order
to make Mr. Lincoln a technical Christian, had made him a hypocrite."
What Bateman said to Herndon he was forbidden to publish, but the
inference is ineluctable that he repudiated, in part, the interview
with Holland, but did it on condition that Herndon should not publish
the statement in a way that would raise the issue of veracity between
himself and Holland.
This was in the autumn of 1865. In the spring of 1866, Herndon again
called upon Bateman, but got no farther.
As the controversy waxed furious, Herndon made further and insistent
efforts to obtain from Bateman a statement which could be made to the
public. Herndon preserved notes of the interviews, which he dated,
December 3, 12, and 28, 1866. Bateman still refused to emerge from his
silence. One can imagine Herndon in his yellow trousers twice rolled
up at the bottom, hitching his chair a little closer to the little
superintendent, and with long, skinny forefinger outstretched, probing
with insistent cross-examination into the innermost recesses of the
_ipsissima versa_ of the interview with Lincoln and the subsequent one
with Holland. Whether he and Mr. Bateman continued to address each
other politely is not known, but Herndon endeavored first to persuade
and afterward to force, Bateman to do one of three things,--to avow
over his own signature the story as Holland told it; to repudiate the
interview and throw the responsibility upon Holland; or to permit
Herndon to publish what Bateman had told to him. Bateman would do
none of these three things. If he did the first, Herndon would accuse
him of falsehood; if he did the second, Holland would accuse him of
falsehood; and if he did the third, he would become the central figure
in a controversy that already had become more than red-hot. He refused
to say anything, and announced to all comers that the publicity was
"extremely distasteful" to him.
Herndon went as far as he could toward making public what Bateman told
to him. He published the following statement, designed to throw the
greater part of the blame upon Holland, but to force Bateman to relate
to the public what Bateman had said to him, and what he had written
down and held ready to produce:
"I cannot now detail what Mr. Bateman said, as it was a private
conversation, and I am forbidden to make use of it in public. If some
good gentleman can only get the seal of secrecy removed, I can show
what was said and done. On my word, the world may take it for granted
that Holland is wrong; that he does not state Mr. Lincoln's views
correctly. Mr. Bateman, if correctly represented in Holland's _Life of
Lincoln_, is the only man, the sole and only man, who dare say that
Mr. Lincoln believed in Jesus as the Christ of God, as the Christian
world represents. This is not a pleasant situation for Mr. Bateman. I
have notes and dates of our conversation; and the world will sometime
know who is truthful, and who is otherwise. I doubt whether Bateman is
correctly represented by Holland."--LAMON: _Life of Lincoln_, p. 496.
Mr. Bateman was, indeed, in an uncomfortable position and any one
of the three ways out of it seemed likely to make it still more
uncomfortable. He continued to maintain a profound silence. Years
afterward when Arnold was preparing his _Life of Lincoln_ for the press
and Arnold asked him concerning the truth of the incident as recorded
by Holland, he replied with extreme brevity that it was "substantially
correct." (Arnold: Life of Lincoln, p. 179).
The only portion of Bateman's admission to Herndon which Bateman
finally, and with great reluctance, consented to have published, was
one which covered the alleged utterance "Christ is God." It was a
letter written in 1867, and marked "Confidential." In this letter
Bateman said:
"He [Lincoln] was applying the principles of moral and religious truth
to the duties of the hour, the condition of the country, and the
conduct of public men--ministers of the gospel. I had no thought of
orthodoxy or heterodoxy, Unitarianism, Trinitarianism, or any other
ism, during the whole conversation, and I don't suppose or believe he
had."
This is a guarded letter, but it is sufficiently specific for our
purposes. If the conversation between Bateman and Lincoln was of this
character, with nothing to distinguish the view of Lincoln as Unitarian
or Trinitarian, Lincoln certainly did not say:
"I know I am right because I know that liberty is right, for Christ
teaches it, and Christ is God."
It is evident that Bateman, crowded by Herndon in repeated
cross-examination, came as near to repudiating those parts of the
interview to which Herndon objected as he could do without raising
publicly the issue of veracity between himself and Holland. The
attitude of Dr. Bateman in this matter forbids us to believe that the
story as it stands in Holland's book can be true.
Bateman is not mentioned in the index of Nicolay and Hay's _Life of
Lincoln_, and it is practically certain that they did not credit the
incident.
What, under these circumstances, shall be our judgment concerning this
most hotly contested of all incidents concerning the religious life of
Abraham Lincoln?
The incident had a basis of fact. Neither Bateman nor Holland would
have created such a story out of whole cloth. But Bateman was under
very strong temptation to enlarge upon the incident, and had had
five years in which to magnify it in his own mind. The then recent
death of Mr. Lincoln and the strong desire of Christian people for a
clear statement of his faith, made it easy to color the recollection
and sketch in details, which did not seem to be important departures
from the truth when related in verbal conversation, but which had a
different look when they appeared in cold type. Holland, who was a
writer of fiction as well as history, did not fail to embellish the
story as Bateman told it to him. He probably did not write it down
at the time, but recalled it afterward from memory, and in his final
report it underwent additional coloring and the sketching in of detail.
Neither of these two men intentionally falsified, but between the two
the story was materially enlarged, and there was an undistributed
margin of error between the original event as it occurred in 1860 and
the very pretty story which Holland printed in 1865. Neither Holland
nor Bateman cared, probably, to face too searching an inquiry as to how
that enlargement had come.
Dr. Bateman was a man of probity and upright character. He never
willfully misrepresented. But he had a rhetorical mind; not only his
style, but his mind, was rhetorical. He embellished his narratives
because it was in him to do so. The two reports which he made of
Lincoln's farewell address in Springfield[30] showed, both of them,
such embellishments,[31] and he was as unconscious that he in later
years enlarged upon his own first report as he was that his first
report enlarged upon the address itself. These enlargements were
slight, and did not destroy nor greatly alter the sense; but his
changes never tended to simplicity. He was a master of good English
style, but it was a grander, more rhetorical style than that of
Lincoln. Lincoln, after receiving his special notice of nomination,
submitted his letter of acceptance to Bateman, and at Bateman's
suggestion changed a split infinitive. Lincoln knew that Bateman was
an authority on good English, and respected his opinion and valued
his friendship. Whatever enlargements Bateman's memory made upon
his interview with Lincoln were made without intent to deceive; and
whatever Holland added was added without intent to deceive. But the
interview of 1860 and the story about it in Holland's book five years
later have between them a discrepancy which must be distributed in a
ratio which we are not able positively to determine between two good
and truthful men, each of whom enlarged a little upon the material that
was given to him.
A final evidence that Bateman saw no way to remedy the situation by
telling the public exactly what occurred in his interview with Lincoln
in 1860, is found in the fact that while he was President of Knox
College he had occasion to prepare and deliver there and elsewhere a
carefully written lecture on "Abraham Lincoln." Every generation of
Knox College students heard, at least once, that famous oration. That
lecture contains little else than Bateman's own personal reminiscences,
and is an interesting and valuable document. For our present purpose it
is chiefly valuable in this, that it contains not one word about the
interview which had forever associated the name of Newton Bateman with
that of Abraham Lincoln. The fact that Bateman felt compelled to omit
it altogether from that oft-repeated lecture on Lincoln is a sufficient
reason why no one else should ever use it.
Precisely what did Bateman tell Herndon that he had told to Holland,
which led Herndon to tell the public that Holland misrepresented
Bateman? We do not know precisely. What became of Herndon's carefully
cherished notes of his five interviews with Bateman is not known,[32]
but we are not left wholly to conjecture. Though Herndon was forbidden
to tell what Bateman told to him, he came as near to it as he could do
without open violation of his pledge of secrecy. In his own _Life of
Lincoln_, published in 1889, he inserted a footnote in which he said:
"One of what Lincoln regarded as the remarkable features of his
canvass for President was the attitude of some of his neighbors in
Springfield. A poll of the voters had been made in a little book and
given to him. On running over the names he found that the greater part
of the clergy of the city--in fact all but three--were against him.
This depressed him somewhat, and he called in Dr. Newton Bateman, who
as Superintendent of Public Instruction occupied the room adjoining
his own in the State House, and whom he habitually addressed as 'Mr.
Schoolmaster.' He commented bitterly on the attitude of the preachers
and many of their followers, who, pretending to be believers in the
Bible and God-fearing Christians, yet by their votes demonstrated
that they cared not whether slavery was voted up or down. 'God cares
and humanity cares,' he reflected, 'and if they do not they surely
have not read their Bible aright.'"--HERNDON: _Life of Lincoln_, III,
466-67.
To accept this as containing the essential part of the interview
between Lincoln and Bateman does not involve our preferring the
statement of Herndon to that of Bateman, for we have no definite
statement of Bateman. Bateman, under close examination, told Herndon
what he remembered that Lincoln told him, and Herndon promised not to
tell it without Bateman's permission. Herndon did tell, however, that
it was very different from Holland's story, and he published this in
Lamon's book in 1872 and Bateman did not deny it. He published the
above quoted and additional note in his own book in 1889, while Bateman
was living, and Bateman did not protest. We cannot, therefore, be far
from the truth if we accept the above and stop there.
Unless the notes of Herndon's five interviews with Bateman shall be
found and published, this is probably the nearest we shall ever come
to knowing what Bateman told Herndon that Lincoln had said to him.
If those notes shall be found, they may amplify the conversation but
cannot be expected materially to modify it. This is all that it is safe
to assume of Lincoln's confession of faith to Bateman. Whoever adds to
it the glosses of the Holland biography does it at his own risk.
CHAPTER IX
THE LAMON BIOGRAPHY
WARD HILL LAMON was for many years a close friend of Lincoln.[33]
Their relations began in 1847 when Lamon settled at Danville and
continued until Lincoln's death. Both there and at Bloomington, Lamon
was Lincoln's local associate and so-called partner. When Lincoln
voted at the Presidential election of 1860, the men who accompanied
him to the polls were William H. Herndon, Ward Hill Lamon, and Col.
Elmer Ellsworth. When Lincoln was elected and his political friends
had slated Lamon for a foreign mission, Lincoln appointed him Marshal
of the District of Columbia that he might have him close at hand. He
was a member of the party which accompanied Lincoln to Washington, and
when through apparent danger of assassination the route was changed and
Lincoln slipped into Washington with a single companion, it was Lamon
whom he chose to accompany him. Lamon had charge of the arrangements of
Lincoln's trip to Gettysburg, and accompanied Lincoln and was in charge
when he visited the battlefield of Antietam. His book of personal
"Recollections," edited by his daughter and published in 1895, is full
of interest and contains much of permanent value. His _Life of Abraham
Lincoln_, published in 1872, is the most bitterly denounced of all the
biographies of Lincoln. It involved its author and publisher in heavy
financial loss, and the unsold portion of the edition is alleged to
have been bought up by friends of Lincoln and quietly destroyed. Lamon
intended to have followed this volume, whose subject-matter ended with
Lincoln's arrival in Washington in 1861, with a second volume covering
Lincoln's life as President, but neither a second volume nor a second
edition of the first was ever issued.
How Lamon, being a friend of Lincoln, could ever have written such a
book has been the subject of much conjecture. Herndon believed that
during the latter part of his life in Washington Lamon had become
embittered against Lincoln. Lamon's daughter in a magazine article on
the subject professed her father's abiding friendship for Lincoln,
but maintained that he was endeavoring to tell the true story of a
great life and to recover the real Lincoln from the realm of myth
(Dorothy Lamon Teillard: "Lincoln in Myth and in Fact," _World's Work_,
February, 1911, pp. 14040-44).
The basis of Lamon's book is the Herndon manuscripts, copies of which
Herndon sold to Lamon for $2,000 in 1870. That Herndon bitterly
regretted the necessity of this sale, there is clear evidence; but
he had come to a condition of great poverty; and there were other
reasons why it seemed unlikely that he himself would ever write a Life
of Lincoln. That Lamon himself wrote the book without assistance was
disputed from the beginning, and Herndon was accused of being its real
author. In letters to Horace White in 1890, Herndon told the truth, as
is now believed, concerning the authorship.
"You regret, as well as myself, that I sold my MSS. to Lamon. The
reason why I did so was that I was then, in 1870-72, a poor devil
and had to sell to live. From 1853 to 1865 I spent all my time and
money for the 'nigger,' or rather for Liberty and the Union--lost my
practice, went to farming, and went under in the crash of 1871-73,
and that, too, from no speculations, vices, etc. Today I have to work
for tomorrow's bread, and yet I am a happy and contented man. I own a
little farm of sixty-five acres and raise fruits for a living. Now you
have the reasons for my acts.
"In reference to Lamon's book, I can truthfully say that Chauncey F.
Black,[34] son of J. S. Black, wrote quite every word of it.... I
have for years been written to by various persons to know why Lamon
was so much prejudiced against Lincoln. The bitterness, if any, was
not in Lamon so much as in Black, though I am convinced that Lamon
was no solid, firm friend of Lincoln, especially during Lincoln's
administration, or the latter part of it."--NEWTON: _Lincoln and
Herndon_, pp. 307-8.
Herndon stoutly denied having written a single line of Lamon's book,
but he furnished the greater part of the material in the form of
documents, and gave further aid by letters and suggestions. Thirteen
years after it was published he wrote to Lamon, who was still hoping to
issue a new biography which would include the volume already issued and
a second volume, and said:
"I desire to see your new Life win. Your first Life is nearly
suppressed--is suppressed or will be by rings--bears, and like.
Lamon's first Life of Lincoln is the truest Life that was ever written
of a man, as I think. I do not agree to all it says, and yet it is
the most truthful Life of Lincoln written, or to be written probably,
except your second Life. . . . Why, Lamon, if you and I had not told
the exact truth about Lincoln, he would have been a myth in a hundred
years after 1865. We knew him--loved him--had ideas and had the
courage of our convictions. We told the world what Lincoln was and
were terribly abused for it."--(_World's Work_, February, 1911, p.
14044).
One of the chief things which Lamon set out to do was to refute
Holland's estimate of Lincoln's faith, particularly as it appeared in
Holland's account of the Bateman story. Lamon held that any impression
which people got that Lincoln possessed substantial Christian faith,
was due to the fact that Lincoln was a wily politician, who saw the
power and appreciated the prejudices of the churches and was determined
not to suffer from their hostility. He not only grew more cautious as
he grew older, but actually dissembled. His religious references were
made as vague and general as possible, and he permitted himself to be
misunderstood and misrepresented by ministers and others because of
"his morbid ambition, coupled with a mortal fear that his popularity
would suffer by an open avowal of his deistic convictions" (Lamon,
_Life of Lincoln_, p. 498).
His estimate of Lincoln is that "On the whole, he was an honest,
although a shrewd, and by no means unselfish politician." He attributes
Lincoln's melancholy definitely to his utter lack of faith.
"It is very probable that much of Mr. Lincoln's unhappiness, the
melancholy that 'dripped from him as he walked,' was due to his want
of religious faith. When the black fit was on him, he suffered as much
mental misery as Bunyan or Cowper in the deepest anguish of their
conflicts with the Evil One. But the unfortunate conviction fastened
upon him by his early associations, that there was no truth in the
Bible, made all consolation impossible, and penitence useless. To a
man of his temperament, predisposed as it was to depression of spirit,
there could be no chance of happiness if doomed to live without hope
and without God in the world. He might force himself to be merry
with his chosen comrades; he might 'banish sadness' in mirthful
conversation, or find relief in a jest; gratified ambition might
elevate his feelings, and give him ease for a time: but solid comfort
and permanent peace could come to him only 'through a correspondence
fixed with heaven.' The fatal misfortune of his life, looking at it
only as it affected him in this world, was the influence at New Salem
and at Springfield which enlisted him on the side of unbelief. He paid
the bitter penalty in a life of misery."--LAMON, _Life of Lincoln_, p.
504.
In support of this thesis, Lamon, aided and abetted by Herndon, sought
for testimonials from those who had known Lincoln, endeavoring to
prove that he had no religious faith. Herndon himself wrote a letter
which we shall quote later because of its bearing upon a particular
point which we have yet to discuss, and gave the names of Judge Logan,
John T. Stuart, Joshua F. Speed, and James H. Matheny as those who
would confirm his declaration that Lincoln was an infidel. Herndon's
own definition of the term infidel is susceptible of such varying
definitions in his different letters and published articles that it
is not always easy to tell just what he meant by it, but in some of
these he was specific and told, from his own alleged knowledge or his
memory of the testimony of others, what Lincoln believed and denied.
Judge Logan appears not to have contributed to the discussion, but
from several of the others and from some other men whose letters
Herndon already had, Lamon made up a considerable volume of testimony
concerning the unbelief of Lincoln. Some of these we quote, reserving
others for later consideration.
Hon. John T. Stuart was alleged to have said:
"I knew Mr. Lincoln when he first came here, and for years afterwards.
He was an avowed and open infidel, sometimes bordered on atheism. I
have often and often heard Lincoln and one W. D. Herndon, who was a
free-thinker, talk over this subject. Lincoln went further against
Christian beliefs and doctrines and principles than any man I ever
heard: he shocked me. I don't remember the exact line of his argument:
suppose it was against the inherent defects, so called, of the Bible,
and on grounds of reason. Lincoln always denied that Jesus was the
Christ of God,--denied that Jesus was the Son of God, as understood
and maintained by the Christian Church. The Rev. Dr. Smith, who wrote
a letter, tried to convert Lincoln from infidelity so late as 1858,
and couldn't do it."--LAMON, _Life of Lincoln_, p. 488.
It later developed that these quotations which appeared in Lamon's
book in the form of letters to Herndon were in some instances, if not
in all, Herndon's own reports of conversations with these friends of
Lincoln, and not, in any case, signed letters. Several of the putative
authors repudiated the statements attributed to them.
Dr. C. H. Ray was quoted as saying:
"I do not know how I can aid you. You [Herndon] knew Mr. Lincoln far
better than I did, though I knew him well; and you have served up
his leading characteristics in a way that I should despair of doing,
if I should try. I have only one thing to ask: that you do not give
Calvinistic theology a chance to claim him as one of its saints and
martyrs. He went to the Old-School Church; but, in spite of that
outward assent to the horrible dogmas of the sect, I have reason from
himself to know that his 'vital purity,' if that means belief in the
impossible, was of a negative sort."--LAMON, _Life of Lincoln_, pp.
489-90.
Hon. David Davis was quoted as saying:
"I do not know anything about Lincoln's religion, and do not think
anybody knew. The idea that Lincoln talked to a stranger about his
religion or religious views, or made such speeches, remarks, etc.,
about it as are published, is to me absurd. I knew the man so well:
he was the most reticent, secretive man I ever saw, or expect to see.
He had no faith, in the Christian sense of the term,--had faith in
laws, principles, causes, and effects--philosophically: you [Herndon]
know more about his religion than any man. You ought to know it, of
course."--LAMON, _Life of Lincoln_, p. 489.
Lamon also printed a letter from James H. Matheny, who had been
Lincoln's "best man" at his wedding, and a long-time and intimate
friend. It would be included in this chapter, as it is to be referred
to in the next, but it is reserved for a more important use in the
chapter on "Lincoln's Burnt Book."
Lamon's _Life of Lincoln_ lashed into greater fury the tempest that
already raged concerning Lincoln's religious faith. Nor was this the
only criticism upon it. It was the first of the Lives of Lincoln to
which the later term of "muckraking" might have been applied, and its
spirit of hostility is best accounted for by the fact that its real
author was not Lamon but Black, who not only entertained all the local
prejudice which one element in Springfield had against Lincoln, but
represented also a bitter political hostility, Black's father having
been a member of Buchanan's Cabinet. Indeed there is alleged to have
been a three-cornered and acrimonious dispute among the publishers,
Lamon, and Black concerning an omitted chapter on Buchanan's
administration which had something to do with one aspect of the book's
financial failure. Black and Lamon and the publishers all lost money
and the book was a financial disaster.
Notwithstanding its tone of astonishing bitterness against Lincoln, its
shocking bad taste and its perverted viewpoint, Lamon's biography is a
valuable source of information. Concerning it John Hay wrote to Lamon,
"Nothing heretofore printed can compare with it in interest, and from
the nature of the case all subsequent writers will have to come to you
for a large class of facts."
In 1895 Lamon's daughter Dorothy, subsequently Mrs. Teillard,
published a book of "Recollections" of Lincoln by her father, with
no objectionable matter, and with a considerable number of valuable
incidents. But this later book, while avoiding the occasions of
criticism which the first book evoked, added little to the character
study which the first volume, with all its manifold defects, had
contained.
Lamon was a very different man from Lincoln--so different that men who
knew them both wondered at Lincoln's fondness for him. And he knew
Lincoln intimately. But he was not capable of interpreting the best
that was in Lincoln.
CHAPTER X
THE REED LECTURE
ONE of the first results of the Lamon biography was a lecture prepared
by Rev. James A. Reed, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of
Springfield. This lecture[35] was delivered several times, and in 1873
was published in _Scribner's Magazine_, which at that time was edited
by J. G. Holland. Holland had been horrified by the Lamon biography,
and had reviewed it with such disfavor that Herndon attributes
the failure of the book in no small part to Holland's pronounced
opposition. This lecture, published in so widely read a magazine,
produced a profound impression. A doubt which Lamon had raised and
which Herndon later had the bad taste to emphasize concerning Lincoln's
paternity turned to good advantage; and Reed produced from several of
the men whom Lamon had quoted, counter-statements declaring that they
had been misquoted. Of these was James H. Matheny, whose statement to
Herndon we are to consider in connection with the story of Lincoln's
burnt book and who wrote to Dr. Reed:
"The language attributed to me in Lamon's book is not from my pen.
I did not write it, and it does not express my sentiment of Mr.
Lincoln's entire life and character. It is a mere collection of
sayings gathered from private conversations that were only true of Mr.
Lincoln's earlier life. I would not have allowed such an article to
be printed over my signature as covering my opinion of Mr. Lincoln's
life and religious sentiments. While I do believe Mr. Lincoln to have
been an infidel in his former life, when his mind was as yet unformed,
and his associations principally with rough and skeptical men, yet I
believe he was a very different man in later life; and that after
associating with a different class of men, and investigating the
subject, he was a firm believer in the Christian religion."
Major John T. Stuart also repudiated the statement attributed to
him, and not only so but gave detailed and positive statements which
directly contradicted the more important part of what Lamon had
attributed to him.
Dr. Reed went further and set forth with a considerable degree of
precision the grounds for the statement that Lincoln's views had
undergone marked change during his life in Springfield, particularly
under the influence of Dr. Reed's predecessor, the Rev. James Smith.
Dr. Reed's lecture became the subject of acrimonious attack. His
article was flouted, belittled, and railed at. But its essential
affirmations have not been disproved. We shall devote a chapter to a
consideration of the relations of Dr. Smith to Mr. Lincoln and shall
find that Dr. Reed's claims were not extravagant.
Other controversialists took up the pen about this time in confutation
of Lamon. One of the most interesting and valuable of the contributions
which then appeared was an article by B. F. Irwin, of Pleasant Plains,
Illinois, published in the _Illinois State Journal_, for May 16,
1874.[36] He produced a considerable number of letters from men who
had known Mr. Lincoln prior to his residence in Springfield and whose
knowledge of his religious beliefs at that time was intimate and
accurate. Of these by far the most important was from Lincoln's old
teacher, Mentor Graham, which we shall quote at length in the chapter
on Lincoln's "Burnt Book."
* * * * *
Among these were letters from men who professed to have heard Lincoln
charged with infidelity and had heard him deny it. The most important
of these letters, however, aside from that of Mentor Graham, have value
for us in the light they shed upon what really constituted Lincoln's
alleged infidelity at this early period. That he had doubts and
misgivings upon various subjects was not denied, but his hostility to
the orthodox belief expressed itself chiefly in a vigorous denial of
the endlessness of future punishment. This dogma Lincoln denied upon
two grounds, as these letters affirm. First, the justice and mercy of
God; and secondly, the fact that according to the Biblical scheme of
redemption, whatever right the human race had possessed to immortality
and lost through sin, had been restored in Christ. Lincoln was,
according to the testimony of a number of these men who had known him,
not an infidel, nor even a deist, but essentially a Universalist.
Irwin had interviewed Colonel James H. Matheny and quoted Matheny as
denying that he had ever heard Lincoln admit that he was an infidel and
did not himself believe it. Irwin himself had known Lincoln personally
for many years and had known large numbers of men who were intimately
acquainted with him and he said:
"I have never yet heard one single man express the belief that Lincoln
was an infidel. Mr. Herndon, it is true, did have opportunities over
others in knowing Mr. Lincoln's religious opinions, but other men
had some opportunities, as well as Mr. Herndon, and to them I shall
have to appeal, for I do not claim to personally know anything about
Mr. Lincoln's religious faith. Though personally acquainted with Mr.
Lincoln for twenty-eight years and often in his office, I never heard
him say a word on the subject of his religious belief."
It will be noted that while the statements concerning Mr. Lincoln's
alleged infidelity have been published over the name of Lamon, Herndon
was held responsible for them in these controversies. The impetuous
Herndon possessed none of the reticence of Bateman; and while denying
that he wrote Lamon's book, rushed in as Lamon's champion and covered
himself with wounds if not with glory.
Irwin's article proceeds to quote these old neighbors and friends of
Lincoln, whose testimony, added to those adduced by Dr. Reed, was
of very great weight. I have copied these[37] from the files of
the _Illinois State Journal_ in the Library of the Illinois State
Historical Society in Springfield and here produce three of them,
reserving others for later comment.
One of the letters quoted in full by Irwin was from Thomas Mostiller,
of Pleasant Plains, Menard County, Illinois. He professed to have heard
Lincoln when he was a candidate for Congress in 1847 or 1848, when he
was charged with being an infidel and explicitly denied it. Said he:
"I was present and heard Josiah Grady ask Lincoln a question or two
regarding a charge made against Lincoln of being an infidel, and
Lincoln unqualifiedly denied the charge of infidelity, and said, in
addition, his parents were Baptists, and brought him up in the belief
of the Christian religion; and he believed it as much as anyone, but
was sorry to say he had or made no pretensions to religion himself.
I can't give his exact words, but would make oath anywhere that he
positively denied the charge made against him of infidelity. That was
the first time I ever heard the charge of infidelity against Lincoln.
Grady did not say that he would not vote for Lincoln if he was an
infidel, but my understanding from Grady was that he would not vote
for Lincoln if he was an infidel; and Grady did, as I suppose, vote
for him. I understood him that he should."
Another statement was by Jonathan Harnett. It was not made in a letter,
like the others, but was verbally stated to Mr. Irwin, who wrote it
from Harnett's dictation, and was then read to him and endorsed by
him. Mr. Harnett related an incident which he declared himself to have
witnessed in Lincoln's office in 1858, when an argument was held on
the truth of the Christian religion, a number of men participating. He
affirmed that Mr. Lincoln ended the discussion by a cogent argument
based on the restitution of all things in Christ, and the ultimate
salvation of all men.
This line of argument, attested by a number who heard Mr. Lincoln
in these discussions, will be readily understood by those who have
heard, as he had heard from his infancy, the typical argument of the
backwoods Baptist preacher, and who appreciates Mr. Lincoln's theory
of the irrevocability of the Divine will, and the relation of the
atonement to the restitution of all things. The essential difference
between Lincoln's point of view and that of these preachers was
that the preachers saw in the work of Christ the basis of personal
forgiveness of sin; and Lincoln saw in it rather a manifestation of the
irrevocable law of God for the ultimate salvation of the race.
Another of the letters included in the Irwin article was one from Isaac
Cogdal, who related a conversation in Lincoln's office in Herndon's
presence, in which Lincoln expressed himself somewhat as follows:
"He did not nor could not believe in the endless punishment of any
one of the human race. He understood punishment for sin to be a
Bible doctrine; that punishment was parental in its object, aim and
design, and intended for the good of the offender; hence it must
cease when justice was satisfied. He added that all that was lost by
the transgression of Adam was made good by the atonement; all that
was lost by the fall was made good by the sacrifice; and he added
this remark, that punishment being a 'provision of the gospel system,
he was not sure but the world would be better off if a little more
punishment was preached by our ministers, and not so much of pardon of
sin.'"
I need only add, that to me these letters carry the conviction of
reality. Lincoln had been rooted and grounded in the kind of dogma that
began with Adam and related to his fall in vital sort the atonement of
Christ. That Lincoln had some doubts concerning the person of Christ
is not in point. He believed in God, and he knew the fact of sin, and
he was dyed in the wool in arguments concerning the fall of the race
in Adam and its redemption in Christ. But he did not dwell as did the
preachers on individual forgiveness, which he sometimes doubted, but
sought to evolve a legal and moral scheme with a final restoration. I
regard these testimonies as essentially true.
CHAPTER XI
THE HERNDON LECTURES, LETTERS, AND BIOGRAPHY
THE name of William H. Herndon finds frequent mention in these pages,
as it must in any study of Abraham Lincoln. With all his faults as
a biographer, his astigmatism, his anti-religious prejudice, his
intolerance, his bad taste, he is an invaluable source of information
concerning his partner and friend, Abraham Lincoln.
The publication of the Lamon biography and the Reed lecture brought him
into a conflict from which no power on earth could probably have kept
him out, and in it he did and said many things which for his own sake
and Lincoln's he might better not have said.
But Herndon was no liar. Biased as he was, and himself a free-thinker
or perhaps worse, he told the truth in such fashion as to throw it out
of perspective, and sometimes told what he believed to be the truth in
a passion which compels us to discount some of his testimony. But he
did not lie nor intentionally misrepresent.
For twenty years Lincoln and Herndon were law partners, and their
partnership was never formally dissolved. Lincoln liked Herndon, but
there was no loss of love between Herndon and Mrs. Lincoln. She, if
tradition about Springfield is to be believed, disliked him personally
for his habits, and possibly also for his politics, for he was an
Abolitionist before Lincoln, and a very ardent one at that. Had she
known what Herndon was to say about her in later years she might have
been more gracious to her husband's junior partner, who had learned
some habits at the bar of his father's tavern which he might better not
have learned.
Herndon in his later life looked not a little like Lincoln, and
showed no disposition by any change of beard or other device to lessen
the resemblance; but in other particulars the two men were most
unlike. Herndon was five feet nine, Lincoln more than six feet three.
Herndon was impetuous, Lincoln extremely deliberate and cautious to
a fault. Herndon was a good judge of human nature and excelled in
cross-examination, while he failed in the careful preparation of his
cases; Lincoln was a very poor judge of human nature, but reduced his
cases to simple principles, and carefully worked up his evidence with
deliberate care. Herndon was a great reader; Lincoln seldom read a book
through. Herndon spent his money for books and had a valuable library;
Lincoln seldom wasted a dollar on a book. Herndon was outspoken;
Lincoln was secretive. Herndon wanted all the world to know what he
thought about everything; Lincoln kept his ear to the ground and chose
his own time for the utterance of his convictions.
We shall never have another as good description of Abraham Lincoln's
appearance and manner as that which comes from the pen of Herndon, nor
shall we ever obtain better pen pictures of many of the incidents in
his career. But Herndon was too good a witness to be a good judge, and
he lived too near the stump to behold the tree.
Herndon had already attempted to catechize Dr. Smith,[38] Mr. Lincoln's
pastor, concerning his relations with Lincoln, and Smith had replied
that he was willing to tell what he knew about Lincoln's faith, but
did not choose to make Mr. Herndon his vehicle of communication to the
public. This did not tend to increase Herndon's love for the clergy:
and when Dr. Holland printed Dr. Reed's lecture, with its letters in
which several of the men whom Lamon, on Herndon's authority, had quoted
in support of Lamon's declaration, Herndon quickly replied and Holland
refused to print his article.
Herndon spilled much ink through a New York newspaper whose editor
later was sent to prison for the circulation of obscene literature,
and wrote a number of letters, in each of which he tended to become a
little more pronounced.
He scorned the idea that Lincoln had taken strangers into his
confidence concerning his faith. He said in a letter to J. E. Remsburg,
under date of September 10, 1887, "He was the most secretive, reticent,
shut-mouthed man that ever existed."
The Reed lecture infuriated him. He denounced Dr. Reed publicly as a
liar, and said many things which a more prudent man would not have
said. On November 9, 1882, he issued a broadside, entitled "A Card and
a Correction," beginning:
"I wish to say a few short words to the public and private ear. About
the year 1870 I wrote a letter to Mr. F. E. Abbott, then of Ohio,
touching Mr. Lincoln's religion.[39] In that letter I stated that Mr.
Lincoln was an infidel, sometimes bordering on atheism, and I now
repeat the same. In the year 1873, the Right Rev. James A. Reed, pastor
and liar of this city, gave a lecture on Mr. Lincoln's religion, in
which he tried to answer me,--" and more to the same purport.
While Herndon and Lamon were men of quite different, mind and ability,
the two men used essentially the same body of material for the making
of their books about Lincoln, Herndon having sold copies of all his
Lincoln manuscripts to Lamon.
* * * * *
Herndon delivered at least three lectures on Lincoln. The first, and
most popular and valuable, was on the "Life and Character of Lincoln."
It was first delivered to a Springfield audience in 1866, was repeated
many times, and it forms the substance of the twentieth chapter of his
book, as it appeared in the first edition, and the eleventh chapter
in the second. It contains the incomparable description of Lincoln's
personal appearance which must stand to all time as the best and final
pen-picture of the man.
The second was entitled "Abraham Lincoln; Miss Ann Rutledge; New Salem;
the Poem." It was delivered in the old Sangamon County court house in
Springfield in November, 1866, and was based on notes which Herndon
had recently made on a visit to New Salem, Sunday and Monday, October
14-15, 1866. It contains the material out of which all subsequent
romantic works about Lincoln and Ann Rutledge have been woven. It was
heard by a small audience, greeted with manifest disapproval, and came
near to being hopelessly lost; but is preserved in a limited edition
published by H. E. Barker, Springfield. This edition is quoted in part
in the foregoing pages, with special reference to Herndon's personal
touch with New Salem.
The third was on "The Religion of Abraham Lincoln," and was called out
by the Holland biography and the Bateman interview. Of this and the
first, Mr. Barker says in his preface to the Ann Rutledge lecture, that
they "were allowed to perish for lack of permanence in printed form.
Their subject-matter, however, was embodied in the extended Life of
Lincoln published in 1872 by Ward H. Lamon, and in the still later Life
of Lincoln written and published by Mr. Herndon in 1889."
This material is quoted practically _in extenso_ in the pages of this
volume, no important statement having been omitted.
Herndon's regret increased that he had sold to Lamon the copies of his
papers. He was in a position where he was getting most of the blame
for what Lamon had written, and he was not wholly in sympathy with
Lamon's and especially with Black's point of view. Lamon's proposed
new edition, with the new volume that was to have covered the years
of Lincoln's Presidency, did not materialize. There was probably no
publisher who dared undertake it. At length Herndon got to work on
his own biography of Lincoln, and was fortunate in associating with
himself Mr. Jesse W. Weik, who helped him to complete it. The work was
published in 1889 by Belford, Clarke, & Company, of Chicago, and made
its appearance in three volumes. Soon after its publication the firm
failed. The books were hawked about for a song, the greater part of
the edition was unsold, and the balance of the edition is alleged to
have been bought up by Lincoln's friends and destroyed. The author of
this book paid $35.00 for his set, and could sell it at a profit.
It is a great pity that Herndon had not learned his lesson from the
fate of Lamon's book. If he had omitted some of the objectionable
matter, he would have made for himself a great name. Even as it was, he
did a great piece of work: but he gained neither money nor commendation.
In 1892, Appletons brought out a new edition in two volumes, with some
matter omitted, and some new matter by Horace White, and that edition
met with favor. But Herndon did not live to see it. He died, poor and
battle-scarred, denounced as the maligner of the man he loved.
In his younger days, Herndon drank, and it is alleged that in his
later life he used morphine. It is said that he wanted an appointment
to a Government Land Office, but that Lincoln, knowing his weakness,
did not appoint him, and that this had some share in his feeling,
which he still thought to be one of reverence for Lincoln, but which
was unconsciously tinged with resentment. To this it is answered that
Lincoln did offer Herndon an appointment which Herndon declined: but
it was not a very attractive appointment, and there is good reason
to believe that Herndon was disappointed, and that he knew Lincoln's
reason.
The name which Herndon applied to Lincoln he accepted for himself,
that of infidel. Yet it is fair to ask whether this was a just term
as applied to Herndon himself. In his lecture on Ann Rutledge, he had
occasion to defend himself in advance for views which he knew would be
heard with suspicion, and which, indeed, like almost everything he said
and did, had the unfortunate quality of increasing his unpopularity, he
said:
"You know my Religion, my Philosophy: That the highest thought and
acts of the human soul and its religious sphere are to think, love,
obey, and worship God, by thinking freely, by loving, teaching, doing
good to, and elevating mankind. My first duty is to God, then to
mankind, and then to the individual man or woman."--_Lecture on Ann
Rutledge_, pp. 9-10.
One cannot help regretting that the man who had thus defined his own
religion should ever have been led to think himself or any other man
whom he supposed to be like-minded an infidel.
CHAPTER XII
LINCOLN'S BURNT BOOK
IN the chapter on the "Conditions of Lincoln's Young Manhood at New
Salem" mention was made of the "book" which Lincoln is said to have
written, opposed to the Christian religion, a book which his employer,
Samuel Hill, is said to have snatched from his hand and thrown into the
fire lest Lincoln's infidelity should ruin his political career. To
have treated this subject at length would have thrown that chapter out
of focus, and it is time that we should learn the truth about it.
Colonel Lamon tells us about this book thus:
"He had made himself thoroughly familiar with the writings of Paine
and Volney,--the _Ruins_ by one and the _Age of Reason_ by the other.
His mind was full of the subject, and he felt an itching to write. He
did write, and the result was a 'little book.' It was probably merely
an extended essay,[40] but it was ambitiously spoken of as a 'book' by
himself and by the persons who were made acquainted with its contents.
In this book he intended to demonstrate,--
"First, that the Bible was not God's revelation; and
"Secondly, that Jesus was not the Son of God."
--LAMON, _Life of Lincoln_, pp. 157-58.
Lamon wrote this in 1872 of a book supposed to have been written by
Lincoln and burned by Hill in 1834.
We have already quoted from Herndon's account, but it is brief and for
convenience will bear reading here in full:
"In 1834, while still living in New Salem and before he became a
lawyer, he was surrounded by a class of people exceedingly liberal in
matters of religion. Volney's _Ruins_ and Paine's _Age of Reason_
passed from hand to hand, and furnished food for the evening's
discussion in the tavern and village store. Lincoln read both these
books and thus assimilated them into his own being. He prepared an
extended essay--called by many a book--in which he made an argument
against Christianity, striving to prove that the Bible was not
inspired, and therefore not God's revelation, and that Jesus Christ
was not the Son of God. The manuscript containing these audacious and
comprehensive propositions he intended to have published or given a
wide circulation in some other way. He carried it to the store, where
it was read and freely discussed. His friend and employer, Samuel
Hill, was among the listeners, and seriously questioning the propriety
of a promising young man like Lincoln fathering such unpopular
notions, he snatched the manuscript from his hands and thrust it into
the stove. The book went up in flames, and Lincoln's political future
was secure."--HERNDON, III, 439, 440.
Mr. Herndon had already given this information to Lamon in another
form, and Lamon used it in his list of certificates from Lincoln's old
friends that Lincoln was an infidel.
As printed in Lamon's book, Herndon's account of the burnt manuscript
was communicated in the following letter:
"As to Mr. Lincoln's religious views, he was, in short, an infidel,
... a theist. He did not believe that Jesus was God, nor the Son of
God,--was a fatalist, denied the freedom of the will. Mr. Lincoln
told me a thousand times, that he did not believe the Bible was the
revelation of God, as the Christian world contends. The points that
Mr. Lincoln tried to demonstrate [in his book] were: First, That the
Bible was not God's revelation; and, Second, That Jesus was not the
Son of God. I assert this on my own knowledge, and on my veracity.
Judge Logan, John T. Stuart, James H. Matheny, and others, will
tell you the truth. I say they will confirm what I say, with this
exception,--they will make it blacker than I remember it. Joshua F.
Speed of Louisville, I think, will tell you the same thing."--LAMON,
_Life of Lincoln_, p. 489.
It is important to notice that we do not have two witnesses concerning
this book, but only one. Lamon gives no evidence of having possessed
any independent knowledge of the book. His information was derived
from Herndon. In the chapter on "Lincoln's Young Manhood" we considered
how slight was Herndon's personal connection with New Salem. The town
had vanished long before he ever visited the spot, and apparently the
only time he ever spent there for the purpose of study was a Sunday
afternoon and Monday morning, October 14 and 15, 1866. On the occasion
of that visit he gathered the material for his lecture on Ann Rutledge.
So far as we have evidence, he learned nothing at this time about
Lincoln's burnt book. In his letter, written to be included in Lamon's
biography, in which reference to this book is made, he says: "I assert
this on my own knowledge and on my own veracity." That sentence appears
at first reading to refer to Herndon's personal knowledge of the book,
but a second reading with the context shows that Herndon does not mean
to claim that he had personal knowledge of the book, but personal
knowledge of Lincoln's belief or the lack of it.
Where did Herndon learn about this book?
He learned it from James H. Matheny, who had never seen the "book" but
had received the information in confidence from Lincoln. It will be
remembered that Matheny repudiated the supposed letter to Herndon which
Lamon printed as from him and said that he never wrote it, but that
Herndon compiled it from scraps of several conversations, and that it
did not represent Matheny's opinion of Lincoln's ultimate religion. It
is not necessary to suppose that either Herndon or Lamon intended to
misrepresent Matheny. Lamon had no original documents to work from and
the copy which he received of Herndon's notes of Matheny's conversation
he took to be the copy of a letter from Matheny and printed it as such.
It appears to be quite clear that this was the only source of Herndon's
knowledge of Lincoln's burnt book. The following is the report of these
scraps of conversation with Matheny as Herndon wrote them down and as
Lamon printed them:
"I knew Mr. Lincoln as early as 1834-5; know he was an infidel. He
and W. D. Herndon used to talk infidelity in the clerk's office
in this city, about the years 1837-40. Lincoln attacked the Bible
and the New Testament on two grounds: first, from the inherent or
apparent contradictions under its lids; second, from the grounds of
reason. Sometimes he ridiculed the Bible and New Testament, sometimes
seemed to scoff it, though I shall not use that word in its full and
literal sense. I never heard that Lincoln changed his views, though
his personal and political friend from 1834 to 1860. Sometimes Lincoln
bordered on atheism. He went far that way, and often shocked me. I
was then a young man and believed what my good mother told me. Stuart
& Lincoln's office was in what was called Hoffman's Row, on North
Fifth Street, near the public square. It was in the same building
as the clerk's office, and on the same floor. Lincoln would come
into the clerk's office, where I and some young men--Evan Butler,
Newton Francis, and others--were writing or staying, and would bring
the Bible with him; would read a chapter; argue against it. Lincoln
then had a smattering of geology, if I recollect it. Lincoln often,
if not wholly, was an atheist; at least, bordered on it. Lincoln
was enthusiastic in his infidelity. As he grew older, he grew more
discreet, didn't talk much before strangers about his religion; but to
friends, close and bosom ones, he was always open and avowed, fair and
honest; but to strangers, he held them off from policy. Lincoln used
to quote Burns. Burns helped Lincoln to be an infidel, as I think; at
least, he found in Burns a like thinker and feeler. Lincoln quoted
'Tam o' Shanter.' 'What! send one to heaven, and ten to hell!' etc.
"From what I know of Mr. Lincoln and his views of Christianity, and
from what I know as honest and well-founded rumor; from what I have
heard his best friends say and regret for years; from what he never
denied when accused, and from what Lincoln hinted and intimated, to
say no more--he did write a little book on infidelity at or near New
Salem, in Menard County, about the year 1834 or 1835. I have stated
these things to you often. Judge Logan, John T. Stuart, yourself, know
what I know, and some of you more.
"Mr. Herndon, you insist on knowing something which you know I
possess, and got as a secret, and that is, about Lincoln's little book
on infidelity. Mr. Lincoln did tell me that he did write a little
book on infidelity. This statement I have avoided heretofore; but,
as you strongly insist upon it,--probably to defend yourself against
charges of misrepresentation,--I give it to you as I got it from
Lincoln's mouth."--LAMON, _Life of Lincoln_, pp. 487-88.
We have here our one witness that Mr. Lincoln while at New Salem,[41]
freshly risen from the reading of Volney and Paine, and having what
Lamon called the "itch for writing" wrote some kind of essay adverse to
the doctrines of Christianity as Lincoln then understood them. Matheny
never saw the book and never talked with anyone so far as we know who
had seen it, excepting Lincoln himself, who told him in confidence that
he had written such an essay. The fact that Matheny says that he "got
it as a secret" would seem to indicate that Lincoln had no pride in it,
and his reference to Herndon's insistence indicates that Herndon had no
other source of information.
Lincoln did, then, write something of this character and it may
have been burned; though it is extremely doubtful whether it met so
spectacular a fate or was anything like so formidable a document as
tradition has represented it.
It will be noted that Colonel Matheny says nothing about the burning of
the book. Herndon got that item from some other source, and apparently
misunderstood it. This information, apparently, Herndon picked up
on the occasion of his visit to New Salem. Samuel Hill may, indeed,
have reminded Lincoln that if he intended to run for the Legislature
against Peter Cartwright, it would be better for him not to be known
as an infidel; and indeed if Lincoln was known as an infidel, Peter
Cartwright was not the man to have failed to remind him of it. But at
the time when Samuel Hill snatched something out of Lincoln's hand and
threw it into the fire he was not concerned so much about Lincoln's
political future as he was about something else. The document which
Samuel Hill burned contained very little about theology.
When on an evening in November, 1866, Mr. Herndon, but lately returned
from his visit to the site of New Salem, delivered in the old court
house in Springfield before a small and critical audience his lecture
on Ann Rutledge, he informed his hearers that in 1834 that sweet young
girl of nineteen was simultaneously loved by three men, one of whom
was Abraham Lincoln. He omitted the names of the other two, and filled
in their place in the manuscript with blanks. The world has long since
learned the other two names, of John McNamur and Samuel Hill. Herndon's
reason for concealing them at the time was probably the fact that their
descendants were living near, but those descendants are well aware of
it now, and have been for years.
Hill and McNamur were partners, and Ann loved McNamur and rejected
Hill. McNamur went East, and was gone so long that it was believed he
was either dead or had proved untrue, and Hill's hope lit up again only
to meet a second disappointment. Ann Rutledge still loved McNamur, but,
believing him forever lost to her, she had made her second choice, and
that choice was not Hill. Hill awoke to the sad discovery that having
once been refused for his partner's sake he was refused again for the
sake of his clerk. This shy, gawky, lank, and ill-mannered young fellow
who was selling goods in Hill's store and studying law and cherishing
all manner of ambitions had aspired to the hand of Ann Rutledge and had
been accepted.
The truth about it came out in the discovery of a letter which Hill had
written to McNamur. Hill was making one last effort to learn whether
McNamur was living or dead, and if living whether he still loved Ann;
and was reproaching him for his delay and neglect. This letter did
not find its way to the post office; in some way it was lost and was
picked up by the children who brought it to Lincoln. This was the
document which Lincoln held in his hand when he and Hill came to their
final reckoning concerning the heart of Ann Rutledge; and the argument
between them, while friendly, developed some heat, and that was what
Hill snatched from Lincoln's hand and threw into the fire.
As for the book or essay or whatever it may have been in which Lincoln
passed on his undigested reading of Volney and Paine, we do not know
what became of that, nor need we greatly care. It went the way of a
good deal of literature which Lincoln was producing at this time,
probably with no dream that any of it would ever see a printing-press.
It is hardly credible that Lincoln, who never printed a book even in
his maturer years, should have had serious purpose of printing this
particular bit of half-fledged philosophy.
But we have knowledge, and very direct knowledge, of something else
which Lincoln wrote at this time. We learn of it not by any such
circuitous route of hearsay evidence as accompanies the story of the
so-called book on infidelity. We learn of it from a man who received
it at Lincoln's hands and who read it and remembered its contents and
was a competent witness not only as to the production of the book, but
also as to its argument. This is none other than Mentor Graham, the
schoolmaster of New Salem, who introduced Lincoln to Kirkham's Grammar,
who taught Lincoln surveying, who had Lincoln in his home as a lodger,
and who knew more about Lincoln's religious views during his years at
New Salem than any other man who lived to tell the world about it after
Lincoln's death. In Irwin's article, which we have already quoted, is
found this letter from Mentor Graham.
Mentor Graham is a much better witness than either Mr. Herndon or
Colonel Matheny,--better because equally honest, and a man of less
violent prejudices and of more sober habits, and especially because he
had direct personal knowledge of the facts. In his letter to Mr. Irwin,
under date of March 17, 1874, Mentor Graham relates that when Lincoln
was living in Graham's house in New Salem in 1833, studying English
grammar and surveying under this good schoolmaster, Lincoln one morning
said to him:
"Graham, what do you think of the anger of the Lord?"
Graham replied, "I believe the Lord never was angry or mad, and never
will be; that His loving kindness endureth forever, and that He never
changes."
Lincoln said, "I have a little manuscript written which I will show
you."
The manuscript was written on foolscap paper, about a half-quire in
size, and was written in a plain hand. Mentor read it.
"It was a defense of universal salvation. The commencement of it was
something about the God of the universe never being excited, mad, or
angry. I had the manuscript in my possession some week or ten days.
I have read many books on the subject, and I don't think in point of
perspicacity and plainness of reasoning I ever read one to surpass it.
I remember well his argument. He took the passage, 'As in Adam all
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive,' and followed with the
proposition that whatever the breach or injury of Adam's transgression
to the human race was, which no doubt was very great, was made right by
the atonement of Christ."
On this point, then, we have abundant witness. Lincoln argued from the
fall of man to the redemptive work of Christ as the Baptist preachers
were in the habit of doing, but instead of finding there the basis
of an argument for individual election and particular salvation or
damnation, found in it the basis of faith in universal salvation.
How Lincoln can have reconciled this kind of reasoning with his
readings from Thomas Paine can be understood by those who have read
Paine--which most men who discuss him have not--and who know the form
of argument of the backwoods preachers which Lincoln had known all his
life and little else in the way of reasoned discourse in spiritual
things. His line of argument was a not unnatural resultant of the
forces at work in his mind.
But what about the book which Hill burned?
Here again we have the personal knowledge of Mentor Graham. He was
not, indeed, actually present when the manuscript was burned. No one,
probably, was present, except Hill and Lincoln. But Graham was very
much nearer to the event in point both of time and distance than either
Herndon or Matheny, from whom Herndon learned about it, and learned
incorrectly.
What Hill snatched from Lincoln's hand and burned was a letter which
Hill had written to McNamur about Ann Rutledge. The letter was lost
and picked up by the school children, who brought it to Lincoln, the
postmaster. Lincoln, knowing Hill's handwriting, and guessing the
nature of the letter, kept it to discuss with Hill alone; and they did
discuss it together. Hill was demanding of McNamur that he either come
back to New Salem, or release Ann Rutledge from her engagement; and
what he learned was, that his successful rival was not now McNamur, but
Lincoln. Here is what Graham says about it:
"Some of the school children had picked up the letter and handed it to
Lincoln. Hill and Lincoln were talking about it, when Hill snatched the
letter from Lincoln and put it into the fire. The letter was respecting
a young lady, Miss Ann Rutledge, for whom all three of these gentlemen
seemed to have respect."
Graham lived in New Salem at the time that this incident occurred.
Neither Herndon nor Matheny lived there. Graham left New Salem when
it ceased to be a town, and spent the remainder of his life among the
people who had been his neighbors in New Salem and who became residents
with him in the near-by town of Petersburg. Graham had direct access to
the facts.
The reason why it was not much talked about is evident enough. Hill,
McNamur, and Lincoln all married, and their wives and children were
living not far from where these events occurred. The triangular
misunderstanding of three young men about a young woman who had died
many years before was a matter for quiet gossip on the part of the
older inhabitants, but it did not come to the general knowledge of the
public until Herndon delivered his unwelcome lecture on Ann Rutledge.
In some things he learned and told the truth. But his material had been
too hastily gathered, and was too quickly rushed into a lecture to be
reliable in all respects, and it requires about four titles to cover
its diversified and unstratified subject-matter.
Our knowledge of the burnt book is, therefore, a matter in which we
come finally to the remote recollection of James Matheny on the one
hand, who never saw the book, and who manifestly misunderstood some
parts of the story, and the close and intimate knowledge of Mentor
Graham on the other. Lincoln apparently told Matheny in confidence that
he while he was living in Salem wrote an essay against the Christian
religion, and Matheny regarded it as a secret but told it to Herndon.
Herndon heard some gossip about a manuscript which Hill burned,
and thought it to have been the same. Mentor Graham had reliable
information as to what it was that Hill burned, and moreover knew
from his own personal knowledge that Lincoln wrote a very different
manuscript than the one of which he told Matheny, for he himself had
read it, and remembered its general nature.
Why Lincoln wrote on both sides of the same subject we do not know and
it is not necessary to ask. He may have been practicing his skill in
debating; he may have held one view at one time and another at another;
he may have been uncertain what view he really held and have been
seeking to formulate his opinions. It would not be fair to judge his
mature opinion by our scant knowledge of what was contained in either
of these two manuscripts. But the thing which should be remembered is
that we know more about the book in favor of Christianity than we know
of the book against it. Mentor Graham was a truthful and a competent
witness and he had both seen and read the book, which is not true of
anyone through whom we have knowledge of the other essay.
We are not at liberty to draw the sharp distinction which sometimes has
been drawn against the rampant infidelity of Lincoln's earlier years
and the supposed orthodoxy of his mature life. Neither of these may
have been as hard and fast as have sometimes been assumed. It is quite
possible that Abraham Lincoln never became a Christian of the type who
could have expressed his faith in the terms of the Bateman interview;
it is equally possible that even in those callow years when he was
reading Tom Paine and Volney and writing sub-sophomoric effusions on
things he knew little about, the germ of religious faith was actually
present even in his doubt.
CHAPTER XIII
"THE CHRISTIAN'S DEFENCE"
IN the spring of the year 1850, after the death of their little son
Eddie, Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln visited Mrs. Lincoln's relatives in
Kentucky. While they were on this visit, Mr. Lincoln picked up a
book entitled _The Christian's Defence_, by Rev. James Smith. He was
interested, for Dr. Smith was a townsman of his, and in the absence of
Mrs. Lincoln's rector Dr. Smith had conducted the little boy's funeral
service in the Lincoln home. Lincoln read a part but not the whole
of the book while on this visit. Dr. Smith, as the book showed, had
himself been a doubter, but had become convinced of the truth of the
Christian religion, and had become a valiant defender of the faith, and
an eager debater with skeptics. Out of a three weeks' discussion with
one of these this book had grown.
On his return to Springfield Mr. Lincoln took occasion to secure the
book, and to cultivate a closer acquaintance with its author.
Lincoln found him well worth knowing; and the reader of this book
deserves an introduction to him and his work.
I have obtained from Miss Jeanette E. Smith, of Springfield,
granddaughter of Rev. James Smith, a considerable body of manuscript
and other material relating to her grandfather.
James Smith was born in Glasgow, Scotland, May 11, 1801, and died in
Scotland July 3, 1871. He was the son of Peter and Margaret Smith. In
youth he was wild, and in his opinions was a deist; but when converted
he became a fearless defender of the faith. He was a big, brainy
man, with a great voice and with positive convictions. He was called
from Shelbyville, Kentucky, to the First Church of Springfield, his
pastorate beginning March 14, 1849, and closing December 17, 1856.
He was a strong temperance man. His sermon on "The Bottle, Its Evils
and Its Remedy," from Habakkuk 2:15, was preached on January 23,
1853, and printed at the request of thirty-nine men who heard it,
Abraham Lincoln being one of those who signed the request. "Friends of
Temperance" they called themselves. I have a copy of this remarkable
sermon. In one part it essayed a vindication of the distiller and
liquor-seller, affirming that a community that licensed them had no
right to abuse them for doing what they had paid for the privilege of
doing; and that the State with money in its pocket received as a share
in the product of drunkenness had no right to condemn the saloonkeeper
for his share in the partnership. He called on the Legislature then in
session to pass a prohibitory law, forbidding all sale of intoxicating
liquor except for medical, mechanical, and sacramental purposes.
Such sermons became abundant forty years afterward, but they were
not abundant in 1853. Dr. Smith was one of the men who held these
convictions, and Abraham Lincoln was one of the men who wanted to see
them printed and circulated.
It is remarkable that all knowledge of the massive book which Dr.
Smith wrote and published should have perished from Springfield.
Lamon manifestly knew nothing of it as a book, but thought of it as
a manuscript tract, prepared especially for the ambitious business
of converting Mr. Lincoln. His sarcastic description implies this,
and Herndon, who may have known better at the time, had apparently
forgotten. Both men were disqualified for the discussion of it by their
ignorance of it, as well as the violence of their prejudice.
On February 12, 1909, a service was held in the old First Presbyterian
Church in Springfield, then occupied by the Lutherans, the
Presbyterians having erected a larger building. The address was given
by Rev. Thomas D. Logan, Dr. Smith's successor, whose pastorate had
begun in 1888. In all the more than twenty years of his ministry in
Springfield, he had never seen this book. He had never known of it as
a book at the time he wrote the first draft of this centenary address.
The substance of the address he sent in advance as an article for
the Lincoln Number of _The Continent_ in February, 1909; but in the
revision of the proof he inserted a footnote saying that Dr. Smith's
granddaughter, Miss Jeanette E. Smith, had come into possession of a
copy of her grandfather's book, which he had just seen.
The prime reason for this complete ignorance of the book, even in the
church which Lincoln attended, is that it was published six years
before Dr. Smith came to Springfield, in a limited edition, and
completely sold out before it came from the press; so that it never
came into general circulation in Springfield.
Miss Smith has placed at my disposal her own copy of this book,
which was her grandfather's, and I have been able to locate about a
half-dozen copies in various public libraries, and by rare good fortune
to buy one for myself.
Dr. Smith's statement was made in a letter from Cainno, Scotland, dated
January 24, 1867:
"It was my honor to place before Mr. Lincoln arguments designed
to prove the divine authority and inspiration of the Scriptures,
accompanied by the arguments of infidel objectors in their own
language. To the arguments on both sides Mr. Lincoln gave a most
patient, impartial, and searching investigation. To use his own
language, he examined the arguments as a lawyer who is anxious
to investigate truth investigates testimony. The result was the
announcement made by himself that the argument in favor of the divine
authority and inspiration of the Scriptures was unanswerable."--REV.
JAMES A. REED: "The Later Life and Religious Sentiments of Abraham
Lincoln," _Scribner's Magazine_, July, 1873, p. 333.
Mr. Thomas Lewis, a lawyer whose office adjoined that of Mr. Lincoln in
Springfield, and who for a time was in the same office, was an elder in
the church which Lincoln attended. In 1898 he wrote his recollections
of Dr. Smith's book and its influence upon Mr. Lincoln:
"I was an elder, trustee, treasurer, collector, superintendent of
the Sunday school, and pew-renter. The following Tuesday, after the
second Sunday, Mr. Lincoln called on me and inquired if there were
any pews to rent in the church. I replied, 'Yes, and a very desirable
one, vacated by Governor Madison, who has just left the city.' 'What
is the rent?' said he. 'Fifty dollars, payable quarterly.' He handed
me $12.50. Said he, 'Put it down to me.' From that date he paid each
three months on said pew until he left for Washington; and from the
first Sunday he was there I have not known of his not occupying that
pew every Sunday he was in the city until he left. The seat was
immediately in front of mine. The third Sunday his children came in
the Sunday school.
"Shortly thereafter there was a revival in the church, and Mr. and
Mrs. Lincoln, when he was in the city, attended meeting. In his
absence she was there. They attended not only the regular meetings,
but the inquiry meetings also, and it was the belief that both would
unite with the church. When the candidates were examined Mr. Lincoln
was in Detroit, prosecuting a patent right case, a branch of the
profession in which he had acquired an enviable reputation. Mrs.
Lincoln stated that she was confirmed in the Episcopal Church when
twelve years of age, but did not wish to join the church by letter,
but upon profession of faith, as she was never converted until Dr.
Smith's preaching. She was admitted [1852]. Mr. Lincoln never applied.
Some months later the session of the church invited Mr. Lincoln to
deliver a lecture on the Bible. When it became known that Mr. Lincoln
was to lecture in the Presbyterian church it assured a full house. It
was said by divines and others to be the ablest defense of the Bible
ever uttered in that pulpit.
"From the introduction of Mr. Lincoln to Dr. Smith their intimacy was
of a most cordial character. At their last meeting previous to Mr.
Lincoln's leaving for Washington, as they parted, Mr. Lincoln said,
'Doctor, I wish to be remembered in the prayers of yourself and our
church members.'"--_Illinois State Register_, December 10, 1898.
A very interesting bit of testimony to the relations of Mr. Lincoln
and his pastor, Dr. Smith, was given by Rev. William Bishop, D.D., in
an address at Salina, Kansas, on February 12, 1897, and published in
the local papers at the time. Dr. Bishop was graduated from Illinois
College in 1850, and for a time was a member of the faculty there. In
the summer after his graduation, he supplied Dr. Smith's pulpit during
his vacation:
"I first met Dr. Smith in the summer of 1850 in Jacksonville, at
the commencement exercises of Illinois College, from which I had
graduated and had just been appointed a member of the faculty of
instruction. The acquaintance then formed ripened into mutual and
congenial friendship. And during the two years of my connection with
the college I was frequently a visitor and guest at his house in
Springfield, and when, by reason of removal to another institution
in another State, the visits were fewer and farther between, 'a free
epistolary correspondence' continued to strengthen and brighten the
links of fellowship. With his other accomplishments, Dr. Smith was
an interesting and instructive conversationalist--in fact, quite a
raconteur, somewhat like his friend Lincoln, always ready with a
story to illustrate his opinions, and which gave piquancy to his
conversation. Whenever he had occasion to speak of Lincoln he always
evinced the strongest attachment and the warmest friendship for him,
which was known to be fully reciprocated. Democrat as he was, and
tinged with Southern hues--though never a secessionist--there seemed
to be a mystic cord uniting the minister and the lawyer. This was
subsequently beautifully shown on the part of Mr. Lincoln, who never
forgot to do a generous thing. When he was elected President Dr. Smith
and wife were getting old, their children all married and gone, except
their youngest[42] son, a young man of twenty-three or four years of
age. One of Lincoln's first official acts, after his inauguration,
was the appointment of this young man to the consulate at Dundee,
Scotland. The doctor, with his wife and son, returned to the land of
his birth. The son soon returned to America, and Dr. Smith himself
was appointed consul, which position he retained until his death in
1871.
"In the spring of 1857 Dr. Smith, anticipating a necessary absence
from his church of two or three months during the summer, invited me
to supply his pulpit until his return. Being young and inexperienced
in the ministry, with considerable hesitation I accepted his urgent
invitation. So I spent my college vacation performing as best I could
this service. Mr. Lincoln was a regular attendant at church and
evidently an attentive hearer and devout worshiper.
"As a college student I had seen and heard him and looked up to him
as a being towering above common men; and, I confess, I was not a
little intimidated by his presence as he sat at the end of a seat
well forward toward the pulpit, with his deep eyes fixed upon me, and
his long legs stretched out in the middle aisle to keep them from
[using one of his own colloquialisms] being scrouged in the narrow
space between the pews. My 'stage fright,' however, was soon very much
relieved by his kindliness and words of encouragement.
"On a certain Sunday, the third, as I recollect it, in my term of
service, I delivered a discourse on the text, 'Without God in the
World.' The straight translation from the Greek is, 'Atheists in the
World.' In discussing atheism, theoretical and practical, I endeavored
to elucidate and enforce the fallacy of the one and the wickedness
of the other. At the close of the service Mr. Lincoln came up and,
putting his right hand in mine and his left on my shoulder, with other
impressive remarks, said, 'I can say "Amen" to all that you have said
this morning.' From that time on my interest in him grew apace.
"He was then known extensively all over the West as a great and good
man, and only a year afterward he bounded into national fame by his
victory in the great debate with Douglas, who, up to that time, was
regarded as a debater invincible.
"During my brief sojourn in Springfield I had many opportunities of
meeting Lincoln, hearing him, and talking with him at home, in church,
in society, and in the courts of justice.
"Dr. Smith returned in due time to resume his pastoral functions.
In reporting to him, in general, my labors in the church as his
substitute during his absence, and in particular my conceptions of
Lincoln's religious character, he intimated that he knew something
of Lincoln's private personal religious experiences, feelings, and
beliefs which resulted in his conversion to the Christian faith. After
some urging to be more explicit, he made the following statement,
which is herewith submitted, couched substantially in his own
language. The doctor said:
"'I came to Springfield to take the pastoral charge of this church
[First Presbyterian] about eight years ago [1849]. During the first
of these years, I might say, I had only a speaking or general
acquaintance with Mr. Lincoln [then forty years old]. Two or three
years previous to my coming here Mrs. Lincoln, who had been a member
of our church, for some reason changed her church relations and was
a regular attendant at the services of the Episcopal Church. Mr.
Lincoln, at that time, having no denominational preferences, went with
her. And so the family continued to frequent the sanctuary for a year
or more after I began my ministry here. The occasion which opened up
the way to my intimate relations to Mr. Lincoln was this, viz.: In
the latter part of 1849 death came into his family. His second son
died at about three or four years of age. The rector, an excellent
clergyman, being temporarily absent, could not be present to conduct
the burial service, and I was called to officiate at the funeral. This
led me to an intimate acquaintance with the family, and grew into an
enduring and confidential friendship between Mr. Lincoln and myself.
One result was that the wife and mother returned to her ancestral
church, and the husband and father very willingly came with her, and
ever since has been a constant attendant upon my ministry. I found him
very much depressed and downcast at the death of his son, and without
the consolation of the gospel. Up to this time I had heard but little
concerning his religious views, and that was to the effect that he
was a deist and inclined to skepticism as to the divine origin of
the Scriptures, though, unlike most skeptics, he had evidently been
a constant reader of the Bible. I found him an honest and anxious
inquirer. He gradually revealed the state of his mind and heart, and
at last unbosomed his doubts and struggles and unrest of soul. In
frequent conversations I found that he was perplexed and unsettled on
the fundamentals of religion, by speculative difficulties, connected
with Providence and revelation, which lie beyond and above the
legitimate province of religion. With some suggestions bearing on
the right attitude required for impartial investigation, I placed
in his hands my book (_The Christian's Defence_) on the evidence of
Christianity, which gives the arguments for and against the divine
authority and inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. Mr. Lincoln took the
book, and for a number of weeks, as a lawyer, examined and weighed the
evidence, pro and con, and judged of the credibility of the contents
of revelation. And while he was investigating I was praying that the
Spirit of Truth might lead him into the kingdom of truth. And such
was the result, for at the conclusion of his examination he came
forth his doubts scattered to the winds and his reason convinced by
the arguments in support of the inspired and infallible authority of
the Old and New Testaments--a believer in God, in His providential
government, in His Son, the way, the truth, and the life, and from
that time [nearly seven years] to this day his life has proved the
genuineness of his conversion to the Christian faith. For this I
humbly ascribe to our heavenly Father the honor and the glory.'"
In an earlier statement than that previously quoted, Mr. Thomas Lewis,
under date of January 6, 1873, said:
"Not long after Dr. Smith came to Springfield, and I think very near
the time of his son's death, Mr. Lincoln said to me that when on a
visit somewhere he had seen and partially read a work of Dr. Smith on
the evidences of Christianity, which had led him to change his view
of the Christian religion, and he would like to get that work and
finish the reading of it, and also to make the acquaintance of Dr.
Smith. I was an elder in Dr. Smith's church, and took Dr. Smith to Mr.
Lincoln's office, and Dr. Smith gave Mr. Lincoln a copy of his book,
as I know, at his own request."
This is a very different story from that which Lamon tells, of a
self-advertising preacher, ostentatiously preparing a tract to convert
Mr. Lincoln, and thrusting it upon him uninvited and thereafter to be
neglected.
That Mr. Lincoln was impressed by the book is as certain as human
testimony can make it. He told Dr. Smith that he regarded its argument
as "unanswerable," and Lamon's slighting remark will not stand against
so emphatic a word.
Moreover, Hon. John T. Stuart, whom Lamon had quoted as saying, "The
Rev. Dr. Smith, who wrote a letter, tried to convert Lincoln as late as
1858, and couldn't do it," repudiated that statement, declared he never
had said it; and on the contrary affirmed that he understood from those
who had reason to know that Dr. Smith's book had produced a change in
the mind of Mr. Lincoln.
Ninian W. Edwards, Mr. Lincoln's brother-in-law, on December 24, 1872,
entered the discussion with this emphatic statement:
"A short time after the Rev. Dr. Smith became pastor of the First
Presbyterian Church in this city, Mr. Lincoln said to me, 'I have been
reading a work of Dr. Smith on the evidences of Christianity, and have
heard him preach and converse on the subject, and am now convinced of
the truth of the Christian religion.'"
Just what doctrines he was convinced were true, we may not know. But
we do know that he requested the book and declared it unanswerable,
that he and his wife changed their church affiliation and he became a
regular attendant, that Dr. Smith became his friend and was honored and
recognized by him as long as Lincoln lived, and that those who knew
Lincoln best were told by him that some change had come in his own
belief.
Under these conditions, the word and work of Rev. James Smith are not
to be thrown unceremoniously out of court. They have standing in any
fair consideration of the question of Lincoln's religious faith.
I have looked through many Lives of Lincoln to discover whether any
biographer of Lincoln had ever looked up this book, and thus far have
not discovered any. I have inquired for the book at the Chicago
Historical Library and the Illinois Historical Library, and neither of
those libraries contains it, nor had it been thought of in connection
with Lincoln. Mr. Oldroyd does not have it in his matchless collection,
where I hoped I might find the veritable copy that Lincoln read, and
he had never heard of it; nor does the matron of the Lincoln Home at
Springfield know anything about it.[43]
I shall give in the Appendix of this book an outline of the contents of
Dr. Smith's solid work, that the reader may judge for himself whether
such a book, placed in the hands of Mr. Lincoln at such a time, may not
have had upon his mind all the influence that Dr. Smith ever claimed
for it.
CHAPTER XIV
"VESTIGES OF CREATION"
LINCOLN was a man of few books. Much has been made of the fact that
when a lad he eagerly read every book within reach; but he did not
continue that habit in his mature years. Something happened to the
lad in adolescence that changed him mentally as well as physically.
His sudden upshoot in stature permanently tired him; he became
disinclined to activity. His movements were much slower, and his
habits of thought more sluggish. Arnold attempts to make a list of his
"favorite books," but does not make much progress (_Life of Lincoln_,
pp. 443, 444). About all there is to be said is that he read the
Bible both as a boy and man, and came to have an appreciation and
love of Shakspeare, particularly _Hamlet_ and _Macbeth_, but he never
read Shakspeare through. He was fond of some of the poems of Burns,
the rollicking humor of "Tam o' Shanter," the withering scorn--an
element which had a considerable place in Lincoln's nature--of "Holy
Willie's Prayer," the manly democracy of "A Man's a Man for a' That";
but he never quoted Burns. He had little appreciation of music, but
liked negro melodies--not the genuine ones, but the minstrel-show
sort--camp-meeting ballads, Scotch songs, and mournful narrative
compositions, of which the woods were moderately full in his boyhood,
and which he continued to enjoy. Broadly humorous songs moved him to
mirth, but he cared more for those that were sad. Everyone knows his
love for the mediocre but melodious poem, "O Why Should the Spirit
of Mortal be Proud," which like the religious song he loved, "How
tedious and tasteless the hours," moved mournfully in triple time,
flaunting crêpe in the face of the spirit of the waltz. About the only
contemporary poem which he is known to have cared much for was Holmes'
"Last Leaf," in which he was particularly moved by the lines,--
"_The mossy marbles rest
On the lips that he has prest,
In their bloom,
And the names he loved to hear
Have been carved for many a year
On the tomb._"
Herndon is correct in saying that Lincoln read less and thought more
than any man prominent in public life in his generation.
But the few books that Lincoln read in his mature years affected him
greatly; and when we know of his reading a book because he cared for
it, we may well endeavor to discover that book and inquire whether it
be not possible to trace its influence in the development, slow but
sure, of the mental and spiritual processes of Abraham Lincoln.
A highly important statement concerning the philosophical and religious
views of Lincoln is found in Herndon's _Life of Lincoln_, and it is
remarkable that neither Herndon nor any of the hundreds of writers
who have gleaned, as all must glean, from his pages, appears to have
followed further the most important of its suggestions:
"For many years I subscribed for and kept on our office table the
_Westminster_ and _Edinburgh Review_ and a number of other English
periodicals. Besides them, I purchased the works of Spencer, Darwin,
and the utterances of other English scientists, all of which I
devoured with great relish. I endeavored, but with little success,
in inducing Lincoln to read them. Occasionally he would snatch one
up and peruse it for a little while, but he soon threw it down with
the suggestion that it was entirely too heavy for an ordinary mind to
digest. A gentleman in Springfield gave him a book called, I believe,
_Vestiges of Creation_, which interested him so much that he read
it through. The volume was published in Edinburgh, and undertook to
demonstrate the doctrine of development, or evolution. The treatise
interested him greatly, and he was deeply impressed with the notion
of the so-called 'universal law' evolution; he did not extend greatly
his researches, but by continual thinking in a single channel seemed
to grow into a warm advocate of the new doctrine. Beyond what I have
stated he made no further advances into the realm of philosophy.
'There are no accidents,' he said one day, 'in my philosophy. Every
effect must have its cause. The past is the cause of the present,
and the present will be the cause of the future. All these are
links in the endless chain stretching from the Infinite to the
finite.'"--HERNDON, III, 438.
I count it remarkable that neither Herndon nor any other of Lincoln's
biographers appears to have made further inquiry about this book,
which is not mentioned in Herndon's index, and which I have not found
referred to elsewhere in connection with Lincoln. The book is not in
any of the great Lincoln collections which I have visited, nor has any
Lincoln student to whom I have mentioned it had it in mind, or failed
to be impressed with the value of it when we have discussed the matter.
The book itself is not in the Lincoln Home at Springfield, nor is it
in the Oldroyd Collection at Washington, in one of which places I
hoped that it might be found. Neither the librarian of the Illinois
Historical Society in Springfield, nor Mr. Barker, the painstaking and
discriminating collector and vendor of Lincoln books in Springfield,
had ever noticed the title in Herndon's book, though both were at once
impressed with its significance when I called it to their attention.
The material in Herndon's lectures on Lincoln is pretty well absorbed
in his book, and quoted in this volume; but there are some interesting
additional details in Herndon's letters. In these, answering specific
questions or replying to definite statements, he now and then added
a statement which was not later included in his book, but which has
present interest and in some cases value.
The following is an excerpt from a letter of Herndon to John E.
Remsburg, and bears in an important way on Lincoln's use of _Vestiges
of Creation_:
"I had an excellent private library, probably the best in the city
for admired books. To this library Mr. Lincoln had, as a matter of
course, full and free access at all times. I purchased such books
as Locke, Kant, Fichte, Lewes; Sir William Hamilton's _Discussions
of Philosophy_; Spencer's _First Principles_, _Social Studies_,
etc.; Buckle's _History of Civilization_, and Lecky's _History of
Rationalism_. I also possessed the works of Parker, Paine, Emerson and
Strauss; Gregg's _Creed of Christendom_, McNaught on _Inspiration_,
Volney's _Ruins_, Feuerbach's _Essence of Christianity_, and other
works on Infidelity. Mr. Lincoln read some of these works. About the
year 1843[44] he borrowed the _Vestiges of Creation_ of Mr. James
W. Keys, of this city, and read it carefully. He subsequently read
the sixth edition of this work, which I loaned him. He adopted the
progressive and development theory as taught more or less directly in
that work. He despised speculation, especially in the metaphysical
world. He was purely a practical man."--REMSBURG: _Six Historic
Americans_, pp. 114-15.
As already stated Dr. Smith's book _The Christian's Defence_ is
excessively rare. The edition was small; the argument which it
contained was modified with the progress of discovery; there was little
to keep in circulation the few copies of the book that survived. They
have nearly all disappeared. I have searched the second-hand shops
of the principal cities and the dusty duplicates of libraries with
repeated disappointment. For this reason, I have carried a complete
analysis of the book into the Appendix of this volume; for few who read
the present volume will be able to see the book itself.
It is quite otherwise with _Vestiges of the Natural History of
Creation_. It was widely circulated, and copies of even the older
editions are not impossible to obtain. It can be purchased, new, at
very small cost.[45] But most of the editions that the reader will be
likely to find, if he seeks for them, are later than the one which
influenced Lincoln, and contain more or less of supplementary matter.
Before passing to another subject, it will be well to say a further
word about this book, for a fuller discussion of which one may go to
Andrew D. White's _Conflict of Science with Theology_ and other learned
works.
The author of this book was Robert Chambers,[46] one of the famous firm
of publishers, and himself an author of note. He was born in Peebles,
Scotland, July 10, 1802, and died at St. Andrews, March 17, 1871. He
was an author as well as publisher of books. He published this book
anonymously, and its authorship was not known for forty years. In 1884,
thirteen years after his death, his name appeared for the first time
upon the title page of a new edition.
It was, in the author's own phrase, "the first attempt to connect the
natural sciences with the history of creation."
From it Lincoln learned geology and comparative biology. In it he
found not only studies of the rocks, but also of the prenatal life of
man, as related in its successive stages to corresponding types in the
geological world. It was, in a word, an introduction to Darwin, which
appeared many years later.
That many ministers denounced it as contradictory to the Bible we
know, and the author anticipated this, nor is this a matter which gives
us present concern. Some ministers believed it, and others, still
unconvinced, read it with an open mind and waited for more light.
The important thing for us to know and clearly recognize is that in
this book Abraham Lincoln not only learned what Herndon considers, and
we are justified in considering, the essential theory of evolution, but
he learned that such a view of creation is consistent with faith in God
and the Bible.
We shall not find it possible to overestimate the importance of this
discovery. Abraham Lincoln wrought out his philosophy of creation,
his scheme of cause and effect, his theory of the processes of nature
and life, under influences not atheistic nor hostile to religion, but
distinctly favorable to it. He learned of evolution, and was convinced
of its truth, from a book whose spirit and purpose was to present the
view in harmony with the Christian faith.
The second, and subsequent editions, of _Vestiges_ were "Greatly
Amended by the Author," as the title page gave notice, and the changes
were partly to incorporate new scientific data, but more to make clear
the fact that the author's theory did not remove God from his universe,
as some critics had asserted, but like Butler's _Analogy_ had shown
that God is in His world, working through the processes of nature.
In 1846 appeared _Explanations: A Sequel to Vestiges of the Natural
History of Creation_, a thin volume added to carry still further this
double purpose, and doing it with marked success. The sixth edition
combined the two in one volume.
It is interesting to learn that Lincoln, having read the first edition,
later procured and read the sixth, in which the religious spirit of the
author was made still more apparent.
This was the book which gave to Lincoln his theory of creation, of
"miracles under law," and with one divine mind and purpose working
through it all. Lincoln read little of natural science and cared
practically nothing for philosophy, but he found in this book what he
needed of both; and he found them in a system whose soul and center was
the will of a righteous God.
CHAPTER XV
OTHER FORMATIVE BOOKS
WE do not know of any other books which deserve to be classed with the
two we have been considering in their relation to the formation of
Mr. Lincoln's religious ideas; but our inquiry is at a point where it
will be instructive to learn of any collateral influence which at this
period, the period of the 50's, after the death of Eddie, and before
his election as President, helped to give shape to his convictions.
Mr. Lincoln did not unite with Dr. Smith's church. It is difficult
to think that it would have been possible for him to have done so.
Old-school Calvinism had its permanent influence upon him through his
Baptist antecedents, but while that of Dr. Smith came to him most
opportunely, it did not wholly meet his spiritual requirements.
For many years Herndon was in regular correspondence with Theodore
Parker. They agreed in their view of the slavery question, and had much
in common in their religion. Herndon had Parker's theological books,
and Lincoln read them, not very thoroughly, perhaps, but with interest.
About the same time, Mr. Jesse W. Fell, for whom he wrote the first
sketch of his life, presented him with the works of William E. Channing.
When Herndon was gathering material to confute Dr. Reed, he assembled
very nearly everything that seemed to prove that Lincoln was not
orthodox, however far short it fell of proving him an infidel. Among
the rest he interviewed Fell, and from his statements made up this
report, which appeared in Lamon's book, and subsequently in Herndon's:
"Mr. Jesse W. Fell of Illinois, who had the best opportunities of
knowing Mr. Lincoln intimately, makes the following statement of his
religious opinions, derived from repeated conversations with him on
the subject:
"'Though everything relating to the character and history of this
extraordinary personage is of interest, and should be fairly stated to
the world, I enter upon the performance of this duty--for so I regard
it--with some reluctance, arising from the fact, that, in stating
my convictions on the subject, I must necessarily place myself in
opposition to quite a number who have written on this topic before
me, and whose views largely preoccupy the public mind. This latter
fact, whilst contributing to my embarrassment on this subject, is,
perhaps, the strongest reason, however, why the truth in this matter
should be fully disclosed; and I therefore yield to your request. If
there were any traits of character that stood out in bold relief in
the person of Mr. Lincoln, they were those of truth and candor. He
was utterly incapable of insincerity, or professing views on this or
any other subject he did not entertain. Knowing such to be his true
character, that insincerity, much more duplicity, were traits wholly
foreign to his nature, many of his old friends were not a little
surprised at finding, in some of the biographies of this great man,
statements concerning his religious opinions so utterly at variance
with his known sentiments. True, he may have changed or modified
those sentiments after his removal from among us, though this is
hardly reconcilable with the history of the man, and his entire
devotion to public matters during his four years' residence at the
national capital. It is possible, however, that this may be the proper
solution of this conflict of opinions; or, it may be, that, with no
intention on the part of anyone to mislead the public mind, those who
have represented him as believing in the popular theological views
of the times may have misapprehended him, as experience shows to be
quite common where no special effort has been made to attain critical
accuracy on a subject of this nature. This is the more probable
from the well-known fact, that Mr. Lincoln seldom communicated to
anyone his views on this subject. But, be this as it may, I have no
hesitation whatever in saying, that, whilst he held many opinions
in common with the great mass of Christian believers, he did not
believe in what are regarded as the orthodox or evangelical views of
Christianity.
"'On the innate depravity of man, the character and office of the
great Head of the Church, the atonement, the infallibility of the
written revelation, the performance of miracles, the nature and design
of present and future rewards and punishments (as they are probably
called), and many other subjects, he held opinions utterly at variance
with what are usually taught in the church. I should say that his
expressed views on these and kindred topics were such as, in the
estimation of most believers, would place him entirely outside the
Christian pale. Yet, to my mind, such was not the true position, since
his principles and practices and the spirit of his whole life were of
the very kind we universally agree to call Christian; and I think this
conclusion is in no wise affected by the circumstance that he never
attached himself to any religious society whatever.
"'His religious views were eminently practical, and are summed up,
as I think, in these two propositions: "the Fatherhood of God, and
the brotherhood of man." He fully believed in a superintending and
overruling Providence, that guides and controls the operations of
the world, but maintained that law and order, and not the violation
or suspension, are the appointed means by which this providence is
expressed.
"'I will not attempt any specification of either his belief or
disbelief on various religious topics, as derived from conversations
with him at different times during a considerable period; but, as
conveying a general view of his religious or theological opinions,
will state the following facts. Some eight or ten years prior to
his death, in conversing with him upon this subject, the writer
took occasion to refer, in terms of approbation, to the sermons
and writings generally of Dr. W. E. Channing; and, finding he was
considerably interested in the statement I made of the opinions
held by that author, I proposed to present him [Lincoln] a copy of
Channing's entire works, which I soon after did. Subsequently, the
contents of these volumes, together with the writings of Theodore
Parker, furnished him, as he informed me, by his friend and law
partner, Mr. Herndon, became naturally the topics of conversation with
us; and though far from believing there was an entire harmony of views
on his part with either of those authors, yet they were generally much
admired and approved by him.
"'No religious views with him seemed to find any favor, except of
the practical and rationalistic order; and if, from my recollections
on this subject, I was called upon to designate an author whose views
most nearly represented Mr. Lincoln's on this subject, I would say
that author was Theodore Parker.
"'As you have asked from me a candid statement of my recollections on
this topic, I have thus briefly given them, with the hope that they
may be of some service in rightly settling a question about which--as
I have good reason to believe--the public mind has been greatly misled.
"'Not doubting that they will accord, substantially, with your own
recollections, and that of his other intimate and confidential
friends, and with the popular verdict after this matter shall have
been properly canvassed, I submit them.'"--LAMON: _Life of Lincoln_,
pp. 490, 491, 492.
Herndon was attempting to collect evidence that Lincoln was an infidel,
and what he obtained, and what essentially he was called to certify
and did certify in effect, was that Lincoln's views were in essential
accord with those of Theodore Parker and William Ellery Channing.
Theodore Parker was not an orthodox Christian according to the
standards of Dr. Smith's church, or of the church of which the present
writer is pastor, but he was a Christian, and a very brave and noble
Christian. William Ellery Channing's views were not in full accord with
the orthodoxy of his day, but he was a noble friend of God and man, and
a true Christian.
I have already referred to the very loose and inexact way in which
Herndon and others use the term "infidel" as applied to Lincoln. Such
inexactness is subversive of all clear thinking.
We are told, for instance, that he was an infidel, his views being
essentially those of Theodore Parker and William Ellery Channing. I
doubt if he ever read very deeply in the writings of these men; but
that he read portions of them and approved of some of their noblest and
most characteristic utterances, is certain. What were the discourses
of these two men which he must almost certainly have read if he read
anything of theirs? He would almost certainly have read Parker's
discourse on "The Transient and Permanent in Christianity," and that
on "Immortal Life," and Channing's Baltimore address and his discourse
on the Church. And these are just the sort of utterances which he
would have read with approval as he found them in these discourses of
Theodore Parker:
"Compare the simpleness of Christianity, as Christ sets it forth on
the Mount, with what is sometimes taught and accepted in that honored
name, and what a difference! One is of God, one is of man. There is
something in Christianity which sects have not reached,--something
that will not be won, we fear, by theological battles, or the quarrels
of pious men; still we may rejoice that Christ is preached in any way.
The Christianity of sects, of the pulpit, of society, is ephemeral,--a
transitory fly. It will pass off and be forgot. Some new form will
take its place, suited to the aspect of the changing times. Each
will represent something of truth, but no one the whole. It seems
the whole race of man is needed to do justice to the whole of truth,
as 'the whole church to preach the whole gospel.' Truth is intrusted
for the time to a perishable ark of human contrivance. Though often
shipwrecked, she always comes safe to land, and is not changed by her
mishap. That pure ideal religion which Jesus saw on the mount of his
vision, and lived out in the lowly life of a Galilean peasant; which
transforms his cross into an emblem of all that is holiest on earth;
which makes sacred the ground he trod, and is dearest to the best of
men, most true to what is truest in them,--cannot pass away. Let men
improve never so far in civilization, or soar never so high on the
wings of religion and love, they can never outgo the flight of truth
and Christianity. It will always be above them. It is as if we were to
fly towards a star, which becomes larger and more bright the nearer
we approach, till we enter and are absorbed in its glory."--THEODORE
PARKER: _The Transient and Permanent in Christianity_, p. 31.
"I would not slight this wondrous world. I love its day and night:
its flowers and its fruits are dear to me. I would not willfully lose
sight of a departing cloud. Every year opens new beauty in a star,
or in a purple gentian fringed with loveliness. The laws, too, of
matter seem more wonderful, the more I study them, in the whirling
eddies of the dust, in the curious shells of former life buried by
thousands in a grain of chalk, or in the shining diagrams of light
above my head. Even the ugly becomes beautiful when truly seen. I
see the jewel in the bunchy toad. The more I live, the more I love
this lovely world,--feel more its Author in each little thing, in all
that is great. But yet I feel my immortality the more. In childhood
the consciousness of immortal life buds forth feeble, though full of
promise. In the man it unfolds its fragrant petals, his most celestial
flower, to mature its seed throughout eternity. The prospect of that
everlasting life, the perfect justice yet to come, the infinite
progress before us, cheer and comfort the heart. Sad and disappointed,
full of self-reproach, we shall not be so forever. The light of heaven
breaks upon the night of trial, sorrow, sin: the somber clouds which
overhung the east, grown purple now, tell us the dawn of heaven is
coming in. Our faces, gleamed on by that, smile in the new-born glow.
We are beguiled of our sadness before we are aware. The certainty
of this provokes us to patience, it forbids us to be slothfully
sorrowful. It calls us to be up and doing. The thought that all will
at last be right with the slave, the poor, the weak, and the wicked,
inspires us with zeal to work for them here, and make it all right for
them even now."--THEODORE PARKER: _Immortality_, pp. 23-24.
It is affirmed that Lincoln was an infidel, believing essentially the
same as Theodore Parker: and he himself expressed such admiration
for and accord with the utterances of Parker which he knew that the
statement is partly true. These two quotations, from two of the most
easily accessible of Parker's discourses, represent the kind of
teaching which Lincoln assimilated from Theodore Parker and show us
what kind of infidelity Lincoln learned from him.
When Lincoln turned to the most widely circulated of Channing's
discourses, he read such utterances as these:
"We regard the Scriptures as the records of God's successive
revelations to mankind, and particularly of the last and most perfect
revelation of His will by Jesus Christ. Whatever doctrines seem to us
to be clearly taught in the Scriptures, we receive without reserve or
exception. We do not, however, attach equal importance to all the
books in this collection.
"Our leading principle in interpreting Scripture is this, that the
Bible is a book written for men, in the language of men, and that its
meaning is to be sought in the same manner as that of other books. We
believe that God, when He speaks to the human race, conforms, if we
may so say, to the established rules of speaking and writing. How else
would the Scriptures avail us more than if communicated in an unknown
tongue?
"If God be infinitely wise, He cannot sport with the understandings of
His creatures. A wise teacher discovers his wisdom in adapting himself
to the capacities of his pupils, not in perplexing them with what is
unintelligible, not in distressing them with apparent contradictions,
not in filling them with a skeptical distrust of their own powers. An
infinitely wise teacher, who knows the precise extent of our minds,
and the best method of enlightening them, will surpass all other
instructors in bringing down truth to our apprehension, and in showing
its loveliness and harmony. We ought, indeed, to expect occasional
obscurity in such a book as the Bible, which was written for past and
future ages, as well as for the present. But God's wisdom is a pledge,
that whatever is necessary for _us_, and necessary for salvation,
is revealed too plainly to be mistaken, and too consistently to be
questioned, by a sound and upright mind. It is not the mark of wisdom
to use an unintelligible phraseology, to communicate what is above
our capacities, to confuse and unsettle the intellect by appearances
of contradiction. We honor our heavenly teacher too much to ascribe
to Him such a revelation. A revelation is a gift of light. It cannot
thicken our darkness, and multiply our perplexities.
"We believe, too, that God is just; but we never forget that His
justice is the justice of a good being, dwelling in the same mind,
and acting in harmony with perfect benevolence. By this attribute, we
understand God's infinite regard to virtue or moral worth, expressed
in a moral government; that is, in giving excellent and equitable
laws, and in conferring such rewards and inflicting such punishments,
as are best fitted to secure their observance. God's justice has for
its end the highest virtue of the creation, and it punishes for this
end alone, and thus it coincides with benevolence; for virtue and
happiness, though not the same, are inseparably conjoined.
"God's justice, thus viewed, appears to us to be in perfect harmony
with His mercy. According to the prevalent systems of theology, these
attributes are so discordant and jarring, that to reconcile them is
the hardest task, and the most wonderful achievement, of infinite
wisdom. To us they seem to be intimate friends, always at peace,
breathing the same spirit, and seeking the same end. By God's mercy,
we understand not a blind, instinctive compassion, which forgives
without reflection, and without regard to the interests of virtue.
This, we acknowledge, would be incompatible with justice, and also
with enlightened benevolence. God's mercy, as we understand it,
desires strongly the happiness of the guilty, but only through their
penitence."--W. E. CHANNING: Baltimore Discourse of 1819, _Passim_.
"Inward sanctity, pure love, disinterested attachment to God and man,
obedience of heart and life, sincere excellence of character, this
is the one thing needful, this the essential thing in religion; and
all things else, ministers, churches, ordinances, places of worship,
all are but means, helps, secondary influences, and utterly worthless
when separated from this. To imagine that God regards any thing but
this, that He looks at any thing but the heart, is to dishonor Him,
to express a mournful insensibility to His pure character. Goodness,
purity, virtue, this is the only distinction in God's sight. This is
intrinsically, essentially, everlastingly, and by its own nature,
lovely, beautiful, glorious, divine. It owes nothing to time, to
circumstance to outward connections. It shines by its own light. It is
the sun of the spiritual universe. It is God himself dwelling in the
human soul. Can any man think lightly of it, because it has not grown
up in a certain church, or exalt any church above it? My friends,
one of the grandest truths of religion is the supreme importance of
character, of virtue, of that divine spirit which shone out in Christ.
The grand heresy is, to substitute any thing for this, whether creed,
or form, or church."--W. E. CHANNING: _Discourse on the Church_, pp.
23-24.
If Lincoln was made an infidel or confirmed in his infidelity by his
reading of William Ellery Channing, the foregoing is a reasonable
sample of the quality of his infidelity: for these are not only
characteristic utterances of Channing: they are among the utterances
which Lincoln was most certain to have had thrust into his hand, and
most likely to have read and to have approved.
The author of this work is not a Unitarian, and he is ready, on any
proper occasion, to define to anyone who has a right to know, his own
opinions in contradistinction from those of the Unitarian churches. But
his loyalty to his own convictions lays upon him no obligation to be
unfair to men who hold opinions other than his own. It is to be noted
that it is Mr. Herndon, and not some bigoted exponent of orthodoxy,
who calls Theodore Parker an infidel. The present writer holds no
such opinion of Parker, nor yet of Channing. On the contrary, he is
of opinion that their writings were beneficial to Abraham Lincoln,
as helping him to define some of his own views constructively and
reverently. While Beecher or Bushnell might have done it as well or
better, it was not their books which Jesse Fell gave to Lincoln; and
Lincoln used what he had. To say that Lincoln's views were like those
of Parker or Channing is to affirm that Lincoln was not an infidel, but
a Christian.
Was Lincoln, then, a Unitarian?
No. Of Unitarianism he knew nothing, so far as we are informed. He knew
the views of certain Unitarians, and these assisted him at important
points in defining certain aspects of his faith.
There have been rumors that Mr. Lincoln did come into actual contact
with organized Unitarianism. I have been interested in inquiring
whether this was true. During the Billy Sunday meetings in Paterson,
New Jersey, in 1916, the Unitarians opened a booth there for the
distribution of their literature, and there were certain communications
in the local press resulting from the counter-irritation of those
meetings. Among these was one in the Paterson _Guardian_, signed
"Once-in-Awhile." It said:
"The following is, in part, a sketch of my own youthful experience,
together with a statement of facts that relate to others who long
since have passed on.
"In 1851-52 the Chicago & Alton Railroad was being built, and I was
employed on a section of the work at that time. Our section extended
from Springfield, Illinois, to a little town called Chatham, situated
near the Sangamon River, a distance of about ten miles south from
Springfield. The majority of the people who had located in that part
of the country at that time were from the central part of New York
State, and among them was Elder Shipman, a Unitarian. He was a very
able preacher and 'made good' with all who knew him in the Sangamon
country. It was not long before he received a call to preach in
Springfield. The little Unitarian church there was located just around
the corner from Capitol Square. When Elder Shipman was permanently
located there, Abraham Lincoln became a regular and seemingly much
interested attendant. Nearly all of the boys in our 'gang' had known
Elder Shipman way back in New York State, and, there being no ball
games or other amusements save an occasional horse race, almost every
Sunday all hands would saddle horses and gallop to Springfield to
attend the services conducted there by our old-time pastor. At the
close of the regular service Mr. Lincoln was often called upon for a
few remarks, and many of his sayings are still fresh in my mind today,
although that was sixty-three years ago. Since then, in the quiet
hours that have passed, I often find myself looking back through the
mist of vanished years and fancy I feel the grip of his great, bony
hand in mine, or rather mine in his, and hear his kindly voice saying,
'Boys, good-by, come again. Come often!'
"I am not saying that Mr. Lincoln subscribed to the Unitarian articles
of faith, but I have good and sufficient reason to believe that he
did, and, if I am not mistaken, the proof is wanting that he ever
subscribed to faith in articles of any other religious denomination."
I challenged the veracity of this letter, reprinting it in _The
Advance_, of which I was editor, and asking these questions:
1. Who is Mr. Once-in-Awhile, and why does he not sign his real name?
2. How does it happen that no one else of those who attended the
alleged Unitarian church in Springfield in the days when Lincoln is
supposed to have been there has risen up to tell this story some time
during the last half century; and why does it come to us from Paterson
and not from Springfield?
3. Who is this Elder Shipman concerning whom this letter tells us? We
are informed that the Unitarian Year Book shows no such man.
4. Where was this Unitarian church "just around the corner from
Capitol Square"? Around which corner, and what became of it?
We are informed that there was no Unitarian church in Springfield
sixty-three years ago. We were not there and do not know: but if one
was there, where was it? When was it organized? Who were its ministers?
5. With so popular a preacher as Mr. Shipman appears to have been, is
it altogether likely that he would have made the habit of calling upon
a layman who attended his church to speak at the close of the service?
6. If Mr. Lincoln was in the habit of attending this Unitarian church,
how did the Presbyterian church of Springfield get the impression that
Mr. Lincoln attended there with his wife, and why did he continue to
attend the Presbyterian church after he went to Washington?
7. Lincoln is known to have said that if he knew any church whose
only creed was the command of Jesus to love God with all one's
heart and his neighbor as himself, he would join that church, and
Unitarians have frequently declared that if Mr. Lincoln had ever come
into contact with the Unitarian Church he must on the basis of that
declaration have united with it. We are not clear if their inference
is correct, but we are clear that there has been a very general
impression among Unitarians that he was not familiar with that church
and creed.
We do not call in question the veracity of Mr. Once-in-Awhile, whoever
he may be. We merely do what we have done before, we ask for one or
two facts. If anybody knows that Abraham Lincoln habitually attended a
Unitarian church and frequently participated in its public service by
speaking at the close of the sermon, let him now speak or else forever
hold his peace.
Everybody held his peace, including Mr. Once-in-Awhile!
* * * * *
Such stories are rarely made out of whole cloth. I therefore inquired
of the _Christian Register_ (Unitarian) and the _Christian Leader_
(Universalist) to learn if they knew any basis of truth in the above
statement, and they did not know and were not able to learn anything
accurate about it. However, there came to me in the course of the
inquiry, which was of necessity not very thorough for lack of anything
definite to begin with, an impression, based on information too vague
to be cited, that there was a Mr. Shipman, a Universalist rather than
a Unitarian, whose occasional services in Springfield Mr. Lincoln
attended once or more and enjoyed. But this came to me very vaguely,
and may be far from the truth.
Whether there be a ten per cent. modicum of fact at the root of the
above letter I will not attempt to guess, for my own information is too
meager. The picture, as a whole, of Mr. Lincoln preaching Unitarianism
from a Unitarian pulpit, and at the close assuming charge of the
service of farewell and exhorting the railroad hands to come again is
too far from the possible truth to require very close analysis.
The Unitarian books which Mr. Lincoln read cursorily, the books by
Parker and Channing, must have assisted him in this, that they gave
assurance that there were forward-looking men who believed in God and
in human freedom as he did, and who were quite as far from holding the
teaching which he had been taught to call orthodox as he was, yet who
were not infidels, but counted themselves friends of God and disciples
of Jesus Christ.
Herndon asserts that Lincoln habitually spoke in his presence in terms
of denial of the supernatural birth of Jesus. On this point I have seen
but one bit of documentary evidence, and that of unique interest, in
two words written in a book that once belonged to Lincoln. The book
is entitled _Exercises in the Syntax of the Greek Language_, by Rev.
William Nielson, D.D., and contains two appendixes by Prof. Charles
Anthon, noted as a Greek scholar and the author of a Greek Grammar and
other textbooks. It was published by T. & J. Swords in New York, in
1825. At the bottom of page 34 is a sentence, shortened and modified
from John 16:27, and printed in parallel Greek and English,--
"Ye have loved me, and
have believed that I came forth
from God."
The words "from God" are erased with pen, and the words, "from nature"
substituted, apparently in the handwriting of Mr. Lincoln. This, if its
genuineness be established, would appear to be conclusive that at the
time Lincoln owned this book he denied the supernatural birth of Jesus.
The book was formerly a part of the noted collection of Mr. John E.
Burton, procured by him from the collection of Dr. J. B. English, and
was retained by Mr. Burton with other unique items when his large
collection was broken up some years ago. I was privileged to examine
the book by A. C. McClurg & Co., in April, 1919; the book being then
and possibly still owned by them.
That the book was once owned by Lincoln would appear certain. His
signature on the flyleaf is in his firm, mature hand, written as he was
accustomed to write it until some time after he became President, "A.
Lincoln." The ownership would appear to be still further attested by an
inscription on the inside of the front cover, "Compliments to Master
Abe Lincoln, and good success, truly yours, Charles Anthon, Columbia
College." But this inscription raises more questions than it answers.
I am not familiar with the handwriting of Professor Anthon, but I am
disposed to question the genuineness of this inscription. That it has
been received as genuine by previous owners of the book is attested
by the fact that another hand has written before "Columbia College"
the words "A Prof." evidently that Professor Anthon might be properly
introduced to persons who did not know him. Professor Anthon was a
noted classical scholar, but I cannot help wondering at what period of
his career he could have come into personal touch with Abraham Lincoln.
Not, certainly, in 1825, when the book was published, and when Lincoln
was sixteen years old. And at what later period would Professor Anthon
have addressed him as "Master Abe Lincoln"?
If Anthon came to know Lincoln personally so as to care to present him
with one of his books, it would seem as if he would have given him a
book of which he was the sole or chief author, and not one in which his
part was confined to the appendix. Anthon's interest in the Greek was
primarily classical, and that of the author of this work was primarily
Biblical. If Anthon came to know Lincoln it would probably have been
after Lincoln had become a national figure, say in 1848 or some later
year, by which time a book issued in 1825 would have become an old
story to an author engaged in publishing new books.
Let me, then, in the absence of direct evidence, venture the hypothesis
that the book was really owned by Lincoln; that it came into his
possession not earlier than the time when, having mastered Kirkham's
Grammar, he welcomed the ownership of a book which suggested the
possible knowledge of a classical tongue. That he bought the book
is hardly probable; that it was the gift of Professor Anthon is
improbable, because there would appear to have been no contact between
the two at a period when such a gift would have been appropriate: let
us assume, then, that someone else gave him the book, and that the
attribution to Professor Anthon is the conjectural record of a later
owner.[47]
The book might conceivably have come into Lincoln's possession through
the Green boys, or the brother of Ann Rutledge, returning from Illinois
College to New Salem; for it was a book which might easily have been
floating around Jacksonville, and picked up by a student there, and
later discarded because he had no special interest in the Greek of the
New Testament. Lincoln would have been more likely to feel a passing
interest in it then than at any other period of his career, for he was
widening his educational horizon, and had not as yet set any limits
to his learning in one or another direction. He might have picked it
up, or it might have been handed him by some minister, during his
early years in Springfield; but by that time Lincoln must have given
up any passing notion that he might ever learn Greek. He could hardly
have procured it and would not have cared for it before he lived in
New Salem: he must have ceased to think of the possibility of learning
Greek before he had lived long in Springfield.
I assume, also, that the erasure of the words "from God" and the
substitution of the words "from nature" is in Lincoln's hand; though
the two words are written at the very bottom of the page, with no
support for the hand, and are not as well written as the signature, and
their authenticity might be questioned. I am disposed to think that
he wrote it, and this, evidently, was the opinion of Mr. Burton, as
indicated by a note in the book in his handwriting.
It might be mentioned in passing that the word "God" is not in this
verse in the New Testament, either Greek or English. It reads, "Ye have
loved me, and have believed that I came forth from the Father." Perhaps
if Dr. Nielson had followed the text literally, Lincoln would not have
troubled to amend it.
I accept it as a genuine document, and one of real interest; but the
lack of a date makes it almost valueless as proof of Lincoln's settled
belief. I place it, conjecturally, in the New Salem period of his life,
though it may date from the beginning of his life in Springfield.
I have not read the entire book, nor compared the Greek throughout
with the English, but I note that in this passage the English is not
translated from the Greek, but the Greek is translated backward from
the English, and that inexactly. I judge this to be not the effect of
bad scholarship but the result of a desire to convey a lesson. For
instance, the Greek of this passage is made into a personal confession
by the change of person in the first part of the verse, without
corresponding change in the second part, leaving the first verb without
a direct object, so that a literal translation reads,--
"I love and believe that I came forth from God."
Dr. Nielson probably knew why he did it so, but Professor Anthon would
have been likely to say that that was not very good Greek syntax. It
served its purpose, however, as showing, what this section was intended
to show, the various uses of the Greek conjunctions.
Lincoln, it may be presumed, got little if anything out of the Greek.
I find no mark of his except on this and the facing page. There he
found two admonitions which he boxed in, and made a note of them on the
false-title:
4. Deliberate slowly, but execute
promptly, the things which
have appeared unto thee proper
to be done.
5. Love, not the immoderate
acquisition, but the moderate enjoyment,
of present good.
In the front of the book he wrote a reference to this, and added,
Deliberate slowly but
execute promptly.
Think well and do your duty.
These precepts seemed to impress him; and they were certainly
characteristic of him. But we can draw no very wide deduction from his
use of the Greek or the substitution of the word in the translation.
CHAPTER XVI
CHITTENDEN AND CHINIQUY
TWO notable interviews touching the religious opinions of Mr. Lincoln
deserve record here. One is by Rev. Charles Chiniquy, some time priest
in the Roman Catholic Church, and afterward a strong Protestant. He had
been a client of Mr. Lincoln's in Illinois, and Mr. Lincoln trusted and
believed in him. He visited Mr. Lincoln in the White House, and there,
as before Mr. Lincoln's departure for Springfield, he warned him that
there were plots against the life of the President.
The other is by Hon. L. E. Chittenden, who was chosen by Mr. Lincoln as
Register of the Treasury, and who was an honest and incorruptible man.
Father Chiniquy visited Mr. Lincoln in the White House in August, 1861,
June, 1862, and June, 1864, for the purpose of warning Mr. Lincoln
of plots, which Father Chiniquy believed to be inspired by Jesuits,
against the life of Mr. Lincoln. On the last of these occasions, June
9, 1864, in the course of an extended interview, he reported Mr.
Lincoln as saying:
"'You are not the first to warn me against the dangers of
assassination. My ambassadors in Italy, France, and England, as well
as Professor Morse, have, many times, warned me against the plots of
murderers whom they have detected in those different countries. But I
see no other safeguard against these murderers, but to be always ready
to die, as Christ advises it. As we must all die sooner or later, it
makes very little difference to me whether I die from a dagger plunged
through the heart or from an inflammation of the lungs. Let me tell
you that I have, lately, read a message in the Old Testament which has
made a profound, and, I hope, a salutary impression on me. Here is
that passage.'
"The President took his Bible, opened it at the third chapter of
Deuteronomy, and read from the 22d to the 27th verse:
"'"22. Ye shall not fear them: for the Lord your God he shall fight
for you.
"'"23. And I besought the Lord at that time, saying,
"'"24. O Lord God, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness,
and thy mighty hand: for what God is there in heaven or in earth, that
can do according to thy works, and according to thy might?
"'"25. I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is
beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon.
"'"26. But the Lord was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not
hear me: and the Lord said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more
unto me of this matter.
"'"27. Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes
westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold it
with thine eyes; for thou shalt not go over this Jordan."'
"After the President had read these words with great solemnity, he
added:
"'My dear Father Chiniquy, let me tell you that I have read these
strange and beautiful words several times, these last five or six
weeks. The more I read them, the more it seems to me that God has
written them for me as well as for Moses.
"'Has He not taken me from my poor log cabin, by the hand, as He did
Moses, in the reeds of the Nile, to put me at the head of the greatest
and most blessed of modern nations just as He put that prophet at
the head of the most blessed nation of ancient times? Has not God
granted me a privilege, which was not granted to any living man, when
I broke the fetters of 4,000,000 of men, and made them free? Has not
our God given me the most glorious victories over my enemies? Are
not the armies of the Confederacy so reduced to a handful of men,
when compared to what they were two years ago, that the day is fast
approaching when they will have to surrender?
"'Now, I see the end of this terrible conflict, with the same joy of
Moses, when at the end of his trying forty years in the wilderness;
and I pray my God to grant me to see the days of peace and untold
prosperity, which will follow this cruel war, as Moses asked God to
see the other side of Jordan, and enter the Promised Land. But, do
you know, that I hear in my soul, as the voice of God, giving me the
rebuke which was given to Moses?
"'Yes! every time that my soul goes to God to ask the favor of seeing
the other side of Jordan, and eating the fruits of that peace, after
which I am longing with such an unspeakable desire, do you know that
there is a still but solemn voice which tells me that I will see those
things only from a long distance, and that I will be among the dead
when the nation, which God granted me to lead through those awful
trials, will cross the Jordan, and dwell in that Land of Promise,
where peace, industry, happiness, and liberty will make everyone
happy; and why so? Because He has already given me favors which He
never gave, I dare say, to any man in these latter days.
"'Why did God Almighty refuse to Moses the favor of crossing the
Jordan, and entering the Promised Land? It was on account of the
nation's sins! That law of divine retribution and justice, by which
one must suffer for another, is surely a terrible mystery. But it is
a fact which no man who has any intelligence and knowledge can deny.
Moses, who knew that law, though he probably did not understand it
better than we do, calmly says to his people: "God was wroth with me
for your sakes."
"'But, though we do not understand that mysterious and terrible law,
we find it written in letters of tears and blood wherever we go. We do
not read a single page of history without finding undeniable traces of
its existence.
"'Where is the mother who has not shed real tears and suffered real
tortures, for her children's sake?
"'Who is the good king, the worthy emperor, the gifted chieftain, who
has not suffered unspeakable mental agonies, or even death, for his
people's sake?
"'Is not our Christian religion the highest expression of the wisdom,
mercy, and love of God! But what is Christianity if not the very
incarnation of that eternal law of Divine justice in our humanity?
"'When I look on Moses, alone, silently dying on the Mount Pisgah, I
see that law, in one of its most sublime human manifestations, and I
am filled with admiration and awe.
"'But when I consider that law of justice, and expiation in the death
of the Just, the divine Son of Mary, on the Mount of Calvary, I remain
mute in my adoration. The spectacle of the Crucified One which is
before my eyes is more than sublime, it is divine! Moses died for his
People's sake, but Christ died for the whole world's sake! Both died
to fulfill the same eternal law of the Divine justice, though in a
different measure.
"'Now, would it not be the greatest of honors and privileges bestowed
upon me, if God in His infinite love, mercy, and wisdom would put me
between His faithful servant, Moses, and His eternal Son, Jesus, that
I might die as they did, for my nation's sake!
"'My God alone knows what I have already suffered for my dear
country's sake. But my fear is that the justice of God is not yet
paid. When I look upon the rivers of tears and blood drawn by the
lashes of the merciless masters from the veins of the very heart of
those millions of defenseless slaves, these two hundred years; when
I remember the agonies, the cries, the unspeakable tortures of those
unfortunate people to which I have, to some extent, connived with so
many others a part of my life, I fear that we are still far from the
complete expiation. For the judgments of God are true and righteous.
"'It seems to me that the Lord wants today, as He wanted in the days
of Moses, another victim--a victim which He has himself chosen,
anointed and prepared for the sacrifice, by raising it above the rest
of His people. I cannot conceal from you that my impression is that I
am the victim. So many plots have already been made against my life,
that it is a real miracle that they have all failed. But can we expect
that God will make a perpetual miracle to save my life? I believe not.
"'But just as the Lord heard no murmur from the lips of Moses, when He
told him that he had to die before crossing the Jordan, for the sins
of his people, so I hope and pray that He will hear no murmur from me
when I fall for my nation's sake.
"'The only two favors I ask of the Lord are, first, that I may die for
the sacred cause in which I am engaged, and when I am the standard
bearer of the rights and privileges of my country.
"'The second favor I ask from God is that my dear son, Robert, when I
am gone, will be one of those who lift up that flag of Liberty which
will cover my tomb, and carry it with honor and fidelity to the end
of his life, as his father did, surrounded by the millions who will
be called with him to fight and die for the defense and honor of our
country.'
"'Never had I heard such sublime words,' says Father Chiniquy. 'Never
had I seen a human face so solemn and so prophet-like as the face of
the President when uttering these things. Every sentence had come to
me as a hymn from heaven, reverberated by the echoes of the mountains
of Pisgah and Calvary. I was beside myself. Bathed in tears, I tried
to say something, but I could not utter a word. I knew the hour to
leave had come. I asked from the President permission to fall on
my knees and pray with him that his life might be spared; and he
knelt with me. But I prayed more with my tears and sobs than with my
words. Then I pressed his hand on my lips and bathed it with tears,
and with a heart filled with an unspeakable desolation, I bade him
adieu.'"--_Fifty Years in the Church of Rome_, pp. 706-10.
Hon. L. E. Chittenden, Register of the Treasury under Lincoln, gives
this testimony to Lincoln's religious character:
"In the Presidential campaign of 1864 there were sullen whisperings
that Mr. Lincoln had no religious opinions nor any interest in
churches or Christian institutions. They faded away with other libels,
never to be renewed until after his death. One of his biographers,
who calls himself the 'friend and partner for twenty years' of the
deceased President, has since published what he calls a history of his
life, in which he revives the worst of these rumors, with additions
which, if true, would destroy much of the world's respect for Mr.
Lincoln. He asserts that his 'friend and partner' was 'an infidel
verging towards atheism.' Others have disseminated these charges
in lectures and fugitive sketches so industriously that they have
produced upon strangers some impression of their truth. The excuse
alleged is, their desire to present Mr. Lincoln to the world 'just as
he was.' Their real purpose is to present him just as they would have
him to be, as much as possible like themselves.
"It is a trait of the infidel to parade his unbelief before the
public, and he thinks something gained to himself when he can show
that others are equally deficient in moral qualities. But these
writers have attempted too much. Their principal charge of infidelity,
tinged with atheism, is so completely at variance with all our
knowledge of his opinions that its origin must be attributed to malice
or to a defective mental constitution.
"His sincerity and candor were conspicuous qualities of Mr. Lincoln's
mind. Deception was a vice in which he had neither experience nor
skill. All who were admitted to his intimacy will agree that he was
incapable of professing opinions which he did not entertain. When we
find him at the moment of leaving his home for Washington, surrounded
by his neighbors of a quarter of a century, taking Washington for
his exemplar, whose success he ascribed 'to the aid of that Divine
Providence upon which he at all times relied,' and publicly declaring
that he, himself, 'placed his whole trust in the same Almighty Being,
and the prayers of Christian men and women'; when, not once or twice,
but on all proper, and more than a score of subsequent occasions, he
avowed his faith in an Omnipotent Ruler, who will judge the world in
righteousness--in the Bible as the inspired record of His history and
His law; when with equal constancy he thanked Almighty God for, and
declared his interest in, Christian institutions and influences as the
appointed means for his effective service, we may assert that we know
that he was neither an atheist nor an infidel, but, on the contrary, a
sincere believer in the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith.
In fact, he believed so confidently that the Almighty was making use
of the war, of himself, and other instrumentalities in working out
some great design for the benefit of humanity, and his belief that he
himself was directed by the same Omniscient Power was expressed with
such frankness and frequency, that it attracted attention, and was
criticized by some as verging towards superstition. His public life
was a continuous service of God and his fellow-man, controlled and
guided by the golden rule, in which there was no hiatus of unbelief or
incredulity.
"Here I might well stop, and submit that these charges do not deserve
any further consideration. But I know how false they are, and I may
be excused if I record one of my sources of knowledge.
"The emphatic statement made by the President to Mr. Fessenden,
that he was called to the Presidency by a Power higher than human
authority, I have already mentioned. His calm serenity at times
when others were so anxious, his confidence that his own judgment
was directed by the Almighty, so impressed me that, when I next had
the opportunity, at some risk of giving offense, I ventured to ask
him directly how far he believed the Almighty actually directed our
national affairs. There was a considerable pause before he spoke, and
when he did speak, what he said was more in the nature of a monologue
than an answer to my inquiry:
"'That the Almighty does make use of human agencies, and directly
intervenes in human affairs, is,' he said, 'one of the plainest
evidences of His direction, so many instances when I have been
controlled by some other power than my own will, that I cannot doubt
that this power comes from above. I frequently see my way clear to
a decision when I am conscious that I have no sufficient facts upon
which to found it. But I cannot recall one instance in which I have
followed my own judgment, founded upon such a decision, where the
results were unsatisfactory; whereas, in almost every instance where I
have yielded to the views of others, I have had occasion to regret it.
I am satisfied that when the Almighty wants me to do or not to do a
particular thing, He finds a way of letting me know it. I am confident
that it is His design to restore the Union. He will do it in His own
good time. We should obey and not oppose His will.'
"'You speak with such confidence,' I said, 'that I would like to know
how your knowledge that God acts directly upon human affairs compares
in certainty with your knowledge of a fact apparent to the senses--for
example, the fact that we are at this moment here in this room.'
"'One is as certain as the other,' he answered, 'although the
conclusions are reached by different processes. I know by my senses
that the movements of the world are those of an infinitely powerful
machine, which runs for ages without a variation. A man who can put
two ideas together knows that such a machine requires an infinitely
powerful maker and governor: man's nature is such that he cannot take
in the machine and keep out the maker. This maker is God--infinite
in wisdom as well as in power. Would we be any more certain if we saw
Him?'
"'I am not controverting your position,' I said. 'Your confidence
interests me beyond expression. I wish I knew how to acquire it. Even
now, must it not all depend on our faith in the Bible?'
"'No. There is the element of personal experience,' he said. 'If
it did, the character of the Bible is easily established, at least
to my satisfaction. We have to believe many things which we do not
comprehend. The Bible is the only one that claims to be God's Book--to
comprise His law--His history. It contains an immense amount of
evidence of its own authenticity. It describes a governor omnipotent
enough to operate this great machine, and declares that He made it.
It states other facts which we do not fully comprehend, but which we
cannot account for. What shall we do with them?
"'Now let us treat the Bible fairly. If we had a witness on the stand
whose general story we knew was true, we would believe him when he
asserted facts of which we had no other evidence. We ought to treat
the Bible with equal fairness. I decided a long time ago that it was
less difficult to believe that the Bible was what it claimed to be
than to disbelieve it. It is a good book for us to obey--it contains
the ten commandments, the golden rule, and many other rules which
ought to be followed. No man was ever the worse for living according
to the directions of the Bible.'
"'If your views are correct, the Almighty is on our side, and we ought
to win without so many losses----'
"He promptly interrupted me and said, 'We have no right to criticize
or complain. He is on our side, and so is the Bible, and so are
churches and Christian societies and organizations--all of them, so
far as I know, almost without an exception. It makes me strong and
more confident to know that all the Christians in the loyal States are
praying for our success, that all their influences are working to the
same end. Thousands of them are fighting for us, and no one will say
that an officer or a private is less brave because he is a praying
soldier. At first, when we had such long spells of bad luck, I used to
lose heart sometimes. Now I seem to know that Providence has protected
and will protect us against any fatal defeat. All we have to do is to
trust the Almighty and keep right on obeying His orders and executing
His will.'
"I could not press inquiry further. I knew that Mr. Lincoln was
no hypocrite. There was an air of such sincerity in his manner of
speaking, and especially in his references to the Almighty, that no
one could have doubted his faith unless the doubter believed him
dishonest. It scarcely needed his repeated statements that 'whatever
shall appear to be God's will, that will I do,' his special gratitude
to God for victories, or his numerous expressions of his firm faith
that God willed our final triumph, to convince the American people
that he was not and could not be an atheist or an infidel.
"He has written of the Bible, that 'this great Book of God is the best
gift which God has ever given to man,' and that 'all things desirable
for man to know are contained in it.' His singular familiarity with
its contents is even stronger evidence of the high place it held in
his judgment. His second inaugural address shows how sensibly he
appreciated the force and beauty of its passages, and constitutes an
admirable application of its truths, only possible as the result of
familiar use and thorough study.
"Further comment cannot be necessary. Abraham Lincoln accepted
the Bible as the inspired word of God--he believed and faithfully
endeavored to live according to the fundamental principles and
doctrines of the Christian faith. To doubt either proposition is to
be untrue to his memory, a disloyalty of which no American should be
guilty."--CHITTENDEN: _Recollections of President Lincoln and His
Administration_, pp. 446-51.
These two incidents call for no extended comment. That in each of
them the literary style is more like that of the narrator than it is
like the style of Mr. Lincoln is evident, and there is other apparent
evidence that the incidents were colored by the imagination of the two
men who related them. But neither of them was a lie. And, when we make
due deductions, each contains a basis of fact in accord with what we
might have expected Lincoln to say.
For instance, the assurance which he expressed to Chittenden that God
had called him to his work as President, and that he was fulfilling
divine destiny, is fully in accord with the strong conviction of
predestination which he had received in his youth, and which was so
marked that his partners took it as a mark of selfish superiority. He
did feel, and felt so strongly that he sometimes seemed to be oblivious
to other and correlative truths, that God had called him to a great
task, and that he would live till it was accomplished, plots or no
plots. But he had a gloomy foreboding that he would not live much
longer. His conviction of predestination had in it a compelling sense
of destiny and almost of doom, a conviction of Divinity shaping his
ends, even though he rough-hewed them.
CHAPTER XVII
THE BEECHER AND SICKLES INCIDENTS
AMONG the many stories of President Lincoln's religious life, one of
the most impressive concerns an alleged visit of the President to the
home of Henry Ward Beecher and the spending of a night in prayer by
these two men. The story is as follows:
"Following the disaster of Bull Run, when the strength and resources
of the nation seemed to have been wasted, the hopes of the North were
at their lowest ebb, and Mr. Lincoln was well-nigh overwhelmed with
the awful responsibility of guiding the nation in its life struggle.
Henry Ward Beecher, of Brooklyn, was, perhaps, more prominently
associated with the cause of the North at that time than any other
minister of the gospel. He had preached and lectured and fought its
battles in pulpit and press all over the country, had ransomed slaves
from his pulpit, and his convictions and feelings were everywhere
known.
"Late one evening a stranger called at his home and asked to see
him. Mr. Beecher was working alone in his study, as was his custom,
and this stranger refused to send up his name, and came muffled
in a military cloak which completely hid his face. Mrs. Beecher's
suspicions were aroused, and she was very unwilling that he should
have the interview which he requested, especially as Mr. Beecher's
life had been frequently threatened by sympathizers with the
South. The latter, however, insisted that his visitor be shown up.
Accordingly, the stranger entered, the doors were shut, and for hours
the wife below could hear their voices and their footsteps as they
paced back and forth. Finally, toward midnight, the mysterious visitor
went out, still muffled in his cloak, so that it was impossible to
gain any idea of his features.
"The years went by, the war was finished, the President had suffered
martyrdom at his post, and it was not until shortly before Mr.
Beecher's death, over twenty years later, that he made known that the
mysterious stranger who had called on that stormy night was Abraham
Lincoln. The stress and strain of those days and nights of struggle,
with all the responsibilities and sorrows of a nation fighting for
its life resting upon him, had broken his strength, and for a time
undermined his courage. He had traveled alone in disguise and at night
from Washington to Brooklyn, to gain the sympathy and help of one whom
he knew as a man of God, engaged in the same great battle in which he
was the leader. Alone for hours that night, like Jacob of old, the
two had wrestled together in prayer with the God of battles and the
Watcher over the right until they had received the help which He had
promised to those that seek His aid."
Dr. Johnson endeavored to investigate this story for his book, _Lincoln
the Christian_.[48] The evidence seemed to him sufficient to justify
him in including it in his volume. It rests on the explicit statement
of Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher and was communicated to the public through
some of her grandchildren. This, surely, is evidence that cannot be
wholly disregarded. Mr. Samuel Scoville, Jr., a lawyer in Philadelphia,
a grandson of Henry Ward Beecher, confirmed the accuracy of the story
as here given, saying that this was the form in which his grandmother
had related the story to her grandchildren.
Another grandson, Rev. David G. Downey, D.D., Book Editor of the
Methodist Book Concern of New York said:
"It has always seemed to me to be a perfectly possible situation. It
has never, however, been corroborated by any of the members of the
family. It rests entirely upon the statement of Mrs. Beecher in her
old age."--_Lincoln the Christian_, p. 201.
Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher was a truthful woman. She did not manufacture
an incident of this character, but the incident is highly improbable.
It would be ungracious to point out in detail the elements of weakness
in the story.
Let one consideration alone be stated. The publishers of the _North
American Review_ gathered from the leading men of America a series of
chapters in which each man related his own personal reminiscences of
Abraham Lincoln. That volume is still easily obtained and is a valuable
mine of information. Among the other men who contributed to it was
Henry Ward Beecher. He wrote a chapter in which he told in detail of
his personal association with Mr. Lincoln. This incident finds no
mention there nor anything remotely resembling it.
If Mr. Lincoln had felt disposed to visit Mr. Beecher for a purpose of
this character, he knew very well that the easier and safer and far
less embarrassing way was to invite Mr. Beecher to the White House
to see him. Beecher was no stranger in Washington at this time and
Lincoln had the telegraph wires under his control and did not hesitate
to use them when there was need. Beecher made at least one journey to
Washington to confer with Lincoln on a matter of editorial policy. His
well-known sympathy with the President was such that no explanation
need have been made of his taking a train from New York on any day
and spending an evening in Washington. A message in the morning would
have brought Beecher there by night and no one either in Washington
or New York would have thought of it as strange. On the other hand,
the absence of the President from Washington at a time as critical as
that immediately following the Battle of Bull Run and with no one able
to account for his absence from the Capitol or with any knowledge of
the errand that had taken him away is well-nigh preposterous. Such an
absence might have given rise to the wildest rumors of the President's
abduction or murder. Lincoln was too prudent a man, too shrewd and
cautious a man, too deeply concerned for the possible effect of so
rash and needless a journey; too deeply chagrined over the criticisms
of his alleged entering into Washington in disguise at the time of his
inauguration, to have done the thing which Mrs. Beecher, when a very
old woman, imagined him to have done.
Mr. Beecher was editor of _The Christian Union_ and had occasion to
write about Abraham Lincoln, and he wrote nothing of this kind. In
his sermons and in his lectures he had frequent occasion to mention
Lincoln, and no story of this sort is related as having come from him.
Mr. Beecher knew too well the homiletic and editorial value of such an
incident not to have related it if it had occurred.
Someone came to see him one stormy night and the two lingered long
together in prayer. For some doubtless good reason Mr. Beecher did
not tell his family the name of the man with whom he had spent those
earnest hours. Many years afterward, Lincoln and Beecher both being
dead, Mrs. Beecher recalled the event and satisfied herself that it was
Mr. Lincoln who had come from Washington to see her husband and spend
some hours in prayer with him.
This is the reasonable explanation, as it seems to me, of an incident
which has had rather wide currency but which we are not justified in
accepting on the unsupported testimony of even so good a woman as Mrs.
Beecher in her old age.
An incident of remarkable interest, attested as authentic by two
generals of the Civil War, is related by General James F. Rusling, in
his _Men and Things in Civil War Days_:
General D. E. Sickles was wounded at Gettysburg, and brought to
Washington, where a leg was amputated. President Lincoln called upon
him, and in reply to a question from General Sickles whether or not
the President was anxious about the battle at Gettysburg, Lincoln
gravely said, 'No, I was not; some of my Cabinet and many others in
Washington were, but I had no fears.' General Sickles inquired how
this was, and seemed curious about it. Mr. Lincoln hesitated, but
finally replied: 'Well, I will tell you how it was. In the pinch of
your campaign up there, when everybody seemed panic-stricken, and
nobody could tell what was going to happen, oppressed by the gravity
of our affairs, I went to my room one day, and I locked the door, and
got down on my knees before Almighty God, and prayed to Him mightily
for victory at Gettysburg. I told Him that this was His war, and our
cause His cause, but we couldn't stand another Fredericksburg or
Chancellorsville. And I then and there made a solemn vow to Almighty
God, that if He would stand by our boys at Gettysburg, I would stand
by Him. And He _did_ stand by you boys, and I _will_ stand by Him.
And after that (I don't know how it was, and I can't explain it),
soon a sweet comfort crept into my soul that God Almighty had taken
the whole business into his own hands and that things would go all
right at Gettysburg. And that is why I had no fears about you.' Asked
concerning Vicksburg, the news of which victory had not yet reached
him, he said, 'I have been praying for Vicksburg also, and believe
our Heavenly Father is going to give us victory there, too.' General
Rusling says that Mr. Lincoln spoke 'solemnly and pathetically, as
if from the depth of his heart,' and that his manner was deeply
touching."[49]
CHAPTER XVIII
"BEHIND THE SCENES"
THE family of the President of the United States ought to be permitted
a reasonable degree of privacy, but this has never yet been accorded
them. In the case of the family of President Lincoln the rudeness of
the public was shameful. It is not our present purpose to intrude into
the domestic life of Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln, and if we shall ever do so
hereafter it will be, let us hope, with more of consideration than some
critics have shown.
After the death of Mr. Lincoln, a number of books and articles appeared
which gave close and intimate glimpses of the life of President and
Mrs. Lincoln during the four years which they spent in the White House.
We shall examine two or three of these only in so far as they relate to
Mr. Lincoln's religious life.
For four years Mrs. Lincoln had with her in the White House as
dressmaker and attendant Mrs. Elizabeth Keckley, an intelligent colored
woman. In 1868 Mrs. Keckley published a book entitled _Behind the
Scenes_.[50] It related many intimate details of life in the Lincoln
household, with much about Mrs. Lincoln's extravagances of expenditure
and infirmities of temper, and some things about Mr. Lincoln. It is a
most informing book, though one containing many details which had been
as well unprinted. Its general truthfulness is attested by its internal
evidence. Of Lincoln's anxiety when battles were in progress, and of
the relief which he sought in agonized prayer, she tells, and with
apparent truthfulness. Of one battle she relates:
"One day he came into the room where I was fitting a dress for Mrs.
Lincoln. His step was slow and heavy, and his face sad. Like a tired
child he threw himself upon the sofa, and shaded his eyes with his
hands. He was a complete picture of dejection. Mrs. Lincoln, observing
his troubled look, asked:
"'Where have you been?'
"'To the War Department,' was the brief, almost sullen answer.
"'Any news?'
"'Yes, plenty of news, but no good news. It is dark, dark everywhere.'
"He reached forth one of his long arms and took a small Bible from a
stand near the head of the sofa, opened the pages of the Holy Book,
and soon was absorbed in reading them. A quarter of an hour passed,
and on glancing at the sofa the face of the President seemed more
cheerful. The dejected look was gone, and the countenance was lighted
up with new resolution and hope. The change was so marked that I could
not but wonder at it, and wonder led to the desire to know what book
of the Bible afforded so much comfort to the reader. Making the search
for a missing article an excuse, I walked gently around the sofa, and,
looking into the open book, I discovered that Mr. Lincoln was reading
that divine comforter, Job. He read with Christian eagerness, and the
courage and the hope that he derived from the inspired pages made him
a new man."--_Behind the Scenes_, p. 118.
Mrs. Keckley helped prepare the body of Willie for burial. She relates:
"When Willie died, as he lay on the bed, Mr. Lincoln came to the bed,
lifted the cover from the face of his child, gazed at it long and
earnestly, murmuring: 'My poor boy, he was too good for this earth.
God has called him home. I know that he is much better off in heaven,
but then we loved him so. It is hard, hard to have him die!'"--_Behind
the Scenes_, p. 103.
"Mrs. Rebecca R. Pomeroy, a Christian woman from Chelsea,
Massachusetts, who had come to nurse the Lincoln children in their
sickness, speaks of Lincoln's great affliction and sadness. On the
morning of the funeral she assured him that many Christians were
praying for him. With eyes suffused with tears, he replied: 'I am
glad to hear that. I want them to pray for me. I need their prayers.'
Mrs. Pomeroy expressed her sympathy with him as they were going out
to the burial. Thanking her gently, he said, 'I will try to go to
God with my sorrows.' She asked him a few days after if he could not
trust God. With deep religious feeling, he replied: 'I think I can,
and I will try. I wish I had that childlike faith you speak of, and
I trust He will give it to me.' Then the memory of his mother filled
his mind with tenderest recollections, and he said: 'I had a good
Christian mother, and her prayers have followed me thus far through
life.'"--_Lincoln Scrapbook_, Library of Congress, p. 54.
Mrs. Pomeroy was a Baptist, and had recently buried her husband. She
volunteered for service as a nurse in the soldiers' hospitals in
Washington, and in the serious illness of Mr. Lincoln's two sons she
was installed as nurse in the White House and remained these several
months.
She relates that she frequently saw him reading his mother's Bible, and
that he found especial comfort in the Psalms.
Mrs. Pomeroy relates:
"On July 9, 1863, while sitting at the dinner table he could not eat,
for he seemed so full of trouble as he said, 'The battle of Port
Hudson is now going on, and many lives will be sacrificed on both
sides, but I have done the best I could, trusting in God, for if they
gain this important point, we are lost; and, on the other hand, if we
could only gain it we shall have gained much; and I think we shall,
for we have a great deal to thank God for, for we have Vicksburg and
Gettysburg already.' Mrs. Pomeroy said, 'Mr. Lincoln, prayer will do
what nothing else will; can you not pray?' 'Yes, I will,' he replied,
and while the tears were dropping from his face he said, 'Pray for
me,' and picked up a Bible and went to his room. 'Could all the people
of the nation have overheard the earnest petition that went up from
that inner chamber as it reached the ears of the nurse, they would
have fallen upon their knees with tearful and reverential sympathy.'
That night he received a dispatch announcing a Union victory. He went
directly to Mrs. Pomeroy's room, his face beaming with joy, saying:
'Good news! Good news! Port Hudson is ours! The victory is ours, and
God is good.' When the lady replied, 'Nothing like prayer in times of
trouble,' Mr. Lincoln said, 'Yes, O yes--praise--prayer and praise go
together.' Mrs. Pomeroy in relating this incident, said, 'I do believe
he was a true Christian, though he had very little confidence in
himself.'"
Most valuable, and also most familiar, of these intimate glimpses into
the life of Mr. Lincoln during his years in the White House is the
book of Frank B. Carpenter called, _Six Months in the White House: The
Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln_. The book was the work of the artist
who painted the large picture of the Signing of the Emancipation
Proclamation. For six months in 1864 he lived in the White House where
a room was fitted up for his use, and Mr. Lincoln and all the members
of the Cabinet sat to him repeatedly. It is hardly necessary to quote
this book, which is widely scattered, and everywhere available. It is
enough to remind ourselves that the picture it gives us of Mr. Lincoln
in those solemn days after the war had settled down to a clear issue of
slavery or freedom, and had become in the mind of the nation and the
world not a political but a moral issue, is one of dignity and heroism
and of definite Christian character.
An incident following the death of Willie has been related on the
alleged authority of Rev. Francis Vinton, rector of Trinity Church, New
York, who was an acquaintance of Mrs. Lincoln and visited Washington
and called at the White House soon after that sad event. As reported,
he said to Mr. Lincoln:
"'Your son is alive.'
"'Alive!' exclaimed Mr. Lincoln. 'Surely you mock me.'
"'No, sir; believe me,' replied Dr. Vinton; 'it is a most comforting
doctrine of the Church, founded upon the words of Christ Himself.'
"Mr. Lincoln threw his arm around Dr. Vinton's neck, laid his head
upon his breast, and sobbed aloud, '_Alive? Alive?_'
"Dr. Vinton, greatly moved, said: 'My dear sir, believe this, for it
is God's most precious truth. Seek not your son among the dead; he is
not there; he lives today in paradise! Think of the full import of the
words I have quoted. The Sadducees, when they questioned Jesus, had
no other conception than that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were dead and
buried. Mark the reply: "Now that the dead _are_ raised, even Moses
showed at the bush when he called the Lord the God of Abraham, the God
of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For He is not the God of the dead, but
of the living, _for all live unto Him_!" Did not the great patriarch
mourn his sons as dead? "Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye
will take Benjamin, also!" But Joseph and Simeon were both living,
though he believed it not. Indeed, Joseph being taken from him was the
eventual means of the preservation of the whole family. And so God has
called your son into His upper kingdom--a kingdom and an existence as
real, more real, than your own. It may be that he too, like Joseph,
has gone, in God's good providence, to be the salvation of _his_
father's household. It is a part of the Lord's plan for the ultimate
happiness of you and yours. Doubt it not.'
"Dr. Vinton [so the narrative proceeds] told Lincoln that he had a
sermon upon the subject. Mr. Lincoln asked him to send it to him as
early as possible, and thanked him repeatedly for his cheering and
hopeful words. When Lincoln received the sermon he read it over and
over, and had a copy made for his own private use. A member of the
family said that Mr. Lincoln's views in relation to spiritual things
seemed changed from that hour."--CARPENTER, pp. 117-19.
Such an incident cannot be wholly false; nor is it quite conceivable
that it is wholly true. That Lincoln talked with Dr. Vinton concerning
his recent sorrow, and was comforted by his assurance of immortality
is not improbable, nor that he accepted Dr. Vinton's sermon and had it
copied; but the scene as finally described for the public has every
appearance of being much colored.
In 1883 Captain Oldroyd published a collection of Lincoln anecdotes
which had long been making, most of them good and many of them
excellent, but some of them resting on very dubitable authority. Among
those of this class was one that has been widely quoted, perhaps most
widely of any in his book:[51]
"Shortly before his death an Illinois clergyman asked Lincoln, 'Do you
love Jesus?' Mr. Lincoln solemnly replied: 'When I left Springfield I
asked the people to pray for me. I was not a Christian. When I buried
my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when
I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers,
I then and there consecrated myself to Christ. Yes, I _do_ love Jesus.'
"Reticent as he was, and shy of discoursing much of his own mental
exercises, these few utterances now have a value with those who knew
him which his dying words scarcely have possessed."--_Lincoln Memorial
Album_, p. 105.
Where Captain Oldroyd obtained this incident is now not known; probably
it came to him as a newspaper clipping. It bears no marks that commend
it to our confidence. We are not informed who this Illinois clergyman
was; there may not have been any such clergyman. If there was,--
"_E'en ministers they hae been kenned
In holy rapture,
A rousing whid at times to vend,
And nail 't wi' Scripture._"
Mr. Lincoln made many references to God, but very few to Jesus, and
then not by name, but by some title, as "the Saviour of the World."
The word "love" was one which he almost never used. That he should
have said to a man unnamed "I do love Jesus" is highly improbable; and
the account of his conversation as given here is not probable. We gain
nothing by reliance on such unsupported allegations.
CHAPTER XIX
FROM THE HOUSETOPS AND IN THE CLOSET
THIS part of our inquiry draws near its close. We have reserved for
this chapter a selection from those religious expressions of Abraham
Lincoln which belong to his mature years, and which are indisputably
his. They are largely in addresses, proclamations, and official
documents. In them religion is, as a rule, an incidental subject. But
it finds frequent expression.
Here no literary criticism is necessary, for there is no question
about the accuracy of the report. We shall quote nothing that is
not contained in an accredited compilation of Lincoln's papers or
addresses, omitting all that is disputable or open to the suspicion of
glossation or coloring or exaggeration.
There is only one question, Was Abraham Lincoln sincere in these
utterances? Did he speak them as his own profound convictions, or
because he was expected to say something of this sort, and took refuge
in pious commonplaces? Both statements have been made concerning these
and like utterances. Let us read them with an open mind and discover
what evidence they bear of their own sincerity.
These are not reports of private conversations, or utterances addressed
to small groups. These are the words which Lincoln uttered in the ears
of all men; and they afford some evidence of the faith that was in him.
* * * * *
In Lincoln's first annual Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, dated October
3, 1863, after reciting the blessings of God to the nation in the
harvest and in the success of our arms, he said:
"No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out
these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God,
who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless
remembered mercy.
"It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly,
reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one
voice by the American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow
citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at
sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and
observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving
and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And
I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly
due Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also,
with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience,
commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans,
mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are
unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the
Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it,
as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full
enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union."
In the summer of 1864, a resolution was adopted concurrently by the
Senate and House of Representatives, requesting the President to
appoint a day of prayer, Mr. Lincoln issued the following proclamation,
July 7, 1864, in which, after quoting the words of the resolution, he
continued:
"Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States,
cordially concurring with the Congress of the United States in
the penitential and pious sentiments expressed in the aforesaid
resolutions, and heartily approving of the devotional design and
purpose thereof, do hereby appoint the first Thursday of August next
to be observed by the people of the United States as a day of national
humiliation and prayer.
"I do hereby further invite and request the heads of the executive
departments of this government, together with all legislators, all
judges and magistrates, and all other persons exercising authority
in the land, whether civil, military, or naval, and all soldiers,
seamen, and marines in the national service and all the other loyal
and law-abiding people of the United States, to assemble in their
preferred places of public worship on that day, and there and then to
render to the Almighty and merciful Ruler of the Universe such homages
and such confessions, and to offer to Him such supplications, as the
Congress of the United States have, in their aforesaid resolution, so
solemnly, so earnestly, and so reverently recommended."
Mr. Lincoln issued another special thanksgiving proclamation on May 9,
1864, saying:
"Enough is known of army operations within the last five days to
claim an especial gratitude to God, while what remains undone demands
our most sincere prayers to, and reliance upon, Him without whom all
human effort is vain. I recommend that all patriots, at their homes,
in their places of public worship, and wherever they may be, unite in
common thanksgiving and prayer to Almighty God."
In a response to a serenade at the White House, on May 9, 1864,
following the Battle of the Wilderness, Mr. Lincoln said:
"While we are grateful to all the brave men and officers for the
events of the past few days, we should, above all, be very grateful to
Almighty God, who gives us victory."
May 18, 1864, in a letter of reply to a deputation of ministers
who presented to him resolutions adopted by the Methodist General
Conference, he said, "God bless the Methodist Church--bless all the
churches--and blessed be God, who, in this our great trial giveth us
the churches."
In a letter to a committee consisting of the Rev. Dr. Ide, Honorable J.
R. Doolittle, and Honorable A. Hubbell, May 30, 1864, Mr. Lincoln says:
"In response to the preamble and resolutions of the American Baptist
Home Mission Society, which you did me the honor to present, I can
only thank you for thus adding to the effective and almost unanimous
support which the Christian communities are so zealously giving to the
country, and to liberty. Indeed, it is difficult to conceive how it
could be otherwise with anyone professing Christianity, or even having
ordinary perceptions of right and wrong. To read the Bible, as the
word of God Himself, that 'In the sweat of _thy_ face shalt thou eat
bread,' and to preach therefrom that, 'In the sweat of _other men's_
faces shalt thou eat bread,' to my mind can scarcely be reconciled
with honest sincerity. When brought to my final reckoning may I have
to answer for robbing no man of his goods; yet more tolerable even
this, than for robbing one of himself and all that was his. When, a
year or two ago, those professedly holy men of the South met in the
semblance of prayer and devotion, and, in the name of Him who said,
'As ye would all men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them,'
appealed to the Christian world to aid them in doing to a whole race
of men as they would have no man do unto themselves, to my thinking
they contemned and insulted God and His church far more than did
Satan when he tempted the Saviour with the kingdoms of earth. The
devil's attempt was no more false, and far less hypocritical. But let
me forbear, remembering it is also written, 'Judge not, lest ye be
judged.'"
On December 7, 1863, in making announcement of Union success in East
Tennessee, he closed as follows: "I recommend that all loyal people do,
on receipt of this information, assemble at their places of worship
and render special homage and gratitude to Almighty God for His great
advancement of the national cause."
His Third Annual Message to Congress, December 8, 1863, began: "Another
year of health, and of sufficiently abundant harvests, has passed.
For these, and especially for the improved condition of our national
affairs, our renewed and profoundest gratitude to God is due."
After the capture of Mobile and Atlanta, on September 3, 1864, Mr.
Lincoln issued his fourth special thanksgiving proclamation, calling on
all people to offer thanksgiving to God "for His mercy in preserving
our national existence"; and also "that prayer be made for divine
protection to our soldiers and their leaders in the field, who have so
often and so gallantly periled their lives in battling with the enemy;
and for blessings and comforts from the Father of Mercies to the sick,
wounded, and prisoners, and to the orphans and widows of those who have
fallen in the service of their country, and that He will continue to
uphold the Government of the United States against all the effects of
public enemies and secret foes."
He issued a proclamation calling for thanksgiving for victories, July
15, 1863:
"It has pleased Almighty God to hearken to the supplication and
prayers of an afflicted people, and to vouchsafe to the army and navy
of the United States victories on land and on sea so signal and so
effective as to furnish reasonable grounds for augmented confidence
that the union of these States will be maintained, their Constitution
preserved, and their peace and prosperity permanently restored. But
these victories have been accorded not without sacrifice of life,
limb, health, and liberty, incurred by brave, loyal, and patriotic
citizens. Domestic affliction in every part of the country follows
in the train of these fearful bereavements. It is meet and right to
recognize and confess the presence of the Almighty Father and the
power of His hand equally in these triumphs and in these sorrows.
"Now, therefore, be it known that I do set apart Thursday, the 6th
day of August next, to be observed as a day of national thanksgiving,
praise, and prayer, and I invite the people of the United States to
assemble on that occasion in their customary places of worship, and,
in the forms approved by their own consciences, render the homage
due to the Divine Majesty for the wonderful things He has done in
the nation's behalf, and invoke the influence of His Holy Spirit to
subdue the anger which has produced and so long sustained a needless
and cruel rebellion, to change the hearts of the insurgents, to guide
the counsels of the government with wisdom adequate to so great a
national emergency, and to visit with tender care and consolation
throughout the length and breadth of our land all those who, through
the vicissitudes of marches, voyages, battles, and sieges, have been
brought to suffer in mind, body, or estate, and finally to lead the
whole nation through the paths of repentance and submission to the
Divine Will back to the perfect enjoyment of union and fraternal
peace."
On March 30, 1863, President Lincoln issued a proclamation appointing
another national fast-day. It reads as follows:
"Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the
supreme authority and just government of Almighty God in all the
affairs of men and of nations has by a resolution requested the
President to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and
humiliation:
"And whereas, it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their
dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and
transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine
repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime
truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history,
that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord:
"And insomuch as we know that by His divine law nations, like
individuals, are subject to punishments and chastisements in this
world, and may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil
war which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted
upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national
reformation as a whole people? We have been the recipients of the
choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved these many
years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth,
and power as no other nation has ever grown; but we have forgotten
God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in
peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have
vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these
blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.
Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient
to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to
pray to the God who made us:
"It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended
Power, and confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and
forgiveness:
"Now, therefore, in compliance with the request and fully concurring
in the views of the Senate, I do by this my proclamation designate and
set apart Thursday, the 30th day of April, 1863, as a day of national
humiliation, fasting, and prayer. And I do hereby request all the
people to abstain on that day from their ordinary secular pursuits,
and to unite at their several places of public worship and their
respective homes in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to
the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn
occasion. All this being done in sincerity and truth, let us then rest
humbly in the hope authorized by divine teachings, that the united
cry of the nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings
no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of
our now divided and suffering country to its former happy condition of
unity and peace."
In 1863 Washington's Birthday occurred on Sunday, and Rev. Alexander
Reed, superintendent of the United States Christian Commission, invited
Mr. Lincoln to preside at a meeting in the House of Representatives on
that day. In reply Mr. Lincoln said: "Whatever shall be sincerely, and
in God's name, devised for the good of the soldier and seaman in their
hard spheres of duty, can scarcely fail to be blest.... The birthday
of Washington and the Christian Sabbath coinciding this year, and
suggesting together the highest interests of this life and of that to
come, is most propitious for the meeting proposed."
January 5, 1863, in reply to a letter, Mr. Lincoln wrote the following:
"It is most cheering and encouraging for me that in the efforts which
I have made and am making for the restoration of a righteous peace
for our country, I am upheld and sustained by the good wishes and
prayers of God's people. No one is more deeply than myself aware that
without His favor our highest wisdom is but as foolishness and that
our most strenuous efforts would avail nothing in the shadow of His
displeasure."
"I am conscious of no desire for my country's welfare that is not
in consonance with His will, and no plan upon which we may not ask
His blessing. It seems to me that if there be one subject upon which
all good men may unitedly agree, it is imploring the gracious favor
of the God of Nations upon the struggles our people are making for
the preservation of their precious birthright of civil and religious
liberty."
Second Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862:
"While it has not pleased the Almighty to bless us with a return of
peace, we can but press on, guided by the best light He gives us,
trusting that in His own good time and wise way all will be well."
Reply to a committee of colored people who presented him with a Bible,
September 4, 1864:
"This occasion would seem fitting for a lengthy response to the
address which you have just made. I would make one if prepared; but
I am not. I would promise to respond in writing had not experience
taught me that business will not allow me to do so. I can only say
now, as I have often before said, it has always been a sentiment with
me that all mankind should be free. So far as able, within my sphere,
I have always acted as I believe to be right and just; and I have
done all I could for the good of mankind generally. In letters and
documents sent from this office, I have expressed myself better than I
now can.
"In regard to this great Book, I have but to say, it is the best gift
God has given to man. All the good Saviour gave to the world was
communicated through this Book. But for it we could not know right
from wrong. All things most desirable for man's welfare, here and
hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it. To you I return my most
sincere thanks for this very elegant copy of the great Book of God
which you present."--Complete Works of Lincoln by John G. Nicolay and
John Hay. New and Enlarged Edition, Twelve Volumes. New York: Francis
D. Tandy Company, 1905, X, 217-18.
Compiling these and kindred passages from his authentic works, his
two secretaries, Nicolay and Hay, were impressed anew with the
manifest sincerity and deep religious conviction which they expressed.
Commenting upon these as a whole, and having particularly in mind
certain stories which given to the public could not, from their date
and nature, have been mere conventional expressions, and others so
manifestly personal that no consideration of the public opinion could
have had any weight with him, they said:
"He was a man of profound and intense religious feeling. We have
no purpose of attempting to formulate his creed: we question if he
himself ever did so. There have been swift witnesses who, judging
from expressions uttered in his callow youth, have called him an
atheist; and others who, with the most laudable intentions, have
remembered improbable conversations which they bring forward to
prove at once his orthodoxy and their own intimacy with him. But
leaving aside these apocryphal endeavors, we have only to look at his
authentic public and private utterances to see how deep and strong
in all the latter part of his life was the current of his religious
thought and emotion. He continually invited and appreciated, at
their highest value, the prayers of good people. The pressure of
the tremendous problems by which he was surrounded; the awful moral
significance of the conflict in which he was the chief combatant; the
overwhelming sense of personal responsibility which never left him
for an hour--all contributed to produce, in a temperament naturally
serious and predisposed to a spiritual view of life and conduct, a
sense of reverent acceptance of the guidance of a superior Power.
From the morning when, standing amid the falling snowflakes in the
railway car at Springfield, he asked the prayers of his neighbors in
those touching phrases whose echo rose that night in invocations from
thousands of family altars, to that memorable hour when on the steps
of the Capitol he humbled himself before his Creator in the sublime
words of the Second Inaugural, there is not an expression known
to have come from his lips or pen but proves that he held himself
answerable in every act of his career to a more august tribunal
than any on earth. The fact that he was not a communicant of any
church, and that he was singularly reserved in regard to his personal
religious life, gives only the greater force to these striking proofs
of his profound reverence and faith.
"In final substantiation of this assertion, we subjoin two papers
from the hand of the President, one official and the other private,
which bear within themselves the imprint of a sincere devotion and
a steadfast reliance upon the power and benignity of an overruling
Providence. The first is an order which he issued on the 16th of
November, 1864, in the observance of Sunday.
Lincoln's Sunday Rest Order, November 15, 1862:
"The President, Commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy, desires and
enjoins the orderly observance of the Sabbath by the officers and
men in the military and naval service. The importance for man and
beast of the prescribed weekly rest, the sacred rights of Christian
soldiers and sailors, a becoming deference to the best sentiments of
a Christian people, and a due regard for the Divine Will, demand that
Sunday labor in the army and navy be reduced to the measure of strict
necessity.
"The discipline and character of the national forces should not
suffer, nor the cause they defend be imperiled by the profanation
of the day or name of the Most High. 'At this time of public
distress'--adopting the words of Washington in 1776--'men may
find enough to do in the service of God and their Country without
abandoning themselves to vice and immorality.' The first general
order issued by the Father of his Country, after the Declaration of
Independence, indicates the spirit in which our institutions were
founded and should ever be defended. 'The General hopes and trusts
that every officer and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a
Christian soldier defending the dearest rights and liberties of his
country.'
"The date of this remarkable order leaves no possibility for the
insinuation that it sprang from any political purposes or intention.
Mr. Lincoln had just been re-elected by an overwhelming majority; his
own personal popularity was unbounded; there was no temptation for
hypocrisy or deceit. There is no explanation of the order except that
it was the offspring of sincere convictions.
"But if it may be said that this was, after all, an exoteric utterance
springing from those relations of religion and good government which
the wisest rulers have always recognized in their intercourse with
the people, we will give another document of which nothing of the
sort can be said. It is a paper which Mr. Lincoln wrote in September,
1862, while his mind was burdened with the weightiest question of his
life,--the weightiest with which this country has had to grapple.
Wearied with all the considerations of law and of expediency with
which he had been struggling for two years, he retired within himself
and tried to bring some order into his thoughts by rising above the
wrangling of men and parties, and pondering the relations of human
government to the Divine. In this frame of mind, absolutely detached
from any earthly considerations, he wrote this meditation. It has
never been published. It was not written to be seen of men. It was
penned in the awful sincerity of a perfectly honest soul trying to
bring himself into closer communion with its Maker.
Meditation on the Divine will, September [30], 1862:
"The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act
in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be,
wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time.
In the present Civil War it is quite possible that God's purpose is
something different from the purpose of either party; and yet the best
instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation
to effect His purpose. I am almost ready to say that this is probably
true: that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end
yet. By His mere great power on the minds of the now contestants He
could have saved or destroyed the Union without a human contest. Yet
the contest began. And, having begun, He could give the final victory
to either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds."--NICOLAY AND HAY,
Life of Lincoln, _Century_, August, 1889. Vol. 35, pp. 567-68.
PART III: THE RELIGION OF LINCOLN
CHAPTER XX
WHAT LINCOLN WAS NOT
It is amazing to discover how many forms of faith and non-faith have
claimed Abraham Lincoln.
"_Seven cities strove for Homer, dead,
Through which the living Homer begged his bread._"
More than seven churches have striven for the dead Abraham Lincoln,
some of whom would not even now admit to their membership a living man
who professed his sentiments.
Before we undertake the difficult task of assessing the real faith of
Abraham Lincoln, let us dispose of a few of the claims that have been
made on his behalf, or the charges that have been made against him, and
which clearly have no sufficient weight of evidence. Let us ask first,
_Was Abraham Lincoln an atheist?_
Herndon declared that Lincoln was an infidel, "sometimes bordering on
atheism." This last phrase has been overstrained. What Herndon appears
to have meant was that in some of Lincoln's blackest hours of gloom his
mind hung over that utter void; and he more than hints that in such
hours Lincoln's mind was scarcely sound. Herndon was far from believing
or meaning to charge that atheism was Lincoln's real view of God and
the world. The contrary is shown in a score of places in Herndon's
works and letters.
Some years ago the _Open Court_ of Chicago contained an article by
Theodore Stanton, quoted from the _Westminster Review_. It said:
"That Lincoln was an orthodox Christian nobody pretends to assert. But
his friends and biographers differ as to how much of a Christian he
was. If Lincoln had lived and died an obscure Springfield lawyer and
politician, he would unquestionably have been classed by his neighbors
among freethinkers. But as is customary with the Church, whether Roman
Catholic or Protestant, when Lincoln became one of the great of the
world, an attempt was made to claim him.... The shrewd politician who
has not an elastic conscience--and that was Lincoln's case--simply
keeps mum on religious subjects, or, when he must touch on the
subject, deals only in platitudes, and this is just what Lincoln
did. Lincoln thought little on religious subjects, and read less.
That, when left to himself, he was quite indifferent to religion, is
frequently evident in the acts of his life."--_Open Court_, September
24, 1891, pp. 2962-63, quoting _Westminster Review_ of September, 1890.
This statement was not sufficiently radical for one reader of the _Open
Court_, who thought that Mr. Stanton had made Lincoln out to have been
virtually an agnostic, and who wished to prove him an atheist. He wrote
an article in which he said:
"Free-thinker means anything or nothing.... Plain words are the best.
That Lincoln was _A-theos_ connotes a definite attitude toward the
great religious chimera, and really defines Mr. Lincoln's position
more closely than any of Mr. Stanton's epithets [as, e.g., Agnostic].
It is positive, not negative, indicates what the man professedly was
rather than what he was not or what he oppugned. We are in position to
define his life-creed with all due measure of exactness."--"What Was
Abraham Lincoln's Creed?" by George M. McCrie, _Open Court_, November
26, 1891.
This writer then proceeded to define Mr. Lincoln's creed in terms
of atheism. But his argument was based on a subjective scheme of
philosophy, a kind of Hylo-Idealism derived from Hegel more than from
Lincoln, and one which it is safe to affirm Lincoln would neither have
admitted nor even understood.
Some time after, the same journal had a third and very different
article, which said:
"Lincoln was an extremely religious man, though not a technical
Christian. He thought deeply, and his opinions were positive. His
seriousness was a characteristic trait, showing itself even in his
genuine good humor. His very jokes were a part of his seriousness....
Lincoln was an extremely practical man. He believed not for belief's
sake, but for his own sake. He made a practice of religion; he used
it. His religion was his life, and his life was his religious service.
It was his own public profession. Religion was a fact to him. He
believed in prayer, because he found use for it: and when the fate of
the Union seemed to waver, when doubt and despair hovered over the
land and the future was uncertain, Lincoln often shut himself within
his room and offered up his prayer to God. 'So, many times,' he said,
'I was forced to my knees, not knowing where else to go.'
"While there is considerable in his writings to indicate a strong
faith in God and prayer, there is little to indicate his beliefs
regarding Christ, the Bible, etc. But the very absence of anything on
those points is good evidence that he did not hold the views that have
been attributed to him....
"He was a firm believer in the 'great and good and merciful God,' but
not in a revengeful or cruel God who could consign them to an eternal
hell when nothing good to those who suffered could possibly come from
such punishment. He believed in and used prayer as a means to bring
himself in closer relations with right in everything.... He believed
in 'universal inspiration and miracles under law,' and that all
things, both matter and mind, are governed by law. He believed that
all creation is an evolution under law, not a special creation of the
Supreme Being. He hoped for a joyous meeting in the world to come with
many loved ones gone before. He believed that Christianity consists in
being, not believing; in loving 'the Lord thy God with all thy heart
and thy neighbor as thyself.' He believed that the Bible is a book
to be understood and appreciated as any other book, not merely to be
accepted as a divine creation of infallibility. He believed in the man
Christ, not in the God Christ.... He was once an admirer of Volney,
Paine, and Voltaire; later of Theodore Parker, Emerson, and Channing.
He was once a scoffer of religion; later a supporter."--R. C. ROPER,
Religious Beliefs of Abraham Lincoln, _Open Court_, 1903, pp. 76-85.
Whatever Abraham Lincoln was, he was not an atheist. If any other
convenient term were to be applied to him, it would be necessary that
the term itself should be defined. Thus, Lyman Abbott has spoken of
Lincoln as an agnostic, meaning that Lincoln did not find himself
in position to affirm dogmatically on certain of the articles of
faith. This article by Dr. Abbott was particularly illuminating as
discriminating between the measure of uncertainty which a man may feel
in the matter of positive declaration of his views, while cherishing
in his heart and manifesting in his life the essentials of a Christian
faith. It was published as an editorial in reply to a letter of
inquiry, and both are worth reprinting entire:
"'My dear Dr. Abbott: You are quoted in the New York _Press_ of
October 15 as having referred in your Yale sermon to Abraham Lincoln
in the following terms: "Agnostic though he was." Are you correct
in the implication? If so, I should greatly like to know, as it is
a subject in which I am much interested. J. G. Holland says, in his
_Life of Lincoln_, page 61 ff., "He believed in God, and in His
personal supervision of the affairs of men.... This unwavering faith
in a divine Providence began at his mother's knee, and ran like a
thread of gold through all the inner experiences of his life"; and
much more to the same purpose. You are doubtless familiar with his
words on leaving Springfield for Washington: "He [Washington] would
never have succeeded except for the aid of divine Providence upon
which he at all times relied. On that same Almighty Being I place
my reliance. Pray that I may receive that divine assistance without
which I cannot succeed, but with which success is certain." The
first inaugural would seem to indicate a most pronounced Christian
sentiment. Not to consume too much of your time, I might refer further
to Nicolay and Hay's _Life_, the following passages: Vol. VI, p. 539,
which contains a statement of Lincoln's religious principles; also,
same volume, pp. 323, 324, 327, 328, 341, 342.
R. A. A.'"
To this letter Dr. Abbott replied:
"The life of Abraham Lincoln appears to me to furnish a very striking
illustration both of the difference between theology and religion and
of the way in which religious experience is often developed in the
life of a true man, and is accompanied by a real though generally
quite unconscious change in theological opinion. Mr. Herndon, in
his _Life of Lincoln_, portrays the earlier religious faith of Mr.
Lincoln, Nicolay and Hay his later religious faith: neither biographer
is able to find that he ever formulated his own creed, neither is able
to formulate one for him. Yet between the religious convictions of the
period when he wrote an essay against Christianity, which, fortunately
for his reputation, a wise friend threw into the fire, and the period
when he wrote his second inaugural address, there is a difference
which cannot be measured by the mere lapse of years.
"Agnostic? What is an agnostic? Huxley invented the phrase to define
his own position in contrast with that of his friends whom he called
gnostics because they had each a theory of the universe and he had
none. He more specifically defines the basis of his no-theory of the
universe in a pathetic letter to Charles Kingsley (_Life and Letters_,
Vol. II, pp. 233-239): 'It is no use to talk to me of analogies and
probabilities. I know what I mean when I say I believe in the law
of the inverse squares, and I will not rest my lifelong hopes upon
weaker convictions. I dare not, if I would.' Compare with this Mr.
Herndon's measure of Mr. Lincoln's earlier habit of thought: 'As
already expressed, Mr. Lincoln had no faith. In order to believe, he
must see and feel, and thrust his hand into the place. He must taste,
smell, or handle before he had faith or even belief.' Or compare Mrs.
Lincoln's expression concerning her husband's religious opinions, as
quoted by Mr. Herndon: 'Mr. Lincoln had no faith and no hope, in the
usual acceptance of those words. He never joined a church; but still,
as I believe, he was a religious man by nature. He first seemed to
think about the subject when our Willie died, and then more than ever
about the time he went to Gettysburg; but it was a kind of poetry in
his nature; and he was never a technical Christian.'
"Religion is always a kind of poetry. Faith is kin to imagination;
both faith and imagination look upon the unseen and refuse to base
life merely upon the senses or upon mathematical formularies like the
law of the inverse squares. This poetry is often quite dissociated
from philosophy, or is even inconsistent with the philosophy which the
individual entertains. But Mr. Lincoln's early philosophy prepared for
his later religious experience. Mr. Herndon reports him as saying:
'There are no accidents in my philosophy. The past is the cause of
the present, and the present will be the cause of the future. All
these are links in the endless chain stretching from the Infinite to
the finite.' With this philosophy of fatalism was a profound faith in
justice, a profound reverence for it, and an uncompromising obedience
to it. At first he did not put this philosophy and this faith
together. He who does put them together, that is, he who infuses this
philosophy in an overruling cause with this faith, which is a 'kind
of poetry,' in the supremacy of righteousness, comes to a faith in a
righteous God, who deserves our reverence, not because he is great,
but because he is good.
"When Abraham Lincoln began to feel the burden of the nation resting
upon him, and felt it too great a burden for him to carry unaided,
he wanted the sympathy of all men and women in the country who with
him believed in a Power directing the course of human history greater
than the actors in it, and who also believed in eternal justice; and
he asked their prayers. As the conflict went on and the burden grew
heavier and heavier, his faith in righteousness more and more infused
his belief in a superhuman power and transformed it into a belief in a
righteous God; but it was, till the last, a belief in a God of justice
rather than a Christ of pity, even as it phrased itself in that most
religious utterance of his life, his second inaugural: 'Fondly do
we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may
speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it continue until all the
wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred years of unrequited toil
shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall
be paid with another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand
years ago, so still it must be said, "The judgments of the Lord are
true and righteous altogether."'
"There is no evidence that Mr. Lincoln had become a gnostic, or that
he had a comprehensive scheme of the universe, or that he had either
wrought out a system of theology for himself or accepted any that had
been wrought out by others; but there is abundant evidence that he had
learned in the four years of tragedy a lesson of dependence and trust,
that he had insensibly put together his belief in a supreme Power
and his faith in righteousness, and that thus there had been born in
him faith in a supreme righteous Power, whose will we may help to
carry out, and on whose wisdom and strength we may rely in achieving
it. It is thus that the life of Abraham Lincoln illustrates both
how a reverent agnostic may be deeply religious and how the life of
service and self-sacrifice leads through doubt to faith.--L. A."--_The
Outlook_, November 17, 1906.
_Was Abraham Lincoln a Roman Catholic?_
The question is absurd, and worth asking only that it may receive a
simple negative answer. Yet, singularly, a report was current and
somewhat widely believed in 1860 that Abraham Lincoln had been baptized
as a Roman Catholic and was himself a renegade from that faith. The
rumor appears to have had two roots. First was the fact that much
missionary work was done in early Illinois by Jesuit priests; and it
was assumed, not only contrary to every fact but to every element of
probability, that Abraham Lincoln had been baptized by one of them. The
other was the fact that he acted as attorney for Rev. Charles Chiniquy,
who after fifty years in the Church of Rome came out from that
communion and became a notable antagonist of the church in which he had
been reared. His unsparing criticisms led to various attacks upon him
through the courts and otherwise. When Lincoln was elected President
much was made of the fact that Lincoln had been Father Chiniquy's
attorney, and the rumor that he also was a renegade Catholic gained
wide currency.
Chiniquy professed to see in these rumors a peril to the life of Mr.
Lincoln, and both then and at intervals during his administration
warned the President that his life was in danger. The scarcely
concealed favor of the Vatican toward the cause of the South did not
tend to allay this anxiety. The fact that among those concerned in the
plot which finally ended in the assassination of the President were
several Roman Catholics, revived these reports immediately after his
death, and they are occasionally recalled even now.
So far as our present inquiry is concerned, we have only to ask and
answer the question. Mr. Lincoln was not in any period of his life
affiliated in any way with the Roman Catholic Church.
_Was Abraham Lincoln a Spiritualist?_
During Mr. Lincoln's occupancy of the White House, there were several
rumors to the effect that President and Mrs. Lincoln were both
Spiritualists. A definite claim that Mr. Lincoln fully believed in
Spiritualism was set forth in 1891 by a medium named Mrs. Nettie
Colburn Maynard. She wrote a book relating in detail almost innumerable
sittings which she alleged were attended by Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln.
According to her story her mediumship began in her childhood in 1845.
At the outbreak of the war she was lecturing and giving public séances
and went to Washington to gain a furlough for her brother. She learned
of Mr. Lincoln's interest in Spiritualism, and of the visits to the
White House of two mediums, Charles Colchester and Charles Foster.
She was invited to the White House, where, if we are to credit her
story, she imparted to Mr. Lincoln very nearly all the wisdom which he
possessed during the period of the Civil War.
We learn from other sources that Lincoln permitted two or three mediums
to come to the White House and to tell him what the spirits said he
ought to know; but Lincoln said of them that the advice of the spirits,
as thus received, was as contradictory as the voices of his own
Cabinet, of whose meetings the séances reminded him.
The last attempt to make Mr. Lincoln out a Spiritualist is by Mrs.
Grace Garrett Durand, in a privately printed book issued since Sir
Oliver Lodge's _Raymond_. She claims to have talked with Raymond,
with William T. Stead, and other people, as well as with Mrs. Eddy,
from whom she expects to receive additional material supplementary to
her _Science and Health, and Key to the Scriptures_. She is, however,
according to her own account, especially intimate with Mr. Lincoln. She
says:
"President Lincoln has himself told me in many conversations I have
had with him from the spirit world that he was directed in his great
work during the Civil War by his mother and others in the spirit
world. Mr. Lincoln, or 'Uncle Abe,' as he has lovingly asked me to
call him, said that had he respected his mother's advice the day of
his assassination he would not have gone to the theater the fateful
night, as his mother had that day warned him not to go."
If Mr. Lincoln's spirit has indeed requested this lady to call him
"Uncle Abe" he has accorded her a liberty which was infrequent during
his lifetime. Near neighbors of Mr. Lincoln during his years in
Springfield inform me that no one called him "Abe" to his face, and
that very few even of his political opponents thus spoke of him. He
habitually addressed his partner as "Billy," but Mr. Herndon uniformly
called him "Mr. Lincoln." One could wish that Abraham Lincoln in heaven
might be at least as dignified as Abraham Lincoln was on earth.[52]
_Was Abraham Lincoln superstitious?_
Both President and Mrs. Lincoln were superstitious. They believed in
dreams and signs, he more in dreams and she more in signs. When Mrs.
Lincoln was away from him for a little time, visiting in Philadelphia
in 1863, and Tad with her, Lincoln thought it sufficiently important to
telegraph, lest the mail should be too slow, and sent her this message:
"Executive Mansion,
"Washington, June 9, 1863.
"MRS. LINCOLN,
"Philadelphia, Pa.
"Think you better put Tad's pistol away. I had an ugly dream about him.
"A. Lincoln."
--Quoted in facsimile in _Harper's Magazine_ for February, 1897;
_Lincoln's Home Life in the White House_, by Leslie J. Perry.
In Lamon's book of _Recollections_, published in 1895, a very different
book from his Life of Lincoln, he devotes an entire chapter to
Lincoln's dreams and presentiments. He relates the story of the dream
which Lincoln had not long before his assassination wherein he saw the
East Room of the White House containing a catafalque with the body of
an assassinated man lying upon it. Lincoln tried to remove himself from
the shadow of this dream by recalling a story of life in Indiana, but
could not shake off the gloom of it. Lamon says:
"He was no dabbler in divination, astrology, horoscopy, prophecy,
ghostly lore, or witcheries of any sort.... The moving power of
dreams and visions of an extraordinary character he ascribed,
as did the Patriarchs of old, to the Almighty Intelligence that
governs the universe, their processes conforming strictly to natural
laws."--_Recollections_, p. 120.
In his Life of Lincoln, Lamon tells the story of the dream which
Lincoln had late in the year 1860, when resting upon a lounge in his
chamber he saw his figure reflected in a mirror opposite with two
images, one of them a little paler than the other. It worried Lincoln,
and he told his wife about it. She thought it was "a sign that Lincoln
was to be elected for a second term and that the paleness of one of
the faces indicated that he would not see life through the last term"
(p. 477).
As this optical illusion has been so often printed, and has seemed so
weirdly prophetic of the event which followed, it may be well to quote
an explanation of the incident from an address by Dr. Erastus Eugene
Holt, of Portland, Maine:
"As he lay there upon the couch, every muscle became relaxed as
never before.... In this relaxed condition, in a pensive mood and
in an effort to recuperate the energies of a wearied mind, his eyes
fell upon the mirror in which he could see himself at full length,
reclining upon the couch. All the muscles that direct, control, and
keep the two eyes together were relaxed; the eyes were allowed to
separate, and each eye saw a separate and distinct image by itself.
The relaxation was so complete, for the time being, that the two eyes
were not brought together, as is usual by the action of converging
muscles, hence the counterfeit presentiment of himself. He would have
seen two images of anything else had he looked for them, but he was
so startled by the ghostly appearance that he felt 'a little pang as
though something uncomfortable had happened,' and obtained but little
rest. What a solace to his wearied mind it would have been if someone
could have explained this illusion upon rational grounds!"--Address
at Portland, Maine, February 12, 1901, reprinted by William Abbatt,
Tarrytown, N. Y., 1916.
Other incidents which relate to Mr. Lincoln's faith in dreams,
including one that is said to have occurred on the night preceding his
assassination, are well known, and need not be repeated here in detail.
It is not worth while to seek to evade or minimize the element of
superstition in Lincoln's life, nor to ask to explain away any part
of it. Dr. Johnson admits it in general terms, but makes little of
concrete instances:
"The claim that there was more or less of superstition in his nature,
and that he was greatly affected by his dreams, is not to be disputed.
Many devout Christians today are equally superstitious, and, also,
are greatly affected by their dreams. Lincoln grew in an atmosphere
saturated with all kinds of superstitious beliefs. It is not strange
that some of it should cling to him all his life, just as it was with
Garfield, Blaine, and others.
"In 1831, then a young man of twenty-two, Lincoln made his second trip
to New Orleans. It was then that he visited a Voodoo fortune teller,
that is so important in the eyes of certain people. This, doubtless,
was out of mere curiosity, for it was his second visit to a city. This
no more indicates a belief in 'spiritualism' than does the fact that
a few days before he started on this trip he attended an exhibition
given by a traveling juggler, and allowed the magician to cook eggs in
his low-crowned, broad-rimmed hat."--_Lincoln the Christian_, p. 29.
I do not agree with this. Superstition was inherent in the life of the
backwoods, and Lincoln had his full share of it. Superstition is very
tenacious, and people who think that they have outgrown it nearly all
possess it. "I was always superstitious," wrote Lincoln to Joshua F.
Speed on July 4, 1842. He never ceased to be superstitious.
While superstition had its part in the life and thought of Lincoln, it
was not the most outstanding fact in his thinking or his character. For
the most part his thinking was rational and well ordered, but it had in
it many elements and some strange survivals--strange until we recognize
the many moods of the man and the various conditions of his life and
thought in which from time to time he lived.
_Was Lincoln a Quaker?_
In his autobiographical sketch written for Jesse W. Fell, Mr. Lincoln
stated that his paternal grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, emigrated from
Rockingham County, Virginia, to Kentucky about 1781 or 1782; "his
ancestors, who were Quakers, went to Virginia from Berks County,
Pennsylvania." This reference to a remote Quaker ancestry has suggested
to some writers the possibility that Mr. Lincoln himself may have been,
in conviction, a Quaker.
This suggestion is utilized to its full value and beyond by Henry Bryan
Binns, the first English biographer of Lincoln, whose book appeared in
1907, and others have followed his intimations. He says:
"In some brief autobiographical notes, Lincoln remarks that his
ancestors, when they left Berks County, Pennsylvania, were Quakers.
The allusion has significance, not merely because it is the only
reference to any religious body in these notes, but because it
suggests an interesting spiritual affiliation to which we shall refer
again later."
He fulfills this promise, and refers to it repeatedly. The Quaker
ancestry finds reinforcement in his assurance that the Shipley strain
in Nancy Hanks was "probably" Quaker. These references occur a number
of times in the early part of his book, and recur in the concluding
chapter with more than a suggestion that Mr. Lincoln continued to bear
some of the inherited spiritual qualities of the Quaker.
These suggestions lack evidential value. Lincoln's grandfather's
ancestors were believed by him to have been Quakers in Pennsylvania,
and their ancestors are believed to have been Puritans in
Massachusetts. But the New Englanders no more surely dropped their
Massachusetts Puritanism in Pennsylvania than the Pennsylvania
Quakers dropped their Quakerism in Virginia and Kentucky. The Quaker
ancestry was not forgotten nor was it a thing to be ashamed of,
but the distinctive tenets of the Friends had no large part in the
working creed of Abraham Lincoln. He respected the Quakers, and on
more than one occasion showed his interest in them; but there is no
reason to believe that he shared either their theology or their theory
of non-resistance. He was compelled to approve some severe measures
against American citizens who refused to fight, and a number of Quakers
suffered in consequence. Lincoln saw no way to prevent these sufferings
altogether, though he did his best to mitigate them, and he always
respected the principles of those who held in sincerity the Quaker
faith which he did not share.
_Was Lincoln a Unitarian or a Universalist?_
It is my opinion that Lincoln did not believe in endless punishment,
and also that he did not accept the supernatural birth of Christ. The
evidence on which these opinions rest has already been indicated. But
I do not regard him as a Universalist or a Unitarian. The basis of
his religious belief was Calvinism of the most rigid sort. It could
accept some incidental features of other systems, but at heart it was
Calvinistic.
I have talked with Rev. Jasper Douthit, of Shelbyville, concerning
Unitarianism in central Illinois. He quotes Jenkin Lloyd Jones as
saying of his Shelbyville church, that "Unitarianism attempted to
locate in the Capitol City of Illinois, but struck the dome of the
State House, glanced off, and stuck in the mud at Shelbyville." In
some sense the movement of Mr. Douthit is the present survival of
the attempt before the Civil War to domesticate Unitarianism in
Springfield and vicinity. I have clipped from the _Christian Register_
a communication which, without pretending to technical knowledge of the
organific principle of the several sects, goes near to the heart of
this question:
"To the editor of the Christian Register:--
"_Apropos_ of 'Lincoln Day,' may I ask for _definite information_ as
to Mr. Lincoln's religious belief? The author of that little pamphlet,
'What do Unitarians Believe?' implies that he is to be numbered among
Unitarians, and quotes from the author of _Six Months at the White
House_ to prove his assertion. Now I don't know _who_ the _author_
of _Six Months at the White House is_, and care less. His testimony
is 'second hand' viewed in any light you please. He may have been a
Unitarian himself, though I hardly think he would have used the word
'Saviour,' in speaking of Mr. Lincoln's words, unless Lincoln himself
had used it. At any rate, the only _direct_ testimony bearing on Mr.
Lincoln's religious views is found in _his own writings_, and I want
to quote from his Fast Day proclamation of March 30, 1863, as throwing
some light on the subject.
"He says: 'Whereas, it is the duty of nations, as well as of men,
to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess
their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured
hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to
recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures, and
proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God
is the Lord.
"'And, insomuch as we know that by His Divine laws, nations, like
individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this
world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of Civil War,
which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment inflicted upon
us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national
reformation as a whole people? We have been the recipients of the
choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved these many years
in peace and prosperity.
"'We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has
ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious
hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and
strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of
our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior
wisdom and virtue of our own.'
"If this isn't _Calvinism_ pure and simple, then I don't know what
Calvinism is.
"Now, Mr. Editor, if you can show me any reference in _Mr. Lincoln's
own words_ that point as strongly toward 'Unitarianism' and those
truths which _it_ claims as peculiarly its own, I shall be glad to see
it.
"CHARLES B. TOLEMAN."
A number of Lincoln's old neighbors, contributing to the Irwin article
in denial of the alleged infidelity of Lincoln, affirm that he was a
Universalist. In their denial of his infidelity they were correct;
and also in their detection of the fallacy of Herndon in which he
counted every opinion to be infidel that did not conform to the severe
orthodoxy with which he was familiar. As between Herndon and these
writers, they were correct. Lincoln's "infidelity" consisted in good
part of his denial of eternal punishment. But that did not make him
an infidel; neither did it constitute him technically a Universalist.
The substratum of his belief was the old-time predestinarianism which
he heard in his youth and never outgrew. How he could make this blend
with his wide departures from conventional orthodoxy in other points,
those can best understand who have heard the kind of preaching on which
Lincoln grew up. Its effect is not easily obliterated.
_Was Abraham Lincoln a Methodist?_
This question would seem to require no answer, yet it is one that
should receive an answer, for claims have been made, and are still
current, which imply that Lincoln was actually converted in the
Methodist Church, whose doctrine he accepted because Calvinism
was repugnant to him; and that while he continued to attend the
Presbyterian Church, he was essentially a Methodist.
Lincoln had a very high regard for the Methodist Church. It was rent
asunder during the Civil War, and the Northern branch of the church
which had long been vigorously anti-slavery was warmly loyal. On May
18, 1864, in a letter of reply to a deputation of ministers from
that body, he said, "God bless the Methodist Church--bless all the
churches, and blessed be God who, in this our great trial, giveth us
the churches."
Reference has been made to the fact that Methodism did not at any time
appear greatly to influence the Lincoln family in matters of theology,
and that the early environment of the family from the birth of Lincoln
was Baptist. I am inclined to think that the Hanks family had Methodist
antecedents. Thomas and Nancy Lincoln were married by a Methodist
preacher, Rev. Jesse Head. He is known to have been a foe of slavery,
and there is some reason to think that the Lincoln family derived some
part of its love of freedom from him.
From time to time Lincoln met Methodist preachers who deeply impressed
him. One of these was Rev. Peter Akers, whom he heard in 1837, when
Lincoln was twenty-eight years of age.
"He and a group of associates went out to hear him at a camp-meeting
six miles west of Springfield, at the 'Salem Church.' The Rev. Peter
Akers was a vigorous and fearless man. He spoke of certain prophecies,
and predicted 'the downfall of castes, the end of tyrannies, and
the crushing out of slavery.' On the way home they were earnestly
discussing the sermon. Lincoln is alleged to have said: 'It was the
most instructive sermon, and he is the most impressive preacher, I
have ever heard. It is wonderful that God has given such power to
men. I firmly believe his interpretation of prophecy, so far as I
understand it, and especially about the breaking down of civil and
religious tyrannies; and, odd as it may seem, I was deeply impressed
that I should be somehow strangely mixed up with them."--TARBELL,
_Life of Lincoln_, I, 237.
In the lecture on Abraham Lincoln by Bishop Fowler, as finally prepared
for the press, is an incident which apparently was not in its earlier
editions. At a reunion of the Seventy-third Illinois Volunteers, held
in Springfield on September 28, 29, 1897, the colonel of that regiment,
Rev. James F. Jacquess, D.D., related an incident in which he stated
that while he was serving a Methodist Church in Springfield in 1839,
Mr. Lincoln attended a series of revival services held in that church,
and was converted. The story was heard with great interest by the old
soldiers of that regiment, many of whose officers had been Methodist
preachers, and it was printed in the Minutes of the Proceedings of the
Eleventh Annual Reunion of Survivors of the Seventy-third Illinois
Infantry.
Twelve years later, in 1909, in connection with the Centenary
Celebration of the birth of Lincoln, the story was reprinted, with
certain added details obtained from the brother of Colonel Jacquess.
As thus wrought into literary form, it was printed in the New York
_Christian Advocate_ in an article entitled "The Conversion of
Lincoln," by Rev. Edward L. Watson, of Baltimore.
Already Bishop Fowler, to whom Colonel Jacquess alluded in his address
at Springfield as having no adequate account of Lincoln's conversion,
had accepted the story and incorporated it into the final version of
his famous lecture (_Patriotic Orations_, p. 102). The death of Colonel
Jacquess and the additions made by his brother give this incident its
permanent form in the _Christian Advocate_ article of November 11, 1909.
I am glad to have been able to obtain from the _Christian Advocate_
their last copy of that issue, outside their office file, and it
appears in full in the Appendix to this volume. It may be accepted as
the authoritative form of this story.
That the story as told by Colonel Jacquess must have had some element
of truth I think beyond question; that it occurred exactly as he
related it, I greatly doubt. The years between 1839 and 1897 numbered
fifty-eight, and that is more than ample time for a man's memory to
magnify and color incidents almost beyond recognition.
The story as it is thus told lacks confirmatory evidence.[53] If
Lincoln was converted in a Methodist Church in 1839 and remained
converted, a considerable number of events which occurred in subsequent
years might reasonably have been expected to have been otherwise than
they really were. Each reader must judge for himself in the light of
all that we know of Abraham Lincoln how much or how little of this
story is to be accepted as literal fact. The present writer cannot say
that he is convinced by the story.
_Was Abraham Lincoln a Freemason?_
In an address delivered before Harmony Lodge, in Washington, D. C.,
on January 28, 1914, Dr. L. D. Carman delivered an address, which has
since been printed, entitled "Abraham Lincoln, Freemason." In this
address it was set forth that "It was not an unusual practice in the
early days of Masonry in this country in sparsely settled localities,
remote from an active lodge, for several members of the fraternity to
get together, form an emergent or occasional lodge, and make Masons."
Abraham Lincoln was presumed to have been made such a Mason because of
utterances of his, quoted at length, which appeared to show familiarity
with Masonic usage.[54]
Those utterances, when examined, carry no such presumption, nor was
there any occasion for such an emergent lodge. A lodge existed at
Petersburg, near New Salem, and a number of Lincoln's friends belonged
to it; their names are on record. The records of the Springfield Lodge,
also, are preserved, and bear no mention of his name; nor is there any
evidence so far as the present author knows that on any occasion he
was ever in a Masonic Lodge. Orators may use the symbolic language of
architecture without knowledge of speculative Masonry, and Lincoln used
it so.
CHAPTER XXI
WHY DID LINCOLN NEVER JOIN THE CHURCH?
MR. THOMAS LEWIS, attorney in Springfield with an office on the same
floor and an elder in the First Presbyterian Church, informs us that
there was some real expectation that Lincoln would have united with
that church in Springfield after his views had been modified through
the influence of Dr. Smith. He says that Lincoln attended with
considerable regularity a series of revival meetings in progress in
the church, but was out of town when application was made for church
membership and the officers of the church were disappointed that he did
not then unite.
Rev. Dr. Phineas D. Gurley, of Washington, tells of conversations with
Lincoln concerning religion and of some expressed desires on the part
of Lincoln for church fellowship. His feeling of support in prayer was
manifest in his coming to the mid-week prayer service, where, however,
as Dr. Gurley affirms, he commonly sat in the pastor's room with an
open door, hearing the prayers that were offered but preferring not to
attract attention by his visible presence.
The best statement, and one that has been accepted as truly
representative of Lincoln's feeling with regard to church membership,
is one that comes to us on thoroughly good authority and from the
period immediately following Lincoln's death.
Hon. Henry C. Deming, member of Congress from Connecticut, in a
memorial address given before the Legislature of Connecticut, June 8,
1865, related that he had asked Mr. Lincoln why he never united with a
church, and Mr. Lincoln answered:
"I have never united myself to any church, because I have found
difficulty in giving my assent, without mental reservation, to the
long, complicated statements of Christian doctrine which characterize
their articles of belief and confessions of faith. When any church will
inscribe over its altars, as its sole qualification for membership, the
Saviour's condensed statement of the substance of both law and gospel,
'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself,' that church
will I join with all my heart and all my soul" (p. 42).
To his Washington pastor, Rev. Phineas D. Gurley, he said that he could
not accept, perhaps, all the doctrines of his Confession of Faith,
"but," said he, "if all that I am asked to respond to is what our Lord
said were the two great commandments, to love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart and mind and soul and strength, and my neighbor as myself,
why, I aim to do that."
Mr. Henry B. Rankin, who wrote his _Reminiscences_ in 1916, states
that he was a boy in Lincoln's office and his parents knew Lincoln
intimately during his years of struggle in New Salem. Mr. Rankin's
recollection of a conversation which Lincoln had with Mr. Rankin's
mother indicates that Lincoln had some such feeling as far back as
his New Salem days. The Rankin family were warm friends of Peter
Cartwright, whom they called Uncle Peter, and also of Mr. Lincoln.
Mrs. Rankin asked him concerning the rumor that he was an infidel, and
Lincoln denied it; but being pressed to explain why he did not then
confess his Christian faith, he gave to her much the answer which in
later years he gave to Mr. Deming and to Dr. Gurley (_Reminiscences of
Lincoln_, pp. 324-26).
I think, then, we are compelled to accept this threefold testimony
as establishing beyond any reasonable doubt the answer that Lincoln
himself gave to the question, why he did not unite with the Church. It
is a great pity that he was not brought into contact with some form
of organized Christianity, orthodox and constructive in its essential
teachings, but with conditions of church membership as broad as those
of entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Churches have learned a little
better than they understood in 1846 that a church creed should be
a testimony and not a test; that it is entirely consistent with the
organization and ideal of a thoroughly orthodox church to receive into
its membership any and every person who loves God and his fellow-man
even though he doubts thirty-eight of the thirty-nine articles of the
creed and is more or less uncertain about the other one.
But we cannot consider the question of Lincoln's possible church
membership and his failure to acquire it without asking whether the
fault was wholly that of the churches. Other men beside Abraham Lincoln
were more liberal than the churches, including old Mentor Graham, but
were able to find a home there; though Graham was ultimately turned
out of the so-called "hardshell" church for his warm advocacy of the
principles of temperance. Some share of the responsibility for his
failure to unite with the Church must belong to Lincoln himself.
It is a hazardous thing to suggest any element short of perfection in
the life or thought of any popular hero. Nevertheless let us remind
ourselves that Lincoln had the defects of his qualities.
Lincoln lacked some of the finer feelings. He combined a deep personal
sympathy for anything which he could visualize with a rather strange
mental obtuseness toward things remote or abstract. Darwin, who was
born in the same year, had an early love of poetry and music. How
these tastes became atrophied in his concentration of thought upon
matters relating to the natural sciences was confessed and mourned by
him, and has often been commented upon by others. The time came to him
when music and poetry gave him physical nausea. Lincoln never had an
appreciation or love of anything very fine either in poetry or music.
At a time when he was being considered for President he could sit in a
stage coach playing "Yankee Doodle" on the mouth-organ[55] and playing
it badly, but he had no fine musical or poetic taste.
Not long before his assassination his sister-in-law, Mrs. Edwards,
visited at the White House, and he accompanied her one evening to the
conservatory. She greatly admired the rare exotics which she there
beheld for the first time, and Lincoln vainly strove to share her
enthusiasm but confessed to her that something had been left out of his
nature. Such things seemed to make no appeal to him.
Of Lincoln's lack in matters involving the finer feelings we have
abundant testimony not only in the pages of Lamon and Herndon, but in
other intimate sketches of his life in Illinois, as, for example, in
Whitney's _With Lincoln on the Circuit_,[56] and especially in his
article in the _Arena_ in April, 1898. There were aspects of religion
which did not make as strong an appeal to Abraham Lincoln as they would
have made but for this blind spot in his nature.
It is not the purpose of this book to go in any detail into Mr.
Lincoln's love affairs; but if any further illustration were desired of
this point of which we are speaking, it could be found very painfully
in his relations with Miss Owens, and his letter to Mrs. Browning.
Reference has been made to a certain lack of good taste which Lincoln
sometimes manifested, and of which the reminiscences of Lamon, Herndon,
Whitney, and others of his associates have given us sufficient
example. But it was not always so with Lincoln. There was in him an
innate courtesy, an intuitive sympathy, an ability to adapt himself
to another's point of view, which gave him the essential quality of
a gentleman. Fred Douglass said of him that Mr. Lincoln was the only
white man with whom he ever talked for an hour who did not in some way
remind him that he was a negro. That same fine feeling showed itself in
many ways.
It should be remembered, too, when his uncouthness of apparel is
recalled, that while he was always a careless man in his dress, the
period in which he lived was one in which people of the regions where
he formed his lifelong habits were not given to fastidious dress. He
dressed much as other men dressed. The shawl which he wore was such
a shawl as the author's father wore; such as many men wore. It was a
mark of good breeding rather than the reverse, and some men wore the
shawl very effectively for purposes of display. The author himself has
often carried with him in long rides in the southern mountains what was
called a "saddle-shawl" not unlike that of Lincoln; and he now owns
such a shawl, bequeathed to him by one of Lincoln's contemporaries, and
of the same color and approximately the same size that Lincoln used.
Mrs. Jane Martin Johns of Decatur, died recently at the age of
ninety-two. Her mind was clear and her memory precise. She has left
this, among other memories of Lincoln, as a reminder that he was a
gentleman, and that at times he showed the finest discrimination and
good taste:
"When I first knew Mr. Lincoln, he was forty years old; had been a
member of the state legislature and of congress; had traveled the
circuit with men of culture and refinement; had met great statesmen
and elegant gentlemen; and the ungainliness of the pioneer, if he ever
had it, had worn off and his manner was that of a gentleman of the
old school, unaffected, unostentatious, who arose at once when a lady
entered the room, and whose courtly manners would put to shame the
easy-going indifference to etiquette which marks the twentieth century
gentleman.
"His dress, like his manner, was suited to the occasion, but was
evidently a subject to which he gave little thought. It was certainly
unmarked by any notable peculiarity. It was the fashion of the day for
men to wear large shawls and Mr. Lincoln's shawl, very large, very
soft, and very fine, is the only article of his dress that has left
the faintest impression on my memory. He wore it folded lengthwise
(three and one-half yards long) in scarf fashion over his shoulders,
caught together under the chin with an immense safety-pin. One end of
the shawl was thrown across his breast and over the shoulder, as he
walked up the steps of the Macon House one day in December, 1849.
"Court was in session in Decatur, Judge David Davis presiding. The
hotel, where I was living temporarily, was kept by David Krone and
his good lady, whose popularity extended over the fourteen counties of
the Eighth Judicial District.
"Court week was always anticipated with great interest by the people
of the county seat. It was customary for the entire bar of the
district to follow the court from county to county, every man either
seeking new business, or as counsel in cases already on the docket.
The date of their arrival at any particular county seat could not be
definitely fixed, as the judge held court at his pleasure, usually
trying to finish all the business ahead before he migrated to the next
station.
"He was followed by a curious crowd. Lawyers, clients, witnesses,
itinerant peddlers, showmen, and gamblers filled the towns to
overflowing. It was no unusual thing for men who had no business in
the court, to follow from town to town merely seeking entertainment.
Social events of any moment were wont to be arranged for court week,
as the harvest time when strangers could be taken in. Taverns were
crowded and the hospitality of the people was taxed to the utmost
limit.
"To the men of the town, who always crowded the court house, the
examination of witnesses and the speeches of the lawyers furnished
an intellectual treat, for there were giants at that bar. There was
David Davis, the companionable judge, who knew the law and who loved
a laugh. And there were Stephen Logan the scholarly, and Stuart the
shrewd and kindly, Swett the clever, and Browning the handsome, and
Lamon the amusing, and Weldon and Gridley and Parks and Harmon and
Ficklin and Linder and Whitney and Oliver L. Davis, and the best
beloved Abraham Lincoln. Some of them traveled to only two or three
counties, but Judge Davis, Mr. Lincoln and Leonard Swett went the
whole circuit; Davis because he had to, Lincoln because he loved it,
and Swett because he loved their company.
"The Macon House was an oasis in the wilderness of miserable inns at
which they were usually compelled to 'put in.' In Decatur they found
clean beds, good bread and an abundance of the good things of the
season, administered by a genial landlady who greeted them all as
friends.
"It was in court week that my piano, after a long journey by steamer
down the Ohio and up the Wabash to Crawfordsville, Ind., and thence
by wagon, arrived in Decatur. The wagon was backed up to the steps at
the front door of the Macon House and the question of how to unload
it and get it into the house was a puzzling one. Not a man except the
landlord was to be found, but he soon solved the problem. "Court will
soon adjourn and there will be plenty of men," and almost as he spoke
the crowd began to appear. They gathered curiously around the wagon
that blocked the entrance. Landlord Krone explained:
"'There is a piano in that box that this woman here wants someone to
help unload. Who will lend a hand?'
"A tall gentleman stepped forward and, throwing off a big gray Scotch
shawl, exclaimed, 'Come on, Swett, you are the next biggest man.'
"That was my first meeting with Abraham Lincoln.
"After a few moments' consultation with the driver of the wagon, Mr.
Lincoln went into the basement where Mr. Krone had a carpenter shop,
and returned with two heavy timbers across his shoulders. With them
he established communication between the wagon and the front door
steps. The piano was unloaded with the assistance of Mr. Linder and
Mr. Swett, amid jokes and jeers galore, most of the jeers coming from
little Judge Logan.
"Before the legs had been screwed into place, dinner was announced,
and the men hurried to the back porch where two tin wash basins, a
long roller towel and a coarse comb, fastened to the wall by a long
string, afforded toilet accommodations for all guests. When dinner
was served, 'Mother Krone' placed a roast of beef in front of Dr.
Trowbridge to be carved and exclaimed, 'Men, if you can't get your
teeth through this beef you will have to fall back on the sausage. I
agreed to try roasting it without parboiling it, and I am afraid it
will be tougher than it was yesterday, and that was bad enough.'
"The beef, however, proved to be tender and juicy and was highly
praised by the guests. I recall this incident because Mr. Lincoln once
reminded me of it, saying that 'that was the time he learned that
roast beef ought not to be boiled.'
"After dinner, Mr. Lincoln superintended the setting up of the piano,
even to seeing that it stood squarely in the center of the wall space
allotted it, and then received my thanks with a polite bow and asked:
'Are you expecting to follow the court and give concerts?' The immense
relief expressed on his countenance, when he was assured that he
would not be called upon to repeat the performance was very laughable.
"'Then may we have one tune before we go?' he asked, and I played
'Rosin the Bow,' with variations.
"Someone shouted, 'Come on, boys, the judge will be waiting,' and
after I had assured them that if they desired it, I would give my
'first and only concert on this circuit' when they returned to the
hotel in the evening, the crowd dispersed.
"Here I wish to note that in the crowd that had assembled to watch the
unloading of the piano, the members of the bar, Mr. Lincoln's friends
and equals, always addressed him as 'Mr. Lincoln,' while to the rabble
and hangers-on he was often 'Abe.'
"The piano was a 'Gilbert,' made in Boston, and its fame extended far
and wide. It was visited by people from all over the state, stage
coach passengers frequently 'holding the stage' while they went down
to the other tavern (the Harrell House was the stage office) to see
and hear the novel instrument.
"That evening a notable crowd assembled in the parlor of the Macon
House. Judge Davis, who did not put up with Landlord Krone but was
the guest of Mrs. A. A. Powers, came in after supper; and practically
all of the bar of the Eighth Judicial District was present at what I
suppose we would now call a recital. I found that Mr. Charles Brown, a
wealthy landowner and stock dealer of McLean County, not only sang but
played a little and I called on him for assistance.
"The program, as I remember it, will illustrate the style of music in
vogue at that period.
"For show pieces, I played the 'Battle of Prague' and the 'Carnival of
Venice,' then followed with 'Washington's March,' 'Come Haste to the
Wedding,' and 'Woodup Quick Step' to convince the audience that I did
know a tune or two. For tragedy, I sang Henry Russel's 'Maniac' and
'The Ship on Fire,' and then made their blood run cold with the wild
wail of the 'Irish Mother's Lament.' For comic, we sang 'The Widdy
McGee' and 'I Won't Be a Nun,' topping off with 'Old Dan Tucker,'
'Lucy Long,' and 'Jim Crow,' the crowd joining in the chorus. These
were followed by more serious music. Mr. Brown and Mr. Swett joined
me in the duet 'Moonlight, Music, Love, and Flowers,' 'Rocked in the
Cradle of the Deep,' 'Pilgrim Fathers,' 'Bonaparte's Grave,' and
'Kathleen Mavourneen.' Each and all met with applause.
"As a finale, I sang 'He Doeth All Things Well,' after which Mr.
Lincoln, in a very grave manner, thanked me for the evening's
entertainment, and said: 'Don't let us spoil that song by any other
music tonight.' Many times afterwards I sang that song for Mr. Lincoln
and for Governor Oglesby, with whom it was also a favorite."
Another limitation must be found in Lincoln's morbid cautiousness.
Herndon tells us that his very walk gave the impression of craftiness;
that it was not the product of deceit, but only of a caution so
excessive that it became something more than second nature. He was
secretive to a marked degree. When he seemed to be confidential it
was in minor matters, or matters on which he had already made up his
mind and intended soon to make a public statement. Whatever may be
the true story of his engagement to Mary Todd and of those stormy and
obscure months between "that fatal first of January, 1840," and the
date of their wedding, November 4, 1842, Lincoln's letters to Speed
show an excess of caution that was positively abnormal. That it was
a mark of insanity has been vigorously denied and with much apparent
reason; but if it was not the mark of acute mental aberration, it was
the manifestation of a permanent mental trait. Such a nature, which
debated like Hamlet the question of suicide and actually printed a
brief article which was later cut from the files of the Springfield
paper--probably by Lincoln himself--which lingered shivering on the
brink of matrimony like the "timorous mortal" of whom Lincoln was
taught to sing, must have hesitated long before coming to such a
confident poise between alternating faith and doubt as that he could
have stood before the altar of a Presbyterian church in Springfield or
in Washington and taken upon him the vows of church membership.
Different writers have attempted to account for Lincoln's failure to
affiliate with the church wholly on the basis of his being greater than
the churches. I quote from one of these characteristic addresses, and
one that is in many respects excellent:
"Perhaps his religious nature was so broad that it could not be
compassed within the limits of any particular creed or system of
doctrines. Perhaps he saw the soul of truth so clearly that he could
not accept any one of them as a complete and final revelation of
truth. Perhaps he so clearly realized that all religious creeds and
systems have their roots in human nature that he could look upon
the Christian system as the only deposit of truth committed to the
children of men. Perhaps his conception of Deity was so vast that
he could not see all the Divine attributes manifest in the historic
Christ. Perhaps he felt that some of the doctrines of Christianity,
as they were formulated and preached in his day, would be a hindrance
rather than a help to his religious faith, so clear was his vision of
the things which are unseen and eternal, and so close was his relation
to the Author of his being. Perhaps he felt no need of a daysman or
mediator, because he himself knew the Lord face to face."--MILTON R.
SCOTT: _Lincoln, Was He an Inspired Prophet?_, pp. 55-57.
There is a measure of truth in this presentation of one side of the
case, but it is not the whole truth. Lincoln did not possess this
supposed clarity of vision of all spiritual truth. Some things he
saw clearly, but his faith and vision had each of them marked and
undeniable limitations.
In his widely popular and in many respects excellent oration on
Lincoln, Bishop Fowler said:
"Let us analyze Mr. Lincoln if we are able. This task is difficult
on account of his symmetry. He was so much like a sphere that he
projected farthest in every direction. His comprehension is to us
impossible on account of his immensity, for a man can be comprehended
only by his peers" (p. 28).
He found the same difficulty in estimating Grant. "It is difficult
to analyze General Grant, because he is so simple and complete. Like
Lincoln, he is like a sphere; approached from any side he seems to
project farthest toward you. Try to divide, and each section is like
all the rest. Cut him through, and he is all the way through alike" (p.
127).
I do not think that this is correct concerning Grant, and it certainly
is not true concerning Lincoln. He was not a sphere; he was angular or
he was nothing.[57] In endeavoring to assess his religious convictions,
we are liable to encounter contradictions. But there is a certain
inconsistent consistency in those contradictions. There are certain
kinds of contradictions which we do not encounter, and certain which,
encountering, may be interpreted in the light of certain underlying
agreements.
For instance, the Calvinism which he inherited and heard through
his childhood and which he accepted in a kind of semi-fatalistic
philosophy might seem the reverse of scientific. But the natural
science which Lincoln learned from _Vestiges of Creation_, while it
would have been repudiated by every Baptist preacher whom Lincoln ever
heard in his youth, was capable of being grafted upon that very root.
I suggest one more limitation in the character of Abraham Lincoln,
which had its possible relation to his hypothetical church membership.
He was possessed in marked degree of the obstinacy of irresolution.
That genial good-nature of his had behind it stubbornness, irony, and a
sullen but mighty temper which rarely broke the bounds of self-control,
but sometimes manifested itself on very slight provocation. Just when
men thought they had discovered in Abraham Lincoln a nose of wax which
they could shape to their own liking, they encountered in him a wholly
unexpected element of passive inertia and of active obstinacy. When he
did not know what to do, he would not do anything. It was this quality
in him which enabled him to rule a rampant Cabinet and which justified
the qualities set forth in such books as Major Putnam's _Abraham
Lincoln the Leader_, Richard Watson Gilder's _Lincoln the Leader_, and
Alonzo Rothschild's _Lincoln, Master of Men_. It was this which enabled
Herndon to write of him: "I know Abraham Lincoln better than he knows
himself.... You and I must keep the people right; God will keep Lincoln
right."
Those do greatly err who see in Lincoln only genial good humor and
teachableness; there was a point at which his good humor became
withering scorn or towering passion and his gentle and tractable
disposition became adamantine inertia. His successor, Andrew Johnson,
quoted as characterizing himself the lines from Sir Walter Scott:
"_Come one, come all; this rock shall fly
From its firm base as soon as I._"
Lincoln might with much more appropriateness have quoted it of himself.
Mary Todd Lincoln united with the First Presbyterian Church of
Springfield on April 13, 1852, upon profession of her faith. The
church records contain no record of her dismissal, but only the word
"Deceased" without a date. She remained a member until her death,
though, after her return to Springfield in an unhappy state of mind,
she was not a very active one. The only other Lincoln record on the
books of this church is the baptism of Thomas Lincoln--"Tad," "son
of Abraham and Mary"--on April 4, 1855. The records of the financial
secretary, not very complete, show Abraham Lincoln to have been a
pew-holder from 1852 to 1861, and he departed for Washington with his
pew rent paid to the date of his departure. This is all that is to be
learned from the church records in Springfield.
Mary Todd Lincoln was a member in good and regular standing of the
Episcopal Church when she united with the Presbyterian, but she united
on profession of her faith. She affirmed that she did not believe
that she had ever previously been converted. This statement is one of
several indications that she, and with her her husband, came into a
new religious experience after the death of Willie in Washington, as
earlier he had been profoundly impressed after the death of Eddie in
Springfield.
We learn through sources outside the records, but wholly credible
sources, that her uniting with the Presbyterian Church was preceded by
a revival in the church, and she and her husband attended the revival
meetings regularly. Not only so, but many of Lincoln's associates,
including Major Stuart and other influential men of Springfield, were
present almost every night and were deeply interested. The letter of
Thomas Lewis, already cited, refers to the general expectation that
Lincoln would have united with the church with his wife. A similar and
wholly independent report comes to us[58] from Lincoln's associates
outside the church. They, also, expected him to go in with his wife.
But Lincoln was not fully persuaded. The logic of Dr. Smith demolished
all the arguments of the infidels and did it over again:
"_And thrice he vanquished all his foes,
And thrice he slew the slain._"
But doubts, though logically answered, still rose in Lincoln's mind. On
the other hand, and more important, Lincoln did not find himself able
to accept the rigid Calvinism of the Presbyterian Church of that day.
The evangelist made strong appeals, and Lincoln was not unmoved. But he
said to his friends that "he couldn't quite see it."
Lincoln was a man of mighty courage when his convictions were assured.
But he was also a man of more than normal caution. He could meet an
issue which he was fully convinced was right with all needful heroism.
But he was capable of evading an issue about which he was uncertain.
We know what Lincoln did just after his State Fair speech in
Springfield on October 3, 1854. He was roused "as never before," to
quote his own words, by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and
he came out in a four hours' speech following Douglas, and committed
himself unqualifiedly to the anti-Nebraska program. The Abolitionists
were overjoyed, and Lovejoy wanted him to address that body that very
night. Lincoln was in a quandary. To offend the Abolitionists meant
political death, for they were now strong and growing stronger; but, on
the other hand, to become an Abolitionist meant political death also at
that stage of the fight. Herndon, who was himself an Abolitionist, and
not much given to compromise, fully realized that Lincoln was in grave
political danger.[59] With Herndon's approval, Lincoln took Bob in his
buggy and drove off out into the country till the crisis was over.[60]
We know something also, though probably not the whole truth, about
Lincoln's wavering indecision with respect to his marriage to Mary
Todd. Whether he ran away from his own wedding, as he ran away from the
offer of the leadership of the Abolition movement, and if so, whether
he was sane or insane at the time, are questions which I prefer not, at
this time, to undertake to answer. But that incident may be cited as
another reminder that Lincoln had times of great mental uncertainty,
and that at such times he sometimes did unexpected things.
It is my firm conviction that, after the death of Eddie, Lincoln was
profoundly stirred in his own spiritual life; that the arguments of Dr.
Smith went far toward answering the arguments of Paine, Volney, and his
freethinking friends; that bereavement and spiritual comfort had done
their work of grace; that the desire for a home more truly united in
its religious relations and spiritual sympathies made a strong appeal
to him; and that the atmosphere of the revival seemed to make it easy
and natural for him to enter the church with Mrs. Lincoln. But, though
a Calvinist in his early training, he was not ready to accept Calvinism
as a complete and articulated system as presented in the Westminster
Confession and in the preaching of Dr. Smith.
He wavered. Whether he left town to avoid pressure to attend the
meeting of the Session at which his wife made her application for
church membership, we do not know. It is not improbable. Certainly
if his absence had been unavoidable he could have joined at the next
opportunity. I think that he did not join because he was still in
some measure of intellectual uncertainty with reference to doctrinal
matters. I am only sorry that someone did not tell him that these were
no sufficient reasons for his declining to unite with the church.
It would be possible to carry this study further, but it is not
necessary. An explanation of Lincoln's failure to unite with a
Christian church in that time of bitter sectarianism when to have
joined one church would have made him a target for criticism from
others and when his mind was intent rather upon the application of his
Christian principles than the proclamation of his religious opinions,
is partly to be attributed to the faults of the churches; but a portion
of the explanation is to be found also in qualities inherent in the
life of Abraham Lincoln.
CHAPTER XXII
THE CONSTRUCTIVE ARGUMENT
WE are ready now to undertake the difficult task of determining with
some approach to certainty the essential content and character of
Abraham Lincoln's religious belief.
We must not be surprised if we find ourselves unable to construct a
perfectly symmetrical and consistent confession of faith. The material
is much more abundant and explicit and much better attested in some
departments than in others. Not only so, but we must never forget the
mighty elements of contradiction in Lincoln's personality.
Mediocre men have this in their favor, that it is relatively easy to
classify them. Not only may they be readily assigned to their several
occupations, and conveniently pigeon-holed as butchers, bakers, and
candlestick makers, but it is a comparatively simple task to group
them under single adjectives, as good and bad, black and white, tall
and short, fat and lean, old and young, intelligent and stupid.
The process is less easy with really great men. There is always an
admirable element of human inconsistency in men of large mold which
would be intolerable in lesser personalities. It has been truly said
that no man becomes really great and influential who is not a good
subject for caricature. The sublime is own sister to the ridiculous.
Genius is next akin to insanity. The men who do really great things
are a perpetual puzzle to those who possess only commonplace standards
of classification. A commonplace villain is a villain, first, last,
and all the time; but a villain like Milton's Satan, Napoleon, or the
late German Kaiser is so great a villain as to be half a hero. The two
hundred seventy-six dripping men who struggled through the surf at
Malta one stormy morning rather more than eighteen hundred years ago
and gathered shivering round the fire, were quickly classified, for
the most part, into four convenient companies, of sailors, soldiers,
passengers, and prisoners; but when one of them shook off a viper into
the fire and showed no sign of hurt, it was quite certain that he was
either a murderer or a god. Opinions might differ and did differ as to
which of the two extremes might properly be claimed for him, but no one
proposed to find a place for him in middle ground.
The strength of great men lies in their possession and their
counterpoise of opposing qualities. Over against the monotonous
uniformity, the stupid consistency, of those common people whom Lincoln
said God must love because He made so many of them, this quality
displays itself as a peculiar possession of genius. Now and then it is
given to a great man sufficiently so to subordinate the inconsistencies
without which real greatness could not exist as to incarnate some
outstanding principle of which he becomes the exponent. Abraham
Lincoln did this; and the world, or that small part of the world which
can lay claim to any considerable measure of moral discernment, has
redefined its conception of certain high qualities, its measure of the
moral significance of certain notable achievements, in terms of his
personality. This process is highly desirable as well as inevitable;
but the elements of inconsistency are not thereby removed from the
character itself. Of him we might say:
"_His life was gentle, and the elements
So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up,
And say to all the world: This was a man!_"
--_Julius Caesar, V, 5._
It has often been affirmed that "'Lincoln knew his Bible better than
any minister," and large claims have been made concerning his use of it
in public addresses. Mr. Lincoln did know and use the Bible, and his
style is saturated with it; but it would be easy to exaggerate both his
knowledge and use of it.
Prof. Daniel Kilham Dodge of the University of Illinois examined
twenty-five of Lincoln's extended and carefully prepared addresses with
this result:[61]
In five speeches from 1839 to 1852 he found six Biblical quotations, of
which four were in his temperance address.
In his reply to Douglas in 1852 there were two Biblical quotations,
both from the Old Testament.
In 1856 he found one, and that most notable of all--the "house divided
against itself."
In his "lost speech" at Bloomington, as recorded by Whitney, there were
six Biblical quotations, four from the Old Testament and two from the
New--the largest number in any single speech.
In his ten speeches in the Lincoln and Douglas debates there were
two Biblical references, besides a number of allusions to the "house
divided against itself."
There were no Biblical quotations in the Cooper Union address or in the
First Inaugural or in the Gettysburg address; none in the two messages
to Congress in 1861.
His Second Inaugural was itself a kind of leaf out of the books of the
prophets.
In the whole of the twenty-five speeches, there were found twenty-two
Biblical references, eight in the Old Testament and fourteen in the
New. This notwithstanding the impression of many who knew him that
Lincoln preferred the Old Testament to the New, as recorded by Noah
Brooks.
But this rather meager use of direct quotations and allusions need not
disappoint us. Nor does it militate against the essentially Biblical
substratum of his style. When we come to the study of Lincoln's
literary and oratorical method, we find more striking contradictions
and evolutions than we have here. Lincoln's oratory was not of the same
style at all periods of his career, nor were his methods uniform at any
one period.
He was a ready stump-speaker, yet he became so cautious while in the
White House that he was timid about responding even to a serenade
without having first written out his address, and on occasion could
appear rude in declining to utter even a simple word of greeting and
appreciation, as on the night before his address in Gettysburg, when he
was very abrupt to the company that serenaded him.
He had been accustomed to large use of gesture, swinging his great
arms, and sometimes, even in the Douglas debates, bending his knees
till they almost touched the platform, and then rising suddenly almost
with a whoop, but he became very quiet and self-restrained in his
oratory.
He is alleged to have loved Burns more than any other poet, yet his
speeches have been searched in vain for a single quotation from Burns.
It is said that next to Burns he loved Byron, and he is not known
ever to have quoted Byron in any speech or paper. It is said that
his favorite Shakspeare play was _Richard III._, but his Shakspeare
quotations are from _Hamlet_, _Lear_, _Macbeth_, the _Merchant of
Venice_; and there is one allusion to Falstaff.
Besides Shakspeare, whom he quoted next to the Bible, his literary
allusions are to T. H. Bayley, Dickens, Robert Herrick, Pope and Scott,
and they are not numerous. The total number of his quotations, as
listed by Professor Dodge, including Shakspeare, but not including the
Bible, is thirty.
What is more surprising, Lincoln was known as a great story teller. But
his addresses contain hardly a single anecdote. He told stories in jury
trials and to illustrate points in conversation, but he rarely told
them in his addresses.[62]
No man who knew Lincoln intimately studied him so long, so
industriously, or, in spite of many limitations, so appreciatively,
as William H. Herndon. He was a profound believer in the mental and
spiritual evolution of Lincoln.
In 1887, while Herndon, after many years of interruption, began
again the preparation of his _Life of Lincoln_, he had an extended
correspondence, partly from Springfield, and partly from Greencastle,
Indiana, where Mr. Jesse W. Weik was at work with him on his book, and
with a Boston sculptor, Mr. Truman H. Bartlett, who was planning a
statue of Lincoln. Herndon's letters went more and more into detail as
the correspondence proceeded, and he gave in some respects the very
best affirmation of the development of Lincoln on the higher side of
his nature that Herndon wrote at any time.
Herndon seemed to have some apprehension that a study of photographs
and life-masks and other evidences of the physical appearance of
Lincoln would not reveal the man himself. He said that a person
studying his physical nature would say "that his physical nature was
low, coarse, and not high and fine." Before he sent this letter he
re-read it, and inserted the word "comparatively" before "low." Mr.
Bartlett asked him further about this, and Herndon went into detail
as to Lincoln's body. "His blood ran slowly. He was of a low or slow
mechanical power, within him. I did not intend to say that Lincoln's
organization was a low, animal organization. What I meant to say was
that it was a slow-working machine. Lincoln's flesh was coarse, pimply,
dry, hard, harsh; color of his flesh saffron brown; no blood seemingly
in it; flesh wrinkled."
Mr. Bartlett apparently inquired whether the abnormal qualities of
frontier life produced these effects, and whether Herndon had known
other men of the Lincoln type. Apparently he alluded to the presence of
malaria and the large use of pork in frontier diet.
Herndon did not accept the pork and malaria theories. He said that all
such theories must give way to facts, and he dealt with facts. The men
of the frontier had the best meat in the world, "venison, bear, turkey,
and of course some hog."
"You ask me if I ever saw in this great wild west many men of
Lincoln's type, and to which I answer, Yes. The first settlers of
central and southern Illinois were men of that type. They came from
the limestone regions of Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and were
men of giant strength, physical force, and by nature mentally strong.
They were original, were individualists. The strong alone from 1818 to
1830 could get here, and the strong alone could survive here.... No
one was like Lincoln, and yet many were of his type.... He was, as
you say, 'a man of extraordinary contrasts.' You would not look for a
well-rounded man in such a description."
Lincoln was, then, as Herndon saw him, and as the world must see him,
a legitimate product of his environment. Herndon had read Buckle and
Spencer and Darwin, and was a thoroughgoing believer in evolution, as
was Lincoln, from a far narrower reading, but a very thoughtful study
of _Vestiges of Creation_.
Physically, Lincoln was akin to the strong pioneers of early Illinois,
and it was not difficult to find each several trait of Lincoln
reduplicated in many of them. But Lincoln himself was never duplicated.
He was a product of his environment, but he was also an evolution which
in terms of an individual personality went beyond environment, and was
still going forward when death came to him.
This evolution of Lincoln, the spiritual Lincoln, as portrayed in these
letters to a sculptor, who must not be permitted to forget, if he was
in danger of forgetting, that the real man Lincoln had in him more than
his bodily measurements could portray, is one of the most suggestive
studies disclosed by Herndon, and it is sound, both as approached from
the standpoint of science, and as considered in the personal study of
Lincoln in his growth from year to year.
Like St. Paul, Lincoln had a warfare in his members. He was an
embodiment of forces mutually antagonistic. He would not have been
the man he was had either of them been lacking, and the growth of
either at the total expense of the other would have given us a man
abnormal, which Mr. Lincoln came perilously near to being. But his real
development was mental and spiritual.
In another place St. Paul says that "The first man is of the earth,
earthy, and the second man is from heaven." It has been assumed without
due warrant that what he had in mind was a contrast between Adam and
Christ, and this view is strengthened by the intrusion of the words
"the Lord" in the authorized English text. But it is quite possible
that St. Paul, even if Adam and Christ were a part of his contrast,
had really in mind the evolution of any man's life; he being himself
in his bodily nature the first man and in the birth and growth of his
higher nature the second and contrasting man. "First is that which is
natural, and after, that which is spiritual."
This was Herndon's thought of Lincoln, as disclosed in these
letters,[63] and it is true of Lincoln. Lincoln was more than an
embodiment of contrasts; the solar system is that, and it is more. In
the solar system the opposing forces do not neutralize each other, but
together hold the earth and planets in their orbits. So it was with
Lincoln. But with him the higher and nobler forces became increasingly
dominant.
Herndon resented it when anyone said that Lincoln had died at the right
time. He believed that, great as Lincoln was, his nobler qualities had
not yet come to their full maturity, and that a longer-lived Lincoln
would have been an even nobler Lincoln. Here are some of the things he
says of him in these letters:
"I said to you once that Mr. Lincoln had not arrived at maturity
in 1865, and I say so now. His blood ran slowly--had low or slow
circulation and consequently a slow build-up. As he had a slow
build-up, so he had a slow development; he grew up like the forest
oak, tough, solid, knotty, gnarled, standing out with power against
the storm, and almost defying the lightning. Hence I conclude that
he had not arrived at his highest development in 1865.... The
convolutions of his brain were long; they did not snap off quickly
like a short, thick man's brain.... The enduring power of Mr.
Lincoln's thought and brain was wonderful. He could sit and think
without food or rest longer than any man I ever saw."
He goes into detail concerning Mr. Lincoln's bodily lethargy and its
effect on body and mind, the sluggishness of all his functions, and
affirms that this must be taken into account in any right estimate of
the man; but that steadily, and the more surely because slowly, his
mind and soul developed and became more and more dominant.
"His flesh looked dry and leathery, tough and everlasting; his eyes
were small and gray; head small and forehead receding; but when this
great man was moved by some great and good feeling, by some idea of
Liberty, or Justice, or Right, then he seemed an inspired man. It
was just then that Lincoln's nature was beautiful, and in complete
harmony with the laws of the Great Eternal. I have seen him in this
inspired condition, and thought he was molded in the Spirit's best
mold. Lincoln was a great man, a good man, and a pure man; and beneath
his rough bodily exterior, Nature wove her fine network of nerve....
Lincoln was a gloomy man at one moment and a joyous man the next; he
was conscious that a terrible fate awaited him. He said to me, 'I
cannot help but believe that I shall meet with some terrible end.'
This idea seized him and made him gloomy. At times his better nature
would get the mastery of him, and he would be happy till the shadow of
his fate flitted before him. In philosophy Lincoln was a fatalist....
In my poor opinion, Lincoln had not arrived, when he was assassinated,
at the meridian of his intellectual power.... Were you to read his
early speeches thoroughly you would see his then coarse nature. He
gradually rose up, more spiritualistic. This is one of the reasons why
I say that Lincoln was not fully developed in mind at the last. When
a great Boston man said, 'Lincoln died at the right time,' he did not
know what he was talking about."
In these and like paragraphs Herndon testified to the mental and
spiritual evolution of Lincoln; and he was probably correct when he
opined that that evolution was still in process, and that Lincoln was,
up to the very hour of his death, a growing man in all that meant most
to America and the world.
The religion of Abraham Lincoln was part and parcel of his life; and
his life was an evolution whose successive stages can be measured with
reasonable certainty. Not only did his religious convictions develop
and broaden under the stimuli of Lincoln's constantly broadening
intellectual and spiritual environment, but they broadened in the
growth of his own personality.
There was an evolution in his apprehension of the ethical implications
of public office. The Lincoln who re-entered politics after the
repeal of the Missouri Compromise was a changed man from the Lincoln
who, with the other members of the "Long Nine," earned by political
log-rolling the severe but not wholly unmerited name applied to them
by one of Illinois' best governors, "spared monuments of popular
wrath." That Lincoln did not in this earlier period commit any
personally dishonorable act is not an argument against the theory
here advocated. He had, in his later political career, a far higher
ideal of political honor, a greatly nobler conception of the dignity
of public office--which he always sought--as a field of popular
service. His political career was an evolution, and it developed nobler
characteristics than that which characterized his earlier political
life.
Lincoln's emancipation policy was an evolution. The successive stages
of that policy were worthily set forth by Paul Selby in an address
before the Historical Society of Chicago.[64] There never was a time
when Abraham Lincoln did not believe slavery to be wrong, but there was
a time when he was not an Abolitionist. The moral aspect of the slavery
question grew in his mind and conscience till he promised his God to
free the slaves.
On Sunday evening, September 7, 1862, a public meeting was held in
Bryan Hall, Chicago, to urge upon the President the desire of Christian
people that he should free the slaves. A petition was circulated, and
was signed by all the Congregational and nearly all the Methodist and
Baptist ministers of that city, courteously requesting the President
to give the matter his earnest attention. The petition was sent
to Washington by the hand of Rev. William W. Patton and Rev. John
Dempster, who met the President by appointment on Saturday afternoon,
September 13, the interview being arranged by Hon. Gideon Welles.
The story of that meeting has often been told in part, with undue
emphasis upon Mr. Lincoln's statement then made that if God had a
message for him on this subject He would be more likely to communicate
it directly to Mr. Lincoln than to others for him. The latest book to
misuse this incident is one just from the press in Great Britain, the
_Short Life of Lincoln_, by Hon. Ralph Shirley, who says:
"Some of the ministers in this deputation even went so far as to
assure him that they had authority in God's name to command him to
emancipate the slaves."
Inasmuch as there were but two of the ministers, and neither of them
assumed any such authority to speak the mind of God, such statements
ought to cease, especially as the true story, from which all these
accounts are garbled, is available for inspection in the files of the
Maryland Historical Society.
Mr. Lincoln did say to them that he hoped it would not appear
irreverent in him to say that if God were to reveal this duty of his
to others, it was probable that He would reveal it also directly to
Mr. Lincoln. At the beginning of the interview he was guarded; but as
he found common ground with his visitors, he threw first one leg and
then the other over the arm of his chair, and talked to them with the
utmost freedom, and asked them concerning the opinion of ministers and
churches, and assured them that he desired to know the will of God, and
whatever seemed to him to be God's will he would do.
The next week occurred the battle of Antietam, and on Saturday,
September 20, exactly a week after his interview with the Chicago
ministers, Mr. Lincoln called the Cabinet together and read to them
the Emancipation Proclamation, which was signed and published on the
following Monday. We know now that Lincoln had promised God that if
that battle resulted in the success of the Union cause he would issue
the proclamation. We also know that the meeting with the Chicago
ministers was very timely, and gave him an added assurance of moral
support from the churches, if not added confidence in the help of God.
Some time after, Joseph Medill, editor of the Chicago _Tribune_,
returning from Washington, said, "Secretary Stanton told me to say
to those Chicago clergymen who waited on the President about the
Proclamation of Emancipation, that their interview finished the
business. After that there was no manifestation of doubt or talk of
delay. Mr. Lincoln's mind was fully made up."--_Proceedings of the
Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore_, 1888.
Lincoln's literary style was an evolution.[65] His spread-eagle
stump-speeches, with their florid rhetoric and grandiloquent figures
of speech evolved into the calm, dignified, and forceful English of
his maturer years.[66] An able monograph in which this evolution is
traced is cited elsewhere in this volume.[67] That change of style was
the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual as well as
intellectual grace.
In like manner Lincoln's religion was an evolution, both in its
intellectual and its spiritual qualities. Up to the time of his
residence in New Salem he had heard only the dogmatic sectarianism of
unlettered preachers, proclaiming a creed which furnished him certain
lifelong tenets but which as a whole he could not accept. At New Salem
he read the negative arguments which confuted the dogmas he had heard,
and perhaps unwittingly made room for a more intelligent faith.
He was deeply impressed by the argument of Dr. Smith in his _The
Christian's Defence_. It was the first time he had heard the Christian
apologetic rationally presented, and it made a lasting impression upon
him without, however, fully satisfying him. He was, however, a much
more religious man when he left Springfield than he was when he came
to it, whether he knew it or not.
The solemn responsibilities of his office, the daily contemplation of
death as it menaced him and came into the homes of the people of his
country, the profound conviction that God was working His infinite
purpose through the war, and through the human agency of Lincoln
himself, took hold of the deepest impulses of his nature, and became
the controlling forces of his policy.
Lincoln was no theologian, but I do not find any authority for the
statement of Mr. Binns that Lincoln said, "the more a man knew of
theology, the farther he got away from the Spirit of Christ." It is
possible, of course, for a man to learn theology as an intellectual
system and to have little religion as a spiritual experience, and to
lose that little in the process of his logical subtleties: but Lincoln
was too just a man to make so sweeping and unjust an affirmation of
something of which he would certainly have admitted he knew very little.
The rock-bottom foundation of Abraham Lincoln's religious faith was
the ultra-Calvinism of his boyhood. He was reared a Predestinarian
Baptist; and while he never became a Baptist he never ceased to be
a Predestinarian. To this he added a strong rationalistic tendency,
inherent in his nature, and strengthened by his study of Paine and
Volney. This also he never wholly outgrew. As a lawyer who was not
well read, pleading before juries that cared little for the letter of
the law, he was accustomed to reduce his cases to simple principles of
elementary justice, and to rest all upon these principles. This habit
of thought and practice he applied also to his theology. His early
recollection of the epitaph of Johnny Kongapod was nothing less than
the application of the Golden Rule to theology--the assurance of an
eternal justice throned in heaven and intelligible on earth.
Thus, when he argued in favor of universal salvation he did it upon the
basis of the old Calvinistic theology with which he had been familiar
all his life. If God was, indeed, absolute sovereign, and as good as
He was great, and willed not that any should perish, then no one could
finally perish. Universal salvation became logically and ethically
compulsory. The Christ who tasted death for every man, did so as the
necessary means to the efficiency of a plan of salvation whereby the
curse of the fall was fully offset by the sacrifice of Christ, at the
instance of the sovereign will of God. As in Adam all died, even so in
Christ were all made alive. His theory of universal salvation was the
logical expression of his determinism, influenced by his rationalism
and confirmed by his appeal to a justice that would not accept a fall
more universal than the atonement of Christ. This was not because
Lincoln approached the theme from the direction of the grace of Christ,
but of the irresistibility of a divine decree. He profoundly believed
himself an instrument of the divine will, believing that will to be
right, and creation's final law.
If it were asked, where in such a system as his he found a place
for the forgiveness of sins, the answer would be first that he had
no system, and secondly that he found no place for the doctrine;
but it would then be necessary to add that he found the doctrine,
nevertheless. He had no system. He thought without logical method. But
his thinking was in right lines. He followed simple paths, "blazed"
through technicalities and in quite thorough disregard of them. As
his office desk was in confusion, and he kept a package marked,
"When you don't find it anywhere else, look here," so he had in his
thinking a parcel of unassorted first principles to which he recurred
when he needed them. Forgiveness and law were to him two unreconciled
postulates; but law he had to assume, even though he denied
forgiveness. But if he did not admit belief in forgiveness, he did
believe in mercy, for he himself was merciful, and he believed that he
would be merciful to God if he were God and God were man. Stanton could
argue him down as to the necessity for shooting a soldier who slept on
duty, but Lincoln injected an intuitive, and from Stanton's point of
view, an unreasonable and a certainly unarticulated, element of mercy
that forbade the killing of this particular boy.
His theory of governmental forgiveness was as irreconcilable with his
theory of military discipline as his theory of divine mercy was with
his system of inexorable law. He did not harmonize the contradictions:
he was merciful, and let his system take the consequences, and he
believed in a divine mercy while holding a theory with which the
exercise of mercy was irreconcilable.
To such a mind as that of Abraham Lincoln, it was not necessary to
prove the fact of immortality. If God possessed immortality and
intended it for man, then God would make His decree effective in man.
Adam's fall could not hopelessly lose to man what God designed; and,
whether he accepted for himself or not the theory of the fall and of
redemption, he accepted both in meeting an argument which by reason of
the fall could have deprived man of his birthright of immortality. He
believed in the immortality of the soul.
Did he harmonize that doctrine with the rest of his creed? Probably
not. He was no theologian, in the strict and formal sense, no logician.
He reasoned on the basis of very simple and elementary principles,
whose lines of direction were determined by the early Calvinistic
preaching to which he listened, the rationalistic method which he
learned from Paine, and his simple sense of justice and right.
His was not wholly an optimistic faith. He knew that man was sinful
and sad and that "the spirit of mortal" had little occasion for pride;
but he believed in an eternal justice and an unconquerable goodness,
regnant above the perplexities and contradictions of this life, and
triumphant in the life everlasting.
Abraham Lincoln believed in God. Save in his moments of deepest gloom
when everything turned black, he appears never seriously to have
questioned this fundamental article of belief. It is not easy to see
how he could have done so. His idea of causation forbade it, and, what
was more, his profound supernaturalism affirmed it as incontrovertible.
This element of supernaturalism went the full length of orthodox
preaching, as Lincoln heard it and accepted it. It was in accord with
the teachings both of the Baptists, whom he heard in Indiana and rural
Illinois, and the Presbyterians, to whom he listened in Springfield and
in Washington. In a great God, a mighty Creator, a Sovereign Ruler, he
was taught to believe by all the forms of Calvinism to which throughout
his life he listened, and it was in full essential accord with his
own native tendency. His supernaturalism was not only ultra-orthodox;
it went the full length of current superstition. The frontiersman of
that day had superstition wrought into him by the vastness of the
wilderness, the solemnity of the immeasurable forest and plain, and the
insignificance of man; the haunting tales of savagery and witchcraft;
the presence in every frontier community of some person supposed to
be possessed of second sight or other supernatural qualities. The
rationalism of his mature years modified but did not in any degree
eradicate his supernaturalism.
It must be remembered that Paine and Volney, whose works he read, were
far from being atheists. Thomas Paine, whatever he denied, believed as
strongly as Peter Cartwright or James Smith in a personal God. So far
as we know, Lincoln was never under any strong influence that might
have made him an atheist, his doubts and questionings were all within
the sphere of an expressed or implicit theism.
The names by which Lincoln referred to God are many and suggestive. The
following is a partial list:[68]
Almighty, Almighty Architect, Almighty Arm, Almighty Father, Almighty
God, Almighty Hand, Almighty Power, Almighty Ruler of Nations,
Creator, Disposer, Divine Author, Divine Being, Divine Majesty, Divine
Providence, Divine Will, Eternal God, Father, Father in Heaven, Father
of Mercies, God, God Almighty, God of Battles, God of Hosts, God
of Nations, Governor, Heavenly Father, Higher Being, Higher Power,
Holy Spirit, Judge, Lord, Maker, Maker of the Universe, Master, Most
High, Most High God, Omniscient Mind, Power, Providence, Ruler of the
Universe, Supreme Being.
Lincoln believed in the Bible. I am not sure that he accepted the
whole content of the positive arguments set forth so cogently by his
pastor, Dr. Smith. When he called this argument "unanswerable," it
need not imply that his every doubt was satisfied, his every misgiving
reassured. It is entirely possible that there lingered in his mind
some vestiges of what he had read in writers opposed to the doctrine
of the inspiration of the Scriptures as it was then taught; indeed,
that doctrine in the form in which it was currently stated was not
one by which a modern man's orthodoxy ought to be tested. But he read
the Bible, honored it, quoted it freely, and it became so much a
part of him as visibly and permanently to give shape to his literary
style and to his habits of thought. When Mrs. Speed presented him an
Oxford Bible in 1841, he declared his intention to read it regularly,
believing it to be "the best cure for the blues"; and he kept and loved
and constantly used his mother's Bible. How he would have defined his
theory of its transmission and of the relation of its divine and human
elements we do not know, and we need not be too curious to inquire.
It is more than possible that Mr. Lincoln never made this definition
in his own mind. His attitude toward the Bible was a thoroughly
practical one. We do not know that he ever heard Coleridge's pragmatic
affirmation, but we have every reason to believe that he would have
accepted it, namely, that he valued the Bible because "it finds me as
no other book."
Concerning his opinion of Jesus Christ our material for constructive
hypothesis is exceedingly scanty.[69] Herndon says he does not believe
the name of Jesus can be found in any of Lincoln's authentic writings.
I have found it in his writings but I must confess that I have not
found it frequently in any which I count to be certainly genuine.[70]
There are, however, a number of references to Jesus Christ in his
writings and published addresses, and they are both positive and
reverent.
On July 4, 1864, the colored people of Baltimore presented him a
beautiful copy of the Bible of the usual pulpit size, bound in
violet-colored velvet. The corners were bands of solid gold and there
was a thick plate of gold upon the cover, bearing this inscription:
"To Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, the friend of
universal freedom. From the loyal colored people of Baltimore, as a
token of respect and gratitude. Baltimore, July 4, 1864."
In accepting this gift, which was presented in person by a committee of
five, the President said:
"In regard to this great book, I have only to say it is the best
gift which God has ever given man. All the good from the Saviour of
the world is communicated to us through this book."--CARPENTER: _Six
Months in the White House_, p. 199; also NICOLAY and HAY: _Works of
Lincoln_, twelve volume edition, X, 217-18.
Such references as this show to us the instinctive place which he
accorded Jesus Christ in his own unpremeditated thinking. This was the
best thing he had to say about the Bible, that through it alone we have
knowledge of the Saviour of the world.
Herndon tells us that Lincoln ridiculed the doctrine of the virgin
birth of Jesus. If this is true, I am very sorry. But Abraham Lincoln's
faith in Christ did not depend wholly or even primarily upon his
interpretation of the mystery of our Lord's birth. I approach a
discussion of this question with some hesitation, for it is one which,
as related to Lincoln we do not know very much about, but it is a
subject which we are not free to pass over in silence.
It is a sad fact that the argument for the divinity of our Lord Jesus
Christ should ever have been based on the mystery of his birth. Not
thus does the New Testament establish the doctrine of his divinity.
The wonderful story of the birth of Jesus is told in two places
only,--in the introduction to the two Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and
these are the very two that contain genealogies tracing his descent
through Joseph. The theory that one of these gives the family tree of
Mary is unsupported by any evidence. So far as we know, Jesus never
referred to the mystery of his birth, or attached any importance to
it. His two brothers, James and Jude, each wrote a book which we have
in the New Testament, and there is no reference in either of them to
this doctrine. Peter preached his mighty sermons at Pentecost and
afterwards, proclaiming the faith on which the Church was established,
and he grounded his argument for the divinity of Jesus not upon his
birth, but upon his resurrection from the dead. Paul preached the
gospel of Christ throughout the Roman world, and neither in any
recorded sermon nor in any letter did he make any reference to that
dogma. Mark, earliest of the gospels, and for we know not how long a
period the only one, is silent as to the birth of Jesus; and John,
the most definitely spiritual of them all, begins and concludes his
profound philosophy of the person of Christ without a word concerning
the manner of his birth.
It is, therefore, a wholly unwarranted dogmatism which grounds the
divinity of Jesus in a question of the domestic relations of Joseph and
Mary. Jesus Christ is to be accepted for what He was and is, not for
some opinion as to how He became what He was.
We do not know whether Abraham Lincoln ever considered the question of
the birth of Christ in any personal thought he may have had concerning
his own birth. We may not forget, however, that if Herndon is right,
Lincoln lived and died without knowing all the facts about his own
mother which later research has made certain. The marriage certificate
of his parents was recorded in another county than that in which he
supposed it would have been recorded, and he appears never to have been
certain that he himself was begotten in lawful wedlock. We know that
Nancy Hanks and Thomas Lincoln were married a year before the birth of
their eldest daughter, who was older than Abraham Lincoln, but he is
believed not to have known that.
What then? Should a man in 1860 or 1864 refuse to vote for Abraham
Lincoln because he did not feel certain when or whether his parents
were married?
The man who said, "I believe in Abraham Lincoln," did not commonly have
in mind any question of his parentage, but believed in his integrity,
his patriotism, his moral leadership. Even so the man who believes in
Jesus Christ may believe in Him without ever asking, much less ever
answering, any dubitable question in metaphysics.
Scant as are the references to Jesus in the authentic utterances of
Abraham Lincoln, they do not seem to me unimportant. They testify to a
faith that was valid as far as it went. They manifest a spirit which is
fundamentally Christian.
Unable to define his own views in terms that would have been acceptable
to those who believed themselves the rightful guardians of orthodoxy
in his day, it is not surprising that Lincoln was guarded in his
references to a dogma which might have involved him in greater
difficulties than he was prepared to meet. It was true in that day
unhappily as it was in the days of Paul, "Some indeed preach Christ
even of envy and strife; and some also of good-will." It is occasion
for profound sorrow that Christ has been so preached as that men have
sometimes found it difficult to confess their faith in Him without
provoking strife and envy.
That Lincoln was unwilling to make his doubt the occasion of dogmatic
negation is evident from one or more of the acquaintances of Lincoln,
whom Herndon interviewed in an effort to adduce testimony against his
faith, and whom Lamon quoted in that part of his book in which he made
his attack upon the religion of Lincoln. The following from I. W.
Keys, the man who loaned to him _Vestiges of Creation_, is interesting
in itself and especially interesting in its relation to the group of
testimonies which these two men assembled:
"In my intercourse with Mr. Lincoln, I learned that he believed in
a Creator of all things, who had neither beginning nor end, and,
possessing all power and wisdom, established a principle, in obedience
to which worlds move, and are upheld, and animal and vegetable life
come into existence. A reason he gave for his belief was that, in
view of the order and harmony of all nature which we behold, it would
have been created and arranged by some great thinking power. As to
the Christian theory, that Christ is God, or equal to the Creator,
he said that it had better be taken for granted; for, by the test of
reason, we might become infidels on that subject, for evidence of
Christ's divinity came to us in a somewhat doubtful shape; but that
the system of Christianity was an ingenious one at least, and perhaps
was calculated to do good."--LAMON: _Life of Lincoln_, p. 490.
Emphatic proof of Mr. Lincoln's faith is to be found in the positive
declaration of the two men who have done most to destroy the world's
confidence in it, Lamon and Herndon. In Lamon's later book of
_Reminiscences_, he did much to counteract the harsh and to my mind
incorrect impression given in his earlier book. But even in that book
he affirmed that while Lincoln rejected the New Testament as a book of
divine authority, he accepted its precepts as binding upon him and was
a believer in the supernatural even to credulity (p. 503, 504).
In that same work Herndon set forth that Lincoln was a firm believer in
God and attempted, as he said, "to put at rest forever the charge that
Mr. Lincoln was an atheist." He declared, however, that Lincoln did not
believe in a special creation, but in an "evolution under law"; not in
special revelation, "but in miracles under law"; and that "all things
both matter and mind were governed by laws universal, absolute, and
eternal" (p. 494).
To this Herndon gives even more emphatic testimony in his own book.
It must then be remembered that while in the loose nomenclature of
these authors Mr. Lincoln was an "infidel" it is these same authors
that assure us, as Lamon does, that "his theological opinions were
substantially those expounded by Theodore Parker."--LAMON: _Life of
Lincoln_, p. 486.
The question whether Lincoln's views underwent any substantial change
after leaving Springfield, has been answered in the negative by John G.
Nicolay, his private secretary at the White House; who affirmed that
"Mr. Lincoln did not, to my knowledge, in any way change his religious
views, opinions, or beliefs, from the time he left Springfield to the
day of his death."
This probably is correct. Mr. Lincoln was not conscious of any radical
change; but Mrs. Lincoln noticed a change in him after Willie's death,
which grew more pronounced after his visit to Gettysburg, and his own
faith, while undergoing no sudden and radical transformation, manifests
a consistent evolution.
But we are not sure how much Mr. Nicolay believed Lincoln's views to
have been in need of change. He said in another place:
"Benevolence and forgiveness were the very basis of his character. His
nature was deeply religious, but he belonged to no denomination; he
had faith in the eternal justice and boundless mercy of Providence,
and made the Golden Rule of Christ his practical creed."--JOHN G.
NICOLAY, in article "Abraham Lincoln" in _Encyclopedia Britannica_,
ninth edition, XIV, 662.
Lincoln believed in divine destiny. He could hardly have believed
otherwise. The preaching to which he listened was such as to make it
all but impossible for him to hold any other views. He believed so
strongly that his own life was under divine guidance that Lamon and
Herndon speak of it in a thinly veiled scorn as though it were in
Lincoln's mind a mark of conscious superiority. Whether it was such
a mark or not does not now concern us. Lincoln believed in divine
guidance. He had faith in prayer and his practice of prayer is attested
by many and credible witnesses. A man of his temperament and training
and sense of responsibility could not well have been kept from praying.
Prayer was a necessary part of his life.
Lincoln not only had faith in prayer considered as a means of obtaining
results from God; he believed in it as establishing a relation with
God, a covenant relation, such as Abraham of old established. If such a
faith seems inconsistent with any other elements in the faith or doubt
of Abraham Lincoln, then the inconsistency must stand, for he did not
hold his views in entire consistency. In no respect does this faith in
the covenant relation emerge more strongly than in connection with the
issue of the Emancipation Proclamation. Fortunately, the evidence here
is incontestable. The Proclamation immediately became historic. Lincoln
had to autograph many copies to be sold at sanitary fairs--copies which
now sell at one thousand dollars each. Every incident relating to the
event became of immediate interest; and members of the Cabinet had to
group themselves for Carpenter's historic painting, of which he has
left so valuable a literary monument in his _Six Months in the White
House_. The members of the Cabinet had no time to invent or imagine
a set of incidents mythical in character, for each of them had to
describe many times, and immediately, the circumstances which attended
the reading of the Proclamation to the Cabinet on Monday, September 22,
1862.
This is the important and incontestable fact, that Lincoln did not
bring the Proclamation to the Cabinet for discussion, except as to
minor details. He had already determined to issue it. He had promised
God that he would do so.
This was the statement which profoundly impressed the members of the
Cabinet,--the President told them that he had already promised God that
he would free the slaves.
The Diary of Gideon Welles was first published in full in the _Atlantic
Monthly_ in 1909, portions of it having earlier appeared in the
Century; but it was written day by day as the events occurred. His
record for Monday, September 22, 1862, begins thus:
"We have a special Cabinet meeting. The subject was the Proclamation
concerning emancipating slaves after a certain date in States that
should then be in rebellion. For several weeks the subject has been
suspended, but, the President says, never lost sight of. When the
subject was submitted in August, and indeed in taking it up, the
President stated that the matter was finally decided, but that he
felt it to be due to us to make us acquainted with the fact and
invite criticism of the Proclamation. There were some differences in
the Cabinet, but he had formed his own conclusions, and made his
own decisions. He had, he said, made a vow, a covenant, that if God
gave us the victory in the approaching battle (which had just been
fought) he would consider it his duty to move forward in the cause of
emancipation. We might think it strange, he said, but there were times
when he felt uncertain how to act; that he had in this way submitted
the disposal of matters when the way was not clear to his mind what he
should do. God had decided this question in favor of the slave. He was
satisfied it was right--was confirmed and strengthened in his action
by the vow and its results; his mind was fixed, his decision made; but
he wished his paper announcing his course to be as correct in terms as
it could be made without any attempt to change his determination. For
that was fixed."--"The Diary of Gideon Welles," _Atlantic Monthly_,
1909, p. 369.
We have no present concern with the question whether Lincoln's method
of determining the divine will was a reasonable method, or wholly
consistent with some of his own questions and doubts; what concerns
us is that the President invited no discussion of the Proclamation in
its essential elements; any disposition which any of the members of
the Cabinet might have felt to discuss the instrument itself or seek
to dissuade the President from issuing it was stopped by his quiet and
emphatic declaration that he had made a covenant with God, and must
keep his vow; and that he was strengthened in his own conviction that
the Proclamation was in accord with the will of God.
We must not pass lightly over the religious aspects of the Emancipation
Proclamation. Lincoln had submitted his first draft of the Proclamation
to the Cabinet on Tuesday, July 22, 1862, and it met with strong
opposition. Only two members of the Cabinet favored it; Seward and
Chase were strongly against it and the others thought it inopportune.
With the memory of this opposition, which in July had practically voted
the President down, Mr. Lincoln brought the matter again on September
22, not for discussion, for as he said he knew the view already of
every member of the Cabinet, but he had promised God that he would
do this thing. That very night Secretary Chase wrote in his diary an
account of the meeting, which is condensed as follows:
"_Monday, September 22, 1862._
"To Department about nine. State Department messenger came with
notice to heads of Departments to meet at twelve. Received sundry
callers. Went to White House. All the members of the Cabinet were in
attendance. There was some general talk, and the President mentioned
that Artemus Ward had sent him his book. Proposed to read a chapter
which he thought very funny. Read it, and seemed to enjoy it very much.
"The President then took a graver tone, and said, 'Gentlemen: I have,
as you are aware, thought a great deal about the relation of this
war to slavery; and you all remember that, several weeks ago, I read
to you an order I had prepared on this subject, which, on account of
objections made by some of you, was not issued. Ever since then my
mind has been much occupied with this subject, and I have thought, all
along, that the time for acting on it might probably come. I think the
time has come now. I wish it was a better time. I wish that we were in
a better condition. The action of the army against the Rebels has not
been quite what I should best like. But they have been driven out of
Maryland, and Pennsylvania is no longer in danger of invasion. When
the Rebel Army was at Frederick, I determined, as soon as it should be
driven out of Maryland, to issue a Proclamation of Emancipation, such
as I thought most likely to be useful. I said nothing to anyone, but I
made the promise to myself, and [hesitating a little] to my Maker. The
Rebel Army is now driven out, and I am going to fulfill that promise.
I have got you together to hear what I have written down. I do not
wish your advice about the main matter, for that I have determined for
myself. This, I say, without intending anything but respect for any
one of you. But I already know the views of each on this question.
They have been heretofore expressed, and I have considered them as
thoroughly and carefully as I can. What I have written is that which
my reflections have determined me to say. If there is anything in the
expressions I use, or in any minor matter, which any one of you thinks
had best be changed I shall be glad to receive the suggestions. One
other observation I will make. I know very well that many others
might, in this matter as in others, do better than I can; and if I was
satisfied that the public confidence was more fully possessed by any
one of them than by me, and knew of any constitutional way in which he
could be put in my place, he should have it. I would gladly yield it
to him. But though I believe that I have not so much of the confidence
of the people as I had some time since, I do not know that, all things
considered, any other person has more; and however this may be, there
is no way in which I can have any other man put where I am. I am here;
I must do the best I can, and bear the responsibility of taking the
course which I feel I ought to take.'"--WARDEN: _Life of S. P. Chase_,
pp. 481-82, quoted in Nicolay and Hay, VI, 159-60.
In the diaries of Secretaries Welles and Chase we have incontrovertible
testimony. The two records were made independently and on that
very night, and were not published for years afterward. There was
no possible collusion or reshaping of the testimony in the light
of subsequent events, no time for imagination to play any part in
enlarging upon the incident. The President recognized that the time was
not wholly propitious, that a majority of the Cabinet probably would
not be disposed to adopt his Proclamation if put to vote, that the
people's support of the administration was wavering and unpredicable
and none too certain to approve this measure. Under these conditions it
is impossible to consider the Emancipation Proclamation solely from the
standpoint either of political expediency or of military necessity. The
fact which silenced all opposition in the Cabinet was the President's
solemn statement that he had made a covenant with God, and that he must
keep it.
There is a sense in which the solemnity is heightened by the grotesque
incident of the chapter from Artemus Ward read at the beginning. There
is an aspect in which the sublimity of that Cabinet meeting's ending
is heightened by the ridiculousness of its beginning. In any event,
it shows that the mind of Abraham Lincoln that morning was in what
for him was a thoroughly healthy condition. However incongruous it
might have been for another man to begin so solemn a meeting with a
chapter from Artemus Ward, it was a mark of sanity, of thorough normal
psychology, when done by Abraham Lincoln. It showed that the moral
overstrain was finding its relief from excessive tension in what for
Lincoln was an entirely normal way.
As before stated, these two contemporary accounts by Welles and Chase,
though made at the time, were not published until years afterward; but
there was another publication that was virtually contemporary. Frank
B. Carpenter, the artist, began almost immediately his noted painting
of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, and in the course of
his six months in the White House had long and repeated interviews with
all members of the Cabinet, and talked with them about every incident
connected with that event. He published his account in his book in
1866, while all the members of the Cabinet were living, and, so far as
known, was never objected to or proposed to be modified by any member
of the Cabinet. According to his statement, Lincoln told the Cabinet
that he had promised God that he would do this, uttering the last part
of this sentence in a low voice. Secretary Chase, who was sitting near
the President, asked Mr. Lincoln if he had correctly understood him,
and the President repeated what he had affirmed before, saying:
"I made a solemn vow before God, that if General Lee was driven back
from Pennsylvania, I would crown the result by the declaration of
freedom for the slaves."--_Six Months in the White House_, pp. 89, 90.
In this threefold attestation we have irrefutable testimony that
the determining motive of President Lincoln in his issue of the
Emancipation Proclamation was the keeping of his solemn covenant with
God.
It is all but impossible to exaggerate the significance of this
incident. The essential fact is as fully proved as human testimony
can possibly prove a fact. When we remember the extreme reticence of
Abraham Lincoln on all such matters, and the fact of which he must
have been painfully conscious that his Cabinet was not very favorably
disposed toward the thing that he proposed to do, his quiet, outspoken,
and repeated declaration that he had promised this thing to God is
sufficient in itself to settle forever the essentially religious
character of Abraham Lincoln. If we had no other word from his lips
touching on the subject of religion but this one, we should be assured
of his unfaltering belief in God, in a profound sense of his own
personal responsibility to God, in prayer, and a personal relation with
God.
This was no platitude uttered to meet the expectation of the religious
people of the United States; it was no evasive generality intended to
fit whatever religious desire might lie in the minds of those who heard
him. It was no play to the gallery; it was no masquerade; every motive
of pretense or hypocrisy or duplicity was absent. It was the sincere
expression of the abiding faith of Abraham Lincoln in God, and prayer,
and duty.
* * * * *
Lincoln was a believer in the immortality of the soul.[71] Herndon
affirms this and declares that any attempt to deny it would imply
that Lincoln was a dishonest man. He believed in the preservation of
identity beyond the grave so that we shall be conscious of our own
identity and be able to recognize our loved ones.
He believed in future punishment, but not in endless punishment.
Punishment seemed to him so inevitable a part of an inexorable divine
law that he sometimes objected to the preaching of the doctrine of
forgiveness as being subversive of the fact of law, which he held must
continue its sway in this world and in every world; but in eternal
punishment he did not believe. His old neighbors in New Salem, his
friends in Springfield, and those who knew him in Washington agree in
this. We have already quoted from the letter of Isaac Cogdal to Mr. B.
F. Irwin, April 10, 1874, who tells of a conversation he had with Mr.
Lincoln in the latter's office in Springfield about 1859, concerning
Mr. Lincoln's religious faith. Mr. Herndon was present. He says:
"Mr. Lincoln expressed himself in about these words: He did not nor
could not believe in the endless punishment of anyone of the human
race. He understood punishment for sin to be a Bible doctrine;
that the punishment was parental in its object, aim, and design,
and intended for the good of the offender; hence it must cease
when justice was satisfied. He added that all that was lost by the
transgression of Adam was made good by the atonement; all that was
lost by the fall was made good by the sacrifice. And he added this
remark, that punishment being a provision of the gospel system, he was
not sure but the world would be better if a little more punishment was
preached by our ministers, and not so much pardon for sin."
William H. Hannah, in Lamon's group of citations, says:
"Since 1856 Mr. Lincoln told me that he was a kind of immortalist;
that he never could bring himself to believe in eternal punishment;
that man lived but a little while here; and that, if eternal
punishment were man's doom, he should spend that little life in
vigilant and ceaseless preparation by never-ending prayer."--LAMON:
_Life of Lincoln_, p. 489.
Some who have known of Lincoln's particular utterances on certain of
these points have been misled, as it appears to me, by the similarity
of some of these points to doctrines held by particular religious
sects and have sought to identify Lincoln more or less with those
denominations. The fact that he took portions of his positive thinking
from Theodore Parker and William Ellery Channing, does not necessitate
that he was a Unitarian; nor does the fact that he did not believe
in eternal punishment compel his classification with Universalists.
Theodore Parker and William E. Channing chanced to be the authors
whose writings came into his possession at a time when they served
to define particular aspects of his own faith. Horace Bushnell, or
Henry Ward Beecher might have served him quite as well and possibly in
some respects better. For Lincoln's Calvinism was too deep-rooted to
be eradicated; and a positive faith, both liberal and constructive,
that could have been grafted on to that root might very possibly have
served him better than anything so radical as in its nature to deny any
essential part of what he felt he must continue to believe. Parker and
Channing served him as James Smith's _Christian's Defence_ and Robert
Chambers' _Vestiges of Creation_ served him in assuring him that a man
could hold the views he held and know more about them than he knew and
still be a reverent Christian. Such a Christian Abraham Lincoln appears
to me to have been.
I do not think that any claim which I am here making for the faith of
Abraham Lincoln can be denied on the basis of any authentic utterance
of his. If at any point he is known to have said or written anything
which is apparently inconsistent with these affirmations, that
utterance I think will be found somewhere in this volume and the reader
will have no difficulty in finding it and in giving it its proper
weight. But I do not think the general position which this chapter sets
forth can be seriously shaken. In the sense which this chapter has
endeavored truthfully to set forth, Abraham Lincoln believed in God, in
Christ, in the Bible, in prayer, in duty, and in immortality.
Religion is one thing and theology is another. A love of flowers is one
thing and a knowledge of botany is another. A man may love a flower
and call it by the wrong name, or know no name for it. A man may have
the religion of Christ, and hold very wrong opinions or conjectures
concerning Christ. We are saved by faith, not by conjecture. No man
is saved or lost because of the correctness of his opinions. Correct
thinking is important; but it is not so important as a right attitude
toward spiritual realities and practical duties. Faith and opinion are
not unrelated, but neither are they identical.
Too much of the effort to prove that Abraham Lincoln was a Christian
has begun and ended in the effort to show that on certain theological
topics he cherished correct opinions. That would not prove him to be
a Christian, nor would the lack of these certainly prove that he was
not a Christian. Religion is of the heart and life; theology is of the
brain and mind. Each is important, but theology is less important than
religion.
Abraham Lincoln was not a theologian, and several of his theological
opinions may have been incorrect; but there is good reason to believe
that he was a true Christian. The world has need of a few theologians,
and of a great many Christians.
It was Mr. Lincoln's custom when he read a paragraph which deeply
interested him, to draw a pencil line around it in the book; and if it
was something which he wished to commit to memory and meditate upon, he
often copied it upon a scrap of paper. I own a half page of notepaper
containing in Lincoln's handwriting and with his signature, a paragraph
from Baxter's "Saint's Rest." The manuscript was owned by Hon. Winfield
Smith, Lincoln's Attorney-General in 1864, and was among his private
papers when he died. The paragraph reads:
"It is more pleasing to God to see his people study Him and His will
directly, than to spend the first and chief of their effort about
attaining comfort for themselves. We have faith given us, principally
that we might believe and live by it in daily applications of Christ.
You may believe immediately (by God's help) but getting assurance of
it may be the work of a great part of your life."
It would be interesting to know just what was in Lincoln's mind when
he read this paragraph, and sat down with pen and ink to copy and
meditate upon it. The "comfort" which Baxter was referring to in
this passage was the comfort of assurance of salvation in Christ. It
was a theme on which Mr. Lincoln heard many sermons, first and last,
by Predestinarian preachers, both Baptist and Presbyterian. If a
man was among the elect, how could he be sure of it, and what means
could he take to make the assurance more certain? Baxter's answer was
that assurance in this matter is less important than to study and
obey God's will; and that faith is given us as something in whose
exercise we may live daily without greatly troubling ourselves about
fathomless mysteries. It was good doctrine for a man who had been
reared as Lincoln had been reared, and the remainder of the passage was
especially in line with his needs. He could believe immediately, even
though the assurance of faith was long delayed. That assurance might
be the work of a lifetime, but faith was something that might be lived
upon now. The thought is akin to that in the fine lines of Lizzie York
Case:
"_There is no unbelief:
For thus by day and night unconsciously
The heart lives by the faith the lips deny,--
God knoweth why._"
A man can live by a faith of which he has not full assurance--so said
the sensible old Puritan, Richard Baxter--he can live on it though it
take him nearly all his life to gain assurance; and I am certain he
would have added, had he been asked, that if assurance never came, and
our heart condemn us, "God is greater than our heart."
The carefully written paragraph in Lincoln's hand appears to indicate
that the thought was one which deeply impressed Lincoln. Perhaps he
felt that his own faith was of that sort, a faith on which a man could
live, while going forward in the study and pursuit of the will of God,
not seeking one's own comfort or the joy of complete assurance, but
finding in the daily performance of duty the essential quality of true
faith.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE CREED OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
ABRAHAM LINCOLN made no effort, so far as we know, to formulate a
creed. It would have been an exceedingly difficult thing for him to
have accomplished. His utterances on religious subjects were not made
as dogmatic affirmations. He merely uttered as occasion seemed to him
to demand such sentiments and principles as expressed those aspects of
truth which he felt and believed to need expression at those particular
times. Nevertheless, these utterances together cover a somewhat wide
range; and while they were not intended to epitomize any system of
Christian doctrine, they make a nearer approach to an epitome of this
character than on the whole might reasonably have been expected.
It will be interesting and profitable to close this study with a
series of short quotations from documents, letters, and addresses,
certified as authentic and touching directly upon points of Christian
doctrine. In most instances these have been quoted already, with their
context, but they are here brought together in briefer form in order to
facilitate our inquiry whether they afford any material out of which
might be made some approach to a statement of Christian faith.
_Materials for a Lincoln creed_:
I sincerely hope father may recover his health, but, at all events,
tell him to remember to call upon and confide in our great and good
and merciful Maker, who will not turn away from him in any extremity.
He notes the fall of a sparrow, and numbers the hairs of our heads,
and He will not forget the dying man who puts his trust in Him.... If
it be his lot to go now he will soon have a joyous meeting with many
loved ones gone before, and where the rest of us with the help of God
hope ere long to join them.--Letter to his dying father, January 12,
1851. _Complete Works_, I, 165.
Without the assistance of that Divine Being who ever attended him
[Washington] I cannot succeed. With that assistance, I cannot fail.
Trusting in His care who can go with me, and remain with you, and be
everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be
well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will
commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.--Farewell Address,
Springfield, February 11, 1861. _Complete Works_, I, 672.
If the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with His eternal truth and justice,
be on our side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth
and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great
tribunal of the American people.... Intelligence, patriotism,
Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken
this favored land, are still competent to adjust in the best way all
our present difficulty.... My dissatisfied fellow countrymen ... you
have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I
have the most solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend it.--First
Inaugural, March 4, 1861. _Complete Works_, II, 7.
May God give you that consolation which is beyond all earthly
power.--Letter to parents of Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, May 25, 1861.
_Complete Works_, II, 52.
And having thus chosen our course, without guile and with pure
purpose, let us renew our trust in God and go forward without fear and
with manly hearts.--First Message to Congress, July 4, 1861. _Complete
Works_, II, 66.
Whereas it is fit and becoming in all people, at all times, to
acknowledge and revere the supreme government of God; to bow in
humble submission to His chastisements; to confess and deplore their
sins and transgressions, in the full conviction that the fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and to pray with all fervency and
contrition for the pardon of their past offenses, and for a blessing
upon their present and prospective action:
And whereas when our own beloved country, once, by the blessing of
God, united, prosperous, and happy, is now afflicted with factions and
civil war, it is particularly fit for us to recognize the hand of God
in this terrible visitation, and in sorrowful remembrance of our own
faults and crimes as a nation and as individuals, to humble ourselves
before Him and to pray for His mercy.--National Fast Day Proclamation,
August 12, 1861. _Complete Works_, II, 73.
In the midst of unprecedented political troubles we have cause
of great gratitude to God for unusual health and most abundant
harvest.... The struggle of today is not altogether for today--it is
for a vast future also. With a reliance on Providence all the more
firm and earnest, let us proceed to the great task which events have
devolved upon us.--Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1861.
_Complete Works_, II, 93 and 106.
Whereas it has seemed to me probable that the unsuccessful application
made for the commutation of his sentence may have prevented the said
Nathaniel Gordon from making the necessary preparation for the awful
change which awaits him: Now therefore be it known that I, Abraham
Lincoln, President of the United States, have granted and do hereby
grant unto him, the said Nathaniel Gordon, a respite of the above
recited sentence, until Friday, the 21st of February, A.D. 1862....
In granting this respite it becomes my painful duty to admonish the
prisoner that, relinquishing all expectation of pardon by human
authority, he refer himself alone to the mercy of the common God and
Father of all men.--Proclamation of Respite for a Convicted Slave
Trader, February 4, 1862. _Complete Works_, II, 121-22.
Being a humble instrument in the hands of our Heavenly Father, as I
am, and as we all are, to work out His great purposes, I have desired
that all my works and acts may be according to His will; and that
it might be so, I have sought His aid.--Reply to Mrs. Gurney and
Deputation from Society of Friends, September [28?], 1862. _Complete
Works_, II, 243.
In full view of my great responsibility to my God and to my country,
I earnestly beg the attention of Congress and the people to the
subject.--Message to Congress recommending Emancipation with
Compensation to Owners, March 6, 1862. _Complete Works_, II, 130.
It has pleased Almighty God to vouchsafe signal victories to the
land and naval forces.... It is therefore recommended to the people
of the United States that at their next weekly assemblages ... they
especially acknowledge and render thanks to our Heavenly Father
for these inestimable blessings; that they then and there implore
spiritual consolation in behalf of all who have been brought into
affliction by the casualties and calamities of sedition and civil war;
and that they reverently invoke the Divine guidance to our national
counsels, to the end that they may speedily result in restoration of
peace, harmony, and unity.--Special Thanksgiving Proclamation, April
10, 1862. _Complete Works_, II, 143.
The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act
in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be,
wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time.
In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose is
something different from the purpose of either party; and yet the
human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best
adaptation to effect His purpose. I am almost ready to say that
this is probably true; that God wills this contest, and wills that
it shall not end yet. By His mere great power on the minds of the
now contestants, He could have either saved or destroyed the Union
without a human contest. Yet the contest began. And, having begun, He
could give the final victory to either side any day. Yet the contest
proceeds.--A Meditation on the Divine Will in the handwriting of Mr.
Lincoln, formulated about September 30, 1862, and not written for the
eye of men but apparently in the effort to define the moral aspects
of the subject and to clarify his own spiritual outlook.--_Complete
Works_, II, 243-44.
Whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their
dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins
and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that
genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize
the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proved by all
history, that those nations only are blest whose God is the Lord; And
inasmuch as we know that by His Divine law nations, like individuals,
are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may
we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now
desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our
presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as
a whole people?--Fast Day Proclamation, March 30, 1863. _Complete
Works_, II, 319.
It is meet and right to recognize and confess the presence of the
Almighty Father and the power of His hand equally in these triumphs
and in these sorrows.... I invite the people of the United States
... to render the homage due to the Divine Majesty for the wonderful
things He has done in the nation's behalf, and invoke the influence
of his Holy Spirit to subdue the anger which has produced and so long
sustained a needless and cruel rebellion.--Thanksgiving Proclamation,
July 15, 1863. _Complete Works_, II, 370.
In regard to the Great Book, I have only to say, it is the best
gift which God has ever given man. All the good from the Saviour
of the world is communicated to us through this book.--Response to
Presentation of Bible. _Complete Works_, Nicolay and Hay's new and
enlarged edition, twelve volumes, N. Y., 1905, X, 217-18.
Signal successes ... call for devout acknowledgment to the Supreme
Being in whose hand are the destinies of nations.--Thanksgiving
Proclamation, September 3, 1864. _Complete Works_, II, 571.
God knows best ... surely He intends some great good to follow this
mighty convulsion, which no mortal could make and no mortal can
stave.... That you believe this I doubt not; and believing it, I shall
still receive for our country and myself your earnest prayers to our
Father in Heaven.--Letter to Mrs. Gurney, September 4, 1864. _Complete
Works_, II, 573-74.
I do further recommend to my fellow citizens aforesaid, that they do
reverently humble themselves in the dust, and from thence offer up
penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the Great Disposer
of events for a return of the inestimable blessings of peace, union,
and harmony.--Thanksgiving Proclamation, October 20, 1864. _Complete
Works_, II, 587.
I am thankful to God for this approval of the people; ... I give
thanks to the Almighty for this evidence of the people's resolution
to stand by free government and the rights of humanity.--Response to
Serenade following Re-election, November 9, 1864. _Complete Works_,
II, 595.
I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is
wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel, and
yet I have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me
an unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and
feeling.... I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly
that events have controlled me. Now at the end of three years'
struggle, the nation's condition is not what either party, or any man,
devised or expected. God alone can claim it. Whither it is tending
seems plain. If God now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills
also that we of the North as well as you of the South, shall pay
fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial history will find
therein new cause to attest and revere the justice and goodness of
God.--Letter to A. G. Hodges, April 4, 1864. _Complete Works_, II,
508-09.
Enough is known of army operations within the last five days to claim
an especial gratitude to God, while what remains undone demands our
most sincere prayers to, and reliance upon, Him without whom all
human effort is vain.--Recommendation of Thanksgiving, May 9, 1864.
_Complete Works_, II, 519.
I invite and request ... all loyal and law-abiding people ... to
render to the Almighty and merciful Ruler of the universe homages and
confessions.--Proclamation of Day of Prayer, July 7, 1864. _Complete
Works_, II, 544.
Again the blessings of health and abundant harvest claim our
profoundest gratitude to Almighty God.--Annual Address to Congress,
December 6, 1864. _Complete Works_, II, 604.
You all may recollect that in taking up the sword thus forced into
our hands, this government appealed to the prayers of the pious and
good, and declared that it placed its whole dependence upon the favor
of God. I now humbly and reverently, in your presence, reiterate the
acknowledgment of that dependence, not doubting that, if it shall
please the Divine Being who determines the destinies of nations, this
shall remain a united people, and that they will, humbly seeking the
Divine guidance, make their prolonged national existence a source of
new benefits to themselves and their successors, and to all classes
and conditions of mankind.--Address to Committee from Evangelical
Lutheran General Synod, May 6, 1862. _Complete Works_, II, 148.
Relying, as I do, upon Almighty Power, and encouraged, as I am, by
the resolutions which you have just read, with the support which
I receive from Christian men, I shall not hesitate to use all the
means at my control to secure the termination of this rebellion,
and will hope for success.--Address to Committee of Sixty-five from
Presbyterian General Assembly, May 30, 1863. _Complete Works_, II, 342.
I expect [my Second Inaugural] to wear as well as--perhaps better
than--anything I have produced; but I believe it is not immediately
popular. Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been
a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them. To deny it,
however, in this case, is to deny that there is a God governing the
world. It is a truth which I thought needed to be told, and, as
whatever of humiliation there is in it falls most directly on myself,
I thought others might afford for me to tell it.--Letter to Thurlow
Weed, March 15, 1865. _Complete Works_, II, 661.
It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's
assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's
faces; but let us judge not, that we be not judged.... The Almighty
has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses! For
it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the
offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of
those offenses which, in the Providence of God, must needs come, but
which having continued through His appointed time, He now will remove
and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the
woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein
any departure from those Divine attributes which the believers in a
living God always ascribe to Him. Fondly do we hope--perfectly do we
pray--that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if
God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's
two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and
until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another
drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still
must it be said, "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous
altogether."
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the
right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the
work we are in.--Second Inaugural, March 4, 1865. _Complete Works_,
II, 657.
No one of the foregoing quotations is taken from a private
conversation, nor copied from an unauthorized source. Some
very pleasing selections might have been made from reasonably
well-accredited sources, but all of the foregoing selections, without
any exception, are taken from the authentic writings and addresses
of Lincoln as compiled, edited, and authenticated by his private
secretaries, John G. Nicolay and John Hay.
We might go much farther and could find a considerable body of
additional material, but this is sufficient and more than sufficient
for our purpose. In these utterances may be found something of the
determinism that was hammered into Lincoln by the early Baptist
preachers and riveted by James Smith, along with some of the
humanitarianism of Parker and Channing, and much which lay unstratified
in Lincoln's own mind but flowed spontaneously from his pen or dropped
from his lips because it was native to his thinking and had come to be
a component part of his life. Anyone who cares to do so may piece these
utterances together and test his success in making a creed out of them.
They lend themselves somewhat readily to such an arrangement.
In the following arrangement no liberties have been taken except to
change the past tense to the present, or the plural to the singular,
and to add connectives, and preface the words "I believe." Except for
changes such as these, which in no way modify the sense or natural
force of the utterances, the creed which follows is wholly in the words
of Abraham Lincoln. A very little tampering with the text would have
made smoother reading, but this is not necessary. It has the simplicity
and the rugged honesty of the man who said these words.
THE CREED OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN HIS OWN WORDS
I believe in God, the Almighty Ruler of Nations, our great and good and
merciful Maker, our Father in Heaven, who notes the fall of a sparrow,
and numbers the hairs of our heads.
I believe in His eternal truth and justice.
I recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and
proven by all history that those nations only are blest whose God is
the Lord.
I believe that it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own
their dependence upon the overruling power of God, and to invoke the
influence of His Holy Spirit; to confess their sins and transgressions
in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will
lead to mercy and pardon.
I believe that it is meet and right to recognize and confess the
presence of the Almighty Father equally in our triumphs and in those
sorrows which we may justly fear are a punishment inflicted upon us for
our presumptuous sins to the needful end of our reformation.
I believe that the Bible is the best gift which God has ever given to
men. All the good from the Saviour of the world is communicated to us
through this book.
I believe the will of God prevails. Without Him all human reliance is
vain. Without the assistance of that Divine Being, I cannot succeed.
With that assistance I cannot fail.
Being a humble instrument in the hands of our Heavenly Father, I desire
that all my works and acts may be according to His will; and that it
may be so, I give thanks to the Almighty, and seek His aid.
I have a solemn oath registered in heaven to finish the work I am in,
in full view of my responsibility to my God, with malice toward none;
with charity for all; with firmness in the right as God gives me to
see the right. Commending those who love me to His care, as I hope in
their prayers they will commend me, I look through the help of God to a
joyous meeting with many loved ones gone before.
APPENDICES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
APPENDIX I
EXTRACT FROM NEWTON BATEMAN'S LECTURE ON LINCOLN WITH VARIANTS OF THE
FAREWELL ADDRESS, AT SPRINGFIELD, FEBRUARY 11, 1861.
BOTH for its own value as an incident in the life of Mr. Lincoln
and because it affords us opportunity of understanding the accuracy
of Newton Bateman's verbal memory, the following is quoted from his
lecture on Abraham Lincoln, a lecture delivered many times in the later
years of his life and printed by his family in 1899 after his death:
"On the eleventh of February, 1861, on the day preceding his
fifty-second birthday, Mr. Lincoln set out for Washington. He had
sent special invitations to a few of his old friends to accompany him
as far as Indianapolis. That I was included in the number, I shall
be pardoned for remembering with peculiar pleasure. That note of
invitation is preserved among my most cherished memorabilia of Abraham
Lincoln. I shall ever regret that imperative official duties would not
allow me to join the party.
"But I accompanied him to the railroad station, and stood by his
side on the platform of the car, when he delivered that memorable
farewell to his friends and neighbors. Of those, an immense concourse
had assembled to bid him good-by. The day was dark and chill, and a
drizzling rain had set in. The signal bell had rung, and all was in
readiness for the departure, when Mr. Lincoln appeared on the front
platform of the special car--removed his hat, looked out for a moment
upon the sea of silent, upturned faces, and heads bared in loving
reverence and sympathy, regardless of the rain; and, in a voice broken
and tremulous with emotion and a most unutterable sadness, yet slow
and measured and distinct and with a certain prophetic far-off look
which no one who saw can ever forget, began:
"'My friends, no one, not in my position can appreciate the sadness I
feel at this parting. To this people I owe all that I am. Here I have
lived more than a quarter of a century. Here my children were born,
and here one of them lies buried. I know not how soon I shall see you
again. A duty devolves upon me which is greater, perhaps, than that
which has devolved upon any other man since the days of Washington. He
never would have succeeded, except for the aid of Divine Providence,
upon which he at all times relied. I feel that I cannot succeed
without the same divine aid which sustained him; and upon the same
Almighty Being I place my reliance and support. And I hope you, my
friends, will pray that I may receive that divine assistance, without
which I cannot succeed, and with which success is certain. Again, I
bid you all an affectionate farewell.'
"His pale face was literally wet with tears as he re-entered the
car, and the train rolled out of the city, which Abraham Lincoln
was to enter no more--till, his great work finished he would come
back from the war, a victor and a conqueror though with the seal of
death upon his visage. Some politicians derided the solemn words of
that farewell--but I knew they were the utterances of his inmost
soul--never did speech of man move me as that did. Seeing every
mournful tremor of those lips--noting every shadow that flitted
over that face--catching every inflection of that voice--the words
seemed to drop, every one, into my heart, and to be crystallized in
my memory. I hurried back to my office, locked the door (for I felt
that I must be alone), wrote out the address from memory and had it
published in the city papers in advance of the reporters. And when
the reports of the stenographers were published, they differed from
mine in only two or three words, and as to even those, I have always
believed that mine were right for the speech was engraved on my
heart and my memory, and I had but to copy the engraving."--_Abraham
Lincoln_, an address by Hon. Newton Bateman, LL.D., published by the
Cadmus Club, 1899, Galesburg.
Mr. Lincoln's Farewell Address, as given by Mr. Bateman in the
foregoing quotation, would appear to have undergone some revision by
him after its printing. He says that he furnished it to the press and
that it came out in advance of the version taken down by the reporter.
On this point his memory appears to be correct. The _Illinois State
Journal_ of February 12, 1861, contains a report of Mr. Lincoln's
address, which is almost certainly that furnished by Mr. Bateman.
_Lincoln's Farewell Address as Printed in the Illinois State Journal,
February 12, 1860, probably from the notes of Hon. Newton Bateman._
"Friends, no one who has never been placed in a like position, can
understand my feelings at this hour, nor the oppressive sadness I
feel at this parting. For more than a quarter of a century I have
lived among you, and during all that time I have received nothing but
kindness at your hands. Here I have lived from my youth until now I am
an old man. Here the most sacred ties of earth were assumed; here all
of my children were born, and here one of them lies buried. To you,
dear friends, I owe all that I have, all that I am. All the strange,
checkered past seems now to crowd upon my mind. Today I leave you:
I go to assume a task more difficult than that which devolved upon
General Washington. Unless the great God who assisted him shall be
with me and aid me, I must fail. But if the same Omniscient Mind and
the same Almighty Arm that directed and protected him shall guide and
support me, I shall not fail; I shall succeed. Let us all pray that
the God of our fathers may not forsake us now. To Him I commend you
all; permit me to ask that with equal sincerity [the word is printed
security but corrected with pen] and faith, you all will invoke His
wisdom and guidance for me. With these few words I must leave you--for
how long I know not. Friends, one and all, I must now bid you an
affectionate farewell."
_The So-called Shorthand Report_
The so-called shorthand report appears on close examination not to
be a shorthand report, but is that which appeared in the Chicago and
other papers from the Hay and Lincoln revision, more or less garbled in
telegraphic transmission.
_The Lincoln-Hay Version of the Farewell Address_
"This address was correctly printed for the first time in the Century
Magazine for December, 1887, from the original manuscript, having
been written down after the train started, partly by Mr. Lincoln's
own hand and partly by that of his private secretary from his
dictation."--NICOLAY AND HAY, _Life of Lincoln_, II, 291.
It is thus apparent that we do not have any verbatim report of the
precise words which Lincoln uttered; but the Illinois Historical
Society has accepted this as the accredited version. It is certainly
that which Lincoln wished to be remembered as having said; but it is
quite possible that in one or two of the variant words Bateman may have
recalled it more accurately than Lincoln himself:
"My friends: No one not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling
of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these
people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century and
have passed from a youth to an old man. Here my children have been
born and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when or whether ever
I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested
upon Washington. Without the assistance of that Divine Being who
ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot
fail. Trusting in Him, who can go with me and remain with you and be
everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be
well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will
commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell."
APPENDIX II
"HIGH-HANDED OUTRAGE AT UTICA"[72]
By ARTEMUS WARD
BISHOP FOWLER and other lecturers and authors have drawn for us
beautiful pictures of Lincoln reading to his Cabinet a chapter in the
Bible before submitting his draft of the Emancipation Proclamation.
The true story of that incident is related in the foregoing pages. It
may be that some readers who are unfamiliar with the now little-read
writings of "Artemus Ward" will be glad to know precisely what it was
that the President read on that day; and as the chapter is very short,
it will be given herewith.
No form of literature is more evanescent than humor. The fun-loving
public of one generation labors hard to discover the reasons why other
generations laughed over the old-time jokes. But there are elements
in Artemus Ward that still provoke a smile. The chapter which amused
Lincoln on that day related to the virtue of a community which would
not permit the exhibition of Artemus Ward's famous Wax Works because
the reproduction of the Last Supper contained the figure of Judas.
Some reader may need to be told that there was no such show. The
author of this and the other burlesques that bore the name of Artemus
Ward (Charles F. Browne), presented himself in these sketches as a
good-natured humbug, running a "highly moral show" with "Wax-figgers"
and other attractions. He was never so delightful as when disclosing
his own shams, as when the mob pulled the hay out of the fat man.
Browne's book had a chapter in which he assisted Lincoln to form his
Cabinet. His first assistance was to turn out all the office-seekers
by threatening to turn his "Boy Constrictor" in among them; and then
advised Mr. Lincoln to fill his Cabinet with Showmen, all of whom were
honest and had nary a politic; "for particulars see small bills."
This and other chapters delighted Lincoln; but the one he read to his
Cabinet just before presenting the second draft of the Emancipation
Proclamation, was the following:
_High-handed Outrage at Utica_
In the Faul of 1856, I showed my show in Utiky, a trooly grate sitty in
the State of New York.
The people gave me a cordyal recepshun. The press was loud in her
prases.
1 day as I was giving a description of my Beests and Snaiks in my usual
flowry stile what was my skorn & disgust to see a big burly fellew
walk up to the cage containin my wax figgers of the Lord's Supper, and
cease Judas Iscarrot by the feet and drag him onto the ground. He then
commenced fur to pound him as hard as he cood.
"What under the son are you abowt?" cried I.
Sez he, "What did you brung this pussylanermus cuss here fur?" & he hit
the wax figger another tremjis blow on the hed.
Sez I, "You egrejes ass, that air's a wax figger--a representashun of
the false 'Postle."
Sez he, "That's all very well fur you to say but I tell you, old man,
that Judas Iscarrot can't show hisself in Utiky by a darn site!" with
whuch observashun he caved in Judassis hed. The young man belonged to 1
of the first famerlies in Utiky. I sood him, and the Joory brawt in a
verdick of Arson in the 3rd degree.
APPENDIX III
THE CONVERSION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
By the REV. EDWARD L. WATSON
THE religion of Abraham Lincoln is so much in debate that I feel called
upon to give the following narrative of an event of which little seems
to be known--and which is of real importance in understanding the
man. He has been called an infidel--an unbeliever of varying degrees
of blatancy. That he was a Christian in the real sense of the term is
plain from his life. That he was converted during a Methodist revival
seems not to be a matter of common report. The personal element of this
narrative is necessary to unfold the story. In 1894 I was appointed
to the pastorate of the Hennepin Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church,
Minneapolis, Minn., by Bishop Cyrus D. Foss, being transferred from
Frederick, Md., a charge in Baltimore Conference. It was in October
that we entered the parsonage, which was a double house, the other
half being rented by the trustees. Shortly after our occupancy of the
church house William B. Jacquess moved into the rented half of the
property, and through this fact I became acquainted with Col. James F.
Jacquess, his brother. At this time Colonel Jacquess was an old man of
eighty years or more, of commanding presence and wearing a long beard
which was as white as snow. His title grew out of the fact of his
being the commanding officer of the Seventy-third Illinois Volunteer
Infantry, known as the Preacher Regiment. Its name was given through
the publication in the Cincinnati _Commercial_ in September, 1862, of
the roster of its officers:
Colonel--Rev. James F. Jacquess, D.D., late president of Quincy College.
Lieutenant-Colonel--Rev. Benjamin F. Northcott.
Major--Rev. William A. Presson.
Captains--Company B, Rev. W. B. M. Colt; Company C, Rev. P. McNutt;
Company F, Rev. George W. Montgomery; Company H, Rev. James I.
Davidson; Company I, Rev. Peter Wallace; Company K, Rev. R. H. Laughlin.
Six or seven of the twenty lieutenants were also licensed Methodist
preachers. Henry A. Castle, sergeant-major, was the author of the
article and a son-in-law, if I mistake not, of Colonel Jacquess.
The history of this regiment is in brief, as follows: It was organized
at the instance of Governor Dick Yates, under Colonel Jacquess, in
August, 1862, at Camp Butler, in Illinois, and became part of General
Buell's army. It fought nobly at Perryville, and in every battle in
which the Army of the Cumberland was engaged, from October, 1862,
to the rout of Hood's army at Nashville. Its dead were found at
Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, where Colonel Jacquess
won especial distinction, and in the succession of battles from
Chattanooga to the fall of Atlanta. It was frequently complimented by
the commanding generals and was unsurpassed in bravery and endurance.
It left the State one of the largest, and returned one of the smallest,
having lost two-thirds of its men in its three years' service.
Colonel Jacquess was its only colonel and came home disabled by wounds
received at Chickamauga, where two horses were shot under him. He
refused to the last (1897) to receive a pension, until in his extreme
old age, at the urgent request of the Society of the Survivors of
the Seventy-third Illinois, he allowed it to be applied for. He
pathetically said: "My grandfathers were Revolutionary soldiers and
you could get up a row if you mentioned pensions. My father and my
uncles were in the War of 1812, and would take none. I had hoped not
to receive one--but I am unable now to do anything, and it has been my
desire, and not the fault of the government, that I have never received
a pension." These words were spoken in 1897--and not long afterward
Colonel Jacquess went to his reward.
Toward the end of the war President Lincoln sent Colonel Jacquess as a
secret emissary to arrange for peace and the settlement of the slave
question, so as to avert further shedding of blood. His adventures in
this role are of thrilling interest. The foregoing is told to show
the quality of the man whom it was my privilege to meet in 1896, when
he was in extreme old age. The honors conferred upon him by President
Lincoln and the confidence reposed in him grew out of events which
preceded the war. This was no other than the conversion of Mr. Lincoln
under the ministry of the Rev. James F. Jacquess, at Springfield, Ill.,
in the year 1839. The Rev. James F. Jacquess was stationed at this new
town--then of but a few thousand inhabitants--in 1839, when Lincoln
met him during a series of revival services conducted in the Methodist
Episcopal Church. Lincoln had but recently come to the town--having
removed from New Salem, which was in a decadent state. As a member
of the Legislature, Lincoln had been a chief agent in establishing
the State capital at Springfield, and though in debt and exceedingly
poor, he hoped to find friends and practice in the growing town. He
was then thirty years of age and had had few advantages of any sort.
It was on a certain night, when the pastor preached from the text, "Ye
must be born again," that Lincoln was in attendance and was greatly
interested. After the service he came round to the little parsonage,
and like another Nicodemus, asked, "How can these things be?" Mr.
Jacquess explained as best he could the mystery of the new birth and at
Lincoln's request, he and his wife kneeled and prayed with the future
President. It was not long before Mr. Lincoln expressed his sense of
pardon and arose with peace in his heart.
The narrative, as told thus far, is as my memory recalled it. Since
writing it, the same as told by Colonel Jacquess has recently been
discovered by me in Minutes of the Proceedings of the Eleventh
Annual Reunion Survivors Seventy-third Regiment, Illinois Infantry,
Volunteers (page 30), a copy of which is before me. This meeting, the
last (probably), that Colonel Jacquess attended, was held Tuesday and
Wednesday, September 28, 29, 1897, in the Supreme Court room of the
State Capitol Building, Springfield, Ill. To quote Colonel Jacquess:
"The mention of Mr. Lincoln's name recalls to my mind an occurrence
that perhaps I ought to mention. I notice that a number of lectures
are being delivered recently on Abraham Lincoln. Bishop Fowler has
a most splendid lecture on Abraham Lincoln, but they all, when they
reach one point run against a stone wall, and that is in reference
to Mr. Lincoln's religious sentiments. I happen to know something on
that subject that very few persons know. My wife, who has been dead
nearly two years, was the only witness of what I am going to state to
you as having occurred. Very soon after my second year's work as a
minister in the Illinois Conference, I was sent to Springfield. There
were ministers in the Illinois Conference who had been laboring for
twenty-five years to get to Springfield, the capital of the State.
When the legislature met there were a great many people here, and it
was thought to be a matter of great glory among the ministers to be
sent to Springfield. But I was not pleased with my assignment. I felt
my inability to perform the work. I did not know what to do. I simply
talked to the Lord about it, however, and told Him that unless I had
help I was going to run away. I heard a voice saying to me, 'Fear not,'
and I understood it perfectly. Now I am coming to the point I want to
make to you. I was standing at the parsonage door one Sunday morning,
a beautiful morning in May, when a little boy came up to me and said:
'Mr. Lincoln sent me around to see if you was going to preach today.'
Now, I had met Mr. Lincoln, but I never thought any more of Abe Lincoln
than I did of any one else. I said to the boy: 'You go back and tell
Mr. Lincoln that if he will come to church he will see whether I am
going to preach or not.' The little fellow stood working his fingers
and finally said: 'Mr. Lincoln told me he would give me a quarter if I
would find out whether you are going to preach.' I did not want to rob
the little fellow of his income, so I told him to tell Mr. Lincoln that
I was going to try to preach. I was always ready and willing to accept
any assistance that came along, and whenever a preacher, or one who had
any pretense in that direction, would come along I would thrust him
into my pulpit and make him preach, because I felt that anybody could
do better than I could.
"The church was filled that morning. It was a good-sized church, but
on that day all the seats were filled. I had chosen for my text the
words: 'Ye must be born again,' and during the course of my sermon I
laid particular stress on the word 'must.' Mr. Lincoln came into the
church after the services had commenced, and there being no vacant
seats, chairs were put in the altar in front of the pulpit, and Mr.
Lincoln and Governor French and wife sat in the altar during the
entire services, Mr. Lincoln on my left and Governor French on my
right, and I noticed that Mr. Lincoln appeared to be deeply interested
in the sermon. A few days after that Sunday Mr. Lincoln called on me
and informed me that he had been greatly impressed with my remarks on
Sunday and that he had come to talk with me further on the matter. I
invited him in, and my wife and I talked and prayed with him for hours.
Now, I have seen many persons converted; I have seen hundreds brought
to Christ, and if ever a person was converted, Abraham Lincoln was
converted that night in my house. His wife was a Presbyterian, but from
remarks he made to me he could not accept Calvinism. He never joined my
church, but I will always believe that since that night Abraham Lincoln
lived and died a Christian gentleman."
Here ends the narrative of Colonel Jacquess. Now compare that which
my memory preserved for the past thirteen years and the Colonel's own
printed account, and the discrepancies are small. It is with pleasure
I am able to confirm my memory by the words of the original narrator.
It is with no small degree of pleasure that I am able to prove that
Methodism had a hand in the making of the greatest American. Colonel
James F. Jacquess has gone to his reward, but it is his honor to have
been used by his Master to help in the spiritualization of the great
man who piloted our national destinies in a time of exceeding peril. It
is an honor to him, and through him to the denomination of which he was
a distinguished member.
BALTIMORE, MD.
_Methodist Christian Advocate_
November 11, 1909.
APPENDIX IV
THE REED LECTURE
THE LATER LIFE AND RELIGIOUS SENTIMENTS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN[73]
WHILE the fate and future of the Christian religion in nowise depends
upon the sentiments of Abraham Lincoln, yet the life and character
of this remarkable man belong to the public, to tell for evil or for
good on coming generations; and as the attempt has been made to impute
to him the vilest sentiments, even to his dying day, it is fitting
and just that the weakness and infidelity charged upon his later life
should not go down unchallenged to posterity. The latest biography of
Mr. Lincoln, published under the name of Col. W. H. Lamon, but with
the large co-operation of Mr. W. H. Herndon, concerns itself with the
endeavor to establish certain allegations injurious to the good name of
the illustrious man, whose tragic and untimely death has consecrated
his memory in the hearts of a grateful nation. Two charges in this
biography are worthy of especial notice and disproof,--the charge
that he was born a bastard, and the charge that he died an infidel.
Mr. Lamon begins his pleasing task by raising dark and unfounded
insinuations as to the legitimacy of his hero, and then occupies from
twenty-five to thirty pages with evidence to prove that Mr. Lincoln was
a confirmed infidel, and died playing a "sharp game on the Christian
community"; that, in his "morbid ambition for popularity," he would
say good Lord or good Devil, "adjusting his religious sentiments to
his political interests." In meeting these insinuations and charges I
shall necessarily have recourse to political documents and papers,
but it shall not be my aim to parade Mr. Lincoln's political opinions,
further than to eliminate from his writings and speeches his religious
sentiments.
As to the ungracious insinuation that Mr. Lincoln was not the child
of lawful wedlock, I have only to say that it is an insinuation
unsupported by a shadow of justifiable evidence. The only thing on
which Mr. Lamon bases the insinuation is, that _he_ has been unable to
find any record of the marriage Mr. Lincoln's parents. Just as if it
would be any evidence against the fact of their marriage if no record
could be found. If every man in this country is to be considered as
illegitimate who cannot produce his parents' certificate of marriage,
or find a record of it in a family Bible anywhere, there will be
a good many very respectable people in the same category with Mr.
Lincoln. Such an insinuation might be raised with as much plausibility
in the case of multitudes of the early settlers of the country. It
is a questionable act of friendship thus to rake "the short and
simple annals of the poor," and upon such slender evidence raise an
insinuation so unfounded. But I am prepared to show that if Mr. Lamon
has found no record of the marriage of Mr. Lincoln's parents, it is
simply because he has not extended his researches as faithfully in
this direction as he has in some others. It appears that there is a
well-authenticated record of the marriage of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy
Hanks, and, in the same connection, the birth of Abraham Lincoln and
Sarah Lincoln. Hearing that the Hon. J. C. Black, of Champaign, Ill.,
a warm personal friend of Mr. Lincoln, had in his possession several
papers given to him soon after Mr. Lincoln's death by a member of the
family, and among them a leaf from the family Bible containing the
record of the marriage of Mr. Lincoln's parents, I at once telegraphed
to him in relation to this record, and have in my possession the
following letter, which will explain itself:
CHAMPAIGN, ILL., Jan. 8th, 1873.
J. A. REED:
DEAR SIR--Your telegram of the 7th reached me this A. M. In reply
permit me to say that I was in possession of the leaf of which you
speak, and which contained the record of the marriage of Thos. Lincoln
and Nancy Hanks, the birth of Abraham Lincoln and Sarah Lincoln. The
leaf is very old, and is the last page of the Apocrypha. It was given
to me, with certificate of genuineness, by Dennis F. Hanks in 1866.
I have sent both record and certificate to Wm. P. Black, attorney at
law, 131 La Salle Street, Chicago, Ill., and duly by him delivered to
the Illinois Historical Association. Hon. I. N. Arnold called on my
brother and obtained the originals for use in a revised edition of his
life of Lincoln, and I understand that since then they have passed
into the hands of Robt. Lincoln, Esq., where they were when I last
heard from them. Hoping that what I have written may be of some use, I
remain
Very truly yours,
J. C. BLACK.
Presuming that the first of Colonel Lamon's libels upon Mr. Lincoln's
memory is thus sufficiently disposed of, I proceed to consider the
charges against his religious life and character. The best refutation
of these charges lies on the pages of the book in which they are
advanced. However skeptical Mr. Lincoln may have been in his earlier
life, Mr. Lamon persists in asserting and attempting to prove that he
continued a confirmed skeptic to the last: that he was an unbeliever in
the truth of the Christian religion, and died an infidel; that, while
"he was by no means free from a kind of belief in the supernatural,
he rejected the great facts of Christianity as wanting the support
of authentic evidence"; that, "during all the time of his residence
at Springfield and in Washington, he never let fall from his lips an
expression which remotely implied the slightest faith in Jesus Christ,
as the Son of God and the Saviour of men"; that "he was at all times an
infidel." From twenty-five to thirty pages of evidence is produced in
proof of this allegation.
But all this positive statement as to Mr. Lincoln's persistent and
final infidelity is contradicted by the admissions of the book itself.
It is admitted that there did come a time in Mr. Lincoln's life at
Springfield when he began to affiliate with Christian people, and to
give his personal presence and support to the Church. It is admitted
that he did so plausibly identify himself with the Christian community
that "his New Salem associates and the aggressive deists with whom he
originally united at Springfield gradually dispersed and fell away from
his side." Here is the fact, openly and squarely stated by Mr. Lamon,
that Mr. Lincoln, even while at Springfield, did make such a change in
his sentiments and bearing toward the Christian community, that "the
aggressive deists and infidels with whom he originally united gradually
dispersed and fell away from his side." He no sooner turned away from
them in sentiment than they turned away from him in fact.
But how does the biographer attempt to explain this? How does he
account for this admitted and observable change in Mr. Lincoln's life,
that relieved him of the presence of so much aggressive deistical
company? Why, by means of an explanation that kills the accusation
itself--an explanation that fastens upon Mr. Lincoln the very charge
of hypocrisy against which he professes to defend him. He accounts for
this admitted and observable change in the attitude of Mr. Lincoln
towards the Christian community, not by supposing that there was any
sincerity about it, but by affirming that he was trying "to play a
sharp game on the Christians of Springfield!" It was because "he was
a wily politician, and did not disdain to regulate his religious
manifestations with reference to his political interests"; and because,
"seeing the immense and augmenting power of the churches, he aspired
to lead the religious community, foreseeing that in order to his
political success he must not appear an enemy within their gates." And
yet, if we are to believe Colonel Lamon, he was an enemy all the while
at heart; and while attending church, and supporting the Gospel, and
making Sabbath school speeches, and speeches before the Bible Society,
he was at heart a disbeliever of the truth and an antagonist of the
cause which he professed to be supporting. In other words, he was all
these years playing the arrant hypocrite; deceiving the Christian
community and wheedling it for political purposes; playing the role
of a gospel hearer in the sanctuary, and a hail fellow well met with
profane fellows of the baser sort in the private sanctum of infidelity
or "aggressive deism."
Strangely enough, however, Colonel Lamon and his companion in
authorship not only praise Mr. Lincoln's greatness, but laud
his singular conscientiousness and integrity of motive almost
to perfection. Says Mr. Herndon, "He was justly entitled to the
appellation, Honest Abe"; "honesty was his pole star; conscience, the
faculty that loves the just and the right, was the second great quality
and _forte_ of Mr. Lincoln's character." "He had a deep, broad, living
conscience. His great reason told him what was true and good, right and
wrong, just or unjust, and his conscience echoed back the decision,
and it was from this point he spoke and wove his character and fame
among us. His conscience ruled his heart." [See Herndon's letter in
Carpenter's _Life of Lincoln_.]
In confirmation of this, Mr. Lamon goes on to show that Mr. Lincoln
scorned everything like hypocrisy or deceit. In fact he makes his hero
to be such a paragon of honesty and conscious integrity of motive
that he would not undertake to plead a bad cause before a jury if he
could possibly shift the responsibility over on to some other lawyer,
whose conscience was not quite so tender. He brings in the testimony
of a most reputable lawyer of another place in confirmation of this,
who states: "That for a man who was for a quarter of a century both a
lawyer and a politician, Mr. Lincoln was the most honest man I ever
knew. He was not only morally honest but intellectually so. He could
not reason falsely; if he attempted it he failed. In politics he never
would try to mislead. At the bar, when he thought he was wrong, he was
the weakest lawyer I ever saw." "In a closely contested case where Mr.
Lincoln had proved an account for a client, who was, though he knew it
not, a very slippery fellow, the opposing attorney afterward proved a
receipt clearly covering the entire case. By the time he was through
Mr. Lincoln was missing. The court sent for him to the hotel. 'Tell the
judge,' said Mr. Lincoln, 'that I can't come; my hands are dirty and I
came over to clean them.'"
Page after page is thus taken to show Mr. Lincoln's singular
conscientiousness and honesty, his incapability of hypocrisy or deceit,
as a lawyer, a politician and a gentleman. And yet these consistent
biographers go back on all this testimony of their own mouths when they
come to explain the admitted change in his life when he began to lean
toward the church, and the "aggressive deists" parted company with him.
Then they find it convenient to call him a "wily politician," who is
"playing a sharp game with the Christians"; "the cautious pretender
who does not disdain to regulate his religious manifestations with
reference to his political interests." They saddle upon him the vilest
hypocrisy and deceit, and make him "act the liar's part," in order to
send him down to posterity an infidel. On one page they reason that Mr.
Lincoln could not have made any such admissions of his belief in the
Christian religion as have been maintained, as such admissions would be
contrary to his well-known character; on the next page they affirm that
Mr. Lincoln could not act the hypocrite; and on a third they do not
hesitate to attribute to him the very grossest duplicity, in their zeal
to fasten on him the charge of permanent skepticism. They go back on
their own logic, eat their own argument, and give the lie to the very
charge they are laboring with such considerable pains to establish.
The book, therefore, I repeat, bears on its own pages the best
refutation of the charge it makes against Mr. Lincoln. Surely, such
serious inconsistency of statement, such illogical absurdity, even,
could hardly have escaped the notice of the biographers if some
preconceived opinion had not prejudiced their minds and blinded their
eyes. The _animus_ of the book and the purpose for which it was written
are only too apparent.
Perhaps it might suffice to rest the refutation of this charge against
Mr. Lincoln's religious character on the internal evidence of Colonel
Lamon's volume with which I have thus far been occupied. But there is
something to be said concerning the authenticity and accuracy of the
testimony by which the charge seems to be supported.
I have been amazed to find that the principal persons whose testimony
is given in this book to prove that their old friend lived and died
an infidel, never wrote a word of it, and never gave it as their
opinion or allowed it to be published as covering their estimate of
Mr. Lincoln's life and religious views. They were simply familiarly
interviewed, and their testimony misrepresented, abridged and distorted
to suit the purpose of the interviewer, and the business he had on hand.
The two gentlemen whose names are most relied upon, and who stand first
on the list of witnesses to establish the charge these biographers
have made, are the Hon. John T. Stuart, and Col. Jas. H. Matheny, of
Springfield, old and intimate friends of Mr. Lincoln.
Hon. John T. Stuart is an ex-member of Congress, and was Mr. Lincoln's
first law partner,--a gentleman of the highest standing and ability in
his profesion, and of unimpeachable integrity. Mr. Lamon has attributed
to Mr. Stuart testimony the most disparaging and damaging to Mr.
Lincoln's character and opinions,--testimony which Mr. Stuart utterly
repudiates, both as to language and sentiment, as the following letter
shows:--
SPRINGFIELD, Dec. 17th, 1872.
REV. J. A. REED:
DEAR SIR--My attention has been called to a statement in relation to
the religious opinions of Mr. Lincoln, purporting to have been made by
me and published in Lamon's _Life of Lincoln_. The language of that
statement is not mine; it was not written by me, and I did not see it
until it was in print.
I was once interviewed on the subject of Mr. Lincoln's religious
opinions, and doubtless said that Mr. Lincoln was in the earlier part
of his life an infidel. I could not have said that "Dr. Smith tried
to convert Lincoln from infidelity so late as 1858, and couldn't do
it." In relation to that point, I stated, in the same conversation,
some facts which are omitted in that statement, and which I will
briefly repeat. That Eddie, a child of Mr. Lincoln, died in 1848 or
1849, and that he and his wife were in deep grief on that account.
That Dr. Smith, then Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of
Springfield, at the suggestion of a lady friend of theirs, called upon
Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln, and that first visit resulted in great intimacy
and friendship between them, lasting till the death of Mr. Lincoln,
and continuing with Mrs. Lincoln till the death of Dr. Smith. I stated
that I had heard, at the time, that Dr. Smith and Mr. Lincoln had much
discussion in relation to the truth of the Christian religion, and
that Dr. Smith had furnished Mr. Lincoln with books to read on that
subject, and among others one which had been written by himself, some
time previous, on infidelity; and that Dr. Smith claimed that after
this investigation Mr. Lincoln had changed his opinion, and become
a believer in the truth of the Christian religion: that Mr. Lincoln
and myself never conversed upon that subject, and I had no personal
knowledge as to his alleged change of opinion. I stated, however, that
it was certainly true, that up to that time Mr. Lincoln had never
regularly attended any place of religious worship, but that after that
time he rented a pew in the First Presbyterian Church, and with his
family constantly attended the worship in that church until he went to
Washington as President. This much I said at the time, and can now add
that the Hon. Ninian W. Edwards, the brother-in-law of Mr. Lincoln,
has, within a few days, informed me that when Mr. Lincoln commenced
attending the First Presbyterian Church he admitted to him that his
views had undergone the change claimed by Dr. Smith.
I would further say that Dr. Smith was a man of very great ability and
on theological and metaphysical subjects had few superiors and not
many equals.
Truthfulness was a prominent trait in Mr. Lincoln's character, and it
would be impossible for any intimate friend of his to believe that he
ever aimed to deceive, either by his words or his conduct.
Yours truly,
JOHN T. STUART.
Similar testimony, to the extent of a page or more of finely printed
matter, Mr. Lamon attributes to Col. Jas. H. Matheny, of Springfield,
Ill., an old acquaintance of Mr. Lincoln, an able lawyer and of high
standing in the community. Mr. Matheny testifies that he never wrote a
word of what is attributed to him; that it is not a fair representation
of either his language or his opinions, and that he never would have
allowed such an article to be published as covering his estimate of Mr.
Lincoln's life and character. Here is what this gentleman has to say,
given over his own signature:--
SPRINGFIELD, Dec. 16th, 1872.
REV. J. A. REED:
DEAR SIR--The language attributed to me in Lamon's book is not from
my pen. I did not write it, and it does not express my sentiments of
Mr. Lincoln's entire life and character. It is a mere collection of
sayings gathered from private conversations that were only true of Mr.
Lincoln's earlier life. I would not have allowed such an article to
be printed over my signature as covering my opinion of Mr. Lincoln's
life and religious sentiments. While I do believe Mr. Lincoln to have
been an infidel in his former life, when his mind was as yet unformed,
and his associations principally with rough and skeptical men, yet
I believe he was a very different man in later life; and that after
associating with a different class of men, and investigating the
subject, he was a firm believer in the Christian religion.
Yours truly,
JAS. H. MATHENY.
It is unnecessary that I occupy more space with the rest of the
testimony, as there is none of it given over the signature of anybody,
save that which is given over the signature of W. H. Herndon. All aside
from this bears evidence of having been manipulated to suit the purpose
for which it is wanted, and is either contradictory, or fails to cover
the whole of Mr. Lincoln's life. Judge Davis, for instance, is made to
say: "I don't know anything about Lincoln's religion, nor do I think
anybody else knows anything about it." Of what value can the testimony
be that is prefaced with such declarations of knowing nothing about the
matter?
John G. Nicolay is made to testify, that "to his knowledge Mr. Lincoln
did not change his views after he came to Washington"; and yet he
states in immediate connection that "he does not know what his views
were, never having heard him explain them."
Jesse W. Fell either testifies, or is made to testify, to Mr. Lincoln's
skeptical notions. And yet Mr. Fell admits that it "was eight or ten
years previous to his death" that he believed him to be entertaining
the views of which he speaks, "and that he _may have changed his
sentiments_ after his removal from among us." All this would be strange
kind of testimony on which to convict Mr. Lincoln of murder in the
presence of a judge and jury. But with such evidence it is sought to
convict him of infidelity.
We are enabled to see, therefore, in the light of this revelation,
of what "trustworthy materials" this book is composed; how much Mr.
Lamon's "names and dates and authorities, by which he strengthens his
testimony," are to be depended upon; and what reason unsuspecting or
sympathizing critics and journalists have for arriving at the sage
conclusion that Mr. Lincoln "was, in his habit of thought, heterodox
in the extreme to the close of his life, and a very different man from
what he was supposed to be." The evidence of this book, so far as the
prominent witnesses are concerned, and so far as it relates to the
later years of Mr. Lincoln's life, is not only utterly untrustworthy,
but even an ingenious and romantic invention.
Having shown what claims Mr. Lamon's book has to being the "only fair
and reliable history" of Mr. Lincoln's life and views, and of what
"trustworthy materials" it is composed, I shall now give the testimony
I have collected to establish what has ever been the public impression,
that Mr. Lincoln was in his later life, and at the time of his death, a
firm believer in the truth of the Christian religion. The infidelity of
his earlier life is not so much to be wondered at, when we consider the
poverty of his early religious instruction and the peculiar influences
by which he was surrounded. Gideon Welles, formerly Secretary of the
Navy, in a recent article in the _Galaxy_, in accounting for the late
and peculiar manifestation of faith which Mr. Lincoln exhibited, says:
"It was doubtless to be attributed in a great measure to the absence
of early religious culture--a want of educational advantages in his
youthful frontier life." This, together with the fact that his youth
and early manhood were spent chiefly among a rough, illiterate and
skeptical class of people, is amply confirmed by Mr. Lamon's narrative.
On the same authority it appears that Mr. Lincoln had in his former
life read but few books, and that everything he had read, of an
intellectual character, bearing on the truth of the Bible, was of an
infidel sort. It does not appear that he had ever seen, much less
read, a work on the evidences of Christianity till his interview with
Rev. Dr. Smith in 1848. We hear of him as reading Paine, Voltaire and
Theodore Parker, but nothing on the other side. The men by whom he
was surrounded in his earlier life, it seems, kept him well supplied
with their kind of literature. He was familiar with some of the master
spirits of infidelity and theism, but had never grappled with the
evidences of Christianity as presented by the great defenders of the
Christian faith.
But then Mr. Lincoln's mind was of too much greatness and intellectual
candor to remain the victim of a false theory in the presence of
clear and sufficient intellectual testimony. And he no sooner, in the
providence of God, was placed in possession of the truth, and led to
investigate for himself, than he stood firmly and avowedly on the side
of the Christian religion.
In proof of this statement, I first of all produce the testimony of
Rev. Dr. Smith, Mr. Lincoln's pastor at Springfield. In relation to Mr.
Lincoln's opinion of Dr. Smith, it is only necessary for me to state
that he stood so high in his esteem, that he gave him the appointment
of Consul to Glasgow. Dr. Smith was in Scotland at the time of Mr.
Lincoln's death, and soon after this sad event, Mr. Herndon conceived
the notion of collecting materials for his intended biography. He
accordingly addressed a letter to Dr. Smith in Scotland, with the view
of getting some information from so respectable a source to prove that
Mr. Lincoln had died an infidel. In this however he was mistaken, to
his evident chagrin and disappointment. I shall give some extracts from
Dr. Smith's printed letter, which is to be found in the Springfield
_Journal_ of March, 1867, in which he gives his opinion of both Mr.
Herndon and Mr. Lincoln.
EAST CAINNO, SCOTLAND, 24th Jan. 1867.
W. H. HERNDON, ESQ.:
SIR--Your letter of the 20th Dec. was duly received. In it you ask me
to answer several questions in relation to the illustrious President
Abraham Lincoln. With regard to your second question, I beg leave to
say it is a very easy matter to prove that while I was pastor of the
First Presbyterian Church of v Springfield, Mr. Lincoln did avow his
belief in the divine authority and inspiration of the Scriptures, and
I hold that it is a matter of the last importance not only to the
present, but all future generations of the Great Republic, and to all
advocates of civil and religious liberty throughout the world, that
this avowal on his part, and the circumstances attending it, together
with very interesting incidents illustrative of the excellence of his
character, in my possession, should be made known to the public. I
am constrained, however, most respectfully to decline choosing you
as the medium through which such a communication shall be made by
me. [Omitting that portion of the letter which bears on Mr. Herndon,
I give what is written in vindication of Mr. Lincoln.--J. A. R.] My
intercourse with Abraham Lincoln convinced me that he was not only an
honest man, but preëminently an upright man--ever ready, so far as in
his power, to render unto all their dues.
It was my honor to place before Mr. Lincoln arguments designed
to prove the divine authority and inspiration of the Scriptures,
accompanied by the arguments of infidel objectors in their own
language. To the arguments on both sides Mr. Lincoln gave a most
patient, impartial, and searching investigation. To use his own
language, he examined the arguments as a lawyer who is anxious
to reach the truth investigates testimony. The result was the
announcement by himself that the argument in favor of the divine
authority and inspiration of the Scriptures was unanswerable. I could
say much more on this subject, but as you are the person addressed,
for the present I decline. The assassin Booth, by his diabolical
act, unwittingly sent the illustrious martyr to glory, honor, and
immortality; but his false friend has attempted to send him down
to posterity with infamy branded on his forehead, as a man who,
notwithstanding all he suffered for his country's good, was destitute
of those feelings and affections without which there can be no real
excellency of character. Sir, I am with due respect your obedient
servant,
JAS. SMITH.
N.B.--It will no doubt be gratifying to the friends of Christianity
to learn that very shortly after Mr. Lincoln became a member of my
congregation, at my request, in the presence of a large assembly at
the annual meeting of the Bible Society of Springfield, he delivered
an address the object of which was to inculcate the importance of
having the Bible placed in possession of every family in the State. In
the course of it he drew a striking contrast between the Decalogue and
the moral codes of the most eminent lawgivers of antiquity, and closed
(as near as I can recollect) in the following language: "It seems to
me that nothing short of infinite wisdom could by any possibility have
devised and given to man this excellent and perfect moral code. It is
suited to men in all conditions of life and includes all the duties
they owe to their Creator, to themselves, and to their fellow-men."
J. S.
Mr. Lamon, aware of the importance of Dr. Smith's testimony, attempts
to break the force of it by the _argumentum ad nauseam_. He alludes
to Dr. Smith as a gentleman of "slender abilities for the conversion
of so distinguished a person, and as having in his zeal composed a
heavy tract out of his own head to suit the particular case, and that
he afterwards _drew_ the acknowledgment from Mr. Lincoln that it was
unanswerable," and that he himself is the only man that can testify
of such an admission on the part of Mr. Lincoln. This is all the
gratuitous assertion of a man who is driven to the wall for evidence
to prove his point. Now John T. Stuart has already testified to Dr.
Smith's abilities as a theologian and a metaphysician having few
superiors. He testifies to the fact that Dr. Smith's work was not
written to suit Mr. Lincoln's case. It was written previously, before
Dr. Smith ever saw Mr. Lincoln. Nor is it true that Dr. Smith is the
only one who can testify to an admission on the part of Mr. Lincoln of
a change of sentiments. There are many residents of Springfield, both
ladies and gentlemen, who can testify to this admission. I give one or
two letters as a sample.
SPRINGFIELD, Dec. 24th, 1872.
REV. JAS. REED:
DEAR SIR--A short time after the Rev. Dr. Smith became pastor of
the First Presbyterian Church in this city, Mr. Lincoln said to
me, "I have been reading a work of Dr. Smith on the evidences of
Christianity, and have heard him preach and converse on the subject,
and I am now convinced of the truth of the Christian religion."
Yours truly,
N. W. EDWARDS.
SPRINGFIELD, Jan. 6th, 1873.
REV. J. A. REED:
DEAR SIR--Not long after Dr. Smith came to Springfield, and I think
very near the time of his son's death, Mr. Lincoln said to me, that
when on a visit somewhere, he had seen and partially read a work of
Dr. Smith on the evidences of Christianity which had led him to change
his views about the Christian religion; that he would like to get that
work to finish the reading of it, and also to make the acquaintance of
Dr. Smith. I was an elder in Dr. Smith's church, and took Dr. Smith
to Mr. Lincoln's office and introduced him, and Dr. Smith gave Mr.
Lincoln a copy of his book, as I know, at his own request.
Yours, &c.,
THOS. LEWIS.
There are many others who can testify that Mr. Lincoln, both publicly
and privately while at Springfield, made the admission of his belief
in the truth of the Christian religion. He did it in most unequivocal
language, in addresses before the Bible Society and in Sabbath school.
I next refer to the testimony of Rev. Dr. Gurley, Mr. Lincoln's pastor
at Washington City. Even if, before his election to the Presidency,
Mr. Lincoln had entertained the sentiments attributed to him, after he
had reached the pinnacle of political elevation, there was certainly
no necessity for him any longer to be "playing a sharp game with the
Christians," and destroying his peace of mind by wearing the mask
of hypocrisy. He was surely free now to worship where he felt most
comfortable. But we no sooner find him in Washington than we find him
settling down under the ministry of Dr. Gurley, a sound and orthodox
minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Dr. Gurley was his intimate
friend, and spiritual counselor and adviser, during the most trying
and difficult time of his life. He was with him not only in the hours
of his personal family bereavement, but when his heart was heavy and
perplexed with the welfare of his country. Having been associated
with Dr. Gurley in the charge of his pulpit for a time previous to
his death, and being intimately acquainted with him, I have had the
opportunity of knowing what his views of Mr. Lincoln's sentiments were.
In the funeral oration which Dr. Gurley delivered in Washington, he
says:
"Probably since the days of Washington no man was ever so deeply and
firmly embedded and enshrined in the hearts of the people as Abraham
Lincoln. Nor was it a mistaken confidence and love. He deserved
it--deserved it all. He merited it by his character, by his acts,
and by the whole tone and tenor of his life.... His integrity was
thorough, all-pervading, all-controlling and incorruptible. He saw his
duty as the Chief Magistrate of a great and imperiled people, and he
determined to do his duty, seeking the guidance, and leaning on the
arm of Him of whom it is written: 'He giveth power to the faint, and
to them that have no might He increaseth strength.'
"Never shall I forget the emphatic and deep emotion with which he said
in this very room, to a company of clergymen who called to pay their
respects to him in the darkest days of our civil conflict: 'Gentlemen,
my hope of success in this struggle rests on that immutable
foundation, the justness and the goodness of God; and when events are
very threatening I shall hope that in some way all will be well in the
end, because our cause is just and God will be on our side.'"
This was uttered when Dr. Gurley was not aware, as I suppose, that Mr.
Lincoln had ever been charged with entertaining infidel sentiments.
While sitting in the study one day with him, conversing on Mr.
Lincoln's character, I asked him about the rumor of his infidelity
then being circulated by Mr. Herndon. He said, "I do not believe a
word of it. It could not have been true of him while here, for I
have had frequent and intimate conversations with him on the subject
of the Bible and the Christian religion, when he could have had no
motive to deceive me, and I considered him sound not only on the truth
of the Christian religion but on all its fundamental doctrines and
teaching. And more than that: in the latter days of his chastened
and weary life, after the death of his son Willie, and his visit
to the battlefield of Gettysburg, he said, with tears in his eyes,
that he had lost confidence in everything but God, and that he now
believed his heart was changed, and that he loved the Saviour, and
if he was not deceived in himself, it was his intention soon to make
a profession of religion." Language to this effect Mr. Lincoln, it
appears, used in conversation with other persons, and I refer next
to the corroborating testimony of Noah Brooks, Esq., now associated
with the New York _Tribune_. This gentleman has already published most
interesting testimony in relation to Mr. Lincoln's religious sentiments
in _Harper's Monthly_ of July, 1865. In order that his testimony may
be fully appreciated, I will here state, on the authority of a mutual
friend, that "Mr. Brooks is himself an earnest Christian man, and
had the appointment of private secretary to the President, to which
office he would have acceded had Mr. Lincoln lived. He was so intimate
with the President that he visited him socially at times when others
were refused admission, took tea with the family, spending evenings
with him, reading to him, and conversing with him freely on social and
religious topics, and in my opinion knows more of the secret inner life
and religious views of Mr. Lincoln, at least during the term of his
presidency, than any man living." The following is a letter which I
have received from Mr. Brooks in relation to his views of Mr. Lincoln's
religious sentiments:
NEW YORK, Dec. 31st, 1872.
REV. J. A. REED:
MY DEAR SIR--In addition to what has appeared from my pen, I will
state that I have had many conversations with Mr. Lincoln, which were
more or less of a religious character, and while I never tried to
draw anything like a statement of his views from him, yet he freely
expressed himself to me as having "a hope of blessed immortality
through Jesus Christ." His views seemed to settle so naturally around
that statement, that I considered no other necessary. His language
seemed not that of an inquirer, but of one who had a prior settled
belief in the fundamental doctrines of the Christian religion. Once
or twice, speaking to me of the change which had come upon him, he
said, while he could not fix any definite time, yet it was after he
came here, and I am very positive that in his own mind he identified
it with about the time of Willie's death. He said, too, that after
he went to the White House he kept up the habit of daily prayer.
Sometimes he said it was only ten words, but those ten words he had.
There is no possible reason to suppose that Mr. Lincoln would ever
deceive me as to his religious sentiments. In many conversations with
him, I absorbed the firm conviction that Mr. Lincoln was at heart a
Christian man, believed in the Saviour, and was seriously considering
the step which would formally connect him with the visible Church on
earth. Certainly, any suggestion as to Mr. Lincoln's skepticism or
infidelity, to me who knew him intimately from 1862 till the time of
his death, is a monstrous fiction--a shocking perversion.
Yours truly,
NOAH BROOKS.
The following extract I add also from Mr. Brooks's article in _Harper's
Monthly_ of July, 1865: "There was something touching in his childlike
and simple reliance on Divine aid, especially when in such extremities
as he sometimes fell into; then, though prayer and reading the
Scriptures was his constant habit, he more earnestly than ever sought
that strength which is promised when mortal help faileth. He said
once, 'I have been many times driven to my knees by the overwhelming
conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, and that of
all about me, seemed insufficient for that day.' At another time he
said,
'I am very sure that if I do not go away from here a wiser man, I
shall go away a better man for having learned here what a very poor
sort of a man I am.'"
Mr. Carpenter, author of _Six Months in the White House_, whose
intimacy with Mr. Lincoln gives importance to his testimony, says that
"he believed Mr. Lincoln to be a sincere Christian," and among other
proofs of it gives another well-authenticated admission (made by Mr.
Lincoln to an estimable lady of Brooklyn, laboring in the Christian
Commission) of a change of heart, and of his intention at some suitable
opportunity to make a profession of religion.
Mr. Newton Bateman, Superintendent of Public Instruction in the
State of Illinois, a gentleman of rare literary attainments, and of
unquestionable veracity, has given very important testimony in relation
to one particular point, more especially, Mr. Lincoln's belief in the
divinity of Jesus Christ. Both Mr. Herndon and Mr. Lamon persist in
asserting that Mr. Lincoln never used the name of Jesus Christ except
to deny His divinity, and that Mr. Bateman is "the sole and only man
who dare say that Mr. Lincoln believed Jesus Christ to be the Son of
God."
Mr. Bateman testifies that in 1860, Mr. Lincoln in conversation with
him used the following language: "I know that there is a God, and
that He hates injustice and slavery. I see the storm coming, and I
know that His hand is in it. If He has a place and a work for me,
and I think He has, I believe I am ready. I am nothing, but truth is
everything. I know I am right, because I know that liberty is right,
for Christ teaches it and Christ is God. I have told them a house
divided against itself cannot stand; and Christ and reason say the
same, and they will find it so," &c. This testimony was originally
given in Holland's _Life of Lincoln_. Mr. Herndon, at first unwilling
to impeach Mr. Bateman's veracity, suggests a doubt "whether he is
correctly reported in Holland's history"; presently, however, summoning
courage, he ventures the affirmation: "On my word the world may take it
for granted that Holland is wrong; that he does not state Mr. Lincoln's
views correctly." He then goes on to say that "between himself and
Dr. Holland, Mr. Bateman is not in a very pleasant situation." We
have seen, however, that Mr. Herndon's "word," in a matter where
his prejudices are so violent and his convictions so obstinate, is
hardly a sufficient denial with which to oppose the deliberate and
unretracted statement of an intelligent and reputable witness. And Mr.
Bateman has no need to be disturbed, so long as the "unpleasantness"
of his situation is occasioned by no more serious discomfort than
Mr. Herndon's unsupported contradiction. As the matter now stands,
Mr. Herndon offers a denial, based on general impressions as to Mr.
Lincoln's character, against the direct, specific, and detailed
testimony of a careful and competent man as to what he heard with his
own ears. Mr. Herndon simply did not hear what Mr. Bateman did hear;
and is in the position of that Irishman on trial for his life, who,
when one witness swore directly that he saw the accused commit the
crime, proposed to put upon the stand a dozen witnesses who could swear
they did _not_ see him.
Mr. Lamon also states that Mr. Bateman is a respectable citizen, whose
general reputation for truth and veracity is not to be impeached,
but his story, as reported in Holland's _Life of Lincoln_, is so
inconsistent with Mr. Lincoln's whole character that it must be
rejected as altogether incredible. Unfortunately, however, for Mr.
Lamon, he has not so impressed us with the trustworthy nature of the
materials of his own book, as that we can afford to distrust the
honesty and integrity of either Dr. Holland or Mr. Bateman for his
sake. If anybody's story of Mr. Lincoln's life and sentiments is to be
"rejected as inconsistent and altogether incredible," the testimony
thus far would seem to indicate that it is Mr. Lamon's story. At least
that is the "unpleasant situation" in which we shall leave the matter,
so far as Mr. Bateman and Dr. Holland are concerned in it.
But Mr. Bateman is not the only one who can testify that Mr. Lincoln
did use the name of the Saviour, and believed him to be the Christ
of God. I have given several instances already in which he used the
name of Christ as his Saviour, and avowed that he loved Him. Moreover,
he could not have avowed his belief in the truth of the Christian
religion, as many witnesses testify, if he did not believe Jesus to be
the Christ of God.
To the various testimony which we have thus far cited it only remains
for me to add the testimony of his own lips. In his address to the
colored people of Baltimore, on the occasion of the presentation of a
copy of the Bible, Mr. Lincoln said: "In regard to this great Book,
I have only to say, it is the best gift which God has ever given to
man. All the good from the Saviour of the world is communicated to us
through this Book."
To the Hon. H. C. Deming, of Connecticut, he said that the "article of
his faith was contained in the Saviour's condensed statement of both
law and gospel--'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy
mind, and thy neighbor as thyself.'"
Mr. Herndon affirms that Mr. Lincoln did not believe in the "Christian
dogma of the forgiveness of sin": he believed that "God would not
and could not forgive sin. He did not believe in forgiveness through
Christ, nor in fact in any doctrine of forgiveness. In reading Mr.
Lincoln's proclamations, however, we find that he does very distinctly
recognize the doctrine of the forgiveness of sin on the part of God,
and very earnestly implores the people to seek the forgiveness of their
sins. In his proclamation of a fast day, August, 1861, are these words:
"And, whereas, it is fit and becoming in all people, at all times, to
acknowledge and revere the supreme government of God; to bow in humble
submission to his chastisements; to confess and deplore their sins and
transgressions, in the full conviction that the fear of the Lord is
the beginning of wisdom, and to pray with all fervency and contrition
for the _pardon_ of their past offenses, and for a blessing on their
present and prospective action," etc.
Read also his proclamation enforcing the observance of the Christian
Sabbath in the Army and Navy, and ask yourself, Could an infidel have
done this?
The President, Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, desires and
enjoins the orderly observance of the Sabbath by the officers and men
in the military and naval service. The importance for man and beast of
the prescribed weekly rest, the sacred rights of Christian soldiers
and sailors, a becoming deference to the best sentiment of a Christian
people, and a due regard for the Divine will, demand that Sunday labor
in the Army and Navy be reduced to the measure of a strict necessity.
The discipline and character of the National forces should not suffer,
nor the cause they defend be imperiled, by the profanation of the
day and the name of the Most High. At this time of public distress,
adopting the words of Washington in 1776, "Men may find enough to do
in the service of God and their country without abandoning themselves
to vice and immorality." The first general order issued by the Father
of his Country, after the Declaration of Independence, indicates the
spirit in which our institutions were founded and should ever be
defended: "The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man
will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier defending
the dearest rights and liberties of his country."
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
Besides all this, we find Mr. Lincoln often using the very language of
the Saviour, as not only expressing but giving the sanction of Divine
authority to his own views and opinions. What a remarkable instance of
it in the solemn words that fell from his lips in his last inaugural,
as he stood on the steps of the Capitol! Standing upon the verge of his
grave, as he was that day, and addressing his last official words to
his countrymen, his lips touched as with the finger of inspiration, he
said:
"The Almighty has His own purposes. 'Woe unto the world because of
offenses, for it must needs be that offenses will come; but woe unto
the man by whom the offense cometh.' If we shall suppose that American
Slavery is one of these offenses which, in the providence of God, must
needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He
now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this
terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall
we discern any departure therein from those Divine attributes which
the believers in a living God always ascribe to him? Fondly do we
hope, fervently do we pray, that the mighty scourge of war may pass
away. Yet if God will that it continue until all the wealth piled by
the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall
be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be
paid with another drawn by the sword, as was said three thousand years
ago, so must it still be said, 'The judgments of the Lord are true and
righteous altogether.'"
Thus it appears, that whether Mr. Lincoln was ever accustomed to
blaspheme the name of Jesus Christ or not, or whether he was ever
accustomed to deny His divinity or not, as his defamers allege, he
is willing, in the last eventful days of his life, standing at the
nation's Capitol, in the hearing of the swelling multitude that hangs
upon his lips, to use the sanction of Divine authority to one of the
most remarkable sentences of his official address.
Hon. Isaac N. Arnold, of Chicago, an intimate acquaintance of Mr.
Lincoln, and who is engaged in a review of his work on Mr. Lincoln's
life, writes me that "from the time he left Springfield, with the
touching request for the prayers of his friends and neighbors, to the
day of his death, his words were the words of a Christian, revering
the Bible, and obeying its precepts. A spirit of reverence and deep
religious feeling pervades nearly all the public utterances and state
papers of his later life."
The following interesting testimony from Rev. Dr. Byron Sunderland, of
the First Presbyterian Church of Washington City, gives us a little
insight into the philosophy of Mr. Lincoln's mind and religious
sentiments:
WASHINGTON CITY, Nov. 15th, 1872.
REV. JAS. A. REED:
DEAR BRO.--It was in the last days of 1862, about the time Mr.
Lincoln was seriously contemplating the issuing of the Emancipation
Proclamation, that I, in company with some friends of the President,
called upon him. After some conversation, in which he seemed disposed
to have his joke and fun, he settled down to a serious consideration
of the subject before his mind, and for one half-hour poured forth a
volume of the deepest Christian philosophy I ever heard. He began by
saying--
"The ways of God are mysterious and profound beyond all
comprehension--'who by searching can find Him out?' Now, judging after
the manner of men, taking counsel of our sympathies and feelings, if
it had been left to us to determine it, we would have had no war.
And going further back to the occasion of it, we would have had no
slavery. And tracing it still further back, we would have had no evil.
There is the mystery of the universe which no man can solve, and it
is at that point that the human understanding utterly backs down. And
then there is nothing left but for the heart of man to take up faith
and believe and trust where it cannot reason. Now, I believe we are
all agents and instruments of Divine providence. On both sides we are
working out the will of God; yet how strange the spectacle! Here is
one half the nation prostrated in prayer that God will help them to
destroy the Union and build up a government upon the cornerstone of
human bondage. And here is the other half equally earnest in their
prayers and efforts to defeat a purpose which they regard as so
repugnant to their ideas of human nature and the rights of society, as
well as liberty and independence. They want slavery; we want freedom.
They want a servile class; we want to make equality practical as far
as possible. And they are Christians, and we are Christians. They
and we are praying and fighting for results exactly the opposite.
What must God think of such a posture of affairs? There is but one
solution--self-deception. Somewhere there is a fearful heresy in our
religion, and I cannot think it lies in the love of liberty and in the
aspirations of the human soul.
"What I am to do in the present emergency time will determine. I hold
myself in my present position and with the authority vested in me
as an instrument of Providence. I have my own views and purposes, I
have my convictions of duty, and my notions of what is right to be
done. But I am conscious every moment that all I am and all I have is
subject to the control of a Higher Power, and that Power can use me or
not use me in any manner, and at any time, as in His wisdom and might
may be pleasing to Him.
"Nevertheless, I am no fatalist. I believe in the supremacy of the
human conscience, and that men are responsible beings; that God has a
right to hold them, and will hold them, to a strict personal account
for the deeds done in the body. But, sirs, I do not mean to give you a
lecture upon the doctrines of the Christian religion. These are simply
with me the convictions and realities of great and vital truths,
the power and demonstration of which I see now in the light of this
our national struggle as I have never seen before. God only knows
the issue of this business. He has destroyed nations from the map of
history for their sins. Nevertheless my hopes prevail generally above
my fears for our own Republic. The times are dark, the spirits of ruin
are abroad in all their power, and the mercy of God alone can save us."
So did the President discourse until we felt we were imposing on his
time, and rising we took our leave of him, confident that he would be
true to those convictions of right and duty which were derived from so
deep a Christian philosophy.
Yours truly,
BYRON SUNDERLAND.
The Rev. Dr. Miner, Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Springfield,
who was intimately acquainted with Mr. Lincoln, and visited him
and his family in Washington previous to his death, has left most
interesting testimony in reference to Mr. Lincoln's religious
sentiments, confirmatory of what has been given, and which is preserved
in the archives of the University of Chicago. Dr. Miner sums up his
impressions of Mr. Lincoln as follows: "All that was said during that
memorable afternoon I spent alone with that great and good man is
engraven too deeply on my memory ever to be effaced. I felt certain
of this fact, that if Mr. Lincoln was not really an experimental
Christian, he was acting like one. He was doing his duty manfully,
and looking to God for help in time of need; and, like the immortal
Washington, he believed in the efficacy of prayer, and it was his
custom to read the Scriptures and pray himself." And here I would
relate an incident which occurred on the 4th of March, 1861, as told
me by Mrs. Lincoln. Said she: "Mr. Lincoln wrote the conclusion of
his inaugural address the morning it was delivered. The family being
present, he read it to them. He then said he wished to be left alone
for a short time. The family retired to an adjoining room, but not so
far distant but that the voice of prayer could be distinctly heard.
There, closeted with God alone, surrounded by the enemies who were
ready to take his life, he commended his country's cause and all
dear to him to God's providential care, and with a mind calmed with
communion with his Father in heaven, and courage equal to the danger,
he came forth from that retirement ready for duty."
With such testimony, gathered from gentlemen of the highest standing,
and much more that I could add to confirm it, I leave the later life
and religious sentiments of Abraham Lincoln to the dispassionate and
charitable judgment of a grateful people. While it is to be regretted
that Mr. Lincoln was not spared to indicate his religious sentiments by
a profession of his faith in accordance with the institutions of the
Christian religion, yet it is very clear that he had this step in view,
and was seriously contemplating it, as a sense of its fitness and an
apprehension of his duty grew upon him. He did not ignore a relation
to the Christian church as an obsolete duty and an unimportant matter.
How often do we hear him thanking God for the churches! And he was fast
bringing his life into conformity to the Christian standard. The coarse
story-telling of his early days was less indulged in in his later life.
Hon. Isaac N. Arnold, and Mr. Carpenter, as well as Mr. Lincoln's
physician at Washington, Dr. Stone, all testify that "while his stories
and anecdotes were racy, witty, and pointed beyond all comparison,"
yet they "never heard one of a character needing palliation or
excuse." His physician, Dr. Stone, testifies that "Mr. Lincoln was the
purest-hearted man he ever came in contact with."
His disposition to attend the theater in later life (if to anyone it
seems to need apology) was not so much a fondness for the playhouse
as a relief from his mental anxiety, and an escape from the incessant
pressure of visitors at the White House. "It is a well-known fact,"
says Dr. Miner, "that he would not have been at the theater on that
fatal night, but to escape the multitude who were that evening pressing
into the White House to shake hands with him. It has been said that
Mrs. Lincoln urged her husband to go to the theater against his will.
This is not true. On the contrary, she tried to persuade him not to
go, but he insisted. He said, 'I must have a little rest. A large and
overjoyed, excited people will visit me tonight. My arms are lame
by shaking hands with the multitude, and the people will pull me to
pieces.' He went to the theater, not because he was interested in the
play, but because he was care-worn and needed quiet and repose. Mrs.
Lincoln informed me that he seemed to take no notice of what was going
on in the theater from the time he entered it till the discharge of
the fatal pistol. She said that the last day he lived was the happiest
of his life. The very last moments of his conscious life were spent
in conversation with her about his future plans, and what he wanted
to do when his term of office expired. He said he wanted to visit
the Holy Land and see the places hallowed by the footprints of the
Saviour. He was saying there was no city he so much desired to see as
_Jerusalem_; and with that word half spoken on his tongue, the bullet
of the assassin entered his brain, and the soul of the great and good
President was carried by angels to the New Jerusalem above."
APPENDIX V
TWO HERNDON LETTERS CONCERNING LINCOLN'S RELIGION
BRIEF ANALYSIS OF LINCOLN'S CHARACTER
SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Sept. 10, 1887.
J. E. REMSBURG, Oak Mills, Kansas.
FRIEND REMSBURG: Today I send you Speed's lecture on "Lincoln," which
you can keep till I send for it--and this will probably be never.
It is a very poor lecture if the lecture contains his knowledge of
Lincoln, and, I guess it does. It shows no insight into Lincoln at all,
though it is well enough written. It is said that Speed had a world of
influence over Lincoln. This may be so, and yet I never saw it. It is
said by Nicolay and Hay that Lincoln poured out his soul to Speed. Bah!
Nonsense! Probably, except in his love scrapes, Lincoln never poured
out his soul to any mortal creature at any time and on no subject. He
was the most secretive, reticent, shut-mouthed man that ever existed.
You had to _guess_ at the man after years of acquaintance and then you
must look long and keenly before you _guessed_, or you would make an
ass of yourself.
You had to take some leading--great leading and well-established--fact
of Lincoln's nature and then follow it by accurate and close analysis
wherever it went.
This process would lead you correctly if you knew human nature and
its laws. Lincoln was a mystery to the world; he loved principle,
but moved ever just to suit his own ends; he was a trimmer among
men, though firm on laws and great principles; he did not care for
men; they were his tools and instruments; he was a cool man--an
unsocial one--an abstracted one, having the very quintessence of the
profoundest policies. Lincoln's heart was tender, full of mercy, if
in his presence some imaginative man presented the subject to him.
"Out of sight, out of mind" may truthfully be said of Lincoln. If I am
correct, what do you think of the stories afloat about what Lincoln
said in relation to his religion, especially said to strangers? I
send you two "Truth-Seekers" which you will please read where I speak
of Lincoln in three letters, pages marked at the top. You will learn
something of Lincoln's nature in those three letters of mine--two of
them on Lincoln's religion, and one to a minister. Please read them.
There are some quotations in these letters which I have never had time
to send you as I recollect it. They are good things--one on Laws of
Human Nature and one on the Pride-Haughtiness of Christians. Lincoln
delivered a lecture in which these quotations are to be found. I heard
him deliver it.
W. H. HERNDON.
P. S.--Mr. Speed was my boss for three or four years and Lincoln,
Speed, Hurst, and I slept in the same room for a year or so. I was
clerk for Speed. Speed could make Lincoln do much about simple
measures, policies, not involving any principle. Beyond this power
Speed did not have much influence over Lincoln nor did anyone else.
A CARD AND A CORRECTION
I wish to say a few short words to the public and private ear. About
the year 1870 I wrote a letter to F. E. Abbott, then of Ohio, touching
Mr. Lincoln's religion. In that letter I stated that Mr. Lincoln was
an infidel, sometimes bordering on atheism, and I now repeat the same.
In the year 1873 the Right Rev. James A. Reed, pastor and liar of this
city, gave a lecture on Mr. Lincoln's religion, in which he tried to
answer some things which I never asserted, except as to Mr. Lincoln's
infidelity, which I did assert and now and here affirm. Mr. Lincoln
was an infidel of the radical type; he never mentioned the name of
Jesus except to scorn and detest the idea of miraculous conception.
This lecture of the withered minister will be found in Holland's Review
[_Scribner's Monthly_]. I answered this lecture in 1874, I think, in
this city to a large and intelligent audience--had it printed and sent
a copy to Holland, requesting, in polite language, that he insert it
in his Review as an answer to the Reed lecture. The request was denied
me, as a matter of course. He could help to libel a man with Christian
courage, and with Christian cowardice refuse to unlibel him.
Soon thereafter, say from 1874 to 1882, I saw floating around in the
newspaper literature, such charges as "Herndon is in a lunatic asylum,
well chained," "Herndon is a pauper," "Herndon is a drunkard," "Herndon
is a vile infidel and a knave, a liar and a drunkard," and the like.
I have contradicted all these things under my own hand, often, except
as to my so-called infidelity, liberalism, free religious opinions,
or what-not. In the month of October, 1882, I saw in and clipped out
of the Cherryvale _Globe-News_ of September, 1882, a paper published
in the State of Kansas, the following rich and racy article; it is as
follows:
"_Lincoln's Old Law Partner a Pauper_
"Bill Herndon is a pauper in Springfield, Ill. He was once worth
considerable property. His mind was the most argumentative of any
of the old lawyers in the State, and his memory was extraordinary.
For several years before Lincoln was nominated for the Presidency,
Herndon was in some respects the most active member of the firm,
preparing the greatest number of cases for trial and making elaborate
arguments in their behalf. It is said that he worked hard with Lincoln
in preparing the memorable speeches by the man who afterward became
President, during the debates between Lincoln and Douglas in 1858, and
in constructing the Cooper Union address delivered by Lincoln a short
time before the war. Herndon, with all his attainments, was a man who
now and then went on a spree, and it was no uncommon thing for him
to leave an important lawsuit and spend several days in drinking and
carousing. This habit became worse after Lincoln's death, and like
poor Dick Yates, Herndon went down step by step till his old friends
and associates point to him as a common drunkard."
There are three distinct charges in the above article. First, that
I am a pauper. Second, that I am a common drunkard, and third, that
I was a traitor or false to my clients. Let me answer these charges
in their order. First, I am not a pauper. Never have been and expect
never to be. I am working on my farm, making my own living with my own
muscle and brain, a place and a calling that even Christianity with its
persecution and malignity can never reach me to do much harm. I had, it
is true, once a considerable property, but lost much of it in the crash
and consequent crisis of 1873, caused in part by the contraction of the
currency, in part by the decline in the demand for the agricultural
products which I raise for sale, in part by the inability by the people
to buy, etc., etc., and for no other reasons.
Second, I never was a common drunkard, as I look at it, and am not
now. I am and have been for years an ardent and enthusiastic temperance
man, though opposed to prohibition by law, by any force or other
choker. The time has not come for this. It is a fact that I once, years
ago, went on a spree; and this I now deeply regret. It however is in
the past, and let a good life in the future bury the past. I have not
fallen, I have risen, and all good men and women will applaud the deed,
always excepting a small, little, bitter Christian like the Right Rev.
pastor and liar of this city, to whom I can trace some of the above
charges. In my case this minister was an eager, itching libeler, and
what he said of me is false--nay, a willful lie.
Third, I never was a traitor or untrue to my clients or their
interests. I never left them during the progress of a trial or at other
times for the cause alleged, drunkenness. I may have crept--slid--out
of a case during the trial because I had no faith in it, leaving Mr.
Lincoln, who had faith in it, to run it through. My want of faith in a
case would have been discovered by the jury and that discovery would
have damaged my client and to save my client I dodged. This is all
there is on it, and let men make the most of it.
Now, let me ask a question. Why is all this libeling of me? I am a
mere private citizen, hold no office, do not beg the people to give me
one often. My religious ideas, views, and philosophy are today, here,
unpopular. But wait, I will not deny my ideas, views, or philosophy for
office or station or the applause of the unthinking multitude. I can,
however, answer the above question. It, the libeling, is done because
I did assert and affirm by oral language and by print that Mr. Lincoln
was an infidel, sometimes bordering on atheism, and yet he was among
the best, greatest, and noblest of mankind; he was a grand man. Why do
not the Christians prove that Mr. Lincoln was an evangelical Christian
and thus prove me a liar? One of my friends, for whom I have great
respect, says, that "Mr. Lincoln was a _rational_ Christian because he
believed in morality." Why not say Lincoln was _rational_ Buddhist,
as Buddhism teaches morality? Why not say Lincoln was _rational_
Mohammedan? By the way, let me say here, that I have a profound respect
for an earnest, manly, and sincere Christian or an Atheist, a profound
respect for an earnest, manly, and sincere Infidel or theist or any
other religion, or the men who hold it, when that belief is woven into
a great manly character to beautify and greaten the world.
These charges, and I do not know how many more, nor of what kind, have
been scattered broadcast all over the land, and have gone into every
house, have been read at every fireside till the good people believe
them, believe that I am nearly as mean as a little Christian, and all
because I told the truth and stand firm in my conviction. Respectfully,
W. H. HERNDON.
November 9, 1882.
[Privately printed by H. E. Barker, Springfield, 1917, edition limited
to 75 copies.]
APPENDIX VI
THE IRWIN ARTICLE WITH LETTERS CONCERNING LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS BELIEF
Another Valuable Contribution to the History of the Martyr
President.--Was Abraham Lincoln an Infidel?--A Painstaking
Examination of the Case by An Old Acquaintance.--Important Testimony
of Contemporaneous Witnesses.--History of the Famous Manuscript of
1833.--Mentor Graham Says It Was a Defence of Christianity.--The Burned
Manuscript Quite a Different Affair.--The Charge of Infidelity in 1848,
Said to Have Been Disproved at the Time.--Letter of Hon. Wm. Reid, U.
S. Consul at Dundee, Scotland.
By B. F. IRWIN
PLEASANT PLAINS, ILL., April 20, 1874.
EDITOR STATE JOURNAL: For some time, I believe, in 1870 there has
been a constant and continued effort upon the part of the Hon. W. H.
Herndon, Springfield, Ill., to convince and prove to the world that
Abraham Lincoln lived and died an infidel. He has succeded, as I
suppose, in proving that proposition to his own entire satisfaction and
probably to the satisfaction of some others. The last effort I have
noticed upon the subject was Herndon's reply to the Rev. J. A. Reed, in
a lecture delivered in the court house in Springfield, some months ago.
A few days after that lecture was delivered, I was urgently requested
by a prominent minister of the gospel and friend of Lincoln's (and also
a lady friend now residing in Kansas) to review that speech. I promised
each of those persons I would do so at the proper time. That time has
now arrived, and I propose noticing a few points in the address of Mr.
Herndon,
"THE RELIGION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN"
also a point or two in his Abbott letter and I think I will be able to
show that Mr. Herndon, himself, never knew or understood really what
the faith of Lincoln was or what the
RELIGIOUS BELIEF OF LINCOLN
was. I wish it now and here understood that Mr. Herndon's candor or
veracity I do not call in question. Nor will I designedly say anything
to offend him. He and I have been for twenty-five years good personal
friends, and I hope that friendship may continue. Mr. Herndon has a
right to prove Mr. Lincoln an infidel if he can. I claim the same right
to prove that
LINCOLN WAS NOT AN INFIDEL
if I can. If Mr. Lincoln was an infidel, as Herndon says, it is proper
for the world to know it. If he was not an infidel the charge is wrong
and a slander, for infidelity in the nineteenth century is no honor to
any man, dead or alive.
Mr. Herndon, in his speech, uses this language: "One side of this
question can be proved. It is admitted on all hands that Lincoln once
was an infidel; that he wrote a small book, or essay, or pamphlet
against Christianity, and that he (Lincoln) continued an unbeliever
until late in life." Herndon further says: "It is a rule of law, as
well as a rule of common sense, that when a certain state or condition
of affairs is once proved to exist, the presumption is, that it still
exists until the contrary is proved." Now I stand by that proposition
as a true one. Will Mr. Herndon do so? But
HE IS WOEFULLY MISTAKEN
in his statement that "all admit that Lincoln was once an infidel." I
have never yet heard one single man express the belief that Lincoln was
an infidel, either early or late in life, while I am confident I have
heard one hundred different persons express astonishment at Mr. Herndon
writing and publishing Lincoln to the world an infidel. Mr. Herndon, it
is true, did have opportunities and advantages over others in knowing
Mr. Lincoln's religious opinions. But other men had some opportunities
as well as Mr. Herndon, and to them I shall have to appeal, for I do
not claim to personally know anything about Mr. Lincoln's religious
faith. Though personally acquainted with Lincoln for twenty-five years,
and often in his office, I never heard him say a word on the subject
of Christianity or religious belief. Hence, my opinion of Lincoln's
faith or belief is based on the testimony of those who do know, who had
it
FROM LINCOLN HIMSELF;
and I believe them, for the weight of testimony is certainly against
Mr. Herndon. The Scriptures of Truth lay it down as a Divine rule, that
the evidence of two or three witnesses is better than one. Common law
lays down the same rule, borrowed from Divine authority, and our courts
are governed by it in their decisions.
Mr. Herndon, in his
REPLY TO MR. REED,
says, "He is talking to establish the truth of a controversy between
those who hold that Lincoln was a disbeliever, and those who hold that
he died a Christian (a believer in Christ)" and then says: "If I fail
to establish my point it will be because of the manner and method of
presenting the facts." I have read that lecture carefully over, and I
fail to find any proof of Herndon's proposition that Lincoln ever was
an infidel or an unbeliever. The nearest I see to it, is the
STATEMENT OF J. H. MATHENY
He uses this language, substantially: "Mr. Lincoln's earlier life is
his whole life and history in Illinois up to the time he left for
Washington City. He (Lincoln) was, as I understand it, a confirmed
infidel." Now, Matheny fails to tell us how he got that understanding.
Did he get it from Lincoln? He don't say so, and the reason he don't
say so doubtless is, he got it from some other source--probably from
Herndon. But clearly, to be of any weight as evidence, he must have
that understanding from Mr. Lincoln himself. Mr. Matheny may have some
time in life heard Lincoln use some of the
ARGUMENTS OF TOM PAINE,
or advance infidel ideas, and still not be an infidel. I have heard an
official member of the Methodist Church in this town advance as strong
infidel sentiments as Tom Paine ever did, and you would insult the
man to say he was an infidel. So any Christian may use the language or
advance some of the sentiments of Tom Paine and be far from an infidel.
Lincoln may have done all that, and still not be an infidel. I do not
believe Mr. Lincoln ever was an infidel, and I can truly state and
say just what Matheny said. I understood Lincoln was an infidel, but
I never believed the statement true. Matheny understood it: in other
words, he had heard it but knew nothing about the facts in the case. I
have seen Mr. Matheny since, and he states that he
NEVER HAD IT FROM LINCOLN
that he was an infidel, and he never believed it.
If Mr. Herndon is in possession of the evidence, in writing or
otherwise, to prove that Lincoln was an infidel, either earlier or
later in life, he ought to bring forward the proof to sustain his
proposition: for he has long since learned that the statement alone
fails to satisfy the public mind that Lincoln ever was an infidel. Mr.
Herndon in his
ABBOTT LETTER
truly says the charge of infidelity was made against Mr. Lincoln when
he was a candidate for Congress in 1848; and then adds: "Mr. Lincoln
did not deny the charge, because it was true." The charge of infidelity
was made against Lincoln at that time, and I suppose Lincoln made no
public denial of the charge, for the reason that the canvass was being
made on political grounds, and not religious faith or belief. This much
was said at the time, as I well remember to be the facts in the case.
About the time of building the flatboat on the Sangamon River in 1830,
when Lincoln was quite a young man, a
RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSY
was the topic in which Lincoln took a part; and in the argument Lincoln
used the language that, according to the history of the case, in the
New Testament, Christ was a bastard and his mother a base woman. This
he may have used at the time, as young men sometimes do use vain
language, and seventeen years afterward, when he was a candidate for
Congress against
PETER CARTWRIGHT
a Methodist preacher, that vain remark was remembered, and Tom Paine
having used similar language, Lincoln was published in some of the
papers as an infidel. The above was the explanation published at the
time, and the charge of infidelity did no harm. Had Lincoln been known
as an infidel, or believed to be one at that time, I am certain he
would have been beaten badly by Cartwright in the canvass.
Again, Mr. Herndon, in his Abbott letter (I believe it is), says: "It
is not to be found in print that Lincoln ever used the word Christ." In
fact, Herndon says, "he never did use it, only to deny Christ as the
son of God." Now that statement may be true, that he did not use the
term Christ: but if Mr. Herndon will examine the speeches of the public
men of this nation, I believe I am safe in saying that Mr. Lincoln used
and
QUOTED MORE SCRIPTURE
than any man in the nation; and that he quoted the parables and
language of Christ oftener than any public man living. Not only did
Lincoln quote Scripture, but he used it as being of Divine authority,
and applicable to the affairs of earth. Mr. Herndon gives us to
understand that Lincoln did not believe the New Testament Scriptures to
be any more inspired than Homer's songs, Milton's "Paradise Lost," or
Shakspeare. If Herndon is correct, it seems strange Lincoln made no use
of those books. On the 16th of January, 1858,[74] as a foundation for
an argument, he used the language of Christ
"A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF CANNOT STAND,"
in reply to Douglas. In the same campaign he four times used the
parables of Christ; in his second inaugural address--"woe unto the
world because of its offenses"--Christ's language, again.
But I need not multiply quotations. His speeches, proclamations, and
messages are so full of quotations of scripture, always the language
of Christ himself, that if an angel of light should proclaim it
trumpet-tongued from the skies, that Lincoln was an unbeliever in
Christ, I could not believe it. He could not have been an infidel
without being a base hypocrite; and I don't believe a more honest man
lived on earth.
THE EVIDENCE
Now I will take up some evidence on the question being discussed. Mr.
Herndon has said that, in Lincoln's early life, he wrote
A PAMPHLET
book, or manuscript against Christianity. I propose to show that the
manuscript written by Lincoln was
IN FAVOR OF CHRISTIANITY
To do so, I will offer the evidence of Mr. Graham, who knew Lincoln
when he was a boy in Kentucky, with whom Lincoln boarded some two
years; and if any man on earth ought to know Lincoln's religious faith
or belief, that man is Mentor Graham, who was intimate with Lincoln
from the time he came to Illinois to the time he left for Washington
City. I will give the letter in full.
STATEMENT OF MR. GRAHAM
PETERSBURG, ILL., March 17, 1874.
B. F. IRWIN:
SIR--In reply to your inquiries, Abraham Lincoln was living at my
house in New Salem, going to school, studying English grammar and
surveying, in the year 1833. One morning he said to me, "Graham, what
do you think about the anger of the Lord?" I replied, "I believe
the Lord never was angry or mad and never would be; that His loving
kindness endurest forever; that He never changes." Said Lincoln, "I
have a little manuscript written, which I will show you"; and stated
he thought of having it published. Offering it to me, he said he had
never showed it to anyone, and still thought of having it published.
The size of the manuscript was about one-half quire of foolscap,
written in a very plain hand, on the subject of Christianity and a
defense of universal salvation. The commencement of it was something
respecting the God of the universe never being excited, mad, or
angry. I had the manuscript in my possession some week or ten days. I
have read many books on the subject of theology and I don't think in
point of perspicuity and plainness of reasoning, I ever read one to
surpass it. I remember well his argument. He took the passage, "As in
Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive," and followed
up with the proposition that whatever the breach or injury of Adam's
transgressions to the human race was, which no doubt was very great,
was made just and right by the atonement of Christ.
As to Major Hill burning the manuscript, I don't believe he did, nor
do I think he would have done such a thing. About the burning of a
paper by Hill, I have some recollection of his snatching a letter from
Lincoln and putting it into the fire. It was a letter written by Hill
to McNamur. His real name was McNeal. Some of the school children
had picked up the letter and handed it to Lincoln. Hill and Lincoln
were talking about it, when Hill snatched the letter from Lincoln and
put it into the fire. The letter was respecting a young lady, Miss
Ann Rutledge, for whom all three of these gentlemen seemed to have
respect. Yours truly,
MENTOR GRAHAM.
Now the next point I wish to notice is Mr. Herndon's statement, in
his Abbott letter, that Lincoln, in 1846, was charged with being an
infidel. Herndon says he [Lincoln] did not deny the charge, because it
was true. As I have before stated, I admit the charge was made, and I
think at the time there was no public denial by Lincoln, for the reason
that the canvass was made on political grounds, and not religious faith
or belief. Nevertheless, the charge was denied, as the following letter
will show.
STATEMENT OF THOMAS MOSTILLER
PLEASANT PLAINS, ILL., April 28, 1874.
B. F. IRWIN:
SIR--In regard to your inquiry, just received, of what I heard Lincoln
say about a charge of infidelity made against him when a candidate
for Congress in 1847, or '48, it was this. I was present and heard
Josiah Grady ask Lincoln a question or two regarding a charge made
against Lincoln of being an infidel, and Lincoln unqualifiedly denied
the charge of infidelity, and said, in addition, his parents were
Baptists, and brought him up in the belief of the Christian religion;
and he believed in the Christian religion as much as anyone, but
was sorry to say he had or made no pretensions to religion himself.
I can't give his exact words, but would make oath anywhere that he
positively denied the charge made against him of infidelity. That
was the first time I ever heard of the charge of infidelity against
Lincoln.
Grady did not say that he would not vote for Lincoln if he was an
infidel; but my understanding from Grady was, that he would not vote
for Lincoln if he was an infidel, and Grady did, as I suppose, vote
for him. I understood him that he should.
Respectfully,
THOMAS MOSTILLER.
MENARD COUNTY, ILL.
The next evidence I shall offer is that of Isaac Cogdal, an intimate
friend of Lincoln's from the time Lincoln came to Salem, Menard County,
to the time he left for Washington City, and I will let Cogdal speak
for himself.
STATEMENT OF ISAAC COGDAL
April 10, 1874.
B. F. IRWIN: Yours received making inquiries about what I heard
Lincoln say about his religious belief, is this, as near as I can
tell it and recollect. I think it was in 1859, I was in Lincoln's
office in Springfield, and I had a curiosity to know his opinions or
belief religiously; and I called on him for his faith in the presence
of W. H. Herndon. At least Herndon was in the office at the time.
Lincoln expressed himself in about these words: He did not nor could
not believe in the endless punishment of any one of the human race.
He understood punishment for sin to be a Bible doctrine; that the
punishment was parental in its object, aim, and design, and intended
for the good of the offender; hence it must cease when justice is
satisfied. He added that all that was lost by the transgression of
Adam was made good by the atonement: all that was lost by the fall was
made good by the sacrifice, and he added this remark, that punishment
being a "provision of the gospel system, he was not sure but the world
would be better off if a little more punishment was preached by our
ministers, and not so much pardon of sin." I then, in reply, told
Mr. Lincoln he was a sound Universalist, and would advise him to say
but little about his belief, as it was an unpopular doctrine, though
I fully agreed with him in sentiment. Lincoln replied that he never
took any part in the argument or discussion of theological questions.
Much more was said, but the above are the ideas as advanced by Lincoln
there.
Respectfully yours,
ISAAC COGDAL.
The next witness I shall offer on the subject is Jonathan Harnett, of
Pleasant Plains. Mr. Harnett is here. I shall now furnish a statement
over his signature, as he is present and dictates as I write.
DICTATED STATEMENT OF JONATHAN HARNETT
Mr. Harnett says, that in 1858, a short time after he came to Illinois,
he had a curiosity to see Lincoln and went into his office. There were
several others in that he did not know; that religious faith seemed
to be the subject of conversation. After some time was spent in the
controversy, it seemed to be Lincoln's time, and in a few words he
heard Lincoln condense into a small space greater thoughts and larger
ideas, and sounder logic, than he ever heard brought into so small
space. Lincoln, he says, covered more ground in a few words than he
could in a week, and closed up with the restitution of all things to
God, as the doctrine taught in the scriptures, and if anyone was left
in doubt in regard to his belief in the atonement of Christ and the
final salvation of all men, he removed those doubts in a few questions
he answered and propounded to others. After expressing himself,
some one or two took exceptions to his position, and he asked a few
questions that cornered his interrogators and left no room to doubt
or question his soundness on the atonement of Christ, and salvation
finally of all men. He did not pretend to know just when that event
would be consummated, but that it would be the ultimate result, that
Christ must reign supreme, high over all, The Saviour of all; and the
supreme Ruler, he could not be with one out of the fold; all must come
in, with his understanding of the doctrine taught in the scriptures.
[The above statement since writing it has been read to Mr. Harnett and
indorsed by him.]
The next evidence I shall offer is Erasmus Manford, of Chicago. About
1850, he had a debate in Springfield, Ill., with Mr. Lewis. In his
book, "Twenty-five Years in the West," page 219, he says: "I remember
well seeing Mr. Lincoln then punctually every day and night. He often
nodded his head to me when I made a strong point." Does that look as
though Lincoln was an infidel? Manford was discussing the proposition
of the restitution of all things to God which is manifested in Christ
Jesus our Lord. Manford gives the quotation, chapter, and verse,
and Lincoln nods assent to the position. That nodding assent to the
restitution agrees precisely with Mr. Harnett's statement of Lincoln's
position in his presence seven or eight years afterward. Everyone
understands that nodding assent to the argument of a speaker is an
indorsement of what is said, and about equivalent to speaking it
yourself. Manford so understood it: so anyone would understand it.
My next and last witness is W. H. Herndon. In his Abbott lecture in
1870, Herndon says that Lincoln's belief was, that
ALL WOULD BE SAVED,
or none. That remark he frequently or often made; that agrees with
Harnett's statement that he believed all would be saved. When a man
believes all men will be saved, he can then be logical and say all will
be saved or none, and not otherwise. In the same letter, Mr. Herndon
says Mr. Lincoln held that God had a fixed punishment for sin and no
means could bribe him to remit that punishment. That evidence agrees
with Cogdal's statement that sin was to be punished, but not endlessly.
Both Herndon and Cogdal agree in the statement that Lincoln believed
that if our ministers would preach punishment and not so much pardon
the world would be benefited by it.
I am now through with the evidence I shall offer at this time, though I
could add the evidence of a dozen more to the same purport. I think I
have clearly proved that
LINCOLN WAS A UNIVERSALIST
in 1833; that he wrote a manuscript on that subject then; that in 1847
he
DENIED THE CHARGE
of infidelity; that in 1850-58-59 he was still a Universalist. If this
be true when was he an infidel? But to get a clear understanding of
the case, Universalism and infidelity are as far apart as the poles.
Universalism maintains that there is one God, whose nature is love
revealed in our Lord Jesus Christ. This Lincoln certainly believed,
infidelity denies it. Universalism maintains that Christ was the Son
of God; infidelity denies it. Universalism maintains that the Old and
New Testament Scriptures contain a record of God's revelation to man;
infidelity denies it, and says the New Testament is no more inspired
than Homer's songs, Milton's "Paradise Lost," or Shakspeare. My
authority for the infidel view is W. H. Herndon, in his letter.
Before closing, I wish it distinctly understood that if I could show
that
LINCOLN WAS NOT AN INFIDEL
without showing him a Universalist, I would do so; that I am not trying
to bolster up Universalism on Lincoln's faith, as I do not claim to be
a Universalist myself.
There are many points in Mr. Herndon's lecture and letter that I might
notice, but as I am only trying to show that
HERNDON IS WRONG
in his understanding of Lincoln's religious belief, I shall not notice
them, as they do not concern me or the question in dispute.
Mr. Herndon, in his lecture and letter both, says Mr. Lincoln wrote a
manuscript against Christianity. Mr. Graham,
LINCOLN'S TEACHER
at the time, testifies that he had the manuscript in his possession
eight to ten days, read it two or three times carefully and it was
in favor of Christianity and universal salvation. Mr. Mostiller says
Lincoln flatly denied infidelity in 1847, and he would swear to it. Mr.
Harnett heard Lincoln on the atonement in 1858. Mr. Cogdal testifies
to the same in 1859. The character of all these men for truth and
veracity is as good as any man in Sangamon or Menard County. Harnett
and Mostiller are both Methodists, differing politically. Graham and
Cogdal are both Universalists, and agree politically. Mr. Herndon in
his letter says the manuscript was burned by Sam Hill. Mr. Graham
explains it was a letter in regard to a lady,
MISS ANN RUTLEDGE,
that Hill burned. It seems to me Mr. Herndon has got the manuscript
and letter confounded, and shot off hand without taking aim at the
right object. My friend Herndon, at the close of his lecture, derives
consolation from the fact that a true history can be written free from
the fear of fire and stake. Friend Herndon, if your life is certainly
not in danger some true spirit will
DRAG THE TRUTH
out to the light of day.
But hear the closing words of Herndon's lecture; "Now let it be
written in history and on Mr. Lincoln's tomb he died an unbeliever."
Mr. Herndon is in a hurry about it. Be patient, William; wait for the
unfolding of events. The decree has long since gone out; those words
will never be inscribed on
LINCOLN'S TOMB,
nor written in history. When my friend, W. H. Herndon, dies, if he
wishes a monument on a small scale placed over his grave with the
inscription, "Here lies W. H. Herndon, a man who in life held that the
New Testament Scriptures were no more inspired than Homer's songs,
Milton's Paradise Lost, or Shakspeare," or if he desires it, add
"Munchausen's Travels," I will not, for one, object to the inscription.
As regards Mr. Herndon's own belief, he leaves no room for doubt.
B. F. IRWIN.
From the Illinois _State Journal_, Saturday Morning, May 15, 1874.
MORE TESTIMONY
Letter from the Hon. Wm. Reid, U. S. Consul at Dundee, Scotland.
(Dundee, Scotland, Correspondence [March 4, 1874] Portland [Oregon]
_Oregonian_).
The _Weekly Oregonian_ of January last arrived and I am grieved to
see in it opened afresh that controversy over Lincoln's religious
views. Being well conversant with the affairs of the Lincoln family,
knowing Mrs. Lincoln personally, having been in correspondence with
that lady, and having also been of some assistance in a work entitled
"Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln," I may be permitted to speak with
some knowledge of the facts.
Lincoln, when 16 years of age,
IN THE BACKWOODS OF WESTERN INDIANA
heard a sermon by a traveling Presbyterian minister--the Rev. Dr.
Smith--(afterwards of the First Presbyterian Church of Springfield,
Illinois) then a minister of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
The subject was: "Is there no Balm in Gilead? Is there no Physician
there?" The sermon was delivered at the village of Rockfort, four
miles from the small farm of Thomas Lincoln, Abraham's father. There
was a great revival on that occasion. Always a deep thinker, even
when a boy, Lincoln was seriously impressed. Adopting his own words,
he remembered the sermon for more than twenty years afterwards. Book
after book he then read on the authenticity of the Scriptures, and was
satisfied. Many years after delivering that sermon Dr. Smith removed to
Springfield, Illinois.
This same Dr. Smith, I spent two years with here at Dundee, and
attended him to his death in 1871. He was the bosom friend of Lincoln,
and the friend and dearly beloved pastor of the Lincoln family.
Some years after Dr. Smith happened on a Sabbath day, in his church at
Springfield, to re-deliver his sermon (delivered, I think, eighteen
years previous). "Is there no Balm in Gilead? Is there no Physician
there?" Lincoln, always a regular attendant, was there and was much
startled. When the congregation had gone, he sought the preacher. "Dr.
Smith," said he, "was it you who preached that sermon when I was a boy
at Rockfort?" "Yes." "Well," said Mr. Lincoln, "I have never forgotten
that sermon, and never will." I need not narrate what then passed
between them. Sometime after this a discussion arose in Springfield, as
to the credibility of the Scripture. Knowing Lincoln's well-balanced
mind, his studious and deep-thinking nature and downright honesty,
a gentleman, anxious to have his views, asked if he believed the
Scriptures were strictly true. Lincoln answered: "I have investigated
that matter thoroughly, as a lawyer would do, examining testimony, and
I hold that the arguments in favor of the credibility, inspiration, and
Divine authority of the Scripture are unanswerable."
At an annual meeting of the Presbyterian Church of Springfield, or
rather of the Bible Society of that church, Lincoln delivered a long
address on the same subject--the authenticity of the Scriptures. An
able address it was. His arguments are too lengthy for me to narrate.
For seven years, down to the day of his departure for Washington to
ASSUME THE DUTIES OF THE PRESIDENCY,
he was a member of that congregation, and took part and aided in all
benevolent undertakings in connection with the church. Were I allowed
to unfold to the public what is sacred, that which I know of Mr.
Lincoln's inner life during the four years he was President, his memory
would be revered by all Christians for his entire dependence during
that eventful period upon God's guidance, and not on himself. Truly no
man thought less of himself and of his nothingness without God. This is
exemplified in his public life. When assuming the Presidency, what did
he say? Speaking of the contrast of his time to Washington's:
"I feel that I cannot succeed without the same Divine Aid which
sustained him [Washington], and on the same Almighty Being I place my
reliance for support. And I hope that you, my friends, will all pray
that I may receive that Divine assistance, without which I cannot
succeed, but with which success is certain."
If an infidel, then is it possible that Abraham Lincoln could be an
honest man as the world knows he was--and make that assertion? Is it
necessary for me to say more? If so, let me remind you of his words
(1) To that zealous
LADY OF THE CHRISTIAN COMMISSION
during the war, in answer to her views of religion:
If what you have told me is really a correct view, I think I can say
with sincerity that I hope I am a Christian.
(2) To the Philadelphia Church Conference in 1864: Allow me to attest,
in response to your address, the accuracy of its historical statements;
indorse the sentiments it expresses, and thank you in the Nation's name
for the sure promise it gives. God bless the Methodist Church, God
bless all the churches, and blessed be God who giveth us, in this our
great trial, churches!
(3) To the Cabinet on the emancipation of the slaves:
"I made a solemn vow before God that if General Lee were driven from
Pennsylvania, I would crown the result by declaring freedom to the
slaves."
(4) On the same subject [slavery] remember he said: "Whatever appears
to be God's will, I will do."
ONE MORE FINAL PUBLIC ACT
and I am done. At Baltimore he was presented by the negroes of that
city with a copy of the Scriptures. In reply, Lincoln said:
"In regard to the great Book, I have only to say, it is the best gift
which God has given to man. All the good from the Saviour of the world
is communicated to us through this Book. But for that Book we could not
know right from wrong. All those things desirable to man are contained
in it."
It may appear unnecessary for me to repeat Lincoln's
PUBLIC EXPRESSIONS OF RELIGION
in conjunction with what I have issued to the world for the first time,
as to his religious life in private before he was President, but as
my object is to connect his private and public religious expressions
together, and bring them down from the time he was sixteen years old to
his death, and to show that he was, for these thirty years,
UNIFORMLY A CHRISTIAN MAN,
you will pardon my repeating in part what the whole world already
knows. Take Lincoln's expressions altogether as above quoted by me,
and I submit you will find not only an absence of the slightest doubt
of religion on his part, but an entire reliance on God alone for
guiding himself and the events of the world. And yet that foolish
man, Herndon, will say--and I am sorry to see a small portion of the
American press will repeat--that Abraham Lincoln was an Infidel.
Marvelous! I am proud to think I have in my possession--as a reward for
a few insignificant services done by me on account of Mrs. Lincoln--the
great and Martyred President's psalm book, which he used while at the
White House, and I shall retain it as a proud memento for my family, of
"Lincoln the Good--the Saviour of his Country."
A word before I close, as to Mrs. Lincoln. She is a lady of great
merit, and spite of Herndon's mad expression to the contrary, was
dearly loved by the President, as his letters to her will show, and one
does not wonder at it, as her love and regard for him to this day is
even greater than tongue can tell. If the American people understood
Mrs. Lincoln as well as I do, they would respect her equally as they
did Lincoln.
Yours truly,
WILLIAM REED,
United States Consul, Dundee, Scotland.
From the Illinois _State Journal_, Saturday Morning, May 15, 1874.
WHY LINCOLN APPOINTED HIM
Reading (Pa.) _News_
The Rev. James Shrigley who is well known here, was appointed by
President Lincoln a hospital Chaplain during the war. Pending his
confirmation by the United States, a self-constituted committee of
the Young Men's Christian Association called on the President to
protest against the appointment. After Mr. Shrigley's name had been
mentioned the President said: "Oh, yes, I have sent it to the Senate.
His testimonials are highly satisfactory, and the appointment will, no
doubt, be confirmed at an early day."
The young men replied: "But, sir, we have come not to ask the
appointment, but to solicit you to withdraw the nomination, on the
ground that Mr. Shrigley is not evangelical in his sentiments." "Ah!"
said the President, "that alters the case. On what point of doctrine is
the gentleman unsound?" "He does not believe in endless punishment,"
was the reply. "Yes," added another of the committee, "he believes that
even the rebels themselves will finally be saved, and it will never do
to have a man with such views a hospital Chaplain."
The President hesitated to reply for a moment, and then responded with
an emphasis they will long remember: "If that be so, gentlemen, and
there be any way under heaven whereby the rebels can be saved, then for
God's sake let the man be appointed!"
He was appointed.
From the _Daily Illinois State Register_, Friday, April 29, 1881.
APPENDIX VII
"THE CHRISTIAN'S DEFENCE"
THE debate out of which this volume grew was held at Columbus,
Mississippi, in the spring of 1841, between Rev. James Smith and Mr.
C. G. Olmsted. Mr. Olmsted, the author of a work entitled, "The Bible
Its Own Refutation," was a resident of Columbus. Dr. Smith visited
this city during the winter of 1839-1840, and finding the young men
of the place to be very largely under the influence of Mr. Olmsted,
he delivered a series of lectures, especially addressed to the young
men of the place, on "The Natures and Tendencies of Infidelity," and
another upon, "The Evidences of Christianity." While these lectures
were in progress, Dr. Smith was approached by a committee, who
sympathized with Mr. Olmsted's views, and who, with the sanction of Mr.
Olmsted, brought a written challenge to Dr. Smith to meet Mr. Olmsted
in a public discussion of the whole ground at issue between them. Dr.
Smith accepted on condition that he have time for adequate preparation.
He communicated with friends in Great Britain, who procured and sent
to him the latest and best material bearing on the subject. His
book contains reproductions of the supposed Zodiac at Denderah, and
a colored reproduction from the monuments of Egypt of brickmakers,
believed to be Israelites. The researches of Rawlinson were made
available to him, and a considerable body of additional literature.
Because Dr. Smith's book has been spoken of slightingly by men who
never saw it and who had the vaguest possible notion of its content,
and because the book itself is so excessively rare that in the nature
of the case few readers of this volume can have access to it, I have
copied the Title Page, a portion of the advertisement, and the whole of
the very full Table of Contents.
We need not concern ourselves with the question whether Dr. Smith's
line of argument is that which probably would be found most cogent
if a similar debate were to be held at the present day. Sources of
information are now available, of which neither Dr. Smith nor his
opponent could possibly have had any knowledge. But any reader of this
chapter analysis will be compelled to testify that a book which covered
the ground of this outline and did it with logical acumen and force
of reasoning, is not to be spoken of now in terms other than those of
admiration for the industry and earnestness of the author, and the
cogency of the conclusions which he deduced from his premises. One is
prepared to believe from the testimony included in a number of letters
that are reprinted in the advertisement and in the preface that these
lectures produced a profound impression upon those who heard this
discussion.
The more carefully these lectures are examined, the more probable does
it appear that in form and method they would have been likely to make,
what they appear to have made, a very strong impression upon Abraham
Lincoln. It must have been evident to him that Dr. Smith was familiar
with both sides of the question, and Lincoln can but have admired the
courage and ardor with which he went into a discussion so fully in
keeping with methods which Abraham Lincoln himself enjoyed and which
later he employed in his great debate with Douglas. We can well believe
that he spoke with the utmost sincerity when he told Dr. Smith that he
counted the argument unanswerable, and stated to his brother-in-law,
Hon. Ninian W. Edwards, and his associate at the bar, Mr. Thomas Lewis,
that these lectures had modified his own opinion.
NOTICES OF THE DEBATE WHICH LED TO THE PUBLISHING OF THE CHRISTIAN'S
DEFENCE
From the _Southwestern Christian Advocate_, Columbus, Miss., 1841
MR. EDITOR--I have thought that a concise account of this debate might
not be unacceptable to your readers. It is a mortifying fact, that
this city has become FAMOUS--or rather INFAMOUS for the prevalence of
deism and atheism among her citizens. This has been produced in a good
degree by the efforts of an old gentleman by the name Olmsted. Since
his residence here, which has been for about four years, he has been
untiring in his exertions to sow the seeds of moral death in this
community. He has organized his converts into a band, that operates
systematically. He has written a book, which is not exceeded by TOM
PAINE'S _Age of Reason_, for scurrility and ridicule. The old gentleman
is as artful as the old DESTROYER himself; by which means he has
obtained an immense influence over the minds of the young men of this
place.
The circumstances which gave rise to the debate were as follows:
The Rev. James Smith, during a visit in this city, delivered a few
discourses on the dangerous tendencies of infidelity, addressing
himself particularly to the youth. This induced a committee of infidel
gentlemen to address a written challenge to Mr. S., to meet their
champion, Mr. O., in a public debate. Mr. S. by the advice of many
intelligent friends of truth, accepted the challenge. The time arrived,
and the discussion commenced. All was anxiety and interest. The house
was crowded, even the aisles and windows, with attentive hearers. They
arranged to speak alternately, one, two hours each night, and the other
a half hour; so the debate continued two hours and a half each night.
From the representation of Mr. O's talents, learning, and preparation,
we were made to tremble for the results; but we were not a little
disappointed to find the old gentleman fall far below his fame....
He asserted that the Jews did not believe in a future state of
existence, until after the Babylonish captivity; that they borrowed
their doctrines of the immortality of the soul from the nations among
whom they were dispersed--that the Jews believed in a plurality of
gods--that St. Paul was the author of Christianity--that Christianity
encourages polygamy. To prove this last position, he quoted Paul's
directions to Timothy: "Let a bishop be the husband of one wife." And
to crown the mass of absurdities, he endeavored to prove that the
blessed Jesus was a base impostor.
We found Mr. Smith well prepared for the contest. He had his arguments
systematically arranged--had written them all, and read them well.
He proved to a demonstration, the GENUINENESS, AUTHENTICITY and
INSPIRATION of the Old Testament Scriptures. His arguments were
interesting and convincing. His arguments on the New Testament were
equally happy, and if possible, more convincing. The conclusion of
every inquirer after truth, must have been, that the champion of
deism was signally defeated, and his cause left bleeding on the field.
I doubt not but the defeat would have been more complete, had Mr. S.
omitted some of his personal allusions, and had he suppressed his
natural inclination to sarcasm. Indeed his blasts of sarcasm were truly
WITHERING. His opponent, finding that he could not cope with him in
this respect, retreated, and took shelter under the sympathies of his
audience.
Yours, &c.,
ONE OF THE HEARERS.
THE
CHRISTIAN'S DEFENCE
CONTAINING
A FAIR STATEMENT AND IMPARTIAL EXAMINATION
OF THE
LEADING OBJECTIONS URGED BY INFIDELS
AGAINST THE
ANTIQUITY, GENUINENESS, CREDIBILITY AND
INSPIRATION
OF THE
HOLY SCRIPTURES;
ENRICHED WITH COPIOUS EXTRACTS FROM
LEARNED AUTHORS.
BY JAMES SMITH.
"The Christian Faith,
Unlike the tim'rous creeds of pagan priests,
Is frank, stands forth to view, inviting all
To prove, examine, search, investigate;
And gave herself a light to see her by."
--_Pollock's Course of Time_, B. iv.
"If I have done well, and as is fitting the story, it is
that which I desired; but if slenderly and meanly, it
is that which I could attain unto."--2 _Maccabees_ xv, 38.
TWO VOLUMES IN ONE
CINCINNATI:
STEREOTYPED AND PUBLISHED BY J. A. JAMES
1843
CONTENTS
VOLUME I
ON THE CREDIBILITY, ANTIQUITY, AND GENUINENESS OF
THE OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES
CHAPTER I
The nations of the earth are indebted to the Jews for the
Bible.--Taylor's assertion, that no such nation as the Jewish
ever existed. Its confutation. The Jews and Christians
hold the Old Testament to be a revelation from God.
Infidels hold this to be untrue. How the question at issue
is to be settled. The frame of mind necessary to an impartial
examination of the subject.--Objections of the
Atheistical Infidel against the claims of the Bible as a
divine revelation. Mr. Olmsted's misrepresentation of the
position of the advocates of Revelation. The questions at
issue between the Christian and Atheist. That between
the Christian and the Deist 1
SECTION I.--Confutation of the theory of the materialist.
Confutations of the positions of the two classes of
Atheists 6
SECTION II.--Hume's argument to prove that Polytheism
was the first religion of mankind. Its confutation 23
SECTION III.--Of the style of the Old Testament Scriptures.
Example from Mr. Olmsted, showing the necessity
of understanding its nature. The Scriptures speak the language
of appearances, but strictly philosophical 40
CHAPTER II
Mr. Olmsted's assertion concerning the requisitions of the advocate
of Revelation in examining the credibility of the
Mosaic writings. Its falsehood. His allegation that the
first sentence in the Bible contains a falsehood. The confutation
of his argument. His objection to the credibility
of the Mosaic narrative of the creation founded on the
statement that the world was made in six days. Vindication
of the Mosaic narrative.--Infidel objection to the
Mosaic narrative founded on the zodiacs in the temples of
Latapolis and Tantyra. Its fallacy.--Dr. Keith's proofs
of the truthfulness of the Mosaic narrative of the creation 48
SECTION I.--Mosaic account of the creation confirmed
by tradition. The Hindoo account; that of Ovid; the
Phenician; the Egyptian; that of Plato.--The heathen
tradition concerning the first man. Division of time into
weeks, a confirmation of the Mosaic narrative 75
SECTION II.--Paine's and Olmsted's objection on account
of the narrative of the fall of man. Their confutation.
The Mosaic narrative of the fall of man confirmed
by heathen traditions; by the universality of serpent worship;
by the condition of mankind; by the opinions of the
heathen philosophers concerning the corruption of human
nature; by the belief of the Brahmins; by the opinions of
the classical mythologists, and by the universal practice of
animal sacrifice.--The account of the translation of Enoch
confirmed by the Grecian fables.--The longevity of the
antediluvian patriarchs confirmed by heathen traditions.--Mosaic
account of man of gigantic stature confirmed by
the Greek and Latin poets 85
CHAPTER III
Objection to the Mosaic narrative of the deluge, because contrary
to the philosophy of Nature. Its fallacy.--The truth
of the narrative confirmed by the fossil remains of animals.
--Objection founded on the size of the ark. Shown
to be fallacious.--Objection founded on certain marks of
antiquity said to exist in the lava of Mt. Etna. Mr.
Horne's confutation of the argument.--Objection on account
of the differences in color, existing among mankind.
Its fallacy. Dr. Good's argument, confirmatory of the
Mosaic narrative.--Objections founded upon the supposed
antiquity of the eastern nations. Confutation of the objection.
--Objections founded on the condition of America
when discovered by Columbus. Proofs that two distinct
races of men immigrated into America from Asia. The
present Indians, of the same race with the tribes of
northern Asia. The ancient Mexicans and Peruvians,
originally proceeded from the same stock with the nations
of southern Asia 100
SECTION I.--Mosaic account of the deluge confirmed by
Pagan history. Its memory incorporated with almost every
part of the heathen mythology. Noah claimed by all the
heathen nations as their founder, and worshiped by them as
a god. Saturn, of the Greeks and Latins, Menu of the
Hindoos, and Noah identical. The Hindoo account of the
deluge. The Chinese and Grecian accounts. The ark mentioned
by heathen historians. Plutarch's notice of the dove
which was sent out of the ark. The heathens carried their
deities in an ark. Ancient medals commemorative of the
deluge. American traditions of that calamity. Summing
up of the argument 125
SECTION II.--Confirmation of the Mosaic representation
of the origin of families and nations. Testimony of
Sir W. Jones.--Confirmation of the Mosaic accounts of
the tower of Babel.--Of the destruction of Sodom and
Gomorrah. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, known to the ancient
heathens. Mr. Olmsted's attempt to invalidate the
Mosaic account of the condition of the Israelites in Egypt.
The confutation of his argument.--His argument to invalidate
the truth of the Mosaic narrative of the exode of
the Israelites from Egypt and the circumstances attending
it. Vindication of the Mosaic narrative.--Explanation of
the design of the miraculous interposition in behalf of the
Israelites. The fitness and tendency of each of the plagues
inflicted upon the Egyptians. Confutation of Mr. Olmsted's
allegation that Moses extorted permission for the
Israelites to leave Egypt, by false pretentions. Vindication
of the Mosaic account of the hardening of Pharaoh's
heart. Mr. Olmsted's supposition that the Israelites were
a horde of rude barbarians, in behalf of whom there was
no divine interposition. The fallacy and absurdity of his
supposition 135
SECTION III.--Collateral testimony confirmative of the
Mosaic account of the exode of the Israelites from Egypt,
their sojourn in the wilderness, and settlement in Canaan.
Curious discovery confirmatory of the Mosaic narrative.
Trogus' account of the origin of the Jews. The account of
their origin by Apion, an Egyptian writer. Manetho's account
of the shepherds who retreated from Egypt to Judea.
Tacitus' account of the origin of the Jews. Artapanus'
relation concerning Moses. Janes and Jambres, the Egyptian
magicians, well known to heathen writers. Strabo's account
of Moses. The account of the Heliopolitans concerning the
passage of the Red Sea. A similar tradition by Diodorus.
The inhabitants of Corondel to this day preserve the remembrance
of the passing of the Red Sea by the Israelites.
The names of different places passed by the Israelites
during their sojourn in the wilderness confirm the Mosaic
narrative. The writer of the Orphic verses speaks of
Moses and the tables of the Laws. Didorus Siculus notices
Moses. Dionysius Longius makes honorable mention of
Moses. Accuracy of the Mosaic narrative of the sojourn
in the wilderness confirmed by Laborde. The tomb of
Aaron on Mount Hor, confirms the truth of the Mosaic
narrative. Summing up of the argument from collateral
testimony. A very conclusive evidence of the truth of the
Mosaic history quoted from Dr. Keith.--The history of the
Israelites subsequent to the settlement in Canaan corroborated
by profane writers. Curious discovery, illustrative
of the Scriptural account of the war carried on by
Pharaoh-Necho against the Jews and Babylonians.--Confutation
of the objection founded by Infidels upon the supposed
sterility of the soil of Palestine. Forcible testimony
to the credibility of the Old Testament Scriptures afforded
by the present condition of the Jews 159
CHAPTER IV
Efforts of Infidels to show that the books of the Old Testament
are forgeries of comparative modern date. Their
objections considered. Curious discovery illustrative of the
antiquity and exactness of the Mosaic writings. The utter
impossibility of the books being forgeries proven.--Mr.
Olmsted's argument to prove that the book of the law was
forged by Ezra. Confutation of his argument. Proofs
that the law could not have been forged by Daniel nor by
any of the captives in Babylon; that it could not have been
forged by Isaiah. A forgery could not have been effected
after the revolt of the ten tribes. It could not have been
forged by David; nor by Saul: nor by any of the Judges
who preceded Samuel. The law existed in Joshua's time.
Joshua could not have forged the law. The impossibility
of practicing a fraud upon the Israelites during a sojourn
in the wilderness.--The books of the Pentateuch have internal
marks, which demonstrate that they were written
by Moses. The book of Genesis included by the Jews in
the book of the law. Evidences of its antiquity and genuineness.
--Profane testimony to the genuineness of the
Mosaic writings. Objection on the ground that although
Moses wrote a book called the book of the law, we have
no evidence that it was the book now current in his name.
The objection considered and answered 193
SECTION I.--Objection of Infidels against the books of
Judges, Kings, and Chronicles, because they are anonymous.
The objection answered.--The objections against the genuineness
of the other books of the Old Testament. In effect
answered in the foregoing arguments.--Mr. Paine's argument
to prove that the Mosaic writings are spurious,
founded upon the style. Confutation of his argument. His
argument founded on the passage "Now the man Moses
was very meek," etc. Its confutation.--His argument
founded on the statement that Abraham pursued the four
kings unto Dan. Its fallacy.--His argument founded on
what is said of the descendants of Esau. The argument
considered, confuted.--His argument founded on the passage
"The children of Israel did eat manna until they came
to a land inhabited," etc. Its fallacy. His argument founded
on what is said concerning Og's bedstead. The argument
confuted.--The argument founded on the record of the
death of Moses being contained in the books attributed to
him. The argument confuted.--The evidence adduced
establishes the genuineness and credibility of the books.--Objection
that Moses must have borrowed the history of
the creation from the traditions which obtained in his time.
Reply to the objection.--The question, Whence did Moses
derive the materials of his history? Answered by Mr.
Horne.--Objections on the ground that no dependence is to
be placed in the present text of the Old Testament Scriptures.
Its fallacy 227
CHAPTER V
A number of objections necessarily omitted, stated and answered.--Mr.
Olmsted's argument to prove that the author
of the book of Genesis was a polytheist. Its confutation.--His
argument to prove that the author of the book of
Genesis believed God to be a corporeal being. Its confutation.
Objections founded on the statements concerning
Cain. Their fallacy.--Cavil of Infidels at the curse pronounced
by Noah upon Canaan. Its unreasonableness.
Objections founded on the cause assigned for the diversity
of languages. Vindication of the Scriptural account.--Objection
founded on the conduct of Lot. Its fallacy.--Objection
founded on the misconduct of Abraham. Consideration
of the objection as applied not merely to Abraham,
but also to Jacob and David.--Objection on the ground that
God is represented as commanding Abraham to sacrifice
Isaac. Vindication of the Scriptural account of that affair.
--Objection, on the ground that circumcision was first
practiced by the Egyptians. Its fallacy.--Objection
founded on the representation given by Moses of the works
of the Egyptian magicians during the plagues in Egypt.
Mr. Farmer's satisfactory reply 250
SECTION I.--Infidels assert that the pillar of cloud and
fire is a fiction. The assertion considered and answered.--The
assertion that the Israelites crossed the Red Sea at
Suez. Vindication of the Scriptural account. Assertion
that the tremendous scene upon Sinai was a cheat. Its
fallacy. Olmsted's objection founded on the length of time
the Israelites were in the wilderness. Explanation of the
design of the dealings of Jehovah with the Israelites.
Vindication of the dresses, rites, and customs enjoyed by
the ceremonial law. Objection founded on the repeated
apostacies of the Israelites. The objection considered and
answered. The objection founded on the treatment of the
Moabites and the Midianites. Considered and answered.--Objection,
on the ground that the Israelites were commanded
to exterminate the Canaanites. Considered and
answered.--Assertion that the Old Testament Scriptures
sanction adultery and murder. Its falsehood.--Assertion
that Jehovah kept false prophets, and violated his promises.
Mr. Horne's answer.--Objection founded on the speaking
of Balaam's ass. Considered and answered. Mr. Paine's
objection on the ground that the sun is represented as
standing still upon Mt. Gibeon. Vindication of the Scriptural
account of that miraculous event. Dr. Clarke's very
satisfactory reply to the objection. Objection founded on
the passage, "Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord, and
he brought the shadow ten degrees backward by which it
had gone down on the dial of Ahaz."--Objection founded
on what is said of the Witch of Endor. Considered and
answered 275
VOLUME II
THE GENUINENESS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES
CHAPTER I
The books of the New Testament written by eight Jews.--Why
called New Testament? Infidels deny the genuineness
of the books.--Hold that the writers were impostors, and
the religion taught in them a fraud practiced upon mankind.
The difficulties attending the examination of the claims
of the New Testament to genuineness and credibility.--How
the subject should be approached.--The denial of the
genuineness of the books of modern dates. Toland charged
with having betrayed his suspicion that the writings were
forgeries. The suspicion of an anonymous Italian.--Its
absurdity.--Gibbon acknowledges the genuineness of the
writings.--Volney lays it down as a clear case, that no such
person as Jesus Christ ever existed. His theory adopted,
defended, and extensively circulated by Taylor. His positions
defined in his manifesto.--His unblushing falsehoods
promptly met and refuted by English Divines. Hitherto
unanswered in this country.--His first and second propositions
taken up.--How the authorship which has no name
prefixed to it is to be ascertained. The rule applied to the
New Testament 3
SECTION I.--Marks given by Michaelis by which the
spuriousness of a book may be discovered.--How books
anciently found their way to the public. The congregations
before whom the original copies of the New Testament
were read, vouchers of their genuineness.--The ancient adversaries
of Christianity admitted the genuineness of the
writings. The testimony of Trypho, the Jew. The testimony
of Celsus. The writings of Celsus against Christianity
of great value in enabling the advocate of Revelation,
of the present day, to prove that Jesus Christ is the
son of God. The testimony of Porphyry. Testimony of
Hierocles, the philosopher.--Testimony of the emperor
Julian. Testimony of Taylor himself. The quotations
from the New Testament by the most virulent enemies of
Christianity of ancient times. Demonstrate the genuineness
of the writings.--The immediate disciples of the
apostles acknowledge the genuineness of the books. The
epistles of the Apostolic fathers. Their genuineness unquestionable.
These writings prove the genuineness of the
New Testament. The epistles of Barnabas written shortly
after the destruction of Jerusalem. Table illustrating that
the New Testament writings were extant when Barnabas
wrote, or, at least, that he was conversant with some of
the writers of the book. The epistle of Clement, when and
to whom written. Table exhibiting quotations from the
New Testament in the epistle of Clement. Writings of
Hermas; when written. Table exhibiting the quotations of
Hermas from the New Testament. Ignatius, when he
flourished. Table of his quotations from the New Testament.
Polycarp, the friend of the apostle John. Table of
his quotations from the New Testament. Summing up of
the testimony of the apostolic fathers.--Ignatius and Polycarp
seal their testimony with their blood.--Martyrdom of
Polycarp 13
SECTION II.--Papias ascribes two gospels to Matthew
and Mark. Testimony of Justin, of Irenaenus, of Tertullian,
of Clemens Alexandrinus. Table of quotations by
these witnesses. Testimony of Origen: His quotations
from the New Testament. Testimony of Eusebius and
Jerome.--Number and antiquity of the manuscripts of the
New Testament. An argument for the genuineness of its
books. Curious discovery which confirms the genuineness
of the New Testament writings.--The council of Laodicea
did not design to settle the Canon 67
CHAPTER II
ON THE GENUINENESS OF THE BOOKS.--Mr. Taylor's arguments
to prove that the writings of the New Testament are spurious.
Exposure of his dishonesty in quoting from Dr.
Lardner. Mr. P. Smith's refutation of his allegation that
the Scriptures were altered by the Emperor Anastasius.
Exposure of his dishonesty in quoting from Beausobre.
Refutation of his allegation that the Scriptures were altered
by Lanfranc. Refutation of his argument drawn from the
various readings. The passage of the Unitarian New
Version cited by Mr. Taylor in support of his allegation.
Dr. Bentley on the various readings. Gaussen on the
various readings. Tables illustrative of the various readings.
Trouble of Bengel about the integrity of the original
text. The success of his labors in sacred criticism 84
SECTION I.--Taylor's dishonesty in referring to the
works of Herbert Marsh, in support of his allegation that
the manuscript from which the received text was taken was
stolen from the librarian. Explanation of the story of the
sale of the manuscript to a skyrocket maker. Taylor's falsehood
in his pretended reference to Bishop Marsh, in support
of his allegation that for the principal passage in the book of
Revelation there was no original Greek. Notice of Mr.
Taylor's charge that the tendency of the New Testament is
immoral and wicked. J. J. Rousseau's testimony to the
morality of the Gospel. Exposure of Mr. Taylor's dishonesty
in quoting from Mosheim in support of his allegation
that ecclesiastical historians admit their inability to show
when or by whom the New Testament Scriptures were
written. Refutation of his allegation. The Apocryphal
books collected and published by Jeremiah Jones. Refutation
of Mr. Taylor's assertion what he terms the true and
genuine gospel. Refutation of Mr. Taylor's objection on
the ground of modernisms contained in some passages of
the New Testament, and the ignorance of the four evangelists
of the geography and statistics of Judea. The
summing up of the argument on the genuineness of the
New Testament Scriptures 107
CHAPTER III
CREDIBILITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES.--The number
of the witnesses who testify to the facts detailed in the
New Testament. How the credibility of a historical book
is to be ascertained. The rule as applied to Christian
writings. Their genuineness proves their credibility. The
writers of the New Testament could not have falsified the
facts relative to Jesus Christ. The objection on the ground
that the Jews rejected the claims of Jesus Christ. Its confutation.
The conduct of the Jewish nation in rejecting
Christ accounted for. The conversion of many of the
Gentiles proves the credibility of the book. The character,
circumstances, and conduct of the men who testify of
Jesus prove their credibility. Difficulty to be surmounted
by those who maintain that the apostles and evangelists
were impostors. Summing up of the argument on the
credibility of the witnesses 125
SECTION I.--Collateral testimony of the truthfulness of
the writers of the New Testament. Testimonies to the
truthfulness of St. Matthew's statement concerning Herod
and Archalaus. Testimony to the truthfulness of the statement
of Luke concerning Herod, Tetrarch of Galilee, and
his brother Phillip, Tetrarch of Itruria. Testimony to the
truthfulness of the evangelists relative to Herod marrying
Herodias. Josephus corroborates Luke's account of the
death of Herod Agrippa. Testimonies of the truthfulness
of the statements in the Acts concerning Felix. A number
of notices, by profane authors, of Pilate, confirmatory of
the truthfulness of the evangelists. Testimonies to the
truthfulness of the evangelists in their statements of the
treatment of Jesus Christ upon trial and when crucified.
Testimonies confirming statements of the evangelists concerning
the burial of Jesus Christ. Notice taken of John
the Baptist by Josephus. What he says concerning Jesus
Christ. Notices of Jesus Christ from the ancient Jewish
Talmudical writings. Testimony of the heathen adversary
to the leading facts detailed by the evangelists. Summing
up of the argument 140
SECTION II.--The same ground retraced, and the objections
of Mr. Taylor considered and answered. Representation
of Taylor's third and fourth propositions. The
falsehood of Mr. Taylor's assertion that no such person as
Jesus Christ ever existed, proven by the testimony of
Tacitus, of Suetonius, of Martial, of Pliny the Younger.
Mr. Taylor's assertion that some, many, or all, of the
events related of Jesus Christ by the evangelists had formerly
been related of the gods and goddesses of Greece
and Rome. Its confutation to be found in any of the
Pantheons or mythological dictionaries. Exposure of the
malignity and falsehood of Mr. Taylor exhibited in his
attempt to identify Jesus Christ with the heathen idol
Crishna. Citations from Sir W. Jones concerning Crishna.
The testimony of Sir W. Jones impartial. The unreasonableness
and absurdity of Mr. Taylor's conclusions 164
SECTION III.--The last refuge of the infidel is to maintain
either that Jesus Christ was a mistaken enthusiast or
a wicked impostor. Mr. English's argument to prove that
Jesus was a mistaken enthusiast. Its confutation 181
SECTION IV.--Argument by Mr. Olmsted to prove that
Jesus Christ was a wicked impostor. Its confutation 190
CHAPTER IV
OBJECTIONS STATED AND ANSWERED.--The objections urged by
infidels of such a nature that, though numerous, to answer
one or two of each class is to answer all. Quotation from
Gaussen, explanatory of the nature and causes of the supposed
contradictions in the writings of the evangelists. Examples
by Gaussen. Explanation of the seeming contradictions
between the genealogies of Matthew and Luke.
Answer to the objection, that certain names occur in Luke's
list of the apostles, which do not appear in that of Matthew.
Answer to the objection on account of the seeming contradiction
in the title which was written over Jesus Christ
when on the cross. Answer to the objection founded on
the seeming contradiction in the different accounts of the
hour when Jesus Christ was suspended on the cross. Answer
to the objection urged against St. Luke when he says,
"It came to pass in those days, that there went out a
decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be
taxed. And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was
Governor of Syria." Answer to the objection founded upon
Jesus cursing the fig-tree. Answer to Taylor's assertion that
Romans 3:7 recommends telling lies for the glory of God.
His assertion that Jesus Christ was not crucified. Its confutation.
His assertion that "Paul and Barnabas did not
preach the same story." Its falsehood demonstrated. His
assertion that some preached a Christ who was not crucified.
Its falsehood. His assertion that Paul called the other
apostles false apostles and dogs. Vindication of the apostles
from this calumny. His assertions that Paul curses the other
apostles and recommends that they should be privately
assassinated. The falsehood of these accusations. The last
refuge of Mr. Taylor in asserting that Christianity had its
origin among the Therapeutae. Other infidels pretend that
the Essenes were the originators of Christianity. Watson's
account of the Essenes and Therapeutae 214
CHAPTER V
DIVINE AUTHORITY AND INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES.--What
is to be understood by inspiration? None but an
atheist can deny its possibilities. The gift of inspiration
proved by the performance of supernatural works, and by
the foretelling of future events with preciseness. If these
signs accompanied the authors of the dispensations contained
in the Old and New Testaments, it must be admitted
that the Bible is a revelation from God. The performance
of miracles by the authors of these dispensations attests
their divine mission. A miracle defined. Mr. Hume's argument
against miracles. Lord Brougham's confutation of
the argument. Keith's demonstration of its fallacy. The
miracles of Moses, of Jesus Christ and his apostles accompanied
by evidences which cannot be brought to substantiate
any pretended fact whatever. Mr. Leslie's argument
in favor of this position. Mr. Olmsted's attempt to destroy
the force of Mr. Leslie's argument. Exposure of the
misrepresentations and falsehoods contained in Mr. Olmsted's
argument. Confutation of his argument 232
SECTION I.--Mr. Leslie's criteria applied to the miracles
recorded in the Scriptures. Applied to those of Moses; they
all meet in his miracles. Applied to those of Jesus Christ
and his apostles. Their number, their variety, and the
public manner in which they were performed, attest their
veracity. Miracles of Christ contrasted with those of impostors.
The pretended miracles wrought by Vespasian.
The pretended miracles of the Roman Catholics. Many of
them have been proved to be impostors. The object of
the miracles of Jesus attests their veracity. The great
miracle which lies at the foundation of Christianity, the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. The miracle examined.
Testimony of the evangelists, that Jesus during his life predicted
his death and resurrection. The prediction well
known to the Jewish rulers. The rulers took every necessary
precaution to put his pretensions to the test. The
crucifixion and death of Christ well attested. Precautions
that the body should not be removed until life was extinct.
The precautions of the rulers to prevent the body being
stolen out of the sepulchre. The whole question at issue
between Jesus and the Jewish rulers, suspended on the naked
fact, whether He did or did not rise again on the third
day. The Jewish rulers make their preparation on the
Sabbath to produce the body on the third day. On the
third day the body is missing. Different ways of accounting
for the fact. The disciples alleged that Jesus had
risen from the dead. Their testimony examined. The
Jewish rulers asserted that the disciples stole the body.
The allegation examined. Its falsehood demonstrated.
Subsequent conduct of the Sanhedrin confirms the testimony
of the apostles and evangelists. The adoption of the Jewish
mode of accounting for the fact accompanied with many
difficulties. An acknowledgment of the resurrection of
Jesus involves an acknowledgment of His divine mission.
Mr. Olmsted's objection on the ground that Jesus did not
show Himself publicly and ascend to heaven in the presence
of the whole nation. Its fallacious nature. The testimony
we have of the resurrection of Jesus Christ much more
satisfactory and convincing than that required by Mr.
Olmsted. Insuperable difficulties attending the denial of
the resurrection of Jesus Christ 279
CHAPTER VI
Divine authority of the Scriptures proved from prophecy and
its fulfillment. A prophecy defined. Mr. Watson's argument
in support of the possibility of prophecy. Criteria by
which true may be distinguished from false prophecies.
The prophecies of heathen oracles examined. Proved to
have been impostures. Contrast between the pretended predictions
of the heathen oracles and the prophecies contained
in the Scriptures. Mr. Paine's remarks in relation to the
manner in which future events would be communicated by
a true prophet. Mr. Olmsted's requisition and pledge if it
be met to acknowledge the truth of prophecy. Mr. Olmsted
met upon his own ground. Prophecy relative to the destruction
of Tyre. Its fulfillment proved by the infidel
Volney, and other competent witnesses. Mr. Olmsted,
from his own showing, is bound to believe that Ezekiel
was a true prophet of God. Table of quotations from the
prophecies of the Old Testament, and from Volney's writings,
showing that in spite of himself this infidel proves the
truthfulness of the seers of Israel. Mr. Olmsted's assertion
that the history of Isaiah is made up of scraps, and destitute
of order and meaning. The truth of the assertion tested.
Prophecy of Isaiah concerning Edom. Volney's testimony
of its fulfillment. Testimony of Mr. Stevens. Prophecy
of Jeremiah concerning the capital of Edom. Burchkhardt's
testimony of its fulfillment. Testimony of Captains Irby
and Mangles. Testimony of Mr. Stevens. The infidel
having been met on his own ground, and the fulfillment of
many prophecies proved by competent witnesses, it follows
that the seers of Israel were the true prophets of God 302
SECTION I.--The great theme of the Old Testament
prophets was the coming of the Messiah. The Christian
maintains that these prophecies found an accomplishment in
Christ. This denied by the Jew and the infidel. Mr. English's
argument to show that Jesus was not the Messiah.
First, on account of His genealogy, and, second, because the
prophecies of the Old Testament found no accomplishment
in Him. Mr. English's argument refuted in all its particulars.
Jesus proved to be the true Messiah. The Messiahship
of Jesus Christ being proved, it proves that the
Bible is a revelation from God. Closing address 324
APPENDIX
Starkie's confutation of Hume's argument on evidence 362
APPENDIX VIII
LINCOLN AND THE CHURCHES
By JOHN G. NICOLAY AND JOHN HAY
NOTE.--Some of the important material bearing upon Lincoln's religious
convictions which was collected by Nicolay and Hay and published in
the _Century Magazine_, has, through faulty indexing, been almost
lost. The words "churches" and "religion" are not in the thick index
in the tenth volume of their great work. Finding in the _Century
Magazine_ for August, 1889, an important article on this subject, I
searched in vain for any way of finding it in the book by means of the
index, and two librarians, working in separate libraries, searched
for it and reported to me that it was not in the book. I came to the
conclusion that in the editing of the work for its publication in
book form, the two former secretaries of the President had deemed
some of this matter too personal for their title, "Abraham Lincoln:
a History." But I have discovered the missing passage in the sixth
volume, pages 314-342. Its testimony is in full accord with that
subsequently given by Mr. Hay in the address delivered by him from
Mr. Lincoln's old pew, which is printed in the volume of John Hay's
addresses. The article in the _Century_ is so important that the first
and last portions of it will justify reprinting here. The omitted
portions relate to the relations of Mr. Lincoln and of the Government
to particular churches or denominations.
W. E. B.
IN a conflict which was founded upon the quickened moral sense of
the people it was not strange that the Government received the most
earnest support from the churches. From one end of the loyal States to
the other all the religious organizations, with few exceptions, moved
by the double forces of patriotism and religion, ranged themselves
upon the side of the Government against the rebellion. A large number
of pulpits in the North had already taken their places as tribunes
for the defense of popular freedom, and it was from them that, at
the menace of war, the first cry of danger and of defiance rang out.
Those ministers who had for years been denouncing the encroachments
of slavery did not wait for any organized action on the part of their
colleagues, but proclaimed at once in a thousand varying tones that
peace was "a blessing worth fighting for." The more conservative
churches were but little in the rear of the more advanced. Those who
had counseled moderation and patience with the South on account of
the divided responsibility for slavery which rested on both halves of
the nation speedily felt the sense of release front the obligations
of brotherhood when the South had repudiated and renounced them, and
rallied to the support of the insulted flag with an earnestness not
less ardent, and more steadily trustworthy, than that of the original
antislavery clergy. As the war went on, and as every stage of it gave a
clearer presage of the coming destruction of slavery, the deliverances
of the churches became every day more and more decided in favor of
the national cause and the downfall of human bondage. To detail the
thousand ways in which the churches testified their support of the
national cause, to give even an abstract of the countless expressions
of loyalty which came from the different religious bodies of the
country, would occupy many volumes; we can only refer briefly to a
few of the more important utterances of some of the great religious
societies.
In all the church conventions which met after the President's
preliminary proclamation of the 22d of September, 1862, that act of
liberation was greeted with the heartiest expressions of approval and
support.
As the national authority began to be reëstablished throughout the
States in rebellion, not the least embarrassing of the questions
which generals in command were called upon to decide was that of the
treatment of churches whose pastors were openly or covertly disloyal
to the Union. There was no general plan adopted by the Government for
such cases; in fact, it was impossible to formulate a policy which
should meet so vast a variety of circumstances as presented themselves
in the different regions of the South. The Board of Missions of the
Methodist Church sent down some of their ablest ministers, with general
authority to take charge of abandoned churches, and to establish
in them their interrupted worship. The mission boards of other
denominations took similar action, and the Secretary of War[75] gave
general orders to the officers commanding the different departments
to permit ministers of the gospel bearing the commission of these
mission boards to exercise the functions of their office and to give
them all the aid, countenance, and support which might be practicable.
But before and after these orders there was much clashing between
the military and the ecclesiastical authorities, which had its rise
generally in the individual temperaments of the respective generals
and priests. There was an instance in one place where a young officer
rose in his pew and requested an Episcopal minister to read the prayer
for the President of the United States, which he had omitted. Upon
the minister's refusal the soldier advanced to the pulpit and led the
preacher, loudly protesting, to the door, and then quietly returning
to the altar himself read the prayer--not much, it is to be feared,
to the edification of the congregation. General Butler arrested a
clergyman in Norfolk, and placed him at hard labor on the public works
for disloyalty in belief and action; but the President reversed this
sentence and changed it to one of exclusion from the Union lines.[76]
The Catholic Bishop of Natchez having refused to read the prescribed
form of prayer for the President, and having protested in an able
and temperate paper against the orders of the commanding general in
this regard, the latter ordered him to be expelled from the Union
lines, although the order was almost immediately rescinded. General
Rosecrans issued an order[77] in Missouri requiring the members of
religious convocations to give satisfactory evidence of their loyalty
to the Government of the United States as a condition precedent to
their assemblage and protection. In answer to the protestations which
naturally resulted from this mandate he replied that it was given at
the request of many loyal church members, both lay and clerical; that
if he should permit all bodies claiming to be religious to meet without
question, a convocation of Price's army, under the garb of religion,
might assemble with impunity and plot treason. He claimed that there
was no hardship in compelling the members of such assemblages to
establish their loyalty by oath and certificate, and insisted that his
order, while providing against public danger, really protected the
purity and the freedom of religion.
In the course of these controversies between secessionist ministers
and commanding generals an incident occurred which deserves a moment's
notice, as it led to a clear and vigorous statement from Mr. Lincoln
of his attitude in regard to these matters. During the year 1862 a
somewhat bitter discussion arose between the Rev. Dr. McPheeters of
the Vine Street Church in St. Louis and some of his congregation in
regard to his supposed sympathies with the rebellion. Looking back
upon the controversy from this distance of time it seems that rather
hard measure was dealt to the parson; for although, from all the
circumstances of the case, there appears little doubt that his feelings
were strongly enlisted in the cause of the rebellion, he behaved with
so much discretion that the principal offenses charged against him by
his zealous parishioners were that he once baptized a small rebel by
the name of Sterling Price, and that he would not declare himself in
favor of the Union. The difference in his church grew continually more
flagrant and was entertained by interminable letters and statements on
both sides, until at last the provost-marshal intervened, ordering the
arrest of Dr. McPheeters, excluding him from his pulpit, and taking the
control of his church out of the hands of its trustees. This action
gave rise to extended comment, not only in Missouri, but throughout
the Union. The President, being informed of it, wrote[78] to General
Curtis disapproving the act of the provost-marshal, saying, in a terse
and vigorous phrase, which immediately obtained wide currency, "The
United States Government must not, as by this order, undertake to run
the churches. When an individual in a church, or out of it, becomes
dangerous to the public interest he must be checked; but let the
churches, as such, take care of themselves." But even this peremptory
and unmistakable command did not put an end to the discussion. Taking
the hands of the Government away from the preacher did not quench the
dissensions in the church, nor restore the pastor to the position
which he occupied before the war; and almost a year later some of the
friends of Dr. McPheeters considered it necessary and proper to ask the
intervention of the President to restore to him all his ecclesiastical
privileges in addition to the civil rights which they admitted he
already enjoyed. This the President, in a letter[79] of equal clearness
and vigor, refused to do. "I have never interfered," he said, "nor
thought of interfering, as to who shall, or shall not, preach in any
church; nor have I knowingly or believingly tolerated anyone else to
so interfere by my authority"; but he continues, "If, after all, what
is now sought is to have me put Dr. McPheeters back over the heads of
a majority of his own congregation, that too will be declined. I will
not have control of any church on any side." The case finally ended by
the exclusion of Dr. McPheeters from his pulpit by the order of the
presbytery having ecclesiastical authority in the case.
In this wise and salutary abstention from any interference with the
churches, which was dictated by his own convictions as well as enjoined
by the Constitution, the President did not always have the support
of his subordinates. He had not only, as we have seen, to administer
occasional rebukes to his over-zealous generals, but even in his own
Cabinet he was sometimes compelled to overrule a disposition to abuse
of authority in things spiritual. Several weeks after he had so clearly
expressed himself in the McPheeters case, he found, to his amazement,
that the Secretary of War had been giving orders virtually placing the
army in certain places at the disposition of a Methodist bishop for the
enforcement of his ecclesiastical decrees. He addressed to Mr. Stanton
a note of measured censure,[80] which was followed by an order from the
War Department explaining and modifying the more objectionable features
of the former document. The Secretary explained that his action had
no other intention than to furnish "a means of rallying the Methodist
people in favor of the Union, in localities where the rebellion had
disorganized and scattered them."[81] This explanation was not entirely
satisfactory to the President, but he thought best to make no further
public reference to the matter. Scarcely was this affair disposed of
when a complaint was received from Memphis of some interference by the
military with a church edifice there. Mr. Lincoln made upon the paper
this peremptory indorsement: "If the military have military need of
the church building, let them keep it; otherwise, let them get out
of it, and leave it and its owners alone, except for the causes that
justify the arrest of anyone."[82] Two months later the President,
hearing of further complications in the case, made still another
order, which even at the risk of wearying the reader we will give,
from his own manuscript, as illustrating not only his conscientious
desire that justice should be done, but also the exasperating obstacles
he was continually compelled to surmount, in those troubled times,
to accomplish, with all the vast powers at his disposition, this
reasonable desire.
"I am now told that the military were not in possession of the
building; and yet that in pretended execution of the above they,
the military, put one set of men out of and another set into the
building. This, if true, is most extraordinary. I say again, if
there be no military need for the building, leave it alone, neither
putting anyone in or out of it, except on finding someone preaching or
practicing treason, in which case lay hands upon him, just as if he
were doing the same thing in any other building, or in the streets or
highways."[83]
He at last made himself understood and his orders respected; yet
so widespread was the tendency of generals to meddle with matters
beyond their jurisdiction, that it took three years of such vehement
injunctions as these to teach them to keep their hands away from the
clergy and the churches.
Lincoln had a profound respect for every form of sincere religious
belief. He steadily refused to show favor to any particular
denomination of Christians; and when General Grant issued an unjust and
injurious order against the Jews, expelling them from his department,
the President ordered it to be revoked the moment it was brought to his
notice.[84]
He was a man of profound and intense religious feeling. We have no
purpose of attempting to formulate his creed; we question if he
himself ever did so. There have been swift witnesses who, judging from
expressions uttered in his callow youth, have called him an atheist,
and others who, with the most laudable intentions, have remembered
improbable conversations which they bring forward to prove at once his
orthodoxy and their own intimacy with him. But leaving aside these
apocryphal evidences, we have only to look at his authentic public
and private utterances to see how deep and strong in all the latter
part of his life was the current of his religious thought and emotion.
He continually invited and appreciated, at their highest value, the
prayers of good people. The pressure of the tremendous problems by
which he was surrounded; the awful moral significance of the conflict
in which he was the chief combatant; the overwhelming sense of personal
responsibility, which never left him for an hour--all contributed
to produce, in a temperament naturally serious and predisposed to a
spiritual view of life and conduct, a sense of reverent acceptance of
the guidance of a Superior Power. From that morning when, standing
amid the falling snowflakes on the railway car at Springfield, he asked
the prayers of his neighbors in those touching phrases whose echo rose
that night in invocations from thousands of family altars, to that
memorable hour when on the steps of the Capitol he humbled himself
before his Creator in the sublime words of the second inaugural, there
is not an expression known to have come from his lips or his pen but
proves that he held himself answerable in every act of his career to
a more august tribunal than any on earth. The fact that he was not
a communicant of any church, and that he was singularly reserved in
regard to his personal religious life, gives only the greater force to
these striking proofs of his profound reverence and faith.
In final substantiation of this assertion, we subjoin two papers
from the hand of the President, one official and the other private,
which bear within themselves the imprint of a sincere devotion and
a steadfast reliance upon the power and benignity of an overruling
Providence. The first is an order which he issued on the 16th of
November, 1864, on the observance of Sunday:
"The President, Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, desires and
enjoins the orderly observance of the Sabbath by the officers and
men in the military and naval service. The importance for man and
beast of the prescribed weekly rest, the sacred rights of Christian
soldiers and sailors, a becoming deference to the best sentiment of
Christian people, and a due regard for the Divine will, demand that
Sunday labor in the Army and Navy be reduced to the measure of strict
necessity. The discipline and character of the national forces should
not suffer, nor the cause they defend be imperiled, by the profanation
of the day or name of the Most High. 'At this time of public distress
[adopting the words of Washington in 1776] men may find enough to
do in the service of their God and their country without abandoning
themselves to vice and immorality.' The first General Order issued
by the Father of his Country after the Declaration of Independence
indicated the spirit in which our institutions were founded and should
ever be defended. 'The General hopes and trusts that every officer
and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier,
defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country.'"[85]
The date of this remarkable order leaves no possibility for the
insinuation that it sprung from any political purpose, or intention.
Mr. Lincoln had just been re-elected by an overwhelming majority;
his party was everywhere triumphant; his own personal popularity was
unbounded; there was no temptation to hypocrisy or deceit. There
is no explanation of the order except that it was the offspring of
sincere conviction. But if it may be said that this was, after all,
an exoteric utterance, springing from those relations of religion and
good government which the wisest rulers have always recognized in their
intercourse with the people, we will give one other document, of which
nothing of the sort can be said. It is a paper which Mr. Lincoln wrote
in September, 1862, while his mind was burdened with the weightiest
question of his life, the weightiest with which this century has had to
grapple. Wearied with all the considerations of law and of expediency
with which he had been struggling for two years, he retired within
himself and tried to bring some order into his thoughts by rising
above the wrangling of men and of parties, and pondering the relations
of human government to the Divine. In this frame of mind, absolutely
detached from any earthly considerations, he wrote this meditation.
It has never been published. It was not written to be seen of men. It
was penned in the awful sincerity of a perfectly honest soul trying to
bring itself into closer communion with its Maker.
"The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to
act in accordance with the will of God. Both _may_ be and one _must_
be wrong. God cannot be _for_ and _against_ the same thing at the
same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's
purpose is something different from the purpose of either party; and
yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the
best adaptation to effect His purpose. I am almost ready to say that
this is probably true; that God wills this contest, and wills that it
shall not end yet. By His mere great power on the minds of the now
contestants, He could have either _saved_ or _destroyed_ the Union
without a human contest. Yet the contest began. And having begun, he
could give the final victory to either side any day. Yet the contest
proceeds."
The following brief address by Mr. Lincoln appears never to have been
published. It was discovered, just as this book was going to press, by
Mr. Jesse W. Weik, who hastened to send it to me. It is the shorthand
report of a brief address delivered by Mr. Lincoln at a railroad
junction near La Fayette, Indiana, a few hours after he had left
Springfield on his way to Washington, Saturday, February 11, 1860.
W. H. B.
When I first came to the west some forty-four or forty-five years ago,
at sundown you had completed a journey of some thirty miles, which
you had commenced at sunrise; and you thought you had done well. Now,
only six hours have elapsed since I left my home in Illinois, where I
was surrounded by a large concourse of my fellow citizens, most all of
whom I could recognize; and I find myself far from home, surrounded
by the thousands I now see before me, who are strangers to me. Still
we are bound together, I trust, in Christianity, civilization and
patriotism, and are attached to our country and our whole country.
While some of us may differ in political opinions, still we are all
united in one feeling for the Union.
A CONDENSED BIBLIOGRAPHY
(The bibliographical notes which the author made while this work was
in preparation reached a total of several thousand. From these he at
first selected about five hundred titles, being practically a catalogue
of his own Lincoln library, a list of books about Lincoln which he
considered worth buying. But this also appeared much longer than was
needed for the purposes of this book, and he has therefore prepared
this shorter list of books bearing more directly upon the subject
matter of this volume, and for the convenience of such readers as are
unfamiliar with the literature of the subject he has added comments
upon some of the books or articles.)
I. LINCOLN'S OWN WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
_Abraham Lincoln: Complete Works._ Edited by John G. Nicolay and John
Hay. In Two Volumes. New York: The Century Company, 1894.
There is a larger edition in twelve volumes, with some additions, and
there are two other notable collections, both of them good. No one
of these, however, is entirely complete; and there are volumes such
as "The Uncollected Letters of Lincoln" edited by Gilbert A. Tracy
(Houghton Mifflin & Co., 1917) which supplement the "complete" works.
Very nearly everything which the reader requires, however, is in the
Nicolay and Hay work.
II. LIVES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
_Autobiography._ Facsimile Reproduction of Autobiographical Sketch
written by Abraham Lincoln for Jesse W. Fell in 1860. Published by his
daughters at Normal, Ill.
_The Autobiography of Abraham Lincoln._ Sketch furnished by him in 1860
to John Locke Scripps. New York: Francis D. Tandy Company, 1905.
This and the preceding item contain virtually all that Lincoln told the
public about himself.
_Life of Abraham Lincoln._ By John Locke Scripps. 1860. Tribune Tract
No. 6. Prepared from information given by Mr. Lincoln and read and
approved by him before publication.
"_The Wigwam Edition._" The Life, Speeches and Public Services of
Abraham Lincoln, Together with a Sketch of Hannibal Hamlin. New York:
Rudd and Carleton, 1860.
It disputes with Scripps the honor of being the first printed life of
Lincoln, and is of great interest as showing how little was known of
Lincoln in 1860 apart from the sketch which he had himself prepared.
_Life of Abraham Lincoln._ By J. Q. Howard, Cincinnati: Anderson, Gates
and Wright, 1860. With pictures of the Wigwam on the back and is as
rare and desirable as the real "Wigwam Edition."
_Life of Abraham Lincoln_ (of Illinois). With a Condensed View of his
Most Important Speeches; also a Sketch of the Life of Hannibal Hamlin
(of Maine). Authentic edition. By J. H. Barrett. Cincinnati: Moore,
Wilstach, Keyes & Co., 1860.
_Lives and Speeches of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin._ Life of
Lincoln by W. D. Howells. Life of Hamlin by John L. Hays. Columbus,
Ohio: Follett, Foster and Company, 1860.
_The Life and Public Services of Hon. Abraham Lincoln_: to which is
added a Biographical Sketch of Hon. Hannibal Hamlin by D. W. Bartlett.
Authorized edition. New York: Derby & Jackson, 1860.
_Life and Public Services of Hon. Abraham Lincoln of Illinois and Hon.
Hannibal Hamlin of Maine._ Boston: Thayer and Eldridge, 1860.
The above listed campaign biographies, all of them, except the Wigwam
Edition, based directly or indirectly upon the information furnished
first to Scripps, and then to other biographers, are all of remarkable
interest as showing what was then available to make a biography out
of, and what various biographers, under stress of the campaign and the
enterprise of publishers, were able to make out of it.
A list might be added of the 1864 campaign biographies, but for the
present purpose they are unimportant, as also are the first that
followed his death.
_The Life of Abraham Lincoln._ By J. G. Holland. Springfield, Mass.,
published by Gurdon Bill, 1865. By far the best life of Lincoln
published in the first few years after his death, and noted as
containing the Bateman interview, which gave rise to the controversy
concerning Lincoln's religion.
_Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln, Together With State
Papers._ By Henry J. Raymond. To which are added anecdotes and
reminiscences of Frank B. Carpenter. New York: Derby & Miller, 1865.
At the time of publication this was the best life of Lincoln in its
assembling of State Papers and important documents.
_The Life of Abraham Lincoln from His Birth to His Inauguration As
President._ By Ward H. Lamon. Boston: James R. Osgood & Company, 1872.
First attempt to give to the world the story of the "real" Lincoln and
a conspicuous example of the fate a man may suffer at the hands of his
friends. Invaluable in its material, but with shocking bad taste; and
said by Herndon to have been written by Chauncey F. Black.
Brings the narrative down to the time of Lincoln's inauguration and was
intended to have been followed by a second volume, but was received
with such disfavor that the concluding volume was never issued.
_Recollections of Abraham Lincoln 1847-1865._ By Ward Hill Lamon.
Edited by Dorothy Lamon. Chicago: A. C. McClurg and Company, 1895.
Second Edition of the Same, with Memoir of Ward Hill Lamon by his
daughter, Dorothy Lamon Teillard. Washington, D. C. Published by the
editor, 1911.
_Herndon's Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life. Etiam in minimis
major._ The History and Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln. By
William H. Herndon, for twenty years his friend and law partner; and
Jesse William Weik, A.M. Chicago, New York and San Francisco: Belford,
Clarke & Co., publishers. London: Henry J. Drane, Lovells Court,
Paternoster Road. 3 volumes. 1889. Unexpurgated first edition.
_Abraham Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life._ By William H.
Herndon and Jesse W. Weik, with an introduction by Horace White. In two
volumes. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1892.
_Abraham Lincoln: A History._ By John G. Nicolay and John Hay. In ten
volumes. New York: The Century Co., 1890. First edition.
_A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln._ Condensed from Nicolay and Hay's
_Abraham Lincoln: A History_. By John G. Nicolay. New York: The Century
Co., 1906.
_Personal Traits of Abraham Lincoln._ By Helen Nicolay. New York: The
Century Company, 1912.
_Abraham Lincoln._ By John T. Morse, Jr. In two volumes. American
Statesman Series. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin & Co., 1893. In
many respects the best short life of Lincoln.
_The Early Life of Abraham Lincoln._ Containing many unpublished
documents and unpublished reminiscences of Lincoln's early friends. By
Ida M. Tarbell, assisted by J. McCan Davis. New York: S. S. McClure
Co., Limited, 1896.
_The Life of Abraham Lincoln._ Drawn from original sources. By Ida M.
Tarbell. Two volumes. New York: The Doubleday & McClure Co., 1900.
_Abraham Lincoln._ An Essay. By Carl Schurz. Boston and New York:
Houghton Mifflin & Co., 1891.
_Lincoln the Leader: and Genius for Expression._ By Richard Watson
Gilder. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin & Co., 1909.
_Abraham Lincoln: The People's Leader in the Struggle for National
Existence._ By George Haven Putnam, Litt.D. New York and London: G. P.
Putnam's Sons, 1909.
_Lincoln, Master of Men: A Study in Character._ By Alonzo Rothchild.
Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1906.
_Honest Abe: A Study in Integrity._ By Alonzo Rothchild. Boston and New
York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1917.
_Abraham Lincoln._ By Rose Strunsky. New York: Macmillan Company, 1914.
_Abraham Lincoln._ By Noah Brooks. Centennial Edition. G. P. Putnam's
Sons, New York, 1888.
_Abraham Lincoln._ By Henry Bryan Binns. London: J. M. Dent & Co., 1907.
_Abraham Lincoln._ By Lord Charnworth (Godfrey Rathbone Benson). Henry
Holt and Company, 1907.
_Latest Light on Lincoln, and War Time Memories._ By Ervin Chapman,
D.D., LL.D. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1917.
_The Everyday Life of Abraham Lincoln._ By Frances Fisher Browne.
Chicago: Browne & Howell Co., 1913. New and thoroughly revised edition.
_The True Abraham Lincoln._ By William Eleroy Curtis. Philadelphia and
London: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1903.
_Abraham Lincoln: The Man of the People._ By Norman Hapgood. New York:
The Macmillan Co., 1899.
_Sketch of the Life of Abraham Lincoln._ Compiled in most part from the
History of Abraham Lincoln and the overthrow of slavery. By Isaac N.
Arnold. New York: John D. Bachelder, 1869.
_The Life of Abraham Lincoln._ By Isaac N. Arnold. Chicago: A. C.
McClurg & Co., 1901. Twelfth edition, 1916.
_Abraham Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life._ By William O.
Stoddard, one of President Lincoln's private secretaries during the War
of the Rebellion. Revised edition. New York: Fords, Howard & Hulbert,
1896.
_Abraham Lincoln._ By Charles Carleton Coffin. New York: Harper and
Brothers, 1893.
III. EARLY ILLINOIS HISTORY
_A. W. Snyder in Illinois 1817-1842._ Virginia, Illinois: E. Needham,
1906.
_Illinois in 1818._ By Solon Justus Buck. Illinois Centennial
Commission, Springfield, 1917.
_The Centennial History of Illinois._ Vol. II. _The Frontier State,
1818-1848._ By Theodore Calvin Pease. Published by the Illinois
Centennial Commission, 1918, Springfield, Illinois.
_The Lincoln Illinois Country._ By Daniel Kilham Dodge. _The
Independent._
_Pioneering: An Article on Lincoln and Herndon._ By C. H. Dall.
_Atlantic Monthly_, April, 1867.
_Lincoln and Salem: Pioneers of Mason and Menard Counties._ By T. G.
Onstott. Published by the author, Forest City, Illinois, 1902.
_Illinois._ An address delivered before the faculty and students of
the University of Illinois on Illinois Day, 1911, by Clark E. Carr.
Illinois University Press, December 6, 1911.
_The Illini: A Story of the Prairies._ By Clark E. Carr. Chicago: A. C.
McClurg & Co. Issued 1904; eighth edition, 1916.
_My Day and Generation._ By Clark E. Carr. Chicago: A. C. McClurg &
Co., 1908.
_Illinois: Travel and Description, 1765-1865._ By Solon Justus Buck.
Springfield, Ill. Published by trustees Illinois State Historical
Library, 1914.
IV. LINCOLN'S YOUTH
_Lincoln's Boyhood._ By Eleanor Atkinson. The Narrative of an Interview
with Dennis Hanks in 1889. _American Magazine_, February, 1908.
_In the Boyhood of Lincoln._ By Hezekiah Butterworth. New York: D.
Appleton & Co., 1892.
_The Boy Lincoln._ By W. O. Stoddard. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1905.
_The Pioneer Boy._ By William M. Thayer. Boston: Walker and Wise
Company, 1863.
_Abraham Lincoln, the Boy and the Man._ By James Morgan. New York: The
Macmillan Company, 1907.
_The Education of Lincoln._ By Hamilton W. Mabie. _The Outlook_,
February 20, 1904.
_Lincoln's Self-Education._ By Hamilton Wright Mabie. _The
Chautauquan_, April, 1900.
_Lincoln's Alma Mater._ By Eleanor Atkinson. _Harper's_, May, 1913.
V. LINCOLN'S LOVE AFFAIRS AND DOMESTIC RELATIONS
_Abraham Lincoln; Miss Ann Rutledge; New Salem; Pioneering; The Poem._
A lecture delivered in the old Sangamon court house, November, 1866,
by William H. Herndon, Springfield, Ill. H. E. Barker, 1916. Edition
limited to 150 copies.
_Lincoln's Love Story._ By Eleanor Atkinson. New York: Doubleday, Page
& Co., 1909.
_Abraham Lincoln in His Relations to Women._ By Julien Gordon. _The
Cosmopolitan_, December, 1894.
_Lincoln's Marriage._ Newspaper interview with Mrs. Frances Wallace,
September 2, 1895. Privately printed by H. E. Barker, Springfield,
1917. Edition limited to 75 copies. Denies that more than one date was
ever set for the Lincoln wedding.
_The Truth About Mrs. Lincoln._ By Howard Glyndon. _The Independent_,
August 10, 1882.
_Lincoln's Home Life in Washington._ By Leslie J. Perry. _Harper's_,
February, 1897.
VI. EPOCHS AND ASPECTS OF THE LIFE OF LINCOLN
_Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln._ By Henry B. Rankin. New
York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1916.
_Abraham Lincoln._ By H. C. Whitney. _The Arena_, April, 1898. Contains
some valuable reminiscences not in his book.
_Life on the Circuit with Lincoln._ By Major Henry C. Whitney. Boston:
Estes and Lauriat, 1892.
_Lincoln and Herndon._ By Joseph Fort Newton. Cedar Rapids, Iowa: The
Torch Press, 1910.
_Lincoln in Myth and in Fact._ By Dorothy Lamon Teillard. _World's
Work_, February, 1911.
_Six Months in the White House._ By Frank B. Carpenter. New York: Hurd
& Houghton, 1866. First edition.
_The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln: Six Months at the White House._ By
Frank B. Carpenter. New York: Hurd & Houghton, 1867.
_Lincoln and Seward._ By Gideon Welles. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1874.
_Diary of Gideon Welles._ _Atlantic Monthly_, 1909.
_Greeley on Lincoln and Mr. Greeley's Letters._ Edited by Joel Benton.
New York: The Baker & Taylor Co., 1893.
_Lincoln at Gettysburg._ By Clark E. Carr. Chicago: A. C. McClurg &
Co., 1906.
_Gettysburg and Lincoln._ By Henry Sweetser Burrage. New York: G. P.
Putnam's Sons, 1906.
_Lincoln's Gettysburg Address._ By Orton H. Carmichael. New York: The
Abingdon Press, 1917.
_Fiftieth Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg._ Report of the
Commission on the Gettysburg Reunion. Harrisburg, Pa., 1915.
_Recollections of Lincoln._ By James Grant Wilson, with facsimiles of
the Gettysburg and Second Inaugural Addresses. _Putnam's Magazine_,
February, 1909.
_The Gettysburg Address with Facsimile of the Manuscript._ By John G.
Nicolay. _Century Magazine_, 1894.
_Lincoln's Gettysburg Address._ By Prof. Philip M. Bikle and Rev. H. C.
Holloway. _Lutheran Church Work_, February 10, 1916.
_Variations in the Reports of the Gettysburg Address._ By W. H.
Lambert, _The Century Magazine_, February, 1894.
_Gettysburg._ By Elsie Singmaster. Boston: Houghton & Mifflin Co., 1913.
_Lincoln at Gettysburg._ Address delivered before the Illinois State
Historical Society at Springfield, Ill., January 25, 1906. By Clark E.
Carr.
_Lincoln's Masterpiece._ By Isaac Markens. Published by the author, 274
W. 140th Street, New York.
_The Perfect Tribute._ By Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews. New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907.
_Revised Report of the Select Committee on the Soldiers' National
Cemetery._ Together with the Accompanying Documents as Reported to
the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Harrisburg: Hornsby, Singerly & Myers, State Printers, 1865.
VII. THE DEATH OF LINCOLN
_The Death of Lincoln._ By Clara E. Laughlin. New York: Doubleday, Page
& Co., 1909.
_The Assassination of Lincoln._ By David Miller Dewitt. New York: The
Century Co., 1909.
_The Assassination of Lincoln: A History of the Great Conspiracy._ By
T. M. Harris, a member of the commission that tried the conspirators.
Boston: American Citizen Co., 1892.
_Assassination of Lincoln._ By Osborn H. Oldroyd. Washington D. C.,
1901.
_Through Five Administrations._ By William H. Crook. Lincoln's
Bodyguard. New York: Harper & Brother, 1910.
_Lincoln's Last Day._ By William H. Crook. _Harper's_, September, 1907.
VIII. ANTHOLOGIES
_The Lincoln Memorial: Album-Immortelles._ Collected and edited by
Osborn H. Oldroyd. New York: G. W. Carleton & Co., 1882.
_Poetical Tributes to the Memory of Abraham Lincoln._ Philadelphia: J.
B. Lippincott & Co., 1865.
_The Poets' Lincoln: Tributes in Verse to the Martyred President._
Selected by Osborn H. Oldroyd. Washington, D. C.: Published by the
editor at "The House Where Lincoln Died," 1915.
_The Praise of Lincoln: An Anthology._ Collected and arranged by A.
Dallas Williams. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1911.
_The Book of Lincoln._ Compiled by Mary Wright Davis. New York: George
H. Doran Company, 1919.
IX. LINCOLN'S LITERARY STYLE
_Abraham Lincoln As a Man of Letters._ By Luther Emerson Robinson, M.A.
Chicago: The Reilly & Britton Co., 1918.
_Lincoln's Literary Experiments._ By John G. Nicolay. With a lecture
and verses hitherto unpublished. _Century Magazine_, April, 1894.
_The Evolution of Lincoln's Literary Style._ By Prof. Daniel Kilham
Dodge. Champaign and Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1900.
X. THE RELIGION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
_Religious Views of Abraham Lincoln._ Compiled and published by Orrin
Henry Pennell. The R. M. Scranton Co., Alliance, Ohio, 1899.
_Brief Analysis of Lincoln's Character._ By W. H. Herndon. A letter to
J. E. Remsburg, September 10, 1887. Privately printed by H. E. Barker,
Springfield, Ill. Edition limited to 50 copies.
_A Card and a Correction._ A Broadside on Lincoln's religion. By W. H.
Herndon. Privately printed by H. E. Barker, Springfield, Ill. Edition
limited to 75 copies.
_Abraham Lincoln the Christian._ By William J. Johnson. New York and
Cincinnati: The Abingdon Press, 1913.
_The Later Life and Religious Sentiments of Abraham Lincoln._ By Rev.
James A. Reed. _Scribner's Monthly_, 1873, pp. 333-344.
_Lincoln's Religious Belief._ By B. F. Irwin. Article in the Illinois
_State Journal_ of May 16, 1874. Manuscript copy.
_More Testimony._ Letter from Hon. William Reid, U. S. Consul at
Dundee, Scotland. Article in Portland _Oregonian_, March 4, 1874.
Copied in Illinois _State Journal_. Manuscript copy.
_Abraham Lincoln's Religion._ By Madison C. Peters. Boston: Richard G.
Badger, The Gorham Press, 1909.
_Lincoln and the Church._ Article by John G. Nicolay and John Hay in
_Century_, August, 1889.
_The Record of a Quaker Conscience._ By Cyrus Pringle. New York:
Macmillan Company, 1918 (_Lincoln and the Quakers_).
_The Conversion of Lincoln._ By Rev. Edward L. Watson, New York,
_Christian Advocate_, November 11, 1909.
_The Religious Beliefs of Abraham Lincoln._ By R. C. Roper. Article in
_The Open Court_.
_Lincoln's Religious Faith and Principles._ By Thomas D. Logan, D.D.
_The Interior_, February 11, 1909.
_Abraham Lincoln._ Address delivered in Springfield, February 12, 1909,
and reported in, the Springfield _Evening Record_ of that date by Rev.
Thomas D. Logan, D.D.
_Lincoln Defamers Refuted._ By Henry B. Rankin. Broadside issued for
the Lincoln Day celebration at Old Salem, February 12, 1919, with
author's corrections and accompanying autograph letters.
_Abraham Lincoln's Cardinal Traits: A Study in Ethics, with an Epilogue
Addressed to Theologians._ By C. S. Beardslee. Boston: Richard G.
Badger, The Gorham Press, 1914.
_Abraham Lincoln: His Religion._ By Robert N. Reeves. Chicago: N. D.
_The Religion of Abraham Lincoln._ By George A. Thayer. Cincinnati:
1909.
_Abraham Lincoln the Preacher's Teacher._ By William J. Hutchins.
Lecture in volume on "The Preacher's Ideals and Inspirations." New
York: Fleming H. Revell, 1917.
_Essay on Lincoln: Was He An Inspired Prophet?_ By Milton R. Scott.
Published by the author, Newark, Ohio, 1906.
_Abraham Lincoln._ By Charles Henry Fowler, late bishop of the
Methodist Episcopal Church. Leading oration in volume of "Patriotic
Orations." New York: Eaton & Mains, 1910.
_Lincoln's Use of the Bible._ By S. Trevena Jackson. New York: The
Abingdon Press, 1909.
_The Agnosticism of Abraham Lincoln._ By Lyman Abbott. _The Outlook_,
November 17, 1906.
_Lincoln's Faith._ By John Hay. Address given from President Lincoln's
pew in the New York Avenue Church, November 16, 1902. In John Hay's
addresses.
_The Religious Opinions and Life of Abraham Lincoln._ By the Rev.
William H. Bates, D.D., Washington, D. C., 1914.
_Abraham Lincoln: A Lecture._ By Robert G. Ingersoll. New York: C. P.
Farrell, 1895.
_The Religion of Abraham Lincoln._ Correspondence between General
Charles H. T. Collis and Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll. With Appendix,
containing interesting anecdotes by Major-General Daniel E. Sickles and
Hon. Oliver S. Munsell. New York: G. H. Dillingham Company, 1890.
_Fifty Years in the Church of Rome._ By Father Chiniquy. 42nd edition.
Chicago: The Craig Press, 1892. Contains interesting account of
Lincoln's service as Father Chiniquy's attorney and of interviews at
the White House.
_Abraham Lincoln: Was He a Christian?_ By James E. Remsburg. Extended
chapter in "Six Historical Americans." New York: The Truth Seeker Co.
Extended argument to prove that Lincoln was and continued to be an
infidel.
_Was Abraham Lincoln a Spiritualist?_ By Mrs. Nettie Colburn Maynard.
Philadelphia: Rufus C. Hartranft, 1891. Contains extraordinary claims
of revelations made to Lincoln while in the White House by a trance
medium.
_Sir Oliver Lodge Is Right: Spirit Communication a Fact._ By Grace
Garrett Durand. Privately printed, Lake Forest, Ill., 1917. Contains
alleged revelations from Abraham Lincoln.
_Abraham Lincoln a Practical Mystic._ By Frances Grierson. New York:
The John Lane Co., 1918.
_The Abraham Lincoln Myth._ By Bocardo Bramantip (Oliver Prince Buel).
New York: The Mascot Publishing Co., 1894. A reprint from _The Catholic
World_ of November and December, 1893, intended as a satire upon the
Higher Criticism. Apparently suggested by the famous essay "Historical
Doubts Concerning the Existence of Napoleon Bonaparte."
_The Mythifying Theory; or, Abraham Lincoln a Myth._ By D. B. Turney.
Metropolis, Ill. B. O. Jones, Book and Job Printer, 1872. Photostat
from copy in Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.
XI. LINCOLN AND TEMPERANCE.
_Lincoln's First Address Delivered in Springfield_, February 22, 1842.
The Union Signal.
_A Discourse on the Bottle: Its Evils and Its Remedy._ By Rev. James
Smith. Sermon delivered in the First Presbyterian Church, Springfield,
January 23, 1853. Reprinted 1892. A surprisingly straightforward plea
for legislative prohibition, printed at the request of a committee who
heard it, among them being Abraham Lincoln.
_Lincoln a Temperance Man._ By Howard H. Russell. _The Interior_,
February 11, 1909.
_The Lincoln Legion._ By Howard H. Russell, Westerville, Ohio, 1913.
_Lincoln and Temperance._ By Rev. Thomas D. Logan. _The Advance_,
February 11, 1909.
XII. LINCOLN AND SLAVERY
_History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America._ By Henry
Wilson, 3 vols. Third edition. Boston: James R. Osgood & Co., 1875.
_Lincoln and Slavery._ By Albert E. Pillsbury. Boston and New York:
Houghton Mifflin Co., 1913.
_Abraham Lincoln: The Evolution of His Emancipation Policy._ By Paul
Selby. Chicago Historical Society, 1909.
_Anti-Slavery History: State and Nation._ By Austin Willey. Portland,
Maine: Hoyt, Fogg & Donham, 1886.
_The Dred Scott Decision._ New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1857.
_The Martyrdom of Elijah P. Lovejoy._ By H. Tanner. Chicago: Fergus
Printing Co., 1881.
_Dedication of Lovejoy Monument, November 8, 1897._ Alton, Ill.:
Charles Holden, 1897.
_The Underground Railroad._ By William M. Cockrum. Oakland City, Ind.:
J. W. Cockrum Printing Co., 1915.
_Lincoln, Grant, and the Freedmen._ By John Eaton. New York: Longmans,
Green & Co., 1907.
_The Negro a Beast._ By Charles Carroll. American Book and Bible House,
St. Louis, 1900.
_The Journal of Negro History._ Washington, D. C., 4 volumes to date.
_The History of Abraham Lincoln and the Overthrow of Slavery._ By Isaac
N. Arnold. Chicago: Clarke & Co., 1866.
XIII. ATTACKS ON THE CHARACTER OF LINCOLN
_The Real Lincoln._ From the testimony of his contemporaries. By
Charles L. C. Minor, M.A., LL.D. Second edition, revised and enlarged.
Richmond, Va.: Everett Waddey Co., 1904. A vicious assault on the
integrity of Lincoln.
_Facts and Falsehoods Concerning the War on the South, 1861-1865._ By
George Edmonds [Mrs. Elizabeth (Avery) Merriwether]. Memphis, Tenn. For
sale by A. R. Taylor & Co., 1904. Displays the most diligent effort in
the compilation of items derogatory to Lincoln and the North, but is
manifestly dependent upon second authorities and in some cases shows
marked ignorance of the original sources cited. Quotes freely from an
imaginary edition of Herndon, alleged to have been published in 1866
and suppressed.
_Abraham Lincoln: An Address Delivered Before R. E. Lee Camp, No. 1,
Confederate Veterans at Richmond, Virginia, October 29, 1909._ By Hon.
Geo. L. Christian. Second edition. Richmond: L. H. Jenkins, Publisher.
Based upon the historical data in Minor's _Real Lincoln_ and Edmonds'
_Facts and Falsehoods_.
_Crimes of the Civil War and Curse of the Funding System._ By Henry
Clay Dean. Baltimore: J. Wesley Smith & Brother, 1869. Excessively
scarce and most pronounced of its kind of literature. Denounces Lincoln
as a tyrant, murderer, and inhuman monster and lauds the act of
assassination by John Wilkes Booth.
_Confederate Echoes._ By A. T. Goodloe. Publishing House M. E. Church,
South, Nashville, Tenn., 1907.
_Lincoln the Rebel Candidate._ Democratic Campaign Pamphlet of 1864.
Photostat from original in New York Public Library.
XIV. LECTURES, ADDRESSES, AND REMINISCENCES
_Abraham Lincoln._ An address by Hon. Newton Bateman, LL.D. Galesburg,
Ill.: The Cadmus Club, 1909.
_Abraham Lincoln: An Oration._ Delivered on Washington's Birthday,
1891, by William Goodell Frost. Oberlin News, 1891.
_Abraham Lincoln: An Oration._ By John E. Burton. Lake Geneva,
Wisconsin, 1903.
_Abraham Lincoln: An Address._ By Frederick A. Noble. Chicago, February
12, 1901.
_Abraham Lincoln: An Essay._ By Joseph Fort Newton. The Torch Press,
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 1910.
_The Mystery of Lincoln._ By Robert E. Knowles. _The Independent._
_The Making of Lincoln._ Editorial in _The Outlook_, February 13, 1909.
_Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln._ By Distinguished Men of His Time.
Collected and edited by Allen Thorndike Rice. New York: _The North
American Review_, 1888. Separate articles by thirty-three distinguished
contemporaries of Lincoln.
_Abraham Lincoln: Tributes from His Associates._ Edited by William
Hayes Ward. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1895. Forty-five chapters
by soldiers, statesmen, and citizens who had known Lincoln.
_Sermons Preached in Boston on the Death of Abraham Lincoln, Together
with the Funeral Service in the East Room of the Executive Mansion in
Washington._ Boston: J. E. Tilton & Co., 1865.
_Our Martyred President: Lincoln Memorial Addresses._ The Abingdon
Press, 1915. A reprint of the original edition containing sermons by
New York ministers, together with the orations of George Bancroft,
Bishop Simpson, and Richard S. Storrs.
_Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of Abraham Lincoln in
the House of Representatives, February 12, 1866._ By George Bancroft.
Washington: Government Printing Office, 1866.
_Abraham Lincoln, by Some Men Who Knew Him._ Edited by Isaac N.
Phillips, Bloomington, Ill., Pantagraph Co., 1910.
_Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln; and a Visit to California._ By
Joshua Fry Speed, Louisville, 1884.
_Eulogy of Abraham Lincoln._ By Henry Champion Deming. Before the
General Assembly of Connecticut, Hartford, June 8, 1865. Hartford: A.
N. Clark & Co., State printers, 1865.
_Abraham Lincoln._ An address before the Lincoln League Club of
Chicago, in the Auditorium, February 12, 1895. By Henry Watterson.
_Lincoln._ By Isaac Newton Phillips. Reporter of Decisions of the
Supreme Court of Illinois. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1910.
_The Message of the President to Congress._ First message of Andrew
Johnson following the assassination of Lincoln, Washington, 1865.
_The Promises of the Declaration of Independence. Eulogy on Abraham
Lincoln._ By Charles Sumner. Boston: J. E. Farwell & Co., 1865.
_Abraham Lincoln._ By Joseph H. Choate. New York: T. Y. Crowell & Co.,
1901.
_Abraham Lincoln Today._ By William Charles Langdon, Edmund J. James,
and Captain Fernand Baldensperger. University of Illinois Press, 1918.
_Abraham Lincoln and Boston Corbett._ With personal recollections of
each. _John Wilkes Booth and Jefferson Davis._ A true story of their
capture. By Berkeley Byron Johnson. Waltham, Mass.: Privately printed,
1914.
_Abraham Lincoln._ By Phillips Brooks. A sermon preached in
Philadelphia, April 23, 1865.
_Abraham Lincoln._ By S. Parkes Cadman. Address before the New York
Republican Club.
_Some Impressions of Lincoln._ By E. S. Nadal. _Scribner's_, 1906.
_Life and Principles of Abraham Lincoln._ By Hon. Schuyler Colfax.
Philadelphia, 1865.
_The Voice of the Rod._ Funeral sermon by the Rev. P. D. Gurley, D.D.
Washington, 1865.
_Abraham Lincoln and the London Punch._ By William S. Walsh. New York:
Moffat, Yard & Co., 1909.
_Lincoln and Men of Wartime._ By A. K. McClure. Philadelphia: The Times
Publishing Co., 1892.
_Recollections of President Lincoln and His Administration._ By L. E.
Chittenden. New York: Harper & Brother, 1891.
_Personal Reminiscences Including Lincoln and Others._ By L. E.
Chittenden. New York: Richmond, Croscup & Co., 1893.
_Personal Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln._ By Thomas Lowry. Privately
printed, Minneapolis, 1910.
_The Footsteps of Lincoln._ By J. T. Hobson. Dayton, Ohio: The
Otterbein Press, 1909.
_The Master and His Servant._ A comparison of the incidents of
Lincoln's life with that of Jesus. By J. T. Hobson. United Brethren
Publishing House, Dayton, Ohio, 1913.
_The Picture and the Men._ Compiled by Fred B. Perkins. A. J. Johnson,
New York, 1867.
_Inside the White House in War Times._ By William O. Stoddard. New
York: Charles L. Webster & Co., 1890.
_Behind the Scenes._ By Elizabeth Keckley. New York: G. W. Carleton &
Co., 1868.
_Behind the Seams._ By a Nigger Woman Who Took in Work for Mrs. Lincoln
and Mrs. Davis. New York: The National News Company, 1868. A satire on
Mrs. Keckley's _Behind the Scenes_. Photostat of copy in Library of
Congress.
XV. BOOKS WHICH INFLUENCED LINCOLN
_The Holy Bible._
_The Elementary Spelling Book._ By Noah Webster. New York: D. Appleton
& Co.
_The Life of George Washington with Curious Anecdotes._ By W. R. Weems.
Philadelphia: Joseph Allen, 1844.
_Pilgrim's Progress._ By John Bunyan. London: Ward, Lock & Co. Reprint
with curious old cuts.
_Æsop's Fables._ Old edition with curious cuts. Title page missing.
_The English Reader._ By Lindley Murray. New York: Collins & Co., 1832.
_The Christian's Defence._ Containing a fair statement and impartial
examination of the leading objections, urged by infidels against the
antiquity, genuineness, credibility, and inspiration of the Holy
Scriptures; enriched with copious extracts from learned authors. Two
volumes in one. Volume I, The Old Testament, pp. 312; Volume II, The
New Testament, pp. 364. Cincinnati: J. A. James, 1843.
_Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation._ London: George Rutledge
& Sons, 1890. American agents, E. P. Dutton & Co., New York. Reprint of
the first edition, issued in 1844.
Second American edition of the same, with an introduction by Rev.
George B. Cheever, D.D. New York: Wiley & Putnam, 1845.
Third edition of the same, with an Appendix, containing an extended
review from the _North British Review_ of July, 1845. New York: Wiley &
Putnam, 1845.
_Explanations._ A sequel to _Vestiges of the Natural History of
Creation_. By the author of that work. New York: Wiley & Putnam, 1846.
From and after the sixth edition the explanations were added as a
supplement to regular editions of _Vestiges_. The author's name, Robert
Chambers, was not given in any edition of the _Vestiges_ until the
twelfth, which appeared after his death.
INDEX
Abbatt, William, 235.
Abbott, F. E., letter of Herndon to, 142, 337, 344.
Abbott, Lyman, on Lincoln's religion, 228-231.
Abolitionist, Lincoln not at beginning, 257;
how he became one, 268.
_Advance_, editorial in, 181.
Agnostic, Lincoln said to have been an, 226, 229.
Akers, Rev. Peter, anti-slavery preacher, 241.
Anthon, Prof. Charles, 184.
Antietam, Battle of, 269.
Arnold, Hon. I. N., 122, 315, 331, 334.
Astronomy, Lincoln's knowledge of, 33.
Atheist, Lincoln was not, 225.
Atkinson, Eleanor, interview with Dennis Hanks, 38.
_Atlantic Monthly_, 281-282.
Atonement as ground for universal salvation, 153.
Bale, Abraham, Baptist preacher, 55.
Baptists, in frontier communities, 34-45;
Lincoln family essentially Baptist, 50.
Barrett, J. H., author of _Life of Lincoln_, 25.
Bartlett, D. W., author of _Life of Lincoln_, 25.
Bartlett, Truman H., correspondence with Herndon, 264-267.
Bateman, Newton, superintendent of Public Instruction in Illinois;
his interview with Lincoln, 20;
outline of life and service, 114-115;
Holland's story of the interview, 114 _seq.;_
controversy with Herndon, 121 _seq._;
virtually repudiates Holland interview, 123;
corrects Lincoln's grammar, 124;
his lecture on Lincoln, 125;
what Lincoln probably said to him, 126;
extract from lecture on Lincoln, 303, 328-329.
Baxter, Richard, Lincoln's quotation, 289.
Bayley, T. H., 263.
Beecher, Edward, 67.
Beecher, Henry Ward, 198-201, 288.
Beecher, Mrs. Henry Ward, author of an honest but incredible story,
201.
Bible, Lincoln's use of, 93;
his lecture on, 159, 354;
gift of colored people, 217, 276;
knowledge of, 261-262.
Bibliography, 368-390.
Binns, Henry B., English biographer, 237.
Biology, Lincoln's knowledge of, 170.
Bishop, William, address on Lincoln, 160 _seq._
Black, Chauncey F., alleged author of Lamon's "Life of Lincoln," 26,
129.
Black, J. C., 315.
Books, read by Lincoln in youth, 47;
read few in later years, 166.
Boyd, Lucinda, quoted, 39.
Brodie, Sir Benjamin, 170.
Brooks, Noah, 327.
Browning, O. H., 249.
Browning, Mrs. O. H., 53.
Bryan Hall meeting, 268.
Buck, Solon J., on early Illinois, 57.
Buckle, Henry T., author of "History of Civilization," 29.
Burns, Robert, Lincoln's familiarity with, 150, 166, 263.
"Burnt Book," Lincoln's, 146, 148, 152 _seq._, 320, 341, 346-347.
Burton, John E., 184, 208.
Bushnell, Horace, author of "Christian Nurture," 50, 288.
Butterworth, Hezekiah, 49.
Byron, Lincoln's use of, 263.
Calhoun, John, loaned Lincoln books on surveying, 54.
Calvinism, a permanent influence in life of Lincoln, 171, 197, 271.
Carman, Dr. L. D., 242.
Carpenter, Frank B., painter of Emancipation picture, 206, 276, 281,
285, 328, 334.
Carr, Clark E., on Lincoln, 104-105.
Cartwright, Peter, pioneer preacher, 55;
candidate against Lincoln, 61;
career, 63, 345.
Case, Lizzie York, "There is no Unbelief," 290.
Catholic, Lincoln not a, 231.
Chambers, Robert, author of "Vestiges of Creation," 166-171.
Channing, William E., Lincoln reads, 175-178, 288.
Chapman, Ervin, "Latest Light on Lincoln," 48;
on the Beecher incident, 199, 275, 286.
Chase, Salmon P., account of Emancipation Proclamation, 283-284.
Chiniquy, Rev. Charles, 188-197.
Chittenden, L. E., 188-197.
"Christian's Defence," _see_ Smith, James.
_Christian Advocate_, 241.
_Christian Leader_, 183.
_Christian Register_, 183.
Church, Lincoln's esteem for, 240;
why he did not join, 244 _seq._
Churches, Lincoln and the, 377.
Cogdal, Isaac, on Lincoln's religion, 139, 287, 348-349.
Colfax, Schuyler, 95.
Collum, Shelby M., 67.
Congregational ministers, petition and delegation to influence
Emancipation Proclamation, 268-269.
Cooper Union Address, 73, 262.
Crawford, Andrew, teacher of Lincoln, 31, 33, 46.
Creed, Lincoln did not formulate, 291;
quotations used as basis of, 292-299;
compiled from his own utterances, 300.
Davis, David, on Lincoln's religion, 133, 248-249.
Deming, Henry C., address on Lincoln, 93-94, 244, 330.
Dempster, Rev. John, 268.
Dickens, Charles, Lincoln's use of, 263.
Disciples, so-called Campbellite church, 38.
Dodge, Daniel Kilham, 261-262, 270.
Dorsey, Abel W., teacher of Lincoln, 31.
Douglas, Fred, 247.
Douglas, Stephen A., 61, 73, 76, 104, 161, 263, 359.
Douthit, Rev. Jasper, 238.
Downey, David G., 199.
Dreams, Lincoln believed in, 233-236.
Dresser, Rev. Charles, 106.
_Edinburgh Review_, 167.
Edwards, Matilda, 52.
Edwards, Ninian W., 76;
testifies as to Lincoln's changed views, 164, 324, 359.
Elkin, David, preaches at Nancy Lincoln's funeral, 34, 39, 41.
Ellsworth, Col. Elmer, 128;
Lincoln's letter to his parents, 292.
Emancipation Proclamation, evolution of, 268-270, 281-286.
English, Dr. J. B., 184.
Farewell Address at Springfield, 84, 303-306.
Fell, Jesse W., Lincoln writes biographical sketch for, 236;
presents Lincoln books of Channing and Parker, 175, 321.
Ford, Governor Thomas, on frontier preachers, 58-59;
on "Long Nine," 82.
Fowler, Bishop Charles H., 103; 111 _seq._, 242, 253.
Freemason, Lincoln not a, 242.
Free-will Baptist, Thomas Lincoln not a, 37-38.
Funerals, often deferred, 40-45.
Geology, Lincoln's knowledge of, 170.
Gesture, Lincoln's use of, 263.
Gordon, Nathaniel, 293.
Grady, Josiah, questions Lincoln's religion, 138.
Graham, Mentor, teacher of Lincoln, 32, 51, 67, 68, 136;
on Lincoln's "Burnt Book," 152 _seq._, 346-347.
Grant, Ulysses S., 253-254.
Green, Bowling, 54, 185.
Greene, Gilbert J., 78-79.
Gurley, Rev. Phineas D., Lincoln's pastor in Washington, 87, 90, 244,
245, 325-326.
Gurney, Eliza P., 88-90; 294.
Hanks, Dennis, on Lincoln's youth, 38, 49.
Hanks, John, on Lincoln's impression of slavery, 96.
Hannah, William H., on Lincoln's faith, 287.
Harnett, Jonathan, 138, 349.
"Harp, French," 246.
Hay, John, author of "Life of Lincoln," 27.
Hazel, Caleb, teacher of Lincoln, 30.
Head, Rev. Jesse, 240.
Herndon, W. D., discussed religion with Lincoln, 132, 148.
Herndon, William H., author of "Life of Lincoln," 20, 24, 26, 27, 35;
says Lincoln was a fatalist, 50;
an infidel, 61-62;
his visit to site of New Salem, 62;
his lectures on Lincoln 62, 142-143;
his partnership with Lincoln, 71;
on Lincoln's letter to his father, 77;
letter from Nicolay, 91;
controversy with Bateman, 121 _seq._;
notes of his five interviews, 125;
writes a life of Lincoln, 140-145;
no friend of Mrs. Lincoln, 140;
the Abbott letter, 142;
his letter to Dr. Smith, 141;
reply to Reed lecture, 141;
regretted sale of papers to Lamon, 143;
revised edition of his work, 144;
personal habits and religion, 144-145;
never saw Lincoln's "Burnt Book," 148;
correspondence with Bartlett, 264-267;
attempts "to put at rest forever" the charge that Lincoln was an
atheist, 279;
affirms Lincoln's faith in immortality, 286;
reads reply to, 314 _seq._;
letters concerning Lincoln's religion, 336-340.
Herrick, Robert, 263.
Hill, Samuel, burns Lincoln manuscript, 146-155.
Hodgenville, Kentucky, a Baptist settlement, 34.
Hodges, A. G., Lincoln's letter to, 296.
Holland, Josiah G., author of "Life of Lincoln," 26;
asymmetry of Lincoln's life, 102 _seq._;
story of the Bateman incident, 115-117;
prints the Reed lecture in _Scribner's_ magazine, 135, 328-329,
337.
Holmes, O. W., 167.
Holt, Dr. E. E., on Lincoln's dream, 235.
Howells, William D., "Life of Lincoln," 25.
Illinois College, 67.
Illinois, twin born with Lincoln, 30.
Insanity, Lincoln's approach to, 252.
Irwin, B. F., on Lincoln's religion, 136, 287, 341.
Jacquess, Col. James F., story of Lincoln's conversion, 241, 309
_seq._
Jacquess, William B., 309.
Johnny Kongapod, 49, 271.
Johns, Mrs. Jane Martin, reminiscences of Lincoln, 248 _seq._
Johnson, John D., Lincoln's stepbrother, 77.
Johnson, William J., author of "Lincoln the Christian," 48;
on the Beecher incident, 199, 235.
Kansas, Lincoln visits, 73.
Keckley, Elizabeth, 203-204.
Keys, I. W., loaned Lincoln "Vestiges of Creation," 277.
Kirkham's Grammar, studied by Lincoln, 51, 67, 185.
Knox College, 125.
Krone, David, 249.
Lamon, Ward Hill, author of "Life of Lincoln," 26, 47, 52;
affirms Lincoln permitted himself to be misrepresented, 76;
quotes Herndon on Lincoln's letter to his father, 78;
answer to Holland, 117-120;
his relations with Lincoln, 128;
his life of Lincoln an unfinished fragment, 128;
the controversy growing out of his book, 128-134;
Black, the author, 129;
his recollections, 134;
on Lincoln's "Burnt Book," 146;
affirms Lincoln's faith essentially that of Parker, 279;
reads reply to, 314 _seq._
Lewis, Thomas, 158-163, 256, 325, 359.
Lincoln, Abraham, sixteenth president of the United States;
periods of his life, 29;
birth of, boyhood, 30 _seq._;
schools and teachers, 30-33;
early religious privileges, 33 _seq._;
early influence Baptist, 34 _seq._;
migration to Illinois, 51;
on flat-boat, 51;
at New Salem, 51 _seq._;
studies grammar, 51;
works on flat-boat, 51;
service in Blackhawk War, 52;
candidate for legislature, 52;
keeper of post office, 52;
love affairs, 52-53;
influenced by life in New Salem, 54;
did not drink or swear, 55;
Herndon's statement of his religion, 61;
known as "Honest Abe," 70;
removal to Springfield, 71;
his partnerships, 71;
beginnings of his interest in slavery, 72;
early orations, 72;
important cases, 73;
marriage, 73;
election as president, 73;
his children, 75;
death of Eddie, 75;
letter to dying father, 77;
comforts a dying woman, 78;
his stories, 80;
religious life in Springfield, 81;
development of political ideals, 82;
in Armstrong trial, 83;
ethical aspects of the slavery issue, 83, 268;
farewell at Springfield, 84;
inauguration as President, 86;
outline of his administration, assassination, and death, 87;
death of Willie, 95;
why he freed the slaves, 96;
domestic affairs, 106;
read "Artemus Ward," 111;
the charges in Lamon's biography, 130-134;
his "Burnt Book," 146-155;
reads "The Christian's Defence," 156 _seq._;
pronounces it unanswerable, 164;
reads "Vestiges of Creation," 166-171;
reads Channing and Parker, 172 _seq._;
erased words in Greek exercise book, 183;
the Chittenden interview, 188 _seq._;
the Chiniquy interview, 188 _seq._;
alleged visit to Beecher, 198 _seq._;
the Sickles interview, 201 _seq._;
life in the White House, 203 _seq._;
sorrow at death of Willie, 204;
alleged statement, "I do love Jesus," 208;
religious character of his proclamations, 210-221;
not an atheist, 225;
not a Roman Catholic, 231;
not a spiritualist, 232;
not addressed as "Abe," 233;
believed in dreams and signs, 233;
not a Quaker, 236;
questioned supernatural birth of Jesus, but not a Unitarian, 238;
denied eternal punishment, but not a Universalist, 238;
not a Methodist, 240;
not a Freemason, 242;
attended a revival, 244;
why he did not join the church, 244 _seq._;
the creed he could have accepted, 245;
lacked some of the finer feelings, 246;
his dress, 247;
possessed an innate courtesy, 247-249;
helps move a piano, 250;
morbidly cautious, 252;
breadth of his religious nature, 253;
not symmetrical in his development, 254;
essentially Calvinistic, 254, 271;
his capacity for obstinacy, 255;
his ability to evade an issue, 257;
his periods of mental uncertainty, 258;
his literary style, 261;
use of quotations, 262;
seldom told stories in speeches, 263;
thought and moved slowly, 264;
his characteristic pioneer trails, 265;
an embodiment of contrasts, 266;
neutral and spiritual evolution, 267;
interview with Chicago ministers, 268-269;
his changed style of oratory, 270;
his religious development, 270-275;
his belief in universal salvation, 272;
in immorality, 273, 286;
his references to God, 273-274;
his belief in the Bible, 274-275;
in Jesus Christ, 275-277;
his question of the supernatural birth, 277-278;
in divine destiny and prayer, 280-281;
his promise to God, 281-286;
in future but not endless punishment, 287;
not a theologian, 289;
his quotation from Baxter, 289;
materials for his creed, 291-299;
his creed in his own words, 300.
Lincoln, Edward Baker, son of the
President, birth and death, 75, 258.
Lincoln, Mary Todd, wife of Abraham;
courtship and marriage, 52-53, 73, 103;
relates incident of morning of inaugural, 86;
unites with Presbyterian Church, 159, 255-256;
broken engagement and wedding, 252.
Lincoln, Nancy Hanks, mother of the President;
marriage, 30, 48, 315;
death of, 31, 40;
at public worship, 34;
funeral, 40 _seq._
Lincoln, Robert Todd, son of President, 39;
birth, 75.
Lincoln, Sally, or Sarah Bush, second wife of Thomas, 31;
her religion, 37, 47, 50;
supplied information to Herndon, 36;
her love for Abraham, 50.
Lincoln, Sarah, daughter of Thomas and Nancy
(sometimes incorrectly called Nancy), 34;
united with Pigeon Creek Church, 37.
Lincoln, Thomas, father of the President;
marriages, 30, 31, 315;
religion of, 34, 36-45;
a thriftless farmer, 51;
Abraham's letter to, 77.
Lincoln, Thomas, "Tad," son of the President, birth and death, 75.
Lincoln, William Wallace, son of the President;
birth, 75;
death, 95.
Logan, Stephen T., Lincoln's partner, 71, 249.
Logan, Thomas D., address on Lincoln, 75;
learned of Dr. Smith's book in 1909, 157.
Lyon, Benjamin, early Baptist minister, 34.
Maryland Historical Society, 269.
Matheny, James H., on Lincoln's religion, 133-135, 137;
Herndon's authority for the story of Lincoln's "Burnt Book," 148,
320-321, 343.
Maynard, Nettie Colburn, 232.
McCrie, George M., 226.
McNamur, John, lover of Ann Rutledge, 151.
Medill, Joseph, 269.
Melancholy, Lincoln's habitual, 252.
Methodist Church, little influence in life of the Lincoln family, 48;
Lincoln's high regard for, 240.
Miner, Rev. Dr., 86, 333-334.
Ministers in early Illinois politics, 59-61.
"Miracles under law," 171, 279.
Missouri Compromise, 268.
Morgan, G. H., quoted, 21.
Morse, John T., Jr., author of "Life of Lincoln," 27.
Mostiller, Thomas, on Lincoln's religion, 138, 347-348.
Murray, Lindley, author of English Reader, 32.
Music, little appreciated by Lincoln, 246.
New England, Lincoln visits, 73.
New Light Church at Farmington, 38.
New Salem, Illinois, 51;
influence on Lincoln, 54;
Lincoln's Alma Mater, 67.
Newton, Joseph Fort, author of "Lincoln and Herndon," 26, 129.
Nicolay, John G., author of "Life of Lincoln," 27, 31;
letter concerning Lincoln's religion, 91, 279-280, 321.
Nielson, William, his book on Greek Syntax owned by Lincoln, 183.
Offutt, Denton, 51.
Oldroyd, Osborn H., 208.
Olmsted, Charles G., 76, 358 _seq._
Onstott, T. G., reminiscences of New Salem, 54 _seq._
_Open Court_, articles in, 225-227.
Owens, Mary, courted by Lincoln, 52, 69.
Paine, Thomas, author of "Age of Reason," read by Lincoln, 19, 61,
63, 146, 152, 343.
Parker, Theodore, Lincoln reads, 175-178, 288.
Patton, Rev. William W., 268.
Paul at Malta, 260.
Pease, Theodore C., on early Illinois, 56, 59.
Peck, John Mason, preacher in early Illinois, 59.
Peters, Madison, on Religion of Lincoln, 34.
Philosophy, unknown to Lincoln, 171.
Piano, Lincoln helps to move, 250.
Poems loved by Lincoln, 166.
Poetry, Lincoln's use of, 246, 263.
Poetry and religion, 230.
Pomeroy, Rebecca R., 205-206.
Pope, Alexander, 263.
Presbyterian, Thomas Lincoln was not, 37.
Quakers, Lincoln's attitude toward, 88, 236, 237.
Rankin, Henry B., 245.
Ray, Dr. C. H., on Lincoln's religion, 133.
Reed, Rev. James A., his lecture and the controversy which followed,
135 _seq.;_ 158;
text of lecture, 314, 337.
Reid, William, letter on Lincoln's religion, 352-356.
Religion in Kentucky backwoods, 34.
Religion, more and other than theology, 22;
part and parcel of Lincoln's life, 267.
Remsburg, J. E., Herndon's letter to, 336.
Reynolds, Governor, on early Illinois, 57.
Rickard, Sarah, alleged to have been courted by Lincoln, 52.
Riney, Zachariah, teacher of Lincoln, 30.
Roberts, William Henry, 90.
Roby, Katy (Mrs. Allen Gentry), 33.
Roper, R. C., on Lincoln's religion, 227.
Rusling, General James F., on Sickles interview, 201-202.
Rutledge, Ann, courted by Lincoln, 52 _seq.;_ 62, 69, 143, 352.
Rutledge, James, father of Ann, 54.
Science, little known by Lincoln, 171.
Scott, Milton R., 253.
Scott, Walter, Lincoln's use of, 263.
Scoville, Samuel, 199.
Scripps, John Locke, "Life of Lincoln," 24.
Shakspeare, Lincoln's use, 263.
Shields, James T., 72.
Shipman, Elder, alleged Unitarian minister, 181.
Shirley, Ralph, 268.
Shrigley, Rev. James, 356-357.
Sickles, General D. E., interview with Lincoln, 201-202.
Slavery, beginnings of Lincoln's interest in, 72;
growth of moral aspect, 83;
"If not wrong, nothing is wrong," 296.
Smith, Jeannette E., 158.
Smith, Rev. James, Lincoln's pastor at Springfield, 75-76;
relations with Lincoln, 132, 136;
his life and ministry, 156;
his sermon on temperance, 157;
Lincoln becomes a member of his congregation, 159;
Lincoln reads "The Christian's Defence," 162;
change in Lincoln's views, 164;
convinced Lincoln but did not wholly satisfy, 270, 323-324,
353-354;
complete chapter analysis of the book, 358 _seq._
Smith, Winfield, 289.
Speed, Joshua Fry, 92-93, 236, 336-337.
Spiritualist, Lincoln not a, 232.
Stanton, Theodore, article by, 226.
State Fair Speech of Lincoln, 257.
Stories, Lincoln's, 80, 263.
Stuart, John T., Lincoln's partner, 71;
on Lincoln's religion, 132, 249, 256, 319-320.
Sunderland, Rev. Byron, 332-333.
Superstition, Lincoln believed in, 233, 236.
Swett, Leonard, 249.
Tarbell, Ida, M., author of "Life of Lincoln," 27.
Teillard, Dorothy Lamon, 129-130, 134.
Thomas, Lewis, 244.
Toleman, letter of, 238.
Unitarian, Lincoln was not, 180, 238.
Universalist, Lincoln was not, 238.
Vandalia, state capital of Illinois, 52.
"Vestiges of Creation," by Robert Chambers, 166-171, 255, 265.
Vinton, Rev. Francis, alleged interview with Lincoln, 206.
Volney, Constantin François, author of "Ruins," read by Lincoln, 19,
61, 63, 146, 152.
Voodoo Fortune-teller, Lincoln visits, 236.
"Ward, Artemus," read by Lincoln, 113, 307.
Watson, Rev. Edward L., story of Lincoln's conversion, 24, 309.
Weik, Jesse W., associate of Herndon in authorship of
"Life of Lincoln," 26;
opinion of Thomas Lincoln's religion, 39;
searches for lost Herndon papers, 125.
Welles, Gideon, 268, 281.
_Westminster Review_, 167, 226.
Whitcomb, Rev. W. W., sermon on Lincoln, 208.
White, Charles T., 80.
White, Horace, 26, 27, 129.
White, William Allen, 110.
Whitney, Henry C., on Lincoln's religion, 94-95;
on Lincoln's lack of method, 103, 246, 247, 254, 263.
Wigwam edition of "Life of Lincoln," 24.
Wilberforce, Bishop Samuel, 170.
Yates, Governor Richard, 310.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] All the quotations in this book from Herndon's _Lincoln_ are from
the first edition in three volumes.
[2] The habit of studying aloud, learned in the "blab-school," remained
with him. Lamon says he read aloud and "couldn't read otherwise."
Whitney tells of his writing a ruling one time when he was sitting
(illegally) for Judge Davis, and he pronounced each word aloud as he
wrote it. This was not his invariable custom, but it was a common one
with him.
[3] Hodgenville was a Baptist settlement from its foundation. Robert
Hodgen, for whom the settlement was named, and John Larue, his
brother-in-law, for whom the county was named, were both Baptists, and
among the first settlers was a Baptist minister, Rev. Benjamin Lyon.
[4] Baptisms of this noisy character were familiar to Lincoln in his
boyhood and certainly as late as the period of his residence in New
Salem. Henry Onstott, at whose tavern Lincoln boarded, tells of such
baptisms performed by Rev. Abraham Bale, including one at which the
husband of the lady who was being baptized called out to the preacher
to hold her, as he valued her more highly than the best cow and calf in
the county (_Lincoln and Salem_, p. 122).
[5] While the statements of Dennis Hanks are often colored by his
imagination, he is, after all, our best witness concerning Lincoln's
boyhood.
[6] Some writers have spoken of Mr. Elkin as a Methodist circuit rider.
Mrs. Lucinda Boyd, in a book which might better not have been published
and which I will not name, but which is correct in some local matters,
speaks of Rev. Robert Elkin, the minister who preached the funeral
sermon of Mrs. Lincoln, as belonging to the "Traveling Baptist Church."
She says: "His grave is in the open field, and soon the traces of it
will be lost." Apparently this grave was in Clark County, Kentucky.
I think, however, that she is in error as to the name Robert. It was
David.
[7] The latest writer to lend to the incident of Nancy Lincoln's
funeral the aid of a vivid imagination and a versatile pen is Rose
Strunsky. Discarding the theory that Abraham wrote his first letter to
invite a minister to come from Kentucky to preach his mother's funeral,
she sends him on foot to a nearer settlement:
"The boy Abraham had his standards of life. There were things of too
much meaning to let pass without some gesture. And the unceremonious
burial in the forest haunted him. When he heard that a wandering
preacher had reached the neighborhood, he tramped many miles in the
snow to bring him to the spot where the dead body lay, so that a
funeral sermon might be delivered over the now white grave" (_Abraham
Lincoln_, p. 6).
There was nothing unusual about the burial. Nor was there anything
unusual about the deferred funeral. These writers simply do not know
the conditions of life in which the boy Lincoln lived.
[8] While this manuscript was in process of writing, Professor Raymond,
of Berea College, Kentucky, enumerating his summer engagements for the
season of 1919, informed me of a funeral he was engaged to preach in
August of a boy who died ten years ago. The boy's companions have by
this time grown to manhood, but the service will be held: and before
this book is published doubtless will have been held according to
immemorial custom in that region. This is not because there has been
no preacher in its vicinity within ten years; nor is there any reason
to suppose that the delay in the case of Lincoln's mother was due to
the utter absence of ministers. They were not abundant, certainly; but
there is no reason whatever to suppose that in the interval between
the death and funeral of Nancy Hanks no preacher had been in the
neighborhood of Pigeon Creek.
[9] I have often been deeply impressed by the charity of primitive
preachers for dead people, and their ingenuity in inventing possible
opportunities for repentance where no outward sign was given or
apparently possible. There was something impressive in their manner of
doing it, as well as an exhibition of fine tenderness for the feelings
of friends and of generosity toward the dead.
"_Between the saddle and the ground,
He pardon sought and pardon found_"
is a very precious article of faith in the creed of men who have to
preach a stern doctrine to the living, with warning of a hell that
yawns for all impenitent sinners.
[10] In my own judgment, it would have been better to have let the
first edition stand. It ought not to have included these vulgarities;
but they are not so bad as the impression which is created by the
knowledge that a new edition had to be made on their account. They are
coarse bits of rustic buffoonery.
[11] I do not forget that Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks were married
by Rev. Jesse Head, who was a Methodist preacher. But I do not find
evidence that Mr. Head exerted any marked influence over them. Mr. Head
was not only a minister, but a justice of the peace, an anti-slavery
man, and a person of strong and righteous character. I am not sure
whether the fact that he performed this marriage is not due in some
measure to the fact that he was about the court house, and a convenient
minister to find.
[12] Dr. Chapman goes even beyond Johnson in his admiration of these
youthful lines. He says:
"It is profoundly significant that this child of destiny, at his life's
early morning, in clumsy but impressive verse thus reverently coupled
his name with that of his Creator.... I am not claiming for this
fragment of a Lincoln manuscript any divine inspiration" (_Latest Light
on Lincoln_, p. 315).
But he stops little short of that, and might about as well have
claimed it. The simple truth is that the lines have no significance
whatever. They were a current bit of schoolboy doggerel, not original
with Lincoln, and were scribbled by him as by other boys, with no real
purpose beyond that of working his name into a jingle.
[13] I have seen these and other examples of Lincoln's early penmanship
in the library of Mr. Jesse W. Weik.
[14] The story of Johnny Kongapod was one which Lincoln often related
in after life. It is found in several collections of his stories, and
with some variation. The Indian himself has found a place in literature
in "In the Boyhood of Lincoln" by my friend, now deceased, Hezekiah
Butterworth. The epitaph more nearly in its ancient English form is
found in "David Elginbrod," by George Macdonald:
"_Here lie I, Martin Elginbrod;
Hae mercy o' my soul, Lord God,
As I would hae if I were God,
And Thou wert Martin Elginbrod._"
[15] "His early Baptist training made him a fatalist to the day of his
death" (Herndon, I, 34).
[16] The story of Lincoln's love affairs lies mostly outside the
field of our present inquiry. He had at least one more of them than
his biographers have learned about. Those that are best known are the
ones with Ann Rutledge, Mary Owens, and Mary Todd. Lamon declares that
Lincoln loved Miss Matilda Edwards, sister of Ninian W. Edwards, whose
wife was sister to Mary Todd. He gives this as the real reason for the
estrangement of Lincoln and his fiancée (Lamon's _Life of Lincoln_,
p. 259). This is vigorously denied by members of the Edwards family,
and the opinions in Springfield are anything but unanimous. Herndon
informs us that in 1840, when Lincoln was thirty-one, and during
the period when he was attracted to Mary Todd, he proposed to Sarah
Rickard, a girl of sixteen. The present writer has no occasion to go
into the discussions attending these several affairs of the heart.
Lincoln's unsettled condition of mind on matrimonial and other matters
is, however, an important element in any study of his religious life
in this period. Herndon, between whom and Mrs. Lincoln little love was
lost, was not unwilling to inform her and the world that Lincoln had
loved one woman, at least, more than he ever loved her; and that he
married her reluctantly. This was not pleasant information for a proud
and erratic grief-stricken woman, and it is not certain that Herndon
was impartial authority or that he learned the whole truth. Lincoln
was not a lady's man, and Mary Owens was quite right in deeming him
"deficient in those little links that make up the chain of a woman's
happiness."
Students of the Lincoln material are informed by those who suppose
themselves to know, that beside the above-mentioned adventures, Lincoln
had at least one additional love affair, and one that was not to his
credit. They are told that the proof of this exists in an unpublished
letter from the hand of Lincoln, a letter sacredly guarded and seldom
shown by its owner. If this book had any reason to go at length into
the subject of Lincoln's love affairs, I should be glad to consider
that matter in detail; for the owner of that letter has permitted me to
read and copy it, and I have the copy, which I intend to use in another
volume on Lincoln. I wish to say, however, that the letter, which is
a free, unguarded note to an intimate friend, does not sustain the
impression that Lincoln had any other love affair, or that any wrong
act or motive lay behind his words. Lincoln was not a tactful man in
his relations with women; but he was a clean man.
[17] "Mr. Lincoln was never agitated by any passion more than by
his wonderful thirst for distinction. There is no instance where an
important office was within his reach, and he did not try to get it"
(Lamon, _Life of Lincoln_, p. 237). This is a harsh and unfriendly way
of stating it, but it is not wholly false.
[18] Mr. John E. Burton has documentary evidence that Lincoln was
associated as so-called partner with seven law firms. Mr. Burton has
owned the firm signatures in Lincoln's handwriting as follows:
Stuart and Lincoln 1838
Ficklin and Lincoln 1842
Logan and Lincoln 1845
Harlan and Lincoln 1845
Goodrich and Lincoln October 1855
Lincoln and Herndon 1852
Lincoln and Lamon
But these associates, except Stuart, Logan, and Herndon, were not
strictly partnerships. They were local associations with lawyers whose
practice he shared.
[19] Mr. Barker, the bookseller and publisher of Springfield, has or
had an interesting item in a volume which Mr. Lincoln presented to Rev.
William A. Chapin, a returned missionary, who lived with the family of
his relative, Albert Hale. Mr. Lincoln was on close terms with "Father
Hale" and a friend of Mr. Chapin. The book is one volume, the others
being lost, of a set entitled "_Horae Solitariae, or, Essays on Some
Remarkable Names and Titles of the Holy Spirit._ First American from
the Second London Edition. Philadelphia: Cochran & McLoughlan, 1801."
The book bears no name of author. Upon the flyleaf is the autograph of
Mr. Chapin in these words, "William A. Chapin, 1844. A present from
Abr. Lincoln." How Lincoln obtained the book is not known; nor is it
one for which he would have been likely to care. But he cared enough
for the book or for the missionary or for both to present the one to
the other. His aversion to ministers, which Lamon portrays, may have
had some reason in certain cases; but it was not inclusive of all
ministers nor of ministers as a class.
[20] I have been at much trouble to get the exact name and dates of
this little boy. He was called Eddie, and the name is sometimes given
Edwin and sometimes Edward, and I did not find it easy to learn,
even at the monument at Springfield, the exact date of his death. He
was named for his father's friend, and associate in the Legislature,
Edward Baker. He was born March 10, 1846, and died February 1, 1850.
Lincoln's children were: Robert Todd, born August 1, 1843, still
living; Edward Baker, born March 10, 1846, died in Springfield February
1, 1850; William Wallace, born December 21, 1850, died in the White
House February 20, 1862; Thomas or "Tad," born April 4, 1853; died
in Chicago, July 15, 1871. Mary Todd Lincoln, their mother, was born
in Lexington, Kentucky, December 13, 1818; married Abraham Lincoln,
November 4, 1842, and died in Springfield July 16, 1882.
The date of the death of Eddie is important, because it gives us a
_terminus a quem_ for Lincoln's acquaintance with Rev. James Smith.
Dr. Smith gives the date as "in the latter part of 1849." I sought in
vain not only in published Lives of Lincoln but in the material on
file with the State Historical Society for the precise date. What is
more surprising, Colonel Johnson, custodian of the Lincoln tomb, has
made diligent search for me and cannot find the date. In an article,
prepared for the Lincoln Centenary in 1909, Rev. Thomas D. Logan,
D.D., then pastor of the church in Springfield which Lincoln attended
and successor of Dr. Smith, said it was "about 1848 or 1849"; but in
working over the material, as he manifestly did, after furnishing it to
_The Interior_, in which it was printed, and delivering the substance
of it as a centenary address, he gives the date as February 1, 1850.
This I judge to be correct, and it is upon his authority I have given
that date above. The other dates of the Lincoln family's relation to
this church support this statement.
[21] Governor Ford uses this term as inclusive of the "Long Nine" and
their associates who voted for the combination of evils which brought
financial disaster to Illinois in that early day. Among them were
Stephen A. Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, John A. McClernand, and James
Shields--"all of them spared monuments of popular wrath, evincing how
safe it is to be a politician, but how disastrous it may be to the
country to keep along with the present fervor of the people." FORD:
_History of Illinois_.
[22] A careful reading of Mr. Lincoln's speeches while en route for
Washington will reveal, I think, that Mr. Lincoln was confident there
would be no war. A much more solemn note was in his First Inaugural, a
few days later.
[23] Even Herndon commends Dr. Gurley and Bishop Simpson for their very
conservative claims concerning the religion of Lincoln.
[24] Carpenter says that these were the negroes of Baltimore, and is
probably correct.
[25] This curious passage, which is very nearly meaningless if read
apart from its context, has to do with the appointment of the priestly
families that furnished the porters, or guards, for the approaches to
the temple in Jerusalem. It is found in I Chronicles 26:17-18.
[26] This well-known and picturesque passage describes the army of
David when he was an outlaw and half a freebooter, fleeing from the
fury of Saul and hiding in the cave of Adullam. I Samuel 22:2.
[27] "Mr. Lincoln had no method, system, or order in his exterior
affairs; he had no library, no clerk, no stenographer; he had no
common-place-book, no _index rerum_, no diary. Even when he was
President and wanted to preserve a memorandum of anything, he noted it
down on a card and stuck it into a drawer or in his vest pocket. But in
his mental processes and operations, he had the most complete system
and order. While outside of his mind all was anarchy and confusion,
inside all was symmetry and method." WHITNEY: _Life on the Circuit with
Lincoln_, p. 110.
[28] Mrs. Edwards, Mrs. Lincoln's sister, in a published interview
which Barker of Springfield has reprinted in a limited edition, gives a
circumstantial account of the wedding, which, she affirms, occurred on
Sunday night. The calendar contradicts her. Nor would the court house
have been open for the issue of the license on Sunday; its date is the
date of the wedding. The license was procured, and the marriage was
solemnized, on Friday.
[29] Newton Bateman was born at Fairfield, New York, July 27, 1822, and
migrated with his parents to Illinois in his boyhood. He was graduated
from Illinois College, in Jacksonville, in 1843, and was honored as
one of the ablest men in the alumni of that institution. He first knew
Abraham Lincoln in 1847, and knew him with increasing intimacy during
the years of 1859 and 1860 when Mr. Bateman was in Springfield. Mr.
Bateman served as Superintendent of Schools of the State of Illinois
continuously from 1859 to 1875, except for the single term 1863-65.
During his administration the school system of Illinois made notable
progress, and he is remembered as having done large things for the
educational system of his State. He was the author of the plan for
the education of all the children of all the people of the State at
the expense of all the property of the State. He wrought his system
into the new constitution of Illinois, adopted in 1871, while he was
at the zenith of his power. He was repeatedly re-elected, his defeat
in 1862 being a defeat shared with the whole Republican ticket of the
State in an off-year election when nearly the whole North, weary of the
war which had scarcely begun, defeated partly by hostility and partly
by lethargy the party and the policies that had sent Lincoln to the
White House; and Bateman was triumphantly re-elected when Lincoln was
re-elected, and for many terms thereafter. He established the Normal
School system of the State; and his work was monumental in the life of
the State University. Few men deserve so well to be remembered with
honor in Illinois.
At the close of his long term of service as Superintendent of Schools,
he became President of Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, from 1875
to 1893. He was small in stature, and by his friends was familiarly
called "Little Newt," but was held in high regard as a man of honor
and an educator of note. Besides his published reports and addresses,
he compiled a large encyclopedia of men of Illinois,--a kind of "Who's
Who" of much value. His family at one time proposed to gather and issue
a memorial volume of his addresses, but the plan appears not to have
been carried out. He died of angina pectoris at Galesburg, October 21,
1897.
[30] Bateman's version of the Farewell Address, as reported in the
_State Journal_, was that accepted by Herndon, and, with its more
profound recognition of God's providential care, is given in Lamon's
_Life of Lincoln_, p. 506. It is repeated in his _Recollections_, p. 31.
[31] For these two reports and that of Lincoln and Hay, see the
Appendix.
[32] Mr. Jesse W. Weik, who was associated with Herndon in the
authorship of his _Life of Lincoln_, and who has Herndon's papers, has
made diligent search for me in the effort to locate the notes of these
interviews. Herndon certainly desired to preserve them, and desired
that they should be published. But thus far they have not been found,
and presumably are not in existence.
[33] Lamon was a Virginian by birth, and was, in many of his habits, a
very different man from Lincoln, but Lincoln liked and trusted him.
[34] Black was Lamon's law partner in Washington after the war. The
firm of Black, Lamon, and Hovey did a large business in prosecuting
claims against the Government.
[35] This lecture is now very rare, and the text is given in the
Appendix to this volume.
[36] This important communication containing signed letters from a
number of Lincoln's friends is given in full in the Appendix.
[37] Although a number of these letters are quoted in the text, the
article as a whole is so important that it is given in full in the
Appendix.
[38] Herndon's letter to Dr. Smith was impudent, demanding that
he answer as a man, if he could, and if not as a man, then as a
Christian--a challenge which the old Scotchman answered in kind.
[39] The Abbott letter is printed in Herndon's _Life of Lincoln_, pp.
492-497: portions of it have been quoted in this book.
The Remsburg letter and the broadside above referred to are printed in
full in the Appendix to this book.
[40] Statements of this nature show, what we know without them, that
Herndon had never seen the "book" nor heard it described by anyone who
actually saw it.
[41] We may note in passing that it is not in "Tam o' Shanter" but in
"Holy Willie's Prayer" that Burns uses the line quoted by Matheny.
[42] I am informed that this is a slight error. Dr. Smith had another
son, still younger.
[43] There are three copies in Chicago, one in the library of the
University of Chicago, one in the library of McCormick Theological
Seminary, and one in my own library. There are copies also in the
libraries of Union Theological Seminary, New York; Center College,
Danville, Kentucky; the College of the Bible, Lexington, Kentucky; the
Library of Congress, and Lane Theological Seminary, Cincinnati. These,
and the one owned by Miss Smith, are the only copies of which I have
learned thus far; though doubtless there are others in dusty attics.
[44] This date is wrong. The book was not published until 1844.
[45] _Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation_, by Robert Chambers,
is published still by E. P. Dutton & Co., New York, and sold at 75
cents. This is an excellent reprint of the first Edinburgh edition,
which Lincoln first read.
[46] It is now known that it was through the influence of Robert
Chambers that T. H. Huxley was present and made his famous reply
to Bishop Wilberforce at Oxford in 1860. Huxley was in Oxford, but
intended to have left that morning because he believed that the
discussion would take a theological, or other than a scientific turn,
and would be unprofitable, but "on the Friday afternoon he chanced
to meet Robert Chambers, the reputed author of the _Vestiges of
Creation_, who begged him not to desert them, accordingly he postponed
his departure" (_Life and Letters of Thomas H. Huxley_, by his Son, I,
193). In this discussion Bishop Wilberforce, in closing a half-hour's
clever, but unfair speech, turned to Huxley and asked him whether
it was on the side of Huxley's grandfather or grandmother that he
claimed his own descent from a monkey? Huxley endured the laughter
and applause which followed this personal sally with something more
than good nature. He turned to Sir Benjamin Brodie, who sat beside
him, and slapping his knee, exclaimed: "The Lord hath delivered him
into my hands!" It was even so. Huxley rose to reply, and said that he
would not be ashamed of having a monkey as an ancestor, but he would
be ashamed of any relationship to a gifted man, who, not content with
success in his own sphere of activity, plunged into a discussion of
matters of which he had no real acquaintance "only to obscure them by
an aimless rhetoric, and distract the attention of his hearers from the
real point at issue by eloquent digressions, and skilled appeals to
religious prejudice."
In its way that speech established the popularity of Huxley as a
debator, and effectually punctured one argument then coming into use in
the discussion of evolution. It also was an incident never forgotten
concerning Bishop Wilberforce. Huxley afterward wrote, "In justice to
the Bishop, I am bound to say he bore me no malice, but was always
courtesy itself when we met in after years." In the same letter Huxley
says, "The odd part of the business is, that I should not have been
present except for Robert Chambers."
[47] I have communicated with Mr. Burton and he agrees with me in the
opinion that the inscription from Professor Anthon is not genuine.
He thinks it may have been added by Dr. English, not with intent to
deceive, but as giving his impression of the manner in which Lincoln
acquired the book. Whoever wrote it I think was in error.
[48] This book had been written and was in course of revision when I
procured Dr. Chapman's _Latest Light on Lincoln_. It is a book by one
who loved Lincoln sincerely, and can discover in him no lack of any
desirable quality; even physical beauty and grace of movement are here
attributed to Lincoln, as well as the acceptance of all the fundamental
articles of the creeds. He accepts the Beecher incident, declaring that
Dr. Johnson informed him that "after thorough investigation he fully
believed it to be truthful and authentic," and affirming that "upon
the scene of this unique event there rests a halo of celestial beauty
too sacred to be regarded with indifference or doubt." The halo may be
there, but is it true? Was there any period of twenty-four hours while
Lincoln was in the White House when this could have occurred, and the
fact concealed from the public? It is altogether less improbable that
Mrs. Beecher in her extreme old age and failing mentality was mistaken
about the identity of one of Mr. Beecher's callers.
[49] Dr. Johnson quotes this in his _Abraham Lincoln the Christian_,
and with it gives a photo reproduction of this page of his manuscript,
bearing in the margin the attestation of both Generals Sickles and
Rusling:
"I certify that this statement of a conversation between President
Lincoln and General Sickles, in my presence, at Washington, D. C., July
5, 1863, relating to Gettysburg, is correct and true. JAMES F. RUSLING,
Trenton, N. J., Feb. 17, 1910."
"I hereby certify that the foregoing statement by General Rusling is
true in substance. I know from my intimate acquaintance with President
Lincoln that he was a religious man--God-fearing and God-loving ruler.
D. E. SICKLES, Major General U. S. Army, Ret'd, New York, Feb. 11,
1911."
[50] The Library of Congress has a scurilous pamphlet entitled _Behind
the Seams; by a Nigger Woman, who took in work for Mrs. Lincoln and
Mrs. Davis, New York: The National News Company, 21 and 23 Ann Street,
1868_. The preface is signed, "Betsy X (her mark) Kickley, a Nigger."
It is a coarse parody on the above, but would appear sometimes to have
been mistaken for the original work.
[51] This incident must have appeared in print immediately after
Lincoln's death, for I find it quoted in memorial addresses of May,
1865. Mr. Oldroyd has endeavored to learn for me in what paper he found
it and on whose authority it rests, but without result. He does not
remember where he found it. It is inherently improbable, and rests on
no adequate testimony. It ought to be wholly disregarded. The earliest
reference I have found to the story in which Lincoln is alleged to
have said to an unnamed Illinois minister "I do love Jesus" is in a
sermon preached in the Baptist Church of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, April
19, 1865, by Rev. W. W. Whitcomb, which was published in the Oshkosh
_Northwestern_, April 21, 1865, and in 1907 issued in pamphlet form, by
John E. Burton. The form of quotation is indefinite, but I judge that
the incident was current in the papers of that week, as it is quoted
as something with which the congregation was assumed to be familiar. I
judge, therefore, that this was a story that found currency immediately
after Lincoln's death, running the round of the newspapers with no
one's name attached.
[52] Lincoln addressed most of his friends by their family name,
seldom prefixing "Mr." A few he called by their first name. Herndon he
called "Billy." Ward Hill Lamon he addressed as "Hill." Some of his
friends called him "Lincoln," but most of them, "Mr. Lincoln." If any
habitually addressed him as "Abe," the author has been unable to learn
the fact.
"Although I have heard of cheap fellows, professing that they were
wont to address him as 'Abe,' I never knew any one who did it in his
presence. Lincoln disdained ceremony, but he gave no license for being
called 'Abe'." WHITNEY: _Life on the Circuit with Lincoln_, p. 53.
[53] Dr. Chapman, who appears to have permitted no improbable story of
Lincoln's orthodoxy to escape him, records this incident with complete
assurance of its correctness; but it is a story which it is impossible
to fit into the life of Lincoln.
In _Latest Light on Lincoln_, p. 396, Chapman says, "There is every
reason for giving this remarkable story unquestioning credence." On
the contrary, there is every good reason for questioning it at every
essential point, and the questions do not evoke satisfactory answers.
[54] Whitney affirms that Lincoln was never a member of any secret
society. If he had been, that society would certainly have produced a
record of his membership.
[55] Whitney tells us of this in his _With Lincoln on the Circuit_,
describing the instrument as a "French harp." This term has given rise
to some ludicrous mistakes on the part of those who have quoted it In
Kentucky and in "Egypt" a French harp is a harmonica.
[56]
"Of dress, food, and the ordinary comforts and luxuries of life,
he was an incompetent judge. He could not discern between well and
ill-cooked and served food. He did not know whether or not clothes
fitted. He did not know whether music was artistic or in bad taste."
WHITNEY: _Life on the Circuit with Lincoln_, p. 52.
[57]
"I repeat that his was one of the most uneven, eccentric, and
heterogeneous characters, probably, that ever played a part in the
great drama of history; and it was for that reason that he was
so greatly misjudged and misunderstood; that he was on the one
hand described as a mere humorist--a sort of Artemus Ward or Mark
Twain--that it was thought that by some irony of fate a low comedian
had got into the Presidential chair by mistake and that the nation was
being delivered over to conflagration, while this modern Nero fiddled
upon its ruins; or that, on the other hand, he should have been thus
sketched by as high authority as Ralph Waldo Emerson: 'He is the true
history of the American people to his time. Step by step he walks
beside them, quickening his march by theirs, the true representative
of this continent, an entirely public man, Father of his Country, the
pulse of twenty millions throbbing through his heart, the thought of
their minds articulated by his tongue. His heart was as great as the
world, but there was no room in it to hold the memory of a wrong.'"
WHITNEY: _Life on the Circuit with Lincoln_, p. 147.
"One of the most obvious of Mr. Lincoln's peculiarities was his
dissimilitude of qualities, or inequality of conduct, his dignity
of deportment and action, interspersed with freaks of frivolity and
inanity; his high aspiration and achievement, and his descent into
the most primitive vales of listlessness, and the most ridiculous
buffoonery. He combined the consideration of the movement of armies or
grave questions of international concern, with Nasby's feeble jokes or
Dan Rice's clownish tricks. In the chief drawer of his cabinet table,
all the current joke books of the time were in juxtaposition with
official commissions lacking only his final signature, applications
for pardons from death penalties, laws awaiting executive action,
and orders, which, when issued, would control the fate of a million
men and the destinies of unborn generations.... Hence it was that
superficial persons, who expected great achievements to be set in
a _mise en scéne_, and to be ushered in with a prologue, could not
understand or appreciate that this wonderful man's administration
was a succession of acts of grand and heroic statesmanship, or that
he was a prodigy of intellect and moral force, and a genius in
administration." WHITNEY: _Life on the Circuit with Lincoln_, pp.
147-48-49.
[58] Mr. Jesse W. Weik investigated this report, and told me of it. It
comes not through Lewis or other members of the church, but through
Lincoln's associates outside the church, who seem to have expected him
to unite.
[59]
"He had not then announced himself for freedom, only discussed
the inexpediency of repealing the Missouri Compromise line. The
Abolitionists that day [the day of Lincoln's State Fair speech]
determined to make Lincoln take a stand. I determined he should not
at that time, because the time had not yet come when Lincoln should
show his hand. When Lovejoy announced the abolition gathering in the
evening, I rushed to Lincoln, and said: 'Lincoln, go home, take Bob
and the buggy, and leave the country, go quickly, go right off, and
never mind the order of your going.' Lincoln took the hint, got his
horse and buggy, and did leave quickly, not noting the order of his
going. He stayed away till all conventions and fairs were over."
HERNDON, in LAMON, p. 354.
[60] Lincoln's evasion of an issue which he did not wish to meet was
put to a severe test in 1864, when the convention that renominated
him for the Presidency had to decide whether to renominate
also Vice-President Hamlin. Lincoln liked Hamlin; but, while a
Vice-President from Maine had strengthened the ticket in 1860, a war
Democrat from one of the border States could help it more in 1864.
Lincoln managed never to let it be known whether he favored Hamlin, who
greatly desired his support, or whether, as was probably the case, he
preferred Johnson. He was skillful in evasion when he chose to be so.
[61] _Abraham Lincoln; Evolution of His Literary Style._ By Daniel
Kilham Dodge. Press of the University of Illinois, 1900.
[62] Few writers who knew Lincoln intimately have given us more
detailed accounts of Lincoln's career as a story teller than his friend
and associate, Major Henry C. Whitney, who habitually shared his bed in
the rounds of the Eighth Judicial Circuit. In his chapter on "Lincoln
as a Merry Andrew," in which he tells the undignified length to which
these bouts of story telling were wont to go, he says: "But it is a
singular fact that Lincoln very rarely told stories in his speeches.
In both his forensic and political speeches he got down to serious
business, and threw away the mask of Momus altogether. I never heard
him narrate but one story in a speech." _Life on the Circuit with
Lincoln_, p. 179.
[63] These letters have lately been presented to the Massachusetts
Historical Society.
[64] _Abraham Lincoln; The Evolution of His Emancipation Policy._ An
address delivered before the Chicago Historical Society, February 27,
1906.
[65] See _The Evolution of Lincoln's Literary Style_, by Prof. Daniel
Kilham Dodge. University of Illinois Press, 1900.
[66]
"By reference to Mr. Lincoln's early political and literary
performances it will appear that he was more than usually addicted to
a florid style, and to greatly exaggerated figures of speech; that
the plain, direct, homely, common-sense methods of his later and
statesmanlike years were wholly wanting. Rhodomontade was as common
in those youthful productions as plain assertion was in his mature
life. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at that, in the years of
his adolescence, he is credited with very decided opinions, radical
views, and florid expressions on the subject of religion; but he
was forty-five years of age when I first knew him, and his views
either underwent a change or else he had grown reticent on that great
subject. Certain it is that I never heard Lincoln express himself on
the subject of religion at all." WHITNEY: _Life on the Circuit with
Lincoln_, p. 268.
[67] _The Evolution of Lincoln's Literary Style_, by Prof. D. K. Dodge.
[68] The foregoing list, together with a number which seem to me less
reliably attested, I have taken from Johnson, _Abraham Lincoln, the
Christian_, pp. 215-17.
[69] Dr. Chapman, who is not content with anything less than a complete
orthodox system of theology for Lincoln, says:
"In the forefront of Mr. Lincoln's religious thinking was his belief
in the Saviour's Deity." His first, and in fact his only proof, is,
of course, the Bateman interview. Beyond this he falls into such
generalities as his oft repeated mention of Him as "Our Lord," and
declares that "again and again does Mr. Lincoln thus speak of the
Saviour" (_Latest Light on Lincoln_, p. 319). If so, I have not found
these repeated references in his authentic speeches and papers.
[70] A reference to Christ dying on the cross is in his lecture on
Niagara Falls; and there are a few other references.
[71] Dr. Chapman's _Latest Light on Lincoln_ has a few hitherto
unprinted things, one of them being some notes by Rev. Dr. Gurley,
the beginnings of a contemplated book or pamphlet which he did not
complete. The manuscript as produced by Dr. Chapman was furnished by
Dr. Gurley's daughter, Mrs. Emma K. Adams, of Washington. The only
incident of any considerable value is that Mr. Lincoln one night
invited Dr. Gurley, who like himself was an early riser, to come to the
White House next morning at seven o'clock for an hour's talk before
breakfast. They had the talk and the breakfast. As Dr. Gurley walked
away, he was asked whether he and Mr. Lincoln had been talking about
the war, and he replied, "Far from it. We have been talking about the
state of the soul after death. That is a subject of which Mr. Lincoln
never tires. This morning, however, I was a listener, as Mr. Lincoln
did all the talking" (_Latest Light on Lincoln_, p. 500).
There can be, I think, no serious question of Mr. Lincoln's faith
in immortality. It was much more easy for a man of his training and
temperament to hold that article of faith than some others which might
seem to some other men more easily to be accepted.
[72] The chapter, sometimes alleged to have been from the Bible,
which Lincoln read to his cabinet before submitting the Emancipation
Proclamation.
[73] The accompanying article was originally prepared by its author
(the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, in Springfield, Ill.),
as a lecture, and has been repeatedly given in that form to various
audiences. At the request of the editor of _Scribner's Monthly_, to
whom it seemed that the testimony contained in the lecture was of
permanent value, it is here presented with slight alterations, and with
no departure from the rhetorical style which was determined by its
original purpose.
[74] This is an error doubtless made by Mr. Irwin in copying. It should
be June 16, 1858, instead of January. I have printed it as it stands,
but the date should be corrected.
[75] March 10, 1864. McPherson, "History of the Rebellion," p. 522.
[76] Report of Judge-Advocate General, April 30, 1864.
[77] March 7, 1864.
[78] Jan. 2, 1863.
[79] Dec. 22, 1863.
[80] "After having made these declarations in good faith and in
writing, you can conceive of my embarrassment at now having brought to
me what purported to be a formal order of the War Department, bearing
date November 30, 1863, giving Bishop Ames control and possession of
all the Methodist churches in certain Southern military departments
whose pastors have not been appointed by a loyal bishop or bishops,
and ordering the military to aid him against any resistance which may
be made to his taking such possession and control. What is to be done
about it?" [Lincoln to Stanton, MS., Feb. 11, 1864.]
[81] Lincoln to Hogan, Feb. 13, 1864.
[82] Lincoln MS., March 4, 1864.
[83] Lincoln MS., May 13, 1864.
[84] War Records, Vol. XVII, pp. 424, 530.
[85] General McDowell used to tell a story which illustrates Mr.
Lincoln's Sabbatarian feeling. The President had ordered a movement
which required dispatch, and in his anxiety rode to McDowell's
headquarters to inquire how soon he could start. "On Monday morning,"
said McDowell; "or, by pushing things, perhaps Sunday afternoon."
Lincoln, after a moment's thought, said, "McDowell, get a good ready
and start Monday." [Herman Haupt, MS. Memoirs.]
Transcribers Notes:
Italics are shown thus: _sloping_.
Small capitals have been capitalised.
Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.
Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.
Obvious typos were silently corrected.
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