Abraham Lincoln: Was he a Christian? by John B. Remsburg

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.

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."

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.

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).

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.'"

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).

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 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."

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).

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."

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.

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."

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.'"

CHAPTER XIII. OTHER TESTIMONY AND OPINIONS

     New York World—Boston Globe—Chicago Herald—Manford's
     Magazine—Herald and Review—Chambers's Encyclopedia—
     Encyclopedia Britannica—People's Library of Information—
     The World's Sages—Every-Day Life of Lincoln—Hon. Jesse W.
     Weik—Chas. W. French—Cyrus O. Poole—A Citizen of
     Springfield—Henry Walker—Win. Bissett—Frederick Heath—
     Rev. Edward Eggleston—Rev. Robert Collyer—Allen Thorndike
     Rice—Robert C. Adams—Theodore Stanton-Geo. M. McCrie—Gen.
     M. M. Trumbull—Rev. David Swing, D.D.—Rev. J. Lloyd Jones—
     Rev. John W. Chadwick.

The matter selected for this chapter is of a miscellaneous nature, consisting of the statements of those who, for the most part, are not known to have been personally acquainted with Lincoln. It embraces the opinions of journalists, encyclopedists, biographers, and others. If their words cannot be accepted as the testimony of competent witnesses, they may at least be regarded as the verdict of honest jurors.

In the New York World, fifteen years ago, appeared the following: "While it may fairly be said that Mr. Lincoln entertained many Christian sentiments, it cannot be said that he was himself a Christian in faith or practice. He was no disciple of Jesus of Nazareth. He did not believe in his divinity and was not a member of his church. He was at first a writing Infidel of the school of Paine and Volney, and afterward a talking Infidel of the school of Parker and Channing."

Alluding to the friendly attitude he assumed toward the church and Christianity during the war, this article concludes:

"If the churches had grown cold—if the Christians had taken a stand aloof—that instant the Union would have perished; Mr. Lincoln regulated his religious manifestations accordingly. He declared frequently that he would do anything to save the Union, and among the many things he did was the partial concealment of his individual religious opinions. Is this a blot upon his fame? Or shall we all agree that it was a conscientious and patriotic sacrifice?"

As evidence of Lincoln's piety, we are referred to a picture where Lincoln, with his son Tad, is supposed to be reverentially poring over the pages of the Bible. The history of this picture, however, has often been explained, and its apparently religious character shown to be quite secular. The Boston Globe, in a recent issue, says: "The pretty little story about the picture of President Lincoln and his son Tad reading the Bible is now corrected for the one-hundredth time. The Bible was Photographer Brady's picture album, which the President was examining with his son while some ladies stood by. The artist begged the President to remain quiet and the picture was taken. The truth is better than fiction, even if its recital conflicts with a pleasing theory."

During February, 1892, the Chicago Herald published an editorial on Lincoln's religion. Being one of the latest contributions to this subject, and appearing in one of the principal journals of Lincoln's own state, it is of especial importance. It is a candid statement of what nearly every journalist of Illinois knows or believes to be the facts. From it I quote as follows: "He was without faith in the Bible or its teachings. On this point the testimony is so overwhelming that there is no basis for doubt. In his early life Lincoln exhibited a powerful tendency to aggressive Infidelity. But when he grew to be a politician he became secretive and non-committal in his religious belief. He was shrewd enough to realize the necessity of reticence with the convictions he possessed if he hoped to succeed in politics.

"It is matter of history that in 1834, at New Salem, Ill., Lincoln read and circulated Volney's 'Ruins' and Paine's 'Age of Reason,' giving to both books the sincere recommendation of his unqualified approval. About that time or a little later he wrote an extensive argument against Christianity, intending to publish it. In this argument he contended that the Bible was not inspired and that Jesus Christ was not the son of God. He read this compilation of his views to numerous friends, and on one occasion when so engaged his friend and employer, Samuel Hill, snatched the manuscript from the author's hands and threw it into the stove, where it was quickly consumed. A Springfield friend said of him in 1838, 'Lincoln was enthusiastic in his Infidelity.' John T. Stuart, who was his first law partner, declares: 'Lincoln was an avowed and open Infidel. He went further against Christian belief than any man I ever heard. He always denied that Jesus was the Christ of God.' David Davis stated that 'Lincoln had absolutely no faith in the Christian sense of the term.'

"These authorities ought to be conclusive, but there is further testimony. This latter is important as explanatory of Lincoln's frequent allusions in his Presidential messages and proclamations to the Supreme Being. To the simplicity of his nature there was added a poetic temperament. He was fond of effective imagery, and his references to the Deity are due to the instinct of the poet. After his death Mrs. Lincoln said: 'Mr. Lincoln had no faith and no hope in the usual acceptation of those words. He never joined a church.' She denominates what has been mistaken for his expressions of religious sentiment as 'a kind of poetry in his nature,' adding 'he was never a Christian.' Herndon, who was his latest law partner and biographer, is even more explicit. He says: 'No man had a stronger or firmer faith in Providence—God—than Mr. Lincoln, but the continued use by him late in life of the word God must not be interpreted to mean that he believed in a personal God. In 1854 he asked me to erase the word 'God' from a speech which I had written and read to him for criticism, because my language indicated a personal God, whereas he insisted no such personality ever existed.' So it must be accepted as final by every reasonable mind that in religion Mr. Lincoln was a skeptic. But above all things he was not a hypocrite or pretender. He was a plain man, rugged and earnest, and he pretended to be nothing more. He believed in humanity, and he was incapable of Phariseeism. He had great respect for the feelings and convictions of others, but he was not a sniveler. He was honest and he was sincere, and taking him simply for what he was, we are not likely soon to see his like again."

There are two Christian publications that have had the fairness to admit the truth respecting Lincoln's belief. Manford's Magazine, a religious periodical published in Chicago, in its issue for January, 1869, contained the following: "That Mr. Lincoln was a believer in the Christian religion, as understood by the so-called orthodox sects of the day, I am compelled most emphatically to deny; that is, if I put faith in the statements of his most intimate friends in this city [Springfield]. All of them with whom I have conversed on this subject, agree in indorsing the statements of Mr. Herndon. Indeed, many of them unreservedly call him an Infidel." "The evidence on this subject is sufficient, the writer says, to place the name of Lincoln by the side of Franklin, Washington, Jefferson, and [Ethan] Allen, of Revolutionary notoriety, as Rationalists; besides being in company with D'Alembert, the great mathematician, Diderot, the geometrician, poet, and metaphysician; also with Voltaire, Hume, Gibbon, and Darwin."

Referring to the Infidel book, written by Lincoln, the writer says: "This work was subsequently thrown in Mr. Lincoln's face while he was stumping this district for Congress against the celebrated Methodist preacher, Rev. Peter Cartwright. But Mr. Lincoln never publicly or privately denied its authorship, or the sentiments expressed therein. Nor was he known to change his religious views any, to the latest period of his life."

"Mr. Lincoln was too good a man to be a Pharisee; too great a man to be a sectarian; and too charitable a man to be a bigot."

This work, in an abridged form, originally appeared in the Truth Seeker in 1889 and 1890. After its appearance, the Adventist Herald and Review, one of the fairest and most ably conducted religious journals in this country, said:

"The Truth Seeker has just concluded the publication of a series of fifteen contributed articles designed to prove that Abraham Lincoln, instead of being a Christian, as has been most strongly claimed by some, was a Freethinker. The testimony seems conclusive.... The majority of the great men of the world have always rejected Christ, and, according to the Scriptures, they always will; and the efforts of Christians to make it appear that certain great men who never professed Christianity were in reality Christians, is simply saying that Christianity cannot stand on its merits, but must have the support of great names to entitle it to favorable consideration."

Alden's American Edition of "Chambers's Encyclopedia," one of the most popular as well as one of the most reliable of encyclopedias, says: "He [Lincoln] was never a member of a church; he is believed to have had philosophical doubts of the divinity of Christ, and of the inspiration of the Scriptures, as these are commonly stated in the system of doctrines called evangelical. In early life he read Volney and Paine, and wrote an essay in which he agreed with their conclusions. Of modern thinkers he was thought to agree nearest with Theodore Parker" (Art. Lincoln, Abraham).

By whom the article on Lincoln in "Chambers's Encyclopedia" was written, whether by one of Lincoln's personal friends, or by a stranger, I know not. The article in the "Britannica" was written by his private secretary, Colonel Nicolay. In this article his religion is briefly summed up in the following words: "His [Lincoln's] 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" (Am. Ed., vol. xiv, p. 669).

This statement at first glance presents a Christian appearance, and the reader is liable to infer that the writer aims to state that Lincoln was a Christian. But he does not. He aims to state in the least offensive manner possible that he was not—that he was simply a Deist. A person may have a "deeply religious" nature, and not be a Christian. He may have "faith in the eternal justice and boundless mercy of Providence," and yet have no faith whatever in Christianity. He may make "the Golden Rule of Christ [or Confucius] his practical creed," and at the same time wholly reject the dogma of Christ's divinity. The above statement is substantially true as applied to Lincoln, and it would be equally true if applied to that prince of Infidels, Thomas Paine. His nature was deeply religious; he had faith in the justice and mercy of Providence; and he, too, made the Golden Rule his practical creed.

Mrs. Lincoln was nominally a Presbyterian, and frequently, though not regularly, attended the Rev. Dr. Gurley's church in Washington. Lincoln usually accompanied her, not because he derived any pleasure or benefit from the services, but because he believed it to be a duty he owed to his wife who, in turn, generally accompanied him when he went to his church, the theater. "The People's Library of Information" contains the following relative to his church attendance:

"Lincoln attended service once a day. He seemed always to be in agony while in church.... His pastor, Dr. Gurley, had the 'gift of continuance,' and the President writhed and squirmed and gave unmistakable evidence of the torture he endured."

In "The World's Sages," Mr. Bennett writes as follows concerning Lincoln's belief: "Upon the subject of religious belief there is some diversity of claims. All his friends and acquaintances readily admit that in early manhood and middle age he was an unbeliever, or a Deist. In fact, he wrote a book or pamphlet vindicating this view. His most intimate friends that knew him best, claim that his opinions underwent no change in this respect; while a certain number of Christians have, since his death, undertaken to make out that he had become a convert to Christianity" (World's Sages, p. 773). "When the contradictory character of the evidence is taken into consideration, together with the fact that his nearest and most intimate friends would be most likely the ones to know of Mr. Lincoln's change, had any such taken place, the incredibility of the asserted change is easily appreciated" (Ibid, p-774).

In the Emancipation Proclamation appears the following paragraph, which contains the only allusion to Deity to be found in this immortal document: "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."

The appearance of the above paragraph in the Proclamation is thus accounted for in Francis F. Brown's "Every-Day Life of Lincoln," and agrees with Judge Usher's and Chief Justice Chase's account of it:

"It is stated that Mr. Lincoln gave the most earnest study to the composition of the Emancipation Proclamation. He realized, as he afterward said, that the Proclamation was the central act of his administration, and the great event of the Nineteenth Century. When the document was completed, a printed copy of it was placed in the hands of each member of the Cabinet, and criticisms and suggestions were invited. Mr. Chase remarked: '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" (Every-Day Life of Lincoln, pp. 549,550).

The amendment suggested was allowed by the President, and Mr. Chase requested to supply the words he desired to be inserted. The paragraph quoted was accordingly prepared by him and included in the Proclamation. This fact is also admitted by Holland in his "Life of Lincoln" (p. 401).

Judge Weik, of Greencastle, Ind., who was associated with Mr. Herndon in the preparation of his "Life of Lincoln," in a lecture on "Lincoln's Boyhood and Early Manhood," delivered in Plymouth Church, Indianapolis, Feb. 4, 1891. said:

"As a young man he sat back of the country store stove and said the Bible was not inspired, and Christ was not the Son of God" (Indianapolis News, Feb. 5, '91).

One of the last biographies of Lincoln that has appeared is "Abraham Lincoln The Liberator," written by Charles W. French. After citing with approval some of Mr. Herndon's statements regarding Lincoln's belief, Mr. French says:

"The world was his [Lincoln's] church. His sermons were preached in kindly words and merciful deeds" (p. 91).

I quote next from a monograph on "The Religious Convictions of Abraham Lincoln," written by Cyrus O. Poole. Referring to Arnold's and Holland's biographies of Lincoln, Mr. Poole says: "Most sectarians now think, write, and act as if they had a copyright to apply 'Christian' to everything good and God-like about this President; yet no one presumed to call him a Christian until after his death. It may be a soul-saving process like the ancient one of Pope Gregory in the sixth century. It is related that one day he was meditating on an anecdote of the Pagan Emperor Tragan's having turned back, when at the head of his legions on his way to battle, to render justice to a poor widow who flung herself at his horse's feet. It seemed to Gregory that the soul of a prince so good could not be forever lost, Pagan though he was; and he prayed for him, till a voice declared Tragan to have been saved through his intercession. And thus, through the prayer of a Christian Pope, a pagan of the first, was materialized into a Christian in the sixth century, and was, of course, transferred from hell to heaven. Now behold how a modern politician [Arnold] can play theologian in Christianizing Abraham Lincoln.

"There is now hope for Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, as well as the chieftains, Red Jacket, Tecumseh, and Black Hawk."

Respecting Lincoln's message to his dying father, Mr. Poole, himself a firm believer in the doctrine of immortality, says: "This prophetic affirmation of a continued existence, is the only written evidence of his views on this momentous question that can be found."

In addition to the above, I cull from the same work the following brief extracts:

"He lived in a remarkably formative and progressive period, and was in all matters fully abreast with his time. As a truthful thinker, he greatly excelled any of the statesmen of his day."

"Lincoln, like Socrates, was a man so natural, so thoughtful, rational, and sagacious, that he clearly saw that the popular traditional theology of his day and age was not religion."

A gentleman residing in Springfield, Ill., who was intimately acquainted with Lincoln from the time he located in that city up to the time he removed to Washington, a period of nearly twenty-five years, in a letter dated Aug. 20, 1887, writes as follows: "I will say in regard to Mr. Lincoln's religious views that he was not orthodox in his belief, unless he changed after he left Springfield. He was heterodox—did not believe in the divinity of Christ—in short, was a Freethinker. Now I do not want to be brought into public notice in this matter."

In deference to this writer's request his name is omitted, and this omission destroys, to a great extent, the value of his testimony. It is inserted not because it adds any particular weight to the evidence already adduced, but as a specimen of a very large amount of evidence of the same character that must be withheld simply because the persons writing or interviewed shrink from publicity. A chapter, yes, a volume, of this anonymous testimony might be given. At least a hundred personal friends of Lincoln, living in and about Springfield, privately and confidentially assert that he was an Infidel, but will not permit their names to be used. Twenty years ago a majority of them would not have objected to their statements being published: but the relentless war waged by the church against those who have publicly certified to the facts has sealed their lips.

I now present to the reader another citizen of Springfield, one who is not afraid to publicly express an honest opinion. Mr. Henry Walker, who has resided in that city for many years, writes as follows concerning Lincoln's religious belief: "After inquiring of those who were intimate and familiar with him, I arrive at the conclusion that he was a Deist." "There is a rumor current here that he once wrote an anti-Christian pamphlet, but his friends persuaded him not to publish it."

Mr. Walker was not personally acquainted with Lincoln. His conclusion is simply based upon the information obtained from those who were acquainted with him. His statement, like the preceding one, is introduced not so much because of any especial value attaching to it as mere testimony, but because it fairly represents the common sentiment of those who have investigated this subject, and particularly those who are on familiar terms with Lincoln's old associates in Illinois. The knowledge of our anonymous witness was shared by Dr. Smith, Mr. Arnold, and Mr. Edwards; the opinion expressed by Mr. Walker was the opinion privately entertained by Dr. Holland, it is the opinion privately entertained by Mr. Bateman, yes, and unquestionably the opinion privately entertained by Mr. Reed himself.

An article on Lincoln's religion written by Mr. Wm. Bissett, of Santa Ana, Cal., and recently published in the Truth Seeker, contains some evidence that deserves to be recorded. Mr. Bissett narrates the following: "In the Spring of 1859 we moved into Livingston county, Mo., near Chillicothe. We at once became acquainted with a man by the name of William Jeeter. Mr. Jeeter was a native of Kentucky, and if I mistake not, was born and raised in the same part of the country that Mr. Lincoln was but about that I am not sure. Mr. Jeeter told me that Lincoln and himself settled in Illinois when they were young men, and boarded together for a number of years. He says he knew every act of Lincoln's life up to the time he (Jeeter) left Illinois, a few years before Mr. Lincoln's nomination for the Presidency. I was helping Jeeter build a house for himself when we received the news of Mr. Lincoln's nomination; that is why we came to speak so particularly about him.

"Mr. Jeeter told me that Mr. Lincoln was not a believer in the Christian religion; that is, he did not believe the Bible was an inspired work, nor that Jesus Christ was the son of God. 'Nevertheless,' said Mr. Jeeter,' he was one of the most honest men I ever knew. If I had a million dollars I wouldn't be afraid to trust it to Lincoln without the scratch of a pen, I know the man so well.' Mr. Jeeter was a strong believer in the Christian religion and a mem-bier of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, and a very fine and reliable man."

The following is from an article on Lincoln by Mr. Frederick Heath, of Milwaukee, Wis.:

"Two years ago I was associated with Major Geo. H. Norris, a wealthy orange-grower of Florida, in that state, and was in a degree his confidant. In earlier years, while a lawyer in Illinois, Major Norris (he was at one time mayor of Ottawa, Ill.) was quite closely associated with Mr. Lincoln, and he gave me to understand that Mr. Lincoln was an extreme skeptic. They were thrown together a good deal at Springfield, where they were trying cases before the supreme court. Lincoln would frequently keep them from sleep by his stories and arguments, and frequently spoke of religious matters in a way that showed he was convinced of the delusion of faith. I wish I could quote the Major's words as to Lincoln's remarks on religion, but will not venture to frame them, as this is a subject that demands truth and exactness."

When Lincoln went to New York in the winter of 1860, to deliver his Cooper Institute address, he had occasion to remain over Sunday in that city. At the suggestion of a friend, he visited the famous Five Points, and attended a Sunday-school where the spawn of New York's worst inhabitants to the number of several hundred were assembled. Importuned for a speech, he made a few remarks to the children, and the fact was published in the papers. The idea of this Infidel politician addressing a Sunday-school was so ludicrous that it caused much merriment among his friends at Springfield. When he returned home one of them, probably Colonel Matheny, called on him to learn what it all meant. The conversation that followed, including Lincoln's explanation of the affair, is thus related by the noted preacher and author, Edward Eggleston: "He started for 'Old Abe's' office; but bursting open the door impulsively, found a stranger in conversation with Mr. Lincoln. He turned to retrace his steps, when Lincoln called out, 'Jim! What do you want?' 'Nothing.' 'Yes, you do; come back.'

"After some entreaty Jim approached Mr. Lincoln, and remarked, with a twinkle in his eye, 'Well, Abe, I see you have been making a speech to Sunday-school children. What's the matter?' 'Sit down, Jim, and I'll tell you all about it.' And with that Lincoln put his feet on the stove and began: 'When Sunday morning came, I didn't know exactly what to do. Washburne asked me where I was going. I told him I had nowhere to go; and he proposed to take me down to the Five Points Sunday-school, to show me something worth seeing. I was very much interested by what I saw. Presently, Mr. Pease came up and spoke to Mr. Washburne, who introduced me. Mr. Pease wanted us to speak. Washburne spoke, and then I was urged to speak. I told them I did not know anything about talking to Sunday-schools, but Mr. Pease said many of the children were friendless and homeless, and that a few words would do them good. Washburne said I must talk. And so I rose to speak; but I tell you, Jim, I didn't know what to say. I remembered that Mr. Pease said that they were homeless and friendless, and I thought of the time when I had been pinched by terrible poverty. And so I told them that I had been poor; that I remembered when my toes stuck out through my broken shoes in winter; when my arms were out at the elbows; when I shivered with the cold. And I told them there was only one rule.

"That was, always do the very best you can. I told them that I had always tried to do the very best I could; and that, if they would follow that rule, they would get along somehow. That was about what I said'" (Every-Day Life of Lincoln, pp. 322, 323).

The foregoing is significant. Lincoln was not an advocate of Sunday-schools. He had probably never visited one before. As generally conducted, he regarded them as simply nurseries of superstition. He could not indorse the religious ideas taught in them, and he was not there that day to antagonize them. As a consequence, this ready talker—this man who had been making speeches all his life—was, for the first time, at a loss to know what to say. He could not talk to them about the Bible—he could not tell them that "it is the best gift which God has given to man"—that "all the good from the Savior of the world is communicated to us through this book"—that "but for this book we could not know right from wrong"—he could not tell them how Jesus had died for little children, and all this, because he did not believe it. But he obeyed his own life-long rule, did the best he could under the embarrassing circumstances, and gave them a little wholesome advice entirely free from the usual Sunday-school cant.

Robert Collyer states that Lincoln, just before he was elected President, visited the office of the Chicago Tribune, and picking up a volume of Theodore Parker's writings, turned to Dr. Ray and remarked: "I think that I stand about where that man stands."

The lamented Allen Thorndike Rice, whose brilliant editorial management of the North American Review has placed this periodical in the front rank of American magazines, in his Introduction to the "Reminiscences of Lincoln," says: "The Western settlers had no respect for English traditions, whether of Church or of State. Accustomed all their lives to grapple with nature face to face, they thought and they spoke, with all the boldness of unrestrained sincerity, on every topic of human interest or of sacred memory, without the slightest recognition of any right of external authority to impose restrictions, or even to be heard in protest against their intellectual independence. As their life developed the utmost independence of creed and individuality, he whose originality was the most fearless and self-contained was chief among them. Among such a people, blood of their blood and bone of their bone, differing from them only in stature, Abraham Lincoln arose to rule the American people with a more than kingly power, and received from them a more than feudal loyalty."

So eager is the church for proofs of Lincoln's piety that the most incredible anonymous story in support of this claim is readily accepted and published by the religious press as authentic history. By this means the masses have gradually come to regard Lincoln as a devout Christian. It is evident that Mr. Rice had these fabulous tales in mind when he wrote the following: "Story after story and trait after trait, as varying in value as in authenticity, has been added to the Lincolniana, until at last the name of the great war President has come to be a biographic lodestone, attracting without distinction or discrimination both the true and the false."

The noted author, Capt. Robert C. Adams, of Montreal, Can., says: "It is significant that in political revolution it is the Freethinker who is usually the leader. Franklin, Paine, Jefferson, Washington, were the chief founders of the American Republic, and Lincoln presided at its second birth Mazzini and Garibaldi are the heroes of United Italy; Rousseau, Voltaire, and Victor Hugo have been the chief inspirers of Democratic France "(New Ideal).

In the Westminster Review for September, 1891, Mr. Stanton had an article discussing the moral character and religious belief of Abraham Lincoln. Of his religious belief, he says: "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. In trying to arrive at a correct comprehension of Lincoln's theology this fact should be borne in mind in sifting the testimony.

"Another very important warping influence which should not be lost sight of was Lincoln's early ambition for political preferment. Now, the shrewd American politician with an elastic conscience joins some church, and is always seen on Sunday in the front pews. But the shrewd politician who has not an elastic conscience—and this was Lincoln's case—simply keeps mum on his religious views, or, when he must touch on the subject, deals only in platitudes."

After citing the testimony of many of Lincoln's friends, Mr. Stanton concludes: "A man about whose theology such things can be said is of course far removed from orthodoxy. It may even be questioned whether he is a Theist, whether he is a Deist. That he is a Freethinker is evident; that he is an Agnostic is probable."

In the Open Court for Nov. 26, 1891, Mr. McCrie contributes an article on "What Was Abraham Lincoln's Creed?" Concerning Lincoln's allusions to God, he says: "A Deity thus shelved or not shelved, according to the dictates of political expediency, or of individual opinion as to the 'propriety' of either course is no Deity at all. He is as fictional as the 'John Doe' or 'Richard Roe' of a legal writ, and anyone making use of such a creation—the puppet, not the parent, of his own Egoity—is supposed to know with what he is dealing. Orthodox religionism may well despair of Abraham Lincoln as of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, or President Jefferson."

Gen. Trumbull, of Chicago, in the Open Court of Dec. 3,1891, writes: "The religion that begs the patronage of presidents doubts its own theology, for the true God needs not the favor of men.... Some of his [Lincoln's] tributes to Deity are merely rhetorical emphasis, but others were not. Cicero often swore 'By Hercules,' as in the oration against Catiline, although he believed no more in Hercules than Abraham Lincoln believed in any church-made God."

In a sermon on "Washington and Lincoln," the most eminent and popular divine of Chicago, Dr. Swing, said:

"It is often lamented by the churchmen that Washington and Lincoln possessed little religion except that found in the word 'God.' All that can here be affirmed is that what the religion of those two men lacked in theological details it made up in greatness. Their minds were born with a love of great principles.... There are few instances in which a mind great enough to reach great principles in politics has been satisfied with a fanatical religion.... It must not be asked for Washington and Lincoln that, having reached greatness in political principles, they should have loved littleness in piety."

The Rev. J. Lloyd Jones, one of Chicago's most eloquent divines, in a sermon preached in All Souls Church, Dec. 9, 1888, gave utterance to the following:

"Are there not thousands who have loved virtue who did not accept Jesus Christ in any supernatural or miraculous fashion, who if they knew of him at all knew of him only as the Nazarine peasant—the man Jesus? Such was Abraham Lincoln, the tender prophet of the gospel of good will upon earth; Charles Sumner, the great apostle of human liberty; Gerrit Smith, the St. John of political reform; William Ellery Channing, our sainted preacher; Theodore Parker, the American Luther, hurling his defiance at the devils of bigotry; John Stuart Mill and Harriet Martineau—yes, to take an extreme case, the genial and over-satirical Robert G. Ingersoll, are among those who love goodness and foster nobility, though they have no clear vision into futurity and confess no other lordship in him of Nazareth save the dignity of aim and tenderness of life."

In an address delivered in Tremont Temple, Boston, May 30, 1872, the Rev. John W. Chadwick, of Brooklyn, N. Y., referring to the proposed religious amendment to the Constitution of the United States, said: "Of the six men who have done most to make America the wonder and the joy she is to all of us, not one could be the citizen of a government so constituted; for Washington and Franklin and Jefferson, certainly the three mightiest leaders in our early history, were heretics in their day, Deists, as men called them; and Garrison and Lincoln and Sumner, certainly the three mightiest in these later times, would all be disfranchised by the proposed amendment.

"Lincoln could not have taken the oath of office had such a clause been in the Constitution."