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]