Hon. Geo. W. Julian--Hon. John B. Alley--Hon. Hugh McCulloch--
Donn Piatt--Hon. Schuyler Colfax--Hon. Geo. S.
Boutwell--Hon. Wm. D. Kelly--E. H. Wood--Dr. J. J. Thompson--
Rev. James Shrigley--Hon. John Covode--Jas. E. Murdock--
Hon. M. B. Field--Harriet Beecher Stowe--Hon. J. P. Usher--
Hon. S. P. Chase--Frederick Douglas--Mr. Defrees--Hon. Wm.
H. Seward--Judge Aaron Goodrich--Nicolay and Hay's "Life of
Lincoln"--Warren Chase--Hon. A. J. Grover--Judge James M.
Nelson.
The evidence of more than fifty witnesses has already been adduced to
prove that Lincoln was not a Christian in Illinois. Those who at first
were so forward to claim that he was, have generally recognized the
futility of the claim. They have abandoned it, and content themselves
with affirming that he became a Christian after he went to Washington.
These claimants, being for the most part rigid sectarians themselves,
endeavor to convince the world that he not only became a Christian, but
an orthodox Christian, and a sectarian; that even from a Calvinistic
standpoint, he was "sound not only on the truth of the Christian
religion but on all its fundamental doctrines and teachings."
The testimony of Colonel Lamon, Judge Davis, Mrs. Lincoln, and Colonel
Nicolay, not only refutes this claim, but shows that he was not in any
just sense of the term a Christian when he died. In addition to this
evidence, I will now present the testimony of a score of other witnesses
who knew him in Washington. These witnesses do not all affirm that he
was a total disbeliever in Christianity; but a part of them do, while
the testimony of the remainder is to the effect that he was not orthodox
as claimed.
HON. GEORGE W. JULIAN.
Our first witness is George W. Julian, of Indiana. Mr. Julian was for
many years a leader in Congress, was the Anti-Slavery candidate for
Vice-President, in 1852, and one of the founders of the party that
elected Lincoln to the Presidency. He was one of Lincoln's warmest
personal friends and intimately acquainted with him at Washington.
Writing to me from Santa Fe, N. M., under date of March 13,1888, Mr.
Julian says: "I knew him [Lincoln] well, and I know that he was not a
Christian in any old-fashioned orthodox sense of the word, but only a
religious Theist. He was, substantially, such a Christian as Jefferson,
Franklin, Washington, and John Adams; and it is perfectly idle to assert
the contrary."
HON. JOHN B. ALLEY.
In 1886, the publishers of the _North American Review_ issued one of
the most unique, original, and interesting works on Lincoln that has
yet appeared--"Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln." It was edited by Allen
Thorndike Rice, and comprises, in addition to a biographical sketch of
Lincoln's life by the editor, thirty-three articles on Lincoln written
by as many distinguished men of his day. One of the best articles in
this volume is from the pen of one of Boston's merchant princes, John
B. Alley. Mr. Alley was for eight years a member of Congress from
Massachusetts, serving in this capacity during all the years that
Lincoln was President. To his ability and integrity as a statesman this
remarkable yet truthful tribute has been paid: "No bill he ever reported
and no measure he ever advocated during his long term of service failed
to receive the approbation of the House." Lincoln recognized his many
sterling qualities, and throughout the war his relations with the
President were of the most intimate character. Mr. Alley is one of the
many who know that Lincoln was not a Christian, and one of the few
who have the courage to affirm it. He says: "In his religious views
Mr. Lincoln was very nearly what we would call a Freethinker. While
he reflected a great deal upon religious subjects he communicated his
thoughts to a very few. He had little faith in the popular religion of
the times. He had a broad conception of the goodness and power of an
overruling Providence, and said to me one day that he felt sure the
Author of our being, whether called God or Nature, it mattered little
which, would deal very mercifully with poor erring humanity in the
other, and he hoped better, world. He was as free as possible from all
sectarian thought, feeling, or sentiment. No man was more tolerant
of the opinions and feelings of others in the direction of religious
sentiment or had less faith in religious dogmas" (Reminiscences of
Lincoln, pp. 590, 591).
In conclusion, Mr. Alley says: "While Mr. Lincoln was perfectly honest
and upright and led a blameless life, he was in no sense what might be
considered a religious man" (Ibid).
HON. HUGH MCCULLOCH.
Hon. Hugh McCulloch, a member of Lincoln's Cabinet, his last Secretary
of the Treasury, writes: "Grave and sedate in manner, he was full of kind
and gentle emotion. He was fond of poetry. Shakspere was his delight.
Few men could read with equal expression the plays of the great
dramatist. The theater had great attractions for him, but it was comedy,
not tragedy, he went to hear. He had great enjoyment of the plays
that made him laugh, no matter how absurd and grotesque, and he gave
expression to his enjoyment by hearty and noisy applause. He was a man
of strong religious convictions, but he cared nothing for the dogmas of
the churches and had little respect for their creeds" (Reminiscences of
Lincoln, pp. 412, 413).
DONN PIATT.
The distinguished lawyer, soldier and journalist, Donn Piatt, who knew
Lincoln in Illinois and who met him often in Washington, writes: "I soon
discovered that this strange and strangely gifted man, while not at
all cynical, was a skeptic. His view of human nature was low, but
good-natured. I could not call it suspicious, but he believed only what
he saw" (Reminiscences of Lincoln, p. 480).
Those who are disposed to believe that Lincoln's Christian biographers
have observed an inflexible adherence to truth in their statements
concerning his religious belief would do well to ponder the following
words of Mr. Piatt: "History is, after all, the crystallization of
popular beliefs. As a pleasant fiction is more acceptable than a naked
fact, and as the historian shapes his wares, like any other dealer, to
suit his customers, one can readily see that our chronicles are only a
duller sort of fiction than the popular novels so eagerly read; not that
they are true, but that they deal in what we long to have--the truth.
Popular beliefs, in time, come to be superstitions, and create gods and
devils. Thus Washington is deified into an impossible man, and Aaron
Burr has passed into a like impossible monster. Through the same process
Abraham Lincoln, one of our truly great, has almost gone from human
knowledge" (Ibid, p. 478).
HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX.
Previous to the war no class of persons were louder in their
denunciation of Abolitionism than the clergy of the North. When at last
it became evident that the institution of slavery was doomed, in their
eagerness to be found on the popular side, they were equally loud in
their demands for its immediate extirpation. In September, 1862, a
deputation of Chicago clergymen waited upon the President for
the purpose of urging him to proclaim the freedom of the slave.
Notwithstanding he had matured his plans and was ready to issue his
Proclamation, he gave them no intimation of his intention. In connection
with their visit, Colfax relates the following: "One of these ministers
felt it his duty to make a more searching appeal to the President's
conscience. Just as they were retiring, he turned, and said to Mr.
Lincoln, 'What you have said to us, Mr. President, compels me to say
to you in reply, that it is a message to you from our Divine Master,
through me, commanding you, sir, to open the doors of bondage that the
slave may go free!' Mr. Lincoln replied, instantly, 'That may be, sir,
for I have studied this question, by night and by day, for weeks and for
months, but if it is, as you say, a message from your Divine Master, is
it not odd that the only channel he could send it by was that roundabout
route by that awfully wicked city of Chicago?" (Reminiscences of
Lincoln, pp. 334, 335).
In a lecture delivered in Brooklyn, N. T., in 1886, Mr. Colfax stated
that Lincoln was not a Christian, in the evangelical sense. To a
gentleman who visited him at his home in South Bend, Ind., he declared
that Lincoln was not a believer in orthodox Christianity. Again at
Atchison, Kan., he informed Mr. Perkins that Lincoln had never been
converted to Christianity, as claimed.
HON. WILLIAM O. KELLEY.
William D. Kelley, for thirty years a member of Congress from
Pennsylvania, relates an incident similar to the one related by Mr.
Colfax. A "Quaker preacher" called at the White House to urge the
President to proclaim at once the freedom of the slave. To illustrate
her argument and emphasize her plea, she cited the history of
Deborah. "Having elaborated this Biblical example," says Mr. Kelley,
"the speaker assumed that the President was, as Deborah had been, the
appointed minister of the Lord, and proceeded to tell him that it
was his duty to follow the example of Deborah, and forthwith abolish
slavery, and establish freedom throughout the land, as the Lord had
appointed him to do.
"'Has the Friend finished?' said the President, as she ceased to speak.
Having received an affirmative answer, he said: 'I have neither time
nor disposition to enter into discussion with the Friend, and end this
occasion by suggesting for her consideration the question whether, if it
be true that the Lord has appointed me to do the work she has indicated,
it is not probable that he would have communicated knowledge of the fact
to me as well as to her'" (Reminiscences of Lincoln, pp. 284, 285).
HON. GEORGE S. BOUTWELL.
A great many pious stories have been circulated in regard to the
Emancipation Proclamation. We are told that he made a "solemn vow to
God" that if Lee was defeated at Antietam he would issue the Preliminary
Proclamation. And yet this document contains no recognition of God. He
even completed the draft of it on what Christians are pleased to regard
as God's holy day. Mr. Boutwell states that Lincoln once related to
him the circumstances attending the promulgation of the instrument. He
quotes the following as Lincoln's words: "The truth is just this: When
Lee came over the river, I made a resolution that if McClellan drove him
back I would send the Proclamation after him. The battle of Antietam was
fought Wednesday, and until Saturday I could not find out whether we
had gained a victory or lost a battle. It was then too late to issue the
Proclamation that day, and the fact is _I fixed it up a little Sunday_,
and Monday I let them have it" (Reminiscences of Lincoln, p. 126).
E. H. WOOD.
Mr. E. H. Wood, one of Lincoln's old Springfield neighbors, who visited
him at Washington during the war, made the following statement to Mr.
Hern-don, in October, 1881:
"I came from Auburn, N. Y.--knew Seward well--knew Lincoln very
well--lived for three years just across the alley from his residence. I
had many conversations with him on politics and religion as late as
1859 and '60. He was a broad religionist--a Liberal. Lincoln told me
Franklin's story. Franklin and a particular friend made an agreement
that when the first one died he would come back and tell how things
went. Well, Franklin's friend died, but never came back. 'It is a
doubtful question,' said Lincoln, 'whether we get anywhere to get back.'
Lincoln said, 'There is no hell.' He did not say much about heaven. I
met him in Washington and saw no change in him."
I have given the testimony of two of Lincoln's nearest neighbors in
Springfield, Isaac Hawley and E. H. Wood. Mr. Hawley _believes_ that
Lincoln was a Christian; Mr. Wood _knows_ that he was not. Mr. Hawley
never heard Lincoln utter a word to support his belief; Mr. Wood
obtained his knowledge from Lincoln himself. Mr. Hawley's belief is of
little value compared with Mr. Wood's knowledge. Mr. Hawley never heard
Lincoln defend Christianity and probably never heard him oppose it.
Lincoln knew that Mr. Hawley was a Christian--that he had no sympathy
with his Freethought views. He did not desire to offend or antagonize
him, and hence he refrained from introducing a subject that he knew was
distasteful to him. Mr. Wood, on the other hand, was a man of broad and
Liberal ideas, and Lincoln did not hesitate to express to him his views
with freedom.
J. J. THOMPSON, M.D.
Dr. J. J. Thompson, an old resident of Illinois, now in Colorado, in a
letter, dated March 18, 1888, writes as follows: "I knew Abraham Lincoln
from my boyhood up to the time of his death. I was in his law office
many times and met him several times in Washington. He was a Liberal,
outspoken, and seemed to feel proud of it."
"This great and good man," concludes Dr. Thompson, "claimed Humanity as
his religion."
REV. JAMES SHRIGLEY.
Rev. Jas. Shrigley, of Philadelphia, who was acquainted with President
Lincoln in Washington, and who received a hospital chaplaincy from him,
says: "President Lincoln was also remarkably tolerant. He was the friend
of all, and never, to my knowledge, gave the influence of his great
name to encourage sectarianism in any of its names and forms" (Lincoln
Memorial Album, p. 335).
HON. JOHN COVODE.
In connection with Mr. Shrigley's appointment, the following anecdote
is related. Mr. Shrigley was not orthodox, and when it became known that
his name had been sent to the Senate, a Committee of "Young Christians"
waited upon the President for the purpose of inducing him to withdraw
the nomination. Hon. John Covode, of Pennsylvania, was present during
the interview and gave it to the press. It is as follows:
"'We have called, Mr. President, to confer with you in regard to the
appointment of Mr. Shrigley, of Philadelphia, as hospital chaplain.'
"The President responded: 'Oh, yes, gentlemen; I have sent his name to
the Senate, and he will no doubt be confirmed at an early day.'
"One of the young men replied: 'We have not come to ask for the
appointment, but to solicit you to withdraw the nomination.'
"'Ah,' said Lincoln, 'that alters the case; but on what ground do you
ask the nomination withdrawn?'
"The answer was, 'Mr. Shrigley is not sound in his theological
opinions.'
"The President inquired: 'On what question is the gentleman unsound?'
"Response: 'He does not believe in endless punishment; not only so, sir,
but he believes that even the rebels themselves will finally be saved.'
"'Is that so?' inquired the President.
"The members of the committee both responded, 'Yes,' 'Yes.'
"'Well, gentlemen, if that be so, and there is any way under heaven
whereby the rebels can be saved, then, for God's sake and their sakes,
let the man be appointed'" (L. M. A., pp. 336, 337).
And he was appointed.
JAMES E. MURDOCH.
It is claimed that few public men have made greater use of the Bible
than Lincoln. This is true. He was continually quoting Scripture or
alluding to Scriptural scenes and stories, sometimes to illustrate or
adorn a serious speech, but more frequently to point or emphasize a
joke. The venerable actor and elocutionist, James E. Murdoch, who had
met Lincoln, both in Springfield and Washington, relates an anecdote of
him while at Washington which serves to illustrate this propensity: "One
day a detachment of troops was marching along the avenue singing the
soul-stirring strain of 'John Brown.' They were walled in on either side
by throngs of citizens and strangers, whose voices mingled in the roll
of the mighty war-song. In the midst of this exciting scene, a man had
clambered into a small tree, on the sidewalk, where he clung, unmindful
of the jeers of the passing crowd, called forth by the strange antics
he was unconsciously exhibiting in his efforts to overcome the swaying
motion of the slight stem which bent beneath his weight. Mr. Lincoln's
attention was attracted for a moment, and he paused in the serious
conversation in which he was deeply interested and in an abstracted
manner, yet with a droll cast of the eye, and a nod of the head in the
direction of the man, he repeated, in his dry and peculiar utterance,
the following old-fashioned couplet:
'And Zaccheous he did climb a tree,
His Lord and Master for to see.'"
(L. M. A., pp. 349, 350).
Mr. Murdoch states that in connection with this incident Lincoln was
charged "with turning sacred subjects into ridicule." He apologizes
for, and attempts to palliate this levity, and affects to believe that
Lincoln was a Christian. But almost daily Lincoln indulged in jokes at
the expense of the Bible and Christianity, many of them ten-fold more
sacrilegious in their character than this trifling incident related
by Mr. Murdoch. If the scrupulously pious considered this simple jest,
uttered in the midst of a mixed crowd, irreverent, what would have been
their horror could they have listened to some of his remarks made
when alone with a skeptical boon companion? With Christians and with
strangers he was generally guarded in his speech, lest he should give
offense; but with his unbelieving friends, up to the end of his career,
his keenest shafts of wit were not infrequently aimed at the religion
of his day. This shows that the popular faith had no more sacredness
for Lincoln, the President, in Washington, than it had for Lincoln, the
farmer's boy, who mocked and mimicked it in Indiana, or Lincoln, the
lawyer, who scoffed at it and argued against it in Illinois.
HON. MAUNSELL B. FIELD.
Mr. Field, who had met nearly all the noted characters of his day,
both of Europe and America, in his "Memories of Many Men," has this
significant sentence respecting Lincoln:
"Mr. Lincoln was entirely deficient in what the phrenologists call
_reverence [veneration]_."
This made it easy for him to emancipate himself from the slavery of
priestcraft and become and remain a Freethinker. Professor Beall, one of
the ablest of living phrenological writers, says:
"No man can 'enjoy religion,' as the Methodists express it, unless he
has well developed veneration and wonder" (The Brain and the Bible,
p. 109). "All those who rebel against any form of government which
in childhood they were taught to revere, must of necessity do so in
opposition to the faculty of veneration. Thus it is obvious that the
less one possesses of the conservative restraining faculties, the
more easily he becomes a rebel or an Infidel to that which his
reason condemns. On the other hand, the profoundly conscientious and
reverential man, who sincerely regards unbelief as a sin, of course
instinctively antagonizes every skeptical thought, and is thus likely to
remain a slave to the religion learned at his mother's knee" (Ibid, p.
228).
Mr. Field also relates the following anecdote of Lincoln: "I was once
in Mr. Lincoln's company when a sectarian controversy arose. He himself
looked very grave, and made no observation until all the others had
finished what they had to say. Then with a twinkle of the eye he
remarked that he preferred the Episcopalians to every other sect,
because they are equally indifferent to a man's religion and his
politics."
HARRIET BEECHER STOWE.
The noted author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" had several interviews with the
President. She wrote an article on him which has been cited in proof
of his "deeply religious nature." But if her words prove anything, they
prove that he was not an evangelical Christian. They are as follows:
"But Almighty God has granted to him that clearness of vision which he
gives to the true-hearted, and enabled him to set his honest foot in
that promised land of freedom which is to be the patrimony of all men,
black and white; and from henceforth nations shall rise up and call him
blessed. _We believe he has never made any religions profession_, but we
see evidence that in passing through this dreadful national crisis,
he has been forced by the very anguish of the struggle to look upward,
where any rational creature must look for support. No man in this agony
has suffered more and deeper, albeit with a dry, weary, patient pain,
that seemed to some like insensibility. 'Whichever way it ends,' he said
to the writer, 'I have the impression that I shan't last long after it's
over'" (Every-Day Life of Lincoln, pp. 575, 576).
Mrs. Stowe was herself an orthodox Christian communicant, but her
store of good sense was too great to allow her to inflict her religious
notions upon the unbelieving President, and, as a consequence, she did
not see him rush out of the room with a Bible under his arm to--I was
going to say--pray God to deliver him from an intolerable nuisance.
That the mighty burden which pressed upon Lincoln made him a sadder
and more serious man at Washington than he had been before is true.
Christians are always mistaking sadness for penitence and seriousness
for piety, and so they claim that he experienced a change of heart.
HON. JOHN P. USHER.
Christians and Theists are wont to speak of Lincoln's constant and firm
reliance upon God. But it is a little remarkable that in the preparation
of his greatest work he did not rely upon God. In the supreme moments
of his life he forgot God. Dr. Barrows says: "When he wrote his immortal
Proclamation, he invoked upon it... 'the gracious favor of Almighty
God.'"
When he wrote his immortal Proclamation he had no thought of God. Judge
Usher, a member of his Cabinet, tells us how God came to be invoked: "In
the preparation of the final Proclamation of Emancipation, of January 1,
1863, Mr. Lincoln manifested great solicitude. He had his original draft
printed and furnished each member of his Cabinet with a copy, with the
request that each should examine, criticise, and suggest any amendments
that occurred to them. At the next meeting of the Cabinet Mr. Chase
said: 'This paper is of the utmost importance--greater than any state
paper ever made by this Government. A paper of so much importance, and
involving the liberties of so many people, ought, I think, to make some
reference to Deity. I do not observe anything of the kind in it.' Mr.
Lincoln said: 'No; I overlooked it. Some reference to Deity must be
inserted. Mr. Chase, won't you make a draft of what you think ought
to be inserted?' Mr. Chase promised to do so, and at the next meeting
presented the following: 'And upon this Act, sincerely believed to be an
act of justice warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity,
I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of
Almighty God'" (Reminiscences of Lincoln, pp. 91, 92).
HON. SALMON P. CHASE.
In the New York _Tribune_ of Feb. 22d, 1893, appeared an article on "How
the Emancipation Proclamation was made," written by Mrs. Janet Chase
Hoyt, daughter of Salmon P. Chase. In this article Mrs. Hoyt gives
the following extract from a letter written to her by her father in
1867: "Looking over old papers, I found many of my memoranda, etc.,
of the war, and among them my draft of a proclamation of emancipation
submitted to Mr. Lincoln the day before his own was issued. He asked
all of us for suggestions in regard to its form and I submitted mine in
writing, and among other sentences the close as it now stands, which he
adopted from my draft with a modification. It may be interesting to you
to see precisely what I said, and I copy it. You must remember that in
the original draft there was no reference whatever to Divine or human
sanction of the act. What I said was this at the conclusion of my
letter: 'Finally, I respectfully suggest that on an occasion of such
interest there can be no imputation of affectation against a solemn
recognition of responsibility before men and before God, and that
some such close as this will be proper: "And upon this act, sincerely
believed to be an act of justice warranted by the Constitution (and
of duty demanded by the circumstances of the country), I invoke the
considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty
God.'" Mr. Lincoln adopted this close, substituting only for the words
inclosed in parentheses these words: 'upon military necessity,' which I
think was not an improvement.'"
MR. DEFREES.
During his Presidency the clergy petitioned him to recommend in his
message to Congress an amendment to the Constitution recognizing the
existence of God. In preparing his message it seems that he inserted
the request. Referring to this, Mr. Defrees, Superintendent of Public
Printing during Lincoln's administration, says: "When I assisted him in
reading the proof he struck it out, remarking that he had not made up
his mind as to its propriety" (_Westminster Review_, Sept. 1891).
HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD.
In his "Travels Around the World," Seward records one of Lincoln's
sarcastic hits at the doctrine of endless punishment. Speaking of
England's jealousy of the United States in certain matters, Seward says:
"That hesitation and refusal recall President Lincoln's story of the
intrusion of the Universalists into the town of Springfield. The several
orthodox churches agreed that their pastors should preach down the
heresy. One of them began his discourse with these emphatic words: 'My
Brethren, there is a dangerous doctrine creeping in among us. There are
those who are teaching that all men will be saved; but my dear brethren,
_we_ hope for better things'" (Travels Around the World, p. 513).
JUDGE AARON GOODRICH.
Judge Goodrich, of Minnesota, Lincoln's minister to Belgium, who was one
of the most accomplished scholars in the West, and an author of note,
and who was on terms of close intimacy with Lincoln, both before and
after he became President, says:
"He [Lincoln] believed in a God, i.e., Nature; but he did not believe in
the Christ, nor did he ever affiliate with any church."
FREDERICK DOUGLAS.
Abraham Lincoln believed in a Supreme Being, but he did not believe in
the God of Christians. The God of Christians was to him the most hideous
monster that the imagination of man had ever conceived. There were
two doctrines taught in connection with this deity which he especially
abhorred--the doctrine of endless punishment, and the doctrine
of vicarious atonement. That the innocent should suffer for the
guilty--that God should permit his sinless son to be put to a cruel
death to atone for the sins of wicked men--was to him an act of the
most infamous injustice. His whole nature rebelled against the idea.
Frederick Douglas narrates an incident which, while it has no direct
reference to this theological doctrine, yet tends to disclose his
abhorrence of the idea. Mr. Douglas was engaged in recruiting colored
troops and visited the President for the purpose of securing from him
a pledge that colored soldiers would be allowed the same privileges
accorded white soldiers. As the Confederate Government had declared
that they would be treated as insurgents, he also urged upon him the
necessity of retaliating, if colored prisoners were put to death. But to
the latter proposition Lincoln would not listen. Mr. Douglas says:
"I shall never forget the benignant expression of his face, the tearful
look of his eye and the quiver of his voice, when he deprecated a resort
to retaliatory measures. He said he could not take men out and kill them
in cold blood for what was done by others. If he could get hold of the
persons who were guilty of killing the colored prisoners in cold blood,
the case would be different, but _he could not kill the innocent for the
guilty_" (Reminiscences of Lincoln, pp. 188, 189).
NICOLAY AND HAY'S "LIFE OF LINCOLN."
Of the numerous biographies of Lincoln that have been published,
the authors of three, above all others, were specially qualified
and possessed the necessary materials for a reliable biography of
him--Herndon, Lamon, and Nicolay and Hay.
As Colonel Lamon's "Life" covers but a part of Lincoln's career, and
as Mr. Herndon's "Life" deals more with his private life than with his
public history, the biography of Lincoln that is likely to be
accepted as the standard authority, is the work written by his private
secretaries, Col. John G. Nicolay and Col. John Hay, which originally
appeared in the _Century Magazine_. In the chapter on "Lincoln and the
Churches," the religious phase of Lincoln's character is presented. In
dealing with this question the authors have carefully avoided the
rock upon which Lamon's "Life" was wrecked, and at the same time have
refrained from repeating the misrepresentations of Holland and Arnold.
They do not offend the church by openly declaring that Lincoln was
an Infidel; neither do they outrage truth by asserting that he was
a Christian. They affirm that during the latter years of his life
he recognized a "superior power," but they do not intimate that he
recognized Jesus Christ as this power, or any part of it, nor that
he accepted the Bible as a special revelation of this power. In the
following passage they impliedly deny both his alleged Atheism and his
alleged orthodoxy: "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."
As it is not claimed that Lincoln was an Atheist, especially during the
last years of his life, the above can very properly be brought forward
in support of the negative of this question. In the last clause it
is intended by the authors to administer a sarcastic rebuke to
such witnesses as Brooks, Willets and Vinton, as well as deny the
truthfulness of their statements.
In regard to Lincoln's youth, the following from Nicolay and Hay's work
corroborates Lamon's statements and refutes those of Holland: "We are
making no claim of early saintship for him. He was merely a good boy,
with sufficient wickedness to prove his humanity.... It is also reported
that he sometimes impeded the celerity of harvest operations by making
burlesque speeches, or worse than that, comic sermons, from the top
of some tempting stump, to the delight of the hired hands and the
exasperation of the farmer."
HON. WARREN CHASE.
In 1888, I received a brief letter from Warren Chase pertaining to
Lincoln's religious belief. Mr. Chase was acquainted with Lincoln in
Washington. His letter has been mislaid, but I recall the principal
points in it, which are as follows: 1. Lincoln was not a believer
in Christianity; 2. He was much interested in the phenomena of
Spiritualism.
HON. A. J. GROVER.
A. J. Grover, a life-long reformer, an old-time Abolitionist, an able
advocate of human liberty, and a personal friend and admirer of Lincoln,
in a letter written April 13, 1888, sends me the following as his
testimony:
"Mr. Lincoln was not a religious man in the church sense. He was an
Agnostic. He did not believe in the Bible as the infallible word of God.
He believed that Nature is God's word, given to all men in a universal
language which is equally accessible to all, if all are equally
intelligent. That this great lesson, God's word in his works, is
infinite, and that men have only learned a very little of it, and have
yet the most to learn. That the religions of all ages and peoples are
only very feeble and imperfect attempts to solve the great problems
involved in nature and her laws. Mr. Lincoln heartily disliked the
narrow and silly pretensions of the church and priesthood who now
falsely claim him, as they do Washington, Franklin and others.
"I knew Mr. Lincoln from the Douglas campaign in Illinois in 1858 until
his death, and I never heard him on any occasion use a single pious
expression in the sense of the church--not a word that indicated that
he believed in the church theology. But I have heard him use many
expressions that indicated that he did not know much, or pretend to know
much, and had no settled convictions concerning the great questions that
theology deals so flippantly with, and pretends to know all about. And
I know to my own knowledge that the claim the church now sets up that he
was a Christian is false--as false as it is in regard to Washington."
Writing to me again under date of Jan. 12, 1889, Mr. Grover says: "I knew
Mr. Lincoln in Illinois and in Washington. I was in the War office,
for a time, in a department which had charge of the President's
books, so-called. I met him in passing between the White House and the
buildings then occupied by the War Department, almost every day. I
often had to go to Mr. Stanton's office, and have often seen Mr. Lincoln
there. I frequently had to go to the White House to see him. It was
known to all of his acquaintances that he was a Liberal or nationalist."
JUDGE JAMES M. NELSON.
The last, and in some respects the most important, of our Washington
witnesses is Judge James M. Nelson. Judge Nelson for many years has been
a resident of New York, but he formerly lived in Kentucky and Illinois,
Lincoln's native and adopted states. He is a son of Thomas Pope Nelson,
a distinguished member of Congress from Kentucky, and the first United
States Minister to Turkey. His great grandfather was Thomas Nelson, Jr.,
a signer of the Declaration of Independence from Virginia. He was long
and intimately acquainted with Lincoln both in Illinois and Washington.
About the close of 1886, or early in 1887, Judge Nelson published his
"Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln" in the Louisville, Ky., _Times_.
In reference to Lincoln's religious opinions he says: "In religion, Mr.
Lincoln was about of the same belief as Bob Ingersoll, and there is no
account of his ever having changed. He went to church a few times with
his family while he was President, but so far as I have been able to
find out he remained an unbeliever." "Mr. Lincoln in his younger days
wrote a book," says Judge Nelson, "in which he endeavored to prove the
fallacy of the plan of salvation and the divinity of Christ."
I have yet another passage from Judge Nelson's "Reminiscences" to
present, a passage which, more than anything else in this volume,
perhaps, is calculated to provoke the wrath of Christian claimants.
To lend an air of plausibility to their claims these claimants are
continually citing expressions of a seemingly semi-pious character
occasionally to be met with in his speeches and state papers. These
expressions, in a measure accounted for by Mr. Herndon, Colonel Lamon,
and others, are still further explained by a revelation from his own
lips. Judge Nelson says: "I asked him once about his fervent Thanksgiving
Message and twitted him with being an unbeliever in what was published.
'Oh,' said he, 'that is some of Seward's nonsense, and it pleases the
fools.'"